Work Text:
It has been an uneventful night for Diana. She is in bed, reading one of her many books, by the warm-coloured light of the small lamp right next to her, on the nightstand. Though she is a tad disappointed in the horror book that she is reading, as it has - as of yet, with ‘yet’ being page 234 of 477- been lacking when it comes to the whole ‘horror’ aspect of it, she is content with the warmth of her - rather heavy - blanket and a means to pass the time.
In fact, ‘uneventful’ could be the single word that would describe her life during the last few weeks. Last couple of months, even. And that word could be coupled with ‘monotone’ to make the perfect combination. Her daily schedule consists of waking up, attending her classes, studying for her classes, working out and then doing whatever is needed in her home before finally grabbing a book and going to bed. And as for the weekends, switch lesson attendance with simply biking around for a couple of hours.
She sighs and turns to the next page with a flick of her wrist, then her eyes dart at the clock near the lamp. Almost midnight. Diana looks back at the book in her lap, makes a mental note of where exactly on the page the last word she read is, before she closes it, and then with a slow and tired yawn she puts it on the bedside table.
‘Tomorrow’
With one move she switches off the light and grabs her phone, before falling back on the mattress. While checking for any messages, she isn’t surprised that she finds no notifications, as Diana is not exactly the most social, nor talkative person. In her friend cycle there are exactly three people. Sophia, her best friend since she can remember herself. She can’t even explain how lucky she got to be, that her best friend happened to be studying in the same place as her. Second is a guy named Braum - a really cheerful man. He is actually a couple of years older than her and the only one who volunteered to show her around campus on her first day. That man was actually able to make her feel comfortable enough to laugh. And managed to make her laugh. He stuck around ever since. Lastly there is… Or rather, was…
The sound of her phone ringing breaks her out of her trance, making her quickly shake her head and take a look at the screen. A small smile appears on her lips as she reads Sophia’s name on the screen and she quickly picks up.
“Hello!” , comes the voice from the other end of the line. A cheerful voice, one that makes her breath easier.
“Hey,” Diana replies with a voice that sounded way too croaky for her taste, she really should be drinking more water-
“Are you coming to the party tonight?”
The truth is she did consider it, for only a second. Those types of parties aren’t really her thing. People so close to each other, plus alcohol and the mind of the youth are a mix for disaster.
“When have you ever known me going to such parties, Sophia?”
There is a small pause from the other, before she replies.
“Well, I know but with Le-”
“So never, that’s what I thought.”
Her reply is short and somewhat sad. They both know why.
“Di, I-”
“No need for that, really. I was just getting in bed. Did you need something else?”
Diana can hear her friend’s long sigh.
“Sweet dreams, Diana.”
“Thanks, good night.”
With that, the call ends and Diana is once again left by herself. She feels a bit guilty for how she treated her friend, she really didn’t deserve such harshness. But she has her reasons.
Her head hits the pillow and she turns on her side, with one arm under said pillow. Auburn hair, big, honest, honey-brown eyes and a smile so warm it ignites a fire in the silver haired woman. It feels as if a cageful of butterflies were released in her stomach, before a feeling of hollowness takes over at the thought of her .
She turns on her other side and grabs the extra pillow, holding it tight in her arms. It’s not like Leona is the one who left. She did that to herself. If things were different then maybe…
‘It doesn’t matter’ , she thinks, ‘what’s done is done.’
A long sigh is all she allows herself before closing her eyes and thus drifting into a restless sleep.
“I can’t do it.”
She sounds small and muffled, as she tries to nuzzle deeper in the crook of Leona’s neck. Diana is holding her auburn-haired friend tightly - so much so that she fears she might be hurting her.
“Then don’t…” Says the other, who has her arms wrapped around Diana’s back.
“But, I have to. I must. You don’t understand.”
Diana pulls her head back to look the other in the eyes, having to tilt her head upwards ever so slightly to do so.
“Help me understand, Diana, please…”
A single tear runs down the silver haired woman’s cheek, making her blink a couple of times.
“I can’t…”
She feels like a broken record, playing the same sound again and again. It is selfish that she doesn’t explain to Leona what really is happening. It is selfish because if she did, Leona wouldn’t be hurt, she wouldn’t miss her. Instead she would be the one to push her away. Maybe in another life-
“Diana, I,” Leona takes a deep breath and looks up to the skies, as if searching for an answer to some question, “I love you.”
Something clicks inside Diana, she can feel her mouth drop open and her eyes widen. She tries to speak, but she can’t. As if she is mute. She can’t!
“Diana?” The taller one asks, confused, “I thought… Why don’t you say it back?”
The silver haired woman tries again and again, but no sound leaves her.
Leona keeps staring at her with a hurt expression, confused and hurt . It breaks Diana’s heart. She tries to scream, telling her - somehow - that she loves her back. That she wants to be hers and vice versa. But she can’t.
“I understand.” She says finally, “It was worth a shot.” There’s that small smile, it’s sad, but true. “The least I could do is try.” Then Leona lets go of her and turns around, so, so slowly and Diana tries to reach, but she can neither feel nor see them-
“I love you!” Diana wakes up from her dream, though more of a nightmare, in sweat, her throat aching along with her heart. She hugs herself and falls back down on the bed, breathing heavily. The stains of tears on her cheeks and pillow are not unnoticed, as she curses and punches the mattress out of sheer frustration.
“Fuck.” She mumbles as she realises the reason for her waking, that being her phone ringing. In her distress, she almost didn’t hear it. “ ‘ello?” She almost whispers, trying really hard not to let the fact that she has been crying be conveyed to the other. She can already hear loud buzzing, music probably. Silence is all the response she gets. “Who is this?” She asks and furrows her brows, starting to get annoyed, “If you’re talking, I can’t hear you with all that noise.”
Diana waits another couple of seconds, and just as she is about to hang up-
“I’m- I’m sorry, it’s probably the music, it’s really loud.”
Her eyes widen at the sound of that voice.
“Leona? Wha- why are you-” She pauses, trying to find something to say, but the other speaks up quicker.
“You know, since you’ve been avoiding me these last couple of weeks… No calls, no texts, no hi’s, I thought I’d finally ask,” Diana holds her breath, allowing Leona to continue without interrupting, “Did I… Do something - anything - wrong?”
Diana’s heart breaks at how hurt the auburns-haired woman sounds. But there’s something else also. The voice continues, before it does though, there is a small sniff Diana is able to catch in all the background noise. “I just- I just need to know and,” there’s a hiccup and that’s exactly where Diana interrupts her, while also avoiding answering the question.
“Leona, are you drunk?”
A pause, “It doesn’t matter, I asked you-”
“Leona, are you drunk ?” This time Diana’s voice is a tad more harsh, perhaps to hide her worry and fear.
“Yeah I am.” Leona sounds tired, “I am at a late night party and I might have had some alcohol…”
Diana listens for the rest of the sentence, but it never comes. Instead she hears Leona coughing and there’s that sniffing once again. “Leona, please listen to me,” she beckons and the other seemingly obliges, “I need you to stay where you are, okay? Is there a place to sit nearby?” At this time Diana is on her feet, out of the bed and in front of her closet, picking whatever she can put on the quickest. She decides to go for a pair of jeans and a black t-shirt.
“There is a couch.” Leona seems to be following the instructions, making the silver haired woman finally take a breath in response. “And there is also a stool.”
“Alright, I need you to get on that stool and wait.”
“Why?”
“It’s a surprise.” Diana puts on her leather jacket and goes to pick up her boots. “Don’t take another drink from anyone else. Okay?”
Even though her voice is still stern, it is far softer than before, partly due to Leona sounding so lost and partly because Diana really has a soft spot for that ‘idiot’.
“Okay… Are you leaving?”
Diana doesn’t stop moving. She picks up her car keys and yanks her front door open, quickly locking it before making her way to the elevator. “No. No I…” Diana bites her lip as she takes the stairs instead, deciding it’s the faster way down, “I’m not leaving.”
Thankfully, there isn’t much talking as Diana drives. There are a couple of are-you-there’s from Leona, that are only making Diana’s guilt stronger and heavier with each time. Of course, her phone is on speaker while on the road, which is a good thing - mostly - as the auburn haired one isn’t able to hear the curses that the other is directing at her own self.
Thoughts ranging from why she’s doing what she’s doing at the moment to why she did what she did to her friend. Which directly led to Leona being drunk at a party. Leona never got drunk. Ever. And she was probably doing it because of her , what she did.
‘Fuck.’ Diana thinks and barely refrains from hitting the steering wheel. She takes a turn left. She will be outside the Crownguard manor in a couple of minutes. Leona hasn’t spoken in a while, but judging by the - still very loud - music coming from the phone, she guesses that the call hasn’t ended. She’s probably just tired, after all, it is about 3am or so. The party was organised by Lux Crownguard, so she just knows that, even though it is very spacious, the manor will be full of people. Which is something she doesn’t like.
“Leona, can you hear me?”
The only thing she can hear is the buzzing and the noise of the party around. Not really what she wanted to hear.
‘She might have fallen asleep. It would make sense. It would not be very comforting if she did.’
Her thoughts get the better of her and her mind starts throwing images at her. Fools making fun of her friend, who is exhausted and maybe simply passed-out. There hasn’t been a time when anyone could judge Leona. She was always doing everything perfectly and by the book. Of course there are those who seek to find something, a flaw, a crack. Diana is worried she might have given them that. She would cut their arms off. If anyone-
“...na? Diana!”
Sophia’s voice snaps her out of it, shaking her head before returning her some of her focus on her phone, the rest on the road.
“Sophia? Where did you come from?”
“Found a common friend passed out against the bar. Decided it would be best to keep an eye on her.”
A common friend… Diana smiles. Her best friend really does always have her back.
“Thank you, Sophia.”
A chuckle comes from the other, who Diana can picture shaking her head.
“I’d like to comment on the situation. Perhaps another day.”
The silver haired one smiles to no one in particular and nods as she pulls up in front of the manor. “Perhaps another day.”
After that she unbuckles her seatbelt, taps on her phone to end the call and gets out of the car, all in one swift set of moves. The main gate fortunately is open and there is no need for any awkwardness. She just needs to get in, find Sophia and therefore Leona and get out. No need for unpleasantries.
Her steps are strong and determined and she is moving fast down the path that leads to the main door, through the impressive garden. On her left and right there are bushes that act as fences, separating the marble-y tiles of the path from the rest of the landscape, which is filled with differently-coloured roses for the most part. Even though she is in a rush, her eyes fall on a beautiful, fiery-orange coloured set of flowers. It kind of reminds her of-
It takes her a moment to recollect herself from the collision, her eyes wandering around to see who the poor soul that happened to be in her way is. Though as she turns to face the one deserving her wrath, she finds a familiar face.
Braum’s warm and booming laughter brings in a nice antithesis to the cold dark of the night. “Welcome, friend!” He greets her and pulls her in for a hug, which she actually appreciates, but…
“Nice seeing you too, Braum, but I’m in a hurry.”
Braum brushes his moustache, having immediately let go of Diana. “I know. Come, this way.” He tells the silver haired woman, who follows him to the manor while he explains, “We found your friend Sophia - very sweet girl - and we decided to keep her company.”
“Who’s ‘we’?” Diana finds herself asking. It could be anyone really, Braum seems to be getting along with all. Still, despite her subconscious worry, she trusts the bigger man.
“Ah! My dear friends, Ashe and Tryndamere! Don’t worry, they are the good kind.”
The lighting inside the building is awful. Unless sight is not your goal, then it is perfectly lit with a dark, purple shadow looming over every person or piece of furniture, or at least that’s the situation in the more quiet rooms. In the ‘dancing’ room, further into the manor, there’s all of the loud noise and darkness jazz, but one can add to that flashing lights here and there just to piss you off.
But Diana isn’t there for the music or the people. It’s a good thing that Braum is guiding her to where exactly she needs to be, the crowd separating at the sight of the imposing man. She’s there for one person. Her person. And her breath catches when she spots her, now laying down on the couch with an ashen haired woman by her side and a man with long, black hair, who is in a conversation with the former.
Before anyone can say anything, she rushes to the auburn haired woman’s side, immediately taking one of her hands in her own, while the other touches Leona’s forehead. Instinctively, the latter moves into the touch and Diana doesn’t find the strength to pretend to mind it.
“Diana, I presume.” The ashen haired woman speaks, her eyes on the silver haired one.
“Mhm.” Is all she gets, as Leona seems to slowly wake up.
When she opens her eyes and those honey-golden orbs find her own, Diana is frozen in place. “You came.” Leona says, though no sound escapes her lips. Without having time to process it, Diana finds herself in a bone-crushing hug, Leona holding her close to her like a lifeline. “You came…” She repeats, a deeper tone this time, rich with emotion.
The silver haired one can only hug her back, having missed her an awful lot as well. As Leona nuzzles in the crook of her neck, Diana finds the courage to ask, “What are you doing here Leo?”
“What does it seem like I am doing?”
“Getting yourself dangerously drunk, you-” She stops and instead forces herself to push Leona back so they can look at each other, “idiot.”
And perhaps it’s the way she said that word. That instead of malice, her voice is full of worry. Or how she tries to not allow her fingers to caress the back of Leona's neck as she holds her head up. Whatever the reason may be, the auburn-haired woman finds herself smiling, her eyes closing of their own accord, even with the music blasting all around her.
It surely is the way she feels her own heart burn with a well-known feeling that doesn’t allow her to attempt to wake Leona up. Instead, she looks to the people that have been guarding her beloved in her semi-consciousness.
“I will take her home.”
“The hell you are.”
Diana looks over her shoulder to see Sophia, her arms crossed over her chest.
“And you better stay with her, unless you’re okay with letting her try to deal with her drunken state on her own.” A pause, as the smaller woman thinks, “And if you’re okay with that, fuck you, kindly.”
The silver-haired woman recognises her friend’s smile - a friendly warning, advice. With that thought in mind, she nods her head yes.
“Need help carrying her?”
Before Diana is able to answer, her hands already attempting to leave the drunken woman’s body, the latter pulls her close again, her face buried deep in her neck.
“Don’t let go. Please.” She asks in a voice so quiet, that Diana almost missed it.
Nevertheless, she did hear it and so she shakes her head no at Sophia’s offer.
“I’ve got this. I will text you when we get home.”
With a swift move, she places one arm under Leona’s knees, the other on her upper back, and lifts her up. Not as easy as she would have liked, but still, Diana could do it on her own. Especially after the way Leona’s muscles noticeably relaxed at the sound of her voice.
I am so screwed…
She starts walking away from the group, telling Sophia her goodbyes on her way out. Once out and in the gardens, she takes a moment to look down at Leona, who still has her face hidden in her neck.
“Are you okay?” She asks, her voice soft and tender. Even so, she gets no answer other than a gentle tug of her shirt on her back, where Leona’s hands meet to hold her. She knows what she needs to do. “It will be okay, we’re going home.”
Questions will have to wait.
Diana wouldn’t even attempt to lie to herself. She has enjoyed how close she has been to Leona while taking her up the stairs, as the elevator proved to her once again that even metal cans can be bipolar sometimes - sometimes they work and others, well, not so much.
It is still a mystery to her how she managed to grab her keys from her pocket and not only that, she also found the keyhole with an armful of Leona who very stubbornly refused to let go even for a second.
A task that proved to be a challenge was forcing herself to make Leona let go of her so she can undress her. It made Diana’s heart warmer, how Leona trusted her with that. How she laid back and closed her eyes, following the silver-haired woman’s directions faithfully. There aren’t many options for Leona to choose from when it comes to her nightwear, so Diana has her get into one of her oversized white t-shirts, accompanied by an equally oversized pair of black shorts that reach her knees.
Diana slowly, but surely, watched all of her progress disappear. All of the work she had carefully put into building walls around her as an effort to keep her feelings for Leona locked away thrown out the window at the idea of the auburn-haired woman being in need of help – of assistance. She can physically feel them come crashing down as she watches her right in this moment, in her bed, her hair free and spread beautifully on her pillow like a sunset on canvas. With a nod, she turns around to leave, her finger on the light switch beside the door when she hears Leona speak for the first time in what has felt like ages.
“Where are you going?”
Diana has to bite her tongue.
“We’re at my place.” She informs her and turns around to face Leona. “You are sleeping in bed, I’ll be on the couch in the living room. If you-”
“Can’t you stay with me? Just for tonight?”
Another long exhale.
“You know I can’t. We talked-”
“No.” Leona interrupts her. “You talked about it. I didn’t-” Hiccup, “I didn’t have a choice.”
“And neither do you have a choice now.” She pushes those words out of her mouth, their heaviness weighing greatly on her tongue. “You are drunk. You can’t know how you really feel-”
“You can’t know how I really feel.”
With a shake of her head at how grumpy the woman in her bed has gotten, Diana turns around again, this time to finally leave, but-
“Do you want to know how I really feel about you? Hm?”
Diana doesn’t face Leona, but she also stays put, her heel off the ground, as if someone froze time midstep.
“How every time I enter a room I know you might be in, I will search for you? How I hope to bump into you while walking around the halls? How every time my phone rings, I hope to see your name on the flashing screen?”
“Leo, I-”
“Or how I haven’t been able to sleep without listening to that voice message you sent me the night before you decided to walk away from me?” Leona sits up on the mattress, her tears shining in the darkness due to the light coming from the hallway. “I’ve missed you.” She won’t let those tears fall. “And- And you’re clearly not done with me, you-, you don’t hate me, or we wouldn’t be here, so why?” She won’t let them. “Why can’t we just…”
A long sigh comes from the silver-haired woman who turns around to face the other.
“I’ve tried so hard to stay away from you.”
She walks toward the bed.
“Why?” Leona asks, her hands in her lap. She sniffs and then raises her hand to rudely wipe her nose.
“I thought…” Diana’s brows furrow, “I thought it was for the best. You probably don’t feel the same but I-”
“I love you, Diana.” Leona tells her, in a tone suggesting that she should have figured that out by now. “I’ve loved you for a long while. And I,” She takes a deep breath, “I want to have you with me tonight. So,” Oh how brave her love is, “if you feel the same, come and sit with me. If not, you can keep walking wherever you want to go and I will leave come morning, because I know you won’t let me do so in my current state. You will never hear from me again.”
And isn’t that what she wanted? A way out? A way to be able to save Leona from the disaster that is her life. Leona should be with someone who is stable, who fits her status, someone she wouldn’t have to go to war with her parents for so they approve her. And that someone clearly shouldn’t be Diana, who could be homeless with a couple of wrong steps, who hasn’t even met her parents. Someone who their teachers despise with a burning passion and have probably informed Leona’s parents of their close friendship and their thoughts.
Yet, she finds herself slowly walking toward her bed, to Leona, like a moth drawn to the Sun.
Because, how can she not? When Leona is the one who stood by her when things got tough? Who drove all the way from her home - an hour away - just to share with her some warm soup when she caught a cold?
“You really didn’t have to come over, I have things under control.”
Leona had looked around the messy house with a raised eyebrow.
“I brought you some soup!” She’d said nonetheless.
“I’ve got that covered.”
The wraps of takeout did not impress Leona, and yet she’d smiled at Diana lovingly.
“Sure. Come, before it gets cold.”
Leona who had taken the blame for something she didn’t do, just because. No, not just because. It was to protect her.
“We warned you, Diana, that it was the last time we would look the other way. You can’t simply leave school grounds whenever you so wish!”
Diana was sure this would be the end of her university arc. But, ever watchful Leona appeared around the corner.
“I made her do it, professor!”
“You what?”
“I… I asked her to go out with me. I felt like I needed an escape and… She was the only one that could help me do that. So I asked her to follow me.”
“You are marked as ‘sick’ for the day of the incident. Do you mean to say that was a lie?”
Diana’s azure eyes find Leona’s golden orbs, unafraid, determined as she nods.
“Yes. I was with Diana at the time. She tried to warn me about the consequences, but I didn’t listen. This is all my fault.”
“You know we can’t let you be the face of our football’s team after this incident, Leona. If you are merely trying to cover up for your fellow student, you must speak now.”
“I forced her. It’s on me.”
Leona had smiled at her again that time, lovingly.
For these reasons, Diana doesn’t find it strange when she sits down beside the auburn-haired woman.
“Do you mean it?” she asks, her voice smaller than she’d like.
“Yes, you won’t have to hear from me again-” but Diana is shaking her head and hands.
“That you love me?”
Then there is that look of determination in her golden eyes, the one that always reassures her that she’s as serious as she can be when she says;
“I do.”
Her hand moves closer to Diana’s, but only makes it halfway before it halts. It’s Diana’s turn now, it’s her choice.
“You’re… Drunk.”
“Because it hurt too much to think you didn’t love me back.”
Her pale hand finds Leona’s.
This time it’s Diana that smiles lovingly.
“I love you too. I think I have loved you ever since you tripped over your shoelaces because you were looking at me.”
They both giggle at that, Leona even finding the courage to hit Diana on the shoulder.
“You’re a treat to look at.”
“Woooah, let’s take it slow.”
Leona knows Diana is simply joking, but she nods. “You set the pace, Di.”
They stare at each other for a long while, none of them finding the strength to look away until Diana has to blink.
“You should sleep.”
“Sleep with me?”
Diana raises an eyebrow. “I have to change.”
“That shirt smells nice.”
Diana gets an even more amused expression. “I didn’t put on any perfume, it just smells like me.”
“Exactly.”
A scoff.
“I hate you, Leo.”
“You love me.”
“Shut up.”
With a small sigh, Diana slips next to Leona. A little awkwardly, they shift until they are both under the soft blanket, facing each other.
“Is this okay?” The taller woman asks, daring to touch Diana’s cheek with her palm.
“More than okay.” She holds her hand. “We’ll talk tomorrow?”
A soft hum is the answer she gets. Sneakily, she shifts closer to Leona. She scrunches her nose up. “You stink of alcohol.”
“Try drinking yourself stupid of a broken heart and we can talk about it then.”
Leona chuckles, obviously joking and half asleep, but Diana’s breath catches in her throat. She broke her heart. And… She erases that thought from her brain. She would fix it. Starting tomorrow.
“Sweet dreams, Leo.”
“Goodnight, love”
Yeah, she could get used to this. For now, though, sleep seems to be stronger than both of them as they drift away into its land, happy and calm.