Music, dancing, loud cheers. Tonight was definitely a good night.
But....
Vander watched Ekko and Powder in the distance. Powder was like herself, even more lively than before, but something was off about Ekko.
He caught himself staring at the guy until Silco stood next to him and patted his shoulder.
"Hey. Don't worry. He's just tense about the competition," he said, as if reading his mind. Vander nodded. Yeah that might be the case. Still, his comment just now had been a little sudden and rude.
"I liked your answer though," Vander said, putting down the glass he just dried before heading off to the storage to fetch some more booze. Silco chuckled and followed him.
"Hm? What answer?" he asked, even though Vander was sure he remembered it correctly. He just wanted to hear him repeat it.
"Greatest thing we can do in life... is find the power to forgive."
Vander stood in the storage while Silco stood by the door. "I don't think I ever thanked you properly. For forgiving me."
Silco hummed. "Many times, Vander. You did thank me. You also tried to kill me multiple times, remember?" he said. Vander frowned. Multiple times?
He then suddenly felt Silco's hands latching onto his sides in an attempt to tickle him. In a swift move, Vander turned around and pinned him against the wall - a little too enthusiastically as they knocked over a few bottles of which at least one broke.
"Wow wow, easy thehere!" Silco laughed. Vander now understood.
"You mean this?" He tickled both Silco's sides and laughed right along with him. The cheerful sounds coming from Silco were such a delight after all.
"R-rihihight! You're so slohohow!"
Vander smirked. He had indeed tickled him to death many times before. And man, it never got old. If Silco didn't dislike it, he wouldn't provoke him like this.
He looked over his shoulder and when he didn't hear Benzo or any impatient customers calling for him, he quickly clawed up Silco's ribs until he slid to the floor. There Vander bent over him and tickled him mercilessly.
The music and loud voices at the party were enough to give them a little moment of privacy. Enough privacy for him to make Silco laugh until he thought it fit the definition of 'getting tickled to death'.
"Vahahaander okahahay - mahahade your pohohoint!" Silco cackled tiredly. Vander chuckled and patted his back.
"My point? I think I made yours. You forgive me everytime I do this. Must really enjoy it that much, huh?" Vander gave Silco one last poke, got back up and finally picked up the stuff he came to grab.
Silco breathed tiredly and shrugged. "F-fair enough," he answered. "To be honest, there's nothing else that can make me laugh anyway."
Vander glared at him. "You're saying my jokes are bad?"
"The worst."
They both stared at each other before Vander laughed. If he wasn't careful, they were going to be stuck here for the remainder of the night.
"Remind me to punish you for that one later," he said, and he finally went back to work.
Funny thing: he knew Silco would remind him one way or another.
And even if he didn't, well... Vander would surely not forget to tickle him to death again.
Summary: Only a few months after being taken in, Powder Jinx is already causing trouble for her new guardian, Silco. Not too knowledgeable on how to deal with children, Silco assumes that she will obey like his lackeys if he scolds her enough. Sadly, Jinx isn't nearly as scared of Silco than he thought, and is quick to serve up some laughable revenge.
A/N: This is a SFW Arcane tickle fic which is basically my interpretation of this art from one of my previous posts, if you do not like that, pls dni. Also there is swearing, but this is Arcane so duh, and I'm sorry if I mischaracterised someone. Enjoy!
It was a regrettable choice on Silco's part, buying a fresh new set of oil crayons for Jinx so that she could preoccupy herself, whilst he got his work done in (mostly) blissful silence, with the occasional smoke break to relieve some tension.
However, it all went South quite rapidly as the new leader of Zaun took note of pink and blue scribbling all over the walls in just the next hour. Turned out, Jinx loved to draw, but she would much rather use anything 𝘣𝘶𝘵 paper. Which is what led up to her officially crossing the line around five days later. Clearly, the little devil had grown very comfortable around Silco, and thought of no repercussions when she scrawled various patterns and shapes all across Silco's ashtray.
Which, to be fair, he dismissed after a few minutes of staring at it, figuring that if he let her get it all out of her system, there'd be no more vandalism of his personal belongings. Oh how wrong he was.
And on this day, five days later, Silco came to that truth very angrily. She had doodled all over his jacket!! That was it, he didn't care if she was still just a child, such acts could not go unpunished. That afternoon, after scaring off a few smug underlings that dared to scoff a chuckle at the unwilling alterations of his jacket, he had Sevika drop Jinx off in his office, making sure he wouldn't be interrupted until his next meeting a couple hours later.
A sigh, the first sign of his disappointment in the small girl innocently gazing up at him. "Jinx." He started, standing up from his desk chair and walking around to where she was sitting. "I don't suppose you have some kind of reasonable explanation for the pure disrespect towards my reputation and fearful appearance?"
Looking at Silco like he was speaking another language, Jinx tilted her head to one side in confusion, those weirdly modest eyes boring into him and eliciting another short sigh, mainly to keep away any consideration about giving in to her pouty little expression. That was weird, why did he even get that feeling? Whatever.
He shook off the thought, and instead brought some light to what he was going on about, outstretching a pointed finger to the jacket that was slung over the back of his chair, pink and blue lightning bolts and monkey faces in crystal clear view for little Jinx. At the revelation of finding out her actions were wrong, her face contorted into a more irritated and obvious pout, looking to the side as she huffed through her nose.
Good, she knew she was caught. Though, Silco was expecting more of a fear response, instead of subtle arrogance. He had assumed this would work out in the same way that it would when he gave a scolding to some random poor criminal that worked for him. But no, Jinx instantly took the path of not seeing what she had done incorrectly.
Yes, previously he had just offered an honest lecture whenever she acted out a little. However, she wasn't messing with his stuff at that time. Now it was personal, not so easy to brush off.
"Oh you cannot be serious. You know you did this, and yet you don't even care to be guilty. Why's that, hm?"
"..Ugh, I didn't think you'd mind so much, Mr. Silco. I mean, you liked my additions to your ashtray and your walls! Hell, you 𝘴𝘵𝘪𝘭𝘭 didn't say anything when I accidentally blew up to the paperwork that was being delivered to your office the other day!" Jinx argued, not even realising what she had just admitted to. It had been a pretty damn significant pile of contracts and work sheets that was lost to flames.
That.was.𝘩𝘦𝘳?! Oh if he wasn't mad before, Silco was definitely fuming now. He held no concerns for her young age and tendency to make silly mistakes, that was unacceptable. "What?! You were the one that burnt up dozens of highly important papers?! Oh for ffff- do you even feel any remorse for that?!!"
The girl in question was taken off guard by his lack of knowledge on the fact that it was her fault. Opening and closing her mouth in an attempt to say something, she instead wound up staying silent with that pout from before, a little bit guilty now, but refusing to show weakness. After a few moments, however, she found her voice again, and took the first chance to use it.
"Yeah well, it was an accident, I didn't mean to! I'm sure your old fart assistant, Sevika, can get you replacements for the paperwork." She countered, getting a bit angry now. She was tired of accusations against her. Oh, 'Jinx is always the one messing up', 'she can't be trusted with 𝘢𝘯𝘺𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨'. Well she was having none of that anymore.
Silco wasn't having any of this either, his frustration only rising to dangerous levels at her backtalk. Maybe he could forgive her for the jacket at this point, but that stack of information and deals was 𝘪𝘳𝘳𝘦𝘱𝘭𝘢𝘤𝘦𝘢𝘣𝘭𝘦. At least, as far as he knew. "No, no she can not get me replacements! What the hell were you thinking?!"
"I was 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘬𝘪𝘯𝘨 that I could harmlessly test out my new monkey bomb on the wall of an alleyway! But stupid Sevika passed by just as I threw it, wasn't my fault, you don't have to be so 𝘱𝘪𝘴𝘴𝘦𝘥 at me for an accident!"
"𝙅𝙞𝙣𝙭!!"
His voice was fully raised, Jinx having stood up from her seat by this point. She never responded well to yelling, it either scared her half to death or made her feral. In this case, I believe it's safe to assume the latter. Considering just a few seconds after Silco had shouted her name, she began building up some kind of territorial roar in dominance. In an instant, Jinx pounced on her new makeshift parent, both of them tumbling down onto the floor.
"Jinx what in Zaun has gotten into you- ack!" Silco was cut off by yet another war cry and the newfound sensation of ten fingers rapidly clawing at his midriff. It was Jinx's 'tactic', to try and scratch her way out of a fight, but since her fingernails had been so chewed on due to her thinking about, uh, 'the incident', her digging caused a very different reaction from the older man.
It tickled, oh it tickled real bad. Silco had to immediately bite down on his bottom lip to stifle any and all laughter, writhing beneath the blue haired demon child that was attempting to somehow hurt him. One hand frantically swatted at any part of Jinx he could reach, while the other went straight to covering his mouth instinctively. Smiling and laughing were a sign of weakness, weakness that he couldn't afford even at the best of times.
"Stopthismadnessrightnowyounglady!" Silco warned through gritted teeth, though it was muffled by his hand, so Jinx barely heard a word and continued her attack, a lot of pent up anger being released in this moment. A moment that, unfortunately, could probably last a longer time than either of them would manage. She was so concentrated on 'ripping apart' his abdomen, that she almost missed the sharp flinch and barely held back giggle.
...Her digging slowed to a brief pause, ever curious about Silco's strange response to the 'violence'. The second her fingers broke contact with his clothes, he wasted no time to indulge in a few relieved breaths, the hand clamped around his face falling limp on his chest and revealing a blink-and-you'll-miss-it smile beneath that disappeared as soon as she caught a glimpse.
Now, she was a child, children knew these kinds of games like the backs of their oddly skillful little hands. At least, Jinx sure did, the mischievous git. So it was only so long before the dots connected like beautiful clockwork in her brain, and her anger dissolved slightly with a smirk. "What's wrong, Mr. Silco? It doesn't look like I did any damage to you, so why are you catching your breath like that?"
Dammit, she was actually very intelligent sometimes, Silco almost forgot with his fit of rage. It was his turn to be taken off guard, any verbal articulation running away from him. But he didn't get the chance to get it back anyway, since Jinx was already digging into his stomach again by the time he had just about built a reasonable excuse. However, she was much more informed this time, and her clawing changed from blind rapid attacking to precise rapid tickling, softening her touches just a tad as well, to see if that pushed him closer to breaking.
And of course Silco already had that same hand back over his mouth again, but he wasn't so lucky with his resolve, as the change in her tactics did absolutely work on him. A couple giggles slipped out here and there, albeit to his embarrassment. Though, Jinx started to think about what had gotten him to flinch so harshly the first time, and then obviously made it her number one priority to find out his weak point.
Jinx was having a great time, learning more about the lead criminal of Zaun than quite a lot of people in an impressively short time. It was exciting. Maybe, if there was a promise of excitement like this every day, maybe she'd find herself at home here, after all. The little girl had some giggles of her own for the silly situation, finding his suffering hilarious and relishing in the way his legs kicked almost pathetically behind her, since despite everything, Silco didn't want to hurt the tiny menace by accident.
But then, she found it. Completely not on purpose, she found his weak spot. One finger made touchdown with the space on his side that lay just beneath his bottom left rib, and it was all over. The normally stoic man practically 𝘴𝘲𝘶𝘦𝘢𝘭𝘦𝘥 behind his hand, the dam of laughter breaking at last. "Ahack! S-stohohohop thihihis, you detehestable nuisance! I am 𝘯𝘰𝘩𝘰𝘵 going tohoho tolerate this behahavior, Jihihinx!!"
"Oh, well I wasn't asking for you to tolerate it, so great! Hey, could you hold still for me? I'm in the mood to draw something." She replied cheerfully, keeping one hand occupied with skittering around that weak point of his, whilst she reached the other far beneath Silco's desk and grabbed her emergency stash of crayons. Her victim tried to scowl through his unyielding chuckles at the realisation of what she was planning.
Grinning wide, Jinx picked out her favourite pastel blue crayon and thought about what to draw for a minute, before seeming to clonclude that thought stream and going straight to drawing the outline of her 'masterpiece' yet to come. It was unbearable for Silco, since she just 𝘩𝘢𝘥 to start her art next to the bottom left of his ribs, combined with her free hand still idly spidering across his midriff in unpredictable directions.
"Yohohohou ahare in so muhuch 𝘧𝘶𝘩𝘶𝘩𝘶𝘤𝘬𝘪𝘯𝘨 trohouble, I swehehehear!!" He cursed, honestly so focused on deterring her verbally, that he pretty much forgot that he could struggle against her, aside from relentless squirming and the occasional swat at her arms. Truth be told, he hadn't been tickled for so long, that his mind was at an utter loss on deciding what to do when the feeling overwhelmed all his senses.
"Yeesh old man, don't you know not to swear in front of a kid?" Jinx reprimanded, that same shit-eating smirk eating away at her cheeks as she chose to take it a step further, the wandering digits of her available hand suddenly shoving themselves underneath his shirt and spreading their cold state along his torso through merciless tracing and skittering, all while continuing to scribble all over the opposite side of his shirt. Silco was going mad with hysterics.
"Ah fu-UHUHUHUCK, GEHET YOUR FIHIHILTHY GRAHABBERS 𝘖𝘏𝘖𝘏𝘖𝘜𝘛 OF MY CLOHOTHIHIHING!!" All this, and his body still didn't know what to do with itself, stuck between defending himself from the Blue Justice on top of him, and diverting his energy purely to keeping his dignity intact by covering his mouth with both hands.
Jinx saw his struggle with ease, her rage basically vanishing at how funny he looked when in such a confusing and helpless position. Thankfully, she was almost done with her crayon picture, adding a few finishing touches solely for stalling purposes. "Okay, almost doooneee! You didn't keep still, like, at all. But that's fine, I like messy art styles anyway!"
"YES WHAHATEVER, LOOK- I'M SOHOHORRY THAT I WAHAS UNNECESSARILY AHAHANGRY AT YOHOU! CAN YOU STOHOP NOHOHOHOW?!!" Apologies weren't Silco's strong suit, but he had a bit of a feeling that it was the quickest way out of this humiliation, without resorting to bribery. Though as soon as the 'sorry' came out his mouth, he was pretty damn sure that bribing Jinx would have been much easier. But he couldn't take it for any longer, that hand under his shirt was freely torturing him and he hated it.
Jinx was a bit surprised at his remorse, as not many people actually felt bad for being angry at her. She couldn't mess this up again, so with the final detail to her drawing, she finally let up, picking herself up into her feet and waited for him to regain his stamina and do the same, since he was too big for her to help up.
With greedy and eager inhales, Silco merely laid there for a short while, embracing his poor abdomen and huffing out any excess mirth. Until at last, he had come to his wits, and followed suit in standing up, only to instantaneously be spun around to face the office mirror, so that he could see the picture she made with her crayons. And damn did his heart practically melt when he saw it, two stick figures holding hands that resembled Jinx and him, a lopsided smile on her face while a neutral frown rest on his, with vaguely coherent words beneath it all that read 'thanks for tolerating my bullshit for three months <3'
It didn't show on his facial expression, but it was with that sweet message, he officially decided to see her as 𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘥𝘢𝘶𝘨𝘩𝘵𝘦𝘳. Not Vander's stray, not the cause of a disastrous warehouse explosion, not a singular-purposed part in his grand plan, but his child. Was this how Vander felt when Violet was taken under his care? It was..an indescribable emotion.
However, he eventually came to terms with the fact that he had definitely been staring at the mirror too long, as Jinx was beginning to give him a weird look through the reflective surface. Flustered, Silco cleared his throat and idly checked the time as a distraction, only to whisper "shit.." as he saw that his meeting took place in a couple of minutes.
The picture on his shirt, while incredibly wholesome, would destroy his reputation entirely, so he was swift to cover it with the vandalised jacket, though he didn't mind that so much, as it was all miscellaneous patterns rather than anything specifically embarrassing.
And with that, he gave a goodbye hair ruffle to Jinx, and was off. Within his meeting, Silco did learn that those destroyed papers were actually replaceable and he got mad at Jinx for nothing. Though, if it hadn't happened, they wouldn't have had that...crazy bonding session, and he wouldn't have made the mental decision to never yell at her ever again. Both because he was now a tidbit scared of her wrath, and because she had already been yelled at enough times in her life.
And he'd be damned if he was going to let anything happen to his little menace from now on. Of course, he got some light revenge later on, but it was all in good fun.
(Couldn't find original artist, but I first found this on Pinterest, posted by an account called @macie011810)
And then it- it ended in tkls..right? (〃ﾟ3ﾟ〃)
Yeah ok, probably a bit of a strange way to introduce my recent love for Arcane, but I got so attached to Jinx and Silco's dynamic that I couldn't help myself.
Though, I still have yet to learn abt some lore, and I'm not certain of how often I'd post Arcane. All I know is that lee!Silco is too few, and for that I will try to avenge it (keyword: try).
