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Mel’s tired. She’s been walking for…
She’s not sure. All she knows is that she’s tired. She’s so, so tired, but she can’t rest until she stops her mother. Until she gets back home to Jayce. Caitlyn and Lest too.
So she walks.
<><><>
Mel blinks. Once, twice and then a third time, just to be sure her eyes aren’t failing her. It’s not as if she’s suffering from dehydration.
But she isn’t. Even if it makes more sense than her being out here, so far away from Zaun and Piltover and everything of use to her. Mel can’t help it, she walks over and sits down next to her.
Jinx tilts her head to looks up Mel for a brief second, before dropping it back onto the grass. “Of course it would be a Piltie…” Bt she sounds defeated rather than enraged. And she’s not reaching for a gun, or any other sort of weapon, so Mel presses on.
“I wasn’t expecting to see you out here.” I wasn’t expecting to see you anywhere, goes unsaid. This is the first time Mels had the honour of meeting Jinx in person. That is, if she isn’t counting meeting Jinxs’ missile, which she definitely is not going to.
She isn’t going to think too much on that either. It wouldn’t be productive at this point.
Mel waits for a response, but Jinx continues to ignore her. Tracing the clouds with her eyes as her hands lay limp by her side.
Mel frowns. It’s not as if she had been expecting a happy chat, but she hadn’t been expecting to be ignored either. She had at least expected rage. Some words to be thrown, some fists or bullets too. Maybe a combination of all three.
Mel cups her hands in her lap. There’s so much to say, but she doesn’t know where to start. She’s had plenty of time to self reflect. Weeks on her own. Months maybe. There was no way to track time. She still hasn’t seen a calendar yet.
She’s motivated by a blind prayer hat she isn’t too late. That she can still talk to her mother.
It’s tactless, but Mel as to know, “Why did… Why did you bomb the council?”
Jinx laughs. A dry, scornful thing. “Does it matter? Have the Pilties ever bombed the Undercity?”
Her thumb rubs soothing circles onto the back of her hand. It’s not true, not in the literal sense, but she understands what Jinx means. “Was it about the council members?” She pauses, and takes a breath. Mel can feel the answer before she even asks, but she has to be sure. “Or was it about the message? What the council stood for?”
Jinx stares at her with a blank look. “What it stands for.” She corrects.
Mel hums in response. She had assumed so.
“What now.” It’s more defeated than questioning. Something she’d never expected to hear from her. Not with the way Caitlyn had spoke of her. Not with the way the other councilors regard her with contempt. “Are you hauling me off to jail for my crimes against the dear council? Maybe you’ll chuck me into Stillwater like you did with Vi, hmm?”
Mel lies down next to her, and Jinx doesn’t move away. “Stillwater is…” Mel trails off. unethical.”
Jinx turns to lie on her side and face Mel, who mirrors the movement. “That’s never stopped you.”
Mel can’t help but frown. The place laves a bad taste in her mouth. “I’ve never sent anyone to Stillwater.”
There’s a spark of rage in Jinx eyes, and it’s the first emotion she’s shown this whole conversation. “Then why do you let the other councillors?”
“I don’t let them. When each seat has equal power, the only way to do anything is vote.” If she had it her way, Stillwater would be no more. But there’s too much she wants to change, and Stillwater hasn’t made it to the top of her list. Not yet, at least.
“Of course it is.” Jinx reaches for her arm, and it takes all Mel has not to flinch. “You wouldn’t last a day in the Undercity.” She’s tracing a thumb over her tattoos. “It would be a Piltie to flex her wealth in her skin. They’d tear you apart.”
Mel watches her, and wonders if it’s supposed to be a threat. “I’m a mage.” She thought she’d be telling Jayce first. Maybe her mother. Elora first of all, if she were still here.
But instead it’s Jinx.
“They’re natural.” Jinx casts an unbelieving look at her, before resuming tracing her arm. Her nail digs in slightly. “Think of it as being born with ink, that gradually makes patterns as you grow.”
“Right.” Jinx’s looking at her like she’s crazy, and maybe she is.
Mel wonders if they’re at all similar. She was exiled for wanting peace. Jinx is a revolutionary. For the Zaunites. “We had a vote on Zauns independence-“
Jinx scoffs. “What, and a tea party too?” She releases Mels arm. “I’m glad our freedom matters so little to you.”
Mel sucks in a breath. She wont rise to the bait. They’ve been having a civil conversation, and she intends to keep it that way. “It matters to us all. Change is slow.” She leaves her arm where Jinx dropped it, refusing to draw it back to her side.
“Nothings changed. Pilties still get everything. Zaun gets nothing. Piltover gets to weaponize the grey against Zaun. Have you ever been exposed to the grey?”
“I can’t say I have.” She pauses, before continuing, “I can say that I don’t approve of Caitlyn using it.”
“I can say that you did nothing to stop her.” Jinx mocks.
“I was… preoccupied.”
“Right.” Jinx laughs once more, before sobering up. A look of grim acceptance settles on her face. “And Caitlyn was preoccupied with shooting a seven year old.”
Mel freezes. This is the first she’s hearing of this. Why would Cait…
Then she stops, because, does it matter? What reason could there possibly be to try kill a child for?
“You have a real funny look on your face.” Jinx laughs airily, and turns to rest on her back, watching the clouds once more. “She was protecting me.”
Oh. Mel rolls onto her back and traces the clouds with her hand. She’s not sure what to say. “Is she okay?”
“No. She’s dead. Not by a Piltie though. She sacrificed herself to save me… to save us all.” She’s stopped watching the clouds, and is now instead staring blankly at the sun.
“I’m sorry for your loss.” She gently places her hand over Jinxs own. She startles at the touch, but makes no move to stop it. “I know it must hurt more than anything.”
“It does.”
They’re silent for a while. Watching the clouds pass as the birds chirp in the distance.
“The vote?”
Mel pauses. She doesn’t want to lie, but she isn’t sure how to soften the truth. “It was unanimous,”
“Unanimously fuck Zaun? Since nothings changed?” Jinx laughs, and Mel wonders if it would be better to let her continue thinking that.
Mel tightens her hold one Jinx’s hand, before loosening it and turning to face the other. “It was unanimous for Zaun. But then…”
“Then I bombed the council.” Jinx finishes in a whisper.
“Yeah.” Jinx rolls back onto her side and faces Mel.
Mel swallows the lump in her throat. It’s personal, and Jinx has no reason to answer at all, let alone honestly. But still, Mel has to ask. “What do you think was your lowest point?”
Jinx stares incredulously at her. “Loosing my family. My parents were killed by enforcers. Then, my new dad died because of them, with my brothers. I lost Vi then too. I killed my last dad. But I cant blame enforcers for that.”
“Im so sorry.” Mel doesn’t know what to say. So she lets her actions speak instead. Reaching out to hug the girl close. “I can’t imagine what you’ve been through.”
“I was looking after her. Isha. I brought her with me, and she sacrificed herself.” Jinx trembles, “if I hadn’t taken her in, she might still be alive.”
“Maybe. Maybe not.” Mel strokes her back and brings her other arm around to cup the back of her head. “There’s a chance something else would have happened. Or maybe she would have been miserable.”
Jinx says something but its muffled by Mels own shoulder.
“Was you happy with her?” Jinx nods. “Do you believe she was happy with you?”
Jinx pauses before nodding again. And all Mel can think about is Elora. They were happy together. She was the one constant in Mels life since being exiled.
She’s the only person to have taken a genuine interest in Mel, and stayed they’d stayed by each others side ever since. And now she’s dead. Because of her proximity to Mel.
She sucks in a sharp breath. It’s not about her right now. She’ll have all the time in the world to grieve when everyone’s safe. (And before that if she gets the chance to indulge).
“Do you think it’s worth it to be happy in the short term, even if it ends up sad?” She traces the curve of Jinx’s cheek with the back of her hand. It’s an overly-familiar gesture for their relationship, but Jinx allows it. “I think It’s worth it to be happy in the short term. You can treasure the happy moments you shared together forever.”
Jinx laughs a bitter chuckle. “Yeah… yeah. We did have some pretty great times.” She closes the gap between them and rests her head back on Mel’s shoulder.
“I know it means nothing to you… But I lost someone too. Elora. She was all I had after my brother and father died, and my mother exiled me. I wish she were here with me more than anything…” Mel squeezes her fist around her ring. The one Elora had bought her, and smiles. “‘I’m so glad we got to exists in each others lives, even if it wasn’t as long as I hoped.”
Jinx’s sobbing now. Loud and messy. She’s covering Mel in a mix of snot and tears, but Mel can’t find it in herself to care. Jinx needs this. Besides, her hair needed a wash anyways.
She can’t help but let out some silent tears of her own. She lets Jinx cry. When was the last time this poor girl was comforted?
Mel takes a deep breath. “The people of the Undercity look up to you. You’re a revolutionary.” Her hand’s back to cupping Jinx head.
She sniffles and laughs. “Is that your way of trying to recruit me?”
“No.” And maybe Mel answered too quickly, because Jinx freezes. “I think you’d be of great help.” Jinx could bring in Jinxers, more people from the undercity. Extra manpower and weapons unknown to Piltover.
“It wouldn’t be fair.” With the way Piltovers treated Zaun, with the way Caitlyn recently was gassing innocents and enacted martial law, arresting everyone and children. She had even shot at a child. Jinxs’ child.
But, despite all that, Piltover needs the help. And if Piltover falls, Zaun is next. It makes sense to work together.
“I could never ask that of you. Of any Zaunite.” But it doesn’t feel right. And to Mel, that matters more than the asset they’d lose out on.
“Oh.” Jinx whispers into Mels hair, and Mel can feel the grin against her skin.
They stay like that until night falls and Mel remembers her mission. Despite the rush she felt to act earlier, and how she hadn’t done so, she feels calm.
After that prison, and probably even outside the scope of it, today was a good day. Mel had a good day. She had a good day with Jinx. A terrorist revolutionary. She cant help but huff out a laugh.
Mel deranges herself from Jinx and stands up. “I have to stop my mother.”
“Okay.” Jinx reaches out for Mels hand, and uses to to stand back up.
Then she simply doesn’t let go. Waiting for Mel to lead the way, before beginning to drag her off instead.