i like the idea of you

by technicalpea97

Summary:

Jayce discovers the "Friend Activity" tab of Spotify and learns a whole lot from Viktor's playlists.

Notes:

i could not get this out of my brain, so here you go. enjoy jayce being a panicky mess.

Chapter 1

Jayce wasn't trying to spy on Viktor, really, he wasn't. His partner just wasn't very… forthcoming about himself, and Jayce wanted to know him better. Even with direct questions, Viktor managed to either dodge them or get only Jayce to answer. His ability to be so mysterious would be impressive if not so frustrating.

So when one day, when Jayce opened Spotify to do a little work before bed, he noticed the "Friends Activity" tab. He'd never used it before, but he had recently been granted the privilege of being added to Viktor's social media friends, and he had to know if Viktor's Spotify was connected.

Jayce felt a thrill run through him when Viktor's name was at the very top with a blue dot, indicating that he was currently listening to music as well.

Hm. Fall Out Boy - an album with a red cover. Upon further investigation, it was Folie a Deux. Jayce wasn't necessarily surprised at this discovery; Viktor did indeed seem like someone who would listen to Fall Out Boy. What was more fascinating was the playlist name attached to it.

"i'm a vegetarian and i ain't fucking scared of him"

Jayce laughed out loud, and found that he could click into the playlist. He quickly saw that it was full of similar artists - Fall Out Boy, Panic! at the Disco, My Chemical Romance, and of course, 3OH!3. Jayce didn't live under a rock - he knew the reference to DONTTRUSTME.

He clicked into Viktor's profile, and discovered that he had over 50 public playlists. This was more information than he'd managed to wrestle from this man for the whole year he'd known him. His original intent for opening his laptop was gone. Jayce was falling down a rabbit hole learning about Viktor via his music taste.

He could practically hear Viktor's dry sarcasm in some of the titles he was seeing. They included:

• "walking playlist for a bitch with anxiety"
• "don't fucking look at me"
• "do your PT bitch 🫵🗣️"
• "onlyjams"
• "forlorn love songs cuz ur dumb and gay"
• "why dont you have a piece of bread and maybe you'll calm down"
• "mad scientist bops" (many of which he recognized; this must be what Viktor played at the lab)

There were many others that weren't as interesting, like "wordless" or "work," or others that made a ball of worry curl in Jayce's stomach, like "dying too slow to care." He had no idea that Viktor was this into music - it seemed like he had a playlist for all sorts of times, places, and events.

There was one, though, that made him stop scrolling completely. It had maybe the least complicated title he'd seen thus far.

"j"

His first thought: is this about me? His immediate second thought: am I really that self-absorbed?

It took Jayce a full minute to work up the courage to click on it.

He didn't recognize all of the songs and only really knew a few, but the titles made Jayce swallow hard. "Cool About It," "You Are In Love," "Kiss Goodnight," "I Wanna Be Yours," and - the song title that Jayce had to read a couple times - "Wish You Were Gay."

There was another data point in the playlist that was even more damning - the date added. Songs were not added to this playlist before he had met Jayce. Many of the songs were added on the same day, which was only a couple months after they'd met. A song here or there had been added since, and - to Jayce's surprise - one had been added yesterday.

His brain was trying desperately to make sense of the dates, because to make sense of this discovery he'd made was a bit too much at this very moment. He had to back up. What had he done on those days to make Viktor add songs?

The day he'd made it was when they'd made a big breakthrough on their project. He did remember that much without having to consult a calendar. The other dates, though, were enigmas (other than the song added on Valentine's Day).

As if on cue, a message notification from Viktor himself came through on his laptop. He was asking about something innocuous; Jayce didn't really process what it said before the notification went away.

Then, before he could tell himself not to, Jayce hit "play" on the j playlist.

He opened the lyrics as each song played. He felt like he was getting to know Viktor better than he ever had before as each one played. Some were on the sappier, emotional side, which made Jayce smile despite himself, and some were just straight up… horny.

Jayce got especially flustered while listening to Church by Fall Out Boy.

"If you were church, I'd get on my knees
Confess my love, I'd know where to be"

The image of Viktor on his knees for Jayce… he'd never thought of it before, but now that it was in his head, it was hard to get it out. Heat gathered in his stomach and lower as he imagined it. It got even worse as Church was immediately followed by Spiracle by Flower Face.

It started innocent enough, with lines like "I want the parts of you you only show
/ To the birds outside your bedroom window." However, it didn't stay in that territory.

"I want your quiet, your screaming and thrashing
The salt on your lips and the hands that God gave you
And I want your violence, your silent sedation
Your moon eyes, your telescope, morbid fixation

And I want your pyro, your born-again virgin
Your hands on my insides, your fingertips crawling"

The song kept playing, and the next song after it, but Jayce had leapt up from his bed and paced around the room to try and get that image out of his head.

He couldn't.

After Jayce resigned himself to address the growing situation in his pants and cleaned up the result, he sunk down to his bathroom floor.

How was he supposed to face Viktor tomorrow? Hi, I accidentally figured out that maybe you're in love with me? And I jerked off to the thought of you?

His phone dinged with another text.

Viktor, 11:34PM: Jayce? Surely you're not that stumped by that equation

No, not that equation, but another one that Jayce hadn't even quite known he wanted until presented with the option. Hozier crooned from his laptop's speakers as the j playlist kept playing.

Notes:

maybe i'll add another chapter of the aftermath >:)

Chapter 2

Summary:

Jayce has to face Viktor after discovering his "j" playlist.

Jayce dreamt of Viktor that night, after he'd eventually succumbed to sleep. It took him a long time to drift off, because his brain was going haywire. In one night, Jayce had managed to question his sexuality, landed on a shaky answer of bisexual after some frantic Googling, and discovered that his research partner was in love with him and maybe had been for over half a year. Jayce, additionally, learned a lot about his bedroom ceiling.

The dream was sweetly domestic at first - clearly, they lived together in said dream, and were making dinner together after a long day at the lab. Some sort of pasta? For as complicated as their research and experiments got, Jayce wasn't a cook, and neither apparently was Viktor in this dream. There were stolen touches, small talk, and excuses to stand behind Viktor as he stirred their pot of food. That was where the dream turned.

Jayce's dream hands slid over Viktor's hips, and he brought his head down to the crook of his neck to place slow, sucking kisses, trying to lure him away from his task. Jayce relished in Viktor's laugh, as well as the way he leaned into Jayce's touch.

"Hungry, are you?"

"Starving," Jayce's dream self replied. With a series of quick movements, Jayce turned off the stovetop and flipped Viktor around to face him. He kissed each mole on Viktor's face, and dragged his lips over onto Viktor's from the one that was just above his mouth. It was easy, like he'd done it a million times. Viktor responded in kind, biting mischievously at Jayce's bottom lip.

They eventually made it to Jayce's current couch - their couch - and dream Jayce was horizontal with Viktor straddling his hips, moving in tandem with each other, still locked in kisses that were getting more ravenous.

Viktor pulled away, smirked at him in that way, and began to scoot down Jayce's legs. He was making quick work of Jayce's pants, tugging them down enough to let his dick free. It was plenty hard already, even more so when Viktor took hold of it to pump up, down, so slowly, and Jayce bucked his hips into the sensation.

"Viktor," he said, breathless.

Viktor leaned down to take Jayce into his mouth, and that was when he woke up with a start to the sound of his blaring alarm.

He was still breathing heavily on this side of dreaming, and he didn't need to look down at himself to know that he had a situation to address.

That was twice now in twelve hours that Jayce had gotten off at the image of his lab partner, and now he had to go face him in person.

If there was a God, he was positive he'd been abandoned.

 

Jayce purposefully procrastinated getting to the lab that day - really, he was quite productive while being avoidant. He emptied the dishwasher, made himself a lunch, and even stopped at the local coffee shop to grab something for himself and Viktor. He'd never hear the end of it if he hadn't picked something up for V, and he wasn't sure if he could keep everything hidden away if Viktor were making him feel guilty for not bringing him coffee.

He wasn't sure if he could anyway, but he might as well help the odds.

Jayce felt sick with dread when he walked through the doors of the lab. Viktor was here, of course. He wasn't necessarily a morning person, but Jayce had been truly spectacular at dragging his feet today.

At the sound of the door, Viktor turned to face him, immediately clocking the coffee that Jayce brought for him. His gaze then turned back to Jayce's face, clearly calculating what he was going to say.

"You look like shit," Viktor finally said, and Jayce smiled weakly. "Did you ignore my texts and also not sleep at all? The coffee does not absolve you for that."

"Not a lot of sleep," Jayce conceded, watching Viktor approach him to take his coffee - the iced one, of course, despite it being cold outside and his inability to stay warm in any setting. Jayce felt his breath hitch as he caught the scent of Viktor's ginger shampoo.

He had never noticed that before.

Viktor took a sip, and Jayce hated himself for studying the way his lips formed around the straw. He could feel heat rising to his cheeks, so he turned away and headed for his usual working spot while Viktor continued talking to him about the unanswered text.

"What were you doing that was so important you couldn't text back? I know you're on your laptop working on our research half the time we leave the lab, anyway." Viktor had (infuriatingly) followed Jayce to his side of the lab, and pulled up a stool next to Jayce's own.

"Stuff," Jayce mumbled eloquently, eyeing the Spotify icon on the bottom of his screen. He very quickly closed the program, unsure if he'd exited out of Viktor's playlist or profile.

Viktor stared at him for what felt like an eternity. He did this when he was annoyed at Jayce and wanted to make sure he knew that. "Tuesday nights are a a strange choice for a hookup, but, eh… you do you."

"Viktor - I wasn't -" Jayce spluttered. "Am I not allowed to do things that don't involve you?" Never mind that Jayce's Tuesday evening very much did involve Viktor.

"Of course not. But if we're going to hit our deadlines, you need to be more responsive." Viktor was so calm, and matter-of-fact, and Jayce felt like he was exploding. "Have, eh, entanglements all you want. But don't ignore me."

"Viktor, I wasn't with anyone yesterday. But God. Understood." Jayce's tone was angrier than he intended, and when he glanced over at Viktor, the other man's eyes were narrowed. But he didn't continue pushing, just slipped off the stool and returned to the prototype he had been working on when Jayce arrived.

Only in this moment did Jayce notice that music played softly in the background. It was Panic! at the Disco - something earlier in their discography, when they had long and nonsensical track titles. At least it wasn't anything that had been on the j playlist.

They worked in silence for at least an hour after that, which was honestly totally normal for Viktor but maddening for Jayce. He was often the one breaking silence, whether they were talking science or Jayce was making yet another attempt at breaking through Viktor's mystery.

"What kind of music do you like?" Jayce blurted out of nowhere, after he'd read the same sentence in this journal article at least fourteen times. Of all questions he could have asked.

"And that is relevant to our current experiment, how?"

"C'mon, Viktor, I feel like I barely know you." Viktor started to reply, but Jayce cut him off. "And you're the one usually setting the lab music, so yes, it IS relevant!"

Viktor made a "hm" sound but seemed satisfied by Jayce's explanation.

"Fall Out Boy," Viktor continued naming artists, but Jayce wasn't listening. Patrick Stump's voice is like a fucking alarm bell in Jayce's ear.

If you were church, I'd get on my knees…

"Cool," Jayce said, feeling dazed by his own imaginings.

"Would you prefer to set the music today?" Viktor asked, and Jayce was vaguely aware that he'd paused his music. He felt like he was going insane, and his next series of actions only proved that hypothesis.

Jayce nodded, and hooked up his phone to their lab's bluetooth speaker. He clicked on j and hit shuffle, then play.

"Rose Colored Boy" by Paramore burst out of the speaker, and Viktor caught Jayce's eye, a hint of a smile playing on his lips.

"I didn't know you liked Paramore too," Viktor remarked, and then turned back to his tinkering. Jayce was frozen in place by his actions, unable to believe that he'd done that. He could turn back now, and quickly select something else to play once this song ended. Viktor would never have to know that he knew.

But then "Rose Colored Boy" ended, and "Say It" by Maggie Rogers came on. Jayce was stealing many glances over at his lab partner, trying to see if he realized what was happening. He stopped using his screwdriver for just a second, but didn't seem phased once he figured out what song was playing. Jayce wasn't even trying to pretend he was at work on his laptop. He felt a bead of sweat slide down his temple.

The next song was "Do I Wanna Know?" - the cover by Hozier, not the Arctic Monkeys original. Still, Viktor didn't say anything. He wasn't even looking over at Jayce, and Jayce would damn well know, with as much as he kept sneaking glimpses. He actually might die, Jayce thought. Cause of death: apparent inability to speak plainly to Viktor.

"Spiracle" succeeded Hozier. Jayce swallowed hard, remembering the way he'd reacted to these lyrics last night. When he allowed himself a glance back over at Viktor, he was still. Viktor set the screwdriver down on the table, and fully turned his body to look at Jayce.

It took everything in him to keep the eye contact.

"Jayce, are you playing one of my playlists?" Always so direct. Yet, Viktor's pale complexion was tinted pink. Jayce felt like he was watching from outside of his own body when he nodded. The silence was thick and overwhelming between them, punctuated by Flower Face's quiet singing.

"Stop," Viktor said, his jaw tight and his lips in a thin line. Jayce obeyed, but still, they maintained eye contact. "You could have just told me you were uncomfortable with the thought; you did not need to… do this." Viktor's tone is very close to trembling. Jayce has never seen him like this. No, no, this is not what he meant - he thought - well, he didn't think. That was the issue. Jayce rushed over to Viktor's side, feeling the words pour out of him.

"No, nonono, Vik, V - I - I didn't mean to find it. I was just fucking around on Spotify last night. Your playlists were all public. Some of those titles are hilarious, by the way. And your profile came up on the - the Spotify friends, thing - you know, on the side - and I just, I wanted to get to know you a little better."

Viktor was deadly quiet, and stared at the ground now. His cheeks were reddened. "Well now you know," he nearly whispered. "We can move on from it, if you don't mind. Thank you for letting me know they were public."

Jayce could not stop himself from groaning in frustration. "Viktor. I don't want to move on from it." Viktor's head snapped up to look at him, the hope in his expression and his wide golden eyes making Jayce's heart leap.

Jayce didn't wait a second longer before reaching his hand out to cradle Viktor's jawline, and brought their lips together hard. He felt Viktor stumble backward slightly, and Jayce immediately grabbed him by the waist, pulling him in and steadying him. Viktor put his hands on Jayce's hips, and then tightened his grip on them before slithering one hand down to Jayce's ass, and Viktor squeezed, sending thrills down Jayce's spine. It had taken no time at all for the both of them to open their mouths; they had mutual greed for the taste of each other. Viktor's lips were just a little dry, but he tasted like the vanilla cold brew Jayce had brought him. Jayce's hand slid into Viktor's hair, which was just barely still damp from the shower he'd had this morning.

Viktor pulled away, and though Jayce chased him back for a moment, he held himself back when he realized it was deliberate. They gazed at each other, both warm in the face and breathing hard. Viktor looked like he was trying to come up with something to say, but he was unable to. Jayce couldn't wait any longer, and leaned down to kiss along Viktor's jawline, then his neck.

"Jayce - ah! - you… too?" Viktor's vocalization when Jayce bit at his earlobe sent him into the stratosphere. He'd had his fair share of entanglements, as Viktor had put it, but none of them felt this intense and needing.

"Me too," he whispered directly into Viktor's ear, repositioning his arms so that both were wrapped around Viktor's waist. He stood fully, pulling Viktor with him, just slightly off the ground. The yelp that came from Viktor made him feel like he was on top of the world.

He took the opportunity to carry Viktor over to the wall, using his body to push him up against it and hold him there. He notched a knee in between Viktor's legs, and Jayce could feel Viktor's response to all of this.

"How long?" Jayce asked, panting from the exertion and desire as he continued kissing Viktor's neck. "How long have you thought about me?"

"Since last October," Viktor breathed, his hands in Jayce's hair and on his neck. His fingers were cold, and when Viktor grabbed a handful, it was Jayce's turn to moan.

"I wish you told me," Jayce murmured earnestly.

"I thought you were straight." Viktor countered, and Jayce roughly pushes his knee upwards in response. "Ev-evidently not." He stammered.

Jayce pulled back, looking at his partner ardently. "Can you tell me what made you add each song?"

Viktor laughed, and his expression turned wicked. "Not unless you make me a v playlist."

Notes:

you're welcome for this second chapter <3 (ngl my brain wasnt gonna let me rest either till i wrote it lol)

Notes:

j playlist
thank you for reading :)
im the same username on bluesky!