Short-fused Yordles

Ziggs's laughter echoed in the empty halls of the Institute of War, it was six in the morning and he had been working all night. Hardly any champions stayed in the Institute and as a champion he was offered everything he needed for his work. Sparks from his welder constantly hit his face; underneath his goggles his eyes were concentrated on making sure the fuse didn't accidentally light up. For him, just constantly working and improving his hexplosives gave him great joy, a wide grin etched on to his face as he continued his work. His bombs covered the entire room, ranging in different sizes, some as small as marbles and one as big as a zorb ball, different blueprints pasted on to the walls, some plans scribbled out because they looked to be ineffective or useless, different coloured wires scattered all over the floor and a large toolbox that took up an entire corner of the room, full of weird gadgets to help aid him in his bomb-making. The first sign of sunlight broke through the tiny gaps of the curtain-covered windows in his 'workshop' the light caught his attention for a moment but that was enough for his hand to move slightly towards the fuse, the fuse lit and his happy grin turned into one of concern, he frantically looked around the room for the emergency water bucket but the fuse was too small and he knew that if it exploded in his room, it could cause mass panic.

'Uh-oh, uh-oh, uh-oh!' he thought to himself, running around in circles.

He finally noticed the open window and pushed the curtains away, throwing the dangerous bomb outside the window, just as he threw the bomb he couldn't resist to shout,

"Bomb ho!"

The bomb exploded before it even hit the ground but the explosion and the shockwave shook his room, Ziggs looked out the window and saw the damage his new bomb had caused, his same grin etched across his face turned to that of content then bursted into laughter. He took off his goggles and rubbed his eyes, dark bags had formed from the lack of sleep he'd been getting during the past few days. He climbed on to his bed or what was left of it due to an unrelated incident and collapsed on his pillow, his alarm clock immediately started to beep continuously and his muffled groans could be heard from his pillow. He slammed the snooze button, got up in his usual attire apart from his goggles which he held on to and headed for the mess hall, he was surprised with the number of champions that had already arrived to eat here of all places, the Institute didn't make the best tasting food but it was nutritious and filling if nothing else. Ziggs looked around just to see if any of the other Yordles had already shown up and gave an unsatisfied look when he noticed a little blue yordle with a Mohawk eating his breakfast on a nearby table, Ziggs didn't get along with Rumble, they were friendly terms at first, both brilliant at what they did and both helped each other when one had reached a bump until Rumble disagreed with attaching his bombs on his beloved robot, Ziggs tried to explain that he could easily increase the machine's firepower but every time Rumble turned down his ideas not even bothering to look at his brilliant designs. Ziggs also knew that he had the worst temper out of all the yordles and wasn't too friendly with any of the humans either, he almost seemed like such a pitiful yordle, a loner, something really uncommon with other yordles. The only yordle he could sort-of talk to was Tristana and it was laughable how he couldn't even form the simplest of sentences when trying to talk to her and often garbled up his words. After getting his 'nutritious' breakfast, someone tapped him on the back just as he was trudging his way over to Rumble, he turned his head to see a blue skinned yordle with white hair and someone who actually appreciated the fine art of explosives, she smiled back at him but pointed at the bags that had formed under his eyes.

"You've been staying up late again haven't you?" the female yordle asked sternly. "One of these days you're going to tire yourself out and when we're on the Rift you'll just collapse from the exhaustion!"

"Lay off Trist, I'm fine. Don't worry about it!" Ziggs reassured her; she didn't look convinced at all and stared him down. "Okay so maybe I should've gotten more sleep but I may have just made a breakthrough with my bombs, increasing the blast radius by 72%!"

Ziggs walked over to the table where Rumble was sat and sat on the far end of the long table; Tristana shook her head and followed him, sitting beside him. He noticed that she hadn't look like she had breakfast yet, becoming more apparent when her stomach made low grumblings and handed her an apple from his tray which she gladly accepted, she explained that the fruits were the only food in the Institute that wasn't too disgusting for consumption. From the corner of his eye, Ziggs could feel someone staring at them, he already knew who it was and turned to look at Rumble and gave him a small wink, Rumble didn't seem to take kindly to that as he gritted his teeth from the other end of the table, Ziggs found it hilarious that without his giant mechanized death-trap Rumble was a shrimp compared to the other yordles and it looked like he was biting the table in anger. Ziggs just quietly laughed at him and turned towards Tristana who had no idea why he was laughing; to her, Ziggs laughing was just him being him.

"So when are we trying out those puppies?" she asked, taking another bite of her apple. "Should we do it today or is tomorrow good for you?"

"Excuse me?" Ziggs asked confused with her question.

"C'mon, let me join in! I know you like to throw them at random objects and make them go boom! I could probably even help you with them, I still owe you for doing maintenance on my cannon after all." she insisted.

Ziggs looked up and gave a perplexed look, he did remember checking out her cannon but the only maintenance he did was decreasing the size of the muzzle so that it fired more accurately and gave her explosive rounds instead of the normal ones, nothing much to be thankful about. The idea of other people testing out his bombs to find faults in them didn't intrigue him; Ziggs would rather test out his own products. In the past, he had asked the great Heimerdinger at one point but he gave a very hasty excuse about why he couldn't do it, if he was going to have other yordles testing them out he would at least like one with some knowledge on explosives and not just an 'enthusiast' like Tristana. Ziggs looked over to his food, took a mouthful of some weird coloured oatmeal then turned his attention towards her.

"Don't you have anybody else to go do… anything with?" he asked after swallowing the oatmeal, his voiced muffled by the thick oatmeal.

"Awww please let me join you? I'm not that close with Poppy and Lulu is always hanging out in the forest talking to those squirrels." She pleaded with Ziggs.

"What about Teemo? Aren't you two 'together'?"

Tristana punched Ziggs on the arm, she gave an embarrassed look when he mentioned Teemo; Ziggs being who he is couldn't help but grin at her expression which got him another firm punch on the arm. He cringed, rubbing his arm to stop the pain.

"I told you and everybody this before; it's not like that between me and him! We're just friends and that's it. Besides, he gets scared when near explosions for some reason, gets all stiff and nervous around 'em."

"Uh-huh, sure." Ziggs said in an unamused tone. "But the way you reacted sure makes your guys' relationship look more suspicious. Everybody can see that there's a 'spark' between you two, like a beautifully lit fuse on a giant bomb of romance!"

Tristana was about to punch him again and caused him to flinch, he instinctively covered his arm with his tray dropping most of his breakfast on the floor, he waited for the punch but she drew back her fist, looking dejected.

"Why can't people just leave me alone about him?" she asked rhetorically.

"Maybe it's because you're a tomboy who loves carrying big guns and is not the least bit feminine? And since you don't talk to other male yordles people just assume rumours as facts." Ziggs suggested, almost mocking her. "Then again, people are naturally stupid so I wouldn't worry much about it; it'll all 'blow' over eventually."

Ziggs realised he didn't really know anything about her, only exchanging a few words with each other, it was sort of embarrassing to say all of that to her but also necessary. Tristana gave him a weak smile but still looked down-hearted, Ziggs groaned and nodded to himself knowing it was the right thing to do, he was too nice of a guy when there's a sad girl in front of him.

"H-Hey Tristana… do you want to go throw bombs at some dummies tonight?" he asked, in his mind he wanted her to say no or say she had other plans but that's just him being selfish.

Her eyes suddenly brightened up and she smiled at Ziggs, he did the same, her expression gave him the indication that he had done the right thing. She hugged him tightly but it was unexpected for Ziggs and he felt like he was being strangled, Tristana was definitely stronger than she looked; Ziggs pushed her away gasping for air while she giggled at his reaction.

"You know, you've got really cute eyes when you don't wear your goggles." Tristana complimented him. "It's a shame about those bags though. I'll see you for our date tonight."

Tristana got up and started to walk towards the lobby, Ziggs eyes was wide in surprise and his smile dropped, he thought he just heard that it was a 'date', he shook his head at the notion and hoped that she said something else, he had no interest with romance, his only love was for the fiery dazzles that bombs could give but if she really was in love with him he couldn't just tell her that to her face when she looked so sad before, she even complimented his eyes which even he knew were not 'cute'. Ziggs had to know what he got himself into; he ran after her and grabbed one of her hands before she could even make it halfway towards the exit.

"Wh-What do you mean a date?!" his eyes in bewilderment, his voice sound almost panicky.

"It's just a joke silly, geez," She answered. "Just think of tonight as two… friends, having fun and making things explode okay?"

"O-Okay…"

Ziggs still sounded unsure but he gave her an awkward looking smile and a thumbs-up, she did the same thing and she continued to walk towards the lobby whilst Ziggs stood in the middle of the mess hall, some champions looked over at him and snickered, he heard the word 'cute' used a lot whilst others ignored the conversation between the two yordles. After Tristana was out of sight Ziggs took a deep breath then screamed out loud, shocking some of the champions who were still eating, he noticed that the outlaw, Graves, spilt his coffee and Ziggs laughed quietly at him. He suddenly felt someone tap him on his back again, he turned only to be met with a blue fist, Rumble struck him on the cheek and knocked him down, it caused quite a stir and some champions still in the mess hall stopped eating to watch the fight that had broken out. Rumble grabbed Ziggs by the collar, his fist still clenched. Ziggs could see Rumble's anger but he didn't feel the same way, he felt more annoyed than angry at him, Ziggs knows why he's acting like this but decided not to take any action in front of the others. He pushed away from Rumble, who stumbled backwards; Ziggs stood up and looked down at Rumble, giving an air of authority over the blue yordle, they stared each other down until Rumble motioned the two to move to a different part of the Institute, Ziggs agreed and followed the blue yordle away from the mess hall and outside to the entrance of the Institute. Once outside, Rumble stopped for a moment before turning around quickly to deal another punch to Ziggs, Ziggs knew it was coming and he wasn't going to fall for the same cheap move twice and easily side-stepped the punch, sticking his foot out and causing Rumble to trip and land on his front.

"You!" Rumble shouted as he dusted himself off. "What did you and Tristana talk about?"

"She wanted to talk about you." Ziggs lied looking serious, stopping himself from smiling.

"R-Really?" asked Rumble, surprised and secretly glad that Tristana noticed him.

"Oh yeah, she talked about how weird you are, how you have to rely on a giant machine to do your fighting, about your height, your weak upper body strength, your 'short fuse', how you're not as smart as you think you are…" Ziggs continued to list and emphasised Rumble's many different faults, with each one making Rumble even angrier.

"Stop lying to me Ziggs!" Rumble argued. "Tristana would never say that stuff about me!"

"Oh? And how would you know?" Ziggs asked, still feeling more superior to him. "You can barely talk to her and you fail to form even the simplest of sentences when you're around her, it's quite sad to watch really."

"Sh-Shut up! Y-You don't know what you're talking about, now tell me, what were you two getting so buddy-buddy about?" he asked, sounding worried though still looked angry.

"I never knew you were the jealous type Rumble," Ziggs said, sighing loudly. "Okay I'll tell you, me and Tristana have a 'date' tonight."

"WH-WHAT?!" he shouted not believing what Ziggs had just told him. "No way, I don't believe you, what would she see in a bomb freak like you?!"

"And what would she see in a badly-tempered, shrimpy little yordle who needs a mechanised death-trap to fight his battles for him like you?" Ziggs wittily replied.

Rumble just gritted his teeth; his face was red from anger and his eyes green with jealousy at Ziggs, he couldn't think of a response to throw back in Ziggs' face. Ziggs shrugged and started to leave Rumble alone not wanting to discuss anything with him any further.

"If you want to settle things then I'll meet you in the Rift and make it an official match." Ziggs proposed as he headed back inside.

As Ziggs disappeared from Rumble's sight, his head began to cool down, he was definitely going to fight him today that's for certain, maybe if he hurts Ziggs enough then he won't make it to his date with Tristana and he could come in and take his place. Rumble chuckled silently, his eyes full of evil intent for today's match, he hurriedly ran back inside to finish some modifications on Tristy when somebody called out for his name, he knew who the voice belonged to, it made him feel sick in his stomach that "he" would call out his name so casually, it was someone he could call his 'rival' when it came to Tristana, the biggest obstacle to her heart. He turned and plastered on a big smile to Teemo, scuttling over to him and waving his hand, he looked happy to see Rumble but the feeling wasn't mutual.

"Hey, Teemo!" Rumble in an obviously fake cheery tone. "What can I do for you?"

"I was wondering if you have seen Tristana today." Teemo asked.

The scout looked pleased with himself but Rumble didn't care that much. He was, however, interested why Teemo would ask him if he'd seen Tristana, it felt as if Teemo was also looking down on him just like Ziggs, he decided to ignore his feelings of hate for the two and nonchalantly ask what Teemo wanted.

"Nope, can't say I have Teemo." Rumble lied.

"O-Oh, well… tell me if you've seen her okay? I want to ask her something important."

Rumble's ears twitched for a second, hearing information he could use to manipulate a certain someone, he decided to continue this farce and looked intrigued with what Teemo had to say.

"So what are you going to ask her eh, Teemo?" prodded Rumble. "We're pals right? I'll keep it a secret, I promise."

"Well I was going to ask Tristana to become my girlfriend officially, we're pretty close and we have fun together so, why not right?"

"O-Oh sure… except, I've been hearing some other rumours floating around about her, you want to know about it?"

Teemo looked shocked from what Rumble had just said but also nodded his head, in his mind Rumble was thinking how simple of a fool Teemo was; he will definitely be a good pawn for today.

"I heard that Tristana has a date with Ziggs tonight." Rumble whispered in Teemo's ear.

"…Is that so?" asked Teemo, his voice sounded strange. "I think I should go ask her myself, just in case."

"I know it's hard to believe but I have proof, see, Ziggs was challenging any yordle to come fight him one on one on the Rift, seems he's wanting to prove something to a certain someone," Rumble lied. "I'm not too interested myself but I want to at least give him a good smack in the teeth for being so cocky."

"I see," Teemo said, rubbing his chin. "I think I might just take him up on that challenge then. See you around Rumble!"

"Good luck Teemo!" cheered Rumble as he watched Teemo scuttle inside the Institute, once out of sight Rumble's face shifted his smile turned to an evil grin, his eyes narrowed down and sighed in relief.

'What a useful fool you are.' He thought, whistling a happy tune as he walked back inside the Institute.