#modern!ekko

And yes, that is Kristen Stewart lmao. I've always felt like she kinda looked like Vi, or at least a semi younger version.

- You met Powder on the playground during recess. Her family just moved into town, and she's got 3 older siblings. Her sister is the talk of the whole nearby high school, which by grade school law means her siblings must get some cool points too, right?

- Wrong. Vi damn near glows wherever she is. Being a loud, proud, good-looking jock will do that for you. Claggor is a cool guy on his own, he's smart and quiet and might as well be a capybara in human form. Mylo... is there. Powder gets it the worst though. 

- She looks just like her sister. People had high expectations. Bad news for little Powder, she just wanted to talk about ancient architecture, her inventions, and Phineas and Ferb. Guess 6th graders aren't much into that. 

- Regardless, you guys are both quietly playing alone during recess one day. You look over at the new girl, who's fidgeting with a bunch of wires and an old battery pack. 

- She senses your gaze and looks back over at you, as you're reading a book you took from the school's library. You both exchange a couple more awkward glances before she stops looking over altogether and turns away completely.

- You sigh and look back at your book and continue reading. It sucks ass being an anxious loser this early in your social career. You're halfway through the 6th grade, it's really now or never. You muster up some and go over to talk to the blue-haired girl. 

- You gently tap her on the shoulder, "Uhh, hi?" Doesn't work, she nearly jumped out of her skin, making you jump back and now both of you are shrieking. 

- You're both stunned. You finally blurt out a rushed "Wanna sit together??". The girl stares, looks at her wires, back at your earnest gaze and invites you to sit next to her. Apparently she's working on building an alarm clock that sprays water. 

- You don't speak math/science but the girl is the only interesting person you've met at this school, how many people know this much about the layout of the Library of Alexandria? 

- You spent the rest of recess yapping about classes, hobbies, TV shows, internet stuff, and family. 

- Well, maybe not too much about family. The bell rings and you both walk arm and arm back to class, totally excited to finally have a friend to sit next to. You tell her a bit about your family, maybe leaving out the harsher aspects and sticking to the usual "they're boring and strict". She tells you a bit about her home, which beats the hell out of your misery dungeon. 

- Her mom died in a motorcycle accident. She says she doesn’t remember anything about it, she was only 2 years old at the time. She generally doesn’t remember much about her mom either.

- She lives with her dad and her 3 older siblings who are in the neighboring high school. Her dad moved them over to this city so he could expand his diner/bar business. They live in the apartment across the street from it. Claggor is a great big brother, they play video games together and eat weird food combos in the middle of the night. She'd love to flush Mylo down the toilet and get a new sibling instead. Vander is the coolest dad on planet earth, especially compared to your strict parents. He lets her dye her hair, get piercings, AND shop at Hot Topic. Your parents hardly even let you listen to Of Mice and Men. 

That said, she conveniently skips past Vi's existence 🤷‍♀️ 

- It may seem dramatic but you're the first friend she's ever had that isn't a) disappointed that she isn't like Vi or b) only using her to be close to Vi. She'd be less insulted if people were using her to get a free meal from her dad's place. She figured it would be best, for the moment at least, to kinda gloss over the whole "my sister is this ultra popular hockey head rebel that everyone looks up to" bit. This friend is just hers.

- before you both leave to go home, you exchange numbers and chat room names. Sorry but these headcanons are about to be boomer coded

- I swear to God Powder would've been an IMVU kid, or Meez. Her avi would be decked out to the gods. 

- She's the scene queen to your emo girl. Something deep within my soul says she'd be into Invader Zim and Nyan Cat. Honorable mention: Robot Unicorn Attack.

- She doesn’t read all of the 400 CreepyPastas you send her, but she has a thing (a totally weird thing) for Jeff the Killer

- Totally into brain rot like Charlie the Unicorn. And she's the youngest, literally no one in her family knows what she's talking about. They were mildly concerned when she dressed up as a green dog for Halloween and you were a matching green alien, but they got used to it... kinda…

- There’s an immaculate playlist on her iPod with Fall out Boy, Paramore and Bring Me The Horizon

- There was a painful "not like other girls phase", it makes her teeth itch just remembering all of those passive aggressive status messages

- Andy Biersack and Taylor Momsen were her bi awakenings. Her locker was literally just pictures of them for a solid year in the 7th grade

- Her family is glad to see she has a good friend, she's finally a normal tween girl who spends way too much time on her Motorola sidekick and hanging out with you after school. Her usernames are something like N!ghtm4reBunni3 or xxBluePlaguexx

- She looooves Wizards of Waverly Place. Idolizes the fuck out of Alex Russo. She tucks her pens in her boots like Alex tucks her wand in hers.

- Gonna go against the grain here: She sings really well. Usually in the shower, she’s too shy to sing anywhere else until later. She let her family convince her to sing at a talent show once at her old school and to be discreet, it didn’t go well. She threatens them if they even vaguely reference what happened, not that they would tell anyone else about it anyway. They feel way too guilty for pushing her like that in the first place.

- She's kinda clingy. There's no universe where my girl isn't attached to her loved ones like a semi-needy cat, I won't hear of it. In the modern au, it does end up seeming more cliquey than anything else. You guys are constantly on each other like bonded shelter animals

-Ekko does manage to finagle his way into your "girl club". Powder took pity on the familiar lonely and pathetic eyes he'd make at the 2 of you from across the school library. 

- You officially hang out with her family at her birthday party(?). It's technically not a party, it's literally just her siblings, her dad, and Ekko (who shyly brought her a heart shaped grenade charm because they both like Green Day). Vander insisted that he actually meet the "totally completely awesome so freaking cool" best friend that his youngest had been gatekeeping for most of the school year. 

- Obviously you'd only ever heard about the diner through Powder but it sounded really cool. Once your the parents all met each other, it turned into a cool hangout spot for your little trio

- This is a house of gremlins, they'll eat literally anything. There's a blue ice cream birthday cake, party mix with cheese dip, BBQ pizza, a candy salad bowl, a disco ball, mocktails, and... Apparently her incredible sister who strolled downstairs just as the pizza was being cut into

- You nearly choke on your mock-long island iced tea (which is practically a regular iced tea at that point). Powder stops eating her onion ring mid bite to ask if you're okay and pat you on the back but??

- No you're not okay. You finally have an actual best friend... and her sister is?? THAT

- Possibly the coolest girl you've seen in your whole life. Pinkish reddish hair that flicks out like flames, a mohawk, piercings, platform combat boots with dozens of charms, a leather jacket... Your brain chemistry will never be the same

- You only tap back in when Ekko nudges you to take your slice of the pizza

- Your parents picked you up, spent an incredibly tedious 20 minutes blabbing about you as their perfect, totally prim and pristine daughter, then spent the drive home babbling about the eccentric but kind family. You're still thinking about Vi. And definitely will be for the foreseeable future

- It's a nightmare, honestly. You love the diner, you love your new best friends, Powder has the coolest family. But you don't have a good excuse as to why you magically clam up when Vi is around. Doing homework at the diner and she's working her shift that day? Avoid eye contact, Powder orders for you as you’re hiding in the bathroom. She's walking Powder home from school? You’re totally silent, only able to choke out a few non-engaging sentences. Truly, you'd do anything to avoid looking like a blubbering idiot. What would you even say to her?? It's best to just lay low

- How long can you avoid your best friend's big sister? Not very long, honestly. Especially when you're invited to a sleepover and you immediately refuse to go.

Powder passed you a note in the middle of social studies. "Dude, sleepover tomorrow?? ψ(｀∇´)ψ It'll be fun, my dad said we can order whatever we want from the diner and watch movies all night!!"

"I can' t ＞︿＜"

"WHAT?? WHY!"

"I'm just kinda busy with studying, aren't you worried about the big test that's coming up?"

"Are you fcking kidding me?"

You can hear her scoff as she's balling up the note and stuffing it in her pocket. Well, maybe she'll get over it by lunch time?

- Wrong. She's ignoring you. Ekko tries to play mediator, to no avail of course. You guys sit in silence until the bell rings.

- She's ignoring you on the walk home too. Eventually you break down and beg for her to say something, anything.

"Powder, are you seriously angry about this? Come on..."

"If you didn't like me anymore, you'd tell me right..."

Well now you've done it. 

"Dude come on. It's not that! I just-"

"Just what? Tell the truth this time!"

"...."

"Don't best friends tell each other everything?"

She looks so hurt. There's only one way to fix this...

"Fine... lean in", you say with a sigh.

....

“Huh??”

…...

"ARE YOU-- Are you serious??" The sadness quickly turned into amusement, she's doubled over laughing. Partially because she was so worried over nothing, partially because she thinks you're the biggest doofus in the city. 

“You don’t even talk to her!”

“I. KNOW. THAT!”

“You’re such a baby, she doesn’t bite!”

“Can we be done with this now?”

"God, you're so chicken shit," she adds, wiping away a tear, "Vi? Seriously?"

You're nowhere near as amused, obviously, but you did agree to hang out with her if she ran interference for you. 

And she did, until she couldn’t. She literally shares a room with her sister, it’s divided by a curtain, but still. And she shares a 3 bedroom with 5 people, a reality neither of you had considered. 

It was peaceful at first, Powder was painting your nails while yapping about something that had happened in gym class (her least favorite subject with her most hated teachers).

“And he was like ‘What do you mean you’ve only done 2 laps?’, and I was like “Dude, I just fucking started like 3 seconds ago?? Chill your balls’, and then-”

“Sup?” A flurry of bright pink hair pushes through the curtains. Your heart is pushing out of your chest.

“Shi– I thought you had hockey practice today?”

“Nah, coach is sick.”

She settles down onto the plushie covered bed, shifting a bit with her weight. 

“You guys’re talking about Larson’s class? Heard he’s a dick, failed some poor kid for having an asthma attack during his makeup test.”

- Vi is lucky she’s naturally athletic. She’s never been close to failing gym, of all classes. Powder on the other hand… 

- Vi's been into sports since she could put on her own boxing gloves

- Jumping on the “Vi’s dyslexic” bandwagon, reading long texts truly tests her patience and she's literally had to help 3 siblings learn to ride a bike.

- Definitely had to do the L fingers to remember which way was left and which was right as a kid. Years of boxing fixed that though

- Professional metal head, though she has a taste for classic rock because of her dad

- Doesn’t remember her mom’s death, but it’s solely because she’s repressing the memory

- No rebellious phase here. She’s simply living the rebellious phase everyday because Vander is pretty free range with his kids, obviously within reason

- Reason does not include riding motorcycles, and realistically, none of the kids would even consider asking about it.

- Vander runs a punk household. In this modern!Arcane AU they don’t have to steal anything but they’re all on the right side of history. 

- Fruity gum for the fruity girl. Jokes aside, she and powder love fruity gum. She’s a peach-strawberry fiend and Powder likes blue raspberry. They’d break their gum slices in half and exchange it for optimal flavor power

- She works at the diner, all the kids do. Don’t ask them how much they get paid, it’s hard to understand how what they’re saying over all the grumbling

- She’s a great cook (and cleaner) because of her time working there. She actually started liking all that stuff once she got into high school, it’s a more peaceful emotional release than sports.

- Flirts like hell with all the other high school girls that come in when she’s on her shift. Mylo wonders how she gets so many tips, Claggor thinks it’s hilarious

- That said, she's watched The L Word and idolized the hell out of Shane when she was younger. She’s the eldest, she had to learn the charm and smoulder combo from somewhere

- Despite all this, I don’t headcanon fuckboy!Vi. More like unserious-until-serious Vi who just enjoys a bit of fun… and pretty girls

- Also, is totally the jealous type. She’s not a stage 5 clinger like Powder sometimes is, but she does yearn for a deep connection. Girl just wants to be wanted, to know that someone would sacrifice for her like she does for all of her loved ones.

- She learned how to do makeup from an ex coach that noticed her “raccoon” aesthetic and decided the kid needed help. They sat in the locker room after practice and went over everything from eyeliner to setting types of concealer. 

- Is basically only humoring the “college” talks for the sake of setting an example for her siblings and because she wants to play college hockey. 

- She was on Myspace: “pinkhairjumpscare” or “ViForVi0lenc3” 

- Knows fully well that she’s the favorite, Vander obviously loves all of his kids but -shrug- It’s good payoff for being a mini mom to her siblings. It’s tiring because she doesn’t have a mother figure. She doesn’t always love being parentified. But it heals the wound of having lost her mom, at least a little bit

- She knows their birthdays, allergies, comfort meals, interests, you name it. Even helped Mylo learn how to skateboard. He still sucks at it though, she’s not a miracle worker. 

- Vander lets all the kids have one shot of something from the bar on special occasions, but he lets Vi have 2

- She has a diary, despite vehemently denying it. It’s a simple black journal that she keeps “”””safely”””” tucked under her mattress. Powder found it, she reads it when she gets bored

- She has a picture of her mom that she got from an old photo album in Vander’s room. She has it in her nightstand drawer and quietly says goodnight to it every night.

- Is painfully over protective of her loved ones, especially Powder, her favorite bull in a china shop. It honestly doesn’t make much sense? How is she so good at something meticulous like building but manages to accidentally walk into a door frame 30 times a day?

- Consequently, this leaks onto you as well. She won’t embarrass her sister by gushing over this but you’re her first real friend. She thinks you’re awfully quiet but she can see that you’re genuine

- She can’t help the intense monitoring energy when she’s looming over the two of you, she just wants to make sure you’re not being too ridiculous. “Fun, but not too much fun, maybe a little more wild? Okay that’s too much”

- Isn’t a control freak in her own mind, she’s just… a leader. Sure, why not. It’s just the mommy-manager reflex

- That’s how you knew you were in the family, the overwhelming support and mild smothering is hard to miss, especially when it’s in contrast to your own household

✧ ━━━━⊱⋆⊰━━━━ ✧✧ ━━━━⊱⋆⊰━━━━ ✧✧ ━━━━⊱⋆⊰━━━━ ✧✧ ━━━━⊱⋆⊰

Well if Powder knowing about your big fat dumb crush wasn’t bad enough, wait until almost everybody else finds out.

You should’ve known that this sleepover would be the thing of nightmares. The nightmare that haunts you 10 years down the line when you’re in bed trying to go to sleep and your brain subjects you to a slideshow of your cringiest memories. Maybe it’s not so bad…

After a long night of girlish banter (more like shit talking all of your least favorite classes and teachers), you fell asleep at the opposite end of Powder’s bed. You stretch and quietly groan as you crack your back, only rolling over to peek at Powder, who’s sleeping as soundly as a sack of bricks, as usual. Even when she falls asleep on you on the bus ride to school, she’s just as much of a drooling log. The alarm on her nightstand hasn’t gone off yet, it’s only 9:30AM. 30 minutes more and you would’ve been sprayed with water. You tactfully maneuver your legs over hers, pushing yourself up and off of her side of the bed. You manage to open your duffel bag and pull out your toothbrush, scrunchie, toothpaste and face wash, then tiptoe over to the bathroom. You’re the first one in there, thank god. You’d hate to have to wait behind all 4 siblings, though they vowed to be on their best behavior with you around. It’ll only take you 10 minutes, it’s really not-

“Oh? Uhh, hi Y/N.”

The door swung open, it’s Mylo. So much for getting out of the way. Now you’re staring at him with your soaking wet face and mouth full of toothpaste. You offer him a muffled “Hello” and peace sign before he leaves you to your business. Only a few minutes later, you shuffle out and tap on his shared room door to let him know that he can go in now. It’s a nice system, you almost wish you had siblings to share with. 

Soon enough, you all made it out of your rooms and into the kitchen for breakfast. The scent of cinnamon sugar waffles, bacon wafted to the 2nd floor where you all had slept. You and Powder walked down the stairs, linked arm and arm. You’re overpassed by the 2 out of the 3 others, getting a pat on the head and a quick “Morning” from Claggor before he and Mylo both sit across from each other at the large kitchen island. Vander sets the last mug of hot chocolate out before sitting at the head of the table next to them, greeting the two of you. 

“How’d you two sleep?”

“Great”, Powder chirps with a yawn before sipping her drink.

“You sleep like the dead, of course you slept great.” You retort, remembering her open-mouthed, goofy sleep faces.

“Oh puh-lease, you looked pretty comfy over there with my plushies.”

“It wasn’t on purpose! I was attacked by them, you have too many!”

“I’ve been saying that for years.” Mylo adds, eating his bacon and rolling his eyes.

“If you get any more, they’re gonna start paying rent.” Vander says with a small grin before sipping more of his coffee.

Powder scoffs before sticking her tongue out at you, or more so, you both are aggressively sticking your tongues out at each other before Vander clears his throat, nudging you both to continue eating. 

There’s a sudden thumping down the stairs and a flash of pink hair that appears in the kitchen. You definitely don’t watch as Vi glides into the chair across from you and murmur out a “Morning” like everyone else. Just play it cool, for once in your life. Act natural. Are you sweating? You swear it’s never been this hard to sit like a regular person. Breathe properly. Normal thoughts. How does anyone look that good in the morning? Okay no, not those thoughts. Why is this so hard??

“Y/N?” 

“Huh?” You say, snapping back to reality. The whole table is staring at you. Great.

Claggor raises an eyebrow. “Do you guys wanna go?”

You look at Powder, now raising your own eyebrow.

“To the downtown mall. I don’t care, I’ll go if you wanna go.”

“I gotta go to Archie’s Sports Factory but you guys can hang out in the other stores until we’re ready to go.” Vi adds, mouth full of waffles and eggs. For some reason the chipmunk look is adorable to you, but  you aren’t too sure how far this crush will seep into your brain.

“Sure, I’ll go.” You say, rather cooly, at that.

Soon after you all begin to rinse off your dishes and place them into the dishwasher before you go back upstairs to get ready. It’s actually pretty amazing, not only are there this many people living together but they actually use their dishwasher. You almost consider taking a photo so your family can learn from them. 

Powder waits for you in her chair, having already put her dishes away. You finally tuck your plate away and close the dishwasher door, now walking back over to her.

“Did you bring any money?”

“Nah. Do you wanna look around Bang for your Book?”

“Sure.” She says, as she gets up, both of you leaving for her room. She tucks in her chair, you trailing behind her until:

“WHOA!”, you suddenly shriek, feeling yourself tumble forward. Forward directly into "someone's" arms.

“Got you! I got you.” Vi catches you mid fall, like you were some fainting lady from the 1800s. Your pant leg got caught in the moving chair. It had to be you, of course it did. 

“You okay?”

“Umm, yeah?” you choke out. 

She’s still holding you by your lower back and arm. You’ve never been this close to her, it’s a little disorienting. 

“Alright, cool. Roll up your pant legs next time, it’s gonna get caught on everything.” She pats you on the back before going upstairs. 

You close your eyes and sigh heavily, leaning on the table with your head in your hands. So much for normal.

“Smooth.” Powder says, audibly holding back her giggles.

“You little troll!” You snap out of your pity party, how did she go from promising to protect you to this??

"I didn't tell you to trip!"

"I didn't me-"

You only stop yourself when you realize that the rest of the household is still in the kitchen, staring at both of you, smug amusement written all over their faces. This is either going to be the longest day ever, or the shortest, if you manage to die of embarrassment.

✧ ━━━━⊱⋆⊰━━━━ ✧✧ ━━━━⊱⋆⊰━━━━ ✧✧ ━━━━⊱⋆⊰━━━━ ✧✧ ━━━━⊱⋆⊰

***There’s a bit of a time skip here, about a year and a half***

(Y’all I considered writing this in Ye Olde text speech but I feel like nobody would be able to read those hieroglyphics…)

CHAT ROOM:

Bl4cklikemyh3art: “Wanna go to the mall after school?”

N!ghtm4reBunni3: “After? Like… today??”

N!ghtm4reBunni3: “Okay assclown, I’m not going.”

Bl4cklikemyh3art: “No like yesterday.”

Bl4cklikemyh3art: “COME ONNN, I’M SORRY! Yes, today. Pleaaaase?”

N!ghtm4reBunni3: “Fine, sure, I’ll tell my dad then. Why are we even going today? Won’t your parents get all twitchy if you aren’t at the diner?”

Bl4cklikemyh3art: “Well… they just won’t know!”

N!ghtm4reBunni3: “Oh, now I really gotta know. What’s going on?”

Bl4cklikemyh3art: “Well, according to my sources, Cassidy Ferrera is going to the mall we always go to.

Bl4cklikemyh3art: “Vi loves Cassidy Ferrera, so I was thinking we could go and get an autograph for her :3333”

N!ghtm4reBunni3: “…aaaand?”

N!ghtm4reBunni3: “Oh my god just marry her already, you’re so fucking gay”

Bl4cklikemyh3art: “I might if this goes well (❤️´艸｀❤️)”

N!ghtm4reBunni3: “I’m telling this story at your wedding. Kk, cya in 20.”

Bl4cklikemyh3art: Wait, can you get something for me before you leave?”

N!ghtm4reBunni3: “Yeah, what?”

“Sooo did you get Vi’s Mini Mite hockey picture?”

“Yep,” Powder says, taking the photo out of her messenger backpack and waving it around.

“I can’t believe we’re doing this… You don’t even like hockey.” Ekko adds.

“No, but she likes Vi. What’s the difference?” Powder says, flipping through her iPod Nano. Or technically Vi’s iPod nano, it’s a hand-me-down.

“Wait wait wait, you like–”

“You absolutely can, you’re the one who told me where she’d be.” You cut him off with a raised eyebrow.

“Ekko is your ‘source’?? Oh brother…”

“Listen, he’s the only one who knows how to hunt down a celebrity.”

“Are we not counting that time you found out where Andy Biersack was staying on tour from a 10 second video clip?”

“That doesn’t count!

“I’m a cyber warrior, not a creep, thank you.”

“Shouldn’t you be thanking me? You said you were madly in love with him.”

“Why do you even like that guy? He looks like a Tim Burton character.” Ekko says, arms crossed with a clear look of disapproval. 

“Guys, I think this is our stop.” You say, looking down at your freshly printed out directions. Finally the school’s computer lab did more than just bore you to tears.

“Did your totally not creepy research tell you where exactly she’d be in the mall?” Powder asks, all 3 of you looking at the 12 different floors of bustling customers and back-to-back stores.

“I mean, I assume a famous hockey player would be lurking in the sports department,” you start, “We can each take the 3 floors of Archie’s Sports Factory and just comb through the aisles.”

“How are we gonna find each other? And what are we even supposed to say if we find her? Powder has the picture.” Ekko asks.

“Well, we can stay on the phone, I know what to say.” You don’t actually know what to say, but it can’t be that hard. You’ve literally convinced your conservative parents to let you hang out with a family of alternative looking metal heads, what could be more difficult?

“Ugh, my minutes are gonna run out…” he says with a sigh.

“We’re the only people you talk to! They won’t run out, and this is your motivation to find Cassidy quicker! So let’s go, please” you say with a stitched grin. If this doesn’t make Vi think you’re cool and not a dorky kid, you don’t know what will.

If I was a famous hockey player, what aisle would I be in…? You muse to yourself. Sneakers? No. Definitely not tennis equipment. Knee pads, warmer. Man, what do hockey players even use? You walk through dozens of grind guards, helmets, jerseys, and equipment bags. No sign of a famous sporty woman with a curly ponytail anywhere.

“Guys, anything?”

“No, just a bunch of kids playing with the basketballs.” Powder says.

“Nothing yet, but I’m only halfway through the golfing aisle. What did you say she looked like?”

“Uhh.. Brown curly ponytail, tan, hazel eyes, kinda ta– Oh! MY GOD!”

“What??”

“You see something?”

Indeed you do. Through the shop window you can see the exact woman making her way to the parking garage, bags in hand. Only problem? She’s 4 floors down. 

“THE PARKING GARAGE!” The store reps are eyeing you awkwardly, they’ll get over it.

“Which??” They both ask in unison.

“Past the Spencer’s down the hallway! Go! I’m going down right now, Powder, where are you??”

“Just run, I’ll be there” she says as the line abruptly ends.

You maneuver your way around the customers trying on their sneakers, quickly telling the store reps that you’re totally fine but you gotta go, all in a reassuring tone that suggests your house might be on fire.

“S’cuse me, sorry, sorry, s’cuse, pardon me” you say, weaving in and out from between the customers on the escalator. You hop down the final steps, finally speed running past the Spencer’s and meeting up with Powder and Ekko. The 3 of you run down the walkway into the parking garage, frantically looking around for the woman of the hour. 

“Do you see her??”

“No, what now?”

“Just, just– chase the next car alarm that you hear!”

And sure enough, one went off behind you. 

You all make your way past the neighboring cars, looking up and down the lot. A grey trunk slams a few cars down, causing the 3 of you to turn in its direction.

“Do you see her??” Ekko looks

“This is hopeless!” Powder says, facepalming

“You know what? We’re doing this the easy way. CASSIDY?!” You call out in the near silent parking lot. 

“...Hello?” You hear a woman’s voice, coming from behind the same car.

“Let’s go!”, you say in the most excited but hushed tone.

“So you guys are here for your friend?”

“Her sister, our friend, yeah.” You say, still somewhat out of breath from the wild goose chase you just went on.

“She’s literally your biggest fan, she hasn’t stopped talking about you since she learned how to play.” Powder adds.

“She has a bunch of your merch, she thinks you’re amazing!” Ekko chimes in.

“She sure is dedicated, tell her I said she’s pretty amazing herself.” Cassidy grins as she’s writing a note on the back of Vi’s picture. She hands Powder back the picture, which she immediately tucks back into her messenger bag.

“You kids stay safe, alright?”

“We will!” You all say in unison. It’s beginning to look like you guys rehearse these things.

“I can’t believe that worked!” You’re practically glowing. Vi’s gonna love this.

“Can we go back to the diner now? I’m starving.” Powder turns to you, looking nothing short of exhausted. 

“Me too, and the bus is coming soon. We gotta start walking.” Ekko adds.

“Yeah, let’s go.” You say, cheesing as hard as hard as your cheeks can handle.