Hi there

You're a good person.

Well…at least you think you are. And really, isn't that all that matters?

You've managed to keep your nose clean for most your life; no fights, no killing, no stealing. Odd jobs around The Lanes kept you afloat. Not like you had any other choice, you couldn't stomach gore, and every time you'd get an adrenaline rush from so much as a wound, you'd end up passing out.

You're level-headed, fairly well-read, and comfortable in your own skin.

So why the hell is your blood boiling over some weirdo trying to flirt with your girlfriend?

Jinx is beautiful, full stop. Anyone who says otherwise is an idiot. She's a genius in every sense of the word, a physical specimen—respectfully of course, she's literally super athletic—and quick with her tongue. If this wasn't Zaun, people would be tripping over themselves trying to win her over. But her reputation always made people rethink any approach they'd make towards her. Her father's reputation, made people steer clear entirely.

Anyone that had enough audacity to actually approach her, she'd—figuratively—shoot down immediately. At least when you two got together, you're not sure if she actually shot them prior to you asking her not to.

She knows what she wants, and she's not the type to sit and wait for the other person to make the first move. You should know, she cornered you five minutes after you two had first met, and she hasn't let go of you since.

The thought of being romantically linked with Jinx hadn't even crossed your mind when you two first met. You weren't blind, of course, but you also weren't stupid. All of the stories you had heard about her, all the people she's blown up for Silco, or just for her own amusement, none of it sat right with you. So, you avoided her like The Grey.

Well… You tried.

For some unknown reason, the Chem Barons suddenly took an interest in your services. Suddenly, you had a contract for the next few months, just for them, and all coincidentally putting Jinx up as your contact. Every job you had, she came with you. Super quick dead drop for Marcus' weekly bribes? You needed her to protect the money. Week long stake out at the shipping yard? Jinx had to go to keep you on your toes—whatever that meant. She'd show up to your house first thing in the morning, and followed you to your doorstep by night.

You tried dropping out of the job, but you were hit with threats ranging from you being blacklisted from all of your contacts, to being killed on the spot. So you bit your tongue and did your job, but made sure not to accept another contract from the barons.

Then one day, negotiations with a dealer went south, and they refused to give their payment for the last stash of shimmer you and Jinx had delivered. One second you were arguing with him, the next his blood and brain matter were on your face. You're not one hundred percent sure what exactly happened after, but you did pass out.

Then, you quit. You even told Jinx to kill you and get it over with. When she didn't, you stormed off, and ditched the rest of your jobs for the barons. It was only a week left, they'd get you, one way or another.

To say you were surprised when you weren't killed or blacklisted the following week was an understatement. But what was even more surprising? Jinx had stopped following you around.

You chalked it up to simple curiosity, when you decided to seek her out. You didn't dare admit to yourself that you had missed her constant presence, especially since she had been stuck to you like glue for months. You wanted to ask why no one had sent a hitman to off you, nothing else. Once you found out why, you'd disappear from her life forever, gleefully so.

She had covered for you, for a week, doing all the assigned jobs you had, alone. None of the barons knew better. She even apologized for shooting that dealer in front of you and getting blood spray all over your face.

You should've walked away then, but you didn't. In fact, you started willingly hanging around Jinx. Accompanying  her in her misadventures, or helping her with her inventions; and she helped you with whatever job you were doing.

You would never admit it to anyone, but it felt good to have someone nearly bend over backwards for you. Hell, she even toned down the killing people part, at least when you were around.

Less than six months after, you were hers, and she was yours.

She wanted you, and only you.

But there was something so disgustingly triggering about someone trying to make a move on her—looking at her, even. It was bringing out progressively uglier thoughts out of you. Thoughts you would never think about anyone else.

Jinx noticed this, of course. But she never tried to stop the train of thought. Hell, a part of you thinks—knows— that she enjoys seeing you worked up over her.

The music in The Last Drop is loud; uncomfortably so for someone sober. The bass blaring from the speakers thrums in your chest, and the constant stutter of the lights is making it hard to keep track of where Jinx is. Which is bad, because this rando doesn’t want to let up and keeps following her around. Even the vantage point the second floor isn’t helping.

To be fair, Jinx is ignoring the prick. And you trust Jinx. But the gnawing feeling in your insides every time you imagine some guy's hands on her is only building up your anger.

No one puts their grimy hands on your girl.

You decide that the best course of action is to just go down to the dance floor and take care of the problem yourself. What was that saying? If you want things done, do it yourself?

Pushing yourself off of the railing, you make your way through the all the bodies moving in time with the music. You grimace, the thought of having alcohol and cheap perfume clinging onto you by the time you get downstairs isn't all that appealing, but you had a girl to find. Which is starting to prove difficult, seeing as the strobe lights are throwing off people's hair colors. The only reprieve that you have is the fact that people still kept out of Jinx's way even at the busy club. If there was a spot at the club where the crowd was thinning out, she was probably there.

You're given space to breathe once you reach the bar. A lot of the club goers were on the dance floor. Credits to the DJ, you think to yourself, for getting people away from where you were, and for also, actually, being good at what they were doing. You give a cursory glance at the seats, your girlfriend is unfortunately not there, but you do catch sight of a familiar face.

"Sevika!" You shout over the din of the music. The older woman, busy tending to her glass of whiskey, barely spares you a glance as she looks up, huffing before gulping down her drink and pushing it towards the bartender. Her dismissive attitude doesn't deter you, however, as you make your way towards her.

"Have you seen Jinx?"

"Didn't know I had to babysit your girl." She says before taking her refilled drink and taking a swig from it.

"I don't have time to do this little dance, Sevika." Her eyebrow quirks at your terse response, a hint of mischief in her eyes. It was a look you knew well—she always had it right before she'd try to piss you off.

A shrug instead, turning back to her drink. "Last I saw, some dumbass was trying to talk her up."

Your jaw tightens at the thought, and this doesn't escape the other woman's notice as she smirks. "I always knew you weren't the sharing type." She says smugly, taking another swig.

You lean in closer, well into her personal space. "Where is she?"

She scoffs, a mechanical finger poking you in the shoulder slowly pushing you back. "Don't start shit you can't finish, kid." She nods towards the far end of the club. "Being followed by the dumbass that way."

You throw a scowl her way before walking the direction she pointed out, your previous irritation with her dissipating as soon as you catch sight of Jinx's hair.

For a moment, a wave of relief washes over you. But it leaves just as fast when you see the same man that was talking to her, leaning over her much too closely for your comfort.

Jinx's eyes flick towards you, a knowing, anticipating, look in them. Like she knew you'd come rushing down there for her.

You don't notice your own steps becoming hurried.

His hand brushes her arm. You see red.

The poor sod doesn't even have time to react before you clock him in the jaw, and he falls backwards. Jinx simply takes a step back. Unsurprised, when you grab her arm and pull her away. She doesn't even try to free herself from your grip.

There isn't a lot of privacy allowed in The Last Drop. In fact, there's only three places there where you could get a semblance of privacy. The supply room, but you didn't want to risk anyone walking in on you and Jinx. The second one was Silco's office, an even worse choice, for obvious reasons. Which left only one place for you to take Jinx to: the Chem Barons' meeting room.

The heavy doors of the meeting room slams as you shut them behind the both of you. Jinx, who had been quiet the entire way there, rips her arm away from you.

"What the hell's wrong with you?" Despite the furious look on her face, the anger doesn't reach her eyes. It never does. Not when she enjoys seeing you get so protective of her. Not when she spent months trying to win you over.

You don't bother with an answer, dragging her mouth to yours. Your lips mashing together, teeth bumping into each other. She grips the front of your shirt, holding you in place, only letting you pull away when she needs to breathe.

"Crazy." She whispers against your lips, eyes wide, her grin taunting.

"Takes one to know one." You answer back, breathless.

Her laugh is mirthful, genuine. Like she hit the lottery. Maybe she did, seeing how you act around her—how she acts around you.

You find that you don't mind the hidden accusation in her laugh. Because in your mind, you're a good person.

"Hey, I—I had every reason to think that your engine block was fucked."

"Clearly you don't know much about engines."

"Excuse you, I know enough… I'm just better at captaining."

Powder rolls her eyes at you, before shouting over the noise of the bar. "Two more drinks here, Ed! And maybe a water for the lightweight!"

"Hey!" She can only laugh as you playfully jab her with your elbow. "I'm not a lightweight, your metabolism is probably just insane."

She snorts at your response before taking the drinks Ed places in front of you. "Ed, tell Powder I'm not a lightweight."

"Doesn't matter if you ain't a lightweight, this missy's drinkin' you under the table here, muppet." He says as he sends a wink towards your companion.

Your hand waves dismissively at the bartender. "Bah, whatever, take her side." Ed slides the glass of water towards you, and you grumble as you start downing its contents.

Powder starts asking Ed random questions about you, the latter responding with exaggerated anecdotes. You barely listen, though. Instead opting to stare at Powder as she laughs at—probably—your expense.

You have no idea what possessed you to make that earlier bet with her. Never mind that you were being hypocritical about the whole professionalism schtick, you were way past that at this point. Still, you stare unabashedly at her and watch as excitement glints in her eyes at whatever Ed is telling her. The way the corners of her eyes crease as she furrows her eyebrows—which are perfect, by the way— and smiles. You swear the warm lighting of the bar makes her glow.

Your stomach does a backflip. It's probably just the alcohol.

Ed excuses himself to handle the other bar patrons, subtly telling you not to fuck up as he passes by. Powder eyes him, clearly hearing his remark, and smirks at you.

"You're zoning out there, chief."

"I not zoning out. I was just lost in your eyes."

She lightly punches your arm—damn she's strong—before leaning against the counter of the busy bar. You sit close to each other, citing the noisy atmosphere and the hindrance that would cause during your conversation, but you know better. You wanted to sit close because she was, pardon your French, too fucking attractive. That was your excuse hours ago when you first got to the bar. Now you're just thankful that she's not calling any attention to your proximity.

As for Powder, she looked like she wanted to keep a low profile. Her shoulders were relaxed, and the way she leaned into you could've been taken as a flirtatious advance. But every so often, when she probably thought you wouldn't notice, her eyes would flit across the room. The casual look in her eyes becoming alert, aware, in a split second, before morphing back relaxed once they settled on you.

If you had been just a tad bit drunker, you probably wouldn't have noticed. Not that you care. You worked at a port city, people of all kinds of backgrounds waddled in and out. She wouldn't be the first person with a troubling past sitting next to you in a bar. She probably wouldn't be the last.

"I'm guessing you don't get lost in all of your customers' eyes, too?"

Her words snap you out of your train of thought, and you let a lazy smile cover your face. You’re not a lightweight, that much you’re certain. Tipsy, however, you very much are. If the brazen flirting wasn’t making it obvious enough.

"Just yours."

"And you weren't out last night with some poor girl who also had engine troubles?" You put a hand over your chest in mock offense.

"You're breaking my heart here, blue." The feigned hurt in your voice does little to deter the eye roll that Powder gives you. You let out a laugh as you put your hands up as a sign of peace. "Hey, I swear I was trying my best to be professional earlier, but I'm off the clock now, so I can flirt as much as I want."

"Oh, we're flirting?" You furrow your brows at her.

"Was that not clear?"

"Nah, not really."

"Do you platonically get lost in people's eyes?"

"Maybe. How do I know you don't take girls here every night? I could ask Ed."

"Go ahead, he's an unbiased party. Besides," You shrug. "Even if I did, I'm a regular here so he wouldn't snitch on me."

"Don't put words in my mouth you muppet." the burly man working behind the bar walks back towards the two of you, refilling your drinks. He winks at Powder. "Don't worry love, I'd sell this one for a sack of potatoes—"

"Hey!"

"But." He says, a thick eyebrow raised at you. "The port chief here isn't a revolving door of lovers. In fact," He turns to you "I don't reckon' you've ever brought someone here. Or landed a date, actually—" Powder snorts into her drink, and you take it as a sign that it's time to usher the barkeep away.

"Okay, thank you Ed, for the refills. I think there's some people asking for you over there." Ed laughs as he lumbers over to the other side of the bar. You keep your eyes on him until you're sure that he's occupied, before turning back to Powder. "I do in fact, get dates. For the record."

"Oh, of course, I totally believe you."

"I mean it."

"Completely believe you."

"Okay, now you're just messing with me." Your ego is a bit bruised at Ed's interruption, and the shit eating grin on Powder's face isn't helping either. But she's smiling, and for some ungodly reason, you consider it as a win. You shake your head and take a longer sip from your drink. This girl is going to be the death of you.

"Okay, okay. Sorry, toots." She nudges you with her shoulder. "No more teasing."

You raise an eyebrow at her. "No more bruising my ego?" She shakes her head and crosses over her heart.

"Nope. Serious questions only, from this point forward."

"Oh? Like what?" You turn to her and prop your chin on your hand.

"Like…" She bites her lip and looks at a random spot on the wall of drinks across from you, momentarily in thought. At this point, you're not even trying to hide your staring. She doesn't call you out on it when she looks back at you, but a small smile plays at her face. “You’re drunk.”

“Just as drunk as you are.”

“I’m not drunk yet.”

“You’re literally slurring your words right now.”

“…I’m tipsy.”

You do your best to hold back a chuckle. “Hi tipsy—“

“Gods, please don’t.” She groans and hides her face in her hands. “I was just starting to find you attractive.”

“I thought we were done bruising my ego?”

“The dad jokes make you free real estate.”

“Okay, alright.” You laugh. Gently prying her hands away from her face. “Just ask me your question.“

She relents, but doesn’t let go of your hand as she sets hers down the counter. “Hmm…”

“Did you grow up here?”

You shake your head. “Nope. Came here looking for my great perhaps.”

An eyebrow raised; head tilted to the side. "Your great perhaps?"

"Yeah, like, trying to live a fulfilling life instead of just staying in one place forever."

There's a shift in her eyes, but you're a bit too drunk to figure out what it means. "I grew up in Bilgewater, and a lot of the pirate crews that came by were always talking about their grand adventure that got them treasure, or whatever. So I thought, what the hell? I can do that, too."

Powder doesn’t interrupt you when you tell her more about your past. How you worked at a bar serving the various pirate crews that would drop in and out, spending all the gold they found, then leaving again to find more. She does, however, show a particular interest when you tell her about the time a drunken captain almost made you walk the plank for bumping into him. You’re surprised by how easy it is to tell her about yourself, how natural it almost feels.

"I hate to disturb your weekly monologue about your great perhaps here, chief." You both turn your heads to where Ed is, grabbing empty glasses on the bar, and stacking them onto a nearby sink. "But it's just about closing time, and I need to clean up. So scram."

"Guess that's our cue." The chair next to you scrapes against the wooden floor as Powder pushes herself off of it.  Her stance is wobbly, and you're only barely able to hold onto her as she stumbles.

"Easy, Blue."

A scoff. "Pfft. I'm just as drunk as you are."

"Then we're both fucked."

A laugh, then a mock salute, then a quick turn away from your grasp. "Speak for yourself port chief, captain, boss—whatever."

You scramble out of your own chair and follow Powder out of the door—not before turning around and leaving money on the bar because you forgot to pay—the cold sea breeze slapping you in the face the second you're out in the moonlight. It's late enough that the streets are nearly empty; save for the few drunk people here and there headed home.

Your head feels featherlight as you turn and spot Powder a few paces ahead, arms crossed, head tilted to the side. The light from a street post casts a shadow over her face, but you're sure that she still has that cocky smirk on. She's not even saying anything, and you feel your chest warm from the sight of her.

Must be the alcohol.

"Getting lost in my eyes again?" She asks as you make your way towards her.

"Absolutely."

A roll of her eyes as she turns around and starts walking. "Kiss-ass."

You follow suit, falling in step with her, and bumping her shoulder with yours. "You like it."

The both of you walk in silence for the next while, a quiet arrangement that you were going to walk her home. You take a deep breath, taking in the cold breeze and the peaceful atmosphere of the usually bustling town. The quiet and the wind is grounding, and you feel yourself slowly start to sober up the more you walk. To be fair, it was the middle of the week, and most people would probably be working tomorrow, so traffic at this hour was expected to be less.

You stop walking when you realize the direction you're heading in. Powder does the same, looking over to you with a curious glance.

"Are we headed back to port?" 

She shrugs. "Yup."

"You didn't find a place to stay here in town?"

"I wanted to get some maintenance done while waiting for the gasket."

A thought pops up in your head, one that you probably shouldn't suggest, especially since you've only known Powder for a few hours. On the one hand, she could be a wanted murderer on the run, and you're on your way to becoming her next victim. On the other, you'd just be spending a night on your couch, and she'd have a place to stay. It certainly beat going back to the hang—

"Wait a second. The hangar's locked for the night. Were you planning on breaking in?"

She pretends to be hurt by your accusation, hand clutching her chest. "Breaking in is such a strong word to use, toots. I was gonna politely ask you to open it up for me."

You stuff your hands into your coat pockets, trying to offer a nonchalant shrug. "You could spend the night at my place."

Her eyes widen in surprise, but only for a split second, before that infuriating smirk pulls at her lips. "Oh. You want me to come back to your place?"

You laugh, not at all ashamed by her insinuation. "Not like that, Blue. I can't just let you back into the hangar, I could get fired for it. And it's a pain in the ass looking for a place to stay when you're half-drunk, also unsafe. I have a couch."

Her smirk fades, gaze softening a tad bit. She takes a moment to look around the empty street, then back to you. She crosses her arms before she speaks. "You sure you're okay with me crashing at your place?"

You shrug again. "Yeah, I mean, I'd rather not leave you wandering around the street at night, not that I'd leave you wandering alone. If you're dead set on looking for a place to stay, I'd totally go with you until you find one. But, also just in case you won't find one, which is pretty unlikely honestly—"

"Okay."

"Hm?"

The corners of her lips tug again—not the same as the one she had when she was teasing you earlier; it's a softer, more honest smile. "Okay. We'll go back to your place."

"Oh. Cool."

"Cool."

"…."

"So…Do you know remember where you live, or…"

"Oh! Yeah, right. Sorry."

You clear your throat, before gesturing down a street and turning towards it. Powder mercifully keeps quiet as the both of you make your way back to your apartment.

---

"Well, this is me." You fumble your keys a bit as you pull them out of your doorknob and place them back into your pocket. "Make yourself at home." There's a moment you want to slap yourself at your words. Suddenly having Powder in your space—your own doing, by the way—made you feel self-conscious. Not that you've never had people over, but something about it being her was making you all formal. You don't even need to look at Powder to know she's about to laugh.

Her snort from behind you is enough confirmation as you make your way inside. Deciding to spare yourself the sight—not matter how much you've seemed to enjoy seeing her smile—you opt to take off your coat and throw you keys onto the dresser next to the entrance. Powder's footsteps make their way across the room, exploring your space.

"You're doing well for yourself, chief." You turn around to look at her, as she's eyeing the view from behind the balcony doors.

"It's pretty nice. Nicer than where I used to live in Bilgewater, definitely. They paid me a decent amount for making the port run right."

"Was it that bad before you took over?"

You shrug, walking over to her while trying to remember the state of the port back when you started. "We were having trouble competing with all the airships popping up. One day I told them, why don't we just build our own airport? And they said, sure, but you're running it, and you're gonna pay for it if it doesn't work."

"Looks like it ended up working."

Just thinking about all the hoops you had to jump through just to get everything running smoothly makes you scoff. "Yeah, now. But around a year ago it was chaos. Do you know how hard it is to find an airship mechanic?"

She raises an eyebrow at you. "Can't be that hard, we got hundreds at Zaun. Even a kid could do it."

"That's cause that entire area is where most air ships come from. Especially when Hex Tech started taking off. No pun intended." Your hand reaches for the balcony door, pushing it open. "I had to learn all of that engineering stuff on site. That and managing an entire port."

Powder follows you out to the small balcony, leaning against the railing next to you. The breeze suddenly making you wish you hadn't taken off your coat.

"So…" She starts, lightly bumping her shoulder against yours. "This how you get most girls into your bed? Show her a nice view and talk about your fancy job?"

You bark out a laugh. "Depends."

That damn smirk. "On?"

"If they're having engine trouble."

It's her turn to laugh, and the lilt of her voice makes the butterflies in your stomach go crazy, makes your chest warm enough that the cold air suddenly doesn't matter. This definitely wasn't the alcohol.

"You know," She says, as her laughter dies down. "I've given you three chances to kiss me, and you haven't taken a single one."

"Maybe I'm just polite."

"Or maybe you're just dense. Which is tragic, because you've been flirting with me all night."

A pause. "Hold on, three?"

"Yup."

"When?"

"I'm not gonna tell you when I was waiting for you to kiss me."

You wrack your brain, trying to remember when Powder had given pause long enough for you to kiss her. "I count like, two."

She rolls her eyes at your response. "Oh wow, then you're actually dense."

Your mouth opens to protest, but you close it again just as fast, still stuck on figuring out the third moment when you could kiss her.

She seems to sense your struggle, as she laughs and pushes herself away from the railing. "Don't hurt yourself trying to think, toots." She quips, pulling you back inside. "Come on, it's getting cold."

Whatever's left of your ego is beaten down by Powder's remark, as you let yourself get pulled back into the warmth of your apartment.

"I really think it was just two times."

"Guess you'll never know."

You groan, running a hand down your face. "I'm gonna be thinking about this until I figure it out."

"Word of advice, think less."

"Yeah, but then what if you don't want me to kiss you, and then I try to kiss you?"

She shrugs, the couch creaking as she flops down onto it. "If I didn’t want you to kiss me, I'd shoot you."

"Fair enough."

A sigh escapes your mouth as you settle next to her. Your hands brush, but neither of you move away.

"You're a hard one to figure out, Blue."

"That's kind of the point, though, right?"

You shift in your seat, turning to face her. Your arm drapes over the back of the couch, behind her shoulders. "What do you mean?"

She looks around the room for a moment before her gaze settles back onto you, turning in her own seat so she's facing you. "You travelled for a bit before ending up here, right? You can't just…" She gestures with her hand, waving it at empty space. "Pour your soul out to strangers, trust them? Best case scenario is you'll never see them again. Worst case, they've got dirt on you or try to kill you."

The more you thought about it, the more obvious it became. Powder was right. Even you were paranoid about the people who came and went while you were in Bilgewater, more so when you started travelling alone.

"Do you…trust me?"

She scoffs, as if you just asked a ridiculous question. "Of course I do, I mean, I followed you here. Didn't I?" There's a bite to her words, but her expression quickly softens. "I…If we're being honest here, I think I'm trusting you a bit too much."

She leans her head against the cushions of the couch, taking a breath. You know she has more to say, so you keep silent and wait for her to continue.

"I don't think I would have done any of this, if it was someone else." She says quietly.

"I don't think I would've done this either, if it wasn't you." You confess.

She scoffs, but there's no edge to it. "Liar."

An amused smile makes its way onto your face. "I mean it." As if to drive your point home, your free hand brushes against hers, on purpose this time; you wait in case she pulls away. Emboldened when she doesn't, you gently grab her hand and interlace your fingers.

Her eyes flit to your joined hands, then back to your face, a small smile curls at her lips, stripped of all the bravado she carried with her earlier. She pulls herself closer to you and nestles herself at the crook of your neck, and you let your other arm fall and wrap around her, letting the silence fall over the both of you.

It's crazy to think that just this morning, you were cussing her out for giving you more work to do in the day, but now, she had you wrapped around her finger—not that you'd ever let her know that.

Maybe it's the alcohol, or the warm body next to yours, or the distant sound of the waves from outside. But slowly, surely, you start to feel eyelids grow heavier by the second. You wonder briefly if you should get up and go get a pillow or blanket for the both of you, but Powder’s even breaths stop the train of thought entirely.

You do your best to not wake your companion up as you reach behind her for your throw blanket, gently draping it over the both of you. Waking up tomorrow is going to be a pain, and you can already feel the your back and neck complaining.

Powder shifts beside you, curling closer into you, and suddenly the pain tomorrow is worth it.

The last thing that crosses your mind is the smell of the sea breeze and axel grease in her hair, as your eyes slowly close and sleep pulls you under.

---

You wake up from an offending ray of light hitting your face. Then, an ache in your neck, followed by your back cracking as you try to stretch.

The throw blanket draped over you does nothing to obscure the sunlight creeping into the room, as you groan and try to roll to your side to avoid it…straight off the couch.

You land on the hardwood floor with a thud, a few seconds of silence passing before your groans fills in the space of your apartment. It's a hard task getting up, with all the pain in your neck and back, plus being tangled up in your blanket.  And the damn sun—wait a second.

The blanket is thrown to the side as you shoot up, and blearily blink the sleep out of your eyes. Yes, there was sunlight streaming through the window. Which meant that it was way past your actual wake up time, and you were late for work.

You scramble around your apartment, rushing out of the bathroom with your toothbrush in your mouth—which in hindsight isn't safe at all—while trying to change into a fresh set of clothing. All the while, a slew of curse words freely making their way out of your mouth. How did I end up on the couch last night?

And then it hits you.

Powder.

The bar.

Falling asleep together on the couch.

You stop midway through putting a sweater on as you scan the room. No shoes, no coat, nothing that would have suggested she was here the previous night. Even more confused now, you walk around to check if she was maybe in your bedroom. All the while trying to ignore the disappointed feeling in your chest starting to bloom. Not that you were expecting her to stay—you absolutely were—and have breakfast, or whatever.

With a defeated sigh, you finish up getting ready and head towards the front door, unhooking your coat and grabbing your keys.

And then you spot it.

A note, set beside the bowl where you keep your keys.

You ignore the hope that replaces the disappointment in your chest as you grab the piece of paper.

Wanted to get that engine running by today. Didn't wanna wake you. See you later at the hangar, yeah? Try not to think about this too much :P —P

So she didn't abandon you in the night and decide to never speak to you again. Great. You still have a chance.

Your brows furrow from the train of thought. A chance to what, exactly?

Deciding to answer that question at a later time, you stuff the note in your pocket and bolt out the door. Hopefully nothing went up in flames while you were out.

---

It was a mistake to hope, it truly was.

"I don't know how it happened boss, one second it was running fine, the next, whoosh! It just combusted!"

You shut your eyes and rub your temples with your hands. Surely you didn't jinx yourself when you left your house today. Maybe once you open your eyes, the singed winch would magically be working again.

You're momentarily tempted to scream into your hands, but decide against it for the sake for professionalism and setting a good example as a boss.

"Nope, still singed." Maybe opening your eyes wasn’t the right call. Out of sight, out of mind.

You sigh, defeated. This would have to be completely replaced, and who knows how long that would take.

"If it wasn't for that blue haired lass, the damage would've been worse, I say."

Your head snaps up at the mention of Powder. "The one with the airship we tugged yesterday?"

"That's the one."

Her ship was still at the far end of the hangar—at the docking area. Sparing a cursory glance in that direction, amid all the banging and scraping sounds that echo off in the hangar, you wonder if she had finished up her engine.

"See where she went afterwards, Buck?" You turn back to the older man, who offers you a half-hearted shrug.

"I dunno, just told me to check on anything else that was plugged into the same place as the winch. Turned around, and poof, she was gone." He says as he scratches his chin in thought. "Fast one, she is."

Half of your brain wants to seek her out, but the other—more logical—part knows that you need to file paperwork for the broken winch and get in wheeled out of an active work area. You still had a job to do, after all.

You resign and click your tongue, asking Buck to help you get the winch off to storage while you return to your office and fill out the dreaded paperwork. After making sure that there weren't any other pieces of equipment that got damaged. If there was anything else damaged, then that would be its own can of unfortunate wor—

"Lass wouldn't stop asking about 'ya, by the way." Buck says, wiggling his eyebrows at you as you start loading the winch onto a cart. "Sounded like she had an interest in 'ya."

"Yeah? What'd you tell her?" Hopefully, looking away would be enough to hide the smile slowly forming on your face, though it's doubtful, as you hear Buck laugh from behind you as the cart squeaks along.

"Nothing but glowing reviews boss. The others…can't speak for 'em."

You roll your eyes. "Great, now I have to find her after all my paperwork and tell her not to believe any of you."

"Paperwork?" He says as he stops abruptly, the weight of the winch immediately stopping your pulling as well. "Don' tell me you're gonna go back to work when there's a pretty girl looking for 'ya."

"We're at work, Buck." You deadpan.

"Eh who gives a rat's arse about work right now." He grins, shaking the cart out of your grip. "Go get 'ya girl and do the paperwork after."

"I have a lot of things—" "Heard she was done with her engine and getting ready to leave."

The words die in your throat, and Buck's grin widens at your expression—you probably look like a blubbering fish—as he successfully pulls the cart out of your grip.

"Be a shame if 'ya miss her."

The small slip of paper shoved into your pocket suddenly feels heavy. She wrote that she'd see you, so she wouldn't leave, would she?

Fuck paperwork.

"You know what, I'll pull in overtime."

You can hear Bucks laughter as you walk resolutely to where the airships are parked. More of a light jog really, but you weren't gonna tell Powder that. Besides, you eventually slow down once you catch sight of her airship, the engine still popped open at the back. Seeing as she isn't outside working on it, you hazard a knock on the airship’s door.

"It's open!" A muffled voice replies from inside.

You take a second to collect yourself, before grabbing the handle and pulling the door open.

"Hey." You manage, poking your head through the door way. Powder is busy tinkering with something on her desk, and you briefly smell burnt iron wafting through the air. "You know inhaling this stuff is bad for you, right?"

Powder turns her chair around, pulling a pair of goggles over her head. "So don't breathe it in, duh."

This earns a snort from you, inadvertently inhaling the offending fumes. "Of course, silly me." You say as you cough and try to fan out the smell with your hand.

"Can't believe your great perhaps is gonna end with you getting killed by air." Powder does little to hide the amusement in her voice. "Couldn't get killed by pirates in Bilgewater, but Gods forbid you inhale some smoke."

"Har, har." Initially you wanted to be pissed at her for not waking you up. But the easiness of how she carries herself, standing up and walking around the ship, unbothered, and how she speaks to you is already enough to let your guard down.

"So are you a vampire, and I have to invite you in, or…"

You roll your eyes at her, but smile on your face betrays your mood as you close the door behind you. Leaning against the side wall, you pull out the note she left you earlier that morning. "I was late today, you know."

"Oh, I heard. Something about the Port Master slacking off."

Your smile drops. "Wait, really?"

"What? No." She quickly follows, slightly alarmed by the shift in your mood. "I'm joking, clearly. Gods, you are a stickler for that professional bull." 

A relieved breath escapes your lips. "Oh okay, good. Also, I'm not a stickler for it…I'm just trying to set a good example."

"No flirting with the customers, but once you're off the clock you're good?"

"Pretty much."

"All that flirting only to miss three chances to kiss someone?" She says as she holds up three fingers. "Wasted effort if you ask me."

"Hey, I only counted two!"

"And yet, there were actually three. You're gonna have to live with that, chief."

You're about to insist your point again, but you're brought back to why you suddenly rushed over here. You look over to your pocket—the note once again tucked inside—then back to Powder, whose eyes are also trained on the aforementioned piece of paper.

A few seconds pass, before you're able to find your words.

"So… Will I get a chance to figure it out?" Her eyes snap to you, narrowing slightly. "The third kiss? Or are you planning on leaving soon?"

You think you see her the corner of her lips curl just a little, before her expression turns nonchalant as she shrugs. "Depends."

"On what?"

A crashing noise from outside pulls the both of you back to reality, as you hear voices grumbling about cleaning up a mess. Powder lifter herself into a desk, wood creaking under her weight. There's an indiscernible—Disappointment, maybe?— look on her face, before she forces a smile and nods towards the door.

"Go do your fancy job."

You push yourself off the wall and take a step towards the door. You could. You should, right at this instant. But you've spent the better half of your great perhaps doing a whole lot of unremarkable known, instead. And as much as you liked living in comfort and knowing what comes next, you didn’t much like the thought of walking out this ship without finishing this talk with Powder.

"Word of advice? Think less."

You drop your hand that was about to reach for the door handle, turning around to face Powder. The surprise is evident in her features, but you don't give her time to whip out whatever snarky remark she has. You close the distance in two steps, then your lips crash into hers.

It doesn't take long for her to grab onto you and pull you closer. Not long for her to smile into the kiss, or for her hands to make their way into your hair; yours onto her waist. You feel heady, almost. Forgetting everything that's happening around you and just enjoying the moment.

Until there's another crash outside, loud enough that you pull apart in surprise.

You sigh, exasperated. Not daring to open your eyes, you lean your forehead against hers. "Fuck."

She chuckles softly against your lips, before placing a chaste kiss and gently pushing you away. "Go, before something blows up."

And you relent—though reluctantly—backing away towards the door, not taking your eyes off of her. Just the sight of her, flushed and smiling, is nearly enough to make you ignore your job. But you have time, you know you have time. Something about the glint in her eyes as she smiles at you, how relaxed she looks sitting back on the desk.

It's over a celebratory dinner, just the three of you, at one of your usual haunts in Piltover, where you get the inkling that Jayce and Viktor are acting just a tad bit strange.

At first, you think it's just cause they're nervous about the report you'll need to file with the council about the Hex Coil project. Maybe they were running scenarios in their head that the council will want to monopolize its use, and charge people a shit ton just to be able to install it; or worse, a subscription service.

But as you're wolfing down one too many salted egg calamari, it occurs to you that this kind of jumpy behavior is often associated with them needing a big favor from you. Like the time you had to do the company's books, or when they told you that they had volunteered you to look after Poro while Heimerdinger's was away.

"Alright," You start. Jayce stops mid-drink of his beer, Viktor mid-chew of his noodles. "Spit it out."

Viktor immediately slurps more noodles, and shrugs, leaving Jayce to fend for himself. Your eyes flit to Jayce, waiting for him to fill you in on whatever he and Viktor were avoiding.

"Uhm—well." His eyes dart around the restaurant, as if something would swoop in to save him. Viktor, finishes up chewing his noodles, and sighs.

"Violet would like to speak with you. I think it is a horrendous idea, but Jayce thinks you should go see her."

"Oh."

"Woah, hold on a second!" Jayce holds his hands up. "I'm not going to try to talk you into seeing her. That's purely up to you, and whatever you decide, we support."

"But?"

He looks off to the side before back to you. "But, my own personal opinion, she seemed sincere in wanting to speak to you."

"She also told us about what happened between you and Powder." Viktor cuts in, earning him a Hey! from Jayce. He shrugs in response.

You lean back on your chair and cross your arms, eyes darting between the two of them. On the one hand, You couldn't say that you were keen on speaking to her, seeing as she's Jinx's sister and they tell each other everything. Jinx telling her about your shouting match isn't really out of character. On the other hand, you do feel like you owe her for what she did for you at the party.

The more you think about it, the more surprised you were that you aren't completely abhorred by the idea. It looks like the high from a successful Hex Coil test deterred any and all bad mood swings, no matter what they were. Except with Jinx, you were still pissed about that.

"Yeah, okay." You say as you shrug.

"We completely understand—"

"Totally valid—Wait what?"

"I beg your pardon?"

You wish you could pull your phone out and snap a phot of their agape mouths, but you decide to take the high road and answer them first.  "Yeah, okay. I can talk to Vi. When does she want to meet?"

It's Jayce who recovers first. "Really?"

"Yes, Jayce."

"You heard me correctly, didn't you?" Viktor says, raising an eyebrow.

"Yes Viktor. Vi wants to speak with me, I'm willingly agreeing to."

He sits up straight. "Are you sure that's a good idea?"

"Well, do you know why she wants to talk to me? That would help me decide whether it's a good idea or not." They both shake their heads.

A thought occurs to you, and you grin. "You two weren't banking on the Hex Coil working before telling me this, were you?" They shake their heads and quickly try to dispel any notion that they would do that, and you laugh. "Alright, alright. Would you have told me this if it didn't work?"

"Probably not."

"Definitely not."

"Fair enough."

Vi wants to talk, huh? The more the thought sits with you, them more curious you get. What did she even want to talk about? Did Jinx ask her to speak with you? Probably not, you muse. Even though Vi was her closest confidant, Jinx's pride would never let her ask her sister for help in this department.

Your face sours momentarily at the thought of Jinx, but you're able to recover quickly enough, turning your attention back to Jayce and Viktor.

"Well, I guess I'm okay with speaking with her. Besides," You shrug, "I kind of owe her for the whole party thing, might as well hear her out." Viktor sits back in his chair, seemingly gauging whether or not you're being genuine. Jayce is tapping his finger on his beer glass, waiting if you're going to say anything else. The former sighs.

"Well, I guess, if you believe that this isn't for any nefarious reasons, you could go see her."

You stifle a laugh. "Why would you think that she'd have nefarious reasons to speak to me." He shrugs and takes a sip of his wine before muttering You never know.

"So it's settled, then." Jayce says. "I'll let her know that you're okay to talk. She left me her card," He slides over Vi's business card to you. "Said you can text her what time you're available, and she'll adjust."

You take the card, flipping it through your fingers. Detective Sergeant it read, and you whistle at the rank. "Someone's moving up in the world."

"Not as much as you'll be moving up once we get the Hex Coil up and running." You grin at Jayce's words. It looks like the success of the Hex Coil not only boosted your mood, but could immediately make you forget about whatever else you were previously talking about.

"To the fucking—ow! Sorry." You rub the spot Viktor slapped on your shoulder, as he nods towards the customers that turned their heads your way. "—to the Hex Coil." You say, voice a few notches quieter, and raise your glass.

"To the Hex Coil." Your mentors say.

---

"I don't know about this."

"Well you won't be able to tell anything with your eyes closed—ow!"

"You're not helping, Mylo!" Your grip on the tree trunk tightens as Vi continues to scold Mylo. You hazard a look at the squabbling teenagers, all standing on a thick tree root, big enough to hold the weight of several adults, safely; across a huge river crossing, too huge for you to jump over!

"I'm just saying, even Powder made it across." Mylo retorts, gesturing to Powder, who was also trying to coax you to jump.

"I don't think I can make it." You say, turning your head to hide in the trunk. As long as you can't see the river, it can't hurt you.

"You'll be fine! I got you!" Violet calls out. You turn your face away from the trunk, and blink.

---

"I got one chicken, one beef gyro with fries to go for number nineteen!"

You look up from your phone as your order is announced. Despite the long queue of people during the lunch rush, you were hardly deterred from ordering your favorite--cholesterol infused, according to Viktor--lunch items. Despite Viktor's warning faintly echoing in your mind, and the fact that this particular food truck is way too far for you to make it back to the office in time, you don't mind making the walk there. After all, Jayce did give you the option to have the afternoon off, since you had a personal errand to run.

"I had drinks with those?" You tell the server as you hand him your number. A scrawny looking kid with a mop of red hair, can't be older than sixteen, shuffles around the bag and inspects the receipt.

"Oh sorry" He says. A tap on his shoulder prompts him to step to the side as a large burly man comes into view through the window, handing you two sodas.

"Orange and root beer?" The man says to you. You grin as you take the sodas and the bag of food.

"You know me too well, Jericho. Thanks!" Jericho winks at you before waving you off, looking over the new orders that had just come in for the truck. Just as you're about to head off to the side, you hear someone call out your name.

You turn and spot the source of the voice, donned in her Enforcer uniform, with her shiny badge on her waist.

You'll never admit this to Vi, of course, but you spent a good chunk of the week running through how you were going to start this conversation. All the introductions you could make without you looking like a complete idiot. You weren't exactly on good terms with her—you were on terrible terms—before your confinement, and even when your circles intermingled again, neither of you made an effort to seek the other out. Between that, what she did for you back at Jinx's party, and now the invitation to talk—you weren't sure how you were gonna go about the entire ordeal. You decided to play it off how you would meet up with Viktor or Jayce. Whatever that meant.

"I got us food." You raised the bag and two sodas, an offering of peace. Vi eyes the bag, then the food truck, then lets out a small smirk.

"Some things haven't changed, I see." She grabs the sodas from you, freeing up one of your hands. You see through the air of nonchalance; she's following your lead.

You shrug. "Jericho's the best."

"Indeed he is."

A beat of silence passes as neither of you know what to say next. Vi shuffles in place, and you rub the back of your neck.

"The park's still there-"

"You know the park-"

You pipe down at the same time, before you chuckle, the tension around the both of you easing up.

"The park then?" She asks.

"Lead the way detective." You nod to the direction of the park. Eventually falling in step with Vi.

It's a short walk, and there weren't a lot of people around since most were scrambling to finish lunch and get back to work. There's a slight charge to the silence that settles over the both of you as you head to a set of monkey bars and some old seesaws.

You look over to Vi, who shrugs and hands you the sodas, before hoisting herself up on the bars. You hand her your lunch and pull yourself up, settling next to her. She hands you your food and soda, and you both eat in relative silence.

"So, want me to just rip off the band aid?" She says after a while.

To be honest, you thought that was how she was going to start the conversation, but you decide to not comment that, and instead nod your head. "Yeah… I mean, I'm really curious as to why you wanted to talk in the first place."

Vi is sat in front of you, but facing away and staring off at something on the ground. Nevertheless, she lets you know that she's listening by nodding her head.

"Have I angered the fuzz?" She snorts at your question, mid-chew. "You thought I wanted to talk to you cause my sister ran her mouth?"

You shrug. "It's either that or what you did for me last month at the party."

---

"You'll be fine!" Vi shouts at you again. The others have started walking ahead, looking for some place more comfortable to rest.

"What if I won't be? What if I don't make it and fall into the river?" The offending river apparently hears you, and you swear the volume of the water rushing through increases.

"I'll catch you, don't worry about it! Just… Take a breath, and run and jump!" She beckons you over with her arms.

The river is scary. Very, very scary. Too wide to jump for you. But Vi sounds like she's sure about being able to catch you, and it's not like you can find your way back on your own if you turn around.

You look over to the older girl, and she smiles at you, nodding her head over.

"Okay!" You manage.

"Alright! Just…whenever you're ready."

"Okay…" You cling to the tree for a few more seconds.

"…Any time now, bud." You make a face, resigning to the fact that you have to actually jump, and not just agree.

You hesitate for a moment, heart thudding in your chest as you slowly inch your foot forward, little by little. Eventually, you're far enough where you have to let go of the tree. Your hand tries to stay connected to it as long as possible, eventually your fingers being too far to be able to touch.

"Good." Vi moves forward from where she is on the root. "Now just, jump when I count to three."

You nod and let out a breath, steadying yourself for the leap.

"One-"

---

"Hey, you still here?" Vi reaches over and snaps her fingers in front of you. You swat her hand away.

"Yeah, sorry, drifted off there a bit." She holds her gaze at you for a bit before nodding. Now wasn’t the best time to push the subject, not when this was your first chance to actually talk.

"So…why did you want to talk?" She leans back a bit, her legs idly swinging from under her. She looks a bit ridiculous doing it in her enforcer uniform, but you bite your tongue. That's something old chums would say. No sense of familiarity, not between the both of you.

"The party, actually."

"Hm." You purse your lips. You're surprised by your own reaction. Initially, you thought that you'd be okay discussing it, that your curiosity—and the high from the Hex Coil—would be enough of a cushion for your mood. But apparently, there's still a smidgen of bitterness at the thought of it.

Vi looks over to you. "You sure you're okay talking about it?"

"Rip the band aid off, right?" You say, taking another bite.

She nods. "Rip off the band aid…" A sigh, as she sets her food down on her lap and dusts off her hands. "I like to think I saw you at the worst part of your life." Oh wow, she was actually ripping off the band aid. "But the party… I've never seen you so angry."

You stop mid-chew, considering the implied question in her words. No one had ever described you as a violent child. And you weren't an angry teenager, either. Even with your troubling history with substance abuse, you were never violent with anyone. Your first outburst had surprised even you. It earned you a beating from the officers back in the day.

"A lot happened in between, Vi." You take a swig of your soda. "I tried figuring that stuff out with a therapist, she said it was a lot of unregulated emotions that kind of overflowed—which I think is utter bullshit." She snorts at your remark. "Cause we supposedly worked through all of those issues. But clearly the party shows otherwise."

"When did it start? Was it someone messing with you in juvie?"

"I got messed with as much as all the other kids did." You shrug. "I can't tell you how it started, really. It just happened one day, then I was angry all the time."

There's a look in Vi's eyes you know too well. Pity. It was a look that Jayce had thrown at you a lot when he first heard your story, not long after the two of you met. It wasn't his fault he had such a terrible poker face, but you still eventually told him off and stated that you didn't need his pity. Mel had thankfully only looked at you with pity a split second before keeping her face neutral. And Viktor had never looked at you that way at all.

"You know," You start. "I used to think I was angry because I thought you narc'd on me." Her eyebrows furrow at you.

"You thought I narc'd on you and Powder?"

"I did until I remembered that she also got arrested." You take another bite of your food, chewing thoughtfully before continuing. "As much as you hated that we were using, you'd never ruin her future for it."

"And she didn't have some hotshot councilor that saw potential in her and plucked her out." She adds dryly.

"It's not my fault Mel saw potential." You add air quotes as you say it. "Anyway, the bottom line is, I don't know why I got angry, I just know it happens if you bring up mum dying or anything related to it."

"Your birthday." Her remark catches the both of you off guard, and you have to take a breath. "Yup, that too."

A few minutes of silence pass, the both of you quietly eating your food. Vi doesn't follow up with any questions about your time in juvie, and you're thankful for it. The last thing you wanted to talk about was getting beat by discipline officers or getting your head dunked into a toilet.

"I'm sorry." She says finally. You turn to her, and you're surprised by the sincerity in her eyes. "That all of that had to happen to you. And that I cut you off all those years." You scoff at the last part.

Your answer is immediate, straightforward, rehearsed. "I think I would've done the same if—"

"You were a kid." She interjects, but it doesn't really change your sentiments.

Enough time should have already passed for you to not be bothered. You know you shouldn't be bothered, but your jaw still tightens. "I was old enough to know right from wrong."

"Still—"

"I made peace with that part, Vi." You say firmly, more to convince yourself than her. There was no need for any of you to dwell in the past. "Besides, it got me here. So I guess—I guess it worked out in the end."

She holds your gaze, looking for any cracks in your resolve. The moment passes when she sighs deeply, still in obvious disagreement with you. But she doesn't push the subject, and another stretch of silence passes between you two.

"Mylo and Ekko are sorry, too." She settles.

"Really?" You ask sarcastically.

"They are." She insists, turning fully towards you. "I know Jayce and Cait told you to steer clear of them, but it was me who asked them to do that. You know, while I tried to get them to see sense."

"Why are they suddenly so sorry?"

"Because they realized they were being outright dicks? Especially since they haven't seen you in years?"

A snort. "Or you twisted their arms."

She shrugs, a smirk playing on her lips. "Maybe, maybe not. But they're sincere, I swear."

You feel yourself relax a bit, the tension in your shoulders dissipating. "I'm sorry for what I did at the party." Vi purses her lips, before nodding. "You shouldn't have beat the crap out of those two, but you shouldn't be apologizing, either."

The two of you finish off your lunches as a comfortable silence settles over the empty playground. Judging by the lack of people running around the sidewalk, you guess that it's probably well past lunch time, and at some point, you should be heading back to work.

Right on cue, your phone buzzes. A message from Jayce.

Do you need the afternoon off? It's fine if you do.

"Do you need to be getting back?"

A shrug. "I probably should."

Vi nods, jumping off from the monkey bars and dusting herself off. You follow suit, and the both of you are left at an awkward point where you have to say goodbye.

"Listen." She starts. Shuffling around on her feet. "Thank you, for agreeing to meet with me. I know this wasn't easy for you."

"You caught me at a good time, actually." She raises an eyebrow at you. "We had a breakthrough at work, so I was in a really good mood when Jayce and Viktor told me about this."

"Oh. Would you not have met with me if you just had a normal day at work?"

"Maybe? I think still would've. This conversation was kind of long overdue, yeah?"

"Yeah. That and…" She trails off a bit, but you wait patiently as she tries to find her words. She stands up straighter, and looks you straight in the eyes.

"I want to fix things."

She waits for a beat for you to react. Not that you could, the words were still processing in your head. "I know it's been years, and I've also been a complete dick to you in the last few months, but I wanna try and make up for it… For all of it."

You blink, then blink again. The shock on your face must be obvious, because Vi is quick to put her hands up in a placating manner. "Only if you want to. I'm not gonna force us all to go back to how we were when we were kids. I don't know if we can go back to how things were. But I'd really like to try, at least, and the guys would too."

Whatever initial expectations you had prior to meeting with Vi, whatever guess you could've made on why she wanted to meet, this definitely wasn't in any of them. After all the silence—and the minor hostility at times—here was an olive branch; a request to start over.

You like to think that any self-respecting person would turn down her offer. Anyone who's been cut-off then treated poorly should know better. People are only ever in your life for as long as they need to be, and clinging onto old memories and feelings is unneeded, cruel to yourself, even.

---

"I'm sorry I couldn't jump, Vi."

"Don't sweat it, kiddo."

You look over to her, checking to see if she's upset. She was looking forward to this trip, after all. "You're not mad at me?"

"F'course not." She nudges you with her shoulder, mouth half-full of food. "Why would I be mad?"

"Cause I wasn't brave enough to do it?" She scoffs, inhaling the rest of her sandwich. "So you weren't ready to jump over a river, you'll be ready one day. Maybe not tomorrow or a week from now, but one day."

You consider her words as you take a tentative bite from your own sandwich; packed by your mom for the trip there. "What if I'm never ready?"

A shrug. "Then we don't go over this river."

"But what if the others want to jump over?"

"They can jump over, me and you can hike around it."

"Even if you want to jump over?"

"I'd rather all of you safe and having fun."

"Even if you can't jump over this river forever?"

"Even if I can't ever jump over this river forever."

You smile sadly at her, shoulders slumping slightly. "Mum's boyfriend says I'm a sissy sometimes."

"Yeah, well. He's a dick. Don't ever think you have to do something you don't want to." She ruffles you hair and sits back on a tree, before squinting at something in the distance. "There they are. Told you they'd come back for us… or at least for the snacks."

You follow her gaze and spot your friends waving over to you, their loud voices already bouncing off the trees. Vi stands up and starts walking towards them, before turning back to you. "I'll always be there for 'ya kiddo. Alright?"

---

"And Jinx?"

A shrug. "Eh, she's a big girl now. You're issues with each other are yours."

You snort. "Does she know you're doing this?"

"Yeah, duh. She'd kill the both of us if I didn't tell her about it first." "And she's fine with this?"

"She said I could do what I want."

you narrow your eyes slightly. "So what, are you gonna have a family dinner and invite me over, or something?"

"Actually," She takes the bag of wrappers and empty sodas, walking over to a trash bin "I don't know if Jayce told you this yet, but we're all going camping next weekend."

You raise an eyebrow at her. "Camping?"

"Yup, the guys wanted to go, so I invited Cait, Cait asked if she could invite Jayce..." Vi continues to ramble on how Jayce said yes and invited Mel, but that Viktor had turned him down.

Stuck in the middle of the wilderness with people you aren't on the best terms with—sans Jayce and Mel—for an extended period of time, sounds like a terrible idea. Anyone in their right mind would immediately say no, also, your ex—did you two break up? Were you officially dating?—was going to be there. A bad idea, very bad idea.

Almost as bad as jumping over a river.

"I'll... I'll think about it."

Vi stops mid-sentence, eyes wide. The hopeful glint in her eye is evident as she lets out a breath. "Really?"

"That doesn't mean I'm leaning towards a yes, Vi."

"No, yeah, totally, it's fine." The hope fades a bit, but you still see it. "Just... Let Jayce know, yeah? And he'll let me know?"

"Sure, Vi."

She wipes her hands on her pants, a pensive smile on her face. "I'll uh, see you around?"

One

The feeling of wetness on the side of your face wakes you up—your entire left side, actually—as a dull ache starts to throb in your head. Barely registering the rain pelting down on you, you open your eyes and try to catch your bearings.

There's a loud ringing in your ears, but you can make out muffled shouting and gunfire, the sizzling in the air followed by a boom. It triggers the fight or flight response in you, but everything is hurting and you can't remember how you even ended up here. You should be doing something right now, but for the life of you, you can't figure out what.

Your hand wipes at your ear as you open your eyes to inspect it, an unsurprising streak of red on your fingers is starting to smear as the rain continues to pour. Your vision swims for a few seconds, and you figure a concussion is going to be added along with the possible ruptured eardrum in your list of injuries.

Thankfully, your gaze focuses on the sight ahead of you. The familiar bridge dividing Piltover and Zaun, cracked and blown off at sections. There are armed people hiding behind a barricade on your side of the bridge, shooting at enforcers at the other end.

You plant your hands on the concrete and try to push yourself up, getting to about knee level before a sharp pain in your foot knocks the wind out of you and fall back down. It only occurs to you now to look down and inspect the rest of you. Banged up, caked in dirt and blood—Whose blood was that?—and your clothes torn at odd places. Your foot is still there, and it's not dangling off at an awkward angle, at least. You grit your teeth and try to move the injured limb. The pain wracks through your body, but your foot moves nonetheless. Sprained, not broken; good.

An explosion next to you pulls you back into reality and starts up your sense of urgency as you crawl your way over to cover. Hiding behind a fallen pillar, you take a second to breathe and get your bearings. A number of people run past you, all carrying guns and explosives from what you can make out—Why are we in a gun fight with the Pilties?—all ignoring you as they erect more barricades and set their weapons up. It might be the adrenaline, but you can't for the life of you remember how you ended up in this situation. What the hell were you doing here?

You close your eyes and try to block out the pain from your head and ankle, willing yourself to recall the events prior this firefight.

This was all planned. Carefully planned over the course of years.

The painstaking effort it took to build weapon factories in the fissures to stay out of Piltover's radar.

the underground hand-to-hand combat classes.

"You know, you say we should feel like we're all one people—"

Expanding Zaun southwards to facilitate growth for the future.

"Is that a wild rune?"

"I have no idea what that is."

Noxus antagonizing you for trying to build a better city for your people.

"No, don't touch it!"

"Ekko—"

Your thoughts are interrupted when a pair of hands grab you by your shoulders. Your eyes snap open at the figure in front of you, her pink eyes all too familiar. She looks worried—about you, no less—and affection blooms in your chest the same time a feeling of repulsion comes over you. Jinx, you try to say, but you're still reeling from your injuries and your attempt to recall what had just happened, that you're not able to utter a word. She's speaking, but you can barely make out what she's saying because of the ringing in your ears. You try to read her lips, but your mind is too hazy to make sense of her words.

She realizes that you're not understanding her at all, and she spots the blood still coming out of your ear. As she moves to gingerly wipe off some of it with a gloved hand, you instinctively—instinctively??—lean into her touch. She pulls out a small vial with a needle at the end of it. The pink glow of its contents immediately tells you that it's shimmer, as Jinx takes off the cover with her mouth and spits it out to the side.

"No." You say. At least you think you do, you can't really hear yourself. You hand grabs her wrist holding the needle, but she's faster and leans her hand away just out of reach from you. She grabs your own with her free hand, and gives you an apologetic look. You're not sure why, but you can almost tell that she's trying to say this'll help, I promise.

The smile alone is enough to make you relent, and a part of you is bewildered at the fact. Still, you put your hand down and let her stab the needle into your thigh, its contents seeping through.

You lurch forward at the sensation, but she catches you and holds you as you tense up from the high that shimmer delivers with it. You grab onto her as you wait for the effects to subside.

"It's okay, you're okay, I've got you." She whispers into your hair. You relax, slowly but surely. Besides the fogginess you still feel, you're a million gold coins. You gently push yourself away, taking a look around, your sense suddenly heightened. A short side effect of shimmer, if you remember right.

"Jinx." You finally manage. "Are you okay?"

She scoffs, but you know that it's not out of hostility. "Don't you think I should be asking you that?"

She has a point. A part of you wants to contradict her for the fun of it, but this isn't the place, or time. You peek over the side of the pillar, the barricades are holding strong, even gaining ground over Piltover. The momentary safety provided by cover is enough for you pull Jinx and yourself on your feet.

Her face if covered in dirt and grease. She was supposed to be working on Fishbones, away from the front lines. "You're supposed to be on higher ground."

"I'm not gonna sit on my ass while you're all here risking your lives. Besides—" She pushes a rifle onto you. "Fishbones is ready. Once the Noxian's ship is even an inch within range, they're done for."

You shake your head. "You're better if you're—"

"No." She starts. She has a determined look in her eye, the same one she sports when she wants you to drop an argument. And you drop it, every single time.

"I'm just as good as a shot as you. And we're winning." She gestures toward the bridge, where the line of enforcers and Noxians troops are slowly but surely backing away. "We'll need as many boots here as we can. You said it yourself, the hardest part is gonna be holding the line once they call for negotiations."

Your grip tightens on the rifle. You were so close to freeing Zaun. Wait what?

Freeing Zaun? No, you needed to save your tree, with the firelights, and all the refugees. You needed to find Ekko, and Heimerdinger, and Jayce. Jinx… Jinx was the enemy. She killed your friends before, blown up your safehouses, let Silco flood the streets with shimmer—

"The Noxians ships are here!"

You both turn to the east side of the bridge, and spot the fleet approaching. Their pace glacial because of the narrow path on the water. They start deploying smaller boats filled with their soldiers, headed for the small docks on your side of the bridge. You turn back to Jinx, her eyes are still trained on you. She takes a breath, and opens her mouth to say something—

"Cap! We're armed and ready!" A blob of pink hair catches your attention; it's Vi, waving over to you from a distance away. "Give the signal!" You look up to the rooftops above her, a group of people rolling three launchers forward, all trained on the large vessels in the water. The blue glow coming from the HexTech gemstone running through lines on the launchers they were all hauling. One for each ship.

"This is it." You say as you grab Jinx's arm. "Go take cover."

"And leave you here? Fat chance."

"Jinx."

"I'm staying." This stubborn little—You sigh, now was not the time for a petty argument. You were about to give the go signal for a possible war-ending—or war escalating—attack. You settle for pulling Jinx with you as you zigzag towards where Vi is, bullets flying everywhere.

"We're armed and ready." She says as she crouches next to you. You know you can't delay the command, but a pit settles in your stomach as the weight of your decisions starts to sink in. The number of lives that'll be lost from this.

But you don't have the luxury in time, not in war. All you have is the culmination of your split second decisions and the consequences that follow.

"Tell them to fire." You state it with such calmness that it surprises the three of you. Vi nods, nonetheless, and gives the signal to the fighters on the rooftop.

In the few seconds that the high pitched screech of the launchers resonate through the air, the battlefields becomes silent. All eyes trained on the rooftops of Zaun, then the Noxian ships.

The first rocket hits a ship. A loud bang is heard as it makes contact, followed by a muffled explosion as smoke starts to billow out of the ship. The vessel groans and slows to a stop, as a line of soldiers dressed in red start abandoning ship as fires start erupting out of doors and windows. The other two ships follow the same fate. A loud bang, an explosion, the smoke, and people desperately trying to get away.

You stare at the horrific sight in front of you. There are no sounds from the guns firing from each side, no bangs from projectiles being launched from mini Hex gates. Everyone has stopped whatever they were doing and were now watching people on ships, trying to escape the inferno quickly building up.

Your head throbs, and you stumble as you try to walk towards the bridge. Jinx catches you as you fall to your knees, your head suddenly as heavy as lead, the ringing in your ears returning, louder this time. Jinx is trying to tell you something, but your vision begins to blur, and you feel like you need to just… shut your eyes for a few moments.

-----

Two

"Hey, Ms. Port Master extraordinaire? Hello?"

The snap of fingers brings you out of your stupor. You blink a few times before clearing your throat.

"Sorry." You try to flash a smile to the woman in front of you. Her eyes scrutinize you for a brief moment, seemingly trying to figure out what was going on in your mind, before her infuriatingly attractive smirk adorns her face.

"Didn't peg you for a lightweight."

You snort as you take a sip from your glass. "I'm not a lightweight."

"The zoning out is kind of a dead giveaway."

"I wasn't zoning out. I was lost in your eyes."

"You weren't even looking at me."

"I had to look away cause I was getting lost in your eyes?"

She lightly punches your arm—damn she's strong—before leaning against the counter of the busy bar. You sit close to each other, citing the noisy atmosphere and the hindrance that would cause during your conversation, but you both know better. You wanted to sit close because she was, pardon your French, too fucking attractive. Hers, you weren't sure yet, but you'd be able to find out eventually.

"I'm guessing you don't get lost in all of your customers' eyes, too?"

"Just yours." You’re not a lightweight, that much you’re certain. Tipsy, however, you very much are. If the brazen flirting wasn’t making it obvious enough.

"And you weren't out last night with some poor girl who also had engine troubles?" You put a hand over your chest.

"You're breaking my heart here, blue." The feigned hurt in your voice does little to deter the eye roll that Powder gives you. You let out a laugh as you put your hands up as a mock sign of peace. "Hey, I swear I was trying my best to be professional earlier, but I'm off the clock now, so I can flirt as much as I want."

"Oh, we're flirting?" You furrow your brows at her.

"Was that not clear?"

"Nah, not really."

"Do you platonically get lost in people's eyes?"

"Maybe. How do I know you don't take girls here every night? I could ask the bartender."

"Go ahead, he's an unbiased party. Besides," You shrug. "Even if I did, I'm a regular here so he wouldn't snitch on me."

"Don't put words in my mouth you muppet." the burly man working behind the bar walks towards the two of you, refilling your drinks. He winks at Powder. "Don't worry love, I'd sell this one for a sack of potatoes—"

"Hey!"

"But." He says, a thick eyebrow raised at you. "Lil' missy here isn't a revolving door of lovers. In fact, I don't reckon' she's ever brought someone here. Or landed a date, actually—" Powder snorts into her drink, and you take it as a sign that it's time to usher the barkeep away.

"Okay, thank you Ed, for the refills. I think there's some people asking for you over there." Ed laughs as he lumbers over to the other side of the bar. You keep your eyes on him until you're sure that he's occupied, before turning back to Powder. "I do in fact, get dates. For the record."

"Oh, of course, I totally believe you."

"I mean it."

"Completely believe you."

"Okay, now you're just messing me." Your ego is a bit bruised at Ed's interruption, the shit eating grin on Powder's face isn't helping either. But she's smiling, and for some ungodly reason, you consider it as a win. You shake your head and take a longer sip from your drink, why the hell were you so sappy all of a sudden?

"Okay, okay. Sorry, toots." She nudges you with her shoulder. "No more teasing."

You raise an eyebrow at her. "No more bruising my ego?" She shakes her head and crosses over her heart.

"Nope. Serious questions only, from this point forward."

"Oh? Like what?" You turn to her and prop your chin on your hand.

"Like…" She bites her lip and looks at a random spot on the wall of drinks across from you, momentarily in thought. At this point, you're not even trying to hide your staring. She doesn't call you out on it when she looks back at you, but a small smirk plays at her face. “You’re drunk.”

“Just as drunk as you are.”

“I’m not drunk yet.”

“You’re literally slurring your words right now.”

“…I’m tipsy.”

You do your best to hold back a chuckle. “Hi tipsy—“

“Gods, please don’t.” She groans and hides her face in her hands. “I was just starting to find you attractive.”

“I thought we were done bruising my ego?”

“The dad jokes make you free real estate.”

“Okay, alright.” You laugh. Gently prying her hands away from her face. “Just ask me your question.“

She relents, but doesn’t let go of your hand as she sets her hand down the counter. “Hmm…”

“Did you grow up here?”

“Here? No, I only came here about five years ago. Looking for my great perhaps and all.” A momentary ring in your ear causes your breath to hitch, but Powder doesn’t seem to notice.

“Where are you from?” She continues, her eyes slightly glazed but reflecting her curiosity.

“I’m from—“

The Free Nation of Zaun

The Undercity

Why the hell would I tell you?

“Hey.” Jinx gives your hand a gentle squeeze. You do your damn best not to yank your hand away. “I’m sorry, you don’t have to tell me.”

Bilgewater, you’re from Bilgewater.

“No, it’s okay.” You squeeze her hand back before she has the chance to pull away. "Could you give me a second?"

You wait for her to nod before you push yourself off the stool and make your way to the bathroom. You quickly lock the door and rest your head against it. The ringing in your ears returns, and your breathing becomes ragged. "Where the hell am I?" You look over to the bathroom mirror, and you're surprised to see the figure standing in front of you.

Your hair is different; your face—you look healthier? Not someone who grew up in the Undercity. You walk over to the sink, planting both hands on either side, scrutinizing your features further. It's you alright, somehow. Only it's also not.

Born in Bilgewater, left for adventure, ended up here working at the port.

"No." You shut your eyes as you shake your head. "I was born in the Undercity, I'm a firelight, we came across a wild rune and… now I'm here. I need to find Ekko, and Jayce, and Heimerdinger." You repeat the words a few more times, just to make sure you don't forget. The sound of water flowing out of the faucet as you turn a knob offers little comfort, but the cold sensation of the water when you splash your face helps.

You're about to turn and exit the bathroom when you spot something on your arm.  A small thing, peeking out of your sleeve. You gasp as you pull your sleeve back, the web-like patterns of the wild rune threading a line over your forearm.

You needed to find out what was happening, and why you've already encountered Jinx twice, every time you did whatever you were doing. Were you hallucinating? Did you just hit your head and was currently having a really trippy dream? You decide to think this over once you shake off Jinx, Powder, whoever she is. Easier said than done, since you kept acting like some lovesick fool.

When you return to the bar, Jinx is still there. Her back is turned to you, but her shoulders are slumped in a way that you can immediately tell that she's not in a good mood.

"Oi." Ed flicks your ear, ignoring your protest. "What the hell are you doing, making that sweet lass upset?"

I wouldn't use sweet to describe her.

"Sorry, I—uh, I'll fix it."

"Damn right you will. You come across someone like that once every lifetime." He pushes you toward the bar, before going back to clear a table.

"Sorry about that." Her head whips up in surprise, clearly not expecting you to be back. "Lost myself for a bit there."

"I…I thought you snuck out, honestly. It's no big deal, happens sometimes." She shrugs, her shoulders tense. She's trying to be nonchalant about you suddenly excusing yourself, but she was still slurring her words, and her gestures were becoming uncoordinated, so it wasn't really working. She looked more upset the more she tried to play it off.

You reach over the bar and grab a pitcher of water and a glass, filling it up and handing it over to her. "I'm really sorry about that."

She glares at the glass before reluctantly downing its contents "S'fine." A few beats of silence pass, and you unexpectedly feel guilt start to bubble up in your chest. No. No. No.

“I grew up in Bilgewater.”

"Huh?"

"You asked earlier, where I was from? Bilgewater. Terrible place, really." 

She folds her arms on the counter and rests her head on them, closing her eyes. “Why’d you leave?”

“You get sick of the smelly pirates? Though, I do have to give them credit, their wild stories of adventure and conquest is what made me leave in the first place.”

"You didn't just join some random ship?"

You chuckle. "And get myself killed for some dumb mistake? No thanks." You refill her glass with water, before picking up your own and swirling the brown liquid around. You recall working in a bar, up in the higher levels of Bilgewater, where adventurers spent the coin that they made from their exploits, before begrudgingly having to go back down and gather a crew to earn more. A vicious that kept repeating itself. Sometimes, if they were lucky, the whole crew would survive, but those instances were few and far in between.

Memories. You realize. These are all your memories, or, whoever you are here, at least.

A properly functioning Hex Gate was capable of transporting ships across continents in a split second. Does this mean a magically screwed up one could transport you to a different life entirely? Was it because of the remnants of the anomaly on your arm?

You shake your head, this was stuff that Ekko was good at, not you. You needed to find him, fast.

But first, take care of this one.

As if on cue, you hear a light snore come from next to you. Jinx is knocked out, clearly not bothered by how she's awkwardly hunched over the counter. You sigh, you have no idea how to get back home, but you decide to handle that issue tomorrow. Right now, you had a drunk Jinx to take care of.

Thankfully, you remember where you live, because having to haul around a drunk Jinx was difficult enough. Small victories though, as you realize that this is better than being stuck in the middle of a battle field. You settle yourself on your bay window, looking over to Jinx's sleeping form on your bed. Tomorrow, you'd start figuring out a way to get home. For now, you'll try to get your first wink of sleep in Gods know how long.

-----

Twenty-eight

In the indiscernible amount of time that has passed—for you, at least—you've come to realize the following things: 

You are not hallucinating, nor did you hit your head, you are, in fact, jumping through universes and different versions of yourself.

The first hurdle you had to get through was getting your bearings when you'd get thrown into another universe. It took a few tries, but eventually, you were able to come to your senses immediately after jumping to the next plane of existence you were in. You always repeated the mantra you made back in the second jump you did, the last thing you needed was to forget where you came from. The thought of aimlessly wandering through universes, feeling like you've lost your mind, you can't even imagine how terrible that would be. You needed to find the others as soon as you could.

The length of stay always varied and timelines can repeat, but there are always miniscule variations.

This was still a working theory. You've only repeated a timeline once, but you had enough wits about you to realize that some objects were a different color to their preceding counterpart, or that instead of Ekko explaining something to you, it was Scar. With how long you'd stay, there were a few instances when you'd only stay for a few minutes, but the rest spanned to about a week at the longest.

Somehow, some way, you and Jinx are connected in some way, shape, or form. In every. Single. One.

The last one was especially jarring, considering you had never even met Jinx officially back in your universe. Sure, you’ve had run-ins with her because the Firelights would frequently be trying to intercept shimmer routes, but you don't think barely surviving one of her chompers counted as an introduction. On top of that, she was your enemy back home, but in every single jump you've had so far, the two of you had a somewhat established relationship. This was good, in a way, because at least you didn't have to be on your guard constantly while you tried to figure out a way to get home.

"I can hear you thinking from over here."

Speak of the devil.

You ignore the comment from your friend. Emphasis on friend. In this universe it seemed, the both of you were Academy students in Piltover, mercifully platonic. You decided to do your best to study wild runes and HexTech when you could, but it proved to be difficult when you were distracted by that Other You's feelings for Jinx. At least this place gave you access to a literal sea of books and a clear enough mind.

"Hey, don't ignore me." Jinx opts to lightly tug at the top half of the book you're reading, and you can see her blue eyes peek through the space. That's right, no shimmer exposure in this universe.

"I'm studying." You deadpan, hoping she'll leave you alone. You get a mock imitation of your words, instead.

"No you're not, none of our classes are even looking into dusty old books about runes." She has a point. Truth be told, you're supposed to be studying about ethical practices in the field of body modification for utility uses. Which was close to nothing, really. But you can't really tell Jinx why you're reading about runes, now, can you?

"Have you ever heard of this thing called supplementary reading?" You shake the book off of her fingers, and go back to your futile attempt to learn about magic. Not that this book was any use, there wasn't even a list of runes and their definitions on here. The girl in front of you leans back on her chair and lets out an exasperated sigh.

"Ugh, you're boring. Let's go do something fun!" Her foot kicks at your shoe from under the table, and you have to lift both feet up to avoid her kicks.

"Hey! Not everyone can sleep through every class and still get high marks, Jinx." You scoot your chair out from under the table to put distance between the two of you. "Some of us have to actually study."

"What's studying without any field experience?"

"Pipe down. The librarian is gonna kick us both out, again."

She sticks her tongue out at you, but lowers her voice. "Come on, I'm dying of boredom here!" She splays out her upper half on the table, arms toppling over some of the papers and books you—Very neatly!—stacked for reference.

Your mouth forms a thin line, her rowdy, and playful personality had become apparent to you once you went through a few more universes. She'd get pissed if you ignored her for too long, but the structured environment of the Academy hindered a her from having any outbursts. So you opt to continue reading your books instead of taking the bait, quashing any urge from the You of this universe to make a side comment about her behavior.

She continues with her ranting about you not having any fun or having a stick up your ass. Her jabs get progressively more offensive, but that's how her and the Other You here interact. It's not fun for you yourself, because you didn't have the patience to make a jab at her without losing your cool.

You rub an eyebrow with one your hands, before gripping the book, willing yourself to focus on the next few pages in case they provide any useful information. You try to tune out the other girl, who has thankfully gone quiet.

You move book to book, thankful that this version of you could read and absorb information so fast. Sadly, you couldn't find anything about wild runes. Looks like Piltover was strict about distancing itself from magic as much as they could.

You don't look up from your book until you hear a grumbling from in front of you.

"What was that?" You close your book and pile it onto the Useless pile—which was all of them, really—and raise an eyebrow at Jinx, whose arms are crossed and is looking off to the side.

"doyouwannageticecream" You blink.

"Jinx, I'm not gonna understand a word you say if you keep grumbling like that."

She rolls her eyes. "I said, do you wanna get ice cream? or something."

Huh, how random.

"I made you upset earlier, and ice cream makes people feel better so..."

"I wasn't upset" You were.

"Yeah you were."

"I was annoyed."

"I know your annoyed face from your upset face."

"There's a difference?"

"So you were!" She slams her hand on the table, and is met by an irate librarian shushing her. You're once again taken aback by how different each Jinx behaves from the others. Where you were sure your universe's Jinx would have shot that poor woman, this one sheepishly rubs the back of her neck and throws a peace sign at her. If you weren't exposed to your universe's Jinx, you would have found her behavior cute. But you were exposed, so it absolutely isn't, and you're not going to play along with her to make her feel better.

"Thank for the offer jinx, but I'm not really in the mood to get ice cream." Good. "...and I'm not mad at you, or anything." You swear the last part was added in by Other You. Nonetheless, this seems to work as Jinx relaxes, resigning to making paper airplanes with the notes you had made while you went back to reading.

"Wanna break into Giopara's lab?" She starts.

"No."

"I think you'd want to—"

"No."

"If you say so." the singsong tone in her voice and the nonchalant shrug sets off alarm bells in your head. She's baiting you again.

Your eyes narrow at her. "You're being weird."

"No I'm not. I just thought—seeing as you're all interested in runes all of a sudden—you'd want to look at Giopara's vast  book collection on that very subject."

"How the hell would you even know that?"

"Cause," She shrugs again. "He keeps saying I'm not living up to my potential and tries to make me read more Hex Tech origin stuff."

Your mouth hangs open, but you manage to close it before Jinx calls you a blubbering fish. "Wait a second. You're saying you've been reading about runes and Hex Tech?"

"Yup."

"So you know that the books here in the library are useless?"

"Mhm."

"And you've been letting me waste my time reading through them like an idiot?" 

She sits back in her chair and crosses her arms. "They're not useless. They're just... Not useful."

"You're such a dick sometimes." Your remark is loud enough that the librarian to shush you as well. You whisper a sorry before turning back to Jinx.

"And you always have a stick up your ass." She whispers loudly.

"Yeah cause someone has to keep you from getting yourself killed, or worse, expelled!"

She snorts. "Really toots? Getting expelled is worse than getting killed?"

"The chances of getting expelled are higher with you, unfortunately."

She leans forward conspiratorially, a grin on her face. You don't notice yourself mirror her. "So come with me to break into his office, so I don't get expelled. Don't you want to read all those rune books? He doesn't even keep track of what gets taken out of there."

"Then why don't you just borrow them during lab hours?"

"What fun is that?"

"Jinx!"

"We'll be quick, five minutes, tops. And you'll have your dumb rune books." You grit your teeth. On one hand, You could just ask her to teach you what she knows. But you've known her—Other You!—your whole life, so you're a hundred percent sure that you'd have to pry that information out of her cold, dead, hands. On the other, Jayce's head was so far up in his own ass that Jinx was probably correct in saying he wouldn't notice any missing books.

I also don't know when I'll be yanked into another universe. There was also that.

"How sure are you that you can get us in and out that fast?"

"A million percent. Dude forgets to lock the door sometimes." She's already standing up and shoving all of your notes into your book bag, your eye twitches just the tiniest bit, before your head snaps up to look at her.

"How do you know that?" You ask as you start carrying the books to the book trolley.

"You're asking too many questions here. Less talking, more walking. Go, go, go." She ushers you out into the hallway, and the both of you start walking towards the east wing of the academy. The sun had already set, so there were much less students loitering. Still, the both of you err on the side of caution and stick to the lesser used hallways where the custodians had already turned off the lights.

You eventually find your way to the front of Jayce's lab, and Jinx wastes no time kneeling on front of the door and pulling out what looked like tools and shoving them into the door knob. This is definitely not her first breaking and entering.

"Where the hell did you get lockpicks?!" You do your best to keep your voice down, the allure of learning about runes slowly dissipating, panic replacing it.

"What did I say about less talking?" She whips around and raises her eyebrows at you, right as she turns the doorknob and opens the previously locked door.

"We're so fucked."

"You know, if we weren't stretched for time, I'd be celebrating you breaking your curse word quota for the day." She yanks her tools out of the door knob, and pushes you into the lab.

The room is nearly pitch black. Thankfully, the unlit hallways were enough for your eyes to adjust to the darkness. The low light from the moon streaming through the windows the only thing helping with your vision. Somehow, Jinx is able to navigate just fine.

"Okay, how often do you actually break in here?"

"How often is underground robot fight club again?" Robot fight club. The only thing Jinx is willing to wake up early for. Wait a second—

"Jinx!" You don't bother lowering your voice. Hoping that the closed room would be enough to muffle any sounds from coming into the hallway.

"What?"

"That's twice a week!"

"Where did you think we were getting our parts?"

"You said you knew a guy!"

"Clearly." She gestures around the room, where there were plenty of scattered machinery parts. Your face pales slightly; this Jinx was going to get You expelled, surely.

"You made me an accessory!"

"And now you're committing the crime. Congratulations, you've been promoted." She opens another door and theatrically gestures at the room. "Your little rune books await, oh great stuck-up one."

You roll your eyes at her and enter the room without any fanfare. Immediately you see that the all four walls of the room are lined with bookshelves as high as the ceiling. In the middle, a large wooden table with charts and books scattered across. Jinx stops next to you and nudges you with her shoulders. "Told 'ya. Worth the risk, right?"

"That's still up in the air."

She scoffs. "You totally think it is."

You don't want to give her the satisfaction of a reaction, but you don't even notice that you're grinning back at her until she puts an arm around your shoulders and waves her hand flippantly at the shelves. Other You's stomach does a backflip.

No. Absolutely not.

"So what are we looking for?"

You once again quash whatever physical reaction you're having. Now was definitely not the time. You walk out of her arm's reach and resort to looking around the spines of the books, already trying to spot their titles. "Wild runes."

There's a beat of silence before you hear her walking around the carpeted floor. "Wild runes huh? Yeah, I think I've seen a few of those around. Don't think I read them, though."

"That's fine." You start rifling around the shelves. Reading through anything that looked promising.

Jinx is the first to break the silence. She usually is. "So what are these books for, again?"

"I told you, supplementary reading. Also there isn't much to read on out ethics class so might as well fill my time with something fun."

Jinx doesn't reply, and you're happy to keep on reading through your books until you get a nagging feeling that you've just done something wrong.

You turn around to look at Jinx, who was plopped down on the floor and half-heartedly pulling books out, before seemingly placing them somewhere else at random. You mentally kick yourself when you notice that her shoulders are slumped. Opting to put the book search on hold, you walk over to her, hesitating for a moment before sitting down next to her.

"You know you can tell me stuff, right?" Her voice is quiet, and it's unsettling that you have the sudden urge to comfort her.

Yes, yes of course. This version of you felt completely at ease with Jinx. But you can't afford to be distracted by affection that wasn't even yours to begin with. If only you could explain that you've been universe-hopping and that in every single one of them you were in love or falling in love with her, and that you were trying to at least stall in this one so you could get as much information as you could before you got dragged into a different timeline again.

You can't, not really. But you know better than to try to lie to her.

"I think there might be another side to Hex Tech that we haven't discovered yet."

She stops rearranging the books and turns to you slightly. "What do you mean?"

"Like... Equal and opposite reactions."

"You think Hex Tech might have negative effects?" You feel your guilt lift at the curious glint in her eyes as you nod.

"Something like that. It's just a theory, though. I don't have anything to back it up."

"Well," She stands up and heads over to a shelf at the far wall. Pulling out an old looking tome. "I think this is just the book you're looking for." She blows off dust from the cover, coughing lightly from the cloud that forms. You quickly stand up and walk toward her, looking over the tome.

My ticket home—

"I don't care if they think I'm hogging too many testing hours, my methods actually work."

The door in the other room slams shut, you and Jinx immediately crouch down and move to turn the light off. Your eyes barely have time to adjust before Jinx pulls you over to the window.

"Are you crazy? We're on the second floor!" You whisper as she tries to pry it open.

"Less talking, more helping." As if on cue, you hear ruffling near the door. Less talking, more helping.

You help Jinx open the window, one hand still clutching the tome. You pray to every god out there that Jayce actually won't realize he's missing a book. The both of you swing your legs over the edge, and you grab onto the wall, suddenly feeling very nauseous. Jinx on the other hand, is grinning like a maniac.

"Aim for the bushes."

"Aim for the wha—"

You're unable to finish your sentence as Jinx pushes you out the window. You were wrong, the chances of getting killed might actually be higher than getting expelled.

While this was the first time Other You was getting pushed out of a window, this was fortunately—and sadly—not your first. Your instincts kick in and you're able to land on your feet, using the momentum to tuck and roll safely on the ground. All with the tome still clutched on one hand.

You're about to give Jinx a piece of your mind when she mouths catch me and you panic and free up your hands, just in time for her to land right into your arms. Sadly, however, strength doesn't carry over between universes as well as technique. Your knees buckle and you fall backwards. You barely have time to recover before Jinx is tucking the tome under her arm and pulling you up to your feet, already running away from the building.

You follow suit, quickly discovering that cardio was also not transferrable between timelines. Still, you keep running until your legs are burning and you see the dorms come into view, only stopping once you're both safely hidden at its side entrance.

You somehow beat Jinx to the door, your hands on your knees as your chest heaves. She comes to a stop right next to you. Planting a hand on your shoulder and using you for support.

"That was—"

"Fucking stupid."

She slaps your shoulder and laughs, commenting about how she likes this new, cussing, version of you. You take a second to compose yourself, huffing before standing to your full height, ready to give her a piece of your mind. Instead you stop short, your faces only a few inches apart. Thankfully, she seems just as surprised at the proximity, enough that she drops the infuriating grin on her face.

Her eyes flit to your lips, then to your eyes. A pointed look in hers. A challenge more than an invitation, really.

Your mind goes haywire.

There are many, many—actually so many—reasons why you should not, at all, kiss Jinx. Different timeline or not, you, specifically you, cannot do it. It would be the greatest betrayal to your people, your friends, everyone you know and love, your moral code, your promise to take down Silco's empire and clean the Undercity, Ekko, Heimerdinger and Jayce; have you mentioned your friends?

A tug at the front of your shirt, her biting her lip to stop a smile that reaches her eyes anyway, and your resolve begins to slip.

You can feel her breath on your lips.

"Stop thinking."

You will swear on your grave that it's the Other You that grabs her and closes the gap.

-----

Ninety-five

Timelines can have profound disparities from each other, but they could also have nearly miniscule, insignificant ones as well. This means that you could jump from one timeline where you were wearing a blue shirt, then a red one in the next, with everything else staying the same. Be a firelight in one, and next thing you know, you're an enforcer.

Sometimes, the big and small changes can mix things up. While they haven't been a huge inconvenience to you in the past—present, future?—they sure as hell were now.

Exhibit A: You're an enforcer.

Exhibit B: You're thrown into the mix on the day of the bridge explosion.

Exhibit C: Instead using a chomper to blow herself up, Jinx rigs the underside of the middle of the bridge with explosives.

At this point, ninety-five jumps in, you should really learn to be more vigilant when it comes to tackling unpredictable situations. Not that you can fully put yourself at fault, of course. You just wanted to make sure Ekko and his friends survived.

…And arrest Jinx so she didn't blow herself up. Then nothing else!

So why the hell am I lugging an unconscious Jinx into my apartment? You wonder as you set Jinx down on your bed. The panic and anxiety of the Other You understandably building up, seeing as she and Jinx haven't met yet. That and you're an enforcer harboring a wanted fugitive. And she killed Other You's friends, so the grief and anger are really making things confusing.

You roll Jinx onto her back, checking to see if she has any injuries. There's a deep cut on her side—courtesy of you while you were fighting—but nothing you couldn't stitch up yourself. Granted she doesn't wake up and shoot you, first.

Lumbering over to your bathroom where you kept your first aid kit, you flip the lights on. There's a semi-concerning pool of red on the front of your jacket, and your undershirt. You turn to the mirror, and spot what looks like a gash right under your breast. No big deal, it'll stop bleeding on its own. Must've been a sharp part of the bridge that nicked you as it collapsed, or maybe you cut yourself while fishing yourself and Jinx out of the harbor. Something I can fix later.

You grab a chair and settle on the side of your bed, taking out your suturing kit and disinfecting your hands. This shouldn't take too long, but that was never the problem. The problem was what would happen after Jinx wakes up.

You initially thought of just taking her to her hideout, but you ran the risk of running into Silco's people. While you could've just left at the docks—well, you don't really have a reason to not have left her at the docks, now do you?

You shake the thought out of your mind and get to work on closing the cut. It wasn't bleeding as much, but leaving it alone could get it infected, plus it would take forever to close.

Not that I care. You futilely tell yourself. As if saving her from dying, carrying her back to your home, and stitching up her wounds were normal activities between an enforcer and a fugitive—a fugitive of your creation!—on any given day. You weren't even originally planning on stopping her from dying. You know she comes back, pumped full of shimmer and allegedly a thousand times faster. Your only concern was getting Ekko to safety, but then one thing led to another, and you had your gun pointed at her as you were telling her she was under arrest. Everything should have worked out fine, if only the bridge didn't blow up.

Once her cut's been stitched up, and you change the bandage on an injury on her leg. You do a once over to check if she has any other life-threatening ailments. Once you deem that there are none, you decide change into a clean set of clothing. After slapping on a bandage over your cut—also bleeding a lot less—and putting on a sweater, your eye catches the mark the wild rune left on your forearm. You're reminded about another discovery you made: The mark was slowly fading.

You hypothesize that it had something to do with the number of times you were jumping through timelines. Did that make it a timer? Or was it a limited number of lives that was counting down to zero? And what does that mean when it runs out? Will you be stuck in that timeline forever? Or will it return you back home?

Learning about Hex Tech and runes was proving to be difficult jumping around to different timelines every few days. You'd have to pick up right where you left off every jump, and even then your access to resources was limited depending on the timeline. Not that you were making any progress, anyway. You were convinced that you needed to be a proper magic user before you could make sense of what you were learning.

You put your first aid kit away and head back into your room. It's not without difficulty, as you feel the adrenaline rush you had back at the bridge slowly ebb away; you're surprised it even lasted this long in the first place. But now you needed to rest a hand against your dresser for support, a feeling of lightheadedness starting to take over. Staying steady was actually becoming a bit difficult.

The hand you're using for support shifts to the side, as you struggle with your balance, and tips over a small container. The familiar rattling of pills catches your attention. You pick up the bottle and rattle it again before reading the label. A nagging feeling at the back of your mind is telling you that you've forgotten about something.

...Iron supplements. It read.

Uh oh.

"Fuck"

You suddenly feel like the best course of action is to close your eyes for a bit and sit on the floor to collect yourself, as you vaguely register the pill bottle clattering onto the ground.

Five seconds. That's all you need and you'll be back in tip top shape.

One.

Two.

Three.

A weight on your stomach, pushing out all the air you're trying to breathe in.

Four--

Click.

Your eyes open blearily, barely registering the barrel of a gun right in front of your eyes. Your gun, in fact. Panic and dread start to fill your senses, and for the first time since you hopped into this plane of existence, you agree with Other You's

feelings. If this was any of the preceding timelines, you would've been confident that Jinx wouldn't harm a hair on your head.

But not in this one.

You look past your gun and spot blue eyes staring at you. Some of the panic you feel dwindle when you see the curious look in her eyes—you can read her like a book at this point—and the slack of her grip on the gun. At least she isn't planning on shooting you immediately.

"Hello." You croak out, your voice hoarse from sleep. Oh no, were you a mouth breather in this timeline too?

Her hold on the gun straightens; your attention is immediately rapt and trained only on her. "Silco got you in his pocket, or something?"

You hesitantly swallow. Saying yes to buy yourself time was certainly one way to do it, but on the off chance that this was a test, that was a one way ticket to getting a bullet in your cranium.

"No."

The tip of the gun leaves your vision for a second, but you're spared no relief when you feel it jammed under your jaw. Wrong answer, then.

She comes into full view, sitting on your stomach—so that's why you couldn't breathe—boots on either side of your chest. "So what, you some kind of sicko? Saving poor 'ol me, patching me up? Or are you one of those delusional Pilties that think you can save some misunderstood girl from the Undercity?" Her head tilts to the side, a lilt in her voice as she says the last part.

"No." You struggle to get the next words out. "I swear." Your hand ball into fists as she jams the gun in deeper. Wait a second, my hands are free. I can take her do—no. No. I am not going to escalate the situation.

An oversight, or a challenge?

"You had a clear shot at me, you didn't shoot. I try to blow you up, you fish me out of the harbor and stitch up my wounds." Your eyes flit to her bandaged side She leans her face closer to yours. "Why?"

Well you see, I think we're kind of made for each other. You're tempted to say, but you doubt she's in any state to believe you. In any case, you'll actually come across as some sicko. Not that Other You would have shot her, either. You could feel the hesitation on her end when you had the gun trained on Jinx. If Marcus hadn't pulled his gun on Kiramman, she might have, but she thankfully had some sense of justice, and seeing the sheriff's true colors come out was enough to view everything with more scrutiny.

You have an inkling feeling that Other You would still end in the situation you're currently in. One way or another.

"I…I don't kno—"

"Liar!" The butt of your pistol connects with your temple, and you're nearly knocked out again. The room spins, and you're barely able to focus on Jinx again before her nails are digging into the skin on your cheeks, forcing you to face her. There's frustration written all over her face, but you know that she's just trying to make sense of the situation, if her shaking hand is any indication. Your fault, really, Other You is confused as hell, too.

She moves a foot back, and shifts so that her knee is carrying her weight—you're half thankful that it's not on your stomach anymore—as she leans forward. Her face closer now.

Your eyes focus back on hers. A mix of emotions swimming on those pools of blue; frustration, hostility, anger. But you also see panic, vulnerability, regret, and confusion. Her grip on you face loosens marginally. And then it hits you.

She didn't want to hurt you.

One thing constant in every timeline that you've been to, is the almost magnetic pull you felt towards her; the need to always have her in near proximity, and the sense of calm that would come over you if she was. And try as you might, you couldn't ignore the wave of affection that you would feel while you were with her.

Is it possible she feels this as well?

It's a risky thing to test, especially since you didn't know what would happen to you if Other You died. But it is kind of your own doing at this point.

You say nothing, hoping that she'll fill in the silence.

Her hand continues to shake, but you can tell that her anger is already wavering. You almost miss her asking you why again, she probably meant to keep it to herself.

"I don't want to hurt you either."

Risky. But you don't have a lot of options left.

She lets out a breath at your words, the gun retracts.

"Who are you?" Her voice is quiet, unsure.

Your soulmate, apparently. "Nobody." You answer semi-honestly. You were, technically, she hasn't had the chance to know you in this timeline yet.

She shakes her head and looks away. "No you're not." The softness of her tone catches you off guard. Her hand moving away from your cheek to clutch the collar of your sweater, doubly so. "You…you're familiar."

"Like we already know each other." Her eyes meet yours again, the surprise in them evident. She said those same words to you in a few past timelines. You always thought they were just little variations in those particular versions of her, but now…this just supports your hypothesis that she also cycles through the same sensations you do.

Your eye catches a faint streak of light manages to slip through your closed curtains, providing a miniscule amount of light into your dark room. "It's morning." You muse out loud, looking back at the still speechless girl on top of you. "Enforcers are going to be everywhere. You need to get out of here."

Her sense of urgency is seemingly stirred by your words, and she pulls you up along with her. Confusion still litters her features, you hope the smile you offer her is enough for comfort.

"Can you walk okay?" her mouth opens and closes a few times, still at a loss for words. You decide to push your luck, slowly reaching a hand over to touch her free arm. "Jinx."

Her brows furrow. The question of your knowledge of her name accusingly reflected in her eyes.

"I heard Kiramman say it, at the bridge." Thank goodness she actually did. Otherwise, this would've been very confusing for Other You in the future.

"I—" She starts. "I have to go."

You nod. "There's a fire escape out the bathroom window. Hold on—" You go to your dresser and pull out a hooded coat, moving to drape it over her, only to stop short when her shoulder tenses. Her eyes are trained on you, a slight air of hostility between them. You don't push to put on the coat, but you don't lower your arm either; waiting for her make the decision for you.

Her eyes flit around the room, seemingly trying to find her words around your home. She lets out a sigh, her shoulders drooping slightly. You take this as a positive sign, and gently place the coat over her shoulders. You see her hand tense around your gun, not in a threatening way, instinctively.

You slowly back away from her to give her space. She looks away from you as she slips her free hand into one of the sleeves, before grabbing the gun and slipper her other arm into the remaining sleeve. It's a little big on her, but the size and the addition of the hood is enough to hide anything that could immediately identify her.

There's uncertainty in her eyes when she looks back at you; she hesitantly lifts the hand holding the gun, the barrel clutched in her hand. "This is yours."

You shake your head. "As much as I hate to say this, you might need it."

She mutters an oh before holstering the gun in her hip. You gesture to an open door and lead her into the bathroom, pulling the window open and checking if there was anyone in the alley below. The sun was slowly but surely rising, it's rays already illuminating the dim streets in the main road.

"Coast is clear, stick to the alleys and you should be fine." You stand aside and let her climb out, her hand resting on the windowsill. The look she gives you tells you that she's trying to find an ounce of deception in your features. But she won't find any, not when it concerns her, not ever.

"I'll…I'll get you your gun back."

"Don't worry about it." You shrug. "I'll find you."

You see the ghost of a smile on her lips as she turns around and climbs down the ladder, disappearing into an adjacent alleyway.

"I always seem to find you." You mutter to yourself.

-----

One Hundred Sixty-Eight

The familiar smell of grease and burnt metal fills your nose as you enter your old workshop. Jayce had been kind enough to hand you the keys after you had asked if you could see the old place. Don't go too crazy he said. You rolled your eyes at his comment, of course. It wasn't as if you were going to steal anything as a souvenir; maybe draw something inappropriate on a whiteboard, sure. But as you drew closer to the lab, you spotted Jinx's car, and well, now you were going there for two reasons. You should have just turned around and not indulged Other You's—not yours!—thoughts. The length of time you spent in each timeline was getting longer on average, and you had to make the best of it while you could, especially with the mark slowly fading with each pass.

You walk towards the wall of the shared space, everything was still as messy as you—Other You—remembered. Diagrams and papers still littered table tops, probably permanent coffee stains on tables. But the hanging photos were new.

The first one was of Viktor and Jayce when they first started working on Hextech, just two young adults that barely knew what they were doing. The second one was of you three right after they had officially hired you. The third one was Jayce, Viktor, Ekko, and Jinx. Your eyes stray back to the middle photo, the one with you in it. The moment felt like lifetimes ago.

It's strange, looking at the person cheekily smiling back at you, already older than you in your original timeline. This body felt terribly tired, like the Other You here went through the ringer trying to get here.

The sound of a chair screeching and shuffling around one of the rooms grabs your attention. Your eyebrows furrow. Jayce didn't say anything about someone else being here, especially nearing midnight. You cautiously make your way to the room, trying not to make too much noise in case they'll think you're an intruder. The door is ajar, letting light seep through the darker main floor. There's a pull in your chest again, and you're reminded of your second objective here. Other You had wanted to speak to Jinx earlier, but couldn't because there was a line of other people that wanted your attention. By the time you broke free from the others, Jinx had already left.

A familiar warmth fills your chest. It looked like she had gone straight back to work after the party, still in her dress, heels discarded on the side, twirling a pencil as she looked over notes. Her headphones were on, and the couch she was lounging on was turned away from the door, so you doubt she'd hear or see you moving around.

You open the door fully and lean against the frame, deciding to wait until she notices you standing there. Not like you'd go unnoticed long, she probably felt the tugging too.

It's not even a minute before she stops what she's doing and turns around. There's a split second where surprise crosses her features, but she quickly recovers, raising an eyebrow at you instead.

"Come crawling back to the slums have we?" She says as she takes off her headphones and leaves it at her neck. She wears her hair down nowadays. It's also shorter here, only reaching the middle of her back. It's refreshing to see, and you find yourself brushing off the question of whether or not the older Jinx in your timeline would cut her hair the same one day.

"Something like that."

She scoffs, turning back to look at her work. Her words are friendly, but there's tension in the air. You're not sure if you should move into the room, or leave.

"Don't stand there like a creep, come sit." She pats the space next to her. There's no edge to her words either, so maybe the tension is coming from you. You're aware that there's a significant amount of history between her and Other You, but you're not sure whether this is the time or place to be settling past issues. What you do know, is that you shouldn't wait any longer before sitting down next to her.

There's a metal box in the coffee table in front of you, next to where Jinx has propped up her legs. "It's a prototype for a gemstone case." She says before you can ask. She takes the small box and twirls it in her hand, small prongs are protruding on the inside. "The goal is to make sure the gemstones only work if they're in these. So we can start using them for the more dangerous jobs around here; stop people from stealing them, since you have to break the case to get the stone."

You take the box when she offers it, testing the weight of it in your hands. "Did you go straight here after the party?"

"Not much to do there for me." She shrugs. "I'd rather work on this. Besides, you went here after the party, too."

"Fair point." You set the case back down on the table, and watch Jinx place it on a small stand to the side. "You work until midnight often?"

The corners of her lips quirk into a smile. "Talis is drowning in debt with the amount of overtime he has to pay me." You're about to laugh along with her, till you remember Jayce's comment earlier. Jayce you little—

She nudges you with her shoulder. "You're thinking again, that can't be good."

"Jayce."

"What about him?"

"Some dumb comment he said earlier when he gave me the keys to here."

"Oh?" A mischievous look in her eyes. "What did my boss say, exactly?" You grimace. This isn't fair, she fully knows Jayce said something completely out of pocket.

"Nothing."

"Bull. Tell me so I can take it out of context and bully him into giving me a raise." At this comment you actually laugh. You don't doubt that Jinx has probably done that at least once already. Jayce's tendency to say things without thinking is the worst thing to have when working with someone like Jinx.

"Tell me." She nudges you again, this time with a little more force. "Or else."

"Or else what?"

"I'll kick your ass." Just like that, the tension in the air lifts. You remember the times this version of yourself was at odds with Jinx, only to make up after spending a few minutes together. It's terrifyingly so easy, how fast she can disarm you—literally and figuratively—like it's nothing. How she beckons you over and you oblige with desperate speed. But Other You isn't as experienced in resisting Jinx's charms—ie your souls being tied together, apparently—so you still have the audacity to push her buttons.

"Aren't you too old to be threatening to kick people's asses?" She leans back, mouth agape, you snort at her expression, but the entertainment is short lived as a throw pillow connects with your face. You huff, genuinely surprised that she'd hit you. She throws her head back and barks out a laugh at your expression.

"Can't believe you're still a brat at thirty."

"Watch it, buster. You're the same age as me."

"You know what they say about growing up being a choice." You duck this time when she swings, grabbing the throw pillow next to you and decking her in the face with it. For a second you think that you hit her too hard—and these throw pillows were notorious for being harder than regular pillows—but the second you drop the one in your hand, she tackles you.

You're momentarily disoriented as your back lands on the seat. Jinx hits you a few more times, before she pins you down with the pillow, legs on either side of your waist, chest heaving. You sink further into the couch as she leans in close.

"Take that back."

The logical side of you knows that you should just say sorry, but the prideful side of you refuses to relent. "Which part? Growing up being a choice, or you being a bra—" The pillow thuds against your face. "Ow! Hey! Those things hurt."

You sit up to grab her wrists before she can land another blow. She pushes you in response, getting herself pulled down with you in the process. You lean a bit to side to stop your heads from hitting each other, Jinx pressing flush against you. The last thing Jayce needed was one of his employees getting a concussion because of a pillow fight. Though, you could use that as an excuse to get rid of the old throw pillows, but that would come with the price humiliation for you and Jinx. Not to mention relentless teasing from your other friends.

You shake your head at the train of thought. You were thinking too much about this, you really should have just turned around earlier.

The sound of her laughter brings you out of your musings. The way her chest rumbled with each breath. She rests her head in the crook of your neck, it doesn't even occur to you that you've let go of her hands, instead moving your them to her back and keeping her close—so she doesn't roll off and hurt herself, of course.

You yourself were out of breath, and probably flushed—because you were getting older and tire easy, nothing else!—as you felt yourself laughing with her.

When she lifts her head to look at you, she makes sure that she's still close enough that her lips brush against your jaw. The both of you know it's a proven and effective way for your mind to go blank, for you to focus solely on her. You keep telling yourself you be able to resist it, eventually. You never do.

The logical part of your brain once again reminds you that it's not a good idea to be this close, to prolong the time you two are in close proximity to each other. That you need to prioritize finding a way home, that there are people that depend on you and that this is irresponsible behavior. But for some reason, you find yourself not wanting to listen for once.

Maybe it's just because your souls might be tied to each other. Maybe it's because you spent the last one hundred sixty-seven timelines watching other versions of yourself being in love or falling in love with her. Maybe it's because of the Other You here, and her relationship with this Jinx. The both of you are older in this timeline, you've known each other longer, know each other better, seen each other grow together and apart, only to find your way back to her, over and over again.

It's not just that, though.

It's the softness in her eyes whenever she looks at you, the way she brushes your hair out of your face. It's every time she checks on you if she senses that you're not alright. It's her knowing what you want to say before you say anything. How immersed she gets in her work, drowning out the rest of the world while she works on a project. Every morning that you've had to wake up next to her, watching her sleep peacefully. It's her temper, and how passionate she gets when arguing over something. It's finding her doodles and notes that she's left for you every single timeline. It's the urge to find her when you end up in a timeline where she isn't immediately by your side.

It's her, all one hundred sixty-eight versions of her, and every version after. Honestly, how many variations of yourself do you have to watch love this girl before you finally admit it to yourself?

Too many.

"Got something to say to me?" The corner of her eyes crinkle as she smirks at you.

It's how she knows you.

"I love you." You breathe out. She doesn't try to hide her surprise this time, or isn't able to. She blinks a few times, and you smile at the fact that it's her mind going haywire for once.

You take advantage of her being momentarily stunned, sitting up, keeping your hold on her so she actually doesn't fall over.  She instinctively grabs onto your shoulders for support.

"It's getting late." Her eyebrows furrow at your words.

"You just told me you love me, and now you're dipping?"

"I mean…You haven't answered, and I'm getting sleepy. Plus, the bed at the hotel I got is really ni—"

She doesn't let you finish as she yanks you into a kiss. You happily oblige, sighing and pulling her closer. Sadly, it doesn't last long as she breaks the kiss with a start, pushing your shoulders back when you try to chase after her lips.

"You really need to learn when to shut up sometimes." You take the hint and stay quiet, trying to bite back the smile already forming on your face. She rolls her eyes at your expression, having trouble hiding her own smile.

She doesn't need to say it back, not really. You understand that she hasn't seen Other You in a long time, and although the latter felt the same, your confession was more of a selfish move for yourself, really.

You can wait. As long as she wants, as long as she needs.

Her eyes flit back to your lips, before returning to your eyes. The mischievous glint returning.

"What's this about your hotel room having a nice bed?"

---

Two Hundred Fourteen

Meetings at the Firelight hideout weren't unusual.

In fact, a lot of your meetings with the group were often held here. Especially once Jinx had found out where you lived. So when you received a message from Ekko asking you to head over there because they had gotten a tip about a shipment of Shimmer, there were no alarm bells ringing in your head. A rookie mistake on your part, really.

To be completely fair, you had taken advantage of the two months you were here. You've never stayed anywhere over ten days, and the fact that you still had some semblance of the mark on your forearm meant that you were still going to get pulled into a different timeline at some point. But in the meantime, you started tinkering with equipment you could use to build your own Hex gate. The only thing missing was a gemstone.

Also in order to be completely fair. You were busy with Jinx, who you were slowly trying to convince to leave Silco's employ entirely. Which was a complicated thing to tackle, because you were an independent contractor that often worked with the Firelights. This meant that when she started showing up to your home unannounced, you had to switch up your dead drops and meet up points with the group, if only to keep the peace while maintaining your most consistent client.

And now you're in this predicament.

Surrounded by Firelights, plus Vi and Caitlyn.

You had hoped, foolishly, that this was as similar to your timeline as it was gonna get, at least with the limited amount of jumps you probably had left. You were lucky enough that Other You here and Jinx had met previously, and already kickstarted the inevitable chain of events that would have brought them together. You thought you had time before Vi and Jinx would meet, which was due in a few days from now.

You thought a lot of things, but at the end of the day, that was all they were. Two Hundred timelines in, and you still had trouble dealing with unpredictable situations.

"Piltover is one bad day away from sending enforcers to find Jinx."

"Damn, I hope they find her, then." Ekko groans, clearly not in the mood for the clueless act. Caitlyn steps forward a bit too abruptly, you draw your gun, everybody draws their weapons. Caitlyn glares at you, daring you to make the first move. You're a good shot yourself, but you know from past experience that there was no way you'd beat her in a gunfight.

"Hey—hey! Easy!" Vi gets between all of you, arms up, trying to lessen the tension. Ekko nods at his people—your people—and they lower their weapons. You shake your head for a second, before lowering yours. Other You was being protective and reckless, you had to control yourself. The last thing you want to do is hurt your people.

Caitlyn keeps her rifle trained on you, you maintain your glare towards her until she puts her gun down. "This is pointless." She looks towards Vi. "I say arrest her, and lure Jinx out."

"Can't arrest me if you're out of a job." Caitlyn narrows her eyes at your response. Fuck, wasn't supposed to know that.

"What, you think I don't have eyes and ears topside?" You're fairly sure that she'll buy your bluff, purely because there's no other explanation for you to know that. Thankfully Vi calls for everyone's attention.

"Look, we won't get anywhere arguing." She looks over to you, a silent plea in her eyes. You feel terrible about all of this, of course. You know she's just trying to find her sister after years of being locked up unfairly, in Stillwater no less!

"I know you care about her, and that you're the reason she's been quiet the last few months." It takes a bit of effort to keep your face neutral, your mind already working to figure out just how exactly they knew about you and Jinx. Had you become careless these past few months? Was she careless?

She moves a bit closer to you, arms in a placating gesture. "But if she doesn't return the gemstone, or worse, Silco gets his grimy hands on it, then Piltover will flood the streets with enforcers, and it'll be another civil war."

You wish you could tell them that Piltover wouldn't be able to handle the Undercity now, not with shimmer already being weaponized.

"I don't know where she is." You answer truthfully. As close as you two were these last couple of months, you didn't make it a point to know her whereabouts at every single hour of the day.

Caitlyn interjects. "Six enforcers are dead because of her, even more people wounded. Are you really going to protect someone who was willing to kill so many people in cold blood?" She makes a move to grab you, but Vi holds her back. Your jaw clenches. You thought you had swayed her enough that she wouldn't have gone through with the Progress Day attack.

Vi looks over to Ekko, who has mercifully stayed quiet. There's a disappointed look on his face, either for your involvement with Jinx, or your indirect betrayal on the Firelights, you're not sure. He nods over to the other FIrelights, who all lunge at you.

You try to fight back, easily sidestepping to avoid the first person to lunge, then using their momentum to launch them into the next person. A third person tries to hit you with their club, and you narrowly duck under their swing, springing to push them off their feet, and make your way to the door. On any other day, this would've been a fun sparring session, but sadly it wasn't any other day. And this was quickly becoming a one-on-seven fight.

Ekko grabs you from behind and bear hugs you. You feel the air being pushed out of your lungs as you struggle out of his grip. You drop to your knees, using his temporary loss of balance as leverage, and swing your body forward, he stumbles enough that his grip loosens, and you throw the rest of him over your shoulders. You turn around to make your way to the door again, before a fist connects right on your jaw. That's right, Vi is here, too

You quickly fall to your knees, the room is already spinning. you pitifully try to maintain your balance while on all fours, hanging onto a nearby chair for support. Two people grab you by the arms and begin to drag you away, you try to pull your arms free, but are met with a kick to the gut. You relent, letting them drag you into a dark room.

Their version of a holding cell, tying you down and taking your holsters and your coat. You're still a bit disoriented, but you're lucid enough to recognize Ekko's shadow when he approaches you.

"I'm sorry it has to come to this," He starts. "But if Silco gets his hands on Hextech, the Undercity will lose a lot more people. Good people."

You feel your chest ache at his words. You've been fighting for the Undercity your entire life, that's the last thing you want. But never in a million lifetimes would you betray Jinx. "You have to let me find her, Ekko." You plead.

"I can't trust your judgment on this."

"Try." He purses his lips, for a second you think he'll let you go. You weren't as close her as you were in your timeline, but you hope that your reliability in this one is enough to convince him.

He sighs, and the spark of hope you have is snuffed out. "This is for the best." He stands up and leaves the room, two guards replacing him.

Normally, you would be flattered. Two people guarding you even though you were already unarmed, and it doesn't even look like they're changing shifts soon. They don't take your eyes off of you either, so you pass the time counting the seconds. They probably already left to go find Jinx, which meant you had to give them at least a half hour head start before you could try to escape.

The minutes pass by quickly, and once you're nearing the thirty minute mark, you start prepping your escape plan.

They took away your coat and your holster with your weapons, but they didn't take away your belt. Which was a good thing because you actually needed it to pull your baggy pants up, but also because you had jammed a blade in between the leather. A knife was also welded into the buckle, built to quick release with the push of a button.

You carefully start to pry the blade out of the leather, being mindful not to cut yourself. You successfully get your knife out, quietly cutting your hands free. your next order of business was your feet. You'd have to time it with taking out both guards, who were both about six steps away from you. If you were lucky, you'd be fast enough to cut your feet loose and take them down at the same time.

You hedge your bets on yourself, and quickly lunge forward, cutting your feet loose in one swift motion. Both guards stand up, and you toss your knife just close enough to one of them that they freeze. You grab your other knife from your buckle, meeting the one still running towards you halfway. You slide downwards, jamming the butt of the knife into his knee, then following up by clocking him in the jaw with it as soon as he falls down. The one that was momentarily stunned launches himself at you, but you expertly roll out of the way and jump from behind him, putting him in a headlock. You tighten your hold, hoping to knock him out quickly. He struggles for a few moments, before his arms go limp, and you let him fall to the floor.

"Not bad." You say to yourself, impressed. You take the keys off of them and their mask, hoping it'll help you sneak out. Thankfully, you find that your stuff is just in the next room, and you hastily put your gear back on before sneaking out to find Jinx.

She wasn't in any of her usual haunts, or any of your haunts for that matter. You realized halfway through your search that she was avoiding you as well. It made sense; you had gotten her to stop with the over the top antics for Silco, and you were sure she knew that you didn't want her to continue working for him anymore. So this… whatever this was, you were probably not supposed to find out. Unfortunately for her, you're keenly aware of at least some of the events about to transpire. Which meant you didn't have a lot of time left; maybe the timeline of events was sped up somehow? The butterfly effect tended to go crazy, who knows what got kicked into gear when you showed up here?

You're halfway to giving up and going straight to Silco when you catch sight of blue smoke come off of one of the taller buildings in The Lanes. A flare?

"She told me that if I lit this up, she'd find me."

"Anywhere?"

"Anywhere. She promised."

Your feet are already kicking the ground before you even register it.

She had to have heard about Vi being back. How the hell did you forget? The most important thing you didn't take into consideration before running around the Undercity like a headless chicken. Of course she would find out. If they had met Ekko this soon, that would've meant that this timeline had an entirely different flow from yours.

So much for considering variations in the timelines.

The entrance to the old building is bolted shut, so you start climb up pipes and rooftops, anything to get there before the others did. Your arms were burning, but you sure as hell preferred that than having to fend off Vi and the others if they got there first. From the last time this happened, Jinx did not have the best reaction.

You're barely able to shout her name once you get half onto the roof, but you push yourself up and run towards her, swatting the flare out of her hands. Her shock lasts only a second before she rams you in the stomach with Pow-pow. It only occurs to you now that you're still wearing a firelight mask.

"It's me, it's me!" She recognizes your voice before you can even take off the mask. Her hostility quickly dissipates, before being replaces with hesitation.

"I—What are you doing here?" Her tone is accusatory, but it's only half meant. You know she's nervous because she thinks you haven't heard about the Progress Day explosion. You pull her into a hug, hoping to provide some comfort, if any, to make sure she doesn't have a panic attack.

"I'll explain later, okay?" You say as you pull back, cupping her cheeks. "We need to get out of here."

There's a smidgen of doubt at the back of your mind that she'll go with you, but thankfully, she nods as you lead her off of the roof.

The both of you head to her hideout. Not the safest place to go to, but your house was definitely the worse option. You're not even there for a minute before you start questioning her.

"Did Silco ask you to do this?" You say as you set down Pow-Pow on a table. She looks away from you, the shame on her face evident. Your gaze softens at the sight, and you remind yourself that this is Silco's fault, not hers.

"Hey," You walk over to her and gently turn her chin to look at you. "You don't have to go through with what he has planned, alright? I'll return the gemstone, Tell them I found it rolling around in an alleyway."

Fear flashes across her features. "I can't." She pushes herself away from you. "I need to finish what he asked me to do. Then we can…"

You're tempted to reach out a hand and hold her, but you stop yourself short, afraid that you'll scare her away. "What is he asking you to do? I'll do it, just…don't go back to doing the dirty work."

She smiles at you sadly. "He wants me to build something with it." Her launcher.

"Jinx." There's a sudden urgency in your voice that catches her off guard. She doesn't know what'll happen if she makes it, but you do. You know who dies, and what happens because of it.

It's instant, how she recognizes what you want to say, just by looking at you. She walks back over to you and pulls you close, until your foreheads are touching. "It'll be okay."

There's a sincerity in her eyes that nearly convinces you. If you hadn't brought with you the knowledge from your own timeline. Your chest aches for her, how sure she is that things will be fine. "We can just drop this, Jinx." You say softly. She shakes her head.

"No. I can't."

"Why not?" There's a storm brewing behind her eyes. You know she doesn't want to do this. Maybe if you just—

"You just have to trust me."

"I do trust you." You pull away from her, ignoring the instant guilt you feel when you see the hurt flash across her face. You run a hand through your hair in frustration, your hand rubbing the side of your brow. "It's Silco I don't trust! We can just toss the stone into the harbor and call it quits—"

"I told you, I can't!"

"Why?!"

"Because I can't risk it!" Tears prickle at the corners of her eyes. It takes you a few seconds, silence stretching between the both of you, before it dawns on you.

She was doing this for you.

You shake your head. "No. You are not going to do something you don't want to because of me."

She smiles at you sadly. She wasn't going to budge.

A lightheadedness starts to come over you, and you grab onto the desk for support. All of those timeline you had to go through, only for you to cause one to go through the same path yours did. No, you can't let it happen here. There has to be some way to stop all of this.

A pair of arms grab onto yours, grounding you. "Easy there, jelly legs."

You look up at concerned blue eyes, and a thought occurs to you.

"What if we leave?"

She blinks, taken aback by your question. "What?"

"Leave. Start over. Away from the undercity, from Piltover, everything."

"We can't just leave." She tries to look away from you, but you lean towards her.

"What's stopping us? I can get us an airship. Didn't you say you always wanted to ride one of those things?" For a second, you see hope in her eyes. You want to think that she's imagining a simpler life with you—Other You, you quickly remind yourself—away from everything that's ever caused the both of you pain.

And then It's gone, and she backs away from you. "You should go." She turns away from you, idly looking at her notes.

Anything she wants, anything she needs. Your jaw clenches, but you're dead set on this solution. It's the only way to keep everyone alive in this.

"Tomorrow, at the docks. I'll have an airship ready."  

Tomorrow couldn't come sooner.

It could, actually. Because the time between you leaving Jinx's hideout and waiting on your newly acquired airship seemed to have passed in the blink of an eye. And now you were pacing around the outside, waiting for her to show up.

You shouldn't be this nervous, you know she'll show up. It's nearly guaranteed that she'll show up, nothing's stronger than the bond between the two of you. There's a slight pang of guilt as you consider that you took advantage of this, eliminating her choice in the matter entirely. But it'll be fine, this was the best way to avoid a war.

It isn't long before she shows up. She always does, but you feel the weight of the world lift off of your shoulders anyway. You waste no time running towards her and enveloping her in a hug. She holds you just as tight. You know how much she's leaving behind by agreeing to this, her whole life, her memories of her family, everything.

"We'll be okay." She whispers into your ear. You will be forever thankful for how well she can read you.

You pull away just far enough so you can plant a kiss on her forehead. "As much as I want hold you like this." You start. "You'd best get on the ship so I can untie it."

She chuckles a bit before pulling away—not before placing a chaste kiss on your lips—and disappears through the door. You move to hurriedly untie the cleats for the ship.

This is it. You're almost out.

"Stop!"

Almost out.

You whip around and see Ekko, along with some of your Firelight friends. You pull out your gun, absolutely loathing the possibility of having to use it on your own people. The thought of them harming Jinx does little to quell your inner turmoil.

"Just let us go, Ekko." You plead, pride thrown aside. "You and I both know it was Silco who put her up to it."

He shakes his head. "We can't do that. Not when Piltover is threatening to knock down our doors."

"So you're giving up one of your own?!"

"You think I don't understand what that means?" He steps closer to you. "Everything I've done was to help our own. Do you have any idea what it's like having to give up someone you grew up with, to save hundreds more?!"

"So don't give her up, let us leave!"

"She killed half a dozen people—"

"She had no choice!"

"Everyone has a choice!"

"You would've blown up a hundred enforcers if one of them threatened someone you loved!"

"It doesn't change what she did!"

"She only did it because Silco forced her to! Why hell aren't you going after him?" You lift your gun and point it at Ekko, who doesn't back down. All of your Firelight friends lift their own weapons, and you notice some of them gliding around in their hoverboards.

You always wondered what would happen if you died in a timeline.

Maybe it was time to test it out.

"Don't do this." There's hesitation in Ekko's eyes, but the both of you know that there's only one way left for this to end.

His eyes pull away from yours, moving to look at something just behind you.

You hear her call out your name, and you turn, oblige, anything for her.

She smiles at you, The softness in her eyes only reserved for you.

"I love you."

Dread seeps into your bones. There's no reason for her to say it with such finality. You know she loves you, she always does, she always will. You say it back just so she knows that you'll love her in every one, too.

"Take care of Vi for me, okay?" You nod dumbly and she turns around, walking back towards the airship.

The sound of a gunshot echoes across the docks, you think it's you who's been hit, the way the air is knocked out of your lungs, the way your ears start ringing, and everything goes numb.

"It's okay, you're okay, I've got you."

But it isn't you who falls limp onto the floor. It isn't your gun that clatters to the ground. It isn't you who's no longer breathing—not in this timeline.

“I was just starting to find you attractive.”

You stumble towards her, all but falling to your knees.

"Stop thinking."

Tears start to blur your vision as you try to reach for her hand.

"It's like we already know each other."

Your breath catches in your throat, you gently pry the Hextech gemstone from her fingers.

"I love you."

A sob escapes your lips. You can't let anyone see her like this.

"We'll be okay."

Your hands shake as you pull off your coat, draping it over her like a blanket.

You don't hear Ekko tell the Firelights to stand down. You don't hear him tell the Firelights to swear to silence.

You found Jinx before she could escape. You were the one who shot her. That was what they were going to tell everyone.

And you—you sit there, holding her hand, as everything else around you falls apart.

-----

Two hundred fifteen

"You need a top up for that, love?"

"No—" A shaky breath escapes your lips. "No, thank you."

How cruel must the gods be,

"Okay, you need anything else?"

To drag you through hell, then bring you back to the start?

"Love? You alright?"

The tears register a bit late, and you quickly wipe your eyes, meeting the concerned gaze of the man behind the bar.

Vander.

"Allergies." You blurt out. "They get pretty bad this time of year."

An eyebrow is raised, clearly doubting your poor excuse. You place your hands on your lap, safely out of his view, just so he doesn't see how much they're shaking.

"That so?"

You let out a nervous chuckle. It's taking everything you've got not to randomly break down at The Last Drop in the middle of the day.

"Yeah, yeah. I uh—I think I'll go blow my nose outside, actually."

"Hold on now—"

Whatever Vander says falls on deaf ears as you slide out of your chair, heading for the side door.

A wave of nausea starts blankets over you as you reach for the door and quickly step outside. You try to take a steadying breath, but there's a painful tightness in your chest, and all you can manage are a few stuttered gasps. Your vision starts to swim, legs collapsing from underneath you—the image of her blood spraying in the air replays in your mind—and you lean against the wall for support. Try as you might, a choked sob forces its way out of you. You clamp your hand over your mouth to keep your cries quiet, as your shoulders violently shake.

She died. Because of me. Because I was brash and reckless.

I shouldn't have tried to run.

I should have waited for things to die down.

I fucked up.

If I hadn't interfered, she would still be alive.

It's my fault.

"We'll be okay."

Your fist connects with the wall. The blooming pain in your knuckles provide a welcome distraction from your thoughts. So you punch the wall again, then again, and again, until red starts to coat the once grey cement. Anything to block out the image of her dying. Anything so you don't see her lifeless body when you close your eyes.

You only stop when you can no longer close your hand into a fist.

You hear the door open behind you, someone stepping out to puking on the side. Poor sap.

There's no way to make any coherent conversation with whoever this drunk person is. So instead, you gingerly cover your injured hand with the uninjured one, and push yourself off the ground.

You stiffen when you see who's throwing up in the corner.

Ekko.

What you'd do just so you could speak to him again. You miss your home, your friends, your people, your tree. Hell, even the grimy smell of the tunnels headed there.

When he's done heaving his guts out, he turns around and flops onto the floor, looking up when he notices you, and you lock eyes.

There's a disoriented look in his eyes, one you're extremely familiar with.

The door swings open again.

"One can't go shouting from the rooftops about being thrust into parallel dimensions without—Oh!" Heimerdinger shuts his mouth when he catches sight of you. He tucks the book he was about to hand Ekko under his armpit. "Hello there miss!" He chuckles nervously. "Quite a day we're having, isn't it?"

No.

No way.

"Ekko? Professor?"

It's Heimerdinger who recovers first. "Oh how wonderful!" He exclaims as recognition flashes in his eyes. "It seems the anomaly which dislodged us from our proverbial reality, also scattered us throughout time!" He throws his hands up, dropping Ekko's book to the ground. "But we're all here now, so everything is fine."

Ekko lets out a sigh of relief, before standing up and dusting himself off. "Man, I thought I was going crazy." Heimerdinger shuts the door again and begins explaining what happened to him while he was in this timeline.

Their conversation barely registers with you; tears once again well in your eyes. You walk forward, barely trying to contain the sob that comes out of your mouth as grab Ekko and pull him into a hug. You don't even try to stop yourself from shaking while you're crying into his shoulder.

The Firelights were a tightknit group, but you were always the less emotional, sometimes cynical one. So Ekko is understandably surprised and concerned when you're clutching onto him for dear life and bawling your eyes out. He holds you and rubs circles on your back either way, and lets you cry.

The door swings open a third time. Heimerdinger lets out a surprised squeal.

"Oh—uh sorry."

You flinch at the sound of her voice. Quickly pulling away from Ekko, you step back a few paces, and wipe your eyes. Your eyes stay glued to the ground, you can't bring yourself to look at her. Jinx's final words start replaying again in your head. There's not much you can do to distract yourself but to try and move your injured hand. It works, and the immediate pain keeps your grieving mind at bay.

"Hey, your hand." She speaks up again.

Fuck.

"It's nothing." You put your injured hand behind your back, grimacing as the pain shoots through you. "I…slipped."

A poor excuse, really. You're sure all three of them can see the blood stain on the wall, but you're not looking at any of them. So who knows, maybe they didn't see it.

"I uh—have something to do with Ekko and Professor." You keep your eyes low as you send a pointed look to Heimerdinger. He shrugs in response. "So we should really go—" 

Ekko thankfully mutters in agreement with you, but Powder doesn't budge. "Ekko! Your friend's hurt, and we have a perfectly stocked first aid kit here."

As if on cue, you hiss as pain shoots up from your hand.

"See?"

"Perhaps it would be better if you allowed Ms. Powder to take a look at your hand." You let out a defeated sigh. Not like you can blame either of them—they don't know what happened to you.

Powder tries to reach for you, but you step away and start walking to the door. She thankfully takes the hint and guides you all through the bar.

------

You're all ushered into the back room that serves as a storage area for the staff, which just meant Vander's children. Powder sets you down on a chair, while Ekko and Heimerdinger whisper in hushed tones in the opposite corner of the room.

Against your request, it's Powder who cleans your hand, and dress it in bandages. She's also the one to put a bag of ice on it to help with the swelling. You're the one blinking back tears or wiping your eyes, claiming it to be pain from your hand.

She's the one to make small conversations, that you give curt replies to.

She's the one to ask you about yourself, that you shut down immediately, claiming to be uncomfortable with personal questions.

She's the one that reaches out, you're the one to pull away.

You still can't look at her, so you settle on staring at whatever interesting item is off to the side or on the ground.

Eventually she gives up, and leaves you with Ekko and Heimerdinger while she goes back to work, claiming she'll be back in a bit.

"What happened to you?" Ekko rushes over to you as soon as the door closes, concern written all over his face. He gestures to your bandages. "And what happened to your hand?"

You shrug tiredly. You could really use a nap right now. "I jumped through one too many realities."

Heimerdinger pipes up. "One too many?"

"Yeah, like, multiple ones…" Your eyebrows knit at his question. "Have neither of you…"

"No." Ekko shakes his head. Moving his chair to sit next to you. "How many realities have you been to, exactly?"

You blink. "This is two hundred and fifteen."

"Two hundred and fifteen?" Heimerdinger drops his banjo and rushes towards you. "And you're still mentally intact?" He drags a chair towards you and hoists himself up onto the table. Pulling out a pen light, he starts shining it on your eyes. "Your pupils looks normal, and I don't see any burst blood vessels…" He continues ramble to you until Ekko steps in.

"Professor, give her some breathing room."

"Oh right, my apologies." Heimerdinger scratches the back of his head sheepishly as he puts away the pen light.

"Okay then." Ekko sits back in his chair, leaning a bit toward you. "So, does jumping through different realities make you beat up a wall and cry?"

Fuck.

"I…I'm fine."

A sigh escapes your friend's lips as he crosses his arms, a frown on his face. "I've never seen you cry, then suddenly you're a sobbing mess."

You let out a shaky breath at his words, muttering a complaint.

"Look, I can't imagine what could have happened to you in over two hundred timelines. I can't even imagine how much time passed for you—"

"Five years, and a few months?" Ekko's eyes widen at the revelation.

"Five years? No wonder you're acting different." He puts a hand on your shoulder. "I can't help you if you won't talk to me—"

"Yeah, well maybe I don't need help." You quip, shrugging his hand off your shoulder. The expression on his face doesn't turn sour. If any, it becomes sympathetic.

"A friend to listen to you, then." He sends you a small smile, and you immediately regret snapping at him.

You tear your eyes at him to stare at the door Powder went through. "It's…illogical and kind of absurd if we're being honest."

"If I may, my dear. We're in an alternate reality where our lives are drastically different."  Heimerdinger says as he picks up his banjo. "I think we've long departed the realms of logic and coherence."

You're hit with a sudden appreciation for your two companions. The familiarity, and the fact that you finally have people to speak with about your timeline jumping, makes you feel less alone after so long. And Heimerdinger is right, you're long past logic, so why not explain to them that you think you're meant to be with one person for eternity?

You run your uninjured hand down your face. "Do either of you believe in soulmates?" Ekko and Heimerdinger exchange looks, before turning back to you with puzzled expressions.

"Soulmates are a thing?" Your friend asks.

You sigh, trying to find the best way to explain. "I'm not exactly sure." A lie, and you know it. "No, wait, I'm sure. Soulmates are a thing, at least for me. I can't confirm for anyone else."

A look of realization hits Ekko. "Jinx... Wait, Jinx?"

"Yeah, that was my reaction too." You say as you pinch the bridge of your nose.

"So you're saying, you're soulmates with one of the Firelight's biggest enemies?" His eyes are wide, you can almost see the gears in his head move.

"You know, enemies to lovers stories are usually a huge hit."

"You don't even read."

"A lot can happen in five years."

"Alright, children, settle down!" Heimerdinger puts his hands up in a placating manner. "I for one, would like to know how you came to find this out. How fascinating! To know your soul is tied to someone." Yeah, fascinating.

"So, how did you find out?" Ekko nudges you with his elbow. You throw him a scowl in response, before rolling your eyes and looking over to Heimerdinger.

"Every timeline. It was always her." You think back to the first time you jumped. "I remember the first jump I did. I was hurt, and she came running over. I remember feeling safe around her; I was only there for a few minutes before I got dragged somewhere else. And then, every jump after, I was either with her already, or at some point headed there. There was never anyone else."

"Was that all? Relationships that kept spanning across timelines?" The professor asks.

"No, not just that. I felt—" Feel. "—this pull towards her. There were times that I'd know where she was if we were close enough to each other."

"How intriguing." Heimerdinger starts pacing the room. "Never in my long life would I have guessed the existence of soulmates. And I've lived a very long life!"

"So something happened in the last one, then?" Ekko cuts in. Your jaw clenches, the reminder hitting you like a bucket of cold water.

"She died, in the last one. Shot herself, to protect me." His mouth falls open at your words, eyes widening slightly.

A heavy silence falls over the three of you; Heimerdinger sighs and walks over, giving you a pat on your knee. "Loss is already such a confounding and jarring experience. I can't imagine it what it felt like to lose one you're destined to be with."

"I didn't even have time to deal with it. I got pulled here right after it happened." Your run your good hand through your hair. "I feel the grief, but I also feel how happy the me in this timeline is when she sees Jinx."

"You coexist with the version of you in this reality?" The professor cocks a bushy eyebrow. You nod.

"Yes, it took a while to get used to. Even longer to manage."

"Well, if that isn't a shining example of your mental fortitude, then I don't know what is!" His enthusiasm softens as he gives you another pat. "You'll make it through your grief, I promise you that." He throws you a reassuring smile. And you feel your spirits lift a bit.

"You and Jinx, huh?" Ekko rubs his chin thoughtfully. "You know, I could see it." He yelps as you punch him in the shoulder with your good hand. "What? I'm trying to be helpful."

"Well you're not."

Heimerdinger ignores yours and Ekko's antics, curious eyes looking at you in anticipation. "So dear, tell me about these realities. Were all two hundred of them different from each other?" You shake your head.

"Not all of them were different, some timelines have very miniscule variations from each other, but are still the same with everything else that's there." You look up around the room. "I've been to this reality at least thrice."

"Incredible!" Heimerdinger exclaims, jumping up from his seat. "And how many unique realities have you been to?"

"Seventy-one, I think?"

"Was there a pattern you followed?"

"No, I just got jumped from one to another."

"How long were you in each reality?"

"I—usually a little over a week."

"Were there consistent behaviors between timelines?"

"I can hear you thinking from over there."

"Got something to say to me?"

You wince, shaking the memory away. "How big did the variations get?"

"Okay, jelly legs."

"Easy there, jelly legs."

"I don’t—"

"Oh, what about the people! How different were we from ourselves?"

"Okay, professor! Breathing room?" Ekko cuts in. Heimerdinger mutters an apology for his excitement. You pinch the bridge of your nose with your uninjured hand and sigh. So much for a distraction. "You okay?"

You nod despite obviously feeling the opposite—if Ekko of Heimerdinger notice, they mercifully don't bring it up—and sink a little further into your chair.

"Let's take a step back from the reality hopping, alright? We still need to figure out how to get home." He looks towards Heimerdinger, who's taken to plucking a tune on his banjo. "Professor, you said that Hextech doesn't exist here, which means there's no anomaly?"

"Precisely."

"Which just means we need to figure out a way to make our own Hextech." The both of them turn to you.

"I'm afraid once just can't go about creating their own Hextech, my dear. Without Jayce's notes, and the crystals—"

"Powder has a stash of them."

"—Excuse me?!"

"—A stash?"

The corner of your lip twitches, and you almost smile. But the crushing reminder that comes with Powder's name quickly grounds you. "She has them at her hideout."

Ekko's eyebrows furrow. "And you know this because…"

You shrug. "She told me, in the other timelines."

"Even so!" The professor gets in between you and Ekko. "Tampering with the Arcane is the reason we're in this very predicament! Who knows what mayhem we'll cause if we try to do it on purpose." Heimerdinger nods over to you. "It's a miracle we didn't have any physical side effects from changing realities."

"Well…" You say before you can stop yourself, causing Heimerdinger's eyebrows shoot up. "I had this thing on my arm." You pull the sleeve of your shirt up, revealing only the faded outline of the mark. "When I first noticed it, it was only my second jump—it was the same pattern as the one on our tree. But now," You run your hand over the faded outline. "It's just this. It was fading every jump I had."

Heimerdinger walks over and pulls out a magnifying glass. "Incredible. To think that the anomaly attached itself to you… Did you take note of any side effects?"

"There weren't any. I was disoriented the first few jumps, but eventually I got used to them."

"Well, if anything. This is a damning reason for us not to further meddle with the Arcane." He pockets the magnifying glass and huffs, Ekko and yourself understandably in disagreement. The latter stands up from his chair, frustrated with the professor.

"We don't belong here, professor. We have people who need us!" Heimerdinger tuts at Ekko and picks up his banjo, idly plucking the strings.

"You two just need to give it time."

"I've been jumping around timelines for five years, I've had more than enough time. I want to go home." The chair you're sitting on screeches as you push yourself off of it, and you start pacing the room. "Besides, I don't know if losing the mark means I stop jumping. I have a little over a week at most. The least I can do is get the both of you out of here."

A frown tugs at Ekko's mouth. "Wait. You mean there's a chance you can't come home with us?"

You sigh. "The conservative answer is yes. Look, we can recreate the anomaly here. We just need the—"

"Am I interrupting smart people discourse?"

You jump at Powder's words, and quickly retreat beside Ekko, eyes glued again to the ground. You don't miss the concerned look your friend gives you.

"Of course not, Ms. Powder." Heimerdinger starts walking to the door, much to yours and Ekko's chagrin. "You two take some time to get situated, clear your minds, and come find me afterwards."

Ekko shrugs from the corner of your eye. "I should get going."

You whip your head around to stare at your friend. "What?"

He puts his hands up. "I have to go uh—look at that thing you told me to check out."

You narrow your eyes at him. Did you miss some code word that was agreed upon? Ekko sighs as he walks behind Powder, you abandoning your quest to avoid looking at the girl in favor of figuring out what the hell your friend is saying.

"You get the thing you told us you needed, and then we can meet back with the professor."

"What?" Ekko looks at you pointedly, then at Powder.

Oh. The Gemstones.

Realization seemingly crosses your features, as Ekko promptly says his goodbye and shuts the door.

Leaving you with Powder. Did they not listen to your grief-filled monologue?

"Well, at least you're finally looking at me." She lets out an awkward chuckle. "Or at least, my general direction."

It's unfair, really; seeing the love of your life die in front of you one second, only for her to stand in front of you—alive and breathing—in the next. Her eyes still alight, curious, inviting.

And you, the mess of you. With your confusion, shock, grief, guilt; melding with relief, and the urge to hold her. The self-conscious look on her face already tearing down the walls you had just put up to protect what was left of your sanity. You couldn't even get away if you tried—and you've tried—because she'd follow you somehow, or you'd inevitably find your way back to her.

The bond of your souls demands to stay intertwined.

"So, do you need help with whatever you were getting?"

You blink. "Huh?"

Her lips curl into an amused smile. "Ekko said you had a thing you needed, that I totally believe exists by the way."

The easiness of how she speaks to you feels like a pair of hands wrapping around your throat. But it was between the friendly approach, or the concerned approach. The latter meant she'd ask why you were crying, so you'll just have to take this one and run with it.

"Uh, yeah." The words come out scratchy, there's an ever-present heaviness in your chest as you look at her, smiling at you. You clear your throat in an attempt to collect yourself. You found Ekko and Heimerdinger, and you have a week to get them—and hopefully yourself—home. You just need to push down the grief until then.

"You know anything about intradimensional travel?"

------

"So let me get this straight. You think you can create a way to transport anything from point A to B at light speed?"

"Not light speed, that's an entirely different can of worms." Powder rolls her eyes at you, leaning back into her bean bag chair.

It surprisingly took no effort for her to take you to her hideout; she even introduced you to Vi. A part of you wonders if this is because she felt sorry for you, but you can't really complain if it brings you closer to the energy crystals.

"Alright hotshot, what is it then?"

"It's more like—" You wince as you try to gesture with your injured hand. "—teleportation." You slouch into your own chair, resting your hand carefully on your stomach. "With magic."

She scoffs. "Can you do magic?"

"Nope."

"Pfft. Get a load of this guy, sis." Your eyes flit to Vi, sitting in her corner. "Sorry." There's a hint of embarrassment in Powder's eyes when you look back at her scratching the back of her neck. Only a second of confusion before you remember that you're a stranger to her here. "You must think I'm weird, talking to a plush of my dead sister. Which I'm not—I mean, I am talking to her. I meant the weird part, but if you ask my brothers they'd probably say I am weird—"

"I don’t think it's weird."

Another roll of her eyes. "Sure you don't."

"I think it helps." You say firmly, sitting up as best you can in a bean bag chair. "Talking to someone who's died, it keeps their memory alive, keeps me sane. Makes me feel like…everything's still normal, even though it's not."

Her eyes soften at your words; an expression you've seen thousands of times. One that used to give you comfort, now also draping you with the blanket of grief and guilt.

"You lost someone."

You tear your gaze away from her, choosing to stare at the drawer you know the energy crystals are stored. "I got her killed."

There's a shifting from Powder's side, and you turn to find her dragging her bean bag next to you, before flopping down and sighing. A few beats of silence pass before she speaks.

"When my sister died, I blamed myself for a really long time." Her eyes glisten as she looks at the altar she made for Vi, distant. "Back when things were harder for us down here, we did odd jobs from tips we'd get from Ekko."

A story you've heard hundreds of times, every version a bit different than the one before, but you'd listen every single time.

"There were these crystals. They looked valuable to me, so I took 'em. Didn't realize I dropped one and I guess it hit something." She sits up, hugging her knees towards her chest. "Next thing I know, half the apartment's blown up, and Vi…she put me under her so I'd be safe." You hear a sniffle as she suddenly looks away, not so subtly wiping her eyes. "We stopped doing jobs after that, focused on making things better here."

"I'm sorry." She snorts.

"Hey, I'm trying to comfort you, not the other way around." She puts her legs down, knocking her knee onto yours. "Anyway. My point is, she would've hated it if I spent the rest of my life blaming myself for what happened. If I just decided to be miserable all the time." A shrug, and she's standing up and stretching. "I sure as hell wouldn’t want her to blame herself, anyone of my family or friends really, if I was the one that died protecting them."

Forgiveness, handed out so nonchalantly. Completely unaware of the weight of her words. You almost hate feeling the weight lift off your shoulders; her forgiveness hadn't been earned, could never be earned. Not for Jinx.

But she still has the same soul.

"Alright, how exactly are we making your non-magic magic machine?" She says as she offers you a hand.

Still the same soul.

"We'll need to clear out some space." You say as you take her hand.

-----

Zero

"How fucking long were we gone?"

"Professor Heimerdinger…"

"There's Noxian's everywhere. What the hell's going on—Ekko!" You grab your friend by the shoulders, shaking him. "We won't have time to mourn the professor if we get sliced in half. We need to get home."

Ekko blinks a few times, before taking a deep breath and nodding. "You're right, you're right." He peeks his head out of the alleyway you're both hiding in, spotting Noxians soldiers pushing people out of their homes. "Why are they all here?"

"Beats me, but this can't be good." He ducks his head back in, unconsciously tucking the Z-Drive closer to him.

"We're you in any timelines where this happened?"

You nod. "Yes, but they were never in the Undercity. We were the ones taking the fight to them and Piltover."

The both of you stick to the wall as a group of Noxians soldiers march past, headed deeper into the Undercity. There was no way the both you could sneak back to the tunnel lines with that many eyes moving around. A curse is muttered at the thought, you needed to know how much time passed, and how much had changed in your absence.

"If only we could've gone back right after we left here." You rub your face in your hands. "I must've messed something up with the runes—"

"Hey, what happened to getting home being the top priority?" Ekko elbows you lightly on your side. "We can refine your rune work later," He points up to the roofs. "If we can't avoid getting to the tunnels from the ground, we'll have to cross the rooftops."

"Rooftops." You nod.

The both of you start climbing up pipes that are sticking out of the ground and around the buildings. Eventually making it onto a balcony, before jumping across the top of a smaller building. It provides you with a clearer view of the Undercity, still looking the same from where you are, despite the obvious changes occurring on the ground. The neon glow from various establishments, the ever present whir of the vents running through the streets, the gloomy allure atmosphere. Hell, even the smell was the same.

Ekko lands next to you, dusting himself off before surveying the skyline. "It's like nothing's changed from up here." He muses, reiterating your thoughts. You let out a breath you didn't know you were holding.

"We made it back...We actually did it." He looks over to you, putting a hand on your shoulder.

"Welcome back."

"Welcome back to you too, Ekko."  He snorts, giving your shoulder another squeeze before letting go.

"Alright, let's head home." Ekko starts moving towards the next roof, and you follow suit. Each step you take giving you more confidence. Son enough, the both of you are running and leaping across rooftops.

You greedily breathe in the air, not caring at all that most people would consider Undercity air to be polluted. This was home. After spending five years trying to find a way back, who the hell could judge you?

"Hurry up!" Ekko shouts from ahead of you. Grinning, you lean forward and start kicking the ground harder.

"I'm just giving you a head start!" You say as you easily speed past Ekko, who huffs and matches your speed.

For a moment, you forget about all of your worries. You forget about the two hundred and sixteen jumps you did, all of the panic you went through, all of the memories you made, the lives you lived. It's just you and once of your closest friends, running through the rooftops of your city—your city. Not a variation of it in some other timeline. It's the place where you grew up, the place you're trying to fix and make better for the people. You run past familiar stores and landmarks, feeling your nostalgia grow by the second. It's a freeing sensation; leaving for years, then coming back home. Seeing everything be both familiar and new at the same time.

There's a billowing of dark smoke from your periphery. You almost miss it, but you turn your head and spot the smoke growing steadily. Unconsciously, you turn and start heading to where the smoke is. Ekko calls out to you, but starts to follow when he sees it as well.

You stop dead in your tracks when you find the source of the smoke. Dread starts to build in your chest.

The Last Drop, engulfed in flames.

There's no thought process involved before you jump down and enter the burning building, telling Ekko you'll meet him back home. You don't even heed Ekko's calls as you slide through a doorway before it collapses behind you.

-----

Your hands feel around for your gas mask hidden inside your coat, a sigh of relief as your eyes stop watering and you're able to breathe. Navigating The Last Drop is easy enough, you've been here plenty of times in the other timelines. But the problem wasn't finding your way around, it was figuring out why you decided to jump in in the first place.

Was it the thought of someone being stuck inside and needing help? Or was it the feeling of dread creeping up on you?

The sound of crackling wood fills your ears as you look up, a supports beam starts to collapse. You quickly duck out of the way before it falls, having no choice but to push in deeper into the bar. You start to think—hope—that no one is inside, since you haven't seen a single soul as you went from one room to the next.

You feel the pull before you register that it's her.

But this one is different, stronger. Enough that you almost stumble forward, as if it's somehow physically pushing you closer. You feel it wrap around your heart, clutching it tight, almost painfully so. The feeling of longing rushes over you, not the small waves that you felt in the other timelines, but a raging current, crashing through you and sweeping you towards her.

You wonder briefly why the feeling was much more intense. Was it because you were in other timelines? Did your soul know that they were Jinx, but they weren't your Jinx? Will she also feel this when she sees you? If this is what every other version of you felt when they were with their Jinx, their Powder, no wonder they can't keep themselves away from her.

She hasn't even seen you yet.

She has her back turned to you, hands limply at her side. Her hair jaggedly cut short, just above her shoulders, which are slumped in defeat. An almost instinctive need to comfort her enters your mind, but you push it down. The first thing you need to do is get her out of here.

She doesn't react violently when you pull her towards you, telling her that you had to get out of there. Does nothing when you pick her up and bring her out the side of the building. The same alleyway where you two would sneak off to steal kisses in one timeline, and mourned the loss of her in another. She's too stunned to do anything really. Maybe she felt the pull, maybe she was just surprised that someone had gone in to fish her out. But she doesn't do anything as you set her down and take off your gas mask. Nothing when you look over her, covered in soot and grime, to search for any injuries.

The second you meet her eyes, you know, you're sure, that her soul is letting her know who you are. That she's suddenly fallen into that same raging river that you find yourself in right now.

The surprise in her eyes softens, the same look you've seen thousands of times, that you'd try to find wherever you are.

The pull makes itself known again, probably ecstatic that you've found her in your own timeline. Not that you wouldn't have, anyway. Not even the omnipotent force that created every timeline to ever exist can keep you from finding her.

CRACK

But maybe a broken nose will.

You stagger backward. A hand over your nose, eyes wide from shock and confusion. She's polite enough to not say anything after she punches you. She awkwardly stands there and watches you curse as you push your nose back into place, wiping off the blood with your gloved hand. Yup, definitely broken.

At this point, two hundred and sixteen jumps after, you should really learn to be more vigilant when it comes to tackling unpredictable situations.

You keep a hand on your nose, one hand up on surrender. She still has her hand closed into a fist, but there's a shocked look on her face.

She Blinks a few times, before a look of frustration is on her face. "Who the hell are you?!" Her eyebrows are knit together; if your nose wasn't broken, you would find her confused frustration adorable.

"I thought you needed help." Your voice comes out nasally, and you can almost feel the bruises start to form.

"I don't need your stupid help."

Stubborn.

"Well who just stands inside a burning building?!" She huffs crossing her arms over her chest. It's now that you notice she's missing a few things from her usual outfit; her choker, the string marking the X on her top, her gloves—and had she been crying?

"First of all, stop looking at me like that, you creep. Second, it's none of your business."

"I literally just saved your—" The sound of clanking armor, and boots hitting the ground cuts you off.

You grab her hand without thinking, and pull her farther into the alleyway, away from the fire and the soldiers that have started to gather. Again, she's surprised, but doesn't protest. She doesn't let go even after you've stopped running.

"We need to get out of here. I have a safe house but it's a bit far. If we start moving now—"

"My place is closer." She tugs at your hand to get your attention—your eyes flitting down the same time as her—and you both realize that they're still clasped together.

You wait for her to let go of you, throw your hand and call you a creep again. For a moment you think she actually will; you see the conflicting emotions in her eyes. But she still doesn't.

"Just... follow me." She says tiredly, nodding down a road and half dragging you to her hideout. She only lets go of your hand when there's a tight squeeze into a tunnel and it would be too awkward to walk in side by side.

Neither of you talk the entire way there. You don't ask her where her hideout is—not that you need to, you could get there with your eyes closed at this point. She doesn't ask you how you can easily navigate through tricky the walkways and hidden passages.

At first you think she's still processing how she's feeling, but you remember the tear streaks, and the way her shoulders sagged as she looked at The Last Drop burning down. You wonder again how long you've been gone, what had happened to her in the meantime. Even now, she has her head down as she walks. Her demeanor completely different from the last time you saw her.

"I can hear you thinking from over here." She says nonchalantly. She sounds tired, her irritation from earlier long gone. "I'm not leading you to some murder house, if that's what you're wondering."

You shrug out of habit. "I know, I trust you."

Her head tilts up just a bit as she stops walking. She turns her head slightly to the side, just enough that she can see you from the corner of her eye. "You shouldn't." She doesn't wait for an answer before she starts walking again, and you're left to follow her in silence the rest of the way.

There's a hesitation in her step once you reach her hideout, stopping right in front of her desk, hands balled into fists. She tries to take a steadying breath, but it comes out shaky and uneven.

You take a look around her space, noticing how brighter everything is. Not like the other timelines where you meet her as Jinx, not like Powder's either. The space was more cleared out, lights had been added, a makeshift fort had been put over her couch.

She picks up something small on the desk, you recognize it as a smaller version of the robots you two made in a few timelines. Her eyes are distant as she turns it over in her hand, before setting it back down on the table. She doesn't look back at you as she speaks.

"Why'd you help me back there?"

"I would've helped whoever was in there regardless."

She scoffs, turning to face you, leaning against her desk. "Figures with you people."

"What's that supposed to mean?" You ask as you walk closer to her.

"You're a Firelight." You halt in your tracks just a few steps away, a puzzled look on your face. She's never figured that part out in any of the other timelines, either. "I've seen you before." She adds. "You always have your stupid mask on, but," A shrug, as she looks off to the side. "I recognized your eyes."

It's almost funny.

You spent the last five years learning that your soul wanted to be with Jinx, and this entire time, she's probably known hers wanted you.

There's a myriad of questions that pop up in your head, but Jinx is still upset about something, and figuring that out was more important.

"Why'd you burn the place down?" She crosses her arms at your question, keeping her gaze on the ground.

"I was breaking the cycle, or whatever that means." She sits down on a chair, and starts tinkering with a chomper on the desk.

"What were you gonna do after?"

"Haven't figured that part out yet."

"What about—"

"Coast should be clear by now, you can leave if you want." Her tone maintains the same aloofness she's had this entire time, but her shoulders are tense, her movements as she works on the chomper almost robotic.

Even though you’re guaranteed that your souls are entwined in every possible timeline, you find yourself at a loss for words. All the bravado and confidence that you’d carried with you with every other version of her, gone out the window. You really shouldn’t be worried, you know she’ll love you, she always does, she always will. Even when she's kicking you out.

Only this wasn’t the Jinx fighting for Zaun’s liberation, wasn’t the mildly annoying Academy classmate that got you into trouble, nor was she the Jinx that waited for you for years to be ready to come back to her.

This was your Jinx. And you know something is wrong.

"Do you want me to leave?"

Her hands stop moving, but you can see that her grip on her tools has tightened, her knuckles going white.

She knows you. Longer than you've known her in your timeline. You're not leaving her knowing that. So instead, you finish walking the last few steps to get to her, your hand hesitating slightly before resting on her shoulder.

The dam breaks, as she drops her tools, hands closing into fists. "You're not safe here." Her voice cracks as she speaks. "Everyone around me—" She clamps her mouth shut and looks away.

Things start to fall into place. "You lost someone."

She lets out a bitter laugh. "I've lost a lot of someones." You see her blink a few times before she turns to you, shrugging off your hand in the process. "So you best get out of here, toots. I'm no good for you."

"I don't know, I think I've survived you enough times." She shakes her head, turning back to the abandoned chomper.

"You have no idea what you're saying." You sigh, getting down on a knee so your eyes are level with her. She's taken aback by your actions, her eyes reflecting a cautious but curious glint in them.

"I do, actually." A questioning look is the only response you get from her. "I'd explain, but I'll have to ask you to not to think I'm crazy."

Her gaze softens, just a pinch.

"Have you even met me?" Yes, you want to say. I've met you two hundred and sixteen times, and I'll gladly stay here until my knee is sore just so I can explain to you how.

"Not yet," You say instead, you extend your hand. "But I'd like to."

Destined souls or not, you're aware that you're pushing your luck. A smidgen of doubt starts to form in your mind, when she does nothing but stare at your outstretched hand. You can see the conflicting emotions in her eyes. Whoever she lost, it was enough that she doesn't want to keep anyone close to her anymore. A sentiment that you can understand, given that you wanted to stay away from any variation of her after you lost her once. But you don't want to leave her, not like this, not when there's a gnawing feeling in your gut that she's not okay enough to be left alone. So you hold your breath, standing by your decision.

Her eyes flit back to yours, and you hope the determined look in your eye is enough to sway her.

"You're gonna regret this." There's a pleading tone to her words, as if she's begging you to turn away and leave her. Fat chance, really.

A soft, reassuring smile. "We'll cross that bridge when we get there."

She searches your eyes for any trace of doubt, or deceit, but she will find none.

Her hand reaches out to yours, and you wonder if she feels the same spark of electricity that shoots through you when your hands touch.

"Grab a chair." She says, but inconveniently doesn't let go of your hand. "You down on a knee is too intimate."

You laugh, and for the first time since you've met her, you see her relax, a smile on her face.

"Fair enough."

And she listens. About Ekko seeing the anomaly on one of the leaves of your tree, the three of you breaking into Jayce's lab, heading to the Hex gate, you idiotically reaching out to the anomaly. You show her the faded outline that the anomaly left on you, and she gingerly traces the mark with her finger.

You tell her about your first jump, how your mind struggled with the Other You, as you crawled your way to cover. How you she came and saved you. You don't outright say that you're soulmates, simply because you don't want to scare her off. Not even if she probably already knows. She doesn't say anything when you first mention you two meeting, but you see her figure it out by the time you're telling her about your eighth jump. Her eyes narrow, but she lets you continue. Patiently listening as you explain, part by part, that in every reality, in every timeline, it's always you and her. It will always be you and her.

You're able to coax a laugh out of her when you tell her about your misadventures as academy students, she even teases you for being a stickler for the rules. She argues with you when you tell her that you always beat her in hand to hand combat "I could beat you any day, toots." Denies it when you tell her that she tended to sulk if you didn't give her attention, when she's be uncharacteristically thoughtful.

She holds your hand when you tell her how you lost her, how she sacrificed herself for your safety. Squeezes it when you tell her that the next version of herself is the one that pulls you out of your grief.

You explain the pull you feel when she's around, and how much stronger it feels when it's her. She interrupts you, then. Confirming that she had already known about it for a few years, right after she first saw you in a firefight. There's a blush on her cheeks as she confesses that she'd always tried to not hurt you after, and that she'd randomly seek you out to mess with you from time to time.

Eventually, she tells you how long you and your friends have been gone. What's happened to her since, about the attack at the Piltover Memorial, Vi and Caitlyn coming after her. How she met a little girl named Isha, and the strange little family she had formed with her and Sevika. You don't miss the sad, faraway look in her eyes when she recounts the adventures they had, their own little robot fight club, them making over her hideout. How they made a good situation out of everything, despite the Noxians and enforcers occupying Zaun.

You're surprised when she mentions Vander, and the short stint of happiness her and Vi had when their little family was able to reunite. She chokes up when she tells you how short lived it was, how she had been reckless in allowing Isha to come with them, that she finally understood why Vi told her to stay out of a fight all those years ago.

You hold her close to you when the tears come, and she shakes in your arms.

By the end of it all, you're both lying on her couch, and she's passed out on your chest. The physical and emotional exhaustion from the last few weeks finally catching up to her.

You spend the time processing all the information you learned; about the war, Viktor, Jayce. How there was a lot more weight now to the sacrifice Heimerdinger made for you and Ekko. You're sure he's already rallying people to join the fight, but from what Jinx had told you, Zaun won't fully unite until she's on board, too.

She's tired of it all, but she'll probably relent if you ask her. But that's an issue for tomorrow. Right now, you settle on holding her close.

And if only you hadn't asked her.

If only you had kept your mouth shut, and let her rest.

If only you hadn't put her in danger, again.

Your lungs burn as you run through smoke, not caring if your eyes can barely see anything, or that your legs are screaming for you to stop and take a break. You can't, not when you didn’t try hard enough to stop her, not when you could've asked her to stay instead. 

You make it to the Hex Gate, the smell of burnt metal and wiring fills your nose and brings you to a coughing fit. You still shout her name, at the top of your lungs, hoping that she'll hear you. You start to lift debris and stray slabs of concrete. There's only a numbness in your hands as you cut and burn them while digging our rubble. Not a care in the world that there could still be explosive hazards in the area. The only thing on your mind was Jinx.

The desperation starts to build with every passing minute, the pull in your chest is painful, screaming at you to find her. Even as the smoke slowly clears, the momentary reprieve from searching blind not stopping you from your erratic search. You continue to clear the rubble, your hands smearing blood on every piece of debris you touch. This does nothing to bother you, though. You'd paint every inch of this room red before you stop looking for her.

You collapse to your knees, grabbing onto a large piece of rubble for support. This wasn't how things were supposed to go. Just when you find your way back, when you finally have her with you. Five years and hundreds of jumps, only for you to lose her again.

You lay your head against the concrete, as the tears start streaming down your face.

Then a cough, the sound of shifting debris and rock hits your ears.

You bolt upright, ears straining to listen. For a few seconds, there's nothing, and you almost thing that you're getting high from the fumes. But you hear a groan, then you're feet are already kicking the ground.

Smaller pieces of rubble start moving around, and you quickly claw away it, clearing everything away until you catch sight of a hand. You've never been happier to see chipped nail polish in your life.

You ignore the ache in your arms as you lift every piece of heavy rock, until Jinx has enough room to grab onto you and you pull her out.

There's a deep gash on her side, a few cuts, and bruises already forming. She starts coughing, but there's no blood. Good. She's breathing, alive.

"You regret meeting me, yet?" She manages a smile, and your heart soars.

"No, not yet, at least." You wipe your eyes with the back of your palms, sniffling.

"Hey, hey, easy." She puts a hand on your chest to stop you from picking her up. "Your hands are bleeding."

"You have a gash on your stomach."

"I heal quick, you don't." She shoots you a warning glare when you try to pick her up again, and you relent.

"I thought I lost you again." The tears well up in your eyes, and her glare softens. She pulls you closer until your foreheads are touching.

"Sorry to disappoint," She starts. "But you're stuck with me forever."

You fail at stifling your laughter. "Sounds like a good deal to me."

She cups your face in her hands, running a thumb across your cheek, and you instinctively lean into her touch.

"Help me up, yeah?"