"Roxy~! Come on already!" Xion called to me.
"I'm coming, Xi-Xi, just give me a sec to catch up! You keep running ahead of me!" I called back, smiling. She giggled, stopping so I could catch up to walk with her. I didn't really expect her to be so excited to go to a zoo, but I suppose it does have some appeal. We both have never seen a lot of the animals here, due to our origins, and it looked like they had some rides inside. Well, at least it looked like we wouldn't get too bored. Besides, Xion was really adorable when she's excited! … And I totally did not just think that.
After wandering around for a bit after getting through the line (Did they really need those old turnstiles? They kept freezing on every other person), we found ourselves at a red fox enclosure. Xion was taking a video of a couple of foxes as they play-fought over a chew toy. They were kind of cute… I guess. I watched a third fox as it strutted over to a small pond with its head held high. I smiled, then leaned closer to Xion, pointing to it. "That one reminds me of Axel a bit," I said quietly.
Xion looked at the canine, then nodded, smiling. "Yeah. Proud and arrogant," she said. "Now get off, you're making me hot."
"I think you're always hot," I snickered.
"Shut up, you pervert!" Xion laughed, punching my shoulder. I chuckled, then kissed her cheek, grinning when she blushed.
"Come on, let's see what else is around," I said. Xion nodded, letting me take her hand and lead her away from the foxes.
It didn't take too long to find something else of interest since they had a small pack of four grey wolves nearby. Xion and I stood at the window, watching the largest one, probably the alpha, pacing the edges of the habitat, looking around with the eyes of a predator. Guess a bunch of strangers with even stranger smells made them nervous.
"It's cute," Xion said, smiling.
"I might think the same if its eyes didn't say 'Stay away or I'll rip your throat out,'" I replied. Xion rolled her eyes at me. "What?" I grumbled.
"You're a dork."
"I'm your dork." I grinned when Xion game me a slightly unamused look before sighing.
"You're lucky you're right," she grumbled. I smiled, gently wrapping my arms around Xion and gently resting my chin on her head.
For the next hour or so we kept going around the zoo like this; Commenting on the animals and me saying what Xion dubbed "sappy." Or just plain stupid. Mainly the latter. We eventually stopped to rest. I had found a map of the zoo, so Xion was looking over it while I sat next to her on a bench, listening to the birds from the aviary across the path from us.
"Ooh, look, Roxy! They have an aquarium nearby!" Xion said, pointing to a spot on the map.
"Oh… U-Uh…. That's…. nice…. B-But…. Um…" I stammered.
"But what?" Xion asked.
"B-But…. we could…. Go to the reptile house instead! Y-Yeah, they've probably got a bunch of stuff in there!" I said.
"But the aquarium's closer. And they'd probably have a bunch of different types of fish," Xion said. She… had a point there…
"But… I… I… Oh, alright…" I grumbled. Xion's bright smile only made my dread shrink a little. This'll be so much fun…
.:. .:. .:. .:. .:.
… Not. Their eyes were cold and dead. They made me feel a chill that wasn't the room temperature's fault.
I tried staying as far away from the tanks as I could without Xion wondering what I was doing. Which was to say, not very far. A shark swam past me on the other side of the glass, making me jump back in surprise.
I hate them. I hate them with every fiber of my being and I don't know how anyone could see them as "beautiful," or how they'd ignore the small. I can hardly believe I let myself get trapped in here, even if it was Xion who persuaded me…
"Roxas, are you ok..? You seem… tense…" Xion asked, a concerned look on her face.
"H-Huh? What? No! I'm fine! There's absolutely… n-nothing… w-wrong…." I could help but prove her right when a cat fish longer than I was tall swam past us. "Tha-Tha-That's um… a-a really…. REALLY big fish…" I said, trying my best to keep my voice above a pathetic whimper.
Xion looked at the fish as it swam away, then focused her attention on me. "I think it's called a leopard shark…. Roxas, are you sure you're ok?" she said.
"I-I'm—Y-Yeah—no…" I stammered, looking at the floor. Finding a fish pattern on the carpet (because WHAT ELSE would they have on it?), I decided to just share at my shoes.
"What's wrong..?" Xion asked me. I felt her hand gently rest on my arm in a gesture of reassurance.
"I'm, um…. I'm…. k-kind of afraid of fish…" I admitted quietly. "A-Actually, make that REALLY afraid of fish…"
"You're… afraid of fish..?" Xion echoed. Cue laughter… "… I… I'm sorry…" she finally said. What?
"You're sorry..?" I said, confused.
She nodded. "I shouldn't have brought you in here, and I didn't think about why you were so jittery earlier…" she explained.
"… So, you…. aren't going to laugh, then..?" I said. She shook her head. I blinked stupidly for a moment, then broke into a grin, hugging her. Xion giggled, her cheeks turning pink. "Let's go get some ice cream, ok?" I said. She nodded, and we left the aquarium together, her hand in mine.