Work Text:
Jayce was much like an old, rusty machine.
When he worked, he was brilliant, not to mention terrifically convenient.
"He's impossible, Cait!"
... But if even the smallest pebble got stuck in his gears, the resulting grating noise was beyond irritating.
Caitlyn sucked at her teeth. Jayce, belly up on her bed and gesturing dramatically, had been whining about his so-called 'partner' (Jayce's macho way of saying crush) for the past twenty minutes, and Caitlyn was quickly losing patience.
"Viktor is not impossible," she called from the en suite, carefully tracing her lash line. "He's a functional adult who doesn't consider affection a requirement for survival, unlike someone I could name."
Either ignoring her jab or failing to notice it altogether, Jayce bulldozed on. "Just because he doesn't need affection doesn't mean he doesn't deserve it!" Jayce argued loudly, his voice echoing off the walls of Caitlyn's restroom. "But he refuses to be loved!" Caitlyn rolled her eyes and set down her eyeliner, giving up on perfecting her makeup. Vi always told her it was flawless anyway.
"Being unappreciative of you crawling all over him is perfectly reasonable," Caitlyn retorted, stepping into the bedroom to flick her friend in the forehead. "Maybe he just prefers less obnoxious forms of endearment."
Jayce pouted like a toddler. "I considered that!" He abruptly sat up and entered what Caitlyn unaffectionately called debate mode. "Just look at the love languages-"
"Haven't those been disproven?"
"It doesn't matter, they're a good starting point." Jayce waved his hand as if to swat her interjection out of the air before holding out a thumb. "We already discussed that touch startles him-"
"Discussed is a strong word-"
"He deflects compliments like a professional," Jayce ignored her, raising his pointer finger, "and he never leaves the lab-"
"Which one is that meant to represent?" Caitlyn asked, flipping through the hangers in her closet.
"Quality time! He doesn't even let me take him out to lunch, never mind drinks."
Caitlyn pursed her lips, eventually choosing a loose tank top that Vi had brought her from the undercity, the origins of which she tried not to consider. "Gifts?" she suggested. Jayce shook his head.
"Won't tell me his birthday," he sighed, flopping back onto the bed as if his responsibility was to establish world peace rather than to effectively appreciate his coworker.
Caitlyn snorted, sitting beside Jayce where he'd star-fished on her comforter. "And let me guess, acts of service downright infuriate him?"
Jayce scoffed. "You think you're joking. V says Pilties only do him favors either because they pity him or because they think he's incompetent." He scrubbed a hand down his face, looking genuinely upset. "... And he's not wrong. I can't blame him for the association, and he's never rude about it, but I can tell it makes him uncomfortable, and I just-" For the first time in minutes, Jayce made eye contact with Caitlyn rather than scowling at her light fixture. "I don't know how to show him that I care."
For a fleeting moment, at the sight of her friend's pitiful expression, Caitlyn felt a pang of genuine sympathy, but she swiftly fought it off. Jayce was a grown man who could figure out how to have a simple conversation without the help of his goddamned sponsor.
"Why don't you just ask?" she suggested flatly. Jayce opened his mouth to retort, but his brain managed to process her question just before he could return to his regularly scheduled gum-flapping. He paused to frown at the ceiling, offering Caitlyn the perfect opportunity to go in for the kill.
"... If you're so desperate to suck his prick, that is."
Satisfied with Jayce's response of mortified sputtering, Caitlyn slipped off the bed and returned to the restroom to put up her hair, Jayce's wholly ineffective self-defense making for the perfect background noise.
-
The mid-afternoon sun was pleasantly warm even through the lab's tall windows, and Jayce was face down against his desk, waiting for inspiration to strike.
He had more than enough projects to work on, and Viktor was busily updating a blueprint beside him, but Jayce's head had been foggy all day. Ever since visiting the Kirammans that weekend, Caitlyn's insistence that he ask Viktor's love language had been weighing on Jayce. It seemed like such a simple solution, but it was almost too friendly.
Jayce cared about Viktor almost more than anything or anyone else. They had been working together for nearly two years by then, and Viktor had saved his life and dragged his childhood dream from the grave to the world stage. But despite the amount of time they spent together, Viktor remained all but a mystery to Jayce. He wasn't cold by any means, but he wasn't overly familiar, either. Viktor was an introvert, and a quiet one, at that. The only things that stoked the fire in his belly and raised his voice were his passion for his field and good old fashioned alcohol.
Jayce, meanwhile, loved loud, and was desperate for an outlet. He had always been an emotional man, and containing his appreciation for his partner was becoming unsustainable. He needed a way to express it without making Viktor uncomfortable.
Jayce sighed, watching Viktor's pencil move elegantly across the paper. Maybe Caitlyn was right- the only way to ensure a venture's success was to correct the method. Jayce sat up.
"... Viktor?" he asked hesitantly, his voice echoing off the walls. Viktor hummed, continuing to sketch. Jayce steeled his nerves and asked.
"... What's your love language?"
Viktor paused. He snorted, squinting at his partner. "You do know that the five love languages have been disproven, yes?" Jayce rolled his eyes.
"Sure, but if you had to pick one, which would you say best describes you?"
Viktor leaned back in his chair and pursed his lips thoughtfully. "I feel that most people prefer to give and receive affection in different ways."
Jayce... hadn't thought of it that way. When he mindlessly squeezed Viktor's shoulder, he hadn't considered that he'd never liked when his school buddies had clapped him on the back, the touch abrupt and invasive. He scrubbed his stubble - leave it to Viktor to so easily alter his thought process. He smiled fondly.
"Tell me both," he decided.
Viktor furrowed his brow and tapped the eraser of his pencil against his lip, one of Jayce's favorite ticks of his. The same way he had admired the arc of his father's hammer bending steel as a boy, Jayce watched hypnotized as the pencil brought Viktor's thoughts to the forefront of his mind.
"I suppose I give a version of quality time," Viktor finally decided. "There are very few people whose company I appreciate for more than an hour or two."
A proud grin slowly overtook Jayce's face, and he squeezed his knuckles to keep from outright celebrating. Jayce and Viktor were together from dawn til dusk practically every day of the week; that was high praise.
"And as for receiving... I know it is not technically a love language, per se, but, eh- conversation? I like to... discuss. Whether it be about philosophy, or..." he chuckled and gestured broadly to the chalk-covered blackboard where he and Jayce had volleyed for over an hour just that morning, "... Hextech! I admire a person who has strong values and opinions and... and can articulate them."
He paused then, sheepishly turning back to his partner. "Does that make sense?"
Jayce nodded stupidly at the blackboard, unable to hold back his glee at the realization that he had already been getting it right. He had already been loving Viktor in a way that showed, had already been being loved.
Before Jayce could formulate a response, Viktor beat him to the punch.
"I know the answer, but for the sake of politeness, I'll ask anyhow. What is your love language, Jayce?"
When he turned back to his partner, Jayce noticed that Viktor looked alarmingly self-satisfied. "... What would be your answer?" he asked uneasily.
Viktor smiled. "You give physical affection and acts of service, and enjoy receiving words of affirmation."
Jayce flushed. It wasn't inherently embarrassing to appreciate compliments, but Viktor's smirk implied that he understood the breadth of Jayce's enjoyment. He swallowed. "That... sounds accurate."
"I hope that I do not deprive you. It does not come naturally to me to offer consistent praise, even to someone as exemplary as you."
Jayce felt the heat of traitorous blood rushing to his face.
"Feel that?" Viktor asked, tapping his own cheek with a finger. "That is you proving my point." He waved a dismissive hand and turned back to the page in front of him.
Jayce laughed, watching a proud smile bloom on his partner's face. He settled back against his desk and watched the world turn sideways. Now that he knew that Viktor not only didn't mind but admired Jayce's sidetracked rambles, all he wanted to do was talk. He knew that he couldn't waste the day with idle chatter - they did have deadlines to meet and investors to impress, after all - but he could stand to interrupt Viktor one more time.
"Would you like to come back to my place after work? Play a card game... have a drink?"
Viktor must have similarly been considering their schedule, as his pencil only paused for a moment when he replied, though his rare smile remained for minutes afterwards.
"Yes. I'd love to."