He always has been ready to “finish it” together with Viktor. Whatever danger they had gotten into through their risky experiments, he never left Viktors side. Nothing would change this now. It wasn’t Viktor’s doing alone that had created this threat. Jayce had contributed to it just the same. They had started it together and they would finish it together. Even if that meant this uncontrollable energy within their hands, would rip them apart into all their atoms.
Their foreheads touched, but Jayce couldn’t keep his eyes from Viktor. He didn’t want to regret, this was the act where he laid all his cards out. So he spoke his final words, more confident than ever, even though he was deadly afraid of dying right now. At least knowing that he wasn’t alone but in the arms of the person he cared for the most in his life, gave him comfort.
And then it was over. But in fact, it wasn’t
When he opened his eyes again, he found himself in a city right next to his love who looked more like himself than he used to the last few years. Overwhelmed by relief and the adrenalin crashing down on him, his breath hitched higher and his eyes started burning. “Viktor!”, he whimpered then laughed, not wasting another second to jump forward, cupping his partners face and placing a kiss on his lips. “We made it!”, he announced excited like a kid on christmas eve, before his gaze turned soft again, looking at the man in front of him with all the affection and care within every fiber of his body. “We made it…”, he breathed softly, still in disbelieve this was really happening, before he pulled Viktor into a hug and buried his face in the crook of Viktor’s neck.
Summary: Viktor wants to leave his mark on the world, but that’s kind of hard to do when his mentor refuses to let him be seen by the world.
Author’s notes: I’ve been hyperfixating on Arcane pretty hard and I told myself I was gonna work on oc stuff so I opened google docs and then blacked out for three hours. Anyway here’s 2k words of Viktor being just a little guy (rewrite of episode 2 from the perspective of borrower!Viktor, if y’all are interested in me doing episode 3 as well lmk cause i do have thoughts) This is not beta’d.
Viktor was the academy’s worst kept secret. He still didn’t quite understand why he had to be a secret, but after Heimerdinger’s fifth lecture on safety and people hungry for power over those with less than themselves he had given up the argument. Like he hadn’t grown up surrounded on all sides by people stronger than him. Fissure Folk knew about borrowers. You still tried to not be seen, and plenty of citizens of the Undercity would much sooner stomp on Viktor than help him, but there was a certain respect that was given to his kind. Thieves respecting thieves, perhaps. The small respecting the small. Or maybe it was just that most people knew that there were much, much bigger fish to fry, and it wasn’t worth it to treat the borrowers as a threat.
In Piltover, it was like no one had even heard of borrowers, and the council seemed to like it that way. Another facet of the Undercity to overlook. When Viktor had snuck into the dean's office to demand a place at the school, he’d been worried he’d killed the 300 year old based on how frozen in shock he was. Heimerdinger had quickly explained to him that no, he couldn’t be granted a traditional position as a student as it was far too dangerous for someone of his stature (it was almost nice to be singled out due to his size and not his ability. It wasn’t, but almost) but he would be happy to teach Viktor himself, if only it meant that the borrower wouldn’t be popping up in any other staff offices. He’d of course had to explain the contraption that he’d used to get up to the academy in the first place, a crude miniature replica air ship that was powered by the chemical steam that rose from the mines. It had almost crashed due to the clear air in the upper city, but he didn’t include that detail in his explanation. Heimerdinger was impressed by the precision he’d managed to include on such a small scale, and said he would be happy to let Viktor assist on some of his other projects if he was interested. Viktor was incredibly interested. Five years later, he had a consistent job and the cushiest apartment a borrower could ask for. But that wasn’t the point.
The point was, not many people knew that Heimerdinger’s assistant was a borrower. But that hadn’t stopped the information that Heimerdinger had an assistant from getting out among the student population. An assistant that no one ever saw. He’d overheard students speculating that he was an Undercity refugee that couldn’t risk being seen by spies (almost true), that he had a crippling illness that was contagious to humans (he was pretty sure his weak constitution wasn’t contagious but perhaps), or he was a robot that Heimerdinger had built (this one seemed very silly to him, since a robot would have no reason to be hidden), or ghost. This last one was especially popular among students who had been in Heimerdinger’s classes and had heard movement in the walls and seen items seemingly move themselves around on Heimerdinger’s desk.
Viktor didn’t like being a ghost. Sure, he didn’t really want people looking at him. Or talking to him. Or asking him questions. He’d never been a people person, per se. But that didn’t mean he didn’t want credit. After five years he’d worked on more projects than he had fingers and working toes, and none of them included him on the patents. He didn’t get thanked in any speeches, he didn’t get honors at the academy even though Heimerdinger told him that he was doing better than 99% of the student body when it came to arithmetic and physics. Heimerdinger paid him for his services, provided him room and board, and consistently brought him shiny new contraptions to tinker with, but the novelty had worn off.
The people of piltover knew their founder had an assistant. About 50% guessed that he had something to do with the Undercity. The other 50 had an inkling he wasn’t human. And Viktor wanted to actually leave his mark on this city.
He just wasn’t sure how to do that without Heimerdinger knowing about it.
And then, on a Saturday afternoon in early Spring, there was an explosion in one of the academy dormitory buildings. A student had been tinkering with something that the council didn’t like, and Viktor needed to know what it was.
The student was Jayce Talis, and Viktor only knew three things about him. One, he was an exceptionally smart student and had been awarded permission to do an independent study due to this. Two, Heimerdinger liked him, and three, well. He was much, much taller than Heimerdinger. Viktor was no stranger to being aware of his size next to humans, but that didn’t mean that he couldn’t be nervous about someone who was six and a half feet taller than him, who was built like he worked in a forge all day.
Viktor hadn’t been there for the arrest, but he was there for the trial. “There” being in an alcove next to the light fixtures, looking down as Jayce Talis gave up his future with just a few words. ‘Magic’, Viktor pondered, ‘now that’s interesting.’
Heimerdinger wasn’t happy that night.
“That boy,” he said, “doesn’t know what he's dealing with,” puttering about as Viktor flipped through Jayce’s notes.
“I must admit, his theory intrigues,” Viktor said, not taking his eyes off a diagram of a complex spell circle overlayed on top of what looked like a battery.
“If dangerous ideas didn’t excite the imagination,” The Professor replied, “we would never wander astray.”
“Could it work?” Viktor spoke softly, mostly to himself, though he knew Heimerdinger would hear. “Could the stones really invoke… magic?”
“Nonsense. It’s far too unstable.”
“Could… you stabilize it?” Viktor asked, looking up from the notes. Heimerdinger turned to the shelf with a shocked look on his face.
“Me? Why would I?” Not a no “that only leads to more problems!” Like letting me have freedom would lead to ‘more problems’. Of course. “And that poor boy has enough problems as it is. No matter. His work will be safely disposed of in the morning, and then we can put this whole thing behind us. Goodnight, my boy.” Heimerdinger walked out of the office, though Viktor could hear his shrill ranting about magic continue as he strolled away.
“Goodnight Professor,” Viktor closed the book, and the lights flicked off.
Dragging the book into his apartment was as difficult as someone might expect it would be for a borrower with one fully working leg to drag a book into his (surprisingly spacious) apartment within the university walls and all the way to his ‘hangar’, but it was less difficult to hook the book to his airship and take off. The extra weight slowed him down, but the ship was well suited to Piltover conditions at this point, so he wasn’t worried about crashing. The sun had set, so he also wasn’t too stressed about someone seeing him.
It was pure luck that he found Jayce before the man took his own life. He’d been aiming for the Talis home, hoping to sneak in through a window or chimney if he had to, but as he passed by the old factories he’d noticed a shape standing near the open window. Precariously near. Viktor landed through another open window and weaved as best he could through the rubble on the floor until he had a clear view of the human’s back. He suddenly was very aware of how dangerous a position he was in. Heimerdinger wasn’t here to protect him. He didn’t know anything about Jayce’s temperament, but he knew the man was impulsive, and there was nothing stopping him from kicking him or throwing something, leaving him with a broken neck at worst and another broken leg at best. Jayce had dropped his bracelet on the ground close to where Viktor was now standing, and he saw that it was inlaid with a gemstone similar to what had been confiscated from the lab. Neither of them moved at first, but Viktor watched as he took one step forward, then another towards the ledge that Viktor knew overlooked ground that was far too many feet down, even for someone of Jayce’s height. No one else was around to see this. No one else would be able to stop one of the greatest minds of the century from destroying himself. Jayce took one more step.
“Am I interrupting?” Jayce jerked backwards and spun around, and Viktor had to stop himself from jumping as well.
“The hell’s your prob-“ Jayce cut himself off, “Hello?” His voice still had an edge of frustration, but it was overlaid by confusion. “Who’s there? Where are you?”
“Down here,” Viktor called from where he’d dragged the book over and took a few steps forward to where the bracelet lay on the ground. He was going to have to rest his leg for a week after this was over and done with, but he could deal with a little extra pain for now. He gave a little wave when Jayce’s eyes landed on him. “Hello, I wanted to talk to you about your work,” Jayce stared at him.
“I was intrigued by what you said at the trial.”
“You are six inches tall.”
“Seven, actually, but it really doesn’t matter. But again, this hextech theory of yours.” Something shifted in Jayce’s vision, and suddenly he wasn’t a man who had been about to jump off the roof looking at someone the size of a test tube. He was an academic.
“It’s not a theory, it could work and it could help so many people if someone just…” he shook his head again and glared down at the borrower. “Who even are you? What are you?”
“I’m assistant to the dean of the academy.” He said, attempting to hide the smirk that threatened to appear after finally getting to use his official title. Jayce blinked.
“Heimerdinger’s ghost?” Viktor rolled his eyes.
“Oh, so you’ll believe a ghost story, but not that borrowers exist. How narrow minded.” Jayce looked taken aback by this. He blinked again, like he was visibly cataloguing new information into his worldview. Jayce steeled himself outwardly, but Viktor knew that while he was out of danger he’d have to answer quite a few questions once he got through this conversation.
“I saw with my own eyes what magic can do. You have know idea how beautiful it is,” Jayce took a deep breath and looked upwards. “And now it’s gone. No one believed me.” he murmured the last words, closing his eyes, Viktor assumed, to prevent tears. Viktor took a step forward until he was directly above the bracelet. Jayce looked down at him.
“No one’s ever believed in me,” Viktor replied, surprising himself with his own sincerity. “I didn’t have the benefits of size or patronage. For most people in Piltover I don’t exist, even more so than most that come from the Undercity. I simply believed in myself.” To his surprise Jayce knelt down to meet his gaze directly. He continued. “I want to help you complete your research,” Jayce looked into his eyes with disbelief.
“No one thinks it can be done,” he said, his voice taking on a softer tone as he spoke to the borrower, and Viktor felt a thrill shoot down his spine, at finally, finally speaking to someone like this who wasn’t Heimmerdinger.
“When you’re going to change the world,” Viktor reached down with the arm not holding his cane and lifted the bracelet up, “don’t ask for permission.” He held it out.
Gingerly, like he was afraid of hurting the borrower or possibly breaking an illusion, Jayce reached out and took the bracelet from Viktor’s offered hand and stared at it for a moment. His gaze turned back on Viktor.
“I don’t even know your name,” he said, which wasn’t a question, but Viktor understood.
The reason why Meljayvik (romantic or platonic) is so good on every level is because each of them are so deeply impressed and enamored by the others while not seeing it in themselves. Constantly thinking to themselves "why is this person giving me the time of day. Why do they think I'm anything special. When will they realize I'm actually nothing" and the answer is never
