Chapter Four

When Veigar did not show up for his daily walk on Friday, Lulu did not think much of it. After all, it wasn't always daily. Besides, she had games to play and a forest full of magical energy to explore. But when Veigar failed to make an appearance Saturday, Sunday and even Monday the girl knew something must be terribly wrong.

"Where could he have gone, Pix?" Lulu waited with anxious anticipation at her usual spot. Lulu could almost taste the celery as she checked the time. 12:58pm. In theory, Veigar should pass by within the hour but already the girl was losing heart. "Do you think something happened to him? Did he change what time he took his walk?" She had waited through many flavors yesterday to test that very theory.

Pix fluttered down from her hat to her staff, shaking his head. "It isn't even 1:30 yet, you shouldn't worry."

"But he never misses so many days in a row. Never!" her arms flailed up, her head shaking around in a way that made Pix very glad he had changed location.

"Lulu. Lulu," he fluttered up, trying to get her attention. "Let's just get through today, alright? If he doesn't come you could always ask the League for help."

"But…" Lulu sighed. "Ooookay."

The two hours came and went; peanut butter and apples never tasted so bitter. Lulu might have stayed the rest of the day had she not received a summons at 3:30 to fight on the Rift.

The light, familiar scent of rain filled Lulu's mind as she materialized on the blue side platform of Summoner's Rift. The hope she had held out that perhaps Veigar was summoned too was quickly dashed as she looked to see who their laning opponents would be. At this rate she would never see him again. Pix, seeming to read her mind, rested on her shoulder, patting it with care. "I'm sure he's fine."

He was right, she decided. It was play time. The battlefield was no place to get distracted. Lulu quickly bought and hurried off to help Lee Sin start against his jungle minions before moving to the top lane to face her opponent.

Across the lane, the whirring of Rumble's junkyard-built mechanical suit could be heard before it was even seen. Lulu arrived just as the first wave of blue minions were torched to their end. … it was a shame that he had an early start on minion farming, but Lulu would be sure to make up for it. The first few levels went by for the two in relative silence. Lulu and Pix poked, Rumble clung to his tower for safety. Really, this part of the laning phase was just so… so, "boring," she whined out-loud, causing Rumble to blink.

"What is? Poking me under tower?" the hint of annoyance in his tone went over Lulu's head.

"Yes! … no. I don't know," she admitted.

His response was an electro harpoon shot her way.

She dodged it easily enough. "Hey, Rumble?"

A second harpoon was shot, this one meeting its mark as she was caught in the minion wave. "What?"

"Ouch! Oh uh, have you seen Veigar since Friday?"

"Veigar?" Even from the distance up high on his mech suit, Lulu could see the yordle scrunch up his nose in distaste. "I haven't had a match with him in weeks. I'd be happy to see it go a month or so more."

Lulu whimsied back to place a ward in the river brush before resuming her onslaught. When Rumble pushed out in her absence, Lulu returned with a full combo to finish him off. Easy~!

Unfortunately for Lulu, the game did not continue to go quite so well. By the time Rumble gained his equalizer she couldn't keep up without help from Lee Sin. Even without his red buff (lovingly stolen by a certain sightless monk), Jax was able to gank her lane with ease. Even with her Jinx and Nami's amazing laning phase, their team simply could keep up against a fed Rumble, Jax and Talon. One failed baron steal and it was all over for Lulu's team.

The game had been a disappointment, and Rumble's lack of help in finding Veigar even more so. But as the champions grouped to teleport home Lulu figured she'd give it one last try. Only a few champions remained, including Rumble, Lucian, Jinx, and Lux.

"Um, hey! Hey, Rumble!" She whimsied to catch up with him.

The Mechanized Menace turned back to face her. "Did you need something, Lulu?"

"Will you please let me know if you do see him? Okay?"

"See who?"

Lulu frowned. How could he have already forgotten? "Veigar, of course! He's been missing for days!"

"Right… Of course."

He didn't sound too convincing, but Lulu let it slide.

"Wait, little purple thing! Did you say you were looking for Vei-Vei?" a shrill, female voice came up from behind, nearly knocking into Rumble's suit as she came to a stop. Jinx grinned, squatting down to meet Lulu at eye-level.

"Have you seen him?!" Lulu's mood instantly brightened. Even Pix seemed to have more energy, hovering back and forth now between her hat and staff. "Is he okay? Where? When? Did you have a match with him? Did he win?"

"Guess so. Piltover. Three days ago. Nope. Aaand never!" Jinx laughed counting off on her fingers as she followed Lulu's rapid questioning.

"Are you sure? What was he doing there? Are Saturdays in Piltover yellow too? And of course he wins sometimes!" she fired back her responses, easily keeping track of the conversation.

The same could not be said for Rumble, who was watching distaste and confusion.

"As good as the weirdo ever is. Not telling. Whatever color I want them to be. And not most of the time."

"He's not that weird! Why not? You can't change day colors. You're silly, he destroyed you in that game two weeks ago."

"I'm bored." Jinx stated suddenly, laughing air ceasing. "Anyway. He was in Piltover three days ago, hopping around with some yucky-smelling fish. I got bored, just like now. So I left. He's fine! Too-da-loo!" Just like that, Jinx was gone.

Lulu stared where the strange lady had been standing. What had caused her to leave so suddenly? "Hmmmm…." She hummed out loud, about to ask Pix what he thought before glancing up to the forgotten mech suit and accompanying yordle. Their eyes met, and Rumble quickly turned away. "Wait! Wait, hey, Rumble!" If he had stayed this long, maybe he'd stay longer!

He sighed, but did as requested.

"I had a thought," she starts. Veigar might have been fine, but he still wasn't here. That being the case… "I thought maybe we could talk!"

"Uh okay. … why?" He seemed a bit twitchy, but Lulu didn't mind.

"It's Tuesday."

"I guess so. But what does that-"

"Well, you're blue, right?" she cut him off before he could finish. "So I thought maybe we could hang out."

Rumble gave a look of clear confusion as he brought Tristy to a stop next to the Blue platform. "Don't know what you're on about, Lulu, but I can promise you I'm just fine."

"I never said you weren't?" Lulu blinked, scurrying over to stand near the hulking mech suit.

Unable to face her properly with her directly below, Rumble jumped out, landing with practiced grace… before stumbling to the ground. "You just said," he stood, dusting himself off,"I was blue."

"Yeah, you are." Lulu screwed up her nose in confusion. How did Rumble not know what color his fur was?

"No, I'm fine, really."

"Did you get hit too hard on the head at the end of the game? Here, maybe you should," Lulu yanked his arm, guiding him to the summoning platform. "… better?"

"Can I go now?"

"Tell me first."

Rumble took a deep breath, running a gloved hand over his mohawk as he gathered what little patience remained. "Tell you what?"

"What color you are, of course!"

"…"

"…"

"…You're talking about my fur, aren't you?" Rumble stated deadpan as the realization finally caught up with him.

"Ooobviously!" Lulu rolled her eyes, tutting. What else could she possibly have meant? "Remember? Because it's Tuesday?"

Rumble stepped off the platform to walk back to his machine. "I'm not even going to try to figure that one out."

It was clear that he was done, something Lulu did not like. "Wait!" First Veigar ups and leaves her for Piltover, and now Rumble thought she was crazy. "Where are you going?"

"The garage. I have a lot of work I'd like to finish tonight," he stated as he marched, not looking back.

Taking her chance, Lulu tried her best to find something to talk about. "Oh? What are you working on?"

"I doubt it's anything you'd be interested in, Lulu." Rumble waved his hand dismissively. He may have had a point, but Lulu wasn't about to admit to that.

"I'm interested in lots of things!"

Raising an eyebrow, Rumble turned, leaning back against the leg of his suit with his arms crossed. "Okay. If you must know, I'm working on developing a manual cooling system for Tristy so I can better control when exactly my-" Blah blah blah… Lulu's eyes wandered up to the cockpit, a thought entering.

"Can I try on Tristy?!" Controlling the giant machine sounded a lot more fun than hearing the yordle go on about fixing it. In moments she was halfway up the leg… then unceremoniously yanked down.

"No, no no no no," he held her shoulders firmly, looking the girl directly in the eye. "Just, no. No one else drives Tristy, okay?"

"But-" Lulu sniffled. Now he was mad at her. Why was it that all the other yordles got angry when she was around? She only wanted to play… with the suit… really badly.

"No."

Unbidden, Lulu felt the glimmer of tears forming. She knew she shouldn't be so upset, it was just a suit. But somehow this felt like it was about something more.

Rumble backed away in a panic, entirely unsure of what to do. "Don't, no don't do that. Don't cry! Uh, look, Lulu…"

"What?" she sniffed pathetically.

"You're a…" he hesitated briefly, "… nice… yordle and all so don't take this personally but I don't let anyone touch Tristy's controls. I mean, you wouldn't want someone messing around with your magical staff or hat or-"

That was all the invitation she needed. In the blink of an eye, Rumble found Lulu's ridiculously large hat as well as her staff shoved into his arms. A trail of flowers floating in her wake lead his eyes to one very purple yordle in the cockpit of his beloved Tristy.

Shaking with excitement, Lulu moved to test out the large lever on the left. As the enormous mace began to rise, Lulu felt the familiar buzz of her teleportation crystal. "… oh. I get to play again!" she shouted down to Rumble, who was halfway up the leg of his suit to kick her out.

His grumpy face shifted to one of pure disappointment.

"Don't worry! I'm sure you'll get summoned again soon," she tried to comfort him as he reached the top.

Rumble's arm jutted outward and down, pointing her to leave. "That's not the problem."

"Oh?" Lulu blinked, pulling out her crystal to prepare.

The blue yordle sighed a long sigh, pulling out a crystal of his own. "Just teleport already, will you?"

"Aaaalrighty!" Lulu grinned, thrilled that she might have a chance to play a game against Rumble again. Maybe she was making a new friend afterall.

As she faded away, Rumble's gloved hand came to his mohawk once more. "Why me?"