Spraying down to the last spot, Powder glanced at her work and nodded in satisfaction. The paints this time depicted a large shark head chasing down a wind-up mouse, all coated in her favoured neon colours.

"Is it done?" Ekko asked.

"Yeah," she grinned, looking down on her friend who had been holstering her up on his back. "You can put me down now."

As soon as her feet planted on the ground, she took a step back to admire her own work. "How long do you think this'll last?"

"I don't know, you tell me." He said, observing her work.

Leaving tags and all sorts of graffiti would eventually get overwritten in time. Painting the town like this won't change her world; but to her, it did matter. Wanting to make a mark on something showed a sign that she existed. The thought of getting caught only thrilled her. Especially if Vi found out.

That was, until Vi started packing up.

"This'll be the last," she said.

"Huh," he scoffed. "I wonder how long that'll last."

"No, really. This is will be my last work."

There's no point on doing this anymore.

"…you good, Pow Pow?" he asked, sounding worried.

"Yeah, I'm good."

"Really?"

"Peachy," she nodded astutely.

And just like that, he hooks his arm over her shoulder like he always does, gave her a side hug as always. She wasn't ready to bury any kind of hatchet. Not as that she was aware she ever carried one anyway.

No sooner did they ride the streets again, the same old sights of a city she had come to memorized. Something in her began to wonder how long it would take for her to truly say she'll miss it. She sighed at the thought as she rested her helmet-head on his back, her twin braids tucked beneath her jacket to avoid it getting caught on the wheels.

I haven't decided yet, she thought back. Why do I feel like I'm already leaving?

Her head ruminated over the question. She thought about the man's scarred face and his one eye-patch. The bourgie clothes; the fancy limo and a scar with an eye-patch? If Powder didn't know any better, she'd take him for a pimp if anything, or some mafia gang leader she often hears about in those old docs and movies. He was also too polite for her liking.

The question pipes out of her mouth, but the loud drums of the motor overwrites the words she hung in the air.

"What's the difference between getting sponsored and getting adapted?"

No response. All that her eyes could see was the back of his helm, facing front on the road.

I guess I should've expected that.

She knows that deep down, she needed to bring it up soon. Tell Vi. Tell Vander. Heck, maybe give Mylo something to pester her about. She knows Claggor would always unpack with her on the pros and cons of accepting this sponsorship.

Then there's this guy.

Powder raised her gaze to the night sky, saw how the city lights burned away the sights of the stars. Only Ekko could give her this view. These city lights. The long joyrides. The long talks. The shared homework sessions. She had no other frame of reference on what friends should look like, apart from him.

I have to tell him.

I can't tell him.

Maybe ask for his opinion.

What if he actually encourages it? What does that make us?

Before she could finish her line of thought, they already arrived in front of the Vander home.

"Powder?" he looked over his shoulder.

"Oh, home already," she snickered, cutting the list of worries out of her head. "Thanks again, little man."

No sooner did she take off her helmet did he start ruffling her head.

"Hey!"

"-You did good today," he gave her a cheeky grin.

Powder blew the side fringe off her face, bringing out that bravado façade she wears on her sleeve; "Yeah, I guess you could say that."

"So- does that mean I don't need to play chauffer after this?" he asked.

"Huh," she hadn't considered that. "-I guess so."

Ekko snorted, letting his hand weigh her head down a little longer. "Missing me already?"

"Oh, shut up," she playfully moved his hand away. "There's always school."

"Where you somehow manage to hang around the science teachers' office during breaks," he remarked.

"Come on, the teachers aren't that bad for company."

For a moment, she could've sworn she saw his smile falter a little. A hint of something she hadn't seen until now.

"Don't be a stranger, Pow," he said. "In school, I mean."

"Of course," she shrugged. "Why wouldn't I be?"

"I meant, maybe just come hang around, you know? My friends don't bite. Promise."

"-But what if I want to hang out with my own school buddies?"

"You have 'school buddies'?"

"Shut up."

He put out a fist, giving her a light nudge on her shoulder. "I mean it, Pow. I want you to come hang with us. It almost feels like you're always missing out on a lot."

"I dunno. A lot of folks say I'm high maintenance," she said, pretending to stroke her chin.

He snorted; "Goddamn right they are."

"Hey!"

"It doesn't hurt trying out something new," he assured her. "You of all people know that."

Why did you have to say that?

"Yeah, I guess."

By the time he drove back onto the main road, Powder watched his figure disappear into the distance. Their middle school era was full of drama and bullies; setting the precedent that she preferred the company of saner adults than most kids her age. How could high school be any different?

She gave out a huff and shook her head. "I guess one day won't hurt."

Sometimes Ekko wondered if he should've expected this.

Powder gelled well into the group faster than he'd expected. He just didn't expect that their lunchbreak had unintentionally become a half-baked study session. Here they were, sitting on the tables, with Powder already simplifying the steps to the equations on trigonometry and long division. Zeri asked the questions; Powder answered it in the vein of her own interpretation. Eve didn't say much, but it was obvious she was already absorbing his childhood friend's lessons on how to math the equations.

I should've introduced them to her sooner.

He forgot how shared interests makes for fast friends. For this case, she was already playing tutor with them.

"Miss Lane, I got a question," Zeri piped enthusiastically.

"Yeah?"

"How long have you and Ekko gone out together?"

Ekko sputtered on the juice he was drinking.

Powder feigned an unamused frown at him. "Pfft, rude."

He cleared his throat, "-We've known each other since we were kids."

"Aw, so that means you two are childhood sweethearts?" Zeri's eyes glimmered.

Ekko wanted to correct her, but a part of him didn't want to. He glanced at her direction, who then in turn tilted her head.

"We-"

"We grew up in the same orphanage," she answered bluntly.

Scar, who had been a silent observer now turned his head at him.

Zeri widened her eyes and quickly said, "Oh, sorry. I didn't know-"

"It's not too bad, really," Powder continued. "We all came in the Vander home from different situations. Well, when my sister and I came in, this guy was already there. We all ended up playing together until he was adopted. But even after that, he comes around and visits us time to time."

"Oh shit," Eve muttered, turning to Ekko.

It's not like he intended to keep that part of his life a secret. "Relax, guys. It's nothing."

"Wouldn't that make you two… step-siblings?" Scar commented.

Powder looked to Ekko, who then glanced at her in turn.

"No?" they both answered.

Zeri, the culprit of this whole conversation glanced at the two of them, and deviously smiled. "Oh, right."

"What you implying?" Ekko pointed.

"Oh, nothing. So, you guys are childhood besties, nice," she smirked.

"Anyways," Powder interjected. "These days we just hang out whenever we get the chance. Well, mostly him coming around and dragging me to places."

"Hey! You wanted me to drag you around," he retorted.

"Yeah, but I never said otherwise."

It didn't escape his notice that Zeri was obviously enjoying whatever it is that she's seeing between him and Powder. No doubt, she was going to pester him over this in the next couple of days.

"You guys are so cute," Zeri grinned.

"We're just old friends," Powder said almost too quickly.

Zeri beamed, "Okay. If you say so."

God, she's definitely gonna start asking me all sorts of question.

After school, for whatever reason, his friends (mainly Zeri) insisted that they needed a few extra studies to themselves for the individual projects in their elective class. And since Ekko had already finished his, Zeri insisted he should leave ahead of them.

Playing the matchmaker, basically, he sighed at the thought. Might as well.

He walked along the halls with the goal of heading over to the locker area. Just as he passed through one of the windowed doors, he caught a glimpse of that familiar blue hair in the corner of his eye.

Powder?

He backed up his steps, saw the serious expression on her face as she was talked down by a woman with a tall stature. The woman in question looked exasperated, arms folded as she kept her eyes on his childhood friend. Powder was then handed a letter, who then looked pissed upon receiving it.

Ekko didn't know if he should be standing there, witnessing this. Told himself to mind his own business until she would come around and tell him herself. Upon deciding that, he turned around and resumed to head over to his locker.

No sooner did he close his locker shut did he see the same tall woman and a man with an eyepatch and scar exit the meeting room. Their exchange was inaudible as the man gestured at Powder who stood by the door. As soon as the two adults left, Powder rested her hands on her hips, eyes casted down on the floor as she lazily kicked her foot in the air.

The moment she raised her head up and saw him, her eyes lit up and began approaching him.

"They're nice," she said.

"Hm?"

"Your friends, I mean."

"Hmph. Told ya," he then ruffled her head.

"Stop," she swatted his hand away. "Isn't it study time with your friends?"

"Oof, aren't you my friend?"

This time she gave him a playful punch. "Shut up, you know what I mean."

"They figured that I prefer hanging out with you than them," he said casually. "That and Zeri wants to hear the results."

"That's… actually really nice of them." Her voice grew a little sombre.

He hadn't thought this through, now that his friends found out about them. Growing up with the Lane sisters with Mylo and Claggor was more or less like family. Even his adoptive family is a different kind of dynamic, but he had come to love them nevertheless. Proximity between him and Powder had always been special.

His best friend.

But he'd also be lying if he said she hadn't grown up beautiful in his eyes.

Ignoring that acknowledgement, he hung his arm over her shoulder.

"Arcade?" he asked.

"Arcade it is then," she nodded.

Confessions:

I actually wrote a different scenario to this.

But the first scenario dived down too soon and it felt inappropriate for a fic premise like this. I wanted to emphasize on Ekko just a bit more this time around to make their relationship feel a bit less one-sided in the giving. It did bother me. I don't know if I did a good job at that, but I tried :')

I'm not smart enough to write a dialogue with characters figuring out math equations (its been years TT^TT)