“We’re just going back to see Snidely. He just met with the leader. Honestly, in my perspective, it didn’t look too good.” Fern frowns, looking down. She begins to walk, holding tighter onto Leo.

Leo laughs a little bit, “If I get hurt it’s my own fault.” He holds Fern’s wing to stabilize himself, “Anyway, what are we doing? What should I do?” He asks excitedly with a smile.

Fern nods her head. “Yes, I understand that you can be good at things but you can’t even stand up.” she sighs quietly. “I don’t want you to get hurt or fall or anything of the sort.” she holds onto one of Leo’s wings to try and keep him stable.

Leo attempts to stand up, “Aww… but I want to go too…” He leans against the wall to keep himself from falling, “I’m good at things too, you know?”

Fern nervously laughs. “And you smell like booze.” she shifts awkwardly out of the hug. “Okay, I’m going back to Snidely now. Thank you for calling me cute, it was very kind of you even though you’re pretty drunk.” Fern pats his wing, she stands up. “You can stay here, okay?”

Leo chuckles slightly, “…You smell nice…” He slurs, then giggles again, “…A cute girl is hugging me…” He murmurs to himself.

Fern closes her eyes, breathing in. “Yes, I suppose you can get a hug.” she smiles. Fern leans in and hugs him, she rests her head on his chest momentarily. “I’m not doing anything gang related, but Snidely is.”

“… I know I’m on the floor.” He says, following up with a strange chuckle, “We’re doing some gang shit then?” Leo mumbles, putting out his wings, “Hug me…?”

Fern tries to keep him down, she laughs a little bit. “Leo,” she stares at him. “You got drunk at the bar because you had lots of drinks with Snidely. Now you’re at Morphine on the floor.” she nods at him, still holding Leo down with her wing.

Leo jolts up slightly at Fern’s touch. It takes him a moment for her face to register in his mind, then produced a droll smile, “Hey there, cute girl!” he slurred and tried to pick himself up, “What happened?” He mumbled the question.

Fern had wandered around the place looking for Leo, finally finding him. She bends down, poking him. “Hey…” she says softly. “Are you alright, Leo?”

Snidely leaned against a wall with a slight smug smile at how red Fern became. Meanwhile, Leo sat on the ground not quite passed out but not fully awake either.

Fern becomes slightly stiff when Snidely touches her. She lifts up her wing and takes Snidely’s wing off of her cheek. “Uhm…” she clears her throat, becoming red. “Yeah. Yup. I agree with you.” Fern says a bit fast, her words begin to trip on themselves. “Y’know, I’m going to go find drunk Leo.” Fern points in a random direction behind… Read more

Snidely shrugs, “Right, wrong, whatever, it doesn’t really matter anymore.” He turns to look at Fern, “That should have been left behind when we entered the city.” He reached out and touched her cheek with a gentle wing, “You’ll adapt best if you mix those rights and wrongs together.” He leans in a little closer, produces a small,… Read more

Fern looks down at the floor, a little bashful. “Ah, thanks I guess.” she takes a step back. “Anyway, um, what will happen once you go back in his office? I don’t really want him beating you up again.” Fern frowns, turning her head back up to Snidely, greeting his eyes. “I don’t want him beating you up at all, actually.” she begins to tap… Read more

Snidely shrugs “Whatever, no harm no fowl.” (IM SORRY) He wipes the blood off his beak and rolls and tilts his head to the side, cracking his neck, “Anyway, it’s not like I haven’t taken a punch before. Negotiations are kinda like being in a wolf pack, you gotta let the alpha prove his dominance or whatever that gay shit is.” He puts his wings… Read more

Fern gives the leader a glare. She snorts, flipping him off and shutting the door with as much force as her body could give. She watches Snidely and quickly catches up with him. “Hey…” she says, looking down. “I’m sorry I barged in like that… I shouldn’t have. It was really stupid of me.” Fern passes a soft chuckle and a cluck. She raises… Read more

Snidely picked himself up, wiping the blood that trickled from his beak with the back of his wing then sent a quick glare to the leader of Morphine, who sighed and began to walk back to his desk, “We’ll take a break. Return within the hour.” He ordered. Snidely nodded sternly and turned towards Fern, making a quick, sympathetic eye-contact… Read more

Fern jumps back and lets out a little yelp when the punch hit Snidely’s face. She looks to the floor, holding back her soon to come yells. “Please don’t hurt him…” she says quietly, although loud enough to hear. Her head lifts up, she balls her wing up and hits the door. “Don’t you dare touch Snidely again!” she screams loudly, tears… Read more

Snidely rolls his eyes and shrugs slightly, he seemed oddly nonchalant for the situation he was in. He makes an audible sigh, causing the leader of Morphine to tilt the knife into his neck, almost enough to draw blood. Snidely did the same, angling the tip of his blade close to the others heart. “…A worthless chick like her shouldn’t… Read more

Fern jerks back a bit, her eyes widen. She looks over to Snidely and frowns. She mouths, ‘What do I do?’ She then looks back at the leader or Morphine. Her grip on the door handle tightens.

Snidely shook his head slightly, as if to warn Fern. The leader of Morphine quickly turns the gun from Snidely’s head, replacing it with a knife at his throat, and pointed it at Fern, “Babe, I’ve already warned you, don’t interrupt negotiations.” He punctiated his sentence by cocking the gun. Snidely sighed slightly and gave her a glare… Read more

Fern opens the door a bit more, poking her head in so she can see fully. She lets out a breath of air, looking at the leader of Morphine and then Snidely. “Really?” she sees the smile Snidely gives her. Fern’s eyes roll. “Ahem…” she clears her throat. “Excuse me…?”

Inside, Snidely was pinned against the wall by the leader of Morphine, some of his black feathers slicked back and glistening with blood. The larger chicken held a gun up to Snidely’s head, and snidely held his switchblade to the others chest. The two were locked in a tense eye-contact, but Snidely noticed Fern from his periphery. Without… Read more

Fern’s eyes shut. She turns the doorknob, wincing before she could even see inside. “Well, I’m coming in anyway…okay?” she stops opening the door, it’s only opened a crack. She keeps her eyes shut, breathing in and out heavily.

A gruff and deep voice could be heard from the other side of the door, “Babe, you probably shouldn’t open that door.” The voice sounded close, right next to the door. After a moment of pause, another slam could be heard, one that shook the wall slightly. “Fern…” Snidely said from the other side of the door, his voice sounded a little choked… Read more

Fern fakes a smile, tilting her head a little bit. “Yeah, okay. Thank you for saying that, but..” Fern turns her head to look at the office door. “I think something happened in there and I’m kinda freaking out right now. Oh God. I’ll be right back, okay?” her head turns back to Leo. She nods to herself and walks towards the door, knocking on… Read more

Under his feathers, Leo blushed, more or less zoning out everything Fern said. Staring into her eyes, he murmurs, “You’re cute…” From the inside of the office, the sound of a loud crash could be heard.

Fern’s face instantly drops. “No, no, no!” she quickly says, moving away and propping Leo up with a chair. She cups his face. “It’s not like that, I both like you equally. I’m so sorry if you thought that! I didn’t mean for it to. I’m just worried that he might get hurt. I’d be the same if you went in there! Please don’t think that I like him… Read more

Leo frowns, “…you don’t like me much, do you?” He looks up to Fern dejectedly, then stares at the closed office door, drunken brain taking a few minuets to process things and looks back at Fern with an even more upset face, “Oh… So you like him then…” He lets his head fall forward and look at the ground.

Fern rolls her eyes, turning her head away from Leo. “Yeah…I guess so…” she says quietly. Her eyes flutter over to Snidely, where she sees him walk into the office. She passes a sigh, putting her wing over Leo to keep him more balanced.

Snidely nods, giving her a slight smile, “Thanks.” he shifts Leo’s weight onto Fern and flaps his wings once to stretch them out. Leo puts his wing around Fern, only partially to keep himself standing. He glances up at her, smiling cutely and laughs, “…You’re my handler now?” Snidely walks into the office of the head of Morphine, closing… Read more

“Here,” Fern follows Snidely. She stops him, putting a wing on Leo. “I’ll hold him while you go talk to the leader.” she smiles encouragingly.

Snidely shrugs, “I got the impression they didn’t like him last time.” A large chicken in sunglasses and all black responded, he seemed to recognize Leo and looked to the others, “You’re Phoenix, right?” he moves aside, allowing them to walk in, “Leader’s ready for you.” Snidely nods coolly and walks into the warehouse. Leo grins, flashing a… Read more

Fern walks up to the door, giving it a hard knock. “Hello?” she says a bit unsure. Fern takes a step away from the door, looking back at Snidely and Leo. “I hope they let us in…”

Snidely glances back to Fern, reading some dejectedness in her voice. He internally sighs, pushing Leo onto his shoulder further. Soon they make it back to the warehouse that served as Morphine HQ.

Fern only nods, mumbling out an “Okay.” She picks up her pace in walking.

Snidely sighs, “You don’t have to know someone well to know they’re a fuck.” Leo stares at the ground for a moment, trying to come up with a retort but only managing a feeble, “Same.” Snidely glances back at Fern, “Anyway, fine, let’s go.”

Fern can’t conseal her giggles. “You two barely know each other and you’re always at each other’s throats. Even when Leo is drunk.” she shakes her head, looking down. “But, yes,” Fern stops laughing. “I think it would be the best to go back to Morphine. And I’ll help carry Leo if you like.” she smiles, tilting her head to the side.

Snidely sighs slightly, shifting Leo’s weight onto his shoulder, “I dunno, I don’t want to drag this fuck all the way over there, but whatever.” Leo scowls, “I’m not a fuck, your a fuck. You fuck…”

Fern snickers, covering her beak a bit. “I mean, if you say so Leo.” she says jokingly. She lets go of Leo. “Should we go back to where Morphine is? So we can get the information as soon as possible. I’m sure they’ll let us in as long as we’re with Leo, right?”

Snidely shrugs, “No way to tell, gangs are fickle lie that.” He glances at Fern, “Anyway Morphine seems somewhat unreliable.” Leo glances at him somewhat angrily, “We are not unreliable! We’re the shit, man!” Snidely sighs, murmuring profanities under his breath.

Fern rolls her eyes. “Jeez, that kid really needs some help.” she helps Leo keep his balance. Fern turns her attention back to Snidely, giving him a grin. “So,” she begins. “I kinda have this bad feeling that Morphine won’t…I don’t know…help you?” Fern sounds confused with herself. “I’m not sure what it is. I just have that gut feeling. You know?”

Snidely sighs, running a hand through his crest feathers, “…Probably the best idea… guess we could go back to my place, anyway I’m sure Morphine knows where I live by now anyway…” He stands up, flapping his wings a couple times to stretch them out then walks over to Leo, pulling him up by the wing, “Come on you drunk bastard…” He… Read more

Fern snickers, “Right, you’re not drunk.” she takes another sip of her water, clearing her throat after. She sets her her glass down, standing up. “Alright. Do you guys wanna head out or stay?” she asks Snidely and Leo. She smiles.

Snidely shrugs, “It was only five, though if I drink any more I might get properly drunk.” He glances over at Leo, who seemed slightly over tipsy, “Anyway, we should go before he throws up or something.” Leo glances at him, “I’m not gonna throw up or nothin’…” Leo says, hunched over the bar counter, “I ain’t even drunk.”