The Last Night
The party was set to start in two hours, and Pow was nowhere near ready.
Even with Mel running the vast majority of the setup and catering, Pow still felt like she was being run ragged. Hang this, open that, tray up these. Caitlyn’s manor was being converted into a classy party scene to accommodate damn near half of Piltover. Ekko had been sent off with the kids to have fun elsewhere, so the party could be exclusively for Caitlyn and Vi’s last night as bachelorettes. Pow felt out of place in her formal-casual wear, a cropped leather vest overtop a rose pink camisole top, and her only pair of high waisted pants which she specifically kept for special occasions—deep black leather slacks. She hoped it was enough to keep Caitlyn happy.
“Powder, can you set this along the wall by the drink tables?” Mel asked, shoving a chest of ice into her waiting arms. The amount of things going on all at once made her want to scream. This was so not her scene. Why did Cait have to put her in charge of all this? Nevertheless, she did as she was told.
She wondered then what Ekko was up to. He had gotten his wedding gift finished and maneuvered outside, and he’d hidden it in a box behind a shed in Caitlyn’s back garden before heading off with the kids. She wished she could’ve gone with him. It would have been a whole lot more fun than whatever this was.
After what may as well have been an eternity, the setup was finally done, but from there only came the true challenge: all the people. Pow was never much of a people person, but only ten minutes into the party, she was already faced with more people than she’d ever seen in one room. And she used to live in a Zaunite bar. She would be okay, she had to be. As long as no one recognized her.
She made her way out of the kitchen and into the entryway where the door sat propped open and crowds mingled. The smells of expensive wine and designer perfume swam in the air, one thing that made this gathering considerably different than that Zaunite bar she grew up in. The people all had a confident way about them that screamed old money, and Pow felt more out of place than ever. She took comfort in the fact that even if this entire building was filled sky high with pretentiousness, that it was still Vi’s party too, and she was as casual and laid back as she’d ever been. Even the noise of hundreds of murmuring voices quieted the ever present hum in her ears.
“Excuse me?” Pow felt a tap on her shoulder, and turned to face a young woman of about her age holding a bag. “I was told to come find you. Where should I put this, it’s just a little gift for Miss Kiramman since I won’t be attending the ceremony tomorrow.”
Pow smiled. She could do something to occupy herself. “You can come right with me, there’s a little corner set aside for gifts.”
The woman followed Pow to the coat room, where she had learned hours ago that Caitlyn was not as neat and put together as she seemed before organizing the boxes and trinkets that littered the floor. Now it was a cleaner, nicely organized storage space where Caitlyn asked that guests leave gifts, should they bring any. Pow was tempted to stay in this room for the remainder of the evening, but she had a job to do.
“Thank you so much!” The woman smiled. She set the gift down on the provided table, empty until that point, and turned back to Pow. “What did you say your name was?”
“Oh, I’m Powder. Vi’s sister.”
“Gotcha. That explains the cool hair.” The woman nudged Pow with an elbow. “I’m Aniston. If you’re ever looking for a good time, you can find me just down the street?”
“It would be fun to make a friend around here,” Pow replied. She wasn’t stupid, she could recognize flirting when she heard it, but she didn’t want to come across as too harsh. She had to work triple time to keep a positive image so that even if she were recognized as Jinx, she could have a good attitude to back her up. “But I’m married, so if you’re looking for a hookup, I may not be the right person for you.”
“Darn, well at least I can say I tried,” Aniston grinned. “I’m down for a friendly chat too. But I suppose you are quite busy tonight with this whole thing. Maybe another time?”
“Of course!” Pow had no plans to reconvene with this woman or anyone else, knowing that once the wedding was over and everything was said and done, she’d be returning home with Ekko and the kids, but she didn’t want to upset the woman. “I should go find Vi, see if she needs anything.”
Aniston left her to it, thankfully, and Pow went back to the Janna forsaken party scene to try and mingle a little. Vi and Cait had to be lost in the crowd, nowhere to be found, so she settled instead for lingering in the kitchen with a glass of spiked punch in her hand. She watched the partygoers meander in and out, feeling a mash of emotion. Anxiety, at the risk of being recognized by any one of these people; many of them enforces from Caitlyn’s platoon. Overstimulation, at the amount of activity in one place that was more than she had encountered in many years. Pride, at the knowledge that just as many of these people were here for Vi as for Cait, that her sister had made a life for herself without her there to cause her pain, just as she’d hoped she would. And nausea, because what the hell was in this punch, it was nothing like she’d ever tasted before but she wasn’t sure she was a fan of the dry taste. She disposed of the foul liquid in the sink and tossed the cup in the garbage.
As time went by, and no one needed her attention, Pow grew antsy, wanting to be anywhere else but here. But from what Mel had told her, parties like these tended to venture well into the night, and it was barely sundown. She wondered if she could sneak off, find Ekko wherever he’d ended up in Zaun, and have a quieter night with him. The more he’d lingered on her mind, the more anxious she felt at being apart from him for so long. For so many years, they were all each other had, even with the kids in the picture it was still all about the two of them pushing through the days together. She hadn’t been separate from him for more than a few hours here and there since they ran away together, and even when he worked long days at the factory, he was always home with her by dusk. She had grown reliant on him, maybe too much so, but he was her person, and always will be, and she had matured in her mind enough to allow herself the attachment.
She left the kitchen again, having lost track of the time she spent in her head and coming back to herself after about an hour, and tried once again to find Vi. She walked through throngs of people packed in every room, searching for that familiar head of red-pink hair, and had just passed through the doorway into the living room when a large hand took her by the bicep and yanked her backwards. She’d barely been able to make a sound before another hand smothered her mouth.
“Look who’s finally out of hiding,” a sleazy voice came. “Thought we wouldn’t find you here, I take it?”
Pow slammed her stiletto heel down on her attacker’s foot, and only the hand over her face gave, but that was enough for her to fight her way back and get a look at who had come up behind her. She was met with a young, blonde haired enforcer girl who was not unlike Maya in appearance. She tried again to pull her arm free, but the enforcer wouldn’t let up.
“No no, we can’t have you waltzing around in here,” she whispered in her ear. Her breath was hot and it made Pow's skin crawl. “Last time you caught onto a place this crowded, half the people inside died. You’re long past due for a one way trip to Stillwater.”
Pow may have grown complacent over the years, but she had also grown healthier, and the strength of her well nourished, shimmer enhanced body hadn’t been lost. She yanked again and when the woman’s hand still refused to give, she reared back with her free arm and landed a harsh blow to her cheek.
“Don’t touch me, I’m not going anywhere with you,” Pow spat. She’s hoped to not draw attention, but that was out the window the moment she’d landed the hit, so she had less worry about others hearing her words. At least the enforcer had let go of her, and she stood a chance at getting away.
The woman lunged for her again, and Pow barely avoided her outstretched hand by the boost of shimmer aided speed, and ended up backing into someone else, another enforcer who had already taken hold of her in a bear hug. Damnit. By this point, partygoers had stopped to point and look, some seeming to finally recognize who she was by the furious twists of their faces.
“Go back to what you were doing,” the blonde enforcer ordered. “I’ve already sent others to search the place for anything dangerous.”
“Please, if I wanted to hurt anyone here, I’d have done it hours ago,” Pow sneered. “I have every right to be here.”
“And what would Miss Kiramman have to say if she saw her mother’s murderer wandering around in her house at her bridal celebration, Jinx?”
“She’d tell you to let go of her sister in law and quit causing a panic!” Caitlyn shouted from the living room doorway. She walked over and took Pow gently by the arm, shooing the enforcers away. She’d been saying more, Pow could feel the vibrations in her skin, but it had grown distant while the voices of Mylo and Silco grew louder. She hadn’t noticed much of her surroundings until Caitlyn knelt to meet her eyes. The crowd around them seemed to have dispersed only slightly. “Are you alright?”
Jinxy Jinx is back in business, Mylo teased, leering at her over Cait’s shoulder. Party’s ruined and it’s your fault, as usual.
Pow tried to ignore him, looking back towards Caitlyn, but Claggor loomed over her other shoulder. The roaring only grew, shades of pink scrawled over the corners of her sight.
“I—yeah, I’ll be fine,” Pow whispered.
“Are you sure? You don’t seem fully with me.”
“It’s just so loud,” she whispered, unable to hear even herself over it all.
Caitlyn had hardly been aware of the chaos in her head, paying witness to one of her attacks many years ago but likely not giving it a second thought since it happened. But given the frown on her face, she seemed to get the idea that something wasn’t quite right. She linked her arm in Pow’s and led her outside onto the patio, where few people lingered only for a quick smoke or a moment of quiet.
“Is this any better?” She asked. Pow nodded and focused her eyes on the city before her, hoping to ignore the apparitions until the adrenaline faded and took them along with it. Rather than rejoin the party inside, Caitlyn sat by her on the swinging bench, leaving a few inches of space so as not to leave either of them feeling smothered.
“I had those two removed from the property,” she said. Pow looked at her. “Emery and Jaycee, the two enforcers that haggled you.”
“Why? Don’t you need security for when people like me show up?”
“Powder, I’m not concerned about you in the slightest,” Cait said, and Pow could hear the earnest honesty in her voice. “I was worried at first, I will be honest, but you proved just about immediately upon your arrival that you’re a changed woman. Even before you left Piltover, I knew you’d changed. You’re a good woman.”
“I’m glad you at least think so,” Pow mumbled. “I knew Jinx would come back to bite me sooner or later. I just wish that my past didn’t happen at all, that I didn’t have to watch my back waiting for someone to come after me for revenge.”
“Actions do have consequences, that much I’ve learned as well.” Caitlyn turned to face Pow. “I’ve worked with Sevika plenty on healing the Undercity since you’ve been gone. And I’ve rarely been welcome as long as I’ve traveled there alone. I’m always met with men and women who I’ve permanently disabled with my use of the Gray, with people who’s children were born sick, deformed or dead because of it. People will always want revenge. But there are also those who are open to change, and are willing to accept the past as dead and gone. I’ve made some good friends in Zaun, who were affected by my actions but chose to forgive me and love me as I am now, rather than hate me for who I was. I want to extend you the same mercy, and I will do my part to help the people of Piltover do the same.”
Mercy is for cowards, Silco whispered. It’s nothing more than an excuse to give in to injustice.
“I don’t deserve it,” Pow said instead. “People died because of me.”
Caitlyn nodded. “They did. I can say the same for myself, but you see plenty of Zaunites in my home. I’ve committed crimes far worse than anything you’ve done, that much I will admit though it pains me.” She looked down. “But your only crime in the eyes of Piltover was your publicity. They feared you because they saw what an uprising you’d garnered, and because that uprising was against them. When I looked past my rage, I realized that despite a few wrong decisions, you’d done quite some good when given the opportunity.”
“Glad you think so,” she repeated.
“I didn’t for a while,” she admitted. Pow turned to her inquisitively. “It wasn’t my own heart that led me to this. It was not even Vi. Ekko spoke to me in depth years ago, about why it was that he’d mourned you so, despite how at odds the two of you were. Most everything you’d done had been for Zaun’s fair treatment. Your harsh actions were a result of Silco’s manipulation, it wasn’t necessarily you. Realizing that helped me get over everything that happened.”
“Silco loved me!” Pow exclaimed. “He did! He had terrible ways of doing things but he loved me! He didn’t manipulate me at all. He was a bad person and I was impressionable so I made the choice to follow in his footsteps.”
Caitlyn nodded solemnly. “You’re right. Sorry.” Caitlyn didn’t seem to believe her words at all, but they both came to the unspoken agreement to let the matter slide and continue on. “But I mean it, I didn’t see it at first but I do now. You’re a good woman, and I want to be sure that the rest of Piltover can see it too.”
“Well, I guess they’d have no choice. As of tomorrow, we’ll be sisters. They’ll be stuck with me.”
“I for one would enjoy being stuck with you,” Caitlyn smiled.
“You don’t mean that. Forgiveness doesn’t mean we have to be friends.”
“Of course I mean that, Powder. I’ve never had a sister before. It’ll be fun. I’m not sure what it is sisters often do, but we could find our own things. I’m not just marrying Vi tomorrow. I’m becoming a part of your family. I’m in it for the whole package.”
The words were oddly comforting, since Pow was shockingly able to see the truth in them. When Vi and Caitlyn first met, their relationship was tenuous at best, but her feelings for Vi hadn’t changed upon finding out she and Jinx were sisters. She had been unrelentingly supportive of Vi and her pursuit to bring her back to herself, even when Pow wanted nothing to do with her. She had been angry after Cassandra’s death, and rightfully so, but she had been receptive to others’ words after some time and grown to forgive her. And despite it all, despite Vi’s relation to Jinx, even when they were vehement enemies, Caitlyn had stuck with Vi anyway, knowing that by pursuing a relationship with her, that she’d be irrevocably tied to Jinx, to Pow, forever. Caitlyn had accepted Pow as family from the beginning, even if it had only been out of her love for Vi at first. Pow was also shocked to find that the words hadn’t only worked to ease her mood, they’d effectively replaced the voices of Mylo and Claggor until they’d vanished from her ears altogether. Maybe she and Caitlyn could be good friends one day.
“I’m telling Vi you said you’re only marrying her for me.”
“What—that is not what I said!”
“You said you wanted a sister, sweet cheeks. Welcome to sisterhood, where I piss you off at every convenience and laugh in your face when you get angry!”
Caitlyn grinned. “I take it back, maybe I don’t want a sister after all.”
“No take backs, Caity Lady!”
“I’m going to kill you.”
———————————
The partygoers had been, for the most part, receptive of Pow's presence in the home, even after her former identity had been revealed. Maybe it was genuine acceptance, maybe it was fear of the Kiramman matron, or maybe it was ignorant indifference, but the majority of the people in attendance had been welcoming. Some had left the scene in frustration or even fear, but Pow knew many people would need time to accept her heart change. She was shocked it hadn’t been more.
Vi waited by the door when the two women walked in, arms linked as a show of friendship to those inside. She smiled at the sight.
“Finally getting along, I see?”
“Not at all. She told me to suck a cactus. She hates me. You should really find a new wife, sis.”
Caitlyn gawked. “You just told me ten minutes ago that I loved you more than her, Powder, you’re so full of shit it’s a shock it’s not spewing from your pores!”
“See, she’s so mean to me!” Pow teased.
Vi grinned. “I knew this was coming, I even told Cait that you two would be best friends when you stopped hating each other.”
“Best friends? Nah, Caity needs to learn how to fight first.”
“I can fight just fine, thank you!”
Pow shook her head. “Lies. You couldn’t even catch me without gassing me out because you knew you couldn’t beat me in a fight, and that still didn’t work. Not to mention you tried to shoot me and hit a mirror.”
Caitlyn sighed. “We’re going to the shooting range once this is all done and we’ll decide who’s better.”
“Alright but when you lose you’re buying me another whatever flavor ice cream that was because that was the best thing ever!”
“I can’t believe the same woman who refuses to touch sliced turkey would eat fucking pistachio ice cream.”
“Alright, alright,” Vi laughed. “You two are worse than Mylo and I. Let’s go play whatever game it was Mel has set up for us, Powder make sure you have your camera ready. Someone has to keep record of me beating Caitlyn’s ass.”
The rest of the evening passed quickly and without much anxieties from the partygoers or Powder. To Vi’s chagrin, Caitlyn had won almost every game that Mel had set up, and any feelings of apprehension or hostility towards Pow seemed to fade as the night went on. By the time the moon had risen and the city was black, though the party continued on in full swing, Pow let herself out after a quick goodbye to Vi and Cait, heading to the Undercity to find Ekko. Leaving him on his own with four sleepy kids was bound to end in disaster.
Piltover was so silent in the night, it never ceased to amaze her how still a city so grand could be. She made her way to Zaun quickly, not bothering to search here when she knew there was one place Ekko would go when he had kids to keep busy. She stopped on her way to change into the clothes she’d snuck into her bag on the way out; her preferred lower rise jeans and a hoodie she’d stolen from Ekko. She felt more herself already.
The firelight base glowed minty green in the darkness of the Undercity, the shine free to illuminate the world now with the ever present smog gone. She took the usual way in, moving the stone just enough to squeeze in and let it slide back into place behind her. Even the base was dimmer, allowing it’s inhabitants to enjoy a calm, restful night which was formerly unheard of in the Lanes. Pow approached the tree that loomed in the center of the commune, following the sound of a few small voices lingering on its other side, one of which so distinctly Ekko’s. The sound of his voice smoothed over the ball of anxiety in her chest.
Pow found him seated on a fountain painted jade green, alongside two men not much older than them. Idina sat on his lap, the other three nowhere to be seen. Pow allowed her footfalls to resonate just a little, so that Ekko could be aware of her presence there while not disturbing the gentle peace of the world between these walls. He smiled warmly when he saw her, as he always had, as had never failed to make her lungs catch, as if it was just the two of them and the other individuals present and faded from the room. A look of confusion rested in his eyes as well, but joyful nonetheless.
“Pow, didn’t think the fun would be over so soon,” he said.
Pow nodded, untying her braid and gathering up the loose hair into a shoddy top knot as she sat beside him, paying the other two men no mind. “I got bored. Too many posh little faces to look at and games to pretend are fun.”
“And you missed me?” Ekko grinned, tucking her in close to his side when she laid her head on his shoulder.
“Hm, maybe a little.”
“So this is your wife, I take it?” One of the men asked. Pow looked his way. He was nothing spectacular, the most noticeable feature being his brightly dyed hair, but something about him seemed important in a way.
“Yep, this is Powder. Pow, this is Jesse and Cameron. Some old friends of mine.”
The two waved almost in tandem with one another, the blonde one seeming to eye her a little more closely while the redhead seemed slightly dazed. She waved back anyway, her metallic finger glowing sickly green in the firelight glow.
“Man, Little Echo wasn’t exaggerating, you seem like a cool chick,” the blonde one grinned.
“Little Echo? Hm, I should use that,” Pow teased. Ekko blushed furiously and shook his head.
“Please don’t.”
“You never told her about us?” The redhead asked. “You wound me, dude. I thought you loved us.”
“Well that’s a stretch, I barely know you guys.”
The sentence seemed to sober the three men considerably. Idina moved her way over to Pow’s lap, sleepily nuzzling into her chest. It had to be midnight or later, long past the kids’ bedtime.
“Where are the other ones?” Pow asked, both to break the tension and because she genuinely wanted to know, so she could lay Idina down with them and likely herself as well. That party left her more exhausted than she thought.
“They’re up in one of the spare rooms in the tree,” Ekko said. “Didn’t want them up too late and getting fussy on us tomorrow. But Ina wanted to stay with me so I just let her get some rest here.”
“We should probably get some rest too,” Cameron said, eyeing Jesse with something like concern. “You know that fucking with your sleep schedule only makes things worse.”
“Darn, I just met you guys too,” Pow sighed. “Alright, we can reconvene and make fun of Ekko in the morning I suppose. We should have a bit of time before wedding prep starts.”
“Wedding prep? Who’s getting married?” Cameron asked, standing up. “And yes, we definitely should trade stories in the morning.”
“My sister. She’s marrying a councilor so it’s gonna be a huge thing and I have one more last thing to do before the celebration.”
“Oh, your sister’s Vi!” Jesse grinned. “She’s a cool girl, met her a few times over the years during the rebuild.”
“Yeah, she’s alright,” Pow teased. “But I really should get this one to bed. She’s a morning girl like Ekko and she won’t be happy if she’s running on too little sleep.”
The two men nodded, and Pow followed Ekko up the tree, keeping a steadying arm behind him as he leaned against the railing. He entered a room not far up the trunk, and in it lay four beds in two sets of bunks. Rashi and Argus lay in the bottom right bed, Lora in the top right. Pow set Idina down carefully in the top left, making sure not to jostle her too much and risk her waking up. The bottom left was the slightly bigger of the beds, the area beneath it built for storage, so Ekko must have left that one for the two of them. It would be a tight squeeze, but that had never bothered them before.
“You never mentioned them before,” Pow whispered as she turned off the lantern that lit the small room, easing into the bed and laying half on top of Ekko as he finished wrapping his hair in his favorite olive durag.
“I had almost forgotten them, until two days ago,” he replied, nuzzling into her.
“They must be newer firelights, I never saw them on your shimmer operations.”
Ekko hummed. He wrapped his arms around her waist, pulling her close. Moments like these were her favorite parts of being with him. Moments of pure silence, when she could hear him only faintly, barely saw him in the black of the room, but felt him so all encompassingly around her that nothing else seemed to matter. The woody smell of him filled her, and she could get drunk on it. When her senses were deprived and all she knew was him, those were the closest to whatever heaven existed out there that she’d ever felt, that she’d never thought she’d get or deserve.
“They joined long after we left.”
“Oh? How’d you come about them, then? They seemed to know you, not very well but beyond only a day’s worth.”
Ekko sighed, shifting slightly. “They and Mila were my friends a long time ago. Back when Papa and Korey were alive.”
Pow's heart sank for him, she knew that venturing back that far into his mind was difficult. She recognized the lack of acknowledgement for his mother, and she didn’t fault him for it a bit. She was glad, however, to know that even through the abuse and the heartache, that there had been people out there that he could run to when things were ugly. She wished she had been there for him back then, but she was also glad things turned out as they did, because it all led her here, to this point in time.
“Well then, they’re an alright couple in my book. I’m glad to know you had someone back then. I can’t wait to hear the stories they have,” she whispered.
“Oh, they’d have a bunch, I’m sure,” he said. “I could let you in on one little thing, if you’d like. It’s something that only they know, and it would stay between us, but I feel like it’ll come up even if I don’t tell you now, so I may as well.”
“And what would that be, buster?”
Ekko heaved a heavy sigh. Pow could feel the stress and pain oozing from him but stayed quiet, not wanting to add to his anxiety. “I wasn’t born Ekko.”
Whatever Pow had been expecting, it wasn’t that. He had used the name from the day she met him when he was only seven, and she only six. It was a name that seemed to encompass him so perfectly that she’d never thought twice about him being anything but. But as she thought, maybe it had encompassed him too perfectly, in the way that Jinx’s title seemed to clothe her like a glove. He’d been a mimic at first, simply picking up whatever behavior he’d taken from those around him, leaving him a different boy between Vi, and Powder and Vander and Benzo. Echoing them. He’d been a fly on the wall, taking what he heard and parroting it back to the siblings. Echoing it. He’d become a faceless legend as the firelights grew in notoriety, no name or face or voice to him, nothing more than a shadow on the wall, a whisper in the wind. An echo in totality. And the man Cameron had called him Little Echo. This man who’d seen Ekko’s past, who knew him before everything went to shit, and had used the name even then. She hadn’t been expecting it, but she supposed it made sense.
“It doesn’t matter to me what you were born, you’re my Ekko and you’re wonderful as you are.”
Ekko chortled softly. “I’m glad you think so. But I’ve done lots of reconciling these past few days. I’ve accepted that who I used to be isn’t here anymore. But when I ran into those two, suddenly he came back. And that’s all that Jesse and Cam know me as. Cam may have given me my current name, and Jesse may have been the reason why, but they both still have only ever known me as who I used to be. I just wanted to be the one to share that with you, in case they mentioned it tomorrow.”
“Well then, Little Echo, is this your way of telling me who you used to be called?”
“I suppose so. I can’t let you be the only one to dramatically change your name after life goes to shit,” he said, rubbing circles into the small of her back, tickling gently at the base of her spine where her jeans had slid down and left warm skin exposed for his hand. “My name used to be Jamie.”
Jamie. The name was adorable, and she hadn’t expected it even slightly. She found that it suited him in its own way. It suited the shine in his eyes when he got excited, the way his bangs fell in his face while he worked. It stood out when he lay in a newborn Idina’s bed, hushing her to sleep, many years ago now. Even in times long past, his innocence had come alive in the quiet moments, in the mundane details, and now that air around him had a name. Ekko suited him like a fitted sheet, but somewhere beneath that, Jamie still lived. Hearing the name felt like the final piece of a large puzzle sliding into place, that single speck of white that brought a painting to life, it felt like seeing the completed mystery of Ekko laid out before her. She hugged him tight, hugged the whole, unfiltered soul that lay beneath her.
“I may have never known Jamie, but he grew up into a wonderful guy. I’m glad you told me about him.”
Ekko kissed her gently, sliding the blanket over her shoulders. “Me too.”
Sleep came easily to them both that night, and neither one noticed that any time had passed at all until morning came and Idina was beating them both with a pillow, angry that Ekko’s snoring had woken her up. Pow would never let him live that down, and she knew Vi wouldn’t either. Maybe her sister had a point.
———————————
Just as they had promised, Cam and Jesse came ready with a full arsenal of stories. Stories of Ekko getting the four of them thrown in a cell for a night after calling the enforcers names, which Pow returned with the story of the two of them riding around on his bike and flipping off another set of enforcers. Of him letting Mila braid his hair and her getting it so tangled up on the ends that Jesse had to cut them off at his nape, and that Ekko had cried for days. Of the many nights the four of them spent playing soccer in alleyways, using wadded up tin as a ball and garbage cans as goals. Cam had shared insights that Ekko hadn’t seemed to even recognize, of them begging him to play just one more round on the days he’d show up bruised like a peach, knowing where they came from even if Ekko had tried to hide it. Always rewarding games won with produce, knowing that his family had a surplus and Ekko had been way too small and skinny for his age, so that he could be sent home with something more fulfilling to eat. Pow was grateful for these strangers, that despite being young and unable to free Ekko from the hell he lived, they had offered support in ways that mattered, in ways that they knew he’d accept. He was stubborn even then, they’d told her.
She had finished listening happily to the story of Ekko getting caught robbing an older street merchant who had, rather than shooing him off, hung him from a hook on the roof above him by his shirt and let him dangle for a while. There had been no time to continue on though, the sun had begun to rise and it was time to head back to Caitlyn’s. Today was the wedding celebration, and Pow and Ekko had lots of getting ready to do. Ekko had even invited Jesse and Cam along with them, but Jesse had claimed to be feeling ill again and decided it may not be the best idea to leave the base. So, Pow took the girls while Ekko took the boys, and the six of them made their way Topside for their sister’s big day.
“I hope you have your speech done?” Ekko asked as the two of them stepped off the Piltovian end of the Bridge. “I know you were having a hard time, but now you kinda have…no time.”
Pow sighed. “Yes, it’s in my pocket. I’ll keep it on me, whether I end up using it or not is still up in the air.”
Despite Caitlyn’s steady reassurances, Pow still worried deeply about her presence at the ceremony, a fear that hadn’t faded over the days. Many of the people on this side of the ocean had been tentatively welcoming of her, but there were some who still held onto their hatred. It seemed word of her presence at the bridal party had gotten around. Enforcers kept hands on their weapons as she walked by, scowling faces and jeering taunts trailed behind her and her family. She could handle the enforcers; Caitlyn still led them and with her on Pow's side, especially on Caitlyn’s wedding day, they wouldn’t attempt anything. But that didn’t say much for the common man. She was the same public enemy with no more of the deeply instilled fear, and people were no longer hesitant to approach her or make their opinions known. Ekko’s hand in hers helped ground her; his silent assurance that everything would be okay. She only hoped that the retaliation would wait until tomorrow. Today was too important.