Nine

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And again you two found yourself in a situation that was neither completely pleasant nor unpleasant.

You wanted to say something, but it felt wrong as if you were taking to a stranger on the street without them really wanting it.

At the same time, Marcus also had to restrain himself from blurting out anything stupid. The desire to tell you things was burning on his tongue, but there was also this little voice in the back of his head that couldn't stop whispering all the hateful thoughts to him.

And yet he couldn't help but glance at you out of the corner of his eye.

Smiling softly, your gaze was fixed on the path in front of you. You tried to avoid looking at him, wanting to give him enough space. Even as a child he had hated being pushed to do anything and usually became uncomfortable.

You knew that if he really wanted something, he would come to you on his own. All he needed was time.

As you walked beside him down the street, arms folded behind your back, the strands of your (H/C) hair danced in the gentle breeze of the morning.

A surprised expression appeared on his face at the sight. Hastily, Marcus averted his gaze again, but could not prevent his face from turning slightly red. He had been hit by his father's unfortunate inheritance, which caused not only his cheeks but his entire head to turn red when he was embarrassed or his heart beat uncontrollably faster.

You had always teased him about it and he had made it a habit not to look at you in such situations.

Even after all this time he felt the urge to hide his blush from you, although he didn't even know why his body suddenly reacted that way.

Your face was completely foreign to him. Except for the hair color and the grin that made your (E/C) eyes sparkle, everything had changed. And yet he had to admit that he didn't dislike the change.

As a boy he had thought of you as pretty, in the innocent way a kid just reacts to people they like. But now as an adult, he couldn't help but admit that you had also grown into a feast for the eyes.

But your looks were not what confused his mind, but the mixture of your new, attractive face and the familiar grin he had loved to watch for hours.

The thought made him sigh heavily.

Notified by the sound, you gave him a cautious look.

"Tired already?", you asked, leaning into his field of vision.

He shook his head. Again his eyes avoided looking directly at you.

"It gets boring after a while if you have to patrol the same routes every other day.", he said, turning his gaze to the roofs of the houses. "I know this corner by heart. In a moment there will be a house with a horrible yellow roof and then one with flowers in the top windows."

"But only in the top ones.", you added with a smile.

Surprised, he stopped. His eyebrows drew together and he frowned.

"How do you know?"

The surprise on his face amused you. Chuckling, you pointed up to a house on the corner, where a flag with the town's crest was flying in the wind on the roof.

"As children we used to play up there on the roofs.", you reminded him. "This district is not far from the headquarters. We used to watch the training camp from a distance."

His gaze followed your outstretched finger up to the flag. For a moment he stared at the spot. Then, suddenly, a shimmer lit up in his eyes.

"You're right.", he muttered, pointing to the right. "And there down the street was your parents' old house."

You nodded.

"If we climbed up on the roof at my house, we could walk north and get to the council building."

Wrapped by the memory, he nodded. A hint of a smile was on his lips.

"We always tried to look through the windows with binoculars."

"And Heimerdinger often caught us doing so."

"But he never told on us."

"Hm...", while the memories made you smile, your eyes wandered to Marcus to catch a glimpse of an image that made you blush. "Hey, Marcus?"

Carefully you tugged at the sleeve of his blue uniform.

Torn from his thoughts, his head jumped to you. For a moment he looked at you the same way he used to, so gentle and excited at the same time. He looked at you expectantly, waiting for you to say something.

He could feel that a question was burning on your tongue. With no other person did he find it so easy to figure out intentions.

"Are you going with me? To my parents' house.", you asked him. "I would like to see what has become of it."

Breathing in, he nodded.

"If you want to.", he said but sounded hesitating.

"You don't have to. If you know what happened just tell me."

"No, I don't. To be honest... I avoided it for quite some time. I'm curious too."

With a mix of guilt and relief, you smiled and started walking down the small alley towards the house that you had been born in.

"I assume you did not want to be reminded?", you asked after a few steps.

His lips curled and he let out a sound that was something between a huff and a growl.

"Many things in Piltover reminded me. Almost everything."

"We were always running around the city. No place was safe."

He had to smile mildly at the though. The two of you really had been like stray cats, everywhere and nowhere.

But as the edge of your house appeared, he immediately stopped in his tracks. A heavy feeling pushed down on him.

You noticed his sudden change of mood and threw a glance over your shoulder.

"Is everything alright?", you asked.

He swallowed hard.

"Yes...", he mumbled and started walking again. "It's just... this place is like nothing else. It makes me feel like I am visiting my parents. It was my second home."

"Did you love visiting my parents this much?"

"I suppose...", he said and bit his tongue, swallowing the thought that he had loved this house because it had been the place where he could always find you waiting for him.

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