< Author's Note: >
...Okay so, I guess this is a real fic now, not a one shot.
Let me make this clear, this was never intended. But dangit, I love this ship, and I will die on this hill: Ekko and Powder deserve some happiness together.
So, no promises for future uploads now, but it's highly probable that I'll keep posting new chapters from time to time. With that said, allow me to explain the canon of this AU, in case anyone is wondering about what the backstory is.
This is my take on a "what if act 1 never happened?" story. So, Powder and Vi still grew up as normal in the show, the whole of act 1 from the heist on Jayce's workshop to that traumatizing ending of episode 3 just never happened, and the characters grew up in relative peace. Ekko and Jinx obviously got married years later, and Jinx is now one of the founders and leaders of the Firelights alongside Ekko. Vi and Cait still met and got together because I said so, and all the characters from the show are still alive and well in this world. This is set a few years after the ending of Act 3 in terms of timeline, but I won't go into detail on how far exactly, so use your imagination there. Powder and Ekko are somewhere in their early 20's in this, for reference.
All that clear? Good? Good.
Anyways, enjoy the chapter.
Ekko walked up the long, wooden staircase of his home, moving as quiet as his boots would allow. Blue rested in his right arm, cheek against his shoulder and a bit of drool at the corner of her mouth, fast asleep. In his left arm he carried Beni, curled up against this other shoulder, just as fast asleep as her sister. He tried to keep his upper body as still as possible to avoid waking them, even as he carried them up the stairs to their room.
Were they always this heavy? He thought with a sigh. Scar had warned him they would grow up quickly, but even still he wasn't prepared for it. They would be five, come winter, which was still thankfully another half year away... he wasn't sure he was ready for it.
Just slow down for a bit, won't you?
The thought that they must get their fast-paced nature from their mother crossed his mind, and he smiled at no one in particular. Powder had been a faster grower than him too, back when they were little...
He eased the door of the girls' room open, careful to avoid any bit of noise, before walking into the dimly lit room. The two windows let in what little sunlight remained at the end of the day, and Ekko carried the girls over to Beni's bed first. He awkwardly leaned sideways to try and set down Beni first, still trying to hold Blue tight, and managed to get her all the way into bed when Blue yawned.
Well, guess there goes the plan of getting them to bed without waking them up...
"Mm," Blue mumbled, rubbing at her eyes with both of her tiny fists.
"Tired, Boo?" Ekko whispered to her, holding her carefully in both arms now.
She mumbled something incoherent again, her shoulders sagging with exhaustion as her bright blue eyes blinked rapidly until they opened fully.
"Where's mommy?" Blue asked, and Ekko sighed. Of all his girls, not only did Blue look the most like Powder, but she was the most similar to their mother... and the most attached to her.
"She's giving Spark a bath," Ekko whispered, trying not to wake Beni. "Then coming up to bed, too."
Blue nodded, but it didn't really look like she was listening.
"Blue?" Beni's tired, squeaky voice came from the bed, and Ekko let out a tiny sigh as he realised the odds of a quiet, early night were quickly diminishing.
Why did his girls all have to feed off each other's energy so much? Was it just because they were triplets?
Then again, knowing their mother, it wasn't exactly a surprise that they had this kind of energy...
"Beni!" Blue said with a yawn, stretching her little arms out towards Beni on the bed as her sister did the same. Ekko lowered Blue to the bed with only a hint of reluctance, and Blue practically fell on top of her sister, both of their arms outstretched so they fell right into a hug.
Ekko vaguely noted that he could hear Powder's light footsteps coming up the stairs, and he breathed a sigh of relief that maybe they could work together to get the kids to bed on time for once. He sat down on the edge of Beni's bed as the girls snuggled up to each other, laying on top of the blankets in the warm summer night air.
"Where's Sparky?" Beni asked, her brown eyes barely open as she seemed to be actively waking up rather than going to sleep.
"Right here," Powder said proudly from behind them. Ekko and the two girls looked over to see Powder, one hand on her hip and the other holding a bleary eyed Spark, in a wide, power stance in the doorway. "All cleaned up! And now thoroughly convinced that spaghetti is not a toy, right, kiddo?"
Spark nodded with a serious expression on her tired face, and Ekko couldn't help but let out a chuckle at their antics. Supper time had been a bit... chaotic that night, to say the least. He'd probably need a new tablecloth...
Spark pouted in the direction of her sisters, looking sad at being left out. Powder noticed the look and, with a huff, walked right over to Beni's bed and set the last of the triplets down. Without hesitation Spark crawled on her hands and knees across the bed and wound up on top of, and then in between, her sisters. They whispered to each other in quiet but fast voices, and Ekko felt like putting his head in his hands. There was just no way they were getting to sleep at a reasonable hour now.
Powder sat down on the bed next to him, with a tired sigh of her own. Her head hit his shoulder as her eyes closed, and Ekko felt a warmth build in his chest. He reached out and laid his hand over hers, which she flipped over in turn to hold his.
"Tired, Pow?" Ekko asked.
Her head nodded almost imperceptibly. It had been a long day for both of them, he knew. Powder had spent almost twelve hours straight hoverboarding around Zaun, scattering her portable air filters to test them, something that would wear just about anyone out. Ekko had spent the day with Scar, repairing some of the broken machines and weapons around the Firelight camp, and setting up a new safe house down in the Sumps. He could feel the weight and the exhaustion in every part of his body, and he longed to collapse into bed with Powder and finally sleep.
His daughters' conversation started getting louder, and as Powder started to stir at the sound of their voices, Ekko squeezed her hand to make sure she was still awake before turning to face his girls.
"Alright kids, bed time," he said, and they all groaned.
"But I'm not tired anymore!" Blue said, glaring at him defiantly with those bright blue eyes of hers.
"You were plenty tired a minute ago," Ekko replied. "Just lay down, close your eyes, and it'll come back to you."
Powder pulled her head up from his shoulder, taking a deep breath that ended in a yawn.
"Listen to your dad, girls," Powder said, and Blue shot her a look of betrayal.
Powder stood up slowly, stretching as she did so, then walked around Ekko so she was at the top of the bed where their daughters were.
"Sleep. Then, we can go make a mess again tomorrow, promise," Powder said, leaning over the bed and kissing Blue on the forehead. Then she kissed Spark and Beni as well, running a hand through their hair softly as she did so.
The last, fading light of evening caught across Powder's jawline, just barely bright enough to put a shine and a twinkle in her eye and a splash of light across her nose and cheek. Ekko felt his chest rise as his breath caught in his throat, staring helplessly at his wife.
There really was no woman in the world as beautiful as her, he thought, more certain in that one thing than he was his name was Ekko or that the sun rose in the east. He wanted to pull her in for a kiss, but he stayed perfectly still, as if he were afraid a single movement might break the magic of the moment. Or maybe she just had him under a spell... he guessed it didn't really matter.
"Good night, girls," Powder said, a tenderness and love in her voice that put a warmth in Ekko's belly like nothing else could. The sheer love that shone through Powder's eyes as she bid her daughters good night was more beautiful than anything, to him.
To a chorus of their daughters wishing Powder good night as well, his wife smiled and straightened up. She turned her gaze to him, and he almost melted under her smile.
"Want to tuck them in?" Powder asked him, and Ekko nodded back.
"Get to bed, Pow," he said quietly. "I'll be there soon."
Powder left the room then, leaving the door open so that the light from the hall left a yellow line across the middle of the floor in the darkness. Ekko turned to his daughters, all cuddled up next to each other in the bed, and steeled himself to be firm with them.
"Okay girls, time to get to your own beds," he said, and instantly all three girls groaned at him. "Don't give me that, it's late."
"But we're not tired anymore!" Blue argued, and it was then that Ekko made his mistake. He looked up and saw his girls, two sets of bright blue eyes and one brown, all looking up at him with near identical pouts. He almost instantly caved, sighing as he just couldn't say no to his girls, and pinching the bridge of his nose.
Sorry, Pow. Guess you're gonna have to wait a bit, tonight...
"Then what do you want to do?" Ekko asked, and instantly regretted it.
"I wanna draw!" Blue chirped.
"I-I want to play," Beni said, hesitantly at first but then more confidently at the end.
"I'm hungry..." Spark finished, as Ekko finished pinching his nose and looked up with a tired expression.
"No drawing this late at night, or you'll be up til sunrise. Same with you, Beni," Ekko said, shooting the girls a firm look. "And Spark, you're only hungry because you threw half your dinner at Scar."
Spark had the shame to look bashful, turning to stare at the wall rather than meet his gaze, a look of fake innocence identical to Powder's on her face.
Ekko sighed.
"Okay, I can bring you up a snack," he said, and Spark grinned big, bright white teeth shining in the dark except for the gap right in the middle where a tooth had fallen out just the other day.
Where'd the look of shame go...?
Ekko shook his head as his other two daughters started arguing with him.
"But that's no fair! If she gets to eat I get to play!"
"And I get to draw!"
"Girls, please. It's late, indoor voices, please," Ekko said. "I'll be right back, now behave while I'm gone."
Then he got up from the bed, to a suspiciously quiet gang of girls behind him, and went downstairs to the kitchen. He grabbed some crackers, a cheesy type that they made up topside that were a favourite of his wife and daughters alike, and put them on a plate. Next he boiled a kettle of water, at first debating making hot chocolates for the girls, before realising that the sugar would probably have them bouncing off the walls for an hour. By the time the kettle boiled he had settled on a type of tea from Shurima, a rarity for sure but one that was supposed to help people sleep, albeit only a little bit. He carried the tray upstairs and back to the girls' room, listening carefully as he went and having his suspicions confirmed as he reached the hallway. There was the sound of whispered, but still loud , voices, and giggling coming from the room. He pushed his way in through the door, spotting the three girls quickly trying to settle back down under the blankets and pretending that they hadn't moved while he was gone. He was even sure he heard a faint ' Shhhh!' as he opened the door.
"Here, Spark, I got you some crackers," he said, setting the whole tray down on the bedside table as he sat down next to them again. "And I got a tea for everyone, too."
All of his girls got up a little bit too quickly, grabbing their mugs and splitting the pile of crackers between them. Ekko smiled at the way they happily munched away at the snack, drinking the herbal tea as quickly as the heat would allow them.
"Now I want everyone in bed in fifteen minutes," he said. "And no messes around the room, okay?"
That last bit he punctuated by running his thumb across the corner of Blue's mouth, where a pile of cracker crumbs had started to build up. Blue looked up at him then licked the other corner of her mouth, cleaning up the rest of the crumbs.
"Good night, girls," Ekko said, and rose from the bed, feeling the weight of the day pressing on his shoulders.
He made it to the doorway and was just starting to open the door when the voice of his oldest daughter made him stop.
"Daddy?" Blue called, and he froze in place. "What if we can't sleep?"
"Just lay down for a while, it'll come to you," he said gently. His hand still lay on the doorknob, unmoving.
"...Can you tell us a story?" Blue asked again, and Ekko made his decision. He pushed the door back shut quietly, and walked back to the bed where he sat down. His girls all sat upright in the bed, leaning back against the pillow and the wall, staring at him with hopeful expressions.
"What story do you want to hear?" He asked, trying to make himself comfortable on the edge of the bed.
The triplets looked at each other, speaking in that silent way that they so often did, before Blue looked back at him.
"You tell us all kinds of stories," Blue said. "But they're all so new."
It was true, Ekko thought. Most of what he talked about was what he knew, albeit a watered down, child friendly version of it. The experiments he and Powder did, the work the Firelights had been doing to build a new, safer Zaun, the stories of some of the people that came to the Firelights for safety. None of them were exactly old stories... but then again, he didn't really know any old ones.
"What's a story your parents told you, when you were little?" Blue asked, and Ekko froze up, unsure how to answer.
"Well, they didn't tell me stories," Ekko said slowly. It brought back old, somewhat unpleasant memories, but he tried not to let any of that show. "My parents worked down in the mines. By the time I could remember them, I barely got to see them anymore, and they definitely didn't have the energy for bedtime stories."
All three of his girls looked at him, clearly a bit upset.
"That's awful," Beni said quietly, pulling the blanket up to her nose and cuddling closer to Spark at her side.
"It's okay," Ekko said, holding a hand up. "We can tell enough stories now to make up for it, can't we?"
His girls nodded back at him, and he sighed.
"Besides, I had Benzo to tell me stories, once I got a bit older."
"Gramps?" Blue asked, confused, and right after a look of recognition crossed Spark and Beni's eyes.
"Yeah, Gramps," Ekko said with a chuckle. The old timer never got tired of being called that by his girls, and he spoiled the triplets rotten every chance he could. "He practically raised me, with my parents off in the mines. That's why you're named after him, Beni."
Beni pulled the blanket down from her face with a surprised expression on her face.
"I'm... I'm named after Gramps?" She asked, her tiny voice barely breaking the night air.
For the first time, Ekko realised that he had never really explained that to his kids. It felt like just a few months ago they were taking their first steps, still only capable of saying "Dada" or "Mama "... and now they wanted to know what they were named after. He chuckled dryly, shaking his head at his own shortsightedness.
"Yeah," Ekko said, smiling at Beni. "If we had had a boy, I was gonna name him Benzo, after Gramps. But with three little girls runnin' around," he reached out to poke Beni's nose at that, sending her into a giggle, "I thought Beni would work well."
Beni blushed, but there was a proud, happy smile on her face. She wriggled under the blankets until her eyes barely poked out again, leaning heavy on Spark's left arm.
"What about me? What about me?" Blue asked, leaning forwards. "What am I named after?"
Ekko reached out and ran a hand gently through her hair, short and soft just like Powder's had been at her age.
"Well, we didn't know what to name you, right away. But the second we saw you, we came up with something," Ekko said with a light chuckle. " Blue was a nickname Benzo called Powder, when she was little. And somehow, right after you were born, I just knew you were going to be just like your mama."
Blue sat back with a happy little humph and a smirk.
"And me?" Spark asked, brown eyes staring at him like a lost puppy.
Ekko smirked as he remembered that conversation with Powder.
"Well, Powder named you, and she was pretty dead set on it," Ekko said. "She always thought most names were boring , liked words that had some 'action ' or 'energy' to them."
No, Ekko! We're not naming her something 'boring'! The memory of his wife's voice came to mind, along with a mental image. It was of Powder, still wearing her gown and looking exhausted after hours of going through labour, the newborn Spark in her arms, crying and mewling like a kitten. Ekko held the baby Beni in his arms, who had already fallen asleep, meanwhile Vi stood on the other side of the bed holding a crying Blue. Vi looked both amazed and uncomfortable, holding the baby like she was terrified of dropping her, as Cait leaned over her shoulder with hearts in her eyes, making little cooing sounds at baby Blue.
My name's Powder, yours is Ekko. Words, Ekko, words! Fun words! At least one of our kids needs a fun name!
"I really didn't have much of a say," Ekko said with a laugh, as the memory faded. "But she decided on Spark because that's what she wanted you to be. A spark that would start something bigger, like me and her did with the Firelights all those years ago."
Spark looked up at him with wonder, but he could also see the way her eyelids had started to droop. The tea must be working, and helping the kids' natural exhaustion from the day catch up to them. All three of them were starting to drift off, leaning further and further into each other as they sunk lower into the bed.
"That's... cool ," Spark said, as her eyes shut fully and Ekko chuckled in surprise.
Cool? Just when had his daughter started using words like that? It sounded so strange in her tiny voice, like he was listening to himself through a younger, feminine voice. Had she started picking up some of his own lingo...?
Ekko stood up, before gathering the tray of cracker crumbs and the mostly empty mugs and setting them quietly on the bedside table.
"Ready for sleep now?" He asked.
"Nuh-uh," Blue said, but her eyes were shut, and he could already see the pace of her breathing slowing down.
Ekko tucked the girls into the bed, where all three lay packed in next to each other. Blue on the outside of the bed, Spark in the middle, then Beni curled up on the inside, one large tangle of limbs and hair and blankets.
He kissed each of them on their foreheads, just like Powder had done a short while ago, before smiling and brushing some crumbs away from Beni's cheek.
"Good night girls," he whispered, but they didn't respond. They were already asleep.
Ekko gathered the tray and left the room, closing the door as quietly as he possibly could. The night hadn't gone quite as he had been hoping for earlier, he would have liked to have been asleep by now already, but he couldn't find it in him to complain. If he didn't like the unpredictability at least a bit , he would never have fallen for a girl like Powder to begin with.
It was with a tired smile on his face that Ekko crawled into bed that night, Powder only stirring enough to cuddle into his side before falling asleep on his shoulder again. Ekko stared at the ceiling for a moment, breathing a deep, contented sigh, as his eyes shut.
Sleep came for him instantly, and he welcomed the rest with open arms and a warm feeling in his chest.