A/N: This chapter is definitely rewritten. XD

Lux only knew three things: to be at the Grand Plaza, lunch time, and…to expect the unexpected.

'Perhaps in three days' time, you may be able to catch her.'

She was anxious and nervous, but given she received a simple four-word message and a bundle of meaningful flowers, their impromptu meeting could go any number of ways. The blonde only wished she had some idea of what the duelist did and could come to the capital for - as far as she was concerned, Fiora's presence within the city was almost unheard of. She hardly ever heard business of the Laurents; only the tragic tale befalling the youngest progeny, and duels.

There was just one not-so-tiny problem - massive was an understatement to describe the sheer size of the plaza, considering it was designed to hold hundreds of thousands of Demacians during kingdom-wide ceremonies. How one could locate a single person in the crowds bewildered Lux.

"A bronze washer for your thoughts?"

Her head whipped up to someone standing beside her, dressed in a full baker's uniform with twilight hair untamed as the winds. "Mor….es the merrier," she quickly corrected when said woman gave her a disapproving look. "It's good to see you, Martha."

"Martha" shook her head, though she did follow the blonde's line of sight. "Any idea why you'd be staring so longingly at my sister's statue?"

"Wasn't why I was looking," Lux grumbled, averting her gaze elsewhere when burning lavenders bore into the side of her head. "It's a habit for me to look up at her for some encouragement."

The woman laughed, her voice reminiscent of a hundred souls echoing. "Hypocritical to see you use her image, no?"

"..." Lux sighed quietly, staring up at the statue erected proudly in the middle of the plaza from under her hood. Carved out of an amalgamation of marble and petricite, the warrior loomed over them and obscured the light. Its eyeless gaze went far over the walls of the capital and into the horizon, hidden behind an ornate helmet. Gauntlets gripped the hilt of a remarkable blade, rumored to be crafted from the gods themselves. Six wings, all intricately detailed, erupted from the back in an impressive display of craftsmanship.

She'd seen the common children skip and play, mimicking its pose with wooden swords and paper hats.

The Winged Protector.

The symbol of Demacia's hope and might.

"One day she will return."

A day Lux hoped would never happen. "What brings you around?" she asked, changing the subject abruptly lest her mood be sullied by dark thoughts. "Surely little old me isn't interesting enough for you to step from the shadows."

"You, of all people, are always up to something." Martha folded her arms over her chest. Despite the blonde's attempts at hiding her identity via the hooded, white cloak around her shoulders, there was no mistaking the armor she wore belonging to the Crownguard family. "Besides, I need a little gossip from time to time or else my existence becomes utterly boring making baked goods day in and out. You're an interesting little light." And by no exaggeration of the statement either. Demacia's history grew more and more fragmented over time and at some point, no one remembered the birthright names belonging to the mythological children of the Aspects. Only the Winged Protector's folktale managed to survive and become Demacia's most revered warrior.

Lux went beyond just looking up those tales in any ordinary library, going as far as to break literally every Demacian law in her journey for knowledge - knowledge of the clash that caused the rift between the Twin Sisters to form, the true history behind Zeffira, and the lengths her countrymen went to bury the past.

When said blonde showed up on her doorstep one day with all the determination of a silverwing raptor ready to tear its prey apart, Martha knew Lux was different from other ordinary Demacians. At first, she thought a simple name would suffice to abate the child's curiosity.

Until it didn't, and Martha found herself with a constant companion she welcomed more than her forsaken sister in recent times.

So when Lux called herself 'boring', Martha could smell trouble brewing from miles away.

"I'm supposed to meet with someone."

The baker raised an eyebrow, silent askenance for elaboration.

"A…ugh, okay, Fiora Laurent."

Now that was trouble. "The Grand Duelist? Don't tell me she's challenged you to a duel…"

Lux waved her hands frantically. "N-not that kind of meeting! I….erm…" How did one go about asking a sentient, ancient being for advice on befriending the equivalent of porcupines? Or at least leaving a good first impression. The blonde's bubbly personality made it easy, but the duelist was an entirely different matter considering their shaky history with the Laurents. Besides, she had to factor in her mother's agenda, and she was certain Fiora wouldn't take too kindly to an opening that included accusations of magic. "I'm just trying to make her acquaintance..?"

Few things surprised the baker - the ones that did always ended up being the most intriguing. Martha's expression went from unimpressed to bewildered, like a deer caught in the spotlight.

"You jest." A light chuckle left the woman.

Lux stayed silent, face serious.

Martha's amusement vanished as quickly as it came. "You do realize you cannot just waltz up to the Grand Duelist of all people and simply ask to be her friend."

"Thus my slight despair. I don't even know where to begin."

"How disappointing. Even ze Lady Crownguard partakes in gossip."

Lux froze.

'I'm going to die.'

"Milady, a cup of tea perchance before you depart for the capital?" Fiora paused in the middle of pulling on her leather gloves, staring at the ceramic cup perched carefully on Nera's palm. She reached out for it, fingers barely touching the rim before retracting slightly.

"I do not need it today."

Nera remained firm. "Please, to calm your nerves. I can sense your jitters from across the house."

Was she really that easy to read? Fiora closed her eyes and let out a defeated sigh. Perhaps all the deskwork left her out of practice; she would need to start up again soon or else lose her edge. "Fine. For today, I will."

Nera made no attempts to hide her relief and went as far as to smile when the duelist finally took the teacup. "Thank you Fiora…"

Fiora made no other protests and downed the cup quickly, ignoring the scalding liquid as it went down her throat. She grimaced at the bitterness but said nothing else until every drop was gone. "It is stronger zis time."

The snowy-haired woman nodded. "You will be in the capital today. I am not taking chances, and you are dealing with the Crownguard. I will not watch milady be made a mockery." Nera bowed her head. "Please trust in my brew."

Like anything else, Fiora trusted her.

Unequivocally.

–

"I, er, g-good afternoon, Lady Laurent."

Fiora nearly scoffed at the stammer. "That is Mistress Laurent to you, Lady Crownguard." She definitely didn't stop a small smirk when Lux visibly flinched at the generous venom applied to the name. "And to you mademoiselle….?"

"Martha." The purple-haired woman answered curtly. Fiora raised an eyebrow - what sort of name was Martha? "Just Martha. I'm no noble lady."

"Miss Martha then," the duelist concluded. "While I do not care for commoners to speak about me amongst themselves, it is another matter entirely for noble houses." Whatever ire the duelist dropped for the sake of courtesy towards Martha, it came back full force when she directed her attention back to Lux.

"I promise I had no intentions of besmirching your name-"

"So you say, but you are a Crownguard."

Lux fought the urge to roll her eyes at Fiora's condescending tone. She knew the duelist's tongue to be like barbed wire, but for Goddess' sake, they hardly met for a minute and she was making quick work of her dignity. "I am not my family name, nor have I done anything wrong."

The duelist forgot for a moment where they were and reached out and grabbed a fistful of Lux's tunic. Up close, she could see the fear flicker in blue eyes. "You of all people should know."

While Fiora may have been blind to the world around her, the blonde could see a crowd starting to form around the both of them. She only had a few precious seconds to diffuse the situation or else unruly rumors would actually start. "Fiora-" The duelist bared her teeth when Lux used her first name.

"How dare you-"

"I am not wearing my family emblem. This is the Illuminator's mark." Lux pointed to the crest holding her half-cloak in place around her shoulders. "Whatever grudges you have with my family, direct them elsewhere but not at me. Please."

"How can I trust you?"

Lux took a stab in the dark, guided by one of the only things she knew about the duelist. "Begonias and lavenders."

Teal eyes flicked down to the crest. 'So she sent those.' "Who else knows?"

Something clicked - the blonde could scarcely see it beyond Fiora's barely-suppressed anger, but it was there. 'She's testing me…' "None." Well, none who couldn't be trusted.

Fiora relaxed her grip, giving Lux a moment to straighten out her cloak. Seeing as their conversation seemed to consist of botanical knowledge, the crowds dispersed and went back to the usual bustle of the midday hour. The blonde spoke only when everyone minded their own business as usual. "It will make things a lot easier and a lot less attention-grabbing if you called me 'Radiant Luxanna.'"

Fiora didn't attempt to hide her displeasure. Lux sighed. "As it is clear you do not like Lady Crownguard and don't hold my family in high regards, perhaps a different introduction is in order."

Fiora raised an eyebrow. "Wha-"

Lux bowed politely with a smile on her face. "'Good afternoon, person-who-irrationally-wants-to-kill-me-and-I-have-not-the-pleasure-of-speaking-to-and-do-not-recognize!' I am Radiant Luxanna of the Illuminators, coming on the Crownguard family's behest and request." Lux snickered quietly at the dumbfounded expression on the duelist's face.

For her part, Fiora went deathly silent, lips parted. Lux managed to disarm with an absurdly honest, to-the-point response that might as well be truth - and in such a cheery quip no less. Loathe as she were to admit, the blonde was right - more attention was bad, and the less they had of it, the better. 'Nera asked me to trust in her,' she reminded herself. 'I will not let my pride cost me loyalty.' "Fiora Laurent, Grand Duelist and Head of House Laurent."

"A pleasure to meet you, Mistress Laurent." Lux didn't miss Martha reveling in the absurdity of the whole situation. "A bit of an odd question, but have you eaten yet?"

Indeed, it was a weird question but a harmless one nonetheless. "Non, why?"

Martha, who had been standing by and watching the chaos unfold in front of her with utter glee, sputtered and waved her hands in front of her while shaking her head. She knew with the way the blonde grinned, Lux had a catastrophic idea of untold proportions-

"Hold on-!"

"As you are not aware," Lux continued, ignoring the baker's protests. "Martha runs a popular and well-known bakery. While it may not serve a proper, fulfilling meal, a little bit of worthwhile decadence would be far more amenable to a stuffy restaurant or a lowly tavern, wouldn't it Mistress Laurent?"

Fiora rolled her eyes, muttering quietly under her breath. "You know nothing about me."

No, Lux did not but Martha provided an excellent opportunity she couldn't pass up. She gambled heavily on the possibility of the duelist enjoying a sweet treat.

"But, I suppose you have won zis round, Radiant." Fiora's flippant remark caught both women off guard. Lux and Martha stared at each other incredulously, the same thought passing through their minds.

'Did she just admit defeat….by baked goods?'

"I expect this 'decadence' to be worth its weight in gold."

"I promise." Lux shuddered at the low, evil chuckle coming from Martha.

'If I make it out of this alive, I'll probably be the only one to survive Fiora's 'duels'.'

Few things caught Lux's attention so readily, but like the flowers Nera sent her, Fiora sat across the table poised and unbothered by the quiet din around them. She picked a table furthest from the other patrons, ironically ending up by the windows in full sunlight. Had it not been for their prickly encounter earlier, the blonde would have seen the Laurent as a quiet beauty, perfect from her neatly trimmed hair to her house colors resembling that of a flower of sorts. In fact, since entering the bakery Fiora calmed down immensely to the point her brief answers to Lux's questions were simply that; brief and without animosity.

'Duly noted, she enjoys a sparse crowd.'

"Are you even listening?"

Lux blinked, reddening at having been caught staring at the duelist unashamedly. "I, er, sorry. Could you repeat that?"

"...Miss Martha has been calling your name for ze past fifteen seconds."

'Urk.' The blonde excused herself briefly to retrieve their orders from the counter. Martha shook her head when Lux came up sheepish about her distraction. "Were it not for the fact you've managed to pull off the impossible of not dying at the Grand Duelist's hand, I wouldn't have played my trump card." Fiora and Lux somehow managed to come to an agreement on what drinks to have, but left the dessert option to Martha. It was surprisingly on Fiora's insistence that while they could pick their choice of drinks, a neutral party should be involved with a 'shared' dish.

Lux didn't miss the hidden meaning behind the offer. Their 'drinks' served as insight to the preferences of the other while the dessert would be their 'court to play on.' It was a common tactic for some noble homes to offer refreshments as a means to disarm their would-be opponents, but Fiora would have them both reveal their hands and involve a neutral party so none could hide their agendas. Lux knew to think outside of the box now when it came to the duelist.

Nera's forewarning of Fiora's tendencies was oddly well-timed and placed.

"This is….nothing short of gorgeous," Lux murmured, staring at the immaculate verdant dessert plated carefully in front of her. In fact, everything on it screamed perfection from the carefully rounded centerpiece sitting atop a bed of soft crumble to the perfectly shaped sorbet and sponge cake. "This isn't on your regular menu, is it?"

"No, it is not," Martha answered with satisfaction. "I call it 'Moss'."

Lux wrinkled her nose. "That's a simple and unimpressive name."

The baker rolled her eyes. "I'm doing you a favor considering you invited yourself into my store. Taste it before you judge. Now run along before it melts."

Not wanting to wear out Martha's good graces, she snagged their food and brought it over to their table. "One cup of tea for you, and one coffee for me." Lux set down the plate with their dessert, and unsurprisingly Fiora's attention zeroed in on it.

"What is zis?"

Lux shrugged, taking her seat again. "According to Martha, 'Moss.'"

"Moss?"

"That's the name of the dessert," Lux explained while taking her seat again. Unlike her initial reaction earlier, the duelist said nothing and instead picked up one of the spoons. Fiora sampled the sorbet, but stopped the moment it hit her tongue.

"Is…everything okay?" Curse her habitual concern for others. When Fiora remained silent, it prompted Lux to try it out for herself. She tried the frozen, pebbled yogurt and her eyes went wide.

Neither uttered a word for a full minute.

"For ze name of this place, 'Sinful Succulence,' this dessert is divine." Lux couldn't argue with that. Of all the things she tried from this bakery, nothing even remotely came close to this and she suspected 'Martha' dipped into some of her own magic for this. "You know your places well."

"I've been a long time friend of Martha's," Lux explained, nibbling on the rich dessert at the tip of her spoon. "She's had a bakery here for as long as I can remember, and it has welcomed everyone; nobility, commoners, and the less fortunate. Some of the noble houses have scorned this place because it allows them to mingle with the lower class."

"It should not matter. We are all Demacians first and foremost." The blonde bit back a smile at that - at least Fiora and her shared that in common.

Lux wrapped her hands around her coffee. "Would that many share that same sentiment, but for our luck, it makes this place safe from prying ears." She sipped her drink quietly, hiding a downcast look. "Being a Radiant with the Illuminators affords me some protections, but as you said before, I'm still a Crownguard."

Which made sense to come here rather than anywhere else. If the other nobles didn't frequent here, then it stood to reason it was less likely someone would pry. "Anywhere else and ze walls have ears."

"Precisely." Lux stirred around her coffee. "However, back to the subject of your flowers.. Any smitten fool or bitter lover would send roses," Lux explained. "Nera is neither, nor are you."

'To think she wouldn't have taken them seriously..' "So you understand what is at stake."

Lux had to pick her next words carefully if she wanted to stay on Fiora's good side. Hiding anything would do her no favors. "Demacian politics have never been my forte - nor do I have the decade-long experience and finesse that you do. So I'll put it plainly; you need a strong ally if you want to weather any opposition from other noble houses. All I ask in return is mundane information."

Fiora narrowed her eyes at the offer Lux laid out for her. Indeed, of all the Demacian nobles she made it a point to keep her affairs as tight-lipped as possible, out of sheer necessity to rebuild a clean image. But in doing so, it left her blind to the trivialities and other dealings between the others. "What do you want to know?"

"Nothing I wouldn't ask myself of," the blonde responded. "Most of what I wish to know are just basics - hobbies, interests, things of a similar nature - what...?" When the duelist looked absolutely unimpressed by her explanation, Lux sighed and buried half her face in a hand. "The basic building blocks of friendship?"

"We are not 'friends,' paysan insolent," Fiora firmly stated.

It didn't take a genius to figure out what she said. "Look, I won't deny it. You're cunning and cutthroat in person, but you also have the personality of your rapier - stiff, cold, and unbending."

"Oui, and you are far too naive."

Touché, but it got her this far, no? "Remember, Radiant Lux and not Lady Crownguard. I come with peace, no other propositions."

Seeing as Lux wouldn't drop the subject so easily, Fiora harrumphed quietly. "Then we do zis on my terms. If I am to trust you, then you will need to prove I can. But it will not be here."

Lux hoped the bakery was enough for neutral grounds, but she was a fool to believe one meeting would earn her trust. "I'm all ears."

She regretted those words leaving her mouth at that instant.

"Good. I should meet you tomorrow morning, sharp and early at my home."

'Too late to back down now.' "Should I bring anything?"

Fiora smiled wickedly. "Just yourself."

'Martha' watched from her counter, eyes glowing dimly at the pair's odd exchange. Her fingers drew an idle pattern, the lines mimicking the color of her eyes. Whoever else was present wouldn't have noticed anything out of the ordinary, or paid heed to the two nobles conspiring in the corner.

Lux owed her yet again this time, but did she really when Fate had her set the wheels into motion?

'Let's see if anything comes of this little game of cat and mouse.'

She looked up to the ceiling, murmuring softly under her breath.

"I wonder just how long these blossoms will last. Or will you come and burn them all again as you have in the past, my dear Kayle?"

A/N: This chapter took me a bit longer to get through. I wanted to find a decent angle to tackle it at, with a better set up. It ended up being super beefy as heck, but I can't promise the rest will be like this. Maybe, maybe not but we'll see.

As for the dessert our beloved Martha made, it is an actual dessert by Reynold Poernomo, who starred in Masterchef Australia. As it so happens however, some species of moss grow in shaded areas - which happen to also be begonia's preferred growth conditions.

Wonder why Fiora and Lux would share a dessert like that, hm? :)

Anyway, until next time!