Chapter Text
Despite the... rather incredible realization he'd made yesterday, Viktor’s relationship with Jayce hadn't actually deteriorated like he'd feared it would. On the contrary, their relationship had even improved, if he did say so himself.
"I take it Jayce finally found out that you didn't know you were dating him?"
Viktor paused in stirring his coffee to blink at Caitlyn. From over her shoulder, he could see a middle-aged couple stop Jayce, who had been on his way to the counter. "How did you...?"
The corners of her mouth lifted into a grin, almost as if she could hear what he was thinking. Her intuitiveness surprised him sometimes. It was no wonder he had been quite taken with her when Jayce introduced them. "Remember when I asked you about your date?"
It took all of his self-control not to roll his eyes at her in exasperation. "Be more specific, Caitlyn."
Her grin widened. "You also said that."
This time, he did roll his eyes, although he was certain she knew it was more out of fondness than annoyance.
"Alright, alright. I asked you after your first date. The one at the café?" Her expression twisted into a frown. "At Sidereal Avenue?"
Ah.
That date.
Yes. The date at Sidereal Avenue. His first date with Jayce. Which he hadn't realized had been a date until yesterday.
"I asked you about it the day after." Caitlyn sounded a bit like she wanted to laugh straight to his face, but was too much of a proper lady to do it.
He nodded to himself, tightening his grip around the handle of his cup. Once again, the conversation was starting to come back to him. "I... see."
Viktor had got accustomed to the Kiramman heiress' presence in their lab sometime during her second visit. He didn't mind it; in fact, he very much appreciated it. She brought a sort of liveliness with her whenever she dropped by.
From the corner of his eye, he saw her set down one of Jayce's numerous journals (no doubt filled to the brim with scribbles only his partner himself could understand) to scoot her chair closer to him. "So, how did yesterday go?"
With a wry chuckle, he shifted his attention from the theorem he'd written to look at her. "Be more specific, Miss Kiramman."
Caitlyn made a face. "Viktor!"
"My apologies."
She smoothed back her skirt, but he didn't miss how the corners of her eyes crinkled in amusement. "That's better. Anyway, how was your date?"
Had he been a miscreant with zero manners whatsoever, he would've snorted unattractively at the question. "I hardly think going to the café with Jayce counts as a 'date'."
"...What?" Caitlyn stared at him, wide-eyed.
"I suppose it was the usual?" he added awkwardly, when she showed no signs of closing her mouth. "Er, Jayce ordered coffee, and some sort of special pastry from Shurima. We were meant to go to the bakery, but it was closed, so the café it was."
"The café it was..." Caitlyn repeated. She was still staring at him, wide-eyed. "The café it was..."
"You know, Viktor, I—" Viktor blinked, finding himself back at the present. From across him, Caitlyn was fiddling with what’s left of the cupcake she had ordered. "I was going to tell Jayce to talk to you when you hit the five-month mark and you still haven't realized that you were... dating."
He could recognize an apology when he heard one, even if he wasn’t quite sure what Caitlyn had to apologize for. It wasn’t her fault he didn’t know he was dating Jayce. Or that Jayce had no idea Viktor didn’t know he was dating him. “Thankfully, it didn't hit the five-month mark," he said dryly.
Thankfully, Caitlyn could also recognize a joke when she heard one. The grin from earlier began to pull at her lips again. “I suppose so.” She set down the cupcake to clear her throat. “But if you don’t mind me asking, how did Jayce take it? When you told him that you didn't know?”
Viktor stilled. “Ah.”
He accepted the glass of water with a murmured thank you, before finishing it in one gulp. A second later, the glass was gently plucked from his grasp.
"You were rambling about winnings?" Jayce’s voice prompted from somewhere at his side.
It took a moment for him to place he wasn’t in the lab anymore. The lab didn’t have soft, cream-colored walls. Nor did it have a couch this soft. Unless Sky had somehow got it in her head to have the walls repainted and bought a new couch? No, no. He wasn’t in the lab, and the only place he had knowledge of with a couch, and this particular shade of cream-colored wallpaper was… at… Jayce’s… apartment.
Viktor almost sank back against the pillows in utter mortification. This wasn’t happening. Perhaps if he just… settled on the couch, closed his eyes, and pretended Janna doesn’t hate him and he hadn’t spent his morning polishing a bottle of brandy –
“Vik?”
Unfortunately, yes, this was happening.
Ignoring the throbbing behind his temples, Viktor took a deep breath. What was Jayce talking about again… oh, the winnings. Those thrice-damned winnings. Because he was apparently dating his partner. His partner whom everyone in the Academy and their mother now knew had been staring at his d – no, he was not going to think about that. Why in Runeterra was he even thinking about that? He should not be thinking about that particular information at all, considering the current state he was in.
"Er. I suppose I have to, well.” His throat suddenly felt too parched, never mind the fact he had just drank a glass of water some few minutes ago. “The students thought it would be a good idea to place bets on us. On whether we are together. As partners. Romantic partners."
A flicker of realization dawned on Jayce's face. "But isn't gambling against the rules?"
Viktor had to stop himself from scoffing at the absurdity of his partner's question. Jayce, of all people, should know the rules of the Academy were more for show than actual rule-following. "Oh, the rules were the last thing on my mind. I was more concerned about the fact that I had no idea I was dating you until they brought it up, and you confirmed it.”
"You've... what?"
He winced as his head throbbed yet again. "I had no idea,” he murmured through clenched teeth, “that we were dating."
"Fuck."
Viktor couldn't have put it any better himself.
"Wait, no." Jayce shook his head. "I should be the one apologizing to you."
Viktor frowned at his partner. "Pardon?”
Now Jayce looked worried, reaching up to run a hand through his slicked-back hair in apparent distress. "V, you didn't even know we were dating. I just... it feels like I've been taking advantage of you."
Oh, Janna help him.
In hindsight, he should've expected this. For all of Jayce's ego and occasional naivety, his partner's heart had always been in the right place. That, Viktor was most certain of. "No. I'm obviously the one at fault here. You asked me out, not the other way around. You thought we were dating, when..." he trailed off, pursing his lips. His head throbbed. He ignored it. "Look, perhaps we should just change that."
"What?"
Viktor looked up at Jayce uncertainly. "Do you still want to... date me?"
"I—of course!" Jayce looked offended, like the thought of him not wanting to date Viktor, no matter the circumstances, never even occurred to him.
It only made Viktor even more certain he wasn’t committing a mistake with wanting to... date his work partner. "Then let's try this again."
Jayce’s eyes widened. He stared at Viktor, like he wasn't quite sure if he'd heard him correctly. "Wait, wait, what? I... just to be clear, do you want to do this?” He scrunched his brows. “Because I don't want to feel like I've forced you..."
The throbbing behind Viktor’s temples still wasn’t receding, but it didn’t matter. In the grand scheme of things, a mere headache didn't matter, not when he was faced with the prospect of Jayce's blinding smile after he'd asked him out. "No, you haven't.” He tried his best to muster a smile, though he had an inkling it resembled more of a grimace than an actual smile. “Jayce Talis, will you go out with me?"
By the time he’d finished recounting the frankly embarrassing account of waking up at his partner’s apartment post-moment of weakness which involved those thrice-damned winnings, and a half-empty bottle of brandy, Caitlyn had already finished her cupcake.
“Congratulations.”
Something remarkably like warmth flared in the pit of Viktor’s stomach. He gave the Kiramman heiress a crooked smile. “Thank you, Caitlyn. I–“ he broke off as something caught his eye. “If you’ll excuse me.” He grabbed his cane, and got to his feet.
He didn’t need to look at Caitlyn to know that she’d also caught on to what he’d seen. “Oh... oh, my. Well. Good luck, Vik.”
Her words followed him all the way to the counter, where – and Viktor wasn’t certain if he should click his tongue at the turn of events he should’ve at least expected to happen – someone was flirting with his partner. Again. (Of course, judging by the gangly look, it was another student from the University. May Janna help them all. What was it with Jayce being a target for barely-legal teenagers?)
“Jayce.” Viktor slid to Jayce’s side, subsequently interrupting the conversation. In one smooth movement, he grabbed his partner’s hand to intertwine their fingers together. “I apologize for my tardiness.”
“Hey, V.” Jayce squeezed his hand. Viktor didn't miss the flash of gratitude in those hazel eyes.
“Uh, excuse me, but who are you?”
Viktor gave the student an unimpressed look. Really. "I'm his partner. Now,” he continued, turning his attention back to Jayce, whose smile eased into something positively wicked, and oh, they were going to have a lot of fun with this, “what were you saying last night about this glorious dream of yours?"