Chapter Text
Life has been pleasant thus far as Jayce’s partner, working together to change the world. It’s a bit of a lofty dream, but Jayce is an idealist, and Viktor has never been one to shy away from a challenge. Never be the one to tell yourself no, or something like that.
Regardless, the last few days have been unusual. Jayce’s understanding of the concept of personal space has always been somewhat lacking, but lately it appears he’s forgotten it completely. He stands behind Viktor, looking over his shoulder, warm chest pressed to Viktor’s back as Viktor tries to explain the proof of concept of… something. He’s not sure what, his thoughts having abandoned him in the face of Jayce’s affection.
It’s very difficult to focus with Jayce’s hand on his waist, but when he tries to dislodge it, Jayce just holds on tighter. It is at the same time unnerving and flustering. Viktor gets close to the conclusion of his sentence when Jayce starts doing something that would probably be considered petting, if Viktor were a cat.
“Ah, Jayce,” Viktor says, shifting underneath his bulk, a little out of his depth in the moment. He can confidently say he has never been pet before today, but there is a first time for everything, he supposes. Jayce’s hand, large and warm, runs up and down his arm lazily as Viktor tries to remember what the hell he had been saying.
“Hm?” Jayce says, sounding just as distracted as Viktor feels.
“You are quite close,” Viktor says. “Perhaps you could see better off to the side.”
“No, this is fine,” Jayce responds, either not getting the hint or ignoring it completely. Jayce presses a thumb into the crook of his neck, then, firm and unyielding, absentmindedly massaging out the tightness in the muscles there.
Viktor can feel his face heating up. This close, Jayce’s scent envelops him, wrapping around him like a blanket. He doesn’t understand why something he normally finds so unpleasant—pushy alphas, getting their scent all over everything like they’re claiming it—is so charming, coming from Jayce.
A shiver runs down Viktor’s spine as he tries to hold in the pleased noise that wants to spill forth with the way Jayce’s idle touches have turned into some sort of massage. “I—I think—I think I am tired,” Viktor says, voice thin as the scent of Jayce begins to make him dizzy and lightheaded.
It gets Jayce to step back, and Viktor regrets his words almost immediately. “Right,” Jayce says, glancing at the time. “I guess it is pretty late. I can walk you home.”
“I can manage,” Viktor says, standing. Jayce is pressing his cane into his hands before he can even think to reach out for it, and he gives Jayce an irritated look. “I’m not an invalid, you know.”
They do this same song-and-dance at least once a week, but this time it’s a little more charged than is typical. “I know,” Jayce says, reaching out to brush some hair out of Viktor’s face, standing far closer than is necessary or appropriate. “Maybe I like walking with you.”
Viktor’s eyebrows raise and he gives his partner an appraising look. “If I didn’t know better, I would say it sounds like you are flirting with me, Jayce Talis.” He doesn’t wait for a response, shuffling to move past him toward the door. He really is quite tired, now that he’s mentioned it.
“What if I am?” Jayce says boldly, and Viktor twists to give him a scrutinizing look, trying to discern if he’s joking or not.
“I would say you may want to see the doctor,” Viktor answers, tone suspicious. He glances to the door, then back at Jayce. “Well, are you coming or not? If you’re going to insist on walking me home, you could at least open the door as well.”
Jayce chokes out a laugh but takes the invitation. He runs a hand over Viktor’s shoulders as he passes, letting it slide down to the man’s lower back as he uses his weight to push the door open. It’s like a brand, and he’s not sure if it’s his own lean frame or if Jayce is just unusually large or both, but his hand nearly spans the entire width of his back.
Viktor steps through the door and Jayce follows after him, keeping close. The hand on his back shifts, just barely, but it’s enough that Jayce can curl his fingers over Viktor’s hip. He would stumble if it weren’t for Jayce’s solid weight at his other side.
“Jayce,” Viktor starts, and Jayce squeezes his hip gently. He forgets entirely what he was saying, and for the rest of the walk home, the only thing he can focus on is Jayce’s touch, warm and heavy and overwhelming.
He allows Jayce to open the door for him, but draws the line at inviting him in. “Thank you,” he says quietly, and Jayce slides his hands into the pockets of his trousers with a shrug. Viktor watches the movement, then realizes what he’s doing, and averts his gaze quickly. Jayce’s pants fit so well it’s obscene.
“Good night,” Jayce says, and Viktor waves awkwardly, then shuts the door. He doesn’t even turn on the light inside, leaning against the solid wood behind him as he stares into the darkness.
He misses the warmth and the heady scent immediately. He almost wants to tug his shirt off and twist it around so he can bury his face in the scent, then makes a face as he realizes where his thoughts have gone. Something about Jayce makes Viktor feel like a hormonal teenager all over again.
×
Things do not improve the next day. If anything, they get worse. Or better, depending on how you want to look at it. Emboldened by Viktor’s obsequiousness the previous night, Jayce seems to have come to the conclusion that it is now appropriate to be in Viktor’s space constantly.
He can’t turn around without running into Jayce’s sturdy wall of a chest, or stand in one place without Jayce coming up behind him, caging him in with his arms as he looks over Viktor’s shoulder. That is the predicament Viktor is in at this very moment, actually. They look down at—at something. Viktor isn’t sure what he’s looking at himself, right now. A wire? It’s barely into the afternoon, and already Viktor can’t think.
“What’s this?” Jayce asks, voice low. Perhaps Viktor is coming down with a fever.
“A… thing,” Viktor says eloquently.
“A thing,” Jayce echoes, warm amusement threaded through his words.
“It’s—you’re very distracting,” Viktor says, sounding harassed. “I don’t know what it is.”
“Why are you standing here with it, then?”
“I’m being held captive,” Viktor snips, “by a brute playing a scientist.”
It’s the wrong thing to say. He feels the laugh in Jayce’s chest as he presses against Viktor’s back, one of his arms coming up to wrap around Viktor’s waist. What is going on.
The hold is brief, like a tease, and then Jayce lets go and steps away from Viktor. He almost whirls around and snatches Jayce’s hand back. He misses the touch immediately, and that is not a normal thing to be feeling about his partner.
His science partner. Just a science partner. They are science partners, and this is a normal science partner thing, that normal science partners do sometimes. He is sure that he is imagining the way Jayce looks at him, like he’s hungry for something. Viktor’s fever must have progressed quite rapidly, if he’s already hallucinating.
The scent in the room is nearly suffocating, even with Jayce halfway across the lab. There are worse ways to go, Viktor supposes, than suffocating in Jayce’s fresh scent, in the warm, spicy musk enveloping him.
He can’t even leave to try to escape it. Even with the limited amount of manhandling yesterday, Viktor’s bedroom still smelled like Jayce in the morning. The man hadn’t even gone into his house.
Jayce passes by again, too close, hand trailing over Viktor’s shoulders, and Viktor’s breath hitches.
“I have a fever,” Viktor says suddenly.
“No you don’t,” Jayce says absentmindedly.
“You don’t know my body,” Viktor mutters.
“I could,” Jayce responds, and Viktor has to sit down, bury his face in his arms to hide the blush. He’s doing this on purpose. It was a mistake, he should have fled, because Jayce is invading his space again, heavy hand on his back, fingers dipping underneath the neckline of Viktor’s shirt.
Another mistake, to stop dressing so formally. He will go back to wearing ties.
Jayce digs his fingers into the muscles there, and Viktor lets out a sound more appropriate for a brothel than a science lab. Maybe he won’t ever wear a tie again, actually.
“What are you doing?” Viktor asks, mumbling the words into his arms. He still hasn’t unburied his face. Jayce’s thumb presses into a spot right behind the hinge of his jaw, and oh, that’s a dangerous spot, barely an inch above where most people wear their marks.
He is not completely sure, but he thinks he remembers hearing something about how rude it is to play with that spot. He’s just a beta, so his instincts aren’t as overwhelming, but they’re still there.
“Nothing,” Jayce answers after a long moment. “Massaging the knots out of your neck.”
Viktor bites his lip and does not admit the image that flashes through his mind at the way Jayce says knot. “‘Nothing’ is not massaging,” Viktor grumbles, and Jayce lets his thumb sweep down, pressure steady, barely brushing the edge of that intimate area high up on his neck.
“It’s very rude,” Viktor says, voice strangled, “to—to put your hands there, without intention.”
Jayce hums and shifts his thumb some more and presses, and Viktor gasps. The heat coils in his gut immediately, his body arching into the touch on instinct, and oh, god.
“Don’t tease me,” Viktor snaps, jerking out from under his touch. Jayce grabs him and pushes him back down against the lab table, draping his considerable weight over Viktor’s back.
“I’m not,” Jayce says, pinning Viktor in place.
Viktor is embarrassingly hard in his pants, but he is not the only one. Jayce is—he’s impressive. Intimidating. Thick, and solid, and it’s been a while since Viktor has had something even close to that size inside him.
How presumptuous of me, Viktor thinks. He sighs. “You’re going into rut,” he surmises. He feels… disappointed, realizing that this whole thing has arisen out of Jayce’s base instincts. Nothing to do with him.
“I—yeah,” Jayce says. Has he only just realized it now?
Viktor shrugs again, trying to squirm out from underneath Jayce, and Jayce reluctantly lets him go.
“You should find a rut partner,” Viktor says, clipped.
“What?” Jayce asks, like he misheard.
Viktor frowns, tugging some paper filled with notes in front of him. He tries to read it, to distract himself, but it’s upside-down. He twists it around to the correct orientation, ignoring Jayce’s gaze boring into him.
“Rut partner,” Viktor says again. “So you don’t—so you don’t do this. To me.”
Viktor waits for him to respond, but Jayce stays silent. When he turns around, Jayce looks heartbroken.
“Oh,” Jayce says, rocking on his heels anxiously. “Oh. I—I thought… I was hoping…”
Viktor sighs and runs a restless hand through his hair. “You are exhaustingly naïve if you think engaging in—in casual… flings, with your colleague, is a good idea.”
“Casual?” Jayce asks, affronted. Viktor glares at him.
“Casual. You never—”
“I’ve been courting you for months, Viktor,” Jayce snaps. “And you’ve accepted every—every gift and gesture.”
Viktor’s mouth falls open, and he blinks at Jayce. “What?”
“Oh my god,” Jayce groans, rubbing at his face, and—and Jayce should not be making sounds like that, so close to him. “You didn’t—did you not—okay. Okay, if you don’t want—”
“Don’t be stupid,” Viktor says, sharp. “You’ve been courting me. We’re courting. You’re going into rut. You know I’m not a—”
“I’ve got synthetic slick,” Jayce says, interrupting. “I’ve got a lot of synthetic slick. I’ve got—I’ve got so much. I’ve been—preparing.”
Viktor exhales sharply. He doesn’t trust himself to stand. “Do you have any here?” he asks. Jayce groans again, then grabs Viktor and pushes him onto the table again, bending him over it. He’s not shy this time with the way he holds Viktor still and rocks against him. God, he’s so big.
“Yes,” Jayce says, sounding strangled. “Yes, but I can’t—I can’t knot you in here.”
“Fuck,” Viktor hisses, trying to press back into Jayce’s arousal. “I—”
“Can I eat you out?” Jayce asks, and Viktor thinks he might faint. He doesn’t even know if he responds, the thought of Jayce wanting to—but Jayce is tugging at the buttons of his pants, nearly desperate.
“Someone might walk in,” Viktor says.
“Okay,” Jayce responds, breathless and dismissive. He undoes the last buttons and tugs Viktor’s pants down his thighs. He wastes no time, shameless with the way he spreads Viktor apart and buries his face in him, tongue pressing against him and licking.
Viktor lets out a keening whine, too loud and lewd for a place of science. He almost cares about potentially being overheard, and then Jayce is pushing his tongue inside, and he decides nothing else matters. He swears, sharp, hips jerking. “Jayce,” he hisses.
Jayce pulls back, growls a rough, “Yes, say my name,” and then presses back in. He is not demure or polite about it—it’s wet, and messy, and desperate. Viktor gasps Jayce’s name again, gut tight with heat as Jayce starts fucking him with his tongue.
“Yes, yes, yes,” Viktor whines. “Please, Jayce.” He’s practically drooling on their notes, eyes unfocused, all his attention on the way Jayce is opening him up. Jayce presses a finger in along with his tongue, and Viktor’s hips jerk. He’s so turned on his cock is leaking. He needs this, needs more. He’s never needed anything more in his life.
Jayce licks into him like he’ll die without it, his needy whines mixing with the slick sound of his tongue and finger sliding in and out of Viktor who pants against the lab table feeling like some desperate, lust-addled omega. Can one present so late in life? Is he a lust-addled omega? Has Jayce’s overwhelming masculinity—Viktor’s brain shuts off as Jayce tugs him back a little, getting a hand on his cock, squeezing and stroking. I’m going to die.
“I’m going to come,” Viktor hisses, eyes rolling in pleasure. He’s not sure if he wants to jerk forward, rut into Jayce’s grasp or rock back to get more of that tongue in him. Jayce moans at the words and Viktor twists so he can look back at him, wants to see his face but his eyes get caught on Jayce’s pants, straining with the size of his erection.
I am going to die, murdered by dick. Viktor can’t even be sad about it, what a way to go—killed by being fucked too well. He wants Jayce to destroy him, hold him down and—Jayce crooks his fingers just right, thrusting, tongue licking, spit dripping down Viktor’s balls and it’s too much, too much—he sobs into the desk, cock jumping in Jayce’s fist, spilling over it as he grinds desperately into his partner’s touch.
Jayce works him through it, practically milks his cock to the point it starts to hurt and Jayce isn’t stopping, he keeps licking like he hasn’t even noticed. “Jayce,” Viktor pants, and Jayce groans, fingers fucking in harder and oh, oh god— “Jayce, if you do not pull out and get me into a bed I will kill you.”
The threat, along with a vicious (okay, maybe not as vicious as he had hoped) kick to the chest, knocks Jayce out of the haze. He lets go of Viktor’s cock, placing his hand on Viktor’s hip instead as he pulls his fingers and tongue out as well.
Viktor feels suddenly bereft and nearly changes his mind, but he wants that knot and he will not do that bent over a desk. Not the first time, anyway. Maybe the second or third time can be over a desk.
“Fuck,” Jayce says, voice wrecked. Viktor looks back at him and nearly rolls his eyes at the pleased look on his partner’s face. Jayce’s eyes fall half-lidded as he raises his hand to lick off some of Viktor’s cum. Oh god.
“I am going to die,” Viktor laments, and Jayce looks alarmed. “From dick,” Viktor clarifies. “Or lack of, perhaps.” He tries to get up, to turn around, and his knees buckle, but Jayce is there to catch him.
“Okay,” Jayce breathes. “Okay, bed. A bed. I can—whose bed?”
Whatever irritated look Viktor has on his face just makes Jayce smile at him. “Whichever bed is closest to your collection of synthetic slick,” he says, voice dry. “I can practically taste your rut, the scent is so strong.”
Jayce’s grin widens into something self-satisfied as he repositions Viktor so he’s a little more comfortable, while Jayce works on fixing Viktor’s clothing. He does it with so much care that Viktor can’t even be irritated that he’s a) being coddled, but most importantly, b) not being dicked down.
There is no attempt made to clean up the soiled lab notes, Viktor’s sole attention on figuring out the fastest route to Jayce’s apartment. They’re almost waylaid on their way out of the building by a fresh-faced student waving the two of them down. Viktor completely ignores them, but Jayce hesitates.
“Hi!” the student says, breathless from jogging over to them. They take a breath, and then their eyes widen. “Oh, oh—oh, never mind,” they say, backpedaling immediately. “I’m—didn’t realize you—goodbye!”
They sprint off in the other direction, and Viktor might find it amusing if he wasn’t so goddamn horny. “Are you going to watch them run off into the sunset or are you going to fuck me?” Viktor snaps, too loud, gathering the attention of some professors across the hall.
“Right,” Jayce says, back on track.
They make it the rest of the way to Jayce’s without any further interruption, and the sound of the lock clicking open is blissful to Viktor’s ears. Jayce opens the door for him, and Viktor takes two steps into the apartment before he’s hit with a wall of scent so strong it makes him want to roll over like some submissive—
Jayce presses up against him from behind, kissing down his neck and groaning. “God, you smell so good.” He rolls his hips and Viktor hisses. Bed. He wants to be knotted in a bed.
“Jayce—”
“Can’t wait to pin you down, Vik, fill you up, breed you good, have you hanging off my knot for hours.”
Viktor shudders, tilting his head so Jayce has more room to bite and kiss before he processes the words.
“Am I becoming an omega?” Viktor asks, amused. It would certainly be strange, but it would explain all the rampant horniness his body is experiencing.
“No,” Jayce says, voice thick with lust as he digs teeth into the side of Viktor’s neck. “No, you still smell perfect. God, Vik, it’s amazing.”
“Then I can’t be bred, Jayce,” Viktor says with a laugh.
“Can’t wait to fill you up, make sure it takes,” Jayce moans, and Viktor furrows his brows.
“You know I can’t be bred, right?” he asks. Jayce doesn’t respond, and Viktor tries to twist in Jayce’s grip to look at him. “You know that, yes? You knew that when you started courting me?” Viktor repeats his question, voice firm.
When he finally gets turned around to look at Jayce, the man’s face is bright red. He looks mortified.
“Please tell me you know I can’t be bred,” Viktor says.
“Oh my god,” Jayce whispers, horror leaking into his voice. “I said that out loud?”
“Jayce, please tell me you know I can’t—”
“Yes, I know!” Jayce hisses. “Don’t say it again, god, I’m sorry, it’s just a—never mind. Come on, bed. I know you can’t—I won’t—I’ll try not to say it ag—”
“Don’t be so hasty,” Viktor interrupts, thinking quick and pressing a hand to Jayce’s chest. Perhaps this could be fun, considering how flustered Jayce is right now. He reaches up and runs fingertips down the side of Jayce’s face. “Should we play pretend?”
“What?” Jayce asks, looking so lost and embarrassed it’s almost humorous.
“You be the big, rutting alpha, and I’ll play the submissive, needy omega you’re trying to breed, hmm? Do you want me to call you alpha while you breed me, Jayce?”
“But you’re not,” Jayce breathes, and Viktor can see he’s barely holding on to sanity, pupils blown wide, hands gripping Viktor’s waist tight.
“That’s why it’s called playing pretend,” Viktor says, voice pitched low. “Do you want me to call you alpha while you fuck your knot into me?”
“This is illegal,” Jayce says. “It’s illegal for you to talk like that.”
Viktor bites his lip, eyeing Jayce. Time to pull out his last weapon. He’s been saving this for some time now.
“Jayce,” Viktor says quietly, affecting a pout. It feels ridiculous, but the way Jayce looks at him like a rut-struck teenager tells him it’s working. “Don’t you want to be my good boy?”
“Yes,” Jayce moans. “Please, let me—let me be a good boy for you.”
Oh. Oh, this is—Viktor is discovering so many new things about himself today. “Bedroom?” he says, finding it difficult to pull together full sentences under the heat of his partner’s gaze.
Jayce looks like he’s about to pick Viktor up before changing his mind and gently, urgently, ushers Viktor toward a closed door. He pushes it open, pulling Viktor through it, and he’s glad Jayce has gotten with the picture, can take the lead for a little, because the scent—Viktor yelps a little as he’s picked up and practically (carefully) tossed onto the bed.
He watches, mouth falling open, as Jayce roughly tugs his own shirt off, nearly ripping it in the effort to get it off. Viktor falls back, staring at the ceiling, because he can’t look or he’s going to do something humiliating like crawl over and lick him. He hears buttons being undone, fabric rustling, the sound of something soft hitting the ground, and then the bed dips as Jayce crawls onto it.
Viktor braves a glance, blush high on his cheeks. So much skin, he’s taken everything off, completely bare. His thick cock looks even bigger freed from its constraints and Viktor squirms underneath him, gaze locked onto it.
Jayce dips down, blocking his view by kissing Viktor’s still-clothed hip. “Can I undress you?” he asks, and Viktor covers his eyes with an arm. He doesn’t trust himself to speak so he just nods, breath shaky as Jayce chuckles. Deft fingers find the buttons on his vest first, and Viktor realizes the trouble they’re about to have with his brace.
There’s a brief moment where he considers stopping Jayce, telling him to leave the shirt on, but the thought leaves his head with the gentle way Jayce touches him and helps him sit up to remove the vest. He works on the buttons to Viktor’s shirt next, pressing hot, open-mouthed kisses to Viktor’s neck.
It’s too much, how Jayce can be so attentive and caring, slowing down to make sure Viktor is comfortable. Jayce pushes the shirt down Viktor’s shoulders gently, moving his lips over the newly-bared skin.
“You’re so beautiful,” Jayce whispers, running a hand down his back. He’s careful, running fingers over the pins at the top of his spine. Viktor shivers and Jayce pulls back to look at him, cupping his cheek. “Does it hurt?”
Viktor shrugs. “Some days more than others. The, ah—the brace, it’s complicated, you can leave it on if you don’t want to bother.”
“Don’t be ridiculous,” Jayce says, trailing fingers down the back of it. It elicits another shiver, Viktor unused to the touch there of someone other than him. “Unless you’d rather keep it on?”
“I want to feel your hands on me,” Viktor says quietly, looking away, vividly aware of how hot his face is, how flushed he must be. He closes his eyes as Jayce leans back in, mouthing at the spot he’d dug his thumb into in the lab.
“Then we’ll take it off,” Jayce murmurs, wrapping his arms fully around Viktor so he can use both hands to help remove the brace.
“It looks more complicated than it is, if—I just need a mirror—” he cuts himself off, the feeling of Jayce’s fingers feeling for the right clasps and bolts, working out the mechanics of it and unfastening it quicker than Viktor could ever hope to.
“Got it, I think,” Jayce says, pulling back. Just as carefully as everything he’s done for Viktor thus far, his removal of the brace is almost reverent. Jayce sets it aside with care, taking the time to make sure it’s safe before settling himself back onto the bed.
“You were so urgent before,” Viktor says quietly, and Jayce presses his smile into Viktor’s cheek.
“Head feels more calm now that I’ve got you in my bed,” Jayce says, stroking his hand down Viktor’s bare back, rubbing at the skin creased from the brace.
“Biological imperative to get me in your den,” Viktor teases. “Now I’m here, you can plot what you want to do to me.”
“Vik,” Jayce says, grinning something wicked, “You say that like I haven’t spent the better part of the last year imagining every single thing I want to do to you, and when, and where, and how often, and how you’d look and sound, how you’d smell.”
Viktor hides his face in Jayce’s neck, embarrassed at how much it turns him on, knowing Jayce has been fantasizing about him all this time. “You’re a menace,” he says into his partner’s skin. “Where is the mountain of synthetic slick I was promised?”
Jayce lays Viktor down, helping him stretch out on his back so he can look his fill. “It’s slick,” Jayce says absentmindedly. “Ocean would probably be a better metaphor.”
“Ocean of slick,” Viktor hisses, flustered at the wording.
Jayce just smiles, sliding down the bed so he can get his hands on Viktor’s leg brace, just as gentle with the removal as he was with the back brace
“It’s a brace,” Viktor says quietly. “Why are you treating it like it’s something precious?”
Jayce kisses Viktor’s knee as he pulls it off and sets it aside. “Because it is precious,” he answers, simple, like it’s a fact. “It’s yours, therefore it’s precious.”
Viktor covers his face again to hide from his own emotions as Jayce carefully removes his shoes, then socks, kissing the tops of his feet before he removes the last pieces of clothing. He waits for Jayce’s touch, waits for the urgency now that Viktor is completely bare, but Jayce only runs his hands up Viktor’s thighs slowly. He moves his arm from across his eyes, impatient and ready to tell Jayce to hurry up.
Jayce kneels there, at his feet, drinking in the sight of Viktor with such reverence that it almost makes him want to cry. He’s nothing special, he knows what he looks like, but Jayce leans forward to start pressing gentle kisses up his body, worshipful.
He laughs breathlessly when he realizes what Jayce is doing, kissing every mole and mark on his skin. “You’re ridiculous,” he says with a soft smile. Jayce hums and takes his time painting constellations on Viktor’s skin with his tongue.
Cruelly skipping from Viktor’s thighs to his stomach, then up his chest, he doesn’t miss a single mark. He has Viktor squirming underneath him by the time he gets to his neck, licks up it and sucks a mark just under where mates typically wear each other’s bites.
“Are you teasing?” Viktor asks, running a hand up Jayce’s back and through his hair. “Or are you planning on biting me today?”
He moans at Jayce’s sharp, teasing bite to that spot, arching underneath him. “Can I?” Jayce asks after a moment, moving to hold himself up over Viktor so he can look at him properly.
The question flusters Viktor again and he looks away. How is he supposed to answer that? “It’s not something you can take back.” A non-answer.
Jayce takes Viktor’s jaw in hand and turns his head, so Viktor is forced to look at him. “It’s not like you to be so self-deprecating,” he says, and Viktor bites his lip, taking in Jayce’s expression.
“A poor cripple from the undercity, out of place in Piltover—you’ll have to forgive me for not having mating Jayce Talis in my life plans,” Viktor grumbles. He nearly rolls his eyes at the hurt look he gets from Jayce.
“Who would you have mated instead?” he asks, and Viktor does laugh.
“Nobody, Jayce,” he says. “It wasn’t in my life plans.”
Jayce hesitates. “Wasn’t. It is now?”
Viktor sighs his name, something affectionate and exasperated at the same time. “Apparently,” he says, “we’ve been courting for months. I’m a scientist—I get new information, I adjust accordingly. Bite me when you knot me the first time, hmm?”
“Yes,” Jayce groans, burying his face in Viktor’s neck. The sound sends heat up Viktor’s spine.
“Some time today would be nice, Jayce,” Viktor snarks. Jayce levers himself up and reaches out for the bedside table, treating Viktor to the vision of his shirtless chest, stretching, muscles working to hold himself up with one hand while the other tugs the jug—the jug?!—of synthetic slick out.
“I told you I’ve been preparing,” Jayce says, eyeing Viktor’s expression.
“So you get enough to last a decade?” Viktor asks, incredulous. Jayce smirks and the look does something to Viktor.
“A decade? Vik, this’ll last a week, maybe,” he says, and Viktor exhales sharply. “You’ve never been someone’s rut partner before?”
“No!” Viktor says. “No, why would someone—no. No, Jayce. You are—I’ve never—it’s always been with betas.”
Jayce’s eyes widen, and Viktor is afraid for a moment, that maybe his lack of experience with ruts is going to be an issue.
“You’ve never been with an alpha?” Jayce asks, breathless. “I’m the first? I’m the only one? But you talked about—about taking a knot, so I—for real?”
“I regret my words,” Viktor mutters, pushing at Jayce. “If you’re not going to fuck me, I’m leav—ah, Jayce.” He gasps, Jayce taking his wrists and pinning them to the bed roughly, biting at his shoulder.
“No,” Jayce growls. “You’re mine.”
And oh, that does something to Viktor, too, hearing Jayce’s claim verbalized. “Yes, okay,” Viktor moans. “Yours, now please, Jayce, I need you.”
Heavy hands tug Viktor further up the bed, so their legs aren’t hanging off the edge, Viktor close enough to the headboard that he could hold onto it for support. He has the feeling he’ll need it.
He lets his legs fall open, graceless, and Jayce crawls to kneel between them, hands immediately going to Viktor’s thighs. He’s not a small man, average by most counts, but Jayce makes him feel small and delicate in a way that makes him feel safe and cared-for rather than coddled or demeaned.
His hands twist around to support Viktor’s thighs as he shuffles closer, pulling him halfway into Jayce’s lap and then supporting his lower back as he pulls a pillow over, settling it under Viktor so he isn’t strained by the position.
Viktor has to cover his eyes again, doesn’t want Jayce to see the prickle of tears at being treated with such care and reverence. Life has been a struggle for Viktor, sharpening his edges and hardening his heart to keep himself sane, but Jayce melts it all with one touch, smooths Viktor out with a single smile.
He peeks out from under his arm as Jayce carefully pours some of the synthetic slick onto his fingers, warming it before pressing the first against Viktor’s entrance. “Is this all right?” he asks, gentle.
Viktor scowls. “No, you’re taking too long,” he snaps, and Jayce laughs. Viktor is about to complain again, and then Jayce starts sliding the finger in and the complaints die on his lips. He hadn’t given thought to how his finger would feel inside him, thick and long as it stretches him.
It slides in with little resistance, the slick easing the way, and Viktor can’t help the moan, doesn’t even try to. He tries to press back into the touch, impatient, wants to get more, but Jayce holds him still with one hand on his hip. The strength of him sends a bolt of arousal through Viktor, gut tight with it.
“Please,” he begs, but Jayce’s pace stays steady.
“I don’t want to hurt you,” Jayce says, and Viktor makes a face.
“It’s fine, I’ll be fine,” he says. Jayce shifts, a touch to Viktor’s face and the feeling of Jayce’s cock sliding heavy on his hip. He looks down and re-evaluates his statement. It’s one thing seeing it between Jayce’s thick thighs, another to watch Jayce roll his hips, pushing his cock further up Viktor’s body.
“You sure about that?” Jayce asks, and Viktor bites his lip, looking away.
“Don’t sound so smug,” Viktor says, sounding a little strangled. “Your cockiness is very unattractive.”
It’s a lie, blatant, and they both know it. “It won’t be by the time I’m fucking you open,” Jayce murmurs, and Viktor tries to stop the desperate whine before it falls from his lips. He is entirely unsuccessful, but he doesn’t mind, not with the way Jayce’s mouth drops open a little, gaze intense as he watches Viktor’s face.
“Gonna fuck you so hard you won’t be able to talk,” Jayce groans. He takes more of the synthetic slick, getting Viktor so wet with it he can feel it dripping down, wetting the pillow underneath his hips. “So wet for me, look at you, pretty little beta, legs open and begging for it.”
Viktor shudders. “Yes,” whines. “Yes, yours, more, Jayce, Jayce.”
Jayce is a little rougher now, fucking his finger in and out, stretching him until Viktor is trembling, begging for another. “Good?” Jayce asks, and Viktor nods, silent and biting his lip to hide the embarrassing mewls of pleasure.
“I’m not going to break,” Viktor pants, and Jayce leans over him, gets his fingers in deeper as he kisses up Viktor’s neck.
He presses his lips to Viktor’s ear, words coming out in a low rumble, “I’m going to fuck you apart, Viktor, ruin you for anyone else, make you cry. You’re going to be so fucked out and cum-drunk by the time I’m done, leaking with how much I fill you up, you won’t be able to think about anything but my cock every time you look at me.”
Viktor trembles in Jayce’s arms, panting like a desperate omega, the word sending shockwaves down his spine and curling his toes. “Yes,” he gasps. “Yes, yes, please, fill me up, Jayce, breed me.”
“Fuck,” Jayce growls, hips jerking, cock grinding into Viktor’s skin. “Gonna breed you so good, knock you up. How many are you going to give me, Vik, how many pups?”
“Please,” Viktor sobs. “I need it, need your cum in me, please, please, hurry, need it—need you to breed me, fill me until I’m so full it’s dripping out of me.”
Jayce’s pumps his fingers in harder, faster, pushing a third in a little too fast to be comfortable, but Jayce makes up for it by the way he crooks his fingers, pressing down into Viktor’s prostate, eliciting another cry of pleasure, loud and desperate and so turned on his cock is leaking onto his belly.
“Yeah, Vik, you take me so good, look so pretty spread out around my fingers, looking ruined and I haven’t even gotten my dick into you.” He moans the words into Viktor’s ear, has Viktor panting, practically drooling with how much he wants it. Three fingers isn’t enough but he doesn’t want to wait any longer, back arching, he needs it, needs it, so fucking bad, needs it, please Jayce, he’s out of his mind.
Jayce smells so good, wrapping Viktor up in it. It’s delicious and Viktor wants to rub it into his skin, smell like Jayce permanently so everyone knows he’s Viktor’s. “Hurry,” Viktor sobs.
“So needy,” Jayce moans. He holds back, still, torturing Viktor with how slowly he pushes in a fourth finger, and that has to be enough. Viktor’s never been so desperate and turned on in his life, thinks he might be dying with how good it feels. More slick is poured onto Jayce’s fingers and pushed into Viktor, the sound of his fingers thrusting in and out of Viktor obscene and lewd and it just makes everything hotter.
“Please,” Viktor begs again, tears in his eyes, hands twisting in the sheets. He tries to reach for his cock, to give himself some relief, but Jayce gathers both of his wrists in his free hand, pinning them above Viktor’s head.
His fingers pull out of Viktor and Viktor swears, tossing his head back. “Fuck me, fuck me, fuck me, yes.”
Jayce’s cock is at his entrance, thick, blunt head pushing in slowly. Viktor’s breath catches in his throat, eyes rolling with the feeling, with the burn of the stretch and how hot it makes him, how desperate it gets him squirming.
“Come on, ruin me Jayce, fuck it into me—” He cries out as Jayce jerks his hips, pushing his cock in past the head, overwhelming and too slow and he’s still so frustrated, god, “I will kill you,” he growls, and Jayce swears.
“Are you s—”
“Breed me.” It’s an order, and Jayce snaps his hips. Too much too fast but Viktor loves it, tries to rock back into the filthy roll of Jayce’s hips. “Harder,” Viktor pleads. “Harder and faster and—fuck!”
Jayce’s free hand moves up Viktor’s throat, thumb pressing into the hinge of Viktor’s jaw and tilting his head so he can lean down while he pushes deeper, dragging teeth along his mating spot and pulling more stuttered sobs of pleasure from Viktor.
“Gonna mark you up,” Jayce breathes, and Viktor tugs at Jayce’s grasp on his wrist. “Fuck you full and breed you and knot you and bite you, make you mine.” It’s a growl, primal and wild and finally, finally he gets the picture that Viktor can take it. He withdraws to the tip, shifts his stance and snaps his hips, fucking that big, thick cock in deep.
Touch me, Viktor begs, but no words come out, just desperate sobs, shaky, the wet sound of Jayce’s thrusts into him, the slap of flesh on flesh filling the room. It’s so overwhelming Viktor feels dizzy with it, skin oversensitive and sparking with pleasure at every touch.
The way Jayce’s muscles move as he rolls his hips in a rough, dirty grind, working his cock in deep is mesmerizing, Viktor can’t focus on anything but the way Jayce’s entire attention is focused on him, worshipful. Intoxicating.
He rolls his head to the side when the vision of sweat sliding down Jayce’s body from the exertion becomes too much. It puts his neck on full display for Jayce, and Viktor hears a quiet mutter of, “Beautiful,” before Jayce lets go of his wrists, moving his arms so he can hold Viktor up, against his body, fucking in faster.
God, he’s so strong and it makes Viktor ache. Hands free, he doesn’t waste any time in getting them on Jayce’s body, running over his sweat-slick skin and muscles, burying fingers in his hair and tugging.
Jayce moans, curling over him more, trapping Viktor’s erection between their bodies. It’s like a lightning strike to the gut, the sharp jolt of intense arousal, of need. He digs his fingers into Jayce’s skin, pleading wordlessly, and Jayce’s movement become frenzied, headboard hitting the wall with every thrust, Viktor’s punched-out moans of pleasure at the bottom of each one answered by Jayce’s needy whine.
He's been fucked before, but never like this. Never so rough by somebody so gentle, the hands splayed on his back as he’s held up nearly spanning the entire width of it. God, and Jayce is gorgeous, and desperate, and each thrust into him is frantic as Jayce pants against his neck.
Fucking into Viktor, stretching him around that thick cock, filling him so full every thrust rubs against all the best parts inside—heat pools in Viktor’s gut, something tight and liquid and hot. His entire focus is on Jayce, moving inside him, groaning with the force of each thrust, tongue pressed up against Viktor’s mating spot.
The heat builds into a crescendo, and Viktor can feel it, feel the knot forming, so close, he wants it in him, needs it, and Jayce digs his teeth into Viktor’s neck right there and he loses track of everything but the sharp pressure on the mating spot.
“Gonna breed you,” Jayce slurs against his neck, and Viktor tugs on Jayce’s hair harder.
“Breed me, Jayce, need it, knot me, fill me up.”
Jayce growls, snapping his hips harder, forcing his knot in, tugging at his rim with each thrust. He gets a hand between them, wraps it around Viktor’s cock and jerks it, grip rough and tight and perfect. The heat building in his spine and staccato rhythm of Jayce’s thrusts turning sloppy driving it—so close, tense, cock so hard it hurts.
Jayce swears, adjusts his grip, and slams in so hard he jerks Viktor’s body up the bed a few inches, teeth digging in harder, god more, just a little more, just—Viktor sobs, arching, pleasure cresting and breaking over him. He can feel it race through him, muscles tensing around Jayce as he spills over Jayce’s hand and onto their bellies, Jayce still jerking his cock, milking him through it. He hears distantly the answering growl right before Jayce forces his knot in one more time, deep, rolling his hips and putting pressure on Viktor’s prostate, forcing another cry out of him.
“Breeding you, take it, take my cum,” Jayce moans. Viktor can feel his cock pulsing inside him, Jayce’s grind no less frenzied as he fills Viktor up, overstimulation intense as Viktor is forced to ride out his orgasm on his knot. He’s still breathless and panting, held up by Jayce’s hands as Jayce growls, “Mine,” and sinks his teeth into that spot, biting hard, deep, marking him.
Viktor cries out again as it sends another wave of heat and pleasure through him, hot and wonderful and he’s spilling onto their bellies a second time, mindless as he stares at the ceiling, so overwhelmed he can’t process anything but Jayce, Jayce, Jayce, his smell, his cock still pulsing inside him even as the desperate, dirty grinding slows. He’s so big, knot stretching him wide. Viktor understands now why people go feral for this. He’s growing feral for this.
Feral, and clinging, and addicted to Jayce’s cock like a needy, submissive omega. Jayce lets out another deep groan as his hips slow to a still, laving his tongue over the mark he’s just bitten into Viktor’s skin like he’s trying to lick it into his mouth.
With a force Viktor didn’t know he had in him, he grabs Jayce by the jaw and turns his head, revealing his neck. It’s unconventional but not unheard of, and he needs everyone to know Jayce is his. He surges up, bites into Jayce, viciously marking him.
Jayce jerks his hips with it, gasping at the feeling. “Viktor, Vik, yes, yes, yes,” he chants, arching his neck into Viktor’s mouth. “Mark me, yes, yours.”
When Viktor is sure his mark has taken, he falls back with a satisfied noise. He’s still being held up and against Jayce and he digs his heel into Jayce’s back warningly. “If your muscles give out and you collapse on me, I’ll never forgive you,” Viktor says, though it comes out breathless and not at all as firm as he means the threat.
Viktor can feel Jayce pressing his smile into his skin and then they’re moving, Jayce careful as he rearranges them, laying him down properly. It’s a little awkward, the way Jayce has to hold himself so it’s comfortable for him, but he looks pleased at his own discomfort when Viktor murmurs his approval of the position.
“You’re gorgeous,” Jayce says, wonder in his voice, and Viktor smiles at him indulgently.
“Yes,” he answers, “I am very gorgeous. Your observational skills are quite impressive.”
Jayce matches his smile, rubbing his hands up and down Viktor’s body absentmindedly. Viktor allows himself to sink into that glow of satisfaction, stretching a little. He doesn’t miss the way Jayce tracks the movement, gaze intense. Intoxicating, he thinks again. Jayce’s attention makes him feel powerful in a way he’s never felt before.
He moves to kiss Viktor, shifting their positions and shoving his knot deeper on accident. Viktor gasps, arching, hand grabbing Jayce’s forearm tight.
“Fuck, sorry,” Jayce hisses, and Viktor gives him an incredulous look.
“Sorry?” he squirms, and Jayce bites his lip, eyelids fluttering shut. He rolls his hips minutely, just enough to get friction inside of Viktor, eliciting a quiet moan. “Don’t—don’t apologize.”
“Sorry,” Jayce says again. “I mean—”
“Has your rut set in fully?” Viktor asks, interrupting him. “When can you fuck me again?”
“God,” Jayce breathes, hands going to Viktor’s waist, holding him still. “Probably not until tonight.”
“How do we make it happen sooner?” Viktor asks, and Jayce looks at him, exasperated.
“It’s biology,” Jayce says, “you can’t speed biology up.”
“I don’t think that’s true,” Viktor mumbles, trying to get more of Jayce into him, as if he isn’t still sheathed to the hilt. “There must be a way.”
“You can’t just—just deny science,” Jayce says. He tries to hold still, be good and let Viktor rest, but it’s clearly not what Viktor is seeking in the moment. He hitches Viktor’s hips up so he can grind deeper and leaves the man sighing in satisfaction.
“Tell that to the creators of Hextech,” Viktor grumbles. “Oh, wait. We are the creators of Hextech. More research is needed, Jayce, that’s all. Maybe studying biology will help us with—ah, Jayce, yes—with novel uses of Hex—Hextech.”
“I can’t believe you’re talking about work while I’m inside you,” Jayce says.
“You told me you were going to fuck me so hard I couldn’t speak, and yet here I am, still able to form words,” Viktor complains. “Help me sit up, I’ll do it myself.”
“No,” Jayce laughs, grabbing Viktor’s hands and pinning them down again. “You’re a monster, calm down. You’re going to need the rest.”
“Confident,” Viktor scoffs. “This is plenty of time for a break.”
“Vik,” Jayce says, smiling and squeezing his hands gently, “you’re not going to get a break once it sets in. I’m going to fuck you, come inside you, knot you for five minutes at most and then fuck you again. For days.”
“Ah,” Viktor says, considering. “No break at all?”
“Some break. We still have to eat and sleep. Well, you’ll have to sleep. Can I fuck you while you’re asleep?”
Viktor covers his face again, suddenly overwhelmed at the prospect. “What?”
“When you’re sleeping, if I need to—do you want me to wake you up, or just fuck you?”
It’s not a thought Viktor has ever entertained but oh is it intriguing. He lets Jayce lift his arm off his face, revealing the flush he had been trying to hide.
“One minute you’re telling me I’m not fucking you quickly enough, the next you’re embarrassed?” Jayce teases.
“Human sexuality is complex,” Viktor says, running a hand through his hair. “You can—while I’m asleep. If I don’t like it, will you be able to stop yourself in the future?”
Jayce massages Viktor’s thighs as he speaks and squeezes gently at the question. “Of course I’ll be able to stop, Vik, I’m not an animal.”
“Technically—”
“Shush,” Jayce says, covering Viktor’s mouth with a hand. “Shush. Be patient. Wait.”
Viktor sighs and closes his eyes, relaxing back into the bed since Jayce is being difficult. After another long moment, Jayce removes his hand.
“Your hands are ridiculously large,” Viktor says, taking the one Jayce just removed from his face and intertwining their fingers. It’s almost comical, the size difference. “They make me feel small.”
“Are you complaining?” Jayce asks.
Is he? He considers the question. “No,” Viktor answers after a moment. “No, I like them quite a bit, actually. Very distracting in the workshop, you know. You’re always touching things, and me, and I can’t help but watch.”
He looks up at Jayce when he doesn’t get a response and immediately looks away at the affection he sees reflected back at him. Too much. The pendulum swing of his own mood is exhausting, his entire body and mind a tangled ball of sensation and thoughts. Full, needy, desperate, embarrassed, anxious—he’s startled out of his thoughts by Jayce moving.
Jayce disentangles their hands so he can hold Viktor’s hips steady as he starts to pull out. Viktor hadn’t even noticed his knot had gone down—is that something he should have noticed? He chews his lip, the prickling discomfort of not being sure of himself a distraction.
“I’ll be right back,” Jayce says quietly, moving to get off the bed.
“Where are you going?” he asks.
Jayce peers at him curiously. “Getting something to clean you up with, some snacks, water. Don’t want you to get dehydrated.” Jayce narrows his eyes, then, scrutinizing Viktor. “Any more than you already are, anyway.”
Viktor waves him off, rolling onto his back. “I’ll just… be here, then,” he says, gesturing to the bed. Jayce gives him a lopsided smile, entirely too pleased and fond.
“I like you in my bed,” he says, leaning down to press a kiss to Viktor’s cheek before he leaves the room.
His absence gives Viktor just enough time to have half of an existential crisis. What is he doing? He lifts a hand to press against the tender bite mark on his neck and shudders at the strange tingle it sends down his spine. In Piltover’s Most Eligible Bachelor’s bed—well, not so eligible now, is he?—waiting for Jayce’s rut to set in. He has no idea what to expect, nothing today has gone as expected, and it’s catching up with him.
This changes everything, the entire trajectory of his life thrown off course in a single afternoon. How does he fit in time for romance, for a partner? The only things he knows are solitude and science. Relative solitude, anyway. Having a partner in research was easy enough to get used to—two minds are always better than one—but relationships are… messy.
This is an unknown variable he has not prepared for. All the equations he’s puzzled out that make up who he is made null and void with one bite. He pokes at the edges of said mark on his neck—it stings a little, but mostly there’s a pleasant thrum, warmth that spreads through his body at the pressure.
This is all new, but it’s not something he regrets. How could he, with a partner as devoted as Jayce? Even if his only evidence prior to today has been their time in the lab, the way Jayce carefully undressed him, took care of his body without making him feel like a burden or incapable—it’s a little overwhelming to think about, without the haze of arousal and urgency.
He may not regret this, the mating and the inevitable adjustment of his life that will follow, but it doesn’t make it any less confusing. He doesn’t even know when Jayce started courting him. And for months? At least two, but less than a year, and that’s such a wide range, from two months to not-quite twelve.
When had it started, and how, and how did it progress? What did he miss? If he regrets anything, it’s not knowing, not being able to enjoy that period of flirtation. Then again, even if he had known, would he have let himself indulge? Would he have pushed Jayce away?
He barely notices the man re-entering the room, lost in his thoughts as he tries to figure out the logistics and timeline. He startles as Jayce presses a thumb between his brows, smoothing the furrow of concentration.
“You’re thinking very hard about something,” Jayce says, sitting on the edge of the bed. “Are you all right?”
“Fine,” Viktor says immediately, waving off the concern, and then he makes a face at how ridiculous a statement that is. “Confused,” he corrects.
“About what?” Jayce asks, and Viktor stares up at the ceiling, trying to pull together words, to figure out what is most important to say first.
“There is a lot to process,” Viktor says carefully. “My entire life, my future, is now different from how I imagined it. I don’t know how to fit somebody into my life. I—I want to, I will, I just… it’s never been a consideration.”
“Never?” Jayce asks.
Viktor shrugs. “I wasn’t the most desirable in the undercity. Strength is important, and that is, ah, one of my weaknesses, I suppose. Physically, anyway. I didn’t mind, really. My focus was on working my way into Piltover, so I could study, so I could make a difference and help people. Then I get here, and this city’s social strata is so rigid. I belong to no House, I bring nothing of value—of ah, the things people here find valuable, rather. Money, power. I was okay with that, I didn’t expect anything different. I… maybe, maybe I had thoughts, of what it could be like, but never beyond just a passing fascination.”
“I don’t understand how anyone wouldn’t want you,” Jayce says, and Viktor raises a brow.
“Naïve and idealistic,” Viktor says, tone fond despite the criticism. “Part of what drew me to you. You didn’t let Piltover’s strict hierarchy hold you back. You didn’t even consider it.”
“Nobody really expected anything of me, not anything great, anyway. Plus, I’m not from here. My mom married into a House; I wasn’t born here. It’s easy to ignore that kind of rigid structure when you’ve always lived on the outside, to some extent. You know that better than I do.”
“Mm,” Viktor hums, reaching out to take Jayce’s hand. He wants the physical touch, finds himself craving it in a way he didn’t before. “Still, those who find themselves here often let the glamor and promise of progress blind them. Progress, but toward what? Your dreams weren’t about making a name for yourself. Your pure desire to help people was inspiring, but I never considered the partnership might go beyond working toward the same goal.”
“Do you regret it?” Jayce asks, quiet, tentative. Like he doesn’t want to know the answer.
“You are the smartest man I know, and yet you ask such ridiculous questions,” Viktor sighs. He brings Jayce’s hand up to his mouth, kissing his knuckles. “Of course I don’t regret it. If… if I had thought about it, if finding a mate had been on my mind, you were… an obvious choice. The only one. Even if you would have belonged more to the city than to me.”
Jayce moves further onto the bed, on the far side of Viktor so he can pull the man into his arms and kiss his shoulder. “I belong to you,” Jayce says. “Just… so you know. If it’s between the city and you, it’s you. It’s always been you.”
“Why?” Viktor asks. It’s baffling, Jayce’s devotion. “What have I done to earn that? Me, over the whole city?”
“You believed in me,” Jayce says, and Viktor makes a face.
“That’s it? Many people believe in you, Jayce.” He doesn’t mean to devalue Jayce’s reason for his affection, but if that’s the only thing setting Viktor apart, what happens if somebody comes along who believes in Jayce more?
“Of course not,” Jayce grumbles. “It was what sparked the interest. You believed in me, in my dream, wanted to work toward it and risked… risked everything for it, for somebody you didn’t even know.”
“Hmm. I felt like I knew you, somehow, actually. Not in a sense that I had met you before, but something deeper.”
“Yeah,” Jayce says. “That too. But then we started working together, and you’re brilliant, Viktor, I don’t need to tell you that. You’re passionate, you care, you’re funny, and you’ve never wavered.”
Viktor stretches out in Jayce’s hold, pressing back into his body. He gets the reaction he is seeking, Jayce pulling him closer, wrapping his arms around Viktor tighter.
“After a while, I realized I couldn’t—didn’t want to—be separated from that.”
He’s glad he’s not facing Jayce, glad he can hide most of his blush, even if the dusting of pink over his cheekbones is visible still. Hesitantly, he asks, “When did you start courting me?”
“God, I still feel like a failure that you didn’t even realize. I did that bad of a job?”
“Ah…” Viktor has to gather the words, figure out how to say what he wants to express. “It’s less of that, and more… I know the steps, in a… vague sense. I’ve heard people talk about them, what Piltover’s customs are like. But as I said, it had never occurred to me I might need to know them here, so I never sought more information.”
“What, uh, what steps do you know?”
“There is a gift? Somewhere? Touch, too. But you’re always touchy, it wouldn’t be a reliable way of telling.”
“That makes me feel better, actually,” Jayce says with a laugh. “I ah, made my intentions known—well, I thought I had—about two months into us working together.”
“How?”
“The specialized toolset.”
Viktor is silent for a long moment. “The specialized toolset,” he echoes. “The one I would have needed to get anyway, because of the research we were doing?”
“…I see now how that might be confusing,” Jayce says, and Viktor snorts.
“And I accepted them, used them—you took that as approval?”
“Yeah. Then, after that, uh… mingling scents. Anticipating your physical needs and providing for them.”
Viktor runs over his memories, the little eccentricities he’d catalogued as something unique to Jayce, interesting but otherwise mundane. “The tea,” he says. “And the food, always making sure I eat.”
“Yeah.”
“Is that why you foisted your sweater upon me?” Viktor asks, and Jayce groans in embarrassment, burying his face in Viktor’s neck.
“Don’t say it like that,” he whines.
“My apologies,” Viktor teases. “Is that why you so generously gave me your sweater, that night you thought I looked cold? And then made me wear it?”
“I—yeah,” Jayce sighs. “And the—the other things. The coat.”
“The two other sweaters,” Viktor adds. “They are very comfortable, though a little oversized. You aren’t getting them back.”
“Good,” Jayce says, kissing Viktor’s neck gently. The light pressure makes Viktor shiver, and Jayce hugs him tighter with one arm, the other reaching down to Viktor’s thigh, massaging the spots that always get tense and hurt from overuse, compensating.
How does Jayce know? Has he watched Viktor that closely? He must have—he knows Viktor’s favorite sweets, how he likes his tea, all without ever asking him. He hums as Jayce sucks a mark into his neck, readjusting so he’s facing Jayce. He reaches up to place a gentle hand on Jayce’s cheek, enjoying the way the man leans into it.
Jayce’s gaze softens back into hazy reverence at the touch. He’s silent for a moment, searching Viktor’s eyes. He must find what he’s looking for.
“I love you. You know that, right?” Jayce’s voice is quiet, filled with emotion, and Viktor trails his touch down Jayce’s neck to press his thumb into the skin next to his mark. It looks nice, high up, impossible to hide.
“I should hope so,” Viktor responds, “considering you just marked me.”
Jayce hesitates. “And you marked me,” he says, though it sounds like a question. So cute, always seeking his approval.
As much as he wants to tease and walk Jayce through to the conclusion himself, he also wants to see what Jayce looks like when he hears those words spoken back to him.
“I love you more than I thought was possible,” Viktor says, soft. “I am surprised by the depth of my affection.”
Jayce glows, his wide, bashful smile turning Viktor’s insides gooey with the swell of adoration. “Yeah?” he says.
“Yes, Jayce. This was an… unexpected divergence from the direction I thought my life would go, but for the better.”
He smiles against Jayce’s lips as he’s pulled into a tender kiss, one of Jayce’s hands on his back now, holding him, supporting his body. Any lingering anxiety he had about Jayce’s rut melts away at the care with which he is treated.
How lucky, he thinks to himself, that I got to him in time, stopped him from depriving us of his brilliant mind.