Percy had been waiting outside the cafe for a while.

Occupying the waiting time, Percy was scrolling through his phone, hoping from his forum threads to his text message inbox while shivering a bit despite his fur coat covered by a red puffy suit and a green scarf. 

Suddenly a text came in and Percy immediately went to his message inbox. On the top of the page was a new message from Philidelphia however the message thread was labeled ‘Philly’. 

He pressed the thread and saw a message; ‘I’m almost there.’

Percy texted back.

‘Okay,’

He went back to his inbox and glanced at it for a second.  Below Philidelphias’s thread was Sophia’s thread which was last updated a month ago. Below Sophia’s thread was the group chat with Sophia, Philly, Ned, and George which was last updated last year in the middle of November. 

Percy recalled a time when that abandoned thread was at the peak of his inbox while the then-unnamed thread belonging to Philidelphia lay below it. Naturally, Percy fixated on the top thread investigating that thread briefly before being overwhelmed by the lengthy conversation. 

He went over to Philidelphia’s thread which was more condensed and quite upfront. He was basically checking in, noting how “hammered” Percy was last night. Percy confirmed that he was doing alright, apologized for drooling on his window, and thanked him for taking him to his dorm. He wasn’t sure what kept him connected to Philidelphia, the surprisingly helpful advice he had for tending a hangover, the advice he had on taking care of his now deceased plant, or the fact that he was willing to help him out with the paper he had due on Wednesday, or maybe it was the fact they had a weirdly long conversation about prehistoric dragons. 

Whatever it was that made Percy stay connected with him, well, it sure made him stay. And just as he was deep in his thought about Philidelphia he seemed to manifest in front of him.

“Hey.” Philadelphia squinted his eye and waved.

“ Hey…” Percy looked at Philly’s white, brown-tinted, smudged muscle shirt. “Coming back from sculpting class, huh.”

“Oh, how did you…” Philidelphia looked down at his shirt. “Oh… heh. Oops.”

“No, it’s fine.” Percy smiled. “How was it today?”

“It was pretty busy,” Philly responded. 

“I can tell.” Percy smiled

“Are you doing alright?” Philly asked. “Your shivering.”

“I’m alright.” Percy chuckled. “Are you alright? You're wearing a muscle tee in, like, 30-degree weather.”

“I’m pretty adaptable.” Philadelphia shrugged. “But you probably should have waited inside or something.”

“I didn’t want them to think I was loitering or anything,” Percy explained.

“Uh… okay.” Philadelphia gestured to the Cafe. “Then we should probably go in now.”

“Great idea,” Percy said as he began to walk inside. 

…

“It’s pretty good right!?” Philly squinted his eye excitedly as he watched Percy sip down a Red Hot Chocolate, this odd blend of red velvet and hot cocoa, through a thin red straw.

“Yeah, your right.” Percy added, “This stuff is great! Maybe you don’t have such bad taste.”

“Woah Woah Woah” Philidelphia shook his head. “What’s that supposed to mean.”

“You kept bragging about that pumpkin spice ice cream,” Percy remarked. “And it was not good at all.”

“Hey, first off don’t you dare insult their pumpkin spice ice cream,” Philly leaned forward. “That stuff is the bomb.”

“Your right,” Percy replied. “That stuff bombed my tastebuds beyond repair. It’s a miracle that I can taste anything at all.”

“Maybe it's your taste thats bad,” Philidelphia raised his voice. “That burger joint we went to the other day had some soggy fries.”

“Thats why I don’t order the curly fries, Philly.” Percy gave Philly a smug grin. “Maybe you could have listened to me you wouldn’t have had to eat them.”

“You didn’t tell me that,” Philly remarked leaning forwards. 

“Nope, I totally did,” Percy snapped back, leaning forwards. “You just weren’t paying attention.”

“You… ugh, whatever.” Philly felt defeated. “Well, I’m glad you like this at least.”

Percy took another sip, and Philidelphia decided to do the same. Philidelphia looked up at Percy who was still sipping his drink.

“Do you condition your hair?” Philly pointed. “It’s like super bouncy.”

Percy looked forward with his eyelids raised.

“Not really.” Percy laughed. “It’s always kind of like this.”

“Really?” Philidelphia tilted his head. “That’s super weird.”

“My hair just naturally acts like this.” Percy bounced his hair a bit with his front hooves. 

“Huh, I’ve never seen anything like that.” Philidelphia shrugged. “Can’t really judge though, I smell like cherry blossoms sometimes.”

“Sometimes?” Percy emphasized. 

“Yeah, some days, it's lavender, most times its pine, but some days its strawberry,” Philly listed. “One time, I smelled like oranges. Usually, my family smells like fish or rotting flesh so I think it's a genetic defect”

“I mean, at least you do smell nice,” Percy shrugged. “What do you usually prefer to smell like? If that question even made any sense.”

“Good question, actually.” Philly looked up. “Cinnamon”

“Cinnamon?” Percy tilted his head. “Interesting…”

“Heh, yeah, sometimes I smell like Cinnamon when I get excited.” Philly squinted his eyes. He took another gulp of his drink and put it back down. “Did you see that Crystal Egg exhibit that I told you about?”

“Oh shoot,” Percy jumped. “No, I didn’t, I was meaning to go.”

“Oh, thats fine” Philly scoffed. “We can go after this once you are done.” 

“ You sure?” Percy asked. “It's all the way in New York City.”

“Yeah, sure,” Philly smirked. “Let’s go for it.”

… 

Percy ran over to a display case on the right side of the room as soon as he entered the Crystal Eggs exhibit. 

Philidelphia tried to tail behind him however the long flight over to the city already had him mostly winded causing him to wonder how Percy had so much energy while also regretting his last-second decision to make this trip.

Percy was now looking at a blue crystal egg that contained a fossilized bird-like creature. 

“Thats one of those Southern Andes Thunder Birds,” Philly stated.

“No.” Percy turned around immediately. “Thats totally a Japanese Spring Pheonix. The egg has more of a violet hue”

Philidelphia looked at Percy, while Percy looked at Philly. They both stared each other down with neutral gazes yet the prolonged silence between the two gave them an ambiance that exuded competitive energy. Simultaneously, they both the plaque almost directly below which only confirmed Percy’s guess.

“Ha ha !” Percy gawked. “Gotcha.”

“Oh yeah.” Philly narrowed his eyes. “You totally did. But I know what that one is.”

He gestured over to the bright orangy red egg with a fossilized dragon at the top left corner of the Spring Pheonix egg.

“Thats a Yellow Ruby,” Philly remarked.

“Oh wow, you…” Percy paused. “You read the plaque didn’t you?” 

“No.” Philly scoffed, hoping that Percy would buy it. Percy still squinted his eyes. “Yeah… Yeah, I did…I bet you read the plaque too, Percy.”

“Nope, I was able to guess it was a Yellow Ruby because they have round stumpy horns on the tip of their snouts so that they can get out of their eggs, and a Pink Ruby has a slightly longer round horn which develops into sharper longer horns into…” Percy looked at Philly who was blankly staring at him. “I’m sorry, I got carried away…”

“Oh no, Don’t apologize ” Philly squinted his eyes happily and curled his lower tentacles a bit which made it look like Philly was smiling. “I actually think it's very interesting. I wouldn’t mind if you spoke about it for an hour honestly.”

“Really?” Percy tilted his head.

“Heh heh, sure” Philly close his eyes and curled his tentacles upward again.

Percy didn’t know how to feel about that. He didn’t think he could go on for that long about a subject but for the rest of the time spent there, he managed to do it without it feeling like much of a bother.