When Katarina noticed Garen walk in she instantly ducked behind a rack with clothes. What was he doing here? Was he buying clothes too? That would be too big of a coincidence. Garen would surely recognize her if he saw her. The scar made it extra easy for him. Would that be a bad thing though? If she wanted to keep living in Demacia she had to come clean at some point. She couldn't keep lying for the rest of her life. Still, that time wasn't now.
Katarina stayed low to the ground and snuck over to Lux who already had a whole bunch of clothes over her arm. She picked out the exact clothes Katarina didn't like. There was even some pink in the pile. Garen meanwhile walked over to the armor section of the store. He started a conversation with an employee of the store. The employee himself was wearing armor too. Maybe it was to show it off, but most people in this city were wearing armor all the time.
Katarina pulled on Lux's shirt. It didn't seem like she had noticed Garen yet.
"Lux?"
"Oh! I've got some super cute clothes here for you. I recommend you try these on first. They look well together. If you don't like those you can try out this one… What are you doing on the ground?"
Lux was showing of the clothes she had picked out, but finally realised that Katarina was crawling over the ground.
"Garen is here. Let's get out of here."
Garen was still talking to the employee. Garen showed some images he took with him and gave him a list of items with it. They were standing right in the main path. If she tried to sneak out there would be a big chance that she would be seen by him.
"But… I picked out all these clothes already… Look, he's busy. He won't notice us. Come on, put some on!"
Lux grabbed Katarina's arm and pulled her with her to a changing room. She wasn't too worried about Garen. They would have to explain their whole situation to him at some point anyway. Might as well be soon. Her main focus was buying new clothes at the moment though. She really wanted to see Katarina in some new look.
Lux pushed Katarina in a changing room and gave her some clothes from the pile she had on one arm.
"Here, try these on first. They will look amazing, I'm sure of it. Tell me if you need a bigger size. Maybe for your breast, you know."
"Lux. I don't think this is…"
"Don't worry. If Garen comes by you can just hide in there. There is no way he would just randomly peek in there. He is a honorable knight."
Before Katarina could reply Lux had already closed the curtain in front of the room she was in. I guess she had no choice but to try these clothes on. She felt kind of uncomfortable knowing that Garen was near her. The clothes Lux picked out were also not to her liking. They were very revealing, which wasn't really a problem to her, but they were also colorful. Katarina used to wear only black. That was what she had been wearing since she became an assassin. Her entire family wore clothes in the same style. Those clothes were gone now and she had no choice but to wear something from this store. Lux could have picked out something else though. Only because Lux was so excited to see her she decided to put the clothes on anyway.
She took off the dirty clothes she was wearing and starting putting the new colorful clothes on. The clothes Lux gave her first weren't too bad yet. She put on blue jeans with a golden lining on it and a red and white top. The top was very daring. You could see a large part of her breasts. Katarina wasn't sure if that was supposed to be that way or that the top was just too small for her breasts.
Katarina was kind of embarrassed, but she carefully stepped out of the room. She made sure Garen was still in his spot. He was now behind the counter with the cashier. It looked like they were discussing a price. He was probably here to order some new armor for the army. Lux was nowhere to be found. Katarina looked around, but she wasn't there. Where did she go?
Then another changing room opened and Lux walked out of it.
"Oh my god! You look so hot!"
"Hey, not so loud."
"Sorry, but you look so good. I haven't seen you with… normal clothes on before."
"What was wrong with the clothes I had?"
"Well they were… pretty boring. This looks amazing though. We're buying these. You look super good in them."
"I think the top might be a little too small."
"No, it's supposed to be that way. Don't worry, it looks perfect on you. I decided to try some clothes on myself. What do you think?"
Lux struck a pose. Katarina only noticed that she was wearing new clothes herself just now. She had a pink top on and a purple skirt. It was very… girly. Kind of what she expected of her. Katarina was surprised that she actually liked the way that she looked. She was… cute.
"Looks… looks good. You're… very cute."
"Yes! If you like them, I'll buy them. Okay, you should put these clothes on now."
Lux handed Katarina a new pile of clothes.
"No. I don't really want to try anything else on. We know what my size is now. Let's just take some clothes with the same size that you think look good and get out of here."
"But… I wanted to see you wearing them."
"You can see me wearing them all you want when we get back home. I just want to leave this place now. We still have other things to buy. I need some new gloves for example. The gloves I'm wearing right now to cover my burned hand are not very fashionable."
While Katarina was talking Lux had already picked out a huge pile of clothes for the both of them to buy. Garen was walking towards the exit. Looked like he was leaving. Lux took that chance and walked over to the cashier. She put down the pile of clothes and turned around.
"They sell gloves here too. Come on! Over here!"
Lux ran to a wall with some gloves on it. This store really had everything. The gloves were right next to the exit. Katarina followed Lux and looked at the gloves with her.
"These are perfect!"
"I'm not wearing pink gloves. Why do they even have those. I think I'll just take these black ones."
"No. I'm forbidding you to pick those black ones. You have to step out of your comfort zone."
"I think I've already done that enough lately. I don't have any money by the way. How are we going to pay for all of this."
"Don't you worry, Kitty Kat. I have more than enough money for the both of us."
"Kitty… Kat?"
Katarina noticed a shadow approaching them from behind.
"Oh, I didn't know you two were here too. Buying new clothes? Or weapons maybe?"
It was the voice of Garen. He was standing right behind them. Katarina wasn't sure what to do. If she turned around Garen would see her scar. All she could do was hope for Lux to save her. Lux already turned around to talk to Garen.
"Oh, hey there Garen. I thought you left already."
"You saw me? Why didn't you say hi?"
"You just seemed to be very busy. We were just buying some new clothes. We are pretty much done now so we should leave."
"You're not going to buy gloves? It looked like you wanted to."
"Right."
Lux grabbed a random pair of gloves and shoved them into Katarina's hands. They both walked around Garen to the cashier where their clothes were. Katarina made sure that while she walked past him she turned her face away from him. They added the gloves to the pile and the employee started calculating the price.
"It is quite a big coincidence that I ran into you here, Kim. I was actually sent here by Jarvan to buy some gear for you. Apparently he's quite fond of you. He doesn't feel that way to many people so you should feel lucky. If I'm not mistakes he invited you to a meeting this evening. He wants you to join his army. I recommend you take the deal."
Katarina just kept looking away from him. She pulled the gloves of off her hands in order to put the new dark red ones on, but Garen noticed the burned hand. Garen grabbed her arm and forced her to turn around. Luckily for Katarina her hair covered up her scar.
"My god! What happened to your hand? Did this happen in the fire? You need to get this looked at. I'm sure someone can… someone can.. ehm…"
Garen froze up. He wasn't talking anymore. He was just standing there. Staring at Katarina's face. Did he recognize her? Lux jumped in, but for a different reason.
"Hey! I already took care of her hand myself and I think I did a pretty good job too. Don't try to steal my girlfriend away from me."
"G… girl… girlfriend?"
"Yes, girlfriend. And we're very happy together. I can take care of her myself. I don't need you anymore."
Did she really just say that they were together to Garen? What was this conversation? It was totally off topic. Garen suddenly stepped out of his frozen state and manned up.
"I do not approve of this relationship."
"Well, you don't get to decide that for us. Come on Kim. Let's get out of here."
"Oh, okay."
Katarina put on the new gloves and took one bag of clothes. Lux took the other and they walked out of the store hand in hand. Garen did not go after them, but just looked at Katarina walk away. Did he not recognize her after all?
As they walked through the streets back home Lux looked very mad.
"Hey Lux, what was that just now. Why did you guys just randomly get mad at eachother?"
"I had to protect you of course. Didn't you see the way he looked at you? He's not getting anywhere near you!"
"Oh. So I guess he did recognize me after all. I hoped my hair would cover the scar up."
"What? No. That's not it."
"Huh? What do you mean? Then What was it about?"
"Did you not notice? He obviously likes you."
"What do you mean likes me. What's wrong with liking me. Can I not have friends?"
"No not that kind of like. Like! Like you know, like like. The double like."
"You mean love?"
"I guess…"
"Bullshit."
"No, it was obvious. I have known him long enough to know that look. He was completely frozen! I'm not letting him steal you away. If he comes after you, I will kick his ass!"
"Hey, calm down. He's not going to steal me from you. Why would I want to be with that guy? Don't worry so much."
"... Fine… Promise me you won't leave me?"
"I can't believe you even thought I would consider that."
"You should get an eye-patch."
"Yeah… wait what? What are you talking about?"
"To cover your scar. Get an eye-patch."
"Where did that randomly come from? I'm not wearing an eye-patch."
"Alright. Now that everyone is here, we can start our meeting. Thank you Kim for joining us. I know this invitation came as a surprise, but I have a request to make. However, before that I would like to discuss a different topic."
Katarina and Lux were sitting around the large table in the meeting room. There were a bunch of other people there as well who Katarina didn't know. Besides Jarvan and Garen of course, who kept strangely looking at her.
"A large number of stores have been plundered throughout the past few days. The culprits have been spotted in a came right outside Demacia. Officially that is not our ground, but we can't let these criminals get away with this. We have to show that Demacia is not a city you can mess with. That's why I am planning to send a team out there to capture them. Garen will be in charge of the team."
"... Oh… Yes, that's right. I will be leading a ten man team over there tonight. We know their exact position so this should be an easy job."
Jarvan continued.
"Alright then. If everyone is okay with that we will continue onto our next topic. Kim, I would like for you to join the Demacian army. I know this might come as a surprise to you and I know you only just arrived here, but I am certain that you would be a valuable addition."
"Me? Why? You haven't even seen me fight before."
"I don't have to. You said that you had a rough youth and I think I can see that it made you stronger. I can also just look at the way you act and the way you walk that you have a lot of fighting experience. Many people here in our army however have never even been outside this city. They don't know what it's like in a real battle. That's why I would like you to train them. You will be paid fairly of course."
"I don't know… I'm not sure if it's such a good idea to give me such an important position. I didn't even do anything to prove myself."
"I see. But that's perfect. If you want to prove yourself, why don't you join Garen tonight? You will fight with our army and Garen can judge your skills."
"I… I don't know…"
Garen stood up from his chair.
"Yes! That's an excellent idea! I already ordered a set of armor for you, Kim. If you just tell me your size it will be finished before tonight and you can join us in battle."
"I don't think I sho…"
"Perfect. That's settled then. I am looking forward to seeing the results."
Katarina didn't really want to get involved in the Demacian army and certainly didn't want to go anywhere near Garen. She couldn't really say no to Jarvan either. I guess she had no choice but to join Garen on his quest of justice.
Lux stood up from her chair too.
"I'm going too! If Kim is going, I'm going too."
Jarvan wasn't sure what to say. He knew about their relationship.
"Oh, well. I don't see a problem with that. The more people go the better. As long as the evildoers get caught, I don't have a problem with it."
"Yay! This is going to be awesome!"
Katarina wasn't looking forward to it at all. Even though she could use the training, she didn't even have her own clothes and she couldn't really do her usual assassination techniques while wearing armor.
"Alright. If that's settled, the meeting is now over. You are all free to go."
Katarina and Lux walked home together.
"Don't worry Kat, I won't let Garen do anything to you. I will be there to protect you."
"I'm more afraid of what you're going to do to him."
Tonight was going to be a rough night.
I didn't have too much time, but I hope this will suffice. Garen, stop it!