The Thief

Chapter 11

Tamera woke up to the smell of pancakes and bacon that morning and her stomach growled. Did I eat last night? she vaguely wondered as she followed the smell of heaven to the kitchen where she found Mystique flipping the pancakes.

"Morning" He said without looking up.

"Morning" Tamera yawned, she was about to collapse on the couch but noticed Rin was passed out there. Instead, she took a seat at the breakfast bar facing Misty. She smiled inwardly at the nickname he hated. Wait, why is he still here?

"Here's your keys," he said, tossing them towards her. She didn't even bother trying to catch them, instead just picking them up when they landed in front of her. The first thing she noticed was a strange new key, quickly followed by the realization that her apartment key was missing. The new key was a metal tube, which when pushed extricated a long, flexible set of pins and joints. Holding it, she shot a questioning look at Mystique.

"I put locks on your windows, and changed your old apartment one. It's an unpick-able lock." said Mystique, moving to the cabinets like he's lived there all his life. "Seriously. Don't lose that key. The lock mechanism inside is curved so lock picks don't work. Of course, that won't stop anyone from just kicking your door down but it was the best I could do on short notice" he took out a large plate and started plating the pancakes and bacon.

"...Umm..." He... changed my locks? Without asking?

"I found both tea and coffee," He said as he worked, "wasn't sure what you liked so I just put the hot water on."

"...Umm..."

"Oh and work called, you have a meeting at 11" he gave the plate to Tamera. She could feel her good morning mood slipping with every second that passed by.

x::x::x::x::x::x::x::x::x::x::x::x::x::x::x::x::x::x::x::x::x::x::x::x::x::x::x::x::x::x::x::x::x::x::x::x::x::x::x

Quin couldn't help but notice Tamera's lack of speaking. Her face was a mixture of confusion, sleepiness and ... was that anger? Did she not like pancakes? No, the materials were in her cabinet. Maybe he's just imagining it.

"So what do you think?" Quin prompted

"What do I think!? I think you're insane!" Tamera exploded, the sleepiness leaving her in a flash. Ah, so definitely angry. But why? And suddenly it hit him.

"Oh duh! Of course, sorry" Quin apologized and moved to the microwave pulling out the maple syrup and handed it to her.

Tamera glared at him, then at the maple syrup, and slammed it down on the table, "That has nothing to do with anything!"

Now Quin was the one who was confused, "Then what's wrong?" Which, might've been the wrong thing to say considering now Tamera's face was turning red with anger. Someone should really tell her she looked really cute like that.

"You broke into my house, again! You change my locks and you... you..." Tamera seemed to be having trouble word-ing, miming her choking him.

"Cooked you breakfast?" Quin ventured.

"Yes!" Tamera shouted, slamming her hands back down on the table.

Rin suddenly woke up. "Hmm?" He looked around bleary-eyed and rubbed his eyes and sniffed the air "Bacon?"

Quin could feel his temper rising with hers, "What was I supposed to do? I can't protect you all the time. At least this way you're somewhat protected"

"You could've at least asked for permission! But no, you had to be all He-Man!"

"With good reason! There's an army of assassins after you and I didn't want you to give up your way of life!"

"You already are! You broke my vase!"

Quin was shouting too at this point, "Oh, I'm sorry I broke into your stupid vase when I thought there was an assassin after you! Won't happen again!" and he started storming to the balcony "I hope you choke on your pancakes!" He called out as he opened the door.

If he wasn't so angry, he might've seen the odd red light on one of the skyscrapers. The red dot on his chest would've definitely not escaped his notice. He did however, manage to see the muzzle flash a split second before he was hit.

Quin collapsed as the blood pooled in his stomach. The last thing he heard was someone screaming his name before he went unconscious.