[Team Three] Hide and Seek
This could be better, but I'm pushing the deadline and I actually need to sleep tonight. Um. Anyway. Zoo AU snippet. Yeah.
Elephants are… loud. So loud. But nobody can fault them for their affection and enthusiasm. The zookeepers should probably be thankful that elephants can’t run faster, trunks swinging from side to side as they smell their breakfast. But they’re too loud, and it’s too early, and surely it can’t be time for the morning feed already? Soon the keepers will reach the panda enclosure. Personally, Inoo hopes the New One will be assigned to them this morning, if only for the ensuing panic at the discovery of being one red panda down. The other keepers are long used to finding Chinen in a different enclosure to his own every couple of days; it’s only fun when there’s a New One.
Sure, it’s a little mean. He is a sloth, after all. Inoo prefers to think of it as an “initiation rite”.
Inoo shifts onto his stomach; the movement causes Chinen to jostle, but he just yawns, and buries himself back into Inoo’s side. Inoo snorts under his breath. Chinen is definitely awake, but so is he, and it’s in both their best interests if they just keep quiet. Inoo shuts his eyes again.
Anyway, elephants. Maybe he should ask Chinen to hook him up for an elephant ride one of these days. Must be nice, having a vantage point from which to perch. Later. He’ll ask.... later.
There’s a rustle of leaves, and an elephant pokes their trunk through the bushes in the far corner of Inoo’s home, where that particular wall of fence adjoins that of the elephants’.
“There you are.” A sigh. Shida’s trunk twitching. “Well, the New One panicked alright. Are you proud of yourselves?” When they don’t respond, Shida sighs again. “I know you can hear me. They’re coming this way.” And with that warning, her trunk disappears, and the crunch of leaves can be heard as she walks away from the fence.
Inoo cracks an eye open; Chinen is doing the same. Truth is, they feel a little guilty. Later, Chinen will be extra affectionate to the New One; emerge from the safety of thick foliage, perhaps perform some tricks, dance on Yamada’s back; maybe even sit on the New One’s lap, encourage as many cuddles. It’s his own way of apology. That will come later.
For now, they’ll close their eyes again, pretend to be dead to the world for a little longer, waiting to be discovered. And then the cycle will repeat.
daydreamar, your turn!
Elephants are… loud. So loud. But nobody can fault them for their affection and enthusiasm. The zookeepers should probably be thankful that elephants can’t run faster, trunks swinging from side to side as they smell their breakfast. But they’re too loud, and it’s too early, and surely it can’t be time for the morning feed already? Soon the keepers will reach the panda enclosure. Personally, Inoo hopes the New One will be assigned to them this morning, if only for the ensuing panic at the discovery of being one red panda down. The other keepers are long used to finding Chinen in a different enclosure to his own every couple of days; it’s only fun when there’s a New One.
Sure, it’s a little mean. He is a sloth, after all. Inoo prefers to think of it as an “initiation rite”.
Inoo shifts onto his stomach; the movement causes Chinen to jostle, but he just yawns, and buries himself back into Inoo’s side. Inoo snorts under his breath. Chinen is definitely awake, but so is he, and it’s in both their best interests if they just keep quiet. Inoo shuts his eyes again.
Anyway, elephants. Maybe he should ask Chinen to hook him up for an elephant ride one of these days. Must be nice, having a vantage point from which to perch. Later. He’ll ask.... later.
There’s a rustle of leaves, and an elephant pokes their trunk through the bushes in the far corner of Inoo’s home, where that particular wall of fence adjoins that of the elephants’.
“There you are.” A sigh. Shida’s trunk twitching. “Well, the New One panicked alright. Are you proud of yourselves?” When they don’t respond, Shida sighs again. “I know you can hear me. They’re coming this way.” And with that warning, her trunk disappears, and the crunch of leaves can be heard as she walks away from the fence.
Inoo cracks an eye open; Chinen is doing the same. Truth is, they feel a little guilty. Later, Chinen will be extra affectionate to the New One; emerge from the safety of thick foliage, perhaps perform some tricks, dance on Yamada’s back; maybe even sit on the New One’s lap, encourage as many cuddles. It’s his own way of apology. That will come later.
For now, they’ll close their eyes again, pretend to be dead to the world for a little longer, waiting to be discovered. And then the cycle will repeat.
daydreamar, your turn!