nonage n. 1: minority, 2a: a period of youth b: lack of maturity
A/N: This was written back before Poppy's rework when Poppy was the Demancian Ambassador.
The first time Poppy saw her she was skipping circles around a very confused looking voidling in the center of the grand staircase. She sang some lilting childish tune, swinging her staff to some unheard rhythm. Glee lit her impish face even as she completely ignored those around her.
And there were so many people around her. Poppy grew more and more mortified as each passerby. It was midday. 3 different matches had just let out, 4 more were starting, and the attendants and champions and summoners all crowded together to get by. Lulu just kept at her dance, hat and sprite bobbing past their waists in an oblivious display. The heat just kept building in Poppy's face at each averted gaze and each upturned nose.
Finally she couldn't take it anymore. She strode forward, dodging knees and swinging fists. Ignoring the careless limbs as best she could, Poppy made it through to the little circle the other Yordle had carved out for herself in the middle of the living river.
"Lulu!" Poppy called out, trying her hardest to keep the annoyance from her voice. "Let's go! You're in the way!"
Lulu glanced at her, green eyes sparkling, but continued her display.
The sprite seemed to ignore her completely, until its meandering path took it over her head. Then it spun in the air and her vision exploded with sparkles.
Coughing, Poppy waved at the air in front of her, trying to clear her vision.
Lulu shouted a final "Cutilate!" and leapt up, staff held high. The voidling disappeared in a Poof! and a purple butterfly fluttered drunkenly up and away.
"You're all sparkly!" Lulu commented, finally acknowledging Poppy. "Who are you, sparkly?"
"Poppy," Poppy stated, grinding her teeth. "Are you done?"
"Popsy!" Lulu shouted happily. Then, abruptly glancing to her left and right, "You shouldn't be in here. People can't get through, silly!"
Poppy only got out a few words of her angry retort before Lulu grabbed her arm and started pulling her through the crowd. Poppy stumbled after her, desperately maneuvering to avoid stepping on Lulu's trailing purple hair. Even more frustrating, the Fae Sorceress seemed to have no problem herself flowing through the writhing forest of legs.
When they finally emerged from the crowd, Lulu dropped Poppy's arm. She leaned in close, close enough their noses almost touched.
"Blue is a bad color for you. I recommend skipping!"
And she demonstrated as she dashed away down a side hallway.
The next time she saw her Poppy was in the Institute's gardens. Poppy sat on her extra high chair across the table from Xin Zhao and the Crownguard siblings. The annual meeting between King Jarvan and Bandle City's elite needed to be organized. Poppy was halfway through laying out her plan for guarding the caravans when distraction struck.
Lulu flew around a corner on her staff, ramming the hedge as she turned in an explosion of leaves. The leaves then burst into flame as Annie rounded the corner, lobbing fireballs after the fleeing Yordle. Lulu cackled gleefully as she zoomed forward, circling the meeting, losing her hat, and disappearing around the corner. Annie dashed after her, broad smile plastered on her face as she threw another incendiary missile.
The abandoned hat floated serenely down to settle directly in the middle of the table. Then it turned into a frog.
The frog locked eyes with Poppy for a long moment before hopping off the table. Xin stood and strode forward to stomp out the smoldering foliage, and Poppy put her face in her hands.
It had been a long match, the end to an even longer day. Poppy sat at the bar, happy to finally have some time to herself. Her hammer weighed comfortably on her back, a constant in her crazy world.
She'd been doing her best to ignore the riotous party going on behind her. Vi, Gragas, and Jax seemed to have been hitting the booze even harder than usual. Poppy took a gulp of her own, resolving to hit it harder herself. All the better to ignore the rowdy carousing.
"Poppy!"
A massive hand landed on her back, and Poppy sat stock still. She didn't have the energy to deal with this. She mustered her tipsy consciousness, willing Vi to find some other victim for her drunken attentions.
"Poppy! Just the Yordle I wanted to see!" The pungent fumes formed an almost palpable fog around the brawler. "We need to borrow your hammer to settle a bet! You'll lend it to us, won't you, best tiny friend of mine?"
She'd grabbed the hammer and pulled it from Poppy's back before Poppy even had time to react. Waving it over her head triumphantly, Vi wobbled back to her table.
"Wait, stop!" Poppy jumped down from her stool as quickly as she could in her slightly inebriated state to chase after Vi. "No, you can't have that! Give it back!"
She lunged at the hammer, but, held up as it was it stayed a good couple feet out of her grasp. Poppy leapt at it anyway, barely closing any of the distance.
Gragas stumbled forward, putting a hand on her head to keep her down. Poppy swung her arms futilely, trying to dislodge him. He let out a rumbling laugh.
Now that the laughter had started, there was no stopping it. It infected the room, spreading from table to table like some insidious plague.
Each snicker, each guffaw cut deep. All she had worked for, what little respect she'd been able to scrape and bargain for over the years, washed away in a single moment. Poppy felt her face grow hot. Her eyes stung, but like hell was she going to cry in front of them and prove them right.
Bright green eyes appeared, filling her blurry field of vision.
"Popsy?"
"Lulu," Poppy growled through clenched teeth. Of all the things to have to deal with now, on top of all this. Her lip trembled.
Lulu leaned in quickly to peck her on the cheek.
Poppy's face contorted. She balled her fist to take out the offending Yordle, the one person in this room she could take with her diminutive size-
"Enormibus!"
Suddenly, the only thing Poppy saw in with her upturned gaze were ceiling beams.
She turned her gaze downward onto the suddenly silent room, on the shocked forms of her tormentors below her. Slowly, deliberately, Poppy reached out and plucked her hammer from Vi's slack mechanical fingers.
Standing out in the room as she always did, Lulu's tiny figure stared up at her smile wide.
Poppy couldn't help grinning back.
Vi and Gragas both made a point of apologizing to her the next day. Poppy accepted them graciously, if coolly, before continuing on her way. She had been invited to a tea party, and she didn't want to be late.
