Author's Note:

There's been a long hiatus since I've mainly been working on my Solangelo fiction, but I came back and fixed some errors that I found in this chapter. ^_^

-Aleavon

"Welcome to Summoner's Rift!" the announcer proudly proclaimed over the three-lane battle arena. Ezreal nervously glanced at his left hand with the gauntlet on it, hoping that it would hold. It was his first game since his gauntlet had been physically altered, and he still wasn't certain of what he was capable of doing while his crystal was cracked. He shook off the negative thoughts, knowing that he had a battle to win. He looked to his side and saw Teemo, Lux, Soraka, and Udyr appear on the Blue Team's summoning platform.

"Looks like this'll be a good game! Let's win this thing!" Udyr's low, baritone voice rumbled as he grabbed a Hunter's Machete, two Health Potions, and a Seeing Totem as he roared in a voice not very different from that of a wild Ionian Mountain Bear Ezreal had tracked one day as Udyr raced towards the bot lane jungle.

"I'll be at the Krug pit in a second!" Ezreal pinged as he opened the shop and picked up a Doran's Blade, a Health potion, a Seeing Totem, and headed bot to leash Udyr's Krugs with Soraka by his side. Udyr smited the larger one, and the fight ensued. After a few blasts of light from his gauntlet, Ezreal backed off, letting Udyr take the Krugs , and then left the jungle with Soraka to lane.

Seeing as one of the first brawler minions was almost dead, he shot a small bolt of energy from his gauntlet and continued to wait for the little minions to continue to weaken.

As he continued to last hit the minions, a familiar voice rang through the lane.

"Nice to see you again, Ezreal." A female British accent broke through his concentrated wave farming as a Piltover Peacemaker came flying towards his face. Ezreal dodged it just in time, shooting a white bolt of energy at his attacker's chest. Caitlyn let out an "oof," and continued farming.

"Fired up and ready to serve!" A metallic voice came from the steam golem that ran in front of Caitlyn to protect her from any further Mystic Shots. Ezreal let out a sigh of relief, knowing that at least he could escape Blitzcrank's grabs, and continued dodging the enemy duo's abilities while trying to get farm. However, he couldn't keep up with Caitlyn's wave clear, and ended up under their turret while trying to farm.

"Soraka, try to poke a bit more with your Starcall, I shouldn't need much healing." Ezreal said to Soraka as Caitlyn and Blitzcrank waited outside of the range of the turret for the waves to reset. "I think if you can land a slow and a binding on one of them, we can take them out. I've whittled them down a bit, and I should be able to get at least one kill." Soraka nodded in response, and waited for the minion wave to be cleared before they went in.

Ezreal started with his usual poke, getting in an autoattack before shooting a Mystic Shot and autoing again, but then Soraka ran in behind them, layering her Starcall and Event Horizon on the both of them before either could cast any spells. As they tried to escape Soraka's Event Horizon but ended up rooted, Ezreal Arcane Shifted in and shot his W while autoing Caitlyn as Soraka continued to attack Blitzcrank. The two were both at about 10% health as they used their escapes, and seemed to have got away, but they were soon cut down as Ezreal's Trueshot Barrage sniped the two of them as they ran back down the lane to recall.

Ezreal listened for the First Blood! Then a Double Kill!, letting the rest of the champions in the arena know the feat Ezreal had just accomplished. he announcer's voice echoed through the arena, as Ezreal's teammates started to cheer over the intercom system.

"Score two for us bro!" Udyr cheered as he pinged "On my Way!" mid lane where Lux was preparing to combo Veigar. Ezreal silently wished them luck as he diverted his attention to the situation at hand. Caitlyn and Blitzcrank were down for a while, so he could freely farm, as Soraka warded the river bush and dragon.

The enemy bot lane duo returned to their lane preceded by a Piltover Peacemaker hit Ezreal square in the chest. Soraka immediately dashed to him and healed the wound he had received, taking the damage upon herself as she vamped the health from Blitzcrank, who was trying valiantly but failing to dodge Soraka's Starcall.

What seemed like hours had passed by as the two marksmen last-shotted the minion waves. Unbeknownst to Ezreal, Blitzcrank was waiting in the unwarded river bush, and as he stepped to the left side of the lane, Blitzcrank's right hand had latched securely onto Ezreal's torso before he could shift away. Caitlyn immediately hopped over to where Blitzcrank was knocking up Ezreal, and started autoing him. Once Soraka had run up to the fight and silenced the enemy duo, Ezreal Arcane Shifted back towards his turret at about a third of his original health. The humanoid and unicorn-like nymph started to heal Ezreal's wounds as Ezreal called for help in the bottom lane.

Within a few minutes, the help he requested had arrived.

"Armed and Ready!" An adorably annoying voice whispered from the river bush, freshly cleared of wards thanks to Teemo's new Sweeper Lens. He laid down two shrooms, and signaled for Ezreal to bait them towards him.

"On it!" Ezreal mouthed back. He focused Caitlyn, dodging into the bot lane bushes and pushing her towards the river by shooting bolts of energy at her, forcing her to use her 30-Caliber Net to "escape" into the river, thinking she was home free, but instead, she landed on Teemo's well-planted shrooms. Blitzcrank rushed to help her, but it was too late. Teemo reappeared from his invisible state and started shooting poison darts at Blitzcrank while blinding Caitlyn as the three champions bot lane overpowered the two enemy bot laners. Another kill racked up for Ezreal, and Teemo got the kill on Caitlyn, his deadly poison taking her life as she flashed back into the range of her turret.

"Perfect time to Dragon, if you're up to it, Udyr." Soraka said as she started tossing her sparkling crescents at the Rift Scuttler. Ezreal and Teemo helped out and soon enough, Udyr was entering the dragon pit, helping the other three champions take down the Dragon as Lee Sin wandered down to attempt a Dragon steal. He shot a Sonic Wave at Udyr in an attempt to get close to the dragon and smite it, but Lux ulted the dragon first, scoring the dragon and a free kill for Udyr.

"Well played, everyone! Now let's see if we can push mid and bot and maybe take the turrets soon!" Lux said, returning to her lane with Udyr in tow. Their team of five did so, pushing their bot lane to the inner turret and mid lane to the inhibitor turret, Ezreal getting another double and Lux getting a kill, although Udyr died in the process. As Udyr's respawn timer started, Lux placed a warning ping top lane just as Darius took down Top Lane's Outer Turret.

Teemo sighed and teleported back top, muttering in his tiny voice, "And I was just starting to get ahead, too... Time to shroom up again!"

The rest of the game ended in a similar fashion, with the blue team's champions eventually grouping mid and taking out the red team's inhibitor before the 20 minute mark, when the enemy team agreed to a surrender with 5 votes for and 0 against.

Victory! The announcer declared proudly as the red team champions sighed in resignation, crowded around their exploding nexus.

"Better luck next time, Caitlyn!" Ezreal crowed as he teleported back to his living room, Lux appearing a few seconds later, running a hand through her not-very-tousled hair. She plopped down to his left on the couch, and they smiled at each other, thinking about the excitement they had just been through.

"Well, that was a nice game. One of the better ones I've played this time around. If it weren't for Udyr coming in for that early gank, I would have been turned into dark magic dust!" Lux exclaimed, smiling fondly at the memory as she laid her hand on top of Ezreal's. Her fingers found the crack in his stone, and her eyes flew open, suddenly remembering the irregularity.

"Oh! I just remembered! How was the visit with Taric? Is your stone okay? You played well today, so you'll be fine, right?" Lux prodded, sky-blue eyes filled with caring and worry.

"It didn't feel like there was any difference," Ezreal replied, unintentionally ignoring her first question and skipping over what Taric had said. "I think I'll be fine. It's just a small abnormality, after all."

He chuckled and stared into the glowing energy of the stone. "And maybe it can heal itself? I know it used to be able to heal, but then one day... it changed. It did make me shoot faster though... maybe it'll make the healing power come back faster." Ezreal quipped, managing to coax a small smile out of Lux with his terrible joke.

"I'm just glad that you're okay." Lux replied, leaning over to peck him on the lips. Ezreal leaned back into her, pushing her against the edge of the armrest, and closed his eyes, drawing in her presence as the contact left him giddy and light-headed, like it always did. He let out a small sight as she drew back, looking into Ezreal's eyes, smiling with all the joy in the world. But then her brow furrowed as she noticed something... in his eyes? She blinked as Ezreal stared at her questioningly, but she shook it off.

"What?" Ezreal asked, trying to draw something out of Lux. The look on her face had left him worried that he had done something wrong.

"Oh, it's nothing. I have to go home now, but I'll see you tomorrow!" Lux smiled as she walked out the front door. But Ezreal couldn't help but wonder what Lux had seen while looking into his eyes.