A Day at the Zooniverse
Chapter One
"Oh wow, Ben! I've never been to a zoo before!" Mat exclaims as they walk into the Zooniverse. "This is going to be so fun!" Ben chuckles. He didn't particularly like zoos, but when he'd overheard Mat saying that he'd hadn't been to a zoo before, Ben jumped at the chance. "Come on," he said, "Let's see the tigers first." Mat grinned and allowed himself to be pulled away by Ben. The tigers were very interesting. There was a man with a peculiar moustache doing a live show about tigers. Mat grabbed Ben's hand and led him towards the show. Ben couldn't catch what this man was trying to say. He was sure it was all very fascinating, but he just wasn't that interested. But he would be damned if his disregard for zoos ruined today. After the show, Mat was animatedly talking about whatever it was Bainbridge had said. "Did you know tigers are like endangered? And that they actually don't live anywhere near lions? I didn't know that! I just thought that they were in like the Serengeti, but tigers are Asian! How cool is that?" Ben smiled. "Very! On top of tigers being endangered, they are poached for dodgy Chinese medicines. Makes me sick, really." Mat agreed. "Can we see like the fish now? I love fish! Like manta rays and seahorses and starfish. Open that map of yours and take me to them!" Ben laughed, perused his map and walked over to the exhibit.
They were halfway to the aquarium when two strange men engrossed in their conversation ran into Mat. The younger man's glasses fell off and the other picked them up before they hit the ground. "Here you go Quentin." he says. Quentin checks his glasses and smiles after seeing there is no damage. "Thank you, darling. I'm so sorry we ran into you."Mat waved away the apology. "Accidents happen. I hope your glasses aren't damaged." Quentin smiles again and shakes his head. "No, they aren't damaged, thank you for asking. Have a lovely day." He put his arm through the other man's and walked away. Ben stared after them. "What odd people. I thought that the other one was going to kill you if you damaged the scrawny one's glasses." Mat nodded, "Yeah, me too. That's why I asked. That man was terrifying. I wouldn't want to work with him." Ben agreed and the rest of the walk to the aquarium was uneventful. When they finally got to the exhibit Mat was crushed to see that there were no seahorses or stingrays. There were manta rays and starfish, as well as whales. "This is kinda boring. I really don't like whales. They're everywhere. In all the zoos in the whole world. Isn't there anything else we could see? Like snakes or meerkats or something?" Ben sighed, Mat was so tetchy sometimes. "Let's see the manta rays, you love them more than anything. Come on!" Mat sighed and went to visit the manta rays. There was a bit of a crowd near the manta rays, everyone wanting to see the little baby ray."Ohh, Ben! It's so cute! Can I have one? It's the cutest thing I've ever seen! I may love that more than I love you!" Ben rolled his eyes in abdication. "You say that every time you see something new. I'm starting to doubt you love me at all." Mat looked hurt. "Aww, Ben, I didn't mean it like that! You know I love you more than anything else, but baby manta rays are pretty cute." Ben smiled and wrapped his hand around Mat's waist, looking at the manta ray. It was rather cute. The worker said that is was only six weeks old. "So, where do you want to go next?" Ben asked.
"Let's see some snakes!" Mat exclaimed and they walked towards the reptile enclosure. "Reptiles are so cool! I love them! All like reptilian and such!" Ben smiled and gripped Mat's hand tighter. The reptiles weren't as interesting as the manta rays. There were only five snakes, a lizard and something that looked like it would kill anyone who approached. Needless to say, that last animal wasn't very popular, although it seemed to be quite fond of Simon Amstell and Chris Barrie. Mat and Ben only spent thirty minutes here, watching the various animals get fed by a lone zookeeper. Mat thought that there should be more than one zookeeper, but didn't voice this opinion. "Ben, come on! We've been here for like 20 minutes! Come on, let's get lunch!" Mat almost raced away, but Ben grabbed his hand. "Ughh Ben! Hurry up!" Ben sighed but picked up the pace. There wasn't much good food at the zoo. They managed to find several dodgy looking sandwiches and ate them. "Ugh, Ben this is gross! Can we see more animals?" Ben nodded and they got up. "What do you want to see next? Meerkats?" Mat jumped at the mention of meerkats. Ben smiled, "But let's just relax, ok? This is the first day off we've had in ages! Enjoy it!" Mat and Ben sat in silence, not wasting words, not being awkward. Mat got up first, "Come on, let's see the meerkats and gorillas and stuff." Ben stood up and gently kissed Mat. "Come on, this way." he said, entwining their hands.
They walked slowly to the enclosure, taking their time just talking about work and holidays and relaxing. They got there and looked at the uninterested meerkats, the sleeping chimpanzees and a rather large gorilla who appeared to be waiting for something. "It says his name is Bollo. He's ten years old." Mat read. "It doesn't say much..." Bollo seemed to look through them rather then at them. "Hey Bollo, look what I got!" a voice said before plowing into Ben. The collision caused Ben to almost fall over and make the man to drop his... hair straightener? Ben picked it up, "Here you go." he said politely, handing the unusual item over. "Hey thanks!" the man said, grinning impossibly before running off to the gorilla. "Let's get out of here." Mat agreed and they walked out, choosing to believe that this man didn't actually ask a gorilla if he had seen his boyfriend had done to his pants. "There's so many odd people in this zoo. Interesting, but odd. Look I know it's only two o'clock, but do you want to go home?" Ben grinned and kissed Mat again. "I thought you'd never ask! Let's spend the rest of the day relaxing." They walked towards the car park discussing what they planned to do when they got home.