Perfect Strangers- part thirteen: The Jubilee
sorry I fixed the title!!!
Viktor x Fem!reader (NSFW)
part twelve part fourteen (start here!)
Takes place before Arcane and works its way there, did my best to combine the different versions of lore. (nsfw in parts)
(you and Viktor meet on your first day at the academy and bond over being habitual, awkward loners. The story revolves around class issues and a sense of belonging mixed with lore and Arcane plot.)
*warnings: sexual content & parental issues*
Word count: 4,434
******
Viktor stood idly in his dorm, hands messing with the knot of his white tie to loosen it after a long day. You were off on a friend date with Sky and told him to not wait up, so he was doing exactly the opposite of your recommendation and keeping himself busy until you returned. Taking work home with him was becoming less of an issue as he was settled into the role of Heimerdinger’s assistant more so than when he first started. It made his home life with you balanced and stress free in comparison to the early days. Even enjoying nights where you taught him how to cook in favor of going out in public for a dinner date.
The week was drawing to a close and soon another celebration would wash over Piltover, trickling down into Zaun like rain through a leaking ceiling.
City celebrations were usually lost on you as a couple, even when you had been just friends trying to navigate your separate cultures and upbringings. Progress Day was the only celebration you ever really participated in with Viktor, consisting primarily of a quick walk around the festival out of curiosity and maybe attending a few lectures, given the history of the sister cities and how Zaun viewed the day compared to Piltover. You both treated it more like a day of extracurricular academics in the past than a true day of festivities with the rest of the city in tow.
Viktor was unlike some of his fellow Zaunites that looked at Progress Day celebrations with a vague sense of disdain. Even that was generally uncommon save for a small sum of Zaunites that held firmly to the past. He enjoyed seeing the new inventions and innovations gaggles of young inventors and old masters would bring to the metaphorical table on display for all of Piltover to see. He once shared the history of Progress Day with you, since you lived in Piltover your entire life you only saw it as a day of prosperity and celebration.
The Sun Gates were large and commanded the attention of those in the undercity as it walled in the entire eastern side of the city that was already situated below the cliffs that made up Piltover. It was like a dam, allowing ships to come to port and trade with the growing city thousands of years after Zaun had been the true origin of innovation and genius before money began passing through the hands of topsiders instead. The opening of the Sun Gates led to a detrimental flood that wiped out entire districts in Zaun, mercilessly killing those that had no warning of the geological disaster so close to The Cliff.
Despite the history and bad-blood between some citizens, Zaunites would still emerge from the depth of their city to take part in the festivities of Progress Day. Showcasing their chemtech augmentations and strolling through the streets of the City of Progress more so than any other day of the year.
The celebration in question that was fast approaching was the Jubilee. It was smaller than Progress Day in order of importance to citizens that participated and was more of a local affair since there weren’t global investors and inventors flooding the city. There wasn’t as much on the line since it was simply an anniversary celebration of the founding of Piltover. The city was much younger than Zaun, having only been around for a few hundred years compared to the thousands that Zaun had endured as an ancient Shuriman settlement.
Viktor relaxed once he was changed out of his uniform, settling in his leisure clothes and searching your shelf for a book to read for the evening. Thinking about history was always interesting and it had been a pleasure to share it with you with curiosity shimmering in your eyes the entire time despite his worries that you would grow bored of the topic.
He remembered how you had asked questions with an integrity he rarely expected out of his Piltover classmates that lacked an understanding of what it meant to be from the undercity with the weight of its history on their shoulders.
“How do you deal with it every year?” you asked him, sitting across from him in the kitchen with dinner between you both. “Progress Day, I mean.”
Viktor straightened his back and thought of how to word his answer without sounding careless, “When I was still in the undercity, as I told you years ago, I did my best to help the people who were living there currently. Fixing their machines and factories to prevent further injury since most of the accidents were based in human error,” he put his utensil down and leaned on an open palm, “I have always seen Progress Day as it is meant to be seen. A day to celebrate the innovations of the future and what it holds for us as two cities that need each other and not just a day of great pain for my people.”
“But-” you had tried to form a coherent rebuttal, sympathizing with the great loss Zaun went through in the name of Piltover’s progress to grow into a prominent trade center in Valoran.
“I don’t want you feeling guilty for enjoying the Progress Day festivities every year on my account.”
“Alright,” you mumbled, taking a bite of your food and resuming a lighter topic of conversation.
The book he selected was from your side of the dorm, an old botany book from Noxus you had brought back at the end of break. It was a collection of plants and experimentations from Noxian scientists that researched all of the newly conquered territories mixed in with older flora that was native to the heart of the Noxian empire.
Settling into the plush blankets of your bed, he leaned against the wall by the large window that overlooked a large portion of campus. Staff members were setting up bright banners adorned with cogs, gears, and other Piltover symbols of innovation on the towers and buildings of the academy. The rest of the city would be strewn with silk ribbons and fireworks would be stationed across the tallest of rooftops to be set off periodically once sunset hit on the night of Jubilee.
When Viktor was about a third of the way through the book, having taken his time with a notebook by his side to take notes, you entered with a loud clatter. Stomping the salt off of your shoes in the doorway.
Apologizing profusely for being so loud when you noticed he had been reading, you took your time quietly closing the door with a much softer click than the racket you entered with.
“How was your evening?” you asked him, noting how he closed the book with a smile when greeting you.
“Ordinary,” his tone was dry with sarcasm which you loved, “what about you?”
“Oh! Sky and I went to the stonecutters guild because they had a gallery opening tonight and it was fascinating!” Your eyes lit up with awe remembering the exhibition and how some of the displays were incomplete on purpose to showcase the process of shaping stone into shapes that mimicked life. “I wish you could have come, we should go back if you ever feel up to it. After the guild we went out to a modest café out by the workshop district since we were close by there anyways. Seeing the inner city running outside of the academy district feels so foreign sometimes.”
He watched you settle down with heart eyes, listening intently to you recall your evening with a sense of great importance.
Changing in the open doorway of your closet, you slipped off your evening clothes indiscreetly without thinking. Pulling the waist of your skirt down your legs while cachinnating over the retelling of a joke you remembered from earlier that evening between you and Sky. Occasionally pausing what you were doing to continue conversing with Viktor, leisurely dressing yourself in fresh undergarments and a nightgown with no sense of urgency and failing to notice the rising bloom in his cheeks.
Viktor’s moment of quiescent caught your attention more than his visible redness when you were finished dressing in a nightgown and warm socks.
“Are you alright?” You asked with feigned innocence, knowing full well he must have watched you closely the whole time you were changing.
“Don’t tease,” he hunched his shoulders, a sly grin crossed his lips in response to you playfully stepping towards the bed.
“Don’t play coy with me,” you knelt onto the bed next to him, dropping your hands on his thighs.
The distance was closed between your bodies almost instantly. Tension abated after you were snugly fitted together beneath the soft blankets. Kissing and sighing into each others’ soothing touch, bathed in the dim light from the orange bulb on your desk. Relishing the sensation of Viktor’s wandering hands exploring under your clothes.
You reached down, undoing the buttons of his pants which he gladly let you slip just below his waist from where you kneeled, releasing him from the material, situating yourself over one of his thighs to lean down and continue kissing his parted lips. Practically melting against him as you sucked air out of his lips when he made you gasp with the gentle trailing touch of his fingertips between your legs. He was memorizing your movements, your trembling thighs and quiet breaths.
Doing his best to elicit any kind of reaction from you unabashedly keen on enjoying the way your face was contorted with pleasure. Pressing your face into his neck when you came was coupled with a muffled moan, contractions making your back arch and hips buck before he eventually removed his hand.
Straddling him almost impatiently, you sunk down onto him. His hands snaked their way up your body from your thighs, over the roll of your ribcage, and up to paw at your breasts. Your hips met sweetly at first, grinding against each other with your restrained movements until the spell was broken and you leaned down to brace yourself, weaving your fingers through his hair in a tangled grip for purchase. Audibly slapping down against him in an unspoken competition with his moans was motivation enough for you to keep pace until he completely unraveled beneath you.
It was a torturous rapture feeling so spent, wishing you had more stamina in you to drive Viktor over the edge one more time, but it was more than enough already.
In the afterglow of the moment you were nestled together, the ends of his hair tickled your arm that cradled his head. Your cheek was squished to his chest, still covered with his sleep shirt as neither of you had taken the time to properly undress in the heat of the moment.
******
“Take your time, love” Viktor assured you as you were trying to rush out of the dorm barely feeling ready for the evening.
Regardless of his sweet tone and pleasant demeanor, you didn’t want to be late by even a second for your dinner reservations. It had been a feat in itself to convince him to meet with your parents for the first time and the eve of Jubilee didn’t help your nerves knowing full well it would be crowded that night more so than any other banal night you could have gone out on.
In all fairness it was a last minute affair since your parents reached out to you on such short notice and you had to take a late night cab ride all the way back to the family estate to finalize these inconvenient dinner plans. They insisted on meeting Viktor despite their reservations about the undercity and you were positive it was all for show in regards to how well you actually knew your parents. It was a trap with no way out.
“I’m nauseous,” you timidly confessed as you walked down the hallway with him, attempting to take a deep breath in the hopes it would make you feel better. “I don’t know if I can do this,” you stepped into the elevator with him.
“It’s the nerves,” Viktor brushed a lock of hair away from your neck and played with it between his fingers at your back, raising them to your scalp and massaging it while you waited for the doors to slide open after the ding.
Meeting your parents terrified him as well. Knowing how they felt about the undercity from what you told him was anxiety inducing enough, but he wanted to maintain his composure for you.
“Right.”
Leaving the dorm building was slow business even though you had been in a hurry earlier since you knew full well you were far from being late. You hailed a car, catching a ride to the inner city taking you closer to the restaurant. What made up the short drive would have been a much longer walk which you didn’t want to put Viktor through even if he was up to it and capable. It was a risky night, meeting your parents, and you didn’t want anything to go awry.
When you arrived you took in the lattice work of brass that adorned the glass awning above the entrance, gilded and bright with the reflection of the warm street lamps. Pulling your coat higher up your neck you shivered at the sight of snowflakes that melted before reaching the ground.
Viktor gave your shoulder a squeeze after wrapping his arm around you. It was comforting and put you at ease for only a moment before you entered the building where a host greeted you and got your family name down on the check-in list.
They guided you through a maze of tables, spaciously placed, where the overly wealthy dined. After being disconnected from your old upper echelon lifestyle, that had been your entire world before leaving for the academy and meeting Viktor, it all felt so bizarre. It was a lifetime ago, but you were able to fall back into place if necessary. Presenting yourself correctly in a modest dress and carrying yourself with all of the appropriate mannerisms that told everyone how much you belonged in this high-rise world with them. A well rehearsed act. You only hoped Viktor didn’t feel too out of place as your coats were taken by a server and you were seated at the table to wait for your parents to arrive.
It wasn’t long before they showed up, dressed their best to see you in such a formal setting with Viktor. Not that they felt the need to impress Viktor since they were well aware of his affiliation with the undercity.
Viktor stood to greet them when they reached the table, shaking your father’s hand and taking your mother’s politely.
“So, y/n, how are you both doing?” your mother began right out of the gate after stopping a server to order a bottle of wine for the table. “The family has been absolutely thrilled with the Kiraman’s taking you in as one of their academic wards.”
“I don’t really know what I’m doing just yet,” you had no desire to impress them with lies and played the dangerous game of disappointing them with the truth. “I've been trying to figure out little projects here and there since I’m still sort of settling in. It’s only been a month.”
“Well, you’re surrounded by many prodigies from houses low and great throughout the city. I’m sure there are peers you could conspire with for future endeavors at least,” your father suggested, knowing full well connections was what got you ahead in the real world more so than any actual raw talent. “Use that y/l/n charisma to charm some of them.”
Feigning a soft laugh to humor him was all you could manage, sipping on your glass of wine that you hated once a server poured it at the request of your mother without asking you personally. The conversation was already heading in an undesirable direction and you wanted nothing more than to lead the topic away from careers and academics. It would have been lovely to discuss home or whatever new hobby they may have been trying out in your absence.
“So, Viktor,” your mother practically had to cough his name up with the same affection akin to spitting out a tonsil stone, “how has school been going for you?”
Viktor straightened his shoulders out, “I’m about to finish my masters and,” he cleared his throat when his voice was about to crack, “I’m the assistant to the dean of the academy… to Counselor Heimderdinger.”
His clarification and name drop seemed to impress your parents for a fraction of a second before they inevitably reminded themselves he was an outsider in their elite bubble. Their expressions went from lightly elated to neutral in a matter of seconds, but you were going to take all you could get. They managed to converse with him about his job and rudely asked how much he made doing it, carefully dancing around their silent judgment at the number as if an assistant's salary could compete with their lavish income from running their industrial empire.
“Are you throwing your annual Jubilee celebration at home tomorrow?” You asked, thinking back to the fireworks above your childhood home made you nostalgic. Watching the bright bursts of color in the night sky was a marvel when you would sit alone on a balcony while a party droned on elsewhere.
“Oh we haven’t thrown a Jubilee party at home in years. We’ve been attending other city parties instead,” your mother waved her hand in the air at the thought of throwing a last minute celebration herself.
It was a relief knowing you weren’t going to get an invitation anytime soon and you tried to continue with the conversation. At least they were being polite to Viktor even if you had a pit in your stomach as you braced for the inevitable impact.
******
At the end of the dinner, when your parents satisfied their socialization quota, you politely said your goodbyes and made ready to follow Viktor out of the restaurant. The firm grip of your mother’s hand on your arm made your heart hammer painfully against your ribs with the fear you had been suppressing the entire evening coming up all at once.
Viktor turned to see your nervous grin and you waved him on. Telling him you would meet him outside and you just wanted to have a little more time with your mother even if it was a blatant lie he could read as clear as the written word by just looking in your eyes. He left, trusting you were more than capable of handling yourself when you were up against your parents.
“Don’t think just because he seems like a fine gentleman,” your mother’s voice was lowered as you leaned down towards her with a polite smile plastered on your lying façade, “that we will tolerate this in any serious manner. Soon you will realize he does not fit and you will understand your place, y/n.” Her words were venomous and vial to your ears, but you remained polite, still grinning with the love and admiration a daughter should bear in the presence of her supposed loving parents. “ We will tolerate your little school-girl crush for now, but tread carefully or there will be consequences.”
“Viktor is not some fleeting feckless crush,” you snapped back at her through a forced toothy grin, voice still low to preserve your parents’ public image. “He has been my constant companion since I stepped foot on the academy grounds and I will not bend to your senseless prejudices towards the undercity and her people.”
Jerking your arm out of her firm grasp, you told your parents you loved them and hoped to see them again soon with whatever willpower you had left, ignoring their seething glares and leaving to find Viktor.
******
Outside on the street, bundled in your coats, you opted to walk back despite the chill and the late hour. You needed to blow off steam and wanted to avoid spending more money than necessary on a cab or the trolley unless Viktor needed to rest from walking. Something inside told you the financial cut off was coming sooner than you thought regardless of maintaining politeness during dinner and keeping your argument as quiet as possible to not embarrass them.
“Something is wrong, y/n,” Viktor saw through you like a gossamer web and stopped you from storming ahead of him, salt crunched beneath your turning soles, gently holding the elbow of your sleeve to sit you on an ironwork bench outside of a closed shop. “Talk to me… please.”
Your heart sank. It was heavy with a guilt you barely understood. Perhaps you were afraid of involving him with your elitist family drama, but you knew he was strong enough to handle it without taking personal offense. “It’s my mother… maybe father too, who knows with how little he speaks on social issues outside of business.”
“I guessed something happened as we were leaving,” he let his shoulders fall, “your look made me worry.”
“They have their opinions as you well know,” you watched Viktor nod, eyes downcast as he held your hand in your lap. A gloved thumb soothingly caressed the back of your bare chilled hand. “I don’t want to get into it, just know I don’t agree with them and it’s my life… it’s our life.”
Viktor refrained from pressing you further on the issue, already understanding your frustrations and the risks involved with pursuing a serious relationship with you. He was already in so deep when it came to his feelings towards you that it didn’t matter to him what the consequences were. It was all worth it in the end as long as you were happy and not burdened by him.
“y/n,” his voice was tender, “whatever you decide to do, if it’s what you want or what your parents want, I’ll accept it only for you. Though, I love you, I know the world you come from doesn’t take lightly to what we’re doing.”
“I love you, Viktor,” looking into his glossy amber eyes, highlighted by the street light, your chest was overwhelmed with the vibrations that shook you from nerves. The stress of the evening finally got to you and the only thing keeping you grounded was his hand laced with your trembling fingers, reddened from the frigid air.
******
It was the afternoon of Jubilee and your face was dried with leftover tears from the previous night. It had been tender and full of sweetness as Viktor made every attempt to quell your fears of thinking he would be scared off by your parents. You trusted every word he said, letting him kiss away your tears and eventually calming down.
You sat up with a groan in the bed by yourself. It was later than you would have liked. Viktor had left you alone per the grumbling request in your drowsy state and you were embarrassed by the sobbing he witnessed. So you took your time getting ready for the day. Holding a hot wet towel to your face to reduce the swelling around your eyes, hunched over the sink, you thought about what you were going to do later.
After learning your parents would not want to see you after the dinner, you felt like spending Jubilee with friends instead of family. You and Viktor planned on seeing Sky and watching the fireworks. Possibly walking around the festival tents and getting dinner together if the size of the crowd allowed it.
Donning a comfortable outfit for the evening, you wondered how Viktor would present himself for the festival. Feeling only slightly disappointed when you saw him sitting in the kitchen wearing the base of his school uniform without his vest and tie. He owned leisure clothes, just getting him to wear them outside of the dorms was a pain as he insisted he wanted to make a good first impression. You assumed he was going to wear the rest of the pieces, but he surprised you by putting on only his coat after seeing you were ready for the evening.
“What about your vest? Your tie?” you straightened your scarf, ready to brace against the cold with your old fur cap clenched between gloved fingers.
“I’m going to be wrapped up in this all night,” he shrugged, “doesn’t seem sensible to be too dressed up.” When you mentioned the possibility of dining in he shrugged again.
Whatever made him comfortable, you didn’t mind in exchange for him not mentioning how late in the day it was. It was already the golden hour, honey colored light dappled through cracks in the cloud cover and whenever Viktor’s eyes caught them his amber irises shimmered beautifully. He caught you staring which you playfully denied.
Sky was waiting for you both on the edge of campus. Scribbling away in a notebook she had propped against her stomach before she noticed you practically skipping up to her through the already forming crowd. Tucking her book away, she hugged you snuggly before doing the same to Viktor and you all made your way to the festival.
The throng of people was manageable. Nothing compared to Progress Day and you were grateful since you were looking forward to going out despite the emotional rollercoaster your parents had given you.
******
Fireworks erupted overhead from where your trio was perched along the brass railing, high above the crowds and cheered in their drunkenness. All was aglow with lights from the stalls set up to provide food, goodies, and games. Bells rang as prizes were won down below and you watched a group of children squeal over a large stuffed animal prize.
Celebrations would continue well until dawn that year since the festival landed on a weekend, but you knew you were not up to staying out all night and it made you feel old.
You laughed in spite of yourself and how you would have acted as a child. Memories of the Jubilee growing up were so dull to remember since it was always a posh social affair in your family home. Dolls were more lifelike than you after your parents would dress you up and polish your appearance for their socialite friends.
It was better now. Beginning to free yourself from the bonds of your old life by enjoying the night out with your friends.
******
Thank you for reading! :3