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Most afternoons are like this: the sun stationed high in the sky and unobstructed by clouds, glare streaming past the golden slats of windows through which the outside world tries to beckon and remind those indoors of its existence. In reality, anybody who sets foot in this workshop would immediately learn that merely standing there in the genesis of such advanced scientific developments can, quite easily, make one feel isolated from the world they thought they knew.
Caitlyn, who is more of a curious mind than she is a young girl of thirteen, doesn’t seem to notice the sense of isolation that makes most other people shiver as tremulously as a Hextech-powered contraption humming into life when they walk through this enigmatic laboratory. This chamber of esoteric ideas and elusive possibilities was akin to the hideouts of reclusive hermits and fearsome wizards in storybooks. Yet, for once, Caitlyn did not feel out of place here.
The young Kiramman was by no means a budding scientist, engineer, or inventor. Nor did she really fully understand what went on inside these walls when endless experiments were conducted, and she’d be told to step out for her safety. Despite this, she liked to draw similarities in the way science never seemed to run out of questions to ask and her own nature of never being satisfied with the answers she got.
Or perhaps, the main reason why Caitlyn spends so much time in this workshop, aside from the fact that she can (because her family technically owns it), is that Jayce Talis, her best (or rather only) friend, works here.
After classes with private tutors and shooting lessons are over, Caitlyn doesn’t have much else to do or anyone else to see. The vast majority of the children of Piltover’s elite are homeschooled, and thus, the parents organize weekly get-togethers and meet-ups to allow for socialization. Caitlyn found a way to get out of these tediously trifling events early on when she realized that most other kids couldn’t be bothered with getting to the bottom of the case in a crime novel or hearing her long-winded explanations of the difference between an airship and a blimp.
Caitlyn isn’t sure Jayce is particularly enthusiastic to have her precocious ramblings be the soundtrack while he works with a wrench over a stubborn bolt, but he hasn’t said anything about it, unlike the kids who would ridicule her to her face. Caitlyn decrees that this is perfect evidence for her argument that older people make better friends. “You’re all far more mature!” she attests while Jayce sighs, not at her, but at the empty chair by his side that is usually occupied by his lab partner, Viktor.
Jayce shakes his head and forces a small smile at Caitlyn, who stands so sure and resolute when making declarations of her opinions. “Being older doesn’t automatically make a person mature, Cait.”
Caitlyn pouts a little as she responds. “I know that. But at least older people are better than most kids who can’t even hold a proper conversation.”
“I can list lots of older people who can’t even hold a proper conversation,” Jayce counters.
“Well…” Caitlyn is not letting this go. “Older people actually understand things! They listen.”
“That’s definitely not true for all of them.” Jayce waves a pencil at Caitlyn and stands up to reach into a little satchel. “Here,” he says as he hands her half of a sandwich with lettuce and slices of tomato sticking out of it.
Caitlyn reaches out to take it and says her thanks, but her eyes barely acknowledge the food as she launches back into the speech she started.
“My point still stands,” she says around a mouthful of whole wheat bread, “Adults are better company than children.”
Jayce swallows his bite as he teases. “So are you saying that I could have better company other than you right now?”
Caitlyn sputters, frowns, and tries to chew and swallow as quickly as possible so she can say something. She knows better than to talk with her mouth full. “I didn’t mean it like that!” Caitlyn exclaims indignantly. “Come on, Jayce!”
Jayce just laughs. “I know, Sprout. I know. I’m just messing with you. I get what you’re trying to say.” He pauses to reach for a napkin to clean off some fallen crumbs. “The truth is that it can be just as difficult dealing with adults, maybe even more so, than dealing with children. Adults may understand more, but I guess that’s why some of them can’t hold proper conversations. Too many things are difficult to say out loud.”
Caitlyn processes his words and files them away for later. She’ll mull over them when she has the opportunity to dissect the complexities of adult interpersonal relationships. But now, her attention is directed towards the unoccupied stool. “Where is Viktor?”
“He—” Jayce starts, unsure how to phrase his answer. “He isn’t feeling well today. Says he’ll rest for now.”
“Oh…” Caitlyn’s face falls. She is aware of Viktor’s health challenges and has witnessed his symptoms firsthand. Sick leaves were not unheard of, but Caitlyn recalls his hoarse voice and pained gait the day before and feels great worry over his absence. “I hope he feels better soon.”
“I hope so, too, Sprout,” Jayce solemnly agrees. “I’ll send him your well wishes later this evening.”
“This evening? Are you going to see him?” Caitlyn is surprised at this revelation.
Jayce chides himself for letting that bit of information slip free so carelessly, but he doesn’t see any reason to hide it from Caitlyn in the first place. “I— yes… I will visit his dorm after I finish working. I’ll bring him the meds and herbal tea your dad recommended.”
Caitlyn thinks to herself that it must be really wonderful to have someone care so much for you, the way Jayce cares about Viktor, for him to even consult a doctor and make a special visit. Jayce is Caitlyn’s best friend, but if she isn’t his, and that title goes to Viktor, Caitlyn honestly doesn’t mind.
“You’re very kind to Viktor,” Caitlyn remarks genuinely. “The two of you must have gotten particularly close from all of your research together.”
Jayce is startled by this change in tone, but can’t disagree. “Yeah. We’ve become inseparable. I’m really lucky to have Viktor as my… partner.”
Caitlyn quirks an eyebrow at the way he says the last word. Interesting.
Jayce is about to clock out of the lab soon. And Caitlyn knows that, even without the suspects, you can still gather lots of evidence.
-ˋˏ ༻❁༺ ˎˊ-
It has been fifteen minutes since Jayce left the lab, which is enough time that he should be a long way from Caitlyn and possibly already in Viktor’s dorm.
Fifteen minutes is more time than it would take for Jayce to realize that he’d forgotten something at his desk and come back to retrieve it.
Curiously enough, Caitlyn realizes, he’s most certainly left behind his planner and will not be returning for it, as twenty minutes have already elapsed, and he is undoubtedly sitting by Viktor’s bedside by now, since the place really isn’t that far.
Caitlyn will need to ensure that she keeps the hardbound notebook safe under her watch until she can return it to Jayce tomorrow afternoon. There could be sensitive, confidential data in there, and having it end up in the wrong hands is a risk not at all worth taking.
It is getting late, and Caitlyn really must return home. Her parents will start to worry. But something about her earlier conversation with Jayce keeps her locked in place.
“Partner,” muses Caitlyn, echoing what her best friend had said earlier.
It wasn’t that it was the first time Jayce had ever referred to Viktor as such. After all, they were formally referred to as lab, research, and work partners. Paperwork, announcements, and introductions, whether public or spoken in casual correspondence— that very word was always present.
But on no other occasion does Caitlyn recall hearing it said that way, with that level of fondness. That, coupled with Jayce’s mention of visiting Viktor in his residence outside of work, was enough to ring an orchestra of alarm bells in the young Kiramman’s brain.
She knows it’s a gross, no, reprehensible violation of privacy, but Caitlyn is keeping an eye on Jayce’s planner, and she so badly, terribly, wants to peek in those pages. Just to get evidence for her theory, confirm her suspicions. Good detectives go to extreme lengths to collect evidence, even if that means sacrificing a few morals along the way.
She’ll come clean eventually, confess her sins to Jayce tomorrow, and have her conscience cleared. But right now, she needs information that she can get just by peeling back the cover…
Inside the planner are dates. Obviously. It’s essentially a calendar, after all. But not just the months and days of the year and week… Actual dates.
Scrawled out in a meticulous script are appointments, lots of them. Advisory meetings with Professor Heimerdinger, invitations to tea with her mother, Cassandra, to discuss the necessary funding for his projects. Secret rendezvous with folks from the Undercity to obtain parts for his contraptions in dark, secluded alleyways.
Yet, in the frenzy of life and work and commitments, there is a singular letter that is ever present, written in a gentler hand than everything else around it.
Last Monday, after conducting initial tests of a new Hextech device, there was dinner at a swanky downtown restaurant with V.
The day after was a reminder to head to the pharmacy to collect V’s prescribed painkillers.
A month prior, and the months before that were all decorated with V’s presence. One could try to assume otherwise and think V was a mysterious character in Jayce’s life, but the true identity became clear when piecing together context clues from the notes. Sure, V was there for the idle weekends and casual outings, the respites to balance out constant productivity. However, V also existed in the conferences and conventions, in all the important things that defined this planner as one belonging to an accomplished individual.
V is Viktor. Viktor is indeed Jayce’s partner, in both lab and life.
This revelation knocks the wind out of Caitlyn. It should really come as no surprise to her. Jayce can very well be in a relationship— he’s an adult, after all. He can also very well be in a relationship with the man with whom he spends all his working days and then some— it makes perfect sense.
It isn’t those details that catch Caitlyn off guard.
It’s the fact that she and Jayce, somehow, actually have something in common.
After all their years of knowing each other, Caitlyn, though it hurt to admit, figured that their friendship stemmed only from proximity and perhaps even diplomacy. They were always around each other, and Caitlyn’s parents were Jayce’s patrons. It almost seemed like his moral obligation to be, at the very least, civil to her. The two weren’t interested in the same things and were far apart in age. Their discussions usually stayed in the territory of day-to-day matters. Amiable— yes, very much so— but never quite crossing the threshold of depth.
It wasn’t that Caitlyn had never seen two people of the same gender fall in love. Her mother has friends, her father has patients. Caitlyn has read countless books and watched a few movies where two women or two men share a romance.
It wasn’t even ever framed as a taboo. When her parents would speak to Caitlyn about love and relationships, they never mentioned a specific gender to put any such expectations on her. In her family, there were countless rules to uphold the Kiramman name, but the person you were allowed to fall in love with was not one of them.
Despite all of this, Caitlyn feels this surge of emotion deep in her chest because it finally occurs to her… She knows who she is. She knows that it is all right to be exactly that. But she has never gotten the chance to say it out loud before.
Revealing such a personal part of herself to her parents hadn’t gotten the appropriate opportunity yet. Caitlyn isn’t even sure how to begin that conversation. She figures they’ll find out eventually when she brings home a girl for the first time, something she still can’t imagine doing in the near future.
Caitlyn hasn’t been able to talk about it because there was no one to talk about it with, nobody she knew personally who shared the same feelings as her…
Until now…
-ˋˏ ༻❁༺ ˎˊ-
The next day, Caitlyn is already sitting in the workshop when Jayce arrives. The planner rests on her lap, bobbing slightly up and down as Caitlyn nervously fidgets on the stool.
“Hello, Jayce!” Caitlyn croaks out, her tone dripping with anxiety.
“Hey, Sprout!” Jayce doesn’t seem to pay much heed to Caitlyn’s uncharacteristic unease as his eyes dart to the notebook. ”Oh, hey! Thanks for holding on to my planner! I was in such a rush last night that I left it behind. Viktor’s actually doing much better, but I told him to stay home for now to get some extra rest. Said I can take care of his tasks and—” Jayce suddenly pauses when he catches sight of Caitlyn’s deeply reddened face with beads of sweat rapidly trickling down. “Whoa, Cait… Are you okay?!”
He runs over to her in concern, reaching a hand out to Caitlyn’s forehead to check her temperature, and is momentarily relieved to find that she isn’t coming down with a fever.
Caitlyn turns her head away and squeezes her eyes shut as she holds her arms outstretched, handing Jayce his planner. When he takes it, Caitlyn’s head falls to her hands, and she stammers out, muffled by her palms. “Jayce, I am so, so sorry.. I looked inside your planner. It was an absolutely deplorable thing for me to do, and I sincerely, wholeheartedly apologize for intruding on your privacy.”
Jayce is speechless for a few seconds, then puts a tentative hand on her shoulder. “Hey, Cait, look at me… It’s alright. I’m not mad.”
Caitlyn shifts just enough to turn a single eye towards him, but still covers herself in shame.
“It’s not like there are any top secrets in there. It’s just a planner! It’s not like you went through my diary or anything. There’s nothing in there that I would be upset about you finding out,” Jayce soothes.
Caitlyn slowly unravels from her hiding position, still cautious. “There’s nothing I shouldn’t know about in there?”
Jayce shakes his head. “Of course not. You definitely know about most of the stuff in there anyway. Your mom probably mentions that she meets up with me every once in a while to discuss stuff, and you see me almost every day, so you know what I’m up to.”
Caitlyn struggles to proceed. “I mean, the- the stuff with Viktor…”
Realization clicks into place, and Jayce actually cackles out loud, startling Caitlyn a little. “Oh, are you referring to our dates? Sprout, it’s nothing crazy or scandalous... We just go to overpriced restaurants!”
Caitlyn blushes at the way Jayce is still laughing, clearly amused by Caitlyn’s prudishness about the topic. “Y-You mean… It’s not a secret that you and Viktor are a- a couple?”
There, it finally dawns on Jayce why Caitlyn seemed so wary. “Oh, not at all! It’s not like we’re shouting it from the rooftops, but we aren’t trying to hide it either. I guess you could say that we’re keeping things professional. But no. No secrets.”
Caitlyn breathes a sigh of relief. “Oh. I see. I’m really happy for you, Jayce.”
Jayce smiles and pats Caitlyn’s shoulder. “Thanks, Sprout. I’m glad I have your blessing.” She giggles at this. “So was that all you were so stressed about? That you thought you’d uncovered my deepest, darkest secret?”
Caitlyn rolls her eyes at Jayce’s teasing, but the previous trepidation comes trickling back. “Well- ummm- actually…” She tightly grips the loose fabric of her pants. “There’s something I want to tell you…”
Jayce gives her a bit of space but keeps a warm and supportive presence as he prompts Caitlyn to continue. “Go ahead. You can tell me. I’m listening.”
Caitlyn gives the fabric one more tight squeeze before starting. “I looked in your planner because…” Caitlyn feels tears prick behind her eyes, but wills them not to fall. “I looked because I’ve never met anyone else… who was like me…”
Caitlyn doesn’t make eye contact when Jayce inquires. “Like you?”
“I’ve never met anyone else… well, not directly at least… who also likes the same gender…”
When Jayce finally connects the dots, he moves to wrap Caitlyn in a hug, only tightening his grip when Caitlyn leans in on her own accord.
A couple of silent minutes pass before Caitlyn pulls away, wiping at her eyes, surprised to find Jayce doing the same with his before he speaks. “Thank you for telling me, Caitlyn.”
Caitlyn finally smiles, a real, reassured grin lighting up her face. “I’ve never told anyone that I’m a lesbian before. I know my parents would be fine with it. They’ve always been open about those things. I just don’t know how to tell them. And I’ve always wanted to be able to talk about my feelings with someone who understands.”
Jayce takes her hands in his, feeling just as proud as Caitlyn does for her courage in being open about herself. “Take your time, Sprout. You’ll figure out the words. And you are welcome to talk to me about anything. I won’t judge, and I’ll always listen.”
Caitlyn is positively beaming right now. For the first time in her life, she doesn’t feel like such a misfit. In a place, a laboratory isolated in unfathomable magnitude from the rest of society, Caitlyn feels like she finally belongs.
“Thank you, Jayce. V is very lucky to have someone like you.” Caitlyn winks as she references the little code from the planner.
“Anytime, Sprout. Don’t you worry. I’ll be there someday to cheer you on when you finally get a V of your own.”
Someday… Caitlyn’s very own V.
Wouldn’t that be fantastic?