Prison Break

Part 6

They were wrong. They were so wrong. Vi loved her, she wasn't gonna leave her again. Even if she only had a few days left. Vi was gonna be there. And those tattoos. All over her. Vi got them, so she'd be reminded of her! She'd wanted to be reminded of her! All the time! She'd wanted to be reminded of her all the time! Even after...
She closed her eyes as she felt Vi's arms coming around her again. This was nice. This was really nice, just being here with Vi like this. Kinda like when she was... Well, maybe she still was. Or... could be... again... maybe? Well, Vi thought she was. Yeah. Y-yeah. Powder. That was her. That was her, she was Powder.
"So. I think I know how to make you feel a little better," said Vi. "Your eyes must feel pretty sore."
Powder opened her eyes again, and it was only really now that she realized how much they hurt. "Yeah. Yeah, how'd you know?"
"I've... felt like that a lot," said Vi. "Come on."
"Okay." Powder moved to get up, then looked down and remembered for the first time in a while that she was still wearing Vi's jacket. "Oh." She pulled it off her shoulders. "Here." She held it out to her.
"Oh! Thanks." Vi took it as they both stood up from the couch, and put it back on. "Okay. Over here, come on." They went around the couch, and Vi led the way into the bathroom.
Once they were there, Vi wetted a washcloth and pressed it gently against the side of Powder's face. The water was warm, it felt good. It made her face feel a little less stale and sore as Vi started to move it up and down. Powder let her eyes close again as she felt it move across her cheeks and forehead. "Feel better?" she heard Vi say after a bit.
"Yeah. Yeah, that... that feels a lot better."
"Good." She found herself smiling as she felt the wet cloth on the back of her neck. "I've, um... Cait's... done it a... a few times for me."
Powder looked up at her. "Wh... Why would you need to..."
She stopped as she just saw her reflection in the bathroom mirror. She turned and looked at it better. It wasn't... her. That wasn't her, that... That was Jinx. But... But it was her. It was still her. She was still... No!
"That's who you are," said Silco. "You see? You can't escape it."
"N... No! I'm not... That's just..."
"That's always been you," said Mylo. "You know it. She'll figure it out pretty soon."
"No, she... J-just... shut up!"
"Powder?" She suddenly felt Vi's hand on her shoulder. She looked back at her, then pulled away.
"You know she won't be fooled for long," said Silco. "And when she finds out, she'll just..."
"No!" She ran out of the bathroom! She had to get away from Vi! She couldn't let Vi see her! She had to get away from Vi!
After a bit of running, she stopped. Her head was throbbing with voices, sounds, memories! They wouldn't stop, they just got louder, and louder, and louder!

"I can't lose you."
"She jinxes every job!"
"Vi, it worked!"
"Your sister is Jinx?!"
"You did this?"
"I am your family."
"Why did you do this?"
"Everyone else betrays us."
"I only wanted to help!"
"Powder! Leave her out of this!"
"Her name, is Jinx!"
"I only wanted to help!"
"You see? Now, finish it!"
"DAMNIT, POWDER! WAKE UP!"
"I only wanted to help! I only wanted to help!"
"They will never understand."
"I TOLD YOU TO STAY AWAY!"
"I never would have given you to them... Not for anything."
"WHY DID YOU LEAVE ME?!"
"You're perfect."
"BECAUSE YOU'RE A JINX! DO YOU HEAR ME?"

Something came down on her shoulder and the opposite cheek! She brought her head up and saw Vi's face extremely close to hers. She looked confused, scared. She should be. She should be scared. "Powder... What's happening?" She took her eyes down and away from her. "It's fine. It's okay, just... please, talk to me."
"I-I... Y-you were right, I... I'm just... J-just a jinx! Just a jinx, I... I'm just a jinx!"
"No. No, you're not." Vi's voice was firm, but still soft. She lifted her head up a bit, so they had to meet eyes again. Vi rubbed her cheek, and lowered her voice to be even softer. "You're not."
She swallowed hard. "I-I... I killed them! A-all of..."
"I know. It was an accident, Powder, you didn't... You were just trying to help."
She nodded. "Maybe... M-maybe you shouldn't... try to help me get better."
"Don't say that. If this can be stopped or... even just slowed down, I want as much time with you back as I can get. As... long as you're not... in pain all the time, I..." She took a breath. "I wouldn't... want you to just be constantly in pain." She looked at her for a minute, she felt a little calmer. They were a lot quieter now. Then, she brought a hand up and pressed Vi's closer. She felt better when Vi was touching her. "That's better. Okay... You still want that soup? It's probably not hot anymore, but..."
"Yeah. Yeah, I'm still... I never really got to eat, did I?"
"Alright. You okay with me helping you now?"
"Yeah. I guess so, yeah."
"Okay. Come on." Vi helped her up, and they went back to the couch.
Once they'd sat down, Vi found where the spoon had gotten to, then dipped it in the soup. It felt kinda weird being fed. Well, better having it be from Vi than one of those stupid guards back at the prison. Vi was careful, and she talked to her as she was feeding her. She said she was going to take her to the Firelights, that Ekko might be able to help her. Ekko? Oh. Last time she saw him, she... Oh. Vi seemed to know what she was thinking, though, because she told her he wasn't mad at her, that he wanted to help her however could.
Once she was up to it, the two of them would get on an airship that would take them out of Piltover. She wasn't sure where they were going yet, though. "Well, you know... I used to... borrow... a book or two from Silco once in a while. Most of the time, they were BORING!" Vi laughed a little. She smiled. "But... some of them were about other places. I thought some of them sounded... pretty interesting."
"Oh, yeah?"
"Yeah."
Vi gave her the last spoonful of soup, then took the bowl back into the kitchen. "Do you... I mean... Did you ever want to see any of them?"
She thought for a minute. "Targon. Targon always sounded like... Oh! That... All that would be something to see, just... Oh! And Ionia! Ionia would be pretty cool!"
"Wo, hold on! Caitlyn has a book with a world map in it... somewhere around here." She went into a room for a minute, then came back with a big green book, and sat down next to her. "Okay... Let's see what we've got here." She flipped through the pages until she found the map and put it down on the coffee table. "Wo! Two... really faraway places from each other, Powder."
"Well, we need to get faraway from here, don't we?"
"True..." They both looked down at the map, and Vi traced roughts to the places she'd mentioned from Piltover, then between the places themselves. "Anywhere else you wanna see?"
Her eyes scanned the map for a few seconds. "Definitely not there!" she said with a little laugh, pointing to the Shadow Isles.
"Why? What..."
"Long story, but... let's just say it'd probably be a one-way trip."
"Oh, you... don't think your big sister could handle it?"
She gave another giggle. "I don't think I wanna take that chance."
"Okay." Vi laughed, too, then went back to looking at the map. "You know anywhere you might wanna live? I mean, if we find out you're gonna... be around for a while. We can travel all you want, but... You know, it might be nice to have a... a base, I guess."
She looked around for a minute. "Hm... Well..." Her eyes went to the upper right corner, she put a finger down. "Here, maybe. Demacia."
Vi put a hand out on the same spot. "There, I've heard of a bit. Cait reads this in bed sometimes. Kinda glean some here and there, you know?" She nodded a bit, that picture hit her mind for just a second, but she tried to ignore it. "That... That could be a good place to... to start again. We could get a nice, little place... That could be a good, little change of pace."
There was a picture she liked, a nice, cozy, little house for just the two of them. She felt herself smile thinking about it. "That... sounds kinda amazing, actually," she said looking back at Vi.
Vi smiled widely. "Okay." She put a hand out and smoothed her cheek. "Demacia it is."
She closed her eyes feeling it, and nuzzled her touch. They were quiet now, she could barely hear them at all. Maybe they'd be this quiet more now. She hoped so, she could just think now. She could just think about where she was gonna go with Vi. She opened her eyes again, she really wanted to be closer to her. "So. What will we do there?" She scooched a little closer to her on the couch, and slipped her legs over across Vi's.
Vi put a hand on her leg and rubbed it. "Well, I guess it kinda depends on... You know... that."
"Yeah."
Vi sighed a little, then put the other hand on her face. "If we have the time to settle, I... guess I'll find work, and... we'll go from there."
"Maybe some place quiet?"
Vi smiled. "Yeah. Somewhere... out in the countryside."
"Somewhere we can see the stars at night?"
Vi's hand went up and down her back. "Millions, of stars, if that's what you want."
She couldn't imagine anything better! Moving her hands forward a little, she pulled herself up into Vi's lap. Vi looked at her surprised for just a second, then relaxed again. She put an arm around Vi's shoulders smiling, but then looked down as a thought came into her mind. "What will you do if... if I don't have that much time?"
Vi bit her lower lip. "Well... I guess... we can just travel around... while you're still up to it. I guess we'll get a place in Demacia when... f-for the... for the rest of... that time. And then... I don't know, maybe I'll come back, or... stay in Zaun, or... something." She brought her free hand up onto the one on Vi's shoulder, and hugged her. She felt Vi's arms wrapping around her middle tightly. "I'll think it out sometime, just not... any time soon, I hope."
"I'm sorry. I didn't want to make you... I'm sorry. I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry!"
"It's okay, Powder. It's okay, I just... It's fine." She felt her arms pulling a little tighter as she said it.
A minute went by, she pulled back a little and looked down at Vi. For some reason, though, Vi was looking at... her stomach? "I wonder... Are you still..."
"No! No,no, no, no! No, I'm not! I'm not!"
Vi had a huge grin on her face. "Oh, I think you are..." She could just catch the fingers on one hand wiggling menacingly as Vi brought it towards her!
"No, no, no, no! NO!" Vi started tickling her stomach! She laughed! She couldn't stop laughing! Her legs kicked out from under her, she felt herself falling backwards! Vi caught her with her other arm and helped her land on the couch, then stood up and faced her, still tickling her! She laughed and laughed and laughed until she started coughing!
Hearing it, Vi stopped and bent down. "You okay?"
She did her best to nod, then caught her breath. "You... I-I didn't think you'd... remember that..."
"You really thought I wouldn't remember my favorite way to cheer you up?"
"Well, I thought you... N-never mind."
Vi smiled, then brushed her bangs away from her eye. "Could've captured you a long time ago if I'd just done that."
"Ho, you wish!" Vi laughed. She smiled, then frowned as her eye caught one of her braids on the floor.
"Okay..." Vi brought herself up and sat on the cushion in front of her. "You should get some rest now. We'll have to leave again in just a couple hours."
"Okay." She started to close her eyes, but then got a thought in her head. "Vi?"
"Yeah?"
She turned her head to look down at the braid, then back up. "Will you... maybe... cut my hair? Whe-when we get to Ekko." Vi gave a bit of a nod, then looked down with a questioning kind of expression. "I... I-I want to look like... like I did before. I-I don't want to look like... l-like her."
Vi smiled and rubbed her cheek. "Of course, Powder." She relaxed smiling, letting her eyes close, feeling her cheek being rubbed and hearing Vi start to hum softly as she drifted to sleep.