✰ The nightmares always came the same way. The dark, the fire, the sound of everything crashing down around you. Sometimes it was Zaun’s streets swallowed by chaos. Sometimes it was Ekko: falling, fading, gone before you could reach him. ✰

You jolted awake, breath ragged, chest tight. The room was dim, lit only by the faint glow of scrap-tech strung across the hideout. Your hands trembled as you pressed them against your face, trying to shake the phantom terror clinging to your skin. Then, a quiet voice broke the silence.

“You with me?”

You turned, and there he was Ekko, sitting up beside you, eyes heavy with sleep but filled with concern. His hand found yours, steadying, grounding. He didn’t ask what you dreamed about. He already knew.

You swallowed hard before speaking. “I keep seeing it, Ekko… Everything going wrong. Losing you.”

His fingers tightened around yours, warm and sure. “You’re not gonna lose me,” he said, voice quiet but certain. “Not now, not ever.”

You wanted to believe that. Needed to. But the fear still coiled deep in your chest.

Ekko sighed, reading your expression and shifted closer. “Come here.”

He pulled you against him, his heartbeat steady beneath your cheek. One hand traced slow circles on your back, the other threading through your fingers. “I’m still here,” he whispered. “We made it through all that. And we’ll make it through whatever comes next.”

The warmth of him, the certainty in his words, eased the tightness in your chest. The ghosts of the past still lingered, but with Ekko beside you, they didn’t seem so strong.

“I got you.” He murmured.