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The air had to be denser here, I’ve known Zaun’s air since I was born but for the first time, I think I may have trouble breathing in the air. All I can feel is the sweat slipping down my forehead, the heat radiating from myself is somehow coming back at me in the small space I’m crouching against. I peek around the corner of the alley I’m in and see only slivers of light peeking through the buildings on the street, just enough to make out a figure dash across the street. Slamming my back against the wall again, the beating in my chest is wildly out of control. I need to relocate or else I’m going to get caught. There’s a cart in the middle of the street on its side with the wood snapped in multiple places about ten feet away from me, if I time my fire right, I can push to that position. It’s not great but is a better spot than this dead-end alley I’ve unfortunately brought myself into, all I need to do is get a relative location of my pursuer so I can send some covering fire in their direction while I maneuver to my new position.
I check my sword and then my modified pistol, there are only a few shots left in the pistol but enough to get to a new cover. If I can get to the new position even without ammo, I’m positive I can bring my sword into play. I think I’m better off without guns anyways – *CRASH* Swinging my head over to the noise across the street which seemingly gave away my pursuers position, this is my chance. I aim my pistol to where the noise occurred and fire a shot and sprint to the cart, sending off shot after shot until I hear the click of the pistol. It was worth it though, I’m within spitting distance of the cart so I drop to the ground and slide to the cart, putting it between myself and the enemy. In the scurry, I’ve scratched my arm against a panel of wood drawing blood, but the upper hand is mine now, so I ignore the pain. The timing was perfect, and I quickly play out the next sequence in my mind. Glancing at my stopwatch, I find that I’m running out of time to keep my advantage for it to be worth anything. Quickly I jump over the cart, leaving the pistol behind with the sword in my hand, running towards the previous noise where I see the glint of a pistol aimed in my direction. Bingo. With their position compromised, I effortlessly dodge the incoming projectiles, ducking underneath one then side-stepping the other. Another comes directly at me, so I use a broken piece of the street that’s jutting out to propel myself upwards in a jump over the next projectile. But it’s not enough, the projectile slams into my chest right over my body armor, I see pink splatter over myself and the pain of impact it inflicts on my chest lasts for a split second.
All I see is the splatter, looking up I see my assailant come out from the darkness, pistol in one hand and other raised in triumph. Her laughter pours out, in between chuckles “I – hah – I got you!” She continues to laugh while I stare at her in silence, she’s so carefree right now, laughter and happiness emanating from her.
“Please tell me you were almost out of paint at least.” I plead with her, “There’s no way you have more shots in there!”
Powder steps further out the shadows, “You spent all your ammo trying to blind fire on your way to the cart dummy, I only had to use three shots and one of them caught you” She plucks her tongue out at me, knowing I wasted my ammo for an advantage that she’d obviously predicted. She comes towards me, stepping into the rays of light, effortlessly making my heart skip a beat. She has her pan helmet still on, her hair swaying in the wind with strands coming out of place over one of her eyes, one of her braids is almost undone, and overall, her hairs unkempt. It looks perfect to me.
Wildly grinning, she continues “You should’ve seen your face when I got you” maneuvering her face into some form of a pout which surely is an attempt to poke fun at my loss but all I can think of is how cute she looks with it. “Oh no! I’ve taken yet another loss to the great Powder!” This makes both of us chuckle, “You mean another win I’ve graciously handed to your royal highness? I’d beat you any other time, just didn’t want to give Princess Vi a reason to pummel my face in when her younger sibling Princess Powder loses an opportunity to expand their kingdom!”
Powder lets out a huge laugh to this but keeps up the act, “Oh please, what type of Princess would I be if I were to let a knight outplay me? Anyways, our land is grand. The only reason we’d need your land would be for a civil union of our people!” What a thought, civil union with Powder isn’t a horrible thought now I think on it.
But the play must go on, “What a poor soul that must fall upon that fate!” Powder grumbles at that but continues to smile immediately after, I can’t keep up the act and giggles start to spew out until I’m outright laughing.
“Loads of people would want to be with my kingdom! They’d love to be by my side!” She’s trying to show anger, but the smile betrays her true feelings, may as well poke the bear a little more.
“Woah, woah, I’m sure there’d be lines of people wanting to marry you, my Princess.” She must’ve not fully thought into the ‘civil union’ being equivalent to marriage as she blushes from my words.
It doesn’t affect her ability to fire back at me though, with a smile on her face, “As long as you’re the first in line” winking at me which causes me to blush as much as I made her. Oh, she wants to play that way then.
I puff out my chest, get on one knee with my wooden sword in one hand stabbed into the ground, “My Princess, nothing would stop me from gaining your hand in a union!” I speak out in a dramatic tone, “If you would have me, we would be the strongest union in this country!” Grabbing hold of her free hand, I plant a gentle kiss on the top of her hand.
She giggles with a slight red tint to her cheeks, “Of course, my knight in shining armor. I would accept you into my fold and we would rule together!” Taking our hands together, she pulls me off my knee and raises our hands into the sky. I feel on top of the world like this, me and Powder together make me feel like anything can be done. All my issues seem small and even the hardest of tasks seem to be doable with her with me. If we could be here, like this till the end of time, I would have no complaints.
Glancing over to her, I see she’s grinning and staring off into the distance of the sun. It’s directly hitting us; the glare is enough to where I have to squint but she seems undisturbed by that. It feels like time’s frozen and I’m just staring at her in the sunlight, she’s the first to break out of the trance, or maybe only I was in a trance of her beauty. “That was fun, thanks again for the paint. It’s always so much more fun when we can use paintballs in our battles.”
I pull her arm slightly to make her face me, “Wouldn’t be anywhere near as fun without the pistols you made, they would barely shoot out anything if you didn’t modify them to be so powerful. They’re amazing… you’re amazing Powder.” She ducks her head and mutters a small “Thanks.” Shuffling her feet and with the little movement I realize our hands are still held together, neither of us letting go of the other, a blush creeping up my neck once I realize that. I look at her face, her two little smudges of pink war paint are a stark contrast to her typical blue color scheme, but it matches her personality perfectly.
As she looks up to take me in, eyes roaming over my battle-worn face, the sweat glistening over my face and arms. Her eyes do a double-take at my arm when her face scrunches in, “You’re hurt!” Worry comes over her face and she removes her hand from mine, instead, she takes it up to take hold of my arm. Bringing herself closer to examine my wound.
I wince as she raises my arm slightly to be better in the light, she lowers it slightly and gives an apology in place. “I hit the cart a little too hard I think, I should be fine, it’s ok.” Not taking my explanation as adequate, she looks at me “You should’ve said something, I would’ve stopped for you. We could’ve paused the fight.” She grumbled but still checking my wound, I knew she would worry the second I got hurt. I just wanted us to finish the game, the result was worth it though, seeing her so happy with her win and within her moment.
“I think you’ve got a splinter in there and it’s still bleeding, we have to go to Vander or Benzo. They’ll be able to take it out and hopefully stop the bleeding.” I grimace at that; Benzo and Vander would be worse than a worried Powder. We’d have to explain to them what happened, and Vander wouldn’t be happy with Powder using her modified gun, no matter how much we could convince him it isn’t dangerous.
“No way, if we take this to them they won’t let us play fight again!” This sends her into contemplation it seems, her face is scrunched again while she thinks. I’m starting to think anytime she scrunches her face is a superpower of just making her look cuter.
She widens her eyes and grabs my arm, making me wince again, “Sorry, but I’ve got the solution! We can just go to Vi, I’ve seen her patch herself up so many times before.” That could work, we’d just have to ask her not to tell anyone about this, “Ok, but she can’t tell anyone.”
Powder takes this solution without issue, still holding my arm she leads me in the direction of The Last Drop. In any other situation, I’d be thrilled, Powder and I walking through the streets, hand in hand on a nice stroll. This is more of a spirited jog though, with Powder leading me in more of a worry than for leisure. Before I know it, I see the neon sign of The Last Drop bright and shimmering against the shadows of the area. Powder’s still leading me and enters the bar, going past the patrons and into the basement area where it seems to be empty. Taking a look around, I glance over to Powder who’s left my side and is going around the room presumably looking for Vi.
“I don’t think she’s here Powder.”
Powder’s back at my side in an instant, “I think I know where she might be, come on!” She grabs hold of my hand this time and pulls me along to an exterior window which she opens enough to step outside, and I follow. We turn to the back of the bar and in the alleyway, there’s a slight crowd where we can see Vi throwing punches to the air, the crowd’s watching from their seats at her display of unrelenting fury. A tinge of fear manifests itself for whatever she’s imagining is on the other side of her fists, Powder feels the slight shift in my body and looks into my eyes. She squeezes my hand slightly and gives me a reassuring smile, I think she knows that Vi’s a little intimidating to me. She’s really nice but if you were with a Lion, you’d think it’s great until you were within biting distance as well.
Vi catches sight of Powder while throwing punches, she slows and sees our hands connected, where she brings her eyes up to where my arm sleeve is rolled up. The wound on full display, she says something to one of the guys watching and he gets up to take her place in the display of violence. Now she’s coming through the small crowd on a direct path to us.
Powder perks up, “Hey Vi, sorry to bother you but Little Man got hurt while we were playing.” I’m letting her take the lead, sticking with nodding my head in agreement.
“You ok Little Man?” Vi inquires with a worried tone.
“Ye- yeah I am good Vi. Just a splinter and a little blood, won’t stop me.” Giving my most assuring smile to them.
“Ok, I have some stuff in the basement we can use. Come on and I’ll get you patched up.”
We follow in step with Vi, back through the window and into the basement where Vi opens a cabinet on the opposite wall pulling out some tweezers and a roll of white patching material. “I’ll take the splinter out; Powder make sure he doesn’t squirm, ok?” That leaves me mouth agape, “I don’t squirm!”
“Sure, Little Man, just be sure not to move too much,” Vi says with a smirk.
Powder holds my other hand assuredly while Vi works on the splinter, I don’t think I’ve had a splinter this big before. Then again, I’ve never gone full speed into a splintered cart before so…
At least Powder is on my side, she’s squeezing my hand as Vi seemingly pulls out the entire splinter which managed to stay in one piece, “Take a look, got yourself into quite the situation huh?” Powder and I look at the removed splinter which must be the size of a crayon at least.
“That was inside me?!” Jeez that was a little worrying.
“It’s ok, Vi knows what she’s doing. You’re ok.” Powder reassures me.
Vi looks over to us, “Powder can you please get some rags from the bar?”
Powder looks at Vi then at me, checking to see if I’d be ok, so I subtly nod to her. She takes this as a good sign and leaves my side, skipping up the stairs in search of the rags. Leaving Vi and me in the basement alone.
As she’s cleaning the tweezers, she speaks up “So… you and Powder were doing some activities when you got this?”
“Yeah, she wore me out pretty good. She gets so much into the moment; I didn’t want it to end until she was happy ya know?” Vi raises an eyebrow at this.
“Oh, so I take it this activity was physically draining huh? Maybe I need to have a few words with Benzo about how his apprentice is treating ladies.” Vi’s grinning like a Cheshire cat when I realize what she’s interpreting.
“OH, NO THAT’S NOT WHAT I MEANT! We were just play fighting and I ran to cover too hard when I got this!” This makes Vi break her smile and start laughing,
“Chill Little Man, I know I’m just poking some fun.” That was an immediate relief.
While she’s wrapping the patching material around my arm, “But do know, if you hurt her emotionally it’s not only Vander you’re going to be answering to.” She then tightens the strap a little extra which makes me grimace. Message received.
Foregoing the blush creeping onto my neck, “I’d never dream of that Vi.”
Vi cuts off the wrap, “Of course Ekko, I’m her big sister. It’s my job, you understand?”
Nodding my head, “Ya, I got you. Thank you for that, Powder couldn’t ask for a better big sister than you.” Which makes Vi smile and push my arm slightly,
“You know it Little Man! Now, we just gotta dry up the blood and I can put disinfectant, so you don’t lose your arm there bud.” Shifting back to the tightness I feel on my arm, I hear footsteps railing down the stairs, and in an instant Powder pops through the door.
“Sorry guys, Vander wasn’t at the bar, and I had to find him at a table talking to some guys, but I got the rags!” She bounds over to us and hands the rags to Vi, immediately grabbing hold of my hand again where I squeeze hers with the contact. Smiling at her, she returns the smile in equal, I spy Vi out the corner of my eye dabbing the blood clean and reaching for the disinfectant, a smirk upon her face during the process.
“Alright Little Man, this will pinch a little, but it’ll help long term.” I nod my head, still engrossed in Powder’s smile. With the disinfectant on my arm, I let a twitch which Powder recuperates by squeezing my hand more.
With the last bit of patching material done, Vi claps her hands “Good to go, try not to move it around too much at least for the next day.” Gratefully I thank Vi, “I guess it’s late now; I should head back home before it gets too dark.”
Powder glances over to Vi where they share a look and Vi says “You can stay here for the night, it’s dark outside and I don’t need you to get kidnapped out there at this hour. I can only keep up with so much action a day, right?” Powder looks relieved at this, and I silently am too since that means I don’t have to walk through the night and get more time to spend with Powder.
The thought appears in my mind, “Thanks guys I really appreciate it, I can grab the couch for the night if that’s fine?” But Vi recoils, taking this as a personal offense it seems.
“What? No way, you know how many times Mylo has laid on those couches after one of his workouts or outings getting beat up by some girl’s boyfriend for trying to flirt with them? There’s too much sweat and blood caked into them; I’m not going to let you sleep there.” I look at her confused,
“I can take the floor then; I know how to make a cot really easy with some rags” I suggest thoughtfully.
Vi puts her hand to her chin and lets out a ‘hmmm’ when after a moment snaps her fingers, “I got it! You’ll share Powder’s bed, it’s big enough for you two and better than any other option we have.” She says a little too cheerfully. Ahh, I’m picking up what Vi’s game is here now. That doesn’t stop the blush from appearing on my cheeks.
Powder speaks up almost immediately, “YES, - I mean yeah that can work” She’s definitely embarrassed by the prospect but doesn’t seem too fazed by it either.
“It’s settled then, I’ll let Vander know and you guys go ahead and wind down before he comes by to check on you.” Vi’s completed her mission it seems, she gets up and heads towards the door, “Just remember, Vander will check in on you so no funny business you two!”
Vi’s personal goals seem to involve embarrassing both Powder and me until we explode from the embarrassment. “Ha-ha very funny Vi, let's go Little Man so Vi can go talk to that tall girl she was eyeing behind the bar.” Powder says pulling my hand, Vi on the other hand grumbles while walking away, and not a second later a roll of rag goes flying past Powder’s head. “Hey! At least have better aim if you’re going to throw that” Powder sticks her tongue out to Vi and we both duck into her small section of a room.
“Don’t listen to her, she’s just trying to talk to some dumb girl lately.”
I give a chuckle, “Whatever makes her happy and not gunning for my neck is good with me.”
Powder giggles and we both lay down in her bed, and get comfortable when she asks, “Ekko, would you leave me alone?” Which sends me into a spiral, why would she think I would leave her?
“Of course not, I’d never leave you alone anywhere.”
Powder doesn’t seem pleased with my answer, “That’s not what I mean…” She lets out a sigh but continues, “Someday you’re going to meet someone and spend all your time with them, you won’t have any time for me anymore…”
I have to shake my head real fast to clear my thoughts, “Pow, I’d never leave your side for anyone else. If anything, I’d be spending all my time with you until you get sick of me.” I inform her of this, she doesn’t move but stares at me until she laughs, “I’d never get sick of you silly; we’ll be together forever!”
I grab hold of her hand and lace my fingers with hers, “Together forever, no matter what.”
“Promise?” she says in a little voice.
I grab her pinky with mine, “Pinky swear promise.”
With that she smiles and closes her eyes, I take one last look at her peaceful form and close my own eyes to drift off into sleep.
-
Vander’s making his rounds finding Vi, Mylo, and Claggor conversing in the lounge. He peaks into Powder’s room and sees two forms asleep with one hand connecting them both. A smile is shared between the two, which puts a smile on his face. On his way back up to clear the bar, Vi makes eye contact. They both share a smile and know the shared innocence of the two may be one of the brightest things either of them has ever seen.