Chapter Text
Jayce is ready to murder someone. The only problem is that he’s never met them.
“You’re glaring again,” Vi says, flicking a balled-up straw wrapper at him.
They’re in a diner near the University of Piltover campus, picking at the remains of their fries while Jayce complains about his research. Or rather, his recent lack of research. Vi is only barely paying attention at this point, because he’s been at it since they got here and Vi is now slurping down the last dregs of her second milkshake.
“Seriously, dude, you need to relax,” she says, pointing at him with a french fry and then chomping down on it. She chews as she says, “You’re gonna give yourself an ulcer.”
“I can’t relax, ” Jayce says. “I haven’t gotten anywhere in weeks because someone— ”
“Yeah, yeah, someone keeps taking your research material.” Vi shoves another handful of fries in her mouth.
“It’s like they know, ” Jayce says, his head in his hands. “They know what books I need and they take them. On purpose.”
“Woah, man,” Vi says. “Starting to sound a little paranoid there.”
Jayce drops his head onto the chipped red tabletop and groans.
Every time he goes to the campus library, the books he needs for his research are already taken out. There’s never any copies, because his research covers the arcane, and no one at the University of Piltover wants to touch that with a ten foot pole. Every resource is precious, and even just stabilizing the arcane crystals is proving difficult without any research to build off of.
So Jayce can’t get ahold of any of the research he needs without putting things on hold at the library, because someone—and he doesn’t know who —has been taking out every single piece of literature he’s had his eye on for the last month. He just knows it has to be one person, because as far as he knows, no one else is researching the arcane on campus. At least, not officially, because his own research isn’t really official either. He works in one of the campus labs as part of his graduate degree, but his work is technically classified as an “independent study”, not a university-run project. Not that it matters. It’s come to a complete standstill either way, so he’s sure Professor Heimerdinger is going to be thrilled. He hasn’t been Jayce’s biggest fan since the lab incident, despite still carrying on as his thesis supervisor.
Huh. There’s an idea.
“Do you think Heimerdinger knows who’s doing the research?”
Vi freezes halfway through reaching across the table for his fries, caught. Thief.
“You lost me,” she says. She takes the fries anyway. Jayce lets her, because she’s been a decent listener, sort of.
“I mean, Heimerdinger’s always been weird about the arcane,” Jayce explains, getting more excited by the idea by the second. “He’s keeping pretty close track of my research. If there’s someone else researching the same stuff, maybe he knows about that, too.”
Vi’s face scrunches up. She flips her pink hair out of her face, only for it to flop back into place.
“Yeah, and what are you gonna do, murder them? Fall in love with them and complete your research and live happily ever after? You can’t exactly do anything about it.”
Jayce pauses.
“I hadn’t really gotten that far.”
“Yeah, no kidding.” Vi finishes Jayce’s fries and licks the salt off of her fingers. “Look, it’s been real, but I gotta go meet Cait for coffee. I’m already gonna be late and I’m not missing it. That place has, like, the best pie I’ve ever eaten.”
“Pie?” Jayce says. “You just ate two burgers, a whole plate of mozza sticks, and both of our fries. Plus the milkshakes.” He gestures to the plates of crumbs and the empty fluted milkshake glasses.
“We just got back from the gym. I’m hungry, sue me. Besides, there’s always room for pie.” Vi grabs her red jacket and slings it on. “Good luck with your…whatever it is.”
“Thanks,” Jayce says dryly. “I’m guessing I’m paying for lunch.”
“Hey, I listened to you blab for like, two hours, Pretty Boy. That’s two hours of my life I’m never gonna get back.”
“Fair enough.” Jayce goes up to the counter and starts to dig through his wallet. Vi slaps him on the back before barrelling out the door, whistling, on her way to her date with Caitlyn. Jayce sighs.
Now that he’s gotten his energy out at the gym with Vi, he figures he should probably try to spend some time in the lab today, even with his research stuck at a roadblock. There’s still some calculations he can run. He sends a quick text to Caitlyn apologizing for making her girlfriend late and makes his way across the university campus, dodging the crowds of undergrads making their way between classes. He uses his student card to let himself into the graduate lab building and heads towards his lab.
This research situation is really getting to him. He hasn’t been this behind in his research since Caitlyn brought Vi and Jinx to visit the lab. He can admit that was a bad idea, in hindsight. Jinx has a tendency to let her curiosity get the better of her, and the arcane crystals he was working with had been far from stable. Still, it was a minor explosion, no matter what the board of directors argued. He’d only had to replace the desk and repair one wall—all superficial, and no real structural damage. Jayce walked away with a concussion, and the girls thankfully didn’t have a scratch on them.
Heimerdinger had pushed for the end of his research, and it had been a close vote. Jayce was lucky to get away with a temporary suspension of lab work and much closer supervision in the future. And, well, no more guests in his lab. Jinx was apologetic about the whole thing, but it wasn’t really her fault. The crystals were unstable, and he hadn’t exactly warned her. And it wasn’t like she’d done it on purpose.
Still, it had been a major setback, and now less than a month later, Jayce is running into another problem. He’s never going to get anywhere at this rate. He’s put the journals and books he needs on hold, but the librarian had said that they weren’t due back for another two weeks. That’s two weeks Jayce can look forward to of twiddling his thumbs and running the same equations backwards and forwards trying to get them to make sense.
Jayce keys in the door code and lets himself into his lab. He gathers a few papers off of his desk and copies his work off of the chalkboard so he can erase it and start over. He’s already run these calculations what feels like a million times, but he starts over anyways.
There isn’t a lot else he can do, really.
Jayce tries to switch to rune studies while the other books are still unavailable. He doesn’t know why he bothers. Those books are gone, too, and Jayce is ready to start banging his head off of the library’s front desk.
The librarian looks sympathetic, at least. She’s been the one to help him most of the time, and she’s seen his frustration building over the last few weeks.
“Do you want this one on hold for you, too?” she asks. Jayce just hands over his library card. She scans it in for him and says, “You’ll get an email when it’s available for pick-up.”
“Thanks,” he says shortly but hopefully politely enough. It’s not her fault, he knows that. Still, it’s hard not to be annoyed. She gives him a commiserating pressed-lip smile and hands his card back.
“Anything else I can help you with?”
“No, thank you,” Jayce says.
He knows where the arcane literature is kept, for the most part, so instead of looking for specific articles, he decides to do some shelf browsing. It’s on the third floor, tucked away in a corner, and the gaps on the shelves aren’t encouraging. All the basics are there, but anything advanced is missing from the shelves. Jayce drops his head against the shelf and sighs. He might as well head home.
He drops by the graduate lab building to pick up his things, but he can’t get in. There are firetrucks pulled up around the front, and there’s a large crowd outside the building. Jayce turns to the person next to him to ask what’s going on.
“Heimerdinger’s TA started a fire in one of the labs again,” he says
Again?
“Bunsen burner got out of control?” Jayce asks.
“Laser, I think,” the guy says. Jayce thinks he’s joking for a second until he sees the serious look on his face. “It’s fine, I don’t think anyone got hurt. He’s pretty good with the fire extinguisher now.”
“Huh,” Jayce says.
The firemen let them in ten minutes later, and Jayce sees that one of the labs down the hallway is taped off with yellow caution tape. Probably just clean-up, now , he thinks. Maybe some minor damage. He’s heard about Heimerdinger’s TA before, but he’s never met the man. He’s basically a campus legend at this point, from the stories Jayce has heard. A few small fires, some particularly spectacular failures, some strange engineering builds. Jayce hears about him from the undergrads in Heimerdinger’s classes sometimes—Jinx and Ekko are in one of the classes—but no one seems to know too much about him outside of his work as a TA.
Jayce keys himself into his lab and grabs his things. He makes sure the door is locked behind him—habit, at this point—and turns to leave. Unfortunately, he walks directly into a man with a crutch who’s walking down the hallway, shouldering him into the wall and knocking the notebook out of his hands. The man just barely manages to stay on his feet.
“Shit,” Jayce says, “I’m so sorry, fuck, I wasn’t looking—”’
“It’s fine,” the man says, leaning against the wall and coughing. Jayce hopes he didn’t elbow the poor man in the gut.
Jayce leans down to pick up the notebook and hands it back, getting his first good look at the man. His brain short-circuits for a second. The guy is pretty —there’s no other word for the delicate lines of him. He’s slighter than Jayce, and a bit shorter, all long limbs and pale skin. He has a crutch propped under one arm, and a leg brace around his right leg. He has a mole high on his right cheekbone and another above his mouth, and brown unruly hair curling up at the edges. Even his hands are pretty, with long pianist fingers leading to wiry forearms that disappear under the cuffs of his striped dress shirt. He has sharp, stunning features and large dark circles under his eyes that make it look like he hasn’t slept in days. The thing that stands out to Jayce the most are his eyes. They’re such a rich amber that they look almost gold, even in the terrible artificial light of the hallway.
“Um,” Jayce says. He mentally shakes himself. “Sorry. Again. Completely my fault.”
“It’s fine,” the man repeats. He looks at Jayce like he’s waiting for something.
“Oh. Uh, I’m Jayce. Jayce Talis,” he says.
“I know who you are, Jayce Talis,” the man says in a soft accent. There’s a little smile at the edge of his mouth, and he sounds amused. “And you are blocking the hallway.”
“Oh,” Jayce says. “Right. Sorry.”
He shuffles out of the way and the man walks past him, towards the taped-off lab. He punches in a code on the door and he’s about to duck under the caution tape when Jayce blurts out, “Are you alright?”
The man pauses in the doorway.
“Excuse me?”
“The fire earlier,” Jayce says. “I mean, someone said Heimerdinger’s TA did something with a laser, and the lab’s all blocked off, and I didn’t know if it was really bad or—”
“I am fine,” he says, eyebrow raised, his head cocked to the side. “Thank you for asking.”
He steps into the lab and the door clicks shut behind him. Jayce stands there in the hallway staring at the closed door for longer than he’d like to admit to. Eventually, he gathers up his scattered thoughts and heads out for the day.
Two weeks later, Jayce finally— finally— gets ahold of the library material he had on hold.
“Someone’s eager,” the librarian says, smiling, when he comes first thing in the morning, barely an hour after he gets the email.
Jayce is grinning. He can’t help it. He’s so excited to finally be making progress. He’s even planning on scanning some of the articles with his printer at home in case he needs to reference things again. It’s going to take ages, but it’ll be worth it when the mysterious library patron won’t be able to block his research again.
The librarian goes to the shelf behind the front desk and finds the books and articles he’s been waiting for. There’s still a few that aren’t due back yet for his rune research, but he’ll take what he can get at this point. There’s enough here to keep him busy for the next while, and hopefully something in here will help him rework his stabilization theories. The equations have gotten him nowhere so far, so it’s time to work on some new variables.
Jayce grabs his stack of material and hightails it back to his lab, only stopping to pick up a coffee and a muffin from one of the million cafés on campus. He’s juggling the books and his breakfast so he can unlock his door when the pretty man from a couple weeks ago steps out of the other lab, leaning heavily on his crutch. Jayce almost drops his coffee.
“Hi! Uh, good morning,” Jayce says.
The man looks at him blankly. He blinks a few times, then says, “Hello. What day is it?”
“Um, Thursday?” Jayce says.
“Hmm. Alright.” He turns around and heads back into the lab, leaving Jayce standing, baffled, in the hallway.
“Okay,” he says.
He jams the books under one arm and manages to punch in the door code to let himself in. Jayce deposits his breakfast on the desk and dumps the books next to it. He settles in to work.
He spends all morning reading, noting down the pages he needs to scan when he gets home and jotting down the parts he thinks will help with his research. By lunch, he finally feels like he’s getting somewhere. He’s got a couple vague ideas on which parts of his equations he can start tweaking. Once he’s done that, he’ll be able to send some progress reports to Heimerdinger, if he’s made enough headway. It’s encouraging.
He takes a break late in the afternoon to stretch and get more coffee and maybe some lunch from one of the campus eateries. When he leaves the lab, he bumps into the pretty man again.
“Hi,” he says.
“Hello, Jayce Talis,” the man says.
Jayce feels himself flush. There’s something about the way the man says his name. His voice, maybe his accent. What can he say? He’s a sucker for a pretty face and a pretty voice. He’s reminded faintly of a time when he made fun of Vi for being a useless lesbian around Caitlyn and knows that she’s going to be a nightmare once she finds out about the pretty lab man. That’s what he gets for having friends, he guesses.
“Taking a break?” Jayce says when he realizes they’re heading the same direction. He might not be great at flirting, but he can definitely talk research, and sometimes that works out to the same thing for people like him. He can hope, anyways. Even if Caitlyn would call him a huge nerd for it.
“For now,” the pretty man says. “My prototype is proving…problematic.”
“I hope Heimerdinger’s TA isn’t working you too hard,” Jayce says. “I know some of the TAs can be kind of rough. He didn’t make you clean up the lab after the fire by yourself, right?”
The pretty man smiles.
“I am flattered you think me young enough to be an undergrad,” he says. “And I had help cleaning the lab, though I did most of it myself. It seemed only fair, considering it was my fault in the first place.”
Jayce frowns.
“He didn’t blame you for it, did he? Lab accidents happen sometimes, especially with prototypes. Even if you were using it at the time—”
“You misunderstand,” the man says. “It is my prototype. I am Heimerdinger’s TA. Honestly, I am surprised you did not recognize me.”
Jayce flushes.
“I’m so sorry. Just, we haven’t met before and I didn’t know—”
“We’ve met.”
Jayce’s mind grinds to a halt.
“Sorry?”
“We’ve met.” The man stops walking and turns to him, tilting his head to the side. Jayce stops too.
“No, I think I would remember,” he says, wracking his brain.
“Evidently not,” the man says. He seems amused rather than offended, thankfully. “After your lab…incident, I was part of the committee in charge of determining whether or not your research was safe to continue. I had my doubts, of course, but I suggested that Heimerdinger, as your thesis supervisor, keep a closer eye on your research going forward, and that we reassess as we went.”
“Oh.”
“I thought you knew who I was and you had been avoiding me, since the close supervision no doubt feels…suffocating to your progress. After all, you always meet with Heimerdinger without me. I assumed it was on purpose. ”
“I wasn’t avoiding you,” Jayce assures him quickly. He can’t understand having met this man before and not being able to remember it. He’d had a lot going on at the time, but still…
“Yes, I see that now,” the man says. He starts walking again. Jayce jolts back to attention and follows.
“Sorry,” he says, “I was pretty, uh, distracted at the time.”
“Understandable,” the man says.
“What’s your name again?”
The man stops again and looks at him.
“It’s Viktor.”
“Viktor,” Jayce repeats. “I’ll remember this time.”
“Eh, we will see,” Viktor says.
“No, I will,” Jayce says. They start walking again. Jayce is reluctant to let the conversation die, so he says, “So what are you working on?”
“Hmm?”
“The lasers,” Jayce says. “What are you working on?”
“Oh, yes. The lasers. It is an articulated claw arm with an attached laser component to aid in Zaunite mining operations, remotely controlled by a glove.”
“A claw,” Jayce says faintly, “with a laser attached.”
“Precisely. I am having…difficulties with finding a suitable power source at the moment. I want it to be mobile, but for the moment, I have not found a sufficient battery. The connection between the glove and the arm is also insufficient, I am thinking.”
“How strong is this laser?” Jayce thinks. If it’s for mining…
“Oh, very. It is capable of cutting through rock and metal,” Viktor says cheerfully. “Do not worry, the prototype laser I am using is much weaker. It is barely able to set paper on fire.”
Some of the pieces start to come together in Jayce’s mind, like a strange puzzle of some cartoon mad scientist.
“Is that what happened the other week?”
“Well, yes,” Viktor says. “I was demonstrating my progress to Professor Heimerdinger. He was mostly pleased until my notes caught fire. I am…working on the glove calibration.”
“Right. Of course,” Jayce says. He hopes it doesn’t come out as hysterically as it does in his head.
“And your research? Are you still having issues with stabilization of the crystals?”
They’ve reached the front door to the building, but Jayce freezes with his hand on the door handle.
“How do you know that?”
Viktor pushes past him and opens the door. He steps outside.
“I am in charge of supervising your research with Heimerdinger. Again, I thought you knew this.”
“Wha—no!” Jayce scrambles after him. “You’ve been following my research?”
“Yes, of course. Heimerdinger is still getting updated, hence your meetings with him, but I am doing most of the…legwork, as it were. It was all in the paperwork they gave you.”
The paperwork that Jayce had skimmed. The supervision hadn’t really been important to him at the time—just the fact that his research could continue. He’s been assuming that Professor Heimerdinger has been keeping up with everything on his own, but now it’s clear that it’s been Viktor all along. It’s impressive, really, that he’s been keeping up with Jayce’s work on top of all his other duties. It would require a lot of research, in fact, which probably means—
“It was you!”
Viktor turns to look at him, clearly baffled.
“Yes, I just told you—”
“Not that, the library! You’re the one that’s been taking out the books! Do you know how far behind I am because I had to put things on hold?”
Viktor blinks.
“It is a library, Jayce Talis. The point is to share knowledge, yes? And besides, how else was I to understand your research in order to effectively judge its safety?”
“You—What—That’s—”
“I have some ideas, actually, if you’re willing to discuss your research with me,” Viktor says, as if he hasn’t just presented the answer to the most infuriating mystery of Jayce’s academic career on a silver platter. He just continues walking towards the student hub, leaving Jayce standing in shock. Jayce hurries to catch up.
“What do you mean, ideas?”
“Exactly what I said. I have a few ideas that may help you improve your methods of stabilizing the crystal. If you are open to feedback at this stage, of course,” Viktor says. He looks at Jayce, brow raised.
Jayce stares back, floored.
Of course the most beautiful man he’s ever seen is the one supervising his research. Of course he’s brilliant enough to keep up with Jayce while working on his own projects, all while being the TA for a man with notoriously high standards. Of course the university thought highly enough of him to get his opinion on Jayce’s research. Of course he’s made himself so familiar with Jayce’s work that he can form theories of his own. Of course he’s the one who’s been driving Jayce absolutely up a wall for the last few weeks, waiting for all the literature he needs from the library to finally become available.
And of course the way he’s been accidentally cockblocking Jayce’s research isn’t enough to stop Jayce’s crush from going from just there to all-consuming in less than half a minute. Jayce is secure enough in his preferences to know that genius-level intelligence is right up there for him. If Viktor is as intelligent as he seems—which seems more and more likely the longer Jayce talks to him—he’s absolutely screwed.
Vi and Caitlyn can never find out how bad it’s gotten so quickly. He’ll never survive the teasing.
“I’ll think about it?” Jayce says. “I mean, yeah, yes. Uh, another day though? Maybe after I get those books on arcane runes from the library?”
“Oh, I have them back at my lab. You’re welcome to share so long as we return them before the due date.”
“Sure,” Jayce says weakly.
Viktor digs his phone out of his pocket and says, “Here. You can put your information in. I will text you when I get back to the lab after Heimerdinger’s class and you can pick up those books. We can decide on a meeting some time soon, if that works for you.”
“Yeah, okay,” Jayce says. He takes Viktor’s phone and puts his name and number in the contacts. He hands it back. Viktor fiddles with it for a moment, one-handed, and a second later, Jayce’s phone buzzes in his pocket.
“There,” Viktor says. “Now you have my number. I will see you later this afternoon, Jayce Talis.”
This time, when Viktor walks away, Jayce lets him go.
Later that afternoon, Jayce goes home with a stack of books on arcane runes and Viktor’s number in his phone.
Vi laughs so hard she falls off the couch. Caitlyn just sighs deeply, like she can’t believe she knows either of them. She drinks tea out of a paper to-go cup, long legs crossed and not a hair out of place. Jayce has never seen anyone look dignified and delicate with a paper cup of tea, but she manages. Her girlfriend—less dignified—shrieks with laughter on the floor of Jayce’s apartment.
“Shut up, Vi,” he says. “This is exactly why I didn’t want to tell you.”
“You got the hots for the campus cryptid,” Vi says, breathless from laughing.
“I’m sorry, the what?” says Caitlyn.
“Campus cryptid,” Vi says, wiping a tear from the corner of her eye. Jayce hates her a little bit.
“Alright, I’ll bite,” Jayce says. He puts down the coffee that Caitlyn brought for him. “What does that even mean? And you don’t even go to the university, how do you know this stuff?”
“Jinx and Ekko, duh,” Vi says, shuffling over on the floor so she can lean back on her girlfriend’s legs. “They’re in Heimerdinger’s second-year class. Oh, man, I can’t believe this. Viktor is a local legend. He’s started, like, three lab fires this year alone. Jinx said she wants to be him when she grows up.”
Now that’s alarming.
“I’m sorry,” Caitlyn says, “but how many lab fires can you even start without getting expelled?”
“At least three, apparently,” Jayce says. “Clearly, high-powered lasers are pretty good at lighting things on fire.”
“Oh, shit,” Vi says, “who gave the campus cryptid access to lasers ?”
“Why do you keep calling him that?” Caitlyn asks.
“He’s a rare sighting outside of the lab,” Vi says, mock-seriously. “Also, he’s insanely private. No one knows anything about him. Ekko said the guy doesn’t even have a last name.”
Caitlyn huffs and says, “Of course he has a last name. Everyone does.”
“Well, he doesn’t tell his students,” Vi points out. Jayce runs through his conversation with Viktor and realizes that he doesn’t know the man’s last name, either. Vi continues gleefully, “And now Jayce is in looooove with him.”
“I am not!” he says.
“You think he’s pretty, ” Vi says. “You want to kiss him. You want to suck his—”
“Vi!” Cait snaps.
“I didn’t say any of that,” Jayce protests. This, he’s sure about. He’s been very careful about what he’ll admit out loud.
“It was implied,” says Vi. “If you’re into him this fast, he’s clearly your type. And before you argue, you definitely have a type. It’s people who are pretty beyond reason and willing to take you down a peg. ”
“What? No!”
“Yes,” Caitlyn says. He turns to her, betrayed. It must show on his face, because she looks at him apologetically and says, “Sorry, Jayce. Just…you know. Mel.”
Jayce grumbles, but he can’t really argue. His ex-girlfriend certainly fits Vi’s profile. Absolutely stunning—with dark skin, delicate but bold features, and an impeccable fashion sense, it’s hard to deny that she’s one of the most beautiful women on the planet. She’s also fiercely independent, strong-willed, determined, and ambitious. They’re traits that Jayce can admit he finds wildly attractive in a partner, and Mel had drawn him in almost instantly. She also has absolutely no qualms about telling people what she thinks, either—good or bad.
He thinks about the way that Viktor says his name, with a hint of teasing for blocking his way. He also thinks about how blunt Viktor had been. How he essentially steamrolled Jayce for the entire length of their conversation, in full control. How he readily admitted to having doubts about Jayce’s research right to his face. Jayce can see where Vi is coming from, at least. Knocking him down a peg, indeed.
“I don’t know Viktor that well, anyways. Maybe he’s nothing like Mel,” he says. He’s lying through his teeth, he knows, but he’s not about to admit to anything. Not if Vi’s just going to laugh at him again. “And besides, there’s still the whole library thing, which was really annoying—”
“Oh, please,” Caitlyn says, waving a hand. “You’ve already forgiven him.—you’ve downgraded from homicidal to mildly irritated. You’ll be over it by the time you see him again tomorrow, especially since he’s been sharing the books.”
She gestures to the pile on his coffee table. It’s a mess of loose notes, old coffee cups, and a messy stack of books with note tabs sticking out of the sides. Jayce winces. Caitlyn has a point. He’d gotten to work as soon as he got home in the afternoon, until Vi and Caitlyn arrived bearing coffee and doughnuts. He’s taking a break now for their visit, but he’s got plans to keep working after. He might also send some pictures of his notes to Viktor later; they haven’t set up the meeting tomorrow for certain, but they’ve talked about it over text. He feels like he’s finally getting somewhere, and the giddy relief in getting something done is overpowering the remnants of annoyance from being at a standstill for so long. He wants to take advantage of the momentum and really get things going.
“So when’s the wedding?” Vi asks. Jayce reaches down from the couch to shove her shoulder. Vi, being approximately ninety percent muscle, barely budges.
“I dunno, when’s yours?” Jayce snarks back, and Vi and Caitlyn both flush.
“Shut up,” Vi says, smacking him in the shin from her place on the floor. “We’re talking about you and your big gay crush on Viktor the Cryptid.”
“Don’t call him that,” Jayce says, frowning.
Caitlyn, clearly recovered from her embarrassment, says, “You’re already defending him. Cute.” She smiles into her tea.
Jayce sighs and says, “Get out of my apartment. Both of you. I have work to do.”
“Oooh, gonna show off for your new boyfriend?” Vi says, hopping up and offering a hand to Caitlyn. She pulls her girlfriend to her feet. “Have fun. Let me know how your date goes.”
“It’s not a date!”
“Meeting, date, whichever,” Caitlyn says, slipping her boots back on. “Let me know how it goes, at least. You said he had ideas for your work. Maybe something will click for you.”
“I hope so,” Jayce sighs.
Vi shoves her arms through her jacket and says, “Good luck, man. Later!”
“Bye, Jayce.”
“Bye.”
Almost as soon as the door closes behind the two women, Jayce chugs back the rest of his coffee and pulls his notebook closer. Time to get to work.