Chapter Text
So many things swirl around in Viktor’s mind: knowledge, curiosity, the connection of each and every one of the people he’s saved. They all live within him now, nestled deep in the endless space that his mind now stretches into.
Jayce has killed Salo. Jayce is different; there is something else within him.
All these things are interesting, but it's the chaos that takes up more of his mind than anything else—that little spark of the Arcane that could change… everything. The potential feels endless.
Viktor allows himself to meditate, to settle himself. Untangling Vander takes up a lot of his energy, and he needs to conserve some for himself.
There’s a part of him that is looking forward to seeing Jayce. Him killing Salo is only noteworthy in the way that it’s surprising—not like the Jayce he knew. They’ve both changed, and Viktor is excited to see what they can accomplish together now that they’ve both shed who they used to be.
It doesn’t take long for Jayce to slip into the commune, attempting to be stealthy, even though the attempt is wasted. Greedily, Viktor watches his progress through multiple views. Jayce is twitchy, obviously fighting against something as he winces in pain at nothing. The Arcane swirls within him restlessly. Viktor aches to touch, to reach out for him and soothe his pain, make it all go away.
He even turns his hammer on a child, yet just as quickly puts it down as if embarrassed with himself. Viktor urges the child to lead Jayce to him. He doesn’t open his eyes and blocks his view from all of his connections. When he sees Jayce for the first time like this, he wants it to be through his own eyes, and nothing else.
It takes a moment, but at last, he disengages from everything else, letting the connections fade into the background so when he opens his eyes, he will be utterly focused on one thing only. When he lets his eyes open, he does so slowly, wanting to take in this new and different Jayce.
His hammer is already lit up and pointed at him. Viktor doesn’t get the chance to speak before he sees it—a vision of pieces of his home floating away with the force of the blast, him, a carcass on the ground with a hole through his chest. His people, all dying, the thread tying them to him lost, cut, severed forever.
A flash of light. A blink. And then—
The pain Viktor is expecting doesn’t come. Instead, the light fades away, and Jayce is still standing there.
Only… it’s not the Jayce he’s expecting to see.
Wide golden eyes stare back at him. “…Viktor?” a clean-shaven Jayce asks, voice filled with doubt. All of him is clean, pristine, and looking as if he just stepped out of the lab, not the dirty, torn street rat appearance he had just a moment ago. He looks young and new, as if it were back before the council, before…
Lowering himself to the ground, Viktor fights to get his thoughts under control as his feet touch the floor and he stands up straight, eyes never leaving the other man’s. “Jayce,” he greets with a small, confused smile. “I wasn’t expecting you. Did something happen?” He reaches out a hand and watches the way Jayce follows the motion, mouth falling open when he takes in the metal his skin has become, the purple that shimmers beneath, pulsing like a heartbeat.
There’s a pause where Jayce keeps glancing between Viktor’s hand and his face. He takes a step back, as if unsure, brows furrowed. For a moment, Viktor’s heart spasms—Jayce has never, ever shied away from him.
“Is it really you?” Jayce demands, looking around sharply as if trying to place where they are, though Viktor’s empty rounded single room has very little to look at. For the brief moment his attention is pulled away, Viktor feels a familiar longing, the one that has dogged his every step for years and years. It’s familiar enough that he almost pushes it aside, tempted to ignore it completely like he has so many times before. The desire that always sits heavy in his chest for Jayce’s attention that never feels like he is worthy enough of it. Then he remembers that things are different and decides to try something new, tries to instead lean into the feeling.
“Am I interrupting something?” Viktor waits until Jayce jerks back to face him again, his face so transparent with emotion—relief, guilt, a little bit of shame at the reminder—Viktor feels like he wants to lock him away so he can only look at him before continuing, “I said that to you to stop you from jumping. Now, come here, let me look at you.”
Immediately, the unease and tension falls away, and Jayce comes closer, close enough to be crowding into Viktor’s space, the motion easy, as if Jayce has done it a thousand times before. It makes Viktor deeply nostalgic. How long has it been since Jayce has crowded into his space like this? Jayce reaches out for the hand that Viktor still has suspended in the air between them, taking it in both of his; his face full of awe as he flips the hand back and forth, letting his fingers run over it.
Now that Viktor is more in control of his body—while he doesn’t feel sensation exactly the same as before—he’s aware of the touch, and more than anything, he can register that Jayce radiates warmth, just like he always has.
“Viktor, what happened to you?” His voice is filled with awe and amazement.
He chuckles. “You first, Jayce. How are you here?”
The explanation is interesting. The situation Viktor remembers from his own timeline—a day in the lab where they were working on solving the issue with the gates, experimenting with swapping the location of two objects to see if that would work better than simply teleporting one-way. Only Viktor and his Jayce had realized that one-way was easier than swapping, and nothing had really happened except to explode a few boxes.
Whereas this Jayce had been swapped with his Jayce, apparently.
"What about you?" Jayce demands, though it's edged with familiar excitement. "Tell me everything!" His eyes are bright, eager to learn and to know.
How Viktor has missed him. The feeling is strange. Though he's felt it often enough, ever since he's been changed, it was distant. Easily brushed aside. With everything else that he's been doing—there's so many things that take his attention—that missing Jayce, though constant, has been something he's barely thought about.
Now, with a version of the man in front of him—the one that Viktor had first fallen in love with, all those years ago—he feels a bit of giddiness that he gets to show Jayce all that he's accomplished.
"Jayce, you will love this. Let’s walk and talk.”
As expected, Jayce marvels at the commune. He talks a million a minute, thinking about ramifications, the possibilities, what else Viktor could accomplish, what Hextech could be capable of, and so much more.
Jayce turns to him at one point and says, nearly breathless with wonder, "V, this could change everything."
Yes. This is the Jayce that Viktor expected, one enthralled with what he's doing here. His original Jayce had been... tainted by some other presence. Though he doesn't know exactly who or what it was, he decides it hardly matters now. His Jayce might have wanted to cause him pain, to cause his death, but Viktor has been granted a gift. This other Jayce sees things the way they are—all the good that can be done, all the good they can do together.
There's a pang in his chest at the thought. If only his Jayce had been willing to see it. Still, he won't let this opportunity go to waste. He walked away from Jayce before; Viktor would be a fool to do so again.
No, after living without him, even if he was so busy he didn't dwell on the missing presence at his side, now that he has it back, he won't let go of it.
Not for anything.
The days pass in a blissful haze. He continues to work with Vander, attempting to detangle his soul from the beast. Jayce, meanwhile, wanders around the commune, taking notes and figuring out new ways to help out.
It’s lovely. As time goes on, Viktor can walk around the commune or see it through his people’s eyes, and there are pieces of Jayce everywhere. Things to make life easier, things to help people.
Not everyone who come to seek Viktor’s healing joins the commune. There is never any pressure; those who need it will join them eventually. Others, like Vander’s daughters, who come for someone else but don’t need healing themselves, will leave eventually, or they will join if only to stay with the family member(s) who won’t leave.
Still, now that Jayce has made his own mark on the place Viktor has begun to call home, he realizes how much he’s been relying on the Arcane to fix things. Jayce, for all his belief in the Arcane, in Hextech, defaults more often than not to pure science. Building things with his hands.
A forge will have to be built. Viktor has already put in the plans. Jayce has been making due with the scraps that accumulate, but he knows that Jayce can do better.
He wants to make this a home, one that Jayce will never want to leave.
Viktor has to expand his own dwelling, create more buildings behind the main pod that are better suited for Jayce, for them. Even so, their home is small, quaint. He doesn't mind—it's nice to be so close to each other, especially as they spend most of the day apart.
In the evenings, they talk over dinner, and it feels just like before. Bouncing ideas off each other, falling into side-tangents that have nothing to do with the original topic, and arguing over which method would be better.
Other times, they delve into deeper topics than simply science—things they've never really had reason to speak about before. It's these discussions that make Viktor realize that while they agree on many topics, they have very different understandings of how and why things are the way they are.
Jayce has always wanted to help people, including those who live in the Undercity, a thing that Viktor admired and appreciated when they first met. So many living in Piltover look down on those from the Undercity, as if they had any choice in the matter about where they were born.
Still, he's realizing as they talk, the topic has never been touched on so directly before. Though they've gone into the Undercity together before for various purchases, Jayce has never seen so much of it. Even if the commune is a little pocket of sanctuary, it would be impossible for Jayce not to see the people who arrive every day for help—the vast amounts of suffering they experience.
Now that Jayce has the time, he actually sits down and talks with actual civilians about their experiences. More than once, while he relays the conversations with Viktor, Viktor has found himself gently correcting Jayce's understanding and worldview, a thing he'd never bothered to do before.
In the past, he'd largely ignored whatever random classist thing Jayce had let loose, thinking that he wasn't that bad and that the comments were largely harmless. Viktor had certainly heard worse over the years.
But now, Viktor takes the time to untangle Jayce's baked-in beliefs. Sometimes, it takes a while. Sometimes, Jayce gets bullheaded and stubborn, as he is wont to do, and leaves the room entirely in a huff.
No matter how bad the argument is though, Jayce always comes back in the end, and that's the only thing that matters to Viktor. It even seems at times that Jayce prefers it here, in the Undercity, working alongside Viktor.
It also gives him a private kind of thrill to see Jayce's lack of interest in this version of Piltover. Oh, sure, he'd asked about his mother, about how Hextech and the gates came out, and a few colleagues of theirs, but that's all. He'd seemed happy at the responses and let it go, already focusing on what more could be done here, at the commune.
So different from the Counselor Talis that his Jayce had become. If it were his Jayce, only a few years removed, then the state of the city would matter. There would be more discussion about the implications of what Viktor is doing here would affect Piltover and a dozen other concerns.
Now, Jayce is content with the knowledge that his mother is safe. This is a Jayce before he got poisoned by the Counsel, by all the expectations he thought he needed to live up to.
Viktor is unsurprised to find that he prefers this simpler Jayce, the one not yet misshapen by the endless selfish problems of Piltover. He’s never liked that Jayce went into politics, and though it might be selfish, he’s glad to have gotten a Jayce from Before.
It feels right. It feels like a redo of sorts. It's as if the universe has given them both an opportunity to become what the other needs.
Tonight, as Viktor sets the table for them both, Jayce comes in looking uncharacteristically nervous.
"Hey... Viktor? Can I talk to you about something?"
Intrigued, Viktor finishes laying down a plate. He gestures to one of the two chairs at the table. They may interact with others in the commune, but never here, in their home. So it's only ever set up for the two of them, and no one else. "Of course, Jayce. You know you don't have to ask."
After they both sit, Viktor reaches out with a hand that Jayce takes without looking at his face, his roughened fingers trailing against the side of Viktor's hand. This is a somewhat new thing that they do. Though his Jayce had always been more touchy than Viktor himself, this other Jayce seems to crave it even more than the Jayce he’s familiar with. Frequently, he explores Viktor's skin with his hands, muttering under his breath about the way his body moves now, how the shimmer has interacted with Hextech to make his new skin. Viktor has even found drawings in Jayce's sketchbook, pages of his hands, his legs, his feet, drawn in perfect detail.
Though if he's being honest with himself, his favorites are always the ones of his face. Those too fill up pages and pages.
"For the people that you heal, how... different... do they become?" The words are stilted, awkward. Jayce looks up just enough to catch his eyes before glancing away again, as if worried about Viktor's reaction.
What remains of his heart gives a little anxious flutter, but he doesn't let it show on his face. He wants to be honest with Jayce, but he might not like the answer. He decides to attempt to side-step and see if Jayce will be pacified with that.
"My healing takes many different forms. Though the recipients have some metal detailing, it is not as extensive as my own. Haven't you been running experiments? Surely you know this already."
Jayce pouts and shakes his head. This time, when he looks up, his gaze remains on Viktor, his eyes burning.
"That's not what I meant, and you know it."
He sighs and goes to withdraw his hand. Jayce tightens his grip. The silence is tense between them. Viktor doesn’t want to upset Jayce, but he is also sick of all the lies that were able to build up between them previously. He wants to bare himself to this new, fresh Jayce and be accepted as he is.
“When I heal someone,” Viktor starts slowly, attempting to find the words, “it forms a connection within the Arcane. We are… melded, in a sense. They exist in a space that I can feel.”
“And you have access to them, don’t you?” Jayce asks.
Viktor doesn’t flinch, but it’s a near thing. They stare at each other before he dips his chin down in a slight nod. “I do. How did you know that, Jayce?” It’s information that this Jayce shouldn’t know. While he showed his Jayce that he could overtake the bodies of those who follow him, it’s not an ability he showcased to this Jayce, in order not to scare him.
Jayce shrugs, their joined hands jostling against the table at the movement. “Took me a while to figure out, but sometimes, I could feel something looking at me.” He chuckles low. “It’s hard to explain, but you… You look at me differently, V. Than my Viktor did, back home.”
Viktor wrinkles his nose at that word. Home. As if this isn’t Jayce’s home. But Jayce continues talking, so he drops the thought. For now.
“More fond, maybe? Something like that. Either way, it’s familiar. And sometimes, I would notice that different people around here would look at me the same way. It’s subtle, but after I realized it looked like you, I couldn’t unsee it. It’s never the person I’m talking with; it’s always someone lingering on the sidelines. Whenever I spoke to them, the look would drop from their eyes immediately. But I still felt watched. It’s you, isn’t it? I’m not going crazy?”
“Oh, Jayce, no. Of course you’re not.” Like magnets, they pull towards each other, the legs of their chairs squealing against the floor as they move close enough to hug. Warm hands wrap around Viktor’s waist, and he runs his hands soothingly up Jayce’s wide back, propping his chin up on the other man’s shoulder. “You’re not going crazy. You are correct, it’s me. How can I resist not looking at you?”
This time, when Jayce chuckles, it sounds a little wet. They separate just enough to look at each other, and Viktor smiles as he watches Jayce rub at his eyes with the heel of his palm. Jayce is smiling too, his slightly crooked teeth a sight Viktor can never get enough of.
“Sorry, don’t know why I’m getting all emotional here,” Jayce says, and Viktor runs his fingers through Jayce’s short strands. “I always… I always wanted my Viktor to say something like that. Guess it got to me.”
His fingers twitch, but he manages not to pull Jayce’s hair. He forces his smile wider. “In that way, I suppose we are the same.” At Jayce’s questioning look, he explains, “I always wished my Jayce would want me to say something like that. Perhaps I can be your Viktor? I would gladly tell you things you’ve always wished to hear.”
Jayce’s eyes go wide, and Viktor can see the absolute want within them, the hope that shimmers in those honey-gold irises.
It’s manipulative. He knows that it is. Wherever this Jayce came from, he has no doubt that the Viktor there loved him just as much as he loved his own Jayce. Maybe, if this Jayce also loved his Viktor, who's to say that his own Jayce didn’t feel the same for Viktor at some point? Though if that’s the truth, then it seems the love has transformed into something else, if his Jayce was so willing to end Viktor’s life.
Still, he did speak the truth to this Jayce. How could Viktor resist the pull of a Jayce that wants him? It is a gift he never expected to get—Piltover’s Golden Boy wanting broken Viktor as more than just a friend and a partner, wanting him as a lover. It’s every fantasy come to life. It’s something that he doesn’t think his Jayce would have been able to give him, as much as the thought pains him to admit. His Jayce was too caught up in everything else to really focus on Viktor.
So when Jayce leans in to kiss him, Viktor meets him gladly. He wants to fill himself up on this other Jayce, this Jayce that could become his. A Jayce that belongs only to him; no Mel, no Counsel, no Piltover.
He'll be just for Viktor.
Like everything else that Jayce is, the kiss is warm. Gentle. Quickly, it gains heat as Jayce makes a noise against his lips, a groan like he’s in pain, before a clever tongue laps at his closed lips. Opening his mouth, welcoming Jayce in, it feels like something clicking into place.
Finally, it feels as though Viktor is radiating warmth. Though that could easily be Jayce’s intense heat consuming him as he all but gathers Viktor into his arms, pressing them as close as possible, as Jayce works to utterly devour Viktor’s mouth.
By the time they break apart, they’re both panting.
Viktor isn’t sure who started it, but they begin to laugh, foreheads pressed together, sharing puffs of breath as they hold each other.
It should feel silly—embracing at the dinner table, a meal laid out and waiting, but it’s not. It feels like a connection being made, like being reforged into something new.
All discussion gets dropped as they forgo dinner and mutually decide to explore this new thing between them.
It isn’t until the next day, when Jayce is on his knees behind him, combing Viktor’s hair while Viktor sits on the ground, meditating lightly, that he brings up the topic again.
“So, V, when you said you make a connection with someone. It changes them too, doesn’t it?”
It takes a moment to process, to pull himself fully out of the Arcane, to come back to his own body and be entirely present. Jayce waits without comment, likely understanding Viktor isn’t trying to stall.
When he finds himself back, all in one place, Viktor replies, “Mm. When people are connected to the Arcane, it alters them slightly, yes. There is always a price to be paid.” Viktor turns slightly to smile up at Jayce, lifting up a metal hand as if to demonstrate. “Do you think it is worth the price?”
Jayce takes his hand, pressing a kiss to the back of it, and Viktor turns so they can face each other. “Viktor, I’ve seen the good that you can do. It’s what we’ve always dreamed of doing. What you dreamed of doing.” Jayce pauses and bites his lip. Viktor tilts his head to the side and sends him a smirk.
“But…?” he trails off meaningfully, knowing that Jayce has something more he wishes to say.
“Why haven’t you done it with me?” Jayce asks quickly, his words almost running into each other in his haste. He looks down at his knees, as if embarrassed.
He pauses, surprised. “Jayce… you are not injured. What if I did not manage to return you correctly?” If you came back not all in one piece, he privately adds. “I would never want to risk you like that.” Viktor reaches out and cups Jayce’s cheek, subtly getting the other man to look at him.
Jayce places a hand over his. “But what if I want it? Viktor, I’ve seen the Arcane, seen what it can do. I want to experience it. I want to feel it the way you do; to understand it like you.” Viktor hums as he gets to his feet, holding out his hands to get Jayce to stay on the ground.
Fetching a chair, he drags it behind Jayce, who watches over his shoulder with a puzzled look on his face.
“I see what you mean,” Viktor says, and feels terribly fond of the way that Jayce lights up at his words. “So I’ll do this for you, Jayce. It would be an honor to be able to be with you within the Arcane. The experience… it is like nothing else. Words cannot even begin to describe it.” He sits and points at the space between his legs. He doesn’t need to say anything before Jayce scooches backwards until his shoulders are hitting Viktor’s thighs.
“Should I turn or—”
“No,” Viktor interrupts. “Stay like that. Just lean back a bit, my love. Ah, there you are, perfect.”
Jayce’s face looks slightly darker with a blush as he looks up. “Love?” he repeats. Viktor runs a loving hand over his head.
“Why sound so surprised? Surely you know. Ready?” He places his fingertips on Jayce’s forehead, and the other man closes his eyes, taking in a deep breath.
“Ready,” Jayce confirms.
What follows is just as indescribable as Viktor had said it would be. They meld together, collapsing in on each other, sharing every thought, every feeling, every want and desire.
Eternity spins out before them, as they live in a bubble all their own. Time means nothing when they have each other. When they can finally see each other as they truly are, when they can finally accept each other completely.
Anytime Jayce seems to want to shy away from something that Viktor has done, has had to do in his journey, in his role now as the Harold, Viktor simply pushes back, gives him a tiny, microscopic shove, and Jayce settles once more.
By the time they separate, Viktor feels better than he ever has before. Jayce has accepted him, every part of him, with no restrictions. Viktor feels free in a way that he’s never been able to experience before.
“Viktor?” Jayce’s voice is rough, and Viktor wraps his arms around Jayce’s shoulders, leaning over his head, taking on the other man’s weight as he sags in his arms.
“Jayce, how are you feeling?”
“Fine. Wait, better than fine. Great, really. I’m just still processing. That was… wow.” Big golden eyes peer up at him, through the curtain that Viktor’s hair makes around them. “It was incredible. You’re incredible, V.”
Viktor chuckles at how awestruck Jayce sounds. He kisses his forehead, right over where the shape of his own fingertips now gleam.
“We are incredible, Jayce. We can do so much together. We’re going to change the world for the better.”
A few days later, after Viktor finishes working with Vander, he feels a nudge at his consciousness, a familiar tug that has him smiling already.
Jayce wants his attention.
Winding through the commune, Viktor waves and nods at various people but doesn’t bother to stop, and none attempt to intercept him. They know he is not to be disturbed.
He finds Jayce in the greenhouse, surrounded by flowers and light. When he catches sight of Viktor, he smiles, and the rush of love that Viktor feels is indescribable.
Jayce looks like one of them now, wearing his white commune robes. Handsome and free, and when Jayce reaches out for him, Viktor reaches back gladly.
They come together naturally, as if they have always done it.
“Jayce,” Viktor says warmly. And it’s all that needs to be said. Jayce pulls him to the ground, rests his head against Viktor’s legs, and gazes up at Viktor like he’s the only thing he’d ever want to see. “How has your day been, my love?” Viktor asks, just to hear Jayce’s voice.
Jayce snorts, like he’s heard the thought. Maybe he had. They tend to bleed into each other nowadays. Jayce tucks a flower behind one of Viktor’s ears, letting his finger trail slowly along the shell.
“It was good. Missed you, though. I was trying to encourage some of the kids to get into mischief.”
“Oh?” Viktor asks, laying his hand on Jayce’s stomach so he can feel the way his stomach rises and falls with his breathing.
Jayce doesn’t need more encouragement than that to launch into his tale. Viktor listens idly as he plucks at their connection and considers an idea he’s been toying with recently.
This Jayce, not his original Jayce, but the one he has now, has another connection. It leads out into the ether, a string tied around this Jayce and which leads, Viktor assumes, to the other Jayce. To his Jayce.
Severing it would likely mean that the two could never be swapped back. That they would be stuck in whatever universe they ended up in.
Viktor thinks about this Jayce leaving him, and the decision is made almost without conscious thought. He reaches out in the Arcane with one hand and tears the string apart. It disintegrates more easily than he expected it to, like it was no more than a spider’s web.
“Everything alright, V?” Jayce’s voice is concerned, and he pats his stomach.
“Everything’s perfect, Jayce,” Viktor reassures. “How can it not be, with you here?”
“You’re just saying that,” Jayce says with a laugh.
Viktor shakes his head with a small smile. “I mean it completely. Now, what were you saying?”
As the sound of Jayce's voice once more fills the room, Viktor muses on what he's done. Perhaps it’s wrong to hold onto so tightly to someone that is technically not ‘his’, but Viktor has made this Jayce his in all the ways that matter. They love each other, and whatever happens now, they will face it together.
He just hopes that wherever the other Jayce ended up, he is happy. That he doesn’t begrudge Viktor this choice.
But in Viktor’s heart of hearts, he knows that it doesn’t matter. The other Jayce will either be happy or he’ll be miserable, but Viktor has learned to be selfish. He’ll cling to what he wants with both hands, with no reservations or considerations.
He’ll exist together with a Jayce that loves him, completely and utterly.
And that’ll be enough.
