Viktor x Reader

Thirty-Eight

It felt like a dream.

Everything was just a dream.

But just like every time when the night had passed, you needed to wake up and return to the terrible place that was reality.

The urge to cough pulled together your lungs.

As if struck by lightning, you rose from the sheets and bend under the pressure that drove tears to your eyes.

It felt like blood was about to pour from your nose but you sucked it back in and swallowed the taste of iron.

Next to you, Viktor curled his nose.

"My love?", he popped one eye open. "Why are you awake already?"

With your head turned away from him, you wiped the corner of your mouth with the back of your hand.

A pale red stain remained visible on your skin.

A low curse escaped you.

"I'm fine.", you gifted him a smile and leaned in to kiss him briefly.

If you'd kiss him longer, he'd probably notice the taste of blood on your lips.

"You look stressed.", he grabbed your cheek to gently force you to look at him.

Leaning into the feeling of his warm palm, you closed your eyes and let out a deep sigh.

Then you smiled.

"It's just that I'm nervous.", you placed a kiss in his hand.

Smiling softly, he tilted his head.

"What do you mean?"

You kissed his beauty marks, then pulled him into a hug.

"The enrolment for the academy. It's today."

He pulled you into a thigh hug and buried his face in the crotch of your neck to inhale the scent that was stuck to you ever since last night.

It made his heart beat with pride to notice that your smell had changed and was now a mixture of your old one and his.

It felt like he had finally conquered that part of you for himself that had always seemed untouchable.

"Do you really think I can do it?", he asked.

You grabbed his face to shake some sense into him.

"Don't doubt yourself. You can do it. But I don't want you to just do it. I want you to get in the academy and show everyone that you're not just anyone. I want you to get in at the top."

Doubt lit up inside his brown eyes.

"You think too highly of me."

"I think you pull yourself down. If you just put a bit of trust in yourself, you'll be able to outshine everyone."

Shyly, he turned his eyes away and rubbed the back of his head.

"You're over exaggerating.", he hummed, stretching.

"I believe in you. And so should you.", with a gentle kiss to his forehead, you slid out of bed and gathered the clothes that were spread across the floor. "Catch."

You threw his share of the clothes at his face.

Chuckling, he threw them on and wanted to follow you. But as his feet touched the ground, his legs gave in and he almost fell.

You caught him.

"Easy, no need to jinx today.", slowly, you let him sink on the bed. "You'll need all your strength to figure out what to invent today."

Slightly annoyed, he pulled a face, let his head fall to the side and groaned.

"This is just a pain in the ass.", he said and hit his limbing leg a few times. "How can I become a student to the academy with this?"

Shaking your head, you walked over to the stove and lit a flame to get eggs ready.

You wanted to put a nice breakfast together for him to get a good start into the day. Luck wasn't something he really needed since he had skills instead.

But you wanted him to go up to Piltover with a filled stomach. Those assholes would have enough reasons to make him an outcast, being hungry wasn't supposed to be one of them.

Unfortunately, the food in the Undercity wasn't all too nice nor nutritious.

It would have been great to offer him more than just some eggs, maybe bacon and some pancakes. But all you had was bread.

You still tried to make it look like a proper breakfast.

"Careful.", you handed him the plate with steaming hot food. "I'll go check out the climate upstairs. Take your time and find a good idea to blow them away with."

With a kiss to his hair, you said goodbye to him and slid out the door.

As soon as it fell shut behind you, a wave of coughing and pain chased through your lungs and forced you down to your knees.

Your entire body was aching.

Tears blurred your vision.

"Fucking hell...", you gasped and managed to stumble further away to hide from Viktor possibly seeing you. "This is getting worse by the minute..."

A thin trail of blood poured out of your nose.

The irony taste spread inside your mouth and crawled down your throat.

Taking a deep breath in, you managed to straighten your back and pulled a hood over your head to disappear in a crowd that was about to travel to the Topside as well.

You could feel that this was an important day.

More people than usual wanted to get to the elevators.

The smell of hope was in the air while pride filled their eyes.

Kids and teens were visible everywhere. It was an unusual sight since most kids didn't make it and teens tended to turn into criminals rather than try and get an actual education.

The crowd pushed across the bridges, towards the elevators.

But you broke out from the flow and took a shortcut into the dark alleys of the lanes instead.

You needed to talk to Silco.

Quickly, you jumped down some stairs.

A shadow caught your attention.

You froze, reached into your pocket and wanted to pull out a knife.

A hand snatched forward to wrap around your collar and pull you into the dark.

Brown eyes lit up.

"You're playing a dangerous game.", Sevika growled. "It will kill you."