Archive of Our Own

Syndra walked out of the drama club's room with her normal dramatic flair: a twist of her hips, a flare of her plaid skirt, and a flip of her long, dark purple hair. With a roll of her neck she sent dark locks cascading down her shoulders, and with a skillful sweep had strands falling over the ominous cloth of her eyepatch. She knew that the other students were staring, and she liked it. The attention - whatever the attention might be - appealed to her. Awe, or fear; didn't matter. 

Unfortunately for Syndra, walking out of the clubroom and into the empty hallway beyond put her face-to-face with Janna, and her momentary flair and confident demeanor melted away into a flustered mess of parted lips and wide pupil. Her hand froze against her undercut, in the process of flicking it out, and she just eyed Janna. The moment was brief, though, and it broke when she set her jaw, drew her brows down hard, and whipped her hand out with a crack. 

"Janna," she said, coolly. She glared at the taller, older girl, directing the most impassive and yet ire-filled stare she could in her direction. 

Janna blinked. Her stare wasn't quite so glacial - it was just the look, as Syndra dubbed it. It was cool, frosty, to be certain, but it lacked the edge that Syndra's had. There was more suspicion, an inherent wariness, and - was that amusement? 

"Syndra." Janna's voice was cool and crisp, like a fresh spring breeze. "I -"

"Why are you here, Janna?" Syndra interrupted, setting one hand on her hips and casually examining the nails of the other with her good eye. Cool, Syndra, she told herself. Cool, untouchable. She's just Janna. Don't let her get under your skin. 

"I was asked to deliver papers to Professor Jhin," Janna told her straightforwardly. She shuffled the papers in her hand for good measure, but Syndra tightened her lips all the same. "That's all. I didn't... expect to see you here."

"Yes. Well." Syndra's smile was tight-lipped. "I am."

"I'm surprised, is all," Janna said.

"And I'm equally surprised that you're not here to spy on me," Syndra mused, her words curling in an accusatory lilt that had Janna blinking again. 

"I wouldn't do that," Janna protested, showing a momentary break in that older-sister-act she put on for her team. 

"Maybe spy was too strong of a word," Syndra said, flicking her nails. "Rather, keeping an eye on me? Making sure I'm not getting up to anything illicit?"

And now she’ll start being defensive, or she’ll spit the first accusatory words that come to mind, Syndra thought smugly.

"On second thought, I am not at all surprised to find you in the drama club," Janna said, her jaw setting and her lids falling. "You really are melodramatic."

Syndra let out a cackle. "See, Janna, I'm -" she stopped, blinked, and let out a tiny, strangled noise at the realization that Janna hadn't responded in the way her meticulous mind had calculated. "Wait, first, I am not melodramatic, and second, I never said I was in the drama club, I was just -"

"Delivering papers to Professor Jhin?" Janna supplied wryly, ruffling her papers, and Syndra choked. 

"I was... helping," Syndra sputtered. 

"Helping," Janna followed, deadpan.

Syndra tightened her lips. "Yes."

"That is even less believable," Janna remarked, her lips forming a lopsided grin. "Though, it explains why Sarah was looking for you... which, of course, reminds me to tell you that Sarah says she's looking for you. She couldn't find you, and got worried."

"She could have just asked Ahri," the purple-haired girl said flippantly. "She'd have told her where I was."

"...Because Ahri would know you're in the drama club," Janna prompted.

"Ye - No ," Syndra scoffed, "because I am not in a club. Much less something as silly as drama."

"Uh-huh," Janna hummed. "Well, all the same… Sarah’s looking for you, and I need to hand these over, so.” She shuffled past Syndra. “I suppose we’ll see each other later.”

Syndra sniffed. “Perhaps.”

Janna looked over her shoulder, momentarily lingering by the open doorway. She cut a neat figure in her schoolgirl outfit, Syndra had to admit it - tall, slender, almost willowy in a way, but with a rather generous bust pressing against the neat tunic and her little tie. She was tall enough that she was ‘all legs’, as many said about Syndra herself, and with her pleated skirt being the same length as everyone else’s, there was plenty of leg on display. 

“I, for one, think that it’s cute you’re in the drama club,” Janna said, smiling one of her normally enigmatic and reassuring smiles that really ticked Syndra off. “It’s a good pastime.”

“Oh, go back to sucking up to the teachers,” Syndra scoffed, flipping her hand dismissively. “Or getting down on your knees for them - whatever it is that you do.”

She spun on her heel, and resolutely marched out of view without a second thought. She was content that she’d gotten the last few biting words in before Janna could start to lecture her on ‘playing nice’ or give her more of those judgmental glares of hers. She could feel her stares across rooms, and Syndra hated it. It was about twelve steps later that Syndra realized she’d forgotten her sweater - it was cold outside, and she didn’t really like the cold - back in the drama room, but she knew she damn well wasn’t going to go back there and -

“Syndra!” Janna called out, and Syndra froze mid-step. “You forgot your sweater! It’s too cold out for you!”

“Oh, fuck me,” Syndra murmured, and pinched the bridge of her nose. 

Even though it was early summer, the weather tended to swing often. The world - universe, dimension, land - they were in was strange, in that regard. Syndra often turned her mind to the movements of stars and the study of astrological phenomena, but she typically didn’t care about things like the placement of their current home in relation to the sun, or anything like that. She studied it regardless, however, if only to curse the fact that it went from warm summer day that was suitable for tanning to cold-enough-for-a-sweater.

It also made going around in her Star Guardian outfit less than comfortable as well, but Syndra wouldn’t tell anyone that. 

“What is it, Sarah?” Syndra asked, finding the well-proportioned redhead leaning against a trio of trees just around the school’s front entrance. 

“I didn’t think I’d have to search you out,” Sarah Fortune said, inclining her chin in Syndra’s direction. Unlike Syndra, her school uniform was somewhat more unkempt - sloppier, with buttons popped loose, her tie askew, and her skirt artificially shortened. Not enough to appear like a delinquent, but rather to highlight her more attractive features - which was all of her body, and even Syndra wouldn’t say otherwise. “What’re you still doing at school?”

“I’d ask you the same,” Syndra said pointendly, “but from the manner of dress and the hastily wiped away marks… I can well imagine what occupied your time.”

Fortune flashed a charming grin. “Maybe, maybe not.”

Syndra brushed her hair behind her ear. “I suppose I shouldn’t be telling Ahri, then?”

Fortune’s attitude petered out in seconds. “Uh, no, that’s not - don’t do that.”

Syndra titered behind her hand. “Anyways, to reiterate: what did you need me for?”

“Well, not be, really, but Ahri wanted to go out tonight.” Fortune rolled her shoulders, a smile playing at her lips. “You know what I mean. Investigate those reports of the scythe-arm-slasher -”

“We’re not calling it that,” Syndra deadpanned, holding up her palm as if to say stop. “It’s a cosmic monster, refer to it as such. Don’t give it a stupid name.”

“But it’s got scythes for arms,” Fortune said petulantly, and Syndra resisted the urge to roll her eyes. 

“A purely ancillary observation.”

“Technically primary, since that is its primary method of attack.”

Syndra resisted the urge to sigh. “Cutting to the chase - you want me to go out on patrol with you this time?”

“No,” said Fortune. “Ahri’s been doing her detective shit, and she’s got some good leads. She wants you to do your detective shit and figure out where it’ll strike next.” 

Syndra hummed. “Provided it is actual evidence this time, I can put my talents to it.”

“I even got a corkboard and the string things you like,” Fortune prompted, pushing away from the tree she used as a rest. Her wild, red hair, shaded and coloured like fire in motion, fluttered around her shoulders. She regarded Syndra with tight eyes, though her smile was earnest and suave - she trusted Syndra just like Ahri trusted her, but there was still that lingering unease. Syndra didn’t blame her, though - while Fortune might have been friendly with everyone, Syndra was far too guarded of an individual to easily put her faith into. 

“The -” Syndra paused. It didn’t take long for her to parse Sarah’s meaning: she’d bought one of those things she’d see in a soap opera, where people childishly put pictures up and strung red lines between little thumbtacks on a board of wood. “This isn’t a noir detective film. I don’t need any of that.”

Fortune shrugged. “Just sayin’.”

Syndra sniffed regally. “Though, if you’ve already gotten it…”

“It’s all yours, Syndra,” the redhead chuckled. She regarded the purple-haired teen out of the corner of her eyes before nodding once. “Just do us good, yeah?”

“It’s the other way around,” Syndra hummed, a dark chuckle in her voice. 

Fortune's eyes narrowed, but she said nothing at all.

Okay, so maybe I’m a little melodramatic, Syndra thought, chuckling just a little bit more.

Ahri’s jaunt out to hunt down the cosmic monster using the city outskirts as its playground bore fruit, thanks to Syndra’s calculated deduction of where it would make its next series of attacks. Her tactical superiority meant that they had the creature cornered in a relatively empty construction site and well outside of its preferred hunting ground, giving them the advantage. The three of them were more than enough for a single monster, spawn of the Dark Star or not - but there was, unfortunately, no way to fully predict just what a monster like such would be capable of. 

Fortune had sworn profusely when it started turning invisible, and ran around faster than they could track - not that they could, since its camouflage proved seamless. Syndra, for all her skill at dark magic and sense of tactical superiority, couldn’t quite so easily predict how and when a camouflaged assassin-beastform would attack; and she could not, therefore, stop it from raking scythe-like limbs across her backside. Edges that were preternaturally sharp, honed to a monomolecular line that could cut through reality, easily ran through her fair skin - but that was as far as it had gotten before a dark pulse knocked it back, a charm from Ahri tore it away, and a full barrage of Syndra’s power - unleashed in an indignant rage at the fact that it dared hurt her - pummelled it into cosmic space dust. 

But Syndra was wounded, and rather badly, as well. Something that the three of them couldn’t easily treat, and without a dedicated healer on hand, they rushed her over to the nearest safe house - namely, Lux’s rather impressive and stately home. Her wounds weren’t so serious as to be life-threatening, but Syndra, all the same, needed treatment. That, of course, led to stabilization thanks to Lux’s more esoteric grasp of light magic, and protective barriers; long enough for Soraka to arrive and provide more direct medical assistance with healing magic. 

For Syndra, it meant a long, arduous night of people crowding around her, inquisitive eyes, and the most deadpan expression she could muster up. She tried to insist that she only had a couple of scratches - true, despite their clear depths and the time it would take to heal - but she was just talked over by the others, and treated like the medical patient she so insisted she wasn’t. 

It was mortifying. 

They, of course, insisted she didn’t move or walk or do anything strenuous for at least a couple of days. Syndra, of course, ignored it entirely. She was already up and about the next day, wearing the lower half of her outfit - the asymmetric stockings and skirt - while her upper half was wrapped in bandages, from collarbones down to just above her navel. She moved calmly through Lux’s large kitchen, preparing herself a reassuring cup of coffee as black as she could make it to serve as a pick-me-up from the stresses of the night before. No one else was awake, and no one else would be awake; Lux was a heavy sleeper, and all she did was seem to sleep or eat, really. It would take the flirtations of Jinx or the blonde fop to get her to shift, and the others weren’t any better. 

At least, so Syndra thought. Her plans of a quiet morning where she could sip coffee and get out of the house were dashed when she heard the trilling of her Multis, all three of them bouncing off against one another as if they were beach balls, and the lower, more animalistic sounds of a far too recognizable familiar besides. She let out a patient sigh as the three dark spheres bounced into the kitchen, chittering and tittering, while a four-legged animal with a dainty little horn jutting out of its forehead bounced between them; jumping from one to the other, using them as trampolines, playfully pretending to catch them before being cowed by the others.

Syndra suppressed a nerve in her forehead as Janna came rushing into the room, a giggle - a giggle, Syndra mentally scoffed - on her lips. She was in her Star Guardian uniform - white tunic, clean and pressed, and a frilly, flared skirt around lean thighs. Neat white stockings, banded with gold, rose up her legs, while equally silky gloves ran up her forearms. Gentle purple hair, light coiffed, curled around her shoulders; not thick enough to mask the slimness of her collar, the angles of her face, nor the sharp, elvish ears. 

“Zephyr, where -”

She stopped, looked at Syndra’s backside, and steadied herself. Syndra felt a prickling along her spine. “Oh. Syndra. Good morning. How -”

“Can you please tell your familiar to stop antagonizing mine?” The purple-haired mage said, her voice cool and clipped. 

“I don’t quite think that’s what’s happening,” Janna replied calmly, walking forward into the kitchen. She peered around, examining what Syndra was doing very carefully, while eyes cautiously scanned the very clear signs of wounds on her backside. 

“I know you like to keep an eye on me,” Syndra rumbled, her finger tracking along the rim of her cup, “but don’t stare. It’s rude.”

“I’m just seeing how deep it is,” Janna explained. “I rushed over when I heard you were hurt, so -”

“I was hurt last night,” Syndra pointed out idly, suppressing another twitch of a vein in her forehead. Her familiars were still bouncing around Zephyr, playing with it like it was a dog, and it was oh-so-aggravating. “So one could say you didn’t, in fact, rush over.”

“It’s not like I was told last night,” said Janna. She stood just a ways away from Syndra; well out of her personal space, hands folded in front of her politely, appearing as stiff as a board. Or, more like a mannequin, in Syndra’s eyes. Syndra wasn’t sure at what point Janna had stopped being… well, Janna, and just a cardboard cut-out of an older-sister stereotype. 

For that matter, Syndra didn’t know when she’d stopped being Syndra.

“I heard about it this morning,” Janna continued. “So I came by.”

“Well, wonderful.” Syndra’s response was as dry and deadpan as ever. She was pouring coffee into a cup the moment it was ready, not at all caring about the heat or anything else - she just wanted coffee. “I’m here. I’m alive. You’ve done your duty as Light Team’s mentor; congratulations.”

Janna licked her lips. “You know that’s not why I came by to see you.”

Syndra snorted. “No, I don’t. Don’t assume things, Janna - there’s a good saying about it.”

Janna licked her lips again, and glanced over at the pot of coffee. “I wanted to see if you were all right, Syndra. I’ve just learned that a friend was wounded in a battle. Why would I not rush over?”

“You had a friend that was wounded in a battle?”

Janna took her eyes off the coffee pot again. “Seriously, Syndra?”

Syndra’s smile was tight-lipped. “Deadly.”

She raised her glass to her lips and took a quick sip, her movements refined and graceful. Janna glanced down, and Syndra repeated the motion - finding Janna’s eyes following each step of the way. After a moment she rolled her eyes and, against her better judgment, gestured off to the side. “Oh, just have whatever’s left. I made too much anyhow, evidently.”

“...Are you su -”

“Don’t,” Syndra muttered, “just, don’t.”

Janna wrinkled her nose, but reached for the pot all the same. She brought it forward as she shuffled through the rack of neatly set mugs on Lux’s counter, looking very intently over each porcelain one, but frowned. She looked up, biting her lip, casting a glance through the clear crystal cupboards, and Syndra just stared at her in turn, totally deadpan. She watched as Janna chewed on her lip in that age-old tick of hers, searching, before her face lit up - eyes focused directly on a mug that had the initial ‘J’ on it in clear purple, matching the other initialed cups. 

She rose up to grab it, but it was a high shelf - higher than Janna was tall, even on the tips of her toes. Almost ludicrously tall, in fact, but Lux’s kitchen was big, stocked to supply a small army. The fact that Janna couldn’t reach it was a testament to that fact, and something that Syndra found, to no end, amusing - Janna was tall, tallest of them all, and she was still incapable. She could, of course, just float with her wind powers, but the girl stoically refused to do so. She wasn’t one to flaunt her ability, or even use it outside of necessity - not until it was a last resort, which drew a distinct line between her and Syndra. 

Syndra let her struggle to reach the cup, waiting for the moment where the girl gave up and started floating. The further she rose on the tips of her toes, the higher her Star Guardian outfit’s skirt rose up against her legs; presumably, she had it on for speed of travel between her home and Lux’s. Syndra, idly, and totally innocently, watched her skirt ride up fractionally, showing more of her lean legs and the creamy slip of thigh, and then just a little bit more besides, up toward -

Syndra stopped, frowned, and took a measured breath. “Oh, for - Seriously, Janna?”

It was easier to feign anger and annoyance, she found, than think about having been staring. She flexed her wrist, a nimbus of purple playing around her fingers, and picked up the cup on the topmost shelf with a slight application of her power. She levitated it down, right into Janna’s outstretched hands, and the taller girl bounced back onto her heels with a happy smile on her face - which was quickly replaced with a softer, smaller one, tight and less earnest. 

“You could have grabbed literally any other cup here,” Syndra sighed, before Janna could do something silly like thank her. “There are dozens.”

“But this one is mine,” Janna said innocently, pouring black coffee into the cup. “Lux made it specifically for me, so I want to use it.”

“Who cares? What were you going to do - grab a chair and stand on it, just to reach a cup?” Syndra snorted out an imperious laugh. “That’s just plain stupid.”

“You’re using the cup that Lux got you, too,” Janna pointed out, bending her finger backward and pointing it in her direction, and Syndra let out a strangled sputter as she realized that her fingers failed to cover the dark, purple ‘S’ that marked the front of her cup. 

She shuffled it around and hid it from view, and glanced back at her playing familiars. “That’s not - it was the first thing in reach. Obviously.”

“Obviously.” Janna’s smile wasn’t really a smirk, but it was close to one. “So was this one.”

 Syndra preoccupied herself by scoffing into her cup. She took another long sip, watching as Janna started fumbling around, and felt her jaw tighten. With another casual flick of her wrist she sent a jar sliding over just as Janna retrieved a carton of milk from the fridge, and the purple-haired Star Guardian cast the look at her. 

“I know you still take it with one milk and one sugar,” she murmured into her coffee cup. “...Just saving myself the headache that would be you, fumbling across the kitchen like a maimed platypus.”

“...That’s… quite the mental, ah, image,” Janna said patiently, mixing and stirring her drink with a soft noise. She regarded Syndra out of the corner of her eyes for several long moments before taking a drink of her own coffee - seemingly wary, a little standoffish, like two people standing on uncertain ground. "You know, you really shouldn't be straining yourself- using your powers like that."

Syndra clicked her tongue. "What's the point of having it if not to use it? Besides, I am most emphatically fine."

The look on Janna's face showed just how much she thought of that. Their ideas on the use of power were, for certain, the main reason why they had such an inherently standoffish nature with one another. Maybe there was something the other purple-haired teen wanted to say, but in the end, she didn't respond - she just changed topics with a clearing of her throat.

 “But back to what I’d been saying -”

“Oh,” Syndra sighed, “Still? How… unfortunate.”

“You are my friend,” Janna said, and her voice dropped several octaves into a whisper. "...And we have a past. The others might not know, but we were on a team, once. We were a team. I don't want to see you hurt any more than the others."

"Quaint." Syndra regarded her coolly. "Good job of making us feel like a team, Janna."

Janna's lips pursed. "That's not -"

"Fair? Quite." Syndra laughed, hand casually flipping her hair over her pale shoulder. "Don't pretend like you still care about that. You're just as suspicious of my survival as I am of yours - but here's the thing, Janna." She leaned in, her dark purple hair coiling around her neck. "I won't tell. So keep guessing, and keep spying - my secrets are my own. I won't tell you, even if -"

She snickered. "-Even if we were dating. You'd never hear the answer to those sordid little questions bouncing around in your pretty little head."

She imagined the way Janna's eyes would tighten, the way her lips would purse. Syndra knew she was being antagonistic, and she enjoyed it. She liked playing the part of the dark, mysterious mage, throwing on her aloof heirs that left the others quivering and wondering. The last thing she wanted to be was predictable, and she waited eagerly for Janna's inevitably cool and cold response -

"Would that be wise?" Janna asked instead, cocking her head up in thought. "If we were dating, wouldn't that be bad for our relationship?"

Syndra's lips flapped for a single second, her brow wavering. "What? of course it would be. Because I wouldn't care. My secrets are my own, and I wouldn't let you pry even in the most unlikely of events."

"Is it really that unlikely?" Janna inquired, both of her hands cradling her cup. It was utterly inelegant, but it looked somewhat adorable. "Technically speaking, friends with a past have the likeliest chances of getting toge -"

"What? No." Syndra frowned. "I mean, of course it's unlikely. You and I would never be together, and if we were, I wouldn't care enough about us to tell you what happened back then."

"Seems like relationship sabotage," Janna pointed out. "Would the relationship be going so bad that you'd resort to that?"

"No," Syndra scoffed. "What, you think I can't do relationships, either? I'd be the perfect girlfriend. I'm excellent at everything I put my mind to, including that." She stopped, paused, parsed her words, and then sputtered around a sip of black coffee. "W-which is not to say that I would , of course, rather that I could ."

Janna looked faintly amused, and so Syndra took a furious sip of coffee. "That's good to know, Syndra. I'll keep that in mind."

"Oh, do stop staring, Janna. You're getting on my nerves."

Janna smiled softly. "Well, if nothing else, at least this bluster of yours confirms that you're feeling better."

"This isn't bluster," Syndra argued, almost pouting - almost, because, of course, Syndra did not pout. Not when people could see her. 

"Of course not," Janna allowed, her enigmatic smile still playing at her lips. "I understand - if we were dating, which we most certainly would not, but you could if you wanted to, and would do it excellently if so, you still wouldn't tell me your secrets."

Syndra frowned. "That's exactly right. So don't bother doing - " she waved her hand "-any of this. It's pointless."

"Well, I am curious, but I trust you, Syndra.” 

“Oh, no you don’t, ” Syndra sighed. “You look at me with suspicion, you glare, you stare, and it’s a terrible waste of your time. You only care about knowing why things happened, what the reasons were, why I was gone without you for so long and what the deal is with everything that makes me a Star Guardian.”

She pointed a finger. “You know I was different before. You know how I looked, and what I did, and you know the differences. Why you haven’t spilled the beans, I do not know - but you’re only here for answers that I won’t give. I can justify, or defend, or explain, but I have done nothing wrong - so I will not.”

Janna stared, just like that. It was like she didn’t expect the sudden rant, to double-down and call Janna out on all her bullshit - Syndra was sure of it. She, smugly, crossed her arms under her bust, and stared self-righteously at the girl. Both knew the other had done something back then, but it had always been little more than a lingering thing that kept the two on frosty ground. Syndra just pulled it all out into the open, and revealed itself as the elephant in the room that it was. 

Syndra, of course, would never admit that what she did was wrong or right, simply that it was; and any justification to blunt the edge of whatever sour truth lay at the heart of it would simply ruin the person she'd made for herself. It would be as if she were admitting defeat.

“There you have it,” she said smugly. 

Janna inclined her head. Zephyr, immediately, bounced onto her shoulder, responding to some unspoken command. It nestled there like a cat, snuggling into the crook of her neck and stretching itself out around her slim shoulders, and Syndra licked her lips at the thought of just how warm and comfy that looked. “You’ve made quite the point.”

“Yes.” A statement of fact. 

"However..."

Syndra's eyes narrowed. "However?"

“That doesn’t mean I don’t trust you. It means I wonder. Wonder what you went through that I did not. How it made you so different, but so much the same.” A smile played at her lips, small and careful. “Insofar as I am able to, I’d still put my faith in you again.”

Syndra licked her lips. “Bullshit.”

“And further,” Janna said matter-of-factly, “in the unlikely case that we were, in fact, dating… I'd certainly tell you my secrets. In the interest of our relationship."

Syndra choked on her sip of coffee, and sputtered into her cup - trying her hardest not to make any incriminating sounds, and, naturally, making far too many of them. 

“What are you doing, Syndra?” Janna asked, and Syndra resisted the urge to roll her eyes. 

She sat quietly at a table just outside the school, one leg folded neatly over the other. Her uniform fit tight against her well-proportioned body - all rolling curves and narrow dips, hugging the shapely lines in a way that few others could. Her body, certainly, ranged in that comfortable area of mature and womanly, and she cut a striking figure. Normally, it was the kind of figure that people stared at and admired from afar. Strictly from afar, without bothering her. 

Which was very much the opposite of what Janna was doing. 

“I am calculating a line,” Syndra said evenly, being as quick and cool and cutting about it as she could. Her hand lightly grazed the pages of an open book, following along the neat and dense script. To the eyes of many, Janna included, it looked like utter gibberish - Nh5. Ng3+. Rg1! - but to Syndra it was pure elegance. 

Her other hand did nothing much at all. It tapped away at the side of the sculpted iron table, avoiding the wood board set dead-center, careful not to touch any pieces until she was sure of what she was doing. She concentrated, and rather intensely, too - how deep could I go? She wondered, analyzing as deeply as she could. She crunched the position over in head, knowing what was written and immortalized on the page beside her, but wondering what the better options could have been played - and what the reactions to such would have been. It was hubris, she recognized, to think she could improve a game that was already beautiful by execution; but hindsight offered plenty of room for improvement, and if anyone could do it…

Calmly, Syndra reached and pushed her G pawn forward. It was, as annotated, a rather dubious move, and probably bad - but that was the point of calculating her line. Just what would she do, if she were her imaginary opponent? It - 

“I don’t know what that means,” Janna admitted, scratching the back of her light, purple hair. Her ears stood out stark from the sides of her head, jutting out rather far, in fact, and with the severe lines of her jaw, she looked more Elf than Human. 

Syndra sighed through her nose. “I’m aware. I hardly expect you to understand the intricacies of Chess.”

“I understand what Chess is,” Janna said idly. “But I have no idea what ‘calculating a line’ means.”

“It means -” Syndra blinked, stopped. She wrinkled her nose after a moment of thought, moving a white piece to the most logical continuation, and stared at Janna askance. “No, this isn’t worth my time. I’m thinking, so stop bothering me, Janna.”

Janna raised her brows. “I’m sorry. I don’t mean to be a bother.”

Syndra sighed impatiently. “Why are you here at all? I thought we were clear on where we stood last time we spoke.”

“No, last time we spoke you vented.” Janna shrugged. “I am curious, I admit that, but it’s not as if my curiosity means I don’t trust you. As you’d said, if I didn’t, I would tell everyone what I knew.” She stopped, paused, and her voice dropped just a fraction. “About both of us. We’ve both seen, I imagine, her. I think I’ve got a fairly good understanding of what it means to be a bad Star Guardian.”

Syndra pretended not to care, and just shuffled pieces on her board. One move, then the other, back and forth. Janna stood there awkwardly, shuffling from foot to foot, and Syndra did nothing for it. She wasn’t sure what she should do, really - what was she going to say? She believed her? She trusted her, as well? 

“...Might I sit here, though?” Janna asked patiently, quietly, her manner hushed and gentle like always. She pointed to the seat directly opposite of Syndra’s, on the side of the white pieces. “I’d, ah, like to read for a bit, and I know you’re quiet company.”

Syndra stared at her. “Of which you are decidedly not. ”

“I promise I won’t make any noise,” Janna said politely, tilting her head. “Howe-”

“Don’t you have class?” Syndra interrupted, a nail tapping at the iron of the table. 

“We’re both on a spare,” the other girl said. 

Syndra frowned. “How -”

“We’re in half the same classes. And the same homeroom.”

“Right.” Syndra worked her jaw. “Sorry - I hardly pay attention to you or what you do.”

Janna’s lips formed an unimpressed line. Syndra let her stand there, unimpressed, taking in the brief enjoyment that came with such a thoroughly done expression. 

“Have you, perhaps,” she started, “considered that I don’t want you here?”

Janna almost - almost - flinched. Syndra could see it now - she was going to say ‘no,’ pretend to be all noble and wise and heartbreakingly innocent, and -

“Yes,” Janna said at length. “I was just… hoping otherwise. Sorry. I’ll - I’ll find somewhere else.” She smiled politely. “I’ll see you around, Syn -”

Syndra grumbled under her breath. Just why was it that Janna could make her feel so bad about something? “Oh, just sit down, Janna, and keep quiet. Don’t make a single peep, don’t distract me, and don’t make me regret it.” 

Janna raised both eyebrows, which had Syndra roll her eyes. 

“Don’t act so surprised. It’s not like there’s anywhere else for you to sit.” She waved her hand irritably. “Just sit that pretty ass down and don’t even think about asking me to teach you Chess.”

Janna didn’t say a word as she took a seat in front of, sitting as neatly and precisely as Syndra herself did. There was no denying her femininity, nor her grace - she was cut from a different, older, and in Syndra’s opinion, better, cloth than the other Star Guardians. Only Soraka could match them for poise, and she was something… other. The rest were just girls - the youngest, even with their slow and near non-existent aging, and it showed. Syndra didn’t begrudge them that; that was why she sought to refine them, just as much as Janna did. The two of them were different, though, and in a better way. 

Janna didn’t speak. She removed a book - not for studying, just a novel. She flipped through to a neatly set bookmark - purple in colour, and capped with a little feather charm - and she set it down just as neatly. Her thighs pressed tightly together as she sat straight and stiff, like a picture-perfect lady. For many moments, that was it - them sitting across from one another in an uneasy silence, but it was silence, unlike everywhere else around them. Each table lining the stone circuit around the indoor common area was taken up by giggling gaggles of teen girls and brash males, all making far too much noise for concentration. 

That was why Syndra moved her table far enough away to be hidden. In hindsight, that might have been why she was called the ‘Ice Queen’ of the school.

...And pretty much every other school they’d been in. 

Pages flipped and chess pieces moved across the board. That was it, for a long while. Janna, occasionally, would glance at the board inquisitively from out of the corners of her eyes, as if trying to understand the intricacies of the moves. Syndra, instead, would stare at her book, searching the cover over, before humphing and looking down again. 

Eventually, she sniffed. “...Janna. Please don’t tell me that’s teen drivel.”

Janna cocked her head from the suddenness of her question. “We’re teens, Syndra.”

“We’re older than that. Biologically, yes, chronologically, we’re -”

“It’s not nice to say a woman’s age,” Janna hummed, a smile playing at her lips. 

“That’s not - what?” Syndra narrowed her eyes. She shook her head. “We might pretend to be schoolgirls, but we’re far more mature than that. So, please, tell me that’s not some young adult shit. ”

Janna looked like she was trying not to be amused. “All right. I won’t.”

Syndra hissed through her nose, and pressed fingers to her temple. “Janna…”

“It’s a teen romance novel, is all.” Janna tapped the cover. “Quite good.”

“That is embarrassing,” she stated. “I am embarrassed for you.”

“Thank you,” Janna smiled sarcastically. “That’s so very kind.”

“Whatever.” Syndra wrinkled her nose, and made another move. This one came out quicker; the line was at its end, where the variations were slim. Moves became critical, but immovable; there was nothing she could see that would drastically change the outcome. “...It’s not a book I would know, I am sure.”

“Curious?”

“No.” Her response was, perhaps, a smidge too quick. 

“It’s about two girls at school,” Janna started to explain, and Syndra scowled as best as she could.

“I do not care.” 

Janna smiled patiently. “Okay.”

Another minute of silence, then two, then three. Syndra gnawed on her lip, the next move alluding her entirely. Idly, she scratched her cheek and shuffled in her seat, eyes flicking up and down. 

“What’s it called?” Syndra asked quietly, quickly, but Janna heard, and smiled. 

“So I can’t castle through a check?”

“No,” Syndra said irritably. “Not if, in the act of moving, you put yourself into, or through it. It’s an imaginary wall.”

“So that’s why you sacrificed…” Janna trailed off, looking over Syndra’s shoulder, and the purple-haired teen instinctively tightened up. 

“What’s going on here?” Ahri purred, setting a hand on the back of Syndra’s chair and leaning inquisitively over the board. Her tie, left loose, reached down to tickle the back of her neck, and her chest pressed down against the neatly-fitted shirt. Just like Janna and Syndra, every bit of her outfit was calculated and neat - but she did it purely to highlight her body, whereas Syndra’s was more of an afterthought that naturally came about because of good genetics. 

“Nothing of particular note,” Syndra said idly, glancing at her ‘leader’. Ahri smiled, all cheek and sass, and shifted back - arms crossing against the back of her chair, leaning just a ways away. She interrupted Syndra’s personal space, and while that angered her immensely, Ahri was… Ahri. Too difficult to dissuade, and a person that genuinely trusted Syndra; the purple-haired girl didn’t have it in her to really snap at the fox, even if she might want to. She wasn’t that cold-hearted.

“Looks like you’re playing chess,” Ahri noted, amusement curling around her words. 

“Obviously -”

“She’s teaching me,” Janna explained calmly, and Ahri’s ears twitched. 

“Oh? Wow, Syndra. That’s progressive of you!”

“That’s not the right phrasing,” Syndra bit out, stiff and annoyed. “And that is not what I am doing.”

“It is,” Janna said unhelpfully. 

Syndra’s lips turned down at Ahri giggled in an almost infuriating fashion. She swivelled around the table, almost spinning, and Syndra swore she could feel the stares of the students around them focusing like razors; it wasn’t, after all, every day that they had the self-proclaimed queen bee of the school at a table with two other utterly gorgeous students. Syndra would have loved to blame silly teen hormones, had said silly teen hormones also not been very much present inside herself. 

“Regardless, ” Syndra hissed, “to what do I owe the pleasure, Ahri?”

“Juuuust wanted to make sure you were okay.” Ahri’s eyes were kind, but focused; she stared down at Syndra and locked gazes, preventing her from breaking it. Ahri was bright and bubbly, cute and teen-like, but it was a front - a mask she put on. Syndra saw through it easily, and she could almost respect it. It wasn’t as if Syndra was a stranger to putting on masks. 

Ahri was all concern and dedication on the inside. A furious star, burning in defiance of everything. Measured, calculating, and more concerned with doing what a Star Guardian was supposed to do than playing around like Lux. It was why Syndra chose to advise her; she was, at present, someone that was actively working toward destiny. It did make her somewhat impersonal, though, Syndra learned. Never dated, never went out, never did anything that didn’t involve fighting or schoolgirl hobbies. 

Syndra liked the dedication. She did not like the very clear concern she saw in her eyes: concern over a friend that she’d injured at her own command, suffered under her initiative. She wouldn’t say it, but Syndra could tell. It made her lick her lips, briefly; a wonder of just why there was so much concern floating around from parties that really shouldn’t have cared less. 

“It’s been two days,” Syndra said idly. “I healed after the first night. I’m more than fine.” She inclined her head, and added belatedly, “thank you for asking.”

Ahri stared for another moment still before her pretty lips curved into a wider smile. “That’s good!” She winked. “Can’t go without my advisor, you know!”

Syndra chuckled under her breath, head tilted down. “I’d hope not.”

Ahri stepped back, glanced at Janna, and winked unsubtly. She reached toward the board and, instead of using Janna’s king to capture the poisoned bishop, pushed her knight. Another move, and it would result in a pin - another move still, and Syndra’s position would be compromised. She’d seen that line, of course, and planned for it, but given that Janna didn’t know how to play, it wasn’t a concern. Or, hadn’t been, and so she glared at Ahri. 

“Really?”

“Just helping.” Ahri giggled behind her hand. “Gotta put up a good fight, no?”

Syndra cursed Ahri’s fine grasp of Chess. “That defeats the purpose of learning.”

“So you are teachi -”

“ No, ” Syndra said adamantly, rapping her nails against the table. “But, by all means, if you want to lose again…”

“Sorry, sweetie, but I’ve got things to attend to,” Ahri said coquettishly. She glanced between Syndra and Janna with unsubtle eyes, and set her hands proudly on her wide hips. “Plus - I mean, I can’t break up this super cute thing you two have going on!”

Syndra coughed into her hand. “Oh, stop it, A -”

“Oh! Hey, is that -” Ahri reached for Janna’s book, and cooed at the sight of it. “Oh, wow, it is! This one’s great. ”

“It is, yes,” Janna said brightly. “I was just telling Syndra about it, too -”

“-You were not -” Syndra bristled. 

“-It’s super cute, right?” Ahri flashed a smile that was all teeth and brilliance. 

“Yes, quite,” the teen with the light-purple hair nodded.

Syndra humphed as she was left out. She set her chin in one hand and idly moved her piece, deciding that she would not let Janna off easy, thank you very much. 

“Oh, sorry, Syndra,” Ahri apologized, quickly taking note of Syndra’s glower. Not that Syndra glowered, of course - she absolutely did not. Not unless it suited her, of course. “I didn’t mean to interrupt your date. I’ll catch you later, though?”

“Yes, well, that’s -” Syndra sputtered on the last word, and blinked twice. “Excuse me? What the hell do you think -” Ahri, though, was already walking away, and Syndra half-rose from her seat. Her cheeks felt warm - why did her cheeks feel warm? “Do not walk away from me, young lady!”

“We’re not that much old -”

She glowered. “Shut up, Janna.”

Time passed, much as it always did: school, battle, ‘detective’ work, and Syndra’s intricate studies into stars and suns and the reasons why they went dark. Metaphysically, of course; Syndra wasn’t interested in anything plebeian. Wounds healed and were left behind, joining the myriad of other faded battle-scars that marked her marble-like skin. She took each day as it came, mastering her grip of her powers just that tiniest bit more, while learning things in classes that she’d heard a dozen times before - in books and other places, besides. 

It wasn’t her first time at school, after all, nor her first time in fourth year. The Star Guardians aged slowly, and they went where they were needed. That meant a lot of cover as schoolgirls, and lots of time spent in classes. Homework wasn’t even an issue anymore - just a speedbump along the way, and something she could wave off with almost effortless ease. Others, though - well, as Jinx expressed, it was her very definition of hell. 

The rest of her time was spent in the after-school theater club - drama and arts, taught by the eccentric and most certainly schizophrenic Professor Jhin. Syndra didn’t mind the eccentricities; he was good at what he did, and had a fine grasp for stage play and acting in general. He was a performer through and through, and Syndra enjoyed his tutelage. It had always been a fascination for her, and something she liked very much indeed - more than a hobby. She half-imagined that if she wasn’t A. a Star Guardian, B. President or Prime Minister of a country, or C. ruler-slash-Queen of some world, she’d have been an actress. 

The best, of course. 

Or D, the best chess master to have ever existed, she added, after a cursory thought. But, then, that fits with any of the above, so I suppose it’s more of an ancillary thing. 

However, as a week passed and the weather got warmer, Lux decided it would make an excellent time for a pool party. Or, rather, her birthday party, celebrated in a pool event over the weekend. Syndra really wasn’t into such things - parties, celebrations, group get-togethers - and they were rarely worth her time. Few things were, and if something wasn’t worth it, she didn’t waste it. Her time was like currency, and she spent it well; purse close to the chest, as it were. However, in all that, she didn’t like to needlessly antagonize her allies, which was especially so for the leader of an entire team; and second… 

Well, the weather was warm, Lux did have a nice pool, and Syndra did want to lounge around in the sun. Not necessarily for a tan; she liked her pale, smooth skin, something that girls in their silly love-letters likened to moonlight, but she also enjoyed basking in the warmth. That was pretty much the entire reason why she’d said yes, much to even Lux’s surprise. 

She hadn’t expected her to show up. She’d even less expected Syndra to drop a very simply wrapped present in her hands, but Syndra was calculated, and she knew what everyone liked should she need to buy them off with material goods - a simple bangle for Lux, and then a little cupcake to go along with it. All of it plopped directly into her bemused grip, upon which she’d promptly acted entirely indifferent to the decorations and frilly things that were thrown across every single damn surface by the far too energetic Jinx. 

“Happy Birthday, and all that,” Syndra had murmured under her breath, barely cognizant of the fact that it was her birthday, and not really caring about the intricacies thereof. It’s not like anyone celebrated her birthday; it wasn’t like anyone even knew it. 

Still, she ate the cake that was offered, pretended to sing along to the cheesy songs, and then got into the really good stuff - lying on a tanning bed by the incredibly large pool of the ‘Crownguard’ manse, stretched out along the comfy seat, with a nice martini glass by her side. While there was no rule against them having alcohol - given that they were interdimensional horror-hunters, Syndra was apt to give any of them leeway if they wanted a drink - none of Lux’s team really partook, save Jinx, perhaps, so only Sarah and Syndra had any. Sarah was an expert at mixing them, thankfully, and the fruity, colourful drink was just delightful. 

She stretched out on the chair, leaning back into the pillow under her neck, a smile on her lips and a hum in her throat. One hand idly swung by her side, and the other was secured around the resting glass - a comforting feeling, all around. Much like all the others, she, too, had a swimsuit on, even though she didn’t intend to go in the water: a one-piece, of a sort, made of violet fabric, clinging to the contours of her body. It was like a leotard, running from her thighs up to her chest, with a generous cut-out to show her sides - a hip-gap that was far too wide, showing off their width, the sweeping curve of her waist, and the lean tract up to her ribcage. It even rolled over the flanks of her sides, showing off just a few inches of stomach before returning to conservative cloth.

It arced over her breasts and around her neck, but only just; it showed off a great deal of deep, pillowy cleavage, with nothing to guard her modesty there. Not that Syndra cared about ogling; she had much more revealing outfits if she wanted them, and some more seductive ones besides. It was like a game to her, and a proof that she could make the fairly conservative one-piece - at least, by her standards, not Lux’s - looked damned sexy. 

She shifted her sunglasses on her face and leaned back to enjoy the sun, and did so for many long moments. She basked in it, while the others whiled away the time doing other things. The martini was soothing and refreshing all at the same time, and she supped at it as the others played volleyball in the pool. She watched them with idle eyes, using them as little more than a way to mark the passage of time, taking little curiosity in their game. 

She took a quick sip of her drink, and hummed contentedly. Lux's impressive home was perfect for these sorts of things, in truth, and she was almost envious of it. It was a nice feeling all around, and she wasn't sure that anything could bring down her mood -

"Not going to join in?" asked a voice, and Syndra glanced to her left. She saw Janna dropping herself down into the tanning bed almost right next to hers, and the purple-haired teen started to cough around her mouthful of fruity beverage. "Oh - uh, are you alright, Syndra?"

"Of course," she snapped, wiping her mouth with the back of her hand. "Why are you here?"

"I'm going to tan?" Janna responded, almost as if she was questioning herself - or doubting the veracity of the question itself. 

Syndra lifted her sunglasses to stare directly into Janna's eyes. "Yes, but why here?"

"These are the only tanning beds?"

"I -" Syndra looked around, and found nothing. "...So they are."

Janna blinked. She sat on the edge of the comfortable, plush chair, not quite sitting and not quite lying down, stuck in a state of half-and-half as she worked over Syndra's perplexion. She made for quite the sight, in truth. Her swimsuit was a less-than-conservative bikini: a modest top the colour of the sky, hugging her shapely chest and reaching around her neck in thin strings. It showed little cleavage, but a ring of metal kept the two halves set together, and it showed enough to highlight just how deep it was. Her bottoms went comfortably high, and were similarly tied and connected with metal loops. 

The length of her torso and legs were left bare, though, and those were what drew the eye. Soft, lean, ladylike legs, comfortable-looking thighs, and a perfectly flat belly. Gentle lines went along her sides, showing just the barest indication of athleticism, but it was only because of just how slender and lean she was that it appeared at all - the rest was a silky-smooth tract, broken only by her navel. Syndra, of course, did not stare - she'd had refused such an insinuation, mental or otherwise - but her eyes raked up and down her body, all the same. 

Internally, she humphed. 

"Well, whatever, then." Syndra put her sunglasses on. "Don't make noise, and don't bother me."

Janna's brow furrowed, but she shrugged and settled back, all the same. Out of the corner of her eye, Syndra watched as Janna folded herself along the chair, and didn't fail to notice the way her chest splayed out gently as gravity affected her. Her legs, too, made it a good deal further than Syndra's did, and her belly dimpled in as she extended out. It was a rather attractive sight, and that, Syndra couldn't deny. 

"Might I ask why you wear the eyepatch underneath your sunglasses?" Janna asked abruptly, and Syndra clicked her tongue. 

"I'd said not to bother me when I'm trying to get some sun," she snapped, but Janna wasn't perturbed by her tone. "...And I said I wouldn't divulge my secrets."

"So the eyepatch is part of your secret?" Janna raised an amused eyebrow. "And here I'd thought it was a wound."

"That's not - no, stop that." Syndra scowled at her. "No probing."

"You divulged that of your own volition."

Syndra shook her head, and turned it the other way. "Shut up and tan, Janna."

There was exactly one minute of quiet, punctuated only by the sounds of bouncing volleyballs. 

"...Sorry," Janna said. "I didn't mean to bother."

"And yet you continue to do so," Syndra sighed. "It's really not that hard to just lie there."

"Is it wrong for me to want to talk to you, Syndra?" She asked, her tone gentle and yet her words heavy. 

"Yes."

Janna pursed her lips, and Syndra watched out of the corner of her masked eyes - well, eye. It was somewhat hard, given that her eyepatch was facing Janna directly. "I just want to converse with a friend. That's not weird at all."

She smirked. "Well, if -"

Janna pointed a threatening finger at her. "No sarcastic remarks out of you!"

Syndra raised an eyebrow that was only partially masked by her glasses. "Quaint. We have nothing to talk about, however. No need to say more than is strictly necessary."

Janna regarded her like one would a wounded animal. "We talked about chess last week."

"You were like a bothersome puppy."

"I told you about my book -"

"Irrelevant and boorish." Syndra clicked her tongue. "I was just placating you."

Janna's lips formed a line. "Is everything just a waste of your time?"

"Things that aren't worth my time," was her measured response, each word savoured on her tongue, "are the things that aren't worth it."

Janna frowned. "Then why do you bother, Syndra? If everything is a waste, why do you - why did you even show up? Ahri didn't. You could go chasing monsters with her, instead."

Syndra's smile was cold and mocking. "Truthfully?"

"Preferably." 

"I like Lux's home. I enjoy the sunshine, and pretty women in swimsuits. I'm attempting to lay calmly in the sun by the poolside. No more, no less."

"...So it's all for your own desires, huh?"

"Precisely so." Syndra flashed all of her perfect teeth, and stared down her shades. "As both teams know, I am all about my own ambitions."

Janna frowned further.

"Distraught, Janna?" Syndra cackled under her breath. "We are two very different people, after all. No reason to play nice. Just lie there, be quiet, and look pretty. You can do… at least one of those things to a remarkable degree."

"I see." Janna nodded sagely, her long ears twitching vaguely. "You really are melodramatic."

Syndra baulked. "What the fff - how is that what you gathered from all that?"

"It would make a wonderful evil witch performance, though, I'd admit." Janna kept nodding. "Do you write these down, and then put them into a script? Or save them for future use?"

"Somet - absolutely not, " she hissed. "I am -" 

"-Being overly dramatic," Janna supplied, and Syndra scoffed. 

"Stop pretending like what I say doesn't affect you," Syndra half-snarled. "Don't give me that 'quiet wisdom' shit - that's not you. "

"Wasn't," Janna corrected, and inclined her head. "You know, you're the only person I know that can insult and compliment at the same time."

"I'm done with this conversation," Syndra declared, and busied herself with her drink- which, unfortunately, was empty, making her look like a fool.

"Would you like a refill?"

"Not from you. Just leave, Janna, you're getting on my damn nerves again -"

"-That's not what you'd said earlier," Janna pointed out. "What was it? Sit here and look pretty? " 

Syndra clenched her teeth. "Objectively, you are extremely attractive. I have eyes, and you've chosen to dress provocatively." She tilted her chin up. "And who's to say my eventual destiny doesn't involve a harem of women at my beck and call?"

"Eye."

"What?"

"You've got the one eye to see me with, the other is -"

"Oh, fuck you, elf-ears, I can see perfectly fine." Janna matched her words with a distinctly teasing smile, and Syndra scowled. "Don't look at me like that."

Janna shrugged. "I'm not doing anything I don't normally do." 

"You haven't been like that since then ," Syndra grated, feeling far too prickly for her own good. 

"Maybe that's because I don't have to advise people," Janna said simply. "Don't have to be the wise one in a group of people I'm forever set apart from. Maybe I'm not an invader, here."

Syndra stared. "Don't act like you're leading this double life shit. I see through that far too easily."

"Because only you could," she replied. "Because we were friends."

"There's a strong emphasis on one word there, and it starts with were. "

Janna laughed, and it was a particularly musical sound - like wind through chimes. Or bells; Syndra liked bells. "Such cutting wit - not even years dull it, huh?"

"Stop pretending like we're bonding," Syndra bemoaned. "We're not. I am not here for you, or them, or any of this social thing you have going on. You've taken up enough if my time as it is, so if you don't remain quiet, I will move my fucking chair to the other side of the pool." She sniffed. "The sun is better there, anyhow."

Janna didn't speak. She got up, instead, and left. Walked away, and Syndra smiled with smug triumph. She sat back, arms folded under her head, and preened in the sunlight. There was a strange pool of… something awfully similar to disappointment, though, lingering in the pit of her stomach; or maybe anticipation, as if she'd expected more. It didn't matter, though, and she pushed it aside, making time only for herself and - 

"Here you go," said Janna, and Syndra hastily jumped up in a way that had her shapely chest bouncing. The much taller girl put down another martini on her table, while another was in her hand. She wasn't looking at Syndra at all, though, and instead gazed off at the pool, smiling faintly. 

“W-what?” Syndra looked at the glass. “Uhm. Why?”

“A thank you is customary,” the teen said playfully, and Syndra blinked twice for good measure. 

“Thank you?” Syndra shook her head. “I just yelled at you. Why -”

Janna rolled her eyes. “You’re always yelling, Syndra. I just go with it. Besides, you clearly wanted another drink.” Janna waved her hand and, of all the things Syndra expected to see, it was not one of her Multi rolling onto her shoulders. “And anyways, your familiar told me so.”

“Are your shoulders fucking familiar magnets?!” She hissed, glaring at the purple ball. “And what the hell, Multi? Who gave you permission to do that?”

The familiar tittered playfully as it rolled down the length of Janna’s arm. 

“No,” Syndra replied, “I was not thinking I wanted her to do that ! ” 

“You know,” Janna interrupted suddenly, gesturing toward the pool, “I recall you being rather good at volleyball. Beach volleyball - you'd liked it. And basketball, too - actually, doesn't the team have a game coming up?"

"What?" Syndra was confused. "I - yes, they do?"

"You're still in the starting lineup?"

"Of course?" Syndra frowned more. "...My club business is of no concern to you."

Janna smiled. "Well, considering you've won trophies for the school, I'd say it's the student body’s business."

She shook her head. "Sure, whatever. It's just a game."

"It's impressive."

Syndra swallowed hard. "Was that a compliment? Why are you complimenting that?"

"Because it's true." Janna inclined her head toward the pool, drink still held loosely in her hand. "Why don't you join in? It seems like fun."

"Stop changing topics," Syndra said bitterly. It was always a little hard to keep up with Janna in a conversation- like the wind, she breezily floated between things and effortlessly held ten threads of logic at once. "And, no, I'm here to get some sun. What about that do you not understand?"

"Sorry," Janna chuckled. "I think I will, though. It just seems unfair, given my height. They might well think I'm the best one here."  

She walked off. "Of course, I do also remember winning all the times we used to play, so I suppose I am."

"Oh, don't reverse-psych me," Syndra laughed, taking a sip of her new drink. "It's not going to work."

She didn’t watch Janna enter the pool - she was too busy glaring at her Multi. “And you. We’re going to have a talk about staying put. ”

The reverse psychology did not work on Syndra, of course, because Syndra would never be baited into something so trivial as that. She, naturally, made the perfectly conscious choice to get into the pool entirely of her own volition, joining in on the ensuing volleyball game and adding her rather significant prowess to the mix. 

Syndra was good - very good. Athletic pursuits weren't her thing, and she didn't care. She was, however, rather good at hand-eye coordination, so dunking a ball through a little hoop or tossing around a white ball across a net was simple. She didn't even need her power - though she wasn't above using it if she felt like it - to win. None of the other girls expected her to join in, of course, and their stupefied expressions turned to cheers for her own team, and groans of regret on the other. 

Syndra had to say she enjoyed the brief attention, and further enjoyed humiliating the blonde fop on the other team. Seriously, she wondered, who let him join in during girl time?  

Syndra was a little enthusiastic about going up against Janna, and wiping her serene smile from her face. She was happy to trade blows with her - spiking and setting and ducking it out between the two of them, seeing which was better. Seeing who could hit it harder, faster, further. Janna had height, and in her graceful downward hits, sent the ball rebounding off against the water. Too high for most of Syndra's team to reach, but not so high that she couldn't try and return it. 

Maybe Syndra was a little too enthusiastic. She was allowed such things, though, she reasoned - and it was Janna's fault for insinuating that Syndra wasn't the best amongst them. She did not, however, plan for her next hit to be a little too firm, a little too hard, sending the white ball wiping down directly into Janna's pretty face. There was a cry and a backward jerk of the head, and Syndra froze - comically jutting out of the water, barely in, barely out, just enough for her to be awkward.

"....Oh." 

Everyone was already rushing over to Janna, who was even then waving them off with half-hearted flicks of her wrist. She held her nose in one hand, pinching it, but Syndra didn't see blood - yet all the same she pushed through the water toward her, brushing aside Jinx and Poppy with simple shrugs, and forced herself in front of Janna. 

"Is anything broken?" She asked directly, ignoring the look that Soraka gave her. 

"No," Janna replied patiently. Her face was red, visibly smarting from the impact, but she looked otherwise fine. "Very sore, though. Soraka's going to set it with magic."

Syndra scrunched up her nose. "Fine. Perfect. Do that."

She stepped back, and gestured to Soraka. Soraka stepped in, almost shuffling, visibly nervous, but just waved her hands vaguely over Janna's face. Syndra said nothing more; did nothing more, other than cross her arms under her chest and wait patiently for Soraka to be done. She cast a critical eye over her face once she was finished, examining her work, and did nothing else - she pushed herself out of the water and padded her way over to her chair, and returned to what she'd been doing not even twenty minutes prior. 

That was that, for the rest of the way. Janna looked at her strangely, but nothing happened. She remained in the pool, playing along with the others, until they swapped games and did other things besides. When she left the pool, she found that Syndra had already separated the two chairs and pushed her own into a better patch of sunlight. 

The hours whittled down just like that, until Lux called for yet another cake-and-snack eating session. The girl had a stomach like a bottomless pit, and she was able to eat forever, it seemed. Sweets were her favourite, and every kind of baked good under the sun seemed to laden her table. Many were courtesy of Jinx, who seemed perfectly happy to ply the pinkette with treat - and as Ezreal brought out a heart-shaped box of chocolates for Lux to treat herself on, Jinx ten-upped up him with an entire box of cupcakes in every flavour under the sun. 

Syndra sat a ways away, only picking at a cupcake of her own. She didn't eat much, and the caramel flavours weren't her favourite, anyhow. It was some time later when Lux skipped over, moving between all the girls with happy words on her lips, and Syndra wasn't in the mood to tell her not to bother - it was her birthday, after all. 

"Thanks for coming by, Syndra!" Lux said, smiling, but clearly nervous. "I hope it wasn't too dull for you."

"I like your pool," she said very, very simply, inclining her head as politely as she could manage. "...And thank you, I suppose."

Lux's smile was a little more hesitant, but a lot more earnest. "I like my pool, too - I mean, obviously, but it's super nice. You're, uhm, welcome to come by any time you want! I won't mind."

"That's a very generous offer," she said coolly. Lux was the kind of girl that would extend an olive branch no matter the circumstance, and Syndra didn't see a need to bat it away. She didn't say anything more, though - she just let the moment linger into an amusing silence. 

Lux's eyes flicked up. "Oh, Janna! Hi! You too! Thanks for coming by, and the present, too!"

"You've already said," Janna said gently from just out of view. "But I'll thank you, again. I'll always come by when you ask, Lux."

Syndra wanted to pretend to gag. 

"We're obviously not done yet, though!" Lux continued, looking between the both of them. "I've got other stuff planned - kinda sorta,I mean, Jinx does, so, uh, take that as you want - but, yeah! We've got a whole day of sun left!"

Syndra waited until after Lux hopped off to speak. "She is far too bright."

"In all respects," Janna quipped. "But that's what makes her so... admirable, I suppose. A straightforwardness that few have, and a willingness to burn so bright that the Dark Stars can't dim it."

"Poetic," Syndra scoffed, and Janna giggled quietly.  

"Maybe just a bit." 

Syndra cleared her throat for a long moment. "...About earlier. The incident. That wasn't... intentional."

Janna blinked as if surprised. "I know."

"I wasn't trying to - " Syndra stopped, and looked back at Janna. "You know?"

"It was an accident," Janna said, regarding her with amusement. "I doubt you were seriously trying to hurt me with a volleyball."

"Of course, there are far better methods," Syndra replied smugly, and Janna looked like she was trying not to laugh. "...I'm serious."

"I know, and that's what makes it funny." 

Syndra pursed her lips. “I don’t appreciate that.”

“ I don’t appreciate a ball to the face,” Janna amusedly answered. 

“Then don’t keep me around,” the purple-haired teenager said simply, her chin tilted up. “That’s what happens - people get hurt.” 

Janna, incredulously, rolled her eyes. “I don’t know how many times I can say the word melodramatic, but -”

“Then don’t, ” Syndra bit off. “Because I am not. ”

“Then don’t give me that, that's what happens thing.” Janna took calm, careful bits of her cupcake - vanilla bean, so it seemed to Syndra. “That was an accident. You have never, otherwise, ever hurt someone you were with, nor led anyone in danger at any single point in time.”

Syndra picked at her cupcake. Little, neat chunks of vanilla were tossed between her lips, and she chewed mechanically. “You don’t know that.”

“Yes, I do.”

“I have many hidden agendas,” Syndra protested. 

“Yes, you do,” Janna relented, shaking her head. Her curls of light purple flopped against her shoulders. Her hair was might brighter in the sunlight, and with water having soaked through it, the individual strands glistened. “But I don’t think you’re bad, Syndra. I - yes, you’re right, I’m curious as to what, exactly, happened… then… but I do not think, for a single moment, that you hold any ounce of malice toward you. I don’t even think you’d ever cause any harm. Motivation is one thing; ill-will another.”

“Who’s to say I wouldn't betray everyone to achieve my goals?” Syndra felt a smile crawl onto her lips. “Force everyone into a situation where only I come out on top?”

“Plausible,” Janna said, and Syndra frowned. “...but I don’t think you would. It’s one thing to pay one’s toll; another, to exact it from another. I don’t think that’s your style.”

“You don’t know me.”

“Careful,” Janna remarked slyly, “you almost sound like a teen.”

“You are infuriating.” Syndra tossed her cupcake into a garbage bin. “I don’t understand how the others see anything wise about you.”

“Come on,” the girl laughed softly, “You can’t tell me that wasn’t wise.”

“You make a good show at it,” Syndra sniffed. “Perhaps you should be the one in theatre, not I -”

“So you admit it?”

Syndra made a noise. “I - what - no, I admit nothing. That was nothing. ”

“I think -”

“I don’t care. Stop it.” Syndra stood up. “This isn’t worth my time. I’m leaving.”

Janna’s soft laughter followed her all the way over to her chair. 

Stupid girl, Syndra thought, plopping herself down. Can’t she take a hint? 

Lux had wanted an entire weekend for partying and poolside celebration, but things didn't quite turn out to plan. It started with Ahri's discovery of an excess amount of Rift Scuttlers moving around the outskirts of Valoran park - more than there should have been, under the circumstances. From there, it was clear there was an infestation. The Star Guardians assembled and dashed off to fight their cosmic foe, just like they always did. 

It was Syndra that deduced a Rift Herald as the source, and the teams took a cautious approach as they rooted out the infestation. Fortune, Ezreal, Ahri, and Lulu performed crowd control on the swarms of scuttlers, while the others fought their way deeper into the park. Sure enough, and true to their prediction, one of the large, multi-limbed insectoid monstrosities had made a delve for itself in a cleft of unnatural stone. It was a safe assumption for Syndra to make, but it showed just how inexperienced the new girls were that such a thought had crossed their minds earlier - what havoc could such a monster cause if it had surprised them? 

Beating it took a while. Syndra routinely scattered the weaker scuttlers around it and tossed them back against the insectoid's purple hide and narrow, wedge-shaped head, pummeling it with its own lesser spawn, while the others attacked from all angles. The glowering, glowing eye on its back was a weak point, but it took some difficult maneuvers to get around it. Arms flailed and pincers slashed, and Star Guardians took hits even as they weaved out of range. 

It was clumsy - all of it, but also, oddly, coordinated. The new team knew where each one of their members were at any given time, and when inspiration struck Lux, it was a flash of brilliance - superb strategy for brief moments before it fell away again. It was enough, though, and awkward as it might have been, it worked. The Rift Herald was sent sky-high by a burst from Poppy's hammer-familiar, kept aloft by Janna's spinning storm, and pummeled by Jinx's magical rockets - rocket after rocket after rocket, ramming into softer chitin that marked out the monster's undersides.

 A final, concussive blast hit it, propelling it higher still and sending gooey fragments of shell raining down. It was matched by Lux, who flew high above and aimed her twirling staff down into the rear eye. Her light outmatched the sickly purple glow, and in conjunction with Jinx's super-mega-death-rocket, fired her final spark down. It speared through it, harsh and bright, and for a brief moment, Valoran Park had a nighttime sun.

Syndra watched it all with hands on her hips and her Multi spinning around her like planets circling the sun. Her outfit only had a couple of marks of scarring from where acid had washed over it, but it was insignificant. Everything was tight and clinging, accentuating every rounded curve on her body, and highlighted with golden banding and gems that were more ostentatious than the rest of them. Her skirt was flared and almost stiff around her hips, for each fold was lined with gold and capped with lean spikes. Asymmetric stockings and white gloves both were capped with banding of metal, keeping it all tightly set against her fair, snowy skin.

She cut an impressive figure, and she knew it. She liked it that way. She was the center of Multi's universe, the kind of Star Guardian the others just stared at from afar and admired. Plus, a more basic part of Syndra - not that she'd admit it -liked looking good. So she stood there, watching, hands on broad hips, examining it all with a critical eye.

 It was all very intriguing, and the success couldn't be denied - awkward though it had been. Unsurprisingly, Janna stood as close to her as she could without intruding, the wrist of one hand captured in the hand of the other. She was unharmed, thankfully, her outfit pristine and clean. Her white, gold-and-purple-lined tunic was neat and tightly-fitted, and her purple skirt flared gently around her as if by an underdraft. Stockings wrapped tight around fair limbs and long arms, accentuating every last line of her body - 

Syndra was staring. She paused, sniffed, and huffed. 

"Impressive, no?" Janna asked quietly, staring up at Lux high above and the floating Jinx below. 

"Clumsy," Syndra replied. "Inefficient. There's a lot of room for improvement." She inclined her head at almost the last moment. "But, yes. Impressive enough."

Janna cracked a smile. "Even for your standards?"

"No that much," Syndra huffed. "The difference between me and them is that I know what I'm doing."

Janna nodded very seriously. "Twelve."

"...What?" Fragments of chitin were hitting the ground now in impaling chunks, and Janna weaved a broad shield to deflect the falling shards. 

"That's the twelfth time I've heard you say that line. It's, like, your motto."

"I don't -" Syndra frowned. The broken shards pattered against Janan's shield like rainfall - or hail. "Well, perhaps. But it's true."

"You've a great deal more experience, yes."

Syndra looked at her askance. "So do you."

"I know," Janna giggled softly, and winked. Zephyr lazily landed on her shoulders and began to curl there, settling after exerting his powers. "You made a very good call, you know."

"You would have done the same," Syndra dismissed, clicking her fingers. The other Star Guardians were moving around, looking over the extent of the damage and searching out more scuttlers. 

"Maybe," Janna answered, "but I honestly didn't think of it. You know far more about these things, and it's what you're good at. So, thank you."

Syndra pursed her lips. "...Well. Uh. Be that as it may... Thanks?"

Janna inclined her head. 

There was a brief moment of strange silence between them, punctuated only by the hail of shards and monster goo.

“I am glad that you’re advising,” Janna said at length. She stood tall and proud, just as much as Syndra did - but she appeared a tad too stiff as she watched her team. “I think Ahri’s team really benefits from it. I think - well, both teams need it.” Janna glanced aside, lips twisting. “Lord knows we needed it.”

Syndra shrugged. Other Star Guardians in their cute, colour-coded outfits were starting to congratulate one another on a job well done, while the two elder girls stood a ways apart. “Issues arose, and were overcome.”

“Were they?” Janna looked up. “I think… I don’t think we saw the last of her, you know?”

“Things are different, now.” Syndra flipped her hair. “She can’t beat me. She will not. Not again.”

“I don’t think it’s a one woman fight -”

“-Doesn’t matter,” she snapped, and then went quiet. “Whatever.”

“Well I, for one, think we’re in a better spot than before.” Janna offered a gentle smile. “Would you have imagined that?”

“Imagine what?”

“Both of us finding a team to mentor and guide?” Janna laughed softly. “It’s a funny coincidence.”

“I don’t think it is.” One of her Multi drifted close, and she rubbed a hand against its rubbery flesh. 

“Great minds think alike?” Janna offered, and Syndra stared at her, deadpan. Janna’s response was a laugh, and it made her chew on her lower lip. 

“It’s logical,” Syndra offered. “The right turn of events, given what we know and how things happened. They have a destiny to achieve… as do I.”

“And that, ” said Janna, “is why I trust you.”

Syndra sputtered. “W-what?”

“You have motives, but you’re still dedicated to helping out your team.” She waved a hand. “Both teams. We can all trust you with our lives - I trust you with my life.”

“That’s - that doesn’t mean I’m not bad. ”

“You really don’t have to go so hard on the ‘bad girl’ shtick.” Janan shrugged. “I mean, not that it’s not attractive, but you’re a good person at heart. I mean -”

“- W-what? Attra - Janna -”

“-Yeah, you get really suspicious, and I do wonder about things, but I’m no saint.” Janna laughed self-depreciatingly. “Heaven knows that. So… what I’m trying to say is - to clear the air from the other day - I don't think badly of you. I’m… cautious, but really, I don’t have a problem.”

Syndra stared at her. There wasn’t really anything else she could do. Words didn’t come easily for once, and it took her longer than she’d have liked to formulate any. “Well. Uh. Thank you for that little bit of wisdom.”

Her tone was dry, but evidently unconvincing enough for Janna to raise an eyebrow at her. Flinching, Syndra looked away and adjusted her eyepatch. “You seem to enjoy telling me how wrong I am about you and what you think, and I don’t really care for it. You’re suspicious, but you trust me with your life - I understand. I’d never put your life in any dangerous position, that’s true, too. And, clearly, you’re smart enough not to go around telling everyone all your secrets.”

“ Our secrets.”

“Yes. That.” Syndra waved her hand. “So… yeah.”

“Yeah?”

“Yeah.”

Janna nodded twice. “Glad we’re, uh, on the same page?”

Syndra shrugged. 

There was another long, long moment of silence. Janna’s shield had fallen once the last of the monster stopped raining down and was now just steaming and dissipating piles of gunk, giving the area a strange and sudden haze of humidity. 

“So,” Janna chirped, “Does this count as bonding?”

Syndra let out a surprised huff, and then a peal of laughter. “No, it doesn’t.”

“Feels like bonding,” Janna probed, a teasing smile on her lips, and Syndra cocked her chin up. 

“Most certainly not.”

Janna laughed - a giggle, really, with her fist held loosely in front of her lips as if to catch the sound. Did she normally laugh like that? Syndra wondered, struggling to think of a time where she’d girlishly giggled in front of the Star Guardians and coming up blank. 

Syndra often ate lunch in the cafeteria by herself. She had a table to her lonesome, left alone by everyone else in the student body. Few would bother approaching it, and none dared to try and sit with her. She was too cold and too intimidating for them, even though they knew next to nothing about her - her interactions, sparse though they were, were enough to keep people away, and her general demeanor gave people chills. 

...Or so she liked to think. Regardless, she had a big, long table to herself, upon which she had a few chess books and a board with which to try out plays and lines. She knew that the students were staring, but that wasn’t out of the norm - it was rather typical, in fact, and she didn’t care one iota about them to ever do anything about it. If anything, it only made her status around school that much more notorious: chess club girl, star basketball player, secret-head-of-the-drama-club. She knew that a good quarter of the girls staring at her wanted to be her, and another quarter wanted to be with her. 

Apparently, most of them were into someone as cold, cool, and palpably dark as herself. She didn’t care - any love letters she got were tossed aside, and any confession to her face was spurned with a straightforward ‘not worth my time’. She wasn’t interested in romance, though, no matter how flitting, nor any physical delight. She knew she could have if she wanted it; she was above that. 

Most of the time.

Still, she was distinctly aware of more stares on her - more than normal, more than she expected for some average day of the week. It didn’t bother her in the slightest, and it was barely a curiosity - she just brushed it aside, and kept doing what she was doing. That was, at least, until the object of everyone’s stares plopped herself down in front of Syndra, sitting directly across from her, setting down a tray of cafeteria food in front of her and unpacking a boxed set from her bag. 

Syndra stared. She stared for many long moments, both eyes wide. Her jaw was tight and her lips formed an unimpressed line, but as Janna looked up to meet her icy glare, she only offered a gentle smile and returned her focus on her food. 

“Janna,” Syndra said, with icy patience, “just what the hell do you think you’re doing?”

“Eating lunch?” She said just as patiently, but Syndra could hear the smile in her voice.

“I’ll reiterate: What the hell do you think you’re doing?”

“Eating lunch,” she repeated. “With you.”

“I’m sorry,” Syndra said through her teeth, “but did I give you the appearance that I wanted you to bother me?”

“You’re all alone here,” the girl said, “and the table is empty. I’d like to offer you some company.” She shrugged. “Plus, you’re quiet, so I can focus, too.”

“...Why the fuck do you think I want your compa -”

“I come bearing gifts!” Janna almost rushed to say, holding both hands up at shoulder-height. “A peace-offering, if you will.”

Syndra stared at her. “...Oh, this, I need to see.”

 Janna removed a plastic container from her boxed lunch. She pushed it forward across the table, and for a moment, Syndra just stared. Her tongue, hesitantly, ran over her lips, and she shuffled from side to side a little awkwardly. “...Uh -”

“Chocolate ganache cake,” Janna said unhelpfully.

“I have eyes,” Syndra said flippantly, pulling at the container’s cover and opening it. It was a (in her not-so-humble opinion) gorgeous slice of cake, the colour rich and deep, split along the middle with a layer of dark icing, and covered with a neat helping of cinnamon-brown chocolate on top. Drizzles of darker chocolate ran over the top in squiggles and reached down the sides like fingers, and Syndra almost unconsciously found herself licking her lips. 

“I’m guessing you do still like it,” Janna noted wryly, her lips pulling into a smile. 

“I do,” Syndra allowed, chewing on her lip. She stared at the slice of cake for an uncharacteristically long moment. “Why?”

“You didn’t seem to enjoy the treats last week,” Janna explained, already running a fork through her own lunch. “So I felt bad. And, as I said, a peace offering.” She winked. “The fastest way to a girl’s heart is through her stomach, after all.”

“That’s not - there’s no getting to ‘my heart’,” Syndra scoffed. “And I refuse such a notion.”

Janna raised her eyebrows, fork poised at her mouth. “Is that so?”

“Yes.” Syndra cocked her chin up self-righteously. “That being said, I accept this peace offering. You can sit there. For a small while, that is.” 

Janna passed one of her forks over, and Syndra snatched it up with a deft twirl of her fingers. “Sounds amenable.”

As Janna took a careful bite of her food, so, too, did Syndra - swiping her fork carefully through it, holding it up, examining the - holy shit that’s moist! She thought - cake, ignoring Janna’s twinkling eyes. She took a calm bite, and wanted to immediately break down and groan. It was so good - Syndra had forgotten just how awesome it was. Truly, if there was a better desert out there, she’d never found it.

“Heavenly…” she whispered to herself, but Janna’s long, tapered ears flicked. A knowing look crossed over her face, and Syndra, for a moment, baulked - but she said nothing. She was smiling - perhaps a little too smugly for Syndra’s tastes - but she was fine to allow it this time around. 

"Uh, Syndra?" A boy asked, and Syndra cast a look over her shoulder that was as cold as it was unfriendly - enough to make him quiver. She was playing it up, of course, but it was because she enjoyed it. It was fun to play around. "Er, sorry to bother you, but your girlfriend is, uhm, asking for you?"

Syndra sighed through her nose. She fluffed her hair out around her shoulders and straightened her spine, idly collecting her annotated and neat copy of the script as she did so. Hers was marked out specifically, with colours highlighting different parts and expressions and emotions. Everything was crisp and perfect, which suited her well; she enjoyed having everything done to the best of her abilities, and she knew that she could make the drama club's play be the best they'd -

She sputtered her way out of her thoughts and whipped around to face him. "My what?"

His eyes went wide. He scratched his cheek and glanced off to the left, but found no sympathy or help from his fellow clubmates. "A-ah, well, uh, Janna's at the door? A-and I kinda assumed - you know, because -"

Syndra was already stomping off, pushing her way past aisles and out the door. She closed it behind her very securely and rounded on the tall girl that waited patiently by it - hands folded over her front, eyes idly scanning the hallway for all of three seconds before focusing on Syndra. She offered her a gentle, soft smile, and Syndra responded with a frown. 

"What kind of rumours are you spreading?" Syndra demanded, and Janna's head jerked back.

"...Nothing?" 

Syndra glared. "Well, your presence is giving people the wrong idea. I'd thank you to stop bothering during my private affairs."

"It's a club," Janna deadpanned. 

"Private." 

The purple-haired girl shook her head. "Okay, Syn. Sure."

Syndra’s eyes widened, and a strange noise built up in her throat. “W-what? What did you just call me?”

“...Your nickname?” Janna laughed strangely. “Don’t tell me you forgot -”

“People don’t call me - you don’t call me that anymore!”

“I just did?” 

Syndra clicked her tongue as she looked back at the door in case anyone was listening. Voice dropping into a whisper, she said, “don’t call me that in public, Janna! People are going to think we’re close!” 

“...We’re friends,” She deadpanned.

“We’re not.”

“Sure, Syndra,” Janna said lightly, sounding entirely amused by her antics. “I won’t call you by your nickname in public.”

She grit her teeth. “It’s been years since you called me that.”

Janna smiled and raised a brow. “Okay?”

“So you can’t just - just start doing that again!”

“Why not?”

“I - “ Syndra didn’t have a response. All she knew was that, a long time ago, Janna had used the nickname frequently, and then she’d stopped, and now she was starting again and Syndra didn’t know how to take that. She worked her jaw and hissed through her nose, but her annoyance clearly went unnoticed by Janna.

There was a moment of tense silence between them. 

"...So." Syndra cleared her throat. "Why are you here, asking for me?"

"Oh! Right. Would you like to walk home together?"

Syndra stopped, blinked, and stared at her. "...Are you serious right now, Janna?"

"Yes. I was finishing in the library, and I realized your club would be finishing about now as well, so I'd thought it would be remiss not to offer." 

Syndra's mouth was parted, and her jaw hung loose. "...Seriously?"

"Quite."

She pinched the bridge of her nose. "Why would I want to walk home with you?"

"Well, Multi wanted to play with Zephyr, so a walk would kinda be like a playdate," Janna answered, raising a finger to her chin. "Second, I was also thinking that we could swing by a cafe? Well, specifically, the one I got that cake from. I thought you'd like to know where it was."

"Multi wants whatever I want," Syndra snapped, and then clamped her mouth shut. 

Janna smiled playfully. "Does that or does that not involve chocolate -"

"Shut up," Syndra hissed, looking back at the clubroom door. "You're making it sound like you're asking me out on a date, and I don't need rumours circulating."

"Would that be such a bad thing?"

Syndra directed a look at her that said, really? "Yes. Yes, Janna, it would be."

Janna laughed - a proper laugh, not one of her quiet wiser-than-thou things. "Well, I don't think it would be," she said at length, lips curved up, and Syndra's brow dipped down. "However, the question stands."

Syndra licked her lips. "I don't know. I don't like cafes. They're a waste of my time."

"I'm sure they are," Janna said seriously. "But they also have double-hot-chocolate."

Syndra bit her lip. "I'm not -"

"My treat," Janna pressed.

"...Fine," Syndra grumbled, and shifted back. "But brief. I'm not wasting any more time than is necessary."

"I don't understand," Syndra said, pointing a fork in Janna's direction. "Why's he having you do it?"

"I'm good at compiling information and history in general," Janna said, shrugging. Her slice of cake was a simple raspberry-lemon, and she was clearly taking her time with it. It made Syndra want to scoff - because, unlike herself, who ate with refinement, savouring every bite, Janna could put down food fast. She'd seen her eat burgers before, and there was nothing ladylike in it. 

"I know that," Syndra said, rolling her eyes. "You've always been good at history. I just mean, why do the professor's work for him?"

“Professor Ryze is very busy.” Janna sipped at her white hot chocolate. “So I don’t mind helping clear off his plate. Besides, it offers me access to… harder to obtain books.” Janna leaned in and winked conspiratorially. “And the locations of archeological dig sites, which I can fly over to in a jiffy.”

“I see.” Syndra savoured the information just as much as she savoured her warm drink. Rich, dark chocolate, flooding over her tongue and stimulating her taste buds. It was impossible for her to express just how much she loved the taste of it, and it made her sigh. “That sounds almost like you’re taking advantage of him.”

“I wouldn’t say that,” Janna quipped, the smile still playing over her lips. “Juuust… benefitting. History’s too fun to just learn it from books, y’know?” 

“Not really.” Syndra watched as Janna picked her way through her cake; hers, naturally, was long since finished. “I’m no history buff.”

“Oh, it’s just fantastic being in a place where you can, like, feel the weight of history,” Janna sighed, setting her elbows against the table. “Old buildings, artefacts, texts… It’s better to visit, trust me. I’ll show you, someday. You’ll see.”

“Will I?” Syndra arched a brow. “I think I’ll be taking your word for it. I don’t imagine we’re going to be flying across the world anytime soon; not with what took place in the park…”

“Well, there’ll be a time.” 

Syndra ran her tongue over her lips as she watched Janna eat. “...Alright, can you actually eat that properly?”

Janna blinked. “Beg pardon?”

“You’re just picking at it,” Syndra accused, twirling her fork around. “I’ve seen you eat before - don’t ruin that cake just to pretend to be dainty.”

She puffed out her cheeks in reply. “Well, I can’t just gobble down a cake, can I?”

“Yes. Yes, you can.” Syndra shook her head. “My, you’re infuriating - it’s just us. Eat the damn cake without making me feel like you’re torturing the poor thing.”

Janna laughed. “Why does it sound like you care more about the cake than an actual person?”

“Because I do,” Syndra hummed, chin cocked up confidently. Janna only laughed that little bit more as she vertically swiped her fork through it, took out a chunk, and promptly plopped it into her mouth. 

“Don’t you want another slice?” Janna asked after a moment of chewing, almost instantly getting into the familiar motions of almost shoveling food into her mouth. 

“No, I don’t.” Syndra took another mouthful of her warm, soothing drink. I might well drop coffee in the morning if I can get this… “Two is enough for a day.”

“Treat yourself,” Janna giggled, fork twisting - before pausing. “I mean, my treat, obviously, but it’s a treat for yourself -”

“I understood perfectly fine.” Syndra watched the girl fluster herself, and smirked. “That you’re trying to insinuate I’m fat, that is.”

“W-what?” Janna sputtered, caught off guard. “That is not what I was saying?”

“The last thing I need to do is put on a pound of weight from eating an entire cake.”

“That’s not how that works,” Janna protested, “and we work out all the time. We’re -” her voice dropped “-Star Guardians. We burn off more than we eat, I swear.”

Syndra raised a teasing brow. “So you’re saying I need to put on more weight?”

Janna made a noise. “N-no, definitely not. You’re well-proportioned, of course.”

“...Well-proportioned?”

“I mean, you’re not as thin as I. Not as boney? I guess. More, uh, full.”

“It sounds like you’re calling me fat.”

Janna, for once, looked flustered - badly. She waved her hand rapidly in front of her face, while the other played with her hair. “No, no. You’re just - full. Your body, your curves. It’s all very rolling. Like Sarah, you’re… well-proportioned.”

Syndra snorted as she laughed - an unrefined sound in her opinion, but a real laugh all the same. “That was awkward as hell, Janna. My. You really must up your game.”

“I don’t typically go around saying such things,” Janna muttered, cheeks puffed out comically. 

“Then you need practice,” Syndra said, smirking. 

“Oh?” Janna hummed around a mouthful of food. “And you can do better?”

“Obviously.” 

“I never hear you go around complimenting girls.”

“Not worth my time,” she said casually, flicking her hand. “That doesn’t mean the theory isn’t sound.”

Janna leaned against the table. Her arms pushed into her bust, which propped up rather nicely against her school uniform - white blouse filling outward, her tie popping free. “Pray, tell.”

Syndra, amusedly, leaned forward as well, matching Janna. Her smirk was slower, cooler, and confidant; her lips parted and her eyelid dropped over amethyst eyes just a fraction. “You’ve got beautiful eyes. The most gorgeous shade of cerulean I’ve seen this side of the Universe.”

“That,” Janna mused, cheeks tinged with pink, “Was terrible, Syn.”

Syndra immediately scoffed, and tossed her hair over her shoulder. “That was perfect.”

“It was so cheesy.”

 “You, simply, have no taste for romanticism.”

“Oh? You’re a romantic, now, is that it?”

“Well -”

“I - oh - eep!” A voice squeaked, and there was a sudden thumping noise. Both of the girls turned at once and saw none other than Soraka just a little ways away, clumsily fumbling with her school bag and a box of what could only be a cake of some sort. Her face was red, appearing more flustered than Janna had been moments before, and her teeth were gnawing on her lip. She thanked a server that helped her collect the stuff she’d just spilled over the floor in her flustered state, while eyes flicked left and right rapidly.

She, then, noticed the two girls staring at her, and she went even redder. 

“Soraka?” Janna questioned, head tilted. “Hello? When did you arrive?”

“A l-little bit ago,” she rushed out to say, hastily pulling all of her stuff back into position and readjusting her grip. Her hand, briefly, pulled at her mint-green hair in an awkward tic. “I-I-I was going to say hello! But, uhm, you guys looked - “ She fidgeted, face red. “-Looked busy, so, uh, I didn’t want to bother. B-but, uh… I guess I have anyways. Sorry, I was just -”

“You hadn’t been,” Syndra said dryly, her voice a smooth rumble. “Until you decided to squeak so strangely.”

“Syndra,” Janna tutted, and the purple-haired mage huffed. “Sorry, Soraka, for not noticing you earlier. Are you quite alright?”

“Y-y-yes,” Soraka stammered, awkwardly pulling at her mint-green hair. “I was just a little - a little flustered.”

Syndra narrowed her eyes, while Janna kept talking. “You’re not feeling ill, are you? You’re very red.”

Soraka squeaked again. Her head nodded rapidly, though, and her green curls and waves bounced. “Yes, yes, of course! I just - humm - didn’t expect to - well, you guys - yeah. Sorry. Not that there’s anything wrong with that! It’s nice! I was just - caught off and okay I’m sorry for bothering you I’ll get out of your hair -”

“W-wait,” Janna started, holding out a hand, but Soraka was already dashing off. Her hair flew behind her like a cape, and Janna looked at her retreating form almost forlornly; Syndra, instead, with suspicious curiosity. “...That was weird.”

“Was it?” Syndra’s lips pulled into a frown. “Rather, I think Soraka might have heard a bit too much for her ears.”

“What?”

Syndra sent her a particularly unimpressed look. “She probably heard you telling me I had a good body, then my subsequent compliment toward your eyes, and then the hint of romanticism. Given the lack of context, she’d have thought we were flirting.” Syndra waved her hand. “We also have cake and drinks between us.”

“Oh.” Janna frowned. “...But that’s not a reason to leave?”

Syndra waved her hand. “She thought she was intruding on something private, I imagine. A silly thing, to be sure. I don’t know how she’d arrive at such a conclusion…”

Janna sent her the look. “Didn’t you just explain it? Us, cafe, drinks, cake. It’s a date by definition.”

“It’s not.”

Janna tilted her head, and Syndra rolled her eyes. She looked up - 

Whoa, she thought. When did Janna get so close? 

She knew they were both leaning into the table, but had - she shook her head. It was a thought she didn’t engage with. She, instead, leaned back, pushing herself neatly out of range, and ran her tongue over her lips. “...See, I knew you would cause rumours.”

“It’s your team,” Janna laughed. “I seriously doubt there are going to be rumours.”

Syndra massaged her temples. “I’d hope not. I can’t be bothered to waste my time explaining…”

Janna laughed louder, a girlish giggle in her voice, and Syndra grumbled. Or, at least, she pretended to; it’s a nice sound, she thought to herself, cradling her drink in hand. 

“Just finish so we can leave,” she sighed, rolling her eyes. 

“You could just leave by yourself,” Janna pointed out. 

Syndra humphed, chin cocked. “Fine. I shall.”

She made as if to get up, and Janna pouted. “Wait, I was joking -”

“By the First Star, you’re needy,” Syndra scoffed, and sat right back down. “You don’t need me to hold your hand to eat cake.”

Janna raised an amused eyebrow, but didn’t comment. Her look was telling enough, and Syndra’s cheeks almost - almost - tinged pink at her own insinuation. 

Almost. 

The day was cool, again, and Syndra wasn’t a fan. She had a simple sweater on over her uniform, and kept it tight as she walked along the calm road toward school. The city was a bustling mess, but the district they were in was neat, nice, and calm. A series of residential areas, separated by a few strip malls and convenience stores before the busier sections of city opened up. Leaves rustled as the wind, and it could have almost been mistaken for fall if one didn’t know better. Syndra knew better, and detested it. 

“Multi,” Syndra warned, seeing her three orb-like companions shuffle and titter. “Stop riling yourselves up, or I’ll use you all to play tennis.”

The warning didn’t stop them, that was for sure. They continued to spin and swirl, but they were spinning and swirling around her, and there was some gratification in that - she was their center, and she liked it. It was a poor substitute for another, she knew, but Syndra had never needed someone else to keep her company. Her familiars were more than enough. 

Until one of her Multi, suddenly, decided to bounce off in the opposite direction she was headed - or, well, down a bend, but still. Syndra stared at it for a single, infuriating moment, before she quickly dashed off for it - her lean, white legs pumping fast, carrying her along at the speed of a top-level track-and-field runner. 

Curse whatever foul deity gave familiars minds of their own, she hissed mentally. Making me run…!

She turned a corner, and then rounded on Multi - and found it jostling around, once again, with Zephyr, of all creatures. Somehow, like magnets, the two familiars found one another, and were quickly joined by the remainder of her purple ball-like creatures, which bounced through the air playfully. Syndra stared at them, flashing her most dangerous cut-eye, but they - being near-extensions of herself - simply didn’t care. She’d punish them, of course, for their insolence, but at the moment, they were too busy playing.

“Hi, Syn!” Janna waved, bright and earnest and way too happy in the early hours of the morning. 

“Janna,” she said evenly, pinching the bridge of her nose. “Stop having your familiar accost my familiars.” She paused, then added, “and stop calling me that.”

“I don’t think anyone is accosting anyone else,” Janna laughed. Zephyr floated serenely in the air above her head, while Multi spun around it in three glowing balls of chattering purple. “They’re playing.”

“Multi doesn’t play,” she said matter-of-factly, walking forward along the sidewalk until she was roughly side-by-side with Janna. The lilac-haired girl looked like the perfect schoolgirl, without a hair out of place - granted, so too did Syndra, but Janna was almost picture-book perfect. Syndra couldn’t say she really minded. It was hardly an issue how she wanted to appear at school, and she did look nice in her uniform. 

Multi, despite her words, continued to play, and Syndra licked her lips with a touch of annoyance. “Multi, stop.”

One of them sent her a look that could only be described as pleading, and she bit down on her lip. 

“Oh, let them play, Syn,” Janna hummed, holding out a hand to her. “We can just walk to school together and let them have a bit of fun, you know?”

“What are you doing?” Syndra asked, eyeing Janna’s hand suspiciously. In reply she saw her fingers curl hesitantly, and the lilac-haired girl’s brow briefly dipped into a frown. 

“Uh… gesturing?” Janna shrugged. “Ah…anyhow. “

Syndra rolled her eyes. “Whatever. Just don’t slow me down, Janna, and don’t harass Multi too much.”

“First, I walk faster than you,” Janna pointed out, and Syndra pretended not to listen, “second - it’s really cute that you care about Multi so much.”

 “He’s my familiar,” she said, glaring up at the three spinning orbs, “though, at present, I’m finding myself hard-pressed to think of why.”

Janna laughed behind her hand, and Syndra blinked in surprise. “What a great mother you are, Syn.”

“Stop. I’m not his mother.” She glanced at her. “And stop calling me that.”

Janna laughed all the more. Zephyr was chased around above her head in a strange game of cat-and-mouse, with the familiars showing a level of frivolousness that she didn’t expect. 

“We’re going to walk to school,” Syndra stated, glaring at her laughing face, “and then we’re going to part ways and never see one another ever again.”

“I’m just teasing!” 

“No.”

Janna laughed all the more, and Syndra felt her insides do a strange little flip. 

“You know,” Janna said at length, “we’re going to be late for class.”

“We will leave when I am done,” Syndra said simply, leaning into her chessboard - practically hunched over it, thinking hard. It was a genuinely struggling position, and she was in a twenty-one minute deep think. 

“We?”

Syndra tutted. “W-well, you can leave yourself. Lunch is done, you have no reason to sit here.”

What if I..? No. That goes there, that’s captured, move down - down - down - forced mate. Up? Piece lost. Down on material. Losing position. Alright, what if -

“Other than you,” Janna chirped, and Syndra nodded absently. 

“Other than m -” She stopped, sputtered, and clicked her tongue. “I mean, no. Stop. Let me think.”

Janna smiled. It was a smile that Syndra really didn’t want to focus on. She had her chin in her hands, both elbows digging into the cafeteria table, and she leaned into it fully. Her hair cascaded down her angular face in curls, and the rest of her ponytail fell over to one side in a lilac wave. Her chest pushed neatly between her forearm, forming a neat and somewhat distracting bump. The entirety of her attention was firmly on Syndra, watching her concentrate, which, in turn, made concentration hard. 

Syndra thought over her lines and the position in general, but advancement eluded her. She mused on it for three more minutes still before snarling and jotting down her thoughts on her record sheet and hurriedly knocking her pieces aside, annoyed. Janna watched with an idle smile as Syndra started to put everything back into place and tuck it all into her bag, saying nothing until she was well and done. 

“No luck?”

“No,” Syndra said bitterly, not mentioning that the smiling and staring had been a smidge too distracting. “I -” 

The bell rang, disrupting her thoughts. She clicked her tongue, annoyed, while Janna looked briefly panicked. “Uhg. I told you to go on ahead.”

“Oh, I’m sure it’s fine,” Janna laughed awkwardly, shaking her hand. “Besides, it was cute to watch you concentrate.”

Syndra sighed theatrically. “Say that again, Janna, and I won’t let you sit at my lunch table anymore.”

“That’s what you said yesterday,” Janna pointed out, slinging her bag over her shoulder. 

“Yes,” Syndra relented. Her stride was shorter than Janna’s, but the lilac-haired schoolgirl slowed the pace to match her. “And you haven’t stopped, yet.”

“And what you said the day before.”

“That - you had cake, then,” Syndra clicked her tongue. “You bribed me.”

Janna nodded very seriously. “You’re very amenable to bribes.” 

“Don’t put it like that,” she scoffed, and Janna only giggled. 

It had only been a week since Janna started to sit with her at lunch - not everyday, but four out of five school days so far; enough to be a presence. Syndra hardly wanted her to interrupt her normal daily processes, but when Janna came along with the offer of another slice of cake, she couldn’t say no. It was too much to resist, and Janna was quiet enough when she read her books and did her work that it didn’t really matter. It, naturally, begged the question of why she wanted to be at her table at all, but Syndra didn’t ask. 

Maybe, she didn’t want to know the answer. 

They walked alongside one another to the shared class. They didn’t hurry, though they were clearly late - Syndra, while a perfect student, walked like she owned the place, and she’d never rush. Janna was very much the opposite, but she followed with her almost dutifully. Syndra, gently, glanced at her out of the corner of her eyes - once, twice, too many times to count, and then back again. 

They shuffled into the Chemistry room - their first class after lunch, on the uneven-days of the week. Syndra, in truth, wouldn’t have said a week ago that she was aware that she shared the class with Janna; but, after walking with her to it, she couldn’t. It felt weird: not knowing that someone like Janna was in her class. She knew that she practically ignored everyone during the day, even her own Star Guardians, but it was… odd. A feeling she couldn’t quite place, and didn’t want to place. 

Professor Heimerdinger wasn’t yet finished prepping… whatever it was that he was prepping, and so he said nothing as the two walked in late. Neither slinked, as other students were apt to do. Syndra walked in proudly, evenly, shoulders back and chin up, as if she wasn’t late. Janna followed beside her, and the other students watched for a few moments before looking away from her icy glare. She walked straight toward her table - one of the many octagonal tables that lined the large classroom, each one set with chemistry supplies and gear. No one was at the table that Syndra claimed for herself, as per usual, and so she sat down at her usual seat and set her bag on the desk.

While Janna walked right past, moving to her usual seat. There was, for a brief moment, a frown on Syndra’s face; then, with a twerk of her hand, she used her powers to pull at Janna’s hair. There was a small, brief whine, and a squeak that was entirely unwholesome; a deeper, stranger sound that Syndra really didn’t want to place. Janna spun around with a swish of her skirts and faced her, a strange look on her face. 

Syndra gestured to the seat next to her. Janna paused, blinked, looked between Syndra’s desk and her usual spot, and, with a wave to the friends she presumably normally sat with, set herself down beside Syndra instead. The interaction didn’t go unnoticed by the other students, but no one noticed Syndra’s casual use of her power. No one knew what to look for, anyways. 

“What was that?” Syndra asked the moment Janna sat herself down. 

Janna fidgeted. “What?”

“The -” Syndra frowned. “Never mind.”

“Well, speaking of ‘what’ and ‘that’ - why?” Janna gestured to the table.

“You were walking right past,” Syndra said, flipping open her books. 

“...As I normally do?” Janna, as if playing catch-up, started tugging out her own books. 

“You might not be good company,” Syndra sniffed haughtily, “but you deserve a better lab partner than these people.”

“Uhm.” Janna squinted. “But they’re good? At Chem?”

Syndra shrugged. “If you’d rather sit elsewhere, then do so. However, given your insistence at lunch hour and our spare -”

“Is this your way of inviting me to sit with you?” Janna asked, a smile playing at her lips, and Syndra stared back at her almost violently. 

“All right,” she declared, “if you’re going to be like that, then leave.”

“You are,” Janna almost gushed, a smile playing at her lips. 

“Shut up, Janna,” she said quickly.

“No, no,” the girl laughed. “I’ll keep quiet.”

“I’ve changed my mind -”

“Hey, no take-backs -”

“All right, class!” the professor shouted in his high, shrill voice, and the two girls were quiet. “Turn to page 138!”

From there, it was quiet as Professor Heimerdinger went about his day’s lesson, which meant whatever strange thing was on his brain at the time. Being the head of the entire science department and the teacher for every science class bar two was exceptional, but it made him incredibly scatter-brained and entirely unorthodox. Their lesson wasn’t really anything coordinated, and the books were soon used as paperweights as they ran past it and moved onto other topics that required precise note-taking to even get a basic handle on. 

Syndra was very good at that. Everything was neat and precise, and done to a degree of diligence that the others were incapable of achieving - or so she liked to think. She was pleased to see, though, that Janna was just as neat and quick as her, even if her style wasn’t quite as efficient. She took each note down in crisp, clean print, much unlike Syndra’s elegant cursive but no less effective for it. That was how the two were, for a long while; just listening, taking notes, being good students. 

Like she always did, Syndra had pens and pencils to one side, and highlighters in front of her. She used ones of different colours to mark out titles and-subsections as they came up, and she selected them with an experienced hand. She didn’t offer them to Janna; not directly, but the way they were set was a clear and unspoken indication that she was allowed to use them - and Janna did so, highlighting over her purple pen and neatly putting them back. Twice, their hands knocked together - neither used to sitting so close or sharing, unused to the dichotomy of it. 

Syndra didn’t comment on how their hands brushed. She didn’t want to think about it all. And yet, at the same time, she kind of wanted to ask Janna what lotion she used. Her hands - her skin - felt soft. 

By the end of class, they had three sprawling pages of notes - back to front, every inch covered, the text so small and dense that it could have been six pages for any other less efficient student. 

"Pass them down, pass them down!" Heimerdinger was shouting, his shrill voice cutting through the air. Papers were practically flung down by his strange machines, the ink on the sheet literally running from how fresh it was. They were assignments, and as the students realized it, they began to groan. "Assignments, yes! Groups of up to three! It's a very simple.."

Syndra tuned him out as she read it over, and sniffed. "Drivel."

"Seems moderately taxing," Janna mused. 

"Not at all. It's simple. I'd have it done in two days." Syndra scrunched up her nose. "If I'm not trying."

Janna smiled. "Trying to show off, Syn?"

"As if," she replied. She flipped her hair over her shoulder in a casual ripple of dark purple. Janna's eyes lingered for a long moment before drifting back. "It's a simple fact. I'm better."

"Sure," Janna replied slowly, as if not quite believing her. Syndra, haughtily, smirked. With a deft twist of her pen she wrote down both of their names on the line that read 'group', cementing their partnership on the assignment. 

"Oh, you'll see," Syndra cackled, while Janna just looked concerned. 

"You want to pair up with me?" She asked quietly.

"No, I want to show you why I'm the best," was her smug reply, and she leaned back in her seat. "Oh, do stop staring, Janna. You're going to spread rumours, again."

Janna's reply was just as smug as Syndra's, and not for the better. "You're doing a good job of that yourself, Syndra."

"You're not even doing the assignment anymore!" Janna laughed, and Syndra huffed.

"This is far more interesting," She said, pouring chemicals from one beaker into the other. The liquid started to bubble before settling down, the mixture twisting and swirling like oil on water - then oil in water, with inky strands pushing down into the goop. "Mmm... yes... that's it..."

Janna laughed just that little bit more - a soft, chime-like sound. "Geez - you really are playing it up, aren't you?"

"I am not," Syndra snarked, clicking her tongue and applying heat to the beaker. The liquid bubbled again, and the colours began to settle into a dark shade of purple-black. "This is how I work."

"Were you like this when you were a kid?" Janna asked, feet flipping up into the air. She was lying on her back on one of Syndra's large, comfy cushions - big enough to sink into - while Zephyr floated overhead. It did lazy cartwheels in the air while all three of Syndra's Multi's danced around it, playfully twisting and turning and butting against it like rubber balls. 

"Like what?"

"Like, pouring mixtures into cups and holding it all up with a 'whoa! Haha!' and stuff."

"First," she retorted, "I do not sound like that. Second - maybe."

Janna giggled. Syndra was aware of the girl rising up and moving to do… something, but she wasn’t paying attention; she worked on her mixture, adding another chemical to the mix, and then observing the reactions. A silly grin rose to her face as she peered into the beaker, seeing the chemicals all mix into a satisfying liquid that radiated a faint corona of heat. Smirking, she stepped back, lifting up the beaker in triumph.

“Haha!” She declared. “It’s perfect! My potion of power!”

Smoke curled from the top at her proclamation, as if it were an active volcano. Janna seemed amused, but not impressed.

“That’s not a potion,” She pointed out, and Syndra puffed out her cheeks. “And I doubt it involves power.”

“Well, it’s a solvent, technically,” Syndra allowed, scrunching up her nose. “But I imagine it would burn through flesh and steel quite effectively, so it’s a potion of power by my reckoning.”

“Don’t test it, ple -”

“I will not,” Syndra huffed. “At least, not when you’re around.”

Janna scrunched up her face, staring deadpan at Syndra, her hand reaching toward a book - Wait.

“Janna stop,” Syndra hissed, flinging out a hand and using her and Multi’s power to capture the book and send it slamming back into her bookshelf. “Those are my books -”

“Yes?” Janna was amused once again. “I wanted to see if I recognize any -”

“-You don’t,” Syndra interrupted, “So don’t bother - “

“Oh, hey, I know some of these,” Janna said anyways, and Syndra puffed out a pained breath. “...These are romance books, Syn -”

“Nope. Nope, not at all.” She flung Janna back with a callous display of her power, and Janna yelped in a mixture of surprise and fear- but she was flung into a cushion that Multi manipulated, and set down with all the softness of a falling feather. Janna blinked in surprise, but did nothing at all as she regained her bearings. 

She licked her lips. “...You don’t have to be embarrassed -”

“I’m not,” Syndra said far too quickly, then sniffed. She put her potion down and put both hands on her hips, looking firm and dangerous. “It’s just none of your business.”

“Okay.” Janna nodded twice. “So, am I or am I not allowed to comment on the copy of the drama club script you left on the beanbag chair that I am now sitting on?”

Syndra couldn’t move fast enough. 

“You’re never coming over here again,” she snarled and sputtered, grabbing her script from Janna’s pale fingers, and the other teen giggled musically.

Syndra brushed her sweaty purple hair out of her good eye and shuffled it all over her shoulder in a velvet sweep - dark locks and a darker undercut all flowing in a waterfall of amethyst. Her other than, idly, plucked at the collar of her gym shirt, pulling it away from her pale collarbones and airing herself out. The uniform wasn’t designed to be tight or sexy, but it was thoroughly soaked through with sweat and clung to the contours of her shapely torso. Dimly, she was aware of the eyes of the rest of the team on her, but she didn’t give them any more attention than they were worth. 

There were smatterings of ‘good jobs’ and ‘good practice’ thrown around, and a few directed at Syndra in the most impersonal manner possible, to which she just flicked her fingers and nodded as politely as she could be bothered to. The basketball team was a team, yes, but nothing like the Star Guardians. They weren’t on Syndra’s wavelength at all, and she was an outsider even when she was one of their star players. 

They all filled out of the gym quickly enough, each sweaty and messy in their own ways. Syndra looked the best out of all of them - or so she liked to imagine - and even in her sweaty state, she cut an impressive figure. Enough for the people outside - the few that were still waiting on the team to finish practice, from friends to significant others to the cheerleading team - to do a handful of double-takes. Or, at least, they did in her head; Syndra wasn’t above a bit of self-aggrandizing. 

It was a little bit annoying, though, when girlfriends rushed up to the boys and girls of the team in over-excited displays of teenage romance, making Syndra shift and scowl. She didn’t care what they did, and they could do whatever they wanted to on their own time - that was, their own time. Not in public, not at school, not around her. It was unbecoming and unsightly and a little miffing if she was being honest, and it totally wasn’t because she was kinda-sorta envious at the little displays of affection. It wasn’t like she had -

“Syndra!” Janna called out, taking a few steps toward her. Syndra did a double-take, frozen on the spot, and an almost unnoticeable and strangled noise left her lips. Subtly, she swiped her finger through her hair, raking it back, pushing the sweatiest mass of it away from her face and trying to present the most perfect image of herself as she could because - 

Wait, she thought, it’s Janna, why - 

“Looks like a hard practice!” The lilac-haired teen commented, an earnest smile on her lips. She pushed forward a bottle of water, handing it to her, and Syndra clumsily took it. “Here - you’re probably parched.”

“Uhm.” Syndra looked at the water bottle questioningly. “...Why are you giving me a water bottle? Why do you have a water bottle?”

“Because you look red in the face, you just came out of practice, and I knew both of those were likely,” the girl explained matter-of-factly, as if it was all perfectly understandable. Maybe it was, too, but Syndra didn’t get it in the least. 

“Janna,” she said evenly, almost cautiously, trying to ignore the looks the others on the team were giving her. “What are you doing here?”

“Oh.” Janna smiled in a way that could have been mistaken for shy, had Syndra not known better. “I was wondering if you wanted to go by the cafe again?”

Syndra frowned. “Why?”

“Because you just finished practice, I’m sure you’re hungry, and we’re both leaving at the same time again.” Janna inclined her head. “Oh, would you like something else, instead? You’re probably too hungry for sweets, now that I think about it…”

“I don’t - I don’t understand.”

 Janna raised a single brow. “I thought we got over that last time?”

“I -” She licked her lips. “I’m sweaty. You realize that, right?”

“Yes, sure,” Janna said wryly, “but it’s not the first time, and you definitely don’t look bad.” Janna looked over at the few other couples, and the not at all subtle stares from cheerleaders. “Case in point, it only makes you more attractive.”

“Janna, please,” Syndra hissed, “Shut up.”

Was her face red? Oh, God, her face felt red. Why the hell was Janna trying to get her riled up right after practice? 

“Sure,” the girl laughed. Syndra tried not to focus on it, and took a long, deep swing from the water bottle and - oh, she thought, were Janna’s eyes on my legs? Are they? Damn short-shorts -! 

“Stop that,” she repeated, angrily screwing the bottle closed. 

“Stop what?” she half-asked, half-laughed.

“That. You know.”

“No, I really don’t.”

There really were stares directed at them, and Syndra scoffed. She began to move forward with long strides, power-walking right to the change rooms, with Janna following close behind. “To think,” she said between steps, “that I was actually considering going with you -”

“So you do want to go?”

“That’s not what I said -”

“-Basically is -”

“Stop,” Syndra repeated, sniffing. She jabbed the bottle - now half-drained - at Janna’s chest. “Stay far away, and stop spreading rumours.” She glanced aside. “Also, I want burgers, so wait for me at the front door.”

“Okay,” Janna laughed - and Syndra, terribly, realized she could hear her giggling through the changing room door that she so angrily shut.

Damn , she thought, staring down at her sweaty, uniform-clad body. I do look good like this…  

“Stop taking my fries,” Syndra said indignantly, waving a finger at Janna. 

“I’ve done no such thing,” Janna protested, munching on one of Syndra’s french fries.

The two sat at the fast food place in a strange silence. It wasn’t like the cafe, where there were cake and drinks between the two of - sure, there was food, but a cafe was different. People could study there, or take notes, or read, but a fast food joint? That was for friends. People on far better terms than Syndra and Janna were. Granted, things weren’t strained… and it was kinda nice, really, but…

Syndra sniffed and sipped at her iced tea. She sat prim and proper in her chair, while Janna leaned against the comfy booth that marked the other side. Syndra wasn’t sure if Janna ever slumped with the other Star Guardians, but she looked remarkably more… relaxed than she usually was. It was a strange, and yet wholly comforting, sight. Really, if anyone was looking in from afar, she imagined they’d be hard-pressed to tell the difference between them and any of the other couples around them. 

A truly odd thought. 

“Just focus on your chicken,” Syndra humphed, “before one finds itself trying to escape.”

With a flick of her finger and some application of her power she wiggled a nugget, indicating just how easy it would be to make it fly over to her end of the table. Janna just raised both eyebrows in amusement, grabbed it, and popped it into her mouth. Syndra frowned and pouted, while Janna looked moderately smug. 

Syndra busied herself with her burger. Each bite was neat and ladylike, and she chewed methodically before going for another. She was, in truth, a slow eater. It was enough to perturb many - she was a stickler for being as polite and neat as possible, and it was slow. People didn’t enjoy waiting around on her for far longer than it should have taken to eat, but Janna did so and did so without qualm. They didn’t even talk; not really, other than idle, barely important things. 

Normally, they only talked about Star Guardian business. But, then, could she really say that? They hadn’t last time, at the cafe. They hadn’t at her home. They didn’t talk about much at lunch, and during their spare, Janna probed her about chess. Nothing really… normal. 

Syndra found it mildly concerning. 

“Shouldn’t you be doing better things than wasting time at a burger joint?” Syndra asked at one point, one leg crossed over the other and her foot idly kicking out in a strange tic. 

“No,” Janna replied, simply swiping another of Syndra’s fries. “I don’t have better things to do, that is.” She smiled. “Besides, this is nice. Like old times, you know?”

“Those times are gone,” she said at once, almost pensively staring down at her burger.

Janna stole another fry. “Sure - but what goes around comes around, right? Like the orbits of planets, and stars.”

“I suppose so.” Syndra worked her jaw. “I guess… this isn’t bad - ”

Yet another fry was stolen, and Syndra glared. “Actually, you know what? Forget that, elf-ears, this is bad. Stop taking my damn fries!”

Janna puffed out in protest. “Oh, I only took a couple -”

“You’ve taken nine. That is nine too many -”

“Fine, fine, geez,” the wind-mage laughed, waving her hand. 

She swiped the entire carton of fries in the next heartbeat, and Syndra flipped her off with an indignant scowl. 

Syndra could feel the headache approaching before it was even twenty paces away, and the first twinges of a neck-ache hit her when red filled the corner of her eye. She tried to suppress a sigh as she calmly flipped the page of her book with slim fingers, fully intending to keep on reading and ignore the pest that was quickly coming into view. Idly, she made sure to run her fingers along the outside of her novel and make sure that the cover was still on - that was, the cover of a wholly different novel, masking the romance she was reading in favour of something more classical.

"Syndra," a petulant voice whined, and Syndra, rolling her eyes, failed to keep her sigh under wraps. She planted her face in her book and continued to read the guilty little words as the skinny redhead bounced beside her table, immediately slamming palms down upon its wood surface and sending her cup rattling. "Syndra, Syndra, Syn -"

Why does this have to happen on my free day? She lamented. The one day she had two empty classes and Janna was out on her history field trip to the museum, and it had to involve some other Star Guardian seeking her out to pester her. Can’t I just have a quiet day of reading for once?

"Jinx, for God's sake," Syndra hissed through her teeth, "Calm down."

"Oh, shit, I thought you were going to do the whole ignoring thin -"

"I'm trying," she said bitterly. She flicked her purple eyes up to glare at the obnoxious Star Guardian that so often ruined her quiet time by being - well, herself; annoying, obtrusive, insubordinate, and way too damned excited over nothing. The fact that she was at school at all was rather surprising to her, because Jinx was far more likely to just skip than to actually show up. "What could you possibly want that requires you to say my name fifteen times in a row?"

"You're exaggerating," Jinx scoffed, again slamming her palm down on the table. Syndra flinched, but not out of shock or surprise. It was nothing but pure annoyance, and she felt a vein in her forehead throb. "It wasn't -"

"Whatever," Syndra said, cutting her off. "What do you want? As you no doubt failed to notice, I'm busy."

"Oh, right, look, right?" Jinx leaned into the table, and her red tails of hair flopped down her sides. "I just - Like, I need your advice, alright?"

"You need my -" Oh, Syndra really wanted to just walk away right then. "You can't be serious."

"Totally," Jinx said emphatically, nodding far too many times. "Like, I'm going crazy thinkin' about it, and I've got no idea what to, like, do -"

Syndra sighed. She carefully plucked at her bookmark, inserting it neatly between the soft pages of her book, and folded it closed. Not because she wanted to give Jinx her full, undivided attention, but rather because by the time the redhead was done she was sure to lose her page in the kerfuffle. "Why aren't you asking literally anyone else, Jinx?"

"You're an advisor-girl," Jinx told her, sounding almost proud of the fact. "You're - hey, can I sit here?"

"No -"

Jinx sat down anyways. She folded her hands in front of her and made a steeple, looking as serious as she never was. "And, like, you're way easier to talk to than the others."

"I'm really not," she deadpanned, resisting the urge to pinch her nose. "Why don't you go ask Janna, or something? She's your team advisor."

Jinx immediately clicked her tongue. "Ah - nah. Like, she's nice and all, but, uh, she's got this weird... vibe? Thing? Going on. It's kinda unnerving. And, uh, I know the, ah, subject matter is gonna make her go all..." the redhead wiggled her fingers "....Teen mom on me."

"What the f -" Syndra cut herself off, and sighed. "What does vibe mean?"

Her words must have had an unintended dark edge to them, because Jinx immediately stiffened and rocked back in her chair. "Ahaha - no offence! Just, you know, Janna things." Jinx coughed to clear her throat while Syndra glared. "S-so, anyways, I wanted to ask you ."

Syndra was still glaring as she replied, "Ask me what?"

Jinx leaned in again. "So, like, you know Ezreal, right?"

Syndra's glare fell away in favour of an unimpressed stare. "yes, I'm vaguely familiar with my teammate, Jinx."

"Right, well, he's the blonde one. Er, not Ahri, but, like, the dude, and he wears blue-"

"I know who Ezreal is," Syndra snapped. "The point, Jinx. Find it and get to it."

"Okay, so, Ezreal," Jinx stated, then paused, ran her tongue over her lips, and scrunched her face in thought. "He's got this thing for Lux, you know?"

"...I'm aware."

"And, uh, don't tell anyone, but..." Jinx leaned in conspiratorial. "I've also got a thing for Lux."

Syndra rolled her eyes. "I am also aware."

"I mean, romantically."

"Yes."

"Feelin-"

"I'm explicitly aware of your girl crush for Lux, yes, continue, please." Syndra plopped her chin in her palm. "Please."

JInx nodded. "So, Ezreal and I are gunnin' for the same girl. But, obviously, he has no chance, and I want him to know that he's got no chance. Like, make him stop. Or, uh, just, uh, ask Lux out before he does? You know. Nip the problem in -"

"Okay, what does any of this have to do with me?" Syndra waved her hand, her ire rising. "I'm not your counselor, and I didn't sign up for teen romance issues."

"I mean, you're the only Star Guardian with a proper relationship!" Jinx exclaimed, slamming her palms down on the table. "So, like, I can't ask anyone else!"

"Stop slamming your - what the fuck, Jinx?!" Syndra half-screeched, rocking back in her chair. "Who the-'' The purple-haired student leaned in like a viper, almost throwing herself over the table. "Where the hell did you hear that?"

"What? What?" Jinx shook her head. "Hear what?"

Syndra sputtered. "That I'm in a relationship?!" 

"What? You and Janna are, like, a thing,” Jinx said casually, almost as if it were just a statement of fact - and Syndra stared at her with her jaw hanging and loose, an indignant flush rising on her neck and a blush on her cheeks. “And I don’t wanna ask her because - well, you know, so you’re the next best thing, and you’re way easier to talk to.”

“That is absolutely not true - ”

“C’mon, Syndra, dude, we’re totes on the same wavelength.” Jinx nodded very seriously, clearly misunderstanding, while Syndra baulked. “Anyhow - so, if I asked Luxanna out - well, I don’t know how to do that, so, uh, I was kinda wondering… how did you ask Janna out?”

Syndra flapped her lips. “I did not !”

“Ohhhhhh,” Jinx hummed. “So Janna asked you out. Okay, okay - so how did it go down? What’d she say?”

What the fuck is happening? Syndra’s mind felt like an office building in damage control mode, trying to figure out what was happening and how to rescue the situation while everything was on fire. She was sure she shouldn’t have been so frantic, but the thought of it was - it was making her cheeks feel way too warm. 

“Nothing,” Syndra hissed out, “she said nothing because nothing happe-”

Jinx’s eyes widened. “ Oh. Did she, like, kiss you? Like in the movies???” Syndra could almost hear the question marks multiplying in her voice as she bounced in her seat. “Oh, wow, that sounds super romantic. Like, kissing you to tell you how she feels? Totally -”

“No, no, ” Syndra hissed, hands flat against the table. “That didn’t -”

Jinx beamed, and stood up in her chair. “So, I should just kiss Lux before telling her how I feel?” 

“I don’t care what you do, Jinx, I only need you to understand that I’m not in any sort of rela -”

“Oh my God, that might actually just work!”

“Jinx, please, for the love of whatever, understand that -”

Jinx reached across the table and slammed her hand down on Syndra’s shoulder in a gesture that was probably meant to be reassuring. “Thanks, Syndra! I think that’s just romantic enough to win Lux’s heart!”

“ Jinx, I swear to the First Star I will hunt you down if you spread any rumours - ”

Her words fell on deaf ears. Jinx was already bounding off, seemingly perfectly happy with her not-advice, the entire interaction having taken less time than it took Syndra to finish a chapter. It was absolutely bemusing for the purple-haired girl, and she was still gaping in indignation as the redhead dashed off to do… whatever it was she was intending to do. Somehow, she’d arrived at the conclusion that she and Janna were dating, that they kissed to get together, and that would serve her well with someone as prudish as Luxanna Crownguard. 

Honestly, Syndra was almost shell-shocked. She just sort of stared after the girl for a handful of minutes before slowly turning her attention back to the table, her brow furrowed and her lips parted. Confusion was etched across her face, and she was still trying to figure out what had just happened before taking the more important issue that was Jinx thinking that Janna and she were… dating? 

Not possible, Syndra concluded after several long moments. I must have - I misunderstood. Yes, that’s it. 

Ignorance was bliss, after all. She’d used the strategy enough times to know the benefits, and she knew, on top of that, that there was no way her tea would misconstrue her relationship with the other purple-haired girl. The rest were smart, Jinx was not. She was known for her strange leaps of fantasy, after all. 

She nodded to herself. Yes, that’s right. Crisis averted, Syndra. Good job. 

She turned back to her book with a self-satisfied grin - Oh. She looked down to find her book on the floor, having apparently sent it tumbling to the floor when she’d risen from her seat. The bookmark was askew, the pages ruffled, her spot in the chapter lost, and, most importantly, the cover that masked the sultry romance novel she was reading was tangled and mussed, risking a reveal to the student body that she was not prepared for. 

“Last time I ever advise Jinx,” she promised herself darkly, dropping down from her seat to pick up her stuff. 

“Janna,” Syndra said patiently, “you were gone for a grand total of three days. That doesn’t give you a free pass to be clingy, and especially not with me. I’ve no wish or desire to spend more time with you than is necessary.”

They hadn’t managed to get a table, such was how busy the cupcake place was. They leaned against a railing just outside, their backs to the wide iron bar and their little box tucked between their shoulders. Cupcakes were held in hand and daintily picked at by slender fingers, and a faint dusting of frosting coated the corners of mouths. It wasn’t the most comfortable place to be eating or talking, but neither made any effort to move on.

It was a little awkward, Syndra knew that. She also knew that people were staring. Not because they were in the wrong spot or doing something weird, no, but because they were two very attractive schoolgirls in their well-fitted outfits that highlighted un-schoolgirl curves, and that always drew the eyes. And, as loathed as Syndra was to admit it, Janna looked pretty good in her short, pleated skirt and tall stocking combination that left bare a slip of the thighs and was subsequently complemented by the size of her chest above. 

She was good looking, Syndra would admit that much. And, much as she’d rather just move on and leave Janna there, she was sure that one of the meatheads nearby would try and make a move on her if Syndra and her wolf-like stare left her. It was purely out of common decency that she remained to ward away and unwanted attention, or so she convinced herself. It had nothing to do with wanting to spend time with her or indulging in the attractive sights herself, naturally. 

“Syn,” Janna laughed, “you said that half an hour ago, and then you came when I said I’d buy you a gourmet cupcake or - I’m not actually sure what these are called? But -”

“They’re gourmet cupcakes,” Syndra said matter-of-factly. It was, in fact, a triple-chocolate cupcake from the newest place in the district. Designer cupcakes one and all, ranging from triple-chocolate-with-brownie-toppings to peanut-butter-and-Nutella to birthday-cake-and-hot-fudge, they had everything. Syndra had been dying to try the place for the last week, in fact, but she had yet to have the chance. 

“Okay, so, you were okay to spend time with me once I told you I’d treat you. Again, might I add.”

“You might not,” Syndra sniffed, munching on her cupcake. 

Janna rolled her eyes. “You could have come at literally any time, you know that? You didn’t need me to bring you.”

“Free food,” was Syndra’s glib response, unwilling to even venture toward the topic that was, yes, I knew there were white-chocolate gourmet cupcakes being sold and I know you like those so we might as well go together. That sounded, unfortunately, like a date, and that was the last thing she wanted to imply or do. “Besides, you taking me here has nothing to do with you coming back to my apartment with me. You know that. I know that. We both know that, last time, I said you’re never coming back.”

“Right,” Janna said slowly, then, with startling ferocity, beamed at her. “But there’s a meteor shower tonight, and the skies are clear! We could use your view and your telescope to see it, right? Stargazing!”

“With you,” Syndra stated. “Which is an automatic no. Also, I’ve had enough to do with stars for a lifetime, thank you.”

“You don’t mean that.”

“I do,” the darker-haired girl said bluntly, sniffing regally in Janna’s direction. “I’ve no wish to spend more time with you than necessary.”

“You always say that, but then you’re always spending time with me.” Janna offered a sly grin. “Is this one of those anime tropes you like? Ts-”

“ Nope, ” she interrupted instantly, her lips popping. “We’re not going there. It’s strictly for the free food, Janna, don’t forget that.”

Janna gave her the look. “Uh-huh.”

“Don’t do that,” Syndra accused, pointing a frosting-covered finger at her face.

“Do what?” Janna asked, fluttering lashes right through the look. 

“ That, ” Syndra protested, still pointing her finger. “Stop. Now.”

Janna giggled with very obvious confusion. “I have no idea what you’re talking about, but okay. Anyways -”

“There is no ‘anyways’.” She waved her hand. “Go find a field to stargaze in, or something.” 

“But you have that really awesome telescope!” Janna gushed. “You spent a fortune on it. It’d be a waste not to use it.”

Syndra very wisely chose not to comment on how, yes, she did, and yes, she did really want to use it, and also that, yes, she had plans to watch the meteor shower that night. She said none of it, though, and just carefully gnawed on her lip as she searched out a suitable response as to why they couldn’t spend the night watching stars together. 

After a moment, she resoundingly shook her head. “We’re not going back to my apartment. You’re spreading enough rumours as it is.”

“Rumours? Is that what this is about?”

Syndra frowned down at her cupcake. “What? No.”

“Did something happen?”

“No.”

“So, yes?”

“Absolutelynotshutupandeatyourfood.” 

Janna did, even though she kept the smile on her face. It infuriated Syndra to see her grinning so earnestly while burying her face in her cupcake, but she couldn’t muster up a greater effort than huffing, grumbling, and crossing an arm under her bustline. She was dimly aware of Janna’s eyes flicking off to the side and looking down at her chest for the briefest of moments before innocently moving away, and she put it down to curiosity. 

They didn’t speak again as they ate their cupcakes. They didn’t do much of anything at all but stand there and look pretty, and with how many people were checking them out, they certainly were that. Syndra was almost getting tired of staring down idiots that gazed at them for too long, and didn’t give any of the other giggling girls the time of day when they flashed smiles in her direction. Honestly, she didn’t have the patience for any of it. She’d much rather be at home than deal with people trying to pick them up. 

“I’ll get you a whole box if I can use your telescope,” Janna offered.

“Deal,” Syndra said instantly. 

“There’s another one!” Janna chirped, leaning into the telescope. There was only room enough for one, obviously, and so Syndra fully expected to be sharing - but she wasn’t minding it as much as she thought she would be. She sat on the window sill just off to her side, watching Janna as she leaned over and excitedly examined the lens. 

They’d both dressed down, and Syndra only haphazardly threw on a short top and a pair of baggy sweatpants to keep comfortable. She didn’t really care about her appearance in her home, and especially not with Janna around. She didn’t care that her pants were unflattering, or that her shirt was a little too cropped around the stomach and that the spaghetti straps were a touch too spaghetti-thin for the size of her chest. 

Janna didn’t care, nor did she mind. She did look at her out of the corner of her eyes a couple of times, but Syndra brushed it aside. Her own eyes, though, trailed over Janna’s parted, buttoned-down blouse, and the creaminess of her slender collarbones now left bare with her tie thrown over the back of Syndra’s couch. It was a purely anecdotal admission that Janna had a good enough body to be arousing and a personality earnest enough to be heartwarming. 

Not her heart, naturally, but purely observationally, she could notice that she was… nice. 

“Interesting,” Syndra said dryly, cocking her head back to look up at the dark night sky. It was late, and while the light of the city was still beaming, everything was clear for once - enough to see stars and constellations with the naked eye, in fact. Her high-powered telescope wasn’t even needed, but Janna was getting her kicks out of it anyway. 

Janna laughed. “Oh, Syn, don’t be like that. Here, come, come -”

Her hand reached out for her, and Syndra let out a catlike hiss as she clumsily pawed at her. “Hey, don’t do that.”

Janna, laughing and rolling her eyes, grabbed her shoulder and yanked her in close. “Come on before you miss it!”

For a brief moment, their cheeks were grazing - brushing in a way that made Syndra’s skin feel like it was burning. It was a result of Janna yanking too hard and fast in an attempt to get her in, and the miscalculation had them both far too close for comfort. There was a gentle intake of air and a sudden reddening of the cheeks before Janna pulled away and offered up the telescope with an almost meek hand. 

Syndra tilted the telescope to herself without saying a single word, and looked through it at Janna’s behest. It was odd to say that she was only partially paying attention, and that her face felt oddly weird from the sudden proximity, but she focused in with a thick swallow. Through the enhanced lens, she got a better view of what the other citizens of Valoran City would be seeing: dashing sparks, trails of lights, and flashing meteors running in a myriad of directions. They were bright as lights and rather fast, and even as Syndra watched, she counted a handful in just a few scant minutes. 

It was a good one this time around. If their numbers were correct, it was a heavier shower of forty or so meteors per hour, which was the biggest Syndra had seen at this time of the year. Bright, darting lights filled the night sky, dashing in every which direction, coming down from the Radiant in long lines. Syndra admired it for a few moments before passing it off to Janna once more, her mouth remarkably dry. 

“It’s really pretty this time around,” Janna hummed, eagerly taking her spot. “Isn’t it?”

Syndra stared at the profile of Janna’s face, taking in the roundness of her chin and the high lines of her cheeks, and with a thick tongue, muttered out a, “yeah. Pretty.”

“The Charids are always nice,” Janna continued. “Though, this is a bigger one than usual.”

“It is, yes,” Syndra said, her eyes flicking off to the side and out at the night sky. The wind coming in through the tall, opened window was fresh, and it had her hair blowing gently around her face. She saw the clear lines of falling meteors with the naked eye, and admired their brightness with her one good eye. 

“Ever think about how these constellations never resemble what they’re meant to resemble?” Janna asked, and Syndra smirked. 

“I mean, yes. I think most people do.” Syndra shook her head. “Three stars in a circle, one to the left, two to each quadrant -well, that hardly resembles a bull, I think.”

“Is The Charger a bull? I thought it was an ox.” 

Syndra frowned. “It’s some sort of horned animal, I don’t know. I’m bad with animals.”

Janna laughed. “Oh, you are. Remember that time with Mr. Muffles?” 

Syndra’s lips formed an even line at the thought of Janna’s old cat, and subconsciously she looked at her now-unscarred arm. “...Distinctly, yes.”

Janna giggled. It was a noise that made Syndra feel oddly uncomfortable, and she coughed into her hand. “Anyhow. Ah, yes. The Charger doesn’t really look like what it’s supposed to look like.”

“Yeah…” Janna pulled back from the telescope, lips pursed. “But, considering that it is a - er, a horned star-creature, the fact that this planet knows that is pretty interesting. No one would have seen it, I think, but they still know, somehow.”

“I… suppose,” Syndra said slowly, considering the thought with furrowed brows. “There is some correlation between the actual star-entities themselves and the mortal comprehension of them.”

Of course, the Star Guardians had far too much familiarity with the star creatures that they were supposed to represent and oftentimes fell into conflict with. It was something that made Syndra shiver about ever-so-slightly, and she idly flicked a lock of hair over her ear as she considered it. “...Besides, I think it’d be best if they never actually met The Charger. It’s rather… Hm…”

“Obtuse?” Janna offered, and Syndra inclined her head. 

“That works,” she said softly. Their team had, in more recent times, faced The Charger on one of their inter-spatial and otherworldly jaunts. Star entities, like Sol itself, weren’t exactly friendly, even if on their side; and, sometimes, they were as likely to cause issues as Void monsters themselves. “Stars are prickly things.”

“You’re telling me,” Janna laughed. “At least he’s giving us a nice meteor shower, though.”

“I suppose so,” Syndra chuckled. “Better than The Destroyer would offer, I’m sure.”

Janna hummed. “Where is The Destroyer from here? Shouldn’t it be above The Charger?”

“...Shouldn’t you know this?” 

“I’m not that good with astrology, Syn,” Janna said gently. “You are. I just go off of what I’ve learned second-hand, and what you taught me -”

“Yes, yes,” Syndra cut off, not willing to hear about how often she’d stargazed with Janna on their old team. “It’s, uh…” She pulled the telescope away, aligned it up and to the left from The Charger and toward a mass of glowering stars that appeared like a rhino. “Right here.”

She offered the telescope back to Janna, and tried not to stare as she leaned back in. “Ah. Right. You.” She clicked her tongue. “...Doesn’t really look like a rhino though, you know?”

“They never do,” Syndra replied dryly. 

“Remember fighting that thing?” 

“Distinctly,” she deadpanned, trying not to think about the rampaging ‘protector’ of the skies that had nearly dashed their team to pieces as they fought upon a strange asteroid-realm. “It’s rather annoying that they can never tell the difference between friend or foe.”

“Yeah, I don’t think Aurelion Sol cares about that kinda thing,” Janna chirped with an awkward laugh. It was always an odd topic - did they thank the Creator of Stars, or curse him for being so damned obtuse? “But that’s just how he i - Oh! The Messenger is out tonight!”

“Fourth of the month,” Syndra reflected, calling upon astrological knowledge in a heartbeat. “Two-week period, where the constellation is at its brightest. Locations seem to shift based on region. Four bundles of three s-”

“Show off,” Janna accused, staring at her glibly out of the corner of her eye, and Syndra froze up.

“That wasn’t - I wasn’t showing off,” she sputtered. “Just - just recollecting.”

“Uh-huh,” Janna drawled, and Syndra scoffed. 

“Whatever.”

Janna giggled again, and Syndra shifted awkwardly. “This guy is such a cutie, though. Reminds me of this dog I used to have, but far more excitable. Couldn’t get him off me, you know? Stained my outfit, which, let me tell you, really annoying to deal with. Star-saliva isn’t -”

“When did you meet The Messenger?” Syndra asked, frowning with sincerity. They had never encountered it, to her knowledge. It was a flitting constellation that took the form of a Pug and roamed the stars as its name suggested, and it had never come into contact with Syndra’s new or old team.

Janna froze up. “Ah, well, it was with my team.” She paused, then amended, “current team. Lux, and them. We were out on patrol, ran along a mountaintop, found it. He was playing with us for a good hour, in fact. It derailed the entire operation, but it was so cute. It’s literally like a real dog!”

“I see.” Her voice was dry, flat, and Janna noticed immediately as she turned away from the telescope. 

“We could find it ourselves, I’m sure. 

“I’ve no interest in that.”

Janna scrunched up her nose. “I bet you’d love to pet him, Syndra. He’s adorable, like Zephyr.”

Syndra looked off to the side, where Zephyr was playing with Multi on top of her couch. “That doesn’t make it sound any more appealing, Janna.”

“You love Zephyr!” She laughed, tucking her hair behind her ear. 

“I do not,” she stated bluntly.

“You’re always petting him when you get the chance!”

“He’s… warm,” Syndra scoffed. 

“You’re so bad at lying.”

“I am not! ” Syndra crossed her arms. 

“This is like that time you thought the Silver Sister was the Golden Sister, but tried to convince me otherwise.”

“They’re fucking twins, so of course their constellations are identical - ”

“See!”

“ Shut up, Janna. ”

Janna threw her head back and laughed. Syndra scowled, but it didn’t last - not when the lilac-haired girl offered her the telescope again, pointing out The Messenger to her with whispered words into her ear, tickling both the sensitive shell and her spine. Janna hovered in close enough for her distracted eye to stare at the hair curling around her white cheek and for her to smell her perfume, all of which made something inside of her chest twist the wrong sort of way. Still, she pushed that all aside as she focused on running through constellations, pointing out one, then another, then another, just idly chatting about their properties. 

There was no expectation of more, and it was nothing more than just talking. It was almost nice, and the regurgitation of memory allowed the semi-distracted Syndra to pass herself off as her usually aloof self. If Janna noticed, she said nothing, either. She ran through as many constellations as they both could find, in fact, for the meteor shower lasted until dawn, and they had more than enough time to do nothing but talk. 

Really, the only one they missed was The Scourge, but Syndra didn’t want to talk about the one constellation that was a murderous interstellar monstrosity prophesied to destroy the foundations of reality. A good enough topic to stray away from when she was on a date - Syndra don’t do that don’t think about that kind of thing - stargazing event with a former friend. 

For a time, the two only stared at the raining meteors by the hour, watching them patter across the night sky like rain on glass, all while familiars played behind them. Janna’s face was almost pensive at times, and Syndra almost waited with baited breath for whatever introspective thing was building on her tongue. 

She still swallowed hard when it came around. 

“You know, I’ve missed watching stars with you, Syndra.”

“We didn’t do it that frequently,” she said softly in turn, turning back to look out the window. She could see the bright Warrior star high above, acting as the northern anchoring point in the night sky. 

“No, but we should have,” Janna said, and she did so emphatically enough that Syndra almost believed it. 

Days passed, much the same as they usually did. She walked to school, found Zephyr and Janna waiting for her because their damned familiars couldn’t tear themselves apart, and just wanted to play. She ate lunch across from Janna, and found her during her spare when she was playing chess just outside of the cafeteria. They went to class together, and on off days, sat at the same chemistry table. It was almost routine. 

It was utterly fucking bemusing for Syndra, and she was almost - almost - wanting to rip at her hair. It was strange. It was so incredibly off. It also felt so strangely familiar, like slipping into the comforting old sweater she had at the back of her closet and only wore on off-days. It was the kind of thing she couldn’t piece together. It was the kind of thing she didn’t want to piece together, in the fear that it would only make it worse. 

So, she didn’t. She didn’t do much at all, for the most part. She just went with the flow, letting a week pass, and then two. She admired the gentle calmness of it, and in the quiet, introspective moments where Janna was treating her to chocolatey drinks and chocolate ganache cake, she just… thought. 

It was so very weird, that was for sure. 

One night, there was a strategy meeting between the teams. A simple thing of going over their pooled information, thinking through strategies and the like, and understanding each other better. They were all very different girls - Ezreal notwithstanding - and they needed the time to get to know one another. Janna was there in her big-sister capacity; the team’s mom, so to speak, all gentle smiles and a calm aura, running around to grab food and drinks and suggest things as softly and kindly as she could without pushing, and it frustrated Syndra. 

It wasn’t what she’d seen over the last handful of weeks, and the difference was aggravating. She said nothing, though - she just sat a ways apart, checking her nails and running through her hair, quiet and unassuming. She sat there, acting the same as usual - which was to say, suspicious and brooding, as if she were planning something. Her spoken words were taken extremely seriously by Ahri, but the others just shuffled anxiously. They didn’t, perhaps, trust her, and her demeanour and attitude didn’t help.

It was awfully amusing, in her opinion. 

The meeting went on for several hours. It went on long enough for them to call for breaks, allowing everyone to chill out for a handful of minutes before getting back into the thick of planning. Syndra, by then, had already slipped away, as quiet as a shadow, and stepped out onto one of Lux’s many balconies. Big, lofty, impressive, marked out by large curtains, and protected with bars of iron and wood. Stars glimmered in the night sky overhead, and as Syndra leaned against the railing to admire them with her one good eye, she let Multi dance around her voluptuous body. 

“Syn?” Janna asked, and Syndra rolled her eyes at her approach. 

“Hello, team mom, ” Syndra snarked, casually looking over her shoulder. “Or, teen mom? I don’t know which is better.”

Janna frowned. Zephyr floated over to the railing ahead of her, and set itself down on the clean wood. “Uhm… preferably neither?”

“Really? You make a rather convincing show of it.” She gestured vaguely at the door. The cool night air blew around her face, sending luscious purple caressing the flat planes, and she suppressed a minute shiver. 

“I’m guiding them as I know best,” Janna said, moving up and setting herself against the railing. “Which is just like that - a mother. Distant, but friendly. I’m… well, that's what I know.” She smiled a little strangely. “I’m not like you.”

“No, you’re not,” Syndra half-spat, half-grumbled. 

“Right.” Janna nodded slowly. “Which is good. You’re you. I don’t want to be you. I think that’s good, no?”

Syndra’s lips twisted into a confused smile. “I have no idea what that means…?”

Janna laughed softly. “I like the dichotomy you have with your team. I like mine. I like ours. It’s different, but it works. Isn’t that a good thing?”

“There is - there is no ours, ” Syndra said, licking her lips.

Janna raised an eyebrow, and Syndra looked away. 

“...You seem fine to forget it when you’re doing this guidance shit,” Syndra said at length, folding her hands together. “I don’t enjoy being the other one.”

Janna’s long ears wiggled. “...I’ve made you feel left out, haven’t I?”

“Wait, no, that is not what I’d said -”

“Because I wasn’t following up with our rapport,” Janna continued, nodding. “Oh. I’m sorry. I - like you’d said, I’m different with them. It’s just a thing I get into - I’m not going to pull that with you, because you know better. You know me better. So… sorry, Syndra.”

Syndra baulked at her. 

Janna squinted. “...Uhm...”

“Don’t just apologize, ” she hissed. “You never…”

Janna raised an eyebrow, and Syndra looked away. “Oh, whatever. Just… don’t not be yourself. It’s fucking infuriating when you act like -” she waved her hand “-that.”

“Okay.”

Syndra remained silent. She felt off, and she didn’t know why - plus, it was cold as all hell, and her Star Guardian outfit didn’t actually cover that much. Her stockings were thin, her gloves like tissue paper, her thighs and shoulders uncovered, and she felt a chill run through her. 

Then, there was no chill. Janna, with a wave of her hand, stilled the blowing air around them, leaving an aura of stillness that was almost unsettling. At the same time the dainty form of Zephyr came to a rest on her shoulders, and Syndra comically stiffened as it settled against her. She squeaked at the strange, furry, and most importantly, warm contact, and bit her lip.

It took a moment for her to think of a suitable respone, and Janna beat her to the punch. "You looked cold, and I know you don't like being cold."

"Yes. Uhm. Thank you." Syndra's face felt a touch too warm for comfort. "That wasn't - wasn't necessary, though."

"You can just say thank you, you know? It wouldn't kill the great and lofty Syndra."

Syndra sputtered and scoffed at the same time. "Wow. Now you're begging for me to validate you? Geez, Janna. How sad."

Janna giggled behind her hand, and Syndra chanced a smile. Zephyr settled against her shoulders in a warm heap, and Syndra let the reassuring heat roll through her shoulders. Multi was bouncing along the railing with too much excitement, allowing Janna to pat them and send them playfully careening off and around them. It was a simple, quiet moment, and something inside of Syndra felt dimly warm.

Syndra ran her tongue over her lips. "Uhm... Janna, I -"

"There you guys are," Ezreal said, walking in with far too much of a swagger, and Syndra gave him enough cut-eye to have him freeze and still. "A-aha-hahaha, that's, uh, right. Ahem - the meeting's started back up."

Syndra smirked coldly. "Spent your time looking, did you?"

"Er, well, I, uh, actually asked Lux where Janna went," Ezreal said nervously, rubbing the back of his head. "A-and, you know, Janna always tells people where she's going and she's always with you so it made sense to goshyou'rescary -"

Syndra's smile was sharp enough to cut through ice. In truth, she liked antagonizing the male and seeing him go all uncomfortable; it was almost therapeutic, in a -

"Excuse me?!" Syndra asked a moment later, her coldness falling and giving way to anger. "I'm always what?"

"With me, he said," Janna supplied unhelpfully, and Ezreal nodded. 

"Yeah -"

"Oh, there you guys are!" Lulu said, bursting past Ezreal with a hop that had everyone blinking. "I knew you'd be with Janna! The meeting's started!"

"With four people missing," Syndra muttered dryly. 

"Oh, wow, you look super cute!" Lulu cooed, entirely ignoring her words and pointing directly at Syndra.

Syndra, who still had Zephyr half-sleeping on her shoulders. 

"Right?" Janna agreed, all smiles, and Syndra felt herself shrivel up inside. 

"Janna," she hissed in a way that was almost hopeful, "don't compliment your familiar like that -"

"I'm not," Janna assured in the worst way possible, and Syndra wanted to sputter.

Honestly, she wasn't sure if her face had ever been so red in her life, but all she knew what that was totally and utterly mortified. 

"Do you want to go to the cafe after school?" Janna asked at lunch the next day, idly munching on her sandwich.

"No," was her response. "I'm busy."

She couldn't meet Janna's eyes properly, in the weirdest turn of events. She didn't know why - or, rather, didn't want to think about why.

"Oh," Janna said in turn. "Oh, right."

And that was that, until the next day - where the exact same thing happened. For almost an entire week, Syndra shot Janna down. She wasn't often at the lunch table, nor her spare. She didn't comment on it to Janna, and Janna didn't comment in turn. It wasn't out of malice or a lack of want to spend time with her, but because she was of single-minded focus: 

The upcoming drama club play. 

Each day ticked down to it, and each day saw her doing more and more, running over the practice session and going through the script. It bordered on compulsive and obsessive, but everyone was frantic. It was meant to be good, and everyone felt the pressure of that on their shoulders. Jhin was as frantic as he'd ever been, spouting Haiku and poetry as if they were commands. Costumes were readied, lines rehearsed, skits practiced, day by day, hour by hour, down to the marked stage performance.

Syndra didn't even see Janna on that final day. It was just crunch time, and she was absent from each class for it. The theatre club's production was typically a fairly big thing, and the school made every active effort to promote it. They had a big stage, a nice auditorium, a selection of seats that made it look like a genuine movie theater, and everyone was excited to extract every ounce of use out of it. Tickets were sold on the cheap for students, and significantly more expensive for those outside folk that wanted to watch it - but the first day was just the student body, and then there would be a selection of shows thrice a day for the next three days. 

Syndra wasn't nervous - not even when the sea of students made itself clear, jamming every last inch of the auditorium and then some. It might have been a minor footnote for them - a handful of coins for a high-quality show from one of the best schools in Valoran City? - but it wasn't to the drama club, that was for sure. Others were running around, almost frantic, getting the costume department to tidy their outfits or tuck in scarves and ties. It was an almost comical sight, but Syndra watched it all with impassive eyes. 

When the lights dropped and Jhin hurried people into position, it was showtime. Syndra was already in place, ready and willing, her nerves and angst steadied and steeled from years of fighting monsters. Mostly. There was still that little bit of fear bubbling in her stomach - a worry of failing, of not being good enough for the production. A silly thought, maybe, but it was there. 

Then they were on stage, and everything just flowed. The play was an original, as made by Jhin - world-famous Jhin, and so the quality wasn't lacking. It was all up to the actors, though. Syndra's part, amusingly, was one of the largest. She hadn't been sure at all when Jhin gave her the role of the prince - an odd one truly, especially so when there was a witch and a sorcerer that she could play adeptly. She was a dark, brooding prince, with a hint of fangs and a disposition that couldn't be described as good or bad. A fun part, though, and one that she played to perfection.

Mostly. There were a few hiccups in her own performance, and she noticed actors miss their queues and stumble over lines. Clumsy little things that would be ironed out over time, but made her wince each time. Others didn't seem to notice, though - they laughed at the right times, cooed at the right marks, and seemed hooked on the play at every point. People seemed to enjoy her performance, gratifyingly. Maybe there was something, as Jhin said, to her being 'tall, dark, handsome, mysterious' - in truth, she'd thought he was attempting to hit on her or something, but people seemed to enjoy it. 

She cut a rather dashing figure in her tight-fitted suit, the splash of crimson that was her trimmed vest outlining her figure and the dark, almost purple slacks like the darkest of wines. It matched the cup she held and gestured with sly grins and simmering winks. Okay, maybe one or two girls squealed - she wasn't counting (she was, of course) and didn't really care (Maybe, she did.) 

The first act went off without a hitch, and then the second. People gasped when the protagonist died, and the lover took up the slack. People laughed when Syndra said her witty remarks, and gasped when she rumbled off to the maiden in low, rumbling tones. It was good - all of it was going good, and Syndra was in her element. She flushed with pride in a way she so rarely did and enjoyed the attention, brief and fleeting as it often was. 

She listened to the squeaks and squeals of the crowd as she leaned in, hand on the actress’s chin, and enjoyed the sounds. Enjoyed it all - the theatrics, the drama, the poetry of the lines. It was fun to play a character for a while, even one as over-the-top as hers. She, just like Rakan, had been chosen for their clear theatrics and presumably good looks, and it was certainly working well. She could see it in their faces; Xayah, who was probably just there to support Rakan, looked mildly intrigued; Diana, with her chin in her hands, rapt with attention; Quinn, practically on the edge of her seat, biting her lip; Janna, mouth covered by her hands, eyes wide; Taric, looking pleased and enraptured at -

That was the first time she really tripped up - when she had to double-take and confirm that, yes, Janna was in the crowd, watching her. Eyes fastened on hers, staring, presumably having done so for the entire time, and for a brief moment, their gazes met - and Syndra flushed. She regained her bearings quickly enough, smoothing over her words, avoiding the sight of Professor Jhin staring from behind the curtain and mouthing things at her. 

A simple trip-up, she told herself, ignoring the fact that Janna’s cerulean eyes were focused right on her at that very moment. Had Janna known she’d be on stage? Had she just come anyways to the school play, and seen her? Why? Why was she there at all? There were too many questions to think over, too many lines to crunch and calculate, and she was too busy to spare any more attention without messing up again. No one had really understood her first screw-up, granted, but the fact was that she had, and she disliked it. 

But, still: Janna was there, watching her. It was making her even more nervous, for some strange damned reason she couldn’t place. Her stomach was in a knot, and Syndra didn’t do ‘knots’. It was silly - it was just Janna. So why…?

Syndra continued to put her all into the act, running through the best part of the play with as few hiccups as she could manage in her inscrutable, flustered state. And - okay, maybe she put a little more into it, knowing that someone she knew was watching her; maybe she tried a little bit harder, like she was putting on a real show. Maybe, she liked the way that Janna’s eyes never left her for the duration of the play. 

Just maybe - but she’d never admit it to anyone. 

The play went off without a hitch, and Jhin very happily congratulated everyone after everything was said and done and they’d retreated away from the spotlights. The crowd had been pleased with the outcome, and so was their professor. Still, he didn’t hesitate to start correcting their mistakes, even Syndra’s, but she took it all on the chin. It was about forty-five minutes before she was released, long enough for the sweat to dry and for her to change into comfier clothing - a simple school pull-over and some sweat pants that were wholly unflattering, but she didn’t care. 

There were still people waiting for the cast - friends, significant others, and the like. All wanted to congratulate, or, at least, put in their two cents, and none of it was what Syndra wanted to hear. She just popped in her earphones and walked off, hands in her pockets, a pleasant buzz running through her. It was nice - all of it was really nice. Gratifying, in a way. She could understand why people wanted to celebrate - she wanted to celebrate, really, and it was only the first night of the four. 

“Hey, Syn,” came a voice that she knew far too well, and she gulped subtly. 

“Janna,” she replied, her voice measured and careful. Tentative, almost. 

Janna was smiling kindly, and there was something like a twinkle in her eye. “You performed wonderfully. I’m really impressed! All that melodrama seems to be good for something.”

Syndra wet her lips. “I’m not melodramatic.” She paused. “Uh - thanks. Don’t go telling people I was in the play, though.”

“It would be a shame not to,” Janna protested with a laugh.

“It’s not that big of a deal,” was her flimsy protest. 

“No, it really was,” Janna pressed. “It was really nice, actually! You did wonderfully, too.” Her grin was almost sly. “I swear I saw more than one girl swoon, you know?”

“I don’t - I don’t know what you’re talking about,” was her flippant response, while a faint blush rose to her cheeks, 

“And - oh! Right.” Janna, suddenly, thrust forward a small selection of flowers - violets and purple orchids, all in brilliant shades of purple. “Sorry - these are for you, for a job well done. These are still your favourites, right?”

“I...Yes? You got me flowers,” Syndra replied, just a little bit hoarsely. “...You… you came to the play to watch me, didn’t you?”

“Of course,” Janna replied. “Er, to both, of course. I knew it was coming up, so why wouldn’t I?”

“You might have just come to watch the play, like a normal person,” she offered weakly, and the shadow of a frown passed over Janna’s pretty face. 

“Well, sure, but that wasn’t why. Plus, I wanted to see what you were working so hard on.”

Syndra nodded slowly, almost strangely. “I was...you didn’t think I was - uh - ghosting you for the last week?”

“What?” Another peculiar look passed over Janna’s face before she giggled. “No. You were obviously working on the play. Syndra, you didn’t really think I didn’t believe you about that, right?”

“No, but…” Syndra looked at the flowers that were now in her hand. “Uh. You waited for nearly an hour just to give me these?”

“Well, and to say congratulations.” 

“For an hour?”

“I just said that.” Janna cocked her head. “Just how tired are you from all that? I imagine it was quite strenuous, but…”

Syndra licked her lips. She licked her lips, looked away, scratched her cheek, and then just walked away. 

Janna stared after her blankly. “What? Syn?”

“What?” She tucked her hair behind her ear almost nervously. “Keep up, would you?”

“Huh?”

“I’m going to celebrate at the cafe,” Syndra said gently, her chin cocked up confidently. “And you are allowed to join me.”

Janna smiled fondly. “Allowed?”

“Yes, so - so do keep up.”

“Sure, Syn,” Janna replied, walking up alongside her. “I’d love to.”

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Syndra managed to make it part of the way through the weekend of theater-club activity and on-stage performance before problems started cropping up. Not with the show - that was going perfectly - but rather a strange occurrence involving cosmic entities hellbent on consuming human life like it was a particularly tasty treat. The usual for Syndra, but not for the humans she was supposed to be protecting. 

There were many Star Guardians, though, and two whole teams weren’t necessary for every threat that came around. Syndra had left enough notes behind for people to know what they were doing, and her scrawled maps and assumptions based on the appearance of ‘scythe-arm-slasher’ and the rift scuttlers predicted a larger incursion, and Janna very kindly provided those to the teams while Syndra was otherwise occupied.

“It’ll be fine,” Janna had assured her. Syndra didn’t want to listen. Why should she? She could beat monsters as she wished. She wouldn’t leave Ahri out to dry. She should have shown up; she wasn’t Jinx. Janna, though, told her it would be fine, told her to stay and do her stupid play, so Syndra did. She wasn’t used to that - listening to someone telling her to just sit back and do something silly like acting. 

It was almost like she was being cared for. That was weird, wasn’t it?

She didn’t catch heads or tails of Janna through the entire show, nor when they were released by Jhin after a full of compliments and congratulations. He’d offered a celebratory party up in the drama club room, and pretty much everyone went - but not Syndra, who only checked over her phone for messages and found nothing. With a tightness to her jaw she rushed off without paying attention to her Professor, and ran out of the school grounds as hurriedly as she could manage. 

She transformed into her Star Guardian form without even using Multi - there was no one around, and she didn’t need to hide in an oversized purple ball. Once suitably dressed in her white, purple, and gold outfit, she levitated and launched herself through the sky, worried thoughts running through her mind: the teams losing, people hurt, monsters winning, carnage and damage, Janna wounded…

She made it about halfway before she saw Janna, flying through the air toward her at high-speed. There was a brief moment of pause where the two floated a few dozen meters away from one another, staring, before Syndra pointed down, and Janna nodded along. They were, roughly, near Syndra’s home, and the two floated down toward it at a safe descent. They avoided the front and landed on the rear balcony. Familiars floated down around them, playfully chittering and chattering and doing whatever it was their kind did when they were happy. 

“Sorry,” Janna apologized almost shyly as she rubbed the back of her head. “I tried to make it, but…”

“You’ve already seen the play. There’s no reason to come twice.” Syndra’s voice was critical and almost cutting, as curt as the brisk movement of her eye. She scanned Janna from head to toe, but found no damage at all. 

“I want to support you,” Janna protested, and Syndra shook her head. 

“Why?”

“Because I want to?” Janna’s smile was earnest, if amused. “I don’t need a better reason.”

Syndra sniffed. With a wave of her hand she opened the back door and held her arm out, allowing Janna to enter first. “...What happened?”

“There were a lot of bad guys,” Janna said patiently. “It’s hard to hunt those scythe-things. It’s, like, acting out Aliens in real life. Took forever, and then there was a Queen…”

“A queen? Unexpected.” Syndra furrowed her brow. She didn’t move past the hallway, and Janna looked at her curiously. “Was anyone harmed?”

“No,” she said, and nodded her head reassuringly. “We’re all fine. A couple of scratches, but after your first fight with them, Ahri put a plan together using your notes. It was straightforward from there, but… lengthy. That’s why I took so long.”

“Like I said, it’s fine.” Syndra waved her hand as she walked along into the living room. “I don’t mind. It’s not necessary -”

“It’s not a matter of being necessary,” she said. “I wanted to come. Really. I didn't plan on taking so long, though.”

“Why would you want to go to a play that you’ve already seen before?” Syndra asked, wetting her lips. 

Janna didn’t miss a beat. “Because I’d get to see you on stage, doing something you like. And, well, you do cut a rather dashing figure in that outfit, you know?”

Syndra cleared her throat and looked off to the side. “Is that so?”

“Yes.”

Janna looked at her earnestly, just standing there in her Star Guardian outfit, and it made Syndra want to bite her lip. “And the rest of it, then? Is it just because you want to?”

“The rest of what?”

“Lunch, spares, cafes, burgers.” She waved her hand. “All that.”

“Oh. Yes, it’s because I want to.”

Syndra was walked over to her armchair, hand ruffling the back of her head. “Not because you feel the need to make up for lost time, or something equally stupid? I imagine that would come easy to you, so -”

“So cutting,” Janna remarked dryly, an amused look in her eyes. “Do you think I’d do that?”

“...No,” Syndra admitted. “It’s… odd. It’s been a long time.”

“I haven’t seen you in a long time. We’ve only reunited, like, a few months ago.”

“People don’t just fall into old routines like that,” Syndra protested.

“I don’t know about that,” Janna said easily. “I think we have. And - well, maybe it’s not old, but it’s nice. I think it’s nice - don’t you?”

Syndra worked her jaw. “...Why?”

“Why what?”

“You know.” Syndra looked over at Star Guardian Janna, and tried to keep her eyes trained on hers. “It’s strange. Excessive. I haven’t been nice - I’m not nice. By most definitions, I’m a bitch. Better still, I like that. So, please, if it’s an attempt to appease me, don’t. And if it’s -”

“Oh, dear,” Janna sighed, rolling her eyes, and Syndra narrowed hers. 

“What?”

“You are way too melodramatic.”

Syndra pointed a threatening finger. “Janna.”

“Syndra.” Janna stepped forward. She was close - almost too close. “Have you ever, for a moment, considered that the world doesn’t revolve around you?”

Syndra blinked. “Uhm. Objectively, fucking obviously- ”

“That people are capable of making their own decisions?” Janna raised an amused eyebrow as she stepped in closer still, making their height disparity a little more pronounced. Syndra wasn’t short by any means, but Janna was a tall, willowy girl - sans her chest. “That a girl can like who she wants? That you make it oh-so-easy to enjoy your company?”

“You’re not making any sense,” Syndra protested, and holy shit why were Janna’s fingers on her chin? She was tilting her face up, just enough to align their heads, and Syndra was confused and perturbed and her heart was stuttering way too fast for comfort -

The moment was too fast to properly understand, but lips were there - Janna’s mouth pressing down against her own, kissing her. Her mouth was soft and smooth, her lips gently plumped and with just the right amount of give, and in Syndra’s very limited kissing experience, nice. For a single moment - more than a single moment, really - her brain was frozen; almost stuttering, unable to process the hows and whys of the situation that was so oddly occurring. She was frozen against Janna as the fingers on her chin tilted her head up, keeping her in-line with her face, ensuring their lips had plenty of space to press together. 

And they continued to press together. Syndra’s mind stuttered in fits and starts, trying to work up into her normal self and entirely failing. Janna was kissing her, and she couldn’t really come to grips with that. Worse still, it felt nice. Her lips were soft against hers, and her plumper, fuller pair meshed nicely with her thinner mouth. They set together neatly, rolling for a few moments before clasping together in a firm kiss, and each minute movement sent shivers through Syndra’s jaw. It made her shiver, and the pleasantness of it had her shivering. 

Janna pulled back, allowing Syndra to breathe. Syndra, for a long moment, seemed to forget how to do that very basic thing, and once she did, she pulled in a strange, almost strangled gulp. 

“U-uh…”

“Does that make more sense?” Janna asked, her voice soft, careful, like glass. 

Syndra swallowed thickly. “Not particularly.”

Janna’s smile was almost sad. “Do you think it’s so hard for someone to care about you?” Fingers were stroking against her cheekbones, now, and Syndra felt a tremble run up her spine and down to her loins. It was a feeling she rarely felt, given her incredible self-control; and it was one that she normally worked off in a furious display of prowess in some love-hate. “For someone to like you?”

“I don’t know how to answer that,” Syndra admitted in a breathless voice, her cheeks red and pupils dilated. 

“Maybe you just need someone to show you,” Janna suggested, her voice carrying a strange, almost seductive lilt. “May I?”

Syndra swallowed hard. “U-uhm. I - I suppose so?”

“Thank you, Syndra,” Janna hummed, enunciating every word. Her hands, gently, pushed at Syndra’s body, pushing her down onto the armchair that Syndra so liked. She landed with a soft thump and a bemused expression, and watched as Janna, still dressed in her pretty Star Guardian outfit, dropped to her knees in front of her asymmetric stockings. 

Syndra swallowed hard. It was an outrageous sight - Janna, on her knees before her, in a context that was entirely different from any power-fantasy she’d had of people bowed in supplication. Her crisp, purple skirt flared out around pale, creamy thighs, and her white, stocking-clad legs folded underneath her. She wasn’t the kind of girl that got down on her knees for anyone, contrary to Syndra’s mocking words, but there she was, getting down on her knees. 

Why? How? The thoughts crossed over her mind, but she wasn’t sure what to say or do. She licked her lips tentatively and suppressed a little squeak as Janna set her hands on her knees - one bare, the other covered in clinging white. She rubbed up, sweeping past the golden metal that kept them around her legs, and fingers travelled over the golden bands that wrapped around her right thigh like a lace strap. 

“Janna,” She said, measuring and weighing every word, “are you sure you know what you’re doing?”

Janna smiled beautifully. “Yes, I do. Let someone else take care of you for once, okay? Let me. ”

Syndra let out a shaky breath as she watched Janna’s hands slide up her thighs and under her skirt, avoiding the golden spars and flipping up the purple cloth inch by inch. Like all the girls, she wore shorts underneath - tight, meant for ease of movement, but so as not to be compromising when she flew around. Unlike most of the others, though, Syndra’s extra equipment necessitated it, and she let out a shaky breath when Janna’s smooth hands crept over the bulge in her shorts, hidden by the elastic fabric, ensuring that it didn’t tent out her skirt. She swallowed thickly as the lilac-haired girl hummed and pulled, stripping her shorts off with a few, deft movements, and quickly pulled free her prize: Syndra’s girldick.

She was only semi-hard, but with each passing moment, each minute of realization at what was happening, she got harder still. Blood surged down and tingles ran through her as Janna flipped her skirt up all the way, setting it against Sydnra’s midsection, and allowed her impressive cock to dangle free without obstruction. Syndra could only watch with wide eyes as the other teen set a white-gloved hand against the slender, pale length, wrapping it up in soft fingers, drawing out a sigh from her lips. 

“I really want to take care of you, Syndra,” Janna told her, putting as much emotion into her voice as she could. She leaned in while her hand wrapped comfortably around the steadily thickening cock, her fingers wrapping tight and her palm moulding to the length. She pulled it up, rolling against the cock in a slow, smooth stroke, drawing out another noise from her lips. “However I can, and whenever I can.”

Her voice was smooth and sweet, just like always - but there were so many different connotations when she had her hand wrapped around Syndra’s cock and her lips were just inches away. Still, Janna’s eyes remained trained on hers, never breaking eye contact, even as her hand rolled up the cock. Her strokes were slow and paced, measured and refined, coaxing Syndra up to her full length. Blood rushed down in fits and tangles, making the purple-haired girl shiver and suppress her little breathy moans of pleasure 

Janna was still locking eyes with her even when her mouth reached down and pressed a single, soft kiss against the rubbery, bulbous tip, drawing out a breath moan from Syndra’s lips. Janna didn’t look away, even as the movement was repeated - her soft mouth pressing down firmly against the head, squishing gently and applying a hint of wetness. Her hand cupped the pale length, stroking slowly, while her mouth pressed kiss after kiss across the smooth head - running down gently, Janna’s neck rolling, her hot, wet panting washing over her sensitive cock in a way that sent trembles up her spine. 

She propped the cock up with her hand as her head moved down, kissing a smooth path from the head down, travelling over the vascular underside. She set kiss after kiss against it, each touch of her lips making Syndra inhale just that little bit more, sensation running along her nerve endings. Her hand stroked at the same time, rubbing up and down oh-so-gently, her fingers moulding to the steadily thickening girth while her palm cupped it. 

“Oh,” Syndra sighed, and bit down on her lip. Her fingers tabbed into her palm as Janna carefully kissed her way along the cock, her pace measured and gentle, her neck rolling as she descended. Her lips pressed into the hard underside, caressing it firmly, letting the softness squish down like little cushions and then running against it. It swelled against her mouth, rising up to full mast by the moment, and Syndra couldn’t suppress her moans. It was a nice feeling, and Janna’s mouth was soft - soft as sin, and each time she applied pressure, they squished against her dense girth. Her cock felt harder than it had ever been in her life, and the pressure applied by Janna’s hand was enough to leave it shivering. 

Janna reached the base of her cock, and lips kissed gently at her balls - each smooth and swollen, and offering perfect attention for her mouth. Each kiss was neat and proper, leaving minimal saliva, but it sent shudders through her cock all the same. When Janna started moving back up, though, she wasn’t kissing - her tongue poked free of her pretty pink lips and extended out, presenting the broad flat of it. She set the slimy appendage against the base of her shaft, and Syndra’s jaw positively chatter as the teen started to drag it up the length of her pale rod. 

Her tongue flicked along the underside, rising from base to tip in a long, lewd lick. Janna’s eyes, though, never left Syndra’s, and the blue shade of her eyes was almost intoxicating. Her fingers dug into the white material of her palms as she watched the incredulous sight of Janna on her knees before her, tongue lapping at her cock like some floozy, doing things she’d never considered before and more. It was a nice feeling, and she sighed as her tongue flicked over the bulbous tip before sweeping back down again in an almost dainty flick. 

She didn’t leave saliva rolling down her cock, as the very few girls that Syndra entertained whenever she was horny often did. She was prim, proper, precise, making up for sloppiness with something more emotional. She was invested in it, and each flick and lick of her tongue was heavenly. Her cock throbbed against her mouth, and she was now at her full, impressive mast - eight and a half inches of slender girldick, the skin paler than anywhere else on her body. Janna, though, just kept going, eyes focused up, staring at Syndra as her mouth pressed smooth kisses and long, lapping licks against its broadness. 

“Let me make you feel good,” Janna said in a voice that was dangerously close to a purr, and Syndra’s cool, analytical mind took a definitive backseat to her teenage libido. 

Another curse with their slow aging: perpetual horniness, it seemed, but one that she could not see an issue with at the moment. Janna was so pretty there on her knees, with her hand and lips against her cock, and the mere act of speaking sent vibrations through her that made her harder still. So she nodded, unable to do much else, and watched as Janna drifted back with a twinkle in her eyes. Her hands moved to pull at the star-gem that clasped her top, securing it around her neck with just a few thin strings. 

Her top ran around her chest and covered most of her rather generous breasts, but given their size, she had to have a few strings to act as a halter to make sure it remained upright. Being a Star Guardian outfit meant that it worked perfectly, but it offered a large glimpse of creamy flesh above and a gratuitous display of sideboob that usually left Syndra staring - though she’d never admit it. Now, though, as she pulled at the claps and sent the top of her gold-lined tunic flopping forward, she realized there was no more ambiguity. 

Janna pulled it down, and her breasts rather unceremoniously bounced free and into the open air. Creamy breastflesh was revealed with each inch that she pulled, showing off the impressive size of her mounds to Syndra’s eager eyes, and the purple-haired girl licked her lips. Janna was a big girl - stacked by every definition, even Syndra’s own. They rolled softly as her outfit came to a stop underneath her breasts, secured in place around her ribs, showing off her full, gorgeous breasts to Syndra’s eyes - eye, technically. They were soft and heavy, perfect D-cups - maybe even larger, since Syndra herself was a generous D - and capped with pretty pink nipples the colour of rose petals. 

“Oh,” she said softly, her mouth suddenly very dry, and Janna giggled musically - like bells. 

“Let me try this for you,” Janna hummed, and she hefted her breasts up from the undersides. There was a wink in her eyes as she hefted them up and set them around the cock by the sides, surrounding the big, throbbing girth with the softness of her luscious breasts. Now, it wasn’t Syndra’s first time getting a titfuck, but it was the first time with someone with a chest as nice and perfect as Janna’s. The mere touch of her smooth, velvety skin against her hardness and over the rubbery head was enough to make her side, and a groan rose up in her throat. 

"Fuck," Syndra said under her breath, watching intently as her cock was surrounding in a sea of breastflesh.

Janna was eagerly eyeing Syndra's reactions as she pressed her breasts in nice and close against her cock, caressing it from side to throbbing side in soft flesh. Hands cupping the undersides, she pressed them up and held them in her palms; the flesh dipping around her fingers. She let them pool down for all of three heartbeats before she sent them sliding up the towering shaft, rubbing the hard, aroused skin of her dick with the softness of her cleavage, and Syndra let out another groan. 

It was a truly pleasant feeling to have her cock wrapped up in silky-smooth skin, encased in a long tract of cleavage, with skin pressing in from every side. It made her harder than she'd been before - or so it felt - and the sensation was enough to make her groan again. She bit her lip and blew hair out of her good eye as Janna rolled her breasts along in her palms, effortlessly handling their weight with deft flips of her wrists - maybe she used her wind powers to do it, or maybe she was just adept at handling the heavy weights on her chest; Syndra didn't know anything other than how much she was benefiting from it. 

"Is that good, Syndra?" Janna asked in a smooth, reassuring tone, and Syndra sighed. 

"Yes," She admitted, biting down hard on her lower lip. 

Janna smiled; a pretty sight, which contrasted with the lewdness of her breasts. They were sent rolling up to the tip of the cock, surrounding the ruddy tip in a sea of milky cleavage, before they were sent rolling right back down again. The head pierced through the lush valley as the skin rubbed and slid against the throbbing flanks of her hard girth, caressing every last inch in smoothness. Her cock pulsed inside of the velvet sheath, adoring the way the skin hugged in so close - practically moulding to her length. 

Janna applied pressure with her hands, and sent her breasts sliding up again in a smooth, efficient bob. They bounced in her hands as she brought them up and down, leaving Syndra sighing with each repetition. Her eyelids fluttered as the pleasant sensations rolled across her girth, making her feel things she'd never felt before. She moaned as titflesh jiggled in Janna's hands, rolling like waves of the sea. She bounced her tits up and down with broad repetitions, moving from base to tip and back again, letting her cock pierce through the rounded tops before subsuming it all again. 

Their eyes remained locked the entire time - neither of them straying. It was a heartwarming feeling, and Syndra just couldn't look away - even though she would have been fine to just watch those large, doughy breasts bounce. They looked soft and heavy at the same time, and she imagined how their weight would feel when cupped in her hands. Each rolling movement saw them travel across the full length of her dick, caressing every last throbbing inch from top to bottom, over and over again. 

Janna was smiling when her head dipped down, and Syndra realized what was happening before it did - but she groaned with happy surprise all the same. Her mouth, waiting just above her breasts, pressed a kiss to the ruddy tip the next time it pierced through the mountain peaks of her cleavage. Then, again, when she brought her breasts all the way down into her lap with a soft thump, her cock was sent brushing against her mouth. She kissed it neatly, almost dainty-like, and the shivers got more intense as they rolled along her cock. 

Soon her tongue was lapping against the cock as it thrust and pushed through her cleavage, wetting the underside and around the bulbous crown. Syndra grunted lowly as the tongue caressed her, even as breasts rubbed in all the right ways. Doughy flesh squished and moulded to her time and time again, while the pleasant heat of her mouth washed against her throbbing girth. Unconsciously, her hips started to buck up - seeking to push her head against the tongue and warm lips that waited for her. 

Janna's mouth closed around the tip as she pumped and pulled with her breasts, and for the first time, took the cock inside. Her mouth was hot, damp, and warm, and it left Syndra groaning all the more as the sensations rocked her. With each bob of her breasts her head moved as well, bobbing in tandem, sending her mouth sliding along the first few inches of hard cock. Her lips closed it tightly, sucking on it firmly, allowing her tongue to flex around the paleness and her mouth to make sticky noises.

"Damn," Syndra moaned, her head tossing back and a hand brushing her hair out of her face. Her jaw chattered as breasts rolled along and her mouth sucked pleasantly, almost slurping at the stiffness as it was pushed out of her cleavage. She popped off wetly as her large tits retracted, leaving her cock tingling with the cold, and massaging saliva into the snowy peaks before it happened all again. 

She combined the titfuck with the blowjob smoothly, showing effortless grace, and Syndra loved it. Her cock was caressed from top to bottom and bathed in sticky heat, and as saliva started to roll down her length, she was in heavenly bliss. Her cock burned with desire and her loins ached with need as Janna went down on her, stroking her hard meat with the softness of her cheeks, the velvet carpet of her tongue, and sheer wetness. She sucked hard and fast, her lips hugging it like cushions, while her breasts acted like heavenly pillows - and all of it riled up Syndra more. 

"That's so good," She grunted under her breath, a hard edge to her voice and a tilt to her lips. She bucked her hips even more, thrusting up through the soft valley of her cleavage, sending her pelvis against the fleshy undersides. Janna adjusted to her increasing tempo, letting her cock thrust up harder, taking it up into her warm mouth with vigour. Syndra got fiercer, more intense, but Janna did so as well, effortlessly pleasing Syndra. 

Syndra got faster still, her tempo increasing, thrusting up into Janna's cleavage eagerly. Her strokes thrust her cock up into the girl's mouth, working her dick in and out of the wet cavern and enjoying every last moment of it. She sighed and grunted louder and harder, watching with perverse fascination as Janna tried to match her tempo, adjusting her breasts and the angle of her mouth and never, not for a single moment, breaking eye-contact. 

A burning need was flaring in her core, running along her cock and down her nerve-endings in a series of tingles that were too much to bear. She needed more, felt the aching frustration get hotter, more demanding, and she couldn't stop the grunts from leaving her lips. 

"Janna," Syndra said, her voice thick and throaty in a way that it hadn't been in far too long, "I want you."

"Yes?" Janna's voice was just as thick, but still oh-so-sweet. "You can have me. I don't -"

Syndra chuckled. It was a deep and throaty sound that reverberated through her bones, and as hand hauled on Janna, the girl looked momentarily bemused. She was pulled away from Syndra's lap and hauled right up to her face, and Syndra descended in another kiss - this one hard, messy, firm, just like Syndra was. Her tongue invaded her mouth as she pulled at the girl, pushing her up and onto her feet, hands on her body - on her gently flared hips, on her smooth thighs, plucking at white stockings and white gloves. 

She kissed her hard and fast, her tongue pushing through her mouth and batting against hers with power and authority. Janna moaned into her lips as she was guided through the room with sure and steady steps, led by Syndra. Hands grasped at her breasts, hefting them up from the undersides and admiring their weight; fingers squishing, probing, feeling out the soft, doughy skin. Her hands only left her tits for the briefest of moments to pull off her spiked skirt, knowing that it would only get in the way, and letting it fall to the floor before hands swept up again. 

Her hands were firm and her cock ramrod straight as it pushed between Janna's smooth thighs. She pushed the teen back even as their lips connected and tongues tangled. Syndra had total control of the kiss, and she applied every ounce of control she had just to leave Janna breathless. She felt her shudder against her buxom frame, heard her sigh and draw in strained breaths, and Syndra smiled against her. 

Hands swept further back still, and cupped two handfuls of her plentiful ass. She squeezed, drawing out another groan from Janna's lips, and smiled. She pulled away from her lips and kissed along her cheekbone before her lips touched down against her ear, and in a purring, rumbling tone, said, "I'm going to take you."

It was a statement of fact, not one of permission. She knew Janna wouldn't say no, and her need was flaring up too hard for her to just sit back - and, maybe, that was what Janna wanted, because she shivered in Syndra's arms. Her whispered yes almost fell on deaf ears as she was twisted around in a rush of fabric and pushed down onto the couch, forced onto her hands - and Syndra was there all the while, her hands clenching in power, lifting Janna up in a haze of purple and setting her on both her hands and knees. 

Janna looked almost - almost - indignant, but there was something equally needy in her eyes. She didn't protest at all as Sydnra stepped up after her, rising up into the couch on her knees, settling in behind Janna in just a few seconds. Everything was a rush - she moved fast and quick, everything a rush of movement, shorts and undergarments peeled off in no time, skirt flipped back up over the small of her back. One hand guided her cock while the other cupped her slender waist, and as Syndra leaned in, her cock pressed forward. 

"Oh," Janna sighed, head rolling back as Syndra's cock started to push into her. The pace wasn't slow, or gentle. They could have taken it easy, like lovers - but Syndra was Syndra, and she took her dominance over Janna and ran a mile with it. SHe pushed forward with a sharp movement of her hips, grinding her head against her soft petals for all of give seconds before driving it through in a rush of stickiness. Fluids greeted her eagerly as her cockhead breached the entrance of her tunnel, and a low groan left her lips at the pleasure of it. 

"Indeed," Syndra agreed, her voice almost hoarse. A sudden tightness engulfed her cockhead and the inches beyond, and it was accentuated by a wetness that she didn't expect to find but made a strange amount of sense now that she did. She pushed in, inch by inch, feeling Janna's slender tunnel almost happily accept her. Each turgid inch of girldick was wrapped up in soft, smooth flesh, a nice, tight grip that had her biting her lip. She thrust in firmly, sliding her slender shaft through her clamping tightness, adoring the feel of a woman's body - of Janna's body.

"You feel amazing, baby," She husked, her voice dropping another octave into something throaty and husky. Janna palpable shivered just from the tone of her low voice, and Syndra let out a pleased chuckle. Her hips speared in deeper, her cock driving into the soft, clenching pussy, each inch greeted by more eager flesh. Wetness soaked her shaft, and it soon bubbled up around her swollen girth - each noise made sticky noises, but neither girl minded. 

The hand guiding her cock slipped around and, instead, moved to grab at one of Janna's hanging breasts, which were held down under their generous weight. Janna made a noise as Syndra cupped her tit and clenched it in her hand, and the noise got louder as her hips pulled back and dragged her cock out. There was no hesitation or delay on her part - she slipped herself out with a smooth, skillful roll, extracting just enough out of Janna to make her moan, and then pushed back inside at the same quick, dominating pace. 

"Just perfect," Syndra continued, leaning in over Janna. Her hand groped her breast, squeezing nice and hard, and fingers pinched at a rosy nipple. Janna yelped at Syndra laid into her, cock thrusting into the tightness of her inner tunnel with smooth, skillful strokes - in and out, back and forth, sliding back and then forward again. She was quick, but measured, teasing out the feel of her cunt, working it nice and loose around her stiff member. 

Syndra wasn’t one to take things slowly. She never did, and never really could. She was fierce and powerful, and she was the exact same in bed - it was always her in charge, pushing her partners down, winning the contest of bodies through raw dominance. She didn’t hold anything back here, either. Instead, there was a willingness to perform, and to perform well. A desire to show Janna that, yes, she was good, and more than good enough to make Janna feel nice by extension. She’d be her best lay, she’d like to think, so much so that Janna wouldn’t think of anyone else. 

Purse possessiveness, to be sure. She certainly didn’t mind getting possessive, though, and her hips bucked sharply as she worked herself back and forth, rubbing the length of her prick across soft, fluttering insides. She ground her vascular shaft against pressure points that she was sure were there, and was rewarded with pleased gasps and squeals of pleasure. Syndra wasn’t typically an attentive lover - in fact, she often just used people to get off, and they got off by extension of being so thoroughly topped by someone like her. 

This was different, and Syndra wanted to make sure it remained different. She tried to hit Janna’s sweet spots all in succession, moving experimentally rather than with intimacy - but Janna let out happy noises all the same. She settled on her hands and knees rather well, and didn’t seem at all perturbed to be in such a lewd position; she didn’t seem like that kind of girl, but Syndra most certainly was. Maybe that was what she meant by wanting to please her, but whether it was or wasn’t, it certainly made Syndra happy. 

“You feel wonderful,” she said again, leaning in. Her hand groped her breast as her hips rolled and thrust, the athletic muscles of her belly powering each forward movement. Her cock drove through slick, sticky walls, stretching them out neatly around her slender cock and allowing her to pierce in deep. “Very nice, baby.”

“Oh, Syndra,” Janna moaned, and the sound of her voice stuck in the throes of pleasure sent a shiver along Syndra’s spine that was more intense than anything she’d felt before. It made her want to drive her hips down harder, faster - and so she did. She thrust down, spearing through her hot, sopping folds, stretching her pretty cunt lips out nice and wide around her length. She pushed in every last inch of herself as deep as she could go, filling her up enough for her head to toss back and another husky moan to leave her pink lips.

“I love that sound, baby,” Syndra pressed, her voice dropping another octave still. Her hair was falling around her shoulders and over her face, and she had to brush and blow it back constantly. It was like a river of midnight that tickled Janna’s shoulders, waving with each thrust into her tight cunt. “Keep going - keep making sweet sounds for me.”

Janna did, with each moan and groan and mewl. She rocked against Syndra as she thrust into her core, her cock stretching out the insides that she was eagerly thrusting through. Her hips touched down against the curve of her rump as she went balls-deep, the flesh clapping and bounding outward in loud thumps - all of it like a soft cushion for her to drive her hips against. Janna’s breasts bounced and swung back and forth as the vibrations of intense doggy-style sex rolled through her, with only one breast captured and squeezed in Syndra’s hand. Her own chest was bouncing despite the tightness of her tunic, each jiggle and wobble gentle and yet indicative of her power. 

“Fuck, Syndra,” Janna whined, swearing for the first time. “Oh, just like that - “

“Yeah, baby?” Syndra leaned in more, hovering over her partner dominantly, her hips thumping forward and pounding out a fleshy beat against the curve of her ass. The hand on her waist was tight, holding Janna steady, and each thrust rocked her forward. “Let me show you how good I am, my darling Janna.”

The thought that occurred to her was sudden, and barely more than a hint; but, with a smirk, Syndra’s hand left Janna’s dangling breast and, instead, grabbed at the perfect purple hair of her ponytail. With just the slightest application of pressure, Janna let out that strangely familiar squeaking noise. With a smirk Syndra hauled on her hair, pulling her head back, and Janna let out a plaintive whine. The hair on her scalp was stretched, pulled in Syndra’s fist, but Janna seemed to love it. 

“Oh? Is that what you like, Janna, babe?” Her voice was a low rumble, her hips thrusting without pause, and her hand hauling on Janna’s hair like a convenient handle. 

“Yes,” Janna admitted in another low, pleading whine, breaths puffing out between her lips - and Syndra grinned. 

“Then let me provide for you,” she purred, and her hips thumped down hard. She thrust into her tightness over and over again, her cock stretching out her insides and slamming against pressure points in the best way she knew how. Her balls swung forward and clapped against her slit as she pounded forward and retracted again, her pace pendulous and fierce. She rammed into Janna with as much needy force as she could offer, working off the incredible strain and ache in her loins while pleasing the buxom teen with a hard fucking that she’d probably never gotten before - at least, not like her. 

All the while she pulled on her hair, adoring the breathy pants and whines that left her pretty lips. She coiled her luscious hair around in her palm, admiring the texture of it, stretching Janna’s head back and straining her scalp - and it seemed to drive Janna wild. Maybe it was a sensitive spot for her, just as much as Syndra’s cock was for her - or maybe it was just her kink, but either way, Syndra was happy to please. She pulled, using it like reigns, pulling her head back more and more as she fucked the tightness of her quim.

“Yes,” Janna panted, biting down on her lip. “Oh, Syndra, Syn, yes - yes - ”

In response to her pulling, her insides seemed to get tighter. It was a pleasurable sensation that pushed Syndra on more, and as her cock swelled and thickened within the tight embrace of her pink snatch, she redoubled her efforts. She thrust harder, faster, driving herself inside with force, clapping against her ass before doing it all again. Janna moaned and squealed happily as she was filled up, her insides comfortably stretched by cockmeat and gently undulating against it in rippling waves. Her jaw seemed to chatter as her head was pulled back, hair stretched and coiled around Syndra’s palm. 

“Enjoy yourself, Janna,” Syndra purred, leaning in more and more. She settled in over her, her every touch possessive and dominating, each thrust of her cock and pull of her hand cementing herself as Janna’s best. “Let me indulge you, baby.”

Syndra really did enjoy her theatrics, and she was loving playing up the moment. She didn’t know what Janna’s kinks were, or what she liked to be called or treated, but Syndra was determined to tease those out of her by the end of the night. She’d play up any role she could, as long as she could indulge in her delightful body and even more delightful company. She lavished in the sensations of ehr tightness wrapped around her cock, loving the way her dick was swelling out more and more by the moment, her need rising up into something too hot to easily handle; she loved, more, the way that Janna moaned in pleasure, breathily groaning out Syndra’s name. 

“Syndra,” Janna gasped, throaty and pleasure-filled. Syndra wasn’t so sure if the simple act of penetration and fucking was enough to just get her off, but she was actively trying for it - stimulating Janna’s pleasure spots and pressure points, rubbing and grinding across the full length of her tunnel. It rippled and spasmed around her, tugging her in deeper, coaxing and beckoning. It was too much for Syndra to easily cope with, and as she fucked on through it, she felt her peak coming on her. 

“I’m close, baby,” She grunted, watching with fascination as her dark purple hair pooled over Janna’s lighter strands of purple. Her pale, creamy shoulders were covered in Syndra’s hair, her entire body mounted by the dominant Star Guardian, and it was an intoxicating and gratifying sight. Sometimes, Syndra had imagined such lewdness; sometimes, she’d played out those fantasies in a love hotel somewhere. Being in it, though, was entirely different, and it was positively delightful.

“Gosh, yes, m-me too,” Janna moaned, the slender curve of her neck fully bared when Syndra pulled fiercely on her hair. Lipstick and purple marks lined the curve - marks made by Syndra, and the simple possessiveness of it set her off hard. “Babe, please, Syndra, babe - ”

It was pointless, hormonal ranting, but it was enough. Syndra couldn’t really hold on any longer, not with sex like this, and the only reason she tried was so that she could set Janna off, too. She hilted herself in her silken folds a few final, desperate times, stoking Janna’s own orgasm until she, too, was right there. Janna came first, her insides clenching hard; enough to be painful, and extracting a grunt from Syndra. Her climax arrived just as quickly, though, and as she leaned over Janna and held her hair tight, her cock throbbed and her balls spasmed equally hard. 

Cum came spurting out into Janna’s writhing depths in a river of white, bombarding her orgasmic cunt in layers of sticky white. Their combined releases were intense - Syndra’s meaty cock throbbing like a pipe and sending cum rushing out in thick lines of hot seed while Janna’s insides squeezed and milked with need. Rivers of juices sloshed down around her shaft even as she released out more cum, launching stream after stream of the virile substance as deep as it could reach. Her balls throbbed with each potent shot, unloading a heart helping of baby-batter right into Janna’s pussy.

She held herself down as low grunts left her lips - every last inch of turgid girlcock buried deep inside of Janna. The purple-haired teen was moaning and groaning, her pelvis rocking and rolling, her indices shivering and clamping and milking in all the right ways to leave Syndra breathless. She rolled her hips in tandem with Janna’s, bouncing her cock against her fluttering insides, feeling her head spasm and sent more and more strings of her thick, potent load as deep as it could go. 

“Syndra,” Janna moaned breathlessly, “oh - oh - ”

“Oh, how I love it when you say my name like that,” Syndra husked, her breath tickling Janna’s ear. The sounds were lovely - not the kinds that she’d ever usually make, because Janna wasn’t some weak-willed or toothpick-spined girl. She was doing it happily, though, for Syndra, and it was oh-so-gratifying. “I’m going to enjoy listening to you say it all night long, baby.”

“As long as you want, Syndra,” Janna panted, turning her head to press her lips against Syndra’s chin. “I’m here for you. Always have been, always will.”

“Oh, stop it, ” Syndra hummed against her lips. “You’re going to spread rumours.”

Syndra walked down the hallway with a swish of skirts, right toward the guy that was so aggravatingly chatting up Janna. Her Janna. She didn’t say anything; she didn't have to. He saw her the moment she was in range, and he did a brief double-take before his eyes widened. He was Jayce; a smart and charming boy that was, admittedly, rather handsome - but no amount of self-assurance and confidence was going to help in the face of the cold, calculating Syndra. 

She didn’t say anything - she didn’t have to. There was no declaration of words, nor a grand profession. She just slipped her hand into Janna’s, her eyes narrowed, and tangled their fingers together neatly. Jayce looked incredibly uncomfortable as Syndra glared, but a soft peck on the cheek softened her up - just a fraction, though. Neither said anything as Syndra pulled Janna along, but the purple-haired teen waved back at Jayce in friendly parting even as he stared back, visibly perplexed and shaken. 

Of course, to Syndra’s chagrin, she did all that in plain view of not one, not two, but four fellow Star Guardians, who had all rounded the corner at that moment - Lux, Ahri, Soraka, and Fortune, all chatting amicably about something or other. Syndra, comically, stiffened, a brief tremor running along her spine, but at Janna’s reassuring squeeze of her hand, she loosened up. 

“Hi, girls,” Janna greeted calmly, quiet and assured. Syndra just inclined her head. 

“Hey!” Lux said eagerly, waving her hand brightly. Ahri’s response was a little smoother, while Fortune nodded and Soraa waved awkwardly. 

“You really did a doozy on him,” Ahri noted, flicking a finger at Jayce. “I haven’t seen him looked so stunned since - well, since we flipped him off.” She giggled as she needled Sarah’s side, and the redhead flashed a smile. 

“He was accosting my girlfriend,” Syndra said bluntly. “I don’t approve.”

“Sure, but people are always chatting up Janna,” Fortune said, and winked. “That’s what you get for being so good-looking.”

Syndra frowned. “People are what?”

“It’s just harmless chatting,” Janna waved calmly. “...But jealousy is a cute look for you, Syndra.”

“Stop that,” she said abruptly, trying to ignore the pinkness of her cheeks. “...and stop staring, the rest of you. Yes, we’re together now, don’t treat it like an oddity.”

There was a quick silence as the girls exchanged looks. 

“Uhm,” started Ahri, who exchanged looks with Fortune.

“...Right,” said Lux. “Now. Yeah. Uhm… congrats!”

“Yes?” Said Soraka, as if not believing herself. 

Fortune looked totally lost, and she stared backward at Ahri as if seeking reassurance. 

“...What is that? What is this?” Syndra glared at each girl. “What are those looks for? I’m allowed to date who I please.”

Janna looked faintly amused. 

“Of course! And we’re super happy for you,” Ahri gushed, setting a reassuring hand on Syndra’s shoulder. “And we’re totally gonna celebrate! The new relationship, that is. Later. Right. So - later!”

It was only after the suspicious Syndra and the extremely knowing Janna were well and away out of earshot that Ahri rounded on the three others, her hands held out placatingly. “Alright - do we or do we not tell them we thought they’ve been dating for the last four months or not?”

“No,” said Fortune immediately. “Syndra’s gonna pop a vein.”

Lux nodded hesitantly. “I don’t like lying, but… uhm… Oh, gosh. What are we going to do about that five-month anniversary thing we were planning?”

“Just - just pretend like it’s all new and we’re super happy for them,” Ahri said quietly and quickly. “And don’t let Syndra know that we thought they’ve always been a couple.”

“But they’ve been so cute together,” Soraka gushed, hands clapped to her chest. 

“I know,” lamented Lux. 

“She’s so abysmally romantically stilted,” Ahri sighed. “Did she not realize how romantic they always are?!”

“Lunch together -”

“-Reading books together-”

“-Being at each other’s houses-”

“-Spares-”

“-Chess-”

“-Stargazing-”

There was a collective sigh. 

“Maybe we should be advising our advisors,” Lux mused. “Because they’re hopeless. ”

There was a brief moment of pause where Fortune squeaked, and the rest of the girls stared at her - then stared at her upward-pointed finger just in time to catch sight of a purplish object floating out of view. 

“Oh, fuck,” Fortune swore. "That was Mul -Multi just dashed off.”

There was a moment of conclusory silence.

“Well, we’re fucked,” Ahri concluded, nodding seriously. “Syndra’s gonna murder us.”