EKKO II
"Let's build a treehouse."
Our young minds worked in simple ways: there was a dope tree so we had to build a treehouse on it. We never stopped to consider if it was possible, we just went for it. Blueprints were drawn up, materials were purchased and we got busy with construction. A more responsible person might have realized that we didn't have enough funds to complete our plan but that didn't stop us from building half a treehouse and coming to the same conclusion. The look of horror we shared as we stared at the gaping hole in our house still cracks me up to this day.
Rather than be discouraged by our failure, we became more motivated than ever to complete it. Phase two of Operation Treehouse, as we called it, began with a brainstorm of fundraising ideas to secure the money needed. That's when Powder got the brilliant idea of recovering the bag of stolen goods she threw into the river. The problem was that the river was too deep so we got to work on creating a diving suit. Our first attempt ended with me nearly drowning and our second attempt was thwarted by a giant fish that tried to eat me.
At this point, a smarter person might have asked, "Why don't you just fish it out with a magnet instead of this dumbass diving suit idea?" And to that, I would have said, "You are totally right. Why didn't you say something sooner?!" It took us seventeen attempts but when I resurfaced with that bag and saw the look on Powder's face, everything was worth it. We made a lot more mistakes along the way but each became an unforgettable memory filled with laughter. When the treehouse was finally finished, we both knew that this was going to be our new home.
Time worked in mysterious ways. Sometimes a few seconds can stretch on for an eternity and other times, years can fly by in the blink of an eye. The last few years have been one adventure after another and it has made time hard to track. Instead, I measured its flow by the changes in my surroundings and of the person in front of me. Powder's blue hair now reached past her waist and her features have sharpened into an unconventional beauty but some things never changed.
Sparks were flying from her side of our workshop while music leaked out of her headphones. She hummed quietly as she worked, referring from time to time to her color-coded notes, and danced to her tunes on her chair. She was in her own world surrounded by paper, gadgets, and crayons that were in a chaotic order only she could make sense out of. Normally, watching her work like that would give me a zap of motivation to tackle my own projects but unfortunately, other duties called today.
"Hey, it was just getting to the good part," she complained after I paused her music. When she spun around and saw the expression on my face she grew more sheepish. "Shit, did I forget to plug in the headphones again?"
"No," I couldn't help but chuckle, "but you were supposed to be resting for the big day today."
"Sorry, the voices were misbehaving last night so I had to give them a time-out." When I gave her a questioning look, she explained further, "It's when I ignore them and work on something until they quiet down. Here, check this out." She excitedly grabbed something from behind her and slowly opened her hand for the dramatic reveal. I fully expected some sort of explosion but to my surprise, a small firelight flew out of her hand and gently floated around the room.
"I thought we agreed the firelights were off-limits?" The little critters were integral to what made this place feel so magical. Plus, they were harmless so we had a tacit agreement to not mess with them.
"Look closer."
When the firelight stopped moving, I noticed that instead of organic wings they were metal and the fluorescent green glow was not created biologically but rather electronically. "Wow, that looks and moves almost identical to a real one. Does it do anything else?"
"Not yet but imagine if we had hundreds of these and they were all equipped with micro-bombs! Nobody would ever see the attack coming."
"You know, you can apply yourself to things other than bombs."
"Says the guy whose inventions explode more than mine and you're not even trying."
"Okay, relax! Woke up and chose violence today?!"
She laughed as she cheerfully skipped out of the room. "Come on, let's go get this job done."
Things changed after Vander died. Madam Eva was right, war eventually started but not between us and topside. Every crime boss in the undercity wanted to be the new top dog and Silco wasn't the only one with money and muscle. Drugs and weapons flooded the streets and now our old home was barely recognizable. The treehouse has been our sanctuary away from the ever-escalating conflict and despite how selfish it was, it was a secret that we intended to keep.
Even though we didn't want to involve ourselves with the gang wars, the crime bosses were still the biggest whales in the undercity. When we first started our business, I knew that we could get rich pretty quickly if we put Powder's bombs on the market. But profiting off of other people's misery just didn't sit right with either of us so we chose to sell our less dangerous inventions instead. One in particular being a power cell we sold to Smeech.
Smeech was a yordle who owned the docks of the undercity. As trade began to slow down with Piltover, the city became more dependent on his ships which quickly made him one of the most powerful men in town. Unfortunately, power didn't equal brains and, like many others before him, he thought he could get away with not paying. He had around twenty people guarding his warehouse but it could have been a hundred for all the good it would do for him.
"What happened to the lights?!"
"I can't see!"
"Relax! Just turn on your flashl-"
"I see her, over here!"
"Behind that crat-"
"There's someone else here!"
"How many of them ar-"
"Regroup! Stay together!"
"Who just said tha-"
…
…
…
"G-guys? Where are you?"
"Right behind you."
I was about to go in for the knockout on the last one but Powder scared him so bad the poor guy fainted. As if that wasn't bad enough, his face was then vandalized by permanent markers. "You're going to make him cry when he wakes up." That didn't seem to deter Powder so I shot him one last pitied look before I turned toward the office. I tested the doorknob but as expected, it was locked. "Yo Smeech, let me holla at you real quick," I said as I banged loudly on the door.
A high-pitched yell came from the other side, "Stay away!"
"We just want to talk."
"We ain't got nothin' to talk about!"
I sighed as I turned back to Powder, "A little help?"
"Oh, oh, is it locked?" she got up excitedly as she took out her lockpick. "Mylo's been giving me some tips recently." Click. "Nice click on the one... Nothing on two…" Click. "Three is binding." Click. "Four is set. Five…and…six!"
"Alright, Smeech, we're coming in."
"Wait, wait, wait, we can just talk like this!"
The office door swung open to reveal the yordle scrambling to load a handgun. He panicked as soon as he saw us and dropped the weapon on the floor. He tried to reach for the 9mm again but by then I was already stepping on it. "Hey, Smeech."
"Owl. Jinx," he said as he chuckled nervously. "No hard feelings, right?"
"None at all," I said as I twirled the metal pipe in my hand and closed the door behind us.
"Mylo says your lock isn't very good and that you should consider switching it."
"Who's Mylo?" he asked in confusion as he looked around for a third person.
"Oh Smeech," she said as she shook her head in mock disappointment and squeezed his furry cheeks as if he was a child that just asked a silly question. He even looked like he was enjoying it until she suddenly slammed his head onto the desk. He let out a yelp of pain as blood started leaking from his nose. His small hands went to try and stop the bleeding but I pinned them down onto the desk with my own.
"Not so fast," I said nonchalantly, "I hear yordle blood grants immortality."
"That's just a stupid myth!" he yelled franticly.
"It doesn't have to be true for us to sell it." I gave him an appraising look. "How much blood you've got in there? Three? Maybe four liters? That should be enough to recoup our losses, don't you think?"
"You're bluffing." As soon as he said that, ropes were tied around him faster than he could blink and he found himself hanging upside down from the ceiling before he could shout for us to stop. Admittedly, our threats did sound a bit far-fetched but apparently, there really were idiots who thought yordle blood had magical properties. One Councilor in particular even believed it could help him grow his hair back and was willing to pay top dollar for a shot.
Powder unzipped her bag and began taking medical supplies out of it: blood bags, IV lines, a collection of knives, and…a stethoscope? She picked up a scalpel off the desk and spun it in her hand like a pencil before giving Smeech a slight push. The yordle started swinging around like a pinata and finally caved, "Okay, I get it, I'm sorry! I'll pay you!" His screams fell on deaf ears as Powder stepped behind him and took a slice of fur from the back of his neck. "I'll pay you double what I owe you!"
I smiled under my mask as I slowly lowered him back to the ground, "I always knew you were a reasonable man." As I shoveled the gold bars Smeech had stashed in his safe into my bag, Powder muttered to herself as she stuffed the medical supplies back into hers. She seemed disappointed about something and her mood remained sour the whole way back to the treehouse. "What's wrong, Blue?"
"He folded too easily. We didn't even get to have our fun." A shiver ran up my spine as I heard that. Over the years, Powder continued to hear voices in her head and although most of the time I found it quirky, there were moments where I would see glimpses of madness that made me worry for her. I still didn't know whether it was right of me that day to tell her to embrace them rather than fear them but that wasn't something I could change. I would stay with her going forward and if she ever lost her way in the voices, I would be there.
"I have a treat for you," I said after we got back into the house and unloaded our stuff. It was difficult hiding things from her given we spent almost all our time together but with careful planning, I had accomplished the impossible. With a grin on my face, I opened the small fridge I had disguised as a stereo and took out a brown parcel bound at the ends with twine. "Happy name day, Powder," I said as I offered the small paper-wrapped bundle.
"I'm going to be really mad if this is a prank," she said but she was unable to keep the smile from her face. She carefully unwrapped the present, making sure not to rip the thin cover by accident. In the center laid a slice of vanilla cheesecake topped with torched lemon curd and glazed with a honey crust. "Is this from Elline's?! What happened to 'we need to be smart with our money?'"
"If we're going to risk our lives making it then we at least get to splurge once in a while," I said as I handed her a fork.
Right as she was about to dig in, she paused, "Where's your cake?"
"It's your birthday," I replied to which she let out a sigh as if I was missing something obvious.
I watched as she used her fork to split the cake right down the middle, breaking its beautiful structure. "Come on, I bought it for you."
"Yeah and I'm deciding to split it with you so stop arguing."
"Fine," I smiled, "just don't ask for it back."
"No promises." We clinked our forks together and took our first bite. It had a lemony sweetness that was gentle like a fresh breeze. The honey crust melted in my mouth and coated the cream with another dimension of flavor. The softness of the cake played off the crunchiness of the base and at that moment, I regretted being so cheap and not buying the whole cake. "Mmh…so good. This is definitely money well-wasted. Officially makes up for not getting to play doctor."
"Play doctor?"
"Yeah, I was going to- Wait a minute, I can just do it on you instead!"
"Huh?"
"Sit tight." She got up and after a few seconds, she skipped back with the stethoscope in her ears. She put the bell on my chest, waited for a few seconds, and said with a serious expression, "I'm sorry sir, but you only have 10 left to live."
"10 what?"
"…9…8…" She giggled as she finished her joke and I couldn't help but laugh as well seeing her so happy over something so simple.
"That's what you were so bummed out about earlier?"
"Uh yeah? I've been waiting to tell that joke ever since I got this thing!"
As she ate the remainder of her cake in one big bite, the corner of her mouth was smudged with cream. "You've got something here," I said as I motioned on my face to get her to notice but she was mirroring the wrong side so I decided to just wipe it for her.
My thumb grazed the corner of her mouth but before I could pull away, she grabbed onto my hand, wrapped her mouth around my finger, and licked the cream off with her tongue. The inside of her mouth was warm and wet and suddenly my head was filled with so many indecent thoughts that my face instantly turned red. "Why's your heart going so fast?" Her innocent blue eyes looked up at me and I knew if I tried to speak at that moment I would be a stuttering mess. I was scared my eyes would betray my thoughts but I couldn't look away from her.
I've always had a small crush but it felt like I was truly seeing her as a girl for the first time. My eyes were drawn to her pink lips that she always bit down on when she got excited and I wondered if they would taste as sweet as the cake we had just eaten. Something changed within her eyes and somehow, deep down, I knew she felt it too. The world faded away and all that was left was her. She was like a magnet that I couldn't help but be pulled closer to and without thinking twice, I leaned in an-
CRASH!
The bubble around us burst and the magic was gone. Someone had just entered our sanctuary.
7hanatos: Thanks for the review! (love the profile pic btw)
Brian1972: I decided to focus on Mylo and Claggor for her visual hallucinations since that's what I believe she feels the most guilty about but the voices she hears are a cacophony of the people she has lost. Thanks for leaving another review and hope to see you again next chapter!
shpee101: Thanks for taking the time to leave a review, glad you are enjoying the story!
Warlocktoungue: I'm glad you use the word quirky because that's the vibe I'm trying to lean towards while still keeping a dark undertone. Hope this chapter answered your other question. Happy you're enjoying the story so far and thanks for leaving another review it really keeps me motivated to keep updating!
DashBoy47: Thanks for dropping another comment it means a lot to me, hope you enjoyed this week's chapter!
ENDERER EX: Thanks for the review, doing my best to support this ship for all of us Ekko/Jinx fans!
Cowmangler900: :0
Inheritance1990: Thanks for the review, hope you enjoyed the extra bit of butterflies in this chapter!
LeonaMain: Thanks for leaving a review, I really appreciate it!
Voraces Lector: Thanks for the review, definitely trying my best to do justice to Arcane's legacy!
Sharrum: Thank you for taking the time to leave another review, hope this chapter delivered on some of that spicy tension!
aliecd: Thanks for the encouragement, I'm glad you liked my take on her madness because it has been one of the more challenging aspects of this story to write!