Work Text:
Viktor adjusted his mask in the mirror. This new elastic was a definite improvement on the old worn-out piece of string, but it did make his hair sit weirdly around his ears. He smoothed it down flatter, then changed his mind and fluffed it up so that it puffed out around his face. Better. That done, he pressed the mask more firmly into the line of tape along his cheekbones. A smile to test: the mask only rode up as far as the bottom of his eyes. More importantly, when he relaxed his face the mask went back down with it.
“Perfect,” he whispered to himself. Glancing at the clock above the desk, he turned back to his computer and launched the countdown timer.
It didn’t take more than ten seconds for the comments to begin pouring in.
kitten stream KITTEN STREAM
THIS IS NOT A DRILL
omg i actually made it to one
first
the way i fucking SMASHED that notification
im watching ts at work u guys
You’re gonna get fired lmao
DON’T CARE WORTH IT
Viktor grinned to himself as he rolled his chair out of frame and stepped back to lounge against the platform behind him. As the timer ticked away, he did a last once-over: Mask on. Costume on. Medical alert bracelet securely tucked away under one wristband. Tattoo completely hidden beneath the other. He gave a flourish of his hands to hear his bells jingle, then hopped up to sit on the platform and curled his legs up next to him as the clock reached zero and, with a click of his remote, the stream went live.
KITTEN AAAAAAAA IT’S SO GOOD TO SEE YOU
“Hi!” Viktor chirped. “Oh my goodness, so many friends! Are you all here to play with me?”
Yes omg please pleaes please
it’s himmm i’m gna cum
“Wow! I didn’t expect to see so many of you here today.” Viktor rubbed the back of one hand down the side of his mask like a paw. “Did you bring lots of treats with you? You know how much I love treats.”
treats! treats! treats!
I WENT TO PET MART JUST FOR YOU KITTEN
i wish i could give u treats but i’m sooo broke T_T
DONATION: $50
kitten i love you so much
“‘Kitten, I love you so much,’” Viktor read aloud. “Aww! I love you too! Thank you for the treat. You know, a couple more treats like that and I might just feel like doing a trick for you guys.”
GIVE THE MAN TREATS
rich squad where u at
today’s the day we get hsi panties off i can feel it in my boens
DONATION: $25
here kitty kitty
“‘Here, kitty kitty,’” Viktor purred. “Mmm, tasty treat, thank you.” He lounged on the platform, his toes curling around the carpeted edge. “Should I scratch at my cat tree for you?”
yesss scratch that post
No just get naked
U can scratch my post any day kitten
im typing this w one hand
whatever you want to do, Kitten!
Viktor rolled onto his stomach, feet kicking up behind him, and raked his nails down the post at the corner of the platform. The whole contraption was really just a cobbled-together mix of thrifted furniture, used freight pallets, and offcuts of carpet, but with a bit of wood glue and a nail gun he’d managed to turn it into a passable imitation of a human-sized cat tree.
DONATION: $20
take ur clothes off
“‘Take your clothes off’?” Viktor pouted at the camera. “That’s so naughty of you! Do you know how to ask nicely?”
say please bitch
Yeah don’t be rude to kitten
“take ur clothes off” and its twenty bucks lmao bffr
DONATION: $500
is this asking nicely enough
Viktor just barely reined in the drop of his jaw.
“‘Is this asking nicely enough?’” He swallowed down the squeak that threatened to creep into his voice. “Mmm, such a juicy treat. You guys are playing so nicely with me today. I’m getting all warm.”
it’s hAPPENING
WAY TO GO RUDE BITCH U RLY DID IT
show me the mechanical tittieeeeeessss
Viktor sat up and ran his fingers up the front of his fluffy hoodie. “What do you think? It’s kinda hot in here, huh?”
Pinching the zipper between two fingers, he slowly pulled it down until the two sides fell open and he could shimmy the hoodie down off his shoulders.
Lord have mercy it’s the blue lace
IM TYPING THISJ WITH ONE HAND
Viktor gathered up his hoodie and tossed it onto the upper platform of the tree, then let his hands trace back down over his chest. He trailed one long finger along the edge of his lacy bralette, and let the other hand flutter over the waistband of his panties.
“Mm, so nice to shed all that fur.” He batted his eyelashes at the camera. Whether encouraged by the striptease or determined not to be outclassed by one big spender, the chat was now filling with donations.
“‘Such a pretty kitten.’ Thank you, what a delicious treat. ‘I’m going to hell for this.’ Aww, but at least you’ll be having fun! Thank you for the treat. ‘I wanna pick you up and sit you on my lap.’ Mmm, for a treat like that I might just let you.” Viktor arched his back as if stretching awake from a cat nap. “I bet it would be so comfy, to curl up on a big warm lap and get all the scritches and snuggles a kitten could ever want.”
omg i would empty my entire bank account to see that
IF I GIVE YOU TWO THOUSAND BUCKS CAN I COME ON STREAM WITH U AND PET YOU
DONATION: $80
u shld collaborate w TheHammer or someone like tht
Viktor laughed. “‘You should collaborate with TheHammer–’ what, so he can pick me up with his big muscular arms and throw me around? Rub his oiled-up skin all over my fur?”
omg kitten knows thehammer?
who tf doesn’t know the hammer
they’re very different niches is all
DONATION: $100
I’d be down.
“‘I’d be down,’” Viktor read, and then stopped. Blinked. Squinted at the donation and reached for his remote to click into it and read the details.
DONATION
TIME: 19:21:05
AMOUNT: $100.00
FROM USER: TheHammer [VERIFIED]
MESSAGE: I’d be down.
Viktor stared at the screen for another moment, brain spinning, then clicked back out of the donation to a veritable deluge of chats.
HOLY MOTHERFUCKING SHIT
bros this night is going down in history
THE HAMMER IS HERE
HAMM WATCHES KITTEN? WHAT THE FUUUUUUCK
collab! collab! collab!
DONATION: $40
istg if you guys don’t do a video right the fuck n
Viktor’s laugh took him so much by surprise that it came out completely undisguised. “‘I swear to God if you guys don’t do a video right the fuck now,’ You know what? Maybe we will. Message me, Hammer.” He leaned in and fluttered his eyelashes. “I’m a big fan.”
Hammerrrr iloveyou iw anna lick the sweat off your arms
all my dreams are coming true in this chat tonight
bro i just nutted
Kitten!! I love you so much!!!
eww not the oily muscle man pls kitten no u cld collab with literally anybody
I’ll send you a DM ;)
Viktor’s heart tripped inside his chest, and the grin he gave the camera was so genuine it almost felt dangerous.
“You guys have been so generous to me today, feeding me so many yummy yummy treats,” he said. Flexing his toes, he felt the twinge of his hip that meant he’d been sitting on a solid surface for too long. “I am such a well-fed kitten. I think it’s time for a cat nap.”
nooo don’t go
his streams are always so short ugh
Thank you kitten! it was so nice to hang out with you i hope you enjoy your nap!
“Mmm, big purrs. Thank you for spending your time with me. Stay out of trouble, and keep your claws sharp!”
With a flourish of nails that set his wristband bells jingling, Viktor grabbed the remote and ended the stream.
“Whew.” He fell back against the platform, legs dangling over the edge. Then, staring up at the ceiling, “What the fuck. What the fuck.”
He lurched upright again and dragged his chair over to the computer, grabbing his comfy sweater from the bed and yanking it over his head as he sat down to scroll back up in the chat.
I’ll send you a DM ;)
I’d be down.
“What the fuck what the fuck what the fuck,” Viktor whispered.
FROM USER: TheHammer [VERIFIED]
He half expected to click on the link and find himself on some other Hammer’s page. But no, there it was, pinned and promoted in 1080p: the big, muscly, glistening torso that had haunted Viktor’s wet dreams for longer than he cared to admit. TheHammer, in his videos, was little more than a chest and a voice, but what a chest and what a voice he was. Pecs so shiny and bronze he might as well have forged them on an anvil – maybe even the one he liked to straddle in his racier videos, the ones where the oil dripped down his abs and trickled over the absolutely obscene bulge in the front of his trousers as he flexed and posed and crooned at the camera in his deep, stomach-melting baritone.
“Holy fuck,” Viktor breathed. “TheHammer watched my stream. The actual Hammer. Watched my stream. What?”
Before he could begin to contemplate the implications of that, a notification popped up on his screen.
MESSAGE REQUEST (1)
Despite making the better part of a full-time income off his videos on FanStarz, Viktor had never really used the built-in messaging feature. Most of his DM requests from viewers were along the same lines – propositions, requests for special videos, odes to his face (which they’d never seen), his claws (which were imaginary), or his ass (okay, he’d take that one) – and so he had his filters set to the highest level of privacy. In order for a request to come straight through to his inbox, it had to have come from another creator – approved, verified, platform-vetted and monetised.
“Oh God,” Viktor wheezed, and clicked on it.
TheHammer: Heya! Awesome stream as always. IDK if you were serious about collabing, but for the record, I’d be totally down!
“As always,” Viktor whispered, “as always?” There was an always for TheHammer in the world of Viktor’s videos. TheHammer had not just stumbled upon his live stream in the promoted section of the FanStarz homepage. TheHammer had Been Watching His Shit. “Oh, God.”
MechanicalKitten: haha hey! wow, did not expect to see u pop up in my comments lol
TheHammer: Ha yeah I’m not usually much of a chatter. I wasn’t expecting to be called out by name tho, and I couldn’t resist! I hope that’s okay, I wasn’t trying to steal the spotlight on your stream or anything.
“Oh, c’mon,” Viktor groaned. “You can’t be hot and considerate, that’s just not fair!”
MechanicalKitten: not at all are u serious?? that was awesome. i think u broke a couple of my viewers
TheHammer: No kidding! I saw a fair few keysmashes in the chat there.
“Oh my God we’re talking,” Viktor mumbled. “We’re talking, we’re having an actual conversation.”
TheHammer: So anyway I dunno if you meant it when you said you’d be interested in doing a vid or something together. Totally cool if that was just playing along for the stream! But if you did want to collab, I would genuinely be so honoured. You’re one of my fave creators on here and I think we could make some awesome content together. Maybe break a few of my viewers as well as yours ;)
“How is this happening?” Viktor whispered. “How is this my life?”
MechanicalKitten: hell yeah i’m totally down. let’s break the whole internet.
· · ─ · ☆ ᓚᘏᗢ ☆ · ─ · ·
There were precisely two things that got Viktor out of bed on Monday mornings for his 8 a.m. chemistry lecture: the extra-large coffee he picked up at the bakery on the corner by his apartment, and the smile that greeted him from the back row as he slouched into the Pididly building’s oldest, coldest lecture theatre with it.
“Morning!” Jayce chirped as Viktor slid into the seat next to him and bent down to tuck his cane away behind his feet.
“You are entirely too cheerful for this hour of the day.”
Jayce just laughed, his pen twirling between his fingers as he watched Viktor drag his laptop out of his backpack. “I’ve already been up for two hours. I went for a run before breakfast.”
“Maniac,” Viktor mumbled. “What is wrong with you.”
Jayce laughed again and reached out to ruffle Viktor’s hair. “How was your weekend?”
Crazy, Viktor thought, so surreal that I’m still pinching myself about it. “Fine,” he shrugged. “Yours?”
“Really good,” Jayce said.
Viktor glanced up at him. “Yeah?”
“Yeah.” A huff of laughter. “Yeah, it was– I dunno, nothing even really happened, it was just one of those weekends where life feels good, y’know?”
“Oh, yeah, sure. I have those all the time.” Viktor took a sip of his coffee, one sardonic eyebrow raised at Jayce over the lid.
Jayce snorted and rolled his eyes. “Yeah, okay. I’m glad I amuse you.”
“Endlessly.”
They fell quiet as Professor Heimerdinger bustled into the room, calling for order with a clap of his hands before the door had even swung shut behind him.
“Good morning, ladies and gentlemen! I hope you all had a rejuvenating weekend. Well, enough chit-chat. Let’s forge ahead with some reactions!”
What followed was sixty minutes of break-neck rambling, the Professor chattering away so rapidly that it was difficult to tell what was key information and what was a complete tangent. About halfway through the class, Jayce slid his notebook towards Viktor and nudged him with his pen until he glanced down at it.
do you think he talks as fast as he walks for the same reason?
Viktor gave a soft snort under his breath and typed out a line under his notes before turning the screen towards Jayce.
Because it takes him twice as long to get to the same destination?
Jayce breathed a laugh and tapped his pen against his notebook as if to say, Exactly.
At long last, the distant chime of the bell in the old clock tower interrupted the Professor mid-sentence.
“Good heavens,” he marvelled, “has it been an hour already?”
“Finally,” Viktor groaned under his breath, and felt more than heard Jayce’s chuckle next to him.
“Well!” Heimerdinger clapped his hands together, “I trust you all to read the remainder of the chapter before your labs this week! And don’t forget about the Innovators’ Conference this coming weekend. This is your chance to forge some real connections with people doing cutting-edge work in the field! Right, yes, off you go, you’ve other classes to get to, I’m sure. Happy Monday!”
“Happy Monday,” Viktor muttered as he coaxed his laptop back into his backpack, “schedule your class for after sunrise, then I’ll have a happy Monday.”
Jayce just laughed and bent down to rescue Viktor’s cane from beneath the seats.
“Thanks,” Viktor murmured as Jayce handed it to him.
“So are you going to the conference?” Jayce asked as they filed out of the lecture hall.
“Hm?”
“The Innovators’ Conference,” Jayce said. “That Heimerdinger was just talking about, the one this weekend.”
“Ah.” Viktor winced. “I, uh… I don’t think so.”
“Really? How come?”
Because my weekends are for regaining my energy, not for spending the last of it on small talk with strangers. “I already have plans.”
“Damn, alright.”
Viktor shot a smirk back over his shoulder at him. “Why? Worried you’ll have to work twice as hard to charm the big shot scientists without me there, Mr. Charisma?”
Jayce laughed. “No, I was just going to say if you were going to be there then I’d make sure all the big shot scientists invited us both for drinks afterwards.”
Viktor snorted, shaking his head as they made their way down the hall towards the library. “You’ll just have to drink my share too.”
“What, an extra beer and a half?”
“How dare you.”
“You lightweight.”
“You take that back!”
“I haven’t forgotten that hockey party, you know.”
“I had just started a new medication, Jayce, and those drinks were strong.”
“Whatever you need to tell yourself.”
· · ─ · ☆ ᓚᘏᗢ ☆ · ─ · ·
When Viktor got home that afternoon, all he wanted was to collapse into bed and take a nap. He had readings to do, though, and being in the Tuesday lab group meant he only had tonight to finish them. So, rather than face-planting into his pillow, he cracked a Red Bull, pulled on the soft hoodie and sweatpants he reserved for kicking around at home, and opened his textbook.
Twenty minutes later he was reaching for his phone and thumbing open his pinned conversation.
do you remember what heim was saying about precipitates on friday? im struggling w this reading
He put his phone down and took another gulp of Red Bull, willing the words on the page to make sense in his brain. Before the can could even reach its coaster again, there came the buzz of a new notification.
“My saviour,” Viktor muttered. When he picked up his phone, though, it wasn’t Jayce.
FanStarz: TheHammer is live!
Viktor paused. He still had the rest of this chapter to read, and he needed to finish it tonight. He hadn’t been at it for long enough to have earned a break. He really shouldn’t…
He pushed his textbook aside and opened his laptop in its place.
When he opened the stream, the countdown timer was just ticking away its last ten seconds, and the chat was beginning to fill with comments.
its mf Hammer time
Lfgggg
Yes gawd I need more fuel for the spank bank
The holding screen dissolved away to show TheHammer’s workroom setup, the anvil sitting front and centre.
YES IT’S AN ANVIL STREAM
LFGGGGGG
Viktor grinned to himself. Every streamer had their calling cards and fan favourites – he personally would never have predicted that his viewers would go especially wild for blue lace panties or a stuffed mouse on a string, but three years in those were consistently his most-watched videos. He wondered if TheHammer had intended for that anvil to become his signature prop, or if he, like Viktor, had simply found himself dragged along by the algorithm.
“How are we all doing today?”
The light shifted, and TheHammer himself strode into frame to swing a leg over the anvil. God, he was wearing leather pants. Viktor was not going to survive this stream.
Daddy daddy daddy daddy
Oh fuck those pants
DONATION: $50
Take that hammer and pound me in the ass with ittt
TheHammer chuckled, a low rumble of amusement that sent shivers down the back of Viktor’s neck. “It is pretty good at pounding, as hammers go. Who wants to test it out?”
ME ME ME MEEE
i am explicitly asking you to fuck me hammer
Flatten me on that anvil daddy I've been such a bad girl
gIRL? honey u are in the wrong neighbourhood lmao
Yeah hamm is for the gays
“Hey now,” TheHammer said, “everyone is welcome in my forge. It’s my honour to have you here, Miss Bad Girl. Consider yourself–” he gave a filthy roll of his hips against the anvil, “– pounded.”
UNFFF IM CUMMNIG
A pervert AND a gentleman? I’m here for it
Okay guys when I said girl I was just being funny lol but thank u hamm I am officially flattened
TheHammer laughed again and leaned back on his hands, his hips still moving in little circles. Holy fuck, those pants were tight. Viktor pulled one knee to his chest, hugging an arm around it to try and hold himself together.
“How’s everyone’s Monday been? I know I’ve got some stress I need to hammer out.”
Every roll of his hips against the surface of that anvil sent a fresh current down the length of Viktor’s spine. TheHammer, like Viktor himself, never got fully naked on camera, but that had never stopped Viktor’s brain from spinning full high-definition fantasies of what it would be like to be spread out on that anvil with TheHammer’s hips pistoning into him like that.
Take it out on me hamm I’m so serious
My Monday was shit until I got this stream notification
I should not be watching this at work but yk what fuck it
as a wise philosopher once said, fuck it we ball
Ball(s deep in me hammer please god)
Viktor squinted at the sidebar. There was a lot of chatting going on, but not a lot of donations coming in for TheHammer. Maybe he could change that.
DONATION: $100
is there room for 2 on that anvil? meow
There was a moment’s pause in the rock of TheHammer’s hips, then a gravelly laugh.
“Oh hey, Kitten. You wanna come make some biscuits on my anvil?”
Viktor snorted into his knee.
maybe. depends how much your viewers want it…
By the time he hit send, the chat was already picking up.
Kitten? Like MechanicalKitten??
HDGSDGFSHFD KITTEN HI
yea dude i think they have a thing going on
Hamm was in Kitten’s stream on Saturday
CAT BOY CAT BOY
Hamm was in the stream??
No not like ON stream but in the chat
DONATION: $45
How much to get u to pound Kitten flat on ur anvil
TheHammer’s laughter short-circuited Viktor’s brain.
“I dunno. What do you think, Kitten? What’s our goal to get you on stream with me?”
It was a weird combination, the sparks at the base of his skull from hearing TheHammer’s sultry voice and knowing it was addressed to him, and at the same time the warm, giddy feeling in his chest at the idea of being able to hype up a fellow streamer, someone he admired, someone who, however implausibly, admired him in return.
i think if you can get to a thousand on this stream i’ll consider it.
“You hear that, chat? One thousand dollars on this stream, and we might just get Kitten personally acquainted with my anvil.”
DONATION: $25
I'M DOING MY PART
Rich squad pull up
plssss im so broke but il sell my kidneys if thats what it takes
DONATION: $200
I just got paid, fuck it
“Oh wow, the people really want Kitten content, huh?” TheHammer reached briefly out of frame, then returned to grinding on the anvil. “I’m not surprised. The internet was built on cat videos.”
That made Viktor laugh out loud, grinning like a fool into the soft grey fabric of his sweatpants.
you can’t build anything without a good hammer
You guys they’re flirting
DONATION: $15
DID NOT HAVE THIS SHIP ON MY BINGO CARD BUT OKAY
“Life is full of surprises, isn’t it?” TheHammer upended a bottle over his palm, and Viktor groaned as oil began to trickle across his skin. “Hey, Kitten. Tell me if this works for you, and I’ll bring it for our collab.”
“Oh, it works for me,” Viktor breathed. “It definitely works for me.”
messy, messy,
he typed, as TheHammer began smearing the oil over his abs.
you want to get that all over my fur?
DONATION: $80
OIL THAT CAT HAMMER
TheHammer gave a considering hum. “You are a very clean cat,” he mused. “Maybe you don’t want to get all slick and slippery with me?”
“Oh, fuck me,” Viktor whispered. “Like fuck my life, but also please fuck me.”
i might consider it, if someone were willing to help me clean it off afterwards.
“You need some help grooming your fur?” Viktor was one hundred percent certain TheHammer had a wicked glint in his eye, even with his head out of frame. “That’s okay. I’m happy to lick you clean.”
CHAT IM GONNA NUT
DONATION: $100
JUST FUCK ALREADY
DONATION: $20
please consider naming your firstborn after us
“Oh, hell,” Viktor groaned. He’d already pinched himself about ten times since Saturday’s stream. If any more dreams came true this week he might just end up with a permanent bruise.
as long as you’re gentle. i’m very sensitive.
You guys I think I’m actually genuinely gna cum ts is insane
DONATION: $75
we gotta get to 1k u guys don’t let us down!!
yea where the rich squad at
“Very true,” TheHammer crooned, his oily hand smearing up over one chiselled pec. “If we don’t make it to a thousand dollars in donations this stream then none of this comes to fruition.”
DONATION: $100
DONATE YOU SLUTS THE MAN HAS HIS TIDDIES OUT AND EVERYTHING
idk what fruishin is but i’m definitely comign to this
“I hope we get those donations, Kitten. I’d be so disappointed to miss out on oiling you up and then licking it all off again.”
Viktor’s laugh was breathless, his ears tingling with heat as he shifted in his chair. He’d thought TheHammer was hot when he’d been an anonymous set of abs on his screen. Now he was an anonymous set of abs talking directly to Viktor, and it was doing something nuclear to his insides.
By the time the thousandth dollar came in, Viktor was squirming in his seat, fighting to keep his brain in place and stay engaged with the conversation. He felt like he had a role to play here, nevermind that he was neither on stream himself nor an official host for the chat; this game had been his idea, the thousand dollars his challenge, and it was the banter between the two of them that was keeping the donations coming. He couldn’t go quiet now, regardless of how desperate he was to shove his hand down his pants and give himself over to the fantasies TheHammer was dictating straight into his ears.
“Do you guys think my anvil is big enough for Kitten to curl up and take a cat nap?”
dude i think ur LAP is big enough for kitten to take a nap on
DONATION: $55
by my math this makes 1k. pound that cat sir.
LEGEND BEHAVIOUR
rich squad rly came thru for us tday
a fucking men
Oh he’ll be fucking men alright
stfu
TheHammer laughed as he reached for a rag and wiped the oil off his hands. “You folks really stepped up today. I hope you all had as much fun as I did… and I had a lot of fun.”
I came in my pants Hamm I’m not even lying
DONATION: $20
does this mean kitten will be on ur next stream
“Well, that’s up to Kitten, isn’t it?” TheHammer tossed the rag away and leaned forward, chest still glistening. “I think you all might have to show up to his next stream and show him as much love as you’ve shown me today. What do you think, Kitten? When’s your next stream?”
Viktor swallowed. Normally he would only go live once or twice a week, typically on Saturdays or the odd Thursday if he didn’t have any end-of-week projects due, but he couldn’t let the ball drop with this kind of velocity behind it.
tomorrow night. 7pm.
“There we go.” TheHammer sat back on his anvil. “Tomorrow at seven, on MechanicalKitten’s stream. I hope to see as many of you there as possible.” He blew a kiss to the camera from just out of view, and then he was swinging his leg over the anvil and striding out of the frame, and the stream was fading to the end screen.
Holy fuck, Viktor thought, that man might actually want to fuck me.
Pushing the laptop away on the desk, he shoved his pants down just far enough to pull himself out of his underwear. The first touch of his hand was sweet relief after almost half an hour of being painfully hard, and it didn’t take long at all before he was curling forward and spilling over his knuckles, his forehead pressed to the edge of the desk and his shoulders heaving as he gasped for breath.
It wasn’t the first time he’d jerked off to TheHammer – not by a long shot. It was, however, the first time he’d done so with the sound of TheHammer saying his name playing on repeat in his ears.
It took a few deep breaths and the rest of his Red Bull before he could manage to push his chair back and limp through into the ensuite to clean himself up. When he got back to his desk, a glance at his phone showed two new notifications: a text back from Jayce about precipitates, and a message from TheHammer.
TheHammer: Dude. DUDE. That was AWESOME.
MechanicalKitten: lmao i’m glad it worked out well
TheHammer: Are you kidding?? I’ve NEVER made that much money in one stream before. You’re fucking magical.
Viktor’s jaw dropped. Surely that couldn’t be true. TheHammer’s videos were wildly popular. Were his viewers really that stingy that a thousand bucks in one stream was completely unprecedented for him?
MechanicalKitten: what?? no way. you have so many subscribers! your stream chat goes so fast i can barely keep up
TheHammer: I guess, but they’re not really big spenders haha
TheHammer: It’s okay, I’m not complaining! I don’t do this for the money haha
MechanicalKitten: yeah ig it can be super hit or miss. i’m just surprised the blacksmith fetish community have such shallow pockets tbh
TheHammer: LMAO
MechanicalKitten: so you’re gonna watch my stream tomorrow?
TheHammer: You wanna know a secret?
MechanicalKitten: sure
TheHammer: I always do.
· · ─ · ☆ ᓚᘏᗢ ☆ · ─ · ·
By the time Viktor escaped his lab on Tuesday, he thought it might only take one more small inconvenience to send him into a full-scale breakdown. He’d stayed up way too late finishing the readings, which had caused him to sleep straight through his alarm this morning. That, in turn, had not only necessitated skipping his usual bakery stop and consequently going without both breakfast and coffee, but also required him to walk the remaining two blocks to campus at a trot, which had been agony in the moment and had now settled into his leg as a dull, throbbing ache. His first lecture had been an hour of pure torture, sitting under flickering fluorescent lights that emitted a constant, low-level whine which didn’t seem to bother anybody but him, and he hadn’t had time to swing by the cafeteria before booking it to the chemistry wing at the other end of the building, where he’d found the elevator once again out of service and had to climb three flights of stairs. To top it all off, when he’d finally gotten to the lab he had found their usual tutor was out sick and the replacement had been given the wrong lesson plan, so the readings he’d stayed up until two a.m. poring over were ultimately irrelevant.
i’m gonna throw myself into the lake
he texted Jayce as he hobbled out of the lab. Coming to a halt at the elevator, he caught sight of the sign taped to the door and groaned. He’d forgotten about that. Fuck. Time for three flights of stairs.
“I wish you wouldn’t, I’m moderately fond of you.”
Glancing back, Viktor found Jayce sauntering up behind him, his phone in one hand and a large coffee cup in the other.
“Only moderately?”
“Well,” Jayce grinned, “I don’t want to over-inflate your ego, do I?”
Viktor rolled his eyes, but the snort he gave was as much affection as anything. “What are you doing here?”
“Courier service.” Jayce held out the cup. “Figured you could use it.”
Viktor stared at it for a dumbstruck moment before shifting his cane to the other hand and reaching out to take the cup. “How did you know?”
“You mean aside from the fact that you never don’t want coffee?” Jayce shrugged. “You didn’t text me the pun of the day. I figured no text meant no coffee.”
Viktor blinked at him for another handful of seconds while that processed through his brain. It was true that he usually texted Jayce while he was waiting for his coffee – the specials board at the bakery typically had some sort of bread-based wordplay scribbled at the bottom, and since Jayce was a fan of that sort of thing Viktor had taken to texting them directly to him rather than trying to remember them to tell him later. He hadn’t realised he’d become so consistent about it that Jayce could infer his movements based on getting or not getting that text.
When he was still staring after a minute, Jayce nudged the cup towards his face. Viktor took an automatic sip, then another as the foam hit his tongue and he realised just how sorely he’d needed this all morning.
“Thank you,” he said, when he had to stop for breath. “You have no idea the service you’ve done.”
“I think I can guess.” Jayce leaned forward to peer at the sign on the elevator, then winced. “Oh, shit. Did you have to walk up?”
“I sure did. Hated every step, too.”
“Fuuuck, man, that’s brutal.” Jayce nodded towards the stairs. “You want a lift down?”
Viktor’s laugh came out in a sharp bark. “I don’t know which that would endanger more, my life or my dignity.”
“There’s nothing undignified about it!” Jayce protested. “What’s a little piggybacking between bros?”
“I think I’ll pass, but thanks.” Viktor took another gulp of coffee, then handed the cup back to Jayce. “If you could hold this for me, though, that would certainly reduce my chances of taking the headfirst shortcut to the ground floor.”
By the time they made it to the bottom of the stairs Viktor was seething on every breath, his hand a claw grip on the bannister and his leg on fire from hip to shin.
“Unbelievable,” he muttered, “a school full of engineers and we can’t even keep an elevator running for more than a week at a time.”
Jayce gave a sympathetic wince. “It’s just not your day today, huh?”
“Understatement of the year.” Viktor lowered himself to sit on one of the low benches dotted along the edge of the corridor and took his coffee back from Jayce. “I wish you were in my lab group this semester.”
“I know,” Jayce sighed. “We gotta coordinate better next term.” Plopping down beside Viktor, he opened his backpack and pulled out a paper bag. “Here.”
“Wh–” Viktor unrolled the top and peeked inside. “Jayce! What is this?”
Jayce shrugged. “Lunch.”
Viktor gave him a bug-eyed look as he peeled back the paper. “These sandwiches are so expensive, Jayce, what are you doing buying them for me?”
Jayce just shrugged again. “I picked up some extra work this week. I was already getting coffee, I figured I might as well grab you something to eat as well.”
Viktor narrowed his eyes. “Did you at least get one for yourself too?”
“Uh…” Jayce made a valiant attempt at innocence. “I ate, yeah.”
Viktor sighed and held out the sandwich towards Jayce. “Come on.”
“Wait, no–”
“I’m not eating it unless you take a bite, Jayce.”
Jayce resisted for another moment. Viktor butted the end of the ciabatta bun against his mouth, and he relented with a breath of exasperated laughter.
“You are so stubborn,” he said, and took a bite off the corner.
Viktor shrugged as he bit into the sandwich. “Someone has to match your energy.”
· · ─ · ☆ ᓚᘏᗢ ☆ · ─ · ·
When Viktor got home that evening, the last thing he wanted to do was get dolled up and play Kitten. His leg hurt from the stairs, his back hurt from the walk, his head hurt from the lights, and he’d had to do far more writing today than his wrist was happy with.
When he opened his FanStarz page to postpone the stream, though, he had notifications waiting.
TheHammer: I am so excited for your stream
TheHammer: Like I literally cannot wait, I haven’t been able to sit still all day.
Viktor groaned. It was one thing to reschedule on his viewers – this was a bonus stream as far as they were concerned anyway – but he couldn’t let TheHammer down. Especially not when he’d essentially implored his fans to raid the stream.
MechanicalKitten: i will try not to disappoint! might be a couple mins late starting tho – been a long day
TheHammer: Tell me about it haha. Don’t worry, your hype squad won’t mind the wait.
With a sigh, Viktor pushed back his chair and went to go get pretty.
The platform was not going to be his friend today, he decided, considering it with his hands on his hips once he’d dragged it into place. With his knee and hip already staging a revolt, even five minutes sitting on that hard a surface was going to be untenable. Viktor pursed his lips, then turned to grab the pillows from his bed.
With his C pillow along the back of the platform and the other two padding the surface, he tugged the duvet off the mattress and spread it over the whole arrangement, tucking it in around the edges to keep it all together. There. That looked plausibly like a cat bed. Viktor checked his watch and swore. It was already ten past seven.
Tugging his mask into place, he launched the countdown timer and turned to give himself a once-over in the mirror. Costume on. Wristbands on. Medical alert bracelet tucked away. Tattoo hidden. A smile to check – the mask stayed in place. His stuffed mouse and ribbons were ready and waiting on the upper platform of the cat tree. Nothing left to do but perform.
He hoisted himself gingerly up onto the tree and curled up in a way he hoped looked like a cat ready to nap rather than a man ready to DIY a hip replacement. As the timer ticked away its last minute, he closed his eyes, took a steadying breath, and cleared the depth from his voice.
“Okay,” he whispered to himself, “you got this. Do it for TheHammer.”
The timer hit zero, Viktor clicked his remote, and the stream went live.
“Hi, everyone!” he chirped. “Thanks for coming to hang out with me! Oh my goodness, so many friends in the chat.”
KITTEN KITTEN KITTEN
DONATION: $10
Kittennnn TheHammer is hereee
“TheHammer is here?” Viktor said. “That’s a treat all by itself! Hi, Hammer. Did you bring some friends with you?”
I sure did!
Fascinating. Apparently having TheHammer on his friends list had the interesting side effect of highlighting his comments in the chat box.
“Mmm, hi there Hammer squad. Have you come to try and lure me onto the anvil?”
hamm said to be here so we here
Ok I see why Hamm wants to collab, he’s cute
Welcome new friends! Just FYI if u want Kitten to read out your comment it has to be a donation
pspsps here kitty kitty come get pounded
so he just ignores anyone who’s not paying him?
No it’s just that donating guarantees he’ll read ur comment
“I’m a growing Kitten,” Viktor purred. “The more treats I get, the more tricks I might decide to do.”
DONATION: $100
If u want Kitten on my stream, give him treats!
yes daddy
DONATION: $25
Hamm says give treats, we give treats
Viktor laughed. “‘If you want Kitten on my stream, give him treats.’ If that’s the deal, then maybe we should set a goal for this stream. What do you think, Hammer? ‘Hamm says give treats, we give treats.’ Oh, you’re all so well-behaved for Hammer. Thank you for the delicious treat! You’re playing so nicely with me, I might just make some biscuits.”
He rolled over to start pawing at the pillow beneath him. As he did so, he glanced at the video preview and froze.
In his rush to get ready, he hadn’t quite pushed his desk chair all the way out of frame. And draped over the back of it, peeking in just at the edge of the screen, was his comfy kicking-around-home hoodie – the one with his high school emblem splashed across the back.
Fuck. Viktor took a careful breath. Pushing down the panic, he did a brief crisis assessment and quickly decided there was nothing he could do about it now. Moving the chair would not only necessitate getting down off the platform, which would be painful and awkward and reveal far more about himself than he ever wanted his viewers to know, but would also more likely than not just draw more attention to the hoodie. If he left it alone, there was a chance people might not notice it – it was close enough to the edge of the frame that it more or less blended into the background, and with the way the hoodie was draped the logo wasn’t completely visible. If he just acted normal and kept the stream interesting enough, hopefully nobody would look too closely at anything other than him.
Well my crew want it $1k worth. Do your viewers want it more than that? Say $1500?
Viktor dragged his attention back to the chat, willing his heart to slow and his eyes to stay away from the traitorous hoodie lest the panic creep back into his face and give him away.
“Do my viewers want a collab as badly as Hammer’s viewers do?” he said. “Do you all want it enough to reach $1,500 in donations this stream?”
rich squad where u at
DONATION: $50
ur gonna get so rich off this collab kitten
“‘You’re gonna get so rich off this collab–’ You know what?” Viktor sat up. “Let’s sweeten the deal. Hammer. Pick a charity. If we crack fifteen hundred today, I’ll donate half to that cause. If we crack two thousand, I’ll donate the lot.”
brooo
A PERVERT AND A GENTLEMAN WE LOVE TO SEE IT
wait so lemme get this straight the more we give the less he gets??
the math aint rly mathin but let him cook ig
SuperShoes
“SuperShoes!” Viktor stopped, blinking around a warmth he couldn’t articulate. Not here, not live on stream as MechanicalKitten. MechanicalKitten had no need of crutches or leg braces. MechanicalKitten hadn’t spent his childhood so desperately poor that his parents had more than once had to choose between food for themselves or medication for him. MechanicalKitten had never felt that almost religious sense of gratitude to a charity that had swept in out of the blue and provided him with not only the braces he needed to walk but also the physical therapy to learn how to use them and the medical care to keep his bones from deteriorating any further. Those stories belonged to Viktor Lanik, not MechanicalKitten.
“SuperShoes,” he repeated, and cleared his throat before his voice could crack. “Good choice! Let’s raise some money for little kittens to get the peet braces they need to grow up big and strong.”
wtf is super shoes
Cat orthotics company??
They provide custom braces, prosthetics and mobility aids to children in need.
okok so hamms a philanthropist
I fuck w that
So they’re not actually braces for kittens? Disappointing.
Viktor’s smile almost shook with the thrill of his heart. How did TheHammer even know about SuperShoes? He didn’t look like he’d ever required their services – but then, Viktor reasoned, neither did he the way he presented himself in his streams. Perhaps TheHammer had a sibling or a cousin who’d needed a wheelchair as a kid. Or maybe he was just one of those people who made a point of seeking out and supporting smaller charities, the ones that couldn’t afford TV ads or billboard campaigns.
“What do we think?” he purred. “Can we reach two thousand dollars in this one stream?”
I believe in us, crew
DONATION: $125
do it for the kids
DONATION: $69
fuck them kids im doin it for hamm
By the end of the stream, they’d brought in almost $1,850. Viktor had batted his mouse around, and tangled himself up in ribbons, and even kicked his leg up to rest against the upper platform so he could coyly turn away and duck his head as if to lick himself. By the one-hour mark, though, the steady trickle of donations had dried to a drip, and not even the cat-bed heap of pillows could stop Viktor’s hips from screaming at every movement.
“You’ve all been so generous with your treats today,” he cooed, rolling onto his stomach and biting back a wince. “You’re such lovely friends to me and Hammer! We didn’t quite reach two thousand dollars, but we’ve still raised a lot of money for SuperShoes! They’ll be able to help so many kittens run and play again.” The pain in his leg was really getting to him; his eyes were beginning to sting, and his voice sounded too rough in his throat. “So Hammer, what do we think? Have our friends earned a collaboration?”
pls god pls i am too horny for this not to happen now
Pound! That! Cat!
I think we’re getting there
I need them to frot eXPEDDITIOUSLY
“Getting there, huh?” Viktor smirked. “I guess we’ll just have to come to your stream tomorrow night and decide there.”
oh fuck yea it’s cathamm week
is that what we’re calling thm? cathamm?
idk do u got a bteter idea
PussyPounder
nO
Sure. Tomorrow night, same time, my place.
“You heard that, folks. Tomorrow night at seven on Hammer’s channel. It’s a date.” Viktor gave a flick of his wrist to hear the bells there jingle, then picked up the remote. “Thank you for spending your time with me this evening, everyone. Stay out of trouble, and keep your claws sharp!”
With the click of a button the stream ended, and Viktor collapsed against the platform with a cry.
Fuck, God, shit, fuck, FUCK–
His hip felt like it was half out of its socket, his knee was almost bent backwards, and when he tried to push himself up on his elbows and pull his mask off his spine gave such a sharp stab of pain that it pitched him face-first back into the pillows.
“Help,” he whined, twisting his head until he could breathe and giving in to the realisation that there was no way he was getting out of this without a good deal more pain. He had the brief, nonsensical thought of calling Jayce for help, but even if Jayce could get into his locked apartment Viktor didn’t fancy the idea of explaining the situation to him. Oh yeah, don’t mind the lacy lingerie or the cat mask, bro, I just prefer to make rent as a quasi-sex worker on the internet, and sometimes I whore myself too hard and end up stuck on my homemade human-sized cat tree until such time as my body feels like functioning normally again. Just plonk me on the bed and I’ll be good to go! Hard pass. Besides, his phone was on the desk. He was on his own whether he liked it or not.
Breath by breath, the sensation was starting to return to his legs. Viktor tried a cautious wriggle, and found that with a bit of finessing he could just about turn onto his side. From there, he only had to roll backwards, and with a swoop and a bump he was sitting on the floor.
“Halfway there,” he muttered. Shuffling forward on his butt, he made his way to the desk and slid his phone down off it, then scooted across the room and crawled up onto the bed to curl up in a ball and cry.
“Stupid fucking legs. Stupid hips and knees and back and shoulders–” he pressed his face into the bare sheets and let it all shudder out, the exhaustion and the agony and the stress of being so excited about something that had so much uncertainty attached to it.
His phone buzzed in his hand.
TheHammer: That was such a good stream. I can’t believe you managed to raise so much money!
Viktor stared at the screen, the words blurring and clearing by degrees as he blinked away each well of tears.
Right. The money. That was the important thing here: they’d pulled in almost two thousand dollars that could now go towards making sure another child never had to feel the pain Viktor felt at this moment. Another child growing up in poverty could have the braces that would help them walk, or the wheelchair that would let them keep up with their peers, or the surgery that would enable them to do it all without this level of bone-grinding agony. Another child could get the intervention they needed before it was too late to do anything more than slow the freefall.
MechanicalKitten: it was a team effort
TheHammer: I dunno about that. I was too much in awe to contribute anything really.
MechanicalKitten: we’ll just have to see how much your fans can step their game up
TheHammer: Haha yeah! I guess I gotta stream tomorrow now.
It took a second before Viktor could summon the cognitive power to groan. Ah, shit. He’d gone and volunteered TheHammer for a stream without even asking when he next had one planned. In the heat of the moment he’d just assumed that since his stream had been the day after TheHammer’s, TheHammer’s would then be the day after his.
MechanicalKitten: oh shit i’m so sorry dude i completely didn’t even think
TheHammer: No no don’t worry it’s all good! I’m not mad. Honestly it’s probably a good thing you voluntold me, I’d just have agonised over it.
TheHammer: I feel like we’ve got this momentum going with these back and forth streams, and if I don’t keep it moving then it’ll all fizzle out. But at the same time it’s kinda scary cause I dunno where that momentum is heading, if that makes sense?
TheHammer: Sorry that’s probably weird to say.
MechanicalKitten: not at all. i’m the same. like the plan is to collab, right? but like. how.
TheHammer: Yeah. I guess we gotta do some brainstorming.
MechanicalKitten: yeah
Viktor wiped his eyes with the back of his hand. It was reassuring, to know he wasn’t the only one terrified of the enormity of what this could become. He had looked up to TheHammer for so long, and having this kind of connection offered to him on a platter was more than a little daunting. What did a collaboration between them look like? Was this the beginning of an ongoing creative partnership? Were they about to become friends? And if they were making their usual kind of content together, what was the likelihood that it could lead to more than friendship? Alternatively, what was the likelihood that TheHammer would take one look at Viktor’s inevitable physical reaction to his glistening, ab-rippling presence and be so disgusted that he blocked him on the spot and spat upon the very mention of his name forevermore?
With a trembling sniff, Viktor swiped open his messages and sent a text to Jayce.
are you busy?
The response was nearly instantaneous.
Free as a bird. What’s up?
Viktor closed his eyes against another wave of exhausted tears.
i overdid it today.
Need takeout and a movie at mine?
yes pls
Want me to pick you up?
yes pls
There in 10.
At least if this all fell apart, he could always rely on Jayce to pick up the pieces and put him back together. Even if he could never tell Jayce what had broken him in the first place.
· · ─ · ☆ ᓚᘏᗢ ☆ · ─ · ·
[PUBLIC POST]
MechanicalKitten:
Hey there friends! Wow, we had such a fun stream together last night. Thank you all for hanging out and bringing so many delicious treats with you! And a special thanks to TheHammer’s crew for joining us as well.
Now, I know I said I’d donate half the proceeds from the stream if we got to $1,500 and all of them if we got to $2,000. Well, after the FanStarz fees we ended up with $1,695… and that’s what I sent to SuperShoes this morning.
Thank you again for spending your time with me and contributing to such a valuable cause – your generosity has changed the world. I’ll see you on the next stream. Keep your claws sharp!
· · ─ · ☆ ᓚᘏᗢ ☆ · ─ · ·
TheHammer: Would it be crazy to plan our collab for this weekend?
MechanicalKitten: probably, but let’s do it anyway
MechanicalKitten: did u have sth particular in mind?
TheHammer: Yeah…
TheHammer: Okay this is kind of weird, and I promise I wasn’t being a creeper so please don’t be freaked out
TheHammer: But I noticed in your stream last night that you had what looked like an Entresol High sweater?
MechanicalKitten: ah fuck
MechanicalKitten: i was hoping nobody would catch that
TheHammer: I don’t think anybody else would have! I only recognised it cause I met a couple of people at university who went there.
TheHammer: Anyway IDK if you went to Entresol yourself or if someone just gave it to you, and if it makes you uncomfortable then I can totally forget I saw anything! But if you still live near the Pilt, then… I’m gonna be in Piltover this weekend. If you want we could maybe meet up and stream from the hotel or something?
TheHammer: Sorry, maybe that was too weird. I probably shouldn’t have brought it up.
TheHammer: Kitten?
MechanicalKitten: fuck it, why not.
MechanicalKitten: just let me know when and where.
· · ─ · ☆ ᓚᘏᗢ ☆ · ─ · ·
“How are we all doing today?”
hammerrrr did u pound that pussy yet
ew dont phrase jt like that it makes him sound het
Pound pussy?? Excuse me???
Hamm has a thing going with the machine kitten guy
The whomst?
MechanicalKitten hes like a catboy twink
theyve been flirting aall week dude keep up
TheHammer chuckled as he perched on the edge of his anvil. “Kitten and I have been getting along very well this week. In fact, we’re thinking we might just have to get together soon…”
Flatten! That! Cat!
have u fucked him on the anvil yet hamm
On the anvil? Before marriage??
Viktor snorted a laugh and pulled his lap tray closer as he settled back into the pillows.
Hey, Hammer. I’m looking forward to seeing you this weekend. I wonder if your crew here are as excited as I am…
“Hey Kitten!” It was positively audible, the way TheHammer brightened. “I’m so happy you could make it. You guys, Kitten raised like seventeen hundred bucks on his stream last night for my favourite charity. Do you think we can do better than that?” Drawing one foot up onto the anvil next to him, he pressed his hips forward so the sleek fabric of his pants stretched obscenely over his crotch. “Kitten, what’s your charity of choice?”
Viktor thought for a moment.
you know, i like to think of myself as a scientist. we should keep the independent variables consistent.
english pls nerd
Dude that’s kitten don’t be mean to him
DONATION: $100
let’s stick with supershoes. i’ll get us started.
TheHammer made a noise of satisfaction. “Okay, it’s a proper experiment then! The question at hand: whose audience cares more about the kids at SuperShoes. What’s our hypothesis, crew?”
wtf im here for hot man titties not a science lesson
We do!
you guys are we gonna let ourselves be beaten by a bunch of furries?
Put your money where your mouth is then
Kitten’s fans are lowkey kinda rich tho
DONATION: $300
I SAID ARE WE GONNA BE BEATEN BY A BUNCHA FURRIES
TheHammer’s deep, rumbling laugh sent a shiver all the way from the back of Viktor’s skull to the tips of his toes. Today had been another long, painful day of stairs and fluorescent lights, and he’d been beyond glad to get home and climb into bed with his electric blanket, but even the throbbing ache of his knees couldn’t dull the thrill in his chest when TheHammer poured himself a palmful of oil and said, “Tell me where to put this, Kitten.”
oh fuck they’re flirting again
PUT IT ON UR DICCK HAMM
Viktor bit his lip.
on your throat. let it run down your chest.
“Mmm, okay.” TheHammer’s hand moved to the very top edge of the frame, and rivulets of oil trickled down over his pecs to run along the lines of his six pack. “Like that?”
just like that. good boy.
If he hadn’t been focused so intently on TheHammer’s stomach, Viktor might have missed it: the rippling clench of his abs, the minute twitch of his hips, the soft moan that seemed to shiver through his entire body before making it out of his mouth.
Holy shit chat
did hamm just come in his pants
If u think thats what it looks like when a guy comes in his pants I have a bridge to sell u
Viktor was dimly aware of his own mouth hanging open, his breath shallow, tongue dry. Oh fuck, he thought, he’s actually into this. All of a sudden it felt like the most precious gift had been dropped into his lap, the world opening up before him like a treasure chest: he could say things, and TheHammer would do them, and he would like it too.
DONATION: $120
i cant wait to watch them fuck liev on stream
I don’t even need them to do it on stream. I just want them to fuck for their own sakes.
DONATION: $5
did we come up w a name for them yet?
CatHamm
no not cathamm fuk off
DONATION: $40
How about AnvilBiscuits or something?
DONATION: $69
flattencat
fLATTENCAT IM SOBBING
TheHammer gave a breathless laugh. “Do we need a couple name? Are we that established an item?”
YES U ARE
you gotta have a ship name it’s the law
“As long as Kitten doesn’t feel like we’re moving too fast,” TheHammer said. “I mean, we haven’t even met yet.”
Too fast? Fuck, Viktor would have cut their brake lines if he could. TheHammer’s abs were gleaming with oil, each muscle clenching into sharp relief with the roll of his hips, and Viktor felt like he was about to come in his pants, completely untouched, right here in his bed. There was absolutely nowhere in the world he would rather be in this moment, save for perhaps spread out on that anvil licking the oil out of TheHammer’s belly button.
There had been a moment, earlier today, when he’d feared he might not make the stream. He’d been so caught up in this whole Hammer situation all week that he’d completely forgotten any other plans he might ever have made. So when he’d turned up for Heimerdinger’s chemistry lecture this afternoon and Jayce had greeted him with, “So about our game night tonight,” Viktor’s stomach had dropped through the floor.
“Oh, right,” he’d said, and tried not to grimace. Evenings spent sprawled out on Jayce’s bed eating cheap candy and playing Mario Kart were a tradition dating back to the earliest days of their friendship, when Jayce had still been living with his mother and Viktor had been stuck by himself in the university’s idea of an accessible dorm room, the only student on his floor without a roommate and so desperately lonely for it that when his new chemistry lab partner had turned to him with a gap-toothed grin and said, “Wanna come hang out after this?” he’d agreed before the words were even fully out of Jayce’s mouth.
And it wasn’t that Viktor didn’t want to play video games with Jayce, but he’d promised TheHammer he would be there for his stream tonight, and he didn’t want to let him down. Perhaps he could sneak off to Jayce’s bathroom between rounds, he’d thought, to check in on the stream and leave some encouragement in the chat–
“Would it be alright if we rescheduled?” Jayce had said. “I’m sorry, I know it’s a dick move to cancel on the day, it’s just my mom needs me go over and fix some stuff–”
“That’s totally fine,” Viktor had replied, and hoped he didn’t sound too relieved. “I should probably catch up on my readings tonight anyway. I’m so behind for Bolbok’s class.”
“God, same.”
Perhaps he should feel guilty for not being completely truthful with Jayce, but honestly right now it was difficult to feel anything other than the electric excitement of TheHammer’s attention on him – especially when that glistening hand smoothed down over the washboard of his belly to trace along his waistband, fingers dipping behind the fabric as he hummed low and gravelly and said, “What should I do with the rest of this oil, huh?”
Put it in my asssss hamm
jerk off with it
pleeeeeease Hamm just give us one little peek of foreskin that’s all I ask
DONATION: $75
show us some oily armpits
“Oily armpits?” TheHammer sounded amused. “You mean like this?”
Sitting back on the anvil, he raised one arm and swept the other hand up from his ribs to his elbow, leaving a shiny trail behind it.
Fuck. If asked, prior to this moment, Viktor would not have said he had any particular affinity for armpits. But the way the oil clung to the dark hair there, beading and shining at the ends, made him abruptly desperate for TheHammer to absolutely smother him under that massive bicep. He wondered if the oil would glitter like starlight in the same way if his hand went the other direction, down his chest instead of up, pushing his tight, glossy pants out of the way and smearing it along the line of hair currently peeking out the top of them, leaving it slick in his wake as he followed that trail all the way to–
What the fuck did I just walk in on
oh hey it’s a pit kink streamer
yk what? good for them! good for them.
DONATION: $200
guys we gotta donate more or the furries win
OK this guy has some NOICE abs tho, I’m sticking around
TheHammer paused as if reading the chat more closely, then gave a little huff of amusement. “Hey there, new folks. Did we get featured on the homepage again?”
Nahh m8 FanStarz twttr
“Oh?” TheHammer leaned forward, then seemed to realise his hands were still covered in oil and grabbed a rag to wipe them off. “What’s going on on the FanStarz Twitter?”
Viktor frowned and retrieved his phone from the bedside table. It took him a minute to find the right post, but when he did his eyes nearly popped out of his head.
@FanStarz: Don’t look now, but TheHammer is totally doing a fundraiser stream for charity! Can we get in on that anvil action for a good cause?
“Oh, shit,” he breathed. He forwarded the link to his DMs with TheHammer, then turned back to his laptop to find the chat had absolutely exploded.
So lemme get this straight, this is a charity battle between a furry twink and a macho muscle bro?
p much yea
DONATION: $25
do we like the furry twink or nah
DONATION: $500
can’t let the twinks win then
He’s not a furry he’s just a catboy
whats the fuckin difference
DONATION: $285
is that the guy who can lick his own asshole
wHAT
idk is it? kitten can u lick ur ass
Wait is he here
yea theyv been in e/o’s streams all wk
DONATION: $150
fuck them twinks
I mean. Hamm might actually be gonna fuck this particular twink.
TheHammer laughed. “Okay, yes, MechanicalKitten is here, and he’s a very nice kitty, we like him. This is just a friendly competition to raise some money for SuperShoes ahead of our collaboration stream together on Saturday.”
oN SATURDAY??
YOOOOOO IM GONNA NUT
wtf is supershoes
DONATION: $50
okay but we still gotta beat the twink tho
“SuperShoes is my favourite charity, and it’s a cause very near to my heart. They work with kids with disabilities who are living in poverty and lack access to medical care, so they provide things like prosthetic limbs and wheelchairs and crutches and braces and all that sort of stuff. I’m personally very grateful to them for the work they do, and Kitten has signed on to the cause with me this week, so I’m grateful to him too for helping me help them.”
Viktor had to close his eyes against a sudden, prickling heat behind them. You have no idea, he thought, NO idea how much of that gratitude goes the other way too. Viktor owed so much to SuperShoes, far beyond his ability to walk. Forget living on his own or earning a degree from one of the best universities on the continent, without SuperShoes he probably wouldn’t have even made it to adulthood. Their help had given him more than he could ever repay: his life, his health, and his success.
At a clang from the stream, he opened his eyes. TheHammer, presumably reaching for his oil again, had managed to knock over the contents of a table just out of frame. In addition to the oil bottle rolling away across the floor, there was also a tub of wet wipes, a metal water flask, a remote like the one Viktor used for his streams, and a rubber duck.
TheHammer swore and made as if to bend down before seeming to realise that would bring his face into the frame. Jerking upright, he sighed, then chuckled.
“Can you all be cool if I take a second to clean this shit up?”
hydrated kinggg i have that exact same water bottle
WTF is that duck
DONATION: $15
SHOW US THE DUCK HAMM
TheHammer, having stood up and kicked the detritus ahead of him as he walked out of frame, laughed from somewhere off-camera. A moment later, he returned holding the duck.
“This guy? Sure.” He swung a leg back over the anvil and held the duck out towards the camera. “This is Hamlet. He’s my assistant. He doesn’t really do a whole lot, but he’s excellent for bouncing ideas off.”
hamlet like the out out damn spot shakespere guy?
that’s MacBeth you idiott
It’s not even macbetj it’s lady macbeth
This dude Shakespeares.
ohhh hamlet as in little hamm, like hammer jr
oh so its not a duck its a dick
DONATION: $50
why does it have demon horns
TheHammer turned the duck towards himself to consider the tiny black horns sticking straight up from the top of its head. “You know? I’m not really sure.” He shrugged. “Maybe he’s the devil on my shoulder.”
“Cute,” Viktor snickered.
DONATION: $60
how much for u to get freaky with the duck
thats his son you fuckin degen
This is literally FanStarz, weird duck shit would be the LEAST fucked up thing that’s happened on here
yea yall werent here for the apple incident
we don’t talk about the apple incident
What’s the apple incident?
WE DON’T TALK ABOUT THE APPLE INCIDENT
Viktor was struck by a sudden idea.
if u guys can raise $800 in the next 2 minutes i’ll make hammer put the duck down his pants
TheHammer gave a bark of surprised laughter. “You’ll make me?”
Drunk on his own daring, Viktor grinned to himself as he flexed his fingers over the keyboard.
yeah. problem?
YOU GUYS THEYHR GGONA FUCK
DONATION: $500
INTRODUCE HAMLET TO HAMM JR RIGHT THE FUCK NOW
“No, no problem,” TheHammer chuckled. “I’m just impressed you think you can make me do anything when you’re such a small, delicate little kitten and I’m so much bigger and stronger than you.”
MOM AND DAD ARE FIGHTING U GUYS
they’re not fighting this is foreplay
DONATION: $50
cmon rich squad pleeeese help us out here
DONATION: $250
i gotchu fam
HALLELU IT’S A MIRACLE
DUCK IN PANTS NOW
“Hm.” TheHammer turned the duck towards himself again as if asking its opinion. “Well there’s the eight hundred dollars. Now how in the world is Kitten gonna make me put you down my pants?”
check ur dms
Viktor picked up his phone, where he still had his message thread with TheHammer open.
MechanicalKitten: pretend i’ve said something here that u absolutely can’t refuse lol
TheHammer leaned briefly out of frame, and there came the jingle-click of a phone unlocking, then a second of silence.
Oh fuck they’ve got dms it’s really serious huh
invite us to the wedding daddy
TheHammer: LMAO
“Oh,” TheHammer breathed, his voice swooping even deeper than usual. He sounded genuinely rattled, and Viktor shook his head with a snort of laughter. What an award-worthy performance. “Okay, okay, I’ll do it.”
OH FUCK SQUAD IS THEE CATBOY BLACKMAILING HAMM??
DONATION: $30
hamm blink twice if kitten is holding u hostage
TheHammer sat back on his anvil, the duck clutched in one hand. “I guess I have no choice. I gotta warn you, though, I dunno if I can entirely fit Hamlet in my pants. That space is already pretty occupied.”
HELL YEAH IT IS
its ok hamm if u need to make room in ur pants for the ducky u can just take ur dick out first we dont mind
DONATION: $20
DICK OUT DUCK IN
dick out duck in! dick out duck in!
Leaning back, TheHammer slid a thumb under the waistband of his pants and pulled it away from his skin. “It’s gonna be a pretty tight fit, Hamlet.”
thatts what ur mom saiddddd
Your mom fucked Hamlet?
no YOUR mom fucked Hamlet
Oh right ok my mistake
TheHammer sucked his stomach in and wriggled the duck tail-first into his pants. He hadn’t been lying: by the time it was pressed firmly up against his bulge, its head and neck were still sticking out the top.
“I think that’s as much as we’re gonna get, you guys. What do you think, Hamlet? Are you comfy in there?”
I never thought i’d be jealosu of a duck btu here we arre
i’m typing this with one hand
DONATION: $80
rip hamlette ur sacrifice will not be forgotten
· · ─ · ☆ ᓚᘏᗢ ☆ · ─ · ·
MechanicalKitten: i’m still reeling from ur stream last night
TheHammer: Same. SAME. I was shaking.
MechanicalKitten: what was the final count?
TheHammer: Let me check
TheHammer: $3,863
MechanicalKitten: holy shit
TheHammer: I know
MechanicalKitten: holy SHIT
TheHammer: I KNOW
MechanicalKitten: so after the fanstarz cut
TheHammer: $3,592.59
MechanicalKitten: bro
TheHammer: I’ll round it up and donate $3,600
MechanicalKitten: the ppl at supershoes are gonna freak
TheHammer: Wait until they see what we send them on Monday morning!
MechanicalKitten: right? lmao
· · ─ · ☆ ᓚᘏᗢ ☆ · ─ · ·
It was in the library on Friday afternoon that Viktor saw the article.
Well, it wasn’t an article, exactly, more one of those clickbaity pieces with a reaction gif every two sentences and more filler than actual information, but still. It was at the top of his news feed when he picked up his phone, and the title alone was enough to make his breath stop in his throat:
Softcore Superheroes? These Two NSFW Streamers Are Competing To See Whose Fans Can Raise The Most For Disabled Kids In Need
With a covert glance across the table at Jayce to make sure he wasn’t looking, Viktor slid his phone into the protective shadow of his other arm and tapped on the link.
When you hear the words “adult camsite”, you probably don’t think of charity drives. But for these two FanStarz streamers, that’s exactly what it’s all about!
Steamy cam models MechanicalKitten and TheHammer are about as unlike each other as they could possibly be. One is a willowy waif in a cat mask and haute couture lingerie, while the other is a muscle-bound handyman with rock-hard abs and a huge… anvil.
Viktor snorted, then tried to disguise it as a cough as Jayce glanced up from his notebook. He opened his mouth to come up with some sort of excuse, but Jayce just gave him a distracted smile and returned to his homework. Once he was sure Jayce’s attention was absorbed once more, Viktor read on:
But this week, it seems the two saucy streamers are united by a common cause: providing wheelchairs to the kids who need them most.
In their nightly live streams since Tuesday they’ve been challenging their fans to raise more and more money for SuperShoes, a non-profit headquartered on the southern banks of the river Pilt which provides life-changing access to medical care and assistive devices for children with disabilities living below the poverty line.
So far they’ve raised almost $8,000 over the course of three streams, and they have big plans to raise even more – their joint fundraiser show together on Saturday night is set to be one of the most anticipated streams in the site’s history. Fans of the pair, dubbed “CatHamm” or “HammerKitten” by their viewers, say while the cause is important to them, it’s the chemistry between the two that keeps them coming back for more.
“I just need them to kiss already,” said one viewer in MechanicalKitten’s live chat last night. “I feel like the moment they both appear on my screen at the same time I’m just going to explode.”
Will you be tuning in on Saturday night to support this titillating telethon? We know we will be!
Viktor ducked his head to conceal the gleeful scrunch of his face as he copied the link.
MechanicalKitten: omfg have you seen this??
Slipping his phone into his pocket, he returned to his assignment and tried valiantly to focus on metalloids. Make an argument for the inclusion or exclusion of one of the contested elements. State your criteria, giving justification for each…
He’d read the words three times now, and still they wouldn’t stick. Viktor felt like he was about to vibrate out of his seat. This was absurd. This was insane. What had started as banter between two small-time streamers had turned into something huge, something momentous and exciting and, apparently, newsworthy. This was the craziest thing that had ever happened to him in his life, and Viktor was so desperate to tell someone about it, if only to let loose the giddy smile that felt like it was ricocheting off the insides of his ribs. Normally the first person he would go to with that kind of excitement would be Jayce, but he couldn’t tell Jayce about this. This was the one thing Jayce did not, could not know about him. Every other vulnerable, personal story was fair game – though by now there were few of them that had not already been told – but MechanicalKitten was off-limits.
It wasn’t even that he thought Jayce would be angry or disgusted. He just couldn’t bear the thought that Jayce might look at him differently, that it might change the way he thought of him. That Viktor might irreversibly shift inside Jayce’s mind, occupying a subtly different place with an added asterisk: no longer simply best friend, but best friend, camboy. Best friend, stripper. Best friend, seductress. Best friend, whore.
“I’m gonna get another cup of coffee.”
Viktor jumped as Jayce pushed his chair back.
“Okay,” he said, and gave himself a little shake before looking up in case any trace of his thoughts still lingered on his face.
Jayce picked up his phone from the table. “You want anything?”
“Uh.” Viktor blinked dumbly at him for a moment. “Sure.”
Jayce waited.
“Coffee,” Viktor added. “Whatever you’re getting, just– I’ll have the same.”
“Done.” Jayce paused to look at him more closely. “You okay?”
“Yeah.” Viktor shook his head. “Yeah, I’m fine, just…” he waved a hand at his textbook, “Selenium.”
Jayce snorted. “Fucking Selenium.” He reached across the table to ruffle Viktor’s hair, then stuck that hand in his pocket, the other already tapping away at his phone. “Back in a minute.”
Viktor waited until he could no longer see the back of Jayce’s head through the library doors, then slid his phone out of his pocket. There was a message waiting.
TheHammer: Oh my GOD no I hadn’t! That is crazy.
MechanicalKitten: tag urself i’m “titillating telethon”
TheHammer: I’m “haute couture lingerie”
MechanicalKitten: lmaooo that bit made me laugh
MechanicalKitten: like is the haute couture lingerie in the room with us now? cause these panties cost ten bucks a pair
TheHammer: LOL
TheHammer: I wanna know how they can be so sure my abs are rock hard. I could have drawn them on with my sister’s makeup, they don’t know.
MechanicalKitten: they asked your huge… anvil
TheHammer: That’s the kind of high-quality journalism I respect.
MechanicalKitten: lolll
MechanicalKitten: so are u gonna stream tonight?
TheHammer: I sure am. Are you gonna donate the same hundred bucks we’ve been passing back and forth all week?
MechanicalKitten: i sure am lmao
MechanicalKitten: u know that $100 loses 7% of its value every time we send it
TheHammer: Yeah it’s worth like 65 bucks now
MechanicalKitten: capitalism
TheHammer: Fucking capitalism.
Viktor startled as a coffee cup appeared in front of him with a clack. He scrambled his phone off the table and into his lap, looking up with an expression that he hoped resembled gratitude rather than pure unadulterated panic.
“Thanks,” he wheezed. “Coffee. Thanks.”
“No problem.” Jayce, thankfully, was too busy juggling his own phone with the cardboard coffee tray to pay any attention to what Viktor’s face was doing. “You made any progress with Selenium?”
“No,” Viktor sighed. “I might just have to look at it with fresh eyes tomorrow.”
Jayce, settled in the seat opposite once more, reached out under the table with one foot to nudge Viktor’s ankle. “New perspective is never a bad idea.”
· · ─ · ☆ ᓚᘏᗢ ☆ · ─ · ·
TheHammer: BTW, it occurred to me – how are we gonna recognise each other tomorrow?
MechanicalKitten: u mean u don’t intend to show up shirtless on an anvil?
TheHammer: I mean I COULD. I just worry you might be cold in your ten dollar haute couture undies.
MechanicalKitten: lmao
TheHammer: Should I just text you what I’m wearing?
TheHammer: Or maybe we should bring something to identify ourselves with. Like the whole “white rose on the table” thing they do in movies.
MechanicalKitten: i like that idea
TheHammer: Why thank you
MechanicalKitten: bring that fuckass duck lol
· · ─ · ☆ ᓚᘏᗢ ☆ · ─ · ·
In spite of their meeting not being until seven in the evening, Viktor spent the whole of Saturday doing absolutely nothing other than waiting for it. He packed and repacked his bag, making sure he had his laptop, his camera, the chargers for both, his tripod, his costume, tape for his mask, an extra set of lingerie, a hairbrush, a toothbrush, deodorant, painkillers, an extra EpiPen just in case – some of this stuff was downright unnecessary, but Viktor was channelling a level of preparedness that would put any Terrascout troop to shame. His old lapel mic set, for instance, was absolutely superfluous to requirements now that he had a decent camera with a good built-in mic, but he packed it anyway. He’d just restrung his mask last week, but he still threw the roll of elastic in next to his spare inhaler. By the time he forced himself to stop, his laptop bag was bulging and his backpack would barely close.
The stuffed mouse he kept in the pocket of his jacket, partly so he would be able to retrieve it easily in order to identify himself to TheHammer and partly because holding onto it felt like the only thing keeping him grounded.
In his determination not to be late, he managed to overshoot in the other direction. When he stepped off the bus, it was barely six-thirty.
“Oh boy,” he whispered, staring up at the ornate facade of the hotel, “here we go.”
He flicked open his DMs to make absolutely sure he was in the right place.
TheHammer: Bayview Hotel, 7pm? We can meet in the bar. I’ll be the one with the fuckass duck on my table.
MechanicalKitten: i’ll be the one carrying around a cat toy that’s never been touched by feline paws in its life
He was ridiculously early, so rather than messaging TheHammer that he was here and making him feel like he needed to rush, he decided to just go inside and wait in the bar. Maybe he’d get a drink to dull the edge of anxiety currently slicing his stomach in half.
When he stepped through the gilded front doors and saw the banner stretched across the lobby, though, that knife-edge turned to a chainsaw.
Welcome, Innovators’ Conference Attendees!
Oh, fuck. Oh, FUCK. He’d completely forgotten about the conference. Had he known they were holding it at the Bayview? That suddenly seemed like something he should have checked.
All his nervousness about meeting TheHammer vanished, abruptly replaced by the gripping fear of running into his classmates, or his professors, or one of the physicists whose labs he’d visited over the summer while trying to figure out what the fuck he wanted to actually do with his degree. Dressed in jeans and a sweater and carrying an overflowing backpack, he was very obviously not here for the conference, and he didn’t want to have to explain his presence now to anybody who might have noticed his absence earlier.
But it was getting into the evening, he reasoned. The last of the panels would have finished over an hour ago, and the only people still here would be the out-of-towners staying at the hotel, most of whom would probably be only too happy to be focused on other things.
Still, he thought, as he skirted around the edge of the lobby, he could only hope he didn’t cross paths with Heimerdinger doing his typical postdoc hobnobbing in the bar.
Sidling through the swing doors, Viktor did a visual sweep of the bar. He didn’t expect TheHammer to be here yet, given that he was still a good twenty-five minutes early, but he peered nonetheless at every stranger sitting alone. No rubber demon ducks. That was okay. He’d grab himself a drink and find a corner in which to bide his time.
The bartop itself wasn’t particularly busy – only a few groups of two and three dotted along the stools, plus one man standing at the end waiting for the bartender’s attention. Viktor stepped up beside him to join the queue, and the man, sensing his presence, glanced at him over his shoulder.
Shit.
He’d been worried about running into Heimerdinger. He hadn’t even considered running into Jayce.
“Viktor!” Jayce gaped at him. “What are you doing here? I thought you had plans.”
Oh, God. Viktor had no script for this.
“I… do.”
Jayce glanced down at the overstuffed laptop bag in Viktor’s hand, then up at the backpack slung over his shoulder, and something like concern edged in between his brows. Ah, fuck. Viktor knew exactly what this looked like. He’d told Jayce he had plans, and now here he was showing up at a hotel bar with this much stuff? Jayce probably thought he was here for a date – one he anticipated turning into an overnight stay.
Viktor felt the flush in his own cheeks, and saw Jayce see it, and knew it did absolutely nothing to dispel the assumption Jayce was currently making about his sex life. He couldn’t exactly clarify, though, could he? Don’t worry, Jayce, I’m not here to move way too fast on a first date, I’m actually meeting a stranger off the internet so we can film a raunchy video together for a sex site! It’s okay, though, we’re doing it for the kids.
Instead, he cleared his throat and said, “What about you? Did you manage to wrangle a successful scientist or two for drinks?”
“Ah–” Jayce’s grin looked almost sheepish enough to be a wince. “No, no, nothing like that. I’m just, ah… just grabbing a soda before I head home.”
“Oh. Cool.”
They stood there for a minute, just staring at each other. Viktor’s stomach, having been successfully shredded to panicked ribbons, was now congealing into a cold lump of dread. This was awful. He knew he was acting like an awkward mess, and Jayce must be wondering what was up with him, but he just couldn’t figure out how to extract himself from this situation without either hurting Jayce’s feelings or telling him why he was really here. It wasn’t like he could just walk away and sit at a table by himself when his best friend was standing right there. What was he gonna do, say, “It was cool running into you, but I actually want you to leave me alone and pretend you don’t know me tonight, okay great see you on Monday!”?
He had to get some distance between them, though. If TheHammer showed up and he was still standing here talking to Jayce, he would have to introduce them, and explain who they each were, and once he started letting his real life bleed into MechanicalKitten there would be no stopping it, and then there would be people who knew that MechanicalKitten’s real name was Viktor, and real people who knew that Viktor was MechanicalKitten, and the two would start to seep together until one day he’d find himself applying for a research grant and have to explain why he’d spent his entire university career slutting around on the internet for money, and he couldn’t say because they wouldn’t give me a student allowance since I was already on disability, but they also wouldn’t let me give up my disability and just get the student allowance even though that would have given me more money, but also even if they had I wouldn’t have been able to live off that anyway because I couldn’t work a part time job like everybody else on account of being disabled, so I was kind of stuck and this was the only way I could earn some extra money without affecting my disability entitlement, given that it was sort of under the table and all, and I only meant to do a couple of tasteful videos and just use the ad revenue for groceries or whatever but then it turned out in order to make any real money off it I needed to do livestreams, and people don’t give you money in your livestreams unless you’re doing something sexy, and then as time went on I had to do more and more sexy livestreams because the cost of living went up but my disability benefit didn’t, and it all just kind of snowballed–
“Viktor, are you okay?”
Viktor reeled back a step, blinking away the speckles at the edges of his vision until Jayce’s worried face came into focus in front of him.
“Fine,” he gasped. “I just– I need to pee.”
Swinging himself around like a wrecking ball, he stumbled away towards the toilets, the momentum of his overladen bags carrying him forward until at last the heavy washroom door was hissing shut behind him and he could slump down onto the couch by the sinks and just breathe.
“Are you okay, darling?”
Viktor glanced up and was startled to see a woman drying her hands at the sinks. He baulked, and had his mouth half open to ask her what she was doing in the men’s washroom when it clicked that he hadn’t noticed a wall of urinals on his way in, and that this therefore might not actually be the men’s washroom.
“Oh my god,” he gasped, “I’m so sorry– I–” he scrambled to his feet, struggling against the weight of his bags, his cane skidding against the tiled floor and almost sending him down on his ass.
“Hey, hey, it’s okay!” She reached out to steady him with a hand under one elbow. “You’re alright, sweetheart. Are you okay?”
“I– yeah, I– well, no–”
“Here.” She guided him back down onto the couch and coaxed his backpack off his shoulders. “It’s okay. Nobody minds you being in here. Just take a breath. Do you need some water?”
Viktor blinked past her to see a second woman holding out a bottle of water from the basket on the counter. Fucking fancy hotels, his brain supplied distantly. He’d bet he and TheHammer could order some fantastic room service later – if he could manage to get his shit together in time to keep their appointment.
“Thanks,” he mumbled, taking the bottle and pawing uselessly at the lid until the first woman gently extracted it from his shaking hands to uncap it for him.
“Has something happened, sweetheart?” Her eyes were so warm and concerned as she watched him chug half the bottle. “Do you need us to call someone for you?”
Viktor gave a gurgle of helpless laughter. The “someone” he would expect anybody to call for him was already standing at the bar, driving his current predicament.
“No,” he shook his head, “no, I’m just– two parts of my life are colliding in a way I really wish they wouldn’t.”
The women just nodded encouragingly. There were three of them, he realised, three women standing at the sinks that he’d just burst in on like a tornado.
“I’m supposed to meet someone,” he explained. “I’m supposed to meet him in the bar, but now my best friend is there and– and they can’t meet, I can’t– I don’t know what to do, they can’t–”
“Ah.” The first woman exchanged a knowing look with the second. “I see. Is the person you’re meeting there now too?”
Viktor shook his head. “No, he hasn’t– he’s not here yet, I’m really early, so–”
“Then why don’t you hang out in here for a while?” the third woman suggested as she recapped her lipstick. “We’ll keep you company for a bit, won’t we?”
“Absolutely,” the first woman agreed. “Hey, what a great excuse not to have to go rejoin the self-congratulatory boys’ club for a bit longer.”
The second woman snorted. “They all think they’re ‘innovators’ just for putting their pants on in the morning.”
Viktor’s heart gave another frightened little squeeze. “You’re here for the conference?”
“We are!” The first woman’s smile brightened a notch. “You’re familiar with it?”
“Yeah, I– I was kind of supposed to go.”
“You’re a scientist?” the second woman asked.
“Yeah. Well, kind of– I’m in my final year at PiltU.”
“Oh, congratulations.”
Viktor tried for a smile, but by the time it made it onto his face it felt more like a grimace. “Thanks.”
“Lest went to PiltU, didn’t you, Lest?”
Lest, having traded her lipstick for a powder puff, caught his eye in the mirror and gave him a conspiratorial smile. “Only for my Masters. Years ago, now.”
“I hear their chemistry department is excellent,” the second woman supplied, perching on the couch next to Viktor’s bags. “Mel and I were just talking to one of their professors earlier.”
“We were,” Mel agreed. “A Dr. Heimerdinger, I believe.”
“Heimer–” Viktor gasped. “That’s my professor. You can’t– please don’t tell him you saw me here–”
“Of course not,” Mel soothed. “How would we do that when we don’t even know your name?” She gave him a little wink. “Chemistry isn’t our area, anyway. We wouldn’t recognise his students if we saw them.”
Viktor swallowed the fist gripping his throat and tried to come up with a normal response to that. “What’s your area?”
“I’m a vulcanologist,” Mel said, “and Elora works in biosustainability.”
“Lest is on the cutting edge of prosthetic technology,” Elora supplied.
“Oh shush, I am not.” Lest dropped her compact back into her purse and retrieved a monitor pen, which she proceeded to stick her finger with. “Nothing I do is particularly groundbreaking, I’m just figuring out ways to do it more efficiently, that’s all.”
“She’s being humble,” Mel said. “Her work is going to be life-saving.”
“If I can get it off the ground, which is just a little bit hard to achieve when you only work with non-profits,” Lest muttered, scrutinising the display on her pen for a moment before recapping it and returning it to her purse. “I could be so rich by now if I just sold out to the man.”
Elora leaned forward to raise an eyebrow at her in the mirror. “What do we say about selling out to the man?”
“That he already has his share, and mine isn’t for sale.”
Viktor found that he was grinning in spite of himself, his chest loosening by degrees as he shuffled over to make room for Mel to sit next to him on the couch.
“Do you ever do any work with SuperShoes?” he asked Lest.
“Hopefully,” she said, “if they can find some funding to throw my way.” Glancing over, she gave him an appraising look. “You’ve heard of SuperShoes?”
“Yeah, I–” he glanced down at his cane. “I was one of their kids, about fifteen years ago.”
“Oh, no way!” Lest turned to look at him properly. “Prosthetics, or–?”
“No, no. Braces and crutches, mostly. And some surgery. But mainly the braces.”
“Nice.” She gave him another one of those knowing grins. “Good to see their work has endured.”
“Ha, yeah.” He returned her smile, and found it came easily. “Good luck with your project.”
“Thanks. Fingers crossed I actually get paid for it.”
He couldn’t say I’ll do my best to help with that, so instead he just grinned and checked his phone.
“Oh–” It was almost seven. “I should go.”
Mel helped him stand. “Are you feeling a bit better about everything?”
“Yeah.” Viktor squared his shoulders. “My friend said he was about to head home, so. He should be gone by now.”
“Good.” Elora helped him on with his backpack. “Do you want us to walk you out, just in case?”
“No, that’s alright,” he shook his head. “I’ll be okay. Thank you. And sorry, again, for, y’know… coming in here.”
“Don’t even worry about that,” Mel said.
“You don’t look at all out of place to me,” added Lest, which for some reason made Elora laugh.
“Good luck with your meeting tonight,” Mel said, clasping his shoulder. “If something doesn’t feel right and you need an out, just ask the front desk to call Dr. Medarda.”
“Okay,” he nodded, and then again, “okay,” as she pulled him into a brief, fierce hug.
“Go get ’em, tiger,” Lest said, and curled her fingers into claws in a way that made Viktor feel oddly like he was looking into a mirror.
The first thing Viktor noticed when he stepped out of the bathroom was how much busier the bar was. Great, he groaned to himself, so much for the whole discreet rendezvous thing. The room was so thick with bodies that he could no longer see clear across it; he would have to walk past every table in order to check for rubber ducks.
That plan was slightly diverted by the second thing he noticed, which was Jayce sitting at a table in the corner.
Fuck, Viktor grimaced, what happened to heading home? He’d never thought he would be anything less than thrilled to see Jayce Talis, but here they were. It was seven o’clock, TheHammer would be here any minute, and Jayce just would not leave.
He had to juggle his laptop bag into the same hand as his cane in order to pull out his phone, and he was just about to open up his DMs and ask TheHammer to meet him in the lobby instead when Jayce shifted in his seat, his hand coming up to smooth back his hair, and Viktor saw it: on the table in front of him, cradled between his wrists as if for protection, a little demon-horned rubber duck.
Viktor’s first, nonsensical thought was, What are the odds?
His second thought was the realisation of exactly what the odds were.
His third thought was that his life had been nice while it lasted, and he would certainly try to remember it fondly once he had to run away and live as a hermit in a wooden hut in the Ionian mountains somewhere.
There were no further thoughts after that, because the static that filled his brain left no room for them. Instead, his feet carried him without any conscious choice across the room to Jayce’s table.
Jayce looked up as Viktor came to a halt at his side, and his face flashed through surprise and something that might have been fear before settling on a pained grimace, like he was trying to come up with the least assholish way to ask Viktor to leave him alone. Viktor, who had already been through this dilemma half an hour ago and still had no idea what the right answer would be, did not give Jayce the chance to test out any of the wrong ones. Instead of speaking, he reached into his pocket, pulled out the little stuffed mouse, and set it on the table next to the duck.
There was a moment of absolute silence. Jayce stared at the mouse, and Viktor stared at Jayce, and the Ionian mountains beckoned like a siren song.
“Oh,” said Jayce, and finally raised his eyes to meet Viktor’s. “… Fuck.”
“I think,” said Viktor, “that we should have this conversation somewhere a little more private.”
· · ─ · ☆ ᓚᘏᗢ ☆ · ─ · ·
It was a silent ride up in the elevator; a silent walk down the hallway; a silent minute spent leaning on his cane while Jayce convinced the scanner to accept his key card. It wasn’t until the door was shut behind them and Viktor had set his bags down on the table that Jayce said, “What the fuck.”
Viktor chanced a look back at him. Jayce stood by the foot of the bed, one hand on his hip, the other pressed to his forehead like he was trying to hold his brain in place.
“I…”
“What the fuck,” Jayce repeated.
“Yeah.”
Jayce looked up at him, frowning. “You’re MechanicalKitten?”
Viktor shrugged. “Meow?”
Jayce gaped at him, mouth open. Then he gave a little huff, which turned into a hiccup, and then suddenly he was laughing, his face in his hands as his shoulders shook with helpless, sobbing giggles.
“Are… you okay?”
Hands still pressed over his eyes, Jayce shook his head. “No, Viktor. No, I’m not– I’m so not okay, I’m–” another burst of hysterical laughter, “this is fucking ridiculous. What are we gonna do? We’re supposed to stream in less than an hour!”
Viktor frowned. “We can’t cancel the stream.”
Jayce lifted his head out of his hands to give him an incredulous look. “You can’t seriously want to go ahead with it.”
“We have to.” Viktor spread his hands. “Jayce, it’s for charity. Backing out now would make us the biggest assholes in the world, and I don’t know about you but I literally cannot afford to become a pariah on FanStarz.”
“God.” Jayce dropped his face into his palms again, then slid his fingers into his hair and tugged at it. “God, you’re right. Fuck. Okay.” He straightened up and gave himself a shake, bouncing on the balls of his feet as if warming up for a high dive. “Man, I have so many questions.”
“Same.” Viktor offered him a rueful smile. “Let’s answer them while we get ready.”
Top of Jayce’s list seemed to be:
“Why MechanicalKitten?”
“Huh?” Viktor frowned at himself in the bathroom mirror. “You mean why the catboy act itself, or why did I pick that name?”
“Both, I guess.”
Viktor gave a thoughtful hum as he brushed his hair. “The name came first. It was my old gamer tag, back in the day – mechanical cause of the pins and braces, and kitten cause– well, there was a joke at my school that I was a cat, long story, but anyway, that’s where it came from. And then when I started streaming, I used that name, and I guess it just kind of evolved? Maybe because there was already that running joke about being a cat. Initially it was just the hoodie and a mask, and then I kind of leaned into it and got an actual cat mask, and then it turned into the whole lacy lingerie thing–”
“Yeah, I remember.”
Mask halfway on, Viktor paused.
“What?”
“I said, I remember.”
“Remember what?”
“Your early streams, when you had the plain white mask.”
Viktor stared at his own half-hidden face, mouth working around empty air.
“… Viktor?”
“How long have you been watching my videos, Jayce?”
“Um.”
“Jayce.”
Jayce’s voice was sheepish. “Since, like… first year of university?”
Viktor had to lean forward, bracing his palms against the edge of the sink to hold his weight. “What.”
“Yeah, I– I wasn’t kidding when I said I always watch your streams.”
“And you never figured out it was me?!”
“No!” Jayce cried. “Should I have? Were you trying to be recognisable?”
“I– no, but– you’re my best friend–”
“And you’re mine, and yet you didn’t recognise TheHammer as me either.”
“Well I wouldn’t have expected you to–”
“Be doing the exact same thing you were doing?”
Viktor snorted. “Okay, fair point.” Picking up the roll of tape to secure his mask, “Why TheHammer, anyway? Just leaning into the closest available niche?”
“Nah, it’s a Doctor Horrible reference.”
“Huh?”
“These are not the hammer,” Jayce said. “The hammer is my penis.”
There was a moment of silence while that sank in.
“Oh my God,” Viktor said. “You absolute nerd.”
Jayce gave a bark of laughter, and Viktor couldn’t help but join him, chuckling to himself as he pressed the mask against his cheeks and, with a smile to check, returned to the bedroom.
“What a couple of– woah.”
While Viktor had been in the bathroom, an anvil had materialised at the foot of the bed.
“Woah,” Jayce echoed, except he was looking at Viktor.
“What?” Viktor glanced down at himself, expecting to see some sort of wardrobe malfunction. But no, everything was in place, and the brand-new mint green bralette fit just as well as it had when he’d agonised over it at the mall yesterday. He did have just a little bit of tape peeking out from under the edge of his panties, though. He grabbed his nail scissors to trim it off.
“Huh,” Jayce muttered.
“What’s up?” Patting the tape back into place, Viktor leaned over to drop the offcut into the bin.
“No, I just–” Jayce shook his head, “I dunno why I always assumed you were trans.”
Viktor looked back at him with a frown. “Huh?” There was no way, after three years of friendship, that Jayce thought–
“No, not–” Jayce waved his hands in front of him, “not you as in Viktor, you as in MechanicalKitten. Although I guess that’s a dumb thing to say now that I know Viktor is MechanicalKitten– I mean, now that I know that you, Viktor, are–”
“I got it,” Viktor smirked. “No, I just have a really solid tuck.” He considered Jayce for a moment, hands on his hips. “Interesting. You really thought Kitten was a trans guy?”
“Yeah, I mean,” Jayce shrugged, “you had the whole smooth, androgynous look going on. And the voice.”
“What, this voice?” Viktor tipped up into his higher register, then laughed as Jayce’s jaw dropped. “What? Does it sound different in person?”
“I–” Jayce shook his head dazedly. “I did not know you could do that. I would have thought it was a modulator.”
“Oh yeah?” Viktor cocked his head. “Is that what you use?”
It was Jayce’s turn to give him a disbelieving look. “You really think I can make my voice that low?”
“Your voice is kinda twinky.”
“Wh– hey!”
Viktor laughed, then promptly choked on it as Jayce picked up the anvil and set it down by the windows.
“What–”
Jayce glanced back and, seeing Viktor’s expression, chuckled.
“It’s not a real anvil.”
“Yeah, I can see that.” Viktor crossed the room to take a closer look. Even up close, it looked like solid iron. When he touched it, though, the surface was ever so slightly yielding.
“Foam and plywood,” Jayce volunteered. “Layers and layers of compressed foam glued together around a wooden support, then shaped, sanded, painted, and sealed.” He reached out and gave it a pat. “Took me weeks to make, but so worth it. It’s sturdy enough to sit on without being too heavy to move.”
“Damn,” Viktor whistled. “Is it sturdy enough for two people to sit on?”
“We’ll be fine, you weigh nothing.”
“Excuse me–!”
The protest died in his throat as Jayce bent down and scooped him up off the floor, hoisting him into his arms with a little bounce before setting him down on the anvil.
“Yeah, that won’t be a problem,” Jayce declared.
“I– Jayce!”
“What?” Jayce raised an eyebrow. “You don’t want TheHammer to throw you around anymore?”
“I– that–”
“Speaking of,” Jayce added, with a glance at his watch, “we should get a move on.”
“Right.” Viktor gave himself a shake as he slid off the anvil. “Uh. Let me grab my camera and everything. You’re cool if we stream from my account?”
“Yeah, that’s fine.” Jayce shrugged. “It’s your turn anyway, right?”
“Ha. I suppose so.”
“Hm.” Jayce cocked his head thoughtfully. “I guess only one of us is gonna get to talk, huh?”
Viktor unzipped his laptop bag and began unloading its contents onto the bed. “What do you mean?”
“Well I can’t make my voice that deep on my own, and I’m guessing you don’t want my modulator on your voice.”
“Oh.” Viktor dragged a chair over to set his laptop on. “I had a thought about that, actually. Gimme a sec, you finish getting ready.”
By the time he had everything set up and plugged in, Jayce had returned from the bathroom wearing his shiny leather pants and nothing else.
“Janna,” Viktor muttered, glancing at him. “They really are rock hard.”
Jayce just laughed, tossing his clothes onto the bed and plopping down on the end of it to watch Viktor open up his streaming lab. “Okay, so what’s your idea?”
“Here.” Viktor held out one of the pair of lapel mics. “If we run our voices through separate inputs, we can apply the mod just to yours.”
“Oh, neat.” Jayce took the mic and unwound the cord from around the battery pack. “Good thinking. How do I attach this?”
Viktor glanced up at Jayce, who was considering his own naked chest, and snorted a laugh. “I’ve got tape. Unless you want to clip it into your hair or something.”
“Actually, I have an idea.” Jayce turned to the suitcase sitting open in the corner and began digging through it. “I was thinking– since I usually just frame my head out, but it’ll be tricky to try and figure out my guide light with your setup, and you want to have your whole face in frame anyway–” he turned around holding a black bandit mask, “I could wear this.”
“Oh my god,” Viktor grinned. “Your fans are gonna freak.”
“TheHammer chin reveal,” Jayce winked as he tied the straps behind his head. “What do you think, could we attach that microphone to this?”
“Hell yeah.” Viktor beckoned him to lean down so he could clip the lapel mic into place just forward of Jayce’s ear. “There. I can tape the wire to your back so it doesn’t come loose.”
“Awesome. God, you’re good at this.”
“It’s almost like I do it for a living or something.”
Jayce gave a good-natured roll of his eyes as he settled back on the bed, leaning on his hands to watch Viktor work.
“We should probably figure out what we’re actually gonna do, huh?” he said after a minute. “In the stream.”
Viktor shot him a glance. “I guess so, yeah.”
Jayce huffed a bashful little laugh. “I had all these ideas, but…”
“But you probably don’t want to do those with me.”
“Well it’s not that I don’t want to do them, it’s just…” Jayce shrugged. “I don’t want you to feel uncomfortable.” At Viktor’s raised eyebrow, he hunched his shoulders around his ears. “I dunno, it’s different when it’s your best friend and not…”
“Not some random floozy off the internet?”
Jayce snorted. “If that’s the term you prefer.”
Viktor grabbed the tripod to angle it towards the anvil. “Well, let’s start with what people are expecting us to do. Can you close the curtains so we have a solid background? Thanks. Like what have we teased for this stream? Because we should probably still do those things.”
“Uh.” Jayce winced. “I believe I said I was gonna cover you in oil and then… lick it off?”
Viktor gave a sharp nod. “Okay.”
“What– okay? Okay, you’re cool with that? How is this not super fucking weird to you, Viktor?”
“Jayce.” Viktor turned to face him. “This is incredibly fucking weird. I’m having my entire world rocked in about three different ways at once, and we are definitely gonna have to unpack some stuff later, but right now we are doing this stream whether we like it or not, so either we kill the awkwardness or it kills us.” Grabbing Jayce’s hands, he planted them on his waist. “You’d best get comfortable here, cause I am not losing my best friend over this.”
He held Jayce’s upturned, floundering gaze for the entire ten seconds it took his hands to relax in Viktor’s grasp, the tension softening by degrees until his warm palms finally moulded to the shape of Viktor’s hips without resistance.
“Okay,” Jayce whispered, and with a shuddering sigh he leaned forward to rest his forehead against the gauzy trim of Viktor’s mint green bralette. “Okay. We can do this.”
“If it helps,” Viktor said, “think of it like different people. We’re not Jayce and Viktor tonight. We’re TheHammer and MechanicalKitten. Just– think of Kitten like you’ve always thought of Kitten.”
Jayce gave a slightly hysterical gasp of laughter. “You don’t even want to know some of the things I’ve thought about Kitten. God, I’m gonna have to go back to therapy.”
Viktor patted the back of Jayce’s head. “Like I said – much to unpack. We’ll be okay. Hey, Jayce– look at me.” He waited for Jayce to lift his head, his chin replacing his forehead against Viktor’s solar plexus. “I trust you. You know that, right?” At Jayce’s uncertain nod, Viktor brushed a hand back through his hair, thumbing the edge of the bandit mask where it half-hid the anxious crease in Jayce’s forehead. “I mean it. Jayce, there are precisely two people in the world who are allowed to just casually touch my cane; one of them birthed me, and the other is you. I already trust you with my body. This is just a different, slightly weirder iteration of that.”
Jayce’s nod was a fraction surer this time, and something like a smile twitched through the very corner of his mouth as he looked up at Viktor. “Only slightly weirder, though.”
“Only slightly.”
With a sigh, Jayce stood and patted Viktor’s shoulders. “Alright. We can do this.”
He turned to their set and considered it for a moment, then, with a little “ah,” went to the suitcase in the corner and pulled out a thick wad of plastic sheeting.
“So the hotel doesn’t kill me for getting oil on their carpet,” he explained as he unfolded it.
“Right.” Viktor watched him manoeuvre it into place under the anvil. “Oh yeah, can I look at the oil you’re using? I wanna make sure it won’t kill me.”
“It won’t.” Jayce nodded towards the suitcase anyway. “It’s just almond oil.”
“Huh. Really?”
Jayce shrugged. “It was the only kind I could stand to smell on myself for days afterwards. You can check it if you want, but I already made sure it doesn’t have lavender or anything else fancy added to it.”
Viktor, digging through the suitcase for the oil, paused. “You did? Why?”
Jayce just shrugged again. “I don’t own things you’re allergic to,” was all he said.
When they had their shot framed, their props set, the timer counting down and Viktor’s laptop plugged into the hotel’s massive TV screen so they could watch the chat flood with excitement, they turned to give themselves a last once-over in the mirror on the closet door.
“Mask feeling secure?” Viktor asked, tucking his medical alert bracelet away beneath his wristband.
Jayce scrunched his nose and raised his eyebrows. “Yep. Hey, I want us to have a way for you to tell me to cool it if you need to – some kind of code that basically says ‘back off’ without worrying about what the chat will think.”
Viktor raised an eyebrow at him in the mirror as he zipped up his fluffy hoodie. “Like a safeword?”
“Sure, I guess. I just– I agree with you about us being Hamm and Kitten for this. But you are still Viktor, and at the end of the night I don’t want you to hate Jayce. So if I do something you don’t like–”
“I’ll hiss at you,” Viktor suggested. “How about that?”
Jayce met his reflection’s eye, and returned his grin without hesitation. “Works for me.”
· · ─ · ☆ ᓚᘏᗢ ☆ · ─ · ·
“Hi, friends! Oh my goodness, I don’t think I’ve ever seen so many of you at once. Hi! Hello, everyone! Thank you all for coming to hang out tonight. I hope you all brought lots of treats, because this is a very special stream to raise money for lots of little kittens who are even hungrier than me.” Viktor tucked his feet up beside him. “So please be your most generous selves! Everything we raise tonight, no matter how much or how little, is going straight to SuperShoes.”
DONATION: $85
ARE WE NOT GONNA TALK ABOUT WHAT HE’S SITTING ON
“Treats already! Thank you, thank you. ‘Are we not gonna talk about what he’s sitting on?’ Oh, you mean this?” Viktor patted the anvil. “I maaay have broken into somebody’s workshop this evening.” He bit the tip of one claw. “Oopsie.”
“Hey!” Jayce, leaning against the far wall, uncrossed his arms and schooled his grin into something sterner as he strode into the frame. “I thought I heard someone in here.”
Viktor batted his eyelashes. “Hi, Hammer.”
“Why am I not surprised to find a naughty Kitten in my workshop?” Jayce planted his hands on his hips. “You’re in my seat.”
“Am I?” Viktor looked down at the anvil, then back up at Jayce.
“You are.”
“Hmm.” Viktor cocked his head. “What are you gonna do about that?”
chat it’s happening IT’S HAPPENING
FUCK HIM ON THE ANVIL HAMM
DONATION: $200
Pound! That!! Cat!!!
The flex of Jayce’s biceps was all the warning Viktor got. Stepping forward, Jayce scooped him up, sweeping Viktor into his arms as if he weighed nothing at all.
YAAASSSS MANHANDLE HIM
this is the kind of twink abuse i come here for
I’m sobbinggg
and when i say come, i do mean that literally
Jayce sat down side-saddle, one knee drawn up onto the anvil in front of him, and settled Viktor in his lap.
“Oh,” Viktor gasped, and the shock was only half-faked. He’d expected Jayce to push him around a bit tonight. He hadn’t expected him to come right out of the gate and sweep him off his feet, much less immediately plant Viktor’s essentially bare ass right down on his thick, black-leathered thighs.
Holy fuck holy fuck
hAMMER FACE??
DONATION: $25
hammer you’re so handsome
“‘Hammer, you’re so handsome,’” Viktor breathed.
“Why thank you, Kitten.”
“It– it’s the–” Viktor pointed at the TV, “the chat.”
“Oh?” Jayce turned to look at the screen. “What’s going on in the chat? Are they all jealous that I have such a sweet, pretty Kitten in my lap?”
DONATION: $100
this is everything I dreamed it would be
YES HAMM I’M JEALOUS AS FUCK
I wanna be part of that hamm sandwich
kiss him Hamm I’m so serious
“‘This is everything I dreamed it would be,’” Viktor read. “Thank you for the treats, everyone. Wow. I’m– the chat is moving so fast, I’m sorry if we can’t keep up with it. I’ll try my best to read every donation.”
DONATION: $35
it’s ok kitten hamm deserves your full attention
“Yes, I do,” Jayce said, before Viktor could read out the comment. “I want you focused on me.” He pointed at his own eyes, “Right here.”
Viktor turned to look at him, and found himself instantly locked into a tractor beam of cool, smouldering hazel. He couldn’t have looked away if he’d tried.
“Okay,” he whispered, and the smug grin that stole across Jayce’s face was devastating.
“Now what should I do with a naughty Kitten that broke into my workshop?” Jayce mused. “What do we think, crew? ‘Spank him’? Really?”
Jayce glanced at Viktor, and there was a question in his eyes. Viktor, who had never wanted anything less, bared his teeth and gave a little hiss.
“I don’t think I could bring myself to spank such a beautiful Kitten,” Jayce continued, one hand giving a grateful pat against the small of Viktor’s back as he returned to the chat. “Even if he is very naughty. ‘Flatten that cat, Hamm.’ Oh, don’t you worry. By the end of the night, this Kitten will be well and truly pounded.”
He rolled his hips as he said it. Viktor squeaked, his heart jumping into his throat, and dove face-first into Jayce’s shoulder to hide the sudden flush burning his cheeks.
There was something about hearing TheHammer’s lines in Jayce’s real voice. Viktor had thought it was hot when TheHammer had singled him out on his livestreams, faceless and filtered. But having the words spoken directly into his ear, no longer in TheHammer’s gravelly baritone but in Jayce’s smooth, warm tenor instead… Viktor’s stomach tangled into a new knot with every breath.
“Oh, we’ve made him shy.” Jayce’s hand settled on the back of Viktor’s head, stroking gently through his hair and down his neck. “Pspsps, c’mon Kitten.”
Viktor raised his eyes to peek up at Jayce, who looked way more amused than he had any right to be. Viktor didn’t trust his voice to come out steady, so instead of trying to read the chat or address anything Jayce had relayed from it he closed his eyes and bumped his head into Jayce’s palm.
“Ohhh, snuggly Kitten,” Jayce cooed. “Do you need to be petted? ‘Make some Hammer biscuits, Kitten.’ Mmm, I agree.”
Okay. That he could do. Viktor lifted his hands, which in the long sleeves of his hoodie were already more paws than anything. The only spot he really had to put them was Jayce’s chest. That seemed like a safe choice, anyway – at least until he shook back his sleeves and placed his palms to Jayce’s skin, at which point he abruptly found himself with two handfuls of smooth, tempered bronze, furnace-hot and already shining with the first hint of sweat.
You wanted to get handsy with TheHammer, his brain supplied. Your wish has been granted – now get on with it.
“Oh,” he murmured, “such big muscles.” Tentatively, he dug his fingers into Jayce’s skin. Yep. Definitely rock-hard. “Big and strong.” He began to knead at Jayce’s pecs, curling his fingers in on every press to feel the minute give of his skin.
“‘This is the hottest thing I’ve ever fucking seen.’ Oh, trust me – we’re only just getting started. Thank you for your donation. What a lovely big treat.”
The way Jayce enunciated the word “treat” felt like a tease, like he was poking fun at Viktor specifically, daring him to react so Jayce could make him beg to be shown what a real treat looked like.
“‘Aren’t you warm, Kitten?’ Hmm.” Jayce ducked his head to look at Viktor’s flushed face. “I think he’s getting there. He might need a couple more treats, though – we’ve got a lot of little kitties to feed off tonight’s stream, so keep those treats coming. ‘How’s–’ Oh. Kitten, look.”
Viktor turned to peer at the screen.
DONATION: $1,000
How’s this for a treat?
He could feel his own jaw hanging slack, his hands frozen on Jayce’s chest, his breath stoppered behind the lump in his throat. One thousand dollars. One thousand dollars.
“Holy shit,” he breathed, and suddenly his eyes were prickling with a sharp warmth that choked anything else he might have said.
“Thank you,” Jayce murmured, and all the teasing was gone, his voice low and sincere as he swept a hand up the length of Viktor’s spine and said, “I am so grateful to you – to all of you – for the help you’re giving to SuperShoes tonight. This cause is so important to me, and I am so thankful to be able to help them in their work.”
Viktor just nodded, his gaze fixed determinedly on the dip at the base of Jayce’s throat. His hands moved almost mechanically on Jayce’s chest, pressing and squeezing, pressing and squeezing, as he blinked back the heat behind his eyes and swallowed it down.
“‘Why SuperShoes?’ That’s a really good question. Hm.” He nudged Viktor’s hip, and when Viktor looked up he found the expression on Jayce’s face was something he couldn’t decipher. “Shall I tell them why I love SuperShoes so much?”
Viktor blinked at him for a moment. Why did Jayce need his permission here? Viktor didn’t own SuperShoes; in fact, they were exactly the kind of underdog group that he would expect Jayce to back, the small-scale, noble mission type of charity that fulfilled his philanthropic urge to give to those with less. Clearing his throat, he nodded. “Sure.”
“Well,” Jayce said, and turned back to the camera, one hand tracing little circles on the small of Viktor’s back, “once upon a time there was a little boy. He was so kind, and so clever, and so full of potential, but he was also very poor, and on top of that he was very sick. Some of it was because his mother had been sick while she was carrying him, but a lot of it was just bad luck – just sickness that he was born with, that many people are born with regardless of who their parents are or what circumstances they’re in.
“And if that boy had been the son of a rich family, they would have been able to get him the operations and interventions he needed right when they first realised there was a problem. But his parents were so poor that they could barely afford to eat some days, and so they couldn’t get their son the treatment he deserved, no matter how much they wanted to. And so the boy’s health got worse, and his body started to fail, and they worried that he might die from his sickness. And there was nothing they could do about it, because they were already spending all the money they had on what little treatment they could afford.”
Viktor’s hands had stopped kneading on Jayce’s chest. Instead, he gripped on for dear life as Jayce spoke in a soft, low voice, his hand never ceasing in its gentle circles across Viktor’s back.
“And then one of the boy’s teachers heard how bad his condition was, and how desperate his parents were, and she reached out to a charity she knew of that wanted to help kids exactly like him. And that charity decided that they needed to help this boy, no matter what. So even though his condition was very bad, and there was a chance he might die anyway, they still got him the surgery he needed, and they made him braces and crutches so he could walk, and they paid for his medicine until he was well enough not to need it anymore. And thanks to their help, he grew up into a young man who is still kind, and still clever, and still full of so much potential that he will now get to realise.
“And that boy is my best friend. He means everything to me, and my life would not be the same without him, and if he had never gotten to grow up and become the man he is then I would never have met him, and so I owe SuperShoes a debt of gratitude for saving his life and giving me the chance to know him. Because I wouldn’t be who I am without him.”
Jayce’s voice shook for the first time, his hand tightening on Viktor’s hip. “I can never thank them enough for the future they gave him. But I can help them give that future to other kids. Because those kids deserve it just as much as he did. And those kids will one day make the world a better place, just like he does.”
Viktor stared at the curtains, his lip between his teeth, his hands curled into claws on Jayce’s chest. You asshole, he thought, you bastard. This is supposed to be a fun, sexy stream, and you’re making me cry instead.
“Oh,” Jayce said. “Thank you all so much. I’m so glad that story resonated with you. ‘Hamm origin story,’ Truly, yes. ‘SuperShoes Hamm perpetual motion machine,’ If you like! I hope we can all one day give back to the causes that have helped us and those we love. ‘Kitten is crying lol.’ Is he?” Jayce leaned back to look at Viktor’s face, still determinedly turned away from the camera. “Hm. Just a little bit.” He lifted a hand, then seemed to realise that with Viktor’s mask taped to his face there was no way to brush away the tears threatening at the dam of his lower lashes. Instead he leaned in and pressed a soft kiss to Viktor’s temple, right above the edge of his mask. “I guess you didn’t realise their work was so personal to me, huh?”
Viktor shook his head. He knew that Jayce knew about Viktor’s history with SuperShoes, of course – he’d told him about the months he’d spent in hospital as a kid, the amount of school he’d had to miss, the novelty of being able to walk upright again for the first time since he could remember. He hadn’t realised that Jayce had taken those stories so much to heart. He hadn’t expected Jayce to comprehend the enormity of the gift SuperShoes had given him. He hadn’t thought that his second-hand memories of experimental surgeries and improbable optimism would qualify the cause to be Jayce’s uncontested charity of choice.
He knew he’d put SuperShoes on Jayce’s radar. He hadn’t realised that he’d put them in his heart.
DONATION: $45
i came here to jerk off, now im crying in the club
It was the first message Viktor saw when he looked back at the screen, and it was enough to send him curling into Jayce’s chest on a wave of helpless laughter, tears flicking against the inside of his mask as he shook his head.
“Okay,” he gasped, sitting up and dabbing through his eyeholes with his little fingers, “so that’s why SuperShoes is such a worthy cause. Now let’s get back to the part of the stream where we actually convince you to donate.”
“Yeah,” Jayce smirked, “enough of the emotional backstory. On with the sexy shit.”
DONATION: $50
thank god i was about to have the saddest wank evr
DONATION: $250
Still waiting for u to pound that cat, Hamm
“The people want me to pound that cat,” Jayce crooned into Viktor’s ear.
“I can see that.” Viktor shivered as Jayce’s nose traced along the elastic of his mask. “So many people giving us so many delicious treats. I’m having such a good time in your workshop, Hammer.”
“Mhm.”
“It’s really warm in here, too.”
OH FUCK YEAH GET NAKED KITTEN
do we think he’s wearing the blue lace
god I hoep so
Viktor reached down to take Jayce’s hand from his knee and bring it up to the zipper of his hoodie. Then he leaned back, bracing his hands behind him on the anvil to lengthen the line of his chest so that Jayce could pull the zipper all the way down in one smooth stroke.
WHAT is that
that ain’t the blue lace
are u kidding its BETTER than the blue lace
“Mmm,” Jayce hummed, “what a pretty Kitten.” Gathering up the hoodie from where it pooled around Viktor’s wrists, he cast it away towards the bed and returned his hands to Viktor’s waist. “So small and dainty. You’re taking a big risk, sneaking in to sit on my anvil being this delicate. I bet I could flatten you with one good pound.”
He rolled his hips under Viktor, who was ready for it this time and responded by letting his head fall backwards, his arms dangling like a marionette with its strings cut, as if it had only taken the mere suggestion to knock him flat.
“Mm,” he groaned, “Hammer… be nice to me, I’ve never been pounded like this before.”
He heard the way Jayce’s breath caught in his throat, and it took everything in him to keep the smirk from his face. You’re not the only one with lines up your sleeve, Talis.
“Well,” Jayce said, his voice a degree lower as he gathered Viktor close, “if I’m setting the bar, I’d better set it high.”
yall im gonna cum in my pants fr
I can’t believe Hammer’s taking Kitten’s anvilginity
We did it squad. We got him to pound that cat.
Jayce’s hands were so warm against Viktor’s skin, his touch so sure, and when he took one palm and ran it flat up the front of Viktor’s body from navel to collarbone, the shiver that chased it was very real.
“H– Hammer,” Viktor gasped.
“Yes, Kitten?”
Viktor closed his eyes, gathering his wits, centring himself and channelling his naughtiest Kitten before looking up at Jayce to say, “I need you to absolutely flatten me on this anvil.”
Jayce’s gaze darkened, his hips twitching so minutely against Viktor’s thigh that the camera likely wouldn’t even have caught it, and he leaned in to graze his teeth along the very edge of Viktor’s ear as he said, “It would be my honour.”
He lurched forward, pushing Viktor down ahead of him, and though Jayce neatly cushioned his spine with one deft hand, Viktor still made sure to give a sharp wheeze as if the wind had been knocked out of him.
“See? So small and delicate,” Jayce smirked. “I bet I could pick you up by the scruff of your neck and carry you around with one hand.”
He turned to swing his leg over the anvil and straddle it, leaving Viktor’s knees hanging over the front so that the backs of his thighs provided a solid surface for Jayce to grind against. God, Viktor thought, he really is good at this – to the camera it probably looked like Jayce was thrusting directly into Viktor’s ass, whereas in reality he was only pressing the upper ridge of his hipbones to the outside of Viktor’s right thigh.
“Oh,” Viktor gasped, “oh, Hammer, that– that’s–”
“Hmm?” Ah, so that was the grin that always made TheHammer sound so self-satisfied. “That’s what, Kitten?”
“That’s… really all you’ve got?”
Jayce faltered for barely a second before giving a dark chuckle. “I don’t want to give you more of a pounding than you’re ready for. After all,” he leaned down to run his nose up Viktor’s arm from elbow to shoulder, “we’ve got the whole night ahead of us. I want to make sure it lasts.”
DONATION: $85
I’m begging you to eat his ass hamm
“They’re begging you to eat my ass,” Viktor whispered.
“Are they?” Jayce looked entirely unphased by this. “But you’re wearing such beautiful panties. It would be a shame to have to take them off so soon.”
Oh thank fuck. Viktor didn’t think he could withstand even the pretense of Jayce’s face near his crotch right now. It was already enough of a mind-fuck acting out everything he’d ever thought about doing with TheHammer while simultaneously processing the ongoing realisation that every single one of those fantasies had actually been about his best friend this whole time.
“But I know something else I could do with my mouth,” Jayce continued, and Viktor’s stomach turned molten as Jayce slid a hand under his knees and rolled him fully onto his back on the anvil.
“What–” Viktor pressed his knees together, suddenly feeling very exposed as Jayce sat up and leaned back towards the table just out of frame.
“I believe,” Jayce said, “that I made you a promise.” He turned back to face him, and the gentle touch of his hand on Viktor’s bad knee was just slightly belied by the glint in his eye as he said, “I think a dirty, naughty Kitten needs help keeping his fur groomed.”
And he held up the bottle of almond oil.
Oh, Viktor thought. Fuck.
It took a moment of throat-clearing for him to be sure that when he spoke it would be Kitten’s voice that came out and not his own.
“I did tell you that if you get oil all over me you’ll be responsible for getting it off again.”
“Oh, don’t worry.” Jayce gave the bottle a teasing wiggle, “I don’t think we’ll have any problems with the ‘getting off’ part of this.”
DONATION: $120
I M DEFINITELY NOT HAEBNG ANY TRYOBLE
ill take messages typed with one hand for 200
Viktor would have expected Jayce to apply the oil to his skin the same way he applied it to his own: by pouring himself a generous palmful and smearing it across Viktor’s chest, or over his stomach, or along the line of his collarbones. Instead, Jayce held out the bottle and poured it directly onto Viktor’s bare skin in a long line from the base of his throat to the top of his panties.
“Ah–” Viktor tensed reflexively, expecting a shock of cold – but the oil was pretty close to room temperature. What struck him more than anything was the feel of it, the way it began to trickle along the grooves of his ribs, seeping into the gauze of his bralette, pooling in his navel. Places he never normally paid much attention to were suddenly alight with sensation, as if the air itself were a physical touch.
That feeling lasted for all of two and a half seconds before being replaced by the much more literal touch of Jayce’s hands.
“Oh.” Viktor’s eyes fluttered closed on a soft breath. What a strange sense of deja vu. Suddenly everything was Jayce, his cologne and the heat of his body and the touch of his hands, and it was all so comfortingly familiar even as it was new. Jayce’s hands moved in firm strokes across Viktor’s skin, just the way they had a hundred times before – except that Jayce had never touched him here. Countless little massages – to relieve a cramp from his leg, or to help him stand up straight after a long afternoon hunched over in the labs, or to ease his hand out of its inevitable exam season claw – but none like this. Jayce’s fingers had never traced the shape of his ribs before. His palms had never fitted to the curve between chest and armpit. His thumbs had never pressed into the divot just below Viktor’s sternum before sliding up, deftly slipping under the edge of his bralette, and stroking the width of his chest from centre to sides, passing so softly over his nipples that Viktor gasped without even realising it.
“That’s right,” Jayce murmured. “What a beautiful Kitten.”
He leaned forward, his chest resting against Viktor’s knees where he still had them drawn up and pressed together in front of him. Viktor had the brief thought of parting his legs and allowing Jayce to settle between them, but when he tried to actually do it he found he wasn’t brave enough. His clenched thighs were all the armour he had; if he let Jayce in under his guard now he feared he might never be able to get him out again.
“Ha– ‘Buttered up and ready to roast.’ You’ve forgotten the most important step: tenderising.” Jayce rolled his hips against Viktor’s feet, his hands squeezing around his ribcage. “Thank you for the treats, everybody. Crew, please let me know if I’ve missed any – I want to make sure I read them all.”
Viktor rolled his head against the anvil, blinking at the TV until the chat came into focus and he could read along as Jayce acknowledged each one.
DONATION: $80
Kitten looks like he’s genuinely about to come
kitten r u ok, do u need to think abt naked grandma
hnnngh nakked kitten’s grandma im so close
DONATION: $40
happy catham day to evryone except that fuckin guy
A little squeeze to his arm brought his eyes back to Jayce. His smile was soft, and when Viktor met his gaze he raised his eyebrows and, angling his face away from the camera, mouthed, “You okay?”
Viktor let his eyes fall closed. For all the storm within him, he realised, the ground beneath his feet was solid: Jayce was still Jayce. If Viktor shook his head right now, Jayce would stop. They would do something different, or even end the stream entirely, and Jayce wouldn’t give a single fuck how disappointed people were about it. He would own it and make no apologies, because his priority was Viktor. His priority had always been Viktor.
Opening his eyes, Viktor nodded. Jayce’s smile softened even further, his eyes creasing behind his mask, and Viktor found himself returning that smile as his knees parted and his feet slid around Jayce’s waist to draw him in between them.
“Mmm, look at that,” Viktor sighed. “You’ve gotten my fur all messy.”
“Truly an unthinkable state for such a fastidious Kitten,” Jayce smirked.
DONATION: $55
WHAT ARE U GONNA DO ABOUT IT HAMMER
“Yeah,” Viktor said, “what are you gonna do about it, Hammer?”
Jayce looked like he was barely holding back a grin, but there was an odd sort of focus in his eyes as he said, “Well, I guess I’d better clean up my mess then.”
And bending forward, he opened his mouth and licked a stripe up the centre of Viktor’s stomach.
Oh, Viktor thought, a distant whisper through the hum of static turning everything between his ears to white noise, that’s Jayce. That’s my best friend’s mouth on me. That’s Jayce’s hand pushing my knee down so the camera catches every single inch of my skin being licked. By him. By my best friend. By Jayce, my best friend, who’s gripping my thigh like he can’t decide whether to push it a safe distance away or drag it so close that our hips lock together while he laps up the oil from the pit of my chest.
Then Jayce’s tongue reached the side of Viktor’s throat, and he gave a soft little sigh, and Viktor gained a sudden, visceral understanding of the phrase “out of body experience”.
His own gasp he heard as if from a distance, as if he were watching from the other end of the livestream along with however many hundreds of other people, and when he finally managed to locate himself as the source of it he found his hands were buried in Jayce’s hair, his chest thrilling into the touch of his lips, his legs wrapped around Jayce’s waist as he clutched him close.
“Fuck–”
“Kitten,” Jayce laughed, a breathless gasp against Viktor’s collarbone, “I just cleaned all that oil off you, and now you’re smearing it around again.”
Viktor’s mouth seemed not to need permission from his brain to say, “I guess you’ll just have to clean me again.”
“I guess I will.”
Viktor let his head fall back against the anvil, staring at the ceiling and fighting for breath as Jayce slid back down to begin again at his stomach.
God, he thought, I’m fucked. I’m so fucked. This had not been the plan. He had not accounted, in their preparations, for the possibility that he might still react this way to TheHammer in spite of the revelation that he was Jayce. He didn’t know how he was ever supposed to look Jayce in the eye again after this.
Not that Jayce seemed to share this concern, though. When Viktor glanced down at him he found Jayce staring straight back, his eyes fixed unblinkingly on Viktor’s face as he dipped his tongue into his navel.
The chat, Viktor thought desperately, read the chat.
Tearing his eyes from Jayce, he latched onto the first donation he saw.
“‘It’s okay Kitten, you can let him smash, we won’t tell.’ I– that–” A chuckle against his abdomen sent a shiver rippling all the way up into his jaw. “Th– thank you for the treat. You’re all in such a giving mood tonight. I– I’m blown away.”
can’t believe we got to watch our ship become canon in real time
DONATION: $20
ham whts ur friend gna say when u tel him abt this
It was on the tip of Viktor’s tongue to answer the question himself before he remembered that Kitten wasn’t supposed to know TheHammer’s friend. He tapped Jayce on the shoulder and motioned towards the screen, and Jayce lifted his head to read the chat.
Yeah, I’d kill to see that convo lmao
“hey bro remembr that charity that saved ur life? well look at all the money i raised for them! don’t ask how.”
“I fucked a catboy live on the internet and it made ppl care about crippled kids.”
Jayce snorted. “When we pull up the total donations from this stream, I predict he’ll be delighted and proud. I don’t think he’ll object to anything I’ve done with Kitten.”
Incredible, Viktor thought, not one word of a lie. He turned his head towards the curtains to hide the irrepressible grin that took over his face, borne up on a wave of stupid affection for this ridiculous man with his clever words and his rock-hard abs.
“And if it took this livestream to make you care about disabled children,” Jayce continued, “then all I can say is, who ever said our work contributes nothing to society?”
That made Viktor burst out laughing, a sharp cackle so abrupt that it came out completely undisguised. He clapped a hand over his mouth, but even that wasn’t enough to hold in the next spill of giggles when he glanced up and caught sight of the mischief glittering through Jayce’s eyes.
“As for what he’d say if I asked him his thoughts now,” Jayce said, “I think he’d probably say I should get back to flattening this pretty cat on my anvil. What do you think, Kitten?”
It took everything in Viktor not to roll his eyes. “I think you’re right,” he said, and hoped he wasn’t giving himself away when he said, “you should get back to flattening the pretty cat on your anvil.”
“I couldn’t agree more.” Jayce winked, his grin spreading into something devious as he took hold of Viktor’s thighs and pulled him in so that the next roll of his hips ground filthily into the scant inch of air between them.
CHAT IM GONNA GNUT
DONATION: $180
hammer I will empty my wallet if you fuck that boy
take off his pannnntttsssss
Jayce was leaning forward, his hand braced next to Viktor’s head on the anvil. They were nearly nose-to-nose now, Jayce’s eyes dark in a way that made Viktor’s insides curl, and when Jayce ducked his head to trace his lips up the length of Viktor’s throat he found himself gripping onto that wrist for dear life, his lungs hauling in breath that suddenly seemed more fire than air.
“Hah– God–”
Jayce’s mouth against his ear had Viktor’s eyes rolling back in his head, and he had about half a second of wondering why the fuck Jayce was torturing him like this on the side the camera couldn’t even see before Jayce was nosing his hair out of the way and whispering, soft enough to elude the microphones, “You still good?”
Viktor closed his eyes, throat working around a swallow, and nodded. “Yeah,” he breathed, “yeah, I’m good.”
Then Jayce sat up, and Viktor realised that was a goddamn lie.
As Jayce shifted back, his hands going to Viktor’s knees to lower them back down to rest on the anvil, the movement made Viktor aware of two things:
Firstly, that the molten feeling that had chased Jayce’s touch across the map he’d made of Viktor’s skin had manifested between his legs in a really inconvenient way;
And secondly, that the tape currently sweating its way out of his ass crack was the only thing keeping that particular problem tucked away and covered by panties that suddenly seemed way too skimpy.
Viktor gave a squeak of alarm, his whole body tensing as his hands flew to Jayce’s arms. He was clenching down so hard that his ass was about to cramp, and he hoped that the desperate look in his eyes would sufficiently communicate the problem, because his teeth were too solidly gritted to allow any words out of his mouth.
Jayce, with one glance, read him like a book.
“What a naughty, messy Kitten,” he cooed, scooping Viktor up off the anvil and pulling him into his lap, Viktor’s legs tight around his waist and his crotch pressed firmly against Jayce’s stomach. “I think grooming your fur might be a lost cause – you just keep getting yourself dirty again.”
Viktor hugged his arms around Jayce’s shoulders, hiding his burning cheeks in the crook of his neck and thanking any and all gods who might be listening for Jayce’s unflappable smooth-talking. In that moment he realised just how glad he was that TheHammer hadn’t been the dark, handsome stranger he’d imagined him to be. There was nobody in the world he would rather have had with him right now, nobody he would have trusted more to preserve his dignity without judgement, than Jayce Talis.
“There’s only one thing to be done with a Kitten this filthy,” Jayce was saying, his voice teasing but his hand gentle on the back of Viktor’s neck. “Do you know what that is? ‘Pound him,’ ‘Flatten that cat,’ ‘Pulverise him on your anvil, Hamm.’ You’re exactly right, crew. Naughty Kittens who sneak into my workshop and get themselves all covered in oil need to be pounded.”
Viktor had no idea what Jayce’s plan was here, but it had to be better than his, which was to stay right where he was and do the rest of the livestream without moving an inch. When he pulled back to look at Viktor, Jayce didn’t say anything, but his eyes asked the question: Do you trust me?
Fundamentally, unhesitatingly, Yes.
Jayce eased Viktor back off his lap and then deftly flipped him, gathering his legs up in the crook of one elbow and spinning him around so that when his knees spread again he was facing away, straddling the anvil with his hips neatly framed between Jayce’s thighs. Jayce’s hand between his shoulder blades pushed him down flat on the anvil, and just like that he was entirely protected – he could have popped the biggest boner in history, and nobody would have known except Jayce.
Jayce, who, in order to keep Viktor covered, was currently pressed against him in a shameless grind. There was no way he couldn’t feel Viktor’s erection, and yet he kept his hips flush to Viktor’s ass without flinching. Like there was nothing wrong, like he didn’t care, like he wasn’t at all weirded out that Viktor was getting hard during what was supposed to be a performance between friends for charity.
It took a moment for Viktor to register that perhaps this was because Jayce was hard too.
Oh–
The flush of heat that rocked through Viktor’s body almost whited out his vision. Jayce’s hands were on his back, holding him down and pulling him in to meet the roll of his hips, and with every thrust his cock nudged further between Viktor’s cheeks, dragging along the peeling tape there and grinding against the erection now barely contained beneath it.
“‘You guys, are we actually going to get to see them fuck?’ I hate to disappoint, but this is not quite that sort of stream. You’ll have to use your imagination. Thank you for the treat! Look how well fed this Kitten is.” Jayce leaned forward, sliding his hand up into Viktor’s hair and gently turning his face towards the camera. Viktor could barely make out his own shape on the video preview, but he thought he probably looked flushed and fucked-out. The way Jayce was grinding against him had him floating somewhere between Heaven and Hell. “I think it might be almost time for a cat nap. ‘This was everything I hoped and more.’ Me too, you guys. We’ve raised so much for SuperShoes tonight, and that money is going to go directly to helping disabled kids grow up to be their most awesome selves, just like my friend.”
Just like your friend, Viktor thought, your awesome friend, who is currently facedown in a hotel room getting dry-humped in front of hundreds of strangers. On the internet. For money. He might have laughed, if he hadn’t been so desperately focused on trying not to moan.
“We’re just about at the end of our stream,” Jayce was saying, “and Kitten and I want to thank you all from the bottom of our hearts for showing up and keeping us company, and for being so generous with your donations. I’ll just quickly say that the top five donors from this stream will get exclusive access to a special thank-you video from me, so if you would like to be one of those lucky viewers then you have a couple more minutes to make a donation before we wrap things up.”
He sounded so calm, Viktor thought, so nonchalant, and it almost made him wonder whether perhaps he had been mistaken – maybe Jayce had just stuffed his pants with something really solid for the stream – before the next rock of Jayce’s hips lingered in a circling grind, and his hand clenched in Viktor’s hair in a way that felt like a sigh.
God, he thought, closing his eyes against the shiver that ran all the way up his spine to the base of his skull, no amount of performative grinding is gonna be able to hide it if I come in my panties right here.
“Thank you for spending your time with us tonight,” Jayce said. “I hope you all had as much fun as I did – and I had a lot of fun.” His fingers gave a little squeeze around the back of Viktor’s neck, and when all Viktor could manage in response was a dazed nod, Jayce chuckled and gave his hair a gentle ruffle. “Have a good night, everyone. I’ve always wanted to say this: Stay out of trouble, and keep your claws sharp!”
Jayce leaned away, and a moment later there came the faint click of the remote being set down on the table.
“You okay?”
Viktor opened his mouth, dragging in a breath that rattled the whole way down. Jayce was still sitting behind him, still pressed against his ass, and Viktor’s brain could not grip onto anything other than the drag of hot leather against his own sweaty skin.
“Hey–”
Jayce shifted as if to move away, and the noise that tore from Viktor’s throat was raw and desperate as his hand shot out to grab at Jayce’s thigh.
“Viktor?” Jayce’s voice grew an edge of concern, even as his breath hitched. “I ended the stream.”
Viktor nodded. “Yeah. G– good.”
He should let go. He should unclench his fingers, release Jayce’s thigh, and let them both get on with the process of figuring out how the fuck they were going to survive this. He shouldn’t pull Jayce closer, shouldn’t press back against him, shouldn’t tilt his hips so that the straining leather keeping Jayce’s cock contained slid along what suddenly seemed like a completely expendable barrier of haute couture gauze.
“Viktor,” Jayce gasped, “Viktor, what–”
“Do you know,” Viktor rasped, “how many times I’ve jerked off to your streams?”
There was a faltering of breath behind him, a twitch of hips against his ass, and when Jayce spoke again his voice shook.
“Not as many as I’ve jerked off to yours.”
Viktor closed his eyes and let the heat shudder through him. “Are you sure about that?”
“Yeah,” Jayce breathed, “positive.” His hips twitched again, like he was fighting against the last of his restraint, and his hand on Viktor’s thigh curled into a desperate grip as he said, “Because you’ve done more streams than me, and I’ve jerked off to every single one.”
Oh, God. This was it. This was happening. Viktor dragged his hands in under his chest and tried to push himself upright. He made it about five inches off the surface of the anvil before falling back onto his face.
“Shit,” Jayce’s hands were on his shoulders, soothing and supporting as he coaxed him up again. “You okay? Here, let me–”
“My hips,” Viktor groaned. “Ow.”
“I got you.”
Jayce’s arm slid underneath Viktor’s waist, and once again Viktor found himself lifted as if he weighed no more than the scrap of mint green fabric clinging to the last shred of his dignity. Jayce gathered him into his arms and carried him the three steps to the bed, where he set him down with what felt to Viktor like an almost reverent level of care.
“There you go.”
“Th– thanks.”
They stared at each other for a moment, Viktor sitting on the bed, Jayce kneeling in front of him. Then Jayce reached out and placed his hands on either side of Viktor’s mask. He slid his thumbs under the edge and ran them carefully along the line of tape to unstick it from Viktor’s cheekbones, then lifted the mask off and set it aside, all without ever looking away from Viktor’s face. Viktor wasn’t sure what it was he saw there – he was pretty confident he looked like an absolute mess, but Jayce was gazing at him like a revelation.
Or at least, Viktor thought he was. It was hard to tell, with half of his face hidden and all.
He raised one hand to Jayce’s mask and, rather than fiddling with the knot tied at the back, pushed the whole thing up and off of Jayce’s head. When it fell away, he was struck by the sight of Jayce’s flushed cheeks, the colour high even in the bridge of his nose as he stared at Viktor.
Beautiful, Viktor thought. Did I really do that to you?
It stretched belief, to think that he could have put that desperate look in Jayce’s eyes. But the look was there, and Jayce’s eyes were on him, and all Viktor could do was brush his thumb across the wash of pink staining his cheeks and pray that this was as right as it felt.
“Every single one?” he whispered.
The colour deepened beneath his thumb.
“I told you I was a fan.”
Viktor barely needed to lean forward – the slightest hint of traction from his hand and Jayce was there, his mouth sure and eager, his fingers tangling into Viktor’s hair and tilting his head at just the right angle to kiss him open.
God, Viktor thought, like a bolt through his heart, we fit.
“We’re gonna have to–” Jayce gasped between kisses.
“Talk?” Viktor guessed.
Jayce nodded. “And figure stuff out. But right now–”
“Right now I need you to–”
“I need to–”
“Yeah.”
Jayce scooped Viktor further onto the bed so he could crawl up in front of him, his hands running over Viktor’s chest and shoulders and hips and thighs, and Viktor arched into him as Jayce slid an arm under his waist and pulled him in to meet his hips–
“Ah–” Viktor broke away with a wince. “Fuck, let me–”
“Oh shit, right.” Jayce pulled an apologetic face as he sat back on his heels. “Does it hurt?”
“Getting a boner while tucked? I mean, it’s not exactly comfortable.” Viktor tugged his panties down and reached between his legs to find the end of the tape.
“Do you….” Jayce grimaced as he watched Viktor carefully peel back the edges. “Do you need a hand or anything?”
Viktor glanced up at him. “I’m gonna be honest, Jayce, that’s not how I want you to touch my dick for the first time.”
Jayce snorted a laugh, then seemed to hesitate for a moment before asking in a low voice, “How do you want me to touch you?”
Viktor squeezed his eyes shut against the flooding heat of that. “Fuck, Jayce,” he whispered, “let me get this shit off and then you can touch me any way you like.”
There was an audible catch of breath, and the next time Viktor glanced up he found Jayce’s eyes roaming over his body as if charting a map, his mouth half-open, his eyes dark with intent.
Finally the tape came off, and Viktor crumpled it up in a wad to toss in the general direction of the bin. Before his hand had even fallen to the bed again Jayce was there, crawling in between Viktor’s legs to knock him back into the pillows and kiss him breathless.
“Any way I want?” Jayce whispered into Viktor’s bottom lip.
A shiver ran down the length of Viktor’s spine, and he made a noise of desperate encouragement.
“I want to be inside you,” Jayce breathed. “Is that– is that too much, is that–?”
Any further words were entirely lost as Viktor wrapped both hands around the back of Jayce’s head and pulled him into a bruising kiss.
The gauzy panties, already halfway off, were soon discarded over the edge of the bed, the bralette rucked up towards his armpits so Jayce could trail his fingers across Viktor’s shivering skin.
“I can’t believe you licked my whole chest,” Viktor gasped, as Jayce mouthed at his jaw.
Jayce chuckled, a soft puff of amusement that had all the hair on Viktor’s neck standing to attention.
“I can’t believe I didn’t come in my pants from it.”
“I nearly did,” Viktor said.
“Yes, I know you did. It was kind of hard to miss, the way you were wrapping yourself around me.”
Viktor’s laugh was half wheeze. “Thank you for protecting my modesty back there. I was terrified I was about to flash the whole internet.”
“I would never let you be exposed to the world like that.” Jayce kissed his way up under Viktor’s ear, and his voice edged towards a growl as he said, “This view is just for me.”
His hand on Viktor’s hip traced back over his ass, dragging just the hint of fingertips like the ghost of a grab, before sliding forward across his thigh to wrap around Viktor’s cock.
“Oh– fuck, Jayce–”
Jayce groaned as he ran his thumb along the underside. “God, you shave.”
Viktor’s laugh turned into a hiccup halfway. “You ever tried to peel medical tape off your pubes? I– nngh, Jayce, yes–”
“You’re so pretty,” Jayce breathed. “Viktor, I– can I–?”
Viktor had no idea what the rest of that sentence was, but, “Yes.”
Jayce settled back between his legs, much as he had done to lick the oil from Viktor’s chest. This time, though, his tongue travelled in the other direction. Caressing Viktor’s cock with one gentle hand, he began to press open-mouthed kisses all the way up and down the length of it.
“Oh, fff–”
Jayce gave a satisfied hum and glanced up to meet Viktor’s eyes. There was that sparkle, that mischief, except now it looked less like starlight and more like a lit match.
“Ngh– God, I–” Viktor hissed in a sharp breath, already toeing the edge as Jayce’s tongue trailed slow and lazy over him. “Jayce, do you– do you want to–”
“Probably,” Jayce murmured, his lips barely parting from Viktor’s skin.
“I don’t want to come like this,” Viktor gasped. “I want– you said you wanted–”
Jayce lifted his head. “You want to come on my cock?”
Viktor squeezed his eyes shut and tried to wrestle some control back from his stampeding heart. “Yes please. If that’s on offer.”
“If that’s on offer,” Jayce snorted. “Viktor. Baby. Sweetie. I don’t think you understand how much I’ve fantasised about exactly that.”
Viktor let his head fall back to the pillow with a breathless huff as Jayce climbed off the bed. “I bet your fantasies were a little different from this though, huh?”
“What do you mean?”
“Well, y’know,” Viktor rolled onto his side to watch Jayce cross the room to the corner where their bags sat. “Since you thought Kitten was trans, and all.”
Jayce paused in his rummaging, then glanced back at Viktor. “It wasn’t Kitten I was fantasising about.”
“… Oh.”
“Anyway.” Jayce stood up and turned around. Viktor expected to see a bottle of lube in his hand, or maybe some condoms, but what he tossed onto the bed instead was–
“My inhaler?”
“You’re wheezy,” Jayce said. When Viktor just blinked at him, Jayce raised his eyebrows and motioned for him to take a deep breath. In… out…
“Huh.”
Jayce just gave him a knowing look, and held it for the duration of a puff before turning towards the table.
Viktor cleared his throat. “Do you have, uh–”
His voice faltered as Jayce turned back once more, now holding the bottle of almond oil.
“Does this work?”
“Uh. Yeah. Yeah, that– that works.”
Jayce grinned as he returned to the bed. Handing the bottle to Viktor, he undid the zips at either side of his leather pants and sat down to peel them off his legs.
“How do you even get into those?” Viktor wondered.
Jayce threw him a wink over his shoulder. “Same way I’m about to get into you.”
Viktor choked on air.
“With a bit of oil, a careful hand, the right amount of patience,” Jayce turned to crawl over Viktor again, “and above all, the determination to make it fit.” With his hands bracketing Viktor’s shoulders, he ducked his head and traced the tip of his nose from the runaway pulse in Viktor’s throat up to nestle in behind his ear. “Shall I show you my method?”
Viktor opened his mouth, but the only sound that came out was a shaky moan. Cupping his hands around Jayce’s cheeks, he nodded.
Jayce sat back and took the bottle, and the soft aroma that wafted from the palmful he poured reminded Viktor:
“Earlier, when you opened that, I thought for a second you’d grabbed your cologne by mistake.”
Jayce glanced up, one eyebrow raised. “I don’t wear cologne.”
“Yeah,” Viktor grinned, “I’m beginning to realise that.” He’d always assumed that gentle nut-tree scent to be from some sort of deodorant or aftershave, and yet he’d scoured the fragrances at the mall, sniffed just about every bottle in the skincare aisle, trawled the internet for samples and recommendations, but had never managed to get his hands on that magical vial of bottled comfort.
Turned out he should have just popped into the baking aisle.
“I tried a few different oils,” Jayce said. “But they all either smelled gross, cost way too much, or had lavender and stuff in them.”
Viktor considered him for a moment as Jayce leaned over to set the bottle down on the bedside table. He’d associated this scent with Jayce for pretty much as long as he’d known him, which meant…
“When did you start streaming, Jayce?”
“Hm?” Jayce looked at him. “Uh, since like… first year? Early first year?”
“And you picked almond oil to douse yourself with on a weekly basis because…”
Jayce frowned. “Cause everything else was expensive, or smelled bad, or–”
“Or had lavender in it.”
“Yeah.”
A pause.
“What?”
“Jayce,” Viktor said softly, “do you know anyone else who’s allergic to lavender besides me?”
Jayce shook his head.
“But when you were choosing an oil to purchase by the litre, way back in first year, not having lavender in it was an important consideration.”
“… Yeah? I saw what happened when Dr. Shoola put on lotion and then shook your hand.”
Two EpiPens and an afternoon in the emergency room. He and Jayce had barely known each other then.
Jayce was starting to look confused, so Viktor didn’t say anything else, just smiled and pulled him in for a kiss. As Jayce’s oiled hand slid between Viktor’s legs and drew a gasp onto his lips, Viktor thought maybe it really hadn’t been Kitten in Jayce’s fantasies all this time. After all, the only reason for Jayce to avoid soaking his skin with lavender in the privacy of his own home would be if he anticipated enough close contact with Viktor to transfer whatever traces might survive a good shower. It was the sort of consideration you would expect between best friends who spent a lot of time in each other’s space. But for a lab partner of two weeks? That seemed less like pragmatism and more like hope.
When Jayce pushed the first finger into him, the shock that went through Viktor was enough to send him reeling, panting open-mouthed against Jayce’s cheek as his whole body shuddered.
That’s my best friend, came whispering through the static, that’s Jayce, my best friend, who knows all my secrets and wants me anyway – who has maybe wanted me for a long time – who has been protecting my life even longer than I’ve trusted him with it, who makes important decisions based as much on my needs as his own, who can tell when I’m hurting and knows exactly how to make it all better–
“I need you,” he gasped, his hands in Jayce’s hair and his toes curled against the bedsheets, “Jayce– Jayce, I–”
“I’ve got you,” Jayce whispered. “Just open up for me, Viktor, you can do it.”
It took three fingers and another palmful of oil before Jayce was satisfied. Viktor, for his part, had started begging at two, but Jayce had insisted.
“The right amount of patience,” he’d whispered into Viktor’s sweaty temple, while curling his fingers in a way that had made Viktor see stars.
“It’ll fit,” Viktor had whined, “Jayce, c’mon–”
Now Jayce withdrew his fingers and wrapped his oily palm around his own cock for a stroke or two before leaning forward to brace himself with one arm beside Viktor’s head.
“Like this?” he murmured.
Viktor, captivated in the starlight of Jayce’s eyes, did not speak. Instead, he wrapped his arms around Jayce’s shoulders and nodded as he pulled him into a kiss.
The moment at which Jayce pressed inside marked a division between two men: the Viktor who had never known this feeling, and the Viktor who would never again be able to live without it.
“Oh– oh, Jayce.”
Jayce’s only response was a trembling breath against Viktor’s lips. His hand on Viktor’s thigh tightened, pulling him closer, and as he pushed his hips forward Viktor felt the shudder that ran through him as an echo in his own soul.
“Good,” he gasped, “that’s– there, Jayce, yes.”
“Yeah.” Jayce’s voice was a rasp, his mouth open against Viktor’s, his eyes fixed downwards on the drag of skin as he rocked gently in and out, pushing a fraction deeper each time. Every breath was a helpless little punch of sound, every twitch of his hips a frayed thread of restraint.
“Go on,” Viktor whispered, and stroked one gentle hand against Jayce’s cheek, “don’t hold back, Jayce. I can take a pounding.”
Jayce froze, eyes squeezed shut, mouth twisted into a grimace. He twitched. He shivered. Then the dam burst, and he collapsed onto Viktor’s chest, pouring giggles into the crook of his neck as his entire body shook with laughter.
“You fucking– really?” he gasped. “I cannot believe– you just gave me the fucking hundred bucks while I’m having the biggest moment of my life– Viktor!”
Hands on Jayce’s shoulders, Viktor grinned up at the ceiling. “Pretty sure it’s down to about fifty bucks by now. Those fees are killer.”
“You know what else is killer?” Jayce pushed himself up on an elbow, “You. Killer of vibes. I cannot believe you invoked the anvil at a time like this.”
“You mean you don’t want to absolutely flatten me, Hamm?” Viktor batted his eyelashes. “Goodness. What will your crew say when they find out?”
“Shut the fuck–”
Anything else he might have said after that quickly disappeared, first into laughter and then into Viktor’s mouth as he drew Jayce into another kiss. For a long moment there was just the movement of lips and the snatch of stolen breath as they clutched each other close. Then Viktor’s hand slid down to the small of Jayce’s back, and when he pressed him inwards it seemed to kickstart an engine. With a moan, Jayce began to move, curling forward and tugging Viktor down by his shoulders to meet each thrust.
“Fuck,” Viktor breathed, “yeah, that’s it, that’s– nngah– there–”
“Can I go harder?” Jayce whispered. “I’m– I need–”
“Yes.”
It was as if a spring had snapped. Jayce’s hand slid under Viktor’s hips, and in the next moment he was driving in at a slapping pace, hauling Viktor bodily into every thrust.
“Fuck–” Viktor scrabbled at Jayce’s back, “Jayce– yes–”
“God, you’re so hot,” Jayce groaned. “Hng– fuck– I’m so glad it was you, I’m so–”
“Yeah,” Viktor gasped, “I can’t– can’t believe–”
Jayce’s next breath had the edge of a sob. “It could have been– hah– could have been us this whole time.”
“It has been us this whole time,” Viktor whispered.
“Yeah.” Jayce buried his face in Viktor’s throat, lips parted, breath raising shivers as he adjusted his grip and snapped in harder. “I’ve been jerking off to you for three years.”
“Same– ah, same, I’ve–” Viktor’s fingers wound into Jayce’s hair, pressing him closer until Jayce began mouthing at his throat, “your streams have always been so hot, I used to fuck myself stupid to them in my dorm room–”
Jayce’s laugh bared his teeth against Viktor’s skin, and the moan it dragged forth was almost as loud as the hammering pulse in Viktor’s ears.
“I only started streaming because of you in the first place,” he said.
“What?” Viktor’s eyes were starting to cross, his entire body twitching on every other thrust, and he untangled one hand from Jayce’s hair to work it in between them and take hold of his own cock.
“Yeah,” Jayce breathed, “your streams– you were so– I wanted to be that sexy too.”
“God, fuck, Jayce–”
“You created me,” Jayce whispered, hips moving in a rapid staccato as his teeth grazed over the shell of Viktor’s ear. “Hammer only exists because Kitten was– because you were so fucking hot.”
You’re fucking hot all by yourself, Viktor wanted to say, but it came out in a strangled whine as his body seized in a hot clench, twitching and pulsing and spilling between them.
“Fuck–” Jayce gasped. “Fuck, baby, I’m gonna– can I–?”
“Yes, fuck, in me–”
Jayce braced himself on both elbows, his hands hooked under Viktor’s shoulders to hold him in place, and the jackrabbitting rhythm of his hips quickened until he was pitching forward, gasping into Viktor’s open mouth and clutching him close to drive his release as deep as possible.
We fit, Viktor thought, the only coherent idea that would stay still long enough for him to grasp at it. We fit. How did I never realise that we would fit?
It took a long moment for him to make enough sense of his body to open his eyes. When he did, he found Jayce no more than a breath away, his forehead resting against Viktor’s, his eyes lowered to the drip of sweat between their chests. As if sensing Viktor’s eyes on him, he glanced up, and the sudden shyness in his gaze was so unexpected that Viktor laughed before he could help it.
“Hey, you,” he whispered, reaching up to brush the sweat away from Jayce’s browbone with a thumb.
Jayce smiled, a tiny twitch of lips that turned into a gap-toothed grin, and then he was cupping a hand behind Viktor’s head to pull him into a gentle, lingering kiss.
“Do you want a shower?” he murmured into Viktor’s lips. “I want a shower. I want you in the shower.”
Viktor gave a little huff of laughter. “I should probably get home, actually.”
Jayce pulled back to give him an incredulous look. “What do you mean?”
Viktor raised his eyebrows. “Well, it’s late, and by the time I get the bus home it’ll be past my bedtime–”
“Viktor, we’re literally in a hotel.”
“But–” Viktor shook his head, “I can’t stay here–”
“Why not?” Jayce leaned his head on one hand and traced the other down the centre of Viktor’s chest. “Do you have something to do early tomorrow?”
“No, but you do, right? You’ve got the conference.”
“Yeah. Come with me.”
“Wh– no, I can’t, I– I don’t have the right clothes–”
“What clothes do you have?” Jayce craned his neck to look at the chair where Viktor’s sweater and jeans were folded in a pile. “You’ll be fine. I’ve got a shirt you can wear under your sweater, you’ll look exactly like every other lab tech here.” He nosed his way behind Viktor’s ear. “C’mon, keep me company. I met so many cool people today, and all I could think was how much I wanted to introduce them to you.”
His lips shaped the words against Viktor’s skin, sending shivers down his neck like pebbles in a pond.
“I– well, I guess– I didn’t plan to stay the night, is all, I don’t have–”
“Your toothbrush?” Jayce guessed.
“No, I have that–”
“Your orange inhaler?”
“No, I’ve got that too–”
“Your pills.”
“Yes,” Viktor sighed, “my pills.”
Jayce sat up. “Which ones? Your heart pills?”
“And my antidepressants.”
Sliding off the bed, Jayce went over to his suitcase and picked up the pencil case resting on top. From within it, he produced two tiny bottles, which he tossed onto the bed in front of Viktor.
“What–” Viktor picked them up. “What are these?”
“We take the same brain pills, right?” Jayce shrugged. “Just take one of mine.”
Viktor turned the bottles over in his hands to read the labels. “Okay, but why do you have Atenolol? This is mine, how did you–”
“You remember when you forgot them at my place over the summer? And we couldn’t find them, so you got a new script.”
Viktor looked up. “You found them?”
“Last week. They were under the radiator behind the couch. I meant to give them back to you, but, y’know,” he gave a sheepish grin, “it’s been a distracting week.”
“Yeah,” Viktor mumbled. “No kidding.”
“So if you’ve got your toothbrush, and your medication, and clothes for tomorrow…” Jayce climbed back onto the bed, caging Viktor in between his arms as he crawled up over him. “Do you want to take a shower with me?”
It was irrepressible, the laugh that bubbled up beneath Viktor’s heart and lifted it through the roof. “Yeah,” he grinned, “I actually really do.”
· · ─ · ☆ ᓚᘏᗢ ☆ · ─ · ·
It was when they were sitting on the bed, steam-flushed and wet-haired, that Viktor remembered.
“Oh yeah,” he said, “what did we get to in the stream? For donations, I mean.”
Jayce gave a hum of acknowledgement. “Good question. I feel like it was kind of a lot. Let me check.”
He went to the table where Viktor’s laptop still sat and tapped at it to wake it up.
“Oh, you might need my–”
“I know it,” Jayce muttered, already typing. As the light on his face changed from lock screen blue to webpage white, he frowned, his eyes scanning back and forth. He scrolled. He stopped. He blinked.
“… Jayce?”
Jayce opened his mouth, and it seemed to take him an effort to get the words out.
“Fifteen two eighty-nine.”
Viktor frowned. “Huh?”
“Fifteen thousand,” Jayce wheezed, “two hundred and eighty-nine dollars.”
Viktor’s jaw dropped. “No.”
“Yes.”
“Let me–”
Before Viktor could even hold his hands out, Jayce had unplugged the laptop and brought it over, kneeling on the bed and planting it between them so Viktor could read the breakdown on the screen.
He’d never had this many donations on a stream. He’d never had donations this big on a stream. He’d never had multiple people donating upwards of a thousand dollars for anything he’d ever done, ever.
“Holy shit,” he whispered.
“That’s. That’s so much money,” Jayce breathed. “Fuck, Viktor. We did it.”
“We did it,” Viktor echoed.
At the top corner of his screen, on the messaging icon, was a little red number one. Viktor clicked on it automatically, expecting a DM from TheHammer – except TheHammer was sitting next to him. This was something else.
FanStarz: Hey, MechanicalKitten! Wow, what a stream! We’re so impressed with the work you’ve done this week (and TheHammer too!) and all the money you’ve raised for charity through your livestreams. We weren’t familiar with SuperShoes, so we looked them up, and wow! What a worthwhile cause.
We love the energy you’ve been bringing to the FanStarz community, and we would love to support your efforts. If you’re willing, we would be honoured to make the donation from tonight’s stream to SuperShoes on your behalf – and we’ll not only waive our usual 7% fee, we’ll top it up with the fees from the other fundraising streams you’ve done this week!
If that sounds good to you, just let us know and we’ll put you in touch with our Accounts team to confirm details!
Happy streaming,
The FanStarz Team
Wordlessly, Viktor turned the laptop towards Jayce.
“What’s this?”
Viktor pointed at the message. Jayce gave him another confused blink before dropping his gaze to the screen.
There was a moment of quiet.
Then:
“Oh my God, Viktor.”
“Yeah.”
“I– that’s–”
“About an extra seventeen hundred dollars more for SuperShoes,” said Viktor, who had run the numbers in his head while Jayce was reading, as much to keep himself from exploding as anything else.
“Fuck. Are you gonna say yes?”
“Are you kidding? Of course I’m gonna say yes!” Viktor took the laptop back to read the message again. “That’s as much as I donated off my entire stream on Tuesday.”
“This is unreal,” Jayce whispered.
“If I wake up in my own bed tomorrow and find out this was all a dream, I’m walking into the lake.”
“I’ll join you.”
Closing the laptop with a snap, Viktor leaned down to set it on the floor before turning back to slide his hands into Jayce’s hair.
“Oh, hello,” Jayce grinned, as Viktor tugged him into a kiss.
“I want you to fuck me on the anvil,” Viktor whispered.
“Oh. Yep. Okay. I can do that.”
Viktor laughed, then squeaked as Jayce stood up and swept him off the bed, already shedding the towel around his waist.
“You want a pounding? I’ll show you a pounding. C’mere, naughty Kitten, it’s time to get flattened.”
· · ─ · ☆ ᓚᘏᗢ ☆ · ─ · ·
Steamy Streamers SuperShoes Saviours
If you haven’t been following the FanStarz charity stream story this week, you might not be familiar with MechanicalKitten or TheHammer. The two cam models on the adult streaming platform FanStarz have this week been engaged in an unusual challenge: a fundraising battle to see whose streams can generate more donations for charity. The cause of choice? SuperShoes, a children’s non-profit whose mission statement is to provide life-saving medical care and mobility equipment free of charge to kids who otherwise could not afford it.
The week-long contest culminated in a joint stream together on MechanicalKitten’s channel last night, which raised more than $15,000 and attracted the largest audience for a single stream in the site’s ten-year history. During the stream, when asked about his connection to the cause, TheHammer revealed that one of his close friends had once been the recipient of a SuperShoes sponsorship. “He means everything to me… I owe SuperShoes a debt of gratitude for saving his life.”
When we reached out to FanStarz on Friday, a spokesperson told us they were aware of the planned stream and were in full support of the cause: “Our models come from all walks of life, and we’re proud that they feel empowered to use the FanStarz platform to give back to their communities.”
Not everybody is as enthusiastic about the collaboration, however. One concerned netizen we spoke to expressed fears about the precedent the stream might set. “It just feels inappropriate to raise money for disabled kids on an adult camsite. What kind of example is that for the children they’re supposedly helping? ‘We want you to grow up big and strong so you can be a porn star too!’ It’s just tasteless. Donate to the charity if you feel moved to do so, but do it from your own pockets, without splashing it all about on a smut site.”
SuperShoes themselves were not as worried about the optics of the fundraiser. We spoke to Orianna Reveck, SuperShoes’ Director of Operations and herself an early recipient of the charity, ahead of the stream on Saturday to ask whether they were concerned about accepting the potential donation.
“SuperShoes exists to help give disabled kids living in poverty the same chances in life as their wealthier or more able-bodied peers. Our hope is that in providing them with the care they deserve at a young age, they will be able to grow up just like any other kid, to live a normal life and be whatever they want to be when they are adults. If a SuperShoes kid grows up and decides to model on FanStarz, they have that right just like any other consenting adult. We do not require the children we help to repay us with their purity. Like every other member of society, they each have the freedom to make their own choices in life without being constrained by the circumstances of their childhood. That’s the whole point of SuperShoes.”
On what a large donation from this stream might mean to them:
“More children helped. More projects funded, more prostheses made, more kids fitted with the adaptive tech they need to live the childhood every kid deserves. We’re grateful to the models, and to FanStarz, for supporting the work we do.”
With over $15,000 raised last night, it seems like the FanStarz community are grateful for SuperShoes too!
· · ─ · ☆ ᓚᘏᗢ ☆ · ─ · ·
Viktor awoke with the sun on his skin, a smile on his face, and an arm across his chest.
It took him a moment to remember why he was so happy. It wasn’t just that he was warm. It wasn’t just that it was a beautiful day outside, the autumn sky crisp and cloudless. It was something to do with that arm, and the hand at the end of it that curled around to tuck in underneath his ribs.
Viktor turned his head. Snuggled tight against his back, so close their heads were on the same pillow, Jayce still slept.
That was it. That was the bubble of joy in his throat. Jayce Talis, warm and gorgeous and so very naked under the thin white sheets, hugging Viktor to his chest like he thought if he let him go he might dissipate into a dream.
Viktor twisted his hand back over his shoulder to stroke Jayce’s hair.
“Mmf.”
“Good morning,” Viktor whispered.
“Mm?”
“It’s almost eight o’clock. Do we want to go down and have breakfast before the panels start?”
Jayce made another sleepy noise between Viktor’s shoulderblades, his arm squeezing in so tightly it forced the air briefly from Viktor’s lungs.
“If you’d rather stay in bed all day and have a whole lot of sex, I’m on board with that too,” Viktor added, “but I would still like to go have breakfast first.”
That made Jayce laugh, a snort into the ridge of Viktor’s spine as he stretched beneath the covers.
“That sounds nice, but they want us checked out by eleven,” he sighed. “Maybe five more minutes of snuggling, though?”
Viktor gave a contented little hum and rolled over, wriggling in the circle of Jayce’s arms until they were face-to-face.
“Gladly.”
There was something especially beautiful about the way the morning sun lit Jayce’s face. His eyes caught the light in a way that made it seem like the sun was shining out rather than in – fifty thousand lux of hazel close enough to kiss.
Jayce took the hand that Viktor stroked down his cheek and brought it to his lips: the knuckles, the palm, the heel. He pressed a kiss to the tattoo on Viktor’s wrist, his eyes drifting closed as if the ink were something to savour. Perhaps it was. It had been his idea, after all.
Get a tattoo there, he’d said, the winter of their first year, when everything had been awful and Viktor had run out of sweaters with unstained cuffs. Get something pretty and delicate. Get a butterfly.
Why, Viktor had asked. Why something so fragile?
Because then you won’t want to hurt it.
Now Jayce kissed the delicate wings, and the scars beneath them, and Viktor felt the butterfly take life not just on his skin but in his chest.
“Beautiful,” Jayce murmured.
Viktor gave a soft, amused huff through his nose. “It’s still the same as the last ten thousand times you’ve seen it.”
“Not the butterfly,” Jayce said, as his lips continued their path up Viktor’s wrist towards his elbow, “you.”
It felt like it took an enormous effort to get out of bed; the sun was so warm, and the mattress so soft, and Jayce’s skin so bare and inviting.
“We’re gonna miss breakfast,” Viktor whispered into his lips. “And you might not mind me when I’m hangry, but come eleven-thirty you’ll regret me missing my first cup of coffee.”
“That is a good fucking point,” Jayce said, and threw the covers off so abruptly that Viktor burst out laughing.
They made quick work of breaking down last night’s set and packing everything up. Jayce was delighted to show Viktor how the anvil came apart to fit in a suitcase.
“I’m so proud of this thing, and I’ve never been able to tell anyone about it.”
“It’s a really cool piece of engineering,” Viktor said, examining the locking mechanism. “You should include it in your portfolio. You don’t have to explain what it was for – just say it was a commission.”
“I guess so.” Jayce gave a sheepish grin. “I’m not really worried that anyone who recognises it will guess I’m TheHammer – I’m more afraid that them recognising it will tell me that they watch TheHammer.”
“Ooh, yeah,” Viktor winced. “Not the sort of information you want about your professors.”
“Right? I’ve met one fan, and that’s enough.”
“Fan,” Viktor snorted. “As if you don’t owe me literally your whole career.”
Jayce grinned as he leaned in to kiss Viktor’s cheek. “I’d be nothing without you.”
Having checked out and left their bags with the concierge, they made their way into the dining room.
“Apparently the breakfast buffet here is really good,” Jayce murmured into Viktor’s ear.
“As long as there’s carbs and coffee, I’m happy.”
Jayce chuckled, then straightened up with a noise of recognition.
“Dr. Medarda! Hey!”
Dr. Medarda. Viktor knew that name. Why did he know that name?
Turning around, he saw Jayce extending a hand to the woman who had joined the queue behind them. Dark of skin and hair, with warm, friendly eyes and a face of gold makeup–
Oh, no.
“How are you this morning, Jayce?”
“Good, good. You?”
“Very well, thanks.” Mel’s eyes slid to Viktor.
“Oh!” Jayce put a hand on the small of Viktor’s back. “Viktor, this is Dr. Medarda. She’s working on some really cool seismic warning stuff that’s gonna be used in the Freljord. Dr. Medarda, this is, uh. Viktor.”
Viktor hoped Jayce couldn’t read the sheer panic on his face as he looked up at Mel. This was it, this was where she said Oh, we’ve met, and Viktor had to explain his trip to the little girls’ room in the bar last night, and Jayce laughed, and Mel laughed, and Viktor had to swallow the embarrassment and try not to die inside–
“A pleasure to meet you, Viktor,” Mel said smoothly, shaking Viktor’s hand.
“Likewise,” he whispered, then cleared his throat. “Likewise, Dr. Medarda.”
“Mel, I got you coffee.” Another woman appeared at Mel’s elbow. It took Viktor a moment to recognise her with her hair loose around her shoulders; he placed her at the exact same moment that she seemed to place him. “Oh! Good morning!”
“Elora,” Mel smiled, before Elora could say anything else. “You remember Jayce, that I was speaking to at the panel yesterday. And this is Viktor.”
“Viktor,” Elora smiled. “Lovely. And Jayce, you said?”
“Yes! Hi. Jayce Talis.”
Mel gestured at the buffet as the queue moved forward. “Shall we?”
Viktor spent the entire journey along the buffet table in an anxious sweat. It wasn’t so much that he didn’t ever want Jayce to know about his bathroom mix-up last night. In fact, he would probably have a good laugh telling him the story someday. But it was a story for someday, not today, and not in the dining room of this fancy hotel full of potential future colleagues.
But Mel seemed to be an instinctively tactful person, and Elora appeared to be following her lead. By the time they reached the cutlery bank, neither had given any indication that they had ever laid eyes on Viktor prior to the last five minutes.
“Lest is saving us a table,” Elora said. “Why don’t you join us?”
Before Viktor could open his mouth to insist they couldn’t possibly impose, Jayce was already nodding and agreeing and turning to follow them to a table over the far side of the room.
Oh, God, Viktor thought. A trip along the bar was nerve-wracking enough. He didn’t think he would survive a whole breakfast.
Still, he followed after Jayce, who held his chair for him before sitting himself.
“We brought friends,” Elora announced as she slid into the seat next to Lest. “This is Jayce, and this is Viktor.”
She put the same meaningful emphasis on his name as Mel had. Viktor hoped Jayce didn’t read anything into it, and even more that he didn’t notice the way Viktor barely kept from cringing.
“Oh, hello,” Lest said, and gave Viktor one of the same conspiratorial smiles she’d treated him with last night. “I’m Lest.”
“Jayce.” Jayce held out his hand, and she dusted the toast crumbs off her fingers before shaking it. “Jayce Talis.”
“A pleasure.” Lest turned to offer her hand to Viktor, and her smile widened.
“Viktor Lanik,” he mumbled.
There was a collective noise of recognition from all three of them.
“What?” Viktor was struck with the sudden, ridiculous urge to run. “What is it?”
“Viktor Lanik?” Lest repeated.
“Y– yeah?”
“Your Professor Bolbok was just telling me about you yesterday!” she cried. “You took his summer biorobotics course.”
Viktor stumbled over his tongue for a moment before saying, “Yeah, I– I did. Why–?”
“He said you were brilliant.” Lest patted her hand excitedly against the table. “Oh, I’m so glad I got to meet you this weekend. It’s all coming up Lest today. That’s two pieces of good fortune in ten minutes.”
“Oh?” Mel looked at her as she stirred sugar into her oatmeal. “What was the first piece?”
“Oh my God, oh my God, okay,” Lest dropped the last quarter of her toast back onto its plate and clapped her hands giddily. “While you girls were getting food, I got a phone call.”
Elora raised an eyebrow. “From?”
“From Ori. They have the funding.”
“What?” Mel gasped.
“I know! Like ninety-nine percent sure. They haven’t actually received it yet, but she’s confident it’s on its way.”
“Oh my god, Lest!” Elora threw her arms around her. “That’s so exciting!”
“I know! I’m literally vibrating right now, I can’t wait to get started.”
“I’m so proud of you, girl,” Mel beamed. “You deserve this. Those kids deserve this.”
Viktor, glancing between the three of them as he put the pieces together, met Lest’s gaze and found himself instantly returning her grin full-force.
“Congratulations,” he said.
“Thank you!” She was practically bouncing in her seat, wiggling so hard in her excitement that when she went to pick up her toast again she knocked Elora’s spoon onto the floor. “Oh, hell, sorry!”
“Don’t worry about it,” Elora said, bending down to pick it up. “I can get–”
“I’ll get you a clean one!” Jayce leapt up from the table before Elora could even push her chair back.
“What a gentleman,” Mel observed, as they watched Jayce stride away across the dining room.
When Viktor turned back to the table, he found all three of them looking at him.
“Oh.” He was blushing, he just knew it. “Um. So.”
“Which one is he?” Lest hissed.
“I… huh?”
“Is that your best friend?” Elora asked.
“Or the guy you were meeting?” Lest added.
“Oh! Um.” Viktor hesitated. “He’s actually… both.”
Elora exchanged a confused look with Mel. “Both?”
“Yeah, he– they turned out to be the same person. It was an internet thing, so… we didn’t realise it was each other we were meeting.”
“… Huh.” Lest cocked her head. “And your friendship survived this revelation?”
Viktor gave her a sheepish grin. “Yeah. More than survived, actually…”
She snickered into her toast. “Oh, good for you.”
He was definitely blushing now. “Thanks.”
“Here you are.” Jayce turned with a clean spoon.
“Thank you,” Elora smiled as she took it from him. “So what’s been your favourite part of the conference so far, Jayce?”
He gave an enthusiastic hum. “Just so much cool research. Disciplines that I didn’t even know existed. I loved your panel yesterday, Dr. Medarda.”
“Thank you,” Mel smiled.
Her eyes flicked to Viktor, and she didn’t redirect the question to him, but Viktor still felt Jayce shift beside him, and knew he was opening his mouth to make some excuse on Viktor’s behalf for why he hadn’t actually attended yesterday–
“The people,” he said, before Jayce could speak, “for me. Definitely the people.”
“Oh, agreed,” Elora said. “I’ve met so many interesting people from so many different educational backgrounds. And so many PiltU students who are going to be fantastic innovators in their own right one day.”
“That boy from Dr. Shoola’s cohort who had the interpreter with him,” Lest agreed. “And the girl you were talking to at lunch… Sky something?”
“Sky Young?” Viktor guessed.
“That’s her!” Elora beamed. “You know her?”
“Yeah, she’s my lab partner at the moment for chem.”
“Well! I don’t know how she feels about chemistry, but as a biologist? I’d want her on my research team.”
“Oh, speaking of,” Mel said, checking her watch, “you’d better scoff that, Elora, they’ll be wanting you to get set up for your panel soon.”
“Ooh, you’re right.” Elora scooped up a mouthful of cereal, then put her spoon down and grabbed her paper cup of coffee. “Sorry to dash away, gentlemen, and lovely to meet you both. Lest, you coming?”
“I’ll catch up,” Lest said. “Leave your dishes, I got ’em. Go kick ass.”
Elora gave Lest’s shoulder a grateful squeeze and hurried away after Mel. Lest, shoving the last of her toast into her mouth, stacked Mel and Elora’s bowls on top of her plate and pushed her chair back.
“Viktor,” she said, reaching into her pocket as she stood. “Here.” When she held out her hand towards him, she had a business card pinched between her first two fingers. “Call me when you graduate.”
“I– really?” Viktor took the card with both hands.
“Dr. Bolbok said you were one to watch,” Lest said. “I’m about to get a whole bunch of money to make a whole bunch of adaptive tech, and I could use a biorobotics genius on my team. Come help me.”
Viktor was aware that his mouth was hanging open, but he couldn’t quite manage to close it.
“Think about it,” Lest added, as she picked up the stack of dishes. “Don’t you want to close the circle?”
And with a wink, she walked away.
“Damn,” Jayce breathed, watching after her as Viktor stared at the card in his hands. “That’s so cool! Well done, Viktor.”
“I’m…” Viktor shook his head. “I wasn’t expecting that.”
“You deserve it! I’m not surprised Bolbok recommended you to her.” Jayce gave Viktor a congratulatory slap between the shoulders. “What did she mean by closing the circle?”
“Ah.” Viktor slipped the card into his pocket with a self-conscious little laugh. “I feel like we might have just funded her research last night.”
Jayce frowned. “Huh?”
Viktor waved a hand. “Long story. I’ll tell you later. I gotta find Bolbok and thank him for solving all my problems.”
He was just turning to aim a kiss at Jayce when it occurred to him that they might not be at the kissing-in-public stage yet… or ever.
“Uh–”
Jayce hooked a hand behind Viktor’s head and pulled him in.
“I’m proud of you,” he murmured against Viktor’s lips.
“Thanks.” Viktor snuck another kiss before sitting back.
“Also, sorry I kind of froze up earlier,” Jayce said as they stood up and gathered up their dishes. “When I was introducing you to Dr. Medarda, I mean. I wasn’t really sure what to call you.”
Viktor shot him a glance. “‘Viktor’ usually works.”
Jayce rolled his eyes. “I mean, like. Usually I would introduce you as my best friend. But I didn’t… I suddenly wasn’t sure if that might make you feel like– like last night wasn’t–”
“Jayce,” Viktor interrupted softly. “You’ll always be my best friend, no matter what else you are.”
“Right.” Jayce sighed in a way that sounded a lot like relief. “Sorry, I’m just. I’m not really used to this. It just feels like there should be a word to encompass the–” he waved a hand at the air between them, “all of this, y’know?”
Viktor considered him for a moment, his head tilted as he examined the picture the two of them made in his mind.
“Partner,” he decided.
“Yeah?” When Jayce met his eyes, that sparkle was there again.
“Yeah,” Viktor nodded. “I think that works.”
“I like it.” Jayce threw an arm around Viktor’s shoulder and planted a kiss on the side of his head. “My partner.”
Viktor grinned, grabbing onto Jayce’s hand on his shoulder to hold it there for a moment before, with a squeeze and a kiss, letting it go and reaching for his coffee.
“Come on, then, partner,” he said, inclining his cup towards the door, “let’s go innovate.”