Welcome back (and let's pretend it hasn't been another half a year)! Thanks to all reviewers, you guys are awesome!

Once again, I'd like to stress one thing - this is not a pairing story. Big apologies to all the Kat/Lux shippers, but nuh-uh, not this time.

This chapter was Beta Read by Swords Divine Light (/u/2343391). Check her profile out, she writes cool LoL stories as well!

Disclaimer: All characters and places mentioned belong to Riot.

Warning: This story includes a lot of bad language (there's Katarina in it, duh). If you feel offended by obscenities, please do not read this chapter.

All Things Considered

Chapter 4: When Life Gives You Turnips

Lux sat down heavily on a fallen log, panting like she'd just ran a marathon. This was it; she was going to die in these woods now, alone and forgotten. Following Katarina openly had been tough before, but now, as she actually shouldn't be stalking the Noxian and the redhead wasn't trying to let her keep up, the Demacian's lungs had been set on fire and she felt like fainting the very next moment.

A pair of black military shoes came into her field of vision as she sank her head between her knees, facing the ground.

"Gods, Crownguard, what the hell is wrong with you?"

She raised her head to look up at Katarina, who was towering above her with her arms crossed on the Noxian's chest and a stupid smirk on her face. If looks could kill, the redhead would be lying dead now; Lux just knew the older girl had ran down that hill on purpose.

"If you want to follow me without my consent, you should probably shape up."

She hung her head down again with a deep sigh that turned into a growl as she raised her left hand to give Katarina the finger. She heard a snicker and soon the boots were replaced by a view down the Noxian's chest as she crouched before Lux and set her bag on the ground.

The redhead rummaged through it for a second, before taking a paper wrapped package out and setting it in her lap; the Demacian was watching her curiously as she began to unwrap the thing, which soon turned out to be an already half eaten loaf of bread. Katarina broke off a rather large chunk and put it in her mouth, chewing thoroughly at the probably hard crust.

After a few seconds, she swallowed.

"It's your lucky day, though," she said, biting on another piece of bread. "I need to take a break anyway. It has been four hours, if I'm counting right."

"Four hours?" Lux's head shot up to look at the Noxian, who only grinned with her mouth full. Lux fought back the nausea and squinted her eyes at the girl in front of her. "And you... you! You knew I was following you, why the hell would you go so fast? Couldn't you wait up?"

"I thought you didn't want me to," she answered innocently, still chewing the bread. "You stated it pretty clearly before."

"No," Lux's voice had an irritated tone to it. Seriously, Katarina was acting like a bullying little kid now more than ever. This was even worse than those couple of times they were forced to play together on one team, and the teasing was actually dangerous now. "I said I wanted to follow you and you were the one who told me not to."

She set down her own bag that had been hanging sadly off her shoulder and took out her own paper wrapped packages out.

"Don't recall anything like that." Katarina put a finger to her chin in mock wonder, looking up at the clear blue sky.

"Just shut up."

Some birds sang a happy, chirpy song from the nearest tree. For the first time in her life, Lux had the urge to throw a rock at an animal.

She unwrapped the first package, revealing a loaf of bread of her own. As she compared the two loaves, she was surprised to find they were in fact the same; dark, crispy crust with sesame seeds on top and a dense, chewy rye interior.

Lux thought she was the only one sneaking food out of the Cafeteria to eat later in the night. She had already ran out of the sandwiches she'd prepared when she had decided she would have to go with Katarina that night at the Institute. Good thing she had also packed the bread and a chunk of cheese as well... even though she thought they would be for the journey back.

As she unwrapped the cheese, a frown crossed her face; she didn't remember actually seeing Katarina eat anything other than the plain bread the day before.

"Do you have anything besides that bread?"

Katarina stopped her chewing to look up at her. Lux didn't pay attention to that before, but now she noticed the rock she was sitting on put her much higher than the older girl crouching before her, which, for some odd reason, made her feel really awkward and out of place. The Noxian looked at her wordlessly for a few dreadful - at least for Lux - seconds before swallowing. She then took out a similarly wrapped package from her bag and placed it in the blonde's lap.

Another bread.

Having the concept of a much longer journey than Lux, the Demacian thought Katarina would prepare some... more nutritious food to last her for the weeks of travelling. Sure, she probably had some money - or at least Lux could hope the Noxian had some money and wouldn't resort to stealing - but the first village they had to run away from and the next one was still not in sight.

And even if she wasn't here with the redhead and they weren't wanted, Katarina still had the distinctive, Noxian accent.

The blonde sighed, looking at the packages in her lap once again before she took the chunk of cheese and broke it into two more or less equal pieces. She handed one to Katarina, facing away from the redhead. She held her hand extended for a while before she felt the weight being taken away from it. Her body moving despite herself, she slid her butt to the side, making room for the Noxian to sit on the rock. Still not looking at her, she felt Katarina's arm brush against hers.

"Thanks."

Lux moved her head quickly to the side to look at the redhead. She didn't expect Katarina to thank her, and certainly not for a chunk of hard, almost tasteless cheese. Her bewilderment must have been written all over her face, because upon looking at it, Katarina's brow raised in question. Lux tried to cover her uneasiness by nonchalantly waving it off.

"Pft, it's nothing. You let me sleep in your tent."

"Yes," Katarina nodded, but her gaze was fixed on something far away, as if she was thinking about something very intensely. Her voice sounded the tiniest bit surprised. "Yes, I did."

"Yeah."

Two minutes of the most uncomfortable silence in Luxanna Crownguard's life.

"So," Katarina started between bites of the cheese and Lux remembered she had to actually chew the food in order to get it inside her stomach. "Really, what is it about you and that tired of walking so much I'm gasping for breath thing?"

"I have asthma."

"You do?" the Noxian turned to look at her in honest surprise and Lux felt her ears getting red. She was receiving far more attention than she was accustomed to, at least coming from another woman, who also happened to be a Noxian, who also happened to be Katarina. "Never... noticed that before. You run fine in the Fields."

"That's Summoner magic," she sighed, lowering the hand holding a piece of bread to lay it down in her lap, then using the other hand to tuck a strand of loose hair behind her ear. The one not facing Katarina, of course. She was always conscious about exposing her ears to people she barely knew... Or those she knew much more than she was comfortable with. Katarina Du Couteau just happened to figure in both categories. "It's just like you can survive a direct hit in your face from a... big hammer or sword, or something, and walk out of a teamfight on your own. You wouldn't be able to do that in real life."

"Probably," she mused, smirking. "But that's still different."

"How so?"

"Duh, first off," Katarina extended one finger to prove her point, "I don't think anybody would be able to walk out of any teamfight on the Rift on their own had it been real life battle."

"Uh, yeah, maybe some of the void creatures-"

"And then again, it's just for the audience," she made a brief pause and her voice dropped to a very unimpressed mutter, "...that would be pretty lame to watch if we just kept on dying all the time."

"Spectacular fights with lots of blood and explosions, I get it."

"Yeah," Katarina's smirk turned into a weird grin. "So you see, that's actually a-" she hesitated and looked up at the sky, as if searching for the right word. "Fuck, let's just call it a cosmetic buff for the time being- to us all. With you, though, it's a weakness of yours that's overcome with magic."

Lux frowned at her. She had never thought of it that way- or maybe she even had, but she tried to erase the thought from her brain as soon as it appeared. She swallowed the bread she was chewing and thought about what she was going to say.

"I'm sure there are, maybe... well, okay, probably there are a lot of other champions that are..." she tried to choose her words carefully. "Boosted in a way or another."

"Still, I'm sure-sure that could be considered cheating," the grin faded to a frown as Katarina took another bite of the cheese. "You would never stand a chance when facing other champions in real life."

Another moment of silence passed as Lux considered all the different things she had to say.

"Uh, so would you," she retorted bitterly at last. Katarina instantly lost her interest in the squirrel jumping on a tree that she had been watching for the past minute and turned an infuriated gaze towards the blonde. Lux gulped. "I, uh, I- I mean the, you know, the Voidlings and Bears and... s-stuff... they're just kinda... bigger than us and- you wouldn't- you know."

She finished the ragged sentence with a meaningful nod, as if she'd just said something that was actually coherent. Katarina watched her for a bit longer and Lux felt the heat of blood rushing to her face. She focused on the chunk of cheese she was holding and waited for the Noxian to jump on her.

Nothing like that happened, though; the redhead only shrugged and continued to eat her breakfast.

"I guess you're not the only one," she said after a couple of minutes and the sudden sound reminded Lux that she was supposed to eat the bread, not only hold it while staring at a squirrel climbing up the tree in front of her. She quickly bit off a mouthful and looked in the Noxian's direction, curiosity written all over her face. Katarina ran a hand through her long hair with a deep sigh and got a few loose strands behind her ear. The one not facing Lux, of course. "Let's face it, most of the mages are not as in shape as the rest of us. Take my sister as an example. She had never exercised once in her life."

"She's a totally different case-"

The words died on Lux's lips as she saw murder in Katarina's eyes.

"I- that is- well-" she stuttered, trying to save herself somehow. Really, for a moment now she thought Katarina was trying to be frie-... well, humane towards her. What with talking and not throwing daggers at her and all. The Demacian scolded herself internally. She should really think twice before saying something like that when Cassiopeia's condition was clearly an issue to the older Du Couteau. Well, of course, she couldn't know about that before, she never actually talked to the Noxian and... gods, she was talking with Katarina and none of them got hurt. Yet. "Yeah, you're right."

"Way to go, Luxanna," she thought to herself, though in her mind she heard her mother's voice speaking her name. "That's always the best way out of an argument."

oOo

"Crownguard, come here quickly."

Katarina was lying on her stomach in thick bushes at the top of a small hill when Lux heard her family name falling from the Noxian's lips. Curious, she hurriedly made her way up to the redhead, cursing silently as the soil repeatedly gave out from underneath her boots. As she approached Katarina, she got down on her knees, giving the older girl a funny look. The Noxian motioned for the blonde to get closer and, not really willing to do so, Lux lied down on her stomach beside Katarina and stuck her head in the bush.

"How did you know there would be a village there?" she asked, not even trying to cover the curiosity in her voice. In the valley beneath the hill lied a small town, just a bit bigger than the one they'd been to that morning.

Katarina turned her head to the side to give her the look and Lux realized they were only a few inches apart. She forced herself not to shudder.

"I'm using my ears," the redhead spat back. "And there's no way you didn't hear the noises as well."

Lux rolled her eyes, though she made sure Katarina did not see that.

"But that's not what I wanted you to see," the Noxian murmured as she pointed towards something in the middle of the village. "There, look closely. There's horsemen on the village square, see?"

Lux squinted her eyes for a few seconds as she tried to make out the shapes in the distance. Past the tall, wooden fence that surrounded the whole village, there were just a few villagers gathered around the square, where a group of shining, silver silhouettes moved around frantically.

"They're armored," she whispered, as if suddenly all the people in the village could hear her speaking. "Horses are armored as well. Demacian crests."

She looked up at Katarina again and was momentarily taken aback by the pure shock written on the Noxian's face.

"What?" the blonde asked, dumbfounded.

"You can see the crests from here," Katarina muttered what wasn't even a question, just a blank statement. Her face bore an uninterested look again, but both of them knew it was fake.

Lux wondered briefly whether she should ask, but she finally decided not to.

"I'm using my eyes," she spat before she managed to bite her tongue.

"Keep pissing me off and you might lose the ability, Crownguard."

The blonde decided the wise thing was not to answer - her mother's voice sounded in her head again as she mentally patted her head for being such a good girl. Instead, she squinted her eyes even more in an attempt to distinguish the men's actions.

They were hanging posters on the notice board; she could well guess what the posters were picturing, and the thought sent a cold shiver down her spine.

"They're heading back."

Katarina's voice struck through the air like one of her daggers and even though she was lying flat on the ground, Lux felt herself jump a little.

"Back?" she asked, looking at the older girl as if the Noxian just declared her never-ending love to Kog'Maw. "How would you know that?"

Katarina smirked in undiluted superiority.

"The commander is circling the village, there," she said, pointing to a horseman just outside the gate further away from them. "He's waving his hand to the soldier holding the flag, there." She pointed to another man mounting a grey horse on a small hill. "He's waving the flag three times in thirty seconds intervals, you can even count it if you want to. That's a retreat sign."

Lux blinked a few times. She realized her mouth was hanging open and quickly shut it.

"I didn't know you knew so much about Demacian military."

The Noxian huffed.

"Think, blondie." Katarina's finger tapped the middle of Lux's forehead before she even had the chance to protest. "Of course I know a lot about Demacian military. Especially the retreat sign."

The blonde moved out of her reach before Katarina could do anything else to her face. She stood up, dusting the front of her shirt and pants from the dirt and various other things she had been lying in and didn't even want to think about.

"Alright, so what do we do?" she asked, her hands crossed on her chest as she watched the Noxian stand up as well. She motioned with her chin to the agglomeration beyond the bush."Do you want to enter that village?"

Katarina sent her a stern look again.

"Didn't I just tell you to think?" she sighed and Lux felt the tips of her ears warm with anger. "I'm not suicidal, Crownguard. If you want to go to the village that has very probably been informed of two women beating their way through the border yesterday evening, not to mention one of them being a blonde," she stopped briefly to hold a lock of Lux's hair between her fingers, before she let go of it with a disgusted expression, "then I won't lie I don't want to see your sorry ass being dragged away by the soldiers."

She bent down to get a hold of her bag and Lux opened her mouth to say something.

"But," Katarina put a hand up to stop the Demacian from speaking. "But there's a deal, Crownguard. You have been seen on that bridge with me." She let out a deep sigh again, and this time Lux was sure there was a sound of the deepest kind of regrets in it. "Somehow I don't believe you'd keep your mouth shut about me. Let's go."

A light went off in Lux's mind.

"Wait."

Katarina stopped in her tracks and turned around to look at her. There was a smirk on the Demacian's face and something wicked in her eyes the Noxian has seen before only on the battlefield.

"You're right, I wouldn't," she said, the smirk very much audible in her voice. "In fact, why should I? There's a village close to us now. I can go there and explain everything, can't I?"

Katarina's own expression turned grim at that. She expected it coming.

"Of course you can.," she answered in monotone. "The village is only a mile or so away."

"And even if they do recognize me as the person on the posters, they would also recognize me for who I truly am."

"You're finally linking all this together," Katarina muttered. "I'm almost proud of you."

"In fact," Lux continued, completely ignoring the Noxian's words. "I don't even have a reason to help you anymore. We're on my grounds now and from what you said a couple of times already, you're afraid you'd be blamed if something even happened to me!"

The Demacian didn't even realize the point at which her calm voice turned to an enraged yell. She had been helping Katarina for no particular reason just because she had feared the older girl would do something to her at the Institute and now she had to fight this confusion that clouded her vision. Katarina couldn't hurt her, she'd even said it so herself, but Lux was too overwhelmed with all that happened since she jumped out of that window two days ago that she couldn't put all the pieces together.

Her fists balled despite herself. All this time she had been helping the Noxian only to be yelled at and insulted, she let an enemy on her City State's grounds and she didn't even know Katarina's reason to be in Demacia.

"Why are you even here!?"

"That is none of your business!"

Lux's anger stepped aside a bit at the sound of Katarina's own rage. The Noxian stood in front of her with her biggest blades in both of her hands, breathing heavily through gritted teeth.

Suddenly the voice shouting "She can't hurt you!" stopped.

"You could go to that village," Katarina said slowly, her voice deep and buzzing with anger. "But I won't let you."

Her own blood buzzed in the blonde's ears with every beat of her heart as she realized the whole forest had gone silent by now; their shouts scared the birds away, and even the insects seemed to want to step out of the Noxian's range - just in case her aim was good enough to cut through a passing fly.

They stood with a twenty foot gap between them. The afternoon sun that managed to get through the leaves of the trees felt pleasantly warm on Lux's back.

"So what do we do now?" Lux repeated the question, doing an amazing job at keeping the fear that was now flooding her brain away from her voice. Her eyes were fixed on the tips of Katarina's blades. "You're going to... kidnap me?"

There it was, again. That disgusted expression on the Noxian's face.

"Trust me, I would rather go and ask Diana why The Moon is so amazing," she muttered. "But I guess we both know I'll have to do that."

"No."

The sudden force in her own voice surprised Lux as she spoke; from her expression, it seemed Katarina felt just as bewildered. By now, Lux had a steady hold on her baton already. The Noxian finally seemed to realize her opponent was in the same League.

She gritted her teeth harder and moved the blades in her hands slightly.

"You want to fight me?"

"You... don't really give me much of a choice, you know?" Lux sighed. "But that's not what I meant. I will only... protect myself if you attack me first."

Katarina was dumbstruck.

"So what do you mean, Crownguard?" She lowered the daggers by just a tiny bit.

"I meant you don't have to kidnap me," she explained. "Because I'll go with you... willingly."

The last word almost cut her tongue as it left Lux's mouth. She couldn't even believe her own words, and as she finally looked into Katarina's eyes, she saw the same disbelief in them.

"You're crazy," the Noxian said, but she lowered her hands to rest at her sides. "Really, Crownguard, you stood in the sun for too long or what?"

"I have my own reasons," she spoke with as much spite as she could muster. "Which should be of no interest to you."

The mage relaxed finally as she saw the blades disappear into their proper sheaths. Katarina shrugged as she seemed to try to cope with Lux's actions.

"Whatever. Just as long as you keep quiet."

Lux ignored the last statement.

"So where do we go?" she tried another wording of the question that'd been bothering her for a while now.

Katarina finally gave up, as she pointed somewhere up the forest trail a few yards away from them. Lux let out a sigh of relief as she noticed the path going downhill.

"Let's just hope there's some village down there that hasn't been informed of our visit yet," the redhead said, though the way she spoke quietly under her breath made room for wondering whether Lux was even supposed to hear it.

The blonde decided against trying to understand her; with a shrug of her own, she set off in the older girl's tracks.

oOo

"Stop."

Katarina pretended not to hear the Demacian's voice and continued walking, growing anger already boiling the blood in her veins.

"Hey!"

Unfortunately, the shout was loud enough to hear from a mile and high enough to irritate Katarina's ears to the point where she felt a tug of her own muscles just behind them. She turned around, ready to strangle the blonde.

"What!?" She barked back at her, scaring a bird sitting on a tree just to her right away. "If you tell me you need to piss again I'll cut your fucking kidneys out!"

"I think I'll pass on that offer," the blonde responded with a sour face. She motioned to something in the bushes by the trail, urging Katarina to come back to where Lux was standing with her other hand. "I just think I found something."

"You think you found something," Katarina muttered quietly, more to herself than to the other girl. "You're not even sure that you found something, but you stop and make me stop."

She sighed and crossed her arms, before she made her way over to where the blonde was now kneeling on the ground. Her face was obscured by the thick bushes as she searched for something.

"What is it?"

With a yank, the thing she was looking for came out of the ground and Lux's upper half came back on the trail. She noticed Katarina's legs beside her head and looked up at the older girl with a huge, beaming smile on her face.

"Turnips."

"Turnips?"

"Yeah, turnips." The smile turned into a sheepish grin as she raised her hand up for Katarina to see. In it was, in fact, something that resembled a vegetable; it was small, covered with soil and had no distinct shape whatsoever.

The Noxian pinched the bridge of her nose and took a deep breath. She tried counting to ten.

"Okay, turnips," she started at six, irritation seeping from her voice. "Why did you stop?"

"Well..." Lux looked at the little, dirty root in her hand. Uncertainty found its way to her voice. "I wanted to... gather them?"

Katarina raised her right brow.

"Was that a question?"

"No, just..." Lux hesitated for a moment. It seemed a perfectly fine reason to stop for her; then again, Katarina was from Noxus. The blonde wasn't sure they even had turnips there. "I wanted to eat them later... We could use something other than bread and cheese for a change."

A look of doubt entered the older girl's face.

"These are edible?" she questioned, taking the vegetable from Lux's hand. She brought it up to her face and sniffed it; it had an earthly scent, edged with something that was hard for her to describe, but certainly not pleasant. She scowled in disgust. "You're sure about that?"

"Well, the skin is mildly poisonous-" she stopped as soon as she saw Katarina's expression. "But, um... not that poisonous- it's just very bitter, ok? If we peel them, they'd be good to cook or roast. Eating them raw would probably end in a bad case of stomach ache, but they can be delicious-"

"Ok, got it," the older girl interrupted, throwing the turnip back at Lux. The blonde barely managed to catch it. "Just take them quickly and let's go. Unless you want your ass to get wet, we'd better find a good place to stay soon."

Lux looked up at the sky. Dark clouds were beginning to gather; to add to the effect, a rumble of thunder sounded somewhere in the distance. She went back to gathering the turnips, scowling as she discovered some of them were already half rotten. The handful she managed to collect looked promising, though; she quickly put them in her bag and stood up.

The curt nod Katarina gave her was the only sign to go. Lux followed the Noxian with no complains, and even a light smile played on her lips; at least for as long as the redhead couldn't see her.

All things considered, if she was stuck here with her, she might try to make it an adventure.

A/N: Thanks for reading!

So yeah, apparently Katarina's the aggresive/sarcastic type and Lux is dorky. And she likes turnips, right? I mean, who doesn't? (I don't.) Also, they eat/talk about food a lot in this one. This has nothing to do with the fact that I was hungry while writing.

Please leave a review if you liked the chapter... and if you didn't, then that's only one more reason to do so - tell me what was wrong, it'll make the next chapter better!

(No, really, I hate turnips.)