boyofprogress | closed rp for [recursiveimpulse]

While Viktor comes back down to earth pretty quickly - sadly, time and society have worn down that starry-eyed boy from the fissures - it's with a smile, chuckling at the nudge.

It's funny - that's the moment, for him. The one where Jayce's personality clicks for him. It's a little bumbling. A little roughhousing.

But it's roughhousing.

It's not treating him like glass.

It feels...nice.

"It would be an important experiment to repeat, anyway, after all."

Honestly, Viktor's attitude and sense of humour make it easy to forget that he uses a cane, most of the time. He's quick-witted and the smartest godsdamned person Jayce has ever come across, and he's proven already that he can handle the occasional jostle.

"Yeah," Jayce says thoughtfully, a smile creeping across his face. "To see if it was chance or skill that the sequence worked. If we can replicate the results, then we know the sequence is vital to our equation."

"Exactly." There's mischief in his smile. That same sense of play that had him cracking jokes under pressure that night.

He considers pushing again into talk about work, redirecting the conversation into territory he usually prefers to tread...but Jayce had been quite open with him. He feels inclined to, at the very least, let his new partner in just a little more.

Reaching into his satchel, he pulls out a very worn thermal flask, rubbed to bare steel in the spots where hands tend to sit. Uncapping the cup-lid, he pours the steaming white contents into it, offering it out to Jayce. It's opaque and frothy, flecked with and smelling of spices.

"Since you brought lunch, I'll give you something new to try. Here. This recipe is...well, it is all I have of my mother. I don't know if you will have had it before."

Getting to know Jayce has been - nice. Their friendship had been almost instantaneous, blazing like fire across oil, and Viktor isn't sure he's ever had this much fun. Something he didn't know he was missing.

Their work is coming along nicely - nicely enough that he was willing to put things down to go get some dinner and a celebratory drink.

Or two. Or three. Or five.

Now it's giggling madly that Viktor unlocks the laboratory doors very late at night, swaying against his cane. This is a great idea. They both have so much energy and motivation right now, they simply HAVE to get some of it down in their notes.

He teeters and nearly falls into his nearby partner, snorting a little bit - but the door swings open, at least. He grins up mischievously, his gaunt face flushed deep around his nose and cheeks.

"After you, MISTER Talis."

"I'll admit, I was expecting that to be filled with coffee." The worn steel warms his heart a bit, honestly. Seeing something so well cared for despite being so well used.

He takes the cup, carefully, holding it up to inhale its scent, first. Sweet, but spiced. It reminds him of a candy Caitlyn's mother used to give him, as a boy. Something hard and chewy, he remembers. He sips at it, making an approving noise at the taste. "Oh this is sweeter than I thought it was going to be. I like this. It reminds me of something my mom makes, actually. But hers is more cinnamon based."

Working with Viktor has honestly been kind of a dream. There's such a connection between them, it's almost like they're living in each other's brains, which is amazing. One can start an equation and the other can finish it.

Which is why, when Viktor suggests dinner, Jayce takes him to his favourite little hole in the wall spot. Amazing food and generously poured drinks. Maybe a little too generous, he's starting to realize as he leans against the door Viktor is unlocking.

But they have too many ideas to discuss! They can't stop now, certainly, and Jayce tumbles into the lab with a laugh, shushing himself quickly. "Happily, Mister... Viktor. You don't -- there's nothing after Viktor, right? Yeah, yes."

This is definitely the drunkest he has been in someone else's company in...a long time. Perhaps ever. It makes him a little looser with his boundaries, using Jayce as a handrail without a second thought as he plows over to a fresh chalkboard.

"Yes! Yes. Just Viktor. I...hah, I am drunk, I think. But I feel good. Full of ideas. Don't you?"

Impulsively, he opens the front of his vest. Letting a little loose. FEELING a little loose, if he's honest.

"Eh, I can make coffee here. But people always assume and no one ever asks."

He takes a sip from the body of the flask, humming softly in enjoyment.

"It's called Sweetmilk. I have always found it comforting, and I always bring some with me to work."

"Mister Viktor," Jayce affirms, laughing a little but holding still as Viktor steadies himself against him to make his way to the chalkboard. "Here! Here." He grabs a chair and rolls it over, so Viktor can sit, if he wants. Or lean on it, anyway.

"I am definitely both of those things. Also..." If there was an end to the sentence, he's forgotten it, because he's now trying to remember the last time he'd seen Viktor with his vest undone like that and rapidly realizing that the answer is perhaps never.

"Yes, good. For sure good. I could go all night," he assures his companion, but it's mostly true. A little wobbly, but in a very good mood.

Viktor half-kneels on the offered chair in front of the board, scribbling some calculations in lopsided scrawl.

But that choice of words Jayce uses makes him stop in his tracks.

He looks over first in surprise and then in... something else. Jayce is looking and feeling so. Sturdy. His face flushes a little deeper as he realizes that his body is responding before he can shift away from the thought.

He hopes Jayce doesn't notice his thighs starting to quiver. This is a terrible idea.

"Hah. Could you really? Go all night?"

Jayce squints a little to try to bring the equation more into focus, but his gaze wanders to the hand writing the equation instead. Viktor's hands are so damned delicate. Everything about him is slender and lovely, and he could watch his hands work for hours. It's really unfair, and Jayce keeps staring at the lean lines of his body, thinking --

"I bet I could get my hands around his waist."

Uh. Oh no. That was definitely meant to be in his head, still. Was it out loud? Maybe Viktor won't notice. "I mean, sure. I feel great right now. What's your idea? What're we -- what's the project."

"What?"

Okay, his mind cannot possibly be that far in the gutter. He HAS to have misheard.

His mouth feels dry.

"What was that first thing?"

"No! Uh." He's an idiot. He needs to focus on the work they have planned, and not Viktor's adorable beauty mark at the corner of his mouth, or the way his nose scrunches a little when he concentrates.

"Misspoke, it's nothing. Tell me your idea?" His hand is on the back of the chair that Viktor is kneeling on, and he keeps leaning into his partner's space even more than he usually does.

"Nono, I - thought I heard you say something about...."

Jayce is close. He smells really good. Heat starts to bloom in places difficult to ignore. Viktor squeezes his thighs together a little. This is a mistake. It feels too good. He flushes deeper, breathing a little harder.

Uh-oh.

"...About your hands around my waist?"

That little stuttered nono is one of his favourite noises that Viktor makes. Right after his either considering or condescending (depending on the situation) eehn sound.

He is in so much trouble, isn't it?

Viktor is leaning close, and from this distance it's easier to see the flush in his cheeks and oh gods, okay, he has exactly one chance at this, and he absolutely needs to not fuck it up. So he works to rephrase what he said into something hopefully intelligent sounding and lands on --

"Just that if I wrote out the equation to measure the circumference of your waist, and compared it to the one measuring the span of my hands, I think they'd match almost perfectly."

"Sweetmilk," he repeats, taking another sip. Definitely comforting. It feels a bit like a hug in a cup, which he will absolutely not say out loud for fear of one of those little eye rolls. "The one my mom makes is called horchata. It's cinnamon and rice milk, and a few other things.

I may have to sneak from your thermos, if this is what you're bringing."

"Horr-chah-tuh. Hm. Well, I would like to try it sometime, yes."

But that last bit makes him chuckle, shaking his head a little. "You only have to ask. I can always bring extra."

His smile is wry, amused - but maybe a little fond. He already likes some of what he's seen from Jayce, and he's eager to get to learn more.

He's just...not as good at people.

...Well huh. That was more upfront than he had expected.

He can give back just as well.

"Why hypothesize? We can test the theory right now."

Without missing a beat, he stands with his arms out, swaying slightly on his feet under the muzzy haze of the alcohol.

His smile kind of looks like a challenge.

Oh sweet Janna, he is in so much trouble, isn't he? Viktor is standing (mostly) in front of him, arms out like he's about to be measured for a new suit, or something similar.

He's barely breathing as he reaches out, setting his thumbs against Viktor's stomach, letting his hands settle at the slimmest part of his waist. Carefully, staring down at his hands rather than dare to look Viktor in the eye, he wraps his fingers around him. And, sure enough, his middle fingers just about meet at the small of Viktor's back.

"Love it when a hypothesis is proven right," he manages to mumble, heart hammering against his chest.

And that's that. Viktor sets his jaw, trying to hold still while he can feel himself starting to get...well, wet.

He's got a decision to make here. And he knows that it has to be him, because Jayce will absolutely not.

He could pull away. Put an end to this here and now.

Meh.

Instead, his hands reach out to find Jayce's biceps, watching the paths his fingertips take to commit the contour to touch and memory both. Humming approvingly.

"You're huge, you know."

He can't even hide the undercurrent of want in that statement.

"I'm in the forges a lot." It sounds stupid the moment it leaves his mouth, because Viktor's all too light touch is leaving lines of fire in its wake and his eyes are still fixed on his hands around Viktor's waist.

He should stop touching Viktor.

He doesn't want to. He can't, it feels like his hands are fused there. They fit together perfectly and it's making Jayce salivate, thinking of all the other ways they could fit.

"Okay!" Maybe it's said a little too fast, or a little too eager, but godsdammit, he wants so badly for Viktor to like him. It's like that with most people; Jayce is a people pleasure by nature, he might wither away and perish of despair if someone doesn't like him.

But this feels different. Viktor is the smartest person he's ever met, and he's got a weird little sense of humour that Jayce already finds so charming and Jayce craves his approval like a desert craves rain.

"I could ask, next time I go to her house for dinner. She always sends me home with enough food for the entire city, anyway."

"Mm," Viktor grunts, as though that's interesting in any way compared to how SOLID Jayce is under his hands.

Which, between the alcohol and the hands around his waist, has sent his mind straight down into the gutter. (Injection day. Of course. He should have known better to go drinking on injection day.)

He looks at Jayce's downcast face, looks at the way he's moving, sounding, and....

"Oh, fuck it."

A half a second later and Viktor is grabbing Jayce's shoulders and pulling him down, low enough that the tinker can catch the other man's mouth in a hungry kiss.

"Thank fuck." His arms wrap around Viktor, embracing him almost greedily and hauling him close, feeling confident that even if he throws him off balance with the tug forward, he can take his weight.

He tastes like anise and the olive Jayce watched him suck off the toothpick that came with his martini when he was trying and failing not to think too hard about his mouth. The kiss is messy, too much tongue and teeth getting in the way and it's exactly what he needs right now.

Excellent. Ideal, in fact. It's been too, too long since Viktor had had this kind of attention - and right now, he's quite happy to set all thoughts of professionalism and propriety aside in favor of...blowing off a little steam.

It's with that thought that the tinkerer hums approvingly into that wet, open-mouthed kiss (messier than he normally is, but he's like a man starved right now), carelessly tossing his cane off to one side in favor of pressing his small, fragile body right up against Jayce's wall of muscle for all the support he needs.

Depending on how this goes, there may be some...discussion to have. But that's a bridge that can be crossed when they reach it, and his mouth is very, very busy right now.

closed rp for [recursiveimpulse]

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The spheres are in commotion - the elements in harmony....

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