"Our paths diverged, Jayce," Viktor says, about to continue on that train of morose thought, but then... Jayce grabs him by the waist to hold close. A short gasp would escape Viktor, but there's no air in his... lungs?

Does he still have lungs? His body is so different. He was so used to... feeling the aches and pains in so much of him. Lungs, back, hip, down his leg. Now he feels so little. So little, save for Jayce's touch and warmth against him. That's a sensation he cannot deny. It sends sparks through him, makes his body whir like some overworked machine.

The arm not hold his crutch snakes upward between their bodies, loops over Jayce's shoulder on his uninjured side, and cradles the back of the man's hair. Viktor should have held Jayce more often, when things were not so dire? Why hadn't he..? To avoid complications? To not break the man's heart in an even more complex and difficult way when Viktor died?

So much for keeping things clean and simple.

"... so much sunk cost," he mutters, not wanting to sink Jayce, all they build, all their dreams, but... there's no other way, is there? Viktor can see all the ruin they've caused, but he cannot see the fallacy in continuing. All he knows is he doesn't want to lose Jayce, too. He would rather lose himself, than that.

"We need to leave this place, walk a new path." Perhaps it can be one together, if Jayce will come with him? Viktor's hands falls away from the back of Jayce's hair, fingers pulling forward and resting his palm flat to Jayce's heart. His racing heart. No wonder he's so warm.

"There is no explaining, nor justifying, what we've done here." What he did to Sky or what Jayce did to him. Nobody will understand. Nobody should.