Chapter Text
One moment they are walking into the apartment to collect the work left on the chalkboard and the next they are tending to the wounds of a young girl, trying their best to get the dirt out of her scrapes and cuts.
“You think a doctor needs to look at this?” Jayce asks his new partner.
“I… do not think that’s a good idea.”
“Because they’re minor injuries?”
“Because—” Viktor sighs. “Once they get a hold of this girl they will send her straight to prison, Jayce.”
“Oh, right.”
The girl doesn’t seem to flinch much at the mix of water and cleaning solution running over her wounds. Her legs are bruised, the cuts still bleed. “Could I—could I have some water?” She asks while pointing to the bowl standing on the table.
“Yes, yes of course.” Jayce did not have it in him to be mad at her. She was young, poor. The robbery had never been anything personal. Guarding his stuff so poorly that a few kids were able to take his valuables had been his own mistake.
“Do your parents know where you are?” Viktor asks.
She shakes her head. “No parents. He—” she almost starts to cry again.
They wait until she has taken a sip of the glass Jayce filled for her.
“Any other family members?”
“My sister, she—” tears flow down her face “—she left me.”
Viktor takes out his handkerchief and hands it to her, then he places his hand on her shoulder again. He doesn’t seem like a very physically affectionate guy to Jayce, so it warms his heart to see him try to comfort her.
“Jayce,” Viktor begins as they finish patching her up. “What are we going to do? We can’t just send her back to the Undercity.”
“She… she could rest here. I have a blanket.”
“And then?”
It’s a good question. They are scientists, not babysitters. Neither of them know how to deal with such a situation.
To both of their surprise it doesn’t take long for the girl to fall asleep. Viktor has put some more water besides her on the makeshift bed, and is now sitting on one of the chairs in the hallway.
“You can go,” Jayce explains to him. “I’ll make sure she doesn’t just take off.”
“Hmm…”
“You don’t think I can do such a simple task?”
Viktor points to the box that’s now filled with a few more of the hex crystals. “You already let her get away once.”
It was hard to argue with that. “I know, I know. But I don’t want to inconvenience you with any more of my mistakes.”
“We’re partners now, isn’t that what you said? We found her together. I’m feeling just as much responsibility as you. And… I know what it’s like to be a child from the Undercity.” He gives him a sly grin. “I’m better fit to deal with a situation like this.”
“Hey,” Jayce says, a little hurt. “Kids love me. Caitlyn thinks I’m cool.”
Viktor shakes his head. “Anyway, let’s take shifts from now until the morning.”
Jayce awakes sloped against the wall with a glass of water at his side—he must have fallen asleep while it was his turn to watch the girl. The sun already shines and some laughs and giggles are coming from the half destroyed workbench. After a good stretching of his back he finds Viktor and the girl sitting at the table.
“Ah, good morning, Jayce,” Viktor greets him. “Powder and I are almost done with this.”
In front of them lay some of Jayce’s things. Most of it got damaged in the blast. The two of them seem to be fixing one of the vintage toys.
“Powder?” Jayce asks.
The girl nods. “That’s my name.”
Ah, right. They hadn’t even asked before.
Viktor hands the toy and screwdriver over to Powder. “Now we just need to screw this on the back end and it should work.”
Powder does as such. “And then?” she asks.
“Then crank it up, and let it loose.”
Powder places the cage right up. There used to be a mechanical bird inside of there, but it had been blown to bits in the explosion. Instead Viktor and Powder seem to have replaced it with some of his antique insects.
As Powder turns the handle and the wings start to spin a smile of joy appears on her face. “This is beautiful,” she says amazed. “And we fixed it so quickly.”
She’s right, it does look pretty. The stained glass wings flutter and Viktor’s face catches some of the light—his eyes look like they are sparkling.
“Can I—can I get you two some food?” Jayce asks as he fixes his hair and wipes some of the drool off his face—he never was a pretty sleeper.
Powder’s head turns as fast as he says food. “Do you have any more of those sandwiches?”
“Sandwiches?”
“Ah, yeah.” She laughs and awkwardly bites her lip. “I ate one of those before I stole the blue crystals.”
“Of course. I can get you those.” Jayce is happy to be able to do something for her. “I’ll have to go to the store first, though. What can I get for you, Viktor?”
Jayce tries to be as fast as possible, but when he’s at the bakery he spots some cookies that he used to beg his mom for as a kid. He doesn’t know if Powder likes them, but he buys them anyway. At the cheese monger it’s no different—he realizes that he forgot what kind of cheese he put in the sandwich, so he buys a variety, together with some other stuff from other shops that he can’t help himself but buy as he passes through the market. Oh, and he doesn’t forget to buy some fruit either. His mother used to put all different kinds of fruit in his lunchbox as a kid—young ones need them to stay healthy, after all.
Once Jayce returns it’s difficult to pass through the apartment doorway with so many heavy bags… but he eventually manages.
“I’m back,” he yells. “Powder, I hope you like—”
He freezes. An unexpected person and their pet poro are standing in his apartment.
“Hello there, Jayce,” Heimerdinger greets him.
Powder is nowhere to be seen. Viktor is standing behind the professor, moving his hand underneath his chin.
“Uhm…”
“I was just visiting to pass you the keys to your new lab. Took quite a bit of work to get you a space in such a short amount of time. I thought you’d be at your mother’s place first, but I was mistaken.”
“Thank you, Professor. We appreciate it.”
“That’s it then, boys. I already gave Viktor the address. Be on your best behavior now.”
As Heimerdinger walks past him the poro sniffs one of the bags.
“Oh, something tasty in those bags? This little one loves the smell of freshly baked treats.” Heimerdinger laughs as he takes a peak inside the bags.
“Uhm, uhm.” Jayce panics. “Just uhm, some dragon cookies.”
“Dragon cookies… you’re an interesting fellow, Jayce.”
As the two leave Jayce lets out a sigh of relief.
“You can come out, Powder,” Viktor says.
“Dragon cookies?” Powder asks as she crawls out the cupboard for the second time that day.
“Yes, yes.” Jayce says excitedly. “Thought you might like them. They’re really cool.”
Viktor gives him a look that he can’t quite describe. “Maybe some proper breakfast first, hm?”
It turns out that Powder loves both sandwiches and dragon cookies. Jayce hasn’t made food for anybody but himself in a while, he forgot how much he enjoys it.
“What are those empty boxes doing there?” he finally asks Viktor once they finish breakfast.
“Shit. I forgot.” Viktor immediately covers his mouth. “I mean, oops, I forgot. Heimerdinger told me earlier that some people were coming to move the last of your stuff to the new lab. Ehm… Could I talk to you in the other room?”
As they talk Powder continues to play with some of Jayce’s trinkets.
“What are we gonna do?” he asks Viktor.
“I talked with Powder to try to get more details out of her. But… I also didn’t want to press it too hard. Whatever happened it’s… it’s a horrible situation. I believe some people from the Undercity are still looking for her. And the enforcers, they will not go easy on her either.”
“Did you ask her what she wants?”
“I think it’s up to us to make the rational decision here, Jayce.”
“Since her parents are dead, should we send her to an orphanage?”
Viktor gets offended at the suggestion. “Orphanage? A young girl from the Undercity would get treated no better than a wild dog at such a place. And there would be no one to protect her if they find her.”
“Alright sorry, just brainstorming here. Obviously I only want the best for her.”
“It’s… my apologies, Jayce. I understand.”
They both peek around the corner. Powder is still tinkering at one of the toys.
“I asked Heimerdinger some questions about the layout of the lab. I think we might be able to create a space to hide for her there, at least for the time being. My own place is way too small, and you still need to find a place, since you trashed this one—”
“Hey…”
“—but we could take turns taking care of her until we find a better option.”
It’s the second time he sees Viktor with that look in his eyes. The first time was when he asked him to continue working on hextech while standing at the edge of the balcony.
Jayce has already made up his mind about taking care of Powder in the best way that he can.
“Okay. Let’s do it.”
In the next few weeks they end up almost exposing the fact that they are hiding a child in the lab plenty of times. Once when Heimerdinger enters the storage room, Powder barely manages to hide on top of one of the shelves. Then there’s the time when Caitlyn visits and Jayce almost passes out trying to distract her. Mrs Kiramman isn’t any easier to distract either, she even complains about the smell of ‘sweetness’ a couple of times.
They both feel bad about keeping Powder locked inside all the time. She says she doesn’t mind, and that she loves the little workbench they created for her in the storage room. Mel Medarda asks about it once—why they have kids toys laying on the work table. Jayce isn’t sure if she believes him when he says it’s just a hobby of his.
Even when there are plenty of heartstopping moments—a lab isn’t the safest place for a kid after all—Jayce hasn’t been this happy in years, maybe ever. Not just because they are pursuing their dream with Hextech, but also because he feels so much joy when they’re together. Seeing Viktor explaining things to Powder feels like sitting close to a comfy fireplace. Jayce tries his best at teaching things too, although he’s not as natural at it. Most of their experiments end up making a mess of the place, but despite Powder saying how she’s disappointed that she ‘jinxed’ it every time they fail, after the comforting of a hug and some kind words she’s ready to go at it again. Jayce feels a little proud of himself every time he cheers her up, and even more proud of Powder when she picks herself up again.
It turns out that children need way more things than he originally had imagined, like new shoes and clothes for example. It’s hard buying stuff for Powder, since they can’t go to the store together. Viktor had the idea to make her people watch through the windows, so she can tell them what kind of clothes she would like to wear while pointing at the people walking by. When the both of them are shopping for her it proves to be a great idea: Viktor knows exactly what type of colors and patterns she likes. Jayce doesn’t have much of an eye for it, like when he points to an adorable dress and Viktor disappointingly scrunches his nose. “She is not five,” he tells him. “And those bows are… just no.” Jayce leaves most of the fashion related decisions to him after that.
While Powder can’t be described as a difficult child, there are a few times where he doubts if they are equipt to deal with her more… depressive states of mind. Sometimes she cries for seemingly no reason, or she starts saying things that don’t seem to make sense. Viktor tells him that it’s best to just confirm her feelings, even if they seem strange. “We can’t know what it’s like for her, what she’s really experiencing inside her head. She’s going to have to help herself with that, but… we need to be as stable for her as possible, Jayce. As caring and sympathetic as possible.” Viktor tells him. And since Viktor has probably had to deal with a lot more hardships, Jayce decides to trust his opinion on the matter.
“I brought some dragon cookies,” Jayce says as he enters the lab one morning.
“Look what I made,” Powder says as she comes running up to him. She’s holding a pin of sorts.
He takes a good look at it. “Wow, Powder. Did you make this out of the scrabs I gave you yesterday?”
She nods. “It’s for you. I also made one for Viktor.”
He looks at it a bit more closely. She must know that he loves butterflies by now, as she made such an intricate piece of jewelry out of tiny cogs and other scrap pieces.
Jayce drops his bag to give her a big hug. The broche goes right onto his vest.
“Do you like it?” She asks giggling.
“I love it, Powder.”
While Powder sleeps at Jayce’s house most times, making dinner for her never really gets old. She isn’t picky at all and gladly tries different types of dishes. The only thing she insists on is a drink in her favorite cup.
As Jayce is cutting the vegetables she comes to show him one of her drawings.
“What’s this?” he asks while pointing at the thing in the center.
“A special suit.”
“A suit?”
“For Viktor. So he can walk without pain.”
Jayce is unsure what to say at first. He hasn’t heard Viktor talk much about his condition. “He told you that he’s in pain?”
She shakes her head. “No, but I can tell. Viktor showed me a lot of cool stuff, and he is always kind when I mess up. I want to do something for him too.”
She smiles sweetly as he gives her a soft pat on her head.
“And how would the suit work?”
“Hmm… not sure. But I was brainstorming.”
He continues cooking as Powder continues brainstorming at the kitchen table. Outside there are children playing, chasing something that’s rolling downhill. While Powder is safe, she’s been sheltered for months now. She deserves to go to school, play outside, make friends. The only problem is that they aren’t sure how to make that happen.
“Could you set the table, dear?”
After he tucks her into bed later that night he mulls it over once again. They have to find a way to give Powder as normal a life as possible, so she can grow up away from violence and close to the people that care about her the most, and everything will be perfect.