Archive of Our Own

Jayce has no idea how they even got here. One minute he and Viktor are bantering in their usual fashion as they tidy up the lab for the evening before clocking out, Jayce making a crack about something dorky that no one but him would ever laugh at.

But then Viktor laughs, and looks up at him with half-lidded amber eyes and cheeks flushed pink, looking so sweet and enticing and adorable on a Friday at seven pm, and so Jayce thinks oh what the hell, and kisses him.

And then the world goes still.

Viktor, frozen stiff against him, his mouth dry and closed. No reaction at all.

Fuck my life, Jayce thinks, already ready to step back and apologise for misreading the moment, to grovel if he has to.

And then Viktor melts, and opens his mouth to brush his cute little tongue against Jayce’s lips.

Viktor kisses him back. Viktor stands up on his tippy toes to kiss him back, and slides a slim hand onto his shoulder for balance.

Viktor is kissing him back and it’s the most wonderful thing in the world. The least Jayce can do is make it worth his time.

So he responds in kind, licks into Viktor’s open mouth and sucks on his tongue, the other man making an embarrassingly high-pitched noise when he does so. What?

Jayce also does something he’s wanted to do for months, and wraps his hands around Viktor’s waist, high-fiving himself in his mind when his fingers overlap like he’d expected. God, what’s wrong with me?

Most days? Everything. But right now he’s flying high, if dangerously close to the sun and -

“Air, Jayce,” Viktor wheezes as he breaks off their kiss and pants against the side of his neck. “Janna, my dear, you are going to steal the breath right out of my lungs.”

My dear. Now that’s a first. Jayce’s heart grows three times bigger at the endearment; he’s never been a dear to anyone before.

He lets Viktor catch his breath, nuzzling his hair in the meantime. It smells like cucumber. Must be his shampoo. Good scent.

Finally, when Jayce can no longer feel Viktor’s lungs rattling in excitement against his own, he presses a kiss onto the man’s temple and asks, “You good?”

“Mmm.” Viktor looks up at him with a dazed smile, mouth thoroughly kissed and pink. “Good… very good. But.” He raises a brow. “I did not even know you felt that way about me, Jayce. When did it start?”

“I’ve got no clue myself,” Jayce answers truthfully. “Just… that I’ve wanted to kiss you for a while now. And tonight I finally worked up the nerve to do that.”

And for no real reason too, save that he simply felt like it. Huh.

“... hm.” Viktor’s smile fades into thoughtful consideration. He doesn’t look unhappy with that answer, but he doesn’t look entirely settled with it either.

And the last thing Jayce wants is some dumb misunderstanding between them, not when he’s finally found someone who gets him.

Viktor has been true to him since the day they became partners. Jayce will never forgive himself if he can’t do the same.

“Hey,” he says, nosing into the man’s cheek and receiving a squeak in response. Shit, that’s cute. “I haven’t just been lusting after your hot bod the whole time either.” Viktor chokes, but Jayce just keeps going. “You’re brilliant, Viktor. You’re smart as hell, you know so much about everything under the sun, and you’re great with your hands.” Ugh, he’s getting off track. “You’re also funny and sweet and nice, and…” He lets out a huge exhale. “I wouldn’t even be here if not for you. You know?“

Viktor is already in his grasp, but Jayce takes the opportunity to hug him properly, until Viktor is fully ensconced in his arms and unable to escape, not that he seems particularly inclined to do that.

“You mean the world to me,” Jayce whispers. “So… thank you. For being here with me.”

The other man doesn’t respond at first, though his face and ears are ferociously pink when Jayce looks down at him with hope in his heart.

Instead, a slender hand slips round to his back and runs up and down his spine. Slowly. Shyly. As if unsure that it’s the right thing to do.

It is.

“I…” Viktor croaks, then winces and clears his throat to start over.

“I feel the same way, Jayce,” he says in a soft voice, and Jayce’s heart does a backflip. “You’ve also changed my life for the better… in innumerable ways. I am happier than I ever thought possible when I am with you.”

“Yeah?” He may or may not be close to passing out.

“Decisively, yes,” Viktor says wryly. “You know by now how I felt about being an assistant. Heimerdinger treated me well, but that did not mean I had the liberty for anything beyond tedious office work. Beyond running errands and marking insipid papers all day long, I didn’t know when or how I would get to ever actually be a scientist… to help people.” His whole body trembles with emotion as he speaks.

And then he adds, in a voice so quiet only Jayce can hear it, “You say I saved your life that night… and while I won’t contest that, you must know that you saved me back then as well. Saved me from a life of inconsequence, of living like a speck on the wind. I think - ”

He cuts himself off, shooting Jayce a wide-eyed look before swallowing whatever lump of nerves is holding him back to continue. “I think I was not living at all either before I met you. I was simply… on standby, as it were.”

“And then we met,” Jayce rasps.

“Yes,” Viktor says. “Exactly.”

And leans up to press a soft kiss against his cheek.

It’s all Jayce can do to just hold onto him after a speech like that, even though his heart is beating a thousand beats per minute and his body’s on fire.

I saved his life too. It isn’t one-sided.

This is the best day of my fucking life.

“Viktor,” Jayce chokes out before he starts crying and makes a fool of himself. “I love you. Tell me you feel the same way, please.” His heart will cave in on itself otherwise.

“I do.” Viktor laughs with damp eyes. “I love you, Jayce Talis, beyond reason and sanity and all that is good and holy. I wish for nothing more than to spend the rest of my life by your side.”

“Good idea,” he breathes in. “Be mine, Viktor. I’ll love you more than anyone else ever could. ”

“Silly man,” Viktor says, hands reaching up to cup his face. “No one has ever wanted me like you do. You and you alone, are welcome to every part of me, to eat me up and leave nothing but bones after. Now wouldn’t that be something.”

Jayce’s dick jumps to life in a heartbeat. Now there’s an idea.

“Keep saying that and I might actually do it,” he groans. “Baby, you have no idea what you do to me…”

“Baby?” Viktor tries to take a step back in disbelief and doesn’t budge an inch with Jayce’s arms around him. “But I’m older than you. Wait, Jayce, how old do you think I am?”

And all Jayce can do in response is laugh.

*

But yes, they actually have to leave the lab soon or risk getting locked in overnight with the janitors.

“Stay over at my place tonight,” Jayce ends up pleading as they’re making their way out of the building.

“What for?” Viktor feigns cluelessness about the implications of his proposal, though he’s failing badly to keep his smile in check.

“Oh, you know,” he murmurs, pitching his voice low and slow to the man’s ear. “Since we’re official now. We should do something to… celebrate.”

“My - my place is closer,” Viktor says with studied effort to stay aloof.

“V, come on.” Jayce pouts at the idea of trying to canoodle in his partner’s shoebox of an apartment. “Your bed is a single.”

“And? It fits me just fine.”

No shit it does. Viktor is - to put it politely - petite as fuck, his brow the same height as Jayce’s chin on a good day. Of course the measly single bed in his cramped faculty dorm fits him just fine.

The last time Jayce fit comfortably in a single-sized bed he was twelve. Then came the first of many embarrassing growth spurts, and other pre-glow up horrors he never wants to acknowledge again.

“My bed,” Jayce says, “can actually fit two grown men on it. And it has a mattress protector. Just saying.”

Viktor opens his mouth to say something, doesn’t, then lets out a sigh and rubs his nose.

“You are…” he mumbles, not quite looking at him anymore, “intent on having your way with me tonight, no?”

“I’d like that, yeah,” Jayce says, then bites down on his tongue. Try again, dumbass. You sound like such a creep right now. “I mean - not necessarily? We can just hang out on the couch too.” And cuddle, the less perverted but no less needy part of his mind offers. “I could make dinner.”

“Dinner.” Viktor sounds amused. “Such a gentleman you are, Mr Talis. Well. In that case, how can I possibly decline?”

He looks up at Jayce through his lashes, shy smile on hand, and it takes all the willpower he has to not drag him into some random hall closet and defile him right then and there. Get a hold of yourself. He’s your partner, not a chew toy.

“Okay,” Jayce says, heart finally beginning to settle down now that their evening is set. “Then let’s get out of here.”

*

They stop by Viktor’s place beforehand so he can take an overnight bag, since it’s only a five minute walk from the lab, and he’ll need his toothbrush.

(Among other things.)

Viktor, rather conveniently for his morning commute, still lives in the Academy faculty housing he’d earned as part of his benefits package when he worked for Heimerdinger, electing not to move out even after the change in job position also came with a considerable bump in salary.

“You know how rental prices are in the city,” he’d said once, when Jayce asked why he didn’t move into somewhere more spacious now that he had the means. “Even if I found a place that suited me, I’d likely be on the waiting list for years. No point going through such fuss for nothing. I’ll stay here until the administrators get fed up and evict me to give my place to some poor adjunct, hm?”

And well, fair enough. Jayce has a sweetheart deal on his own apartment - the same one he blew up two years ago, by the way - because his whole building is owned by the Kirammans, and even though they don’t directly subsidize him anymore, they’re still his biggest backer… if proven to be an unreliable one.

(Not that it annoys him or anything.)

Jayce stays out in the hallway as Viktor gets his things, because his apartment is small and cramped and consists of 70% books, and he’d prefer not to knock anything over in his current wayward state of mind.

Its easy proximity to the lab means Jayce is no stranger to visits, often only to borrow a book for reference, but sometimes also for dinners and nights over when the prospect of trekking back to his own place at one in the morning is too depressing to endure. Viktor’s sofa does fold out into a bed for guests, albeit it’s still a Viktor-sized sofa bed and Jayce has not been remotely close to being Viktor-sized since he was fourteen. He makes do when he sleeps over anyway.

He hasn’t been back at my place since that long night, he muses. After the wondrous breakthrough in Heimerdinger’s office, Jayce had briefly moved back in with his mother while his apartment was patched up. Since then, he and Viktor have spent almost their entire lives at the lab or on Academy grounds as a whole. Jayce’s apartment, while in the Academy District itself, lies outside the invisible boundary of their stomping grounds, the small space they’ve carved out in the world and call theirs.

Until now. Viktor… is actually coming back to Jayce’s apartment with him, and this time not as a bureaucrat cleaning up loose ends, an interloper, but as a welcome and much treasured guest.

He’ll be coming as my partner, Jayce thinks fondly, and grins when Viktor pops back into the hallway after only a few minutes gone and with an aged leather satchel in hand.

“Let me get that for you,” he says, taking the satchel and slinging it over his shoulder, as Viktor just smiles and lets him.

“Your gentlemanly nature never ceases to amaze,” he remarks as they head towards the elevator, Jayce sliding a hand on his back to keep him close. “Have you always been like this? Or is this something you were trained to do as a member of a House?”

“Well…” Jayce considers the idea as they enter the elevator and he presses the button for the ground floor. Thinking of the many social events he and his mother were invited to by the Kirammans over the years, where Jayce was both a guest like any other, yet also the family’s pseudo-representative on account of them being his scholarly patron. Even as a youth and a fellow member of Piltover high society (for whatever good the Talis name was worth back then), those gatherings had taught him better than any formal instruction ever could. Behave or else, Jayce Talis. Your family’s fortunes depends on it.

“It’s not like I had any proper etiquette lessons, no,” he says, in response to Viktor’s curiosity and inquisitive gaze. “Just that I’ve lived in a position for most of my life where it pays to behave a certain way. The way someone like me should.” He chuckles with slightly more cynical energy than he wants to let out, then adds, “I mean, I wouldn’t have a relationship with Cait if her parents didn’t trust me to be responsible around her - to set a good example for her.”

And still he’d nearly gotten her killed. Sometimes it keeps him awake at night, when he thinks about how if that day had turned out a little differently - if she’d skipped ahead of him like she loved to do, when the explosion occurred - she was small too, and didn’t have as thick a skull as Jayce did, and -

“You are very good to her, Jayce,” Viktor says, squeezing his hand to reassure him. He’d met Cait before, when the girl visited their lab only a few weeks after they’d moved in themselves, had been patient and kind throughout her visit and answered her many probing questions with the wisdom of a veteran teacher’s assistant. He knows how much she means to Jayce and vice versa. “And I do not think it is merely out of obligation, either.”

“No,” Jayce says as the elevator comes to their stop and the door rattles open for them. “It’s not.”

Viktor steps out first, with a muffled thud of his cane on the lobby carpet. “You are also, I hope it is obvious, very good to me,” he adds when Jayce joins him. “And happily, it seems to have paid off dividends for both of us.”

Jayce snorts. Now that’s one way to put it.

“That’s not out of mere obligation either,” he murmurs, sliding his arm around Viktor’s waist as they leave the apartment building and towards the street leading to his own. “When it comes to you, I just… like to help. It feels good. It feels good when you let me help you, too.”

“Ah,” Viktor says, with a tone of deepest understanding. “So it’s a matter of self-interest and satisfaction, then.” He elbows Jayce with all the kinetic force of a three-pound kitten at play. “I should have known you were using me.”

“Yeah, yeah,” Jayce grouses. “Self-interest and satisfaction, that’s me alright.”

“Well, if you say so,” Viktor says, and breaks into fits of giggles for the rest of the walk home.

*

“Oh, Jayce. You’ve really turned this place around.”

Viktor looks around Jayce’s apartment with an admiring glance when they step inside, which is much neater and sharper-looking than the last time he was here, but then he winces and massages his right thigh, leaning heavily on his cane as he tries to stay standing.

“Hey, hey.” Jayce is on him immediately, ushering him to sit on the couch in the spacious room that was once his workshop, but is now just his parlour and home library. “Take a breather.”

“You should sit down too,” Viktor says in a wan voice, when Jayce kneels to take his shoes off for him and deposits them by the entrance. Such an act is probably too intimate at this stage in their relationship, but he can’t be bothered to care and Viktor doesn’t seem to either, just watches him with those huge amber eyes and tucks his good leg in under himself as he stretches out the other.

“I’m not tired yet,” Jayce says. “Want me to massage your leg for you?”

He sees the shape of Viktor’s mouth forming an instinctive yes before he stops himself (why?), swallows, then says, breathless, “I am but a frog in a simmering pot on a stove on medium heat.”

“What?”

“Nothing, my dear, it is nothing.” Viktor waves his hand about, not quite looking at him. “I, um, do not need you to do that, thank you. But,” he adds, when Jayce looks discouraged. “I am, ah, peckish? Hungry? You did mention dinner earlier.”

“I did.” Jayce smiles, grateful his cooking skills have advanced beyond sandwiches and charcuterie and crudités in the past couple of years. “It’ll be good, I promise. Just take it easy until it’s done.”

“I will,” Viktor says shyly. “Jayce?”

“Yeah?”

“I… would like to kiss you again.” The man worries at his bottom lip. “If that’s alright with you.“

“Definitely more than alright,” Jayce rasps as he surges forward. “Shit. You don’t ever have to ask.”

“I do. I mean, I should,” Viktor says, blushing as Jayce cups the back of his head and they kiss again. “I never want to presume. Even if - mmph - “ His sweet voice dissolves into a moan when Jayce probes into his mouth and finds a sweet and eager tongue within.

It’s frighteningly tempting to stay like this and keep going until Viktor is putty in his arms and Jayce’s dick is freed from the torment of his trousers, but he can’t. He just can’t.

It’s not gentlemanly, for one. It’s also not how he wants their first time to go down, rough and sloppy and happenstance on the couch like they’re a pair of rutting teenagers.

He wants them to be rough and sloppy and deliberate in his bed like a pair of adults, thanks.

So he pulls back, much as it kills him, and tries to play it cool while Viktor blinks repeatedly in a daze and brushes his now cutely reddened mouth with his fingers.

“I’m, uh,” Jayce swallows. “Gonna go now. Hope you like some good old-fashioned Talis home cooking, yeah?”

“I do,” Viktor says numbly, and just lays there on the couch while he flees.

*

Jayce gets a precious five minutes to calm the hell down, rummage through his fridge to see what’s available to work with, and start washing and prepping vegetables, before Viktor soon makes his presence known by subtly tapping the black-and-white tile of the floor with his cane and enters the kitchen.

“So,” he says with transparently fake airy calm as Jayce stops chopping some carrot and onion to watch him. “What’s for dinner?”

Jayce finds himself grinning just at the sight of Viktor in his small, narrow kitchen, which is far more Viktor-sized than Jayce-sized to begin with. It’s not fit for proper dining in, only a small table and two chairs propped up against a bare wall for when Jayce is eating on his own. Viktor elects not to sit down, however, instead choosing to peek around Jayce to see what he’s working with on the counter.

“I’m making steak and roast veggies,” Jayce says, glad he still had fresh meat left in the fridge for Viktor, who is almost always iron-deficient on account of living almost entirely on bread and soup and coffee. “That sound good?”

“Very good, yes.” Viktor’s gaze sparkles when it falls upon a slab of raw meat resting on a plate with a generous dousing of salt and freshly cracked black pepper. “I’d like extra roast garlic on my plate, thank you.”

“Oh yeah?” Jayce is amused; Viktor is an endless fiend for roast garlic. “I’ll put another head in the roasting pan for you then.”

“Delightful. May I help with anything?”

“I’m good, thanks. You just take it easy until I’m done.” He thinks about it, then reconsiders. “Wait. A glass of red wine would be great about now, actually.”

“We haven’t even started dinner yet and you are already drinking,” Viktor teases as he opens an upper cabinet Jayce pointed to and takes out an unopened bottle of wine.

“As if you’re any better,” he scoffs as Viktor uncorks the bottle and pours them both a glass of fine red. “Didn’t you finish a bottle on your own the last time we were brainstorming at your place?”

“It was good wine,” Viktor says defensively, who may be prim and proper everywhere else but is an intolerably giggly drunk in the confines of his own apartment, and scribbling equations onto Jayce’s forearm because he can’t be bothered to fetch his notebook a whole three feet away. “Come now, and say cheers.”

“To us and Hextech,” Jayce says as they clink glasses and drink.

“To us and Hextech,” Viktor agrees, his sweet breath fogging up his wine glass before he takes another sip.

Then Jayce gets back to cooking with his partner by his side, Viktor offering commentary as he spectates and drinks and laughs.

*

Dinner is had back out in the parlour, where Jayce has a fairly decent, if small dining table to eat at, and where Viktor cuts his steak into delectable morsels before popping them into his mouth, savouring every buttery bite with a pleased hum and a lick of his lips when the juice all but seeps from his mouth.

“This is wonderful, Jayce,” he gushes. “I did not know you could cook this well.”

Jayce preens at the compliment. “My pleasure,” he says, digging into his own plate.

In the early days of their partnership, he would either always make sandwiches or buy whatever anemic fare was on offer at the Academy canteen that day, but quickly learned he was going to need a far more thoughtful diet if he wanted to survive the work week, especially after he started tinkering at the forge and building muscle every other day.

Sometimes it still blows him away, the realisation that holy shit I’m a working adult now; I’m doing things. He’s no longer a stressed out student telling white lies about what he uses his stipend for when visiting the Kirammans during his monthly social, or shooting glares at his classmates when they crack jokes about him spending more time researching where to vacation - sorry, spend his next semester abroad than on making it to the Dean’s Honour Roll for the year.

None of that matters anymore, when Jayce is now an officially and happily stressed Scientist with an upper-case S, and working on something far more groundbreaking than his peers will ever get a chance to sniff at. No doubt they’re all currently working as glue engineers agonising over how to make glue even stickier at the glue factory. Won't ever catch me sniffing glue as a day job.

And the person responsible for ensuring Jayce Talis has never needed to worry about a career as a glue-sniffer - and also made it to his twenty-sixth birthday intact - is across from the table from him and mashing cloves of roast garlic onto his steak before every bite.

Jayce has never been more thankful to be alive. He’s also incredibly in love, and in awe of his own dick, which has frankly only gotten more excited the more he watches Viktor daintily devour his dinner.

“You are staring at me now,” Viktor observes after swallowing a particularly satisfying-looking mouthful that includes both steak and a chunk of red bell pepper. “Do I have something on my face?”

“Well…” Jayce is unable to help himself. “You’ve got a pair of stray watermelon seeds on your cheeks, for one.”

“What? Since when?” Viktor touches his face in alarm, only to pout when he realises what Jayce is referring to. “Ha ha. Very droll, Mr Talis.” He pats himself lightly on the cheeks before lowering his hands to the table again. “Tell me what’s on your mind, Jayce.”

“Not much, really.”

Viktor gives him a disbelieving huff, and that’s as good an excuse to be honest as any, mushy feelings and all.

“I just…” Jayce gestures to the room around them. “Can’t believe this is where it all began, you know? My place getting robbed, the explosion, you showing up to harangue me out of nowhere - “

“It was also my job, mind you,” Viktor stifles a laugh. “The Professor was very concerned when he found out what happened that day. Concerned and disappointed. He’d had such high hopes for you too.”

“Yeah, I bet he did,” Jayce snarks on reflex before his mind catches up to him. “Wait, did he ever talk about me to you?”

Fuck. And he had not been an exemplary student beforehand…

“Heimerdinger has always had a lot to say about his favourite pupils, and you were occasionally among them,” Viktor says with far too much suppressed joy to be fully telling the truth. “I may have… also marked your assignments once in a while. Illuminating work, truly.”

“Oh god.” Jayce sucks in his breath. “In my defense - “

“I know.” Viktor swirls around his wine glass with gentle mirth. “You couldn’t talk about Hextech before you’d proved it viable or all your teachers would have thought you’d gone mad, thus you had to take a more… conventional approach to your schoolwork. Even so, I could tell your heart was never in it.”

He smiles at Jayce from over the rim of his glass. “Believe me, I was quite glad when I found out you’d been working on your true passion all along, you simply couldn’t show anyone yet. It would have been truly unfortunate if you had been just going through the motions with nothing to prove for it, and…”

He drifts off at the end, perhaps realising he’s wandered off from his original point, but Jayce gets what he means completely. Viktor’s talked about his circuitous journey to getting accepted into the Academy without formal credentials before, and it’s a feat Jayce doubts most Piltovians would be able to accomplish at thirty with all their resources and lofty surnames, yet easily managed by an Undercity boy of sixteen armed with only a satchel full of pencils, blueprints, and half-a-dozen tiny experiments he’d brought along to demonstrate his intellectual ability to take the entrance exam.

The other proctors did not even want to let me into the exam hall at first, he’d told Jayce once, during a late night dinner after he officially graduated from the Academy and asked Viktor about his own experience. But Heimerdinger was intrigued by my makeshift water filter to give me a chance, and that was enough, really. I just needed one person to say yes.

Jayce thinks about his own life, and the people who have done everything over the years for him to be here now.

His mother, selling their few meager belongings and bidding farewell to everyone they once knew in a bid to give Jayce a better life elsewhere. Even if their relationship isn’t what it was before, he can still never forget what she gave up for him to thrive in Piltover.

Then there is - was - his late stepfather, who cherished him like his own and gave him a Piltovian surname, alongside a small Talis-branded hammer to use on those few but highly treasured father-and-son trips to the forge when he wanted to build something new. Come here, little strongman, let me you show you how this works, the man he called dad and not papi would always say, up until the point he keeled over of a heart attack when Jayce was fifteen and left him the only heir and legacy to a House he hadn’t even been born to.

Legacy. Jayce could have gone straight into the Talis hammer business after finishing school and no one would have ever begrudged him the job security, though the more ironworker and less businessman he appeared to be, the fewer socials he would have been invited to, until one day they stopped entirely; what need had the Kirammans to associate with a mere handyman, after all?

But instead he’d been stubborn, held onto his dream and the hope of one day meeting the mage again, when he was older and had done something with his life. Surely the man hadn’t saved him only for Jayce to become a glue-sniffer, after all.

No. It was to bring magic to the world. To help people, like you helped me.

It just so happens that he wasn’t meant to do it alone.

Jayce realises he’s never actually told Viktor the full story about that day in the snowstorm, about the man who saved him and his mother and asked for nothing in return.

He’ll like hearing about it, he realises. Viktor likes magic too, has wonder in his heart too.

He’s also saved Jayce’s life, so he and the mage have that in common too.

It’ll be a good story to share. Maybe then, Viktor will talk more about his life before Jayce, and the two learn more about each other now that they have nothing but time to spare.

I am surrounded by good people and good fortune, Jayce thinks as Viktor gives him an embarrassed smile from across the table and he grins back. I just didn’t see it until now.

*

After dinner they’re back on the couch with some more wine and a bunch of grapes to graze on, and after a few glasses on both sides, Jayce finds - coincidentally, he might add - his mouth on the side of Viktor’s neck as the man lets out the loveliest of soft sighs and squirms in his lap.

“Jayce…”

His name has never sounded better than when it falls right off the tip of his beloved’s tongue. “Yeah?” he purrs, feeling like the cat who got the cream. “Tell me what’s on your mind.”

“I am just thinking…”

Jayce nuzzles his cheek against Viktor’s collarbones as the man speaks, his shirt unbuttoned just far down enough to cause trouble. “If we are going to, ah, go further tonight…”

“I like the sound of that.” Jayce really likes the sound of that. “Should we take it to the bedroom?”

“... I should take a shower first.”

He blinks. Pulls his head back and looks at Viktor, who’s turning pinker by the second. “But - “ He takes a judicious sniff, to which the man bats him away with a huff. “You’re good? You smell great, actually.” Like baby powder. Shit, is this going to be a thing with me now?

“Thank you, I try,” the man says, caught off-guard, before swallowing. “It would just be nice to freshen up, yes? For both of us.”

“Uh, yeah,” Jayce says. Abruptly he feels a little silly - they did just go from lab partners and best friends to… lovers? and shared their first kiss barely two hours ago. When did I become such a horndog?

His arms, lovingly fastened around Viktor’s waist, loosen their grip, and he picks the man up to place him next to him on the couch.

“Hey,” he begins, feeling uneasy. “This isn’t… too much, right? I’m not pushing you into something you don’t want? I may have gotten excited, but we can stop now, and go to bed without - “

“Jayce.”

Viktor reaches for his hand and gives it a gentle squeeze as he smiles.

“Of course you are not pushing me into anything I do not want,” he says softly. “If I never considered us together like this before, then that’s simply a lack of imagination on my part.” His smile grows mischievous. “In that regard, you have me beat. Congratulations yet again, Mr Talis.”

It’s at this point Jayce realises he can never tell Viktor about the number of times he’s jerked off fantasising about the other man’s wrists when his sleeves are rolled up to his elbows, the kittenish way he licks the whipped cream off his latte when he thinks no one’s looking, the pretty arch of his back when he tries to get a book on a shelf too high for him and Jayce is too entranced to hurry over and help him yet. God, I’m hopeless.

And yet, so what? Viktor is hot; he’s beautiful. Jayce Talis is simply a healthy, red-blooded young adult who’s been head over heels for the man who saved his life since the night he did so; he just didn’t get it until recently.

Well. He sure as hell gets it now.

Jayce grins, bravado coming back to him at Viktor’s encouragement. “That’s good then. Just tell me if it’s too much.”

“That can’t be, surely,” Viktor murmurs, and leans forward to peck him on the mouth. Jayce melts into the kiss, wanting more as he always does, but holds back - barely - when the man pulls away and says, “Now be a dear and show me to the bathroom so I can freshen up, hm?”

*

As soon as Jayce hears the sound of hot water running in the bathroom, he takes a deep breath, counts to three, then turns heel and marches into his bedroom to clean up as fast as he can, because it is not currently suitable for a night of romance and he needs to fix it, pronto.

He changes the sheets on the bed and fluffs the pillows, to start. Then comes picking up every stray object on a flat surface and shoving it inside a drawer so his bedroom looks far tidier than usual. Then oh god, the pin up.

Jayce rips the poster off the wall and crumples it in a panic before throwing it into his paper bin - no, into a random drawer he then slams shut and walks away from. Viktor cannot ever see this. If he does, he’s going to think Jayce is -

(“A healthy young man? It’s just an illustration, Jayce. I certainly don’t hold it against you for owning something so mundane. Most men do.”

He’d say something like that, wouldn’t he. But would Viktor be so sanguine about Jayce’s jerkoff material if he knew that, as of late, Jayce had been fantasizing about him on his knees? Wearing some impossibly tight corset that cinched his waist to nothing, a set of ruffled women’s underwear, and a pair of silk stockings… he’d be furious; scandalised; demeaned. He wouldn’t like it at all.

Unless… no, shut up, Jayce Talis. You have no idea what you’re talking about.)

After his bedroom is re-arranged to his liking, Jayce then takes a gander at himself. He did shower in the morning, nor does he need to shave again, so there’s that. But - he takes a sniff of himself - should he put on some cologne?

Alright, don’t overthink it, just make sure your teeth and bits are clean. Also do something about your socks.

With his sole bathroom occupied by a pocket-sized scientist, Jayce only has the kitchen sink and a hand mirror to work with, but he soon gets himself sorted out while crunching on a breath mint at the same time. Not too bad if I say so myself.

By the time the water in the bathroom cuts off and the apartment is quiet again, Jayce is on his bed and examining a pair of two incriminating but highly necessary items for what’s about to happen next: a half-full bottle of lubricant and a packet of condoms, which thankfully hasn’t expired yet. What a catch.

Look. Jayce won’t pretend he’s overly experienced or anything, though he did manage to hook up fairly often in his earlier years in the Academy, when he hadn’t yet become That Guy, and was still being invited to student parties regularly. Eventually, as his ambitions grew and he spent more time abroad than on school grounds, said overtures from his classmates died down, and Jayce’s right hand became his most frequent nighttime companion, the pinup on his wall the only regular in his few but intense wet dreams.

He may have lost his touch somewhat in the past few years, but still. He’s got some game left in him, doesn’t he? Viktor certainly seemed to enjoy the kissing earlier, didn’t complain about his technique or anything either. Jayce sighs and sets the goods down on the bedstand, running a hand through his hair to ease his nerves.

Just do whatever Viktor’s comfortable with tonight and you’ll be okay, he tells himself.

And then just like that, the door to the bathroom creaks open, and soft bare feet pad shyly into the bedroom alongside the ferrule of a Talis-branded cane. Jayce looks up from said bare feet to observe a pair of slim legs disappear into brown plaid shorts, a matching loose button-down shirt just above. And the owner of such a cute and cozy outfit…

“Jayce,” Viktor says, a little breathless in greeting, as if it hasn’t been all of twenty minutes since the last time they saw each other. His hair is damp and clinging to his face and neck in loose dark strands, skin dewy and pink from the shower.

He’s unsteady with his cane, having had to remove his brace earlier to shower, and Jayce gets up to help, but Viktor just shakes his head and closes the door behind him as he walks into the room with an uneven gait on his own.

Okay then. Jayce swallows and sits back down, watching the other man as he looks around the bedroom and sets his cane down against the nearest wall before sliding onto the empty spot on the bed next to Jayce.

“... good shower?” Jayce asks, then winces immediately. Nice going, fool.

Warmth radiates outward from Viktor’s thin body like steam as he chuckles at the pathetic attempt at small talk. “Yes, very good. Your shower had excellent water pressure. Much superior to my own.”

Nothing stopping you from moving out of that dingy old place and moving in with me, then, Jayce almost says but cuts himself off. Definitely too soon.

Viktor then clears his throat. “Listen, Jayce…” Pursing his pretty lips. “Before we do anything, I, ah, in the interest of disclosure, should be honest…”

“Yeah?” His mouth goes dry as he stares at an increasingly nervous-looking Viktor. God, please tell me he’s not married.

“I am not married, no,” Viktor says, and Jayce winces again at having said that aloud. “Thank you for your concern, but I wouldn’t do that to my hypothetical husband. Or to you.”

He holds his breath for a long moment, then says, almost in a rush, “Jayce, I am a virgin, and have never done anything with anyone until now. I hope that’s… okay with you.”

“Uh, yeah,” he croaks. “More than okay.”

Then, “Wait, what? Really?”

“Yes, really.” Viktor pouts at his disbelieving tone. “Is that so abnormal for someone my age?”

“No! No, of course not,” Jayce reassures him. “I’m just… surprised because you’re, uh…” He gestures at him.

“From the Undercity?” Viktor raises a questioning brow.

“Gorgeous,” Jayce says without missing a beat, making the other man suck in his breath. “You’re cute as a button too, and the smartest person I know. Why the hell has no one ever - no one? Ever? Really?”

Discombobulated by the flattery, Viktor flails for a little bit after. “It’s not like that,” he says. “You speak as if people should be crawling over the walls for my affection when that’s never once been the case. I am… simply not what Piltover finds appealing in its men. That’s all.”

“Well, why not?”

Viktor opens his mouth to protest, then clicks it shut without a word. Slumps his shoulders in defeat and says, wryly, “You are unlike everyone else who belongs to this city. It is a good thing, yes,” he adds when Jayce raises a brow and goes hmm inside. After all, he’s an immigrant too. “But I fear it makes you frightfully clueless to how other people think sometimes, and… uh…”

His voice dies off when Jayce leans towards him, close enough for their brows to touch.

“And what’s so wrong with that?” he says, and Viktor’s gaze all but flutters shut under his stare. “I don’t want to be like other people. Other people would have never thought of Hextech in the first place.”

“... or caused so much trouble with the Council I was compelled to chase after them without once looking back,” his beloved teases. “Yes, Jayce Talis, you are the perfect man. How could I have not known at first sight?”

“You were too busy being snitty to me to really notice back then,” Jayce laughs. “That was really uncool of you, by the way. My feelings were totally hurt.”

“They were not, you foolish man,” Viktor breathes in, and leans in close for a kiss, only to stop at the last millimetre, millisecond, to determine what Jayce will do next.

If he’ll kiss him back.

To which, of course he will.

And does.

*

“Jayce… are you truly alright with this?”

Viktor dares to test fate only a few minutes later, when he’s lying on his back in bed and Jayce is kissing down his neck and contemplating if he wants to unbutton his shirt with his teeth. “I am unsure what I even do like in bed, and I do not want to waste your time…”

“Viktor.” Jayce stops mid-mack just to give him a Look. “We have wasted each other’s time in far more unstimulating and unproductive ways before. Of course I don’t mind. I’m just glad you’re here with me. Just… tell me if anything’s too much, yeah? I want to make you feel good.”

“Oh.” Viktor flushes. Wets his mouth and exhales loudly. “In that case, I, um… enjoy everything we’ve been doing so far.”

“Yeah?” He grins. “That’s the spirit.”

“And you?”

“Hm?”

A pair of liquid eyes gaze up at him without blinking. Viktor lifts a cool hand to Jayce’s cheek, and he leans into the touch instinctively. So sweet.

“Is there anything you would like me to do for you tonight?” Viktor murmurs in a low voice. “I am all ears.”

“Well. Uh,“ Jayce chuckles. Stay away, evil thoughts. “Just whatever you’re comfortable with, really. We have all the time in the world, so there’s no pressure on my side, you know? Not that there ever would be, it’s just …”

“Jayce,” Viktor whispers. “Kiss me again. Please.”

“There you go.” His heart skips at the blatant adoration in the other man’s eyes. What did I ever do to deserve this?

“Anything for you, baby,” he groans, and lifts his head up for a kiss.

“Yes,” Viktor mumbles against Jayce’s wanton mouth, his wicked tongue, as his eyes gloss over and he begins, much to his delight and fascination, to pant. “Your baby. Yours.”

*

Jayce has unbuttoned his fair share of shirts and blouses before, but it was always as a prelude to something better, he and his partner more interested in stripping off as soon as possible than anything else. Never has the act itself felt as sacred as it does now, when he unbuttons Viktor’s shirt ever so carefully, and is thus rewarded by an expanse of lovely pale skin that has likely never seen the sun before.

… and all while Viktor watches him with huge eyes and holds his breath, up until the point Jayce strips him of his shirt altogether and presses his mouth down on the first mole he sees, right below his ribcage, and blows a raspberry.

“Jayce!” he shrieks in both delight and offense. “What are you doing?”

“Lightening the mood.” Jayce laughs as he leans back on his haunches and throws off his own vest and shirt with far more carelessness, until he’s only left in his trousers. “God, you’re stunning.”

“I am, ah, decent enough,” Viktor says, and the way his chest rises and falls as he tries to catch his breath is hypnotizing, and frankly a little much; Jayce’s dick is hard enough for the occasion, thank you.

“Hey,” he says, leaning forward again, and trying not to jolt when bare skin brushes up against bare skin and there’s an electric charge in the air. “Enough of that. You. Are. Stunning. The most beautiful man in the world. Understand?”

Viktor blinks up at him owlishly, pinned in with Jayce’s arms on either side of him, and breaks into a hopelessly fond smile.

“I think,” he murmurs as he slides hands onto Jayce’s shoulders, soft and gentle and sure, “we can share that title for one night. You are so lovely yourself, Jayce. Especially now that you’ve been…” His face colours as he scans down Jayce’s body, then back up to meet his eyes.

Jayce laughs. “Been working out?”

“Mmm,” Viktor squeaks. “Very much so. I do not know how you manage.”

Honestly? By getting six hours of sleep on most days. Jayce doesn’t say that though.

What he does say is, “Well… whenever I’m lifting weights, I like to pretend there’s a pretty one hundred pound man on top of my shoulders at the same time. That always keeps me focused.”

“I am not that light,” Viktor protests.

“Yeah?” he coos. “I think I could lift you up with just one arm, actually. Have you ever thought about that? Thought about me carrying you and holding you up like it’s nothing?”

“I have no desire to be toted about like a child,” Viktor says, as if he’s totally not blushing. “Jayce, do not be unruly; my heart cannot take it.”

“You can,” he counters. “You can, and I think you want to - “

“What I want,” Viktor cries, desperate, “is to be deflowered, albeit I do not think we will get there until the next business week at the current trajectory - “

Oh yeah, he has a job to do.

“Shh, baby, I got you,” Jayce murmurs, kissing the corner of Viktor’s mouth, who lets out a strangled cry and turns his face for a proper kiss with his mouth open and tongue out. God, you’re perfect. How did anyone not see it before? “I’ll give you whatever you want, anything. Just let me know.”

“I want you,” the man whines. “In every which way. Please, Jayce, do not be cruel…”

“I could never,” Jayce breathes in, enraptured by Viktor panting below him, amber eyes hazy and blown-out, his red-bitten mouth and skin that’s flushed the same pleasing pink as camellias. “Now relax and let me make you feel good.”

Viktor trembles as Jayce lavishes kisses on him, from his brow to cheek to chin, down his neck to the collarbones to his soft, flat chest, where Jayce, captivated by the prettiest little pair of pert brown nipples he’s ever seen, huffs out, “May I?” and gets a shaky nod in response, then latches on and sucks.

“Jayce!” Viktor yelps, hips buckling upward only for a rock hard chest to trap them in place, his hands holding on tight to the back of Jayce’s neck with nowhere else to go.

“Oh Janna…” he mewls when Jayce switches to the other nipple and grazes it gently with his teeth. “How are you - hah - doing that? How is this feeling not illegal?”

If Viktor is rendered so easily nonsensical by some light nuzzling, then Jayce has a lot to look forward to. He lets Viktor’s nipple slide out of his mouth to say something, though not without running his tongue over it first and making the man shudder.

“How could making you feel good ever be illegal?” he says, almost demanding, as his hands run down Viktor’s skin, his soft and pliable body, and fingers hook onto the band of his pajama shorts. “How could you receiving this kind of pleasure ever be wrong?”

“I don’t - ah - know,” Viktor stutters as Jayce stares at him, not expecting the sudden interrogation. “I am simply not used to it, I suppose…”

Ah. That’s right.

Beyond the obvious, nary a day goes by where Jayce doesn’t observe Viktor turning his head to get rid of a kink in his neck, arching his spine until it cracks and he slumps over with relief, adjusting how he stands with his cane or fiddling with his brace when his leg drags more than usual. Sometimes he takes painkillers with his meals, and though he didn’t do that tonight, Jayce wonders if he took something in the shower instead. In case it hurts later.

Fortunately, the thought doesn’t make his erection die down; instead, it makes him even more determined to show Viktor a world of pleasure as he’s never known, to reduce him to boneless slack and the satisfaction of being well-fucked, with only a night of hazy, pleasant dreams after.

“Well, get used to it,” Jayce promises, with his cheek against Viktor’s chest so he feels it when the man’s heart skips a beat. “You’re going to feel good every day of your life from now on, and that’s a Talis guarantee. I swear it.”

Viktor squirms under such relentless scrutiny, such a wild-eyed declaration of devotion. “So you keep saying…”

“I do.” Jayce turns his face to kiss the side of his ribs, his belly, his thin and protruding hip. “So can I, V? Can I take these off for you?”

“... you may.”

Viktor cannot look him in the eye anymore, but he does give a nod, and Jayce gets the wondrous opportunity to slide the man’s shorts and underwear off in one tantalizing motion, mouth watering when, in between Viktor’s thighs there’s a rich nest of dark hair and a flushed, thoroughly pink and hard cock that’s leaking from the head.

There’s even a little dark mole right on the tip.

Jayce has never seen anything so cute in his life. He didn’t even know cocks could even be cute.

(His sure as hell isn’t. As for the few other specimens he’d occasionally observed in locker rooms as a curious youth… yeesh. The less said about that the better.)

“Jayce,” Viktor squeaks. “You do not have to stare. I know I am not well-endowed, not that it should matter since… um, never mind.” He swallows. “Are you not going to remove your own pants as well?”

Jayce’s dick has been killing him ever since Viktor walked into his bedroom all dewy and moist and soft after his shower, not to mention smelling of Jayce’s body lotion since he must have forgotten to bring his own… but the more he thinks about it, he’s not actually sure if he wants to let Talis Jr. loose just yet.

“That depends.” He grins. “On what you want to happen next.”

“... meaning?” Viktor’s voice is but a whisper.

“On…” Jayce swallows. “Whether you want me to get my fingers and cock in you right away, or if you want me to take my time.” Maybe even tease you a little. “To really give you everything you deserve.”

“Everything I deserve? But you have already done so much,” Viktor chokes. “What else would you even do with me, apart from the obvious?”

You mean penetration, Jayce thinks but doesn’t say. “Well…” he drawls. “I could suck your cock and make you come first that way. How about that?”

(He’s never actually given a blowjob before, but for Viktor he’d do his best. For Viktor, he’s pretty sure he could do about anything.)

Viktor’s mouth opens and closes like a fish, before he bites the inside of his cheek and says, “Jayce, if you must know… I do not ordinarily last long, when I touch myself.” He looks utterly mortified at admitting this, but keeps going. “I do not know if I would be able to be… ready again so soon, if you used your mouth on me. Do you grasp my meaning?”

Somewhere in this universe, a queer and mercurial god must have plucked Viktor out of a novel and set him in the right place and time to stumble in on Jayce that fateful night, because only he could ever say if you used your mouth on me and it sound perfectly natural.

A little storybook prince his Viktor-from-the-Undercity is, and in one Jayce Talis’ wicked, if well-meaning hands for the rest of the night, and life thereafter.

“Yeah,” Jayce breathes out, and feels an awful, giddy laugh build up in the back of his throat. “Yeah, I get it. You want me to fuck you then, hm? Want your first orgasm with another man come from my cock and nothing else?”

And then Viktor, beautiful, darling, brilliant, “takes three sugars and half a cup of cream in his coffee” Viktor gulps, then says in a tiny voice, “Yes, please,” and Jayce’s pants are off in a heartbeat.

Okay, not that fast. He does have to pull back from having his face in alluring proximity to Viktor’s crotch to shimmy out of his miserably tight trousers first, while Viktor sidles back against the headboard in turn and watches Jayce with his mouth agape in the shape of a small o.

Which then becomes a large O when the boxers come off and Jayce’s very large, very hard, veiny and not-cute-at-all dick is released from the confines of their cotton prison and Viktor says with shock and awe, “It’s even bigger than I thought…”

“What was that?” Whatever self-consciousness Jayce could have felt at being in a state of nature in front of the man he loves disappears immediately, so he can instead bully another compliment out of him. “What did you say there, V?”

“Oh please, Jayce.” Viktor covers his face with his hands, only to peek at him through parted fingers anyway. “You know well enough already how handsome you are, how… thoroughly blessed. You cannot imagine you are anything less than the most perfect man in all of Piltover. Physically, intellectually… and emotionally.”

At the last part Jayce’s heart goes rat-a-tat-tat, and the shit-eating grin he was planning to wear like a crown melts into a goofy smile that probably looks deranged to everyone else, but not to Viktor, who sees him beaming like a doofus and lets his hands fall to his thighs, and gazes at him with eyes that speak no lies and a mouth that speaks only truth.

(He’s the only person who would ever think I was fully and completely sound at heart, Jayce thinks wildly. No, that’s not quite right; Viktor would think he was mad and encourage him anyway, so long as the math checked out and there was a chance. Where there’s a will, there’s a way, Jayce.)

“Now come here,” Viktor says, and parts his slim legs in offering. “And make love to me. You promised me pleasure, did you not?”

“I sure did,” says Jayce hoarsely, and pounces.

*

Jayce has had fantasies about Viktor before.

Lewd ones, even. Graphic, when his desire for the man who carried the other half of his heart, his soul, overwhelmed the guilt, and even later the post-nut clarity of oh god I really jerked it to the thought of Viktor bouncing on my cock, didn’t I? I should be ashamed.

And yet. A man is only human, isn’t he.

In his fantasies though, Viktor was never a virgin; he was experienced, and knew how to comport himself. (He’d made that joke about his bedroom that ran circles in Jayce’s mind for weeks after; enough said.) And no, it wasn’t because he was from the Undercity or nonsense like that, but because he was so knowledgeable and worldly in everything else that mattered, and Jayce was in awe of that.

For the first few months of their partnership Jayce had been obliged to tedious student bullshit so he could finally graduate properly, and Viktor had handled everything regarding their new lab and the bureaucratic nitty-gritty of their working arrangement. All Jayce had to do was sign his name on a few important documents and boom! He was suddenly an Academy research scientist, and the world was his oyster.

And the man responsible for walking him back from the edge and bringing his dream back to life again, in Jayce’s illicit and increasingly ludicrous fantasies, was also a man who knew how to suck cock and bat his long lashes and murmur, Jayce, is this really your first time with another man? Let me show you what you’ve been missing out on, then, and other horrific lines that had him fisting his cock and grunting out Viktor’s name anyway.

Because that’s what you do, when you’re comically horny over your lab partner slash potential life partner, and the prospect of hooking up with someone else to take the edge off makes you want to hurl because one, they won’t be Viktor so screw that, and two, he’s pretty sure he can only get off to the other man now. So.

And yet, all of Jayce’s fantasies about Viktor beforehand, including the scenarios that start with the man “accidentally” falling into his lap and end with him riding Jayce to kingdom come, the ones where they enjoy dinner at the old Talis House with his mom, then make love after in Jayce’s childhood bedroom, the ones where, after being surprised with a latte with whipped cream and an almond croissant from his favourite cafe just off Academy grounds, Viktor murmurs, thank you darling, you’re the best, and kisses Jayce on the mouth - none of those fantasies, sweet and sexy and delusional all the way, live up to the reality, which is this:

Viktor, as Jayce gets the bottle of lube and drizzles it onto his fingers, mumbles practically to himself, “I tried, you know. In the shower. To prepare myself. But I didn’t get far; it didn't feel very good on my own. Will it really be better when it’s you?”, only for him to start whining and gasping when Jayce coaxes him open with one, two, then finally three fingers, all while caressing the inside of his mouth with his tongue and holding him close by the back of his neck.

As Jayce fingers him open, Viktor cannot seem to figure out what to do with his own hands, alternating between holding onto Jayce’s shoulders for dear life and inadvertently scratching him, and touching himself, slender hand wrapped around his pretty weeping cock as he stimulates himself, but always letting his hand fall slack before he can come prematurely and fall apart.

Of course, Jayce doesn’t care about that. He rasps, “Keep touching yourself, Vik. Let me see you.”

But Viktor only shakes his head and sobs. “I cannot. I will come if I do, and I don’t want to, not yet. Jayce, just fuck me already.”

Oh boy.

Despite Jayce softening him up Viktor’s entrance is still tight, and it won’t be an easy fit right away. Jayce searches his gaze for any residual hesitation or doubt, and finds none.

“Damn.” He whistles. “Okay then. Let’s get to work.“

Viktor lets out a moan when Jayce’s fingers slide wetly out of him, but just as he leans over him to grab a condom on the bedstand, Viktor grabs his wrist and stops him.

“Wait,” he says. “You are clean, yes? You haven’t been with anyone for a while?”

“Yeah, but what does that have to do with - “ Jayce groans when he realises. “Baby, we can’t.” Even as his dick jumps to attention, hard as diamonds and so far cruelly ignored. “We shouldn’t.” Even if Viktor can’t get pregnant… “The mess alone…”

He’ll have to clean it out of Viktor after, and that’s not an image that gets Jayce going, his partner bent over his lap and squirming as Jayce scoops his own come out of him, definitely not…

“I want to feel you,” Viktor begs. “Skin to skin, close as humanly possible. It’ll be good for you too.”

“I know it will.” Jayce gulps down hot air. The hell is he hesitating for? His beloved is literally begging to be creamed into, and he’s trying to talk himself out of it? Talis, you’ve lost it -

“Pretty please?”

Ah, fuck it; he’s going in raw.

“Okay.” Jayce closes his eyes and counts to three, then opens his eyes again. “Okay, baby. You get what you want.”

Viktor will always get what he wants, and that’s a promise.

Jayce foregoes the condom in favour of one last squeeze of lube, which he uses to coat his cock, fisting it casually while he sits back on his haunches and observes, for a long moment, Viktor on his own, the loving sticky mess Jayce has made of his body and the virgin hole he teased open with his fingers until it was soft and pliable and wet.

Then he’s ready.

“One last thing,” Jayce murmurs as he leans forward and aligns his cock to the entrance of Viktor’s hole, the man shuddering at even that minimal contact. “If any part of this hurts, you let me know. Do not be shy; yell at me, hit me if you have to. Just don’t stay quiet because you think you have to endure it.” You’ll never have to, with me.

“I do not think you could ever hurt me, even by accident,” Viktor whispers, giggling a little when Jayce gives him a sour look. “But yes, Jayce. I promise to scream my head off if it hurts, and then we’ll both be thoroughly traumatised and never attempt penetration again.”

“That’s enough out of you,” he growls, and pushes his way in.

Whatever witty thing Viktor was about to say next is lost to him. “Oh,” he gasps instead. “Janna have mercy…”

“Just like - like that,” Jayce pants when he’s halfway in. “Does that feel good, V? How are you?”

“Mmph,” is all Viktor manages to let out, eyes rolling into the back of his head as he tries to sink into the mattress and simply take it. He feels wondrous too, a slick wet vise that’s both caressing Jayce’s cock from the inside out and is also intent on strangling it to death.

“Baby, talk to me,” Jayce groans as he falls forward with his hands on either side of Viktor’s waist, pinning him in. “I’m not going anywhere else.”

“It’s ti - tight,” Viktor wails, scrabbling for purchase on Jayce’s forearms and digging in deep with his nails. “Make it better, Jayce, please…”

“Okay, baby. I got you.” Jayce kisses the tears away from the corners of his eyes. “Shh, don’t cry. I’ll fix it.”

And even though he’s not fully sheathed in yet, he grits his teeth and pulls back out until only the tip is left in, his whole being shuddering and heaving as the walls of Viktor’s inner body drag against his cock and sets his skin aflame.

My god, he thinks in a daze as he kisses Viktor to eat up the scream that erupts out of the other man. Will it always be like this?

He doesn’t know yet. He can only try.

And so, with the dexterity of a hare and the surety of a turtle, Jayce sets his hips to it and thrusts, in and out and in and out, until Viktor’s inner walls slacken and turn sweet, and Jayce is fully enveloped in its embrace during every stroke.

There’s no rest for the wicked, however. “Jayce,” Viktor hiccups, unable to say anything else at this point, and just clings to the back of his neck weakly.

“Yeah, baby, I got you. You’re doing so well right now.” Jayce peppers his face with kisses, a sudden crazed thought coming to mind. “You want to be closer to me, hm? Can I put you in my lap then? It’ll feel good, I promise.”

“Mm,” Viktor nods with a sniffle, and offers no resistance when Jayce takes him by his waist and lifts him onto his lap, holding onto him tight so that he eases down on Jayce instead of fully sinking onto him in one go with this new diabolical angle.

“You’re so good, Viktor, so perfect,” Jayce praises as their foreheads brush against each other. “Just what am I going to do with you?”

“No - nothing.” The man’s teeth chatter as he tries to put his wits back together. “Just… keep going.”

“Really?” Jayce nuzzles his cheek. “It’s not too much?”

“... it is, actually,” Viktor whispers as he lays his head down against his shoulder. “But I like it anyway.”

Unbelievable. This man is going to be the death of him one day.

And yet, Jayce can do nothing but obey at his god’s command. I am his to serve, evermore.

“Okay then.” He laughs. “You asked for it, trouble maker,” and now that Viktor is finally loose and pliant enough for sturdier handling, slides his hands down to the man’s cute derriere for a more secure grip, then thrusts.

Viktor lets out a shriek like a banshee. “Jayce!” he screams. “Oh, oh, I can’t! Fuck!”

And comes immediately, in tense, helpless ribbons that stain both Jayce’s stomach and his own.

A heady dozen thrusts later, Jayce’s own cock gives way, and he lets out the longest, most vulgar groan of his life as he comes with obscene vigour and Viktor’s silky soft walls milk him through the aftershocks for all he’s worth.

“Fuck,” Jayce barks eventually, when he regains a proper sense of vision and he feels marginally more like himself again. “That was insane. I cannot believe you actually swore for once.”

“Couldn’t… help it,” Viktor rasps, voice thoroughly shot and haggard.

“I’ll say.” He presses a flimsy kiss against his jaw. “Sorry for that last part, V. Think I gave you more than you could chew off for your first time.”

“No regrets,” Viktor huffs with dried tears on his face, and Jayce cracks into an awful smug grin. “It was… perfect, Jayce. You are perfect.”

“Thank you, baby. I appreciate that.” He cups his face, running a thumb across his cheek in comfort. “Now let’s preserve that sweet voice for tomorrow, hm? You don’t need to say any more for tonight; we’re good.”

Viktor leans into his touch and closes his eyes, practically falling asleep with them still intact.

“Jayce,” he whispers anyway.

“Yeah, baby?”

“... please take me into the shower again. I really don’t want to go to bed like this.”

“Me either,” Jayce says wryly, as if he hasn’t been up since six am and is frankly, exhausted at this point. But that’s neither here nor there, and if he has to burn a little more midnight oil before crashing out for the night, then sure.

That’s the price to pay for true love, after all.

*

In the morning they’ll both sleep in until noon because it’s the weekend. Jayce will be sore as hell but work the kinks out on his own, while Viktor needs to be massaged and cajoled into coming out from underneath the covers in exchange for a hearty brunch of bacon and sweet Demacian-style toast with fresh berries and cream.

He’ll also take a round of painkillers with his meal, which will make Jayce’s stomach churn and make him wonder, what’s wrong with me? Why didn’t I take it easy on him last night? We have the rest of our lives to figure it out, after all.

But Viktor doesn’t have any complaints about how their first time together went, so Jayce can only mull his coffee in silence and vow not to let Talis Jr. get the better of him again (and fail, as is his right).

Eventually the weekend will pass, and they return to life in the lab amidst a new normal, which will contain the same amount of in-jokes and amused exchanges as before, but now also a considerable increase in kissing and heavy petting and the occasional scandalised hiss of, “Jayce, we only have thirty minutes for lunch, we can’t!”

Life will go on, and no one think much about a pair of affianced scientists until the advent of the Hexgates turns Jayce into a household name and his star ascends into the heavens overnight.

But that’s years away in the future, and not something they have to concern themselves with just yet. For now, the sheets of Jayce’s bed have been changed yet again for a night of solid sleep, and both he and Viktor lie underneath the covers with their bodies drained and limbs all askew. Sweet Viktor is already dead to the world, the crown of his hair tickling the underside of Jayce's chin as he snores a little, and dreams of electric sheep.

And as for Jayce, well.

His dream has already come true.