Jungle - India 🗺️🐒
So, where do we start? So I did initially start this game with the Manor run, seeing how well I did the assault course and the driving and I did pretty okay. I mean, I remember them clear as day as this croft manor was the one I played the most as a child on the PC, whilst my dad was at work so I didn't lose his progress. After getting used to all the controls again, and finding out there was a sprint button, I decided to start this game up for real. I won't say much about croft manor, may look at it more after all of this but I'll focus on the main story for now.
So let’s begin on this new adventure with Lara. In the very beginning cutscene, before the menu appears, we see a meteor crashing onto Earth. It landed in Antarctica, had to look this up, as during the time it crashed, Antarctica was tropical. This very first cinematic is set over a million years ago, long before our little adventurer had anything to do with it. As we move onto the present day, we’re in the Antarctica that we all known and love to well as there seems to be some people doing research there, some digging and whatnot. One man who is there is named Willard, he’s totally not the bad guy. I sweaaar. Anywho a lot of the machinery goes wrong, from what I can tell, they basically made a discovery of a set of stone heads, very much like the ones on Easter Island in Antarctica. It is a huuuge wild ride in one cutscene alone! And then we are shown at the end, the discovery of a handmade grave/post/thing, for one Mr Paul Caulfield. I suppose he’s going to have quite the impact on our adventure and like Willard says, "This place has a busy history." I don’t think he’s too far from the tree, ya know.
So after all that, we finally begin, woo, finally talking about the first level of this game and boy, was I struggling to get used to this and had to go through it several times to obtain all the secrets. Yes, I know about you “All Hallows” and I will not make the same mistake as I did in the previous game! So in this first level, we start off in India, off in the jungles. It doesn’t specify where precisely, we’ll perhaps get more information on all of that as we progress further through these few levels, but all I know is that things have changed and boy, do I gotta talk about them!
So for starters, we have a mixed save system. Playing on the playstation, I don’t get unlimited saves like on the PC or like the second instalment of the game, well, not anymore. Instead we have a combination of the first game with the save crystals and the second game with getting to save whenever we please. But, now we have limitations on the saves, which means someone is going to have to be extra careful with her saves from now on and not waste all of her save crystals carelessly~ Note to self: if they are anything like the flares or how many times I saved in the previous game, these crystals will not be lasting long.
Also, I don’t have a button to use my flares constantly either. I have to actually open my backpack up and then think, I have to think about whether I need them or not. Do we understand how this is a mind-blowing mechanic for someone like me who wasted them all in the early levels of the game and never got them again?! On one hand, it’s super helpful for people like me, but on the other hand, it’s also annoying because I can’t access them within a second of needing them. So you know, there are pros and cons to this little feature. But I will have to adapt!
Final note before I actually talk about the level itself. Heh. Secrets. I mentioned earlier that I was going to collect them all to get the secret level but did I mention that it’s not like the second game anymore? I’m so used to the idea I only have to collect three secrets that when it popped up with the statistics screen, when it said “3 of 6″, I think I about lost it? Like, it’s gone back to the first instalment’s idea of secrets, which I ain’t complaining about. It just threw a huge spanner in the works and goes to show that this is going to take ten times longer for me to complete! So don’t expect a finale any time soon! I feel like, in particular levels, I’m going to miss the obviousness which was the dragon statues you had to find previously. I’m sure I’ll complain about it all soon enough, just you wait.
Anyway, right, so let’s actually talk about the level itself! As the first level of this game, it really did not pull any punches. You are literally given three secrets to find at the very start of the level, that later two I found much easier but the first one was so dang hard. Like, I kid you not, I was trying everything, looking everywhere I could and how I was supposed to find this secret was beyond me. Like I was just jumping around on the slope, hoping I’d find something and low and behold, I bloody well did! This was only the beginning of my struggles as the level pressed forward. After finding the first three secrets, which were quite literally one after the other, we’re introduced to something new. And oh dear god, I’m gonna hate it. It’s quicksand! Yaaaay.
After overcoming the quicksand, we met new... enemies? Well, we met some monkeys, but they seem friendly, at least for now but that is bound to change very quickly. Because it’s a Tomb Raider game. And nice enemies don’t happen often. Y’know, like the tigers that try to maul us to death later on and the addition to some new watery enemies, yeah, watery. I used that word. Piranhas. Oh boy, I don’t like this. Water is meant to be my safe zone, although there are sometimes shark and crocodiles/alligators, I can cope. Even with the odd barracuda and the like, I can cope. But piranhas? Oh no. We are done. Because these awkward little swines cannot be killed as far as I know, and I’m ready to absolutely weep at them! But nonetheless, we somehow still trudged on. We’re just plodding along.
We encountered traps like never before, we met boulders and spikes and more boulders, oh and zip lines. Now, you may be thinking, “But Croud, how are zip lines traps? They help you?” And now here’s the part where I prove you wrong because I cannot use zip lines to save my life. The amount of times I died in the floating island level due to zip lines is unreal, and they’re here in this game too? Oh they are certainly classed as traps on my list. You can make sure of that!
To make a long story short this level put me through the works. Like so many works it’s unreal.
This level did not pull on any punches and really got you involved in it. I thought “The Great Wall” was a wacky trap filled first level, but this. This wasn’t just filled with traps, no, we got multiple routes, more exploration. It felt much less linear yet you still knew the way to go. It almost made the level more expansive? I believe that’s the right way to put it. Was probably the reason this level took me so long. I’ll hopefully make the next post much more structured compared to this one, but right now, I want to just gush over how many flare I have. 34! That’s right, ya girls’ been good with ‘em. It won’t last long so took a picture to commemorate it.
Over all, I greatly enjoyed this first level, it has truly set a tone for the rest of the game to come. Finished it in style by jumping into more quicksand in the end, which really did make me panic - all before we were given the final cutscene, one where Willard makes his appearance once more, or at least an audio appearance rather than a physical one.
During this last cutscene, Lara comes across a campsite and a radio from which we can hear Willard talking, or better yet, trying to get into contact with someone from this site. That is when we are introduced to the “loon” known as Tony. He did not hold back with our Lara, though I’m sure he was suffering from jungle madness with the way he spoke and his attitude. After going in a bit of a circle with him about how many there were of her, we finally get to the point as to why Lara is in this jungle. The Infada artifact. Finally we get a name for the mysterious artifact we’ve been searching for and it sure does sound mysterious. Though Tony doesn’t seem to agree with us completely, summarising it plainly as “voodoo magic and all that”. Perhaps he has seen it before or witnessed what it can do? Though that summary definitely did not impress our Lara as she was asking about anyone else who could talk to her on a more intellectual level, or without brushing off what she was talking about as just “voodoo magic”.
Tony certainly doesn’t have his way with women, we can see that for certain. And he didn’t impress Lara further with the mention of Randy and Rory, who he said was staying put in that temple. Now that ain’t boding too well. Nor do the last words Tony leaves us with, which are quite literally “die” as he jumps off a ledge, disappearing with giggles galore. He was right when he said the jungle was truly rotting his brain, or perhaps it is actually something else that is causing this? Now as someone who hasn’t played the game, nor gotten further than literally this level alone, this cutscene has always been one to make me believe that Tony ain’t a trustworthy guy, and boy was my gut instincts as a child were right. Because I still don’t trust this giggly arse!
But now that’s it! At least for now. This has been the jungle levels as we explore more of the India levels, now moving onto the Temple Ruins. This game is giving me a different kind of feeling to the previous instalment and oh god, I’m currently enjoying it. Though I’m petrified because this is new territory. Hopefully we can get all these secrets! But see you all soon in the temple ruins, where we’re sure to meet Randy and Rory, or at east whatever is left of them from the sounds of it?
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misconstrued meetings | kth
❧ word count: 1,921
❧ genre: fluff, fluff, fluff, humor
❧ notes: ugh the ending has me soft i can’t believe i actually wrote this what the heck?? but like it lowkey seems like a crack fic at the beginning and i swear it’s not??
this is the fifth frat party your friend has managed to drag you along to in the span of 2 weeks
and at every party you always see the same dude creepily staring at you
and he looks kinda familiar so you point him out to your friend but she has no idea
she does, however, say that maybe you guys met in another lifetime
and then your friend starts to rant about how cute that would be and she gets this glimmer in her eyes and you’re just like
miss me with that romance bs this is the real world sweetie
anyway you’ve gotten so distracted that you lose track of the creepy yet somewhat cute boy
but you just shrug your shoulders and go to find yourself a drink that isn’t spiked bc you’re the designated driver
eventually you find a nice lil can of sprite and pop it open
then you go back into the mass of people and try to mingle
but like everyone is just grinding and you’re like,,,, no thank you sir
so you’re about to go find somewhere quieter but then the dude from earlier runs up to you
he looks a little different from when you first saw him when you walked in
now he’s practically bouncing up and down and he looks like he’s on the biggest sugar high ever
and you’re about to be like,, dude r u ok
but he beats you to it and he just goes
“asdfwjkdhh have you seen my pet alligator sKREEEEEEE”
and then he runs away screeching????
and you’re like
“wtf this can’t be the guy”
but sure enough you roll up your sleeve and double check
and what he said matches your soulmate tattoo word for word
the first thing you think is,,, ohmygod my soulmate is?? a stalker? who does drugs perhaps???
you think he’s pretty weird tbh
but ofc it’s your soulmate so you run after him and he’s not in the most stable condition so it literally only takes you 4 seconds to catch up
and you grab his shoulder to turn him around
and he looks at you for a good 5 seconds before passing out on you
you’re just glad he didn’t throw up bc like you’re wearing a pretty expensive shirt and
we going: broke hours!!
anyway so you sit him down on a couch and ask around if anyone knows who this guy is
this one guy with rlly cute dimples says
“oh that’s taehyung dw he ate like 20 sugar cookies earlier he should be fine just leave him”
and you’re just like?? “how could i just leave him there? and how are you so nonchalant about this-”
the guy introduces himself as namjoon and says that taehyung lives on the same floor as him in the dorms
and then he asks why you’re so interested and you go
“i mean he could possibly??? be my soulmate,, but like no big deal or anything”
and namjoon is like “oh,,,,,,, oh shit wow rlly?”
and you’re like “yes rlly.. um so i’m just gonna go check on him”
after like 45 minutes taehyung finally wakes up and it happens to be right when you press a hand to his forehead to see if he has a fever or anything
and then you blink and say “are you ok dude? you kinda passed out on me”
he sits up straight and he’s like “yeah dw i’m fine- wait!! what’d you say!”
and you repeat yourself with like an unsure voice and then he just smiles
like he full on beams and you swear you’re looking at the sun even though it’s almost midnight and you’re in a crowded, dark room
and he goes “wow it’s really you:)))))))))))))))” and he starts lifting up his shirt
and you’re just really flustered at this point
“bro what are you doing we’re in public”
taehyung just waves you off and continues to lift up his shirt until it’s up to the middle of his chest
you have to try so hard not to focus on the fact that he has abs and he’s!! hot
but then your eyes land on this little tattoo he has along his ribcage
and it’s exactly what you said to him
and you smile too and show him your tattoo and say
“woah we’re soulmates that’s so cool!”
taehyung replies with “yeah so you wanna date?”
you kinda think it over in your head bc like taehyung is very very very attractive and he seems nice enough
but you eventually say “sorry um ii don’t really believe in the whole love/like at first sight thing but maybe we can be friends”
and it’s true,, your whole life you’ve thought the idea of soulmates is impractical like one day you meet this supposedly perfect person and you’re supposed to be instantly in love? that aint it
and lucky for you taehyung takes it just fine and is like “sure sure i totally get where you’re coming from,, how about we like go out for coffee some time but just as friends”
and you get taehyung’s number and make sure he’s feeling ok enough to stand up and stuff
and you say bye and go find your friend so you can zoom out of there
so you guys go out for coffee the next weekend at this cute café that taehyung recommends to you
it’s pleasantly surprising bc you’ve only been talking for 20 minutes but you feel like you’ve known taehyung since first grade or something
you learn that he loves to make jokes but he doesn’t like puns that much bc he says his roommate has a pun for literally everything and taehyung is: over it
he tells you he’s majoring in chemical engineering and you’re like !! me too
and he’s like,, yeah ik we have 3 classes together
and you’re like “what?? but? i never see you”
he explains that they’re all lecture classes and he sits behind you so you probably wouldn’t notice
and taehyung also wants to bring up the fact that he’s wanted to ask you out way before he knew you were soulmates but he knows you want to be friends first
and if you knew what he was thinking you would be aww-ing and probably soft™ like he’s balling his fists up bc he just wants to tell you he likes you that much
anyway so the totally not romantic get together goes really well and you say
“taehyung you should totally sit next to me in class next time”
and he’s like “ofc see you then”
you part ways and on the way back to your dorm you can’t stop feeling this tingly feeling all over and there’s a huge smile on your face but you’re telling yourself to stay strong bc
you can’t just cave in after seeing him one time
but then you start seeing him everywhere
like in classes and when you’re walking to club and at the cafeteria and at the library and ofc you guys hang out almost every weekend
and you kinda tell yourself,, ok i guess i kinda like this dude??
so anyway it’s been a good two months since you met and you and taehyung are pretty comfortable around each other
like you guys know each others orders at all of your favorite restaurants and you have clothes at each others dorms for when you have secret sleepovers and marathon marvel movies
and all of your friends and taehyung’s friends assume that you guys are a couple
one day you’re thinking and you’re like “i think i’m gonna ask tae out”
so you do and you do it during one of your sleepovers
you and taehyung are wearing matching flannel pajamas and you’re stuffing your faces with cookies and brownies
and you turn to taehyung and tap him on the shoulder
“go out w me”
“what”
“you heard me”
“no but like are you serious”
“yeah why wouldn’t i be???”
cue taehyung’s sunshine smile
he wraps you in a bear hug and releases this huge sigh and is like
“thank god i’ve literally had a crush on you since i saw you at the orientation fair”
and you pause and think for a second and you’re like
“taehyung that was 4 months ago… YOU’VE LIKED ME FOR FOUR MONTHS AND??? DIDN’T TELL ME SHHJSKHDJDHJSDHK DUMBASS OHMYGOD”
and at this point taehyung is super confused bc he rlly thought you’d be happy to hear it but instead you hit him on the head so he’s just like ??? por quay
and you have to force yourself to calm down and explain “the only reason i didn’t want to go out with you is bc i thought you only liked me bc we’re soulmates,, if i knew you had a crush on me!! i’d have said yes”
taehyung scratches his head and says “i thought i made it pretty obvious why do you think i always stared,,, and remember when i came up to you and tried to talk to you even though i knew i was on a sugar high and it was 500% likely i would say something dumb”
you’re just trying to process this bc ,,, taehyung thinks ‘have u seen my alligator’ = 'i like u’
and your eyebrows are scrunched together and you’re just trying to form a sentence to express how dumb you think he is
so you don’t notice him inching closer and closer
until he plants a lil peck on your lips and you blink once… twice… thrice
that!! just happened
taehyung just kissed you:))))
but he looks totally calm while you’re basically a tomato
and he does this half smirk half smile and is like “does this mean i can brag to people that you’re my gf/bf”
you hit taehyung on the head again
aNYWHO!!
so you and taehyung as a couple!
you two decide to join the bird watching club and like half the time it’s just you actually trying to find cool looking birds and taehyung stealing kisses and hiding your binoculars
and the other half of the time is when you actually want to be cuddly and sweet n stuff but taehyung is a tease so he ignores you and is like “woah is that an owl!! haha look y/n it’s an owl”
your movie marathons only get more frequent and sometimes you invite namjoon and even taehyung’s roommate seokjin (much to taehyung’s dismay)
coffee dates!! whenever one of you has a stressful test or project and needs to unwind
and also you two surprise each other with pastries from the café when you see each other in class
taehyung loves to share his hoodies with you
you think it’s rlly cute that his mom still sews his name into the tags of all of his favorite clothes
so imagine your surprise when one day you go to slip on this bright red sweatshirt of his and you glimpse at the tag and you see taehyung and y/n
you’re so soft because taehyung feels proud enough of this relationship to tell his parents about you and now you can’t wait to meet his mom bc she seems like the sweetest person ever
overall you and taehyung are just super sweet and goofy and you just fit so well together that you’ve managed to convince yourself that this whole soulmate system must be real bc you honestly can’t see yourself without him
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Oh please write a fic where fitz and deke go to the zoo ♥️
This is set post this fic, where Deke and pregnant Jemma go baby shopping; I wouldn’t say it’s completely necessary to read that one first, but it may help a bit with context.
Also, what the Fitz/Deke relationship is going to be like is kind of hard to get a read on, so I hope this came out alright!
(Also also, full disclosure, but I have never been to a zoo, so that’s why I kept this purposefully vague - I know generally what kinds of things they have there, but I figured it was better to be safe than sorry.)
(Ao3)
-
After Jemma’s promise to Deke the previous week that theywould take him to the zoo (Fitz didn’t know the full details of how this promise came about, but heimagined that it was Jemma’s idea more than Deke’s), Fitz found himselfstanding with Jemma near the exit of the Lighthouse, waiting on their grandson sothat they could go on their “family trip”, as Jemma kept calling it.
It’d been over six months now since they’d found out whattheir connection to Deke was, and Jemma had settled easily and almosteffortlessly into her role as a grandmother. Fitz, however, had had a slightlytougher time adjusting to it – especially since he and Deke hadn’t gotten offon the right foot in the first place.
But, Fitz had to admit that he was warming up to it and didn’tmind having Deke around as much, particularly because of how much Jemma lovedspending time with him. He was coming slowly but surely to the grudgingconclusion that Deke wasn’t all thatbad.
More than spending “family” time together, though, Fitz wassimply looking forward to go to the zoo, though he certainly wouldn’t admitthat to Deke. It had been quite some time since he’d been to a zoo – the lasttime had been with Jemma, about six months before they’d joined Coulson’s team,back before everything had changed. Fitz couldn’t help but marvel at what adifference a few years made; back then, they were best friends, partners, andwould’ve (and had many times before)denied to their last breath that there was nothing more between them.
And now, they were married, expecting their first child, and–
“You guys ready to go?” Deke called excitedly as heapproached them, a big grin on his face.
And, mostunbelievable of all, was their fully grown grandson from the future.
“Yes, we are,” Jemma replied with an answering smile,reaching over to pat the backpack sitting on Fitz’s shoulders, “I’ve packedsunscreen, bottles of water, and snacks, so we’re all set.”
“Let’s get going, then,” Fitz stated, turning to lead theway to the exit.
He paused, though, when he heard Coulson calling after them,“Fitzsimmons, wait a minute!”
Turning around to find him striding toward them, Fitz notedhis apologetic smile with a furrowed brow, asking curiously, “What is it?”
“Daisy and May finally managed to bring back some samples ofthat foreign substance that keeps appearing everywhere that those supposedalien attacks take place,” Coulson explained, adding, “I know you had plans fortoday, but this is going to have to take precedence.”
“Does this mean that we’re not going?” Deke asked, turningto Jemma and Fitz, disappointment clear in his tone.
Hiding his own disappointment, Fitz replied, “Seems like it.We can always try for next weekend, though.”
“Now wait a minute,” Jemma started thoughtfully, “I spentsome time with Deke last week when you had to work, so why don’t you two go tothe zoo together today? It’s only fair.”
Noticeably perking back up, but trying to play it off, Dekeglanced at Fitz, clearing his throat as he offered, “I’d…um, I’d be okay withthat. If you are too, that is.”
Fitz wasn’t so quick to agree, however, turning to Jemma andasking uneasily, “Are you sure? What if you need me in the lab?”
Jemma scoffed at that, questioning with a raised eyebrow, “Andwhen was the last time that youneeded me to complete a project inyour field of expertise?”
Despite her reply, Fitz stood firm, glancing pointedly downat her rounded stomach as he informed her, “That wasn’t what I meant, Jemma.”
With a soft smile, Jemma reached up to cup his cheek andinsisted gently, “I’ll be fine, Fitz; you know that I’ll be careful. You shouldjust go have fun at the zoo with Deke, alright?”
After a beat, Fitz finally agreed quietly, “Alright.”
Her smile grew before she pecked his lips, then she toldboth of them, “I’ll see you later, have fun!” Coulson gave them a nod, then heand Jemma began walking away, toward the lab, but they hadn’t gotten too farbefore she added over her shoulder, “And don’t forget to wear sunscreen! I don’tcare if it’s cloudy, wear it!”
Once they’d disappeared, there was a lengthy silence betweenFitz and Deke, but he finally broke it by clearing his throat and saying, “Well,alright; it’s just us, then.”
“Guess so,” Deke replied, offering him a small half-smileand a shrug.
After another moment, Fitz led the way out of the base, andto the parked car that he and Jemma had rented in anticipation of driving tothe nearest zoo, which they’d found was about a half an hour away. He got intothe driver’s side and started the car, but he couldn’t help but notice that itwas a long moment before Deke got into the passenger’s seat, glancing at thecar in fascinated confusion.
“What is this?” heasked, immediately reaching out to start pressing buttons, changing the radiostation a half dozen times before Fitz grasped his hand, shaking his headfirmly.
“It’s a car,” he answered, adding with a sigh, “Put on yourseatbelt, Deke.”
Deke glanced around in surprise, then laughed when hefinally found it, saying to himself, “Oh, thereit is,” as he buckled himself in. When Fitz pulled out onto the road, hequestioned, “Is a car like a ship? Does it fly?”
“No,” Fitz replied simply.
He was quiet for a few minutes, then commented under hisbreath, “It’d be a lot faster if it flew.”
Briefly, Fitz thought about mentioning Lola, but in the end,he didn’t want to encourage Deke’s idea that everyone should be getting aroundby flying car, so he kept it to himself. Instead, he turned up the radio a bit,though it didn’t quite stop the flow of questions coming from Deke for theentire drive there (road signs utterly baffledhim, as did speed limits, and Fitz could only hope that Deke never got the ideato try driving for himself).
Once they’d finally arrived and Fitz had pulled into a freeparking spot in the packed lot, he turned off the car and unbuckled his seatbelt.With a sigh, he reached for his backpack and took out the sunscreen, explainingseriously, “If we don’t use this, Jemma will know.”
Deke didn’t seem convinced, eyeing the bottle as he countered,“Will she?”
Clearly, Deke hadn’t spent enough time around hisgrandmother to be truly afraid of her yet. So, arching his eyebrows, Fitz toldhim shortly, “Yes, she will.”
Apparently believing him (or not wanting to risk it), Dekeheld his hand out, allowing Fitz to pour some of the lotion onto it. “Ugh, this smells horrible!” hecomplained, wrinkling his nose and leaning as far away from it as he could getin the confined space of the car. “What do you even do with this?”
“You rub it into your skin.” Fitz demonstrated for him, rubbinghis hands together and covering his face and neck with it. “It protects youfrom UV rays.”
Pulling an utterly disgusted face, Deke finally slatheredthe lotion onto his face (a bit dramatically, in his Fitz’s opinion), wonderingaloud, “Is this really worth it?”
Returning the sunscreen to the backpack, Fitz assured him, “Thecombination of sunburned skin and an upset Jemma Simmons is far worse, trustme.”
With that done, they climbed out of the car, and crossed theparking lot to the entrance of the zoo, where Fitz bought them tickets to getin and retrieved a map. Just inside, he immediately opened it, searchingstraight away for the monkey exhibit.
Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed Deke pullingsomething out of his jacket pocket, and a moment later, he spoke up, “Hey, willany of the animals in my book be here? I’d love to see a real live hamster!”
Frowning, Fitz glanced up from the map, catching sight ofDeke flipping through the children’s book on animals that Jemma had bought Dekethe previous week. “Deke, those are domesticanimals – the kind that people keep as pets– and they aren’t in zoos.” Deke looked a bit disappointed, but nodded inunderstanding. However, when he still had the book out after a moment, Fitzadded in exasperation, “Put that away, will you?”
Finally spotting the monkeys on his map, fortunately relativelyclose to the entrance, Fitz quickly folded it back up and led the way there first.From his first glimpse of a capuchin on a tree branch, a grin began forming onhis lips.
“Wow!” Deke cried, stepping closer to the exhibit. “Real monkeys!”
Fitz was briefly impressed that he even knew what they werewhen he hadn’t even known what dogsand cats were, but then he realizedthat Jemma must’ve told Deke about them at some point. “Yeah, I’ve alwayswanted a monkey as a pet – I mean, just lookat them, with their little hands and their tails…”Not for the first time, he then began calculating the best way to get Jemma toagree to them having a monkey as a pet, but it was interrupted by Deke’s confusedvoice.
“I thought you couldn’t have zoo animals as pets?”
Making a face, Fitz clarified, “Ah, well, you’re not supposed to most of the time, but somepeople ignore those sorts of laws and keep wild animals as pets anyway.”
“Whoa, cool!” Deke commented, a grin ticking his lips up atthe corners.
Fitz had a sudden and horrifying image of Deke somehowbringing a tiger or an alligator into the Lighthouse as a “pet”, and then he would have to explain to Jemma andthe others where Deke had gotten the idea that that was okay. So, he clearedhis throat and corrected, “No, not cool, okay? That’s a bad thing, don’t everdo that.”
Deke was clearly confused again, but he ultimately agreed, “Okay,okay, sure.”
After finally managing to tear Fitz away from the monkeys,the two of them spent some time walking around amid the families with young childrenand the couples out on dates, the grandparents taking their grandkids out forthe weekend. To himself, Fitz couldn’t help but be entertained by the fact thatno one there would ever guess that he was a part of the latter group.
He spent quite a bit of the time having to constantlyexplain what things were to Deke, who was fascinated by everything, especially by animals that lived in different climatesfrom theirs, like penguins and panda bears. The animal that caught him bysurprise the most, though, had to be giraffes – Deke couldn’t seem to wrap hishead around just how tall they were.
Truthfully, though, he seemed most astounded by just how big most of the animals happened to be. “Imean, they’re bigger than me,” Deke pointed out when they were standing infront of the lion exhibit, his eyes wide and his eyebrows high on his forehead.Gesturing to the lion itself, he added, “That one could eat me!”
“Probably would if you got close enough,” Fitz agreed, butwhen Deke looked at him in horror, he winced and imagined him having nightmaresabout being eaten by a lion and telling Jemma that it was because of him, so he forced a smile and lied, “Justkidding.”
After a little while spent wandering around the zoo, theystopped at one of the vendors to get something to eat, despite the water andsnacks that Jemma had packed.
“What Jemma doesn’t know won’t hurt her,” Fitz insisted toDeke as he pulled his wallet out of his pocket.
Deke was scanning the menu eagerly, but suddenly he gaspedand read aloud, “Lemonade? What is that?!”
Offering the vendor that was giving them a strange look aweak smile, Fitz explained to Deke in a hushed voice, “It’s a drink with lemonjuice mixed with sugar and water.”
“I want that,”Deke told the vendor, his eyes wide, as though it was something of greatimportance.
“Sure thing, buddy,” the man replied, glancing briefly overat Fitz, who simply shrugged as he passed him the proper amount of money forthe drink.
When the man handed Deke the cup of lemonade, he took itquickly, hurriedly taking a sip from the straw. “Whoa, this is amazing!”
“Yeah, good, glad to hear it,” Fitz replied absently,accepting the bag of popcorn that he’d ordered from the vendor and leading Dekeaway so that the people behind them in line could order.
“Hey, does lemonade work in the same way that lemons do?”Deke questioned suddenly.
Frowning, he glanced over at Deke, finding him waitingpatiently for an answer to a question that Fitz didn’t even understand. “Um…what?”
“You know,” Deke elaborated, as though Fitz was the ridiculous one, “if you give someone lemonade, do theyknow what it means?”
“I don’t even knowwhat it means,” Fitz responded dryly.
“So…you’ve never given Jemma lemonade?” Deke asked, lookingmore than a little surprised by this information.
Fitz was silent for a beat, then he asked, “Is this someweird future metaphor that I’m not getting? Because, let me remind you that youdefinitely don’t want to get intothat subject anymore than I do.”
“Huh?” When he seemed to understand, Deke pulled a disgustedface and cried, “What? No! I reallymean lemonade! You know, the whole leave a lemon in someone’s bunk to show themyou like them? Coulson and Mack told me that people do that here too!”
Snorting in amusement, Fitz clapped his free hand on Deke’sshoulder and told him, “Hate to break this to you, but they pulled one over onyou; there’s no such thing.”
“What? Are you…areyou serious?” Deke groaned, visibly embarrassed as he briefly closed his eyes,running his free hand over his face.
“Very,” Fitz assured him, “try flowers or chocolates orsomething instead – that’s what I’ve always heard works best.”
Deke grumbled something under his breath, but Fitz didn’tquite catch it. He wasn’t very talkative for a while after that, spending mostof the time petulantly sipping his lemonade in silence as they walked by theelephant and rhino exhibits.
But, out of the blue, Deke spoke up again, startling Fitz ashe asked loudly, “What are those?!”
Glancing around, Fitz finally pinpointed the object of Deke’senthrallment as balloons of allthings, tied to a nearby cart and in various shapes of animals featured in thezoo. “Those are balloons, Deke.”
“I don’t…how are they floating?” Deke took a step closer tothe cart, squinting up at the balloons as he clearly tried to figure out howthey worked. “Do they have Gravitonium inside of them?”
“What? No, it’s helium,” Fitz told him, adding in a mutter, “whichis about as limited as Gravitonium, really.”
“Helium,” Dekerepeated to himself, seemingly mesmerized by the floating animals, “whoa.”
And, though Fitz didn’t support helium balloons in the leastand thought that they were a waste of a limited resource, he caved with a sighand gestured to them, “Alright, pick one out before I change my mind.”
“Really?” Dekequestioned excitedly, grinning at Fitz before pointing to one shaped like apenguin (he’d thought it was hilarious the way that the flightless birdswaddled around in their exhibit, which had apparently left an impression).
The woman selling them handed Deke the balloon with a warmsmile, advising him, “Hold onto that, or else it’ll fly away.”
Once Fitz had paid for it, they continued on their waythrough the exhibits, Deke’s earlier embarrassment over the whole “lemons”thing apparently forgotten as he spent a good deal of time watching the balloonfloating above him, bobbing up and down with the gentle breeze.
And, well, though Fitz had never thought he’d be amused by agrown man excited about a balloon, when it was his grandson…he did have toadmit that there was a little smile tugging at his lips.
-
When they returned to the Lighthouse later that day, Fitzwas surprised to find that Jemma was waiting for them near the entrance to thebase, an eager smile on her face, no doubt impatient to hear about their daytogether.
However, when Deke stepped in after Fitz, he saw hereyebrows rise on her forehead, her lips pressing together to hide her obviousamusement.
“Not a word,” Fitztold her simply, narrowing his eyes and pointing a finger at her, twitchinglips, shining eyes and all.
She mimed zipping her lips, but she didn’t even really needto say a word, not when her obvious delight was written so clearly on her face.
“The zoo is so cool,”Deke stated with a big grin, now wearing a t-shirt with the zoo’s name printedon the front, his penguin balloon in one hand and a stuffed zebra in the other.
“So, you had fun, then?” Jemma asked, stepping closer toFitz to slip her arm through his and leaning up against his side.
“Yeah! I can’t believe there are so many animals and – did you know about lemonade?” Deke’s eyes were wide,clearly still amazed by the prospect now hours later.
Jemma laughed at that, nodding as she told him, “I did,actually. My sister and I used to make lemonade and sell it at a little standwhen we were young.”
“You know how to makeit?” He seemed shocked by the information – but only for a moment; hisfocus then shifted to something over their shoulders, and he grinned as hecalled, “Hey, Daisy, wait! Have you ever seen how big a giraffe is?” With that,he brushed past them to catch up with Daisy, calling over his shoulder to Fitz,“Thanks!”
Fitz lifted a hand in acknowledgment, then turned back toJemma, asking curiously, “How did the study on the samples go?”
She arched a knowing eyebrow at him. “Oh no, you can’tchange the subject that easily.” A grin making its way onto her lips, sheteased, “All those times that you insisted that being a grandfather when youweren’t even a father yet was weird…”She lifted a hand to cup his face, turning his head so that she could plant akiss on his cheek. “I knew you had itin you – even if you bought foodthere instead of eating the snacks that I packed.”
Mentally cursing (he should’ve known that she’d figure it out), heoffered her an apologetic smile and a shrug. “Ah, well, I’m still learning, Iguess.”
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