Welcome to chapter 5! Now I'm skipping some time here, to be forthright. Let's get started!

CHAPTER 5 – Outside

(P to four months later, staying with Diana) I absolutely loved Sebastien and he loved me! Our relationship was stronger than ever, and I desperately wanted to be married him. All of us girls wanted to be proposed to so we could be wed.

The keepers were a little annoying at first, but Sebastien and I had gotten used to them. They kept trying the first few weeks to get us to mate, but we fought back hard so they backed off, like they did for everyone else. We were thankful for that, since we weren't at that point in our relationship.

But we did hope that we could produce a child someday. Those two months of pregnancy would be hard, but worth it in the end. Sebastien and I would be parents to a little boy or girl. We didn't favor one or the other, but would accept them no matter how crazy they turned out to be.

The keepers were really good at their jobs though. They fed us, made sure we were healthy, and just let us mill around or do nothing if we wanted to. They hadn't given us tags, but had named us. Somehow, they knew what our names were. So they indeed called Sebastien his name and called me Diana. I was thankful for the coincidence.

Other than the keepers trying to get us used to living in aquarium, Sebastien and I had revealed a few weeks earlier our true life story. Miraculously, no one was a spy, which meant we could totally trust them. It had hurt when Sebastien and I explained the true end of our parents, but everyone helped us calm back down. I was glad to have my friends and love of my life at my side.

It was a peaceful morning today. Sebastien and I were getting a little sedentary, getting a little too used to the general calm day after day. We paid attention to what people said as they came to visit us, since that was our only source of news.

We only heard about specific humans causing problems with each other, so we weren't going to have to intervene. But it was all just in case we needed to get back into action.

The aquarium was closed today however, so we were able to relax and not perform. We learned from everyone that we had to perform for the crowds, which honestly gave Sebastien and I a bit of an ego trip. But we used some of our former military moves as tricks, which was really good. If the humans knew where we learned them from though, we would have a real problem.

Right now though, I was just getting some minor exercise by swimming around the pool. The water was always the same warm temperature, which was the same one as when Sebastien and I had lived in the tropics. The aquarium was trying really hard to mimic our natural habitat, but was missing some things, like vegetation. They probably thought we would eat it.

I swam for a little while before feeling a ripple through the water. Someone else had gotten up too. I looked behind me and it was Sebastien. I didn't let on to him that I knew he was here, having a little fun. And either he didn't notice I was also in the pool or he was also having fun with trying to fool me.

We continued like this for several minutes before both hopping out of the pool and walking over to each other. "Good morning," we said to each other, happily kissing. We slipped our feet below the water, liking the feeling on our toes.

"So what do you want to do today?" I asked Sebastien. "I don't know. Want to try and continue to teach everyone to go outside?" he asked. "That sounds like a good idea. Last time we got them out for half an hour," I said proudly. "That first time was hard. They were only able to last about a minute before it started," Sebastien said.

We both shivered with that memory. We had barely been able to get everyone under control before they got out of the range of the aquarium. Strangely, they didn't remember a thing from when they were outside of the building. * But we figured that was because it was their first time going out. Slowly but surely, they were starting to remember it. They remembered about half of their time outside each time now.

As Sebastien and I were chatting, everyone was starting to trickle out of their own caves. "Good morning," we all said to each other. When we asked, everyone said they slept well. "How do you do it?" Olivia asked us. "Do what?" Sebastien asked her. "How do you have so much energy and wake up so early?" Charles elaborated.

"I'm not sure. It's probably due to a combination of things, from our wild origins to our military service," I offered. "That's still wild to us that you two did that, along with a lot of other Otters," Isabella said. "Well it was a wild experience for us to. Sorry we had to keep you in the dark," Sebastien said.

"It's ok. You had to make sure we weren't evil or anything like that," Hannah said. "Thanks for not being evil," I said, making us laugh. "You're quite welcome. And thank you for starting to help us leave the aquarium," Alexander said. "You're welcome. And you're making great progress," Sebastien said.

They all smiled at that. "Thank you. Can we try again today?" David asked us. Sebastien and I had already agreed on that idea earlier. "Sure. We'll just need to wait until after we've had our morning meal," I said. "Oh good, because I overheard yesterday that we'll be getting our meal earlier today at 10 instead of 11," Charlotte said.

"Well what time do you think it is right now?" I asked her, pointing at the clock. Besides teaching everyone how to safely leave the aquarium, we were also teaching them how to be real world citizens with understanding the entirety of time and eventually we would teach them how to read. Time was the first priority, since that was what most of our day revolved around.

They all looked at the clock on the other side of the glass. "The big hand is the current minute and the small hand is the hour," John said, as they were all thinking. "It's just after 9:30, right?" Olivia asked us. Everyone else had the same idea. "That's correct, it's just after 9:30, it's 9:35. How long is it until 10?" Sebastien asked them.

They all thought again. "25 minutes, right?" Charles asked. "Bingo. You guys have been fast learners," I said. "Thanks. So pretty much, if I'm getting my math right, we should be free in a little over 40 minutes right? Depending on how long it takes them to give us food?" Isabella asked.

"Exactly. You guys are getting good," Sebastien said. They all smiled. "Thanks. It feels good to be learning something so important," Hannah said. "It feels good to teach it. It's funny, going from students to teachers," I said, making us chuckle.

"I just think it's funny that they have no idea what you two have done and are doing," Alexander said. "Absolutely. They think they're so smart, but they don't really know how the world works," David said. "Believe us, we were surprised too. It was and totally still is worth it," Sebastien said.

We continued chatting until we started to hear the keepers in the back preparing our breakfast. They came out right on time, having fish today. And it was pretty good. We all heard chats about them trying to get us to mate, but that's when we jumped into the water, showing we were a little annoyed.

They knew we were at least that smart, but not more than that. We used the old playing with a rock ruse to once again fool them that we were just dumb animals. ** It was funny, since the rocks really didn't mean much to us. We just spun them around in our paws to sharpen our claws.

After we were fed, the keepers then left us to just do nothing. Or so they thought. Sebastien and I followed them through the vent system, to see them go out for some food themselves. It was actually pretty funny though, as the two keepers were dating too. We were alike in a lot of ways.

Sebastien and I then headed back and told everyone it was safe again. We helped them up to the air ducts and were on our way. "I have to say, it's interesting moving around in these," Charlotte said. "It's nice they're big enough for us to do this. It's the easiest way to get in and out," I said.

We then got to the border between the air ducts and the outside. Sebastien and I stepped outside, remaining the same as usual. "So are you guys ready?" Sebastien and I asked everyone. They all nodded nervously, still a little uncomfortable with it. But they got past their fears and stepped outside.

They all shivered, nervous. "Don't worry, you'll be fine. You've been making great progress," I said to everyone. They all smiled. "Thanks. That helps every time we leave the confines of the aquarium," John said happily. We all just decided to stay on the roof and look at the clouds passing overhead. It was a nice day, especially since spring had just started a few weeks earlier.

As the minutes wore on and we were on the roof, everyone seemed to be staying calm. Just in case though, Sebastien and I were keeping an eye on them. We trusted our friends, but not their instincts. After about a half hour, everything was still going well.

"You guys are doing really good today," Sebastien said. "Thanks. It's just a nice day. I love the feel of the breeze through my fur," Olivia said. "I love the natural air. It's annoying that it's not perfectly clean, but I'll take it," Charles said. Everyone agreed with them.

We then made it to 45 minutes, which was a new record. Maybe we would make it to an hour. It would be a huge milestone. "Do you guys still feel good?" I checked with everyone. "For the most part yeah. It's trying to surface, but we're fighting back hard to remain in control," Isabella said.

"Keep fighting on for as long as you can. But as soon as you feel any loss of control, we're going back inside," Sebastien said. "Good. We're in control of ourselves, not our instincts," Hannah said. That brought Sebastien and I joy, knowing they were getting used to going outside.

And then, fifteen more minutes passed and it was an hour. Everyone had made it. As soon as it hit the hour mark, we all cheered in celebration of making it this far. It was a huge step up from before and gave us hope that eventually we would get this fully beaten.

"Hey, what's that?" Alexander asked, pointing at a dot in the sky a little ways away. We all turned in that direction. Sebastien and I peered closely. "I think it's a traffic helicopter. That means it has cameras," I said. "So we should head inside to not expose ourselves, right?" David asked. "Very much so," I said.

We all reluctantly got up from our comfortable spots on the roof and headed into the air ducts. We all peered out through the grate, looking at the helicopter as it passed directly overhead, continuing on its way.

"That was close," Charlotte said, making us chuckle. "Yeah. Do you feel better being back inside?" Sebastien asked them. "Yeah, we do. I think we were pretty close to our limit. But wow, that was great!" John said. "You all did great! You were outside for an hour," I said happily.

"It was so cool! I can't wait until we completely overcome this," Olivia said. "Want to try again later, before dinner?" Sebastien asked them. "Sure, that sounds like a good idea," Charles said. "Good idea Sebastien," I said happily to him. With that, we all headed back in towards the habitat.

That's the end of this chapter. How did you like it? Please leave a review. Before you go, I have two notes today.

* Yep, just like with Marlene's first time outside of the zoo, which doesn't take place in the timeline for 14 years.

** Asian Otters have favorite rocks that they mess around with often. Or at least, they appear to have them. Who knows?