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The university’s lab was dark and silent. Reed frowns. He had expected to find Victor here, hunched over his desk, dark brown eyes laser focused, his hand moving with neat precise motions as he wrote, lips set in a tense line as he shut out the entire world. He knew Victor was not in his dorm room because that was the first place he had checked after he returned from his week away with Ben. Ben had told him it was late and to leave off seeking out Victor until tomorrow before he collapsed to sleep in their shared dorm. The drive back had taken longer than it should have but Reed had been rather looking forward to catching up with Victor again before turning in. Maybe even continuing their discussion of the possibilities of time travel, a fun exercise for the mind which broke the monotony of their college assigned course work. Something both he and Victor found incredibly dull. They had their own personal research projects for which they each had been given grants and the shared lab to complete. Reed was studying the effects of interstellar cosmic storms on a ship’s hull integrity and whether or not hyperspace travel and exploration would be achievable in this lifetime. His designs for new rockets and ships were already being applauded by NASA and those scientists were eager for him to join them once it was out of the development stage and into construction. However he had been dragging his feet because he knew once it was complete he would have even less time to spend with Victor. The Latverian genius had taken a long time to open up to Reed, but it seemed he was just as lonely as Reed had been, and the fact they could communicate on a higher level of understanding than their fellow students meant they were the only people who could understand each other.
However Victor refused to let Reed see any of his work and, he never shared a single thought about his personal project. At first Reed hadn't minded, he thought that it was something mundane just to secure the fund money for larger projects, but months passed and he didn’t have a single clue as to what it could be. Despite Reed’s best attempts at getting Victor to divulge his secrets, the prickly Latverian student refused him, and so Reed was tormented by his insatiable curiosity. He had resolved himself to stop asking after Victor had snapped at him during their last chess match and stormed off shortly before Reed had traveled with Ben to his Aunt Petunia's home for the Christmas holiday. Now that Reed was back just before the campus was in full swing for the New Year’s parties the first thing he had wanted to do was apologize for his behavior and seek to make amends, perhaps even invite Victor to a party that Ben swore would be the biggest thing the campus had ever seen. He sighs and steps into the lab. There was a new device covered by a large white cloth in the back left corner, near where Victor's desk was. Reed looks at it curiously, it hadn’t been there before he had left for his vacation. A small look wouldn’t hurt anyone. He moves towards it; however as he passes by Victor’s desk, the research papers the young man had guarded like a dragon hoarding his gold were simply… there, illuminated by the small desk light. Reed pivots almost instantaneously to lean over and finally catch a glimpse of what Victor’s obsession was.
Shuffling papers, confusion fills Reed’s mind, what was this? The plans were all written out in Victor’s neat handwriting, calculations and notes, a large device that seemed like it could fit one man in a sitting position. However this couldn’t be right. The plans laid out described inter-dimensional travel… to Hell. Surely a man as smart as Victor didn’t think Hell actually existed. This was some hoax or a joke. However Reed knew that while Victor was many things a trickster was not one of them… which meant he really believed he could use this device to travel to Hell. What was the purpose behind this? Reed knew that Victor had touched on the subject of the Occult before, however after Reed had doubled over with laughter thinking that Victor was trying to make a joke, he hadn’t brought it up again. It had taken time for him to get Victor to hear his apology for that. If he was really serious about this then Victor could lose everything, his grants, his place at the university, his future. Not to mention the calculations were off. Victor was overcompensating the power percentages that were needed, if he continued down this path then his machine would explode. Reed picks up a pencil and begins to make corrections for the calculations. He is so intent in his work that he does not hear the sliding lab door woosh open, then close again. Nor does Reed see Victor enter a code in the door panel to lock it so no one could enter.
“There is an important distinction that must be drawn between the words dissection and vivisection .”
Reed’s head snaps up and he turns to face him when Victor’s smooth, deep, accented voice rings out across the silence of the lab. The other scientist’s silhouette is set against the lab door, the fluorescent light of the hallway filters in through the frosted glass and obscures Victor into a dark shape, with only the light of the desk and the gently humming machines to illuminate the space between the two men. He cannot see Victor’s face but there is an air of menace as Victor speaks. He’s never heard Victor like this before, he was used to cool and aloof, or angry and passionate, and on the rare occasion the quiet warmth of connection as their thoughts and theories aligned perfectly, each adding to the conversation and expanding on other’s words. Reed liked that the most. He craved those moments of connection. However tonight it was as if Victor had an invisible mask pulled over his face, and his words belonged to a side of him that Reed had never seen before. It was unsettling.
“A distinction that would appear to be lost on you,” Victor continued, and as he spoke he slowly walked towards Reed, his footsteps echoing as they stepped on the clean tile floor, “Your purpose was to listen. To learn. To someday hope to achieve a sliver of the greatness that you perceive before you. But at every turn you have pried, you have prodded, and you have interfered . Have you not been paying attention? Had it not occurred to you that as an organism existing beside a greater organism, your intrusion would be felt ?” His voice drops lower than Reed had ever heard him before, and his own instincts scream DANGER ! He opens his mouth but Victor isn’t finished, his words become more clipped, and the sense of doom fills the lab until Reed is practically choking on it, “Yet still you harassed, and now I must set aside my work to tend to you and your needs, Richards. Work that I have dedicated my entire life to. Work that, simply put, cannot be tampered with.” Victor’s face finally comes into view, the low desk light creates shadows on the handsome face, brown eyes seem to be alight with an inner fire,”And yet. That ‘yet’ again. Here you are, carving into my living work with your clumsy hands, butchering it, when you should have left it to its completion, then marveled at my intellect after my work was laid to rest.”
“Victor, I -” Reed tries to interject, but is cut off as if he hadn’t spoken at all, now Victor has crowded Reed against the desk, his thighs hit the back of the desk and he has to throw his hands back to steady himself so that he doesn't fall back onto it. Victor glances at the papers over Reed’s shoulders, at Reed’s corrections, his messy scrawl and hurried notes. Reed can smell the sharp cologne that Victor wore, and feel his warm breath against his own face. They had never been so close before and Reed’s vision is filled with Victor’s terrible dark beauty.
“I would have accepted your praise, Richards. And your bemusing attempts at friendship, if you had left me to finish.” His hand reaches over and picks up the paper Reed had been working on, eyes finally release their hold on Reed’s to glance over the notes with scorn, “The question now is, what to do with a man such as you…”
Reed’s heart hammers a hard beat in his chest. He is extremely aware of the heat of Victor’s body that was practically pressed up against him. He swallows nervously, sweat dots his forehead. Victor finally looks back at him and then crumples the paper in one hand, before opening his fist to let it fall to the ground. It makes a soft noise and Reed opens his mouth to apologize, for what exactly he’s not sure, but from Victor’s words and tone it seemed he was upset again. He understands that perhaps it was not in good form for another scientist to vivisect, as Victor put it, another’s work, but surely Victor would understand there would be nothing left to dissect if he had continued with his original work. However Reed never gets a single word out. Victor’s mouth captures Reed’s, and the warmth of his lips press against surprised lips. The wet, heated kiss overwhelms Reed and it’s as if a flip is switched in his mind and all he can focus on now isn't the miscalculated work but Victor, and only Victor.
He had admired Victor for so long, and had looked on him fondly but never thought that Victor ever felt more than mild annoyance and sometimes mild companionship with Reed. Had Victor yearned for Reed as much as Reed did during his quiet dorm nights listening to Ben snore as he tried to put images of romance with Victor out of his mind? He feels Victor’s hands on his ass, pushing their bodies ever closer, and Reed feels the hard length of Victor’s erection through his pants.
He breaks the kiss to gasp out, “Victor -”
One of Victor’s hands threads through Reed’s brown curls, gripping tight, and yanks his head back, “For once in your life Richards. Shut. Up .”
His mouth descends onto Reed’s throat and licks a stripe up to his ear, kisses are placed with precision across Reed’s jaw to ghost over his lips and then return to his neck. As Victor kisses and suckles on his neck roughly Reed’s lust filled mind breaks with thoughts of trying to explain the bruising that will appear on his neck to Ben later. Why yes, Ben I did get lucky… with who? Oh.. uhh.. A friend? He is pulled back into the present by Victor’s other hand moving from his ass to the front of Reed’s pants, unbuckling the belt and pulling it off to land on the floor with a clunk, then a quick twist of the buttons on his slacks and Victor’s hand digs into the waistband of his underwear to wrap around Reed’s cock. Reed groans and finally lets go of the desk he had been gripping onto for dear life to grip onto the labels of Victor’s white lab coat.
The sounds of wet kissing, the feeling of Victor’s rough calloused hand as he stimulates Reed’s erection, the pure need that rips through Reed’s body like a wave of fire, is overwhelming and he opens his mouth to let out a small pathetic mewl. Victor doesn’t chuckle against his throat but he seems pleased at the noise. Reed can feel his cock begin to leak precum, and Victor doesn’t stop, he simply uses it to masturbate Reed and then go lower to fondle his balls.
“FUCK.” Reed swore. He never swears, but he was too far gone to care, his whole mind and body focused only on what Victor was doing to him, on the expert hands that teased and tugged and mimicked the act of intercourse. Reed’s own hands move to bunch up Victor’s shirt and press themselves against his chest, careful not to tangle on his chest hair. Reed presses his own lips against Victor’s neck and inhales his scent, it was even better, sharper, up close. Reed thrusts his hips awkwardly into Victor’s hand, needing more friction, as he bites Victor’s neck enjoying the sound of surprise Victor makes.
Victor releases Reed’s hair to pull back, removing his hand from Reed’s wet pants, to stare at him. As if he hadn’t expected Reed to act like this. Reed’s face is hotter than it’s ever been before. He’s not sure what to do but he doesn’t want to let this moment disappear, he shoves down his pants, fumbling out of his shoes and clothes until he is naked before Victor. He drops to his knees and tugs at the belt and buttons that hold Victor’s pants until he can pull Victor’s pants down around his knees, not at all surprised to find that Victor went commando. He seemed the type. Victor’s cock was larger than he expected but he grasps it with both hands and looks up at Victor from beneath his lashes. He wasn’t experienced. Not in the way that Victor seemed to be, but he had done a lot of reading and putting the theory into practice couldn’t be that difficult. He wets his lips and opens his mouth to close it around Victor’s cock. Trying to take in as much of him as he could at once, until he feels it hit the back of his throat, he tries not to gag, but he shifts to make it more comfortable, before he begins to move his head back and forth, trying to make use of his tongue to tease Victor and remember what else it was he read in those informative (raunchy bodice ripper) books.
As Reed sucks Victor’s cock, Victor tries hard to hold up that wall he was trying to keep between them. This was just supposed to be sex. A way to release the tension that had been building between them, in him, and nothing more.
Yet, that word again he was beginning to hate it, he could not resist tangling his hands through that mess of sweaty damp dark brown curls. He thrusts and hears Reed gag again. His lab coat brushes against his bare ass, his legs trapped in his pants, his lust growing with each lick, nibble, and caress of Reed’s hot wet mouth. He thrusts again until he is face fucking Reed with a barely controlled rhythm, but it’s not enough. With Reed nothing was ever enough, the man haunted his dreams, his waking moments, he was everywhere. In his heart. In his head. Victor rips Reed off his cock and pulls him up to turn him around quickly and press his chest down against Victor’s desk, papers are crumbled and tossed as Reed scrambles to adjust to his new position.
Victor keeps on hand pressed down against Reed’s back as if he’s afraid that if he lets go then Reed would disappear. With the other hand he sharply rips open a desk drawer and tosses away pens and objects until he finds a small container of vaseline, which he used sometimes time to lubricate small metal gears he would make for his prototypes. Grateful for it now he liberally coats his cock and then presses his finger against Reed’s ass, slowly, deliberately, inserting it into his entrance. Reed makes a sharp, keening noise that descends into low gasps and moans which grow louder as Victor prepares him for what was to come next. Murmurs of ‘please please, victor, please, now, please’ makes Victor go even slower. Tormenting Reed with his touch, relishing the way Reed begs for his cock. Pressing kisses to Reed’s back he continues.
When Victor is satisfied with his work, he pulls his fingers out and grasps his cock, lining it up with Reed’s hole. Slowly, inch by inch, he slips into Reed’s hot, tight, ass. Reed moans wantonly. It fills Victor’s ears, urges him on to fuck the slender man beneath him. To dominate him. When Victor is fully inserted he kicks out Reed’s legs to be better able to stand between them. Reed lays his forehead down on the desk, not caring of his hot sweaty body further ruined Victor’s work. His hands grip the wood, and he bites his lip when Victor begins to move. “Aaahh!”
Victor shuts his eyes for a moment to take in the feeling of fucking Reed. The way their skin felt rubbing against each other, the way his hands gripped Reed’s narrow hips. He opens them again to watch the man writhe beneath him, he thrusts slow at first then gaining more speed and force, until he is fucking Reed with all the pent up tension of these last few months. Needing to punish him. Needing him to feel what he did to Victor. Needing him to need Victor.
“Victor. Please.” Reed groans as he feels the desk cut into his belly, he wants to cum, but his cock is trapped by the desk, so he begs for release. Victor loves it. This control he has over Reed. It makes him feel powerful, which was so much better than the way Reed made him feel weak. It had been Reed’s smile that had first undone Victor, the soft warm curve of lips, he seemed genuinely happy to be in Victor’s presence; that smile had haunted him for an entire month when they first met. He hated feeling weak. He craved it. And hated it. “Damn you, Richards,” He growls as he fucks harder and without mercy.
Reed sobs as the overstimulation wears him down, he needs to touch himself, and just when he feels like he’s going to explode the rough touch of Victor’s hand envelopes his cock and jerks him off. It only takes a few strokes before Reed’s orgasm reaches its peak. Sticky white cum coats Victor’s hand, and drips down to the floor. Just as Reed collapses onto the desk, knees weak; Victor ramps up his thrusting, until the desk is practically being shoved with each motion of his hips. The silent lab is filled with the sound of sweaty skin slapping against the other, the scent of sex, and desire, and the desperate moans of two men who craved the other’s touch.
Victor’s orgasm crests and he finishes inside Reed, slowing his thrusts until it’s once more, twice. Then done. He is breathing hard like a race horse that just won, chest heaving as he slumps over Reed, not wanting to pull out. The sound of harsh breathing and hearts racing is all that there is for the next few moments. Reed slowly pushes upwards, Victor was a heavy man, and Victor moves back. Their descent to the ground is not graceful but both are too tired to care. Victor lays on the tile and stares up at the ceiling, without speaking. Reed sits with his arms around his knees, feeling Victor’s cum leak out of him with each passing moment, staring at Victor. He wants to speak but is afraid to break the moment. He is trying to process exactly what just happened.
A few moments later Victor finally moves, and rips off his shoes, pants. Pulling off his lab coat, and tearing off his shirt. He turns on his hands and knees and crawls over to Reed who has his back currently pressed up the front drawers of Victor’s desk, watching him. Victor sits on his knees before Reed and lets Reed see him, eyes roaming over his beautiful body, it stirs Reed’s cock, and he feels that hot heart crawl back into his belly and craves Victor’s touch again. Victor reaches out a hand and traces Reed’s swollen lips, whispering something in Latverian that Reed didn’t catch. But he didn’t care, all he wanted was to touch Victor again, to taste the salt of his kiss again. He releases his knees and, with both hands, wraps around Victor’s neck; Reed pulls Victor in closer until the space between them is banished.
For the next few hours they explore each other’s bodies with less rush than their first explosive coupling. Reed discovers the dimples in Victor’s lower back, and enjoys the taste of him on his tongue. Victor discovers that Reed is remarkably flexible and uses that to his advantage. When neither man can move they lay on the lab floor, Reed is curled into Victor’s chest, fingers running through his chest hair, breathing in his musk, the beating of Victor’s heart lulling him to sleep. Reed sleepily presses a kiss to motionless lips and whispers ‘thank you’. Victor does not sleep. He stays awake and watches the man wrapped in his arms. A thousand emotions and thoughts race through Victor’s head. Slowly he cuts each one off. Locking it away behind his walls again. Until finally the satisfied feeling of being well loved is severed. Reed Richards, his distraction, would be so no more.
Reed wakes up just before sunrise with his cheek pressed against the cold tiled floor of the lab. His body aches but not unpleasantly. He stretches and looks down with confusion at the crumbled lab coat that covered him from his hips to his mid thighs, the name tag on the coat pocket said “Victor von Doom”. He falls back and covers his hot face with his hands, every touch, every kiss, every thrust burned into his mind. Slightly embarrassed, and feeling awkward, he didn’t quite know what to do next. He should get up and get dressed, find Victor and… what? Talk about what happened last night? What had exactly happened? He was confused, it seemed as if Victor had been angry with him but also it made no sense that it would lead to them fucking like that where anyone could have walked in to see them! He remembers the way Victor’s desk cut into his belly as he was bent over it while Victor thrusted into his body roughly from behind. He smiles at the way Victor seemed surprised when later Reed pressed a soft kiss to his lips and thanked him. He hadn’t been sure just what he had been thanking Victor for before he fell asleep but maybe for everything? For the way he made Reed feel wanted, for the way Victor seemed to make Reed feel as if he was the most important and beautiful being in the universe, for the mind blowing sex? Victor never did things by half measures, so perhaps Reed shouldn’t have been surprised by Victor’s passions. Where was Victor anyways? Reed remembers falling asleep after, snuggled into Victor’s broad chest, his head over Victor’s heart, feeling it beat its steady rhythm. He remembers strong arms hesitantly wrapping around him, as if Victor had never done anything so soft in his entire life. He stands and pulls on Victor’s lab coat, it still left his front entirely exposed but kept some of the lab’s chill off his back. He glances around and does a double take at the corner where the large machine had been draped in a white cloth. The cloth had been pulled down and it left the device exposed, it was just as Victor had drawn it out on his blueprints.
Fear slowly fills Reed, he had never told Victor that his calculations were wrong, he walks towards it, calling, “Victor?”
The Latverian steps out from behind the machine, still completely naked, and it feels strange that Reed would blush after all they had done last night, but seeing Victor as this picture of masculine beauty in the cold light of day was different than the being that stepped out of the shadows to bring Reed’s deepest desires to life. Victor watches Reed with an impassive expression. As if he was unaware or perhaps uncaring of his nudity, nor Reed’s.
“Leave now Richards. We are finished.”
“Wh- what?” Reed’s blush fades and he is filled with confusion, and some shame, was he not.. good? Why was Victor acting like nothing earth shattering had happened last night.
Victor doesn’t repeat himself, instead he kneels back down by the side of the machine and shuts the panel he had been working on before flipping a large switch to turn the device on. It hums to life loudly, grating on Reed’s ears, and lights up in a dizzying display of lights and sounds. Panic grips Reed as he watches Victor move towards the front of the machine, ready to sit down and use it. He rushes towards Victor and grabs his left arm with both hands, yanking him back a step.
“NO! Victor you don’t understand! The machine, the calculations - they are wrong! If you use this without the proper calculations then who knows what the consequences will be!”
Victor’s face twists into an ugly snarl that does nothing to make him any less handsome, “You would dare to question my intellect, AGAIN?” He booms, puffing up his chest, one that Reed had explored so intimately just a few hours ago, and twists his arm out of Reed’s grip. Turning to face him, Victor looms over Reed, jabbing a finger into Reed’s bare chest, “I let last night’s insolence pass, thinking that perhaps you would come to your senses once you were cured of your obsession with me. Yes, Richards. Obsession. Did you think me blind to your American flirtations, those puppy dog eyes? Deaf to the way you uttered my name on your lips? Ignorant to the way your hand wanted to caress my own when you purposefully brushed up against me? I am no Fool, Richards,” He breathes, before lowering his voice and moving so that his nose grazes Reed’s, lips close, “but you are if you think I would ever entertain you tampering with my plans.”
Reed’s anger rises in his chest like a wildfire, he smacks away Victor’s finger, shoving him back with two hands before grabbing those naked shoulders to pull him close again, “You are an arrogant, beautiful, stupid man!” Reed shouts into Victor’s face, unable to control himself, but needing to get through to Victor, needing to make him understand that his life was in danger.
“I do not understand how a man as smart as you won't listen to reason! What is it that compels this madness Victor?” The sounds of the machine ratchets up higher, as if the very Devils of Hell were howling their agony. Reed raises his voice to be heard, “What ghosts are you chasing that you cannot let me in to help you?!” Reed is breathing heavily as his fingers dig into Victor’s skin, his voice breaks as tears well up in his eyes, real fear grips his heart and he can barely force out the last of his desperate plea from his tight throat, “Please listen to me! Let me help you! You are making a mistake!”
Pain explodes in his throat and he cannot breath, let alone speak. Reed drops to his knees, one hand to balance his fall and one hand on his throat, choking. Victor’s punch was hard enough to stop him from talking but not enough to cause lasting damage. Victor crouches, and in a mirror of last night, his right hand threads through rich brown curls to painfully yank Reed’s head back and expose his throat. He speaks in hiss that echoes the same dark voice from last night, “I am no mere man Richards… I am a God, and my creation will change the world.”
Reed’s fear for Victor shines in his eyes, but Victor looks down at him as if he was nothing more than a bothersome cancer he needed to cut out of his life so that he could move forward. Knowing that if he held onto Reed then Victor would never live up to his full potential. Victor was too close to his life long goal to let the distraction and confusion that was Reed Richards stop him.
It had to be this way. There was no other path.
“You do not know everything Reed,” Victor says softly, dark eyes reflecting Reed’s tear stained face, the knuckles of his other hand tracing the curve of Reed’s cheekbone with reverence, “Someday… someday you will understand.” He presses a soft kiss to Reed’s lips.
Releasing Reed, Victor stands and turns away. As he walks Reed’s eyes take in every inch of his bared flesh, watching the way his muscles move as Victor leaves him on the ground in pain. Victor takes his seat on the device. Man and Machine combined with one purpose.
Victor flips switches, and begins the process. The noise is deafening now, as the lights move blindly fast. The electrical grid of the university building cannot handle this much power, the lights of the lab flicker on and off. Reed cannot let Victor do this, he struggles to his feet, his voice is a horse cry of desperation as he tries one last time to save Victor from himself.
Victor looks at Reed solemnly, their brown eyes locked with each other, and that moment stretches on into infinity, every single moment for the rest of their lives comes down to this one choice, this one failure. If Reed had known what would come, the years of hate, of pain, of struggle, the eternal torment of their lives that would be forever intertwined because of this moment, then perhaps he might have fought harder to save Victor.
Fear of death holds Reed Richards back.
Fear failure pushes Victor von Doom forward.
Doom flips the switch, and their entire world explodes, burning away the emotions, the act of their one and only night together, and cementing their futures as bitter enemies.
Later when Reed comes to his senses, and drags Victor’s body from the scraps of his failed machine. He clutches the burned body, sobbing his relief when he feels for a pulse and finds Victor still alive. Victor’s beautiful features are scarred by his own hubris. Reed tries desperately to hold onto the future that they might have had together, crying out Victor’s name as he cradles Victor’s head in his lap; not knowing that the future Reed had dreamed of while he lay under Victor’s sensual body last night was dead.
In the years to come Reed would dissect this moment in his mind a thousand different ways, trying to see if there was some path that might have turned Victor from his destiny.
Victor would not. He would be forever blinded by his failure, and he would blame Reed for it. For the distraction. For surely if Victor von Doom had not fallen in love with Reed Richards then he would have succeeded. The cold lie is the only comfort Victor has in his lonely bed. And in his heart. And in his head.