Spinning
~A GarenxKat story~
Chapter 1: Katsaridaphobia
Garen frowned. "What?" he asked, not sure he'd heard correctly.
"I said kill that goddamned fucking bug!"
Garen scratched his chin. "That's what I thought you said." Then he smirked. "What, the famous Sinister Blade, famed assassin, murderer of countless men—afraid of a cockroach?"
If looks could kill, the glare Katarina leveled at him would have dropped him dead immediately. But then she grimaced and closed her eyes, sighing. "Look. Just kill it. Please."
Garen couldn't keep the bemused smile from his lips. "So you're really scared of a little bug?"
Katarina bristled and pointed a furious finger at him. "Okay, first off, it is a huge-ass two inch roach, and second, I'm not scared of it!"
Garen quirked a brow. "Really? Because it seems to me like you're too afraid to throw a dagger at it—"
"I'm not afraid of killing it!" she sputtered, her face turning red. "I… I'm just…"
"Afraid of roaches?" he provided.
"It's katsaridophobia, thank you very much, and it's not that I'm afraid of killing it. Killing it would be easy. I wouldn't even have to get close." She fingered the blades sheathed on her belt.
Garen was perplexed. She was right. She had deadly aim with her blades—she could easily throw a dagger and impale the creature, ending its life. So why didn't she?
"Katsaridophobia…?" he asked. "Is that a phobia of roaches?"
Her grimace deepened. "Yes," she grumbled.
Finally, it clicked. "Aha!" Garen said, slamming his fist into his other hand. "I see now!" And then he let out a chuckle. "You're afraid of touching the roach—or touching a blade that's touched one."
She whirled at him, her face almost as red as her hair. "Just kill the damned thing already, Garen Crownguard!" It was then that he noted how shallow her breaths were, the sweat beading on her face. She really was terrified of the little roach on the road, the middle lane she was supposed to be defending.
Chuckling, he walked towards it and, with a quick stomp of his boot, the creature was no more. He kicked it off the side of the road, hoping its absence would help Katarina defend her turrets. "There. It's dead," he said.
Katarina let out a sigh of relief and wiped the sweat from her brow. "Thank you," she managed.
"You owe me one," Garen said, smirking. She glared at him, and by the way she opened her mouth, it looked like she was about to argue. But then, she closed it, silently fuming. He'd come to her lane to help her since Yi, their jungler, had refused to help. He'd sacrificed precious time to help her, and now he'd have to run back to his lane before the real fighting began. Katarina did owe him.
"Fine," she grunted, and, satisfied, he jogged back to the top lane.
And so it was that, two weeks later, Garen found her in one of the League's training rooms and entered the room quietly, hoping not to disturb her practice.
"What do you want?" Katarina asked as she threw a knife and impaled a practice dummy's head, and he supposed he should have known that she'd notice his presence even with her back turned.
He cleared his throat, and she turned to him, crossing her arms.
"It's about that favor you owe me," he said.
She snorted. "What do you want?" she repeated.
He cleared his throat awkwardly again, and shifted uncomfortably on his feet, trying to figure out the best way to phrase his proposition. "I…" he began, then decided to forego any pretense of formality. "I'd like you to attend ballet class with me."
She balked, and her eyes widened. "What?" she asked, desperately needing him to repeat that, wondering if she'd gone mad, if he'd gone mad.
"I want you to sign up for Twisted Fate's ballet class with me," he said hurriedly.
She scoffed. "Ballet?" She looked him up and down, and laughed. "I never thought you'd be fond of the arts, Crownguard." She smirked. "Like the idea of men wearing tights?"
He was visibly affronted. "I feel no attraction towards men wearing tights," he said, "though if I did, that would hardly be a bad thing. No," he continued, "my interest in ballet is purely professional."
"So you like the idea of women wearing leotards and tights," she said.
"I feel no attraction towards women wearing tights," he replied, "though if I did, that would—"
"Be purely professional," she snickered.
He frowned and cleared his throat, indicating his distaste with her attitude. "My interest in ballet is purely professional. I have one goal in mind, and that is why I must enlist your help as well."
"And what is this goal?" Katarina asked, intrigued despite herself.
Garen looked into her eyes, dead serious. "I wish to improve my spinning technique."
Katarina's unchecked laughter echoed throughout the League's halls.
Katarina's frown was unmatched in its intensity.
"Remind me why I agreed to this," she muttered under her breath to her dance partner as she pried some lint off of her black leotard.
"Katphobia," Garen muttered back, amused.
"Katsaridophobia," she hissed. "Dick," she added for good measure.
Garen just chuckled.
"Crownguard, DuCouteau, mind payin' attention?" a sharp voice asked, and the two dance partners straightened as their dance instructor, Twisted Fate, bore down on them.
"Yes sir!" they both replied instantly, a testament to their military background.
"Well, that's good to hear," he said. With a tip of his hat, he marched back to the front of the class.
It was a relatively small class. The League of Legends offered voluntary recreational classes to Champions. The classes were only offered for six weeks, but Champions were encouraged to participate in at least one every year. Katarina had never participated in any, not thinking them worth her time. Yet she found herself here, in a class instructed by Twisted Fate, of all people.
The students in the class made up a strange group. She and Garen were partners, which was unusual in and of itself. But besides them, the class consisted of Annie, Amumu, Blitzcrank, Orianna, and—the strangest pair—Cho'gath and Kog'maw.
They were a small group—and with the way Kog'maw kept spewing that disgusting ooze from his mouth that dissolved the floor, they'd likely be getting smaller.
Twisted Fate didn't seem fazed, though. "So y'all want to be ballerinas," he said, a smirk on his lips. "Well, let me warn ya, I don't go easy. You won't be learnin' pointe here, not enough time to build up your ankles. But you'll be learnin' the great tricks of the trade, for sure."
Garen raised his hand, and Katarina nearly smacked her forehead. What, were they in preschool again? Nonetheless, Twisted Fate seemed to appreciate the gesture, and called on Garen.
"Sir, when will we be learning how to spin?" he asked.
Twisted Fate let out a chuckle. "That's a ways down the road. For now, we have to build up your endurance and flexibility." And with that, the man launched into a description of exercises which he then demonstrated and had them perform.
Katarina and Garen were both veterans of war and liked to think themselves in fine condition. But by the end of the exercises, both of them were covered in sweat and panting heavily, as were the rest of the participants in the class. Well, except the robots, though they said something about needing oil.
And then there was also Kog'maw. He had started chewing on a bar on the wall, and nobody had wanted to deal with him, so they left him to it. Once Cho'gath had gathered his strength, he walked over to the little void creature and procured some meat (from where, nobody could tell) and fed him, and then Kog'maw waddled happily over and began to run through some more of the exercises, excited.
"Dance, dance, dance!" Kog'maw cried, spewing green, possibly acidic saliva all around the floor by his feet.
Annie giggled and Amumu chuckled. Twisted Fate sighed at the floor which would need replacing. Garen and Katarina looked disgusted by the ooze. Cho'gath just smiled.
"Well, I reckon' that's enough for today," Twisted Fate said, hoping to contain the damage the little void creature would do to his dance studio's floor. "Keep practicing those exercises, and I'll see you on Thursday!" Then he teleported away.
Kog'maw started singing and then started spewing globs of green ooze everywhere, and everyone decided to leave in a hurry.
Katarina already hated ballet class.
A/N: Hope you enjoyed the chapter! There's more to come soon! Drop a review/fave/follow if you're so inclined.
Just a warning upfront: I'm no dancer, and I'm doing the bare minimum of research. So if there's stuff that's wrong, please let me know, so I can fix it. That said, if it makes the story impossible to write, you'll just have to suspend your disbelief. Anyway, this entire fic is just me fulfilling my desire for Garen ballerina and Katarina ballerina (rito plz make these skins), so it's a little silly. Hope you had as much fun reading this as I did writing it!