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“Come on! Please” Lucia wines as she spins atop the barstool in the kitchen.
“Aren’t teenagers supposed to hate mornings?” Fade asked begrudgingly as she waits for coffee to brew.
“No, most of us are relatively fine assuming we’re allowed to-“
“Lucia, that was a rhetorical question.” Viper adds having just returned from her workout. “I need to shower.”
“Come on please, you and Reyna promised to take me somewhere.”
“We took you on a college tour last week…” Viper rubs her temples. “Anywhere else I’d consider, but I’m never taking you to a zoo, they’re not very informative and they’re cruel to most of the animals.”
“I can take her.” Fade raises her hand unenthusiastically.
“Really?!?” Lucia jumps out of her seat to hug Fade.
“Yeah, I’ll make you a third wheel.” Fade smirks.
-
Fade and Lucia sit waiting in Sage’s car.
Fade gets Lucia’s attentions. “What are the rules?”
“No splash zones or any kind of water.” Lucia recites in her best impression of Klara. “KJ hasn’t properly waterproofed everything yet, and if it fries she will have sage resurrect me just to kill me herself.”
“And?” Fade gestures for her to continue.
“I’m not to climb anything or run and over exert myself and risk damaging the tech.”
“Alright, we’re good to go.” Fade turns around to smile at Lucia.
A few minutes pass as they distract themselves, Lucia grows impatient. “Where’s Tala?”
“Oh she’s always late, she worries her extra speed will make things awkward when she’s earliy so I told her 10 minutes early so she should be here soon.”
Almost in Cue Neon knocks on the door. “Yes! Yes! You didn’t say Lucia would be coming along.” Neon says as she hops in the driver side of the car.
“Yeah! Let’s go!” Lucia adds pumped.
“I definitely told you babe.” Fade leans in to kiss Neon. “Neon’s never been to a big zoo either so I figured this would be educational.”
“Let’s go!” Neon says with a twist of the key.
-
As the trio exits the entrance gate of the zoo Fade almost immediately grabs both her partner and Lucia by the collar as they try to run away. “We’re sticking together.”
“But I wanna go to the reptile house!” Lucia points at the map in front of them.
“And I wanna see the pandas.” Neon pouts.
“The panda’s have a really long line, if we do them that’s all we’ll see.” Fade sighs.
“Yes! Reptile house wins.” Lucia pumps her fist up in the air.
“I think I finally know how Sabine feels on missions. Herding cats she calls it.”
Lucia takes neon’s hand, and runs off towards the reptile house.
“Wait, don’t run.” Fade chases after them.
Once at the reptile house Lucia becomes a wizard slowly taking notes as she goes.
“What’s with all the notes? It’s the zoo we’re here to see all the cool animals.” Neon says having a staring contests with one the insects that lack eyelids.
Lucia is too into her work to give an answer.
“Lucia wanted to come here to write down all the scientific names of animals she likes and guess what all the names mean from an entomological standpoint of how the words relate to modern language.” Fade takes her hand to keep track of her energetic partner.
“Gods she’s such a nerd.” Neon sticks her tongue out playfully.
Lucia pulls her attention away from her notes long enough to return in kind by sticking her own tongue out at the smaller agent.
“Pipsqueak.”
“That’s bold coming from you tiny.”
Fade pulls them up by their collar to separate the incoming ‘short off’ as Jett affectionately calls it. “If I wanted to watch plumb fighting I’d have invited Jett.”
“I’m not that short.” Neon once again pouts as she moves away.
“Babe, you’re short, but I like that about you. This was supposed to be a date, remember?” Fade leans down to kiss her.
“You two are gross, there are children watching.” Lucia points towards the enclosure where some small lizards sitting on a log, staring at them.
“Okay fine. I’ll leave tiny alone.” Neon says, lacing her fingers in Fade’s hands.
The trio find their way out the reptile houses heading towards the bigger mammals. Lucia leading out front while the pair lag behind her.
“I wonder if you can still hand feed giraffes like you can in the ads I used to get.” Lucia
“I swear a single cat joke out of either of you, and I will take us home.” Fade says with a hint of a laugh.
Neon laughs but adds an attempted jest. “You’d be a good mom.”
Fade blushes at the comment, before panicking out an attempted rebuttal. “Make me.”
“Eh-“ Neon’s whole face turns shades of red. “You-“
“And scrapbook.” Lucia’s voice interupts.
“What?” Neon turns to see Lucia with her phone out.
“I like to keep pictures of cute moments, the blush, the lighting, both of you look great, Sabine’s gonna love this one.”
“No no no, you can’t tell Viper.” Neon’s attempt to be level headed in the moment comes out extra flustered.
“Sabine won’t mind babe.” Fade puts a hand on neon’s shoulder.
“She’s so scary though. She’s gonna kill me.”
“If she didn’t like you she wouldn’t have let you in her apartment for Christmas.” Lucia adds.
Neon feels a weird sense of pride at that. “Still, I’d rather not tempt the viper, she’ll make me clean all the guns again, and I swear Brimstone's team needs to take a class in basic maintenance.”
“If she does that I’ll help this time, how about that?” Fade wraps her arms around Neon from behind.
“I’ll hold you to that.” Neon says almost jokingly.
“I know.” Fade smiles into her neck.
Lucia sighs. “I can’t even call you gross cause it’s cute.”
“Where to next, Lucia?” Fade asks still behind neon.
“Big cats.”
Fade sighs. “A single joke out of either of you and we're going home.”
The trio find their way to the big cats, Lucia particularly paying attention when trying to find the napping leopards being more fun than any of the other cats out and about.
Neon holds Fade’s hand as they approach the panthers. “You’re cute when you’re in your element.”
“What, cats?” Fade says with a laugh.
“No, helping people. You’ve got so much baggage up in that adorable little head of yours that you stop yourself sometimes. But you’re really good at it when you try.” Neon squeezes her hand.
Fade doesn’t have a response, only leaning her head down onto her shoulder.
They watch as one of the panthers, only to realize grooming ‘themselves’, and a funny awkward silence blooms as they realize the panther is ruining their moment.
“Hey love birds!” Lucia shiuts to get their attention.
“What!” Neon says with a sense of pho-anger.
“I found the solution to our earlier problem.” Lucia grabs both their hands, heading for one of the few buildings in the area.
The couple is brought to an old photo board, one where you just stick your head through. One person being a mighty lion, and the other a harmless zoo keeper.
“Dibs on lion.” Neon scoots behind the board quickly.
Fade sighs. “If I must.”
Lucia waits for Fade to smile before snapping a few pictures, before settling on one and deleting the rest. “Thanks you two.”
“No problem.” Neon side hugs Lucia. “Where to next?”
Fade’s phone rings silently in her back pocket. “It’s time for the surprise.” Fade takes both their hands dragging them back towards the front of the park.
“This looks like we’re leaving.” Neon’s pour tainting her tone of voice.
“Nope.” Fade waves her hand.
A young woman dressed like the photo board Fade just sat in front of, walks up. “You must be Hazal, and Tala, I didn’t know someone else would be coming.”
“Is that a problem?”
“Oh not at all, I only made 3 snacks though. Follow me.” The woman anxiously leads them through one of the off limits doors. At the end of a long hallway they arrived at a small room with one half sectioned off with what looks like a baby’s crib with various toys. “Okay important rules, please wash your hands and do not throw any puke in the trash, if they throw up on you we need the samples. I’m April by the way.”
“Where are we going?” Neon asks.
“It’s a surprise.” Fade pulls Neon close.
“You didn’t tell them?” April asks, confused.
“No”
“Babe, explain.” Neon seemed confused.
Lucia mutters to herself, working through the possibilities in her head.
“I called in a few favors from skye, who does more volunteering work than her actual work, and she apparently knows the right people.”
“Wait.” Neon pauses in place trying to put puzzle pieces together in her head.
“aha! I got it.” Lucia chuckles. “You’re adorable Hazal.”
“What?” Neon looks around. “We’re in a vet’s office, there are so many animals here, how am I supposed to know-“
“Wash your hands there and when you’re ready they should be around time to play.” April points to a hand washing station.
Everybody washes their hands, and then they sit around waiting while April does some final preparations.
The door swings open, and a small cart with plastic tubs is wheeled in.
The room suddenly goes silent as April’s voice turns commanding. “Alright, we have visitors today so I want everyone on their best behavior.”
Neon shouts. “Yes ma’am.”
“I wasn’t talking to you.” April turns away from the cart. “Everybody grab a tub, they’re yours to watch today.”
Neon sprints forward, inside the tubs are small baby pandas she picks them up, cradling the baby carefully as she looks to Fade. “Oh my gods, you didn’t.”
“that’s Pwibbles, she won the fan vote.” April distributes the remaining cubs. Handing one to Lucia, “that’s Yōuyǎ because my boss doesn’t understand the difference between google translate and a name… And you miss Hazal have Bambooshoot. He was named by the head of the pandas team… gods I swear scientists should never name things.”
“Pwibbles!?” Neon holds Pwibbles up. “You are the cutest thing on the planet yes you are.”
Fade smiles as she is handed Bambooshoot. “How old are they?”
“About 4 months. Normally no one is supposed to be back here that isn’t part of the team, but Skye has done enough for us that we can make an exception.”
Neon yelps. “Bitch.”
Fade turns to see Neon chasing an energetic panda cub.
“Pwibbles is always a handful, glad someone can keep up.” April smiles.
“Do they normally sleep right now?” Lucia cradles her cub, careful not to disturb its rest.
“Normally not, but the cubs actually had a big event earlier so they’re probably tired, I’m actually surprised even Pwibbles has energy.”
“What kind of an event?”
“Oh, it was a press event, they do photos for free advertising.”
“I see.” Lucia ponders the answer to her question but is interrupted by a sudden gross noise.
Bambooshoot is the cause and violently ejects her lunch into Fade’s shirt.
Fade sighs, holding bambooshoot away from her instinctively.
April rushes to grab a sample jar, quickly scraping what she can off. “Sorry, they do that.”
Neon looks at a disgruntled Fade, before bursting out laughing. “Babe, you look like someone just took away your cezve.”
“It’s okay.”
“April, their was a no pictures signs, but I assume that’s with the panda cubs, could we take a picture with fade, vomit stained shirt and all?”
“Lucia, what are you thinking?” Fade looks concerned.
“I don’t see why that wouldn’t be allowed.” April says as she labels the jar.
“Sabine likes to see the pictures I take, and she’s gonna love this.”
Neon starts cracking up laughing. “We need to get you a shirt that says I went to the zoo and all I got was panda puke.”
Lucia joins in laughing quietly.
“That’s not even that funny.” Fade tries to dismiss the idea
“Of course it’s not to you, panda puke girl.” Neon continues to cackle.
“I’ll find you a spare shirt for after said picture, remember now pandas in the picture… or we’ll be mad.” April leaves to find Fade a shirt.
Bambooshoot and Yōuyǎ find a spot to curl up for a nap while Pwibbles enjoys the slide.
Lucia and neon pose on both sides of a disgruntled Fade.
“Everyone say cheese.” Lucia says holding out her camera.
“Cheese.” Neon smiles with the biggest grin.
Fade’s expression remained unchanged, adding “I hate this.”
The doors swing back open and April walks back through. “I found the shirt.”
“Thanks.” Fade quickly finds a corner and changes into the fresh shirt.
“Can I have that in case they want to sample that too?”
“Yes, but be careful, it was a gift.”
“Okay, they have about 20 more minutes, I’ll be here doing a write up.”
-
The trio finds their way out of the zoo, heading for the car.
“Did you two have fun?” Fade tosses Neon keys from her purse.
“Yes!”
“Definitely.”
“Good, cause I’m never trading a month worth of cleaning up the break room again.”
“Aww, all that and you still got panda puke on you.” Neon unlocks the car getting in.
Fade let’s out a mile long sigh as she gets in the car. “Is this gonna be a thing?”
“Oh yeah, it’s gonna be a thing.” Neon leans in to kiss Fade on the cheek.