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The empty skillet mocked Fate.“Did you just eat the last piece of bacon.” It wasn’t even a question.Said piece of bacon disappeared in Graves’ mouth and got demonstratively swallowed down. “Should’ve been faster. But I did leave you the smoked salmon and cream cheese. I know you’re fond of that,” he said magnanimously.Fate sighed indulgently. “You are oh so very lucky that I am excessively fond of you.”“Because I’m cute,” said Graves fluttering his eyelashes.“And because you’re cute, yes. Coffee?”“Yes please.”The coffee was the fancy sort. The kind Fate preferred but refused to pay for. Why pay when you could just as easily steal the beans? Graves never had any preferences to coffee as long as it was free. And if there was sugar and milk in it.He had spent ten years in prison with some deplorable options when it came to food. So now, as once again a free man, he had some standards concerning the quality of the things he ate and drank.And the quality here was great.Just the amount of fruits on the table was nuts in Graves’ opinion. You had your apples, something Fate had told him were kiwi’s, bananas, a pineapple and enough oranges to make Gangplank explode in joy. Graves promptly basked a bit in the mental image. Bastard deserved to blown up into tiny smithereens.Still smiling he grabbed a kiwi and bit into it.“Tobias, this thing is disgusting. There’s tiny hairs everywhere,” said Graves despite the fact that having hairy things in his mouth wasn’t exactly a new situation for him. “People voluntarily eat this?”“Yer supposed to cut it in half and scoop out its innards,” said Fate without looking up. He was very entranced with constructing a bagel.Graves simply tossed the fruit away while Fate wasn’t paying attention.If he had to be honest then Graves had to admit that he wasn’t a fan of Noxian nobles on a good day. But they at least had some taste when it came to fancy stuff. Sure, the plates and cups were a bit more blocky than he preferred but that was a him thing.Not to mention the things always sold for a nice price when in a pinch, so absolutely no complaints there.Well, someone was complaining, but it sure as hell wasn’t Graves or Fate.“This won’t stand! I’ll have both your heads for this!”Rolling his eyes, Graves gave the bound Noxian noble a kick. “Will you shut up? My partner and I are tryin’ to have a moment here.”“My guards will end you both! I’ll have you cut into pieces starting from the feet. Your flesh will feed the crows and you’ll be alive for months to suffer the process! Your heads are going to decorate the pikes around my mansion so that people will know I won’t suffer any fools!!” the man kept roaring, ignore Graves’ relatively polite request. The threats probably would’ve held more weight if the noble hadn’t been bound head to toe and dumped underneath the table.“Hey, who the fuck are you callin’ a fool?” growled Graves, attention on the absolute wrong thing.Fate took an almost impressed slurp of his coffee. “Rather creative. I’m surprised you haven’t threatened to cut us open and show us our intestines before you strangle us with them.” He ate the last bit of his bagel and turned his attention again to the table, looking for another baked good.“That can be arranged, you insolent river rat!”All humor immediately dissipated from Graves, who drove Destiny her stock in the noble his face. He crumpled to the floor with a smashed nose and blood dripping everywhere.“A bit over the top Malcolm,” said Fate indulgently.“Yeah well, he don’t get to talk like that about you! Only I get to insult you, I earned that right!” Graves gave the now unconscious noble another kick. “Why are we dealing with this dickhead again?”“This was your idea,” Fate pointed out. “You looked at the place, went ‘oh damn, Fate look at how fancy this is. Let’s go nick some stuff! There’s an open window and everything!’ and then we actually crawled through said open window.”“You didn’t quite stop me,” muttered Graves defensively.“Why would I? I’m havin’ fun!” said Fate while sopping a croissant in his coffee. “We should have more morning dates like this, that’s what I’m tryin’ to say.”“Really?”“Yes, really. I like doin’ things with you Malcolm, even simple things like gettin’ breakfast or robbin’ nobles blind.”“I- urhm. Yes. Me too,” mumbled Graves eloquently.They finished breakfast in companionable and comfortable silence.Fate gave the empty coffee cups a considering look. And then he tucked them away in one of his pockets together with their plates and the cutlery they’d used. You could consider it the downside to having a lot of hideouts. The need for a lot of cutlery and dishes.He cocked his head to the side, listening to something in the distance.“I believe those are the guards. Maybe we have pushed it a bit too long.”“Yeah sure, but you hadn’t got a decent breakfast in days. We can indulge every once in a while,” said Graves. He reached down and gathered the still unconscious noble in his arm. “Let’s see how good of a meat shield this guy is.”Fate stood up and fixed his clothes. He primly dabbed a napkin at the corners of his mouth. With a quick movement a blue card flitted between his fingers. “We could just teleport out.”“We could,” agreed Graves. With an impish grin he turned towards his partner. “But where is the fun in that?”“A very good point,” admitted Fate with a smile.“Shall we go?” asked Graves, lifting the noble like a bag of potatoes.“After you darling,” said Fate, waving him on.Grinning Graves let Destiny announce their presence, shooting through the door and evaporating one guard.With matching cheery expressions Twisted Fate and Graves jumped into the fray, never more at ease than in the chaos or on the run.It was promising to be a great day.
