It was very suspicious how hard the Omega agents fought for their haul of radianite. Usually, with how the Alpha agents were terrorising them, they would have been figuring out a way to run by now. Instead, they held their ground, stubbornly throwing out grenades and whatever they could to stall time and fight for space.
Fade guessed it was probably because they were either really desperate for radianite or because they thought, with how close their portal was, they could afford to risk it and try harder for the boxes of precious material.
"Come on! We need to take those boxes back!"
It was especially suspicious that Fade's mirror was the most defiant and vigorous fighter, Nightmare lashing and gun constantly blazing.
Fade wasn't surprised if her mirror had to borrow some bullets from others with how much she was firing.
"What's got you so desperate?" she wondered, ducking behind cover to avoid a spray of gunfire. Something to do with him, maybe?
It took them a bit more back and forth fighting before they exhausted the Omega agents' supply of bullets, grenades, nanoswarms, molotovs, whatever they had. Stupidly, but not surprisingly, enough it was actually Raze and her seemingly unlimited supply of grenades that they needed to spend the most time baiting out.
"How many did Raze once tell us she had stocked up?" Fade asked as she hopped clear of a rolling, spray painted grenade that almost immediately went boom as soon as she got out of its radius. "Like, forty or something?"
"More like seventy," Neon corrected. "Seventy eight."
Fade groaned as she watched another hurtle through the air. It felt more like she was playing dodgeball at this point.
Finally, after another three minutes, reinforcements arrived in the form of Viper and Sage. They regrouped and made a big push that finally drove the Omega agents away, using whatever they had left to distract them while they made a break for their portal, Neon's electricity chasing after them.
Sighing in relief, Fade headed for the boxes they had successfully defended.
"Package secured," she reported tiredly as she watched her mirror take one last backwards glance before scurrying away, back in the direction where the Omega portal was.
"Good, check the contents," Brimstone ordered, his voice crackling over their comms. "With how hard they were fighting, there might be more than just radianite in there."
Fade did a check as Neon ran up to her. "Looks like it's just radianite," she said as she walked around the crates that had been loaded onto a truck. She couldn't exactly open the boxes up and peer inside, especially with how they'd been sealed, so this was the next best thing she could do.
Spotting a familiar light brown packet abandoned on top of one of the crates, Fade turned off her comms and immediately darted over to inspect it.
The packet was just as she suspected. It was from Kurukahveci Mehmet Efendi, a company that made Turkish coffee beans of the highest quality. Just the sight of it reminded Fade she hadn't had Turkish coffee in months now. The packet sitting there was almost too good to be true, teasing her with its existence and tempting her to take it.
Fade wondered if she was even allowed to take it without permission from Brimstone. These were really good coffee beans, the best Türkiye had to offer in her opinion. Her mirror had probably gotten ahold of them somehow but was forced to abandon them, so it wasn't like Fade was the one stealing them. Anyhow, it wasn't like they'd be used if they were left in the middle of the Everett-Linde facility, right?
"What's that?"
Almost guiltily even though she hadn't done anything, Fade jumped and clutched the packet closer to her chest, head shooting up to stare at Neon.
"Uh."
Neon skipped over and glanced at the packet. "Kuru...what is this?" she asked, taking the package from Fade's loose hands and turning it around, looking it over.
"It's coffee beans," Fade said, longing unintentionally creeping into her voice. "Really good ones, as well."
"Why do you sound like you've already lost them?" Neon asked, peering up at her face. "Can't you just take them?"
"Am I allowed?" Fade asked.
Neon squinted up at her. "Why not?" she asked. "They're literally coffee beans left in the middle of nowhere. Unless they're, I don't know, actually explosives or something, I don't see a problem with taking them."
Fade grinned, snatching the bag up. "Let's get back to base, then," she said. "I want to try these out."
~~~
During the entire plane trip, Fade was fixated on only the coffee beans. Neon could tell, because she was literally lying on the Turk's lap and barely got any attention.
Neon found it kind of cute how excited Fade was, reading all the labels and touching the package to feel the beans inside while she talked about them.
"You know, I could never afford them. I always stole them. They'd make them fresh at this factory with hundreds of workers and I'd swipe the bags before they were loaded to be transported."
Neon smiled up at the wistful look on Fade's face, unconsciously playing with the soft hem of the bounty hunter's shirt.
"I wouldn't share. There was no one I cared for enough to share with them. I'd hide them at the back of this little shelf that stacked a ton of books and no one ever suspected it."
"Would you share with me?" Neon asked, staring hopefully at Fade's face from her position on her lap.
Fade chuckled. "I would," she said without hesitation. "But I would be doing you a favour keeping it away from you. It's very bitter."
Neon made a face at that, disappointed that the extremely high quality beans that her girlfriend spoke so highly about could be so disgusting.
Shifting her upper body so she was now chest down, Neon crossed her arms on Fade's legs and rested the side of her head on them, facing Fade.
"Well, at least you won't need to worry about anyone from the Protocol stealing them," she said, nuzzling into Fade's stomach, demanding attention.
Fade's hand briefly left her precious beans to rife through Neon's hair, messing it up slightly, before going straight back to the packet. Neon wanted to pout at how obsessed Fade was over some beans, but suddenly it hit her.
Unable to help her laughter, Neon rolled back onto her back and looked up at Fade with a wide grin.
"What?" Fade asked, openly bemused at Neon's sudden outburst.
"Those beans," Neon giggled, pointing up at the packet. "Your mirror was fighting so hard because she wanted coffee. Good coffee. She wasn't even half as interested in the radianite, I bet."
Fade stared at the beans for another second, then back at Neon with a mystified look. "Really?" she asked doubtfully.
Neon pointed up at her, accidentally poking her cheek because she'd misjudged the distance. Quickly taking her hand back in silent apology, Neon made her point.
"Come on, you're her," she said, letting a bit of her disappointment from the lack of attention bleed into her words. "When was the last time you saw your mirror fight so hard? What's so special about this particular truckload of radianite, besides a packet of really good coffee beans she probably also stole from somewhere else?"
Fade shook her head slightly as she chuckled.
"Probably, you're right," she said.
The bounty hunter seemed to stare at her for a couple of seconds, enough for Neon to start being self conscious, then slowly and deliberately set the packet down next to her before leaning down to kiss Neon.
"Wh-" Neon blushed, unsure what to make of the suddenly intimate gesture.
"Just making sure you know, you're more important to me than coffee beans, unlike my mirror and the radianite," Fade said, a small smirk on her face as she audited Neon's reaction.
Neon wasn't sure whether to huff in embarrassment or be touched by her words.