"Ugh, what even is this?" Jinx gives out a disgusted moan as she picks up a spoon of poridge. She drops it back into the bowl and harshly pushes it away, as if she would die just by looking at it again.

"Jinx!" Rushing to stop the bowl from toppling off the table, Lux releases an exasperated sigh and shoots Jinx a disapproving frown. She simply shrugs and returns to browsing on her cellphone. Lux rolls her eyes as she sits up, poridge in hand.

"I'm sure they have something else to around here eat... Just give me a minute to find something." the pink-haired girl searches the cafeteria and beams as her eyes land on a vending machine.

She walks up to it gingerly and scans its content, eager to eat something other than the nasty poridge. Jinx wasn't a picky eater, and honestly, Lux had to agree with her teammate. The food theu served this morning was awful. Satisfied, Lux punches in the digits for a pack of brownies and inserts the money. A few seconds later nothing has seemed to come out from the compartment below.

"What?? Why isn't it working?"

She fidgets with the buttons a bit more and rechecks the compartment. Entering and re-entering the code. Frustrated, she gives the machine a soft kick.

"Damn..."

An all too familiar chuckle makes Lux jump and freeze in place. She turns and sees Ezreal leaning against the wall next to the vending machine. Her body stiffens and her breath catches in her throat. His hair is perfectly messy like always, clad in his usual attire, he looks charming and boyish yet theres a certain maturity about him.

"Maybe you should've read the sign before feeding it your cash" he gives her a small smile and nods towards a neatly written sign that reads 'OUT OF ORDER'.

Lux's cheecks flush red as she realizes her mistakes. Embarrassed by her childish fit, she turns her attention to the ground.

Gathering her courage she mutters, "O-Oh, sorry I guess I didn't notice that." She laughs nervously and raises her head to face him. To her relief he laughs too.

He confidently walks past her and up to the vending machine.

"But you said it was-" he stops her mid-sentence and pulls out a ring of keys from his pocket. Then picks one out labelled 'Snax' and opens up the vending machine door. Ezreal picks out 2 brownie packs and hands her both.

"Let's just say it's a little gift from one guardian to another." The boy winks at her making her face heat up once again.

"Don't tell Ahri about this or she'll kill me." he grins at her deviously and pockets a cookie from the vending machine, raising a finger to his lips to shush her.

Lux lets a laugh escape her lips, "I dunno... seeing Ahri scold you for stealing snacks might just be worth my while."

He feigns a hurt gasp and holds his hand against his chest. "I can't believe you, I thought we had something special!"

As he laughs at his own act, her heart skips a beat. He thinks we have something special? What? No! He was probably just joking... or flirting? Why would I think we had anything special anyways? He's probably like this with all the girls he meets! Besides I barely know him.

The sound of Ezreal's voice once again startles her out of her mental debate.

"I should probably get going before I get another scolding about responsibilities or punctuality."

She giggles then says, "You probably get scolded about how to always be fashionable too I bet?" Lux eyes his particularly sparkly emblem pin of a star on his blue and white jersey jacket. Her eyes shift back to his face with an amused grin.

"That was Ahri's idea." he puts his hands up defensively. Their exchange is cut short by the sound of a walkie-talkie buzzing from behind Ezreal's waist.

"Ezreal? You done with your rounds yet?"

"Yeah, just finishing up!-" he covers the speaker with his hand and speaks to Lux, "That's my cue, see you later okay?"

Before Lux can respond he's speed walking out the door of the cafeteria. She silently waves at his turned back and sighs, "Yeah... See you later"

Lux plopped down at their table with a dazed smile painted on her face. Jinx raises a disturbed eyebrow but immediately loses interest at the sight of brownies. Breaking out of her daze, Lux notices Jinx wrestling the pack out of her hand. She pushes Jinx away and raises the brownie pack up high.

"We are going to share these okay?" She slides one pack towards Poppy, Lulu, and Jinx; and one towards Janna and herself. "And try not to finish them all in one sitting, we might get hungry during the activities for today."

The trio devour most of the pack in seconds while Lux and Janna take meager bites to save the rest for later. Satisfied, Jinx returns to playing a shooting game on her phone as Poppy helps Lulu pick out colors for her next drawing.

"So how was your meeting with the blue one, Ezreal was it?" The usually quiet Janna gives Lux an all-too-knowing smile.

"W-what? You saw that?" She panicks and is quick to hide the blush that will surely be coming next. Janna hums in response, still awaiting her answer.

"He just helped me get the brownies from the vending machine, that's all."

"I see... do you enjoy his company? You seem to get very happy whenever you speak to him."

Just as Lux was about to retaliate, Lulu bounces in between them loudly announcing, "One of the new stars is coming!" The group exchange confused looks and not a moment too soon a loud 'THUD' catches their attention from the end of the table. Syndra had dropped her large pile of papers and was now looking down upon the cluster of star guardians.

"Ahri would like to speak to you all, now."

Simply the mention of Ahri's name was enough to get them going, but the tone of Syndra's voice just about kicked them out of their seats. So here they were, following Syndra towards the council hall. The purple-haired maiden never seemed to lose her perfect posture, even with the large stack of who knows what dragging her down.

Lux outstretches her arms towards Syndra, "I could help you carry those if you'd like, it seems pretty heavy." She gives her an optimistic smile as the latter eyes her hands suspiciously.

Syndra turns away, harshly rejecting the girl without a word. Feeling awkward, Lux drops her hands and fidgets with her fingers. She averts her eyes to the canopy of leaves above their heads. Geez, I was just trying to help, the least she could've done was say 'No thanks'.

"We're here." Syndra's voice interrupts the silence as the group stumble upon a fairly large log cabin with a perfectly written 'Authorized Personnel Only' sign on the door.

With a key in one hand and a stack of papers in the other, she unlocks the door and ushers the others in before her. Down the hall loud voices seem to be conversing about something in the meeting room.

"Head on down, tell Ahri I'll join you all later." She hurriedly flees towards another room, careful not to drop any papers. The rest of the group continue towards the meeting room with worried looks as they realize the voices inside are actually arguing. As they walk in the picture becomes clear. Ezreal and Ahri are having a heated quarrel as Soraka paces worriedly near them. Miss Fortune could care less as she blows chewing gum bubbles and daydreams.

"-because it's dangerous, Ezreal! I am not going to let you head down there by yourself!"

"But Soraka said it herself, the rift hasn't even opened yet, and besides, it's tiny! I can handle it, why can't you just trust me Ahri!?"

"You know exactly why I can't trust you. You're going to go do something stupid again and get yourself hurt, as your leader it's my job to- Oh.." Ahri clears her throat as she notices the other group enter.

Lux is the first to speak up as the cluster of guardians exchange glances.

"Um, you called us here?