the small stuff

hands

School was boring and I had no other motivation, so I said why not.

Anyways, this is probably just going to be a collection of KatAshe one-shots for my shipping needs. Just as the summary says. If you're like me, then you might like this. It is my contribution to the ship, after all.

This one chapter is a write-play I created with CytusValle in a server on Discord. Her parts are bolded, mine are italicized.

Please enjoy. :3

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Katarina pursed her lips tight and held her gaze firm, despite the cold, pale hands that gripped her own.

Ashe blinked as she turned the palms over, seeing nasty cuts and old bruises and rough, calloused skin, all from the long use of bladework.

"How long have you done this?"

She hesitates. 'Tis was a simple question, but the infamous Sinister Blade couldn't find an answer. Her whole life? Seemed like a cliche response. "Since I found my love of blades."

Ashe frowned a little. What a vague answer. "Mind.... telling me what age that is?"

She looked down again, running two fingers across an especially nasty cut across the back of the redhead's left hand.

Wherever she got that, Ashe was highly curious to know. It was healed now, but must have been painful...

The assassin jolted from the feathery touch and drew her hand back like a mouse escaping the jaws of a trap."AH!"

The sudden movements startled Ashe as she leaned closer with instinct. Her hands coaxed Katarina's panicked state, brushing some crimson hair away from her eyes as her breathing slowly heaved less, gestures calm as snowfall.

'Oh gosh'....

Sensitive topic here, Ashe. Better tread carefully...

"Sorry." was the first word to come out of Ashe's mouth as soon as the panic in Katarina's eyes faded away. "Didn't mean to scare you.."

"Y-you're fine. I am sorry." She said, unsure of her own words.

Ashe had never heard her apologize. This was something extremely important to her for her to say such repulsive things in Noxian culture, as she knew of.

There was a moment of silence, but Ashe looked directly at Katarina and tenderly took her hands again, avoiding the scar this time.

"Don't apologize. You don't have to."

Her hair shifted down along with her head. Her left hand curled into a tight ball, discoloring white with the pressure. Her other hand joined, feeling the deep indentation formed then escaped to her wrist. A silence stood time still it seemed, before her small words were heard clearly.

"Once...I had played with a small knife my father owned, he hadn't known until he saw me."

She breathed, reliving the moment again. "He was angry with me, that I had been so careless. He yanked the blade from my hands and nailed my hand into the very table I was sitting by and told me to never play with a weapon."

Ashe blinked and took a sharp intake of air. "Gods above. He really...."

"Noxians always teach lessons. To others, they're brutal. To us they remain true till we die."

Katarina's eyes lifted finally, to meet with the queen's. "Every scar is a story to me, apart of me. I've never shared that memory with anyone, lest Cass who was there when it happened. It's hard to forget sometimes, knowing there's different kinds of peace out in the world."