Chapter Text
Time
Ekko rolled his neck side to side to relieve the soreness in his shoulders from sleeping in an awkward position. The faint pain against his temple from Jinx’s boot was also an additional throb from last night’s events. He counted the days until he could go back to Jinx, but with being gone for so long, came a negligence to the community who had suffered without his decision making. Scar helped make strategic plans and was great in missions. However, he admitted to lacking in providing assistance for simple requests of aid when it came to the Firelight’s community garden, development of more houses for the people who were displaced, an ongoing list of things to build and tinker, and so on. When it came down to the fourth day of being away, he had a gut feeling that he had to go back no matter what.
Give her a couple days, and she’s back to jagged edges hidden under doe eyes and a honeyed tone.
Having a heart-to-heart didn’t erase the past between them. He knew that. Last time they saw each other before he ambushed her in her own hideout was at the bridge, and that wasn’t exactly leaving off on a good note. Still, Ekko was nothing if not persistent. For Jinx, he’d make time to mend their relationship.
Even if it took the same amount of time it took for him to forsake it.
And so, he did. He waited all day for Jinx in her own hideout. Barely constraining himself from going through her personal journals. She had a lot. Some labeled for poems, doodles and weapon ideas. Who knew that even the most chaotic persona he knew also organized their thoughts into journals and labeled them. He did help himself to adding onto her blueprint for her finger prosthetic. A finger was a first for him, but he had helped refugees in the past who lost their limbs to the cruelty of the Undercity. The mechanics inside needed a steady hand, especially for something so small, and it helped take him back to when he used to fix simple things like clocks.
That was a while ago though.
It didn’t hurt him any less when he recalled the past but instead, he looked past it. His last memory of Benzo, smiling and hugging him back, overshadowed everything else.
Ekko didn’t weld the pieces together, however. He wasn’t too sure how she’d take it. He can easily see Jinx getting offended or think that he didn’t see her capable of doing it herself.
He wiped at the side of his head still feeling the faint throb now and then. Waking up to a boot against his face had him immediately bracing against the couch on his knees with a hand on his z-drive. He thought the worst. She had come back. She was attacking him. He was too late-
She had been sleeping. Rolled onto her stomach with her leg stretched out. He had blinked. Once. Twice. Eyes restless as he took in the image before him. He had never seen her so. . . innocent looking. Not since she was Powder. She looked younger. Frown smoothed out and lips slackened. Her long braids crossed over her body with the ends touching the floor. He dared to lift one, feeling the strands between his fingers and wondering again why she kept it so long.
Isha had then grabbed his attention, asking him to help her with her reading lessons. The whiteboard in her hand was enough for him to know that Jinx was probably no help in this department. She had more patience teaching the kid how to tinker and build bombs than the kid’s fundamental education with writing and reading.
Even now, she was instructing the kid on how to properly arm the bombs hanging from the ceiling. The wire trap on the door that would trigger the timer to make the five bombs explode in unison, staining enforcers in pink and blue.
“You have to make sure the tension is properly placed, then you clip it here, so that it doesn’t trigger when we’re in here.” Jinx gave an awkward giggle as she admitted, “I accidentally triggered a few like this myself. It’s a learning curve, but, uh, don’t do this unless I’m here, kay?”
Isha showed the same amount of eagerness as when Ekko showed her how to spell her name in writing. She nodded along, deep in concentration with Jinx right behind her, guiding her throughout the process.
Ekko finished tagging his hourglass symbol next to ‘Jinx was here.’
“Almost done?” He called back.
“Mmhm.” Her voice sounded distorted. He turned to see that she had on the air filter masks from one of the unconscious enforcers tied up in their chairs. They were all tagged up in spray paint with evil grins on their faces, green and pink around their eyes and devil horns along their forehead.
Jinx made an exaggerated inhale through the mask. “We still need to make a last stop to the Chem Sisters.”
He shook his head. “Remind me who the Chem Sisters are again?”
She bent over the radio transmitter that beeped to let them know it was working.
His jacket was three times her size, slipping from her shoulders as she bunched up the sleeves. She tweaked a button from the thousand of buttons along the equipment, almost impulsively. More likely wondering what it does than actually knowing what she was doing. It could be a button to an alarm but she’d still turn it on like a kid who couldn’t help themselves.
The last of the bombs hung above them like how she hangs her string lights along the propellers of her hide out. The jacket no longer had weight in the interior, yet she still had it wrapped around her like the exotic fur coats he’s seen Piltie’s wear for balls during his mission recons. She looked smaller as if the jacket was consuming her.
He realized he was staring and immediately looked away, feeling guilty. Although he couldn’t really pinpoint why.
Static sounded through and she turned off the button. The transmitter she put in was a decoy for today. It was meant to play a song. Although he didn’t know what specifically. The Topsiders would think that’d be the end of it, not knowing that the song would filter through during curfew hours again tomorrow evening from Sevica’s transmitter.
Her head whirled to give him a look, almost delayed in her response. “What?” She snorted. “You don’t know who the Chem Sisters are? You live under a rock or something? They used to play at the Last Drop all the time. Throw grand ol’ parties!”
He deadpanned. “Uh, Firelight Leader here. Going to the Last Drop was like a death wish.”
She blinked and gave a shrug as if to say, not my problem. “That’s what you get playing hero all the time.” She posed hands on her hips as she pretended to march about. Her words sounded silly and distorted through the mask. “Oh look at me, oh so serious. No fun.” She relaxed her arms, took off her mask and gave an exaggerated turn to him to imitate his deadpan. She threw the mask behind her and it hit an enforcer in the face dead on.
Isha giggled as she looked at the two of them, half way through spray painting devil horns on one of the enforcer’s receding hairline. The enforcer’s cheek was blown red and steadily swelling from the punch Ekko gave him. It knocked the enforcer out cold.
It was on the tip of his tongue but he almost wanted to say how much her swagger was reminiscent of her sister. He stopped his playful reply, however, conscious of not knowing how she’d take it or not. He awkwardly reached to rub the back of his neck. Especially since the last thing he recalled was Jinx not taking too kindly to knowing Vi was alive and working with a Piltie. It was at the bridge. A can of worms that Jinx also wanted to avoid talking about.
He didn’t take too kindly to Vi’s decision either to be honest. Not after hearing the curfew announcements and realizing that the decree from a certain Sheriff Kiramman must have been none other than Vi’s cupcake . The same woman who admitted the wrongdoings against the Undercity and yet continues the cycle of violence against his people. Hunting them like animals until she could get her hands on Jinx.
Jinx tilted her head and shuffled a bit closer, searching the expanse of his face when he didn’t say anything. “Hey,” her voice went quiet, slowly bringing him out of his somber thoughts. “Where were you just now?”
His gaze widened. “Um, no, just,” he sighed. “You’re right.” She scrunched her nose, brow furrowing and lips lifting in amusement as he stumbled over his words. She snickered and pointed at him as if he was the punchline of a joke she only knew about.
“It’s okay to let loose, Ekko.” She stretched her arms up and gave a twirl toward Isha, who raised her arms up right as Jinx bent to pick her up. The sight warmed something in his chest. His lips began to lift right as she asked, “When was the last time you even danced?”
He felt his smile fade. The moment passed. His restless eyes looked anywhere but her. “Um, not any time recent.” It wasn’t a lie, but it was definitely not the entire truth. She tilted her head, immediately catching him on it.
She turned to Isha to whisper in her ear as she side eyed Ekko, hand covering her mouth as she did so. “What do you think, Isha?” She said none too secret. “Should we change that?”
Isha gave a firm nod.
He shook his head. He couldn’t help the smile forming on his lips as he gestured for her to follow him. Their work here was done and they were already lingering longer than they should be.
He reached over the table against the wall and opened the window that had Isha’s jagged writing in spray paint that said, ‘’Bye, bye!’
“After you.” He looked back to see that Jinx was already stepping on one of the enforcer’s lap and onto the table.
“Why thank you kind sir,” Jinx said in an overly obnoxious Piltover accent. He couldn’t help but laugh as he followed after her. He made sure to close the window shut so that the faint pink glow illuminating from the ‘eyes’ of the bombs didn’t show through the one-way glass window, reflecting the glow of the spotlights below like mirrors.
He didn’t know how Jinx found this place. From the outside looking in, the place looked completely inconspicuous. She must have scouted the place before, or she always must have known they had a secretive base here tapping into the Undercity’s communications.
The trio had placed bombs throughout alleyways and routes between checkpoints that the enforcers would usually take during curfew. Jinx was meticulous about where she set them. Mostly using Ekko as the muscle to knock out stray enforcers or to act like the coat hanger to hold her bombs, gesturing for him to pass her another one when she was finished setting the one she had.
During their misfit adventure, however, he couldn’t help but find a new admiration for her boldness. She definitely knew what she was doing even though her mannerisms and laid back attitude made it seem like she was just coming up with the plan as they went along.
Jinx was crouched down with Isha still in her arms as she slid down the roof top a little before leaping toward another rooftop below. They were right above a checkpoint that crossed to the upper levels of Zaun, so they moved swiftly across, tagging rooftops with arrows pointing everywhere along with tips to give enforcers the run around.
Here!
No, here!
Haha, just playin’
HERE!
They were laughing by the end, tagging an alleyway that was in the opposite direction of where they were going. He made sure Isha was in his sights, urging her to stay close before going back to focusing on the wall decorated with their art.
Ekko hadn’t felt so laid back since. . . since the dance.
His heart stuttered at the realization. He looked to Jinx, who was fixated on spray painting her portrait reminiscent of the doodles he’s seen in both Jinx’s open journals and Powder’s. The corner of her plum tinted lips curled up into a playful smirk, eyes wide with childish eagerness as she stood on her tiptoes to add, ‘Get Jinxed.’ Her braids swayed with her movements as if they had a mind of its own. When she was finished, her eyes searched for him and like a magnet, he was pulled into her deep magenta gaze almost dull in color compared to the shimmer pink she somehow found the ability to activate. They were so much closer to the powder blue he remembered even in the darkness of the alleyway they stood in.
She didn’t blink. Only searched the expanse of his face as if expecting him to say something. Something. He swallowed, but before he could say what crossed through his mind in that moment, she stepped into his space, blinking up at him with a small smile. He barely computed how much shorter she was than the other Powder, who he didn’t have to bend his head slightly down for.
He felt something in his chest constrict. It almost felt unfair, knowing how unhealthy Jinx looked in comparison to a happier her; a happier her from another timeline. Even without the knowledge, it looked obvious to him although he never saw it, or never cared enough to. The sickly paleness of her skin tone, the dark bags under her eyes, the faint veins that crept from her lids down to her high cheekbones that lacked the usual rosy hue, and the shimmer in her gaze. She looked almost ghostly, fragile, as if she would fade from sight if he looked away for even a second. Still, even in the dull darkness of the alleyway, there was something radiant about her that almost looked as if it belonged from another realm.
He tensed when he realized that she had pulled the green spray paint can from his hand and traded it with her pink one. She took her time, brushing her thumb over his calloused fingertips. Her own hand cradling his larger one as if she was barely registering something about him too. Then she crouched and in smaller font size compared to the tag of herself, she put ‘Tuff Tuff was here.‘ It took a couple shakes to get the last of the paint out.
She giggled as if sharing a secret before unceremoniously dropping the can. It rolled to his feet.
“You. . . remember?” He wondered aloud, rubbing the back of his head. It was. Kind of a secret that only his family knew. A secret because most of his initially found family were long dead. It was a nickname dedicated to his birth name that his ma and pa gave him. It only came about from the original trio made up of Claggor, Mylo and Vi, who affectionately teased Powder and him.
She watched as droplets of paint that gathered at the ends began to drip down to the floor of the alleyway. She stayed in a low squat before hugging her knees. “Vaguely.” They stayed in silence for a moment and Ekko joined her, hands hanging over his knees in a relaxed position before reaching for a braid to lift it off the soiled floor of the alleyway. She turned her head, leaning it against her knees as she watched him. “I know it’s stupid to keep them. They get in the way more than I can count but back then, I felt like,” she paused to try to find the words. Her gaze held his. He stayed quiet as he observed her. “If I cut them, I’d forget. The good even though it’s mixed in with a lot of bad.”
He looked at the part of her braid cradled in his hand. “You haven’t cut it since-”
“No,” she whispered. He traced his fingers over the overlaid parts before caressing the metal casing of a bullet that she pulled her hair through. The vulnerability in her voice almost made him do something he’d regret like hugging her, knowing that the act itself without warning would probably trigger her fight instinct. He knew it did for him when she hugged him so suddenly all those days ago. “Maybe it was an act of rebellion. He wanted me to forget it all but I still wanted to hold on. To what? I didn’t know. Not at the time.”
He swallowed. She must be referring to Silco. His grip tightened slightly on her braid as he fought back the old resentment of the past, finding the courage to meet her gaze that was already staring intently at him. It was almost as if she was waiting for a reaction, waiting for a sign for her to draw back and lock herself away in a place he could never reach. The tension escaped him as he continued to stroke the casing of the bullet in her hair.
“I thought there was no good version of me,” she breathed out, watching his hand movements. “But Isha. . . and then you make me wish for it. Change.” He melted at her vulnerability. It was a sort of bravery that didn’t require guns, bombs, or wicked smiles that put up a front, but he understood all the same. How much scarier it felt to open up and let oneself be seen.
She tightened her grip on her knees. “I know it’s dumb-”
“It’s not dumb,” he felt breathless when her pupils dilated at his interruption, overtaking the deep magenta turned purple in her hues.
Her lashes fluttered a bit and her cheeks lifted as she gave a shy sort of smile. “You didn't even know what I was ‘bout to say.”
“But I know that whatever you’ll say isn’t dumb.”
They stayed like that for a moment, like opposite sides of magnets drawn to each other, as if time itself has stopped. Here. Now. It felt like it was just them and nothing else mattered except for the fragile honesty in the air shared between them.
“Maybe it was this that I was holding on to. Our friendship from when we were kids. All of the memories I have with Tuff Tuff are untainted from them, from all the guilt and pain,” her voice broke and her eyes began to glisten. “From wanting to die because of it.”
It hurt to hear her refer to him as if they weren’t the same. Maybe they weren’t. The Tuff Tuff she knew would have never done what he did at the bridge. The Pow Pow he knew would’ve never killed his firelight friends. Eve. He tried to swallow down the lump in his throat, but his voice cracked as he whispered, “We’re still here, Jinx. Different, maybe, but you are you and I'm, me. The past doesn't make us incapable of friendship, of love, of change. We can make more memories and it doesn’t have to end with tonight. Then, maybe one day you can feel comfortable cutting your hair, cutting out all the bad memories it holds until all there’s left is good.”
She sniffed and then smiled despite a stray tear escaping from the corner of her eyes. “I think I’d like that.”
“Tuff Tuff coming in to save the day for Pow Pow yet again,” Mylo would sigh out every time Ekko would take the blame after a misfit venture gone wrong when it was just him and her.
He didn’t know why the memory came to the forefront of his mind. Maybe it was the way Jinx looked at him like she did when they were kids. Relieved. Maybe it was the way she held herself with her arms around her knees. As if searching for comfort that she couldn’t find anywhere else when blaming eyes searched the room for her after a mission gone wrong. Maybe because in a sense, Mylo was right. For Jinx, for her smile, for her openness, for everything that transpired between them in this moment, he would do anything for her.
He felt a small hand against his bicep. He turned to see Isha who had come around his side to also touch Jinx’s hair in his hand. Her head tilted before she looked to Ekko and then Jinx. Jinx was already wiping at her eye, smearing her dark eyeshadow in the process.
Isha immediately ran into Jinx’s waiting arms and embraced her. Jinx let out a laugh before placing a hand on Isha’s helmet to prevent it from falling before scrunching her nose at her. Isha copied her action and smiled before signing, better?
“Yeah, thanks kid.”
He smiled at the display of affection before he looked up to see where the sun was. He cleared his throat as he stood. Jinx followed his movements. “We should head out soon.” He pulled his hoverboard from the harness on his back. “It’ll be faster on this.”
“Oh!” She was right by his side. “I’ve always wanted to ride one of these things.”
He knelt down and subconsciously put a hand out to protect Isha from getting close as he activated the board.
He turned to see Isha staring at him, not the hoverboard. Her eyes were wide, mesmerized. He couldn’t help but smile at the admiration in her gaze. Kids were always expressive and he was used to seeing this type of awe at the Firelight hideout. But something about Isha’s expression felt more special. She was a tough kid, who didn’t open up easily. Her opening up to him could only mean that whatever he was doing was working.
He smiled, warmly. “Come on, little rebel.” He prompted Isha to crawl on his back and she did, locking her arms around his neck. He heaved her up higher and stood up to already see Jinx on the hoverboard. She was testing the mechanics, braids swishing side to side as she went around in a circle with Isha and him at the center. “Ugh! How do you get it to go forward,” she grumbled. She leaned forward as if distributing her weight evenly across the board would make it do what she wants.
He laughed. “Hold on a minute, don’t leave without us.”
“Mm!” Isha agreed, her chin hitting his shoulder as she nodded. He reached up to prevent her helmet from falling before kicking the side panel to have the board extend for a passenger. His habitual routine almost had Jinx falling on her ass.
He cursed. She yelped, hands flinging back. He leapt forward to catch her, but she adjusted her step on the board, catching herself before she did so. She was like a cat with those reflexes-
“Sorry!” He mumbled when she passed him a side eye although a smile was already forming on her lips.
“Hop on.” She gestured for him to get behind her.
He laughed almost in admiration at her audacity. “Jinx,” he breathed out even though he was already getting behind her. It was only to prove his point further. It took an expert to handle added weight across the board, which was why the steerer was behind the passenger, not in front. “How the heck do you plan to steer this thing for the first time with precious cargo from the front ?”
He’d let her be in the front if they were doing a straight shot but with all the maneuvering they had to do, it’d be pretty hard if she wanted to steer. No way she’d figure it out on the first try. Maybe the second or third but that was beside the point. He adjusted his stance behind her and corrected her harsh movements with fluid ones of his own by leaning opposite of where she was.
She leaned forward. Too forward. “I got this.” It was a bad habit. He’d have to correct it next time they hung out. Maybe he can offer the hoverboard for practice time to broker peace if she gets wary of him again. She tested out the mechanics and he followed her movements, still not touching her since they weren’t going fast. She was kind of getting the hang of it but still, time was ticking. He resisted the urge to grab his old stopwatch ticking in his pocket.
She sighed. He waited patiently. “Steer me then,” she mumbled.
“Sure you don’t want to give it a couple more go’s?” He asked sarcastically. His fingers twitched at his side, hesitation creeping in when he realized that he had to touch her in order to do the steering. Heat was already creeping up the back of his neck. Isha pressed her cheek against his neck as if seeking the warmth.
Ekko definitely heard her. She definitely gave him permission, right? But still-
“Just steer me.” She twisted a bit to grab his hand and place it on her waist. “But now you’re definitely showing me the ropes later.” She moved to grab his other hand to place it on her shoulder. He smirked. It almost felt like they were kids again and he won some unspoken game.
She looked back at him and raised a brow. “Don’t gloat too much. I’ll have you eating dust in no time.” She turned back around, hand grabbing his wrist that was touching the side of her bare midriff and completely halting whatever sarcastic reply he was going to shoot by.
Right.
“Cat got your tongue?” Her head turned as if to look back at him.
His grip tightened as he steered the hoverboard to move straight. She gasped, her own hand tightening on his wrist for balance.
“Dream on,” he bit out.
She laughed in the open air of the empty alleyway. More distracted with flying a hoverboard than looking back to Ekko, who was hoping that the flush on his cheeks and neck weren’t as noticeable as the warmth that Isha kept cuddling into.