"Nothing!" Aya said, far too quickly.
Roy chuckled, raising both hands in a lazy gesture of surrender that fooled absolutely no one. "Relax. I am only teasing." His eyes held hers, and beneath the playfulness was a razor-sharp reminder that he had information she couldn't afford for him to share.
He turned to Elias and something shifted in his demeanour. The teasing edge softened. "Breakfast, you said?" His attention then shifted to Aya with a mischievous smile. "I look forward to it."
Aya opened her mouth but no words came out. Not because of the System this time, she simply had nothing left in her arsenal. This man had eavesdropped on her private conversation, threatened to expose her secret, and invited himself to her carefully negotiated breakfast, all while looking like he had just rolled out of bed and was on his way for a pleasant morning stroll.
