AN: / Yea this is late. I forgot I wrote stories until recently. Had to cut this one a little short partly to fit in the next idea for a chapter, and because I just wanted to upload something before I forget.

IT'S ALMOST CHRISM-


The TV blared on loudly as a certain metal knight wolfed down crisps like there was no tomorrow. Something funny was apparently said, as the audience laughed at a crude joke or something, but Mordekaiser wasn't really watching anyway. He just liked to at least pretend to be doing something whilst he ate, even if that something wasn't very productive at all. And more importantly, the television provided background noise, and background noise helped him think.

And he had a lot to think about.

Mouthful of salt, the lord's thoughts first turned to the currently sick maven of strings. After thinking over everything he'd said, Mordekaiser had come to the conclusion what had just occurred with the ill fallen girl would be one of the more rude things he would say to Hecarim. And if it was rude to Hecarim, he probably shouldn't have accidentally threatened someone of actual importance like Sona. But the more he thought about saying something to console her, the more ridiculous the idea seemed.

Hey Sona, sorry about being rude earlier, even though we're totally holding you hostage here and everything, it was a very mean thing to say. Why don't we make up for it by getting ice cream with little sprinkles and chocolate sauce?

How embarrassing, Mordekaiser thought to himself. True, he did like ice cream (especially the sprinkles), but eating out of an apology just sounded sappy, and would ruin the taste. And in fact, he had never actually... Apologised to anyone ever. Pretty much everyone he'd met was either used to his antics, or simply had thick enough skin to not care about his lack of manners.

But Sona was not one of his Shadow Isles friends. And she did not have thick skin. And Mordekaiser had the sneaking suspicion that this was all a plan from The Ruined King to catch him out in some way. Like he'd be graded at the end or something to see how well he's taken care of the maven.

The iron man would ensure he got an A.

He would do some research into the subject, learn how to apologise. Learning how to do something naturally meant he needed a teacher, but where on earth would he find one of those? And one that would be willing to teach him, nonetheless.

The nearby buzz of a phone jerked him out of his thinking. As usual, he tried to ignore it, but after the third ring he figured as he had nothing to do right now, he may as well put the caller out of their misery.

"Speak." He put plainly, remembering what the king had said earlier about his 'less than comforting' greetings.

"Ah, it is so good to talk to you again, Lord Mordekaiser."

"Karthus?" The master of metal recognised in an instant his raspy, undesirable voice in his ears. "How the heck did you get this number?"

"No 'how do you do' or anything first, eh? It makes me glad to see you are the same as always." Apparently, no matter how hard Mordekaiser would try, he could never say hello to someone in the correct way.

"To answer your original question" the death singer began, "there was a peculiar blue haired girl who claimed to get lost on her rocket and end up on the Shadow Isles, who said she got your number in an amusement park of some sort. I didn't believe at first, you weren't exactly the type for those things as far as I can remember."

"I see..." He said in a thoughtful sounding way. He'd need to be more careful about giving away his number, apparently. It could serve to gather... Unwanted attention.

"What did you want, Karthus?" He asked, not particularly amused by his little stories.

"Well, I was talking to Yorick... You know Yorick, don't you?" Mordekaiser grunted over the phone, wondering why Karthus sounded a little uneasy at what he was about to say.

"He noticed that as part of our little scheme to make the Isles a more... Welcoming place, that the Ruined King seems intent on completing, there's this sort of contest going on soon."

"Contest?" Mordekaiser raised an eyebrow. If there was one thing he liked, it was winning, showing other people that he was better than them.

"Yeah, a contest. Like a talent show sort of thing. And so we were thinking... You know how we used to play about in the old days with our instruments and stuff..." The iron man nodded, wishing the death singer would just get on with it.

"Do you want to turn that into something more serious? Like a band or something?"

A band? The master of metal considered privately in his head. Sure, he had some fond memories of playing his guitar back in the day, and the prospect of having fans upon fans screaming his name in appreciation did have a certain charm to it...

But would it be that easy to just pick the guitar back up again? If he could find it, that was. Of course it would be, he reminded himself. After all, I'm me. And me is good at things... Besides grammar. And anyway, hadn't Hecarim wanted to start associating with his old friends? Now maybe the horseman wouldn't bother him so much. Killing two Teemo's with one mace, as the saying went.

"I suppose that would be acceptable." Mordekaiser spoke after a short while, pretending that he wasn't really excited or anything.

"Reall- I mean, of course you would agree! Great!" A muffled voice returned to him. "We'll meet at your place tomorrow then."

"Wait what the-"

*beep beep*

For a few seconds, the iron man stood dumbfounded at what had just happened. As he slowly went through everything in his head, it wasn't the fact that he didn't like other people that was the problem here (for once). But he wondered, how would they take the fact he had a Demacian maven as his house guest. Or even more troublesome, how she would react to them.

The master of metal would have thought things over a bit more thoroughly, but as it would happen, the doorbell rang for the second time in its lifetime.

"More people coming to see me? My bad luck never seems to end." He scowled, stomping through the house and swinging the door practically off its hinges.

"What is it, Hecarim?" He sneered, thinking the horseman had just come to annoy him again, and he'd decided long ago that he'd been annoyed enough to last him the whole year in the short space of two days.

"I come bearing guests!" He beamed, completely unfazed by the hostile tone used against him. As he said, two people stood either side of the centaur that he did not recognise. The first, who came up to him smiling with an outstretched hand, seemed to be some sort of cross between girl and fox. She looked human enough if you saw her from the right angle, but there were nine fluffy tails flowing daintily out behind her, coloured a darkened purple slowly transitioning into a brighter shade.

"It's really a pleasure to meet you, sir! Your friend Hecarim here has told me what an honour it is to do so." When the iron man couldn't think of anything else to do but stare at her bizarre greeting, She withdrew her hand. He wasn't used to being called "sir".

"Perhaps you are not much of a hand shaker then. My mistake!" There was something about the way she chirped everything that annoyed him, but the iron man wasn't really sure why.

The other girl, skinny yet lean at the same time, watched him with careful curiosity, arms folded and eyes betraying nothing about what she thought. White hair hung over her forehead in a fine fringe, and Mordekaiser found her to be the more agreeable of the two. For now, at least.

"Good morning." She said not in a monotone, but a voice devoid of emotion. She seemed like she'd say something else, but the White haired girl stopped there.

"Who are these people, Hecarim?" He asked calmly, remembering that he should at least wait to see if people were important before ridiculing them.

"Oh, how rude of me not to introduce you." He smiled like this was all part of some big joke. "This is Ahri", he said, referring to the smiling one on his left, "and this over here is... Uhm... River?"

"Riven." She corrected, mouth drawing into a thin line as she glared towards Hecarim. Mordekaiser definitely preferred her, maybe even over Hecarim.

"Yes, but what are they doing here, exactly?"

"We are here on business purposes on behalf of Demacia." Riven stepped forward before anyone else could even process an answer. "Should you need proof of our affiliation, here is a signed signature" she pressed a yellowing piece of paper as far up to Mordekaiser's nose as she could reach, "and should you believe it is a forgery, we have telephone communication for verification." Just for good measure, the White haired girl flipped a phone around her fingers for a few seconds before slipping it into a back pocket.

"You know with all those rhymes, you could totally do the team rocket motto!" Ahri thought aloud. "To-" and before she could even begin to protect the world from devastation, a sharp glare from both Riven and Mordekaiser, followed by an encouraging "that's enough Pokemon references for today" by Hecarim.

"Business?" The iron man inquired, more baffled than anything.

"With regards to lady Sona." She said stiffly. "We request to be able to visit her and confirm that the maven's well being is intact."

"And if I refuse?" The master of metal leered, crossing his arms, wondering exactly what authority they thought they had here.

"May I remind you, Lord Mordekaiser, that a hostage is only as valuable as his or her perceived value from those close to him or her." Riven stated clearly and slowly. It might have been her imagination, but Ahri thought she detected a hint of nervousness. "If you refuse to let us see her, this implies one of two things; either she is being mistreated and you don't wish to show us her deteriorating condition, or she is therefore missing and holds no value at all in that case. So you see", she concluded, daring to return the scrutinising look given to her, "it is in your best interest to comply."

Riven started to become a little uneasy, as the situation just seemed to become more and more tense as time went by. She watched behind a well formed poker face as the much larger metal knight switched between facial expressions, though she could only see his eyes through his helmet. From confusion, anger, pondering, and then anger again, it was hard to tell what he might be thinking. If Hecarim's giddy smile was anything to go by, they were in safe hands, although the same might not be said for Sona.

I wanted to just get rid of them, Mordekaiser groaned to himself, mood not being helped by how much Hecarim seemed to be enjoying the whole thing. This was certainly not how he had planned the day to go, and given what he had just been told it didn't look like he would have much of a say in it any longer. The Shadow Isles Lord gave one more look of disgust towards the girl before sighing exasperatedly, giving up and motioning with the flick of a wrist for everyone to follow his lead inside. Albeit hesitantly, they all did so, spreading out to form two groups of two.

Mordekaiser unfortunately had somehow managed to be paired up with the fox girl, who apparently enjoyed nothing more than to comment on every little thing that went through that tiny little head of hers.

"How much did it cost to buy all this?" Ahri said with awe, neck craned to admire how tall the roof was in his place.

"A lot." Mordekaiser grumbled, quickening his pace in an attempt to ditch his new found partner. When no one spoke for a few seconds, he almost believed he had gotten away with it.

"Are you like, a real person inside that suit of armour or is this it?"

"I can assure you I am quite human on the inside." He growled. When Ahri just stared, he added "sorry to disappoint you." And hoped the conversation would end there. Mistake number two.

"How do you get your eyes to glow red like that? Is it even your natural eye colour?"

"I colour them with the blood of my enemies." The master of metal replied sternly, hoping maybe he could scare the fox into silence. Strike three.

"If you're like this now, how do you dress up for Halloween?" She asked excitedly. "I mean if you even have Halloween here, but then of course you do because who doesn't like free candy? I mean candy is great because-"

"Please. Shut. Up." Mordekaiser seethed as his anger threatened to get the best of him if she were to talk for a second longer, eyes burning into hers as he did his best to look as intimidating as possible. When he was a good two foot or so taller and already practically looming over Ahri, it wasn't really all that difficult.

"O-okay." She half squeaked half whispered, and quickly as she had appeared slipped back to Hecarim's side, with said horseman frowning at Mordekaiser once he saw the pale look on her face.

The iron man tried and failed to relinquish his guilt at the sight. Riven seemed indifferent to the matter, holding that same calculating, cool glance Mordekaiser had seen a lot in these last few minutes. When the constant chattering was replaced with awkward silence, he found himself almost missing those bizarre questions.

Almost.

"Right, here we are." Mordekaiser announced rather loudly as they came to a steel door rather similar to the rest that were scattered around the abnormally large house, and Ahri found herself wondering how someone could possibly tell them apart.

"Before we enter" he continued whilst raising a thick armoured arm to block the path of an over eager fox, "I have a few ground rules. Number one, you are to have either me or Hecarim keep an eye on you whilst you are here."

"Huh, what are we doing?" The centaur asked disinterestedly. Mordekaiser gave him a look up and down, considering something, before rephrasing his statement.

"In fact, Hecarim doesn't count, I doubt he'd pay enough attention to watch you two closely." He ignored the look of betrayal the horseman sent him before moving on.

"Number two, no sword slashing or whatever it is that fox girl has on her, inside."

"It's an orb." Ahri added helpfully.

"Yes, fine, none of those being flung about the place." The iron man grumbled.

"And last of all", he pinched the bridge of his nose as he spoke, "please don't touch anything if you don't know what it is, your existence is nuisance enough for me. Is all of that understood?" He glared at both of his two guests, yet they didn't seem as frightened as before. Something he would need to fix later on.

No sooner had he moved his arm away had Ahri dashed into the room, saw the blue hair peeking out of the covers, and dashed onto the bed to gift the surprised maiden with a tight hug.

"Sona! We missed you so much! Like thiiiiiiiis much!" She exclaimed, holding her arms as wide apart from each other as they would go just to show how emotionally stricken she was from the maven's absence. Before she could even reply with a smile, Sona was interrupted with "oh, you're still wearing these old things?" The fox girl tugged at her blue dress, which actually Sona was still rather fond of.

"Don't worry, we can go out and change them soon. We could go now if you want actually, providing mister fun sponge is okay with it." She hesitated for a moment and looked worried in case said knight had heard her, but sighed in relief as she saw him whacking the horseman on the head for something supposedly annoying he had done.

"Really miss Ahri, I am quite alright with what I have." Sona smiled soothingly. "There is no need to buy something just for me."

"Sorry to interrupt your very important conversation" Riven interrupted without sounding very sorry at all, "but why is it you are bed ridden at this hour?" She then turned to give a scrutinising look to an unimpressed Mordekaiser before adding, "perhaps it is because you have sustained an injury of some sort?" Before Mordekaiser could answer for her with a rather threatening remark, someone in a much more stable state of mind answered for him.

"It is just, maybe I am not used to the air here, but I seem to have contracted a cold." She explained, looking rather worriedly between the two as she felt some sort of tension emerge. "It is because of Lord Mordekaiser's medical expertise that I understand bed rest is the best course of action for such an occasion."

"Oh." Riven replied flatly, a look of concern turning to one of bewilderment.

"That was very... Thoughtful of him to suggest." She added, deciding that saying it was 'nice' or something along those lines would not be the way the metal clad knight would wish to be described. She wished she hadn't been so considerate when Mordekaiser did no less than leer at her triumphantly, as he may as well have spit in her face. What a child, she thought to herself, but wasn't stupid enough to say such a thing aloud.

"Psst. Morde." Hecarim nudged the side of his helmet. Mordekaiser grunted to show we was listening, still keeping two eyes on Sona to make sure nothing suspicious was going on.

"I need to talk to you about something."

"What?"

"It's private."

"Can't it wait until a more convenient time?" He growled, gaze still unwavering.

"Yes, but I can't." Rolling his eyes in response, the master of metal pulled Hecarim out of the room as quietly as you could drag a horse across a metal floor, in hopes that his leaving wouldn't be noticed.

He hadn't been out the room for more than a second before a certain fox seized the opportunity to ask all of the questions pent up inside of her.

"So what's he like?" Ahri prodded the maven impatiently, "besides, you know, really, really scary and everything." Truth be told, Sona didn't really know how to answer. She and the iron man had only known each other a short while, and he had neglected to talk about himself very much. From what she had seen, he was a rather volatile character, and seemed to crave being alone for some odd reason. What he did in his spare time, she didn't know.

"He is... Nothing like any of my Demacian friends." She said, hoping that was answer enough.

"Does he always wear that suit of armour, or does he have like, normal clothes?"

"And these clothes would be normal, would they?" Riven smirked as she motioned to the current piece Ahri was wearing.

"Well, not everyone is naturally gifted with my fashion sense, but at least something less... Intimidating would be a start."

"I am afraid I have not seen him wearing anything else." Sona conceded. She decided not to mention that she actually thought his armour looked 'kinda cool' as it sounded just a bit childish, and embarrassing really. "Maybe dress code is much different here."

" I guess..." She mumbled, looking rather disappointed. No doubt this would be the last anyone would hear of the fox's 24/7 fashion parade.

"In any case, it is a great relief to see you are safe and sound, minus a bit of sniffing here and there. When we heard about your captor, we had feared the worst, but..." Riven trailed off, realising how scaring the maven with rumours she had heard would not be a smart thing to do.

"Do you... Think Lord Mordekaiser is a bad person?" Sona asked the exile, who was rather surprised by the question. She wasn't even sure whether he was either, but perhaps Riven could help her decide. She seemed like a very level headed character.

"I... Cannot say. We have not know each other for long, so it would be wrong to form a judgment so soon."

"Everyone I have asked seems to despise the Shadow Isles and its inhabitants, but rarely know much about it at all." The maven frowned. "I wonder why all this hatred has come about, don't you? Why is it that people think these thing when they aren't really thinking about it at all?"

"Well", Ahri smiled softly, "all I know of it is the one description Garen gave to us of his visit here, so I can't really say much."

"What happened on his visit?" Sona asked. The devious grin Ahri graced her with told Sona that maybe she didn't want to hear this story after all.

"It all started with..."

"Okay", Mordekaiser grumbled with a rather unimpressed look on his face, "what is it that just couldn't wait another few minutes?"

"Y'see, Karthus kind of spilled the beans about you guys doing a little musical thingy..." The horseman said, eyes flickering back to whatever was going on in the other room a few times, "and I just wondered if you guys had thought of a band name yet." Mordekaiser was by no means talented at self restraint, but he used up a good deal not to slap hecarim right across the face. That was what was so important that he just had to pester him about it?

"Why did this need a private conversation again?"

"Just hang on a minute, I'm getting to that part!" He grinned, making the metal knight less fond of the idea if this was going where he thought it was going. "Now, do you have a name or not?"

"No, we don't." He sighed, that was the least of the iron man's problems right now.

"Then this is your lucky day, because I think I've found the perfect name for you guys." Mordekaiser rolled his eyes. He did not have high hopes for this.

"Why don't you do a little throwback to the times we spent on the rift and call yourselves 'Pentakill'?"

"Hmm?" Mordekaiser thought aloud. "That's actually a decent idea?"

"Why do you sound so surprised..." Hecarim frowned.

"I especially like the 'kill' part of it."

"Hey, I knew you'd be a fan!" And so Mordekaiser was almost pleased with the name. There was just one, teeny weeny problem with it...

"How good are you at maths?" He asked the centaur.

"Uhh," he hesitated, "pass."

"I though so". Mordekaiser sighed, he had really been optimistic about the idea too.

"Penta means five, but there are only four of us." He scratched his head, trying to picture if Quadrakill would work instead. Somehow, it just didn't have the same ring to it.

"Ah, the only flaw in an otherwise perfect plan." The horseman sighed in defeat. He sounded too melodramatic for some reason, and the metal knight doubted this was over yet. "If only we knew someone else who could play a musical instrument."

"Hecarim." Mordekaiser stared him dead in the eye. "You are not playing the triangle in our band. It is lame, and not the type of metal we are looking for. We are a heavy metal group, not a primary school stage production."

"Oh, that? Don't worry, I'm running my triangle skills as a soloist now, so I can't join no matter how much you may need me." The knight cringed at the thought of a concert purely consisting of hecarim banging a stick against metal for half an hour. He would need to pay the audience for that one.

"Come on Morde", he hassled him as all the centaur was met with was a blank expression, "think of someone else we know. One of our friends."

"I told you, I don't have any friends."

"Okay, someone we've met recently then."

He remained blank for a moment, but then Mordekaiser frowned. He couldn't possibly be talking about... Could he?

"No." He stated flatly.

"Wha- why!?" Hecarim cried, sounding genuinely surprised at the rejection, rushing as fast as his hooves would take him to stop the metal knight from re entering the room, effectively ending their conversation.

"Hecarim." He growled lowly through gritted teeth, though his usual intimidation tactics didn't seem to be working as they should.

"Why not? She always carries that wooden thingy around, so she must be good at it!"

"There are so many problems with your flimsy idea that I can't even begin to cover them all." Mordekaiser sighed, scratching the back of his helmet as he thought of the best and most obvious reasons even a blundering fool like Hecarim would be able to understand.

"I have no doubt in her musical ability." He began slowly, although picked up the pace once he saw the horseman light up and try to interrupt him with another no doubt pitiful idea. "But you need more than that to be in a band."

"You do...?" Hecarim sounded confused.

"She just doesn't have the right look about her to fit in. We can't possibly play rock music at full blast whilst those blue little pigtails of hers are floating like little clouds on the stage. Plus there's the problem of persuading her to even agree to play music with four other strangers-"

"Three strangers." The horseman broke out again. "Sona is already friends with you, isn't she?"

"Four strangers", he continued with his eyes narrowed, for Mordekaiser in no way considered the maven to be his 'friend' no matter how motivated the centaur seemed to be to convince him otherwise, "and even then I'm pretty sure someone like Karthus or Yorick, heck even Olaf would be apprehensive to her joining."

"Then maybe you could ask them about the idea!" Hecarim brightened up a little at the thought, "pleeaaase?"

Mordekaiser wondered about why he was even listening to the horseman nosing into something that wasn't his business, much less why he was actually considering the idea, but he supposed that came with being around someone so cheery for an extended period of time. Plus, he hated to admit it, but he really did like the name... And if any of his other frie- colleagues disagreed with the idea, or Sona was too sick to perform on the day, at least he wouldn't look like the bad guy for once.

"I will... Speak with them." The iron man pretended to relent, with both a sigh and rolling of his eyes, he thought he might make a very good actor. Of course, he knew there was no way all three of them would agree to the idea, but something about the way Hecarim positively beamed at him made him consider whether he had made a mistake. Regardless, they had been talking for too long, something could well have happened with the mismatched guests that somehow made their way into his home.

"-and so that's how it happened." The fox girl seemed to have finished telling what was, by looking at the different reactions in the room, a very captivating story. Sona held two hands clamped over her mouth with wide eyes, and the White haired girl, whatever she was called, had the same bored expression plastered over her face. Was she ever surprised by anything?

"Are you all quite finished with your little get together?" Mordekaiser asked as he stomped in, but sounded more tired than malicious. He really didn't have a whole lot against them (except maybe that the fox girl was simply too bright), he just wasn't used to social interactions for extended periods of time.

"Huh? But we just got here." Ahri protested, trying to appeal to what little good will the metal knight possessed. Unsurprisingly, it wasn't successful.

"What do you think this is, a tea party?" He growled. "You've seen what you came to see, now get out."

"Five more minutes!" The fox wailed, calming down considerably when she saw the murderous look on Mordekaiser's face. She stared at the floor and mumbled something unintelligible, but Mordekaiser didn't care what's she might have had to say anyway. Out of the corner of his eyes, she saw the maven look both both fearful and concerned at his address. He would deal with that later when it was a little less noisy.

He was about to shout at them again for not moving despite his glares and intimidating (he hoped) growling noises, but was yet again inconvenienced by that damn doorbell he didn't even know he possessed until recently.

"I'm going to get that." Mordekaiser said slowly, making sure everyone understood, "and when I get back, you three will be just about leaving." He eyed the fox girl particularly, knowing that somehow she would find a way to disobey him.

"Us three?" Hecarim frowned. "You're kicking Sona out too?"

"No, you are going." Hecarim opened his mouth like he was going to protest, but Mordekaiser simply started towards the door because he couldn't care less what he might have wanted to say.

He swung the door open with more than enough force, and sighed at the empty space in front of him. He was about to close the door, cursing whoever decided to play ring and run on him, before something tugged on his cape as he turned. Curious, he turned on his heel, looked down to the source of the tugging. How did she-

It was that little bear girl from earlier! How in the world had she made her way here, and more importantly, why?

"Papa!" She squealed like she were happy to see him, and Mordekaiser frowned at his new title.

"I am not this 'papa' you speak of." He scolded her, though the girl still had a dumb looking smile beaming away at him. "How did you even get here?"

"Miss Music told me where you were before." Annie said, still looking up at him in awe at how tall someone could be. Guessing that 'Miss Music' must have been some sort of nickname she had given Sona, the iron man huffed and even though it would waste time, he had one more burning question to ask.

"Do you live around here?" He tried to ask as nicely as possible, bending down a little to not seem so scary , though it still came out as a sort of grumble.

"Nuh-uh, we're on a school trip!" Mordekaiser decided to ignore that the rest of her "school" didn't seem to be here. She beamed for a few seconds longer, and Mordekaiser glared. She must have had some reason for coming here other than to bother him, maybe she had forgotten?

"Then why are you here?"

"I..." Annie looked away, dejected. She didn't want to admit she had made the same mistake again. He had been mad the last time, though she was sure that if anyone could help her it would be him.

"Where is your bear, little one?" She jumped at the deep, rumbling voice near her, having been too wound up in her own daydream.

"I- he went exploring and... Well I looked everywhere for him. He went away... It wasn't my fault!" She pleaded, expecting her new papa to be angry, and winced at the expected scolding she would know doubt receive.

But nothing came. She opened her eyes a crack to see that the large metal figure was looking off somewhere into the distance. He was thinking very hard about something, she just knew it.

"Wait here, and don't move from that spot." He asked her, but with a voice such as his, it sounded more like an order than a request. Annie stiffened, in case she were to move slightly and disturb whatever great plan he had just thought of. After a few seconds, however, curiosity got the best of her, and the girl had to shuffle to the right a bit to see inside his house. Her jaw dropped open in awe at the spectacle laid out before her. The walls, the floors, the ceiling even, they were all so shiny and clean. It looked like something right out of a storybook.

Heavy footfalls were approaching again, and Annie hurriedly scurried back to the spot she was standing in before, hoping that Papa wouldn't notice she had moved.

But the way he came to a standstill and looked at her with those red, all knowing eyes made her feel a little uneasy.

"You moved." He said, and Annie followed his gaze to the little, size one footprints that she had made on the dirt without noticing. She was halfway through opening her mouth to protest that someone else must have made them earlier, before her vision was blocked by something fluffy and brown. Could it be? It was! He had found him for her, she knew he would!

"You should take more care of-" and whatever else he might have said was cut off as Annie jumped as high as possible to...

To hug him?

He paused. And froze. Mordekaiser couldn't think of anything but "personal space, get off, get off, get OFF!"

He waited patiently, occasionally twitching until the tiny arms wound as far round his helmet as possible let go, and the child dropped back down to... Smile at him.

She really was strange.

"Thanks, papa."

"My name is Mordekaiser." Annie frowned, that was an awfully long and complicated name to have.

"Morrrr..."

"Yes... Keep going..."

"Morduhhhhh..."

"..."

"Mooooo..."

"..."

"But it's hard, papa!" Mordekaiser thought for a moment he caught himself smiling, but it must of been his nervous system still going all weird from the surprise hug. The metal knight thought about asking where exactly she lived or where her parents were, but he really couldn't be bothered. He had a feeling that she and her bear would be alright on their own, and that she would find another way to annoy him eventually. How she had left the bear at the fair, and how it had gotten into his possession, was still a mystery.

"Off you go, then." Mordekaiser mumbled, using his hands to steer the small girl around, away from him.

"Can I come and visit sometime?" She asked sweetly. Mordekaiser thought about saying no, but the chances were that she knew where he lived anyway, so he didn't have much of a choice.

"I suppose..." And before Annie could even thank him, Mordekaiser walked briskly inside and shut the door. He sagged against it for a short while, wondering how people could deal with so much in their lives. Sona just seemed to bring more and more trouble as life went by. First the girl and her bear, then Hecarim who had brought some of his old Shadow Isles friends with him, and now the fox and stern looking girl.

Still, he thought as he stomped back to his guests that were no doubt still no where near ready to leave, the idea of playing my guitar again doesn't seem so bad.

"Come on, it's obvious!" He heard a female voice, too high to belong to Riven, screech as he re entered the room. "Half a can of energy drink gives you twelve hours of mediocre energy, clearly."

"The drink doesn't change, only the volume does." Riven argued. "Therefore, it's six hours of full energy, since the contents is halved. Right, Sona?"

"Perhaps if there is only half a can left, someone has already drank the other half?" She said thoughtfully. "Maybe we could ask them how much energy they had that day."

Mordekaiser didn't say anything when he entered. Threatening the group would just start an argument, and despite his guest's annoying habits, he suspected they had better things to do with their lives than sit here and annoy him, and would eventually leave of their own accord.

"Who was that at the door?" Hecarim murmured, no doubt looking for somewhere to stick his unwanted nose in.

"None of your business." The metal knight replied. Hecarim frowned slightly, but was more than used to such a reply to ask any further.

"Hey, is old metal dude okay over there?" Ahri whispered to Sona, not taking her eyes off the now unnervingly still suit of armour. Sona, who was torn between telling Ahri it was because she was annoying him and still hadn't left yet, or protecting her feelings and omitting that, just shrugged silently. The fox girl turned to see Riven grace her with a pointed glare.

"What!?"

"It's 'cause you've been trying to annoy him, dummy."

"I wasn't doing it on purpose..." Ahri said weakly. Another glance over and she was half certain the metal knight had fallen asleep. He looked a little eerie without those glowing red eyes, and she quickly decided that he was less scary with his eyes open.

Even if he used them to glare at everyone.

Perhaps she could cheer him up somehow? Maybe he was just shy and needed someone else to start conversations for him.

"What's this supposed to be?" Ahri squeaked, pointing to something that very clearly was not family friendly. She waited until a red eye cracked open from the grey helmet, until the other one opened just to scowl at her.

"My mace." He said slowly. "I wouldn't recommend touching it."

He's meant to be able to lift this? The fox thought to herself, glancing between the large weapon and then the equally large Shadow Isles man. Perhaps it did make sense. Carefully, checking that he wasn't looking, she reached out to touch it. Whatever happened would be his fault, since he's basically dared him to do it anyway, right?

She was just about to try and lift it herself, when the huge thing seemed to shift suddenly and come crashing down on her. With a squeal of surprise, she managed to dodge under the spiked ends of the thing, but now laid trapped under the base of the thing after a rather large "THUMP" noise.

Slightly dazed, she looked upside down at Mordekaiser, who had apparently woken up and was quite amused with how she had ended up. He had known this would happen and just hadn't told her!

"What happened?" He asked sweetly, though his face was about the furthest thing from innocence as you could get.

"You knew this would happen!" She wailed at him, waving any part of her body that wasn't trapped by the metal weapon around wildly.

"Well, yeah." He replied dumbly, scratching the back of his helmet and trying to avoid the kicked puppy expression Ahri wore. "That's why I said not to touch it."

Ahri opened her mouth to argue at him about something, until realising that it was actually a perfectly sound argument, and then closed it again.

Ding dong!

At the sound of the doorbell ringing again, Mordkaiser sighed in exasperation and plodded with heavy footfalls towards the door once more. He was at least cheered up a little by a screech of "Don't just leave me here you big dolt!" as he walked away.

He took a short breath before opening the door, before raising an eyebrow in confusion at the three musicians before him.

"What-"

"Surprise, we're early!" They greeted him.

As the only logical course of action, Mordekaiser slammed the door shut and cursed about why his life seemed to be so difficult.


If only we knew someone with fashion sense to give Sona a new outfit ;)))))))))))))))))