Of Roses and Rivets
Hello! This was a ko-fi commission from the wonderful @teamfoolishness! I was asked for a League of Legends, third-person Viktor/Fem!Reader story. This is the first LOL story that isn’t just sitting on my computer, but I’m really, really proud of it. I hope ya’ll like it!
You can also read it on AO3 here!
The first time they met, Viktor almost felt bad for her. He assumed she must be some kind of incompetent spy. People rarely sought out his company unless they were looking to steal one of his creations (or, at the very least, steal his ideas). And why else would a woman as well dressed as her pry into his laboratory after hours? She had to know he was there, even surrounded by machines that were much taller than he was. Surely she had to wonder why the door was unlocked at this hour. But instead, she haphazardly wandered around the admittedly large laboratory, inspecting everything she could find with an odd sense of childlike wonder. And, in the few seconds he’d taken to ponder this woman’s presence, Victor’s annoyance had only grown. Should he be insulted that someone would think he’d fall for such a ruse? He’d had plenty of capable prowlers interested in his work. A ditzy noblewoman wouldn’t be any…
“Hello!”
He blinked before glancing up over his magnifying glasses. She was still a good distance away, but she did smile as she waved in his general direction. “What does she want?” He thought as he returned to his work without a care in the world. This woman would not distract him. Not now. Not when he was so close to…
“What’cha working on?”
He blinked again as his gaze snapped up to hers. Now she was only a few feet away, balanced on the edge of the little platform that lifted his work high enough to watch over the rest of the laboratory. She was around his age, maybe a bit younger.. Nothing about her screamed “scientist” or even “lab assistant”. So what was she doing here? Did she even understand how priceless and important the work around her was? Could she comprehend what he was…?
“Something good I hope?”
Annoyed, Viktor said, “Why must you keep interrupting me?”
She tilted her head, perplexed. “You haven’t said anything.”
That gave him pause if only to collect his thoughts. “Why are you here?”
She leaned slightly over the desk, eyes scanning his notes. They were practically illegible to everyone but himself - a defense mechanism he’d picked up over the last few years - but she seemed irrevocably intrigued. “I was told there was a genius here that I’d have the honor of meeting,” She said as she met his gaze. “I’m assuming that’s you?”
Viktor didn’t know whether he should be proud of the title or concerned that he was making that kind of name for himself. He certainly liked the idea of everyone knowing about his intellectual prowess. Then, theoretically, more people would come to him for help. But the likelihood of his name being spread without rumors or scorn was quite low, especially if Jayce had any say in it. But her words were… positive. So maybe things were better than he thought. “If that were true,” He said, choosing his words carefully. “Why are you looking for one?”
“I’m searching for a hobby.”
That caught him off guard. A hobby? Hobby? Science was much more than a hobby. It was his life. His world. Everything he ever did was related to his work. He would sketch during breakfast, ignored lunch to keep tinkering with his machines, and would only nibble at dinner while he read over the day's events. Sometimes he’d even skip sleep, using a special machine to keep him awake without the ill-effects. Unfortunately, even that didn’t work forever; a project he hadn’t quite figured out how to fix as of yet.
Regardless… a hobby!?
“My work is more than a hobby,” He said icily as he reached for a screwdriver.
“Of course,” She said. “I’d expect nothing less.”
“Then what do you want?”
She sat up straight and crossed her arms, even though her smile never slipped. “A hobby implies something I would be working on during my free time. I could have asked for a job, but I have a feeling that you’d be much more likely to say yes if I’m not asking for payment to work with you. Therefore, the safer option was to ask to join as a hobbyist instead of an official lab assistant.”
Clever. Viktor was more than capable of admitting when someone impressed him, however slight it was. “You’ve thought this through,” He said.
“Yep!” she said. “So what do you think? I promise I won’t get in the way.”
“I don’t have anything for an assistant to do at the moment,” Viktor said.
“How about next week?”
He didn’t know what came over him when he spoke again. “I’ll work something out.”
Her eyes sparkled when she hopped off the platform and headed straight for the door. “See you next week!”
Viktor shook his head as he returned to his work, certain he’d never see her again.
-----------------
The second time she visited, she brought a chicken sandwich, a bag of baby carrots, and a piece of apple pie. And when he got over the initial surprise that she had actually come back - and in a lab coat, no less- he’d asked a simple, “Why?”
“Because you look like the type of person who forgets to eat,” She said as she found a half-cleared table to set it on. And while she wasn’t wrong, Victor would never verbally admit it. But she continued, unfazed by his silence. “I’m sorry if the food’s not something you like. It was all I could sneak out at this time of night.”
His eyes snapped up from his work, the screwdriver clinking against the metal as the screw popped out of the spot. “Does anyone know you’re here?” He said as he quickly recovered the screw and tried to hide his concern.
“Everyone that’s important,” She said as she hopped up on the table beside the food. “So if I don’t return by morning, you will have the Sheriff at your doorstep before you can say the words ‘apple pie’.
Connections to Caitlyn, then. Or to the peacekeepers in general. That wasn’t too surprising. Privilege came with good benefits in Piltover. Whatever family she came from was clearly rich enough for her to wander the streets at night without a care in the world. Granted, Piltover was much safer than Zaun, and both his lab and the school he went to were close enough to the residential district that she probably didn’t have to walk very far.
“So!” She said. “What’cha got for me?”
Viktor paused, hiding his lack of an answer by finishing the last of his invention’s screws. “What do you want me to call you?” He said.
“Call me whatever you like,” She said dismissively. “My name’s never been that important.”
“Your family?”
“Yep,” Viktor swore he heard a hint of distaste in her tone, but her endless smile made it impossible to tell for certain. Fake names were common in Piltover, especially among the noble class. He didn’t quite understand it himself- why would you ever want to hide your accomplishments behind a pseudonym? - but he never had the time or the care to question it. He never considered that some people didn’t get the choice in the matter.
“You’re my assistant,” He said simply. “We’ll decide on the rest later.”
“Sounds like a plan!” she said as she hopped off the table. “Where do you need me?”
Hours of intensive work and physical labor later, she left him with a simple good-bye and a reminder to eat his dinner. This time, Viktor was positive that she would never come back and was surprised to find that he was disappointed by the thought.
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The third time she joined him, she brought a dozen artificially scented red roses and a small box of chocolates. “To brighten up the room!” She said when he asked why.
“That doesn’t explain the chocolate.”
“If chocolates make you smile, then that brightens up the room too!”
“And if I don’t like them?”
“Then I’ll eat them,” She said as she lay them carefully on the corner of his desk. “And then I’ll be smiling, so it has the same effect.”
Viktor couldn’t argue with that logic. “You can’t leave the roses here.”
“Do others use this room?”
“No,” he said. “But they’ll get in the way.”
“You got it!” She swung around with a hum of some kind of song he didn’t recognize. After some time, she found one of his ladders and dragged it over to the circular window that overlooked the rest of Piltover. He watched curiously as she hopped up the rungs with little effort and plopped herself up on the windowsill. “Wow,” She said as she stared out over the city. Viktor had been up there once before, but not in quite some time. He didn’t have the luxury of time to go…
“Have you looked out here in a while?”
Viktor sighed. “No, I have not.”
“Do you want to?”
“I have a lot to get done.”
“But taking breaks is good for your mental health,” She said. “Then you’ll be able to work for longer.”
He couldn’t argue with that logic either. So, against his better judgment (or maybe in spite of it), Viktor set his tools aside, took off his magnifying glasses, and ignored the groan his muscles gave him when he stood from his chair for the first time in many, many hours. His bones cracked as he wandered his way over to the other side of the laboratory, and he swore he heard her giggle before he reached the ladder. “You need to stretch more often.”
“Your powers of observation are astounding.”
“I’ll take that as a compliment,” She scooted to the side as he made it to the top of the ladder, leaving enough room for him to crawl up beside her, much closer than he had been before. The smell of the roses practically slapped him over the head, but they weren’t unpleasant. For the briefest moment, he could imagine stepping into this lab every day with that scent awaiting him. A scent that reminded him of her.
“It’s beautiful, isn’t it?” She whispered.
Viktor’s eyes lingered on her. “Yes,” He said. “It is.”
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The fourth time she returned, Viktor had been irrevocably relieved, as she’d been missing for almost two weeks.
“Where have you been, my brilliant rose?” Viktor asked as she hung her soaked coat on a hanger near the front door. He didn’t want to admit that he had considered seeking her out if only to ensure she was in good health.
“The usual,” She said with a tired sigh as she smiled at him. It didn’t quite reach her eyes. “Did you miss me?”
“And what if I did?”
“I’d find that very endearing.” She hopped up onto the platform and handed him a wrapped sandwich. “I’m assuming you haven’t eaten in a few days. I hope to rectify that.”
“I have, actually,” Viktor said.
“More than breakfast?”
“... I have a couple of days this week.”
She laughed. “What are you working on.”
“Many things,” Viktor said. “Only one thing you can help me with, I’m afraid. “
“Maintenance on your golem? “
Viktor nodded as he peered back down at the two mechanical bugs before him. His newest experiment was a tentative one. He spent much of his time on machines to help those around him. Most of them were related to those affected by the chem spills and were usually bigger projects to help stop them. Others, like the golem he was working on, were meant to clean the city up in ways that a human never could. Some projects, however, were meant to be smaller projects that anyone- doctors, nurses, and the average person - could use with little effort. This particular experiment was a ‘pet project’ of sorts, and he didn’t yet have a name for them.
“What are they?” She asked as if sensing his thoughts. And maybe she did by now. Viktor wasn’t certain anymore.
“I’m not certain what to call them yet, “ He said. “But they are meant to deal with deep lacerations and manage blood loss.”
“So like healing beetles?”
He chuckled. “Yes. Like healing beetles.” He reached for the synthetic arm he’d used at least a hundred times to watch them work. At first, his experiments had been only partially successful. The ‘blood bug’ had only worked sometimes, but Viktor wasn’t certain if it was because of the synthetic blood, or a failure of the machine. The second one had been much better overall, sewing together even the deepest of wounds in record time. A few of his synthetic arms had ended up disfigured or severely scarred. Others it hadn’t been able to finish. Today, however, he hoped it would show off, just for her. “Watch,” He said as he sat the mechanical beetle on the fake hand. It clicked open, its legs propping it up within seconds. Viktor cut through the fake skin and muscles as deeply as he could. The beetle responded immediately, dipping into the wound and biting its incisors along the wound to bring it back together.
“Amazing,” she said. “You’re amazing, Viktor.”
He stared at her for a moment before he let himself relax and smile. “Thank you.”
--------------
The fifth time she arrived it was to take his steam golem for a walk.
By that point, she had seen and helped with pieces of Blitzcrank’s creation, and Viktor trusted her with the golem far more than anyone else he’d met in his life. She’d done a little bit of everything. Some screwing of screws there. Some voice recognition practice. Some training for Blitzcrank’s eventual work with the Zaun chem spills. They’d even discussed endless scenarios of how much autonomy Viktor should give to it.
The steam golem was his prized invention; a perfect meld of hextech and machine. But she had played her part. And while no one would ever know of her admittedly helpful, albeit limited contribution, Viktor would always have another reason to admire her.
“He did great,” She said as she sent Blitzcrank back to his charging station. The robot powered-down immediately, much to Viktor’s approval. “He didn’t say much, but he seemed to be absorbing everything.” She plopped herself on the extra chair he unearthed from the school’s mess of a storage closet the week before. “His eyes were all over the place, and he kept stopping to look at various buildings, flowers, animals, and even some people.”
Viktor hummed in thought. “And how did they respond?”
“The children were fascinated,” She said. “Though a few tried to climb on him. The adults were a bit more mixed. Some of them seemed genuinely interested, but others were almost terrified.” Her expression soured just a bit. “He didn’t even do anything to them.”
“Their fear is expected,” Viktor said. “But their opinions do not matter.”
She nodded. “Theoretically, he won’t be interacting with very many people on his own, so everything should be fine.”
“Does he seem capable of handling the chem spills on his own?”
“With a little more practice? Absolutely.” She said. “If anything, he was walking me.” Her laugh echoed in the laboratory, and Viktor couldn’t help but smile if only a little bit. “I’d say your invention is quite successful, my Mad Genius.”
“Our invention,” He said.
Her blush was surprisingly endearing. “I’ve just done what you asked me to do.”
He made it a point to meet her gaze. “That’s more than enough, my lovely rose.”
Her smile- an unabashed, cheerful smile- was much broader than anything he had seen before. Viktor knew he would commit it to his memory forever.
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He stopped counting her visits after that. Each time she let herself in without asking, and each time she left he felt more enriched than before. It helped that she was quite brilliant considering her background. Not that nobles weren’t capable of being intelligent, but very few seemed to push themselves the way she did. The two conversed about numerous things that some people at his own college couldn’t keep up with. And sure, she asked questions often, but Viktor didn’t mind. The more she asked, the more he could affirm his own ideas, and the more she learned.
It really was no surprise she’d sought out his company so often. How idle her mind must have been among her family!
But one night, a frantic knock at the door caught him off guard. “Viktor!” Her voice echoed into the laboratory. The panic laced within his name alone set off every alarm it possibly could. “Help!” He heard another thud followed by a groan. “Please…”
He was at the door in seconds, and barely caught her when he opened it. “What’s…?” The smell of blood hit him in an instant. When he tried to help her upright, he saw where it was coming from; a deep slash through her arm straight to the bone. How she was still standing was anyone’s guess, but he knew he didn’t have long. “You have to walk with me,” He said as he grabbed a nearby towel and tied it above the wound. “Quickly.” Even as she slumped forward, she nodded. Viktor didn’t care about the blood she left behind. He didn’t care about the mess they were making. All he cared about was her.
Once he got her into a seat, he rushed to find a suitable blood bag. Synthetic blood will have to do. He rushed up and scrambled to find the healing beetles; one for the blood, the other for the wound. When he came back, her eyes had glazed over. “My rose,” He snapped trying to hide his panic. She blinked and looked up at him. “You must stay with me.”
“I’m… trying…”
“I know,” He placed the first beetle into the wound itself, letting it latch onto the severed blood vessel. It wasn’t a permanent solution, but it was enough to let him attach the IV and get replacement blood flowing. “Hold on.”
He froze for a brief moment as her hand found his. “I will,” She said with a deep breath before she let go and settled back into the chair. Viktor blinked his surprise away as he lay the second beetle on her skin. It crawled inside, searching for any tears it could find.
Viktor watched with pleased but wary fascination as the torn pieces of her body seemed to pull themselves together. The veins and arteries were first, and the second bug made quick work of the remaining blood as the IV bag gave her what she needed in return. Viktor pulled that one out as soon as he could. The second bug began weaving powerful fibers back and forth between her torn muscles. That was the first time she flinched, but Viktor didn’t apologize as he was far too absorbed in small pockets of terror. What if it hit a snag at any point and the vessels hadn’t closed right? What if the muscles came together wrong and rendered her hand useless? What if he couldn’t piece or skin together right? How long would he blame himself over such a failure? She came to him for help. She believed in him over every other doctor, nurse, or scientist in Piltover. The thought of letting her down…
“Viktor,” She said. “It’s okay. I feel fine.”
“The bleeding’s stopped.” Was all Viktor could say.
“Thanks to you.”
He relaxed only slightly as the beetle moved on to her skin. “What happened?”
“Idiots in an alleyway,” She sighed as if that would mean anything to him. “It was me or some stupid kid’s head.”
“You could have lost your arm,” He said.
“That’s why I came to you.”
“You should have gone…” He trailed off and shook his head. Where should she have gone? She barely made it down the street, much less to the city proper. “You’re lucky I was here.”
“You’re always here.”
“And if I wasn’t?”
“Then at least I would’ve saved a kid’s life,” She said. “Maybe that’ll mean something in the afterlife.”
He scowled at her, but his heart melted slightly at the faraway look in her eyes. She had fought through her fear. Fought the pain. Fought everything that a human never should have gotten through and made it to him despite all the odds. As much as he wanted to chide her… he couldn’t. And as the last of her wound closed- and with no scar in sight - Viktor finally let himself breathe.
It worked.
He did it.
He saved her life.
After another few moments, where he monitored her blood flow and heartbeat like a hawk, she spoke again. “You’re someone special, Viktor” she gave him a tired smile as she flexed her fingers with that same fascination he’d come to love so much. “Thank you.”
“Many would disagree with you,” He said as he retrieved the healing bugs and put his tools away.
She squeezed his hand as he removed the IV. “Then they haven’t seen the real you yet.”
He watched her, aware of the slight blush on his cheeks as she met his gaze. And for a long moment, neither of them said or did anything. But the silence weighed heavily on his heart. Not because he minded it. There had been plenty of times that the two had worked without speaking to one another over her many visits. But at that moment he felt that she was waiting for something. Or maybe he was. He’d never been the best with emotion. Sometimes he even thought of them as flimsy things that got in the way of his much more important work. But at that moment, with his heart thundering against his chest and the heat in his cheeks steadily rising, Viktor went against every fiber of logic in his being and gently brushed her lips with his own.
“My beautiful Rose,” He murmured, hesitantly waiting to see what she’d do.
His heart nearly stopped when she kissed him back.
“My Mad Genius,” She whispered with a coy grin. “Whatever shall I do with you?”
“Whatever you’d like,” He whispered before he had a chance to think about it. And even when his brain caught up to what he said, he didn’t regret it as she kissed him again. He didn’t feel any remorse when his own lab coat lay discarded on a table somewhere, or when her own shirt hit the floor. Then, he stopped thinking entirely when she pulled him closer and kissed the night away.
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