Work Text:
A chain of thoughts, everyone knows them right? Like one thought leading to another thought, and so on, and so on.
The way Jayce would think of having some dinner, which obviously made him think of food, which would remind him of sweets, leading him to thoughts about his childhood, about sneaking into the kitchen with Caitlyn to steal a little snack, resulting in thoughts about Caitlyn, and that one time he was invited to dinner with the Kirammans, but he despised the soup they made, so he had pretended to feel sick, and they forced him into bed and fed him some medicine that was even more awful, so awful that he actually threw up for real and they thought he was really sick.
Throwing up actually made him think of food again, and what he should have for dinner after finishing work, and so he would be right back where his thought chain started. Or spider. He liked to refer to it as the spider of the mind. And truth be told, his spider had kind of gotten out of control this time.
Because right now a certain question was randomly spinning in his mind, lost in a web of thoughts which he knew that his spider was to blame for somehow. He just had no idea where the thought actually came from. Didn't matter. He needed to ask Viktor this question, right now.
"Viktor. Are you ticklish?"
They had been the first spoken words in a while. The first sound to disrupt the endless sounds of scribbles on the chalkboard.
Despite Jayce's sudden question, Viktor still appeared to be concentrating and didn't look away from the board.
"Depends."
Oh. Having expected an immediate 'no', or perhaps no answer at all, Jayce put down his work and now turned his full focus to his intriguing partner.
"So that's not a no then? You're ticklish somewhere."
"Like I said, it depends."
"On what?"
"Things."
Viktor paused and continued to stare at his formulas on the board. "Like where and how the tickle would be, I suppose. Why do you ask?"
Viktor was so serious in his answer to such a goofy question. Jayce chuckled and strode towards him.
"I ask because I'm curious."
Viktor didn't really seem too cautious even when Jayce stood by his side. He probably didn't expect Jayce would jump on him to tickle him out of the blue, which was actually not what Jayce had intended to do at first. But now that they were seriously discussing the topic, he couldn't deny it was a very tempting thing to do.
"And why is that?" Viktor asked. Jayce probably would've told him if he knew, but he had forgotten why he actually felt curious. Spider-thing, eh.
"Just because. If I poke you, will it tickle?"
"I don't think so. Do not try me." It was the first time Viktor sounded careful after being so honest with him. Jayce couldn't help but laugh in response.
"If it won't tickle, there's no harm in trying right?" He poked Viktor in the side. To his surprise and disappointment there was indeed no response.
"I am almost finished. You are distracting me," Viktor said, still trying to figure out his scribblings on the board. Jayce didn't sense the seriousness in his warning and stepped closer.
"You can finish later. A little squeeze, would that feel ticklish?" Jayce reached out and hesitated, but when Viktor didn't even budge, he lightly squeezed his side.
There was no response again. What! "It tickled," Viktor replied bluntly. Jayce frowned.
"Yet, you didn't laugh."
"It still felt ticklish. Me being ticklish does not mean I will laugh when I get tickled. If that's what you wanted to know, you should have asked 'will you laugh if you feel ticklish', instead."
Jayce was the one who was closest to laughing. Viktor was too much like a scientist. Even with a topic like this, he was so serious and thoughtful.
"If that was my question, wouldn't your answer still be the same?" Jayce asked.
"The answer would have been no. I feel ticklish, but I do not laugh."
Oh. Oh oh. Lies. Jayce was sure of it.
"Really?" He stood behind Viktor and lightly ran his fingers up and down Viktor's sides. Finally a little sound, albeit a little odd.
"Hnguh!"
It wasn't a laugh, but it was definitely something.
Viktor tensed up but continued writing. "Jayce, I am warning you," he said, but Jayce still felt that if Viktor really meant it, he would have done more to stop him.
"What about this?" Jayce ran one finger down Viktor's spine and - woah! Viktor dropped his chalk and stumbled forward as a funny mewl could be heard from him.
"Jayce!" he warned, turning around quickly, but before he could do anything, Jayce tried to tickle him again by squeezing both sides.
"So? Ticklish?" Jayce asked, blessed to hear some remarkable noises as Viktor squirmed and danced between him and the board.
"O-obviously! B-but I'm n-not laughing!"
Jayce learned something new about Viktor right here, which was his persistence, defiance and also his unsuccessful ability to lie.
"Really? So you mean to say, you're still not laughing?" Jayce kept up the tickle attack until finally Viktor's noises started to sound more like giggles.
"Jahayce! Noho- now's not the tihime!"
Viktor laughed as if any other moment would have been the time. Smirking, Jayce carefully guided Viktor away from the board so they wouldn't mess up their hard work.
"You are ticklish, and you are laughing, Viktor. You could've just said yes."
"Yehes ihis not the ahanswer!" Viktor laughed. Jayce felt intrigued with Viktor's reactions. He was actually right. Not everything he tried seemed to tickle as much. Various different touches in the same spot would result in different sounds, and only less than half of his attempts would get out a 'haha' instead of a funny 'hrmh!'.
Still, one thing was for certain. Now that Viktor was finally letting him hear some laughter, he could hardly stop it even if he tried to.
"Jahayce!" Viktor tried to be firm with him, but he was just one adorable giggly mess. Jayce smiled fondly.
"Just a little more. Then we'll take a break," he insisted. Despite his verbal protests, Viktor's physical protests were still very minimal. He had managed to grab his cane, but instead of using it to beat Jayce the hell up, he simply gripped it and leaned on it while he continued to laugh.
He also tried to catch Jayce's hands, just weakly, but other than that he didn't try to get away too much.
"Jahahayce- reheally!" Viktor giggled, making the cutest little dances in response to Jayce's playful tickle attack.
Heh. Jayce could only guess that either he didn't mind that much, or it didn't tickle enough for him to make a big scene.
When he finally stopped, they were both breathing heavily and grinning like two immature youngsters.
"T-there. Happy now?" Viktor asked. Jayce shrugged.
"Very happy. Why wouldn't I be? That was the first time I heard you laugh, Viktor," he said. If he wasn't mistaken, he noticed a little blush as Viktor leaned on his cane and turned away from him.
"Why did you start this anyway?"
"Hmm?" Jayce hummed.
Viktor sighed. "We were working. Why suddenly ask if I am ticklish?"
Oh. Good question. Good question Viktor. Jayce actually wondered too.
"If I tell you about the spider in my mind, would you understand what I am talking about?"
"I think so. Do go on," Viktor said. And while Jayce explained about the spider first, he tried to think back of the source of his tickle-related thoughts. He had to try and think in reverse to find out.
Ticklish Viktor would have obviously come from just any thought about tickling. Tickling would make him think of laughter, which would make him think of a joke? Joke... No, dead end.
Laughter might have also come from the thought of.... smiling. A smile made a person pretty, was his first thought. People always looked better when they smiled. Pretty or handsome. When he thought of handsome, Jayce thought of... Oh.
Jayce blushed in realization. This web of thoughts was smaller than he thought at first. He remembered now.
It was because Jayce had briefly stared at Viktor while he was writing on the board earlier. Thought he was pretty, wondered what it would be like if he smiled more often - or in fact, laughed, because it'd definitely make him even prettier. Which obviously caused him to think of tickling, and the question of all questions, whether Viktor was ticklish at all. Heh. He had his answer now.
"Well?" Viktor asked when Jayce had stopped talking.
"Hmmm. Never mind," Jayce said without admitting any of that to Viktor, and he merely started to tickle him again, causing the most beautiful sounds of laughter to be heard, and the prettiest smile to be seen. Jayce couldn't blame his mind for suddenly coming up with thoughts like that. Viktor was very handsome indeed.
He could only thank the funny little spider in his head for this random gift of the day.
"Jaycehehe nohoho!"
"See? You're laughing again."
"You've mahade your pohoint!"
"But you didn't."
Right, the gift of ticklish Viktor and his precious laugh to treasure forever.