Disclaimer: League of Legends belongs to Riot

"So…"

Hurtle and I were sitting by the windows of my favorite café, Café Perle. He introduced me to the café after my family moved and I've been hooked ever since. We used to go a lot more frequently when we were younger, but now most of our afternoons are spent studying or playing League of Legends. I hate to admit it, but nowadays I've been playing the game a lot more.

"So what?" I asked, dabbing my mouth with a napkin. Hurtle invited me to the café for an after-school snack. I couldn't refuse when he tempted me with the offer of cheesecake. Crème brûlée cheesecake to be exact.

"Turtle is taking me to LCS this week," he stated before eating more of his tiramisu.

"That's cool," I responded. I was more interested in the cheesecake in front of me and the hot chocolate on my right. I forgot why we stopped coming here so often. Everything was so good! I took another bite of my cheesecake and a smile formed on my face.

'Mmm, I'm so glad Hurtle invited me,' I thought. This is definitely what I needed after a boring lecture of Chemistry.

"Aphy? Earth to Aphy," Hurtle said poking my forehead. I jolted back and glared at him.

"What was that for?" I asked, rubbing my forehead.

"You totally zoned out," he informed me and I felt my cheeks become a little warm in embarrassment.

"Oh sorry, what were you saying?" I asked him.

"I said that Turtle is taking me to LCS this week…" he repeated.

"I heard that," I interrupted him. He flicked his hand to signal that there was more.

"And asked if you'd like to come with us," he finished and I put down my fork.

"Is that okay with Uncle Turtle?" I asked, not wanting to interrupt their father-son bonding time.

"Yeah, he told me to ask you," Hurtle shrugged, "I told him you wouldn't be interested, but he insisted on it anyways. He also told me to ask your parents if they wanted to come, but I figured they'd be working."

'Hmmm…' I took a sip of my hot chocolate as I thought about it. The last time he asked me, I readily refused. But lately… just lately, I've been a bit more interested. My interest started to grow thanks to my ranked games with Hades, our ranked team, and my heart-to-heart talk with Doublelift.

"Yeah sure, why not?" I said and Hurtle gave me a funny look that broke up into a smile.

"What do you mean why not?" he teased me and I looked away from him in defiance.

"Forget about it," I said. I should have known he'd take this opportunity to make fun of me. 'I told you so, inc.' I thought distastefully.

"If I recall last time, someone had no interest in the LCS," he said, leaning forward. He placed both elbows on the table and rested his chin on his intertwined hands.

"Elbows off." I swatted at his arms, trying to change the topic. "I'm appalled by your lack of manners!" I said to him mockingly. I straightened up my back and gave him a stern look.

He just rolled his eyes and removed his elbows from the table.

"Yes mother," he muttered sulkily. I smiled at his silliness. "But stop changing the subject!" he accused.

"I don't know what you're talking about," I said innocently, trying my best to look clueless.

"Someone had no interest in the LCS," he repeated, trying to continue the conversation.

"You're as stubborn as my parents," I muttered and he stuck his tongue out at me.

"And you're terrible at avoiding the topic," he grinned, "not subtle enough!"

"I can be subtle!" I argued in defense. In fact…

"No. You're not going to change the subject with this," he caught me and I crossed my arms.

"I was close…" I pouted.

"Not even," he said, giving me the famous WildTurtle smile.

"What's wrong with me being interested in the LCS?" I asked, using a familiar argument.

"What's wrong with me asking?" he combatted. I didn't say anything for a few seconds.

"I asked first!" I whined, unable to think of a good comeback.

"Technically, I did first," Hurtle pointed out. I frowned, he was right. "Though… if you don't feel comfortable telling your best friend why you're interested in the LCS," he shrugged his shoulders, "then you don't have to answer." He tried his best to look hurt as he said that.

'Way to guilt me,' I thought and sighed.

"You're having fun with this, aren't you?" I accused him.

"Yep," he smirked, eating more tiramisu.

"Well… I guess ever since I had that talk with Doublelift, before our ranked 5's…" my gaze turned towards the people passing outside. I tried to think of my answer.

"I haven't told you what Doublelift and I talked about, right?" I asked, switching my gaze back to him. He just shook his head. It was only a few nights ago since I had that talk with my father. Our relationship was starting to get better. We now talked during meals, trying to catch up.

Normally, I would have told Hurtle everything, but we were too busy playing our games. They had waited quite a bit, even Cyan was in the lobby waiting. Adept assured me that it was okay, but Cyan seemed annoyed to have waited. Hades said it was important to talk to my parents. It might have just been me, but it seemed like Adept was acting strangely after Hades said that. I shrugged it off though, because there were more important things to think about. Like what duo lane Hurtle and I were going to play.

"Well, he apologized," I said casually, trying to remember what exactly happened that night. I didn't notice that Hurtle had stopped eating his tiramisu and was now staring at me in surprise.

"What?" I blinked.

"Sorry, I think I misheard you," Hurtle said.

"Oh, I said Doublelift apologized," I repeated once more.

"…" Hurtle scrunched up his face for a moment before relaxing it. "Yeah, I think I misheard you again," he stated.

"I–said–Doublelift–apologized," I emphasized each word.

"Doublelift apologized," he repeated slowly and I nodded. "Doublelift apologized…"

"Jasper," I said his actual name in annoyance, "How many times do I have to tell you that he apologized before you get it?"

"Over 9000," he joked. 'Dammit Hurtle,' my annoyance evaporated.

"Stupid…" I muttered under my breath. He gave me a mortified look.

"What! Don't tell me you weren't surprised," he challenged. He wasn't wrong.

"Yeah I know, I was shocked too," I admitted.

"Exactly!" he looked triumphant. "So what happened after he did the A-word?"

I gave him a 'Are you serious?' look. "Really Hurtle?" I switched back to his summoner name. "The A-word?" I asked him.

"Oh shush. Doublelift and the A-word don't belong in the same sentence," he defended. That's probably true. I don't remember any other time Doublelift has apologized to me. I do remember him apologizing to Aphromoo after the affair, but nothing in between now and then.

"Anyways, back to my story," I gave him a look that told him not to interrupt me.

"After he did the 'A-word'," I made air quotes with both of my hands, "He told me he was going to try harder."

"Try harder?" Hurtle repeated skeptically. I nodded. I think all my years of despising my father made it hard for Hurtle to see him in a new light.

"He wants to be supportive," I smiled as I told him about the things my father wanted to do. I continued to describe the conversation before telling him why I was okay with going to the LCS. Hurtle was being very patient with me as I described everything in detail. I even told him about the hug I gave my father near the end of our conversation and his offer to play with me – which Hurtle laughed at.

"Therefore I think that it'll help me better understand my father – if I went to the LCS I mean." He did spend most of his youth playing in the NA LCS. League of Legends was a big part of his life, and I also was ready to be part of it.

"But I don't think my parents can go with work and all," I added.

"I'm happy for you," Hurtle said, giving me a reassuring smile. We both had our own problems with our parents.

"Anyways, enough about this. I'm neglecting my cheesecake!" I gasped in horror as I looked at my half-eaten slice. Hurtle laughed before getting up to order us some more hot chocolate.

"Are you two excited?!" Uncle Turtle asked us once we arrived at the studio. Hurtle shrugged in response, he has been to the LCS many times before today that even the staff members knew who he was.

"Yeah, it's been a long time," I said as I looked around. Thanks to Uncle Turtle we got special wristbands that allowed us backstage access. However we decided to wait in line with the others to get the full experience.

I looked at the CLG shirt that I was wearing and grimaced. This was kind of embarrassing. I thought back to the conversation I had with Aphromoo and Doublelift before school.

"You're going to wear a CLG shirt today right?" Aphromoo asked, handing me a glass of orange juice.

"No," I said bluntly and he moved the glass away from my reach.

"Why not?!" he complained.

"It's embarrassing," I said, extending my reach and snatched the cup out of his hands.

"There's nothing embarrassing about it!" Doublelift piped in, putting down his newspaper.

"If I say yes now, next time you guys are going to tell me to wear your old jersey," I accused. I regretted it immediately when I saw Aphromoo's face lit up.

"That's a good idea!" he said, quickly leaving the kitchen.

"…" my face paled as I waited for him to return.

"This is your fault, you know," Doublelift pointed out. I took a seat at the kitchen counter and groaned before burying my head in my arms.

"I think I got my big mouth from you," I said, looking up.

"Wha—, " Doublelift began was he was cut off by Aphromoo returning. I was mortified by what I saw. In each of his hands was a jersey.

"I found them!" he said proudly, showing them off. "You should wear mine though," he said, raising his old jersey higher.

"What! She should definitely wear mine," Doublelift said.

"No way, she's a support, I was a support, therefore she should wear mine," Aphromoo argued.

"I'm leaving," I said, leaving my chair.

"We're not done!" Aphromoo stopped me.

"Yeah, tell him that you're going to wear my jersey," Doublelift quipped. Aphromoo turned and glared at him.

"No, she's going to wear MINE."

I rubbed my temples. This was becoming a headache.

"I'll wear a CLG shirt with none of your names, happy?" I stated and they both turned to smile at me. They both had this glint in their eyes. Wait—

"… You guys planned this, didn't you?" I accused them. They both looked at me innocently, but Aphromoo broke his façade first and his face erupted into a smile first. Like I said… bad at poker.

"I should've known when you found your jerseys way too fast," I grumbled, covering my face with my hands.

"I'll leave the shirt on your bed," Aphromoo grinned, leaving with both of the jerseys.

"Ugh, I'm leaving," I said walking out.

"Don't forget to take pictures!" Doublelift shouted from the kitchen.

And that's how it happened. I found the shirt on my bed with a note from Aphromoo. He basically quoted what I said this morning to guilt me into wearing the shirt.

"WildTurtle?" someone behind us asked. Hurtle and his father turned around to see a person holding a marker and piece of paper. "I-it's really you!" he said excitedly. WildTurtle smiled at the boy and offered to sign his paper. The boy asked Hurtle to take the picture – which he reluctantly did before handing the boy back his camera. "Thanks a lot!"

This didn't go unnoticed by the others around us. I could hear people talking about WildTurtle. I guess it didn't help that he had a TSM shirt on. Hurtle refused to wear one. He was waiting for the day when he would have a shirt from his own team.

"Now I remember why I don't like coming here," I whispered to Hurtle who laughed. He swung his arm around my shoulders and made me face the front of the line.

"You'll get used to it," he teasingly assured. I pouted and shrugged his arm off. This only made him laugh more.

QUADRAKILL.

The crowd groaned when the pentakill was denied by the support. I looked at the expressions of the players and saw some of them laughing. It was about 32 minutes into the second game of the day. The previous game had a bruiser bot lane that I want to try out the next time we played R5s. I'm sure Hurtle would be down to do it – not so much our other teammates. I'm sure we could convince them. We were currently in Diamond II.

I looked next to me. Hurtle's eyes were glued to the screen. Eventually the blue side team won, which made the score 1-1. We were watching semi-finals. The winner of today's games was guaranteed a spot at Worlds while the loser had to play another best-of-5 for a chance at going to Worlds.

Today's matches were between 'History Written' and 'Modest Vixens'. The latter team name made me cringe. It wasn't uncommon for females to be on teams, but it was odd to have an all-female team.

'They could have at least chosen a better name…' I thought.

"That was good," Hurtle said, rising from his seat. "Let's go look at the merch," he grinned, offering me a hand. I accepted it and he pulled me up. "Dad said he's treating."

There was a rush of people heading to the concession stands. The players were in the back discussing what they were going to do for the third match. WildTurtle was talking to a few of the staff members.

"What did you think?" Hurtle asked me as we headed to the merchandise station.

"Modest Vixens? Couldn't they have chosen a better name?" I asked him and he laughed.

"I meant what you thought about the matches," Hurtle clarified.

"Oh, that bruiser bot was very interesting," I told him, "We should try it sometime."

"Down," Hurtle grinned. He was always ready to break the meta. "It's actually pretty fun, I've done it in a few ranked games before."

"You would have."

"Then we should try double-tank bot…"

"No." I shook my head, but my rejection didn't wipe the smile off of his face.

"Whoops!" I accidentally bumped shoulders with a person heading the opposite direction. "Sorry!" I apologized.

"Don't worry about it – wait Stella?"

"Huh?" I turned to see Dimitri standing there.

"Dimitri!" I exclaimed, giving him a smile.

"Let's move to the side," Hurtle said, putting his arm around my shoulders and guiding me and Dimitri to the wall. "How are you?" Hurtle asked as soon as we got out of everyone's way.

"Good. I'm surprised to see you two here," Dimitri answered, "Especially you, Stella," he noted. The last time we talked, I told him that I only liked the game casually. So much had changed since then.

"Hurtle invited me," I chirped. It took me a moment to realize my mistake. "I mean Jasper invited me!" I corrected myself.

Dimitri opened his mouth to say something, but was interrupted.

"Dimitri, come on!" a female voice said. We all looked at the source and saw a girl beckoning him over. She was a petite girl who dressed kind of boyish. It worked well with her brown bob cut. She had olive skin and bright blue eyes. She reminded me of a pixie. I noticed that she had her arm looped with another boy. He was tall, around the same height as Hurtle who was 5'10" – maybe a little taller. I couldn't really tell because he was slouching. He had black hair like Dimitri. I could tell right away that Dimitri was Asian, but this person looked mixed. He had pretty greyish brown eyes though. Before I could continue my speculation, Dimitri spoke up.

"Sorry guys, I'm here with some friends, I'll talk to you guys later?" he said.

"Yeah," I smiled, "It was nice seeing you. Maybe we'll catch up after the games," I said and he nodded.

"That'd be nice," and then he left to catch up with his friends. I looked at Hurtle who was staring at the direction that Dimitri left.

"What?" I asked him. He looked like was in deep thought.

"I thought of something stupid," he answered, looking at me.

"That's not a first," I retorted.

"Ow! I'm offended!" Hurtle placed his hands over his heart and looked at me with a shocked expression.

"Time to go shopping!" I ignored him and dragged him to the merchandise.

I wanted a Poro.

11/19/14