Promptober Day 4
Day 4: Lantern
Background!Silco x reader, Viktor & reader
Word Count: 415
It was a mourning holiday in Zaun, and you wanted nothing more than to be at home with Silco and Jinx to observe it. But you couldn’t. Instead, you had to play the diligent spy and gather all the information you could on the Man of Progress himself. So you had to observe the day alone and far above your home.
You were alone in the lab, heart aching for the chaotic company of your strange little family, as you lit the candle for the rickety old lantern that would hang in the window until morning to show the souls of the dead that they were remembered. Yes, you could have avoided any possible questions by hanging it back at your tiny apartment, but the Zaun-driven fear of the fire risk was simply too great for your mind to ignore even in the relatively fireproof city of Piltover. Back home, that would have been a great way to burn down an entire sector.
Of course, it was right as you were putting it in the window that Jayce and Viktor returned from their lunch.
“What’ve you got there?” Jayce asked immediately.
As if to counter that, Viktor asked, “Is it that day already?” Losing time was a specialty of his, you knew. He probably thought today’s date was sometime last week before now.
“Same day as it always is,” you teased quietly, heart once again panging at the lack of your family.
“Of course,” came the amused reply.
“You two wanna tell me what you’re talking about?”
“Undercity holiday,” Viktor explained patiently. “I would have done this with you if I’d realized.”
“Then why do you look so sad?”
You didn’t answer him, too distracted by Viktor’s kindness. Maybe you weren’t alone as you’d thought, you realized. Jayce was of course an outsider, but Viktor was one of you. He would always be one of you at heart even if his desire to help his friend succeed outweighed his attachment to Zaun at times. Maybe you could include him in these little rituals while you were here. He wouldn’t replace your lover or your daughter, but, “Thank you, Vitya,” you found yourself whispering.
“Guys?”
“It is a day of mourning, Jayce. Not exactly a happy holiday.”
“. . . Oh . . .” There was a spell of awkward silence between the three of you where both you and Jayce simply looked at Viktor for a moment, both in different flavors of stunned shock. “Tell me more?” Jayce eventually requested earnestly.