Viktor glanced at Yura from the corner of his eye and grinned wider when he saw his own awe reflected in his eyes. "Isn't this amazing, Yura?"

"Quiet, I'm trying to see if I can see any animals." There was a condescending snort from the front of the old Jeep standing on its last leg and Yura glared at the driver. "Do you have a problem?"

"You won't see any animals here. None of them come out around this time, you'd be lucky to even get a glimpse of something at night."

"Huh? But I thought I'd be able to take pictures." Yura pouted and jumped when Viktor kicked his leg. "Our cousin's birthday is coming up and she wants to be a wildlife veterinarian when she grows up, so I thought I could put a collage of photos together for her."

"What's her name?"

Yura eyed him suspiciously. "Mila. She's six." He forgot to put the twenty in front of it, but he didn't need to know that.

"Well then she won't know the difference between real pictures and those you print off from Google."

"Now listen here, asshole, I don't know what I did to you but-"

A bright laugh broke through the tension and both journalists stared at the man in the passenger seat wearily. He hadn't said anything to them yet, mostly because he was typing furiously on his phone with a firm set to his mouth. Now, though, it seemed all the worries he had were gone as he shot them a bright smile.

"Heya! Don't mind Otabek here, he's always like this. Now that you mentioned it though," He exchanged a glance with his coworker and no sooner than he did, they were pulled over on the side of the road. "I'm going to need you to hand over your phones and any other electronics you might have on you." He paused for a minute and rubbed his chin. "Actually, any music devices you have should be fine, so long as they don't have any recording mechanisms installed in them."

Viktor tensed while Yura gaped at them. "You gotta be shitting me! What kind of rule is that? Are you a cult or something?"

He shot a glare at his junior and opened his mouth to apologize, only to be interrupted by Otabek. "We can always turn around and drop you back off at the airport."

He couldn't help but shiver at the cold glare aimed at them and had a second to wonder if these were really the people caring for the animals. "No, that won't be necessary. I'm sorry about my little brother, he gets caught up in his own ego sometimes."

"Viktor!" Yuri snapped and glared back at the driver. "Why can't we take pictures outside of the sanctuary? That should be fine, right?"

"You're here because you signed up to work, not to take pictures and have fun. Like I said, we can turn back anytime. God knows it won't be any problem on my end."

Phichit smiled at them and Viktor was disturbed by the sudden lack of warmth it held. "It really won't be a problem for us. We can call up some of our old volunteers, I'm sure they'd love to come back and help out."

Viktor sighed heavily and pulled his bag onto his lap, unzipping it and taking out his phone, two cameras, and laptop. He gave them to the man and forced a smile at the beam he got before turning to Yuri. "Go on, hand them over. We can take more pictures once we see Aunt Lilia."

Yura huffed and followed his instructions, scowling when the driver took them without care and stuffed them in his own bag along with Viktor's own belongings.

"Alright then, if that's it we're all set. I gotta say though, that's a lot of cameras. You guys photographers or something?" The smiley one asked lightly, a contradiction to the way he looked them over.

"Something like that."

Viktor mentally groaned and made a mental note to have a talk with him about being more subtle. "What he means is that we heard these were the best brands for long range photos. We were going to try to collect some for our cousin like he said."

"Hmph. Phichit, make sure they don't have anything else in there, our boss doesn't need anything else on his plate."

"Anything for you, Beks!"

The rest of the ride was silent and tense, more so for Yura and himself since their game plan had been put to a stop before they even arrived at the sanctuary. Phichit tried to make conversation with them, but their minds were elsewhere, too busy trying to come up with a plan that would end in their success.

Really, they didn't even set foot in a five mile radius of the place and they were in this much of a disarray. Yakov wouldn't be pleased, that was for sure.

By the time they got to the sanctuary, Viktor had a better feel for the two men. Otabek was the strict and silent, but most likely very dependable and loyal type while Phichit was the easy going companion who stood up for his friends and walked beside them through fire and brimstone.

The gate guarding the entrance was something to be in awe at by itself. Tall, towering walls of brick were surrounded by an electric fence, at least thirty five feet tall, and went as far as the eye could see. There were two men standing guard and after a short word with Otabek mumbled too low for them to hear, they took their bags and opened the gate for them.

"Whoa," Yura whispered, face glued to the window. "This is incredible."

Viktor couldn't speak. Any thought he'd had before they entered the premises died on his tongue at the view before him. One would think that because of the intimidating brick walls they'd passed the entirety of the sanctuary would be of the same theme, but it was nothing of the sort.

There were rows and rows of enclosures, all exceeding the space required by far and at least five miles wide in each direction. The gates had all of the mandatory safety locks and yet still managed to look cozy rather than constricting. Yura gasped and he feared he nearly broke his neck with how fast he turned it to look out his coworker's window.

You couldn't see anything but the silhouettes with how deep they were in their enclosure, but if you squinted closely enough -and boy did Viktor squint- you could see the rough outline of three elephants, two adults and one baby.

"Wow," he breathed. "They're gorgeous."

Phichit smiled and looked at them as well, humming softly to himself as they passed more enclosures, and even though he couldn't see them, Viktor knew they must be playing in the sun or relaxing in the shadows.

Eventually, the enclosures spread out and they came closer to what looked like a small village. There were five buildings, each made out of logs with what looked like cement underneath them for extra support. There were no signs on them and Viktor would've found that peculiar, but then he realized that these people wouldn't need signs to get around, especially if they've been working there since the sanctuary had been constructed.

"Over there is our home where we all stay. It has seven bedrooms and five bathrooms plus a loft that me and Guang Hong always call dibs on, but sometimes we let the boss-man use it to decompress. You'll be staying with us though so you'll see soon enough. Oh! Anything that has our names on it in the fridge you absolutely can't eat, got it?" Viktor smiled at the warning finger wagging in front of them and nodded.

"Phichit, save the rules for when he gets back. I'm sure he'll want to add in some of his own, too."

"Yeah, yeah. I know. Anyway, this is your house for now guys."

"Holy shit," Yura mumbled with wide eyes. "That's not a house, that's a fucking mansion."

"Language," Viktor chastised half-heartedly. He couldn't disagree with the statement, it really did look like a mansion, although with the aesthetic of a log cabin. Either way, it looked amazing and he couldn't wait to see the inside of it.

"Who else stays there?" Yura asked.

"Hm? Um, right now it's just a couple of us, me, Otabek, Guong Hong and bossman. The other half of us are either on vacation or on a business trip, but I think Ciao Ciao will be back soon since we're gonna need him."

"Ciao Ciao?"

Phichit laughed at Viktor's face and unbuckled his seat belt when Otabek parked. "He's the veterinarian that stays here and a family friend of the boss. We call him that as a nickname cause his real one is too long."

"No it's not, you just like getting on his nerves." Otabek grunted, his lips twitching at Phichit's offended gasp.

"I do not!"

"Okay."

"Otabek!"

"Don't you have something to be working on? A couple calls to make maybe, or an email or two to send?"

Phichit harrumphed and knocked shoulders with him teasingly. "Just wait until I tell him what you said. He'll tear you a new one for picking on his best friend."

"Phichit, I've never heard him raise his voice and I've been working here for over seven years."

"You haven't seen him drunk, my friend."

Otabek grimaced. "I can imagine what happens in that scenario without having to witness it, thank you."

"Excuse me," Viktor interjected with his best charming smile. "I'm sorry to interrupt, but where are our bags? We'll need them to get settled in, da?"

Otabek stared at him blankly. "Security will bring it back to you once they go through everything. You should have it by tonight unless they see anything they don't like."

Yura bit his lip and stared at him. "I have my medicine in there."

"What's it for?"

"Allergies."

"Then it'll be fine. Unless you have something else you're trying to hide."

Phichit slapped his shoulder and sighed. "Come on now, Beks. Let's get them settled into their guest rooms before he comes back. You know how much he hates being behind on schedule."

"You can do that, I'm going to go help them check everything."

"Fine." The man rolled his eyes and wrapped his arms around their shoulders, chatting up a storm as he led them to the house.

Viktor's stomach rolled and he knew his hands were getting colder by the second. This was it. They were the first ever journalists to step foot into Katsuki's Animal Kingdom. He didn't know what feeling was more prominent, the anxiety twisting his gut or the excitement making his fingers tremble.

Judging by Yura's face when he looked at him, they were in the same boat.

They only had a month to get everything they could on the place, and it'd be a gamble on whether or not they'd be able to get their cameras back and snap a few photos. He knew that Otabek wouldn't find anything else in their bag, they had played the part of their story well and any normal person wouldn't blink an eye at what they brought.

It was time that the world got their answers on what was going on behind the sanctuary walls, and Viktor would be damned if he let even one animal get mistreated while he was staying there. They'd be the ones to sort out what were the facts and what were the baseless theories, and they'd share their new knowledge with everyone who picked up their paper.

He'd make sure of it.