"Lux?"
Luxanna turned her head to the source of the feminine voice calling out to her. Sarah Fortune was grinning, her sly emerald eyes spoke of mischief. Some of the other star guardians had grouped at their lunch table, the noisy sounds of the cafeteria drowned out while she was in thought.
Syndra wasn't paying much attention, instead working in her notebook, with Lulu looking past her arm to copy her work. Jinx sat across from her, playing with a piece of jelly on her fork, snickering at whatever Sarah had said, and Ezreal sitting next to Jinx, looking quite flustered, but still had his goofy, stupid smirk plastered on.
Sarah curled an eyebrow, waiting for Lux to answer.
Lux sighed, not at all wanting to hear the question again, "Sure."
Syndra looked over to her with a surprised expression, giving Lulu time to really read into her notebook. Jinx dropped her fork with a clattering sound, a huge smile on her face, and Sarah was taken aback completely.
And Ezreal was just staring blankly at her.
Lux took a heavy breath, not in the mood for whatever they were making a big deal of.
"I'm not hungry, I'll see you at class." Lux got up, taking her backpack and walking away, a scowl on her face.
The nights had been busier lately, the forces of darkness were coming in larger forces every night, and it felt like every time they closed a rift, another opened with the same creatures from the night before, plus a little more.
Lux rounded the corner, finding the fire escape and walking right through, taking the stairs up to the rooftop.
On top of it all, all of her classes decided to set up assignments to be due on the same date. While Lux usually had a good work ethic, it was becoming more difficult to work with her nights being taken up.
She shoved open the rooftop door a little harder than she intended, a loud crash echoed down the stairwell. Lux stood in the middle of the rooftop, staring into the dark clouds above. She looked down, her eyes slightly hooded in disappointment.
Of course it was going to rain.
The rooftop door opened behind her. Lux cursed under her breath.
"Hey, Lux!"
And of course, the blonde dork followed her up here.
"Hello, Ezreal." Lux returned, a small smile on her face.
"So, uh, about earlier," He scratched the back of his head, looking away bashfully. Lux rolled her eyes, impatience gnawed at to rush him along so she could get back to being alone.
It had been too long since she had any time to herself. School, night patrols, assignments and study had eaten up all her time, and while she usually didn't mind being with her friends, she already spent most of her time with them at school and night patrols.
"What about earlier?" Lux tried to keep her voice the same, high pitched up-beat tone as always. It just made her feel tired.
"Well, I was wondering if you, well, if you would want to," His grin shook into an anxious laugh.
Lux's eyebrow twitched, doing her best to keep calm. He babbled when he got nervous, and usually it was pretty fun because someone was making him flustered, usually one of the other girls teasing him over something silly.
"Would you want to go hit the Smooth Smoothie Bar this evening?" He tried, giving her his trademark smile, finger guns and a wink.
Wind passed by briefly, the only sound on the rooftop. He didn't move keeping his stupid pose for a full minute.
Lux's brittle smile held strong.
Ezreal awkwardly stood up straight, scratching the back of his head.
"I just thought," He kept his grin plastered on, no amount of shame affecting him, "you seemed pretty bummed out—"
'Please stop talking.' Lux mentally begged.
"—and that you'd need some time to cool off, and, hey, I'm pretty good at having fun—"
'You're good at slacking off.' She snarked.
"—and you seem like you need it and—"
"Stop!" Lux finally cut off with an exasperated sigh, "Yes, okay, I'll go with you to the smoothie place, just, stop rambling."
Ezreal, not picking up on her agitation, smiled brightly, eyes widening in excitement, "Sweet! Okay, I'll meet you at your place at four!"
He quickly rushed out the door, waved a hand back, his cheers echoed through the stairwell.
Lux sat in the centre of the rooftop floor, curling her legs into her chest, and pressed her forehead against her crossed arms.
"Can today be over now?"
***
Lux stood before her full length body mirror, staring into the blank face of the woman in the reflection. She wore denim overalls that doubled as shorts of the same material, with a long sleeve pink shirt underneath, she'd found a pair of white ankle socks and slipped on her pink and white trainers.
She stared into her blank, pink eyes a while more, completely unthinking and bored. It was the first time today that she hadn't felt angry or stressed.
Just there.
She trailed her gaze to the corner of the room, the clock reading quarter to four. She sighed, hoping that Ezreal was lazy enough to come late—
Knock Knock.
Lux closed her eyes and dropped her head down. Making her way down the stairs to the front door. She sighed, put on her friendliest smile, and opened the door.
The blonde was wearing a long sleeve shirt, the sleeves were a cerulean colour, and the main body was a dark blue, with a strip of fabric between the shoulders and body being white, the same as his buttoned up collar. Finishing up with a pair of plain black dress pants.
'At least he dresses up well,' Lux idly thought.
"Hey there," He grinned his stupid grin, which Lux returned with the same friendly smile.
"Hello, Ezreal."
"Ready to go?"
'No.'
"Sure am." Lux answered, stepping out the door, locking it behind her.
"Let's go then!" He held out his hand, which Lux took without thinking.
The world spun around her in a golden and cerulean dust, and her feet landed on a different floor. She blinked, standing in a mostly empty car park, a lone road to her left with a dense forest beyond it, and a building to her right. There was a sign just atop the building, with a smoothie cup giving her the thumbs up and a wink, the words 'Smooth Smoothie Bar' written next to it in bright, yellow neon lights.
'Oh, right. Teleporting with not-portal portals.' Lux suppressed a sigh. Hoping that the travel time would eat into their time spent together, before they had to go on patrol.
"Here we are!" Ezreal said, letting go of her hand and gesturing to her to follow, already making his way to the building.
"Here we are." Lux groaned, following the energetic blonde.
Ezreal threw the doors open, finding a very quiet arcade room to the left, and a smoothie bar on the right side of the building.
The silence filled the air again, only his stupid grin directed at her.
"Yay?" Lux tried, then cringed slightly at how unmotivated she was.
"C'mon, let's see what there's to play. My treat!" he gestured for her to follow, heading straight for the arcade machines.
Lux suppressed another sigh, nodding her head with her friendly smile, following along like he wanted.
The first game they'd played was one of the racing games, Chariot Kart, or something. He'd chosen some short, red costumed man with a moustache, mentioning that he was the lead character in the main game series, or something.
Lux just hit the question mark button, letting the game decide what character for her to play, which ended up being some sort of smiling dinosar's skeleton named Ashes.
Then they got to making their karts. Ezreal took his time, making his kart the way he wanted to. Obviously meaning he'd play this game a lot.
'Is this where you come to when you skip out on patrols?' Lux angrily held onto the controls a little harder. She frowned at the options screen in front of her, not exactly caring what kart she got, and hit the question mark button, letting the game decide for her.
They'd played the game for about half an hour, apparently a lot of the tracks took time to complete. Lux wouldn't admit it, but she did find it a bit fun after the second or third race, managing to beat Ezreal in the final race and taking the golden cup.
"Wanna go get a smoothie and come back for another round?" He asked, that same stupid smirk on his face. It was honestly starting to get on Lux's nerves.
"Sure."
They'd made their orders, Ezreal paying for both drinks. He'd gotten something with banana in it, and she'd opted to just get a bunch of random berries blended in with strawberry yoghurt.
They'd sat on the high chairs, staring out the windows and watching the setting sun bleed through the forest. They didn't have to worry about damaging their eyes when it came to that warm circle in the sky, their roles as Star Guardian's meant they couldn't be blinded by a star's light.
'We'll have to leave in an hour,' Lux thought, taking a sip of her, really delicious, smoothie, 'Hopefully we won't be out past midnight. I really need to look over the cheat sheet for my music class.'
"What do you think?" Ezreal asked, leaning forward slightly to get a look at Lux's face.
"Hmm?" She looked over to him, halfway into taking a sip of her drink.
"This place is pretty neat, right?"
"I suppose," Lux slowly admitted, her eye twitched in irritation, "but I have a question."
"Yeah?"
"How often do you come here?"
"Oh, well, all the time!"
Lux looked away, a deadpan expression on her features, "Figured as much."
Ezreal leaned back, a bit of surprise breaking that stupid smirk of his, "That a bad thing?"
Lux flicked her arm down, the base of her smoothie thunked against the marble countertop, and twisted around the chair to face the blonde boy, only two feet between them. Ezreal flinched, quietly putting his own cup down.
"Something I said?" He tried to bring back his smile, only making Lux's frown deepen.
"How often have you come here when you were supposed to be on patrol?" She asked, her voice low and dangerous, hands settled on her hips.
"Well, I mean, I don't keep track of the nights—" He scratched the back of his head, looking off in the corner of his eyes.
"What, did you think I'd stay here with you tonight, messing around and shirking our duties?" Lux pressed.
"'Course not, I just thought that you needed time off." His brow furrowed, probably confused at why Lux was so angry. Which only served to make Lux more angry.
"And on that subject, why'd you decide for today to be a good day to ask me out, huh?" Lux took a step forward, prompting him to stop looking off to the side and into her angry, pink eyes, "Not everyone can be carefree like you, just picking out days to distract us."
"Hang on, you agreed to come out," Ezreal defended, standing up, "and I'm not the most disruptive member of the group."
"True," Lux admitted, the image of Jinx laughing with a mouthful of curry flashed in her mind, only making her angrier. She glared back at Ezreal, "you're the second most disruptive member."
"Maybe, but that doesn't mean—"
Lux cut him off by taking another step, effectively in his space and barely any distance between their faces.
"It does mean something! We can't all just shirk our duties and pretend everything is fine. You always bug us when we're stressed, just because you are bored. Just because you don't have to pull all nighters just to pass a class, or—"
"Get out of my face, Luxanna Crownguard." Ezreal growled, glaring into her pink eyes. Lux's heart jumped into her throat and took a step back. He'd never, ever used her full name before, let alone twist his face into the expression it was now.
"I—!" Lux tried, and paused as Ezreal held up his hand, he relaxed, taking a deep breath, and sighed.
"I'm sorry for speaking to you like that, Lux." He looked up with regretful eyes, completely blowing away all of Lux's irritation. They stood in silence for a moment, and it finally clicked in the pink haired girl's head with what he was waiting for.
"No, I shouldn't have started yelling at you," Lux apologised, her shoulders falling down, "I've just been so, so angry and stressed lately. School has been getting harder, and our nightly patrols have been lasting longer into the night, and I just—"
"I get it, I really do. It's been the same for me," Ezreal shook his head, "maybe I was slacking off at the start of the semester, but Ahri has really been kicking my ass into gear about all this."
"I haven't seen you out though." Lux said, confusion and guilt welling up inside her.
"I usually get sent out to emergency areas, handling situations by myself around the world, y'know, with the not-portal portals."
Lux cringed. Of course that was the reason he'd not been around at night lately. How tired had she been to forget that he was the first-contact responder to their world-wide struggle?
"It's okay, Lux, really. You didn't know because you didn't need to, you already have a lot on your plate." Ezreal justified for her, and she nodded, sitting back down on the high chair. They sat in silence again. Lux finished her drink some time ago, bought with Ezreal's money. Including the game they'd played together earlier.
She'd been a big jerk. She turned to apologize, but was interrupted by a question of her own.
"Where would we be with all that irritation and stress gathering up the next night, or the night after that?"
Lux opened her mouth, then closed it. She shrugged her shoulders, keeping her eyes fixed to the marble counter.
"We'd probably be closer to dead, if we took that stress with us everywhere," He answered, taking one last sip of his smoothie, making that weird gurgle noise.
"That's why I wanted to relax," Lux softly whispered, "just keep space between everyone for one day, get home after patrol and just sleep over the weekend."
"And that's fair, I completely understand that," Ezreal gave her a small smile, "But you've become withdrawn lately. You won't open up to how you really feel, or won't answer honestly. Not even to Jinx, and you're not talking with us properly."
"No, I haven't been hiding how I feel. I'm fine."
"Really? What did Sarah ask you at lunch today?"
Lux did a double take, "What?"
"What did Sarah ask you at lunch today?" He repeated, sitting back on the high chair, drinking his banana smoothie.
"She—" Lux paused, blinking and looking down to the floor, her brows furrowed in thought. What had she and Miss Fortune been talking about today, in fact, they hadn't really talked for very long at all. Sarah said something to her at school, so maybe it had to do with that.
"She was talking about school stuff." Lux answered.
Ezreal shook his head, giving her a forced smile and a dry laugh. Lux internally cringed, not remembering at all.
She sighed bitterly, "What then?"
"She asked if you thought you'd go on a date with me." Ezreal quietly answered, turning away from her and drinking the last of his smoothie, the cup making loud empty noises.
Lux felt frozen, her feet felt numb hanging in the air, and her heat skipping several beats. She hadn't paid attention to what Sarah had said at all, and accidentally said yes. How else was that supposed to come across in the moment? Her answering quickly, then running off? No wonder Ezreal decided it was a good time to try and ask her out.
She held her shoulder with one arm, shame and guilt piling up inside her gut like a well of regret.
Ezreal shook his head, putting on that same, stupid smile on his face. Never failing to catch her attention.
"Y'know," Ezreal started slowly, prompting Lux to eye him curiously, "we should get outta here. The last thing you need is more excitement. There's a pretty good spot nearby that I think you'd like."
Lux looked over to the doors, she did want to leave. But she felt bad for accidentally leading Ezreal on. Still, he did offer to take her elsewhere, not just leave her entirely.
She nodded, following him out the door.
***
Turns out they didn't have to go very far.
Lux watched as Ezreal took a seat, hanging his legs over the side of the smoothie bar's rooftop. He leaned back, using the palms of his hands to support himself, and looked over his shoulder, grinning widely at her.
Lux smiled softly, following along and taking a seat next to him, a foot of space between them. She held her hands on her thighs, knocking her shoes against one another over and over. They sat there, watching the sun set over the horizon, darkness slowly eating up the world.
"Why'd you think I would like this spot?" Lux asked, watching the occasional car driving past, noting their colour, finding more black cars than any other.
"Well, it's autumn, and it's close to half-past-five, so," He trailed off, looking back up to the last rays of sunshine. The illuminated city in front of it lost to darkness.
Then the lights started turning on.
First it was the yellow street lights, then each individual house flickered with white light through their windows, colourful red lights of cars leaving glowed in the distance and she could see apartment windows lighting up one after the other. A menagerie of colour and light filling the darkness with beauty.
Lux blinked, closing her mouth to a thin line upon realizing it had dropped. She set her fingers on the edge of the building, watching with wide, wondering eyes.
"That's what we do." Ezreal leaned over to her slightly, his trademark smirk on display. Lux stared at him, unable to show the emotion she was properly feeling, and just looked into those cerulean irises.
"What do you mean?" She asked slowly, her fingers tightening against the building.
"The darkness comes, and we come to light the world up. Burning as bright as we can. But we can burn ourselves out if we don't take the time to relax, so we turn off our light during the day," Ezreal leaned back looking up into the sky, searching the night for the stars, "just don't forget about the others who burn with you—"
"We all reach for the same horizon." Lux finished, feeling the heat in her ears as she unintentionally spoke her mind. She kept her expression neutral, still not feeling up to, well, feeling.
There was something there, in her heart, telling her how she could, or should, feel. But she just couldn't.
"Hey," Ezreal softly spoke, breaking her train of thought, he kept up that dumb smile, "it's okay, y'know?"
"What?" Lux tilted her head.
"To cry." He brought his hand up, fingers gently uncurling. His index finger ghosting up her cheek, and pulled back.
There was a droplet of water on his digit. Lux tilted her head slightly, and brought her own hand up to touch her cheeks. She closed her eyes, the feeling in her heart intensified as she trailed the rivers staining her face.
Her lip trembled, and she turned away from Ezreal.
"It's been really hard for you, I know," He started, laying back against the ceiling. Lux looked back over, finding his arms tucked under his head, staring up into the starry sky above, "Leading your own group takes guts, and it'll take more from you than it'll give. I mean, I wouldn't know the first thing about it. But I've learned a lot from Ahri."
Lux coughed into her hand, a tickle in the back of her throat was pervasive, making her feel like she was going to choke on her own words. She stared forward at the city, watching cars stop and go with blinking red lights.
"Like?" She asked in a small voice, barely loud enough for Ezreal to hear.
"Ahri cries every time we come back from a patrol," He answered. Lux spun around, facing the golden haired boy, a thoughtful frown on his face, "and every time she'd go straight to Soraka, and clings to her and won't let go. Like a baby with a teddy bear."
"And you learned something from that?" She asked in disbelief.
"Yeah, 'course. The moment we step through the doors, she drops the outfit and beelines it for Soraka. Cries right in front of Syndra, Sarah and I." He finished like that was it, like the lesson was so obvious.
Lux sighed, unbothered to look through the subtext, "And you learned?"
"When you come back from patrol, you're supposed to take off the outfit," He looked up, his kind eyes piercing hers, "You never took yours off after your first patrol."
Lux felt a shiver run through her body, and looked away, frowning. Her fingers were strained and turning white, with how hard she gripped the edge of the roof. More of the city's lights were illuminated as time passed on. She sat there, eyebrows curled in thought.
She really didn't know what to say. Had Ezreal always been this mature?
'No,' she shook her head, 'he's never mature. Sometimes he's just right.'
His words struck a chord within her. Her heart was begging for something, and she just couldn't tell what it was. She'd cried, wasn't that supposed to be it? You cry, feel a bit numb, and then you're all better again?
Lux winced, nearly breaking her fingers from how hard she'd been gripping the wall. She brought her hands up to rest on her thighs, the tingling sensation the only thing she could really feel.
Was this it? Would she ever be able to take off the costume?
"I don't know if I ever could."
"Then I'll help you." Ezreal said.
Lux jumped, not realizing she'd spoken out loud again.
"How?" Lux asked, "We go out there every night, and fight for people that don't even know what we're fighting. I can't let go of what I become each and every night. Because there's only the next fight, so how?" Lux pressed, turning around entirely to meet Ezreal's soft, dumb smile.
"We'll transform." He answered, standing up with a stretch. As though it were the simplest thing in the world.
"Pardon?" Lux stood up, meeting his happy smile once again.
"We'll transform, and then we'll take off the outfits for real." He explained, as though it was the easiest thing in the world. Yuuto, Ezreal's familiar, leapt out from his back, making happy squeals as he flew around the blonde, blue light taking his form.
Lux instinctively summoned her stave, letting it twirl around her faster and faster, pink light covering her body.
Their clothes were transformed into their Star Guardian outfits, and they both performed their dramatic poses as they were fully transformed. She smiled brightly at Ezreal, who returned it. He took a step forward, nodding at her.
"Now," He spoke gently, slowly falling to the floor, his wings fading away into blue light, "There's no threat. We're okay. So we can take off the outfit. For real."
Lux nodded, letting her star guardian form fade back simultaneously with Ezreal's. Light shimmered off them, the heat of their magic slowly fading away. She could feel her casual clothes return to press against her skin, and the wind brush against her skin.
Lux blinked out more tears, a shocked gasp left her. Then, she felt it. That feeling in her heart that yearned to be free. It wasn't sadness or pain in her heart. She wasn't broken, or was holding back her emotions for the sake of her team.
What she felt was liberation.
Her knees shook and she fell forward, caught in Ezreal's arms, and she cried loudly into his chest.
Ezreal clearly didn't know what to do, simply holding her awkwardly looking away. But, really, that's all Lux needed at the moment. Someone for her to hold on to. To hide her face as she bawled her eyes out.
She understood why Ahri, supposedly, latched onto Soraka like she was a teddy bear. It felt nice to be held when she was crying. It felt far better than when she was by herself.
She felt far better in his arms.
"I'll—" Ezreal sighed, returning the hug properly with a small squeeze, "I'll always be here for you, when you need to take off the costume."
Lux laughed, nodding her head into his chest some more.
The night would go on without them. The other star guardians were surely on patrol already.
***
"So, you all saw that right?" Sarah asked, her eyes wide at the sight. She wasn't alone. Syndra, Lulu and Jinx had followed her after finding out Ezreal managed to score a date with their resident pink-haired girl.
"Mmhmm." Syndra nodded, still reading through one of her theatre scripts, sipping away at a smoothie.
"Sure did. That was super cute!" Lulu squeed in her hands, "You think they'll kiss?"
"Nah. This seems like a start-up to their relationship." Sarah dismissed, taking her own slurp of a smoothie. She initially criticized Ezreal's choice at an Arcade/Smoothie bar, but she'd admit that they served a damn good drink.
"What do you think, Jinx?" Sarah turned over to Jinx, her shoulders shaking.
"Uh, don't tell me you're angry, right?" Fortune leaned forward, getting a good look at Jinx's face. She did a double take, staring at Jinx's rivers of tears spilling out her eyes, and grimaced at the wet trail from her nose.
"Th—That was so cute, I— I want them to kiss, and then hug and," Jinx gasped excitedly, "ohh, I hope they hold hands!"
Sarah gave the other redhead a shaky smile, "Y-Yeah. Same here, girl."
They sat there together for a while longer, watching the cute couple above. Hoping they didn't suddenly decide to look down.