Work Text:
Two weeks and two days. That was how long he had been in this farce of a world with her.
Powder.
She was lounging beside him, her nose in a book as she furiously scribbled out some design to make way for the next amazing thing that had popped into that wonderful mind of hers. The page was full of her notes and doodles, yet she kept thinking of yet another thing she simply had to record on paper.
In her focus he dared a deeper look at this familiar stranger. Her face was rounder, healthier. Her hair wasn’t trailing on the floor in twin braid, but rather two sweet little buns that would have barely grazed her shoulders if free of their ties. Her cheeks were pink and perfect. Her eyes were a bright and dazzling hue of blue he had only managed to catch when sneaking around the upper city and staring into the sky at the airships passing by. This girl wasn’t the one plagued by hurt.
“Heya, Ekko, you alright there, Bud?”
No. Not in the slightest.
“Ji-Powder, um, can I take a look at what you came up with?”
She raised a suspicious eyebrow straight up, the skepticism all but vocal in the way she stared him down. Yet she tucked the dull pencil behind her ear and handed over her work as requested. As he took it she sat a little straighter, shoulders high and eyes very obviously studying him now.
He flipped the pages back to where she had started earlier that evening. He knew it was the right page because of the small grease spot she must have made after handling the new gears he had excitedly run to show her. He laughed when he saw how she had managed to make the smudge enduring with little crazy eyes and a smile she had given it.
“Hey! You laugh at my work I take it back,” she warned with a grin he had seen a million times before on someone else’s face. Well, technically still her face.
He focused on the tiny and clean penmen ship in order to center himself and to not get lost in her gravity. He followed the loopy lettering, the text becoming more frazzled as her hand struggled to follow the speed of thoughts she was trying to scribble out. It was staggering to see how helplessly brilliant this girl was. To be reminded she always had been.
“Soooo… is it gonna work?”
He allowed himself to look at her, to truly look. Her eyes were wide and brimming with excitement, mouth parted as if it was awaiting his answer before deciding to curve into a smile or frown. It made him feel… strangely needed. His Powder Jinx wouldn’t have. He shook the thought, “Yeah, yeah this looks incredibly promising.”
She smiled. His heart hurt.
This, all of this, was wrong. He had the overwhelming urge to tell her that he wasn’t who she thought he was. She deserved to know.
But the longer he sat and mindlessly wrote in his own opened book, the more he decided against the idea. Why unnecessarily hurt her with the fact that her Ekko was gone? How long would he even be here in his place? He couldn’t say for sure. It would have been cruel to place that burden of information on her.
And, as if to spite the war he was having in his mind, she placed her things down and positioned herself in the empty spot directly next to him, doing what she did best and making herself so incredibly unavoidable.
“Can I help you?” he asked coolly, rereading the same line of notes he had already read for a fourth time. He was going for a fifth, when her head of blue locks rested on his shoulder. It was so unlike the girl he knew it had him startled from the unexpectedness. She was so tender. He thought of them as children, sleeping in the heat of the day under something cool with their heads just like this. He resented the Ekko that never lived without that.
“No, I just miss you is all,” she retorted, eyes closing and letting more weight fall onto him.
He laughed, “miss me? I figured after twelve hours in this stinky lab together you’d have had more than enough of me.”
She didn’t answer back, just smiled with those precious eyes contentedly shut.
He wanted this. He wanted this life so much it scared him. The idea of abandoning the absolute shit he had left behind was becoming more and more appealing the longer he stayed with her falling asleep on his arm. The thought that he could rest and be happy too? He had never once allowed himself to be so selfish. But he wanted to be.
Happiness? For the Boy Savior? Stop lying to yourself, Ekko
He sat straight up, unintentionally letting Powder slip. That hadn’t been her that said that, no, that was all Jinx. A reminder that this was not a path he got to stray down. She still needed him home.
“Hey, tell me what’s wrong?”
He didn’t have the words to say, blinking back the tears that would fall if he permitted that dam to break. He hated to admit that her comforting him hurt even worse. To have those words coming from that mouth, or that look of concern etch on that face after years of seeing nothing but her explosive pain.
She must have seen him struggling, because she shushed him like one would a crying child and whispered, “it’s okay, you don’t need to tell me anything if you don’t want to. I’m just happy to be here for you as long as you need.”
He hugged her, giving into that one small comfort before he told himself better.
She squeezed back just as hard. He figured maybe she needed it too.
“Okay, okay, maybe you’re right- I think I have had enough of you for one day,” she said with an exaggerated playful tone, pulling gently away but still managing to grasp his hands in hers.
Ekko only rolled his eyes in jest, “hey you’re the one that invaded my personal space, I was perfectly fine over here minding my own business.”
“UH, did you forget whose lab you’re invading? Now who’s really the one invading whose space? Hmmmmmm?”
He laughed, truly and fully for the first time since he got to this weirdly perfect place. It felt so natural to be here, to be with this strictly pure version of her. But that was the problem. Even with everything as wonderful as it was, all he kept wanting to do was to take a piece of this back to share with the Powder he thought he lost years ago.
He knew he couldn't find happiness, not here at least. His happiness would continue to reside with the imperfect girl waiting back home. And, if he was lucky, maybe they could create a little piece of this life for themselves.