The first time you stepped into the lab, following behind Jayce as he showed you where you'd be working for the foreseeable future, Viktor already knew.

The way you carried yourself. The added stitches in your clothes, tailored to fit you better, similar to the ones he had. The way your voice was almost imperceptibly strained, as if you were trying to change its pitch, a little detail that would have passed unnoticed to anyone that didn't do the exact same thing. You passed well, as well as he did, but still not enough for him to be able to clock you.

Oh, Viktor knew. And he was pretty sure you knew about him too.

So one day, when he was working in the lab in parallel with you, he shot you a tentative glance and cleared his throat, getting ready to ask the question that had been on his mind for a while now. "So... how long?"