"It was gonna eat me!"
"Oh, for fucks sake--"
"It was gonna eat me, and you were going to let it!"
There was an aggravated sigh in response, and after a moment of examining the corpse of what had attacked them the Corinthian stood. "And if you had just shut your beak and listened to me," he replied irritably, wiping clumps of red stained snow from his pants. "For just half a second, it wouldn't have gotten you."
"You were laughing, jackass!" Matthew snapped, glaring down at the nightmare from his spot in the tree. He was about to continue, but all that followed was a pained squawk. Maybe it was best if he didn't move that wing for a while....
The raven, surprisingly, got no reply. No jabbing taunts, no pissy comments. After carefully looking over his injured limb--and futilely trying to straighten the worst of the mangled feathers--he turned back to find the man merely staring up at him, and even with the shades in place Matthew couldn't help the intense feeling of unease that crept over him. He was further startled when the nightmare then reached up a hand to him.
"Come here. I'll take a look at your wing." It almost sounded sincere. But Matthew only looked at him suspiciously and hopped away.
"Fuck you."
"Alright then, birdie, stay up there and freeze for all I care."
A small pause followed, and neither of them moved. After some moments, though, the raven cursed to himself and moved forward, cautiously jumping from the branch onto the nightmare's hand. He sat in disgruntled silence as the man proceeded to examine his injured appendage, and even had the decency to keep from snapping at him again as he was painfully poked and prodded. As it turned out, it wasn't quite as bad as he had expected; the nightmare was being surprisingly careful to not make it any worse than it already was.
And it seemed he was in for more surprises. Matthew gave another startled squawk as he was suddenly taken and cradled to the others chest, jacket being wrapped around him to keep him warm and secure. Before he could protest they started moving, and the Corinthian was speaking again.
"I don't know what the hell it did to you back there, but Dream could fix it right up."
Matthew only "hmphed" in reply, squirming slightly in an attempt to get at least somewhat comfortable. "Working with you is a goddamn occupational hazard," he muttered. The nightmare just grinned.
"And yet," he started, looking down at the raven from over the top of his sunglasses. "You're safer with me than you are with anyone else. I promise."
"I don't like you."
"You're not supposed to."
And they said nothing else for the rest of the trip home, though Matthew found himself silently cursing each one of those damned grins.