two birds | arcane viktor ♡

golden eyes

"Are you sure you know what you're doing?"

"Come on, Vik. We've been doing this for days, of course I know what I'm doing, you taught me!"

"Err, well, that's kind of the wrong-"

They both screamed, jumping back as the small machine exploded, the boom was loud enough to scare the birds into flying away, Ica covering her face thankful she pulled herself away a millisecond faster before it could blow her up. She stood up and, for a few seconds, froze on her spot, her head turning to look for something—anything—to stop the growing fire on their poor little invention.

Viktor scrambled away from it, covering his nose to avoid inhaling the smoke, he might already have enough toxins in his lungs to pollute a whole city but he still didn't want to risk getting more. He broke eye contact with the fire to watch his friend grab a small bucket, hurrying to the river on the side, using it to fill itself of the chemical-filled water then running back to where he was.

"No no no no!" He exclaimed, waving his hands in desperation of stopping her. But it was too late, as soon as she threw the water it immediately bursted into large flames. "Ica!"

She had her hands on her head, yelling out words he couldn't understand, and will not bother to understand as he does not have time to sit still as his bestfriend stands beside the fire, close enough that if the fire had arms it would be able to reach her.

He groaned and pushed himself up, limping closer to get his cane and grabbing her hand to drag her away from it, pulling harder when she resisted, her free arm stretched out to reach for the burning invention. "Stop! Get away from it!"

They now sat on the moss covered tower, Viktor's legs dangling on the ledge, watching their invention burn down like butter. He let out an exaggerated sigh, pinching the bridge of his nose as his upper body shakes along with his friend's dramatic sobbing on his back, her arms wrapped tightly around his stomach like he was some sort of emotional support animal.

"I'm so sorry." She cried out loud. "I keep messing it up, it's not my intention to mess everything up! I swear I didn't mean to!"

Ugh, I can't believe this. He only wanted to finish something so he could figure out what to present for the contest, but his own bestfriend's making it harder for him. Why is this happening to me.

"It's okay," he told her this probably the hundredth time this week, repeating the same phrase he would say after. "You have no reason to blame yourself, it is only normal to keep failing until we can figure out how to succeed."

She cried harder. "I wasted all our materials, I'm sorry. We have used everything that we have, there's nothing now. Nothing! Everything, gone!"

He deadpanned, he couldn't even feel any tears wetting his shirt, her sobs were as dry as his dad's skin. He wasn't oblivious to her plan. It's almost been a month, her school break had ended a week ago, and ever since school started for her, somehow their projects started getting sabotaged. By who? Ica, of course. But he wouldn't admit that out loud, even though he figured out it's been her plan ever since the second explosion. It was tiring, having to keep creating new projects every week because of this.

The reason she did this was to force him to give up and finally accept her offer in going all the way to her school in Piltover to have access to unlimited materials they need. In reality, it's just Ica getting tired of bringing heavy pieces of metals and rocks to Zaun, it was hard for him to ignore her complaining when it's the first thing she does as soon as she enters the shop. He understands her exhaustion, so he has no other choices.

He waited patiently until she decided to calm down (only took a minute because she was faking it anyway), from where they were he could see how the fire on their—once identifiable— invention was now gone, the only thing left was a smoking molten metal, compared to itself an hour ago, it's basically nothing now. Another heavy sigh escaped his lips, he looked over his shoulder, the top of her head was the only thing he could see.