While the various schools of martial arts scattered throughout Ionia all mastered specific styles of fighting vastly superior to any military training the great city-states had developed, and much more refined than the brute strength the warriors of the northern Freljord boasted, Irelia had noticed a fatal flaw within the center of each doctrine. They relied on adapting to their opponent's strengths and weaknesses, fighting in a way to nullify their strengths and focusing on bringing their weaknesses to light. While it often worked against opponents who took the first initiative, it proved next to worthless against one which would not budge. Even her own preferred form, the Hiten style, could not defeat an unbreakable and stubborn opponent such as the one which stood before her now.
Irelia sighed for the twelfth time as she paced past the giant boulder blocking the way to her room at the Institute, calling to mind any folklore she could remember about feudal Ionia, hoping one of the ancient tales might give her an idea about how to overcome adversity when nature herself stood in her way. The only story that remotely involved great stones featured the Water Dancer coming across a monolith taking up the entire width of a mountain pass. Li Shui had conquered that obstacle with tireless patience, utilizing the contours of the mountain and the path of a nearby stream to carve a small canal to direct the flow of water onto the monolith, slowly but steadily pushing the large rock off the side of the mountain and allowing him to pass. The stories said he had sat there for three days, patiently chipping away at the mountain face and enduring the cold and his own hunger while he waited for the water to do its work.
She kicked the boulder in frustration, receiving nothing from her efforts except a throbbing pain on her big toe. What started out as a friendly competition between her and Jax quickly escalated into something much more extreme than she anticipated. Over the past few days, the two had decided to settle a petty argument by setting up some difficult task for the other to accomplish within a certain time limit, and the obstacles had gotten harder and harder as they vied for supremacy. Compared to her struggle, Li Shui's monolith seemed like a pebble given her circumstances. Irelia barely had more than a couple of hours to work with, let alone days, and she couldn't leave the issue unsolved lest she wanted to admit defeat and let Jax claim the title of 'most resourceful top laner' (a designation no one but the two of them actually recognized, but seeing that they were both highly competitive souls, Irelia would not take losing as an option). The Grandmaster sometimes took cheap shots, and had no qualms playing dirty from time to time, but he had really outdone himself this time with the boulder. How he had managed to place an immense rock twenty-five feet high and probably weighing one ton would be a story to tell on its own. The Will of the Blades wagered that Malphite had probably had a hand in this, which further infuriated her. She had suffered enough losing lanes at his hands thanks to his impenetrable armor, but now she had to experience further torment from his handiwork. Her spirit blades quivered as she tried to control her irritation, knowing that no answer would come her way if she let anger cloud her emotions.
A cacophony of heavy footsteps rang down the hallway, accompanied by an equally loud song which Irelia deduced emanated from one of those inventions the Piltoverians had created, a music player. The simple yet powerful lyrics blared throughout the narrow space, and it didn't take a music expert to acknowledge the tune: the theme song glorifying the Piltover Enforcer. Irelia frowned as she noticed Vi herself stroll down the corridor, her hextech gauntlets somehow slung over her shoulder on a strong wire frame, blissfully submerged into the fast paced beat created by the rock band's drums. A pair of black shades covered the Enforcer's eyes, making it impossible for Irelia to tell whether Vi knew where she was walking or if she noticed the giant boulder standing in the hallway. As Vi came closer, however, she turned off her music player, stowing her headphones out of the way and raising her shades as she noted the gigantic stone sticking out like a sore thumb. "Hey, 'Rels, what's with the rock? This some kind of new age Ionian home improvement?"
Irelia took a seat on the floor opposite the boulder. "It's a long story. Bottom line is, Jax somehow stuck this boulder in front of my room and expects me to get rid of it within a couple of hours, before dinner, else he'll never let me hear the end of it when we go out later. And I can already imagining Malphite chuckling with that really grating baritone laugh of his - ugh!" She balled her hand into a fist and slammed it into the other, biting her lip with annoyance.
The Enforcer tilted her head in confusion. "Whoa. I knew you two were pretty different for a couple, but when you have fights, it seems much worse than your typical yelling match. It's days like this where I thank the gods I don't have to deal with a relationship."
The Ionian shook her head. "No, I'm not mad at him or anything, it's just… silly that he'd go to such lengths to try to one-up me." She looked up at Vi, noticing a distinct absence of the other half of Piltover's Finest. "The Sheriff isn't with you. Didn't you two just finish a match?"
"Cait's busy preparing herself for a snazzy date later tonight," Vi told her, a smirk forming on her lips. "And she wouldn't tell me with who, which leaves me in suspense with nothing but my speculation! It can't be Jayce. There's no way it's the Doofus of Tomorrow, I'd think Cupcake would have better taste than that," she muttered the last part more to herself than Irelia.
"Whoever it is, I'm happy for her," Irelia replied, looking hopelessly back to the stone. "You don't suppose you could help me out with this, by any chance?"
The Enforcer stole a glance at her gauntlets hanging from her back, looking more than eager to smash something with them. "I wouldn't complain about using some excessive force, but from the looks of it, wouldn't you need to deal with the rock on your own? Jax might call foul on you for getting some other champion's help."
Irelia shook her head. "No, we agreed that anyone who we could find to help us out was fair game, as long as we didn't cause a huge disruption like the one time Kog'Maw nearly destroyed one of the summoning chambers." To this day, Irelia kept her mouth shut about what really happened on that occasion, remembering a distraught Jax trying to get ahold of Malzahar as quickly as possible to stop the Mouth of the Void from melting down the walls of the summoning chamber with his Void ooze. That was the last time Jax ever tried experimenting with bio-arcane weapons when he did research on the various substances which existed on Runeterra.
Her explanation proved sufficient to convince Vi. "Works for me," she shrugged. "Alright then." She unhooked the wiring wrapped over her back, fitting the gauntlets onto her arms. "Might want to stand back, Irelia, this could get messy." Vi made as much distance as she could between herself and the boulder while the Ionian moved a safe distance away, preparing to deflect any loose fragments that might fly her way.
"Here goes nothing!" Drawing her right fist back and bending her knees in preparation to charge, Vi held the pose for a second before dashing at the boulder and slamming the gauntlet into its surface. A large chunk of the rock shattered into pieces, sending debris flying everywhere and forcing Irelia to raise an arm to stop the dust from getting into her eyes while her blades moved by themselves, preventing any large fragments from hitting her. When the air had cleared, Vi had already moved back to the other end of the hall, preparing another Vault Breaker and aiming for a different side of the boulder this time.
"Hyaah!" she shouted as she rushed forward a second time, her impact making a larger crack in the stone due to it being damaged from the first blow. "It's got quite a few dents in it," the Enforcer declared proudly as she walked up to the boulder. "I figure a couple more punches should crack it wide open." Putting on a look of deep concentration, she took a sidearm stance, winding up her right arm and sending the gauntlet flying into the crater. Irelia could see the rush of wind flying out in a cone around the gauntlet, evidence of the tremendous power Vi put into the swing, and heard the boulder crack. With two more punches in quick succession, she noticed the boulder finally crumble from one final split, the rock fragments falling all over the floor of the hallway. Another dust cloud obscured her vision for a few seconds, but when the air had cleared, Irelia could see the door to her room in full access, as well as a grinning Vi cracking the knuckles of her hextech gauntlets triumphantly.
"Finally, it's gone now." Irelia turned to the Enforcer. "Thank you so much, Vi, for all your help. I'll make sure to repay you some day. And don't worry about the mess, I'll deal with all the stone pieces and dust myself."
Vi brushed her off, a smug smile on her face. "Don't worry about it, 'Rels. As long as you don't lose to Jax in your little competition of yours, that's all the satisfaction I'll need. Show 'em who really wears the pants in the relationship!" She laughed heartily, a gesture which Irelia couldn't help but imitate, the two women sharing a laugh for a few seconds before they calmed down.
"Well, I'll have to be off. All the matches this week really tired me out, and a girl's got to get some rest before tearing up on a weeknight. The whole crew wants to check out the establishment that new champion just opened, that Kench dude," Vi said as she walked off. "I better see you and Mr. Robes there later!"
"I'll see what I can do," Irelia responded as she took out the card which would open her room, pressing it to the electronic slot. With a click, the system granted her access, and she opened the door, ready to get some respite of herself from the day's struggles. Hanging her father's blade on the wall, she passed into the large center room of the apartment to find that she had an unexpected guest somehow already inside her quarters.
The Grandmaster at Arms took up a very relaxed position on her couch, a bowl of popcorn on his hands while he watched the television, opened up to some kind of Demacian war movie. Upon seeing Irelia's entry, he gave a start, nearly dropping the bowl. "Hey, what gives? You already got rid of the boulder?"
Irelia crossed her arms and gave him a stern look. "No matter what you throw at me, I swear on my honor that I will find a way to prevail."
Jax chuckled. "Alright, so you win this round. I'll have to ask Malphite for a bigger rock next time. Ball's in your court, then, I suppose."
And she already had something devious in mind. "I've got something that even you can't brute force your way out of. Caitlyn has a mystery date schedule in two hours. I want you to find out the identity of this unknown man and report to me before dinner takes place. When we go out tonight, you also have to confirm your answer and show him to me in person. Don't think about running to Vi, either - she told me she has no idea."
She had never seen Jax bolt for the door and make his way out of her room so quickly.
"Be sure to wear something nice, too!" Irelia called out. "I can't have you slouching so much on our nights out!"
A/N: I figured that I hadn't published in so long I had to make it up with some short of sorts. So I took a random theme and decided on a random character which could serve for a light-hearted scene and landed on Vi, and came up with this.
This is an alternate universe to Trinity (and basically all of my other stories) where Irelia and Jax are already together but I'm not gonna have them do any lame loveydovey couple things. Their quality time is spent doing a bunch of crazy things and thinking of plots to trip up the other.