It's a Lovely Day in Piltover (Lux/Jinx)

Chapter 4: We Can Fall from Grace Together

"Go get your girl, Pow."

Powder flipped her middle finger up at her sister before accepting the little fist bump - I still wish I had the zapper - before pushing open the door. Cait nodded at her - wait she was here?! - as they walked past each other.

Deep breath. Put all those feelings into words. But that wouldn't work properly as she'd just end up screaming wordlessly at the top of her lungs. Which could honestly work, but wouldn't get her anywhere.

She sat down in the chair Cait had been in.

Finally raised her eyes enough to look at Lux's face.

"... hey."

I used to be so much better at this.

Lux swallowed. She looked so pale. "Hey."

"So." Where had her script gone? The one she'd worked on in her head the entire trip back topside? "You uh. We. Have some unfinished business, I think." You owe me an explanation, and I need to ask things you won't want to answer if I'm right. "Probably not the kind of conversation to have in the Demacian embassy, I'd imagine. What with their regressiveness and all."

"No. Probably not." Lux breathed out shakily. "Are you - are you sure about this? I... I'm not sure. You could have just left me. Hated me. I think that might have been easier."

"I've dealt with enough hate for three lifetimes, I'm not gonna start over by pushing away the one decent person outside my sister and her wife that I actually genuinely like, and who I'm pretty sure likes me back."

She closed her eyes. Powder had always heard the term 'sky-blue' and hadn't really known what it meant, partly due to not seeing the sky much. But now she knew, looking at Lux. Endless and expansive, limitless possibilities. Clear and beautiful. Those sky-blue eyes blinked again, and Lux said, "Okay. Okay. There's a cafe nearby. If you'd want to talk there."

"The one with the peach muffins?" She loved those things. It might actually be enough to get her out of this grey funk and back into the kind of mood where she could talk to Lux without seeing that almost-sneer looking down at her.

"Y-yeah. The one with the muffins. I - I could. I'm." She was scratching at her other hand. "I don't know if I can say. Here. I want to. I wanted to the second I - I shouldn't have. I had to. Fuck."

She had to fuck? Wait, no, the pause was too long there. "Okay. We'll... you can figure out what you're trying to say on the way there, I guess?" She winced. "I hope you've got an umbrella though because Vi stole mine."

"I'll be okay." Lux blinked. "Um. The embassy has some. If you want one. Let me just..." Her walk from the desk seemed a little dazed, hand still scratching at herself. "I don't know if I will find the words. I never can for things like this. It doesn't ever - the words aren't ever the right ones. I can hear them coming out wrong sounding."

"We can always try again until it comes out right. Or something. Probably. You're a really good friend and - I don't want to give up on that." Following her, wanting to reassure her but not knowing how. She should have felt angry, but instead it was... warm. Hopeful. She could help. She could help.

Lux's gaze as she looked back at her was full of such sheer misery it was almost staggering. "How are you so perfect?"

Powder blinked. "Uh." Perfect? She was - she was like the opposite of perfect. A trainwreck in motion, perhaps. Or a bomb that didn't go off properly.

Lux took another shaky breath. "Sorry. Um - Umbrella." She offered it, straight-armed towards Powder.

"Okay." Accepting it, making sure not to open it inside because that was rude but also making sure it was one of those ones she actually knew how to use. "C-c'mon, then. Uh. Is the front desk going to be fine without you there for a while?"