"Why in the world did you pull this thing out!"
"Nfu~ Come on, Bitch-chan, pet my anaconda just a little bit. No one is going to see us here~"
"No! I don't want to touch it!"
"It doesn't bite, come on, don't be scared." He walked closer to me with that thing in his hands while his smirk grew wider.
"We might get in trouble if someone was to find us here like this!" I knew this reasoning wouldn't work either, but it was worth trying...
"Oh, so you want to go somewhere else and touch it?" Was it physically possible for his smirk to get even wider?
"Yes! Okay! I wanna touch that thing you are holding, but not here!" I was fuming with embarrassment. He made me admit to such a thing! And what was the worst thing? Anaconda that Laito broke out of the snake tank was huge! It wrapped itself around Laito's neck and torso, making it a bit harder for him to move.
It was nearing the end of our trip, so Laito probably thought 'We won't lose anything by trying to pet it'. And he was right - the worst that could happen - workers would throw us out of the zoo... I hope.
My day started really early in the morning when all of the vampires were supposed to be sleeping, including me. But one sucker had other plans. When I got all comfortable in my bed, I felt my mattress bounce up and down a little bit.
"Shuu, come on, I'm trying to sleep." I snuggled deeper into my blankets, hugging my new cuddle puppy toy a bit tighter. The last toy was destroyed by Ayato and his need to play pathologist and dead body. He wanted me to be his dead body. I said no. He said yes. I almost got my stomach sliced wide open. Kanato saved me. By throwing my dear puppy right into merciless hands of Ayato.
"How dare you call someone else's name in our bed of love, Bitch-chan?" I heard Laito's failing to be angry voice next to my ear. I groaned out tiredly.
"Bed of childhood trauma perhaps? Come on, dude, there's almost sunrise - humans gotta sleep now." In hopes of escaping him, I pulled the blanket over my head.
"Bitch-chaaaan~ would you like to have a good morning kiss?" I felt him getting closer to me.
"NO! NO! NO!" I jumped out of the bed as if we were playing 'bed is lava'. "No more kisses! No! Bad Laito! Bad!" A pout appeared on his lips as if he was hurt.
"Was it really that bad, Bitch-chan?"
"YES IT WAS!"
"But I did it for you. Your family was so happy to see us together, so why don't we just..."
"No! You said it was temporary! Don't break your promises!" Laito rolled on his back, putting his hands behind his head.
"Okay fine, as you wish." He closed his eyes.
"Wait... Are you seriously giving up on your bullshit?"
"Yes, but as you said yourself - temporary. Today we still won't get any sleep," Laito smiled mischievously.
"Don't you dare!" I got ready to defend myself.
"Huh? I thought you wanted to pat some cute little bunnies and-"
"Oh my god are we really going to the zoo today?! Oh my god oh my god oh my god! I'm so happy!" I was making quite some noise jumping up and down like a kangaroo.
"Not if you wake up that boring person! Shut it yourself or I will!"
"Sorry! Are we going alone?"
"Mhm~ just you and-"
"This day is going to be so much fun! We will see lots of animals and pat even more animals! I don't know how this kind of thing would work but we are going to have so much fun and I need to pack a few things and grab some stuff and..." I was happily mumbling while running around the room, getting ready. Laito just stared at me as if I was the first animal of the day. When I got ready, we went to the car and for some reason - Laito decided not to use any of his familiars for driving. He decided to drive himself.
"I never knew you could drive!"
"I think I'm old enough to have my driving license," Laito smirked, puffing out his chest like Ayato does.
"Whatever." I sat down next to Laito in the passenger's seat. I don't get motion sickness if I sit there... Most of the time. Whenever dad went off to somewhere with business or simple grocery shopping - I would always go with him and we would talk about everything and...
"Laito, I'm going to sleep for a bit."
"Huh? Where did your enthusiasm go to?"
"It escaped together with my hopes and dreams." I put on my earphones. No more thinking about family.
I tried to sleep a bit, but couldn't.
"Bitch-chan, what animals do you want to see the most?" Asked Laito out of blue.
"All of them!" Hello, enthusiasm, missed ya!
"But-"
"ALL OF THEM! I can already imagine fluffy bunnies as they jump towards us and soft lambs and sheep... What about you?" I was getting lost in my happy rambling again.
"Me?" He pouted thoughtfully. "I'm fine with any animals, as long as they are not dogs, insects or spiders." We shuddered simultaneously at the last one. Laito and I had only one thing in common - our hatred for spiders. But I must say that Laito was afraid of them more than I was, so, if a random spider were to appear in my or Laito's room, I would be the one to eliminate it with a scream of war!
Okay okay, that would usually be the cry of terror as I try to fight an enormous spider smaller than a cherry bone. Laito would be close by for some whiny verbal emotional support - he's the one who screams 'Ew! Ew! EWWW!' in the background as I deal with the monster... While screaming 'Ew! Ew! EWWW!' myself.
"Laito look, we're already here!"
"I've noticed, Bitch-chan~ I drove us here." I was excitedly jumping up and down in my seat. I loved animals so much I once trespassed into my neighbor's house just to pat their cat. It was one of the best days of that summer. Once the car stopped, I jumped out of it faster than any vampire could teleport.
"Come on, Shuu the second, hurry up! Animals are waiting!"
"I guess your hopes and dreams came back together with that excitement of yours,"
"Nah, they just dropped it off here and sped off towards Mexico. Come on, let's go," I whined out like a child waiting for her mom to stop a conversation with an old friend she met at the grocery store.
Laito smirked, slowing down his pace even more. I really wasn't in any mood to wait, so I grabbed Laito by his left hand and pulled him towards the entrance.
"You're especially slow today. I have no other choice but to pull you like Shuu!"
"Awww, if you wanted to hold hands with me you should have asked~" Laito laced his fingers through mine, tightening the grip. He then pulled me even closer to him. His hand then snaked around my waist a bit too close to the place where my chest was supposed to be.
"Dude, let go!" I tried to shake his hand off, but his arm tightened around me even more. It was almost to the point of hurting.
"Nfu~ Let's just act like we are brother and sister, what do you say?"
"This is NOT what brothers and sisters do! Don't you know what kind of normal relationship among family members should be?"
"I-"
"Actually don't answer that! Let's just go to the zoo." Despite the uneasiness of his hand on me, I tried to enjoy my time there. But I didn't know that people at home noticed our absence and followed us here.
"Four-eye! Why the hell did you bring us here?!"
"As I said before," Reiji fixed his glasses as he was trying not to frown in disgust, "Those two sneaked out without telling anyone, so we had to follow them without being noticed to make sure she survives."
"Survives what? Cuteness overload?"
"Yes, you good-for-nothing, you are totally right. We had to absolutely forget about everything we were doing to save her from a little lamb and two pandas. What do you think we're here for?!"
"Aw, Reiji, I knew you didn't like her hanging out with Laito and not Ore-sama! You should have told this at the very beginning."
"Ayato, I will lock you up in the ape cage and no one will tell you apart."
"Reiji, one day you will get sick and no one will bring you a glass of blood. No one."
"Tch, did you really think it was a good idea to bring all of us here?!"
"I would have never brought you here! Father ordered us all to follow her so I had no other choice." Reiji fixed his glasses a bit faster than usual.
"I don't like this place! Teddy doesn't like it either!"
"Shut up or I will feed Teddy to real bears!" Ayato was still irritated over Reiji's comment.
"I don't want to be that guy, but those two are already gone. I can't see them anymore," yawned Shuu.
"That bastard! Let's go find them already!" Ayato took off running towards the entrance, but security guard stopped him.
"Sir, you need to buy a ticket."
"A what? Don't you know who Ore-sama is?!" Ayato was about to punch the poor man away, but Reiji stepped in just in time.
"Pardon my stupid brother, Sir, we were about to buy those." Reiji grabbed Ayato by the upper arm, pulling him towards the ticket booth where other brothers were already waiting. Thankfully for all humans there, the queue wasn't long at all.
"We have the tickets - now what?"
"We split up! Ore-sama will go to the wild animals section!"
"I'll go to the insect section."
"Shuu, you know damn well they won't go there!"
"Exactly."
"Teddy and I will go look around the fish tanks." Even though aquariums in the zoo were enormous, they seemed tiny compared to the vampire's ego.
"Tch, then I'll-"
"I choose birds." Reiji was faster than Subaru and claimed what seemed to be more convenient.
"Then what does it leave me with?!"
"The petting zoo part!" Ayato was barely able to stand still as he was shaking with laughter.
"Mister anger issues will have to walk around some cute little rabbits and lambs."
"Not you too, Shuu!"
"I don't know what about you, but I'm going. Come, Teddy." Kanato walked off towards the sea world, leaving his brothers behind.
"I'll show those humans who is the real jungle king!"
"Ayato, no! And he's gone... What was father thinking?!" Reiji sighed, already planning how he was going to consume a handful of advil.
"Come on, it's not that bad," Shuu smirked, sluggishly walking away from Reiji.
"It. Is. They will destroy this place!"
"So let them destroy it. It's not our responsibility to babysit them." And with that Shuu was gone.
"This is stupid! Why do we have to spend our time in this stink hole?! Hey! Reiji! Where are you going, you bastard?!" Seeing how all of his brothers left to search for Laito and that annoyance, Subaru decided to go to his assigned section - the petting zoo. The closer he got, the louder kids' laughter echoed through the zoo.
"Tch, they better be here." Animal areas were connected to each other, so you wouldn't be able to enter one without walking through the other. It was like an enormous animal maze you had to solve by patting the animals. The first area was filled with sheep and little lambs.
Subaru walked in while looking around. He had to spot those two as soon as possible. But unfortunately for Subaru, he was the first one to be noticed. Noticed by a big soft cuddly sheep.
"Baaah~" One fully grown sheep ran right up to Subaru, nudging him with its soft nose.
"Tch, get lost!" Impatient boy pushed the fluffy living cloud away from him, but the persistent animal came back.
"Baaaaah~!" Sheep poked him on his leg, obviously asking for some cuddles.
"Don't touch me!" Subaru harshly whispered, shoving the wool ball away.
"Bah~ Baah~ Baaah~!" Subaru was about to take a step, but a fully grown ram stood in his way, lowering his head with enormous horns.
"I told you, you stupid things, to leave me alone! Of!" Ram jumped towards Subaru, hitting him with his head. Surprised vampire lost his balance and fell down. As he opened his eyes - the terrific sight appeared of dozens of sheep surrounding him, all thirsty to be cuddled by the already terrified vampire.
"What the hell?! These are dangerous! They might hurt children! WHAT THE HELL?! I AM THE PREDATOR HERE! BE AFRAID OF ME GOD DAMN IT!" But no matter how much Subaru threatened the flock of sheep, they kept on snuggling him. Two sheep were comfortably lying on his stomach as the rest of them tried to squeeze as close to him as possible. The only thing visible of Subaru was his hand, reaching out towards the sky for help as Subaru himself was drowning in fluff and tender kisses of soft snouts of sheep...
"How pathetic..." Kanato sighed, unable to stop staring at the octopus swimming around. "And to think that Ayato finds this thing tasty. Pathetic." But aquarium was long and wherever Kanato walked, octopus followed him. At first, vampire boy didn't notice it, but as time passed, Kanato started to notice.
"Stop following me or I will feed you to my brother!" Octopus waved one of its tentacles as if it wanted to make friends with Kanato.
"Are you mocking me?! I WILL DEEP FRY YOU!" Kanato hit the glass wall with his palm. It didn't shatter, but all living creatures in that aquarium got scared and swam as far away as possible... All except for one brave, little, a bit purple octopus, that put one of its tentacles against the glass, where Kanato's palm was pressed.
Kanato stared at it dumbfounded.
"What are you..?" Octopus shot away from the glass to pick up a tiny shell lying on the sand. Octopus wrapped two tentacles around it, as if it was a tiny teddy bear, and swam back to where Kanato stood, even more stunned.
"Teddy, look - it likes us." Kanato stuck out his Teddy closer to the glass and so did little octopus.
"I think I won't deep fry you for now. Teddy started to like you." Kanato took off to search for his brother once again, just this time he was secretly enjoying the company of little octopus.
But not all brothers were getting along this well with animals.