Hello after a break! This time I present you one of the first encounters between Lux and Katarina.

Disclaimer: All characters and places mentioned belong to Riot Games.

The Locker Room

The flickering light in the locker room was very, very unsettling.

Lux ran her fingers through her wet hair, trying to untangle all knots; she immediately regretted forgetting to bring her brush. It probably sat happily on her dressing table, back in her room a few floors above the locker rooms.

The Institute wasn't such a bad place, when one got used to it. It reminded her of the boarding school she went to - only there were more guys here (even one man would still be more than an all-girls academy), most of the people were older than her and there weren't any lessons.

And, of course, there were void creatures in the basement, but that she tried not to think about.

Suddenly, the silence of the room was broken by what sounded to be furious, wet-feet stomping.

"What the hell was that?" The door of her locker slammed close right before her face and she was so thankful she managed to move her fingers out of the way. She looked to her right to see a very angry, very wet and very Noxian - judging from her distinctive accent - girl glaring at her.

Glaring down at her, she noted. Sheesh, the girl was a good few inches taller than her, and Lux didn't consider herself to be short.

"What the hell was what?" she snapped back, standing her ground by turning to face the other girl and readjusting the towel wrapped around her torso.

She took the girl's appearance in; just like Lux, the only thing she wore right now was a white, Institute-of-War-issued towel. Water was dripping from her deep crimson hair down the curve of her neck, the droplets rolling down her rapidly raising chest and disappearing as soon as they reached the rim of the towel just above her breasts. Lux looked the Noxian straight in the eye - and that's when she noticed it. The scar.

She immediately recognized the girl as Katarina Du Couteau - the Sinister Blade, a Noxian champion she just had her first match together with, though it was hard to tell without her trademark clothing. A champion she'd heard volumes of before she even came to the Institute - most of it very bad stuff.

But what could she possibly do to enrage the girl so? Did she accidentally drop a bar of soap in the showers and Katarina slipped on it?

"You didn't shield me from Caitlyn," the Noxian barked through gritted teeth, crossing arms over her chest. Wet hair was sticking to the side of her face, making her look ridiculous and not intimidating at all. More than anything, she reminded Lux of a wet, long-haired cat that hated every minute of its wet life.

"Oh, that," she said and let a smile enter her face - even when she saw nothing but a scowl on the other girl's. "I tried to, but my Summoner—"

"Don't you my Summoner me," she growled, stepping closer to Lux, who was reconsidering her 'stand my ground' policy at this point. "If not for that, we might have won the match."

Lux almost rolled her eyes. So Katarina died, big deal. They were falling behind long before that, as soon as Ezreal lost all connection with his Summoner and couldn't even leave the base, leaving Lux alone on their lane and not really able to defend it from Caitlyn and- and whatever the Radiant Dawn's name was. Truth be told, she didn't see much of the Noxian throughout the whole match, they didn't even exchange a single word. Katarina came to Lux's lane once, and that was five minutes before the end.

This was actually the first time she had the chance to look at her face for longer than a second. It looked much different without blood splattered across her cheeks.

"I don't care if you're new," Katarina continued, completely oblivious to Lux's inner turmoil of thoughts, "if you don't know what to do, just stick to the damned Proving Grounds."

"I know what to do," Lux disagreed, furrowing her brows. She hated Noxians. And she hated verbal arguments with no clothes on even more.

Katarina eyed her for a second, leaning her shoulder against the lockers. Lux almost shivered; those things were metal and freaking frigid, yet the older - at least she assumed she was older, she didn't get round to reading everyone's files in such detail yet - girl seemed pretty unfazed by that.

"You're Crownguard's sister, aren't you?" she asked after a while, her piercing eyes never leaving Lux's face. The blonde felt the skin on the back of her neck tingle; the way Katarina spelled her surname was revolting, considering the weird Noxian accent and the pure acid lacing every single letter. And she thought the other sister was the venomous one.

"Yes," she answered shortly, not feeling obligated to elaborate. "Now, if you'd excuse me—" She tried forcing her locker's door open again, but the girl was still leaning against it. Lux sighed in defeat, but she wasn't quite done yet. "Could you move?"

She did move away, but as soon as Lux opened the door and as much as glanced inside it, Katarina slammed it shut again, making a show of leaning against it with her arm outstretched, smirking down at the blonde Demacian with so much spite in her eyes that she immediately knew where the Sinister part came from.

And Gods, there had never been a time in her life when Lux wanted to just punch somebody in the face so much.

When Katarina finally removed her hand from the locker door, Lux almost slammed it in the older girl's face from tugging at it so hard. She didn't, however, as the Noxian moved closer to her by then - and the blonde could swear she didn't see Katarina move. Which was a lot, coming from a Light Mage.

"I'm gonna crush you," she whispered in Lux's ear, sending shivers down the Demacian's neck and side. Lux blushed deeply when she realized the only thing between them now, as Katarina rested her arm upon the younger girl's shoulder and pressed their chests together, was a double layer of thin, disposable towels. "You will wish you never came here in the first place."

And with that, she moved away - again, a motion so quick Lux's eyes barely registered it. Before she knew, Katarina was already yards away from her, disappearing around the corner to another part of the locker room. Lux only had a chance to catch a glimpse of the Noxian's swaying hips as she went. And, as much as she despised the girl for her actions, namely ones like that just a few seconds ago, and firmly believed that Garen should do so as well - if there was no such encounter between the two of them, then the pure fact that she spoke Noxian was enough - she couldn't really blame her brother for being attracted to Katarina Du Couteau.

Even if he didn't want to admit it. And even if Lux didn't want to admit it.

With a sigh, she turned back to the locker. The room was now strangely empty with just her inside, the only sound beside her deep breathing being the constant dripping of water from the showers. When she looked inside the metal locker, her eyes landed on a paper schedule on the door and a smile bigger than the scowl she saw on Katarina entered her face.

She had another match later this evening; this time, she was going against the crimson haired Noxian.

A/N: Thank you for reading. This is right after Lux's first actual match (I believe there would be some 'mock matches' to test her, show her what a connection with a Summoner looks like and perhaps show her around the Fields so she wouldn't get lost on a real match). That said, I think it might be her first week at the Institute; she was too occupied with everything to read the champion's files in detail and is still distracted by everything (even if she makes it seem different in front of Katarina), that's why she didn't recognize the Noxian when she first saw her. At least she knows her name (unlike Leona's).

Gonna go back to Garen in the next one!