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Chapter Text

It had only been a few weeks since they burned the industrialist down to ash and sifted him into an ebony urn, but to her it felt like eons had passed. Every hour was longer than the last, and the excruciating weight of guilt and loss only became heavier as the reality of her new life became ever more apparent.

His office still smelled like cigars, but the ash was cold in the tray. A childishly decorated tray that she’d made her mark on so many years ago, that he seemed to treasure above his more expensive and ornate belongings despite its crude craftsmanship. The sliced whiskey glass still slunk against the desk, but the liquid had evaporated and dried into a brown sludge. She set his coat down in his chair. She’d taken it off him before she tied him up for her dinner party, and it was the one piece of clothing she had that wasn’t marred with the thick red crust of his dried blood.

She pulled the collar up to lay against the top of the office chair, and then sat down inside of it, pulling the arms around her as she curled into herself. She tried to breathe in the faded scent of him, tried to remember the warmth of his embrace, the subtle strength of his thin arms wrapping around her. The safety of his hold. The acceptance. That sense of absolute belonging she’d only ever truly felt with him. He didn’t hate her for the bad things that she’d done. He didn’t hit her and curse her and spurn her the way her sister did in that alley.

He was the one who held her in the rain.

Even after she’d beaten him and bound him and sunk hot lead into his beating heart, he wouldn’t abandon her. He wouldn’t stop loving her.

“Not for anything,” she could still the low gravel of his voice as his pale blue eye began to fade into darkness. But despite his soft coo telling her not to cry, it seemed like the only thing she could do. She couldn’t save him. Couldn’t bring him back.

Singe had pumped him full of shimmer and whatever hellish magics the stolen hex core could conjure, and still there was no return.

All she could do was sit in a ball in his office chair, and cry under the cold weight of his empty coat.

But grief was a funny thing, especially in the world of magic.

“Power comes to those who would do anything to achieve it,” he taught her. There were magics beyond shimmer, beyond hextech, and once she set her mind to it, nothing would stop her from finding a way back to him.

Not murder or mayhem or miles of foreign lands filled with torrid dangers and devilish beasts.

That’s how she found herself at the door of the banished wizard Grolurq, the Stealer of Time, with the head of a miniature dragon gripped in her gauntlet. She chucked the hunk of decapitated flesh onto his floor.

“Order’s up,” she groaned, shrugging off the gauntlet, “By the way? Gross.”

“You have returned to me the sacred eyes of the Chronos. For this I will grant you–”

“Yeah yeah, I’ve heard the speech. I give you this ugly mug, you send me back in time. Can we get on with it already?”

He gestured for her to approach him. With the wave of a hand came a sparking black vortex that looked like the galaxy had broken down into a glittering dust.

“Do you know where you want to go?”

“Back to that day. I need to fix things.”

“I told you, you cannot change the past. There is only one flow of time, and nothing can alter it.”

“But you said I could see him.”

“You can. But it will not change what has become. The time I make is like a loop. It will be real, but it will close. Collapse in on itself to the precise point of divergence. To them, the moment will change from one to the next, and the loop will be imperceivable. Nothing you say or do will impact their world. Only you will remember what occurred.”

“But he’ll be real? While I’m there. It’ll really be him?”

“It will really be him.”

Jinx’s lip trembled, but she simply gave a curt nod and looked toward the black swirl. Her pink eyes were unwavering despite the flutter in her chest and the shake in her hands.

“That day, then.”

“As you wish.”

Suddenly, the black shimmer engulfed her in a cloud of sparkling darkness, and she was enveloped by its strange majesty, only to be spit out in the stark familiarity of Silco’s office.

She stood there for a moment, unsure of what to do. She looked down at the desk, scattered with papers. His glass was still full, unshattered. She heard footsteps coming down the hall. She turned her head to the sound. That sweet sound. She hadn’t heard it in months, but she’d recognize the soft tread of those feet anywhere. She watched the doorknob turn.

Silco nearly fell from shock when she sprung at him, as the papers he was holding fluttered around them and landed scattered on the floor.

“Jinx, where have you–”

“I’m sorry, I’m so so sorry, I–”

“Jinx?”

She was clinging to him with a desperation he hadn’t felt since the night he met her. The squeeze of a lost girl, left to drown alone in the rain. He wrapped his arms around her and crooned his head down to capture her gaze. She looked up at him with wide, glistening eyes that poured tears like a waterfall.

“Jinx, what’s wrong.”

“I’m so sorry, I didn’t mean to,” she pressed her hand against his chest, “I didn’t mean to.”

She could feel his beating heart, she looked across his perfect chest. No bullet wounds. No blood. A choking laugh sputtered out of her, and she stretched her fingers out, needing to feel as much of him as possible.

“Didn’t mean to what? What happened?” He took her arms into his hands and pulled her back enough to study her face, “Did someone hurt you?”

His eyes were worried, and a viciousness threatened to burst through him at the suspicion that someone had put her in such a state. But the only thing she could do was shake her head and pull him closer to her.

“Silco, I lov–”

And just like that she was flung back through the black mass and back into the wizard’s hovel. Her boots landed heavy with a thud, and she put her arms out to balance herself, before throwing a confused glare at Grolurq.

“What the hell!?”

“I told you. Time loops are unstable. They collapse.”

“You didn’t say in ten seconds?!”

Grolurq shrugged.

“Send me back!”

“My debt to you is paid.”

“No. No it’s not. I trekked a mountain! I slayed a dragon for this. Do you have any idea how long it takes to saw through a dragon’s spine? Send me back!”

“You can only go back to the same moment once.”

“Then send me to the next one!”

Grolurq sighed and gave a flick of his wrist, and Jinx was again consumed by the black dust.

Silco’s office, again. She looked over to see the door already opening, and again she hugged him so hard she could feel him nearly fall back.

“Jinx? Where have you–”

“Silco. Listen to me.”

“What’s wrong?”

“Listen. I love you. I love you and I’m so sorry and I know you would never betray me. I was so stupid. I was so stupid, Silco,” her lips began to quiver again, and she couldn’t help the tremble of her voice despite how hard she fought to speak, “I’m sorry.”

“Jinx what happened?”

Her fingers spread out over his chest again.

“...I betrayed you…” she admitted in a broken breath.

She watched as his long fingers curled around her small hand, and though she resisted for a moment, he allowed him to lift her chin with his other hand.

His dark eyes searched her face, worried but lacking even a sliver of anger despite her confession.

“What do you mean, child?”

She turned her hand in to press her palm against his, clinging onto him whatever way she could.

“Could you ever forgi–”

She was interrupted by the loud thud of her boots back against the wizard’s dirty floor. Her fists balled and she let out a furious growl before storming over to him.

“Uuugh! Make it stop!”

“It has stopped.”

“Make it stop collapsing! I need more time!”

“I have already given you time enough to say goodbye.”

“You call that time enough? It doesn’t even begin to be enough! I need to hold him, I need to… I need to talk to him. Tell him what I did. Ask him if he’ll forgive me. I dunno if you’ve ever lost someone, Magic-man, but ten seconds aint enough.”

“You tire me, girl.”

Jinx’s lips twisted into a snarl.

“I’ll show you tired,” she took a step toward him and reached for the pistol in her belt, but before she could pull it out to threaten him, the blackness appeared and suddenly she was alone in a meadow, surrounded by tall grass and shrubby trees.

“What the…” she looked around, wild eyed. A movement in the grass startled her, and she backed away, only to be greeted by a creature she’d never seen before. It was fuzzy, cute, like a mouse but way too big.

“Uhh, hi there,” the giant mouse crawled closer, “ Eh. Let’s not get too friendly, heh. I have enough friends, really.”

The thing wouldn’t take the hint, so she pulled her pistol from her hip and pulled the trigger. The thing fell over, dead, and the shot rang out across the vast plain. She blew the smoke off of it the barrel before pocketing it and shrugging. Eh, this place wasn’t anything she couldn’t handle. So so long as she could figure out where he hell he’d thrown–

A rumbling ROAR tore through the air, booming with such magnificent force that Jinx could feel the vibrations rattle her very bones. Her mouth gaped, and she cautiously looked over her shoulder, only to be met with the sight of the largest, most horrific beast her bright eyes had ever landed upon.

A lizard. A giant, fanged, clawed lizard that stood taller than the towers of Piltover.

“Oh, shi–”

She took off running, as fast as her legs could carry her, but the thunder of its rapidly encroaching footsteps was even more terrifying than it’s roar–

Then, just like that, she was in the Wizard’s home, running headfirst into the wall.

“Ah!” Jinx fell, and rubbed her forehead with her hand before reaching for the chair to steady herself. She climbed her way up to a wobbly stand, and held her hand up toward the wizard once the stars stopped spinning around her head.

“Okay,” she nodded, “I get it. This is your domain. My bad.”

He tucked his hands into his robe and turned to go.

“Take your leave.”

“Wait,” Jinx stepped toward him, again, though this time gingerly, “Please. I’m sorry. I’m sorry, I just. I really need to see him. I need to. I’ve come so far. I’ll do anything. I’ll, I’ll slay you another dragon. Devil. Anything you want. Please?”

Her last word sounded so small, and sincere that the Wizard finally stilled.

“I will give you a final try. But, after that I will require further payment.”

“Deal.”

“Very well.” The swirl appeared beside her.

“Can you make it last longer?”

“As I have said, loops are unstable, I cannot control the collapse. But I can tell you that the farther back you go, the better chance you have of it holding. At least, for a while.”

“Farther back?”

“In time.”

“That’s fine. I’ll go further back.”

“How long do you want with him? And make it reasonable.”

Jinx’s mouth twisted in thought.

“A day?”

“A day,” Grolurq’s eyes stared off into some distance, as if he was reading something only he could see, “Yes. There is time enough for a day. But you will need to go back much farther.”

Jinx nodded, “Thank you. Thank you.”

“Do not waste it.”

She looked again toward the shimmer mass. Took a deep breath, and stepped inside…

Chapter Text

The light was so bright that she could feel the rays stabbing the backs of her eyeballs. She squinted and covered her face. What the Hell had the thrown her into, the sun?

“Sorry! Didn’t see you there!”

She could barely make out the frayed image of a man carrying a bright lamp zooming past her. It took her a moment for her eyes to adjust, but there was something about the sounds… The laughter, the thud of heavy feet, a quarter clinking just before an old song plays.

A jukebox.

The smell of alcohol and smoke and grease. Finally, she would see the warm wood of the bar in front of her. The Last Drop, she was at The Last–

“What can I get for ya, darlin’?”

No. No, it can’t be this. It can’t be this far back?

Vander was young. So young, younger than she could ever remember him looking. His beard was gone, and his face lacked all the rough skin and deep lines that she’d grown to cherish as a child. That scruff her tiny hands used to tickle when he was in one of his playful moods.

He’s alive.

The sudden rush of sorrow and guilt just barely overtook her freakish shock.

“Um…” He kept her gaze with that warm patience that he always had, and offered the barest smile.

“Can’t be that hard of a question, we only got three things back here.”

“Whiskey?”

He nodded, “Comin’ right up.”

Jinx stared down at her hands on the bartop. She wanted to stab her nails into the Wizard’s eye for sending her here, but then again she guesses she never clarified, and most people probably don’t have to be so specific in the whole Wanna-Apologize-To-The-Dad-I-Murdered scenario. In fact, as it turns out, most people don’t murder their dads at all. Go figure.

She downed the whiskey in one swig and slammed the glass back on the table.

“I’ll do another.”

Vander’s brow lifted, but he simply nodded, looking only a little bit impressed.

“Haven’t seen you here before, have I?”

“Uh, no. I’m just. Visiting.”

“The Lanes? Don't strike me as a Piltie.”

“Ew, no,” the implication made her skin crawl. But suddenly it occurred to her that she may be stuck here a whole day and she didn’t really have a plan in how to talk with people. Not like she had a backstory in her pocket just ready to go, “I’m from Tereshni.”

She had an uncle that lived there. She visited him one summer and she figured she knew it well enough to make bar talk if need be.

“I have some friends from there.”

“Oh yeah?”

“Hey Benzo! We got a Tereshni girl in town!”

“You don’t say?”

Ah, crap. Jinx looked over to the the end of the bar where a much younger Benzo sat with a few other scruffy looking men who looked like they’d just peeled themselves off the rails of a mine shaft.

“Uh, heh, yeah.”

“What part?”

“The. Beachy part?”

“Oh, I grew up on the beach,” Benzo smiled as Vander placed her second drink in front of Jinx, “Hey, put hers on my tab.”

“You don’t have to–”

“No, no, us Tereshnis gotta stick together.”

“Heh,” she groaned internally and reluctantly walked to the table. She hated when guys did this, used their money to buy obligatory small talk. But it was Benzo, who she remembered as an alright guy, and she had to spend her time somehow if she wasn’t going to get to see–

That laugh. That low, graveled laugh that she’d so rarely heard but somehow she knew it instantly. Her eyes caught on one of the men across the table, a miner, with shaggy brown hair and a long, pointed nose. Her heart seized and she felt her knees weaken to the point of failure, and she just barely caught herself against the edge of the table to save her from the fall.

Silco looked over as the table shook, and locked eyes with the strange girl who seemed to be staring at him with an unnerving intensity. She was beautiful. So beautiful, in fact that she seemed out of place in this dingy bar among men like him. So dollfaced. So clean.

“Sorry,” she said, throwing a self deprecating smile toward Benzo, “slippery.”

Jinx looked to the ghost again, but Silco had already turned back toward his conversation with the others. She couldn’t make out everything he was saying over Benzo’s incessant small talk, but she could pick up on words like “unionize” and “protest” and “fight”.

“The Topsiders won’t listen to any protest,” Jinx interjected. Two bright blue eyes flickered back toward her, and his perfectly symmetrical brow twisted in confusion and slight contempt.

“They won’t listen to anything,” she continued, “if you want power, you have to take it. By force if you have to. And with them, you usually do.”

She had an odd fire to her, a directness bent by chaotic need and wild intelligence that made Silco deeply untrusting. It was the way she looked at him, with such earnest adoration and hunger. Like he was the only person in the world that she wanted to know, and she wanted to know everything. Women didn’t look at him that way. Especially women who looked like that.

“...ahuh,” Silco’s eyes drifted over to Benzo, “Who is this again?”

“Jinx from Tereshni. Hey Van, another pitcher?”

“Mmhm, and do all little girls from Tereshni have such keen insight on the innermost workings of Piltover’s high council?” his youthful, sardonic stare and mocking tone was not at all what Jinx was used to. She was used to elegance, calculated words and serpentine strength, not a 21 year old try hard with calloused fingers and unkempt hair.

“I’m not little, I’m 19.”

“Old enough to drink, what a relief.”

“Ignore him, he’s just like that,” Benzo told her.

“Like what?” asked Silco.

“A dunce.”

The young miner’s eyes narrowed on Benzo, but they lacked that predatory glare that usually made that look so menacing, and instead held a strange mixture of both scorn and insecurity.

“You think I’m the dunce? You’re the one showing your hand.”

“Oh, Sil, please. She’s fine. Aren’t ya, Jinx?”

“Fine for what?”

Silco scoffed.

“Are we supposed to believe that’s really your name?”

“It’s a nickname. My father gave it to me.”

“Must have done a number on him to earn that one.”

Her heart sank down into her stomach, and she wanted to punch and kiss this bizarre version of him all at once.

“He loved me a lot, actually.”

His eyes slid down over her body, her shirt so small that the bare shoulders and exposed midriff did little to distract from the soft curve of her naked breast, visible from either side of her. She certainly didn’t look like a girl who was well loved by a father, or maybe she looked like a girl who was loved a little too well by one. Either way, he smirked and cast his gaze back down to his beer.

“Who wouldn’t?”

“Sil,” Benzo warned again. Jinx just glared at him, wanting to crawl across the table and wrap her hands around his throat and choke the man she loved back into existence.

But maybe she wouldn’t have to, because there was Vander, with hands almost as large as gauntlets, setting another couple of pitchers of beer onto the table.

“What’d I miss?” Vander asked.

“Oh just dingus being paranoid again.”

“About what?”

Benzo gestured toward Jinx with his thumb. Vander burst out laughing and knocked his shoulder against the slender man, almost knocking him out of his chair.

“Ah, Silco, that was one time.” Benzo joined in laughing, and Jinx suspected there was some kind of inside joke she was missing.

“What? What happened?” Jinx asked.

“Oh, nothing. This guy got hoodwinked by a union buster from Piltover once, now he thinks any pretty girl who talks to him is a honeypot.”

“I do not–”

“You should have seen his face when she came over–” Benzo laughed.

“Oh no, the infiltration’s begun!” Vander looked down at a dejected Silco, and he used his thick fingers to tousle the long brown locks on the shorter man’s head, “Ah, I’m just messin’ with ya lil bro.”

Silco batted his hand away, but Jinx could see a sly smile plastered on his face. They razzed each other like real brothers, and she could see the honest love in his eyes when he glanced up to Vander’s tall form. A hulking giant, really. She wasn’t sure she’d ever actually seen them next to each other, but it seems so clear now how hopeless it must have felt for Silco in that moment in the river. Those thick fingers wrapped around that frail neck, those impossibly strong arms holding him below the surface, unwavering in their cruel force. How completely overtaken Silco must have felt in those moments, how powerless and small.

Obviously he had trust issues even before, and that set her teeth on edge. Vander knew how hard it was for him to let down his guard around people, how precious and rare it was to feel safe. To feel like family. Vander knew, and he chose to break him anyway. She’d never actually carried anger for Vander before, but seeing them together right now made her want to gouge out his left eye for retribution, then spirit Silco away to some quiet, dark place where she could hold him and love him and keep him from ever knowing what it feels like to have the river toxins chew through nerves and shrivel flesh. She wished she could make this time loop real, and finally save the both of them for good.

“She’s a girl no one’s ever seen from Benzo’s hometown who offers unsolicited opinions on the local miner’s unionization methods, it wasn’t exactly a leap.”

“Oh, I don’t care about all that,” Jinx said, staring at the warry man who so resembled the one person she felt truly loved by in all her life, “I just wanted to get laid and thought you’d be the easiest.”

The men fell silent, and Silco just blinked his two eyes in stunned disbelief. Jinx shrugged, downed the rest of her drink, and turned to go.

“Guess I was wrong!” she shouted over her shoulder as she sauntered away.

She could hear Vander’s laugh again, and Benzo say something like “Holy shit”, but she couldn’t be sure. What she could be sure of was the fact that her old man was still watching her. He may be unrecognizable in a lot of ways, but deep down she still knew who he was. She pulled a coin out of her pocket, and dropped it in the jukebox. She leaned over a little as she flipped through a few albums before finally landing on one she’d actually heard of. An oldie but a goodie.

It barely began to play before she felt that familiar presence appear just behind her shoulder. She knew it was him, she’d recognize the soft tread of those feet anywhere. She turned her head just enough to cast a playful look to the young man, who now looked so strangely innocent. His honeyed voice was nervous, but bold all the same, and he looked her directly in the eye when he asked.

“Where do you want to go?”

Chapter Text

Jinx turned around to face him, her small body leaning back against the jukebox just enough to show off the long lines of her lithe form. Despite the temptation to devour the sight, Silco did his best to keep his gaze locked on her bizarrely pink eyes, so unlike anything he’d quite seen before. Maybe it was a Teneshi thing?

“Your place?” The teenager asked, her shoulders curving forward in a feigned coyness.

Silco’s stare faltered, and Jinx nearly cried tears of joy when she saw that familiar flicker of his eye. That rapid shift side to side that always happened when he was thinking and caught off guard. Except now it was the glimmer of two blue eyes, and for a moment she marveled at the healthiness of his young skin, the smoothness of his undereye and unscarred brow and soft cheek. So perfect.

“Mmm,” he hesitated, “My place isn’t exactly private.”

In fact it wasn’t his place at all, but the barracks where the miners without families caught a few hours of sleep between shifts. It wasn’t as if any of them were paid well enough to get a spot all their own, and most of them preferred to save up enough to get out of that hellish shaft rather than spending, anyway.

“Oh,” he looked at her expectantly, but she was essentially homeless and so she simply shrugged and lied, “I’m staying with family, so…”

He nodded.

“I know somewhere. Not too far.” It would cost him half a week’s pay, but it was worth it, he figured. Those full lips pulling back into a soft smile told him that it was definitely worth it.

“Lead the way,” she had such a spunky shamelessness about her that for a moment he wondered if he would be able to handle her. In fact, a part of him was pretty sure this girl was going to rob him just as soon as they turned the nearest street corner, but no risk no reward.

His eyes slipped closed as they headed toward the door, and his shoulders raised as he cringed at the sound of Vander and the other men hooting and hollering from the tables. But Jinx simply gave a frisky wink over her shoulder to him, trying to ignore the fact that one of her dads was cheering for her other dad to bed her.

Time travel is… weird.

But hey, if she didn’t break every single thing pure and holy in this world, then she wasn't living up to her name, now was she?

Silco was relieved when they walked a few blocks and she didn’t pull a knife on him. He glanced at her only occasionally, but almost every time she would catch his eye, her face was beaming with that strange adoration that still unnerved him so.

“So why me?” he finally asked.

“Huh?”

“Why did you think I’d be the easiest?” Silco’s glance slanted only slightly enough to look at her out of the corner of his eye. Still so untrusting, she thought, wanting to see if she would lie without having the courage to look her in the face. That would change with age, she supposed.

“Well you were, weren’t you?”

His head tilted and he gave a small shrug. He supposes she was right, although it wasn’t really an answer. Probably any man would have gone home with her, even if she came off a bit batty. She was gorgeous, and the soft vanilla scent that followed him from the bar could only be from her. It was light, but sweet and a relief from the putrid fumes of the trashed out Lanes. He could only begin to imagine what her soft, creamy skin would feel like underneath his calloused fingertips.

But then, he felt another wash of insecurity overcome him as they neared the entrance to the motel. She picked him because he was easy, because she could tell in two seconds flat that women rarely sought him out in any legitimate way. Sure, there were the whores who wanted cash and the occasional Piltover plant who were only interested in his small, but he hoped one day effective, political pushback against their subjugation of the working class. It took her an instant to see all of that, and his mind couldn’t help but flip through all the reasons why.

Because he was poor, and often covered in soot and filth as he was lucky if the barracks had running water more than a few days a week. Because the grime couldn’t help but accentuate the fact that he was conventionally unattractive, with his long nose and thin lips and large ears. On top of that, a recent cave in at the mine had his face making friends with a falling rock, and though he was happy to survive, he much preferred his smile before his front two teeth were chipped.

But most of all, because he was a nobody. With no power or agency over his own life, other than the scraps that he could steal or game from a system designed to crush him and everyone around him. He had nothing to offer a girl like Jinx, and unless things changed around these parts, he never would. That’s why he was easy. Because she knew these rare and delicate slivers of happiness was as good as it was ever going to get for him.

The motel was the kind of place you paid up front and by the hour, but as dumps went, this one was at least clean. Jinx wasn’t nearly as precious about her surroundings as he thought she was, but a part of her had to admit that she had become accustomed to the creature comforts the older Silco had provided for the second half of her life. She tore up and restitched the nice clothes he gave her, rarely used her feather bed, and often skipped meals. But she was never truly hungry, never actually subjected to the unyielding bitterness of the winter’s cold. Despite the position they were in as Zaunites, the industrialist made sure to give her everything he didn’t have as a boy, and more.

She smiled when he opened the door for her. Somewhere underneath all that sarcasm and gruff was her elegant man, and she was glad to see at least a small glimmer of him.

But the chivalry didn’t last long, as just as soon as she entered her back was to the wall, and his mouth was pressed hard against her plush lips as his large hands moved over her body with an earnest impatience. It took her a moment to adjust to the sudden sensation, so much more harried and coarse than she was used to with Silco. Even when her old man was in one of his rough moods, there was still an underlying skill and patience that ensured she was dripping within seconds of his touch.

Luckily for this younger version, Jinx was so happy just to feel any inch of his warm skin that his brash touch still had her soaking through her panties, and her tongue wrapping around his, massaging and devouring that familiar flavor that even all the beer and cheap cigarettes in the world couldn’t hide. He grabbed her hips and lifted her up high enough to wrap her long legs around his waist, so much thicker and firmer than she was used to. His shoulders were broad with lean muscle, his forearms so solid and wide from thousands of hours spent slamming a pickaxe against hard rock and metal ore.

Jinx, on the other hand, felt so small and smooth in his worn hands. Her skin had a slight chill that he found both refreshing and intoxicating, but it was the way her sharp fingernails scratched back and forth so gently against his scalp that he found truly addictive. His mouth moved against hers like a starving man so worried that the sweet taste of salvation was about to be ripped away at any moment, and he needed to get as much as he could before it all came crashing down. Before she came to her senses and decided he wasn’t what she wanted, after all.

But when he finally pulled back for breath, her pink cheeks and swollen pupils told another story. She looked blissful, wanting. In fact, if he didn’t know any better, he’d say she looked like she was in love. He looked down at the meeting of their bodies, her hips pressed flush against his, just the faintest scent of her arousal wafting up through the air. Silco wanted to rip those striped pants off her pretty hips and find the taste to match that smell, but when he moved his hand down to her waistband, he was met with the ugly sight of black soot marking her perfectly pale flesh.

He glanced to his hand, still covered in the filth of the mines, his fingernails darkened by the grime. He swallowed and stepped back, letting her slide off of his waist until her boots dropped heavy onto the floor. As much as he wanted to feel her, he knew better than to put something as dirty as he was inside of her.

“Sorry,” he tried to wipe away the grit from her stomach with the cuff of his shirt, but the cotton was just about as soiled as his skin. She wanted to tell him that it was alright, that she didn’t care and that she’d roll around with him in the sewers if it meant she got to be with him one last time. But she could see in his perfectly shaped eyes that shame and insecurity that made him seem so alien as her father but so human as a man.

“Do you want to take a shower?” she asked in a soft voice.

He glanced to the bathroom and gave a sharp nod before his hands went to unbutton his shirt.

“I’ll be just a minute,” he said turning, though he threw a look back over his shoulder toward her, half expecting her to use the opportunity to bolt.

Instead, the teenager all but skipped across the room to follow after, “I’ll come with you.”

She brushed past him into the rundown restroom, and took a brief look around before spinning back towards him, her ridiculously long locks swishing around her as she moved. He continued unbuttoning his shirt, too entranced with the spritish creature before him to bother feeling exposed when he began pulling off his clothes.

“Alright,” he simply said in that low voice of his. He leaned against the wall as he kicked off his boots, and watched her with growing desire as she reached her small hands beneath the hem of her crop top and began pulling it over her head. His jaw slacked a little at the sight of her naked breasts, so round and perked. He leaned down to start the water, wanting to rid himself of this filth as soon as possible so that he could finally feel worthy enough to touch something so beautiful. So perfect.

The water was lukewarm at best, but he didn’t hesitate to step into the shower the moment he was undressed. The bluehaired girl followed after, and he tried not to look at her too directly, the sight of her deep curves and lithe legs and curious clouds too much for his untested resolve. But she looked at his nude form with a strange wonderment. An almost religious awe that had her bright eyes suddenly looking heavy, and Silco took in a deep breath as he watched her hand press against his chest, her pink and blue nails fanning out.

Jinx stretched her fingers wide, needing to feel as much of him as possible.

His hot skin, his youthful flesh, his heartbeat.

A crooked smile pulled at Jinx’s quivering lips. She wanted to collapse into his arms again, and sob again and tell him she was sorry again. But she didn’t. She wouldn’t ruin this, and she couldn’t expect him to understand. All she could do is try to savor as much of him as their brief encounter would allow, and try to find some way to buy more time with the version of him that actually knew who she was.

But that was a worry for another day.

For now, she would simply pick up the soap and begin scrubbing away all of the rancid horrors the Piltover’s mines had to offer their broken people. She pulled the bar across his chest and arms, lathering the suds and reaching for those crooks behind his ear and around the back of his neck. She moved around him, washing his long back, his skin so firm and plump and flawless apart from the few scars and burns he already had. Though, so much less than he would come to gain, she knew.

When he was clean, she wrapped her arms around him and leaned her cheek against back, finally allowing herself the tearful smile she’d been holding in now that he couldn’t see.

He could feel her, though. The soft tremble of her body, the tightening of her arms, the warm breath against his back. He looked down at her balled fists, her multicolored nails digging in deep into the used bar of soap. This girl was officially beginning to scare him.

“This stuff sucks,” she finally let go, and he was almost afraid to turn around to see what she was up to. She shook the clear bottle of shampoo, smacking the bottom with her palm in order to get the goo to slide down towards the opening, “but I guess it’ll do. Mmm, you may have to sit for this part, bub.”

Against his better judgment, Silco sat against the edge of the tub and his cock hardened even more as he watched her kneel before him, his gaze no longer able to escape the brilliant beauty that was Jinx. She finally shook out enough shampoo to lather it between her hands and he gave a soft hum of approval when he felt those fingernails rake against his scalp once more. He felt an unusual burning feeling bubble up through his chest, and his throat closed in on a threatening whimper that came from some deep part of him that he couldn’t understand. Her touch was so kind, so deeply caring. It felt so unwarrantedly intimate and loving. An unearned level of comfort that he didn’t know how to interpret or handle.

Everything in him told him to flee, that this was bizarre and miles away from the casual hookup he was promised. But he wanted to run towards this feeling as much as he wanted to run away, as it suddenly occurred to him that he couldn’t remember the last time someone touched him in this way. Like he was dear, and wanted, and beloved. Probably not since he was a boy, on a day too hazy to pinpoint, when his mother was in one of her better moods.

But as he watched her take the bar of soap and used it to scrub the gunk from beneath his nails, her eyes so intent and her back so straight as the kneeled there between his open thighs, he felt something markedly different from maternal adoration. He felt respected. A docile yet strangely ardent kind of respect that he didn’t know how to interpret either, but he certainly knew how to feel about it.

When she was done cleaning the first hand, he reached out to brush his fingers along her cheek and the line of her jaw before running the pad of his thumb across her plump lips. Her big, pink eyes locked with his as he slowly pushed his thumb into her mouth, venturing at first, but then as deep as it would go into the slick heat of her. She didn’t even hesitate to wrap her lips tight and hollow her cheeks into a soft, rhythmic suckle that sent shivers down his spine. His teeth set on edge as he watched her suck his thumb so dutifully, a rush of red blood engorging his already stiff cock, and he began to feel that impatience gnaw away at him.

Jinx’s heart fluttered when she saw that familiar look overtake his sharp eyes, that raptorial glimmer that was so effective at projecting strength and keeping his underlings in check. It was almost sacrilege that he directed it at her, but she couldn’t help but celebrate her tiny victory of tapping into that raw source of power that he had buried somewhere deep inside. She knew it was innate. She knew it wasn’t Vander that created him. Not really. All Vander accomplished with his ugly deed was to unleash the beautiful, cunning beast that Silco always was. Always would be.

Finally, Jinx chucked the bar of soap into the corner of the tub and ran his hand under the water. She gave one more lick against his thumb before scooting closer, and Jinx offered a quick peck against the crook of his long nose before tonguing the irregular edge of his ear. He could hear his own heartbeat pounding in his eardrum as he felt that soft, wet tongue invade the inner curves before her teeth pulled gently against his lobe.

“All clean.”

Chapter Text

She stood before him, the sight of her sex just inches from him, and he finally allowed himself to take in just how beautiful she was, with her the wide hips and a tuft of cobalt blue hair styled in the shape of a heart. He felt the impulse to lean in and taste her right then and there, but the cheap tub was slippery, and Silco thought it better to take her hand when she offered it, and they climbed out of the cramped space together.

But he could hardly keep his hands off of her for long enough to dry themselves with the threadbare towel, and he took the first opportunity to kiss her plum colored lips again. Their hands moved over each other’s wet flesh as they stumbled through the rooms, hardly coming up for air until the bounce of the bed beneath them broke their hold on each other. The cheap mattress was springy, but the girl didn’t seem to mind, and giggled at the way it shot her a few inches up into the air.

He smiled, too, a wide and toothy grin, and Jinx realized she’d never seen him actually smile like that before. The teenager tried to memorize the long pearly teeth and sharp incisors before he hid them away again with a light kiss to her chest.

She climbed over him, and pulled him up until she was sitting in his lap. He should have known she was the kind of girl that liked it on top.

But she didn’t straddle his hips right away. Instead she stared at him again, with that strange adoration, and gently stroked the side of his face, her fingers like feathers when she traced the line of his brow and around the socket of his left eye. She leaned in and planted the softest kiss against his closed eyelid, and let out a quiet mewl.

Jinx couldn’t get over those two blue eyes, their symmetry, their brightness and youth. He was so perfect it made her heart ache, and she wanted nothing more but to bounce back into her world and tell her old man how handsome he was, and how funny his shaggy hair was and how easily he used to blush when a girl would run her fingers through it. She’d poke fun at his nervous blink and force him to tell her every painstaking detail about this mysterious chapter of his life. Where did he live? What was he doing in the mines? What did he do with his time besides work and drink with Vander?

When did he finally get a girlfriend? Or did he ever?

He’d certainly had some kind of sexual journey between now and then, because her old man was a lot more skilled at the finer aspects of foreplay, she realized as this younger version’s fingers fumbled to find her clit. She shifted her hips for him, and gave a quiet whimper when she felt the tip of his finger brush against her most sensitive part. His eyes seemed to glaze over as he watched her, and she felt herself tremble under his touch.

He loved the way she gasped and bit her lip, and felt only more emboldened by her steady gaze on him, so hungry yet so fragile looking. Her bare chest rose with rapid breath, and he leaned in to kiss her shoulder before staring down at his hand between her legs. He couldn’t believe she was letting him touch her like this. Like he was worthy of her, like they belonged in the same bed.

“Mmm, Silco,” his name fell from her lips like a prayer, and it once again seemed far too worshipful and loving for any of this to make sense, but he wanted to believe in the fantasy that someone like her could love him, and so he simply kissed against the lobe of her ear before whispering back.

“Jinx…”

She shivered at the sound of that low rasp saying her name. For so long, she was sure she’d never hear the beautiful music of him calling out to her again, and she felt that warmth between her legs blossom into an aching, throbbing fire. She wondered if she could come from his voice alone.

But her man was never one to underperform, and she could feel her own wetness pouring out of her when she heard him murmur, “Can I taste you?”

She locked eyes with him and nodded, and Silco shifted to lay her down against the mattress before centering himself between her open thighs. He gave one last fleeting glance to her lusty eyes before he placed his fingers on the thick folds of her labia and pried her apart until the those pink inner petals spread out and his mouth watered when he leaned in to give a long lick to that hard bud. He rolled his tongue around her clit, soaking in those melodic moans that rung out from above him, before lowering just enough to get a true taste. She was tart, and he quietly mused at how the tangy flavor suited the spunky girl.

He wrapped his lips around her hooded bud and gave a soft suck before placing his middle finger at her soaking entrance. He caressed her there, without entering, listening for any sign of protest. When his venturing was only met with more breathy moans, he pushed his finger inside of her, and rewarded her compliance with another flick of his tongue.

She was tight, and when he felt her hands reach down, and her fingernails once again rake softly against his scalp, it was everything in him not to abandon foreplay all together and simply sheath himself inside of that warm, wet heaven. But given how gorgeous she was, he didn’t trust himself to last long enough inside of her to get her to orgasm, and Hell if he was going to let this opportunity go by without feeling her clutching walls shake and spasm around him.

He moved his finger in and out of her, curling in to press against that wonderful little spot inside. Silco savored the sounds of her enthusiasm when she cried out so many yeses and pleases, and of course, his name over and over again. After a few minutes, he felt her thighs tremble around him, and her small hand dug into his long brown locks.

“Silco,” she begged. His mouth finally abandoned her, and he slid his legs forward until his knees were beneath her thighs, and his hips were flush with her own.

He felt intoxicated by that ivory skin, tattooed with a light blue that complimented those long ropes of silken cobalt braids. Her toned stomach and arms barely distracted from how terribly small she was, and yet for all as slight as she was she still boasted all the womanly features men like him spent hours daydreaming of while tossing and turning in their cold, narrow beds at night. Her perked, round breasts, the deep curve of her tiny waist, the broad expanse of her hips, that delicious, glistening mound between her long legs.

Jinx watched his eyes devour her, and her hips wiggled in frustration when he reached his hand down to give another stroke to her clit. His hand skimmed across the smooth plane of her stomach, and then took one of her soft breasts, and he let out a satisfied sigh at the feel of her filling his palm.

“You’re perfect,” the young man said.

The teenager’s eyes fluttered, trying to hold back threatening tears as her whole body felt like she may burst from both sorrow and joy. She wrapped her legs around his waist and pulled her toward him until she could hug herself against his body and bury her face in his neck.

“Please,” she pleaded, “I need you in me.”

In fact, she felt like she may just die then and there if she had to wait one more second for that precious fill, that overwhelming fullness that made her feel whole. Made her feel like his. The way she was always supposed to be.

Silco was happy to obey, and he reached between them to angle himself to her slick entry. She held onto his muscular shoulders as he began to push in, and she forced herself to relax at the feeling of that blunt pressure. She hadn’t had anything inside her since, well, him. But then, she felt that wonderful stretch as his hard cock forced open that tight ring of muscle, and her fingernails dug into his back from the pain and pleasure of it.

“Auh–” she held onto him tighter, and she closed her eyes at the feel of his arm sliding beneath her to hold her to his chest. He felt just like he had before, and in the darkness behind her lids she could almost pretend that it was him, her version of him, that was inside of her. She imagined the woody cologne he would wear, and the rough feel of his scarred backside from so many years of hard work and hard knocks. The husky rumble of his voice was the same, and she finally felt that tear escape her shut eyes as she felt that swell of lost love overcome her.

Death was a fool if it thought something as small as time and space could steal a love like theirs. It thought it could break them, separate them, leave their shattered souls to face the rest of eternity alone.

Well, not on her fucking watch. She loved him, more than anything in the entire world, more even than her own life, and now she finally had him back where he belonged. Where they both did. Hopelessly entwined in one another.

But as familiar as this felt for Jinx, for the younger Silco this was wholly new, and so beyond anything even his brightest fantasies the lonely miner could imagine. She felt good, so impossibly good, and he was thankful to himself for getting her so close to orgasm ahead of time, because after only a few strokes he felt his eyes begin to roll to the back of his head.

He looked down at her, and stilled at the sight of her shimmering eyes. Was she crying?

“Are you okay? Am I hurting you?”

She shook her head and kissed him.

“Don’t stop.”

This girl was buckets of crazy, but he couldn’t bring himself to care when she made him feel this magnificent. He continued moving inside of her, his thrusts so much more harried and shallow than she was used to, but she didn’t mind so long as she could keep touching and holding him.

“Say it again,” her girlish voice whined.

“Hmm?”

“Say it again? What you called me.”

Silco searched his mind for an answer, too distracted with the heat and heaven of her to be think about something as silly as what word he used when, but then it occurred to him–

“Perfect.”

He watched her pull in a shaky breath, and he felt her thighs begin to tremble again as they pressed in against his hips.

“You’re perfect,” he whispered as he kissed the slope of her breast. Her tight hug on his cock became even more lovely as he began to feel her walls close in even harder, “so perfect.”

“Silco–”

“My perfect Jinx–”

That rumbling, graveled voice was enough to push her over the edge, and she shattered around him, held together only by his firm hold and tender kiss. He leaned his forehead in to press against hers as a deep satisfaction and delight washed over him, and a soft smirk ticked the corner of his unscarred mouth. There really was nothing more lovely in the world than watching a beautiful girl come.

He was relieved, then, that he no longer had to hold off his own orgasm as he began to snap his hips inside of her. He sat back on his heels, watched as his cock disappeared into her flawless body again and again. Jinx watched the ripples of his well toned muscles, and reached out to touch against his unmarred chest again. No blood or bullet wounds, just smooth, young flesh and a thin layer of salty sweat. Suddenly, the man inhaled sharply, and he pulled himself out of her just in time to spill his seed on the paleness of her stomach.

Jinx simply bit her lip and tried to catch her breath as she stared up at him with those bright pink eyes. It was a sight that he was planning on cherishing for a long time, except unbeknownst to him, he wouldn’t remember her past tomorrow.

The teenager was already mourning the inevitable loss of him. She wasn’t quite sure when the loop would collapse, but the Wizard had promised her a day. So they must have some time left.

She was going to make the most of it.

Jinx hardly waited for him to wipe off the cum on her before she sat up and threw her arms around his shoulders again.

“How much longer do we have?”

Silco threw a look at the clock.

“A little while.”

“Think you could get it up again?” she kissed the pointy end of his long nose.

“Uh, heh. I hope so.”

With her old man, it could take hours, but she’d heard young guys could fuck like bunnies, which she supposes made up for how much quicker they seemed to come. Eh, you win some, you lose some.

They cuddled into the bed together, an affection Silco wasn’t used to with his typical hook ups, but he didn't mind it, and touching her was definitely the highlight of his year. If not longer. And strangely, something about her curled up in his arms just felt right in a way he couldn’t make sense of. She simply felt as if she belonged there, but of course he chalked that up to the post coital high.

“Clouds?” he traced the outline of one of her tattoos.

“Something like that…”

“Hard to see those from down here.”

Not unless you were looking straight up, and even then only on the rare days when the smog layer wasn’t coating the surface of the Undercity.

“We’ll clean this place up, one day. Once we get out from under those stupid Topsiders.”

“We?”

“Zaun.”

“Aren’t you from Tereshni?”

“Um. I go back and forth.”

His untrusting eyes returned to him, and his gaze hardened on her.

“Mmhm.”

“Oh boy,” she rolled her eyes, “You really are paranoid, Boss.”

“Boss?”

“Silco.”

“Yes, and why do you keep saying my name like that?”

“Like what?”

“Like you know me. In fact I don’t actually remember introducing myself to you.”

“...Your friend said your name. The bartender. Big guy. Right before he made fun of you for thinking every cute girl you meet is just trying to pull one over on you?”

“Right," how convenient for her, "and why do you carry a gun?”

“In case I need to shoot things.”

“Of course.”

She scoffed.

“Are you really on this again? C’mon, if I was a spy don’t you think I’d be doing a pretty crap job getting info out of you? Unless all your secrets are hidden in your junk.”

“Actually I think you’re uncannily skilled at making a perfect stranger feel as if they know you.”

It should have been a sweet thing to say, and some warm part of her chest fluttered at the notion, but his face only hardened and he finally broke his stare from her and glanced at his scattered clothes on the bathroom floor. She frowned. She was losing him to his stupid insecurities again and she didn’t know how to fix it. Her Silco always believed her, he never had to be convinced that she cared for him, it was plain as day since the night they met.

“Fine then, we won’t talk.”

She rolled to climb on top of him, hoping to bring him back to her, but it just gave him an excuse to sit up and lean further away. The girl’s insistent nature only made him more wary, and now that he wasn’t so distracted with his arousal, he began to feel foolish for letting himself buy into whatever ploy she was likely devising. He didn’t return her kiss when she wrapped her arms around him and tried to claim his mouth, but instead grabbed her hips to move her from grinding against the lap.

“Our hour is almost over.”

“We’ve still got time, “she looked down at his flaccid cock with a pout before he moved her off his lap, “I can suck you. That usually works.”

“I’m sorry to disappoint.”

Jinx felt her heart break when she saw him stand and head back into the bathroom. He wouldn’t really leave her just like that, would he?

She heard the distant familiar snicker of Mylo, “Heh heh heh, can’t keep a man, can ya? Jinx.”

A scowl twisted her face when she watched him pull on his pants.

“You’re getting dressed?”

“I can’t afford to keep the room.”

“So? What are they gonna do? Drag us out?”

“Yes.”

“I’m sure we can figure something out,” she sauntered over to the doorway.

He pulled his shirt over his head, averting his eyes from that too beautiful naked form of hers.

“I should be heading back, anyway” he mumbled as he slipped on his worn, scuffed shoes.

She sneered, staring at those filthy clothes that he pulled over that clean body.

“Where, to some dingy rat infested hovel? What do you like, live in the barracks or something? Yeesh, I can’t be that bad.”

She’d meant it as a joke, but she could see from the look on his face that she’d hit he nail on the head, and though he was quick to cover it with his usual stoney expression, she still caught that small flash of his true emotion. Embarrassment. If there was something Silco didn’t take well to, it was humiliation. Shame, impotence, inadequacy, anything that made him feel small. Made him feel weak.

That was something core to his nature, something that predated Vander and Zaun and all the rest. She’d seen that small glimmer in the shower just minutes ago… his power was innate. And she just stepped all over it.

“I didn’t mean it like that. I just meant. Ya know, why rush? We’ve still got time.”

“I’m afraid the clock’s just run out,” he brushed past her.

“Wait, I’m sorry. Please, I. Let me make it up to you.”

Mylo’s chipper laugh echoed from the corner.

“Maybe another time,” he lied.

“But there is no other time. Please, just,” she stepped in front of him, blocking him from the narrow entryway, “Give me another chance.”

“Another chance to what? I gave you what you said you wanted. Unless what you really desired was something else?”

“Something else– uuuhhggh!” God, the man was infuriating. If Vander had punched him instead of drowned him, she may have actually been on his side.

“Daddy fucker, daddy fucker,” Mylo appeared at the edge of the bed.

“Can you stop being a jerk for five seconds?”

“I’m a jerk now, am I?” Silco’s voice slithered.

“No, not you.”

“See? Even your old man doesn’t want your scrawny ass.”

“Shut up.”

“You didn’t think he would actually love you? Chump.”

“I said shut up!” Jinx grabbed the lamp off the night shelf and threw it towards Mylo’s neon visage. It ripped through him and shattered into pieces as it slammed against the far wall.

“Geez,” Jinx spun back around to Silco, “You slay a whole dragon and the dumb wizard can’t even keep ghosts away for a few hours? What kind of rinky dink time loop is this anyway?! I’m so taking those eyeballs back. I mean, if you think you’re keeping the sight of Chronos after this, then you’ve got another thing comin’, bub!”

Silco blinked. Ooooooh. This girl wasn’t a spy or a scammer, she was just criminally insane. Actually, that explained a lot.

Jinx realized the bizarreness of her little outburst, and curled her shoulders in with a light chuckle. The young man threw a look to the door.

“I see,” he murmured to himself.

“Please don’t go. I’ll be good. I promise.”

He nodded, unsure of what else to do.

“It’s alright,” he swallowed. He wasn’t sure of what her situation was, but he’d had an aunt who could see things others couldn’t, and often said strange things that seemed to make sense to her, but no one else. He felt like a fool again for not seeing it before, and suddenly wondered if by ignoring all her strange quirks he’d somehow taken advantage of her. On the other hand, she did practically throw herself at him, and she was of age, even if she acted a little younger. Though, that probably should have been a warning sign, too.

He was only stalling for time, but Jinx took his words to heart, and a brightness overcame her wild eyes as she took a step closer. He tried to move back, but he felt the wall behind him, and took in an unsteady breath as her fingers wrapped around the waistband of his pants.

“We don’t have to talk, you can just...” with all she’d wanted to say to her Silco, the whole day boiling down to sex wasn’t perfect, but it was what she had of him and she would take it if it just meant a little more time, “tell me what to do.”

He shook his head, and tried to think of a kind way to tell her that this wasn’t a good idea, anymore. But unbeknownst to him, she knew him better than anyone ever would, and when she kneeled down before him, his body betrayed those gentle thoughts. Now he was sure it was her ailment that made her so adoring and lovelorn despite hardly knowing him, but it was still the closest thing he’d ever had to real tenderness, and he enjoyed the fantasy well enough.

But as lovely as that feeling was, he could have walked away from it. Listened to the better angels of his nature and simply left out the door.

What he couldn’t leave, though, is that reverent way she looked up to him, as if this nobody, this lowly laborer who lived in a ‘dingy rat infested hovel', as she put it, was somehow also the most powerful man in the world. There were so few corners of his life where he was even treated as human, let alone with respect. Even more, he’d never been in the position before to actually have someone underneath him. Someone under his control.

His breath steadied as she began to unbutton his pants, and his head rested against the wall, silently cursing himself for loving the excited way she looked when she saw how hard he was again. She pulled his cock out from the fabric and looked up to him with those giant eyes as her small mouth opened and she licked the entire underside of his long shaft before closing her lips around his head.

Fuck.

She started to suck, her eyes fixed on him as her throat took him deeper and deeper and he could feel himself hit the back of her throat, and heard the sick but delicious sound of her gagging on him. Silco’s hand moved to hold against the back of her head, willing her to stay there as he slowly pushed his hips forward, forcing himself even further as he watched her brow furrow and her eyes begin to water—

BANG! BANG! BANG!

Silco let go of her, and she caught her breath as they both threw a look to the door.

“Just a minute,” the young man shouted.

“Fuck your minute,” a gruff voice behind the door yelled back, “You’re five over. Either pay or get the Hell out.”

“We’re getting our things.”

“If you make me go and get the keys it’s gonna be the fuckin’ end of you.”

Silco let out a frustrated breath and tucked himself back into his pants before unlocking the door. He pulled it open just enough to poke his head out and face this ogre of a man.

“It’s unlocked. We’re just collecting our things,” he went to close the door but the ogre pushed his hand through and grabbed the young man by his collar.

“Nuh uh. Door stays open, kid.”

Silco bristled. The ogre smirked when he saw the red rise in his cheeks, and he cocked his head to try to get a glimpse inside, but the miner moved his shoulder to block his view. The young man looked over his shoulder to the naked girl still kneeling there, but covering herself with her thin arms.

He heard the creature grumble, “Pay now or leave.”

Silco wasn’t lying when he said he didn’t have enough for another hour. But he could buy some time. It would cost him most of what was left of his wages, which meant he was going to be eating the slop at the canteen for the next two weeks, and he’d be lucky to keep any of the swill down long enough to satisfy his hunger. Was that hunger worth this? Whatever this was.

He knew hunger, knew he could take it. He didn’t know this. How it felt to feel this good, as strange and frankly terrifying as she was.

But no, she was out of her mind and if he could think clearly for two seconds instead of letting all his blood rush to his cock, he would be able to tell himself that this was his chance to run. That he should bolt, and let her find another poor sap to play out her sad fantasies with. He could get out clean, without hurting the poor thing too much. The pitiful creature, who even now stared up at him with such expectant hope and need. She looked so fragile, and he wasn’t sure if he wanted to heal her or break her entirely. Or both. Oh, how gorgeous that would be.

No. He should go. He should go.

He should...

Shouldn’t he?

Chapter Text

Silco could already feel the pangs of hunger gnawing at his soon to be empty stomach. That familiar pain shifted into him like an echo from the past that knew was going to resound weeks into the future. He cursed himself for being the hopeless fool he was as he reached into his pocket and drew out the few coins he had left. He shoved them into the ogre’s hand, who offered only a taunting chuckle.

“Twenty minutes,” he warned.

Silco slammed the door as the ogre finally left them. He turned to Jinx.

He stared down to her kneeling before him, her bright pink eyes so luminous and yearning. He marveled at the sight of such a beautiful creature offering herself to him so completely, that small and graceful form so pliable and yielding beneath him. He could do anything to her, he realized. Any devious desire or wicked itch, whatever dark fantasy he’d been previously too ashamed to try with the few girls that he’d been lucky enough to bed before, even the ones he paid.

But with all the endless possibilities, what really made his toes curl was the idea of finding out how obedient she would really be for him. How much power she would give up just to bend to his will and whim.

He moved slowly toward her, and watched as her eyes traced his every step.

He reached out to her, and Jinx closed her eyes as she felt his rough hand caress her plump cheek. They flung open again at the sound of leather slipping through his belt loops.

“Lean over the bed,” he commanded.

She swallowed, and looked to the mattress behind her. She moved to get up, but she heard that familiar “tsk” resounding from his rasped throat.

“I didn’t say stand.”

Jinx looked at him, then placed her hands on the floor and began to crawl the few feet to the bed. She didn’t see it, but she knew he was staring at her the way he always stared at all the minions who suffered underneath his command. There was a certain light that only shined from him when he designed another’s humiliation, and she was glad that she was blind to it as she bent herself over and rested her cheek on the rumpled, warm sheets.

She glued her eyes to the headboard and steeled herself for the pain that was about to come. He’d never actually beaten her before, though she wouldn’t put it past him to have done it to other lovers. She knew there were certain kindnesses afforded to her for, ya know, being his daughter or whatever. None of those allowances existed here.

She told herself that it was all right. Her Silco still loved her. That she’d survived way, way worse.

Yet, Jinx still flinched when she felt his hand on hers, and awkwardly rolled her shoulder as he dragged it down to the small of her back. Then, he did the other, and she felt the thick band of his rough leather encircle her wrists. She looked over her shoulder and watched his singular focus as he tied them around her and pulled.

She hadn’t meant to wince, but her quiet whimper was quickly met with his soft, “Mmm?”

She felt his finger slide beneath the hide, and he wiggled her enough room to twist without setting her free. Then, he was suddenly beside her and he leaned his forehead towards her in a wordless ask. She met his eyes and simply tilted her head back, her mouth inching toward his own.

He kissed her.

Then, he disappeared again, and she felt his brawny grip claim her leather cuffs as his other hand reached down to rub the bud of her clit.

“Auh,” she whimpered.

“Did I tell you to moan?”

She simply shook her head and dug her face into the sheets.

He continued rubbing, and he ran his tongue against the sharp edge of his teeth as he watched her body tremble below him. Jinx bit her lip so hard she almost drew blood in her desperate attempt to obey him.

Finally, her lover relented. And she took in a shuddered breath as she felt him again press the thick head of his cock into her wet entrance. She’d always hated this position. For some reason the angle of it had always hurt, and she had to take a deep breath to allow herself to relax enough to fit him. But then, he was inside, and he didn’t seem to mind her pained gasp as it was drowned out by his own raptured groan.

“Mmhm,” he watched the muscles in her shoulder blades tighten, and her captured fingers clench. He lowered his eyes and watched himself bury his cock into that beautiful, pink ring of hers. They were already running out of time, but she was open for him, so he didn’t bother warming her with long, slow strokes. Instead Silco began sheathing himself in and out of her as hard and fast as he could.

Whimpers rung out of her, and so he leaned over and wrapped his free hand around the slender column of her throat.

“Bad girl,” he chided as he continued his punishing pace while pushing his palm oh so lightly against her windpipe. He watched the black makeup of her eyes smear across the white sheets as strangely shimmering tears formed.

“Too hard?”

She shook her head and closed her eyes. She felt so stupid for letting herself get upset again, but in all that time she’d spent climbing mountains and slaying dragons, she’d never once dreamed of one day finally getting a chance to be fucked raw doggy style while being told she was bad. All she wanted from Silco was an, “I love you” and maybe even an “I forgive you.” Suddenly it occurred to her that her need was never going to happen. Not now. Not in a million years.

“You just want to moan, is that it?”

She sniffed and nodded, “Mmhm.”

She didn’t know what else to say.

“Then beg,” his voice slithered.

“Please,” she gave him.

He moved to sit again on his knees, and pulled her by the throat until her back was flush against his chest. He began thrusting into her again, and harder this time.

“Please!” she cried through grit teeth, and this time he kissed her closed lid as another tear fell from her black lashes.

“Please what?” he bucked his hips into her with a cruel, merciless pace that has his own eyes rolling back.

“Let me, –auh!”

He leaned back to sit on his heels as he continued to pump himself in and out of her, and she had the odd sensation of actually sitting on his lap again. Though, maybe not quite the way she remembered. His hand finally left her throat as the other arm wrapped around her, and she felt her whole body quake as he brushed against her clit once more.

“Let me come,” she begged.

“Fuck–”

He was so close to getting there, himself. But he could wear the jeweled crown of making this blue haired goddess come twice in one hour for the rest of his gods-given life if only he forced himself to wait for her.

“Augh–” his head flew back, and he stilled, only to feel her hips begin to bounce on him instead, “gods–”

“Don’t stop–”

She felt his fingers move their sweet circles around her clit again, and she told herself that maybe this really was as good as it gets, but heck, that’s better than most people ever have.

“Sil–”

“Are you going to beg?”

“Please, please, please let me, let me–”

“Say it.”

“Let me come? Let me come. Let me come. Let me–”

Her cunt tightened and quivered around him so fast that he hadn’t enough time to push her back onto the bed before his own little death overtook him. His jaw unhinged, and he watched what little of himself spilled onto the floor. Just a few bright specks.

His mind was still in a swirl when he raised his glance to see the white drip marking the soft folds of her labia.

He moved his thumb to wipe it away.

She knew he said something, but she couldn’t hear it from her heavenly oblivion. But eventually, she slunk off the bed and faced him.

“Huh?”

“Are you on any medicine? I might have…”

“Psssh”, she wrought her wrist from the restraint and waved her hand dismissively. She couldn’t get pregnant here, it was a time loop. Or, at least, she’s pretty sure she couldn’t. Wait. Could she get hurt here? Could she die? That big lizard sure was scary. She probably should have asked more questions before she embarked.

“And that means?”

“Eh, sure,” she answered, “You’re fine.”

Silco chucked the keys onto the Innkeepers’ counter.

“Thank you for the hospitality,” the miner sneered. The ogre just gave an amused huff as he grabbed the keys and headed down the hall.

Jinx could hear the light drizzle of rain from outside as the doomed couple made their way toward the exit. It was nighttime now, and she noted how soft the glow of the street lanterns was compared to the bright neon signs she had grown so accustomed to back in her own time. She liked to think there was something romantic about it, and that maybe the flickering golden light dancing across them would inspire him to kiss her one last time.

But they were in the real world now, and so once outside the Inn, Silco simply took in a deep breath as he shoved his hands into his pockets. He nodded to her.

“I’ll see you around?” he asked.

“Ahuh,” the lie shattered her already broken heart, and she stared down at her boots to hide the threatening tears.

But to her surprise, she felt the warmth of him come back to her as he planted a gentle kiss onto her pale cheek. Their eyes met and despite the nothing and everything between them, they regarded each other for one silent and perfect moment–

–until suddenly the spell was broken with a shrieking cry–

“You motherfuckers!!!”

They looked over to see the furious ogre hobbling down the hall toward them. They stared at him, confused, but then Silco remembered.

“Oh Hell, the lamp.”

“Uh oh.”

“You’re gonna pay for this you shits!”

“Run!” Silco took her wrist and together they hauled off into the streets full force, twisting and weaving in between pedestrians as the ogre and his security crew chased after the hapless vandals.

Jinx knew she should be worried, after all she knew how brutal the world was back when Silly was a kid, and she was out of her element with this unfamiliar version of her hometown. But still, she couldn’t help but love how the muggy air felt against her shining teeth as she giggled her way through the crowd, haphazardly swerving and diving and tilting through every nook and cranny of the burbling horde.

Her old, nay– young man sure was swift, despite his questionable dexterity.

Finally she spotted a dark alleyway just beside them, and managed to zip him towards the makeshift hideout.

“C’mon!”

They ducked behind a trash bin and watched the feet of the Ogre’s security sprint by.

They caught their breath. Silco looked at her, and she could see the fire in his twin eyes building up into one of his more punishing glares.

Duh, smashing a lamp when he couldn't even afford the room was definitely a foreseeable bad. But to be fair, it’s not like their blood was rushing toward their heads just then. Anyway, he was as much at fault as she was, Jinx reasoned, for being so dang frustrating in the first place.

“Whoops,” she gave a cockeyed grin.

“Whoops?” he echoed. And yet, despite her folly, his glare gave way to a mischievous glimmer and his wide smile heralded a strangely youthful laugh.

“What?”

“Nothing,” he shook his head, “What a day.”

“Heh, tell me about it…” she murmured to herself.

The sound of the rain couldn’t quite drown out the rumble his stomach made as he tilted his head against the stone wall and put his hand to his abdomen. The hunger had come upon him a little sooner than expected, but after all of the exertion during his time with her, he couldn’t be too surprised.

He downplayed it, but Jinx couldn’t help but pout in the knowledge of it. Poor Sil, going home to those barracks without a penny to his name. She knew it was going to reset, anyway, that the loop would collapse in on the first moment, and it would be as if she never came at all. But she still hated him worrying about it alone in his cold bed all night. Fretting and regretting his time with her. Or not being able to buy a proper meal in the morning. She shuddered to think what passed for the so-called “ingredients” the Pilties put in the slop they fed to their workers.

“So,” she tilted her head and bit her lip, “You didn’t really give that jerk all your cash, did you?”

He gave a half shrug, though he wasn’t as well practiced at aloofness as he would grow to be, “Don’t worry about it.”

“I only ask, ‘cause. I was gonna do a job Topside tonight and, ya know. Always good to have a look out.”

“...A job?” his left brow cocked with a dubious expression.

Jinx smiled. No way did her old man used to be a square.

“The penthouses are a piece of cake, but you gotta go in through the roofs if you wanna avoid a herd of slobbering Enforcers following you around the second you step over the bridge. This being a rainy night, and all. Kinda dangerous to do alone.”

“You’re well versed at it, are you?”

“I know some shortcuts.” Provided things were more or less in the same place, but Piltover’s buildings were expensive, and old, and she was pretty confident she could find a place or two to sack under the cover of night, “Anyway, the streets are pretty burned for us tonight, don’t ya think?”

Once again, he knew he should go, but it was a call to adventure that the empty of his stomach was already begging him to answer. Besides, she wasn’t wrong about the streets.

His mouth grew tense, and his blue eyes lifted up to the far overhead visage of the distant sister city, its glitter and beauty as entrancing as it was mocking. He’d never actually been inside any of the buildings there, and only rarely on the streets as he had little business Topside, and she was right about the Enforcers sudden presence at the sight of some lowly Zaunite daring to defile their pristine streets.

He wanted to burn it all down, but he didn’t mind the idea of robbing it either. And after all they’d taken from his people, it was more than fair.

He threw one more look to the bustling street to make sure they were safe, before standing and offering his hand to her.

“Lead the way.”

She took his hand as a lopsided grin curled her purple lips. She crawled on top of the bin, then jumped her way to the end of a fire ladder that she yanked down low enough for him to reach. Together they climbed to the top, and set their sights on Piltover.

Silco jumped from roof to roof, and Jinx marveled at his strength and agility, so different from the aging body that she’d come to know so well. She could never in a million years imagine her old man catching his balance on the edge of a storm drain, but here he was in all his graceful glory. There was something almost feline, she thought, about the way he lept and landed. But it was his rare serpentine strength that she most loved, especially when she let herself get so distracted by the odd spectacle of him that she let her foot slip off the edge of the slick metal roof.

Before her heart even had a chance to leap into her throat, his long fingers were wrapped around her forearm, and pulled her slowly back towards him in that careful way she so missed.

“I thought you said you were good at this?” he joshed her.

“Maybe I could use a snack.”

“Mhm,” he looked ahead toward the shining streets of the Topside, “which will it be, then.”

Jinx scanned the apartments, now close enough to see inside. She led him closer, until she could perch and watch for something promising and safe enough to dare break into. Jinx knew if caught, the Enforcers wouldn’t hesitate, and she wasn’t sure if she could die here, but she wasn’t super excited to find out. And Hell if she’d see her beloved take his last breath. Again.

Finally, she saw a dark apartment illuminate. A thin, homely woman came in, looking far too underdressed for the regal nature of the home. She fed the cats and the fish, left with a bag of trash, and seemed to lock the door behind her. Jinx watched the streets, and saw the woman wander to the alley where she disposed of the trash before leaving.

“Psst,” Jinx lightly nudged him before pointing, “Petsitter.”

“Are you sure?”

“You think a Piltie with that kinda place takes out their own trash?”

Silco gave her an affirmative nod. The high towers of the Sister City were too tall to be leapt over, and so they tried to keep their heads down long enough to clamber into the streets and hide themselves amongst the trash bins and water tanks and other unsightly things the elite did well enough to hide away from their precious views. They scaled the residential tower wall, clinging to slick pipes and smooth, decorative moldings that offered so much less form and texture than the gritty and slapdash building style of their Homeland. Eventually, though, they made it to the roof where neither could help but stop and take in the beauty of the Uppercity.

“Nice gettin’ above it all, huh?” Jinx looked at him. But for all his youth, she could see the man that he would soon become, as his doe eyed awe so quickly turned into a sickened, sour scowl.

“Let’s get to it.”

He stepped forward and teetered over the edge. One after the other, they leapt onto the balcony of the penthouse, and crouched before the shining golden doors. Jinx turned the handle. Locked.

“Do you have a pick?”

Jinx gave a snort and pulled out a tiny metal contraption which she fit to the handle, “What am I, a rookie?”

The gadget whirled and set into the lock. A few clicks later, and the door unlatched. Silco watched it with interest as she pulled it back into her hand.

“What is that?” he whispered.

“Lil gismo I made,” she handed it to him.

“Made?” He inspected it with care as she slowly pushed open the door. It was impossibly advanced, at least compared to anything he’d seen. He thought she may be a liar, but then again she was just mad enough to actually be a genius of that sort.

They crawled into the dark apartment and closed the doors behind them. They listened for any signs of an unexpected occupant, but only heard the soft pitter patter of a few fat cats. Jinx stealthed her way to the wall and very slowly turned the knob of the gas lamp up just enough to cast a dim light over the pallacial space. Silco stood, momentarily transfixed by the sheer ornateness of the room. Gold lined the hand painted walls, with furnishings and build-ins so intricately designed that it was almost difficult for his mind to see them as simply chairs and tables and doors. He looked again to the device in his hand before opening his palm to offer it back to her.

“If there were any justice in the world, it would be someone like you living in a place like this.”

“Eh, I’ll pass,” Jinx opened the entryway closet and pulled out a bag. Silco began to follow her, but then paused at the sight of a small statue of a man holding a torch to the sky. It was made of a purple gemstone called Broxtia, a rare mineral that could be mined in only a few spots in the world, and one of those spots just so happened to be at the north edge of the Easternmost fissure in Zaun. His brow arched, and he gently reached out to pick it up. He held it delicately, as he knew so well how brittle the gemstone was.

So brittle, in fact, that the higher ups at those Broxtia reserves refused to let the miners use dynamite to excavate for the sake of keeping as much of the gem intact as possible for delivery. It meant the men had to cut by hand, and the room pillars that held up the makeshift roof were softer than the other mines, and so had to be thicker, too. But the bosses didn’t like too much precious material wasted, and gave orders to thin them down. Silco remembers being on break when the third room collapsed, and just like that the sharp cry of the emergency bells were ringing in his ear even as he stood here, all these miles and years away.

The project only shut down for half a day, though. By that evening Silco and the rest were on the “recovery crew”, though their real job was to recuperate as much product as they could for the company. If they just so happened to be able to pull a body out of the wreckage, well, that was swell, too.

And for all of that, what did they make with it? Silco’s calloused fingers ran over the soft curves of the smooth, shining stone in his hand. A little purple man holding a little purple flame up to Piltover’s clear, blue skies.

“You’re right”, he mused as his fingers curled in and he gripped the tiny idol in his fist, “if there was any justice in the world, nobody would live in a place like this.”

With all his strength, he threw the totem against the floor and watched as it exploded into a million tiny pieces. The violet dust clung to his heel as he stepped over the mess, and he ripped the bag from her hand and went to search the room.

Jinx guessed whatever that little outburst was wasn’t worth explaining, but she frowned as he jolted out of the foyer and disappeared down the hall.

“Where are you going?” she followed after, eyeing the kitchen as they passed.

“To find the jewelry.”

She sprinted after him as he pushed open the huge double doors at the end of the hall. He barely even scanned the room before walking to the vanity and shoving whatever necklaces and bracelets and rings he could reach into the satchel.

“Woah, slow down there, bub. Not like the place is on fire.” Although, later that might be funny, she thought. He paid her no attention, so she reached out to touch his arm, “We really don’t have to rush, ya know. Cat sitter won’t be comin’ back toni–”

Before she knew it his hand was wrapped around her forearm and he was pushing her back against the wall with a fire blazing in his furied stare, “I didn’t come here to play house.”

Jinx’s mouth twisted, and she met his glare with her own. Though she could see through his youthful rage that he held a deep wound, she knew that if he would stop being bullheaded long enough, he could see that the same cut was in her, too.

“No,” the teen replied, “We came here to rob the place.”

Her pink eyes shined bright as she pushed him off her with such alarming strength that Silco nearly fell back from the force of her.

“I can tell it’s your first time, no offense,” she continued, “but the smash n’ grab is kinda childsplay. We got two bags that we have to carry with us while we escape outta this place. So rule one is, don’t fill it with junk.”

Silco held up a wad of jewels and pearls dripping from his hand, “Doesn’t look like junk.”

“Please. You haven’t even found the safe.”

The safe. Right. He knew that…

Jinx turned and pushed open the closet door, “Usually in the closet. Sometimes hidden in a wall or like, a dumb fake bookshelf.”

“I think it’s best to take what we can and leave.”

“Yeesh, can’t believe you used to be so chicken.” She rummaged her way through the closet.

“Mmhm,” she clearly was more practiced at thievery than him, but that didn’t make what they were doing any less dangerous, “Yes, and your bravery is, I’m sure, deeply rooted in reason.”

He watched her freeze mid movement as she was about to toss a dress over her shoulder. He watched her small hand, decorated with those strange multicolored nails, ball into a tiny, shaking fist.

“Hey Sil,” her quiet voice said, though she didn’t turn to look at him, “can you … not call me crazy? Please.”

He blinked, and a sharp chill came over him. The whole room suddenly felt stoney, and he was once again reminded of how foolish he had been all evening by following this unhinged girl around. Here he was in the mouth of the beast, with no one in his own world to be able to tell where he’d gone. But somehow, despite his precarious position, he felt something more than the urge for self preservation. He felt the unusual feeling of guilt overcome him. Something about the strange creature called out to him, and he couldn't tell why, but he didn’t like making her feel alone.

“I only meant,” his voice lightened to placate the unwieldy girl, “I have half a mind to think this is your apartment and you just don’t want a filthy Zaunite taking all your nice things.”

She looked over her shoulder and saw a sly smirk on his face.

“Yeah?” Jinx’s fist loosened, and she stood up with her arms spread wide, revealing the gigantic, cascading dress that flowed out several feet onto the floor between them. She peaked her head over the side of the huge gown, “You think I’ll turn heads?”

The young Silco burst out into another bright laugh, despite himself, and he shook his head.

“I should think that would break their necks.”

He loved her lively giggle.

It was true that the Topsiders averaged a few feet taller than the typical dweller of the Undercity. Of course there were exceptions, like Vander, who somehow got enough fill as a child to meet his full potential. But the rest of them were, well. Stunted, he supposed, was the most fitting term.

“Looks like you could do some damage, though,” the teenager abandoned the garment and reached over to pull out a tailored suit. The man of the house was apparently tall, but thin. It would just take some hemming to make it work.

“Aheh,” Silco scoffed, “Yes, I’m sure that will hold up well in the mines.”

“Who said you’re going back to the mines?”

They both shared a look of confusion to one another. Then she saw it… The one moment in all of time where she could actually manipulate some better than Silco. Trick him into staying with her long enough to actually talk.

She almost felt bad for doing it, too, as she watched his eyes flicker and the moment of realization cross his handsome face. She knew it would collapse. The time loop. It would collapse into the first moment of inception, and none of this will have changed anything.

Except her, she guessed.

But here and now, he was real. Not a figure of a phantom. He was really Silco, really believing that his life had hope enough to change.

“If you get the right stuff here, you’d be set for a while, Silly,” she forced her voice not to crumble as she lied, “You can make your own future. You can do whatever you want to do. Be whatever you want to be.”

She stepped forward, and he held her gaze in silence as she dragged her hand underneath the soft silk of the burgundy colored three-piece, presenting it to him like a holy shroud.

“And anyway, “Jinx continued,” I have this weird feeling that you’d look really good in red.”

Chapter Text

Silco’s powder blue eyes traced the fine gold threading of the suit she held in front of him. Could it really be that easy, he wondered, to escape the Hell of his life? The constant toil, the pervasive emptiness, the callous disregard of a society that only gave respect to those whose palms held the most coins. In their world, wealth was the greatest of strengths, and as it stood the young man didn’t see any path forward for a legitimate claim to that opportunity. At least, not legitimate in the eyes of the law.

But what was that to them? Rules were crafted to support the elites, and no one else. It was a system designed for the subjugation of his people, and as such none of his ilk paid much mind to the law other than how to skirt the ever encroaching reach of the Enforcers.

His fingers stretched out to feel the incredible softness of the fabric she held before him, and before he could think any better of it, he pulled the suit into his own hold for closer inspection. He didn’t think he’d ever felt such fine cloth in all his life, and he was enamored by the idea of finally looking the way he’d always wanted to feel. Like someone worthy. Someone important. Someone powerful.

Jinx took him by the shoulder and turned him toward the mirror. She laid her head against his arm, and gave a playful grin.

“See?” Jinx loved seeing the sight of her beloved next to his signature color again, “it suits ya. Must be your suit.”

She watched him hesitate for a moment, but he didn’t fight her when she began undoing the buttons of his shirt, and let her softly caress the skin of his neck just above the collar.

“Shouldn’t we be looking for the safe?”

“I told you, there’s no rush,” she pushed the filthy shirt from his shoulders, and dropped it on the floor, “A pet sitter’s not gonna come back anytime soon, and in my experience it’s best to lay low until sunrise. Enforcers are most on their guard at night. They’re not gonna be on the lookout to bust a bunch of thieves at the crack of dawn, ya know?”

Provided they didn’t blow the place up.

“Mmhm,” he supposed that made sense. She seemed to know more about burglary than him, anyway, and though he still doubted her sanity, he had to admit she did well enough at holding her own in precarious situations.

“Try it on,” she urged him.

He fidgeted with the material for a moment, seemingly unsure, but then began to unbutton his pants. As he changed, Jinx snooped around to fetch him some shoes she thought might fit. Then, she dug through the vanity for the kind of cufflinks she remembered him wearing. Something metal and bold, but classic.

“Do you want gold or silver?”

“Neither,” he said as he rolled his sleeves, “I’ll take that, though.” He gestured to an ornate leather band with small golden medallions sewn into the hide.

“What, the bracelet?”

He shrugged.

“Pssh,” if she ever figured out how to get back to her own Silco she was going to make so much fun of him.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t realize you were the preeminent fashion critic of Tereshni,” he jeered with that trademark sardonic smirk alongside his aloof yet wickedly acerbic glare before fitting the jewelry to his wrist. He was both so much the same, and yet so wildly different from the man he would grow to be. She wished more than anything that his strange dichotomy didn’t make her fall only ever deeper in love with him.

Or at least, with his ghost. As Silco began to wrap the snug burgundy vest around his broad chest, she couldn’t help but hear the echo of that breathy death rattle from the last time truly saw him alive. In her fragile mind’s eye, she saw smoke, and then bullet holes, and then blood. Suddenly his face seemed to hang as the muscles around his eyes and mouth loosened, and that fiery spark drained from his beautiful, mismatched eyes.

“Wait!” her wavering voice scratched, now trembling and raw.

He paused, and looked up to her surprisingly horrified face. He swallowed as she neared him. Five seconds was apparently all the girl needed to cycle through a whole new range of emotions. He never could tell where they stood, and he was slowly realizing that any effort he might put into wrangling her would only result in abysmal failure, and so he just let her do as she pleased with his vest.

“You missed one,” she explained, her voice even smaller than before as she redid his buttons for him. But she managed to hold back her tears, this time, and gave him an adoring smile as she reached up to tuck his unruly hair behind his ears. She straightened the knot of his tie.

“There,” he stepped back, and for a moment stood in awe of her heavenly recreation, “Perfect.”

He turned again to look at himself in the mirror, and his chest filled with a strange sense of belonging as graceful fingers perfected the edge of his rolled cuff. The suit almost seemed tailored for him, despite the length, and he angled his body a little to get a fuller view of this bizarre yet alluring vision of himself. A glimmer into what could have been had he been born in Piltover. Or perhaps, what could become if this madwoman was as truthful as she was confident.

“Not terrible,” Silco admitted, and lifted his left foot to roll his ankle, “Though the shoes are a bit tight.”

“Yeah, yeah, no need to brag” Jinx teased before grabbing his hand and pulling him back through the bedroom.

“Where now?

“Safe’s not in there, so it’s gotta be somewhere else. Plus I’m like, starving,” she lied, though she knew he must be. She threw a smirk over her shoulder, “Snack break before we ransack the place?”

Silco sighed, but allowed her to lead him back through the hall to the living area, “I suppose.”

He acted reluctant, but in reality his mouth was already salivating at the thought of real food. In the kitchen, Jinx took no time to fling open the icebox, though Silco was already devouring his way through a half spoiled apple by the time she turned around to him, holding up a steak in one hand and eggs in the other.

“Dinner or second breakfast? Hey, don’t eat that. It’s all mushy.”

He shrugged and gestured to the rest of the fruit left to rot in the bowl on the counter, “It’s quick.”

“Winner winner eggy dinner,” at least they were fast. Jinx guessed she should know better. Then again, she reminded herself that she didn’t really know hunger the way her old man did. But now, it was her turn to take care of him, and she smiled with the realization that she probably knew his tastes better than he did. They’d shared breakfast together a thousand times if they shared it once, and she knew exactly the way he liked his toast cut thick with blackberry jam and crisp bacon. He loved sliced peaches, and rosemary potatoes, and scrambled eggs with way, way too much pepper. Seriously, the man had an addiction. It was gross.

But she would let it slide this one time, and began laying everything out on the counter that she needed in order to whip up the most delicious meal she could conjure for her adorable little ghostie.

“A chef, are you?” He eyed her, taking another bite of his apple and peering into the depth of the ice box. So much food, he thought. And half of it left out to putrefy. He began rummaging through the drawers for silverware.

“Eh, I make due,” she watched him pick up a potato, and slapped his wrist.

“Hey!”

“Shoo.”

“I’m helping.”

“I don’t need your help, I know what I’m doing.”

“I was just going to peel it,” he set it down.

“Don’t. You like the skins.”

“Do I?”

“Yup,” she pushed the bread toward him, “Here. Thick slices.”

He took the bread and began cutting.

“Playing house, it is,” he grumbled to himself. This was ridiculous, he thought. Him in this couture suit making breakfast in the night with a lunatic in the single gaudiest home that he had ever seen, and yet something about it also felt lovely. Soothing, even. To feel safe and warm and cared for. He began to see how easy it was for the Topsiders to forget about the Undercity when they had so much tenderness and comfort at their fingertips.

He let her finish the rest of cooking, instead busying himself with the liquor cabinet, and soon enough she was plating over peppered eggs and twirling around the kitchen like a fairy godmother about to bless her woefully famished ward with the gift of nourishment.

“Voila!” she gestured to the little banquet.

“Impressive,” he took a swig of whiskey straight from the bottle and reached down to steal a slice of bacon from the plate.

“Sit down,” she pulled out a chair for him.

“...”, he eyed her, inherently untrusting of kind behavior, but sat anyway and began serving himself, “aren’t you eating?”

“You can go first,” she sat on the edge of the table and watched him with those giant, adoring puppy dog eyes, “I kinda nibbled as I cooked.”

His hand stilled for a moment as he dumped a mound of eggs onto his plate, “Mmhmm.”

His lips hardened, and he threw her another leery look before scratching the back of his ear and instead favoring another sip of whiskey.

“What?”

He didn’t say anything. Then it occurred to her. She rolled her eyes and grabbed a fork, stabbing it into his eggs and lifting it to her mouth for a bite.

“Mmm, yum, delicious,” she glowered, “Ya know, you really are the most paranoid person I’ve ever met. First I’m a honeypot, then I’m a Topsider. Now I’m what, some kinda weirdo poison girl?”

“I didn’t say anything.”

“No, you just get all shifty. Here,” she slunk off the table and crawled her way onto his lap. His back straightened, a little taken aback, but he didn’t bother pushing her off just yet. She continued, “I’ll sit here, and any time you feel weird about something, you can feed it to me. Easy peasy.”

“Feed it to you?”

“Sure. I’ll be your lil food tester like the kings have or whatever.”

She settled into his lap, like it was the most familiar place in Runeterra to her, and handed him back his fork. She was by far the most peculiar creature that he had ever met, but he had to admit that the feeling of her there, the soft weight of her, the way his body knew so easily how to cradle her small form, was uniquely intoxicating. It was at once refreshingly sweet and yet starkly familiar in a way that didn’t quite make sense. But it was probably the least outlandish event of the day, and so he simply sighed in resignation and dug the fork into the plate of potatoes.

He lifted it to her, and watched her bite. He then took one of his own, and gave a small moan in contentment.

“Told ya it’s better with the skin on.”

“Yes, it seems your talents never end,” he picked up a slice of toasted jam and lifted it to her lips, figuring she was the kind of girl who preferred the sweeter things in life. His insight was rewarded with a smile before she chomped down on the bread, and he gave a soft chuckle before he pulled it back to eat himself, “Save some for me.”

“It’s all for you,” she promised, laying her cheek on his shoulder.

He looked at her little blue head below, and stomped down the impulse to take in the scent of her lush hair. Instead, he went back to scarfing down the rest of her creations and ate quickly, only occasionally stopping to feed her something, though only for the joy of doing it. He liked the way the slices of peach slid through her lips, and the sweet nectar of the fruit made the deep color of them glossy and fragrant.

“Why are you so kind to me?” he let himself wonder aloud, though he hardly expected a coherent answer from the girl.

“Why are you so suspicious?” she countered.

“Hmm,” he looked at her like the was the most naive thing on the planet, “Because daddy told me never to take candy from strangers.”

“Yeah, well,” her lips twisted and she fiddled with the lapel of his vest, tracing the ornate detail of the golden thread with her fingertips, “From what I can tell, it's the ones closest to you that you gotta watch out for.”

Close like Vander. Like Violent. Like her.

“Now who’s paranoid?” he teased. The way her heavy eyes looked up to him, though, told him she was speaking from some foul experience. He tilted his head, as if to get a better read on her face, but she just plastered on a phony smile and offered him another slice of fruit. He gave a soft shake of his head and shifted his hips beneath her.

“I’m good, for now,” the young Silco continued. But his lips seemed hungry for something else, as he leaned down to steal the taste of peach from her lips, instead. He thumbed the edge of her waistband, and slipped his fingers inside until he felt the soft curls of her well trimmed pubic hair, “Though a nice dessert might do.”

She gave a soft whimper, and rolled her hips before consenting with another kiss. He smirked, and pulled her up until he could set her against the tabletop. He pushed the hem of her shirt up just enough to free the small mounds of her pert breasts, and before she could even feel the crisp air of night, his hot tongue was swirling its greedy way around her pink, puffed nipple. She was almost too easy, Silco thought, too pliant and giving of herself to him. But then again, he liked the submission, and even more how effortlessly her hips lifted when he began pulling her boots and belts and pants off of her slim figure.

He pushed the plates to the side, far enough for her to lay back, and then pulled her hips to the edge of the table before sitting back down in his chair.

She ran her fingers through his hair in the way she knew he liked, and watched as he flicked his tongue out to taste her sweet center once more. He began to consume her with slow, long licks that seemed to cherish the flavor of her more than work towards her release. In fact, the languid caresses against her folds and soft suckles to her clit seemed almost more for his pleasure than her own, as if she was simply the next dish on the menu, served only to appease his ravenous hunger. But Jinx didn’t mind, and his fingers did at least hesitate long enough at her soaking entry for her to object before pushing themselves through.

She gasped at the feeling of two of his long digits suddenly plummeting inside her tight core, and she wiggled her hips to find relief, only to be held down against the table by his other hand.

“Mmm,” his low growl rumbled between her thighs before he went back to his task, lapping up the delectable juice dripping from her before licking the hood of her erect little bud. He curled his fingers in, finding that tender spot inside her that he knew would drive her mad, and began a steady, pulsating massage against her inner wall. Again, she squirmed, but her soft moans were all the inspiration he needed to hold her steady and devour her in every way he knew how.

Those pink and blue nails became lost in the forest of his wavy brown hair, and she arched her back as shining bursts of pleasure began sparkling throughout her body. And as it turned out, slow and steady would win the race, after all.

“Oh my– Sil!” he heard her cry as her tiny body squeezed against his fingers, and before he knew it his chin and neck and chest were absolutely drenched with the slickness of her quivering pussy.

His lips pulled back into a devilish smile as he looked down at his Jinx-soaked suit. He should have known the girl was a squirter. His eyes lifted to witness the rosy cheeks and crooked smile of her delirium, and he stood to fit his hips between her glistening, open thighs.

“Mmm, you like playing house, don’t you, dear?” the young Silco wrapped his hand behind her neck and pulled her in for a kiss, forcing his tongue inside so that she may taste the tartness of herself before emptying another moan against her lips, “You like to play the little wifey?”

What else could explain the dress up games and pampering and cooking?

But Jinx was still lost in the swarm of her own delight, and could barely focus enough to argue with him, even if she knew it wasn’t right. Besides, he looked almost happy to think it. His eyes shined with a wicked glee that was as taunting and as it was indulgent. Even if she knew better, she didn’t want to break him from the fantasy that it was somehow the domesticity of the situation that enlivened her, some quaint and secure normalcy that neither of them had ever experienced before, and so she simply gave a quiet nod of her head.

“Yeah?” he pushed the palm of his hand against her breast, giving a soft squeeze before jutting his hips forward against her own, “So that’s what a fine wife’s cunt is good for then, hmm? Feeding me?”

Jinx bit her lip, and reached down to unbutton the fly of his pants, her pussy still leaking that thick want onto the lavish wood of the tabletop. But as expensive as the fabric of his getup was, his new breeches did little to contain him as she moved the cloth across his slim waist. He wasted little time pushing his hips forward as she used her hand to lead him to her begging entrance. Her mouth stretched open as she felt him push through that all too sensitive ring of muscle, that despite riding the clutching wave of her orgasm just moments ago, now had to stretch even further to fit the wide head of his overly engorged cock.

“Oh!”

He felt so wonderful, and yet after so many dalliances in such a short timeframe, she was beginning to feel a wrenching soreness between her legs.

But her twisted brow and pitiful wails did little to ease his thrusts into her, and she once again had the gnawing feeling that her pleasure was quite secondary to his own. But like before, she didn’t mind, especially as she was still coming down from the high of her own orgasm, and thus she simply willed herself to relax enough to let him take whatever it was that he needed.

And judging by his fast, vigorous pumps into her, what he needed was a lot.

“Ah, Sil–” she instinctively pushed her hand to his hips, trying to soften the blow, but he responded only with a forceful hand around her throat that led her down against the table until her naked back was flush against the smooth lacquer, and her long braids were hanging down toward the floor.

Whatever insecurity he’d felt mere hours before in the Inn seemed to have vanished like smoke in the wind, and he was relentless in his taking of her. His mouth and hands claimed every inch that he could grapple, by tongue or teeth or touch, until she was something enough like his for the young lover to feel satisfied. All the while he felt the teen’s small hints of encouragement; her soft caress, her shivers, the way she twisted her body to his touch despite her desperate mewls.

For a moment, his eyes left her faultless body, and drifted across the ostentatious nature of the room. This apartment, his dress, the food, the sight of the most beautiful woman he’d ever seen writhing beneath his hand as he disappeared into the warmth of her wondrous bliss over and over again. It was better than any fantasy that he’d concocted in all his thousand and one dreary nights alone. It was too good to be true, he realized, and yet somehow it was happening nonetheless.

As much as it hurt, Jinx loved the feeling that she was finally able to satisfy the tumultuous man. Even though it was alien compared to the constant, kind devotion of her former beloved, something in her still found a thrill in being so absolutely used for the sake of another (so long as that another was her cutiepie Silco). When he was done, she was raw and likely in the beginning stages of swelling, but his soft kiss to her sweating forehead seemed salve enough for her aches.

For a moment, the smell of sex overtook the scent of food, and they were silent for the long spell it took for them to reorient long enough to reclothe and recoup.

Finally, Silco snapped up the flap of his pants again, and watched as she tied on her second boot.

“So, about that safe?”

Jinx internally groaned and slid off the table, her feet thumping heavy on the floor. Stupid safe. It was worth the temptation to keep him here, but now she almost wished she had just bopped him over the head with the butt of her pistol and tied him up until their time was done. At least then he’d be forced to talk to her for longer than five seconds. And she’d even let him respond this time.

But this younger Silco seemed to be much more of a lightweight than her old man, and his eyes already had that heavy lidded, mischievous gaze that the Boss only got when he was in his happy phase of tipsiness. He took the bottle with him, sipping as he scoped out the room. He lifted the edge of a painting and peered at the wall beneath, “You said they were often hidden in walls, and what else?”

“Eh, bookshelves, secret doors, once in a hollowed out sculpture of a gigantic lumpsucker.”

“A what?”

“Big fish.”

“I see,” he pushed his palm against the wall, then ran his fingers across the books on the shelves.

And yet for all their effort, no book pulled toward a secret door. No mirror hid a tiny alcove. No drawer fell into a sunken compartment. For hours they flurried around the rooms, throwing and shoving and ripping the furniture apart until there was little left but the ugly wake of cut pillows and strewn dressers and spilled wine.

At some point, they’d accidentally knocked on the stylus to a record player, and as the music drummed they stopped their carnage long enough to wrap their arms around another and dance across the soiled feathers of the bedroom. Jinx was even more of a lightweight than he was, but between their laughing and passing around the bottle, she could still retain the blips of memories that had something to do with perfumed necks and luxury makeup and a box of toupees that were for some reason tucked into a cubyhole in the guest vanity.

Anyway, somehow they'd come out of it all with purple blush on her cheeks and black mascara on his eyelashes. They both smelled way too much like Babette's whores.

But most excitedly, was the small collection of high crafted knives that Silco took a special liking to. He bored her with the intricacies that made each one more perfect than the last, but she still loved listening to him blab on about it. He was most beautiful when he was impassioned. Yet, she’d made the quick mistake of trying to play with one while distracted by his ever entrancing lure, and was left with a deep cut to her palm.

Still, it was no matter. Silco, even in his youthful state, was as dutiful as ever about tending to her wounds, and after cleaning her cut and bandaging it, he sealed it with a kiss.

“There,” his intoxicated voice slurred, “All better.”

Chapter Text

Eventually, they grew tired of searching, and Silco flopped onto the couch, exhausted.

“I have to hand it to the Topsiders, they’re very good at keeping their money to themselves.”

“We’ll find it,” she promised, sitting cross legged on the coffee table and ripping open a bag of chips before tossing him another peach.

“Yes,” his bleary eyes gleamed with a quiet excitement as he pulled out his new bejeweled pocket knife, and he loved the feel of the peach’s skin giving so easily under its wicked blade, “Rebuild our strength.”

He centered himself across from her, his open knees pressed against the edge of the short table, and lifted the blade to her mouth. She parted her lips, and let him push the sugary slice onto her tongue. He let the steel linger there as he brushed his thumb across the deep purple of her lips before tilting his head, and lightly dragging the pointed edge down her chin and neck to the high line of her cropped shirt. He never pressed hard enough to hurt, or cut, but the threat was there all the same.

She’d seen his violence. She’d felt his desire to use it. On her, even. And despite her willingness to trust him, her heart pounded in her chest, for as much as she yearned for her precious Silco, she knew this wasn’t quite the man she remembered. But she didn’t flinch. She didn’t pull back, or even scowl at him. She just steadied her breath and let him watch her like a black eyed cat toying with a captured mouse.

“Clear our minds,” he continued, wrapping those long claws of his other hand around the back of her neck.

The blade gliding down the curve of her breast felt like a feather, but she was still so relieved to have that piece of fabric between them, however thin, as she’d already discovered from their earlier tango at the Inn that this juvenile variant had a long way to go before he’d mastered the art of dexterous grace. Especially when he was drinking. She watched his eyes flicker in thought, and then felt him push the serrated edge of the blade a little deeper, just beneath her taut nipple. Silco used his thumb to pinch down, pressing her sensitive flesh harder against the sharpness, as if one of her most delicate places was just the skin of another fruit he wanted to peel.

But he didn’t go any further. He simply leaned in for a kiss. His wolfish eyes sunk on her stoic gaze, and his breath poured out of him with such sudden, snaking confidence, that she almost could believe it was her old man before her, after all, “Why did you really choose me?”

Jinx took in a shallow breath, her brow twisting in confusion.

“Choose you? What, at the bar? I told you.”

His tongue made a short, clicking tsk sound as he shook his head and pinched her nipple against he knife just a slight bit harder, “No, you didn’t. You said. I was the easiest…”

He felt her body stiffen, and Silco could feel the slight pressure of her neck against palm as she tried to move back, but he didn’t budge. Instead, his tongue simply ran across the chipped edge of his front teeth, enraptured by the absolute power he held over the gorgeous little thing.

Silco’s voice slithered, “You never said why.”

She exhaled an almost laugh, but there was no joy in her pink eyes when she shook her head. Is that what he’d been thinking about all night? Some stupid lie she blurted out to cover up her crazy bizzaro circumstance? Geez, the guy was more lonely than she thought.

“There isn’t a why, Silly,” her steady stare could almost mock him, but instead she took in all that hurt and pain, and offered back only a look of love and understanding, “I just… figured you would like me because. Because... You remind me of someone who did.”

“I remind you of someone who did?”

She nodded.

“Someone who loved me.”

“Ah, I see.”

His eyes lowered to her breast, and his ears perked at the soft whine she gave when he pressed just that much harder, before finally relenting and grazing the tip of the blade down her perfect stomach to the leather band of her pants. His eyes hooked on that warm center between her legs, already missing the tight hold of her. That succulent wet.

“So, I remind you of your ex?” he slipped the cold metal beneath the band, just lightly tugging the fabric down to expose a little more of her flawless flesh.

“Eh, more like, my father,” Jinx corrected.

His hand stilled and his eyes lifted again to meet hers, “...Your father?”

Jinx gave an unabashed shrug.

He blinked.

For a moment, a look of confusion and even disgust flashed across his face, but then all she could see were two long rows of crooked white as Silco burst out into bright, side splitting laughter. She instinctively flinched from the sheer strangeness of it.

“I’m sorry,” he tried to control himself, pulling his knife back and covering his mouth with his free hand, “That’s–”

Jinx rolled her eyes and crossed her arms over her chest.

Silco tried to compose himself, though he couldn’t totally suppress his tittering while slipping the switch blade back into his pocket, “That was just the very last thing I thought you were going to say.”

“Don’t make fun of me.”

“I’m not,” he shook his head and hid his smile behind his closed fist, realizing for the first time that he probably had a bit too much to drink. But still, that didn’t make what she said any less strange, and he was once again left in that ridiculous feeling of not knowing if he ought to run away from the girl or steal one of the Piltie’s rings and propose to her right then and there. She was lively creature, he’d give her that much.

She let out a huff and stomped her feet against the ground before moving to stand up, “Ugh, you’re worse than Mylo–”

Silco grabbed her waist and tried to keep her from storming away, “No, no, don’t. I’m sorry. I’m not making fun.”

He pulled her toward him until she was straddling his knees, remembering how well she took to sitting on his lap before. It seemed to gain a small amount of submission from the unruly girl, but she kept her arms crossed, and her pout firmly in place.

“Yeah, right.”

Despite her obvious annoyance, he couldn’t help but find those round cheeks and giant glaring eyes cute, and so he softly stroked his thumbs along the sides of her hips as he held her down against him. He’d heard of girls having fixations like this. Daddy issues, his friends called them. Though he’d never heard of a case quite this extreme.

“Does your father know you seek out strange men in bars who look like him?”

“No, you jerk,” she grumbled, then eked out in a tiny voice, “he’s dead.”

His brows pulled back, and suddenly so much of the evening came into a clearer focus. Her erratic behavior, her desperation, her doting.

“Oh,” he uttered in shock.

Jinx’s eyes grew heavy, and she looked away to hide the tears brewing in her lower lids. She bit her trembling lip, desperately not wanting to let her guard down around this callous, sordid doppelganger.

“Oh,” he repeated, though this time in a softer, deeper voice as the cruelty of his behavior finally set into his mind, “I’m sorry. I truly…didn’t mean... I’m very sorry. For your loss.”

Her arms only crossed in harder, and her shoulders curled in, as if hugging herself. His heart sank for her, and he reached out to brush her bangs out of her face, trying to regain her attention.

“Jinx,” he cooed.

“Whatever,” her shoulder rolled, and she moved her head away from his touch, “You just think I’m crazy.”

“No, I,” he shook his head, and tried to find the right words, “I don’t. Genuinely. Grief can make us do strange things. I understand. I myself was inconsolable after my father passed.”

That won him a look. Jinx had never heard Silco speak about his parents before. In fact it was hard to even imagine him as a child, let alone one who was cared for by his own flesh and blood. A family. A real one. Suddenly she was wondering what his home was like. His mother. His bedroom. His toys. His favorite nighttime book. She’d loved him so deeply for so many years, and yet there was so much she didn’t know. And now, she realized would never know. There weren’t enough dragons in the world that would pay for the time it would take to cure her endless curiosities. But she would take what slivers of him she could for now.

“You were? When did he die?”

“He was taken by a sudden illness when I was a boy. I don’t remember what age. Perhaps 10? When did yours?”

“A couple of months ago.”

He gave a heavy exhale, and she believed now that the pain written on his face was empathy, after all.

“What was he like?” she asked.

“My father?”

Jinx nodded, and shifted forward to more comfortably straddle his thighs. He felt inexplicably relieved to have her settled and calm there again, for as much shit he gave the kid, secretly he liked being her favorite seat in the house.

“He was kind,” Silco continued, “Exceedingly so. Though, I rarely saw him. He worked long hours, and. When he did get home he was too exhausted to do much other than eat and rest in his bed. But he gave everything to us. He had no vices, no secret life or quiet cruelties. He was gentle to my mother, even if she wasn’t gentle in return. He was simple. And good. And he…”

He got quiet for a moment, and his eyes slid away into some foggy memory. Jinx tilted her head, and uncrossed her arms.

“Yeah?”

“He had a love for broken animals. I remember once, a small yellow warbler flew into our window, and shattered its wing. Anyone in their right mind would simply put the poor thing out of its misery. But he kept it in a box on his night table for months. Feeding it sugar water and whatever creeping insect was crawling across our floors. He’d take it outside, and give it a little boost in the air. Yet every time, the crippled bird would flutter about, and then fall. But he’d catch it just in time with the cup of his hands.”

Jinx smiled.

He continued, “But my father kept to it. And one fine day, when he boosted the bird into the air, it took off. I’d never seen him so happy.”

“No way.”

“Oh, but it didn’t go far. Silly dolt would hang around the windows still. Hoping for more sugar water, and insects, I presume. And maybe the company of an old friend.”

“That’s actually pretty sweet.”

“It was. Though, after he died we couldn’t afford to keep up with the maintenance or rent, and eventually the place decayed into a state of disrepair. I tried to shoo the warbler away, or even capture it. But the little yellow bird had made up its mind that my father was all there was to its life. It couldn’t understand that he had gone. I came by some weeks later after the eviction for a pot my mother had left in a cupboard, and saw its golden feathers on the nightstand. Stupid thing must have flown in while we were moving and gotten trapped. It died in the one place it felt safe.”

The girl was strangely still, and quiet. He feared he’d hit an ugly nerve.

“Sorry,” he chortled, “I talk too much when I drink.”

“No,” she shook her head, “He just sounds like. Kind of like mine.”

“Mmhm,” Silco gave her a soft smile, “You said he loved you a lot?”

Jinx nodded.

“We were all we had…”

“How did it happen?”

Her breath rose, and she stared at him like a deer in headlights.

“Or,” he backtracked, “You don’t have to answer.”

“He was shot,” she offered anyway, watching him closely.

“Gods, how awful,” his brow furrowed, “Did you find who did it?”

Her mouth twisted and she gave a half shrug, “I mean. Kinda I guess? It was an accident, though. Or. Maybe not an accident. But…”

Her arms pulled around herself again, and she began twisting her fingers together, ducking her head to her chest as if she was trying to make herself small enough to disappear. Silco leaned forward, placing his hands on her upper arms and offering soft strokes of comfort.

“It’s okay,” he consoled her, “I shouldn’t have asked.”

She shook her head, “No, I. I want to talk, I just.”

Jinx moved in even closer until she could lean her head on his shoulder and press herself against his chest. Silco wrapped his arms around her, and held her there for a long, quiet moment, again silently marveling at how perfectly she fit.

“I don’t wanna scare you,” she mumbled.

“Jinx,” he gave a soft smile, “Why in the world would you scare me?”

“Because,” those giant pink eyes flashed back up to him, but this time she couldn’t keep back her tears when she confessed, “I did it.”

She could tell that he was trying to hide his reaction, but she knew him too well to not know what those shifting eyes and deepened breath meant. She stopped twisting her own nails together long enough to grasp his shoulders, wanting so badly for him to keep holding her despite whatever worry or fear or revulsion he was experiencing right now.

“I’m really sorry for it,” she wept. Silco simply nodded his head, trying his best to process it all.

“It’s okay. It was an accident,” he echoed.

She gave a soft mewling sound, and played with the lapel of his vest like a nervous child afraid of being scolded, “It wasn’t a… total accident. But I didn’t wanna do it. I promise. Silco, he. He was going to hurt my sister. And I just. Reacted. But I didn’t want to. I promise you, I didn’t want to.”

Her voice shattered into sobs, and he held her trembling form just a little tighter.

“I wish I could take it back.”

“Don’t cry,” he cooed, “I believe you.”

“...you do?”

“You don’t exactly look happy about it,” he whispered sweetly, wiping away a tear from her reddening cheek.

Jinx tried to catch her breath, pulling in a few quiet sniffles and leaning her face toward his kind touch.

“Sometimes I… I feel like. I’m gonna crumble into dust,” she winced, “Sometimes I want to.”

Silco swallowed, unsure of how to navigate her vulnerable nature. But despite all his mistrust, and evil ideations of crushing her fragile form for the mere pleasure of possessing her without fight, it pained him to see the wild girl broken, after all.

“I hope… you don’t mind my saying. But, you really ought not to feel so guilty,” he ventured, “It sounds like you did what you had to do to protect your sister. Honestly, a man who would hurt his own child isn’t deserving of much mercy.”

“He didn’t hurt me,” she scowled, suddenly so defensive, “Never. Not even when I would hurt him.”

“I meant your sister,” he clarified.

“What, Vi? Oh, she wasn’t his kid,” Jinx scoffed, “She was more like, his best friend’s kid.”

“Oh…” Silco’s brow twisted, trying to piece together that odd family tree for a moment, but then deciding it didn’t matter, “Regardless, he shouldn’t have put you in such a position in the first place. Forcing you to make that choice, with as much as you didn’t want to make it. It’s not right.”

“I think he thought… he was protecting me.”

“That may be so,” Silco agreed softly, “But it still doesn’t make this your fault.”

“But it is. Everything is. I always screw up,” she argued, “It’s how I got my dumb name.”

“I thought you said your father gave you that nickname?”

“Not originally, but. He told me to find power in what I fear. What other people thought was weak. He said Jinx was perfect. That was the last thing he said, actually…”

“That you were perfect?”

She nodded, tears once again flowing down her blazing cheeks.

“Well, there you have it, then. Even your father doesn’t blame you for what you did. If he could forgive you, so should you.”

“You think he forgives me?” her voice brightened, if only through tears.

“Of course.”

“Would you forgive yours? If,” she shifted, taking another breath and placing her hands against his chest to feel just the faintest beat of his heart through his clothes, “If your daughter betrayed you like that?”

“I don’t think I would see it as a betrayal,” he tucked her loose bangs behind her ears, “I think I’d understand. I’d only be very sad that I couldn’t be there for her anymore when she needed me."

Her lips began to tremble again, “I want more than anything to go back. I could do something different. I could save them both.”

“Hm,” he gave a knowing nod, “I’ve had that thought many times before, myself. If I could only change the past with what I know now. Sadly, we can’t.”

Jinx groaned and rolled her eyes, “Ugh, I know. That’s what the stupid wizard keeps telling me.”

“Aheh, sure… But you know, I don’t think just because someone’s gone, that means our love disappears. My father isn’t here anymore, but my love remains. I like to think, even his does. In some strange way. It’s a big thing, love. I don’t know that it can be contained in such little spaces as our bodies.”

Jinx gave a small giggle.

“What?” he asked.

“You do talk a lot when you’re drunk.”

His eyes narrowed on her in a playful glare, “And here I was being nice to you.”

“I didn’t say I didn’t like it,” she lifted her head up just enough to rub the tip of her nose against his. Silco smiled. Jinx laid her head on his shoulder, and let her weight sink into him the way she had so many times before.

“You think he still loves me? Even though he’s gone?”

Silco laid the side of his cheek atop her blue crown and spoke so softly that the low gravel of his voice tickled her inner ear, “I do.”

It felt as if the river of time stilled, at last. Everything was static, and quiet, and tranquil. Every nerve in her body screamed out all at once and then fell into total silence. A blissful calm. A perfect peace. She could feel the hot tears still pouring out of her, but somehow it didn’t seem to hurt as much. Jinx took a deep, steadied breath, and then drifted away to that beautiful, black oblivion where reality and fantasy blurred, and where both wishes and fears emerged only to be lost again to the waking world.

The next thing she knew, she was pulling her head up from a pool of sticky drool.

“Ick,” she wiped her mouth with her hand, and tried to dab the slobber off his shoulder with the couch’s throw blanket.

“Ungh?” the man’s head lifted, and only one heavy lid managed to open wide enough to peer through his thick, heavy lashes.

“Crap,” Jinx shot up, “We fell asleep.”

She sprung to her feet, nervously looking around the apartment. Silco held a hand to his aching head as he glanced at the unfamiliar setting, wondering just where the Hell he was. Jinx began frantically pulling out the remaining books off the shelf, throwing them over her shoulder without regard.

“Where–”

Oh, yeah. The Topside. The apartment. The danger of even being in a place like this, let alone ransacking it the way they did. But the darkness outside comforted him, and he threw a glance to the nearby clock. 5:07 a.m. Still time enough to get out before dawn, if only barely.

“OW!” Silco seethed as a book slapped him across the face.

“Oof, sorry!”

“What are you doing?”

“Looking for the safe.”

“I think that ship might have sailed.”

“No, but I,” her voice suddenly sounded brittle, “I let us fall asleep.”

“No more your fault than mine,” he shifted forward, stretching his back.

“I promised a safe.”

Or, she practically did. And now they were running out of time. The young man looked around the apartment, but then shrugged with a thoughtful tilt of his head.

“Eh,” he surrendered, “We gave it a decent shot.”

He stood and walked to her, his tall form leaning down low enough to plant another kiss atop her head. She turned around to him, only to feel the thick edges of the bookshelf press against her spine. His breath smelled like old whiskey, but she happily took the kiss he gave, and stole one of her own from his thin, yet perfectly smooth lips.

“Are you mad?”

“No,” he smirked, “You really should stop assuming the worst of people, you know.”

“You’re one to talk.”

His smile widened, but his inhibitions were back enough to keep his jagged teeth from showing.

“Fair enough. But it wasn’t a total waste. I got a good meal,” his eyes lowered to that meeting of their hips, “Or two.”

Jinx wrapped her arms around his shoulders and jumped up enough to encircle her legs around his firm waist.

“Yeah?”

“Mmhm,” his blue eyes deepened their gaze on her, “Anyway. The jewels we found might not be enough to retire on, but they are enough to quit the mines for a while. Long enough to get something of my own started, gods willing. And that will have been because of you.”

Her lips pulled up into a sideways grin, “Eh. You were always gonna do something great, with or without me.”

“Something great?”

She nodded.

“True power. Yada yada.”

“Aheh,” he pulled in the scent of her, and gripped her hips almost tight enough to bruise, “Do you still have a plan to get us out of here at dawn?”

“Yep,” she whispered in his ear before her tongue began tracing the irregular edge of his hanging lobe. He rewarded her with a slow kiss to her neck. Her collar. Her shoulder.

“Then I guess we’ll have to find some way to pass the time,” the young Silco whispered. She gave a soft giggle, and squeezed her thighs tighter. He was so corny when he was her age, but honestly, she thought it was one of the cuter traits of his otherwise tragic youth.

The star crossed lovers didn’t waste time peeling off each other’s clothes. They unbuttoned and yanked and discarded only enough to be able to find one another, again. After having him so many times in such a short interval, Jinx was almost shocked at how easily he was able to slip inside, and yet that effortless succumbing didn’t feel any less heavenly or divine. Still, she relished the throaty moan he gave when she squeezed her muscles down deep.

Silco almost questioned if this was wrong, given everything he knew now. But she was so irresistibly wet, and every shred of guilt he might have felt melted in the first long stroke he made into her flawless, cloud covered body.

“Ah!” her girlish voice cried out. He felt her hands dig into his shoulders, and he firmed his grip on her only more as he drove himself further and further until his hips were fully flush against hers. He watched her pale cheeks flush, and the pink of her eyes shrink as the ebony of her pupil consumed her hazy sight. Her head tilted back, giving him a better sight of her small but long lined body. Her perky breasts and waning waist and slim thighs. He hated to think it again, especially with the words of her father now ringing in his ears, but yes. She really was something close to perfect.

He pulled his hips back, slowly, and then pushed in all the way again. They were short on time, and as close as he felt to her now, he knew she was a free spirit, and by all accounts he may never see her again after the sunrise. If he had the chance to make love to her, truly make love at least once, now was the time. He pressed a yearning kiss against her lips, slipping his tongue inside as he continued his steady, yet gentle pace.

Jinx’s body hummed with that so familiar ecstasy, and yet one she hadn’t wholly felt in months. Those deliberate strokes, that affectionate hold. She felt every gorgeous inch of him, his warm skin and delirious-making girth that stretched her so wonderfully wide, igniting that burning heat which throbbed so deep inside of her. She angled her hips forward, hoping for him to hit that most sensitive spot. To her relief, he pushed his hand beneath her, and held her in that sublime position until her teeth grit and she began chanting some incoherent, yet worshipful garble somewhere along the lines of “Yes, there, there, yes, Silco, yes, Silco, Sil, Sil!”

He’d never loved his own name more than now. He continued his tender but unyielding assault on her sweet cunt, and tried his best to keep his eyes from rolling into the back of his head from those endless waves of pleasure that seemed to ripple through every ounce of his being. He didn’t want to stop until he felt her walls quiver and her muscles seize. And yet, he couldn’t let go of her long enough to lend her a helping hand.

“Rub for me.”

“Ahuh?”

“Yeah,” he looked down at that heart shaped tuff of hair between her thighs. He nodded, and she obeyed with enthusiasm.

“Good girl,” he kissed her neck, and continued rocking his hips into her, now with more powerful thrusts. That purring voice saying those words felt almost as good as the rest, and she dug her fingernails into his shoulder as her other hand swirled around her engorged bud.

“Please, yes, Silco,” her hypnotic little hymn continued to spill out of her.

“Very good girl,” he whispered again, and he could hear the slick sound of her sex rise as she drew that much closer to that rapturous release.

The smooth silk of his vest, the smell of his dark alcohol, the sheer affection that oozed out of him as he held her, it all felt so like him again. Her version of him. She closed her eyes, and tried to believe what the young Silco said about love traversing time. She tried to feel the love he would have for her, did have for her, and let herself fall into the dream that this feeling he was giving her was real. She tried to memorize every glittering sensation, and seal it in the amber of her memory so that she would never again forget that absolute feeling of home.

“I’m close, she heard his shaky voice whisper beside her ear. But she only wrapped her legs around him tighter, and dug her nails in deeper into his back.

“Me too,” she whined, “Don’t stop.”

‘Jinx–”

“Don’t stop, please, please–”

“Augh–” his long, muscled arms tightened in their hold, and he tried once more to resist giving in to that warm, fitted hug just long enough to edge her across the finish line. He did his best to angle himself so that the head of his cock massaged against her little place of euphoria, but his own bliss began to rapidly overwhelm him. He felt her walls begin to tremble around him, and though he thought that maybe he should pull out, despite her insistence, he wanted to ride that wave with her, and so he simply gave another few hard pumps before his jaw unhinged with a deep, bellowed moan and he sheathed himself fully as her taut muscles clenched in around him.

It was the hardest she’d come in ages, and it was only made better by the warm fill of his seed spilling inside of her. The world splintered out of existence, and for a long and perfect moment, there was nothing in the universe but their spent and satisfied bodies tangled into one another, hopelessly entwined in arms and legs and love, they way they should always be. Snug and safe and together, in a warm cocoon of their own making.

But no night can last forever.

As the dawn broke over the horizon, Silco and Jinx bagged up all of the most expensive items they could gather, and they set out to find their way back home. He boosted her back onto the roof, and she leaned her arm down and pulled him up with her monkey-like shimmer strength. They glanced over the edge of the roof, and waited for the lone Enforcer to wander off with his coffee and donut before making their descent. They cleared the alleyway, and resurfaced to the roofs where they felt safer, leaping and ducking and sliding through the more familiar crevices of Zaun.

Slowly, the pale blue light of the morning gave way to a golden hue. Silco again made the treacherous leap to the slick roof, and just as before, he caught his balance on the drainpipe. He looked over his shoulder to her, and extended his hand to signal that he would capture her, even if she fell.

Jinx took a deep breath, gave a running start, and jumped–

BAM!

Her head smacked against the rough edge of the wall. She slumped down, but to her surprise, there was the hard wood of a floor just inches beneath her feet.

“Ack–” she rubbed her head, and groaned before opening her eyes to the dim, hazy flicker of candlelight. She smelled that familiar scent of incense and sulfur and the other stinks that magics usually required.

Just as the stars stopped swirling around her head, she heard the coarse growl of the Wizard’s voice, “Are you well?”

She looked up to the visage of Groluq’s wholly unconcerned face peering down at her. She turned back to see the swirling mass of black glitter collapse in on itself. The loop was closed. Their time was done.

Jinx hung her head in sorrow.

The sorcerer stood quietly for a moment, but then took a step closer to the heartbroken teen.

“If you want more time, I will require further payme–”

“No.”

Her voice was both frail and sure. She pressed her hands against the floor, and willed herself to stand back onto her feet.

“I see,” Grolurq raised his chin, “Then I am to understand that you had your day?”

“More like a night,” she looked to him, “But yeah.”

“You’re hurt?”

He gestured to her wounded hand. Jinx stared at it silently for a moment. She guessed she really could get hurt in there, which might have been a nice thing to know going in. But it was a moot point by now, so she just gave a soft shrug, “I’ll live.”

He bowed his head to her.

Jinx felt herself leave the barrier of magic once she stepped outside of his door. For all the hours she’d spent inside, almost nothing had changed in the real world. But then she reminded herself of what the Wizard said. That the loop was real. That it happened, in its own freaky space, even if it didn’t change anything about now. Whenever now was.

But more importantly, she reminded herself of what her father said. That love wasn’t something to be contained in bodies, or life, or even death. Time was just a thing that held the world. It seemed as if a river that was flowing endlessly toward an infinite expanse, but in truth, there was no limitless yonder in which they were all flowing towards. Her past was just as real as her present, which was probably just as real as her future. Or at least, that’s some wackadoodle thing the Wizard would say.

But she believed the love part. She believed that their passion burned so strong that it had seared itself into the very fabric of the universe, and there was nothing that could scrub off a branding like that. She found solace in the thought that all those glittering moments of their life together– their first hair braiding, their first bomb making, their first kiss– still existed somewhere out there, sewn irrevocably onto the tapestry of life. That even though he was now ash, and one day she would be, too, their love was unconquerable and undefeatable, even to Chronos himself.

And still, a part of her only wanted to run to the nearest mountaintop, and lay a gnarly trap for the next dragon on the list. But she heard the childish chirpings of baby birds overhead, and she didn’t need to look up to know their color.

That pain that feels like it will eat you from the inside, she heard his words echo, can either break you, or forge you into something greater.

The young woman took in a deep breath.

“Okay,” Jinx promised as she held her head up toward the weary sight of the long road ahead, and though it took every ounce of strength that they had built during their too short years together, she took a step forward, knowing well that it was just the first of many more to come.

Chapter Text

Hey guys! Just wanted to let you know that this fic is now a series, with two new chapters posted in the follow up fluff fic "A Jilco Carol". Sorry if you already got a notification, I don't know how turning a one shot into a series works on this site.

But, if you want some good ole fashion Jilco Time Travel goodness with the added bonus of Holiday fun, head on over there! Otherwise, Happy Holidays!!!!