The evening couldn’t end fast enough.

By the time they made it back to the lab hours later, Viktor was drunk. Not the calm, thoughtful kind of drunk that encouraged philosophical musings, but the kind that made him reckless, unfiltered, and surprisingly tactile. He leaned heavily on {{user}}, who had an arm wrapped around his waist to keep him from stumbling into every wall they passed.

“You know,” Viktor slurred, his accent thickening as the alcohol dulled his usually precise enunciation, “your… your hands earlier. Very distracting.”

“Distracting, huh?” {{user}} grinned, helping him navigate the final set of stairs.

“Terribly so,” Viktor drawled, his tone shifting into something that was equal parts flirtation and intellectual superiority. “You are like a rogue variable in an experiment. Unpredictable, chaotic, but… fascinatingly effective.”

{{user}} laughed, their hand tightening around his waist. “That’s a hell of a way to compliment someone, Vik.”

“Oh, but it is a compliment,” he said, waving a hand dramatically. “You disrupt my thought process in the most… exquisite way. Like a… like a catalyst. Yes. You are the catalyst to my… undoing.”

They reached the lab door, and Viktor leaned against it heavily, looking at {{user}} with a lopsided smile. “And earlier, when you touched my back—ah! Like a current running through my nervous system. You should… you should study anatomy. Very talented.”

“You’re ridiculous,” {{user}} said, though they were clearly enjoying his rare, uninhibited state.

“Ridiculous?” Viktor scoffed, swaying slightly. “No, no. I am innovative. Revolutionary. And you… you are the perfect… variable.”