Chapter Text
When Viktor finally awoke, it was to a bed that both was and wasn’t his at the very same time.
The pillow smelled like his shampoo. The indentations in the mattress below him were perfectly aligned to his body, a sure sign that he had slept there for at least a few months prior, if not longer. The blanket smelled like his soap and the room itself smelled like bitter coffee and burnt out candles; it was, in essence, familiar.
Except it wasn’t.
Because the window that was usually on his Easternmost wall was now on his Westernmost wall. The ceiling light wasn’t wonky and didn’t have a cobweb threaded around its chain. The bed was far bigger than it had been before and there was a dainty little coffee table in the corner of the room that certainly hadn’t been there before, accompanied by lustrous couches of a deep green velvet that were slightly too ostentatious for Viktor’s liking.
The strangest thing of all, though, Viktor thought as he snapped up from the bed as quickly as his back would allow him, was the sight of Jayce Talis perched at the edge of one of the couches, in a state of disarray which could only be attributed to a good night’s sleep. Viktor noted the dip in the mattress next to him, running over the dent with the tips of his fingers as he watched Jayce wordlessly. The dent was deep. Someone had slept there many times before and, truthfully, all evidence was pointing to Jayce.
Jayce sat at the edge of the couch as though the material would scald him should he sit back any further. He looked as though he was ready to jump off of the seat at any given moment, like an impostor in a room that felt so familiar yet so unusual at the same time. The most unusual thing, perhaps, was to see Jayce looking anything other than the confident figure Viktor knew him to be. In that moment, he looked the part of a scolded child, tapping his foot against the floor and tugging on the hair of his beard.
“Jayce?” Viktor tried, his voice scratchy in his throat as though it hadn’t been used in a while.
Jayce’s head snapped up from where he had been resting his chin in the palm of his hand. It appeared he had been drinking a coffee - a tiny china cup two sizes too small for his hands was discarded on the coffee table - whilst nursing what was likely the same headache brewing at the base of Viktor’s skull. His lips moved around silent words, like grasping at strings for something to say, before settling on the one word that never failed him.
“Viktor?” Jayce breathed, rushing to his feet and bumping the coffee table with his shin. The china cups clattered against their matching dishes, but Jayce paid them no mind as he rushed over to the bed, nearly tripping over his feet in his hurry. “You’re awake!”
Viktor smiled slightly as Jayce paused by the side of the bed, deliberating over whether to sit or to stand. Viktor decided to help him with that decision, placing his hand against the mattress and shuffling to the side, leaving more than enough room at the edge of the bed for Jayce to perch. Jayce hesitated for a moment, blinking at the space Viktor had left owlishly before nodding and lowering himself onto the bed.
“How long have you been awake?” Viktor asked when Jayce was settled.
“I’m not sure. A few hours, at least. The sun was barely out when I woke up, so it must’ve been a while.”
Viktor nodded. “You didn’t wake me.”
“I didn’t want to. You were sleeping so soundly and - honestly, I don’t think I would’ve been very good company. I needed to get my head together.”
“Perhaps a second head would’ve helped. This situation is - particularly unorthodox, no?”
By all accounts, Viktor should’ve been panicking. Jayce certainly was. He had woken up in an unfamiliar place, when he was certain he should have died. He remembered everything . He remembered the Arcane. He remembered feeling powerful, using his power to ‘heal’ everyone. He remembered having a thousand minds attuned to his own, like some omnipotent hivemind, and yet still, whilst surrounded by thousands of voices, the only one he listened to was Jayce . He remembered the rune. He remembered the press of Jayce’s forehead against his own. He remembered everything going white.
And then nothing.
“Where are we?” Viktor asked, looking around the room. He was certain it was the Academy, if the deep green wallpaper and dark varnished wood was anything to go by. But it certainly wasn’t his room.
Perhaps, after everything went white, he had returned to his physical body, unconscious and drained of everything. Maybe his own room was out of bounds - under investigation by the ethics committee and enforcers, likely - and he had been relocated to this one. Though that theory didn’t make sense. If he had returned to his physical body, which was practically impossible since it had completely given up on him after Jayce’s blow, he likely would have been carted straight off to one cold, dark cell in Stillwater Hold for the foreseeable future.
He certainly would not be waking up to a room far more luxurious than his own, with a half-clothed, bedraggled-looking Jayce Talis.
“The Academy. I thought about going outside to look around but you were still sleeping,” Jayce admitted, rubbing the back of his neck abashedly.
“You could have gone without me. I would have been fine.”
Jayce stared at him open-mouthed, scandalised by the idea. “Absolutely not! You really think I would leave you alone in an unfamiliar place after I thought I’d never see you again?”
“It’s the Academy, Jayce. I’ve lived here for years, albeit not in this room, and typically I don’t wake up with you here in such a state of undress. But it’s still the Academy, no?”
“This isn’t our Academy, Viktor. It isn’t even our world. Just - just look at yourself.”
Viktor frowned but acquiesced, following the gesture of Jayce’s hand to look down at himself. He saw skin. Not the dark, writhing vines of metal that the Hexcore had given him months back, but the same pale, mole-littered skin he had been born with. He touched his collarbones carefully, as though they would disappear beneath a sheet of hard metal if he pressed too hard, marvelling at the way his pale skin disappeared beneath a nightshirt which was two sizes too big for him.
Quickly, Viktor shoved back the blanket that he had still been tucked under, ignoring the way Jayce cleared his throat when the blanket's dismissal revealed two thin, pale, human-looking legs protruding from the other end of his nightshirt. His left leg was straight, whilst his right leg was sat at an angle which had proven so surprising to some, yet so familiar to him. He tried to move his legs against the mattress experimentally, blinking at the way everything felt so soft against his skin. Though his metallic body had made movement easier, it had done little for his sense of touch.
For the first time in a long while, Viktor felt human again.
“I didn’t return to my body, did I?” Viktor asked, a little breathily as he lifted his nightshirt higher to poke and prod at the skin of his thighs. “Well, I returned to a body that is technically mine, but not the one my current consciousness usually inhabits.”
Jayce chewed his bottom lip. “I don’t think there was a physical body left for you to inhabit after I - did what I did. At least not in that universe.”
Viktor turned his attention away from his legs and back to Jayce. The other man was refusing to make eye contact, staring determinedly down at his hand gripping onto the mattress for dear life. Viktor smiled sadly, guilt eating at the insides of his stomach. He was the reason Jayce looked like this. His decisions had forced Jayce to do what he had to do and now he would have to live with the memories. How many times had Jayce seen Viktor die? How many times had Viktor forced Jayce to kill him?
Viktor reached out with a hand, gently brushing the tips of his fingers against Jayce’s. Jayce looked up, eyes finally meeting Viktor’s, their usual deep warmth melting into something soft that Viktor didn’t dare try to define. Jayce lifted his index finger, running it gently down the back of Viktor’s own finger.
“Jayce, I -“
As if shocked, Jayce jumped up from the bed. The sudden movement nearly sent Viktor tumbling over. Viktor sent Jayce a chiding look, which Jayce paid no mind to.
“I think you need to see something. Like, you really need to see something. I’m sorry, but I have a theory and I know it sounds crazy but come with me? Please?”
Viktor nodded, a little put off by the interruption, but it was nothing they couldn’t continue talking about later. They had a lot to talk about later. But right now, with the weight of a good night’s sleep still clouding his brain and the dizzying smell of strong coffee emanating from Jayce’s abandoned cup, Viktor had no strength in him to fight. He shuffled to the side of the bed, sliding his legs over the side of the bed, supporting his right leg with his hand, and placing them tentatively on the floor. The wood was cool against his feet.
“I need my crutch,” Viktor said, glancing at where it was leaning up against the nightstand, right behind Jayce. Even his crutch looked unfamiliar. There was some extra cushioning under the arm and on the handle, with a band that seemed to sit around the forearm to offer more support. Strange. Piltover had never been one to ensure his comfort before.
Jayce smiled, offering his arm to Viktor instead. “We’re not going far. I’ll help you.”
Viktor reached for Jayce’s arm, gripping onto his bare forearm as Viktor pulled himself up. Jayce’s skin was warm. Viktor relished the sensation; warmth, cold, he hadn’t felt anything of the sort for so long. When he was fully upright, Jayce rested a steadying hand on his waist, waiting for Viktor to loop his arms around Jayce’s so that they could start heading to their destination. Viktor leaned his weight against Jayce’s side.
When Viktor nodded at Jayce, they started to move. Viktor’s bare feet padded along the wooden floor, taking in the way that the cool wood turned warm as the sun spilled over it. The window on the Westernmost wall wasn’t just a window; it was a door of glass beneath an arc of wrought iron, leading out onto a white stone balcony with a tiny table and a pair of matching chairs. Lightweight curtains were hung either side of the door. They danced in the soft morning breeze as Jayce pulled the door open and guided Viktor out onto the balcony.
Jayce only relinquished his grasp on Viktor when he was sure that Viktor had a firm grasp on the balcony’s outer wall. He still stood close, close enough that their shoulders were brushing, and Viktor wasn’t sure whether it was for his sake or for Jayce’s own sake. Whichever it was, Viktor wouldn’t deny he was grateful for the contact as he took in the sight before him.
This wasn’t Piltover. It was Piltover, but it wasn’t, in the same way that the room was his room but not. He had never had a particularly good view from his room in the Academy, given a room low down that overlooked a narrow alley. Not that he had ever been in his room much, anyway, typically falling asleep in the lab atop his desk or on one of the particularly uncomfortable chairs. But the view had never been one to boast about, which suited him. It had always felt a little bit wrong, enjoying the view from a prestigious academy in Piltover, overlooking its glorious buildings and well-dressed men and ladies, whilst in the distance Zaun continued to crumble.
But now, it was different. Because this wasn’t his Piltover. It wasn’t his Zaun. Because the Zaun he knew was dark and toxic. The Zaun he knew had caused him sickness with its noxious fumes. This Zaun was not dark or toxic, he mused as he gazed out over the balcony, which looked over the very edge of Piltover and down across the depths of the Undercity. This Zaun was bright. It had life.
“It has trees,” Viktor breathed, reaching a hand out tentatively, as though reaching out to touch one of the emerald green leaves dancing in the wind miles away from him. “And grass. And light. I lived in Zaun for many years, and could likely count on one hand how many times I saw the sun when I was down there.”
Jayce looked at him out of the corner of his eye, not with pity, but with interest. It was something that Viktor appreciated about Jayce; he never pitied him. There were many who had looked at Viktor with a deep sadness in their eyes when they saw his crutch and the way he walked. Some even stopped him in the corridor to offer their condolences, which seemed absurd given that Viktor had never known any different. They considered him pitiful - nothing more than a Zaunite success story held back by the crutch beneath his arm. Jayce never looked at him like that.
Jayce admired all of those things about him. One of the few people who saw them as his strengths, rather than his weaknesses.
“Have we - no, it can’t be. When we held onto the rune, the energy it gave off, did it bring us to another universe entirely?” Viktor asked. In his universe, his body was beyond saving. In his universe, Zaun was still struggling, and with the impending danger from the Noxians, it wasn’t exactly set to become a glowing bastion of society any time soon.
“I’m not really sure what happened, or how we got here,” Jayce sighed. “To be honest, I was certain we were going to die. Both of us. And then I woke up here, in what I can only assume is yet another alternate universe, with you right next to me and -“
“It’s impossible. By all accounts, we should have died. The power in that rune was more than enough to split us apart down to our very atoms . Our energies should have dissipated, spread across the very universe until we were nothing but -“
“A memory,” Jayce finished, tilting his head to meet Viktor’s eyes meaningfully. “You know, I didn’t even check if you really are the Viktor from my universe.”
Viktor quirked a brow. “It’s a little late now, don’t you think?”
“It’s strange. You look so different and yet - I just knew it was you.”
“We need to find out how we got here, and whether we can get back.”
“What? I mean, I agree that we should find out how we got here, but going back? What for? We disappeared in that universe, Viktor. Everything we went through and everything we did, you want to go back?”
Viktor shrugged. “A universe this nice can’t possibly have space for me.”
Jayce spun, his entire body facing Viktor now. It wasn’t often that he looked at Viktor with such a look of incredulity on his face, lips pulled back from his teeth in sheer shock. Viktor turned to face him, too, leaning his hip against the wall and levelling Jayce with a steady gaze.
“How could you possibly say that?” Jayce asked, his voice quiet in a way that made Viktor’s stomach turn.
“After everything I did, Jayce, I do not deserve a world like this. This is a world I used to dream of, one that I foolishly believed I could achieve with my Glorious Evolution. After everything I did, the countless universes that I destroyed in search of a foolish dream, I’m just supposed to accept this?"
Jayce touched Viktor’s elbow gently and took a step closer. He smelled like the sun on his skin and his strong morning coffee. Viktor swallowed at the intensity in Jayce’s eyes.
“Why can’t you? Everything that happened, happened. We fixed it, didn’t we? And now we’re here, so let’s just figure out our place in this world and live .”
Viktor cocked his head and smiled sadly at Jayce. “I wish it were that simple, Jayce, I really do. But what right do I have to live in a world as perfect as this, when the scar I left on the world before hasn’t even started to heal?”
Jayce didn’t seem to have an answer to that. He leaned forward instead, lowering his forehead to rest it on Viktor’s shoulder. Whilst neither of them had addressed what had happened in the spirit realm, it seemed that something between them had shifted. Jayce had never been one to shy away from physical contact, always ready to lend Viktor a hand (or arm) when needed, but his touches had never been this soft, this meaningful.
“You don’t need a right to live here, Viktor,” Jayce mumbled into the dip between Viktor's shoulder and his collarbone. “Just stay with me, please? Don’t leave me.”
The ‘again’ was unspoken, yet Viktor knew it had been on the tip of his tongue. How many times had Viktor left Jayce, both willingly and unwillingly? Both alive and dead? Two planets orbiting the same sun at different speeds, a centrifuge spinning at a pace so fast that it kept pulling them apart. Viktor placed a hand against the back of Jayce’s neck, feeling it beneath his palm as Jayce’s stance softened.
They probably could have stayed there for hours, if they hadn’t been interrupted by a knocking at the bedroom door. Jayce grumbled something about ignoring it, but when it persisted he gave in. He pulled away from Viktor sluggishly, trailing his fingers down Viktor’s forearm as he went. He offered to help Viktor back into the room, but the other man declined, instead opting to lower himself into one of the two chairs on the balcony. The golden light of the sun caressed his skin and turned his eyes amber. Something ethereal, that Jayce almost felt wrong for staring at.
Viktor looked at Jayce from the corner of his eye. “Go,” he said, a hint of amusement teasing the corner of his lip. “I’m hardly going anywhere right now. And though I am unfamiliar with this room, I am quite fond of the door still being attached to the hinge, so I’d rather you deal with our visitor promptly.”
Jayce hurried back into the room and pulled on a shirt, running his hands through his hair to bring it to some kind of order. In this universe, his hair was still long and his beard still grown, as though he had been teleported directly from the universe he knew. The only difference was that his leg showed no signs of having been broken; likely due to Hextech not existing in this particular universe, or so he hoped. The prosperity that Zaun seemed to be enjoying certainly suggested that, or at least an improved council focussed on equality over progress.
When Jayce opened the door, he was met by a withering look from someone he knew all too well, a relationship which had clearly been sustained in this universe, too.
“Whilst I’m glad you’re having some personal time with your wonderful partner,” Caitlyn drawled, eyes flitting over Jayce’s messy hair and untucked shirt. “I have been waiting for you for nearly an hour.”
Jayce felt the back of his neck heat up, a state which was only worsened by the snort from the balcony, and hurriedly tried to tuck his shirt into his trousers.
“Waiting for me? Where? For what?”
Caitlyn smirked, amused, leaning her hip against the doorframe. “In your lab? For the lesson we have every week?”
“Oh, of course, yes, the lesson we have every single week, that I am completely prepared for. Sorry, must’ve slipped my mind. It’s been a weird morning. Just give me five minutes to get ready and I’ll be right out.”
“Sure, I’ve already waited an hour, what’s five more minutes?” Caitlyn teased, turning to rest her back against the wall next to the door. Jayce had just started to close the door when she spoke again, mirth lacing her blue eyes. “Oh, and could you tell Viktor that his student prodigy has arrived early? I’m sure she’d appreciate it if he doesn’t arrive an hour late to their lesson.”
Jayce assured her that he would inform Viktor before closing the door gently. Viktor had already heard. He was on his feet on the balcony, attempting to make his way back inside, though the distance was way too far for him to manage without support. Jayce hurried over to him, offering his arm again and guiding Viktor to one of the sofas in the corner. He then headed over to grab Viktor’s crutch from beside the bed - their bed, his mind unhelpfully supplied - before positioning it next to Viktor’s chair.
“There’s still coffee in the pot,” Jayce offered as he fumbled with the clasps of his jacket. “And there’s some food in the cupboard over there, so don’t forget to eat something. I’ll find you as soon as I’m finished with Caitlyn. We could get some lunch and talk about… things.”
Viktor huffed a dry laugh. “Yes. A lovely light conversation over some sandwiches. Sounds delightful.”
“I’m serious. There’s a whole new world out there, we need to meet regularly to discuss our findings.”
“I don’t think we have much choice but to meet regularly, Jayce. I think you’re forgetting that in this universe, we seem to share this bedroom.”
Jayce hadn’t forgotten that. He hadn’t forgotten the way his stomach had flipped when he had woken up that morning, the first crack of dawn teasing Viktor’s features with curling tendrils of light. He hadn’t forgotten the way that Viktor’s breath had been warm against the column of his throat, or the way that Jayce’s arm had been slung so naturally over Viktor’s slight waist. He hadn’t forgotten the way that Viktor had frowned in his sleep as Jayce had extricated himself from Viktor’s unconscious grasp at his arm, mumbling a little before turning over and facing the other way.
Jayce didn’t meet Viktor’s gaze. “I suppose that’s good then. For research.”
“For research,” Viktor repeated.
When Jayce was dressed, he probably would have lingered had Caitlyn not pounded on the door again. Jayce sighed at Viktor’s amused chuckle, though was content enough to leave when he saw Viktor take a sip of coffee and nibble on the edge of a biscuit he had found in one of the cupboards. Viktor shooed him away, promising that he’d be in his lab - wherever his lab was in this academy - whenever Jayce was ready to come and find him.
By the time Jayce headed out of the door, the headache he had been fighting off had almost subsided. There were still more things that didn’t make any sense than things that did make sense, but knowing that Viktor was safe in this world that seemed almost too good to be true was enough to satisfy him for the time being.
He tried to ignore the way that Viktor’s words gnawed uncomfortably at the back of his mind.