Chapter Text
“When was the city of Piltover officially founded? That would be… uhm… that would be…”
Lux sighed and flipped her flash card over. 1911. Of course it was 1911, it was right at the edge of her mind, why couldn’t she-
Lux let her head fall onto her desk and closed her eyes. Gods she was tired. She looked over to her alarm clock, 12:49 displayed on its screen. She should probably go to bed, the test was tomorrow after all.
But she needed to ace this test, she needed to.
So instead of going back to the warm, soft comfort of her bed Lux lifted her head from her desk, gathered her flashcards, and started shuffling them. She could do this, she could do this, she could do this, she-
*plink*
Lux froze waiting for another sound to cut through the silence of her bedroom, but it never came. She sighed in relief, it was probably just her imagination, it was late and she was tired and it’d been silent for so long. She’d just run through her notes one more time and-
*PLINK*
She let her head fall back into her desk with a groan. Of all nights of course she chose tonight to-
*PLINK*
“Oh my god.”
Lux got up and opened her window. On the ground, with of all things a brick in her hand, was Jinx.
“What are you doing?” Lux asked through her teeth.
“Tryin to get your attention, duh Starlight.” Jinx dropped the brick and started climbing the tree by Lux’s window, “Help me through will ya?”
Lux sighed, exasperated, but still caught Jinx’s arm once she was close and hauled her in through the window. Jinx let herself tumble into the room, laughing, before shooting up. Jinx let her bookbag slide off her arms and onto the floor, before her eyes zeroed in on Lux’s desk.
“Y’know when I saw your light was on, I thought to myself ‘Huh wonder what little Ms. Perfect is up to at this time of night?’” Jinx picked Lux’s flash cards, “I cannot believe you are this boring Starlight.”
“Yeah well,” Lux snatched her cards back, “some of us can’t skip half the year and still get A’s on our tests.”
Lux sat back in her seat and buried her head into her hands. She… she didn’t mean to snap, really she just… she just needed a moment. She took a few deep breaths, in and out, in and out, till she felt Jinx lay on top of her back.
“You alright Luxy?”
Lux sighed.
“I’m… I’m sorry, just tired…”
“Well…” Lux felt Jinx heard the rustling of Jinx digging around in her pockets, “I got just the thing to cheer you up!”
Lux opened her eyes to see a crumpled up advertisement for a meteor shower that was happening at 2. They’d seen it when walking back to her house from school about a month ago. Lux wanted to go, even asked Jinx if she could make it (she always could, if Lux really wanted to do something Jinx always came through for her), but…
“Jinx, we have a test tommo- today.”
She turned around to see already halfway out her window. Jinx just stuck her tongue out at her.
“Pbbbt, who cares? You’re already up late, why not have some fun?”
Lux opened her mouth to respond, but Jinx had already pushed herself the rest of the way out the window. Lux couldn’t help the snort that escaped her when she heard the thud her friend made, accompanied by a faint and muffled ‘FUCK.’
Lux looked back at the flier. At this point studying would be useless anyway, her focus broken. She should really just go to sleep…
—————
“Jinx if we get caught-.”
“Relax, Pinkie, no one’ll know we were here.”
They were sneaking through their school. Of all places to watch the stars Jinx chose the roof of their school. When Lux asked her why they didn’t just go to the park like the flier was advertising Jinx had just said she wasn’t about to pay ten bucks and sit around a bunch of people just to watch the sky.
Which, okay even Lux, whose family was more than well off, could tell was a rip off but still why of all places, would she choose the school.
“Aaaaand, tada!” Jinx opened the door she was finagaling with, “Ladies first!”
Lux rolled her eyes, but was still fighting back a smile as she walked through the door.
“Wow Jinx, didn’t know you could be so chivalrous.”
“Oh no, you're infecting me!” Jinx gasped, “Gonna have to make up for all all your goody two shoesness, maybe I could stuff a few paint bombs into shortstack’s locker before we leave.”
Lux giggled, pulling her coat tighter around her and taking in the view.
The school grounds were big enough to push the city enough so that they had a clear view of the sky, with all the sparkling stars on full display. She watched as Jinx walked past her, digging into her backpack for a fuzzy looking blanket that she spread out onto the ground before diving in once again for snacks.
“Maybe this wasn’t your worst idea…” Lux said as she lowered herself next to Jinx.
“Knew you’d come around Luxy.” Jinx smiled, handing her a thermos. She took a tentative sip to find it was hot chocolate just shy of burning. As she took another slow sip she could hear the rustling of Jinx pulling out a bag of chips and the crack of a soda can.
“So…” Jinx laid back, her mouth full of chips, “when's the show starting?”
“Uhh…” Lux brought her phone to her face, it blinding her for a moment, to see it was 2:01, “should be starting soon.”
Jinx hummed in acknowledgment as she took a sip of her soda. Lux set the thermos to the side and laid her head on Jinx.
As she waited Lux started feeling butterflies build up in her stomach. She wasn’t entirely sure why, probably just the anticipation…
Or it was the fact that she was here, alone with Jinx (she felt her stomach swoop at that thought), at 2 AM on a school night and not sleeping at home, where she should be. God she was going to fail her test wasn’t she. She was going to wake up exhausted and be too delirious to answer the questions correctly and then her parents were going to…
…
Why did she taste salt?
Before she could react Lux felt her jaw be pushed closed and potato chip fragments exploded in her mouth. She flailed about for a moment, knocking Jinx’s hands away.
“You need to stop doin that Pinkie.”
“Doing what?!” Lux said, her mouth still full of chips. She took a moment to actually swallow the food her friend shoved into her mouth, while Jinx’s finger landed on her forehead.
“You were making that dumb face you make when you’re overthinking something,” Jinx tossed back a few chips, “We’re here to watch the sky, not have a panic attack over whatever your stupid parents think.”
“My parents aren’t stupid.”
“Sure.” Lux could practically feel the eyeroll. She turned her head to stare at Jinx’s face and crossed her arms.
“Take it back.”
Jinx just smiled at her, “Or what, Starlight?”
Lux stood up, and before Jinx could move to block her, wrapped her arms under Jinx’s and lifted. Now Jinx may, to her younger self’s annoyance, be taller than her, but she also had the muscle mass of a stick figure, so there wasn’t much she could do when Lux lifted her onto her shoulder, and started marching around the roof.
“LUX!”
“Apologize!”
“NEVER!” Jinx said, giggling.
Lux was barely holding back her own giggles, “Apologize, or I’ll carry you all the way over to the police department and let Ms. Kiramman know you broke into the school!”
“I’ll just drag you down with me traitor!”
“And you think they would believe Luxanna Crownguard would ever break into a school with you, Hijinx?”
“Fine! I’m sorry I pointed out how your parents have gigantic sticks up their asses!”
Lux couldn’t hold in her laughter any longer and brought both of them back down, still holding onto Jinx as they both continued laughing.
Their giggles eventually subsided, Lux holding onto Jinx a little longer than necessary before untangling their limbs and rolling onto her back next to Jinx.
The two laid there together, trying to catch their breaths, when a streak of white raced across the sky.
“Hey…” Lux pointed to the sky.
More streaks of color lit up the sky. Red, pink, green, blue, lighting the sky like fireworks.
“Woah…” Lux heard to her left, “...Worth it…?”
She smiled. Lux felt around till she caught Jinx’s hand in hers and intertwined their fingers.
“Yeah… worth it…”
“You know, I don’t think I’d rather spend this moment with anyone but you…”
“...”
“...”
“...Really…”
“Of course not. You and me, remember, till the end of the world.”
“Yeah… till the end of the world.”
And as the stars slowly stopped falling, Lux couldn’t help but focus on the bright purple star that streaked across the sky…