1Ekko fidgets as he tries to relax, the mix of excitement and terror too much for him to handle as he waits for Powder to come by. He looks down at the little box containing a gift he made, a metal toothed washer sanded and polished into a personalized ring, and goes into the tenth or eleventh mental debate of whether that's his personal masterpiece (...and cute) or the most ridiculous junk (...and most certainly not cute) he's ever done.
The box is a gift too, but he doubts anyone would see it like that; he tried to make it pretty, making some dents shaped like dust particles; "powder". Yeah, cheesy... well, that was the intention (not for it to be cheesy, for it to be powdery), at least, but for what it's worth, the end result just looked like the metal was faulty and shitty. He sighs, squeezing the box in his hand. His heart jumps to his mouth when the box slips from his fingers and he catches it right before it falls down, sighing in relief. Just imagine blowing up this even before he actually tries to do it!
"Hey, Little Man!"
Ekko literally jumps at the unexpected sound of Powder's voice right behind him, his heart skipping a beat when the box flies from his hands. This time he's not able to follow it and he cringes even before he hears the clanking sound of it hitting the groud.
"Oops! Sorry!" Powder apologizes, hurrying up to pick it up but Ekko beats her up to it like he's afraid she'd see it. Which he is, especially in this awkwardness. "Sorry, sorry."
She looks worried, her brows knitted in worry. Great job, Ekko!
"It's okay! It's nothing special, don't worry about it," he spurs out without thinking, feeling the urge to slap himself on the forehead.
"Oh," Powder says, easing up. At least that. "So whatcha got there?"
"Uh, actually... actually, it's..." he stumbles on his words, taking a break and straightening back. He could do this. He could do this. He'd rehearsed it, it was easy. Just a 'It's for you. Hope you like it'. He could do this.
He couldn't do this.
He could not do this.
Mission abort. Mission abort.
His brain in short-circuit, Ekko stands there with his mouth open while Powder just waits, looking at him funny.
"Uh, yes, it's...?" she tries to help, in case he needed the encouragement to continue. More like rewiring.
"Ah! I-It's for a clock repair I'm doing," he blurps out. "I-I had to customize it for the place it's supposed to fit, it's tricky."
"Oh! Why the fancy box?"
She thinks it's fancy. She thinks it's fancy. "Uh, i-it's nothing, just felt like trying something different..." he lies, too high in his happiness to really notice how swiftly Powder sweeps the box off his hand, and his panic has a delay kicking back in.
"Neat! Was it hard to customize?" she asks, looking at the washer attentively and with appreciation for the craftsmanship like the fellow artist she was.
"Uh, not really," he replies, brushing it off, then considering the actual work he put into it."I mean, a bit... From the concept idea to finding the best size, working on it and whatnot..."
"This would make a pretty badass ring," Powder says, trying it on and looking at her hand. It's a bit too big for her, which is both a relief and disappointment, and she swings a few punches just like Vi would and like he knew she'd do too. One of the purposes of picking a toothed washer was because of how useful it'd be in a fist fight should Powder ever get into one (unlikely, but both her and Ekko did train for the day to come). She grins before taking it off and handing it back to him.
"You can keep it," the words come out in a single breath.
"I thought you said it's for your clock project," Powder replies, and Ekko has that milisecond of panic thinking she might've caught him in the lie.
"Well, yeah, but I can always do another. If you want it for your own project, that is."
"How do you know I'm working on something?" she questions him, a suspicious line on her forehead.
Ekko shrugs, smiling nervously. "You're always working on something."
Powder doesn't take a beat and her whole face brightens up. "Yeah I am," she agrees with a giggle. She inspects the washer/ring again, studying its unique and frankly inconvenient shape for anything clockwork or mechanical. But it could always be turned into a projectile, as she says with enthusiasm, and starts filling him in on the details of her newest bomb project and how this time it will explode in this amazing flash sending nails and toothed washers everywhere.
Ekko still has his feelings all mushed up, but he technically did give the ring to Powder and she did like it, so that was a win. The rest were little details.
One day. When they were older, like... in some years, maybe. Not that he realistically should need to wait so long, but well... he needed to gather the courage, and that would take some years. One day he'd tell her how his younger self had been so silly he had lied to hide the fact he crafted a ring for her, and they'd laugh about it, how adorably dumb both of them were as kids. Powder would say he shouldn't've needed all that over something so cool, and the ring had been badass indeed. And if his older self would be brave to do all that, he'd certainly be brave enough to ask her out.
One day. For sure.
He couldn't wait for them to grow up.
.
the end
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Author's Note: Nothing says "cute" like a little jab in the heart :')
Thanks for reading. Disclaimer at the end but unfortunately don't own anything in Arcane. Even my Jinx cospoor in progress is a metalhead version cause I can't own anything close to the original.