Who: Sharon Carter and Leon Orcot (with NPC Chris and Viv) When: Memorial Day Weekend Where: New York (Central Park Zoo and then an ice cream shop) What: Leon and Sharon take the kids to the zoo and for ice cream. Rating/Warnings: Low/None (some swearing?) Status: Complete when posted
Leon had never been to Central Zoo before. He’d been to New York a handful of times when Chris had been small, but he never stayed for very long - usually just a long weekend like he was doing now - and he had never had any interest in going to the zoo before.
Now was different though. Now, Chris was more than just his favourite cousin, he was his little brother. And Chris loved the zoo. Leon didn’t find them so bad anymore either. And Sharon and Viv were bound to make trip even more exciting.
He peered at the map after he’d bought everyone’s tickets, and stood at the enterance of the park. “Well, it looks here if we start at the Tropic Zone, we could go to the… ducks and weird circle thing - what is that, a three-legged turtle of some kind? - and then the Red Pandas. Do a loop from there. Unless there was something you guys thought we should check out first?” he asked, looking between Sharon and Chris.
Sharon leaned over Leon’s shoulder to take a look at the map. She didn’t bother getting one of her own. They could all share, really, she’d just follow Leon and Chris, anyway. She had the stroller for when Viv wanted to nap, but in the mean time the baby was in a backpack against Sharon’s chest, leaving her hands free to push the little stroller along.
“I just want to see the Sea Lions eventually. Everything else is gravy.” She motioned. “I think it’s just…. You can’t see the other flipper. And Red Panda… that’s another name for a FireFox, right?”
“Definitely the sea lions!” Chris said cheerfully, peering at the map in Leon’s hands.
“How much fucking-” Leon stopped when a family that was passing shot him a dirty look. “How much freakin’ effort does it take to drawn one more little triangle?” Leon rolled his eyes. “Like, the web browser?” Leon asked. It wasn’t until recently that he’d started paying attention to animal names. “They’re like those red raccoon looking things. Kind of cute. What’s say we hit the sea lions last so we can hang out there as much as we want afterward?” Leon could probably grab lunch for all of them too while they were all crowded around the sea lion tank. He headed for the park entrance.
Sharon was more amused than anything by Leon’s potty mouth and crotchety nature. She smirked a little, and reached over to pinch his arm when he cursed and got the dirty looks. “Yes, like the web browser. And I don’t know. The next time I see the map designer, I’ll tell him you don’t approve of his laziness.” She reached over to wrap an arm around Chris’s shoulders. “Because I’m like, bffs with the guy who designed the map.”
Chris giggled when Sharon wrapped her arms around him, smiling widely. He’d obviously missed spending time with Sharon and Leon. “You can tell him that some grumpy guy was very upset about the missing flipper,” he said lightly.
Leon flushed a little. Man, even his kid brother was making fun of him now. How was that fair? “Come on,” he grumbled, abashed, and entered the Tropic Zone. Immediately he was bombarded with the sound of dozens of voices raised in song. It was humid and warm, a little too much for Leon’s tastes though he didn’t complain this time.
He looked good. Chris, that was. Though Sharon had always thought Leon was a handsome man, and the haircut was very flattering, she was thinking about Chris at the moment. He was happy and healthy, and very happy to see Leon and Sharon (and Viv). That made Sharon more happy than she could say.
“Coming,” Sharon grinned, her voice sing-songy as she and Chris giggled together and ducked through the doorway into the Tropic Zone. She’d left the baby stroller outside in a safe, shady spot. There were about a dozen other strollers over there, too. It was humid and hot, and Sharon’s eyes lifted to the beautifully colored animals all over in the room. She wasn’t thinking about Leon’s Dream power when it came to animals, she was thinking about how glad she was to be there.
“You know that car game, with the letters and the license plates?” She asked, Chris, stepping up behind the kid and his big brother. “Where you go in order, finding all the different letters? We should do that, but with colors.”
Leon was starting to get used to his powers, but this was like something else. Winged beings circled above them, looking like angels with brightly coloured wings, and others - lemurs, maybe? - hung from branches. There snakes, looking like thin, scaly people, lounging. It was tough acting like he couldn’t truly See all of them, but he was engrossed enough in them that he barely heard Sharon speaking or Chris’ reply.
“What order would we go in?” Chris asked. “I mean, it’s not like there’s an alphabet for colours!”
Sharon gasped. “Haven't you heard of Roy G Biv?” She asked, moving with Chris to the nearest exhibit. “The order of the colors in the visible spectrum. The rainbow.” Maybe it was something that girls paid attention to more than boys, or maybe it came up in science class after 4th grade. Either way, Chris was going to learn about it today, that was for sure.
“Red's first,” she became momentarily distracted by Leon staying at the animals in a wistful way. She lowered her voice a little and leaned close to him. “You okay?”
Chris shook his head. He was pretty sure they hadn’t covered that in school yet, though sometimes he found he had missed bits of learning from when he had lived in California the year before. “Red first,” Chris repeated, and then began to look around.
Leon nodded absently when Sharon came up to him, and then turned to her. “Yeah,” he said, smiling. “It’s just something to get used to I guess. It’s like D’s shop, I guess. Or what I’m betting D’s shop would have looked like had I been able to see them back then.” He looked at Chris then. Chris had always been able to See the animals. In fact, after he’d gone back to live with his family, he’d called Leon half-panicked one night to make sure that Leon had seen the people in D’s shop too. Of course, Leon couldn’t confirm that at the time.
“Oh! That bird’s really red!” Chris said, pointing out a scarlet ibis. Leon looked at the bird, dressed all in red with a long, thin nose and an impressive, bright red set of wings with only a couple of the feathers at the wing tips black. Leon let out an impressed whistle, and fondly ruffled his kid brother’s hair. “Good catch, Chris,” he said.
Sharon nodded. She had no idea what it was like, really, to be able to see animals as if they were people? But she couldn’t imagine it was easy. She gave Leon a little pat on his shoulder, then turned to see what Chris was looking at. “Hey, good one! Orange is next. I figure that’ll be easy. It might start getting tricky when we hit blue.” She took a step closer to the bird, and noticed that Viv was awake. “Look, Viv. That’s a red bird. Red. Red bird.” She said, and pointed.
But Viv was far more interested in staring at Chris. Then she lifted a hand and made pudgey, grabby fingers at the boy.
Chris giggled a little at Viv, and then turned to Sharon. “Can I hold her for a while?” Chris asked. He had missed his tiny companion since moving back to New York.
It was about that moment that Leon accidentally made eyecontanct with the scarlet ibis that Chris had pointed out. The bird seemed to recognize something in Leon’s gaze, smiled at him, and then flew over to perch on his shoulder.
“No,” Leon muttered quietly to the bird, which appeared to him to be a full grown man with wings sitting on his shoulder.
“So you can see us. Are you enjoying the exhibit so far?”
“Shoo. Go away,” Leon hissed again, and tried to shrug his shoulders to dislodge the bird. The ibis stayed firm where he was.
“Yeah, of course.” Sharon grinned over at Chris, then unstrapped the contraption around her that kept the baby in place. It was like a backpack, sort of, that she wore backward. And the baby sat in it, either facing her chest (to sleep) or outward (to experience the world). It only took a couple of clicks to release the baby, and the rest of the contraption dangled from Sharon’s body like an apron. She held Viv out to Chris.
“She’s a lot bigger than the last time you saw her,” she said with fondness as the kid took the baby into his arms. “She’s getting heavy, too.”
Then she noticed the bird on Leon’s shoulder. Sharon raised an eyebrow. “...you all right?” It felt like she kept asking the same question. But… it was all animals, right? Not just dogs? And so… was that a man or a woman sitting on Leon’s shoulder?
God, this was weird. Thank goodness Sharon opted to not bring a dog home.
Chris rather happily took Viv into arms so she could sit on his forearms and lean against his chest. Maybe Viv had gotten bigger, but Chris had too. She was a little heavy, but he was sure he could carry her for at least a little while before she got too heavy for him.
Chris turned to Leon just in time to see another bird alight on Leon’s other shoulder. He burst out giggling, and then pointed at Leon, drawing Viv’s attention to Leon. “Look at the all the birds,” Chris said. “That one has orange on it! Do you know orange?” It was true too that the bird had ruffles of orange feathers on the sides of its neck.
This was exactly the sort of thing Leon had been worried about when the first bird had landed on him. They were obviously like cats, wherein if they could sense that you didn’t want anything to do with you, they wouldn’t leave you alone. Or maybe it was just the more simple explanation that Leon could talk to them.
“It’s not often we get people here who we can talk to,” said the new bird on his shoulder.
“Not surprised,” Leon muttered to the bird, then turned to Sharon. “Yeah, it’s fine,” he said. “The kids seem to be getting a kick out of anyway.” Besides, two birds, Leon could handle. It wasn’t like they weighed much, even if they appeared to him to be human.
“We need to get a photo before they fly away!” Chris said to Sharon. He had his own phone now, one that his parents had bought him when he’d come back home, but his arms were currently full of baby and he couldn’t pull the phone from his pocket.
Sharon was on top of it. It might have been weird for Leon to look at later, but she wasn’t too concerned about that. She wanted to save this moment for Chris. Her phone in her hand, she turned to snap a candid of Leon before the birds flew away, then turned to Chris to snap one of him holding Viv, too. Sharon had become so much more of a ‘photo mom’ since Viv was born. She’d probably taken ten pictures in the year leading up to her daughter’s birth. And after? Ten was a slow day.
“Now we just need a yellow bird to come over and land on him, too.” Sharon teased. “Do you want to move to the next stop?”
Chris smiled for his photo just as cheerfully as Leon’s scowl for his was annoyed. The next bird that landed on Leon was, unfortunately, not yellow, but it was the last straw. “Get the hell off of me!” Leon yelled, waving his hands. The three birds took off in a flurry of flapping wings and feathers, laughing the entire way to the nearby branches they landed on.
Shoulders hunched, hands in his pockets, Leon started walking toward the exit. “Yeah, let’s get the hell out of here before these fucking birds tell all their buddies about what a great roost I make,” he grumbled, watching the birds - especially the ibis - from the corner of his eye. He knew that they’d do it too. Animals seemed to sense when someone didn’t like them and then seemed to make it their life’s worth to annoy the poor guy to death.
Chris was only disappointed for a moment, before he remembered the red pandas. And the sea lions. “Okay,” he said cheerfully, attempting to keep pace with Leon without actually running. He didn’t want to jostle Viv. “And if we finish early here, we can spend extra time in the petting zoo! I think Viv would like that!”
Sharon bit down hard on her lip to keep from laughing, especially when the other patrons of the zoo turned to stare at Leon’s outburst. “He’s a chick magnet,” she said to a nearby mom carrying a baby, and they both grinned brightly at the joke. She had to hurry to follow Leon and Chris out of the bird place. As much fun as all this was, she didn’t want to rub it in Leon’s face. On further thought, maybe a zoo wasn’t a great place to bring her friend. Still, it was good for both Chris and Viv to be there.
They could always go to FAO Schwartz or something afterward. Or, wait, did that place close? Well, they could go get candy or ice cream or something.
She caught up with the boys on the way to the Red Pandas. “Yes! I think she’d like that very much. And I really want to see the seals. I love the way they look when they swim.”
Ugh, puns. Leon shot Sharon a glare, though he didn’t say anything. And, despite his scowl, he had to admit that that one was actually almost good. Or would have been, if he hadn’t been the butt of the joke.
He was, despite all appearances, actually enjoying himself. He might complain incessantly, but even when disliked animals, he still prefered their company over most human’s. And even if they looked like humans and spoke like humans, they still weren’t humans. Everything that Leon hated about people was missing when it came to animals. Hell, he was even thinking of getting a dog. Maybe even the same dog he and Sharon had looked at.
Leon was pleased to note that all the turtles seemed to have their limbs in tact. The red pandas were kind of weirdly cute, though the snow leopards didn’t do much more than bask in the sun, looking for all the world like sun tanners dressed in white leopard print dresses. The monkeys were hilarious, and Chris had wanted to stay longer to watch them. In fact, before they knew it, the group had made their way to the sea lion exhibit.
Sharon took time to point out all the different animals to Viv, taking turns with Chris holding her and exploring the zoo together. She made sure to re-apply sunblock on herself, Viv and Chris, and then came after Leon with the white, creamy stuff. They were standing around the sea lion exhibit, watching the trainers with their little fish, getting the seals and sea lions (...did they have both?) to do tricks and swim around the enclosure for treats and food and whatever. Sharon loved to watch them swim--there was something absolutely beautiful and graceful about a seal making its way through water.
“We’ve started swim classes. Did I tell you?” Sharon asked Leon. “Viv and me, I mean. I have to get in the pool with her for her swim classes. But she goes underwater and everything. Just like a seal.”
Leon gave an exasperated sigh when Sharon came after him with the sunblock, but he didn’t pull away from her. He even lifted his arms when she asked him to. “No shit,” Leon said, grinning. “Well good; it’s better to start ‘em off in the water young so they don’t get all paranoid about it when they’re older.” Leon had met a couple of people who couldn’t swim, and it always made him kind of sad, but mostly baffled. “Once she gets older, Chris and I can teach her to surf. Can’t we, Chris?” he asked, nudging his little brother.
“I’m not that great,” Chris admitted sheepishly.
“That’s because you just learned last year,” Leon said. “Keep practicing here and by the time Viv’s old enough, you’ll practically be a pro.”
“And then you can take Viv out. But she’s got to learn to swim first. Exceptionally well.” Sharon said, frowning just a little. It was hard to imagine her daughter out there in the waves… with the sharks and the riptides. Scary stuff, really. She had no idea what she would do if her daughter went out to surf and… never came back.
But that was neither here nor there. “We should go for a swim in the hotel pool. What do you think?” She asked, turning her attention to Chris. “You can hold Viv in the water, and see how much she loves to splash around?”
Leon nudged Sharon lightly and gave her a half-smile when he noticed her frowning. He could imagine the frown had something to do with imagining her baby on a surfboard in the middle of a hurricane, but she didn’t have anything to worry about with Leon and Chris around.
Chris beamed. “I’d love to take Viv swimming! I’ve gotten really good at swimming too, you know,” he said, turning to Leon.
“You were always good at swimming,” Leon snorted. “Like a goddamn fish or something.” Which had been a relief when Leon decided to teach him how to surf. His parents had put Chris in swimming lessons since he was a toddler and it had paid off well.
Sharon turned and grinned a sheepish little grin at the nudge. Of course, Leon knew exactly what she was thinking. It was about time for Sharon to realize that Leon could read her like a book. She blushed at being caught. “So long as it’s in a controlled situation,” Sharon said. Of course, she trusted Leon and Chris with Viv. There were few people she trusted more than she did Leon.
“When we get back to the hotel, we’ll all go down to the pool and go for a swim! What do you think, Viv? Swim?” She asked, leaning in to get a good look at the baby. Viv was busy chewing on her fingers as she watched the seals swimming around in the pen in front of them. “I think that means yes.” She said, and grinned over at Chris.
“Maybe we can stop and get ice cream on the way back to the hotel?” Sharon asked, glancing to Leon for confirmation.
“You can’t go wrong with ice cream,” Leon said, placing a hand on his little brother’s head. “Chris no doubt knows the best place to get ice cream around here.”
Chris grinned up at Leon from under his hand, pleased at the fact that Leon seemed to think so much of his opinion. Leon had let Chris choose most of the places where they’d eaten so far, though he didn’t hesitate to look on Yelp for places when Chris didn’t have any answers for him.
“You bet I do!” Chris said. “And most people miss it too, because it doesn’t look very nice. But they make all their own ice cream and the owners are this really nice Italian couple and it’s the best ice cream I’ve ever eaten! Josie showed it to me this year! She said she found it when I was in California with you guys and she couldn’t wait to take me when I came home!”
“Your sister’s a really sweet girl.” Sharon said, giving Chris a grin. She pulled the baby into her front backpack and adjusted the little one’s hat to cover her whole head, then stood. “With a recommendation like that, how can we stand the wait? C’mon, let’s head out.”
Unfortunately, having a baby around meant all the baggage that came with them. Strollers and backpacks and diaper bags and all that crap. Sharon had to collect it all on their way out of the zoo, but she let Chris push the stroller. That seemed to kill two birds with one stone; let Chris be more involved, and free up her hands for whatever else. (And “whatever else” meant sneaking photos of Chris and Leon with her phone.)
It was a short trip to the rental car, and everyone piled in. Sharon took shotgun, making Leon drive. She turned around in the seat to snap another couple of pictures of Chris with Viv in the backseat. “You can give us directions to the ice cream place, right?”
Ugh, photos. Leon hadn’t even thought about that when he decided to go to New York with a mom, but he probably should have. He rolled his eyes for one that he noticed but he was good natured about it and grinning as he did so.
Chris beamed when Sharon asked him to give the cabby directions, and even lifted up one of Viv’s hands to make it look like she was waving at the camera. “We’re going to [Ice Cream shop] on second street!” he said to the cab driver, who then turned on the meter and started to drive. Luckily in a city like New York, multiple directions weren’t needed.
The ice cream shop really was a hole in the wall, Sharon thought, as she rode along in the front seat. She tried to ignore the smell in the car. It made her homesick for her own car back in California--though, of course, after Viv starts dropping milk and goldfish and whatever, it probably wouldn’t smell good for long. Such was the way when one had little kids around.
When they arrived it was another ordeal to get the baby out of the car. Carseats and strollers and shit. Sharon made Leon hold the diaper bag for a moment while she resituated the carseat/stroller/combo thing. “Okay. I think I might have to have a double scoop today.” She said, turning her attention to Chris. “Chocolate and vanilla? Please tell me they have chocolate and vanilla.”
Leon accepted whatever Sharon handed to him without comment, though travelling with a baby really was kind of a pain in the ass. Between the flight and the cabs… Well, Leon loved Sharon and Viv, but he wouldn’t be jumping to go on weekend getaways with them again for at least three or four years when they could leave the stroller at home.
“Of course they have chocolate and vanilla,” Chris said. “They have all sorts of flavours! Like blueberry and cookie dough and they even have rose ice cream. Remember when we had rose ice cream when we went with Zelda, big brother?”
Leon scowled. “I still don’t see the point in shoving flowers in my ice cream.”
Sharon really did her best to make travel with Viv easy. Hence the bag and the stroller. And the carseat--that was absolutely necessary. And, actually, aside from a few minutes setting things up here and there, and a few minutes here and there to change a diaper, or whatever, it wasn’t too bad. It could have been a lot worse. They had another eighteen months (or more) to potty training, so Sharon was resigned to the diaperbag.
“You have to be really careful when you make food out of lavender or rose. It can end up tasting like soap.” Sharon said, giving a smile to the others. She let Chris lead the way into the ice cream shop. “I’m pretty traditional in my flavor preferences, I guess.” Sort of All-American?
“Nothing here tastes like soap, I promise!” Chris said, taking Sharon’s hand so he could lead her into the ice cream shop. Leon followed, diaper bag on his shoulder.
“Me too. Give me chocolate or vanilla or strawberry any day of the week,” he said.
The Milky Way, as the ice cream shop was named, was set up to look not unlike a 1950s malt shop. The walls were white with red trim, the floors and counters checked with white and black tiles. Leon decided he immediately liked it.
“Well, what does everyone want?” Leon asked, pulling his wallet out from his pocket as the four of them made their way to the counter.
Sharon gave a little laugh as Chris tugged her into the shop. The stroller was left outside, unnecessary while Sharon had the baby in the backpack. She grinned at the young boy as he wrapped his hand around hers and led the way.
It was like stepping into an episode of Happy Days or something. Sharon couldn't help the grin on her face as she took in her surroundings. The floor was great, and the chrome fixtures really made the decor pop. She decided she liked it in here, and gave Chris's hand a squeeze before she let go. A few steps to the counter, and Sharon was reading the signs over the ice cream, trying to decide what she'd like.
"There's a double chocolate. Is that one good?" She asked, turning to Chris. It wasn't until she spoke that she realized Leon had his wallet out. "Oh, no, you got the zoo tickets. I'll get the ice cream."
“Everything’s good,” Chris assured her. “Can I have bubblegum?”
Chris and his goddamn bubblegum ice cream. Shit was so sugary Leon was half surprised the poor kids teeth didn’t immediately fall out. But Leon wouldn’t have said no even if he was paying for the ice cream. Since he wasn’t paying anyway, he figured he’d let Sharon decide. “If you’re sure,” Leon said, folding up his wallet and returning it to his back pocket.
“I’m absolutely okay with giving you as much sugar as possible,” Sharon agreed, giving Leon a bright smile. He might have a sugar crash later, and then everyone would get to bed on time. Funny how travel made Viv more tired, so she hadn’t been waking up much in the middle of the night. It was a hassle to bring all the shit along--diaper bag, stroller, carseat--but at least the baby was behaving. If she’d been up every hour on the hour, Sharon might have had to get her own hotel room.
“And I’ll have the chocolate one.” She glanced over at Leon. “What looks good to you?”
"Vanilla." Leon wasn't really an adventurous eater. Sure, if his friends convinced him to eat something he'd never tried before, he'd do it. But when he had the choice, he stuck to the basics. Besides, despite the fact that he was a regular at some of the local bakeries, he usually only bought baking to share with other people and didn't have a sweet tooth himself.
As they waited for their ice cream, Chris talked amiably about some of the favourite animals they had seen at the zoo, even doing impressions of some of them - the monkeys, the walrus, the bears - for Viv's entertainment. "Oh, and there's a great park around here we can go to once we get our ice cream! They even have a baby swing. I could push Viv!"
Sharon was almost happier about Chris and Viv’s interaction than she was about the ice cream. She watched the boy entertaining the baby--who mostly grabbed at his nose and seemingly wanted to put it in her mouth, as babies do--and felt her heart twisting a little. She loved the little family they’d put together. Her, Leon, Chris, Viv. It was a family they’d chosen, not necessarily one born of blood or romantic entanglements, but it was family nonetheless. And she knew in that moment that she’d die for any of them.
She took a deep breath and released it, eyes a little watery. “I think that sounds like a perfect plan.” She said, then sat up a little when the shop attendant brought out a tray with their ice creams.