Chapter Text
Everything was gold.
Viktor waded through the strings of light and shivered at the tingly feeling of them brushing against his bare skin. Some were pulled taut like the strings of an instrument while others were loose on the ground. A few had some tension, but were slack enough to be draped delicately through the hazy space.
He was enthralled by their presence and failed to notice quite how many there were until he took a step forward and felt something around his ankle tug. Viktor looked down to see that he was caught in the strings. When he reached down to free himself, there were more wrapped around his wrists. He tried to cry out, but they were cinched tight around his throat and slicing his lips and curling into his eyes-
"Viktor!"
He shot awake with a gasp.
"Hey, hey it's okay. Just a nightmare, Vik. You're safe."
Viktor went limp when he recognized his husband's voice and focused on the soothing litany spilling out of his mouth. Jayce had curled around him in a loose embrace since they both knew not to restrain each other during a bad dream unless it was absolutely necessary, but as soon as Viktor leaned into him, Jayce tightened his arms and threw a leg over his husband's hip to drag him closer.
"D'you want to talk about it?"
Viktor shook his head and pressed his cold nose against the bit of clavicle peaking out from the top of Jayce's shirt.
"Okay. I'm here." A large, calloused hand threaded through Viktor's hair and started playing with the loose strands. Jayce's chest rumbled as he quietly hummed an off-tune rendition of the song Ekko had been playing non-stop when they went to visit Heimerdinger yesterday.
Viktor tried to banish the feeling of molten wire wrapped around his limbs in favor of focusing on the vibrations. It was proving to be rather difficult.
Luckily, he had a partner who knew exactly what to do in this situation. Jayce rolled onto his back and pulled Viktor with him until the slighter man was sprawled across his broad chest with a soft blanket tucked up around his shoulders. Jayce's hand switched from playing with his hair to scratching at his scalp and the humming grew louder. Viktor sighed and let himself melt against his husband, now suitably distracted by the much stronger vibrations and the addictive feeling of blunt nails tracing shapes on the back of his head. An arm wrapped around his lower back and Viktor reveled in the amount of heat Jayce put off. They sometimes joked that the two of them were like fire and ice, Jayce running naturally warm while Viktor's weaker constitution made him constantly cold. They balanced each other out.
It didn't take long for Viktor's nerves to settle and his body to start feeling the pull of sleep once more. "Love you," he mumbled softly.
Familiar lips pressed onto the crown of his head. "I love you, too. Now sleep."
Viktor didn't know how he was ever able to live without this man.
...
Viktor didn't know how he was ever able to live with this man.
"Jayce Talis, I have tripped over these damn boots every single day for the last six years. Get rid of them."
Jayce looked annoyed, but his hands were gentle when he helped Viktor stand up from his boot-induced topple onto their entryway carpet. "I put them in the same place every day, how do you never seem to notice them?"
Viktor bristled and brushed the hands away to stand on his own. "Believe it or not, I have more important things to do than stare down at my feet to make sure I don't trip over your steel-toed monstrosities. Why can't you just put them on the shoe rack?"
"Because the shoe rack is next to the carpet and these boots are filthy, so I leave them by the door. Would you rather I track muddy boot prints all throughout the apartment?"
Viktor opened his mouth to say something cutting in reply, but was distracted by the feeling of something warm and metallic dripping onto his tongue. He pressed a finger against his lips and pulled it back to see red. A nosebleed?
Jayce's annoyance vanished in an instant and he slipped into the overly-concerned persona he took on whenever he determined that Viktor's safety had been compromised.
"Did you hit your head when you fell?" Jayce reached out and started feeling Viktor's head for a lump. "Or are you sick? Here, let me see the back of your head-"
"I'm fine, Jayce." Viktor grumbled and knocked his hands aside. "Stop fussing." He hobbled into the kitchen and grabbed a fistful of paper towels to hold against his nose as he tipped his head back. Jayce was still hovering fretfully, but he understood that trying to help would not be appreciated right now.
Viktor felt a static surge run up his leg and grunted when the knee buckled a little. He caught himself with his cane, but the concern in Jayce's eyes strengthened.
"Let's go," Viktor limped toward the front door and tossed the bloody wad of towels into the garbage, having successfully stopped the nosebleed. "We're meeting with Mel at eleven and you know she hates tardiness."
"But-"
"Jayce."
They stared at each other, neither willing to back down. After a minute, Jayce huffed and stepped forward to grab their coats. Viktor slid his on and ignored his partner's grumpy attitude as they stepped out into the hallway and began their trek to work. They didn't speak the entire way.
...
Viktor's head was pounding. He resisted the urge to groan as his right eye throbbed and he dug the heel of his palm into it. The headache had started about an hour ago and was steadily growing worse as the day went on. It was currently around mid-afternoon and Jayce had left a few minutes ago to grab some coffee, leaving Viktor alone in their lab.
Suddenly, the pain swelled and Viktor dropped the device he'd been fiddling with to bury his face in his hands. This was easily the worst headache he'd had in a while and there was no discernable cause for it.
Viktor trembled as he stood and tried to walk toward to water dispenser on the other side of the room. He barely even made it to standing before an electric pulse bolted up his leg and caused him to crumple. He hit the ground hard, barely managing to catch himself on his hands and avoid smacking his forehead against the floor. Viktor's vision swam and he tried to blink away the pain with a hiss.
"Vik?" Jayce's call was hesitant as the door swung open. "Are you still here?"
Viktor bit back a cry as a sharp pain lanced through his eye. "Jay," his voice sounded strained.
Footsteps thudded across the floor and there was a clatter as something was tossed haphazardly onto a desk.
"Shit, what happened?"
Viktor winced at the sound of Jayce's knees hitting the floor. A rough hand cupped the side of his face while the other checked him over for injuries. A thumb stroked under his eye and Jayce's breath caught.
"Viktor, your eye is glowing."
"What?" Viktor squinted up at his partner's shocked face.
Jayce fumbled with his coat pocket and pulled out a little hand mirror that his mother had gifted him when he graduated from the Academy. He flipped it open and turned it around.
"Oh," Viktor breathed. His right eye still throbbed, but he could now clearly see that it had taken on an obvious golden glow compared to the amber of his left one. A pressure wrapped around his brain and squeezed.
Viktor's arms gave out and he crumpled against Jayce's upper body.
"Fuck, okay. I don't know what to do here. What hurts? I should call someone." Jayce was more talking to himself than anything and Viktor didn't know how to articulate what he was feeling, so he stayed quiet. Jayce placed a palm over the ear not pressed against his chest and shouted for Sky.
The next stretch of time was admittedly a bit hazy. Viktor remembered getting picked up and hearing several voices chittering worriedly, but he was too focused on the pain and electricity surging under his skin to pick up on any words.
It felt like lightning was trapped under his skin. Viktor drifted through the pain and found that it was triggering a sense of deja vu, reminding him strangely of the day that the council chamber exploded. He remembered the heat of the blast and getting torn away from Jayce and Mel's golden eyes-
Mel's what?
"Viktor."
Someone was calling for him. But he couldn't go, not before he figured out why Mel's eyes glowed during the attack.
"Viktor, please."
He should have died that day, gotten crushed under the rubble like the others. They were right in the center of the blast, how did the three of them escape with nothing more than a broken arm and a few scratches between them?
"Wake up."
That sounded like Jayce.
Viktor pried his eyes open and winced despite the low level of light. He blinked a few times to clear his vision and tried to lift a hand to rub away the sleep, but something sharp tugged at his skin. Viktor rolled his head to the side and frowned at the needle stuck in the back of his hand. He tried the other arm and felt a pull at his inner elbow. Seriously, how many things did they stick in him? He felt like a pincushion.
"Viktor?"
He looked up to find his partner staring at him with bloodshot eyes. Jayce looked awful, worse than when he pulled two all-nighters a few months ago and was existing purely off of coffee and adrenaline.
"Wha's wrong?" Viktor mumbled and tried to reach out. The needle pulled again and he grunted.
Jayce grabbed his hand and lowered it back down onto the bed gently, scooting closer and canting forward to press their foreheads together with a shaky breath.
"Jayce?"
A small shudder, then Jayce pulled away and pressed his lips to Viktor's forehead. "Please don't do that again," he whispered.
"Do what?" Viktor was starting to be bothered by his spotty memory. They'd been in the lab working on, what? Oh wait, they had a fight. But how did he end up in on a bed with needles in his arms? Did he have another flare up? Maybe-
Gold.
Viktor bolted upright and almost bashed their heads together. Hands frantically tried to push him back down and he could vaguely register words being said, but Viktor could feel static in his leg and his eye was buzzing and Mel's eyes had glowed-
He managed to get his leg out from under the covers and yanked his pant leg up. Jayce froze and they both stared.
Viktor had always been pale, and his veins were very clearly visibly under the thin skin that wrapped around his limbs, but now the lines decorating his leg were a molten gold. Not the pallid yellow that they sometimes turned when he was sick, but a burning, metallic gold.
"What the fuck?" Jayce reached out as if to touch and stopped himself in midair.
Viktor took a deep breath, and moved.