Sister Cities

Part 2: Vi

On sunny days, I go out walking

I end up on a tree-lined street

I look up at the gaps of sunlight

I miss you more than anything

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I get a bit of sleep after hovering over the medic's shoulder with a clenched fist for the duration of his visit. He gave her some kind of Shimmer variant, probably something like what Caitlyn got for me when I was stabbed, and she's been shot up with the real stuff recently if her eyes are anything to go by, so he figures she'll wake up in the next couple days and be fine as long as I keep the gash on her head clean. I should be relieved, and I am, but at the same time, I've realized I'm not at all prepared to handle a conscious Powder.

In the morning, someone knocks on the door and I launch to my feet with my fists up. It turns out to just be Ekko. He's brought food and water, and he goes to hold Powder up so I can try to give her a drink without me even asking. We don't say anything until we've gotten a whole cup into her.

I wasn't actually sure if he had survived the bridge until I saw him last night. There's a splint on his ankle, but he can walk on it, so he probably took the variant too. I don't know what I would have done if I'd lost him now, just after finding him— I'm glad I don't have to know.

"Do you have any idea what's gonna happen with Topside?" I ask.

"I followed their new chief enforcer earlier," he says. "They found out Silco's dead, so they're looking for Jinx, like I said. Stopping people and searching their houses. It's like they're still trying to keep it civil, but they're freaking out. None of them have said a thing about the casualties."

"So you haven't heard from cup— from Caitlyn?"

"No. But she promised us protection, so she'll be back sometime." He picks up my empty plate. I was gonna lick it one more time, but I don't bother mentioning it. "We can defend this place fine, anyway, at least for a while. You can relax."

I realize I've been pacing. "I promised you protection too. Is there anything I can do right now?"

"Take a bath."

Fair enough.

They have a good water pump here and Ekko digs up a bar of soap, which I break in half so I can share it with Powder. He sits down to watch her while I'm gone. On the ground, almost everyone is hiding out, and they give me unenthusiastically accepting nods; one girl with pink scales takes me to pick out some Firelight garb from the reserves they must keep for refugees. I'm not too eager about it, but I find tape for my arms and that's enough to keep me from protesting.

The water pump is even less private than our room, but it's not like we had even the two walls in Stillwater, so I'm used to it. The cold doesn't bother me either, but for Powder, I fill up a tin basin the scaled girl gets me and boil a few buckets of water to temper it. I'm afraid to put her into shock.

"Do you want help?" Ekko asks when I come back in.

"No thanks." I used to hose the two of them down together when we were short on time and nobody cared then, but it's been a while, and I'm not sure what she'd be comfortable with. For the same reason, I take the sheet off my cot and drape it across a low-hanging branch in front of the bathtub on one of the two exposed sides. I sit on the other so I can kick out anyone who gets too close.

Powder squeaks when I set her in the water— it didn't end up warm, just not fully freezing— but stays asleep. Sun streams down through the leaves from the open sky, glancing over her bones, turning her nearly translucent. She's even pointier than I thought. I gave her baths when we were real little, before the rebellion, and she was still in her chubby phase then. It's just shocking to so vividly see and feel seven years apart.