Reiner was smart about choosing a place where no one would disturb them. People wouldn't mind a family and his friends were all at that age where they denied liking going to the zoo so he wouldn't cross paths with them either.

Gabi was sitting in the backseat of Bertholdt's car, almost climbing out of her seat restrained only by the seatbelt that wrapped around her and she was talking poor Falco's ears off with her excited ramblings about all the animals she would see. She was in her cat phase and wanted to see the tigers, panthers and lions today. She was recently diagnosed with ADHD but Reiner's mom talked her parents out of supporting big pharma and putting her on ritalin. For now, she would remain that same old active 9 year old kid with too much energy. Last week she got in trouble because she bit one of the horse girls at school because "tigers hunt and eat weak prey". Reiner had to laugh heartily when he heard this story.

As soon as they were parked and the dark haired driver turned off the child lock, Gabi began to unbuckle her seat belt and rushed out of the car. She was immediately chased and playfully tackled by the brunet. "Not so fast, little cub!" he shouted as Falco also got out of the car and watched helplessly as the two fought until Gabi got the upper hand and climbed into the brunet's neck.

"Yield, FIEND!" cried the brunette, getting a better grip on Bertholdt's head.

"Ok ok you got me!" he laughed.

"Onward, my tamed sabercat steed!" she yelled, pointing ahead. If she was holding a sword, she would point it at her charge.

"Patience, brave little rider, the rest has to keep up with us," Bertholdt said. He held Gabi's legs to make sure she couldn't fall and Reiner could do nothing but stop and stare in awe. The brunet was amazing with the kids. He loved it when Reiner's cousin and her friends came over and he quickly turned into monkey bars for kids. He would be such a good dad. Maybe they could adopt.

"Now, Gabi, be nice to Bertholdt," Reiner said. Gabi stuck her tongue out at him and Reiner laughed. The brunet had no objection to being roughed up by Reiner's cousin and played along perfectly. Falco helped Reiner get their things out of the trunk of the car. Reiner packed a few backpacks with lunches, drinks, sunscreen, a change of clothes and first aid.

"Thank you for allowing me to come along, Mr Braun," Falco said. There would never be a lifetime where that boy wasn't polite. He pulled the biggest backpack out of the trunk and nearly tipped over just because of its size.

"Falco, you know you can call me Reiner," the blond laughed, "Why don't you give Bertholdt that heavy backpack? Let the adults carry the stuff, you guys go have fun."

"Ha! Yes, Mr Braun! I-I mean Reiner!" the little blond said and walked over to where Gabi was steering Bertholdt in circles by the hair.

Colt would surely be happy that in between his day job he could study for his finals. Looking after a 9 year old when his mom was always traveling for work and his dad had to work 3 jobs to stay afloat was no easy task, Reiner would be happy to watch Falco to help Colt out. Porco was usually the one watching Falco but today Reiner wanted to do something fun with the kids.

Reiner closed the trunk and Bertholdt locked the car with his key card. They walked to the zoo entrance together and saw Mr Reitsch and Mrs Bock talking to each other with their children Zofia and Udo waiting and jolting to life when they saw the foursome walking their way. Udo immediately went to Falco and they started talking about their latest accomplishments in a video game that Reiner was not up to date with while Zofia waved at Gabi who was sitting high on her conquered throne and roaring like a beast to say hi.

"We'll take good care of them!" Reiner said as the parents returned to their cars and left their children in his and Bertholdt's care for the day. The blond and the brunet were getting their test drive as parents today and it would be a lot of fun.

This wasn't fun. This was chaos.

Once Gabi got out of Bertholdt's neck, she started running ahead of the group and Reiner had to constantly chase after her to avoid losing her in the crowd. Udo and Falco were always talking and often took a wrong turn and lost the rest. Once, Udo even tripped over a decorative rock and they had to pull out the first aid kit to disinfect his scraped knee. And every time Reiner thought he had the whole group together, Zofia was missing and they had to go back because she was still standing in front of one of the exhibits they had already passed and she was talking to strangers about animals completely unrelated to the ones in the exhibit.

Reiner called for a time out on the playground, where the four kids quickly ran into and giving him the break he needed. Bertholdt sat next to him on the bench they had chosen and he laughed so sweetly.

"I didn't think today would be so busy," the brunet laughed.

"Remind me I'm only going to have two kids max, anything more than that will make me go gray," his blond companion said, huffing.

"The kids are having fun," Bertholdt said.

"They are. It's nice to get out of the house without any parents around every once in a while," Reiner said. He watched the kids and they ran around a large elephant slide to climb up and slide down again and again. It was theirs now, no other kid could claim it.

Bertholdt just laughed and leaned against the bench to bathe in the sun. His skin was darker than Reiner and during Spring Break he only tanned more. Reiner found himself staring at the brunet's biceps and calves that he could see through his clothes and had to look away before he could be caught blushing. This might be a good time to say something.

"What are you thinking about?" he asked.

"Oh, I'm just planning the day. If we go to Asia next, we'll come across a safari restaurant on the border with Africa. It's right between the buffaloes and the zebras. We can have lunch there," Bertholdt said.

"Great, I'm starving. I could eat a zebra," Reiner said and Bertholdt laughed with him, "You're a good planner. Reliable."

"You think so?" Bertholdt asked.

"Of course! I would have gotten lost if I had to watch the kids and find my way to all the animals they wanna see."

Bertholdt smiled shyly. Reiner made sure to tell the brunet how reliable he was as often as he could now that he had a second chance to say something he never had a chance to correct. Bertholdt ever-so-shy always reacted positively to it and Reiner wanted to tell him a hundred times more.

"I was also thinking about something," Reiner said after 15 minutes of watching the kids and the pair ignoring each other while on their phone.

"Yeah?" Bertholdt said.

"You know, Spring Break is ending soon. Final week is approaching and after that we will be busy during the Summer Holidays getting everything ready for college."

"We'll be busy," the brunet said.

"Yeah...and I'm a little worried about us," the blond answered.

"About...us?" Bertholdt questioned and Reiner sweated. But at that moment Gabi jumped in front of the bench with a loud roar and both boys jumped up.

"UNCLE BERT! There's a face painter there! Let me become a tiger, pleaseeeee?" the enthusiastic brunette yelled. She growled, showing her teeth and scratching the air with her hands as if they were claws.

"Alright, why don't you go get the others and ask them if they want to have their face painted too?" Bertholdt said. Gabi roared and ran off again on all fours to get the others. Bertholdt looked at Reiner with an apology on his face. "What did you want to say?"

"Don't worry about it, go have fun with the kids," Reiner laughed to hide his heart breaking at the interruption. He lost his concentration, it would be a bad time to say anything. He couldn't even choose to confess his feelings or tell his best friend he didn't want him to go to Marley.

Gabi was already back, far ahead of the other kids and she pulled hard on Bertholdt's hand. "Come on come on come on come on let's go," she said impatiently.

"What do we say?" Bertholdt asked.

"Come on let's go...please?" Gabi said with puppy eyes, or should I say kitten eyes like she was the nicest angel in the zoo.

"Okay, little cub, you convinced me. I'm coming with," the brunet said and he let Gabi pull him off the bench. This little kid was far too strong for her age. Positive praise on her extracurricular activities and hobbies, a star player on the baseball team of her grade, well liked by her friends, the little brunette was beginning to become a protegée just like Reiner was. Only her grades were behind. Maybe it was time Reiner talked to her parents about the ritalin.

The blond remained seated on his bench as he spotted the kids having their faces painted by a zoo intern. Today was supposed to be the day he said something but his chances slipped away whenever they were within reach. He expected the kids to keep each other busy enough for him to say it already by now.

Gabi came running and scared him with a big RAWR. Her face was painted in cute orange, black and white stripes and she looked like a tiger and Reiner jumped up and shouted "WAAHH! A bloodthirsty tiger has escaped from its cage! Someone help me!" before he ran away and Gabi caught him, he let her tackle him to the ground and the giggling girl pretended to scratch and maim him. Reiner captured her in a hug she couldn't escape and she struggled until she gave in and hugged Reiner back.

"We should go to the zoo every day," the little brunette said.

"Haha well, I wouldn't say every day, but if you ask your mom and dad nicely, then Bertholdt and I can take you more often," Reiner said.

"YAY!" Gabi screamed and she was already back on her feet and ran towards Falco who had feathers painted on his face to look like a colorful bird and was tackled to the ground by a hyperactive Gabi. Reiner stood up and dusted himself off while laughing at his silly cousin's antics. He decided to join the rest of the group at the face painter, where Zofia was having an animal painted that Reiner did not recognize.

"I'm a glaucus," the white-haired girl explained, but it didn't help Reiner become any wiser of which animal she was supposed to be. The face painter had to work with reference on a phone that looked like some type of weird little slug. Udo's turn turned his face into that of a deer and soon the group set off again in search of the safari restaurant. Bertholdt was silent and Reiner decided that he was not going to start the previous conversation again.

The children successfully begged Reiner to allow them to buy fries from the restaurant to eat instead of their packed sandwiches and they sat next to a window that looked directly into the buffalo exhibit.

"Hey Reiner..." said Bertholdt.

"Yufh?" Reiner answered with his mouth full of fries.

"There's something I want to talk to you about, actually it has to do with the thing you talked about earlier," the brunet looked guilty now.

"Oh yeah?" Reiner said and swallowed his mouth empty.

"There's something I wanted to tell you. A secret," the brunet looked away.

The kids were distracted by each other and by the animals. "You can tell me anything you want, you know that. What's up my man?" the blond said.

"You can't be mad at me for it."

"I won't. What is it?"

"Just promise me you won't hate me first."

"I promise, Bertholdt. What is it about?"

"Well...I'm...I-I'm..." the brunet stammered. Reiner expects an apology but Bertholdt has to restart. "Actually, I did, hum..."

Reiner stared with big golden eyes at his best friend. The brunet's face twisted and his throat bobbed with a swallow. "Yeah?"

The brunet remained silent, turning redder with the second. He covered his face with his hands. "I wanted you to know that...I-I really needed to tell you that...I'm gay, Reiner," Each word came out robotically as if the brunet had forced them out one by one and Reiner was speechless. Bertholdt just came out to him and Reiner didn't know what to feel. He was happy: Bertholdt liked boys, that's great! But the poor brunet looked like he could cry when he hid his face behind his big hands and he now looked pale instead of red. Did he think Reiner's upbringing and participation in church would mean he wouldn't accept him? His mom wouldn't be happy to hear it but Reiner would never discriminate against any of his friends, especially not when they were just like him. He will always protect them no matter what.

"Oh," Reiner could just say and it was such a cold and underwhelming reaction that he probably wouldn't want to hear, but he was genuinely shocked by the confession. It didn't seem to be what Bertholdt meant to say but it was very important to him. "That's okay," the blond finally said.

The taller brunet opened his hands to peek at Reiner, who smiled broadly in acceptance. "Really?" he asked.

"It's okay to be gay!" Reiner smiled and he meant it. He grabbed Bertholdt's hand and pulled it to the table to hold it with both hands. "It's more than okay to be gay. I love gay Bertholdt. I think the world is ready to meet gay Bertholdt."

The brunet cowered his face with his remaining hand and blushed up a storm, "No! Don't tell anyone, please!" he cried. Yes, he was actually crying. It was a secret he hadn't been able to tell many people.

"Whoa whoa ok, don't worry about it! It'll stay between us. You come out at your own pace. I'm glad that you trusted me to learn about you. Does anyone else know?" Reiner said.

"They know online. Nobody in real life knows," Bertholdt said.

"Not even your mom?"

"Not even her."

"Thanks for making me the first one to tell. I won't tell anyone," Reiner said gratefully. He squeezed Bertholdt's hand again to show his support.

The brunet nodded but he still didn't look completely comfortable. His face was still a little twisted and despite the drying of his tears he looked like he wasn't entirely relieved from coming out. So there could be differences between the timelines. In the old one, Bertholdt was straight, possibly bisexual. In this one, he was gay. What else had changed between the timelines?

But Reiner had a chance with Bertholdt in this universe after all and once the blond told his best friend about his true feelings they were finally able to start their life together. It was a very good thing and Reiner no longer thought of talking about college.