#hey i'm not making any money offa this and you can ignore it lol

[tradingjack]

Sorry to all the people who followed me for the cute Stray art, unfortunately I am into pathetic, cringefail league men lmao

I wrote this a while ago but I really like it still, which is incredibly rare for me, so I edited it a little and decided to post it here just to have (and also so you don't have to go through a bunch of other bs just to read it lmao).

2.7k words of [character study? fluff?] for an older Jayce. Mentions of other characters, and includes child OC. (No I don't know who Amaranthine is, came here from Arcane and making shit up as we go). CW: very brief death mention (of adult character), some language, but pretty damn tame by my standards :P

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Jayce had never seen himself being good with babies, and he’d been right. He’d be lying if he said it wasn’t the reason he’d been avoiding hanging out with Caitlyn for a little over a decade now. Babies were intolerable. They weren’t cute, they wailed and whined like stuck pigs for hours on end, and they smelled disgusting most of the time. Babies had no care for where their body fluids ended up, and Jayce swore babies had death wishes. If something looked like it could at least be mouthed on, a baby would stick it in its mouth.

On top of that, a baby had made Caitlyn almost as insufferable to be around as Jayce was. Jayce had been avoiding visiting her and Vi's home for that one reason.

So he was fairly surprised she’d approached him for babysitting.

“I don’t know anything about babies,” Jayce replied idly, not even looking up from his paperwork and figuring that would be enough of an answer.

“Colt isn’t a baby, Jayce, he’s thirteen years old,” Caitlyn sighed, crossing her arms. “And our regular babysitter is refusing to work with us anymore since Colt managed to get in the gun closet under their watch."

“I’m busy,” Jayce tried again.

“He’s a good kid, he can just… hang out in your office, or your lab—”

“You just said the last time you left him with a babysitter, he got into your gun closet.” He put his pen down after signing yet another document of some kind, maybe a little more forcefully than necessary, and leaned back in his chair with a sigh, glaring at Caitlyn. “My office is filled with important papers that I can’t let some baby ruin, and my lab is full of dangerous tools and prototypes. Just as bad as a gun closet.”

“Colt is thirteen, Jayce! Do you know what a thirteen year old looks like?”

"Why me?" Jayce snapped, crossing his arms. No, he wasn't about to admit he didn't exactly know what a thirteen year old looked like; as far as he was concerned, babies were babies until they were sixteen at the earliest. Even so, his point stood. "I'm not a babysitter, Caitlyn."

"But you're not doing anything for the rest of the week, Vi and I have been unable to find a babysitter in time, and I can't leave Colt alone for a whole week," Caitlyn listed off, counting each point on her fingers. "He's a smart kid, and can take care of himself for the most part. I just don't want him alone for the whole week. That'd be a little too irresponsible."

Jayce sighed, turning his glare to the table. "Why are you gonna be gone the whole week?"

Caitlyn raised an eyebrow. "They didn't tell you? Vi and I have some enforcer business in Zaun, and it's incredibly important." When Jayce side-eyed her, she rolled her eyes. "Nothing to do with the Machine Herald, it's on the other side of the fissure."

Jayce sunk into his seat, now pouting.

"You're not going to convince me otherwise by acting like a child yourself, Jayce," Caitlyn scoffed, flicking him on the forehead. "You've met Colt before, you know he's not a bad kid."

"He's a kid."

"And you're an adult, and one of my best friends. Please act like it for the next week, at least."

"He's not a fan, is he? Because I swear, Cait—"

"He's Vi's kid, of course he's not a fan. But he's also my kid, so he'll listen to you." Caitlyn grasped Jayce's shoulder, pleading with her eyes. "Please? Just for a week?"

Jayce sighed. He knew he'd been fucked as soon as she'd asked, but he'd been so bored he figured the argument would be worth it. "Because you said please," Jayce relented, placing his hand over hers on his shoulder.

He could feel Caitlyn's thankful grin burrowing into the side of his head, and couldn't help a small smile.

"If he dies, I'm not taking responsibility for it," Jayce called out as she walked towards the exit.

"You would kill yourself before you let another person die on your watch," Caitlyn replied, turning back briefly at the door. "I'll tell you the details later." 

And that was how he found a baby in his lab, blue-gray eyes turned to the floor and shuffling awkwardly on disproportionate, lanky limbs. He’d briefly met Colt Kiramman before, years ago when the kid was still just a tiny little thing, mostly just because he knew Caitlyn. Jayce had never really interacted with him much, though, and doubted Colt remembered him at all. 

"Babies aren't allowed to touch things without permission," Jayce started.

"I'm not a baby," the baby snapped.

"Great! Then you won't act like one, and you'll follow the rules, right?"

Colt glared at Jayce from under long lashes, wide eyes wary.

Jayce rolled his eyes. "Anyway, as I was saying. You can take a book from this—" Jayce gestured as he talked, "—this cubby, only, and you still have to be extremely, and I mean incredibly, careful with these books. You can't touch the other books. You can access the bathroom as needed, obviously, and you can use the kitchen, just don't touch any sharp shit or my leftovers."

"Did you just say the s-word?" Colt gasped, eyes somehow growing wider.

"Did you just interrupt me again? Pay attention, it's a word, who cares," Jayce tried his best not to yell. He'd forgotten he probably shouldn't curse in front of children, but it was too late, and the kid would hear it eventually anyway. "You can sit on the sofa, and…" Jayce turned to look around the lab for other places the kid could go. "... and that's it. Sofa, kitchen, bathroom. Got it?" he asked, turning back to the baby.

Who was looking through one of his notebooks on a nearby workbench.

"What did I just say?" Jayce barked, storming over to whack Colt's hands away.

"I just wanted to look. It's not gonna get destroyed cause I touched it," Colt frowned. "You're mean."

"And you're being a baby," Jayce replied, quickly shutting the book when he saw it'd been open to one of his old sketches of Viktor. No way the kid noticed it.

"Who's Viktor?" the kid asked.

"No one," Jayce replied, way too quickly. Damn nosy kid.

"Is he an imaginary friend? I thought only babies had imaginary friends," Colt said, way too smugly for a kid.

"He's a real person, and he's… dead now," Jayce said, eyes staring determinedly at the notebook he'd just closed. It was just because of the conversation he heard Viktor laughing at Jayce in the back of his mind, at how terrible a liar he'd always been.

Even the baby didn't look fooled, though it managed to stop him from pressing the subject.

"Just go… go sit on the sofa, or something. I'll buy food later."

"Can we get pizza?" Colt asked, immediately perking up.

"No. I have high cholesterol," Jayce replied dismissively, ignoring Colt's dejected pout and moving back to his workbench.

About twenty minutes later, Jayce heard Colt's whining drift over to him from the sofa. 

"I'm bored."

"New rule, unless you have something constructive to say or you're dying, no talking," Jayce yelled back over his shoulder.

"You're boring."

"Good. You can tell your mom that when she gets back."

"Which one?"

"Uhh. Your momma." He'd forgotten about that, but Caitlyn had told Jayce about it. Colt knew Caitlyn as momma, and Vi as just ma. "Make sure you tell her that, in fact."

"I will," Colt said, with as much vitriol as a little baby's voice could muster. "I don't like you and I'm not gonna come here tomorrow."

Jayce ignored him and continued to pore over his notes.

Two minutes later, he heard a crash from near the sofa.

"What the f— hell— ah, shit," Jayce cursed, swiveling in his chair to see what the fuck Colt had done.

Colt was standing ramrod straight, arms curled defensively over his chest, next to an old, oxidized machine he'd evidently knocked over while doing… whatever the hell he'd been doing. The machine had broken, rust crumbling on top of a dark gray fire blanket.

"I'm sorry, Mr. Talis! I didn't mean to, I was just—" the words tumbled out of Colt's mouth, clearly faster than he could think.

"Just what? What were you doing?" Jayce scowled, sighing. He didn't even recognize the machine, it didn't matter that it had broken, but gods damn it all, it was still dangerous. 

"I didn't think—"

"Yeah, that much was obvious." Jayce stomped over, glaring at the machine briefly before turning back towards the kid. "Are you hurt?"

"No. No," the kid muttered shakily, and Jayce realized Colt was near tears. "I–I didn't mean it, I—"

"Don't cry. Gods, please don't cry," Jayce said, frustrated. Damn it all. He put his head in a hand, thinking hard, before deciding to grab the kid's shoulder. "Hey, I'm more glad you're not hurt. Your moms would kill me."

"I didn't mean to break it," Colt whispered, wincing away from Jayce's touch. "I'm just bored."

Jayce sighed, clapping the kid's shoulder before removing his hand. "Yeah, me too."

"What? I thought you were working."

"I wasn't really. I've had my mind on… other things, like, uhh, science stuff."

"Like Viktor?" Colt asked. "For a grown-up, you're a really bad liar."

"I've been told that. Some people say it's an admirable quality," Jayce said distractedly, squatting next to the broken machine. Oh, he thought with a little melancholy. It was the anti-gravity field, the first machine he'd built with Viktor, 25 years ago, now. Gods, it had been 25 years, a quarter century. It was just a sad little machine now, doing its best at collecting rust.

"Viktor's not dead, is he?" Colt asked, copying Jayce's squat and poking at the machine.

Jayce swatted his hand away. "Stop that, you'll get tetanus."

"I'm up to date on all my immunizations," Colt automatically replied.

"Say that a lot, do you?"

In the corner of his eye, he saw Colt flush a little, finger tracing a pattern on the floor instead. "So?"

"Just an observation," Jayce quietly replied. The kid probably gave his moms the runaround, and that was saying something, especially with what Jayce knew of Caitlyn when she was a kid. Perhaps it was deserved. Councilor Kiramman would definitely say so. And based on what he knew of Vi, she probably deserved it too.

"Well, it means I won't get tetanus."

"You could still slice your finger open. I don't think anyone wants that."

"You're touching it."

"I made it, I think I'm allowed to."

"You made that?" the kid asked, openly staring at Jayce now.

"Yes, I did." Jayce smiled as he allowed himself to say a phrase he hadn't been able to say for many years. "I made it with Viktor."

"Oh, okay." Colt shifted a little bit, clearly tired of squatting. 

Jayce decided he was too. He stood, stretching his back briefly, and then threw the old fire blanket over the machine as Colt stood up next to him, also stretching. 

"You don't like me," Colt stated flatly, watching Jayce bend down to pick up the broken machine under the fire blanket.

"Yeah, I just don't really like kids," Jayce grunted. He carried the machine over to a nearby workbench, setting it down with a crunch. "Not a whole lot to talk about with y'all."

"Why not?"

Jayce sighed. "You're aware of who I am."

"Yeah."

"Do you know the first thing about how Hextech works?"

Colt blinked owlishly at him. "Well… the gates are made from Hextech."

"Do you know the basic resonance formula for a Hexite crystal? Or what any runes mean?"

"No, but—"

"That's what I thought," Jayce interrupted haughtily. He lowered the fire blanket carefully around the rusty apparatus. The runes had eroded, crystal long gone from the center of the machine, hastily drilled-on clamps at the base hanging off the machine, unstable and unusable.

"I could know. They don't teach us that in school, though," Colt frowned. "They taught us a new formula in math class today, but it was just for triangles or something."

"You should pay attention in school. Those things are important," Jayce idly replied, gears turning in his head as he surveyed the machine. He was stuck with this kid for several hours yet, and they were both bored after just thirty minutes. Maybe… "In the meantime, you did break this."

"I said I was sorry," Colt immediately whined.

"Sorry isn't gonna fix this. How about you help me fix it?"

"That sounds boring."

"Shouldn't have broken it, then. Here, help me carry some new metal over. We'll have to replace some of these parts," Jayce said, placing his hand on Colt's back in a way that allowed no argument. The kid very smartly didn't argue.

Jayce found himself walking Colt through the whole process of fixing the machine, helping him screw things in place and making sure safety gear was secured before doing more heavy-duty things like welding. He told the kid about the runes he used as he carved them into new small metal plates, and that he and Viktor had almost no idea what the runes had meant when they'd first made the machine. Jayce even remembered rope, tying both him and Colt to the workbench and telling the kid about how the first time the machine worked, he and Viktor had been stuck floating in the air for a while.

It was kinda fun, and the kid hadn't complained through the whole process.

In fact, Colt even looked a little excited, and his eyes glowed with wonder as he looked at a Gemstone Jayce had handed him.

"My ma has two of these, but she never lets me touch them," Colt murmured, glancing up at Jayce like he was scared Jayce was going to take the Gemstone back now.

Jayce snorted. "Your ma's gonna bang up those Gemstones way more than you ever could." He gestured at the machine, not quite as good as new, but definitely functional (and a lot more safe now that Jayce had many more years of knowledge when it came to Hextech). The socket in the middle of the machine, dusted and fixed, seemed to be waiting impatiently for connection. "Go ahead and power it on."

"I just place this…?" Colt quietly asked, staring at the socket and hesitantly holding out the Gemstone.

"Yeah. Drop it in." Jayce quickly tugged on the rope around his wrist, making sure it was secure.

Colt quickly dropped the Gemstone into the socket and then yanked his hand back towards himself, hugging it to his chest and staring at the apparatus with wide eyes. Jayce gave a small smile as the machine powered on, arcs of blue energy surging through wires and rune plates twirling, the hum of electricity and magic filling the lab for the first time in weeks.

"Whoa," Colt murmured, staring at the machine.

"We're not even at the good part, kiddo," Jayce smirked. "Good job fixing it up."

"Thanks."

"Wanna power it on?"

The kid stared at Jayce, uncertainty in his eyes, like he didn't know whether he was supposed to agree or disagree.

"Well, I wanna power it on. It's been a while," Jayce shrugged, going to move the dial on the machine. It was stiffer than he remembered, and it clicked as it turned now, but the spell was still smoothly cast. His movements were practiced now, years of casting through Hexite ingrained in his muscle memory. The wave swept through him, much more gently than it had been decades ago, and he felt the familiar weightlessness lift him from the floor.

Colt giddily laughed, waving all his limbs around freely in the air. "This is so freakin' cool!" he whooped, voice echoing towards the ceiling.

Jayce sighed, a wide smile settling on his face for the first time in much too long. He hadn't seen the wonder of discovery in someone's eyes like that for years. 

Maybe the week of babysitting wouldn't be so bad after all, as long as Colt Kiramman could keep his mouth shut.