Darius awoke soundlessly from his dreamless sleep at sunrise. It was going to be another day lived in the glory of Noxus. The light from sunrise poured into his room slowly. Darius sat up, and got out of bed. He was only wearing underwear, which would make it easier to do his daily calisthenics. He was quickly doing lunges, pull-ups, squats, and all other kinds of exercises required to keep his physical edge in the very competitive Fields of Justice.
Before long, he had worked up quite a sweat and decided to stop for the day, as the sun coming through his window was also helping to warm him up, and it wasn't healthy to raise one's temperature too high before eating anything. And he hadn't had his morning coffee yet either.
Darius took a brisque cold shower, dressed in his usual league garb, and made his way to the counter where he stored all foods that he kept in the league residence. Darius was starting to question his decision to take up residence at the Institute of War because even though he was sure it did build the influence of Noxus faster this way, he kept running into other champions he would normally consider enemies, but everyone acted like they were old friends or something.
It disturbed him.
Darius took a deep sigh and took out the materials needed to make coffee: the hextech coffee machine and pure Noxian blend, which was now called, "Draven blend." Darius scowled, his brother was on all kinds of advertising nowadays. Quite the public figure, Draven had managed to launch a ridiculous campaign to become the face of Noxian exports, and it had massively succeeded, to where nobody had expected. Draven himself had only prepared a couple slogans for his venture, and as a result, practically everything exported from Noxus had the same cheesy saying. "I'm the glorious executioner, and I absolutely love this product."
Darius had to force back the urge to puke whenever he saw it. He focused in on making his morning coffee, which pretty much had become a necessary part of his morning rituals. The warming smell of coffee beans being roasted in the hextech contraption pulled on Darius' thought processes, waking him up a little from just the smell. When it was done, he eagerly poured it out into the mug he used every morning before adding just a little cream and sugar. Then the ensamble was complete and he brought it to his lips, but hesitated, wanting to savor the simple smell of the warming drink before drinking it down.
After a short second, he went ahead and sipped the dark fluid, allowing the taste to permeate his consciousness and stirr up his dormant energy, fully completing his morning rituals. Darius moved over to the one chair in his Institute of War appartment, and sat down in it, continuing to slowly sip his morning coffee. He paused the act of slowly sipping the drink for a minute to rest his head back on the top rim of the chair. He allowed the weariness of days past and worries to come to fall out through the soles of his feet; the warming liquid spreading throughout his entire being. This moment every morning, it was heavenly.
The coffee had cooled somewhat, and Darius quickly chugged the last of it, ready to get on with his day. After throwing both the coffee maker and mug into the meager sink next to the area he had pulled them out, Darius grabbed one of his always stocked millitary rations. They may not taste good, but they provided every last bit of needed nutrients for a simple warrior to transform into the closest thing to Dr. Mundo, given the amount of work needed to accomplish that feat anyway. He very quickly devoured the solid bar of crunchy coarse texture before sweeping out of the door and into the hallway that led to the main chamber of the Institute of War, where he could sign up for extra matches.
Darius strode down the hallway confidently, for he was the hand of Noxus, and was proud to be on display for their great strength. He rounded a sharp corner and came almost face to face with Garen and Luxanna Crownguard. They were slightly beaten-looking and fatigued, but before Darius or Garen could react, Luxanna smiled and waved at him.
Darius stopped in his tracks. His eyes widened and he stared at the siblings while they walked past him and around the corner he had just passed. Darius was dumbfounded. They were the greatest of enemies and Luxanna had given him a smile with a friendly wave behind it. Clearly things got very warped around here at the Institute of War. Darius tried to shake the memory out of his head as he went about his plans for the day, for he needed to be in full mental condition to show his true strength on the battlefield. Still, he could tell this was going to be an off day.
Darius eventually found himself in one of the extra matches he had signed up for. It was on the newly revamped Twisted Treeline. Little was different save for the addition of two altars that were able to be captured for slight magical advantages given to the team which held them. Darius hated the new mechanics. He disliked all magic, viewing it as a cowards way to strike from afar. Darius respected the power behind magical attacks, but held the mages themselves in low regard.
Regardless, he was on the newly refurbished Twisted Treeline when, to his great discomfort, Luxanna Crownguard showed up on his team. He was determined to show no weakness; however, so he gave her only a curt nod when the match was beginning. She may have been his teammate, but she was far from someone he would ever get along with. There was no rule about displaying openly pleasant actions to all other champions. Darius could practically ignore her if he were to choose to.
Normally, Darius didn't get paired with any Demacians or Ionians simply because such was his deal with the league, but when he signed up for extra matches, such agreements were up in smoke. It didn't matter, he would win the match and make full use of Luxanna's skills to do so.
Darius bought the magical pendants that he had planned on getting, the health turtle shell and speed boots, before tightening his grip on the handle of his axe and striding off in the direction of their altar. He was irked by how Luxanna managed to stay next to him during the whole trip, even when he had quickly managed his pendants with the express idea of avoiding her. Indeed, this match would be very annoying.
Nevertheless, they both ended up hiding in the brush next to the altar with their third teammate, Shen. Darius dryly realized they were all from different factions, yet he was the one who had the exquisite pleasure of being in the faction in contention with both of theirs. No conversation sprung up while they waited, however. Soon the enemy team would probably be careening into the nearby area in an attempt to steal their altar when the capturing mechanism unlocked.
Darius grinned somewhat in anticipation. He held his axe tightly, readying his reflexes for the eventual surprise attack that awaited them. Sure enough, a sonic projection from Lee Sin hit Shen on the shoulder, and before there was any time to react the blind monk flew through the air foot first to mash into Shen with extreme force. Shortly behind the ionian, Rengar flew through the air with a howl, descending upon Shen with a mixture of tooth and steel.
Surprisingly enough, to Darius anyway, Luxanna was the first to act, casting her light binding and rooting both Lee Sin and Rengar to their positions, but before any more action could take place, Katarina suddenly appeared behind Lux and shoved a tiny shiv into her back. Their team composition was very agressive, indeed. In slight anticipation for what happened next, Darius grinned widely. His powerful muscles rippled as he spun the massive axe around his body once, clipping each enemy cleanly with the outer reaches of the axe; Shen and Luxanna knew well enough to duck quickly for Darius' axe to pass over their heads. Then Luxanna went about detonating the force of light that was left upon the blind monk and the pridestalker while Shen dashed into all three easily grouped up enemies, taunting them with his ninja techniques.
Darius went to work with his axe, indiscriminantly swinging at all three foes. Although Katarina was his ally off the Fields of Justice, here, she was just another victim for his Noxian Guillotine. He took some hits, but returned them threefold. Once he felt he could spin his axe again, he gave a small chuckle to signifiy to his teammates, who thankfully could always hear him as part of the magic that the summoner's used. Upon spinning his axe around his body once again, he tore through each person who was still standing, Katarina and Lee Sin.
Katarina immediately collapsed, soul kept in suspension by the summoners. Lee Sin held his composure before he followed suit. Luxanna jumped up, clearly overjoyed they had lived through the exchange. Shen's body was lying several feet away, having sustained simply too much physical abuse. Darius was less than happy about how he had been left with Luxanna, then realized they would split up to take different lanes after capturing the altar. "Get on the point, lets capture it," Darius ordered in his famously deep, commanding voice.
"OK!" Luxanna was far too happy to comply with his order. Even though she had followed his order, Darius still felt sick. Nevertheless, he followed her onto the altar and waited as their mere presence brought the altar under their team's control.
Suddenly there was a bright flash of white and the dark landscape of rotten trees and gravestones that marked their presence in Twisted Treeline disappeared in favor of a rugged jungle. Everywhere that could be seen was covered in green, with more green vines covering every surface. Luxanna and Darius were in the middle of a mostly cleared area, surrounded by thick trees and overgrowth covering everything.
Luxanna slowly turned around to face Darius, and he realized that they were both suddenly not on the Fields of Justice and standing nearly 3 feet from each other. A mutual understanding was formed in their eyes.
Darius lashed out with his axe, putting the back tooth-side down as he latched onto Luxanna's left arm and pulled her towards him. She next surprised him by throwing her light binding into his body while being pulled. Darius was unable to move while the light sorceress spun her wand and threw a small bolt of light into his chest, detonating the leftover mark that her spell had left on him. Darius felt the uncomfortable sensation of every small piece of his body rebelling and attempting to split away and explode. He didn't explode however and, when Luxanna's spell ran out, she was solidly in range of his axe.
His muscles ripped with effort again with the tell-tale signs of what was to come next, though unfortunately for Luxanna, she didn't notice. Darius' axe spun around his person with terrifying force and catching Luxanna's thigh, tearing open her skin and starting a flow of blood. Before his eyes, the wound struggled to stop bleeding, the power of most champions in the league was to prevent their bleeding by momentarily being able to stitch up their injuries enough to maintain full functionality. Darius was able to tear deep enough to keep this from taking effect for several seconds, slowing movement and causing enough blood loss to cause general lethargy. To Darius' surprise, Luxanna simply bared her teeth and prepared another spell to throw into his face.
Then, an incredibly low gutteral growl pounded through the air and earth like a wet towell vibrating through the air. Darius and Luxanna both froze, halfway through their fierce fight, and slowly turned their gaze off to Darius' right into the darkness through the dense foliage.
Suddenly a large creature flew through the air on almost ethereal wings while thrusting out it's front arms to catch whatever prey would still be in it's trajectory path upon landing. Darius kept his eyes on the strange bug-like predator while he threw all his weight into a backwards leap, deftly getting out of the way of the frightening thing. He realized the arms of the creature were actually scythe blades, and the creature itself was deep purple with glowing light purple eyes. It had hard carapace encompasing it's surely vulnerable core.
After the creature landed, Darius wasted no time moving into action, instantly throwing a massive attack from his axe at the creature's midsection, not even spending the time to see if Luxanna had been able to escape the creature's initial attack. To Darius' bewilderment, the creature practically teleported out of his intended swing path, instantly snapping the tough carapace around Darius' seemingly slow moving axe. Then the creature lashed out at the great Noxian, catching his shoulderplate with both arm-blades, cutting through it almost all the way. Knowing the armor would probably save him again, Darius had already begun swinging his axe again at the creature, hoping it's failed attempt at striking back would slow it down.
Instead it once again pranced away from his range and back into it, but this time, a dazzling light flew in front of both their faces. Darius now knew Luxanna had evaded the creature's initial attack. Strangely enough, the normal slowing effect from this particular spell only seemed to be affecting the creature, as Darius found his limbs responding normally. Clearly, the light sorceress thought her best protection would be through temporary alliance with the Hand of Noxus to dispell the alien threat.
Realizing what this meant, Darius took full advantage of it, tensing his muscles a fourth time in a very short amount of time, to spin his axe at whirlwind speed around his body. The satisfactory sound of his axe tearing through another enemy was music to Darius' ears. The creature bled profusely, quite possibly not being used to prey that retaliated. Darius slashed out with his axe several times more, hitting likely weak points in the armor carapace, with quite satisfactory results. The thick grassy floor was now entirely stained red below the purple creature by the time Luxanna's spell ran out, detonating and marking the creature with light.
Luxanna appeared to lose no time detonating the mark, visibly making the creature shudder with pain. Darius was unsurprised at this due to his first memory of the experience. The creature was bleeding from many exploited areas of his natural armor, and Darius decided it was time for him to unleash his "Noxian Guillotine" finishing move. The creature luched away from Darius, lethargically attempting to disengage from the intimidating Noxian.
Darius was faster.
With a frightening roar, Darius brought his massive weapon behind his back and bent his knees before springing far into the air. His axe arched through the air, leaving the traces of blood on it trailing behind it. The creature stopped, either frozen out of fear or curiosity of what would happen next, and stared up into the oncoming brutal onslaught. Darius brought the roar to his loudest volume and landed the axe clean through the now fragile looking purple demon.
With a sickening squelch, the massive axe flew through the enemy which nearly exploded in purple foam. Darius landed and prepared to strike more, as needed, when he looked up from his partially squatting position and saw nothing. Where there had once been a nearly dead fiersome predator, there was simply a large bloodstain and empty air. Suddenly, the creature appeared nearly thirty feet away before launching into the air with it's somehow still attached wings. It was fleeing, clearly regretting assaulting the two even though they had been fighting at the beginning of the assault.
Darius realized he was breathing hard, keeping his lungs circulating, ready for the fight to continue. He quickly turned around and looked to the blonde light mage, who was also ready to continue their fight, but seemed reluctant. Darius realized he didn't really wish to fight any longer either, he had sustained slight damage between their fight and the fight with the unknown creature.
Luxanna held onto her want tightly, Darius noticed. She was clearly prepared for him to make the first move. Darius slowly swiveled his axe around his back, underneath the dark red cloak he wore, and into hidden latched that would keep his weapon secured to his back. For the umpteenth time, Darius was surprised when Luxanna's wand merely dissolved into the air with only a slight fall of sparkles where it had once rested in her hands. Clearly, they had come to some kind of agreement.
Although Darius didn't really wish to turn his back on Luxanna, who had just helped him survive against an unknown opponent, he knew it would me necessary to survive. The memory from that morning in the hallway flashed through his mind. Darius gave a long sigh before grudgingly saying, "Come on, lets find somewhere to hide out until the summoner's bring us back." He then turned his back and strode away, almost hoping the light mage would turn down his offer to help survive until they got back to the Institute of War.
He didn't want to help Luxanna, but she had helped him, and paying one's debts was necessary, and it was far more likely they would not get ambushed by a similar opponent if they stayed together. Darius could probably handle it on his own, but Luxanna would be down very quickly, so he would pay his debt through simply looking after her until the summoners figured out what had happened in Twisted Treeline and brought them back.
To Darius' slight relief and chagrin, Luxanna did indeed show up slightly behind him, trailing his footsteps by far enough to react if he suddenly turned on her. She's smart, Darius thought, I'll give her that. Darius strode through the rough foliage, plowing through the undergrowth with his strength and leaving a path for Luxanna to follow.
It wasn't long before Darius saw a cave entrance that could likely serve as protection for a night if such a long time were needed. He made his way over to it and paused at the entrance. If there were already a resident for the protective shelter. To test his theory, Darius let out a monstrous roar into the cave, shaking the pebbles and stirring the ground beneath his feet. When no returning sound came other than his echo, Darius figured it would be mostly safe. He turned to find Luxanna staring at him untrustingly, probably for his seemingly random outburst of noise.
Darius wordlessly went into the cave, and was happy to find it wasn't that deep. It only went in roughly 75 feet. In addition, it had previously functioned as quite a few animal's residences, and therefore the ground was dirt instead of only hard stone. My luck just keeps getting better, Darius thought dryly.
He moved to one side of the inner most reach of the cave and popped two different latches on his shoulders, one dropping his cloak down onto the floor as a blanket, the other to drop his axe upon the floor as well. He aimed the axe to land down next to his blanket, and it did since he had a lot of practice with this monotonous action.
He noticed Luxanna slowly following over to the opposite side of the cave, where she stopped. "Make yourself at home," Darius said, "There isn't much to do until the summoner's recall us with their magic."
Luxanna slowly moved opposite him and began to sit down on the mostly soft earth. Darius noticed her wince as she got down to a sitting position, propping her back up against the wall of the cave. He suddenly remembered the grevious wound inflicted on her thigh.
He got up and began to walk towards Luxanna, pulling out a healing potion he had originally bought at the shot in Twisted Treeline as he moved over to her. She looked at him suspiciously until she saw the healing potion come out of his clothing, realizing what he was intending to do. Darius got down on one knee to become level with the girl, about to hand her the potion then thinking better of it.
"Normally, I'd give this to you to drink, but since the damage is generally confined to one spot, it should be administered directly," Darius said, having gained a very good understanding of how the potions worked during his stint in the League. He realized that even though the damage in question had been easily noticeable, having tore through clothing and underarmor alike, it was no longer visible. Then Luxanna dispelled a smaller spell she had been holding onto and he realized she had been bending the light around her wound, effectively keeping it hidden.
Luxanna herself gasped after seeing the wound again. It was about an entire inch deep, but the bleeding had stopped for the most part. Dark red blood oozed in the wound still, but Darius knew the potion would heal the damage. He deftly uncorked the bottle and slowly poured it into the deep gash, not allowing a single drop of healing to go anywhere but into the wound.
After doing so, the wound began to stitch up before their very eyes once again, though this time was for real. Luxanna breathed a sigh of relief, the pain had obviously let up. "Darius," she ventured cautiously, "Thank you."
"We are not friends, Luxanna," Darius said unhappily, "Through some misbegotten acquisition of debt I am helping you now, and it wasn't a fair fight anyway since we started in such close proximity." He walked back to his own space and sat down on the cloak he had deposited on the ground.
"Nobody calls me Luxanna except for my parents," the mage said emotionlessly, "Just call me Lux."
"Fine, Lux," Darius said snidely, "Since you are a mage, do you have any theories about what happened on the altar? Do you know where we are?"
"My guess is that since the altars are fairly new, some kind of extraneous scenario played out causing us to be teleported after capturing the point instead of simply capturing it," Lux said in an already bright voice, "But, no. I don't know where we are." She said the last sentence with a moniker of regret and sadness.
Darius wondered what he was doing as he pulled out another health potion and tossed it too her. "Here," He grudgingly said, "In case the wound opens up."
"Thanks," Lux said hesitantly.
They sat is silence for what seemed forever. There was still light outside. The entrance to the cave was slightly upwards slanted from the end, so there was a small amount of light that made it in even as it would get later. The light grew darker very quickly. Then it got quite dark and started to rain.
It had to be nearing nightime. Darius tried to think about anything, everything, other than how he was here, but could only focus on how he was stuck in a small cave with the postergirl of his enemy. And he had helped her.
He distracted himself by taking off his pauldrons, feeling more assured with the rain that no creature would attempt to ambush them in the cave.
There was a cliche crash of thunder and Lux visibly flinched. Darius looked closer and saw she was shivering. Clearly her outfit wasn't the most thermal protecting. Still better than Ahri though.
Darius sighed even deeper than he had when leading her off from their fight. "Lux," He said, slowly saying every word, wanting to find himself unable to say each one as they were said, "Come over here, it's getting cold and fires don't work inside caves."
Lux acquiesed, slowly standing, stretching her limbs, before closing the five foot gap between them. Darius realized he hadn't needed to use his axe to close that gap this time. He scooted over and took the cloak out from under him, allowing Lux to sit where he had been sitting which was now warm from his muscular form.
As Lux sat down uncomfortably close to Darius, he deftly threw the makeshift blanket over their bodies. Both of them stared straight ahead, neither wanting to confront the awkward situation they found themselves in. Darius furiously glowered to the other side of the cave, unwilling to show Lux even the slightest more compassion.
Then she started to shiver again due to muscle inactivity and cold. Darius couldn't even believe what was coming out of his mouth when he said, "I officially give you permission to hold onto my arm for the purposes of sharing warmth."
Lux turned to look at Darius, trying to read his face, but all he did was keep staring straight ahead, unwilling to allow his vision to confirm the situation at hand. She hesitantly reached over to his right elbow and pulled it over to her chest. Darius realized she had removed the armor on her person, leaving the blue jumpsuit as the only real protection she had from the cold. It was thick, but skintight and easily chilled through.
Unfortunately for Darius, this meant his elbow was now firmly encased by Lux's arms and breasts, which molded to the shape of his forearm musles. Darius began to grit his teeth, drawing all nerve response information from his arm and immediately linking it up to his mental trash bin.
The rain continued outside with it's normally calming sound. Darius leaned his head back and looked toward the ceiling. There wasn't anything to see. Suddenly it got a whole bunch darker in the cave. Darius could barely see anything. Eventually his eyes adjusted and he looked around for an explanation, before quickly finding one.
Lux had fallen asleep, head on his shoulder, arm held to her body for warmth. When she had fallen asleep, a light providing spell she had slipped into the cave when they first got in had been extinguished. Her bright hair fell across her face, obscuring her expression from the world. Darius tenderly drew his left hand across his body and lightly brushed the golden wisps behind her ear. For the first time, Darius saw Lux as she was to most people. Her face looked peaceful, not fiersome, and actually quite cute with her mouth slightly agape to breathe while sleeping.
Darius realized what he was thinking and almost vomited. What am I thinking? he wondered angrily. Lux is the enemy on Noxus, he fiercely smoldered. Then he stopped. He realized he respected her. She had fought him and taken a severe wound, but not allowed that to hold her back from helping him drive off the monstrous creature that had ambushed them. She had walked through the thick jungle for probably roughly an hour on that wound and had not showed even a single sign of weakness during that whole time. She had accepted his help when needed, but not asked for it.
And now she trusted him enough to fall asleep on his arm. Darius sighed the deepest he had all day. She had true strength. Were she a Noxian by birth, he knew, she would have become a prominent figure in her own right. He realized she was a powerful opponent and worthy of respect. She had also kept quiet, wisely knowing that to provoke the Hand of Noxus in a confined space would be detrimental to both of them.
Darius felt the bond of respect that he felt with few others present between him and Lux. He knew she would watch over him if he slept and she were awake. Darius realized he was quite tired from his exertion during the day and closed his eyes, falling asleep almost instantly in the sudden safety of realizing he was in the presence of an ally.
Darius awoke, and slowly ground his eyes open. He turned his head over to see if Lux had awoken and was confronted by her large blue eyes staring directly into his. And there they stayed, locked by each other's gaze. Eventually the awkwardness became too much and Darius was about to turn away, when a blinding flash of blue came, and he found himself in a private summoning chamber, surrounded by nearly fifteen summoners.
After the summoner's cheered for a minute, clearly happy they had figured out what was going on, Draven showed up through the door and made the cheesiest pose ever, throwing his hands up into the air, shouting, "Brother! I was almost worried about you there." Then Draven ran up to his brother and embraced him in a great manly hug. The flashes of picture demons told the true tale behind why Draven was being so . . . Draven.
Darius was shell shocked. Straight from cuddling with an enemy of Noxus to embracing his blood brother. How had life gotten so complicated?
Author's Note: Well, here it is. Fluff for the masses. So much for getting tons updated this week, two tests can do that to you. Anyway, here it is. Darius x Lux. Hope you liked it. Lux didn't say much, but I kinda thought it was better that way.
Anyway, as always, please review. If you hated it, tell me why, I'll make the next stuff better! Stay tuned for more of other stuff.