Arcane: Become Light

"Can you please hurry up," LM looked back and forth between his friend and a building across the street.

Lile ignored him as he dropped some coins into the hand of a vendor, giving the large man a friendly nod. After paying, he began munching on his kebab and leisurely made his way over.

He had been acting like this since they left Benzo's shop, a pain in the ass.

"He's been in that shop for like, ten minutes. If he's shopping like before, I'm sure we won't lose him any time soon," he spat the words out in between chews. 

LM sneered, "You don't know that. He could come out any second, and you'd be so surprised you'd start choking on that stupid thing," he pointed a finger at Lile's snack.

Lile took another bite before he responded, "Hey! That's stupid-'tasty' thing to you, pal. And instead of griping about how I do my job, how about you turn around and do yours."

Before LM could even grasp the words to convey how stupid he thought that statement was—seriously, in what way was he doing his job—small clinking sounds could be heard behind him.

Turning to the noise, he saw the man that had left their shop earlier, Jayce. The box he held was now overflowing with junk that made it hard for him to walk.

LM puffed his chest out as he turned back around. Only to realize that Lile was nowhere to be seen.

Suddenly, a voice came from the little hole in the wall that Lile just bought his "stupid-tasty" food from, "LM, get over here."

Realizing how easily he could be spotted right now, the prideful expression he was wearing after being proven right disappeared.

He ran over to Lile and crouched down, "Oh, by the way, in case you didn't notice, I was right." 

Lile rolled his eyes, "Yeah whatever, you almost got us caught so we'll call it even." 

"Well it's not my fault I was being distracted by some asshole," LM, who had been glancing around on high alert, gave Lile the side-eye, "One who eats like a snail."

Lile looked down at the kebab he still had yet to finish, he was about to argue but he stopped himself, "We don't have time for this. If we lose sight of him, we'll never catch up."

Not waiting for a response, he got up and started casually walking down the street, he of course made sure to keep a respectable distance so as to not be seen by Jayce.

LM stumbled as he tried to catch up with him, "What are you doing, he's gonna see us."

"Only if you keep looking so suspicious," Lile stuck his chin up.

Finally noticing his awkward demeanor, LM tried to adjust himself. "What happened to the super cautious Lile from earlier?"

He didn't even bother looking at him, "I left him at the shop, he was oh so distraught after his "best friend" decided to blackmail him," he made quote signs with his fingers.

"You know you would've come with either way, I just lit a fire under your ass," LM kept his eyes forward as well.

Lile, knowing his friend wasn't exactly wrong, made a quick change of topic. 

Putting his hands on the back of his head, he said, "You know, you should quit cussing so much, I might just let it slip to Benzo and you'll have to eat soap again."

LM's face went pale, "Y-you wouldn't do that, right? Right Lile?"

Lile had a pure evil grin on his face at this point, "Oh but I would, and will."

As the color returned to his face he said, "And here I thought we were friends," in a mocking tone.

Lile stared at him blankly, "I don't know how you could've possibly gotten that idea. . ."

Silence.

Lile was the first to crack, bursting into laughter, only to cover his mouth a moment later. Thankfully, Jayce was too distracted trying to keep his balance to pay any mind to the boy's short lived outburst.

A sense of relief washed over the both of them as they realized they were in the clear. However, as soon as they made eye contact they both began snickering. Their first scouting mission was turning out to be a pretty good time.

Maybe they should stalk people more often?

After following Jayce for the better part of an hour, they reached the more prosperous of the Twin cities.

With the change of scenery, one of them finally found the words to start another conversation.

The white haired boy rubbed his shoulders, "Man, I forgot how much I hate coming up here. It feels like they're all staring at me." 

"No shit, you stick out like a sore thumb dressed like that. Rags aren't exactly the norm in Piltover, bud." Lile said with a sly smile on his face.

LM scoffed, "Don't act like I'm the weird one for not spending a year's worth of allowance on one outfit. An outfit that, by the way, gets us into constant fights."

It was true. The overly colorful and clean clothes Lile wore made other kids think he was from Piltover.

This caused them to constantly try to rob him and, by extension, Little Man. 

Key word being "tried", they could never land a hit on him due to using the strings to guess their attack trajectory. However, no matter how good he was at dodging, he couldn't always save LM from getting hurt.

Lile's smile faded, but his expression turned to one of pride, "Whatever, that hasn't happened in weeks, not since we became the "Twin Ghosts"." 

LM visibly cringed for a moment before something seemed to dawn on him, "What's up with that face you're making? Wait, no, don't tell me you're the one who came up with that horrible nickname?!"

Lile seemed shocked and appalled at his words, "Horrible? That name is so cool though, and it suits us perfectly! No one has ever landed a hit on me and you, uhh. . . you have white hair."

"What kind of reasoning is that? Wait, is that why other kids have been running from me and yelling about my hair?" His voice grew louder with every question, seemingly not caring about being caught by Jayce, who they were steadily falling further behind.

Lile froze for a second. He pursed his lips and nervously played with his fingers, "Not exactly." 

"The hell does that mean?" The boy seemed to be genuinely losing it. But who wouldn't, what fate could possibly be worse than being stuck with a cringey nickname for the rest of your life?

"Well, you know how I sometimes help pour the drinks down at Vander's bar," LM simply gave a nod, "I may have called in a few favors to get some drunk guys to start rumors about us."

LM wore a ghastly expression, "Like what?"

"Like wherever the "Twin Ghosts" go, a mountain of bodies could be found not too far away. I'm sure those drunkards took some liberties when spreading the rumors, but you know how nasty gossip can become, especially in the lanes."

"Are you telling me you told people that we're mass murderers? And it spiraled into something worse? All because . . . " A silence lingered.

"Wait, why did you do it?"

Lile couldn't help but let a weird smile creep onto his face, his previous nervousness disappearing like it was a lie, "Because I thought it would be fun." 

Something about the way he said it didn't sit right with LM, and what was up with that look in his eyes? There was a spark in them, a dangerous one, but also one his young and naive brain couldn't quite grasp.

LM didn't really know how to react, he'd never seen Lile like this before. Let it be known that his best friend was an odd one indeed, but not to this degree, at least that he was aware of.

As the silence persisted, he began to think back.

If they were always being attacked, why hadn't Lile ever considered wearing different clothes? He wasn't dumb after all, and far from prideful.

And the scared looks they got from other kids recently, why did he smile with pride each time it happened?

Did he enjoy it or something?

LM wasn't really disturbed by the idea, not in the slightest. From what he remembered, Vi used to be the same way. He was just surprised.

He decided to simply write it off as finding out another aspect of his best friend and continued walking in silence.

Lile was about to say something to his friend, thinking he pissed him off somehow, but he was suddenly stopped.

Both LM and Lile felt a hand on their shoulder, "Would you boys be willing to answer a few questions for us?" They turned around to see the objectively terrifying masks of two enforcers.

Lile, seeing the sweat already building on LM's face, spoke, "Of course officers, what can we help you with."

"Well, for starters, you can tell us why you've been following that man over there." His voice somehow remained casual as he spoke, but that didn't change the weight of his words.

Lile's first thought— which he almost said out loud—was, 'That was a statement, not a question, dumbass.' 

His second thought was a shared one, between him and LM, 'Well, shit.'

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

[Author Notes]

-Just a yap fest between two tweens, the calm before the storm if you will. That part where we got a better look at how our boy Lile thinks was pretty cool though, right?

-Finally gonna get some action next chapter, yay.

-Lmk if their are any errors or pacing problems, I'm happy to re-write.

-Also, for anyone who read the story before today, I rewrote the synopsis so go check it out.

-Have a great day!