Episode 3

Ahri was on all fours, crawling slowly through the grass that decorated a small patch of ground leading up to LOLmart. She slowly crept up to the corner of the store, and looked around it, darting her eyes left and right quickly, checking her surroundings to see if the coast was clear. Seeing no one, she quickly sneaked up to one of the windows outside the convenience store. She peeked in carefully, checking to see if any lights were on. They weren't.

Good...hehehe...looks like Veigy decided not to check in on the store today. He'd be so pissed if he found out I opened the store 5 hours late!

She sneaked over to the entrance, and went up to the alphanumeric keypad. She started punching in her personal keycode: B, zero, zero, B, S.

The keypad beeped in confirmation, and she heard a loud clicking sound. The double doors slid open. Ahri rushed inside and flipped open the light switch. The florescent bulbs flickered, then bathed the store in a flood of white light.

She gingerly made her way through the store, stepped in behind the counter, then pounced into her chair. She breathed in slowly, then let out a big sigh of relief.

"I'm so sneaky..." Ahri mumbled to herself happily. She started reaching for a magazine to pull out from under the counter, but suddenly froze. A strange scent...she sniffed the air, and caught a scent of something vaguely familiar...she tried to remember what it was.

She looked around, her amber-colored eyes slightly glazed over, then suddenly came to, and shot straight up, and realized what it was.

There was some sort of rodent hiding in the store!

Ahri leaped up onto the counter, knocking over the wire display filled with Slim Jims in the process. Landing gracefully onto the floor, she scanned the store slowly. The smell seemed to be coming from the snack foods aisle to her right. She hopped over to the aisles stocked full of chips, cheese nips, and other tasty snacks, and searched the area carefully, making sure to check the tiny spaces under the shelves.

Nothing!

But it had to be here! The smell was coming from literally right next to her!

Ahri's ears picked up the sound of a body brushing past a cardboard box.

Without thinking, Ahri whirled around and pounced at the empty air behind her. A giant, mouse-like rodent appeared into view suddenly from out of thin air, and both Ahri and the creature tumbled to the ground.

Ahri let out a quiet but surprised growl, rose up on top of the rodent, and repeatedly pawed her hands at the creature ferociously, but ineffectively. The huge rat had it's eyes shut in fear, struggled frantically, then cried out.

"Oh dear God! I'm gonna die! Someone help me! Make it stop! Please make it stop!"

The rat opened an eye to get a look at his murderer, and saw a pretty young lady with two dog ears and silky black hair with a faint hue of blue, her legs mounted over his body, repeatedly pawing at him.

"Actually, on second thought, please continue."

Ahri stopped and stared at the creature, a quizzical look in her eyes.

"A talking mouse?"

"A talking dog?"

"But I'm magical."

"And you think a talking mouse isn't?"

"And I'm not a dog! I'm a fox! There's a difference!"

"Technically I'm not a mouse either, I'm a rat."

"How did something as big as you manage to sneak in here anyway?"

"Through the chimney, duh."

Ahri looked up, slightly curious. She saw the random vent with the grate hanging open, which led up to what she supposed was an actual chimney. Come to think of it, she did remember seeing a red brick chimney on the roof of the store.

"Hmmm, how weird! But we don't have a fireplace, and the food station only has a microwave. What do we need a chimney for?"

The rat looked at Ahri and shrugged.

"Uh, sorry, I got nothin'."

Ahri looked back down and pinned the rat back onto the floor with her hands.

"Seriously though! What are you doing here? You can't be a customer, the store was closed all day!"

"Well, umm...I was hungry...no one was willing to hire me, and the League literally pays us in peanuts now, and I'm allergic to peanuts. I just wanted something to eat..."

Ahri released her hands from the rat, and got up. She bent down and extended a hand, and helped the rat up also.

"Why didn't you just say so? We have so much food at the food station! Follow me."

Ahri led the rat over to the food station, and sat him down on a small round table. She picked a jumbo cup from the cup dispenser and motioned to the rat.

"What kinda drink do you want?"

The rat seemed a bit doubtful.

"Hmmm, well I'm kinda in the mood for cherry coke I guess."

"Cherry coke! That's my favorite!"

Ahri filled the cup up with the sugary drink, then got another jumbo and filled it up with the same dark-colored soda. She set the drinks down on the table, then walked quickly over to the snacks aisle. She came back lugging a large box of Cheese nips.

The rat looked on in silence as he watched Ahri open the box, and pour it's entire contents out onto the table. A few of the crackers spilled onto the floor. Ahri sat down across from the rat, and started munching on cheese nips while taking occasional sips out of her Cherry coke.

"MMM, yummy! Cheese nips with cherry coke is just sooo good!"

The rat picked up a cheese nip, tossed it into his mouth, then took a sip from his cup.

"Oh man, this is actually pretty tasty!"

The rat looked over at the fox-lady.

"My name is Twitch, by the way."

Ahri gulped down her food and then looked at Twitch.

"Finally, a name! I'm Ahri."

They looked at each other, and Ahri smiled at him genuinely. Twitch responded with a slight grin, then looked down and started eating more cheese nips.

They both sat there, eating and drinking occasionally from their cups of cherry coke. After a while Twitch spoke up.

"So why are you working in a place like this anyway? I've seen you before in a League match, and you seemed to be really popular with the fans. Someone like that would definitely get a top-end salary..."

Ahri clasped her hands over her heart, looked down at the floor, then looked at Twitch with sad, melodramatic eyes.

"Well...yes, it's true they pay decently...but the big ticket matches are so rare, and my deepest desire was to get a Porsche Coupe for my birthday, and I asked my parents, but they said they were only going to give me $5000 per month, and said I needed to get a job, and then they savagelythrust me out onto the treacherous streets to fend -"

A cheese nip flew out from across the table and struck Ahri right above her right eye.

"Owwww! Why did you do that?"

"Very funny Ahri. I'm not a totalloser. But...it was a stupid question for me to ask anyway."

Ahri looked at Twitch, and then seemed to become crestfallen, and her pointy fox ears lowered slightly. Twitch started to think he had really offended his new friend, but then Ahri looked up and made as if she wanted to speak.

"It's just...I had a family, but it was so long ago...and then the league...? - No... I mean, I was alone...um...and...cheese nips...?"

Ahri's mind seemed to wander, and then she started to look confused, as if she had wanted to reveal more but kept getting interrupted by some errant thought.

"I'm so sorry Twitch...I'm an idiot...the only thing I can think of are those visions...as if someone is searching for me..."

It seemed as if Ahri wanted to say more, but she seemed utterly bewildered. Twitch felt like he had to do something before she completely succumbed to her thoughts. He grabbed the table, and shook it.

"HEY! Ahri...!"

Ahri's eyes started to glaze over, and Twitch began to feel a tinge of panic.

"Ahri...It was a silly question..! I didn't mean to get so personal...I only asked because I've been homeless for so long and had such a hard time finding a job, the League just pays jack to unpopular champs like me, and you just seemed to have it all..."

Ahri seemed to finally get a grip of her surroundings. She looked around at her surroundings, and then suddenly grinned neatly at Twitch, acting as if nothing had happened.

"Twitch...if you need a home...you can stay here! I don't mind at all, and it's got food and shelter, and everything you could possibly need...and...you can turn invisible right? I saw it earlier, if my manager ever comes all you'd have to do is go invisible and he'd never know!"

Ahri paused a bit to consider something.

"And I think yordles have a bad sense of smell, right? He didn't seem to notice when I accidently left the milk shipment out overnight next to the heater and had to pour it all down the drain...he was just happy I sold so much milk in one day..."

Twitch looked at Ahri carefully, checking to see if she was still in that trance. She did not seem to remember what had just happened, or perhaps, Twitch thought to himself, she had ignored it on purpose. He looked around at the store, thinking to himself, then looked back at Ahri.

"Ahh well...It would really be nice not to have to sleep outside or in a sewer for once...I'll only stay until I can find a job and get a home for myself."

Ahri smiled and seemed to brighten up. She picked up another cheese nip and munched on it happily.

"Well I'm glad...it's just not fair for anyone to have to be all alone out there..."

Twitch and Ahri both sipped from their cups of Cherry coke, and munched on the cheese nips together. Twitch thought about his lonely and confused nights he spent in the sewers of Zaun, unsure of how he came to be and what his purpose was. He fought in the league to advance the interests of the mighty state of Zaun, but he had never truly felt he belonged there, so he traveled the world instead, wandering to wherever the paths would take him. But here, in this little chain convenience store located in it's own little corner of the world, Twitch finally felt like he was home.