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He spots her at first in between Councilor Bolbok’s and Hoskel’s shoulders, across the room by one of the tall windows in the ballroom, looking out at the sky. Her hair tied back high, a bun that’s pretending to be less effort than it is, with delicate strands of brunette and blonde highlights framing her face.
As Jayce excuses himself to get closer he takes in more of her. She has a particular slant to her nose that Jayce finds quite elegant, sharp cheekbones and thin lips set in a delicate smile as the woman next to her, that Jayce has just noticed, is talking. Jayce notices a mole on her cheek, just under her eye, as he gets closer, weaving his way through the crowd, she turns her face away from the window and Jayce sees another mole, just above her lips.
She’s got a thin frame, wearing a deep navy gown of satin that clings to her narrow figure, cutouts around her ribs revealing swathes of pale skin that beg for a touch, and a slit so high Jayce can see her hipbone. And the fact that she is most definitely not wearing underwear of any kind. The slit seems to serve a purpose, Jayce notices as she shifts her stance, the slit shows off her leg, long and elegant and, Jayce realizes, wrapped in straps from her foot all the way up to her thigh. He notices the cane now, the way her hands rest atop it in front of her. The brace on her leg is secured so far as to wrap around her high heel and hold it in place.
Jayce hums, catches a couple of champagne flutes off of a passing tray and approaches her.
As he gets closer he can take in the light shimmer of her make up, the sharpness of her liner. Her eyes flicker through the crowd and land on his and when the honeyed gold of her eyes meets his Jayce swears his heart skips a beat.
As he approaches her he puts on a comfortable smile. He offers her one of the flutes of champagne and she glances down at it, her lips quirking into a little smile, “I’m sor-“ Jayce stops, coughs and clears his throat with a nervous chuckle when his voice cracks from the nerves. She raises her glass to her lips to hide the widening of her smile.
Jayce can feel his cheeks warm, her eyes never leaving him, amusement clear in her face.
Jayce tries again, laughing softly and offering his hand. “My name is Jayce. Talis.” He smiles, and she raises the hand with her cane in it, delicately shaking two of Jayce’s extended fingers with her own without letting go of the handle.
“I-“ she starts, and then stops, she glances to her friend, and Jayce swears he sees a bolt of nerves rush through her before she steels herself. She turns back to him and she manages a calm smile, like she didn’t just have a minor internal battle. She clears her throat, a soft little thing, and then gestures to herself with her champagne flute. “Viktoria. It is a pleasure to meet you, Jayce Talis.”
He isn’t expecting her voice, her accent. The way it all wraps around the words and makes it melt in Jayce’s brain like butter. Jayce finds himself having to catch his breath for a moment before he responds, “Viktoria is a lovely name.”
Viktoria tilts her head slightly, the corners of her eyes crinkling just a little with her smile, “Oh you think so?” She asks, amusement clear. Jayce has to laugh again, nodding. He stands by what he says.
Viktoria laughs softly at him again, once more hiding her smile behind her glass. She turns to her friend and gently touches their shoulder, “We’ll catch up later, yes?” Her friend chuckles and agrees, then wishes Viktoria luck with a very obvious eyebrow wiggle that gets the other woman’s arm swatted at gently.
Jayce can’t help but laugh a little at their back and forth before Viktoria’s attention returns to him.
Jayce sips from his champagne, “So, Viktoria,” he starts, and she tilts her head forward, leaning in to hear what he has to say, “what brings you here?”
She pulls back and laughs, like she had been expecting something different. She sips her champagne and swirls it in her glass as she considers her response, “Mm. I suppose it depends which ‘here’ you mean.” She raises an eyebrow at him. Jayce mirrors the expression, and gestures for her to continue. “Well, here can be one’s place in the universe. Very broad, and a much too philosophical conversation for two people who have just met, so I’m sure that’s not what you meant. Here as in Piltover? Well I was born nearby. Here as in the academy; well I am a student just as you are-“ she reaches up and taps the tip of her finger against the academy crest pin on his suit “- here as in this particular party? Well, when your team wins it is only appropriate to celebrate, yes?”
Jayce watches her hand as it retracts and goes back to the handle of her cane, fingers curling loosely around the metal handle. Jayce is almost sure he’s seen it before, now that he’s getting a closer look, but he knows he’s never seen her around. He’s sure he’d have noticed someone so…
Jayce smiles, “You’re a student? I should have expected as much. And you said your team won the competition, that’s really impressive. Although, I think I know all the guys on the team that won.” Jayce smirks. He feels a little bad, catching her in a lie. Though her reaction isn’t what he’s expecting.
Her eyes widen a fraction, and then dip down, thinking for a beat before a realization seems to hit her and she closes her eyes, frowning. She shakes her head, sips her champagne, “Ah, my apologies. I must have misspoke. Not my team. My, eh, my friend’s team. The team I was rooting for, if you will.” She smiles softly, but there’s a crease in her eyebrows. Jayce’s thumb itches to rub it out, as if he can figure out exactly what it is that’s got her worried. Worried he won’t believe her? But why wouldn’t he believe her?
Jayce tries an easy laugh, wanting to disarm her, make that hitch in her shoulders lower. Jayce waves a hand, “No, that’s cool though. That your friends won. I don’t really know any of those guys super personally. I share a class with one of them but we don’t really talk.” Jayce shrugs, “My team came in second.”
Viktoria’s shoulders do relax, ever so slightly, but Jayce is already seeing how guarded she is. Her hands are constantly hovering in front of her body, in between them, just that little bit of separation. She looks at Jayce’s chest and hands and hair more than she’s looking at his eyes. She puts on a very good mask of confidence, but Jayce can see the insecurity shimmering under the surface.
Jayce sets his empty flute on a passing tray, and he glances to the dance floor as the band starts up.
He looks to Viktoria again, her eyes cast down now, wrapped up in a thought in her own head.
Jayce takes a small step closer, next to her, and he gently touches her back, the tips of his fingers just barely ghosting the edge of where the fabric ends, revealing the skin of her waist.
She straightens just slightly, her face lifting and turning to him as he leans in a bit closer, lowering his voice, happy to have brought her out of her head. “Would you like to dance, Viktoria?” She blinks at him, once, twice, Jayce laughs, he gestures to her cane, “I’ll lead.” He offers, smiling at her, a look he hopes is reassuring.
She looks at his hand, and then her cane. She hums softly, finishes the last sip of her champagne and places the flute on a nearby table. She hooks the handle of her cane over her elbow, and she covers Jayce’s with her hand.
He can’t help the full-on grin that tears across his face. He takes her hand and gives his head a shallow bow. “Show me how to support you?” He asks softly, and she gently guides his hand to a particular spot on her hip where he can curl his fingers and take the weight off of her bad leg. She lets out a content sigh when the pressure is off and Jayce smiles softly.
He leads her to the dance floor, the crowd growing a bit denser as they move through it. Viktoria’s eyes dart around them, and a brief brush with another person has her forcing her eyes down again.
Jayce finds them a space, stops and readjusts them, turning her in his arms to face him chest to chest in one smooth gesture that has her staring at him with widened eyes and a pink tint creeping across her cheeks. Jayce’s hand on her wrist moves, drifting to rest at the small of her back before he pulls her just so slightly closer. Her breathing unhitches, her hands coming to rest on his arms as Jayce starts a slow sway to the music.
She doesn’t move too fast, nothing big, when he does want to do a bigger movement for the music he boldly tightens his arm around her waist and pulls her closer, lifting her slight weight and turning her effortlessly to the music.
Her expression grows softer as they dance, then shifts slowly into something unreadable.
“So,” she starts softly when there’s a lull in the music, and Jayce hums softly to acknowledge her, “Talis, you said? Any relation to the toolmakers.”
“One and the same.” Jayce nods, “Tobias was my father.”
“Ah”, Viktoria’s head picks up, her honeyed eyes trailing up his chest and neck to his face, she looks at his eyes for a moment and her expression softens, “Ah, I am sorry for your loss.”
“Don’t be,” Jayce shrugs, turning her slowly, one hand resting around her waist and the other holding her hand, proper, nice, her cane is still tucked away, Jayce keeps it in the edge of his mind, aware of his movements, he wouldn’t want her to drop it. “I was twelve when he passed. I’ve had a lot of time to become okay with it.”
Viktoria’s expression pinches a little, she hums, eyes drifting down again, “Still. Losing a parent is hardly easy.”
“You’d know?” Jayce assumes, based on her tone.
She gives a shallow nod. “I would. My father passed when I was seven. My mother when I was ten.”
“Oh,” Jayce slows their pace a little, just for a moment as the news sinks in, “I, uh, I’m sorry to hear that.”
“I hope you haven’t gotten the impression I’m trying to one-up your grief.” She squeezes his hand softly, “I am simply… relating.”
Jayce nods a little, “Yeah. I understand. It’s hard to imagine…”
“‘Mm,” she shrugs, “for you, perhaps. Orphans aren’t as uncommon in the undercity.”
She says it so casually it takes Jayce a beat to process. He makes sure not to falter as he turns her to the music again, “The undercity? You’re from there?” She hums, nods. Jayce shakes his head, “That’s… that’s amazing. I didn’t even know the academy accepted students from the undercity.”
Viktoria looks up at him, something flashing in her eyes before they quickly dart away. Her eyes lock somewhere off to the left, and Jayce’s eyebrows furrow at the reaction. After a long quiet, he follows her gaze, over to a corner of the room where four of the seven university board members are sitting.
“They don’t.”
Her words are sure, absolute. Jayce’s eyes go back to her face, studying her profile as she glares at the corner of the room.
“Oh.” He breathes out. “You’re… so. Hm.” He smiles, then laughs, a little thing that bubbles out of his chest and surprises him. “You snuck in?”
Her face softens when it shifts back to him, and Jayce’s eyes scan her as mischief dances across them, even if it’s only for a flash before she schools it down with an easy smile. “I would never say such a thing.” She winks at him. Winks and makes Jayce’s heart stutter hard in his chest.
The song comes to an end, Jayce slows and gives Viktoria’s waist a gentle squeeze before he lets go of her, or at least he loosens his hold. She doesn’t move away, though, her body stays pressed close to his and Jayce isn’t any more eager to make space than she is.
“Let’s go outside,” she suggests, tilting her head toward one of the doors at the end of the hall, “I’m getting a bit, eh, warm, in here.”
“Of course.” Jayce agrees, he was getting a little warm himself. He takes her hand, and she adjusts her grip on her cane as they leave the dance floor. He catches her waving to the side, looking away. He follows her gaze to see the girl she was talking to earlier, giggling into her hand at them.
Viktoria huffs softly and shakes her head, glancing at Jayce, catching the way he’s smiling at her. Her eyes widen a fraction and then dart away, her cheeks tinting pink.
Jayce smiles at her, he pulls her just a little closer, letting go of her hand to wrap his own around her waist, pulling her against his side, she gasps softly, and her hand raises, fingers hovering in front of her mouth as if she’s surprised by the sound she made. She looks up at him from the corner of her eyes, the pink on her sharp cheeks deepening as Jayce grins at her.
They step outside and Jayce can almost feel the pressure change, the way the world loosens around them as all the other people disperse as they outdoors gives them room. Jayce looks around, looking for somewhere to sit, and the first bench he spots he points to, he turns to Viktoria to suggest it to her. Just as his mouth is opening she pulls on his arm just a little, and Jayce follows her turned away gaze toward the entrance of the garden. “Ah,” Jayce smiles and lets her lead.
Through an arch made of shrubbery they step into the garden, decorated with fairy lights hanging from trellises, flowers of all kinds in bloom and filling the space with wonderful floral scents.
Despite it, Jayce is more aware of her, the scent of Viktoria’s perfume when she moves in front of him to get a better look at one of the plants. She hums softly and leans down to smell a flower.
Jayce just watches, admiring her profile, the way the shadows highlight the cut of her cheeks, the delicate strands of hair by her ear. She withdraws from the bloom to look at him again, smiling a little. “I come here quite often.” She says softly, like a confession, like she’s embarrassed, or at least should be.
Jayce looks around, “I can see why. It’s beautiful. I feel embarrassed to say I’ve neglected the Academy gardens until now.”
She hums at him, her smile thinning with amusement. “I like to read here, when classes are getting overwhelming. You aren’t the only student to neglect it. It’s a very nice place to get some quiet.”
She comes to his side again, and she curls her hand around his elbow, smiling up at him.
Jayce rests his hand over hers, giving it a gentle squeeze as they start walking through the garden again.
“I have a question.” Her voice eventually breaks the pleasant quiet, the sound of the gala faded into the back and muffled by the greenery and fences.
“Shoot.”
“Mm, your entry,” she starts, and Jayce can tell by her tone that she’s hesitant to broach the subject. Jayce quirks an eyebrow at her, “Ah, I suppose, I was just wondering, how you accounted for the temperature differential? Between the inside of the machine and the outside?”
Jayce’s brain stutters, just for a beat, surprised at the topic change, but then he smiles, eyes widening and lighting up a little, “Oh! That’s actually really interesting-“
Jayce could talk about this for hours. At some point in the conversation Viktoria guides them to a bench to sit down. Jayce explains, and Viktoria engages him, asking more probing questions, getting more answers out of Jayce that he’s eager to share because he’s so fascinated by all of it. Jayce finishes explaining the temperature differential, and Viktoria posits another question, sending him down another long explanation.
As he goes on with this explanation he smiles at her, and she converses just as well, at least at first. After a while her responses come fewer and farther between, and then they go down to single words, and then just a simple hum. He watches as her eyes drift away from his own and down to his mouth. He realizes with a soft laugh that she isn’t even listening anymore.
Jayce trails off after a few more moments, smiling a little at her because her eyes are not hidden, and Jayce can see that she’s staring blatantly at his mouth. His lips.
Jayce stops, quiets, and bites his lip. He leans in, just a little, his shoulder pressing against hers. “Viktoria?”
“Hm?” She hums, acknowledging her name, but her expression doesn’t change, not at first. After a moment of Jayce smiling at her she blinks, her eyes focus and snap up to his and she straightens. “Hm?” She hums again, louder this time, firmer, making sure Jayce knows she’s really listening this time.
Jayce’s hand curls where it’s resting on his own lap, “I’ve been having a nice time with you.” He tells her, letting his hand shift, move across the appeared handful of inches it needs to rest on her thigh instead, his fingers finding their place in between the straps of her leg brace. He can hear her swallow, the hand that isn’t holding her cane by her thigh rests against her chest, like she’s trying to will her own heart to beat slower.
“I have been having a nice time as well, Jayce.” She looks at him again, and Jayce’s hand is moving before he can think.
The strands of hair by her ears, some of the hair is curled close to her mouth, a few strands caught in her lipstick. He gently brushes the hair away, making sure there’s no lipstick stuck in the ends before he tucks the hair behind her ear.
She’s still the entire time, her breathing growing audibly quick, and Jayce realizes why, because he has been leaning closer without even realizing.
“Viktoria?” Jayce’s voice comes out in a breath, a whisper, his eyes locked on her lips now, the berry tone she’s chosen looking… Jayce can’t think of a better word than tempting.
“Yes?” Her answer is just as soft, not faring any better than Jayce in the eye-contact department.
“I… I would really like to kiss you right now.”
“Please.”
Jayce’s hand, which hadn’t moved from their hair touching, shifts easily into place against her cheek, his thumb brushing her cheekbone as he closes the gap.
The first kiss is gentle, his lips against hers, her cheek in his hand, but the chaste little kiss is like lightning in Jayce’s veins. They linger for a moment, part, and for a breath they both process the first kiss.
Jayce is grateful that they come to same conclusion, because just as Jayce is leaning in for another she meets him halfway, one of her hands coming to touch him, resting against his chest at first before it shifts to curl around the back of his neck.
She pushes closer, Jayce pulls her in, they break again just to take a few breaths before coming together again, her hand moving up, fingers curling in Jayce’s slicked back hair.
Jayce’s hand has moved to curl around her waist, keeping her close.
When they break next Jayce presses his forehead to hers, her eyes heavy lidded as they stare at each there so close together.
“I, uh-“ Jayce swallows, “I like kissing you.”
Holy shit if that isn’t the dumbest thing he could have said right now.
But she smiles, then she laughs, then her voice cracks and she jumps, jerking away from him and covering her mouth.
Jayce misses the closeness immediately, but he doesn’t pull her back in, especially as she stares at the ground in front of the bench with eyes that are wide and, for a reason Jayce doesn’t know, terrified.
“Viktoria?” He asks softly, thumb brushing against her waist, just under her ribs, and she flinches away from the touch, which surprises Jayce.
She’s on her feet in a heartbeat, putting distance between them with her body, with the way her arm hovers in front of her chest. Jayce can see panic, and he pushes up to stand, hands raising, placating, trying to quell whatever it is that’s got her upset.
“Viktoria, hey-“
“I’m sorry!” She blurts out the apology so fast Jayce barely catches it, she turns away from him and is rushing away, barely even leaning on her cane, grabbing the wall to get away faster-
Jayce just stands there, stunned as she runs away from him.
His heart pounds in his chest. He doesn’t follow her, she clearly wouldn’t want that, and on top of that Jayce is just… completely floored. He runs the whole night over in his head and he tries to figure out what did it, where he lost her, what pushed her to, to- apologize?
Jayce shakes his head, his own heart still hasn’t calmed down from just kissing her, and his hands shake ever so slightly as he wrings them together in front of his chest.
And the question would haunt him for the next six days.
Why did she run away?
Saturday and Sunday pass with no incident, he visits his mom, he doesn’t tell her about Viktoria, it’s the weekend.
Monday he starts searching. His eyes scan crowds he’d never paid any attention to before, he hunts for her figure, for her hair, for her eyes.
Thursday is the day he finally sees a sign of her. He’s at the campus bookstore of all places. When he first walked in he spared the guy behind the counter a glance and a polite wave, but he’s distracted by the study in his hands, he barely registers the other’s existence, much less anyone else’s as he walks through the store.
He grabs a couple snacks, a drink, and finally what he came here for, a very particular notebook. He started using them when he first started attending the academy, leather bound with a thick strap and buckle to keep it closed. He’s gone through one a month for the past four semesters. As he approaches the counter he looks up from his paper again as he sets his haul on the counter.
He keeps reading, only catching from his periphery the way that the guy behind the counter’s hands hesitate before they reach for his items.
Jayce has seen him a few times, with how often he’s at the book store he has a vague recognition of the rotating staff, though he doesn’t know any of their names.
He doesn’t have nicknames for them, per se, but he has, eh, titles, if you will.
There’s the girl with the braids and the glasses, she’s The Loud One. Not in a bad way, necessarily, but there’s always music playing, or she’s on a handheld behind the counter. She’s nice, if a little distracted most of the time.
There’s the older guy, somewhere in his forties, always dressed just a smidge smarter than the job calls for, a family man, Jayce understands he’s also one of the custodians, working the extra job to help his daughter take dance lessons. He’s The Old One.
And then there’s him, who is tending Jayce now. He kind of dances through titles, usually he’s just The Quiet One, though for a not insignificant portion of the year he’s The Coughing One. Jayce doesn’t know the details, exactly, but based on the medical bracelet that glints in the light when he reaches for the bottles of water Jayce has brought up, it’s clear he’s got some chronic condition.
While The Loud One and The Old One are always friendly and talkative, this guy, well he just isn’t. Though, as Jayce looks up at the end of a sentence, he’s quieter than usual, and when Jayce watches him grab the notebook he notices his hands are shaking.
Jayce’s eyes narrow just a little, curious, he tips his head, opening his mouth, he’s going to ask if he’s okay, but that’s when he sees it.
His head tilt makes light glint off the metal, and his eyes flick to it only briefly, but it’s long enough to recognize the shape, the engravings.
Behind the counter, leaning against it, is Viktoria’s cane. Or at least one that’s perfectly identical.
The bag full of Jayce’s haul is placed on the counter in front of him as he opens his mouth, though instead of asking if the other is okay like he originally intends, what falls out of his mouth is “Do you know Viktoria?” His eyes widen as they snap up to the man behind the counter.
Jayce isn’t expecting him to turn away from him, not far, just down to the register, avoiding Jayce’s gaze, clearly. He lets his hair fall in a curtain between them, it was short a couple years ago, when Jayce first started coming, but he’s let it grow out, and Jayce frowns a little when the other uses it to so clearly avoid his gaze.
“Uh,” Jayce starts, not sure how to take the reaction, and then the other moves, quickly raising his hand and tapping it against the screen a few times, pointing at the total.
“Okay.” Jayce looks down at the bag, to the cane, to the screen and then to him.
His face is still turned, all Jayce can see is just the profile of his nose, the rest of his face obscured by brunette hair streaked with blonde highlights. Jayce blinks. The highlights are new. Jayce digs his wallet out, “Uh, sorry, do you… I met her last week. I thought we were having a good time and then she ran away, and I’ve been trying to find her because I want to… I don’t know… apologize?”
Jayce sets a bill on the counter to cover the entire purchase.
“Do you think you could give her a message for me?”
The guy behind the counter shakes his head, grabs the bill and quickly works on making the change. Jayce frowns, “Dude, did I seriously fuck up that bad? I thought… fuck, please,” his eyes drop down, he scans the front of the oversized knit sweater the other is wearing, which does a poor job at hiding his thin frame, Jayce’s eyes land on a name tag on the front of the sweater, “Vik-“ he starts, then has to lean when the other turns away a little, to catch the other half of his name, “- Viktor! Viktor?” Jayce’s eyes go back up to the other’s face, and a jolt of shock runs through him when the other is finally, actually looking at him.
But he’s severely taken aback because it’s her eyes that are staring back at him.
Though, instead of being smoothed with make up and shimmering around the edges they’re circled by thin framed glasses and dark eye bags, thick eyebrows drawn together tightly and Jayce recognizes the fear in those eyes.
Jayce blinks, “Uh…” his stupid mouth lets out before his brain can even think of a more eloquent way to handle the realization as it’s settling into him.
Viktor— Viktoria— slams Jayce's change down on the counter, snatches the cane, and then vanishes, just as quickly as she had the week before.