raspberryturk | A Zoo on the Mainland, Tuesday, After Classes

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A Zoo on the Mainland, Tuesday, After Classes

Okay. It had been... a week. To say the least. It was only Tuesday and Reno already wanted it to be over, already.

But that wasn't going to stop him from making an ass of himself in public. After all, so far as public outings went, some things were practically sacred.

"Think they'll let me take home a penguin if I ask real nice?"

[For the partner in crime! NFB for being all mainlandy and stuff, woo!]

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"What's your roommate gonna say if you come home with another pet?" Dōjima asked, giving him a Look over her sunglasses. "I'm not coming over to enable you, if your room smells like fish all the time."

Penguin and ferret. Possibly not the best odor ever.

"Fish and weasel musk," Reno mused. "Edmund's pretty cool. Maybe if I convince him I'm just holdin' on to the bird for a buddy of mine, he won't mind too much, yo."

He gave his shoulders a shrug and attempted a lopsided sort of grin.

"If that don't work, maybe I'll just have to grab a stuffed one at the gift shop, huh?"

"Send the real one to Rude, get a stuffed one for your rat to gnaw on," she said cheerfully, ignoring the sign that said 'Don't lean on the fence' to climb on the fence for a better view. "I bet he's real lonely, without you there to entertain him."

"Eh, he's got Tseng and Elena to keep him company, too," Reno mused, resting his elbows on the rail and leaning in to get a better look, himself. "Not that Tseng makes the best company ever, and the rookie talks enough for all of 'em. What the hell is that thing we're lookin' at right now, anyhow?"

For all that Reno had been working on figuring out what the heck kinds of animals they had on planet Earth, the marvel that was the three-toed sloth was clearly foreign to him.

Dōjima grinned and tapped the informational plaque. "A sloth," she informed him pompously. "Lazy little buggers, but kinda cute."

"You figure that's cute?" Reno squinted and leaned forward even more in order to get a better look. "I dunno. He kinda looks creepy to me."

Well. It did.

"People don't eat 'em, do they?"

"It sorta looks like the ugly cousin of those Ewoks that Skywalker dumped on us," she giggled, "but it's cute in the right light!"

Suuuuuuuuuure.

"I don't think people eat them, but you never know. People eat weird shit sometimes. Like, the kiwi? Who the hell thought that eating something fuzzy was a good plan?"

"Probably the same guy who figured out how to cure pig meat and then called it bacon," Reno decided.

It made sense to him, anyhow.

"We are talkin' about the fruit, right? Not, like, the weird little bird or people from that country way the hell down South?"

Dōjima hopped off the fence and headed towards another exhibit. Aw! Monkey!

"Fruit," she confirmed. "Although I wouldn't put it past people to try and roast the bird."

They were wee. And they were jumping around and making little chittery sounds, and Reno couldn't help but grin a little at them.

"You know," he mused, "if Rude needs a penguin, I think Elena needs a monkey. Like one of these guys. Take a lookit'em. She'd eat that shit right up, yo."

"A monkey to ride on her shoulder, and then you can make pirate wench jokes?" Dōjima teased. "Yar! Careful, or she'd teach it how to steal your smokes, just to be contrary."

"I think the rookie would have a hell of a time tryin' to make a monkey outta me," Reno chuckled, crossing his arms over his chest and taking a step back. "And anyhow, I'm good enough doin' that on my own."

Well. He was.

"Oh yeah?" Her grin took on an impish cast, and Dōjima folded her arms.

"Then make some monkey sounds," she said, nodding at one of the simians that was regarding them intently. "You should say hello; I think it wants to be your friend!"

"Well, I'd love to, Doji, but I can't seem to remember what sound it is that a monkey makes, yo." Reno smirked in her direction, giving his foot a tap against the ground. "Maybe you ought'a go first, an' then I can follow your lead, yo."

She stuck her tongue out at him, then turned around to make little 'ooo ooo' sounds at the monkey and wriggle her fingers at it.

The monkey stared at her, unsure if it should be amused or scared.

"Come on, Red, your turn!"

This prompted a bout of staring. Wide-eyed, somewhat baffled staring while Reno attempted to wrap his brain around what he just saw.

And then, when his brain was good and wrapped, when he'd processed that he'd just witnessed Doji going "ooo ooo" like a monkey, that was about the time he started laughing.

And damn, did he ever need it.

"Oook oook, huh? Just like that?" Hell, if she was going to waggle her fingers at the monkey, he was going to have to one-up her and scratch his head while he made those noises. Good, now his armpits. If people thought that his chocobo impression was impressive, they'd clearly never seen Reno do 'monkey.'

Secretly, Yurika was pretty much just a giant dork. Not that she would ever admit as much to anyone at school. Not in a thousand-million years.

Besides, she had an ulterior motive.

She cheered him on, one hand discreetly dipping into her purse and pulling out her phone, flipping it open with a speed born of practice and grinned wickedly.

"Say banana!"

"Wha? BananOHSHIT! Doji, put that away!" And now, the big red ape that was Reno was making a dive for that phone. "You figure you don't got enough blackmail photos on me already? Really?"

Yurika squealed and darted backwards, trying to hold the phone away from him. "Can a girl ever have too many blackmail photos?" she laughed. "Oooo...hey, I might have gotten a good one..."

"Dammit," Reno grumped, and yes, he was giving up on the game already, crossing his arms again and... Well, it was probably safe to call it 'pouting,' yes. "That wasn't even the best I can do. Bad enough you're snappin' photos of me bein' a dick, you couldn't let me warm up a little so I was at least doin' a good job of it?"

Dōjima pouted right back, sticking the phone back in her purse. "I was trying to catch the spontaneity of the moment," she informed him. "Don't be cranky, it was cute!"

"If you really want me to catch your 'dickish' side, you can go back to making monkey noises, and I can take more pictures..."

"Eh, don't bother," Reno decided, pausing a moment to blow a raspberry at the rather amused monkeys before making his way on to the next exhibit. "I'm wearin' the suit and everything, might as well save your drivespace for me doin' my best 'penguin' instead, yo."

Priorities!

"You gonna waddle and quack at them for me?" she asked, skipping after him to catch-up. "I can get video on this thing, you know."

"Eh, we'll see. What kinda booze do they sell at the zoo, anyhow? Might take a few pints, zoto."

Poor Reno. He was going to have to muster up a waddle and some quacking without help, alas.

Dōjima stared.

"They do not sell booze at the zoo," she said slowly, watching him warily. "There are kids here and stuff."

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