Red shimmering sky

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Walking in front of you, Ahri suddenly stops and turns around to face you.
"With my cover already blown, I mean, we did not really introduce ourselves",
"I know who you are, and I am Y/N", you tell her,
"Well, Y/N, could you tell me where the kitchen is?".
You point to a door on your left, a wooden sliding door.
"That is the kitchen, we can also make a house tour right now if you want",
"That is something for tomorrow", she says before turning around to walk into the kitchen, you follow her, only to be stopped at the door.
"Sorry, secret family recipe",
"Are you serious?", you nearly shout out,
"Are you hungry?", she counters your question and you can not deny it, last thing you ate was breakfast.
You take a step back, a bit frustrated, allowing her to close the sliding door.


Deciding it would be the best, to maybe get the television running, you walk back to the corner with the sofas. You just need to connect some cables, establishing a connection to the satellite dish on top of the roof. But whatever you try, it just will not turn on, the TV only sharing static with you.
"Y/N?", you can hear Ahri calling from the kitchen.
Maybe something is up with the dish on the roof, nothing you can fix at the moment, but whatever problem Ahri has is most likely fixable, at least your stomach hopes it is.
"How do you, like, switch on the stove?", she asks, her head poking through the door,
"It is a gas stove, some matches should lay around somewhere".
And it suddenly hits you.
"You do not know how to work with a gas stove?", you are a bit surprised, you do not know that much about her, but that?
It is visibly humiliating for her, but she steps aside, letting the door slide open wide.
"But do not even try to look at anything else", she sounds like she would let you into a top-secret laboratory.


Some matches lay on one of the kitchen cabinets, now you just open the gas master valve, turning up the gas for one of the burners and then lighting it with a match.
Ahri stands to your right, blocking the view onto the kitchen worktop, seemingly inspecting every move you make.
You two stand a bit there, just looking a bit at each other, you are the first to break eye contact, mumbling something about that you have done your duty, only to walk back to the sofas, letting yourself fall onto one sofa. A tingling in your stomach, rubbing your face you sigh and turn on the radio.
"... the situation on the east border seems to get more wors...", you switch the channel to something else, just some music, maybe to fill in the silence.


Only some time passed, until the sliding door opens up and Ahri steps out, followed by a scent you never smelled before, she carries two bowls, placing them on the table.
She sits down, waiting patiently until you too are seated.
"I hope you enjoy it", she seems satisfied after her first spoon, you look down into the bowl with mixed feelings, the soup is not steaming anymore, but you can not make out a thing in the milky soup.
A bit uncertain, you dive in with your spoon, preparing for the worst, but it tastes... different?
You can not really determine how it tastes, but it is calming, like someone told you everything would be okay.
Looking over to Ahri, you notice that her gaze is wandering around the living room, only stopping at the wall with family photos.
"They look lovely", you just nod, you two sit there, small talk for a bit and continuing to eat, cleaning up afterwards and going to bed.
You lay a bit awake in bed after showering, thinking about what happened, who would have thought? You close your eyes for a bit, telling yourself that everything will be fine.


You wake up, a bit groggy, going through your everyday morning routine, it slowly starts to vanish, as you are preparing the table for breakfast it is already gone. Ahri seems to sleep in, so after eating some cornflakes, you decide to see what has to be done today.
And the front yard after some assessment, does not even look that bad, maybe planting some new flowers and everything looks fine, the back yard on the other hand.
Whatever grass that is, it reaches up to your neck at most places, seems to stand up even after trampling it down, you just hope that grandpa had something in the shed against that.
As you have a small list of items you definitely will need, you reenter the house and go back to the living room, surprising Ahri, who sits at the table eating the same cereal as you did, in a shirt that looks like something too large for her size.
"Good morning, Y/N", she waves into your direction and continues to eat,
"Morning, Ahri",
"So what is it you have planned for today?", she asks, taking another spoon of cereal,
"I will go shopping, do not know wha...",
"I will go with you",
"The shop is in the county side, no bus, only bike",
"No problem", she tells you, without even turning around, as you still stand in the doorway.
You just sigh, a small hope that only one bicycle is operational, you do not know if she really knows what "in the country side" means.
But after fighting your way through the malicious tall grass and getting the shed door open, you cant help but notice that everything in the shed looks somehow untouched from time, both bikes looking like they were bought just recently.
Getting them out the shed and through the grass is another task for you, but after some attempts were you almost lost the way, you finally got both bikes out.
Pushing both bikes towards the front yard, Ahri meets you half way, wearing casual jeans, a white t-shirt and a flannel shirt.
"Looks like we are ready", she takes one of the bikes, pushing it by herself,
"You really want to come with me? It is going to be a long ride",
"I always loved biking when I was a kid, it gave me some freedom" she says, swinging herself onto the saddle, following her example, you take the lead.


She at least did not lie, keeping up with you the whole way to the store.
You stop to turn around and look at Ahri to see her standing there, looking at the building in awe.
"Many people live here and the tourists or campers like the aesthetic, a shop in the woods, you know", you tell her while leaning your bike against the shop side.
As you grab a cart and enter, she also leaves her bike at the wall, following you in.
She seems a bit hesitant, but she comes up to you, as you look through the vegetables.
"Could I push the cart?", she asks a bit shy, you just shrug your shoulders, which she takes as a yes.
From this point she pushes the cart with grace and fulfillment, with every item you pass that she does not know she seems fascinated, amazed by even some small things.
As you let her explore a bit on her own, you bump into a familiar face.
"Y/N?", the elderly lady turns,
"Miss Rouge?",
"Good to see you again, boy, how did the city life go?".
You scratch your neck, not really knowing what to answer, but before you can even answer, Ahri scoots by with the cart.
"Look Y/N!", she calls out before rolling down the lane, Miss Rouge smiles,
"Good to see that you have found someone in life",
"She is only a visitor, we really only know us a day",
"Well, boy, that is what I told my mother when I met Adam, it would be nice to see you happy, you smiled more often when you were a kid".
You just nodding, a smile sneaking on your face just as you think about how much joy Ahri seems to get from a simple thing such as shopping.
"See my dear boy, that is much better", she pinches your cheek before continuing to stock the shelves.


After you finally find Ahri in front of the sweets section and some persuasion, you pay for the groceries, some gardening tools and flowers.
While packing the stuff into the bicycle bags you make a jokingly remark.
"First time buying groceries?",
"Yeah", she laughs nervously, "This was my first-time going grocery-shopping, we most of the time eat outwards or just get prepacked groceries delivered".
You are a bit surprised, deciding not to ask any further, as Ahri really seems to be embarrassed about it.


On the way back, Ahri is the one leading the way, seemingly riding the bike with ease, even with the loaded bags, you have a slightly harder time than before.
She suddenly stops on the peak of a hill, getting off her bike, you follow her gaze into the distance.
Beneath you, the woodlands lay, some small blue rivers flowing through like veins of a body, some mountains topped of with snow in the distance.
The field of grain in front of you moving in waves, as the wind softly blows by.
You also get off your bike, looking over the landscape.
"It reminds me so much of home",
"You were not home in a while I guess?", you ask,
"Its hard to find spare time and even if I am on vacation, most of the time the paparazzi follow in pursuit".
She sits down and begins to talk, you sit down beside her, listening as she talks about some of the stories she had with journalists.
As she finishes, she seems relieved.
"Sorry for that, Y/N, it was nice that someone listened to me for once. Thanks.",
"No problem", you say while standing up, before you know it, she pulls you into a hug.
"I really appreciate it" she whispers while hugging you.
And as the red shine of the sun set shimmers over the mountains, you hug her back, feeling like this is one of the moments you will remember forever.

Eyes like a summersky [AhriXReader]Where stories live. Discover now