Chapter Text
"You kiss Jinx on the lips, holding her like she's everything— because she IS . She's your entire world, the sun in your sky and the inspiration you have to invent and create.
Jinx represents your dream for a better Zaun: not unburdened by the past, but strong in spite of it.
Jinx represents Zaun's limitless potential: held back by her own doubts and fear of change but so hopeful for the future at the same time.
Jinx is Zaun.
They call you 'The Boy Savior'? Well, you think it's time to give that a shot more sincerely. For her, you'd become anything. But you guess you can start with the only thing she'd want you to be: yourself.
Because she's kinda perfect like that."
Ekko smiled to himself as he finished the passage, leaning back in his desk chair and taking his fingers off the keyboard. Surprisingly, miraculously, their relationship had remained steady after she’d discovered his TikTok edits.
And then she’d revealed she makes her own… about him . They’d laughed it off, Ekko using that opportunity to again deny his feelings. Her humorous olive branch stabilized them for a while, and Ekko resolved to stop acting weird about his crush. They met up for projects like normal and she even started hanging around him after school, too.
But his crush only grew, and it sometimes made their casual hangouts unbearable. His desire to reach out to her, to touch her and hold her and confess to her, physically pained him to hold inside. But he had to, to keep her in his life he had to . So he did.
Ekko hit ‘Post’ on the Jinx x Reader fic and promptly logged out of his AO3 account. He would not repeat the same mistake as last time. Before signing out of his computer— another habit he’d learned after the TikTok incident— Ekko sent a Discord message to his beta reader thanking them for agreeing to help him edit and proofread.
Full-time university student he was, full-time “Boy Savior” as Jinx called him (a nickname given how often he took up tutoring and helping classmates, on top of volunteering and picking up other peoples’ shifts when they couldn’t make it) that he was, having the knowledge someone else would sift through his 3 AM writing spree and make it legible was a huge comfort.
Ekko pushed himself out of his chair and shut down his computer, heading to his bathroom to wash up and prepare for a day of intensive study with Jinx. Their assignment for Applied Hextech was due and they’d made zero progress so far.
“Ekko ooooo c’mo ooooonn !”
Jinx all but whined, tugging on his arm. Ekko could only sigh heavily through his nose, forcing the action to ground him against her purposefully grating tone. He shrugged her off and adjusted his goggles, leaning over their project again and comparing the structure to their blueprint.
“ EKKO! I’m booooorrredddd ! We’ve been at this for hours and look! We made so much progress ! Yay us! Can we pleeeeease take a break now??”
Jinx latched on to his arm again, bouncing on her toes to jostle him vigorously for emphasis. He didn’t turn his head to look at her, but he did take his hands off the tools so her antics didn’t cause him to slip up and damage their invention.
He risked a glance, and she was staring at him expectantly, big blue eyes sparkling with hope and lips pouty. Ekko was doomed, regretting his choice to look at her more than he’d regretted anything in his life.
“Fine, fine! Yes, we can take a break. We’re only defying laws of aviation and physics with the Z-Board!”
“Well I am getting zzZZZzzzz BORED! Fallin’ asleep here! All your stupid safety checks! I’m hungry Ekko!”
And Ekko felt fear pool into his veins. A hungry Jinx was two seconds away from murder at all times. And he would be the first target if he didn’t get her a snack. He couldn’t help the endeared smile that stole across his features as he watched her pout again.
“...what do you want to eat?”
“Jericho’s! We can leave this here and lock the lab while we’re out!”
“...why is it so hard to say no to you?”
“‘Cus I’m kinda perfect like that ,” Jinx winked at him and bounced away, twin braids flailing behind her. Ekko tried, he really tried, not to stare at her swaying hips but her denim shorts felt like they’d been chosen specifically to torture him.
“Yeah, yeah— what?”
Ekko froze solid, brain conducting a full reboot. He swore he could hear the PC fan of his brain booting up into overdrive.
“Not the best way to end it, kind of ended abruptly, but I loved the latest chapter, Boy Savior .”
Okay and how the fuck did Jinx know the exact comment his beta reader left? Why was she winking at him? Chapter?
“Jinx, what—”
'What the fuck is happening right now?'
Ekko felt like he was in some kind of sick comedy sketch, like any second some shitty YouTube prankster was going to jump out and make him into the punchline.
“It’s cute you think all that stuff about me. And you’re lucky it’s cute, because I’d kick your ass if you weren’t.”
'How the fuck did she find out?'
'Wait…'
'She thinks I’m cute?'