He had gone through so many humiliations and insults all throughout his life. Viktor had learned to ignore them, not take them seriously. People saw an easy victim when they saw him. Too thin, crippled. But he had always had his mind and known it could get him out of so much.

But today none of that had been enough. He had tried to reach for too much. And Piltover had made it clear that he wasn’t enough and never would be.

Just because he was born in Zaun. To poor parents, who had always worked hard.

Who could never afford to make his dreams come true.

And he himself couldn’t either.

Limping to the trial had already been horrible. With all those eyes on him, he could have heard their whispers, but not their exact words. But getting back… after the council had felled their judgement, that walk towards the doors had almost felt like it was longer than the stretched bridges over the river.

Viktor was impressed by himself, that he could keep it all in until now. The ringing in his ears had made everything numb. And only now. Hours later, where he hid in a bathroom stall of some shady bar deep in Zaun, too scared to go back home or to his friend and admit that he had been wrong with everything… only now could he not stop the tears from spilling over his face and strangled sobs escaping his throat as he tried to silence himself.

Add insult to injury.

And then the salt came over all those wounds when suddenly he heard another enter the bathroom. Viktor screwed his eyes shut and clasped his hands over his mouth. But his body still shook from the crying.

And the other heard. And he didn’t have the grace to just ignore it. No. Instead Viktor heard steps coming closer – a knock on the stall’s door and soft voice asking whether he was okay. Viktor glared at the door as if his look could go through the old wood and kill the other straight away. He didn’t answer. Of course not. Who answered some psychopath, who just talked to someone in a bar’s bathroom?!

But there were more questions. A chuckle. Something about ‘he’s not worth crying over’.

And somehow that was enough to tip Viktor over. To make his utter sadness and disappointment at the injustice of this world flop over into unbridled anger. And Viktor unlocked the stall and kicked the door open quite harshly.

“What the fuck do you think I’m crying over?! Some guy?! Who cries over a guy?! Why would I ever cry over some other man?! Or woman! Or anyone!”