>> "Why good morning to you too, Rupert. Sure ya are. So, since last time I managed to buy my freedom with cleanin' up your bathroom... how about some breakfast?"

“Dead.” Rupert replied. Looking at Maya, it was the only word that came to mind. It was more than a threat, more than a promise: it was a statement of fact. Dead. She was dead. Rupert sat at the table, in the seat next to Riley. The table was next to the wall: it had only three chairs. He’d rather sit facing the woman, but he had the choice between going with his preference, or blocking the kid from sitting between them. He blocked.

>> “I didn’t want to wake you up. Told you I knew a surefire cure for insomnia. You were out like a light. ...I left a note…and can I help when you kill the kid? I’d hoped to avoid any awkwardness.”

“I saw the note,” Rupert said, his tone again pleasant. He flashed a little grin, where the brat couldn’t see it. Notes were the sign of a job well done. He had nothing against notes. Especially not the kind with seven digits at the bottom.

The death row inmate set a plate in front of him. And coffee. For the coffee, he’d make sure to dig her a deep grave. Maybe he’d even splurge on a wood coffin, instead of a plastic bag. He took a sip from his mug, then conversationally got down to the topic at hand. There was a perfectly pleasant smile on his lips, as he again looked over to Riley.

“So, how would you like her to die? Lady’s choice.”

Rupert’s seeming obsession with killing the child was actually reassuring to Riley. That might have seemed strange to the average person, but to Riley that one little word, ‘dead’ meant a couple of things. First, it meant that this scenario wasn’t regular, this…child, didn’t cook breakfast for Rupert on a regular basis. That was good, it meant Riley’s DMV hookup wasn’t keeping the kid in a closet as a slave or something even more sinister. Second, it meant that Rupert felt the same way Riley did about the way the morning had gone. Maybe death was a little extreme…but the kid at least deserved an ass kicking, a solid ass kicking.

Rupert sat next to her and Riley nodded her head, satisfied with his decision. She didn’t think things would end well if the kid was within arm’s reach. That ass-kicking was just a little too tempting.

Maya commented that the last time he’d threatened to kill her, she’d cleaned his bathroom. One of Riley’s eyebrows rose at that but the eggs were in front of her still, and she stabbed a forkful and popped them into her mouth, chewing and swallowing before she could say or do anything she might regret.

Rupert had gotten the note and that elicited another satisfied nod, the note had said it all, she didn’t need to expound. She did smile back though, he’d earned it…a few times. More eggs and a piece of the ham went into Riley’s mouth and down into her belly. That was it though, the plate was pushed to the middle of the table to be replaced by the coffee cup. Riley sipped at the dark liquid without adding anything to it, she liked her coffee black…it was strongest that way. It had served well to take the edge off of other cravings at one point and the preference for the unaltered bitterness of the drink had never worn off. The eggs and ham were tempting, but Riley hadn’t been lying…she did have a photoshoot that afternoon. It was never a good idea to eat before those things.

They were all sitting in slightly awkward silence for a moment before Rupert spoke. When he did, a small smile turned up the corner of Riley’s mouth. What a second date…but the clean up after the burying of the body had potential for fun. She turned her head and stared at the kid, the smile was gone, and as she spoke to Rupert, she didn’t turn her head to look at him. Riley just kept staring at the kid, ”A gun would be too messy, and loud…what fun would it be if we got caught? Maybe just wrap your hands around her throat and squeeze. That‘d be quiet…and probably way more satisfying.”

There was no ham in a little fun at the kid’s expense. They were joking after all….weren’t they?

>>“Dead.”

Maya smirked. Rup was very good at pretending he was not kidding about the death sentence. Either that, or Maya was in trouble. She glanced at the surface of the kitchen table to make sure she still had a way out. Just in case.
Rule No. X.: When in doubt, know your way out.

>>“So, how would you like her to die? Lady’s choice.”

>>”A gun would be too messy, and loud…what fun would it be if we got caught? Maybe just wrap your hands around her throat and squeeze. That‘d be quiet…and probably way more satisfying.”

Maya arched an eyebrow. Rupert, Rupert, Rupert, how on Earth did ya manage to find one that thinks like you?
Miracles do happen. Even weird, twisted kind of miracles, like these two, peacefully planning the murder of a teenage girl over their breakfast. Mady by said girl, none the less.

"How 'bout old age?" she chimed in, picking up Flipsy for some cuddling and possibly for cover, in case shooting was decided on after all "I could get married, have kids, and bring them over to Uncle Rup and Auntie Hookup for breakfast." she grinned, scratching the poodle behind the ear, which made the hind paws twitch and scratch her jeans.
Yeah, old age seemed like a good cause of death.

"An' she's right, if ya shoot me I won' be able to clean up the mess afterwards." she pointed out, very logical "... Or the poodle."

Joking. Heh. Yeah, they could get back to joking. Right after Maya was dead.

Rupert stabbed his own breakfast, then mauled it between his teeth. It wasn’t bad. Not as good as he would have made, of course. If he’d cooked breakfast, Riley wouldn’t have pushed her plate away after only a few bites. She didn’t have an eating disorder, did she? Naw. Rupert could attest to her... curves.

She liked her coffee black. Now that was a woman. Rupert preferred the same in his own cup. The kid had gotten that much right. Clearly, she was entitled to a painless death.

Relatively.

>> “A gun would be too messy, and loud…what fun would it be if we got caught? Maybe just wrap your hands around her throat and squeeze. That‘d be quiet…and probably way more satisfying.”

“Hmm,” Rupert said. “Good point.”

>> "How 'bout old age? I could get married, have kids, and bring them over to Uncle Rup and Auntie Hookup for breakfast. An' she's right, if ya shoot me I won' be able to clean up the mess afterwards. ... Or the poodle."

Auntie. Hookup. Oh yes, the brat was going to die.

The grumbling man with the eight o’clock shadow stabbed his fork in Maya’s direction. “You,” he said, “don’t get a vote. And don’t think the poodle will save you, either.” His eyes flicked coldly to her hostage, then back to his plate. He still had some ham left, in need of its own death sentence.

“What do you say to hanging?” He asked, turning back to Riley. “All the benefits of throttling, minus the potential homicide investigation. We can set it up like a suicide. Kids these days: always going emo, and hanging themselves. Real shame, don’t you think?” Rupert stabbed his ham and chewed, as pleasantly as an undertaker.

Yeah. Sitting across the table from the kid had been a good idea, but Riley still judged the distance and wondered if she’d be able to land the slap if she tried. Probably not, she was right at average height for a woman and the table had obviously been made to accommodate amazons in the slapping department. Riley supposed that meant the kid got away with calling her a hook up. It didn’t matter if that’s what she was…it was the principle of the thing that mattered.

The eggs were staring at her, and the ham was mocking her. With a sigh, Riley reached out and picked up her fork, taking one more bite of the still warm food, glaring at the kid, then gesturing with the fork in almost the same fashion as Rupert. ”If this messes up my shoot. I might kill you again, just for fun.” More eggs, more ham. It was too late now. Besides, her coffee was empty. Riley pushed the cup forward, staring at it expectantly, then Maya.

Maya didn’t get a vote. Riley smiled at Rupert at that, then took another bite of eggs. Riley looked at the poodle, it wouldn’t make a very good living shield anyway. It’s mouth dropped open and its tongue lolled out. It really was a cute dog though.

Rupert suggested hanging, and mentioned emo kids and Riley actually laughed out loud a little bit. ”Yeah…don’t they play some game and kill themselves every once and a while doing it.”

Riley looked at Rupert, blue eyes serious, ”Got any ties? And do we move her from your apartment before or after she’s dead? It wouldn’t do for anyone to find her here.” Hmm. Why hadn’t she thought of that last night? Not hiding the body, of course, but the ties.

They really were kind of getting into this morbid conversation, but Riley didn’t really mind. It was actually kind of fun to verbalize your frustration with a situation this way. Besides, the only one who knew about the conversation was the kid…and if she ended up dead, there’d be no witnesses to say it ever happened.

Her coffee cup was still empty. Riley looked at it again, then at Maya again, this time an eyebrow raised.

Maya could tell the hookup comment was a total win. Rupert looked positively murderous, and the hands of the lady seemed to twitch just a teeny little bit. The girl shrugged.

"Wha', she said it." she pointed out with a deadpan stare "'tis not my fault people have weird names these days."

>>“You don’t get a vote. And don’t think the poodle will save you, either.”

Maya chuckled and lifted Flipsy up to brush her nose against the poodle's. She really was an adorale dog. Who knew what she liked about mean ol' Rupert.
Maya was pretty damn sure Flipsy would not protect her from a gun shot.
But you gotta love pets as they are.

The cheerful conversation over the remains of the breakfast went on to new and fascinating topics like hanging Maya. The girl swallowed, and made a face.
Emo. Riiiight.

"See that's what I'm always tellin' to the readers of my blog" she sniffed, doing her best hurt-emo-girl expression "You people are just so mean. Why are you hurting me? Why can't you just leave me alone in the darkness of my dark room of... darkness?..." she sniffed again, wiping her nose on Flipy's mane, then came up with a grin.

"... besides, ya do know what happens to the body of a hanged person, don't ya. Ya were supposed to be a cop..."

A shoot? As in, a photo shoot? Rupert chewed his ham, then took another sip of his coffee, surreptitiously moving his eyes over Riley as he did so. Photo shoot implied model. Model implied that he’d done better for himself last night than he’d thought.

Not that he’d been complaining to begin with.

>> ”Got any ties? And do we move her from your apartment before or after she’s dead? It wouldn’t do for anyone to find her here.”

“Before,” Rupert said, with authority. “We pick the spot, and do it there; better if we’re not the ones who report the body. I suggest a graveyard; seems a place a little emo girl would go to be alone with her darkness. Her eternal darkness.” Much better than a mere room. Even a dark one.

Naturally, Rupert wouldn’t have any experience with graveyards, or with how very deserted they could get. Or how many hours it would be before anyone found the body, breathing or not.

“The trick,” he said, taking another sip, “will be to keep her quiet until then. Can’t knock her out physically, or use drugs: we don’t want anything suspicious on the autopsy.”

>> "... besides, ya do know what happens to the body of a hanged person, don't ya. Ya were supposed to be a cop..."

Rupert’s lips twisted over his cup. “I hear,” he replied, “it depends a lot on the length of rope.”

The kid really thought she was cute. In reality, she was just annoying. At least to Riley, who was less and less impressed by the second. As Maya played with the dog, Riley leaned back in her chair, actually full this time. She didn’t miss Rupert’s eyes, taking stock again after she made the comment about her shoot. It wasn’t something she’d intended to mention, but worse things had happened to Riley and she wasn’t going to dwell on it. Instead she smiled and quirked an amused eyebrow.

Rupert added to her plans for the body and Riley nodded, he really was shockingly good at this. Yes, a graveyard would be a great place, except that timing was everything if they were going to take that path. Riley picked up her coffee cup to sip as she thought and scowled, the damn thing was still empty. It was set back down on the table with a clink and Riley settled for tapping a finger against her lips for a moment before she spoke, ”Yes, a grave yard would be lovely, poetic even.” Rupert was right though, they’d have to find a way to keep her quiet in transit…

Maya was at it again, thinking she was cute. Riley smiled at her in quite possibly the most patronizing way possible. ”Do you think you could put that in writing, exactly as you just said it? It would be great if someone found that scribbled in a notebook in a cleverly placed backpack near the body. ”

She turned in her chair, facing Rupert more completely and ignoring Maya as much as possible, ”As to getting her there…maybe we could plant a situation where she’s completely unwelcome right where we want her. It would probably draw her like a moth to flame.”

Riley realized with a bit of a shock that she was actually contemplating this scenario as if it were going to happen and picked up the empty coffee cup again…just in time to hear that Rupert used to be a cop. Riley bobbled the cup a little, then set it down.

Huh. A cop. Riley had worked her way out of a couple of sticky situations with cops over the years, but had never walked into one willingly. She looked at Rupert again, curiously, it didn’t quite add up. He limped when he walked…how did he run? The scar on his chest hadn’t been missed either. Riley had seen and read how dangerous it was to be a beat cop in New York since Mutants had taken the place over, but she’d never really seen it first hand. She didn’t say anything.

She’d missed what Maya said about hanging, but Rupert’s reply seemed to make sense. This breakfast had worked out better than the morning after apocalypse she’d feared, but things were still a little strange. Riley wasn’t used to lingering in situations like these. Her shoot was still a few hours out, but there really were things she needed to do. The DMV had been the first in a small list of errands that had been wiped out by what had happened with Rupert.

”As fun as this turned out…I really do have work this afternoon…” Riley said, looking at the empty coffee cup, ”That wasn’t a cop out story. If I showed up looking like this, they’d take one look and tell me to hit the road.” The eyes stayed on the coffee cup, ”And rent’s due next week…so that would be bad.” That was true, and while work hadn’t been exactly scarce, word got around if a model started to be a pain. She finally turned back to Maya.

”Thanks for the eggs.” The smile wasn’t sweet.

>>”As to getting her there…maybe we could plant a situation where she’s completely unwelcome right where we want her. It would probably draw her like a moth to flame.”

"Probably" Maya agreed wholeheartedly, and finally refilled the empty coffee cup. She was ofted drawn to situations where she was unwelcome. Those were the ones most likely to turn out fun...

Auntie Hookup announced her intention to leave, and this time there was not much Maya could have done about it. Not letting her sneak out, check. Waking Rupert from well deserved sleep, check. Breakfast, check. Seducing Flipsy, check. Awkward family breakfast, check.
It was time to let the lady go.
Model, huh? Maya flashed Rupert a grin. Not half bad, for the old man. The mirror girl gave Ms. H. a once over. She wasn't her type, but she had to admit... Rupert rarely had high quality items like this one in his apartment. If ever.
Maya kept her opinion to herself.

"Allright, that's prolly my cue to leave" she grinned, setting Flipsy down "Gotta go to school 'n' stuff. Nice meetin ya, have fun, see ya aroun'." she stood, flingin her backpack over her shoulder, and pressed her palms against the kitchen table.
She had one last trick up her sleeve.
Shock the lady with display of mutant powers. Ready, steady...

"Name's Maya and I was your common enemy for this lovely morning. Enjoy the rest of your day."

Grinning at both of them, she...
... stayed?!

What. The. ****.

Dark eyes flashed at their own reflection on the polished surface, then at Rupert, then at Riley, where they lingered for a split second. The grin never wavered.
Well now. Rupert Rupert Rupert, ya've got yourself somethin' extraordinary this time. I wonder if you know...

Stepping away from the table, Maya kept grinning as she walked across the room and out the door. Oldschool.

But the only way to exit, when your abusive father figure just got himself a frikkin' adapted.

For one smoldering moment, Rupert was sure the kid was going to exit through the damn kitchen table. She got her hands in position; she got that smirk in position; she made her little speech.

Words moved through his mind, behind his cold warning glare: I have killed stronger freaks than you.

At the last second, the little mutie called her own bluff. She used the door, like a civilized human being.

For that, she was pardoned.

Rupert stood in the girl’s wake, offering an apologetic half-smile to Riley as he gathered up their plates. Including the kid’s. Little freak, leaving the dishes to him.

“Do you need a ride anywhere?” He offered. She certainly hadn’t brought her car to his place. The subway was never far off in this neighborhood, though, if she’d like a less lingering retreat.

Oh, it totally figured. Now the kid decided it was time to leave, but only after staring them down from her position on the opposite side of the table. The smirk was absolutely remarkable, and the comment equally so. The kid had style, Riley had to hand it to her. The thing about it was, she held that smirk, held that posture, held that last comment for just a second too long. Something was up. Riley knew other women…and there was something up with the kid as she made her way out the door.

That was a kick in the ass too, the fact that the kid had made it out of Rupert’s apartment before she had. Realization rolled through Riley, this was exactly what she’d been hoping to avoid, and probably what Maya had planned all along. Here she was, alone…with her one night stand. Riley didn’t stop to wonder if leaving her number reclassified this as something other than a one-night stand, she just clenched her teeth slightly and waited for an awkwardness that simply refused to come as Rupert cleared away the dishes.

Not only was it not awkward, but Rupert seemed to think that there was nothing wrong with the whole weird situation that had just gone down and when he smiled apologetically in her direction, she gave him a half smile back. This was the awkwardness she’d been afraid of. Rupert spoke, though, and Riley chuckled low and slow.

>>“Do you need a ride anywhere?”

”I think we covered that pretty well last night.” she said, the tone of her voice suggesting that her words had nothing to do with an automobile ride. It was a slightly off color statement, but more importantly it was a great distracter, the only place Riley was going was her place…and Riley didn’t take people to her place. Even if they were just dropping her off outside, ”Besides, then I’d have to admit that I don’t actually have to work until this afternoon, and I’ve been desperately trying to avoid this conversation since I woke up. Not that everything wasn’t great…this whole…” Riley gestured at the plates, and Rupert himself, ”…business, just really isn’t my thing.”

There, she’d effectively steered the topic away from both her career and him taking her anywhere. Riley had also managed to pretend like the teenage brat never existed. Things were going swimmingly, if only she could get out of the apartment now. She’d definitely met all her morning after obligations… hopefully he’d make it easy on her.

>> ”I think we covered that pretty well last night.”

Smirk. Rupert kept stacking the dishes in one hand; plates together, mugs, knives, and forks on top.

>> ”Besides, then I’d have to admit that I don’t actually have to work until this afternoon, and I’ve been desperately trying to avoid this conversation since I woke up. Not that everything wasn’t great…this whole… business, just really isn’t my thing.”

Rupert bought the last fork to his head in a brief salute to Riley, as she poised for flight. "Believe me, I'm not... expecting anything." Like a real relationship, or... commitment. "Unless you wanted to wash dishes, go ahead and take off. I hope your shoot goes well."

Yeah, this was awkward. But not as awkward as it could be; they were consenting adults. Consenting adults were allowed to have one night stands.

Maybe a little more, if that piece of paper waiting back in his room was any indication.

Riley actually sighed in relief when Rupert pointed out that he wasn’t expecting anything. Honestly, she didn’t know why she’d worried about something like that from the self-proclaimed asshole…but still. That was the risk with meeting and going home with someone all in the same day…sometimes they surprised you in nasty ways.

Sometimes they didn’t. Rupert even packaged her getaway in a nice little bundle, complete with a bow on top that said, ’I’m not expecting you to call later.’ Maybe this hook-up had been an even better idea than she’d thought. Riley was suddenly glad she’d left a real number instead of a fake one. She smiled her relief at Rupert as she stood up and gathered her things. ”I’d help, but you know how it is. Dishpan hands and a photo shoot don’t exactly go hand in hand.” That was all the detail he was getting…let him wonder. Riley hadn’t poked around, maybe he’d even seen one of her shoots in a magazine. Not that he’d have recognized her, dressed down as she was the night before.

”Thanks for the pasta…and everything else.” she said as she made her way to the door, only to stop on the threshold and cast a look over her shoulder before slipping out and shutting the door.

”Don’t hesitate to use that number. For an asshole, you’re not half bad.”