Summary: Jayce Talis high on caffeine leads to shenanigans lmao
Warnings: SFW, tickling, some language
This is a tickle fic, if you don’t like don’t read :)
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In the now three years Viktor had been partnered with Jayce Talis in the research of hextech and its uses, he has long since come to the conclusion that caffeine was both a blessing and a curse.
Of course, the blessing being able to keep one going long after their brain has begged them for sleep, allowing them to work far into the night.
The curse was just how much it made his partner bounce off of the walls.
Viktor didn’t truly mind it, of course, but Jayce had gotten to the point where his words were started to merge together with how fast his caffeine buzz had him speaking.
“Janna above—Jayce! Slow down! Start over,” Viktor chuckled, pinching the bridge of his nose. “How much coffee have you had to drink tonight?”
“Not important. As I was saying-“
Viktor huffed a quiet laugh to himself as he listened to his partner ramble on, keeping up as best he could. As he spoke, Jayce’s hands were flying everywhere: motioning to projects, acting out turning a gear or wrench, anything they could do to not stand still.
At the end of his tangent, a tangent that Viktor had in all honesty not been following very well, he pumped his fists and whooped with such volume it made Viktor jump.
“WOO I’m on a roll!” He had the silliest grin plastered to his face and was bouncing his leg in his excitement.
Viktor just looked at him, chuckling and shaking his head. “You’re ridiculous and high on caffeine, is what you are,” he smiled.
“Oh come onnnnn, V,” Jayce groaned humorously. “That was good! You’re just being a grump again.”
Viktor’s jaw dropped and his brows furrowed in faux-offense. “I am no-what do you mean again?” Jayce only threw his head back and cackled in response.
Viktor was no stranger to these energetic spurts of Jayce’s that so often happened during late nights like this, an occurrence that only grew in frequency the more comfortable the two scientists got to each other’s presence. He would keep up his “grump” façade because it seemed to amuse Jayce to no end, but the both of them knew Viktor didn’t mean a word of it. In all honesty, it helped keep him awake and entertained as he worked. Such was the case now, for Viktor had turned back to sketching his blueprints with a fond smile on his lips.
For several minutes, he was all too engrossed with his work to notice that Jayce had gotten out of his chair. That is, until two fingers buzzed into his sides.
It shocked Viktor so much he shrieked and threw the pencil in his hands. Jayce cackled behind him, clapping once in his amusement.
“Jayce Talis, you absolute child!” Viktor roared, slamming his hands on the desk and flying out of his chair.
Jayce must not have been expecting Viktor to retaliate in such fury, for all he could do was backpedal with a giddy squawk before tripping over his own feet and falling backwards. With a playful lust for vengeance, one that was albeit a bit new to him, he abandoned his cane to the side and followed his partner to the ground.
The two young men grappled for the upper hand, both of them laughing as they fought. Viktor would have expected Jayce to take it easy on him, even if Viktor had started it, and could tell Jayce was deliberately avoiding all movements that could possibly jostle Viktor’s bad leg, but that was just about the extent of it. The rest was fair game.
“A Zaunite assassin has befallen mehehe! Hehelp!” Jayce cried dramatically, giggles lacing his voice. Viktor quirked a brow before deciding to play along.
“Maybe it serves you right, Topsider!” He growled with bravado. “A brute such as yourself ought to know better than mess with us fissurefolk!”
“Ohohoh, so I’m a brute now, huh?”
Under normal circumstances, it would have peeved Viktor that Jayce was evidently holding back a little, but here it just made it more fun. He never got to play with anyone like this, even as a child. Too many potential friends worried he would shatter like glass should they do so much as tap his shoulder.
“GAhah!!” Jayce barked a laugh from beneath Viktor’s hold, still squirming. Viktor’s hand had slipped down his side in their scuffle. “Nonono c’mohon Vik I’m ticklish!” He yelped through boyish giggles.
Viktor immediately broke into a grin and his brows shot up. “Oh, are you, now?”
How Viktor relished the way Jayce’s face filled with dread.
“H-hey waitwaitwaitwaitwait Viktor don’t you do it-!” Jayce pleaded, trying to push himself away.
“No, no, where do you think you’re going? You started this,” Viktor smirked, immediately attacking Jayce’s sides with a vengeance.
The reaction was instantaneous, and Viktor’s smile only grew at being the one to elicit it. Bold, bright laughter immediately flowed from Jayce’s mouth and a wide smile splitting his face. He wriggled and writhed under Viktor’s hold, his heels scuffing against the floor.
“N-nahahahahaha Vihihiktohohohor!! VIKTOHOR-!!! STAHAHAHAHA-THIS ISN’T FAHAHAHAHAIR HAHAHAHA!!!”
“Do you forget I grew up in the Undercity,” Viktor purred. “Fighting fair is rarely on the table.”
Jayce was shoving weakly at Viktor’s wrists but couldn’t stop them, Viktor’s movements being too dexterous and quick, darting his hands all over Jayce’s torso and sending him into hysterics.
“NoooononononoNONONO HAHAHAH!!! VIHIHIKTOR!!!” Jayce cackled, his laugh rising in pitch as Viktor continued his playful assault.
In a scramble to try and shove Viktor off of him, his fingers must have brushed just right against Viktor’s side. The smaller man gave a strangled yelp through gritted teeth and a wobbly smile. His arm buckled and his attack faltered. He had underestimated his partner’s fighting ability, for he found himself immediately flipped on his back.
Jayce was now staring down at him; disheveled, fighting for breath, and grinning with wild excitement.
Viktor didn’t have a moment to prepare himself before Jayce’s strong hands were scribbling at his stomach and sides. He wasn’t as ruthless in his attack as Viktor was in his, but the sensation still got him squirming. Alas, he was stubborn. He scrunched his nose and grit his teeth as he choked his laugher down, but he couldn’t hide the smile splitting his face.
Jayce knew a challenge when he saw one, and it excited him. He would make his partner laugh himself silly if it was the last thing he did tonight.
“Come onnnnn,” he growled, smirking, digging in a little harder and going up a little higher, teasing Viktor’s ribs right before his skin ended and his brace started.
That got him. Viktor’s back arched and his eyes widened before he began to laugh. It was breathy and unsteady, almost as if he was out of practice, but it was enough to plaster the biggest grin on Jayce’s face.
“Thehere we go!” He cheered, and scribbled along any skin he could find on Viktor’s torso.
“No, nonononono Jayce! JaHAhahayce hahahaha.” Viktor had a hand over his mouth as he tried to fight Jayce off with the other. This only encouraged his playful partner.
“Oh no you don’t,” he teased, “I know you can do better than that!”
“Yohohohohour hohohorihihihble! Gehehehet off of mehehehehe you- AGHHAHAHAHAHAHA!!! NONONONONO JAYCE DOHOHON’T!!!”
All mercy was thrown to the wind as Jayce dug all ten fingers into Viktor’s ribs, scribbling against every bone could find. His face lit up like the sun itself as he watched Viktor’s hand fall from his face in favor of fully fighting back. His smile was the biggest he’d ever seen, and his laugh had only grown brighter.
“Haha! Now we’re getting somewhere!”
“EhehehEHEHEVIL! YOHOHOUR’E EHEHEHEHEVIHIHIL!”
“You know,” Jayce pondered, slowing his attack and letting Viktor catch his breath, “In the few years we’ve known each other, I don’t think I’ve ever seen you laugh this much.”
“Maybe,” Viktor cleared his throat of any giggles threatening to bubble over, but a smile still pulled at his lips. “Maybe learn to be funnier. I’d laugh more.”
“Really?” Jayce smirks. “That’s how you wanna play this?”
Viktor grinned, a bit wildly at that. “Oh, I’m not playing, Jayce, I’m winning!”
Immediately clocking what he was alluding to, Jayce tried to intercept the attack with his own, but a few frantically clumsy scribbles were no match against Viktor squeezing his side with one hand and scribbling under his arm with the other. Safe to say, he folded.
“NonoNONONO SHIHIHIHIT HAHAHAHA!”
Unable to hold himself up in his mirth, he flopped right into Viktor’s chest, almost shrieking.
Viktor blamed his previously exploited sensitivity making his nervous system hyper aware, but the vibrations on his chest tickled a little as well. Not to mention Jayce was still clawing desperately at his rib cage.
“JAHAHAHAYCE!!! Jayce s-STOHOP IHIHIHIT!!!”
“YOU-GAhah-YohohohoHOHOHOU FIHIHIHIRST!!!”
They never heard the door to the lab open over their hysterics, but somehow they both managed to hear the amused chuckle coming from it. Stomachs simultaneously dropping, they both perked up to see none other than their own professor standing in the doorway.
Jayce immediately scrambled off of Viktor. “Oh god-shit-Professor-!”
“P-Professor, my apologies, we-“
“Oh no no no no no, it’s no problem, dear boys!” Professor Heimerdinger chirped. His old pet poro clicked into the room, purring and chirruping as it approached the two young scientists. The Professor gave a chuckle before continuing. “I was simply burning the midnight oil, and decided to stop by to check in on progress. But alas, what is the point of working the mind—,”
“ACK!” Viktor yelped, hunching his shoulder, and Professor Heimerdinger giggled cheerfully as his pupil’s ear was suddenly covered in poro slobber, the affectionate lick making his already disheveled hair stick up.
“—without a little play to balance out the soul!” With that signature twinkle in his eye, he whistled to his pet, who immediately trotted back to his side, and turned to leave the room. “Carry on gentleman!”
The door shut with a clunk. All was quiet, the complete opposite of the shrieking laughter bouncing off the walls near moments before.
Jayce cleared his throat and offered Viktor his hand. Still lying on the floor, Viktor took it and allowed himself to be hauled to his feet. The two men simply stood and stared at where their professor had departed. Moments ticked by. Then they looked at each other.
Viktor broke immediately after.
The caffeine, the sleep deprivation, and the pure absurdity of the entire night had taken its toll. Viktor flopped down onto the nearest chair as he cackled, and Jayce was sprawled across the desk, his head in his arms, howling in side-splitting laughter. It was like that for a few minutes until their hysterics finally fizzled out into breathy titters.
Then they met each other’s gaze again, and it was right back to laughing until their stomachs were sore. Viktor had leaned forward and rested his head on Jayce’s shoulder, and Jayce had placed his hand on Viktor’s. Even after they managed to collect themselves, which took many minutes more, they would still find the other stifling giggles into a coffee mug or their shoulders shaking while trying to draw a straight line, which only set them off once more.
Heimerdinger was several paces down the hall when he heard the two start cackling again, and he smiled to himself. Never had he seen either one of those boys shine so bright outside of their work. He was so incredibly happy for both of them that they had met each other, not just as partners in their studies, but as good friends. Two sides of the same gear, as one would say. A perfect balance indeed.
