Ekko stood there, on the roof of the hospital, the city sprawling beneath him like an unholy sea of metal and smoke. Zaun-alive, choking, relentless. The sky, bleeding into deep oranges and pinks, cast a brief, fragile warmth over everything below. The suffocating smog tried to swallow it whole, but for just a moment, the neon flickers below, sharp and jarring, seemed to soften, caught in the dying breath of the day. It almost fooled him. Almost made the city feel like something alive, something more than this mess of iron and rust.
His lungs burned with each breath of air, thinner, but still tainted. The machinery roared, clanked below, a constant reminder that there was no real escape from the pulse of Zaun, from the grind. But here, on this roof, for a heartbeat, he was outside it. Outside the chaos. His mind, however, wouldn't stop. It buzzed with questions, with everything he didn't know, with everything he couldn't escape.
The sun bled out, melting into the horizon, the sky still trying to fight against the death of the day. It wasn't something he should even notice, but here, in this quiet, in this split second of clarity, he saw it. He saw the sky, not the grey wall of clouds and smoke that normally choked the city's breath, but the real thing-the stretch of it, burning bright, so far above the suffocating streets of the Undercity. How could it be this beautiful up here?
He leaned against the low wall, skin still pulsing from the memory of the chaos that had torn him apart, mind still sharp with all the things that could break him. He tried to let it go, let the peace sink into his bones, but it wouldn't. Not yet. Not with her.
Behind him, a sound. Soft. Familiar. Janna. Her footsteps gentle on the ground, yet somehow carrying the weight of everything he couldn't put into words. She stopped, paused just behind him, her eyes drawn to the sky, to him, to the broken city below. Her gaze lingered for a moment longer than it should have, the soft lines of her face hardening with something he couldn't name.
Everything around him bled into one chaotic mess-the city, the sky, his thoughts. It all felt like a distant hum, like a fever dream that wouldn't leave him.
“Hey,” she said, soft enough to slice through the weight hanging between them.
Ekko turned, slow, deliberate, his gaze catching hers—serious eyes, soft smile. “Hey yourself.”
Stepped forward, each movement quiet, careful, like she was afraid to break something fragile. She set the tray down, metal clinking against the bench, and sat beside him, close, but not close enough. Her eyes, pale and searching, settled on the skyline stretching out before them.
“It’s beautiful, isn’t it?” she murmured, more to herself than to him. “Even with all the chaos.”
Ekko followed her gaze, the city sprawling endless and broken. “Yeah,” and said, voice distant, a thousand thoughts weighing it down. “Sometimes you forget to look at it. You get caught up in everything else.”
She nodded, a soft exhale, something wistful tugging at the corners of her mouth. “And you’ve been caught in too much.”
A pause, heavy.
“How are you holding up, Ekko?”
He sighed. Long and slow, the kind that pulls from the chest. “I’m... here,” he said finally, his voice low, almost to himself. “It's been hard, but I'm still here- thanks to the people who've been there for me.”
“You mean, people like me?” she teased, lightly, softly—too softly—but her eyes betrayed her. The flicker of hesitation, of something unsaid.
Ekko looked at her then, really looked, his tone stripped bare. “Exactly like you.”
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Yours, always and forever | Timebomb fanfic | ekko×jinx
FanfictionEkko and Jinx grew up together. They thought all they needed was eachother's company. He promised to be there and protect her at all costs, and she promised him the exact same thing. But who would take these words seriously, when even they think now...
