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“What did I tell you about touching my things, Richards?”
Reed was cornered, held against the wall, Victor’s fist gripping him by the collar of his shirt.
It was late in the night now, and they were alone on one of the floors of their university library. Of course it would be him and Victor to be the only ones studious and driven enough to be awake at this hour. Reed had been struggling with his work, and felt the need to find somewhere else quiet to think, and this had seemed like a nice space at the time. When he had walked in, he had caught Victor in the corner of his eye walking through a line of books as though looking for something. He had looked up when he heard Reed approaching, dark brown eyes locking onto him with an unreadable glare. Reed had looked away quickly and hurried to find a place to sit.
He had known Victor would not take kindly to being disturbed. Part of him felt like he was invading by being in here with him. Perhaps that was the true reason this floor was empty. Victor had a… reputation, certainly, and a way of making anyone feel threatened just with a look. However, Reed had thought, foolishly, they could stay out of each other’s way, and nothing would come of it.
But of course, Reed’s curiosity always got the better of him.
Reed had been working for an hour or two, scribbling equations at a desk and lost in his own thoughts. The faint sound of Victor flipping through pages and occasionally writing something down across the room was somehow relaxing. And then, after a while, those sounds had stopped. Reed had seen the man out of the corner of his vision exit the room, and looked up soon enough to see the door shut.
Then, Reed had looked over, noticing an open notebook and a pile of books at a desk far across the room by the door where Victor had been tirelessly working.
He knew it was wrong. An invasion of privacy. And he knew, too, that Victor would likely not be gone long. He probably just needed a break, and he’d be back any minute now.
Reed had made his way across the room, moving soft and quiet like a mouse trying not to alert a house cat to its presence. He peered over the table at Victor’s open notes.
Strangely, he found that none of this made sense to him. He and Victor were in mostly the same classes, they should be studying mostly the same concepts, but these symbols were… nothing like anything Reed had seen before. He started to flip through the pages, carefully looking each one over, determined to find something he could understand.
He knew he’d made a mistake and gotten too lost in it when the jarring sound of the door opening and slamming shut soon after came again. Reed dropped the notebook, looking up with wide eyes.
Victor was a few feet in front of him, and he was staring with a fiery anger in his eyes Reed had never seen in anyone else but Victor. Reed opened his mouth, tried to say something, anything, he just needed to apologize—
And then they had ended up here. Reed, pressed against the wall. Victor, with his terrifying gaze fixed upon him.
Reed had been unable to speak, unable to answer Victor’s question, which only caused him to push harder, grip harder. Reed made a noise a bit like a squeak, though he hoped Victor didn’t hear it.
“I— I’m sorry Victor, I just thought— I don’t know, I thought maybe I could help you—“
“Help?” Victor snarled, “I don’t need your help. I know you think you’re better than me, Richards. You are not.”
“That’s not— I don’t think that!” Reed protested, finally starting to struggle against Victor’s grip. Victor only slammed him back harder, refusing to let him out of his grasp, and it made Reed’s heart jump.
“I won’t give you any more warnings.” Victor said. Reed couldn’t find it in him to make eye contact with him. “Stay out of my way.”
And just like that, he let go. Reed had gasped for air, not realizing he’d been holding his breath all that time. He stood there trying to gather his thoughts, trying to think of a way to better apologize, but Victor simply turned, quickly grabbed his things, and left.
Reed stood there for a while after the door slammed, watching it as if hoping Victor would cool off and come back. He never did.
After a few moments of standing in the deafening silence, Reed went back to his work. He found it much harder to concentrate without Victor there with him, and got very little done the rest of the night.
—
Victor was pacing around his dorm room when the knock came three days later. He’d been working all day on his machine, and he was so close, so close, he just needed to figure out these final pieces. The stress and endless work was slightly driving him mad, but he couldn’t stop. Not this. Never this.
The knock had pulled him from his trance. He had looked at the door for a long moment, thinking of what to do. And then another knock came.
Victor made a noise a bit like a growl in anger. How dare someone disturb him at a time like this? Probably another one of those foolish girls trying to make a pass at the boy with the foreign accent to impress her friends, or someone trying to recruit him to some stupid initiative he cared nothing about again. Though he had assumed he had run off all that would attempt those things by now.
It didn’t matter. Whoever it was, they were going to get an earful, and the entire hall was going to know they’d dared to disrupt Victor von Doom.
He had stormed over to the door, twisted the handle and yanked it open, mouth opening ready to yell at whatever buffoon was trying to speak to him at this hour—
And then he had stopped, frozen, when he saw Reed Richards looking up at him.
He was in a soft blue shirt, hair slightly messy, and he gave a nervous half smile up at him.
“Hey Vic- Victor, I know, uh… I’m sorry about the other night at the library. I shouldn’t have invaded your privacy like that, and I was going to try and apologize, but I didn’t want to disturb you in class, so I thought I would catch you in the dining hall but I haven’t seen you there in a while so I thought— I thought I’d….”
Reed was rambling, as typical for him, eyes averted down and cheeks flushed red while Victor was staring straight at his face trying to read him. In fact, Victor had been staring so long, he hadn’t noticed that Reed was holding something until he started trying to hand it to him.
It was a small plastic food container with a blue lid, filled to the brim. “I thought… I made brownies. It’s a, uh… peace offering.”
Victor couldn’t quite wrap his mind around any of this. The gall of Richards, to look down upon his work in the guise of offering help, and then show up with a pity offering! It was insulting!
…….Victor did realize in that moment, however, that he couldn’t quite remember the last time he had ate. He had been so caught up in his work on the machine…. He had a tendency to forget these things. And Reed’s offering did look rather good…
Victor said nothing, simply slowly reaching out and taking the container from the other man’s hands. He looked back up at Reed suspiciously once he had them in his grasp, and Reed just smiled at him, which only served to make his heart twist in his chest.
“I’ll see you in class tomorrow then, I guess,” Reed said, suddenly seeming hurried to leave. Victor didn’t have anything to say, so he just gave a curt nod before retreating into his room and shutting the door behind him.
He slumped against the door slightly, staring down at the container in his hand. He popped off the lid, took one brownie out and looked it over.
He had a distant thought that perhaps Reed had poisoned them. Yes, that could be the only reason one such as him would resort to such a pathetic action. To get Victor and his superior genius out of the way.
After a long moment of staring at the dessert, Victor decided to take a bite anyways. The chocolate melted on his tongue, and he secretly wished they had been poisoned, because that would make more sense than… whatever this was.
He would go on to finish the entire container that night, barely leaving a single crumb, trying desperately (and failing) to keep his mind off of Reed Richards all the while.