Work Text:
The doors to the lab operate on smoothly oiled hinges, meaning that when Jayce unlocks them, they open with a near-silent hiss and vanish into the pockets built into the walls, perfectly engineered so as not to make a single creak or groan. Normally, Jayce had no opinion on the lab doors but today he glared at them, an idiotic frustration boiling in his veins at the idea that the sleekly designed doors were denying him the satisfaction of bursting into the lab and flinging the doors closed with a huff.
The lack of appropriate outlet for his anger takes the wind out of his sails slightly as he steps into the lab, calmer than he’d been moments ago as he’d stormed down the halls. Apparently his demeanor is back to normal enough not to cause a stir—or more likely it was because Viktor was so used to Jayce’s outbursts of emotion that he no longer reacted to them, merely continued with his work in silence while Jayce alternately ranted, rambled, or raved depending on what had driven him to such a state.
Sure enough, Viktor is sitting at his workbench, seemingly engrossed in his work. Jayce is ready to walk over to his space and fling his keys down when he registers what exactly it is that Viktor is doing.
He’s reading a book.
It’s not exactly unusual. There are often heaps of scientific tomes laying around the lab, for reference or more often than not to confirm that their latest innovation has no precedent, at least none recorded in the Academy library. But Viktor isn’t in research mode, clearly—rather than surrounded by papers and his journals and busy scribbling away at his own notes as he reads, he is lounging back on his chair, a mug of tea in one hand and the book in the other. He looks as casual as if he were spending a quiet evening at home, an image Jayce tries to banish as soon as the thought occurs to him—it’s way too domestic a picture for him to handle now.
Viktor lifts the cup to his lips and takes another delicate sip of his tea, then sets it back down on the table with a clink of metal and turns another page of the book. His eyebrows raise at the text.
Jayce clears his throat. “Good book?”
Viktor hums in response, closing the book but keeping his place with a finger as he turns towards Jayce, amber eyes taking in his harried state. “How did the Council meeting go?”
“Ugh,” Jayce replies as he flops down onto a stool and rolls it over to Viktor’s desk. He runs a hand through his hair, mussing it up even more.
”That bad, eh?” Viktor asks, a note of empathy in his tone.
“They’re pleased with the financials—we’re still in the red but they approved the additional funding we requested for the underground tests we wanted to run. We’re on track to hit a record high for end of quarter, but it’s just…they want to move up the timeline for the Hexgate launch.”
Viktor frowns. “It’s already been moved twice. Is Professor Heimerdinger not emphasizing the need for completed testing?”
“He wasn’t in this meeting.” Jayce unbuttons the collar of his jacket slightly and sighs again. “I managed to convince them to keep the Q1 date for next year but they’re going to keep pushing.”
“Well,” Viktor says, returning to his book. “This is why we send you to these meetings, not me.”
“Yeah,” Jayce mutters. The Hexgate meetings usually aren’t too bad—they’re significantly better than the damn galas every other week. But this meeting…he shudders at the memory and falls silent. The soft rustle of pages turning is the only sound in the lab for the next few moments. Jayce stews for a while longer before finally his curiosity gets the better of him. “Look, what are you reading anyways?”
“Ah,” Viktor says. “It is the most curious thing. I received word from the bookstore that the translated works of the runic scholar from Shurima arrived finally, so I went to pick it up. And they had an interesting display in the front of the store.”
Jayce has a sinking sensation that he is not going to enjoy hearing about the display, based on the underlying glee in Viktor’s voice, but he asks anyway. “Interesting how?”
Viktor takes another sip of his tea as he meets Jayce’s eyes—he is enjoying this.
“Well,” he says. “With Progress Day approaching—”
“Progress Day isn’t for another month—”
“They start celebrating earlier and earlier every year,” Viktor says with a quick flash of teeth. “Anyways, the bookstore already has a display up, celebrating the City of Progress—they had the usual fare, that horribly drippy history of Piltover and all the biographies of the Councilors, but this year there was a new section.”
Jayce squints at him. “You’re really enjoying drawing this out, huh.”
Viktor’s grin widens. “Did you know they make Man of Progress mugs now? I picked a couple up for the lab.”
Jayce sputters for a full thirty seconds. “You’re joking.” When Viktor just turns the mug of tea around to reveal Jayce’s own face and his title emblazoned above it, Jayce drops his head into his hands and groans. “I’m pretty sure I didn’t sign off on that.”
“I take it then you didn’t sign off on the two biographies they have for sale of you as well?”
“No, where did they even—two?”
“I did think it seemed excessive, for a man who has yet to actually deliver the final product that would signify ‘progress.’”
“All the more reason to hold the Hexgate launch till next year. Ugh.” He peeks out from between his fingers to see Viktor turn another page. From this angle, he can’t see the cover of the book. “What does it even say about me? Please tell me they didn’t talk to my mom.”
“Oh,” Viktor says, looking up with a raised eyebrow. “This is not one of the biographies.”
Jayce’s first thought is that of course Viktor wouldn’t waste money on something so frivolous. But it clearly wasn’t the tome he’d gone to the store to purchase, so what could he possibly be reading?
“You’re going to make me ask, aren’t you?” Jayce sighs.
Viktor clears his throat. “Jayden rucked up his lover’s skirts, revealing her milky pale thighs and soaking wet mound. ‘Oh, Defender of Tomorrow,’ Valencia whimpered, her bosoms heaving with the swaying of the carriage. ‘We are almost at the gala!’ ‘I don’t care,’ Jayden growled as he unbuttoned his trousers and whipped out twelve inches of his throbbing manhood. ‘I need you now—’”
“Oh my god, Viktor,” Jayce yells, lunging for the book. Viktor laughs and rolls backwards on the chair, keeping the book out of his grasp. “What the fuck—”
Still holding it just out of reach, Viktor tilts the cover towards Jayce, allowing him to see the title in full.
“Deflowered by the Defender of Tomorrow is a best seller, I believe, from what the clerk said. This was one of the last copies they had on display, actually.” Viktor flips to another page. “There are quite a number of puns around Jayden’s ‘progressive manhood’ although the novel refrains from outright saying your new title, presumably for plausible deniability to avoid copyright infringement.”
Viktor turns the cover back towards himself, looking down at the illustration splashed across it and then back to Jayce as if comparing the two. “I must say, the artist who did the cover captured your likeness far better than the one on the mug. Although I don’t believe it’s physically possible to have that many abs.” He flips the book back around so Jayce can see the cover again—there are two figures, caught in an embrace. The woman on the title is swooning backwards in such an extreme arch that Jayce’s own back aches in sympathy. Her corset is half unlaced so her, um, bosoms are nearly falling out of the top of her very low-cut dress, barely covered up by her long, auburn hair. The man on the cover…
Viktor is right. It is a better likeness than the mug, at least with regards to the face.
“My shoulders aren’t that big,” is all he says.
“Mm, yes, and your biceps are not the size of cantaloupes,” Viktor replies, flicking his gaze over Jayce’s torso. “They do seem to have accurately gauged the size of your chest, however.”
Jayce flushes even harder and resists the urge to cross his arms, as if that would do anything to hide from Viktor’s eyes. “Who would even want to read that?”
“Oh, the entire city is enamored with you, Jayce,” Viktor says. “I’m sure half the young women here dream about being, ahem, deflow—”
“Don’t say it, or I will throw something.” Jayce slumps over his desk and groans. “I can never be seen in public again.”
“Come now, it’s not all that bad,” Viktor tuts. “At least it’s a flattering portrayal. And based on the pile of gilded invitations that arrived in today’s mail this has only increased your popularity among the city’s ruling class. Surely this will only aid in our attempts to elevate Hextech’s name till the planned launch of the gates.”
That somehow makes it even worse. It also explains several of the comments he got at today’s meeting—and why the head of the Merchant’s Guild had slid her hand so far up Jayce’s thigh that she could have practically given his gyno a run for her money. It was the last straw after an already difficult meeting—and what had sent him storming down the halls to the lab in such a mood in the first place although now it pales in comparison to this traumatic conversation.
“Yeah, well, if people knew I didn’t actually have ‘twelve inches of throbbing manhood’ I’m sure they’d be a little less eager,” he mutters. He is never going to leave the lab again. He’s halfway to sleeping here regularly anyways—all Jayce needs is a couple more changes of clothes, a mattress, and his good razor instead of just the spare one and he’ll be set.
“No one expects you to have a foot long penis, Jayce,” Viktor laughs. “I’m sure they’d be happy with, eh—” He pauses to eye Jayce up and down again. “What, seven? Eight inches?”
Jayce chokes on his own tongue. “Viktor!”
“I’m just teasing you, Jayce, not trying to give you a complex,” Viktor says, laughing and waving a hand. “You are more than adequate for the denizens of Piltover, I’m sure.”
“You—” Jayce stops in the middle of rubbing a hand across his eyes and looks over at Viktor, caught by surprise. “Viktor, I don’t have…”
His brain catches up with his mouth and he wrangles that sentence back into his throat before he can finish it. There is no way he’s ending this conversation by telling Viktor that the closest he has to an eight inch dick is the dildo he keeps in his bedside drawer, that has sadly not seen any use in far too long as Jayce has been way too busy to do much else at home besides sleep. A dangerous oversight on his part since he clearly needs it—he can feel an uncomfortable wetness pulse between his legs which is just embarrassing, he shouldn’t be getting turned on just from hearing Viktor read smutty literature out loud. Poorly written smutty literature, at that.
He adds the dildo to the mental list of items to bring with him when he moves into the lab.
“Anyways,” he says, coughing and shifting in his seat. “Are we actually going to do any work today?”
Viktor is staring at him oddly, but seems to sense that Jayce is at a limit and decides to show him mercy. He nods and scoots his chair back to the work bench with a sheaf of papers in his hand.
“While you were at the meeting, I reviewed our calculations. I think that…”
Jayce lets himself relax somewhat, soothed back into the comfortable lull of lab work, putting all thoughts of investor meetings and Piltover’s terrible taste in literature out of his mind.
—
Unfortunately, the universe is not so merciful as Viktor to allow Jayce to forget that the book exists. Worse, he learns that it isn’t just one, there’s multiple—and they all feature a very similar theme.
Two days after he learns about the first book, he finds Married to Progress on a table in the area that acts as the lab’s break room. The title catches his eye—two days ago, he’d have thought nothing of it, just assumed it was yet another lab assistant leaving their belongings behind. But now, with the knowledge from the conversation with Viktor still weighing heavily on his mind, the book snags and holds his attention with as much quiet malice as if someone had placed a loaded gun on the table.
Jayce sets the Man of Progress mug down next to the coffee machine and approaches the book with some trepidation, glancing around to ensure the tiny room is deserted. Using one finger he delicately turns the book around so he can better see the cover and yes, that’s his face again, this time on a man wearing a lab coat that’s half ripped open to reveal a tan, unreasonably broad chest. There’s a woman clinging to him wearing a white dress that Jayce only registers as a wedding gown because of the veil and bouquet—surely no woman has ever gotten married in a dress that shows this much skin. Morbidly curious, he flips open the book.
Jake pinned her against the lab table with alarming strength, his great paws engulfing her waist entirely. Valentine could feel his engorged member throbbing against her and bit her lip against a moan.
“I am a man of science,” he growled. “Destined to change this city, to change the world. But I cannot think of anything except your hot, tight pussy. It’s driving me mad, Val.”
“You have driven me mad as well, Jake! I can only dream of your touch, your thick cock pounding into me every night in the lab. We will never realize our dream of harnessing magic through science at this rate!” Valentine’s core pulsed with want, her juices soaking through her silken panties.
“Spread your legs for me, my love—I will have you here in our lab and I will show you the true meaning of progress!”
“Yes, yes, Jake,” she moaned. “Fill me with that thick rod of yours until I’m bursting—”
Jayce slams the book shut and nearly flings it across the room, face afire. Good Gods, who reads this stuff? Surely Viktor hadn’t bought another one of these books so it must be—
He dragged a hand down his face as the horrifying realization struck him that if this wasn’t Viktor’s, it meant someone else who worked in the lab was sitting here reading this.
He was no longer safe just living in the lab. No, he would have to leave Piltover entirely. He heard the Freljords were nice this time of year—maybe he’d be lucky enough to die in a blizzard, no magic there to save him this time.
Jayce numbly fills the mug with coffee, staring blankly at his own face, and drags himself back to the lab. This time, Viktor does glance up at his slow shuffle and then looks down at the mug in Jayce’s hand. He raises a brow and Jayce catches the twitch of his mouth that means Viktor is trying not to laugh at him.
“They’re good mugs! And you bought them for the lab,” he says defensively, curling his hand around it.
“I did,” Viktor says slowly. “Are you alright, Jayce? You look…feverish.”
From the heat still crowding around his jaw and his ears, Jayce is sure he’s still bright red. “I’m fine, it’s just, ah,” he pauses. “There was another book in the break room.”
“Oh?” Viktor turns to him fully. “Which one was it, Testing Love’s Hypothesis?”
“No, it was Married to—wait, there’s more?” Jayce squeaks.
“Ah, Married to Progress? I believe that is by the same author. They have quite a fixation on you—ah, sorry, the male protagonist—fucking his love interests in your lab. For a city that prides itself on being scientifically minded, the populace seems to have some very dubious ideas about lab efficiency, or safety.” Jayce is about to accuse him of being a damn hypocrite about safety, considering he only wears his goggles half the time when Viktor casually says, “If you were consistently making women squirt all over our blueprints, we would be even further behind than we are currently.”
Jayce is never making it to the Freljords. He’s going to climb up to the top of the Hexgate construction site and fling himself off.
“How—how do you know—I thought you just bought the one book!”
Viktor’s expression turns slightly sheepish. “Eh, well, they’re very popular. You were in meetings with the Council all day yesterday while I was running tests with the lab techs—and you know how the techs love to chatter. They were very excited to read about some of the exploits you get up to, excuse me, Justin gets up to in the lab.”
“I don’t! I mean, I would never—”
“Apparently,” Viktor says with glee, and oh no, he’s on a roll now. “Justin is quite the playboy, running through lab assistants—quite literally, as he is also well-endowed—breaking their hearts, until the heroine of the tale wins him over with her intellect and her, ah, other charms, and they spend most of the rest of the story fornicating on various surfaces in their lab. It’s unclear to me if they ever actually get any work done with such copious amounts of fucking.”
Viktor hardly ever swears, at least not in any languages Jayce understands, so there is something almost obscene about the way he says fucking, voice crisp on the consonants.
“Honestly, I worry for these young ladies,” Viktor continues. “They’re described as so small and delicate—the authors have quite the fixation on the male protagonist’s hands engulfing their waists—that surely it cannot be healthy to be taking that much cock regularly, especially when they’re being hoisted up onto various metal tables, folded in half, and then—”
“Thank you, I get the picture,” Jayce gasps. It’s humiliating to even admit to himself, but he can’t sit through another day in the lab with wet underwear, which is looking more and more likely if he lets Viktor keep teasing him about smutty literature. It’s not that he finds any of that a turn-on—Gods, the opposite, really, which is why it’s so excruciating that his body is reacting just because, well. It’s Viktor.
Jayce tilts his head back and runs a hand through his hair, messing up the gel. A few stray strands flop down across his forehead and he leaves them, too frazzled to care about his appearance right now. When he glances back to his partner, Viktor looks away hastily. Well, if Viktor thinks Jayce looks ridiculous, it’s not like Jayce can feel any more humiliated today. Between the mortification that the entire lab is reading made up stories about his sex life and the pulsing arousal still making itself known between his thighs, today can’t really get any worse. He drops his head to the cool metal of the desk and groans.
“Jayce,” Viktor says, rolling his stool closer. “I—”
Jayce shoots up and starts pacing.
“It’s just—now everyone has this image of me in their heads and I—I know the Man of Progress stuff was a little much but I really thought it would be good branding for Hextech, for us, getting our names out there and now it’s blown up into this whole big thing and it’s just my face and people are going to look at me and make assumptions and I—”
“Jayce—” Viktor tries again, closer now but Jayce is pretty close to hyperventilating and can’t stop. He whirls on his partner and grabs him by the arms.
“I don’t have a dick, Viktor!”
Silence rings throughout the lab as they stare at each other.
“You—” Viktor’s eyes drop down to Jayce’s crotch and Jayce abruptly realizes how close their faces are. He drops his hands like he’s been burned and stumbles backwards.
“Um…forget I said that.”
“Jayce,” Viktor says for a third time. His voice is low, soothing, as if he were trying to calm a spooked horse. Which isn’t far from how Jayce is feeling, currently. “You’re saying you are—”
“I, um, I wasn’t trying to keep it a secret or anything,” Jayce mutters. “Just never came up.”
“Jayce, you are under no obligation to tell me—to tell anyone about this,” Viktor says, eyes serious. “I didn't mean to push you into revealing anything you were not ready to share. I apologize for that.”
“No! No, I’m okay with you knowing.” Jayce feels wrong-footed by every step of this conversation—this is not where he thought they’d end up when he entered the lab this morning. And if he lets himself think about it, this is way less sexier than his secret fantasies about revealing this bit of information about himself to his partner.
“I can have the books banned from the lab.” Viktor is still staring at him with an unbearable amount of gentle concern—a look that Jayce has rarely, if ever, seen on his face. “I’ll tell the lab techs—you do not have to be part of that conversation, I’ll be the bad guy here. And I can talk with Professor Heimerdinger, maybe we can get the books pulled entirely. It will not stop them circulating but at least they won’t be—”
“God, V, no, it’s okay—” The last thing Jayce needs is Heimerdinger getting wind of this shit.
“It’s not okay! You are clearly uncomfortable with this—”
“Viktor,” Jayce sighs, dropping his shoulders. “I’ll get over it, I promise.”
He receives a searching look for that, but Viktor eventually nods and backs off. Jayce gives him a tremulous smile and clears his throat.
They get back to work. Viktor doesn’t read out any more pornographic fantasies, nor does he comment further on Jayce’s anatomy.
Jayce tries not to be disappointed.
—
The problem is.
The problem is.
Well, the problem is that Jayce has not gotten laid since before a group of kids blew the wall out of his apartment and set his life spiraling onto an entirely different trajectory.
It wasn’t that Jayce was a, a playboy or anything, before. If anything, he was less sexually active than most of his peers, preferring to spend his free time outside of class on studying magic, getting Hextech to work. But every so often, when he was particularly pent up from stress or his shot or his cycle or, on occasion, a brutal combination of all three, his preferred method of dealing with it was to go out and get fucked so hard he could barely walk. It wasn’t just the sex, either—he loved the touch of another person, even if it was temporary, the skin-to-skin contact, the intimacy of it all.
All of that stopped after Hextech.
At first, there was no time. He and Viktor had spent the first year as partners frantically trying to do anything and everything to prove that they were worth the time and investment—not to mention worth dropping criminal charges after breaking into the professor’s office. Jayce had hardly left the lab that first year, spending upwards of nineteen hours a day with Viktor. Viktor was his partner, very clearly off limits for anything other than a working partnership, but their intellectual connection was a different form of intimacy, one that almost superseded Jayce’s need for physical touch. Almost.
Winning the Distinguished Innovator’s Competition the second year had eased the pressure somewhat. Now nearly four years in they had a bigger facility and lab techs and funding and Jayce is spending more and more time out of the lab and in meetings and now pushed into the public eye—it’s not that spending days on end stinking up the small cramped space of their first lab with their BO was a sustainable dynamic, but Jayce could feel his connection to Viktor chipping away, slowly but surely. And stupidly, predictably, Jayce’s response to that had been to cling harder, literally sometimes, as he found himself leaning more and more into Viktor’s space unnecessarily, hands on his shoulder or on his back.
It’s not enough—it never was, not really, and while Viktor indulged him in allowing the contact Jayce knew he could only get away with it for so long.
For a time, he had contemplated just going out and just finding someone to fuck him, hard enough that he could calm down, at the very least get some of the excess energy out of his system. Councilor Medarda—Mel—is interested, he knows that much based on the signals she has been giving him the more time they spend together, and he isn’t made of stone, she is the most beautiful woman he’s ever seen and it’s not like with Viktor where he doesn’t even know if Viktor would want—
But she is their most supportive voice on the Council, has funded over half of Hextech operations over the last few years. To add sex to the equation—well, Jayce remembers how easily he was stripped of everything he’d worked for, just a few years ago partially at Mel’s behest. Granted, she’d supported them later after they’d proven their theory but with the Hexgates still not operational, it was too much of a risk.
And now he had to worry about what she thought was between his legs. Oh Gods, surely Mel hadn’t read those books—
Jayce quickly redirects his train of thought.
So Mel was off limits, just as much as Viktor. The two people he actually wanted, and they were both out of his reach.
He’d considered doing what he’d done when he was in school—Jayce was good looking, and if he stuck to a safe list of conversation topics people found him mostly charming, so it was fairly easy to find a willing partner for the night. Especially with the types of places Jayce frequented when he was looking for a good, hard fuck—most of the guys he went for weren’t interested in talking.
Jayce had ruled that idea out even before he’d learned that half the city was reading fictionalized pornography about him. He was too high profile for casual hookups, and now with the whole Man of Progress branding and his face slapped all over the place—they were discussing banners, maybe even a blimp—he definitely couldn’t be seen at the kinds of bars he used to go to.
So Jayce was stuck in that state—horny and lonely and feeling extremely sorry for himself—when Viktor brought that book into the lab.
—
“You are working late tonight, Jayce,” says a deep voice from behind him.
Jayce turns to see Viktor slouched in the doorway of the lab, outlined against the golden glow of the hallway lights. His gaze is heavy, almost molten in the dim light.
“I needed to finish this up,” Jayce says, a little breathless at being caught. “I’m sorry—”
“No need to apologize,” Viktor purrs, stalking closer to him, his cane clicking against the stone floor. “It means I have you here all to myself.”
“V-Viktor,” Jayce stammers, a blush staining his ears and cheeks. He feels hot all over and only grows hotter as Viktor reaches him, breaching his personal space in a way that is so unlike his partner’s usual careful distance. “What do you mean?”
“I mean that now we’re alone—” Viktor pushes his cane up under Jayce’s chin and steps even closer, one leg sliding in between Jayce’s thighs. “I can finally have you the way I’ve always wanted.”
Jayce moans and feels his cunt pulse as he thrusts against Viktor’s leg. The short miniskirt of his lab uniform leaves practically nothing to the imagination and the motion rucks up the skirt even further, revealing Jayce’s soaking wet panties.
“Mm,” Viktor hums, staring down with abject hunger. “A silk thong? Were you expecting company?”
“N-no,” Jayce stutters.
“Are you sure?” Jayce gasps as Viktor presses a hand to his sopping mound, heel grinding against the little bud poking up from between his lips. “A pretty little slut like you, waiting here with his legs spread for the next person to fuck him?”
“Just you, Viktor,” Jayce moans. “Please, I’ve been saving myself—I only want you.”
Viktor growls and suddenly Jayce is being slammed back against the lab table, his short skirt ripping as his legs are wrapped around Viktor’s waist. Viktor leans back and rips his shirt open, chest rippling with muscle.
“Take me, Viktor, please!”
He cries out as Viktor pushes the fabric of the panties aside, too eager to wait, and presses his thick, huge member into Jayce’s throbbing core—
Jayce wakes with a gasp, the tail end of his partner’s name caught on his lips as he’s hurtled out of sleep.
He falls back onto his pillows, chest heaving, then cautiously reaches between his legs and has to stifle a gasp as he’s met with his aching, stiff cock and an embarrassing amount of come.
“What the fuck,” he says out loud, lifting up the waistband of his pajama pants to stare incredulously down at his soaking wet cunt. “Was that?”
Something gleams out of the corner of his eye, and Jayce looks over to his bedside table to see Married to Progress sitting innocently where he’d left it, the gold lettering of the title almost blinding from the sun streaming through his windows. Jayce glares at it, and the flat wrench he’d stuck halfway through the pages last night as a bookmark.
Well. Shit.
—
Jayce doesn’t register another presence in the forge until he turns around with a crucible of molten metal held between thick iron tongs and almost drops it in shock at the sight of Viktor standing there.
Viktor waves awkwardly. “Um,” he says, eloquently. “Hello.”
Jayce tries to recover smoothly. “V! Hey, hi, what’s up? What brings you to the forge—anything I can help with?” He winces at the manic tone in his voice.
Viktor hovers next to the heavy wooden table, reaching out to fiddle nervously with one of the tools on the table. Jayce stares—he’s never seen Viktor look nervous.
“I, ah, I wanted to let you know,” Viktor starts, his eyes flicking around the room—they land on Jayce’s bare chest and then dart away. In the red light of the forge it’s hard to tell but Jayce almost would think Viktor was blushing. “If you would like to return to the lab, I will be indisposed for the next few days.”
“What?” Jayce sets down the crucible back into the coals. “Are you okay? What’s going on?”
“Nothing to be concerned about,” Viktor says. He’s still not meeting Jayce’s eyes—his gaze darts back to Jayce’s chest and stays, remaining fixated somewhere around his clavicle. “I just wanted to make sure you knew that the lab will be vacant. If you were…avoiding it for any particular reason.”
“Avoiding…” Jayce sets down the tongs gently and moves towards the table that Viktor is hovering behind. “Viktor, I’m not avoiding you.”
It’s not entirely true, but there’s no way Jayce is getting into that now.
Viktor does meet his eyes at that, blinking rapidly. “Jayce, you haven’t been to the lab during our scheduled work hours for a week. I know you’re coming in at night and you’re clearly not ill, so it is obviously my presence that’s disturbed you.”
“Oh gods, no—”
Viktor doesn’t let him continue, just keeps rambling. “I know what it is like to be treated as different, to be othered, and you have never made me feel disrespected yet somehow I have made our lab an unsafe environment for you. I encouraged our coworkers to—to objectify you, I harassed you and—” He pauses. “Why are you laughing?”
Jayce has his hand over his eyes, trying to stifle his somewhat hysterical giggles. “I’m sorry it’s just—” He lowers his hand to give Viktor a look. “You ignored all the lab safety lectures that Heimerdinger and that little twerp from Health and Safety gave us but you paid attention to the one sexual harassment training they made us sit through before we could hire lab techs?”
Viktor sputters in indignation. “It is serious, Jayce!”
Most of Jayce’s anxieties from the last week diminish in the face of Viktor’s obvious distress. “Look, I promise I’m not avoiding you. You didn’t make me uncomfortable—I mean, the books are horrible but I’d rather have learned about them from you than anyone else. Can you imagine if Cassandra seen them first? Or, oh Gods, if Cait had found them?”
He gets a small laugh out of Viktor at that. “That is a good point, I suppose.”
Jayce moves forward, encouraged, placing a hand on Viktor’s shoulder. “V, I swear. I’m just…working through some stuff right now.”
“Okay,” Viktor says, shoulders relaxing under Jayce’s touch. “I—”
His eyes drop from Jayce’s face to his chest again as Jayce steps closer, bringing them inches apart. Jayce grimaces as he realizes just how sweaty and grimy he is after being down here for what must have been several hours, and he’s about to remove his hand and apologize when Viktor reaches out one slim hand and hovers it over his chest. If Jayce took a deep inhale, Viktor’s hand would touch his nipple.
He stops breathing.
“Um, Viktor?” he squeaks.
“You don’t have scars,” Viktor murmurs, tilting his head. “Your chest, it is why I never realized—”
He seems lost in thought for a moment before his brain catches up to his mouth—Jayce can see the moment Viktor realizes what he’s doing as his eyes snap back up and he turns the same shade as the cherry-red coals in the forge. Viktor drops his hand and steps back, looking utterly mortified.
Or rather, he tries to. Jayce grabs his hand before he can, and in a move that is either monumentally brave or monumentally stupid, he places it on his chest. There’s more give to his pecs than their appearance suggests, the remaining breast tissue soft and supple despite giving the illusion of hardened muscle. Viktor lets out a strangled, wheezing sort of cough as his fingers twitch against Jayce’s sweaty skin causing his tit to jiggle slightly, but he doesn’t move.
“I didn’t have surgery,” Jayce says slowly. “Honestly, working the forge since I was a teenager bulked me up enough that I didn’t really need my binder after a while and—” He blushes. “I didn’t want to lose any, ah, sensation.”
Viktor’s eyes flick down to Jayce’s nipples—they perk up even more under the attention. A bead of sweat streaks from his collarbone down his pec—Viktor’s eyes follow it and his tongue flicks out to wet his lips. He meets Jayce’s eyes again and slowly, agonizingly slowly, inches his finger closer to Jayce’s nipple. He brushes a thumb over the pert bud and Jayce has to bite back a small moan. He’s not able to hide the shudder that runs through him at the touch though.
In the dim light of the forge it’s difficult to make out but Viktor’s pupils seem to expand, golden amber swallowed up by black.
“Jayce…” Viktor licks his lips again. His thumb brushes over Jayce’s nipple again and this time Jayce can’t stifle his gasp. “Jayce, why did you stay away from the lab?”
“Because every time I hear your voice I think about—the things you read,” Jayce says, stuttering slightly over the confession. “It’s all I can think about, really, Viktor I—”
His sentence ends in a mangled exclamation as Viktor leans forward and sucks Jayce’s entire nipple into his mouth. Viktor slants his eyes upward as he swirls his tongue, eyebrow raised. Jayce opens his mouth but whatever he was going to say dies in his throat and a moan escapes instead, deep and guttural, as Viktor applies the faintest pressure of teeth around his nipple.
“Viktor—fuck—” Jayce squeezes his thighs together, tensing as his cunt throbs between his legs. It’s been so long since he’s been touched like this that he thinks maybe he could come from this alone. He never has before, usually he needs his cock touched but Viktor always manages to push him to the next level in everything else—it’s logical he’d do the same when it comes to sex. Viktor’s eyes flash at his response and he brings a hand up to Jayce’s other pec, teasing the neglected nipple on his other side. Jayce whines and tosses his head back, clutching Viktor’s shoulders for support as he desperately tries to hold his hips still and not hump the air.
Viktor hums around his mouthful, both his hands now massaging Jayce’s pecs—heaving bosoms, his mind supplies in a voice that sounds suspiciously like Viktor’s. Jayce whimpers as he somehow gets even wetter at that.
Finally after what seems like hours Viktor pulls off with a pop, thin lips shiny and red, eyes glittering and cheeks flushed. The heat of the forge feels cool in comparison to Viktor’s molten tongue, and Jayce shudders, goosebumps raising all along his skin.
“V—I—”
He has no idea where he’s going with that sentence and thank fuck Viktor doesn’t let him finish. Jayce thinks he might die if Viktor doesn’t fuck him now—his body is screaming for it—but some treacherous part of his brain is telling him he should put a stop to this, that Viktor is merely, what, indulging him? Trying to appease him? There’s no way Viktor could want—
Uncaring about Jayce’s impending mental breakdown, Viktor grasps Jayce’s arms and turns him so his back is to the table and pushes him against the edge with surprising strength. The tool rack hanging above rattles with the force of Jayce’s body weight as it hits the table—he moans again as Viktor slides one thin thigh in between Jayce’s own and places his mouth over Jayce’s other nipple, sucking and tugging on it with as much fervor as he had its twin. Jayce’s eyes roll back as the sensation sends sparks shooting right to his cock, somehow even more intense than before.
He thrusts up against Viktor’s leg mindlessly—Viktor’s moan reverberates through his chest and he presses his thigh up further, hands gripping Jayce’s waist to brace himself as Jayce begins to rock his hips in a steady rhythm. He’s so wet it’s soaked through his underwear and pants, and he can feel Viktor’s leg dampen underneath him. He’d feel embarrassed about it if Viktor weren’t enthusiastically meeting his thrusts, his cock thick and heavy.
“I can’t wait to have you inside of me,” Jayce gasps, unthinking and winces when Viktor startles, his mouth breaking contact with Jayce’s nipple. Strings of spit stretch from his open mouth to Jayce’s chest as he stares up at him, slack-jawed. Jayce blushes even harder. “I—I mean, not if you don’t want—”
“I want,” Viktor rasps, pupils blown. “I really, really want.”
“Gods, Viktor,” Jayce says and practically flings himself into Viktor’s arms to kiss him.
Viktor responds immediately, clinging to Jayce’s waist and pressing even closer. For all that he was just sucking on Jayce’s tits and letting him hump his leg, he keeps the kiss sweet, passionate but closed-mouth. Jayce’s lips are dry and chapped from the heat of the forge but Viktor’s lips are still slick with spit and their lips slide against each other easily. Viktor licks along the seam of Jayce’s mouth, bringing a hand up to his jaw to guide him into deepening the kiss. Jayce opens up for him easily and earns himself a hum of approval.
Jayce might be swooning a little, only kept upright by the table and Viktor’s hold.
He’s making soft, almost hurt noises in the back of his throat, unable to stop, and Viktor is swallowing them all, seemingly greedy for anything Jayce will give him—absurd, really, as Jayce has always been willing to give Viktor everything. He tries to convey that in the kiss, soft and pliant as Viktor’s free hand roves over the planes of his chest.
Eventually they part, gasping for air. Viktor’s eyes are black, and Jayce is sure he’s in the same state and for a moment they just stand there, staring at each other, close enough to be breathing into each others’ mouths.
“The Hammer of Love,” Viktor says, a slow smile stretching across his face.
Jayce blinks. “Excuse me?”
Viktor leans in to nuzzle at Jayce’s neck, tongue darting out to lap at the sweat pooling in the hollow of his throat. “By the same author as Married to Progress. I removed it from the lab before you saw, but it had quite a number of scenes where the protagonist is ah, bent over her love interest’s anvil and hammered, as it were—”
Jayce groans and kisses him again to shut him up. Viktor laughs delightedly into the kiss, smiling enough that their teeth click against each other. Jayce can’t help it, he starts laughing too and Viktor’s grin widens even further as he softly knocks their foreheads together.
“As much as I’d love to recreate that scene—” Viktor kisses the interruption off of Jayce’s mouth and continues. “I want to fuck you in a bed. Preferably mine.”
Jayce sucks in a sharp breath and his cunt clenches around nothing. “Yes,” he breathes, eyes wide. “Please.”
—
Viktor’s apartment is two blocks away from the lab. For once, Jayce regrets that he’d finally moved out of the Academy accommodations because his rooms would have just been one elevator ride away. But Viktor’s apartment is more than just a cramped little room with a twin bed—Jayce has caught glimpses of Viktor’s bed through his open bedroom door in the few times he’s been allowed inside and it’s been enough to fuel several fantasies. It would be pathetic, if Viktor hadn’t just stated outright he’s about to bring those fantasies to life.
Jayce gets a little lost in his thoughts at that, heart rate picking up speed at the prospect of what is about to happen—so much that he almost doesn’t realize how fast they’re walking, almost at his normal pace. He glances at Viktor out of the corner of his eye but knows better than to say anything—if Viktor thinks fucking Jayce is worth a bad pain day, Jayce won’t stop him. That thought gets his heart racing again and he nearly runs into Viktor when the other man comes to a stop in front of his building.
Viktor gives him a look and sly smile over his shoulder and Jayce feels his ears burn.
He’s calmed down a little by the time Viktor’s keys are in the lock and he’s stepping into the darkened foyer of the apartment, arousal tempered with intense fondness as he watches Viktor putter about his apartment, hanging up his keys and flicking on a few lamps. It’s embarrassing but getting a glimpse at this side of Viktor has always made Jayce go soft and fuzzy around the edges. Their shoes lined up at the door of Viktor’s entryway, having tea at Viktor’s little kitchen table—the illusion of shared domesticity, however brief, went a long way to soothing the wild, needy creature that lurked in Jayce’s chest, the one that wanted to claw Viktor as close as possible and never let go.
He realizes he’s just kind of standing in the hallway like an idiot when Viktor turns back to him, face half lit by the soft glow of a lamp. His knuckles are white around the handle of his cane as he gives Jayce another look—this one, however, is tinged with a bit of nervousness. As before Jayce thinks how odd an expression it is on Viktor, fits wrong on his features and Jayce nearly trips over his own stupid feet in order to cross the room and wipe the look off his face with a deep kiss.
Viktor smiles into the kiss, relief relaxing his muscles as he smooths a hand over Jayce’s chest again. When they break apart the nerves have cleared from Viktor’s eyes and he’s smiling again—a small one, but nonetheless utterly breathtaking.
The smile that lingers on Jayce’s face is less charming—more akin to a dopey love-struck grin than anything—but Viktor doesn’t seem to mind as he tugs Jayce towards his bedroom, maneuvering him easily until Jayce’s back hits the mattress.
Jayce lies there, legs spread and mouth salivating as Viktor stands over him, eyes raking over his body with a hunger usually reserved for a Hextech breakthrough. Leaning on his cane, Viktor tugs at his cravat and neatly pulls it from his throat. He undoes two buttons of the shirt underneath, pale flesh stark against the deep red and Jayce licks his lips, eager to see the rest but—
Viktor stops in the midst of his excruciatingly slow strip tease to move closer to the bed, weight balanced on his stronger leg as he brings his braced leg up to prop his knee in between Jayce’s legs. He’s nowhere near Jayce’s crotch and yet just the implication has him soaking through his briefs again.
“You really are…” Viktor licks his lips, eyes fixed on Jayce’s crotch, where he’s sure a wet spot is beginning to show. “You are a marvel, Jayce Talis.”
“O-oh,” Jayce stutters, blush back in full force. Viktor cocks his head, evaluating. He resumes undressing, slowly and methodically unbuttoning his waistcoat before setting it aside.
“You know, Jayce,” Viktor says as he hooks his cane over his elbow in order to roll up his sleeves. “I had thought Piltover was simply more prudish than Zaun, but after learning about our colleagues, eh, reading habits, I realize it is mostly just you.”
“Wh—hey!” Jayce starts to sit up but he’s stopped by Viktor’s cane, delicately placed under his chin. He swallows, feeling the cool metal press deeper into his skin.
Viktor’s eyes gleam.
“There was one passage,” he says as he runs the cane down Jayce’s chest and ends with it resting over his throbbing cunt. “Where the heroine is so overwhelmed by desire at a formal event that the hero, ahem, pleasures her by sticking his cane between her legs and bringing her to orgasm. Now, his was a sword cane—highly impractical, and he used it later to defend the heroine from pirates, I believe—but the image is striking, no?”
Jayce is staring at him, wide eyed and breathless as he rocks his hips up against the cane’s handle in small motions to inch it closer to his cock. Viktor notices and smirks, obliging him by bringing the handle where Jayce wants it so desperately. Jayce moans as his poor neglected cock finally presses against the cane—even through the layers of fabric it’s enough that he’s pretty sure he can come like this.
Viktor seems to sense that and presses harder, encouraging Jayce wordlessly to work himself to the brink.
“Will you come for me, Jayce? Just from this?” Viktor asks softly and it’s enough to send Jayce crashing over the edge, answering Viktor’s question with a loud moan as he throws his head back and comes in a gush of liquid.
He lies back, panting but his hips still rock up against the cane, his body eager for the next orgasm even as Jayce can feel the edge of overstimulation pressing against his cock like a knife.
“So eager,” Viktor murmurs. “You really are desperate, aren’t you?” He removes the cane and Jayce can’t stop the whine that escapes his throat. Viktor chuckles at that as he sets the cane aside, giving it a strange look. “Easy, Jayce, you don’t want me to get jealous of my own cane now, do you?”
“Then fuck me, Viktor,” Jayce gasps. “Please.”
That spurs Viktor into motion. He rests more of his weight against the bed so he can strip Jayce with the speed and efficiency he typically applies to assembling machinery, his fingers quick and steady as they undo various buttons and buckles. He’s never had a partner undress him like this, Jayce thinks as Viktor slides a hand under his waist so he can remove Jayce’s pants—normally he’s expected to take control, be aggressive in getting both himself and his partner naked. But Viktor is being careful, deliberate in his movements, pressing kisses to every part of skin revealed, licking along the sharp line of Jayce’s hip and nuzzling at the crease of his thigh. Like this Jayce feels—cared for. Loved.
Worshipped.
The burning in his chest is only matched by the sudden burn in his eyes and he looks up at the ceiling quickly, trying to blink away tears. Get your shit together before you ruin this, Talis, he thinks, praying Viktor doesn’t notice—
“Jayce? What’s wrong?”
Fuck. The soft concern in Viktor’s voice is too much and Jayce turns his head to the side, trying to hide his face against the mattress. It doesn’t work and he feels Viktor’s hand on his face, a soft caress silently asking for Jayce to look at him.
He shakes his head and tries to plaster on a smile, deliberately meeting Viktor’s concerned look. “Sorry—it’s stupid,” he says with forced cheer. “I’m fine, I promise.”
Viktor doesn’t buy it, of course. He’s kneeling over Jayce, a position that can’t be comfortable for his leg or his hip—great, Jayce finally gets what he’s wanted for years but of course he’s ruining the entire thing—
“We can stop, if you want,” Viktor is saying quietly, stroking a hand through Jayce’s hair. “It’s alright, Jayce.”
“No!” Jayce reaches up to grab Viktor’s hand and clutches it tightly. “Seriously, V. I just got a little overwhelmed, is all.”
Viktor’s face softens in understanding and he leans forward to press a kiss to Jayce’s cheek, then his mouth. Jayce hums into the kiss, desperate to prove that he still wants this. Viktor’s touch is grounding him, too, his hand gripping Jayce’s own fiercely.
Jayce pulls back from the kiss and this time when he meets Viktor’s eyes he’s not faking anything. “Viktor, if you don’t fuck me tonight I swear—”
He gets a laugh in response and another kiss. “Very well,” Viktor says, eyes crinkling. He begins to move down Jayce’s body again, pressing kisses as he goes, never breaking eye contact. Jayce’s heart rate picks up again as Viktor runs a hand down Jayce’s stomach, nails scratching at the neatly trimmed trail of hair. His cock, which had begun to wilt slightly, stiffens back up, poking up fat and blood-red out of its hood and Jayce shifts, trying to squeeze his thighs together and relieve some of the overwhelming arousal.
It’s unnecessary as Viktor’s wandering hand finds its destination, reaching Jayce’s cock and wrapping his fingers around it loosely. Jayce jerks at the touch and gasps, a wild moan breaking free from his chest.
“Very good, Jayce,” Viktor murmurs. “You’re so pent up—can you give me another before I fuck you?”
“Ah—Viktor,” Jayce pants. He squeezes his eyes shut as Viktor continues to play with his cock, pinching the head slightly when he doesn’t continue. Jayce gasps and feels another wave of slick escape him. “I don’t—”
“It has been quite some time since you were touched like this, hasn’t it? You have needed this for a while.” Viktor’s fingers dip between his folds and breach his hole and Jayce clenches around them immediately. He angles them deeper, his palm pressed to Jayce’s cock. “I’m sorry to have teased you for so long but I have you now, Jayce. Let go.”
The soft burr of Viktor’s voice is intoxicating combined with his talented fingers hitting the exact right spot deep within him and Jayce can’t stop it—he comes with another wail. Viktor works him through it, murmuring soft praise against his skin.
“Next time,” Viktor says as he finally withdraws his fingers. “I am going to eat you out until you scream.” He punctuates that statement by bringing his slick-covered fingers to his mouth and licking them clean, tongue lapping between them to get every last drop.
Jayce might black out slightly for a moment but when his vision clears he’s rolled over to pin Viktor to the bed, straddling him. He grinds his cunt against Viktor’s thigh, groaning as he feels the thick bulge of his erection through his pants. “Need you inside me now.”
Viktor looks a little startled but he laughs. “Very well. You will have to ride me, budge up a little so I can get settled.”
Jayce scrambles to obey, clumsy in his eagerness.
“Do I need anything…?” Viktor asks, glancing at his bedside drawer.
Jayce pauses and blinks. “What? Oh! No, I mean, it’s been a while—I’m good, and you won’t knock me up or anything. I’m, do you…?”
“No, Jayce. One of the perks of frequent doctor’s visits is routine screenings. I am, ah, ‘good’ as well.”
Jayce bites back the little spike of jealousy that elicits—Viktor was having sex enough to need to get tested? Regularly? With who? When?
He shakes off the thought. Viktor is having sex with him now, he should focus on that. Afterwards, if Viktor still wants to sleep with other people—
Jayce shuts down that line of thought.
It takes a little shuffling around but eventually they end up with Viktor propped up against the pillows by the headboard and Jayce perched in his lap. It’s a little obscene, the picture they make—Viktor is still fully clothed while Jayce is completely nude, covered in sweat and come, fingers shaking slightly as he undoes the buttons of Viktor’s fly. It doesn’t help that Viktor is petting along his sides, fingers cool against Jayce’s overheated skin as he skims them along his hips and up his back. Jayce shudders and arcs into the touch.
“Focus, Jayce,” Viktor says, even as he continues driving Jayce crazy with his little touches.
In retaliation, Jayce pulls Viktor’s cock free from his pants and underwear and strokes him once, dry. Gods, he’s thick enough that Jayce’s fingers barely touch around the circumference, and it would take both of Jayce’s hands to grip the length of him. Jayce mouth waters and his cunt clenches with an audible squelch.
“I don’t need any prep, can I—”
“Please, Jayce,” Viktor groans.
It’s all the permission Jayce needs to raise himself up on his knees and sink down onto Viktor’s cock. He has to arch his back to take the full length but eventually he’s seated to this hilt.
“Are—are you—” Jayce gasps.
Viktor’s eyes are squeezed shut and his grip tightens on Jayce’s waist. Then he blinks and gives Jayce a shaky smile. “I’m good, Jayce. Just trying to make sure this isn’t over too soon—you are so tight and so… warm—”
Jayce whimpers a little as he rocks his hips forward. He’s so full, impaled at an angle he can’t achieve on his own and it’s driving him crazy. “Viktor, I need to move, please—”
Viktor stares up at him and slowly leans forward to lick a stripe up Jayce’s pec, tracing one of his stretch marks with his lips and ending with a swirl of his tongue around his nipple. “Take what you need, love,” he says against Jayce’s skin before sucking the nipple into his mouth.
Jayce throws his head back and keens, rising up and plunging back down on Viktor’s cock as best he can without dislodging Viktor’s mouth. He is fast becoming addicted to having Viktor’s mouth on his tits—he’s always loved having them touched but no one else has ever devoted this much attention to his chest. Viktor sucks and bites across his chest before he removes his mouth entirely, but before Jayce can be disappointed it’s replaced by both of his hands on each of his nipples, rubbing and pinching while he murmurs a stream of encouragement and praise.
They establish a rhythm like that, Viktor playing with Jayce’s tits as Jayce bounces on his cock. Jayce is flushed, sweat dripping down his face and his chest but Viktor doesn’t seem to mind, just leans in to lick up beads of sweat from off of Jayce’s skin.
“I’m close, V, I—” Jayce pants. He needs Viktor to touch his cock, he needs it so bad his body is shaking with it but Viktor’s hands don’t stray down further. “Please touch me.”
Viktor hums in thought. “I am touching you, Jayce,” he says, looking amazingly calm for a man balls deep in his lab partner. He tilts his head and twists his fingers. “You’re so worked up already, surely you can come from my cock alone.”
Jayce drops forward with a cry, driving the angle of Viktor’s cock into himself deeper. Stars burst behind his eyes and he’s so close, he’s so fucking close but he can’t quite get there—
Viktor grips the back of Jayce’s neck, fingers digging into the tendons as he leans in to murmur into Jayce’s ear. “You dreamt of this, of me fucking you like in the smutty novels, didn’t you?” He thrusts upwards and Jayce jolts as he rams into his sweet spot. Viktor’s eyes light up at the noise he makes and begins to pound upward, hitting that same spot over and over. “What exactly did you dream of, Jayce? Begging me to bend you over one of the benches in the lab, split open your tight cunt on my, ah, progressive manhood, as it were?”
Jayce keens as his orgasm takes him completely by surprise, hole clenching tight around Viktor. His partner swears harshly, thrusts going sloppy, the wet slap of skin loud in the room.
“Jayce, I need to—”
“Inside me, V, want to feel you—”
Viktor cries out as he comes, spilling molten heat deep into Jayce’s body. He shudders beneath Jayce and collapses forward, head pillowed between Jayce’s tits.
“I think I could die happy here,” Viktor mumbles against his skin and Jayce can’t help but laugh.
“Well, the feeling’s mutual V, but you promised me something for next time and I’m not letting you go before then,” Jayce says, cupping his hand over the back of Viktor’s head and holding him to his chest. He presses a kiss to the crown of his head, reluctant to move.
Viktor makes a noise of contentment and kisses the skin in front of him in response. “True.” Then he pulls back to give Jayce a look. “You know, of all the ways I imagined trying to get you in my bed, I couldn’t have predicted smutty literature would be what ultimately wooed you.”
Jayce blushes. “I was already pretty wooed, Vik. I mean, if anyone else had read that shit out loud in my presence I’d have completed the Hexgates next week just so I could transport myself halfway across Runeterra and never come back.”
That gets him a surprised look, then Viktor’s eyes soften and he draws Jayce in for a kiss.
“I would have followed you,” he says. “The perks of being one half of Hextech—I could reverse engineer your trajectory.”
“Viktor, that’s,” Jayce has to stop, throat closing slightly. “That’s so corny. And really romantic.”
“I don’t want to hear it from the man who stayed up all night reading smutty romance novels about a fictionalized version of himself,” Viktor replies with a small slap to Jayce’s pec.
“How did you know—”
“A guess,” Viktor says with a teasing grin and he kisses Jayce’s nose. “And I must confess—I did the same thing.”
“You are ridiculous,” Jayce says as he rolls his eyes.
“It is the pot calling the kettle, as you say. You like that, don’t you?”
Jayce feels the back of his neck heat. He really needs to get up—at the very least to pee and then shower, since he was already pretty disgusting from the forge. But he’s so warm, and sleepy now, and Viktor is mouthing gently along his throat and running soothing hands along his spine.
“I love it,” he whispers against Viktor’s neck.
There’s a pause, Viktor tense underneath him briefly. Before Jayce can panic about ruining everything he’s being kissed wildly, passionately.
“I love you too, Jayce,” Viktor says in response to the half-spoken sentiment. “Part of my fixation with those books was simply—I was jealous. That anyone else would imagine having you like that, no matter how incorrect those imaginings might be.”
“I’ll have to write to that author,” Jayce murmurs sleepily. “Thank them. Maybe offer to sign a book or two.”
The last thing he hears before he drifts off to sleep is Viktor muttering about also needing to thank the author—and buying them off so they never publish another novel again.