I know, I know, I'm sorry! I guess I'm not great with 'short', I got caught up in the flow of things. I decided to challenge myself with a little feminine twist on romance here, and luckily, rolled a pair with a bit of synergy. Haven't slept in three days, so I can't say it'll be anything of shocking quality.

4 (Cassiopeia Du Couteau)
13 (Luxanna Crownguard)

In the end, it became difficult to shy away from logic in favor of romantic appeal, and admittedly I didn't end up working nearly as hard as I did on the beginning, but I think it came out alright. Tried to keep it very tasteful, hope it's amusing.
---//

Cassiopeia, since childhood, had always harbored a venomous jealousy for her elder, Katarina. While each and every accomplishment -militaristic or otherwise- bathed her in limelight and the warm celebration of public approval, Cassiopeia was subsequently forgotten on the sidelines, starving for the adoration she could not wrest from her father, her siblings, or her city. Carrying both the blood of nobility and privileges fitting for a name so prestigious, an overwhelming burden of expectations fell upon her shoulders, to which she felt powerless to cast aside. Wherever her measured strides led her, curious smiles fell upon the lips of the public, as though they whispered amongst one another, 'what great skill shall this Du Couteau express?'.

Finding herself lacking similar killer instincts that her sister possessed, and a reluctance to expose herself to violent confrontation in general, she instead embraced her ravishing beauty and silver tongue. All eyes followed the elegance of the woman, captivated by her slender form, alabaster skin, and the luminescence of eyes playfully challenging men and women alike to compete for her affections.

Capitalizing upon her cunning and talent for luring and dominating the minds of others, Cassiopeia took to beguiling the secrets from the hearts of men, afterward reporting to her father any relevant intelligence she may have unveiled. The temptress proved a natural, however, the pleasures of success and renown were destined to be short lived.

Having successfully seized the secrets of a Frejlord diplomat -unwilling to confide in her until swearing an oath of secrecy upon a mystical blade-, the moment this knowledge was passed on to her father, a horrible curse fell upon the woman, twisting her once beautiful form into that of a serpentine creature, forever ending her career, and plunging her into a state of resentment and seething hatred for those who came to look upon her new form.

However, having retained her skills for manipulation, and since discovering a particular knack for interrogation -perhaps fueled by the stagnant rage in swelling her heart- today was a rare occasion of which her father approached her, requesting her unique services. Apparently, Katarina had managed to abduct Garen Crownguard's beloved younger sister, Luxanna, and Noxus was eager to rend from her the vulnerable wisdom lurking within the knowledgeable girl. Although her sister had performed what borderlined the impossible, the endless possibilities this girl's confiding might unearth immediately highlighted her own talents, a lovely change of pace for Cassiopeia.
---//

Slithering along the smooth marble of the hallway, a cold smile plays upon the lips of the woman, tongue running across her mouth, moistening it. Oh, how she relished a chance to upstage her sibling; for too long, Noxians have praised the name of Katarina, content to disregard all of her own efforts. And yet, now they prostrated themselves before her, pleading for services previously overlooked, misinterpreting their value.

Having reached her destination, she peeks from around the corner of the room, setting her predatory gaze upon the youth as a soft exhalation of excitement escapes from her lungs. Rhythmically tapping the svelte talons of her fingers against the iron bars of the cell, the woman playfully chuckles at the plight of the child, and rests her chin atop the palm of her hand. Her mind raced with possible scenarios such that she might determine one most suited for the extraction, and as she settles upon one such premise, cheerfully relaxes her posture.

Unlocking the door momentarily to allow her entrance, she twists at the hips and waves her hand dismissively, gesturing for the guard's relocation; she preferred isolation while exercising her gifts. Circumnavigating the door, she closes it behind her, and slithers towards the girl, who responsively attempts to distance herself from the intimidating visage of Cassiopeia, until her back meets the unforgiving reliability of the wall.

'Poor little thing, you're sssshaking like a leaf~'

The lamia whispers softly, reaching a hand towards her sarcastically, a gesture immediately refused as the girl slaps it away. Cassiopeia smiles wryly, and rolls her shoulders into a shrug. Upon closer inspection, she found the Demacian to be rather courageous, an abnormal fire burning behind azure eyes.

'L-let me go!'

She demands, fingers curled into fists that rest upon her knees, defensively held close to her chest.

'Ssssuch a pretty little thing, aren't we?'

Cassiopeia purrs, coiling her tail forcefully around the wrists of her captive, tugging the reluctant girl to her feet. Leaning closely to her, the woman extends a serpentine tongue from her mouth, dragging it cynically along the pale skin of her victim. Lux shudders at this, squeezing her eyes closed.

'I can taste the fear on you, child. Your crass bravado cannot ssserve you here...'

She stifles a laugh at the expense of the panicked juvenile. Ignoring the child's struggling, Cassiopeia fingertips her nails down the cheek of her plaything, and sighs gently.

'Sssso disappointing, I'd rather toy with you in other ways...'

She mutters regretfully, fingers twisting in her disheveled blonde hair enviously; how she missed her own lustrous curls. Returning her gaze to the eyes of her captive once more, she is surprised to find the pair of them sharing eye contact. Hissing at the persistence in the eyes of the Demacian, Cassiopeia flexes her nails around the throat of the girl, and glowers at her.

'Sssstaring so confidently, are we? Does my twisted body ssssoothe you? Sssshall I sssqueeze the life right out of those disrespectful eyes!?'

Lux holds her stare, face expressionless outside of being pained.

'Y-You and I...are we truly so different?'

The youth chokes, startling the woman. Releasing the girl entirely from her grasp, Lux falls to the floor gasping for breath. Cassiopeia folds her arms and puzzles over this.

'My brother is showered with appreciation while I am resigned to the library. For every militaristic achievement he boasts, I sit in the shadows as a tool occasionally reached for by the government. Can you say that you are not the same? I have heard about you...can you deny our similarity?'

Cassiopeia stares incredulously at the prisoner, mouth momentarily agape with surprise.

'Ssssupposing we are, I don't ssssee how this is relevant...'

She stammers, twisting away from the girl. Rising slowly, Lux reaches out a hand towards her captor, surprising the serpentine woman with the gentle touch of her fingertips. Suddenly pulling herself against the back of her enemy, Lux presses herself into a tight embrace, squeezing her arms around the shoulders of Cassiopeia, who releases a startled breath.

'I don't find you horrifying at all...I don't believe your beauty has diminished.'

Lux confesses, hiding the flush of her cheeks behind the spine of the woman. Cassiopeia, flustered, struggles against the unrelenting grasp of the Demacian until finally resigning herself to her ironic imprisonment for several moments, secretly relishing the curious affection.

'Ssssuch a turn of events. How ssshall I navigate them?'

Cassiopeia whispers, her tail slowly coiling around the waist of the captive, wresting the two apart. Turning to face the embarrassed girl, she cups her cheek in the palm of her hand, admiring the strength of the heartbeat caught in her own throat. These feelings, the sorts she hadn't felt in a lifetime...why now? These circumstances were beyond impractical, but she couldn't defy the vulnerable girl before her.

Pulling the girl into a gentle kiss, her tail unconsciously sways with the pleasure of romance, no longer harboring hesitation.

'What do we do...?'

Lux whispers, flush with adrenaline.

Cassiopeia simply smiles, cocking her head at an angle such to fully observe the frail beauty of the Demacian.

'I ssshall sssequester you in my chambers for further observation. We sssshall move from there..'

She coos, returning her lips to those of the girl's.

And for a moment, the dark world around the woman collapses into something warm and bathed in light. And for once, her shallow concerns melt away from the warm embrace the two share, an uncertain future threatening to change their lives forever.

OK fine I'll bite, Psycho. No promises of literary genius, but here goes!

That last match had been brutal. Alistar had not had to face such a bout in a very long time, perhaps even since his days when he had been forced to fight for his life in the Fleshing. The minotaur had put up a valiant effort, taking the blows of his opponents with the resistance of a mountain, but in the end he was unable to defend the nexus from the endless onslaught.

Exiting the Institute, he noticed Tristana on a nearby hill, leaning on her cannon with her white locks falling over her low-hung head, and otherwise looking pretty depressed. She had performed rather poorly in the last battle, falling many times before their defeat. Alistar thought she had looked upset, had had a distracted look in her eyes during the match. He had never really thought much about the yordles before, other than their inexplicably varied appearances that put even humans to shame. And yet, something compelled him to try to see what he could do.

"What troubles you, small one?" he said as he came up beside her. Tristana uttered a cry of alarm, wheeling about only to see the towering Alistar behind her.

"Oh," she said, quietly, as her heart rate reduced to something somewhat normal. "Hi, Alistar." Her voice was low and soft. "Don't worry about me, it's nothing. I'm just not feeling myself today is all." she said as she half-heartedly kicked a small pebble into the gorge below.

"There's no need to be afraid, Tristana. You are upset, and it's only natural that you wouldn't want to trouble me with your hardships." Alistar said, trying to sound as comforting as he could with his deep voice "That's the kind of person you are. You care about others very deeply, but sometimes you have to allow others to care about you as well. If you still don't want to talk, I understand, but know that right now I am here to listen."

"Oh, it's nothing like that. It's just- it's just- Oh Alistar!" she cried out as she burst into tears. "Life's just not fair, y'know. The man I love doesn't even seem to know I exist. I mean, yeah were freinds and all..." she went on, appearing to calm down slightly. "But it's like that's all were ever going to be!" she went on, the tears coming back in full force. "No matter how hard I try I just can't get him to notice me! Every time I try to ask him out, every time I try to flirt a bit, he just shakes it off like nothing's happened. It's like he's completely oblivious to me. And you know what the worst part is? This morning I got a note, from Rumble, you know, the little annoying blue one that rides around in that contraption of his? He wanted to ask me out on a date. I told Teemo about it, and you know what he said?" the tension in her was building up, waiting to be released. "He didn't say ANYTHING! Not one tiny bit of anything to suggest he had even the slightest problem with it. I love him, Alistar. I love him more than anything in the world. But he doesn't love me back. I don't know what to do anymore!" she finished before breaking down in sorrow.

Alistar looked down at the distraught little yordle girl beside him, and took a seat on the hillside beside her. A long time ago, when he was young, before the treachery of Noxus, he too had learned what it was like to love, and yet not be loved in return. "It probably seems now that your heart has been torn apart, and will never again be whole," the beast man said stoically. "As now the sun set's over the horizon, so too do your hopes for love set into a cold, dark night of loneliness. But for every time the sun sets, it must rise again the next day. So shall you," He said as he placed a single finger upon her tiny head, ran it gently down the side of he face, and lifted her chin so that her eyes met his. "It may not be tommorow, it may not come for years, but the heart always rises again." He finished, smiling comfortingly towards her.

Tristana's gaze met his, staring into his eyes for a moment, as though she did not know what to say. Then, she suddenly locked the minotaur's arm in a tight embrace. After several minutes, Alistar gently picked her up and placed her on his shoulder.

"Thank you," she said in a quiet, barely audible voice. The tears remained, but a small smile now crossed the yordle girl's visage. And so the the two sat in silence together, both knowing that there was nothing more that could be said, watching the sun set over the horizion. And as the sun set before them, unbeknownst to Alistar and Tristana, the moon rose behind them, shining briliantly andmore fully than any other night in their memory.




So,any good? Did I try too hard?

Thanks. To be honest, it was actually pretty fun to write. I might have to roll up another tommorow.

Oh god.

Irelia and...Karthus.

It was a cold winter's night outside of the League Of Legends. Inside, there was a fire crackling in the main hall. Long, silvery hair fell in waves down the Ionian swordmaster's back as she huddled closer to the flames. Nearby, Gragas and Garen were drinking away the chill with a keg of a strange purple fluid. It splashed all over the floor as the two men nearly collapsed in a fit of raucous laughter. Clearly, they were hammered. Irelia quickly moved her head to the side to dodge a glass that fell into the fire, sputtering out the warmth. "Whoops! Shorry Ireliaaa! I mished!" blubbered Garen, waving his arms around wildly. She stood up and vacated the hall.

It was colder outside, along the turrets of the castle, but she would have to bear it. Better the snowflakes dripping onto her skin than shards of glass. A quiet and morose song peeled out from the distance, stopping Irelia in her tracks. "Lonelyness, a dark expanse before me,emptyness, as sadness fills my story, lonelyness..." She rounded the corner to see Karthus standing at the top of the tower, his thick robes barely disturbed by the chill.

"Karthus?" The lich whirled around to face her, then turned back to the sky. "Don't you living beings hate the cold?" He motioned to the door. "Keep inside, where it's warm, or you just might end up like me..." Irelia had just noticed the sadness in his voice. "Karthus, we've never talked." "Why would we, you've got a newly freed populace on your hands, don't you? What the hell would you want with an old corpse?"
Irelia walked closer. "Karthus. There's someone...someone you're searching for, isn't there." The lich slowly turned. "Picking my skull with that sharpened Ionian mind, eh? Fine. You win. I was looking for someone." A deep sigh escaped from his throat. "But she's dead. Dead and buried. Like I would have been. But it seems that was not my fate..."

Irelia put two and two together. "Your songs. You're mourning." Karthus began to walk away, saying little. "I'm nothing anymore. This music, it is all I have left. It's funny, how death puts things in perspective." Irelia smiled. "But you aren't dead." Karthus scowled. "And how would you claim that?" "Simple. Nature is balance, as is life. So many creatures in this world are living, breathing, and existing. Who's to say you aren't simply getting nature's second chance? I see you, standing before me, and I see a man, Karthus. I see your emotions, your music, and you. Not a body, but a person."

A deep silence filled the air. "I suppose...you make a point. I haven't....haven't felt this way since I died." Karthus chuckled. "So, nature's second chance? Lucky me." Irelia strode closer towards him. "I believe in you Karthus. You've conquered death, now use that strength you posess for good." Karthus took off his hood. "Death was nothing. It is love that is the hardest." Irelia leaned forwards and kissed him on the forehead.

"Who's to say you're the only lucky one, Karthus."


...Well, that was...uh...wierd.

^ You know, when I read Irelia's backstory I keep speculating that she's touched death herself too.

bumping this just to see other people try this. Still trying to come up with something for my latest pair (it's a secret), but still want to see how other people fare in the meantime.

Oh wow. These are all very lovely indeed. Hmm I don't even know if I can pick my favorite. I would say Alistar and Tristana because I main Tris but there's so many to choose from. Alright, I say in writing abiity, style, and story, my favorite would have to be......

SerrationEmber!

So all the stories after this post are his/hers to judge.

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