“Oh!” Viktor gasps, completely taken with the photo on the next page: an adorably flustered Jayce, covered in lipstick kisses, looking to the camera as if i could help as several sets of hands tug on his clothes. It had taken some cajoling to convince Jayce to pose like this, but every wheedle had been worth it: the picture was stunning.
“…Oh,” Viktor says, his voice falling when his eyes manage to leave Jayce’s abs and register the content of the page, “this one.” He remembers this particular interview question now. Jayce had gotten a little annoyed with him for this.
In Viktor's defense, he’d be very well-behaved up until that point in the interview, despite the journalist’s irritating manner and the way she pressed and prodded, waving her voice recording device in their faces as if they were coin-fed machines that you input personal questions until a marketable sound bite fell out. Viktor had just got a little fed up, and something…slipped.
“Oh god, I can’t look,” Jayce says, putting his hand over his eyes. “I can’t read it. Did they fix it? They didn’t print it, did they?”
“Fix what?” Viktor asks innocently.
Jayce rolls his eyes. “You know exactly what I’m talking about.”
Viktor bites his lip and tries to keep a straight face.
“Stop with the smirk, I know you’re smirking under there. You just can’t resist being clever, can you? You’re the one who nearly gave the game away, Viktor. I might be the one who picked you up for that last photo, and I’ll admit—that was incriminating. But your little quip is probably where the author got the idea we are together in the first place, you realize.”
Viktor scratches the back of his neck.
“What, now you’ve got nothing to say, wise guy?”
Viktor glances quickly over the page. “You don’t need to worry, they were smart enough not to publish it. Looks like it's edited clean out. And on the bright side: you look very cute in the picture, at least.”
Jayce’s irritation quickly dissipates under the warmth of Viktor’s praise. “You really think so?”
Viktor nods. “Although…”
“Although what?”
“I just think it probably didn’t help our case for discretion that you only agreed to do this pose as long as I was the one who printed the lipstick kisses on you.”
Jayce’s cheeks flush an adorable shade of pink. “Well…I suppose you may have a point.”
PRE-PUBLICATION INTERVIEW TRANSCRIPTION FROM THE PILTOVER DAILY ARCHIVES:
PD: As you know, we here at The Piltover Daily are all about asking the real questions. We’re the publication that dares to get personal and dig into the nitty gritty. So, Jayce: on behalf of our female readers everywhere, we need to know—does Piltover’s most eligible bachelor prefer a lady who’s trimmed from top to tail, or do you go for the nuance of a natural beauty? Don’t be shy, now.
[VR: Neither, if you must kn—]
[JT: Stop, Viktor, oh my god. Just stop. You swore if we did this you’d—]
[VR: What, I didn’t even say anyth—!]
[untranscribable]
[untranscribable]
[untranscribable]
[JT: Sorry, I just had to remind my partner here of a few things we previously agreed upon. You can cut that, right? You won’t publish any of this? Thank you, I owe you one. Can you—Viktor, can you not behave yourself for all of five minutes? Please? Pull it together, stop laughing. Okay then. Ahem. ]
JT: I think beauty is more than skin deep. All women are beautiful in their own way, and it’s up to them how they choose to let it shine.
PD: Mr. Talis, you’re every bit as charming as everybody says.
Post canon Jayvik wake up in the field of flowers the fandom keeps sending them too and both Jayce and Viktor are human looking t except Viktor still has the same proportions as the arcane herald (and only 2 arms)
To give a better visual, Viktor at that height/proportions but all human (whether he is purple Jesus or true human I’ll let you decide)
Just imagining after the first gut reactions of shock and then relief and then Jayce properly gets a look at Viktor and goes “Wait how long are you?”
“It’s fine, really,” Viktor continued. “In terms of embarrassing lab mistakes, I wouldn’t even count this in the, eh, top five, to be honest. You’re going to have to fuck up a lot harder than this if you want that distinction.”
Jayce let out a short laugh and Viktor smiled, pleased to see he was getting through to Jayce.
“I just want to know what happened. Can I see?” Viktor asked.
“What?”
“Yes, I want to see the results of your experiments. Can I?”
“You mean my junk.”
Viktor nodded solemnly. “Yes, Jayce. Let me see your junk. For science.”
⚙️⚙️⚙️
^An excerpt from “Less Hair, More Flair: with Hextech!” Chapter five out now on ao3!
Jayce gasps when the next page of the newspaper comes into view. “Ohhh, yes,” he gushes over the picture of a topless Viktor, smouldering and leaning languidly next to a stack of books, “this one is going to be framed.”
Viktor rolls his eyes and clucks his tongue, uncomfortable with the attention.
“See Viktor? I told you. Hot. Nobody could argue with the evidence here; just look at this sexy genius at work.”
“None of those books or papers had anything to do with each other, by the way,” Viktor says, attempting to put distance between himself and Jayce’s compliments like he's afraid he'll get burned if they land too close. “It’s just a random selection that the photographer wanted for props. It’s all bullshit.”
“Sexy bullshit.” Jayce insists, raising his eyebrows suggestively.
Viktor laughs. “I’ll trust you as the expert on bullshit,” he points to the words of the interview accusingly, “what is all this? What on earth are you talking about here? So many words to say exactly nothing.”
“It’s called ‘curating a public image,’ Viktor. Try it sometime.”
“It’s called ‘bullshit.’”
Interview text:
PD: This lab of yours sounds like a remarkable place. I can just picture the two of you, working every day on world-changing inventions, boldly pushing the boundaries of what’s possible—I can only imagine the kinds of exciting discussions you must have.
JT: It’s a dynamic environment, that’s for sure. You never know from one day to the next what topics might come up—from astronomy and engineering to history and politics, and everything in between—we have to be ready for anything.
VR: It’s mostly math.
PD: Fascinating! Oh, to be a fly on the wall. Your conversations must be unlike anything you’d hear anywhere else.
VR: That’s probably true.
🎨: @duskidraws
Chapters 3 & 4 of “Less Hair, More Flair: With Hextech!” are out now!
⚙️Rated E, eventual smut
⚙️4/7, currently 13K words
⚙️Fluff, Humor, Idiots in love, Getting Together, Dubious Science
with great pleasure i present my months-in-the-making project - an animatic inspired by "the line is covered in jellyfish" by @yunuen (⚠️spoilers⚠️link in comms) and "Either Way" by Odie Leigh
“I never asked for this!” Jayce shouts, seemingly more to the universe at large than at Viktor. His words echo coldly around the lab in the gray morning light. Viktor still makes his way to the door.
“Where are you going?”
“Goodbye, Jayce.”
Viktor turns his back and the door to the lab closes quietly behind him.
Jayce’s shoulders slump and he stands there, immobile with shock for several moments. What…? How? He runs a hand down his face, rubbing the last remnants of sleep from his eyes. Everything happened so fast. One minute he was dead asleep at his desk, and then…
He’s really awake, isn't he? He’s not dreaming? Viktor, his partner and his best friend, emerged from the cocoon of arcane energy that kept him alive the past few weeks, changed but whole. It worked. Viktor’s alive. Isn’t that all that matters? This is everything Jayce wanted—but all of this is wrong.
Jayce paces the room as his mind ticks along at a frantic pace. Why didn’t Viktor stay, to let Jayce explain? Viktor wasn’t here, he doesn’t know anything that’s happened—the attack at the memorial, the shimmer mechs threatening Piltover, the enforcers who have committed to rooting out the problems—Jayce could explain it all, if Viktor would only listen. Why is he being so fucking stubborn?
Viktor must not be in his right mind, Jayce reasons. Viktor has been through what no other human has ever experienced; it must be a shock to the system. It makes sense that he would need some time to adjust. That’s the reason he was upset; he just needs to adjust. The process he underwent was transformative, clearly, but still. Viktor can’t be anything other than himself—Jayce’s partner, Jayce’s best friend, Jayce’s Viktor.
That process, though—what a process. Jayce wishes now that he had more time to gather data. He pauses as he passes the hollowed out hexcore cocoon. The pulsing, glowing web of energy that was so active when it cradled Viktor is fading quickly, becoming inert and lifeless. Fascinating. They need to be writing this down. The changes the hexcore made to Viktor’s body alone would be worth years of study and research. Damn it, why couldn’t Viktor have listened to reason and stayed in the lab, if not for that—to observe, record, report? As a scientist, Viktor ought to know better.
Jayce sighs, a seed of frustration burrowing deep into his heart. He needs Viktor here. Viktor is half of Hextech, he can’t just leave and abandon Jayce to deal with this, with all of it, alone! What was Viktor thinking, just wandering out into the world with a brand new body, and nothing more than his crutch and a blanket?
Obviously, Jayce is going to take care of Viktor. He always will. Jayce has dedicated every last ounce of his efforts and energy into keeping Viktor alive and healthy by any means necessary; he’s not going to stop now, even if Viktor seems determined to make things difficult. Viktor may not realize yet how much he needs Jayce’s help, but he will.
Viktor just needs a chance to calm down. Then he will see what Jayce had done, and agree it was the right choice. Viktor will come back to the lab, like he always does, even when they’ve disagreed before. They won’t give up. They’ll keep working, keep striving, keep experimenting, the way they always do. It’s not over. Nothing is over.
Jayce won’t let it be over.
***
…read the rest on ao3!
“What’s Lost is Lost”
E, 14K
An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works
Sitting in the kitchen, hunched shoulder to shoulder above the Sunday paper, Viktor and Jayce turn the page. “Oh, look,” Jayce says, “you’re in this one!” He points excitedly to the photo that features only a partial view of Jayce from behind while the camera focuses on Viktor’s face, gazing upward.
“Oh, my,” Viktor responds. “I, eh, see what you mean now. It’s a lot—seeing myself shirtless, in print. I assumed they’d mostly use pictures of you.”
“Why?”
“Because you’re the face of Hextech, the ‘Man of Progress,’ and the one with the muscles, obviously. You’re the hot commodity, not me.”
Jayce rolls his eyes. “That’s not true. It’s like you still don’t realize how hot you are, Viktor, no matter how many times I tell you.”
“Well, you’re my partner, you’re obligated to be nice to me.”
“I’m always nice to you, regardless.”
“Not always. You remember the time you kicked me?”
“Oh my god…” Jayce covers his eyes with one hand. “That was an accident!”
“Shoved me right to the floor, you did.”
“No! I didn’t mean to!”
“Nearly knocked me out,” Viktor says, shaking his head sadly. “I could’ve been seriously injured.”
Jayce sighs. “You’re never going to let me live that down, are you?”
Viktor grins mischievously. “Not for a long, long, time.”
🖼️ credit in newspaper edit: @spiralori_
Read chapter 2 of “Less Hair, More Flair: With Hextech!” On ao3! Jayce and Viktor accidentally invent laser hair removal.
⚙️ Rated E, eventual smut
⚙️Chapter 2/7, currently 8k words
⚙️Fluff, humor, lab shenanigans, idiots in love, best friends doing questionable science
