Chapter Text
A light frown creases Viktor’s brow as he scribbles.
After pleasantries were exchanged and your mug refilled, you decided to trust the second wind you felt approaching and rehashed your story all over again for Viktor. He looked bright and energised - unlike the rest of you - full of small flourishes in a tasteful, wine red waistcoat and pants. Silco pulled out the third and final dining chair for him and he rolled up his shirt sleeves to the elbows and settled down opposite you to listen.
Approximately 30 seconds after you had begun, Viktor’s golden eyes had widened. He held up a hand to pause you, turning to Sevika and requesting a pen and paper, and had been writing non-stop ever since, interrupting your narrative to ask copious questions.
Benzo had fallen asleep, but everyone else had stayed sharp to listen as you unravelled more details the second time around to Viktor’s nodding crown and the meditative scratch of ink on paper. It feels like there is a gentle hum of energy in the room; despite the mixed nature of the tidings you brought to the group tonight, the sense of helplessness has disbanded - leaving only the quiet but intense possibility of what could be.
Over Benzo’s soft snores, you begin to round off your tale again. Viktor holds up a hand to pause you again, and you watch him scratch the edge of his angular jaw meditatively as he frowns.
“It’s curious, Pip,” he muses, “that the way you describe your experiences while your consciousness was ‘borrowed’ as you said, is primarily through feeling - hearing and seeing seem to be playing a secondary role.” He pauses, his eyes sparkling again. “What would you say the direct experience of interacting with the Arcane felt like?”
You take a deep breath. “Um… strange. And yet natural. Out of my depth, but I was held. Humoured but without condescension. Separate and yet symbiotically understood.” You pause and think a little more. “Like brushing my fingers against velvet, but in four dimensions. Like I was the velvet but could feel the velvet at the same time.”
Viktor’s eyebrows raise. “Fascinating.” He murmurs quietly, continuing with his notes. “And you can’t feel it any more?”
“No.” You shrug. “After it pulled me up and away from Sevika’s house…”
A soft grunt of annoyance rumbled from Sevika, still pressed against your side. You wrestle back a smile and squeeze her fingers, still laced with your own.
“… it took me to Zaun and…” You root around for the word. “Detached itself, I guess.”
Viktor seems to sigh with a light shake of the head. “This seems most unusual. From what I know of the Arcane, it does not have a will of its own. It reflects and magnifies the will of the caster.”
The room is quiet. You know Franca has told you this before. In fact, you’ve heard it many times - from her, from your family, from your tutors when you were growing up… but you know there’s something more going on.
“Look,” you start, “I’m aware of that. I’ve always heard and accepted the same thing. I’ve been around magic all my life up until I left Ionia, but I promise you, Viktor…” You take a deep breath. “I have never felt anything like this. It’s possible that there is another caster involved - but whatever this force was, it referred to themselves in the plural.”
“Oh?” Viktor’s eyebrows raise and he looks directly at you as he rests his pen on his paper for a moment.
You bite your lip. So far, you have avoided telling him that you also searched for him with the Arcane’s help. Unsure, you glance over at Franca, who nods incrementally, then at Sevika.
“Tell him, Pip.” She says quietly with a shrug and a half-smile. “It’s no weirder than anything else we’ve heard tonight.”
You hear Vander’s agreeing chuckle from the other corner of the sofa and turn back to Viktor. “Okay, well…”
Viktor blinks, curiosity outweighing what might perhaps be a growing sense of apprehension.
“Viktor - positing for now that the Arcane was sentient when I encountered it,” you take a pause and meet his gaze. “I asked it about you. I asked it to find you in Powder’s world just like the others.”
“Oh!” Viktor softly exclaims with a smile. “Hmmm. Was I dead?”
A rattle of surprised laughter echoes around the circle. Benzo snorts and snuffles in his sleep.
“Why would you ask that?” Ekko looks almost alarmed.
“It would make sense in a world like the one Pip has described.” Viktor shrugs nonchalantly. “I have worked to recover from my childhood conditions for many years, but if they had gone unchecked into adulthood then statistically they would have taken my life early.”
“Oh.” You feel thrown by Viktor’s stoicism towards the topic of his own mortality, but you make a bid to shake it off. “I mean… no, you didn’t seem to be dead. The answer given was… ambiguous.”
Viktor gives you a hard stare as he considers this. “How so?”
You puff out an exhale through your lips. “You want me to tell you verbatim?”
He nods slowly. “As best you can, Pip, yes.”
You close your eyes, reaching back to the blend of feelings, ideas and words that merged together to form your communication with the Arcane in that moment. “I could feel you were both present and not present in that world. It’s difficult to explain, but it was neither a solid presence nor an absence like the others, so I brought this back to the Arcane in the spirit of enquiry - asking what it meant. The first response that I felt was something like ‘Viktor is bigger’.”
Viktor’s eyebrows raise. “‘Bigger?’”
“Yes,” you continue carefully, “But then it offered further explanation, which seemed to be somehow clearer. It said: ‘Viktor is with us’.”
Viktor’s brows seem to reach harder for his hairline. “‘With us’.”
A statement, not a question, but you confirm it anyway. “Yes. ‘With us’.”
Viktor looks dazed. His gaze hits the middle distance again in the quiet room. “You’re sure?”
“Of course.” You manage to hold back some of the edge of tiredness to your voice. You feel like you’ve been asked that question too many times this evening already, and yet you understand why.
Sevika catches it, however, glancing protectively down at you and then out to the rest assembled in the room, her jaw firmly set. “Okay, everyone, she’s done.”
You see an appreciative smile flicker across Franca’s face as she nods decisively. “Agreed. Pip needs rest. She’s already been up longer than she should.”
“Ah. Yes.” Viktor seems to drop back into the present, smoothing down his shirt and gathering his notebook into his satchel. “Thank you for your time, Pip. We shall circle back to these conversations when you are better recovered, I think.”
You blink…
Oh.
But you’re secretly relieved. Before you know it, Sevika has looped your arm around her neck and is scooping her hand behind your knees to lift you from the sofa, blankets and all. She carries you towards the hallway and you peer helplessly over her shoulder to give a wave to your friends.
“Um… catch you all later, I guess!” You call behind you to a ripple of laughter among the group and a cacophony of adieus. You tuck your face against Sevika’s neck, and you swear you can feel her smiling as she walks you back into the bedroom.
Lowering you to the bed, you allow your hands to unwind unwillingly from around her, and she senses your hesitation as she catches your eye. Your feelings swirl inside you, mixed as they are amidst a surge of affection. You swallow down the lump in your throat as she grazes her lips briefly against yours, breathing in deeply, her expression softening.
“Give me ten minutes to get rid of everybody and I’ll be back.” She almost whispers against your lips and you catch them with your own again, grasping her collar with both hands and pressing into her with as much pressure as you can manage before allowing her to pull back with a huff of gentle laughter.
“Hurry up, please.” You add, watching her go, pulling back the bedspread to shuffle underneath.
She huffs again, amused, as she grasps the door handle. “I’m movin’, baby, don’t worry…”
“Hey, wait…”
She turns back to you, her hand still on the door.
You’ve run your fingers absently through your hair, and of course, they came back clean. Your brow creases, delayed surprise reflected in your eyes. “Did someone wash the boot polish out?”
She tips her head to the side with a patient sigh. “Silco and Franca took care of it the second night you were here, once Silco felt you were stable. Stopped you ruining all of my pillow cases. And not getting any eye infections.”
Your jaw drops open and she nods, quietly smiling as she steps out, pulling the door closed behind her. You close your mouth and flick on the lamp, shimmying carefully out of the pyjama bottoms and lying back into the pillows, making yourself comfortable as you wait. Nevertheless, your energy is spent and it hits you like a wall. You fight to keep your eyes open, but after the overstimulation of so many weighty conversations, it doesn’t take much for drowsiness to overtake you…
_________
You wake again as you hear the click of Sevika closing the bedroom door. You don’t know how much time has passed and you take deep breaths as you climb into consciousness - reaching for her futilely across the covers as you roll over, flexing your fingers in the direction of her huge shape moving in the low light.
“You said you’d be ten minutes…” You mumble sleepily, too tired to inject any real accusation into your voice.
Your eyes are blurry. You hear her dry chuckle.
“I was ten minutes.” She states simply, and you hear her opening her chest of drawers, then faint rustle of her shedding her clothes. “I looked round the door but you were out for the count, so I thought I’d take my time clearing up.”
You offer a faint grumble.
You can feel her smiling across the room as she slides fresh boxers over her legs. “Damn. You miss me that much?”
Your grumble has evolved to a low-level growl at this point, but it tapers off as you feel the mattress dip under her weight. She slides in beside you, pulling the covers over you both, and reaches over you to switch off the lamp.
Exhausted as you are, you waste no time dragging yourself to her - the pull of her is more important to you in that moment than your body demanding sleep. You flop your head onto her bare chest and breathe her in deeply as she chuckles again and wraps her arms around you, her fingertips drifting under the pyjama shirt you’re wearing to run soothingly along the bare skin of your back.
“Finally.” You exhale with a satisfied noise. “Did everyone leave okay?”
“Sure.” Sevika confirms quietly. “Silco and Vander needed to detour to check on Milo anyway, so the timing was good. Could have let Benzo crash, but I didn’t think Ekko would thank me if I offered.”
“Probably not.” You snort faintly, but a thread of anxiety tugs at your brain. “Are you okay?”
“Me?”
“Yeah, after, y’know… everything.”
Sevika sighs deeply and you feel the weight of it. “I… don’t know. But… probably not. It’s been a lot.” One of her hands moves out from under your shirt, up your spine to slide into your hair and you hold back a shiver. Your throat thickens.
“I’m sorry.” You whisper. You don’t know what else to say, but she shushes you.
“No more of that. You’ve said it enough.” Her voice is coarse but not gruff, you can hear the strain of tiredness in it at last as her fingers tentatively round your earlobe - pressing her palm to the side of your neck as her thumb caresses the corner of your jaw. “You and me - we’re okay, beautiful. As for the rest… I’ll get there. You just gotta be patient while I think it all through.”
“Okay,” you husk, “I get it. I haven’t really processed it all either.”
“I bet.”
“How did you leave it with everyone?”
“I asked them to give us some time,” she says, yawning widely, “because me, you and Ekko… it’s a huge decision. We haven’t even started to tease out all the ramifications yet - we’ll be getting to those in the coming weeks, though. Not tonight.”
“Not tonight.” You echo in agreement. “Thanks for that.”
You hear the smile in her voice again. “You’re welcome.”
You nuzzle into her skin and you feel her other hand squeeze your waist.
“Ready to sleep?” She murmurs.
“Yuh-huh… think so…” You know you’re already drifting - and as your consciousness slips away on the rising and falling of her breath, you send up a silent prayer of thanks to Janna that you both made it out alive…
So far.
__________
A cry in the night wakes you.
Actually, ‘cry’ is barely an encompassing word for it - a guttural sound of absolute terror, ripped from the throat, with the ringing edge of that familiar low alto you have come to adore.
The despair of it pinches at your ears, pulling you jarringly from sleep as the texture of it rushes bodily through your sternum, a low surge of adrenaline. Your eyes snap open, flying wide. You push yourself up on your palms.
In the dull moonlight slanting through the bedroom blinds you can see she’s rolled away from you - something she hasn’t done before when you’ve shared a bed. She’s curled in on herself at the edge of the mattress, her back to you. She’s outside the covers, shivering despite the mild temperature.
Alarm clears the last of your grogginess: you’ve never seen her like this. You’re not even sure if she’s awake. Propping yourself up on your knees, you inch cautiously towards her.
“Sevika…” You articulate, low, in as clear a tone as you can manage. She twitches a little but doesn’t respond nor stir. You try something stronger. “Sevika!”
She twitches again with a muted, desperate sob. “No..!”
Your heart squeezes. Whatever’s going on, she’s distressed. You need to wake her up, but - as much as you might want to - you know better than to try and touch her.
“‘Vika…” You try again, more kindly. “… it’s Pip. Wake up, Tall. You’re dreaming.”
You sense her breathing change: a pause, sharp intake, bordering on a hiss, then a slow exhale and a pause. Her eyes crack open and she looks over her shoulder in your direction, her breathing a little shallow now as the adrenaline still surges through her body, her cheeks glistening, her expression disturbed.
“Pip?” She tentatively asks, unsure, her eyes darting towards you in the darkness.
Your heart clenches again, but you offer a gentle smile. “Hey…” You finally smooth your fingers up her arm and grip her shoulder, guiding her onto her back. She’s sticky from the terrors of her dream but her skin is chilled. You pull the bed spread over her and begin to palm the tears from her face, but fresh ones start coming faster than you can wipe them away. Your brows knit in concern. “‘Vika, what’s wrong?”
“Give me a minute.” She grunts, her voice thick as she closes her eyes, the tears still running freely.
You nod. Her fingers move to your wrists, gingerly moving your hands away from her face as she rises to sit up. Hooking her knees over the side of the bed, she turns her back and takes slow, deep breaths. Unconsciously, you match them as you wait.
You sense her wrestling with how to express herself as she rubs her hands over her face, restless.
“Take your time,” you offer quietly. “Whatever you need.”
You tuck your legs beside you and lean on one hand, the other absent-mindedly tracing the new scar on the side of your abdomen; finding the soft, pink flesh oddly reassuring.
Presently, she turns her shoulders towards you, half her face cast in shadow, and reaches her hand back to brush yours - an invitation of contact. You don’t waste time, wordlessly scooting across the covers to her side of the bed, settling next to her at the mattress edge.
Her breathing seems to have regulated somewhat. You tentatively place a hand on her knee and wait again, watching her, the muscles in her neck twitching with tension as she presses her fist to her lips.
“There was a moment,” she eventually begins, lowering her clenched fist to her lap, “When you were on Silco’s table in that factory.”
Ah, shit. There is a part of you that has dreaded the prospect of going over the finer details of that night, but you know you don’t have a choice now… Sevika’s in pain. She needs you, and you know you’ll do anything. You swallow and nod, your eyes on her face as she stares forwards - her eyes between the slats of the darkened window, her mind in the recent past.
“Silco just pulled the bullet out and we… Ekko had just found your kit.” She wets her lips, pressing them together. “And then your eyes just… rolled back and… I could see the blood on your lip… and I… ”
A fresh tear slips down the chiseled plain of her cheek.
“... I’ve never been so scared, Pip, never. Not when we were fighting on the bridge twelve years ago, not the first time an Enforcer put a gun in my face, not even the first time my Dad raised a hand to me.” She speaks, quietly, slumping a little, passing a hand over her eyes.
There’s still a tremor in that hand, and you feel a flicker of rage as your focus zeroes in on it; Rage with yourself for lying, with the situation that lead you to that dock, with whichever fucker shot you - even if it was an accident… something you haven’t given much thought to since you woke up. Your Sevika - this strong, bright, stunning woman - does not deserve any of this. But you recognise that this is not what you should be dwelling on, and will your breathing to even out as you force your attention back to the present.
Sevika swallows thickly as a second tear runs free. “I can’t get your face and that feeling out of my mind.” She sniffs, pinching the bridge of her nose with her fingers. “I can’t stop dreaming about it. You’re just bleeding out in front of me and there’s nothing I can do…” You can see her picturing it in her mind’s eye as her words begin to speed up, panic rising in her body. “... and then Silco and I are fighting about Shimmer, but I’m losing you…”
For better or for worse, you know you have to interrupt this, to break the grip her fear has over her. Your hand flies to her lips, gently pressing on them to still them. “Stop! Hush, Sev’... sh, sh, sh… we’re not there anymore.”
Her eyes widen in shock as she looks down at you. Your fingertips drift over the plush surface of her lips in soothing patterns, her breath ragged against them, but she’s still too caught off guard to move. You move your hand to cup her jaw, tipping the angle of her face to look directly at you.
“Sev’, baby,” You slowly add, aware that it’s only the second time you’ve ever used the endearment as you stroke your thumb across her cheek. “You saved me. You helped Silco give me the Shimmer. You got me out of the warehouse after the explosion. You brought me here to recover. You did everything right. Everything.”
You’re aware you’ve got her attention fully now - she’s almost climbed out of her spiral, so you must be heading in the right direction. You let your touch drop and allow yourself to stand, moving in front of her, placing your hands on her shoulders, and placing a knee either side of her thighs as you lower yourself carefully onto her lap.
She doesn’t protest or resist. That’s a good sign.
“Put your hands on me.” You murmur, your palms sliding down her arms to guide her to your hips. You feel something in you internally sighing with relief as you feel the weight of her hands come to rest. You feel them squeeze gently through the thin material of the pyjama shirt. Her eyes are still wide but some of the tension in her face has eased; she seems content to be led, mesmerised even. Encouraged, you continue, holding her eye.
“You’re the reason I’m still here, ‘Vika.” Your fingertips drift to either side of her neck. “And I’m… I’m so grateful… Sev’, you have no idea.”
You wet your lips with your tongue. It’s impossible to be in this kind of proximity to her and not be affected, but you don’t want to push your luck. You feel the heat rising to your face - and gathering between your legs - but you know you’ve nearly got through everything you want to say, so you persevere.
“This is the face I want you to remember when you close your eyes.” You sit back a little, so she can take you in more fully, allowing your fingers to wrap around the back of her neck, stroking through the short hairs at the nape.
She blinks slowly, relaxation at your touch seeping into her bones, and you allow yourself a smile. You can’t fathom when this woman began to matter to you in the way she does now, but here you are… so, you summon your courage.
“I’ve never done anything like this… never let myself feel anything like this before with anybody.” You breathe, swallowing down the rising lump in your throat as you try not to choke on the confession, “But whatever this is, I want it… I want it with you. And whatever we do next, we do it together. Like you said: no more fucking around.”
You watch her focus resharpen at your words, the rising emotion in her eyes crashing like a wave. The fear, at least, is gone. She’s allowing your words to carry her to where she needs to be now, and you know you can bring her home.
“I’m right here.” You reaffirm gently. “I’m not dying on a table in Piltover. I’m here…” You can’t hold out much longer, the pull is too powerful. You lean in to brush your lips against hers, feeling her breath hitch, “... because of you.”
She moves before you expect her to, pressing her mouth to yours with such urgency and speed that she cuts off your last word. Palming the flesh of your backside with purpose, she simultaneously pulls you greedily against her abdomen. You gasp into her mouth, only a little bashful that the cotton of your underwear is already damp.
But the tone of the kiss feels different. As her mouth moves against yours, it’s like she’s tasting you for the first time, mapping every feeling again. Your fingers, threaded into her hair, grip tighter. She drags her lips down your jaw to your throat in response. Her hands slide up your torso and back, winding around your waist and gathering you even closer to her.
Your chest is heaving already, the spike of your arousal climbing so rapidly you almost feel dizzy… or maybe that’s something else. You’re not sure you should even be attempting this activity so soon after you’ve woken up from your astral coma, but…
Fuck it. You can find the energy for this.
“Sev…” You groan weakly, tipping your chin back as she scrapes her teeth against your jugular vein, laving her tongue against it as your pulse patters still upwards.
“Yeah?” She grunts in acknowledgement with barely a pause, and the sudden casualness of her tone is devastating. She shifts a little under you, beginning to coax your hips to rock back and forth against her. The combination of the two causes your clit to throb powerfully and you gasp again, reflexively dropping your mouth to her ear.
“Lay me down.” You whisper, gratified to feel her tongue slowing against your skin.
“Yes ma’am,” she murmurs, a light mockery of duty. You laugh softly as she lowers you down on top of her and rolls you over, her fingers reaching for the buttons of your shirt. You playfully bite your lip, stifling a giggle of anticipation as you observe her progress, but then she stops dead - her eyes fixed on your exposed skin just under your ribcage on the right side.
Your new scar.
She is frozen, her fingers gripping the last buttons of your parted shirt, her face a mask of shock again.
“Sev’.” You prompt, looking down and closing your fingers over hers. She doesn’t move. “Sev’, look at me.”
Her eyes reluctantly rise to meet yours.
“It’s okay. I’m okay. Touch it.” You ‘re aware that your smile may be more tinged with sadness than reassurance. “It’s a part of me now.”
Her eyes draw back to the scar. She releases a shuddering sigh as she lifts a hand to draw her fingertips along its smoothed edges. Then, unexpectedly, she drops her mouth to it, pressing a kiss so tender to the small pocket of damaged flesh that it takes your breath away.
She feels the air leave your lungs and looks up. You have no idea what your face is doing right now but something about it lights the silver fire in her eyes as she climbs back over you. She draws her face level and brings that kiss to you, just as tender and sweet, pulling a soft whine of appreciation from you that only seems to spur her on.
Her tongue is soft as it slides against yours, her lips full against your own. You can feel the energy crackling between you as she slides a hand under the band of your underwear, exactly where you want it - no teasing this time.
“We’re gonna start slow, Pip,” she assures, pulling back a fraction. “I don’t wanna push your body too hard too soon. Promise me you’ll say if something doesn’t feel right or you need to tap out.”
“Okay!” you breathe, before slipping your tongue in her mouth again with urgency. She groans in pleasure and her fingers resume their course, dipping down to your wet entrance and pressing gently at the base of it. Your hips naturally tilt toward her, craving more. Your breathing becomes more exaggerated as she swipes some of your lubricant upwards, gradually rotating around your clit, drawing out every sensation for you.
The gradual build is proving more powerful than you thought it would - to the point where each throb of pleasure echoing through your body feels like a swell in itself. You’ve been wordlessly vocalising for a while now, gaining intensity, and Sevika is clearly loving it - watching your face like a hawk, catching every reaction, every moan her fingers elicit.
Finally, she leans down to your ear. “I want my fingers inside you.”
You’re 99% sure her sultry tone alone would have you dripping onto the sheets if you weren’t already… you’re completely ruined for her.
“Yes!” You pant, digging your fingers into her shoulders. “Gods, yes, do it!”
Sevika’s grin is bright enough to light up the dark. She hooks a finger down into your entrance, rapidly adding a second when she realises how pliable you are right now. She curls them upwards, her grin transforming to a smirk as she seeks out the spot she first identified just under a week ago. As she hits it the first time, your hips involuntarily buck and the moan you release borders on animalistic.
“Oh, yeah.” She whispers smugly, her gaze fixed on you. “That’s my girl. Just like that, huh?”
“Yes… oh, G-... ah!” You gasp, incredibly aware of just how good a job she’s done working you up. Her fingertips swipe against the same spot again and the pleasure is so overwhelming you almost lose vision. “I’m so close..!”
“I can feel it, baby,” she drawls over you, her voice - pure seduction. “Come when you’re ready… make some noise for me.”
She lowers her mouth to your throat and begins to suck at your neck, timing each one with each swipe of her fingers and the combined sensations is enough to make you forget your own name… as well as very effectively pushing you over the edge.
You cry out incoherently and loudly as pleasure bursts through your nervous system. Sevika’s dexterous fingers work you through it, moving purposefully to extend the pleasure for as long as possible as your cries diminish into breathy, exhausted gasps.
“Enough,” you sigh languidly, and you feel Sevika’s fingers come to a halt inside you with a muffled chuckle.
“Good.” She pulls her fingers out gently as you wince, lifting her head, her eyes like two grey beacons in the dark. “How are you feeling?”
You open your mouth to reply, but immediately become distracted by her sitting back on her haunches and lifting her hand to her mouth to suck her fingers clean, closing her eyes in pleasure as she swirls her tongue around them.
It’s so brutally hot to watch that you completely forget she asked you a question until she opens her eyes and cocks an eyebrow at you.
“Um… kind of euphoric to be honest.” You offer a tired smile. “But also… I might be about to pass out.”
She withdraws her fingers with a light pop and a smirk. “Then I did my job.”
You giggle, waving a hand towards her for assistance. “You did. How are you feeling?”
She helps you sit up, pulling you into her chest and planting a kiss on your forehead. “So much better, Pip, thank you. You really know how to set me right.”
“I should hope so.” You reply cheerfully, giving her solid waist a squeeze before wriggling free from under her. “But for now, I desperately need to pee.”
Sevika laughs as you clamber off the bed. “Congratulations. I’ll tidy up. You want more water?”
“Yes please!” You toss over your shoulder as you race to the bathroom on wobbly legs.
You shut the door and dash to relieve yourself with a long sigh, running your hands through your wild hair. It’s getting long. It’ll start breaking if I don’t cut it soon.
Or maybe not? You blink as you remember… your blood clots now, maybe that changes the other symptoms too?
So much change all at once. You shake your head with a sigh, kicking off your ruined underwear and throwing it in the dirty hamper before stepping to the sink to wash your hands. Your eyes flicker up to your reflection in the mirror above and you freeze.
You realise you haven’t actually stopped to look at yourself since you woke up. You lean towards the mirror with wide eyes, staring, scrutinising, in case it’s a trick of the light… but it isn’t. That feeling in the pit of your gut tells you it isn’t.
Your usually opalescent eyes have gained a light violet hue.