Archive of Our Own

Viktor had been trying to consult Jayce ever since he built the hexcore. Sure, they had spoken about it briefly, Jayce was as excited by its response to biological matter as Viktor, but now… Viktor had been at it for weeks and his research had stalled. Each time Viktor was able to consult Jayce in the lab he either was on his way to an important meeting or got called away to councilor business. Jayce swore this time that the council was all busy and preoccupied and he had already told Mel not to contact him unless there was a true, non-political, emergency. Viktor suspected that his recent hospital visit and prognosis had a lot to do with Jayce’s determination to spend the day together, but far from protesting, Viktor was determined to make the most of it.

Viktor had come to expect his best friend’s perpetual presence in the lab in the early years, but now… no matter how grateful Viktor was that Jayce handled their public relations, investors, and politics related to hextech, he still struggled with how much that distracted and diverted Jayce from developing or refining their inventions together or even working separately while both in the lab, not to mention collaborating. Jayce was finally going over everything Viktor had done so far. He was reading and often replicating a lot of the early experiments and conjectures Viktor had tested before Jayce had a chance to get his hands on the core.

Initially Viktor watched the hexcore react as Jayce manipulated the matrix: it seemed to flash slightly differently for Jayce than it had when Viktor had held the grips putting it through the same permutations. He would have to recruit more people to work with it so he could try to understand the differences in reactions, but that could wait. They needed to push beyond this block to actually generate a meaningful outcome besides flashing and spinning before any of that mattered.

They discussed, manipulated, analyzed, evaluated, theorized, ruminated, and did it all again. Minutes ticked into hours, and they were making no real progress. But no progress together felt so much more productive than no progress alone; he had missed his partner actually being in the lab, even silent or muttering over his work separately.

Truthfully, he was only half paying attention as Jayce got up to speed with the “hextech that can learn.” He was following nearly identical lines of inquiry to Viktor’s original exploration of the rune arrays, skipping through his notes and logical leaps in that way that only comes from years of partnership. It was thrilling to share their thoughts and leapfrog off each other’s ideas again, a phenomenon which was becoming uncomfortably rare amidst meetings with investors, rubbing elbows at social events, sourcing parts and materials, and now of course Jayce’s council responsibilities. Suffice to say, it was refreshing to work seamlessly together again. Viktor felt revitalized, like the first time floating when they cracked hextech together in Heimerdinger’s office. It made Viktor feel young, full of hope again, giddy. He had thought of this research, sharing it with Jayce, and almost nothing else since he created the little device.

Almost.

Now that Jayce’s mind was also turned towards the core, Viktor let those other thoughts creep into the front of his mind: how badly he had been missing Jayce, imagining Jayce’s attention on him (instead of their work). Viktor raked his gaze over Jayce’s broad back, his mind’s eye filling in the chiseled details he had taken in when he visited Jayce in the forge to collaborate on the hexclaw prototype. His appreciative gaze slid down to the ripple of Jayce’s arms beneath his neatly pressed shirt, where his biceps escaped the cream and gold confines of his waistcoat. His muscular forearms were exposed where he had rolled his currant-colored cuffs and the elegant way Jayce twisted his wrists to manipulate the core’s handles sent Viktor’s mind atwitter.

He operated on two levels for the next several hours: a haze of imaginary intrigue and ardent appreciation focused on the other scientist, then in the background, following the science and answering Jayce’s questions about the experimentation he had already done. Entertaining such indecent thoughts only worked out because Jayce was being as thorough as he had been over the previous weeks. If Jayce had immediately wanted to keep pushing the limits of the core, it would have taken all of Viktor’s attention (and would be titillating in other ways), but thoroughness was part of what he admired about Jayce—part of what he craved. It also afforded him time to indulge in this guilty pleasure. He caught himself drooling at one point, which he wiped away with the back of his hand. When Jayce asked clarifying questions, a few times it took him several blinks to return from his reverie and refocus. After one such dazed moment, Viktor finally realized Jayce was sitting in front of him ready to discuss the matrix.

“Uhh.. sorry? What were you saying?” Viktor looked at Jayce’s face and was met with a bemused smile.

“You looked like your mind was a million miles away… welcome back to the lab,” Jayce laughed lightly.

“Yes, sorry. I zoned out for a little while. Sometimes it’s easier to not exactly be in my body, you know? Because of pain I mean.” Viktor wasn’t exactly lying, but that was a bit of a misdirect in this instance. Blessedly, Jayce nodded in understanding. “So what do you think of the core?”

“It shows a lot of potential, but it seems like the research has plateaued?” His tone made the statement a question. “I guess that’s part of what you wanted to pull me in for,” Jayce was right, of course, but Viktor had to admit it was also a convenient excuse to see him, to insist on his presence in the lab. The Councilor was in high demand these days and Viktor got jealous, not only because he had limited time left, but also because he needed a breakthrough between now and death if he wanted to leave a lasting impact, really make a difference for the undercity, or even (nonviolently) further the Nation of Zaun, though that was probably a separate conversation to have with Jayce… In any case, they had always had better success advancing new hextech together, their different expertise and approaches combined to more than the sum of their parts as they synthesized this new field of science together. “Is the theory that the matrix of runes imbues intention to the outcome the way mages do?” Viktor nodded but wasn’t sure if Jayce noticed or if he was just thinking aloud. “Why does every point have the same 4 runes, in the same relative positions? I mean how many different arrangements are achievable right now? There are 18 square pyramids which can each be in 4 orientations, so that’s 72 arrangements, but then because all of the vertices are identical, there are a lot of rotated but otherwise identical permutations, which do react similarly—”

“Although the different angle obfuscates the similarity, I am prepared to say that rotations of identical layouts have identical outputs, simply rotated,” Viktor interjected.

“Exactly! Another interesting question would be whether the mirror image of this device put into the chiral pair patterns would react differently…” Viktor watched Jayce’s eyes, bronze at this angle, focus on a detail somewhere as he trailed off.

Oh no, Viktor’s heart rate instantly doubled when he followed Jayce’s gaze down to his crotch. Maybe I’m not the only one in this partnership daydreaming of something beyond research. No. Surely, I am missing something. Viktor looked away and shifted as casually as he could to cross his legs, hanging his bad leg over his other knee and massaging it the way he usually did, letting out a soft sigh of relief, as if he hadn’t seen Jayce looking at him.

Jayce cleared his throat, his amber gaze all polite concern when Viktor’s ochre eyes met it again: no look of accusation. Seems he didn’t spot me catching him noticing anything. Internally, Viktor thanked his pale complexion and poorly functioning vascular system for keeping his blush minimally visible. “Can I help you, Jayce?” His tone was light as always and he continued to rub his thigh and calf.

“No, just… if you want a change, I keep an extra set of clothes in the cabinet in case I get, ya know, science on me…” Viktor realized Jayce was blushing, but the reason was beyond him.

“Right, in case your outfit is the victim of tears, burns, chemical spills, and the like… I think I forgot to replace my last set, thank you for the reminder. Did you need th—?” Viktor started preparing to stand, but Jayce was already moving towards the cabinet and waved him off.

“N—no! I just don’t want you to have to sit there damp unnecessarily,” Viktor felt his vascular system work well enough all at once that he must have been bright fuchsia, but Jayce was still talking. “My slacks will probably be big on you, but with your belt, maybe they could stay up…”

“I am perfectly fine, thank you very much!” Viktor snapped tersely, switching his legs with a wince to angle himself away from his lab partner. He let some of his hair fall out from behind his ear as additional cover for his flush. His body was so rarely successful in that response, he hadn’t spared a moment’s thought for the knees-spread, arms on thigh stance he had been in while watching Jayce work with the matrix. Sure, he had begun fantasizing about those large, adept, forge-calloused hands, to the point that he hadn’t really noticed when Jayce had gotten up to pace while thinking. He was so used to being bone dry down below when actively trying to do something, that he hadn’t even considered closing his legs when the other man sat on his chair backwards close enough to touch, to discuss next steps for the rune matrix. Now that he had called Viktor’s attention to it, he realized he did feel quite a bit slicker than even very “wet” dreams usually rendered him. Jayce must have noticed a darkening of his light gray slacks. Why is it working specifically now?? He cursed internally.

Viktor heard Jayce’s chair scrape on the floor and his footsteps towards the door and dropped his face into his hands. He was mortified, but at least it seemed he would soon be able to steep in his embarrassment alone. Except Jayce didn’t open the door out of their lab. Viktor stared over his shoulder in disbelief as the other inventor pulled out his much fancier slacks and a clean pair of silk boxers in House Talis crimson out of their personal items cabinet and walked back towards him.

“There’s nothing to be ashamed of, Viktor. I know with your spine problems, well at least, I’ve read that compressed nerves can limit communication and muscle control. It’s no bother, really.” Viktor’s jaw dropped at that, but once again Jayce plowed ahead in what he was saying anyway, “I know you despise wearing damp fabric. I remember the look on your face as you peeled your sweater vest off that day we got caught in the rain when the Hexgate‘s dome was being constructed.” Jayce had gently teased him about how his teeth chattered even in the late summer sun until they got back to the lab to finally change into something dry, but he hadn’t realized his partner had been paying that close of attention to the minor irritations he expressed when he didn’t think anyone was watching. Of course, the much more important thing was Jayce apparently thought he had wet himself, and was being very sweet and understanding about it, but Viktor was too stunned to decide whether that would be a preferable assumption.

The compassionate look on Jayce’s face faltered as he took in the blush and flabbergasted expression. Viktor was frozen in place, hunched away from the majority of the room, but very obviously stunned and embarrassed. “That’s what happened, right?” Jayce prompted, uncertainty now written plainly across his bronze kissed face as he held out the pants and boxers to Viktor.

Viktor sucked in an indignant breath, “No!” his tone was scathing, but he could feel his cheeks growing warmer and warmer to the point he was sure he was going to get a rash. Unfortunately, Viktor was too honest and startled by the assumption to do anything but spit the truth out. Well, at least the truth that it wasn’t pee. Of course, that presented a new line of inquiry for Jayce.

“Oh.” Jayce looked very confused and a bit sheepish to have guessed that and been wrong. “Then—OH! Oh. I didn’t real—I’m sorry I assumed an—Oh. But—why—? Ohhhhh.” Now Jayce was blushing a deep ruddy color and not meeting Viktor’s gaze. Torture as it was to have Jayce think he’d wet himself; this was much much worse.

That same day with the rain at the hexgate, Jayce had asked about the scars on his chest after they had both stripped their soaked shirts off as soon as they passed the threshold to their lab. The cold had made them stand out purple. So, he knew Jayce hadn’t realized he was trans up until that point. And to his credit, Jayce hadn’t treated him differently after he had explained, “growing up, it seemed to others I was a girl. Puberty gave me breasts, but I knew I was a young man, and they did not suit me, so…” he had gestured to the scars.

Viktor was so accustomed to the immediate invasive, if not ill intended questions, that he had honestly forgotten that Jayce had just nodded and hadn’t automatically presumed his right to ask what Viktor was packing.

Figures that a normal, trans-ally friend wouldn’t immediately start picturing, wondering, or asking about the down below situation. Normal lab partners don’t think about the other’s genitals, I’m just that perverted. Except now, obviously Jayce was thinking about it. Why did I say “no” so fast and hard? Would it have been so bad leaving him to think the cripple peed a little due to his degenerating spinal column? Viktor was cursing himself out internally when he realized Jayce had stopped talking and was still holding out his spare clothes in offering. He shook his head slightly, hoping to defuse the situation.

Jayce tilted his head, narrowing his eyes sternly and sort of shrugging the clothing closer, seemingly insisting despite the revelation.

“You’re not going to take no for an answer, are you Jayce?” Their eyes met briefly, and Viktor sighed dramatically, seeing he came to the correct conclusion. Now that he was aware of it, he had to admit the sensation was atrocious, and the idea of wearing Jayce’s boxers was too compelling to fight. Who am I to say no if he wants me wet and horny in his pants and underwear?

The neatly folded luxurious clothes hung between them as laden with unspoken meanings and uncertain curiosity as the silence that stretched longer by the second. To avoid seeing how awkward the situation might get, Viktor stood stiffly and accepted the clothes, sandwiching them between his hands and gently sliding them from Jayce’s offering hands to tuck them under the arm that wasn’t using his crutch.

When he looked up at Jayce again, he could see a mix of conflicting emotions in his expression: concern, embarrassment, curiosity, and something else that made his pupils dilate, his irises shrinking to a thin bronze ring when they met Viktor’s gaze. Which made Viktor pause instead of turning away to find somewhere in the lab that afforded him enough cover to change discreetly. Honestly, a bit of a silly exercise given how much they weren’t directly discussing but were overtly acknowledging. It was sillier still given the many times he had unknowingly turned around while Jayce was changing and caught a glimpse of the pride of House Talis. Viktor was in awe of his partner’s lack of shyness whether he was giving the progress day speech or strolling towel-less through the bathhouse. Still, Viktor never wanted to make his partner uncomfortable by presuming he was comfortable seeing his body, his scarred and twisted wreck of a body, even if this had all started with shamelessly daydreaming about Jayce touching every aching and yearning part of him.

Viktor thanked his vascular system for leaving his blood in his feet as he coolly raised his right eyebrow at Jayce without blushing any deeper.

Jayce valiantly attempted to compose his face into a dispassionately apologetic expression and failed spectacularly, withering under scrutiny. It’s not fair that Vik manages to look like a sculpture, all poise and striking angles while I stumble over my words and turn red as bricks, Jayce thought bitterly.

“I hope the Academy taught you better than to let propriety stop you from asking questions,” Viktor teased Jayce gently. Of course, this was light and practical for Viktor, Jayce knew that the Undercity was far more sexually liberated and to the point, while his experience of Piltover was full of euphemisms and polite innuendos. Jayce had made his fair share of social blunders and usually got away with it between Mel’s diplomatic interventions and his own charismatic efforts to smooth things over. However, Viktor seemed immune to his charm, at least when it came to disagreements, and not offending his Hextech partner was deeply important to the newest Councilor.

Jayce dropped his gaze to his feet, mumbling, “I’m not far enough along in wondering to even formulate the question.” That pretty shade of red bloomed on his cheeks again.

Viktor was relieved to be standing as he could feel the wetness grow at the mere possibility that Jayce was blushing like that over him. Luckily, when upright the wet spot should be hidden between his legs as long as he didn’t stay this turned on for long. “Let me know if you find the words, I will answer whatever curiosity you might have about my particular situation. There are of course books in the Academy library pertaining to trans anatomy, medicine, and the alignment of body and mind, should you wish to know more generally.” He managed to sound very casual despite the electric potential coiling itself tight somewhere behind and just below his navel.

“I know,” Jayce mumbled, dark unreadable eyes still trained on the floor.

“Oh?” Viktor asked over his shoulder as he slowly navigated towards a standing height counter with a solid back panel that would give his lower half cover. “Am I so fascinating you looked me up?” He paused, sitting on the corner of Jayce’s main desk. He fiddled with his brace as an excuse for pausing, but what he was really doing was trying to read Jayce’s expression. Viktor was playing with fire and knew the risk of getting burned was high, but Viktor was far beyond the point of letting pain limit his remarkably short life. He hoped that, if he kept it light enough, he could maintain the plausible deniability of banter between good friends. Viktor turned the idea over in his mind, unwilling to push his counterpart into a conversation he may not want to have, or risk their partnership in the process. Hurting Jayce was one of his greatest concerns about dying, second to the wasted potential to help the undercity, and hurting him this way wouldn’t be any better.

“Yes—I mean no! Well—,” Jayce ran a hand through his hair and snuck a glance at Viktor, his warm eyes veiled by long dark lashes. “I just didn’t want you to have to explain everything to me…” Viktor had to undo his top shirt button to feel like he could breathe freely because he does think about me, about my body. Jayce looked away and cleared his throat. Coincidence, don’t read into it, Viktor chided himself automatically.

“That’s very sweet of you, but there are a variety of experiences. I would say we’re close enough for you to ask me anything you want to know. I don’t mind.” Jayce was silently turned away, fiddling with some equipment on the work bench. He remained silent long enough that Viktor shrugged and made his way behind the counter, preparing to change. He really didn’t care about modesty, they had changed in a rush side by side plenty of times, but given the conversation, the fact his underwear were soaked and coming off, and his state of arousal, it seemed appropriate to add a visual barrier.

Viktor placed the clothes in a neat puddle of fabric on top of the counter and carefully removed his shoes, placing them out of the way under the counter before leaning his back against it. He could hear the soft tings of meshing gears behind him where Jayce was still idly turning a crank that raised and lowered their microscope’s platform.

Jayce sounded impossibly distant when he broke the silence, “So I knew you’d had the chest surgery.” Evidently the Man of Progress had gotten a few words sorted out well enough to tentatively hedge towards asking questions. Viktor was used to people being curious about his body, but when it came to Jayce, he was having a hard time not reading into his interest. No matter how many times he repeated wishful thinking only sets you up for disappointment in his mind.

“Right.” Viktor rested most of his weight on his good leg and where his low back curved over the edge of the counter as he methodically released each strap that clamped his leg brace onto his body.

“But down there…?” Jayce sounded like he was raking himself over the coals to get these words out. They hung in the air, clearly a question he still didn’t know how to ask respectfully.

“Some minor modifications,” Viktor smiled smugly to himself as he deftly slid the brace down his leg, catching the top strap on his flexed foot, “but I still have a cunt, if that’s what you’re wondering,” obviously still self lubricating, but only when it’s a bother, evidently.

The only reply was a strangled sounding “Ah,” from Jayce.

As he bent forward to retrieve the hinged metal brace, Viktor’s elbow brushed the satin boxers causing the lightweight fabric to slide over the counter’s edge and drift under the counter. Viktor set his brace next to the fresh pants on the counter and hmphed quietly. He glanced over his shoulder to see Jayce’s still form looking down at the microscope and turned his attention back to the task at hand - to shimmy out of his damp slacks (sure enough, the damp spot had more than doubled in size). The even more sodden briefs were next and Viktor thanked the gods, that Jayce was probably too far away to hear the soft squelch they made when they reached the floor.

Viktor hinged at the hip of his good leg and braced himself with his crutch, the sock clad toes of his bad leg resting on the floor more for balance than anything else, as he bent down to pick up his soiled clothes. He folded them in on themselves to insulate the worst of the wetness from the contents of the rest of his bag and his lab partner’s prying eyes then stretched under the counter for the runaway loaned undergarment.

“What were you thinking about?” Jayce asked just as Viktor’s fingers closed on the red fabric.

Viktor tried to stand faster than his brain could fully process what he’d just heard, ramming his skull into the underside of the stone countertop. “Fuck!” Viktor hissed, trying to grab the edge of the counter with the hand holding the boxers, managing to pull himself out from under it. “What?!” He gasped, rubbing the goose egg beginning to form on the back of his head.

Jayce was in the process of turning, eyebrows knit together in concern. “What happened?!” He demanded.

“I uh—I wasn’t expecting that question. I suppose I stood up while still under the counter. I’m okay now though.” Viktor managed to reassure Jayce before he got very far across the lab.

“I’m so sorry!” Jayce apologized fervently, “I didn’t realize you were bent down there, I would have waited t—!”

Viktor cut Jayce off, “It’s okay. I was just picking something up that I dropped. All my extremities work the way they did before, my vision isn’t blurry, it was more startling than anything. I should have been more careful.”

Jayce nodded, but his face still looked concerned. He had aborted his urgent approach, instead walking sedately closer to his partner as an uncertain silence filled the lab.

“Sorry, if that’s too invasive, you don’t have to answer.” Jayce settled into his rolling chair by the desk he mainly used, looking up at Viktor like he was the most fascinating calculus. And again, there was that something else that made his pupils blow out slightly. Viktor’s left eyebrow raised slightly in surprise as he finally placed the strange expression. Jayce’s hazel gaze was wanton. Oh. Huh.

“Let me just…” Viktor held up the boxers then turned his back to lean on the counter again so he could slip the soft underwear up his slender legs, taking advantage of the time looking away from his very attractive lab partner to try to gather his thoughts. The boxers actually kind of fit, which was surprising given that Jayce was built like an ancient tree and Viktor was twiggy at best. Picturing how tight they would be on Jayce, however, was a mistake that began to make the clean boxers go the way of his briefs as he pictured his counterpart’s thick thighs and impressive member wrapped tightly in wine red silk. At least Jayce’s black slacks would disguise his unruly thoughts much better. He would have to get them cleaned professionally before returning them to Jayce.

Evidently Jayce was getting tired of waiting as his voice was now closer and more urgent. “Vik? I’m sorry. I shouldn’t pry.” His voice was soft and deep, almost husky.

Viktor whirled to find Jayce had rolled his chair to within a few feet of the counter and was fidgeting with the levers, spinning himself one direction then the other listlessly. His eyes, now tinged green like mossy bark by a trick of the light, were a little glassy as he looked at Viktor. “I—I’m not upset with the question, but I am currently half naked, so you have me at a disadvantage. You wanted me to put your clothes on, you’re going to have to wait until I’m done.” It was all indignant bluster.

The fact of the matter was Jayce had just learned that Viktor had anatomy he was familiar with and deeply enjoyed (if the nights in Mel’s bed were any indication). In Viktor’s experience, once a man’s cock starts to get hard, he will say almost anything to get what comes next. Their partnership was too important to both of them to let a boner ruin it.

If they were back in the Academy days and Jayce were just his assigned partner for a project… well, Viktor would already be bent over a desk if the other guy were interested. But with Jayce, that would change things immeasurably. Viktor didn’t think he could do casual when it came to Jayce, and that would be a big problem if they rushed into this. Viktor was a tease, he had been a tease this whole conversation, but things seemed to be getting very real very quickly and even with his top button undone, it was starting to feel like there wasn’t enough air in the room. Was his condition acting up? Was he headed towards a panic attack? Did one of their gas lines spring a leak? Or was that the heady rush of arousal? Hard to tell.

Viktor carefully hopped his good leg into the correct side of the fresh pants then maneuvered the crippled one into the other and pulled them up to his waist. If he weren’t trying to juggle so many thoughts and feelings while balancing on one leg, Viktor would have laughed out loud. As it was, he snorted. “Pretty sure I could fit a whole additional me in this waist.” He informed Jayce, pulling his belt out of his own pants. Sliding it through the oversized pants’ belt loops while holding them up and balancing on one leg was at least as difficult as it sounds. His elbow on the counter freed one hand to try to thread the belt through the loops, while he looped the long buckle end of his belt over his crutch arm so the weight of it wouldn’t fight him as much. Viktor nearly dropped the working end while maneuvering it through the second loop and Jayce made an impatient noise in his throat, slipping around the counter.

“I can get it! You don’t nee—,” Viktor forgot he had just undressed and, trying to evade Jayce’s attempt to help, went to shift his weight onto his unbraced bad knee, which promptly buckled.

He was saved from going down by his grip on his crutch and the other elbow still firmly on the counter, but the sudden jerk of his body seeming to start to fall spurred Jayce into even quicker motion. “Viktor!”

Before he knew what was happening, Jayce had lifted Viktor onto the counter. “Jayce!” He exclaimed, indignant and surprised, “I was doing fine! You have to let me do things by myself, even if it takes longer!”

“Nope, not when you’re risking further injury,” Jayce declared, as if he had final say in the matter. “You already hit your head on stone today; I’m not letting my partner end up back in the hospital so soon!” Jayce winced slightly, and they both knew what he wasn’t saying: my dying partner.

“We’ll see about that.” Viktor said, but his tone didn’t have the usual resolve behind it. The Zaunite inventor was busy losing sight of all the reasons not to follow through with this, with Jayce so close, fiercely protective, and focused on Viktor, the knowledge that he was running out of time, not to mention how easily Jayce had lifted him, something he’d usually be furious about, but now brought more color to his cheeks. And then Jayce took charge of the belt and it took every fiber of Viktor’s self control not to squirm or make giddy, eager, desperate sounds. Those warm sure hands threaded the leather through each belt loop with a sureness that could only come from practice. Whose belt have you been doing and undoing, Jayce? Viktor’s eyes narrowed slightly, taking on the depth of rich dark honey, trying to guess which former classmates might have found their way to Jayce’s dorm room.

“Is this tight enough?” Jayce asked, seemingly all business, “but not too tight?”

“Mmmh,” Viktor tried to give his mild approval, but it came out a bit more like a moan than he intended. Jayce’s hands hovered as he fastened the belt, so close each ragged breath Viktor took brushed the sensitive skin below his navel ever so slightly into Jayce’s knuckles. It was torture. It was heaven. It was all Viktor wanted to feel for the rest of his sickly life. It would never be enough. “You.” He blurted out.

“Me?” Jayce tried to meet Viktor’s evasive eyes, resting his palms flat against the stone on either side of the smaller man’s thighs, “What about me?”

“You asked what I was thinking about.” Viktor finally looked Jayce directly in the eye; amber met topaz; gold met bronze. They were nearly level face to face with Viktor sitting on the counter and the crippled inventor’s eyes held a precarious mix of hope, uncertainty, and challenge.

“What? Earlier?” Jayce demanded. When Viktor nodded solemnly, he breathed out “Oh.” Jayce’s voice was small yet reverent, like it was both the least flashy and most important thing to say. His pupils dilated further as this information processed, his pupils thinning to a narrow band of hazel. His hands lifted tentatively to Viktor’s waist, and he began to pull his partner towards the edge of the counter.

When Jayce’s hands made contact with his waist, several of Viktor’s muscles twitched involuntarily, going taught, and the coil of desire intensified. He wanted nothing more than to wrap his legs around Jayce and root his hips against him, but he refused to fuck up this working relationship: the single most important interpersonal relationship in his life; the outlet for his immense ambition and drive to do good in the world; an equal partner in his compulsion to use his intellect to its fullest. It was that despairing need that impelled Viktor to place a firm hand on Jayce’s chest to stop him from kissing him or enacting whatever irrevocably intimate indiscretion his associate had in mind. “Jayce,” his tone was urgent, like he was trying to rouse the blacksmith from a fitful dream or trance. Yet at the same time, he was imagining Jayce shirtless, mentally mapping the contour of his pecs under his staying hand.

“Viktor,” the gravel-deep desire dripping from Jayce’s voice matched him in intensity, sending sparks through Viktor. When that failed to overcome Viktor’s resistance, Jayce’s fingers tightened slightly and his eyebrows knit together in confusion. The twitch at his waist sent the sparks dancing again, oh that is so not fair! “I—isn’t this what you wanted?” he sounded deflated.

“Heh, I suppose you could say that,” Viktor admitted, blushing again. “I do fancy you quite a bit, but our work, our partnership is so much more important. I cannot condone jeopardizing our dream.”

Jayce shifted his weight forward slightly, and Viktor swallowed hard as he saw Jayce’s obviously hard cock rub against the edge of the counter between the crippled scientist’s thighs. “Why would this have to interfere with our work? Mel and I work together just fine, never faltered even when we stopped seeing each other.”

“You serve on the same council with Mel. We’re partners, working closely; we share a business. It’s not the same thing. And I—well…” Viktor curled his fingers of the hand that wasn’t on Jayce’s chest tight around the edge of the counter, his pale knuckles even whiter than normal, to steady himself as he leaned back and stared at the ceiling. "I'm not—I have. I—agh.” Viktor shook his head impatiently. He dropped his gaze back to meet Jayce’s eager amber eyes that seemed to shine from within as if the blacksmith actually burned with desire. “I don’t know how to be casual with you. For me this is not just starting or newly growing beyond what we have been. I have wanted you for years.” The Zaunite scientist lifted his hand from Jayce’s chest to cup his impeccable jaw line briefly, feeling the prickle of Jayce’s coarse stubble, before dropping it to match his other hand’s death grip on the counter, not trusting himself to touch what he cannot have. “That’s not fair to you, and it means when things fall apart, I will hurt deeply. It will be painful to see you in the lab, perhaps worse not to see you if we take space apart, to see you on billboards, to correspond or collaborate. My life is so dependent on our interactions, I don’t think I could take it. At least as things are, I know how to handle myself.”

Jayce’s eyes flashed with something like irritation, but that oxytocin pupillary response remained. “What’s not fair is deciding for me that I must be only trivially interested in you. That we would inevitably fall apart… That we’re doomed before we try!”

“You just found out I have a vagina and now you look drunk on the idea of being with me. What else am I supposed to think?” Viktor bit back, harshly. That’s not fair, he admitted internally, and his voice softened as he added, “This is a conversation to be had when we’re not both extremely aroused.” He looked pointedly at Jayce’s tented pants.

“Viktor…” Jayce sounded crushed, but somehow still fervent, “Vik, I have liked you, wanted you, orbited you for years. This is not new. It is not passing or opportunistic.”

Viktor’s mouth hung open. No, Jayce has been the planet I orbited. Functionally unmoved by his satellite, by my meager gravitational pull. “You have been a close friend and dedicated business partner… but there was never a hint or sign of this kind of interest in me.”

“Vik, what word do I always use to describe who you are to me?”

“Partner. But we are busi—,” Viktor tried the same rationale he told himself every time his heart jumped when Jayce used the word.

“But I don’t say ‘business partner’ or ‘lab partner’ do I?” Jayce was gaining steam. “I say partner. Not colleague, not Chief Research Officer, not coworker, not collaborator, not counterpart. It is deliberately ambiguous because you are the most influential person in my life. The only person to whom I am enduringly committed. People think we are married all the time and yet you never asked me to stop calling you that.”

It was true and Viktor always had a spike of satisfaction and subsequent guilt when Jayce called him that. I always thought it meant something different to me than to Jayce. “We are practically married to our work,” Viktor countered, a hint of humor tempering his determined denial.

“Vik,” Jayce’s voice bordered on whining, “I put my arm around you and a hand on your shoulder and back all the time.”

“To help the cripple walk!” Viktor was back to exasperated, there was no way his crush had been reciprocated this whole time and he hadn’t noticed. “That’s not… I mean, I like it when you do that, but I never once thought…”

“But I did.”

“You were trying to put the moves on me?” Viktor teased, incredulously as he tried to reevaluate years of interactions in light of this and found it still didn’t really make sense to him.

“I—not like that. But I thought…” Jayce hesitated, “I mean, I wasn’t trying to do anything so cheap as just get you in bed. Viktor, I care for you deeply. Enduringly. With your condition, how driven you are to accomplish as much as possible with Hextech, I understood if you weren’t looking for romance or anything more than what we are now. I never wanted to push you. A helping hand now and then was all the physical contact that I hoped for. You accepting that from me when you prefer to do things independently with everyone else already meant the world to me.”

“I—I’m having a hard time believing this, Jayce,” Vik warned. Causing Jayce to wonder, have I been so much less obvious than I thought? I hang off his words, I know I stare…

“I just learned you share my feelings. You’re telling me that your interest runs deep, isn’t superficial or all about sex,” Jayce found he sounded as desperate as he felt. “I am learning that everything I never dared to dream of is… wanted back? I mean you’re literally so aroused by me you needed to change clothes—and-and-and you’re telling me no? We can’t explore that?”

“Jayce…” Viktor’s voice trembled with intensity. “My work—our work—is my whole life. Here. This. I don’t know how I would survive losing what we have built, I don’t know if I could.” He met Jayce’s pleading caramel eyes again, his own eyes, full of unshed tears shone like sunlight after rain and harbored a palpable fear of loss. “And it’s all inextricably tied to you.”

You need a hobby… or a pet. Maybe some friends besides me, Jayce resisted the urge to tell Viktor what to do, knowing full well it would only lead to more bitter argument, realizing, that probably all feels pointless with his prognosis. Instead, Jayce simply observed, “That doesn’t exactly sound healthy, Viktor.”

“You think I don’t know that?” Viktor teetered towards a fit of pique, “I’m not healthy! I don’t get to be healthy! Not physically; not socially. I’m a cripple with no real prior experience at friendship—.”

“That’s not fa—,” Shit. Fuck. Gods damn. Jayce had no idea how to soothe the gorgeous man in front of him, but he had to try.

“I am dying of the air I breathed as a child so this city on a hill could pro-gress,” Viktor spat out each syllable, pronouncing pro like profanity, not like prosper.

“That’s the sort of thing we are try—,” Jayce tried to interject.

However, Viktor wasn’t finished, “I’m just trying to do something extraordinarily good for those people in the undercity that your damn council forgets are even down there: their citizens—your citizens and constituents, dying to survive.”

“Woah,” Jayce leaned back slightly, hands up like he was surrendering. He gave up on stopping this runaway air ship of anger and hurt. Instead, he listened.

“I’m trying to make some lasting difference to improve their lives before I die and become a footnote in your memoire!” The tears had begun to flow down Vik’s face.

How is he so damn pretty when he cries? Focus. Jayce scolded himself for even thinking that at a time like this. He pulled the deep red handkerchief, monogrammed with JT in delicate gold, out of his breast pocket. He tried to dab Viktor’s cheek, but the smaller man snatched it from his hand and held it in both hands in his lap, winding it through his long slender fingers as he plowed on with his monologue. Jayce sighed.

“What kind of life would I be offering you? It’s bad enough that I won’t live long enough to grow old with someone, but even now, I live a shell of a life, all I do is work, and I love it, but it’s not exactly a life worth sharing. And anyone who’s with me will end up watching me decline and wither away or come home one day to find an empty apartment and a note when I decide it has gotten bad enough to be done—If I even make that call soon enough to be able to do it myself.” Viktor sobbed. “You don’t love me. You can’t. You shouldn’t love me! I am a dead end of a person. You—you found out I have a vagina and that I am interested in you and now you’re either desperately horny or delusional!” He paused to catch his breath amidst a few hacking, horrible coughs.

Jayce snorted softly and muttered “So that’s what you think this is about,” under his breath. Jayce cleared his throat and when he spoke again, his voice was steady and clear. “Vitya,” Jayce said tenderly, taking Viktor’s face in his hands as soon as the cough subsided. He had heard one of the sweet old ladies who cleaned the dorms at the Academy call Viktor that once while slipping him an extra blanket since he had such trouble staying warm at night. Viktor had embraced her with a familiarity that suggested to Jayce that perhaps they’d known each other well in the Undercity. “Anything you want of me, I will gladly give. And anything you can offer me would be more than enough. Your anatomy, while intriguing, is not the object of my affection. You are.”

Viktor refused to make eye contact. “You don’t mean that.”

Jayce persisted. “I love you with neither expectation nor condition. I love who you are, your heart and mind. I get to know you, to share our work, to theorize with you. That was enough, has always been enough, and will continue to be enough.” Viktor’s eyes darted to Jayce’s face as if to read his expression as desire deepened Jayce’s voice, then just as fast Viktor was back to stubbornly avoiding his gaze. “But that will not stop how badly I want you.”

Viktor sounded so small when he finally spoke. “I never believe a man who says he loves me while his cock is stiff.” He tapped Jayce’s belt just above his cock as light as a feather.

Jayce flinched and stuttered out, “Eh-excuse me?” flushing again, deeper than before. His dick had been deflating a bit, but it hurt to have it jostled while still so sensitive.

“Some men will say anything to get their release.”

The way he said that lit a fire in Jayce’s chest. Whoever took advantage of Viktor with feigned devotion deserves to choke on their lying tongues. But when he spoke, he muscled his anger down, instead trying to be gently stern, “Would you believe me if I wasn’t hard? Or would you still think maybe I just managed to get soft enough to convince you, still only interested in sex?”

Viktor glared at him intensely. But beneath his frustration with Jayce knowing exactly how he would think about that scenario was a cagey hope and a deep underlying vulnerability.

“I—wait! I can prove it,” Jayce charged over to his desk and pulled one of his notebooks from a drawer. He clutched the leather-bound book to his chest as he walked back over to stand in front of Viktor. He thumbed through it briefly and held it out to his partner. Let him understand what this means, Jayce pleaded silently.

Viktor’s eyes flicked to the top of the page, even though he remembered the project the notes were about and already knew when they had worked on it. This was from over two years ago. He sniffed slightly. “I see you haven’t stopped signing your notes,” he observed balefully.

“Never gonna let me live that down, huh? To be honest, that’s what brought you to me, so I kept doing it,” Jayce laughed as he stepped forward and flipped the pages of the book in Viktor’s hands to another well-worn page as if he wasn’t talking about the day Viktor had stopped his suicide attempt.

Viktor caught his breath. Before him was a two-page spread in full color. Viktor’s profile dominated the left corner’s foreground, looking out over the panoramic view of Piltover’s rooftops and skyline, and beyond to the sea. It was the view from the highest platform of the hexgate. Viktor’s face held a look of awe in the drawing and in the distance were the unobstructed 180° arcs of a double rainbow. Jayce must have drawn the scene from memory, or gone back to get the details of the skyline since at the very moment depicted, they were soaking wet, but the drawing itself showed no signs of water damage. Indeed, the incredible detail and texture of the button down shirt on Viktor in the drawing showed how it clung to his skin and even looked semitransparent the way it had been that day. The offending sweater vest was already off and as Viktor peered at himself closely, he could see his chest scars showed faintly through the drenched material. The discoloration along the long edge of both pages was from hand oils, demonstrating how often Jayce must have looked at his own handiwork. Viktor began to thumb through the notebook and found that far more pages had sketches of him than didn’t, a few others were fully shaded or colored like the hexgate’s spread. There were plenty from before that day, Jayce was already in the habit of drawing him amongst their research notes when he started this particular notebook as far as Viktor could tell.

Huh. Maybe it’s really not about the vagina or my transness after all, he mused. Has Jayce been copying his notes over to another notebook when he shares them with me or was I too focused on the science to notice these? Has he thought he was dropping hints?? Viktor flipped back to the drawing of the view from the hexgate and ran his fingers lightly over the details of his own face. He was smiling out at the weather. Topside was almost entirely navigable without being touched by the rain, so the novelty of being exposed to the elements, standing there on top of the world with Jayce, looking out at Piltover where likely not another soul was getting wet had felt profoundly beautiful, almost divine. A sentiment Jayce seemed to share.

Jayce beamed at him. “That was one of the best days of my life. Along with the day we cracked hextech. You’re one of the best things that has ever happened to me.”

When Viktor looked up at Jayce again his eyes were misty, but not with the bitter, hurt, and angry tears from before. He was touched. More importantly, he was convinced. “Did I really smile like that?” He asked.

“No, in reality you were more stunning than I could draw from memory.” Jayce gently eased the handkerchief from where Viktor had wound it between his fingers and dabbed at the tears streaking through the grime that had built up from long days (and longer nights) working on the hexcore.

Viktor reached for Jayce and caught his waistcoat’s lapels. “Shut up and kiss me,” he commanded, pulling Jayce to him, and himself to Jayce with surprising strength and unsurprising urgency.

Jayce hesitated, but when his hazel eyes met Viktor’s lusty golden gaze, he relented, pulling Viktor to the edge of the counter by the small of his back and meeting his lips with his own. Even sitting on the counter, Viktor had to tip his face up to kiss Jayce. Jayce cradled the back of his head with one large hand while the other stayed on his lower back, snaking up under the hem of his yet untucked shirt. Viktor could feel that Jayce’s hand found his corseted back brace, but there was no surprised or concerned reaction like he always braced for. Ha. The utter familiarity and innate acceptance in this very new and exciting phenomenon helped him melt into the kiss, fully known and secure. I’m really kissing Jayce! Jayce, my lab partner; Jayce, my business partner; Jayce, my best friend. His fists slowly loosened on Jayce’s lapels as he deepened the kiss. Viktor invited Jayce into his mouth by gently nipping at Jayce’s lower lip until he gasped and coaxing Jayce’s tongue to explore with his own. He dropped his hands to Jayce’s hips and held onto him there, thumbs finding his pelvic bones and long fingers digging into the muscles that wrapped around to his back, pulling him close between his own spread thighs.

The potential in Viktor’s abdomen returned with intensity as they continued breaching whatever boundaries of professional propriety they had been feigning for years, right there on their lab bench. He could feel heat and wetness pooling in his—no, in Jayce’s underwear. He could also feel Jayce’s twitching erection rubbing against him and the edge of the counter, sending thrills up his spine. “Jayce,” Viktor’s voice came out thin and keening between fervent kisses and nips, Jayce kissed down Viktor’s jawline and onto his neck leaving his mouth free for what he was trying to say, “be—be—hnnnn… be careful with my right leg, I never put the brace back on. You can still—uh—grab it hard, just don’t force movements with it or make it bear weight unexpectedly.”

“Yes, sir,” Jayce replied earnestly. And Gods if that didn’t do something wonderful to Viktor’s insides. Jayce mumbled against Viktor’s throat, “is it okay to leave marks? I can stay below the collar, if you prefer.”

“Ehh… who’s going to notice?” Viktor replied, tilting his head to give Jayce plenty of access to his throat.

Jayce still started infuriatingly gentle, licking and dragging his teeth lightly over the cripple’s pale skin. He had just began sucking very gently when Viktor took Jayce’s hand to guide it between them, yanking his belt undone again with the other hand. He thrust Jayce’s hand down into his pants—technically Jayce’s own—so his large palm pressed against the warmth and wetness of his cunt through the silk, and was rewarded with a strangled moan, much firmer teeth on his neck and a long hard suck, sure to bruise, as well. Viktor grinned. “That’s better, Jayce. You’re not going to break me, just mind the leg and don’t be too forceful with my spine and it will all be fine,” strictly speaking, that was a lie, but only because all of this was so much better than fine. He ran his fingers up Jayce’s muscular neck through his hair and pulled experimentally, rewarded with a deliciously pliant moan and more desperate, almost frantic ministrations to his neck. “I will tell you if you’re anywhere near too rough with me—and I already know you won’t be, so quit babying me!” he reassured and admonished in equal measure. His teeth grazed Jayce’s ear, and he could feel the blacksmith’s cock throb against his thigh.

Viktor followed that up with a nip to his earlobe and Jayce’s knees turned to jelly for a second. He was still seeing stars from how hot and wet Vik was through the silk boxers, and all additional arousing sensations were short circuiting his brain. The detached self-observing part of his mind made a note to buy a whole bunch more underwear just to keep at the lab and to try to spirit this pair away for totally non-nefarious purposes. Desire was driving him, burning deep within him like a forge. His hand had enough space inside his pants, too large on Viktor’s waifish figure, to maneuver his thumb to where he expected to find a clitoris and was delightfully surprised to feel something thicker, longer, and harder than any clit he had ever encountered before. Minor modifications indeed, he thought as Viktor whined wordlessly in his ear, pulling his hair as his fist clenched.

“Too much?” Jayce gasped, catching his breath against Viktor’s arched neck and halting the slow circling motion of his thumb over the small phallus he had just discovered.

“NO! Yes… I mean—yes, but in a good way.” Viktor stumbled over his words in his urgency, “just please do not stop.” Once Jayce had gone back to toying with him, he added between needy panting, “I can explain the anatomy—ha! Ohhh— later! Just, handle me a bit more like a cock than a clit—eeeeehn gods!—if that makes sense…” his voice trailed off as Jayce adjusted his approach, “Heh heh—that’s wonderful—ahhh—have you handled any cocks besides your own before?”

“A few,” Jayce admitted, blushing again. But I’ve never been with anyone like you, he thought, remembering the fumbled handys he had given in the Academy’s locker room to the jock that sneered disdainfully at him in the gym but groped him and backed him against a wall whenever he found him showering alone. He never gave a name and Jayce never cared to ask. It was only ever carnal with him. Then there were the handful of one night stands he had met at bars near campus, initially so nervous he would automatically go down on them because he didn’t really know what else to do, but eventually… Yeah, I know how to handle a man. Yet he felt wholly unprepared anyway, not because of Viktor’s anatomy being unique amongst the variety of men and women he had fucked over the years, but because of how much he cared about him, how much this felt like a need crawling under his skin, how he would shrivel up and weep for years if he fucked this up. Viktor had talked about his life being inextricably linked to Jayce, but he had literally saved Jayce from himself the day after they’d met and given him a reason to keep living. That’s probably a strong indicator we shouldn’t do this, but Jayce had neither the will to stop himself nor the heart to deny Viktor. His partner, Viktor, who, now that he believed Jayce cared for him anywhere near as deeply and enduringly as Vik had been pining for him, was practically hanging from the fistful of Jayce’s hair he had gathered, light enough that Jayce found the tug arousing and reassuring, not truly painful.

Viktor’s free hand tucked the handkerchief back into Jayce’s pocket haphazardly and began loosening his tie. “You will have to tell me of your escapades later. And I do want to hear about them,” he informed Jayce. “For now, I don’t expect you to be able to speak coherently for much longer.” He discarded the tie then used both hands to undo Jayce’s belt and pants, letting them drop to the floor.  Viktor’s same hand returned to Jayce’s hair while his other palm cradled Jayce’s large erection through his nearly identical boxers, the same material and cut as Viktor now wore, except this pair was deep blue and just as tight on Jayce as Viktor had imagined. The silk clung to every vein and contour, of Jayce’s impressive cock. Viktor slowly ran his palm and long fingers over the fabric, clearly relishing the feeling.

Jayce managed to choke out, “Vik…” before any other words were replaced by a throaty groan. Not only did that effectively shut Jayce up, but he also wasn’t sure he could keep at this standing, holding them both up by his scalp. Yet he wasn’t ready to pause their activities either.

Jayce used his thumb and two fingers to pump Viktor experimentally. He felt Viktor’s hips jolt and was further rewarded with a whiny moan, “Jayce…” As it turned out, Viktor’s sounds got less coherent and more desperate with each pass over his cock too.

Jayce had no idea what Viktor wanted in response to his pleas, but his trip down memory lane had already put him in a mood. So, he stepped out of his pants and extricated himself from their sensual entanglement. “Don’t move,” he said as he stepped away to grab a stack of clean towels from the supply cabinet.

When he returned, Jayce hastily placed them in front of his lab partner and sank to his knees comfortably cushioned by the towels. He looked up at Viktor like he was witnessing magic for the first time again and gave the borrowed pants a tug, looking to Viktor for permission. His head was cocked so that his cheek rested against the other man’s left thigh. Vik lifted his weight with his arms so Jayce could maneuver the freshly damp pants down past his hips and ultimately off into another pile on the floor. Jayce palmed Viktor’s sex through the silk one more time before pulling his own boxers down the other scientist’s thin thighs, letting them drop to the ground as well. Now that his access was unobstructed, Jayce put his fingers back to work on Viktor’s dick using his natural wetness to avoid excess friction as he very gently kissed the purple and yellow bruises and healing lacerations he had revealed on Viktor’s right thigh where his brace had marked his pale skin from long hours of wear without relief. Each kiss sent a new twitch to Vik’s cock as Jayce progressed up his thigh.

“Jayce, you don’t have to do that, I barely feel them anymore anyway.” Viktor pulled Jayce up for a kiss which he gave willingly before deliberately melting back towards Viktor’s lap like it was calling his name.

Jayce’s eyes shone like polished bronze and when he spoke, he sounded almost drunk, “Please Viktor? I want to suck your cock, I want to taste your cunt…” he trailed off, a little worried he may have said the wrong thing, even though Viktor had called it a cunt earlier. His fingers hesitated, but, seeing no ill reaction from Vik and hearing that same keening noise from earlier, he resumed while asking again, “please let me taste you? Viktor, please?” His voice got breathier and more urgent as he spoke, “please, I need to taste you, want to make you feel good. Please, Vik?”

Jayce’s words wafted warm breath over Viktor’s cock and cunt, taunting him into a new state of desperation he had never felt before. Viktor’s hand was back in Jayce’s hair dragging him deeper between his thighs. “Gods Jayce, when you’re going to change my world, don’t ask for permission.” His breathy laugh elicited a smile from the kneeling scientist, the callback clearly landing. “Certainly do not stop something that feels so good to ask.” Jayce withdrew slightly, winking at Viktor, who added, “You are lucky I cannot reach my cane to hit you for teasing me like that, it is torture!”

When Jayce relented his teasing, Viktor rocked his dick into Jayce’s mouth as the kneeling man began exploring his partner’s taste and texture by systematically lathing his tongue over every bit of Viktor he could reach. Jayce was looking forward to the explanation Vik had promised for later, because he had no idea how exactly such a cock could be constructed from the anatomy he’d been born with. It felt satisfying and comfortable in his mouth, unlike some of the cis cocks he had choked on and fought to accommodate in his throat, but undeniably more reminiscent of that than going down on unaltered assigned female anatomy. The ability to comfortably accommodate the phallus afforded Jayce the chance to really stay present and exploratory instead of fighting to keep up the pace without choking. The glans felt impossibly smooth and pliant, almost spongy as it eased past his lips, springing free all at once with a soft “oh,” from Viktor, then sliding up his tongue back into Jayce’s eager mouth elicited an irrepressible groan from the scientist on the counter. Jayce let out an answering moan.

As Viktor pressed in until Jayce’s lips were flush with his body, Jayce hummed contentedly. The vibrations made Vik squirm in a mix of torture and delight. One of the things Jayce loved about going down on anyone was being able to simulate in his mind what it might feel like for his partner and Viktor’s reactions were helping him map analogous sensations onto novel structures. He felt drunk on the feeling yet craved more. Jayce pushed his face deeper, nose tickled by Viktor’s coarse bush. There was enough shaft to draw the skin up over the glans without dragging his lips across the skin, so he stroked Viktor with his mouth, slowly at first. Vik soon began to push the pace as he thrust shallowly back into him. Letting Viktor’s eagerness carry the moment, Jayce delighted in each gasp, sigh, and groan that Viktor had quickly given up on suppressing. Good thing Heimerdinger had seen fit to build us a bunker of a laboratory, with plenty of thick walls on every side, in an otherwise unused wing of the academy’s basement. The idea was that no one beyond the lab would be endangered in case some mishap occurred with our research. Of course, now, that also means we need not worry about being overheard, except by Sky or Heimerdinger, or in the rare case, Mel or Cait… Yeah, we should lock the door next time—supposing there will be many next times.

Jayce dropped his jaw enough to sneak his tongue out to tease the rim of Viktor’s entrance while he sucked gently on the head and shaft, causing Viktor’s hips to stutter up and forward involuntarily, bumping his pelvis into Jayce’s jaw. Jayce brought his hands up to steady Viktor’s hips, and rubbed a little circle into his hip bone until Viktor realized Jayce was staring at him, eyebrows raised in a silent question, waiting for Viktor to make eye contact with him, as a check in to make sure this was good for him—good for him?? He was the one being unreciprocally pleasured—which took a few moments since the waif of a man was busy marveling at Jayce’s hands that were practically enveloping his bony ass, holding his hips just off the edge of the counter. The sight sent a shiver up Viktor’s spine and the warm soft surface supporting his bottom half was welcome after the hard stone counter.

Once Viktor’s bemused and blissed out expression nodded impatiently at Jayce, he eagerly resumed working his partner open with his tongue. He stilled Viktor’s thrusting besides his visceral reactions and did the work himself, moving his hands, face, and tongue to keep the rhythm, apparently trying to take strain off Viktor’s unprotected joints. Jayce licked, sucked, and worked him over like a man starved, now reveling in the delicacy of simply having food to eat, savoring yet fervently falling back upon him for more.

Viktor let himself drift in that feeling of need and support, tightness and warmth and a teasing hint towards fullness. As he felt the electric tension in his pelvis grow and take shape, building far faster than he was used to. Having sank into pleasure rather than straining and quivering for more, Viktor could breathe through the throes of ecstasy, so his voice was much more even as he spoke coyly, “Either I am touch starved, you are world class at cunnilingus, or I am so hopelessly into you it wouldn’t matter how good you are, I would get off… but given our present efficiency, I—ah, suspect it is a combination of all three.”

Jayce practically glowed under the praise of his brilliant partner. He still could barely believe this was real. Half of him expected that instead of reaching Viktor’s climax, he would tragically startle awake, rock hard and bitterly alone to rub one out, grasping at fading memories of a dream he never dared hope would come to fruition. However, the other half of him whispered, just on the off chance it is real… I will be the best I can be to him. So he put his heart and soul into giving his best friend, upon whom his whole life hinged, the best head he could muster, and that was quite impressive indeed given Jayce’s devout half dozen years of practice at giving the best head to the many sexy people he had seen instead of entertaining this one crush. The one crush he’d thought he could never pursue until he asked one overly personal question. He squeezed Viktor’s thighs in appreciation of the praise, his thumb and first finger nearly meeting where they wrapped around him.

“Jayce—,“ Viktor’s tone was urgent, as he pulled at Jayce’s hair as if trying to remove him from his cock, but Jayce hesitated, not minding the tug or command, but wanting to feel every bit of Viktor’s orgasm against his mouth, down his throat and down his face. “—you really don’t need to; I can’t hold back much longer—there may be a lot!” His voice was strained, thin and reedy by the last warning, as if trying to make Jayce understand, but the stronger man made determined eye contact and pushed himself as deep as he could on Vik’s cock, his unyielding grip giving Viktor’s hips nowhere to retreat from his unrelenting mouth. Determination flashed in Jayce’s eyes as he steadily, sumptuously swallowed some of the precum around Viktor’s cock. It had built up over the past several minutes, making lewd slurping and smacking sounds to punctuate Jayce’s devoted attentions.

The swallow and eye contact alone drove Viktor past the point of no return, but the swallow also rolled Jayce’s tongue against the underside of Viktor’s cocklet and flicked the curved tip of it over Viktor’s rim before sliding it deliberately back into Viktor, straining to press into his pelvic bone and the front facing wall of his cunt. Jayce repeated his swallow and press in routine just three times before his strong tongue pressed Viktor just right and like a pulled switch, Viktor gushed into and onto Jayce’s talented mouth. Viktor had been caught without air when it hit, and he finally gasped in and out a few breaths, sagging between his shoulders where he had been propped up on his elbows to watch Jayce at work between his legs. Once he could breathe raggedly in and out, he let his head loll back, shaking out his wavy hair while absentmindedly petting at Jayce’s damp hair. “I hope I didn’t drown you down there, it would be a terrible waste of a pretty face, brilliant mind, and such a skilled mouth…” a joke about Jayce’s silver tongue died on Viktor’s lips as Jayce’s response came by way of going back to work. Instead, Viktor trailed into what, in reality was a mix of Zaunite, Piltovan, and nonsense, but the crippled inventor doubted Jayce could make out any of it beyond a collection of babbled sounds of enjoyment, as Jayce was now thoroughly focused on licking up every drop that had gushed from Viktor’s cock and cunt.

Viktor tried to sit up and protest, but Jayce’s insistent hands were already sliding the top folded towel from his knee pad pile between Viktor and the table where it cushioned his no longer cradled ass and pressing his torso firmly to stop any hope of fighting back to sitting. “I like to make decisions during sex too, you know!” Viktor griped as he lay back. Admittedly, Jayce’s ongoing attention had his arousal growing again, already close, but stalling out as his cunt throbbed, clenching on nothing.

“And,” Jayce said between licking broadly over Viktor’s vulva and sucking lightly at the base of his cock, “I am—,“ he kissed the head of his dick again, “—open to suggestions.” Licking a runaway drip off of Viktor’s left thigh, he continued, “I’d even like taking orders sometime.” He blushed but resolutely continued. Jayce watched his partner’s reaction as he nipped Viktor’s unmarred left inner thigh. Viktor grasped Jayce’s hair frantically, holding him in place until he began sucking a bruise into the spot. Once satisfied with his handiwork, Jayce pulled off with a wet pop sound, “But right now, nothing in this world besides a safeword is going to stop me.” He fumbled for the nearest stool and sat between Viktor’s knees as eagerly as he had sat at the hexcore workstation hours earlier, spreading his right arm across Viktor’s abdomen to keep him in place as he continued licking and sucking on Viktor’s cum slicked sex, alternating to work at his inner thighs where beautiful red and purple splotches bloomed on the pale skin, then back again.

“Can I at least—,” Viktor managed between gasps and moans, “have a towel to put between—,” he breathed in sharply as Jayce’s tongue circled his cock, “my head and the stone counter?”

“Of course!” Jayce spoke almost into Viktor’s cunt and immediately fished another thick cushy cloth off the pile at his feet, all without losing contact with Viktor’s throbbing sex, “I am so sorry. You just hit your head, too. I should have thought of that.”

“You can make it up to me by—I—I think I need you inside me if I’m going to cum again…” Viktor complained after getting minutely closer and plateauing again for the third time in a row. “Besides, I think you’ve earned a reward…”

“Mmmmmmmmm,” Jayce moaned desperately against Viktor’s cunt that he was still dutifully trying to lick clean.

“I mean more of you than your tongue,” Viktor grumbled, adding “impressive as it is, it can’t reach deep enough or fill me wide enough…” to soften his complaint. He was thinking about Jayce’s girthy cock, will it even fit in me? I’m definitely going to try… may need to work up to it all getting in there… so when a digit slid over his cunt, relief washed over him despite a self-destructive pang of disappointment, death by Councilor’s cock has a certain poetry to it…

Jayce’s broad index finger slid slowly into Viktor, disappearing into him one knuckle at a time. His tongue lapped at Viktor’s engorged member, swirling counterclockwise as his finger pressed firmly forward in a slow rhythm, press, press, pressing up into the soft place that made Viktor whine as his cunt squeezed down tight like a vise. Jayce cricked the last knuckle to roll his callus over that place and Viktor moaned—open mouthed, breathy, and desperate. He babbled without words as Jayce’s strong hands wrung pleasure from his drenched cunt, pushing him closer and closer to another climax.

As much as Jayce was enjoying Viktor’s writhing desire—the crease of frustration on his brow when he thought he had gotten close again and the determined set of his jaw as it started to build anew—he didn’t want to risk fatiguing the other engineer so badly he’d deny his orgasm entirely. To accomplish that, Vik needs to be able to relax physically and mentally, Jayce thought, trying to assess tension in the system of their two bodies. Finally, the muscular engineer hitched Vik’s calves over his shoulders. “Link your ankles around my neck,” he instructed. Viktor blinked at him, uncomprehending at first. Jayce withdrew his finger slightly and paused, giving Viktor a moment to process, despite whining wordlessly at the loss of stimulation all the while. “Ankles. Hook together behind my head,” he repeated the instructions; this time Vik was quick to understand and quick to comply. Jayce rewarded him by wordlessly sliding his second finger in along with the first as soon as he felt Viktor’s ankles link on his back, curling both fingers against the spongy spot that made Vik squirm and pulsing steadily against it. With that sorted, Viktor was finally able to relax his thighs and let the pleasure flow instead of holding himself up at awkward angles.

“Jayce?” Viktor’s tone had gone from reedy thin to deep and husky as he got closer to his second climax, now much more relaxed, “I want to come on you—on your cock. Please? I’m getting close…”

Jayce’s heavily lidded amber eyes flew open and locked on Viktor’s own golden stare. I’m not done tasting you, Jayce thought, continuing stubbornly as he was, letting his tongue slide over Viktor’s glans as he lapped steadily at the small cock in his mouth, languid and unhurried.

Viktor, frankly, couldn’t be bothered to protest any further when Jayce’s mouth and fingers felt so good. Not when Jayce looked so content to be between his legs. Soon, Viktor reached the threshold, but instead of bursting all at once, the pleasure continued to build and expand, coiling his nerves tighter and tighter. He threw his head back into the folded towel, his back arching to the limits his brace allowed, all the while pulling on a fist full of Jayce’s hair and the other hand opening and closing spasmodically on Jayce’s wrist where he still held Viktor’s hips in place on the counter.

“Jay—nnnnnghh!” Viktor tried to get the other man’s attention, which of course he already had fully. He tried to convey the urgency he felt again, “Jayce, how—oh, oh, oh! How has it not—it is so much!” He continued to trip over his words. Just when he thought he might pass out from pleasure, Jayce pulsed his cricked fingers against that soft place inside Viktor’s cunt once more and everything came undone. Viktor gasped in ecstasy and relief as his legs went limp and everything below his abdomen felt tingly and wonderful and very far away. Jayce had to have been soaked by everything Viktor felt release when he came, but there was no sound of displeasure, rather contented hums and salaciously wet sounds came from where Jayce still knelt between Viktor’s knees. The disabled scientist was vaguely aware of the sensation of emptiness as Jayce pulled his thick fingers out of him slowly and gently. The grounding but immovable restraint of Jayce’s forearm steadily lifted. Viktor felt a hand cup his cheek and turn his face towards something.

Viktor blinked, trying to get his eyes to see and focus and his brain to process the input. It was slow going, but he got there in time to see Jayce’s already sticky looking lips part to take his fingers, covered in cum and other excretions from Viktor’s cunt deep into his own throat and lick them clean. Viktor groaned, marveling at how turned on he still was, Jayce’s little display making his dick twitch feebly. Easing himself all the way back down to lay on the stone countertop, Viktor closed his eyes, seeing only dancing lights—like splotches of dark color speckled with stars—behind his eyelids. Jayce’s dry right hand rubbed tenderly over the twitching muscles of his partner’s thighs, working to release spasms and knots for a few minutes, until he was satisfied by his state of relaxation, while Viktor focused on breathing.

Finally, Viktor opened his eyes, a look of concern flashing across his thin features when he didn’t immediately see Jayce. Looking around for Jayce yielded quick results. Viktor sat up as he watched his best friend gingerly hang both pairs of damp pants and undergarments over the radiator coils of the lab’s furnace. Jayce caught his eye and Viktor felt himself blush again, but this time he didn’t look away, grinning appreciatively. “You’re going to have to hang your shirt up too.” He looked pointedly at the soaked collar and sleeve of Jayce’s shirt, wondering when did he take his waistcoat off? And answering himself, Obviously before I finished…

Jayce somehow had the audacity to blush at the clear request for him to take his shirt off. He looked down at himself and subconsciously licked his lips. He chuckled, “Guess so…” Jayce fumbled his way through the buttons in his haste to do exactly what Viktor had told him to.

Viktor, for his part, watched the poplin slide off Jayce’s broad shoulders, just as he had daydreamed about earlier. He gestured for Jayce to come back to him.

“What is it? Do you need help? That counter can’t be comf—,“ Jayce started, approaching Viktor.

“I am perfectly fine, Jayce. Just come here,” Viktor cut him off.

Jayce’s mouth hung open for a few seconds before he snapped it shut and once again did as he was told. Viktor wrapped the long fingers of his right hand around the back of Jayce’s neck to cradle the base of his skull, pulling him into another kiss. Jayce’s immediate irrepressible groan of longing escaped his parting lips. Viktor grinned against his lips, sliding his left hand down Jayce’s flank to his hips. He once again pulled Jayce’s hips to his own at the edge of the counter.

“Vik—,“ Jayce managed to choke out, “you’re not obligated to, I don’t expe—!“

“Shhhhhh,” Viktor whispered against Jayce’s lips, “I’m taking what I want. Of course it is your right to deny me, but I promise I am not going to push myself beyond my limits and I feel no obligation besides desire.” He paused, his hand resting between them, cradling Jayce’s cock through the deep blue silk.

Jayce held so still, Viktor wondered if he was breathing. He was practically vibrating with tension.

When it became clear that Jayce wasn’t going to respond, Viktor pulled back from where their faces had been still touching to look in his eyes. Jayce’s pupils were somehow even larger than before, their hazel a thin band circumscribing his desire. Viktor raised an eyebrow to Jayce, who after several blinks knit his forehead in confusion.

“Do you believe me?” Viktor asked.

Jayce swallowed hard, his eyes flicking between Viktor’s own clear but eager eyes. He really wants more, there’s no hint of pain nor duty, he concluded, nodding.

“Do you trust me?”

“Completely,” Jayce breathed, without hesitation or reservation.

“May I continue?”

“Yes,” Jayce answered before the words had fully left Vik’s lips, “by all the gods—old and new—please take anything you want of me.”

Viktor’s smile widened, his pupils dilating in response, and he slid his palm firmly down Jayce’s cock to cradle his balls with his long thin fingers, stroking and squeezing slightly.

Jayce’s knees threatened to buckle as an intensely horny whine escaped through his closed lips.

Viktor moved his right hand to cup Jayce’s cheek, and he dragged his thumb down over Jayce’s lips which obediently parted. Vik’s eyes twinkled in amusement. “Be a dear and help put my brace back on, I don’t want to have to think about protecting my leg.”

Jayce immediately reached for the brace and sank, reluctantly, out of Viktor’s grasp on his cheek and groin, coming to rest on one knee. He gingerly guided the brace onto Viktor’s leg, letting his partner line it up before beginning to clamp it back onto his thigh and calf, careful not to pinch Vik’s already abused skin. Viktor’s skin twitched reflexively where Jayce’s broad fingers brushed over his thigh, but he otherwise held still while Jayce lovingly secured his mobility aid.

“Is that comfortable?” Jayce asked, looking up at Vik through his lashes.

“No, but it is secure, which is far more important.” Viktor chuckled, guiding Jayce back to his feet by his chin, gently held between his thumb and forefinger.

Jayce opened his mouth like he was about to protest, but Viktor pulled him into yet another kiss, his tongue claiming Jayce’s unspoken response. He hooked both thumbs into the waistband of Jayce’s boxers and pulled enough to clear the tip of Jayce’s raging erection. He pushed the fabric down as far as he comfortably could without breaking their kiss. He hooked the back of Jayce’s boxers with the toes of his good leg and managed to push them far enough down Jayce’s muscular thighs that he could let them drop easily.

Vik pulled Jayce’s torso to him once more with his legs, locking them again at the ankles. Jayce’s dusty rose cock was trapped between his body and the table, such that just the head was near Viktor’s own cock. Viktor rutted, glans against glans and Jayce’s knees once again threatened to fail. “Perhaps you need a knee brace too,” Vik teased against his lips.

Jayce’s hands were at Viktor’s shirt as he chuckled, fumbling with the buttons even more than he had with his own. Vik helped, starting from the bottom, so they met chaotically in the middle and finally freed him from his burgundy shirt. Viktor finally broke their kiss as he slipped the sleeves off his lithe shoulders and arms behind his back while Jayce’s lusty gaze took in the pale expanse of his chest and arms. Viktor watched Jayce’s eyes dart from mole to mole, cataloguing every characteristic mark, amber eyes tracing his scars as well.

“Can I…? Jayce’s voice trembled with reverence and desire.

“Touch me wherever you want,” Viktor cut off the other scientist’s question as he reached for Jayce again, wrapping him tightly chest to chest, his thin biceps resting atop Jayce’s broad shoulders. Jayce traced his fingers over the long-healed scars as he slid his arms slowly around Viktor’s pale torso. His hands roamed as Vik spoke softly into Jayce’s ear, “Would you be so kind as to carry me over to the backless stool we have by the chalkboard? I want you to sit, so I can ride you.”

Jayce wrapped his broad arms around Vik’s waist, holding him just as closely as he tested lifting his weight, ensuring he could balance both of their bodies before stepping away from the counter. Every step rubbed Jayce’s tip over Viktor’s cock and slit.

Jayce groaned with effort not to thrust himself into Viktor when he felt his tip slip slightly into the still slick slit. He felt Vik tilt his pelvis forward and moan into his ear as their shafts aligned instead. Jayce tried to heft the other man’s light frame higher at the halfway point, managing to undo any progress he’d made by sighing as his abs tightened, lifting his cock to Viktor’s cunt once again.

Reaching the stool, Jayce carefully lined up and slowly bent, leaning forward to keep them both from tumbling backwards over the seat. Despite his caution, there was a moment when it seemed like they might be tipping anyway, but Viktor leaned back slightly to counterbalance, and they recovered without issue. Jayce settled his weight before relaxing his arms so Viktor’s ass rested on his thighs.

The stool was a bit short for Jayce, a calculated decision on Viktor’s part as he wanted to have some leverage. Once Jayce extended his legs in front of himself so that Viktor’s seat on his lap was level, Viktor could reach the ground just enough to help maneuver himself.

Jayce was big, but Viktor wasn’t too worried about fitting him now that he’d already been stretched on proportionate fingers. Jayce helped support his weight, thumbs nearly touching where they held his corseted waist. Lined up properly, they together lowered Viktor slowly onto the other scientist’s expectant dick.

“Fuck fuck shit fuck fuck fuck… gods damn—fuck,” Jayce mumbled a litany of curses against Viktor’s throat. “Viktor? You’re divine… holy shit. Vik? Fuck.”

“Fuck indeed…” Viktor breathed, teasing as he panted, adjusting to the sheer girth he was now speared on.

“Tell me what to do next?” Jayce asked, barely daring to shift the angle of his pelvis. “I think I may burst the second you do.”

Jayce could hear the smile in Viktor’s voice when he replied, “Slowly rock your hips while I get used to accommodating you.” Viktor arched his neck back in pleasure as Jayce followed his instructions. He slid his left hand between them, letting their joint motion move his small cock between the curled knuckles of his first two fingers.

Jayce had to keep a tight rein on himself as every fiber of his being screamed for him to pound into Viktor, chasing his own orgasm. He bussied himself with kissing and sucking marks onto Vik’s throat and shoulders. He licked up over Viktor’s laryngeal prominence continuing until he kissed where Viktor’s jaw, neck, and ear met. Then Jayce traveled back down to suck and bite a mark on his pale right shoulder, thereby ensuring no interference with the strap connected to the corseted back brace that ran over Vik’s left shoulder.

Viktor slowly began to establish a pace, finally more of an up and down motion as his cunt filled with their mixed precum and Jayce’s cock moved smoothly in and out of him with soft wet sounds. The cripple’s breath came in rhythmic huffs and he could already feel his third climax building. Jayce tried to help move his body up and down, but he seemed more than a little distracted by everything else overwhelming him in the best way.

“Jayce?” Viktor looked down into Jayce’s half lidded eyes and felt for the first time since starting at the Academy, perhaps the first time ever, completely as if he were in the only correct place for him in the universe.

“Vit—,“ Jayce managed between ragged breaths, “ya?”

“Thrust into me a bit harder and faster.” He leaned back slightly, wrapping his right hand around what he could hold of Jayce’s thigh. He let the arm, already accustomed to holding him up with his cane, take some of his weight. This angle gave his left hand more space to work his cock and held him up so that Jayce could pound into him, bottoming out and stretching his cunt deeper.

“I don’t know how long I can—er? Last?” Jayce said sheepishly.

“I am quite close too…” Viktor sounded detached, even to his own ears, but his expression was unconcerned and contorted with enjoyment. Clearly both men were in the agonizing bliss of nearing orgasm, neither wanting to be done so soon.

“O-oh. Don’t hold back on my account!”

Viktor took one of Jayce’s hands from his waist and guided it to stroke his little cock before lifting his freed left hand to Jayce’s face. He stroked Jayce’s right cheek with the back of his hand, knuckles grazing the fresh stubble peaking past his pores. He cupped Jayce’s other cheek, his thumb ghosting over his chin, lightly holding Jayce’s throat. He felt Jayce’s hips stutter against his own. Jayce’s pulse jumping under his fingers as his pupils blew out even further.

Jayce nodded fervently in answer to Viktor’s quirked eyebrow, and tried to hide his disappointment as Vik lifted his thumb again, tilting his chin back. Disappointment quickly gave way to a fresh surge of arousal, as Viktor repeated the maneuver from earlier, running his thumb down Jayce’s lips, dragging the lower one with it as his jaw went slack. This time when Jayce’s lips parted, the thumb slipped in, salty sweet with a little tang, like the feast in which Jayce had already partaken: the taste of sex.

As Jayce began to move his tongue over Vik’s thumb, sucking gently in imitation of the attentions he had lavished upon Viktor’s cock, Viktor sighed contentedly, his cunt somehow getting both tighter around Jayce and more relaxed to allow him deeper as it hugged his shaft. Jayce pushed the pace minutely faster in response and he moved the remaining hand from Vik’s waist to cradle his head, gently tangling in his hair and helping support the leaned-back position Viktor had chosen.

“Oh,” Viktor exclaimed softly in surprise when he essentially barged off the cliff of orgasm, his body spasming, the walls of his vagina clamping down on Jayce’s huge dick, and his toes curling on the lab floor. “Guess your hand. Is more exciting. Than mine today,” he observed haltingly, between waves of euphoria. I suppose I was daydreaming of those big, calloused hands.

A strangled sound of pleasure escaped Jayce’s throat, but he spoke urgently around Viktor’s thumb, “Should I pull out—?”

“Don’t you dare.” Viktor growled back, still in the throes of pleasure.

“You sure—?” Jayce searched Viktor’s molten honey eyes for any hint of concern or reluctance and found none.

“Absolutely!” He threw his head back into Jayce’s massive palm again, where it had been before the threat of withdrawn cock.

That was the final straw for Jayce who finished hard with three firm thrusts, his cock fully buried in Viktor. It was unbearable and bliss. His exclamation was wordless and guttural. Jayce’s hips kept shallowly thrusting, unbidden, full body shudders his reward for the overstimulation of it all.

He watched as Vik’s face tilted back towards him to regard him with a wicked grin. Viktor’s golden eyes filled with steely determination and Jayce felt the entrance to his cunt clamp down even tighter. It was too much, but it was also heaven. He was pretty sure Viktor was trying to keep his erection for him, which is hot as hell, he had to admit.

“One more?” Viktor’s voice was ragged, and it was half question, half demand.

Jayce knew that his partner would never expect this if Jayce truly didn’t want it and a huge part of him doubted it was even possible without a break, but he also desperately wanted to try. His moment of indecision resolved in an eager nod. He remembered the thrill of Viktor’s hand on his throat, and he used the hand that had tended to Vik’s cocklet to move Viktor’s thumb back down to wrap around his trachea. “Make me,” he requested softly.

Viktor’s eyes looked like molten honey as he smiled even more devilishly, his fingers flexing, gently threatening to reduce blood flow to Jayce’s brain. “Tap out clearly, say ‘red,’ or knock something off the desk if you need me to stop.”

Jayce nodded his understanding, already feeling his over-sensitive dick filling back to where it was or harder, Viktor’s vice-like entrance helping keep the blood there longer.

“Do you want me to ignore pleading or saying no?” Viktor almost looked impressed, or like he was proud of Jayce’s depraved request.

Jayce swallowed hard. He could feel his heartbeat hammering against Viktor’s fingers and the way swallowing rolled his muscles through Vik’s grasp. He usually felt guilty asking anyone to take advantage of him like this. It’s so much to ask of someone. It’s deviant… maybe it’s conditioned after hookups with people who cared more about finishing themselves than my enthusiastic consent… he mused, I deserve trial and censure; I should not want this. His usual concerns ran through his mind even though he already knew it was an offer he could not bring himself to decline. Viktor’s overture offered absolution of most of Jayce’s typical reservations, and he took solace in the realization that he clearly wouldn’t be Vik’s first time with this. I’m not corrupting him. He offered. Unprompted. He either wants this himself or understands the appeal for me. And finally, sardonically, he thought, Of course, my unattainable best friend was the perfect match for my debauched desires this whole time. His voice came out barely audible, “desperately.”

Viktor’s hand tightened; Jayce’s pulse accelerated under his determined fingers.

“N-no, please. It’s too much!” Jayce’s voice was thin, tentative, clearly still worried his vices were too much, too dark.

The growl was back in Viktor’s voice, “I said don’t. You. Dare. Pull. Out.” Viktor knew his role well.

“It hurts!” Jayce’s voice was a little stronger, notes of genuine desperation poking through.

“I want one more. You are going to give me one more.” Viktor spoke through his gritted teeth, that devilish smile curling into something more sinister, but pride still shone in his eyes.

Jayce could still breathe, his throat clear, but he quickly began to feel the loss of full blood flow. The edges of the room began to feel fuzzy, and his thoughts slowed. And the sex felt amazing… and like his life depended on it. And I am the luckiest man in Piltover, Jayce thought through the haze.

“Please… please Viktor, I need a break.” Jayce accidentally sounded so defeated as he looked down at his hand around Viktor’s slender wrist, the other, now slack, was still tangled in Vik’s hair, that Viktor studied his face, easing his grip for a few seconds to let a little more blood to the other researcher’s brain, obviously trying not to cause brain-damaging levels of oxygen deprivation. Jayce instantly became frantic, begging, “No! No, please! Please Viktor, I need it!”

At surface level ‘it’ was respite from their pace and from being choked, but the timing and eagerness indicated the opposite, which reassured Viktor that he wasn’t losing Jayce’s mind to actual torture and pain, but to pleasure, which was acceptable. Viktor leaned in, resting his forehead against Jayce’s, his right arm draped over the councilor’s shoulders. “Jayce?”

“Yes?” Jayce’s voice was both husky and meek.

“Wrap both arms around my back with your forearms parallel between my shoulder blades. Hold me tight to you as you curl to thrust into me.” Jayce began to try to follow the directions he’d received, finding an angle at which he could not stop himself from thrusting up into Viktor. “Good, now run your fingers up into my hairline and clutch me there if you’d like,” he continued. Viktor rewarded Jayce by tightening his grip again.

As he started seeing spots, Jayce began involuntarily whimpering with every thrust as the overstimulation increased.

“See, you do like it after all.” Viktor scoffed, “Remember, I want one more for me, so if you get off again, I expect you to keep going. No excuses.” Viktor twined his right arm around the strong arms holding him up to reach his own cock, while the left hand stayed on Jayce’s throat to modulate his blood flow. The Zaunite made a small ring out of his thumb and first finger around his cocklet and began to pump himself: Stroke-stroke. Pause pause pause. Stroke, stroke. Pause pause pause.

Far harder than he had been for his first climax, Jayce built a steady pace again, feeling a similar deepening and firmness in Viktor’s cunt’s muscles as last time. Jayce was no longer fully processing words, his own whimpering not much more advanced than wordless protests and whining words like “no” and “please” without much sense behind them. Viktor’s tone was stern, teasing, and vicious in his variety of replies, but Jayce could barely register what he was saying, and trusted Vik to snap him out of it if it was urgent. His wide bronze eyes were fixed on Viktor’s gold, whose luminous gaze flickered back and forth, seemingly unseeing as he processed each sensation, chasing his own bliss.

Jayce, somewhere in the detached self-reflective part of himself, knew they were both extremely close, and he really didn’t want to be first. Vik either had incredible luck or a knack for mind reading as each time he let up on the blood choke was right when Jayce thought he was done for, successfully delaying his orgasm at least half a dozen times. It was torture, but it was also the best anyone had ever choked Jayce and a part of him thought he would agree in a heartbeat if someone offered him the opportunity to live in that blurry, near orgasm, overstimulated state forever.

Jayce found himself babbling a string of “No, no—eehhnnn—no please! Please stop. Arghhhh. Please? Please, please stop. Hnnnn. Stop. No! Ah! No, stop! Please?” When he nearly tipped over the point of no return, the note of genuine panic in his voice snapped Viktor’s eyes to his, suddenly clear and intent.

“Next time, let it happen,” Viktor ordered him, still pumping at himself with the motion of Jayce fucking into him, keeping intensely intimate and direct, but now softened, almost drunken, eye contact.

Jayce opened his mouth to protest that he could hold out, just as Viktor’s hand and cunt simultaneously clamped down. Jayce’s fingers flexed, using Viktor’s hair as a handle to pull Vik down onto his cock as he finished with the next few thrusts as Viktor’s body spasmed in orgasmic bliss.

Jayce was really starting to lose peripheral vision fast, his tunnel vision increasingly dominated by Viktor’s golden eyes looking back at him, pupils massive, lashes fluttering prettily, when Viktor’s grip on his throat finally loosened and his orgasmic spasms subsided. Jayce was left holding Vik up against himself by his scruff.

Viktor was mumbling in his native tongue. Jayce knew little of the language, he had only ever heard it used fluently in the Undercity, but caught what may have been “good” and “thank you” which made him smile. As he sat there, cradling Viktor, his cock slowly deflated, slipping out of the other scientist, who shuddered at the sudden change. Viktor broke their eye contact to bury his face in the crook of Jayce’s neck and shoulder. Jayce tenderly petted the smaller man’s back and hair, still chest to chest.

What could have been 30 seconds or 10 minutes stretched in relative stillness. Jayce gently rocked a mumbling Vik. Jayce became steadily aware that his neck was wetter than he had expected, and that Viktor was saying the same phrase over and over in the other language.

And then Jayce felt like an idiot and an asshole.

“Hey, hey, Vik, look at me.” He gently lifted his friend’s face and held him by the shoulders, peering into an inscrutable and tearstained expression.

Viktor blinked at him and shook his head, repeating the phrase solemnly. It finally clicked for Jayce: Vik was apologizing. Jayce shook his head in disbelief and Viktor’s face fell into deeper despair.

“Hey, Viktor wait,” Jayce said urgently, “what do you think I just said no to?”

Viktor repeated himself flatly. Jayce waited expectantly for a translation. Viktor’s voice was sadder than he had ever heard it when he finally spoke in their shared language again, “I asked if you could ever forgive me.”

Jayce sighed, “Well—technically, the answer is no.” Viktor’s eyes flew shut as tears started to flow faster. “Wait! Wait! That’s only because I have nothing to forgive you for!”

Viktor sniffed balefully and wiped his cheek with the back of his hand. He was thoroughly unconvinced, and honestly quite embarrassed to have allowed himself to start crying and mumbling in Zaunite about his misgivings.

“I mean—What? You give me one of the best fucks of my life after a deeply emotional and mutual confession of feelings… why would I be upset with you?” Why wouldn’t you? Viktor wondered bitterly.

“I pushed myself on you? I was selfish about our sex. Deeply deeply sel—,” Viktor tried to pull away and stand, but Jayce caught him by the waist, keeping him on his lap.

“Uh-uh!” Jayce cut him off, “I enjoyed each and every moment of that. It was my choice to spend so long focused on you; I like going down on my partner; I wanted to give you as much pleasure as you would let me. Hell, the most fucked up part of it was my idea! I feel selfish for asking you to choke me!”

Well that’s absurd, Jayce, I agreed to do it! Viktor thought, instead saying, “I just can’t lose you.” The Zaunite sounded so timid again, even to his own ears.

“You haven’t!” Jayce protested.

“You’re my best friend, my lab partner, and my business partner—,” Viktor elaborated. You’re my everything, he added silently when Jayce cut him off.

“And now we get to be this too…” Jayce offered, and Viktor wanted to believe him.

Viktor ran his hand over his face, looking exhausted. “I took all of this too far. I shouldn’t have been daydreaming in the first place—”

“You weren’t the only one doing that whenever we work together!” Jayce felt like he was playing catch up with a runaway train of emotions for the second time that day.

“Can we just go back to the type of partners we were?” Vik still seemed stuck on the irrational belief that he had somehow hurt Jayce or damaged their working relationship and friendship.

“I don’t know if I can. You didn’t think you could either.” Jayce deflated, contemplating if he could shove the way he felt back into the compartment it used to be banished to.

“Jayce… Please. I will do anything.” Viktor wasn’t even sure what he was asking for anymore.

“Viktor… I—,” Jayce sounded crushed.

“We could never speak of this again, pretend it never happened,” Viktor offered.

Luckily, that snapped Jayce out of their insane negotiation enough to push back again. “I don’t want to forget!” Jayce burst out.

“Well I don’t know what el—,” Viktor was cut off by Jayce pulling him into a kiss.

Viktor’s lips stayed pressed into a flat line, so Jayce pulled back, licking Vik’s salty tears from his lips and tried another appeal, “Can you please shut up about being unworthy or harmful? Nothing is broken! We are not broken. This is a beginning, not an end.”

Viktor blinked back at him skeptically.

“You mean the world to me. Neither of us are going anywhere. That’s not the last time we have sex!” Jayce declared. After a pause he amended, “I mean, unless you actually never want to again, which is also fine.”

Viktor hiccupped, frowning intensely.

“I said you’re divine and I meant it, for fuck’s sake, Viktor! I love you. Enduringly.”

Viktor looked down at his hands, wringing them. Jayce watched him turn his words over in his mind. Viktor’s eyes opened suddenly. His lips parted in a silent “oh.” Then he slowly turned pale as sweetmilk, then to pink and finally to red. He tried to turn away, but was still straddling Jayce, so really Vik just turned his flaming cheek and tried to avoid eye contact.

“I’m so sorry—No, listen,” Vik interrupted himself to stop Jayce from interjecting in frustration, “This isn’t the same spiral.” Jayce held up his hands in surrender once again, letting Viktor continue, “I did not—I thought this only happened when I didn’t get aftercare…” Viktor said softly. “I’ve not had much experience with people who I could trust with my emotions…. The endorphin drop can be pretty brutal for me. Normally… well normally I make sure I am alone when I let it hit me,” he admitted.

Hearing that, Jayce hung his head in shame. “I shouldn’t have asked you to do that. Not without talking through more. This is my fault.”

“No!” Viktor said forcefully, no longer avoiding eye contact, now trying to make Jayce meet his eyes. “This is my responsibility. I should have seen it coming. It’s mine to anticipate, communicate, and accommodate… I will handle it better next time, before I spiral.”

“We don’t have to do that last part ever again if it hurts you like this.” Jayce looked up at Viktor through his thick lashes.

“Nonsense,” Viktor said, a note of authority having returned to his voice, “My body can find just about anything to object to. With context and perspective, I can let a lot of that roll off my back now. Don’t make me stop—don’t rule out all depraved delights just because I didn’t handle it smoothly this time.”

It was Jayce’s turn to look skeptical. “By ‘roll off your back,’ do you mean, ‘ignore or defer through sheer force of will?’ Cuz—”

“I—I don’t th—That’s not fair!” Viktor fumed.

Jayce shrugged, “it’s what I would do—have been doing.”

Viktor exhaled in frustration, looking into the middle distance. He looked Jayce in the eyes again, asking “Well what do you propose?” He brought his lips within an inch of Jayce’s, dropping his voice seductively, “because I don’t want to stop exploring that and so much more with you.”

Jayce grinned and gave Vik a quick peck on the lips before answering, “That’s more like it. We’re going to have to brainstorm, problem solve, experiment, analyze, falsify our null hypotheses…” he trailed off laughing.

Viktor smiled back. “That sounds like an awful lot of sex! We better pace ourselves, or we’re going to end up very sore indeed.”

Jayce nodded solemnly. “I am sure you’re sore enough day to day without me wearing you out extra.”

It was Viktor's turn to laugh. “At least if you leave me sore, it will remind me of good times instead of my body’s shortcomings—,” Jayce snorted at his phrasing, so Vik scolded him, “hey, you know what I mean, Jayce!”

“Is that what you call it? A short-cumming?”

“I will have you know that when I had my operation, I was the largest dick they had worked on yet! It was impressive and very successful,” Viktor played at indignation with no real heat behind his words.

Jayce’s eyes visibly unfocused for a second, but he still managed to gripe back, “I’ll bet you’re still the ‘biggest dick’ they’ve ever operated on!”

“Ehhhh, I doubt that. Have you ever met Piltovans?” They laughed together.

Jayce pressed his forehead against Viktor’s cheek affectionately. And they sat in silence, contentedly close for a few minutes before Viktor’s thin frame was wracked by a full-body shiver.

Jayce rubbed his large palms over Viktor’s shoulders. “Well, what now? Do you think any of our clothes have dried yet?”

“I will check.” Viktor announced finally clambering off of Jayce’s lap, flexing his bad leg and brace a few times before trusting it to bear his weight. Jayce’s palm cupped Viktor’s lithe ass briefly before he hobbled out of reach to check their clothes, retrieving his crutch first. He hummed softly as he checked the clothes, tucking the dry items under his left arm.

“Did you really ask me minutes into fooling around if I had ever handled a cock besides my own?” From across the room, Jayce asked incredulously, recalling the start of their encounter.

“I had wondered for years, Jayce. It came up naturally.” Viktor reasoned; mock defensiveness unable to overcome the satisfied grin on his face.

“You’re my best friend, you could have asked any day that whole time,” Jayce protested. “If I had said no, would you have wondered if I wasn’t attracted to you as a man?”

“To be totally honest, Jayce, I do not care how you’re attracted to me if you care for me deeper than just for sex and also want to do that again.” Viktor confessed self-consciously. “In any case, you started drawing me before you knew…” He shrugged, returning with a wet cloth, several clean, dry towels from their pile, and a mix of clothing items he hoped would add up to two full outfits.

Jayce laughed, “Very astute.” After a few beats of silence, he added, “I have always been into men, but… To be fair, I don’t think I have ever felt this way about anyone before. It’s so much more than anyone I have dated… or hooked up with.” The blacksmith stood stiffly, helping ease Viktor onto the low stool and helping sort their clothes onto a clean (chemical free) desk nearby while Viktor ran the damp cloth over his face and chest.

Viktor couldn’t help but feel chuffed about that. More than a Medarda, he scoffed mentally. “Maybe I’m not doomed to always love you far more than I can hope for in return…”

Jayce laughed, “I can’t believe we have been worried about the same thing…”

Vik chuckled back, “Maybe neither of us are doomed.”

“I do, you know—I love you. I have loved you for well over half the time I have known you,” Jayce held Viktor’s face with one hand so he had to meet his eyes, hoping he could see how deeply true it was.

Viktor’s eyes melted like honey at that. He nuzzled into Jayce’s palm and kissed him there. “I think I realized I had already fallen hard when the fact you noticed my scars made me horny. I told you I had to go home to get warm?” Jayce nodded, his recollection matched, as Vik handed him the cloth, gesturing to use it on his face and upper body, before either of them used it on stickier and less sanitary surfaces. Viktor looked down at the fresh cloth he was patting his neck dry with as he continued, “I actually had to rub one out.”

Jayce’s cock twitched improbably, and he watched that golden gaze snap to his drooping cock before traveling back up to meet his eyes, awe and joy written plainly on Viktor’s sharp features, quickly replaced by deviousness. There must still be a part of him braced for me to find it weird or overwhelming, Jayce thought.

“Are you ready for another go?” Viktor asked, excited.

Jayce’s stomach rumbled loudly. “Maybe… if we can pick up food on the way back to one of our apartments for after.”

“Deal!” Viktor agreed. “Whose apartment?”

“I don’t care as long as you’re there.” Jayce answered quickly, kneeling to begin wiping down Viktor’s thighs and groin.

While they discussed, Viktor undid his brace again and Jayce ran the washcloth over it and then over the skin it had rested on. Viktor patted the brace dry before setting it aside. They were able to work together seamlessly without need of speech due to years of practice. “I… I, uh, have some equipment at mine that you may be interested in. Iiiiif you want to be adventurous that is.”

Jayce’s line of sight snapped to Viktor’s face, openly curious.

“I mean, I don’t know. Maybe you prefer to top.” Viktor was painfully casual in his tone, but his eyes were bright and sharp, watching his fellow engineer’s reaction.

Jayce’s eyes widened. “You can?”

“Not only can I, there are options!” Viktor’s eyes sparkled with mysterious excitement. He took the damp cloth from Jayce’s frozen hands. He finished cleaning himself with a few wipes between his folds. He refolded the cloth to expose a new surface and made an impatient noise in his throat, guiding Jayce to his feet. He diligently wiped Jayce’s planar abdomen, thick thighs, monumental cock, and the surrounding area before he added, “I designed some of them myself.”

Jayce nearly staggered back into the desk of their clothes before he caught himself. “Your place then.” He concluded, sounding dazed. “What do you want to eat?”

Viktor finished drying himself and handed over the dry cloth to Jayce before reaching for the once again dry crimson boxers. “That is… a good question. Usually, I just pick up the same simple meal at the vendor on my walk home, but I may be too hungry to be satisfied with that.”

“There’s that only slightly suspicious stir fry cart just on the other side of the bridge?” Jayce offered, sliding his deep blue boxers on after drying himself.

Viktor wrinkled his nose, shaking his head. “If we’re eating food from the southside, we’re getting something far more authentic. The more suspicious, the better.”