Hey everyone! Here's the next chapter to my new story. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did while writing it.
Especially thanks to my new beta readers. You're the best!
On a semi-related note, I am hoping to be able to post at least one chapter a week or so, though it really depends on my availability over the weeks. Still, I hope you like it!
Their new friendship took off like a rocket. When they had just become friends, Amumu still slightly doubted the longevity of their friendship. He knew that these were horrible thoughts, but his naturally pessimistic attitude could not be tamed.
His doubts lasted through the beginning of their relationship, but over time, even his pessimism couldn't resist Fizz's sincerity. Fizz never abandoned Amumu, especially when he was crying. Even though Fizz still didn't know how to comfort a sad mummy when tears were raining down from his eyes, he still tried his best to stay as close to Amumu as possible, hoping that his presence would somehow help his grief disappear. It seemed to work; Amumu did indeed cry for shorter lengths of time when Fizz was sitting right beside him, so it became more of a habit for Fizz to sit himself down without a word while Amumu let loose his tears.
Still, there was much more that came from the relationship that these two shared. With Fizz's help, Amumu had the opportunity to meet other champions after in the League of Legends. The other champions exchanged a few words with Amumu, but the champion that struck him in particular was Miss Fortune. A good friend of Fizz, she had a cold demeanor on the Fields of Justice, but if one were to run into her in the hallways of the Institute of War, her cheerful personality always came as a surprise when compared with her usual seriousness.
x
Amumu's meeting with Miss Fortune had been an unexpected one. Fizz and Amumu had just arrived from a victory on the Fields of Justice and had decided to celebrate with some sweets that Annie had given them as a reward. They sat down in the corner where Amumu used to cry, which was strange to Fizz, but he never questioned his reasoning. By a stroke of good fortune, Miss Fortune passed by the two as they were indulging themselves in sweets. At the moment when Fizz spotted Miss Fortune walking by, he immediately jumped to his feet and leapt towards her. She barely had time to react when she saw a blue blur latch onto her leg. Upon realizing who the blur was, she gently peeled him off and hugged him against her chest.
"Miss Fortune! You're here too?" Fizz asked happily. She nodded in confirmation.
"How's life been treating you, Fizz? And who's this cute, little guy with you?" she asked. Amumu found himself blushing through his bandages; someone besides Fizz had bothered to compliment him, and Amumu savored the moment. Miss Fortune placed Fizz back down and walked over to Amumu. Although a little intimidated when she picked him up, her smile eased the adrenaline in his body.
"Amumu? He's one of my good friends. We were just eating some candy, and then you showed up!" he chirped.
"He's so cute, just like you and the yordles," she commented as she held Amumu in her arms like a baby. "Are you a yordle too?" she asked, turning her head down towards him.
"Y-yes," Amumu said shakily. He was blushing like crazy by now and was hoping that Miss Fortune couldn't see the red on his cheeks. She didn't appear to notice and placed Amumu back on the ground. After, she exchanged a few more words with Fizz before bidding farewell to the two, saying that she was heading towards the cafeteria for some lunch and waving towards the two as she walked away.
After she had left, Amumu found himself infatuated with her. It must've at least been obvious to Fizz that something was up because he was staring at Amumu with a curious look in his eyes.
"Amumu? Is something wrong?" he asked curiously.
"W-what? Nothing's wrong," he stuttered. He blushed again and turned his head away from Fizz, only realizing after that turning his head only made him look more guilty.
"You sure?"
"Yes. D-don't worry about it."
Fizz still felt obliged to ask, but he knew that it was an invasion of Amumu's privacy. He wouldn't want Amumu to cry again, so he left the issue alone. Now that their conversation had taken an awkward turn, Fizz spoke up, trying to lighten the mood.
"So… do you want to finish those candies?"
"S-sure." His voice trailed off. "But can we eat them in the cafeteria?" he asked quietly.
"Why? I thought you always wanted to eat here."
"I just want to see what the cafeteria looks like. I've never been there before since I'm always in this corner," he lied. Fizz was certainly puzzled by now, but again, he didn't question Amumu's reasoning.
They walked side by side towards the cafeteria. Fizz was busy dividing up the remaining candy while Amumu was locked in his own mind, still relishing the feeling that he had when Miss Fortune babied him. He hadn't felt better in his life. He had made two friends (though he was ready to call Fizz a best friend by now, even after such a short amount of time).
"Amumu! Watch out!"
Amumu snapped out of his trance, but it was too late to react when he bumped into somebody. Shortly after the collision, a loud smash could be heard, and it took a few seconds for Amumu to process what was going on. He had bumped into Rumble, who apparently had been carrying something that looked like some inexpensive part for his robot. However, it had broken after the impact, and there were screws and nuts and bolts everywhere. Nevertheless, to Amumu, it still looked as much like trash before he broke it.
"What's your problem?!" Rumble cried.
"I-I'm sorry. I-I didn't mean it," Amumu whispered. He didn't like where this was going and felt as if he was about to cry.
"It doesn't matter! You made me drop an essential part for my robot! Do you know how long it took me to get this?" Amumu knew that now was not the time to judge, but he couldn't help but wonder how this piece of scrap could've been an "essential" component of a robot. Still, he was at a loss for words, and tears were already welling up in his eyes.
"He said he was sorry. It really was an accident. He's been a bit off recently," Fizz said calmly, trying to assuage the situation.
"Does it look like I care?" Rumble snapped as he picked up the remnants of the scraps on the ground. "Stupid undead," he mumbled to himself as he walked away with the pile of metal in his hands.
As Rumble left Fizz's sight, he turned his attention back to Amumu who was making use of a nearby corner to cry again. Fizz sighed and walked over to him, sitting next to him, still clueless as to how to cheer him up. Holding the candies in his hand, he tapped Amumu on the shoulders, and when Amumu looked up, his bandages were already stained with tears. Fizz gave one of the pieces of candy, a blue lollipop, to Amumu. He hesitantly accepted it and continued to cry but fortunately at a much lower level.
By the time Amumu's cries had turned to slight sniffles, Fizz, with a green lollipop hanging from his mouth, had fallen asleep, and his head was rested on Amumu's shoulders. Amumu, unfamiliar with such close physical contact, let him be, and after twiddling his thumbs for a bit, took out the blue lollipop that Fizz had given him. He stared at the wrapper, eyeing every single detail on the piece of plastic covering the delicious treat; what else could he do with Fizz sleeping peacefully on his shoulder? He read everything on the wrapper twice, and by then, he gave up, unwrapped the lollipop, and put it in his mouth. The taste of blueberry flooded Amumu's mouth, and he began to draw the flavor out of the lollipop as best he could. He quickly finished his lollipop, and in good time too; Fizz had woken up and groggily stretched his arms.
"You're all better now, Amumu?" Fizz said, yawning.
"Yes, thanks for staying with me, Fizz."
"Well, you are my best friend… I think," he stated, turning his head to one side. "Anyways, you still want to go to the cafeteria?"
"No, I'm fine," Amumu said glumly. Surely Miss Fortune would not be there anymore, so what was the point of going? He wasn't one to take initiative and meet people himself; he was perfectly content with Fizz introducing people to him.
"Aww. We'll never get to finish all this candy!" Fizz whined. He already seemed to be wide awake, showing no signs of his earlier drowsiness. Fizz was just naturally energetic. "So where to now?"
"Umm, I don't know. How about we just walk around the Institute? I still haven't seen it all," he began, "but only if you come," he said a little too quickly.
"You're saying it like I'm going to leave you or something."
"S-sorry. It's just… you're still the only person that's bothered to spend time with me. Everyone else has better things to do. Don't you?"
"Well…" Fizz thought quietly. He himself was still a relatively new champion too, so it wasn't like he had established himself into a champion clique. For now he would just settle for making friends. "Not really. It doesn't matter anyways. Honestly, you're the first person that I've gotten to know here at the Institute… aside from Miss Fortune, but I've known her before I joined. Anyways, let's go. I'll show you around the Institute since I've basically seen this place from top to bottom." Fizz leaped to his feet with his spear in his hands. Amumu struggled to keep up, managing only after Fizz noticed and slowed his pace to match Amumu's.
"Fizz?" Amumu called as they were walking through a wide hallway full of portraits.
"Mm?" Fizz asked with his head turned and another lollipop in his mouth.
"About Miss Fortune, is she always that nice? She never looks that way when we're fighting." Fizz took the lollipop out of his mouth to answer.
"Hm? I don't know. I guess that's just her serious attitude, though I agree with you; she's really thoughtful and cheery when we're not on the Fields of Justice, and she was one of my first friends when I first came on land," Fizz said, appearing to reminisce.
"D-do you know her favorite color?" Amumu questioned. Fizz flinched and almost bumped into a small sculpture near the turn of the hallway..
"You're acting weirder and weirder." Fizz chuckled. "But no, I don't know her favorite color."
"Oh… then… what's yours?" Fizz stopped and thought for a moment.
"Umm, I guess that would be green," he said finally.
"Not blue?"
"You're saying that because I'm blue, right?"
"Erm… well… sort of… sorry for assuming," Amumu apologized.
"I like green, regardless of my skin color. I guess I like the green like your bandages, that kind of green," he teased. Fizz poked him before jumping ahead in case of any repercussions. He slowed back down to Amumu's pace, which was slower than average. "I guess it's my turn for a question, right?" Amumu nodded.
"Then my question is: what's your favorite color?"
"B-blue." By the way Amumu said it, Fizz thought that he was embarrassed to like such a color.
"And I bet you like the blue of my skin color too!" Fizz proclaimed.
"N-no! It's just… I… erm…" Amumu was simply at a loss for words. "I guess…"
"Aha! I knew it!"
"Knew what?" lacing his words with a bit of attitude.
"I'm not going to tell you!" Fizz grinned, staying ahead of Amumu, who began to chase him.
"Tell me!" he whined. However, Amumu's slow movements were no match for Fizz's dexterity; Fizz didn't use his spear or even break a sweat.
This continuous game of tag was prolonged for another ten minutes or so. Amumu had resorted to tossing his bandages at Fizz in an attempt to subdue him, challenging Fizz to stay on his toes; he saw how accurate Amumu was with his bandages on the Fields of Justice, and began to use his spear to hop around the room.
Although Amumu was slower than Fizz, he had much more stamina, and as their little game dragged on, Fizz's movements became much more sluggish and predictable. Amumu sent out one last string of bandages that met their mark, pulling Amumu towards Fizz at an extreme speed.
As they collided with one another, Fizz was dazed for a few moments, realizing that he had fallen on top of Amumu. He chuckled as he dusted himself off and hopped off Amumu.
"That was really fun. We should do that again later!" Fizz cheered.
"N-not until you tell me!" Amumu whined.
"Tell you what?"
"Don't be like that!" Amumu continued.
Honestly, Fizz was just poking fun when he was keeping his thoughts to himself; he had only said that to tease Amumu, but it had backfired, and now, Amumu wouldn't leave unless he knew what he was thinking.
"Erm… I guess I was going to say that…" Fizz thought, trying his best to think of a believable excuse. "I was going to say that you and I like each other's skin color, and how it's such a coincidence, heh."
"Really? That's all?" Amumu asked with a dissatisfied look on his face.
"Well, apart from that I also wanted to say…" Fizz said quickly, trying his best to keep Amumu happy. "You're a really great friend. Thanks for sticking with me."
"I should be the one saying that…" Amumu said drily.
"Do you want a compliment or not?!" Fizz snapped. For the first time since they'd met, he heard Amumu laugh a little. It was a cute laugh, though it did sound unfitting when compared to his usual tone of voice.
"I'm glad that you're my friend too, Fizz." The two then sat down in the corner and shared the last of their treats together.