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Jayce is the first to say it.
Through side eyes and smirk, comes the half-assed retort,
"Yeah, I love you too, Vik."
to a grumbled,
"I hate you."
and despite it all, Viktor's heart still swells. It inflates in his chest until he's sure it'll burst. Behind the flurry of butterflies in his stomach, a relief settles, knowing that Jayce has turned his back and wouldn't see the flush rising up his cheeks. Oblivious, Jayce is already working away again, tinkering with whatever has caught his eye today as though the words held no weight. And why should they? A simple joke? They were fluttering to the ground like feathers the moment they left his lips. But to Viktor? They dropped at his feet, grazing the tips of his shoes and alighting every nerve in his body with shock. The force of them hitting his world shakes the thoughts from his brain, leaving him both rattled and speechless. The resulting silence that settles in the air is loud in his ears, ringing with the echo of Jayce's voice.
"I love you too, Vik."
As much as he tries to will it away, the words worm into his mind, pushing aside all that previously resided. It takes more than a couple of minutes for him to regain his train of thought. The words written on the pages before him finally straighten out and become legible again. He resumes his work, but it lingers in the back of his mind.
"I love you too, Vik."
Viktor makes a point to say it second.
He plans it. Down the inflexion, he plans it. In his head, he practises it. He'd hit Jayce back; square in the heart, just as he had hit him. It takes a while, but finally, his plan comes to fruition.
They're skimming over messy notes in hopes that one would be the missing piece in a Hextech puzzle. Perhaps a rune they hadn't accounted for. A single factor that they'd overlooked. A poorly calculated equation...
Viktor squints. Jayce's handwriting could be messy. When in a rush, he'd scribble. An idea would spark his fingertips and he'd press his pen too hard into the page or letters would smash together clumsily. It could be messy, but that was certainly a five.
It's a simple equation really, jotted on the margin while his mind works.
√42
5.5
"It's six." Viktor hums, a finger tapping at the page.
Jayce's eyes shoot towards him. They dart between him and the page for a moment before he lets out a dumb, "hm?"
"It's six," Viktor repeats. "You've written five point five, it's six point five."
Jayce narrows his eyes at the numbers that had been so hastily written down and saw, yes, he had written a five in place of a six. His eyebrows furrow. A small miscalculation that he had carried into the rest of his equations had thrown a massive wrench into the rest of his work. Quickly, he pulls a pen from the clutter of their desk and corrects the mistake with an absentminded jest,
"Oh, I hate when you're right, I hate you."
His voice barely lifts past a mutter, like he hadn't meant the words to escape his mind, yet it still sets off an alarm in Viktor's own. The excitement almost has him leaping out of his seat. He said it! Finally, he said it!
Almost too fast, Viktor shoots back,
"Mh, I love you too, Jay."
Just as he'd planned. Say it casually, almost mocking. Make sure to say "I". Add a nickname, short and snappy. Then look away.
And just as he'd planned, Jayce's head about snaps to look at him. He can feel those sandy eyes boring into his back and he imagines just how wide they are. He imagines, and pretends to work. He pretends because he can't work, he can't focus. He drags his pen mindlessly across the page because all he can think about are the words ringing in Jayce's ears. The fact he had said them out loud, just as he'd planned. Though, he hadn't accounted for the way they would make his heart jump. That, despite this being revenge, he would become as flustered as his target.
The silence hangs in the air until there's a rushed scratching of pen against paper from behind him, urging him to do the same. Eventually, his fake words straighten out and become legible again. They resume their work, but it lingers in the back of their mind,
"I love you too, Jay."