Work Text:
The first time Jayce noticed Viktor flinch at contact was probably just 6 months into their new partnership. Jayce had always been a tactile person, putting his hands on people’s shoulders in greeting or hugging people goodbye. Viktor had seemed mildly uncomfortable with it, moving away quickly - but never outright rejecting the casual touch.
That particular morning Jayce had been running late. When he’d arrived Viktor was staring at the blackboard, mulling over the equation there. The same one they’d been stumped on since last night when they both left late.
Jayce had put a hand on Viktor’s arm, a simple tap to get his attention.
Viktor had flinched so hard his cane clattered to the floor. His breath had caught and he looked pained for all of four seconds before schooling back to its usual neutral, like shutters going down.
It was so surprising all Jayce could say was, “Uhm… good morning.” Even though it had just passed noon.
Viktor had been deep in thought and Jayce thought nothing of it. He had disappeared the next day and Jayce worried, in the scant months they’d known each other Viktor hadn’t taken a single day off. Even when Jayce needed a day or two Viktor was always plugging along, momentum even when Jayce stepped away.
His disappearance was worrisome but Jayce had no way to contact him. He didn’t know where he lived, his hobbies, his family, nothing. He really only knew one thing about Viktor and it was that he was brilliant beyond reason. If he was gone it was for a good reason.
He left it at that. And when Viktor came back the day after, accepting a shoulder touch without jumping, Jayce figured trusting him brought progress.
It was another three months before something else brought his attention to his partner’s inconsistency with physicality. They’d been working late and Viktor had been running calculations on their new idea, the HexGates. The small scale prototypes weren’t coming together though and Viktor was getting visibly irritated.
Jayce had taken a break to refresh some energy and get into a better headspace. He came up next to Viktor, making sure he noticed and bumped their arms together. A simple shoulder to shoulder touch. Viktor shuddered and, in a jolt to move away he ended up sprawled on the floor.
Jayce tried to help him up but Viktor batted his hands away and used the table. He mumbled an apology and decided that had been enough for the day.
Again he didn’t come in the next day. This time however he knew where Viktor lived. Jayce brought soup but no one answered the door. He left it hanging from the doorknob in a bag and hoped Viktor hadn’t fallen in the shower or something.
Again the next day he was back, and when Jayce had put his hand on his back to show him what he’d been doing there was only a twinge of something pained across his face, but he didn’t shrug it off.
For the next year they’d made leaps and bounds in their process and while the HexGates wouldn’t be finished for probably 5 years, they had started the slow process of building the towers. Or rather the construction workers had. Once the first one was up the two would start construction on the inner mechanisms and the crew would start on the next one.
Sizing up the scale model was turning out to be tricky and they needed to figure out how to conserve energy or they’d be going through hex crystals like candy. The budget didn’t allow for the supply needed. They’d been plugging away at optimizing the crystals themselves too but both were elusive. The HexGates were stationary though and needed to be finished on a schedule so they had to prioritize.
Viktor had fallen asleep on his desk over the equations, trying to pick apart the variables. It was just starting to get cold out so Jayce dug a blanket out from the couch to lay over his sleeping partner.
He gently placed it on Viktor’s shoulders, his hands lingering for just a second to make sure the blue blanket Viktor favored wasn’t going to slip off his slight frame, and Viktor jolted and gasped. He only stayed upright because of how close he was to the table. His hands shook like he’d been electrocuted.
“Bad dream,” was all he’d said at the time, but the next day he left again.
After several years together the cagey reaction to touch didn’t lessen as Viktor’s limp grew more pronounced. If Jayce was being honest, he still knew very little about Viktor. He’d dance around personal questions easily only answering the most mundane of things. He liked sour candies but couldn’t have them because they caused mouth sores, he couldn’t swim but loved water. Everything Jayce knew about Viktor was superficial.
It wasn’t until year 6 Jayce really noticed the pattern. Every few months Viktor would be on edge, cagey and distant, disappear, and come back better off. The harder he worked the sooner it would come, his health had started an obvious decline and with it a rise in physical reaction.
Jayce had only noticed now because instead of months after his last random day off only two weeks later Viktor had taken two whole days off. He had never done that in the years they worked together but he came back relaxed and refreshed, and for the first time in a while when Viktor took a piece of chalk from Jayce’s hand he didn’t flinch. Even gave Jayce an arm pat as he left for the day.
But that only made Jayce think about the fact that he couldn’t always handle touch. It had become so normal Jayce only just was starting to realize how odd it was. He could count the number of times Viktor initiated contact on one hand in all years they’d known each other.
His good cheer had only lasted a month before he left again, and again he was gone for two days. Jayce had really hoped it was to see a doctor. The bags under Viktor’s eyes had grown more pronounced and he wore his leg brace practically every day now, usually only reserved for his worst.
But when Viktor returned he looked a bit better and for the first time in a while he wasn’t wearing his outer brace, though his limp was more obvious. And again only a month later the same.
Jayce had once tried asking where he disappeared to but Viktor sidestepped the question with one of his own and led the conversation back to work. Only hours later Jayce realized he didn’t get an answer.
So Jayce resolved to follow him. If Viktor went to a hospital, no harm no foul. He might be overstepping a bit but Viktor was his best friend, even if he knew a grand total of 8 facts about the man. He just wanted to make sure he was alright.
Stalking wasn’t exactly the image he wanted to present. This was more like… a wellness check.
So he waited for Viktor to show his usual signs and, after Jayce righted Viktor before he could tumble off a step-stool, Viktor reacted like he’d been burned. He’d gone to the restroom and hadn’t returned for nearly an hour before he came back and started gathering his stuff to take off early.
Jayce followed under cover of a hood that once belonged to his father, faded and worn and far enough away from his own style he wouldn’t draw attention as ‘The Man of Progress’ as he tried to sneak around. Instead of the nearby hospital however, Viktor made his way across the bridge to the undercity. So Jayce followed.
The walk was long and winding and Viktor easily nodded at people as they passed, the longer he walked the more people seemed to recognize him. Some stopped to greet him with familiarity.
Jayce was starting to realize that while Viktor was his best friend, Jayce probably wasn’t even anything more than a colleague to Viktor.
He’d been thoroughly convinced the man was totally closed off; he refused to go to galas unless they were Hextech specific and easily brushed off every invitation sent his way. Jayce assumed it was people in general that Viktor didn’t like. But maybe Viktor loved where he once lived and was only in Piltover because it was where opportunity was. That he tolerated topsiders, but these were his people. His goal had always been to help them, to lift it from… well, he looked around as they went deeper into the slums- this. The fog got thicker the closer they got to the fissures.
Jayce used the old cloak to cover his mouth, trying to be discreet with the coughs it ripped from him. Viktor didn’t even wheeze the whole way, rare with the cough he’d been developing as of late.
Viktor walked with purpose, his crutch carrying him forward. Jayce had almost lost him a couple of times before they finally ended up at a nondescript building with just the word “VYX” on the window. Its visage gave nothing away to what could be inside, the smog coverage wasn’t stopping people from milling about outside in oversized jackets and inhaling more smoke, but this time their choice.
Jayce already felt lightheaded from the walk. He’d had a respirator last time he was here, coming back to this place couldn’t be good for Viktor’s health. Still he persisted and disappeared behind the door.
Jayce waited a moment after Viktor went in to follow. He had expected a bar maybe but when he walked through the door it was like stepping into another world. People milled about in various states of dress, many in leather. He saw someone’s entire taint before it was smacked with a paddle and he looked away. A woman in a leather corset and nothing else stopped him for a cover charge and Jayce didn’t bother collecting change for the gold coin before moving to a darkened corner to keep an eye out for Viktor.
Jayce pinkened at the thought of his incredibly reserved partner in a place like this. He supposed their schedule left little room for dating but he’d always seen him as uninterested or maybe even actively against sexual contact, when casual touch was already so difficult for him.
A woman in leather panties and sky high shoes had offered her services and he waved her off with a blush.
Jayce had never been in a place like this. He’d never felt the need to pay for sex. He tried to tell himself that he was just here out of curiosity about undercity brothels but he knew the real curiosity was for what kind of worker called his usually aloof partner's attention enough to make this trek when there were pleasure houses all over Piltover.
There was an announcement for a floor show in an hour and Jayce figured he’d wait until then and if he didn’t spot Viktor, he’d take his leave.
He moved to a more hidden location for people watching and saw someone else move to the spot nearest him- right before taking themselves out of their pants and furiously masturbating. Jayce felt a little queasy. He’d never considered himself a prude but compared to anyone here he felt downright frigid.
He could admit though the people seemed to be having a lot more fun than any high society ball. A group broke out into raucous laughter as a large woman was led by a human bridle, her whinnies amusing the onlookers. Some slapped her ass as she crawled by and it jiggled obscenely. Another woman straddled the saddle situated on her back and made her scoot along the floor faster, her sharp heels digging into flesh. The woman on the floor squealed and tried to move at a quicker pace before being yanked back by the bridle in the hands of her master. When she turned around her thighs were soaking wet.
Another group had a gruff looking man being pegged by a willowy woman with long hair as a twink fed him his cock. It was lurid but the image was striking.
He managed to watch groups go in and out of the swinging doors, an elevator was near a spiral staircase and it seemed it led somewhere because groups would sometimes go in or out. He wondered if he should chance checking them but every time he worked up the courage another door would open and someone would come out looking sated and sweaty.
As the hour wore on people gathered around the stage in the corner that demanded little attention. Black drapes on a black wall - it was almost invisible save for the faded velvet rope that marked the area off limits.
As the lights went out only one glowing gas light illuminated the stage, an eerie almost green that barely lit the back wall. A group in a booth were smoking cigars creating a screen of toxic smog and suddenly inside looked just like the noxious streets just outside.
All sound stopped as the curtain rose, save for one of the men at the cigar table who wolf whistled in excitement for the show. Jayce had planned to slip out but as the crowd grew he became more and more curious to see what passed for entertainment in a place like this.
The audience awaited the show with bated breath. As Jayce looked past them, there, on stage, was Viktor. Nude and splayed out, a nest of ropes held him in place like a fly in a spider's web. Red and blue chords overlapped and weaved into something resembling veins and arteries. Less like a fly, Viktor was more like a bleached out beating heart. His movements shook the rope like blood pumping through them, the frame shuddered weakly.
It was breathtaking. Milky white skin, almost too white against the brightly colored ropes. It made him look even paler. Moles dotted his skin like a splatter of an artist's paintbrush and Jayce suddenly realized Viktor was gorgeous.
His legs were long and lean, bruises already beginning to blossom where the binds held taught and all along his bad leg in the pattern of his brace. The slope of his waist, too thin with prominent hip bones, jutted from a nearly hairless pubis. His golden eyes shadowed by his dark lashes scanned the room sightlessly.
Even in the low lighting of the room he was blindingly bright in the darkness. A pale moon hung low enough to be touched by mere mortals.
His small body was expressive, even from across the room every inch of the man was visible, every muscle movement sent a different section of the ropes around him into a frenzy of motion.
Jayce watched as he tested the binds with an aborted movement.
“It’s… good.” Viktor’s voice, usually so sure, sounded soft. It carried to where Jayce was hidden among the milling crowd and shot through him like a bullet.
The knots held Viktor’s slim body in a cradle, his bad leg lifted to take any pressure off of it. He was slightly bent at the waist and his whole body looked so light, like he could just float away.
The men had caged Viktor between them. They tugged on the ropes, testing each. They had yet to touch him, still Viktor seemed affected. Angling his body away when their hands hovered too close during their checks, almost shy.
“Same as before, Vitya.” The one in front confirmed and Viktor opened his mouth to accept a ball gag, tilting his head forward to allow access to clip it in the back. His body shivered from the light contact on his scalp and he made little sounds. Even muffled by the gag the noises carried in the hall. A flutter of excitement alighted the audience, a burst of whispers in anticipation.
“Ready?” The first man asked, tall, dark skinned and lean. He looked for confirmation in the slighter man’s eyes. Viktor met them briefly and nodded.
The two had their hands on him in a second, pressing them along the plains of his chest and back. Viktor jerked but didn’t make it far. His body trembled and the ropes followed. He could only shake his head and make little sounds in his throat as he rattled the whole stage.
The two pressed themselves firmly to his front and back, chest to chest to back to chest. The gag cut off the halted scream it ripped from him. He was spasming but the two held him tightly, as they mouthed fluttering kisses into his throat. He moved from them as if burned but had no purchase to escape the fire it brought to his pale skin. His face and neck bloomed a soft pink and his heaving chest followed.
Viktor’s arms were tied behind his head, the second man, broader than both but shorter, ran his hands up Viktor’s sides, up his arms then back down, all featherlight. Teasing. Jayce watched on as Viktor fell apart.
Within minutes Viktor was crying, tears running down his face as the two soothed and pet him. hands and bodies moving against Viktor’s overstimulated one, just touching enough to turn the man Jayce had always known to be so reserved into a whimpering, shivering mass of nerves.
Before tonight Jayce would have assumed his friend had never cried. Logically he figured that couldn’t be true but now that he saw it, god was it a sight to behold. His face screwed as the soft touches seemed to elicit nothing but pain from him.
Fingers dipped into his every crevice, light touches making him more desperate to flinch away than the hard pinches the darker man was applying to his chest. He pushed his body into the pain, and away from pleasure and the way his body made the ropes dance was like an erotic sculpture, the two men played him like an instrument.
Viktor’s eyes looked clouded after 15 minutes, the painful screams caught in his throat switched out for sobs and moans. The sound bounced around the area, even the person who had been handling themselves had stopped, too mesmerized to continue chasing their bliss. Viktor’s sobs shook the frame, the soft rhythmic motion created a pulse that reverberated off the walls like the resonant thumping of a heart.
Jayce watched Viktor’s body trying to convulse against the artful knot-work that held him, saw his eyes misty and unfocused, and despite or maybe because of his body's strong reaction Viktor was limp between his thighs. Even as the man behind him kneeled to apply his lips to more sensitive areas and the man in front pet his face and hair, Viktor’s eyes continued to drip. His mouth was starting to leak through the gag and his breathing had become ragged as his reactions went from jerky and pained to mild undulations.
Jayce wished he was allowed to hear the sounds he made without a buffer, how loud they would be in the room with how clearly he could hear his voice before, how his screams would echo against the dark walls. He thinks the gag might be there for that very reason and it makes Jayce hard in his pants. He was mortified but fascinated at every hitch of Viktor’s breath. He couldn’t reconcile the man he was seeing now with the one that practically lived in the office.
“First time?” A woman from the bar asked him, he hadn’t even seen her appear behind him, so enthralled by Viktor’s sensuous form. He realized he’d moved from his spot to get closer and he hid his face deeper in the cloak.
There was a murmur among the crowd but only Viktor’s sounds carried in the hall, a trick of the stage maybe. Jayce still kept his voice low to answer.
“What is this?” He asked, leaning back but never breaking his line of sight from the vision of his partner's flushed panting face.
“Those three are old friends. Apparently the one tied up used to work here but is some big shot in Piltover now. Can’t take the sumps outta the boy though. Always a real treat when he comes by. Nshuti and Arun drop everything to set up. Even get outsiders like you coming ‘round to see what our fine establishment can offer.”
Jayce takes that in with some skepticism. Viktor had always avoided touch in social situations, refused handshakes, even when polite and expected. Sometimes he would place a hand on Jayce’s shoulder when he was having a rough day or not flinch when helped up after a fall but those days were few and far between.
He’d never imagined Viktor could be so… alluring. He doesn’t bother responding to the barkeep.
Viktor had finally become hard at the ministrations. The equilibrium shifted and the pain had given way to something even more hypnotic. Electric pleasure.
His eyes were closed as he was slowly entered. The moan it pulled from his throat was something straight out of a porno, the ropes provided leverage for the man behind, Arun probably, to pull back on. The rhythmic beat of his hips swung the rope structure. Viktor’s tears had mostly dried and he was completely loose against the men’s attention. The only way Jayce could tell he hadn’t fallen asleep were the whimpers that managed to sometimes escape him.
Nshuti caressed Viktor’s hair and pressed kisses to his wet face, wiping his eyes as Viktor stared at him like he was all there was. It twisted something in Jayce. It was so much like the look he’d caught their first breakthrough, as they floated freely. That magic moment recontextualized in his head forever.
Jayce never considered he would make that face to anyone else. He never considered it would twist his gut to see.
“How long are these… performances usually?” Jayce asks.
“An hour or two at most. Sometimes they have a second show, but it’s not usually as intense as the first one.”
Jayce watched in anticipation, they had been going for probably an hour now and Viktor was obviously getting close. He had again started to shake but this looked different in his body, it drew tight like a bowstring. He’d lost the will to fight the binds but every time his sweet spot was hit, Viktor jolted like he was shocked. His prick dripped with every thrust as though it was wrung from him.
Jayce’s breath picked up as Viktor was brought to completion, a white splatter over his thighs, the ropes painted white as Viktor went completely limp.
The single light near them went out and more dim lights picked up. The scene had ended and the curtain started its desent. People went back to talking at regular volume but Jayce couldn’t look away as the men tended to Viktor, gently starting the process of removing him, the upper frame lowering, depositing Viktor softly to the floor before he disappeared behind fabric.
“What a show right?” The woman asked but Jayce had left the moment Viktor was out of view, he didn’t want to think about Viktor being taken care of by some handsome strangers. He knew he’d just crossed about a thousand lines and wanted a head start on forgetting the night.