#before everything went wrong

The air in the deeper levels of the Sump was thick enough to chew, a cocktail of sulfur and the metallic tang of wet rust. Down here, the sun was a myth, but the heat was very real.

Vander leaned against a jagged outcrop of rock, his chest heaving. They had just finished a run through a narrow Enforcer blockade, their lungs burning from the dash. Beside him, Silco was hunched over, his slender frame shaking as he tried to catch his breath. He looked fragile—all sharp angles and pale skin—but Vander knew better. Silco was the whetstone that kept Vander’s blunt force sharp.

Vander watched the way the dim green chem-light caught the sweat on Silco’s neck. A sudden, heavy impulse flared in his gut—a hunger that had nothing to do with food or freedom.

He reached out, his massive, calloused hand catching Silco by the jaw. He didn't pull him close, not yet. He just held him there, forcing Silco to look up at him.

"You’re getting reckless, Silco," Vander rumbled, his voice a low, tectonic vibration. "You take one more risk like that, and I won't be able to pull you back out."

Silco didn't flinch. He never did. A thin, jagged smirk played on his lips, and his eyes—the ones that hadn't yet been ruined by the toxic waters of the Pits—shimmered with a dangerous intelligence. "And here I thought you liked it when I made things interesting, Vander."

Vander’s grip tightened, his thumb pressing firmly against the hollow of Silco's throat. The power dynamic was clear—Vander could crush him with a single closing of his fist—but the way Silco leaned into the pressure told a different story.

"Careful, hound," Vander warned, his voice dropping to a dangerous, gravelly whisper. "You keep snapping at the leash, and you might find out exactly what happens when I stop holding back."

Silco’s breath hitched. To anyone else, it would have sounded like fear. To Vander, it sounded like an invitation.

"Is that a threat, Vander?" Silco breathed, his hand coming up to rest over Vander's pulse point on his wrist. "Or a promise?"

Vander’s eyes darkened. He saw the way Silco’s pupils dilated, the way he didn't pull away from the rough, intimidating heat of Vander’s presence. Silco loved it. He loved the danger of being handled by someone who could destroy him; he loved the feeling of being the only thing in the world capable of making the "Beast of the Lanes" lose his composure.

Vander groaned, a low, frustrated sound, and finally closed the distance, slamming Silco back against the cold stone wall.

"You’re going to be the death of me," Vander muttered against Silco's lips.

Silco’s eyes fluttered shut, his fingers digging into Vander’s leather sleeves. "Then let’s make it a long, slow death," he whispered back.

Vander didn’t give him the chance to say another word. He pressed his weight fully against Silco, the sheer mass of his frame pinning the smaller man into the unforgiving rock. The contrast was startling—Vander, all broad shoulders and heavy muscle, and Silco, a silhouette of elegant, dangerous fragility.

Silco’s head tilted back against the stone, a sharp gasp escaping him as Vander’s beard brushed against the sensitive skin of his neck. Vander wasn't being gentle; he was being territorial, his hands sliding from Silco’s jaw to grip his shoulders with a force that would have made anyone else beg for release.

"You think this is a game," Vander growled, his lips ghosting over Silco’s ear. "You think you can play with the fire in the Lanes and not get burned."

"I was born in the fire, Vander," Silco hissed, his voice strained but defiant. He reached up, his slender fingers tangling in the thick hair at the nape of Vander’s neck, pulling him closer instead of pushing him away. "Don't pretend you don't crave the heat as much as I do."

Vander’s resolve flickered. He hated how well Silco knew him. He hated that this sharp-tongued dreamer could see right through the "Hound" persona to the raw, aching want underneath.

He shifted his grip, one hand sliding down to Silco’s waist, hauling him upward until their hearts were hammering against one another in a frantic, syncopated rhythm. Silco wrapped a leg around Vander’s hip, a bold, possessive move that shattered the last of Vander’s restraint.

The kiss was less of a greeting and more of a collision. It tasted of iron, cheap tobacco, and the desperate, clenching hope of two men who knew they were living on borrowed time. Vander’s hands were everywhere—mapping the sharp lines of Silco’s ribs, the narrow curve of his spine—as if trying to memorize the man before the Undercity could take him away.

Silco made a low, needy sound in the back of his throat, his nails scratching against the leather of Vander’s vest. He loved the way Vander’s strength felt when it was directed solely at him—not as a protector, not as a leader, but as a man possessed. He wanted to be consumed by it.

"Tell me," Silco whispered against Vander’s lips, his breath hot and shallow. "Tell me you'll never let go."

Vander pulled back just an inch, his eyes dark and clouded with a fierce, terrifying loyalty. "I'll hold you until there's nothing left of either of us, Silco. You're stuck with the beast."

Silco smiled—a genuine, predatory flash of teeth. "Good. I've always preferred the monsters anyway."

Vander’s hands slid beneath the hem of Silco’s tattered shirt, his palms rough and searing against the pale skin of Silco’s back. He hiked Silco up further, pinning him firmly against the rock until Silco’s feet dangled off the ground. The air between them was thick with a heavy, magnetic tension—the kind that only exists between two people who have stared death in the face and decided to live for each other instead.

Silco’s fingers dug into Vander’s shoulders, his head falling back as Vander’s kisses turned more frantic, moving from his jaw to the pulse point at his throat. Silco was trembling, his composure finally fraying into something raw and hungry. He let out a shaky breath, his eyes half-closed, his forehead dropping against Vander’s.

"Vander..." he murmured, the name a jagged plea.

"I’ve got you," Vander rasped, his voice thick with a possessiveness that bordered on feral. He began to shift, his boots scuffing the gravel as he prepared to lift Silco and carry him deeper into the pitch-black alcove where the chem-lights couldn't reach. He wanted to peel back the layers of the revolutionary and find the man underneath, the one who only trembled like this when Vander’s hands were on him.

Silco’s eyes were blown wide, dark and hazy with a rare, terrifying vulnerability. He looked at Vander with a hunger that surpassed ideology or rebellion. In this half-light, they weren't leaders or legends. They were just two desperate souls trying to fuse together before the world tore them apart.

Vander’s hand moved to the small of Silco’s back, pulling him so close there wasn't room for a single doubt between them—

"VANDER! SILCO! YOU WON'T BELIEVE IT!"

The shrill, high-pitched shout echoed through the tunnel like a thunderclap.

In a panicked blur of motion, the two men practically repelled off each other. Vander dropped Silco so abruptly the smaller man stumbled, his boots hitting the puddle-strewn floor with a wet splash. Silco scrambled to straighten his vest, his face flushing a rare, deep crimson, while Vander spun around, smoothing his hair down with a hand that was still visibly shaking.

Two small blurs of energy came careening around the corner. Vi, her hair a messy shock of pink, was leading the charge, dragging a wide-eyed, blue-haired Powder by the hand.

"We found a crate!" Vi yelled, skidding to a halt and chest-heaving with excitement. "A real one! Topside scrap! Powder found a glowy thing that hums!"

"It was in the trash heap by the vents!" Powder added, her voice squeaky with pride. She held up a sparking, brass-cased hextech component. "Look!"

Vander cleared his throat, a sound like a landslide. He stood with his legs wide, trying to look like the stoic, immovable leader of the Lanes, but his chest was still heaving from the exertion of a very different kind of "activity."

"That’s... that’s great, girls," Vander managed, his voice an octave too high. He glanced at Silco, who was leaning against the wall with his arms crossed, his eyes fixed intensely on a very uninteresting patch of moss to avoid looking at anyone.

"Are you okay, Silco?" Vi asked, narrowing her eyes. "Your face is all... blotchy. Did you eat those bad mushrooms again?"

Silco let out a sharp, strangled sound—a laugh he tried to disguise as a cough. He covered his mouth with his hand, his shoulders shaking. "Just the... dust, Vi. The Sump is particularly foul today."

Vander bit the inside of his cheek, his own laughter bubbling up in his throat. He looked at Silco—the dangerous, calculating revolutionary—now looking like a schoolboy caught behind the woodshed.

"Go on, you two," Vander said, ushering the girls toward the ladder. "Take the 'humming thing' back to the shop. We’ll be right behind you. We were just... discussing strategy."

"Boring!" Vi shouted, already turning to run. "C'mon, Powder! Let's see if we can make it explode!"

As soon as the sound of their footsteps faded, the silence returned, heavier and far more ridiculous than before. Vander looked at Silco. Silco looked at Vander.

A snort escaped Vander’s nose, and then they both broke. Vander doubled over, a deep, booming belly laugh echoing off the walls, while Silco leaned his head against the stone and laughed until tears pricked his eyes.

"Careful, hound," Silco wheezed, wiping his eyes and pointing a finger at Vander. "Your 'strategy' almost got us caught."

"Shut up," Vander grinned, pulling Silco back into his space, though this time he kept a firm eye on the tunnel. "Let’s get home before they actually level the building."

The Last Drop was a haven of amber light and the smell of toasted malt, but tonight, the warmth felt hollow. Downstairs, Vi and Powder were huddled over a pile of scrap metal, their laughter muffled by the heavy floorboards. Upstairs, in the cramped office above the bar, the air was sharp with a different kind of heat.

Vander sat at the heavy oak table, his large hands wrapped around a mug of ale he hadn't touched. Across from him, Silco was pacing, his movements agitated and sharp, like a caged animal. On the table between them lay a map of the bridge, marked with ink stains that looked too much like dried blood.

"The Enforcers are pushing further into the Sump, Vander," Silco hissed, slamming a finger down on the map. "They’re choking us out. If we don’t strike now, while they’re overextended, we lose the momentum. We lose the Lanes."

Vander didn't look up. "And if we strike now, we lose more than momentum. We lose lives. I saw the look in those kids' eyes today, Silco. They think this is an adventure. They don't know what a Piltovan firing line looks like."

Silco stopped pacing, his eyes burning with a cold, frantic light. "I’m doing this for them! So Powder doesn't have to grow up eating iron-dust and hiding in shadows. We can't negotiate with a boot on our necks, Vander. You're becoming soft. The 'Beast' is growing old and fat on peace."

Vander stood up slowly, the chair scraping harshly against the wood. He loomed over Silco, the authority of the 'Hound' returning to his gaze. "I’m not soft. I’m responsible. There is a difference between a revolution and a massacre, and I won’t lead my people—or those girls—into the latter."

For a moment, the heat that had bound them together earlier turned into a searing friction. Silco stepped into Vander’s space, but there was no hunger in it this time—only a bitter, jagged disappointment.

"You promised me we'd change things," Silco whispered, his voice cracking with the weight of his conviction. "You held me in the dark and told me we were the future. Was that just talk to keep your 'hound' loyal?"

Vander’s expression faltered. He reached out to touch Silco’s arm, a reflex born of habit, but Silco flinched away. The rejection stung worse than a punch.

"Silco, listen to me—"

"I’ve listened enough," Silco snapped, heading for the door. He paused at the threshold, his silhouette sharp against the light from the hallway. "You’re so afraid of losing what we have that you’re going to let them take everything we could be."

He disappeared down the stairs, leaving Vander alone in the flickering lamplight.

A moment later, the floorboards creaked. Little Powder peeked her head into the room, clutching her humming hextech toy. "Vander? Why is Silco mad? Is he still blotchy from the mushrooms?"

Vander forced a smile that felt like it was breaking his face. He sat back down and patted his knee. "No, little bird. We’re just... talking strategy. Go back to Vi."

As she ran off, Vander looked back at the map. The ink was still wet. He could still feel the phantom heat of Silco’s touch on his skin, but for the first time, it felt like a warning instead of an invitation.

The air in the deeper vents of the Sump was so toxic it turned the torchlight a sickly, jaundiced yellow. Vander didn’t come down here anymore; he was too busy counting crates and playing father at the Last Drop. But Silco walked these tunnels like a ghost through its own grave.

In a hollowed-out cavern that smelled of rot and sharp, unfamiliar chemicals, a few shadows shifted. These weren't the "loyal hounds" of the Lanes. They were the desperate, the mutilated, and those with eyes that burned too bright.

"The big man is hesitant," a voice rasped from the dark. It was a man whose jaw was half-metal, a casualty of a Piltovan raid Vander had called a "necessary retreat."

Silco stood in the center of the circle, his hands folded neatly behind his back. He looked immaculate even in the grime. "Vander isn't hesitant," Silco corrected, his voice as smooth as silk and twice as dangerous. "He is stagnant. He has found a comfortable cage, and he’s forgotten that the bars are still there."

"So what do we do?" another voice hissed. "He controls the bridge. He controls the muscle."

"Muscle is just meat without a spark," Silco said. He pulled a small, glass vial from his pocket. Inside, a purple liquid swirled with an unnatural, bioluminescent life. It was a gift from a man named Singed—a man who understood that evolution required a little... agony. "Vander wants to wait for a peace that will never come. I intend to build a power that cannot be ignored."

He looked at the vial, then at the men gathered around him. He felt a pang in his chest—a ghost of the heat he’d felt earlier that day, pinned against a stone wall by the man he loved. But that heat was a distraction. It was a chain.

"Vander thinks he can save everyone," Silco whispered, more to himself than the others. "I am the only one willing to do what is necessary to save the Under City. Even if I have to save it from him."

One of the men stepped forward. "And if he finds out? If he sees us working with the alchemist?"

Silco’s expression didn't change, but his eyes turned cold—colder than the river water that would one day define them. "Vander sees what he wants to see. He sees a brother. He sees a partner. He doesn't see that the 'careful hound' has already bitten through the leash."

He handed the vial to the metal-jawed man. "Start the trials. We need a force that doesn't feel pain. Because when the bridge falls, Vander will realize that love is a luxury we can no longer afford."

As Silco climbed back up toward the Last Drop, he paused in the stairwell, listening to the sound of Vander’s deep, booming laughter from the bar. It was a beautiful sound. It was the sound of a world that was about to burn.

Silco wiped a stray smudge of purple residue from his glove and straightened his collar, stepping into the light to play his part.

Silco stepped into the office, the door clicking shut behind him with a finality that made his skin crawl. The scent of the purple serum still clung to his clothes—or perhaps it was just the phantom weight of it in his mind.

Vander was hunched over the ledger, the glow of a single lamp casting his shadow large against the wall. When he heard Silco, he didn't look up immediately. He just sighed, a long, weary sound that made Silco’s heart twist with a guilt he couldn't afford to feel.

"You’re back late," Vander rumbled. "The girls were asking for you. Vi thought you’d fallen into a fissure."

"Just clearing my head, Vander," Silco said, his voice a masterpiece of steady calm. He crossed the room, leaning against the desk with practiced ease. "The air in the Sump is better for thinking than the smoke in the bar."

Vander finally looked up. His eyes were tired, etched with the strain of holding a fractured world together, but they softened the moment they landed on Silco. "And? Did you think us into a better position? Or are we still at each other's throats?"

Silco forced a smile—the one he knew Vander loved, the one that looked like surrender. "Maybe I was wrong. Maybe we do need to wait. Piltovan steel is harder than I gave it credit for."

It was a lie. A beautiful, jagged lie wrapped in velvet.

Vander stood up, his massive frame dwarfing the room. He reached out, his hand sliding behind Silco’s neck, his thumb stroking the jawline he’d held so fiercely earlier that day. He pulled Silco in, not with the violence of the tunnels, but with a terrifying, earnest tenderness.

He pressed a slow, deep kiss to Silco’s lips. It tasted of home and safety—everything Silco was currently setting on fire.

"I'm glad to hear it," Vander whispered against his mouth, his breath warm and steady. He pulled back just enough to look Silco in the eye, his expression suddenly sharpening into something primal and protective. "Because I can't lose you to a war we can't win. You’re the only thing that keeps me human, Silco."

Vander’s grip tightened slightly, his eyes narrowing as if he could see the purple stains on Silco's soul.

"Careful, love," Vander warned, his voice a low, honeyed growl. "I know you. I know how you crave the edge. But if you fall, I go with you. Don’t do anything that would make me have to choose between you and the Lanes."

Silco felt a chill that had nothing to do with the damp air. He leaned into Vander's chest, hiding his face so his eyes wouldn't betray him. "I would never make you choose, Vander," he lied, his fingers digging into the leather of Vander's vest.