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“Who’s over-engineering now, huh?” Jayce grins smugly, though still incredulous. “You can boil your words in snow and eat them.”
Viktor rolls his eyes, but he also can’t help the way that warm affection spreads in his chest. “Yes, yes. You’re such a genius.”
Jayce grins at him, wide and brilliant, and Viktor’s stomach does a little flip. Jayce stretches his arms out in a victorious gesture and slowly starts turning around, as if he’s doing some sort of slow victory twirl.
“You may continue praising my fantastic brain.”
Viktor doesn’t deign to answer that. Instead he finds himself doing his very best to be respectful and most definitely not ogle the other man, despite the frankly obscene amount of of brown skin, hard muscle and dark body hair on display, positively glittering with the way the light above is catching on the water droplets clinging to him.
It’s a futile endeavor, it turns out.
Viktor’s gaze catches on the large scar going diagonally down Jayce’s back. Hues of pink, red, purple and green discolor the skin, as if the arcane itself has healed into Jayce’s body, uneven and gnarly.
“Does it bother you much?” Viktor hears himself ask.
“Huh?” Jayce stops his victory twirl to throw Viktor a look from over his shoulder. “Does what bother me?”
Viktor indicates with a nod of his head. “Your back. The injury.”
“Oh.” Jayce lowers his arms and shrugs his shoulders lightly before rolling them. “I mean… It hasn’t healed completely right, that’s for sure. I didn't really… take care of it that well right after it happened. And after that I didn’t really have the… possibility to take care of it.”
Guilt stabs Viktor in the stomach like a knife. His tongue feels too big, pressing tackily against the roof of his mouth.
“But it’s okay. I’m sure it looks worse than it feels.” Jayce lifts his arms above his head, the powerful muscles of his back playing and shifting under his skin.
The heat that’s still simmering in the bottom of Viktor’s stomach grows hotter, and his mouth suddenly goes dry.
“Would you let me take a look at it?” He forces his voice to remain even as he asks the question.
Jayce turns around to face him fully, looking vaguely hesitant. “You really don’t have to.”
“It’s the least I can do after you…” He motions vaguely towards his lower body as he moves his legs back and forth under the surface of the warm water. “After you helped me with my problem.”
Jayce looks torn for a moment. Viktor wonders briefly what it means that Jayce had been so willing to put his hands on him, to be very in his personal space while naked, but the idea of Viktor touching him seemingly being a tad bit too much.
A man of contradictions, Jayce Talis.
“Okay,” Jayce finally says, but makes no move to come closer. Viktor can’t help the way the corner of his mouth quirks up in amusement. “I cannot examine your back from all the way over there.” He waves his hand, beckoning Jayce over. “Come here,” he finishes, voice soft yet demanding.
“O-okay.”
Viktor swears he can see Jayce’s cheeks heat up in a blush.
The water moves gently around Jayce’s body as he makes his way through the spring to stand in between Viktor’s legs, back in the spot where he had been just a little while before. They just look at each other for a hot, heavy moment, and there is a split second, a terrifying and exhilarating moment, where Viktor is convinced Jayce is going to kiss him.
That’s not what happens, though.
Instead, Jayce breaks their eye contact and turns around, his back now towards Viktor.
Viktor’s hands tremble just slightly as he lifts them and gently places them on Jayce’s broad shoulders. Jayce jumps at the contact, and then lets out a little breathy laugh. “Sorry, I just-” He clears his throat. “Wasn’t expecting it, for some reason.”
There are a lot of questions Viktor would like to ask. A myriad of questions in fact, with answers he would use to arrive at a proper hypothesis at what they, what Viktor and Jayce, are.
But he doesn’t ask them. Instead, he presses his hands more firmly against Jayce’s shoulders before dragging his fingertips over the skin, sinew and muscle. A little voice inside of him tells him that he is not examining Jayce’s scar like this, but he decides to ignore it. He’s not sure what comes over him, but he squeezes his hands, and feels the knots of tension in Jayce’s shoulders. Like coils wound too tightly.
“Hmm…” he hums, mostly to himself, as he changes the angle of his right hand and digs his fingers into a firm muscle there, putting intention behind it.
The sound Jayce makes goes directly to his core, and he feels his face heat up.
He wants Jayce to make that sound again, and that thought is both scary and arousing.
“Did I hurt you?” Viktor asks, trying to keep up a flimsy kind of mask. Pretense. For his own sake or for Jayce’s, he wasn’t sure anymore.
“No.” Jayce shakes his head, still facing away. “On the contrary. That felt amazing.” Then, softer, as if he’s unsure that if he’s asking for too much. “Do it again?”
Viktor swallows, licks his lips nervously, and digs in his fingertips. The sound Jayce makes this time around is even worse (or better, depending on how you look at it), unmistakably sexual, and Viktor feels something actually stir between his legs. With a sharp inhale he lets his hands fall away from Jayce’s shoulder, and he looks down between them.
There he stands, half-erect. His eyebrows shoot up on his forehead in surprise. Now that’s new. Or… old, he supposes.
“Oh.”
Viktor’s head whips back up at the sound Jayce’s voice, and he realises that the other man has turned around to face him. In addition to that, he’s also looking down between them, gaze fixated on Viktor’s erection.
Viktor’s limbs suddenly feel heavy, and when Jayce looks up to meet his gaze, there is a combination of amazement and need shining in his hazel eyes.
“I… I didn’t know I could do that,” Viktor says in an attempt to fill the silence. “Anymore.”
A large, warm hand brushes against his hip. Softly, gently - a question.
“Can I…?” The words are almost whispered, as if Viktor is some sort of animal that might flee.
“Jayce, I don’t know if I can…” Viktor trails off, feeling like he’s been dragged out of the dark and out into the light, Jayce’s gaze searing him with its warmth. He clears his throat. “I don’t know what this body allows me to-”
Jayce interrupts him with a soft sound at the back of his throat. “Let me try.” Viktor feels the fingers twitch against his hip, as if Jayce is holding himself back. “I’ll do anything.” There is a fire burning in Jayce’s eyes now, like he’s a man on a mission that his life depends on. “Anything you want me to do. Anything you’ll let me do. Please, just…” He draws in a shuddering breath, like the flickering of a candle in the wind. When he speaks again, his voice has a slight tremble. “Don’t shut me down before we’ve even tried.”
There’s an infinite amount of reasons as to why Viktor should say no, and only one as to why he should say yes.
The thing is that that reason is standing right in front of him, and that reason weighs heavier than every other reason combined.
Viktor bites down on his lower lip and nods, giving his silent permission.
Jayce’s breath whooshes out of him, the exhale tickling Viktor’s lips, and some delirious part of him wishes he could breathe Jayce in and keep him in his lungs forever.
The hand on his hip slides further in with clear intent, and Viktor holds his breath without realising he’s doing it.
When Jayce finally wraps his fingers around Viktor’s length, the touch shakes him to his core. Soft skin and calloused fingers, one hand completely covering all of him. Heat pools low in his stomach again, and his eyes flutter close as he loses himself in the feeling. Jayce starts to slowly, carefully, pump his hand, and Viktor gasps. He’s so sensitive, more sensitive than he could remember ever having been before, and the same delirious part of him thinks that it’s because his body is reacting to Jayce.
Coming alive at its maker’s touch.
The thought sends a shiver of both arousal and uneasiness down his spine.
He quickly grows fully hard in Jayce’s grip, and he can’t help but buck up into it. A thick thumb swipes over the head, spreading a bead of wetness there, and Viktor’s mouth falls open with a soft gasp.
“Jayce…”
He feels a hand come up to cup the back of his neck, and it makes him open his eyes. The sight before him takes his breath away.
Jayce is staring straight at him, his pupils blown so wide that only a thin ring of hazel is visible around the black. A dark pink, attractive blush stains his cheeks, and Viktor finally gives in and does what he’s been wanting to do for so long. For years, since long before they ended up in this cabin.
He surges forward and presses their lips together in a kiss.
The movement of Jayce’s hand falters, comes to a stop. He groans into the kiss, and gods, those sounds will be the death of Viktor one day.
Viktor reaches up to wrap his arms around Jayce’s shoulders, pulling him in closer, and deepening the kiss in the process. Jayce opens his mouth, lets Viktor in, and it’s as if a dam has broken. It’s an inelegant mesh of lips and coiling of tongues, and Jayce’s grip on the back of his neck is firm, as if he’s afraid that Viktor’s going to suddenly disappear in a puff of smoke.
Somewhere in the middle of it, Jayce picks the stroking back up, and everything suddenly feels overwhelming. Viktor whines into Jayce’s mouth, feeling a crescendo build inside of him, and Jayce presses in even closer, as close as he can come with his arm awkwardly squeezed in between them.
Viktor realises with a start that he will come apart in Jayce’s hand like this, and that he doesn’t want it to be over already. He wants to take Jayce apart first. He tears himself away from the kiss and wraps his fingers around Jayce’s wrist.
“Stop,” he gasps, breathless.
“Sorry, I-” Jayce immediately apologizes, stilling the movement of his hand. “Is it not good? We can stop, I don’t mean to-”
“Jayce, stop talking,” Viktor says softly, shaking his head, and Jayce immediately quiets, pressing his lips together in a thin line. There’s a fragile vulnerability on his face, making him look so much younger than he is. “It’s good. A bit too good, in fact,” Viktor says with a weak smile, feeling… exposed. Naked in more ways than one.
The blush on Jayce’s face deepens. There’s a look on his face that Viktor recognises, having spent so much time with the other man: the satisfied embarrassment of having his ego stroked.
“Ah.”
“Ah indeed.” Viktor squeezes Jayce’s wrist briefly. “Just… give me a moment.”
Without hesitation, Jayce let’s go of his erection, and he immediately misses the touch.
They look at each other in silence for a long moment, and Viktor understands that Jayce is giving him time. Space. Leaving it fully up to him to dictate how this continues.
Viktor feels bold when he reaches down between them to wrap his fingers around Jayce’s cock, finding it fully hard. It’s shockingly warm in his grip.
Unarguably human and alive.
He gives a trying pump of his hand, up and down, and his name falls from Jayce’s lips like some kind of prayer.
“Viktor…”
He can’t quite explain what’s moving him to speak when the next words leave his mouth.
“Is this what you think about when you leave the cabin in the middle of the night, Jayce?”
Jayce’s eyes widen in shock. “That’s not- I don’t-”
“It’s okay,” Viktor says simply, leaving no room for argument.
Jayce goes silent again. Gives a short nod.
Viktor feels like he’s on fire when he starts moving his hand up and down Jayce’s erection. “So. Is it? What you think about?”
Jayce’s hands find Viktor’s waist, encircling it. He blushes deep red and bites down on his lower lip, showing off that unfairly attractive and endearing tooth gap. He nods again. “Mmm-hmm.” He hums, low but affirmative.
Viktor can’t help but look down between them, entranced by how his fingers look wrapped around Jayce like this. How red and swollen the tip is. He swipes his thumb over the head, mirroring what Jayce had done to him before, and Jayce’s hands tighten on his waist.
“Viktor…” He moans, deep in his chest, and Viktor moves his free hand down, dragging down Jayce’s back, brushing over the scar before following the dip of his spine. He settles his hand on the small of Jayce’s back, fingers splaying wide. He watches with a deep sense of fascination, cataloguing Jayce’s every reaction, every sound, every movement.
He completely forgets about his own pleasure, focused wholly on the way Jayce fucks up into his fist. Falls apart in his hands.
Jayce, however, doesn’t forget about Viktor. He never seems to.
“Wait, let me…” Jayce leans backwards slightly, putting just a small bit of distance between them. Viktor’s gaze flicks up to look Jayce in the eye, and there’s a concentrated look on the man’s face as he moves one of his hands to nudge Viktor’s hand.
Viktor takes the hint and, somewhat reluctantly, lets go of Jayce’s cock. He watches hungrily how Jayce puts the flesh of his thumb against his own erection and presses it forward, right up against Viktor’s own. He wraps his large hand around them both and presses them firmly together, and Viktor’s head starts spinning.
“Oh.” Pleasure washes over his body, and his hands fly up to grasp at Jayce’s shoulders. “Oh, that is…”
Jayce lets out a shaky breath. “Yeah. Yeah.” He flexes his hips forwards, thrusts into the tunnel of his fist, his cock pressing up firmly against the underside of Viktor’s in the process. “Fuck.”
Viktor mirrors the sentiment with a mumbled expletive of his own. He bucks up into Jayce’s fist, searching for more, for anything Jayce will give him, and Jayce starts pumping his hand with long, steady strokes. Another wave of pleasure rolls over Viktor, and he bites down on his lower lip to stop a moan from tumbling out.
“Let me hear you,” Jayce says, a desperate edge to his voice as he starts moving his hand faster over the both of them.
A mix of shame and arousal burns through Viktor as he lets the next moan leave him unhindered.
A large hand lands on his thigh, curling around the outside of it, and he lets his realigned leg be lifted out of the water to be wrapped around Jayce’s hip, held in place with the other man’s help. He wraps his own arms fully around Jayce’s shoulders, and Jayce buries his face into the side of his neck, breathing harshly.
Jayce groans his name as he starts moving his hips back and forth, warm water sloshing around him, little waves rolling up to dampen Viktor’s skin and making the stone he’s sitting on slick and wet. Viktor’s head falls back with another moan, arching up against Jayce as much as he can.
It doesn’t take long at all, shockingly quick as a matter of fact, before Viktor is back at the precipice, pressure building inside of him. Jayce’s breath is hot and wet against his neck.
“Come for me, please?” Jayce asks, almost like he’s begging, pleading, and Viktor imagines those words being said when Jayce is buried deep inside of him, pressing him into their bed back in the cabin. His orgasm rips through him like thunder, like the crackle of magic, like a chaotic wild rune. His vision whites out as he spills across Jayce’s knuckles, and he’s only vaguely aware of Jayce following directly after with a bone-deep groan.
Whatever mechanism has replaced his heart is going haywire in his chest as he comes down from his climax. Jayce’s forehead is pressed against Viktor’s shoulder, and he’s panting with the exertion of his orgasm.
A sudden exhaustion washes over Viktor, an ache in his realigned leg spreading up into his hip. He grimaces lightly and shifts a little, and Jayce reacts immediately by lifting his head up.
Jayce’s eyebrows are knitted together with worry when he speaks. “What’s the matter?” He lets go of their flagging erections. “Something wrong?”
Viktor shakes his head. “Nothing. Just tired. This has been quite an, ah, eventful day.”
The smile Jayce gives him can almost be described as shy, and Viktor doesn’t quite know what to do with that. Jayce gently lowers Viktor’s leg back into the water, and it’s an immediate soothing balm for the ache. To Viktor’s great disappointment and great relief, he then takes a step back and leaves the immediate space between Viktor’s legs.
They share a long look, as if both of them are unsure of how to proceed.
“We should probably head back,” Jayce says, lifting a hand to scratch awkwardly at the back of his head.
Viktor gives a small nod. “Indeed.”
Jayce points towards the pile of clothes that he left by the edge of the hot spring before he dove in. “I’ll just…”
Viktor doesn’t say anything, and averts his eyes when Jayce climbs out of the hot spring. A part of him recognises that it’s silly after what they just did. He focuses on the way his legs look under the water’s surface until he risks a glance over at the other man. Jayce is currently busy with tying the piece of string he uses as a belt in the front, still shirtless, and Viktor’s stomach clenches at the sight.
Their eyes meet and Jayce gives him a lopsided, nervous, yet brilliant smile and that Viktor can’t help but to match with one of his own.
He isn’t sure where this leaves them.
He just hopes they will be okay in the end.