Mechanical heart (Viktor x OC)

46

Elvira was quickly making her way over to Viktor's lab after she heard talk in the streets of a fight in Piltover. "So much for fucking talking to him," she cursed under her breath as she walked as fast as she could through the streets of Zaun. 

"What the fuck happened?" she yelled as she burst through the doors to his lab. Viktor sat at his workbench, with his wrist splayed open on the table, adjusting something inside his hand with his tools. "Ok, that's slightly gross," she said as she walked over to him, curious as to what he was doing. 

"Before you ask, no it does not hurt," he said as his third arm leaned closer to his wrist, shining a light on it. "I know, you forget I've done open heart surgery on myself," she said while paying close attention to what he was doing. "I am reinforcing the bone around the wrist so that it won't break as easily," he answered the question lingering in Elvira's mind as if he had read her thoughts. 

"Won't break as easily? Who are you trying to fight?" Viktor didn't answer her question right away and instead focused on sealing the skin around the wrist. "It's not for fighting anyone, it's more for lifting and moving things that require strength," he explained while flexing his fingers, testing things out. 

"Aha, will you tell me why I'm hearing talk about a fight in Piltover?" she asked while crossing her arms across her chest. "Jayce didn't want to listen, so I had to take it from him by force," Viktor simply explained. He stood from his chair and walked over to where he had the hex gemstone inside a glass jar. "Should we get to work?"

They made their way to where the injured workers were stationed, and Elvira cringed at how bad they looked. Sure, the machine had slowed the spread, but it had still spread. They looked like the living dead.

"We just need to open the machine and place the gemstone in the compartment which is now filled with liquid. Do you see it?" Viktor asked while pointing to a little latch on the side of the main part of the machine. Elvira grabbed a screwdriver and carefully unscrewed the latch, looking inside it. "I see it," she said as she noticed the swirling green liquid inside the machine.

"Ok, good. Are you able to unplug the wires connected to it?" he asked while handing her a pair of long tweezers, and she took a deep breath before carefully sticking the tweezers inside the opening and grabbing onto the wire, gently pulling it off. 

"I've got it," she said, not wanting to pull her tweezers out until Viktor said she could. He walked over to the other side of the machine, opened a lid sitting on top of the green liquid, and carefully pulled the tube out, placing it aside. "The gemstone," he said, and Elvira quickly walked over and grabbed the stone, handing it to Viktor.

He placed it inside where the green liquid once sat and placed the lid back on. "Now just bring the wires to the gemstone and they should fuse together automatically," he said, and she nodded and got to work. When she touched the wire to the gemstone, a faint buzz sound was heard and the wires had fused to the gemstone, activating the machine again.

Viktor and Elvira looked over at the monitor and sighed in relief when they saw the toxin levels slowly drop. The machine was clearing the toxins from their blood. They were gonna survive. "It's working," she said while sitting down on a chair to have a well-deserved break. 

"I would give it two or three days until they're all clear," Viktor said while looking over his notes and calculations. "That's not long at all, that's incredible!" Elvira gasped. "I don't know how they will act when the toxin is gone, or if there will be any lasting effects," Viktor thought aloud while grabbing a paper and a pen. "We'll take that when the time comes," Elvira reassured him before she grabbed a paper and pen as well. 

"I'll help you fill out the report," she said when he gave her a questioning look. Viktor nodded before they both sat down to start filling out the details of what they had done, and how much more effective the machine ran with the hexgem.

After they both had been sitting in silence writing, Elvira had a thought nagging in the back of her head, that she had been pondering ever since she saw Viktor again for the first time. "Viktor?" she asked, worried she was interrupting him from deep thought. 

"Hmm?" he hummed, and she took that as her queue to continue. "I was wondering about something," she started, not sure how she was gonna word her question. Viktor looked up from his paper and motioned for Elvira to continue. "My letter. Specifically the last part," she said, feeling her stomach turn with nervousness. This was so awkward, she wanted to melt into a puddle and glide down the drain, and disappear. 

"I said I loved you," she forced out, looking down at her pen to avoid eye contact. The silence that followed was deafening, and Elvira's thoughts started running wild. 

That's it, you've ruined your friendship. He's gonna look at you weirdly now, for bringing it up. If you had just left it alone and pretended that you didn't write that in your letter, then everything would have been fine. Fucking hell, why did you say that! Shit, shit, shit. He's not answering, he must be thinking of a way to shut me down as kindly as possible. Maybe I should just leave?

"I know," he broke the silence after what felt like hours. "I don't know quite how to respond, I'm not good with words," he added. Now it was Elvira's turn to look at him, giving him time to figure out his response. 

"I don't think I understood my feelings back then, but I know that I enjoyed your company a lot. Jayce was an annoying lab partner at times. He was stubborn and loud, and he took up a lot of space. But working with you was much calmer. You were delicate and soft in the way you spoke, you allowed me to voice my opinion freely, but also were very clear on your own opinions and hypotheses. It was refreshing," he explained. Elvira felt her cheeks grow warm at the compliments but didn't say anything, as it didn't seem like he was done speaking.

"But as I said, I didn't understand my feelings. I didn't know the difference between love and friendship. But after you left, I spoke with Jayce about it, and believe it or not, I even spoke with Counselor Medarda, as Jayce sent me to her for advice. And I learned that what I was feeling with Jayce, was a friendship. And what I felt towards you, was very different. It was admiration, and deep love," he said. 

"So I did love you if that was what you were asking," he finished. "Did?" Elvira asked, feeling her stomach drop at his choice of word. "I don't know anymore, I've tried my hardest to distance myself from my feelings, as I deem them unnecessary," he explained. 

Elvira scrunched her face in deep thought. "All emotions? I think emotions are important. It's what makes us human," she said. "Exactly. It's what clouds our judgment, and leads us to make poor decisions, based on weak feelings."

"Hmm, I don't agree with you. Yes, some people make decisions more with their heart than their brain, and that's not necessarily a good thing, but it's not a bad thing either. The decision I made to take the blame for you and Jayce those years ago, was made purely from my heart. And I don't regret it one bit. And the decision I made to help people in Zaun right after I first met you, was also made with my heart, and I don't regret that either."

"I think you're looking at emotion and logic as two separate things when in reality, they both work together. Just like the sun and the moon are working together," Elvira smiled. Viktor tapped his pen on the desk a few times while thinking over Elvira's words. "I suppose you're right," he admitted, and when he opened his mouth to speak, there was a loud bang coming from the entrance to his lab.