"What's your body count?" Kacie asked, looking at Casper, who gave her a look.
"I hate that term," they said.
"You mean, like, sexually, or like how many people I've killed?" Fletcher asked, making the group chuckle as he took another bite of his fast food breakfast, "cause there may be overlap."
"...what...what does that mean?" Robin asked, holding back laughter, her eyes squinting, "...are you...fucking corpses?"
"That's between me and the feds," Fletcher replied, shrugging, making everyone laugh harder.
The door to the break room opened and Nelly waltzed in, looking surprisingly chipper, her hair done up, wearing a brighter colored suit than they were used to seeing her in. All in all she just had this glow about her that they weren't expecting. She walked to the counter and began pouring herself some coffee, then sipped it before turning and looking at her crew.
"Good morning," she said, sounding chipper, "what fresh hell are we discussing today?"
"Body counts," Kacie said.
"Still uncertain of what definition you're expecting for your terminology though," Casper remarked.
"You know," Nelly said, playing with one of the buttons on her suit, "back when I was in college, especially freshman year, I was...pretty popular. I got a lot of attention, went to a lot of parties, was pretty sociable. Had a lot of sex, is what I'm trying to say."
"Do I wanna hear this?" Fletcher asked, furrowing his brow.
"And I wound up having so many various partners, and I was safe so don't worry, that eventually the other girls formed a club about me on campus, because apparently I was sleeping with their boyfriends without knowing it. But you know what? I've always been under the assumption that if you aren't satisfying your man, there's a woman out there who will, so, I didn't harbor any judgment against myself."
"Yeah, I don't wanna hear this," Fletcher added, turning away and back to the table.
"You don't wanna hold any accountability?" Kacie asked, "isn't that kinda...sleazy?"
"Well, I didn't know they were in relationships when I slept with them, and after I did I didn't sleep with them again," Nelly said, "just was a thing that happened enough times that they managed to have enough members for a club. So yeah, my body count? Pretty high. But that was then, not now. Nowadays I'm lucky if I get laid on a yearly basis."
"Please for the love of god stop talking," Fletcher said, "I don't wanna know about my bosses sexual proclivities."
"Oh, but it's fine for men to openly discuss it?" Nelly asked, "isn't that a bit of a double standard?"
"No, because men are disgusting, we're supposed to be gross, it's...like...in our contracts!" Fletcher said, making Robin snort laughing, which made him smirk. He loved making his friends laugh. Just then the door to the break room opened up once again and Douglas entered, standing there, not saying a word. Everyone stopped and stared at him.
"What?" Nelly asked.
"We have a problem," Douglas said.
Scant moments later, Nelly found herself in her office with a woman in a button down collared shirt, with a black cardigan and black pencil skirt, her hair in an updo, sitting across from her at her desk. Nelly, hands cupped on her desk, simply listened to the woman speak. Once the woman had come in, and she and Nelly had retreated to her office, the crew had all gone to their various duties, so Nelly was all alone with her.
"I understand that you can't control what animals here do," the woman said, "but I don't bring my child here to witness things such as that."
"Copulation is perfectly normal," Nelly said, shrugging, "it just happens. As you said, there's nothing we can do about it. They're wild animals, and wild animals have urges and drives and-"
"No, the copulation isn't the issue," the woman said, holding up a hand, "no. The issue is that it was between two animals of the same sex."
That....Nelly had to admit....hadn't been what she was expecting.
***
Robin had kept quiet during the earlier discussion because, well, she'd only had 3 partners in her lifetime. Her first boyfriend, Peter, her boyfriend Kyle and now Sophie. And the thing was, she had never really once considered she might be gay until she'd met Sophie, despite, in retrospect, all the glaring clues right in front of her face the entire time. But the discussion had gotten her thinking about it all, and about how Sophie, at one point, had told her she was a virgin. Robin, who didn't have any tours scheduled today for a change, was currently with Fletcher while they were getting frozen yogurt in one of the restaurants housed in the zoo called Feeding Time. Standing over the bar, adding various toppings to her yogurt, Robin couldn't help but feel awkward.
"Can I ask you a question about your sex life?" Robin asked, and Fletcher laughed.
"I suppose, if you wanna know something that horrifying," he replied.
"When did you, ya know, lose it?" Robin asked and Fletcher stopped adding toppings momentarily to think.
"Uh...." he said, clearly trying to recall, "hmmm...must've been...17? Yeah that sounds about right. Believe it or not, despite clearly being a ladies man with charisma falling out of my butt, it did take me a while to find a woman, but not because they weren't interested, and more because I was picky."
"First of all I don't think things are supposed to fall out of your butt," Robin said, "Except, ya know, shit."
"Please don't talk about feces when I'm about to enjoy soft serve frozen yogurt," Fletcher interrupted, making her laugh.
"Secondly," Robin continued, "what do you mean you were picky? Picky in what way? Like the way guys generally are, where it's all predicated on the basis of appearance or was there some deeper reasoning for your waiting?"
"Picky in the sense that I wanted it to mean something," Fletcher said, the two of them finally seating themselves at a table by a window that housed a small aquarium, "because I watched a lot of my guy friends get together with girls and have it mean absolutely nothing and, I mean, I'm not by religious or anything but I guess I didn't want something so...personal, so deeply one time, to be taken by someone who didn't actually wanna stick around."
Robin smiled warmly as she sucked yogurt off her spoon, smacking her lips, "that's really sweet actually," she said before adding, "so did they stick around?"
"Yeah," Fletcher said, "for a while anyway. But nobody sticks around forever do they? Eventually you'll leave too."
She tried not to take the tone the wrong way, but it was clear that Fletcher was scared she, and others might leave, and he clearly was wrestling with abandonment issues. Robin merely smiled and took some more bites of her frozen yogurt, shrugging.
"I doubt it," she said, "I don't think they let caged animals leave the zoo," she said with a smirk, making Fletcher laugh.
***
Catfish had never really been popular.
Even as a young girl - well, younger than she was now, considering she was still fairly young - she'd had trouble making friends, fitting in, and dating? Forget about it. Not even a remote chance in hell that that was an option that was on the table. So she simply stayed away from it, especially since it didn't really seem to be changing being here at the Splash Zone. She thought, perhaps much too positively, that by working in a field where she would have things in common with her coworkers, that they'd create a shared sense of camaraderie, but that didn't turn out to be the case. A popular kids club. That's all life ever was. And she wasn't invited.
Sitting alone in the aquarium, watching the sharks swim by as she ate her italian sandwich, the bread getting stuck in her braces, Catfish couldn't help but think how nice it must be to be a solitary animal that didn't NEED friends. That was happy simply peaceful existing outside of any kind of social circle. Imagine that. Being jealous of a fuckin' fish. She saw a cart come to a crawl in front of the aquarium, through the window, and saw someone get out to check it. She watched, interested but cautious, as she finished up her sandwich before finishing her drink, gathering her trash and tossing it into a nearby recycling can that was modeled to look - ironically - like a coral reef and heading over to see what was happening.
"Do you need help?" she asked, as the person looked up from where they were kneeling and sighed.
"My cart has a bad wheel," Casper said, "um...this happens far more often than I'd like it to, honestly. And they won't pay to replace it, no matter what, it seems like, so I'm constantly stuck doing vehicle maintenance, which isn't even a skill I have."
"Who says you have to fix it? Why not just...slack off?" Catfish asked, causing Casper to smirk at her, surprised.
"I just...I like my job, I like working," Casper said, "but, if you're willing to entertain the idea of keeping me company until Zoo Triple A gets here, I suppose that'd be okay."
Together the two headed back towards the aquarium to escape the sun, and once inside, Casper was grateful just how air conditioned and dark it was compared to the outdoors, Fish of all varieties in all manners of tank surrounded them, and they couldn't help but feel immediately calmer. Caspers eyes caught Catfish as she stopped by a nearby tank housing crabs, and they looked her up and down, never having really spent much time with her before. She was young. She had to be the youngest trainer there by far, but it wasn't like Casper was much older, so. They were definitely in the same age range, she just looked very young for her age, perpetual baby face. The braids and the braces didn't help either. Hands behind her back, holding one another, Casper couldn't help but feel the way they always did around pretty girls.
...jealous.
"So why fish?" Casper finally asked, "like, of all the animals to be trained in, work with, why fish?"
"Technically I train whales, which are mammals, not fish," Catfish said, "but I guess it's just because I love whales. I remember being a teenager and going with my parents on vacation to Hawaii and I really didn't wanna go, I didn't like water, don't like islands, really don't like crowds, but we went on this glass bottom boat tour that also allowed you to snorkle, and I saw all sorts of fish through the boat but then when I got into the water, which my dad practically had to drag me kicking and screaming into, I saw a whale, and...and it really....it just opened me up completely. They're just so beautiful."
Casper smiled, nodding, crossing their arms.
"They are pretty," they replied, "and very intelligent, and emotional."
"I guess I just related to them. That being said, I wish I did anything other than what I actually do. I'd love to work with whales in a better capacity, because training them to do tricks isn't right, for them or for us, morally speaking anyway on our end," Catfish said, continuing, "but what can I do, ya know? This is...this is what I've decided upon. And I don't regret it, for the record. Don't take that wish as me saying I hate what I do. I'm happy that I've made the choices I've made to be who I am and do what I do, but I wish I were doing it in a better way. A way that made me truly happy, not just those around me."
Casper knew exactly how she felt. They'd never say it, but they felt it at their core. They'd been hiding a similar secret for so long, and now, being here with Catfish, sharing in this exact emotion, all they wanted to do was blurt out what they were unhappy about themselves with, but were too scared not only to do so but also to act on it if they did, so instead they were happy to simply have a friend who understand, albeit unknowingly. Casper smiled and nodded.
"I guess some days," Casper said, "all you can do is be grateful for your bravery, those of us who have it. Takes a lot of courage to get in the water and train a whale. Wish I were half as brave as you."
And they did. They really meant that.
They also wished they were half as pretty.
***
"Sex is overrated," Fletcher said, walking through the zoo with Kacie and Robin. Sophie was having a busy day being a helper in another part of the zoo, so she hadn't been around much, but something about the earlier conversation made Rpbin feel like maybe she was purposefully avoiding her and the subject, for obvious reasons. Fletcher continued, "like, people act as if it's this big connection, but it's really just...it's not. It's a nice way, certainly, to be with someone you love, but it isn't the end all be all for a relationship like most people seem to think it is."
"Weird to hear this from a guy," Kacie said as she chewed her candy bar while they walked past a small petting zoo.
"Yeah, well, guys have feelings, most just don't accept them," Fletcher remarked, shrugging, "I don't know what to tell you other than it's not what you think it is."
Robin felt conflicted. In one sense, she wanted to be closer to Sophie, but she knew Sophie was not only a virgin, but also asexual, and while she had expressed the possibility of them sleeping together, Robin felt awkward ever making any kind of push in that direction. And she couldn't deny Fletcher was right, after all. She was happy just being with Sophie, having fun, but all this talk about the act of mating and body count...it had begun to get to her. They stopped at a small gift shop and stood around, watching a woman dress her baby in a tiger onesie. Kacie smiled and wiggled her fingers at the baby, trying to make it laugh as Fletcher exhaled.
"I guess," he added, "in the end, what really matters, is, ya know, just knowing that you can love a person for completely unsuperficial and non animalistic reasons that don't entirely depend on the release of a hormone in your brain."
"But...that's what love IS, it's the release of a hormone in your brain," Kacie said.
"Yeah but you know what I mean," Fletcher said, "I don't know, nevermind."
Before Kacie could follow up, the speaker system jolted to life, and the three of them looked up at one of them that was attached to a pole, the speaker crafted in such a way to look as through the noise were coming out of the mouth of a lion.
"Hello guests, this is Zoo Manager Nelly Gish speaking," Nelly said, surprising them for the mere fact that she rarely, if ever, used the speaker system; she continued, "today we had a complaint from a parent who brought their young child to the zoo, only to witness copulation. And while this is a perfectly natural thing to see between two animals in a protected space such as this, her issue lay more with the fact that it was between two animals of the same gender. So I'd like to make a statement to anyone who may be listening who may also have an issue with this. Same-sex behavior is widespread in the animal kingdom, documented in over 1,500 species, including mammals, birds, reptiles, and insects. While often referred to as homosexual behavior, it actually encompasses a far wider range of activities beyond genital contact, like pair bonding, courtship rituals, and mutual grooming. These behaviors are not limited to a few species or sexes; they are a natural part of animal life, just as they are a natural part of human life. So, with that in mind, if you see any instances of same sex relationships between either people or animals while at our establishment, please just kindly redirect yourself to the nearest exit, go home, and live your totally unfulfilled heterosexual life where you hate your spouse. Thank you for coming, and enjoy the rest of your day."
The three of them stood in total awe, until Fletcher and Kacie started to crack up, hysterical, while Robin got the widest grin on her face. She had never once anticipated that she'd someday be a part of a group that required any form of protection - well, outside of being a woman, she supposed - but boy was she glad to know her boss had her back.
Now it was time to find Sophie.
***
Sophie was sitting by Flamingo Funhouse, a small, almost arcade style area with playsets for kids among a little restaurant and, of course, a small area that housed a handful of Flamingos. She pushed her big, circular lenses up onto her face and looked out at the Flamingos while the noises of children playing and arcade machines humming and pinging behind her filled in the silence. Suddenly she felt someone by her side, and glanced to see Robin standing there, hands behind her back.
"Oh, hello," Sophie said, "I'm sorry I've been absent today. I really had a lot to do and-"
"These are for you," Robin said, holding out a large bouquet of Violets, surprising Sophie, who took them and blushed; Robin went on, "Violets are commonly the sapphic flower, so I ran down the street to a nearby florist and I got these for you because I love you."
Sophie looked at her, taken totally by surprise. Robin put her hands on Sophie's shoulders and smiled, her eyes wet with tears.
"I...love you," Robin said, "anyone else I've ever said it to...I meant it but I didn't mean it the way I do to you. It was never...real the way it is with you. Because...because until you, I didn't know I could love another person, especially another woman, the way that I love you. But I love you. I love you more than words could ever say and maybe flowers will be a fine substitute."
Sophie blushed even harder, smiling now, her big teeth showing, making Robin love her all the more. Robin, holding Sophie by the shoulders, pulled her in and kissed her, the bouquet held carefully between them. After it ended, their foreheads resting against one another, each unable to stop smiling and giggling, Robin whispered.
"If I have to be captivity," she said, "at least I got a good mate."
"Couldn't have put it better myself," Sophie replied, kissing again.
"I hate that term," they said.
"You mean, like, sexually, or like how many people I've killed?" Fletcher asked, making the group chuckle as he took another bite of his fast food breakfast, "cause there may be overlap."
"...what...what does that mean?" Robin asked, holding back laughter, her eyes squinting, "...are you...fucking corpses?"
"That's between me and the feds," Fletcher replied, shrugging, making everyone laugh harder.
The door to the break room opened and Nelly waltzed in, looking surprisingly chipper, her hair done up, wearing a brighter colored suit than they were used to seeing her in. All in all she just had this glow about her that they weren't expecting. She walked to the counter and began pouring herself some coffee, then sipped it before turning and looking at her crew.
"Good morning," she said, sounding chipper, "what fresh hell are we discussing today?"
"Body counts," Kacie said.
"Still uncertain of what definition you're expecting for your terminology though," Casper remarked.
"You know," Nelly said, playing with one of the buttons on her suit, "back when I was in college, especially freshman year, I was...pretty popular. I got a lot of attention, went to a lot of parties, was pretty sociable. Had a lot of sex, is what I'm trying to say."
"Do I wanna hear this?" Fletcher asked, furrowing his brow.
"And I wound up having so many various partners, and I was safe so don't worry, that eventually the other girls formed a club about me on campus, because apparently I was sleeping with their boyfriends without knowing it. But you know what? I've always been under the assumption that if you aren't satisfying your man, there's a woman out there who will, so, I didn't harbor any judgment against myself."
"Yeah, I don't wanna hear this," Fletcher added, turning away and back to the table.
"You don't wanna hold any accountability?" Kacie asked, "isn't that kinda...sleazy?"
"Well, I didn't know they were in relationships when I slept with them, and after I did I didn't sleep with them again," Nelly said, "just was a thing that happened enough times that they managed to have enough members for a club. So yeah, my body count? Pretty high. But that was then, not now. Nowadays I'm lucky if I get laid on a yearly basis."
"Please for the love of god stop talking," Fletcher said, "I don't wanna know about my bosses sexual proclivities."
"Oh, but it's fine for men to openly discuss it?" Nelly asked, "isn't that a bit of a double standard?"
"No, because men are disgusting, we're supposed to be gross, it's...like...in our contracts!" Fletcher said, making Robin snort laughing, which made him smirk. He loved making his friends laugh. Just then the door to the break room opened up once again and Douglas entered, standing there, not saying a word. Everyone stopped and stared at him.
"What?" Nelly asked.
"We have a problem," Douglas said.
Scant moments later, Nelly found herself in her office with a woman in a button down collared shirt, with a black cardigan and black pencil skirt, her hair in an updo, sitting across from her at her desk. Nelly, hands cupped on her desk, simply listened to the woman speak. Once the woman had come in, and she and Nelly had retreated to her office, the crew had all gone to their various duties, so Nelly was all alone with her.
"I understand that you can't control what animals here do," the woman said, "but I don't bring my child here to witness things such as that."
"Copulation is perfectly normal," Nelly said, shrugging, "it just happens. As you said, there's nothing we can do about it. They're wild animals, and wild animals have urges and drives and-"
"No, the copulation isn't the issue," the woman said, holding up a hand, "no. The issue is that it was between two animals of the same sex."
That....Nelly had to admit....hadn't been what she was expecting.
***
Robin had kept quiet during the earlier discussion because, well, she'd only had 3 partners in her lifetime. Her first boyfriend, Peter, her boyfriend Kyle and now Sophie. And the thing was, she had never really once considered she might be gay until she'd met Sophie, despite, in retrospect, all the glaring clues right in front of her face the entire time. But the discussion had gotten her thinking about it all, and about how Sophie, at one point, had told her she was a virgin. Robin, who didn't have any tours scheduled today for a change, was currently with Fletcher while they were getting frozen yogurt in one of the restaurants housed in the zoo called Feeding Time. Standing over the bar, adding various toppings to her yogurt, Robin couldn't help but feel awkward.
"Can I ask you a question about your sex life?" Robin asked, and Fletcher laughed.
"I suppose, if you wanna know something that horrifying," he replied.
"When did you, ya know, lose it?" Robin asked and Fletcher stopped adding toppings momentarily to think.
"Uh...." he said, clearly trying to recall, "hmmm...must've been...17? Yeah that sounds about right. Believe it or not, despite clearly being a ladies man with charisma falling out of my butt, it did take me a while to find a woman, but not because they weren't interested, and more because I was picky."
"First of all I don't think things are supposed to fall out of your butt," Robin said, "Except, ya know, shit."
"Please don't talk about feces when I'm about to enjoy soft serve frozen yogurt," Fletcher interrupted, making her laugh.
"Secondly," Robin continued, "what do you mean you were picky? Picky in what way? Like the way guys generally are, where it's all predicated on the basis of appearance or was there some deeper reasoning for your waiting?"
"Picky in the sense that I wanted it to mean something," Fletcher said, the two of them finally seating themselves at a table by a window that housed a small aquarium, "because I watched a lot of my guy friends get together with girls and have it mean absolutely nothing and, I mean, I'm not by religious or anything but I guess I didn't want something so...personal, so deeply one time, to be taken by someone who didn't actually wanna stick around."
Robin smiled warmly as she sucked yogurt off her spoon, smacking her lips, "that's really sweet actually," she said before adding, "so did they stick around?"
"Yeah," Fletcher said, "for a while anyway. But nobody sticks around forever do they? Eventually you'll leave too."
She tried not to take the tone the wrong way, but it was clear that Fletcher was scared she, and others might leave, and he clearly was wrestling with abandonment issues. Robin merely smiled and took some more bites of her frozen yogurt, shrugging.
"I doubt it," she said, "I don't think they let caged animals leave the zoo," she said with a smirk, making Fletcher laugh.
***
Catfish had never really been popular.
Even as a young girl - well, younger than she was now, considering she was still fairly young - she'd had trouble making friends, fitting in, and dating? Forget about it. Not even a remote chance in hell that that was an option that was on the table. So she simply stayed away from it, especially since it didn't really seem to be changing being here at the Splash Zone. She thought, perhaps much too positively, that by working in a field where she would have things in common with her coworkers, that they'd create a shared sense of camaraderie, but that didn't turn out to be the case. A popular kids club. That's all life ever was. And she wasn't invited.
Sitting alone in the aquarium, watching the sharks swim by as she ate her italian sandwich, the bread getting stuck in her braces, Catfish couldn't help but think how nice it must be to be a solitary animal that didn't NEED friends. That was happy simply peaceful existing outside of any kind of social circle. Imagine that. Being jealous of a fuckin' fish. She saw a cart come to a crawl in front of the aquarium, through the window, and saw someone get out to check it. She watched, interested but cautious, as she finished up her sandwich before finishing her drink, gathering her trash and tossing it into a nearby recycling can that was modeled to look - ironically - like a coral reef and heading over to see what was happening.
"Do you need help?" she asked, as the person looked up from where they were kneeling and sighed.
"My cart has a bad wheel," Casper said, "um...this happens far more often than I'd like it to, honestly. And they won't pay to replace it, no matter what, it seems like, so I'm constantly stuck doing vehicle maintenance, which isn't even a skill I have."
"Who says you have to fix it? Why not just...slack off?" Catfish asked, causing Casper to smirk at her, surprised.
"I just...I like my job, I like working," Casper said, "but, if you're willing to entertain the idea of keeping me company until Zoo Triple A gets here, I suppose that'd be okay."
Together the two headed back towards the aquarium to escape the sun, and once inside, Casper was grateful just how air conditioned and dark it was compared to the outdoors, Fish of all varieties in all manners of tank surrounded them, and they couldn't help but feel immediately calmer. Caspers eyes caught Catfish as she stopped by a nearby tank housing crabs, and they looked her up and down, never having really spent much time with her before. She was young. She had to be the youngest trainer there by far, but it wasn't like Casper was much older, so. They were definitely in the same age range, she just looked very young for her age, perpetual baby face. The braids and the braces didn't help either. Hands behind her back, holding one another, Casper couldn't help but feel the way they always did around pretty girls.
...jealous.
"So why fish?" Casper finally asked, "like, of all the animals to be trained in, work with, why fish?"
"Technically I train whales, which are mammals, not fish," Catfish said, "but I guess it's just because I love whales. I remember being a teenager and going with my parents on vacation to Hawaii and I really didn't wanna go, I didn't like water, don't like islands, really don't like crowds, but we went on this glass bottom boat tour that also allowed you to snorkle, and I saw all sorts of fish through the boat but then when I got into the water, which my dad practically had to drag me kicking and screaming into, I saw a whale, and...and it really....it just opened me up completely. They're just so beautiful."
Casper smiled, nodding, crossing their arms.
"They are pretty," they replied, "and very intelligent, and emotional."
"I guess I just related to them. That being said, I wish I did anything other than what I actually do. I'd love to work with whales in a better capacity, because training them to do tricks isn't right, for them or for us, morally speaking anyway on our end," Catfish said, continuing, "but what can I do, ya know? This is...this is what I've decided upon. And I don't regret it, for the record. Don't take that wish as me saying I hate what I do. I'm happy that I've made the choices I've made to be who I am and do what I do, but I wish I were doing it in a better way. A way that made me truly happy, not just those around me."
Casper knew exactly how she felt. They'd never say it, but they felt it at their core. They'd been hiding a similar secret for so long, and now, being here with Catfish, sharing in this exact emotion, all they wanted to do was blurt out what they were unhappy about themselves with, but were too scared not only to do so but also to act on it if they did, so instead they were happy to simply have a friend who understand, albeit unknowingly. Casper smiled and nodded.
"I guess some days," Casper said, "all you can do is be grateful for your bravery, those of us who have it. Takes a lot of courage to get in the water and train a whale. Wish I were half as brave as you."
And they did. They really meant that.
They also wished they were half as pretty.
***
"Sex is overrated," Fletcher said, walking through the zoo with Kacie and Robin. Sophie was having a busy day being a helper in another part of the zoo, so she hadn't been around much, but something about the earlier conversation made Rpbin feel like maybe she was purposefully avoiding her and the subject, for obvious reasons. Fletcher continued, "like, people act as if it's this big connection, but it's really just...it's not. It's a nice way, certainly, to be with someone you love, but it isn't the end all be all for a relationship like most people seem to think it is."
"Weird to hear this from a guy," Kacie said as she chewed her candy bar while they walked past a small petting zoo.
"Yeah, well, guys have feelings, most just don't accept them," Fletcher remarked, shrugging, "I don't know what to tell you other than it's not what you think it is."
Robin felt conflicted. In one sense, she wanted to be closer to Sophie, but she knew Sophie was not only a virgin, but also asexual, and while she had expressed the possibility of them sleeping together, Robin felt awkward ever making any kind of push in that direction. And she couldn't deny Fletcher was right, after all. She was happy just being with Sophie, having fun, but all this talk about the act of mating and body count...it had begun to get to her. They stopped at a small gift shop and stood around, watching a woman dress her baby in a tiger onesie. Kacie smiled and wiggled her fingers at the baby, trying to make it laugh as Fletcher exhaled.
"I guess," he added, "in the end, what really matters, is, ya know, just knowing that you can love a person for completely unsuperficial and non animalistic reasons that don't entirely depend on the release of a hormone in your brain."
"But...that's what love IS, it's the release of a hormone in your brain," Kacie said.
"Yeah but you know what I mean," Fletcher said, "I don't know, nevermind."
Before Kacie could follow up, the speaker system jolted to life, and the three of them looked up at one of them that was attached to a pole, the speaker crafted in such a way to look as through the noise were coming out of the mouth of a lion.
"Hello guests, this is Zoo Manager Nelly Gish speaking," Nelly said, surprising them for the mere fact that she rarely, if ever, used the speaker system; she continued, "today we had a complaint from a parent who brought their young child to the zoo, only to witness copulation. And while this is a perfectly natural thing to see between two animals in a protected space such as this, her issue lay more with the fact that it was between two animals of the same gender. So I'd like to make a statement to anyone who may be listening who may also have an issue with this. Same-sex behavior is widespread in the animal kingdom, documented in over 1,500 species, including mammals, birds, reptiles, and insects. While often referred to as homosexual behavior, it actually encompasses a far wider range of activities beyond genital contact, like pair bonding, courtship rituals, and mutual grooming. These behaviors are not limited to a few species or sexes; they are a natural part of animal life, just as they are a natural part of human life. So, with that in mind, if you see any instances of same sex relationships between either people or animals while at our establishment, please just kindly redirect yourself to the nearest exit, go home, and live your totally unfulfilled heterosexual life where you hate your spouse. Thank you for coming, and enjoy the rest of your day."
The three of them stood in total awe, until Fletcher and Kacie started to crack up, hysterical, while Robin got the widest grin on her face. She had never once anticipated that she'd someday be a part of a group that required any form of protection - well, outside of being a woman, she supposed - but boy was she glad to know her boss had her back.
Now it was time to find Sophie.
***
Sophie was sitting by Flamingo Funhouse, a small, almost arcade style area with playsets for kids among a little restaurant and, of course, a small area that housed a handful of Flamingos. She pushed her big, circular lenses up onto her face and looked out at the Flamingos while the noises of children playing and arcade machines humming and pinging behind her filled in the silence. Suddenly she felt someone by her side, and glanced to see Robin standing there, hands behind her back.
"Oh, hello," Sophie said, "I'm sorry I've been absent today. I really had a lot to do and-"
"These are for you," Robin said, holding out a large bouquet of Violets, surprising Sophie, who took them and blushed; Robin went on, "Violets are commonly the sapphic flower, so I ran down the street to a nearby florist and I got these for you because I love you."
Sophie looked at her, taken totally by surprise. Robin put her hands on Sophie's shoulders and smiled, her eyes wet with tears.
"I...love you," Robin said, "anyone else I've ever said it to...I meant it but I didn't mean it the way I do to you. It was never...real the way it is with you. Because...because until you, I didn't know I could love another person, especially another woman, the way that I love you. But I love you. I love you more than words could ever say and maybe flowers will be a fine substitute."
Sophie blushed even harder, smiling now, her big teeth showing, making Robin love her all the more. Robin, holding Sophie by the shoulders, pulled her in and kissed her, the bouquet held carefully between them. After it ended, their foreheads resting against one another, each unable to stop smiling and giggling, Robin whispered.
"If I have to be captivity," she said, "at least I got a good mate."
"Couldn't have put it better myself," Sophie replied, kissing again.