Author's Note: Sorry again for the delay but I got sick :( It wasn't fun. But things should be back to normal now :). Hope you enjoy an extra long chapter and thank you all for your amazing reviews :).
Teemo was in a sombre, thoughtful mood as he made his way home. Today had been …trying, the twelve-year-old mused. Their project was in pieces, one of his best friends had been seriously hurt and Teemo …he didn't know what to do. The pale kit sighed; he hadn't felt this lost since his brother had left for Ionia.
The sigh turned into a scowl. This sense of uselessness – of not being able to do anything or come up with a solution – was not a feeling he much enjoyed. Nor was it an emotion he was used to. Usually, he was able to keep a level head and think his way through any problematic situation he and his friends encountered (and with a group of friends as wild and enthusiastic as his, that happened very frequently), but in this case there wasn't a lot he could do.
Sure, he still had their presentation, but it wasn't much good without the project itself, and unfortunately, he wasn't going to be very useful for finding the parts they needed to rebuild it. He wasn't the best yordle when it came to technology in general; in that regard Rumble, Ziggs and even Tristana heavily outclassed him in terms of knowledge.
There also wasn't a lot he could do to help comfort Rumble either. None of them could. At the very least, he was glad Ziggs had been able to talk the smaller boy out of going after Klive. Teemo knew he wouldn't have been able to hold onto his irate friend forever, and once the cobalt yordle had gotten loose, the results would have been disastrous.
So that was a 'no' on the project and a 'no' on his friend.
He sighed again. Perhaps there was something else he could do. Even as the cream-coloured yordle thought this, his conversation with Ziggs that day came back to him. His expression lightened: that could help. Sure, it wasn't a practical task, but it would definitely help in lifting everyone's spirits.
With a plan in mind, the yordling was able to summon a semi-genuine smile when he got home.
"Hey mum. Hey dad," the pale yordle called as he pleaded silently, please don't ask about the project.
"Hello Teemo," Nina smiled. "Dinner's almost ready, so why don't you go clean up quickly."
"Ok," he nodded before heading up to his room. Once the twelve-year-old was out of sight, he let out a relieved sigh. So far so good.
Chucking his stuff inside, he quickly cleaned up before heading back to the living room. As he reappeared, Miles looked up at him. "Guess what came for you today," he smiled, holding up a letter.
Teemo's grin became genuine as he recognised the scrawled handwriting on the front. "No way!" he pulled the letter towards him. "It's been a couple of months since his last one."
The kit ripped the letter open, giving a brief verbal description as he read. "He says he's doing well, just been busy with, and I quote, 'being a flippin' awesome ninja and other more serious Kinkou stuff' which is why he hasn't been able to respond in a while… He also wants me to tell you 'hi' and that he misses you... other than that, it's just a bunch of little day to day happenings and some responses to my last letter. Oh," the pale yordle's ears drooped a little, "he asked about Poppy."
"Doesn't he know she's in Demacia?" Nina asked as she came in with the food; Miles standing up to help his wife with the load.
Teemo shook his head a little guiltily. "No. He hasn't asked about her in ages. And, in all honesty, I haven't wanted to bring it up; especially since no one really knows what happened."
"You should probably tell him," the apricot yordle told her son, but he just shrugged non-committedly. Changing tact, the woman recommended, "But if you wanted to know more about it, perhaps you should ask Tristana for help. After all, the gala she's going to this weekend is for the city-state ambassadors. Chances are she'll be there."
"That's true," Teemo brightened. Turning his puppy eyes to his dad he asked, "Speaking of this weekend, can I borrow your camera?"
The chocolate-furred yordle raised an eyebrow. "Why? Is it for your project?"
Teemo's ears drooped. "Ah no. It's not."
Picking up on his son's short response, Miles asked. "Is everything alright?"
"I-I," the weight of today's events grew with the kit and he caved, unable to carry it alone. "No. I don't even know if there's going to be a project."
"Why? What happened?" his mother asked, concerned.
Teemo sighed, playing with his food as his said as calmly as possible, "Klive wrecked it." Along with the rest of Rumble's workshop, he didn't add. "Didn't want us to win or something."
"What?!" Nina exploded. "Why that no good-" her rant subsided as Miles pulled his fuming wife back down. "I don't understand why he continues to pick on you." She said more calmly.
The pale kit shrugged. "It's mainly Rumble he picks on," the boy grimaced. "And I think it's mostly because he won't back down and always get Klive back."
Klive thrived on dominance; though Teemo had never worked out why, he'd realised the older boy's motivation a long time ago. It was why Rumble infuriated him so much. No matter what the bigger teen did to the cobalt yordling, he never showed the teen the respect he thought he deserved. And the smaller boy always, always got even with him. Hypothetically, if they really wanted to get Klive off their backs, Teemo knew they were better off keeping their heads low and just taking the aggression until the teen was satisfied. But they never would. His friends were just too proud to ever consider backing down. Even Teemo had to admit that while he knew he could keep his head down for a while, he didn't really want to. He was proud of his friends for sticking it Klive and the gang of goons he called friends.
Still, it was hard sometimes. Every time Tristana was pushed around by the bigger yordle, every time Ziggs was demeaned for his explosive reputation and every time Rumble came to school with several new bruises and a reclusive attitude, Teemo's felt his blood boiling. In those moments he wished that his friends weren't the targets protecting everyone else from the pug yordle's wrath. But that was just the way they all were.
"At least tell me that something's being done about it."
Pulled out of his thoughts, the pale yordle nodded, "Yeah, Rumble's dad was calling up about it. Not much else the rest of us can do though." Trying to utilise his sympathy advantage, he asked again, "So dad, can I borrow your camera?"
Miles, however, didn't fall for it. "It depends," he countered with a knowing look, "what do you need it for?"
Worth a shot, Teemo decided to tell him the (partial) truth. "Ziggs and I need it to capture a once in a life time occurrence," he grinned.
"Only you and Ziggs? What about Tristana and Rumble?" his mum asked curiously.
"Well," Teemo indulged. "It kinda involves Tristana and we want to surprise her. As for Rumble, well it involves Tristana. Enough said." He shrugged.
"Want to run that one by me again," Nina raised an eyebrow.
The pale kit rolled his eyes, "Rumble has a crush on Tristana."
The yordling said it like it was the most obvious thing in the world but the pale pink yordle still looked astonished by the knowledge. "How do you know that?"
Even his dad seemed surprised, so Teemo, taking pity on his parents, explained. "It's pretty obvious. Ziggs and I have known for ages. Honestly, I'm surprised no one else can see it. Though I guess no one else has bothered to get to know him well enough to," his ears dropped a little for his friend's predicament before he continued. "It's kinda funny to tease him about it because he gets so flustered. But it's also a little sad because I don't think anything will come of it. Just because Tristana isn't interested in that sort of stuff at all and she's also as oblivious as a rockmole when it comes to people hitting on her. And Rumble is just too stubborn to ever admit it." Figuring he'd explained well enough the kit moved back to the more pressing topic. "We were thinking of including him in our plan though. Ziggs and I just haven't gotten round to talking to him yet. So can I borrow your camera?"
Miles sighed, "You're not going to drop this are you?"
"Nope," Teemo admitted cheerily.
"Fine," the brown furred yordle gave in, before his blue eyes narrowed. "But I expect it back in the condition you got it in. Deal?"
"Deal," the twelve-year-old grinned, finally digging into his meal. "Thanks for the food mum."
It was a typical week night in the Van Roon household; meaning everything was in chaos. At the moment, the pandemonium was centred in the kitchen. The room was packed full of yordles while the tables and surrounding benches were stacked with food and various other items that really didn't belong there – including a flute, several toy cars and dolls, homework notes, engine parts and at least three hats.
Heather had tried to teach her children to put things away, but after so many years with so many kids, she'd eventually given up and adapted to it. Currently she was multitasking by feeding her youngest in the high chair, helping her six-year-old twins with their food and trying to eat her own dinner.
To the plump, brown-furred yordle's side, her husband was reading his latest experimental data, only half paying attention to his food. He too had adapted to their unorthodox dining arrangement; over the years bringing less and less experiments to the table and learning to automatically catch drinks and deflect food knocked over by their rambunctious children.
Overall it was a typical meal; except for the actions of one yordle. Ziggs sat uncharacteristically subdued, slowly pushing his food round his plate, deep in thought.
Noticing her son's unusual behaviour, Heather subtly caught her husband's attention by poking him with her fork. The action caused Lewis to blink his bright, green eyes a couple of times as he was pulled from his work, before the mousy-furred yordle focused on his wife.
She gestured to their son, causing the other yordle's ears to raise in surprise. Their middle son was almost always cheerful; it was hard for anything to get him down. To see him so quiet immediately raised their concerns. As his wife had her hands full already, however, Lewis decided to take charge.
He nudged the boy, "Hey kiddo, what's wrong?"
Frowning at his food, Ziggs asked the question that had been bothering him all night, "What do you do, when someone you care about is upset, and there's nothing you can do to fix it?"
"Did something happen?" the tan coloured scientist asked worried.
Ziggs shrugged. "Kinda. It's just been happening a lot lately. Trist's been upset about her ma and the upcoming party all week and now Rumble's pissed cause his garage was broken into and our project was wrecked. And I don't know what to do."
The two adults exchanged looks over their sons lowered head, but before either of them could say anything, Pip chimed in.
"Do you know who broke in?" the six-year-old's voice caused Ziggs to look at his sibling but before his could answer, her twin nudged her.
"I bet it was Klive. It's always Klive."
"It was," Rose said, looking at her brother Jos, "We heard him bragging about it at the park."
The other sixteen-year-old sneered. "He was so happy about it too. I really wanted to punch him in his smug face."
"So what are you going to do now?" Sophie asked concerned.
Ziggs shrugged, "I don't know if there's much we can do. We don't have any proof that he did it."
"You could still beat the snot out of him. Don't need any proof for that," Jos muttered. "I'd help."
"Are you going to fight him?!" Cam exclaimed. "Can I help?!" The excited eight-year-old threw a few imaginary punches to show off, accidently knocking over the juice in the process.
"Only if you do my chores for the week," Ziggs grinned.
"What? No way! Wait… maybe?" the chocolate coloured yordling responded.
"Enough!" Heather raised her voice, silencing the conversation at once. "Jos, Ziggs and Cam, you know how I feel about fighting. I am appalled you'd even think of taking such actions. And your chores are not to be used as bargaining tools. Let's get those things straight right now." Brown eyes lasered in on the three guilty yordlings before, in a soft but still stern voice, she continued. "I appreciate you wanting to help out your brother and am very proud of you standing up for him, but violence is rarely the solution. It will not change the fact that the project was broken, nor do I believe that it will deter this Klive from singling Ziggs and his friends out again. Do you understand what I am saying?"
"Yes ma," they all chorused.
"Good," the plump yordle woman nodded. "Now Cam, could you clean up the mess you made. And Jos, help your sister please."
The two yordlings gave resigned nods before mopping up the spilled liquid and the room quietly began eating again.
As Jos made his way back to his seat, the honey-furred yordle leant close to his younger brother. "But seriously," he whispered to Ziggs. "If you need any help with Klive just let me know and I'll be there in a heartbeat."
"Thanks Jos," Ziggs' smile widened at his brother's support. "But I think we'll be ok."
The older boy shrugged, "If you're sure." With that the teen moved to sit beside his twin.
Ziggs smiled as he gazed at his family. They may get on each other's nerves all the time, but his siblings always came through when he needed them. The brown-furred yordle couldn't even imagine what life would be like without all of them and their wild, smothering support. Despite their differences, in this moment he couldn't be more grateful to have them all.
Turning back to his food, the kit's grin faded as the dilemma at hand came back into focus. He still didn't know what to do. He was the funny one, the yordle that could always make his friends laugh, even in the worst situations. The one who could always be counted on to find the bright side under any circumstance. But not this time. This time, there was nothing he could do. And it was driving him crazy. What good was he if he couldn't even help his friends in their time of need?
Sensing her son's sinking mood, Heather sighed. "I'm sorry Ziggs. But there isn't all that much you can do in those situations. The best thing you can do is be there for your friends. Because sometimes, even if you can't fix the problem, it helps immensely to know that you are there for them; that they're not alone and that they have people there to support them through it."
Ziggs made a disgruntled noise, "Great. I can be feel-good-Phil."
"Make all the jokes you want about it," the plump woman told him. "But that doesn't make it any less true."
"I know," the boy sighed. "And I really appreciate the advice. But I still wish there was something I could do to help."
"Well," Lewis stroked his chin, green eyes narrowing. "Perhaps you can. Our department replaced our thermo-acoustic engine just this week and I had to bring home the old transducer and reflector. I'm sure no one will mind if I give them to a good cause." He winked.
Ziggs jaw dropped, "No way!" Catapulting from his seat in excitement (and disrupting the table as he went), the eleven-year-old launched himself at his dad. "Pa, you are so awesome! Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!"
"No problem kiddo." Catching sight of his wife's withering look over the boy's head, the tawny yordle just grinned innocently. "What? I'm being supportive. Isn't that what you were talking about?"
Heather simply let out a fond sigh.
I thought it was about time we saw more of their families :).
A couple of fun facts this chapter.
1. Van Roon is actually Meddler's last name. I thought it was a fitting shout out as Ziggs was the first champion designed by him :).
2. Lewis was named after the main character in 'Meet the Robinsons'
3. The main reason I included the letter from Kennen is because I've gotten a lot of questions about how he'd react to what happened to Poppy. Well surprise :D! He doesn't actually know. In fact no one really knows what happened. One day Blomgrun and his daughter left for Demacia and the next thing Poppy's the yordle ambassador. So yeah, only a select few people really know what happened on the way there.
Hope you enjoyed :). Next update should be on time.
The dad friend: Aww thank you for your beautiful review :) it made my smile so much. But please don't stay up reading till 6am for my sake - the next day's not fun, trust me.