The art of stealth centers on the ability to hide in plain sight - something particularly difficult when bickering loudly.

"You can't seriously be backing out now! I can't carry a week's worth of food by myself!"

"That's sounds an awful lot like your problem and not mine. This is your idea, after all."

"Well, you're already out of uniform and wearing the backpack, so you're staying in this or so help me, I will break you."

"Relax, Em, I was just kidding," Mercury said dismissively. Emerald's cutting glare wasn't buying it, though. "I'm doing this so I don't have to get up in the mornings all the time, so you can at least trust me there."

"Yeah, because you're a lazy ass."

"I prefer to think of it as expending the least amount of energy while getting the most amount of reward. You should try it sometime."

"Ugh, bite me."

While there was no express curfew at Beacon, not many students were up at the late, late hour of 11:25 in the evening. Hunter training was no joke – most people would be exhausted by the end of the day, as they can be seen moving sluggishly about during dinner time. At the moment, almost everyone had retired to their rooms, leaving the moon-lit halls almost totally empty. Amateurs. The pair of delinquents, on the other hand, already had the unofficial training of upper-level students and, on top of that, were well-accustomed to operating at night. There would be no interference with their plan.

Although they had only just arrived at the school earlier that day, Mercury and Emerald already had a general grasp of how to navigate Beacon. Most of the important rooms, such as classrooms, the dining hall, and the auditorium, were centrally located with the dorms expanding outward from them. There, in the center, was their target: the kitchen.

The pair reached the central lobby. "How much further do we have to go?" Emerald turned her head to ask.

"Well, the mess hall is right over… there," Mercury answered, pointing toward the southern double doors of the hall. "The kitchen has to be attached to it somewhere."

"Alright, so through the mess hall it is." Emerald strode over to the huge wooden doors that lead to the dining hall and gave the handle a good shake. "Of course it's locked."

"I could kick it down," Mercury offered helpfully.

"And leave a broken lock to raise suspicion? Really?"

Mercury merely shrugged in his usual manner. "It's always an option."

Emerald rolled her eyes. "Sure. Anyway, we've got to find a different way to get to the kitchen. There has to be another way in…"

"I remember the elevators have a maintenance floor below this ground floor, but you had to have a key to access it."

"Lovely suggestion."

"There could be stairs leading down there as well. Perhaps we can get to the kitchen from below? There ought to be a loading dock for food to come in."

"Well, there was a key preventing us to go down on the elevator, I doubt the stairs will be any better. No, there has to be a way to get there on this fl—"

Mercury suddenly interrupted her as he pushed her toward the wall with a figure above his lips. Before Emerald could let out a protest, she heard it, too – two pairs of footsteps and two voices.

"…now's not really the time. Can't you wait until the weekend?" a calm, male voice asked.

"I can't wait anymore! Come on, no one will find out in the kitchen!" an excited, almost bubbly, female voice replied.

"Alright, alright, just don't be so wild. People might hear us this time."

The female voice giggled. "Aw, don't worry, I'll be gentle!"

After the footsteps started heading away, Mercury spoke up. "Are they… doing what I think they're about to do?"

"I don't care what they're going, only where they're doing it. Come on, let's follow them."

Mercury was doing his best to ignore the conversation the two shadows were having out in front of him, but his mind was already going weird places.

"You forgot to bring that special something, didn't you," the male voice deadpanned.

"Maybe just a little bit… we can still do it without it though! Right?"

"You and I both know that's not a smart idea. It's not going to come out right without it, and I know how much you like its taste."

"Fiiiine," the female voice conceded with a whine. "Let's go back to get it – then we can have our fun time!" Uh oh.

"Of course." Mercury grabbed Emerald and pulled the two of them into a gap in the hall and waited for the pair of silhouettes to hurry past them. Once they were out of earshot, he let go and stepped back out in the dim hallway.

"Okay, I'm not just imagining things here, am I? Those two were definitely planning on boning in the kitchen."

"…I'm just going to pretend that never happened." Mercury could practically hear his partner roll her eyes in disgust. "Come on, they said they were going to be back soon, so we should hurry up and gather what we can before they notice us."

"You got it, boss," he replied sardonically, but he nevertheless followed Emerald's lead to the metal doors where the shadows had stood earlier. Yup, definitely the kitchen, alright, Mercury thought as he sniffed the air – there were still faint traces of the dinner from earlier wafting in through the doors. I have to wonder, though…

"Hey, Em?"

"Yeah?" She was already inside, seeking out where the pantry might be.

"You reckon that smell is a kink?"

The thief froze in the middle of loading her first handful of energy bars into her bag. Slowly, she turned around and eyed Mercury with an incredulous expression. "How… how would that even work? And why the hell are you still thinking about that?"

"Well, I heard once that our sense of smell is one of the most powerful mental triggers," Mercury responded wistfully, setting down his own bag to shovel in the nearest food at hand. "So, if you think about it, doing the do in place that's filled with all these smells has got to be someone's way of getting off."

"Mercury, that's disg—" Emerald flared up but quickly paused to think. "Well, I suppose you're not wrong. Still, doing it in the kitchen sounds gross. I don't want someone's junk all up in the place that makes the food I'm going to be eating."

Mercury shuddered at the thought. "Good point." The pair continued their work in silence, moving around the pantry and selecting all the non-perishable items they could find and fit in their surprisingly roomy bags. They took a little from each pile of goods so as not to alert the cooks in the morning about their presence. It was an easy enough job, but easy means boring, and boredom makes Mercury ask odd questions.

"Em, what's your favorite scent?"

The sound of cans clanging against on another from her part of the room ceased. "Why would you care?"

"Just curious and bored. I'm sure I'll find some way to hold it against you, but that'll be later."

"How thoughtful of you," Emerald icily retorted. Still no movement from her end, though. "I'd have to say… smoke. I like the smell of smoke and things burning."

"Well, doesn't that sound twisted."

"Oh, up yours. What about you, then?"

Mercury didn't have time to respond, but a newcomer sure did. "Ooo, I can't wait anymore! Let's start already!" It was the female voice from earlier, cheering out as the metal doors to the kitchen swung open with a loud "bang!"

"Alright, alright, let's clear a space on the counter first," the male voice softly replied.

The food burglars were still hidden in the pantry, but with the two other people in the kitchen, there was no way for them to get out undetected. Mercury looked over to Emerald, who was brimming with frustration. "Damn it!" she whispered harshly. "Are we seriously going to have to wait through their lovemaking?"

"Who knows? He might be a quick one," Mercury helpfully suggested. Truthfully, he was a little annoyed himself that they had to wait there on the hard linoleum floor for an indefinite amount of time, but there was no use being angry. Besides, when life gives you lemons...

Mercury scooted up to the door of the pantry and pressed his ear against it, ignoring the dirty glare from Emerald. What he heard was a surprise indeed.

"No, silly, you gotta make it all creamy-like with this!" Pots and pans banged up against each other.

"I don't think that's really make it come out right," the male voice said with worry.

"Aww, c'mon, where's your sense of experimentation?" Experimentation? This is going to be good.

"That's not the problem; the problem is that you're going to make it limp in the end."

"But, but last time yo—mmmmm!" The girl cut herself off with a moan, and a pregnant silence permeated through the kitchen for a moment or two. "That was gooood." Mercury glanced over to Emerald, whose only response was a wide-eyed expression.

"Hey, don't get greedy yet! You'll get more later when it's ready."

"Can't we just start it now?" the girl whined. "I'm getting hungry already!"

Hungry? This girl is quite forward, isn't she? "You know we can't start making this until we add the final ingredient."

"What do you mean?"

The male voice sighed. "You forgot to add the baking soda."

Wait, what? Mercury had slowly gotten suspicious about what was going on in the kitchen, but now he was genuinely baffled about how all this baking stuff was adding up. He just had to know, cover be damned. Without warning, Mercury burst through the door and found…

"…pancakes?"

The two former shadows leapt up upon Mercury's sudden remark. One of them was a stoic-looking guy with long black hair tied in a ponytail and caked with what he could only assume was flour. The other one was unmistakably the bubbly voice from earlier – for cryin' out loud, she's wearing a pink skirt and has a heart on her chest! She was the first one to break the temporary still.

"Yeah, and you can't have any!" she exclaimed defiantly, standing in between Mercury and a bowl brimming with batter.

"Nora, I don't think he's here for the pancakes," the boy stated evenly. He turned to face Mercury. "Though I suppose I am curious as to why you're here."

Emerald finally poked her head out to observe what all the commotion was about. Upon seeing the scene of the messy kitchen, she let out a breath of relief. "Oh, thank gods you were wrong."

The guy raised an inquisitive eyebrow. "Oh? What did you think we were doing?"

"It's not important, rea—"

"He thought you were having sex in the kitchen."

The Nora girl started acting all fidgety. "What, Ren and I? No, no, no, we're together, but not, like, together together, you know?" Uh huh, I believe that. "But, I mean, if I had to pick a place to do it, here wouldn't be so bad. Not that we'd actually do anything, 'cause we're just friends an—"

Ren covered Nora's mouth with a silencing finger. "You don't have to explain yourself, Nora. Anyway, the question still stands: what are you two doing down here in the middle of the night?"

"Says the guy breaking into the kitchen to make pancakes," Emerald retorted.

Mercury swore he didn't see the girl in pink move, but before he realized it, she was already poking through the bag he left on the floor. "Ooo, that's a lot of food you got here!"

Ren gave Emerald a nonplussed look, to which she lamely smiled. "Alright, we never saw you here."

"And I've never seen you before."

"Good." Satisfied, she spun about on her heels and faced the door. "Let's go, Merc."

"Right." He hoisted up his sack of food and slung it over his shoulder. With one last glance over to the strange pair, Mercury waved and said, "Have fun doing whatever you were doing. Or weren't doing."

Mercury and Emerald stepped back out into the dark hallway, ignoring Nora's cheerful goodbyes. Once outside, Emerald spoke up.

"Alright, it's official – Beacon is weird."

Cinder, as always, rose in the morning with grace. The morning sun lit her up in a warm glow, almost like an angel. She had a good night's sleep and was ready to bring the day into submission. Everything felt right in the world. However, something was off that particular morning…

Why are Mercury and Emerald still asleep?

Cinder thought that she had made it crystal clear that her minions would always wake up before she did so that she would never have to wait on them, yet the two of them were still sprawled out on their beds, still soundly asleep. More than that, they were still dressed in their uniforms from the day before – Mercury didn't even take his shoes off. Stranger still was how stuffed their backpacks were.

So, they went and nabbed something in the night? Cinder wondered. She didn't order them to do anything, so technically they were being insubordinate, but Cinder would chew them out later. For the moment, she was more curious as to what they decided to pilfer.

Upon opening Emerald's backpack, a number of cans, bars, and bags spilled out onto the floor, all filled with various foodstuffs. Cinder picked one of the bars with a label reading "Thrill of the Hunt Pro Bar: Now with 50% more Protein!" and gave a small shrug.

Not a hot breakfast, but it'll do, she thought as she peeled the wrapper off the bar and slipped back under the covers.

Good Lord, have I been shafted by exams lately. I'd been sitting on this for a while, but I've had exam after exam for the past two weeks (plus editing for Acceptance), so... well, doesn't matter, because here we are!

Merc never really said what his favorite smell is, but I'd reckon it'd be something along the lines of that new shoe smell. Because, y'know, Merc is all about that footwork and likes sniffin' boots? Somethin' like that.

Anyway, I'm still kinda exhausted, so this'll be the end of this little note. Catch ya next time!