There's a storyline that's coming up soon and it's just wonderful. You'll know it when you see it, cause you'll ask 'is he really fucking doing this?'. Yes. Yes I am.
So you've got that to look forward to/dread.
Chapter 62: Shield
Multiple weeks later (24th March 16:00):
I sat outside the office, wiggling my feet below the chair cheerfully. The last few weeks had been the best I'd had in as long as I could remember. Zoh had been visiting a psychiatrist for multiple hours every day, and he slowly became the man I remembered.
My only gripe was how much he was apologising for that night.
The door opened and Zoh strolled out, eyes searching for me. He saw me just as I hopped up from my chair and hugged him.
"How did it go?"
"Great! Apparently, if I keep getting better at this rate, I'll be able to stop coming in a few weeks! I'll just send him daily updates until he's sure I'm cured."
I pulled back from the hug and smiled at him: "That's fantastic! I'm so proud of you."
I gave him a kiss on the lips before getting him to take us home. The second we appeared back in the room I tackled him onto the bed and planted kisses all over his face. We rolled over each-other one too many times and fell off the bed. Luckily, I was on top when that happened.
"Oof, I think I landed on something."
As much as I really, really didn't want to, I got off Zoh so that he could get rid of whatever it was. He leaned over and picked it up before getting to his feet. It was that metal cylinder that we still hadn't done anything with. He stared at it inquisitively for a few seconds.
"Put it down, Zoh. You don't want it getting in the way when things really get started." I whispered while draping myself over him.
An incredible look of surprise suddenly covered his face, moments before he picked me up and sat me on the side of the bed. He messed around with a button for a moment before his armour appeared a short distance from him. A light kick the back of the armour's right leg somehow made the back of it open up, revealing the crystal he had shown me ages ago, except it was as bright as a star. I was slightly concerned when he just yanked it out of the armour, but he quickly opened up the cylinder and dropped it inside. As the cylinder closed, he dismissed the armour.
"So, now that it's got the crystal, what does it do?"
"I'm about to find out." He smirked before pressing something on the cylinder. Two prongs sprung out of the top before rotating down, making a 'T' shape. I didn't get time to be unimpressed before a grey hologram slowly materialised around the machine. Emanated from the cylinder and was made up of a bunch of tiny hexagons. When it stopped growing, it was undeniably a shield. The top and sides were flat, but near the bottom it angled inwards, the angle becoming less steep until the sides met at a point in the middle. There were two holes around where Zoh hand was on the cylinder that shifted when he moved his hand.
When I threw a pencil at it, the pencil just bounced off harmlessly. Those definitely weren't holograms.
"Okay, that's pretty cool."
"Fuck yes it is. I've got a goddamn energy shield now! I can't wait to field test it and see what it can do."
"Can we have sex first?"
He flung the shield behind him and nodded: "Absolutely!"
Zoh's POV:
Later (19:00):
We still had a little while left before the sun would get its chance to hide for a while, and I entirely intended on testing my new shield-thing in that time. I'd probably continue testing it after, if Ahri agreed to continue assisting me. I would've normally assumed she would be up for it, but recent activities had sapped her strength slightly.
"Are you sure you're sure about this?"
"I am sure I'm sure." I assured, already hating that word from our hideous overuse of it.
I raised my shield and yelled: "Go!"
She hurled her orb directly at the shield. To my great disappointment, it went right through and knocked me onto my ass. I squirmed on the ground and groaned profanities as she strolled over casually. Ahri stood over me and gave me a few light kicks, asking: "You okay?"
"Totally. Hundred and nine percent." I lied, my voice wispy from the abnormally low amount of air in my lungs. After catching my breath, I struggled to my feet.
"Okay, we gotta try something different. Preferable something less painful..." I picked a rock from the ground and held it out to her. "If it can't block this, we'll hang it up somewhere and call it art."
I jogged a short distance from her then turned with the shield up. Either Ahri was really committed to thorough testing, or she wanted the shield to fail and me to get pelted by a rock, cause she threw that thing with all her might. It sped through the air and hit the shield, bouncing off harmlessly. Thank fuck.
"Woo! It can do something!"
"That's good. At least it wasn't a total waste of time."
"Yeah! Anyway, I've already got an idea of what we should try next."
"Well…? Spit it out."
"Just… give me a moment." I teleported away and returned a few seconds later with Xerath. "Right, so, electric-dude, fire something at me and at least try to make it hit the shield."
"OKAY." He exclaimed giddily, immediately charging a huge ball of power above his head.
"Wait!" Ahri shouted, making both me and Xerath turn our heads to face her. "Can you at least get into your armour first? If this doesn't work I'll have to drag you all the way inside to Shen so he can patch up your stupid ass."
"Ahri, your concerns have been noted…" I turned back to Xerath, continuing: "And ignored. Okay FIRE!"
Xerath unleashed, sending beam of pure, destructive power right at me. I realised, entirely too late, that the shield wasn't actually big enough to cover me entirely. Luckily, it wasn't as trash-tier as I initially thought. Just as the energy was about to collide with me, the shield expanded, growing just large enough to cover me completely.
When I looked out from the shield, I saw that the grass around me had been incinerated completely, but I was unharmed. The shield shrunk back down to its normal size as I smiled at Xerath, who declared: "OH FANTASTIC, NOW HE'S EVEN MOOORE OVERPOWERED."
He floated away in a strop as Ahri came over to me.
"I don't agree with your methods, but damn, that thing is starting to impress me. Not sure how much use it will be considering your armour already does all that stuff, but at least it looks cool."
"But that's where you're wrong, Ahri. Thanks to the removal of the crystal from the armour, it is now able to be damaged by soul AND arcane magic. The latter of which is an enormously popular art."
"So, basically you have to use that to not get spammed to death by people like Ryze?"
"Precisely. So really, it's a nerf. A huge nerf. And it only took sixty two chapter of me needing one."
"Wait, but you didn't have that crystal the whole time and your previous armours were magic-immune."
"They were made of a different material. Much weaker and also slightly harder to paint."
"If that's the case, why not make it again with the old material? Or find a new crystal? Or-" I cut her off by putting my finger to her mouth and whispering: "Shhhhhh… hush now. Just accept that I can finally be horribly murdered by any arcane mage. So, like, half the mages on the planet."
"I'll make sure to keep an eye on you next time we're fighting something nasty."
"Ahri, I'm not suddenly a terrible fighter. The biggest threat to my life is still me."
"I don't think anything will ever change that fact... anyway, the sun is going down now, so do you wanna go have sex again?"
"Absolutely!"
The next day (25th 11:40):
I hurried through the halls of the League, still in my armour after using it for some testing. The golden bird-man I was looking for was apparently searching through some of the labs that the Summoners had used for various things. Akali hadn't been able to tell me why, but I assumed it was because he was curious to see the technology. I strongly doubted that such things were around back in his time.
My bursting through the door definitely caught his attention as Azir calmly turned to me.
"Greetings. You're in a hurry."
"I am, and I have good reason to! I figured it out!"
"'It' being…?"
"It. The problem. The issue. How we fix Runeterra!"
He recoiled slightly in surprise before stepping over to me.
"How did you discover this? I thought you were still recovering from shell-shock?"
"Mostly recovered now. Having a clear head has really made things a lot easier for me."
"Well then, congratulations are in order. But first, before we celebrate, tell me what you have discovered and we might yet save this world."
After explaining a whole lot of dangerously boring science, Azir nodded his head approvingly and questioned: "How soon can you put this plan into action? What assistance will you require?"
"If I can get a few hundred people to help build them, we'll have the machines in place in just a few weeks. As for how long it will take them to repair the planet… it's impossible to tell. Probably months or years."
"That is acceptable. I shall present this to the negotiations later. Hopefully, the other nations will be willing to lend their aid in this plan. If not, Shurima shall provide all you need."
"You seem oddly willing to go through with this. I expected you to at least want to see my evidence first."
He glanced around the room to make sure that our only company were his soldiers.
"The Sun Disk cannot keep Shurima safe from the scars for much longer. It never got a chance to fully recover its energies after being awoken, and I'm not sure how much longer it could have truly held out even if it had."
"Sounds like we better get to work immediately. You get the resources, I'll draw up the blueprints."
I hurried back to the apartment, filled with a new sense of urgency. We finally had a solution to a problem that had been looming overhead for so long, and I fully intended to implement it as soon as possible.
Weeks later (16th April 18:40):
When I designed those things I didn't expect them to be quite so… tall. From the top of the Shuriman spire I could see for miles all around. If there wasn't just sand everywhere, it might have even been a nice view.
Like all the other nations that had one, the Shurimans had truly made that spire their own. It was painted in a range of browns and oranges that let it blend in well with the surroundings, and all the edges had been smoothed to appear like it was a construct of stone.
The spire itself, like all the others, was just a really tall metal contraption that was thicker at the bottom and quickly thinned until it was just a few metres from side to side. Giant wires fastened it to the ground, making it immune to near any amount of shaking.
After jumping down, and fucking nailing the landing, I ran around the perimeter until I found Azir, who looked rather proud of his new toy. When he noticed me, he remarked: "Truly, a work of art is what we have created."
"A bit brown for my tastes, but it's definitely interesting-looking."
"How far to the top do you suppose it is?"
"A few hundred feet."
"Magnificent. When do we activate it?"
I shrugged: "Uh… now, I guess. I see no reason we should delay."
After fetching the device from my belt, I offered it to him.
"No, I believe you deserve the honour. They are your machines, after all."
"Cool, I love buttons."
Once Azir had cleared the dozens of workers off the machine and got everyone to a safe distance, I slammed the button. After a bit of whirring, the machine made one hell of a loud noise. Immediately after that, a pillar of energy fell from the sky, flowing directly into the machine. The clouds around it were drawn in as well, clearing away the few clouds that found themselves above the desert.
All over Runeterra, the same thing was happening, as the spires began drawing on the ambient magic in space. It would take time, but eventually, the spires would draw in enough magic to restore Runeterra to the state that it was in before the Head Summoner had arrived. Even the scars would slowly seal up, one by one, until most of Runeterra was pretty again.
The crowd of workers cheered, finally seeing the machine that they had worked so hard on for weeks come to life. Even I had to smile. It may have gone against one of my golden rules, but I was actually getting quite attached to Runeterra.
I stepped up to Azir and offered my hand: "To a job well done."
He shook it and agreed: "To a job well done. We have made history this day."
"Yeah, we tend to do that a lot."
He let go and concluded: "Indeed. However, I shall not keep you. I know for a fact that there is someone you would rather be celebrating with right now."
"That's happening later. We had a little party planned with a bunch of friends. You can come along if you want."
"I cannot. The negotiations have kept me from my home for too long."
"Good luck, man."
"As to you."
I gave a polite bow before teleporting away. Appearing outside of our apartment, I removed my armour before stepping in. Apparently they'd started without me.
Party decorations were thrown up pretty much everywhere, and I had managed to get the fridge in the living room and working. It was, of course, filled to the brim with haphazardly-stacked drinks. Shen and Akali were having a boxing match in the middle of the room as Nocturne, Shen, Ahri, and Morgana cheered them on.
When Ahri noticed me, she got up and jogged around the fight.
"Hey! The world isn't blowing up yet, so your plan worked!" She exclaimed cheerfully while throwing her arms around me.
"Yeah, although I wouldn't have minded a little bit of exploding. Like, fireworks or something."
"Well, we don't have any of those-" She paused when Akali got thrown to the ground next to us, continuing while the ninja jumped back into the fight: "-but I'd say it's going fine without."
I pulled away and gave her a kiss on the cheek. After catching Nocturne's attention and pointing to my room, I turned back to Ahri: "You enjoy the party. I've gotta go have a chat with Noct."
I arrived in my room a few seconds after Nocturne and made absolutely sure the door was closed before whispering: "Do you have it with you?"
He nodded and showed me the little case: "Yeah."
"Okay, would've been awkward if you forgot it. When are you gonna do it?"
"Soon, before we all have too much alcohol to think straight."
"Why not just do it now?"
"Now!?" He exclaimed before realising he was too loud: "Now?"
"Yeah. Why not?"
"Because it's… urgh… I can't!"
I put my hands on his shoulder-guards and assured him: "You can! You're Nocturne, a literal nightmare monster! There's not a single sentient thing on this planet that doesn't shit themselves at the sound of your name! You have nothing to be scared of. Especially not some fallen angel lady with some fucked-up wings!"
"You're right! I have nothing to be afraid of! I'm gonna go out there and propose to Morgana!"
"Yeah! And you're going to sit with her between me and Ahri so I don't get that stare!"
"I got you." He joked as we fist-bumped.
I went across the room to the door but turned around before opening it: "Also, remember to put it on the correct finger. Apparently, putting it on the middle finger counts as challenging someone to a duel to the death around here."
"Don't worry, I've been in countless nightmares about people fucking up proposals. I know what to do."
I gave him two thumbs-up before heading into the main room. The fighting had stopped, but someone had decided that they wanted to break up every friendship in the room by pulling out the board-games. At least they had the decency to start out with jenga.
Had to remind myself to not mention that I'd made the blocks into miniature nuclear weapons…
In my defence, it seemed like a good idea at the time.
I sat on the opposite end of the sofa to Ahri and felt true fear when she immediately slid over to me. Nocturne couldn't save me anymore.
My strained attempts to look at everything except Ahri led me to be watching as the door to my room opened and Nocturne floated out. Shen lost the jenga, intentionally, as Noct went over to Morgana, who was kneeling on the floor next to the coffee table. With all the attention focused on him, Nocturne pointed out: "This is gonna be a lot easier for me if you stand up."
Morgana looked a bit confused as she stood up.
"I don't have any legs to kneel with and I've forgotten my speech so I'll just…" He pulled out the little case and floated down a bit before opening it: "Morgana, will you marry me?"
With her eyes suddenly filled with tears and a smile on her face, she nodded enthusiastically and put the ring on. They did something with their faces that I think technically counted as a kiss, so I just joined in with everyone else and clapped.
In the same moment as the clapping started to die-down, I saw Ahri glance in my direction. Thankfully, Akali was in the room to take Ahri's attention away from me and my awkward coughing.
"Okay, now that is down, I think it's about time you answered the most important question of all. How do you two do it?"
Nocturne and Morgana sighed, but Noct did provide an answer. The trail of shadow below his torso split in two, before taking the shape of two hands. The hands picked up a few jenga blocks and juggled with them for a few seconds, putting everyone in the room in massive danger. After he had well and truly proved his point, Nocturne returned the pieces to the table, and no-one blew up.
Akali pointed and admitted: "That's pretty fucking cool. And kinky. Speaking of which, we might as well keep this thing rolling and get a few more important answers out in the open." She turned to Ahri and I before demanding: "Go ahead and tell us about all the super freaky stuff you two must get up to in the bedroom."
I shared a glance with Ahri before replying: "Uh, there's not really anything out of the ordinary that I can think of."
"Yeah, but, to be fair, you wouldn't have known if the freaky stuff was weird or not while it was happening."
She was right, so I just shrugged and let Ahri answer: "Actually, Zoh wasn't wrong. It's all been pretty vanilla so far."
Akali furrowed her brow and stared at us suspiciously.
"I've got to be honest, Ahri. I've never been so disappointed with you before."
"Oh, I think you're just being dramatic now."
Morgana shook her head and agreed with Akali: "I'm disappointed too. You've got an infinite number of fetishes and you've not acted on a single one?"
That surprised me enough that I had to join in: "Wait, hold on, you've only told me about, at best, two of your kinks."
"I didn't want to drop it all on you suddenly so I just gave a ton of hints. Very strong hints."
"I've not noticed any. Name one."
"There was the time you found me tied with all my limbs tied to the bed."
That… made a lot more sense than the reason I thought of when I found her in that situation.
"I assumed you were practicing proper knot-tying and lost track of how many spare limbs you had."
"Why would I practice knot-tying? And if I did, why would I do it naked?"
"I… it made sense at the time."
Ahri looked at Akali and shrugged.
"Well, I know what those two will be doing tonight. Now though, I suppose it's only fair that I tell you guys all about myself and Shen. You know that really tall bell-tower in Demacia that's flat at the top? After a bit of sneaking, we got up there and…"
Early next morning (17th 02:30):
I have absolutely no idea why, but I just sort of woke up. There wasn't any obvious reason for it. My dreams were fine, there was no fly repeatedly slamming into my face, and I was still incredibly sleepy after waking up.
After rubbing my eyes and staring around, I spent a few moments incredibly confused. I couldn't understand why the sun wasn't shining through the ceiling, or why I was still tired if it was a normal morning.
Eventually, I did manage to piece it together. When I realised that I was sleeping on the sofa with Ahri on top of me, I decided I may as well get us both to bed before I collapsed back to sleep.
I managed to get myself out from under her before picking Ahri up, trying my best not to wake her. Somehow, I managed to get through to the bedroom without bumping myself or Ahri on anything. I thought it was impressive, considering how wobbly I felt.
Even as an optimist, I wasn't willing to try my luck at undressing Ahri for bed. Instead, I just chucked the covers away and laid her down on the bed before getting on it next to her.
Before I could properly start getting to sleep, I glanced over at the fox-lady I was sharing the bed with. I took a good, long look at her before mumbling to myself: "Yep, still unfairly hot."
I leaned over and kissed her cheek before resting my head on the pillow.
Later that morning (11:40):
Someone was poking me in the head and I was willing to bet I knew who. As for the 'why'… that was beyond me at the time.
I opened my eyes to discover that she was on top of me, her face so close that her nose was tickling mine. She smiled at me and excitedly stated: "Good, you're awake!"
Before I could even begin to make sense of the situation, she shoved her lips onto mine. I was surprised for a second, but it didn't take long at all for me to just accept it.
When she pulled away, I felt the need to ask: "So do you want something, or…?"
"Nope, I just wanted you in a good mood for today." She smiled before giving me another quick kiss and hopping off the bed. I got a lovely view of her ass in nothing but underwear as she strolled over to a wardrobe and pulled out her regular outfit.
"What's going on today that I need to be extra cheery for?" I questioned while getting out of bed and heading over to her.
"That means one of two things. Either you didn't check the Ionian calendar like I suggested a few days ago, or you don't know what day it is."
"Both, actually."
Ahri sighed and explained: "It's the Festival of Fire tonight." She paused to turn around and shove a towel onto my chest: "So you're going to have to be ready for it. If you hurry, the water will still be warm."
"I hope you're not relying on me to sort out the costumes."
"You'll help, but I've sorted most of it."
"Can't wait to see them."
Late that evening (19:00):
Ahri's POV:
I had to admit, I was pretty goddamn pleased with my work on our costumes. They were originally going to be much simpler, but I got really into it and kept on adding things.
I couldn't take full credit for the costumes, however. The second I let Zoh work on his own costume it had gotten a bit… out of hand.
Essentially, I was going as a mythical warrior from Ionian legend, while Zoh was as the god of war. My costume was pretty much what you'd expect, considering how ostentatious the ancient Ionians were. The top was made up of two very large pieces of cloth. Each one started on one side of my waist and curved diagonally up until it reached the shoulder on the opposite side to where it started, then continued on until it was just above my head, giving me two spike-looking things on my shoulders. Thin, rectangular pieces of cloth dropped down from the spike-looking things, reaching down to just below my elbows, though they were not attached to my arms in any way. My back was covered pretty conventionally, except for the large circle I had cut out of the material and the little lip just behind my neck.
Similar to the top, the skirt was made of half a dozen pieces of cloth that curved from one side of my waist, down to my knees, then back up to the other side. I also had multiple very thin ribbons of cloth down the centre front and back of the skirt. My shoes were just taller than my knee and made of leather, with an extra couple layers of leather attached to the front.
I had various hoops on my legs and arms, placed pretty much randomly, that were just tight enough to not move unless I did a lot of running and jumping. I had two swords, one on either side of my waist, along with throwing-knives lined up on my back. My hair and tails were all dyed a scarlet red, matching the primary colour of my makeup and outfit. However, the outfit itself had a few parts outlined in white and the top was adorned all over by swirls of gold.
To be quite honest, I looked really damn good. I could tell from the way Zoh stared that my boobs were just the right amount of revealed, with a healthy mix of over-boob and side-boob from the diagonal cloth. I wasn't saying that I looked bad normally, but I just looked especially good in that outfit.
As for Zoh's costume… I was very happy with what he'd done to it. Being the god of war, he didn't need any armour, so his entire upper body was open, giving a clear view of the thousands of small skulls we had painted on, each one representing one of the god of war's favoured warriors. There was barely a single inch of skin on his body that was covered by them, save for his face. Apparently, there was some spiritual meaning to that, but I didn't know the myth very well.
He had leather boxers on, which were entirely covered by thin lengths of scarlet cloth that went all the way around his waist and layered on top of each-other. He had sandals on and was wielding a spear, but the main point of the costume was the huge set of wings on his back, which were held on by straps around his shoulders. They were made up of melted-down weapons of every kind, and were about as long as Zoh was tall. Somehow, I never dared to ask how, he had managed to make them fully mobile and functioning. He was able to tuck them in behind his back and extend them out to their full length without pressing a button or saying a word. They could flap as if they were flying, but he told me that the actual ability to fly wasn't connected to the flapping.
It would have been a lie to say that I didn't constantly give-in to the urge to rub his muscles. They were just so firm and well-defined… I had to do it again.
"Ahri, are you going to be doing this all night?"
"Yes." I stated while running my hand over his stomach.
"It might get a bit awkward if you do it when we actually arrive in town."
"I think people will understand."
"Well, if you could stop for just a moment, we're above the town. I'm not really sure how to land this sort of thing when I can't just drop from however high I want."
Zoh flew us down, past the clouds, towards the town. It nestled on the side of a mountain range and lit up brightly, the festival already well underway. We'd clearly missed the start, but Shen and Akali didn't perform until a few hours in, so we would definitely still catch that.
It didn't take long for all eyes to be on us as Zoh carefully landed on one of the platforms that held the town's buildings. Zoh put me down as the people around us started clapping. I wasn't sure if it was for the entrance or for winning the war, but I bowed politely anyway.
The crowd soon dispersed, eager to get on with the festival's activities, finally giving me a chance to speak to Zoh and actually hear his replies.
"I've gotta go speak to Akali in private."
"In what?"
"Private!"
"Oh, okay! I'll amuse myself for a while!"
I gave him a thumbs-up then started slipping through the crowd. We landed on the platform where a concert was just starting, so people were slowly flowing in and make more and more noise. On the bright side, it would mean it was easier to find a quiet spot with Akali.
Once I had found my way out of the main crowd, it was a lot easier to make progress. After going across a couple walkways, I found myself on the platform where all the equipment and props for the performances were being held. Knowing Akali as well as I did, she was inevitably going to be there somewhere.
"Ahri, over here!"
I turned in the direction of the noise then headed over to the building that Akali was waving from. She let me in then immediately slammed the door, exclaiming: "Dude! Look at you!"
"Like it?" I asked jokingly while taking out one of my swords and striking a pose.
"Uh, yeah, obviously! I may be straight, but I'm not blind!"
"Thanks. But have you seen Zoh?" I asked while sheathing the sword.
"I heard things. You had a hand in the design, I suppose?"
"Yep. He wasn't exactly going to pick the only god who doesn't wear a shirt on his own."
We high-fived as she chuckled: "Nice one. By the way, did you see many of the costumes on your way here?"
"I saw a couple. Why?"
"Any of them look familiar?"
"I think I saw someone in Shen's usual outfit. And I think I saw some white tails in a crowd, but I'm not sure."
"You'll see as the night goes on, quite a few people are dressed up as us. You, in particular, seem to have a lot of lookalikes."
"Why do you reckon that is?"
"No offense, but it's a lot easier to copy your famous look than it is Zoh's. Same reason there's a lot of Shens out there."
"None taken, and I get your point. Good thing I decided not to dress-up as myself, for once. Zoh won't have any trouble picking me out from a crowd."
"Oh, I'm sure. Speaking of which, we may as well go find the two idiots now. I'm finished here."
"Let's head out, then."
We left the building and went to the platform where Shen was supposed to be. Surprisingly, it was the drinks area, and we spotted him by the bar. Thoroughly intrigued, we got in range to listen in and hid behind the corner of a building.
"But what do you mean, I need ID? I've never needed it before!"
"I'm sorry sir, but a new law means that I have to ask for ID if I can't confirm a person's age, and you're wearing a mask."
"I am a member of the Kinkou and a Champion, but I have to give you ID so that you know who I am?"
"There are a lot of people dressed as you here, sir. I can't take any chances of you being someone else in a costume."
"But I literally teleported here right in front of your eyes."
"I'm sorry sir, but teleportation is not a valid form of ID."
"I am only trying to buy orange juice."
"The law is very loose, sir."
Shen let out a deep sigh then turned around, pointing at I and Akali instantly.
"You two, help me."
I turned to Akali and admitted: "Spying on Shen was never bound to work."
We hurried over to the bar and stood next to Shen.
"Do either of you have ID with you?"
I looked down at my outfit then up to him: "The lack of pockets suggests I don't."
Akali shrugged and admitted: "I left mine at home."
Shen rubbed the chin on his mask and mumbled: "This is unfortunate and slightly awkward."
"It's fine." I assured before staring at the bartender. A single look was more than enough: "He can have the drink."
He smiled and agreed: "Yes, he can."
We left once Shen had paid and, while he happily sipped his drink, Akali questioned: "Did you charm that guy?"
"The bartender? Nah, the kid must have barely been eighteen. All I had to do was lean forward a little bit more than usual."
"Really? I don't dare imagine what would've happened if you had charmed him."
"I tried it for fun once when I and Zoh went out drinking. He was about the same age, even. Anyway, long story short, we had to explain to the manager why his employee had dived over the bar at me."
"See, you could totally get Zoh to do kinky stuff without even having to click your fingers."
"I'll never charm Zoh again. I can't break his trust like that."
She looked at me for a few moments before nodding in acceptance.
After quite a bit of searching, I spotted Zoh in the distance. He was surrounded by tons of people dressed-up as me and, from what I could tell from far away, he was signing autographs. The ninjas got talking and left me to get Zoh myself.
I decided that it was the best time to show off, so I strode up to the group and parted them with a hand. Zoh stopped mid-way through the story he was telling to say: "Hey Ahri."
"Hey." I began before pulling him into a kiss. The jealousy from the people around us was palpable as I ended it. I put his hands on my waist while asking: "How's it been going?"
"Pretty well, actually. I was just telling these lot about the time I tried to fight a kangaroo."
"Didn't you lose?"
"Horribly!" He exclaimed while smiling with genuine cheer.
"At least you tried. Anyway, can I speak to you? In private?"
"Of course. If anyone didn't get an autograph or has something important to say, come find me later."
I dragged him by his hand to one of the quieter platforms. We found a spot behind one of the houses and sat on the edge of the platform, looking over the valley below us and the mountains beyond it. I was going to enjoy the view for a couple moments, but found myself being drawn into a kiss by Zoh, which I happily accepted. I grumbled sadly when he pulled away, liking my lips and mumbling: "I always hate when those end."
"Sorry. We can continue after you tell me what you needed me in private for."
"I could've said it out there, I just wanted to show off."
"Figures. Go on."
"I just wanted to say, I know how close we are to… that house. If you want to leave early to go visit them, I understand perfectly."
"Thank you, truly, but I am not going there tonight. It's supposed to be a happy occasion and, well, to be honest, I've got nothing new to say to them."
I smiled at him and we hugged. Neither of us could resist the temptation to share another kiss, which I only let go on for a few seconds.
"We better get back soon. It'd be a waste to do our usual stuff with so much else going on."
Zoh stroked my cheek and warned: "I'm gonna have a hard time concentrating on much with you around, looking like this."
"Likewise." I whispered before placing a light kiss on his lips.
Later that night (23:50):
"Do you recognise that?"
"Uh… looks like it might have been… some sort of mountain lion, maybe?"
"Oh! Shit! It was a goat! Look, the head is still pretty much the same."
"Ohhhhhhh… Funny, I didn't think goats could get much uglier."
"To be fair Ahri, I don't think they're meant to be attractive to you. Mostly just other goats, I'd think."
"Touché. What about that?"
He glanced over to where I was pointing and immediately replied: "A snake."
"Sure? Looks more like a lizard to me."
"It looks like a lizard, but notice the legs. They're not properly formed at all and don't support the body very well. Though, it could just be an extremely fucked-up lizard."
"Yeah… what about those?"
"I think those are just regular bees."
I squinted at the hive and noticed that they were, indeed, just regular old bees.
"Huh. Guess they weren't affected."
"Yeah but, for all we know, they could spit dynamite now. Best to just leave them alone."
"I wouldn't go near the bees even if they were completely unaffected."
"I would but that's probably why I get stung a lot."
I shook my head and sighed before staring up the mountain. The village was still lit up for the late-night celebrations. While I would have liked to have been up there getting drunk with them, there was something else I wanted to do more, and it would only be ruined by alcohol.
With my goal in mind, I flipped the metaphorical charm on and gazed at Zoh. His mind was clearly somewhere up in the stars that he was staring so intently at.
"What you thinking about?"
"I'm trying to recall what my homeworld's sky looked like."
I leaned in and rested my head on his shoulder, asking: "Do you miss it?"
"I shouldn't but… yeah. I do."
"You're allowed to miss your homeland, Zoh. No matter how bad it was for you there."
"You are right, of course. I hope I'll get to visit it one day."
"I hope you're not planning on going alone if you do."
"Oh, trust me, I wouldn't dare go without you. I've seen pictures of what's become of it recently and… it's quite something."
"Don't leave me in suspense, what's happened?"
"As a bit of context: when I was a child, it was basically a barren wasteland with a few cities around that were the only places people could survive past thirty. Around the time I left for good, it was a lot better, obviously. The barrens were receding and being replaced, in large part, by swampland. The cities were expanding considerably and the air was almost approaching what could be considered 'breathable'. The latest images, however, show that it's gone in a completely new and entirely awesome direction. They've basically said 'fuck it' to the idea of doing serious development on the ground, and have instead built a massive, metallic exoskeleton for the entire goddamn planet! They're building cities miles from the ground and it looks so fucking cool!"
"And you had no hand in this at all? They did this all on their own?" I questioned.
"Well… you know… I might have misplaced some designs but, you know, I doubt they're related at all…"
"You can't just let people develop on their own, can you?"
"I feel like I've done a pretty good job of not interfering with Runeterra's development too much."
I pointed to the giant spire that was peaking just over a mountain range in the distance.
"That's a notable exception, but I don't see any Demacians running around in power armour, wielding black-hole guns.
"Yet."
"It's not gonna happen. At most, I'll spend a couple weeks to cure some of the particularly nasty diseases on this planet. Obviously, I'll also have to industrialise farming to keep up with the inevitable population growth from the lack of diseases. And I'll have to develop transport infrastructure to get the food where it needs to be. That means I'll be forced to also modernise the cities so that the food doesn't end up dumped on the side of the street, waiting for a horse and cart to pick it up… but apart from that stuff, I totally won't interfere."
"Wow. You're barely gonna help at all, huh?"
"Yeah!" He exclaimed, before pausing and realising why I sounded so sarcastic. "Okay, I may have got carried away. Just go ahead and stop me whenever I start rambling like that."
"Nah, I enjoy it. You're really cute when you talk about stuff you love."
"I'm not meant to be cute. I'm meant to be scary! Not so much right now, but usually!"
"You're cute when you're flustered, too."
He looked at me and furrowed his brow: "There's no way I can win this, is there?"
"No, not you specifically. We can call it a 'tie' though." I smirked before going in for another kiss.
Okay, so I was going to do a sex scene in this chapter for reasons that I've forgotten, but I didn't for reasons I've forgotten. I guess I'll do one in the next chapter or something. That'll be cool.
To be honest, you didn't need to know that. I just wanted to say something down here or the whole segment would be useless.
