"AAA!"
Atlas gasped, waking up in a cold sweat.
He ran a hand through his drenched brown hair and walked over to his bathroom mirror.
"Damn it. I thought I was done with it," Atlas muttered, splashing his face with murky gray water.
Every now and then he would dream floating through a raging storm. Purple colors and blue orbs would float around him, arcing lightning out and sending searing pain through his head until he woke up.
At first he was confused. Gradually, he began to believe it was his body or soul's reaction after being forced into this universe and that time seemed to be the only cure.
He was eighteen and it had been several years since his arrival which was unfortunately the same time as his parents' deaths in the Undercity. His mother used to run the front-end stall selling food while his father tinkered on Chemtech and mechanical work in the back for customers.
Now?
Bells jingled above the door as Atlas stepped outside into the frigid Undercity air. A grey mist hung in the air with a familiar, chemical burn that lingered in his lungs.
The shop was on the very street the famous Last Drop resided on. It sat closest to the main road that ran toward the fissures separating Entresol from the Promenade above and the Sump district below.
At first he was worried because Silco had just won his war against Vander and a lot of changes were happening. Previous innocent tinker and gadgetry shops vanished in quick succession in place of drug dealers, Chemtech augmenters, and weapons dealers.
Even now as he cleaned out the vents and ignited the coals within his food stall, his shop was surrounded by seemingly unfriendly folk.
A mercenary with many scars selling used weapons, often buying used and bloodied ones to fix up.
A Shimmer and drug dealer drooling blankly into the street, piddle-paddling his feet against the stone pavement and giggling to himself.
A Chemtech augmenter firing up his gadgets with angry bellows of steam and off gassing chemicals.
So what saved his stall and family home from the pillaging of the new reigning industrialist and his unsavory new followers?
"Three sugar fritters!"
"Coming right up!"
The sound of sizzling and sweet aroma began to drift through the street as he dropped three dough-balls into the fryer and coated them in large sugar crystals.
One copper pinged off the counter and Atlas scooped it up.
"Please come again!" Atlas then shouted. "Orders' ready!"
The drooling dealer sniffed the air and grinned, eyeing the stall and waddling over. The mean looking mercenary beamed and set his weapon down, and the Chemtech augmenter set down his merchandise.
It has to be like weed brownies for this guy, Atlas thought as the drug dealer took his bag, swaying in place as he stared into the bag. Or like getting the munchies after a few drinks.
If I added a drop of Shimmer to every fritter...
Atlas chuckled to himself at the thought. He would never actually do it, but it was a funny dark idea.
As the day wore on and traffic picked up, so did his sugary sales. Plenty of kids still visited the stall. It wasn't like all the children in the Undercity suddenly vanished after Silco took over, they just didn't venture much farther past his stall.
Looking up, Atlas saw a group of kids huddled along the main street stealing glances toward his stall. They looked nervous, eyeing the dangerous-looking merchants and customers.
"Go!" he heard a little girl whisper as she shoved the tallest boy forward. He looked pale with wide eyes, glancing back at her before turning toward the stall with a more determined expression and breaking into a full sprint.
"FIVE FRITTERS!" he screamed, colliding with the stall and slamming five coins down.
Atlas scooped them up and handed him a small dirty-brown bag with fritters.
"THANK YOU!"
The kid screamed, already turned and sprinting away.
Atlas chuckled, dropping several more dough balls into the fryer when two fingers suddenly walked playfully across the wooden serving counter in front of his stall, blue and purple nails clicking softly on the surface.
"Can I get two as well Atlas?"
And what may have been the biggest reason his stall still existed, a young woman with long braided blue hair leaned against the stall. A long front tuft draped over her eyes before she softly blew it out of the way.
Her eyes were a bright, electric blue. Wide, lively, and innocent in the current moment comapred to the the manic stare people feared when she was working. Her pale skin carried soft blue cloud tattoos curling across her body, memorials to friends long gone she refused to let fade.
She waved with her elbow on the stall, an impatient look growing on her face.
"Hello? Runeterra to Atlas?," Jinx complained. "Two sugar fritters please? What's with you today..."
"Sorry," Atlas shook his head, breaking out of the momentary trance and taking out the desserts. "Rough morning."
"Yeah? Did those strange dreams come back?" Jinx asked with a bored tone, flicking a hanging ornament while her eyes remained eagerly fixed on the dough balls as he gingerly rolled them in sugar crystals.
After he finished, she immediately plopped one in her mouth and whined.
"Ow! Hot!" Jinx complained before grinning. "Yet sweet and soft!"
"Not this time," Atlas smiled, raising two fingers.
She groaned her complaint before slapping two coppers down, yet she didn't leave.
She stayed leaned over, staring at him with a wide gap surrounding the stall due to her presence.
"Is there something else you'd rather be doing than running a sweet shop and tinkering on gimmicks in the back?" Jinx asked with genuine curiosity.
Atlas paused. It was something he thought about.
Honestly, he even had that hero complex when he first arrived and thought about how he could change the future but when the bills started hitting and reality set in, those youthful thoughts vanished.
When they first met, and she was much less stable than she is now, the thought of throwing doubts into her already unstable mind didn't feel right either. Instead he treated her like he did now.
"No," Atlas shook his head. "Not really."
He then grinned.
"I mean, unless you suddenly plan on paying double."
Jinx blinked.
"For what?"
Atlas leaned in with a teasing smile. For a split second her eyes flickered, a small flutter crossing her expression until he pointed past her at the wide clearance around his stall. She followed the gesture, then slowly turned back to him with a deadpan stare.
"Danger pay."