The next day they arrived at the stables early to lay the groundwork. When the Demacians arrived to find both Blood Brothers ready to go, and Darius holding Lux's tack, the brief startled look they flashed each other made Darius smile.
"I know you prefer to handle this..." He raised the saddle up a little. "...yourself. But I thought I could at least bring everything out."
"You expect me to go get mine?" asked Garen, facing Darius but eyeing Draven.
"Nobody gave me a fancy paper about you," Draven said with a wink. "But I did send a lackey." He nodded down the aisle between the stalls where they could see a stable-boy carrying Garen's tack their direction. He looked somewhat dwarfed beneath the Garen-sized saddle.
"Right," said Garen, and, giving Darius an uneasy glance, hurried to relieve the boy of his burden.
Ignoring Lux's dubious look, Darius hefted the saddle and moved to stand beside her horse's stall. She slipped inside, watching to see if he would try to follow her. He smiled and silently offered her the saddle blanket, which she took, without losing any of her suspicion.
"Why are you even here?" Garen grumbled from his own horse's stall.
"Darius wanted to improve the ambiance, Draaaven makes everything better."
With Darius' assistance Lux finished swiftly, while Garen was still bantering with Draven and casting uneasy glances down to reassure himself Darius hadn't moved out of sight.
"Done?" asked Darius, not whispering, but keeping his voice low.
"Yep," said Lux, tugging on the girth one last time.
Darius leaned over the half-door to pull her into his arms. She looked up at him over her shoulder, a small, worried pinch between her brows. Darius resisted the urge to kiss her mouth until the worry went away, burying his face in the fall of her hair at her neck, inhaling her scent.
"Mmmm."
"Darius!"
That was probably a reprimand. Fortunately he was a general of high enough standing that the only reprimands he needed to take heed of came from Jericho Swain. He pulled back to give her a contemptuous look before leaning back in to kiss her, meeting her eyes throughout his slow approach. Anticipation, after all, heightened every experience.
She held her ground, shoulders stiff, eyes wide. He sighed on the inside. For all Draven's protests he wasn't confident her reservations were purely the result of conflicting internal timelines. But when their lips finally met she relaxed, closing her eyes and softening in his grip. Only Garen's presence kept him outside of the door. He still had no idea what was going through her head, but her body told him to soldier on, turning into his embrace while she kissed him back.
Mindful of her Demacian sensibilities he paused to allow her a chance to regroup. This tactic paid off, because given the opportunity to marshal her forces she went on the attack. And a very pleasant attack it was, her hands running over his chest and shoulders, even his upper arms.
He kissed her until they were both breathless. When she broke away to bury her face in his chest he took a peek down toward Draven and Garen. Draven raised a hand in acknowledgment and said, "I keep telling him to hurry up, but he won't listen, Darius!"
Garen looked up from his task to growl at them both.
Darius rolled his eyes and turned back to drop a kiss on the top of Lux's head. Draven was doing a good job, but Garen was almost finished. He brushed her hair back to try and see her face.
She turned to look up at him with a venomous glare. He blinked. What was that about?
"I don't want to like you," she said with a voice that matched her face, before hiding in his chest again.
A hot knife of satisfaction pierced him at her admission, for admission it was. Victory! He almost laughed, but kept it down to a quiver in his voice when he said, "That's fine."
She looked up at him, mad as a wildcat. He could feel her hands on his shirt clench into claws. "Oh?" she questioned, eyes narrowing. "Not worried I might kill you in your sleep?"
Yes, she knew what she had revealed. But Darius snorted, looking down in amusement. "You wouldn't do that." He didn't want to taunt her, but really, who did she think she was fooling?
"Why not?" she spat, wrapped in his arms still.
He leaned in to kiss her on the tip of her nose. She growled as he pulled away. "Because you're a Demacian."
The anger dropped away from her face leaving a blank expression that was actually more worrisome than the earlier rage.
"I spent time in Noxus, you know," she said, voice serious. " Aren't you afraid it rubbed off on me?"
"Hah!" The involuntary laugh burst out, and she cocked her head to look at him, expression unnervingly blank. He reached to touch her lips with two fingers. "You can't fool me, girl. You're Demacian to the core. You'd fight me to the death on the battlefield, but I'll lose no sleep about you killing me in our bed."
She stared at him, face solemn, body tense and still under his hands. Did she object to his characterization of her?
"I'm a spy, Darius. I can laugh." Her most luminescent grin bloomed on her lips. "I can cry." Real tears began to drip from her eyes, even as the smile never left her face. Fascinating. He reached to smear the wetness from her cheeks. "And they said I would never have to spy on you, but I can make no other promises."
He thought he heard Draven and Garen approaching, but his lips quirked up at this last. "Only a Demacian would admit that." He shook his head. "Stop trying to scare me away like some cowardly youth. You..."
She hooked her hand behind his neck and pulled him into a kiss. A hungry, greedy, plundering kiss, a kiss that left no doubt in his mind how much she wanted him to touch her.
"Lux!" Garen yelped like the puppy he was.
Darius could imagine the shocked pose Draven had assumed from his voice alone. "Garen! Your sister is taking shameless advantage of Draven's innocent brother! What kind of chaperon are you?"
Darius didn't want to miss the look on Garen's face, but an insistent hand was tangled in his hair, holding him in place. He hurried to look when her grip slackened, and the flabbergasted expression Garen was sporting made him smirk.
"Garen, come back later, I'm busy now." Lux's response made Darius spare her an amused glance. He didn't know she had a voice of command.
Garen's mouth shut with a click, and he rallied before floundering. "Lux! You can't just... What are you... This is..."
"I'm going to marry your sister, Crownguard." Garen stopped sputtering and goggled at him. "At this point I don't think you can stop me." He lifted Lux up over the door so they were no longer separated. "So why don't you run along and leave us to our small celebration.
Garen frowned and crossed his arms. "That's what the wedding night is for."
"Oh, Garen," said Lux, sounding exasperated. "Turn your back and count to thirty."
The siblings stared at one another, exchanging some kind of silent communication. Darius felt a vague desire to know what was being said, but contented himself with stroking his woman's hair and watching. His now.
"Fine!" Garen said at last, throwing his hands in the air and turning around.
"Take Draven with you," Lux added.
Garen obligingly shoved Draven's shoulder to spin him around, which Draven allowed with one last grin for Darius.
"No peeking," Garen growled.
"Oh, don't act like the injured party," Draven mocked. "If she weren't making an honest man out of him Draven would have strong words to say to you about your sister's callous seduction of Draven's pure, sweet sibling."
Darius heard Lux give a small snort at Draven's comedy routine, then she went up on her toes, pressing against him in a way that made him glad neither of them was wearing their armor so he could feel everything, and kissed him.
After what felt like much less than a count of thirty Garen cleared his throat. "We're turning around now."
Lux pulled back and Darius sighed, giving Garen a look of distaste.
"What? We still have to go riding!" Garen feigned an earnest expression. At least Darius assumed it was feigned. Not even Garen...
He shook his head. "Right, Garen."
Lux squeezed his hand, flashing him a small smile before slipping back into the stall to get her horse.
Darius turned back to Garen. "For the record, I plan to lavish your sister with much more attention on our wedding night."
Garen turned bright red, a guttural growl the only sound his throat seemed willing to produce.