Project: Neverbound (A Double Life AU fanfic)

1 - Recognizable

The last person at the table was the one person Tango recognized off the bat. His hair was a dark brown, so dark that the bright green streak in it almost made it seem black. He wore a white long sleeved tunic under a brown mini vest, along with brown pinstripe pants and dark brown boots with ribbed patterns on both sides.  The only reason he remembered this person so well was because his clothing reminded him of Shrek, and no one else back in his high school years had a notable outfit like that.

"Joel!" Tango happily greeted. Joel looked up at Tango for less than a second before returning the same joyous energy.

"Tango!" Joel exclaimed, reaching across the table to give the creature a firm handshake. "I can't believe you're here, we haven't seen each other since, what, high school?"

Tango could already feel the "what did I tell you" energy radiating off of his partner. 

"Yeah, it's been a good while. How're you and Lizzie doing?" He asked.

"Pretty good actually!  We just had our 2 year anniversary a few weeks ago,"

That statement got Tango to notice the smooth silver ring on Joel's ring finger. "You guys got married?! Congrats dude!"

"Oh, yeah! I found out who my soulbound was too with all that time in between," Joel said, pointing with his thumb over to the fox-hybrid sitting diagonally from him, getting the grey-haired man to look over at the mention of him.  "Etho's been a real team player since we found out though, I feel like I haven't been hurt by anything from him for a while now,"

"Yeah, 'cause you're always the one nicking your finger on a kitchen knife and waking me up at 2 am because you wanted midnight apple slices, someone's gonna have to be the responsible one here," Etho chuckled.

"Hey, if you had a nickel for every time that actually happened, you'd only have 2 nickels," Joel argued, "that ain't a lot buddy."

"Still weird that it happened twice," Etho said.

"Hey now-"

"You're an all star,"

No one at the table was ready for Etho's immediate Smash Mouth reaction. The whole group collectively bursted into a bubble of laughing and giggling, probably causing a whole lot of confusion to the other people around them.  Speaking of confusion...

"Wait, guys, where's Norman?" Jimmy asked, finally taking a look around and realizing his cat companion was no longer with him.

"Uhh yeah Joel where is Norman?" Etho asked, turning back to his bound.

"Don't try to pin anything on me!  I thought he was talking to Scar when he asked to watch the cat!" Joel said.

"Now hold on buster, I already have a cat to watch," Scar said, picking up the white and grey tabby from his lap, "Jellie is enough of a handful as it is thank you,"

"Oh yeah, such a trouble maker that one," Joel said sarcastically. 

"Oh my goodness, NORMAN!" Jimmy said, rubbing his face in the palms of his hands before calling out to his cat, "Please come back so I don't look like an idiot for calling your name!"

"Oh, is this your cat?"

A group of 3 people stepped up to the table. The person off to the left had blonde hair and a pair of square glasses over his eyes, but the extent of his eyewear actually ended at the pair of steampunk goggles resting by the strap off his neck like a necklace. Off-white wings fell from the back of his shoulder blades, accompanied by a smaller pair of wings on each side of his head. He wore a red turtleneck sweater that just nearly avoided the definition of "oversized", black joggers, and black and white tennis shoes.