Set after "The Warden and the Ticking Seed".

Actual genres would be along the lines of romance, humor, horror, spiritual I guess. Can't add more than two to the tags though.

Departure

Ahri walked down the stairs and to the entrance. Someone had knocked, but she wasn't expecting anyone. Well, not at that hour. She had planned to meet with Thresh later that evening, but it was still early in the afternoon. Yawning since her nap had been interrupted, she grabbed the handle and opened the door. Outside was... a small, purple creature, around the size of a large cat. It somewhat resembled a bug, though only vaguely, had four pointed legs -each ending with a spike rather than an actual foot or paw- and three large, yellow eyes. It was holding something in its mouth. A letter.

Ahri kneeled down and took the letter, closed with a purple and oddly large wax seal, and opened it. The message was rather short. And, it was the one she had been waiting for since a couple of weeks. She had finally been invited for dinner, the following week. Even better, he clearly said she could bring a few people with her, as long as Kassadin wasn't one of them. Ahri then walked back inside -followed by the voidling-, closed the door, put the letter back inside its envelope, folded it and placed it on top of the closest piece of furniture. Then she kneeled down and took the voidling, which had been staring at her with an high-level poker face for the whole time, in her arms as if it were a cat.

"Now then, who to drag along?" she wondered as she walked in circles, her tails flailings behind her. The voidling seemed to enjoy being petted and kept silent.

Three or four people, five at most. Any more and she would have probably had to warn him about there being more guests than expected, aside from bringing too many people being unpolite. After a while, she decided. And she also found a systemation for the voidling. The letter said it was a gift, but she didn't fell the need of a pet.

Things had been rather... normal for Thresh since he had come back from Piltover, around ten days ago. He had somehow managed to avoid any meeting between Orianna and Ahri, mainly because he didn't want that fox to influence his new toy in any way. On the other hand, Orianna's development hadn't progressed much. She had apparently never been outside of that theatre for long periods of times, and her knowledge of the world -and her common sense as well- were incredibly lacking. And while teaching her some of the extremely basic things had proved to be actually rather entertaining, that still wasn't what he had planned to do.

He was sitting on an old wooden chair, inside an abandoned house, the original owner harvested a long time ago. Orianna was outside. She seemed to be curious about Ionia's forests and wildlife, but Thresh got the feeling that her interest was fake. That wouldn't be the first time he saw her doing something for no other reason than imitating a normal living person, and with little success. He should have fixed that attitude, but not at that moment. He was staring -and being stared at by- the Ball. He had yet to figure out what its link with Orianna was exactly. He had a few ideas about that, but none had been neither confirmed nor disproved. After a few minutes he looked outside, then stood up and walked out. Orianna was nearby, and it took him less than five minutes to find her. Actually, all he had to do was follow the ethereal line linking her and the Ball together.

"Orianna"

She moved her gaze from a small bird resting on a tree to Thresh.

"I have a few things to do, I probably will not come back before morning. A sort of hassle, but one I have to put up with. Do not wander too far from the house while I am away"

She stared at him for a few moments, then nodded.

"I'lL Be a goOD gIrL" she said before turning around. The bird was gone. Within the Ball, something clicked rather loudly.

Thresh walked away, sighing as he headed to Ahri's house. He was getting tired of that. Or maybe he had gotten tired already and simply had yet to realize that.

What he found was... unexpected. The door wasn't locked, but that was rather normal. What surprised him was that Ahri was preparing her luggages -four of them- as if she had to leave for a rather long journey.

"... going somewhere?" he asked.

"Yes" she replied as she took a few clothes from a wardrobe and tried to fit them inside a suitcase "I've been invited for dinner, and since it's pretty far I'm packing some stuff"

"Far seems like an understatement" he said as he looked at the suitcases. If luck was on his side, their "session" had just been canceled "Where are you going this time?"

"Shurima. Actually, the place is closer to the borders than it is to the capital, but still Shurima"

"Well, have fun" he said as he turned around to walk away.

"Oh, we will"

He froze.

"... we?"

"I was planning on bringing a few people along. Of course, you are one of said people"

"And why would I be one of them?"

"Why wouldn't you be?" she replied as she closed one of the luggages.

He didn't like it when people did other things while talking with him. Ahri was doing that exactly because she knew, and Thresh was well aware of that. They stared at each other for a few moments, in silence. Then he spoke.

"Listen, fox. This thing has gone on for long enough. I am getting tired of this... relationship of ours, or whatever this thing between us is. You were rather useful from time to time, and it was entertaining every now and then, but I am tired of being treated like one of your belongings"

Ahri didn't reply at first. Her tails were standing almost still, her eyes locked on his. Then, a smile appeared on her face.

"One last time" she said "Come to Shurima and bear with me this last time. Before we come back I'll give you a reason not to leave me. If I can't convince you before then, I'll never bother you again"

"... why would I believe that?"

Ahri laughed softly.

"Don't you trust me?" she asked playfully as she kept packing her stuff.

"No sane person would trust you" he replied as he walked up to her "But then again, sanity is not one of my strong points. However" he said as he grabbed her arm, his phalanxes digging into her skin and flesh, blood quiclky pouring from the wounds "If you fail to give me a valid reason, I will go through all the troubles of the case and finally harvest you"

Ignoring the pain, Ahri smiled. "Finally", he said. She was... happy that he had used that word. In a certain way. Then, her arm caught fire, and a blue flame engulfed Thresh's arm, from the fingertips to the elbow. Just like she was doing with his grasp, he pretended the fire wasn't hurting him at all.

"What makes you think you can harvest me?"

"What makes you think I cannot?"

They stood there like that for a few seconds, staring at each other. He, into her eyes which had temporarily turned slightly purple. She, inside the empty eye sockets of his skull. Then, Ahri took his sickle with her free arm with a relaxed movement of her hand and brought it up, close to her own face. She placed the tip of the blade on her forehead, and... ran it down her face, with enough force to make blood pour from the wound but not enough to cause any real harm. She moved the blade from the middle of her forehead to her right cheek, making sure not to injure her eye. Thresh was amazed at how close to her own eye she could get with the blade without cutting it. Then, she brought the scythe back up and drew another red line on her face, following the same pattern as before.

An alluring sight. Ahri was probably the only person in Ionia who would do something like that only to tease Thresh. The sight of her own fresh blood on her face was indeed alluring, stirring up his cruel tendencies. As she kept doing that, the flames engulfing their arms grew a bit stronger. His grip tightened, his fingers digging deepter into her skin. Not really to hurt her, but rather to keep himself calm. Responding to that would have meant playing her game. In a few minutes, seven cuts had been carved on Ahri's face. The flow of blood hard caused her to close her right eye. Then, she stopped and lowered the sickle.

"We have a deal?" she asked.

"... we have a deal"

Thresh pulled his hand away as the flames died down. Ahri handed him his scythe, and he took it with his scorched arm. He looked at it. Those flames hadn't caused him any permanent damage, but the burns they caused were nothing to laugh about. It would have probably taken him at least a week to completely recover. Doing anything which required precision with that hand was most likely inadvisable for the following days. As for Ahri, she placed two fingers on one of the small holes on her arm, her expression twitching slightly as she did so, to check exactly how bad the wound was. As for the ones on her face, she seemed not to pay them much attention, though they were incredibly eye-catching. Her arm would have probably taken a while to recover too, given how much strenght Thresh had put into his grasp. And, while Ahri healed faster than a normal person, recovering from wounds inflicted by Thresh took longer than normal.

Thresh was... a bit happy, and a bit annoyed. He didn't respond to her provocation, and she was also the one who proposed to stop first. He won that confrontation. On the other hand, he had agreed to go to Shurima with her. Just like him, Ahri was partially happy and partially displeased.

"Who are the others you are planning to bring along?" he asked as he contemplated her wounded body.

"Well, not many. Just Annie and... Nami? Probably"

"Annie is in Ionia? And why would you bring those two along? Actually, no, I do not want to know. Just... do the parents of Annie know? They are among the last persons on Runeterra I want to make enemies out of. And I thought Nami had no intention of seeing you again after... you know"

"Don't worry, I'll take care of everyting" she replied as she started to seach for something, probably a few bandages.

"If you say so. Then... I have someone to bring along too"

Ahri's hears twitched.

"Oh my, this is really unexpected. Who is that?"

"You will meet her when we depart"

"Her?" she askesd, a mischievous smile on her face.

He didn't really like the idea of Orianna and Ahri meeting. But the thought of leaving the mechanical girl behind was something he liked even less. To avoid further questions, he asked her where to meet and when for the departure then walked away through the walls, to reach the door a bit faster.

When Thresh came back -much earlier than expected- he found Orianna in front of the abandoned house. She was sitting on top of the Ball, which was floating slightly closer to the ground than usual. There was a small bird in her hands. A dead bird. She had cut its chest open and was taking pieces out of its ribcage, her face lacking any expression. Wjocj was normal for her. When she raised her head to look at Thresh she had just grabbed the small animal's heart.

"Orianna, do you have any problems with the sand? It does not get in your gears or anything like that, I hope"

Orianna tried to mimic what was probably supposed to be a startled expression.

"No, wE hAvE noT. WhY do YOu AsK?"

"We are going to a different playground for a while"

As if to answer, Orianna winded the key on her back. The Ball emitted a few sounds. He was getting a grasp on how to roughly interpret the sounds it emitted, and though he wasn't sure, it seemed like the Ball was fine with that too.

A couple of days later, at dawn. Thresh and Orianna were in front of Ahri's house, staring at the... ship. There was a relatively large ship parked there, its hull modified to allow it to land on the ground rather than only on water. Land, since that was a flying ship. It had two large airscrews where the sails were supposed to be, and there were two hextech propellers on each side. It looked like a ship of Bilgewater customized at Piltover. Thresh wondered exactly how much money Ahri gained from being a pop star. Granted, the ship was overall small, most likely meant to host no more than about ten people, but still...

Then he heard something. He turned to the house. Ahri had just came out, followed by Tibbers. The poor dire bear -his flames currently extinguished- was carrying five luggages. Annie was on its back, together with a... was that a voidling? Why was a voidling there? When the little girl saw Thresh she energetically waved her hands at him, at which he replied with a somewhat lazy gesture. He liked Annie. She was growing into a fine sadist, cruel enough to burn people for no other reason than finding them prettier when alight, and she was crazy enough to consider him funny, but right now he had other thoughts on his mind. He noticed that Ahri's arm was wrapped in bandages, just like part of her forehead and her right eye and cheek. He took delight in that.

"WhO ArE tHEy?" Orianna asked.

"Traveling companions I would say. We are not going to toy with them, Orianna. It would be too much of an hassle. And they are better off alive than dead, for us"

For now, at least he thought as he kept looking at Ahri's hidden eye.

"... maybe you can get along with the little girl" he said then, and in response both Orianna and the Ball fixed their gazes on Annie.

Ahri told Annie to bring the luggages on the ship -there was a large door leading directly inside, rather than a stair to get to the deck- and walked up to Thresh and Orianna, her gaze locked on the mechanical girl.

"I must say, this is surprising"

"As much as you owning something like that" Thresh said as he pointed to the ship.

"I had money to spend" she said as she offered Orianna her hand "I'm Ahri"

Orianna, in reponse, looked at her fingers for a few moments, as if she was trying to remember whas she was supposed to do, then shook it, with a far too mechanical movement.

"I Am OrIaNnA. ThIs iS tHe BAlL" she replied as she pointed to the ball with what was probably supposed to be an educate gesture but came off as an odd and unclear one.

"You know, she's warmer than you to the touch" Ahri told Thresh as she laughed.

"Orianna, wait for me on the ship"

She kept staring at Ahri for a few moments, then nodded and walked inside, followed by the Ball, which had its eye fixed on Ahri.

"Where did you find her? And what actually is she?" she asked.

"She is my current pastime. She was gathering dust in Piltover. I would greatly appreciate it if you do not interact too much with her. I am still trying to figure her out, and I do not know exactly how impressionable she is. The last thing I want to see is her starting to imitate you"

Ahri laughed. A bit too loudly, thought Thresh.

"What does that even mean?" she asked.

"I thought you said Nami was coming too" he said, ignoring her question.

"She's already inside"

"How did you convince her? I mean, you kind of forced yourself on her not too long ago. The fact that I had to take part in that only makes it worse"

"Oh, don't think too much about that" she replied, her eyes turning purple for a brief moment as she smiled. A rather eloquent reply.

"Alright, I do not really care. More importantly, Ahri. Why is a voidling with Annie?"

"Oh, that. It was with the dinner invitation. A sort of gift, and since I knew Annie was in Ionia I thought about letting her have it. She seems to like it"

That was when Thresh realized something. There was one question he hadn't asked her. At first he thought it didn't matter much, but now he had an horrible foreboding.

"... Ahri, who is it that invited you for dinner?"

"Oh, didn't I tell you?" she replied as she headed to the ship "We're going to Cho'Gath's summer estate"

"... as if this journey would not have been weird enough going to the house of a normal person... wait, Cho'Gath owns an estate? And how do you two know each other?" he asked as he followed Ahri.

"Come on, Thresh. He is a wealthy gentleman and I am a wealthy singer. You can figure it out by yourself"

I probably would he thought if we were talking about a normal wealthy gentleman and a normal wealthy singer. ... wait, gentleman?

Wondering just what he had gotten himself into, Thresh stepped inside the ship.

First chapter out.

Thank you for reading.