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Ekko couldn’t take his eyes off of her.
Like a daydream, there she was-- his best friend, the perpetually aching half of his heart, all the warmth and goodness in the world bundled into one tiny, beautiful being-- right in front of him, staring back with a soft smile and gentle blue eyes. Powder.
Part of him wanted to stay.
Here, with her, in this almost perfect fantasy.
A knot formed in his stomach, heavy and sinking, begging for him to give in and accept this new reality, to forget all of the pain of the world he came from. It pleaded, bargained, gnawed at his bones, whispering that it was okay for him to leave all of that behind and choose this instead. This is everything he’s ever wanted. Considering all he’s been forced to endure up until this point, doesn’t he deserve to have this?
A mercy is being offered to him.
Will he let himself take it?
“So... are you gonna tell me about it?” She asked, breaking the silence he didn’t realize they’d been sitting in.
He blinked, mind having gone totally blank. He felt his cheeks flush. “Tell you about..?”
She rolled her eyes with a grin as she sat back down beside him, letting her legs dangle over the edge of the platform. “About the dream you had, dummy. What was this evil version of me like exactly?”
“Oh, well, um...” The words struggled to come to him. How was he supposed to explain Jinx? “She’s... She’s not evil, she’s just... someone who’s lost a lot and I think because of that, it kind of pushed her down a pretty destructive and violent path. But she’s not a bad person. The choices she makes are often bad, but I don’t think she’s bad.”
Powder listened intently, noting to herself the way Ekko's voice started to waver the further he went on. The way he spoke made it seem like he was trying to convince himself of it as well. Like even he didn’t really understand, but was sincerely trying to.
“Maybe I did at first, but something happened. For a split second, I saw--” His throat started to close up, trying to hold his next words hostage. It took him a moment to find the strength to push them out. “I saw that she hadn’t really changed that much at all. I saw through the mask she’d been wearing, that she wasn’t actually this monster she made herself out to be...”
A film of tears glazed over his eyes, but Powder made no comment on it. She just remained there beside him, reaching a hand out to take one of his, her thumb stroking over his knuckles tenderly.
“She’s just hurt and lonely, I think. Misunderstood. All she really wants is to be loved, but she keeps... losing the people who love her... I think she blames herself for everything, believes that she’s--”
“A jinx?” Powder supplied, her smile having turned into something empty. She didn’t look upset though, just numb. Tired, defeated acceptance. He guessed even in this timeline it’s still a feeling she knows all too well.
Ekko brought his free hand up to rub at his eyes, getting rid of the tears before they could fall. “Yeah. Something like that.”
Powder squeezed his hand, “We don’t have to talk about this if it’s too much for you. It was just a dream anyways-- she isn’t real. I am and I’m right here with you. Everything’s okay.”
“Right.” He felt sick. It’s all of this that isn’t real-- not for him, at least. This isn’t his reality, this isn’t his Powder. He can’t stay here and keep pretending it is, despite how desperately he wishes he could.
There’s people back home that are relying on him, that need him to come back. And maybe, there’s an old friend waiting for him that he can hopefully try to reconcile with. Someone who actually needs him to stay.
He rolled his shoulders back, straightened up his posture, and forced a more lighthearted expression across his features. “Come on. We got a project to work on, partner.”