TFGraves

TFGraves is the slash ship between Twisted Fate and Malcolm Graves from the League of Legends fandom.

Canon
Twisted Fate and Graves were partners in crime for many years, recognizing a kindred soul in one another, hustling far and wide across Valoran together with their crew (members include Kolt, Wallach, and The Brick). They were forced apart when a heist went south, with Graves getting sent to The Locker despite Twisted Fate’s efforts to save him (the entire crew dying in the process). It’s after these events that Twisted Fate, seeking to begin again, returns his birth name, Tobias Felix, to the river's waters and takes up his current one.

In the years after, Twisted Fate continued conning people solo, one-time evading capture by Miss Fortune. She would later hire him by proxy to sneak into Gangplank’s warehouse to steal and return a Crimson-Coil dagger, where he would reunite with Graves, who broke out from The Locker (after killing Dr. Aregor Priggs) and was tipped off by the Bounty Hunter herself about Twisted Fate presence.

Flamed with rage at his partner's apparent betrayal, Graves started shooting at Tobias in an effort to settle the score with him. With Gangplank's warehouse burning and with the pirate captain's thugs swarming, the resolution of Graves' and Twisted Fate's long-simmering feud threatens to engulf the entire city in flames. Informed by the destruction of his warehouse,  Gangplank set off the catch both of the perpetrators of this act.

Both Graves and Twisted Fate tried to flee from the wrath of the Pirate King but with no success. Gangplank tortured them until he tried to publicly execute them in front of the whole city for their misbehavior. Hearing the news of this event, Sarah Fortune's plans set in motion and along with her crew, started to make preparations to blow up Gangplank’s flagship so all Bilgewater could witness the death of their Reaver King.

Graves managed to hide one of Twisted Fate's cards, snatched during their previous fight around the city, from the pirate thugs, and so, Twisted Fate teleports behind Gangplank and punches him, but Graves gets dragged to the bottom of the ocean. Twisted Fate then jumps after him and saves Graves from drowning but almost dies in the process. Graves manages to save Twisted Fate and after they successfully survive the explosion, both men settled their dispute and resolve to pick up their joint hustling. As Graves had lost his shotgun Destiny, they head to Piltover so he can get a new one.

Even though Graves and Twisted Fate are tempted to reconcile their relationship, both know it may take a while for Graves to completely trust Twisted Fate again, still, the latter is happy to have his old friend back.

They later return to Bilgewater in search of the Abyssal Crown for a deal, in which Twisted Fate actively tries to regain Graves' trust. They end up pissing off a sea witch in the process, which would later come back for them in the cinematic "Double-double cross".

Fanon
The shipping intensified after the Burning Tides events, in which people refered to them as "bitter ex-lovers", particularly after a rioter who worked in the lore retcon for them stated they wanted them to be married but the higher ups refused and so, at least tried to keep a "palpable sexual tension" between the two.

Fandom
Fanfiction:

https://archiveofourown.org/tags/Malcolm%20Graves*s*Twisted%20Fate/works

Trivia

 * One of the scrapped narrative concepts for Graves was for him to be married or an ex-lover of Twisted Fate. The concept of having "palpable sexual tension" between the characters was preserved in their final lore.


 * Twisted Fate calls Graves "hotshot".


 * In a Legends of Runeterra interaction, Vi refers to Graves as Twisted Fate's "better half".


 * Sentinel Graves death animation shows Graves taking out a blue card that gets him teleported to Twisted Fate's location before dying.


 * Graves is the only person who still calls Twisted Fate by his birthname Tobias.


 * Graves named his shotgun after Twisted Fate's teleportation ability.


 * In the background of the splashart for Snow Day Graves, there's a photograph of him and Twisted Fate.