Kev stood there, stunned, as he took in the scene.
Max, looking deeply uncomfortable, was hovering a few feet down the hallway, pretending to inspect a window frame. Cindy stood directly outside Talon's apartment door, her hands planted firmly on her hips, her usual serene grace replaced by a rigid, indignant posture.
"Intercourse institution?!" Cindy yelled, her voice sharp and ringing down the hall. "How did you even learn such vulgar words?!"
"You think that's vulgar?!" Sabrina's voice came from inside the apartment, loud and clear. "How about this... FUCK OFF!"
Cindy's eyes went wide, and she shouted back, "When they told me you were injured, I did not think it was your head!"
"DUUUUURRRRR!" Sabrina yelled. "My brain is so fucked up, I forgot how to walk, and I apparently forgot this old bitch deer is my mom!"
"You!" Cindy shrieked, then yelled, "You will behave properly in this house!"
Cindy slammed the door shut and turned to Max. "I have never in all my life..." Her words trailed off as she saw Kev standing in the hall. Max turned and noticed Kev too, a pained expression on his foxy features.
"I see you've met Sabrina," Kev said with a nervous laugh. Cindy was so scary. She didn't look it, but Kev reminded himself often about how she was the Machiavellian mastermind behind some of Fang's more... sensitive... business decisions.
"I know who she is," Cindy said, her voice a low, seething hiss. "And I don't think a feral child like that can understand a name with so many syllables."
Cindy turned and marched away down the hall.
"Wait..." Kev raised his hand, wanting to ask her about the door in the hall that had triggered Fang, but she was already gone.
"Sorry, bub," Max said with a knowing grin. "Probably not the best time. That raid yesterday seems like it was interesting."
Kev nodded. "A good day to have off, huh?"
"Ha!" Max laughed as he turned to follow Cindy. "Now I got to deal with the fallout!"
Kev watched him leave before knocking on the door.
"What, Mom?! You forget your cane?!" Sabrina pulled the door open, a defiant scowl on her beak.
"No," Kev said with a raised eyebrow and a smile, "but I brought some breakfast." He raised the bag.
"Oh, it's you," Sabrina said. "Ugh. Come in, you bitch."
Kev stepped into the apartment. The bright sun poured in through the balcony doors making the newly installed hardwood floors gleam. Talon's history book sat open on the coffee table, a testament to his quiet morning. A discarded sweater was draped over one of the armchairs, and a single, colorful magazine lay on the floor near the couch, small signs of life in the otherwise pristine space.
"You in a good mood because you're up early?" Kev asked, putting the bag on the counter.
"Shut up," Sabrina pointed her chair at Kev. "You went out to a fashion show and didn't invite me! Do you hate me?! Is it because the radiation that burned off all your fur makes you an asshole?!"
Kev's shoulders slumped. Sabrina had basically been trapped in the club since she'd arrived. No communication online, no phone, no way to talk with her friends or do her hobbies. Kev understood how long the days could be in the club, and he knew she just wanted something to do.
"I'm sorry," Kev said. "I was just a plus-one. I couldn't invite you."
"But you could have tried!" Sabrina said, crossing her arms and pointing her beak into the air.
"Mr. Kev isn't responsible for your entertainment, sister," Talon's rasp murmured from somewhere in the room.
Kev looked over. There, sitting quietly on the couch, his face buried in his hands, was Talon. He was so still, so withdrawn, that Kev hadn't even noticed him sitting there until now.
Sabrina turned her chair to face her brother. "Oh, and now you speak?" She rolled over to him. "You let that old hag come in and wake me up just to tell me to not have a potty mouth? Do you think I care what she says?"
"Madam Cindy is a manager," Talon said, still not lifting his face. "She is very... pragmatic."
"Oh no!" Sabrina put her arms up in the air in mock horror. "The grandma is mad that the lion-zaddy looked up at me! She just wants that big cat all to herself!"
"What happened?" Kev asked from the kitchen, where he was pulling out grounds for coffee.
"Madam Cindy wanted to talk with Sabrina about her vocabulary," Talon said. "Everyone heard sister yell... 'I...'" Talon's voice was barely audible. "...went poo-poo'."
Sabrina laughed. "Don't forget that I wanted help wiping!"
Talon just groaned and fell over on his side on the couch.
Kev shook his head. "You know, Cindy has been working here for a really long time. This is basically her home, too."
"Good for her," Sabrina said dismissively. "This place is massive. She can stay down in the cellar."
"Come on, Sabrina," Kev said with a grin. "She's a classy lady."
Sabrina's head snapped to Kev. "Are you saying I'm not classy?"
Kev raised his eyebrows and shrugged as he turned and filled the kettle with water. "Define classy."
"You're such a geek!" Sabrina said with a dramatic sigh. "She's mad I said 'poo-poo' when you can pay cash for ass downstairs!" Sabrina waved her arm. "She's pretend-classy."
"Apparently, this place isn't a brothel," Kev said, lighting the stove.
"Yeah, no shit," Sabrina replied. "The most infamous place in the city would have been shut down by now if it was a real whorehouse."
Kev frowned. He should have thought of that. Fang had called the club the most popular attraction in the city. If it was operating under the table, it would have been shut down. Not only that, but even during Fang's public episodes, they had made a deal with the city regarding the park. He would have never guessed that Lanon was a therapist, but he should have realized something was off about the business. Apparently, this was something so obvious that everyone assumed he knew.
"You're the real one she should be yelling at," Sabrina continued. "I don't even have any of those joints now because you're some weird endangered species, and the city knows you haven't been milked recently."
"Sabrina!" Talon shouted as he sat up.
"Ugh," Sabrina said, "and it's so bright in here this early." She wheeled over to the balcony door and turned around, the intense morning light framing her dramatically. The bright sun backlit her poncho-like tee-shirt, transforming her into a striking, almost ethereal silhouette. Her dark feathers absorbed the light, making the vibrant colors on her shirt seem to glow, and her slender, avian frame was a study in defiant, dramatic lines against the brilliant backdrop. "It's so early," she declared. "Let's get real breakfast."
Kev looked at his bag of bagels and cheese and the kettle on the stove. "Real breakfast?" he asked.
"I will not pay eight dollars for two eggs at a restaurant," Talon rasped. "We can go to the grocery store and get some if you want."
"No, brother," Sabrina said. "Did you forget? Ms. Reepia said she would make breakfast if we went down to the kitchen."
"Oh, yeah," Kev said. "It's still pretty early. They might be finishing up dishes if it was a long night."
Sabrina rolled towards Kev. "Let's go then! I want to see Ms. Reepia and ask her how she cooked the chicken last night, anyway."
"So you two ended up getting a meal last night after I went to bed?" Kev was happy that Sabrina wasn't stuck in the room alone the whole night.
"Yes," Talon said while standing up, resigning himself to his sister's whims. "Ms. Reepia was very kind and gave Sabrina a free meal."
"Of course she did!" Sabrina pulled open the apartment door and headed towards the elevator. "She knows I'm the only thing keeping this place from falling apart!"
Kev laughed as he followed her. "You sure do make the day shift interesting."
"You're a hellion," Talon said as he pulled the apartment door shut behind him.
They traveled down the elevator and across the lower east wing, chatting about what they might have for breakfast.
"...so just be careful if you ask for pancakes," Kev said as they approached the kitchen doors next to the main bar.
Sabrina rolled ahead to the swinging kitchen door. It was a sturdy, industrial-looking door, its stainless steel surface gleaming even in the dim light of the hallway. A small, circular window with wire mesh embedded in the glass was set at eye level, offering a distorted, fish-eye glimpse into the kitchen beyond. Kev remembered it from his second day, when he'd exited that very door after washing dishes for a cup of coffee.
But unlike that chaotic morning, it was quiet now as Sabrina pushed herself into the dimly lit kitchen.
The space was a cavern of gleaming stainless steel. Long prep islands, their surfaces scrubbed clean, ran down the center of the room. A few clean ashtrays sat on the islands, the only sign of the chefs' brief moments of respite. Rows of professional-grade gas ovens and stoves stood silent against one wall, their grates and burners immaculate. In the back, the massive, three-basin dishwashing station was empty, the draining racks neatly stacked with clean pots and pans. Clear, airtight containers filled with all sorts of colorful spices and seasonings were arranged on shelves with military precision. Large, white, food-grade buckets were stacked neatly near a short hallway that led deeper into the back of house. The back door and a few high windows let in the morning light, which reflected off the clean steel surfaces, making the entire room look cold, sterile, and expectant, a sleeping giant waiting for the nightly storm of activity.
"It's a bit tight in here," Sabrina said as she rolled between the counters and stoves.
"Please do not touch anything," Talon said, trying to stay as close to the door as possible. "This is Ms. Reepia's kitchen."
"Yeah, yeah," Sabrina replied, her hand already reaching for a container of cooking oil.
"They really do a good job keeping this place clean," Kev said, inspecting the dish sink. It was already dry, and there wasn't a dirty dish in sight.
"They missed this, though," Sabrina said, pointing to one of the counters that had a large sheet of plastic wrap stretched taut over it, and next to it, a heavy, gleaming cleaver.
That was odd. Kev couldn't remember seeing any knives in the kitchen before, or even washing anything sharper than dull, serrated steak knives when he was here last. He remembered how many cooks would tend to their own irons, but not seeing a single knife, even now looking around, was strange. But there on the counter sat a butcher's cleaver.
"Well, I'll have to let Ms. Reepia know the cooks are slacking," Sabrina said, reaching out to grab salt and pepper shakers from another counter.
"Don't bother Ms. Reepia," Talon said. "And don't touch her things."
Sabrina had grabbed a pan and was now rolling towards a stove. "Oh, be quiet, brother. Why don't you find me some eggs to cook?"
Talon sighed and looked around. "I don't see any."
"I think the little hallway next to the buckets is the pantry," Kev said, a flicker of memory from his old high school jobs back on Earth surfacing.
Talon nodded and carefully walked through the kitchen.
As Talon got to the buckets and was about to turn the corner, he froze. There, emerging from the short hallway, was a vulture-man in a crisp, red cook's uniform. He was holding half a pig over his shoulder, its trotters dangling limply. Sticking out of the vulture's beak was a large, half-gnawed bone.
"Talon, wait!" Kev shouted, not wanting the eager eagle to attack the cook.
When the vulture registered the others in the kitchen, he froze too, his dark eyes going wide. He slowly swallowed. The bone disappeared into his beak. "It's not what it looks like," he croaked, his voice hoarse. "I'm not scavenging!"