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eeelectricsoul · 7 months ago

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The Ticking Timebomb

A/N: I’ve been wanting to write this since I finished season 2 and just got the time. I wrote this to fill in the emotional gaps in their story from the show. Ekko and Jinx’s relationship is complex, and I wanted to explore the moments that were left unsaid, Ekko’s desperation to save her, and the pain of knowing things can never go back to the way they were.

This is my version of the part the show left out. I hope you enjoy reading!

Art by @Neonzitos

Ekko watches Jinx, the bomb clutched in her hand, the ticking sound mingling with the fast beat of his heart. She’s covered in paint, dry tears on her face, a chaotic mix of destruction and sorrow. He knows she’s ready to pull the detonator, to end it all, but he isn’t.

Not like this.

He activates his device, and everything freezes. The seconds stretch into eternity, before he rewinds. The world shifts back, the sound of the bomb ticking.

“Wait,” Ekko’s voice cracks as he steps forward. His heart races. “I just want to talk.”

Jinx glances over her shoulder at hm. “Get out of here, Ekko.”

“I just…”

She pulls the detonator again. The loud thundering blast, and ground shaking rumble threatens to drown him, but he rewinds again, gritting his teeth as time warps backward.

Sound is quick to fade this time, dissipating into nothingness. Ekko takes a step closer, though his body aches, his pulse quickening with each passing second. “I just want to talk to you, Powder.” His breath catches in his throat, and he changes the name. “Jinx.”

This isn’t Powder anymore.

It’s a bitter truth that neither of them can deny. Things have changed. But he came back for her, Jinx. Not Powder. He’s not going to lose her again. Even if things are different. Even if she’s not the same, he’s not giving up on her.

The device in Jinx’s hand blinks, and before Ekko can say anything more, she pulls the detonator again.

The explosion doesn’t happen. Not yet. Not as he activates his device once more, rewinding time by another four seconds. Ekko gasps for air. His strength is fading.

“You’re too late, Ekko,” Jinx mutters.

Her eyes are hollow. So hollow.

Wait!” Ekko shouts as his heart breaks.

But she pulls it again. The same deadly motion. The same intent.

He can’t let her go. Not like this. Not after everything. He can’t give up on her. Not again.

He triggers the device again. The world shifts. His body is growing weaker with each pass, and the memory of her, the girl she used to be, flickers in his mind.

“Always a dance with you,” he murmurs, his chest tight. His voice cracks with exhaustion and for a moment, his mind drifts to another place, another time. The alternate universe. The dance they shared. In his memory, it’s Powder, but before him stands Jinx. The woman she’s become.

His Jinx.

She glances at him, her eyes meeting his for just a second. And in that moment, there’s a glint of the connection they once had. It’s fleeting, but it’s there. He’s gasping now, struggling to catch his breath, his legs threatening to give way beneath him.

“I’m just… gonna sit down for a minute,” he says, forcing a chuckle through the pain. “See if I can talk an old friend out of blowing us up.”

Jinx doesn’t move. Her eyes flicker between him and the detonator, and for a heartbeat, Ekko thinks she might listen. But then, she steps forward. Her voice is small, tired. “I’m tired of talking.”

“No!” Ekko shouts, his voice rising in panic.

He rushes toward her, his body screaming in protest, and starts the device once more. Time rewinds. She’s back in front of him. He’s breathless, weak, but he doesn’t let that stop him. He doesn’t stop until he’s looking her in the eyes again.

So hollow.

“You know,” he starts, “I learned from someone very special that no matter what happened in the past, it’s never too late to build something new.” He’s leaning against his time device, struggling to stay upright. “Someone worth building it for.”

He sees her hesitate. The bomb is still in her hand, but the fire in her eyes softens. Just a little.

She takes a shaky breath. “I don’t build good things though,” she says, her voice a fragile whisper. She wipes her face, smearing paint across her cheeks. “Everything I build… it causes destruction. It’s what I’m good at. It’s all I’ve ever been good at.”

Ekko steps forward, but Jinx takes a step back.

“You don’t want to get close to me, Little Man. I would just get you killed too.”

“Everything I touch,” she continues, voice breaking, “everything I love… I lose.” Her hands drop to her sides, the detonator still held loosely in her grip. “Mylo. Claggor. Vander. Silco…” She chokes on their names, her chest heaving with a breath she can’t seem to catch. “Isha.”

Ekko’s eyes soften.

“Like how I do everyone else. I just need to end it.”

“No,” he says. “I can’t let you do that.”

Jinx turns away from him, her back to him as she looks to an empty space in the distance. “I’m sorry,” she whispers to no one in particular. “I’m sorry. I’m sorry. I’m sorry…”

Ekko reaches out, his hand almost trembling as he steps closer, but before he can touch her, she scoffs bitterly.

“Even in my hallucinations, she can’t talk to me.”

The laugh that follows is hollow, like the sound of a broken bell tolling.

She’s slipping. He can feel it. Something is clawing at her, pulling her under, and he doesn’t know how much longer she’ll stay afloat.

“Jinx,” Ekko breathes. He reaches for her, but she pulls away. “Look at me.”

“Don’t,” she cries, shaking her head, her eyes wide with fear. “If you touch me, you’ll become one of them. You’ll be a ghost too. You’ll die just like them. Just like all of them.” Her words spill out frantically. “You should be scared. You should be terrified, Ekko. I’m cursed. I’m a jinx. Everything and everyone I touch gets destryed.”

Ekko’s heart aches. Scared? Not of her. Never of her. He takes a step forward, then another, his gaze never leaving hers.

“Why should I be scared?” he asks calmly, despite the storm brewing in his chest. “I’m right here, Jinx. And I’m not going anywhere.” He steps closer, his hand reaching out to cup her face, his thumb brushing the tear-streaked paint. “You’re not alone.”

Jinx recoils at first, her body trembling, but she doesn’t pull away. Not completely. And Ekko takes that as a sign. A sign that he hasn’t lost her yet.

He leans in, brushing his lips against her forehead, then her cheeks, kissing away the tears that continue to fall, one by one. His lips are warm against her skin, gentle, but insistent. Each kiss is a promise. A promise that he will stay.

More tears fall from her eyes, but he doesn’t stop. He kisses them away, again and again. Then he pulls her into his arms and she struggles a moment, but he doesn't let her go. Eventually, she collapses against him. Her body trembles, her hands clutching at his chest, holding onto him tightly as she sobs.

He moves his lips closer to her ear, whispering softly, “it’s okay. I got you. I got you, I promise.”

She’s getting him messy. Now, he’s covered in her paint and tears. And Ekko doesn’t care. He pulls her closer, his arms tightening around her. . He wants her on him. All of her. Every part of her.

Jinx’s sobs begin to slow, the air around her settling. After several moments, her hands relax. She pulls away slightly, her hands still clutching him, but her gaze lifts to meet his. Her eyes are red, her face streaked with paint and tears, but to him, she's beautiful.

He cradles her cheeks gently in his hand, his thumb brushing away the remnants of her tears, and she leans into his touch, her breath hitching. There’s a faint smile on her lips, though it’s a fragile thing.

“You’re a mess,” she whispers. Her voice is still hoarse from the crying, but there’s a tenderness in it, a softness that he hasn’t heard from her in a long time.

Ekko smiles back, his thumb still caressing her cheek as he leans in, pressing his forehead to hers. His eyes close as he breathes her in. “That’s fine,” he murmurs. “Messy’s good. We’re good.

She lets out a soft, shaky laugh and pulls back just enough to look at him fully. Her fingers reach up, and slowly, she starts to smear more of her glowing paint on him. Paint streaks across his face, his neck, his chest. And in her eyes, there’s a spark, a subtle hint of life that used to be there before, when they were kids.

And Ekko knows. He knows that she isn’t Powder anymore. Isn't the girl that went away. Neither is he the same boy from back then. Time has changed them.

“You know,” she teases, “I’ll hurt you, right?”

The playful challenge in her voice makes Ekko grin and his heart lightens. She wipes a smear of pink on his chest, the paint forming an ‘X’ right over his heart. She looks up at him. Her eyes are mischievous and daring, the way she’s always been.

“Right there,” she says, her lips curving into a half-smile.

Ekko raises an eyebrow, his grin widening. Without a second thought, he takes some of the paint from his own chest, swiping it across her, marking her with an identical ‘X’ on her own.

“If it’s you,” he says, his gaze never leaving hers, “I don’t mind.”

And in that moment, it’s just them. Just Jinx and Ekko. Hearts beating. Two halves of the same whole.

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eeelectricsoul · 8 months ago

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// The Missing Hour...

word count; 3.9k

♡ summary; we never got to see the hour of deleted footage that takes place after ekko saves jinx, so this is my take on what might have happened.

♡ contains; jinx × ekko/timebomb. mentions of isha, vi, caitlyn, claggor, mylo, ambessa, and powder.

♡ warnings; suicide attempts, self-harm and malnutrition, nudity.

SPOLIERS! for arcane season 2 (just incase)

The only way to break the cycle is to walk away. This was the right choice.

The thought replayed over and over again in her mind. As if to ease any worries or doubts. It was calming, unlike the other voices. A quiet chant that protected her from feeling anything. No more fear, no more pain, no more rage, and no happy endings.

She burned all things from her past and it made her wonder. She’s not proud of it and there’s no difference made by harboring, but she did. Maybe if she stayed away like Vi told her. Maybe when she, Claggor, and Mylo were getting punked for their loot, she should’ve taken a punch. Maybe if she didn’t take those stupid crystals. Maybe if she never existed at all, none of this would’ve happened. It doesn’t matter. What’s done is done. There’s no redo button and besides, Jinx wasn’t going to be around for much longer. Her finger was on the pin.

This was the right choice.

“Wait!” A voice called to her. It’s loud and urgent. And it startles her. Just a bit. Her head tilts to look at him. It looked like Ekko.

“I just wanna talk to y-”

“Get out of here, Ekko.”

She pulls the pin again. The first time was terrifying to him. A drastic shift in narrative, it was. He had just come back from his version of paradise. Zaun, the Undercity, was thriving. Almost everyone was alive, and happy. He had Powder. Now, Jinx was trying to kill herself. This wasn’t the first time she tried to take out the both of them. As if he could ever forget that night on the bridge. That night where she looked so…vulnerable. At peace with him as her company. Here, she looked numb. She looked different. That blue hair hacked off at the base of her neck and her eyes lacked sleep with tears stains painting her pale cheeks. Her eyes were shut as she let herself drift into death, that was before she saw him. This time she was ready to get it over with. The explosion sent him back a few feet. With a tug of the pull string, the Z-drive took him back to 4 seconds ago.

“I just wanna talk to you, Pow-”

Shit. He thought.

“Jinx.”

In her last moments her mind keeps taunting her. Playing cruel tricks to make her feel like dirt before she goes. Well not this time. “You’re too late, Ekko.”

“Always a dance with you.” He chuckles. He cuts her off before she can pull the pin.

She turns to him. Somehow, he looks more beat up than before. He’s bloody and bruised with burn marks lacerating his skin. Steam wafts from him.

“I think, I’m just gonna sit here a minute.” He takes a step back and drops to the floor. He sits on the step to the middle of her lair. “Y’know, catch my breath. See if I can try to talk an old friend out of blowing us up.” His breaths are heavy. As if he ran from enforcers.

Jinx’s eyes shift with a sudden realization. This was Ekko. The real Ekko. Not some eloquently crafted hallucination. And she almost killed him too. He didn’t deserve that. Unlike her, he had so much to live for. The boy savior.

Her gaze stops on the bomb in her grasp. It weighs a good bit. His eyes flash with charged energy. Jinx’s grip on the pin releases. A tiny shift in her thumb’s positioning, it was all the movement she could muster. “I’m tired of talking.” She brings the mechanical monkey to her chest and leans forward, off the edge of the propeller.

“NO!” Ekko reaches out for her. His other hand, instinctively, tugs back the pull string before he realizes it. The Z-drive takes them back. That was the 5th time he had to watch her try. Jinx was determined. She barely even gave him a chance, a second of silence was the deciding factor of whether she went boom. Ekko couldn't stand the sight, but he would try a million times over to get it right.

“Y’know, I learned from someone…”

Jinx turns back to him. He's closer to her now. Somehow he managed to sneak up on her. Her eyes widened with curiosity and her tense shoulders dropped. He had her full attention.

“...very special…that no matter what happened in the past, it’s never too late to build something new.” For a second, their eyes meet before something draws her anyway from him. Jinx looks down at the Z-drive. The ring of crazy-looking monkeys spinning slightly at the bottom intrigued her. It looked like something she would craft. But it wasn't exactly Jinx.

Ekko follows her leering trail before once again looking at her. “Someone worth building it for.” He adds.

Slowly. Very slowly. Her eyes find their way back to his. Now that he was this close, he saw just how tired she looked. Her irises lacked that insane mania. They were glowing a dim pink rather than blue. What happened to her since the bridge? He thought.

His feet move on their own. She was looking at the bomb once again. He wanted to pull a hand on her shoulder but instead he reached out in front of her. Jinx hesitates, a momentary pause in her breathing makes her shoulders freeze. “It's okay.” Ekko eases her. His voice is quiet and patient. A stark contrast to earlier. With that, she lets the bomb drop into his palm and he disarms it. He sets the monkey down and pockets the hextech crystal.

Why? Why are you doing this? You need to break the cycle. Why won't you break the cycle? Why won't you die?

The soft sounds of Jinx’s choked up sobs catches his attention. Her body is rigid and she's using what's left of her hair to cover her face. She bites her lip to keep quiet but it's not enough. The cracks in the dry flesh start to leak blood.

“Uh…I don’t know what…Uh-” Ekko reaches for her, then pulls back, then reaches for her again. Not knowing if he should touch her or not. Do something, idiot. He thinks before finally making a decision. With a gentle hold on her shoulders, he guides her body to be parallel to his. His hands make their way to her face, lingering softly on the apples of her cheeks. She’s so cold and thin. It makes him sick knowing that if things were different, maybe if he did something different, she wouldn’t have to be like this. Ekko’s thumb softly wiped away her tears. Jinx couldn’t take it anymore. Her shield, the numbness, was gone. She felt everything, and she hated it.

“Oh! Okay. This is cool…” Ekko mutters to himself as he sinks into Jinx’s hug. She was absolutely wailing into his shoulder. Her nails dug deep into the flesh of his back, it hurt, but Ekko would rather her claw him until he was practically skinned than let her go. She’s choking, hiccuping and the tears just won’t stop. She hates it. She hates it. She hates it. She. Hates. It.

Ekko can feel the shift behind his back. The digging stopped but her hands were still there. He heard scratching. Violent scratching.

“Hey. No.” Ekko grabs her arms and holds them out in front of the two. They were bloody and abraded. Bits of her dull, ashen skin stuck out from underneath her chipped nails. Jinx tries to free herself from his hold, her hands desperately trying to find their way back to each other, but she’s too weak. Just standing up is making her feel dizzy.

“C’mon. Over here.” Slowly, he guides her to the center of her hideout. Where she couldn’t plummet the both of them to their imminent death. Jinx drags her feet. “That's it. Almost there.” Ekko takes a seat with his back propped against the iron railings. “C'mere.” He pulls her down to meet him on the floor, pulls her into another hug. Ekko tucks his chin on the top of her head, his grip on her arms never faltering. “I'm not letting you go.” He says.

They stay there, her in his embrace and he as her protector. It feels like an eternity being here together and Ekko savors every last second. Slowly breathing, their chests rise and fall against the other. Easing into a steady rhythm. Jinx was calmer now. Her blubbering diminished into a soft snivel. He’ll admit, the snot, tear and slobber combo in the crease of his neck was gross, but he wasn't going to tell her that.

“Let's get you cleaned up, yeah?” Ekko doesn't move, in fact, he’s extremely still. He waits for her to give some sort of response. Jinx nods and he gently moves her to the side. She weighs less than a bag of tomatoes. Ekko stands up, stretching his lower back before surveying the area. Jinx didn’t have much to work with. There wasn’t even a bathroom here but there was a half empty water bottle and a rag on her desk, it was good enough. Ekko grabs the items before making his way back to her. She sat there like a ragdoll. It was scary just how still she could be. Her eyes lacked all focus and he would’ve thought she was dead if it weren’t for the gently expanding of her ribcage.

He wiped himself down first, all that mucus was a sensory nightmare. Then he got to work cleaning her face of the ash, soot and dirt, then her neck. His face felt hotter as he wiped down the sides of her ribs and back through the cutoffs of her top. After all, she’s still a girl.

“Uh, Jinx?”

“Hm?”

“You think you can…uh- clean the rest of you?” Ekko holds out the rag for her. Jinx looks at him, humming in compliance, she begins to work her way out of the leather. Undoing the belt at the bottom causes the entire thing to come loose. Now it just looked like a really short poncho. Ekko quickly turns around, feeling liquid heat rising to his ears. After a few moments, curiosity gets the better of him and he takes a quick peak. She was turned with her bare back facing him too. Jinx leisurely cleaned her chest of any grime before moving to her arms. There’s a reflective glint that hits him in the eye when she makes work with the rag on her right shoulder.

“What happened to your finger?” Ekko couldn’t help but ask.

“Caitlyn,” Jinx says. She didn’t spare him a glance, all of her focus was on cleaning herself.

“The topsider?” His voice raised in volume, echoing off the metal area.

“Yup. Shot it clean off.”

“Why?”

“She wanted me dead but her aim is shit. I don’t blame her. I killed her mom.”

Ekko was fully facing her now. “Caitlyn was here. In Zaun.” He presses a finger to the ground to accentuate his point.

“Mhm. With her little enforcer friends.” Ekko was livid. How long had he been gone for? It couldn’t have been that long. He’s gone for what? Maybe a few months and this is what happens?

“Gassing the streets with Grey, the whole debacle.” Jinx continues.

“What?”

“Vi joined them too.”

“What!” Ekko slammed his fist on the propeller blade. “Are you kidding me?! Vi?! Buddy-buddy with the Piltie-goons? The same people that hunt our people down for sport?”

“The same people that killed mom and dad. Yeah.” Jinx stops what she was doing. She looks over her shoulder at him. “Yeah, it hurt me too.” She smiles. It wasn’t a Jinx smile. It wasn’t even a real smile. Just a small, weak, hurt smile.

“I’m gonna kill her.” Ekko stands up and paces around in a small circle. “I alway knew she was stupid but I didn’t think she was dumb. Why would she do that? I don’t get it.” Ekko was almost ripping the locks out of his head. He keeps rambling on about Vi and her idioctic actions.

“There’s gonna be a war.” Jinx cuts through his thoughts. He turns to her. Somewhere between his death threats, she started to clean her lower half. She was fully naked now. He turns away, eyes wide with embarrassment. “Or something.” She continues.

“A war?”

“Yeah. Vi asked me to help out but…”

“With who? For what?” Ekko was a machine gun of questions. Rapid-fire, one after the other. There was so much he missed.

“Ambessa and her army against Piltover, I guess.” He could hear the soft patters of her footsteps behind him. She was getting closer. Ekko turned away just as she passed him, clearing his throat before speaking once again.

“And for what?” He reiterates.

Jinx shrugs with a soft hum. She grabs some bandages from the desk. “No clue, little man.”

“What?” He turns to her, not even realizing it. Jinx was already in the process of wrapping her chest with the more than a bit dirty bindings, so luckily he didn’t see anything. Still, the possibility that he could've made him flustered. Ekko made an effort not to look any lower than her face. She was still half-naked. He clears his throat again. “Whaddya mean ‘no clue’?”

“I mean exactly that. Can't be nothing good though. Lots of people died already.” Jinx’s mind wanders to the events of yesterday. Isha. She thought. And they weren't good thoughts. Isha, her little soldier. That little army girl. That blasted fool. Jinx felt familiar tears clouding her vision. The same ones she cried when that kid ran through the crowd, when she lifted the gun. Isha was dead once the second crystal was put in its chamber. And she died saving them. She died saving her. They never got their rematch.

Jinx sniffles and wipes the small rivulets of water from her eyes. “Someone worth building it for,” She mumbles. She was finished clothing her chest. Isha sacrificed herself so that she could live, and she was going to waste it, throw it away like it was meaningless. Fat chance. “Suit up, wonder boy,” She starts, walking up to Ekko and pulling him in close, “because we have a war to fight.”

“Seriously?” He grabs her arms but he’s unmoving, not closing any gaps but not making an effort to pull away either. “You are in no condition to fight anything.”

“I’ve been worse than this.” She retorts, releasing herself from his grasp, “And I remember kicking your butt no problem. A few Noxuians ain’t nothing.” She walks past him with a swat of his shoulder.

“You’re a bag of bones.” He spins on his heel, offended by her arrogance, “Also I beat you into the ground on that bridge.”

“Blah-blah-blah.” She was rummaging through a mess of discarded fabrics, trinkets, and whatever other crap she has lying around.

“Why the sudden urge to fight now anyways?”

“I had a kid. Her name was Isha. And she died because of what they did. So I’m going to avenge her.” She pulls out a pair of black leather pants like some sort of rabbit-in-a-hat trick.

“You had a kid?” She slips into the pants and buckles its three intricate belts. They sat higher than her previous pair but the exaggerated hip windows made them just as revealing.

“You have ears? Geez, keep up.” Jinx sasses.

"Here." She tosses him a shirt. It was too big for her but still way too small for him, accounting for the muscle mass. He looks at it. Thick, deep greenish material with a thousand details in the patchworking. The shirt was jaggedly cut along the bottom with the left sleeve hacked off. It might have been longer in the past but right now, it was a crop top. Ekko curls his lip and raises an eyebrow. Jinx smiles. “You got a killer body, show it off.”

Ekko scoffs.

“Did you make this yourself?” He holds up the holy amalgamation of cloth. Examining the shoddy stitch work.

“Yeah, I have a talent for craftsmanship.” Jinx grins, sifting through even more bits and pieces of clothing.

“I just wanted to say I could tell. Your style choices are questionable.” Ekko rids himself of his own attire. He places down the Z-drive.

“Says the guy wearing an oversized bib.” She snorts.

“It's a smock!” He says just as he finishes removing it, it was the second thing to go after the scarf.

“It's an apron.” Jinx was nearly fully dressed. Somehow she managed to find a piece of brown leather similar to a pauldron, gloves—way too many gloves—and she was currently sewing shark teeth onto a purple hood.

He freezes. Ekko couldn't argue with that.

“That's what I thought.” She muses, happy with herself for winning their little back and forth. “Now can it and get dressed. I need to focus.”

“What? No pants?” He jokes, putting on the shirt she gave him. He was used to his tank top and thick waist belt so the air hitting against his abs was a weird sensation. It did fit him better than he thought it would.

“Don't get greedy.” Jinx snarks. Ekko rolls his eyes and walks up to the desk. He looks for whatever he thinks might fit him. Is all she owns leather? It takes him a minute but eventually he finds something. It wasn’t leather—surprisingly—with a purple strap wrapping around the right thigh and a ridiculous looking belt and side pouch. Ekko couldn't figure out where one strap ended and another began.

He took the opportunity to quickly put the contraption on, alongside a few other accessories, while Jinx was focused on her arts and crafts project. He gets stuck a few times but eventually manages to wiggle himself in. They were a bit small but the material used gave them some stretch, so they weren't that bad.

“Here.” Jinx hands him a red scarf, “It’s like your old one but red.”

Ekko takes it, “Why can't I just wear my old one?” Jinx shrugs. Ekko rolls his eyes and puts the scarf on anyway. His guard drops for a second, he’s hit with a strong pressure followed by a wet feeling. He looks down to see a paint splatter right in the middle of his chest. When he looks back, Jinx is holding out her old paint gun. The one she used during their stand-offs. A shit-eatting grin plastered on her lips. “Really?”

She tosses him the gun. Her arms spread out wide when he catches it. “Go on, do me.”

Ekko scoffs before chuckling. He holds up the gun to shoot.

“Your stance sucks,” Jinx coughs into her fist before going back to as she was. Acting as if nothing had happened.

“This is how you stand!”

“No I do not!”

“Yes it is! This is exactly how your stance is.”

Jinx blows raspberries and Ekko shoots her in the shoulder. “Wow, your aim sucks!” She laughs. Ekko scoffs and throws back the gun. She catches it and sets it aside. Climbing her desk to the high levels of her hideout, Jinx dips her fingers into buckets of paint before charging him. She manages to pin Ekko down and smear a large X across the front of his shirt. She continues to draw on him, his hands naturally falling on the curve of her waist. Once she's bored with painting him, she gets up to paint herself.

“Grab a paintbrush, little man. There's some spots I can't reach.” Ekko snaps out of his trance.

“Uh…sure.” He stands from his spot on the floor and walks to find the brushes she was talking about.

Jinx's eyes fell on the piece of junk Ekko had carried with him. Little monkeys still dancing at the bottom. From someone very special. She pondered on the thought. She had a hypothesis, although it was out there, she couldn't think of any other explanation. “Who taught you that?” Jinx called out. Ekko had found the painting equipment and was making his way back to her.

“What?” He sat back down. Buckets of green, pink, purple, blue paint splattered as they hit the ground.

“You said, some told you, ‘that no matter what happened in the past, it’s never too late to build something new’. Who was it?” She stopped her artistry and devoted all of her attention to him. Ekko was a little freaked out by her simmer eyes, so intense and focused. He knew she knew. Jinx, Powder, had always been frustratingly smart. He looks at the Z-drive, watching how the monkeys spin.

“Powder.” He said. Jinx hummed, her suspicions were confirmed. Now a whole other can of worms were opened. How?

Ekko saw it in her eyes, and with a sigh he began to explain it. He started to paint her as well. Stars, crowns, a plethora of tiny X's. Jinx painted tally marks. He had no clue what they meant but knowing her, most likely nothing. Saying his adventures out loud really made him understand just how crazy this whole thing sounds, but Jinx listens to every word. Nodding along and asking clarifying questions.

“Then we created this and I came home.” Ekko was long done with his drawings. He hauls his device into his lap.

“What does it do?” Jinx taps her nail against the glass in blunt curiosity.

Ekko chuckles at the question. “It's a time loop.”

“A huh?” She looks at Ekko as if he was stupid.

“A. Time. Loop.” He leans in close to her, gritting his teeth.

“That's impossible.” Jinx dismisses.

“And reality hopping isn’t?”

She grumbles, a low growl within the depths of her chest. Now she was the one who couldn’t argue. “I guess it's cool.” Jinx picked up a paintbrush dipped in light green. On her arm, she decorates a shape similar to an hourglass. Though, it was a bit hard to see since underneath it was more layers of colors and a cloud tattoo. She smiles then extends the arm to him, giving Ekko a better look.

“A tribute to the boy who shattered time.”

Ekko was stunned. She basically just marked herself and didn't think anything of it. He inhales, “So are we ready now?”

“Nope. Just one more thing.” Jinx zips past him and grabs a dull pair of scissors. She begins to cut. One chunk at a time, she cuts until she can no longer run her fingers through. She would’ve been completely buzzed if she hadn't kept the front bang, which she dyed a streak into with leftover pink paint. “Tada!” She turns to him, “Whaddya think?”

Ekko was speechless as he took her all in. His silence worried her. He stepped closer and she turned to look in her cracked mirror again. “Look. I know I'm not the best hairdresser in the world but I don't think it's that bad‐” Jinx was cut off by Ekko’s hand lightly gripping her jaw. He turns her head to face him. Cool paint feels wet on the under of her eyes as he drags the paintbrush over her skin.

“Go big or go home.” He mumbles. Jinx smiles, finding herself sinking into his touch. He pulls away, “Now how are we gonna get to Piltover anyway?” Ekko crossed his arms and leaned a hip against her makeshift vanity. Jinx clicks her tongue. She hadn’t thought of that. There weren't many options. The perimeter would most likely be surrounded by enforcers or brutish Noxians. She taps her foot in thought. The clanging resonance of her boot hitting the metal propeller below her popped a wicked idea. Jinx’s eyes lit up with excitement. She’d always wanted to fly an aircraft. This was the closest she was gonna get.

“How good are you at manufacturing?” She grins.

♡ Author's note — this was extremely hard to write. their were a lot of questions Arcane brought up that i needed to make up answers to lol. so sorry if it doesn't make the most sense, i did the best with what i had. (OMG I FINISHED MY FIRST FIC, YAY !) — xoxo, rheyd.

p.s. i got lazy towards the end oops–

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