Work Text:
Viktor is starting to get annoyed.
He knows everyone can be late, and he knows something can come up that you need to take care of, but Jayce agreed to meet him at seven, which was half an hour ago. Jayce isn’t usually late. So why does he have to be late now, of all times? Their project is due tomorrow, and while Viktor is prepared not to get much sleep tonight, there’s no reason to make it worse.
Jayce told him that he had written down the equations already, but he didn’t say where. And Viktor is going crazy. He’s not good at just waiting around and doing nothing.
He paces the lab for another ten minutes before he decides that he might as well go through the stuff on Jayce’s desk. There isn’t a lot, and if the equations happened to be in there somewhere, Viktor could get started already, and they wouldn’t waste more time than they already did.
He goes through a couple of different papers — making sure not to move them around, because even though the desk looks messy, Jayce probably knows exactly where to find everything — but none of it looks like the equations they need.
The only thing left is the journal on the shelf. He knows it’s for work purposes - Jayce already showed him several pages in there - but still, Viktor is reluctant to open it right away. Something about it seems so personal. Maybe it’s the torn cover that gives Viktor the impression it’s been following Jayce for years, or the small, random doodles Jayce scattered on the pages. Eventually, though, he takes it from the shelf and flips through the last couple of pages, expecting Jayce to have written about their project recently. A quick look won’t hurt anyone.
He doesn’t find what he’s looking for immediately, but suddenly, a folded piece of paper falls from the journal to the floor.
He doesn’t think much of it when he picks it up, planning to stick it back between the pages and continue looking, but something makes him stop in his tracks. It’s one of the pages that has been ripped out and folded in half, and it’s unlikely to be the equations he’s looking for — but he’s intrigued. Why would Jayce rip out a page and put it back in?
Because it didn’t just fall out. It’s a high-quality journal, and the tear is too clean, and—
Viktor opens it before he can stop himself. It’s a page full of Jayce’s handwriting. No numbers, and yet, Viktor doesn’t put it away.
I never thought he would ask me out, but he did.
It was a rainy Tuesday afternoon, and it was just for coffee. We were supposed to be working, but he skipped work, just to be with me. I never saw him skip work for anyone, so you can imagine how happy I was.
Viktor lowers the piece of paper. This… isn’t science. Which unfortunately also means that it’s not meant for Viktor to see. But he already saw it, and now he wants to know more.
Who is this mystery man that invited Jayce for coffee? Is it a friend — or is it more? And why did Jayce write about him in his journal at work?
The worst thing about it all is that Viktor can’t help a tinge of envy. He and Jayce never did anything together outside the lab, though Viktor thought of it many times. But work always got in the way, and maybe his insecurities did, too. Because would Jayce even want to? They had a good time together in the lab every day, and they even had fun as well, but maybe their relationship was simply bound to exist here. Not in a coffee shop.
And now it’s too late.
He glances around briefly to make sure he’s still alone before he fixes his eyes on the paper once again.
He took me to the small coffee bar near the Academy - the one I visited with him so many times in my dreams already. And it made me wonder if this, too, was a dream. But when he ordered his coffee I knew it wasn’t, because I never thought he would like it sweet. An iced chocolate almond milk shaken espresso. I looked at him from the table when he ordered, admiring his pale neck nearly hidden behind unruly brown locks, his small waist—
Viktor frowns and looks away. No, he shouldn’t read Jayce’s description of another man’s body. It’s disrespectful. And also it sparks something inside him that he doesn’t like. He skips a few lines before he continues reading.
He listened with interest as I told him about the weak structure of graphite, and I didn’t notice the movement of his hand before it was inches from mine on the table between us. It made me stop talking.
“You can go on,” he said with a smile, and I stuttered out the rest of the story as I saw his hand move closer. Eventually, it landed on mine. His skin was colder than mine, but somehow it still warmed me.
“I like you, Jayce,” he said.
My mouth opened, but I didn’t know what to say.
“It’s okay,” he said and gave my hand a squeeze. “I know you feel the same way.”
How could he know? I thought, but he answered my question when my words failed me.
“I’ve seen the way you look at me.” He leaned in closer. “Tell me if I’m wrong.”
I felt myself blushing when his golden gaze fell on my lips, and I had to force myself to speak.
“You’re not.”
The next part happened in slow motion. Our eyes met, he leaned closer, and I leaned closer. There was nothing but me and him in the world. No other customers around us. They simply stopped existing.
I felt his breath on my lips before they met mine, and I could have sworn there was a spark of—
The door swings open. Viktor, engrossed in the journal entry, startles and loses his grip on the paper.
“Gods, I’m so sorry I’m late, Viktor. Heimer had me help with something and then I ran into—”
Jayce trails off as his eyes follow the piece of paper until it lands on the ground. Then, as soon as it touches the floor, he lunges forward and grabs it, before Viktor can even think of moving. As if it isn’t too late, as if Viktor didn’t already read most of it. That gruesome reality seems to dawn on Jayce as he stands back up, his face and ears shining the brightest red Viktor has ever seen, and a wild look in his eyes. The paper is pressed to his chest with a hand that Viktor can only imagine is sweaty.
“I shouldn’t have—” Viktor starts, but his quiet voice is drowned out by Jayce’s high-pitched, panicky voice.
“I’m sorry, Viktor. I’m so— I don’t know what I was thinking, writing about you, keeping it in my journal. That was so disrespectful and unprofessional of me. I meant to— I—” Jayce looks like he’s on the verge of crying, but Viktor’s eyes go wide. “I understand if you’re uncomfortable working with me now, and I guess I… I just want you to know that it’s not a problem for me a-and that we—”
“About me?” Viktor cuts Jayce off. His voice is quiet with wonder, but Jayce hears it and stops talking.
“Y-yes?” he stutters out. Then his expression changes. “Oh shit, you didn’t read it?”
“I did.” Viktor clutches the handle of his crutch a little firmer and leans on it a little more. “I just didn’t realise that it…” His brows knit together in confusion. “We never went out for coffee.”
Jayce looks like he wants the ground to swallow him up. His hand comes up to cover his blushing face as he takes a deep breath.
“No, we didn’t,” he mutters. Viktor still doesn’t understand, until Jayce peeks out between his fingers with an explanation. “But maybe… I wish we did.”
Jayce’s hand slowly slides down until he faces Viktor, and the reveal of vulnerability in Jayce’s eyes makes Viktor realise what’s going on.
“Oh.”
“Yeah,” Jayce breathes and looks down at the floor. “So, um, again, I’m sorry.”
Viktor’s brain seems to be stuck on the fact that Jayce wrote a story about him. All along, he was the mystery guy, the guy with the golden eyes that Jayce admired and wanted to—
Okay, he needs to say something. Something to calm Jayce down, because a simple oh won’t do it. Scrambling through his mind for anything, he finally speaks.
“I didn’t know you could write so well.”
“What?”
Jayce’s expression is one of pure confusion, but at least he seems to have been pulled out of his thoughts.
“I liked the story.”
“You—” Jayce’s eyes search Viktor’s face for a moment before he chuckles awkwardly. “Right. You liked the… story.”
“I don’t think you ever told me about the… weak structure of graphite,” Viktor recalls with a smile. He hears the sound of paper crumpling when Jayce clenches the paper in embarrassment.
“Viktor, I—”
Jayce sighs and Viktor knows he needs to say something if he doesn’t want the moment to be lost forever.
“Maybe tomorrow.”
“Tomorrow?”
Those hazel eyes that he could so easily get lost in rest on him, their expression a mix between confusion and unease.
“After our presentation. We can go get a cup of coffee.”
Viktor’s heart picks up pace as he waits for Jayce’s reaction. Every step on his emotional journey manifests on Jayce’s face, expressive as always. From a frown to eyebrows raised in disbelief, back to the frown, and then to his mouth hanging slightly open.
“You want that?”
“Yes,” Viktor confirms, smiling softly. “Do you?”
“Yes,” Jayce blurts out before he forces his mouth shut, trying to contain his excitement. “Of course,” he continues in a lower voice, followed by a shy smile that Viktor is going to cherish forever. “I mean, there’s a reason that I wrote that whole thing, so uh—” The smile turns into a grin, and back again as Jayce realises what he’s admitting, and he looks like he wants to take his words back, but Viktor isn’t going to let him.
“We need to finish the project first,” he states, not to kill the mood, but because they’re already late.
“You’re right.” Jayce’s expression falls momentarily as he nods, folds the paper neatly, and, after a moment of consideration, stuffs it into his back pocket. When he looks up at Viktor again, everything seems different. Nothing has changed, and yet, there’s a softness in Jayce’s eyes now — a softness that might have always been there, but hidden away. Viktor only knows because he recognizes it from himself.
However, there’s no time to focus on that now.
“You mentioned that you had the equations written down somewhere?”
“Yeah,” Jayce nods and reaches for the journal in Viktor’s hands. When Viktor hands it over, their hands touch and both of them startle slightly only to chuckle nervously.
Nothing has changed, and yet, everything is different.