Eyes like a summersky [AhriXReader]

A day in the garden

You are woken up by the sun shining through your curtains, you yawn, it is your third day here.
Doing your daily morning routine, you throw a look outside the bathroom window. Today the front yard is due and just by looking at how the weeds sprout, you know that this is gonna be a hard day.

As you walk down the stairs and into the hallway, you notice, that the door to the guest room is already open, you also can hear the sound of a spoon clanking against ceramic.
Even before you can enter the living room, Ahri turns, waving at you, still chewing some flakes, the radio playing some tunes in the background.
"You are already awake?",
"I was just too hungry to go to sleep again", she says in between two bites:
A second bowl already stands on the table, while you pour yourself some cereal, you look over to Ahri, who just finished her first bowl, if it is her first one.
Drinking the rest of the milk directly from the bowl, a little milky beard is left on her upper lip, you chuckle a bit, she noticing it almost immediately.
Tilting her head a bit left in confusion, mustering you with an asking look, with a smirk you point to your upper lip, she needs a bit but also gets it, whiping it away while playing offended, making a little pout.
"Sorry, but it just ...", you try a half-meant apology ,
"I will forgive you this time", she says while giving you a wink.

"So what are we up to today?", she asks you while loading the dishwasher,
"We will begin in the front yard, plant some new flowers, weed weed and cut overgrown plants a bit down". Ahri does not answer at first, you turn around in the kitchen to face her.
Her eyes sparkle with excitement, her ears lay back.
"Ahri?", you ask in a cautious tone, she snaps out a bit, her ears moving back into the normal position,
"Sorry, I got carried away a bit", she blushes, excusing herself almost directly afterwards.
As you are left alone in the kitchen, you let out a small sigh of frustration, she sometimes seems more like a small kid than an well-known idol.
Shaking it off, you load the rest of the kitchenware into the dishwasher, as you walk into the living room to turn off the radio, you can listen to the last words of the newscast.
"... we wont be bend, we will stand strong against ...", the rest is swallowed up by the silence that fills the room in seconds, as you flick the small switch on the front of the radio.

You already pulled the dead scrubs out of the flower bed, as Ahri joins you.
Wearing a used looking jeans and a white shirt, she stands there for a minute, rubbing her arm, before grabbing one of the flower pots in silence, beginning to plant in one of the empty spots.
You two sit there, digging small holes, planting the flowers, filling up the missing soil with some new one, after some time it feels like harmony.
"Your grandparents lived here? Sorry, your mother told me", she breaks the silence, as you both sit side by side, still going through the same process. You answer with a simple nod.
"I like the feeling of the house, it still has this old flair" she says,
"It feels like a part childhood", slips out of your mouth, you feel a little regret, but as you steal a glance towards Ahri, you see a small smile on her face.
"My grandparents also lived in the country, my nan and I used to always plant flowers when I visited", it seems like a memory she is fond of, a nod now feels, unappreciating...
"I spent most of my summer evenings here, playing cards with grandpa, I almost lost every match", you have to chuckle a bit.
"He always told me that if I would train hard enough I could beat him",
"And did you beat him?", you can hear her curiosity,
"I never beat him, he told me that I would have to train, but not that he won every yearly tournament of the game since almost twenty years".

You both seem to warm up a bit more, talking about your childhood memories with your grandparents, how technology advanced that fast in the last years and about the two countries you grew up in.
As the time flies by, you take a few steps back, letting your gaze fly over a hard days work.
It seems almost finished, maybe cleaning some dirt, but only one thing is left to do.
Grandmas rose arch.
The former arch now looks more like a gateway to the wonderland.
As you begin to trim it down, the silence begins to take over again.
"So... did you always wanted to be, like... a superstar?", you ask to refresh the topics a bit,
"I... ehm, I..." Ahri seems almost embarrassed about this question, fiddling around with words,
"It is okay, you do not have to...", you cut in between,
"No, I just, it is very difficult to explain, you know? Just the...", looking a bit thrown off course, she articulates a bit around with her hands, suddenly wincing, as her ears stand up.
You already know what happened, walking back into the house on a fast pace and resurfacing with a small first-aid case.
As you come back to the arch, she sits cross legged under one of the poplar trees that outline the small path into the backyard.
She holds a finger on her left hand, small drops of blood rolling down her palm.
You sit down to her right, making a gesture with your right hand, asking her to let you do your thing, nodding, she removes her hand around the finger.
It is a rather long gash, but no problem, you cannot count how many times grandma needed to fix up some of your small injuries, she is not the first victim of the malevolent arch.
Finishing your work, she looks down a bit fascinated onto her bandage.
"I think we call it a day, the arch looks okay and we are done with the rest" you say while getting up, brushing off some dirt.
Ahri, still sitting there, looks up and nods,
"But I will cook today", you add afterwards,
"Why? Did you not like my coo...", she tried to prop up her arms against her waist in demonstration, but almost yelped when the injured finger got burdened.
"Okay..." she mumbles, not really agreeing.

You had to lock Ahri out of the kitchen, maybe as a bit of revenge, maybe just to tease her, but also a bit, because your grandmas' recipes are sacred to you as well.
And as you get her cookbook out of the secret hiding place, you ask yourself, if you even can cook like your grandmother. But after a struggle at the beginning, the middle and the end, it comes close to how grandma used to make it, maybe a bit more well-seasoned.
And you look onto the scenery of pans and pots and feel proud of yourself, a warm feeling of accomplishment, it feels like an eternity since you felt it.
It only grows as you serve the dish to an hungry Ahri who tries to stay on the couch ignoring you, until she smells the scent of the food.
"It is almost as good as mine, but it does not make the cut", Ahri tells you while taking a bite,
"So you do not want a second portion?", you ask her, she only replies with a stare that could kill you.

After dinner follows the same old routine, but as you finish, Ahri tells you, that she will go to bed early. You too feel a bit drained from the day, so while sitting under the poplar trees, letting your view glide over the valley, you think about some recent things.
"Y/N?", Ahri calls you, the sound coming from the terrace door in the living room,
"I am sitting under the poplar trees", you shout back,
"Could you please come to the door",
"Why do you not come to me?".
A quiet minute or two follow, you think she may have given up.
"I am barefoot", a part of you knows, that if you do not give in, it is gonna be a shouting match until midnight. Straightening yourself up with some help of the poplar tree, you make your way to the terrace.
Ahri seems to be already in sleepwear, only wearing the usual oversized t-shirt.
"So what is it, that you...", she pulls you into a surprising hug, giving you a peck on the cheek,
"Thanks for the day".
She almost instantly turns around afterwards, looking a bit flustered, scrambling to her room.
You pull a chair towards you, falling onto it.
Just like a bittersweet old friend, you feel it again, another time, feelings boiling up inside of you.
It is strange that it feels so exciting on one hand, yet so sickening on the other one.
Your head feels filled and empty simultaneously, as you watch the sun setting on another day.