A/N: When I first had the idea for a "Sombra and Symmetra at the zoo" story I swore to myself I wouldn't do it. It was just a joke I had made on Twitter, because Carolina Ravassa and Anjali Bhimani (the voice actresses of Sombra and Symmetra) have been posting way to many videos of their Australian trip. And I swore to my sister I would only do it if one of them replied, or heck just favorited my tweet, because they was no way it would happen, right? Well guess what? Anjali Bhimani did! So I wrote this. Enjoy!
Queen of the Quokkas
Sombra had begged. Of course she had. But Symmetra had to admit she was right. They were both very taken by work, and a day off couldn't really hurt them. However, what Symmetra meant by day-off as quite far off what Sombra had planed. Mainly, when Symmetra had wished for a quite day at home, Sombra had dragged her to the zoo.
Of course Symmetra had protested. She had absolutely refused to come when Sombra had first explained her idea. Then when she had somehow found her way in the car she had protested again, then proceeded to ignore Sombra during the entire drive, her arms crossed and her gaze fixed on the horizon. Which hadn't stop Sombra from teasing her.
"You look like a child. Except a child would not have said no to the zoo."
Finally when they had parked and Symmetra had refused to leave the car Sombra had pulled out one last card out of her sleeve.
"Alright, let's make a deal, preciosa."
For emphasis, she shifted in her seat to face Symmetra. The younger woman, however, continued to stare at the horizon.
"Satya."
She pursed her lips, and finally turned her head to look over at her girlfriend.
"A deal?"
Sombra smirked. Now she had her attention.
"Today is our day together, so let's enjoy it. And when we get home, we'll do whatever you want. That's the deal."
Satya raised a brow.
"Even play chess?"
Sombra nodded. She had expected it, and was ready to play chess. Although she would have preferred yoga, just to have a chance to stare at her girlfriend's long legs. But chess, as infuriating as it was to play against Symmetra, would have to do.
"Sure, we'll play chess. But no pouting, and no complaining for the rest of the day, got it?"
"Fine."
And so they had made their way inside the large zoo. It was so big, in fact, that Symmetra doubt they could see it all, and still have energy to walk back to the car, and, of course, play chess. Sombra, as it was to be expected, was like a kid, and stopped in front of every single animal pen like it was the first time she ever saw them. The only thing keeping her from running way ahead of Satya was their entwined fingers, and Symmetra's prosthetic hand clasping as strongly as she could Sombra's.
"Oh my god, look at the giraffes!" Sombra declared excitedly, pointing at, indeed, a bunch of giraffes munching tranquilly on the high leafs of a large acacia.
Sombra stopped dead in her tracks and rested her free hand on the wooden fence circling the pen. Of course, the action dragged Symmetra along with her, but her gaze barely stayed on the giraffes, and quickly focused on the deep trench that had been dug between the two fences, to make sure none of the giraffes could escape. That was good planning, she thought. Her eyes then went back to the giraffes, still eating. She wondered how long Sombra counted watching them. Her gaze fell on the smaller woman, and she saw a certain wonder in her eyes, as if she had never seen a giraffe before. Granted giraffes weren't the kind of animal you could find at every corner, but this really wasn't the first zoo Sombra had dragged them to, so there really wasn't any reason for such a wonder.
"You know, at this rate, we will never see everything there is to see."
"I thought you promised no complaining?"
"Oh, I'm not complaining, simply pointing out."
Sombra smirked, and once again Symmetra couldn't guess why. This wasn't out of the ordinary, since Sombra had perfected the smirk for any kind of situation, but still, it was somewhat annoying that she couldn't always understand what her girlfriend was thinking.
"Alright, let's go see the elephants!"
Sombra only had to turn around, of course, as the elephant pen was just on the other side of the dirt road. She once again dragged Satya with her, and together they stood side by side miles away from the elephants, who were enjoying a dust bath on the other side of the pen.
"Can you see their ears?"
"They're elephants, it would be rather hard not to see their ears."
"No, I mean, their size! Where do they come from?"
Instead of frowning, like Sombra, as if it would turn her eyes into binoculars, Symmetra looked beside her, and found an informative sign concerning those elephants.
"These are Asian elephants, their ancestors were taken in Northern India."
"Oh, you come from the same place!" Sombra commented, only to receive a pointed glare.
"Oh come on, I didn't say you looked like an elephant! If anything, I think you'll make a great peacock!"
Symmetra continued to glare at her, and angrily pursed her lips. She knew coming here was not a good idea.
"Well I always thought you looked like a hyena."
Sombra smirked.
"I will take that as a compliment, because they have a killer laugh!"
She pressed a peck on her girlfriend's cheek, and happily continued to walk down the road until she found another pen to stare out, still dragging Satya behind her.
They barely exchanged any words for a while, mostly because Symmetra was back to sulking, and every comment Sombra made about the animals were left to the wind. But finally, as they had reached the end of the African zone, Sombra managed to crack her girlfriend's shell.
They had stopped in front of the ostriches, and watched as the giant birds walked quickly around the pen, not really sure where they were going. It was probable that the ostriches didn't know either. Finally, after watching them for a moment, Sombra frowned:
"They remind me of something, but I can't remember what..."
That comment, like all of the others, were ignored by Satya. She had crossed her arms, and let go of Sombra's hand, which the shorter woman hadn't protested about. Her gaze was focused on the few ostriches sleeping in the shadows of their wooden shelter.
"I know! They look just like Widowmaker!"
The grotesque thought, as well as the mental image of Widowmaker wearing an ostrich costume, was enough to make Satya snore. She couldn't quite catch it in time, and even through the hand blocking her mouth Sombra could hear her laughter.
"Widowmaker?"
"Yes! Haven't you see those old photos of when she was a ballerina? I thought I had showed them to you... I need to, now! But she had this big puffy tutu that made her look just like an ostrich!" Sombra explained excitedly.
"I hope for your sake she never hears of this." Symmetra declared when she finally stopped laughing.
Sombra shrugged. As Symmetra continued to look funnily at the big birds, Sombra pulled the park's map out of her pocket and opened it, only to gasp.
"The bird of prey thingy is over there! Come on, let's see if we can find an owl that looks like Gabe!"
Symmetra laughed as Sombra took a hold of her hand again, and happily dragged her away.
As it turned out, after about ten minutes of searching, they did find an owl that looked quite like Reaper. Old, sulky and mean looking, even missing an eye. Sombra took a picture, as proof that the former Blackwatch leader did have a spiritual animal. She would show him next time she had a chance, even if Symmetra said it was one of the stupidest thing to do. In the giant aviary, they also took the time to read the informations on every species present there. And so they learned that female falcons were bigger than male, which Sombra thought was a good explanation as to why Pharah was five foot and eleven inches tall. Symmetra stayed unconvinced.
As they walked along the path, stopping as usual in front of every pen, it became their game to point out which animal reminded them of someone they knew. Sanjay Korpal, Satya's troublesome old boss, quickly found his doppelganger in the form of a tiny snake with deceiving eyes. It was that detail that made Symmetra pick that particular animal. Zarya, who Sombra assured she knew quite well from the many times they had tried and failed to take each other out, soon found a clone in the brown bear pen, when Sombra spotted one that seemed to give her a particularly nasty look.
It was in the North American zone that they began to run out of ideas, and only gazed longly at the animals for the fun of it. Satya was no longer sulking, in fact she was smiling every time Sombra made a funny comment, and that pleased the Latina greatly. But she knew she could do better. She wanted to see Satya smile all day, none stop.
They finally reached the otters' pen, a small one compared to that of many animals. But what they lacked in land they made up for in water, as they had a deep pond on one side, where a window had been placed so that the visitors could see them even underwater. Of course the otters were always ready to play, and it was what had drawn Sombra to them in the first place, but a few actually began to look at her longly. Or rather, they were attracted by the light of the cables running along her head, as if it were a new type of delicious fish. Sombra was delighted by the attention they gave her.
"Oh my god, they're adorable!"
She began pretending to pet them through the window, and the otters seemed even more into her, ready to be petted. Satya watched with a playful gaze and a gentle smile on her lips.
"Hey you! Aren't you a cuty!"
Sombra continued to pet the otters through the glass for a few long minutes, during which children began to crowd around her because she was attracting quite a large group by now. And a bunch of them imitated her, and also began to try and scratch the otters' belly through the window. It only made Symmetra smile even more.
After a while Sombra turned around and declared:
"Take a picture! Take a picture!"
Symmetra took her phone out of her pocket, and Sombra hastily chased the kids away so she could be alone on the picture, a dozen otters swimming behind her, all trying to grab at her head. It almost looked the Latina was crowned with them. Once Symmetra had taken at least ten pictures, each with different expressions from the small animals, she pocketed the device again.
"Alright, Queen of the Otters, how about we leave the kids to play with them?"
Symmetra extended a hand for Sombra to take, as if she were leading a child to another pen. Sombra took them with a smile.
"¿Reina de las nutrias? I like that. But now we have to find you an animal species you can rule over."
"Well, I guess all we have left is the Australian section. We'll see what we can find there."
Unsurprisingly, the Australian section began with a pen of koalas, and while they were cute, and actually bigger than either of them had expected, they didn't struck Symmetra has the kind of animal she could rule over. They had barely made a few steps away from them that Sombra was stunned by a great discovery. The zoo had a kangaroo petting pen. And there was no way Sombra wasn't petting each and everyone of them. So they waited, hand in hand, that some of the kids who had been there for the last ten minutes were flushed out, to finally have access to the pen. They were given a bunch of small carrots to feed them, and as soon as they had stepped inside Sombra rushed to nearest kangaroo, leaving her girlfriend behind without remorse. Satya soon found herself somewhat lost, in the middle of a bunch of kangaroos half her size, not really caring about her even though she had a few carrots in her hand.
She looked around and found that most children there, although accompanied by there parents, took the time to wait for one of the kangaroo to come to them, something which Sombra, in her excitement, hadn't noticed.
Satya suddenly felt something nudge the back of her hand. She looked down, and found a kangaroo trying to force its nuzzle in her palm, probably to rob her blind of carrots. She gulped down, not really sure what to do, and finally decided to crouch down to be at the marsupial's level.
"Is that what you want?"
She held her carrots flat in the palm of hand, like the woman responsible for the pen had told them at the entrance. She could feel herself shaking slightly as the animal approached its nuzzle to her hand once again. She truly wanted to keep her fleshy hand just that, made of flesh, and had no idea what a kangaroo bite could do. But the animal picked up each vegetable carefully, taking its time to munch on each one. Soon enough Sombra noticed her girlfriend's new friend, and rushed to them. The kangaroo didn't even seem to mind.
"Oh, this is adorable."
Quick as lightning she snapped a picture with her phone then began to pet the kangaroo who let her do, very much used to it.
"Do you want a carrot?"
She handed one orange stick to the marsupial who took it. With a smirk she then turned to Symmetra.
"And you, do you want a carrot?"
"I am not a kangaroo." Symmetra huffed out.
"I don't know, in this position you kinda look like one."
"My kicks probably hurt more than theirs."
Sombra nodded once, and declared:
"Alright, so, are we crowning you Queen of the kangaroos?"
Satya stood up, brushing invisible dirt particles from her attire.
"I'm not sure. Just because one kangaroo came to me doesn't make me their queen."
"Alright, well, we only have a few pens left to see, maybe you'll find your new subjects there." Sombra declared before bitting in one of the carrots. "These are some really good carrots."
They had reached the last pen, and as clouds passed by, they stopped in front of a pen full of tall grass and muddy ponds. Sombra quickly read the informative sign.
"Quokka? What's a quokka?"
Symmetra shook her head. They both focused on the pen, but saw nothing at first. Sombra was ready to give up and call it a day, a bit upset that they hadn't found a species for Symmetra to rule over, when her girlfriend suddenly noticed something.
"Sombra! Sombra look! Over there! In the grass!"
Sombra frowned, but still she saw nothing. Satya, however, was in complete awe. There, in the muddy grass, were small and chubby looking kangaroos, with cat-like ears and a cute little nose. Sombra followed her girlfriend's gaze and finally saw them.
"Oh, yeah, they're really cute."
"Cute? They are the most beautiful thing I have ever seen!"
Sombra looked, astonished, as Symmetra cooed over the Quokkas that appeared slowly but surely out of the grass. They all looked at her with their big black eyes, and Sombra knew with a smirk that they had found Satya's subjects.
"And I crown thee Queen of the quokkas."
"Can I take one home?" Satya asked.
Sombra was once again baffled by Symmetra's attitude. Sure, she had gotten used to seeing seeing the real Satya, the one behind the cold facade and the high walls, but this was a whole new level of Satya. It was almost childish, very much out of character for the taller woman, but damn if Sombra didn't like it. She smiled, genuinely, happily, and looped her arm around Satya's.
"I would very much like to say yes, but our landlord said no animals."
Symmetra sighed.
"Alright. But if they don't have a quokka plush at the gift shop you'll have to find me one on the Internet."
Sombra chuckled and pressed a kiss on Satya's cheek.
"No problemo."
They did have a quokka plush in the gift shop, to Sombra's relieve, because she knew if they hadn't had one, Satya would have bothered her with it until she had found one. She bought it, obviously, as a gift to thank her girlfriend who had barely complained and pouted. Satya also bought her a gift, an otter plush, as a way of thanking her. Not for the zoo trip, because while she had had fun she would never admit it. It was a satisfaction she wouldn't give to Sombra. But she did needed to thank her for bringing her here, for she wouldn't have met the cutest animal ever if she hadn't come to the zoo. They exchanged there gift right outside the shop, and Sombra kissed her girlfriend as yet another thank you, before entwining their fingers again. They tiredly walked toward their car.
"So, it wasn't such a bad afternoon, now, was it?"
"I will concede, it wasn't as unpleasant as I had assumed."
Sombra smirked. Reading Symmetra's riddle-like speech was not just one of her many talent, it was passion of hers. It only took her half a second to understand that Symmetra had had fun, and she was happy they had had a day out, just the two of them.
"So they next time I suggest the zoo?"
"I won't say that I'll be thrilled, but I won't complain either."
Sombra smiled and snuggled closer to Satya.
"But we are still playing chess when we get home."
"Seriously?!"
