A/N: For purplepanda64's challenge.
I'm baaaaack! Oregon was great, thanks for asking. Lots of shopping and food. My two favorite things. :D
I have about 20 Moments prompts to whip up, so I'll keep this brief. Moments subscribers, welcome to the inbox-spamming hour. :)
Disclaimer: I don't own SG.
"Can we go to the zoo?"
Sabrina briefly glanced up from the computer at Daphne. The blonde girl had been glued to the screen for the past two hours. Meanwhile, Daphne hadn't looked up from the TV since the latest episode of Glee had come on. But the musical show had ended ten minutes ago. The young girl was starting to get bored.
It was summer in Ferryport Landing, and it was that part of summer where it seemed everyone but the Grimms were on vacation elsewhere, trying to get away from the scotching heat wave that hit Ferryport last week and hadn't let up since. All Daphne's friends were away, and she suddenly found herself alone with just the other children of the Grimm household.
Sabrina spoke, eyes still glued to the computer. "Since when are there zoos in Ferryport?"
"Since last Wednesday. Haven't you seen the signs everywhere for the new 'Ferryport Landing Park & Zoo' everywhere?"
Sabrina frowned, gesturing the stack of college applications in front of her. Ever since school let out for her junior year, she had been working on her college applications nonstop, filling out endless resumes and forms for various universities. She was determined to get into a good college, even if she wasn't quite sure what she was going to college for yet…
"Kinda busy, Daph-"
Granny interrupted Sabrina's excuse with an excuse of her own. "Libeling, you need to stop stressing about this. You're a very smart girl and I'm sure you'll get into a wonderful college. In the meantime, I think this good weather and new zoo is a perfect opportunity to get all the kids out of the house so I can do some cleaning..."
"But I-"
"Hush, libeling. It's already been decided, you're taking them. Gather the rest of the kids, and go!"
Sabrina let out a small groan but compelled. She told Daphne to get Red while she went for Puck and Basil, who she assumed were together.
Wandering up to Puck's room, she pondered her boyfriend's strange relationship with her younger brother. Ever since Basil (and the rest of the world) had been rescued and everything had settled down, Puck had taken a liking to Basil. He had adopted Basil as his younger brother, becoming a mentor and advisor for the seven-year-old. Now, you could almost always find the two together, causing mischief and terrorizing the rest of the Grimms. It was cute, how Puck was so good with Basil.
He'll make a good father… Sabrina drew in a sharp breath, trying not to think about that. It had been worrying her lately, her and Puck's relationship. After all, she was most likely going somewhere far away for college, while Puck would be forced to go to the community college here in Ferryport Landing.
Long distance relationships hardly ever work out…
She tried not to think about that. Her and Puck would make it work, she'd make sure of it.
Creaking open the door to Puck's room, she peeked in to look for the two boys.
"Puck? Basil? Where are you…?"
Hearing a laugh to her right, she spun around and came face-to-face with Basil and Puck. Puck laughed, ruffling the youngest Grimm's head of hair.
"Basil! I thought we were gonna sneak up on 'er! You can never laugh when you're sneaking up on someone!"
Basil erupted into a fit of giggles as Puck swooped down to press a kiss on Sabrina's cheek.
"Hey,"
"Hey yourself."
Puck rolled his eyes jokingly as Sabrina giggled.
I really, really never want this to end. Sabrina thought. "We're going to the zoo. Wanna come?"
Basil's head snapped up from the ground, where he was investigating a bug.
"Zoo?"
Sabrina grinned as Puck chuckled.
"I guess we'll take that as a yes. You driving, Grimm?"
The girl nodded and took Puck's hand as they exited his room. "Granny's making me do this. She thinks I've been stressing about college too much."
Puck smirked. "That's because you have been. You need to relax."
"Easy for you to say. You don't need to worry about all this college stuff."
"Exactly. Because I'm just that awesome."
They both laughed as the reached the foot of the stairs, where Daphne and Red waited eagerly.
"Finally! What took you so long?"
More laughter came from Sabrina as she grabbed the car keys off the kitchen counter. "Someone's excited."
"How can you not be? It's the zoo!"
Sabrina grinned as Daphne and Red both jumped around excitedly, happy that the girls could still be carefree and innocent at thirteen. She's glad they're not like she was at thirteen… When Sabrina looked back at it, she's glad she did what she did for Daphne. Watching her be so free, even if it meant Sabrina had to grow up and take on far too many responsibilities at a young age, was absolutely worth it.
By the time she was pulled from her thoughts, they were already in the van, a silver car with three rows of seats, enough for all the Grimm children and adults. Daphne, Red, and Basil all sat in their respective seats and Puck took the passenger seat, next to Sabrina.
Sabrina pulls out of the driveway, and Daphne launches into one of her famous stories.
"… So then Mark- he's that blonde kid you always see in the principal's office? Yeah, I was surprised he was at camp, too. - He grabs the pen off my desk and passes it to Jen, who grabs it and starts to write stuff down. But then what was I supposed to write with? So I ask Mark for the pencil back, and he says no! No! Can you believe that? So then Tamra sees us and starts lecturing us, and then-"
Puck, unable to take anymore, groaned and cut her off. "What are you even talking about?"
Laughter filled the car, as Daphne tried to explain herself. "I was trying to tell you why I got in trouble with my camp counselor yesterday, seeing as 'Brina yelled at me for about a half hour without letting me explain-"
"I did not yell at you. I simply lectured you on not talking when others are talking."
"Okay, Mom."
Sabrina rolled her eyes and glared at her younger sister. "Who's the one taking you to the zoo in the first place? Oh, yeah. Me. I can turn this car around right now…"
Daphne grinned, batting her eyes innocently. "Of course, dear big sister. Please, continue driving and I'll stop pestering you with meaningless information." There was a unanimous sigh of relief around the van before Daphne continued. "I'll just bother Puck instead."
A chorus of groans filled the air as Daphne turned to her next victim, launching off into another (meaningless) story.
By the time they reached the zoo, everyone was eager to get out of the car and away from Daphne. Red had also started contributing to the stories, adding her input or opinion on a situation every now and then.
"Let's see the horses first!" Daphne squealed with excitement along with Red, who was tugging all of them towards the petting zoo. Sabrina tugged on their sleeves, holding them back.
"Wait a minute! Let's make a plan first." Daphne groaned, attempting to break free of her older sister's grasp.
"A plan! We don't need a plan! Let's just go around and look at animals! That's the whole point of a zoo!"
Sabrina frowned. "What if not all of us want to go to the petting zoo first?"
"I wanna go!"
"I wanna go!"
"I... don't care."
"What's a petting zoo?"
Puck bent down to explain a petting zoo to Basil. Sabrina sighed as all the Grimm kids voiced their opinions- loudly. People were starting to stare (Why shouldn't they? It was four teens arguing about where they should go in a zoo, plus one clueless seven-year-old. And the seven year old seemed the least excited.), and she knew it wasn't long before one of those annoying attendants would come over and ask, "Is everything okay?" even though they knew it wasn't, but still stood there doing nothing to help.
"Everyone quiet!"
Sabrina used the brief silence to close her eyes and breathe- before coming up with a plan. "Everyone who wants to go to the petting zoo raise their hands." Daphne and Red rose their hands, and Red nudged Basil so he would, too. Puck shrugged.
"I'll go wherever you go."
Sabrina gestured to the three youngest Grimms. "You three can go to the petting zoo. Red, Daphne, I assume you'll be okay with Basil?" The two girls nodded solemnly. "Good. Go ahead then, have fun!"
Red, Basil, and Daphne ran off in the direction of the petting zoo. When they were gone, Puck turned to Sabrina. "Where to, madam?" He bowed low in front of her. Sabrina rolled her eyes, but laughed at the boy's poor attempt at humor. Thinking for a moment, she decided where to go.
"Do they have penguins?" Glancing around at all the signs advertising different animals and exhibits, she quickly spotted on pointing to the left, telling her to go 'Catch a chill with the Arctic animals'.
She grabbed Puck's hand and dragged him in that direction. They soon came to the entrance, a big arch that looked like it was made of snow in ice. 'Welcome to the cold!', it said. They walked past the polar bears, seals, and walrus, until they found the penguin exhibit.
There were five penguins that they could see, each somewhat spread out and doing their own thing. "Look at that one," Puck pointed to one towards the center, making strange noises and waddling quickly. "It's like Daphne."
Sabrina giggled and nudged him gently in the shoulder. They were standing shoulder-to-shoulder, pressing up against the window like little kids. "If that one's Daph, then that probably Red." She gestured to one standing quietly next to the Daphne penguin, looking on like it didn't know what to do. Puck nodded and tapped the glass, his finger on the smallest penguin.
"There's Basil," The Basil penguin was waddling slowly, still unsure of walking without falling. Sabrina smiled and leaned her head on Puck's shoulder.
"Then that's be us." The two remaining penguins, heads bent together in an almost penguin-kiss. She simply nodded against Puck's neck and hummed softly.
"They say penguins mate for life, you know." Sabrina smiled, nodding again. "So..."
Puck jumped out of their embrace and dropped down on one knee. "Will you be my penguin?"
Sabrina laughed, holding out a hand and helping Puck back up. She knew he wasn't serious, but that didn't keep excitement from bubbling over.
"Someday, maybe."
Puck grinned and held his arms out in the air. "Success!"
Laughing, Sabrina internally sighed in content.
Yes, they would be together for a long, long, time...
A/N2: Consider this an apology for all the angst-y stuff I've been writing for SG, though FILCS was pretty fluffy.
I've always liked the idea of Puck/Basil having a mentor/mentee relationship. After all, they're the only boys in the Grimm Gang...
(Yes, I made up a cheesy name for them. Go ahead and kill me. XD)
Have a FANTASTIC week.
~S