Disclaimer: I'm not an owner, I'm just a random shipper.
The Hero and the Champ
Jax lay sprawled out on the forest floor, doing his very favorite thing in the entire world: sleeping. He loved to sleep, being a lazy man by nature. Similarly, his very least favorite thing in the world was being woken up. Not that he had to experience that very often. He had built a closing flap on the inside of his mask, so that rather than it granting only one-way vision, it would restrict his own vision as well. Thus, he could blissfully sleep well past noon at will, with no fear that the sun would intrude on his happy time. He slept unafraid of disturbance. Any animal with working instincts easily sensed the danger there. The forest was unnaturally silent in a five-mile radius from Jax's chosen resting place. He also had no fear of being disturbed by a sentient being. His reputation covered the realms, crossing national and even racial boundaries, and all knew of the consequences of waking him up. The dragons had a saying about letting sleeping Jaxes lie. Yes, there was not a single living being foolish enough to disturb his slumber.
"Jax, are you still sleeping? It's time to get going already! Actually, it's...well would you look at that! The sun's already out, we missed the dawn! We shoulda been gone an hour ago! Jax? Are you listening?"
Oh yes, except for her. The ever-positive, always energetic Yordle named Poppy that Jax, to his great misfortune, had somehow begun travelling with...the word 'somehow' in this case referring to her approaching him with the idea, refusing to take no for an answer, and finally simply following him around over his protests and vain attempts to elude her.
Now, Jax was a very deep sleeper. His innermost being rejected the very idea of waking up before he was ready. One might think this a detrimental trait for a warrior, but for him it was just the opposite. His subconsciousness searched out any disturbance that might force him awake, and used muscles and skills so honed that they no longer required conscious direction to eliminate that disturbance. This personal quirk of his was, of course, the cause of his reputation for being so dangerous while sleeping. He was not a particularly vicious person. Awake, he would often hold back his true fighting strength to make things interesting, occasionally even showing mercy, but asleep he had no such constraints.
Poppy approached the slothful figure, reaching out a hand to shake him awake. She never got the chance. The lamppost he carried everywhere with him, even while asleep, shot out in a crushing blow aimed at her head. A lesser being would have been unable to even see the attack before their head became pulp, but Poppy easily blocked with the buckler attached to her left arm.
"Oooh, sparing so early in the morning? You're really a go-getter, Jax!" She said approvingly, unslinging her hammer.
Jax, of course, didn't respond. However, his subconscious noted that the cause of the disturbance had NOT been eliminated, and commandeered more of his body's resources to remedy this. He got up, sleepwalking as it were, and proceeded to fall into one of his usual attack patterns. He gripped the lamppost with both hands and rained down blow after blow on his diminutive opponent, each consecutive attack gaining speed and strength. Poppy blocked all the blows easily at first, but as they got faster and stronger she had to commit more and more of her defenses to avoid being crushed.
The longer the fight went on, the closer to wakefullness Jax became, and the more his attacks began to resemble an actual strategy rather than simple overpowering strikes. Poppy began to take glancing blows here and there. She could no longer block with only her buckler, the blows were too strong. She now had to block every attack with both her buckler and her hammer, which sent Jax into his signature finishing patterns. He brought his lamppost down in what appeared to be a full-force strike, but was actually a feint. Poppy's buckler and hammer were both braced over her head for the strike, leaving her vulnerable when the makeshift weapon came down and around in a devastating blow to the chest. Jax came fully awake just as he was delivering the fatal blow. He tried to soften it, but he knew it wouldn't be enough. He struck Poppy directly on her breastplate, sending her flying more than a dozen feet backwards before crashing into a tree and collapsing facedown, unmoving on the ground.
Poor kid, Jax thought regretfully. Then he shrugged. Oh well. At least I'll be able to go back to sleep now. As he turned to do just that, he heard a strange sound. He spun back around to see Poppy pulling herself to her feet, laughing.
"Wow, Jax! Sparring with you is intense! They don't call you the champ for nothing!" She coughed and put her hand over the spot where she was struck. "I think I'm gonna need to do some work on this breastplate before it'll be useful again. You really pulverized it."
Jax's eyes bulged. Poppy couldn't see it, of course, which was the entire point of his mask, and his voice, ever apathetic, gave away none of his surprise. "Maybe you shouldn't get up so soon. That one looked like it hurt."
Poppy laughed again. "One thing about me: I'm not very good at staying down."
A/N: I've been threatening to do it, and I finally started it. A Jax/Poppy story. I don't know if the story will ever reach a point where we can actually call it a pairing though. Up til now, my romance stories have had a decided lack of...well...romance. Nevertheless, I do know approximately where I'm going with this, and I'm not stopping until I get there! Poppy would be so proud *sniff*. Hopefully we'll at least get a little fluffy before we get there.
