The two of us walk into an alley and I begin to think of the literal one billion cliches I had seen in all the books I've read, all the movies I've watched, and all the times that people in real life had been in this exact situation.

Nothing normal ever happens in alleyways. Call it paranoia, but I truly haven't seen two people have a polite, civil discussion, in an alleyway, literally ever.

"So, what did you really bring me here for?" I ask quietly.

"For the autograph, though I did also want to catch your name."

"Jackson Alastair."

"Well, I'm pretty sure you already know who I am, but it wouldn't be polite to leave to hanging. I'm Seraphine."

Things are going relatively well, all things considered, but I'm still tense. The better this goes, the worse the fall will be.

"You seemed pretty shocked while we were walking. Are you new to Piltover?"

"Yes. I set out here, though I lost all my stuff on the way here."

"Oh, that explains why you're roughed up."

She fell for that? Oh yeah, this is Runeterra. Of course she'd fall for that.

"Do you have a place to stay?"

"No."

"Well how about-"

A mop of blue hair flies past, and pink follows. Not even a second later, a deafening explosion rings from where they ran.

I sigh. It was going all too well, something had to happen.

Maniacal laughter rang out and I already knew who it was.

"Jinx..." I muttered.

"Hm?" Oh, I forgot Seraphine's still here.

"Don't worry about it, let's go talk somewhere else."

I didn't notice how she was looking at me, with worry in her eyes.

POV Seraphine (3rd person)

Seraphine was mostly sure that Jackson Alastair wasn't a bad person, or that if he was, he was pretty bad at it.

He had been on edge from the moment she called him out, and he was only slightly able to distract himself by looking at Piltover. From what she could see (and feel), he was familiar with places like Piltover, but not Piltover itself, and he didn't know hextech at all.

To put it simply, Jackson was confusing. As they walked, his emotions fluctuated between relief, then back to a mix of nervous and amazed, then despair (what brought that on?), then just a mix of it all. It made her head hurt. He seemed most interested in hextech though.

Jackson pulled them into another alley, and she felt his worry spike again. He opened his mouth, but she was faster.

"Jackson, are you ok?"

"No. Moving on from that insignificant fact-"

"The fact you say you're not ok and then call it insignificant is a little concerning."

"Eh, I'm usually half ok, today's just a little rough."

"That's not good."

She was beginning to become concerned. What happened when he was traveling?

"Was it what happened when you were traveling and lost all your things?"

Seeing his expression immediately turn into a sad, tired attempt to keep a smile on his face confirmed it.

"What happened?"

I had a lot of options. Push her away and tell her that it was none of her business, continue to ignore it entirely, or just lie.

I didn't want to do any of it. I was still aware that saying that I was from a different world would make me look insane though, so I improvised. I was good at that.

"There was this twister, while I was traveling. You know what a twister is, right?" She nodded."You do? Ok. So I was resting at a camp I had set, and while I was doing that, it hit me. I should have died, thought I was dead, and everything I had was swept away. Everyone I know probably thinks I'm dead too. I don't know where it took me but if it didn't take that long to get here, I'll never get home.

"How far away is it?" she asked.

"It may as well be a world away." And then it hit me all at once for real, that I was a world away, and that I'd never ever get to see anyone I loved ever again, and that I did actually have nothing but the ripped clothes on my back.

I must be the greatest at pushing my emotions away, because it took me this long to realize that. And I must've been holding a lot of emotions, because as soon as I finished my kinda true story, I burst into genuine tears.

I didn't even notice that someone had wrapped their arms around me until that someone started singing and my head felt just a little clearer.

"what am I gonna do..." I muttered.

"Let me help you, and we'll figure it out." Seraphine says.

I shouldn't. I barely know her, and she's a world famous singer and and I'd only pile on to her already hellish workload. I would be a liability.

But right now, in this moment, she's all I have keeping me from sinking even lower into despair.

"Ok."

I hug back weakly, and her hug gets just a little tighter in response.