Deadly Deception

Chapter 19

I hope you guys know that I bought Realms of Runeterra to write this more accurately. Okay, love you, enjoy reading.

It had taken all of the daylight in the day for Vi and Katarina to make it through the lush jungles of Ionia, not helped by animals that were bigger than the both of them, forcing them to hide to avoid being attacked or eaten. For the Enforcer, seeing such strange animals up close was amazing. She really wanted to jump down onto the back of a 5 foot tall deer that had tusks as long as it's chest, and antlers that were wide enough for her to sit on. Katarina was more aware of how easily those tusks could gore them both and tried to stay as quiet as possible. Still, they didn't make it out of the jungle unscathed; their clothes showing many tears and rips from panicked climbing, or predatory plants trying to grab them.

With Weh'le in sight, the two of them breathed a sigh of relief at the same time and summoned their last shreds of energy to make it there. Nobody was awake, or at least anyone they saw. Vi had half-hoped that someone would be awake so they didn't have to try and find somewhere to sleep outside, and Katarina was glad because she was worried about being recognised and getting them attacked.

The assassin sighed and prepared to tell her wife that they should find a cave to sleep in, which was interrupted by a loud goran.

"What are we gonna do, Kat?!"

"Don't yell, it's okay." She put one hand between Vi's shoulder blades and the other on her stomach. "We'll figure something out." Katarina was pulled into a hug, tensing for a second at first, but relaxing into it. "We just need somewhere to stay for the night. After we get some sleep, we can come back and try again." After a second, Vi inhaled deeply and straightened her back.

"You're right. Level head." She nodded, giving Katarina a grin. "I'm just tired, y'know?"

"We both are." Katarina leaned back slightly to look around, a frown spreading across her lips. "I don't see any caves… We need to find somewhere to sleep. Vi nodded again and looked into the village.

"What about a barn?" After a second of confusion, the assassin turned and followed her wife's gaze.

"I don't think that they would let us."

"Then let's just sneak in!" Vi took her hand in both of her own, grinning widely. "Nobody's around, so they can't stop us!" There didn't seem to be any stopping her, and it did sound better than a cave. Katarina lifted her hand and gently pushed up on her wife's chin, giving her a nod when it was closed. Weh'le wasn't the largest village, and most of the houses were in sight, built into small-ish trees. The barn did stand out, as did the attached animal pen. As the two of them crept behind the houses, a couple of the long-haired bulls lifted their heads, but found nothing to care about, laying back down in the grass with a gruff snort. The barn was thankfully unlocked, the structure being made of four trees for the corners, and walls built between them. The door wasn't locked, which Katarina silently thanked, because Vi would have just pulled the door off, but the inside was pitch black. Silently, the Enforcer pulled one of her gauntlets off of her belt and slid it on, illuminating a small area around them.

"It's clean, at least." Katarina mused, ducking under Vi's raised fist.

"Hay can be pretty comfy." She replied, pulling the door gently closed. Other than the small pile in one corner of the barn, the rest of it was stacked in neat bales. "Let me just pull one of those down. I can make a little box."

"A box… of hay?" Vi just gave her a grin and walked over to the smallest stack, lifting one of them with her bare hand and placing it gently down. Katarina watched her lift the second one, turned to the pile she was stood next to, and tried to lift one. It only raised a few inches before she had to drop it and dust her hands off. She was such a strong woman… if Vi wasn't the person that she is, Katarina knows that she could have easily died at any point when she got frustrated.

"Kat? You okay?" The daydream was broken, and she looked over at her wife, who had carefully leant her gauntlets against one of the 'walls'.

"I'm fine. Just…" Homesick? Worried? Angry? Vi gave her a knowing smile and reached over, gently taking her hand.

"Yeah, I get it. C'mon, you can use me as a pillow and feel a bit better." That made her chuckle. As she walked over and knelt down on one of the bales, Vi laid down in the small pile of loose hay she had gathered and held her arms out.

"I still don't understand how someone as strong as you can be so loving." Katarina mused, climbing down and laying her head on her wife's chest, smiling softly as Vi started to stroke her hair.

"You don't have to understand it. You just have to enjoy it." The light from the gauntlet slowly faded, and the two of them laid content in the darkness; the only sound coming from Vi gently stroking her wife's arm. Katarina was laid on her front, her legs between Vi's, and arms around her shoulders. "Just sleep for now. We'll be in Piltover before you know it. Then we can go back to being the best couple ever."

"That's a bold statement."

"I wouldn't say it if it wasn't true, Kat." Vi grinned, pressing a kiss to the top of her head. "And, when we get there, you can fuck with my apartment all you want. I know it's not what you're used to."

"Bigger apartment." The assassin declared. "Sleeping with one side of the bed next to the wall will not work." That made the enforcer laugh.

"If you want it, it's yours. But you need to go to sleep first." Neither of them spoke after that, Vi moving her hand to Katarina's back and gently rubbing it until her breathing softened, and her body relaxed. Vi wanted to stay awake to make sure that her wife was comfortable and safe for the whole night, but that would probably result in her death. She just focused on the soft breathing, and stopped her hand against where her heart was on her back. She had hoped to feel her heartbeat, but it wasn't possible against her back when it was at a resting rate. Vi just smiled and closed her eyes, trying to think of everything that she needed to go after getting back to Piltover.

Just as the sun started to rise over the expanse of mountains, the people of Weh'le started to wake up. The few families there had been farmers for many generations, and the young man in a loose white vest trimmed with blue, shorts of the same blue, and sandals that wrapped around his calves. He greeted the few other people that were awake at such an early hour and walked over to the barn, tapping his cattle hook on the floor with each step. As he whistled the tune he did every morning, the bulls in the pen lifted their heads and yawned, clumsily getting up as large animals tend to. When he opened the barn doors, something felt… off. The farmer looked around, but didn't see anything immediately. With a shrug, he hooked one of the bales and dragged it out to feed his animals.

As he opened the gate and opened the bale of hay, one of the bulls wandered out of the pen and into the barn, knowing that there was mode food inside. However, he noticed the pair of feet sticking out from the small 'fortress' of hay and walked over. The bull huffed as he sniffed Vi's feet, lifting his head again when she grumbled in her sleep and hugged Katarina closer. He moved up and sniffed Katarina's red hair, then stuck his tongue out and tried to eat it. That woke the assassin up, who blinked in confusion, swearing loudly and elbowing her wife in the stomach when she realized what was happening. Vi woke up coughing, only looking confused for a second before putting her hand on the bull's nose and pushing him away. The farmer, however, heard the shout and ran in.

"Who the- Who are you?!" He shouted, jogging over and pulling the animal away, looking both women over. "Why are you in here?!"

"Calm down." Katarina told him, looking at Vi for a second to make sure that she was okay before looking back at the farmer, who was pushing the bull away. "We're not dangerous. We just needed a safe place to sleep."

"And you broke into my barn?!" Other people started to walk over at this point, both confused and concerned by the shouting.

"The door was unlocked." Vi stated, helping Katarina get up before standing up herself, grinning as the farmer shrank away at her intimidating frame. "Couldn't really call it 'breaking in'." One of the villagers was an ex-soldier, and he ran over with his wooden sword, ready to fight in a loose, yellow robe that split off and tied off at his ankles, and no shoes. He was a balding man, but had fury on his face.

"We do not trust strangers in Weh'le!" He shouted, raising his sword to Katarina, and then backing up when Vi stepped between them, glaring at him. "Leave our village!"

"Look, we don't want any-" The enforcer started, cursing in pain as he struck her shoulder with the wooden blade. A second later, he screamed as a blade slashed across his chest, splashing blood on the floor and Katarina's furious expression. She held her dagger backwards, keeping her arm held across her chest and in the air, trying to stay calm.

"Do not touch my wife." She hissed, looking around at the other villagers, who backed away to a safe distance. "We brought you no trouble or harm; we only wanted a safe place to sleep and some information, and you attacked us?" By now, Vi had picked up and put her gauntlets on, curling two of the huge, metal fingers around her bicep and calming her.

"We'll go, ok?" She said, standing sideways to the farmer and warrior, the latter being held up as he clutched his chest. "Just let us go." Even outnumbered, every villager could see that the smaller of the two women had incapacitated their strongest resident in one swipe. Nobody really wanted to see what those giant, metal hands could do. The two men in front of them backed up, but Vi still shielded her wife with her body.

"Wait." They stopped at Katarina's word, and she picked the wooden sword up, holding it out. "You're lucky that we don't snap this, old man." She hissed again, throwing it across the barn and taking Vi's arm to lead her away. They were clear of the village within a minute, and as they were walking over a path worn down by many footfalls, VI broke the tense silence with a loud laugh, scaring her partner for a second before she smiled.

"That was badass, Kat!" She laughed, lifting her into a hug.

"As soon as he struck you, I saw red." The assassin smiled, digging her fingers into Vi's shoulders. "Put me down, though."

"Sorry, sorry." The enforcer put her gently onto her feet, still beaming. "I think you have enough badassery for both of us." It still felt like they were in a dream. Standing in front of each other in a half-hug, in a land that neither of them knew, after being ejected from a village that they were told to get information from. Vi opened her mouth to speak again, and closed it as soft music filtered around them. It was almost magical, as neither of them could see where it was coming from, or pinpoint it. Both women scanned the area, but still saw nothing, and no indication of where the music was coming from. When it finally stopped, a chuckle came from the tree branch that was overhead, and they both took a step back to look up into it.

"I think I recognise the two of you from somewhere." The man that was sat cross-legged in the tree dressed mostly differently from the others, with very loose blue pants that were tied to his ankles with the straps of his soleless shoes, and a rope looped twice around his waist. He wore no short, only a tattered cloth over one shoulder and around his neck, and a layered shoulderguard with intricate designs over his other shoulder that was belted across his chest diagonally and horizontally. "Where would I know you?"

"I don't know…" Katarina stepped back from her wife and looked up at him. "Who are you?" The man in the tree chuckled and shook his head, making his long, bushy hair catch in the leaves. He slid his flute into the leather belt over his chest and picked up his sword, jumping from the tree and landing on one knee in front of them, pressing the end of the sheath into the dirt.

"My name is Yasuo." He said, standing up and bowing to them. "I have this… itching feeling in the back of my mind that I know the two of you from somewhere, but I can't place it…"

"We had the same feeling with Vastaya earlier." Vi lifted her hand to scratch the shaved side of her head, confusing Yasuo as to how she could do that with such weapons and not hurt herself. "We had this feeling with each other that we met them before, but I couldn't bring any memories up." He nodded and pushed his sword through the loop in his belt-rope and dusted his armoured bracers off, only one of which covered his hand.

"What are your names, then?"

"I'm Katarina," She didn't see any harm in giving her name to someone that she already seemed to know. "And this is my wife, Vi."

"Wife, hm?" Yasuo chuckled, waving a hand when Katarina opened her mouth to protest. "You two don't look to be compatible, but who am I to know that?" He shifted to lean on his other foot, still smiling. "All I know is that the two of you definitely stick out wearing clothes like that."

"I'm dressed like this because my shirt got burned off." Vi shrugged.

"By who?"

"Noxians." It took a lot of effort for Katarina to stay neutral as Vi turned around and pointed at the burn that stretched across her back.

"Yeah, that wouldn't surprise me." Yasuo stepped forward to brush his fingers across her skin, but the look he got from Katarina made him rethink. "You two seem to be a bit down on your luck… The least I can do is help you get some new clothes, right?"

"Really?" Vi turned back around to be greeted with a smile.

"Of course! You actually remind me of my student." He gently punched Vi's shoulder. "Happy and bright-eyed. All you need to do is travel with me for a little while."

"That would be even more helpful." Katarina nodded, folding her arms. "Neither of us have ever been to Ionia before."

"Then let's go." Yasuo started walking, slipping between the women and resting his hand on the pommel of his sword. Vi and Katarina shared a look, and the enforcer gave her wife a reassuring smile before pulling her hand out of her gauntlet and holding it out to her. When Katarina took it, they started to follow Yasuo, their future now looking a bit brighter.

I know, I know, I'm bad at schedules. I still love you guys.