Chapter Text
Two months.
He needed to stay inside the house for that amount of time.
After an accident earlier that summer, Ezreal’s ankle broke. But he pushed his luck as it was in the process of healing. It was summer vacation and there were places he wanted to travel to with his friends. Whether it was going to the beach, taking the plane to a different country, or at a summer festival. All of these activities motivated him to pretend that his fractured ankle was alright. He would end up putting more strain on his ankle each time he allowed himself to go outside.
He bottled up the pain every time, trying to focus on the fun things that he would be doing with everyone. Eventually, the bottle had to pop with a burst of overflowing soda.
Everyone was at a night market. As usual, he and Jinx and were the ones playing around. They were at the carnival booths trying to compete with Vi to get a prize. Ezreal won a large plush and Jinx immediately went to steal it. She was just teasing him and said he had to catch her he wanted it back. In that moment, he forgot about his hidden injury and went for the bait because this is just something they normally end up doing.
Before he could go into a full sprint, there was a sharp snap below his leg. And before he knew it, his face was on the ground. At first, Jinx was laughing that he tripped, but things got awkward when he couldn’t get up. His wrists and knees got scrapped to break his fall. As he made an attempt to push himself up off the rough street, he made a loud hiss in pain as he forced his foot to support him.
At this moment, panic was written all over his face and he finally started crying. Immediately, Vi picked him up off the ground and threw his arm over her shoulder to support him. One call later, she and Caitlyn were dragging him out of the festival and making the long walk to the car. During that car ride to the hospital, Caitlyn cracked down on him. She launched multiple questions, making him guilty for lying about his healed ankle the whole time. Vi definitely tried to to help him out of this situation by driving over the speed limit and cutting in front of other drivers on the way to the emergency room.
By the time Ezreal was released from the emergency room, Caitlyn had finally cooled off. Mostly because it was midnight and she was tired. She and Vi brought him back to his house and helped him settle in for the night. No one said a word to each other, being overwhelmed and tired from everything that happened. Before going to bed, Ezreal looked at his phone to check his messages in the group chat. Vi texted that she and Caitlyn had to leave early with him. And that Jinx could hitch a ride with Ekko and Lux. Everyone asked questions if something happened.
A new message later, she explained how she had to break the speed limit on the way to the emergency room.
From this, Ezreal had received different messages from everyone if he was okay. He replied to all of them, but never going into detail because they would probably scold him for pretending he was okay. That, and because he was too tired and couldn't even begin to explain himself.
In the morning, Caitlyn was the one driving him to a doctor’s appointment. She was clearly frustrated throughout the car ride.
With her, he couldn’t try to make small talk and lighten the mood. After all, she was the only one making an attempt to look out after him when his uncle began spending less time in the house.
During the appointment, the doctor said that he needed to be hospitalized for at least a full month before returning home. He only suggested this when learning about Ezreal’s tendency to travel.
Caitlyn was horrified by the idea of him staying in a cramped hospital room and insisted that it was better to heal from the comfort of a house.
Meanwhile, Ezreal was more horrified by the time frame it would take for his ankle to heal. After settling things with the doctor, everything was arranged.
Fortunately, Ezreal would not need surgery. And Caitlyn would handle getting his medication and basically taking care of him due his uncle’s work abroad. Things were supposed to run smoothly from there. But they shared the same dread. Her forehead was pressed against her hands, trying to do mental gymnastics on the situation at hand. Meanwhile, he was already on his phone and posting his final day outside. How the hell do you keep someone like Ezreal inside for 2 months?
The answer: a house arrest anklet that would explode.
Caitlyn talked to Vi about the situation. Unsurprisingly, Jinx butted into the conversation and offered an idea. She said that she could mess around with one of those bracelets and even convince Ezreal to stay put.
As they installed the anklet, Jinx proudly announced the plan to Ezreal.
“Just to let you know, that house arrest thing will explode if you walk three meters away from your house. Because… If you do that, then expect yourself to be in the hospital for MORE than two months. And I’m the only one who can uninstall it.”
Everyone gave her a horrified look as the house arrest anklet clicked into place.
And yet, this twisted solution actually worked. Ezreal had to accept his circumstances and stay at home for two whole months.
During his first few days in lockdown, he distracted himself by learning to finds ways to get around the house. Luckily, he lived in a single story house. Although, the floor plan was extensive. Designed by his parents, one wing of the house was a storage vault of their life’s work. It held a preservation room, a restoration room, and study room. The hallway displayed glass cabinets of intricate vases, chunks from mosaics, and other works of craftsmanship. In fact, the master bedroom was buried in documents for archiving work. On the opposite wing of the house was everything else. Ezreal’s bedroom, a guest room, and his uncle’s untouched room. There was barely any trace of anyone sleeping there and could be considered as a second guest room by now. In the center was the living room and kitchen that led out to backyard.
Most of the time, Ezreal would just use his working leg to push himself on a swivel chair. While it was fun for the first couple of days, he was told to use crutches to prevent a repetitive routine. He spent most of his time either scrolling his phone or playing online to wait for Caitlyn to drop by. But her visits weren’t always frequent. And neither was anybody else’s towards the end of the week. His boredom worsened. Was it always going to be like this for the next five weeks?
By the end of the week, he took a glance at the opposite side of the house. He rarely went over to his parents’ side. Not due to a lack of curiosity, but it was a reminder of the great distance between him and them. Carefully, he navigated his way through the untouched hallway and flipped the lights to the study room.
At first, he only looked at the artifacts that were stored in there. Then he found himself reading every note and journal entry.
Soon enough, the lockdown boredom caused him to turn the study room inside-out. The journals mostly focused on their theories and thesis of archaeology. Rarely was there anything personal written in them. After going through all the writing, he finally discovered a photo album. There were images of his parents’ faces. Every photo of them.... someplace else. Somewhere far from his house.
Ezreal shut that photo book quickly.
He sat there motionless, with his head hung low.
“When I’m taking more advanced archaeology classes in the future, I’ll be there too.” He told himself. Then he raised his head and looked at a mountain of boxes in the corner. He shut the photo album in the lowest drawer before wheeling himself to the nearest box.
These were packages sent to their house to be archived and researched. And he wasn’t usually allowed to open them because his uncle said that he wasn’t ‘qualified’ to handle them.
If his parents were far off in another part of the world, then it doesn’t matter anymore. He already graduated high school and attending college to follow his parents’ field of study. This is a congratulations gift for making it this far!
He wanted to taste this moment of freedom. This would be his first personal project. After placing it on the desk, he carefully cut the box open. He unwrapped the packaging materials to reveal an object wrapped in fine archival cloth. Unraveling it, he found himself holding a mask.
Ezreal grabbed the informational paper from the box using his free hand. Before he could read any further than its origin, a loud pop song blasted from the other side of the house. He jumped, tightening his grip on the mask.
Panicking, he immediately began to wheel himself out of the study room.
“Ah! I’m getting it! I’m getting it!” He forgot the mask was still in his hand, trying to prioritize the phone call. For all he could know, it might be Lux. Or Jinx! Or Ekko! Anyone to save him from his boredom! He finally reached his room, kicking his chair towards the bed where his phone was charging. Immediately, he accepted the call without looking at who it was. “Hello?”
“Ezreal?” It was his uncle’s voice. His eyes went wide as he looked at the mask in his hand.
He forgot about his uncle making a visit to check on him.
“Oh hey… Uncle Lymere,” Quietly, he kicked himself towards his desk. Opened the drawer. Slid the mask in there. And slammed it shut. “Did you want me to open the door for you or something?”
“There’s no need to. I’m calling to let you know that I had to cancel my visit to America.”
“Oh.” He replied. The house suddenly felt emptier.
“Apologies that I’m letting you know at such short notice.”
“It’s fine.” Ezreal flopped onto his bed, waiting for the professor’s explanation.
“This lot-of-students they claim to be a research team have done the unspeakable. I’m being dragged into multiple situations with the board of directors. Arranging individual meetings for academic integrity violations. Attending meetings in regards to this situation. And on top of it all, one of these students broke the laws of the country we are currently in.”
“Oooooh what did they do?” He couldn’t help but wonder about that last part.
“We are not having this conversation, Ezreal.” He said in a monotone voice. “This legal situation is the reason why I can’t get out of Italy.”
“Is there anything else you want to let me know then?” He turned over in his bed, facing the wall.
“I know about your broken ankle. And that you will be staying home the whole summer.” He said. “You should be using this time to your advantage and studying. That is why I have arranged a few tutors to come over and”
“You mean that I’m going to meet the higher-up archaeology professors?” He interrupted excitedly.
“No. You’ll be getting private lessons from various tutors for calculus, chemistry, and geography. You will be given graded assignments from each of them. And you are expected to spend your time on those assignments, do you understand?” Ezreal grimaced from hearing the summer plans that his uncle made for him. The professor continued, “I need you to be a better example than the students I have with me now.”
“Is that all?”
“I have done my best to let you know what’s happening right now. I don’t know when I will be able to leave the country and pay a visit to check on things. For now, I can send a few gifts from here in my place.” His uncle ended the conversation by saying he would try to call him later.
Without hesitation, Ezreal scrolled to Jinx’s contact information and asked her to drive them off the property. She agreed and told him that he’ll need to ignore any loud noises outside for the next few days. After that, he felt as empty as the hallways of his house.
He had lost all interest in going back to the study room. The conversation with his uncle reminded him of the stress he had during the semester. And he would have to go through it when summer vacation ended.
With no new messages or replies from his phone, he buried his head into his pillow. His body remained still just like his stiff, compressed ankle. He closed his eyes, not wanting to look at it. Then the quiet room lulled him to sleep.
=/ᐠ-ꞈ-ᐟ\=
The fabric of his bedsheets disappeared underneath him. In its place, soft grass grew and cushioned his body. There was a breeze that made the grass blades brush against on his skin. Wildflowers interlaced between his fingers, and he began to grasp the stems. After a moment, he pushed the ground to sit up. Yawning, he began to stretch his body. His legs felt light all of a sudden.
The house arrest anklet was gone. And his compression bandaging even disappeared.
Without giving it any further thought, he stood up. There wasn’t any pain. Ezreal literally took it a step further by walking around. It didn’t hurt to walk. Excitedly, he began to run through the meadow. His heart began to pound as made a short jump. Eventually, his body fell back onto the grass as he smiled. Laying there, his eyes began to look at the sky. Where was he?
Closing his eyes, he began to listen to his surroundings. There was a faint sound in the distance. It was the trickling of water. Sitting back up again, he turned to see a clearing away from the trees. Soon enough, he found himself walking towards the sound. And before he knew it, he suddenly felt a rush of cold water skimming past his foot.
He was at a small stream, the water was clear as the summer sky. All the rocks were smooth and rounded, but still bumpy to walk on. At first, he retracted his foot from the water in surprise. That was when he realized that he wasn’t wearing any shoes or socks at all. Seeing this, he stepped back into the cool water. It was only ankle-deep and he decided to walk against the current, figuring it might lead him somewhere.
Dragonflies sped past him, enjoying the warm day and glistening water. But something in his mind told him to keep moving upstream. Something glided past him that caught his eye. Looking down, he watched white flower petals flowing downstream. For no reason at all, he leaned down to cup the water in his hands to get a closer look at the fresh petals—
=/ᐠ0ꞈ0ᐟ\=
The doorbell echoed throughout the silent house. Ezreal blinked a couple of times, trying to adjust himself back in the real world. He weakly sat up, swing his legs over the edge of his bed.
The house arrest anklet was still there.
He averted his eyes away from his foot, hopping onto the chair nearby. From there, he made his way over to the front door to open it. Halfway to the door, the person on the other end began to ring it repetitively fast.
Opening the door, he was greeted by the visitors behind it. Caitlyn, obviously ringing the doorbell one time. And Vi, who pushed the button multiple times.
“Hey, Ez! What’s with the bedhead today?” Vi greeted him, pushing him back into the house. Meanwhile, her girlfriend was busy locking the door.
“Well, I was having a nice dream before you woke me up.” He answered, yawning.
“See Vi, I told you you didn’t need to ring the bell that many times.” Caitlyn said, putting some bags on the kitchen counter.
“C’mon, you were ready to call him multiple times if he didn’t answer the door.” She said, pushing him to the living room and turning on the TV. She entered in a password and chose a series to play in the background. The quiet house was quickly filled with noise. Vi was sharing a story from earlier today, while Caitlyn was preparing dinner for the three of them that evening.
After she was finished cooking, they all gather around the kitchen island to eat and talk.
“Anyways, what was the dream about?” Vi pointed a fork at him.
“Um… I was walking in a grassy meadow, then I started walking into a river? Then there were white flower petals floating on the water, but that’s all I can remember.” Ezreal replied, leaning his elbow on the counter. “Then I woke up because I heard the doorbell.”
“What kind of flower petals were they?” Caitlyn asked.
“It was difficult for me to see, but they definitely weren’t rose petals. They were really small and looked thin.” He tried his best to explain. “And they had slits on the ends?”
“I’m guessing either chamomile or cherry blossoms, then.” Caitlyn said, opening her phone to share an image of those following flowers. “What petal looks more familiar?”
“Are we really spending the night to talk about flowers?” Vi rolled her eyes.
“I’m just a bit curious. Because I remember that one of those flowers means ‘deception’, since I learned about flower language back at home.” She said.
Ezreal knew what she meant by saying ‘back home.’ They had both grown up in the same country and went to the same primary school. Their families had a mutual relationship and Professor Lymere was often put on the spot to be the babysitter. However, they lived two separate lives, only knowing the university professor. They were given the same tutors and lessons throughout secondary school.
“I’m guessing that you’re talking about my ankle, then.” He fumed.
“I believe it is certainly a coincidence.” She replied, putting her phone away. “It’s still a dream after all.”
“You’ll probably be staying up tonight and playing online because of that nap.” Vi said. “Your uncle is gonna be real tired tomorrow.”
“Yeah… About that,” Ezreal clicked his tongue. “He just called me and said he won’t be visiting any time soon.”
“Did he really just cancel his flight at last minute!?” Caitlyn dropped her fork, shocked from the news. “That man—”
“Apparently, he said that one of his summer students did something illegal in Italy and he’s stuck there.” He said, remembering the phone call earlier.
“No way.” Vi’s eyes widened. “What did they do to get his ass stuck in another country?”
“Vi!”
“He refused to say the details, saying that it would get him into more trouble because of ‘confidential info’. But they definitely did something REALLY illegal.” He replied.
“Ezreal!”