"Soo- which is it?"
"Which is what?"
Powder glanced at the wide window outside; "Banned from the drummer for a week or in the shops?"
Ekko continued writing down the equation on the paper. "…Shops."
"O-kay," she shrugged then tried to focus on the page in front of her.
Not coming down with his bike was, but what bothered her more was the fact that he showed up with a patch on his cheek and a gauze wrapped around his knuckles. His dominant hand, specifically. Here they were, doing their homework at a table sitting across each other at Jericho's while the rain was smattering hard against the wide windows.
Now, normally he'd be the one who'd play the role of reason to her chaos. But it's rather obvious something did happen and he'd rather not talk about it.
Are you going to tell me or not?
The one thing Powder knows is that he has always been the agreeable type. Not docile, but agreeable.
Sociable, she corrected herself.
What did they do to make him throw a sock on them?
"Hey," he flicked her forehead.
"Ow!"
"You're not getting answers staring at my handsome face all day."
"Peachy, mister I-look-good-in-bruises-today," she countered, nursing her forehead.
"You're not doing a very good job at this are you, nosy."
She rolled her eyes at him, "I mean, who wouldn't have questions? You showed up with patches!"
"I appreciate the concern, but I don't want to talk about it."
He looked at her in the eye and knew he was dead serious. Powder hated that.
But the tiniest voice of reason piped out from her head;
You're not playing fair. Give him some space.
You still haven't told him yet, either.
"Alright, alright," she pouted, picking up her pen as she turned to the trigonometry question. "I won't ask."
"Thank you."
The mood in the table then turned cold. Annoyingly, so. Of course, she cared enough at the sight of his bruises, but if he said no, he meant no.
Quick! Change up the conversation. Ask him about what happened in gym class today!
Her intrusive thoughts were pining to break the mood. Only to see the sight of a white flash of lightning glare from the window; followed by the loud clap of thunder rumbling the entire restaurant. A handful of customers at the back gasped and squealed.
That only brought Powder to sputter in laughter; "Did you just see that!?"
Another crack of thunder followed, this time, it sounded closer than ever. One of the workers screamed. Powder snorted, stifling her laugh as she jolted over the scream than the thunder. Ekko glanced over to the wide window, his face carrying no hint of amusement or expression. That was enough for her mood to die down again.
Yeah, something's up.
The first instinct was to slap his back and casually ask him what's up. Then the memory of the last time she interfered reminded her;
The rational part of her told her that was not best take-away message she should get out of a reprimand. Some level of self-awareness should've been the priority rather than impulse.
What does he usually do, when I'm down in the dumps?
She then does the next best thing she could think of. She carefully planted her hand over his writing hand; the same hand wrapped in a gauze. Her thumb stroked the rough material, not knowing whether or not it was enough to soothe whatever it was that's keeping him shut. That caught his attention, turning his gaze towards her.
Powder kept her eyes on his bruised knuckles, feeling his gaze weighing down on her.
"Does it still hurt?" she asked quietly. "I mean- does it hurt when I'm doing this?"
"Nah, not really."
"O-oh, nice."
This time he snorted.
"What?" she snapped, ready to defend herself only to find him finally crack a smile. It was a small one, but it was a smile nonetheless.
"It's nothing," he said.
The storm outside continued to rage on as pellets of rain began to smatter the windows. She turned her attention to the rain, feeling her cheeks warm despite the impending cold weather.
"Shitty weather, huh," she mused.
"Yeah. If this keeps up, I doubt we'd be coming home so soon," he nodded.
"Speaking of- Don't you usually hang out with your friends around now?"
He shrugged.
"-Interesting," she said, feigning suspicion. "Oh, I got it."
"You haven't gotten shit," he retorted.
"Something-something, someone said a thing and then- ka-pow," she pantomimed a fist to her own face.
He laughed shaking his head, "It's not what you think."
"I can make an entire murder board as to who put the punch to the face-"
Ekko snorted.
"-Let's take it to the crime scene," she continued, lifting his bruised hand, speaking in a fake commentary voice- "Based on my guestimations, the wounds of his knuckles suggests that whoever received that punch was a certified 99.9% asshat-"
"Stop, stop, I can't-" he wheezed, only fuelling her even further.
"-That's right, your honour. My friend may have thrown the punch, but I bet the guy who met his fist to the face deserved it. Case closed!"
His stifled laugh brought a few eyes on their table, shaking his head as he did. Powder couldn't help but bite her lip in satisfaction, knowing she got him this time.
"That was some lame-ass speech right there," he chuckled, wiping a tear out of his eye.
"Oh please, I made you laugh, that's already a win," Powder grinned.
"And how am I going to concentrate when this menace likes to keep me occupied?"
"Don't be like that, little man, you know you love me."
No sooner did the words leave her did he finally settle down from the euphoria; his smile now a little different from his usual one. A moment self-consciousness hit her, reminded of that dainty hand of hers lingering on top of his bruised knuckles.
"So," she switches gears, retreating her hand as she tapped on the paper. "Trigonometry. What question are you at?"
The walk home after the rain had been a surprisingly quiet one. The lights from the telephone poles shimmered on the wet concrete, the chill after the rain seeping through the fabric of their uniforms. For a blessing, Powder wasn't coaxing out the questions unlike earlier. She didn't pester or break this silence for once. But that did a setup for a strange tension.
First off, he did lie.
He lied that the bike was sent to the shop and that she did guess right that he had been banned from it for two weeks. He could still see the exasperation from his parents faces when they found out from the teacher what had happened led up to this.
What did surprise him was how out of the loop Powder was about it. Granted, Ekko had a feeling she's always been rather aloof despite her energetic persona; but never realised how she never paid much attention to school gossip.
I guess I should be grateful about that.
He hooked his arm over her shoulder and gave out a sigh.
"…Zeri's work on the project was stolen," he finally said. "Then got accused of lying."
She didn't say anything.
"-Eve… couldn't stand for it and Scar was the first to speak out against it." He continued. "I… we all stood up for her, but Sir Millers didn't believe her for a second."
"So- you sucker-punched him," Powder concluded.
"No, are you crazy?" he scoffed. "That's not- *sigh* I wasn't finished. Today, lunchbreak came around, I overheard the motherfucker who stole and copied her project."
He felt the fury riling up as he remembered it. How the plagiariser gloated on how he was able to pull it off in front of his so-called friends.
"The guy thinks he pulled off the greatest heist in all the school, trying to impress the centre group when in fact he was just their jester."
"I think I see where this is going," she remarked, then leaned her head on his side. "-Did you get him good?"
He scoffed at the question, "Yeah. I just didn't anticipate how hard he could throw his hands. Tried throwing me down the floor too. It took Glasc to come in and split us both up."
"Holy shit. I wish I could've seen it."
He gave her a side eye, snorting; "Sometimes I worry about the fact you're actually encouraging this."
"Oh, come on, Ekko, you can't lie to me and say you didn't regret it, right?"
The light in her eyes and that mischievous grin was far too contagious for his liking.
"Hmph, even so, it was a ticket to the principal's office."
"Ah-huh," she nodded slowly, then tilted her head. "Still worth it, I think."
"The principle and my parents thought otherwise."
"-Oh."
A few steps of silence followed.
"…Then," she finally said. "Shouldn't they be here with you?"
"Who?"
"I don't know, Zeri? Eve? Scar? Wouldn't they be happy to know you caught the guy?"
"…"
She gave a thoughtful pout before her brows lifted at a realisation; "-You never told them?"
He shrugged.
"And the cheater?"
"…he needed stitches out of that fight."
"Oh my god."
This was why he didn't want to tell her. Powder's got her own issues and he brought this onto himself. He didn't want her to see him upset or put enough strain onto her. The one thing he didn't want to see the most, was watch her try and fix a problem he brought onto himself.
He felt her hand lightly reach for the side of his cheek, prompting him to turn to face her. Her face fell into worry. That was enough for the dam to break as she hugged his neck. Ekko couldn't help but hold onto her for dear life, as hot tears began to fall from his eyes.
"I was so mad, I was seeing red as I kept punching him," he trembled as he held her tightly. "I didn't intend to make this any bigger than it already was. And now my parents apologized to his parents. His parents demanded pay. And I-"
Ekko sobbed onto her shoulder, felt himself trembling as she tried her best to stand still for him to lean on. He broke a promise to them. He broke a promise to himself. And now he's weeping on his childhood friend who already had a lot on her plate.
How pathetic.
"…It's going to be alright," she said, her voice cracking a little. "I don't know how much I can help but…"
He shook his head against her shoulder. "It's okay, Pow Pow. This is my responsibility."
"But-"
"I brought this on myself-"
"But it's not fair… Why you? Why did it have to be you? Why-"
He squeezed her tightly once again.
Thank you, Powder.
Just knowing she got angry at his behalf was enough.
No sooner did she shut her door did Powder slump her bag onto the floor and curl into her bed.
He even took the time to walk me home even though he got suspended.
She wanted to help. She didn't know how.
Stupid, remember the last time you tried to help?
Powder dragged her pillow over her head and pressed it hard against her own face.
Don't think about it. Don't even dare try-
Three knocks on the door cut her line of thought.
"What is it?" she asked drearily onto her pillow.
The door opened.
"…Sorry I walked into that."
"Shut up, Mylo," Powder took off the pillow from her face and lifted her head to see Mylo lazily standing by the door. "What is it?"
"Vander brought pizza-" then his face fell- "Wait, were you crying?"
Powder turned her back on him, curling up into a ball as she squeezed the pillow tightly against her chest.
"I-I guess I'll go and get-" Mylo then slowly retreated from the room and shut the door. It didn't take long before she could hear footsteps coming back up towards her room, much to her chagrin.
"Powder, I'm coming in," she could hear Vander from the other side.
Powder didn't bother looking up as the door hinge sang open.
"You alright?" he asked.
She shook her head, "Just peachy."
The corner of her bed sinks, followed by a soft tap on her shoulder. An unrelenting silence follows, making it harder for her to ignore the big bear Vander sitting on her bed.
"…Someone offered to grant me a sponsorship," she finally said into her pillow; deciding it was better to lie about how she felt for Ekko's situation by using the bigger conundrum. "To the Academy of Piltover of all things."
"Powder, that's incredible-!" his ecstatic tone then mellowed- "And you're not happy with it."
She shook her head; a lie laced with truth. With her nimble finger, she pointed at her desk, her face still buried into the pillow.
"What?" Vander stood up, probably trying to understand what she was pointing at.
"Letter on the desk. It was just given to me a few days ago," she said.
The sound of paper scraping against the desk followed, followed by seconds of uncomfortable silence. That was enough for her to get up; half-curious on his take on this issue. His face looked more serious than she'd expected.
"Silco Montrell," he finally said.
"Crazy, right?" she feigned.
"…Powder, is there something you're not telling me?" he turned to her. "Because a man like Silco Montrell is not the kind who'd easily grant kids a ticket to an academy like this."
The room suddenly grew cold at his words.
"I… I don't know either," she quickly said. "He comes by school from time to time."
"For how long?"
"I don't know. A few months? Almost a year maybe?"
Vander's lips grew to a thin line and released an exasperated breath. "We can talk about this another time. For now, I want you to come down and join us… Who else have you told?"
"No one, just you. Why?"
You're scaring me, Vander.
"Alright. Good. I wager you didn't even agree to this either?"
"Vander- should I be worried about this? Did I somehow-"
"Did you accept the offer or not?" he asked gently but firm.
"I didn't. I mean, I haven't decided yet."
He nodded, seemingly satisfied with her answer. "Good. Rather, good that you didn't give him an answer right away. If he wanted to offer you something like this, he should've come to me first. And no, Powder, you haven't done anything wrong. Not for something like this. Alright?"
Powder could barely feel her feet just as she nodded without thinking.
"Come down and have dinner with us, it'll be Vi's last week," he then gave her a small smile and clapped her shoulder before he headed out of her room. She almost missed the fact that he carried the unopened letter with him on his way out.
Holy shit.
Does that mean I'm not leaving?
She slumped to the bed again, now realising she might've bitten off more than she could chew by dropping the supposed cover story at Vander's lap.
I don't have to leave… that's a good thing, right?
Something about this felt unearned. Disappointed, even. She couldn't tell. The only relief she felt was knowing that, for now at least, she didn't have to worry about leaving… yet.
"Bones for those who're late!" she could hear Mylo screaming from the floor below.
"Pfft, pizza doesn't have bones," she muttered, then picked herself up from the bed.
She dragged herself out of the room, walking down the steps of the stairs until her mind returned to Ekko. Having to be given a week of suspension would often make any delinquent jump with joy of not coming to class. But this is Ekko. He would make the effort to be on top of his studies. Powder leaned her weight to one foot, thinking about other ways to help him out on the matter.
Then the idea hits her, her eyes gleaming in excitement at the very thought of it as she resumed her steps to the dining table.
AN: They are still immature teens in some respects. But, they are getting there.
