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“So you fell in love with me at first sight?” Powder asked, smiling slightly.
Ekko sighed, sensing he was about to be teased.
“I was seven. I didn’t even know what love was yet. But I did like you. From the start.”
Powder laughed.
“Of course you’d be the romantic,” she said.
“What about you?” Ekko asked. “When exactly did you fall for me?”
Powder went quiet at that. She tried to think back to the years she had spent with Ekko. Most of her life, really. Playing in the junkyard when they were kids, fighting to survive on the streets as teenagers, building a family together as adults. She remembered their first kiss when they found the tree. Their first night together after a fight with Silco’s Chembarons. She tried to remember their first date. Had they even had one? They did everything together anyway.
“I don’t know,” she confessed. “Maybe it was after everyone died and we just had each other. Maybe it was before all that, and I didn’t even know. I feel like I’ve always loved you.”
Ekko's eyes softened. He kissed her, soft and easy. When they pulled away, he gave her a teasing smile.
“So it was at first sight for you too, huh?”
“No,” Powder said. “When I first saw you, I was just impressed by how filthy you were.”
Ekko laughed, holding her closer. Powder let her head rest on his chest, enjoying his embrace. She couldn’t imagine a world where she didn’t love Ekko, or he her. Sometimes she woke up screaming, dreaming of him gone. She knew then she’d be truly broken. Here in his arms, she was okay. Whatever else happened to either of them, she could never be afraid because they were together. That was what it meant to be safe: not a full stomach or an unbruised body, but the knowledge you had someone to hold you.
“Pow? You okay?” Ekko asked softly, brushing away her tears with his hand.
She hadn’t even realized she’d been crying.
“I’m not sad,” she said.
That wasn’t exactly an answer, but Ekko didn’t press further. He knew her better than that. Instead he just continued to hold her, silence falling between them. The quiet was a luxury to Powder, and she rested there, in his arms.
“Ever wish you could just stay in one moment?” Ekko asked eventually.
“Yeah,” she said. “But this is enough, isn’t it?”
And it was.