He had never considered himself to be a romantic; he wasn't into cheesy stuff – couple goals, matching accessories or the likes. But for the first time in his life, he did want to have dinners, movie nights, driving around and doing all sorts of silly things with the one he'd call his.
Sadly enough, he never got to do any of those.
He didn't even get to call her his, having spent only a few weeks together, ever since starting a… relationship? And not even that would fall under the together-together category, since, for one, they were in a tangled long distance relationship, and two, they barely texted. Texted, mind you. Not even calling, video calling, voice messages – nothing. They'd just share texts on occasion.
What a boyfriend he had been.
Granted, he had his own reasoning for diving into work but anything he'd say out loud would just sound as lame excuses. So while he did receive some mocking glances and almost there comments about his masculinity – or lack thereof – Talon did his best to stay true to his plans and create a possible, legitimate situation for her to return to.
And while his negligence towards the one person he'd been fighting for grew, reason for her possible return was growing stronger.
It all took a comment in passing from a certain someone from high society, during the launch party a year prior to make Talon decide to carve a path ahead.
Autumn was stretching its grasp on everything as the days grew shorter, rains were more frequent and the temperatures dropped.
Meanwhile, he had been spending most of his time at work, typing away at his computer, coding his very soul into the programs. He just had to finish laying down the base for his plan to be set in motion, but groundwork and effective planning was absolute.
He did end up getting a haircut in the meantime. Although the event behind his decision was something he'd rather not bring up. Mainly because his hair had grown so much he had to constantly wear it in ponytails, which wasn't that much of a hassle. It became an issue when his fringe started to cover his eyes and for convenience's sake, he had to wear headbands with his hair pushed back.
And one could imagine what the geeky Talon Du Couteau looked like, with his cartoony sweaters, jeans, sneakers, ponytail, while also sporting a headband. The ridicule was getting so out of hand, even Talon had had enough of it. So one day he decided to get a haircut. His hair was still on the long side, but he no longer needed to tie it in place and his fringe wasn't covering his eyesight any longer.
Some would even whisper how it brought out his features. The strong facial structure, his long nose, chiseled jawline, and even those dreamy amber eyes.
Well, except for the fact that he still dressed like a nerd and showed disinterest and annoyance on that face of his.
Granted, he couldn't care less about the comments thrown at him, since he had more important things to worry about. Mainly speaking, his oldest sister, Katarina was about to visit the Enterprise in the near future, and he had also received a cryptic text from Lux the other day, which she refused to explain in detail.
Everything will soon come to an end.
That was all the message had said. Surely enough, Talon played all sorts of scripts in his head, but mainly he had worried that she wanted their relationship to come to an end. All because he was a bad texter and an even worse boyfriend.
When he did ask about the text she had sent, sometime in the afternoon after he had woken up – since she texted him earlier that morning when he was sleeping after pulling an almost all-nighter – Lux delayed replying to him the whole day. For the most part, he seriously contemplated on calling her, but he was afraid.
Afraid of what would happen if she didn't pick up, blatantly ignoring him, but even more afraid once she would pick up and tell him that it was over between them. He wouldn't know how to react if that were the case.
Talon was unsure of many things in life and he couldn't bother dwelling on the unknown since he was sure things somehow always worked out, one way or another. But out of the small things he was indeed certain of, topping his list was his determination to not let Lux go. If she did want to end things between them, he'd try to pursue her to change her mind, revealing his plans to her. If she were to agree, they'd maybe work together from that point onwards, but if she didn't falter…
He'd probably have to let go of the one person he'd grown to care for more than his own life.
Leaning back against his chair and rubbing his tired eyes, a sigh left his lips. Why didn't he just tell her what he'd been planning since the very start? At least she would have been aware of the state of things from his end and maybe they'd work through loopholes together. Not that he was desperately looking for excuses regarding his behaviour, but perhaps she wouldn't be so keen on ending things with him.
And when was she even planning to face him about it? It's been days already and she hadn't said a word. Was she waiting for the weekend to come by to deliver those news, thinking they'd both be free?
It was going to be a horrible week for Talon, and that day was only a Wednesday.
But, just as his thoughts plunged deeper in the abyss, a hard knock broke the spell he was under and he raised his eyes to the person towering over his desk.
"There's an impromptu meeting. Come." Darius' stern voice caused cold sweat to appear on Talon's back.
Left without a choice, the young man rose from his desk, gathered his phone, a notepad and a steaming mug of coffee and followed his boss into the main meeting room.
Once arriving, he took his usual seat at the table and waited for everyone else to show up. This meeting did not exist in the meetings' calendar, so everyone walking in had a similar look of confusion on their face.
The IT department was there, represented by Talon, Software Engineering, PR, Communications, HR, pretty much all the main departments were present at the meeting, with their representatives looking around and exchanging confused glances.
Talon also noticed how there were 2 empty seats at the table, one which used to belong to Lux, but that seat had always been vacant ever since her departure, and another seat to Darius' left and across the table from Talon. He had guessed that spot would be reserved for a potential new client, contributor or partner.
"We're waiting for someone, after they arrive we will start the meeting." Darius spoke curtly, then went back to look through his papers.
It couldn't have been a structured meeting or project plan since it looked more like a summary or a few ideas thrown black on white, but Darius was intently scanning the contents of his document, from his tablet.
Whatever that meeting was going to be about, Talon decided that he had no time to waste on distractions.
And just as he finished drawing out that thought, the door to the meeting room opened, and it was filled with an energetic voice he had known all too well.
"Sorry for being late, I forgot how hellish traffic can be here," Katarina greeted with an apologetic smile as she walked past everyone's gasping faces and took a seat across from Talon.
She winked at him as a greeting but amber eyes were focused on the person who had walked in sheepishly after Katarina.
Blonde locks of golden hanging neatly off her shoulders and her back, curtain bangs cupping that heart shaped face as baby blue eyes scanned the room shyly, her pouty lips were drawn together in worry. Her petite frame was adorned by a dark grey knitted sweater, while her short legs were covered by a pair of black, fitted jeans and leather ankle boots.
Then her baby blue eyes met his amber ones and she quickly broke eye contact after merely a second, a deep blush creeping its way on her porcelain skin.
"Good morning," Luxanna Crownguard greeted sheepishly, as she took her old seat.
There were mixed reactions to her sudden appearance. Some people were aggressively welcoming her back, unable to hide their joy at the sight of her, while others were so taken aback by her unexpected appearance that they were rendered unable to speak clearly.
Meanwhile, Talon simply couldn't tear his eyes off of her frame. Was he dreaming? Was this real?
Darius cleared his throat and everyone shut up simultaneously. Everyone looked at him. Well, almost everyone.
Talon's eyes were still glued on Lux, who dared not meet anyone's glances, so Darius had to clear his throat again.
Shaking his head as if coming back to reality, Talon quickly looked at his boss, but still kept stealing glances at Lux, as if he was afraid she'd disappear from there the moment his eyes left her.
Katarina was chuckling under her breath. That reaction her brother showcased was just way too adorable. Currently, he resembled a puppy whose master had just returned after being away for weeks.
"As you can see, with Katarina and Luxanna joining us on this meeting, I'd like to announce a few things." As Darius began speaking, all eyes darted between the blondie and the redhead. "Luxanna has decided to offer up her copyrights of Mental Health for the Enterprise, and in exchange she will become one of our shareholders and will also take a seat on our chair of directors alongside Katarina here. Which means, she will officially join the Enterprise." Gasps and positive squeals could be heard in the room. "Not only that, she had also come with a proposal on how to further develop Mental Health. Since that project is still one of the leading projects for income and attention brought to our company, in the upcoming period of 6 to 12 months, 80% of the Enterprise's resources will go into Luxanna's new proposal."
More gasps filled the meeting room but overall the attendees had positive responses. Everyone was aware just how much the previous project did to blast the Enterprise into the top 5 companies on the whole continent and how much revenue and fame it brought. So it was a natural choice to focus more resources into its expansion. Not to mention how now the Enterprise singlehandedly held the copyrights to the project and Luxanna was officially part of the board.
"Luxanna, Katarina, if you may." Darius then allowed the ladies to continue, since he had shared his part.
"Thank you, boss," Katarina spoke playfully, even winking at Darius, to which he simply rolled his eyes. She then rose to her feet, addressing everyone. "As you may be well aware, although I am heiress of the Enterprise, its foundation, hard work and future is solely in your hands, since you and your departments are the ones making things happen. Since I had to pull quite a few strings to get our most beloved missy on the board," she nodded towards Lux, "I will leave it to you guys to keep everything up and going. I just hope we can break even more stereotypes and earn even better revenue. Alas, I'll let Lux present you the overall plans for the future expansion."
As Katarina took her seat, proudly grinning from ear to ear, all eyes and ears were on Lux. Visibly flustered, she rose to her feet, somewhat awkward to meet the people's eyes, especially a certain someone's.
"Hello again, and thank you for having me back. Sorry for the abrupt manner I had to leave last year, but now that I'm back, I plan to take things to the next level." She said sheepishly. "My proposal to further expand the Mental Health project lies in creating an application version which works similarly to the already developed desktop version. The main purpose is for it to run both on Emdroid operational systems, as well as uwuOS. However, I will have more detailed meetings with each department in charge to discuss how to proceed."
People were visibly excited by that point. They knew that it meant more work, but in the end it would all be worth it, since everyone was aware just how great of an impact the previous project had on the general population.
"Oh," Darius spoke reflexively, "Talon, weren't you already working on a similar programming, meant for mobile phones?"
At Darius' question, Lux's eyes moved towards Talon almost instantly, and amber met baby blue ones once more. The forests in autumn suddenly drowned in the blue skies.
"I, was. Yes." Talon stuttered and broke the eye contact, looking down to his notepad.
Lux shuddered in worry as she took a seat afterwards.
The atmosphere was a bit awkward for a few seconds, but Darius quickly took charge and led the meeting to finish successfully.
"What is the meaning of this?" His voice shook ever so slightly when asking that question.
Too much had happened in a matter of a few days, not to mention the events that unfolded during the meeting from that morning. Things had been bad between them ever since she decided to head back to Demacia, but nothing could compare to what he had to witness that very morning.
Talon's head was filled with questions and confusion.
He couldn't feel calm, relief or gladness for having her in front of his very eyes, not as he stared – or rather, glared – down at her short figure. She looked thinner, paler than before. Even as she was hugging her flannel coat closer to her body, as means to shelter her from the cold and his anger, she still looked too small, too vulnerable. But the worst was that she wouldn't meet his eyes.
"Lux." He growled with a dangerously low and throaty tone.
She shivered at the sound. Slowly, sheepishly, she raised her head to look at him, but had to pull her coat closer around her body when she was met with his glacial eyes. She could have never imagined he'd ever look at her with such a gold gaze.
"I came back. And I intend to stay." She said eventually.
But what was the meaning behind those words, even? She had been gone for a year, left after the father who couldn't care for her as his daughter demanded she'd return, abandoned him and everything she'd worked so hard for, only to come back after a year? Like nothing had happened?
What was she thinking?
"Can't imagine why you had to leave in the first place." Talon spat with sarcasm, not intending to back down.
He was hurt. First, she had abandoned him. Then, while he was putting all of his efforts into creating a way for her to return, she sent him an ambiguous text which could be misinterpreted in multiple ways, only to show up before his eyes, miraculously figuring out a way to return.
And the worst part was that she had done that without him. She had gone to Katarina for help, not him.
Loosening the reins of his thoughts, Talon ultimately came to ask himself the very thing: Why were they even together, then?
He quickly regretted and felt bad for thinking such thoughts, but his anger got the better of him.
"I had to. I was forced by my circumstances." Lux was visibly angry, so she spat right back.
She didn't know how their reunion would go, but she certainly didn't consider things to turn out like that. She did intend to surprise him by showing up, and she did consider he'd be upset with her acting like that without informing him beforehand, but she never thought he'd be so antagonising towards her.
Talon rolled his eyes. "Imagine if you ever told me what happened, or why you had to leave."
"Telling you wouldn't have changed anything. Not like it would have stopped me from leaving."
Lux regretted her words the very moment they left her lips. She noticed how surprised Talon had been at what she said, only for his expression to darken afterwards.
"You should have ended things then." He spoke lowly, his temper getting the best of him.
Lux felt tears swelling up in her eyes but she blinked them off as best as she could. "Should I end things now?" Her voice was shaky but she still held his angry gaze with the last bits of courage she could muster up.
"Do as you wish. Not like it matters where I stand, in your life." He dared her as he took a few steps, heading out of the open balcony.
It was a secluded area, even more so in colder seasons.
"Not like you could have bothered to hold a proper conversation with me this past year." He stopped at her icy tone.
Turning back to face her, Talon saw her looking at him with an angry expression, doing her best to keep her tears at bay.
He shouldn't keep pressing like that, they should both calm down and talk about things like grownups.
But he couldn't, he was way too hurt for that kind of behaviour.
"Mind you, I was working my ass off to develop a program that would run on phones and tablets, as means to make an excuse and get you back here." He scoffed. "Good thing you already thought of that with Katarina and returned anyway. I guess it was too much to ask for, to let me at least know."
Lux rolled her eyes and sighed in exasperation. "Imagine if you told me about all of that, instead of ignoring me! We could have worked on it together, but no, you have to go out of your way and do things on your own! Good thing we're working on projects about mental health and communication, when we can't even hold a proper conversation between us." She scowled and hurried past him, out of the balcony.
His heart ached. More than it did when he found out she was already gone, a year prior.
Back then, she had left without telling him anything. He found out she was gone when she was already back in Demacia.
And now, she was back, and he found out she planned to return only when she was already seated at the same table as him.
They were both at fault, for the way they acted. Back then, during the time they were separated, as well as after reuniting.
They just had a pointless fight, instead of being happy to be together once again.
Yet, what did it even mean, to be together?
They felt like strangers more than they did back when they were constantly bickering with each other, a year prior.
Talon was a grumpy mess for the remaining of the day. He had way too many things to process, and all of it happening while he was at work did not allow him to properly breathe and digest everything that had happened.
Trying to make sense of what to do, he'd first have to apologise to Lux and talk things through, see where they were both headed. But for that, he'd need to give her some space.
So how was he supposed to give her space, when she had settled in her new office not long ago and was sorting through papers? They were going to see each other on a daily basis, how would they be able to even talk properly?
He blamed himself for acting the way he did. She didn't deserve it. She left back when they were at the beginning of their relationship, so of course he wouldn't expect her to open up about everything to him. And besides, she had been friends with Katarina for years, and she was also there in Demacia with Lux. Of course she'd lean on her for support.
Meanwhile, he was being an arrogant jerk, having way too many expectations and being unable to take things slow.
Groaning internally, Talon simply wanted to dig a hole and hide away until the rest of his days.
"Hi," a voice chimed through his mental breakdown.
But of course he wouldn't be able to do just that.
Looking up, he saw his oldest sister smiling at him, with one of those fake smiles of hers, while hiding it behind annoyance.
"Hi." He spoke moodily, not wanting to talk with her.
Katarina allowed herself to sit on the edge of his desk, which only annoyed Talon more.
"You know, I had to pull a lot of strings and talk with many lawyers to figure out a loophole for Lux to be free." Ugh. He didn't like where that conversation was headed. "So it's quite of a bugger to hear that the first thing you two do after she returns is fight." She continued nonchalantly, checking out her manicure. "I think you should hear her out and talk with her properly. She's gonna be around for a while, after all."
At that point, Talon was certain he was shooting daggers out of his eyes, aimed at his oldest sister. Being lectured by Katarina was the last thing he needed on that damned day.
Why were Wednesdays always worse than Mondays?
"Maybe it wouldn't have turned out like this if I was aware of your plan." He growled, tearing his eyes off of his sister and looking into his monitor.
Not like he could magically find the answer typed there among his coding, but at least he could suppress the urge to strangle the redhead.
Katarina sighed and hopped off his desk. She tapped him on his shoulder in a comforting manner. "Just talk to her after you both calm down. It hadn't been easy for either of you. I took her side to bring her back here, but I'm still your sister. I still want you to be happy." She said, emerald eyes lingering on his lithe frame for a second too long.
"Don't forget we're not blood related. I was merely adopted." He growled, swatting her hand off of his shoulder, perhaps using way too much strength.
Katarina was looking at the hand she'd been caressing, since his gesture did cause her some pain. Both physical and mental pain.
"At least things had become better between us, compared to past years." She said sulkily, as she began to walk away.
Talon leaned back against his chair, groaning internally and covering his eyes.
Everything was just way too fucked up.
So nerdy Talon with a headband and a ponytail.
See what I did with the OS?
Couple fight, first thing in the morning.
Anyone wants some coffee?