Timebomb

"I had a crush, until you started talking to the gun."

- Ekko to Jinx in League of Legends

Timebomb is the het ship between Ekko and Jinx from the Arcane and League of Legends fandoms.

Arcane
Ekko and Jinx were childhood friends in Zaun and were the two youngest among Vi and the others. As children, the two were close. But after Vander's death, the both of them went in very different directions. Jinx started working with Silco, who took her as a daughter, while Ekko funded the Firelights, being the leader of an inclusive and prosperous group, underground.

The first time Jinx and Ekko meet each other after the time skip is during one of Silco's Shimmer smuggling missions. Jinx was guarding the Shimmer when Ekko and the Firelights started attacking the flying ship, trying to take the Shimmer out. At that moment, Jinx attacked and killed many of Ekko's friends. The next time they meet, Ekko and the Firelights attack Jinx directly, while she's with Vi, and they take Vi and Caitlyn with them. After Ekko finds out that Vi is not working with Silco, he has a heart-to-heart talk with her about her sister. Ekko tells her that Powder is gone, and that all that it's left of her is Jinx. Of course Vi disagrees completely, saying she knows her sister. And in that moment, Ekko takes her to see a mural painted on the shelter, with portraits of "everyone we've lost", with Powder (young Jinx) painted among them, symbolizing that Powder is lost for him now. He turns to Vi and tells her that Jinx is now working with Silco not because she's forced to do so, but because she wants to.

The two used to play a paintball game where Jinx shoots at Ekko and the latter dodges. Ekko wins if he doesn't get hit, and if he does, Jinx wins. A parallel to this game of theirs is made when Ekko faces Jinx as an enemy when they meet at the bridge after Jinx's attack. Jinx starts with a scoff, calling Ekko "the boy savior". He starts the timer, wordlessly inviting Jinx to one last game together, Jinx laughs and plays along. While in their childhood memories, Jinx used to be the winner, this time, the game ends with Ekko winning and pinning Jinx down about to deal the finishing blow. The music stops abruptly, along with their childhood memories, leaving only the sounds of their struggling breaths and Ekko's punches behind. When he's about to give her the finishing blow, he stops looking directly into Jinx's eyes, which are now a gray color, just like Pwder's were, and hesitates, seeing his old friend in Jinx's face. Ekko smiles relieved for just a second, and Jinx does as well, a genuine smile, and then Jinx detonates a grenade and gets away.

League of Legends
Ekko has a voiceline when taunting Jinx saying that he had a crush on her, until she started talking to the gun.

Fanon
The ship is a fairly popular ship in the League of Legends fandom due to the fact that in the game, Ekko used to have a crush on Powder before she changed her name to Jinx and joined Silco. However, in the Arcane fandom is not such a popular ship since many people don't ship them romantically yet as they don't have many moments together in the show, and when they do, they are fighting each other. This ship has a large amount of artworks and fanfiction. And it currently has 300+ works in AO3.

Fandom
FAN FICTION

TUMBLR

Trivia

 * Their ship name is a reference to Jinx's explosives, and Ekko's ability to break time.