Yours, always and forever | Timebomb fanfic | ekko×jinx

1. The ghosts of our past

The shadows slink back, retreating, only to reform as Ekko steps into the dim glow of the streetlight. Jinx waits, painted in neon and smoke, just a sliver of who she was—a memory reawakened, fierce, defiant, and sharpened. Eight years had passed, but here she was. Here they were. Ghosts, tangled in time.

He stops, and his voice cuts through the stillness, hard, cold, a blade made of grief. “Look who came back from the dead.” His words linger, bitter and mocking, his gaze piercing through her with an intensity that should have been a comfort. Instead, it stings.

A smirk spreads across her face, a playful defiance masking the void within. She watches as he approaches, slow, deliberate, and she dances back a step, almost taunting, her tone lilting. "Oh, but look who it is, the boy savior.” The words slip from her lips, sweet as poison.

Ekko’s gaze sharpens, but something shifts, a flicker, something buried, something fragile. He halts, brows furrowing as if he’s seeing a ghost—a friend he lost, a girl he mourned, a soul he once loved. Butterflies claw their way up, an ache that twists, a flicker of hope barely alive under the weight of his armor. And then, as if against his will, a breath—long, deep—escapes him, and a smile, pained and soft, tugs at the corner of his mouth.

“You think you’re so clever,” he murmurs, each word measured, his eyes scanning her like he’s trying to read between the cracks. He steps closer, not breaking his stare, his voice dropping. “You think you’ve changed so much since you left us? Since you left me?” His voice hardens, a wave of anger swelling, but it’s aimed inward, a fire he couldn’t extinguish.

Her smirk fades, slipping into something bitter, raw. “You’re the one who left, little man,” she says, her tone sharp as glass, jagged edges hidden beneath the playful sneer. “You call yourself a hero, but you’re just a coward hiding behind promises you can’t keep.”

“Do you really think that?” the voice, now low, a dangerous calm as he steps closer, his body tense, each word a step, closing the distance. “You really believe that’s all I do? I keep my promises. That’s why I’m here. I’m here now.”

But the silence that stretches between them speaks louder than words. Two souls, caught between past and present, bound by promises and betrayal, the echoes of laughter and hurt, the ghosts of what they used to be.

Ekko stopped in front of her, looking her dead in the eyes he said more softly, "I would never abandon you, or anyone I promised to protect and you know that."

"But you did leave me that night, didn't you? After you found out what I did and called me a monster, just like everyone else" she held back tears as the painful memories came back in her mind.

_________________________________________

~8 years before~

Ekko runs like a maniac through the remainings of the big building that exploded only moments before, just to find the little 9-year-old Powder crying into the arms of a strange looking man.

"P-Powder?" he calls her out as he slows down his running.

At the sight of him, she raises her head and gets up from the floor, runs towards him and hugs him thightly as soon as she reaches him.

"W-what's wrong? What happened here? Who's him??" he has a worried voice.

"Ekko, my bomb worked" she manages to say through sobs.

He still didn't understand why she was crying. She wanted to make it work her whole life.

"But that's amazing!!!" he says as he pulls her away from the hug and lifts her head "You tried to make it work for so long!!"