Oh my love, don't forget me (when I let the water take me)

 

High tide brings the most peculiar things.

It’s all mostly trash, but there’s some other things, too: things people lose in the ocean, like rings and shoes and coins, for whatever reason. Ekko walks along the beach in the wee hours of the morning, scavenging for anything that might be of value, aside from the shells he’s here for.

He’s kicking rocks when he sees it, or her, more like.

Ekko panics, because it’s not seven am yet and he’s found a dead body, apparently.

She’s lying on her stomach, head buried in the sand, her clothes are torn apart, and her long hair is everywhere, blending in with the sand and the rocks. Ekko touches her carefully, rolls her on her back, checks for a pulse, any indication that she’s alive.

Um. So. Well, there’s not a pulse.

He’s already half decided to run and get some help when the body stirs. Holy fuck, okay, so she is alive, just—very, very weak. Okay. Okay! He has first aid training, so maybe he should start helping her throw up the sea water.

Ekko opens her mouth, presses on her stomach a few times, and yep, soon enough the woman is throwing up water and algae. Yuck.

Her eyes fly open moments after she’s done throwing up on the side.

Her lapis lazuli clashes with his black onyx.

“Oh, Janna, you’re alive,” Ekko breathes out. The girl starts to tremble, either because she’s cold or out of fear, he doesn’t know, but he takes his jacket off and covers her with it anyway. “You’re alive.”

Muñeca te lo Ruego (Agitame la Boca)

 

It's not that Ekko hates Jinx, but she's definitely not someone he likes or wants to spend time with. Unfortunately, the universe hates Ekko, so obviously he runs into her in every corner and office of the faculty ever since his first year of college.

It doesn't help that both his career and the campus are incredibly small, causing everyone to know each other.

“I just don’t get it,” Zeri said once, while they were having lunch together between classes. “You've never even talked with that girl in your life, why do you dislike her?” His best friend looked at him curiously as she devoured her ground beef schnitzel sandwich. Ekko had to bite back a comment about the dubious origin of that sandwich.

Ekko snorted, reluctant to share his reasons, because, if he was honest... he didn't have many reasons to dislike Jinx. His displeasure with the girl began when they were freshmen and Ekko, who had been the valedictorian of his high school, found himself immersed in a silent competition against Jinx to get the best grades. Jinx, in his opinion, shouldn’t be a student with an average of ten; she was always late and barely took notes, while Ekko practically opened up the campus with how early he arrived in the mornings and cramped his hands taking notes in class.

No One Has to Know (What Goes on Between Us)

 

Ekko thinks, not for the first time since this meeting started, that he should quit music and move to the countryside for some peace and quiet.

The marketing guy is still droning on and on about merch sales and stream statistics, Ekko hasn’t been paying attention for the better part of the hour. He’s fidgeting with the pencil in his hands, intently avoiding the sight of the blue haired woman sitting across him, who’s shamelessly painting her nails.

He doesn’t know much about Jinx; she signed with the label around the same time as him, and although she’s also from Zaun, he doesn’t really know her, which is saying something, since everyone knows everyone in the lanes.

At most, Ekko follows her on Instagram, out of some kind of solidarity with her, something something people who come from the lanes oughta stick together—in reality, he thinks she's quite hot. Likes her posts like he's being paid for it.

Of course, that's between him and god.

The marketing guy—he looks like a Jimmy, Ekko thinks—is still speaking. Ekko is barely listening.

“In short, we saw a spike in streams and social media interactions after the gala; our numbers had been steady, not to say stagnant, for quite some time so this new surge in activity caught our attention,” Maybe-Jimmy says, pushing his glasses up to his nose, sounding suspiciously upbeat.

That catches his attention.

Ekko reluctantly peels his gaze off the ground to look at him, silently wondering what that has to do with Jinx’s presence.

Ekko glances to his manager, sitting next to him, who’s nodding along, sporting a serious face. He’s the only one that seems to be paying attention—well, besides Jinx’s manager, he supposes. Jinx herself is still busy painting her own nails in two different colors, humming a tune.

“So, as per the CEO’s request, we’ve devised a marketing plan to make both of your streams and merchandise sales go up,” he says, finally going to the point, and Ekko has a faint feeling that he’s not going to like whatever they’re about to propose to him. “Since the spike in interactions happened due to dating rumors between the two of you, we figured it would be a good idea for you to pretend to be in a relationship for some time, at least until after we drop both of your respective albums.”

How to Fuck Your Hot Roommate (And not Die of Awkwardness in the Process)

 It’s a truth universally acknowledged that an Alpha in rut must be in want of an Omega to breed.

That’s just the dance between designations; everything the Alphas do to woo and conquer and Omega’s heart is, in the end, a plot to get a rut partner to satisfy their needs. Jinx has never been under the impression that romantic love from an Alpha was anything more than a strategy to get in her pants.

No, Jinx knew all about the deception games Alphas liked to play when they wanted an Omega all to themselves.

Unfortunately, Ekko is not one of those Alphas.

He’s a rare case of an Alpha with a heart as pure as a fucking Disney princess and no intentions to deceive Jinx into falling into bed with him and breed her for five business days without a shred of mercy.

Fortunately for Jinx, she knows how to get what and who she wants. It doesn’t matter that Ekko is polite to the point of being pathological, or that he never spends a rut in their shared apartment, opting for booking a hotel room to give her peace—no, Jinx is a persuasion goddess and she always wins in the end.

That is how she ended up in this predicament.

MICRO-FIC: "How did we get here?"

 PROMPT: I wish you would write a fic with timebomb as pitfighters

“You never know when to quit,” Jinx says, spitting blood and saliva near his feet. Ekko just snarls; gone is her wild lover, the one that only ever raised his hand to smack her on the ass when she walked by, tossing her a playful smirk when she feigned indignance.

He aims for her face but the hits land in her heart without him needing to touch her.

How did we get here? She wonders, evading his attack. Why are we doing this?

She supposes she asked for it, in a way, when she burned every bridge connecting her to all of the people she once loved and when the dust cleared the only thing left were her clenched fists. Jinx wonders if that's the reason why Ekko took to clandestine fights, too. If she finally fucked him up enough for him to not have another way out.

That doesn't matter. Nothing matters now. Ekko hesitates before he tries to land a punch, she never has the guts to ruin his beautiful face—it's the only way they know how to say i still care about you.

MICRO-FIC: "A night under the stars."

 PROMPT: I wish you would write a fic with timebomb in prom

“Prom is a social construct made for privileged people who actually had fun during high-school,” Jinx complains while checking her make-up. Vander and Silco laugh from the front seats, and Ekko sighs.

“You willingly paid 40k for the invitation.”

“I wasn't going to let any skank think she can have her way with you just because I'm not there!”

“Powder, language,” Vander warns, pulling up to the venue. Jinx mutters a sorry and folds her arms, Ekko snickers.

She fixes his tie, which matches the color of her dress, and they join their classmates outside the venue for pictures with the photographers. The main organizer is running around to make sure everything is going according to plan, and Jinx thinks this is all so corny, that they'll see each other on the streets and never say hi ever again after tonight, but she grips Ekko's bicep with a sort of future nostalgia and leaves a lipstick mark on his cheek.

MICRO-FIC: "She who holds the gun."

 PROMPT: I wish you would write a fic where timebomb are gang rivals (the jinxers vs the firelights)

Silco's daughter points a gun towards him, a cheeky smile adorning her face. Ekko's heart stops beating, wondering if she's really as intuitive as the rumors say. He's about to plead his case, then—water splashes his face.

A thunderous laugh joins the ruckus going on, and he comes face to face with her dimples. The carnival goes on, Scar tugs on his arm to keep moving before someone recognizes them, but he watches mesmerized in the direction where she left.

“Nobody told me she was so beautiful,” he whispers, dumbly following Scar, who just grunts.

“Don't even. Remember, she's the enemy,” he sternly reminds him.

“I know,” he lies, captivated by her childlike smile.

A few steps back, covered in paint, water, and flour, Jinx watches as this familiar man runs towards her mansion's entrance.

MICRO-FIC: "Secret muse."

 PROMPT: I wish you would write a fic where ekko and jinx are famous and jinx is ekko's muse and she's his cover album and he wrote a song about her named blue

Ekko knows what the interviewer will ask next just by the evil twinkle in his eyes. They're all the same, he thinks.

“The lovely lady on the cover—she's appeared in quite a few of your single covers, hasn't she?” He asks, a fake smile plastered on his face. “Netizens noted that she looks to be the same woman from the Burning Fire album cover, and in Wings, too. Care to tell us who is this muse of yours?”

Yes, I would mind, he thinks. The rest of his life is already on display for everyone to see; this, his relationship with Jinx—as strange to describe as it might be—is only his. So, Ekko flashes him a PR perfect smile, leaning back on the couch.

“Just a really good friend, she worked with me back when I was a nobody, editing and posing for my stuff for free. I always remember where I came from, I'm not going to stop working with someone just because I don't live in lower Zaun anymore, y'know?” He looks fondly towards the black and white vinyl cover, where Jinx is lying face down against the sheets, her tattoos are hidden by her now black hair, and he was extra careful to edit out the engagement ring on her finger.

Of course they don't know, but they clap all the same. Ekko laughs inwardly, counting down the seconds until he can see her again.

MICRO-FIC: "To wash ashore in your arms."

 PROMPT: I wish you would write a fic with ekko as a merman who saved the pirate's kid isha from drowning

It's not in their nature to intervene when the ocean seeks to claim another body to cradle it among the coral reefs. Ekko never felt particularly remorseful every time he caused a shipwreck—he's not sure why he felt bad enough to save this little one out of all his previous victims.

He's seen her around occasionally, swimming among the fishes at the shallow waters, all smiles and curiosity. She never saw him, but he saw her and the woman with the ocean blue hair always standing by the shore, with her toes dipped in just slightly. The woman watched her presumed child like a hawk, and her body only slumped into a relaxed position once her kid emerged from the waters, safe and sound.

He watches from a distance as the woman with the sea on her head bellows under the rain, face twisted in an anguished expression as she clutches her daughter's limp body. Ekko only smiles when she hollers with joy as the child jolts awake.

A smile tugs on the corners of his mouth. An emotion he can't name takes root in his ribcage—could this be what humans call pride?

He means to leave, to stop watching and go back into hiding, but before he can submerge himself back into the waters, the woman on the shore pauses—and makes direct eye contact with him.

MICRO-FICS: "Meeting the parents."

 PROMPT: I wish you would write a fic where timebomb and isha travel back into time in the MU when Felicia, Connol, Inna and Wyeth are alive so they can see their kids grown up and meet their granddaughter

“We always said you'd take after your mother,” Connol says, while Felicia is busy fuzzing over the little girl Jinx has perched on her hip.

“I hoped you'd escape the family's curse of teenage pregnancy like I did!” Felicia sighs wearily, taking Isha from Jinx's arms. Isha immediately latches onto her neck. “But she's so beautiful, honey, and I'm glad you found her. Inna, isn't our granddaughter lovely?” She happily chirps, but Inna is busy hugging her own son.

Inna holds him tightly, with her face burrowed in her son's chest. Wyeth has his arms wrapped around both of them. She briefly let's go off Ekko in favor of smiling towards the kid.

“What a cutie! I gotta say, Fel, I didn't think your girl would be my daughter-in-law, but I'm certainly not complaining.” She winks towards Ekko, pinching Isha's cheeks.

Neither Jinx nor Ekko says anything; they know both sets of parents will die in four days. Might as well not ruin the fun and make the most out of their brief time here.

MICRO-FIC: "The Haunting of the Elevator."

 PROMPT: maybe some tb high school shenanigans? 💞

“The elevator is not cursed, what the fuck are you talking about?”

“If it's not possessed by a demonic entity, and you're not catholic, why are you holding that rosary so tightly?”

Ekko frowns, but doesn't let go of his rosary. Jinx snickers, knowing she has the upper-hand. She kicks open the old, rusty door, and a heavy stench of putrefaction hits them right in the face.

“We're supposed to be in the classroom!” Ekko complains.

“You followed me, genius.”

“You told me I had to follow you or you'd tell my mom we weren't at your house last weekend—”

“Your mom would snitch to mine and then we'd both get a beating. Get smart, nerd.” Jinx sticks her tongue out, Ekko meditates kicking her inside the presumed haunted elevator, shutting the door, and leaving her to her luck.

Jinx is saying something about resolving the mystery of the mysterious elevator sounds, when an enormous rat runs over her foot and both screech their heads off as they run away.

Mystery solved, then.