I watched the end of the world through my bedroom window
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It's Caitlyn that comes in and wakes me up the next morning, rather than Ekko. The first thing I see is Powder, blowing an impressively large spit bubble, and Caitlyn is the second thing, looking on in alarm and saying, "Please stop that."
"Make me," Powder says without popping the bubble.
Caitlyn forcefully moves her gaze to my side of the room. "Good morning," she says.
"'Morning."
"I was wondering if you could show me to the shower."
I leap to my feet. "I'd be delighted."
"Where's the punchline?" she asks, suspicious.
"You'll see." I grab my boots and turn to Powder. "We'll bring breakfast in a little bit, okay?"
"See ya, lovebirds."
Caitlyn and I stop at the balcony to check out the state of things, and right away, someone wolf-whistles. Before I can figure out where they are, someone else starts clapping, and so does someone else, and then everyone on the ground is hooting and applauding with their fingers pointed at us.
"What is this?" Caitlyn hisses, taking my hand, and the noise ramps up tenfold.
"At long last!" Lenara shouts. "At long last, they admit it!"
"Admit what?" I shout back.
"That you're involved!" yells Snake, tugging at her collar meaningfully. I look back at Caitlyn, whose whole left shoulder is out there for the world to see. She notices the same thing at the same time and turns cherry red.
"We've sort of been rooting for you two," Lenara explains, "but we weren't gonna say it, since she was a pig. But now she fixed that!"
"Thank you?" says Caitlyn, her hand on her shoulder. I pass her my jacket.
"Everybody fuck off," I snap.
With one last cheer, they all get back to whatever they were doing before. I can't help laughing, but I keep my arm close around Caitlyn as we get moving again, sympathetic to her offended Topsider sensibilities.
"They're gonna take some time to get used to you," I say, grabbing a hunk of soap. "I won't try to keep them from riffing, but tell me if anyone ever goes too far."
She nods, then stops walking. "What... is that?"
"That," I say, "is the shower."
"You can't be serious."
"What's the matter, cupcake?" I tug on her hand. "Scared of a little cold?"
She stumbles after me, shell-shocked. "It's not enclosed."
I pass her the soap. "It is on two sides."
"There are another two sides!" she says. "Is this soap? Why is it gray?"
A nearby Firelight looks up from his laundry to snort. "Piltie's first time bathing with the peasants, I see."
Caitlyn frowns at him and continues staring at the soap while I pull her the rest of the way to the water pump. Her horror seems genuine, not like the superior scorn of an enforcer, so I say, "You can hang a sheet on that branch if it'll make you feel better."
"But there's still this last side! People can just walk over and watch."
"Nobody's gonna watch. Or, if they do, tell me so I can beat them to death."
"But they can still see."
"Yeah, but trenchers don't care about that type of thing the way you do. They'll look away and stop thinking about it immediately."
Caitlyn's face is even redder than it was on the balcony.
"C'mere." I turn on the pump to let her stick a hand in and check the temperature, confident that she'll be solidly distracted. She yelps.
"Isn't there anything than can be done about that?"
"Not unless you want to boil yourself a bunch of buckets to make a bath."
She shakes her head, more as a reaction to the situation than to my offer. "You're all just willing to stand in freezing water every day?"
"Fuck no," I say.
Her expression brightens, then drops through the floor.
"It's okay," I say bracingly. "Everyone down here is noseblind. Soon you will be too."
A long silence. "Does that mean you don't clean your teeth either?" she asks.
"What? Of course we do. Every meal."
Her expression is now blank.
"I proved it to you yesterday, didn't I?"
"Stop."
I laugh. "Go get your sheet if you want it. I'll get the rest of your things. Are you gonna need the hair mousse and the body butter, or can you manage without them for now?"
"Oh, do shut up."
We go our separate ways and meet back in a few minutes. I see my boot marks from last night on the sheet she's hung up and shiver even though I'm not the one trying in vain to acclimate my bare feet under the water pump.
"Are you certain nobody will try to watch?"
"Yeah. I can guard this side for you."
"Thank you."
Caitlyn turns her back and sheds my jacket and her uniform. Before going further, she shoots a glance around and yelps again when she sees me looking.
"What are you doing?"
"Making sure I picked the right sized shirt for you."
"You said nobody would watch!"
"I didn't think that included me."
"It did!"
"Sorry." I spin around. "Not to pressure you, but you know I've already seen—"
"Shut up!"
I stifle a laugh.
She's a lot quicker than I'd expect from a Topsider, probably because of the cold. I'm instructed to toss her towel over my shoulder and not to move my eyes from in front of me through the rest of her routine until she needs help with the functional laces on her functional boots. She says her clicky enforcer shoes are fine, but nobody here wants to go into high-alert whenever she has to walk somewhere.
"You look good," I say. "Like one of us. Except your Piltie posture."
"Piltie posture?" She looks herself over, acting like even more of a Piltie in the process.
"You have a bit of resting enforcer face too," I say. "But you'll lose it, don't worry."
She nods unsurely and looks herself over again. After tying her hair up, she almost beams.
"What?" I ask.
"Nothing. I just like this."
I take her to throw her uniform and clicky shoes in the garbage pile, and everyone in the area cheers; someone claps her on the back, and she smiles even harder.
Then she abruptly turns serious and says, "We should check on Sixteen."
We find them in a melodramatic line against the walls, standing at attention with their heads held high like it's gonna give them back some of their authority. A guard tells us they were fed, and they're ungagged on pain of shooting if they raise their voices.
"Kiramman," one says in the most forceful whisper he can muster. "What the fuck is this? You'll be exiled—"
"I'm aware," Caitlyn says. "I trust your night was comfortable? I can get you more blankets if you need them."
"What are you playing at?" asks another enforcer.
"The force will come looking for us," the first one says.
"The force is occupied by their search for Jinx," says Caitlyn. "They aren't sparing energy for us. They'll believe we were killed on watch and move on."
"Disgusting," a third enforcer says. "You'll abandon your honorable duty to the city of Piltover and its civilized populace because you have the hots for this sump-rat? Fuck off. She'll drop you like the leech she is as soon as you're not of use to her."
I crack my knuckles.
"Vi," Caitlyn snaps, and looks back at Sixteen. "Anyone who uses the phrase 'sump-rat' within my earshot will be gagged for the day. A second offense, and you'll be chained so tightly that you'll have to sleep standing up."
It was the claim that I would drop her that offended me, not "sump-rat"— more than sump-rat, at least— but I appreciate the threat anyway.
Caitlyn stalks out, dragging me behind her, and we go to pick up our breakfast and ask people in line about the state of the war. Apparently, the enforcers managed to get in touch with a guard from the not-obliterated part of the Council building during the night— the Capitol guards put the wealthiest sector on lockdown and left the rest of Topside to its own defenses, which is callous enough to surprise even me— and they sent airships across the river. The enforcers flew back and wiped out most of the already-dwindling rebellion, putting casualties across the city in the hundreds. Most were rebels, but the enforcer and civilian deaths, and probably the enforcers' complete humiliation, were enough to get Topside raging. They're expected to spend today regrouping and tomorrow crossing back to do their worst to us.
As for Sevika, we don't have a lot of information, but nobody thinks she's gonna just accept defeat. We know she has more goons than she put into this first attack. And we're afraid she has more weapons.
Caitlyn goes to Ekko's room with three plates and I detour to put Powder on her leash and bring her along. When we catch up, Caitlyn's set the plates down on the desk and stands awkwardly, watching Ekko, who's dead asleep in bed. When he was little, we used to laugh at him for sleeping face-down on his pillow and taking abnormally deep breaths to make up for the lack of oxygen he found there. He still does it. For some reason, it breaks my heart.
Powder yanks the fourth plate out of my hands and yells, "Yoo-hoooooo!"
Ekko shoves himself up on one hand and reaches for a knife lodged under his mattress with the other. Powder bounds forward to put the plate in front of him. I pull on her leash too late and she almost gets stabbed between the eyes.
"What the hell?" Ekko says, rolling onto his back and side-eyeing the plate.
"'Morning," I say. "Your food's safe. Jinx is being Jinx."
Powder smiles like she's taking that as a compliment.
Ekko rubs his eyes— he looks younger without the war paint— and jolts again at the sight of his window. "It's late."
"Not that late," I say.
"Everyone here is getting on fine," Caitlyn says. "The enforcers are back in Piltover. They crushed the rebellion."
"How many—?"
"One-fifty or two hundred," I say. "Eat your breakfast."
The rest of us settle on the floor with our plates and get to it, but Ekko just sits with his arms crossed. "Cool outfit," he tells Caitlyn.
"Thank you."
"Keep your hands off," says Powder with glee. "She's Vi's now. Officially."
"Huh." Ekko picks up his apple and looks it over. "Is that why I heard someone scream 'Violet' in a posh accent in the middle of the night?"
"That didn't happen," Caitlyn and I say. Powder falls over, cackling.
"Why do you sound so happy, anyway?" Caitlyn asks her. "You didn't even like me the other day."
Powder kicks the floor with the same glee. "It's funny when you blush."
"Lay off," I say.
"Awwwww, sis."
"Anyway, congratulations," Ekko says, scowling at her. "Does anybody know what Sevika's gonna do next?"
"We think she'll try again," I say. "Not sure when or how, though."
"I'll go scouting today. You said everyone's getting on?"
"Yeah. They're all in a good mood about me and cupcake."
"Where's Heimerdinger?"
"Haven't seen him."
Ekko puts his apple down and goes to the window. I notice that he's taken the splint off his ankle. "One-fifty or two hundred?"
"Yes," Caitlyn says. "Mostly rebels."
"Stupid Sevika," Powder mutters.
I look at her. "Do you know what kind of weapons she has?"
Powder shrugs.
"Did you make more?" Ekko asks. "More like your missile? Does she know where you work and keep your stuff?"
"Of course she does. She can't understand anything I've made, though. She's Sevika."
"So you've made more?"
"Yeah." Powder bites a hole out of the middle of her bread and looks through it. "But not like Fishbones. It was the strongest."
"But she has access to weapons that you created," Caitlyn says. "How many? How strong are they?"
"Lots. And it depends. Some of them are glitter bombs." Powder glares into the corner through her bread. "They are too useful. Clearly you've never been to a good party."
Caitlyn clears her throat. "Thank you for letting us know, Jinx."
"I can make you a glitter bomb."
"Oh. Um. Thank you. Maybe someday."
"But you'd have to provide the glitter."
Ekko steps back from the window and starts putting his shoes on. "I'm gonna go. Thanks for waking me up— I think I forgot to set my alarm."
Probably because he's exhausted. "Not so fast," I say, getting up to block him. "You're gonna sit down and eat your breakfast."
"I have to see what Sevika's planning."
"Can't you send someone else?"
He levels his eyes at me. "No, I can't."
"Fine." I miss when he was twelve and I could boss him out of all his bad choices. Not that I was too great at identifying bad choices. "But you're eating first."
He continues staring me down, but his expression softens after a moment.
I've still got it.
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Intro lyrics from "Homesick" by flower face.
just some comedic relief for these fools before everything goes left!! i hope you enjoyed!