smiling ear to ear rnđ
A/N: You all voted on this poll, and this poll, and this poll, and after a LOT of voting, I present you this :) BIG thanks to @that-multi-fandom-hijabi for beta reading this go follow her writing acc rn (@novaaaaaa-writes). Here's my masterlist!
Warning(s): Enemies to lovers trope, mentions of burning, stabbing, blood, bad descriptions of both fire of water (ice, snow ?) bending, Zuko is whipped, just a little confused about it, reader is a baddie, water benders unite (not me tho), reader is GN but written with f!reader in mind, reader looks non-threatening, is underestimated a lot, this takes place at the end of season one, I think that's it
Pairing: Prince Zuko x GN!Reader
â˘âââ˘Â°â˘ââ˘Â°â˘âââ ĘÉŞęą ĘÉŞá´á´Ęá´ á´Ąá´á´á´ĘĘá´É´á´ á´Ę ââââ˘Â°â˘âď¸â˘Â°â˘ââââ˘
âYou shouldnât be hereâ you glare, your gaze sending shivers down his spine.Â
But that could just be because of all the snow and ice surrounding the both of you.Â
The fire prince remains unfazed though, his amber eyes sweeping over your form- assessing the threat you posed.Â
He could take you down in seconds.Â
Zuko doesnât respond to your jab though, because he knew you were wrong. He had to be here, it was the only way he could finally receive his fatherâs favor- as the heir and as the son of Firelord Ozai. It was his duty, his honor.Â
And he wasnât going to let a non-threatening waterbender get in the way of that.Â
Reaching back, he unsheathes his dual swords, the glint of the waning moonlight reflecting the dangerous glint in his eye.Â
And yet you didnât back down. Â
Pooling some water from your waterskin, you assumed the stance you had trained yourself to take whenever you honed your skills. One with the water, one with the ice. Â
âPower should flow, not force itselfâ Master Pakku had told you once. Â
People had always underestimated your skills, saying you were better suited for healing. But after showing Master Pakku how you could use your bending to control the falling snow around you, he gave you a chance. Â
He had told you to let the power settle in your body before releasing, instead of forcing it out immediately. Conceal and then control.Â
You met Zukoâs fiery gaze with an icy one of your own. You were going to protect your home. Â
With a yell, you form flurries of snow, whipping around your form as you channel your strength to change the form of your flurry, snow turning to water, water turning to sharp daggers of pure ice. Â
Zuko scowls, setting his hands ablaze and you run at each other, fire meeting ice. Â
Time slows down, as the intensity of your elements picks up, until all you could hear was the steady thump â thump â thump â of your heart, and the roar of crystalline knives swirling around you.Â
Flames lick the side of your leg, wincing as the raw burn of the fire sears through your skin in white-hot pain. Razor sharp icy shards cut into Zukoâs skin, finding chinks in his armor, piercing his flesh and drawing blood.Â
The snow beneath the both of you was dotted red now, both of you staring at each other, panting heavily. Â
âYou really shouldnât be here.â you repeat again, but this time, it was barely a whisper, swallowing down tears as the cold wind of the Northern Water Tribe stung your gaping wounds.Â
Zuko growls, grunting in pain as he pulls a shard of ice out of his skin.âI donât take orders from a little waterbenderâ he spat, venom dripping from his words.Â
You reciprocate with a snide comment of your own. âThis âlittle waterbenderâ just sunk 5 icicles into your skin.âÂ
Zuko was just about ready to tear your head off, hands igniting with vermillion flames before you collapse, the burns along your thigh and calf were much more severe than either of you realized. Â
You choke out a sob of pain but keep your control of the water left in your waterskin. You couldnât die, not today, and not at the hands of the prince of the Fire Nation. Â
Zukoâs heart throbs unexpectedly, the look on your face too familiar for comfort. The face of someone who worked so desperately hard, only for all that effort to go down the drain. But he didnât care for you. He couldnât- couldnât grow attachment to a non-threatening waterbender. Yet you sat there on the snow, dotted with blood, with that raw look in your eyes. His flames extinguished, without him meaning to. Â
You flinched as he threw his swords down frustrated, impaling themselves into the nearby snow mound, standing straight up.Â
He stomps over to you, and you frantically move back, but your leg flares up in pain again, and you yelp, hissing in pain.
âStop moving, youâll make it worse.â he says, glaring at you, but not as intensely as he had before. Â
You want to scream, kick him, punch him, anything, but your body betrays you as he sweeps you up into his arms, carrying you to the nearest place he can find, where he can keep you safe. You feel his strong arms hook under your knees and under your back, holding you securely to his firm chest. Even through his armor, he radiates warmth, a gentle heat, unlike the flames he threw at you merely minutes ago. Â
He hates this, with every fiber in my being, his voice screaming at him to drop you and burn your frail body to a crisp, vengeance for the blood dripping from his own body, but he keeps moving, step after painstaking step.Â
You try to stay awake, you really do, yet channeling so much energy from your battle, the numb throb in your lower leg, and the comforting heat radiating off the fire prince who refuses to look at you, you slip into unconsciousness. Â
Zuko feels a weight press against his chest, and he huffs, honey-colored eyes catching onto the details of your face, the curve of your nose, the apples of your cheeks, the slight pout of your lips as you nuzzle into his armor unintentionally, how pretty you were when you were at peace.Â
He stops himself there, reprimanding himself for thinking such things. He canât have feelings for the enemy.Â
And yet, even as he and his troops head home, battle wearing and dejected from the loss of a major battle, Zuko canât help but think about his little waterbender. Â
***Â
When you wake up, the kind woman tending to you tells you all about the mysterious and handsome man who carried your sleeping form across the entire Northern Water Tribe because he didnât know where the healing center was. Â
SAY IT LOUDER FOR THE PEOPLE
I CANâT HEAR YOUUUU
FANFICTION IS JUST BETTER.
the final glorious ovulation ,, or wtv tf he said
viktor x f! reader
3.8k, MDNI, no use of (y/n)
description: Viktor had been so kind as to agree to help you out with your midterm prep, so you thought baking him muffins would be a great way to repay him. However, an accidental secret ingredient gets in the way of studying.
warnings: Age gap, roomie smut, more story than smut, p in v, sex pollen/serum (with pretty explicit consent), overall jolly good fun, no harm no foul, yippee!
a/n: inspired by @the-hidden-pages story, Human Testing because itâs one of the first viktor x reader fics i ever read and i STRONGLY recommend!
Any student should feel lucky to have the smartest men at the academy as your roommates. Being an undergraduate biochem student who had to work to pay her own tuition, going to lecture wasnât always an option. Thatâs when youâd bake a tray of brownies or do some extra dishes and call in a favor from one of your roomies.
It happened all the time, which made you incredibly thankful to have one people-pleaser in the apartment. Jayce was always willing to put aside whatever he was doing and help you out on your Arcane Studies homework or your Bioengineering project. Last semester, finals week consisted of the two of you sitting criss-cross applesauce on the rug of the living room, paper scattered all over the floor as you tried to decipher the grading scale of your Organic Chemistry class to see what the lowest grade on the test you could get was and still wind up with a passing grade (something Jayce had done plenty of times in his undergrad years).
Viktor, on the other hand, had gotten somewhat tired of your constant requests for him to backtrack and dive into knowledge he hadnât tapped for years now. He was never particularly rude about it, but you were very perceptive. When you asked him to repeat an explanation once or twice, you noticed the growing exhaustion on his face that bordered frustration and you stopped asking for his help going forward. It wasnât to his own fault, you could be pretty needy sometimes, so more often than not, you just asked Jayce.
Only, Jayce was out of town for a Hextech press conference this weekend, the weekend before you had your Arcane Studies midterm. In a heartbreaking display, he had apologized profusely for not being able to help, inches away from getting on his knees and begging for forgiveness. You assured him none of that was necessary, and that youâd just stay up studying in the library or even reach out to your TA (who youâd never even spoken to before in class or outside of it, and who you were certain would be less helpful than Jayce).
To remedy your situationâeven though you pinkie promised him you didnât need him toâhe took it upon himself to ask Viktor to help you cram study on Sunday night, the night before your midterm. While Jayce asked, you did your best to listen from your bedroom, the next room over. You heard some grumbling from Viktor and a muffled, yet compelling âSheâs our roommate and she bakes us nice thingsâ from Jayce.
Apparently that last bit must have been very rousing, because shortly after, Jayce was at your door telling you that Viktor agreed to a maximum of three hours of cramming that would begin no earlier than eight at night.
You worked for all of Saturdayâs daylight hours, and then finalized your experimental serum for your Advanced Biochemistry project. For the biochem class, youâd been studying methods of enhancing senses for the first half of the quarter and your midterm project involved making a serum that could temporarily improve the performance of one human sense. Around three weeks ago, you and your classmates drew topics from a hat and your fingers emerged with âarousalâ on a piece of paper. Needless to say, you were concerned. You thought the serum project would be fairly straightforward, and had already brainstormed ideas for vision enhancing serums or hearing aid serums, but arousal? You had to think out of the box for that one.
When you finished up your last touches to the serum, you were left with enough time at night to get ingredients to bake Viktor some muffins as a sign of your gratitude. You got enough stuff for twice as much as you wouldâve made for Jayce and actually stuck to the recipe this time. Keeping Viktor happy was a very delicate ecosystem and there could be no tampering.
It wasnât that he was a grump or even that he hated you, he was just too busy to want to help and too intelligent to want to backtrack. Once he had even looked at what you were studying and said, âIâd have to go too far back to help you.â That was inspiring.
You poured the contents of your tote bag on the counter.
On your better days, you and Viktor actually got along quite well. Those were the rare days when Viktor got more than three hours of sleep and ate a full meal before two pm. In his best conditions, the two of you were good friends.
The best days were when he and Jayce both come home early enough for you to make them a home cooked meal. Then youâd all curl up on the couch and watch a movie. The last time that happened, Jayce picked some superhero movie youâd never heard of and you and Viktor both fell asleep. You woke up the next morning asleep on Viktorâs chest with four blankets piled on top of you both. Jayce said he knew both of you ran cold, so he took the blankets from your beds. You and Viktor never talked about that night.
The exhaustion of your stressful Saturday had leaked into your studying Sunday, and in a tired stupor, you whisked together all the ingredients for the muffins and poured them haphazardly into the mold. They might not look pretty, but at least theyâd taste good.
You pulled the freshly baked muffins from the oven and rested them on the stovetop. The sweet aroma of warm blueberry filled the apartment. It must have roused Viktor from whatever he was working on in his room, because he emerged a full quarter of an hour earlier than your agreed upon study time.
âHey,â you said. âI made you some muffins as a thank you. Theyâre still hot, though, I wasnât expecting you for another fifteen minutes.â
âThatâs fine,â he said, setting himself at the kitchen table and sipping from a cup of coffee that had been there since Jayce was still in town. âWould you like to begin now?â
You grab all your study guides and homework assignments and your assortment of chicken scratch notes and slide them over to him on the table.
âAre your midterms cumulative?â He asked, finishing the remnants of his cold coffee.
âNo,â you answered. Thank God. If you had to remember everything that was in the last midterm youâd be losing your mind right about now. âEverything past Arcane History will be on the test.â
âMm. I see.â
He scans your notes for another five minutes.
âIâll quiz you,â he decided, standing up to check on the temperature of the cooling muffins on the stovetop.
âUh, okay.â You didnât typically study by being quizzed, especially when you hardly went to lecture and didnât even know most of the material. But you didnât want to risk arguing with Viktor and have him decide to take his muffin to-go.
âTell me why the Arcane can manifest in such unpredictable manners?â
âBecauseâŚâ you started to think that maybe going to your TA wasnât such a bad idea after all. Your TA was just a random graduate student. The roommate that was helping you study now was one of the inventors of Hextech, the researcher responsible for some of the greatest advancements in Piltoverâs modern understanding of the Arcane. â...it reflects the intentions of the user.â
âCorrect,â he says, affording you a rare Viktor smile. âWould you like a muffin?â
You had intended for the muffins to be entirely Viktorâs, but you hadnât eaten all day and gods, they smelled good. Plus, it was like a reward for getting an answer right.
âSure, thanks.â
You watch as Viktor plucks two muffins from the tin and comes back to seat himself at the table. He hands one to you and sorts through the papers youâve scattered on the desk as he brings a small chunk to his mouth. You do the same.
Something tastes slightly off, but you canât quite put your finger on it. Itâs possible the ratio is off, and in your tired state you added too little vanilla extract or too much vegetable oil. Regardless, theyâre not bad at all.
âYour notes are a little bit difficult toââ Viktor stops before finishing his sentence. He pulls out a sheet of paper from the pile and reads it, his eyes widening a bit as he does.
âWhat? Whatâs wrong?â
âThese notes are from your biochem class,â he says, his eyes flickering up to meet yours for just a few seconds over the piece of paper. âThis is an interesting assignmentâŚâ
âOh,â you feel your cheeks growing hot. âSorry, thatâs not supposed to be in there.â
You reach out to take the paper from him, but he pulls it back as you do. Heâs still reading it. Youâd really like him to stop reading about your own aphrodisiac serum, but your embarrassment is a bit unwarranted. After all, you didnât make the serum because you wanted it, you made it because it was a graded assignment. Nothing more. So what if you did eventually garner interest in the topic. So much interest, in fact, that you did extensive research into the properties your serum could afford and spent long hours in your lab experimenting with it. Shamefully, yes, you had tried some of it. Mainly to test its efficiency but also out of plain curiosity. You had determined that it was safe, most importantly, but youâd also learned that it tasted horrible. To counter that, youâd added someâ
âOh fuck!â You shout as you scoot your chair so far back so quickly that it topples over. You stumble over your bag on the floor as you sprint to the kitchen.
âIs something wrong?â Viktor asks from his seated position.
âDonât eat the muffin!â You exclaim as you run to the counter space next to the stove, your heart pounding.
You confirm your worst fear. The bottle of vanilla extract you picked up from the supermarket sits on the counter, the protective seal still intact. Your arousal serum, however, is halfway empty a few inches beside the extract.
You turn around slowly to face Viktor.
âItâs a bit late for that,â Viktor says, holding up the half of his muffin that remains. âDid something happen?â
You eye your own muffin on the table, half eaten as well.
âFuck, fuck, fuck,â you scrambled back toward the table where Viktor sat, the serum held tight by your hand. âYouâre not allergic to anything, are you?â
âNo,â Viktor says, eyeing you like youâre crazy.
Come on, just get it out already. You have to tell him, it would be morally bankrupt not to.
âI accidentally drugged you.â
Okay, maybe not like that.
Viktor just stared at you, his expression unchanged. You sort of just wished he would yell at you so that you could get the encounter over with, but no such luck. He just sat, unphased, until he picked up the notes he was looking at earlier.
âWith this?â He asks. Even his voice is still even. You knew that if the roles had been reversed you would be fracking out, absolutely bouncing off the walls.
âYes, but donât worry Iâve done lots of research on this serum,â you say, taking the notes from Viktor and looking them over. You read the list two or three times, scanning for any sort of antidote for ingestion. You saw none. âHow could I have not included an antidote?â You mutter, mentally beating yourself up.
âItâs okay,â Viktor said and you couldnât even bring yourself to look up at him from your notes. âIt is safe, yes? It wonât kill us?â
âNo, it wonât, but itâs a powerful aphrodisiac and I added half the serum to those muffins. If my math is right, youâre taking three times the recommended dosage.â
âBut I only ate half the muffin,â Viktor counters. Again, youâre shocked by how unphased he is.
âOkay, then one and a half times the dosage,â you shrug off his comment as you look for anything in your notes that might reveal a way to undo this mess.
âI assume this means you no longer wish to study?â Viktor says.
âHow are you so calm about this?â You finally burst out, slamming the paper down on the table to look at him.
Big mistake.
Once you see him, you become lightheaded and your knees buckle beneath you. You have to sit down to stop yourself from falling over.
âAre you alright?â Viktor asks.
âI-Iâm fine,â you shake your head in an attempt to get some blood flowing to your brain. No luck.
âSince youâre obviously worked up about this, why donât you tell me how it works and then we can go from there.â
âItâs a fast acting stimulant,â you say, burying your face in your hands. âThe chemistry is irrelevant since I have no goddamn cure for it, but it works the same as any other aphrodisiac. It makes you susceptible to arousal and heightens it by three times at a normal dosage, and in our case⌠nearly five times.â
âIntriguing,â he says, eyeing the muffin that lays neglected on the table. âSuch a strange class project. Arenât there moral quandaries to be had for such a substance?â
âYes of course there are, which is why I made it so that it only takes effect if thereâs already a degree of attraction in placeââ
You shouldnât have said anything. Especially not when youâre so clearly affected by it in the presence of Viktor. Way to sell yourself out.
âSo youâre sayingâŚâ
You groan out in frustration, but once you look at Viktor youâre reminded of why you had your face buried in your hands. Somehow every feature of his seems five times more beautiful than you normally regarded them. His perfectly angular nose, his narrowed amber eyes, his messy hair which fell in ways you could never recreate on paperâŚ
âI have a feeling you know exactly what Iâm saying.â You squeezed your eyes shut. If you couldnât see him, he couldnât torture you.
Or so you thought.
A tantalizing graze of his hand on yours shot shivers down your spine. You pulled away so fast that a few of the papers on the desk shifted from the shear force of the wind.
âDonât do that,â you seethed, sucked your teeth as you pressed your eyes shut so hard that you saw stars.
âBecauseâŚit affects you?â His voice was raspy and slow, or maybe thatâs just what the serum was making you hear. Every bit of what he was doing seemed five times as attractive as it would normally be.
Youâd done such a good job at hiding your feelings for Viktor for almost a year now. Being roommates with someone you found incredibly attractive was no easy task. And now all of your efforts were thrown out the window because of a stupid baking mishap.
âYouâre being cruel,â you furrow your eyebrows as you speak, your voice coming out whinier than you wouldâve liked.
âIâm sorry,â he stifles a laugh. âWould you open your eyes?â
âI canât,â you groan, shoving your hands against your face again. âItâs best if I just go to my room and wait it out. Thank you for trying to study with me but Iâm just gonna have to accept a shitty grade tomorrow.â
âYou donât have to do that,â he said, his fingers wrapping around your wrists and pulling them down from your face so that you had to look at him. âItâs been a long time since Iâve taken biochemistry, and I certainly havenât studied aphrodisiacs, but the effects should go away after the serum is put to use, correct?â
You thought back to your experimentation phase. All the nights you spent alone in your lab trying out the efficacy of the serum resulted in the effects dissipating once climax was reached. It had certainly been the least orthodox experimentation phase youâd ever undergone.
âYes, thatâs correct,â you say reluctantly. It takes every ounce of strength you have not to let your eyes explore Viktorâs face, then his long, narrow neck protruding his sweater, his Adamâs apple bobbing with a deep breath, then the sharp clavicle poking fromâ
Get yourself together.
âIf youâre willing to retake the classâa class you should easily pass, given your access to the two most prevalent scientists in the fieldâthen by all means, go to your room.â Viktor pulls his hands away from you, then picks up the muffin, peeling off the paper from the bottom. He picks off a piece and drops it onto his tongue.
âWhat are you doing? Youâre just going to make it worse!â
He smirks at you, then sets the muffin back down. âItâs a very good muffin. Youâre an excellent baker.â
Fuck.
âYouâre playing with me,â you shake your head in disbelief.
âNo, dearest, I am not playing with you,â he says, standing up from his chair, then moving toward you tantalizingly slow. He takes a seat on the table in front of you, then crosses his hands on his lap. âYouâre smart enough to recognize the alternative I am offering to you.â
Your heart stops. You look at his half eaten muffin, although more than half is gone now with the addition of that last bite.
âYouâŚâ The idea is almost impossible for you to grasp, let alone put into words. âYou want to expedite the process?â
âThatâs certainly one way of putting it,â Viktor laughs. He reaches for a strand of your distressed hair and pushes it behind your ear.
âBut youâre not even attracted to me!â
âWhat makes you think that?â Viktor says, retracting his hand, only to place it over yours on the desk.
âBecause if you were, youâd be much more affected right now. I mean, look at me!â You gesture to yourself with your free hand. âIâm a mess! Iâm on the brink of breaking out in a sweat and my hands are clammy and youâre just sitting there!â
Viktor laughs to himself as if heâs in on some kind of inside joke that you know nothing about.
âIâve had lots of practice in concealing my excitement around you,â he finally says, slowly, seductively, the words dripping from his chin as his cold eyes bore into you.
âWhat?â
You know what he said. In fact, you understand it perfectly, but you canât be sure it actually came from his mouth because it seems so perfectly unreal. So dream-like, so idealistic, so fantastical.
âYouâve done a good enough job at hiding your attraction, too,â Viktor says. âI wouldnât have known if it werenât for tonightâs incident. Which is exactly why Iâve felt the need to hide my own.â
âYouâve liked me?â
You still canât wrap your head around the idea.
âIâve admired you,â he smiles, rubbing circles on the back of your hand, reminding you just how potent your little sex serum really is.
In fact, itâs so powerful that you hardly have to put any thought into leaping up from your chair and pushing your lips against his. Before you can third guess his affection, his hands are interlaced with your hair, pushing you deeper into his lips as his tongue begs to be let into your needy mouth.
Now it was clear to see how much the serum had actually affected him. In mere seconds, his hands grabbed at your thighs and pulled you up onto the table to straddle him with strength you didnât even know he possessed. His breathy little moans sent you further into madness and you yanked his sweater off of his head, forcing your mouth off of his for just a few seconds, but once that sweater was off, your lips clung together like magnets.
Deft fingers unbuttoned your long sleeve shirt and he pulled it off your arms so quickly that you worried for a second that he might have ripped it. But you didn't care. You couldnât possibly be concerned with a silly shirt when Viktor was beneath you on the kitchen table like a meal.
The serum didnât exactly allow either of your minds to comprehend much foreplay. You fiddled with Viktorâs belt and he pushed your skirt up to your waist. Once both of you were exposed, he didnât waste any time positioning you above his cock.
âSo wet for me,â Viktor whined against your bare chest. âIs that the serumâs doing or is it mine?â
âYours,â you whimper as Viktor slides his tip beneath your folds. âIf it were anyone else in the room with me when I took the serum, Iâd be unaffected.â
âIâm flattered,â he smiles cruelly as he thrusts up into you.
âOh fuck,â you whine as your rest your heavy head on Viktorâs shoulder.
He brings his hands to your waist and guides you up and down as his hips meet your core in long, languid thrusts. The serum sets every single nerve on fire, making it seem as if each of his thrusts has the impact of twenty.
You moan muffled strangulations of his name into his neck, which only urges him to persist with his cruel thrusts. The sound of your cunt being abused fills the kitchen and youâre wildly thankful that Jayce is out of town.
âIâve wanted this for so long,â Viktor pants. âYou have no idea.â
You really did have no idea. He hid it so well. You silently thanked whatever force had caused you to accidentally throw the serum into the muffin mix.
âSo have I,â you whined against his skin. âFuckâŚdonât stopâŚâ
Each thrust is punctuated by the creaks of the sturdy kitchen table below you. His motions become quicker, shakier, and more intense and you can tell heâs reaching the end along with you. Your legs begin to shake and you feel that familiar tickling sensation in your core that the serum does a beautiful job at emulating.
âViktor, Iâm close, Iâm so fucking close,â you moan as you lift your head from the crook of his neck. You bring your lips to his and he delivers his final thrusts. As he fills you, your moans echo on each otherâs lips, a feeling you never thought youâd experience with your own brilliant roommate.
Your breathing steadies and Viktor wraps his arms around you, bringing you close to him as he tries to collect himself as well.
âYouâŚâ Viktor pants, âare forbidden from using that kitchen ever again.â
You laugh as you bring yourself off of him, pressing a kiss to his lips as you collect yourself. âThat sounds fair to me.â
I love smut and everything but where is the angst that makes me wanna cry and die at the same time
Okay but sitting beside Viktor while heâs working, and heâs casually resting one hand flat on the counter as he ponders his next move. Youâve mostly just been listening to him for the past thirty minutes, nodding your head, and justâŚlistening. Watching. Following the movement of his hands as he works. You do that a lot, but you try not to let yourself think about that. Itâs for work, after allâyouâre kind of supposed to be watching his hands.
Youâre justâŚalso supposed to be paying attention to why theyâre doing what theyâre doing, and instead, youâre just watching them because you really, really like his hands.
So itâs kind of a long thing coming when something inside you snaps away at your restraint. Maybe itâs the late night. Maybe itâs the lack of sleep from the night prior. Maybe itâs the fact that heâs lowered his voice and spent those last thirty minutes murmuring. Youâre closer than Viktor normally gets with people, and youâre already trying really hard not to notice that. Then he has to go and start murmuring. It wouldâve put you to sleep if it wasnât so enthralling.
Youâre staring at the small scars left in his hand while he fiddles over with his collection of wrenches. His fingers twitch. A scar catches the light. A bit of oil and ink stains are littered across his fingers and the back of his hand. His nails are a little dirty but surprisingly well-kept. And a slight indentation sits on his middle finger from where he was holding a section in place for minutes at a time while he went through and explained every important detail you should know.
Like an awful apprentice, you still arenât listening. Not then. Not now, as he tilts his head and says something that just goes in one ear and out the other, the low tingling of the quiet sound of his voice remaining behind.
Itâs when he shifts and his hand slides a little closer to you when suddenly you justâŚyou get the urge to feel it. To feel him. Youâve seen him hold countless objects; seen him twist and balance and use tools and pencils and every thick and thin, heavy and light object under the sun. And each time, you feel your stomach flutter as those long fingers work deftly.
You can hear his excited smile in his voice as he aims to point something important out to you. ButâŚ.
You just really need to know what his hand feels like.
In yours.
Right then.
And the sleep deprivationâwhich is what youâre officially blaming it onâgets to you. You just reach over and turn Viktorâs hand over.
The rough palm goes up, Viktor says your name all soft and confused, and then youâre a second behind in your head as you trail your fingers over his palm. You feel the thick skin, the scars, the callouses. And then your fingers intertwine with his.
Thatâs when it hits you. And you blink down as where Viktorâs hand hesitantly closes around yours, his fingers a light grasp. AndâŚyouâre holding his hand. For some insane reason, you just reached out and held his hand.
You flick your eyes up frantically, already starting to pull your hand away.
Until you see the pink.
It dusts his cheeks. The tops of his ears. A little down his neck. And he doesnât look at youâthose bright eyes half-lidded with a sudden sleepiness are on your hands. On yours. And his fingers twitch as he clears his throat and continues his sentence with a few stuttered words.
But after a few pauses and word choice adjustments, heâs back to talking about what heâs tinkering with.
His handâs still in yours.
You scoot just a little closer under the guise of listening to him, of focusing. But when your heartâs a drum in your ears and you can feel the slight nervous warmth growing between your handsâand see just how well they fit togetherâitâs impossible to even pretend to remember what Viktorâs saying.
His cheeks and ears stay pink for the rest of your time in the lab.
And your hands only part when he needs his to show you something.
But when heâs done? It slots right back into place with yours.
And it stays like that until you part ways at the end of the night without a word said about it.
It happens again the next time youâre working together. And it continues even more frequently after that.
found family; with sae itoshi
imagine volunteering at japan's u20 working a small job but unintentionally becoming friends with SAE ITOSHI... no, not having the usual equal respect and companionship, or expectant friends to lovers. you're the same age as his little brother, so he oddly treats you like a little sister. the weird thing? he's so nonchalant about it.
"excuse me, but they're confirming if you wanted a red or white zip up again..." twiddling with your fingers softly before pointing to your pushy bosses, you seem to be making good friends with the floor while speaking to a famous, pro-league, good-looking but mean soccer player (sae itoshi). your classmates were all practically screaming at how lucky you were to secure volunteer service in professional sports, in professional soccer. i mean, the card collecter boys in your class were practically feining, asking you for autographs and other stupid favours. maybe you could ask for a picture, yeahâyou were definitely going to ask sae itoshi for a picture, but that thought was soon dispersed at the man's dismisive tone. "white is fine," the midfielder curtly replies, with a straight face and one hand planted on the side of his hip. "how old are you?" he looks down at you with the world's most unreadable gaze and ridiculously long lower lashes, "sixteen." you reply, finally facing him. "oh," sae dryly responds, that bored look in his eyes in never, "you're about the same age as my little brother."
oh!
"[name], come here." sae itoshi murmurs, laying flat on the floor in the middle of the training center, you look around the empty facility at five in the morning, confirming if he was even POSSIBLY speaking to you again. "yeah?" he tuts on the floor, lifting a muscled leg in your field of vision, "i need help stretching, pull on my leg."
your eyes scan hesitantly over the dangling cleat, before your hands lock around his ankle, attempting to pull and soothe his strange stretching, though definitely failing. why was the midfielder so heavy? he wasn't even trying to make this easier by at least slightly lifting himself. "you're bad at this, not even lukewarm." he'd say, though his tone didn't show any real frustation or intended offense. instead, cerulean eyes blow open when you pull a little too hard and hear something crack that most likely wasn't supposed to.
on other days, he'd pat your head and buy you a popsicle, two for the price of one was a better deal, anyway.
and on the day of japan's u20 verus blue lock's eleven, when RIN ITOSHI's piercing gaze catches the melting popsicle clutched in your hand and sae handing you a napkin, he freezes. his gaze softens in a way that doesn't melt away at the icy chambers of his heart, but instead softens and melts it wholly intead. that day, you were genuinely bewildered and confused that blue lock's number one gave you more dirty looks that day than any actual player on the field.
"your brother is scary," you mutter, causing the taller midfielder beside you perk up in interest. "he kept giving me death glares." sae rolls his eyes at the thought, "maybe he likes you, i dunno. he's in his rebillious phase." it truly made you, at your adolescent age, realise that sae itoshi's head was entirely hollow when not thinking about football. buuut, he buys you ice cream, so who really cares?
His face card is so lethal you could inject it into my veins
Being bi and watching Arcane is a fucking TREAT ITS A SNACK ITS EVERYTHING
Yâall I donât ship JayVik cause I want Viktor đââď¸