Ill Omen's Light (Lux/Jinx)

Chapter 1: Interlude - Threshold

The lair sat as silent as anything ever did within the creaking ribs of Zaun.

Only the quiet hum of Jinx's generator, the ventilation fans moving wafts of air that still smelled of rust and damp even with most of the toxins and moisture sucked out of them by the air filters, disturbed the silence.

Only that and the occasional small explosion and series of high-pitched squeaks from the Powder Monkeys playing in the workshop deeper in broke the stillness.

Only those few things, and they weren't enough to wake two baboons draped over Jinx's couch, smeared with lipstick and dried neon paint and snoring in tune with the faint, tinny sounds of Zaunite thrash metal hissing from the makeshift headphones one had slung over its broad brow.

Not until the dull patter of footsteps rang out across the entryway gantry, followed by the hiss of acid and swipe of blades and snap of steel trap teeth. Then came wild laughter, and under it, the hum of an ancient power in youthful hands, brilliant light flashing through the crack beneath the door.

One baboon lifted its brow from under a slightly squished Piltovan fascinator and nudged the other until the headphones slipped off.

Both looked at each other, then at the door.

A moment of silence.

The door burst open, and two figures tumbled inside, rolling beneath the arc of the blasting autoguns in a tangle of pawing hands and twining legs and locked, starving lips.

Lux gulped peals of laughter between draughts of Jinx's mouth as she pinned the wildling girl beneath her to the floor and waited for the guns to whine down.

"I can't believe we didn't just die," she giggled, fighting hiccups, "You didn't even look..."

"I know my digs, Blondie," Jinx cackled back, "I-mm-" words snuffed out by the press of Lux's lips to hers, "-mm-built all those traps-just gotta know where t'stand, that's all—ohh..."

Lux whispered between nipping at Jinx's throat, a wash of hot breath just beneath her ear.

"I wonder what else you know how to do-"

She squeaked in alarm as one of the baboons shrieked and threw a canteen at them.

"Oi!" Jinx roared, twisting beneath Lux to glare at the two on the couch, "What are you two lookin' at, ya pervs?! Get lost!"

The baboons sprang up and darted into the rafters, leaving Jinx's headset behind as they ran along them and deeper into the lair.

Lux blinked.

"How long have they been here?!" she exclaimed, "Did you bring them home!?"

Jinx grinned.

"Nah, they just kinda followed me," she said, "Guess I musta picked up a habit of collectin' strays. Wonder how that happened..."

She sat up, cupped her hands around her mouth and shouted after them-

"-And ya better not have thrown poop at anythin'! Or got on my bed! I just washed the sheets! You punks!"

The baboons howled somewhere far off in the lair complex, and Jinx blew a flicker of her lopsided bang in a sigh.

"You washed the sheets?" Lux asked, still propped on Jinx's lap on the floor, "Really?"

Jinx widened her eyes and shuffled a little self-consciously, succeeding only in wriggling against the warm girl in her lap.

She saw Lux's eyes wandering about the lair, noticing all the other little things that Jinx had done while waiting for her to follow the route back from Seraphine's. Burning her nervous energy on dusting the surfaces, picking up the caltrops, cleaning the mildew off the walls, running the air filter, washing the dishes, she'd even packed away the less obvious explosives.

"Uh, yeah," Jinx scratched the back of her head, "I um...you took ages to get back from Pinkie's, and I thought, if yer stayin' over – uh, they were a bit, um, musty, I hadn't washed 'em in a while..."

Lux pouted, "They were just fine. They smelled like you."

Jinx felt heat shoot up her neck and spread over her bloodless cheeks.

"Well," she twitched a grin, "Heh, I guess we'll just have to make them smell like us..."

She leaned closer, biting her lip, and caught the plush snapdragon parting of Lux's mouth in a snap of her own. Her fingers sank into soft golden hair, dove until they found the nape of her neck and dragged themselves up the back of her head, digging and scratching until Lux's melting moan in her mouth drove her to seek a deeper kiss.

When she came up for air, Lux murmured between nips at the tip of Jinx's nose, "S-speaking of...I think...if you went to that effort...we should clean up before we..." now it was Lux's turn to bite her lip, and the sight of her little white teeth against the pink stirred something animal in Jinx that warmed below her belly.

"...before we g-get in them..." Lux whispered, "...tonight...I mean..."

Jinx's brain was too busy scribbling little sunbeams wriggling from Lux's hair and neon purple lipstick-kisses all over Lux's lips and face to pick up any implications, subtle or otherwise.

"Sunbeam, I know ya like bein' clean but...we already showered at the tree, 'member?"

"What, that 'decontamination' they blasted us with?" Lux snorted, "Okay, that did get the toxic gunk off us, but I don't really feel clean, you know? That rash on my arm is only just going away now. And clean sheets demand one to experience them freshly bathed."

"Oh," Jinx frowned, "Is that a thing? I, uh..." she shuffled again, brows furrowed, wondering what else she was missing, "Guess I just never think to do stuff like that."

Lux had stopped, now, looking into Jinx's eyes, studying her with that bright blue gaze that missed nothing.

"You don't?"

It felt like being pierced, right through to the heart. If anyone else had tried to look at her that intensely, Jinx might have shot them.

But not Lux. Never you.

Her blue eyes left Jinx feeling so terribly exposed, and it hurt, but in a good way, like how you had to peel off a band-aid to clean the wound underneath sometimes, so they didn't go gross...

"Yeah, uhm. Most nights I stay here, I just...I work or scribble until I fall over," Jinx forcibly pulled her gaze away, scratching at her upper arms, "...Or if it's bad, I just ...stare at the wall, don't move at all..."

She looked down, hating the dry scratch in her voice.

"...sometimes when I snap out of, it's been days."

Lux gently touched her chin and turned her head.

"Is that what you did?" she said very quietly, "After the rocket?"

Jinx swallowed and nodded.

I could tell you. All of it. But it doesn't matter now.

Not now.

"It was bad most days after the rocket."

There was that gaze again, soft, like her childhood bed, like sunrise ghosting through the Grey. Lux's fingers slid up to cup Jinx's cheek. Lux's thumb stroked the dark bags under Jinx's eyes, and along the few random little scars of misadventures that marred her freckled cheekbones.

All the marks that Jinx didn't even think about, that showed how many ways she didn't take care of herself.

"I'll take care of you," said Lux, as if she'd read Jinx's mind.

"Flashlight, you don't have to-"

"You've looked after me since the moment I landed in your home."

Lux smiled her radiant smile.

"Let me look after you now."

Standing, Lux drew her by the hand toward the shower, and Jinx, without ever once looking back, followed.