Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Life as a child in the Undercity was bliss. In that, you hadn’t the faintest idea that life could be any better, or any worse. In the Upper Lanes, where most of the families were settled, the jigsaw architecture scaled far above the horizon and disappeared off into wispy grey. On a good day, the sun might be kind enough to sweep some of the fog aside and drop a few beams down the shafts of urban calamity.

It was one of those days when two children took joy in running through the jungle streets, climbing over pipes and rooftops like the world was their playground. Their parents worked in the mining and factory facilities, so they were often left to amuse themselves, or tasked with helping out locals during the week. But a sunny Saturday was such a welcome rarity that they were allowed to wander off and explore by themselves. And today, they’d decided to trek all the way to the riverbank.

“Come on Vander! I’m sure it’s not far from here.”

“You said that half an hour ago Felicia!” Huffed the older of the two while hoisting himself over a stack of vents to join the other atop the warehouse roof.

“Ok yeah, but now I know we’re close. Can’t you smell the river?”

She crouched down and reached her hands out to help her friend up. The frisky breeze rippled through her clothes and choppy bob of purple hair, and the girl shivered in her tank top and cargo shorts. The air wasn’t particularly cold, it was July after all, but stranded on a bare creaking rooftop surrounded by ocean wind was startling compared with the comfortable stillness they were used to down in the Lanes.

Another thing they didn’t have in the sheltered cracks of the Undercity, were views.

“Wow…” Felicia whistled in wide-eyed amazement. “Now I understand why they call it Topside. Just look at those columns!”

Vander stood speechless for a moment. He was 12 years old and raised on stories of a far-off land across the river made of marble and pure gold. So far out of reach you couldn’t see it through the factory smog, even from the tip of the highest chimney. The city in the clouds. It sounded like something out of a dream, and as he grew up he almost began to believe that’s all it was. Certainly felt like something adults made up -or at least exaggerated for entertainment’s sake- to save them from a more boring reality, that all the fruits of the Undercity’s labour were probably exported off to other equally mundane parts of the earth. And yet there it was… a city of marble and gold, towering proudly above water and sky.

“So this is Piltover…”

“Yeah, what a view huh? Wouldn’t wanna live all the way up there though, I feel like I’m getting altitude sickness just looking at it.”

“What do you think the views are like looking down from those windows?”

“Hmmm… well if they’re looking down at us then… probably just a lot of fog I would imagine. Wanna see if we can get a closer look?”

The boy scouted around them for a higher rooftop to climb, but it seemed they already had the best vantage point.

“I think this is it Fel. This is as high as we can go.” He let out a disappointed sigh and crossed his arms. All that navigating and almost falling off things for their expedition to end here. He let his eyes peruse over the city; carefully constructed sculptures overlooking a golden horizon and the glittering stretch of waves, and spindles of wire holding up the suspension bridge that connected the two alien realms. It made him feel… small. In a way that was… different, but not entirely uncomfortable. Still worth it.

“Getting a little chilly. Wanna head back?”

He turned to Felicia, who was trying her best to act nonchalant while rubbing the goosebumps on her arms. A sharp nip suddenly cut through the air and made Vander shiver as well.

“Yeah it is a bit isn’t it? We should probably start heading back now if we wanna get home for dinner anyway. Why don’t we go by the river this time?”

“Sounds fun, I’ll race you down!”

“Hey wait!- ”

Vander wrapped his sleeveless overcoat tighter around his chest and took off after Felicia who had already sprinted over to the lower roof.

The pair hadn’t got too far inland from their riverside stroll home before a feisty commotion caught their ears. It wasn’t unusual to encounter scraps in the Undercity, but the kids tended to avoid them anyway. It was always drunk grown-ups arguing over things they didn’t understand or didn’t care about, and if you didn’t have anything of value then generally no one would bother you. And few adults, let alone children in the lanes carried anything worth mugging. By now Felicia and Vander were used to turning the other cheek and staying out of unwanted trouble, but Felicia stopped walking when she realised that the voices belonged to kids about her age. One of them quite possibly younger.

“Pssst! Vander… you hear that?”

Vander gave a nod and pointed in the direction the voices were coming from. The two snuck over and peered behind a pile of discarded barrels into the next alley. The dusty path was thin and empty for a long way down both directions, and right opposite them were a pair of boys. One was blonde and one had brown hair, and they were jeering at a smaller child they’d cornered against the wall and an old brick pile.

“C’mon rat face just give it!” Spat the blonde one and kicked up dust in the kid’s face. When the smaller boy only coughed and held tighter to the duffle bag he was clutching with a defiant scowl, the taller one clenched his fists.

“Fine! Don’t say we didn’t give you a chance to give up!” He lunged for the kid’s shirt collar and scooped up a brick half in the other hand. “You like eating dust so much, huh? Why don’t you try this!”

“Vander!” Felicia hissed urgently and shook her friend’s shoulder. “They’re gonna kill him! We gotta do something!”

The older didn’t need any further prompting. He barged past the stack of barrels with no grace whatsoever and tumbled into the fight like a bulldozer. At the same time that the bully’s attention was drawn to the sound of Vander’s clamour and a dozen wooden barrels collapsing like a stack of cards, the kid who’d been targeted whipped out a knife from under the folds of his crimson shirt. The blade was made for hands much bigger than his, but he lashed out at the other boy regardless. Aiming right for his face.

The blade would’ve taken out his attacker’s eye if Vander’s fist hadn’t collided with it first. The knife went flying and the blonde boy crashed into the brick pile with a bleeding tooth. The brown-haired accomplice instantly turned on Vander to defend his friend and swung a brick at him from behind.

“Vander!” Cried Felicia as she charged into the battle and tackled her friend out of the missile line of a flying brick. Then quick as lighting she hopped back on her feet and threw a heavy kick to the second bully’s chest. He stumbled backwards but once he was over his annoyance at missing his shot, he sneered and went in all fists blazing. Felicia grappled with him for a while, until Vander stepped in and finished him off with a final rounded punch to the back. The boy spluttered and doubled over, then tugged his friend’s arm and the two awkwardly backed off and made a run for it.

“That’s right you bullies! Get outta here! Scram!!” Felicia cawed triumphantly and kicked a cloud of dust in their direction for good measure. “Who’s the rats now? Huh?! I bet you-”

She stopped when Vander gave her a light tap on the shoulder and brought her attention back to the kid who was still standing by the wall, glaring at them with caution and holding the bag to his chest as if it were a life buoy.

“Oh, hey there… you ok?”

The boy didn’t say anything, just kept eyeing them with piercing aqua irises from his grubby blistered face. He had short unkempt hair that may have been black or just really dirty. It was hard to tell when so much of him was covered in scrapes or stains from the grime of the riverside streets. His shirt looked more like a tent on him, and his shoes were past the point of being called wearable. He looked like what you’d get if you dragged a very small very angry stray kitten through several layers of swamp, let it dry, and then shook it really hard to get the mud off.

“I promise I’m not gonna hurt you.” Vander chirped and took a step closer trying to seem friendly. “Or steal your bag. Actually, I don’t even care what’s in it!”

The dark-haired urchin hissed baring a row of abnormally pointed front teeth, and took another two steps away from him.

“We just… don’t like seeing other kids on these streets getting pushed around like that…” Felicia added in a softer tone and motioned to Vander to give the kid some space. “…and we wanted to help.”

He looked her up and down, leaning back, but not moving away. He glanced over at Vander a couple times again, and relaxed a tiny bit to see that the taller boy listened to Felicia and stayed a few steps back. Vander cleared his throat and tried again.

“Um… you don’t talk much huh? Well, that’s ok. You know if you don’t wanna be wandering around here alone you could always come with us.” He gave a warm smile and held out his hand. A non-verbal offer that the kid seemed to consider silently for a bit, before he gradually shuffled a few steps closer and reached forward a hesitant hand.

Alright! Thought Vander as he waited for acceptance of his trust from this strange quiet scruffy child he’d somehow grown protective of in a matter of minutes. And just like that I’ve made a new friend!

And just like that his new friend ducked under his arm, snatched his knife off the ground and darted behind the used-to-be barrel pile and down the long shaft of cobbled street.

“Yeesh- that kid’s a little silverfish.”

“Hmm…” Vander glanced down at his hand then back down the dusty lane. “Should we go after him?”

Felicia pouted and shrugged. “I dunno. Doesn’t seem like he wanted to be followed. And we did say we weren’t looking to mug him, but if we chase after him it might not look like that.”

“Yeah, I guess you’re right.”

“Sooo… we keep walking the other way to get home in time before supper gets cold?”

Vander sighed and nodded, following Felicia’s lead and turning back to the path they were on.

“We never get the chance to come this far out of town by ourselves, you don’t think we’ll see him again do you?”

“Maybe. Maybe not. But if he does show up again we can introduce ourselves properly! Who knows, he might even want to thank us for saving his life.”

“Hmm… mom won’t mind if I’m a bit late.” Blurted Vander as he turned heel and dashed down the other lane.

“What?! Hey! Vander wait for me!” She called after him, but once Vander made up his mind there was no stopping him. He raced down the path only pausing to glance down each alley until he caught sight of a red and black blur and a duffle bag.

“There he goes!”

“Can we slow down a bit, please?” Felicia panted as she trailed Vander’s spontaneous movements through the town.

“Can’t. We’ll lose him as we get further inland among all the people.”

“Fine… then we should- …corner him somehow.” She huffed as she ran alongside and looked around, they were in more familiar territory now. “There! You go that way I’ll go this way, meet back at the end of the left street, we should catch him.”

“Got it!”

And with that they split off and looped around the square of buildings. By now Vander was only a few meters away from the kid, who glanced behind him and immediately started running faster.

“Hey! I just wanna talk to you, I’m sorry if I scared you earlier, can you stop running for a minute?”

“Stop following me bozo!” He yelled back, but in turning behind him to scowl at Vander, he tripped over his own untied shoelaces and faceplanted onto the gravel. He spat out a chunk of grit and hastily looked around for where his bag landed. He’d come all this way and wasn’t prepared to have it stolen by some clumsy interfering giant.

“Woah, you alright?” Came the voice that’d been tailing him. The older boy who’d fought off his attackers was tall for his age, stocky, and had a mop of chestnut brown hair and storm grey eyes. He didn’t give the duffle bag a second glance, instead he was leaning down and holding out his hand once again. “Can I help you up?”

The younger boy sat up and wiped the blood from his nose onto his shirt sleeve. His instinct was telling him to get up and run away again. But his sharp stare was met with a warm smile, and it didn’t feel threatening at all.

At that moment, Felicia came running around the corner and hunched over for a second to catch her breath. She stood up straight again to see the small child take Vander’s hand as he lifted him onto his feet again.

“Made a friend after all I see.” She smiled and walked over to join them.

The kid meekly brushed himself off and picked up his duffle bag. He stared down at the ground, drawing circles in the gravel with one heel. “…Thanks.” He muttered very roughly under his breath.

Vander beamed with joy and shot Felicia a quick Told ya I could do it! grin. “No prob dude. I’m Vander by the way, and this is Felicia. What’s your name?”

“…Silco.”

“Nice to meet ya Silco! How old are you? I’m 10 and Van’s 12, we live a few blocks over that way in the Upper Lanes.”

“…7.”

“Huh? Then- what are you doing wandering around here all by yourself?” Vander asked carefully. He didn’t want to upset Silco, but got the sense there was no one looking after this kid. “Do you uh… have anywhere to go?”

Silco’s eyes fell to the ground again and he clutched his duffle bag tighter. “No.”

“What’s in the bag that’s so important?” Felicia tilted her head curiously.

“Nunuv yer business!” Hissed Silco.

“Ok sorry- I only ask cuz I’m curious, but I swear on my life we’re not gonna steal it from ya. Whatever it is it’s rightfully yours!”

Silco gave her a suspicious frown, but considered that if these two really wanted his stuff they’d already had several chances to take with ease. And now they knew he had a knife, but didn’t seem wary that he might use it on them.

“Look, we’re just walking home now, and it’s safer there. People in our part of town, they look out for each other.” Vander said more sincerely. “You’re free to come with us, if you like. But you don’t have to. Promise we won’t try anything. Anyway, ’sup to you.”

The 7-year-old went back to being mute. He chewed his lip and thought about what he was being offered. He found himself absent-mindedly kicking at the ground again, not really sure what to do.

“Umm… alright well, we’ll be on our way then. See ya Silco.” Vander gave a small wave, and he and Felicia slowly started walking back home to leave him be.

After a few paces, he heard shuffling behind him. When he stopped walking so did the shuffling. Vander turned around to see Silco loitering a few feet behind with his eyes elsewhere, trying to seem like he wasn’t paying them any attention. When Vander started walking again, the scuffle of little footsteps reappeared. A smile returned to his face, and although he didn’t turn around again, he occasionally paused for a second to ‘tie his shoelaces’ or ‘point at a bird’ to Felicia, and had to avoid giggling when the footsteps abruptly stopped and started along with his.

Silco tagged behind at a safe distance. Keeping close enough to observe the other two and listen in on their conversations, but far enough to feel secure. During their journey he gradually got more comfortable, and bit by bit walked a couple paces closer.

“…I’m sure we could find the time, and we’re older now.” Said Felicia. “Our parents know we can take care of ourselves. And I wanna go back and look at the view across the river again for sure! Now that I’ve seen it with my own eyes.”

“Same. I wanna figure out if there’s a way we can get closer, I want to touch one of those columns one day.”

“I wonder what kind of people live there, and what kind of jobs they have. Do you think they have like… gold factories? Or glitter mines?”

“I don’t think they have factories or mines Felicia. Those are our jobs.”

Silco’s ears perked up at the topic. He could only assume they were talking about that place in the sky. The one across the river.

Vander suddenly felt a tap on his shoulder and he and Felicia turned their attention to the smaller child following them. “What’s up?”

Silco hesitated and took a step back again just in case. “If you guys promise not to tell anyone at all, I’ll show ya what’s in the bag.”

“Really?!” Gasped Felicia getting excited all of a sudden. “No worries man, I won’t tell a soul! But now you’ve got me expecting something super cool.” She said miming the act of zipping her lips and adding a playful wink.

Vander raised his eyebrows. “You sure you don’t mind?”

“If you break your promise I’ll stab ya.”

“Point taken. I can keep a promise.”

Zzzzzzzip!

Clip-clip!

Inside the patchy old duffle bag was a collection of metallic treasures. Tiny bronze sculptures polished to perfection with cut crystals embedded in them. Some things were missing parts, or intended to be partnered with other components to work. They could’ve been candle holders, watch straps, jewellery boxes, bottle tops, or ends of curtain rails and bath taps, but to the three children all of it looked like very pretty useless decorative junk. Pretty expensive junk.

“Holy. Mother of-” Felicia breathed as her eyes sparkled like the jewels she beheld before her.

“This stuff is from- Piltover… H-how did you get this?” Vander asked in stuttering disbelief.

“Found it…lying around.”

“No you did not. There ain’t no way-”

“Did you steal it?” Felicia butted in with her voice lowered and a cunning grin on her face.

“I did not!”

“Oh my god you stole it didn’t you!”

“Wasn’t me!” He protested and snatched the bag away, aggressively zipping it shut and doing up every single buckle to the tightest notch. “Was some guy tryna to cross the river. Got caught by robot-looking dudes from the cloud city. Chased him to this side of the bank, beat ’em up. I was watching from nearby, and they were too busy fighting each other to notice me.”

“So you managed to pickpocket them right under the enforcers noses?!”

“The stuff was already in the bag. En- forces… or whatever, wanted it back from the guy. I think. They were pretty focused on kicking him out of his raft.” He thought for a moment while Vander and Felicia stood silent and gaping at the story. “Nah they definitely wanted the bag back. After I took it they were looking around, like they’d lost something.”

“What about the guy who stole the stuff in the first place?” Asked Felicia. “Was he also looking for the bag?”

“Maybe. I don’t think he could move much. There was a lot of blood. And then when the robot dudes realised they couldn’t find the bag of gold stuff they turned on him again. And then there was even more blood. Now I think about it… he stayed still for a long time even after they stopped looking at the riverbed and went back over the bridge.”

Vander and Felicia slowly turned to look at each other. Then back at the deadpan orphan and his bloodstained duffle bag of stolen Piltover goods.

“But you’re right. Finders keepers, and this stuff is rightfully mine.”

Felicia bit her tongue. Ok... Maybe I shouldn’t have said that. But after he trusted them enough to tell them how he got it, she didn’t want to backtrack now. Thankfully Vander had her back.

“Well technically… no. It is still Piltover’s stuff, but it’s not like they could have any use for these things right? I mean what does any of it even do? Just looked like bedazzled toothpicks and toilet rolls to me. But perhaps you will find something to do with it. Either way I don’t blame you for being so cautious now, and after seeing what they did to that guy as well.”

Suddenly he clicked his fingers as a bright idea popped into his head. “Hey! I know one of the guys at the pawn shop who’d definitely know more about all this. Fel, you remember Benzo?”

“Course I remember Benzo. Haven’t seen him in a while. Heard he’s got a beard now. Hehe.”

“We could totally get him to give us a value and see what we could do with it and- …Oh wait, Silco, we don’t have to do that if you don’t want to. We did promise not to tell anyone.”

“Hmph.” Silco turned the idea over while they continued walking. He hadn’t thought that far ahead. All he knew was he had something that other people wanted but was worth keeping because it was from the fancy cloud city. He didn’t actually know what he could do with it. “We can go there I guess. You trust this Benzo guy?”

“100%. I’ve known Benzo forever and he’s never let me down. And he’s no tattle tale when it comes to important things.”

“Mmk then. I’ll trust you on this, Vander. But I meant what I said about stabbing.”

“Uh-huh. Don’t sweat it, you’re with us now!” Felicia added and raised her hands in a gun pose. “We’ll be your bodyguards if anyone gets too close!” She stalked around them like a secret agent on a mission aiming her make-believe pistol. “Pew-pew! Get back! This is agent Fel to agent Van, our mission is to escort this young man to Benzo’s shop for top secret trading! Ready your weapon should anyone suspicious approach the target.”

“Wouldn’t the target be the one we’re trying to shoot?”

“Shhhh… I’m the brains of this duo and you’re the brawn, remember agent Van?”

“Sure. And that’s how we keep getting caught when shoplifting in the market.”

“It’s cuz you see, we have our own amazing individual talents agent Van, but neither of us are quite as sneaky as junior agent Silco here. Didn’t you hear the little magpie robbed a gang of enforcers blind? Imagine the epic raids we could pull off all together!”

Despite his efforts not to get too comfortable, Silco found himself smiling at the girl’s humorous antics and impressions. He’d not met kids like these two before. They were fun to be around. And they didn’t want to rob him or fight him which was a pretty big plus.

“Not a bad idea agent Fel. Our brawn and brains could use some extra stealth. Whaddaya say junior agent Silco? Wanna join our team and accompany us on our future missions?”

“Hmm. I accept your offer agent Van.” Silco replied with a smirk, this time extending his hand for Vander to shake.

“I’m proud to promote you to special agent Silco!” The older boy stated as he joyfully shook the orphan’s grubby little hand. “But I think I’ll just call you Sil.” Vander gave the kid’s hair a ruffle, which made him laugh, and showed his little shark teeth in a smile.

Chapter Text

“Where are those kids? I’ve got fresh stew on the table getting colder by the second.”

“They can’t be far, you know how those two are when they go off exploring together. I wouldn’t worry.”

Two women, late 30’s sat outside on the porch of one of their front doors, chatting and soaking up the last of the sun rays before it sank beneath the blanket of clouds above the city. The brunette was laxly scouring the perimeter of the block for any sign of her son.

“I’m not worried.” She said rubbing her thumb over the silver ring she always wore. It wasn’t real silver of course; she couldn’t afford something like that with a decade of her factory worker’s pay. “I’m just not sure that what I say always gets through that boy’s thick head.”

“You’re giving yourself too little credit. He’s a bright, kind-hearted lad and I trust him to look after himself, and Felicia. It can’t be easy being a single working mother in a place like this, but you’re doing an amazing job. And if you ever need anything you know we’re here for you, right next door.”

“Thanks, really. You guys are the best, and little Felicia’s welcome anytime.”

The purple-haired woman raised her head as she spotted two children walking down the street. “Speak of the devil, there she is the little rascal. Felicia!”

“Hi mom! Guess where me and Vander went today!” The girl shouted across the road, cupping her hand to her mouth as she ran over. “And guess what we found!”

Vander’s mother stood up and narrowed her eyes. “Does it look like there’s another kid with them?” She asked her friend quietly.

“I think you’re right. Wonder what that’s about.”

The kids met them at the front of the house and Vander gave his mum a hug. “Sorry we’re a bit late, we got sidetracked walking home from the riverbed.” He stepped aside to reveal the smaller human cowering behind him. “This is Silco. Fel heard some older boys trying to rob him, so we got them to clear off and now we have a new friend!”

His mother leaned down to reach eye-level with the tiny child her son had picked up off the streets like a fond stray. The way she studied him was non-threatening, and she spoke gently to the scruffy boy who was edging away from the door.

“You hungry Silco?”

The child stood still, then nodded very faintly.

“Well, I only cooked for me and Vander, but we can find a way to stretch it between the three of us. I’ll pull up an extra seat at the table. How does that sound?”

Silco’s eyes widened slightly. Hot food for free? In a safe building? That sounded like heaven. At least for an orphan who hadn’t seen a good sustaining meal in years. Quite possibly his life. He stared at Vander’s mother to figure out if he trusted her. She wore a pair of brown threadbare overalls cuffed at the ankles around her worker boots. Her hair was of medium length, the same chestnut tone as her son’s and she wore it tucked behind her ears. And her smile was warm and kindly… just like Vander’s smile.

He nodded again with more enthusiasm, and stood close to Vander’s side as the woman invited him into her home. Silco followed his taller friend to the kitchen and joined him at the dinner table where he was greeted with the smell of delicious cooking. When he was served a small bowl with a spare teaspoon, and took a bite… his mouth watered at the taste that was unlike anything he’d ever had in his life. He couldn’t stop grinning and kicking his feet under the table with joy as he wolfed down the lot.

“I take it you like my cooking then?” Vander’s mum laughed and served the hungry boy a second helping. “It’s nothing fancy, just good old potatoes, carrots, leek and bit of salt and pepper. That was all I could find around the house, but it’s not bad right?”

“It’s delicious mum! Thankyou!” Vander stated heartily as he set his empty bowl down and chugged a glass of water.

She chuckled and cleared up the table, but kept glancing back the smaller boy with nagging thoughts. Vander told her they helped him out of a sticky situation down by the river, but he never said if this Silco kid had a family. She didn’t want to assume things, but even if he was an orphan, she was struggling to make ends meet for just her and her son as it was.

“Silco dear, can I ask you something?”

He sank into his seat and gave a small but nervous nod.

“You don’t… have anyone looking after you do you?”

The boy shook his head, and his eyes fell bashfully to his lap. Her smile wavered.

“Right, no… I didn’t suspect so.”

“It’s ok. I look after myself.”

The kid didn’t look much older than 6 or 7… it wasn’t that the Undercity wasn’t full of deprived and sickly orphans, she was honestly somewhat amazed he’d survived this far by himself. While she couldn’t take in every lost child in town, she was glad Vander had made friends with this one. Her son had a knack for being able to find the right crowd and he could always sniff out the best in people, strangers and old friends alike.

“You shouldn’t have to though; every child deserves a home, and a parent. It’s unfortunate, but we live a pretty harsh crack of the world, and there’s only so far you can get all by yourself. Now I don’t have a lot to spare besides a roof, a meal from what I can scrape by and a whole lot of love. But if that’s enough for you, then welcome to the lanes.”

Hmm… cogs, more cogs… another spyglass… what’s this? Never mind, just another pile of cogs.

Ding-a-ling!

The young man at the counter looked up from his junk pile and the kid at the door gave him a wave.

“Heya Benzo! You open yet?”

“Not to you mate.”

“Well open up and tell all your other customers to clear off, cuz I’ve got something better than their handfuls of crap.”

Benzo crossed his arms with a disbelieving smirk. “Sure you do mini Van. You haven’t come here to waste my time at all.”

“Oh leave it alone, I know you’re not doing anything important.”

“Tsk- Fine, you got me there.” The older teen scoffed. “What’ve you got?”

“Not me, this guy!” Vander exclaimed and pointed to Silco and his duffle bag who followed in after Felicia. “Oh, before we show you, is anyone else around?”

“Just me today. Dad’s down the mines. I was sorting through one of the scrap drawers before you came in, but I can wait a while before opening shop.”

He strolled around the counter and flipped the blinds down, switched on the lights and double checked the front door’s sign read closed to passers-by.

“When I’m old enough, I’m gonna go work in the mines as well, just like my parents!” Felicia quipped as she wandered around picking up random things from shelves. “Not gonna lie, I think I’d be ace at treasure finding.”

“I’ve been down there.” Said Benzo. “It’s not as exciting as you’d like to think. Kinda just rocks and caves and more rocks and more caves. S’pose the ores are quite pretty in lamplight though.”

The pawn shop belonged to Benzo’s father who founded it as a side business alongside his work as a miner. He was getting on a bit, and the years of hard labour and pollution hadn’t been kind to him. Benzo was about Vander’s age when his old man collapsed in a mine shaft one day. His colleagues helped him back up to the surface, but from that day he realised that supporting himself and Benzo through this profession alone wasn’t sustainable. Since then he converted the ground floor of his home into a store and worked both jobs part time, letting his son earn experience running the shop on his off-days.

Benzo was 17 now, tall and rather square with new stubble and acne in patches here and there. His hair was a short crop of earthy brown that faded into the beginning of some sideburns. He wore a cuffed beige shirt and a leather apron with workshop tools in the front pocket, and a pair of thick-rimmed chunky glasses on his head for tinkering with mechanics.

“So. Anyone gonna tell me who the new guy is?”

Vander gave Silco a nudge and whispered, “Go on, introduce yourself!”

Silco coughed into his fist and took a step forward. “My name’s Silco. And I got some stuff Vander says you could take a look at and tell us what it is.” He lifted the heavy bag and dumped it onto the worktop surface. The contents of the bag made a frail clatter and Benzo raised an eyebrow.

“Let’s see what we have here… uh- what’s all this?! Where the hell did you get these? This is Piltover décor.”

“Finder’s keepers. I’m not telling the rest of the story again.”

“Hm. Suit yourself.” Hummed Benzo while putting on his glasses to better inspect the golden engravings.

“So, you impressed now?” Smiled Vander leaning one arm on the table. “One dead thief’s loss is a living one’s gain.”

“S’not stealing!” Hissed Silco. “If they wanted it back they should’ve searched harder.”

“And where would that leave you if they’d found you with all this Sil?”

He opened his mouth to say something back, but he shut it once he stopped to think. Dead. Dead was the answer.

Benzo picked up a gold stitched leather bookmark with white silk tassels and turned it over in his chubby fingers. “Well I’d say most of this is from a pretty standard Piltover home, probably displayed in the living room or entrance hall. Which would make sense, thief probably wasn’t thinking about what he was taking but just grabbed anything expensive looking that met his eye the second he broke in. We’ve mostly got ornamental statues, some display silverware, a perfume bottle, bunch of hair pins and… what might be part of a record player?”

“Huh… that’s actually a lot more boring than I expected. I kinda hoped at least one of these would shoot lasers.” Felicia sounded a tad disappointed.

“That must mean the people up there are more boring than we expected too.” Added Vander. “Or y’know, maybe it’s just this person. Maybe all the people who own cool stuff are better at keeping their doors locked.”

“Aww, what a shame.” She pouted and tossed another cog back into the box she’d been rummaging through. Then, like a gear clicking into place in a finetuned machine, an idea popped into her head. “Hey Vander, you remember how you said you wanted to get a closer look at the legendary city in the clouds?”

“Yeah, wait- …Are you thinking what I’m thinking Fel?”

The two locked eyes and shared a grin of pure cunning childish menace. Felicia sprung to her feet and pranced over to Vander and the others.

“Guuyyyys! We should totally conduct our own Piltover raid!”

“Ha! We were thinking the same thing!” Vander was jumping on the spot with just as much buzz as Felicia. “Benzo, you know more about the place and what’s worth more value, why don’t you come with us?”

“Count me out dudes. I know my stuff cuz I know people and I do my research. My place is in this shop not out on the field. I’m no parkour champ; I’d just give you away getting there. But whatever you bring back, I promise I’ll kept well looked after. You might even get your money’s worth if anyone with enough to buy it comes round.”

“Oh ok, thanks. Sil, you in?”

Silco nodded and scooped up his empty duffle bag and leaving the ornaments with Benzo. He gave the older boy a salute and shark toothed smile. “Keep it safe. Or else.”

“Epic! We’re like a super spy trio!” Felicia trilled while bouncing around the shop on her tip-toes. “We’re like the three musketeers of the Undercity! Ooh- we should have our own name! What’s our gang called?”

“Well we can’t call ourselves the three musketeers cuz that’s already taken.” Vander thought out loud tapping on the worktop. “And we probably shouldn’t say we’re from the Undercity in our title.”

“Let’s call it something cooler than the Undercity then, we’ll be our own nation! Just the four of us. The nation of… uh, the nation of…”

“The nation of Zaun.”

“Ooh, nice one Sil! The nation of Zaun… I like that.”

Chapter Text

It was a humid summer morning in the Undercity, moisture in the air making it muggy though it was early enough not to be stifling. Three children were playing together in the one place on the outskirts of the Lanes where they knew no one would come to disturb them. The junkyard.

“Tag! Gotcha Van!”

“No fair! How come you always get me?”

“I tried to catch Silco but he’s too fast!”

Vander huffed in annoyance and glanced to Silco who was crouching atop a sheet of scrap metal balanced on some crates and snickering to himself. Felicia stuck her tongue out at him and he hissed at her.

“Maybe tag isn’t the best game to play with only three people after all.” She sighed and crossed her arms trying to think of what they could do instead. Glancing around the junkyard, there was quite a lot of random bits and bobs curiously littered all over the place, then she looked back to where Silco was perched, and it gave her an idea. “Why don’t we build a den?”

The two boys exchanged a glance and nodded in agreement.

“Great idea Fel!” Chanted Vander, already going to shoo Silco off the pile so he could reach the crates. “We can use these as a base, and build it up as we go!”

Silco hopped off his dumpster pile pedestal and helped Vander move the scrap to get to the boxes. They all worked together to push things aside, drag bits and pieces here and there, and soon enough the foundations of their den started to take shape.

“Looking good guys! I think it needs a roof now. Van, can you help me move this plywood?”

“Sure thing.”

Felicia and Vander lifted the large board in a joint effort, and shuffled it over their wall of damp crates and rusted metal appliances. It covered half the area above the den they’d created, but not entirely. So they started looking for another one to add. Felicia climbed one of the neighbouring junk piles while Vander pulled apart the scraps on the ground to see if they hid anything useful behind them.

“Nothing down here. Only objects that are gonna be too big and heavy to put on top. What about you? Found anything?”

“Yep! There’s a couple slightly smaller boards here! I think with this we should have enough to cover the roof!”

“Alright, gimme a sec I’ll come help you move them.”

Vander began scaling the pile to meet Felicia, but slipped on the first barrel he used as a step, and everything it was resting on collapsed under him. He yelped and made a jump for the top of the heap, grabbing onto a table leg and scrambling the rest of his way up rather ungraciously.

“Careful Van!” Felicia giggled and helped him up. “Don’t bring us all down with you!”

Vander laughed it off and they were joined by Silco who bounded over from somewhere behind the pile with an armful of random junk and an old saucepan on his head.

“What’s all that for Sil?”

“You’ll see.” He answered with a mischievous wink and plonked himself down on the wooden board.

Felicia put her hands on her hips and gave him a look. “Silco! We were just going to move that.”

“You can still move it.”

“Not with you sitting on it we can’t!”

“Why not?” Vander asked taking Silco’s side. “He’s only little. I bet the board won’t weigh any different.”

Felicia rolled her eyes. “Yeah for you maybe Mr. Strong arms. But, ok, we can try.”

They each took hold of one end and lifted at the same time. Vander was right, Silco weighed practically nothing, and they carried the plank back down to the den with relative ease. Meanwhile Silco lapped up every second of his free transport, feeling like a tiny king being carried by his servants across junkyard kingdom. When they set the board down on the roof, he leapt off the den and landed like a frog, spilling all the objects from his arms onto the ground. Then he started scooping them up again and rearranging them. He placed crumpled tin cans in rows outside the den, and led trails of wire clipping and old netting scraps from the entrance outwards.

“Watcha doin’ Silco? Is this… decoration?” Felicia asked as she studied his actions with curiosity.

“Reinforcement.”

“What for?”

“In case we get attacked.” He answered obviously and pointed to his line of string circling the den and stretching away from the door. “This is the bridge so there’s only one way to get to the den. That way no one can sneak up on us. And if they try, the guards’ll shoot ‘em.”

“Guards? What guards?”

Silco held up one of the cans. “These guards. Duh.” He placed the scrappy metal cylinder next to the others he’d ringed around the den. “They’ll protect our fortress from invaders when we have to go home.”

“Oh… I see. But… Silco, who would be coming to invade us? There’s no one around.”

Silco paused a moment and bit his thumb to think about it.

“The rats.”

Vander looked around. “I don’t see any rats.”

“Doesn’t matter. They’re still here. They live everywhere and they’re very sneaky, which is why we have to watch out for them in case they want to steal anything from us. I should know. I used to have one as a pet, but then he tried to steal my lunch.”

“Well that was very rude of him.”

The three friends finished tidying up their den and adding some final touches each to their personal taste. Vander managed to drag several tyres from around the scrap heap and stack them either side of the den like two castle turrets, and Felicia mounted a sun-bleached rag to a radio antenna and situated it on the roof for a flag. Silco found some charcoal ashes in a discarded barbeque dish and used them to draw all over the cardboard walls of their den.

By the time they stepped back to admire their creation, each child had dirt on their knees and blackened fingers. Vander’s with tyre rubbings, Felicia’s with axel grease and Silco’s with charcoal smudges.

“Take it all in boys… this is the most epic den to be built by anyone in the Undercity ever!”

Felicia turned to high five both her friends, then looked down at her palms afterwards.

“Ew! Vander your hands are filthy! You’ve made mine all dirty!”

“What?! It’s your hands that are grubby Fel, not me!”

They both turned to Silco who was frantically wiping the charcoal on his shorts. He stopped upon realised he was being stared at, and gave them a guilty chuckle and a shark-toothed smile.

“Uhh… It was the rats’ fault?”

The other two burst out laughing, and Silco wasn’t sure if it was because what he said was funny or just really stupid, but he laughed along with them. Then Felicia’s face lit up as she remembered something.

“Oh! That reminds me!” She jumped up and down and ran behind the den, then returned with a bundle of more objects in her arms. “I found these while I was building the flag!”

She reached up to place a wire colander on Vander’s head and plonked a dented metal bowl on hers.

“There! Now we’ve both got little soldier helmets just like Sil! That was great thinking with the saucepan dude, now we can be defenders of our own fortress too!”

Silco stood up straight and proudly tipped his makeshift hat. But Felicia wasn’t finished. She also produced a dustbin lid which she handed to Vander, a short aluminium pipe which she passed to Silco, and finally wielded a tall stick with a sock hanging off it that she planted next to their den while she stood with a firm stance and made an announcement.

“I herby declare this den the official hideout base camp headquarters of The Nation of Zaun! And you, loyal citizens, are our shield and sword of this nation.”

“And what does that make you?” Asked Vander.

“I’m the emblem of course.” She stated proudly and raised her stick like a warrior’s spear. “I’m the face of our cause and the spirit of all our missions! We’ve got secret agent Silco, brave knight Vander, and me! Uh… something between a general and a cheerleader I guess.”

Vander saluted her and held his dustbin shield readily. “At your service Queen Felicia! I will wear my title with honour!”

Her eyes lit up with a twinkle. “Ooh! Queen Felicia… I like that! Nevermind general, I’m the queen now.”

Vander bowed and Silco copied him, though he had to hold the saucepan to stop it falling off his head.

“Would her majesty care to explore the rest of her kingdom with us?”

“A wise suggestion knight Vander. Her majesty would much like to see the rest of Junkyardtopia.”

They began trekking through the heap of scrap yard in search of entertainment to pass the time by until lunch on this hot summer’s day. Brave Knight Vander lead the way with his shield out in front to protect his friends from rusty iron monsters, Queen Felicia strode behind him with her spear in the air to announce their arrival, and Secret Agent Silco tagged along at the back with his sword, keeping a sharp eye ready to slash any assassins that got too close.

“Can I be Queen next?” He asked as they reached the top of Mt. Drywall.

The current monarch raised an eyebrow at the question. “Wouldn’t you rather be king?”

“Depends. Which one has more power?”

Vander chuckled. “I don’t think it makes a difference Sil.”

“No, no, it’s a valid enquiry.” Felicia argued. “Queens defiantly have more power.”

“How come?”

“Girls always make better leaders Vander.”

“You’ve got no proof of that.”

“Sure I do. Who always leads our missions and comes up with our favourite games to play?” She grinned and pointed at herself. Vander rolled his eyes but couldn’t deny that Felicia did always have the best ideas when they got bored.

“Well yeah but you’re just one person. Plus I bet I could prove you wrong.”

“Okay, you can lead our next mission then! I’ll hand over the crown to you Van.”

“Hey why him?!” Silco chirped from behind them and brandished his drainpipe sword. “I already asked to be next. Wait your turn Vander!”

“That’s right, you did. How about I make you king now Silco and Vander can lead us next time? I’ve enjoyed my time as queen already anyway.” She pretended to take some glorious crown off her head and placed it on Silco’s. “I now proclaim you King of Junkyardtopia, and the new leader of The Nation of Zaun.”

“Alright!”

Silco punched the air and skipped off ahead leading them down the mountain of scrapped construction and household items.

“Wait for your gallant knights at least!” Felicia called and ran after him, followed by Vander close behind.

They chased each other round the dump crawling up and down scrap piles, squeezing under gaps and kicking stray clumps of litter around like confetti. While they messed about in their own little world, the sun slowly shifted its position in the sky, bearing more heat as it grew closer to midday.

After running around and wearing themselves out, the three children took some shelter under a sheet of metal leaning against a brick wall to avoid the direct sunlight. Now they were sat down and still, the muggy heat was growing more irritating by the minute. Felicia had taken off her bowl helmet and was using it like a fan to try and cool off. Silco had taken off his shirt and tied it around his shoulders like a cape, and Vander was just leaning back against the wall breathing slowly and trying to ignore the humidity.

“How long are we planning on waiting here?” Felicia asked no one in particular.

“Perhaps until a cloud comes by and gives us some shade to walk back in.” Answered Vander sleepily with his eyes shut.

Silco dug a hand into his pocket and fished out a piece of coal he’d kept from the barbeque, and used it to doodle on the underside of the metal sheet while they waited for the sun to die down.

Felicia sighed and dropped her helmet on the ground, leaning against the wall like Vander and closing her eyes. She tried to relax, but all of a sudden started wrinkling her nose, and she sat up again and looked around.

“What’s that smell?”

“Vander probably.” Snickered Silco.

“Shuttup.” Mumbled Vander and raised an arm to shield his eyes from the sun that was already seeping round the corner and invading their shaded hideout.

“No, it’s like… something rotting…”

Felicia shadowed her eyes with her hand as she stepped out into the sun. She sniffed the air and followed her nose round the corner of the wall. Silco craned his neck to watch where she was going, though he didn’t fancy moving just yet. However, after she’d been gone for about a minute, Silco kept glancing outside, and eventually decided to wake up Vander and follow her. He elbowed the older boy in the side and picked up his aluminium pipe, holding it over his shoulder.

“Wake up Vander. We can’t let Felicia go off exploring funky smells without us.”

Vander yawned and stood up with a stretch, stooping to exit the shielded hide and putting his colander hat back on. “Alright… I’m coming. Sorry, the sun makes me sleepy.”

Just then a shrill shriek was heard from the other side of the wall. Silco sprung to his feet and smudged little warrior markings on his cheeks with his coal-smeared fingertips.

“Come on Van! Queen Felicia might be in trouble and she needs her knights!” And he dashed off behind the wall. Vander gave himself a light slap in the face to wake himself up, then shook to his senses he rose and followed Silco with his bin lid shield in hand.

“Felicia!” Vander and Silco yelled in unison as they both came running around the brick wall.

“There you two are!” Felicia turned to them with a smile. She was completely fine. Just standing there as if nothing happened.

Silco tilted his head and looked at her confused. “Why’d you scream?”

“Oh I was just startled is all, I found this poor little guy and I thought he was alive at first.” She stepped aside to show them a small furry animal in a shallow puddle with flies buzzing all around it. The two boys stepped in to get a closer look. It was a rather large black rat with long wiry whiskers and patchy fur, laying on its front in a small pool of black water. The puddle had a nasty sheen of grease topping it, and the rat’s fur was matted with oil and blood, and one its eyes was missing. A mangled wound on the side of its face like something had pecked at it.

“Looks pretty dead to me.” Noted Vander, rather unfazed.

Silco frowned and crouched down to poke the creature with his rod. It squished slightly, and he grinned and poked it again.

“Ew! Sil, don’t do that!” Felicia pleaded and looked away.

“Why not? It’s dead.”

“Yeah but it’s also gross!”

“Exactly.” He said poking it again, this time turning the poor thing onto its back and prodding its head further into the puddle. “Rats are nothing but trouble.”

“I don’t believe you really had a pet rat Silco.” Vander said crossing his arms.

“I did. He followed me everywhere. He was black and furry just like this one, but not as fat.”

“Maybe it’s the same one.”

“No that’s impossible. Mine died ages ago.”

Felicia’s expression of disgust softened. “Aww… I’m sorry Sil. That’s really sad.”

“It’s ok. I wasn’t sad. He deserved it. He ate my lunch remember.”

“Oh yeah… I did forget about that, but still. The death of a pet is pretty upsetting to hear about. Did your pet have a name?”

Silco paused and scratched his front tooth. “Not really. I called him Pest. Guess that was his name.”

“And why was Pest trying to steal your lunch?” Vander asked playing along, but still sceptical about the whole tale.

“Because he’s a selfish pest. I hadn’t eaten in a few days so I was really hungry, and I finally got my hands on a sandwich someone dropped. But that greedy rat ate it straight out of my fingers before I could take a single bite.”

Felcia’s eyes widened at Silco’s story. “Oh my god… you must’ve been starving Sil, poor you. What did you do next?”

“I ate the rat.”

The other two stood stunned in total silence for a while. Felicia eventually glanced back at Vander who portrayed the definition of unnerved. Somehow he couldn’t believe Silco would let a small furry creature follow him around harmlessly, but apparently it seemed entirely plausible to him that the boy would make a meal out of one.

Felicia watched with a strange feeling in her stomach as Silco continued to poke this dead rat without so much as looking over his shoulder at their reaction.

“Hmm. Suddenly I’m not so hungry for lunch anymore. Do you guys wanna play one more game before we go home?”

“Sure Fel, but let’s start heading back towards the den first, I think Silco might stay here all day if we leave him.”

Silco stood up and jogged after them. “Fine! I’m coming, just having a bit of fun is all.”

“Rather cruel idea of fun.” Felicia frowned. “That poor rat probably had a family and friends.”

“Can’t have been very good friends if they abandoned him there.”

“Huh… I guess. Maybe we should’ve buried him?”

“No we should leave him there. Someone might get hungry and need a rat snack.”

“That’s disgusting.”

“What? If I was a rat and I found another dead rat I’d eat it.”

“Eww! Vander can you please tell Silco to stop talking about eating dead things?! I think I’m gonna be sick.”

“Technically everything we eat is dead Fel.”

“Not helping. You two are so gross. Why are boys so gross?

“Well it’s not our fault you get grossed out so easily.”

“Seeing a dead animal is a very normal thing to be freaked out about! I think you two are the weird ones for being so calm.”

“We live in the Undercity; there’s gross things and dead things everywhere, all the time!”

“Yeah but that doesn’t mean it’s weird to have a reaction to it! If anything that makes it worse! I can’t just ignore every sick thing we walk past like you do, it makes me too sad.”                                                                       

Vander stopped arguing back after that. He didn’t mean to upset her, so he thought of something else to do to take their minds off it.

“Why don’t we play another game like you suggested? There’s three of us now, we could do hide & seek.”

Felicia managed a small smile. It was her favourite game, but they never had enough people with just Vander and her. “Ok, I’ll count to 100, you two hide. Rules are you have to stay within the junkyard. No running off to the Lanes or anything like that. Ready?”

“Ready!” Said Vander.

“Ready!” Said Silco.

Felicia turned around and covered her eyes with her hands. “…1 …2 …3..”

There was a scuffle of feet and the boys hurried off to find somewhere to hide. Vander zig-zagged around the piles of scrap metal, and found a large iron barrel to crouch behind. He giggled to himself at the thought of Felicia struggling to find him, but jumped slightly when he saw Silco crouching beside.

“Silco?! What are you doing? You’re meant to hide separately, that’s the whole point of playing the game with three people!” He whispered behind the barrel, careful to keep his voice down so as not to give away their position.

“… 31 …32 …33..” Felicia counted out loud several meters away.

“This is my hiding place. Go find your own.”

Silco hissed and bared his shark-teeth, then scurried away on all fours.

“…98 …99 …100!”

Felicia opened her eyes and span around. “Ready or not! Here I come!” She surveyed the area and went in the direction she remembered hearing her friend’s footsteps run away.

It didn’t take long before she came across a corner of the yard that was mostly vast piles of scrap metal pieces. Out of a number of rusty barrels, one of them stood out among the rest. Felcia chuckled silently to herself as she approached the pair of shoes poking out from behind it.

“Hmm… looks like there’s no one here, oh well! Guess I’ll search for my friends elsewhere…”

The barrel giggled quietly, and Felicia snuck up from behind and jumped out at Vander to surprise him.

“Boo!”

“Ah!”

“Found you Van!”

“Aw man, how’d you find me so quickly?”

“Your feet were sticking out, and you were laughing!”

“Oh.”

“It’s ok, it was still a good hiding place! Now you can help me find Silco, I bet it’ll be much quicker with two of us looking.”

Within 10 minutes of searching everywhere in Junkyardtopia, Felicia had long since taken back that bet. They’d climbed every dumpster heap what felt like a thousand times, checked under every box and brick and even emptied several barrels in case the kid was hiding inside one of them.

“It’s no use!” Felcia sighed as she sat down on a broken chair to take a break from seeking. “We can’t find him anywhere, we’ll have to end the game or we’re never going to get back in time for lunch.”

“Agreed. My stomach’s starting to rumble.”

Vander climbed atop the table next to Felicia and put his hands to the side of his mouth.

“Silco!! We give up, we can’t find you! You can come out now!”

Felicia stood up on the chair and joined him. “SILCO!! Where are you?!!”

The children stood in silence and waited for a reply. But all that spoke back to them was the cawing of the crows circling overhead.

“I don’t get it. We’ve looked literally everywhere!” Felicia huffed crossing her arms and stepping off the chair.

Vander jumped off the table and landed with a thud on the souls of his boots. “We’re not leaving without him. Come on, he’s gotta be here somewhere.”

He held out his hand and Felicia took it in hers, and they walked though the junkyard once again looking for their friend.

“Silco?”

“Silco!”

“Come out come out wherever you are!”

“We want to go home soon! Please just stop hiding!”

“We’re getting hungry Sil, and we don’t want to miss lunch!”

They traced their steps back to the den they’d built earlier, and decided to sit down and think if there was anywhere they’d not looked for him. Vander sat cross-legged on the swept area of ground under the roof of damp carboard planks and tarpaulin, while Felicia hugged her knees to her chest and stared down at the floor. Her eyes followed a line of ants marching diligently across the string drawbridge of their fortress, unbothered by the make-believe boundaries Silco had constructed.

“What if he left?”

Vander looked over at his friend, surprised to hear her sound so pessimistic.

“You made it quite clear that the game was only set within the junkyard. I’m sure he heard you.”

“I’m sure too, but that’s not what I mean. What if he ran away?”

“Why would he do that?”

“I don’t know… maybe he thinks we abandoned him because we stopped searching.”

“You know that’s not true Fel! We’re his friends, we wouldn’t abandon him and he knows that!”

“Hmm, you’re probably right.” She sighed and fiddled with her shoelaces, tying and untying them over and over again. “But now I can’t stop thinking about it. Just like I couldn’t stop thinking about that poor dead rat in that icky black water.”

She gasped and turned to Vander with a shocked expression of worry. “What if he thinks we’re terrible friends who left him just like that rat’s friends left him to die in a dirty puddle!”

“He won’t think that Fel! I’m sure of it!”

Vander did his best to calm her down but secretly he was starting to have his own doubts. He did tell Silco to shove off and find his own hiding spot, perhaps that had something to do with it. Even if he didn’t leave without them, he could well be staying hidden out of spite. And what if he did run away? Well… Vander didn’t want to believe he would.

Felicia sniffed and leaned against Vander’s shoulder. She glanced across at the inside wall of the den. The chipboard surface was graffitied with childish doodles that looked like they were done in charcoal. She squinted; upon closer inspection she saw there was a drawing of three stick figures. One tall one whose body was a square and had a big smile, a smaller doodle next to it had its stick arms in the air and an even bigger smile with little stringy lines for hair bunches, and the last doodle was shorter still and had a messy scribble of black for hair, and two little fangs grinning from its face.

“Hey… Vander, look at that…”

“Hmm?”

Vander looked to the wall she was pointing at. Sure enough, those doodles looked familiar.

“They look like… us.”

Felicia nodded in agreement. “Do you think Silco drew them?”

“Who else? It certainly wasn’t the rats.”

That made Felicia chuckle a little, before her eyes drooped again and she curled up against Vander’s side. “I’m gonna miss him if he’s really gone.”

Vander put an arm around her shoulder and sighed, looking down at his feet. “Yeah. Me too.”

“That’s why I hate seeing all these struggling people and animals around us y’know, it makes me think about what could happen to my friends if they got lost. I just hope nothing bad happens to Silco.”

“I guess I just find it easier to trust he’ll be alright, I mean he’d survive on his own at least. But you’re right, and that shows you’re a good friend to be concerned about him.” Vander took a shaky breath and gave Felicia’s shoulder a comforting squeeze. “And I really hope he’s not lost either. Honestly… I kinda miss him already.”

“…Guys?” Spoke a timid voice from somewhere outside the den. “I’m right here!”

Felicia and Vander looked at each other, then stood up and started searching for the source of the voice.

“Sil? Is that you?” Asked Vander looking around, but he couldn’t see Silco anywhere.

“Yes it’s me! I’m here, I’m not lost! I’m just stuck.”

“Where are you?”

“Locked away in the tower dungeons.”

“The what?”

“I’m in the tyres!”

Vander stepped over to inspect each stack of tyres he’d made by the sides of the den, but he couldn’t see over the top, so Felicia climbed on top of the den roof and peered down each of them. At the bottom of the second stack sat a tiny child in a bruised red shirt and charcoal smudges on his face darker than the shadows he was crouching in.

“Silco! There you are!”

She beamed with pure childish delight and Silco smiled back up at her with dimples in his grubby little cheeks. Felicia hopped off the roof while Vander deconstructed the tower dungeons, and the newly released prisoner leapt out eagerly.

“Guess I lost the game then, huh?” He joked and scratched the back of his head.

“No silly you won!” Exclaimed Felicia.

“How? You found me. I thought you only won if you didn’t get found?”

“Oh, no the winner is just the last person to be found. You won the second I discovered Vander’s hiding place ages ago, sorry, I should’ve explained that in the rules. Besides, if that was how the game worked then the winner would never see their friends again, and that doesn’t sound like a good victory for anyone.”

“Huh… I didn’t think about it like that.”

“Whatever, I’m just glad you didn’t run away from us after all!”

She rushed forward and gave Silco a wholehearted hug, thankful they were all back together again. Not excepting it, Silco froze up and instinctually clenched his fists and hunched his shoulders. He had no idea what Felicia was doing by putting her arms around him, maybe trying to stop him leaving? Whatever this was he wasn’t sure what he was supposed to do in response. So he stayed stiff as a plank and didn’t flinch even when she pulled away.

“What was that?”

“Umm… a hug?”

“A what?.”

“Sil. Don’t tell me you’ve never been hugged before.”

Silco hesitated. Judging from her tone it seemed this strange action of squeezing another person in your arms was normal between friends. Or supposed to be.

“No.”

Felicia blinked in disbelief. She observed how Silco was still gripping the edge of his shirt and standing still as a statue. It baffled her that someone could respond to a hug like that, but then again, maybe she would too if she’d never had one before.

“Is that my prize for winning the game?” Silco asked uncertainly. He hoped the answer was no because it seemed rather ungrateful to refuse something that was meant to be a reward.

“What? No, of course not! A hug is just something you give to someone to show someone they mean a lot to you! There’s no conditions attached to caring about your friends Sil.”

“No conditions…” The boy repeated to himself quietly. “So how do you know who’s winning?”

Felicia put her hands on her hips and gave him a sympathetic smile. “You don’t win at friendship Silco, it’s just something you enjoy sharing. That’s the reward.”

“Right!” Echoed Vander. “I feel like I’m winning at friendship whenever I’m spending time with you two!”

Silco looked back and forth between the two of them smiling at him. He hadn’t been sure at first, suspecting their announcements about ending the game and giving up the search were ploys to get him to come out so they could spring defeat on him. But sitting there in that lonely tyre tower and listening to the conversation in the den made him change his mind. These kids genuinely sounded sad when they said they’d miss him, which wasn’t something he’d heard before. And he realised that if he didn’t speak up, he might go on never being missed again.

“You know, I’d miss you guys too. If I got lost. So don’t worry, I’m not going anywhere.”

“Yippee!!” Vander jumped for joy and rushed towards Silco. “Ok come here dude, my turn!” He didn’t wait for acceptance, he just picked Silco up and gave him the biggest bear hug he could muster.

Silco saw it coming a second early this time, and subconsciously stiffened up before Vander scooped him up in his arms, which was probably the only thing that stopped his ribs getting crushed.

“Ack-! Vander… can’t… breath!”

“Oops, sorry Sil!” Vander loosened his hug strength a bit to give Silco the chance to relax before he put him down again.

Silco took a sharp breath of air and ran his hands through his hair that Vander had ruffled in the process of hugging him. “Gah-! Are all 'hugs' meant to kill you or is it just yours?”

“Just mine!” Vander stated proudly and subsequently tackled Felicia into a bear hug as well. She giggled and hugged him back as hard as she could. Silco stood a few paces away and observed them. If it weren’t for the grinning happy smiles on their faces and their laugher it sure would look to him like they were set on murdering each other. He’d seen kids wrestle one other with the same ferociousness and none of the love. But this was different. Any way you looked at it, it was two kids who cared about each other sharing a friendly embrace.

He didn’t know it, but Silco was smiling just watching them.

Chapter Text

“Ok… this is it guys. Everyone ready? Vander? Silco? Benzo?”

“Yep, but let’s go over the plan one last time.”

The four children were crouched in a small wooden row-boat. Benzo at the oars, Felicia and Vander squeezed onto the same plank of bench, and Silco sat awkwardly on both their laps. They looked as if they were posing for some amateur Tudor family painting rather than on their way to rob a house. It was early Autumn, mid-afternoon on a cloudy day, and they had a thin cover of fog to their advantage.

“Still don’t know how you dragged me into this.” Benzo huffed as he continued rowing, his breath condensing in the cool air.

“Because we need a spare getaway just in case anything goes wrong, and you know this river better than any of us.” Explained Felicia. “Besides, you said so yourself that it would be better to cross-over by boat and then use the bridge on the way back. You basically volunteered yourself Benzo.”

“Well let’s be realistic, you guys are a little young to be going to Topside on your own. Think of me like your chaperone.”

“Yeah right, I bet you just wanted to be part of the fun. We may be younger than you Ben, but we’re perfectly capable of pulling this off. You’ll see, we don’t know the meaning of the word sidetracked!”

“You were about to recount your plan.”

“Oh… um- yeah. Vander?”

“Right, so once we get over to the bank, we find our way up to the skyline of the waterside housing. We’ve got Sil’s duffle bag to collect what we find, and binoculars for lookout. Which we probably won’t use, but if the fog happens to clear then at least we’ve got them. Benzo stays docked under the bridge with the boat, and we’ll signal him when we’re on our way back.”

Felicia gave a playful salute as the city streamlined into view and Benzo pulled up the rowboat to the shore. “Sounds like a plan Van.”

“That house looks pretty empty. But I can’t get a good look through all the windows from here.” Felicia whispered as they squatted on a railed balcony above the fog that oozed through the streets.

“Hmm…” Silco hummed in thought while chewing on the duffle bag strap. “Pass me the binoculars.”

Felicia handed them over and Silco scrambled up the rail leaning one hand on the wall. Vander immediately stepped forward to shield him in case he lost his balance.

“Any sign of life in that one Sil?”

“No good. I’m not tall enough to see into the top window. But the rest looks clear.”

“Hold on a minute, I’ve got an idea.”

“Don’t try and climb the rail, you’re too big.”

“I’m not. Here, stand on my shoulders.”

Using the drainpipe for support, Silco climbed up and stood with a foot on each of Vander’s shoulders. Vander stood with his back against the wall so Silco had something to fall back against, and Felicia anxiously stood in front of them ready to catch him.

“Oh yeah, that’s better! And the top floor is totally empty.” He leapt off Vander and landed spritely on the balcony. “What are we waiting for? Let’s go!”

They parkoured their way over to the next building and landed on the second-floor balcony like three agile street cats. First Vander, then Felicia, then Silco. Felicia jostled the door handle. “Locked. Duh.” She knelt down to study the lock, then pulled out one of the bobby pins holding her space buns in place. “Is this breaking and entering… or technically just entering?”

Vander delivered his own punchline by jamming his fist straight through the stained-glass to reach the handle on the other side and unlocked the door.

“Well now it’s breaking and entering.”

“Damn. No messing around with Van the man.”

Vander stepped into the apartment first… and forgot how to breath when he realised the size of the place. Just the living room could fit his entire house in it. Elaborate tapestries and paintings decked the walls. Fur rugs on marbled tiles so glossy you could see your reflection in them. A polished wooden chess board, sculpted glass vase with an exotic display of flowers and an equally tropical fruit bowl all poised in a picture perfect still life. Mini stone columns framing a tended fire-place with bellows and stokes and a coal bucket and three kinds of kindling organised to the side of it. And on the mantelpiece stood a clockwork dream of ornaments with an analogue timepiece in the centre raising its pointed metal fingers in a soft constant tick-tick, tick-tick.

Oh- Right! We’re here to raid this place…

“Ok, remember what we came for. The sooner we get out with our bags full the better. Find the kitchen if you can.”

They split off into different regions of the house, and Felica was first to hit the jackpot. The kitchen was a magpie’s den of drawers and shelves packed with silverware and expensive spices. She gleamed as she hurriedly scooped up armfuls and dumped them in her backpack. Vander stayed in the living room, his eyes darting around the space making quick judgements as to what was worth taking or leaving. They only had so much space after all, and he knew the other two would probably come back with more stuff for him to carry if it was too heavy for them. He stayed focused on efficiency, and tried not to think about the sickening feeling growing in his stomach seeing the luxury these topsiders live every day.

Away from the older two, Silco wandered down the hall deeper into the house. His eyes couldn’t keep up with what he was seeing, there were so many photos and paintings and decorations on the papered walls he couldn’t count them all. It was like wandering down a rabbit hole into another world. He came across a door, and reached up to push the handle open. The door led to a palace bedroom straight out of a picture book. It was darker in here as there weren’t any windows, and of course, the lights were off. Silco stepped in then looked down in surprise as the texture of the floor changed. He was walking on carpet. It was so soft… he didn’t like it. Why would anyone want to walk on something so soft? It felt like the floor was pulling him in, and there was an awkward urge lift his feet higher with each step.

The bedside table looked like it might have shiny curiosities in its lockable drawers, so the small child waddled over and used his knife to pry one of them open. Inside was a pair of folded white gloves, a set of pearl earrings and a beautiful pair of spectacles on a thin silver chain. Silco picked them up by the frame, being careful for once not to smear the glass. The silver chain reminded him of the ring Vander’s mother always wore. He could imagine her wearing the glasses to match it, but maybe not the earrings. He didn’t know what was so special about that ring, but he knew she cared an awful lot about it. She’d taken it off once to fix some of the plumbing in the kitchen, and it’d fallen under the sink while she wasn’t looking. Silco remembered how her and Vander tried almost everything to get it back, and then he’d been the only one with arms skinny enough to fit under the appliance to reach it. He didn’t realise it was such a big deal until she hugged him and said thankyou about ten billion times. Still new to the concept of hugs, he panicked a bit and just stood there like a plank waiting for it to be over. But it was a nice feeling to be thanked. That day, he decided he wanted to experience it more often. He wrapped the glasses in the gloves and put them into duffle-bag’s inside pocket.

Next to the set of drawers was the largest bed Silco had ever seen. He didn’t know they could be made that size, and it was even more impressive up close. He reached out to touch one of the throws. It welcomed his hand with a velvety softness, so cosy that he soon found himself leaning his whole body into the embrace of feather down pillows and brushed fleece blankets on a king-sized mattress that bounced like a cloudy trampoline. Unlike the carpet, he didn’t mind that you could sink into it.

“If I had a bed like this I’d never get up. Not even for breakfast.”

From his comfortable vantage point, he spotted another a door across the room that he hadn’t upon coming in. Regretfully, he rolled off the bed and went to check it out.

It was a bathroom. That much he could tell because there was a sink, toilet and walk-in shower, but the room was big enough to fit another king-sized bed. The palette, like the rest of the house, was all porcelain white and gold, with slices of navy and charcoal here and there in the tiles and framing. All very cold and classy without a spot of dirt on any surface.

He walked up to the sink and perused over the various bottles and their pretty labels with words he couldn’t read. He imagined it said stuff like ‘Rainbow flavoured hand soap made from real snowflakes and sea pearls: for the snootiest hands on the planet.’ There was also a blossom-coloured bar in a patterned dish, like two soap bottles wasn’t already enough. Silco picked it up and sniffed it. Wow… that was strong. But not unpleasant; sweet and floral and fresh. How did they make stuff like this? Blended flowers and wax? No, it was softer and more slippery than wax. He brought the mysterious thing closer to his face, and after glancing over his shoulder to make sure no one was watching, he stuck out his tongue and licked the bar of soap.

“Pfft- Bleh!”

Nevermind. Not as edible as it smelled. He put the betrayal soap back in its dish. Standing on his tiptoes, he peered into the mirror above the sink. What stared back was a grubby child with smudges on his face and tattered edges on his clothes. There were bags around his eyelids and his cheeks were sunken from malnourishment. Everything about him from his split ends to his chipped fingernails was incongruous to this lavish setting. It suddenly felt the room was watching him, the whole house and the city itself, judging him for being somewhere he didn’t belong. That feeling made the boy in the mirror look afraid. Silco didn’t like how his scared face looked, so he tried looking scary instead. Maybe he could frighten this place into thinking he did belong here. He furrowed his eyebrows into a scowl and made a snarl that showed his sharp front teeth. He always thought he looked pretty tough when he made that face, but the mirror still looked like an angry child. Even to him. Silco blinked and leaned closer… and realised he’d never noticed what colour his eyes were.

“Is that it then?” Vander asked pulling the drawstring on his backpack.

Felicia was struggling to close the buckles on her bag due to the amount of stuff she’d jam-packed in it. “Yeah, don’t think we can take much more than this, and we’ve still gotta get it across the bridge.”

“Right. Time to head back then.” Vander helped her by taking out the top few objects and putting them in his pockets the shutting the bag. “Where’s Silco?”

“Here.”

“What happened to your face?”

“I washed it. Found a bunch of fancy soap.”

Felicia grinned and lightly punched his arm. “Nice one! I didn’t even think about that but actually robbing the bathroom is genius. Bet you found all kinds of things we’d never get down in the Undercity.”

“Sure did. I would’ve stolen the entire bathtub and all the pillows on the bed, but it wouldn’t have fit in my bag.”

Three sets of footsteps raced across the road and carried over the bridge, cutting through the fog like a trio of torpedoes.

“Woohooo! We made it gang! Ha-ha!” Felica celebrated as they escaped the Piltover border without alerting a single enforcer or civilian. “We actually pulled it off, feels good doesn’t it?”

“Heck yeah it does! I’ve given Benzo the signal, he’s gonna meet us on the other side. The nation of Zaun just conducted their first successful Topside raid!” Vander replied triumphantly. “And it won’t be the last. That’s for certain.”

Silco wanted to yell with joy and jump around at their achievements just like Vander and Felicia, but he was lagging behind them a few paces and only had enough breath in his little lungs to keep up.

Once they crossed over onto dry land, Felicia twirled around and screamed with happiness, Vander punched the air, and then the nearest wall. Silco slung his bag off his shoulder, hugged it to his chest and promptly collapsed on the ground to catch his breath.

“We… made it- ….yayyyy!”

Vander spotted him on his back in the middle of the street and walked over with a chuckle.

“You tired out Sil?”

“No.”

“I can piggy-back you the rest of the way if you like.”

“Yes please.”

Felicia picked up Silco’s bag and put it over her other shoulder, while Vander swapped his backpack around to wear in on his front, then offered for Silco to get on. The younger hopped onto his back and wrapped his arms around Vander’s neck. He instantly decided this was a much better way to travel. The world looked so different from Vander’s height, more than he would’ve expected. He could see over the top of Felicia’s head for one thing. That was weird.

“Wow. So this is being tall.”

“I’m sure you’ll be as tall as me one day Sil.”

“Hmph. Maybe when I’m like 20 something. But by then you’ll be like- 30 something and even taller.”

“No I won’t, I’m only 5 years older than you. Eventually people stop growing y’know.”

“And then when they get old they shrink again!” Felicia piped up teasingly.

“What?! So one day I’m gonna be even shorter?”

“That’s not what Fel means, I don’t think you’ll ever get shorter than you are now. Don’t worry about it Sil. And don’t worry about getting taller than me, it’s useful that we’re all different. Height or otherwise, that’s what makes us the best team!”

“Agreed. We are the best team.” Silco nodded, then brought up a question that’d been on his mind since the house. “Are my eyes more green or blue?”

“Hmm. Well I can’t exactly see from here while I’m carrying you, but I remember them being more blue. You can see him Fel, are they?”

“I was gonna say they’re more green, but it could just be the light. Aqua maybe? Ultramarine? Teal?”

“Now you’re just naming colours.”

“Well I like the colour of your eyes. I just dunno what you’d call it. For simplicity’s sake, I’d just say blue. Vander wins.”

“Not that any of that matters. Whatever height you are Sil, or the colour your eyes, we like you just the way you are.”

The way Vander said things sometimes made Silco forget that before he met him, he never considered he’d find friends here. There wasn’t much more to the life of a stray orphan than surviving and making up your own friends and adventures to keep the looming boredom of each day and night at bay. He hadn’t fully forgotten what that was like, and he didn’t want to. It made him appreciate just how cool the friends he now had were. They got to go on real adventures and have real conversations and just… have fun, like children should. And sometimes, on days like today, all that liveliness wore him out. In a good way. Silco yawned and rested his head on Vander’s shoulder for the rest of the trip home, dreaming up the next adventure for the Nation of Zaun.

Chapter Text

It was a lazy afternoon in the Lanes, with a muggy taste in the air like there was about to be a spot of summer rain. Silco was waiting in a little corner of the street, his eyes darting up and down the road in expectation.

He suddenly felt a tap on his shoulder and jumped.

“Boo!”

“Ah!- Felicia! What was that for?”

She shrugged. “Wanted to see how you react to surprises.”

Silco crossed his arms and pouted. “Depends what the surprise is. I’d say randomly tapping people on the shoulder without warning is more of a scare. Why’d you ask to meet me out here anyway?”

“I just thought we could go for a walk.”

“Hmm. Uh… ok?”

He followed along but felt his natural suspicion getting the better of him. As they continued walking, Felicia smiled happily, but wasn’t quite her usual talkative self. Eventually Silco couldn’t take it anymore.

“Hey. You’re not telling me something. What is it?”

Felicia stifled a giggle behind her hand turned away for a second. “Sorry dude, I can’t tell you yet, not until we get there.”

“Get there? Where are we going?”

She sighed and bashfully scratched the back of her head. “I told them they should’ve got Vander to do this bit instead of me… I’m terrible at keeping secrets!”

“So there is something you’re not telling me!”

“Ok- well… yeah, but I promise you’re gonna like it!” She grinned and took Silco’s hand as she lead him into a jog. “Come on, let’s get to Benzo’s shop before I spoil the surprise!”

“Woah- hey!”

He stumbled along behind her as the two of them hurried along, and tiny spits of rain began to wet the dry dusty paths.

“Can I look yet?”

“Not yet.”

Felicia pushed open the door to Benzo’s shop with her foot while covering both of Silco’s eyes with her hands. Silco wasn’t too sure about being led into a dark room blindfolded, but he was about to change his mind.

“And… 3… 2… 1…” She lifted her hands to reveal Vander and Benzo wearing cardboard party hats and holding a cake with a lit candle in it.

“SURPRISE!!” All three cheered in unison.

Silco’s eyes widened, and he didn’t know what to say. “What is… what’s all this for?”

The shop had coloured paper bunting and streamers strung up on all the walls, and little fairy lights in a wreath around the front desk where plates were laid next to plastic cups of orange squash. Vander put the cake down in the middle of the table and passed Silco a party hat.

“It’s for you silly! We figured since we don’t know when your birthday is, we’d throw you a party in anniversary of the day we met instead.”

“Huh… I don’t think I know when my birthday is either.”

“Why don’t we just make it today then? Every year. Doesn’t matter if it’s not your real birthday does it?”

Silco thought about that. The fact that his friends had even remembered what day they met him felt like a lot, but to go ahead and put all this effort in as well? And they did it all behind his back.

“Sure, does that mean we get to do this every year?”

“Course it does! We wouldn’t want you missing out now, would we?”

“What day even is it?”

Benzo glanced at the clockwork calendar on the shelf behind him. “July 7^th”

“Then that’s my birthday from now on!” Silco grinned like a cheshire cat as he pranced around the room looking at all the homemade decorations they’d put up. “Thanks everyone!”

“You like it?” Asked Felicia with a proud smile. “Decorations are all yours truly!” She announced pointing to herself. “Vander made the cake and Benzo helped both of us get the materials and ingredients we needed!”

“And by helped you mean I put up all the bunting because you couldn’t reach.” Chuckled Benzo while trying to find a decent knife to cut the cake.

“Fine, I admit, Benzo helped a lot. But the idea was all Van’s. It’s him you should thank most!”

Silco turned to his friend, and Vander cracked an embarrassed smile and glanced away modestly.

“Eh… I mean we all chipped in; it was group effort really… I just thought it would be a nice thing to do and-”

Vander then got an unexpected surprise of his own when Silco rushed forward and hugged him. The little boy’s head only reached halfway up Vander’s chest, but he wrapped his arms around his friend’s back and gave him the most grateful squeeze he could.

“Thankyou, Vander.”

The older boy was pleasantly taken aback by the gesture; sure, overtime Silco had grown better at receiving hugs from different people… but he’d never actually given one back. In a weird way Vander felt somewhat honoured when he returned Silco’s hug, and he couldn’t stop smiling.

“You’ve still got to blow out this candle y’know.” Benzo interrupted, desperately trying to stop wax from dripping onto the cake.

“Oh, right.”

He puffed out the candle in one breath and they all cheered and eagerly sat down, hungry to try some.

“Sorry we couldn’t get more.” Said Felicia as she joined them round the table. “We’ll just have to pretend there’s 8. Or you could relight it 7 more times!”

“That tiny candle won’t last that long Fel. Plus we all want to eat the cake.”

“It does look super yummy. Ok forget it, let’s eat!”

Benzo served everyone a slice, giving the first one to Silco. It was a plain vanilla sponge with a jam and butter icing filling. Simple. But delicious.

“Damn! Nice work chef Benzo and chef Vander!” Felicia complimented with a mouthful of cake.

Silco was too busy stuffing his face to talk. This was by far the best treat he’d ever had, and he even went in for a second helping. By the time he was full, there were splodges of icing all over his face, crumbs on his shirt, and his greedy fingers were sticky with strawberry jam. His plate was empty, and his smile was whole. Perhaps surprises weren’t so bad after all.

Chapter Text

“You boys excited?” Felicia trilled skipping her way down the cliffside path like a nimble mountain goat. “I know it’s the first time we’ve ever properly been down the mines, but I got a good feeling about it. Never know, we might stumble upon gold, or diamonds!”

Vander chuckled nervously as he teetered behind her, staying close to the cliff wall. “I hope you know you’re abnormally hyped about crawling down a dark underground cave.”

“Oooh… someone’s scared.” Silco teased and elbowed his way in front of him.

“Shut up! You know I’m not a fan of cramped spaces.”

“Perfect.” Felicia landed both feet on the slated earth with a thud, then stood up and stretched her back. “Today’s the chance for you to get over your claustrophobia Van, cuz soon enough we’re all gonna be working here.”

“Right. Don’t have to remind me.”

They carried on walking down the fissures, and the early morning light grew further away with each step as the rock faces of looming indigo closed over them like a curtain. Vander never liked the idea of being underground. If he had a choice, he’d go work as a factory mechanic like his mother. But that was a different skill set, and she’d never had the time to teach him. He’d tried taking tips from Benzo while helping him out in the workshop sometimes, but it seemed everything he tried to fix just fell to bits in his huge clumsy hands. Time to accept that finesse wasn’t his biggest strength. He was 17 now and all too aware he’d need to find a real job soon, and the mines was where everyone at the bottom of the ladder started.

“Feels like it should be somewhere around here… See anything?” Felicia called back as she scouted the lay of the land.

Silco pointed to their right. “Down there! I can see a clearing with a building and what looks like tools and boxes lying about.”

The trio scurried down the trail of choppy stone to reach the miner’s clearing. There was a sort of wooden shack in the middle with planks and sacks piled up against every wall except the door. Various pickaxes and torches were scattered around in clusters or leaning on crates.

“Looks like this is where they all hang out.” Felicia thought aloud as she wondered over to check out the shack. She climbed up on a crate and wiped away the dust smeared on one of the windows. “And I’m guessing the boss sits in here.”

“Lemme see.” Silco scaled the box and stood next to her on his tiptoes to peer in. “They get a whole desk to themselves? Nice. I could see myself sitting in a fancy chair like that.”

“You think you could be an industry leader?” Felicia laughed gave him a teasing jab in the arm. “Might have to wait a bit Sil. You’re 12. Start with working a storefront or something. Maybe Benzo has some vacancies.”

“I don’t wanna work in Benzo’s junk shop, storefront life isn’t exciting enough for me. Besides, Benzo never lets me do anything anyway. I can’t touch a damn thing without him saying ‘Put that down because someone might buy it!’ …or ‘If you break that I’m gonna be the one fixing it.’”

“You are always nosing around in drawers behind the counter. And there was that one time you did break his best magnifying glass. I don’t think he’s forgotten about that yet.”

“And? Me and Vander couldn’t find a table tennis paddle. Plus I was like 9, ok?”

Felicia rolled her eyes and giggled. “You can be such a little brat y’know.” She ruffled his hair and hopped off the crate. “I bet that’s what your name really means. Sil short for silly.”

“I’m not being silly, I’m being serious. I could work anywhere if I really wanted. I could join you in the mines and swing one of those pointy axe thingies digging gold and diamonds all day long, and we could see who gets the biggest bounty by the end of the week. Loser buys the winner a drink.”

“Ha! So you’re telling me you think you’d win? Doesn’t seem very fair for you to have the most money and still charge me for a drink. Pretty heartless Sil.”

Silco pouted in thought and crossed his arms. “Well… since we’re friends, and I’m a humble man, I’d pay for both of us so you don’t feel bad about losing to me.” He made a stride over to one of the crates, planting one foot on top of it and picking up a hefty pickaxe from the ground and raising it over his shoulder. It tilted in his grip, and he wobbled a little but quickly regained his balance and puffed out his chest with one hand proudly on his hip.

Felicia burst out laughing at the sight, but in an endearing way. “Aw, if that’s your way of saying you wanna buy me a drink someday then how could I say no.” She swept up one of the miner’s hats from the next crate and plonked it on the boy’s head with a playful tap. He stumbled off-balance a bit, but Felicia caught the tool handle before he could drop the scythed metal blade on his foot.

“Such a gentleman. And it’s called a pickaxe.” She took the instrument from him and hoisted it over her shoulder with ease. “Silly.”

She gave the end of his nose a boop with her finger, which turned Silco’s cheeks slightly pink. He stood still for a moment while Felicia marched towards the cave entrances, then shook off his embarrassment, removed the hat, and ran after her.

“Vander! You coming?”

“Yeah, gimme a minute.” The older boy had been lagging behind them for once. He was searching around the crates and holding a lantern he’d picked up. “I’m just tryna find something to light this with… a box of matches… or a- Aha! Lighter! Even better.”

Vander lit the flame to illuminate the cavern entrance and the three of them walked in together. The beginning of the tunnel was wide and branched off into numerous others all framed in wooden pillared doorways and support beams ran down the sides of minecart tracks.

“Ok… this isn’t so bad.” Vander whispered to himself. Unfortunately for him, his words didn’t escape Silco’s sharp hearing, and the younger took an opportunity to tease his friend who was so rarely unnerved.

“Not so bad indeed, just as well we’re only at the start. From here it only gets narrower and narrower… and all these tunnels branch off into more tunnels and before you know it you don’t know which way leads back to the light of day… Oh, and we’d better watch out for rockslides in case we end up getting trapped in a tiny crevice and can’t get out ever again.”

“I’m gonna cause a rockslide and trap you in a tiny crevice if you don’t shut your smart mouth.”

Silco cackled and went into a jog down a tunnel on the left up ahead, disappearing off into the shadows. “Catch me if you can then!”

“Piss off, we both know I’m not following you down there.”

He carried on walking with Felicia on the main track that was leaning in the other direction. But after few minutes he thought it strange that Silco still hadn’t caught up with them. He stopped walking and Felicia turned around.

“Should we go back for him?”

“Nah he’s probably just playing a joke.” Vander faced the way they came and called out. “SILCO! Get back here or we’re leaving without you!”

Hmm. Perhaps now the silence should be concerning. “Uhh… Silco?!” He yelled again, and he and Felicia retraced their steps. Vander couldn’t actually remember which tunnel Silco had snuck off to exactly, and that made him feel a little panicked. The last thing he wanted was for an irrational fear of losing someone down here to justify itself.

Thankfully the younger boy came sprinting back out of the tunnel and crashed straight into Vander right as he span around.

“Vander! Felicia! Guys I- …I think there’s someone else here!”

“Nice try mate. You can’t scare us that easily.” Vander gave a disapproving grin and pushed him back.

“No really! There was a white light coming from the end of the tunnel!”

“Woahh… slow down silly.” Felicia put a hand on his shoulder. “If you see a light the end of a tunnel you definitely shouldn’t walk towards it.”

“Not like that… it was a torchlight, I think. It was still so I crept closer cuz I thought maybe someone just left a lamp on, but then the shadows moved, and I-I heard creaking and snapping sounds…”

Felicia and Vander exchanged a confused glance. What on earth was he talking about?

Then Vander strode forward into the tunnel, wielding the lantern to light his way. Felicia followed in after him, still carrying the pickaxe which she now gripped with both hands.

“H-hey, wait! Why are you going back in there? I mean… don’t you wanna go explore the rest of the mines? The uninhabited ones?!” Silco barked from the entrance, but his friends didn’t seem to listen. He glanced behind him, then back to Vander and Felicia disappearing with the little glimmer of the orange lamp. He sighed in annoyance and shook his head, then ran to catch up with them.

Vander felt a smaller pair of hands grab onto his shirt as they got closer to the supposed figure Silco had seen.

“Who’s afraid of the mines now?” He jeered with a smirk.

“Shut up. I’m only holding onto you in case I need to pull you back from the jaws of some ravenous cave beast.”

“Yeah like those exis-”

He stopped short as a loud metallic twang rang out through the cave from somewhere close in front of them and all three jumped and huddled closer together. Vander instinctively shielded Silco and Felicia behind his arm and inched forward using the lantern as a guide.

There was another clang, then a splintering crack! And just around the corner a ghostly white light filled the tunnel, and a giant distorted shadow of an arm revealed itself with a raised fist brandishing a huge weapon in their direction.

“Eeek!” Felicia shrieked and hid behind Vander.

“Ahh!” Silco yelped and hid behind Felicia.

“Who’s there?!” Vander blurted raising a readied fist while his other hand holding the lantern quivered. “Show yourself!!”

The shadow stopped moving. Then slowly moved closer around the corner… and closer… and closer…

Felicia readied her pickaxe and Silco reached for his knife. Only to remember he didn’t bring the damn thing. He nabbed a large-ish rock from the floor instead.

The shadow got closer… and closer… and bigger… and bigger…

…and out stepped a boy in a miner’s hat with a white headtorch and a puny pocket hammer in hand.

“Uhh… Hi?”

Felicia’s pickaxe fell to the floor in her hands. “Oh thank Goodness! Dude you scared us half to death, who are you? What are you doing down here?”

“Name’s Connol.”

The boy wiped his hand on his cargo shorts and held it out to her. He wore a sleeveless beige hooded jacket over a faded black t-shirt with a washed-out logo on it. His light brown hair was short around his ears and the back of his head, but straightened into a swoop that fell across his right eye. The hand he extended was decorated with chipped black nail polish and a few leather bracelets over fraying bandage wraps.

“Nice to meetcha, you are?”

“Oh- Uh, I’m Felicia.” She shook his hand and smiled, then gestured to the others who were still frozen in confusion like a bizarre sculpture. “And um… these bozos are Vander and Silco.”

Bozos 1 and 2 suddenly realised they were still holding onto each other with flabbergasted expressions and quickly let go. Silco dusted himself off and Vander coughed into his fist like nothing had happened.

“Hi. I’m Vander. Silco’s the little one.”

He shook Connol’s hand as well, but Silco soon pushed him out the way. “He means I’m the better one. That’s why I’m bozo number 1.” The last comment Silco hid behind the back of his hand as he leaned closer, but whispered loud enough for Vander to hear him, and made sure to shake Connol’s hand more vigorously too. Vander rolled his eyes in the background.

“Cool. Cool. So… Felicia, Silco and Vander? You lot look like you’re from the Lanes, but I take it you’ve not been to the mines before.”

Felicia tilted her head and put the pickaxe over her shoulder again in her best ‘confident miner’ stance. “What makes you say that?”

“You’re not wearing a helmet.” He smiled and knocked the top of his hat with a double tap. “I mean… this area’s pretty safe, don’t worry. But it’s still a good precaution.”

“Of course, that makes sense. Um… so you’re down here why?” Felicia asked, now curious about this stranger who happened to be about her age.

“Right, as for what I’m doing…”

He beckoned them over to another tunnel around the corner. This one was boarded up. A few nails had been plucked loose, one of them was bent in half next to a lantern that had a dent in the lid. So that’s what that caused that loud clang.

“I’m tryna get this open again. I keep coming back when no one’s around, which in itself is a pain of a waiting game. So I haven’t got very far with it yet, and this ol’ thing isn’t exactly suited to the job.” He sighed pointing to his tiny hammer and its blunted head.

“Why don’t you just use one of these?” Felicia raised the pickaxe.

Connol’s eyes widened, then he furrowed his eyebrows and looked back to the boards and his pathetic pile of nails. “I guess I was just trying hard to be careful… but you know what, why the hell not!”

He accepted the pickaxe from her and hooked it under the middle board. With one strong heave it pried off easily. Connol gave a whistle of approval. “Well damn. I dunno why I didn’t think of that sooner.”

Felicia smiled and stood next to him flashing Vander and Silco a proud face over her shoulder. “That’s why I’m the brains of the three of us!”

“And what are they?”

“Van’s got the muscle, obviously. I mean look at him.” She punched her tall friend in the arm  and he cracked a smile at the compliment. “And Sil’s the agile one. He’s like a speedy little street cat when we go rooftop climbing.” She shook his shoulder and tousled his hair a little. Silco giggled through his teeth and that pink tint returned to his cheeks despite himself.

Connol laughed and leaned on the pickaxe handle as he regarded them. They were odd bunch, but they were friendly and down to earth. He could respect that, and they certainly amused him. He decided he liked this weird little gang of Lanes kids.

“Can I ask what’s behind the boards?” Felicia tried to peek through the gap they’d already made, but it was too dark.

Connol grinned and held out the pickaxe with a tip of his hat. “Help me get them off and you’ll find out.”

They worked together to loosen the planks on the door. Felicia used the pickaxe while the other three pulled on the same board. As soon as there was a gap big enough, Silco ducked under the other’s arms and slipped through. Vander pulled the next board off with his bare hands and chucked it in the pile, then bent down and followed after Silco. Connol stepped aside and gestured for Felicia to go before him.

“Ladies first.”

Her face lit up and she bowed in return. “Why thankyou kind Sir.” Then she stepped forward, forgot to duck, and banged her forehead on the plank nailed above her. “Ow!”

Connol chuckled at her clumsiness. It was kind of adorable in a way. “That’s why you wear a helmet!” He took his off and placed it on her head. “After you, Miss brains of the team.”

“Thanks, but… I think you might be the brains out of all of us.”

“Well I’m truly flattered Felicia.” He crept under the boarded doorway and followed after the torchlight. “Brains, strength, speed… y’know, it feels like we’re missing something. I reckon you’d be courage.”

Felicia placed her hands on her hips and shot him an impressed smirk.

“Huh… whaddaya know, I think that does suit me better. Thanks Con!” She gave him a playful prod to the shoulder then swivelled on her heels and plodded down the tunnel with a new spring in her step. “And you can call me Fel!”

They caught up with Vander and Silco who were waiting for them at the next point the tunnel split off in two directions. Connol directed them to the left, and they lit their way with Felicia’s headtorch and Vander’s lantern.

“I don’t see anything different about these tunnels yet. What were you spending so long trying to break those boards down for?” Asked Silco getting impatient, but he’d learned from last time not to stray from the group down here.

“You’ll see a difference soon enough, just a little further down this way.”

“Uh-huh. So basically you’re saying you haven’t got a clue where we’re going. You’re just exploring for exploring’s sake aren’t you.”

“Shhh…”

Silco startled when Connol suddenly held out a hand in front of them all and motioned them to silence. He carefully took a few steps, tip-toing forward so as not to make a sound. Then he raised his hands, and brought them together in a loud clap.

The tunnel lit up in a ripple of aqua luminescence, and revealed the walls dotted with a host of mossy glowing orbs. After about ten seconds, the glow died down and they were left in torchlight again.

“Woah…” Silco breathed in a whisper, before he leapt forward and roared the loudest scream he could from the bottom of his lungs. Like a crack of lightning, wrappings of blue illuminated down the ribbon of tunnel from the peculiar orbs.

Felicia reached out to touch one. It was soft and cool, and slightly squishy, and it bounced when she took her finger away. “What even are these?”

“A kind of fungus from what I understand.” Replied Connol “They’re harmless. I think. I mean, it won’t kill you, but I wouldn’t go eating them or anything.”

She glanced over her shoulder at him, looking amused and offended at the same time. “I wouldn't think of eating some strange glowy fungus thankyou very much. I know I’m a bit of a clutz but I hope you don’t take me for an idiot.”

“I’m not worried about you. I was referring to them.” Connol said and pointed ahead to Silco and Vander, who seemed to be playing a game of how many orbs they could toss into Vander’s open mouth.

Felicia rolled her eyes and put her head on her hand. “Valid. Should’ve seen that coming. Hey dumb-dumbs! Quit eating the mysterious neon blobs! Do you want to get stomach-aches and puke your guts out on the way back up?!”

The two boys looked at her, then at each other. Silco held his fire as Vander spat out a mouthful of neon blue. “Guess she’s got a point. We don’t know if they’re not toxic.” The younger boy threw down the blob he was holding and squished it under his foot. It splatted out in a painted puddle on the ground, and the group kept walking.

The tunnel widened out and they soon came to a point where it stopped being a tunnel completely, and the path itself was rockier and more uneven. It was clear they were now in unmined territory. The natural landscape of the caves scoped out into a huge cavern extending upwards into a ceiling of stalactites dripping into a shallow lake of water, so still its surface was like glass. Clumps of the light-up fungus crowded around the sides of the cavern, seating themselves over the flatter surfaces, and offering a subtle blue glow to the damp reflections of stone sculpted spears. Every so often, the little drips of water echoed off a rock and lit the space up with a ricochet of light as the fungus responded to the sound.

The three Lanes residents stood spellbound at the alien environment they’d uncovered.

“Kind of incredible, isn’t it?” Connol sighed. “Just takes your breath away.” He glanced at Felicia’s reaction, and the sparkling awe in her eyes brought a smile to his face.

“I-” She started, though true to Connol’s words the sheer sublime beauty of the view couldn’t quite be defined in language. Instead, it struck her with a feeling. A feeling that was soft like a warm summer breeze, and overflowing with immensity, like being lost. This feeling floated all around her, diffusing through the still underground air and around the stalactites, trickling down the smooth time-eroded surfaces like a kind of wispy music, and becoming diluted in pooling handfuls of crystalline water.

She gazed into one of the aqua mirrors cupped in a slanted bowl of polished stone, reaching down to brush her fingers across the surface of her reflection.

“When we were hiking down here, I made a joke about finding treasure in the mines. Obviously we weren’t going to come across diamonds or gold just like that, but the idea was entertaining enough.”  Drawing her view across the stretch of vast underground lake in all its glittering calm, Felicia chuckled at her friends Vander and Silco down by the water’s edge kicking splashes at each other. “…but this … this is infinitely better. And I still found something worth keeping to treasure when I leave.”

Connol tilted his head slightly. “Oh?” As he did, his hair flopped out of the way so now both his eyes were visible. Clear crystal blue like the watery sky trapped in the surface of an underground lake.

Felicia found her reflection once again, this time in the depths of the boy’s eyes that beheld her like she was worth more attention than any gemstone hidden in the rocky confines of this cave. She felt a ripple cross her heart, and stroked a stray vine of her purple hair behind her ear.

“A new friend.”

By the time they waved Connol goodbye and parted ways, Felicia was practically glowing.

“You seem happy with what we discovered in the mines.” Vander suggested while still fishing out bits of bioluminescent fluff stuck in his hair.

“Duh! I didn’t imagine we’d be in for such a treat, I’m gonna be dreaming of that beautiful lake for years to come.”

“Hm. Not just the lake, judging by the look on your face. Find that gold you were after?”

Usually Felicia would quip back at Vander’s teasing with a smart pun of her own or a punch in the arm. Not today though. Instead she had no shame in hiding an airy sigh as she lifted her face to the sun and closed her eyes.

“Better. He’s kinda cute, no? You think we’ll see him around again?”

“Fel, if you want to see Connol again, there’s nothing in this world stopping you. Plus, on the way down to those mines you were the one reminding us of how we’ll all be working there soon. I think it’s fair to say Con already knows his way round like the back of his hand. You’ll be spending more time with him, I’m sure of it.”

The girl smiled and skipped her way along the road leading them back to the lanes. Vander had a way of telling her what she wanted to hear without making it sound as silly and far-fetched. She appreciated that. A little reassurance never hurt anyone.

Chapter Text

“Silco! Made dinner, it’s on the table!”

“Just a second Vander! I’m busy!”

“Busy with what?!” Vander yelled upstairs. “You’ve been in the bathroom for almost 15 minutes! You got the shits or something?”

“I don’t! And I’ll be down in a minute!”

“That’s what you said 5 minutes ago, if you don’t get yer arse down here food’s gonna go cold!”

“Urghhhh, fine! I’m coming! Keep your knickers on Mum!”

“Alright. That’s it!”

Vander marched up the stairs and barged through the bathroom door …and after a short pause burst out laughing so hard he almost choked.

“Something funny?” Silco challenged crossing his arms as he stood opposite the door.

“HA! Yes! What’s with the hair?!”

The younger boy had parted his crop of coal hair so that his fringe was all shoved to the right side of his face and covering his eye. On the edge of the sink next to the mirror, Vander spotted his mother’s hairbrush with strands of black twisted in its flimsy wire teeth, and he started laughing even more.

“What about it?” Silco replied wearing a frown.

“What about it?! You look like you just stepped out of a hurricane! Why’ve you brushed it all to one side like that?!”

“Why not? I like it.” Silco huffed and pushed Vander out the way to head downstairs for dinner like he’d intended.

“Pfft- That’s not an answer! I mean why’ve you-”

Vander paused. A devilish knowing grin spread across his face as he clocked what was going on.

“Ohhhh… I see… You’re trying to look more like Connol. Aren’t you.”

“NO.” Was Silco’s quickfire response. Which of course, only confirmed Vander’s suspicions.

“You big fat liar. You so are. Oh my god that’s hilarious, wait til I tell Fel!”

“Don’t tell her!”

“Why not?”

“Because. I don’t want you to.”

Vander smirked over his friend’s shoulder as they trod downstairs. “Someone’s getting defensive. You just don’t want her to think you like her.”

“I do NOT like her.” Silco stated angrily and trod on Vander’s foot.

“Could’ve fooled me. You and I both saw the way she was looking at the new guy from the mining town, him and his one-sided little alt fringe. But by all means, you just decided to style your hair like that as soon as we get back by sheer coincidence.”

The younger made an annoyed pout and sank down at the dinner table hunched over like a porcupine. “K. So what? Connol has cool hair, doesn’t mean I have a thing for Fel!”

“Uh-huh.” Vander didn’t sound convinced. He served them each a bowl of homemade soup from the hob and joined Silco at the table. “Not like you were trying to impress her or anything literally every given moment you had with her today. Boasting about your fearlessness, offering to buy her a drink, lifting every heavy pickaxe you could get your tiny little hands on.”

“I wasn’t flirting with her! Jeez Vander …I was just- I was just being-”

“A gentleman?”

“Yeah. If you like.”

“Just like Connol? Pretty sure she called him that as well.”

No response from Silco. He rolled his eyes and plonked his chin in his fist waiting for Vander to stop bugging him.

“Saw you blushing when she called you that earlier.”

“Whaaat? Come on!”

“And every time she ruffled your hair.”

Silco groaned and let his head fall on the table in defeat. “Ugghhh, ok whatever! Maybe I do. A little bit. Only a little bit though!”

“How much is a little bit?”

“Less than the mental capacity inside that thick head of yours.”

“Wow. Smooth. Why don’t you try that one on Felicia.”

“Ha-ha. Jokes on you because actually, she smiled at all my compliments, laughed at all my one-liners, and she gave me a very affectionate tap on the nose. That’s touchier than she is with you and her other friends. Sooo… yeah.”

“That’s because all her other friends are 15 or above. You do realise she’s like that with you because you’re small and cute and 3 years younger right?”

“Wait, cute? Did she say that?”

“Not about you.”

“Oh… Nevermind. I didn’t ask that.”

“Eat your stew.”

Silco rolled his eyes and stuck his tongue out at Vander, then tucked into his carrots and potatoes.

“How is it?”

“Good. Not as good as when your mum makes it though.”

“You’re just saying that cuz you’re pissed at me.”

“I’m not. You add too much pepper and not enough salt. She gets the balance just right.”

“I like it peppery, not too keen on salt though so I’m always a bit cautious about adding too much. But I can adjust that no problem. Thanks for the cooking feedback Sil.”

“Hmph. Whatever.”

Silco ignored him and finished his soup in silence.

“She does think it though.”

“…Who thinks what?”

“Felicia. She does think you’re cute. Just, not in the attraction way, in more of a... wholesome… caring affection way. Like a kitten or a stuffed animal.”

“Wow. So she sees me like a little fluffy pet? That makes me feel so much better. Thankyou Vander.”

“Not like that silly, obviously she sees you as a person… I’m just saying – well, firstly, she’s 15 and you’re 12. Don’t take this the wrong way but there’s a bit of a maturity gap between those ages. And second, maybe don’t be too surprised if she sees your relationship more like a sibling dynamic.”

“For all this talk about ages, I find it odd it always comes back to me being too young for this, that, and the other, and not you being nearly a grown-up who hangs out with kids several years younger than him and who’s never had a girlfriend.”

“Ok, for starters, you’re wrong. Benzo’s a good friend of mine and he’s 22 now. As for girlfriends, you don’t know shit. I might’ve dated people and just never told you.”

“Bullshit. I’d know.”

“Well you can’t say that because you’ve never found out. But even if I haven’t had a long-term romantic relationship, so what? I’ve got good friends, good home life, I’m healthy and I’ve got a lot to be grateful for. Girlfriends aren’t really a priority in my life at the moment. If anything I’m more preoccupied with looking for work and planning our next Piltover raid so we can keep food on the table. Unless you’d rather be served cold meals in exchange for a little gossip in your life.”

When Vander was almost finished talking, Silco faked a yawn and mimed falling asleep in his chair.

“If I wanted a lecture I would’ve brought my book and pen to take notes from Professor Moral Superiority here.”

Vander gave a gruff sigh and stood up from the dinner table to clear their bowls away.

“My point is, I’m not trying to burst your bubble.” He clarified and began the washing up. “If you really wanna tell Felicia how you feel, I say go for it, but you can’t hold expectations that anything will change. What I can say is that knowing Fel, she won’t make you feel bad for it. If anything she’d probably be quite honoured that you think so highly of her. People like to feel valued, especially by those they care about.”

A minute passed by and Silco stayed seated at the table all quiet and presumably in a huff. Vander wasn’t bothered about checking on him. He was old enough to sort out his own pettiness at little things like this. Now that Vander was doing a lot more of the household chores so his mum could work without burning out the second she got home, he found his patience with Silco’s stubbornness had thinned somewhat.

Just then, a small pair of hands lightly shoved him out the way of the sink.

“I can do it. You go.”

“Sil it’s fine, it’s just a couple bowls. You don’t need to do the washing up to win back my favour, I’m not actually annoyed with you.”

“You did the cooking; I can do the cleaning. That’s not sucking up, that’s just fair.”

“Really, you don’t have to-”

“People like to feel valued. This is me valuing you. Now go relax and contemplate taxes or something old man.”

“Such a gentleman.”

Silco sighed and turned off the tap. Once again he nudged Vander – more gently – out of the way of the sink, and grabbed the sponge from the side to start cleaning the bowls.

“Sorry. Let me say that again …go have some time to yourself to just relax and let me finish doing the boring jobs for once, because I feel like I owe it to you and your frustratingly genuine useful life advice and your delicious cooking. And next time we see her, I might even tell Felicia how I feel about her. Maybe. Sound fair?”

Vander placed his hands on his hips and chuckled at the floorboards through a sigh. “Sounds fair. I’ll leave you to it, thanks.” He went to go upstairs to his room, but glanced back at Silco for a moment first, and added “I tell a lie, the hair doesn’t look so bad. Let it grow a little longer it actually might look pretty cool.”

Chapter Text

“Stop right there!”

Vander’s heart pounded against his ribcage. He didn’t dare look behind him. How had they been spotted? Didn’t matter. All that mattered right now was escape.

He ducked down alley after alley, leaping over pipework and golden picket fences, Silco tailing right behind him. The sound of heavy boots marched in pursuit, hammering on the pavement slabs lining the way down to the waterside. For once, Vander cursed himself for stealing so much. All the weighty treasures in his backpack were making it hard to manoeuvre as swiftly down the twisted diversions he and Silco had to navigate as yet more enforcers showed up. Beads of sweat were forming on his forehead and his hands felt clammy, but he knew he couldn’t stop running for a second. One wrong move now and he might never see home again.

Clannnggg – Crack!

The inertia sent him flying into the concrete as his foot got caught in a loose drain. The curb hit Vander square in the face before he knew what had happened. Impact sting whipped his jaw and reverberated through the bridge of his nose, and he felt liquid running down his cheek. His chest tightened as the air was knocked out of his lungs, and blotches of green and red light plastered his vision like static for a few seconds. In his daze he heard Silco calling his name, but everything had suddenly gone fuzzy; he couldn’t physically turn to the sound of his friend’s voice.

“Vander! You alright?! What the fuck dude get up! We’ve gotta go RIGHT NOW!”

Anxious that Piltover’s blue clad army was just round the corner, Silco grabbed onto Vander’s arms and tried to haul him to his feet.

Vander’s arm was limp, and he couldn’t seem to move despite screaming at himself in his head to get up. Why the hell couldn’t he get up?!

And then the pain hit him. A snap flared up his ankle and Vander let out a sudden course wail and bit his hand as tears pricked behind his eyes. He did his best to just breathe slowly but his whole body was going into a state of panic. He opened his mouth to tell Silco his foot was still stuck, but the words got caught in his throat as the adrenaline constricted him. In desperation he shot his friend a pained glare and mouthed “Go”

Silco was damned if he was going to leave Vander for dead at the hands of some dirty Pilty cops. He frowned and glanced up the road at the troop coming for them. Slipping his loaded backpack off his shoulders, he charged full speed towards them and when he was close enough, swung the bag round with both hands like a bulldozer and it collided with the nearest enforcer. Knocking his helmet right off his head. The next one had a bat raised but Silco ducked and avoided the swing by the skin of his teeth. He scooped up the dropped helmet from the first cop and rammed it upwards to catch the bat-wielder in an uppercut to the jaw.

There was no way Vander could’ve stopped him, but the older boy prayed that Silco didn’t just run off to get himself killed. He’d have to trust him. Either way he wasn’t in any position to help. It was a nightmare trying to get his ankle un-stuck when he was laying on his stomach and couldn’t even see how badly it was jammed, and every time he jostled his foot in slightly the wrong way he was met with a nasty shot of pain up his leg that made him want to recoil into his skin.

“Got you thief!”

Time was up. Silco was inevitably outnumbered, and the enforcer he’d first almost knocked out had managed to get behind him and clamp a hand over his mouth, holding his wrists behind his back. Another was approaching him with a pair of bronze and navy handcuffs. The boy squirmed and kicked like a fish thrashing in a net.

“Dirty underground cockroaches… Ow! It bit me-!” Cried the first enforcer and let go of Silco’s jaw in surprise. Quick to seize his chance, Silco raised his heel and brought it down as hard as he could onto his captor’s toes, followed by throwing all his weight to the side to pull them off balance. It worked long enough for him to reach his hidden pocket knife… and without hesitation drew a vicious slash across the enforcer’s neck. He went down without a sound.

“Aaarghhh!!”

With a final tedious struggle, Vander tugged his foot free of the gutter and crawled up onto the curb. The nerves in his right ankle were burning but he forced himself to stand up using the wall for support. He glanced behind him just in time to see Silco sprinting back to him with blood on his face and blood on his weapon. The younger quickly put an arm around him and began half leading half dragging Vander down the next street as they made a beeline for the drawbridge.

Every hobbling step was agony, and there was nothing Vander could do but bare it until they were safe.

“Mom I told you! It was an accident! My foot got stuck in a damn drain!”

“I know it was an accident! You think I care how it happened?! The point is you’re hurt and I’m going to have to take you to the doctor’s because it could well be broken.”

She tightened the bandage around the makeshift splint she’d tinkered together and Vander winced. It wasn’t just the pain of his busted ankle; he was worried his mother would scold him endlessly for sneaking off to Topside behind her back, and that’d be the end of their raids.

“Well I got away didn’t I? And we still have a whole bag of goods! Say whatever you want but the Lanes has never been better since we started bringing stuff back from across the river. Over there, they hardly notice a difference, might as well throw half their belongings out the window and carry on as normal! They don’t send the enforcers after us because they need what’s been stolen, they’re just looking for someone to put in their place!”

“You could’ve been sent to prison for good! You hear me Vander? Prison. Stillwater! You’re old enough to know that. What would all this stolen money be worth if you got caught?”

She sighed and held her head in her hand as she knelt by the chair Vander was sat on. She hadn’t wanted to bring all this up in a situation like this. Her son looked down into his lap and stayed quiet. She took that to mean he was listening now and hopefully not thinking of how to tell her he disagreed.

“I’m not blind… not to what you’ve been doing.” She said adjusting her silver chained glasses on her forehead. Come to think of it… where had she got those? Vander realised he'd never questioned it before. Oh well, now wasn't the right time.

“I’m not bothered about the robbing and petty theft, if it was anyone else I’d be all for it. Believe me, I’m proud that you’re so passionate about the injustices we face down here and you’re doing what you believe is right to even things out. I admire you so much for that my son, you’re so incredibly brave. But you can also get carried away, I’ve known you all your life, I’ve seen it. You have this drive in you that’s so strong that sometimes, you can’t see what’s already around you. Silco was injured because he was protecting you, maybe not badly but he put himself in huge danger to help you two escape. What would’ve happened if he didn’t make it?”

Vander took a full breath and picked at the scabs on his knuckles as he thought about what she was telling him. He knew deep down she had a lot of valid points, but none of them answered the question he wanted yet.

“Yeah… I’ll thank him later.”

“Good. But you see what I’m saying, don’t you? You can’t let greed or spite overtake your kind heart, that’s how you’ll end up like the ones you’re stealing from. Take all you like from Topside, but we’ve got something they could only dream of.”

She took his hand and gave it a hard squeeze. “We’ve got a bond stronger than the stones they build their walls with. You, me, your friends and this whole community. Now you remember that. Don’t ever lose your gratitude for those who care about you, because there’ll be those that no matter what happens or where you end up in life, they’ve got your back.”

She stood up and her hair brushed his cheek as she kissed his forehead. Vander felt his smile return to him, and he gave her a thankful hug.

“Sooo… does that mean no more Piltover raids?” He might as well test the waters.

His mom chuckled and ruffled his chestnut hair. “Certainly not until your ankle is 100% better. I know that no matter how much time I dedicate to worrying like the old mother I am, I can’t stop you from going. But I’d rather I know exactly when and where you’re conducting these raids than you doing it behind my back and getting yourself in trouble. And when you are better, I want you to be in groups of no less than three at all times. Deal?”

“Uh… yeah I guess that’s fair.” Vander rolled his eyes in exaggerated complaint, but gave his mother a pleased smile. That sounded like a better deal than he’d expected.

“It’s more than fair so I’d take it if I were you. I know, I know… you’re a big strong young lad who can handle himself out there in the world, but it doesn’t hurt to have support. Plus, Silco and Felicia both look up to you and will follow where you lead them, which makes them your responsibility as well.”

“They’re strong too! Just cuz I’m bigger and older doesn’t mean they should be underestimated. Fel can hold her own as well as any guy and have you even seen Sil with a knife?”

“That’s not what I mean. I believe you. Your friends are tough shit. But they’re still only kids, and so are you. You all need to look out for each other, that’s what it means to grow up.”

Still holding his hand, she helped him stand up, and put and arm around him while he hobbled for the door.

“Now let’s go get you fixed up tough guy.”

Silco chucked another cotton wool ball in the bathroom bin as he wiped the last of the blood off his forehead and knees. He put the packet and rubbing alcohol beside the sink and plonked himself down on the tiles. Leaning back against the bathtub, he stared up at the flaking ceiling and the counted the moths flitting about the dim sheltered bulb.

“Take this and go get yourself cleaned up.” Vander’s mother had said as she forced the first aid supplies into his hands and sent him upstairs. “I need to have a word with my son.”

The boy reached for his knife and watched the yellow rings reflect off it’s clean metal tooth. He’d washed the blade before attending to his own wounds, they weren’t serious anyway. No broken bones. God he really hoped Vander hadn’t actually gone and snapped his ankle. That couldn’t be fun, and it wasn’t gonna be much fun for the rest of them if they couldn’t go clambering about the city together for who knows how long.

“Urghhh… Why’d shit have to go wrong?! I mean, I guess nothing’s ever gone wrong with a capital W before, so it was only a matter of time, right?”

He tapped the side of the blade against his cheek and his eye twitched involuntarily at the cold metal on his skin. He felt restless. Didn’t know why. He should be tired out after today. But there was something deeply unsatisfying about coming back from a job empty handed and with more bruises than you paid for.

Silco held the knife out in front of him again. Caught in its mirror was one 12-year-old boy, and the view of an open bathroom window.

Chapter Text

Vander’s eyelids twitched in the darkness of his room. He couldn’t sleep. Laying completely flat kept his ankle from flaring lashes of pain all up his leg, but the cumbersome ache was still persistent enough to keep him awake. And now he was thirsty.

He allowed maybe …10, 15 minutes to pass, holding his resilience, but it was one of those things that nagged like a stone in your shoe. The more you try to ignore it, the more obvious and unbearable it becomes. With an uncomfortable moan, he sat up from his bed, and managed to swing his legs around off the edge and place both feet on the floor. Reaching for the wooden crutch he’d been issued, he used it to help up his tired body and steady himself. He looked down at his ankle in its cheap plaster cast that would probably crumble if he knocked it too hard.

There was only one doctor’s in the Lanes, if you could really call them that. They were more like a couple of self-practicing community medics appointed by necessity. No official training or education because the Undercity just didn’t have the funding or resources for that. But that shoddy little clinic provided round the clock support for its fellow citizens for miles around. And they were bloody good at what they did for what little they had to work with there. Just goes to show what a few passionate and dedicated individuals can achieve if they put themselves to it for the greater good.

Vander held a deep breath, and took a step. Ok, not too bad. Pain; moderate. Now to make it downstairs.

He took it slow and steady, relying on the crutch as much as possible until he could reach the banister.

“One step at a time Vander… one step at a time…”

“Vander?” Asked a whispering voice from the centre of the kitchen. Vander pushed the door open, and saw Silco paused in the motion of unloading items from his duffel bag into the cupboards. “Oh it is you! Perfect, come look at this, I got something for ya!”

The other boy limped forward, squinting in the light of the kitchen’s fluorescents at night. He grabbed a glass and went to the sink first, not forgetting why he made all the effort to come down in the first place.

Silco tossed the duffel bag to one side and unclipped a few smaller pouches from his belt. He dumped the contents on the dining table and started sifting through them. Vander chugged down his glass of water and walked closer. It was then he noticed everything Silco had emptied from his pockets were rectangular boxes with white labels or screw-top bottles of varying sizes. Like fancier versions of the rancid pill containers he’d seen in the physician’s cabinet during his doctor’s visit. His eyes darted to the discarded duffel bag. The one they’d lost getting away from the enforcers.

“Oh no…. ohhh no- Silco? Where did you get this?”

The boy turned around with a proud look on his face. “Oh, you know… our friends across the river.”

Vander felt pale. He held his head in one hand. “Tell me you didn’t rob a Topside pharmacy, by yourself, at night.”

Silco looked confused. “Uhh… ok. I didn’t rob a Topside pharmacy by myself at night.”

Vander shot him a notorious glare. “Now tell me that wasn’t a lie.”

“…I- what?” Silco questioned timidly. This was miles from the reaction he’d been expecting.

“Tell me you’re not lying.”

“Lying? But I was just repeating what you told me… I don’t understand what you’re upset about. Obviously I got this from Topside, where else? But look! I grabbed every painkiller on the shelf so there’s bound to be the right one for you while your broken ankle’s healing, and I tracked down the same loot we sacrificed getting away. So now we didn’t come back empty handed after all!”

“Silco you idiot!”

Silco stood frozen. Vander never snapped at him like that. For a moment, he didn’t know how to react. He averted his eyes and opened his mouth to stutter a defence, but Vander cut him off before he could even begin.

“I can’t believe you’d be so stupid as to go back there after what happened today! Less than 12 hours ago! What the hell were you thinking?!”

“I-I was only trying to help you…” Whispered the smaller boy with his stare stuck to the ground.

“Help. You know it is possible to help people without throwing yourself into a shark tank.”

Vander scowled down at him with an icy tone that dripped down Silco’s spine like a cold shudder of rain.

“Running carefully planned raids in groups with backup is one thing, popping across the bridge whenever you feel like being a little daring is another. Piltover’s not a fucking corner store! Do you have any sense of consequences? ANY?!”

The kitchen was a graveyard. The two boys said nothing. The fluorescent bar above them crackled weakly, and their shadows flickered for a brief moment on the cold kitchen tiles.

Silco sniffed and clenched his clammy fists. “Nice way of saying you don’t want my help.” He snatched up his duffel bag and headed for the front door.

Vander leaned on his crutch in a stance of fed-up judgement. “Where are you going now?”

“To camp outside Benzo’s until he opens shop.”

“If you get cold and change your mind I’m not coming all the way downstairs to open the door for you.”

“I don’t care. You seem to think I can’t open a window even though I busted a Pilty doctor’s office tonight. I won’t change my mind.”

He stepped out onto the porch, one hand on the door handle. Back facing Vander.

“Next time you get your foot stuck in a fucking drain like an idiot, I’m gonna leave you there for the enforcers. Prick.”

He slammed the door, leaving Vander alone with a spiteful ache breaking in the crack of his ankle. The adolescent looked over at the stolen drugs from the corner of his eye. He winced and let out a gruff heavy sigh.

“For fuck’s sake…” He cursed under his breath, and readied himself another glass of water.

Chapter Text

“…and then he agreed, so we’ve arranged to meet up next Saturday! Hey, Vander? Are you even listening?”

The two friends were sat on Felicia’s porch eating breakfast rolls. Or rather, Felicia was on the porch, and Vander was on a flimsy plywood stool she'd grabbed from her dining room, and staring at his half-eaten sandwich. He realised he’d been drifting off into his own thoughts and quickly shook his attention back to Felicia.

“Huh? Oh- yeah that’s great. Sorry… who are you meeting on Saturday?”

“Uhhh Connol? You know… cute guy from the mines? The one I’ve basically been talking about non-stop since we met him?” She admitted, blushing fondly with no attempt to hide her anticipation to see him again.

Vander made a hum of acknowledgement, but his gaze had drifted back the sandwich that was starting to look as sad as him.

“Hey.” Felicia jabbed him in the arm. “Something’s up with you this morning, you’re all down in the dumps. There anything you wanna talk about?”

Vander sighed and took another bite of his breakfast roll. “Didn’t sleep well.” He muttered through a mouthful of white bread and sliced cheese.

“Ankle bothering you?” Felicia asked sympathetically. “I’m sorry dude, that must suck to deal with. What did the doctor say about it?”

“Thankfully it’s a clean fracture, bones all still in the places they should be. Should heal alright on its own if I just leave it and don’t overexert myself.”

“Huh. I guess that’s something of a silver lining. Could easily have been worse, I mean. How long will healing take?”

“Umm… I think they said maybe a couple of months if long as I play it safe. Process is faster for younger people and I’m in the best shape I can be otherwise, so my chances of even taking this cast off before that are looking pretty good.”

Felicia nodded and finished the last bite of her sandwich. That was all good news on that front, but the way Vander said it all monotonous like that gave her a hunch there was more on his mind.

“You feeling ok Van?”

 She craned her head towards him and put a hand on his knee. He sighed again and his grey eyes fell to the floor.

“I… had an argument with Silco last night.” He began reluctantly. “…I was tired, and cranky and in pain and I- …I yelled at him when I really shouldn’t have.”

Felicia’s eyes widened but she gave Vander a reassuring squeeze and encouraged him to continue. “Why? What happened?”

“He uh… he went back to Topside to get the bag of stuff we stole in the raid yesterday, the one he used to defend himself against the enforcers so we could make a break for it. I just don’t know what was going through his head, I told him on the way back that it wasn’t worth it! That we could live with one botched raid if it meant the difference between life and death. Or y’know, life in prison which is basically death.”

He rubbed his eyes and leaned to the side against the porch wall. “I didn’t even realise he’d left until he came back. It’s like he doesn’t realise when he’s gone too far. That idiot just picks up an idea, gets attached to the notion of feeling like a hero and runs with it. Sometimes I really don’t know how to get that through his stubborn skull. You know how he is Fel, when he decides he doesn’t want to listen to you, you’ve got no chance.”

Felicia glanced down slowly, and held her hands together in her lap. “You two aren’t so different you know. You feel like you’ve got to protect us, Silco especially because you know too well how reckless he can be. That’s a way of caring, yes, but do you ever think Silco probably wants to prove himself more?”

“What do you mean?”

“Think about it from his perspective for a second. He can’t protect you in the same way you can, but he still cares, so he’s going to try and find other ways to be as much of a backbone for our friend group as you are. And it’s because he looks up to you, Vander. It wouldn’t surprise me if he’s just trying to be more like you. Or even go above and beyond because he has more to prove.”

Vander stayed quiet. He bit his lip knowing Felicia was right. He deliberately didn’t tell her about the painkillers Silco stole for him and she still saw through it. Oh well. Real friends will always tell you what you don’t want to hear when you need it most. And it was about time he moved on from viewing Silco like a vulnerable child who cowered behind him at the first sight of a threat.

“I need to talk to him.”

“That’s better.” Felicia smiled caringly and offered an arm to help him stand up. “Find him, talk to him and…”

“…And apologise.”

He returned her smile, and she gave him a hug. “That’s my Vander.”

“Not just apologise.”

“Oh?”

Vander hooked his crutch under his right arm and made his way down the street. His limp had eased, as had the ache to a dull lulling in the background of every few steps. Damn, those painkillers really worked wonders.

“I need to thank him for saving my life.”

Sploosh!

Only one skip. Pathetic.

Silco picked up another round pebble and hurled it over the edge. He flicked his wrist at the last second so that the pebble span after he released it. It bounced off the surface of the muddy water once, twice, and then sank below the surface with a hollow plop.

Two skips. Not amazing, but better than one.

The boy leaned on the thick black chain connecting the two iron posts either side of him, kicking his legs absentmindedly as they dangled off the granite overhang that jutted out over the river. He looked over to his right at the stretch of water that led to the bridge, and if he squinted through the low-level fog that was just rolling in, he could make out its hardened pillars and steel cables tied to spires ascending from the waves. A few little steamboats were chugging back and forth underneath it, the ones coming into the harbour followed by a large container ship in the distance. Silco watched it creep closer like a titanic navy panther stalking a flock of grouse. As it approached the bridge, the draw mechanism cranked up and the great suspended structure divided in the middle and lifted its arms to let the ship through.

There were two sides to the harbour opposite each other on the widest section of the river. The Piltover side, and the Undercity side. Silco waited to see which side this tank of a boat stacked high with metal crates would steer to.

Eventually the ship’s crest on the side came into view. Pilty ship. Silco scoffed and spat into the river.

He carried on observing the lethargic motion of the colossal ship into Piltover’s pristine harbour on the other side, and tried to imagine the kind of things it might be transporting.

“How did I know you’d be here?” Came a voice from behind him.

“Uh, I dunno. Probably because Benzo told you.” Silco responded sarcastically without turning around.

“Yeah ok, it was Benzo.” Admitted Vander who sat down next to him, albeit with some awkward effort to manoeuvre in his plaster cast.

“Snitch.”

Silco picked up a scallop shell and tossed it across the river. This one skimmed about three and a half times before it sank with a murky ripple.

“Can I talk to you Sil?”

“No. You can go away.”

He gripped the chain in front of him and leaned on his forearms like a toddler straining against a seatbelt and stared down at his feet as he kicked at the breeze.

“Shame, I just walked all the way here.” Vander sighed and rested an elbow on the iron post.

Silco lifted his head for a second and realised… “Wait, you walked here on your broken ankle?”

“Well yeah, but using the crutch and taking it one step at a time it wasn’t too bad. Plus, those Pilty painkillers you swiped have done their job well.”

“I reckoned you’d be too proud to use them.”

Vander reached for one of the stones from the pile next to Silco and threw it from palm to palm a few times. “Would’ve been a waste not to.” He chucked the pebble out to water; it soared a good distance but fell straight down.

Silco’s eye followed it, and he let out a sulky sigh. “Tch… even when it comes to throwing stones, you’re better than me.”

“That’s not true. I was trying to copy you by doing that skimming thing where they skip across the surface. But I just lobbed it and it didn’t skim at all. You’ve got strengths Sil, you just can’t see them by comparing yourself.”

“Look who’s back! It’s Professor Moral Lectures again!” Jeered the younger as he shut one eye to aim his next shell missile across the river at Topside.

Vander face-palmed. “Right. Sorry, bad start.”

“No, no, I think it’s perfectly fitting. You were right, I was stupid to go back there.”

“Listen, that’s not what I-” Vander stopped himself. He took the time to collect his thoughts so as not to dig this argument into a deeper hole. “I never should’ve called you that. I don’t blame you for how you acted. I was just… scared, I guess. Still in the pessimistic headspace of what could’ve happened. But it was wrong of me to take it out on you, so, I’m sorry.”

The fog was rolling in closer now. Low laying and lazy over the water from the horizon. Opposite the Undercity harbour, the sun tiptoed behind Piltover’s tallest tower on its descent. Bathing those in the glass-windowed pedestals across the river in a ripe golden blessing of light, while stranding the citizens of the Lanes to chase the last orange ribbons.

“I also wanted to thank you.”

Silco raised an eyebrow. “For the drugs?”

“For my life. Back when we were running away. I wouldn’t have stood a chance if you weren’t there for me.” He looked down at his cast and sighed.

Silco gestured to the lump of plaster with his foot. “Not to mention you would’ve had to hop all the way back.”

“Heh… yeah.”

They sat in quiet for a moment. Letting the sound of seabirds and steamships fill the space between them.

“Hey Vander… I know you said you don’t blame me, but I wanna apologise too. I wasn’t thinking about what I did at the time, or how it’d affect you, your mum and Felicia if something happened to me.”

“Yeah, about that. Mum has some conditions she’s added to our Piltover day-trips.”

“Figured.”

“It’s not as bad as you’re thinking, we can still go, just gotta be more careful. And stick together. But I’ll let her tell you in her own words when we get back.”

“That’s fair. Either way, I can promise I won’t go sneaking off Topside without you. And if you go down, I’m going down with you. No two ways about it.”

“So you’re not gonna leave me for the enforcers if I get my foot stuck in a drain again?”

“Don’t worry about it Van, you piss me off sometimes, but you’ll always be my best friend. I’d take on all of Piltover for you if I had to.”

He scrambled to his feet and gave Vander a hand, then scoffed in the direction of the city shielding the sunset from them.

“I’m sick of looking up at those stupid towers. Let’s go home.”

Vander smiled and placed a hand on his shoulder. “Agreed. Thanks Sil.”

The pair walked away from the harbour together, Silco offering his support as a second crutch.

“By the way, how do you skim stones like that so easily?”

“Eh, practice and boredom.”

“You’ll have to teach me some time.”

Silco chuckled and patted his tall friend on the back. “One step at a time Vander, one step at a time.”

Chapter Text

“Checkmate!”

Silco placed the wooden cube on the tan square of the board. Vander crossed his arms and frowned.

“Stop saying checkmate every time you make a move. That’s like… the opposite of tactical.”

He moved what was meant to be his horse, but the tackily carved pieces made it look more like a lizard.

“Actually, my tactic is that if I say it every turn, eventually you’ll get so frustrated you lose focus and miss something important.”

“Winning by being the most annoying distraction you can. What a refined strategy.”

Silco chuckled mischievously to himself and moved his next piece.

“Checkmate!”

“For fuck’s sake Silco! Stop saying check-” Vander paused. He blinked at the chessboard, but as he scrutinised over possible further moves, he was much dismayed to find Silco really had put him in checkmate this time. “What? How?!”

“You, Vander, need to be more tactical.” Bragged Silco, tapping his forehead smugly.

They were interrupted by a knock at the door.

“Yo, is Felicia here?” Asked a crop of brown hair and one blue eye that peered into the lounge.

“Connol!” Silco jumped to his feet, accidentally kicking the chessboard over on the process. “Oh shit- oops.”

“It’s alright.” Vander sighed. “You already won.” He smiled when he looked up and greeted Connol. “Hey man, Fel’s just getting ready upstairs but she’ll be down in a minute.”

Right on cue, Felicia came bombing down the stairs and practically crashed into Connol.

“Ahh! You’re here! Oh my god I am soooo excited, I’ve been waiting to go to this concert for weeks!” She hugged him and he wrapped his arms around her shoulders and gave her a kiss on the forehead.

“Me too! I’ve literally been counting down the days, still can’t believe the luck that I found this gig from one lonely flyer on a lamppost, and it just happened to be a day where all five of us are actually free for once! Speaking of, is Benzo here yet?”

“He’s finishing his shift at the shop but said he’d meet us on the way.”

“Cool, then what are we waiting for?” He turned to Silco and Vander who were already with them at the door, and the group headed out together and crossed the road to Benzo’s shop.

“Sooo, what do y’all think?” Felicia said with a twirl in her minidress. It was a mix of different fabrics sewn together, but it didn’t look at all shoddy. It had thin straps over the shoulders, tied with ribbons at the back, and the navy skirt flowed like water when she span, with little beige accents in buttons and threading looking like sand amongst the waves. All of it complimented with the tiny shell on a string necklace Connol had given her on their first date.

“You look like a beach.” Said Silco.

Felicia raised an eyebrow. “What d’you call me?”

“BEACH.” Silco reiterated. “B-E-E-C-H. Not bitch obviously. The dress is dark blue like waves and you’re wearing a shell- Oh, forget it.”

She giggled and nudged him as they walked. “Only teasing Sil. I appreciate the compliment though, and I’m glad you like it. Though I’m pretty sure that’s not how you spell beach.”

“I think you look beautiful.” Connol offered with a faint blush on his cheeks as he held her hand.

Felicia smiled and leaned towards him. “Thankyou handsome!”

“Get a room!” Silco whispered from behind. But Vander quickly elbowed him to shut up. “Ow!”

“So you’ve seen this band before?” Felicia asked her boyfriend, ignoring Silco’s childish antics.

“Twice. I really wanted to go with you before, but I couldn’t find anyone who had the time to spend hours navigating the fissures for one specific underground venue.”

“It won’t be boring seeing the same band play the same songs all over again?”

“Hell no! These guys are the jam! I bet you they’re gonna be huge someday and we’ll get to say we were in the original crowd who saw them just starting out!”

“You sound like a real fanboy already.”

“I’ll take that badge and wear it with pride.”

The venue itself was nothing special. Clustered and gaudy and cramped between two buildings under another, and the actual open area was a whole maze of stairs into the place before you even reached the gig entrance. The stage was basically a raised platform made of pallets that had soaked up several previous shows worth of beer. Batons of neon lined the ceiling, some working, some not, and there was a small makeshift bar set up at the side. Perfect for 5 Undercity teen ruffians on a night out.

They’d arrived earlier than most of the crowd, so the emptiness made the place seem a little sad at first glance. Though once the band got set up and more people started flooding in, the spirit of the room lit up instantly.

Connol and Felicia bustled right up to the front, and both shared the same grin of excitement when a screeching guitar riff ripped through the air.

“Alriiiigggght!” Yelled the singer as he stepped forward in his thick black boots that rattled the stage. “Who here has been to see Imagining Dragons before?!!”

“ME! I HAVE!! WOOOO!!” Connol screamed from the front. Felicia jumped and almost covered her ears at first, but then she saw how much fun he was having and chose to roll with it.

“Woohoo! Yeah!!” She cheered along with him and clapped as the band started playing their first song.

Meanwhile, waiting for the performance to start, Benzo and Vander were having a drink at the bar. Silco felt a bit left out, standing there like a spare wheel while his two friends acted like proper adults so naturally. Chatting and laughing and clapping each other on the back like the kind of men he always saw hanging out at the drinks stands in the market. It made sense, Vander was 19 now, and Benzo 24. They were technically adults, and Silco… Silco was still 14.

No. Not still 14, already 14. Yeah, that’s right, it’s all a matter of perspective. He didn’t even know if he liked the taste of alcohol, but it couldn’t hurt to try.

“Excuse me barman, I’ll have one beer please.”

The burly man behind the counter turned around and put down the bottle he was opening. He looked around for the voice, and then realised he should be looking down. He scoffed at the request of the kid that had slid up to the bar with such confidence.

“And how old are you sir?”

“I’m… 16.”

The bartender laughed so hard his shoulders shook. He put the bottle under the counter and leaned down to Silco’s height.

“Nice try mate. By the looks of it you’re too young to be here. I’m not gonna serve you, but I won’t kick you out. How’s that?”

“Pfft. Whatever. How old do I even look to you anyway?”

“Hmmm… I’m gonna say 12.”

“What?! I look older than 12!”

“Honest guess. Sorry mate.”

Silco gave him an antsy glare then skulked off to find Vander.

“What’s up little man?” Asked Benzo as Silco joined them at the side and he noticed his glum expression.

“It’s nothing. I didn’t think a grotty corner of the city like this would have actual drinking regulations.”

Vander was about to put a hand on his shoulder, but then rethought it. Silco would probably take that as condescension. Instead, his eyes fell to the pint in his hand.

“Want some of mine?” He offered.

Silco stared at the glass, tempted, but he shook his head. “S’not the same as having my own.”

“I see, it’s the principle of the matter to you eh?” Vander tapped a finger on his glass in thought, then put his drink down and headed for the bar. “Wait here a sec.”

At the other end of the venue the crowd was a full blaze fire. The ropy wooden stage held together with staples and nails rattled under the vibrations of the drum beats and the sheer energy of the lead guitarist and singer as they bounced riffs off each other, like an infinite booming echo on the surfaces of two opposite cliffsides. Felicia was absolutely loving it. The lights, the neon, the energy! She jumped around like wild and moved her head to the music, letting her long purple hair flail behind her like a waterfall. She didn’t know any of the words but she didn’t care. Connol was hitting every lyric on point for both of them anyway.

“This is the best bit! Just wait for it Fel… -OH, THE MISERY!! EVERYBODY WANTS TO BE MY ENEMY!!”

The band’s vocalist raised his tattooed hand in the air to get the crowd going as they kicked it up a notch for the drop of the chorus. He noticed these two youngsters at the front who’d been giving it their all since the start of the show, and it made him smile to see his audience enjoying the music so much.

“Ayoo Ay! I swear...” He held out the mic in Connol’s direction to finish the lyric.

“-I’ll never be a saint, NO WAY!” The 18-year-old screamed at the top of his lungs and punched the air with his fist in metal horns.

Vander came back from the bar with a fresh pint and handed it to Silco. “All yours dude.”

Silco took it from him and gave him a surprised but genuine smile. “Thanks.” And the two clinked glasses together in a friendly cheers.

Now that it was in his own hands, a pint of liquid actually looked like a lot more. He put his lips to the glass and took a sip. It was bitter, which wasn’t exactly what he was expecting. He couldn’t actually decide how he felt about the taste, but he really liked the cold foam on top. That was fun, he just wished there was more of it. Felicia and Connol were both old enough to drink. He wondered why they didn’t. Then Silco spied his friends at the stage’s edge, dancing with each other as they had been all night, smiles on their faces and not a care about anything else. They were too busy in a world of music and each other.

“How’s your drink Sil?” Vander asked.

“Not quite what I was expecting, but I like it.”

“I probably should’ve got you a half pint, sorry about that. Don’t worry about finishing it if-” Vander paused mid-sentence when he looked next to him to see Silco knock back the entire pint like it was a glass of water. “Woah, steady on there-”

Silco chugged his drink down to the last drop and plonked the empty glass down by Vander’s feet, then went rushing off through the rabble to the front of the band. Vander blinked a few times and looked back and forth between the drained pint and the direction Silco had dashed through the garish crowd. He laughed to himself and shook his head. “Strange little guy.”

“Hey! Felicia! Connol!” Silco called out as he pushed forward past audience members constantly moving and getting in his way.

Felicia spotted him as he waved his hands above the crowd. “Heya Sil! Over here!” She reached out to grab his hand and reel him to the front. Connol took hold of Silco’s other hand as well as Felicia’s and the three of them danced around together jumping and kicking their feet into the middle of the circle in time with the music.

“Guys can we try something?” Connol asked and the other two nodded enthusiastically. “Each of us jump in the middle of the circle one at a time while we’re still holding hands, I don’t know if this’ll work, but let’s try it!”

“Alright!” Piped Silco. “I’ll go first”

He hopped forward then backwards again, and Felicia followed his lead, then Connol. They got it going for a minute, but then Felicia misplaced her timing and stumbled forward into Silco. Since they were still holding hands, all three went down to the floor like a stack of dominoes.

“Omg I’m so sorry guys!” Felicia apologised, but she was laughing so hard there were tears in her eyes.

“No prob, we’re both fine right Con?”

“A-ok Sil! You guys wanna try again?”

“Fuck yeah! We so nearly had it.” Silco sprung back to his feet like a spring and helped Felicia up, then they linked hands and counted each other in.

Even from the back of the room the music was a deafening volume. Those speakers definitely didn’t have a decibel cap. Vander could feel the bass vibrating in his feet through the floor while the treble soared across the ceiling straight to his ear drum. It was overwhelming to say the least, but at the same time, there was this atmosphere created by these people sharing one source of entertainment and adrenaline and responding to each other through sound and movement. It drew you into it and you became part of the noise, and Vander could see the appeal of that.

“I’ve never been to a concert before.” He mused as he tapped a finger on his glass to the beat without even realising.

Benzo shrugged and bobbed his head along with a smile. “I could sorta tell. Though I’d be lying if I said that didn’t surprise me. I thought you and Silco were gonna be first at the front of the crowd bouncing around like lunatics.”

“Me too, but then we got here and I realised I didn’t know what to do. This was Connol’s thing really, and I don’t dance Ben.”

Benzo listened to his friend complacently, but he’d known Vander a long time. There was no hiding that tone of insecurity from him. “Why not?”

“I dunno… I don’t dance. Do I need to justify myself?”

“Course not. Unless it’s because you’re worried what the others’ll think.”

“You seriously think I’m shy? Long shot my friend.” Vander argued with an amused laugh and took a gulp of his drink.

“I’m just putting it out there Van, being an adult doesn’t mean you stop having fun. Whether that means making a fool of yourself by letting loose at a gig for the first time, or loitering awkwardly on the sidelines like a 14-year-old at a college dance.”

Vander watched the sound vibrations create ripples on the surface of his drink. He bit his tongue and glanced at the empty glass Silco had left next to him. Then he shot his attention to the band rampaging on stage.

A moment later, he tipped his glass and finished the rest of his pint in a matter of seconds, then left it next to Silco’s and headed for the crowd.

“That’s the spirit!” Cheered Benzo, who did the same and followed him into the riot.

“Yo Fel!”

Felicia took a second to register her name being shouted through the blaring guitar, but her face lit up once she did. “Vander! I didn’t think you were gonna join us! What took ya so long?”

“Eh I was chatting with Benzo and eventually he told me to stop being a wet towel.”

“I said to go have some fun!” Benzo butted in as he squeezed through the crowd and shook Vander by the shoulders in a rough but friendly manner. “Doofus.”

Felicia laughed and grabbed her friends by the hands. “Well you’re here now, both of you. Let’s dance!”

Vander let her lead while Benzo and Connol rocked out together, but to his surprise he soon got the hang of it and let the music guide his movements. Felicia twirled around and smiled at him to let him know he was doing fine, and it was all just a good bit of fun.

“Wait a minute…” Vander suddenly noticed what was missing. “Where’s Silco?”

“Right here baby!!” With what couldn’t be better timing, Silco burst through the crowd by sliding down on his knees and aggressively air-guitaring. He finished his riff then stood up and swept back his shoulder-length hair.

Connol turned around and pointed at him with a grin. “Ayyyy! There he is!”

“Top marks for that entrance Sil!” Vander chuckled and ruffled his hair so his bangs fell in his face again, but acted confused when he pulled his hand away. “Dude, why’s your hair so wet?”

“Dunked it underwater in the bathroom.” Silco stated and pushed it back again as he stood tall and proud. “I’m a rockstar now.” And he followed up by leaping into the song’s beat drop and thrashing his head up and down with more motion than a cartoon character.

“Woooo! Go for it mini metalhead!” Connol encouraged and jumped in to headbang along with him. Felicia clapped in time, but then decided she’d have a go as well, and soon all 5 of them were bopping along to the track like a little band of their own.

The evening passed all too soon, and there was a collective groan of disappointment when the singer announced, “So to wrap it up for tonight, this is our last song.”

He made a sign of surrender as he strode across the stage, mic in hand. “I don’t make the rules guys! Now we would love nothing more than to stay and play for you, but there is another group coming in next and it’s only fair they have time to set up. Hey, if you’ve got nothing else to do tonight, feel free to stay and check ‘em out. I was lucky enough to hear some of their stuff last time we played here, Colossal Attack, bit different from what you’ve heard from us this evening but really, really cool. So thankyou, wonderful people! You’ve all been amazing. Especially you guys at the front here, you lot are out of this world!”

“He’s talking about us guys!” Connol grinned and jostled the others. “He’s talking about us!”

Felicia put her hands together and yelled up at the stage, “Woo! We love you Imagining Dragons!!”

The singer smiled and pointed at them. “These guys! This last one’s for you! 1… 2… 1,2,3,4!”

The drummer picked up the cue and counted in with his drumsticks, then let loose on the set, followed by the bassist, the guitarist, and finally the vocalist took a swig of his pint he’d had on the side and sang full force into the microphone he held with both hands.

“YEAAAHHH!!” Silco screamed at the top of his lungs and bounced like crazy, his feet barely touching the ground as his jet-black hair flopped around his face in a blur. Connol rivalled him in levels of energy as he shifted from foot to foot and banged his head, punching the air every other beat. Felicia swayed her arms and hips and occasionally added a spin where her dress would fan out in fluid motions, and Benzo and Vander danced behind the other three to shield them from the mosh pit if it got too heavy.

The song dipped before it started building again in the bridge. The group sensed the final chorus coming up, and Silco waved to get their attention. “Guys! This is it! Crowd surf me!”

Vander nodded and stood open and ready to catch him as Silco jumped into his arms, and Vander lifted the smaller boy above his head and Benzo quickly stepped in to catch him. Felicia and Connol joined them, and they manages to flip Silco over and pass him around the crowd like a beach ball. Silco lapped up every minute of it as he glided over everyone else, and even touched the ceiling if he reached upwards. Benzo made sure he got passed back to the front before the end of the song and brought him down again, just in time for all 5 friends to jam out to the final notes together.

“Thankyou!!” The singer cried as the audience erupted into applause and cheering. “Thankyou and goodnight!”

“Holy shit that was so much fun!” Felicia trilled as they left the venue and got on the elevator back to the Upper Lanes. “Like… Connol, I literally can’t thankyou enough for inviting me. For inviting all of us.”

“I told you they were a pretty sick band didn’t I?!” Connol replied as he wrapped an arm around her waist and leaned his head on hers. “But it was even better going with friends.”

“We’re all glad you bought us along Con.” Vander added sincerely. “I wasn’t sure about the place at first, but that turned out to be the best fun I’ve ever had! Definitely gotta go to more gigs from now on.”

“I’ve seen some good ones.” Benzo nudged him. “Remind me to let you know when I next find one and I’ll drag you with me.”

“I will, thanks man. Damn, I really didn’t know what I’ve been missing out on.”

“Hey, bring me with you!” Pleaded Silco. “I fucking love concerts now and I’m gonna go to every one I can find!”

Connol chuckled and held out his fist. “Dude, you killed it on the dancefloor! You’re a natural concert goer. I’ll take ya to some more gigs.”

Silco grinned and fist-bumped him eagerly. “Hell yeah! Do you know any more bands like Imagining Dragons?”

Connol sighed and stroked his chin thoughtfully. “Man, I mean I would’ve loved to stay and see Colossal Attack again, but I gather we’re all pretty exhausted. And it is late. I think Fel’s falling asleep.”

Felicia opened one eye while she rested her head on Connol’s shoulder. “I’m awake, just tired out.”

“Hang on…” Silco said slowly in response to Connol. “…again? You’ve seen Colossal Attack before? And you went to see Imagining Dragons twice before tonight?”

“Yeah.” Connol shrugged like it was obvious. “I like discovering new music, but I also like going back to rewatch artists I’ve seen before. I like keeping up to date with how their sound evolves, and occasionally I find a really cool band just starting out, and it’s a real treat to come back and see how their performance gains more character and energy as they find themselves. I honestly wish I could learn an instrument, but I bet it’s more difficult than it looks. Anyway, yeah. I just love music and music culture and… everything about it really.”

Silco leaned forward with interest. “What other bands have you been to see?”

“Oh damn, loads. Let’s see… Flu Fighters, Arctic Chimpanzees, My Toxic Romance, Fall Down Boy, AB/CD, Metallic, Paraless, System Of An Up, All Time High, Nirvanana, Regal Blood, Coolplay, Purple Floyd, Alison in Chains… but my favourites have gotta be Six Days Grace, Smashing Squashes and the Red Hot Bell Peppers.”

“What?! That’s so many!”

“Most of them I saw play at the place we went to tonight. I’ve travelled around the fissures looking for different venues, but once I found that one I kept coming back. It’s not the prettiest or the biggest space, but there's always shows on and they’ve definitely got the best atmosphere compared to anywhere else.”

“Facts. I wouldn’t mind going there again. One complaint: poor bar service.”

“Did they refuse to serve you because you look… 14?”

“HE SAID I LOOKED 12!!” Silco wailed and leaned back against the elevator wall then sank down to his knees on the floor.

Vander rolled his eyes. “Someone’s being a touch dramatic.”

“You don’t get it Vander!” Silco continued while he flopped sideways until he was leaning on Vander’s leg. “You looked at least 16 when you were my age! You’ve never had the same struggles I do being surrounded with older people who are all taller than you and pass for an age able to do cool things and not get laughed off at the idea of being in a relationship or drinking alcohol but nooooo… I’m just a small, tiny little baby.”

Vander said nothing. He just patted Silco’s head and let him sulk for a bit.

“Well I think you’re by far the coolest 14-year-old I’ve ever met.” Offered Connol without even trying to flatter him. “I’ve never seen someone headbang with that much energy before. Like, ever.”

Silco opened his eyes, slightly more attentive to the compliments.

“In fact, judging from which songs on the set list you were really rocking out to tonight… I bet you’d love Slipperyknot or Nine Inch Needles. They’ve got a bit more of an edge to them if that’s what you like.”

“Hmm. Sounds neat. Take me sometime?”

“Sure. I’ll keep an eye out for when they’re next playing.”

“Nice.”

Silco closed his eyes again and went back to leaning on Vander’s leg. Meanwhile Vander’s face was furrowed in confusion as he sniffed his hand that he’d patted Silco’s head with. It smelled bitter, and vaguely alcoholic.

“Are you sure it was water you drenched your hair in Sil?”

“Uhhh… yeah. Wait- …Ohhh. No, yeah, it was ale. I maaayyyy have snuck around the bar when no one was looking and had one more drink. Only one… or two. -Hiccup!”

“You sly little thing. I’ll never understand how you can be such a sneak.”

“And I’ll, never understand how you can be so…”

Vander waited, but Silco trailed off, apparently forgetting what he was going to say.

“You… gonna finish that sentence? Nope? Ok then.”

The elevator dinged and Vander lifted Silco to his feet as they made their way out and back down the Lanes to Benzo’s shop.

“Got the keys with me.” Benzo checked his pocket chain which indeed still had his loop of keys on it. “You’re all free to crash at my place if you like.”

Felicia yawned and tried to keep her eyes open, though she felt her energy was totally zapped from her time on the dancefloor. “Thankyou Benzo, you’re a saviour.” She half leaned on Connol as they walked she was so tired, and it was beginning to feel cold being outside so late as well. They weren’t too far from the shop, so Connol picked her up in his arms and carried her the rest of the way.

“I’d give you my jacket to wear, if only I’d brought one.”

“It’s fine…” She sighed and rested her head on his chest and closed her eyes. “You’re plenty warm enough.”

“You can have my jacket Felicia.” Silco was quick to offer, only to pat his shoulders and realise he wasn’t wearing one either. “Oh… Nevermind. You can’t have my jacket. I should start wearing jackets.”

As they got further into familiar streets, the nightlife faded away and the roads were quiet and empty. Lined with houses of families and factory workers fast asleep inside.

“Are we there yet?” Silco groaned as he dragged himself along. “My feet are tired.”

“Not far.” Vander replied. “Just a few more roads away. I can carry you if you want.”

Silco stretched himself up and kept a strong face as he made a point of walking ahead of Vander with his hands in his pockets. “I’m not that tired. I feel great actually, like I could walk all the way to the mines and back.”

“If you say so.”

“I do say so.”

“Hey Silco…” Felicia interjected with a quiet yawn. “There’s no shame in admitting you’re tired. It’s been a long night and you were dancing around the most out of all of us. I’m not surprised if your feet hurt.”

“You’re just saying that cuz you have someone to carry you.”

Felicia chuckled. “I think you’re forgetting Vander offered literally a second ago.”

“Did he?” Silco blinked and glanced between Vander and Felicia in confusion. “Well… he could’ve told me.”

Vander rolled his eyes and walked next to Silco in case he wanted someone to lean on. “You really are a strange little guy.”

“Strange- …yes.” Silco hiccupped. “…Drunk? No.”

“I didn’t say you were drunk.”

“…But you were thinking it.” Silco reached up and poked Vander in the cheek. “Boop.”

They reached Benzo’s shop and he unlocked the door, holding it open for the others as they wearily trudged inside. Silco immediately flopped straight onto the ground and exclaimed in relief, “We made it! Thank God… I could fall asleep right here.”

“Oh no you’re not.” Said Benzo and picked him up under his arms. “Not in the middle of the floor.”

Connol sat down against the counter with a yawn and Felicia curled up next to him. “He’s got a point.” He said. “I don’t think I have the energy to walk to another room.”

Vander plonked himself down next to Connol. “Agreed.”

Without protesting, Benzo walked over to the chair in the corner of the room and settled down, kicking off his boots and leaning back against the wall with his eyes closed. “Wake me when it’s morning.”

“It’s already morning.” Vander told him.

“Wake me when it’s afternoon then.”

Vander didn’t fight him on it. Benzo probably needed more than a day’s rest after all. Vander took his sleeveless jacket off, rolled it up into a pillow and stuck it behind his head as he made himself comfy against the shop counter. There wasn’t much space left, so Silco nestled himself between Vander and Connol.

“Pssst… Connol…” Silco whispered.

“Hmm?”

“Thanks for taking us all to the concert, I can’t remember if I said this already, but you’re a really cool guy. I’m happy to admit defeat.”

“Oh, well you’re very welcome. And thanks, but uh… what do you mean admitting defeat?”

“I mean…” Silco began to explain, although his words were lofty as both the alcohol and tiredness had his brain in a bit of a delirious hold. “…you won. Felicia. She likes you back.”

Connol did a bit of a double take. “Wait- …You like Felicia?”

“Not now. Not anymore, but I used to. For a bit… when I was like… 12? So basically forever ago.”

“That was… 2 years ago. Not quite as long as forever, but uh… good to know I guess? Kinda relieved honestly; all this time I thought you hated me for no reason.”

“Whaaat?” Silco drawled in disbelief. “Why, would you think that? I just said you were cool dude… dude, bro… buddy, Con… Con-con man…”

“Eh, when we first met I just remember you constantly making fun of my hair. And then my clothes. And then the way I talked. And somehow the way I drank a glass of water? How do you even do that? Plus you just seemed… I dunno. Grumpy. A lot. Grumpy or teasing someone else.”

“Really? Wow… I didn’t even realise. For the record… your hair is very cool. And also your clothes. And your naturally black nails.”

“It’s nail polish.”

“It’s what?”

“Paint. On my nails. They’re not naturally black.”

“So you have nails the same colour as mine… but you paint them?”

“Yeah.”

“Woah. You learn a new day every day.”

“Uhhh… you mean learn something new every day?”

“Yep. No. Maybe. Whadid I say? Doesn’t matter… we both learned things.”

“We did, and thankyou for trusting me with yours.”

“Yeah well, don’t go blabbing. I told Vander I’d say something about it to her years ago, but I never did, so she still has no idea. But-” He held up one sleepy finger and pointed vaguely at Connol and Felicia sleeping next to him. “…It aaaalll worked out. Thanks, to…me.” Then he pointed at himself, and promptly fell asleep on Connol’s shoulder.

Connol shook his head, a bit confused, but he felt humbled nonetheless. He leant his head back against the surface of the shop counter, and shut his eyes to go to sleep. Benzo snored faintly in the corner, and Vander rolled over and cuddled his makeshift pillow. Felicia rested her head on one Connol's shoulders, Silco on the other. The corners of his lips rested in an upturned smile, and he wrapped one arm around each of them.

Chapter Text

Felicia stirred in her sleep. The sound of shuffling feet and voices from another room gradually woke her up. She yawned and opened her eyes, expecting to find Connol by her side with his arms around her, leaning on his chest as she had been when she fell asleep, listening to the cosy rise and fall of his breath. What she got was a half drunk 14-year-old boy passed out and drooling on her shoulder.

“Ew, Sil! A little personal space?”

She pushed him away and he came to his senses with a start.

“I’m awake! I’m- ...Wait, Fel? Huh?”

“Yes. It’s me. Move over and stop drooling on me please.”

Silco’s cheeks went pink and he quickly wiped his mouth on his shirt sleeve when he realised how he’d been sleeping. Not the most elegant way to wake up.

“Where’d Connol go?” He asked, looking around.

“Wish I knew.” Felicia answered and curled up against the counter, hugging her knees to her chest.

“Sil… Can I ask you something?”

Silco was caught off guard by her earnest tone first thing in the morning, but nodded his head.

“Did you… mean what you said last night? About… liking me?”

Silco’s mind when blank for a moment, and he wondered what she was on about, but then it came back to him. That conversation he’d had with Connol right before he fell asleep, when he was in the headspace of someone who’d drank too much all at once for the first time, moved non-stop at full throttle for hours and then dragged himself all the way back home. Most of his memory was of jamming at the gig, then straight to crashing out next to Connol and Vander upon reaching Benzo’s. But now he thought back to it, he’d definitely had a conversation about his 12-year-old crush on Felicia with none other than her current boyfriend.

“Oh… I… I think so?” He dipped his head in his hand to ease the brain fog of embarrassment. “Sorry... I’m trying to think what exactly it was I said while you were asleep.” It was right as the words left his mouth that he clocked the implications, and his head whipped around to Felicia. “Wait, you were awake? You heard all that?!”

“I was… half-asleep.” She excused. “But, yeah, I did hear what you said about apparently liking me when you were 12. I assumed that was just tipsy Silco talking… but I still wanted to ask. Even though, it sounds like a stupid question, I know.”

Silco watched Felicia avoid her gaze, almost like she was embarrassed to ask in case he’d been making it up. He copied the way she was sitting with her knees up to her chest, and cleared his throat.

“I did like you. For a bit. Nothing super deep, it wasn’t weird or anything, don’t worry. I was just a kid, and you were this slightly older kid I looked up to and thought was really cool. And brave, and funny, and kind. And it felt nice when you noticed me, made me laugh, pushed me to be brave, taught me how to be kind. I admit, it made me want to impress you a bit. It was exciting being the one to make you laugh at my jokes, or teach you new things, or make you feel pretty.”

He spoke with honesty, and hearing that from someone like Silco really touched Felicia. The boy fumbled with his shirt sleeve and glanced around at the floor, feeling tetchy from all this emotional vulnerability so early in the day. He huffed and placed his chin on his knees.

“And I guess it’s drunk Silco’s fault for dropping my filter and spouting that to your boyfriend, even though it’s old news and I’ve been over it for ages and wasn’t going to tell anyone anyway.”

“Well I’m glad you told me. All those wonderful things you just said, they made me really happy. Thanks Sil.”

Silco glanced at her sceptically without taking his head off his knees.

“They did? Really? Like… you’re not grossed out by a sudden belated confession and pissed I didn’t just keep it to myself?”

She put a gentle hand on his shoulder. “Silco, if something’s bothering you it’s never a good idea to keep it to yourself. I’m not judging. I wouldn’t have, even if you told me 2 years ago. Yes, I love Connol, and no, I wasn’t ever interested in you as more than a friend, but that doesn’t make you any less important to me. I still care about you and your little angsty ball of feelings no matter how embarrassing you think they are, that’s what friends are for.”

They held a shared smile, and it felt like the perfect closure.

“Who wants pancakes!” Announced Connol as he burst through the door covered in flour and brandishing a whisk.

Felicia and Silco both stared at him, unsure what to make of the entrance. At least now they knew where he’d been all this time.

“You left me sleeping next to this drool-bag.” She complained while giving Silco a playful shake of the shoulder.

“Be thankful I don’t snore like Vander.” He bantered back.

“Man, I’m sorry Felicia, I really am.” Connol appealed. “As much as I wanted to wake you up with forehead kisses and cosy cuddles, my shoulders were absolutely killing me. Night of rocking out to Imagining Dragons, followed by sleeping against a wooden counter upright with two people sleeping on me on either side? I’ve never heard so many cracks from one spine than I did when I stood up this morning.”

Felicia chuckled and covered her mouth with her hand. “Now I feel like I should be sorry. No worries Con, that’s totally fair.”

“But!- I decided to make it up to you by waking you up with pancakes!”

As he raised the whisk theatrically, Vander emerged from the kitchen also covered in flour.

“Except that Connol is a terrible cook. He managed to burn milk.”

Connol chuckled awkwardly as Vander wiped egg yolk off his forehead. He gave Felicia a shrug and an I tried smile.

Felicia and Silco looked back and forth between the two chefs of polar opposites, and Silco raised his hand in confusion.

“Soo… are there pancakes? …Or aren’t there?”

“There are pancakes.” Confirmed Vander. “Thanks to my resurrection of the operation.” He then produced a plated stack of delicious smelling pancakes and put them on the counter.

“Took us a while to figure out how to work the stove but we got there in the end.” Connol said tiredly and brushed the excess flour off his shirt.

Felicia tilted her head. “Why didn’t you just ask Benzo?”

“We wanted to let him sleep. And by that I mean I think Vander’s scared of waking him up.”

“I said I’d wake him up later!” Vander called from the kitchen as he washed up his hands, and also the entire worksurface. “The guy does enough fixing things for us already, let him sleep.”

Like poking a sleeping dragon, Benzo started to stir from all the commotion around him. As he drew in a snore it stopped halfway, and his eyes twitched open. He sniffed the air.

“Somone making pancakes?”

“Yep! That would be Van and I.” Connol chimed up while he laid plates for all of them.

“Is that so… Vander!” Benzo yelled from his chair to the kitchen. “You didn’t tell me ya were gonna make pancakes! Why didn’tcha wake me up?!”

“Because you said “Oh, wAkE mE Up wHEn it’S AftERnOon VAnDeR!!” You lazy slug!” Vander shouted back at him, even emphasising his annoyance by gesturing a frying pan through the doorway.

“What a way to speak to yer elders. D'ya realise how much time I spend fixing things for you lot around here?” Benzo retorted and crossed his arms.

Vander frowned at him with bothered disappointment. “Really?”

“Relax, I’m just joshing with ya mini-Van!” Benzo chuckled and joined them at the DIY breakfast table they’d ended up with. He gave Vander a clap on the back and admired his breakfast efforts. “You’re doing great. And these pancakes look cracking!”

Vander couldn’t stay mad at Benzo. He was just hangry really, but he shook it off when they sat down together and plated up.

“Alright enough of this tom-foolery. Let’s eat!”

“Let’s eat!” The others all chanted in unison, clinked their forks together above the pancake stack, and tucked in.

Chapter Text

Visiting the Lanes market square at the end of summer was like navigating a beehive. Swarms of unruly teens buzzing in and out of clothing stores to swipe the closing deals of the season, and the heat was at its most unbearable of the year. That’s why Vander, Felicia, Benzo, Silco and Connol collectively decided it would be a better move to go thrifting in early September when the weather was more bearable, and the streets were clearer.

“People don’t realise the best deals only show up in autumn.” Felicia explained while her eyes perused over a shop window of mannequins displaying various tagged discounts. “I see it every year, they withhold all the good summer clothing until the very end, then put it all out at once and announce like it’s this crazy valuable sale! Everyone panic buys and stores are forced to drop their prices come September once the frenzy’s gone and people are looking for winter stuff.”

Connol glanced around the square filled with scuttling teens hounding food stalls or haggling over quirky pieces of jewellery at shopfront tables. Takeaway boxes littered the paving and crows hopped about under benches fighting for leftover crumbs.

“Are you sure everyone else didn’t have the exact same idea as us this time?”

“Trust me Con, this is not busy.” She pushed open the door to the shop that’d caught her eye, and the others followed her in. “One time the Lanes were so crowded we almost lost Sil.”

“You did loose me!” Silco protested from behind. “Right after you said ‘let’s stick together’ at that, but you and Vander had to both get distracted at the same time.”

“We thought you were right behind us.” Answered Vander closing the shop door as the last one in. “It was only when you were yelling at us from up that lamppost that we realised you were missing.”

Silco gave him a sceptical look. “You realise how that makes it sound worse?”

“It was over a year ago Sil! You literally said you were over it that afternoon and it’d be something to joke about later.”

“Yeah. And I’m joking now, chill out Vander.”

The 16-year-old stuck a hand in his pocket, and went back to chewing his lemon ice popsicle while he swaggered off to hunt out band shirts. Vander rolled his eyes and joined Benzo in sifting through the shelves of curious trinkets. He wasn’t quite sure what he was looking for, but the odd collections of objects that didn’t belong together by any logic were interesting enough just to pick up and look at.

On the shop’s second floor, Connol had found the clothing section, and soon Silco came upstairs to find him flicking through a rack of t-shirts.

“Find anything good?”

“A lot of retro stuff…” Connol said not looking up from the rack. “…already seen at least 10 Rolling Pebbles prints, but I was kinda hoping I’d find something new, I’ve already got shirts and patches of all these artists.”

Living in the mining district of the fissures all his life, Connol hadn’t been surrounded with as much of the consumerist trend culture present in the heart of the Lanes and its appeal to the pockets of alternative youth, but that’d never stopped him making himself a part of it. The jacket he wore today was one he’d covered in countless handmade patches and embroidery; names of bands, street artists logos, and a host of other symbols and slogans all referencing different elements of the Undercity’s pop culture.

“Anything I’d like?” Silco asked trying to get a glimpse of the designs. His current outfit consisted of denim black shorts with fraying rips at the knee (because they used to be jeans until he sliced them in half when the weather got too hot), a dark grey tank top displaying a painted album cover of Nine Inch Needles: The Downward Helix, complete with a pair of pocket chains and a thin leather string necklace.

“Hmm… aha! This might be more up your street Sil.” He pulled out a black t-shirt with an image of a menacing red hand reaching out. The design was grainy in a stylistic way (not because the shirt was old) and it didn’t have any writing anywhere. Connol was right, Silco immediately took a liking to it and held the shirt up to his torso to check the sizing.

“Bit big but I can deal with that. Is it a cover of something?”

“It’s System Of An Up’s first self-titled album, I’ve got a patch of the same one somewhere on the back of my jacket.”

“Oh wait, I know those guys, they made Toxic City right? That’s one of my favourite albums!”

“Well let’s see if they have it!”

Connol dug around a few more t-shirt racks in the section that had all the metal bands, and eventually found what he was looking for.

“Here it is!” He produced another black shirt, this time with a square album design showing the side of a mountain with the band name in large white letters propped up against it, and the album title in red in the bottom right corner.

“Sick!” Grinned Silco, putting the popsicle stick between his teeth and holding up the two t-shirts. “Aww… now I can’t choose, I’m tempted to get both of them.” He flipped over the label to scan the price. “No I’m not.” And frankly put both items back on the rack.

“How much is it?” Connol peeked at the tag on the shirt Silco had just put back, and had to read it twice to believe the number. “Fuck, that’s outrageous. The whole point of the music is anti-capitalist!”

“Right?! I’m leaving. Gonna see if the others have found anything worth what it is. Probably haven’t.”

“I’ll come with you.” Connol added, equally disappointed as he followed downstairs. “If you want Sil, I could just make you a custom patch instead of a shirt.”

“Dude, that’d be way cooler. Better yet, could you teach me how you make them?”

“Sure thing. All you need is paint and some spare fabric.”

“I’ve got the off-cuts from these shorts.”

“That’s perfect! If we cut those up you’ll have plenty of material to paint all the designs you want, and then you can stitch them onto anything.”

“You could open your own store in the Lanes: ‘Con’s custom patches!”

Connol laughed, it was a nice idea if he didn’t already have a stable occupation in the mines. “I don’t have that much time on my hands. Besides, turning a hobby into a job would take the fun out of it. Reward for creativity’s either no money or only money.”

Down another flight of stairs, Felicia crouched on some dusty floorboards rummaging through a box of buttons. The tiny plated disks made a satisfying cacophony of sounds as she scooped her fingers through and dropped them back in if they didn’t appeal to her. She sat cross-legged, and was collecting a small pile of mostly wooden or brass buttons in her lap where her skirt draped over her knees. By her side sat a folded stash of fabric scraps she’d picked out of a different box across the room. The basement was more cramped than the ground floor and Felicia hadn’t been sure at first if it was still part of the shop, but there was no signs saying it was employees only, and once she got down the steep creaking stairs that should’ve come with a separate sign just for the tripping hazard, she found a room of open boxes each scrawled in marker with the price per piece of whatever it contained. The place was more like a haberdashery storage, which suited Felicia just fine.

Satisfied with what she’d gathered for her project in mind, she bundled up the buttons, buckles and clasps in the fabric and headed upstairs to pay. As she reached the landing, Connol and Silco came bounding down from the second floor and she gave them a smile.

“Hey you two, what’s upstairs?”

“Nothing worth your time or money.” Silco answered snappily.

“Oh…”

“It’s where they’ve got all the supposed ‘vintage’ clothing.” Connol told her, rather underwhelmed. “But that’s just a label they’ve stuck on everything so they can overprice it.”

“I see…” Felicia bit her lip as she glanced down in thought. It made sense now why the basement was so cheap, they probably weren’t expecting anyone to come in looking to buy scraps, but placing all the new shiny things in the window and the pricey shiny things on the main floors; that was the way to draw in customers who buy what they’re shown. “Sil, can you go get Benzo and Vander? I wanna show you guys something.”

Silco nodded, and in a minute he was back with the others.

“Heard you discovered something of interest Felicia.” Benzo inquired while carefully picking his way down the atrociously steep staircase.

“Nope. I just asked you all down here so I can borrow your pockets.”

As soon as all five of them were in the basement, Felicia started stuffing folded fabric into Benzo’s jacket. She handed Connol and Vander some as well to even it out and make sure no one looked as though they’d shoplifted anything, then to Silco she gave the remaining handful of buttons to hide. Her friends all got the idea and didn’t question it.

“Anything interest you kids upstairs?” The store owner asked pointedly on their way out with a hopeful grin while their fingers drifted toward the cash register.

“Not quite, but thankyou.” Felicia replied with a perfectly innocent smile. “We’re just browsing.”

“So what are you planning to do with all these bits and pieces Felicia?” Vander asked curiously once they were out of the store and heading round the corner to the next string of retail.

“I’m gonna sew pockets into all my dresses and skirts.”

“So you can steal more buttons?” He joked.

“Just cuz it’d be more practical. Though I guess so, if I had pockets in this skirt in the first place I wouldn’t have to rely on you lot just to steal materials to give my skirt pockets.”

Silco frowned and chewed on the same popsicle stick that was starting to splinter now. “Who decided only trousers should have pockets anyway? That’s so stupid.”

“Exactly, it is stupid.” Felicia continued more whimsically. “Whoever designed the industry accepted standard blueprint for everyday dresses, is suppressing our women’s ability to shoplift and have free choice in expression at the same time. Or anyone who prefers to wear dresses while shoplifting for that matter.”

“What if you made a dress made entirely of pockets.”

“That’s genius!” Said Felicia.

“That’s stupid.” Said Benzo.

“That’s… interesting?” Said Vander trying to imagine what that would even look like.

“How is a pocket dress a stupid idea?” Silco scowled at Benzo. “Think of all the stuff you could steal and keep hidden in all the fabric layers.”

“Now think about how often you’d forget what you put in what pocket. It’s impractical that’s what it is.”

“Maybe it’s more of a statement piece.” Suggested Connol. “I see how that could send a message to the manufacturers to include more storage in their clothing for everyone.”

“I like your thinking bozo 3!” Quipped Silco as he flicked aside his popsicle stick and the group made their way into the next store.

“Now this is more like it!” Exclaimed Felicia, brushing through the curtained doorway to the shop and gazing upon the sea of second-hand curiosities overflowing shelves, boxes and rails. Drapes of patterned fabric and beaded string decorated the rough brick walls, and there was even clothing hanging from pipework. The store clerk was an elderly yordle perched atop a very tall barstool behind the counter, presumably to allow her to converse with customers at eye level rather than knee level, and she was calmly focused on stitching repairs to a worn pair of trousers. She didn’t look up from her work when the teen’s entrance set the small bell above the door dinging cheerfully, but her large ears twitched vaguely in their direction.

It wasn’t the biggest store in the world, but everything was so tightly packed into haphazard isles it felt like you could easily get lost, and the whole place had that distinctly vintage smell of exotic musty nostalgia. The young group of friends fanned out to poke around whatever treasures took their interest. For Connol, that meant the box of records next to the display of band posters, Benzo found a table of tools and spare parts that might be of use in the workshop, and Vander browsed a bookshelf while Silco and Felicia explored the clothing racks.

“What do you think of this one Sil?” Felicia asked holding up a slim black high-neck top with red stitching down the sides.

He looked at it with a pensive expression and tilted his head unsurely. “I don’t really know if it's something I'd wear.”

“I meant for me silly!” She laughed and held it up next to her outfit. “It matches my skirt don’t you think?”

For their town outing, Felicia had worn a pleated red and black mini-skirt with added ribbons at the waist, partnered with a white top, black tights and an oversized denim jacket (That Silco guessed was probably Connol’s).

“Oh- …Uh, yeah it matches really well, especially the red accents, those are the perfect shade.” He articulated swiftly to move on from his mistaken assumption. “You think you’ll get it?”

“Hmm, I don’t know… I’m more of a sweetheart neckline kinda gal, though I guess it’s good to try something new.” She took another look at the black and red crop-top and a few others on the same line. Then she stopped as an idyllic sparkle lit up in her eye and she glanced back to Silco. “Hey, you should try it on!”

He stared at her for a few seconds, but it was clear she wasn’t joking. Well… didn’t hurt to try something out of your comfort zone now and then.

“Is there a changing room anywhere?”

“Not sure, I’ll ask.” Felicia said scooping up a few more clothes she’d picked up from the bucket beside the rail, and went over to find the counter.

The owner was keeping a half-eye on the customers from behind her pointed crimson glasses as she stitched away, just to make sure nothing got broken, but thankfully she didn’t feel like this lot were troublemakers. At least not in the ill-intentioned way.

“Excuse me, is there somewhere I could use to try these on?”

She pointed the purple-haired girl in the direction of the changing rooms with a kindly smile and told her to take as much time choosing as she needed. The store wasn’t busy today, and if there was anything she didn’t want she could leave it on the hangers and it’d be put back later.

“Thanks so much!” The purple-haired girl grinned and skipped off with her armful of clothes and accessories.

Suddenly, there was a clattering crash from the other side of the room, and the yordle’s ears pinpointed the sound She immediately got off her stool and waddled over to the bookshelf. One of the young men -the tallest of the group- was hurriedly trying to put back an armful of books that had fallen from a loose shelf, and he glanced over his shoulder rather embarrassed as the store owner approached him.

“Sorry about that, didn’t expect the whole thing to come down on me.”

“No need to apologise dear, are you hurt at all?”

“Me? I’m fine, but I am sorry about your bookshelf. I was just trying to pull one out from this row but they were so tightly packed I probably pulled too hard, and the whole thing collapsed.”

She smiled sympathetically and motioned for him to put the books down. “It’s such an old thing, I’m astonished it’s held together this long. But all things break down eventually, I really should’ve got that loose shelf looked at sooner. Oh well, at least you didn’t have an accident.”

“Heard a crash. What’s Vander done this time?” Benzo strolled up to the commotion with his arms crossed and teased a smile at his friend. Then he took a step closer to inspect the damaged shelf. “Hmm, I could get this fixed up in 10 minutes if I had my tools.”

The yordle’s ears perked up once again and she looked up at the young lad inquisitively.

“What would you need? I might have some in storage if it would be any help.”

“Not much. Hammer, nails and a couple other things. If you’ve got a basic kit I could give it a go.”

“That’d be wonderful if you could! Here, follow me and we’ll see what we can find.” She led the way to the storage unit and Benzo followed. “You’re sure it’s no trouble?”

“No trouble at all. Repairs are sort of what I do. Pop over to Benji’s in the Upper Lanes any time if you need something trading or tinkering.”

“I’ll keep that in mind, thankyou ever so much deary. I take it your name is Benji then?”

“Nah, that was my father.” Benzo explained softly, then glanced upwards and gave a small gesture at nothing in particular. “Rest in peace dad. Anyway, you can call me Benzo.”

Back at the front of the shop, Vander was carefully piling up the dropped books on a coffee table to keep them out the way until there was a better place to put them. As he picked up each one, his eyes scanned over the spines for the book that’d caught his attention in the first place. …There it was! The last one of the lot. A dark red faded cover with a brown leather hardback.

CaPiltal: A Critique of Piltovan Political Economy, by Carol Marx.

Vander blew on it lightly to get the dust off, then opened up the cover, and sat down on the nearest footstool to start reading.

“You nearly done in there Sil?” Felicia called to the other side of the curtain.

“Nearly.”

“Come on, I wanna see!”

“Ok, ok, I’m done.”

He drew back the curtain and the rungs screeched along the rusty rail that crossed the changing room doorway, and Felicia flinched at the grating sound. Then she opened her eyes again, where Silco stood nonchalant one hand in pocket scratching the back of his neck with the other.

“Fits better than I expected.” He said with a mild grin.

“Yeah, it honestly suits you really well!”

“You think so?”

Felicia nodded genuinely, and Silco turned around to take another look in the mirror. He wasn’t sure about the cropped style at first, but the longer he looked the more it grew on him. Proportionally, it made him look taller than he was, and the red accents were definitely his colour.

“So… you just gonna keep staring at yourself or can I use the changing room now?”

“Oh, yeah.”

He stepped aside and Felicia took her clothes with her and shut the curtain, not without forgetting how it squeaked and making herself jump again by accident. In the meantime, Silco wandered deeper into the labyrinth of vintage rails.

The first thing Felicia had picked out were some plain khaki cargo trousers, very similar to ones she already owned; but those were god knows how many years old and rapidly gaining seam tears faster than she could darn them. About time for a new pair. She tried them on and thankfully they fit her well. The selection of tops she’d picked were all nice, but not quite what she was looking for. As she folded them over her arm, she spotted something grey draped over the hook.

“What are you like Sil…” She sighed to herself picking up her friend’s forgotten shirt, then paused as she caught herself in the mirror. “Hmm…”

The very back of the shop seemed like more and more of an endless maze. Connol had been drawn in by the appeal of music posters and was shortly swallowed into a miniature city of old comic books, magazines, records, memorabilia and metal display plates crowding rickety shelves and cupboards all towered on top of each other. Clearly no one visited this place for its collectables judging from the layers of dust that coated everything. Connol brushed off a flaking paper-back titled “Learn guitar in 15 minutes!”, and promptly found his nose itching. He sneezed and held the magazine at arm’s length until the dust cleared a bit. Not because he believed anyone could master an instrument in that time, but he had a flick through anyway, and was pleasantly surprised to see it had some good tips. He left it on top of a box of mini-figurines with half the mind to come back to it later.

Back among the tides of leather and denim, Silco was admiring a rack of jackets as tightly arranged as a pack of cards. He ran his fingers over the sleeves in a row, but didn’t see one in his size. These were all huge things designed for a much larger and taller range of people, heavy and thick with padded shoulders and chunky buckles. Silco thought it a shame they were all the same size, as he rather liked the look of the sturdy hardwearing leather jacket, especially the ones that came with extra studs. With some effort, he tugged one off its hanger and put it on just for fun. The sleeves alone came down to his knees when his arms were by his sides. When he lifted his arms up, the jacket length just flopped off his wrists and hung over his hands like a blanket and looked even more stupid. Perhaps it would fit Benzo.

Silco reached for the hanger to put the bulk of a jacket back where he found it, but before he did, he noticed one of the items had fallen behind the rack. He crouched down and stretched out a thin arm to swipe it off the floor. What he pulled back was another leather jacket; a smaller one in black, cropped short at the waist and with a neat set of 4 gun metal buckles to fasten it. It had a zip as well, and more zip up pockets on the sleeves and chest. Needless to say, it was the coolest jacket Silco had ever seen. Already pacing towards the mirror, he excitedly slipped it on. A perfect fit. Well, an almost perfect fit. The sleeves were still just a little too long for him, so he rolled them up around his elbows and decided he liked that even better.

“There you are silly! I’ve got something to show you!”

“No Felicia, I’ve got something to show you!”

Both kids bounded round the corner at the same time to see each other’s new outfit discoveries. Felicia’s face lit up in admiration, while Silco got smacked in the face with an expression of... confused.

“You’re wearing my shirt!”

Felicia stepped back and posed in her cuffed cargos and Silco’s Nine Inch Needles tank top, which she’d half tucked and left half undone.

“Uh-huh! Dare I say it looks better on me?”

“I wouldn’t say better, but it’s alright actually. But anyway whaddaya think of this jacket I found?” He implored, spinning around and pointing out all the details he liked. “I found it behind all those big stupid boring ones, just as well, someone else might’ve got to it before me!”

“I’m impressed it fits you! If it were me I’d just get one of the oversized ones and cut the sleeves off. It looks epic dude!”

“Thanks! It’s a keeper for sure, thank fuck I didn’t buy the first t-shirt I laid eyes on cuz now I should have enough for this!”

“You have to get it Sil, it was made for you!”

“Hmm, I might not be able to afford the jacket and the top though.”

“Check how much you’ve got. We could always haggle at the till.”

“Yeah. Might take them both off for now then. Can I have my shirt back?”

“Aww but it suits me so well, I feel like I’m doing my own Silco cosplay!”

Silco laughed and shook his head. “Not quite, you’re missing a few things.” He unclipped his pocket chains and attached them to the belt loops on Felicia’s trousers. “There. Much more accurate.”

“Thankyou, hehe! We should go show the others your new jacket!”

“And your me cosplay!”

Just as Felicia was about to dash off and find their friends who were scattered across all corners of the thrift store, Silco caught her and brought her attention back to the changing room.

“Don’t forget your clothes! You’ve left them all here on the back of the door!”

“Oh, right!”

Silco scooped them up to give them back to her, but as he handed over the pleated skirt, Felcia glanced at the red and black crop-top he was still wearing, just as Silco had the exact same passing thought of what if... They locked eyes and immediately knew what the other was thinking.

Felicia drew her hand back with an inquisitive smirk, leaving Silco in the changing room doorway.

“I think you could pull it off.”

After a good knock to one final nail with a rusty hammer, Benzo stepped away from the wooden shelf and gave it a wobble. The thing firmly resisted and stood where it was without so much as a creaking joint.

“All fixed.” The young carpenter proclaimed with a proud smile. “Now to put the books back.”

“Oh don’t bother yourself with the books dear, you’ve been quite a phenomenal help already.” The yordle replied, her gratitude evident in crow’s feet wrinkles around her eyes when she spoke. “Besides, they were arranged in a particular system before that I’d like to keep. Makes things easier when locating something specific.”

“Understood. Glad I could be of service.” He offered a polite bow and went to put away the tool kit she’d leant him.

The store clerk then turned her attention to Vander, who was still seated at the coffee table beside a mountain of books with his nose buried in a red hardback.

“Found something you like there deary?” She asked sweetly. It was so rare that anyone who came in was shopping for books, and even rarer that they ever took interest in reading one beyond skimming a few lines just to place the neglected old collection of paper back in its tomb.

It took a few seconds for Vander to suddenly process he was being addressed, and a few further seconds for him to shake his attention out of the dense grip of the paragraph he was on and back to the real world.

“Oh- …Yes, actually.” He showed her the cover of the book and the others from the pile he’d picked out for later. “Doubt I’ll finish them all today, but maybe I’ll come back.”

The yordle adjusted her glasses as she leaned forward to inspect the volume. “Ahhh… So you’ve discovered Carol Marx’s work. That one’s a good read mind you, a very respectable choice.”

“You’ve read it before?”

“Start to finish, many times. It can feel a little heavy in parts but… I do feel Miss Marx had a great deal of insight into the functions of our society, in a way many of us do not ever even consider the lengths of research and observation needed to understand the depth to which we are unaware of our own lives in the bigger picture. You’ll finish that book a changed person.”

Vander stared at the neatly bound weighty book in his hand. He was about to fold the page corner to mark it, but even that now felt like a disrespect to the book somehow. Perhaps it was silly, but as he smoothed his thumb over the faded crimson canvas, closing the book, he imagined what it would be like to spend months paralysed on a tightly packed bookshelf, gathering dust and mould while silently watching hundreds of people passing by, straight for the clothing lines and game boxes. It seemed a sad existence for an object that’d already drawn him into its flowing pages of new ideas.

“I’ll buy it.”

Happy with his purchase, Vander wandered through the rest of the shop to round up his friends, aware that if they wanted time to look around the rest of the market square they should think about making a move. Finding his way to the back of the clothing isle, he spotted Felicia styling a hat in front of the mirror just outside the changing rooms.

“Heya Fel, how’s your shopping going?”

“It’s been pretty good.” She replied, tucking her hair into the sides of the motheaten grey beanie she was sporting. “But if you wanna talk to Fel, she’s occupied right now.”

“Uhh… what?” Vander felt a bit baffled by that response, and waited around for her to finish whatever she was trying to do with the hat, but when Felicia didn’t add any further comment, he glanced around thinking of going to find the others first. “Silco was with you, wasn’t he?”

“Whaddaya mean?” Felicia finished adjusting the hat so her hair looked like it was far shorter than its natural length, and spun to face Vander with an impish grin. “I’m Silco dummy.”

Now Vander was even more baffled. It was only when the changing room curtain screeched back and Silco -the real Silco- posed against the wall in what Vander recognised clearly as Felicia’s skirt, did their little game make sense.

“And Felicia’s right here!” He announced ceremoniously. Vander’s eye flitted back and forth between the two of them, and noticed real Felicia was also wearing Silco’s Nine Inch Needles shirt.

“Hey I don’t sound like that!” real Felicia laughed as pretend Felicia introduced himself in the new outfit.

“Well I’m sorry, but if I actually tried to imitate your voice it would only sound more insulting.”

“-It would only sound more insulting.” Pretend Silco copied in an attempt to mimic real Silco’s own voice.

“Ok, I do not sound like that.”

“-I do not sound like that!”

Silco quickly gave up the verbal comebacks if they were only going to be parroted, so he hissed at Felicia. And she hissed back of course. Silco crossed his arms and stood leaning to one side with a silent pout. The whole time Vander was giggling at their antics and forgetting what he was going to say next every time he watched one of his best friends impersonate the other so poorly.

“Congrats Fel, you might be the first person to find a way to get Sil to shut up for once.”

“Oh you shuttup Vander!”

“See. I can’t do it. I just get that every time.”

Felcia chuckled and gently nudged Silco’s shoulder. “Yeah you’re not doing a great job at being me right now, although you look the part! If your hair was only a little longer I'd offer to braid it for you and really capture the Felicia look.”

Silco shrugged and faced the mirror again, he hadn’t really had a good look yet at the skirt and top together, and they both fitted him… not as unflatteringly as he’d expected. In fact… there was something almost rather liberating about it.

“The jacket looks cool!.” Vander noted, interrupting his train of thought. "I don’t think I could ever pull off the cropped style but you wear it really well.”

“Very punk rock!” Came a fourth voice from behind them. Connol joined the little group from the other side of the shop that seemed to stretch off into clustered shelves of crowded nothingness. “You too Fel, never thought I’d see you with your hair short!”

“Yeah, you could totally pass as a boy if you wanted.” Teased Silco.

Laughing at the idea, Felicia put her hands in her pockets and leaned towards Connol. “Would you still go out with me if I was your boyfriend?”

Connol put an arm around her shoulder and smiled. “Well you’d still be the Felicia I fell in love with, of course I’d still date you.”

“Aww, you’re too sweet honey! What if I was a cave bat? Would you still love me if I was a cave bat?”

“Uhhh… in this random hypothetical am I also a cave bat?”

“Sure, why not.”

“Then yes.”

“Imagine that: little fluffy bat partners! Adorable! What would your bat name be? I could be …Eek, and you could be Squeak!”

Connol couldn’t help but laugh, this girl was too damn adorable.

“But at the end of it, I’m happy as I am. Just a girl named Felicia happy to have a boy named Connol.”

Silco rolled his eyes despite smiling warmly at the young couple. “Why you guys gotta be so stinkin’ cute all the time?”

Felicia shrugged off the question. “I’m sure you’ll get it one day.”

“Tsk- No thanks.”

“Do you guys wanna get the things you’re buying?” Vander interjected before they got off track again. “I’ll go see where Benzo’s got to then we can head off and get something for lunch.”

“Sounds good Van.”

The camera came in a stained leather satchel bag; square and well-crafted, but rather ropey around the joints. It opened with a stiff pop of the chrome fastener, and Benzo propped the case on an overturned cardboard box while he examined the device for a power button.

“There you are mate, we’re off once the others have made their purchases.”

Putting the camera back uninvested, Benzo turned to the friendly hand on his shoulder. He noticed the books Vander was carrying, and twitched a faint smile. “You’ll have to tell me if either of those are a good read.”

“I already said I’d lend Silco this one while I’m reading CaPiltal…” He held up the second volume he'd founnd with a similar cover to the first, but this one in mottled dark green with the title reading The State and Revolution by Valerie Lenin. “…so you’ll have to wait until one of us has finished I’m afraid.”

“Yo! Is that an old retro camera?!” Without thinking Felicia piled the clothes she’d just bought into Silco’s arms and made a dash for the item Benzo had walked away from. “Look at that! What a find!”

Benzo gave a nonchalant shrug. “Would be if it turned on.”

Felicia hummed thoughtfully as she turned it over in her hands. “Hmm… I think it just needs-”

-Click!

A compartment in the underside snapped open, and after some further meddling, Felicia pointed the camera at Connol, pushed a button… and the little machine chugged out the sound of a rapid snapshot.

“It works!”

“Eh? How’d you do that?”

“Simple. Batteries were in the wrong way.” She pulled Connol to her side for another photo, and both posed as she held the now functional camera at arm’s length. Connol leaned his head against hers and smiled for the -click!-whirrrr- as the mirror inside the tiny box flipped up to expose the film inside.

“Cool! C’mon Fel let the rest of us have a turn!” Silco hurried for somewhere to temporarily leave their shopping haul (which ended up being Benzo) as Felicia handed the camera over. The eager teen scrabbled around for the best angle to capture himself, and pressed the shoot button a couple times until Vander photobombed pulling a stupid face from behind.

“Hey! You’re ruining my model shoot.”

“Am not. You’re the one hogging all the film. We don’t know how much is in that thing y’know.”

“Good point. Guess we’ll have to buy it so we have an excuse to take more pictures!” Silco decided, before pulling an even stupider face than Vander to immortalise forever.

“I can pay for it.” Offered Benzo. “I haven’t bought anything today but if you guys are having fun with that I’m happy to get it for you.”

“You don’t have to do that Ben, if anything Silco should pay for it just to make up for running down the whole film roll.” Vander said eyeing his smaller friend who was now setting up the camera on the box and posing back-to-back with Felicia like they were on the cover of a magazine.

“Nah I already blew all my money on the jacket.”

“Course you did.”

“Don’t sweat it mini-Van. I’ll buy the camera, so long as those two let me have a chance to use it.” Taking the pile of clothes and books from Vander, Benzo swiped up the camera case to show the cashier. “And I’ll find a bag for these while I’m at it.”

At the front desk, the yordle looked up from her sewing project and reached behind the counter for a large brown paper bag to give the young man, and threw in some extra film with the camera purchase as a thankyou for fixing the bookshelf.

Benzo then packed away everything except the leather satchel case. “Actually… can I ask you a favour?”

“Ok… wonderful, now everyone say… The Lanes!”

Standing atop her tall chair behind the counter, the storeowner held the viewfinder up to her eye and waited until all the subjects were in frame.

“The Lanes!!”

-Click!-

“Got it! Here you are dearies.”

“Thankyou ma’am!” Smiled the purple-haired girl taking the camera back and carefully slotting it into its case. “And for all your help today, we definitely didn’t expect to stay as long as we have!” Then she faced her boyfriend and gave him a gentle nudge with her shoulder. “Hey hon, you do know we’re not posing anymore.”

When Connol didn’t snap out of it, she followed his line of sight, still targeted on the wall behind the counter, just above where the lady had been standing.

“Is that a real guitar?”

Connol nodded, his sapphire eyes still fixated on the instrument hung on its rusty wall stand, caked in dust clumps and cobwebs. The wooden body had scratches eroded into its varnish and patches of discolouration from sun bleach stains; the strings were as wiry as dead cat’s whiskers, and untouched as an urn. The only detail of personalisation to it was a darkened etching in the bottom left corner of the grain; a small design of a wolf’s head bearing its fangs. Other than that, it was a lonely canvas of ignored silence blending into the brick wall behind the shop’s loud displays.

“I can’t believe I didn’t notice it on my way in… what a beautiful thing…” His attention suddenly flicked to the paper bag Benzo was carrying and without waiting ask if he could look for what he had in mind, went straight to rummaging through the bag until he dug out that fraying paper magazine. He’d settled on giving it a read to see what he could learn, once again resting on the dream of one day owning his own guitar to practice with even if it seemed that day would be a long time coming if it ever was. Magazine in practically shaking hand, he hopped up and leaned on the front desk pointing up at the item on the wall. “How much?”

The yordle’s ears pricked up and she glanced behind her to check what the boy was gesturing at. A smile of delight lined her face when she spotted the guitar.

“Oh that old thing? I’ve been trying to sell it for years! Thought it’d go like the wind, but no one seems to want something that looks so second hand. Or they just assume it’s up for display. I should’ve known hanging it up wouldn’t make a spot of difference, but I couldn’t bring myself to shove it in the back corner among all the tat where you found that magazine. The man who donated it was a lovely chap, very sincere when he asked me to ensure it “finds a good home”. And since you asked…”

Connol’s jaw dropped when she named her price, and before the others could hop in with imploring him to get it on the spot he was snatching the cash out his wallet and slamming it down on the countertop.

“Done!”

Walking out of that shop was a feeling unlike any other. The moment the old acoustic fell into his hold with its musty lightweight frame and echoing frets, Connol knew he couldn’t put it down. He strummed out a single basic chord he’d seen a million times and listened to the twang of warm vibrations that protruded from the strings. It was horrendously out of tune, but that was no surprise. He’d have time to study it properly when he got back home could focus without buzzing with as much excitement as he was now.

“You’ve got to give us a show when you’ve learnt something on it!” Pleaded Felicia skipping by his side as the group headed back to the market square.

“I’ve already got a couple songs in mind.”

“Can I guess?”

“Maybe I’d rather surprise you.”

“Works for me. I’m sure whatever you decide to play will sound beautiful.”

“I think surprises are over-rated.” Silco interrupted walking between them. “Why would you wanna be left in the dark about something everyone else is in on?”

“But what if the surprise is fun?” Connol argued light-heartedly.

“Yeah but what if it’s not. What if it’s a bad surprise? Like those over-priced band shirts.”

“Ok, but people don’t usually do bad surprises, that’s kinda the point.”

“That’s what I’m saying though! If you don’t know, you can’t be sure.”

Felicia smirked and leaned an arm on her shorter friend’s shoulder. “Is this your go at being all mysterious and philosophical Sil? Cuz guess what.”

“What?”

“Your favourite street food truck showed up today.” She announced pointing across the square to the lunch market corner.

“Where?! Oh hell yeah!!”

“Good surprise huh.”

“Hardly, you just pointed it out for me. I coulda spotted that if I looked up instead of talking to you. What was the best surprise of today was the look on Vander’s face when he realised we swapped clothes.”

“Hehe yeah, that was pretty funny.”

“My favourite bit of today was the discounts.” Benzo cheered holding up the camera and trying to copy how Silco was angling it earlier to get a selfie in front of the skyline. “Nothing better that free stuff!” -Click!- “Hmm… probably gonna need that extra film before I figure out how to work this thing.”

“I think it’s safe to say Connol nabbed the best bargain.” Felicia smiled.

“For sure.” Agreed Vander.

“I dunno guys, I think this jacket was a pretty sick buy.”

“Silco, you spent all your money on that thing.”

“It’s an investment piece Vander! I’ll grow into it, and it’ll last me a lifetime, maybe two.”

“How does that make sense? We’ve only got one lifetime.”

“I mean… we don’t know that.” Shrugged Connol as he fiddled with the tuning pegs best he could while they walked. “There could be other lives, or timelines... like different strings on the same guitar. It’s not like you can disprove it. Who knows, maybe we were all cave bats in a past life.”

Vander sighed in half confused admiration. “I dunno how you can talk about all that cosmic theory metaphor stuff so casually. Like, doesn’t the uncertainty of it all bother you? Even a little?”

“Not really. Maybe I’m the weird one for saying this, but I find it comforting. If there’s something beyond the concreate world, then there’s a reason for the things life can’t explain, even if I don’t know what that reason is.”

“You mean… like when stuff happens that seems too good or too tragic to be true and people tend to say ‘it must be fate’ or something similar?”

“Yeah, I guess it is a bit like that. Plus I just think it’s more interesting to contemplate what else could be out there y’know?”

“Like ghosts!” Quipped Felicia. “Say what you want but I for sure think ghosts are real.”

“They could be. My point is: when there’s no way we’ll ever know what’s beyond this life as it is in this present moment, then there’s no use in stressing over what’s out of your control, and no harm in wondering.”

Silco shivered and shook his head. “Eugh… I’ll never understand what’s comforting about letting future control you, feels like it should be the other way around. Gives me the jeebies.”

“Each to their own.”

"Yeah." Felicia agreed softly. "Whatever you belive in, it's all just a better reason to keep living the best life you can while you're here right?"

Silco sighed uncomfortably. “You're right. But still, I definitely don’t like the thought that what I know isn’t true. For example: I know exactly what I’m gonna get for lunch, and because I saw someone just walk away with the same order, I know they’ve got it in stock, and I know I’m gonna eat every last bite!” With that, Silco dashed up to the truck counter leaving the others without much choice but to follow him.

Just as he’d predicted, it was the best street food in town, and all five friends enjoyed their lunch in hungry quiet while squeezed onto a side bench where they could watch life in the square go by. Benzo and Vander on either end, Connol in the middle with Felicia on his lap, and Silco perched on the back of the bench propping his feet on the arm next to Vander.

“Talk about appreciating the moment; burgers over existentialism any day.”

Chapter Text

“Vander.”

“Here.”

“Connol.”

“Yep.”

“Felicia.”

“Here!”

“Silco.”

Silence. The supervisor peered up from his daily register and glanced over the sea of helmet capped heads from his vantage point atop the pallet pile. A few faces glanced at each other, but none spoke up. The supervisor grumbled under his breath. Trust the newcomers to be late.

“Silco!”

“Here! I’m here…” Called an out of breath voice from the back as the newcomer hurried down the steps to join the rest of the group. The supervisor directed them a sharp glare, but determined not to waste any more time, he carried on with the register and brief of today's mining plot.

“Not the smartest move to be late on your first day Sil.” Vander whispered behind his palm.

“Yeah, yeah… I’m not used to being kept on a schedule. Just the first day though, that’s understandable right?”

“Wouldn’t push it. Things run a bit differently down here and you might just have to learn to take orders. Hard as that might be for you.”

“But don’t worry about it.” Felicia chipped in and elbowed him gently. “Me, Van and Connol have been here long enough to show you the ropes!”

“Felicia!” The supervisor interrupted as the friends reached the cave entrance. “Now’s not the time for small talk. Newcomers will get their own tuition. You focus on your job.”

“Right. Sorry.” She gave Silco a small apologetic smile as she and Vander secured their helmets and readied their tools before walking ahead. Silco was about to do the same, but a large forearm stopped him before he could even put his helmet on.

“Excuse me Miss, if your hair's below your shoulders it’s against regulations. Tie it up.”

Silco looked behind him, but was the last one lagging behind the group, and then he realised the supervisor was in fact talking to him.

“It’s Sir, actually.” He countered, placing a hand on his hip with an offended tone.

“No. Sir is what you address me as. Now can you take a simple order or not?”

Silco opened his mouth to argue back and point out that actually, no he couldn’t because he had nothing to keep his hair back with, but then Felicia noticed the commotion and ran back to mediate. “It’s ok Sil! Here, I’ve got a spare hair tie you can use.”

She took the band of elastic off her wrist and Silco used it to string up his wavy black hair in a low messy bun, then topped his helmet and followed Felicia. Not without giving the supervisor a sharp glare of his own.

“What are you like Sil? Just got here and you’re already making enemies, I don’t know how you do it.” Felicia joked as they marched their way through the laid-out routes to get to the current mining plot the group was working on.

“Feel like I haven’t been this far down the mines since we were kids.” Silco contemplated aloud as they trekked further underground and the pathways got steeper and more irregular, tunnels scoping out into natural rock formations and crevices meeting man-made chips in the walls. “I forgot just how spooky it is down here.”

“Tell me about it.” Vander huffed. “Like I haven’t heard that every time we get a new recruit. Don’t start complaining now, you get used to it, I promise.”

“Who said I was complaining?” Silco taunted with a faint grin on his face. “Reminds me of all those little adventure stories we used to tell about going caving and finding weird creatures or walls of solid gold. Not that I still believe in any of that of course, but the caves themselves still have an alluring sense of mystery, don’t they?”

“Not when you’ve been working in them for 5 years.”

“Damn. Lotta experience Van.” Silco hopped from one surface of rock down to the one below, where Vander was kneeling to set up their equipment. He looked up to see Silco holding out his pickaxe in one hand, his other fist placed confidently on his hip. “I know that grouchy supervisor said he’d be the one teaching me what’s what, but I’ve already been misgendered and talked down to and I’ve decided I don’t like him. Show me the ropes would you?”

5 hours of work later, and Silco was beginning to understand Vander’s boredom at the monotony of doing this for 5 years. He knew he’d been hyping himself up, but he was still hoping the novelty would take its sweet time to wear off. Or maybe it had more to do with how everyone else went about their jobs with a seeming effortlessness. Which also made sense, given they’d been doing this for months or years longer and the life of short hole mining was second nature to them. Vander had given him tips and a quick demonstration of the most efficient way to swing a pickaxe, but it was taking Silco a while to get the hang of.

He paused to take a drink of water from his flask, and lazily glanced around the cave as the other miners badgered away without complaint. They didn’t seem to stop, and it made him feel a bit useless for taking so many breaks.

All the same, Silco knew he should avoid comparing himself. It wasn’t productive for a start. He’d work his way up; maybe get in the habit of practicing some stretches or workouts to build up his strength and stamina. He held the pickaxe’s wooden handle in his clammy grip, and flexed his fingers building up the nerve to get back to work. Facing the wall again, he stared at what felt like exactly the same chunk of rock he’d been hammering away at since before lunch. He stood his ground for a minute, indecisive, but couldn’t bring himself to make another chip at it.

“I need a change of scene.” Silco muttered to himself and glanced at the next tunnel over. It was within the boundries of their plot, but no one was working there, though it looked like some excavation had been started on an area around the corner.

The strict march of heavy boots approached his side of the cave, and Silco quickly returned his stare to the rock clump in front of him as the supervisor made his rounds to check on everyone’s progress. The man walked like an elephant but had the presence of a hawk. He stopped at a few miners working across from Silco and harshly reminded them they needed to put excavated products in a separate pile to go straight to the mine carts, not leaving ‘waste piles strewn about like kicked sandcastles’. He narrowed his eyes in Silco’s direction, probably trying to think what he could tell him off for. But what he saw was just a hardworking new miner putting his back into it, so he couldn’t afford to criticise him for slacking right now.

“When you have something to deposit, the nearest cart is down the east tunnel.”

And with that comment he left Silco and headed back down to the other end of the cave. Silco waited, watching from the corner of his eye until the supervisor was completely out of sight, dropped his pickaxe and then himself on the ground and let out a relived sigh. He leaned against the very rock face he’d been mining at, and took off his helmet for the first time since entering the caves, just for a minute to re-tie his hair as some of it had come loose. He touched his forehead and grimaced at how sweaty it was.

“First day’s always the hardest.” Said a familiar gruff voice that came and sat next to him. Vander unclipped his hip flask and offered it to Silco. “Here, I figured you might want a pickup if things got tough.”

Silco took the flask from him and raised it to his nose. It smelt of whiskey. His favourite kind at that. He took a gleeful swig, and the potent liquid warmed his throat and gave him a buzz that trickled all the way down into his stomach.

 “You snuck this in just for me?” Silco questioned with a cheerful smirk as he passed the flask back to Vander. After a few more gulps of course.

Vander nodded. “Don’t go getting me in trouble now.” He took a drink then screwed the cap back on the flask and stood up with his pickaxe in hand. “I’m gonna head back to work, come find me if you want any help with anything.”

“Sure, uh… actually I was thinking of going over to that tunnel in the corner there. Doesn’t look like anyone else has been working on it.”

“Hmm. Sounds good, let me know if you find anything.”

“Will do.” Silco said with a stretch as he rose up and cracked his knuckles ready to get back to it.

The side tunnel wasn’t lit, so Silco picked up a lantern and placed it a few feet away from the new spot he’d found. He planted his feet, raised his pickaxe, brought it down onto a dig into the rocks… and the metal arc went straight through, crumbled the surrounding wall and opened up a hole to another layer of caverns, bringing Silco along with it.

Silco let out a startled wail as the momentum of his swing carried him forward and he stumbled over the edge and slid down a steep slope of slippery gravel into a dark pit of unknown. He fell onto his stomach, but the fall was long enough for him to angle himself onto his back before he reached the bottom and he got his feet facing down just in time. As his heels dragged rubble, he grasped at any spires or ledges to slow his fall, but couldn’t see what he was reaching for and nothing graced his hands. The slope then levelled out quite suddenly, and he crashed into another wall of rock, followed by a few rolling chunks of stone that battered him on their way down.

He lifted his head and rubbed his shoulder that had taken the brunt of the impact. He felt dazed from the shock of how fast it all happened, but otherwise not too bad. He could stand up fine and wasn’t particularly injured, though the only light he had was coming from the hole he’d fallen down, now several meters above him.

“For fuck’s sake.” Silco cursed and tapped around his helmet to turn on his headtorch, but it was broken and only gave a lifeless flicker before it died. Perfect. Just what he needed.

“Silco!” Boomed a voice from above him. Silco looked up and saw Vander leaning worriedly over the entrance to the cave landslide. “You ok?!”

“I’m alright Vander!” He called back and waved so his friend could pinpoint where he was. “But I don’t think I can get out the same way, the slope’s too steep!”

“I’ll come down and help you!”

“Don’t you dare, you’ll only get us both stuck down here!”

That shut him up. Silco put a hand on his chin as he thought hard about what to do. He surveyed the area he’d ended up in now that his eyes were adjusting to the darkness of the cave. He was in a low hollow cavern that stretched out quite far, with strings of rock between the floor and ceiling making the whole thing look precariously held up. On the other side of the opening, the cave narrowed back into a slit wide enough for a small human.

“Stay there! I’ll go get some help!” Vander yelled at him from the top.

“Actually I think I’m gonna have a quick look around, see if there’s any other way out!”

Vander hesitated, not liking the sound of that idea. “Ok… just, don’t get lost!”

“I won’t.”

“Wait! If you’re gonna explore take this!” Vander rummaged around in his coat pocket and pulled out a long line of rolled string. He started unravelling one end and fed it down to Silco while he held onto the main spool. “Tie it around your wrist or something and I’ll keep hold of this end so you can find your way back!”

Silco caught the end of the string and shrugged, doubting it would be long enough for him to explore very far but he took Vander’s suggestion anyhow. Fastening the string around his left wrist, he started making his way deeper into the caves. As he got further from the only light source, he felt around his leather jacket’s inside breast pocket, and was relived to find his cigarette lighter. He struck the flint down and a baby orange flame flared to life. It wasn’t much, but the fluid was still half full and at least now he could see what was in front of him.

The young miner followed the allure of the unexplored caves into further uncharted crevices of shadowy scarred rock and dripping echoes. In the minimal blare of his lighter, the cave systems looked a very different place. The shifts in light made his surroundings appear to flicker like burnt claws crawling up the walls. Spooky…

He reached the other end where the cavern closed around him again and drew towards a slimmer opening. Silco stepped forward to get a better look, and held up the lighter flame to the inside of the cave. His eyes widened to see a sprinkle of glittering sheen reflecting off the rocks' surface. Leaning in, he peered down the gap and it looked like it widened out again just a few meters ahead. He glanced at the string on his wrist, then back at the cave. It wasn’t going to be long enough.

After a moment’s consideration, Silco untied the string and secured it  under a loose stone, then he sucked in his stomach and shimmied sideways through the rock crevice. It looked more narrow from the outside, but Silco was slimmer and managed to flexibly manoeuvre himself through. He successfully squeezed into the next cave and the space was eventually wide enough to stand in and take a full breath of still air. Although the ceiling was much lower here and Silco had to crouch a bit.

Having let his lighter go out while getting through the gap, he flicked it back on and the small flame illuminated a sight that made Silco’s jaw drop.

“…Holy shit-”

The curving walls around him shone with jagged metallic bulbs and shimmering veins of russet and green streaking through the cracks. This entire cave was copper ore. Silco couldn’t believe his luck, he started laughing out loud, then straight away turned around to race back and tell the others.

Vander waited patiently by the collapsed mine, until he felt a tug on the string in his hands. He instantly craned over the landscape beneath in search for his friend.

“Hey! You’re not dead!”

He exclaimed with a grin to see Silco standing at the bottom unscathed and waving a hand with the rest of the string bundled in it.

“You’ll never guess what I discovered! A whole new copper mine!”

“You what?! You’re pulling my leg Sil!”

“I’m not! I swear it, we’ve gotta get the higher ups to check it out!”

Vander glanced behind him at Connol and Felicia who’d been listening in, and they all shared a bewildered but joyful smile. Felicia passed Vander the length of rope she’d ran to get from storage, and he threw half of it down to Silco.

“How about we get you out of there first?”

His kindly smile shone down on Silco who reflected the sentiment without a thought. He secured the rope firmly around his waist, looping it through his belt as well just in case. He gave Vander a thumbs up, and his friend began to pull the rope from the other end while Silco traversed the short cliff using footholds and rivets in the stone to help him where he could.

As he got closer to the top, he reached for Vander’s outstretched hand… but lost his footing on a loose ledge at the last second. The rope slipped in Vander’s grasp and dropped Silco a few feet down, before sharply catching him as the rope tightened around his waist and getting caught in his belt loop.

“Gah!-” Yelped Silco as he was suddenly winded, but he quickly steadied himself flat against the wall and held on with trembling fingers, while his heart was racing from the adrenaline. He looked up to see Vander leaning halfway down the hole on his stomach holding the rope in both hands, Felicia and Connol behind him holding onto the man to stop him falling.

“Thought we lost you there for a sec.” Vander huffed breathlessly. Then he glanced over his shoulder at the other two. “You guys got the rope?”

Felicia nodded, and she and Connol showed that they had the rope wrapped around one hand each and were still holding onto Vander with the other.

“Got the rope and we got you Van!”

Assured he wasn’t going to plummet down with him, Vander let go of the rope to reach both arms for Silco.

Silco leapt from the rockface and seized Vander’s forearms with both hands, and Vander held onto his, then the older man used his strength to winch the other out of the cave. In one momentous swoop Silco was hauled upwards as Felicia and Connol helped pull the two of them back from the edge. Vander kept hold of Silco’s slim shoulders even as he tilted backwards and lost his balance, landing on his back with Silco on his chest still clutching Vander’s forearms.

“I got you Sil, I got you.” He assured, mostly to himself.

Silco smiled at him gratefully, but quickly realised some of the other workers were staring and giving them judgy looks.

“Thanks Vander, but you can let go of me now.”

Vander chuckled and did as he was told. They sat up next to each other and Vander ruffled Silco’s hair with a boisterous affection then plonked his helmet back on his head.

“Sorry, I’m just glad you didn’t get crushed or impaled. But instead you’ve landed us all a jackpot! And on your first day no less!”

“Exactly! Dude you’re like a good luck charm wherever we go!” Connol chipped in and patted Silco on the back. “We should all go get a drink tonight to celebrate!”

The pub was surprisingly crowded for a Monday evening, but the four friends managed to squeeze in an order and find space at the bar to hang out.

“Another round please!” Felicia waved at the bartender.

“Calm down, we’re not millionaires just yet.” Joked Silco as he sipped his beer.

“Maybe not, but you don’t just stumble across an ore body like that every day.” Connol argued. “And I’ve lived by those mines my whole life, I should know what I’m talking about.”

“Crazy as it sounds, you found treasure in the mines Sil!” Vander laughed. “Just like we joked about as kids! I can only hope one day the rest of us find our own.”

“Already found mine!” Cooed Felicia as she leaned an arm on Connol’s shoulder and gave him a peck on the cheek, making him blush a little.

Vander clapped Silco on the back while the younger cooly shrugged off all the attention. “I hate to say it but I’m kinda glad you fell down that hole if it means we double our wages.” He bantered.

Silco elbowed him in retaliation. “Perhaps next time I’ll push you down an open mineshaft to see if you find anything.”

“You wouldn’t.”

“I would.”

“Wouldn’t.”

“Would.”

Vander tilted his head, playfully trying to appeal to Silco’s softer side. “I trust you’d at least help me up though?”

Silco narrowed his eyes at him with a villainous smirk. “Hmmm… depends how much of a bitch I feel like that day.”

“I’ll play it safe and take that to mean you’ve always got my back.” He grinned and ruffled his little friend’s hair again, loosening a few of the long black strands from his messy bun.

Felicia took notice and pointed to him. “Hey, you kept your hair up!”

Silco stared at her for a second, then realised what she was talking about and vaguely touched the side of his head.

“Huh, s’pose I just forgot to take it out. Did you want your hair tie back?” He asked, already reaching to undo his hair.

“No, no, you keep it.” She motioned for him not to bother. “You’ll only need it again. Plus, your hair looks cute like that! Why not wear it up more often?”

Silco chuckled and remarked “I’m starting to look more like you.”

“And what’s wrong with that?” She grinned with an impish wink.

“It’s not entirely similar.” Vander butted in and lightly flicked a rogue lock of Silco’s hair dangling over his left eye. “What up with this?”

Silco sighed defeatedly and tucked it behind his ear. “It’s just that one bit of hair that’s too short to tie back, it just keeps falling out no matter what I do.”

“Well I think it’s cool.” Vander shrugged casually and glugged down the last of his drink.

Silco looked into the bottom of his empty tin mug, and after a few seconds thought, he smiled and untucked the loose strand from behind his ear.

Chapter Text

Vander lugged his heavy overcoat off his shoulders and hung it up in his quarters. He dropped his pickaxe and helmet on the floor and trudged his way up to the surface, squinting as his eyes adjusted to the spring evening light after being underground for so long. Like a mole resurfacing after winter.

“Vander!” A voice called ahead of him, followed by a beckoning leather gloved hand.

Silco waited at the back of the group for his friend, just behind Connol and Felicia who were chatting amongst the two of them.

“We’re gonna get dinner at Jericho’s, wanna come?”

“Uhh.. I dunno Sil, I’m-”

“Not working overtime for the first evening this week?” Silco asked giving him the side eye. “Come on Vander, it’s been forever since you spent some time with us. What else could you possibly have on schedule for a Friday night?”

Vander sniffed and took a moment to fish a scrap of tissue from his pocket and wipe the crusted dirt and grain dusted residue from his face. “I was planning on heading home, collapsing on my bed and sleeping until the weekend’s over.”

The other man raised an eyebrow and exchanged a more sympathetic stare. He was trying to keep things light-hearted, but in truth, he was worried for his friend. As of late he noticed Vander took more and more extra hours, avoided days off like the plague even when he said he felt like he was sick with it, and became increasingly obsessive over counting up his wages. Silco hadn’t wanted to say anything, but this was going too far now.

“Hey.”

He put a hand on Vander’s shoulder, stopping them for a moment while the rest of the group walked on ahead. He stepped in front of him and looked him in his cloudy downcast eyes.

“I’ve never seen you this exhausted. Something’s up, talk to me.”

Vander breathed out a long sigh, then put his hand on Silco’s.

“I wasn’t going to tell you just yet, but you’re right. And actually, I wanted to catch you, Fel and Con all at once so… fine, I’ll tag along to Jericho’s.”

“No you won’t be tagging along, you’re one of us, remember?”

Silco patted him on the shoulder and smuggled out a pack of cigarettes from his inside pocket. He offered one to Vander, who took it without a word.

“Light?” Asked Silco flicking open his lighter. It took a few strokes for the flame to splutter to life, and Silco internally reminded himself to refill the fluid later, but he lit Vander’s cigarette for him, then one for himself.

Taking a long drag of ashy smoke, Vander exhaled slowly and let his shoulders relax. “Thanks.” The more he thought about it, he could really go for one of Jericho’s famous ramen bowls right now.

“So, bad news or bad news?” Silco questioned cynically while a wisp of silvery smoke trailed from his breath and curled ringlets around his hair.

“Worse.” Replied Vander, but with an ironic twitch of a smile that brought back joyful lines to his face that Silco had missed these passed weeks. “It’s good news.”

“I bought a bar.”

“WHAAAT!?”

Felicia almost dropped her sushi roll along with her jaw when she heard him. She leaned forward in a flash and shook her friend by the shoulder.

“That’s so cool! How long have you been keeping this a secret?!”

“Woah! Calm down Fel!” Vander laughed trying to stop his bowl of ramen broth from spilling everywhere.

“Sorry, but you can’t blame me for being excited Van, this is epic news!”

She got over her initial excitement and sat back down, though still kicking her feet under the table in anticipation for Vander to tell them more.

“I bought it couple weeks ago. Place was losing business and losing money, so the owner closed it down some years back and they’ve been anxious to find a buyer since, but apparently no one was interested.”

“Except for you.” Connol pointed out with a mouthful of cucumber and tuna sushi.

“Yeah, well… what with the Undercity’s population growing so rapidly now and people moving further down the fissures, s’cheaper to just buy a new place or move in with someone else. Ain’t a sane man down here that would spend all their savings on a rundown joint like that, and that’s without listing all the renovation work it desperately needs.”

He took a long slurp from his bowl and demolished a mouthful of noodles. Silco looked up from his salmon teriyaki stir fry and watched his friend beside him pointedly. For all Vander’s ramblings about what a state this neglected bar was in, Silco noticed that subtle glow in his cheeks. He moved his chair closer to the conversation.

“So what made you buy it?”

Vander finished his broth and set the bowl down with a satisfied lick of his lips. Leave it to Jericho to cook you up something that hits the spot just right.

“I was walking back from work, and I don’t really know what happened... but I was so lost in thought that... I took a wrong turn. So I was navigating my way home, and I passed this drab looking building with all its windows boarded up and realised I’d never noticed it before. Which was weird, cuz it's very central to that bit of street, bit like a signpost in the middle of a crossroads. Then I spotted the For Sale sign hanging up in the first window, and out of pure curiosity I knocked on the door. Thankfully the guy was there, and he showed me around. Hand cut floorboards with splinters in every step, layers of mould scented dust on every surface, beams of solid wood holding it all up, proper retro furniture like you’ve never seen, probably left exactly where it was last time the place was in use, and a wall of barrels behind the counter big enough to fit all three of you that look like they’ve been there since the stone age.”

He paused for a second, the words seemingly hanging right before his lips.

“I’m not too sure how to describe the feeling I got when I stepped into that building. It was like... stepping back in time. But as I was walking up and down those creaky floorboards, I had a vision. I imagined just how much life could flow through that bar like water down a mountain trail, if only someone dedicated a bit of time and love to it. The owner told me that if he didn’t find a buyer in the next month, he’d be left with the only option of selling it to a Topside demolition company. I can’t lie, the thought of saying goodbye to what really is quite a beautiful building after just enlightening myself to its potential made me rather sentimental. And as soon as that thought hit me, I knew what I wanted to do. I was gonna go home, count up my savings, and set aside a fund for it.”

“And you did it!” Felicia cheered.

“Yeah, well done you!” Complimented Connol.

Silco stayed quiet. The smile on Vanders face said it all.

“That’s so lucky when you stop and think about it.” Felicia continued. “Like, if you’d been a little more with it that day after work you might not have accidentally stumbled across a jackpot like that! And if the owner was so keen to sell I’m guessing you got it at a good price?”

“Oh you betcha! Fattest discount of the century. Your brain would actually explode if I told you how much.”

Felica put a hand on her hip and challenged him “Try me.”

Vander beckoned her closer and leaned in to whisper in her ear. Connol and Silco exchanged glances from either side of them and tried to listen in.

“Fuck. Off.”

Felicia slapped Vander’s hand away with an absolutely gobsmacked expression. She half didn’t believe what she just heard, ironically, if it wasn’t for Vander’s idiotic giggling she’d have thought he was kidding her.

Connol blinked in astonishment as the numbers clicked in his head. “No way did you only pay-”

He was quickly cut off by Felicia covering his mouth with her hand to shut him up. “Shhh! Don’t go yapping, the whole of the Undercity’ll be tryna buy it from him!”

She let go of her shocked boyfriend and leaned closer to Vander again. “Dude, that’s a fucking steal. Why are you still working overtime?”

“Cuz I know what the cost of getting that place running again is gonna look like. If I’m serious about turning it around I’ve got no choice but to start saving now. Honestly, if the price was any higher I would’ve had a harder time justifying it to myself.”

While he was speaking, Connol leaned behind Felicia and silently mouthed to Silco what Vander bought it for, and the two of them spent a good minute just miming “No… really?” and “Holy shit dude…”, “I know right”, “Woahh…”

“So when you gonna invite us over for a drink Van?” Felicia enquired as she mimed knocking back a shot.

Vander chuckled. “Well I can’t serve you what I haven’t got yet, but we can go check out the place tomorrow. I’d offer a look tonight, but the keys are at my house and I really don't have the energy. I wasn’t exaggerating when I said I could collapse and sleep the second I get back.”

Silco once again offered his comfort by placing his hand on Vander’s shoulder.

“Get some rest big guy. You can act as tough as you like but we can all see you’ve been working yourself to the bone lately. At least now we know why. Come on, I’ll walk back with you.”

They stood in the open doorway as Vander wearily tugged off his boots without bothering to kneel down and undo the laces. Silco leaned against the porch wall waiting with his arms crossed, not because he was impatient, it was just rather chilly.

“You coming in?” Asked Vander, confused as to whether he should close the door on him or not.

“I’m out tonight.” Silco answered plainly. “Downtown. You’ll probably be sleeping like a baby when I get back, but I’ll keep quiet and crash on the sofa if I need to.”

“No prob, see you tomorrow then.”

“Yeah, see ya tomorrow.” Silco pulled himself away from the wall and was turning to leave...

“And Silco…”

“Hmm?”

He was suddenly taken by a surprise hug as Vander stepped forward and wrapped his arms around him.

“Thanks.”

For a moment, Silco wasn’t sure how to respond. Mostly since he didn’t know what Vander was thanking him for. All the same, he returned the gesture and slid his gloved hands around the man’s tired back, curved over from all the weight on his shoulders.

“Uhh… you’re welcome? Why?”

“For always taking care of me.” Vander calmly explained as he pulled away. “You’re a good friend Sil. Now go have some fun, I’m gonna head upstairs and fall unconscious.”

“May you dream of musty floorboards and human sized beer-barrels.”

The sides of Vander’s lips twitched upwards at Silco’s dry humour.

“Nah, tonight I’ll be dreaming of the day we share our first drink at the future opening of the Undercity’s favourite bar... which I’ve still yet to come up with a name for.”

“Who knows, maybe it’ll come to you in a dream.” Chuckled Silco, and he headed back down the street with a wave.

Vander watched his friend slink away from their lamp-lit street, then closed the front door, and plodded upstairs with a hearty yawn and a head full of dreams.