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Darting through the topside park, a blue-haired girl bobbed and weaved between groups of oblivious people, trees, and other cover before ducking behind a bench. She wasn't exactly worried about the Pilties locking her up again or anything, but the looks she'd get from Auntie Ogre if she needed to be bailed out were enough to make her cautious.
Plus, it was really fun to sneak up on her magic friend.
Peaking out from the bench, the girl scanned the rest of the park for a head of blonde hair. The hair color was rare in Piltover and especially Zaun, so her friend normally stood out quite a bit in a crowd. In fact, the only other person the bluenette had seen with that shade of blonde was also from Demacia, where her friend swore it was quite common whenever she'd tease about it.
Aha!
Sitting under a tree and facing away from her, a young girl with shoulder-length, golden hair had her face buried in a book, only seeming to move when she turned the page or occasionally adjusted her glasses. Like always, she'd gotten to the park they'd agreed to meet in first, even though the blue-haired girl had really tried to get away from Sevika sooner today.
Creeping out towards the tree, the blue-haired girl's face morphed into a mischievous grin. The last time she'd scared the mage, she'd nearly peed herself laughing after the other girl screamed bloody murder and then spent a few minutes literally glowing in embarrassment. It was totally worth the hassle the Pilties gave them because of it.
Nearing the tree now, she slowed even further, making sure nothing on her person was making any noise as she snuck up. Closing the final gap, she pressed herself to the opposite side of the tree from her friend, before reaching her arm around it and slowly grasping at the girl-
"Hey, Isha."
Alina hadn't turned her attention away from her book, but there was now a large, smug grin on her face as she grabbed Isha's wrist before it could touch her shoulder.
Isha stammered out a few confused noises before pulling her arm free and shuffling her way around the tree to Alina's side. The blonde girl finally looked up from her book at this, her grin softening as Isha came into view.
'How'd you know I was there?' Isha signed indignantly, before crossing her arms with a huff.
After looking around to confirm nobody was paying them any attention, Alina raised her hand and conjured a marble of light that danced between her fingers. "Magic," the girl whispered in a singsong, before giggling and adjusting her glasses at the eye-roll her response earned from Isha. "You'll excuse me for being cautious after last time."
'That was funny though,' Isha replied, huffing again as she sat down in the shade of the tree, but ultimately unable to stop a smile of her own from forming. She began asking about Alina's book and the two girls spent the better part of an hour catching up on their last two weeks apart.
They'd only met a few months prior, but in that time those two weeks were the longest so far they'd gone without seeing each other.
When they had met, Isha was running away from a shopkeeper who was overcharging the girl. He'd gotten upset when Isha made a scene and then just stole the pastry she was originally trying to buy. Alina had pulled Isha out of view and sent the man on a wild goose chase before making sure Isha made it back to Sevika without further issue. The mage had claimed she'd done it because the shopkeeper looked insane chasing such a small child. But after Isha learned more about the other girl, she'd come to suspect that Alina had probably found herself in a similar situation more than once.
Frankly, that was a good deal of why she liked Alina. Obviously, Isha thought the other girl's magic was really cool and constantly pushed her to show and try more things with it. But Alina was also kind; not in a fake, Piltie way, but seeming to genuinely care whenever she thought Isha was upset or threatened by something. She was one of the only non-Zaunites Isha had met that knew how to sign, even if there were differences with Demacian signs that still caused funny misunderstandings sometimes. Apparently Blondie had taught it to her so she could talk to some musician back home. And despite being quiet much of the time, the mage could be funny when she wanted to. The girl could rival Jinx in delivering a good pun, but did so with such a perfect dead-pan tone before eventually devolving into giggles. It just felt so stupid and real, as Jinx would probably say, that Isha couldn't help but like it.
And Alina had also lost her parents a few years ago. So Isha could definitely relate to that.
They were the other's first and only friend their own age who had gone through something like that. Sure, Jinx and Sevika had gone through something similar; they all came from Zaun after all. And Alina said that older Blondie -Lux was her actual name- had kinda lost her family too when she was younger. But they were all older and had apparently figured out how to get over it. Alina and Isha still cried about their families sometimes, and though Isha wouldn't admit it under torture, it all felt a bit easier when they did so together.
And so the two girls met up whenever they could, which thankfully was normally once or twice a week due to Sevika working with the council and other Blondie working with Top Hat and Bigger Sis. It had taken a bit of convincing, since Alina was only twelve and Isha was about ten, but for all it's faults, Piltover was actually pretty safe for two kids like them hanging out in a park. That, and Isha was pretty sure Vika and Lux both were just glad that each of their wards- what a weird word- had made a friend.
Obviously, the adults didn't know who that friend was, as both would have lost their mind at who was raising said friend, but that was fine as far as Isha was concerned. Jinx and Lux seemed to be less fighting and more... almost dancing based on how Jinx talked about Blondie and their encounters. Still, Isha had only recently started getting Jinx to stop worrying quite so much about her after the Zapper Incident and didn't want both that to change and to lose her friendship with Alina.
Alina said she felt the same way about their situation and that it was like some play that Isha had forgotten the name of. Something about two families that hated each other, with their youngest becoming close. The older girl refused to talk about the ending though for some reason.
Speaking of Jinx and Blondie, the conversation inevitably turned, like always, to Isha and Alina arguing about which one was better.
'Jinx said that last time, she wasn't even still there by the time Blondie and the Pilties showed up.'
"Well that doesn't change the fact that the time before that, Miss Lux literally flew after her and snared her with a light bind. Plus, she's really close to catching Miss Jinx ahead of her next stunt!" Alina's eyes widened after she finished speaking, probably realizing she shouldn't be telling Isha that last part.
'Yeah, well, Jinx still got away that time and 'almost' doesn't get you much in Zaun,' Isha signed with a scoff, pointedly ignoring her friend's other comment. The only way Blondie was getting close to catching Jinx was in her dreams. 'And it's not 'Miss Jinx,' Alina, it's just Jinx.'
"I know, but it just feels weird referring to one's..." Alina trailed off, before looking at Isha pensively. After a few seconds, she continued, "I know I normally don't ask too much about your relationship to Jinx-" which Isha appreciated- "but I still don't really get who she is to you. Instead of calling her 'mother' or 'sister', you always just call her your 'Jinx'."
Isha hummed as she placed her hand under her chin, trying to figure out the best way to explain it to her magical friend.
"I mean, I'm Miss Lux's ward," the blonde girl continued, "and she'd my guardian, so are yo-"
Cutting her off with a few eager grunts and hand waves, Isha smiled and confidently signed, 'I got it.' Sitting up straighter, she continued, 'What do you and older Blondie all do for each other?'
Tilting her head to the side, Alina paused to give that some thought. "Well, we keep an eye out for each other and make sure the other is taking care of herself. She forgets to eat a lot," she added with a sheepish look. "We like to study things together. And Miss Lux is helping me learn how to control my magic!"
'So it sounds like she's not quite your mom or sister or mentor, but a bunch of things that all care about you?'
Alina thought for a moment and then nodded before frowning and looking down. "She could never replace my parents, but I know she cares about me a lot. And I feel the same way towards her."
Isha looked at her friend with a rueful smile before waving to get her attention again. 'Then you're like me and Jinx. Blondie is to you like Jinx is to me, and vice versa.'
Needing a moment to parse out what exactly that last part meant in Zaun sign, Alina suddenly perked up and exclaimed, "Oh! So I'm Miss Lux's 'Alina' and you're Mis-" Isha coughed at her with a stern look- "Er, Jinx's 'Isha' then, right?"
Humming in affirmation, Isha giggled before signing, 'And now that you get that, I can be your 'Isha' too!' Her friend's face grew a bright blush and her whole body seemed to glow a bit, before Isha raised an eyebrow and continued, 'I mean, we're more than just regular friends at this point, right? You're like my super friend!' As she signed, her hands shook a bit with worry that maybe Alina didn't see her like that.
"I mean, in Demacia, we'd just call that a bes-" Alina started before cutting herself off. After another moment or two, a large grin blossomed on her face as the glow of her skin brightened further. "Actually, I like that more! You're my 'Isha' and I'm your 'Alina'."
Isha's own face erupted into a grin before she smugly signed, 'With that settled, what are you going to owe me this time when Jinx beats Blondie and the Pilties?'
Once, early in their friendship, she'd referred to Lux as "one of the Pilties" and Alina nearly punched her. It was one of the only times Isha had seen her friend mad. Isha had been so proud of the mage.
"Well, seeing as it's not going to happen this time, Isha," Alina all but growled, definitely not upset at her losing streak in their bets, "lets make it interesting."
As Isha perked up at this and scooted closer, Alina spat in her hand per the Zaun custom. "If Jinx gets away this time, we can finally paint on the side of that Warden station like you wanted to."
Isha gasped in excitement and started bouncing up and down. She'd asked Alina two months ago if she wanted to do it, but the Demacian was too much of a goody-two-shoes to commit light vandalism with her.
"But," Alina said sternly, holding up one finger with her other hand, "if Lux catches Jinx and brings her to the Wardens, you have to get me one of Jinx's chompers." Already seeing gears turning in Isha's head, Alina quickly added, "And it has to be a live one! No duds or glitter bombs, I want a chomper that she'd actually use to blow something up."
Her mouth falling open, Isha briefly wondered what her sweet, bookworm of a friend would want with a live grenade, but thought better of asking. Spitting in her own palm, Isha shook Alina's hand, grinning as she already started to think about what they were going to paint when she won.
-------
Lux took a deep breath in and out as she stepped back and admired the culmination of her handiwork. Over three quarters of the once bare walls of her study in the apartment had been slowly covered by paper, photographs, and various colors of string. She had gathered every scrap of information she could find on the Loose Cannon: copies of official reports and articles, known associates, hastily written transcripts of interviews she conducted, photographs of the aftermath left behind, and every date, location and time of a known appearance. And from that deluge of information, Lux uncovered a pattern within the paint, so to speak.
Everyone assumed Jinx was chaos incarnate and that it was a fool's errand to try and predict her next move. Even "Piltover's Finest" had tried and failed to do so more times in the three years of Jinx's spree than either Vi or Caitlyn would care to admit. But amongst that strangely compelling, almost beautiful chaos, Jinx left hints, either consciously or not, to what her next move would be. Sometimes it was obvious, like a note taunting the Sheriff or hasty graffiti of something related, that was clearly meant to put them on her trail. These instances went about as well for everyone involved as one would expect given the Wardens' track record in actually catching Jinx.
Sometimes the clues were more subtle though, like how she'd slightly alter the color of her classic pink and blue paint to indicate if her focus was on Vi or Caitlyn. She'd recently started incorporating something similar with yellow and gold paint, but Lux didn't want to read too far into that, even if the art Jinx made with it caused Lux to blush sometimes.
Jinx also seemed to have a thing for celebrating anniversaries of big moments in her life, like the tea party incident or the release of that personal anthem Silco helped her produce. Weirdly, though, she didn't seem to tie the anniversaries to a set date, but rather celebrated by doing something similar or reminiscent of them in the same general time frame. This was why Jinx had never hit any Progress Day festivities in the years since that first appearance where she stole hextech. She had, however, done something every year in that same month, like crashing the Warden Memorial Gala or sending everyone on a wild silverwing chase by planting speakers around Piltover that played simulated cries for help. It was both a bit sad and also strangely endearing, as if Jinx was trying to recapture something similar from those past events.
Lux had spent four of the last six months she'd spent in Piltover figuring this all out, leading to her latest -and hopefully accurate- prediction scrawled onto the calendar in front of her. In a little less than two weeks, on the 19th, she expected that Jinx would try and free the animals from the zoo. Her evidence this time? First, that was opening day for the new rhinoceros exhibit from Noxus. Jinx would have a fun and destructive target, as well as a large audience, both of which were things the bomber couldn't resist. Second, Jinx had painted a gold-trimmed dove breaking free of a cage at two of her last three appearances, so Lux assumed she was planning some kind of break out. Finally, she always did something big and relatively kid-friendly towards the middle of this month.
That last one interested Lux, because whatever this anniversary was, it constituted the bulk of the public appearances Jinx ever made with an accomplice. Lux had heard various reasons why Jinx tended to fly solo, but whenever the bluenette didn't, she'd been spotted in the company of a young girl with similar hair, wearing some kind of miner's cap. The bomber seemed too young to have a kid that old -plus Vi had nearly sputtered to death when Lux suggested her sister was a parent- so Lux assumed the girl must be some sort of a ward of Jinx's. Whoever the girl was, her safety clearly mattered to Jinx, as when they were out together, there hadn't been any serious injuries reported, let alone any deaths. Jinx was clearly being more careful then.
Obviously Lux wasn't going to try and get to Jinx through the child, but even the idea of it had caused some waves when she tried to get more information about the girl. Vi and Ekko had both clammed up after quick denials, clearly uncomfortable with the questions while also subtly giving Lux disdainful looks. Sevika had completely one-upped them though, as after her denial, she angrily added that if she did know the child and found out later that anything happened to her, Sevika would personally put whoever was responsible through a wall, then go to work on them. The jaw on her prosthetic arm had crushed the back of a chair as she said that last part, and so Lux had decided it was a dead end.
Shaking her head to get her focus back, Lux smiled and put her hand on her hips. Now all she had to do was come up with a plan to stop Jinx herself. She'd thought about sharing her theory with the Kiramans, but after a few incorrect guesses while she was still finding the pattern, the women didn't seem to give her much credibility these days. No matter! She wasn't exactly a stranger to flying solo herself after growing up a mage in Demacia.
Her shoulders slumped as she thought of home and her family there, of parties with friends and days riding through the fields with her brother. It seemed serendipitous for the 19th to be when she'd finally capture Jinx.
I can certainly think of worse ways to spend my bir-
A knock on the study door roused Lux from the thought and she turned to see Alina peeking in. The girl had been more or less adopted by Lux about two and a half years prior, not long after the younger mage's parents had died at the hands of mageseekers. Alina reminded Lux a lot of herself, both because of their mutual affinity for light magic, but also the loss of family they'd both suffered due to Demacia's bigotries. It had taken some time, but Lux was finally feeling like they'd both opened up to the other and become something at least close to family.
As the young girl opened the door further, Lux noticed a small tray of food was in her ward's hands and a ball of light hovered over the girl's shoulder. Seeing it, Lux realized with a shock that she had been so caught up in her work that she'd missed how late into the evening it already was and had subconsciously lit her study with a scattering of her own light orbs.
"Yes, Alina?" Lux said, quickly trying to smooth over her appearance as she beckoned her ward to enter.
"Miss Lux? I figured you still hadn't eaten yet and made you some soup," Alina said, a keen smile on her face as she took a few steps into the room. As if on cue, Lux's stomach audibly growled, only stopping when she met it with a look of betrayal from the older mage. A giggle escaped Alina's lips as she set the food down on the desk in the center of the room and moved around to join Lux at the evidence board. "Looks like you figured it out!"
Alina was a good kid. She'd never called Lux's board crazy, unlike some law enforcement Lux knew.
Picking up the soup and sipping a spoonful of it, Lux nodded her head towards the calendar at the center of it all.
After a few moments of looking it over, Alina adjusted her glasses and cocked her head quizzically. Lux assumed her ward was going to ask about the big red 'ZOO' written on the 19th, but was surprised when the girl asked, "Why is the 10th labelled 'Day Off'?"
"Ah, that. Well, over the three years of her spree, she's never even been seen in Piltover, and there aren't even any credible sightings in Zaun," Lux explained. It wasn't the only date where this was the case, but for some reason this one had stuck out to Lux. "When I brought it up to Officer Violet, she mentioned that maybe Jinx always took that day off." She chose not to mention how Vi also froze up and started acting weird once Lux mentioned the date.
A look crossed Alina's face, one that Lux recognized as contemplative, but with something else underneath it. "Wouldn't that be the perfect time to try and finally catch her?" Alina suggested after about a minute. When Lux simply raised an eyebrow, her ward continued, positing, "Well, if she's not already planning to blow something up and you get the jump on her, you could limit collateral damage and civilian risk." Lux felt a tinge of pride at Alina's vocabulary, even if it likely came from reading Warden reports that must have been very boring to a twelve year old.
"But I don't even know where she'll be that day, so how could I?" Lux countered. It wasn't a terrible thought, but she only had a few days til then, and there was no way she'd be able to dredge up something reliable from Zaun about Jinx's whereabouts in that time, especially alone.
Another minute of quiet passed as Alina lightly tapped her foot and thought. "You could set up a trap for her, get Jinx to come to you," she suggested. "What would get her interested though?" Alina turned her attention back to Lux's board, looking for an idea with furrowed brows.
Lux hummed at the idea. Again, it wasn't a terrible thought, but whole hospitals had been filled with people who thought they could trap the Loose Cannon. It had gotten to the point that whenever they did figure out what Jinx was after at any given time, Caitlyn had specifically ordered not to try and use it as bait for a trap. Jinx just had a knack for sussing that kind of stuff out and quite literally blowing up the Wardens' plans in their faces.
"Lux?"
Jerked from her thoughts, Lux looked up and saw that Alina was looking at her questioningly. "Sorry, what?" the older mage asked.
"What would be something she'd be interested in?" the young girl repeated before gesturing back to the board. "Like, that she couldn't resist?"
Furrowing her own brows, Lux thought about that for a few minutes. Maybe that was the issue? On the whole, the Wardens often focused on Jinx's actions, and sometimes her goals, but rarely seemed to examine why she thought or acted in a certain way. It was much easier for them to assume she was in it for the chaos -which she almost certainly was at least a little- but that that was all it was. Lux had seen through that though when she noticed Jinx's anniversary pattern. Clearly the "Mad" Bomber had emotions and motives behind her actions beyond just rustling feathers. Maybe Lux just needed to come up with bait that more specifically appealed to Jinx, where even a trap could be fun, and not just use whatever Jinx seemed to be interested in at any given moment.
As she thought this, her eyes landed on a few photos of the aftermath Jinx left at some galas and dinner parties the Cannon had crashed. The bluenette had certainly left her mark on those, both in the form of gallons of paint and in the laughter that seemed to haunt the witnesses interviewed after. "She does like crashing parties," Lux quietly mused, an idea forming as she smiled and turned to Alina.
Her ward seemed on the same track, as her eyes went wide and she lit up with excitement. "Throw her a party!"
-
And so, four days later, Lux was finishing setting up a literal Jinx-themed party in a semi-condemned Piltovan factory near the border to Zaun. The owners were planning to tear it down and rebuild anyways, after a stray rocket from Jinx had made the structure a bit too unsafe. Plus it was a good size for Lux's plan; small enough to seal and trap, but large enough that they could fight and not risk too much damage to things outside the building.
She'd spent the preceding few days gathering supplies, preparing the building and doing her best to get the word to Jinx through her Zaunite contacts. Alina, of course, had wanted to help set up the entire way, even if Lux forbade her from actually staying for the "party". It was good practice for the young mage's warding and barrier magics, and she'd even gotten a friend of hers from Zaun to try and get the message to Jinx.
One of these days, I'm finally going to actually meet that friend of hers, Lux had thought when Alina had told her.
Now, as the sun set on the 10th, Lux set up the finishing touches and conjured a number of lights to illuminate the large, central room. She'd set up a number of party activities in a ring around a long table, itself stocked with multiple colors of sodas and snacks, including pink and blue cupcakes. A handful of similarly colored balloons drifted about the space with the small, conjured lights. Outside of that main room, Lux and Alina had set up wards, traps and barriers in a way that would force Jinx inwards and hopefully prevent any escape attempts.
A pang of sadness had steadily grown in the older mage over the last few days as she realized how close she was to finally catching Jinx. Though she'd never admit it, chasing the Loose Cannon was actually really fun and freeing. She could let her magic fly a bit more wild, both because her target could certainly take it, but also because magic wasn't seen as a blight here.
Well she's certainly broken out of custody before, so maybe this doesn't have to be the end.
Relaxing a bit as she strode back over to the table, Lux smiled at both the thought and her work before she contemplated grabbing a snack. All that was left was to wait for Jinx, and the alarm spells they'd set up would give her plenty of notice for that.
The sounds of boots softly hitting the floor behind her coupled with the familiar click of the hammer on a firearm being cocked shattered that sense of safety.
Before Jinx getting the drop on her had even finished registering in Lux's mind, she heard a low, serious, almost angry voice behind her say, "Keep your eyes forward and hands still and in front of you."
Though she'd never admit it, Lux panicked at this. It was basically impossible for her to effectively conjure light to blind Jinx if she couldn't move her hands or see her target, and Jinx seemed to know it. And Jinx's tone didn't exactly convey the excitement or whimsy Lux was hoping this would all illicit in the Loose Cannon. Lux knew which of them would win in a contest of reflex, so all she could do was comply, even if every instinct screamed at her to do something.
Had she just fatally misread something about the other woman?
"Vi put you up to this, right?" the voice continued. "Pull a big ol' joke on Jinx. She told you all about today and s-"
"No!" Lux rebuffed. "I figured out today all on my own." A moment later, she cringed internally at taking that tone while being held at gunpoint. The thought that she didn't actually know for certain what today was also flickered into her mind before a scoff cut it off.
"You expect me to believe that you figured out it was my birthday on your own? And threw me a party?"
Birthday?!
Lux was grateful that she'd forced herself to stay still, as otherwise she'd surely have swung around in surprise. Her mind bounced in several directions, first from how the "day off" actually made a ton of sense now, to a realization on why Jinx might be upset right now, given what she knew about the bluenette's childhood. Then she was hit by the sheer absurdity that she'd accidentally thrown a birthday party for chaos incarnate, and how it actually felt kind of nice that she had.
Focus Lux, she's pointing a gun at you.
Knowing by now how Jinx felt about liars, Lux instead decided to obfuscate, confessing, "I saw that nobody ever seemed to see you whenever this day rolled around, so I figured you were taking the day off for something. The party idea grew from there."
A minute or two of agonizing silence passed, with parts of Lux's mind unhelpfully dancing towards things like who would take care of Alina and would anyone but her brother even care she was dead. Finally, Lux realized she could hear a small sniffling noise behind her. Is she...
"Jinx?" the mage tentatively murmured, still not turning or moving her hands. "Are you oka-"
"Turn around! Slowly," the voice suddenly demanded, sending a jolt through Lux. "And you better not lie to me now, Piltie."
Scrunching her face in distaste, Lux muttered something about not being a Piltie before turning and starting at the sight behind her.
The target of her slight obsession stood about five feet away, still pointing a gun at her and wearing what looked like tinted welding goggles- smart against a light mage. Pink tears ran from under the goggles and down the other woman's cheeks. Jinx pulled the goggles up to reveal a pair of glowing, pretty pink eyes that Lux definitely didn't think about too much, still puffy and shimmering from crying. She refused to make eye contact with Lux for more than a few seconds at a time.
"You really threw a whole party just for me?"
The mixture of hope, pain, and apprehension evident in Jinx's voice as she said that frankly broke Lux's heart in two. The bluenette clearly also understood how lonely birthdays- and the twin cities in general- could be. A part of her mind that sounded like her mother, long since thought buried by it's owner, scolded Lux having done all of this to catch Jinx, causing guilt to bloom deep in her chest.
It didn't have to be this way though. What had Garen always said about plans on the battlefield? They never survive contact with the enemy, so don't be afraid to change them.
Letting her empathy and newfound earnestness for giving Jinx a fantastic birthday shine through in her smile, Lux nodded, affirming, "I put this all together just for you Jinx."
-------
Jinx gasped as she looked back to Blondie's face and found not empty sympathy or lies like she'd expected, but instead a look that told her the blonde mage understood and seemed to really care. The voices in Jinx's head had been screaming for the better part of an hour now that this was clearly a trick, but she was finding it increasingly hard to make out their words.
After a moment, Lux's smile turned a bit wistful as she looked down before adding, "I know how lonely a birthday alone can be."
The bluenette's eyes blew wide, even as the amalgamation of voices screamed, Does she really expect you to believe a princess like her could ever know what that feels like?! That she could ever understand being a Jinx?!
She faltered for a moment at this, but then looked again at the emotion on Blondie's face. Jinx recalled the research she'd done on the other woman and the horrible bullshit that Demacia put it's mages through. That empathy was real; not some empty Piltie platitude or rough Zaunite pity, but actual understanding and care. Locking her glowing eyes with Lux's, Jinx grinned softly and silenced the voices with a conviction she rarely had when Isha or Sevika weren't around her.
I do believe her.
The warmth of a dozen exploding chompers filled her as Lux smiled back. A few more seconds passed before Jinx responded to Lux, much of the gravity fading in favor of her normal quippishness. "A party you put together that's also clearly a trap."
Her smile shifting to a dazzling smirk, Lux shrugged. "It could be either, or both. Seemed like something you'd do honestly. Complete with actually doing the activities with your captive."
Feeling her heart ka-thunk in her chest, Jinx's mind reset as all she could think was, She's perfect.
"What are we waiting for then, Blondie?" Jinx exclaimed, gesturing excitedly to the various activities that she'd watched Lux and mini Blondie set up for a few hours. She clearly knew what Jinx was about. "Don't want all your setup to go to waste."
Lux nodded and began moving to one of the games, before stopping suddenly and looking at Jinx quizzically. "That reminds me actually, how did you get in here without setting any of the alarms or traps off?"
Oh yeah, I knew I was forgetting something.
"Easy," Jinx said, twirling one of her braids. "I followed the girls in!" She jerked a thumb towards a pile of junk in the far corner of the factory floor that had been making a few conspicuous shuffling sounds. Snickering at the sheer confusion on Blondie's face, Jinx turned to the pile, cupped her hands around her mouth and shouted, "Isha! A- Al-" Jinx tapped her head with her gun as struggled to remember the other girl's name-"Smaller Blondie! You can come out now!"
Two distinct noises of surprise and distress rang out, before a head of tousled, blue hair wearing a miner's cap and a head of straight, blonde hair wearing big nerd glasses peaked out from the pile. They wore shocked expressions, but couldn't hold a candle to how bugged out Lux's eyes were when she saw them.
"Alina?!"
Alina! That was her name!
Smaller Blondie flinched hard at Lux's shout and she looked like she was going to try and hide again, but seemed to think better of it. Climbing out of their hiding spot, the girl pulled Isha along until they were finally right in front of Jinx and Lux. "Miss Lux, this is my friend from Zaun. Her name is Isha."
The younger girl gave the Blondies a toothy grin, before turning towards Jinx, who had put her hands on her hips and raised an eyebrow expectantly. Isha looked away and quickly signed something about wanting to see fireworks.
Starting and stopping a few times as the words seemed to fail her, Lux finally croaked out, "So your friend from Zaun is the girl Jinx takes care of?"
"Wait, did you not know they were friends?!" Jinx exclaimed, earning looks of confusion from Lux and surprise from Alina. Isha scoffed and rolled her eyes, earning a snort from Jinx. She didn't even have to look at her Scuttlebutt to know she was signing, 'Of course you knew.'
"No!" Flashlight yelled, before sighing and pinching the bridge of her nose. In a much more composed, but still worried, tone, Lux continued, "What are you doing here Alina? I told you this could be dangerous and to go home."
Isha stepped forward at this and waved for her and Jinx's attention before signing at Lux, 'Don't be mad at her, it's not her fault! I'm the one that begged her to let us watch you two fight!'
Blondie's not going to have any idea what she's-
"Well, Alina still could have told you no," Lux replied after a few seconds, with a hint of a lecture.
Okaaay, apparently she does know sign.
'She tried and I wouldn't listen!' Isha furiously signed, before turning to Jinx and scowling. 'You better not let Blondie yell at my Alina.' She signed out each individual letter of the other girl's name so Jinx knew exactly what she was saying.
Oh. Oh.
Jinx's eyes widened in understanding, while Lux looked between the other three and asked, "What does that mean, 'my Alina'?"
Other Blondie beat Jinx to the punch, explaining, "It's for when one word isn't enough to describe your relationship with someone." Gesturing to Isha, the girl continued, "Isha is more than just a normal friend, so she's my Isha. And you're more than just a mentor or guardian to me so-" the girl paused with a soft smile- "you're my Lux."
Huh. Jinx pointed to Small Blondie and nodded in affirmation, impressed with Alina. It wasn't how she'd have explained it, lacking any real panache or whatever, but it clearly worked based on how Flashlight was now tearing up a bit.
The older mage swiftly closed the gap and hugged Alina, before wiping away a tear and turning towards Jinx, who herself had started patting Isha on the head as the girl giggled. "I assume you wouldn't mind the girls joining the festivities."
A classic toothy grin formed on Jinx's face. "The more, the merrier!"
-
Okay, Flashlight definitely knew how to throw a party!
They started by playing what Blondie referred to as "Pin the Fuse on the Bomb," which was apparently a twist on a popular Demacian game involving horses and a tail. It involved pinning a fuse to a poster of a bomb that Blondie had made. The goal was to put it in the correct spot on the bomb while blindfolded.
Jinx, of course, refused to let anyone else go first and actually managed to get it in the right spot pretty quickly. She tore off the blindfold and started cheering and jumping up and down.
Then, the magical trap Lux had enchanted the poster with blew up like an Enforcer flash-bang right in Jinx's face.
As her vision and hearing came back, Jinx quickly noticed the other three doubled over laughing, each wearing eye and ear protection Lux had covertly handed out while Jinx was blindfolded. Ish and Small Blondie at least had the decency to look a little rueful, but Flashlight couldn't help herself and started wheezing from laughing so hard.
Quiet and deadpan, Jinx walked calmly over to the refreshment table and grabbed a pink cupcake. Then, she strode back and smooshed it into Lux's face as the latter finally looked up to acknowledge her. After gasping and sputtering curses back at Jinx, Lux stormed over, grabbed two cupcakes of her own, and threw them at the Loose Cannon.
Seeing the way the wind was blowing, Alina grabbed a cup of soda and, while Isha was staring aghast at the other two, dumped it on her friend's back. The shrill cry from Isha was quickly drowned out by the shriller giggle from Alina, coupled with the wild cackle Jinx let out watching this all happen right as Lux hit her in the face with a cupcake.
Once all of the food and drink in the factory was smeared on something or someone, the four sat, panting and ready for a break, as the mages used their magic to make them all comfortably less sticky.
Looking over mini Blondie, Jinx continued to try and come up with a better nickname, before snapping her fingers and proposing, "What about Ali-cat?"
Alina, who had looked up at the sound, froze like she'd seen a ghost before looking away with a sniffle.
Looking to Isha and Blondie, a confused Jinx found them both scowling at her before Isha signed, 'Homeless orphan.'
Oh. Lux had probably found her in alley...
"Or not! I can come up with something way better!" Jinx backpedaled, trying to come up with literally anything else.
Flashlight jumped in, mentioning they had set up a shooting gallery, and this seemed to excite Mini Blondie out of whatever flashback Jinx had inadvertently thrown her into.
The gallery was a set of moving, wooden targets and they each took turns shooting at them with an Enforcer training pistol that shot paint. It wasn't too dissimilar a setup to the one in the arcade from her and Vi's childhood, and Jinx actively wondered if Blondie had done that on purpose.
Jinx and Isha dominated initially, but after two rounds of blowing the mages out of the water, Lux winked at Alina and stepped up for round three. This time, she ignored the gun, instead pointing a finger downrange and, as the targets started moving, fired what looked like hardened light out of her fingertip. While she couldn't quite beat Jinx even like this, it was extremely close. When Mini Blondie stepped up and did the same, she smoked Isha, much to the latter's chagrin.
After running out of ammunition for the gallery, they all wandered over to a wall that Flashlight had set up as a giant canvas. Each worked on their own piece while occasionally splashing paint on one of the others, with Isha and Jinx doing graffiti art, while Lux and Alina painted more traditional things like landscapes. Jinx, in particular, replicated the gold-trimmed dove breaking out of a cage that she'd painted on a few previous jobs. As she finished, Flashlight walked up to her, looking her work over.
"So are you still going to the zoo with Isha on the 19th?"
How did she...?
Gaping at Blondie for a minute, Jinx eventually figured that if the mage had figured today out, surely she could figure out the anniversary of her meeting Isha. Laughing and shaking her head at this, Jinx replied, "Yeah, Scuttlebutt's been looking forwards to the new rhino for weeks." Narrowing her eyes and giving the mage a once over, she continued, "How'd you figure out we were doing that anyway?"
Blushing, Blondie looked down before explaining, "Well, you do something every year around now with Isha, the 19th is opening day for the rhino and you love a good audience, and-" she pointed towards the dove painting- "I figured this was you alluding to breaking out the animals or something." After a moment of silence, Lux looked back to to see Jinx frozen except for her eyes, which were darting back and forth between the dove and Lux. "What?"
Opening and then closing her mouth a few times, Jinx finally sputtered out, "A-actually, the dove i-is sup-p-posed to be you, Flashlight." Gesturing to the cage, she muttered, "Lately it felt like you were finally having fun and being free with your cool magic. Felt like you'd finally broken free of those ass-hats in Demacia."
"Jinx..." Lux whispered after a few moments, before pulling the bluenette into a hug. "That's so sweet. You really think my magic is cool?"
"Lux, you blow up light with your mind. Who do you think I am, that I wouldn't find that to be the coolest?!"
With her arms still wrapped around Jinx, Blondie let out a chuckle before leaning back and wiping at her eyes. As she was about to thank Jinx further, however, Isha and Alina chose that moment to start flinging paint at them again.
After being covered in blue and pink for the second time that night, Jinx came up with the idea of taking turns seeing who could run through the traps the Flashlights had set for her elsewhere in the factory. They were all non-lethal already, and Lux stood by to make sure and shield anyone from getting too hurt.
After a few runs where Isha somehow got farther than both Jinx and Alina- who had shimmer and knowledge of the traps, respectively- the tall bluenette stepped away for a moment as the other three prepared another run.
It hit Jinx that she was both celebrating her birthday for the first time in at least half a decade, and was actually having a really good time to boot. Tears formed in her eyes and fell on her boots as flashes of birthdays past with Silco, Vi, and Vander blinked into her mind.
This is a fluke. Don't get used to this, the voices in her head trumpeted as the memories came. You'll push them away too and then be lonely like always. That's what a Jin-
A scuff of a shoe pulled Jinx back to reality as she looked up to find Alina looking at her, worry apparent. After a moment, the girl smiled softly and held out her hands. As she did, rainbow motes of light drifted out of them. "Nobody deserves to cry on their birthday, silly!" she affirmed. "Come have more fun with us!"
"Thanks, kid," Jinx muttered, wiping her eyes and grinning at Small Blondie. She followed the girl back to rejoin the other two.
-------
Miss Lux and Miss Jinx decided to call it a night after Alina stifled her maybe dozenth yawn. Looking over at her quiet friend, she found that Isha seemed tired too, she was just more practiced at hiding it better.
Smiling, Alina waved to get her friend's attention before signing, 'You have fun tonight too?'
Isha returned the smile and fervently nodded her head. Then, she turned and looked towards their... 'Jinx and Lux', who were standing shoulder to shoulder and giggling about something. After a few seconds, Isha turned back to Alina, her smile growing into a toothy grin.
The bespectacled girl returned her gaze to the giggling pair and couldn't help her own smile from widening. Tonight hadn't exactly gone to plan- and so Isha had agreed the bet was still on for next time- but it had been a long time since she'd seen Miss Lux smile this much, let alone take a break and have fun for a night.
While she'd only been Lux's ward for about two years, Alina still felt close enough to worry about her. When they'd first met, the older mage rarely seemed to get a good night's sleep and Alina caught the woman crying to herself regularly. This had seemed to improve when they moved to Piltover, but soon enough, it all started back up again. The only thing that really seemed to change was that "catching Jinx" had become Miss Lux's newest obsession.
The fact that that same woman was now giggling madly with Jinx did give Alina some pause. But Miss Lux had always tried to give her -and everyone else she met- the world, so it warmed her Ward's chest to see her have something for herself.
It warmed the girl so much that soon everybody noticed she was glowing.
"She does it too!" Jinx exclaimed, pointing and cackling at the glowing Alina. Turning towards Lux, she continued, "She really is just a mini-Flashlight."
Tightening her jaw, Alina grumbled, "My name is Al-"
"Flashmini!" Jinx cut her off with a start, before pointing back and forth between Alina and Lux with a huge grin. "Flashlight and Flashmini!"
Clearly trying to gauge their reactions, Miss Jinx glanced between the three. Thankfully, Isha and Miss Lux both just shrugged and made non-committal hums. Jinx then lingered on the girl she just gave a nickname to, her grin seeming to shake a bit with what seemed like anxiety.
She cares if it makes me uncomfortable.
Channeling the boring noblewomen she'd encountered often with Miss Lux back in Demacia, Alina put on her best thinking face. "I suppose if you must, that's fine. Still no points for creativity though."
Jinx sputtered, but before she could say anything, Alina added in her normal cadence, "It's better than something stupid like Little Light, though."
"That's what I thought!" Jinx exclaimed, her grin returning, before her and Alina realized Lux had gone rod stiff. They both separately filed away that reaction in their minds for later.
Isha, who had wandered to the art wall to add something, inadvertently broke the tension with an almost comically-loud yawn. Miss Lux seemed to snap out of it at that, with Alina and Jinx sharing a giggle at the other two.
Stretching with an uncomfortable amount of cracking sounds, Jinx smirked at the mages before saying, "Well, it's been fun, but Scuttlebutt over there clearly needs some sleep." Isha pouted at her in response, starting to sign something about not being tired, but another yawn broke through again before she could finish. She then huffed and stuck her tongue out at an increasingly smug Jinx.
Lux blinked a few more times before her hand shot out and grabbed Jinx by the wrist before she could get too far, clearly startling all four of them. Alina especially was taken aback, as she knew from experience how physical touch initiated by Lux was a rarity until she knew someone. Or at least until she feels safe around them.
"W-wait!" the older mage stammered, "There's one more activity I put together to end the night." After a few moments of silence, both her and Jinx looked down at Lux's hand still gripping Jinx's wrist and then back up at each other before deep blushes erupted on their faces. Lux muttered an apology, but still didn't seem to want to let go as she began leading the four towards an exit.
Filling yet another thing away to ask Miss Lux about later, Alina instead tried to recall whatever her mentor was talking about as the group filed outside. As far as she knew, they had done everything the two had planned and put together for the party. Was it some secret, adult thing that Miss Lux had hidden from her since Alina technically hadn't supposed to have been there?
Isha grabbed her attention as they walked and quickly signed, 'What's happening?' Alina shrugged and Isha rolled her eyes. 'I guess Blondie likes surprises too.' This earned a snort from her spectacled friend.
"Stay here," Lux ordered once they were about thirty feet clear of the building. She stepped another fifty or so further out before she began making motions with her hands, light gathering in a sphere the size of her chest in front of the mage.
Alina's eyes widened with equal surprise and worry as she felt the amount of shifting arcane energy moving towards her mentor. She had only felt something like this from Miss Lux twice, and both times had ended with the woman punching a hole through something with a giant beam of rainbow light. If she was hoping to impress Jinx, that would probably be a good way to do it.
"Uh, Flashlight," Jinx yelled, her eyes glowing pink with curiosity, "why couldn't we just do this insi-"
A streak of light like a shooting star jumped straight up from the sphere and exploded high above the nearby rooftops. The motes of light left behind shifted and changed colors, until they had coalesced into a rainbow-colored replica of the monkey symbol that Alina had seen in dozens of crime scene photos doting the office at home. It faded after a few moments, before two more streaks shot from the sphere, this time forming a pink and blue pair of Jinx's chomper grenades.
Glancing to her left, Alina saw that Jinx and Isha's faces were lit up, both in awe and in the light from the magical fireworks Miss Lux was launching into the air. As they continued, Alina realized that the mage was recreating what she felt was the Loose Cannon's "greatest artwork," based on a photo collection of that name that Lux had put together on her crazy evidence wall. Jinx and Isha clearly recognized this too, with their smiles growing and Jinx especially seeming to vibrate in excitement as she began jumping up and down.
The smile on her friend's face in particular sparked an idea in Alina, who bolted from the two, distracted by the fireworks, over to Lux, whose face was tight with concentration. The younger mage began focusing, pouring her own arcane talents into the sphere of light and growing it slightly. Lux momentarily grew concerned as she realized Alina was now there and casting alongside her, but this faded as she realized what the girl was doing through the control she was exerting.
A moment after the next firework shot up from the mages and erupted, two smaller ones rose to flank it and burst. Where as the larger one was of one of Jinx's shark paintings, the two smaller ones were of a pair of bunny ears that settled above the big fish. From that point on, each of the fireworks of Jinx's art was accompanied by one or two smaller ones of Isha's art.
Both mages occasionally broke their concentration and gaze on the sphere to glance at the other two, smiling at how Isha had joined Jinx in excitedly cheering and jumping as they watched the light show.
Magic continued illuminating the sky above them for what felt like hours, but Alina knew it must have only been around a half hour total. Finally, the sphere of energy petered out and the mages were left panting and wiping sweat from their brows, their magic spent.
Glancing up at her mentor, worried she was going to get scolded, Alina instead found Lux was smiling at her. "Good job," the latter breathed between pants, with what Alina hoped was a note of pride.
Their moment was shattered as two blue-haired shapes tackled into the blondes. Instinctively, both mages managed to spin their respective giggling menace in the hug so that they weren't bowled over.
"That was amazing Flashli-"
'-ou put my art in-'
"-gotta let me study that-"
'-since when could you do something that co-'
"-Pilties must be shittin' themselves!"
Blushing as they continued holding their Isha and Jinx, the bashful Demacians joined the giggling. "Well I'm glad the fireworks were up to your standards, Jinx," Lux said, as both mages began literally glowing.
For the second time that night, Alina watched a few pink tears slip down Jinx's face as a soft smile replaced her manic grin and she hugged Lux tighter.
"Haven't had a birthday that fun in a while, Flashlight," the Loose Cannon muttered, her face buried in the other woman's shoulder, before pulling back to look Lux in the eye. "Thank you, Lux."
"I'm glad you had fun too," Lux cooed, her gaze initially lingering on Jinx before shifting between all three of the others, "and I'm happy this worked out so well." Her and Jinx were still wrapped in each other's arms, and neither seemed particularly rushed to leave.
Isha and Alina, on the other hand, had separated, so the former was able to sign, 'We have to do something like this again!' Her grin was infectious as she bumped her shoulder into her friend, and Alina looked to Miss Lux as she fixed her glasses and hummed in acknowledgement.
"Yes, that was a lot of fun," Alina started with a large smile, before her face shifted to be completely dead pan and she continued, "The end especially was bang-up." To punctuate those last words, she raised her left hand and a small spark of light shot a up a few feet before exploding.
Lux and Isha pursed their lips, knowing what Alina was doing, while Jinx simply stared at her, eyes narrowing and mouth agape, and tried to work out if the pun was intentional.
Alina lasted about ten seconds before she broke out into nearly violent giggles. Jinx lasted about half that long afterwards before her cackling could be heard all the way across Piltover.
"That was fuckin' terrible, Flashmini," Jinx wheezed out between bits of laughter, before affirming with a grin, "I love it."
Just as Alina opened her mouth to respond, however, the sound of a large number of Warden sirens began growing in the distance. The group was in Piltover and had just put on a fireworks show celebrating Jinx after all. The group hastily said their goodbyes as Jinx and Isha began moving towards the nearest bridge to Zaun, while Lux and Alina pulled what little magic energy they had left into twin invisibility spells.
Before the mages completed them, however, Lux called back to Jinx, asking, "You two are still going to the zoo on the 19th, right?"
Perking up with a grin, Jinx replied, "Thinking about joining us, Blondie?"
"I honestly can't think of a better way to spend my birthday, Jinx!"
The Loose Cannon froze for a moment, before her grin took on a crazed, toothy quality as a deep laugh echoed from her. "Oh, we are going to have so much fun then."
Miss Lux's own smile almost seemed to mirror that manic energy as she giggled in response. Frankly, this scared Alina for a moment, before she looked back towards Isha and found the other girl staring back at her while also grinning and giggling like that.
Sighing, Alina thought, If you can't beat 'em... as she let her excitement show and adopted her own chaotic grin for a few moments before the Zaunites finally turned and ran while the Demacians became invisible.
As the four raced to their respective homes, none of them could shake the feeling that something incredible -and chaotic- had just been forged between them all.