Ill Omen's Light (Lux/Jinx)

Chapter 8: Happy Progress Day

Caitlyn stood on the walkway, white gloves smudged with soot, fingers numb.

How did I not see this coming...?

The blue skies of Piltover smudged with plumes of smoke. Black, blue, purple clouds blooming up and down the street. Wealthy Piltovans ran under where she stood, flailing their arms, their elaborate dress slashed in vibrant stripes of neon blue and pink.

Someone's feathered hat was on fire. Someone else was wrestling with a giant chameleon.

Small spot-fires licking along the walls of once-pristine shopping avenues. What should have been the joyful hubbub of Progress day crowds came as shocked cries mingling with the shouts of her Wardens, the howling of Ixtali Shrieker monkeys, and the thundering hoofs of a herd of Targonian mountain goats...

Caitlyn flinched as brightly colored jungle birds streamed past her, shrilling and trailing feathers, one of them wearing an ornate bowler hat. She could only watch, numb, as an angry yordle in an ornithopter chased them, waving a cane trimmed with the same silver as the hat.

Another explosion crackled and rumbled the city streets, somewhere in the distance.

How did I let it go this wrong...?

Hours earlier...

Lux stepped back from her masterpiece and smiled in satisfaction. Inside, though, her stomach fluttered with vague nausea and her heart still pounded hot from the rebellion.

If the Wardens catch us and take us In, what will I say to Caitlyn? Why did I even do this? What has Piltover ever done to me? And I don't even know this Vi person, why would I-

The wicked giggle at her side drew her attention to Jinx, gleefully adding the finishing touches to her own work. Amethyst eyes, wide and blank, in some far-off blissful state, her mannerisms those of a mischievous child breaking the rules and loving every second.

Lux found her own smile softening.

And so what if her eyes drifted to the corners of Jinx's playful grin, the way Jinx's teeth pinched her lower lip, the pointed tip of her tongue poking out as she scrunched her face in concentration –

"Finished! Ta-daa!"

Lux jumped a little and blinked away an odd heat on her cheeks. She turned her attention to the sprawling desecration of the recruitment poster in hot neon pink and blue.

"Now that's a work of art," Lux decreed.

"Ain't it? One for the ages."

Lux leaned in and squinted.

"...Fat Hands?"

"C'mon," Jinx pointed, "You can't say it like that! Look how fat those things are! Like twice as big as her fat head! They're-" her voice dropped a few octaves, "-Faat Haands."

Lux snorted, and meant to say something, but the snort became a wheeze that became a giggle that became a laugh, shrill and sharp, tumbling out of her, utterly beyond control.

Jinx just stared at Lux, with the kind of wide-eyed awe usually reserved for religious revelations.

"Wait...wait, say that again..." Lux spat out in between snuffling giggles.

Jinx clapped her open mouth shut and a slow, manic grin spread over her face. She planted her fists on her hips and struck a pose, mimicking and mocking the mangled poster behind her, "Fear not, citizen! T'is I, punching to the rescue, defender of losers and cupcakes, Faat Haaands!"

Oh, Protector, I can't stop-Lux wheezed more, hugging her midsection, and twisting her knees together to stop herself sinking. Lux slapped her knee and turned away, trying to stifle her laughter in one hand and simply failing.