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Chapter Text

The halls of the building were in a state of disrepair, the entire space abandoned and forgotten long before a new inhabitant had claimed it as its own. Now, those dreary, dirtied walls were dressed with something new, something alien–glistening material that hung in delicate, fractal patterns, reflecting the fading light of his electric torch in a kaleidoscope of colour. Jayce examined the corridor of rainbowed webs ahead of him and wondered what kind of creature lived among them.

…He already knew the answer, truthfully, but he was trying to put himself in the right mental state for the scene. If he saw this place, without context, what would he be thinking?

Probably something about the Arcane, or about the apocalyptic future he’d been trapped in. Everything had been stained like this, there. The connection was disturbing, of course–he still woke up sometimes, sweaty and shaking, from nightmares about that horrible reality. Things would have been a lot simpler for him if his feelings ended there. He still didn’t understand why what he wanted had to be so complicated.

He knelt, giving the milky threads a closer look, reaching out just shy of touching them. He was playing the part of an unsuspecting victim after all, not yet aware of just how dangerous of a den he’d stumbled into. He got so into thinking about the webs, about how they were actually strands of impossibly fine metal, miraculously woven to be soft to the touch, that it genuinely startled him when he heard a rusty creak somewhere behind him.

“Hello?” he called out. There was no response. Viktor was doing this at his own pace, he supposed.

The anticipation was building painfully, both in real apprehension and in the frankly embarrassing tingles of arousal he felt, knowing what was coming. If this was real, if he was in actual danger, would he have felt like this? Was there just something fundamentally broken with him now?

He thought about one of Viktor’s mannequins wrapping its limbs around him, as inescapable as a steel trap. He thought about Viktor’s fingers on his forehead, hot to the touch, sinking inside and filling his being with light. It shouldn’t have made him excited. 

But it did.

He continued onwards, trying not to think about it deeply enough that shame might get in the way. As he wandered, he could see how much thought Viktor must have been putting into his designs. Despite all the planning they’d done for the other parts, the specific layout of their playground was meant to be a surprise. Jayce could tell he was being herded somewhere and, like a good scene partner, he complied. 

He fought to keep himself from smiling goofily as he did. It wasn’t that the ambience wasn’t appropriately foreboding–it definitely was. He just couldn’t stop thinking about how Viktor had done this. It was a heartfelt gift in the form of a terrifying sex dungeon, which was so much more than he had ever expected when he first expressed this bizarre new desire to his partner. 

The inherent anxiety of the situation was being outweighed by how very loved he felt–at least, until the scene finally began in earnest. 

Another strange sound rattled through the air, like a mixture of an insect’s chirp and a crank being turned. Jayce paused again in his step, his heart beginning to pound. Here it came. Everything he had asked for. Everything they had talked about. But was he really ready?

“Stay back!” he called out, genuine trepidation sneaking into his voice as he raised his torch in warning. They’d done smaller things. Incremental things. Power struggles confined to the bedroom. But this… no. It was fine.

These days, he trusted Viktor more than he trusted anything else. He set his footing, gritting his teeth.

“I’m warning you!” Maybe that was a lame thing to say, but it allowed Jayce to put the force he wanted back into his demeanour. Come get me , he tried to say, in contrast to his actual words. You don’t have to be afraid, either.

Then Viktor arrived, and it nearly turned Jayce’s stomach upside down. 

He crept in along the ceiling, clinging to it on all fours, his body pressed low and limber. He was undressed, the sinewy metal of his body glinting in the torchlight, veins of soft purple pulsing within. His hair hung lank around his mask-like face, his neck turned at an inhuman angle, his golden eyes leering through the dimness like the reflective flash of an animal. At his back, the hexclaw clenched and swayed like a snake, sizing up its prey, its shape somehow changed from its usual configuration in a way Jayce couldn’t quite make out.

Viktor screeched, the sound of heavy steel under strain. It was so raw, so convincingly inhuman, that Jayce could almost believe that this wasn’t his partner–that this was something else.

Jayce ran. The creature pursued.

Jayce didn’t know where he was going, and for a moment, he didn’t know what he was doing either. He fled down the only path available to him. Almost every door had been barred to him by thick swathes of webbing–all except for one large entranceway an entire hall’s length ahead of him. He was wearing a softer, less sturdy leg brace today. It was meant to fit underneath his pants, for what would come next. But, as he got too into the moment, as he ran a bit too urgently, he could feel his bones straining.

He tripped.

The creature fell like a shadow across the room, speed beyond perception. Before he could even touch the ground, it had coiled him in its arms, suspending him away from the unforgiving stone. All Jayce could do was breathe. A silence fell, uncertain.

Briefly, the creature was Viktor again, carefully saving him from a potentially messy fall. Now they lingered, unspoken questions in the air. Was Jayce okay? Was he good to continue?

More than anything, Jayce didn’t want the tension to break. He couldn’t stand it, so close to the prize he’d been waiting for all night. He prompted Viktor forward the only way he could think to. He elbowed his partner ineffectually in the gut.

“Let go of me!” he cried. Viktor barely seemed to register the blow, still hesitating. Briefly, Jayce wondered if he might say the safeword. Instead, Viktor rubbed his face against the back of Jayce’s neck, a low, rattling growl sending his skin tingling. His arms constricted against that meager resistance, his ‘claws’ digging into Jayce, each one an individual threat. He pressed Jayce against the floor, the weight of his metallic form enough to crush the air out of him. Suddenly, those hands were all over him, groping and pulling and ripping–

The first piece of fabric tore. 

Jayce gasped, the sensation sending a cold shock of fear to his heart, and a warm surge of arousal straight to his cock. Piece by piece, Viktor shred through his clothing, stripping away what thin protections remained. He hadn't worn anything fancy or durable in the expectation that this would happen, but he was still shocked at how trivially Viktor flayed the cloth from his body. How simply he could have taken flesh and muscle with it. 

Jayce tingled with the cold feeling of exposure, at the indignity of being handled like so much meat. It stoked the fires of desperate resistance, in a way few things in his current life did.

“No…!” 

Jayce squirmed beneath him, clawing at the musty floors, shoving his back against the creature’s chest. He made it only a foot or two away before being pulled back by his hips. To this, the excited, creaking trills of the creature only intensified. Jayce could feel cold metal press against the exposed skin of his ass, rhythmic rutting movements promising something more. One of the creature’s arms hooked around his belly, forcing him against each thrust, rolling together like a piston in a machine. He wasn’t even being penetrated yet, but this taunting mimicry of it was driving him insane.

Show me you want more, the action seemed to say. 

Jayce fought in earnest, then, putting every ounce of strength into the struggle. They had talked about this in advance. Viktor had been almost coy about it–inviting Jayce to do his worst. The two of them had acknowledged that, without a weapon, Jayce would be quite helpless.

And he was. Especially when, in response to Jayce’s resistance, the creature began to weave its webs once again, calling upon the materials it had already adhered to the walls and floor. As Jayce tried to wrench its grasp away from his belly, it responded by seizing both of his arms, tangling them together across his chest, binding his hands and fingers into a useless bundle of sticky-soft fibres. Its fingers trailed across his now-naked body, weaving its snare more tightly, turning him over and over like a spider, until his chest was encased in glistening threads. 

Jayce sagged against the floor, his bound arms leaving him with no way to support himself, his rump held helplessly in the air as the creature continued to rub against it. Jayce was already embarrassingly hard, and increasingly desperate for Viktor to finish him. He was aching for something harsher, and now he couldn’t even properly fight for it.

The creature pulled him in tightly, supporting his upper body, and locking him against its chest, its legs straddling his lower back. Finally, the hexclaw moved into place–and with a low, chittering growl, the tip of one of its fingers touched against Jayce’s hole.

Jayce let out an airy yelp, unable to stop himself from pushing back against that touch, inviting it to enter. The creature’s body practically vibrated around him, enclosing him from end to end, swallowing him whole.

One digit of the hexclaw entered him, careful at first, and then increasingly bold in response to the flood of tingling warmth between his hips. Jayce didn’t quite know the details, but Viktor had done something to it–made it longer, smoother, and artificially slick–safe to be used in his partner’s more sensitive areas. Viktor's body didn’t have genitals and, for the most part, had no true erogenous zones. 

But, as the hexclaw moved inside of him and the creature nearly purred , Jayce remembered that it didn’t matter. Viktor could experience more than just what his own body allowed him. With simple physical touch, he could open the gateway to Jayce’s own mind. And, as that substitute phallus rocked with him, Jayce knew that Viktor was feeling his tremors of pleasure along with him.

It was a relentless cycle, each pulse of sensory feedback fueling Viktor’s own hunger, each thrust becoming more reckless, exploring deeper. With it, the frenzy grew, until it wasn’t Jayce who cried out. 

Instead, it was the savage groan of tearing metal, the sound that Viktor only made when furious, devastated, or stimulated to the point of extreme excitement. These were emotions the Machine Herald had not been built to experience, and they arrived in violent contrast to the characteristically restrained elegance of his physical form. Somehow, in the shadows, his partner had transformed once again–now, into something wild and insatiable. 

It startled Jayce. Frightened him. Thrilled him.

The hexclaw was heavy and thick, his insides tender and alight with prickling nerves. He bucked his hips, unsure of whether to pull away or push deeper. Either way, there was no escaping it–the hexclaw’s spare digits had latched onto him, stretching across his taint and prodding the base of his cock. He groaned as it did its work, ensnared from all sides.

Jayce was already about to cum, which he wanted more than anything to do, while simultaneously being devastated by the idea of this ending. But then, just as those thoughts crossed his mind… the movements abruptly stopped.

Viktor had become perfectly still, the hexclaw resting inside of him, Jayce’s dick twitching in anticipation of a climax that never arrived. It only took a moment for Jayce to realize what Viktor was doing.

“Oh god,” Jayce moaned, squirming helplessly against Viktor in an effort to keep the sensation going. In response, Viktor slowly withdrew, and Jayce felt himself dying for the fullness that was now slipping away. “Please.”

Instead, Viktor spun Jayce onto his back, laying him against the ground beneath them. Jayce uselessly bucked his hips, lifting his knees as if hoping he could finish rubbing himself out between his own thighs. Viktor didn’t allow it. As Jayce writhed, Viktor dragged his fingers down Jayce’s hips, lifting his rear and weaving a web around his weakly kicking legs, binding them together in an infuriatingly soft cocoon of iridescent material.

And then Viktor broke contact, creeping away on all fours. 

Jayce screamed. It was both genuinely desperate and deeply petulant. The cool air of the abandoned building tingled against his exposed hips and head, the only parts of him that hadn’t been bound up in webs. His sweat-slicked skin was cooling rapidly, though his stupid dick was still painfully erect. 

When he had said that he liked edging, he hadn’t quite imagined how brutal it could feel. He hoped that Viktor was aware of how good of a job he was doing.

He rolled onto his side, taking the opportunity to at least attempt an escape. It was a useless effort from the very start. No matter how violently he thrashed, the threads Viktor had wrapped him up in showed no sign of releasing. They were self-adhering, and stronger than steel. Now that they were on him, only Viktor could get them off.

That in itself was thrilling, in the way that appealed to Jayce’s new and seemingly unshakeable thirst for strife. If Viktor left him here to starve, there was nothing he could do. He was helpless. In this place, there was only him, and the creature that now possessed him.

Eventually, though, his captor returned, having left Jayce with just enough time to cool down. Viktor leaned over him from above, with Jayce in mid struggle against his bonds, the lights in his eyes sharp and searching. Jayce squirmed away, bearing his teeth, growling in frustration. Tilting his head, Viktor only stared at him appraisingly. 

But, they weren’t done yet, and Viktor did not pause for long. Latching thick strands of iridescent material to Jayce’s existing wrappings, Viktor started dragging him down further down the hall.

“No, no, no!” Jayce begged, his last chance to free himself slipping away. Within the context of the scene, he had to imagine that he was being taken away to be eaten, if not worse. Though he was playing a game of pleading for his life, in truth, he wanted nothing more than to go wherever Viktor was taking him.

But that didn’t stop Viktor from pausing in his step, looking back. Viktor’s face, as always, didn’t actually move–but Jayce could see the hesitation regardless.

Was it too hard for Viktor to hear him beg like that? Should he tone it down?

They momentarily locked eyes, Jayce’s faux-panic slipping away in favour of a more mundane kind of worry. Worry that Viktor wasn’t enjoying himself the same way he was. Worry that this was too much to have asked for, that it would make Viktor’s relationship to his own body worse rather than better.

Sometimes, Jayce wished he could read Viktor’s mind in return. 

The hesitation passed regardless. Jayce felt the well worn floor move beneath him once again, bits of debris scraping against his shoulders. Viktor had been reluctant to meaningfully hurt him, but some manhandling and abrasions had been signed off on. For Jayce, that mild pain was just what he needed to get his head back into the zone.

Finally, they crossed the open doorway that Jayce had seen in the distance, back during his initial attempt at running. Within it, lay the creature’s nest.

Here, the webs were thick enough to form their own structures, coalescing into a hollow orb of spiralling, circular patterns. Though the material itself did seem to have a faint luminescence, within it some manner of more robust manner of lighting seemed to have been installed, creating pockets of multicolored glow. Jayce couldn’t help but analyze what Viktor had done–lanterns, perhaps, buried within the threads?

The floor was soft here, woven in the same way his bonds had been. They didn’t stick to each other, though–not until Viktor hoisted him up and fused his existing bonds to a pillar of silky strands that joined the ceiling to the floor. Despite their fineness, they bore his weight without strain.

They bore his fight, too. As Viktor left him suspended, Jayce started thrashing again, testing the durability of his new snare. All it did, in the end, was get him more entangled. 

Meanwhile, Viktor had disappeared somewhere behind him.

Jayce cock had softened somewhat by now, allowed to relax during this pause in the action. And yet, the second he felt Viktor loom close, his presence buzzing like electricity against the back of Jayce’s neck, it was already perking right back up. Matters only became more severe when he craned his neck around to look, and realized that Viktor was rappelling down from above, suspended by his own network of threads.

Jayce choked on his own shuddering breath, every muscle in his body tensing as VIktor crawled down his body, his cold hands pressing against his shoulders, then his chest, and then his belly. It was at his thighs that he finally stopped, coiling his arms around them, and then, pressing his long legs around Jayce’s torso. Viktor felt practically weightless as he caged Jayce with his body, like nothing but pressure and refreshing coolness.

He could see Viktor’s face poke around one one side of his hips, glancing at his now, once again, fully erect cock. A moment later, the hexclaw appeared around the other side, spinning with soft, mechanical whirrs. Strands of webbing were laced between its fingers, creating a strange sort of pocket that he had never seen before.

It did not take long for him to understand. It latched itself around his cock, the slick, fibrous material perfectly encasing the overly sensitive flesh. That in itself was enough to make him tremble, the gentle pressure almost tortuous in the pleasure it promised but did not quite give. 

But then, the digits of the hexclaw stretched, and the material compressed –forming a perfect, suctioned seal.

Jayce nearly screamed as the hexclaw began slowly and methodically milking his penis.

Jayce’s muscles contracted with a jolt, the involuntary stimulation sending shockwaves all the way through his abdomen and chest. With every squeeze, he was shaken by another surge of burning pleasure, his cock begging for just slightly more pressure, slightly more speed. Between the webbing and Viktor’s restrictive hold, there was nothing he could do to expedite the process–nothing but to moan and beg.

And so he did. He allowed himself to whine and squirm pitifully, dying on the edge of ecstasy. It was worse than it had been before. Now, it felt like if he didn’t make it to a climax, it really would kill him.

“God, Viktor-” he pleaded, so overcome that he didn’t even realize his mistake. As if in punishment, the movements of the hexclaw paused, a grinding growl vibrating through Viktor’s frame. 

Don’t call me that right now, Viktor’s reaction seemed to say. As if to ensure his wordless command was obeyed, he shoved a few fingers into Jayce’s mouth, who choked around them eagerly. 

But there was something more than his own excruciating erection that was bothering Jayce. In this part of the scene, Viktor’s stillness, Viktor’s silence, had become unmistakable. 

Jayce noticed then that Viktor didn’t seem to be riding the waves of pleasure along with him. Not like he had before. He’d heard what Viktor’s excitement sounded like, and this wasn’t it. 

Had something happened that Jayce didn’t notice? Was Viktor unhappy? Had he lost his nerve?

So badly, Jayce wanted Viktor to get something out of this, too. He wanted Viktor to be able to take what he wanted, not just in the name of playing Jayce’s antagonist, but as himself. Whenever they had made love, Viktor had always been so cautious, so afraid of touching and breaking. He had always restricted his own enjoyment, as if afraid that if he didn’t hold himself back, something monstrous would slip through.

But Jayce had felt Viktor’s love and care in every moment of this. In every thread of the webs he had woven like artwork. In every kink that Viktor had studiously remembered and utilized without judgement. In the fact that Viktor had agreed to this at all, in the name of appeasing the strange new version of Jayce Talis he now lived with.

Please, Jayce begged wordlessly, biting around Viktor’s flawless metal fingers. He could only pray that Viktor would hear his thoughts, though the empathic connection he wielded. Please, feel this with me. It belongs to you, too.

The pause lasted far too long, at least in Jayce’s mind. But then, slowly, Viktor’s body shifted. His fingers spread across Jayce’s belly, pulling him close.

The hexclaw began pumping again. And, despite his own overstimulation, Jayce could sense the difference. As the next pulse of pleasure shot through Jayce, it travelled into Viktor too–an endless circuit of euphoric electricity.

The soft cry of pressured metal returned, the hexclaw moving more urgently with every cycle. The heat around his penis built, the muscles clenching tighter, the itch growing more insatiable–until, finally, Jayce couldn’t hold it any longer. As Viktor’s cries rose to a shriek, he joined them.

The pleasure overwhelmed him, and for a moment, every nerve was alight.

He came violently, semen flooding the hexclaw’s woven palm. In stuttering spurts, the pressure released, each one a savoury echo of that catastrophic climax. Viktor’s hold on his cock slowly loosened, and then released, leaving the delicate flesh to dangle in the cool air. Jayce could hardly think at that point, his body collapsing into heavy lethargy.

He was barely conscious of Viktor’s touch as he carefully unwound him from those unbreakable webs, beads of sweat now trickling free across his panting chest. Viktor gathered Jayce’s spent form in his arms and laid him down in the soft material of the nest, allowing him a moment to relax and cool down.

And then, when the adrenaline began to fade and the chill of his sweat-dappled skin became too much, Viktor wrapped him in his arms again. His body’s temperature rising like a radiator, Viktor suffused the two of them in artificial warmth.

“Thank you, Viktor,” Jayce murmured, drifting into a pleasantly featureless sleep.

Chapter Text

Thank you, he’d said.

Viktor didn’t get tired, barring extreme circumstances. He also didn’t sleep. After everything, he was in the same physical condition that he had been at the start. And so, as Jayce dozed and they cuddled, he was left with nothing but his own thoughts to occupy himself with. Which was, perhaps, not the ideal way to handle this situation.

It went well, he thought. Jayce had enjoyed himself–he knew that much for certain, having felt it through the empathic connection. He didn’t really have anything to be worrying about, did he? He hadn’t hurt Jayce. He hadn’t gone too far. If anything, he only sensed that Jayce was eager for him to go harder than he had… which was a discussion for another time.

So, what was the problem? Why did he feel so dirtied by something as simple as a thank you?

Early on in development, coming up with the scenario had been an entertaining puzzle. It was nothing elaborate, really, but Viktor had felt a persistent satisfaction as he came up with ways to integrate all of Jayce’s preferences. Jayce had confided a lot in him, and there was a certain pride to that. He was the one that could provide his partner with this rare experience–him, and no one else.

Maybe that was where things had started going wrong. This wasn’t supposed to be about Viktor. So, what business did he have actually enjoying the process of enacting it?

He’d gone in full tilt, knowing that a lack of energy would make the situation more awkward than thrilling. He’d willfully lowered his inhibitions, determined to play his role to perfection. At some point, his own deranged chitters and screeches had gone from an affectation he was putting on to a thing he was genuinely doing, and it had felt… natural. More natural than it should.

He’d always been planning on edging Jayce’s orgasm, that having been on the list of things he might like, but after that first ‘assault’ Viktor had genuinely needed a moment to himself. Despite Jayce’s protests to the contrary, there were some things that Viktor shouldn’t have been permitted to glean pleasure from. Today, he worried he had crossed that line.

Jayce had only been resting for around ten minutes at that point, but Viktor was already growing agitated. With a subtle manipulation of gravity, he pulled over the blanket and spare sets of clothing he’d left in a corner of the room. Jayce mumbled in acknowledgement as Viktor withdrew, tucking the blanket around him in his place. Sitting up, but staying close, Viktor started stripping off the layers he’d added to the hexclaw in an effort to make it safe for play.

It was barely concealed fidgeting at that point, as he preened every bit of gunk and grime from his claw, until it showed no signs of the night’s events. As was inevitable, Jayce noticed his unrest.

“Are you okay?” Jayce asked, forcing himself awake, despite his apparent exhaustion. Viktor didn’t immediately answer, unsure of what to say. Naturally, that just made Jayce more concerned. “We… should talk about it. Anything that’s on your mind, it’s okay to tell me.”

The compulsion to lie was there. It would have been so much easier to just pretend that everything was fine, that he had no reservations. But, it also wouldn’t have been right.

“I feel… guilt,” Viktor said, keeping his eyes on his work. “Perhaps that is to be expected.”

Jayce sat up immediately, keeping the blanket wrapped around his shoulders. It was fairly chill in that derelict building, now that they were still. 

“You only did the things I asked you to,” Jayce said, quick to dissuade him. “And.. I loved it. You felt that I loved it, right?”

Viktor had felt that. Unfortunately, that wasn’t where things had come apart. Again, he hesitated, struggling to find the words.

“I’m sorry,” Jayce went on, filling the silence. He put his hand on Viktor’s arm, trying to keep him tethered. “I… did I make it too hard for you? I noticed that… you weren’t as into it, later on. Was it something I did?”

It was so very Jayce to immediately begin diagnosing what he had personally done wrong, to plead that he could make it better. It forced the words from Viktor more certainty than anything else. Jayce couldn’t be allowed to think that this was his fault.

“No,” Viktor said, shaking his head. “No, it was… something I thought. ”

Jayce listened, hanging on Viktor’s every word. There was no other option. Viktor had to explain himself.

“I was happy to do this for you, Jayce. Happy that you confided in me. I felt more comfortable playing a role for your enjoyment than I had with our more personal attempts. With the way that I am…” Viktor paused, his preening of the hexclaw having shifted into an anxious stroking of its fingers, in a strange form of self soothing. “It seemed like it may be the best for both of us.”

In the time since their return to Runeterra, they had already spent a great deal of time discussing the nature of Viktor’s transformation, and working out methods for him to feel more comfortable in his body. Love making had been part of that. But Jayce already knew his complicated feelings in that regard. There was no point in explaining them again.

It was simple, really: Viktor never knew how to feel about himself, or anything else. Not when he had been so catastrophically wrong before. Not when what he was had been used for so much evil.

He could see that Jayce disagreed, and so he continued explaining before he could interrupt.

“But, in the moment, I… enjoyed having power over you. Not just physically, but within your mind. I was excited that I could shape your reactions to be what I wanted, that I could… mold you. And then… I realized that you were afraid.”

“Viktor, I wasn’t-” Jayce sputtered. Viktor lifted a hand, indicating that he still wanted to talk.

“You were, Jayce,” he said. “I could feel it through your touch. And… that was sufficient to remind me… of the last time I was so confident in my manipulation of others.”

Jayce looked lost for a moment, but not for long. He reached over, pressing his hand over the hexclaw and Viktor’s nervous fingers.

“Lay back down with me,” Jayce asked. “Please?”

Viktor’s eyes flickered towards to his partner, his thoughts momentarily escaping their own downwards pull. He nodded. Together, they curled up under the blanket, nestling into their bed of arcane webs. Jayce made sure to keep hold of him, massaging his hands in slow circles.

“I…” Jayce began, before hesitating, swallowing, and then starting again. He smiled cautiously. “I’m not really an expert, or anything. But I think that for a lot of the people that do these things, feelings like that are the whole point.”

Viktor wasn’t naive. He’d grown up in Zaun. He was aware that for some people, this was just the way they enjoyed themselves. They wanted pain and struggle along with their pleasure. He’d thought about it before himself, back when he was human. As if anyone would have taken him seriously, then. As if they wouldn’t have been too afraid of breaking him, or wouldn’t have seen his dominance as a joke.

Now, he had the power to make almost anyone in the world succumb to him, and he didn’t want to anymore.

“I know,” was all Viktor managed. “But they… have not done the things that I have.”

“You’re allowed to enjoy yourself,” Jayce insisted, moving a hand to Viktor’s cheek, stroking the golden filigree of his mask with a thumb. “I want you to enjoy yourself. I don’t want the things we do here to be a chore for you. And… And if you didn’t like this, we never have to do it again.”

It was obvious there would be some disappointment if that was Viktor’s answer, but Jayce’s concession was unmistakably sincere. The complicated part was that Viktor just didn’t have an answer yet. Too much was still up in the air, too many feelings still settling.

He shifted forward, resting his forehead against Jayce’s. His partner snuggled in close, content with the gesture, despite everything. Jayce would always wait for him. Viktor knew that much, by now.

“I will think about it,” he murmured, feeling better about things, even if it hadn’t been fully resolved. Jayce seemed to agree. Viktor began running the redundant processes in his body that caused it to grow warm, and Jayce readily basked in the heat.

They laid there quietly for a while, until Jayce spoke up again, a thought in his head that he seemingly couldn’t dismiss just yet.

“I was afraid,” Jayce tentatively confessed. “But I need you to know… it was in a good way. It was exciting in… a way that nothing else really is, anymore.”

Jayce had alluded to these feelings at the start of this entire thing, but not gone into detail. He’d expressed feeling stagnant and muted, at times, as if the present felt less real than moments in his past. That was something Viktor could understand, even if his division between present and past was of a different kind.

“If anything, I should be the guilty one,” Jayce went on, his eyes becoming subtly glassy, his own conflicting emotions battling just beneath the surface. “For looking at you that way. For wanting you to be something you’re not just so I actually feel something.”

Viktor held Jayce closer, weaving his fingers through his partner’s shaggy hair. Jayce leaned into him fully.

“I don’t know why I’m like this now.”  As Jayce’s voice continued to waver, Viktor nuzzled into him protectively. “It’s like… it doesn’t register, unless I feel like I’m about to die.”

“We’ve both been changed, Jayce,” Viktor soothed. “In ways that we cannot fully know. We’re finding solutions together. I’m so thankful that you are letting me help you.”

Jayce sighed helplessly, a release of unseen pressure. He nodded.

“I don’t think that you’re a monster,” he said, his voice growing steadier, refreshed by a new sense of conviction. “That’s not why I wanted you to do this. I just think that… the things you can do are so amazing. You’re beautiful and powerful and… no matter what you do to me, I can always trust that I’m safe with you.” He managed a frail laugh. “Trying to chase this feeling anywhere else… I’m pretty sure I’d just get myself killed.”

“You shouldn’t,” Viktor whispered, his heart sinking with unearned praise. “You should not trust me that way.”

There was an open pit waiting inside of him, whenever he was told positive traits about himself. So often, he could only see the downsides, see the horrible depths those supposed virtues had led to. He understood that it wasn’t right or fair, mostly due to Jayce’s continued support. But he couldn’t make the shadows fully leave him, either.

“But I do.” Jayce looked up and smiled, and in that moment, there was light. He pressed a kiss against Viktor’s brow. “And, so far, you haven’t proven me wrong.”

Now, Jayce had a point to prove, it seemed. He began peppering the smooth slope of Viktor’s face with kisses, leaving steamy marks on the shining metal. He kept it up until the sheer ridiculousness of it drew something almost like a giggle from Viktor’s massive frame. From then onward, the tone was irrevocably changed. The weight was lifting.

They stayed there for an hour or two more, resting and cuddling and cleaning up. Viktor checked Jayce over for wounds and found only mild scrapes and bruises. Then, once he had given the all clear, they spent some time washing each other off, and putting on a fresh change of clothes. 

By the time they were heading home, VIktor actually felt eager to experience the rest of the evening, his mind puzzling over what they had done and what they could do differently next time. As he tried his hand at cooking Jayce supper, a separate part of him was still dwelling on dungeons and sex and scenarios that could thrill.

When they met there again, he wondered what sort of creature he would be.