Work Text:
Soft breaths and warm smiles heat the room they lay in. Affectionate whispers set alight a warmth between them. Exchanged ‘I love you’s had long since died out with the rising of the moon and sweet nothings arose with the stars hanging bright in the sky.
“My love, my Jayce.”
“Yours.”
“Mine.”
“I’m yours, forever. You’re ingrained in me, your name is woven into mine. I’m not just Jayce to people, anymore. It’s Jayce and Viktor. I share this name with you now. It’s as much yours as it is mine.”
A drowsy mind grants Jayce loose lips, letting words overflow from his heart and spill from his tongue. Though born of a sleep-deprived stupor, the words hold truth and meaning and they hit Viktor like a brick. As much as people see him and expect Jayce by his side, people see Jayce and await Viktor’s arrival. They walk in tandem, even in people’s minds, even when they aren’t there. Long before partners meant lovers, it was always the two of them together. Jayce and Viktor - never separate.
The silence born of Viktor’s pondering dies with a question.
“Would you?”
“Would I what?”
“Share a name with me?”
It’s a simple question, a hypothetical with a simple answer, yet Jayce’s heart pounds in his ribcage and against Viktor’s side. The worry racing in his chest has to be strong enough to be felt by the other, he is sure. He glances up and scans Viktor’s face in the dark. His features remain unchanged, nothing shows, until his lips part slowly,
“I’d love to.”
The following morning, Jayce is racing out of the door. That afternoon, he returns with papers upon papers of forms. Viktor signs every one of them. That evening, they are processed and made official. That day Viktor becomes Talis.
It is no grand event, but one long-awaited.
From birth, Viktor lacked a surname, a Zaunite branding. For so long, he presumed it fate prophesying his lonesome. No title would grace him, no history, no name. He would live and die Viktor - alone.
Fate, yes.
Alone, no. It was not a prophecy, but a placeholder. A meaningful emptiness waiting to be filled.
He was meant to be here. His left was made for Jayce’s right. His name made for Jayce’s. They fit perfectly.
“How does it feel? Having a last name?”
Jayce asks one night, climbing into bed.
The answer is on the tip of Viktor’s tongue, yet he doesn’t reply. He stops instead, hums, and smiles. Jayce doesn’t press. He understands, nods, and smiles. They settle into the mattress together, curled into each other’s space. Against the skin of his neck, Viktor feels Jayce murmur,
“Viktor Talis.”
and his heart swells.
It fits perfectly.
The first person to come to Jayce about it is his mother. She shoots so many questions at him that he cannot answer even one. He spends his entire day explaining it. The sun sets before he is able to set foot in the lab and the corrections he planned on making go undone.
The first person to come to Viktor about it is Mel. She waltzes in the lab whilst he sits alone. He feels her eyes scan over him before he hears her speak. They decidedly stop on his hands and squint then raise to meet his gaze.
“Talis, hm?”
Despite her lack of words, the question she asks is clear, and Viktor is immediately defensive.
“As of this weekend, yes.”
His tone is clipped and stony, and he expects hers to match. Though biting words never come. Instead, a smile makes way for kind congratulations before she bids her farewell. Viktor cannot help but notice her eyes downcast on her way out.
Viktor is the first home that night. Jayce slips into bed late, finally escaped his mother’s curious questions and doting words. They fall asleep together like they do every night. Never separate.