Jackalope Rain

Stillwater Jayce and Unethical Viktor running an experiment that goes wrong. The device explodes and Jayce grabs Viktor to shield him from any shrapnel but also the explosion sends him into a spiral. He doesn't see Viktor in reality, all he sees is Viktor dead in his arms, blood streaming everywhere, pooling over the floor and staining his hands. And he starts hyperventilating thinking he's killed another person, he's going back to Stillwater, he's doomed himself, he'll never be saved again Viktor though is very alive and trying his hardest to get Jayce to calm down and ground him and get him back to reality. But he's just too gone. And he doesn't have a bag anywhere to try to help regulate Jayce's breathing and stop him hyperventilating. But surely lungs, even fucked up failing lungs like his can work in a similar way. So he kisses Jayce and tries to help bring his breathing back down to normal And it takes some time and there's definitely some actually regular kisses snuck in there but Jayce finally starts feeling grounded. The blood's gone and Viktor's hands are cold but not deathly cold and his eyes still have that spark only living people have. Viktor give him one last chaste kiss and then gets up to clean up the mess before saying they've done enough and should go sleep They don't talk about the kiss the next coming days. Viktor acts as though nothing ever happened but it's all Jayce can think about. Cos Viktor is purposeful. Everything Viktor does is a conscious decision. Nothing is done just by chance. Everything is done as a choice. So Viktor chose to kiss him. And that has to mean something. And god does he want it to mean something to Viktor cos he doesn't know now how much longer he can hold back

Jayce decides to wait for Viktor to bring it up. But he doesn't last a week of Viktor acting as though nothing ever happened. Acting as though he'd never kissed Jayce at all. And it was driving him mad. For the past few days he's constantly been distracted from their work. Constantly looking towards Viktor thinking now he'll say something. Glancing at his lips, wanting to feel them again. To properly feel them. To be in the moment this time instead of a trauma addled hallucination. But Viktor says nothing, alludes to nothing. Makes the decision to act as though it was nothing. "We need to talk about what happened." Jayce finally demands, hands flat on the table Viktor's working at, leaning across it towards him to get Viktor to look at him and not same stupid runes that really really don't matter right now. Viktor choses though not to look at Jayce. "There is nothing to talk about Jayce. It was completely understandable you acted the way that you did and I hold nothing against you. You don't need to worry about anything." "Viktor you kissed me." Jayce doesn't intend his voice to come out rough and annoyed but it does. Viktor freezes. Gotcha. "It- it wasn't kiss Jayce. You were eh..." Jayce had come to learn that Viktor's filler words are language all of their own. Sometimes they're added to lighten the mood, a little whimsy to a frustrating situation. Sometimes they buy him time to try and grasp the word he wants that's just too far out of reach, lost in the fog of pain and shimmer. And sometimes, like right now, they're deliberately chosen to obfuscate and distract. To avoid a topic he doesn't want to touch. "I was trying to get your breathing under control. Nothing more. I am sorry if you felt I'd done something untoward." "Viktor there was tongue in there at least twice." And squeak and glance away. "A...grounding technique only used in Zaun..." "And the kiss at the end? Like you were dropping me home after a first date?" Finally Viktor looks up to Jayce, choses to lock eyes with him in a sense of defiance. "It was nothing." Jayce lets out a hum of his own as he leans back. "If there's anything I've learnt about you V it's that you don't do anything for nothing. What it is you say, 'there's always a choice'?" He leans back in and this time grabs Viktor's chin so he can't run away. "If it really meant nothing do it again." "What?" "Kiss me. Right now. If it means nothing kiss me again right now and I'll drop the subject." Viktor opens and closes his mouth, struggles to find his words, instead speaking a jumble of cut off words in various languages. But he doesn't move to kiss Jayce. Stays completely put as a growing blush spreads across his cheeks. "So. We've established you kissed me and it meant something. Now what Viktor? Cos I don't think I can hold off much longer." Finally Viktor pulls his face back. Stands up with a clatter of his chair as it falls back. "You are insufferable." "Oh that's one I haven't heard before." Viktor starts making his way around the table, eyes ablaze with a fire Jayce desperately wants to burn him. "Incorrigible." "Ooh I like that one." Finally Viktor stands in front of him, face to face. "An incongruent asshole." Jayce can't stop the huff of a laugh, shaking his head a little. "You could have tried a little hard with that one V." Hears the other mutter a "oh for fuck sake" before those lips are back on his in a fierce kiss. One that this time he's able to return with his own passion

Jayce as a contestant on a baking competition and Viktor as one of the cameramen who's crush might be a little obvious cos there's so much footage of Jayce just...existing. Folks watching thank the cameraman for focusing so much on Jayce cos they too have a crush on this big handsome sweetheart who keeps gushing so much about his mother and her cooking with the brightest smile on his face. It's a little concerning how much zoomed in footage there is from bread week of him just kneading the dough. Viktor pretends to have shame but he really doesn't. He thought he'd be jealous of bread dough of all things but guess there's always more things to learn about yourself