Orange Peel Theory
JHIN / SWAIN / VIKTOR / YASUO / ZAAHEN
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≫ Masterlist
────≫ Jhin
❈ Warnings: Unhealthy relationship warning.
4️⃣The moment you hand him the knife and the orange, a single glance from Jhin is enough for him to understand your intentions.
4️⃣He doesn’t stop the slow, gentle piano melody, letting the sound linger for a moment before offering you an answer.
“Such a simplistic test, (__). Honestly…”
4️⃣In one swift motion, Jhin rises from the bench and spins you into a dance step. The orange slips from your hands before he pulls you firmly against his chest, your breaths mingling.
4️⃣The knife? Somehow, it has ended up in Jhin’s hand, now being examined like a work of art—its edge dangerously close to your face.
“There are far more… spectacular uses for a blade like this.”
4️⃣Fully aware that he now has his girl’s undivided attention, Jhin lifts his mask just enough for his lips to meet yours, tasting you in a teasing kiss, deliberately giving you less than your quickened breathing suggests you want.
4️⃣He’s distracted you. And he never peeled the orange.
4️⃣Jhin would kill for you. But he finds it exceedingly inelegant to be tested in such a way.
────≫ Swain
First, he furrows his brows, barely lifting his gaze from the documents he was about to sign before you entered holding a kitchen knife and an orange, extending them toward him without any explanation.
Straightening his posture, Swain studies you for a moment, one eyebrow raised, searching within himself for an explanation for your behavior.
— What are you trying to achieve with this, my dear?
Despite still being in his office — and Swain having made very clear the limits of intimacy between you in official places like this — he spared no softness in his voice when calling you by the intimate nickname. His tone remained low as he leaned toward you over the desk, analyzing your posture and expression, seeking an answer even before you could form one.
Had it been anyone else — truly, anyone — such an interruption for such a futile reason would have left him deeply irritated. But it was you. And for you, Swain made every exception the empire of Noxus could possibly imagine.
Your insistence on silence made him smile, pleased by your firmness, whatever the reason behind it might be.
— Is this really important?
— To me, yes.
A heavy sigh followed a few moments of consideration. Finally, Swain’s intact hand rested at your back, guiding you out of the office. Only when you reached the kitchen did he accept what you were holding, peeling the orange with speed and precision.
— Do you need just one?
He asked as he handed it to you.
— You peeled it. I thought you wouldn’t.
Your smile at that intrigues Swain, but the reverence with which you accept the fruit makes it clear that this held a deeper meaning for you. And later, Swain would find a way to uncover what was going on in your mind.
— A man who rules Noxus clearly knows how to surprise his woman.
────≫ Viktor
🪽He carefully examines the knife and the orange extended in your hands. Then, he looks back up at you. Surely, you couldn’t be asking him how to use those objects.
🪽Please, explain to this man exactly what you are asking of him. Otherwise, he will grow slightly irritated at having to entertain such banal and senseless motivations.
🪽 Not that the explanation helps much. In fact, it seems to leave Viktor even more confused:
“I can clearly see that your arms and hands are in perfect condition. Your motor coordination is also acceptable. The blade is sharp enough for a clean cut. You only need to ensure proper safety while cutting, but everything indicates you are fully capable of doing it yourself.”
🪽 Oh no, my dear. Don’t make that barely-contained, teary expression. Viktor isn’t trying to be cruel or dismissive.
“Never mind. You’re right.”
🪽 But Viktor notices that it left you disheartened, and after you leave the room, he finds himself consumed by guilt without even understanding why. Everything he said was objectively true.
🪽 He is now literally researching oranges, girlfriends, and the relationship between the two.
🪽 Aside from their importance in maintaining a partner’s immune system, Viktor realizes he won’t find any logical connection that explains this… so he finally gives in, simply to ease his conscience.
🪽 You walk into the room one night, and there it is: a bowl filled with peeled oranges, meticulously sliced with millimetric precision.
────≫ Yasuo
🍃 He looks at the orange and the knife you’re holding out to him. After a few seconds, the sigh comes, followed by a discreet smile.
🍃He invites you to sit beside him while he works.
🍃 Yasuo doesn’t even question why you couldn’t peel an orange yourself. A small act of service like that seems insignificant if it’s meant to please the woman who chose to love him — and if it means sharing the quiet of the breeze in that place with you.
🍃 He’ll peel as many as you ask for, making a teasing comment if you start asking for too many.
🍃 Yasuo isn’t a man who laughs easily, but a simple smile stays on his face when he notices you asking for one orange after another, until there’s a bowl full between you — more satisfied with the excuse to spend time together on a lazy afternoon than with anything else.
🍃But such indulgence comes at a price: you start asking him to peel fruit more and more often, and one of those times, interrupting his meditation, Yasuo opens a single eye to glance at you from the side:
— Is this just an excuse to stay close to me a little longer, or do you really not know how to peel an orange?
🍃 Oh, well. He’s going to peel it anyway. So your answer doesn’t really matter.
────≫ Zaahen
🤎 Long moments of contemplation of the sunset on the horizon, bathing the entire land below the mountain. Centuries of life, from ascension to ruin. An unending torment of battles against the evil that gnawed at him, and against fallen brothers.
And none of it prepared him to deal with the human he had grown fond of holding out a kitchen knife and a freshly picked orange.
🤎 He is discreetly relieved when you explain:
— I wanted you to peel it for me.
Zaahen still doesn’t understand why he needs to do this — perhaps you truly didn’t know how to peel it? — but at least now he has a clear action, a defined purpose.
🤎 He genuinely believes he’s helping you with a task you can’t do on your own, and so, in an odd silence, he slowly lets the orange peel fall to the mountain’s stone floor. The sound of the temple in the distance reaches Zaahen’s ears, and he wonders why you would ask him of all people — there were others in your circle more suited for this, more human.
🤎 An uncomfortable pressure swells in Zaahen’s chest, tightening, trying to escape. The corrosive evil within him begins to flare at the humiliation of using a blade for something so trivial instead of stabbing and killing.
🤎 But all of this happens in silence, internally. Zaahen shows nothing but a serene expression; at most, a subtle furrow of his brows. This darkin recognizes his strange attachment to you, and so he avoids letting anything spill over that could resemble a threat to you.
🤎 At last, the orange is now in your hands, perfectly peeled.
— Here.
🤎 He returns, arms folded behind his back, to contemplate the horizon, night already beginning to fall. Zaahen says nothing more, but from the corner of his eye, your overly satisfied smile intrigues him.
And what intrigues him even more is the fact that the warmth born from that smile made that despicable evil burning inside him retreat, if only slightly.
Hope you enjoyed!
Credits:@saradika-graphics
