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Jayce has learned more in one night about the Assistant to the Dean of the Academy than he ever thought he would in his lifetime. He's learned, for instance, that his name is Viktor, that he's almost absurdly brilliant to the point where Jayce would be offended if they weren't a team, that he's from the Undercity, and that he's far nicer to look at when he's trying not to smile at Jayce's stupid jokes than when he's glowering and preparing to arrest him and destroy his life. There's still things that he doesn't know, like his overall story at the Academy or how he got the job with Heimerdinger or even his last name ( he's made a mental note to find that one out, because otherwise it'll just be embarrassing for him ) but he's getting a good base of knowledge. He'll learn more, he's sure, and already part of him is hungry to know more, to learn as much about Viktor as he possibly can, every nook and cranny that there is.
One of the things that Jayce is learning is that Viktor may be somewhat, slightly, insane.
Because Viktor has far more to lose if anything goes wrong about this. Jayce is already half out the door of Piltover as it is; he's done at the Academy, remanded into the care of his mother like he's been legally ordered back to childhood, he's going to be the laughing stock of anyone he ever knew, the Kirammans threw him out without so much as a 'fare you well', everything he's worked for since he was a kid is thisclose to being over and done with forever. But Viktor's the one with a job, with a certain level of respect and position that comes with it, who still has some manner of standing in the Academy even in spite of their elite disdain for Zaunites, who probably could do all manner of great things without Jayce's help in the coming years. And yet, Viktor's the one who's so gung-ho about breaking into Heimerdinger's lab for Jayce's confiscated equipment, while Jayce...
"How do you know we won't get caught?" It's not the first time he's asked this, and this is where Jayce learns that Viktor must also have supreme patience because he doesn't even snap at him about this, doesn't even turn and glare at him from where he's leading the way, Jayce following close behind with the light.
"I don't know that we won't get caught," Viktor whispers, scanning at the doors. Jayce assumes he's looking for something that'll clue him that they've arrived at Heimerdinger's lab. He knows it better than Jayce does. "What I do know is the general security guard shifts, and who tends to be here and for how long, and using that, I have a pretty good idea that we will not be caught." He stops then, so suddenly that Jayce almost crashes into him. This must be the lab.
"Okay," he says. There's nothing else to really say at this point, except, "then I'm trusting you." With how far they are now, after everything they've done already, it would probably be stupid not to.
Viktor's mouth twitches for a moment. "I'm honored," he says lightly. "Now, if you could shine the light here?" Jayce does as he's told, watches Viktor set his cane to the side and start working at getting the door unlocked.
He even allows himself a moment to think that maybe his luck has turned around. That after the explosion at his place and all the sneers from the Council and the way any hope had seemed impossibly far away just a day ago, now things are looking up. Now he has a partner and they've solved the equations and they're going to get his equipment back and maybe it will actually all work out.
Until he hears the sound of shoes, of someone walking towards them, and realizes that they're fucked.
Viktor must realize it too, because he immediately grabs the key ring and shoves the whole thing into his pocket in an instant as Jayce fumbles to click the light off. He's already trying to come up with some sort of excuse, some kind of plan, when Viktor, swift as anything, surges to his feet, fists a hand in the collar of Jayce's shirt, and hauls him in to press their mouths together.
Jayce's first thought is that he wasn't aware Viktor could even move that fast. Jayce's second thought is a lightning bolt of guilt that he's thinking that because Viktor's clearly a self sufficient adult and just because he's got something going on with his leg doesn't mean he can't move fast and Jayce is a dick for even entertaining that line of thinking. Jayce's third thought doesn't come to fruition because he realizes that Viktor is kissing him and his brain promptly short circuits.
Something else Jayce can now say he's learned about Viktor: he's good at kissing. He's very good at kissing. It's not a chaste kiss either, but immediately open mouthed and wanting, Viktor pulling closer and closer until Jayce is pressing him up against the half-unlocked door to Heimerdinger's lab, Viktor's tongue licking into him and Jayce letting it because Jayce's body decided to act well before his brain started back up again and is already kissing Viktor back in kind.
It feels natural, almost, to tug Viktor impossibly closer by the waist, to kiss him back like he's hungry not just because it's been a while but because Jayce already knows he really likes Viktor. It feels natural to shiver, ever so slightly, as one of Viktor's thin hands curls into his hair, to groan at the bite of the nails on the other that Viktor has digging into his shoulder. It feels natural to slot his knee between Viktor's legs, half to help hold him up and half because the pressure makes Viktor gasp in a way that is turning Jayce's mind to mush. He wants to do more, wants to pull Viktor even closer, press kisses to his face, his jaw, his neck, lower even. He wants to know what Viktor's skin feels like on his, what he sounds like, tastes like —
It's only the sharp bzzt-click of a pen light flicking on that brings Jayce back to himself. The light is bright and sudden, and Jayce is almost grateful for the way the hand Viktor has on his hair tightens and tugs, half manhandling him so that Jayce's face ends up tucked in the crook of Viktor's neck. He tries not to focus on how loud Viktor's ragged breathing is, or the way he can practically hear the race of his heart, nearly matching the speed of Jayce's own.
"Not what I was expecting to find," a voice comments coolly, and honestly Jayce doesn't know if he would have preferred being found out by a security guard instead of Councilor Medarda. He groans, while Viktor huffs a startled laugh like he's just been woken from a nap.
"Wh — Wait a minute, this isn't my..." His head thunks back against the door, and Jayce feels him shrug. "My apologies Councilor. It appears I thought my bedroom was closer than it was." Jayce muffles the sound of him choking on his own tongue by pressing his face harder against Viktor's skin. It's very soft, and smells faintly of cedar.
"It appears so," Councilor Medarda says. She sounds way too casual for this. Is it a Noxian thing? Or is she used to finding people like this in hallways? Or maybe she's used to finding Viktor in hallways, sneaking people to his bedroom? Jayce doesn't know what to do with the hot, sharp, ugly feeling that conjures up in his chest, so he just holds Viktor a bit tighter where his hands are still on his waist, feels Viktor twitch ever so slightly at it. "Forgive my interruption, then."
"Gladly," Viktor says. He makes that one word syrupy sweet, and Jayce doesn't know him all that well yet, not really, but even he can tell that Viktor is laying it on thick. He waits for Councilor Medarda to call them on it, to ask what they're really doing at Heimerdinger's door when he's long gone. Instead, she just clicks the light off and. Leaves. Jayce can hear the clacking sound of her heels on the floor growing ever fainter as she actually walks away from them without calling enforcers or demanding an emergency Council meeting to get them exiled before the night is even out.
"Fuck," Jayce whispers quietly. Because it seems apt to say. Viktor doesn't say anything, but he does nod as if agreeing to the sentiment, and drops his own head down to rest on Jayce's shoulder. He still has a hand on Jayce's head, but it's moved now to play with the finer hairs at the nape of his neck. Jayce lets him, and finds himself enjoying the feeling of Viktor's long fingers on him.
"Back to work," Viktor says softly. Jayce nods and pulls himself away, and tries not to look at Viktor's mouth, still swollen red from kisses, his kisses, before he turns away, pulls out the keys, and goes back working at the lock.
After all of that, getting in feels less like an agonizing wait and more like a walk in the park. Jayce practically strolls into Heimerdinger's lab as if he belongs in it, once Viktor gets the door open. He makes a beeline for the gemstone that he sees tucked away safely on one of the shelves, leaves Viktor to the work of closing and locking the door because he definitely knows it better than Jayce does.
"The rest of your things are also here," Viktor calls out from by the door.
"Fantastic," Jayce says. He can see some of his notebooks, grabs one of them and makes his way over to Viktor, who's leaning against his cane and has a hand rubbing at the back of his neck. Jayce has a moment of panic, wonders if he's having second thoughts. Maybe being in Heimerdinger's lab is really bringing home what exactly he could lose by working with Jayce on this, and he's about to pull out, or even go track down Councilor Medarda.
"I need to apologize," Viktor says. "For earlier."
Oh. "Why?" Jayce's mouth feels like there's no moisture in it.
"It was the first idea to come to mind," Viktor explains. His cheeks are ever so slightly pink. "I had no other ideas for how to fool the Councilor, and I doubt telling her the truth would have been helpful. But still, I'm aware it was very sudden. And forward. And I did not think to ask your permission. So for that, I'm sorry."
"Uh, well, don't be," Jayce says, like the big idiot he is. "I mean, it's fine. You're fine. I get it." He should stop talking. He should stop looking at Viktor's mouth. "You're good."
"Good, then," Viktor says in return. The feeling is back in Jayce's chest, looking at him, the feeling that this will all actually work out.
It does actually all work out. There's more they need to square away, obviously, but Councilor Medarda is on board, and that seems enough to make Heimerdinger cautiously optimistic. Jayce would probably fall at her feet for it, once they're back on their feet on solid ground after figuring out how to stop floating, if he wasn't still half convinced this was all a dream.
It's Viktor who brings him back to reality, when his legs buckle as they touch the ground and he grabs on to Jayce's arm to keep himself steady with a hiss, sharp nails digging harshly into Jayce's skin even through the fabric. "Apologies," he mutters, face thunderous.
"Shit, your cane..." They'd used his cane to block the door. Viktor's suggestion, yes, but now Jayce can spot it lying on the ground in two very clear, very broken pieces, and very obviously not in any condition to be supporting any weight.
Viktor shrugs. "Unfortunate, but I can get a new one," he says, taking his hand off of Jayce and reaching instead for the back of a chair to lean on instead. Jayce, for some reason, misses the warmth.
"Well, let me walk you home, at least," Jayce blurts out. Viktor raises an eyebrow. "You've, you've done so much, for me, with...all of this," Jayce adds lamely.
"You don't owe me for this, Jayce," Viktor says, slowly, like he thinks Jayce hit his head or something. "There is no expectation for you to pay me back."
"Still." Still, Viktor believed in him. Sought him out when everyone else had already written him off. Talked to him like he was serious, like he was onto something and not just a foolish kid who didn't know what he was doing. Helped him find the roadmap to solve all of this. Believed that this would work even when Jayce himself was ready to call the whole thing off. Saved him. So after everything, helping him back to wherever he lives is the absolute least he can do.
"All right, then," Viktor says softly after a long beat of silence. He takes his time gathering what little things they have, bidding his goodbyes to Heimerdinger, who is still deep in conversation with Councilor Medarda about the meeting they need to set up with the rest of the Council. Like he's worried Jayce isn't serious or something.
Jayce still offers his arm, a bit like he's escorting someone to a dance. Viktor's hold is ginger, and already Jayce can tell that the idea of leaning on someone isn't something that he particularly enjoys, if the knot in his jaw is anything to go by. Jayce doesn't say anything about it, doesn't want to call attention to it if it's already annoying Viktor. He tries to be as unobtrusive as possible, just asking for directions as they make their way through the cobblestone streets, the rain still beating down.
"You live pretty close to the lab," Jayce notes after a while.
Viktor nods. "Heimerdinger does most of his work there," he says simply. "Therefore, to be close to him is the most advantageous."
Jayce hums, and remembers earlier, what Viktor said about his bedroom. "Um, can I ask a question?" he asks as they turn onto the residential street. Viktor nods again. "With Councilor Medarda, when she saw us, you made a comment. About your bedroom. Like you were going to be bringing me there." Viktor's grip tightens on him momentarily.
"As part of the ruse," he adds in. "But yes. I did say that."
"Right." Jayce clears his throat. "So is that, uh, common?" he asks. "Sneaking — um, bringing men to your room?"
He's starting to learn that Viktor has different ways to stare at people. In the ruins of his workshop, he'd stared at him like he was an unpleasant stain that would be hard to remove. At the trial, he'd felt Viktor staring at him like some kind of math problem he was trying to puzzle out. At the ledge, in the office, in the lab, in the air above the lab, Viktor had stared at him in a way that Jayce couldn't identify but that made him feel warm and safe, like an oasis in a snowstorm.
Now, Viktor's staring at him like Jayce just spoke in some long-dead language, like he knows what he said but is still trying to parse it out. Jayce rubs at the back of his neck and realizes that he probably sounds like the most invasive perv alive.
"Sorry." His face burns. "I know we only just met, it's a weird question, I'm sorry..."
Viktor shrugs. His mouth curves into something nonchalant, almost like a pout, and Jayce has to force himself not to stare at it lest Viktor call the whole thing off since his new partner is being a freak. "It is..." Viktor hums, one long finger tapping a rhythm onto Jayce's arm. "Not uncommon." Jayce thinks he can physically feel some gears spark up and collapse in his brain.
"Okay." He's not even sure what he's trying to get at. Why he's asking this at all. Viktor is probably wondering if he's lost his mind. But all Jayce can think, as they stop at a building, duck under an awning to get out of the rain, is that he's going to have to leave Viktor, now that they're actually at his place and his work is done, and he doesn't want to. It's weird; Jayce doesn't think he's ever been this immediately attached to anybody like this in his life.
"Jayce." Viktor's voice is so quiet it's almost drowned out by the rain. When Jayce focuses back on him, he realizes Viktor's staring at him again. It's a new stare, and Jayce fights the urge to shiver. Viktor still has a hand on his arm. His hair is wet and in his eyes, dark streaks against pale skin, and it makes him look breathtaking. "Would you like to come up?"
"Yeah," Jayce says instantly. "Yeah, I would."
It's a ground floor apartment, simple, a bit small, but it seems cozy. Jayce isn't taking in much of it, still half dazed from the fact that Viktor invited him in, that Viktor has sat himself gingerly on the arm of the plain brown couch just beyond the door and is toeing off his shoes, undoing his tie, like he's used to Jayce being here. Used to Jayce watching the movement of his fingers, fascinated. Ravenous. They're both wet from the rain, and Jayce watches the way an errant drop rolls off Viktor's jaw, down his pale neck, disappearing into the collar of his shirt.
"Viktor." His throat feels tight, like when he had strep throat as a kid. "Viktor."
"Hm?" Viktor has his tie off, and the first button of his shirt undone, and as Jayce drifts closer, his hand comes back up, traces the ridges of Jayce's ribs under his clothing, fingers inching closer to his heart.
"Can..." His breath rasps, and he swallows. "Can I kiss you? Again?" This close, Jayce can see that Viktor's pupil's are huge, the black of them practically eclipsing all of the gold of his irises. Jayce is doing that, he realizes with something of a thrill. Just by being close to Viktor, by being a body under his touch. So when Viktor nods, Jayce doesn't have any hesitation about leaning forward and doing exactly what he asked to do.
It's not as hungry as the one in the hallway. It's not them lunging at each other in the midst of passion, even fabricated. Jayce starts slow, keeps his hands gentle where they've come up to cradle Viktor's face. He wants to savor this, wants to really feel the sensation of Viktor's lips moving against his, his hands on him. He waits a bit before he pries Viktor's mouth open, slips his tongue in. There's no wall or door to back each other up against, so Jayce winds his arms around Viktor's waist and pulls him flush and tight against him. One of Viktor's hands is back in his hair, like before, running his fingers through it over and over.
In the quiet of Viktor's apartment, this feels like the best kiss he's ever had.
"What do you want, Jayce?" Viktor asks when Jayce remembers he needs to breathe and pulls back. He has a hand on Jayce's cheek, thumb rubbing gently along the skin just under his eye.
"You." Viktor was probably hoping for something more detailed, for Jayce to tell him what he was in the mood for, but. Jayce just wants him. All of him, whatever Viktor is willing to give. If Viktor just wants Jayce to hold him up from the couch and kiss him until their mouths are raw and bruised and the sun's well up in the sky, Jayce can do that. He'll do it happily.
Something on Viktor's face spasms when he says that, and he leans forward to kiss Jayce again, harder. "My bedroom," he whispers, pulling back. "Is that door just to the left."
It's a quick stumble where Jayce is honestly more at risk of falling over his own feet flat on his face than Viktor is, but they get there, and then Viktor is on a bed, and Jayce is on a bed, staring down at him. Kissing him where he reclines against pillows, molds himself against him, moves his mouth to Viktor's jaw, his neck, sucking bruises all along his throat and soothing them with his tongue. He feels Viktor's fingers mapping out his shoulders, the planes of his back, while Jayce worms a hand between them and starts clumsily undoing the buttons of Viktor's vest. Jayce moves back so that Viktor can shove it off his shoulders, can shimmy himself out of his pants while Jayce tries to avoid ripping his own clothing off.
He has a brace on his leg, Jayce notices, which is impressive of him because Viktor's in shirtsleeves and his underwear and that should make Jayce's brain stop working. It's slim and metal, and Jayce wouldn't have even known it was there if he hadn't seen Viktor with his pants off.
"Can I help?" he asks, sitting up on his knees as Viktor starts undoing some of the mechanics of it. The look Viktor gives him is surprised, at first, then melts into something soft. Jayce almost startles when Viktor reaches out and brushes a hand on his face again.
"You can help by getting undressed," he says, pulling back and starting to remove the brace in earnest. "You're too clothed." And Jayce is more than happy to comply; the fact that he does not physically tear his clothes from his body is a miracle. As it stands, his shirt and his vest and his pants land somewhere in a messy pile in Viktor's room after he throws them, and Viktor's leg brace is off and he's pulling his underwear down and yeah, Jayce's brain is absolutely overheating as he stares at Viktor, bare in front of his eyes.
"I want to taste you," is what bursts out of his mouth once his faculties start working again. His hand is already on Viktor's leg, fingers tracing up from his calf to his knee to his thigh. "Please, Viktor, please."
Viktor's head falls back against the pillows as he nods. "Yes."
And really, Jayce doesn't need more invitation than that before his mouth replaces his hand, pressing kisses up Viktor's leg, higher and higher until he's laying down right between Viktor's legs, staring at him where he's wet and waiting, and licking a broad stripe against his cunt. He hears Viktor moan above him, for the first time, high in his throat, a hand reaching out to grab at Jayce's hair again. It's almost enough to get him to come right in his underwear, hearing that, and hearing it again as he laps at all the slick he can, buries his face as far as it can go and feels himself get harder just from the tightening of Viktor's fingers in his hair.
Viktor shouts when Jayce moves upwards and seals his mouth over his cock, nails digging into Jayce's scalp almost to the point of pain. He's panting, and his legs twitch like he's going to close them, but he can't, not with the grip Jayce has on his good thigh, holding him open. He can barely hear Viktor panting as he sucks his cock, not with all the blood pounding in his hears. His own dick throbs at every breathless sound Viktor makes, the throaty groan he gives when Jayce brings his free hand up to tease a finger at his entrance, wet enough from spit and slick that it almost slips inside with barely any resistance.
Jayce resists the urge to whine when Viktor wrenches his head back away from his cunt. Viktor looks gorgeous from this vantage point, chest heaving, blinking up at the ceiling as if in a daze. Jayce did that. He made Viktor like this, with nothing but his mouth. It makes him want to ignore the grip Viktor has on him and dive back in, eat him out until he comes with a gush and a sob all over Jayce's tongue. He wants to show Viktor how good it can be, how good he can make him feel. Not uncommon, he said, about sneaking men into his room, but Jayce will make it uncommon. Jayce can make him feel so much pleasure that he'll never dream of sneaking anyone else into his bedroom ever again.
"Come here," Viktor says. It's like magnetism, the way Jayce immediately surges up his body, slotted between his legs, and kisses him. Viktor grabs at his face and kisses him back, nips at his jaw and licks at his own mess on Jayce's face. "I want you to fuck me," Viktor whispers, and Jayce has to drop his head on his collarbone and grit his teeth to stop from coming in his underwear on the spot, like he's fifteen years old. "Can you do that, Jayce? Can you do that for me?"
"Can I — " Jayce chokes, bites a mark onto Viktor's skin just to hear the way he yelps. "Yeah," he rasps. He reaches and shoves his own underwear down, frees his aching cock. "Yeah, for you, for you Viktor, whatever you want, I can do that."
"Good." Viktor's hand trails down Jayce's chest and then it's around his cock, and Jayce should be embarrassed by how loud his moan as Viktor tugs at him, uses his precome as lube, twists his wrist like he's somehow psychically learned just how Jayce likes to be touched. Jayce could cry when Viktor pulls his hand away to grab a pillow and places it under his hips, even as he kisses him again. "Now, do it." Jayce has learned some things about himself, as much as he's learned them about Viktor, over this night. He's learned that he'll do whatever Viktor says.
So when Viktor tells him to do it, to fuck him, Jayce does it. He presses in, and forces himself to keep his eyes open and not follow his instincts to kiss Viktor senseless, or bury his face in his throat again like he'd done outside Heimerdinger's lab. Because it's one thing to feel Viktor, hot and tight and so wet around him as he moves in incremental thrusts, deeper and deeper with every stroke, but it's something else to see him. And it's the most beautiful thing he's ever seen, the way Viktor's mouth falls open, the way one of his hands goes to fist itself in the fabric of a pillow by his head, the knuckles white.
They both moan when Jayce bottoms out, and Viktor forces his eyes open, glazed and starry, breathing fast and irregular. "Good," he says again. Jayce practically keens. "Move," Viktor orders, and Jayce should be gentle, but he feels half wild and desperate and when he thrusts back in, hard, Viktor's voice breaks over the cry that rings out of him. Jayce kisses him again, even if it's less a kiss now than it is just the press of skin on skin, Viktor's breaths hot against his mouth.
Jayce loses time. It could be seconds, it could be hours, he's not sure how much time passes once he starts fucking Viktor in earnest. Everything fades to just them, the feeling of Viktor around him, under him. And Jayce could live forever like this, between Viktor's legs, fucking him where he's soaked and wanting, Viktor's voice in his hear, chanting a litany of good, you're so good, you feel so good, just like that Jayce, right there, perfect, so perfect for me in between low, breathless moans, as if Jayce's thrusts are knocking the very air out of his lungs. God, Jayce thought that he'd had good sex before, and maybe he has, but nothing like this. This eclipses everything else.
He thinks he can tell when Viktor's getting closer; his breathing gets faster and erratic and the hand not clutching the pillow, the one tight and clutching at Jayce's back, digs in harder and harder until Jayce thinks he might have drawn blood. Which could undo him then and there, but he wants Viktor to come first, wants to feel it. He leans all his weight on one arm and moves his free hand between their bodies to press down on Viktor's cock. There's nothing elegant about it, just graceless rubbing and pressure, but it's enough. He feels Viktor clench down hard, hears the wordless shout that tears out of him as he buries his face in the crook of Jayce's neck and pulses rhythmically around his dick.
Jayce fucks him through it until Viktor collapses, boneless, against the mattress. He stops moving to appreciate the sight below him, the bruises and bite marks on the pale expanse of Viktor's throat, the rosy tinge on his face from the exertion, the sweat at his temples even with the rain mostly dried out of his hair. He presses in slightly, and Viktor shivers from the sensitivity but blinks open his eyes, slightly bleary, to stare at Jayce.
"I'm close," Jayce rasps. "Please."
Viktor's hand is on his face again. He can't seem to get enough of that, touching Jayce's face, like he's some kind of marvel. Jayce thinks that, between them, Viktor is the marvel. "Take what you need, Jayce," he whispers, almost sweetly. "Take whatever you want." And that's all the permission Jayce needs. It doesn't take much anyway, he drops his head to Viktor's throat and ruts in hard as he can once, twice, three times, wrenching out an overstimulated cry from Viktor each time until Jayce buries himself deep and comes inside him, seemingly harder than he ever has in his life.
They stay there for a moment, Jayce still inside of him, the both of them panting. It's a fight not to just collapse right on top of Viktor, especially when his hands are back in his hair, playing with the part at the nape of his neck again like he did back in the corridor, tracing idle patterns with the lightest scrape of his nails. It's still raining outside, and Jayce can hear the patter of it against the window in Viktor's bedroom.
The entire moment feels stupidly perfect.
When they finally disentangle themselves, sticky and sated and still catching their breath, Jayce manages to stumble his way to the bathroom after Viktor waves him in its general direction. Jayce cleans himself up as best as he's able, and even if it feels a bit presumptuous, wets a washcloth to do the same for Viktor. He does raise an eyebrow at Jayce when he comes back, but doesn't say anything, just shivers lightly at the touch. His eyes slip closed and Jayce wants to kiss him again.
"So," Jayce says softly. He's loathe to break the quiet, but he thinks Viktor might ask him to find his clothes and get out, because this has all been incredibly spur of the moment and they still only met a day ago. And Jayce doesn't want to go. "Normally, I'd leave you alone, I swear," he starts. Viktor's eyebrows are up at his hairline.
"Jayce."
"But my apartment is still a blown up wreck and obviously I haven't had time to find a new one, so I don't really have anywhere right now — "
"Jayce." Jayce shuts his mouth with an audible clack of his teeth. "I am not going to turn you out onto the street," Viktor says. He sounds almost offended at the idea, and Jayce is ready to apologize when Viktor lays a hand on his arm, gently strokes his skin with his fingers. "You can stay if you want. Of course you can."
"Cool," Jayce says dumbly. When he goes to lay down, as respectable a distance from Viktor as he can even in the same bed, Viktor chuckles.
"You're very odd," he tells him. "You've just invented magic, Jayce. And yet the idea that I'd like you to stick around is somehow surprising to you."
"We've invented magic," Jayce corrects him, rather than focus on that other stuff he just said. Viktor hums, his eyelids drooping again. What time is it, even? How long has it been since either of them have rested; Jayce doesn't feel like he's had a moment of respite since his apartment blew up, since he met Viktor. "Thank you," he says compulsively, before Viktor's too dead to the world to hear him.
"Hm?"
"For all of this," Jayce whispers. "Not just for this," and he hopes, cheeks hot, that Viktor knows he means the letting him stay, not the sex. "But for everything tonight. For...coming to find me." Viktor blinks his eyes open, and then shuffles over to press a quick kiss to Jayce's forehead. Jayce feels completely struck dumb.
"It was my pleasure," he says. There's something earnest and almost raw in his voice, something that makes Jayce nuzzle at his face before Viktor pulls back again, settles into the mattress and pulls his blankets up around his shoulders. "Now, sleep, Jayce Talis. The rest of the world awaits tomorrow."
Jayce nods, yawns, and watches as Viktor's breathing starts to even out, as he relaxes into sleep. He's right; they do have everything waiting for them tomorrow. Hextech, and everything that can bring, and maybe they'll even do something like this again. Jayce wants to; he feels utterly ruined for anyone else, ever. No one's going to match up to Viktor anymore, and even as he's falling asleep too, in Viktor's bed, all Jayce can think is that he doesn't even want to try and see if anyone could. He's just going to want Viktor.
That's something else he's learned tonight.
And if he slings an arm around Viktor's waist as he turns over and sleep takes him, well, Viktor doesn't complain. In fact, the last thought Jayce has before he's pulled under is that he can feel Viktor tuck himself closer, skin to skin.