New Friends

There were two things Art wanted to avoid in the Undercity, criminals and people he was acquainted with. But when he and Ezreal walked into the two sisters' house, well, bar, they realised they literally walked into a den of them, and among them was Lambett, his martial arts teacher.

Nervous, Art and Ezreal tried to sneak past him, but it was no use.

Some people recognised Art and made some short remarks, drawing the attention of Lambett. They made eye contact, and the expression on his teacher's face could only be described as priceless.

It was completely understandable why he would react like this as one moment he was just having drinks with some of his friends, bragging about how easy he was making a fortune and the next, he was on the verge of losing his job.

Art guiltily looked the other way, ignoring the man as he hurriedly followed Violet and Powder to their room.

"Make yourselves at home," Violet said as she opened the door to the basement of the bar, revealing the room she shared with her siblings.

The room was big enough to fit two bunk beds, two couches, an armchair and a table. The pipe walls were covered in grime and dust as the only light source was the bright light bulb on the table in the middle of the room.

"Yo eyebrows, I'm Ezreal. How--"

"I'm Art, nice to meet you," Art covered the blondie's mouth before he could say something insulting to Mylo and Claggor, the two sister's adoptive brothers.

The former was a skinny teenager with thick eyebrows and black super sayan hair, whilst the latter was a tall, thick boy with messy brown hair.

Despite their brutish looks, the two were friendly to the two boys, and it wasn't before long the four boys were starting to get familiar with each other. They sat on the couches, ate the takeaway Violet bought on the way and began talking around the table.

Moreover, when the tournament was brought up, Mylo and Claggor, who overslept and missed the tournament, were surprised by Art's courage to enter the tournament and had a good impression of him.

"Maybe if we took you instead of Powder in our jobs, we would finally get some real results," Mylo spoke up casually.

"What jobs?" asked Art curiously.

"Oh, we just…"

"Mylo!" Violet interrupted and turned to Art after. "Sorry handsome, it's a secret."

Handsome? is that my nickname? Like Cupcake? It's pretty good, Art thought excitedly before speaking up. "It's alright, I was just a little curious."

Violet smiled before offering him a fried leg of some mysterious creature they were eating, only to be refused as she had been licking her fingers earlier.

Time passed, and they finished eating dinner. Ezreal, Mylo and Claggor were playing catch with a ball around the room while Violet was resting on the couch, dead tired of what happened today and was on the brink of falling asleep.

Meanwhile, Art was sitting next to Powder on the ground just near her bed, the bottom of the bunk bed. He was trying to get close to her, just not in a romantic way. He didn't want to make a move on her, considering it would be very suspicious if he were to do so.

Powder was too young for Art to look at her that way, unlike Violet, who was about the same age he died.

Art just wanted to be friends, not an enemy. He hoped that if Powder went crazy in the future, she wouldn't pull any dangerous pranks on him.

Of course, he could just snap her delicate neck right now and avoid future troubles, but why on earth would he do that? He was not a cold-blooded murderer and now that they were friends, that option no longer exists.

In the first place, Powder was still sane and Art would rather take the chance to stop her from going crazy.

But, it seems this goal was harder than Art expected it to be as Powder was already inventing her toys.

"This one is called Mouser, and when it explodes, it'll send out nails in every direction," Powder said excitedly, handing him a grenade with a blue cat drawn on its surface. "But I haven't gotten it to work yet."

Carefully placing down the grenade, Art replied, "I'm sure you will get it to work someday. Just promise me you won't use it on me, okay?"

"What?!" exclaimed Powder. "I, I would never."

I hope that's true, Art thought before playing it cool. "Haha, I was joking."

The gang continued to mess around, and it was only when it was getting late, Art and Ezreal said their goodbyes to their new friends.

Luckily, or unluckily in the two boys' point of view, they encountered an angry Lambett waiting for them at the bar upstairs. After half an hour of scolding, they were safely escorted back to the topside and the two boys were somehow able to convince Lambert not to tell their parents/guardian.

***

The days passed quietly.

It has almost been a month since meeting Violet and her sibling. It was the most fun he had in a while, but not much has happened has since. Well, besides the fact Art was treated more harshly in training with Lambert for sneaking off to the Undercity.

Lambert gave him more than he was used to and hit harder when they were sparring. It was painful and hard, but this was not enough to stop Art from sneaking off again.

Art would go by himself most of the time as Ezreal was busy most of the time.

Recently, the blondie's parents had gone out on an expedition and were left in the care of his uncle, the esteemed Professor Lymere. The man assigned Ezreal the strictest tutors to teach him subjects including advanced cartography and the ancient histories of Runeterra, which took up most of his playtime.

Thus Art was left to spend time with Violet and her siblings. It was quite fun, messing about, pulling pranks on Enforcers and racing through the streets of the Undercity with cyclones, a light, fast vehicle that is operated by a rider in a seated position inside a single large unicycle wheel.

To Art, this was more fun than flying as it was new to him, and he had friends to be with. It was unlike flying, where he was alone all the time and it was something he had done many times.

Within this time, Art had also met Little Man. He was a 7-year-old kid with dark skin, white hair and half a head shorter than Powder.

At first glance, a name immediately came across his mind, but he quickly got rid of that thought as he did not want to be accused of racism. It was only when the two introduced themselves that he found out his hunch was right.

The little black kid was Ekko, the Boy Who Shattered Time.

During the short time they have been friends, Art learned Ezreal was the complete opposite of Ekko;

Ekko was...

-Kind

-Mature despite his age

-Modest

Meanwhile, Ezreal is...

-A little shit

-Full of himself

-Spoiled

Nevertheless, that little shit was his best friend and Art had gotten used to his shenanigans over the years. At this point, he could only shake his head at most of the trouble Ezreal would get himself into.

Anyway, besides all of that, Art noticed had also noticed Ekko was still far from being inventing the Z-Drive, a device that can turn back time to explore the branching possibilities of reality to craft the perfect moment.

Still, he could not help but feel excited... If he can make the Z-Drive with a bunch of scraps and a few pieces of hextech crystal, what would happen if he had access to better materials?

This was the thought that went through Art's mind. He wanted to be his patron and give the boy some money to create the Z-Drive faster, but he was not after the device itself.

Rather, it was because he felt that if he could use the Z-Drive a few times, he could replicate the effect of the Z-Drive with magic.

Art knew this was quite manipulative of him, but this was [Time Magic]. He was not going to miss out on such an opportunity when it was right in front of him. Even if he could not learn it, it was always good to be friends with someone like Ekko, who would do anything for his friends much like himself, believe it or not.

But for now, Art did want to reveal his identity. After spending time with Violet and the gang, he was now confident their friendship would be over if they were to know he was from the topside.

Art felt bad for lying to them, but now was not the right time to tell them the truth.