Sister Cities

Part 84: Jinx

There's an ache in you put there by the ache in me

But if it's all the same to you

It's the same to me

I won't ask you to wait

If you don't ask me to stay

We could call it even

Even though I'm leaving

And I'll be yours for the weekend

'Tis the damn season

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 Me and Vi both sleep restlessly the night before the masquerade ball and have to get up for good at the crack of dawn to lean out our window. We go to work for a little while; there's no Council meeting, so Caitlyn comes to the lab with me to blabber at Jayce while him and me and Viktor screw with our scale model. We're all back at the manor early to "get ready," something Caitlyn made us carve out several hours for. Vi brings Ekko so he can eat Mariette's snacks with us. Us three play cards and nap in the sitting room for the majority of the "getting ready" period while Caitlyn gives herself some kind of spa treatment— Ekko falls asleep first with his face in one of Vi's shoulders, so I take the other one, and he looks miffed and scrambles to his feet when we wake up.

"What time is it?" I ask.

He pulls out the Z-Drive. "Ten past seven."

"Let's get this over with," Vi says, stretching. We tramp up the stairs and run into Caitlyn's mom and dad, who are dressed to the nines in the most awful Piltovian garb ever designed. Her mom has pearls strung on her wrist and neck that could feed a family of four for a month if I sold them. I make sure my smile looks artificial.

"I'm gonna take a shower," Vi says, pulling her costume pieces from our wardrobe. "Go grab your stuff if you want it."

I cross to the guest bathroom and collect my makeup and the Topside nail polish I snaffled from Caitlyn's mom. My insides are bouncing, so I skip back down the hall, smacking Vi with my braid when we pass each other. She catches it and smacks me back. I put my things on our bed and dig my costume out of my hideyhole, but I run downstairs instead of putting it on.

Ekko's still in the sitting room, reading a book on an armchair. He looks at me warily when I come in.

"Hiya!" I say, sitting on the coffee table in front of him.

"What's the matter?" he asks.

"You," I say.

"What?"

"You're not dressing up."

He closes the book over an attached gold ribbon. "You knew I wasn't gonna."

"Yeah, but I didn't know how dull you'd look until now," I say. "We have to do something."

"Uh, no, we don't."

"Yes, we do." I examine him closely. "How about I do your makeup?"

He gestures to his war paint. "I already did my makeup."

"Not that makeup, silly," I say, hopping to my feet. "Wait here."

I dash back upstairs and bring down my whole box. Ekko sizes it up and sighs as I flip it open on the coffee table.

"Whatever you're about to do, I'm not interested," he says. "Just go get dressed."

"I can't yet," I say, rifling through the box feverishly. "At this rate, I'll show you up so hard that the guests will pass out."