Friends
Ross watches Rachel storm out of his apartment, again, and his knees buckle. He slumps onto the sofa, watches Kolejis out of the corner of his eyes. The lizard is crawling along the back of the sofa, huge eyes fixed on the place where Maghazium was five seconds before. Neither knows what they did, why Rachel and Hazi are so mad but they are sure, this time, sorry won't fix it.
'What do we do, Ross?' Kolejis says, resting on the arm of the sofa and finally turning to face him. 'Monica and Phoebe will side with Rachel, Chandler will side with Monica and Joey will side with Chandler. None of them will help us fix this.'
'Fix what?' He says, moving his arm so she can begin to crawl down it. 'I don't know what I've done.'
She shakes her head, slowly moving towards his face. 'Me neither but that doesn't matter. Rachel's upset so you have to apologise.'
'We have to apologise.' He mutters, sounding like a petulant child.
She raises one small leg, beating down on his arm. 'I've already apologised. I practically shouted the words at Hazi as she flew out. So now you have to.'
'I tried, Kol.' Ross stands, heading towards the window. He looks up at Chandler and Monica's apartment and sighs. He can see Rachel ranting to the others and moves away before any of them spot him. 'She slammed the door in my face and wouldn't let me say a word.'
She nudges closer, resting within the crook of his neck. 'You just stood there with your mouth open. You didn't have any words to say.'
Ross sighs, running a hand over his face. 'Fine, help me figure out some words.'
Kolejis nods, jumping onto the sofa. 'Let's get them back.'
Hazi sits on the perch in their apartment, nodding to Kokkur as he and Monica run out the door. Rachel is still asleep but Hazi likes to wake up at bit earlier, watch the TV with Kokkur before the day starts. Of course, Rachel won't come out of the bedroom until Monica is gone, so no one will see her without perfect makeup or hair brushed a hundred times.
'Rach!' He calls, hoping she'll hear. It's their day off but they still have things to do. 'Rachel, wake up!'
He hears a few grunts and a small bang coming from the bedroom. He shakes out his feathers, flying through the half open door and onto the bedside table. Rachel is on the floor, snoring, hair all over the place and make up from the night before slightly smudged. The swallow shakes his delicate head, smiling to himself.
'Rachel!'
His human starts, banging her head on the edge of the bed. Hazi scowls, feeling the pain through his own forehead. Rachel sits up slowly, immediately catching sight of herself in the mirror and rushing for the brush.
Hazi laughs. 'You look fine, Rach. Besides, no ones here.'
Rachel sighs, flicking through her wardrobe to find a good outfit. 'You never know Maghazium. Someone could come running through that door any minute and I look a mess.'
Her voice pitches toward the end and the swallow shakes his head. She grins as she finds the skirt and blouse combo she wanted, winking at her dæmon. Hazi laughs at her expression as she checks herself in the mirror.
'Alright, Green, let's get moving.'
'What?' She complains, turning and glaring. 'It's our day off.'
Hazi nods slightly. 'Yes but we still have three reports due Monday.'
Rachel freezes before running out of the room.
Monica watches Chandler run out of the room, stopping briefly to kiss her on the cheek before speeding after Joey. Kokkur, stood on the back of the sofa, smiles at Brandari as she tries to jump on Leikari, missing spectacularly. The monkey scrambles up, leaping to Chandler's arm just as the door slams. The cat chuckles, looking up at his human with a grin. Monica moves to the kitchen, pulling out flour, sugar and butter, and turning the oven on, getting ready to bake something.
'What are they up to now?'
Monica smiles, measuring some of the ingredients out and mixing them together. 'Joey is heading out to find the best cookie in all of New York. Chandler is making sure he doesn't destroy a bakery in process, apparently. Really, I think he just wants to try some cookies.'
Kokkur jumps, landing gracefully on the back of the chair next to the table. He leans over the mixing bowl, suggesting a possible flavour combination to use. Monica nods, pulling them out of the cupboards and stirring them in. 'They know they could just ask us to make them food right?'
Monica smirks, spooning the mixture onto a tray and putting it into the oven. She sits down opposite him and winks. 'Of course Chandler does. But I think Joey likes the adventure of going out and finding it for himself. The best cookie must be out there somewhere.'
She looks through the oven door, nodding her head at the food. She pulls it out, shifting them onto a plate. Kokkur smiles, crawling across the table to rest on her lap. 'So why not here?'
Monica stands, holding the plate in one hand and her dæmon in the other. She holds the cookies out, just as Chandler and Joey run in.
Chandler slumps down in the coffee shop's armchair, waiting for the others to arrive. He managed to get out of work a few minutes earlier than usual so he would have to wait a while for them. Brandari rests on the back if the sofa, in case anyone tries to take their friends' spot while they wait.
Chandler yawns, exhausted after all they had done. Brandari looks up from her perch. 'BIt tired.' She smirks but struggles to hold in a yawn.
He shrugs, collapsing further backwards into his chair. 'Could that have been any more stupid. Did you actually learn anything?'
The monkey shakes her head. They had gone through a training day but the managers had separated the men from their dæmons, so that each could learn different things. Chandler and the rest of the men had spent the whole day unable to listen to the speeches, because of the subtle pull to their bonds. It had been horrible.
Brandari looks up as Phoebe walks in, dumping her bag and dæmon on the sofa and heading to the counter to order drinks for the other four. The monkey jumps across to Chandler, landing on his lap and curling up there. Gitaru looks over, smiling slightly as the others walk in, accepting their drinks from Phoebe and sitting down. Brandari holds a hand out to Kokkur as he passes, his tail flicking to touch her palm.
The group sits in companionable silence, each drinking their coffee with a smile. Chandler knows everyone will have something to say about their day but will wait a few seconds to start. Brandari counts down from five on her fingers, Chandler smirking.
'My boss was so-'
'Some of my students-'
'This guy today-'
'I got the new script-'
Chandler scratches Brandari's back, smiling.
Leikari watched as Joey acted on stage, pretending to talk to the owl on his shoulder that wasn't there. Dr Ramoray's dæmon will be edited in later by the visual effects department and be dubbed in but, for now, Joey has to talk to himself, hearing the owl's voice actor in his ear piece.
The possum jumps over to her man as the director calls cut and the set gets cleared up for the day. Joey lifts her to his shoulders, to the place that the owl was imagined to be. She takes a bit of pleasure from that, from proving to the world that she is the actor's soul, not the owl they are used to seeing every weekday in the evening.
Joey steps out onto the sidewalk, heading back to Monica's apartment for drinks and most likely some food. Leikari isn't sure why the chef started feeding them regularly but since Ross and Emily's disastrous wedding, there seems to always be food on the table when he walks in. Enough for anyone who wants it, like Monica is just too happy to stop.
'Wonder what we'll be eating tonight?' Joey says, winking at a girl as she passes. The girl giggles and winks back.
'Dunno.' Leikari shrugs, smiling back at the girls cockatoo dæmon. 'I think Chandler said something about enchiladas. He normally seems to get it right.'
Joey nods, finally coming across the building, heading up the stairs with Leikari jumping onto the bannister to follow him up. 'I hope so. I haven't had Mexican food in ages.'
Leikari nods, finally coming to the right floor and bursting through the door. Chandler looks up, holding out a plate. He takes it easily, settling down at the table. Monica makes the best food in the whole wide world.
Gitaru leaps after Klavieres, running after her as their humans kiss goodbye. The small dog turns just as he reaches her, the two of them tumbling over each other and laughing. Phoebe and Mike look up, smiling and Phoebe picks up her dæmon as Mike and his run out the door. The two of them fall onto the sofa, Phoebe tickling Gitaru and laughing herself.
The cheetoh pushes her off, shaking himself off and nodding towards the guitar in the corner. Phoebe sighs as her hybrid dæmon rolls on the sofa and hits his tail against her leg. The Bengal cat and ocicat mix tilts his head as she picks up the instrument.
'Rachel will be here in ten minutes.' Gitaru reminds his lady. 'She'll want to hear the song you wrote for Ross' birthday.'
Phoebe frowns, eyes flicking to the door then back, 'I haven't written a song for Ross' birthday.'
Her dæmon smiles, tail swishing. 'I know. But Rachel doesn't.'
Phoebe freezes, clutching the guitar to herself as if that will bring some sort of inspiration. A knock on the door makes her jump and run into the toilet. Gitaru shakes his head, shouting for Rachel to come in. Hazi flies around the whole room before swirling back to land next to Gitaru's head on the sofa, perching on the arm with his head tilted. The cheetoh touches his nose to the swallow's wing before twisting and looking at Rachel.
'Phoebe will be out in a minute.'
Rachel smiles, sitting down on the armchair and taking out her phone, sending off a text. 'I don't know if she will but Monica said she'll try to make it. She really wants to hear the song though.'
Gitaru turns to the bathroom, where Phoebe is hiding. 'Yeah, so do I.'
Klavieres sits on the chair, watching the six dæmons in a dog pile in front of the television. The cheetoh, her cheetoh, is on the bottom with the cat and the swallow resting on his back. The lizard is next to the cheetoh, one claw stretching out to the swallow and the monkey is leant against the cat's side, the possum lying on her chest. Mike looks over at his dog dæmon, eyebrow raised.
'Why don't you join them?'
Klavieres shrugs, smiling. 'Gitaru's enjoying himself, I won't intrude at the moment. I'll join in at the moment.'
Mike nods, scratching behind her ear and leaning back in his seat. They are sat at the table, Phoebe and her friends perched on the sofas in front of them. Phoebe turns slightly to smile at him and he smiles back, German Shepard dæmon grinning next to him. She stands anyway, walking over to him and wrapping an arm around his shoulders.
'You two alright?'
Gitaru has pushed the covers off and is looking at Klavieres. The dog shakes her head, moving to join the pile. The other dæmons fall on her, as she's the biggest.
'Yeah.' Mike nods. 'Just watching your friends.'