Okay, but hear me out: the failed timeline where Jayce couldn't take out Viktor + Ambessa's army is delayed somehow
Jayce is super apologetic and follows Viktor around like a lost puppy. Jayce is extra touchy-feely too and is confused as to where these feelings for his partner came from. Viktor says he can heal Jayce's leg, but complex feelings lead to "no".
He has to be held back when he finally sees Jinx, but is a little confused when he sees the little Vander clan (?) together. He also gets upset when he realizes that Viktor is dying again, but this time because he's giving too much.
He and Jinx are snarking at each other one day and they have some idea to help save Viktor and Vander. They're still super snarky but actually work really well together.
And they just manage to get their idea to work as Viktor is just managing to help Vander just as Ambessa's army shows up, but also Ekko and the Firelights show up. So most of the followers don't make it out, but the main group does.
They end up at the tree where it's a Helm's Deep moment where Vi and Cait somehow still meet up but Mel is the Gandolf here. She still faces off against her mother and sadly still wins. She's happy to see Jayce, though this makes him extra confused. And maybe they work it out between Viktor, Jayce, and Mel or maybe they have an otherwise amicable split where Mel still ends up as the Noxian leader but at least has a friend she can write to.
And maybe this is still a doomed timeline, but it's not the worst one.
And the worst part is knowing
That with my youth slipping away
I'll never get a second chance
At that young love
I'd yearned for
For so, so long
Always too quiet
Always too strange
Always disenchanted
A hopeless romantic
Cursed
Okay, but what if the forehead touch has been a normal thing for them once? Like, maybe it had tentatively started at or just before the Innovators Competition to help calm each other's nerves. One would see the other being nervous and give a little 'hey' and then a small neck touch and then casually lean in to touch foreheads and just breathe until they're better. Like, working on the gates (especially the gates), gloves, and laser would have been so stressful. But then the new council has pulled them apart, but at the very end when they had to face down the arcane together the forehead touch had been automatic for them...
It would be hilarious if Dylan is in Trouble did a First and Last of Arcane lol
1. Write out a list of jukebox musical songs
2. Sort them into a logical progression
3. Work out what scenes would best go between them
4. Take out the songs
5. ???
6. Profit
Only in my head
Do I see their full stories
Only in my head
Do I see them grow
Too slow are my hands
Too fast my wandering mind
When you dream of that person who is just the kind of wonderful for you,
But then you question what kind of person would dream about you
If Viktor had stayed after his reawakening, Jayce would have been so extra clingy. Just like, only away to get tea or something for only as long as necessary.