"Hang out?" Her question hung in the air for a bit as you furrowed your brow at her confusion.
"Yeah, y'know. Spend some time with me and the rest of the team, get to know each other and all that. A team building exercise!" You clap your hands together while giving her a toothy grin. She doesn't seem very impressed.
"Why should I bother getting to know those pathetic worms when I could be spending my time on other more important things." She brushes off your attempts to engage her with the prospect of teamwork with a wave of her hand, and tries to ignore you by continuing with her alchemy.
"Important things? Like what? Digging through trash for ingredients? Making potions? You can do all of that later, plus you promised me that you'd do it." Your words come out sounding like a desperate plea, one step away from outright begging.
"Veigar, please? For me?" She hesitates at this and sighs woefully before dropping the ingredients on her table. She turns towards you and grimaces.
"Fine, I'll play your silly little game for now. Let it be known that the Great Veigar keeps her promises! Just don't expect me to be happy about it!" She says in a grandiose tone. You giggle at her theatrics, now that's the Veigar you know.
You both pack up your things before making your leave, making sure not to bring too much since this will be more of a casual outing, but you keep a few things in case of any emergency situations that you find yourself in.
The pathway towards the rift is a long and arduous one, filled with many trees blocking most of the sunlight except for a few stray rays. It's normally dead quiet except for the occasional chirp of birds or insects but now that you're with Veigar, you find that it's the perfect opportunity to start asking her a few questions.
"So...the other Yordles, what do you think about them?" She looks up at you and scowls at your attempt at small talk yet pauses as to give your question some thought.
However she doesn't respond to it immediately, always pausing before giving a straight answer. You decide to list off each individual member of the team in hopes that it might help her. "Okay, well what do you think of Tristana?"
"Bossy. She thinks she's always right." Her face darkens, showing disdain towards the thought of the would be leader of the Yordle group.
"Bossy? That's a bit hypocritical don't you think?" She gives you a dirty look but before she can go on a tangent, you interrupt her.
"What about Poppy?" She's taken aback by this and looks down before responding.
"Foolish." She states in a neutral, almost disappointed tone
"Foolish? And why's that?"
"She believes too much in others, why do that when you can have all the power in the world for yourself!" She cackles to herself but you give her a genuine smile in return.
"And what's wrong with believing in others? Y'know, there's gonna be a time and place where you need others. It's not going to be because you're weak but because you make eachother stronger and hell, if you're all alone and you fall, who's going to pick you back up?" You're not sure where you even got those words from but you meant and felt what you said strongly. It's the thing that holds a team together after all and definitely the feeling you want to strengthen in your group.
She gives your thought pause, it's something that she likely doesn't believe in but takes the time to think about it. While she does that you continue talking about her other team mates.
"Alright, what about Teemo?" Her face scrunches up in immediate disgust upon you saying that name.
"A nuisance, he always gets in the way of my plans!" Her yelling is followed up with bitter grumbles about said Yordle and the destruction of a couple nearby bushes to release her frustration. You decide not to push the thought further as you preferred being intact rather than being turned into a pile of ash.
"Lulu, what about her?" This name gets the least negative reaction out of her but you can still see that Veigar does not hold Lulu in high regard.
"Childish, her magic is wasted on such a feeble and innocent mind!" She almost sounds jealous of some of Lulu's powers if her tone indicated as such. At least now with this information, you have a much better idea of her attitudes towards the other Yordles.
Peaking through the treeline you can see the edges of the rift, the walk isn't long from here and you'll likely make it there in a couple of minutes. Prior to today you had organized a casual meetup with the team since any and all matches in the rift didn't involve your team for the foreseeable future. Hopefully you'd be able to smooth out relations between Veigar and the others but you don't hold onto that notion in case things go south.
Finally you both reach your intended location, you move past the marketplace and into the building that houses the champions living quarters. After talking to the person at the front desk for directions, you and Veigar are able to make it to the cafeteria. A few familiar faces come into view, Tristana, Poppy and Teemo are seated at a nearby table with trays full of delicious and exotic looking food. They appear to be enjoying themselves and making small talk before one of them spots you and gestures for you to come over.
Their friendly expressions however turn to ones of awkwardness and discomfort as soon as they see you walking beside Veigar. (Oh crap,) while you had organized the meetup, you forgot to mention that you'd be bringing Veigar with you, although hopefully you'll be able to get them to play along. You take a seat across the table from the three Yordles while Veigar does the same.
Poppy rubs her arm nervously while looking down, Teemo's normally cheery smile is replaced by a completely neutral expression and Tristana laughs nervously. "Nice to see you captain, and you too Veigar." She winces as she says the last part.
You cough to try and break the tension, jabbing Veigar slightly with your elbow. She grimaces and forces out a response through gritted teeth. "You too, Tristana." Both of the Yordles have an intense staredown as she says this. 'Well at the very least she's now referring to them by name, progress!' You'd smile if the atmosphere wasn't so uncomfortable.
"The gang's all here!" You say while forcing a smile, it would be obvious to even a 4 year old that your expression is nothing but disingenuous, the nervous tapping of your fingers on the table was also another giveaway. Your vision darts around and lands on Poppy as if to ask her for any help with moving the conversation along, but whether she either decides to ignore this or doesn't notice it, you can't tell.
Veigar gets up from her seat, her face showing how uncomfortable she is, to the point of wanting to leave but before she can move further, you grip her wrist softly yet firmly. Your fake smile has faded by this point and is replaced but a slight pleading look, it doesn't take any words but she seems to understand that you don't want her to go.
"I'm just going to get a serving of food minion, surely you can handle yourself without me until then." Her tone, similar to that of a mother scolding a needy child. You release your grip on her wrist and let your arm fall limply to your side while she walks away from the group.
You turn to the others to try and explain the situation. "Look guys, I know you all don't really get along with Veigar but that's why I invited you all here today. She's really not as bad as she makes herself out to be. Just give her a chance, Please?" You're not really used to playing mediator for an entire group and you wince at their negative reactions to your request. Is this what it meant to be a leader? You suddenly feel a nagging regret in the back of your mind that you should've studied public speaking prior to this.
Tristana sighs, she likely doesn't want to deny what you're asking of the group but doesn't give off the impression that she wants to do it either. However before either of you can talk it out Teemo cuts in.
"With all do respect Sir, Veigar is more of a liability than an asset. If her actions up to now are any indication, she's likely to never work alongside us as a proper team." His tone is serious and unlike his normally cheery disposition which shocks you, looking at the others you find that neither Tristana nor Poppy seem to be disagreeing with what he says. Tristana had displayed doubt about Veigar but you were surprised to see even the often hopeful Poppy wasn't trying to convince the others to be positive.
You stared down at the table feeling a deep doubt in your stomach, 'Was all of this worth it? Am I even going to be able to convince her? Just getting her to this point of being willing to tolerate the team's presence was a chore, so how can I even get the team to work together? Does no one believe in me?' All these thoughts swam throughout your mind, getting louder and louder and drowning out any sound. You grip your head harshly, head pounding with mental noise like rusty nails on a chalkboard.
"Sir! Are you okay?" Poppy cuts through, disrupting the cloud of all of the negative thoughts you have. You look up at her and attempt to give a reassuring smile but it just comes off as strained and tired.
"I-I'm fine Poppy." you manage to force out, tripping over your words in the process.
Veigar returns with a tray full of the more strange menu items, a few bugs and insects, some of them similar to the ones that were in her front garden before you fixed it up. She picks one of them up and observes it in her hand before biting it's head off, the bite making a sickening crunch as she continues to eat. The situation doesn't get any less awkward as everyone is quietly picking at the food in their trays. You decide to make some small talk to hopefully alleviate it.
"So, what's everyone been up to lately? Any cool news?" Tristana perks up a little bit at this and is the first to respond to your question.
"I've been helping Heimer with a couple of pet projects, testing a few of his gadgets and in turn he said he'd help me upgrade my cannon. It's been pretty fun aside from the occasional technical mishap!" She chuckles as she says this.
"Wow, sounds pretty cool. What about you Teemo?" You turn to the furry scout as you say this.
"Scouting." He states in a neutral tone while keeping his eyes on Veigar. You had talked rarely to him before since he mostly did the jobs he was assigned to without any fuss and this was no different, straight and to the point is how you'd describe him. Although while normally that would be a good thing, it makes for awkward conversations.
"Okaaay then, Poppy? Do anything interesting?" She hums thoughtfully before answering.
"Not that I can think of sir, just trying to find The Hero as usual." You assume that has to do with the person who's worthy to use her signature hammer. It's a real wonder that she hasn't found the person that's worthy yet, although that isn't your current priority, you might just keep an eye out for such a Hero.
You turn to Veigar last alongside with everyone else, they look at her expectantly as if waiting for her to say something. She returns an irritated look before putting her tray down. "What do you peons want?" Her tone displayed clear disdain for those around her. Despite the rude response, you could tell the others were still curious to know about Veigar outside of what she does in the rift. 'Jackpot!' This is the exact opportunity you've been waiting for.
"We were just wondering if you've been doing anything interesting lately, Veigar." You explain to her.
Her face is riddled with conflict, torn between wanting to show off like usual and telling the truth. Socialization not being her biggest strength as you've seen before, she begins to blurt out her next sentence awkwardly. "I've just been…" She pauses for a second. "Brewing potions. I sell them to fools that come to me for help" The other Yordles are surprised by this, along with you as well. You had just assumed that those potions had been for personal use or some sort of evil scheme.
Poppy pipes up next with a question about said potions. "What kind of potions? Medicine or remedies? Or something more sinister?" Veigar gives her an insulted look in return.
"Of course not, fool! Do you think of me as some petty witch? I don't need any pathetic tricks or liquids to do anything. They're just simple cures for common diseases and illnesses." This is something that shocks the group even further, Veigar doing good deeds? Seems totally in opposition to her normal personality.
Tristana and Poppy begin to smile and begin to compliment Veigar on doing something positive for once. "Wow. Y'know, you're not half bad Veigar! I'm impressed that you're helping people for once." Tristana beams at her.
Veigar frowns at the compliment, waving it off with her hand. "Oh spare me the compliments. Don't insult me with the implications of heroism, I don't do it for free." Her response comes off as somewhat bashful too as she crosses her arms while looking away, likely not being used to being complimented on such things.
The rest of the team barring Teemo giggle at her shy response and the rest of the lunch goes relatively smoothly, much better than it had started. Afterwards, you and Veigar say your goodbyes to the rest of the team and begin to head back to the shack.
On your way there, you spot an ice cream vendor near the exit of the market. You perk up and immediately rush over to it while calling Veigar to follow. She begrudgingly does, confused at your childish antics. The man at the stand is sporting a large handlebar moustache with a goofy smile that screams enthusiasm. "Would you care for an ice cream, young man?" He says in a warm, friendly manner while gesturing to the countless different flavours on display.
"Vanilla." You state quickly, a bit plain by most people's standards but it's still nice nonetheless. The vendor begins to scoop some ice cream into a cone and looks at Veigar. "And what for the little missus?" Veigar immediately goes from slight irritation to full blown conniptions almost instantaneously after being referred to in this way.
You try to calm her down by offering your ice cream to her but she rejects it outright, likely too angry to enjoy such things. "Do you think of me as some sort of child!? I don't have time to waste on such frivolous things." She blurts out, stomping her foot on the ground angrily.
The Ice Cream Vendor simply chuckles at this and quickly prepares a dark chocolate ice cream cone, handing it over to her. "I hope you enjoy it! After all we all scream for Ice cream." Before Veigar can respond to this, the man begins wheeling his display away to another area in a wild rush.
The little, purple Yordle staring in utter confusion before darting her eyes back and forth from her ice cream to your face as if expecting an explanation. You shrug and continue to enjoy your ice cream while she gives hers a tentative lick. Her eyes widen almost as if she's tasting something sweet for the first time in her life, she immediately starts taking large bits of ice cream into her mouth before clutching her head in pain. 'Brainfreeze,' you think to yourself while chuckling at her mistake. She attempts to yell at you but struggles to through the effects of ingesting too much ice cream at once.
Today was a nice day. You've finally gotten her to make the first steps, making bridging the gap so much more easier. If all goes well then you'll be done soon, but what happens after that? You were starting to really enjoy Veigar's company and hoped that you could both stay friends but you weren't sure if it could even last. You're not even sure why you care about it as much as you do; however thinking back on that, it becomes so much more clearer. You didn't really have many friends aside from the occasional summoner you knew.
As overly demanding and entitled Veigar was, she was the closest thing you had to a real friend. The thought itself was kind of sad in hindsight given that she was often cold, distant or was just using you for menial tasks. The joyful expression you had evaporates and your head begins to droop with your neglected ice cream; melting in the hot sun, making your hand completely sticky.
You feel a tugging sensation on your shirt as you slowly shift your head towards it, Veigar's small frame coming into your view. "Minion?" Her tone and face displaying a tinge of worry at your demeanor, sounding like she's caught between trying to be cold and yet wanting to reassure you in some way.
"Don't, I-I'm fine." You turn away from her completely, heading in the direction of Veigar's home while finishing your ice cream, leaving her behind in the process. She follows from behind at a distance, never approaching but never getting closer either and soon you both reach the place you consider home at this point. You waste no time in making your way through the shack and into the back yard where your tent is propped up.
The last thing you see before entering the tent is Veigar's shadow in the doorway but you refuse to turn around to talk to her. You're sure that you just need some time alone to think.
AN: So what did ya think about it? Sorry for the two week break, I was working on another fanfic idea before dropping it. I might revisit that one at a later date but for now I wanted to update this one since I have so many ideas for the story. So that makes me curious, where do you think this story is going to go? I mean other than the romance of course. I'd love to hear any predictions so either do it in review form or DM's. Ciao!