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In Lux's experience, Ezreal had never taken 'no' well. That was to say, he never really accepted it unless you told him twenty different times in as many different phrasings- it was utterly infuriating, to even Lux.
So, when Fiora had alerted Lux to the fact that Ezreal was planning to ask her out, she hadnt even given him the chance to try, instead slipping out as soon as circumstances allowed for it. He'd followed her, of course, but she'd managed to shake him off- for now. Darting through the city streets- far too empty for Lux to slip into a crowd- she frantically searched for somewhere to go: a dark alleyway, an open manhole- a portal to narnia if she was really lucky. Sadly it wasn't so. Lux was preparing to jump for the nearest unmarked van when she saw the girl, and slowed her step despite her knowing better.
In her defense, how could she not? The girl's brilliantly blue hair alone was enough to capture Lux's attention, which proceeded to slowly drift down and be caught in a vice grip by the girl's workspace. She was sitting on a terrace in front of a café. Around her, chaos reigned. Most of the considerable surface area of the table was occupied by notebooks and hastily scribbled post it notes, all of which surrounded a laptop she was furiously hammering away at. Lux couldn‘t help but feel a pang of kinship with this stranger, who had somehow cultivated a surroundings even messier than Lux's, which served to draw her in even further, her curiosity- mingling with the burning need for companionship from someone even slightly similar to her- being more than she could possibly resist.
Her staring did not go unnoticed, however. When her stride had slowed to a crawl, the girl's head snapped up to meet the intruder. Her twitchy and agitated manner when distracted from work would have been another thing Lux related deeply to, had she not been immensely distracted by other matters the moment the girl's gaze met hers.
There was no dancing around it: the girl was really pretty- hot, even. Hot enough to make Lux stop in her tracks. She was being oh so rude, just staring at this stranger- she knew this. But when Lux tried to say something, the words turned to ash in her mouth. So she just stood there, stammering and blushing like an idiot. The girl's gaze softened from frustration to curiosity as she titled her head (and oh no she was ADORABLE)
"Sup, blondie?" The girl asked, leaning back in her chair and spinning her pencil between her long, sleek fingers while Lux desperatelly grasped for something to say to justify her prolonged presence. She would‘ve said damn near anything if it meant spending more time with this girl, and she was about to, when a flash of blonde hair in the corner of her eye shocked Lux into action. After confirming that it wasn‘t Ezreal she gestured to the empty seat and asked,
"Can I sit here?" Then, added in a whisper, "I think I’m being followed." The girl grinned.
"'course!" She said. After Lux sat down, the girl quickly flipped her pencil, and pushed it at Lux's face like a microphone. "What's yer name. blondie?"
"Lux," she said, extending her hand like some sort of total dork. "To who do i owe the pleasure?" The words hadn't even fully left her mouth yet before she was already beating herself up for them- stupid Lux, stupid. Way to be weird as hell.
But the girl didn't recoil from Lux's extended hand. Instead, her brightly pink eyes gained a sparkle which threatened to melt Lux, before letting out a laugh which very nearly did. The contact of skin on skin as the girl took her hand was far warmer than should've been physically possible (Lux really didn‘t want to consider where the extra warmth may have been coming from)
"Jinx. Pleasure's all mine," Jinx grinned and oh no, Lux was getting Feelings.
"So," Lux blurted out, trying to stop all the blood in her body from rushing to her face. "What are you working on?"
"Oh, this?" Jinx's smile gained a subtle edge of guarded caution. "I wouldn't want to bore you with it."
Lux knew that smile- and that tone- all too well. It was the tone she had learned to take after hundreds of dropped conversations, the face she'd started wearing after the hundredth pair of eyes had glazed over when she'd gotten too exited over something.
"Please," she said, her voice maybe carrying a bit more force than intended. "I'd really appreciate it if you told me." Jinx hesitated for a moment, but the desire to share with someone inevitably won out.
"I'm writing a program to let a friend of mine go through websites with only one hand- the other one recently got, yknow-" she made a cutting motion across her throat. As she explained, Jinx's eyes regained a small yet beautiful twinkling spark.
"That's awesome." Lux said. Despite her earnestness, Jinx watched her with yet another all too familiar look: waiting for Lux to drop the punchline and start laughing at her, before her attention would inevitably drift off. Lux was having exactly none of that, though. "The fact that you'd do that for your friend- that you can do that at all, is amazing! How does it work?"
The last bit was bait, which Jinx took masterfully. At Lux's question, the sparkle in her eyes turned into a flame which, as she began explaining some of the features, grew into a flame. While explaining the mechanics behind those features, punctuated by enthusiastic gesturing with her pencil, that flame became an inferno. And when Lux, nearly lost in Jinx's words, began asking questions, it bloomed into brilliantly pink twin stars of joy.
It was the prettiest thing Lux had ever seen. She had to stop herself from leaping over the table to interrupt Jinx by kissing her. It was bad. She was absolutely not used to this many feelings. It utterly overwhelmed her, sending sparks through her mind as it overloaded- and all of the money in the world couldn't have moved her from her seat in that moment.
"Luxanna?" An unfortunatelly familiar voice very rudely interrupted Lux. piercing the moment with a painfull reminder of why she was there in the first place.
"Ezreal," she responded in a flat, polite tone, causing Jinx to give her a confused look. "What a… pleasant surprise."
"Who the hell are you?" Jinx asked. Her voice had none of Lux's fake kindness. And gods, did Lux love her for it.
wait,
What.
Before she could examine that feeling, Ezreal spoke up again, breaking through Lux's thoughts with his voice, which was really starting to get on her nerves.
"I could ask the same of you," Ezreal sneered with barely concealed disdain, looking Jinx and her workspace up and down. Lux made herself as small as possible, hoping that maybe she'd vanish into her seat. Then, not even waiting for an answer and talking past Jinx, he asked Lux, "Luxanna, what are you doing in this heap? Come back with me to proper society."
Lux flinched at the words, despite them not being aimed at her, feeling herself get strangely defensive of Jinx, who was looking at Lux's curled up shrunken form with more worry and concern than anyone had ever afforded her- so much open care, it utterly obliterated any question Lux had about how she'd answer Ezreal.
"Nah, I'd rather stay here," she said. As she spoke, she looked not, as she'd been taught was the way of polite society, at Ezreal, but at Jinx, shooting her companion a faint smile.
"Here?" Ezreal asked. "With her?" Lux was getting angry now- how dare he talk like this; about someone who was right there, no less! The target of his words, however, did not seem the least bit fazed- although she could be hiding her feelings very well, something else Lux was very familiar with. "What is she, your girlfriend or something?" He said it with a casual edge of poison- it was perfectly normal for him to wield that same disgust which had pushed Lux so deeply into the closet, and away from social cliques.
Jinx - wonderfull, beautifull, amazing Jinx- who Lux had spent an hour with and yet felt safer around than this guy she'd known for half her life- looked at Ezreal, more than matching the disgust in his voice with her gaze as she bared what almost looked like fangs at him. Meanwhile, she clawed across, grabbing Lux's hand with a somewhat feverish eagerness, something Lux didn‘t fully process due to the spectacle right in front of her.
"Would you have a problem with that?" Jinx hissed with a defensive fury in her voice made it sound to Lux like she'd experienced the same bullshit Lux had- if not far worse. Ezreal, who clearly didn‘t know what was good and healthy for him, laughed.
"Oh, so you're just insane," he scoffed. "Come with me, Lux. Back to where we belong."
Lux and Jinx exchanged a look, and the anger in Jinx's eyes withdrew for a moment to make way for a silent question- did she want to leave? Lux considered the question, as if she hadn't known the answer deep in her bones before the question had been asked. She shook- no, of course she wasn't leaving. The anger returned as Jinx turned once more to Ezreal.
"She's mine, fancypants," Jinx growled, sending a wave of liquid heat through Lux's body. "Leave." Ezreal, who's survival instincts finally seemed to kick in, turned around and booked it, leaving Lux to become fully aware of Jinx's hand around hers, sending a screech of static crackle through her arm.
"That was… wow," Lux stammered. Jinx gave a proud nod.
"I assume he was the one following you?"
"Yup. Although I don‘t think I’ll have to worry about him anytime soon," Lux smiled. "Excellent performance."
Jinx took a small bow. "Thank you, thank you."
The performance was over now. The act was done. Yet neither of them let go of the other's hand. After a moment of awkward silence, Lux spoke up.
"Sorry for putting you in that situation. I don‘t know how I'd possibly repay you." Jinx grinned, that twinkling spark returning to her eyes.
"How about a date?" She suggested, a slightly manic look on her face that shouldn‘t have been as attractive as it was. Lux laughed, until reality set in.
"Oh you're-" She couldn’t possibly keep her face from going red. "-You're being serious." Before Jinx could assume mockery, Lux asked "why?" Jinx cocked her head again, as if the answer was obvious.
"Most people are scared away by me, and my… weirdness? You're not. I like that; I like you. Plus-" She gestured at Lux with her pencil. "You're cute, blondie." Lux's blush grew deeper as Jinx's grin widened. She squeezed Lux's hand lightly. "Also, you haven‘t let go yet."
"You got me," Lux sheepishly admitted. "I'd love to go out with you."
"Hell yeah!" Jinx exclaimed, punching her pencil into the air. "I won't let you down, I promise!"
Lux believed her.