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Jayce and Victors lives were forever changed many times in multiple ways after Jayce’s lab blew up. He was almost exiled, Viktor saved his life, and most unexpectedly, they adopted a kid.
It was an early weekend morning with Piltover’s sun shining down on them and they were still heading into work like they did every weekend, though neither of them minded it much. They were both far too excited about their work to spend more than a night's rest away from the lab. They had met at the halfway point between their two apartments (that would not remain separate for much longer) and Viktor had already started frantically showing Jayce his notes, random scribbles of what had come to him the night before at home, his mind never stilling for long enough for him to go anywhere without a notebook in hand. His name was written only once on the inside of the cover, and he had not, as he loved to point out to Jayce, write his name on every page.
They had both been almost entirely absorbed in their discussion until they heard murmurs from somewhere down an alley across from them. They exchanged glances before creeping forwards towards the noise, Viktor cursed as his cane knocked against some of the empty bottles that scattered the ground. They both froze when a head of blue hair lunged at them.
The previous murmuring turned into a shriek then and Viktor took a stumbling step back when small hands wrapped around his leg and he found his cane being pulled away from him. Jayce appeared at his side barely a second later and tried to pull the child off of him but she moved to wrap her arms around Viktors waist and they all went still again. Jayce and Viktor exchanged very confused glances.
“Are you alright?” Viktor asked cautiously, the blue haired girl didn’t even look up. “Can you tell us your name?” He tried again to no avail.
“What do we do?” Jayce asked in a terse whisper with wide eyes, it wasn’t everyday you got tackled by a mysterious child in an alley. “Who even are the proper authorities for this?”
“We’ll take her back to one of our apartments.” Viktor stated.
Jayce’s eyes managed to open even wider. “What? Shouldn’t we be looking for her parents?”
“Jayce, she’s clearly from the undercity, she’s alone and she wandered all the way up here by herself.” Viktor said with a pointed look.
Jayce, contrary to popular belief and most evidence, was not stupid. He could put together the pieces. There weren’t any parents to take her back to, and if she was this distressed, she probably wouldn’t be safe in the undercity. They stared at each other again, Viktor’s pointed stare boring into Jayce until he finally relented with a sigh.
“I think Mel will kill us if we’re late to work.” Jayce moved onto their next issue. “She expects a report and presentation next week.”
“Then we’ll just have to take her with us.”
“Mel is definitely going to kill us.”
“Perhaps.” Viktor glanced down at the girl. “But ehh, how are we going to get her there.”
Jayce carefully shifted her away from Viktor before slowly raising her to be carried and was entirely shocked when it worked. They slowly moved to head to the lab before freezing once again when the girl spoke.
“Jinx.” She uttered through a sob.
Neither one of them could think of a single reason the girl would be talking about jinxes just exchanged yet another confused glance before starting off to the lab again. Jayce was still convinced that they should give the girl to the proper authorities, but he knew that look in Viktor’s eye and knew that there was no way they were going to be leaving the poor girl. Viktor was deep in thought the whole way, and for once Jayce wasn’t convinced that it was about their work.
“Do you know another way into the lab? Because people are going to ask questions if I walk in with a kid.”
“Would that be so bad? I can imagine fatherhood would be a good look for you.” Viktor said with a smirk while Jayce glared at him. “Of course I know another way in.”
Jayce tried to hide his shock as Viktor easily led them into another alley, into a janitor's entrance, through some hidden hallway, into another closet, and somehow into their lab without running into a single prying councilor. Jayce stared at him in disbelief.
“How do you think I conducted research as an assistant?”
Jayce just shook his head and found one of their more comfortable chairs to deposit the girl into. When he turned around Viktor had procured a sandwich and gently placed it onto the table next to the girl. They made eye contact for about one second and when they looked back down the sandwich was half shoved into her mouth and she stared at them with the biggest, saddest blue eyes he had ever seen. They both noted the tear tracks made through the dirt on her face and the general terror of her demeanor.
“What’s your name?” Viktor tried again.
“Jinx.”
“I don’t think your parents named you Jinx, what did they call you?”
“Powder.”
“Well Powder, I’m Viktor and this is my partner Jayce. We’re in our lab where we work.”
Powder looked around the room for the first time and promptly got up and started looking at their blueprints and taking their gears. Jayce was just glad that she was entertained and he wouldn’t have to find a way to occupy a child while they worked.
“We’re keeping her.” Viktor stated as he turned around to get back to their own work.
“WHAT.”
“You heard me Jayce. She reminds me of myself when I was young, we can’t just leave her. I suspect she has some problems that won’t be handled so well by any Piltover institution we could possibly find to hand her over to. We’re keeping her.”
“WE? No, nope. I’m not qualified for this. I don’t know how to take care of a child. What do we feed it? When does it sleep? Our sleep schedules are not a good reference. How do we talk to it?”
“Jayce, she’s only a couple years younger than Caitlyn, it can’t possibly be that hard to-”
Viktor was cut off by an explosion from behind them. They both whipped their heads around to see Powder sitting on the ground staring in amazement at the remains of her bomb. The child they were apparently just adopting knew how to make bombs.
“Oh my god.” Jayce whispered as he ran a tired hand down his face.
“Remarkable.” Viktor whispered.
“WHAT?”
They watched from the other side of the room as Powder quickly assembled another bomb with the materials of their bins of various supplies. She found their gunpowder far too easily and handled it far too carelessly for Jayce’s comfort and just a couple minutes later they watched her set off another explosion. Viktor was entirely in awe of the child and his fingers twitched towards his notes.
“We have to keep her now, she’s incredibly talented.” Viktor said as he looked up to him with a grin on his face.
And with Viktor looking at him like that, who was he to say no.
Just a week after that they moved in together. Leaving Powder in their respective apartments and not being able to give her one steady home was weird enough for everyone that they both relented. The second they had done their presentation, they took a week off to move in. Powder still didn’t talk much, but she had gotten comfortable enough to frequently ask them for food, say their names, and ask about their projects. They still hadn’t shown her the crystals since they were still a bit classified, but since she lived with them it was only a matter of time before she caught on.
She had proven to be absurdly smart and had a knack for making bombs out of just about anything and Viktor found it fascinating. Jayce was terrified and had three nightmares that week of being blown up in his sleep. He was trying very hard to find her other things to become an obsessive inventor over. She had grown on him though, and he had to be grateful to her for giving him an excuse to spend more time with Viktor and forcing them even closer together. It meant he got to see more of Viktor’s glorious smiles and learn even more about him, he had no complaints. He was also pretty sure that they had accidentally discovered a genius. When they went back to work they decided to take her with them again.
“This is our big project.” Viktor announced to her. “We’re experimenting with controlling and stabilizing magic.”
They had not anticipated her reaction to the bright blue crystals they showed her. They expected wonder to fill her eyes and for her to pick up to examine in the light. Jayce had been fully prepared to stop her from making a bomb out of it. Instead, she stared in terror before running away to the far side of the room and banging her head against the wall before screaming again and heading back to her shaky mutterings of “jinx”. Viktor looked terrified at the outburst and it was clear that this was a situation that neither of them knew how to handle.
“Jayce, what does one do in this situation? I hardly remember my parents so I don’t know what they would have done-”
“Wow, pulling the parentless card right now? You watched me try to jump like a month ago so I don’t know what makes you think I’m stable enough for this.”
“Well this isn’t even my first language, so why would I know what words to use for this?”
They were severely underqualified. There was one person Jayce knew who was incredibly good at talking to people, someone who’s whole job was talking to people.
“You want to tell Mel about this?” Viktor whisper yelled at him.
“She’s really good at talking to people, and we are… not.”
They both looked helplessly at the girl as she rocked back and forth on the other side of the room as she muttered to herself and rocked back and forth on the chair they had first set her in. They had both underestimated the challenges of adopting a traumatized orphan.
Mel was very confused to find a child in the lab after Jayce had frantically dragged her down from her office. Unfortunately neither one of them seemed inclined to give her any simple answers so she let out an exasperated sigh and asked them what they needed from her.
“We just need you to talk to her.” Jayce said. “She freaked out when we showed her the crystals and we didn't know what to do.”
“And who is she?”
“Don’t worry about it.” Jayce and Viktor said in unison.
She rolled her eyes at them and decided not to question her shenanigans. And to think that they were supposed to be the geniuses that would redefine and change the city. She forgot that them being stupid enough to mould would also mean that they would be stupid. She carefully moved over to the little girl that didn’t seem to so much as notice her presence until she had gently placed a hand on her wrist. Big blue scared eyes stared up at her and suddenly she was back in that memory of her mother killing an innocent girl.
“What’s wrong, little one?” She asked softly.
“They shouldn’t have those.” She whispered. “Jinx.”
“You’ve seen those before?”
The girl nodded. “They’re dangerous. My sister said to stay away and she was right.”
She heard Jayce curse from behind her and could tell that he was putting some pieces together that she hadn’t yet. How could she have possibly seen something so new before, and if she had a sister, why was she here? Viktor and Jayce were not smart enough to orchestrate a kidnapping, so she was thoroughly confused.
“Well, they’re not being used for weapons. Jayce and Viktor are using them to help people, to make all our lives easier and more prosperous. I’m sure your sister could get behind that idea.”
The girl eyed them all suspiciously before nodding and walking back over to the other side of the lab and flipping through the boys’ notes. They looked very relieved and offered her gracious thanks as she left with a curt nod.
Once Powder knew that she could trust their technology, she started to help with it and talk to them more as she joined them in their work. She caught on amazingly quickly and was able to joke with them in the lab as they all worked. She was beyond content to tinker with their bits and pieces of tech and play around with formulas. She couldn’t think in chairs for whatever reason, and she would often climb up to sit on top of their thankfully heavy grade shelves and cabinets to think and would give commentary from above them.
A few months later she still hadn’t revealed much about her life before they found her, and all that they had managed to gather was that she had a sister, dead or alive they didn’t know, and she would occasionally mention that “Little Man” would have enjoyed their work. It was these comments that led them to realize that they probably needed to let Powder socialize a bit and that developing children probably weren’t supposed to live isolated in a lab. They needed to give her a friend or something. Luckily, Jayce happened to know a certain Kiramman around her age.
The next week they invited Caitlyn to the lab. Her mother was glad that her daughter wouldn’t be spending her time isolated either for the first time in months and Jayce regretted how little he had visited lately.
“I have someone for you to meet.” He said nervously.
“Is this your way of telling me that you and Viktor are finally together, he’s all you’ve talked about every time you’ve visited recently.” Caitlyn teased. “I would love to meet your boyfriend.”
“Not my boyfriend and not who you’re here to meet.”
“Didn’t you two move in together recently?”
“Shut up.”
“Ooohh, you’re blushing.”
He rolled his eyes and angrily shouldered his way into the lab where Viktor was laser focused on their latest project and Powder sat atop the cabinets staring at her notes. Caitlyn had gone over to greet Viktor but froze in her tracks when she saw Powder and they both sat in a bit of a stare off for a moment.
“Who are you?” She questioned.
“Powder, mad scientist and genius, you?”
“Caitlyn Kiramman.”
They both stared at each other again even Viktor could tell that there was a chance that they would not be friends. Unfortunately for both of them, they were probably going to have to spend some time together for the next few years. Caitlyn went over to greet Viktor and started to help out around the lab just as she used to when the Kirammans were his patrons. They didn’t interact again until Powder hopped down for her hands on work and Caitlyn moved to asking polite questions about their work. Once Powder got the opportunity to start explaining she didn’t shut up and Caitlyn listened carefully as they spoke.
“I didn’t think they would get along.” Viktor said as he moved over to stand next to Jayce as they watched the two.
“Me neither, they scared me for a second.” He replied as he draped an arm over Viktor’s shoulders.
No wonder Caitlyn thought they were dating. They soon got back to work and let the two girls talk and they were getting along fairly well until Powder started showing off and decided to show Caitlyn how to make a small bomb that Jayce had to yell at her to deactivate. At least she knew how to not blow them all up. There was only one time that Jayce got nervous about them not getting along.
“My sister is your age.” Powder said and Jayce and Viktor both froze over their work. “She would hate you, I think she’d try and get you to fight her.”
“I could take her. My mother says I’m a good fighter.”
Powder let out one of the most genuine laughs they had ever heard from her. “No, you most definitely couldn’t. My sister is the type of person who one punch KOs a full grown man.”
Caitlyn scoffed. “Well where is your sister, perhaps I’ll surprise you.”
“I don’t know where she is.” Powder confessed, and Caitlyn thankfully could read the room well enough to instantly change the topic.
Over the next several years people started to find out about Powder, and they stopped hiding the blue haired genius in their midst. Heimerdinger loved Powder and found her conversations to be thrilling. Mel never quite understood what Powder was doing in their lives, but she never had anything against the child. The years flew by and soon enough no one questioned that Jayce and Viktor happened to be raising a random child. She was a talented inventor, and when she found out about Viktor’s disease, she went into a frenzy to find a cure. Viktor vehemently forbade the use of hextech for it, but Powder found a way anyhow, the symptoms lessened, and Viktor’s life was prolonged.
Jayce and Viktor finally figured out what exactly was going on with their relationship and decided to just not question it, allowing partners to formally apply to all aspects of their lives. It was a lot easier with a kid to hold them together, and the thought of Viktors imminent demise no longer lingering over their shoulder and breathing down their necks. They worked a lot, their sleep schedules practically nonexistent, but they were happy.
Powder had days where she seemed to get flashbacks around every corner and she would lock herself in her room and only her screams would echo through the door. They still didn’t know exactly what had happened, but they had gotten a few more pieces. They had heard about a Mylo and Claggor, a Vander as well. Jayce recognized him as a sort of Zaun representative from several years prior that must have raised Powder in some way. The big player however was her sister. They never got a name for this sister, but most of the hard days had to do with the world jinx and most sad topics with a sister. They didn’t get a solid answer until seven years after they had taken her in.
There had just been some sort of attempted infiltration of shimmer but Caitlyn had found a way to stop it just in time, using her job to the fullest of course. She had apprehended a prisoner one day and left for a good ole interrogation just to find out that another inmate had killed her lead to the source of shimmer. She stormed to the other prisoner's cell, some pink haired girl with an attitude, a stupid tattoo of the number six on her face, and no records of why she was supposed to be in there. The conversation had led to nothing, and she left fuming. She headed over to Jayce and Viktor’s lab to rant afterwards and slammed the door behind her.
“Well well well, what has angered madame Kiramman today.” Powder greeted from where she hung from the cabinets.
“Remember when I said that I had apprehended a prisoner to interrogate?” Everyone in the room nodded. “Well, some other prisoner beat mine up and broke his jaw so I’ve lost my lead.”
“Who was it?” Powder asked. “Brooding villain? Mysterious witch? Mad scientist?”
“Some angry pink haired girl.”
Powder froze. “What did she look like?” She asked quietly.
“Angry, short pink hair, lots of tattoos. One was a six in roman numerals which is just stupid.”
“A six or Vi?”
Caitlyn thought for a moment. “I guess it could say Vi but they kind of look the same. Wait, why?”
It was too late, Powder was already down from her cabinet, pigtails trailing behind her as she bolted towards the exit. Caitlyn stuttered behind her and turned to Jayce helplessly. He shrugged and handed her a very formal looking piece of paper with his signature on it. A prison release form.
“If it’s who she thinks it is.” Jayce said as an explanation.
Benefits of your guardian being a counselor she supposed, though she really couldn’t be talking. They were at stillwater faster than she had ever gotten anywhere in her life and she had to stop to catch her breath at the gate. Powder was dragging her along by the elbow before she froze and dropped to a squat, hands over her ears.
“What is it?” Caitlyn asked.
“What if it’s not even her? What if she doesn’t want to see me? We didn’t exactly end on good terms.” She said with a sad chuckle.
“Your sister?” Caitlyn put the pieces together and Powder nodded. “If she’s your sister she has to be happy to see you.” She pushed down her horror as to how that was Powder’s sister.
Next thing she knew, Powder was up again and she was getting them past security as they headed towards the cell. Jayce’s signature worked wonders on the guards. Powder broke into a run at one point that Cait could not keep up with. She knew they had made it when Powder completely froze.
“Vi?” She heard Powder ask.
There was a banging of the bars as Vi twisted to grab them. “Powder?”
She had to turn away at the sister’s reunion as she was most definitely intruding. There were tears and hugging through the bars and explanations and at one point Vi turned to look down the corridor and saw her watching carefully. She thought she was about to get screamed at, but Vi just stared at her for a moment before giving her a small smile and a whispered “Thanks Cupcake” She felt her heart flutter at the words and decided that it was simply because the sibling moment was too sweet to handle. She turned and headed back up the stairs to give the warden the release forms and got the pleasure of seeing Powder walkout with her absurdly hot sister into the daylight again.
Jayce and Viktor were delighted to finally meet Vi and see Powder’s family coming back together again, though they supposed they had become part of that family long ago just as they had become each other’s family.
“I think we might have actually been qualified.” Jayce said from where they were leaning together on one of the couches they had moved into the lab.
“We did a good job.” Viktor said with a sweet smile on his face.
Their family had evolved gloriously and it was something that Viktor had never thought he’d get to see. He had never anticipated the affection that would hold them together. He never expected to have a partner outside the lab, he never expected a family to laugh with, he hadn’t even expected to live past thirty, but he was so glad he had. He was so glad that he had insisted they take Powder home that one fateful day that felt so far away. From where they sat in established comfort watching Powder be the happiest they had ever seen her, the shadows finally gone from her eyes, he thought they could have sat there forever. No matter what Powder decided she wanted to do from here, they would support her, and she would always be a part of their family, even if she didn’t need them anymore.
Powder walked over to them from where they sat on the couch and pulled them both into a surprisingly tight hug. “I love you guys, thank you.”