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“Woah, Woah! Sherry, slow down!” Claire called out to the young girl, who was making a B-line for the entrance.
It was the girl's fourteenth birthday, so Claire and Leon had decided to take her to the zoo, which the teenager was ecstatic about.
“Okay, okay!” Sherry stopped under the large entrance sign with cutouts of several species of animals, waiting for the two adults to catch up.
But as soon as they reached her, she only zoomed off towards the entrance again. Claire was about to call after her for a second time, but Leon cut her off.
“Claire, she'll be fine. She's just excited!” He said reassuringly, gently wrapping his arm around her shoulder and pulling her closer to him.
“I know. But I don't want her to get lost.” Claire sighed, leaning against her boyfriend's side.
“This place isn't massive. And she knows better than to go too far. Besides, it's not even busy today.” Leon gently kissed her cheek, causing her cheeks to flush a deep red.
They'd been dating for almost a year now, and Claire still wasn't sure if she'd ever get used to him showing her so much affection or if she'd be blushing for the rest of her life.
“All right, let's go!” Claire responded, grabbing his hand as he interlocked their fingers.
A little while later, they reached the first exhibit. The walls of the room were painted to look like a lush, green judge, and there was a large glass window overlooking...
“Monkeys!” Sherry exclaimed as she excitedly ran up to the glass in awe.
Leon joined her as Claire walked over to a zoo employee, who was standing in the corner of the room.
“Is it alright if we take some pictures?” Claire asked the employee, looking back at Sherry, who was still marvelling at the monkeys.
“Feel free to take pictures of any of our animals, ma'am!” The employee answered, giving her a friendly smile.
“Ah, thank you!” Claire replied as she walked off to join Sherry and Leon.
She reached into one of the leather pouches on her belt, pulling out a small grey canny camera that she and Leon had just bought Sherry for her birthday.
That was another reason why they had decided to visit the zoo—to take some pictures. Plus, Sherry had always wanted to see a parrot.
“Sherry, Leon!” Claire called out, grabbing their attention. “Smile!”
Claire waited for them to turn around and smile at the camera with the monkeys energetically playing behind them before she snapped the picture.
“Can I see?” Sherry asked, running up beside the older woman.
“I'll show you later! You'll just have to trust me when I say it's good!” Claire beamed down at the girl.
“All right! Well, come see them!” Sherry grabbed Claire's arm and practically dragged her to the window.
“Heh! Slow down, kiddo!” Claire chuckled, quickly glancing up at Leon, who looked like he was trying to hide his amusement.
“Which one is your favourite?” Sherry asked, observing as the group ran around the tall, green grass and swung from the thin branches of skinny trees.
“Hmm, I think the one sleeping on that rock is my favourite! He's chill.” Claire answered, patting Sherry's shoulder. “And yours?”
“I like the one eating!” Sherry said sweetly, pointing at the corner of the enclosure.
That has to be the largest monkey I've ever seen. Claire thought as she stared at it, taking a photo of it.
The monkey was about twice the size of the other's, horizontally anyway. And it was tucking into a huge slice of watermelon without a care in the world.
“What about you, Leon?” Sherry looked up at him with a questioning look on her face.
“My favourite is the one in the red jacket!” Leon stated smugly, glancing over at Claire with a cheeky look on his handsome face.
Oh. He has some nerves. Claire playfully hit him on the shoulder. Sherry burst out into a heavy fit of laughter and had to lean against Leon for support.
“Just wait until we get to the hippos later.” Claire mumbled under her breath, but Leon still managed to hear her.
“Nah, I'd be a lion.” He said nonchalantly, grabbing his girlfriend's hand. “Come on, let's see what's next!”
After a few more minutes of Sherry excitedly admiring different kinds of animals, they all decided to grab some lunch. Luckily for them, the zoo had a small restaurant.
“I'll be back in a sec!” Sherry stood up from their wooden table and headed towards the restroom. Leon shifted closer to Claire, and she peacefully rested her head against his shoulder, humming happily.
“Can I see that?” Leon asked, pointing to the camera on the edge of their table.
“Sure!” Claire responded, picking it up before handing the device over to him.
Claire continued to comfortably rest her head against him, watching as Leon flicked through all the charming photographs they had taken.
There was the one with him and Sherry in front of the monkeys. Another was Claire and Sherry standing in front of a family of red pandas, who were sleepily snuggling into each other. Then there was one with just Sherry, with a massive, scaly tortoise standing beside her from the other side of the glass.
“Sherry's gonna love these!” Claire looked up at him, a content smile on her pretty face.
“Yeah! These are great!” Leon said, viewing the next photograph.
It was all three of them standing beside each other, all of them holding hands, with Claire in the middle. They were just in front of another enclosure, this one containing a huge American alligator. The armoured reptile had its mouth wide open, displaying a dangerous set of teeth that you could mistake for knives.
“That one's my favourite!” Claire leaned in to get a closer look at the three of them in the photo. And the gator.
“I like the three of us in it. The giant alligator brings back memories.” Leon delicately handed the camera back to his girlfriend.
“Maybe we should get into photography?” Claire asked jokingly, carefully putting the camera pack into one of her pouches.
“Maybe, but I'd feel like you'd just become the hot model I take pictures of for perfume ads!” He said coyly, laughing as Claire buried her head into his shoulder to hide how bright her face turned.
After they had finished eating, the trio resumed wandering around and viewing all of the animals in their enclosures, continuing to take even more pictures of the creatures and of themselves along the way.
“You don't like spiders?” Claire looked back at her boyfriend as they left the room where all the arachnids were on display.
"Nope, I don't like them!” He answered swiftly, breathing a sigh of relief as they put more distance between them and the arachnids.
“But spiders are useful!” Sherry chimed in as they kept walking. “They eat mosquitoes!”
Leon scoffed, shaking his head a little. “I know that. Plus, I never said I hated—"
“PARROT!” Sherry cut him off out of the blue, pointing towards a large white cage in the next room.
The sudden noise made Claire leap out of her skin. She glanced over at Leon, only to see him laughing at her.
Dammit. Well, where's the bird? Claire tried to ignore Leon's laughter as she looked around for the parrot. Ah, there it is!
Sherry was correct. There was a large macaw with vibrant feathers resting on a wooden perch resembling a small tree. The parrot seemed to be happily observing a few people in the room while squawking to itself.
“Come on, let's go see it!” Claire placed her hand on the girl's shoulder, with Leon appearing at her side and taking her hand in his as they walked up to the cage.
A few more lively parrots were flying around or resting, eating fresh fruit towards the back of the massive, room-sized cage, but this one stayed on the wooden perch and tilted its head curiously as they approached.
“It's bigger than I thought it would be.” Leon observed as they reached the white bars.
“It's so cute!” Sherry exclaimed, looking like she was awestruck.
“Come on, let's take a photo with it!” Claire said, handing the camera to Leon.
They all shuffled next to each other, making sure that the bird was in the frame behind them.
“Smile!” Leon declared, taking the selfie with all three of them, the parrot spreading its wings in the background, showcasing its colourful feathers.
A few hours later, after they'd headed home and Sherry went to bed, Claire was cuddling up against Leon, who was delicately stroking her hair on the sofa as they admired the photos together.
“I think Sherry enjoyed the trip.” Claire murmured sleepily, peering up at Leon.
“Heh, yeah!” He chuckled, finally getting to the parrot photo. “I think we should frame this one.”
“She'd love that!” Claire said, yawning slightly as she cuddled into him more.
“I'll get it printed and buy a frame for it tomorrow, then.” Leon responded, wrapping an arm around her.
Claire contently fluttered her eyes, beginning to feel sleep wash over her after a busy day at the zoo paired with celebrating Sherry's birthday back at the house.
“Say cheese!” Leon said it out of the blue, causing Claire to snap her eyes back open.
Wait, what? Claire thought as she looked up ahead of her.
He was holding the camera out in front of him, and a large grin spread across his handsome face. Before Claire knew what was really going on, the camera flashed, causing her to squeeze her eyes shut.
“Leon… what–?”
“Aww, look at you!” He handed her the camera, looking like he was trying to hold a laughing fit in like his life depended on it.
Confused, she took it from his hands, only to look down at the image and feel her face heat up with embarrassment. She looked completely dazed and almost half asleep in the photo, with Leon holding her with a big, toothy grin on his face.
“Leon–!”
“Heh! It's great, isn't it?” He chuckled, caressing her side gently.
“No! I look awful in it!” Claire half laughed and half groaned, leaning into him more.
“Sweetie, you never look awful!” He said, gently planting a kiss on the temple of her head.
Once again, Claire felt the temperature of her face rise even more.
“All right. Well, we're not framing that one.” Claire mumbled, closing her eyes again. “Goodnight.”
“Night, Claire.” Leon responded quietly as Claire drifted off to sleep, still comfortably hugging his side.