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Nino Lahiffe had no idea how they’d gotten to this point, but he wasn’t complaining.
His girlfriend, Marinette Dupain-Cheng, was rapidly snapping photos of Alya Césaire and Adrien Agreste, the most notorious power couple in the school, as they posed hilariously outside the penguin exhibit of the zoo. Alya flexed, and Adrien placed the back of his hand over his forehead, pretending to swoon.
The three of them laughed as the penguins honked behind them, and Nino smiled.
“Oh, you guys, those were some good ones!” Marinette said, showing her friends her phone’s screen. Adrien and Alya giggled at the photos, and Nino pulled up beside Marinette to glance at them.
“You’re a great photographer, Nette.” Nino squeezed his girlfriend’s shoulder. “Next exhibit?”
“Yeah!” Adrien pumped his fist. “I wanna see the Komodo dragons.”
“Calm down, Sunshine,” Alya teased, placing a kiss on Adrien’s cheek. “The reptile exhibit is in the middle of the zoo, and we just started.”
Adren wilted, looking like a cloud had passed over the sun. But then he brightened again, dispelling the threat of rain. “Well, I’m still excited to be here, haha! One might even say I’m an… exhibit-ionist.”
Nino groaned the loudest.
The butterfly garden had been permanently closed and was in the process of being replaced with a kids’ playground, so the teens skipped that particular exhibit. The flamingos were next, and Nino noted to Marinette how graceful they were. She agreed.
The teens meandered along the paved paths along the cool and shaded Temperate Forest exhibits, seeing the pudu, red pandas, and the maned wolves. Next up was the Tropical Forest, with the jaguars, ring-tailed lemurs, and the colobus monkeys.
“Sure are a lotta forests around here,” Adrien said, as the teens pulled up to the forest-themed cafeteria. They ordered popsicles to go, which turned out delicious in the summer heat.
The African Savannah was a lot of fun; it was the biggest section of the zoo, with the giraffes, hippos, zebras, ostriches, and a savannah aviary. Marinette snapped photos of her friends--including Nino--as they posed next to the animal’s cages.
Finally, they reached the reptile exhibits. At the Komodo dragons, Adrien pressed his face up to the glass like a kid at Christmas. Nino thought the lizards were sorta neat but also wicked ugly.
“What’s so cool about Komodo dragons?” Nino asked Adrien, who lit up like a hundred-watt bulb.
Alya laughed. “Don’t encourage him, he’ll talk about them all day.”
“They’re super cool,” Adrien gushed, bouncing on the balls of his feet. Marinette giggled and snapped a picture of his elated expression. “They only live on a couple of islands in Indonesia. Their tails are a weapon that can knock down a boar. And their bite is deadly and venomous.”
Nino blinked. “Huh. I wouldn’t have pegged you as liking something so destructive.”
Adrien shared a glance with Marinette. “Even heroes can be destructive.”
The double date ended at the historic carousel. The teenagers decided they were probably too big to ride on the horses with peeling paint, but that didn’t stop Adrien from insisting they get photos next to a unicorn.
After Marinette was done taking pictures of her friends and they were ready to leave, Nino looped an arm around her shoulders. “We ready?”
“Yeah,” Marinette said, her smile warm and the hand on his cheek even warmer. She brushed her lips against his. “Thanks for taking us to the zoo, Nino.”
Nino beamed. “Anything for you, Nette.”