The Sixth | Ekko

Chapter Thirty-Eight

The front of Ekko's legs bumped into the side of his bed, his mind teeming with recollections of the kisses he shared with Momo, causing him to become heedless with his surroundings.

He dumped himself onto the mattress, laying on his back and resting the back of his hand on his forehead. He stared up at the ceiling.

He had kissed Momo.

She had kissed him back.

It wasn't just a coy kiss like he shared with Powder. He felt intrepid in the moment with Momo, which allowed him to escalate it to something more passionate. It was like he was conveying his thoughts and emotions to her without stuttering through words, as if the conjoining of their lips equalled touching her mind with his.

He recalled the softness of her lips. How his engulfed hers from the size difference. The hesitant glide of her tongue on his. It made his heart flicker... and his dick twitch between his legs like a heartbeat.

He mentally reprimanded himself. Momo was innocent and had been through great tribulations. She was scarred mentally and physically and deserved gentleness and forbearance and...

Love.

Above all, she deserved love.

The thought made him stall.

Momo made him feel things, the thought of her like a warm caress of the mind that brought vibrancy to colours and a focal point to distortion.

She was brave.

She'd been through unspeakable ordeals, and while her traumas had thoroughly tainted her, she had the courage to use them to do better. He couldn't imagine the valor it must take to study her own experiments and use them to aid in her research. To go back and read the writings of her abuser in hopes they could potentially help her create a miracle medicine. She must've had a manifold of resolves and tenacities.

She was intelligent.

He'd seen it firsthand—the limitless calculations she could spew out. Her knowledge in herbal medicines and the human body. She had an apparent understanding of chemistry as well, as he recalled her mentioning she was the mastermind behind the chemical reaction needed to operate the shimmer that coursed through the fighters' suits.

She was empathetic.

He witnessed her starve herself for the sake of ensuring her people had more to eat during their food shortage. She spoke passionately about the Vatalia's work in saving women and children from human traffickers. He remembered one instance in particular.

"Don't mock us, Ekko. There are little girls here who we saved from human trafficking. Who were meant to be sold to men, by men. There are women here who've been raped, mutilated—" She dropped her finger from his chest and took a step back. "Anyone can do terrible things. But here, they're all victims of the same group of people. The Vatalia doesn't exist because we hate men. It exists because of those who fear them."

And he saw it in little moments between them too, like when she covered him with his coat so that both of them could have some protection against the frigidity of the cave.

She was sentimental.

She carried pieces of her lost siblings with her wherever she went. Mylo's lockpick strung on a necklace. Claggor's goggles atop her head. She even kept tokens of him in her room, like the metal Firelight logo he made in her drawer, and his mask hung on her wall.

She was a healer.

She'd saved his life twice, and what he imagined to be countless other lives. In the midst of a tragedy, she concocted an antidote to save those who could've otherwise died of poison.