Work Text:
Lux and Rio's encore tour of the Great City had been a resounding success. While the two of them ran circles of colorful chaos across the city, the others had worked tirelessly in smuggling imprisoned mages past the walls. And now that the job was done and the city freshly painted, Lux and Rio had some time to themselves. Rio was happy to wander the countryside, but Lux said there was someone she wanted her to meet.
After night fell they snuck north, to the Memorial Road, the grand causeway stretching from the Great City. It was deserted after dark, thanks to a curfew enforced during wartime, and tonight no guards or Mageseekers patrolled this far from the city, too busy were they cleaning up after Lux and Rio's last show.
Rio was surprised when they stopped at the feet of a colossal stone statue. It stood at least a hundred feet tall, the whole road passing beneath its legs with room to spare. Its golden wings and long tail seemed to defy gravity in how they were spread out from its body. She was even more surprised when Lux waved to the statue and said, "This is Galio."
"Didn't take you for a fan of military monuments," Rio said.
Lux smiled and said, "I'm not. But Galio is... different." She set a hand on one of its enormous stone feet. "He's been a good friend. Helped me through some hard times." Rio followed her as she walked around one of the ankles. "When I was little I used to visit him often with my family, but I didn't really... meet him until I was a teenager."
"What's that supposed to mean?"
"Oh, you'll see," Lux said. "Just give him a minute." She leaned against the statue's foot and slid to the ground with a soft sigh. She rested her head against the smooth white stone, and Rio startled when she saw the shine in Lux's eyes start to fade.
"That's Petricite!" Rio said, hurrying to pull her to safety.
But Lux held up a hand and said, "It's okay, I know."
Rio paused and cautiously stepped back. She looked up and down the statue, examining it for... well, she didn't really know what. Anything that looked like it could hurt Lux. She really didn't like the way Lux looked as the Petricite drained her magic. Color started to leave her skin, just a little. The intangible aura of warmth and light that she always radiated had dimmed like Rio had never seen it do before. It almost hurt Rio to watch.
But Lux just leaned into it, shutting her eyes and seeming to will the magic out of her body with an eagerness that worried Rio. She was about to put a stop to whatever this was, when she heard something from above. It was like the sound of rocks being ground together.
Lux heard it too and opened her eyes. She smiled wearily and stepped out from under the colossus' feet with Rio, who had backed up to look for the source of the sound. Rio squinted through the dark at the statue, really wishing Lux hadn't just given away all the magic that she could normally use for a magelight. She looked up and up and up, until she reached the statue's head.
And it opened its eyes.
"Holy SHIT!"
Rio stumbled backwards, looking up at the living statue. With a sound like a collapsing mine shaft, it slowly stood upright and blinked as though it had just been woken from a long nap. It rolled its shoulders as an avalanche rolls down a mountain, and yawned with a voice that sounded like two tons of rock being ground into gravel.
"Good morning, Galio!" Lux shouted up towards the colossus.
It (he?) spoke like a glacier crashed into the sea. "Ahhh, Little Girl Person." He squinted down at Lux. "You are not so little anymore. But you shine brighter than ever!"
"You look good too!" Lux yelled.
The colossal stone eyes turned now to Rio and she instinctively shrunk away from its gaze. "Who is the Little Blue Person?" he asked.
"This is Rio," Lux announced proudly. She took Rio's hand and pulled her close. "She is my girlfriend!"
Galio peered down at the two of them. Rio nervously smiled and raised her hand. "Uh... hi?"
"Hmmm, hello, Little Blue Person," Galio said. "You are Little Girl Person's girl-friend?"
Rio felt somehow as though she were being judged by Lux's overprotective dad. "Uhh, yep. That's me." She leaned against Lux affectionately for good measure. "Love her."
"Yeees," Galio rumbled. "I see how she shines brighter when you are near."
"Oh, uh, thanks." That was actually quite flattering? "You seem like a good friend too."
Somehow the titan's impossibly soft features formed into a smile. "Thank you... she is girl-friend to me, as well."
Rio stifled a snort and Lux hastily shouted, "No! That's not what girlfriend means!"
Pebbles rained down on the road as Galio's great stone head turned. "Is it not? You are my friend, and you are a girl."
Rio continued to poorly suppress her laughter while Lux continued shouting. "No, girlfriend is more than just friends. It's more... intimate?" Lux looked to Rio as though she expected she could somehow help. "It's romantic. We... live together, share the same bed."
"Ohhh!" Galio's voice boomed like thunder through the countryside. "You mean she is your WIFE!"
Rio erupted into laughter, laughing so hard her stomach hurt and she doubled over. Lux blushed a little and looked from Rio to Galio. "Yeah, kind of like that," she said.
"Aww, you don't wanna marry me?" Rio teased. "I thought we had something special."
"Quiet, you," Lux said, shoving a hand against Rio's grinning cheek.
"I am glad that you have found a friend," Galio said. "It has been very... lonely, here."
"Not as much traffic I suppose, with the war going on," Lux said.
"War... yes, I have seen many soldiers pass through my gates." Galio looked at Lux. "But, if there is war, why am I not called to fight?"
"Ehh, it's more complicated than that," Lux said. "It's a civil war; Demacia fights among itself."
"Hmmm..." Galio's voice shook Rio's bones like an earthquake. "That is troubling. How am I to squash the enemies of Demacia, if the enemies are also Demacia?"
"It might be better if you sit this one out," Lux said gently.
"Indeed." There was an unmistakable hint of sorrow in Galio's thunderous voice.
"Hey, we'll call if we need ya," Rio said. "I can think of a few things that could use some squashing." Lux gave her a disapproving look that said don't you even think about it, but she was too late, Rio was already imagining all the wonderful things she could do with a thousand ton stone colossus at her side. The thought of it almost made her woozy with power.
"That would be nice," Galio said, blissfully unaware of all the mayhem Rio had planned for him.
Lux's voice of reason prevailed in the end though, and instead they sat on Galio's shoulders and watched the stars. Too soon the sun was starting to rise, and Lux worried over someone noticing Galio was gone. "I don't want you to be lonely, I just wish we could stay longer," she said as they climbed down.
Rio hatched an idea. She retrieved from her pack two bags of paint, still freshly mixed from their escapades in the city. "Hey big guy, give me your hand," she said. Galio complied and Rio motioned for him to flip it over, so his palm lay flat against the grass.
She dipped a brush into the bag and began to paint the end of Galio's fingers pink and blue. He hadn't been carved with fingernails per se, but she thought it got the idea across. Lux dug the spare paint out of her bag and joined her, painting Galio's other hand yellow and blue. The sound a hundred foot tall living stone statue made when it giggled was something that Rio will never forget.
Though he was sad to see them go, Galio was glad to have something to remember his little friends by. On the road back to Terbisia, the whole kingdom was buzzing about the bandits who vandalized the Galio Monument. The guards could not reach his hands to clean them, so high were they, and they wondered at how anyone had ever gotten paint up there. For that most blamed magery, but none could explain the faint smile now etched into his stone features.