Work Text:
The pair collapsed onto the concrete roof. Their eyes were level, but Lux was upside down, as if on the ceiling. Their forms curled into each other, two hemispheres of a world entirely their own.
Jinx looked up at the stars. Lux looked at Jinx.
“Was that enough?” asked Lux. Even though explosions still echoed in their ears, Lux’s voice was calm. It stole Jinx away from the chaos she had caused and brought her back to herself. Back to the roof. Back to where she had shown Vi the gemstones, where Vi had promised they would be respected. And she was.
Jinx turned, facing Lux. She thought she heard a crow scream in the distance, but it could’ve just been an enforcer. Or a Demacian warrior, now that the two nations had joined forces in search of their most wanted outlaws.
Well the outlaws had joined forces too — the loose cannon and the mage of light.
The question rolled over in Jinx’s mind. ‘Was that enough?’ She blinked. ‘Was that enough for you?’
She looked back up at the stars. From the roof, almost no light from below could cloud them. She could forget about everything. But then again, how could she. “No,” she finally answered. Her words were breathless.
“Will it ever be?” Lux was so far away.
She shook her head. “Yes,” Jinx said. “It will.” The image flashed through her mind once more — Vi, her sister, with her bright pink hair, wearing the suit of the monsters that killed their parents. “How could she?”
It was a small movement, but she caught sight of it in her peripheral. Lux bridged the gap between them, reaching towards her forearm, but stopped and pulled back. Only then did Jinx realize the roof was cold.
“Is it-?”
“Yes,” Jinx murmured. She turned to Lux. “It’s for her. For Vi.” The scream had been a crow. It landed on the wire that Vi’s toy had been stuck in and cawed. Jinx wanted to blast it and send its feathers raining down, down, down. “One day it’ll be her. And…” she swallowed. She hated how Vi still wormed into her heart. “And I’ll see her again.”
Lux bit the inside of her cheek. “What will you say to her?”
The absence of an answer haunted her, and her eyes sought the comfort of the stars. More had appeared as the night grew into itself. An entire city of stars shone above, and no one saw it but them.
This time, Lux didn’t pull away. She rested her fingertips on Jinx’s forearm, and nothing had ever felt so gentle. “It’s okay. We’ll face her together.” Her fingertips tensed. “If that’s what you’d want.”
Jinx wasn’t sure what she wanted, why she even wanted to see her sister — if she could be called that — again, but she found herself nodding. “Please.”
Then there was silence. And the crow screamed.
“They talked to me this time, while you were setting the charges,” Lux began. “The enforcers. They tried to negotiate.”
Jinx couldn’t help her hair rising on end. She tensed, and suddenly the roof wasn’t comfortable at all.
“They said Demacia was willing to take me back if I turned you in.” Lux fingertips, still there, were weightless. “They would accept me.”
Jinx chuckled. “They must really want me, huh?” But it fell flat. She couldn’t hide the terror in her voice. ‘Please don’t leave me too,’ she begged, silently. The stars faded into a jet black sky.
“They were dead before they realized I was laughing at the offer.”
Jinx turned from the sky to Lux, who seemed too close. How had she let someone in just to leave again?
“How could they ever think I’d even consider them,” continued Lux, “when a life with them means a life without you?” The crow flew off. “This is everything.” Her fingertips made their way to Jinx hand, and entangled themselves in it.
Jinx squeezed.
“I would never give you to them. Not for anything.”
The words hung in silent air. It was strange: silence. Jinx had so little of it. Usually the ghosts were shrieking. The last time she’d heard those words, they had shouted “liar!” But this time they were quiet.
Lux’s fingers slipped out from Jinx’s. She brought her hand to Jinx’s cheek, like Vi once did, and Jinx immediately moved hers to hold it there. And she imagined standing in a burning room with screaming ghosts, yet not caring because Lux was there. It didn’t matter who the ghosts were, or which undead sisters appeared before her. If her Luxie was there, she would be okay. She would have someone. And she slept.
When she woke, her hand had dropped to the rough cement roof, but Lux’s was still caressing her cheek, even as the princess slept. It was gentle and steady against her skin. Jinx smiled, and in her sleep, Lux smiled too.