#mold writes

Everyone knew about the big explosion in Jinx's laboratory. The girl fucked up big time with one of her inventions and blew up one of the propeller wings her den was built on. This in turn caused more explosives to fall down the canyon and... Let's say that it was hard to find a person in the Undercity who didn't feel the ground shake under their feet in that moment.

Following Silco's footsteps and stepping into that place was a nerve-wracking experience for the young mechanic. With one of her hands, she was playing with the screws and bolts that she had stashed away in the pockets of her leather apron. The other one was tightly gripping the handle of her beat up toolbox.

"Jinx", Silco exclaimed. No answer, no sound, no nothing. "Jinx!"

"Who's this?", a voice suddenly resounded from behind Cogs' shoulder. She knew who it belonged to and it slightly terrified her. Cogs turned around and took a step back. She stood face to face with the blue-haired girl she has heard so much about.

They've never interacted. The only impressions Cogs gained of her boss's daughter were from stories told at bars and countless hours spent trying to fix some of Jinx's trinkets that ended up in the standard arsenal of Silco's underlings.

Cogs has only ever seen Jinx in passing, at a safe distance, never so up-close and personal. As far as she could tell, this moment must've been when the blue-haired maniac became aware of Cogs' existence, a fact that made every hair on her neck stand up in fear. Jinx knowing about you put a target on your back. Or at least that’s what everybody said.

"Your new assistant. She'll help you clean up this mess and make sure that nothing of the sorts takes place ever again.", Silco explained calmly wagging his finger at the blown-up workshop behind him. The expression of curiosity on Jinx's face quickly turned into one of annoyance.

"I don't need a babysitter!", she barked throwing her hands up in the air.

"Your last stunt suggested quite the contrary. Prove to me that you can be responsible, and we can discuss this again." The man started to walk away at a leisurely pace. "For the time being, you two should acquaint yourselves." And just like that, he was gone.

Jinx furrowed her brows at Cogs. She felt like she was shrinking under her gaze.

"I-I'm sorry. I'm just following orders", she mumbled. "I could..."

Before Cogs could finish her sentence, the girl scoffed at her and stormed off to the big table in the middle of the platform. Reluctantly, the mechanic followed her and stood a few meters behind. She looked around the place. It was gigantic and cluttered with all sorts of things, most of them piles of scrap metal and what people usually considered junk. Cogs understood that they were precious resources and admired the amounts she accumulated. If it wasn't for the disturbing neon graffiti covering almost every surface and that creepy doll slouching on the couch, she would've felt somewhat at home.

"Don't touch anything", Jinx told her as she plopped down on a stool at her workbench. Cogs turned to her. The mechanic tried to keep a friendly expression on her face. It was hard to not show her discomfort with this whole situation.

"Can I sit down somewhere? I've got a few things I have to tinker with today."

"There", Jinx pointed at a free spot on the floor.

Cogs nodded slowly and sat herself down. The light wasn't the greatest, but she'd have to manage. She opened the toolbox and took out the few mechanical pieces she had hiden in there. She decided to tinker a bit with the gun that she was supposed to fix. She inspected all the parts separately and when the gun was partially assembled, but there was still something wrong with the loading mechanism. She couldn't find the culprit. Cogs sighed in frustration and dropped the part she was working on the floor. She rubbed her face and unknowingly smeared oil all over her forehead and cheeks.

"What is wrong with you? Why don't you want to work?", she groaned forgetting where she was for a moment. She must've spent at least two hours on this and she had nothing to go off from. She knew which part was malfunctioning and that was pretty much it.

"That's mine", Jinx said with a hint of surprise in her voice.

Cogs' eyes snapped open. She didn't notice Jinx sneaking up next to her and picking up the part she was tinkering with seconds ago. She was turning it around in her fingers.

"That's... yours?", Cogs repeated furrowing her brows in confusion.

"I made it. This is my design."

"Oh, yeah. Of course," Cogs said slightly embarrassed and scratched the back of her neck. "The loading mechanism is fucked. I have no idea what happened."

The blue-haired girl picked up a screwdriver and jammed it into the part. Cogs' eyes widened at this, but she didn't dare to say anything.

"There. It should work now."

Cogs assembled the gun and tested whether the parts were moving the way they were intended to. The gun was indeed working again.

"This is... how did you...? I mean, of course you knew what wrong with it right away." She shook her head in bewilderment. She looked up at Jinx and for the first time today actually looked her in the eyes. "Thank you."

"You're welcome..." Jinx cocked her head to side, clearly trying to remember what the mechanic's name was.

"Cogs. People call me Cogs"

"You're welcome, Cogs", Jinx finished the sentence and then skipped away back to her own projects.

Something about the way she said her name made Cogs feel pleasant in a way.

Next Chapter ->

"Doctor Cogs!" - greeted her Jinx. She was sat down in Cog's usual spot.

"Don't... call me that."

"Surgeon Cogs? Nurse Cogs?", Jinx wiggled her eyebrows.

"Crazy idea, but what if we stuck to 'Cogs'?"

"Well, that's fucking boring, but fine. It was sweet how you asked my dad about me, by the way", she said while inspecting her nails. She blew off imaginary particles of dust from them and looked up at Cogs. Her eyes sparkled with mischief as they so often did.

"Were you listening to that?"

"I'm always listening", Jinx said in a deep voice. Cogs felt a sting of fear. Did she hear her conversation with Vice too? No, that's impossible... or is it? Jinx laughed out loud at the expression on Cogs' face. "He told me, silly. I was out of my mind on drugs while that was happening. Good times." She spun in the chair, her braids swirling around her.

"Fuck you", Cogs rolled her eyes and dropped the box with broken items on the bench in front of Jinx.

"Not what I had in my mind right now, but..."

"You know what I meant", said Cogs trying to hide a smirk. She enojoyed her jokes, even though they were sometimes annoying. They kept her at the edge seat.

Jinx took out nail polish from somewhere and started to fix up her nails. Cogs grabbed herself a different chair, since it seemed that the girl wouldn't move out of the way any time soon.

"What... happened yesterday?", Cogs asked with her eyes fixated on Jinx's fingers.

"Oh, you know, those damn Firelights are always getting in the way. You should've seen the other guy. Or guys. They're dead" she cackled.

Cogs tried not to feel to disturbed by that admission. She knew Jinx killed people. She knew that most of the people working for Silco weren't neccessarily angels. It was just different when someone addmitted to ending a life so... openly.

"It's a dog eat dog world out there," she thought and shrugged. It was. There was no point in thinking about this further. She'd go crazy, if she'd try to imagine every person the weapons she built or fixed have hurt or even killed. "Are you okay now? How's your leg doing?"

"It's healing", she said while focusing on painting the base of her nails. Cogs was still trying to comprehend how she manged to keep her nails in such a perfect shape all the time. "You did better than the stapler."

"Oh, really?"

"But only a bit." Jinx almost pinched her fingers in order to show how tiny the difference was. "Give me your hand", she said.

"What? Why?"

Jinx already reached out for it and laid it on the workbench in front of herself.

"Pink or blue? Or... both?"

Why did Cogs feel like there was some hidden meaning behind that question?

"I'll take whichever you prefer", she sighed. There was no arguing her way out of this. She'll get her nails painted, whether she liked it or not.

"Pink it is then. It will look better on you"

Jinx was holding onto Cogs' hand the whole time, which made her feel self-conscious about the state of it once more. She was a bit surprised by how cold the nailpolish felt on her nails. She looked up at Jinx who was very focused on painting Cogs' little finger. The expression on her face when she was concentrating made her swoon everytime. Cogs noticed that there was a tiny scratch on the girl's jaw. She absentmindedly reached out with her free hand and brushed her thumb over it. The skin felt warm and soft under her figertips.

The blue-haired girl twitched and then leaned into the touch before Cogs realised what she has done and wasn't able to take her hand away. There were a few seconds in which they looked each other in the eyes. Cogs was the first one the break the eyecontact. She pretended she needed her hand to clear her throat. With the corner of her eyes she saw a look of disappointment on Jinx's face.

Jinx finished painting Cogs' nails in silence and then went back to finish her own hand. She was about to push herself away on the stool and go back to her projects, but the mechanic put a foot in the way and blocked her. Jinx looked at her with furrowed brows.

"Why did you leave that night?", asked Cogs. She hesitated, but decided to add, "I didn't take you for the pump and dump type of girl."

Jinx cocked her head to the side. "The joke doesn't work, if you say it. It doesn't suit you."

Cogs pursed her lips and waited for Jinx to anwer the actual question.

"I had to an errand to run, toots." She was visibly uncomfortable talking about the topic.

"You could've woken me up. I would've gone with you," Cogs said. Jinx stayed silent and simply kept studying the mechanic's face. Cogs sighed and removed her foot and got out of the way. "Don't disappear tonight."

Jinx seemed taken aback by what she said. Without breaking eye-contact she slowly rolled back to her station. She stuck out her tongue at her and then went back to her projects. They continued working for the rest of the day. When the time came to leave, Jinx as per usual followed Cogs. She stayed conciouss of her own pace to not force the girl to walk faster than she could.

When they stood at the entrance to Cogs' building, the mechanic walked up to Jinx and said, "Hold your braids."

She suddenly picked up Jinx bridal style and started carrying her upstairs. The girl laughed along the way while cracking jokes about them falling down and breaking their necks. She put her down in front of the door to open it.

"I would've walked up faster by myself", said Jinx. She was still giddy from being carried all the way up by Cogs.

"But wouldn't that have been boring?"

They talked and laughed until midnight, when Cogs eventually passed out on the mattress. When she opened her eyes Jinx wasn't in her bed anymore. Cogs raised her head to look around and found her staring out the only window in the apartment.

"Morning", she murmured.

Jinx turned around with a grin.

<- Previous Chapter ||| Next Chapter ->

The air outside is cold and as crisp as it can get in Zaun. You close your eyes for a second, savouring the taste of your cancer stick and the feeling of a light wind blowing in your face from the left. You can almost imagine being anywhere else but here.

You've done that since you've been a kid. You'd close your eyes and imagine yourself on a pirate ship sailing trough the seas or as a bird flying freely above Piltover. You'd take in all the sensations around you and try to fit them into the fantasy. Except most of the time, the illusion shattered when the sounds of your home would reach your ears. It wasn't different this time.

Some drunkards arguing with the bouncers downstairs are about to get their asses handed to them. You open your eyes and chuckle at the thought. God, you haven't gotten to kick some ass in a while, have you?

Protecting Silco's shimmer shipments wasn't always the most interesting job. Sure, sometimes the flying cock roaches would show up, but ever since Jinx started coming with, the attacks were less frequent. It probably had to do with so many of them dying at her hands. That girl was a complete nut case.

You walk over to the edge and start tiptoeing along the line of the building. You're peaking down in hopes of getting to see the action.

"If you want to jump, you should just do it. The suspense is killing me."

You freeze right where you are and look over in the direction the voice came from. You notice Jinx standing with her back to a wall, arms folded on her chest.

"Oh, it's you", you say and jump off the ledge back onto the proper roof. Your cigarette is almost all burned out, so you spit it out and step on it. You look the girl up and down and raise an eyebrow. "Where's your jacket, huh?"

"Don't need one", she shrugs.

'Yeah, right.', you think. You stuff the pack of cigarettes and the lighter into your pants pocket and then shrug your own leather jacket from your shoulders. You throw it at her. The girl catches it effortlessly and shoots you a questioning look.

"Silco will feed me to the sharks, if you catch a cold like this. Put it on."

She rolls her eyes at you. "Stop acting like you're not literally my age."

"I don't have a rich, powerful daddy to take care of me. It makes you grow up faster."

Her face scrunches in annoyance at your words. You're honestly surprised that she lets you talk to her like this. She's not the type of person to take shit from anyone. She eventually scoffs and puts the jacket on. The leather fits well around her slim torso. You have a similar build after all.

You suddenly hear the click of a gun and you realize that you're being aimed at with a gun. "I should shoot you in the face one of these days. I bet you'll look funny", she says with a smirk, her head tilted a bit to the side.

You glance at the hand she's holding the gun with. Her finger isn't even on the trigger, so you step forward in her direction until the barrel is pressed tight against your chest. You stand there like this for a while staring the girl down. She won't hurt you.

She would've already done it, if she wanted to. You know that she had plenty of chances in the past. One stray bullet would've done the trick. Yet, for some reason, the girl only ever spat empty threats at you. If this would go on for any longer, you'd start to think that she liked you or something.

"You look surprisingly good in this", you smile. "You can keep it."

Without waiting for a response you take a step back and start heading towards the door back to the bar.

"Yeah, like I'd wear your old rags!", she shouts after you.

"You're welcome!"

A few days pass before you meet her again on one of the jobs you're running for Silco. You notice her wearing the jacket you gave her and wink at her. She shows you her middle finger, but later that day you catch her hugging the jacket close around herself. Maybe she did like you. And maybe you liked her back.

Next Story ->

Cogs thought that maybe because she was also some  sort of inventor herself, Jinx didn't mind her as much. She'd sometimes catch her watching her work. The blue-haired girl never looked away when caught. She just kept staring and smiling at her. There was something  unnerving about that absolute lack of embarrassment.

Sometimes Jinx would disappear for hours at a time and that's when Cogs would utilize her chance to explore the place. It felt intimate to inspect Jinx's work in progress, like reading a diary. It gave her a unique glimpse into her personality or at least that's what Cogs thought.

She admired her creativity for a long time. After all, she has spent literal days picking apart her intricate inventions. The one she liked the most, were the mechanical butterflies Jinx recently started working on. They looked so much different from everything else that Cogs has seen of Jinx's work. Cogs wanted to touch one of them and test out its  wings, but she was afraid to break it.

When Jinx came back from one her usual escapades on the fourth day Cogs has spent there, the  mechanic gathered some courage and greeted her.

"Welcome back." Cogs immediately cringed at what she said. Was it too lame? Should she have said hi? God, is this weird? She’s weird. Jinx seemed to be taken aback by the words. She furrowed her brows and then after a second or two that felt like an eternity, her face softened.

"I'm home", she answered and got around to her usual activities.

Greeting each other became a routine between them. Cogs would come there in the  early mornings to begin her workday. Sometimes Jinx was there to greet her because she fell asleep working, and sometimes Cogs would be the one waiting for the other to show up.

The girl felt conflicted about  their developing relationship. She still felt uneasy around Jinx because she knew how volatile she could be. On the other hand, warmth spread inside her chest and her heart excitedly skipped a beat whenever Jinx entered the laboratory.

"Honey, I'm home!" shouted Jinx as she walked into the workshop a couple of days later. There was mischief in her voice. Cogs giggled a bit.

"Welcome...  home." Cogs hesitated before saying 'home', but there wasn't anything  wrong with playing into the joke, was there? It felt good to say it. She wanted to say it again tomorrow.

<- First Chapter ||| Next Chapter ->

It'll be fine! This wouldn't happen to me. And even if it does, I'd kick their asses anyway. Your ego got knocked down a peg to say the least. There was an ember of hot, burning anger in your chest ever since those low-lives jumped you on the street. Well, that's not entirely true. First, you had to take a nap in a puddle of your own blood and vomit. The anger came in the morning, after you sobered up and it had finally dawned on you that you're a big, fat idiot.

Now, you have to fix it.

First thing you did was to look through your pockets. You noticed that your wallet and gun were missing right away. It was one thing to be robbed from your personal belongings and another to have your work weapon taken away. There would be no second chances, if anybody found out about you losing it like this.

You punch the shower wall hurting your hand in the process. You whimper quietly and allow yourself a second to deal with the additional pain. Finally, you twist the faucet shut and step out of the bathroom with a towel draped over your head and another one covering your naked body. There are a few drops of water still glistening on your back and shoulders.

Hot water washed away your grogginess and cleared your mind enough to let you think about what your next steps should be. You know that you have to fix this. You also know that you need a plan. You have to find out who robbed you, where they live and what sounds they'll make when you give them the worst beating of their lives.

You remember bits and pieces of what happened. A red mohawk, baseball bats and sunglasses. Those were the only useful details you could squeeze out of your brain. It was better than nothing, but it still wasn't a lot to go off from.

You're still buried deep in your thoughts as you hear a knock on your window. You look over and see Jinx hanging upside down on the outside. Nothing is going to go your way today, isn't it? You walk up to the window and open it before she slips and falls down, because knowing your luck, she might, and you'd have that to worry about too.

"Do you peep on people frequently?"

"Only on you", she says and slides into the room. "A little birdie told me that you're in a bit of a pickle."

You raise your eyebrow. "Was its name Jinx by any chance?"

She shrugs. "I just thought that it would be a shame, if it told anyone else about what happened."

"What do you want?", you groan.

"Why would you assume I want something from you? I'm just here to help a friend out." She gives you a sweet smile.

You scoff at the statement and shake your head. It's not like you have a choice anyway. You turn to grab a bundle of clean clothes. You first finish drying your hair and throw the towel on a chair. You contemplate it for a moment and decide to also toss away the towel that you covered your body with. Much to your amusement you hear a quiet 'hmm' behind you.

"How much did you see?", you ask while pulling up your pants.

"Pretty much... all of it."

"Then you know who did it, correct?"

"Maybe."

You snap around and shoot her an annoyed look. She eyes your bare torso for a few seconds and then says, "Yeah, I know who did it."

She's toying with you. You try imagining how you would've acted if the roles were reversed. You'd be lying through your teeth, if you tried to claim that you wouldn't do the same with her. The temptation would've been irresistible. You can't blame her for giving in.

"All right, let's go", you say and reach over to the shelf you usually put your gun on. Oh, right.

---

Jinx is being her usual self and carelessly skipping through the streets while humming a song. Despite you asking her multiple times, she didn't tell you where you were going. Without any surprise, you noticed that you were getting closer to the seedier part of town.

"Isn't it fun? It's a like a scavenger hunt", she says while walking backwards to look you in the face. When she gets no reaction from you, she pouts at you. "You're boring."

"I'm not in the mood to..."

You get cut off by the sound of a gunshot firing off in the distance. Your eyes go wide, and you start sprinting in the direction, Jinx following you closely. You hear gunshots again and correct your course. Each second is getting you closer to where the thieves are hiding out. How stupid do you have to be to shoot a gun around here at this hour? It's almost as if they're asking to be found.

You arrive at the doorstep of an abandoned building. Your heart is pounding, partially because of the trek and partially because you're excited. You're ready to get back at the people who fucked with you. Without even thinking about it, you sneak in. You take your steps carefully, making sure that your boots don't make too much noise as you rest your weight on pieces of broken glass and rubble. On the other hand, Jinx is so silent, that you have to turn your head and search for her to make sure that she didn't bail out on you.

"Let me try! It's my turn now!", you hear a squeaky voice say.

"Shut up!", another one answers, this time it sounds a bit older but not by much.

'What the hell?', you think to yourself and soon enough your confusion grows even more. You peak through a doorway that leads into a patio. The same chunks of rubble and trash are laying around all over the open space, and in the middle of it you notice a small group of teenagers.

There's five of them. Two look to be around fifteen or sixteen and the rest seems to be at least a couple years younger. Your eyes lock onto the kid holding your gun up, away from the grabby hands of one his younger friends. You recognize the red mohawk and sunglasses from last night.

You look over at Jinx in disbelief. She shrugs as if to say 'Don't look at me. You're the one who got beaten up by a bunch of kids'. You roll your eyes.

"Hey!", you shout at the group of teens and step out from behind your cover.

Their heads snap in your direction. At first there's a look of fear in their eyes, but as soon as they realize who's standing in the doorway, it disappears.

"It's that loser from last night!", one of the older ones laughs. A girl.

The mohawk kid starts to lower the gun in order to aim at you, but the annoying kid is quicker and snaps it right out of his hands. "I said, it's my turn now!", it shrieks and starts running away with the weapon.

There's a second in which you and the thief look each other in the eyes before everyone jumps forward to chase after the child. It finally realizes that something is up and squeals in fear. It's slippery like an eel and manages to wriggle itself out of its friends' attempt at apprehending it. It's still looking over its shoulder at the last teen that it has freed itself from and doesn't notice that it's running straight into your arms until it bumps into your stomach. You grab it by the wrist and rip the gun out of its hand.

"Ouch, ouch, ouch, you're hurting me!", it starts to complain. Everyone stops in place. The teens share a worried look with each other.

"Do you want to know what one does with thieves?", you ask. "You cut their hands off."

The child you're holding up shrieks and turns its face away from you. You release it and it starts scrambling to the rest of its group. As soon as it's in reach, someone slaps it in the back of its head. "Dumbass!", you hear them hiss.

"Hey, easy, it was just a prank!" The mohawk kid says and then looks over at the doorway. You see the Adam's apple in his throat move as he gulps. His eyes are almost a falling out of their orbits. You glance over and see Jinx just standing there and watching you with an amused look on her face. "She... she told us to do it!"

Of fucking course, she did. You close your eyes and breath in deeply. You count to five. You breath out again.

"Wallet," you say flatly. Someone throws it towards you. You catch it and check its insides. "And the money?"

You follow the kids' gazes to the pile of half-eaten food from the market.

You're significantly less angry than you were when the day started. You're obviously not going to beat up some kids, but you can at least teach them a lesson. In one swift movement you aim and shoot at one of the beverage bottles standing around. It erupts in a small explosion of glass shards and sugary fluid. It takes the kids a moment to register that you didn't actually aim to kill.

"You don't want to know what I'll do, if I ever see any of you brats again, ", you grumble and start to walk away. After you get close enough to the doorway you mouth angrily at Jinx, "What the fuck?!”

She gives you a wave with her fingers.

"What?", she cocks her head to the side. She gathers herself and starts to walk beside you when you don't stop next to her.

"You told someone to rob me?", you ask when the both of you step back out onto the street. "Are you fucking crazy?"

"I was looking out for you. Aren't you glad that it was just kids and not some tough, scary criminals?"

"Why did I even ask?", you mumble and rub your face. You take a few more steps before you feel her hand slide into yours. You glance at her with furrowed brows.

"Besides, we haven't seen each other in a while”, she says sheepishly. “I thought it'd be nice to do something together."

You can't help but laugh at what she just said. You continue howling at the absurdity of it until your eyes get wet from happy tears. You swipe them away with your free hand.

"Is this your fucked up idea of a date?"

"Maybe." There's a barely visible blush on her cheeks.

You know what? You'll take it.

<- Previous Story ||| Writing Masterlist ->

The mechanic pretended that she didn't notice how wet spots would sometimes form on her shirt as it soaked up the girl's tears. She just held Jinx tighter in those moments and soon enough her breathing steadied and deepened.

There were nightmares too. Jinx would wake up screaming and trashing around. Cogs' body was bruised from the times she got smacked with a knee or an unruly elbow, but she didn't mind. She was glad that she was there to snap Jinx out of whatever horror when was going through and ground her in reality.

She heard the names of her ghosts from Jinx's past. She heard her pleading and begging for the voices to stop. She decided to wait for Jinx to open up by herself, even if that day would never come. After all, she already had enough to piece together a rough version of the events that haunted her. 

Cogs also finally managed to get Jinx to clean up the mess from the explosion and try to fix up whatever there was left from that propeller wing. It was a tedious task since Jinx would always somehow find a way to distract her and make them do something else. She was an absolute master of diversion and Cogs was weak. A single pouty face or a tug on her sleeve were enough for the girl to give in to whatever shenanigans Jinx wanted them to get up to.

"Do you know how to shoot?", Jinx asked her while they were cleaning one time.

Cogs got up from the kneeling position she was in and stretched her back. "I know how to shoot a gun. I'm just very bad at it." She groaned as her back cracked in multiple places.

"Oh, I'll teach you then. This is gonna be so fun!"

Well, Cogs supposed she knew what they'd be doing for the rest of their day. She watched in amusement as the now mostly healed Jinx run around the den and set up a tiny shooting range with multiple targets at differing distances. She took basically anything she could find: an unfinished shell for one of her bombs, a scrap of a metal plate, an enforcer's helmet. Cogs wondered, if the girl had taken it from a dead body or simply stolen it during one of her escapades.

Jinx pretty much forced a gun into Cogs' hands and dragged her to the line from which she was supposed to be shooting.

"I don't think it's a good idea to shoot at metal", she said with a note of worry in her voice.

"Nah, you'll be fine."

Cogs squinted at Jinx, who enthusiastically nodded at her in response. The girl took a deep breath and aimed the gun at the closest and biggest target. One last look at Jinx and then she pulled the trigger. She hit the metal plate in the bottom right corner, but instead of a metallic clink resounding through the workshop and the bullet ricocheting back at her, it splattered and left a small paint blob on the spot that she hit.

"What's with the face? I'm not trying to kill us."

"Y-yeah" Cogs coughed out. "Sorry about that."

At a second glance this definitely wasn't a normal gun. She has never seen anything like this before. Jinx’s ingenuity kept surprising her, no matter how many gadgets the girl showed her. She also felt relief knowing that this was probably the most harmless way for her to practice.

Jinx walked up to Cogs and stood behind her. She reached around with her arms and started to correct her friend's stance.

"Legs wider" she murmured while raising Cogs' arms a bit.

Both of them became more physically affectionate over the past weeks. It mainly had to do with them sleeping in the same bed. However, Cogs was still pretty sensitive to Jinx's touch. The closeness made her heart race every time.

"You should also breath", Jinx whispered into her ear, her breath tickled and sent goosebumps down her body. Cogs gasped realizing that she did indeed forget how to breath for a moment. Jinx giggled and stepped away from her.

"Shoot."

She pulled the trigger and the paintball splattered pretty close to the middle of the plate where Jinx drew a target with a red crayon. Cogs turned to Jinx with a grin on her face. She offered her the gun and Jinx took it. The mechanic knew right away that the girl was about to show off and she was all there for it.

Jinx shooting was like a pianist playing his instrument or a writer composing poetry right in front of her eyes. Cogs watched her in a trance. She fired each paint ball with a purpose, and they always landed wherever she set her eye at. There was absolutely no hesitation and almost no time between her switching targets.

Cogs eyes were peeled to her body. She took in the sight and etched it onto her mind. Jinx's arm muscles moving, the cute wrinkle between her brows and the way her chest rose up and down in a steady rhythm. The spectacle stopped once Jinx ran out of bullets to shoot with. The only thing on Cogs' mind in that moment, was how mesmerizing Jinx was to her.

"This was incredible", said Cogs once Jinx turned to look at her.

"Yeah, I did okay", she said. The self-satisfied smirk on her face broke any illusion of modesty the girl tried to put up. She was good and she knew it.

They kept shooting for a while and lost track of time. Cogs in no way became nearly as good as her friend, but she was definitely much better at shooting than she was when she woke up that day. Everything around them was covered in neon-colored paint.

When they went up to inspect the targets Jinx smeared a bit of paint between her fingers and booped Cogs' nose. This meant only one thing: war. They went all out smearing paint on each other's faces and clothes until there were barely any clean spots left to attack anymore. Eventually, they both went down wrestling on the floor and rolling around laughing. After a minute of vicious fighting, Jinx managed to pin Cogs down and they laid there gasping for air.

"Okay, okay, you win", Cogs rolled her eyes and tried to free her wrists from Jinx metal grip, but to no avail.

"Do I get a reward?" Jinx asked.

"I mean, it really depends on what you want." Cogs looked to the side, suddenly feeling uncomfortable with how intensely Jinx was staring in her eyes.

The girl seemed to think about it for a second and then leaned in closer and whispered into Cogs' ear for the second time that day. "Tell me a secret."

Cogs almost choked on just air. "A secret?" Her voice was an octave higher than usual.

"Mhm."

She turned her head back to face Jinx. They were awfully close right now.

"Umm... I've been thinking about buying a bedframe."

"How's that a secret?" Jinx snickered.

"I haven't told anyone yet."

"This is boring. Tell me an interesting secret"

Cogs' brain kind of short-circuited in that moment and she mumbled out, "You look really hot when you shoot stuff." The mechanic's eyes went wide in realization. Jinx mirrored her expression for a split second before gathering her composure.

"Why thank you", Jinx smirked at her and shortly after her lips were on Cogs'. The girl moaned in both surprise and pleasure.

"Tell me another one", Jinx whispered again.

"You're generally really hot." She got another kiss in return.

"More", groaned Jinx while planting kisses on her neck and jaw.

"I think... “ Cogs looked away to the side. If she was ever going to tell her about how she felt, now was as good of a time as there would ever be. “I think that I'm in love with you."

Jinx froze and sat up straight. Her ears and face were a dark shade of red. She released Cogs’ wrists and straightened out the girl’s shirt. Cogs’ heart was beating so fast, she was worried that it might tore a hole in her chest and jump out. She swallowed nervously.

“Why?”, Jinx asked so quietly that for a second, Cogs wasn’t sure if she didn’t just imagine it.

“You’re not as scary as everyone made you out to be”, she chuckled. “You’re funny. You’re easy to talk to. You’re really smart. I mean, you make me feel like a dumbass sometimes. My… heart does a flip when I see you and I catch myself smiling, because I was thinking about you.” Each of the words Cogs spoke got quieter as she kept going. “I want to be close to you so much that it hurts sometimes.”

Jinx leaned forward for another kiss and Cogs could feel something wet fall on her cheek. The mechanic was expecting the kiss to end, but instead the blue-haired girl deepened it. Cogs gasped at the sudden feeling of Jinx’s tongue running across her lower lip. Soon, there wasn't much room left for talking because Jinx's hand slid up her shirt.

a/n: Leave me some fucking comments, people. I wanna know what you thought about this one! Asks are fine too. Next chapter is going to be the last one. I’ll try to put it out tomorrow. Love you guys! (SPOILER: I’m not a monster. Don’t fret about the ending.)

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