Two orphans approached them; the same two from before, the one with the hair streak and his hyperactive friend, who had first converted to the solace of the green snake. (Blake idly mused that the nun was likely to be upset at that.)
They looked upset, and desperate. They eyed Blake and Weiss hungrily, but, likely, hungry for vengeance or something. And also hungry for food; they were orphans, after all.
Blake stepped in front of Weiss and held her arms out. She barred her teeth and lowered her center of gravity.
"So what, you playing pirate?" Said one of the orphans.
"N-no," Weiss touched her medical eyepatch, "I- I need it-"
"Must be nice being rich, huh?" said the other one of the orphans.
"Only having problems that can be solved with a change in attitude."
"'Believe in the green snake and you will find solace'"
"What a load of bull."
"You've never felt the burrowing hunger."
"You've never felt the gathering loneliness."
"How dare you tempt us with your hope."
"But," Weiss managed to say, "You're orphans; aren't you used to disappointment?"
They moved to flank Blake and Weiss.
The thing about orphans was, they had the proportional strength, endurance and agility as people without parents. But the joke was on them because Blake had those same abilities.
Blake moved her arms in a ninja way and then lunged first-
And immediately ended up on the ground, with a sharp pain in her stomach and the air knocked out of her lungs.
"Blake noooo~"
There was the sound of two seconds of hand-to-hand combat, and afterwards, the sound of two more thuds upon the ground and of several groans from the two orphans.
Oh, that was right; Weiss was actually competent at combat. (But then why did Blake win all of their skirmishes?)
Weiss turned Blake onto her back and picked her up by the armpits.
Weiss's face was pure worry. "Are you okay, Blakey?"
Blake blinked at Weiss. Then she nodded.
Weiss then turned Blake around so she could hug her from behind, so she could squeeze Blake's torso and nuzzle the back of her head. Weiss's embrace was comforting, somewhat.
"it's not all great, you know," Weiss said, eventually, to the orphans. "Even if you're rich, you can have doubts and worries and real problems."
The orphans brushed themselves off and blinked.
"Like, your parents want you to go to a school where you don't have any friends, and you know if you join the school play they'll nominally let you but they'll undermine you at every opportunity and they'll make excuses to miss seeing you when you perform on opening night-"
Blake blinked.
"And you can tell they don't respect you, and nobody seems to respect you, and you have to be sneaky to get enough food-"
Blake blinked again-
"And even when they do give you food, they make you eat peas." Weiss stuck out her tongue.
Blake also stuck out her tongue.
The orphans blinked in unison. "But you seem happy," said one of them.
"The secret to that," Weiss said, "Is to externalize your source of happiness."
Weiss hugged Blake and squeezed. Blake allowed it.
"You find someone else to pour all your wants and needs into, so that they're the only thing you ever want. That way, as long as you have them, it doesn't matter if everyone else plays pranks or bullies you or if all the authority figures don't believe your feelings. You can be happy."
Weiss nuzzled Blake's head.
"And then, even if you're not sure she likes you back sometimes, you can feel good about your feelings for your beloved."
Blake and the orphans blinked.
Blake turned her head to sort of make eye contact with Weiss. "that's either really profound, or a good way to mess yourself up forever."
The taller orphan hugged her friend the same way Weiss hugged Blake. As In, too tightly and in a way that was probably bad for your back. The shorter orphan squeaked, though since he was the cleaner of the two it might have been because he didn't want to get dirty.
"Huh," the taller orphan said, "and this works?"
"I suppose I'm not opposed to this," said the shorter orphan.
Weiss pointed to the shorter orphan, the one being hugged. "You have to only speak when it's funny or profound though, and then only softly and concisely."
"Do they also need to be in a pet-play BDSM relationship?" said the tall maid.
The stocky maid was there too. The two of them were dressed in casual attire, rather than maid's uniforms.
Weiss clutched Blake to her chest. "W-what are you doing here?"
"There's no school today."
"But-" Weiss said," it's Tuesday."
"It's summer vacation."
"But I have school still. I mean, I only have it on Friday, but it still meets today-"
"Okay, fine, I'm ditching." said the tall maid.
"I, actually, am only taking classes on weekday nights, at the community college," said the stocky maid.
"S-so why are you here?" Weiss asked.
"We wanted to see the zoo."
"Together?"
"We're friends." The tall maid smirked.
"I wouldn't go that far." The stocky maid frowned.
"Fine," said the tall maid, "We're frenemies. With nothing to do today. "
"Or perhaps," said the stocky maid, "Your parents secretly paid us to follow you around and make sure you don't get hurt."
"Not that you'd actually need our help," said the tall maid, "Good job punching out those orphans, by the way- huh, where'd they go?"
Weiss looked embarrassed, at the compliment, as far as Blake could tell from her spot in the embrace.
"And you were very valiant, Blake," said the stocky maid, with a warm smile, "Regardless of the results."
Blake tried not to blush.
And the sounds of the adjacent riot died down. Blake supposed the orphans snuck back into their group before they were missed.
Weiss carried Blake through the bug exhibits. The maids, it seemed, actually didn't have anything better to do during their free time than to follow them around the 'creepy crawlies' exhibits.
"Hey look, Blake!" Weiss pointed to a pile of dirt. "Ants! They're behind the glass, so they can't get us, so don't worry, Blakey, just look! Look, Blake, look at the ants!"
Blake looked at the ants.
"These are Slavemaker ants. They were really good at taking over other anthills and making the other ants feed them. They had to, because slave maker ants are in cable of feeding themselves." Weiss said. She moved Blake's head so Blake could see. "Most species of slavemakers were originally part of their slave species but just evolved slightly diver-gently, because otherwise they wouldn't know which species to enslave."
Blake tried to think of something clever to say, but it turned out she didn't need to.
"In such a way," the stocky maid said, quietly, conspiratorially, "they are similar to the aristocracy."
The maids high-fived.
Weiss carried Blake through to the frog exhibits.
The tall maid pointed to one exhibit, with one frog on top of another, with its arms wrapped around the other frog's stomach. "See those frogs? What they're doing is called amplexus; One frog latches on to the other, and if that frog manages to stay onto the other frog for long enough, the other frog agrees to mate."
Blake didn't feel Weiss move for a moment. "That's weird." Weiss said, from behind her. Blake agreed.
"Isn't it?" Said the tall maid, through a rictus grin. The stocky maid tried not to laugh.
Blake blinked. Weiss winked.
"Oooh, ooh!" Weiss said. She pointed to the adjacent exhibit, "These frogs can change the color of their skin!..."
And finally, they went into the aviary. It was a massive cage of steel and canvas, trapping the birds and the humidity inside.
Specifically, Weiss pointed out the vultures, because they weren't sleeping. They eyed Blake and Weiss.
Afterwards, they saw the vulture exhibit. Blake thought about making a joke about comparing them to capitalists, like maybe how 'venture capitalist' and 'vulture capitalist' were only two letters off, but she couldn't think of a way to phrase it that sounded funny or profound but also concise. It was probably just as well; maybe Weiss wouldn't appreciate the pun. The maids (Well, the tall maid, at least) joked that maybe the Schnee's were secretly vulture Faunus. Blake didn't know whether or not to be offended.
But then the orphanage group entered the aviary, and the vultures took a greater interested in them.
"Ooh! Ooh! Blake! Blakey! Blake!" Weiss said, "We have to do this exhibit, Blake!"
Blake blinked.
"Close your eyes, Blakey! Weiss said.
Blake blinked.
Weiss then pulled out a blindfold. Blake allowed Weiss to put the blindfold on her.
Weiss then pushed Blake by the shoulders, towards what was very clearly a pen that housed a baby elephant. Blake could smell it.
"So, Blake, I'm going have you touch something, and you can tell me what you think it is!
Blake blinked, under the blindfold.
Weiss took Blake's hand in her hands. She directed Blake's hands to the elephant's ear.
"Ooooo~" Weiss said, "Do you feel that Blakey? What do you think that is? It's leathery, like a bat's wings, so maybe it's a bat!"
Blake blinked, udner the blindfold.
"Oh oh!" Weiss said. She directed Blake's hands to the elephant's legs. "Do you feel that, Blake? It's round, and solid, like a tree trunk, so maybe it's a tree!"
Blake tried to glare at Weiss. Under the blindfold, it had about the same effect as usual.
"OH OH OH!" Weiss said. She directed BLake's hands to the elephant's trunk. "Do you feel this, Blake? It's long and slinky, like a snake? Do you think it's a snake, Blake? Do you? Do you think it's a snakey?"
Blake smushed her lips together, as Weiss continued her quere.
"So, here's a surprise, Blake," Weiss said, "All those things you felt were part of the same animal! Woah!" Blake could hear Weiss's expression.
"So knowing that," Weiss concluded, "What kind of animal could it be? It's a mysssterrryyyy~" Blake could feel the disruptions in the air as Weiss waved her hands.
"So, Blake, guess what kind of animal it is! Guess, Blakey, guess what!"
"elephant."
Weiss ripped Blake's blindfold. Blake blinked in the newfound light, at the baby elephant a meter away from her. "Ta da~! It's an elephant!" Weiss said. She hugged Blake. "You were so right, Blake! You're so smart.
From outside the pen, the maids giggled. Blake smushed her mouth to the side.
And then the Schnees appeared. Mum Schnee adjusted her makeup (Blake could see a mostly-concealed bruise on her cheek). Pa Schnee walked with a slight limp.
And, Blake would later realize, this was the point where the maids had silently adjourned to elsewhere.
"Are you okay?" Weiss asked, softly, worriedly, to her parents.
"Of course." Mum Schnee waved the air. "It's not like this was the first orphan riot we've had to put down. (The nun was a little harder, though)"
"All we had to do was remind them that snakes didn't have any arms, and that was weird."
"Well, it wasn't all we had to do, but it was a major component of it."
"Settling out of court, honestly, was a lot more grueling."
Blake blinked.
"However," said the other taller Schnee, "Your father and I have had our fill of, aha, 'fun', for the day. If you have any more animals you'd like to see, we'll go see them, but otherwise, we vote to head home."
"I'm okay with that," Weiss said. She turned to the Faunus in her arms. "We had lots of fun too, right Blake?"
Blake blinked. She looked to the three Schnee's and to the visible animals.
"i suppose this was 'fun'." It wasn't false.
Weiss was excited.
The four of them went to leave the zoo. Blake's nose unclogged, as she wasn't constantly smelling dirty animals and/or orphans.
(They also encountered the orphan entourage. The taller Schnees nodded awkwardly to the nun. Blake tossed the pair of orphans from earlier some Lien. They pocketed the money and nodded in solemn thanks. Then Weiss noticed, and gave the orphans much more Lien. Turns out, Weiss had a much, much bigger allowance than Blake did.)
Weiss pulled Blake into the giftshop, so they could do their end of visit shopping. The taller Schnee's adorned to the restroom.
"The lions were so inspiring, Blake!" Weiss exclaimed from somewhere in the gift shop. "I'm already thinking up more puns on them."
Blake's mouth flattened. She felt fear.
Weiss got a small stuffed lion from the gift shop. She ran up to Blake and waved it around. "Look, Blake, it's a kitty! Do you see?"
Blake looked at the lion. From this close, Blake saw that it was wearing a formal coat and had a ridiculous hat and monocle.
"Do you see, Blake?" Weiss said, "It's a dandy-lion!"
Blake blinked.
The taller Schnee's appeared, now. "That's very clever, Weiss, darling," said pa Schnee, "But surely you're running out of words that rhyme with 'lion'."
The four of them made their way out of the zoo to the parking lot.
"Well," Weiss said, eventually, "I guess, but if you start using anyalagous words and concepts, rather than just the mane ones, you open yourself up to all sorts of pawsibilities!"
Blake lifted the plush snake off of her shoulders. Weiss regarded the snake, as Blake put the toy around Weiss's neck, like a scarf. It covered up to Weiss's nose.
Blake then pulled on the snake's head and tail, constricting Weiss's face and, possibly, hopefully, her airflow.
"Blrmph, nrrrrrrrrrrrr~" Weiss emitted.
Blake smirked. She patted the snake's head. One of the taller Schnee's patted Blake's shoulder.