Immortalized | Viktor - arcane

A Delicate Art

Rose never imagined herself as a student. Even when she secured a job with Mel, and allowed herself to dream a little farther than she was used to, she never ended up in the academy, working towards a degree. A degree would lead to a new job, and a new job meant a new life for Rose. It meant starting over, again.

Beginning at the academy meant she was signing up to one day walk away from Mel and the life she had made for her. The life as a personal assistant. It terrified her, living a life for herself and only herself. She had grown used to being an assistant, working for someone else's needs. She had been luckier than most to have Mel as a boss and Elora as a coworker. She felt cared for, and the idea of walking away from it frightened her. She didn't know how to live life for herself, but she wanted to learn.

The academy was as daunting as she expected it to be. Of course she knew the grounds from her meetings with Heimerdinger and time with Viktor but it was another thing entirely to be sitting in a lecture hall as a student, taking notes and writing papers.

She felt awkward in uniform, the fabric was was stiff and the skirt was heavy with multiple layers. The hem stopped just below her knees in the front but continued to drop and nearly touch the floor from behind. It came with lace up boots with a sizable heel, though she didn't mind, she'd grown good at walking in heels over the years, even with her bad leg. What troubled her most was the corset, something she didn't wear often. Though wearing the uniform with the rest of the student body helped her feel less out of place.

The academy had strict rules she was to follow. Along with uniforms being worn at all time, hair was not permitted to be lose against her back. It was always to be tied back. In all her time with Mel she'd never felt as professionally dressed than when she was in uniform. She thought the maroon colors of the uniform with her red hair would wash her out, but Viktor assured her it complimented amber her eyes. She disagreed.

Despite the adjustment from spectator to student, returning to the academy brought back some feelings of normalcy for Rose. It reminded her of simpler times. When she wasn't in lecture, or in Viktor's lab she was in the library and Viktor often joined her. She always insisted that he shouldn't leave his work on her behalf, but he claimed he could work almost as well in the library with her than in the lab. She could tell he was lying, there was only so much he could do without his equipment, but she accepted his company each time.

Sitting across from him at a table in the library with open books between them listening to his updates about Hextech brought back memories for both of them. Years ago Viktor was the student, preparing for graduation. Now the tables were beginning to turn.

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Rose sat quietly in the lab while Viktor poured over his notes trying to find his next breakthrough. She had encouraged him to take a break with her but he insisted he would find what he needed in only a matter of minutes. Rose had rolled her eyes but let him go on and took a break from her studies on her own.

She put her books away and traded them for a pen and drawing pad Mel had gifted her with the start of her classes. She was already halfway through the papers of the drawing pad, and only a quarter way through the academic year.

She discovered art while she was navigating the depths of her grief, and found it to be especially useful during study breaks to help clear her mind when she was cramming for exams. She had been drawing for several minutes with the pad of paper on her lap when she propped her feet up on the far end of Viktor's desk.

Viktor sighed quietly to himself, he had told her repeatedly to take her boots off the desk but it seemed old habits were the toughest to kick. He turned to remind her again but was at a loss for words when he found her already looking at him intently as if studying every feature on his face.

"What are you doing?" He asked ask as she committed everything to memory from the placement of his freckles to the way his brow twitched when he was thinking.

"Nothing." She dismissed him before returning her gaze to the paper on her lap and moving her pen to touch up the sketch she'd been working on.

Viktor narrowed his eyes, growing suspicious. "Can I see that?"

Rose passed him the drawing pad without resistance.

"Take your boots off my desk." Viktor said casually as he took the pad in his hands. With a huff Rose dropped her feet to the floor.

Viktor's suspicions had been correct and he faltered slightly when he saw his own face staring back at him on the paper. It was good. It truly looked like him, so much so that it startled him. Only it didn't look like him as he imagined she saw him.

He didn't look sick. His complexion didn't look so pale with only ink and paper, and his features while sharp and didn't seem so thin. His eyes that were fixed and focused didn't look tired, he was even smiling a little.

They didn't speak of his deteriorating condition often. If they did it was only in gentle reminders that usually consisted of Rose telling him to care for himself when she noticed he was neglecting his health to prioritize his work. Still he always assumed she saw it as others did, seeing him as a sick kid from the under city before seeing him as a scientist. Now he knew he had been wrong, she saw him for who he was.

Viktor cleared his throat slightly after staring down at his own picture for a few more moments. "Have you always been this talented?" He asked when he finally spoke again. He'd seen her paint a few times but that was when she was still practicing abstract work. He didn't see her more recent painting as Mel had. He had never seen anything this detailed from her.

Rose shrugged. "Maybe." She answered. "I'd never tried it before until Mel suggested that it might help me cope. But it seems to agree with me."

"That it does." He agreed glancing back down at the drawing. "May I?" He asked, beginning to turn the page to look at her previous works.

She only shrugged again. She was never one to boast. If he wanted to flip through the pages of her hobby he could do as he liked. She wasn't shy about it, but she wouldn't go out of her way brag about it either.

Her sketches were fairly informal. Some pages had several different illustrations with no relation to each other while some took up the entire page on their own. She drew some faces he recognized and others unfamiliar to him.

"It's true you have talent." Viktor said after flipping through several pages and handing the drawing pad back to her. "Though I admit I don't find myself to be exactly a suitable subject."

"I hate when you say things like that. You're a fine subject." She told him.

He didn't answer her and she hadn't expected him to. They fell back into silence and returned to their own work, with her finishing the details of her sketch of him.