Ahri and Sona wiped sweat off their brows,almost at the same time,muscles aching as they slumped at the foot of the stairway leading into the upscale Noxian apartment they and Emilia (or as others tended to address her,Mme. Leblanc) were moving into.
They'd borrowed Vi's truck for the past couple days,and they'd more or less shifted in everything they wanted to take. Everything except...the unnaturally dense behemoth that was Emilia's dresser,now sitting at the foot of the stairs with them. Ahri insisted that the two of them could move in everything by themselves and give Emilia a nice surprise,so they'd brought it onto the truck,off the truck,and now here. Getting it up the stairway was...a whole other matter.
Ahri sighed. "Sona,how was I supposed to know that we'd need Emi's identification for us to use the service elevator? B-besides,we carried everything else up. We can pull this off,too!"
Cut to five minutes later,and they were decidedly...NOT pulling it off. Sona grunted and sweated,straining as she brought up the rear end of the dresser,glaring accusingly at Ahri,who was bearing the decidedly easier load of holding up the front end and walking backwards up the stairs.
Feeling Sona's intense gaze on her forehead,Ahri looked her in the eyes. "O-okay,I admit,this was...poorly thought out. I got Darius' number,we could call-"
Cut off by the furrowing of Sona's brow,she changed her tack. "Gragas is around this week,he could help!"
Finally losing her patience,Sona lifted one hand to sign back angrily,before realizing too late that heavy objects didn't stop existing just because your girlfriend was only just becoming aware of how much of a fool she was making of the two of you for the sake of impressing your other girlfriend.
Slam.
The edge of the dresser went down remorselessly.
Another ten minutes later,they were sitting sullenly on the sidewalk,considering their next move. Ahri'd dashed down to the corner store and gotten a bandage and some iodine for the swelling,bleeding wound on Sona's big toe,and a bit of flailing and screaming later,it was patched up as good as it could be.
Just when they were deciding to slide it back out onto the side of the road,a tap on the shoulder interrupted them.
"Afternoon. I trust the two of you are almost done with the heavy lifting? I dare say the two of you look like Vi's towels after her workout."
"Caitlyn!" Ahri leapt to her feet,cheer returning to her face. "What are you doing here?"
"Well,Vi couldn't make it today." Caitlyn smiled knowingly. "She's got...paperwork to take care of. A lot of it. So,she very politely asked if I could come fetch the lorry back to our place. So I had Jayce drive us up here."
"Heya." Standing by a lamp post and doing his best not to look conspicuous in a neighbourhood he was clearly out of place in,Jayce raised his hand in greeting.
"I CAN bring it back,right?" Caitlyn quirked an eyebrow,noticing Ahri stiffen at mention of the truck.
"Well,yeah. We already moved everything off. It's just that..." Ahri moved to put her arm around Sona's shoulder again,being met with a thankfully cool response.
"Just that..." Caitlyn was used to people being reluctant to spit the whole truth out. "Look,if you scratched or dented anything,I can-"
"It's not thaaaat." Ahri groaned,inviting concerned looks from the three others. Even Sona glanced at her,her anger largely melted away,even in light of the throbbing in her toe.
"I just...thought we could have everything in by the time Emi got off work. And we can! If not for this..." Ahri bit her lip,doing her best to suppress her tears and not call the dresser a particularly rude name. "This...thing."
"Oh,is that it? I'm sure Jayce and I could work out something-" Before Caitlyn could finish,Jayce,considerably more interested in a test of his ingeniousness,opened up the trunk of his car and brought out some sort of board with wheels attached,looking like that thing car mechanics used,before striding over to where the dresser was,closely examining it from various angles.
"This? This is easy." Jayce began,before he caught sight of Ahri's quivering lip. "What I mean to say is...this is not impossible! If we place an inclined plane along the length of each staircase,and extend this little device underneath (with built-in straps and braces,I might add)-"
"Get to the point,if you please?" Caitlyn interjected. "These poor dears aren't Mundocorp sponsors you know."
"Right!" Jayce snapped to attention,with at least the decency to look sheepish. "The point,is,I could probably push it all the way up to the thirtieth floor with this baby!"
"You guys...aren't on the thirtieth floor,are you?"
At any rate,with a few planks fished out from behind a dumpster by Ahri and Sona,and with the assurance that no,it was just the tenth floor,Jayce stood at the foot of the stairs,ready to roll that dresser to the stars.
The events of the next fifteen seconds or so practically passed in slow motion.
Jayce took the stairs at a run.
With him behind it,the dresser slid up swiftly.
One of the planks,a bit too brittle,fractured under the weight of the dresser.
Jayce and the dresser slid just as swiftly back to the entrance,losing their balance.
Just as it was about to fall over on it's side,Vi stepped out,practically out from nowhere,throwing her arm out to stabilize the dresser.
And somehow...somehow,Vi misjudged her strength by a huge margin.
And half of the plywood back of the dresser was reduced to splinters.
And so the now-party of five returned to the sidewalk,Ahri staring disconsolately at what might as well have been the splinters of her hopes for a happy housewarming.
It was Caitlyn that broke the silence. "Vi...what in the world are you doing here?"
Vi gulped. "Oh! Well uh...I finished. Early. So I decided to come up too,check on you all." She hoped Caitlyn wouldn't figure out that "finished" was code for "dumped half the papers into the shredder".
Silence fell again briefly,before Vi remembered what she'd just unwittingly done,and reached out to Ahri,who was on her knees before the smashed dresser,Sona resting her hands reassuringly on her shoulders.
"I'm sorry,I..."
Sona shook her head in response,beginning to sign before pausing. Considering the others (or at least Vi and Jayce) wouldn't understand,she took out her notepad and wrote instead.
"We'll be fine. You should go." That last bit was pressed down firmly.
"Y-yeah,if you say so. See you around..." With polite nods and the tipping of hats,they walked back to Jayce's car,driving off.
Two hours later,Ahri and Sona were showered,dried,and in considerably better spirits.
Mainly because they were curled up snugly on the couch in the apartment,both their heads in Emilia's lap,having their hair stroked gently.
"Dears,you really needn't have worried. We'll break it up and dump it tomorrow." Emilia sighed. "It was about time for me to get a new one anyway. A smaller,lighter one."
At that,Sona chuckled,signing up to Emilia. "Ahri just really wanted to impress you. Besides,Milia,I'm sure Ahri would love to have some of your clothes in HER closet."
"Hey!" Ahri blushed,reaching back to tap Sona on the forehead. "That...would be lovely,though." She bit her lip,her cheeks red.
"Not like you haven't tried them on already,hmm?" Emilia smiled,a teasing tone in her voice.
They lay like that for a few more moments,in warm,loving silence. The tension and discomfort from earlier in the day washed away from them.
Ahri sighed contentedly,hands reaching up and back to cup Emilia and Sona's cheeks. "I...I love you. So,so much."
Sona nodded. "Love you too."
"And I love the both of you." Emilia looked down at them for a few more moments,before adding. "Now how's about we make some dinner? Better break in the kitchen."
And so,a new chapter of their life together began.