Ill Omen's Light (Lux/Jinx)

Chapter 5: Interlude - Her Words

Shimmer eyes slivered open.

Jinx lay quietly in the dark, staring at the ceiling, listening to the rustle of Lux's sleeping breath.

The voices in her head were only a dull murmur, now, present, but distant.

No Mylo, no Claggor, no Vander. The boys were far away, floating in their chains in the deep. Vander...well.

He'd been a rarer visitor to her tortured mind, his spectre only staring at her, silent and sad, disappointed and deeply wounded by her hatred for her sister.

But wasn't really ever there, was he?

And that was proof that it was all bullshit, all the scratch-eyed hollow ghosts in her skull. Because Singed had him hanging in a lab, all along. And now he was free.

And so was she.

Jinx closed her eyes, and saw his big teeth crunching through Lux's skull, spilling her bright blood, and fear spiked in her spine suddenly, the fear that she would open them again and Lux would be gone, just another figment of her fragile reality, conjured to bring her comfort and then callously torn away...

Jinx lay there, breath held, the thought gripping her from head to toe. Paralyzed, a bug full of spider venom waiting for its organs to liquify.

Lux isn 't real. She 'll be gone when I breathe out...

But she did, because sooner or later, even she had to...

And Lux wasn't.

Jinx didn't even have to open her eyes. Lux's weight was nestled against her, radiating heat. The sheets smelled of sex and soap and Lux's summer-breeze scent. She could hear and feel Lux breathing, deep and even, her sleep dreamless and pleasant.

She opened her eyes, and there she was – Lux, her face half-hidden in mussed straw-gold hair, her expression soft and relaxed, a tiny angelic smile on her lips in her sleep.

She 's real.

She 's here, with me.

We had sex. That too.

Jinx supposed that meant she was a woman now, or something. She didn't feel any different, not really.

Oh, there was a fizzy, buzzy swelling inside her that wanted to bubble up as a laugh or a sob, but she wouldn't let it, so it just kinda sat there. She recognized it as that little creature that had hatched when her Sunbeam had held her so tenderly in Pinkie's basement – it was sticking around, feeling warmer and less painful and more bright...

...and between her legs, well, maybe she was a little sore down there. Lux had really gone to town on her at the end there, not quite as intense as some of her toys, but Jinx had asked, after all, and it had felt so much better than when she was alone...

Jinx got it, now. It was still silly and vaguely gross and kinda weird but wow. Wow. Now, she got it.

Besides, she was a Jinx, she was allowed to like weird and gross things, wasn't she?

Not that it gave her any urge to try it with anyone else. No, it was Lux, because it had to be Lux. It was always going to be Lux, before they'd ever met.

And if it hadn't been Lux, it wouldn't have been anyone.

"What now, Flashlight?" she whispered to no-one, quiet, with no hope of stirring Lux from her slumber, "What do we do now?"

Miscolored nails carded through the gold, brushed it back from her beautiful face.

What do I do?