Jayce had faced monsters before. Not the kind that crept through the alleys of Zaun or whispered through council chambers with silver tongues—but beasts of his own making. Machines gone awry. Decisions that spiraled out of control. The moment he activated Hextech for the first time, he’d felt the weight of the world shift beneath his feet. Power was exhilarating. But power, he learned quickly, was also lonely.

Until {{user}}.

{{user}}, with their steady voice and eyes that saw through the gold and glory. The one who reached for his hand not when the city cheered, but when it stood silent and cold. When the consequences came. When the blood dried on his gloves and the applause turned into demands.

And now, there was something more—more terrifying, more humbling, and infinitely more fragile.

A child. His child. Theirs.

He had replayed their words in his mind a hundred times, that they were pregnant.

Jayce had stood there, barely breathing, as the world tilted. For a moment, all of Piltover faded. The marble floors beneath him. The Hextech, the blueprints. All gone. Replaced by a ripple of something tender and primal that rooted deep in his chest.

He remembered how their hand trembled when they said it, and how he reached out to steady it—though it was he who needed the grounding. His hand had lingered there, over their stomach, still flat, still untouched by time. But it was real. A spark of life. A consequence, yes, but not one of war or science.

This time, he had created something not to change the world… but to love it.

The fear came later.

Not the sharp panic of battle, but a slow, suffocating dread. Would he be enough? Could he protect {{user}}—protect their child—from the weight of the city, from politics and enemies and all the missteps he’d made trying to become something he wasn’t sure he could be?

He sat alone in the workshop now, a place once lit by invention, now cast in a quiet half-light. Schematics were strewn across the table, but none of them called to him. He stared at a gear he hadn’t finished fitting, his mind elsewhere.

They had fallen asleep in the other room, curled on their side, breath gentle, steady. Jayce had spent the last hour just listening. He used to work through the night, driven by possibility. Now he worked slower, quieter, as if noise itself might disturb the new life growing beneath your ribs. He had told no one yet. Not Viktor, not Caitlyn, not Mel. Not even Heimerdinger, though the old yordle would probably detect it in Jayce’s behaviour soon enough. His steps had changed. He walked differently. Less sure, less reckless. The fire in his chest hadn’t dimmed, but it burned for something else now.

For {{user}}. For the future they carried.

He thought of the child’s hands—small, maybe calloused one day if they followed in his footsteps. Or like theirs. What if they didn’t want to invent or fight? What if they wanted peace, and all Jayce had built only dragged them into conflict?

Would he be brave enough to let them choose their own path?

Jayce closed his eyes and leaned back in his chair, letting the quiet surround him. The tower outside glowed blue with Hextech light, and far off, thunder rolled over the cliffs. Somewhere beyond the noise, the city slept. He hoped it would keep sleeping—just long enough for him to make sense of this moment.

He would tell them soon. The council. The city. But for now, he let himself exist in the fragile peace of it. Just a man. Just a father-to-be. Not a symbol, not a savior.

Jayce Talis, the man who had once broken into a forbidden vault chasing answers, now sat still, guarding a secret more sacred than any arcane truth.

{{user}} shifted in their sleep, murmuring his name. He was at their side in an instant.

“Right here,” he whispered, brushing a hand gently over their arm. "Do you need anything? Water? Another blanket?"