Work Text:
So far, it had been a very productive Tuesday. Viktor had gotten to the lab at around 7:30 and had a good half hour to himself before Sky and Jayce came in at 8. He liked the alone time - it meant he could sit down with some tea and make a list of his notes and goals for the day without getting pulled into a new idea.
Sky had gotten in slightly ahead of Jayce today, bringing a new tea blend which she was eager to share. He really liked Sky - she was very well put together and her research into botany was expertise he lacked, so any discussion on the topic was fascinating. She also had her finger on a lot of the local gossip, and Viktor would be a liar if he said he didn’t look forward to the updates.
Jayce had walked in while Sky was filling Viktor in on some of the students she was supervising, grabbing some tea and joining the conversation with enthusiasm. Once they had caught up it was to the blackboard to delegate tasks, and then straight into work. Not that their work was silent, of course. More often than not one of them would have some music playing, and many conversations of many topics were had while they puzzled over their research.
All in all, Viktor was happy and content, his safe space filled with people he cared for and energy he cultivated. That was, until there was a knock at the door.
“Come in!” Jayce called, and a woman with blonde hair tied up in a bun walked in. She wore a clean white coat, and Viktor instantly clocked the stethoscope around her neck.
“Hello! Dr Isabelle Aven, from the infirmary.” She introduced herself with a smile. Viktor froze in his seat, half turned towards her. “I’m here for all your physicals today. I have a mobile set up with me that I’m taking around all the labs - I know how you researchers end up stuck in your work and forgetting appointments, so I thought I’d bring it to you and make things easier!”
Jayce slapped his hand to his forehead. “That’s right! Sorry guys, I forgot to put that up on the board today. Heimerdinger reminded me these were happening last week.”
“That’s fine, Jayce. It’s good to get these done for the year anyway.” Sky said, putting down her pen.
“Uh, yes. Sure.” Viktor said, attempting to keep his voice even. Considering the lack of concerned looks from Sky and Jayce, he seemed to have succeeded.
“Excellent!” Dr Aven clapped her hands together, making Viktor jump. “We’ll get set up in a corner. There will be a curtain up the whole time so no worries about privacy either. In the meantime you can decide which order you’ll go in.”
The doctor ushered in two nurses pushing a cart of equipment and a gurney in and they started to set up in the corner of the lab.
“I don’t mind going first, if that’s okay?” Jayce started. “I’m in a good groove, but I’ll be able to get back into it easier if I get this out of the way.”
“I can go after you, Jayce. Unless you want to go second Viktor?” Sky asked, and Viktor ignored the churning in his stomach in favour of a shrug.
“I can go last, no bother.”
“Perfect!” Jayce said. “I’m going to go see if they need a hand setting up.”
Viktor watched Jayce bound over to the medical crew, effortlessly offering his help and chatting with his casual ease that Viktor often envied. Sky went back to her notes, and Viktor tried to follow in her stead but he couldn’t keep his thoughts anchored to the page. Not when half his attention was on his side, making sure no one was sneaking up on him with anything.
He managed to exist in the uneasy atmosphere until Sky went over for her turn about twenty minutes later.
“Whatcha working on?” Jayce’s voice came from right behind him and he nearly yelped.
“Janna, Jayce, you nearly gave me a heart attack!”
“Sorry.” He smiled, sitting down on the stool next to him. “Well?”
“Trajectory calculations for the smaller hexgate prototype.” Viktor said, sighing. “It’s not going very well, I will admit. How was the checkup?”
The last part Viktor forced himself to add on, knowing that he’d fare slightly better if he knew what was going to happen. Jayce shrugged.
“Pretty run of the mill. Heart, lungs, etcetera. I had to get a blood test and a vaccine, though. I don’t like needles.” he said, scrunching his nose.
You and me both, Viktor thought, but what he said instead was a halfhearted ‘yikes.’
Jayce stuck his hand in Viktor’s hair and ruffled it, ignoring his squawk of protest. “Well, feel free to chuck those at me if you get sick of it.”
“Don’t do that!” Viktor grumbled, and Jayce stuck his tongue out at him as he wandered back over to his desk. Viktor flipped the bird at him as he went, and then checked the time. Ten minutes had passed since Sky had gone back for her checkup. Nausea rose in his through as he fully realised he was next. If there was one thing Viktor was certain of at that moment, it was that he was not getting this checkup.
He rose to his feet, making a show of checking his watch and swearing. “Shit, I was meant to be at a meeting with some of the Academy students five minutes ago! I’ll be back as soon as I can, but if I take too long feel free to send the infirmary staff on. I’ll catch them later.”
Jayce raised his eyebrows. “You sure?”
“Positively.” Viktor said, and he meant it. No fucking way was he going behind that curtain today.
“Alright then. Have fun with your students!”
Viktor nodded with a smile and beelined for the door, grabbing his coat on his way out. He kept his pace steady as he left the lab but as soon as he was around the corner he moved as fast as he could, putting as much distance between him and them as possible. Images flitted through his mind as he went, memories of all the times he’d been wronged by medical personnel suddenly rising to the front of his psyche. He picked up his pace, ending up in the wing where a lot of the lab equipment was stored. Glancing across the hall he picked a room he knew his keycard would unlock and scanned himself through, closing the door quickly behind him.
The room was small, as expected, mostly housing some of the more delicate microscopes sometimes used by the biology department. There was a small bench and stool tucked to the side, which Viktor gratefully made use of. He winced when he took the weight off of his now aching leg, hissing and tasting the slightly chemically scented air. Viktor took a moment to thank whoever was up there that no one had made use of this particular closed for more… inappropriate activities recently. God knows he’d done it enough in his student days - he didn’t want to know what the counters looked like under a blacklight.
Viktor checked his watch, noting that twenty minutes had passed. Sky would have been done with hers now, and they were probably still hanging around to see if he would come back. He resigned himself to hiding there a little longer, his heart clenching at the thought of potentially running into them on his way back up to the lab. He half-wished he had brought his notes with him, even though it would have made his student excuse slightly less believable. If he was honest it was a tenuous excuse in the first place, considering how early in the teaching period it was. He did have a few PhD students assigned to him - a responsibility he greatly enjoyed even if he moaned about it occasionally - so it wasn’t entirely unrealistic that he could have a prolonged meeting with one of them. Satisfied that he’d rationalised his getaway plan, Viktor settled in to wait for another half hour just to be safe.
Once he was absolutely sure the medical staff would have continued their rotation Viktor finally slunk out of his hiding spot, leaving the corridor with a faux casualness to hide the fact he was still very much on high alert. He managed to make it back up to the lab without incident, and as he thought it was empty aside from Jayce and Sky.
“Hey Vik! How was the meeting?” Jayce asked, not turning around from his soldering.
“Fine. One of my students had some questions, and then we got a little carried away talking about project proposals. I take it the doctor moved on to greener pastures?” Viktor said, putting his coat back on the hook and taking his seat again.
“She left a while ago, yeah.” Sky said, glancing at him with a slight furrow in her brow. “Are you alright?”
“Me? Yes, I’m fine. Why?” Viktor answered, leg bouncing and eyes slightly too innocent.
“You seem…”
“... on edge.” Jayce finished, studying him with a frown. Viktor's shoulders raised a little, not appreciating being examined from both sides.
“I’m alright. Just… frustrated at some of these equations. Apologies if it’s, ah, souring the mood.”
“Chuck them at me.” Jayce said, leaning back and holding out his hands. “Let the Math Magician do his work.”
Sky and Viktor groaned in unison. “You have to stop calling yourself that.” Viktor chastised, but handed over his notebook anyway.
“Why? It’s true!”
“It’s a crime. It’s like if I started calling myself the Botany Boss, or Vik started calling himself the Chem Consort.” Sky stated, and Viktor made a noise of pure horror.
“Chem Consort!” Jayce burst out laughing. “Oh, I am using that.”
“Jayce Talis if you even think about calling me the ‘Chem Consort’ in public I will throw your journals into the Pilt.”
“So I can use it in private?”
“Absolutely not-!”
With that the tension broke, and their days went on as usual. Viktor eventually felt his fight or flight instinct calm back down once the threat had passed, and he proceeded to finally nail down a calculation that had been evading him for days. He was mid celebratory rant when there was another knock on the door.
“Oh, great, you’re still here! Viktor, right?” Dr Aven poked her head around the door, smiling kindly at Viktor. “I’m sorry we missed you earlier! We just finished our rounds for the day, and I thought I’d see if I could catch you quickly before we left to get this checkup done.”
Just like that, Viktor’s mood was ruined. His grip on his cane was white knuckled, betraying his fear despite keeping admirably cool on the outside. “You’re welcome to finish your day and go home if you’d like. You’ve all been running around all day, and it would be a pain to set up here again.”
“Nonsense! One more won’t hurt, and technically we are on the clock for another hour or so anyway. We make sure to have extra time at the end for people who aren’t available throughout the day.” Dr Aven assured, to Viktor’s apprehension. He couldn’t really back out now, not when they were already filing into the room and getting themselves sorted. He sighed, as subtly as he could. This was going to suck.
“If you insist.” He said, and stood. “I’ll just run to the bathroom quickly.”
Viktor made his way over to the bathroom, heading to the sink and splashing some water on his face. He took some deep, even breaths, looking at himself in the mirror and counting the seconds in and out.
“You can do this. You are a fully grown man. You can do this.” He said to himself, but it did nothing to quell his nerves. When he could put it off no longer he left the bathroom and went straight over to the curtained area, intending to get it over with as fast as possible.
Dr Aven handed him a gown. “Please change into this behind the curtain.”
Viktor looked at the gown with thinly veiled distaste but did as he was asked, moving on autopilot. Once he was done the doctor and one of the nurses came back around the curtain.
“Alright, Viktor, if you hop up onto the table for us we can get started.”
Dr Aven’s voice sounded like it came through a thick mist in Viktor’s head, but he managed to hoist himself onto the table anyway.
“Lie down on your back, please.”
Viktor was stuck. He couldn’t move, hands holding the edge of the table below him in a death grip. His breathing sounded too loud in his head and he could hear his blood pumping through his ears and he couldn’t move he couldn’t-
“Hey, Viktor-”
Someone touched his shoulder and he jerked to the side, seeing the nurse in his green scrubs with gloved hands approaching. Blinding fear filled his chest and suddenly he could move again, pushing off the table and knocking over his cane from where it was leaning against its leg. He limped backwards, hands held in front of him until his back hit the wall.
“-what’s going on-”
“-he’s panicking, we need-”
“-Talis, could you come over-”
Viktor sunk down to the floor, arms pulled protectively to his chest as he curled up his legs. Another person in scrubs tried to get close but he scrambled backwards into the corner, hands curled up into defensive fists. They stood for a moment before they were ushered out of the way and replaced by a blurry man in pants and a shirt. Viktor shrunk back against the wall again, but relaxed slightly when the man sat across from him on the floor, making no move to approach.
“-Vik? Hey, Piltover to Viktor.” His voice broke through the haze Viktor was trapped in.
“Are you there? It’s just me, just Jayce. You don’t need to worry about anything else.”
Jayce, of course it was Jayce. How could he not recognise Jayce?
“J-Jayce?”
Jayce smiled, relieved. “There you are, V. Can I hold your hand? Just for a bit?”
Viktor nodded, holding out a hand which Jayce took in his warm grip. The sensation was grounding, and he soon found himself reaching for Jayce’s other hand as well. Jayce rubbed his thumbs on the tops of his hands, soothing, before his hands slid up to hold Viktor’s forearms gently.
“There we go. I’ve got you.”
Viktor clung to Jayce’s arms but let himself be slowly coaxed down by Jayce’s talking. As he rambled he slowly edged closer, gently pulling Viktor into a firm hug which he sank into almost immediately. He talked about everything and nothing, Viktor’s head buried in his shoulder until he was firmly in his body again.
“You back with me?” Jayce asked, and Viktor nodded.
“Please don’t let me go.”
“Okay, I won’t. Can we stand up, though? My legs are going numb.”
Viktor nodded again and Jayce eased them both up to standing, nodding an assurance to the doctor who moved to help.
“I can give you something for the anxiety-”
“No! No drugs, just…” Viktor shook his head as he lost his words again and pulled out of Jayce’s hug, taking a step back.
“I think we’re good.” Jayce stated, wrapping an arm around Viktor’s shoulders and running his hand up and down his arm.
“I… I think it would be wise for you all to move onto your next patients. This… this is not happening today.” Viktor managed, as politely as he could. Dr Aven nodded.
“I would agree. However if you’re open to it, I would suggest getting in contact with a therapist. If your anxiety is stopping you from getting medical care, that can be dangerous.” she said before going back around the curtain and leaving Jayce and Viktor alone.
“Do you need a hand getting dressed again?”
“No, I’m alright. Could you- could you stay here though? Just… turn around.” Viktor asked, and Jayce let out a small laugh.
“Sure. Let me know when you’re decent.”
Viktor changed as fast as he could, tossing the offending gown onto the gurney when it was off.
“Done.” Viktor said, making to walk past the curtain but Jayce stopped him.
“Hang on, just…” Jayce started, pulling Viktor into another hug. Viktor needed it, god he needed it more than he thought. He felt Jayce press a kiss to the top of his head.
“Proud of you.” He said before letting him go.
Sky was waiting for them on the other side of the room. She had a rickety coffee table set up in front of their couch with some steaming cups of tea on it.
“I made some more of that tea from earlier. I thought it might do you some good.” she said, tucking a stray curl behind her ear.
“Thank you Sky.” Viktor said earnestly with a weak smile, blinking back some tears that threatened to make themselves known at the show of kindness. He sat on the couch and took the offered mug in both hands, silently watching the medical staff pack out of the room as Jayce and Sky talked. Once they were gone it was like there was a physical weight off his shoulders.
“How are you doing now, Vik?” Jayce asked, plonking down next to him on the couch.
“Better.”
“Yeah? Anything more we can do?”
Viktor tentatively laid his head on Jayce’s shoulder. “A distraction would be appreciated.”
Jayce smiled and launched into a tale about Heimerdinger that Viktor hadn’t heard yet. As the evening went on he found himself laughing along and talking again, curled around a pillow in the middle of the couch sandwiched in by his closest friends. Jayce eventually pulled Viktor into his side and started tying tiny little braids in his hair, more for something to keep his hands occupied than anything else. The feeling sent him half to sleep, even as Sky and Jayce continued to chatter away. Later he’d tell them why he panicked, why he had been on edge all day. But for now, he could rest a while in their comfort.