Johnny was already nervous. Meeting in such a public place, regardless of the company that such 'public' kept, had him on edge in spite of how casual the environment viewed his type. Nobody would notice such a meeting as the thumping music and others having their own loud conversations about rules regarding a game of pool. Still, for a tweaker, all eyes were on him.
The guttural snarl caused the salamander to almost jump out of his skin, in the process of prematurely shedding due to how he scratched himself on a rolled up sleeve didn't help as his eyes panned across the venue.

"Hey! H-hey, yeah...how ya doin Freddy?" They started, chuckling with a bit of familiarity before quickly clearing his throat and launching into the next bit with little time to form a response. "Yeah! No...yeah, not much. Been sitting here for a while and- a [i]while![/i] Where- no, yeah, nevermind, sorry" He corrected himself, doing his best to focus on the lion whose presence comforted him only enough to bring himself to take a quick deep breath. "People chasing angels, that wreck on third? Heh, nawh...yeah, traffic is hell, ya see?" they tried to joke before awkwardly flourishing a series of mint greens and ambers across their skin before settling on their typical dull maroon. "S-so...Its kinda chaos here. It's been pretty understaffed, but otherwise it's same old same-old, ya know?" Johnny chirped, knocking his knuckles on the table for dramatic effect before taking a sip of his drink to steady himself. After a collected breath and another sip he looked back up at Fredrick. "The managers are twins or something. Must be some kind of family matter, since neither of them showed up, today. Not even a call, ah? The service here is shit. Not even a pretzel basket or anything, heh" the salamander chuckled, ear frills perking for a moment at the sound of the group at the pool table breaking.

"S-s-some associates of mine got...heh, [i]axed[/i] politely to fuck off from that car wreck. Some rabbit or something. Those types for ya?" The salamander shakily joked, not so much nervously but mostly studdering as they reached up their sleeve to politely continue to scratch without subjecting Fredrick to their state.
On the force, the two may have worked together for a few weeks after Johnny was reassigned to the lion after his senior partner was gunned down during a simple small-time drug bust that turned out to be more than either of them thought.
Johnny was never the same and after being protected by Fredrick during their slip into their descent, the salamander resigned. The guilt and stress got the better of him.