35 - Powder

"Hi... Ekko." I struggled to pronounce his name. He was Ekko, but he wasn't my Ekko.

"Are you okay!? Why are you crying?" He jumped to me, cupping my cheek immediately. His affection was appalling, so I gently pushed him away.

"I'm fine, really. I'm just..." Depressed from my one true love, who chickened out and bolted from me without even leaving himself the option to return. "-thinking about Vi again." I lied.

"Oh, Powder." He said, coming closer to me once again. I let him this time to avoid later suspicions. He held me by his chest. I hated every second of it.

"I'm really tired." I started, giving me the chance to pull away. "I'll be going to bed. Talk tomorrow?"

I read hurt in his expression, but he nodded, and I left.

__

I tried to avoid any unnecessary conversation with anyone. Vander, Mylo, even the frequent customer of Vander's. I ignored everyone.

I went to get breakfast early to not bump into anyone at their usual times. Staring at my last piece of toast, attempting to force myself to finish the meal, but I couldn't. Right at this moment, someone placed their arm on my shoulder. I turned around to find Ekko. Ugh. So much for an early breakfast.

"Good morning, princess." I choked. Princess? Absolutely not. I'm definitely not finishing my toast now.

How was I supposed to tolerate him?

"How is your-"

"Sorry, champ, I'm running late to work," I interrupted him, I had to. "I'll see you later."

His eyes widened. "But you work here. You're a bartender."

"Not anymore. First day today. I've got to go." And I left without giving him the chance to speak.

I went straight to the collider. Heimerdinger was my last hope.

I found him in goggles, working on something at his desk. He noticed me instantly, though he never glanced in my direction.

"Oh, there you are! I started to worry about your prolonged absence." He said, not taking his eyes off of his work. "I even began the new project myself."

"Sorry about yesterday, professor."

"I presume your apology comes with good news?" He asked.

"Yes. I'll take the job offer." What else was I supposed to do? Without Ekko, this job my life's only purpose.

"I knew you would. My concern lies with the boy. What do you say, lad?"

I sighed, suppressing the tears in my eyes. "It's just me. He's not here." I blurted quietly.

Heimerdinger dropped his tools and removed his goggles before turning to me.

"Indeed. It's just you." He confirmed, as his face dropped in disappointment. "Alright, well, he will come around, I hope."

"He won't."

My response stumped him. "What makes you so sure?"

Just say it. I told myself. Only he can help you. Say it. I cleared my throat to buy me time, and to get rid of the lump lodged in the center of my neck.

"He left." My gaze lowered instinctively as my entire being was still incapable of processing the information, let alone, speaking of it out loud.

"Oh, you must elaborate, miss."

Deep breath. "He traveled back... home."

"You don't mean he went back to your original universe, do you?"

I only looked at him. And that seemed to be enough for him to understand.

"Great gears... he is the most ardent fool! Leaving such important work-" His high pitched voice started sounding muffled to me. Whatever he said didn't matter. My lower eyelids could no longer hold the pool of tears and they tricked down over my skin. The devastating sensation caused me to pull my hand to my chest, to steady my suffocating breathing, but my fingers found the lapis lazuli pendant. My eyes filled with more tears.

"Oh, dear darling, you are in such a ruinous state. I am so sorry." He said, which was probably the most sympathetic thing he's said all this time. I forgot he wasn't human for a moment.

I wiped my knuckles over my cheeks. "I'll be fine." I said, sniffling.

"I'm assuming Ekko of this world took his place." I nodded to confirm his assumption. "You may not expect this, but that may be to our advantage."

My eyes went dry. So did my body. "Excuse me?" Was he seriously downplaying Ekko like this?

"Ekko is a brilliant man, I do not deny, but so is the boy living here. They have the same genetics, after all. And not only is he strong in intelligence, but also in experience: that lad spent a whole year building this collider with me. With his help, we will certainly speed up the creation of the next one."

Oh, hell no.

"I cannot work him, professor. His presence makes me feel all sorts of crazy."

"I understand, dear, but is that a valid excuse to neglect gemstone destruction?"

"It is not, the simple fix is to work on this without him." I stated the obvious

"That will take a minimum of four years... we cannot afford such extension..."

Ekko's words from the previous night dwindled in my mind, giving me all more the reason to stay on my ground. "Professor, what is the rush to build a new collider when you haven't even tested the first one?" I paused to observe his reaction, but he remained still. Although, I did notice a slight dismay in his eyes. "We can test the destruction of crystals before moving on to gemstones. Don't you think that this would be logical?"

He sighed. "I did test it."

"What? When?"

"In this past month. There is a flaw in the core of the system that can't be replaced. Unfortunately, the entire construction has to be rebuilt with a new method we developed last week." Wow. That's why he was gone for so long. "In addition, there is a parallel universe with an event sequence very similar to yours. We could transport all but a few of their crystals. Soon enough, they will be able to travel across universes too and will get to this one. If we don't destroy the crystals before they arrive, the potential of them finding crystals increases dramatically, risking a complete progression of the Glorious Evolution, Hextech and obliteration of their future. There's only a few years left to save them, thus, we must hurry."

What in the world is he saying? I didn't comprehend a single thing he said, all the strange universe and time travel he did confused the shit out of me. And, what did he say? What evolution?

Judging by his serious tone and saddening mannerisms, it seemed too important to ignore. I made a mental note to come back to this later.

I was about to continue to protest but he spoke for me, "if you don't, I'm afraid I'll have to speak with Ekko myself."

Damn it. I closed my eyes, mentally preparing myself to accept these awful circumstances.

"I trust you to keep what I've told you today confidential, as only myself and my colleagues are allowed this knowledge."

"My mouth is shut, professor."

__

I returned late. There was no energy left in me to deal with the new Ekko, so I spent the whole day out to minimize any contact with him. I knew that, eventually, I'd have to get used to him, just not now. Not this soon.

Entering the mineshaft, I hoped to find a comfy spot to spend the night instead of sleeping in my actual bedroom. I figured this way I wouldn't have to see him. But, I found him the moment I stepped in the mineshaft. Great.

"Powder! Where have you been? I was seriously starting to get worried." Ugh, why does he talk like that.

"You know how first days are. Busy and unpredictable." I said, walking past him.

"I don't think so. I think you're purposely avoiding me." Jeez, now I had to deal with this? "Something weird is going on. I was talking to Clag and Mylo about the Innovator's Competition and they laughed at me, saying that I fell off the moon. Apparently it already happened!"

Well, shit. What was I supposed to tell him? He went on. "And Benzo asked me how construction was going. So I found out that I'm doing construction for Arlo now? And, on top of everything, you're being all guarded... What is happening, Powder? Why are you being so cold?"

Poor guy. Heimer said same genetics, right? So, just like Ekko, he was a sweet, thoughtful man, completely undeserving of the treatment I was giving him, but I couldn't help myself.

"Calm down, Ek," I started, not having the heart in me to call him by his full name, "I know you're feeling a bit wonky, but I promise you, everything is fine." I hesitantly put my hand on his shoulder to reassure him.

"But what hap-" I placed my index on his lips, hoping to provoke a voluntary silence to shut him up. I noticed his pupils dilate from the gesture. 

"There's another, more important thing I have to tell you here, nervy." I was glad he didn't reply back. That finger on lips thing worked. 

So, I continued. "I got you hired."

A/N: Okay, I'm teasing you a bit here with a Powder pov, when EKKO IS ABOUT TO SEE MIKA AGAIN AAAAA so next chapter is Ekko, I promise <33

Also, the whole *why-heimer-is-doing-this-collider-thing* situation won't be really relevant later, so if it's confusing, just ignore it, I literally just had to fill in a gap to make other things make sense :P

Word count: 1479