Jinx finished putting the dye in her hair, the pink mixing with the blue and making a purple streak in her bangs. She looked at herself in the shattered mirror. She smiled at the new look.
"I thought you didn't want me mixing you and the other Powder up?" Ekko said with a smirk.
"There can be one exception," Jinx said. "Did you find it?"
Ekko lifted his hand, revealing the massive sheers in his hand. They glinted in the moonlight. Jinx smiled deviously. She walked over to Ekko in quick strides. Snatching the sheers from her hand, she eyed him. She closed an eye, tilted her head, and stuck the tip of her tongue out while the boy stood uncomfortably under her scrutinization.
She nodded at herself, taking a step towards Ekko. He stepped back, cautiously holding his hand out to keep distance between them.
"What do you think you're doing?" He asked.
"Ugh, do you always have to be so stiff?" Jinx said, twirling the sheers around her finger. "You said I could get artistic before we do this. Either you let me cut some of the fabric off your clothes or you can look for something that fits around here."
Ekko's head turned side to side. "Give me a minute."
He walked off, searching for any articles of clothing that might be lying around. Jinx felt like her eyes were going to get stuck in the back of her head from the amount of times she'd rolled them at him in such a short amount of time.
"I was joking! You're not gonna find anyth—"
"—here."
Ekko threw a shirt at Jinx, hitting her in the face. She held it up. What was this doing here? She'd never seen it before. "The hell'd you find this?"
"Can we just get this over with?" Ekko asked.
Jinx shrugged. She turned to the table near her, swiping it clear while all the items on it toppled onto the floor. At least they'd landed the airship now, so they wouldn't fall into oblivion or risk dropping on anyone below.
She began working, snipping here and snipping there. Ekko figured he'd get creative too instead of just watching her the entire time. Not that he minded. He grabbed a few bottles of paint. Walking over to the center of her lair, Ekko plopped some paint onto his left hand, dipping his fingers in it and smearing it on the walls.
Jinx cut the hem of the shirt much shorter than it had been. She giggled at the thought of Ekko wearing a cropped shirt. She continued to cut off the left sleeve, smiling at herself when it was looking the way she'd pictured it.
Ekko mixed different colors, restraining himself from getting overly creative and sticking to a few symbols and drawings. He dipping his fingers in the green paint, adding a dab of white and leaned back. His eyes landed on the bottom of one of the propeller blades. He nearly grinned, his fingers painting on the two connected triangles. The symbol for the firelights.
He stepped back to admire it when the shirt Jinx had been working on got tossed back at him. It hit his face, knocking the paint from his hand. He was careful not to get anymore on the shirt while he used his two clean fingers to pick it up.
"Really? You're gonna make me wear this?"
Jinx grinned, her head bobbing up and down. Now it was his turn to roll his eyes. He picked up the discarded fabric she had cut off, wiping the paint from his hands until they were stained but dried. He used both hands to hold it up this time.
"Is this cropped?"
It was as though Jinx was waiting for him to notice. A small giggle escaped her lips. "What's the matter? Scared you won't look good?"
"More like scared I'll look too good. You sure you'll be able to focus in battle with me wearing this?" He teased and laughed.
"T-That's not-"
Ekko discarded his shirt. Jinx couldn't hide the small flush that appeared on her pale skin. She turned her head quickly while Ekko replaced his former shirt with the newly crafted one. It fit better than he thought it would. A quick peek in Jinx's shattered mirror and he was surprised he didn't hate it.
"Not bad."
Jinx muttered words under her breath that he couldn't catch, her back turned to him. She shook her head before walking a few steps, crouching to grab some more paint bottles.
"We've got work to do."
Ekko smiled. "Aye, aye."
Jinx exhaled, leaning forward on her knees and wiping the sweat from her brow. Who knew this could be so tiring? The pair had spent the last 30 minutes covering the airship in all kinds of designs. All Jinx could think about was Isha.
She saw it in almost everything she'd painted. She added the girl's bunny ears, the swirls and X from her hat, the triangles from her hat, and many more small details. She'd even managed to make a hood that had the same white triangles around the hem as Isha did on her cap.
She smiled at the thought of her. It was bittersweet. Maybe after this they would finally reunite?
"It's looking good," Ekko said as he took a step back to admire the blimp.
He did look good in the outfit she'd made him. She would never admit it, but she found herself staring at him. He caught her a few times. Jinx just brushed it off and said she was admiring her artwork. But Ekko knew that was a lie. He just smiled smugly anytime he found her eyes scanning him. Little did he know she wasn't done decorating him yet. She wanted to add a few splotches of paint to the clothes too.
"I'm assuming you don't have any weapon right now, right?" Ekko asked.
Jinx shook her head. "Just a few trinkets."
His eyes searched the place, landing on the discarded remnants of her minigun. If he could use his hoverboard, maybe the fissures would help power the minigun...
He walked over to the parts after grabbing his hoverboard, sitting down and getting to work. Jinx curiously wandered next to him, watching as he unscrewed bits and connected different pieces together. He'd gotten lost in all the parts, spending a few minutes not realizing Jinx had been standing over him the entire time, watching.
He lifted his head, startled to see how close to him she was. Her head tilted at him, an impressed look on her face. Ekko held back a smile.
"Genuis and madness, right?" He said.
"Huh?"
"Nevermind."
Jinx walked away. She grabbed the bottles of nail polish from her broken vanity and opened the blue one first. The paint on her nails was chipped, some of her fingernails cracked and bitten down. She just caked another layer over top. She finished with the blue, then moved on to coat the remaining nails with the pink.
Ekko continued working on revamping Jinx's minigun. He'd managed to connect it to his now dismantled hoverboard and was finishing getting the trigger to work. He went through piece after piece, holding it up and trying to make a crank to get it to fire. Just when he thought he'd found the right piece to fit, he aimed it into the air, pulling the crank. No blasts.
What was he missing? He'd connected the two and gotten the fissures to be the main power source of the gun. He spent five minutes looking for the perfect piece to fit the crank, yet it wasn't working? Ekko set it back down, his eyes scanning over each piece.
Jinx sighed loudly. Ekko raised his brow at her as she walked over to the hunk of machine he'd assembled. She turned it on its other side, her fingers surprisingly delicate as she reached down and untwisted a chamber. She tossed it aside, a devious smile forming as she picked the minigun up herself. Just as Ekko had done before, she lifted it to the sky, laughing when the crank worked and it pelted multiple shots a second.
"I was just about to do that," Ekko huffed when she stopped being trigger happy.
"Aren't you the one who keeps saying we need to hurry?"
He bit his lip. The sun had finally begun to peek, but it didn't do much to light up Zaun. Jinx pushed past him. She took a moment to appreciate all they'd accomplished in such a short amount of time. She was partly jealous that Ekko had thought to use his hoverboard to fix her minigun before she did. She brushed the thought off.
"I was thinking—"
"—Uh ohhh." Jinx teased.
Ekko appeared almost annoyed.
"I was thinking," he continued, "you should tell me what's been going on lately. I don't know how far out of the loop I am."
Jinx groaned dramatically. She knew Ekko wouldn't give up on this, so she rambled. "I've become some kind of symbol for Zaun. Freed a bunch of people who dressed like me. Oh, and Vander's alive. I guess not technically—"
"—Vander's alive?!"
And Jinx was a symbol for Zaun now? Meaning people looked up to her? Why was that almost harder to believe than Vander being alive. How much time had he missed being trapped by the Arcane?
"He's... not dead. His body's different, he doesn't talk, and Vi and I were trying to help him before..." Her voice triailed off.
Images flashed and blurred together. The people dropping dead. Vander turning into a crazy beast. Isha...
"It didn't work," was all she said.
Ekko only nodded, not wanting to further upset Jinx. It didn't take much to set her off now a days. He decided it was probably best if he didn't ask anymore questions. Whatever was waiting for them, they'd have to find out when they got there. They'd learn as they went.
"...hey, Ekko?" Her voice was small and quiet.
"Yeah?"
She spun on her heel, walking past him once more and asking, "How many times did you have to rewind time? You know, before I stopped."
Ekko took a second to ponder her question. "Don't know. I didn't exactly count."
His hand smoothed over the barrel of the minigun. Was it four times? Five? Did the last one technically count if she was just testing him? Jinx appeared to be contemplating something. Whatever it was, it didn't look good.
"Not gonna make me add another tally mark, right?" Ekko said cautiously.
She shook her head. Her eyes were locked on the bunny ears that had been added on the blimp.
"I was just curious, that's all."
"I'm gonna believe you on that," Ekko said, his hand slowly letting go of the handle to the mini time machine.
Jinx shook her shoulders. The fogginess in her eyes cleared, and she turned to look at Ekko.
"Jeez, didn't mean to get all sappy on you. What's next?"
Ekko sighed. "I don't think you'll like it."
Jinx shrugged. "What makes you think I like any of this?"
She had a point.
"Okay, well... We're gonna go to the Firelight's base."
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