Ahri was panting slightly as she recovered from the quick succession of her abilities in her effort to finish off Darius. It had taken the combined abilities of herself, Rengar, and the unlikely aid of a still heavily wounded Solari, but in the end the lase enemy was slain and they were safe to begin heading back to their base to recover and lick the wounds they had received.

Or at least, that is what they assumed to be the case.

Despite finishing Darius, Ahri could not shake the feeling that something was still wrong. Her instincts still prickled as if danger was near even though they had already killed the last of their enemies. Just as she was about to voice her feeling of unease, a slight rustling noise sounded nearby. Her ears flicked in various directions as she tried to pinpoint the source of the distraction. Her gaze drifted to her surviving teammates, both of which seemed unaware of the danger. This confused the vixen at first, she could understand Leona's lack of ability to hear the faint sound, given that she only had the human ability to hear and how she was leaning heavily on her blade regardless of her assurances of her mobile condition. But Rengar could surly hear just as well as she was able to right? He lived for hunting and should be able to detect far better than even her keen hearing..

'Unless he has detected whatever it is, and is appearing relaxed to catch it off guard. Good idea, but what could possibly-'

Ahri's train of thought was halted suddenly as her gaze drifted downward to her left as the sound rang out once again. This time it was loud enough for even Leona to hear, and she turned to her left with a curious expression on her face. Roughly three meters behind them was a semicircle of large pink plants that seemed exotic and out of place. A fourth plant had spontaneously sprouted near Rengar just now, and Ahri let out a shocked gasp in realization of the cause. There was no way that Zyra had survived her orb of deception, she had heard the scream of pain as the plant woman was slain.

An amused chuckling echoed behind them, and all three turned to see Zyra, still very much alive with a sinister yet almost playful expression on her face.

"W-wait, I killed you! I saw you die behind your plants.." Ahri called out in disbelief as Zyra laughed.

"Kill me? No little fox, the forest holds many surprises. Disguising a death to grow on is but one of them. But now I ask you this, where are the rest of your friends? Fertilizing the soil already? A pity. Mine are all around!"

Zyra snapped her fingers and the three seeds encircling them were transformed into thorn spitters. As the plants began hailing thorns onto the three champions, several things happened at once. Leona, despite the damaged and almost pitiful condition of her shield instinctively rushed forward to bare the brunt of the thorns. Ahri huddled behind Leona as she rapidly debated her options internally. She had just enough mana left to cast one or perhaps two spells before she ran dry. She still had a finial spirit rush, but if she used that then she would lack any way of escaping the plants' counteroffensive. The vixen directed her attention to Leona who was now visibly shaking with the effort as her shield was pelted with thorns. She could not keep this up for much longer, and Ahri needed to make her decision now.

Meanwhile Zyra's attention was focused primarily on Rengar, who had after letting out a challenging feral roar disappeared from sight.

"My prey thinks itself clever." Zyra observed before sending a mass of roots in his direction. The cat roared in frustration as he was held, the roar twisting into that of pain as the seed near him became a vine lasher and proceeded to begin stabbing into his chest repeatedly. Rengar ignored the pain and jumped over the spitters once he had broken free of the vine entanglement and onto a furious Zyra. His blade carved easily into her unprotected chest and she howled in pain. Despite the pain, Zyra tapped into her powers once again and vines began to encompass the entire area. The thorn spitters shivered and writhed as they began to expel thorns at a much swifter rate than before.

Unable to bare the increased pressure, Leona cried out in pain as her aching muscles in her arm caused her shield to droop and fall downward. Now left with only her half numb arm to cover her face, the Solari hissed in pain as a few thorns managed to slice into her face as they passed by. Ahri choose that moment to react, unleashing her charm spell once again to draw attention away from the still heavily wounded Leona. The vixen cried out in agony as the thorns mercilessly pierced her body, sending sharp waves of pain up through her tails as she used them to protect her face.

Abruptly the hail of thorns ceased and Ahri peaked through her now bloody tails to see Leona once again standing in front of her. She now used her sword as a prop to assist her hold on the dented and battered metal barrier, blood and sweat dripping down her face from the exertion.

"I...I will protect you Ahri. I m-must.. I must not fall. Not until you can get somewhere safe!" Leona called out through haggard breaths despite her already feeble condition, causing the fox in question's heart to flutter by the act.

'Even though she's been battered and beaten constantly ever since she choose to follow me into the jungle, she still doesn't give up. She is still willing to bare all that pain so I don't have to. No one has ever done that for me before, no matter how much I charmed them, people only go so far to help me. And it's not like she is doing this just to get with me either. She hasn't had any sort of lustful glint in her eye the whole time. This is beyond that, I don't understand... Why am I feeling so warm all of a sudden when I look at her? Is this the heat of battle or something-'

Ahri's mid battle inner monologue was cut short by the feeling of suddenly being thrown into the air. Both she and Leona had failed to notice the vines before now, and were forced to pay the price of not escaping them when they could. Their gazes met briefly as they rose into the air, and the vixen felt a bit of the warmth Leona always seemed to radiate whenever she was nearby enter her. It felt like she was basking the glow of the sun, which was one of her favorite activities she had enjoyed during her time as a fox. From the look in her eyes, Ahri felt that the solari was experiencing something similar in return. After offering a trademarked playful smile, Ahri's gaze tilted as they reached the peak of the mid air flight to see Rengar land a devastating blow to Zyra. The plant woman transformed into a massive thorn spitter and leaned back to fire it's finial act of revenge. Leona desperately drew her blade from the ground and a golden light shimmered along the blade. The light shot forward just as Zyra began to fire the finial thorn. Leona's target was the vine thrasher that had been planed near Rengar's initial position. While the act was a good idea, Ahri could tell by the angle of Zyra's finial form that she would still be in the thorn's path of vengeance.

Knowing there was no time to warn Leona of her mistake, Ahri summoned up the last of her magical energy and shot forward with her last spirit rush to collide with Leona mid dash. As they tumbled against each other, the momentum from Ahri was just enough to cause the unlikely pair to roll off the edge of the cliff side. Both shut their eyes as they heard Rengar's scream of pain, knowing he would have had no way of escaping the impalement of the gigantic thorn. However they had no time to morn his loss now, as they began to crash into the cliff side with their decent. Leona embraced the vixen tightly and angled herself so that her armored body would be the one colliding with the rocks. After a series of pained grunts from both of them as each felt the rocky surface against them despite Leona's best efforts, they finally came to a stop. The last thing either of them remembered before they slipped into unconsciousness was looking into each others eyes with relief that they had both survived the ordeal, and perhaps a spark of something more.

The first thing Leona noticed as her eyes fluttered awake was how surprisingly soft the rocky area where she was laying felt. Open opening her eyes and furthering her awareness of her surroundings, she realized her head had one of the vixen's tails coiled around it to both protect it and serve as a pillow. She dimly remembered the finial tumble, where Ahri had in a frantic motion wrapped her tails around her head to cushion the blow to her head. The warrior regretted the loss of her helmet, though if it was in a similar state as the rest of her armor, particularly her shield, she doubted it would be of much use to her now anyway.

Her gaze was drawn to the still form of the fox on top of her, which caused a bolt of panic through her heart with worry until she noticed her breathing shallowly in slumber. Smiling at the peacefully captivating and serene expression on the sleeping vixen's face, Leona rested her arm around her back and drifted off to sleep once again. Once she had awoken again, she found Ahri now awake and brushing her right cheek with a finger tip while staring into her eyes intensely. The sparkle in the wide blue eyes glinted as she realized she was now being watched.

'What was she day dreaming about then, the outcome of the battle perhaps? Surly it couldn't have been...'

Leona felt her cheeks warm slightly as her thoughts continued. Finding her voice amidst the emotions that fogged her mind in a not unpleasant manner, she asked softly, "Are you alright Ahri?"

Ahri's ears flattened against her head as she asked this, her eyes flickering down the solari's body with concern. Biting her lip as she assessed the current state of the vanguard, she sighed and nodded.

"Y-yeah I'm fine Leona, but what about you!? You took so many swings of Darius's ax, I thought you were a goner before. A-and then you stood in front of me and had all those thorns flying at you even though you were barely hanging in there, I..."

Tears welled in the vixen's eyes as she embraced Leona who was to shocked by the display of relief to respond. She slowly stroked down her head and back in soothing motions until Ahri had calmed down to speak again.

"Why. Why would you do so much for me Leona? Why would you endure so much... pain just for me? Don't just say you were fulfilling your role to our team, you did all that and more before Zyra even attacked us, especially being as wounded as you were. Plus if you had chosen to help Rengar over me, you would have been out of range from her strange thorns and wouldn't have fallen off the cliff because of me. Tell me why!"

"Ahri I..." Leona started before the vixen cut her off.

"Are you... are you just after sex? I guess that's all anyone thinks I'm good for in the League, especially those dirty minded Summoners. And I doubt you get much wearing that heavy armor all the time, so I bet you got some pent up tension between your-" She blinked as she realized the way her words sounded and hastily added "Er... I mean no offense of course!" She blushed slightly in embarrassment for her words and a tail quickly covered her mouth, though it couldn't hide her redden cheeks.

Leona narrowed her eyes at the comment but the stern expression soon melted after looking at the adorable vixen on top of her.

"None...taken I suppose. I protected you over him because you needed it far more than he did. He could bare through the attacks and recover from the wounds far easier than you would, and let's face it, he is generally more durable than you. You were our best contingency should Rengar had been unable to fishing off Zyra for good, so of course I had to make sure you survived if that happened. And also..."

Ahri leaned closer as the solari trailed off and whispered, "And also..?"

Leona sputtered, unable to word her feeling of content and happiness she had begun to feel, particularly now that she was so close to her.

"You make me feel warm Ahri. As if I am basking in the sun with all it's glory. When we were fighting together I just felt so..."

Leona stopped mid sentence as Ahri leaned closer and whispered, "Like this~?" Leona gasped as she felt their lips connect, and she marveled at how soft and full Ahri's felt. After a moment of stunned surprise, the solari returned the kiss for a time until Ahri leaned away.

"Yes like that. Ahri I... thank you. That felt so wonderful, I have not felt that way in a long time..."

"Me either, let's keep feeling this way for awhile.."

As one they leaned close for another kiss, this time more passionate than the last as both parties were ready for it and eager to return it with vigor. After burning through what energy they had recovered from the battle through a long session of kisses and caress, a now slightly disheveled Ahri leaned back and stretched her stiff back as she got up. Leona watched her rise slowly, her cheeks still burning as hot as the sun as she reflected on what they had just done, what it had meant and what they were planning on doing later once the match was finished soon.

The vixen offered her hand to the solari who smiled at her assistance, finding their positions ironically reversed from earlier.

"Ready to head back now Leona? Our team has probably respawned by now..." Ahri playfully curled a tail under Leona's chin, causing her to blush slightly before gently moving it away.

"Yes and about later tonight..."

"Yes...?" Ahri asked with a puzzled expression on her face.

"I'm yours until dawn, though I may have to return to my people in the morning. I don't want you to think I was after a one night stand and wished to abandon you in the morning..."

The vixen giggled as she put a finger to Leona's lips. "Don't worry, I'm sure we can work a good schedule out. Now let's hurry up and return to base and finish this match. I want to have some real fun with you... my Sunshine~"

Author's Note:

My thanks to all of you for reading my one shot Sun Fox ship fic I made in honor of the new cinematic. I hope it was not too bad, I am a bit rusty writing a serious story and I have never written Leona before. Still I hope her parts were acceptable at least. I am unsure if this will truly be a one shot or not. If enough people are interested, I may try to continue it further :)

Credit to the first picture: X

Credit to the second picture: X