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Gabriel, in the long, slow walk that brought them back to his father's apartment, had finally discovered the real meaning of 'work'. When he was younger, less learned than he had become as of now, he had whined when he had to take out trash, or when he had to sell Damien's trinkets, or when he had to steal things that were actually worth stealing without getting caught. But no. That was absolutely nothing by comparison to what the two of them had been expected to do tonight. Allowed to venture out by themselves for the first time since they'd been given to Fifth -having reached the stage of independence, the gryphon had informed them both- they had walked for what felt like, and probably had been, many miles, toward the outskirts of the city. From when they arrived, a time around 7:40 in the morning, they were put to work, lifting boxes, moving boxes, packing large, heavy, wrapped objects.

For the first time, Gabriel felt sore all over. His muscles ached; those in his arms, his legs, his back - even his fingers felt worked to the bone, as though they would never be of good use to him again. The two boys didn't have much choice but to move, however, forced to plod home through the snow, falling in steady clumps across the ground and burying their poorly-covered feet in water that was so cold that it may as well have been frozen.

There was, however, a light side to the situation. Something that kept them pushing onward, driving toward the place that they slept tucked away in a small room, hidden like secret treasures from the lecherous and lonely of Fifth's formidable gang. A weight in Gabriel's pocket; though it was nothing more than the weight of a feather, it seemed to carry so much more with it, and for every step that he took, Gabriel could feel the weight of the money that he held with him. He and Damien were good workers, the men had said, and fun conversation. Collectively, he and Damien had earned themselves seventy-seven dollars. The seven of them, for the first time that they'd ever had a chance, had been given to them under the title of 'spending money'. Now, they may be sore and unhappy from such work, but that was one thing that kept their spirits high.

Yet regardless of all of these things, Gabriel did not like the snow. And if there was one part of his body that still wasn't tired, it was his mouth.

"This is stupid..." he grumbled, no holds barred in how loud he was going to complain. After all, it's not like there was anyone around to be mad at him for it. "We spend an entire day -thirteen hours, Damien!- just moving s**t as big as we are from a room to a truck and back, and then the sky just decides to puke all over us! 'Nd Dad prob'ly couldn't pay the 'lectricity or heating bill again, so we'll be cold and in the dark and we prob'ly won't even be able to get back to our room without uth- using the fire escape or tripping over, like, a thousand people. Stupid snow 'n' working 'n'... stupid."

Cheyenne twitched once a pair of voices were able to reach his ears, but at that point, they had already come around the corner. He hesitated to turn around, preferring to pretend to keep his attention on his brother, but the sound of someone falling over after the snowball had flown past it's target unnerved him. He noticed Iridian perk up, surprised that he was actually able to hit something despite his severe depth perception problems but seemingly unconcerned over whether or not that actually hurt, his curiosity elsewhere. "Is that..?" he nearly whispered, trying to see past the snowdrifts to pinpoint who he was sensing. He recognized that aura!

When their names were called -- perhaps even before then -- Iridian's face was immediately washed over with a huge grin. Cheyenne jumped, gingerly turning his gaze around, as if he were about to get into trouble, pale fingers fidgeting with one another. It was probably to his own relief as well when the bolder of the twins hopped onto his feet, narrowly avoiding slipping from the branch, and called over, "Heeey, Damien! Yeah, it's us!" He seemed to have conveniently forgotten the question, preferring to keep the atmosphere light-hearted.

However, Cheyenne knew that not answering might make matters worse. Frowning, he watched as Iridian hopped down from the tree to run over to the other pair of twins. He didn't want to get him in trouble, but he was being so irresponsible, so... idiotic! Flustering, he called after his brother, "You have such horrible aim!" Almost instantaneously, his face reddened as though the sun had just come out, and he started off in the other direction, to hide behind the tree that his brother had just vacated. Oh my God, I can't believe... so much anger! His heart was racing a mile a minute as he tried to hide from any attention he may have just instigated to himself.

Iridian flashed a sheepish smile, though he wasn't expecting the outburst. Well, it couldn't be avoided now, could it? "S-Sorry 'bout that. I was trying to hit Ennie, but he moved outta the way!" he elaborated, his meekness quickly reverting back to curiosity, "Didn' know I could throw that far, though! You okay?" He tried to dust some of the snow from Damien's shoulders, finding it slightly amusing that he could reach that far up now when he couldn't the last time they had met.

Turning to Gabriel, he waved cheerfully, "Hiya, I'm Ri--" He cleared his throat, remembering to add an I to the beginning of his name before reiterating, "--Iridian. Where you guys headed? Or were you out to play in the snow, too?" No, it didn't cross his mind that for most anyone else, playing outside in the dead of night might be looked at as a little strange. Cheyenne peeked out from behind the tree, watching them interact and making sure that any and all attention was off of him.

Unfortunately for most of the people involved, Gabriel wasn't in a very good mood, and his patience DNA tended toward making his moods very persistent. Especially the bad ones, as strange as that might sound considering he didn't really have the ability to get furious. The sudden yelling made him jump in surprise, his tail flicking back and forth like that of an angry cat. He gave a soft sigh before yawning softly. He was tired and cold and he just wanted to get home, but that apparently wasn't going to happen, considering the fact that Damien had just followed the little fluffy white thing that had hidden behind a tree and... ugh. Why could they not just go home? It was already going to be awful there, at least they could give themselves more time to crawl over all of the sleeping bodies in the stupid living room.

His arms folded across his chest as he breathed into the air, watching the crystals of ice form in the freezing air. When he was confronted, his slight glare turned on Iridian, ears and headwings tipped back in very obvious irritation. He slowly blinked at the boy, the expression on his face very bluntly reading that he didn't care who this boy was, what his name was, whether or not it was being said properly, and he was definitely not out here by any choice of his own.

"Hi. Gabriel," he replied curtly, holding back anything else he felt like saying. None of it was really mean or anything, just all irate complaining about people being happy in this weather when he really, really wasn't. "Until my brother decided to chathe- chase after your's, we were supposed to be going home. We've been walking for over a half an hour. And, no, we're not out to play in the snow." He sighed irritably, looking over to his distracted brother. He wanted to go home.