Silence. Everyone around just stared at Jinx as she took another gulp from the botle in her hand. "whaaat? i got somethin in my teeth?"
Lux huffed and crossed her arms as she approached Jinx, brow furrowed and visibly annoyed. "You're drunk, Jinx."
"Nuuuuh uhh, you're druuunk.." Jinx slurred her words hard as she firmly poked lux in the chest. In the process of the retalitory jab, Jinx lost her footing and fell into Lux, who quickly shoved Jinx back to her feet. "Yooou wanna fiiight blondie? i'll beat you're asssssss right here." Three of the golden knights seemingly appeared out of nowhere, ready to apprehend the troublemaker. "ooooh now the walking jewelry stoooores wanna fiiighttt..?" Jinx put her fists up and wobbled, barely keeping her balance as the guards just watched, not amused by her antics.
"No need men, i got this." Graves, of all people swept in cracking his neck and leaned down. "come on now girly..." He said as he hoisted Jinx up and over his shoulder so that her upper body hung over his back and he held onto her waist.
"Wha...huh? Jinx dropped the bottle when she was carrying, luckily one of the guards caught it before it hit the floor. Graves turned to Lux and gestured to one of the many Doors, Lux nodded and followed him. As the Two walked away, Jinx looked up and shook her fist at the guards. "Yeeeeah, you pussies better rrrrun!" Lux opened the door to one of the back rooms and Graves entered in behind her, dropping Jinx onto an old chair. The chair was one of the only things in the room, aside from an old table and an empty vase. Graves turned to Lux and gestured to the door.
"You should get back out there, I'll handle this." He said with his deep, gravelly voice. Lux nodded and frowned as she turned and hurried back out the door, closing the door behind her. Graves turned back to Jinx who had crossed her arms and was pouting as Graves knelt down infront of her. "Now Jinx, we talked about this."
"Yeah yeah i know." She refused to make eye contact with the gruff man. Graves just rolled his eyes in response. Jinxes intoxication seemed to fade quickly, almost as if she was faking it's severity.
"You know she won't be yours forever, she's growin up, movin on, somethin we all gotta do." He frowned as Jinx suddenly began to laugh uncontrollably.
"Imagine that! Fathands all prim and proper!" Jinx put on a silly voice as she laughed "A big stupid house with Hatlady! where they lived happily ever after!" She scoffed and laughed harder, but soon, Jinxes laughter descended into tears as she seemingly broke down on the spot. She wrapped her arms around Graves and buried her face in his chest as she cried both tears of anger and sadness. "It's not fair! she's mine!" Graves just let out a deep breath and rubbed her back. However, this wasn't the first time he had seen her like this.
It started 3 years ago. Vi and Caitlyn had started getting serious about their relationship. So Vi stopped doing her nighttime patrols in favor of spending time with Caitlyn. The encounters between the two became less and less consistent as time went on, and Jinx hated that, she hated that Caitlyn was, as Jinx would put it, taking "playtime" away from jinx and her sister. Jinx wanted Vi all to herself, an eternal game of cat and mouse. She was afraid that after all of this, she was going to end up alone, and worst of all, bored. On one cold night, one where Vi had again, chosen romancing Caitlyn over chasing Jinx. Jinx wandered into the tavern built by the Institute of War for champions, a nice relaxing place that champions went to celebrate after hard fought victories. She slowly climbed onto the stool at the Bar, failing to notice that she, and one other champion were the only ones in he tavern on this slow night. She barely registered the other champions deep gravelly voice.
"Slow night?" Graves chuckled as he wiped a cloth across his large hex tech shotgun.
Jinx glanced at graves and just dropped her head onto bar top. "you could say that!" Her voice was muffled by the wood of the bar. Graves grabbed his shotgun and stood up and slid onto the stool next to her. He propped the shotgun against the bar at his feet within arms reach, you know, just in case.
"looks like ya got some sorrows that need drownin" Graves gestured to the robot bartender. "Pour me and girly here some good ol' firewater." The Bartender nodded and grabbed a bottle of clear liquid, pouring it into two large glasses before sliding the glasses infront of Jinx and Graves, Graves grabbed his glass and sipped it. "ah...this stuff could burn hide off of cho'gath" He glanced at Jinx, but was stupefied as he watched her down the entire glass in one go. But even after drinking the alcohol, her gloomy expression didn't go away. "uh...alright then." Graves scratched his beard and sipped his drink again. "so, why don't you tell me what's got the carnage comedian so down and out?" Graves suggested as he gently spun his glass around, causing the ice inside to swirl around. Of course he didn't expect Jinx to give anything close to a real answer. When anyone tried to talk to her about something that wasn't explosives. She did one of two things, walk away, or fall asleep. Surprisingly, she did neither.
"Fathands is out chasing Hat ladies tail instead of me.." Jinx frowned as she blew breaths into the glass to make it fog up, then watch the fog fade slowly.
"well, ain't that a good thing? ya pretty much got free reign over this city without her after ya." Graves asked as he sipped his drink and scratched his beard.
"Yeah, that's great and all, but it just doesn't give the same buzz without her there..." Jinxes voice was very somber and completly depleted of it's usual cheer.
"Ahhh i see, so your jealous." Graves chuckled and pat Jinx on the back, but before he could even make contact. Usually this would end up in some injury of sorts, as Jinx did NOT like to be touched. But again, Jinx did not retaliate.
"...I'm not jealous, I'm just...ok, so maybe I'm a little jealous." She rolled her eyes and put her head down.
"I know the feeling, Twisted Fate just got with that pretty little thing named Evelynn, lucky bastard..." Graves grumbled as the robot bartender refilled their drinks. Jinx proceeded to down half the glass. Jinx glanced at him, allowing him to get a good look at her face. In his many years, one thing he could spot with relative ease is when someone was crying, as evident by the tear stains on her cheeks. "Hey...this is really tearin you up isn't it?" Jinx sighed.
"What was your first clue?" She then swallowed what remained of her drink.
From then on, on the last Friday of every month, Graves and Jinx would sit in the empty champions tavern and just talk. He was an open ear when she needed to vent about one thing or another. And now, an hour before the wedding, it appears they were having one of those talks. After about 15 minutes of Jinx sobbing into his chest, she seemed to calm down abit. "...you good?"
"Yeah...I Think so, well, at least there's gonna be free cake, right?" Jinx sniffled and looked at graves.
"Yes indeed.." He chuckled and helped her to her feet. "You should probably let Vi know you're here, she'd be happy to see you."
Jinx just walked to the door and opened it. "Yeah, i know." Graves shrugged and followed her out the door, where he would hopefully rejoin the other guests.
/
sorry this chapter took so long, i had a long weekend, plus, it was kinda difficult to write.