League of Legends Series

Graves x Ahri

Pulling out a slab of dried meat wrapped in bamboo leaves, Graves offered the fox a piece, her brow raising in an unimpressed manner. "Right," he hummed. He sat down in front of the fox and extended his arm, waiting for her to take a bite of the jerky. At the last second, her lips thinned into a straight line, and she glanced away, deciding that observing the canopy was far more interesting.

"Do you want it or not?" the outlaw growled, unsure what the little fox was playing at.

"I only eat human souls," she whispered, giving yet another huff. Graves frowned, trying to keep his composure as he set the jerky aside, stiff hands resting on his knees. He was known to have quite the temper, and despite acting callous about it, he was trying to change that bad habit of his. The hunter took a puff from his cigar and let the tension leave his body as he gave a brief nod. The sentence finally caught up to him, and Graves blew out a cloud of smoke as his eyes narrowed. So that's what she had done to those men, take their souls? In any case, the hunter retrieved the jerky once more and held it aloft.

"Come on, eat it." Having the brunt of his full attention, Ahri fumbled to put up a brave front and with a grimace bit a piece of the jerky. The motions were awkward, her human teeth grabbing at the piece of meat while Graves tugged it away. It was embarrassing, if anything, but no one was around to witness her pride being trampled. Still, the image was stuck in her head, and it didn't make her feel any better.

The jerky was not too tough and well-seasoned, she wasn't a connoisseur, but it tasted alright. She wasn't used to human food, but the rare times she did have it, she enjoyed it, but Graves didn't need to know that. Nor did she need to tell him because he already seemed to know. "Good, ain't it better than souls?" The nine-tailed fox gave a hollow nod, souls were rather tasteless, but it helped her keep up appearances, and it was also a necessity. Much to her disapproval, the hunter fed her more jerky, and she closed her eyes, the faint image of her pride squashed beneath the unforgiving foot of life. Damn this man.

Glancing from side to side, the fox knew they were alone, and so with a deep and unnerved breath, she asked for more jerky. Asking was foreign to her, she took what she wanted, when she wanted, especially when it came to souls. "All right, but you'll have to behave." As he loosened the rope from around the trunk of the tree, Graves kept a smoke round nearby in case the fox decided to pull any tricks, and a sharp rock rested not too far off and could easily pierce the canister.

To his surprise, however, the fox took a seat and waited patiently for the hunter to provide more jerky, he gave her the entire bag, and discreetly covered his smile as her tails swished with excited anticipation. Her hands were still bound tightly with rope, but the fox didn't seem to care in the least. If he hadn't caught her in the middle of a killing rampage, he would have thought the girl harmless, but after being thwarted by one too many women in his life, Malcolm didn't wish to renew the cycle quite yet.

"So, what are you exactly?" He motioned to her tails, taking a puff of his cigar. She glared at him and tucked her tails beneath her legs, taking the opportune time to ignore him. He found the gesture quite adorable, but Graves was not a man who liked to be ignored. He took a long drag of his cigar, calming his slipping temper as he browsed through a series of questions he could ask without the girl taking offense. "All right then, what's your name, if you don't mind me asking?"

"Ahri," she whispered, hoping he wouldn't hear. The hunter nodded, checking on his shotgun. Evidently, she was of few words, but he imagined it had less to do with her and more with the company on hand. Ahri observed all the different ammunitions he held, all of them carved with different symbols, and she quickly spotted his trademark smoke round he had used earlier. They ate in silence, and, in the meantime, Ahri closed her eyes, ears twitching at the slightest of sounds, she wanted to remain alert.