Author's Note- Hello, loves! I thought this was a cute idea, but midway I wanted to scrap it until I decided that, whether or not I liked it, someone else was bound to. It's not that bad, after I messed around with the ending a bit. So read it, review it, love it, and thank you!


Deconstruction

Lulu didn't enjoy the night. Night meant she was to be cold and alone for the next few hours. Lulu didn't enjoy the cold, and she certainly didn't enjoy being alone. Night meant she would curl up and shiver, left only with her thoughts. Her thoughts meant reality, and she didn't like reality. Tonight would be different, she decided.

The purple yordle entered Veigar's room without so much as knocking. He was her only friend, her most-trusted companion, and favorite confidant. He was standing at a vanity, shortened to accommodate his height, staring at his faintly furry reflection in a wash basin. Lulu figured he was just going to clean up before going to sleep, armor and all, until she noticed ripples in the water.

"Veigar?" She asked hesitantly, taking a few steps closer. She realized that since he wasn't wearing his hat, she could see his head. He had white hair and blue skin like Tristana, she noticed. Veigar jumped, putting his hat on and whirling around. His eyes glowed yellow and Lulu pouted now that his face was obscured again.

"Y-you again? What are you doing here?" He still refused to call Lulu by her name, but she was okay with it. She peered at his face, trying to find any trace of a frown or red-rimmed eyes, but his face was completely hidden.

"Were you crying, Veigar?"

"What? No! Don't be silly!" Veigar took a few steps back as Lulu advanced towards him, pulling the brim down over his eyes.

"Veigar, wait!" Lulu called, reaching for his hat, which was already quite far from her outstretched hand. "Take your hat off again. I've never seen your face...I-I don't know what you look like."

Veigar backed up until he hit the wall, staying silent. Lulu persisted, looking increasingly desperate.

"You can't. There's a reason I don't let anyone see me, stupid fairy sorceress," Veigar insisted, the frown he was wearing evident in his voice.

"It's okay." Lulu smiled at him comfortingly. "I don't judge, I don't bite, and I promise I won't tell anyone else. I just want to help."

Veigar looked at her for a long time, watching her smile and how it never faded. He watched her bangs shift as she tilted her head to the right and how she didn't brush them away because she was looking at him. Her green eyes were soft and her smile was warm, and Veigar swore he felt his hand twitch toward her, although he curbed any movement almost immediately. He didn't want to look like he wanted to talk to her because he didn't. That was absurd.

"You can't help me," Veigar muttered, his words sounding sad even to his own ears. The Tiny Master of Evil was alone in every sense of the word, and he knew it.

"I can't help you because you won't let me! I really do care for you, Veigar. I'm not like everyone else, and neither are you. We're different and alone except when we're together. It's like…being alone together." Lulu paused, unsure if she was making any sense or if she was babbling again. "I know you're tired and hurt. I know that you're emotionally drained, but I beg of you, please let me in. I don't want to see you in pain anymore."

"I don't want to hurt any longer…"

"I know, Veigar. I know." Veigar sighed, and for a while silence reigned. Their thoughts ran rampant, but Lulu didn't mind it this time. Here, at least, she wasn't alone.

The two sat together on the floor, one across from the other. There was only a remnant of a smile left on Lulu's face as she looked around the room, looking unaffected by the confusion and despair felt by Veigar. Keeping her face angled to a corner off to the side, she slid her viridian eyes over to the mage in front of her. Her hand lifted from her lap and skimmed over the floor, hovering just in front of Veigar's large metal hand. She turned to face him fully, shyly placing her tiny hand over his. He looked at her, startled, but didn't utter a word. She smiled back at him sadly, touching her fingers to his cloth-covered arm. Veigar shivered but remained still.

Lulu very, very slowly undid the latch on his metal hand, offering as much time as she could to be rejected. Veigar said nothing. With a series of tiny clicks that she had to strain her ears to hear, Veigar's mechanical hand fell away, and Lulu allowed it to clatter noisily to the floor in shock. She stared unblinkingly at Veigar's crippled hand, small, frail, and broken beyond repair. Lulu slapped her hands over her mouth, trying desperately to lock in sound. Her emerald eyes were glassy and brimmed with tears as she looked at her friend's hand. Veigar shifted uncomfortably, ashamed, and began to bring his exposed hand towards his body as if to shield it from Lulu. Lulu, rather than scramble away in horror, leaned closer, catching his hand and cradling it.

"Does it hurt?" She asked in a quiet voice, holding his hand worriedly. Veigar shook his head.

"Not anymore," he said, though he sounded as though he was in pain.

Lulu looked up at him, her eyes wide. "Veigar? Are you alright? You said it didn't hurt, so what's wrong?"

Veigar turned his head away, glaring at his hand with his topaz eyes. "I'm disgusting," he hissed, the distorted skin on his hand flexing as it was curled into a fist. Lulu shook her head vehemently.

"No! No you aren't, Veigar. You never are." She leaned forward and brought his hand to her mouth, tenderly placing a kiss on the back of his hand. "It's okay," she whispered, crying. "I'm so sorry, but it's okay."

Lulu pressed his hand to her cheek for a moment in what he supposed was a comforting gesture and gently placed it back in his lap, moving to unlatch his other metal glove. He wanted to pull away, to save Lulu's eyes from the horror of his appearance. He was so vulnerable, so raw, and so ugly. He wanted to hide, and yet, the sorceress in front of him wanted to see him, all of him, and comfort him. She was something else.

Veigar's other hand was just as crippled. He watched with curious eyes as Lulu bent her head, shaking horribly. She took a series of shuddering breaths, interrupted only by the soft sound of her tears hitting the floor.

"Why would someone do such a thing?" She asked tearily. "You aren't a bad person, Veigar, just a yordle with bad things done to you. But it isn't supposed to be like this, not at all!" A fresh wave of tears hit the floor.

"You know as well as I do that your words are lies, Fae Sorceress. Stop deflecting the truth; you're acting weak."

Lulu didn't immediately quell her crying, but it slowed enough for her to kiss the palm of his hand. "It's okay," she crooned into his hand. "It's all okay."

She continued this small act of comfort, placing a kiss on each crisscrossing scar that ran up his now bare arms, whispering a quiet "it's okay" to go along with each kiss. With light, fluid touches, she traced the scars along his back with her tiny, warm hands.

"I don't mind your scars, Veigar," Lulu said, smiling slightly. "And did you know," she paused to kiss his forehead where he had another scar, "that you taste purple?"

Veigar stared at her, his gold eyes swimming with confusion and curiosity. Lulu matched his stare, leaning closer, and closer, and closer…

The Fae Sorceress kissed him.

"YOU!" The Tiny Master of Evil yelled, pushing her and scrambling away in surprise. "What are you doing?!"

Lulu just looked at him helplessly, trying to formulate a response. "I- I just-"

Veigar sighed. "We can't. A yordle like you, and a yordle like me, we aren't friends. We aren't anything more than friends. What we are is a pair of familiar strangers with no one else, and that's it." He regretted his harsh words for a moment upon seeing her face, but no, she needed to hear it.

"Well, do you think we could start over? Could we maybe be more than familiar strangers?" The purple yordle asked hopefully. To her, he was a friend, but to him, she was nothing. She didn't want to be a stranger to him anymore.

"How could we? After everything, we can't just start over."

"Of course we can, silly! Would you?" The sorceress looked at him expectantly.

"I…suppose…"

She beamed. "Hello, my name is Lulu! What's yours?"

Very hesitantly, the Tiny Master of Evil reached out a crippled hand to grasp hers. "Hello," he said haltingly, "my name is Veigar."

They were nothing more than outcasts. They were nothing more than friends.


Author's Ramblings-

"What a terrible support I must be to be unable to heal these wounds of yours."

Hate it? Like it? Love it? Want to burn it? Want to frame it? Tell me!