Anniversaries [Insight into Udyr's Personality']

Udyr cricked his knuckles. He sat on the bank of a lake, one of the many artificial water sources that the Institute had created for its forest and for the champions who preferred the outdoors. With a grunt, he started to pull his gi off when twigs snapped in the distance. His nose twitched. Two pairs of adult feet, one pair of some tiny animal, less than two hundred meters. The wind carries their scents, they were familiar.

The beast man decided to stay where he was and allow the sun to bathe him. It was bound to happen, since today was the anniversary. The tiny feet quickened in pace. Udyr lowered his head, making it easier for the inevitable event to come.

Tiny arms threw themselves around his neck and a voice squealed, "Uncle!"

"How many times have we told you, we are not your uncle," Udyr grunted. He pushed himself off the ground and carried the young girl around his neck with ridiculous ease, her body swayed to and fro as he turned around to look for the others that accompanied her. Lee Sin was walking alongside a young woman who looked eerily similar to him, the same nose, the same warm eyes the monk once had, even the same strong posture which the two walked with.

Lee Sin and Long Sin, siblings.

Udyr pointed at Lee as he attempted to glance at the young girl, "That is your uncle. We are Udyr, just Udyr."

"You're my uncleeee," she laughed. "And you can't do anything about it!"

"Really? We cannot? And why is that?"

"Cause mom's gonna beat you up if you do," she snickered.

Udyr reached over his shoulder, plucked the girl off and held her in front of him. The feral glint in his eyes was accentuated by their shift into hawk pupils, glowing with a inner flame.

"Never expect others to fight for you, Hoa. You will fight with your own two fists and your own two feet, do not expect others to fight in your place. You are your own strength," he snarled in response.

And for a moment, it looked like Udyr had scared her. But as she quickly proved with a fierce bop on his nose, no permanent emotional scarring was inflicted.

"Take that!"

Udyr rolled his eyes, pulled his arm back, and launched Hoa towards the lake.

"UDYR! HOA!"

"WEEEEEEEE!" she half screamed half giggled her entire flight.

Udyr watched the young girl soar through the air and, luckily, splash in the water harmlessly.

He felt a sharp tug on his ear that made him grunt in annoyance.

Long barked, "Haven't I told you to not throw my daughter like that?! Now she's going to come back and ask you to throw her another twenty times!"

"We remember," the beast man grunted. "There had to be consequences to her actions, however."

"That's no excuse!" Long snapped as she gave his ear a final hard tweak. A basket swayed in the crook of her other arm as she complained, "I brought lunch and everything, and now she's going to be too worked up to sit, and-"

"I will attend to Hoa, you can speak with Udyr," Lee Sin interrupted, grinning at the two of them.

Long returned her brother's smile with one of her own while Udyr shrugged his shoulders and grunted, "If that is your wish."

Lee Sin walked towards the lake bank as Long released Udyr and sat down on the spot she was at. Udyr eventually lowered himself and sat, cross legged, his head hunched forward.

"I got a surprise for you," Long cooed playfully, ruffling the basket. He could hear the shuffle of paper, the thud of wooden dim sum boxes, the click of wooden sticks and...loud pitched squeak sounds that drowned everything else out?

Udyr drew back in shock, unable to hide his surprise.

This prompted a burst of cocky laughter as Long pointed at him and said, "Ha! She said it'd fool you!" Before he could ask who 'she' was, Long opened the basket and took out what appeared to be a tea set wrapped by twine and rubber ducks. She reached into the basket once more and took out a small glass bottle of water. Unwrapping the ducks, and pouring the water into the pot, Long reached into the basket once more and tossed tea leaves in the pot.

Udyr knew the procedure. He picked the pot up and held it aloft on the tips of his fingers. Heat emanated from him, and in short moments, the water started to boil.

"So how is your husband?" Udyr grunted, knowing it would be at least a minute before the tea was ready.

"Oh Pierre's good, couldn't make it today," Long said with a shrug. "Still helping with the restoration efforts."

"Is he still as thin as a twig?"

"Even thinner! I have no idea how, but apparently physical activity doesn't give him muscles!" Long snickered. She stretched her legs out as she asked, "And you? How've you been?"

"Good."

Long's eyebrows waggled, having spent years with the beast man gave her knowledge that few others had: How to communicate with him. "Hoa's birthday is going to be soon," she said, waiting for his inevitable curt reply.

"Hrn."

"She would like you to be there."

"So?"

"So you will come visit her for her birthday."

Udyr snorted and rolled his shoulders. He always, always did that when he was thinking about what had been said, it was one of the ticks he could not hide. He lowered the tea to the rocky earth while maintaining eye contact with Long. "We are not her uncle."

"She values you as one."

"We are not your family."

"You might as well be."

"We-"

"You are not going to disappoint a young girl because you're being a grumpy bear," Long interrupted. She reached over and poked at where Hoa had bopped him. "You know she idolizes you. She beat up a bunch of kids the other day."

"And?"

"And she beat them up because they were bothering her friend, using the 'fist of the Bear' technique someone had apparently taught her," Long continued, doing her best to mask her amusement at the event with anger and annoyance.

The beast man shrugged once more. "She asked us how to make a fist, we showed her how to do so."

"And?"

"And told her how to use her fist, that is it," Udyr grunted. He grabbed the tea pot and the cups, pouring one for his conversation partner and one for himself. "Why is our presence needed? She has you, Lee and her father."

Long grinned at Udyr, picked up her cup and replied, "But she doesn't have her uncle."

"We are n-"

"You are to her, and that's all that counts." Long pointed at Lee Sin and Hoa now laughing together as he showed her the steps to a beginner's kata. "Go over there and tell her not as Udyr, but as the Beast Man of Ionia that you don't want to see her again."

"Do not put words in our mouth," Udyr snapped, his teeth clacking against one another from the intensity. "We did not say we do not wish to see her, w-"

"Then you'll see her for her birthday then?"

"Fine, yes, if it will make you stop being ridiculous," Udyr grunted before taking a deep drink of his tea.

Long continued to grin, sipping at her tea. It tasted like victory.

"What are you grinning about?" he demanded with a low growl.

"Nothing. The tea's quite good," Long replied, changing subjects as quickly as she could. "The Duchess herself gave it to us."

"We can tell. It has her scent."

"Oh ho? You know what she smells like?"

"Of course, we know how you smell, how she smells, how Lee smells, h-..." Udyr paused only for the fact that Long was howling with laughter, barely able to keep herself propped up. He patiently waited for her to cease her mirth before he took another drink of his tea.

"I love it when people say you have no sense of humor!"

"We know not what you mean," the beast man grunted. He cast his eyes to the right and went quiet. He stared at the scenery about them, the tranquility, it was a far cry from how the two had originally met. To have come this far, for her to still be wanting to visit him, for Hoa to still call him uncle despite how much he yelled and demanded her not to, it was strange. He had no explanation for it. Udyr attempted to have another drink of his tea when no liquid greeted him.

"You drank it all, you goof," Long chuckled. She lowered her cup, and for a scant moment, the thin scar that stretched from her left hand down her forearm could be seen. A Noxian soldier had tried cutting her tendons, she shattered their shin in return. She poured him another cup of tea before she raised her cup once more. "To acquaintances and totally not friends?"

"Hrn..."

"What? What is it?"

Udyr clacked his teeth together. "When your brother sat burning, in the final hours, when his body started to give out, it was the only time we had ever admitted that we considered him a friend."

Long bit her tongue, she knew now was not the time to talk. A minute nearly passed by when Udyr exhaled a long breath.

"This once, and only this once, will we say this: To a friend of Udyr."

Clink.