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“Did you ever just look up at the sky and think, ‘wow, it’s so big’?”
Ekko gave Jinx a concerned look.
“Are you high?”
“Maybe. Want to kiss me and find out?”
He sighed, sitting down next to her. He’d found her curled up on the roof of the clock tower, her mismatched boots braced against the crumbling tiles. Her usual braid was slowly but surely coming undone, blue locks breaking free from their formation. He could see thin red scratches on her pale arms, not yet healed, despite it being a week since her last ‘incident.’
“Of course I want to kiss you,” he said.
He could taste the shimmer in her spit, hot and sweet and sickening. Her lips felt almost feverish, her eyes huge and pink. This happened sometimes when she didn’t get enough food or lost blood or just got upset. A nasty side effect of the surgery.
He enjoyed the kiss anyway.
“It’s such a pretty sunset,” Jinx said, resting her head on his shoulder.
“That’s because of the smog, you know.”
“Shh. Stop ruining pretty things.”
“Every pretty thing?” he teased.
“I’m not pretty,” Jinx said. “I’m beautiful.”
“No arguments there.”
“Come on,” she said. “You can ruin me later. Let’s catch the sky.”
She pulled her board from where it was lying, giving Ekko that beautiful, insane smile. Too big, too bright, too sharp, too demented. It shouldn’t have fit on such a pretty face. Some people would say it had ruined it.
Ekko loved that smile. It wasn’t his favorite—it wasn’t real enough to be his favorite. But it was close. It was a smile carved from a sheer and unwavering determination to be happy no matter what hell came her way. Something she could never lose, something that nobody could take away.
“I’ll get my board.”
“Just share mine.”
He let her lead, wrapping his arms around her tiny waist and spitting out strands of blue hair. Golden veins highlighted the rose-tinted clouds that spilled out against a purple sky. As they rose higher, above the smog and filth of Zaun, a blinding blue rushed up to meet them, fading into a soft pink. There was nothing quite as magical as flying, holding someone you loved as you both took to the sky like two birds. A crow and an owl. Together.
When they kissed up there, he could barely taste the shimmer.