Chapter Text
It was an accident when he stumbled upon the big tree in the Undercity.
He decided to go undercover, unhappy with how the hunt for Jinx was going. Steb was a medic, first and foremost. He was supposed to help and heal - not hurt, but the strike team required it of him. It was something he believed in when he volunteered to be part of it.
The Grey changed his thoughts. How could he live with himself when he drove others to such madness? How could he forgive himself? The logic behind it, that they used it so they didn’t have to kill civilians, was shaky at best. It still had lasting effects and Steb didn’t know exactly how long it took to flush out of someone’s system. What if it permanently damaged them?
One night, while the other enforcers were planning or sleeping or whatever else the trio of Maddie, Vi and Caitlin got up to, Steb snuck out. Undercover was simple if you were exceptional at pretending like you belonged somewhere, and for a vastaya fish folk in Piltover, Steb was exceedingly good at it. He donned clothing that would help him blend in – a ratty white shirt and a loose jacket, trousers with his own boots – and he went to the streets of the Lanes.
When one never speaks, people tend to forget they exist. It was easier to get around; easier to listen in to conversations. He’d caught several conversations during their brief time in the Undercity, mentions of a safe place… a secret place.
A place where people could go to simply exist.
It sounded exactly where Jinx would go if she was going to hide. Steb had no waypoint and no direction to get there, but he’d heard that one had to follow firelights, and they’d lead you.
Superstition nonsense, he’d thought originally, until one found him, the small creature landing near his foot as he leaned against a mural painted on an alley wall. Steb was waiting to hear something more from a passerby, but the bright green bug caught his attention as it fluttered into view. It landed on the ground next to him, and Steb crouched to examine it closer. It turned to face him, spread its wings several times.
The scales along his face fluttered along with the firelight’s wings.
It flew up into the air and Steb felt as though it couldn’t hurt to follow it. At worse, it would be a waste of his time. At best, he’d find what he was looking for.
He followed it, and the singular bug turned into several, which turned into what looked like hundreds as he left the Lanes behind and descended into tunnels.
It felt like he’d taken one step into a dank sewer tunnel, and one step out into air as fresh as it was on the surface. Bright lights illuminated a colossal spherical space, colors splashed upon every surface he could see. Noise echoed off every rounded surface, carrying to where he stood in the entrance of the cavern. In the center of it all was a massive tree growing, limbs and leaves reaching toward a circular opening at the top where, presumably, sunlight leaked through during the day.
Steb had to keep himself from gawking, but he only just managed it. He blinked several times to reorient himself, and then walked forward like he wasn’t witnessing an anomaly in some backwater part of the Undercity. Pretend like he belonged, and everyone else would believe it too.
Jinx. He was here to a sign of Jinx, report back to his fireteam, and then end all of this.
Paper lantern lights hung from tree limbs, and as he got closer, he could see people in the tree. They lived there, smiling in their blissful ignorance of what was happening on the surface. Steb almost envied them.
He walked to the base of the tree, no one the wiser that an imposter was in their midst. At the base were metal pipes and a rounded metal turret splashed with paint.
He lifted a hand, to touch along it, when he heard,
“The party’s up here!”
Steb looked up to someone leaning over a railing, looking directly down at him. They smiled at him, leaned over the railing more, and waved at him to come up.
This place felt less and less like they were housing an unhinged terrorist and more like he’d stumbled upon a commune. Still, he was undercover, so Steb gave them a too-stiff nod and found his way to the staircase to join the person who invited him up. With each step up, the sounds he’d heard when he entered only got louder, turning into music. Laughter could be heard, along with the clink of metal cups and utensils.
When Steb crested the top of the stairs and could finally see the gathering, it was once again hard not to gawk. Humans and vastaya of every species mingled, the party already in full swing. It looked to be someone’s birthday as there was a gift table full of presents with mismatched wrapping paper. Colorful flowers and plants dotted every surface that wasn’t taken up by a platter of food or a bowl of what Steb could only assume was the drink that made everyone so happy.
Even up here, where it was brighter and lit with countless warm lanterns, there were similar paintings like he’d seen below. Steb was drawn to the paint splashed on the metal part of the tree base, and he walked up to it, politely ignoring the fact that no one noticed him arrive.
“Who are you?”
Steb forced himself not to freeze in place, fingertips brushing along a blue square of paint before glancing over to the person who spoke.
A chirean stood nearby, head tilted inquisitively at him with thinly veiled suspicion. His eyes were an unnatural shade of green like the firelights that brought Steb here, but the rest of him was a wash of greys and blacks. A muscle shirt framed by belts of thick leather, a collar that Steb had to wonder about, and bandages wrapped along his forearms and knuckles.
It made Steb’s fingers itch with the desire to re-wrap them correctly.
Steb breathed out calmly. He turned, putting the painting and tree behind him so he could fully face the man.
He had piercings in his ears. It was somehow the most disarming part of him.
Steb pointed to the party, loathing to speak in a place full of so much undiluted oxygen. The chirean regarded him for a long moment before humming in agreement with Steb. He hoped he came off as completely harmless since he had no weapons and nothing—
“Word of mouth must be reaching the far corners of the Undercity if someone as hapless as you could stumble in here.”
Steb jolted, narrowing his own eyes at the man. Perhaps he came off as too harmless. The music felt too loud now, and the people’s unbothered ways began to grate on him.
“Who’d you steal those off of?” the man asked, and Steb had a hard time following this one-sided conversation. The scales on his face twitched in agitation as he followed the man’s eyesight down to his boots. “Enforcer issue. They look pretty new, but we’ve had our fair share of enforcers down here recently.”
Steb looked back up at the chirean, mind whirring with something he could say to cover for the fact that these supposed boots he stole fit perfectly, but he was smirking at Steb. Teasing.
“You look like you could use a drink,” the man said. “I’m buying.”
Steb knew he shouldn’t. Accepting a drink from a strange man was the first red flag, but doing so while his undercover mission was a bust? It must be the poor air quality that affected his decision making. Because, if he was being completely honest, he didn’t know when the last time he let himself enjoy something. These people didn’t know him, and he didn’t know them either.
Unless Jinx showed up, there was absolutely no downside to saying yes.
The chirean looked so smug when he noticed Steb’s posture relax just a bit, knowing he’d easily convinced Steb into staying. He tilted his head toward a table with a punch bowl, and began to walk that way, guiding Steb through the crowd of people.
Steb looked at the man in a different light now that he was here for himself. His trousers hugged his backside and his muscular thighs, which made Steb’s face warm as he caught himself staring. The man’s back was no better though, as he could see every muscle shift through his shirt when he slightly bent over to get Steb that – free – drink he was buying.
The chirean turned back toward Steb, catching his wandering gaze.
“I’m Scar,” he introduced himself as he handed a drink to Steb. Their fingers brushed in a way that made tingles shoot up his arm. He couldn’t begin to explain his actions, but his eyes dropped immediately to Scar’s lips, where a prominent scar bisected his lower lip. “Yeah, like that.”
It was with that movement, and that acceptance from Scar, that Steb had sudden clarity of what direction this night was going to go.
Steb took a drink from his cup, pleasantly surprised at the sweet flavor, and even more surprised by the intensity that Scar watched him swallow.
“How’d you find your way here?” Scar asked. He moved them a bit away from the table and leaned backwards against a metal railing, ankles crossing.
Steb stayed standing, but it was a fight for his life to not stare at Scar’s broad chest like this.
He scrunched up his nose, debating how to answer. When he decided he didn’t know how to mimic a firelight, he opened his mouth to speak.
“I know it’s hard for fish folk to speak,” Scar interrupted before Steb could utter a sound. “Don’t force yourself. Here.” He shifted a bit and from somewhere in his tight pants, pulled out a piece of chalk, gesturing to the metal wrapping around the tree trunk. Steb blinked, looking at the chalk and then up to Scar. It raised more questions about why he had it, but Steb could only suppose it was something these people did with all their murals and artwork. He took the chalk from Scar’s clawed fingers and went to the tree’s base.
Steb hesitated, feeling Scar’s eyes on him. With his drink in one hand, he drew what he remembered of the firelight with the other, and it was only after he was done it that he realized he could have simply written the word. Scar made a sound like he’d laughed through his nose at what he saw.
Steb frowned at the drawing, thinking it looked rather well done; like an anatomical drawing.
“Really? Eve started that rumor, ‘follow the firelights’ but we haven’t had anyone do it yet,” Scar got a far away look in his eyes. “On today of all days…”
Steb’s face was hot as he handed the chalk back, standing much too close to Scar now, unsure if he was being made fun of or if it was just more of Scar’s teasing. He tilted his head quizzically at the chirean. Scar focused back on him, took a drink, and then nodded at the gathering.
“This is all for her. She died on the surface, but we’re celebrating the life she had.”
Steb looked out over the party, seeing it in a new light. Everyone was smiling and happy, but he could see the underlying sadness to it now. He wanted to ask how and why and what did he mean ‘on the surface’? In Piltover or in the upper parts of Zaun? But instead, his eyes sought out the table of gifts, finding the oddity of a party for mourning to have gifts. He pointed toward it for Scar to explain.
“Gifts for our loved ones; something we’d always meant to get them. Like… something that you’d regret not getting them if you’d ended up like Eve,” Scar didn’t sound very broken up over her loss. Steb wondered if it was because he didn’t know the girl well, or if they were simply so used to death in the Undercity.
The whole thing was morbid, but something about it tugged at Steb’s heart. They were celebrating her life after she was gone, and it made him want to smile. No one in Piltover would do something like this.
Steb looked in his cup, swirled the liquid around, and glanced at Scar from the corner of his eye. He was undeniably roguish looking. He was rugged and put together all at the same time. His black hair was slicked back, but it stood up at the ends like it was styled from him running his hand through it in frustration rather than with hair product. He was handsome, painfully so.
Steb downed the rest of his drink from excitement and nerves. Scar’s attention was drawn to him, his green eyes watching closely.
The bit of liquid courage did him some good, because when he was done, Steb reached out to touch one of Scar’s hands. He was going for casual, but once he touched Scar, the chirean moved with the touch, turning his hand into Steb’s so they were entwined.
Scar put his own drink down, not bothering with it, and wrapped his other arm around Steb, pulling him close. His muscles and the way his arm went all the way around his waist made Steb feel small next to him.
“It’s a celebration of life, so why don’t we go celebrate?” Scar asked, voice low, eyes dropping to Steb’s lips. He wondered if they were shiny from the drink.
All they were waiting for was Steb’s decision. He’d already decided what his choice would be the first moment he laid eyes on the man, but he led Scar on longer, just because he could.
Scar’s arm tightened around him, and Steb nodded, tentatively placing his hands on Scar’s chest.
Scar grinned, wolfish, and pushed off the railing. He didn’t let Steb go as he whisked him away from the party and around the tree trunk, barely hidden.
Scar wasn’t taller than him, but as Steb’s back hit the surface behind him, he felt like he had to look up at Scar.
Where Steb was compact, lean muscle, toned by enforcer medic training, Scar was burly and wide. His forearm pressed against the wall near Steb’s head as Scar leaned into his personal space. Steb’s lips parted by the forwardness of Scar, a little scared but a lot more appreciative of skipping the entire song and dance of will-they-or-won’t-they.
Behind Scar was dark night, peppered by light and fresh air churned out by the massive, impossible tree deep in the Undercity. That tree felt like a new beginning; a twisted intertwining of above and below.
It felt like them, if Steb wanted to be poetic about it.
His heart pounded in his chest. The reactive scales along his cheeks flexed and contracted. Scar’s eyes dropped down to them. He lifted the hand not currently caging Steb in and brushed a knuckle along one.
It sent lightning jolting through Steb.
“Nervous?” Scar asked. When he spoke, the scar on his lip tugged at his skin. Steb raised his eyes to meet Scar’s.
A shake of the head. No.
Scar smiled then, something wicked with pointed teeth.
“Excited, then.”
It wasn’t a question, which was just as damning as if Steb had to answer.
Scar’s eyes roamed from Steb’s blue eyes down to his lips, then further down to where the collar of his shirt began. It felt like he was being undressed with a single look.
“You’re a pretty one, aren’t you?” Scar mumbled, almost to himself. Still, it made Steb’s body flush with warmth.
Green eyes back up to his own, and Steb was almost relieved when their first kiss wasn’t a soft, gentle thing. Scar kissed him like a man starved, and Steb found himself just as hungry at the first press of his lips.
Steb was exotic topside, which made him desirable, so he wasn’t inexperienced by any means, but the way Scar kissed him… it stole his breath away and made it impossible to catch it again.
A press of lips, an intoxicating guiding to open his mouth, a sturdy press of a hard body against his. Steb lifted his hands to grab ahold of the front of Scar’s top. All those belts and buckles made for a perfect lifeline.
Steb felt the smirk spread on Scar’s lips through the kiss and he retaliated by nipping at his lower lip. His plush, warm lip that was causing heat to blossom in his core.
“I like a biter,” Scar rumbled, which only served to make Steb feel insane. Steb gasped, the smallest of noises escaping from him. It scratched at his throat, but Scar ducked down lower to press his lips against the column of his neck, soothing the ache. A clawed hand threaded its way into Steb’s hair, and the tips of Scar’s nails scratched at his scalp.
It was nice – too nice for something like this – but Steb melted into the way Scar held him. His big body encompassed him, fiery with the way Scar was everywhere.
Steb lifted both hands to cup Scar’s face, pulling him away from his sensitive neck. Scar looked up at him, pupils blown wide with his desire. His desire for him, not just because he was a novelty. Steb rocked his hips forward, Scar’s hips flush with his own. His face heated up when he felt Scar’s hard length against him.
With Scar’s hand still in his hair, it gripped as Scar placed an open-mouthed kiss on his lips, one that was easily returned. Scar’s hips rolled forward, drawing a broken sound from Steb. A noise swallowed by Scar’s kiss.
“More,” it was little more than a whisper from Steb, but he felt like he may lose it if all they did was dry hump in a dark corner just barely far enough away from the party for comfort.
“My place,” Scar agreed immediately. He pulled away, took Steb’s hand and pulled him along, back down the stairs and off to a place Steb missed when he’d walked in the first time. Scar artfully dodged anyone that may see their disheveled and completely inappropriate state.
Between the sewer tunnel openings that dotted the metal curvature of the chamber were what looked like store fronts and pop ups and small houses.
Nearby where Steb came wandering in was a painted archway, spiraling and grand and Steb briefly wondered if he was really a good enforcer if he missed all this the first time. They walked through, and Steb immediately noticed small toys littered about the room. Pink and yellows and small bow ties to indicate a younger sister? A daughter?
Scar pulled roughly on Steb’s hands, jolting him out of his musings.
“She’s at the party with friends,” Scar poorly explained before picking up where they left off. Their fingers intertwined; his other hand wrapped around the back of Steb’s neck to draw him in for another kiss. They stumbled through the main room, Steb’s eyes closed so he forced himself to miss the rest of the small house in favor of kissing Scar unreservedly.
Scar walked backwards through the small house, pulling Steb along. Their toes bumped into each other, their boots knocking while their focus was on each other. Steb pulled at Scar’s shirt, untucking it from his far too tight trousers. He slipped his hands under the shirt, touching Scar’s hard abdomen skin on skin.
He pushed his hands up, further and further until the shirt was rucked up and he had a handful of Scar’s pecs. Scar groaned, a hand grabbing at Steb’s waist, making him feel impossibly small in his grip. Scar spun them around, and very lightly pushed Steb backwards.
Vertigo struck as his world tilted, but a surprised laugh escaped from him when he bounced on a slightly lumpy mattress. Scar looked enamored for a moment, looking down on him from where he stood at the edge of the bed. Steb chewed on his kiss bruised bottom lip for a moment, before slowly spreading his legs.
It served to wipe that fond look from Scar’s face, replacing it once more with the fire that went along with finding pleasure in a stranger for a night.
It was easy for Scar to unbuckle Steb’s pants and yank them off him. They got tangled on one boot, and both decided to leave his pants there, too rushed now. It was even easier for Scar to do the same to himself, eyes locked on Steb as he stepped out of his own pants.
Facing each other felt too intimate for Steb, so he put on a smirk and rolled over, his hips on the edge of the bed. It was the friction he needed and it made Scar groan out profanities as Steb’s backside was presented to him. A warm hand touched a globe of Steb’s ass, almost reverent, before a sharp slap had Steb rutting into the mattress.
“Next time, sweet thing, I’ll have these filed down and finger you until you cry,” Scar told him, the most profane he’d been yet. Steb felt a sharp claw tap along his ass before Scar’s touch disappeared entirely from him.
The prospect of next time made him feel lightheaded. The lack of touch nearly made tears spring into his eyes like Scar spoke it into existence, which forced him to speak again.
“Scar,” Steb sighed, his voice a rolling lilt. “Hurry up.”
Truly, Steb felt like Scar was hardly treating this like the one night stand it was supposed to be. They were half dressed still, and yet Scar was taking his time. Steb wanted to forget about everything that was waiting for him when he left, and he had a strong feeling that if he could simply be fucked senseless by Scar, then this would be a success.
A foot nudged at the outsides of Steb’s own feet, pushing his legs together to push his ass even further up in the air. Steb’s heart jolted in his chest, a moan bitten off as the friction of the bed made pleasure roil through him. Scar leaned over his body, his hard length nestled in the crevice between his cheeks. It felt big and hard and Steb’s mind went wild at the thought that this was about to happen
Scar pressed a kiss to the back of Steb’s neck, alongside the gently spiky frill along his spine.
He pulled back, his hot arousal going with him, and Steb braced himself, hands bunching up the fabric of the bed sheets under him. The tip touched him again, and then the wet length of Scar pushed between his thighs, wasting no time in setting a rough pace.
It surprised him that Scar would choose that, of all things, but the realization that he’d had no prep hit him like a truck, and he felt an unreasonable amount of affection for the consideration. Scar’s hands gripped his hips hard; his low, rumbling moans could be felt where they were connected.
Scar’s cock rubbed against Steb, ratcheting his pleasure up to insurmountable heights. Scar was moaning a litany of curse words and praises for how tight it was, how soft Steb’s thighs were; any number of things that made Steb want to preen. It made a lazy smile spread over his face as the sound of skin slapping against skin echoed in the small space.
Steb glanced over his shoulder at Scar. The chirean’s lips were parted, his chest heaving with his hard breathing, and his eyes roved all over Steb’s body in a way that made him wish they’d taken the extra time to remove both their shirts. Scar’s thumbs dug into the divots at the small of his back, making Steb moan from the possessiveness of it all.
He shifted, releasing the bedsheets with one hand to snake it under his body and down between his legs. He watched Scar as he wrapped his hand around both of them to drive them both wilder. Steb gasped, and Scar squeezed his eyes shut from the additional pressure. He tilted his head back, hands bruising, and said,
“Just like that—I’m so close.”
Steb couldn’t help himself as he pushed backwards against Scar as if he were taking him inside his body this time. Scar leaned forward, only slightly; only enough for Steb to feel like he was safe and secure. The pleasure that’d been coiling in his abdomen, building and building, found its peak. His back arched with his release, hand wrapped around them wet and sloppy.
Steb’s pleasure had Scar following close behind, making Steb even messier between the two of them. It was an exhilarating moment to tumble off the edge of the cliff together, and Steb felt loose limbed as he avoided the mess they made on the bed and flopped to the side of it with a content sigh.
Scar toppled over next to Steb, on his back on the other side of their mess, a huff of air forced from his lungs with the movement. Steb turned his head to look at him.
Scar looked back at him, a smug smile on his lips.
“You thought I was going to wreck your pretty little body, didn’t you?” Scar asked, making Steb roll his eyes. He’d wanted it during the heat of it all, but he wasn’t going to admit it. Scar lowered a hand to cup himself and raised his eyebrows lewdly at Steb. “You couldn’t take this without some prep.”
Steb’s mouth fell open before he shoved at Scar’s shoulder. Scar was insufferably smug as Steb rolled over and sat up, feeling an ache at the small of his back from their activities. He raised his arms over his head, stretching out the ache with a satisfied hum. He could almost imagine staying here with Scar overnight, curled up on the bed together. Scar talking to him and eventually, they’d explore each other’s bodies in depth.
It was nice. Too nice for an enforcer in the Undercity, he thought.
A crash from the main room had both of them alert. Scar sat up abruptly and Steb stood, almost tripping over his pants tangled around one leg. He sucked at his teeth and struggled with getting himself righted.
Another crash, followed by a high-pitched laugh had Steb looking to Scar in a confusion, only to see the man was already fully dressed and only looking a little like he’d just rocked Steb’s world. Scar glanced at him, closing the distance between them to run his hand through Steb’s hair in an attempt to fix it, then he ran his thumb along the reactive scales along Steb’s cheek in a caress.
Small footsteps echoed, and Scar moved into action, striding out of the bedroom and back into the main room where a tiny shriek sounded. Steb nearly ran into the main room after Scar, only to see a miniature version of the man already picked up into Scar’s arms.
Steb blinked, trying to reset his mindset from intruder to small child.
“Fish!” she shrieked and pointed at Steb. Scar laughed.
“Fish folk,” Scar corrected. “Daddy’s friend.”
Steb couldn’t do the mental gymnastics to categorize this as a casual one night stand now that he was meeting Scar’s daughter. It opened up an entirely unpleasant train of thought about what happened to her mother, which was swiftly followed up Scar’s voice telling him that they’d seen more enforcers than usual in the Undercity.
He swallowed, throat painfully dry, the scales under his eyes shifting in agitation.
“Did you have fun at the party?” Scar continued to talk to her. He didn’t wait for her to answer, or perhaps she was too young for full sentences and all she knew how to say was ‘fish’. “We’re going next door to ask if you can have a slumber party tonight.” The little girl threw her hands up in excitement and leaned backwards in Scar’s arms, trusting completely that he wouldn’t drop her as she flailed in joy.
Scar met Steb’s eyes and silently communicated that he’d be right back, even as he spoke to his daughter the entire time about the party and how many sweets she ate. As Scar walked out the front door with his daughter perched on his arm, Steb made the regrettable decision to not be there by the time he got back.
After all this, he didn’t plan on coming back to the Undercity anyway.