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They both worked better when they had a challenge to occupy their minds. For Jayce, that became the simple matter of survival. Securing food, shelter, water: things they would need for the here and now, things that living bodies required. The wetlands seemed to stretch on for miles of bog in one direction, forest in the other. For what it was, it was workable. He had learned how to make do with less.
For his part, Viktor seemed content to follow no matter where Jayce led them. There was a kind of hollowness to him, a detachment that reminded Jayce of his reaction when he had first emerged from the hexcore. It was a disquieting parallel, but not so persistent as the last time— there were moments when Viktor's curiosity shone through his melancholy, or when Jayce could inspire a smile to grace his lips. Still, he voiced little commentary on their situation unless prompted.
There wasn’t much he could say, in truth. They had not uncovered much that explained where they were, and speculating on how they got to be there was too thorny a problem to tackle when their immediate survival seemed more pressing. They did what they could to hollow out a dry shelter amidst all the wet leaves and shallow puddles, even managed to get a fire going with cotton-fluff plants and the stringy bark they pried from nearby trees. Though he only wore his blanket, Viktor did not seem outwardly bothered by the cold. Still, Jayce's eyes always lingered on him a bit longer in the chances of catching any discomfort, any reddening of the hands or tremors that he might have not noticed, himself.
If Viktor was still numb to most of his body's needs, Jayce was more than happy to take over on his behalf. Hence why he was shin-deep in a pond with a sharpened stick at the ready, as still as a stone and waiting for the shadow of fish to pass within striking range.
It was not the most elegant solution. Certainly it was ineffective, and he had tried and failed a half-dozen strikes before even coming close to shaving the fins off one unfortunate creature, but if it put food in their bellies then he would just have to keep trying until he succeeded. Feeding them both required twice the amount of resources Jayce had to contend with when surviving on his own, but if it weren’t for Viktor’s sake, he likely wouldn't have bothered attempting to find food in the first place. He knew how long he could go without it.
Something dark entered his field of vision. He readied the spear, aimed, and struck.
When he finally came wandering back to their makeshift camp, the sky having grown dark, Viktor was twining the edges of arcane space between his fingers. Sitting cross-legged before the fire, he had managed to draw out a line of white, shimmering void before his tenuous grasp on the magic faded, the rift dissolving into empty space before his eyes. While he clicked his tongue in annoyance, he immediately started again, pulling a few gossamer threads out of the air.
Jayce placed a hand on his shoulder to announce his return. Viktor's attention barely wavered. “That looks like a portal,” he remarked.
“It is… I think. Or it could be.” Viktor spared a glance at the fish stung on Jayce's makeshift spear and asked, “How did you catch those?”
“I got creative.” His pride eclipsed the chill in his toes, the discomfort of still-damp skin under layers of leather and wool. “Are you hungry?”
Viktor considered the question for longer than it ought to take. “Not particularly,” he settled on. It was becoming his default answer to most things.
“You should eat anyway.”
This body was as human as it seemed at first blush. Viktor needed to eat, needed to drink, needed to sleep; some of those tasks were easier than others. At the very least, he tended to accept whatever Jayce gave him as acceptable sustenance and never once argued for the taste of it. After eating he would throw himself back into his work, either sitting trance-like or trying to pry some source of the arcane out of their surroundings: the plants, the water, the air itself. Tonight was the first time Viktor had successfully conjured a rift of his own.
Jayce could see the struggle as Viktor tried to focus on eating, but desperately wanted to get back to experimenting. Some things really never did change.
However, all his enthusiasm seemed to be in vain. His ability to sustain the magic had weakened with each subsequent attempt, and it wasn’t long before he could no longer conjure even the thinnest of threads. He needed to rest, but voicing that opinion only irritated Viktor more, and he’d shrugged off Jayce’s gentle concerns until the truth of them became too clear to deny any longer.
Jayce had given him as much space as their small camp would allow, but when Viktor collapsed to a heap of blankets and frustration, he could not bear to leave well enough alone. Viktor had drawn up into himself, hugging his crippled knee to his chest, his head pressed against the gold of his embedded brace. Jayce came to sit beside him, trying his best to radiate a sense of warmth and safety.
“You okay?” He asked.
“I don’t know,” Viktor mumbled. “I don’t think so.”
Concern stabbed Jayce’s chest; he tried to keep it from his voice. “Why not?”
Viktor hugged his knee tighter. “I don't know why I was allowed this, when so many others suffered by my hand.”
Ah— so that’s it. Jayce couldn’t help but to reach out and twist a lock of Viktor’s hair between his fingers as he thought aloud, “Does there have to be a reason?”
“It seems unjust if there’s not.”
“It would be either way, wouldn’t it?” The ends of his hair were still dead and white. Jayce rolled the strands between his thumb and forefinger. “You’re right, you did cause a lot of damage. So did I. But whether we deserve to suffer for it or not, we’re here all the same.”
Viktor scoffed. “You did nothing wrong, not when compared to me.” That wasn’t true, but now wasn’t the time to argue. Jayce allowed him a moment to think and was rewarded when Viktor next confessed, “I only wanted to help. And I did— for a time. I was curing people, healing them , allowing them to rebuild.” His long hair obscured his eyes but Jayce could see the twist of a scowl on his lips. “My methods weren't perfect. They needed refining, but I was making progress. Then it all just went so…”
Jayce slung an arm around Viktor's shoulders, pressed his cheek to the crown of his head. “You tried your best. So did I. That's all we could’ve ever hoped to do.”
“I could have done more.” Something haunted those words; a subject Jayce would have to revisit another time.
“Every genius feels that way. You showed people what was possible, now it's up to them to figure out what to do with it.”
As if struck with a horrifying vision, Viktor lifted his head and announced, “They’re going to destroy each other.”
Jayce only smiled, squeezed his shoulder and said, “If they do, it’s their choice. You can’t change that. All we can do is move onto whatever's next.”
After a moment of consideration, some of the tension started to bleed away from his frame. Viktor leaned a bit more of his weight into Jayce’s hold and asked, “What is next for us?”
“Well,” Jayce said, “You seem to be making good progress on the portals. You'll figure it out soon, I'm sure.”
Viktor only smiled wanly. “ We will figure it out.” Turning to look at him, he cupped Jayce's face in his thin, cool hands. “Don't sell yourself short— I need my partner.”
It took everything within him to not kiss the man then and there. Instead he turned his head and pressed his lips to Viktor’s wrist, a hand of his own coming up to brush his thumb along opal-dusted knuckles. Viktor pulled him closer, resting their foreheads against one-another. A shiver crept down Jayce’s spine and his hold tightened, but the gesture was only an echo of what he once thought to be their final moments, not a mirror. Viktor’s nose bumped against his and he could feel the warmth of his breath against his cheeks, his fingers curled against Jayce’s beard.
Wherever they were, however they got there, they were together. “Viktor…”
His response came as a soft, unbelieving laugh. “I don't deserve you.”
“You have me anyway.” Jayce planted a deep kiss to his palm. “You always will.” Another to his cheek, the mark below his brilliant eyes. “Just promise me— promise that you won't leave me behind again.”
Viktor nudged his cheek until their eyes met, pupils blown wide with affection. Jayce felt his heart catch. “I promise.”
Slender fingers along his jawline guided their lips to meet. There was something almost animal in the shudder that raced through him, the rush of relief that suffused throughout his entire body. In catalysis, there comes a tipping point where a solution rapidly changes from one state to another. Viktor must have known that this would be the thing to send him over, and that Jayce— man of progress that he was— would throw himself fully into that feeling, that action. He traced his hands along Viktor’s back, cradled his head, supported the metal that fused to his spine.
He knew the shape of him better than he would allow himself to admit. All those times when Viktor needed assistance with his braces or a hand to steady him. Jayce had tried to keep things clinical, but that was always going to be a fool’s errand. His body had fascinated him from the start, and the more he knew of it, the more he grew to love it. There was a beauty to him that rivaled only their work with the hexcore. Perhaps that was partially why he could never seem to keep his hands to himself; Jayce had always loved to fidget with intricate puzzles, beautiful works of craft and ingenuity.
But merely knowing was different than understanding — any scientist would say the same. As he laid Viktor back on the forest floor, he asked, “Is this alright?”
Viktor’s hands found their way to his hair, combing through tangles. His eyes were bright and sharp, and that same fascination was not only reflected back at Jayce, but magnified. He felt a shiver run through him. “Yes,” Viktor said. “But only this, for now.”
Jayce lowered his body to lay against Viktor’s, his arms framing his slender form, hands pillowing his head and the curve of his spine. The hollow of his neck was quickly proving itself to be Jayce’s favourite place, and after kissing it reverently, he looked up at him through heavy lashes and said, “Alright. Anything you want.”
It was hardly the first night they stayed up in mutual study. With nothing but time at their disposal, they each set about deciphering the other, exploring the boundaries of their flesh-made-whole once more. While Viktor’s body seemed at-one with the arcane itself, the hexcore had left Jayce with marks of his own, ones he had barely acknowledged for the memory of them— but the brush of Viktor’s hands along his leg and the whisper of praise for their beauty, his strength, his tenacity, had left him shaking.
The next morning when Viktor tried to pull apart the threads of the arcane, the universe opened before them like a door. Hand in scarred hand, they stepped through.