Is It Really You? (1)
Pairing: Jayce Talis/Viktor Rating: Explicit Summary: Eight years ago, Jayce graduated with his undergrad degree with his best friend at his side and his future unraveling wildly before him. Eight years ago, his best friend left without more than a goodbye that shattered Jayce's heart. Eight years later, Viktor comes back.
Jayce is never, ever letting Cait talk him into a blind date again.
He can still hear her winning argument like it was yesterday:
‘It's been eight years, Jayce! You need to get back out there, or at the very least get something—preferably before you explode.’
Okay, so it was yesterday, and it has been eight years, but he's been busy, okay? And so what if it's been eight years since he and Mel broke up? So what if he took the break up a little hard and threw himself into his undergraduate and graduate studies and then even harder into work while pursuing his PhD? So what if all of that was spurred on by his college-roommate-turned-bestfriend—and maybe the only person to ever get him—leaving the day after they graduated from university with nothing more than a quiet ‘goodbye, Jayce’ that tore his heart from his chest?
He's been fine. Peachy, even!
He has a job that he loves, friends who support him (even if said support is forcing him on blind dates), and a mother who drags him out of his house every Sunday for brunch or dinner depending on his availability. His life is perfect in pretty much every way, or seems like it is until the gaping hole in his chest shaped suspiciously like Viktor decides to ache whenever he sees a mated couple walking down the street, hand in hand with their marks on display.
A mark that he had thought he'd exchange with Mel, since that seemed like the natural course of the relationship up until Viktor left and Jayce had all but gone catatonic with grief over losing him.
She'd broken up with him as gently as she could, but had only made things worse by helping him realize that the crushing, chest-sucking wound of Viktor's absence wasn't because he was missing his best friend, but because he had been quietly, deeply in love with him and somehow never realized that aching for one's best friend wasn't normal.
How Mel had stayed with him as long as she did, he'll never know.
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