Disclaimer: This is (in case you haven't noticed where you are) a fanfic, meaning that none of these characters belong to me in any way, shape, or form. I claim nothing other than actually writing this lil ficlet. I hope you like it!

"What?" the pudgy manager looked around. "I thought you guys said you liked broccoli, so I added it in." He stirred the soup, watching the little green pieces bob in the broth.

"Phil! You can't seriously be this dense!" Mallory backed away from the pot in open revulsion.

"Wing would lay half a dozen eggs if I fed him this!" Nosedive sniffled. His brother was practically dying as it was, he certainly wasn't going to help him along.

It'd been nearly two weeks since the aliens first appeared and they were all sick to some degree or another. Wildwing and Grin were bed ridden, quarantined in one of Phil's guest rooms while toughing out a week long fever. Tanya was doing her best to treat them all while staggering through her own illness. The worst part was that Phil didn't know what to do. The group was barely even eating now and he was worrying himself sick about them. He stood to lose thousands, if not millions if these birds didn't get better soon. So, he decided to make a hearty chicken noodle soup, just like Nana used to make. He even got creative adding broccoli, seeing as how they had all loved the little green plant when they first tried it out.

"Maybe I should have just stuck with carrots," he muttered to himself.

Before any more arguing could resume, the kitchen door swung opened and Duke made his way in, a blanket wrapped around his shoulders. "Somet'ing smells good," he perked up making his way to the table. "Oh! That looks good," he picked up a bowl and spoon that had been set next to the pot.

"It's chicken soup!" Mallory slapped his hand away from the pot.

"It's delicious, is what it is," Phil praised himself, but was quickly miffed by the duck's decision to not even try it.

Duke literally dropped the spoon, beak agape, and stared daggers at the pot-bellied human.

"What!?" Phil whined. "You haven't even tried it!"

"Phil! We're ávere not raptrín."

"Avene-what?" The human mangled the word.

"Ávere," Duke repeated unsure of himself. Did humans even have a word to mean what he was trying to get at? He was sure they did. "Wha'da ya call 'em?" His mind raced to recall the word he was looking for as he snapped his fingers a few times. "Herberbs..? Herbvorbers..? Plant based diet only. Ya follow?" The grey drake hoped that the human would catch on because he wasn't exactly sure how to explain himself any better.

Phil looked down at the pot once more and it finally clicked. "Ohhhh…" he looked slightly embarrassed as he covered the soup. "I didn't mean to-"

"No offense taken," Duke cut him short as he sniffled. They'd have to be patient with the human just as much as he had to be patient with them. It was eerie to realize how similar yet vastly different their languages were. Certain words held one meaning in one world and a completely different one in the other while others just didn't translate or even exist at all.

Duke turned to face the other two ducks and sighed. "Couldn't ya two just 'xplain it ta 'im? I don't expect any of 'em ta be experts on ducks," he waved a hand referring to the human race in general.

"Wait, you have chickens on your world?" Phil suddenly realized. "Are they, you know, like you? All humanoid and stuff?"

The three ducks eyed the human curiously. "Well, yeah," Nosedive affirmed. "What else would they look like? And, can we, you know, get rid of that thing?" he pointed at the offending pot of soup. "Even if you're joking, it ain't cool, man!"

Phil was silent for a moment, glancing between the three and the pot. A new thought blossomed in his mind and he cringed.

"It ain't that confussin'," Duke took a seat at the table, misreading the human's expression as puzzlement. Phil blinked at him and the duck chuckled to himself. The grey bird took it upon himself to enlighten the human a little about themselves. "Our system is made of three 'abitable planets. Our world's the furthest from our star and mostly all ice an' ducks. There are other birds, o' course, but they prefer the clos'r, warm'r planets. Some of them oth'r birds are raptrín."

"Rap tin..?"

"Raptrín," he corrected before shaking his head and simply giving up trying to correct the human's pronunciation. "Close enough. Raptrín are, I think ya call 'em, 'birds of prey'?" he ventured. "They'll eat oth'r birds an' meat."

"Oh," Phil nodded.

"Way before the first Saurian Conquest, raptrín would attack ávere. Ta eat us and try ta expand their territory," his feathers ruffled at the morbid thought. "But through some lengthy war a very long, long time 'go, we all struck a deal. They left us 'lone and we left 'em 'lone. Since then, the inn'r most planet farms oth'r animals for the raptrín and our world trades wools an' precious stones fo' food we can't grow in the snow an' ice. And ev'ryone lives happily ev'r after."

"Give or take," Mallory nodded at the extremely abbreviated history lesson as she heated water for some hot chocolate.

Chocolate, it turned out, was another one of those new things to them. But unlike the broccoli, they seemed to love this treat as much as humans. They were even more ecstatic when they realized that it came in a variety of savory forms and flavors. It was even a drink! If they ever found a way back home, Mallory was hell bent on taking a tree with her. At least Phil said it grew on a tree. She'd have to confirm that later.

"So what do you guys eat when you're sick?" Phil asked.

"Not other birds," Nosedive shivered at the thought.

"Yeah, about that," Phil brought his hand to the back of his neck. He wasn't sure how he was going to explain to them that duck was also a dish many earthlings enjoyed. How does anyone even begin to explain that?! Well, he didn't have to do it now, but he'd have to tell them preferably sooner rather than later. Hopefully he'd remember before they ever saw it on a menu or something.

"So, I take it humans eat chickens?" Mallory shuddered at the thought as she received a nod from her new manager. She sighed dismayed. "They're probably small and stupid like the other Earth birds, huh? I guess there's no helping that. And you probably eat it too, right Phil?" Another nod confirmed her suspicion. "Whatever," she brought the four mugs of hot chocolate to the table. "Just don't eat it in front of us, please."

"No problem." He'd probably have to give up breakfast omelet burritos as well. He watched the three take sips of their drinks and was glad that he didn't have any eggs in the fridge either. Who knows what kind of a monster they would have taken him for then.

"Next you'll be telling us you also eat ducks!" Nosedive added jokingly as he placed his mug down. The other two chuckled, sipping their hot drinks.

Phil froze. He set his mug down on the countertop quietly. "You know, I think we need to have a group talk about Earth," he smiled nervously at the members of his new hockey team.

~ * End * ~

A/N: Not long ago, in the darkest recesses of my wardrobe, I came upon an ancient tome from my childhood. It was filled with lore and illustrations that I had once hastily scribbled as a child.

LOL! Yes, I found an old notebook with little stories (which, now that I've grown up, know them to be fanfics) that I had written out as a kid. One of them struck a cord with me and I have been trying to write it out in story form for about two months now. And while trying to hash it out, this little plotbunny cuddled up next to me, urging me to have some fun. And I have. I'm sure it's not an original idea (I haven't read through many Might Ducks fics here), but I still hope you enjoyed the read.

On a final note, I simply made up "ávere" and put an accent on "raptrin". I noticed a few stories calling Falcone "raptrin" and had no idea where it was coming from until I read his character's wiki page. It struck me as odd that the ducks are labeled "humanoid" while Falcone was singled out as "raptrin". At first I thought that whoever edited the wiki page meant to put "raptor" (which is the word used for birds of prey), but then thought that it could have very well been the series writers who where creating the series' world. So, in the end I decided to go with the thought that it was the creators building their little world and added my tiny little twist to it.