Spinning

~A GarenxKat story~

Chapter 10: Late

Garen was late. He'd never been late to class before, but as he hopped on one leg, trying to keep his balance as he pulled on his black tights, he cursed himself for losing track of time earlier. He'd been working on a little project, and while he was more than satisfied with the progress he'd made, he had completely forgotten to watch the clock on his wall in the kitchen.

It had been a text from Katarina which had actually distracted him from his project. He saw who had sent it and read it immediately.

"Coming to class?" was all it read, but his eyes had widened as he'd glanced at the time on his phone—and he let out a cry as he realized that his ballet class would start in five minutes. Usually, he was punctual—arriving fifteen minutes early in order to change and ready his things for class, and he would sit in class until Katarina arrived a few minutes after him, and they would wait for Twisted Fate to arrive. She'd probably been sitting alone, wondering where he was.

He'd raced to the changing rooms, and now he cursed under his breath as he noticed a tear in his tights—but oh well, too late to do anything about it now, he was already late. He pulled his white shirt over his head and then slid his slippers onto his feet before running towards the dance room.

He was in such a rush that he missed the sheet of paper that was attached to the door before he wrenched it open and tore inside the room. He was ten minutes late, and the class was already at the bars, practicing some dance moves as Twisted Fate walked around. When Garen entered the room, all eyes turned to him, and Twisted Fate let out a grunt.

"Good of you to join us, Crownguard," he said. "I trust you took a look at the results?"

Garen's eyes widened. The sheet of paper on the door outside! He'd forgotten to look at the results of the audition!

"N-no, sir, I forgot," he said, panting from his run. From the corner of his eye, he saw Katarina's curious look turn to a smirk.

Twisted Fate snorted. "We'll go over it later. Right now we're runnin' through some numbers for some moves everyone needs to know. Go to your partner, and we'll continue."

Garen grimaced as he walked beside Katarina, who had a gleam in her eyes that he knew meant she was going to tease him later.

"You made it," she said in undertones once he had taken position next to her along the bars.

"Wouldn't miss it," he grunted in reply as Twisted Fate began to run over the next set of exercises.

Garen regretted not having stretched before beginning, but luckily, he had run through a daily routine of stretches earlier in the day, so he hoped that would suffice and he wouldn't pull any muscles.

Once they had all run through the routine a few times and had it mostly correct, Twisted Fate cleared his throat.

"Now, since everyone knows their roles, I've brought in a few helpers to coach y'all in smaller groups. I'll go ahead and let them introduce themselves."

Suddenly, to the surprise of everyone in the room except for TF, Evelynn appeared, a smile on her lips that bordered almost on a smirk.

"Hello, class," she greeted them, and Garen felt a shiver run down his spine. He hoped she wouldn't be coaching him—although he was not scared of her, there was something about Evelynn that set him on edge and made him wary. Beside her, Twisted Fate was stiff, his face emotionless and blank.

"As y'all know, Miss Evelynn is also a dance instructor for the League," Twisted Fate said in a monotonous voice, "and she's agreed to help. Orianna and Blitzcrank, she'll be teaching you two privately."

Orianna turned her head. "I look forward to dancing with you, Evelynn," she said, her robotic voice attempting to add a joyous inflection that sounded more like a hiccup.

Evelynn's smile only grew wider. "Follow me, and we'll get started right away." With that, they left, and the room was quiet for a time as Twisted Fate glared at the door where they had left.

"Mr Twisted Fate, are you okay?" Amumu asked timidly. TF jerked at the question, and let out a heavy sigh.

"I dunno, kid," he mumbled. And then he sniffed, and then sniffed once more before bursting into sobs. Katarina visibly recoiled from the unexpected action, and even Garen drew back, taken by surprise at the outburst.

"I just—I don't know," Twisted Fate sobbed, and Garen shuffled forward awkwardly to pat the man on his back.

"Still not over her, huh?" Garen asked softly, and Twisted Fate's sobs only grew louder. Garen continued to gently pat the man on the back as he sobbed. A couple of years ago, when the League had still been fairly new, Twisted Fate and Evelynn had been an item, and Twisted Fate had been devoted to her. When she casually broke it off, the gambler had been devastated, and if his reaction now was any indication, he'd never quite recovered.

Katarina sidled up next to them and crouched forward, looking into Twisted Fate's scrunched up face.

"Pull it together," she said not unkindly, and Twisted Fate drew in a ragged breath, his chest still heaving. "You have a class to conduct, you still have other instructors to introduce. You're scaring the kids."

Garen glanced at Annie and Amumu and found that they did indeed seem frightened; even Kog'maw seemed uncomfortable, as he shuffled from foot to foot and seemed to be burping up an abnormal amount of green fluid. They were used to seeing TF as a leader figure in their classes, not as a man with a broken heart.

Twisted Fate took several moments to stifle his sobs, and then he drew in several shaky breaths as he pulled his hat off his head and wiped his eyes and nose with his sleeve. "Damn, I'm a mess," he muttered under his breath.

"We all have our issues," Katarina said, taking his hat from him and putting it back atop his head. "That's why we have alcohol."

Twisted Fate chuckled at that, and a small smile found his lips. "Thanks," he said to the pair, and they took that as their cue to return to their places.

"Right. Sorry for the interruption," Twisted Fate said. His voice was slightly stuffy, but it had regained its confidence and authority. "I think our other instructor is outside, so I'll fetch him. He teleported away, and a few moments later, the door opened and Twisted Fate held the door open as a small yordle waddled inside.

"Hiya!" said the furry yordle, and Garen's eyebrows rose. He had not expected the yordle before him to have any skills in dancing—but it seemed he was wrong.

Teemo stood before them, his eyes closed in a wide smile, and his gloved hand waved at them as Annie and Amumu waved back.

"Teemo has agreed to teach Annie, Amumu, Kog'maw, and Cho'gath, since you all are in the same numbers."

Teemo squinted at them, his smile never wavering as he nodded.

"Pardon me for asking, but I must say, I'm intrigued—however did you find yourself involved in the art of dance, Teemo, if you don't mind me asking?" Cho'gath said as he began to herd Kog'maw towards the scout.

"Well, we have a little dance troop in the scouts, to keep us busy; all the yordles in the League are part of it. I joined when I was pretty new to the job, and I've never left. I'm not as good as Twisted Fate or Evelynn, but I can teach you everything you need to know for these roles!" He gave them a thumbs up, and with that, the group left and followed Teemo as he led them swiftly down the hall to another dance room.

Garen and Katarina were the only ones left.

"You two will be studying with me," TF said, and Katarina nodded.

Garen cleared his throat awkwardly. "I'm sorry, sir, but since I didn't quite manage to read the roles…"

Twisted Fate nodded. "Right. Well, Garen, I want ya to know that it took a lot of time and thought to cast you, but I realized that, after seeing you interact with the kids the other day, you have a pure heart. And that pure, kind heart is ideal for the role you've been assigned. You're a perfect fit. The, ah, stage manager insisted that this role be filled by someone like you."

Garen's heart thudded in his ears. Who… who was he going to be? Perhaps he'd been cast as the Sugar Plum Fairy—the purest, most enchanting dancer—or perhaps he'd been cast as The Nutcracker, who would fight the evil Rat King, in order to protect—

"Clara."

Garen's expression grew confused, and he turned to a smirking Kat, who had spoken up.

"What?" he asked.

With mirth in her eyes, she said, "You're Clara."

A/N: Have you seen the ridiculous Teemo buff? HE THROWS HIS FREAKING SHROOMS WTF IS THIS (i love it omfg lmao). I actually decided to include Teemo as a joke, but the timing of this is good, so I'm a happy camper lol.

Yes. Garen is Clara xD BET YOU DIDN'T SEE THAT COMING. haha. I actually had planned for him to be the nutcracker, but then this idea struck, and that was that.

The TF/Evelynn bit is what I got from the JoJ when I read them a while back. It was hilarious, the poor guy.

Anyway, hope y'all are enjoying the story, and see ya next time!

Guest: The technology is just for convenience. Chalk it up to lazy writing lol. And, well, this fic isn't an Ez/Lux fic. That's not a pairing in this one (sorry to anyone who was hoping it would be). But it also won't be Talon/Lux, either. Lux isn't dating anyone currently; it's not really something I'm interested in including in this story. My mention of those pairings previously was just me giving shoutouts to some of my friends' fics (which are awesome, u should definitely read them)