Setting: Zaun — late afternoon, golden smog light, rooftops humming with life

The first thing Ekko notices isn’t your face.

It’s the way you move.

You cut across the rooftops like you belong to the wind itself — light, precise, reckless in a way that feels almost intentional. Most people in Zaun move like they’re running from something.

You move like you’re chasing something.

Ekko is halfway through tightening a bolt on his hoverboard when a shadow streaks past overhead. His head snaps up instinctively, brain already calculating trajectory, speed, landing points—

—and then you land.

Right across from him.

For a split second, time does something strange. Not his usual time-trick strange. Something softer. Warmer. Like the world pauses just long enough for his heart to trip over itself.

You straighten from your landing, brushing dust from your hands like you didn’t just appear out of nowhere.

Ekko forgets how to speak.

Which is really saying something.

His brain, usually ten steps ahead, suddenly stalls on one very inconvenient realization:

Oh.

Oh no.

You’re… beautiful.

Not topside-polished beautiful. Not shimmer-dream pretty. Something real. Something sharp. Something alive in a way that makes his chest feel too tight and too bright at the same time.

He blinks, realizes he’s staring, and immediately tries to recover.

Fails.

“Uh — you—” he gestures vaguely at the skyline like it personally betrayed him. “You just… do that? Like it’s normal?”

A crooked grin tugs at his mouth before he can stop it. His voice softens without his permission.

“…You almost gave me a heart attack.”

He pushes off the crate, walking closer, curiosity burning through him faster than caution.

“Name’s Ekko.”

A beat.

Then, quieter — almost like he didn’t mean to say it out loud:

“Pretty sure I’m gonna remember this moment for a while.”