Work Text:
Ekko notices the blue hair at the back of his chemistry class just as it ends on the first day and forces himself to turn back to the front of the room and take a deep breath. Blue hair doesn't automatically mean her. The odds of her being at this school to begin with are infinitely small, much less ending up in the same class as him. And even if it somehow is her, she's all the way at the back of the lecture hall and he's all the way at the front. They'll never be assigned to work on anything in class together, there's no way she arrives as early as he does to class so there's no chance of running into her that way, and there's a different lab every day of the week, so the chances of them being in the same lab and getting assigned as partners for that lab are basically nonexistent.
That's what he told himself at least. It's what he repeated in his head every moment he was in that class for the first two weeks of the semester until the day finally came for him to walk into the lab for the first time. From what other students had told him, most lab TAs let you pick your own seat, and then whatever person ends up sitting next to you at your table is the one you'll be stuck with for the rest of the semester. But of course, Ekko got stuck with the one TA who decided to go for the assigned seat route. And of course, when he takes a peak at the name of his lab paper on the sheet, he finds her name marked there.
He can't switch labs, the other options are all during his other classes during the week, and this TA doesn't seem like someone who would take kindly to him asking to be moved to a different spot… shit, this is really happening, isn't it? He moves to sit at his assigned seat and ready his materials as if everything was fine until at the very last moment before they were set to start, Jinx walked in the door and plopped down next to him.
“Jinx.” He says shortly in greeting.
“Ekko. Fancy meeting you here.”
“I could say the same thing. I didn’t realize they were letting psychos attend nowadays.”
“Well how else do you think you got in?”
Ekko scowls. This is going to be a long semester.
The worst thing about having to work with Jinx once a week during lab, is that she’s actually really smart. Part of Ekko is aware that he’s always known this, but the fact that when they actually manage to really get into a flow during lab they do, in fact, work well together, just seems to add salt in the wound that is their relationship. It’s like taking a peek into what could have been if things had gone differently. Then there are days when her issues really come to the surface, on those days it seems like they can barely get through a single sentence without totally snapping at each other. If they were back home he’s absolutely sure they would have tried to kill each other at least three times by now, or at least gotten into a physical fight. Today he feels pretty close to just punching her in the face anyway, consequences be damned. She’s snippier and twitchier and just generally acting more explosive than he’s seen her the entire semester.
“What’s got you on the fritz today anyway?” He finally snaps at her after one of her own blowups at him.
She bares her teeth at him, but flops dramatically back down onto her stool. “It’s my sister.”
Ekko feels his heart swell a bit, he hasn’t seen Vi since she was carted off to juvie all those years ago. “Vi?”
“The one and only.”
“I thought… I thought you guys were okay now.”
“More like taking it day by day.” She blows her bangs out of her face only to let them fall right back where they had been.
“So what’s going on then?”
Her icy glare finds him so fast he almost flinches. “Why do you care?”
She’s got a point, this small talk shit hasn’t really been a nicety they’ve entertained all semester so far. Ekko shrugs. “I haven’t seen Vi in years, sue me, but I’m curious.”
Jinx scoffs. “She wants me to meet her at the bar tonight to meet her stupid girlfriend.”
Ekko can’t help but smile at that. “Vi’s finally getting laid? That’s probably good for everyone around her.” Jinx just scowls at him, so he rolls his eyes and looks back down at the worksheet. “Why is meeting her girlfriend a bad thing?”
“Because she’s leaving me again. For some… for some girl.”
That makes Ekko look back up. Jinx looks genuinely anxious, her fingers twirling her pencil, her leg bouncing under the table, her teeth chewing on her bottom lip, her eyes darting all around the room. She’s actually worried that that’s true.
“Jinx, if there’s one thing I know about Vi, it’s that she’d do anything for you. She’s not gonna ditch you just cause she’s seeing someone.”
“What do you know? You haven't been around in years! You ditched us the second shit hit the fan!”
Ekko’s jaw clenches and he forces himself to go back to the worksheet in front of him. “You’re an idiot.”
Later that night, he finds himself standing at the door to The Last Drop. It looks like Vi closed down shop early for the personal party. His breath catches in his throat when his eyes land on Vi for the first time in years, and sure enough, she’s got a pretty, rich looking girl standing next to her. He also sees a handful of people who look like they’re probably a few years older than Vi and her girlfriend, to his surprise he actually recognizes one of them as Councilor Medarda. Then there’s Jinx. Shoulders hunched, leaning against the bar, fist clenched tight around a barely touched drink, looking like she would rather smash her glass into Vi’s girlfriend’s face than continue the conversation they’re having. Ekko wouldn’t put it past her to do just that, either. So, with a deep breath, he pushes the door open and walks in.
Every head in the room turns to look at him and Vi’s face splits into a wild grin. “Little man.”
“Hey, Vi.”
Within seconds, Ekko finds himself wrapped into a bone crushing hug, when his breath stutters he tells himself it's because he can’t breath from the pressure, but he knows that’s not true as he holds Vi back as tightly as he can manage. When she finally pulls back she lifts a hand to his cheek for a moment before roughly ruffling his hair. “You look good, little man.”
“You too.” He responds lamely, finding himself at a slight loss for words.
“Cait, get over here!” Vi calls out and then her girlfriend is there too. “This is Ekko, we grew up together.”
“It’s nice to meet you, Ekko.”
He manages a smile and a slight shove at Vi’s shoulder. “Not bad.”
Vi laughs and claps him on the back. “You want a drink?”
“That is what you normally do at a bar.”
“Oh, so you just came here for the drinks, then?”
“I guess the company’s not too bad so far.” He can feel Jinx’s eyes on him as he moves with Vi and Cait back to the bar, but he ignores it in favor of catching up with his old friend.
It’s at least an hour later that he finally wanders away from Vi to lean against the back wall next to Jinx. They're both silent for a few minutes, watching Vi talk to, as Ekko learned their names are, Jayce and Viktor.
“What the hell are you doing here, Ekko?” Jinx asks, sounding exhausted.
Ekko shrugs. “It’s like you said, I haven’t seen Vi in ages, it was beyond time we finally caught up.”
“You could’ve done that anywhere, anytime. Why here, why now?”
He glances at her out of the corner of his eye only to accidentally meet her gaze. It’s the first time she’s held anybody’s gaze all night from what he could tell. “You were totally freaking out in class today. I figured that if I showed up tonight, maybe it would take some of the heat off of you.”
“We’re not friends.”
“No, we’re not. But we used to be, and that still means something to me.”
Lab is more… amicable, after that. Jinx still oscillates between manic and depressive most days, and still can't get through a single class without bickering, but it's not so pointed now. It's like a sort of truce was drawn up between them and neither of them are quite sure how to operate in the newly non-hostile territory.
By the time the final project of the semester rolls around, they've hit their stride in terms of working together, so when Ekko sees the excited gleam in Jinx's eyes as she reads through the project parameters, he leans back in his seat and smiles lightly.
“So then, what are we doing?” He asks.
She turns to him with mild shock on her face. “You're… letting me pick our final project?”
He shrugs, trying to act casual while forcing himself to stop staring at her, a bad habit he's gotten into as the semester has gone on. “You've got that look in your eye, so I really doubt I could stop you from doing whatever it is you're thinking anyway.”
He ignores the way his breath catches slightly when she grins, and then they get to work.
They spend nearly a full month working together in and out of class, they've even taken to studying for their normal classes together. The room they use each time they go to the library has slowly become “their” room, and Ekko's bad habit of staring at Jinx has only gotten worse. He can't help it though, the more he sees her in her element like this, the more he's reminded of why he had a crush on her when they were kids.
He's not the only one staring though, he's caught her looking at him plenty of times too, but he's really not sure how to approach the situation, especially when they're still in the middle of this project. Whatever, they can figure that out later, assuming they're even still talking when they don't have this class to give them an excuse.
Their finals roll around before they know it and they make it through their chem lab presentation with ease. When their final grades get posted, Ekko finds himself rushing to their room in the library. They still haven't exchanged numbers, and they didn't make any kind of plans to meet there, but he went anyway and to his mild surprise, there she was, sitting on the table, scrolling away on her phone.
“Jinx!” He says, still trying to catch his breath after running there.
She looks up at him and smiles. “Ekko! Fancy meeting you here.”
“Did you see the-”
“The grades? Why else would I be here?”
Ekko cant help but smile at her. “And here I thought you just enjoyed my company.”
“You? Never. But you did help me pass chemistry with flying colors, so maybe I can cut you a little slack.”
He wants to kiss her. Or at least hug her or something! She's stood up from the table now, they're maybe a foot away from one another, it would be so easy to just reach out. But he doesn't know if she wants that or if he's just being hopeful.
“We make a pretty good team.” Ekko settles on saying, holding his hand out for a fist bump.
Jinx looks at his outstretched hand like she simultaneously thinks he’s adorable and insane. “You’re an idiot.”
Ekko blinks. “What?”
Then her hands are in the collar of his shirt and she’s pulling him into a kiss.