Zoo Keepers DM x JD
Hey guys, this is a sequel to Lion Keepers, so you might want to read that one first. It will give a little more background to the guys and how they got together.
Danny p.o.v
I hate getting up in the morning and leaving Jorel behind as I go to work. For the last five weeks he has been on tour though with his band and I do miss him a lot. He's coming back in one week hopefully. It's five in the morning and I have to get up like usual to go to work in the zoo for the day. I don't know how much longer I am going to work here though, people have been coming up to me and getting quite nasty over the fact that I am dating Jorel and that has gone public. People don't accept us because they think that he should be dating Vanessa like he used too, and I should be dating a woman. Jorel and I have been happy since the day he asked us out and our jobs fit perfectly even though they are quite different from each other.
I was walking through to the kitchen when my phone buzzed with a text message. I was in the middle of pouring cereal into my bowl and making a cup of coffee so I didn't get to read it for about five or so minutes. I was halfway through my cereal when I finally was able to read the text message Jorel had sent me. I smiled instantly, wherever he is in the world he always makes an alarm for when it's five in the morning for me and sends me a paragraph or two about how much he loves me, and he wishes that I have a good day. I love the little things like this, just the simple things that show me that he still loves me, and he still cares about me no matter how many miles away from me he is. I love sending him messages back.
Jorel: Hey my bear, I just wanted to send a message to you saying good morning. You are the cutest and hottest little zoo keeper that I have ever met, and I am happy that you are my boyfriend. I hope that you have a good day and you remember that I love you. I can't wait to be back home in your arms at this time in the morning even if you do have to leave earlier than I do in the morning.
Me: Hey boo, good morning. I think that you are the hottest guitar player/ rapper I have ever met. I hope that you have a good day as well and the concert is fun tonight. I love you too and I can't wait until you are home with me.
I smiled and finished my breakfast before doing some dishes I might have left the night before. I had to get into my uniform before leaving the house this time. I keep leaving it until I get to work because I wake up later than I am supposed to. Luckily Chris understands how I feel with Jorel being gone and he is a bit more lenient then most supervisors. He lets me off as long as I don't do it quite often and I do turn up in my uniform. I rub my face just after I get into my pickup truck. I am not ready to face the day yet. Maybe this job is more suited to a morning person. Chris knows I have a desire to leave at some point, but I am probably going to wait until Simba leaves. Simba is going to be leaving soon to go to a new zoo to help with the breeding programme.
Chris said if I was going to leave then that was going to be the best time to do it. He didn't want me to leave completely and to be honest neither did I, I am going into it part time. My shifts will fit around my music career schedule. Everyone was fine with me doing this and I was happy to consider my zoo keeping career as one I can fall back on when I need it. I walk into the office feeling happier even though I still deeply miss Jorel. "Still missing your boo Danny?" Chris asks me when he sees me. I was trying to be happy for people. "Yeah, he should be coming back this time next week though hopefully," I reply. I could not wait until next Friday morning when I can wake up with Jorel next to me and everything being okay.
I go to see Simba just to spend more time with him before he leaves for the new zoo. He enjoys spending time with me and we do this every morning I am there, and he doesn't like it when I am not in for whatever really. He's so happy to see me and stands on his hind legs to greet me when he hears me talking to Chris on our way to see him. "Hey Simba," I tell him when I see the lion. He was so happy to see me, and I walked into his room and watched as he happily licked my face. I rubbed his mane once he had stopped licking me and Chris smiled at our interaction. He loves seeing me spending time with Simba like this.
We started making a documentary to show what goes on behind the scenes and we were planning on having a segment where we show this relationship with Simba. That will make it an interesting documentary. "We should be able to film your segment with Simba sometime today," Chris tells me, and he smiles. He doesn't feel comfortable and go into the den with me, Simba doesn't trust a lot of keepers. I guess we need him to trust us less, so he is more lion than human. He yawns at me, so I could see his teeth. They all looked good to me even though I am not a big cat dentist. Simba sat down, and I rubbed his chin while he purred loudly at me. "Yeah, let's hope the camera crew aren't scared of Simba and can get some good shots," I tell him.
We decided to walk around the enclosures on the outside to see the animals and answer any questions that people were going to ask. Lots of people wanted to ask about the lions and other big cats do and we were happy to answer them. A lot of the questions I answered that hour were from very interesting small children who wanted to know if the lions were any different then the cats they had at home. A few children wanted to know so, with their parent's permission we went to the seating area next to the lions. "Well, lions are a little more dangerous then your kitties at home. Remember when a little kitty gets mad they might give you a little scratch or a little bite. Well, if a lion gets mad their bites and scratches are huge," I tell them.
The parents looked so appreciative of my explanation. These kids are about 4 or 5 years old at most, so I didn't want to say oh a lion will kill you if he or she gets the chance. The best comparison I knew to make was the one about scratches and bites because they would understand that more. They probably have been bitten or scratched by their pets once. "Has a lion ever bitten you?" one of the children ask me. His parent seems a little horrified, but I was willing to answer and satisfy his curiosity. "Well, the fully-grown lions don't spend much time with us. I have been bitten by cubs a lot of times though," I tell them, no one sees what Simba does with me outside of the staff until the documentary gets filmed.
I actually had a scratch from Kiro on my arm, so I am guessing that is why he wanted to know about lions hurting us. "One of the cubs got my arm this morning, but I feel okay," I tell them when they were looking at my arm. I was going to get a band-aid and cover it up in a little while, but Chris wanted to wander around with me first. "Why do you spend time with the cubs and not the big lions?" a little girl asks me. "Well, sometimes the mommy lions can't look after the cubs, so we look after them until they are big enough to look after themselves," I explain, keeping things simple for the little ones. I answered a few more questions before they went to go and explore the rest of the zoo. "We should let you do the talks on lions and stuff from now on Danny," Chris tells me, he was observing how I did.
"Yeah maybe, I don't think children would be engaged with me for long though," I tell him. The children I just talked to were engaged but it was a very short session. If it was an hour instead of about ten or fifteen-minute session, then I doubted they would be paying attention for the hour session that I would provide them. "Yeah, maybe we can start off with little school sessions and see where we go from there," he tells me. I like our teamworking and how we are trying to plan more activities in the zoo. "That sounds like a good plan to ease people into it and generate more interest in it," I tell him.
We head back to the enclosures because I knew it was nearly time to film the clip of me and Simba. They already had a clip where I fell and knocked myself out in the main paddock a few months back which will make for a very dramatic episode when it comes out just because I was recued by the lions and taken back to the keepers and I got away pretty lightly injuries wise consider how nasty the fall was. Chris made sure he went in with me from now on when I went into the paddock to put up meat for the lions as one of the many forms of enrichment. We just need to make sure that I was not going to fall again. "So, you are sure Simba will be fine with us in the room?" the cameraman asked me. They knew I was going to be the only keeper in there with the lion.
"Yep, I will have control over him the entire time. We have practiced with having cameras in there already, so he is used to it," I tell the cameraman. I have never seen someone so nervous to go in. Then again, he would be worrying about this fully-grown lion to eat him or me at any given moment. They had a camera in the enclosure already to get some footage, but they wanted more. "Danny is very confident around Simba, so you don't have to worry. Their bond is quite unique," Chris says, to help reassure the cameraman called Jake that everything was going to be fine. I smiled at Jake, I was forming a good plan in my head that was going to make it go even more smoothly then he was expecting it too.
"If it's alright with you, just because you are nervous I will go in first and spend a minute just making sure he will behave," I tell Jake, he seemed very comfortable with that and so did the director of the documentary. "That sounds like a good plan Danny. We trust you to keep us safe during this," the director tells us. Chris was also there to observe and intervene should it go wrong. I smiled at them and walked into the enclosure with confidence. Simba knew I was in there straight away and he walked up to me quite calmly unlike he was this morning. I think he knew what was going on as well as we did. "Good boy Simba. Some people are going to film you today buddy." I tell him, fully aware how potentially mad I looked.
Simba stayed calm the entire time and I helped Jake introduce himself to the lion and Simba accepted him straight away and made him feel comfortable and they got along quite while by the end of the segment he was filming. He was going to interview me about it afterwards where I would be explaining how our relationship started and how close we are to each other. I enjoy talking about Simba, its one of the few examples we can give of zoos being beneficial to the survival of lions in the wild. So many people would come and say nasty things about us keeping animals in cages or enclosures like this. Whenever someone says that to me I always replied to them "So you would like the animals we look after here to go extinct then?" They soon shut up after that which made me smile in a kind of I told you so way.
We went straight to where the interviews were being done so I could answer the questions about my relationship with Simba and why we sometimes have to intervene with the cubs. The question and answer session went really well, and they were impressed with how well I was able to answer the questions that I was asked no matter how difficult they might have been at times. Chris was very impressed with me as well and I smiled as he hugged me when we left to continue on with our day. "I have got to say Danny you did very well with that interview," Chris says as we get back to our little staffroom area. "Well, people have questions and I have the answers to give to them," I reply as he makes us both a cup of coffee. I was texting Jorel at every moment I managed to get, and I was enjoying our little chats.
I went to go and feed our current lot of cubs in the playroom. A lot of the cubs who were there when I first met Jorel had gone back to their kind now and we had a couple of new ones to look after. There were no lion cubs now since they were all being taken care of by their mothers. We gained two new tigers two months ago and they were growing just fine, and I think in another couple of months they should be able to go back to be with the other tigers. Kiro is also going to leave soon to a different zoo than the one Simba is going to, to join their breeding programme. I am going to miss both of them, but at the same time I know they need to grow and develop away from the keepers and we might hold them back unintentionally.
"When's Jorel coming back?" Amy asks me, she is very supportive now of my relationship with Jorel despite some jealousy earlier on. "He should be back this time next week I think," I tell her, I was absolutely useless when it came to remembering the dates of his tours. I was excited anyway, the last time that I saw Jorel was when he came back to LA for the night and I was even given the day off to spend with him in Las Vegas and go to that concert as well. Aron doesn't like me, but the others do so that doesn't matter. I met their photographer Brian and he loved being able to take so many couple photos of me and Jorel, so it makes the being away from each other a little bit easier, so we can focus on those memories.
I also finally got the photos from the keeper photo shoot we did and some of them would be spliced together to make the title screen for the documentary and for promo. I am going to send them to Jorel and see what he thinks of them. I know he is going to love them, but the comments he will have on them will probably make me laugh. "You still miss him a lot, don't you?" Amy asks when she sees that I was looking at our little mini couple photo shoot. "Yeah, it's hard being away from him for the best part of three months, but I know he is having fun out there and making people happy and he will still come home to me next week," I tell her. She knows how hard it is to have a family and be a zoo keeper let alone be a touring musician.
"Yeah, luckily Chris lets you have time off when Jorel comes to play in the town and Las Vegas. I would hate it if I wasn't able to see my partner," Amy tells me, and I smile at her. Chris was good when it came to that sort of thing and I was even given a week off when they go to Europe, so I could spend time with him then which is good. "Yeah, I still prefer it when he is home. Since he does have fun though I don't feel like I should be stopping him from having that fun," I tell Amy. Jorel sent me heart eyes when he saw my pictures that I had sent him from the zoo keeper shoot that we did. I sent him some cheeky texts back and I could just imagine his face as he sits in the tour bus reading all my messages.
The rest of the day went alright. Amy wanted me to go with her and the rest of the big cat keepers for dinner out like they did every month. I was going to refuse, but she said maybe going out will help me and I will not miss Jorel so much and it will be a fun time. Even Jorel himself encouraged me to go when he called me like he does before he has a show. "Danny are you coming with us tonight?" Chris asks me. I smiled at him and nodded. "Gonna get changed first and meet you there," I tell him. We might have gone to the Crow's nest but that's quite a drive and we might arrange it for next month and do it on a Saturday instead of a Friday. "That's good, we'll make sure that tonight is fun and nothing bad is going to happen," he tells me and smiles at me.
"Yeah, I don't think I am going to get drunk anyway, so everything is going to be fine," I tell him, and he laughs at me. He knows I get very sentimental when I get drunk, so he tends to keep an eye on me if we have a few drinks together. I have rarely gotten drunk since I have met Jorel, so he doesn't have to worry so much about me anyway. "Okay Danny, I will still keep an eye on you anyway," Chris tells me, and I smile at him. "Thanks Chris, you never know what crazy people might be out there," I reply, and he throws a cushion at me. I manage to catch it which makes him a little mad at me but I stick my tongue out at him and throw it back before running out of the room.
~one week later ~ Jorel p.o.v
Don't get me wrong, I love being on tour, but I love being back at home with Danny more. Today we have flown home and Danny should be back from work. I haven't had any texts from him since his good morning message that he sent me after the one I sent him this morning which worries me a lot. I know he should be fine, but I can't stop worrying about him. "Maybe he's been busy filming all day in work, I am sure he is fine Jorel," George tells me while we wait for the bags to arrive. "Yeah, can't wait to get home to him though," I tell George, he knew I had been nervous and worried all day about my boyfriend. We grab our bags and head to George's car as he was going to drop me off first and then get back to his house.
I got home and felt relieved to see Danny's truck in the driveway. That has got to be good news, right? George got out of the car with me and we both walked into the house. It was silent, no television playing, and I couldn't hear Danny. The nerves were back, and I left my suitcase in the laundry room before exploring the house to see if I could find Danny anywhere in the house. George walked with me into the living room where we found Danny. He was fast asleep on the couch and he had a blanket up to his waist. There was a trashcan next to the couch where he had seemed to have thrown up and there was a bottle of water on the table. "Aw baby," I tell him and move his hair out of his face and pick up the bucket.
George watched me walk into the kitchen then followed me. "So I take it you know why Danny hasn't been texting?" he asks, he was watching me clean out the bucket. "Yep, poor little lion's gotten sick. He's probably been spending most of today resting and his mind would not have been on texting me," I tell him. Once the bucket was clean I decided to go back to my baby and that tomorrow will be spent looking after him like the rest of today will be. "Tell him I hope he feels better soon and I might pop in sometime next week," George tells me, then he leaves to go and finally spend some quality time with his wife and daughter. I sat next to Danny on the couch and rubbed his back. I didn't want to wake him, but at the same time I wanted him to have the comfort of not being alone while he is so ill. I saw that Chris was calling him so I decided to answer.
Chris: Hey Dan, feeling any better now?
Me: Hey Chris its Jay. He's sleeping at the moment but from the looks of things I don't think he is.
Chris: Aw bless him. I am glad he is getting rest. He showed up to work this morning and about two hours later I decided to send him home. He just was not well at all and he should have stayed at home in the first place.
Me: Yeah, but we both know how stubborn he can be. If he gets himself into the mind-set that he is fine and he would be really ill and it would be difficult for him to be convinced otherwise.
Chris: Yeah, gonna give him tomorrow off as well just to make sure he can rest and get better. If either you or he can let me know at some point tomorrow if he is feeling any better then let me know and I can arrange any additional days off if he needs anymore.
Me: Yeah, I will probably text you later on tomorrow. He doesn't know I am home yet because he is sleeping.
Chris: Okay, hope you enjoy the time you get with him Jay. Talk to you tomorrow.
Me: Thanks, talk to you tomorrow.
I smiled once the phone call ended. Danny was slowly waking up and I was rubbing his back to keep him relaxed. I bet feeling awful all day must be horrible for him and he probably didn't get much sleep in the night. "When did you get home?" Danny asks me sleepily when he sees me sitting next to him. "About twenty minutes ago. I talked to Chris for you and you have tomorrow off," I tell him. He smiles at me weakly before sitting up to hug me tightly. I hugged him back and rubbed his back. I knew he missed me a lot. "Ah shit, I was going to pick you up from the airport today," Danny says, then he goes into a nasty coughing fit while I keep rubbing his back. Danny then rests his head on my shoulder.
"That's okay baby, I knew you were probably busy anyway and George dropped me off. He says he hopes you get better soon," I tell Danny. I pulled him onto my lap and smiled as he relaxed into my arms. I reached for his water bottle and handed it to him, to see if he could keep any water down and he could slowly start feeling better. "I was just so tired I couldn't keep my eyes open, I meant to text you and tell you that I couldn't make it to the airport," Danny tells me and I kissed his cheek. I knew that was probably the case when I saw him fast asleep on the couch when I arrived home. "Yeah, that's okay Danny. We can spend some time together while I look after you and you get better in a few days' time," I tell him.
Danny managed to keep the water down and even managed a few more sips. I allowed him to sit with me while we watch some television and he rests. I got some dinner before we got on the plane so I wasn't hungry. Danny and I both believed it was for the best that he tries eating some toast tomorrow. "I don't want to be sick again Jay," Danny tells me as he takes another sip from his bottle. I rub his arm and he snuggles into me a little more. "I know Danny, just rest today and hopefully you won't throw up again today and you can try eating some toast tomorrow. Then we can see where you go from there," I tell him. Some of the fans had given me some gifts to give to Danny so I decided that while he needs to cheer up so that would help.
I place him down on the couch and he pouted, but I told him that I was going to be back in a moment I was getting him something. I hid the bag of gifts behind my back and smile at him as I go back to the couch to spend more time with him. I give him the bag and smile as he sits on my lap and I wrap my arms around him. He opens the bag and smiles as he is greeted by a lion plush a fan gave me to give to him. "Apparently you are very popular with the fans and they kept giving me gifts and drawings to give to you," I tell him and he smiles at me. He hugs the lion plush and then puts it to one side so he can look through the bag and the rest of his things. He loved the drawings that people had made of him.
"These fans are amazing, I didn't realise that most of them loved the partners as well," Danny says before going into another coughing fit where he nearly threw up. "People love you Danny, even if Aron doesn't. They find our relationship adorable and I am happy that they support you and I together," I tell him and we do a little selfie shoot so Danny could make an Instagram post where he can express his gratitude over the gifts that he received from the fans. "Yeah, they are like that with the others too. They don't seem to be too negative towards us," he tells me and I smile at him. I am glad that he is not having anyone send him hate because he is dating me and things along that line. They loved it when he sung with us when he came to see us in Las Vegas while we were on tour.
They want him to join in with us full time and I know that is going to happen soon. He says he is going to part time zoo keeping after Simba leaves the zoo so that it's a natural leave and Chris said he could go back to being full time any time that he wants which is good. "Yep, maybe next tour you can sing both nights you come to see me. They loved your singing, you really fit in well in the band Danny," I tell him. He had not stopped smiling since he woke up and realised that I was home. I love that, knowing the fact that Danny loves me and I am the one who is making him smile all the time. Chris told me when we had a catch up that no one makes Danny smile like I do and he was happy to see Danny back to his usual self.
I made a post about how I loved being back with my boy in my arms and I missed him a lot. Tiger, our loyal Bengal cat was lurking in the background and fans were quick to notice it. I liked a few of the comments and replied he always wants to creep on our photos. "Tiger you being a creep huh?" I ask the kitty who just meows at me in reply. "He's one creepy boy," Danny says, then he yawns. He has not had much sleep. I think he had two hours before he woke up and he didn't sleep at all last night. "You want an early night my little lion?" I ask him. He was snuggled into me and I thought he hadn't heard me. "No, I think I can stay up till about half ten," Danny tells me. It is currently 7 pm now and that is only another 3 and a half hours away.
"Okay baby, if you want to go to bed then let me know," I tell him the he kisses me on the cheek. We watch some more TV while he still manages to keep some water down. I did offer to see if he could keep Gatorade down, but he was a bit too nervous about it, so I decided to leave it. "You shouldn't be looking after me you know. You should be taking care of yourself, you just came home," Danny tells me after a few minutes. I had been playing with his hair and making sure the flannel that we had wrapping an icepack on top of his forehead. "But Danny I want to look after you. We can snuggle tonight, and I will make sure that I take care of myself as well as taking care of you," I tell him, and he still snuggles me.
"Well, if you are sure that looking after me isn't going to be an issue then sure," Danny mumbles and I kiss his neck. I wonder why he thinks that way, he never used to as far as I am aware. Then again Chris told me of his depression diagnosis after his wife and unborn daughter died. I am not sure he is on anti-depressants for it. Then again, he wouldn't take them even if he was prescribed them. He is stubborn when it comes to a lot of things and that is one of them. I kiss the top of his head and feel him shift in my arms so that his head was buried in my chest. I wonder if this is the first time he has been sick and had a partner caring for him since Reese died. "Looking after my precious lion is never going to be an issue Danny," I tell him.
A few moments later I feel his tears on my shirt. He was holding back the sobs I could tell. "Let it all out baby, it's going to be okay," I tell him, and he did. He sobbed and sobbed in my arms and I just held him as he did. I wanted him to let all his emotions out. I am here to look after him and I will always be willing to do so. "I'm sorry Jay," he tells me once he has finished sobbing. "It's okay Danny, it's okay to cry. I know you have been through a lot," I tell him and then plant kisses all over his face after wiping away the last few tears. He giggles even though he is both really tired and feeling really unwell at the current moment. "How do you do this, you are so much stronger than I am?" Danny asks me. He kissed me on the lips before this and I kissed him back.
"I am no stronger than you Danny. You have lost people as have I and I feel like sometimes we pull each other through the rough patches. Like last week when I got all those pictures of MY sexy Danny. I needed those to cheer me up and my cuddles cheer you up," I tell him. He smiles at me and I was happy that that little spell seems to be behind him now. "I'm glad I cheered you up Jay," he tells me, and I told him that I was glad that I could cheer him up as well. It was getting closer and closer to ten pm and Danny was definitely tired. I carried him up to bed and he didn't protest. I quickly got changed and joined him in bed just as he was falling asleep. "I love you Danny," I tell him. He kissed me on the cheek. "I love you too," He tells me.
And that is the end of another one shot! Hope you enjoyed and see you in the next one!
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