Archive of Our Own ^beta

They found Ekko.
Well, they found a man first, lifted clean off the ground with a blue face and open jaw. He had a hand, dark as the earth, wrapped around his throat, green eyes, poison, bulging out.

Vi sucked in a breath, prepared to tackle the man she had seen as a brother, once upon a time, to the floor for hurting someone, but Jinx stepped forward, curled a hand around his face.

Delicate nails squished his skin together, making him look like a fish.
"He’s learned his lesson, don’t you think, Ekko?"
She traced a fingertip against his cheek, threw a glance towards the choking man, missing the look of unfiltered devotion on his face when he took a glimpse of her.

Her pink eyes glowed brightly, lit up with a fire born of fury.
"I mean, I’m not against killing him, y’know. He hurt our kid. Making an example from him could deter others from doing it."

She released Ekko’s face, hands curling back around Isha’s frame, still curved around her like a snake. She tipped a fingernail against the tiny nose, making it scrunch up with a giggle. Isha was unperturbed by the violence displayed before her. She'd seen worse before, the kind that was born of nothing but boredom and want. She hadn't been disturbed by that either, so this? This form of violence that was birthed of protection, of love? It couldn't bother her any less.

In her periphery Jinx saw Morse and Zeri step forward, blood clinging to the bandages wrapped around their knuckles.

"Let him go."
Ekko’s hand released the neck of the stranger. He fell down, flat on his ass as he wheezed in air, scraping the skin around his throat raw and bloody. Always following his Queen's lead, even in the darkest moments of his rage.

"Do you know me to be merciful?", Jinx asked, arms still full of baby fat and childlike wonder. She looked ethereal, the breeze making her braids sway around her ankles, the sun doting on her face, little strands of baby hairs clinging to her temples and neck, bangs wild and untouched. A Queen amongst her people. A religion in on itself.

"No.", the three Firelights answered, Zeri with an edge of humour, Morse exasperated. Ekko like it was something holy.

"No.", she repeated.
She let Isha slide down her side over her hip and thigh, watched with bemused eyes as the girl tackled Ekko.
Ekko who wrapped himself around her like a wire, wide palms mapping her tiny body for the bruises that were the start of it all.

She adored him.
Her. Them.
The little family she had crafted all by herself.

She turned back to the still gasping man, smile playing with her lips. Something dangerous in the lines of her face. Something not just pink in her eyes.

"I’m not known to be merciful, y’know.", she snickered, gloved hand reaching for the chestnut hair atop his head.
She yanked it closer, searched his face.

"I’m trying to learn how to be that. Merciful. A wretched word, if you ask me. The only one capable of giving mercy is a mother."

She clicked her tongue, head tilting sideways.

She remembered, what it had felt like to not have her. The agony of wanting, of wishing, of dreaming. Back when she had left her child with her Firebug, and had failed to protect her from loneliness and hunger.

"Luckily for you, I am one. So I can indeed be merciful. Once, not twice. So do think about it, twice, next time, understood?"

She bonked the man’s head, winked at him and the horror etched into his face, the ashen colour of it all.

"Let’s go. It’s dinnertime soon."

 -------------------------------

Vi had been to the base, twice, actually. Both times…weren’t great.
It’s the first time she was allowed to look. Not just wonder how it got built, how it stayed but be mesmerized by the beauty of it all.

The way the stairs crept around the tree base like a vine, slowly puttering off into a ladder leading to the top of the tree. How every door to the little buildings, that leant against the centre of it all, had a little plateau in front of it, designed for the hoverboards so that they could land there.

The grass was so green that it almost hurt the eye and Vi had never heard children laugh so brightly, so loudly. Without restraint.

Isha tugged on Jinx’s hair, having held onto hers and Ekko’s hand on their way back. She pointed towards the few kids waving her over towards them excitedly.

"Alright, alright. Lovebug, listen, dinner is soon. You’re gonna actually come when Ekko or I shout for you, got it? We’re not playing hide and seek again when we don’t know we’re playing hide and seek. And be careful, if something hurts, you come find us. Promise?"

Isha signed something before tilting her head expectantly. Jinx sighed, smile playing with the corners of her lips again before grasping the girl’s cheeks and smothering her in kisses.

"Okay, now shoo, go, have fun. Burn that energy. Can’t have her kicking my back out again tonight."

She grumbled the last part, leaning back against Ekko, who stood there like he had been expecting it, the weight of her.

It was weird, seeing them like this, because the last time Vi had seen them so close together, they had all ben kids. Jinx had been half her height, Ekko even shorter. She had looked like a drowned sewer rat and he had looked like a sheep that got left behind.

Now Ekko was taller than Jinx, looked like someone that lead the forgotten sheep instead of being one. At least he was still shorter than her, Jinx as well. But her sister seemed so much bigger. Grown up in a way Violet would never be.

Her eyes still blitzed pink, her hip jutting to the side as she regarded Isha's laughter with a grin and sad eyes, lip caught between rows of teeth.

"Does this count as that one chance?"
Ekko's voice was low, chin hooked over a pale shoulder. His nose twitched as she turned her head, her bangs tickling him.

"I'm thinking about it. She got trampled to the ground, Ekko. She got hurt."
He closed his eyes, head coming to rest against the nape of her neck.
"Don't remind me. I'm still tempted to skewer him."

Jinx snorted, but something hollow crashed and burned behind her ribs.
"I gotta think about it.", she muttered, let her hand hold his side without making note of it.

"Wait, back up.", Vi interrupted, "Think about what?"
The two exchanged a look before Jinx sighed and crooked a finger.

"Come on. Ekko can put his hands to use while I explain."
The only thing she got met with were wide, ice blue eyes.
"Yeesh, not like that. Not everybody wants jump bones as much as you do, Vi."

"You'd be lucky to have me.", Ekko grunted, affronted.
"Sure, Firebug. Whatever helps you sleep at night. Now go grab the hoverboard, I don't wanna walk."

He groaned, tugging at the frizzy braid that had somehow curled around his shoulder before evading the punch coming his way.
"You're annoying.", Jinx huffed, scratching at her scalp and rolling her eyes.
"You love me.", he sing-songed back, grinning at her, grinning wider when Jinx stretched her tongue out.

It was like being transported back in time, and Vi was stuck to the spot, mouth open and lips somehow still curled up.

She half expected Claggor to come around the corner, all Hey hey hey Little Man! Before tipping an imaginary hat towards Powder. And to the Little Lady a fabulous day.

It was something Benzo had started with, when Ekko's nickname had made its first appearances. The nickname, both of them, stuck, for years. Back when a tiny Powder and an even tinier Ekko had been glued to the hip, back when there was one of them, the other wasn't far. Back when if you looked for one half, you asked the other where they were.

Vi got pulled out of her reminiscing when Ekko popped back up next to Jinx, with two hoverboards in hand.

"Here.", he said, sticking the board out towards her. She took it with a grin, motor whirring as soon as her heels made contact with the metal and she blasted upwards.

Vi's jaw broke back open again.

"I don't have to do that, do I?"
Ekko snorted, dreads moving about with the twitch his body made.
"No, you're riding with me. And we're not doing crazy stuff, like Madness, up there.", he said, last part shouted up, towards Jinx who already stood at the top of the tree, smile wide and wild.

Her braids had come even more undone with the wind, blue hair rushing over her shoulder as she bent forward with laughter.

It was almost too much, to see her again like this. Carefree and all. Like back then, when the weight of the unjust hadn't yet pushed them to their knees.
Ekko wrapped a hand around her wrist, tugged er up behind him unto the board.
Vi yelped when the board lifted into the air. Her arms got thrown over Ekko's shoulders, nails curled into his clothes. He yelped. She yelped again. Jinx was almost passing out from laughter when they reached her at the top.

"Oh, your faces.", she wheezed, colliding with Ekko as he stepped off of the board with a wince.
"You're teaching her how to fly, I ain't doing all that.", he grumbled, palm curving against her spine as she leaned into him.

"Yeah, okay, okay. Now come on, sit down. My hair's a mess."

She plonked down, criss-cross, awaiting the tell-tale sound of Ekko sitting down behind her.
"Alright, alright."

She closed her eyes for a minute, melting backwards as Ekko untangled her knots and began to undo the remains of her braids.

"So, it's like this…."

--------------------------------

Ekko had long since finished the two braids, now resting neatly in a coiled up heap next to Jinx’s waist. Ekko himself and had thrown his weight into her lap with a groan, back popping as he stretched like a cat in the sun.

Jinx hadn’t even stopped talking, had just pushed his head down and her hand into his dreads, scratching a spot that almost convinced Vi Ekko was indeed a cat.

"You can’t- Jinx, you can’t just give everything up now! Zaun needs you!"

Jinx laughed, something humourless and cruel.

"Isha needs me. Zaun will manage just fine, sooner or later, but Isha? She is everything. Do not think for a second I wouldn’t give all of it away if it meant she’s safe. I will do anything for her, you get that?"

Vi’s vision blurred, something weird and crazed, one of Jinx’s eyes that pink that haunted her, the other the soft blue she still dreamed of, but it was gone in the blink of an eye.

"Dinner is in a few, we should get her.", Ekko murmured into her ear, softly wrapped a few baby hairs around his fingers before tucking them behind her ear as she nodded and stood up with a groan.

She whistled something sharp, different from the one she had used earlier on the field with all the people, something low and coaxing instead of high and shrill.

A few moments passed, nothing but exhales exchanged between the three of them. Then a head with brown roots of hair popped up behind Jinx and Ekko, the two of them so entangled in each other there was no chance of anticipating it.

Vi watched the kid, how her eyes narrowed and a wicked grin that drained the colour from Vi’s face (she knew that grin, had seen it so many times when Mylo was being a bully and Powder was hatching a plan for her revenge) grew on her tiny face. The girl slowly pulled her legs underneath herself before launching her body across the small space between her and the two leaders.

Something akin to a war cry left her, arms coiling tightly around Jinx’s neck and Ekko’s arm and Vi jolted, ready to pry her away from her family.

But an oof from Ekko, the cackling glee that left Jinx, stopped her. Ekko had fallen forward, spine bending and he stayed there, groaning.

"Killed, by my own flesh and blood!", he cried out, dramatics imprinted on his DNA as much as his obsession with her sister was.

"Oh Janna, that was so good, Ish! You’re getting better and better.", Jinx laughed, delight colouring her voice lovely and adoring.

Isha grinned, butting her head against Jinx’s collarbones, crawling underneath half raised arms to situate herself in her lap. The girl tugged at her arms, wrapping them around herself in a makeshift blanket, sighing contentedly once she was comfortable.

Jinx's giggles shook her slightly, and when Ekko threw his weight onto them, they were toppling over, rolling around on the plateau with shouts of mock outrage and playful jabs.

Her sister was gasping for air, dragging her body out from underneath the tangle that was Ekko and Isha. Her breathless laughter warmed Violet, something akin to contentment settling in around her heart. She almost gagged at the sentiment. It was foreign and felt clogging in her throat.

Jinx had sat up, her hand coming up to her mouth, coughing into it from the exertion, but her grin shone like a beacon.
"Alright, alright. C'mon, lovebug, let Ekko breathe. We can't have him dead, who'd make sure we have all the paints in the world then, ey?"

Isha gasped, scrambled off of Ekko who groaned at the kick he got to the stomach because of it. When he opened his eyes, his vision was filled with the two faces he loved most in the entire world.

Blue hair was tickling his cheek and he batted the braid away, blindly reaching for a hand to help him up. Jinx gave it to him with a snort and let him lean on her, catching his breath.

"Gods, Isha, you're getting so much better at that.", he wheezes grabbing at his stomach, where the imprint of a small boot was slowly forming.
The girl grinned proudly and accepted his weak high-five with an overly-enthusiastic one.

"Okay, let's go. We're so late for dinner.", Jinx said, voice filled with laughter. Isha flitted off, racing towards the ground.

"How bad did she actually get you?", Jinx asked, laughter drawn away until there was only concern.
"She's got a kick, that's for sure.", he mutters and lets her lift his shirt without complaint.
She bent down, examining the slowly purpling bruise, hissing as soft fingertips touch the skin. Ekko harmonized with her, his own his deeper.

"Sorry. I'll put some cream on it, tonight. Have to do Isha anyway."
She lets his shirt drop, lifts her palm to cradle his face for a millisecond before letting it drop to her side.
"Let's go, before she burns down the hall."
"Yes, ma'am.", Ekko breathed out, something shocked and adorning framing his voice. His pupils were dilated, his head tucked down to be closer to her and he swayed after her when she took a step away.

Jinx grinned, crooked a finger that made Ekko almost fall over his feet in his haste to follow, and took the ladder down to go after Isha who stood at the base of the tree and tapped her foot impatiently.
She let out an indignant sound, that Vi couldn't decipher, but was apparently a staple for both Jinx and Ekko sighed in unison.

"Yep, got it, we're sorry.", Jinx said, placating the girl by lifting her off the ground and setting her down on her shoulders.
"Let's go, for real this time."

Isha snickered, small hands gripping electric blue strands while staring down at Ekko, who in his usual fashion, stared at Jinx like she was some piece of art or something.

It's gross, in Vi's opinion. And to think the two of them had fought on opposite sides not even half a year ago.
At the same time, it's like someone had turned back time. Ekko wore the same look he'd worn when they were seven and eight, Ekko some months and change younger than Jinx.  He looked the same, just some feet taller, and Jinx, who turned with squinted eyes and a smile was taller too, but there was also a child, that wasn't there before, and had no equivalent in her childhood memories. So maybe, they weren't the same at all.

Strange, how much could change, and how it still stayed the exact same.