Chapter Text
“Well, this is a surprise. And what would a nice upstanding academy student such as yourself be doing down here… again?”
Viktor leaned against the wall, his arms crossed against his chest, shirt open and showing off the smooth skin underneath. His dark eyes were heavily lined, entrancing as they looked Jayce up and down, taking in the stark white and reds of his school uniform. His hair was tied back into a half bun, but that didn’t stop a couple of small, soft curls from framing his thin face.
Jayce cleared his throat nervously, one hand coming up to rub at the back of his neck under the weight of Viktor’s attention. He felt huge and bullish next to the lithe grace of his companion. To tell the truth, he wasn’t sure what he was doing back here. When he had heard the rumor that there was an inventor down here… a genius, even, he had been skeptical. Bribe money had changed hands and a meeting set up at a small, relatively friendly tavern down in Zaun. He had been nervous and excited to be going down. There were stories, of course, but the reality of that place had been nothing like he had been expecting. And then, in a dark corner of The Last Drop, ushered into his seat by the absolute bear of a barkeep who had been made aware of his coming, Viktor had slid gracefully into his life.
It had been two weeks since that first taste, but Jayce hadn’t been able to get his new acquaintance out of his mind since then. Viktor had filled his waking hours, his spindly handwriting covering the margins of the notebook he and Jayce had hunched over for hours in that dimly lit bar. And the nights… well, Jayce had never minded how vivid his dreams could be until now.
“I… uh…” he cleared his throat again. “I had a few more questions,” he said, trying to wrest his voice back into its normal register by strength of will alone.
“Well, it would be impolite to leave you standing out here while I answer your questions,” Viktor replied. He pushed himself off of the wall and gestured at Jayce. “Come, we will go somewhere more comfortable.” Without waiting to see if he was being followed, he began to lead the way through the narrow streets, the click of his cane matching his steps. The emerald and brown of his clothing was a perfect match to his pale skin and dark hair. The fabrics were old, patched and repurposed, but Viktor wore them as well as the finest silks and velvets that Jayce had seen in Piltover. Jayce was intrigued by the asymmetrical skirt Viktor wore, one side longer than the other, doing its best to hide the brace that snaked up Viktor’s leg. The Zaunite moved gracefully, Jayce unable to look away. There was a limp, for certain, but Viktor had clearly learned to move with it, his uneven gait enhancing the swing of his hips. A sway that Jayce had seen more than once when he closed his eyes.
“Is this… this isn’t the way to The Last Drop,” Jayce said after a few minutes. Viktor glanced over his shoulder and gave him a grin.
“You are correct. I am impressed, it’s rare that a stranger here would be able to know that.” Despite himself, Jayce felt color flooding into his cheeks at the compliment. “The Last Drop is a nice little place, but there are ears there that I would prefer didn’t listen to us this time,” Viktor continued. He paused to let Jayce come alongside him, and then reached out and took Jayce’s arm, one eyebrow cocking at the sight of a small satchel Jayce was carefully holding, but he said nothing. Jayce could tell there was a moment when Viktor could feel the muscle beneath the jacket of his uniform, and there was a glint in his eye as he shot Jayce a new, appraising look before turning them towards a small, narrow alley.
They slunk down the path until they came to a round door, green with a large golden knob, a curtain of shining beads in front of it falling down like rain. The name ‘Oasis’ was written in fading and chipped golden paint across the lintel.
“Will you join me?” Victor asked, an eyebrow raised as he pushed the door open a fraction and turned to regard Jayce.
“What is this place?” Jayce asked, eyeing the faint trickle of shimmering purple smoke that drifted out through the crack.
“I didn’t imagine you would be so squeamish,” Viktor teased. He tossed his head, the loose curls bouncing around his neck in a coquettish move, and then he turned his back on Jayce and pushed through the door with a sway to his hips that Jayce knew he couldn’t refuse. With a sigh and a few harsh words for himself and his foolishness, he followed.
The dimly lit interior was separated into several semi-private rooms. As Jayce followed Viktor further in, he could see plush couches and piles of pillows where people, alone or in pairs lounged, speaking quietly or staring into the darkness. In the center of the establishment an old woman, hardly as tall as Viktor’s waist, came shuffling out. Her grey hair was pulled up into a knot on the top of her head, several decorative combs sporting chipped jade beads clacking soothingly as she moved.
“You’ve brought someone with you this time,” she greeted, giving Jayce a look that hardened at the recognition of his uniform. “I don’t usually have the honor of a visit from someone of your status.” The words were polite, but her tone was anything but. Jayce felt the color rush to his cheeks, but before he could respond, Viktor chuckled and passed her a few bills.
“This is my dear friend,” Viktor replied. “He won’t cause you any trouble, I assure you.” He turned awkwardly, the small space forcing him to pivot on his braced leg, but waved away the hand that shot out to support him. “You won’t, will you? Cause trouble, that is.” Jayce shook his head quickly.
“No! No, of course not,” he promised. Viktor smiled as though he had been expecting just that response, and then turned and followed the old woman who continued to mutter as she led them further in.
“Here, then,” she grumped as she gestured to a small room, pulling aside the beaded curtain that gave the thinnest illusion of privacy. Viktor slipped past her, but she refused to move to accommodate Jayce’s bulk, and he had to carefully shuffle around her. By the time he finally made it in, Viktor was lounging back against a mound of pillows, legs spread wide and watching Jayce with an amused look in his eyes. He reached out to pat the cushions next to him.
Just looking at Viktor, stretched out on the cushions made Jayce’s knees feel weak. The Zaunite’s emerald shirt flared open, even more skin visible than when they were walking here together. The multitude of straps and hoops that criss-crossed his torso creaked ever so softly with his movements, accentuating even more the slimness of his waist. Jayce knew that it was part of the brace that kept him mobile, halting though his movements were. A fleeting vision of slowly pulling it off of that pale skin one strap at a time drifted across his mind.
“Are you quite well, Jayce?” Viktor asked, and with a start Jayce dragged his mind away from the daydreams that had become all too common. The smirk that graced those lips told him that Viktor was able to guess just where his mind had been.
Gingerly Jayce sat at the very edge of the seat, close enough that their knees were practically touching, looking around everywhere except where he wanted to look. From the corridor, the old woman bustled in, a tiny capsule held out towards Viktor.
“Same as always, then?” she asked.
“If you please,” Viktor replied, reaching out to take the vial from her.
“Anything for your fancy friend?”
Viktor took a long appraising look at Jayce. The color rose back up into Jayce’s cheeks and spread out to his ears at the way it felt like Viktor could look into his very soul. The look seemed to last years, trapped in that gaze, but finally the young man looked away, shaking his head.
“Perhaps he will join me next time,” he said, and with a huff, the old woman shuffled away.
“So… are you going to tell me what this is, then?”
“Be patient, Jayce. This will only take a moment.”
From a pocket in the long portion of his skirt, Viktor pulled a long, thin pipe with a tiny bowl at one end. It was polished by use, the mouthpiece a shining gold against the dark wood of the pipe. Expertly Viktor pulled several small shards from the vial the old woman had given him and filled the tiny bowl with them. On a table near the soft couch was a container of matches, and with deft movements he struck one, igniting the contents.
“What is that?” Jayce asked, wrinkling his nose at the sharp, acrid smell of burning chemicals.
“They call it ‘shimmer,’” Viktor replied. He took a drag off of his pipe, pulling the burning smoke deep into his lungs. He held it for a moment, and then blew out a thin stream of shimmery purple smoke. Jayce watched, fascinated, as a similar purple glint flittered across Viktor’s eyes and was gone.
“I’ve heard of that,” Jayce said, his eyes narrowing at the smoke trickling out of the pipe bowl. “It’s… quite addictive, isn’t it?”
“It is.” Viktor filled his lungs again with the swirling smoke, his eyelids fluttering shut as he exhaled. When he opened them again, there was a definite purple glow that Jayce could not help but notice.
“Why risk it?” Jayce asked. “The danger to your body, your mind? I had thought we would discuss a few things I have been thinking about since our last meeting. I had a few questions.” He stopped with a grimace. He must sound so petulant! His cheeks coloring, he looked away, but with a chuckle Viktor patted him gently on the cheek.
“It helps… with the pain,” he explained, tapping the straps of his harness with the mouthpiece of his pipe. “And don’t worry, Jayce. It helps to sharpen the mind, not cloud it. I am fully prepared to help you with your new questions.”
“I understand that the health risks are quite serious,” Jayce pressed.
“I will not live long enough for the worst of the effects to concern me,” Viktor said, an edge to his voice that Jayce hadn’t heard before. The thin man gestured down to himself as he shifted his hips uncomfortably in the soft embrace of the cushions. Jayce tilted his head as he took in the sight, and then glanced down at Viktor’s legs, set firmly on the floor even as he tried to look relaxed on the pillows.
“Does it bother you, even now?” he asked. Viktor shrugged irritably, as though the subject didn’t interest him.
“Yes,” he huffed.
“Is there anything that helps?”
Viktor’s lips pressed into a thin line at the question. Jayce had a momentary thought that he should retract the question, but he held firm, keeping his eyes on Viktor’s, refusing to back down. Never breaking eye contact, Viktor brought the pipe back to his lips and drew deeply. Exhaling the sharp smelling smoke he touched the tip of his tongue to his lips.
“It is better when I can stretch out,” he said breezily, as though it were a thing of little consequence, making a dismissive gesture with his free hand. “If only I had a large, strong man to slide me between his legs and stretch me out over his thigh… that would be something, eh?” He smirked at Jayce through heavily lidded eyes, artfully framing his face with his free hand. “But this is not what you came all this way to talk about, is it, Jayce?”
Viktor gestured towards Jayce with the pipe in his hand, a small cloud of shimmering purple smoke following the movement. Jayce felt like his brain was struggling through a particularly difficult problem of Heimerdinger’s. All the pieces were laid out before him but he was having trouble seeing how they all fit together. And then, suddenly, he saw it.
Viktor was still looking at him, waiting for him to mention what had brought him down here. Gently Viktor’s knee nudged him playfully, and before he could stop himself, Jayce reached out and scooped up Viktor’s legs and pulled him over onto his lap. The smug look finally dropped from the Zaunite’s face as he was taken by surprise, but Jayce settled him gently into his lap, his muscular leg supporting the small of Viktor’s back as his arms rested gently on Viktor’s thighs.
Viktor scowled at him, but the look faded into surprised pleasure as the pain in his legs eased. He sighed back onto the pillows behind him. He looked up at Jayce with something new in his half-lidded eyes.
“My, how thoughtful you are, Jayce,” Viktor purred, and Jayce felt a shiver race through him at the way Viktor said his name. It almost felt like a caress, the way he elongated the vowels. Jayce could happily sit here listening to him speak for hours. Viktor crossed his legs coquettishly, and took another drag from his pipe as he kept his eyes, shimmering purple, on Jayce. Taking a deep breath, Jayce summoned his courage and placed a hand gently on Viktor’s knee, feeling the metal bands of his leg brace through the flared skirt.
“Better?” he asked, his voice cracking unfortunately, causing a fresh blush to spread across his cheeks.
“Much better, yes.” He wriggled his hips, settled as they were between Jayce’s legs and smirked at the way Jayce’s breath caught. “Well, now we are comfortable. You had some questions?”
It took a moment for Jayce’s scattered thoughts to collect again enough for him to understand what Viktor meant. His brain felt sluggish, stuck on the feeling of Viktor’s weight pressing into his legs, the softness of his shirt, the scent of him through the acrid smoke. He shook his head, trying to clear it, and then from the small satchel he had brought he pulled out a small device and the same notebook that they had looked at the last time. Viktor’s eyes sharpened as Jayce began to describe the device’s function. As he flipped through his notebook, looking for the list of problems he had run into, Viktor gently plucked the thing from his grasp and began turning it over in his hands, letting his fingers glide over the hard, cold surface as his pipe smoked, forgotten, on the side table.
Viktor ran his fingers softly along the metallic casing, muttering to himself as he peered back and forth at the pages of the notebook Jayce held open for him and the device.
“This is quite the construct,” he said. Jayce couldn’t suppress a shudder of pleasure at hearing that voice he had been dreaming of praising him. “I certainly think that it could work. Perhaps…” He held out one hand towards Jayce and fluttered his fingers expectantly. Jayce immediately began patting down his pockets until he located a pencil and passed it into Viktor’s waiting hands. Quickly the Zaunite began jotting notes into the margins around Jayce’s carefully written, precise equations, a spindly web of symbols spiraling out, a perfect compliment to Jayce’s solidity. Together they tossed ideas back and forth, sharing the pencil, the pages rusting as they passed the book between them, until, satisfied Viktor leaned back against the pillows under his back, the device close to his eyes as he took in every angle.
“You will have to come back and let me know if our labors bear fruit,” he said, his tone hungry. “How did you manage to get one of the forge workers to produce this so exact to your specifications?”
“I didn’t.” Viktor’s eyes flicked up to meet him, his brow furrowed as he passed the device back. With a shrug, Jayce stowed it back in the small bag he had brought it in.
“Oh?” Viktor reached out and retrieved his pipe, adding the last few shards of the strange purple crystal from the vial and relighting it. “Well you are mysterious, my friend. Won’t you tell me your secrets?”
“I’m a smith,” Jayce said bashfully. He was underselling himself, he knew, but he didn’t want to come off egotistical. He had created marvels of engineering at the academy… but somehow, he couldn’t bring himself to brag here. “I made it myself.” His eyes traveled down to the brace that encircled Viktor’s leg as it rested on his thigh. “If you would let me… I would like to… I might be able to make something that would…”
“Help?” Jayce nodded. Viktor’s eyes narrowed as he suddenly stiffened. “And what would such a device cost me?”
“Nothing!” Jayce immediately demurred. “I would be happy to… you’ve been such a… Sorry, I swear I’m usually more eloquent than this.”
Viktor chuckled and brought his free hand up to his face, pushing a stray curl behind his ear, his fingers lingering on his brow. “I’m not so bad at designs, myself,” he replied. “I designed this one. With some help from… a friend. But go on, you may look. Perhaps we could work… together… on it.”
Carefully Jayce brushed back the half-skirt, finally getting a look at the mechanism. It was cobbled together, all spare parts and salvaged metal, but there was true craftsmanship in the design.
“Beautiful,” he murmured. He was surprised to hear Viktor’s breath catch. That brought a little smirk to Jayce’s features. Now who was getting flustered. He slid his hand along the metal framework, running his fingers over the joint at his knee. “Looks like it just needs a little… adjustment.” Gently he turned Viktor’s leg, and then let his fingers continue up the soft cloth of the pants Viktor wore under his skirt. “To release the pressure.”
He glanced at Viktor’s face to see if he would object, and his heart skipped a few beats. Viktor’s face was tilted back, his lips parted slightly, and a tinge of pink had appeared in his pale cheeks. Taking encouragement, Jayce let his fingers continue to explore, curling around his companion’s narrow hips. In his lap Viktor shifted against him, humming happily.
“You surprise me, Jayce. So bold, after all.”
“You make me bold.” Jayce ran his other hand up along Viktor’s side, sliding behind his back and half-pulling him up, supporting his weight as Jayce leaned in close. “Tell me if I am misreading this,” he whispered, his lips a hairbreadth from Viktor’s. So close he could taste the acrid burn of the purple smoke on his lips.
“You are too clever to misread this.” The clatter of the pipe against the ground startled Jayce from falling into Viktor’s eyes, too close, too entrancing, heavily lidded and drawing him in. But as he turned to look where the pipe had fallen, Viktor reached out, taking his face in both hands, and kissed him. Jayce instantly forgot where he was, what he was here for, forgot everything except for the feeling of those lips against his.
His fingers against Viktor’s hip tightened as he lost himself in that kiss, long imagined but never really believed in. Lips and tongues, teeth and gasps of breath swirled together. The taste of the shimmer smoke mixed with the taste of Viktor himself, a heady ambrosia that made Jayce’s head spin.
Viktor’s hands dropped down to curl in the white fabric of Jayce's lapels, pulling him down over himself as he reclined. With a bit of maneuvering, Jayce managed to settle Viktor’s legs on the couch, stradling over him with one knee next to him on the couch and the other planted on the floor as he complied to be pulled, hovering over Viktor and feeling his trousers becoming uncomfortably tight. Gently he reached down and pushed open the wide V of his shirt, sliding his hand along the smooth skin underneath.
The way Viktor gasped at his touch… the way he turned his head against the pillows as Jayce’s fingers skated over his nipples, already hard as he pushed the revealing fabric out of the way, was intoxicating. He kissed along Viktor’s jaw and down his neck, reveling in the way Viktor responded to every movement. All those daydreams paled in comparison to the reality of having this unexpected prize beneath him.
As his tongue delved into the hollow of his collarbone, feeling Viktor swallow against him, he reached up to play with the golden gear of the first of the straps that secured the technological marvel of his harness, Viktor’s hand shot out and closed around his wrist.
“No,” he said firmly, and Jayce froze, panting, as he released the worn leather.
“I’m sorry,” he heaved, giving his head a shake as he tried to bring his thoughts back into order. Viktor laughed breathily, a hand on Jayce’s cheek.
“There is nothing to be sorry about,” he replied gently. “I want you to, very much. But just… not here.” He flicked his eyes to the fall of beads that separated this room from the rest of the establishment. “I’d rather be somewhere… private… for that.”
“Yes! Of… of course…” Jayce chided himself. In his excitement he had forgotten all about where they were. He sat back on his knee, taking several deep breaths and hoping that his erection wasn’t as noticeable as he was afraid it was. To his dismay, that was exactly where Viktor’s eyes were directed. Feeling the weight of his gaze, Viktor looked up and smiled.
“There is no need to be ashamed,” he said softly. He reached out, taking one of Jayce’s hands in his, and pulled it down to his own noticeable bulge. Jayce’s breath caught as he felt the hardness of Viktor’s cock against the palm of his hand. Viktor slowly began to move beneath him as he gently stroked against the hardness, and Viktor couldn’t keep a whine of pleasure from escaping. “You see?” he asked, breathless, a furrow deepening across his nose as he squeezed his eyes shut. “You are not alone in your desires.”
Jayce leaned in again and kissed him. As their tongues entangled, breath escaping in short gasps, he kept his hand moving, teasing, all sense of reason lost as he was overtaken with the need to feel. Viktor threw his head back, writhing as he bit down on his knuckle to he try to stay quite, to keep from drawing attention to themselves, and Jayce took the opportunity to lavish kisses down his shapely neck, along the underside of his jaw, down where his shirt lay open and tempting in the golden light of the lamps around them.
“Stop, please,” Viktor moaned. Instantly Jayce froze, breath heaving as he sat back, quickly pulling his hands back like a child caught stealing a cookie.
“Sorry,” he muttered. He squeezed his eyes shut, ashamed of himself, but Viktor’s throaty chuckle made him breathe a sigh of relief. Fear that he had just ruined everything dissipated as the Zaunite sat up and kissed him on the cheek.
“The next time you come, perhaps you would like to see… my home?” Viktor’s voice was steady, but Jayce could tell that he was flustered by the flush that crept down to color the pale skin of his chest. “It is not much, certainly, by Piltover standards… but it is nice enough… and private.”
Jayce grinned, offering his hand to Viktor to help him stand and they began to move towards the entrance. “I would like that,” he said, giving Viktor’s hand a quick kiss.