Work Text:
“Please tell me you didn't sleep in here.”
Viktor, elbow deep in a pile of scraps and schematics, didn't bother to look up.
“No,” he said, rubbing his face. “I couldn't sleep. Figured I'd be better off not wasting time.”
Jayce walked over and put a steaming cup beside his elbow. He leaned down and kissed Viktor’s cheek. Viktor turned into him, eyes still glued on his hands. They didn’t say anything, just stayed nose-to-cheek until Jayce left him alone and went to his own desk.
The day passed as it usually did. They talked as they worked, sounding out their technical problems aloud and bickering about what the answer was. Viktor rolled around in his stool, Jayce stepping around him like a dance.
“Can you hand me that - nevermind,” Viktor flipped his cane over and used the handle to hook his drink and pull it down the desk to him.
Jayce bustled by him, moving some of the papers he was also about to ask for down to him on his way across the lab. Viktor knocked their together in thanks as he passed.
“Hey,” Jayce said, “where is my -?”
Without looking, Viktor gestured with his cane to a box shoved under the desk at his feet. Jayce leaned down and dragged it out.
“Right. Thanks.”
They somewhat unwillingly breaked for lunch, because if they didn’t they were bound to never hear the end of it from Sky — or worse, Caitlin. Viktor spun his cane idly in his hands as the waited for Jayce to return with their food, mind whirring in time. He was so close to a breakthrough on what was causing this new machine to malfunction, he knew it. There was something in an equation he hadn’t found, something in the assembly, something in the design. Something he could fix. He just had to find what.
As they ate, Jayce snuck bites of Viktor’s food and replaced them with his own. A habit he’d developed over one of their many early “partner dinners” to get to know each other, back when they were still convinced their relationship only meant lab work and the other wouldn’t be interested in more. Somewhere along the way Viktor had noticed he hated certain restaurants and guided them toward the ones he did like, and in turn Jayce had taken note of when he turned his nose up at a dish and began subtly swapping it with his own food, which he always ordered because they both liked it.
It had been years of such behavior, but the memories still made Viktor feel warm inside, and he allowed himself to succumb to a wave of emotion, hooking his cane around Jayce’s ankle and tugging. Jayce pushed his chair along as Viktor reeled him in until he could lean in and kiss him gently. Jayce smiled against his lips, and with a sudden burst of mischievousness Viktor waited until he pressed in further, hand coming to Viktor’s jaw, and then tapped his cane against his chest and pushed him away.
“We are working,” he scolded, watching Jayce’s eyes flicker to the curl of his mouth. “Have some self-control.”
“I am the epitome of self-control,” Jayce lied through his teeth. He smiled. “Come home with me tonight.”
“I do that most nights.” Last night had been the first time in weeks he hadn’t gone with Jayce.
“Come home with me forever.”
Viktor laughed, ducking his head as he turned back to his desk. He pointed his cane across the room to Jayce’s.
“Go,” he said. “We'll talk about it later.”
He heard Jayce stand, and then arms came around him and a kiss was laid to the back of his neck.
“Promise?”
“I promise,” Viktor said. He took Jayce’s hand and squeezed.
It would be a short discussion.
He already had his things packed.