Work Text:
“You promise you won’t stay up too late?”
Jayce is fixing him with those big, pleading eyes, a slight droop to his lower lip.
Viktor huffs and determinedly keeps his eyes on his notebook, only glancing at Jayce out of his periphery as he reaches out to smooth down the rumpled pages. It’s self preservation, if he looks at that pout full on, he’ll never stand a chance.
“Of course not,” he lies smoothly, squinting down at his research notes. “Just a few minutes longer, so I can finish writing this down. But you go on to bed, I know how grumpy you get when you’re overtired.”
Jayce crosses his arms. “I don’t get grumpy,” he protests, grumpily.
“Of course not,” Viktor agrees easily, unsuccessful at repressing the smile that rises to his lips, making the corner of his mouth twitch.
“I could just wait for you,” Jayce offers for what must be the fifth time in as many minutes.
Viktor steels himself and finally looks at Jayce, determined not to be swayed regardless of how impossibly wide he’s managed to make his eyes.
“We both know if you stay here while you’re done working and I’m not, it’ll take me twice as long to finish up.”
Jayce immediately opens his mouth to argue but Viktor holds up a hand.
“Please, go to bed,” he implores. “I’ll be along shortly.”
Jayce only concedes to leave after he’s received not one, not two, but three reassuring kisses (one on each cheek and one on his forehead). Finally, he goes reluctantly, with a defeated little sigh and a disappointed crease between his eyebrows. Viktor waves him off with a begrudging chuckle and yet another promise that he won’t be long.
As the lab door closes, Viktor shakes his head fondly. From absolutely anyone else on the planet, Viktor would find such behaviour highly irritating. From Jayce, he finds it frankly adorable. There’s something incredibly endearing about being in possession of the knowledge that the face of progress for the city and one of the brightest minds of their generation, is a massive softy who pouts when his partner doesn’t go to bed at the exact same time as him. No one else gets to see that side of him.
No one else knows that strong, brilliant, renowned Jayce Talis is ready to do anything for a kiss or that at any given time he’s only a couple minutes of getting his hair played with away from melting into a puddle. Only Viktor gets to know that and it’s a secret he’ll take to his grave, tucked close to his heart with all of his most precious memories.
Oh, how he loves that man. Not enough to leave his notes from today’s experiment unwritten, but still, quite a lot.
Usually they work together in the lab, but recently, with the city’s current demands for Hextech under control, they’ve had some time to follow their own pursuits. Jayce has been working on a prototype that can be put to use at the forge to mitigate the risks that come with the blacksmiths working so closely with the fires, while Viktor is working on a transportable purification system that could be easily installed in the winding waterways of The Under city. Despite the different projects, they still work as a team.
When Jayce gets stuck, Viktor goes over to his workspace to look over his notes and straighten out an equation or two and, when Viktor hits a roadblock, Jayce comes to lean over his desk and make minuscule adjustments to a gear or cog until everything is running smoothly again.
He often feels like he had been waiting his entire life for Jayce to show up and he never even knew it. Viktor never takes it for granted.
Everything is so easy with Jayce, science and magic, inventing and creating, talking and laughing. It was hardly a surprise when falling in love came to them with as much ease as everything else.
The night after they’d successfully premiered Hextech for the first time at the Distinguished Innovators Competition, Jayce had kissed him in the elevator and that had been that. They’d stopped bothering to ‘correct’ people who automatically assumed that Jayce meant something other than lab partner when he introduced Viktor as his ‘partner’. Of course they’re still lab partners, they’re just partners in everything else too, and Viktor wouldn’t have it any other way.
Belatedly, Viktor realizes that he hasn’t written down a single note, the words on the page totally unfocused before his eyes. Trust Jayce to distract him even when he’s not physically present.
That’s the only drawback of sharing a career with the love of his life, distractions are a constant hazard. Viktor is deeply driven and dedicated to his work. Up until a few years ago, he believed it was his sole passion in life, the reason for his very existence. Now he recognizes that he has other passions, like making Jayce blush and laugh and make breathy little noises that never leave his brain after he’s heard them.
It’s not that loving Jayce has made his work any less important - if anything Jayce inspires him to go even farther than he ever thought possible, Jayce pushes him to get closer to achieving his dreams. The work is still important, it’s just that Jayce is too.
Viktor yawns, failing in his attempt to get his eyes to focus properly on his notebook. He fiddles with his pen, absently tapping it against the desk as he tries to recall what else he needed to record from his latest test run. His eyes begin to droop and when he lets them close fully, he tells himself it’s because it’ll be easier to remember what he needs to with his eyes closed.
The next thing he’s aware of is the hard edge of the desk pressing into his cheek and a pair of large, warm hands on his shoulders.
“Come on, sleepyhead,” Jayce murmurs, carefully wrapping his arms around Viktor’s middle and pulling him effortlessly up off his chair. “You can finish that in the morning,” Jayce says sternly when Viktor makes an uncoordinated, half- conscious attempt to reach for his notebook. “It’s bedtime now.” Jayce’s voice is low against his ear and his body is radiating heat and his hands fit against Viktor’s body like they were specifically designed to hold it, so really he has no choice but to admit defeat.
Once he’s on his feet, Viktor expects Jayce to hand him his crutch and walk him back to their academy quarters a few halls away. Instead, Jayce fully picks him up, sweeping him straight off the floor and into his arms, like he weighs nothing at all. Viktor is too sleepy to react until he’s safely in Jayce’s arms.
“You don’t need to carry me,” he protests feebly, already tucking his face into Jayce’s neck without any intention whatsoever of being put down again.
Jayce doesn’t bother replying, just shrugs wordlessly and drops a kiss to the top of Viktor’s head as he starts down the hall.
“Where’s your shirt?” Viktor asks, only registering the lack of one when they’re halfway down the hall, realizing his cheek is pressed to bare skin.
“I was in bed,” Jayce says by way of explanation and Viktor nods in understanding.
Jayce has never been fond of wearing clothes to bed. A fact which Viktor had discovered quite accidentally one morning when he’d burst into Jayce’s room at dawn with a last minute idea the day before the competition, only to find his lab partner completely naked. Jayce credits this incident with substantially accelerating their relationship timeline and Viktor privately agrees with him.
“I hope you’re wearing pants at least,” Viktor remarks dryly. He doesn’t have to look up to know Jayce is rolling his eyes.
“First, no you don't, that's a lie. Second, of course I put on pants. These are public hallways!”
“Ah.” Viktor nods. “But a shirt was too much effort?”
Jayce huffs and mutters something like, “I’ve never heard you complaining before.”
“Not a complaint. Merely an observation.” Viktor’s cool response is somewhat undermined by another yawn.
“You’re insufferable,” Jayce tells him as they reach their academy apartment and he pushes the front door open with his foot.
“So I’ve been told.” Viktor smiles into the crook of his neck. “Much more trouble than I’m worth.”
“You’re worth all the trouble in the world,” Jayce responds swiftly, dropping the note of teasing from his voice in favour of utter sincerity. It makes Viktor’s cheeks go warm.
Within ten minutes, Viktor is ready for bed, mostly thanks to Jayce’s ‘help’ which primarily involves rushing him through his bedtime routine using his pouty eyes as extra incentive to get Viktor to hurry up.
“I told you you should have come to bed earlier,” Jayce complains as they get into bed.
“Yes, well, maybe I would have if you hadn’t spent twenty minutes distracting me from my notes.”
“I wasn’t distracting you!” Jayce protests.
“You were sitting on my desk,” Viktor reminds him.
“It’s not my fault your notes were there,” Jayce pouts, sidling up to Viktor to press in against his side. He wraps an arm around him automatically.
“Ah, no, of course not,” Viktor assents. “My mistake for trying to write down notes at my own desk.”
“Exactly,” Jayce agrees happily, tilting his face up expectantly. Even with the lights off, Viktor can see light radiating off Jayce’s irises, like a neon sign repeatedly flashing the words ‘Kiss me? Please?’ which, of course, he does.
“Love you, goodnight,” says Jayce, rolling over as soon as he’s been kissed.
“I see,” Viktor observes quietly, shifting forward to wrap his arms around Jayce. “You carried me all the way here just to be the little spoon?” Not that Viktor would have expected anything else. Jayce is almost always the little spoon.
“Yup,” Jayce replies brightly before adding, a little quieter, “It’s hard to fall asleep if you’re not holding me.”
“Well.” Viktor holds him tighter. “We wouldn’t want that, would we?”
Jayce shakes his head but Viktor can already hear his breathing getting deeper and evening out and he tucks his nose to the back of Jayce’s neck, ready to nod off again himself.
“Viktor?” Jayce asks, voice already thick with sleep.
“Mm?”
“You didn’t say you love me too.”
Viktors lips turn up in a smile and he presses the curve of it to the dip of Jayce’s neck as he whispers, “Of course I love you, more than you know.”
Jayce makes a contented little sound and reaches blindly for one of Viktor’s arms around him, grabbing his hand and bringing it up to press an uncoordinated kiss to the back of it.
Viktor is still smiling when he falls asleep a few minutes later.