Er, so, it've been a while since I updated the last chapter. Well, I'm so disappointed that my third chapter was bad, you know, especially when Leona is my favorite support. This time is not a surprise, but it should be better, and I promise that.

You guys can place this pair to be rivals, lovers, friends,... but as a person who usually look for new stories, I'll ship them together, much different from the lore itself. I'm not meant to say that the lore is bad, but I think it is good to look from another side of view. This is inspired from 'Follow the wind' written by Tahimikamaxtli.

Tahimi, if you are reading this, I want to say that I'm grateful to you for writing such a great story and bringing a different view to people.

So, let get this straight on.

Yasuo x Riven:

Ionia have already taken their independence back from Noxus for years, but their souls are wounded forever and nothing can completely recover them.

Even the Noxian warriors have commited many murders to the innocents, they are still welcomed and be given a chance to restart a new life in Ionia. Some of them accepted it and forgot what they have done to continue with their life, some of didn't accept and never forgot what Noxus have taught them. Riven was different. She accepted her new life in Ionia but always remind herself of her hometown, where she spent more than half of her lifetime.

Ionia was a land of forgiveness, but there was a crime that was unforgivable: killing an Elder. Yasuo was thought to be the betrayer who killed his murder. People who are given this crime usually couldn't resist and accept their death. Yasuo was different. He didn't accept his punishment. He wanted people to know the truth that he didn't kill his Elder, and he would do anything to escape and take his honor back, even if that meant he must kill his friends.

When the Ionia Council realized that Riven was the true murderer, she was still forgiven because she was different from other Noxians. She was still young, still promising and the most important: her soul has changed.

After a long long long story, Yasuo and Riven fell for each other and they lived a happy life in Ionia. Yasuo wanted to teach Riven more about the beauty of Ionia, and he did well. The story below is one of a moments when they were in Ionia.

...

"Hey, Riven, do you want to go around Ionia for a day?" Yasuo asked Riven while they were in the park.

"Er, yes. I still want to know some more about this country." She answered. "Take me to somewhere that help me with knowledge. Do you know any?"

"Of course I do." He said. "Let's go!" He took her hand and pulled her away.

"Slow down!"

"No, this can't be slowed down." Yasuo said. "We'll be late if we don't arrive in time."

Riven followed him to a paddy field, where she usually come to. But this time, the paddy rice was completely growth and was ready to be harvested. The fragrant smell of the field ran across the earthen path of the countryside.

"Why do you take me here?" Riven asked.

"Smell it." Yasuo said. "Feel the sweetness of autumn." Riven closed her eyes and took a deep breath.

"Can you feel it?" He asked her. "Can you feel more comfortable? The heavy thoughts in your mind are all cleansed away. Did you?"

Riven took another breath and opened her eyes. She nodded.

"So relaxing! I feel better now." She smiled. "But does this make me know more about anything?"

"It does." Yasuo said. "When I used to be a child, I usually go to a paddy field to cleanse my mind from the dust in my mind. It was such a memorable childhood, you you know."

"Right, Karma and Ahri told me that they often do so, too." Riven said. "When I was in Noxus, the paddy fields only have one meaning: one of the things that keep people alive with their rice products."

Yasuo chuckled. "Keep people alive... That is the essential meaning. Only one meaning that make it so beautiful. Noxians couldn't truly understand this meaning."

Riven kept feeling the fragrant smell of paddy rice until Yasuo took her hand again and pulled her again. Riven followed him to the down of mountain. When they arrived, Riven suddenly heard a flux of music. It was pure and unstained. The sound charmed her just like how Ahri did; she felt it imbuing her soul, shaking her heart gently.

"It's familiar, isn't it?" Yasuo asked.

Riven smiled. "Ahri's flute. Yes. I've heard it before. Seducing, unresistable..."

"Do you understand the meaning of it?" Yasuo asked.

"Meaning. Again." She said. "She sometimes play her flute. It made my heart like stop pumped. With its music, I temporary forget everything, just like I lost into a completely separated world."

"Ah, you got your point." He said. "Like a kind of sedative, but it is different: it can't corrupt you. Contrariwise, it richen your heart." Yasuo paused for a moment, then he continued. "But don't use it too much or you'll get lost in paradise."

"Ha ha, I already knew that. Ahri warned me about the dangerousness of it."

"It is dangerous only when you can't keep yourself." Yasuo grinned.

"Hey, the music stopped!" Riven startled. "Thanks god, I almost died listening to it."

"Let's climb the mountain to find out more things." Yasuo suggested.

"OK, that's good. Let's go, but don't run to fast." Riven glared at Yasuo.

"Huh, I'll just run with my regular speed." He laughed before ran with an excessive speed up mountain. Riven couldn't react at first, then she roared angrily when her eyes followed him.

When Yasuo was running, he felt a strong wind blowed from behind him to his front and continued blowing up mountain. He stopped as soon as he realize the wind was not naturally born.

"Riven!" He shouted. "You cheated!"

From a bough of a tree by the side of the trail, Riven jumped down and landed on her feet right in front of Yasuo and stood up.

"I told you not to run too fast, but you didn't listen!" Riven smiled even though she sounded angry. "Moreover, Hurricane Rush is not in my kit in the Rift, why mustn't I try it once."

"Fine." Yasuo growled." Now you did. Happy now?"

"Not really. What I just did is even less than one percent of the Rush's full power." Riven grinned. She looked around her and took a breath. "Hey, I think we can stop here right now. The scene here is beautiful."

She was right. The scene was beautiful: a small stream gently flowed down mountain; some mossy stone boulders were on the ground, some of them were stuck inside earth; a forest full of deep green spruces in different sizes.

Wait...

Spruces?

The couple then quickly realized that.

"Wow, full of spruces." Yasuo was surprised. "We have climbed so high, huh?"

Riven was also astonished, no less that Yasuo. "I couldn't believe that we can here that fast. Our speeds were disgusting."

"No, not disgusting, it was awesome!" Yasuo said.

"Disgustingly awesome!" Riven fixed and laughed. Yasuo laughed as well.

"Let's take a seat." Riven said. She found out a boulder near to them. "Look, the moss of this boulder is dried, we can sit on it. And it is under this huge spruce, too."

"Right, it'll provide us with shade." Yasuo said and walked to the boulder, took his seat beside Riven, who was already sat on it.

"Ha, the moss made the roughness of rock gone." Riven said. "It's not like a rock anymore, it's like a soft mattress. This feeling I never had it in Noxus."

The sound of the stream flow was like whistle blowing through the air.

"Can you hear it?" Yasuo asked.

"Hear what?" Riven gave the question back.

"Hear it." He didn't answer directly. He wanted Riven to feel it. Again, she closed her eyes to help her ears to pay attention.

"The stream, the flow..." She opened her eyes. "Wow, I felt it like a zither is being played by an expert. But, wait, it's not only a zither, it's ...Etwahl." Her face brightened.

Yasuo nodded. "Yea, it's Etwahl. Not only Etwahl, but also... Sona. She's the only one who can beat the whistle of an autumn stream."

Suddenly, the music started once more. Ahri was playing her flute again, but this time she played a different song: a lullaby. The music mixed with the whistle of stream, the flaps of bird wings, the blowing breezes and the collision sound of them with leaves. All those sounds mixed together, created an extravaganza of the country.

Yasuo quietly sang the lullaby along with the music. His singing was soft, warbling and gentle. Although Riven didn't understand much about Ionian, she could still speak some words; that's why she knew what the lullaby wanted to say. When Yasuo completed singing as the music stopped, Riven started sobbing.

"I didn't have such beautiful childhood." She said. "How could Ionians write such an emotionful song? Even though my childhood didn't connect with any lullaby, I still have to admit that this is the best song I ever heard."

Yasuo didn't say anything, he just nodded.

"This lead me to a question." Riven said. "Where is Ahri, and what spot did she choose to make the music so shaking?"

"I don't really have an idea about it." He replied. "She's always unpredictable. About the music, no matter what instrument and position, it is still shaking."

The two again fell into a deep silence. There was only the collision sound of the breezes with the leaves.

"Hey," Yasuo suddenly said, "I have a place to take you to."

"Where?" Riven asked.

"Then you'll know." He said. He stood up, Riven did as well. They kept climbing the mountain until reached the top. There they found a person sitting on a bough and she was the one who they have just talked about. Not a person, actually. For exact, a vastayan.

"Hi." Ahri said.

"Hi." Riven and Yasuo replied simultaneously.

"How are you doing?" Ahri asked.

"Good." Yasuo answered. "We need to go now, see you later."

"See ya." The vastayan said.

The couple passed the mountain top to went to the other side of the mountain. When they walked down for a while, Ahri started to play a different song. The music this time was softer but sadder, more miserable.

"What is the song about?" Riven asked Yasuo.

"Well, it's about a man and a lady." Yasuo replied. "They were from two different nations who were rival to each other. They fell in love, but that action was no different from betrayal. They escaped away from their own hometown to another country."

"Did they manage to?" She asked.

"They did, but not for long." Yasuo said. "The bounty hunters caught them, and they were taken back to their nations in attempt to execute."

Riven covered her mouth with her hand, her eyes widened. "Oh dear!" She snorted. "We are much luckier than them."

"I know, that's why Ionia is beloved by many people." Yasuo sighed. They continued walking down mountain without a single word. Traveling down was much faster than climbing up. Soon, they got to the forest cover. There was a floating island in the air, with a fortress and some trees on it. Take a guess. Right.

No worry, she was absent, so Yasuo and Riven decided to approach it, still with awareness.

"Thanks god, she's not here right now, otherwise we would have been lost our corpses." Yasuo sighed in relief.

"Come on, she's not that scary." Riven encouraged him. "You just need to be friendly and give a sign that you respect her."

"I don't want to think about it." Yasuo said.

"Look! It seems that she planted lotuses." Riven said as she pulled his right arm and ran toward the island, or the lagoon next to it, for exact. The lagoon surface were covered with pink lotuses and leaves. Riven's eyes started sparkling before the scene and she weaved her fingers together. "So beautiful! All of these lotuses are hers, aren't they?"

"Yes, they are hers." Yasuo said.

"Can you go and pick me one?" Riven asked with excitement. No doubt, she must have been waited for so long to get a lotus.

"Hell no. She will kill both of us." He said.

"Even if she knows, then Ahri and Irelia can explain it for us." Riven said. "Moreover, you are a soldier, aren't you? Or you are a coward?"

"Riven.. please."

"Are you a soldier... or a coward?" Riven asked slowly and looked at Yasuo's eyes without a blink.

He sighed. "Alright, I'm a soldier."

Riven's face brightened. "Yay!" She yelled in happiness and jumped up like a five years old. "You are the best!"

Yasuo walked toward the lagoon, looked clearly. After a minute, he chose a very beautiful lotus and picked it up, then he went back and gave it to Riven.

"You are the most cruel woman in the world, Riven." Yasuo said.

"You will have to think again when you meet Lux. I'm pretty sure." Riven smiled. "Oh, can you tell me some more things about lotuses?"

"Uh, of course." Yasuo said. "Lotuses is the symbol of equilibrium. Look at those petals, they are equal. They are also the symbol of women. You see, lotuses are very beautiful and stay unstained even when grown in mud. In addition, lotuses are like women, mud is like wind and dust. In short, women, even when they are buried in torment, they still keep on living to prove that they are not weak and cannot be corrupted."

"Wow, that's great and deep." Riven said as she looked excitedly at the lotus. "Irelia told me that lotuses are also the root of all mankind, can you explain further?"

Yasuo blushed. "Well, it's also related to women, but I don't know anything further."

"Oh, please, tell me." Riven begged. "Why women are related to 'source of life'?"

Yasuo blushed more. "I said I don't know! Now let's go away as early as we can," Yasuo said, "otherwise, that blackish-purple lioness will come and kill us."

"Er, Yasuo..." Riven said with hesitance. Her face showed an extreme fear.

"What?" He asked.

"Be...behind you!" Riven stuttered.

Yasuo turned his head around and what he saw next, is what he never wanted to recall.

"I told you!" Yasuo said loudly as he and Riven were running into the forest with a one-thousand-miles-per-hour speed. "This is why I don't want pick her lotus!"

"Hey, don't blame it." Riven said. "You are the one who slurred her! This is not even involve picking lotuses. At least we are still alive, and I still get my lotus."

"Is she still after us?" Yasuo asked.

"I don't think so." Riven replied. "We are much faster, right?"

"You should have warned me earlier!"

"That's totally not expected!" Riven said as she and Yasuo kept running without getting tired. "She appeared right midair, I couldn't help!"

"What!?" Yasuo shouted. "You mean she appeared like a ninja?"

"No! It's not a ninja technique!" Riven shouted back. "It's more like a dark magic!"

Unexpectedly, Riven fell on her feet and used her hand to stand.

"Watch out!" Yasuo shouted. Riven turned back to lie on her back and all of a sudden, she sweeped Yasuo's feet and made he fell on her. She placed her right hand on his nape.

She pushed it to her face.

Their lips met.

Yasuo tried to get her out but she was kissing him at will and he couldn't do anything.

After an eternity, Riven pulled Yasuo out.

"I don't think it's time to do this." He said.

"Come on, she is not chasing us anymore." Riven said. "We need time to relax, okay?"

"Stay aware anytime." Yasuo said. "Like you said, she used dark magic to travel from places to places, she can catch up with us anytime."

"She won't be so cruel with her friends, so we don't need to worry about her." Riven gagged. "Uh, we need somewhere to rest."

Riven picked her lotus up. She and Yasuo started walking deeper into the forest. Soon, they got to a bamboo forest. Riven saw bamboo many times, but this time the bamboos were blooming. Their flowers were slighty yellow. They reminded Riven something that she thought she'd forget.

"I was told that bamboo blossoms are the symbol of death." She said. "Bamboos only bloom once, when they are about to leave the mortal lands."

"Ah, I know many people think so." Yasuo sighed. "But look at the positive site of it. Smell it clearly."

Riven inhaled. She let every inches of the air around get into her, to feel it.

"Sad." Riven said.

"What?" Yasuo asked.

"It smelled sad." She repeated. "Lightly fragrant, sad, like a soldier about to die."

"Not only sad, but also beautiful, you know." Yasuo said. "The death of a soldier is beautiful. He sacrifices for his own country, that's respectable and worth to be honored. Similarly, bamboos only bloom once because they know that they can't live longer after. At this time, they spend all of the essence that they have stacked through their life to give the born to the beauty."

"That's nice." Riven smiled. "I were also told that bamboos will not change their shape even when get burnt or cracked. It's a symbol for people who would never change their loyalty regardless wind and dust." She looked down. "Shamefully, I betrayed Noxus. How can you even love someone like me, I sometimes wonder."

"It's because you are different from other Noxians." Yasuo said. "You regretted killing people, me either. You searched for redemption, so do I."

Riven nodded. "Right, I couldn't have believed my life would change like this, neither do you." She noticed that the sky was getting dark, and the wind started blowing stronger.

"It is going to rain, right?" Riven asked.

"Pretty sure." Yasuo answered. "Let's find somewhere to hide the rain."

"Tamara's abandoned house is there." Riven pointed to a house. "Since she moved away, we can go in there freely."

"I bet the house wasn't there one minute ago." Yasuo said awkwardly.

"Errrr, I'm sure we'll be fine." Riven said as she pulled Yasuo to the house. It was a dark, old wooden house. Inside it, the ceiling was leaked. Actually, it was abused from the chiefs.

"Great, a beautiful place." Yasuo muttered.

"It is." Riven fixed. "There's even a straw coach for us to sit."

"Straw... well, fine."

The rain wasn't as heavy as expected. Soon, the couple got out of the house and walked away. Birds were singing again. Yasuo and Riven could see young bamboo sprouts were appearing next to old bamboo roots.

"Look, Riven." Yasuo looked at the sprouts, so did Riven. "The children are taking their parents' place. Soon, they'll grow up and become the next citizens of this bamboo city."

Riven giggled. "Soon enough, our child will become another protector of Ionia, just like Irelia, Yi, and you."

"You still haven't pregnant yet." Yasuo laughed. "How are we supposed to know."

"Is that so?" Riven smirked. "The sprouts aren't growed up yet, how are you supposed to know if there will be no one come and pick them?"

Both of them burst out in laugh. They hardly had any time to relax like that. The air after rain was cool and comforting. It can be one of the thing that relaxed them.

"The rain was not heavy." Riven said. "Summer might still there to cause rains, but autumn is taking its place."

Yasuo nodded. "Yes, this is similar to a person's life: the children, teenagers are in spring age; people like me, you, Irelia, Syndra are in summer; middle-aged people like Yi are in autumn; while the elder are winter."

"You mean we have to keep our youth deep in our heart, and don't let it fade away?" Riven asked.

"Right, the memories of spring and summer are the best." Yasuo said formally. "We have to live much as we want, we live while we're young, and don't let our youth pass meaninglessly." He turned to look at Riven, and Riven turned to look at him, either. "That's why I want to..."

"Don't say that!" Riven interrupted him. She smiled cunningly. "I guess you want this." She pushed his nape to made his head closer to hers.

"Riven?... Hmmphh.."

...

.

.

.

.

"How is it? That's what you wanted, right?" Riven asked.

"Why do you think I wanted that." Yasuo asked back.

"Don't let our youth pass meaninglessly, enjoy every moment of it." Riven reminded.

"Enjoy every moment?" Yasuo narrowed his eyes. "You gave me only one kiss, and you called it enjoyable."

"It was the sweetest, most passionate kiss I've gave you so far." Riven smiled. "What else do you want?"

Yasuo stared at Riven like he wanted to say something, and Riven did catch the stare. She shook her head. "We can do it at home. The rain made the soil wet already, I don't think it need to be wet more."

"You empathize me, Riven." Yasuo said.

"And you empathize me, Yasuo." Riven said.

"We empathize each other." They said simultaneously.

I still have no idea why that house appeared all of a sudden.

And don't ask me why didn't they get in the house to entertain.

I wanna be gone with the wind. Yasuo is a lucky guy, though.

Cloud of Daybreak, live at Online Fanfics. Hopefully Janna stays that way.