𝐘𝐨𝐮 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐌𝐞 𝐒𝐨𝐧𝐠 -- 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐖𝐚𝐧𝐧𝐚𝐝𝐢𝐞𝐬
𝟎𝟐𝟏: Vander's Girls + Ekko
               (𝘼𝙧𝙘𝙖𝙣𝙚, Stay Ready)

𝐆𝐎𝐃 bless Powder because she might've just been his strongest soldier.

Moving in together was something Powder and Moon had been discussing since they were kids.

Well, Powder discussed it. Early days Moon, much too quiet for her own good, would just sit beside her, sketching the layout of their dream home while Powder rambled on about what colors the walls should be and how many cats they'd have. Powder's excitement always filled in the silences Moon left, her chatter bright and constant like a light Moon never wanted to turn off.

Years later, both eighteen now, they had finally done it.

Their new apartment wasn't the dream home Powder had always imagined, but it was perfect in its own way. A cozy two-bedroom unit on the East side of Zaun, nestled above a repair shop whose owner never asked too many questions and always gave them a discount. The wallpaper was peeling, and the floors creaked if you stepped in just the wrong spot, but it was theirs.

Moon had claimed the smaller bedroom without much fuss, insisting Powder needed the extra space for her "weird little gadgets," as she called them. Powder, in turn, had commandeered the living room with an explosion of wires, bolts, and half-finished inventions that spilled over onto every available surface.

"It's not a mess," Powder had said when Moon raised an eyebrow at the chaos. "It's creative organization."

Moon had snorted, but she didn't argue. She never did when it came to Powder's oddities.

The first night in the apartment, they had no furniture to sit on and barely any food in the fridge. Powder had suggested eating dinner on the floor, and Moon, tired from the move but secretly thrilled, had agreed. They ordered cheap takeout from a place down the street and ate under the dim light of a single bulb, talking about everything and nothing until Powder eventually fell asleep with her head on Moon's shoulder.

Moon didn't move for a long time, just sat there listening to the soft rhythm of Powder's breathing. She let herself smile then, small and private, at the realization that this was it. This was home.

The next morning, Powder woke up with a crick in her neck and grumbled about it for an hour, but Moon didn't mind. She made tea while Powder tinkered with one of her gadgets, and for the first time in a long time, the world outside their little apartment felt far away.

"Do you think we'll get a cat?" Powder asked that evening, lying on her stomach in the middle of the living room floor.

Moon, perched on the window sill with a book in her hands, glanced up. "We can barely afford to feed ourselves right now, let alone a cat."

"Yeah, but when we're rich and famous," Powder replied, her tone confident. "We'll get a cat. Maybe two. They'll be best friends."

Moon smirked. "Sure, Powder. When we're rich and famous."

She didn't say it, but deep down, she hoped Powder was right. For now, though, this was enough. Their little apartment, their shared chaos, and the knowledge that no matter what, they had each other.

But then the problem arose in all his white-haired glory.

Ekko.

Moon's dear Ekko, her brilliant, impossible, maddening boyfriend. The one who had been hers for over a little over nine months now, and who, despite how private they both were, managed to make his presence very known in her life.

Powder had thought she was getting a two-bedroom apartment with her sister Instead, it often felt like she had unwittingly entered a three-person lease—one that included a certain genius with a smirk that could get Moon to do just about anything.

Because every time Ekko came over, things got... messy.

It wasn't just the fact that he was over all the damn time (which he was), or that Moon, who supposedly hated PDA, suddenly had no qualms about curling into his lap the second he sat down (which she did). It wasn't even the infuriatingly smug little looks Ekko shot Powder whenever she walked in on them in compromising positions.

It was the fact that the apartment—their apartment—was no longer a safe zone.

Powder had rules. Unspoken ones, sure, but rules nonetheless. And one of those rules was that she should not, under any circumstances, have to hear her sister and her best friend being obnoxiously in love at all hours of the night.

But Moon and Ekko? They were menaces.

It started small—Ekko lingering a little too long after dinner, Moon pulling him into her bedroom, doors closing a little too quietly as if that would somehow lessen Powder's suffering.

And then? Then came the sounds.

The whispered laughter. The hushed murmurs. The soft sighs. And worse—the godforsaken silences that were too long, too heavy, too telling.

Powder could not do this.

"Moon," Powder deadpanned one morning, hair still a mess from where she'd shoved a pillow over her head in an attempt to drown out whatever nonsense had been happening in the room next to hers, "I pay rent here."

Moon, sitting cross-legged on the couch in Ekko's hoodie, sipped her tea, completely unfazed. "Mm-hmm."

"I deserve peace," Powder continued, voice rising.

Moon hummed, blowing on her tea like Powder hadn't just declared war. "You do."

"Moon."

"Powder."

"Tell your boyfriend to go home sometimes!"

Moon finally looked up, expression blank. "He has a home."

"Then why is he always here?!"

As if on cue, Ekko—the devil himself—strolled out of Moon's bedroom, stretching like he owned the place. His shirt, annoyingly not on his body, was slung over his shoulder, and his hair was a mess in a way that made Powder want to throw something at him.

"Morning, Powder," he said, far too pleased with himself.

Powder despised him.

"Ekko," she said, glaring. "Clothes. Now."

Ekko smirked, making no effort to move faster as he tugged his shirt back on.

Powder turned back to Moon. "This is illegal. You are terrorizing me."

Moon took another sip of tea, eyes calm, voice dry. "Doing what?."

Powder hated them both.

This was not the life she had signed up for.

Powder suffered.

She suffered greatly, and Ekko thought it was hilarious.

Moon, at least, had the decency to pretend she felt bad about it. Ekko? He was having the time of his life.

"Maybe you should just start sleeping with headphones on," he suggested one evening, lying across Moon's lap on the couch like he paid rent here.

Powder, curled up in the armchair across from them, narrowed her eyes. "Maybe you should go home."

Ekko snorted. "Damn, Powder. You trying to get rid of me?"

"Yes," Powder said flatly.

"No can do," he grinned, tilting his head back to look at Moon. "She loves me too much."

Moon, ever Moon, ran her fingers through his hair and didn't dignify that with a response.

Powder groaned, throwing her head back. "Moon. I am begging you."

Moon sighed, finally putting her tea down and giving Powder her full attention. "Alright, fine," she said. "We'll be more considerate."

Ekko groaned. "Babe."

Moon raised an eyebrow. "Ekko."

Ekko pouted at her like she'd just taken away his favorite toy. Which, to be fair, she kind of was.

Moon sighed again, this time softer, and pressed a kiss to his forehead before nudging him up so she could actually look at Powder properly.

"I'm sorry," she said, which immediately made Powder way more uncomfortable than the alternative.

Powder blinked. "Oh."

"We didn't think about how uncomfortable it was making you," Moon continued, voice calm, patient, annoyingly mature. "I should've been more mindful of that. We'll keep it down from now on, okay?"

Powder, suspicious, narrowed her eyes. "Seriously?"

Moon nodded.

"...No sarcasm?"

"No sarcasm."

Powder crossed her arms, glancing between them. Moon was staring at her, serious as ever. Ekko, however, was looking at her with a grin that screamed, I will absolutely make your life miserable in other ways.

"...You're a demon," Powder told him.

Ekko smirked. "And yet Moon still loves me."

Moon, to Powder's immense satisfaction, shoved him off her lap and onto the floor.

Ekko groaned dramatically, lying there for a long moment. Then, still grinning, he peeked up at Powder from the floor.

"Fine," he said. "We'll try to be quiet."

"Try?" Powder echoed, incredulous.

Ekko stretched like a cat and winked. "No promises."

Powder grabbed the closest pillow and threw it at his head.

𝐋𝐎𝐕𝐄 𝐒𝐏𝐄𝐀𝐊𝐒!

I forgot all the chapters I wanted to put in between before Moon turned 18 considering she's 19 during the events of Can't Catch Me. But it's been two months on the dot so Moon is 18, Ekko is 19. (Sorry) The music video brought me back. Bc I randomly remembered I don't like timebomb after forgetting about the show for a while.