Happy Birthday Max! ... This is too long overdue. Anyways, here's another birthday story. Hope you all enjoy it.

Will go back and fix any grammar errors in the upcoming days.

[swoosh]

The breeze sounded on this beautiful day in Noxus. Her hair briskly brushed right above her eyes, but like this sight was nothing new to her. She took this day on off from the Institute of War to revisit her home, though her visit wasn't met with cries of joy. No. In fact, she hadn't entered the city. She watched from above. On a cliff far away, she watched the day pass by over the great city of Noxus. It was like a goddess watching over her followers and giving them her blessings. She slimmed her eyes onto every aspect of the city and twitched her left eye at anything that she didn't recognize before. The giant mountain that contained Noxus' High Command stood tall in the center of the city, and around it the residence of Noxus persevered mightily.

"What brought me away from you?" Katarina thought. Her life in the League was questionable. She fought for Noxus, yes. She gained her goal of bloodshed, yes. Many competitors feared her, yes. It seemed like everything, though the people she talked to weren't normally the ones where she'd be able to have an enjoyable conversation with. Something bothered her, though she had no idea what it was. Noxus may have been the cure. A wave of relief washed over her when she had seen the city once again.

Now that she thought about it, she didn't quite remember how she had ended up in the position she was in now. Maybe coincidence? Or choice? A kill meant everything to her, though it meant nothing within the League of Legends because no one was actually dying. She could kill someone, feel the glory, then see their face appear right before them and lose all of that glory. Well, it wasn't entirely a loss.

[crack]

The sound cut off her train of thought and she immediately swung herself around with her dagger in her hand. The woods in front of her were vacant when she had first arrived here, though not now. Someone was in front of her, though he had already receded himself from threat. He held his hands up at her, marking that he was unarmed. Katarina studied the boy for a little bit. He looked like the harmless traveler. He wore a tattered blue shirt and black jeans which was rather ridiculous for a meaningless hike for now, and wore a backpack.

"Woah now." He sounded.

"Shut it!" Katarina instantly silenced, and the boy's voice hit the back of his neck. She took one step closer to him, and the boy's facial expression didn't change from its normal one. "Why are you here?" She asked.

"I was actually coming up to this cliff myself." He said, lowering his hands. Katarina kept a careful eye on them just incase they were to reach for anything. "I didn't expect anyone to be up here, especially not you Sinister Blade." He said. Kat's staunch posture faltered at her title, and wondered mostly about the boy's sanity and if he wanted to commit suicide or not with his attitude. The boy showed little fear, a rare sight for someone who had just met her. Though this stranger had already ticked her off, that trait was admirable. Though she had these thoughts, she still held her blade up.

"Demacian?" She asked through her suspicions. The boy shook his head.

"Noxian." He claimed. Katarina raised an eye.

"You don't look like a Noxian." She protested.

"Well I don't really look like anything, do I?" He countered. It was true. He just looked like a commoner. Though she didn't have incentive to trust him, she didn't quite have another choice. It was either let him live now and possibly regret it later or kill him now and regret it later.

The boy was lucky that she was feeling lazy today.

He cringed his eye when he saw her blade move, but then relaxed when he realized that she just sheathed it. Unlike her, from his knowledge, she turned his back to him and grinded her back down a tree that overlooked Noxus.

"Don't call me that. Just call me Katarina." She said, and stopped her sentences. Her eyes left the boy and glossed out over Noxus again. The boy was both slightly relieved and slightly horrified, he couldn't quite decide which one. He took a step forward expecting another reaction out of her, but Katarina didn't do anything. He had his doubts, but as she had he trusted her judgement. He walked over to the cliff and leaned his back against another tree right next to the edge.

"May I ask you something?" The boy said awkwardly. Katarina looked over and it seemed that he was looking over the land just as she was.

"Go ahead." Katarina said.

"Why are you here?" He asked, not looking away from in front of him. Curious boy. He looked innocent enough though. Although Katarina knew from experience that no one is innocent.

"I don't know." She said in a slightly more cheery voice. She'd guess for herself that it was nice to have a conversation after such a quiet day. The boy made a quiet

[hmph]

sound that Katarina heard. Her look turned into a glare. The boy noticed it.

"I… just kind of find it funny. I can never explain why I come up here either." He said. His voice was quiet but stern; Katarina was just able to make it out. Katarina crossed her arms.

"You've got quite the nerve if you're able to come up and start a normal conversation with me so suddenly." Katarina smirked.

"Not nerve, nor courage really. I just know." He said, but didn't elaborate.

"What do you mean 'you know'?" Katarina asked.

"Your restrictions among the League." He said. "Many people tend to disregard or forget them when around other League champions. You aren't allowed to kill anyone outside of the League unless Noxus orders you to… I also know that you're quite… temperamental. So I'm trying my best to not aggravate you."

"You're doing a pretty bad job if you are right now." She said, as her temper was slightly rising at him using this advantage to get close to her. Though he did have a point. This kid was smart.

"I'm sorry, hehe." He said with a slight chuckle.

"What's your name?" Katarina asked. The boy turned his head and gave her a questioning look. "Your name!"

"Max." He said. Max raised his hands up, connected them together, and stretched his arms and legs outward, yawning in the process. Katarina watched him. From the side she could see new things. A small knife was sheathed by his belt. As his shirt raised she could see that he wore a second article of clothing underneath, though she couldn't quite tell what it was.

"So Max," Katarina said, now only this slightest suspicious, "what do you do?"

"What's it to you?" He said, continuing various actions whilst not looking at her. He leaned forward and took off his backpack, setting it to his side opposite of Katarina. Katarina, slightly ticked off about now having any power over this stranger, remained calm.

"I just want to know. Is that too much to ask?" She said. Max pulled out a small canteen of water from his backpack and took a gulp of it. He looked over to Katarina and handed the water out to her, though she was so far away. Her eyes rotated between him and the water, then finally decided to walk over. She stood up, now feeling extremely tall compared to the boy, and walked over. She grabbed the water, took a sip, handed it back to him, and sat down closer to him and the edge. She propped one knee up and rested her arm on top of it.

"I do a lot of things." He swayed in topic.

"Like what?" She kept pressuring, and as soon as she said that Max tensed up. He paused for a long time, and all the while Katarina felt the air tense between the two. She could already prove her theory here. This guy, though he looked it, wasn't innocent. He pondered by biting his lip, then turned to her. He inhaled noticeably to speak.

"I'm sorry. I just can't. I… let's just keep it at that I've done a lot of things in my past if you don't mind." Max said, leaving his words lingering in the air. He looked distressed just thinking about it, though Katarina couldn't quite tell what he was hiding from her. She looked at him questioningly, causing him to sigh and turn his body back. He crossed his arms immediately afterwards.

"Ok… we can keep it that way." Katarina said.

"I'll ask you to not think of me any differently because I didn't tell you." Max raised. "I'm only insecure of myself about these things."

"And you're insecure when telling me? What, do you think I'm going to rat you out to the League or something?"

"I would not want that, no." And he began thinking again, questioning himself. Meanwhile Katarina couldn't quite tell what she herself was feeling about him. He was acting weirdly now and it confused her. Although some part in her was laughing on the inside at causing the boy distress.

"Were you planning on going down anytime soon?" He asked, changing the subject. Katarina disliked it, but she let it change.

"I was." She responded. Max, abruptly, took placed his arms at his sides and pushed himself onto his two feet. He walked over and stood just on the edge of the cliff, anyone looking from below would believe that he was about to commit suicide. Instead he inhaled heavily and exhaled heavily, then turned around. He squatted down, picked up his bags, stuffing what he had outside inside of the bag. Standing up Max walked to the side of Katarina and, to her surprise, held out his hand.

Katarina glared at the kid who only responded be meeting her gaze and beckoned his head. She looked at the had. Young in faith with a developed youth to it, though its small creases indicated maturity following through. A little bit of dirt. But besides that, there was nothing else about it.

She ignored Max, rejecting his hands and standing up on her own like he did.

"Let's go then." Max said, cracking a small smile despite his failure and started walking into the forest. However he had to stop as Katarina grabbed onto the back of his bag at the last second, practically pulling him to the ground. He turned around and, noticeably, she had that signature smirk on her face. Creased upwards on the right side, smaller on the left, a sneer smile crossing her face.

"Wait a second." She said, and strutted over towards his left side. Before Max knew what was happening, he felt a tug on the left side of his waist, and then suddenly Katarina was holding his knife in her hand. "What are you running about with this little thing for?" She said with ease as she flipped the knife over and caught it by the blade without cutting herself.

"It's just a useful little tool in certain situations." He said. Katarina raised an eyebrow.

"'Certain' situations?" She said, and Max's lack of a response made her laugh. Without a second thought he took the blade by three fingers, walked over to the cliff, and threw it off. The metal glinted from the sun on the way down. It would've been unfortunate if there was someone right where it landed.

"Hey!" Max protested a bit too late. The knife was already gone. Before he could say anything else, Katarina turned around and held her hand up at him.

"You won't be needing that anymore." She said. With her raised hand she reached down to the back of her own belt and unlatched something off. She raised it in her hand and revealed to Max a dagger of her own. It was much bigger than the knife he already had, even though all he could see was the case as the rest was sheathed. She handed it out to him and he willingly accepted. Katarina watched as he pulled the dagger out, and laughed internally as his eyes lit up. It was clean cut and professionally made. Unlike the ordinary dagger, it was bent and curved where the blade tip actually was level with the top of the blade.

"A dagger specialized for throwing." He stated, and Katarina nodded. He took the blade in his hand, holding it up just above his forehead. Then he flipped it, taking hold of the blade portion with three fingers just as he had observed from Katarina, and observed it again. After a while, he looked at Katarina. "Why are you giving this to me?" He asked.

"Because you're mysterious. I don't care if I don't know what you do for a living, I just know that whatever you do, you can't defend yourself with that crappy thing." She said, gesturing her head towards the cliff again. Max looked at the dagger one final time before sheathing it and attaching it to his belt. While so, Katarina began walking ahead. No other words were exchanged, though Katarina knew from his smile that he was thankful.

It was odd, having someone walk right behind her in real life, in a secluded area, without sensing threat. She could hear the echo of her footsteps stepping on leaves and grass off of his own, as well as the air being cut through by the two walking down the hill. The sun lowered as they went on and eventually the sky turned into a beautiful sunset orange. Though it was hard to see through the canopy of trees, she could tell from the beams of orange light that fell through and touched the ground. The orange glow splattered a path for the two to walk along, and in the patches of area where there was no canopy above them they were walking on a light carpet.

The light became dimmer when they set foot outside of the forest and onto a smooth and stony walkway. Noxus wasn't far at all from here, and the fact that she was going to arrive there sooner with this guy made her nerve racked in the slightest degree. In an opposite way though, she felt glad. Katarina had no clue why, but for some reason she could talk to this certain individual without barfing two minutes into conversation, and then proceeding to make a fool of them. She took a moment and planted herself still, observing ahead of her. Noxus shined in the distance, it's grey and red architecture from afar still glimmering a mile from it. She could smile once at it, remembering home. Then she could grimace again at it, remembering all of the hardships it had put her through. It was a love-hate relationship, and she liked it that way.

During this time Max stepped up besides her and did the exact same thing. As soon as she noticed, she stopped and looked at him, and surprisingly he was lost in the same dazing state that she was in prior. His face was contemplating, his mind winding, and Katarina's mind still curious for him. She wondered about him and, again, it wasn't everyday she pondered the existence of seemingly good people. She nudged him on the shoulder, breaking his day, and beckoned him to continue onwards.

There was a never ending tensity between the two as they walked. None of them acknowledged it but they could both feel it. It felt as if there was a gravity in between the two that pulled them together, and they could especially feel this in their lungs as they were burning in need to say things to one another. Though the only words that came out of the two along the way were casual conversation, and it grieved their heads so.

Noxus finally dawned on the two as the sun lowered ever so slightly in the background. Like every majoring city, the large gates were open at this time of hour, with guards manning the entrance on all sides. The guards nodded to themselves and at Katarina as they passed through. Although, as she observed, they glared at Max as if they had recognized him from somewhere. Max had no reaction to this.

The streets were populated normally for the time and Katarina had a wave of nostalgia wash over her as she recalled memories in these places, smiling at the more so joyful ones, grimacing at the negative ones. Noxus, where everything grew for her and sprouted a new life. Max caught a glimpse of Katarina grimacing towards a nearby alleyway and silently chuckled. As her grimace didn't fade away quickly however, he began to worry. He poked Katarina on the arm, and in a comical fashion she jumped, startled of the touch breaking her out of her trance. She looked at Max like he was crazy.

"Are you ok?" He asked lightly. Still a bit shaken, Katarina could understand what he meant.

"Yeah, I'm fine. It's just… I can remember a lot of things that have happened here." She explained, her voice light and actually friendly as she smiled at another good memory.

"You're a lot kinder than people make you out to be." He said. Was it? Katarina couldn't quite notice it. She pondered the statement and, after everything that has happened today, she has been quite nice to the guy.

"Nah, you just caught me on a good day." She said, more or less seriously that she should've even though it was true. Max grinned, then Katarina looked at him. He looked at everything in monotone. "What about you?" She asked. "What part of Noxus did you come from?" It took Max a moment to respond, but when he did he slowly pointed to a store on the side of the street, a good ways ahead of them.

"I lived five streets down past there, then two blocks up." He said. Lived?

"Where do you live now?" Katarina asked. And, again, she could see him tense up. It seemed he tensed up when asked about anything personal; that may be the trigger. Though her face masked her disappointment when she realized this, it seemed that he was contemplating. Thinking of something to tell her, and whether it be a lie or not, to her it'd just be fun to get an answer out of the guy.

A shadow ripped the voice out right from under him. He opened his mouth, but couldn't say anything. One, because he had choked on his words, and two, a snitch had just bumped into him. He stumbled backwards one step from what seemed to be a shoulder on his side, and then suddenly he didn't feel a backpack on anymore. His back was now light, and Katarina caught a brief glimpse of the events as they were happening. They both looked over after they were happening and saw a stupid teenage scoundrel, dressed in all black and grey, running off believing that he had gotten away thieving his backpack into an alleyway between two buildings. No one else noticed the crime.

Instinctively, Max took off for the thief right away. Katarina, however, didn't quite have a reaction. Part of her thought it was comical, and then another part of her told her to help, though she strongly believed that he could handle this situation on his own. Another part of her was just relieved that she didn't have to feel Max's tension for longer than she had. She watched as the two ran down the alleyway, of which there wasn't a break until very far down. Without much else to do, she followed slowly behind them in a walk. The alleyway was clearly illuminated this time, so she could see all the way down it, though there wasn't really much to watch.

And then Max pulled a stunt that she would've never expected.

The thief shouldered a crate and a dumpster right after each other, stumbling him and allowing time for Max to catch up. However, after that there was no obstacles. What Katarina had observed actually made her proud. With no other option to catch up to the kid, Max reached down and pulled Katarina's dagger out from its sheath. Then he ran up the first crate, which was easy enough to run and jump upon, then levered himself up to the top of the dumpster. Flipping the blade over fast in his hand, he caught the knife by the blade, jumped off of the dumpster and threw it. Katarina, seeing this action, motioned into a run of her own to see what had happened.

Red blood began to make an oddly perfect circle on the ground. Even though the knife hit the back of the kid's shoulder, he was bleeding immensely. The kid coughed and squirmed on the ground, looking for the strength to push himself back up though it never came. Max's backpack lay slightly ahead of the kid as he had dropped it when he fell to the ground.

Katarina caught up in a matter of seconds and observed the scene. Not only was she shocked about what he had just done, she was shocked that he had incapacitated the kid in the process. The sight was pleasing for her, too. It reminded her of stuff that she had done in the past, and then she would normally follow suit by torturing them before they had died. Tragic, but those are the kills to remember.

She watched as Max slowly walked over to the boy on the ground, Katarina staying a ways back to let him deal with this. Again, she took the time to look at her knife lodged in the boy's shoulder. It was a perfect throw.

"Where did you learn to throw that good?" She pondered, but Max didn't respond. He knelt down next to the boy and observed his face. He was young, no older than eighteen, though nonetheless he was a scoundrel who had messed with the wrong people. He made no attempt to talk. Whether his mouth was filled with blood or he was choking, Max didn't care. Instead, to Katarina's enjoyment and horror at the same time, he would do the same thing she would do. Quietly stare and bask in the terror on his face. After a moment, Max turned his head and looked at the knife. Without thinking about the kid, he simply reached over and pulled the knife out of the kid's shoulder, the teen screeching out in pain again. Katarina laughed audibly at this. It was always funny to see them scream.

Again, his next action silenced Katarina and her smile.

Max pulled the teen's head up by his hair and cut his throat.

Max was… that type of person. It was another action that Katarina couldn't quite comprehend. Though she was a hypocrite for thinking it, the moral in his actions were little to none for someone whom she had thought briefly was a citizen. As the blood from the kid's throat spilled to the concrete, she thought otherwise. A tight grip took ahold of her throat and told her to run, then another voice said to stay. She ignored both thoughts. Instead she stood in total silence as she continued to watch Max. He dropped the head into a puddle of its own blood. Nonchalantly, he stood up, walked over and bent down to retrieve his backpack. He slung it over one shoulder, a portion of it positioned anterior on his body.

He picked his eyes up from the mess he had made and looked at Katarina. The shock in her eyes distinguished itself from anything else she was feeling.

"Surprised?" He asked, stepping up close to her. He wasn't wearing a smile, no. Katarina could tell from his expression that he didn't like what had just happened.

"Bewildered, actually." Katarina corrected and Max chuckled. He began to open up a side pocket on his backpack.

"It comes from years of experience." Max answered her previous question finally. Again, Katarina's eyes lit up. Max pulled out a rag from his backpack. An already bloodied rag. The blood was dry and, she could tell, has been there for a long time. He took the rag and began to clean the blood off of Katarina's dagger.

"I'm a killer, Katarina." Max stated. "Now you know why I was afraid to tell you about my occupation." Katarina didn't respond, all she knew was that she was fully convinced that he was a killer. The brief suspicion that she had back on the cliff was correct, and for some reason now she was baffled at the truth. Now, surprising to Max, she smiled at it.

"I like that." She said. Max finished cleaning the blood. He twisted and squeezed the rag, letting some of the fresh blood drip on the ground, the rest of it absorbing deeper into the rag before putting it back into his bag. "I don't care if you're a murderer. Anyone that kills other people under the name of Noxus is a friend of mine."

"That's good." He said now looking back into her eyes. They both had that imperceptible twinkle in their eyes, letting both of them know that they completely agree with what was happening. He took a step ahead of Katarina. "Then you wouldn't mind coming with me on a journey back. I could really use the company, and I'm sure you would too."

"Where to?" Katarina asked. Max stopped in his tracks and looked back at her.

"My home, at the Institute of War."

She was beginning to like this guy more and more already.