Chapter Text
Jayce padded down the stairs frantically dressing himself. He pulled a hoodie over his head, momentarily revealing a delicious sliver of tummy before searching for his shoes. Tucked into his normal spot on his padded bench in their little breakfast nook they call a dining room, Viktor pretended not to notice.
After he had his shoes on, Jayce tossed a nondescript cardboard box onto the kitchen table- interrupting both Viktor’s book and his sip of coffee- before taking his seat across from him. He’d already taken a bite of the croissant Viktor had set out for himself before he even sat down, stuffing books and papers from their kitchen table into his bag.
“This one’s a little erratic. Hard to get into any kind of rhythm with it.”
Viktor put down his cup, but continued staring at his book, as if he could even focus on the words on the page when Jayce was around.
“So it’s too fast? Or it changes patterns too much.” He looked around for a bookmark, gave up, and set his book face down on the table.
Jayce considered for a moment, “Hm. Both I think. If it was slower, the patterns might tease better. But it only needs two or three patterns and it needs to stay on them longer.”
“Hm.” Viktor pulled out his notebook- his constant companion- and finally looked up at Jayce, who had pulled out his planner and was flipping through pages. Somehow his beauty still blew him away after so many years. His sun-kissed skin and hazel eyes, darting over the pages, reminded him of autumn leaves. He was the epitome of tall dark and handsome, but sprinkle in a little “rippling muscles” and “overwhelming charm” and there you have Jayce. A real Prince Charming.
“Slower, and longer. Noted.”
Jayce pulled his eyes away from his book to glare at Viktor- a look that held no real malace. Viktor wouldn’t even gratify that with a smirk. He kept his poker face and took another sip of coffee. When Jayce kept it up, he raised his eyebrows instead.
“Was there another note?”
Victor would do anything for this amount of eye contact with Jayce- teasing him was the least of it. They were both so often swept away in the reading, the study, the calculations or crafting, that there was so little time left for staring deep into each other’s eyes. Jayce was the first to break, his eyes falling to the side as his cheeks took on some color.
“…No.”
Viktor scribbled in his notebook a bit. He could avert his eyes if it meant Jayce would share. If it was something he was feeling delicate about, Viktor could give him the space.
“Alright, what is it?”
Jayce let it sit for a moment. Long enough to make Viktor look up from his writing again. His face showed more than a simple vulnerability- he was… embarrassed?
“Out with it, pretty boy. Words should not be minced here.”
Jayce’s face relaxed a little, but he still couldn’t look Viktor in the eye.
“It’s still not thick enough.”
Viktor couldn’t keep his smirk back now. This wasn’t a new note, but he jotted it down anyway.
“Sorry to disappoint, but it needs to be marketable to the majority public.”
Jayce looked down again, rubbing the back of his neck with one hand. “I know, I know. I wasn’t going to say anything. You asked.”
He did this on purpose. He knew there was a snarling beast inside him that needed to see Jayce blushing and admitting his needs. He wouldn’t ever say that’s what it was, of course, hiding it behind both friendly teasing and professionalism. But if he couldn’t embrace his best friend the way he would like, he would at least afford himself these moments of selfishness.
Viktor downed the remaining few sips of his coffee and grabbed his bag and cane. “I have a couple more meetings today, but I’ll see you tonight.”
“Oh yeah, are you coming to the party? I understand if you need to work…”
Viktor had forgotten the party. Normally he would have scheduled an appointment to overlap something like this- college kids releasing their school stress through drink and chaos. It would give him a proper reason not to go, without lying to Jayce when he makes the sad puppy dog eyes that he’s making right now. Well… why not?
“It seems as though I am free this evening.”
Viktor wished the way Jayce’s face lit up didn’t affect him so intensely. He turned toward the door.
“Great! When I get out of poly-sci we’ll eat something quick and then we can go together.”
“Sounds like a plan,” Viktor didn’t look back, “good luck with your studies.”
Jayce looked dubiously at the list of textbooks in the planner in front of him. “Right," He didn’t seem happy about the reminder, “thanks.”