ISOH / TAOAA - One-Shots

TAOAA / AU: Time Waits For No Vokkrus

A/N: This is a completely self-indulgent crack idea. Call it a character study!

In which, Viktor messes with time and finds himself royally fucked.

***

On second thought, maybe this wasn't a good idea.

When Viktor voiced his thoughts out loud, it only made Nohkka pause in her ministrations before immediately continuing her chaos.

"Don't be a wuss," she said derisively, the English falling from her mouth strangely. Viktor harrumphed, a little affronted.

"I'm not a wuss," he defended himself. But as the older one of the two - at least, maturity wise, he told himself - he felt like he had some responsibility if this all went terribly, terribly wrong. Which was likely. Especially with him here. "But this is a bad idea."

"We're just reading," she said empathetically, turning around on her heel to face him. Her eyes were shining with mischief and while Viktor would normally be right there with her, this felt... really bad. He always listened to his gut. It didn't usually lead him astray.

Nohkka dropped the books in a haphazard pile on the floor. Viktor shifted Vikka on his hip when the baby started getting too heavy. He reached out to the books eagerly. Nohkka started opening every single one. Viktor was decided. Babysitting sucked.

"Okay," he said hurriedly, dropping to his knees and letting Vikka walk around to his heart's content. He still enjoyed being carried, but man, was that kid starting to get heavy. "Seriously, Nohkka, stop. These are like, probably a billion dollars!"

Nohkka huffed but conceded, being gentle with the mechanics of the books. Viktor grabbed a node and flicked it on. The title stared balefully at him.

O Magicks Ophe th'Univers was supposed to be a fantasy book, but with everything Viktor's gone through, including getting thrown into a miserable black hole, he started to doubt it.

"Spirits, Kohgrash," Nohkka said dismissively, sticking her tongue out at him. He did it back. "Magic isn't even real-" Viktor scoffed loudly, but she ignored it, "-but if you reaaaally wanna go back to that stuffy banquet and talk to your best friend-"

"Okay!" Viktor snapped, yanking another book toward him. He did not want to go talk to Kyroh anymore than he had to. "Jesus. You manipulative little-"

Nohkka had apparently began her newest obsession: magic. Unfortunately, it wasn't even sleight of hand magic, which had gotten Vok'Rul all excited to teach someone (Viktor hadn't even known the alien could do the trick he'd shown them!) before she clarified that she wanted to learn real magic. Like wizardry, Harry Potter, magic type shit.

Thruul had listed off a few species who could do telekinesis and things of that nature, which Nohkka found cool. Then Vok'Rul had to blab his big mouth and say there were probably a bunch of books about the Spirits and their nature before- well, before the Spirits deigned to clarify their powers. Which only got Nohkka interested in the Children of Everything-that-was-who-became-Creation, and oh my, God, Viktor did not want to go through all the headaches this was going to create.

Yeah, he saw the irony in that phrase all by himself, thank you.

But alas. Another banquet was slated for tonight. Rukka was in attendance, and Nohkka had begged both her mother and her uncle to go browse the library. And while both of them were weak to Nohkka's puppy eyes, neither of them were idiots. Which explained Viktor's unfortunate presence.

"Don't wreck the library," Rukka told him as Vok'Rul handed off Vikka to him.

"Maybe just a little," Vok'Rul whispered as Rukka turned her back. The alien kissed his son and ruffled Viktor's hair. Louder, he said, "Love you."