Work Text:
21 Years Old
*****
5:48pm
Where are you right now?
Vi is still saying something, but Jinx has stopped listening.
5:48pm
puttin out a fire
5:48pm
missin you
5:49pm
I miss you too xoxo
“Jinx. Runeterra to Jinx.”
Without looking up from Lux’s texts, Jinx replies, “no she doesn’t love you anymore, yes she’s secretly hated you all this time, yes she’s gonna leave you at the altar, and yes, it makes you look ugly.”
Vi glares. “Very funny. C’mon, anyone would think it’s your wedding day.”
She fails to see how that’s a bad thing, but slips her phone into the pocket of her blazer anyway, then claps her sister on the shoulders. “Violet, if there was a time to decide screwing your parole officer was a bad idea, it was before the fact, not ten minutes before ya marry her.”
“That’s not the problem! I just - what if I trip, or forget my vows, or something?”
“Then I promise to record the whole thing and remind you of it for the rest of your life.”
Vi rolls her eyes but huffs a laugh. Jinx goes to ruffle her (for once immaculately styled) hair, gets her wrist bitch-slapped away, and sucker-punches her shoulder one more time instead. “Knock ‘em dead, sis. I’m gonna go give my girl a smooch before I have to watch you throw your life away.”
A devious glint enter’s Vi’s eyes. “Maybe you and Lux should tie the knot while we’ve got the officiant here.”
Her scheme works like a charm. Jinx’s face bursts into flames. Vi’s shoulders heave with laughter while she splutters out a series of discombobulated syllables somewhat resembling a protest.
But oh, she can give as good as she gets. “It’s very unsportsmanlike to try and throw a wager like that.”
Immediately Vi’s lips purse shut. “What - uh - I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
“The bet you ‘n the boys have going about whether me and Lux or Ekko and Ezreal will be the next to get married, what else?”
Vi’s jaw hangs open for a second before she mutters, “don’t point fingers. Vander’s in on it too.”
Jinx laughs, moves for the door… then stops. “And uh, who have you got money on?”
“Would you look at the time!” Vi exclaims, checking a watch she isn’t wearing. “We better hurry if we don’t want to be late for my wedding.”
With that, she sweeps past Jinx out the bathroom door. Jinx smiles after her, but before following, she takes out a tube of dark purple lipstick and reapplies it in the mirror. It’s with sweet, freshly-painted lips that she kisses Lux on their family’s side of the aisle before taking up her place as Vi’s best woman.
The ceremony is short and sweet. Neither Violet nor her bride are keen on pomp. An associate of the Kirraman’s called Mel Medara officiates. Caitlyn’s own best man (her best friend, Jayce, practically her big brother) weeps through the whole thing. Finally, Isha sweeps forward with all the drama expected from a middle schooler of the Lanes-Baron family, holding out the rings. For all her teasing and not-so-subtle inching away from Jayce, Jinx blinks back a few tears of her own at the sheer unbridled joy on Vi’s face as Mel declares her and Caitlyn wives. She barely gets out the last syllable of ‘you may kiss,’ before the two of them lock lips. Jinx lets out a wolf-whistle heedless of the chiding expression Lux sends her way.
It’s after that that the real party starts.
The happy couple turn their guests loose in the reception hall to stuff themselves full of cake and drink until they’re blue in the face. They accept congratulations as well-wishers drift in and out of the corner they claim for themselves, but everyone can so plainly see how wrapped up they are in each other that they know better than to linger for more than a couple pleasantries.
Jinx has no such decorum. No sooner has Vander released Vi from a crushing hug than Jinx commences a second attack on her oxygen supply. “See, that went fine! Congrats on only giving me one excuse to publicly humiliate you sis!”
While Vi pats Jinx’s back, a desperate signal to stop holding her vocal cords hostage, her new wife speaks for her. “What’s the first?” Cait asks.
“There’s a mirror in the bathroom if you want that question answered.”
“Leave my wife alone,” Vi snaps, finally freeing herself from Jinx’s anaconda squeeze. “Haven’t you got another lady around here who could actually use your hassling?”
“Present, accounted for, and guilty,” announces Lux, suddenly appearing at Jinx’s side. She’s holding a glass of champagne in either hand and Isha is with her, chocolate frosting smeared on her cheek.
“Blondie!” Jinx throws her arms around her girlfriend’s neck, kisses her deeply on the lips, and pretends like she doesn’t hear Vander mutter, “you’ll be paying up soon enough,” to Vi.
“Hi, sweetheart,” Lux responds, then pushes a champagne flute into her hand. Only out of boundless love for her does Jinx not pull a face at it. She’s been experimenting with different types of booze since she was like, fourteen, and pretty much all but the most sickly sweet of cocktails ends up tasting like motor oil to her - and she’s tasted motor oil. She knows. Champagne is the worst of them all. Like if someone left sour grapes in the sun then swore at them for an hour.
Fortunately Lux is distracted by the curious glance Caitlyn sends her way. “You must be Lux.”
“Jinx’s girlfriend,” she replies as though it’s the greatest possible introduction anyone could bestow upon her.
Although Vander’s probably takes the cake: “my honorary fourth daughter.”
A smile sweeter than any cocktail breaks out on Lux’s face. Irresistible: Jinx coils an arm around her waist to punctuate the statement, pulling their hips flush and resting her head on her shoulder.
Caitlyn’s not done, however. “You look awfully familiar. Do you live in Piltover?”
“Um, no, in Zaun with Jinx. We just moved in together, actually.”
The happiest day of Jinx’s life was getting their little apartment just downtown from The Last Drop. Even after dropping the business major she never really wanted and going to work at the bar (Vander would have offered her money no matter what, but it was a point of pride for her, with the added bonus that it keeps her closer to Jinx) it seemed like Lux was never going to make it out of Ezreal’s uncle’s house. Only then, several things happened at once: Jinx got hired for a massive set design project for an up-and-coming popstar… and Lux, after long, hopeless years of swimming upstream against the publishing industry, was offered an advance on her manuscript. So they jumped at the chance while life seemed to be working in their favor. If they didn’t then, they were never going to.
A fond smile tugs at the corner of Jinx’s mouth as her mind drifts back to it. Their faded, thrifted pull-out couch buried underneath throw blankets and pillows where Isha sleeps when she stays with them on weekends. The Pentakill posters on the walls. Her laundry piled in the corner she would rather be tortured with hot pokers than wash. Lux’s desk, tacked to hell and back with sticky notes, stacked high with charcoal-smeared composition paper. The smell of coffee or fresh Demacian perogies wafting from the kitchen. Their home, where she wakes up every morning in Lux’s arms and they greet the new dawn together.
Lux continues: “I went to college in Piltover for a couple semesters, though. Were you a student too?”
“No, that’s not it.” Cait frowns thoughtfully. “I attended a trade gala with my mother several years back. She’s a Councilor, so she was hosting. I remember spending most of it with a girl who looked just like you.”
The lightbulb goes off in Lux’s head, triggering an excited (and adorable) face. “That was me! Now I remember! I was fourteen. I got in trouble with my parents for wandering off with you to drop coins in the fountain.”
They share a laugh at the memory. Vi shoots Jinx a smug look at their partners getting along so well. Jinx sticks her tongue out at her.
Then Caitlyn asks: “and how are your parents?”
The mood cools by several degrees. Jinx wants to spit in her champagne just at the mention of them (hey, it wouldn’t make any difference on the taste). Lux, on the other hand, hides a just-perceptible flicker of sadness before handling it with her usual unflappability.
“Truth be told, I haven’t spoken to them in a couple of years. They were… less than receptive to my coming out.”
Caitlyn gives a quiet, sympathetic ‘ah.’ What Jinx knows is that that isn’t entirely true. Lux has spoken to them since then. Once.
How they got her new Zaun number, she doesn’t want to think about. All that matters is that they had gotten tired of waiting for reality to crush Lux’s little phase and tried to corral the gig into being up themselves. There was a lot of shouting, then a lot of cajoling, plenty of ‘we miss you’s’ and ‘there’s a better way’s.’ Finally, after describing in extreme detail just how happy she is with Jinx and how little she needs them, Lux handed the phone to Jinx and let her get in as much as she could before they hung up on her. She officially blocked their numbers after that.
Garen still comes to visit when he can. He’s brought his new girlfriend, a flaming hot redhead whom Jinx likes phenomenally, a couple of times. Maybe it’s the waist tattoos and leather jackets. Lux just finds it endlessly hilarious that both Crownguard children managed to pick up the most disgraceful partners imaginable.
“But that just means I get to be here to celebrate your love.” Lux raises her glass. “To Vi and Cait!”
Vander and Jinx echo the toast; Isha lifts her cake fork. Jinx throws back a gulp of champagne, because she ain’t no pussy.
Her immediate cringe says otherwise. Still just as bad as she remembers.
Lux leans over and whispers, “you don’t have to drink that.”
Jinx scrambles to save face. “Pfft, it’s fine, just uh, probably a bad idea to have more than a sip. Yanno with my meds and all.”
Lux nods sagely, smirking. “Your meds. Exactly.”
Isha makes a grabbing motion. “Abso-lute-ly not,” says Lux, Vi, and Vander at the same time.
Jinx gives her a ‘what can you do’ shrug and passes the flute off to Vi.
“Cake’s better anyway,” she confides in her little sister, then leads her off to swipe another slice.
Ekko, Mylo, and Claggor find them at the confections table and they spend the next hour shooting the shit. Lux sips her drink and steals bites of cake from Jinx. Isha’s second slice disappears in seconds so Jinx starts sneaking her the fancy-ass chocolates the Kirammans catered. Mylo waxes dreamy poetic about the girl he’s trying to win over, a musician called Gert who could probably snap him in half like a twig. (Honestly? Jinx respects him for that.) Ekko talks about his plans for the homeless shelter until he’s breathless (“if ya hire another artist for the mural I’m coming to your house and de-stuffing all your furniture”). No sooner is he done than Lux picks up about her three-book contract for The Mageseeker.
“The Winter’s Claw scene was the most iconic thing I’ve ever written, and now I have to cut it until book three!” she mourns. “How am I going to wait that long?”
Jinx loops her bicep in her arms and bats her eyelashes. “You could pass the time by dancing with me.”
Lux glances at the others, pretending to think about it. Claggor grins and gives her a small shove.
“You know what, I think that will do nicely.”
They cut onto the rug right as an upbeat, peppy pop tune strikes up. After a second Jinx recognizes it as one of the singer she’s working for’s songs. After another second she remembers that Caitlyn was in charge of the music and immediately makes plans to taunt her… later. Right now, Lux takes her by the arms and swings her around, and that’s all that matters.
It’s almost disorienting, and not because they’re spinning in circles. Lux takes up so much space, both on the dance floor and inside of Jinx, that her head spins from it. This girl, who throws her arms in the air, jumps to the beat, presses her body close to Jinx’s - how can this be that same girl in the plaid skirt who barely swayed at the Pentakill concert? Who apologized just for just possibly offending someone? When did she learn to shine like this?
Jinx knows the answer as soon as she thinks it. This light has always been a part of Lux. She’s just not holding it back anymore.
The song breaks and they freeze in place, lip-syncing to the long, high-pitched belt the singer lets out. When the beat drops again they jump together, lunging into each other’s arms.
“Marry me!” Jinx blurts out.
Lux doesn’t stop dancing, just pulls Jinx along with her. “Okay!”
What the fuck just happened?
Is her brain playing tricks on her again? Did she say what she thought she said aloud? Or did she say it in her mind and Lux was responding to something else? What the fuck did she just say?
“Wait, seriously?” she yells over the music, hoping it’ll answer all of those questions at once.
In the end, the stars in her lover’s eyes are answer enough. “Yeah! Jinx, we’ve been together for four years. We made it through long distance, we made it through my parents, we made it through finding jobs, and now we’re making it through living together. We can do anything.”
The song begins to fade out. They slow with it to a ballroom sway, Jinx’s arms around Lux’s neck, Lux’s around her waist. Lux leans down and kisses her deeply.
“So yeah,” she finishes, “let’s get fucking married.”
Anyone watching probably attributes Jinx’s crowing and leaping to the new song that starts up. The light of her life grins and laughs and leaps with her, until Jinx says, “should we tell everyone and upstage Vi and Cait?” She can't wait to see the look on Vi's face when she loses the bet.
“Of course not. We’ll wait ‘til their honeymoon.”
They dance on until blue and gold blur on the dance floor, indistinguishable.