Hey guys, just wanted to give you an update on how my writing is going. I've managed to make it through the really hard part of the story, and it should only be going uphill from here. It took me a little longer to write this part than it took me to write the other ones, but I hope that's alright. Also to those of you who were hoping that this was going to be a Rivelia fanfiction, it's really starting to look more and more towards Irelia X lux for every chapter that I write. They just seem like a much better pair to me, but I'm still wondering about it. Let me know what you guys think. I know several of you have expressed what you thought all ready, and I really like the feedback, but do you guys ship Irelia X Lux? Would you be ok if I wrote it like that? I'm just curious. If the feedback goes into the favor of Riven X Irelia, than I will gladly make it so. Let me know what you guys think in the reviews, and I'll consider the feedback and change the story accordingly. Make yourselves heard!
Anyways, It's getting late and I really should be getting ready for bed, so have a great morning, day, evening, night, you know you shouldn't be up but you are, and once again, thanks for reading. :)
2 days after the events of chapter 10
The light of the sun filled Irelia's room once again as she woke up, sitting up as she felt her forehead. She had taken a blow training last night from Garen as she walked behind him without letting him know, and subsequently taking an elbow to the face. He apologized and offered to take her to go see a doctor, but she politely declined and went herself. Akali had determined that she had not broken anything, but that she should take a day off to rest. She stood up and got herself dressed, throwing on her standard Ionian vestment. She entered her bathroom, splashing her face with warm water, forcing her body awake. After checking what she had in her fridge and coming out empty handed, she left her room, solidly half awake. The buzzing in her head persisted, but she couldn't let that stop her. She looked down to see Riven training, practicing her blade techniques against a dummy. She wandered down the hallway towards the cafeteria looking down at every training area she passed by hoping to see something interesting. She saw multitudes of champions training in their own ways. Most of them were split up into their home factions, but some of them trained where the resources were adequate. Nami, for example, trained along side the Ionians, Syndra trained with the Noxians. She saw the champions of Piltover, all of whom were training together. In the days before the champion's tournaments, champion's schedules became disorganized and chaotic. In these days, you were eating, sleeping, or training, sometimes even two of these at the same time. She made her way over to the cafeteria to see the face of the barbarian king once again, apparently still on cafeteria duty.
"Shouldn't someone else have taken your spot doing this Tryndamere? Shouldn't you be training right now?"
"Yeah, I should be. But they won't let me off for any amount of time. I asked them, and they said that I must do the duty that I was told to do. If you ask me, they're picking favourites. I hate them more and more everyday. Anyways, what are you having?"
"I'll just take whatever everyone else is having I suppose."
He handed her a pre-made plate of what looked like potatoes, carrots, beans and meat. She took the plate, gave him a quick "Thank you" and walked over to an empty table before sitting down. She forked the food in her mouth, trying to eat it all as fast as she could. In less than two minutes, wiped her mouth off with a napkin, and returned the plate to the front. She left the cafeteria and began her trek back to her room, seeing several familiar faces on the way back. Once she arrived, she shot her gaze down to the area beneath her. She caught the faces of Karma, Master Yi and Udyr training below her, so she took the nearest flight of stairs down and drew her blades from her back, approaching one of the target dummies. She cut at it, aiming for vital positions, trying to determine the fastest way to drop someone. Although she didn't want to participate in this competition, she wasn't going to curl into a ball and be the first one killed. She planned on fighting, but she didn't have any intention of winning. She cut into the dummy, which never broke and never showed any form of damage by some means of magic. She picked up her rhythm, her blades cutting in a sort of pattern. Several hours later, she exhausted herself out, and flopped down against the mat of the training area, closing her eyes.
"Getting tired Irey?" She heard from behind her.
"Hey Lux. What are you doing over here? Isn't the demacian side more towards the cafeteria?"
"Yeah, it is. But I got tired and decided I'd come and see you. Is there something wrong with that?" She asked with a positive tone.
"No, I just thought you'd be training right now. Anyways, what brings you over here, other than to see me?"
"That's about the only reason actually. We haven't talked much in the last few days, and I wanted to make sure that you were still making out alright. Anyways, have you and Riven been talking much lately?"
"No, not that much recently. She has been off doing whatever it is that she does, and I've been here training. I really should go see her soon." She proclaimed eyes closed. "What time is it right now?"
"I think it's somewhere around six, but I'm not quite too sure. How come?"
"I was just thinking about what there is left to do today. I don't feel like training again today, and I don't have enough time left to do much else."
"Well, you could always go and try to find Riven I suppose. I bet she'd love to see you."
Irelia passed the thought through her head, considering it.
"What are your plans for the rest of the day Lux? Did you have anything in particular?"
"Well, I was thinking about spending a little bit more time with you, and then I'll find something else to do. But I'm tired, and I don't quite feel like training again tonight."
"Well, I'm going to go and try to find Riven, but you're free to tag along if you want."
"Certainly Irey, I'd love to" she proclaimed with an extending hand to the laying down Ionian.
After an hour of searching through the training areas, cafeteria, and lobby, they still hadn't found a trace of the exile. They had solidly looked through all the areas that anyone would be at this point, but they had come up with nothing but lost time. They felt a little bit demoralized, but they came to the consensus that Riven didn't want to be found right now.
"So I guess she doesn't want to be found right now huh?" observed Lux. "What do we do now? We only have a couple more hours before we have to go to sleep and get ready for the tournament tomorrow. What do you think we should do?"
"I'm not too sure. I feel like going back to my room and relaxing until it's time for me to go to sleep. I don't want to do anything else today if I'm being honest."
"Do you mind if I come along? I don't have much else to do anyways."
"I don't quite see why not. Sure, you can tag along."
The door to her room opened with a creak, and the two girls stepped inside.
"Your room is actually pretty empty Irey. Why don't you decorate it like home? Maybe that'll help you with your home sickness. It's what I did."
"I haven't had time Lux. Anyways, make yourself feel at home. Are you hungry?"
"No, not right now at least. Thank you for the offer though." She chimed while she looked around the baron room, peering around at everything. "This room really is baron. We should go get your some decorations for it later on or something. Would you enjoy that?"
"Well, yeah I suppose. It'd make living here a little bit better. When should we go?"
"After the tournaments are over, we can go into town and buy you some ornaments and stuff. Consider it somewhat like a date."
"Wait, what did you say? Like a date?"
"Yeah, what's so strange about that? You don't like to consider it that way?"
"Going on a date is something romantic that couples do Lux. At least that's what we think of it back in Ionia."
"Oh. In demacia, it's an arrangement that two people make. It's not just a thing that couples do. Sorry if my wording alarmed you."
Irelia let out a short sigh. "Oh, that's not a problem. It's just not the context that I'm used to hearing it in."
"Hey Irey, you're from Ionia. You guys care quite a bit about appearances don't you?"
"Well, I guess you could say that. We do care quite a bit about what we look like. It's a sign of respect when you look good talking to someone. It shows them that you're worth their time preparing themselves. It's rather highly valued back in Ionia I guess. Why do you ask?"
"Would you mind telling me if what I was wearing looked nice? I want to impress someone, but I'm not quite sure I look nice."
Irelia looked the small blonde girl over. Her choice of attire was a small suit of armour, with a small, thin yellow cape behind her. She wore silver armguards, along with yellow hip guards and blue pants. Her armour wore signs of demacian insignia, along with silver, demacian style shoes.
"You look fine Lux. You look cute. But who are you trying to impress? Yesterday you told me that you didn't have your eyes on anybody, but today you are? What's his name?"
"Huh? I said I was trying to impress someone?" Her cheeks began to turn beet red. "I didn't mean it like that!"
"It's fine Lux. Now who is it? I want to know. I was more than willing to tell you my secrets, why don't you tell me yours?" She said with a friendly voice.
"No, it's not that way. I didn't mean it like that Irey!"
"Is it that little explorer from Piltover? What's his name?"
"Do you mean Ezreal?"
"Yeah that's the one. Is it him?"
"No it's not!" Her cheeks still red as a cherry
"Well, I'll trust you. But you've got to tell me who it is soon." She said with a wink. Irelia didn't commonly act like this, but she felt relaxed around Lux.
"Here, there's something else I've got to show you. Can you turn around for a second? And don't get freaked out when I ask you to turn around ok?"
"I don't get what you're asking Lux. What do you mean?"
"Just trust me and turn around. Please?" She asked with her blue eyes looking into her own.
"Alright, but you've got to tell me who it is after words. I've got to get something out of this too you know." She said as she turned her back.
"Alright, but only once I ask you to turn around."
Seconds later, the sound of metal connecting with the floor caused Irelia to jump. She was about to turn around, but she refrained against doing so, not wanting to betray the mage.
"Ok Irey, you can turn around now. Just don't get mad at me when you do."
Irelia turned around to see the light mage standing where she was just moments ago, but this time her chest piece lay on the floor, revealing her white, laced bra. Irelia reeled back out of instinct.
"What are you doing Lux?" Irelia pronounced startled as she tried to evaluate what was going on right now.
"I wanted to make sure everything I was wearing looked nice, not just what I was wearing on top. Why are you so afraid? It's not like you haven't seen it before, and I'm not doing this out of attraction. I'm naturally curious by nature, that's all."
The thought passed through her mind. Why was she so shocked about this? She'd looked at herself many times in the mirror before, and it wasn't like she'd never seen someone like this before.
"Sorry, it's just that I wasn't quite expecting it. It suits you just fine, going with the light colours theme."
"Do you like it? Do you think that they'll like it?"
"I'm sure they will. But why are you asking me this? Why couldn't you just go ahead and ask them yourself?"
"I don't quite know. I just wanted to make sure that someone else liked it before I went and showed them, and now here I am."
"Well, can you go ahead and get that back on? It's strange seeing you like that."
"Oh, yeah, I can. Sorry for freaking you out though, I should've given you some kind of warning or something in advance. My apologies."
"It's nothing to worry about. And you're right, it's nothing I haven't seen before."
Suddenly, another sound came from behind them. The door behind them creaked open, and a common voice filled their ears.
"Hey Irelia, I'm coming in." The voice exclaimed as the door opened even more, soon revealing the face of the exile. Her face tilted to the side as saw the sight in front of her, her eyes shooting an irritated glance over to the Ionian. "Am I interrupting something? I can leave if you two are about to have a moment together."
"No, feel free to come in Riven. I was just checking to see what Irelia thought of my clothes. I'm not trying to steal her from you or anything." Speaking in a tone like they would have just before a summoning, as if nothing was going on right now and they were talking over a meal in the cafeteria.
"And what do you mean by that Lux? Are you implying something?"
Lux's face showed signs of shock as she realized that she had just given away the fact that she knew about the two of them. "Oh, I'm sorry Riven. I wasn't supposed to know that was I?"
The Noxian took several steps forward and stood several steps away from the small girl in front of her.
"How did you find this out exactly huh?" She said with an intimidating sound in her voice. "Were you spying on us."
"Riven, how about you calm down, alright? If you want to know how she knows, it's because I told her. So you can just calm down and back away."
Lux quickly threw her chest guard back on and turned her head to the floor, trying to hide her face. "I'm so sorry Riven. I didn't know that you were going to show up here. I just wanted to know if…"
"Do you think I care about you? How many other people know about what I said? How many people have you told it too?" The Noxian spoke, her voice more laced with anger than anything else.
"I haven't told anyone! I promise Riven, I really haven't told anyone else about you two. I promise that I won't!"
"Yeah, of course you won't. I don't like people that much Lux, and you've given me another reason to hate them more than I already do. You stupid Demacians, always thinking that you're better than us. You call yourselves the better group, but you're just a bunch of backstabbing, lying spies!"
Moisture began to fill the eyes of the small light mage, and her next words came out choked. "I'm so sorry Riven, I'll just leave you two alone and I won't talk to her again. I'm sorry Irelia." Her blue eyes distorted by the tears that were flowing down her face. Irelia put out her arm, and caught the small demacian as she walked with her head down, and pulled her closer to her, wrapping her arms protectively around her back and placing her head against her shoulder.
"What the hell got into you Riven? Why are you so angry all of a sudden! She hasn't told anyone at all, and I know she won't! So why are you being so damn assertive!"
"You know I'm right Irelia. These damn Demacians are nothing more than backstabbing, low grade misfits. They're not worth the time spent trying to become human beings. Ask this little mage about what she did and where she got her title. Ask her how she got them, and why she's trying to be so cute and friendly towards you. I know how they are, I've killed their kind before. She's not as peaceful and naïve as she makes herself out to be. She wants something from you. She's just some filthy scum that I wipe off my shoes after running in the mud!"
Irelia pulled Lux closer to her body and brought a hand down across the back of her hair as though she were a child. Lux wasn't the kind of person that could take that much of a blunt, brutal attack. She was a diplomat for demacia, and although being used to dealing with unfavourable people, she hadn't been ready for that much of a racial onslaught.
"Riven, I don't know what just got into you, but that was certainly uncalled for. The only thing that I need to say to you is the door is right behind me, and you have ten seconds to get out of this room and out of my face before security is dragging you out of this room while you drool against the floor." Her steady, Ionian voice didn't falter. She was a woman of intense circumstances, and when the came called upon it, she could became an extremely frightening and defensive woman. "I'll be having a word with you later, and we'll have quite a bit to talk about." She finished as she gave the Noxian a glare that could scare anything with a beating heart.
"Ask her to tell you about how she got that title of hers. It's quite a fun story. Make sure she…"
"I wasn't kidding when I said get out of this room. You don't have the rights to speak to any of us anymore, until I see you next and I permit it. Don't forget, she is a part of the reason that you have air left in your lungs to insult her."
Riven left the room in a fit of haste, and Irelia immediately rushed over and locked the door behind her to make sure that she wouldn't be coming back.
"I guess I'll be going now. Lux coughed up between sobs of breath, her breathing getting heavier and more sporadic, both of her beautiful blue eyes being surrounded by a red ring. "I appreciate you standing up for me, but you didn't have to do that Irelia. Riven loves you, while I just…"
"Lux, you're not leaving here tonight. You're going to stay here, if you want to of course. But you're more than welcome to stay here. I can't believe Riven would say those kinds of things about you."
"You don't have to do that for me Irey. I appreciate that you care about me, but Riven loves you. Don't forget about that. She felt protective about you, and she wanted you to be safe. She checked up on you for the same reason that I did. She cares about you, Irelia. She loves you. She admitted it. I'm just a shy little mage from Demacia who can't even ask questions without getting someone else in trouble.
Irelia walked back over and wrapped her arms around Lux once again, pulling her head into her chest.
"Lux, I want you to stay here. I can't let you leave in this condition. I won't let you leave in this condition."
"If you want me to stay with you tonight Irelia, it would be my pleasure." She said as she returned the hug.
The two girls prepared to go to sleep after the chain of events that had just occurred. They had both showered up and gotten ready to go to sleep, while at the same time preparing themselves mentally for what was about to happen tomorrow.
"Hey Irey, I don't want to sound like I don't appreciate what you're doing for me, but I will more than gladly go back to my room tonight."
"I want you to stay here. It'd be nice to stay here with you. Anyways, you didn't bring something to sleep in tonight did you?"
"No. I wasn't planning on sleeping with you tonight, so I didn't bring anything to change into."
"It doesn't really matter. We can just sleep in whatever we have underneath our changes of clothes and get dressed tomorrow."
"Huh? Sleep in whatever we have underneath?"
"Yeah, Lux, stop acting like it's such a big surprise. We've seen it all a hundred times before, it shouldn't really affect either one of us right? You said it yourself earlier, remember?"
"Well, yeah, but I didn't really think you'd take it that seriously."
"Anyways, I only have a single bed. And even with you being so small, we can't fit two of us in there. I'll have to try and find something to sleep on. Give me a second."
"I can sleep on the floor if you need me too. It's not that big of a problem."
"That isn't the way we treat our guests back in Ionia, and I certainly wouldn't do it to someone such as yourself." She yelled from across the room as she scavenged through her closet trying to find something she could sleep on. She came across a sleeping bag with a design of a forest on it, and yanked it out from its hiding spot.
"You really don't have to do this for me you know. You don't have to do all of this."
"Can you stop being so stubborn and just be happy that I'm willing to do all of this for you? Irelia joked. "I'm not doing this because I feel entitled to. I'm doing this because I like you."
Irelia threw her sleeping bag onto the floor next in the living room, as close as she could to her bed. She then improvised a pillow using a crumpled up shirt from the institute and placed it at the end.
"You'd better get ready to go to sleep Lux. It's getting later out and we'd better get some sleep before the competition tomorrow."
"Oh, yeah I should. Thank you for letting me sleep here overnight Irey. It really means something to me."
"The honour is all mine Lux." The Ionian comforted as she slipped her red and white armour and placing it on the hooks next to her bed. All that remained were her undergarments as she returned back to her sleeping bag.
"Are you going to get undressed Lux? It gets really warm in here at night, the way the weather has been recently."
"Are you asking me to undress Irelia?" The light mage said flirtatiously.
"Don't get too excited Lux. It's not that way of thinking. Just get your armour off, place it on the hooks, and get yourself into bed. I'll see you tomorrow."
Irelia placed herself inside the sleeping bag and rested her head against the improvised pillow as she thought about tonight. She wasn't quite sure about how she felt about Riven after the stunt she pulled off, or how she felt about the beautiful blonde girl sleeping only several feet away.
"Hey Irey, weren't you going to ask me about who it was I was going to show off to today?"
"I've got a pretty good hint." She returned with a smirk on her face that the other girl couldn't see. "And it isn't Ezreal." She responded confidently. Moments passed without the other girl responding, and she took her silence as confirmation. Her eyes closed, pleasant thoughts filling her mind before she slipped out of consciousness.