"Do you want to be by my side as I rediscover my love for animals?"

~•~

Daniel ended up staying with his father the entire day. He was surprised by how much work a zookeeper had. They started repairing the tiger enclosure at seven in the morning, and by eight in the evening, they were not even halfway done, despite having an extra person helping. Perhaps this was because everyone was distracted by Daniel, spending more time showing him how to do things and explaining everything to him rather than getting the job done efficiently. Daniel hadn't asked for this, knowing he wouldn't stay with them, so the information was essentially pointless to him, but they insisted on telling and explaining everything.

At eight, he was finally allowed to say goodbye and go home to rest because the next day he would be back with the animals, and he needed his strength for that. His father knew very well how much the keepers at the zoo sacrificed. Most of them struggled to maintain a normal personal life because most of their lives revolved around the animals they worked with - they were with them all day and constantly near the phone in case they were called from the zoo that something had happened. His wife was not a keeper, but as the head veterinarian, she was in a similar situation.

He was exhausted. Daniel felt every bone in his body. Every muscle, even those he had no idea existed. He felt muscles he hadn't felt even during his intense training days in Formula One. He realized how incredible he had been to endure such strain without getting out of breath and without subsequent pain. Not only was he aging, but his knee made everything more difficult, making him feel like a retiree. He couldn't even spend the whole day carrying iron and wooden poles; how could he call himself a former athlete? It had only been four months since the accident, and he already had no strength - he would need to start exercising lightly again. Lightly, so he didn't ruin his leg even more than it already was.

He walked slowly, dragging his body behind his head, which led the way. He was glad he could keep his body weight on his legs. His injured knee was shaking, and the brunette felt like his face would soon touch the ground beneath his feet. He felt like he would soon kiss the asphalt and not care, because the only thing he would care about was that he was finally lying down, and his legs didn't have to bear his entire weight.

His eyelids were heavy, and he couldn't wait to get home and collapse on the couch, put on a movie, and fall asleep to it. He didn't have the strength to climb the stairs to the second floor to lie in his bed, so he would have to settle for the couch, which, fortunately, was more comfortable than it looked.

"Sushi, that's mine!" he heard a voice exclaim. Maybe he was tired and his mind wasn't working at full capacity, but he knew very well whose voice it was, and from the name the voice called out, he knew which animal it was. That surprised him the most, because the place he was passing through was on the opposite side from the tigers and far from the main gate, so his legs must have led him here automatically.

Lemurs. Sushi is the name of that cute lemur, Daniel thought as he heard the girl's voice shout the name.

The girl. The beautiful brunette with wavy hair who was mad at him because he said something bad about the echidnas - her favorite animal, as Daniel had guessed after coming home from that scolding. The beautiful brunette who owned the beautiful white shepherd dog she found four years ago by a dumpster and named Tar after the family in the series Game of Thrones. The beautiful brunette who had dark brown eyes that carried secrets she didn't want to reveal. The beautiful brunette who didn't think of him as a beautiful brunette because she despised him too much for that.

She was smiling. Daniel had seen her not smile only once, and that was the day before when they were at the echidnas. That day, he saw her angry for the first time and regretted being the reason her beautiful smile disappeared from her beautiful face. He should have been the one to make that smile appear. He was known as the positive Formula One driver. Fans loved his sense of humor and cheerful nature. But he was the reason the girl didn't smile the day before.

Daniel shook off all his fatigue and headed towards the girl. He had nothing planned. He didn't know what he wanted to say to her and didn't know if the girl even wanted to talk to him. Did she wait for him in the morning when she came to work? Did she see him working with his father? If so, did she think anything of him? Daniel had so many questions and no answers. He had to hope that what he was about to do wouldn't end in an even bigger argument than what happened yesterday. He had to hope that it wasn't just fatigue driving him and that he could say something reasonable, not some nonsense that would make their relationship worse.

He walked through the back area that smelled of insects and fruit, which fed the lemurs, and opened the door to their enclosure. Alira heard the creak of the heavy metal door and looked in that direction. Daniel was surprised when her smile remained on her face even after she saw who had just entered the lemur enclosure. But it could also be because two lemur cubs were pulling her hair, and they didn't seem to want to stop anytime soon.

"Hi," Daniel began. He didn't smile because he knew this wasn't the right time for his smiles. Instead, he watched Sushi, who was by the girl's leg. He didn't even have the courage to look the brunette in the eyes.

"Hi," Alira replied.

"Sorry I didn't show up," Daniel apologized, though he had nothing to apologize for since it wasn't his job. He wasn't assigned to any particular animal and could have gone to anyone to ask for a little demonstration of how to care for theirs. He could have also gone to the director, who could have assigned him to someone. The fact that he had been with Alira in recent days changed nothing. Alira was simply kind and always took Daniel under her wing because she had a soft spot for newcomers—she herself had been a newcomer, and no one had helped her, so she wanted to help everyone who came as new. Even if it was someone like Daniel, who didn't earn his job but just got it because of his parents.

"You don't need to apologize," Alira told him. "I saw you with the tech team at the tigers," Alira finally looked at Daniel. She expected to see his dark brown eyes, but she saw nothing because the boy was looking at Sushi and not at her.

"I ran into my father in the morning, and he asked if I could help because they were short-staffed," Daniel explained. "I couldn't say no, especially when I found out they were short-staffed. It's a tiger enclosure; better it gets done as quickly as possible."

"What about your leg?" the girl asked him. Daniel was surprised by this question, as he didn't expect her to be concerned about his injury. Yesterday, she had lectured him, making it seem like she wouldn't talk to him until he proved he genuinely wanted to take care of all the animals here, and now she was concerned if he was okay. If he wasn't hurt. It pleased the boy a little, which made him lift his gaze from the lemur and look at Alira, who blushed slightly when she finally saw his dark brown eyes.

"It's been better, thanks for asking," the boy replied and sat on a fallen tree trunk next to the girl. "I spent the whole day carrying heavy materials and didn't think at all about how it could be hurting my knee. It hurts like hell."

"I'll get a golf cart and drive you to the gate," she told him, standing up and startling all three lemurs who were with her, causing them to jump aside.

"I think I can walk to the cart," Daniel also stood up. "How far is it?" he asked.

"By the penguins," Alira pointed to the penguin enclosure, which was about fifteen meters from the lemurs.

"I can make it," Daniel said, and with Alira by his side, he left the lemurs. They walked in silence until they reached the cart, which Alira started and drove towards the main gate. Daniel was quiet for a moment before realizing he should probably speak.

"I'm sorry," he managed to say. Alira didn't respond. She didn't move a muscle, as if she wasn't even aware of the boy's presence. "You were right that I'm not trying at all and just torturing myself. I thought it over and I'll try to love the animals. If that's the only way to make you want to continue being friends with me."

"I don't want you to love animals just because I told you to. I want you to love animals because you genuinely do, because they fascinate you and you can't resist their beauty. Animals are wonderful, but I don't want you to deep down dislike them and pretend to love them just because I said so," Alira spoke but didn't lift her gaze from the road. "If I'm the only reason you said that, then shove your apology somewhere deep."

"You're not the only reason," Daniel argued. "You're one of the reasons, but not the main one. When I was little, I had a resentment towards the animals here because my parents always forced me to be with them and wanted me to love them a lot. My sister was the same. She was always around the animals and didn't understand why I preferred to make arrangements with friends, play football with them, or stay at home and do homework, even though I didn't like school. Everyone around me forced me into working with animals, and it made me dislike it."

"You don't have to work here," Alira interrupted. "If you don't want to be here, then leave. You have enough money and you're famous enough. You'll find any job you want."

"But I want this," Daniel spread his arms wide, gesturing to all the animals around them, "I've decided that I want to work here at the zoo. I want to prove to little Daniel that he could have loved animals and didn't have to be around them all the time. I want to show him that he could have done Formula racing while also caring for the animals here at the zoo. I want to kickstart charities connected to animals. I want to show the world endangered species and ask them to care for these animals as best they can. I want to use the fame, as you call it, for something good. I like these animals; it'll just take me a while to get used to being with them more than with the cars. I'll have to get used to the fact that Formula racing is behind me, and a new chapter of my life is beginning."

Alira was silent. She didn't expect that the boy really thought about what she had told him. He thought about it even more than she had asked. She certainly didn't expect him to come up with the idea of starting charities for endangered species, but she liked this Daniel. Daniel, who finally freed those long-buried feelings he was ashamed of. That little Daniel, who buried these feelings deep in his soul just so his parents wouldn't be the ones who were right all along. That little Daniel, who had abandoned all the animals at Perth Zoo because he wanted to travel the world in fast cars on oddly shaped tracks. This little Daniel was long gone, and now, next to Alira, stood a grown-up Daniel, who finally realized what his parents had been trying to teach him all along.

"What do you say? Do you want to be by my side as I rediscover my love for animals?" he asked the girl after she had been silent for a long while.

Alira said nothing. Instead, she stopped the golf cart and looked at the boy. They stared into each other's eyes for a moment before Alira wrapped her arms around his neck and gave him a big hug. Daniel was taken aback because he didn't expect it, but eventually, he laughed out loud and returned the hug.

"Count me in," she whispered, "I definitely want to be by your side as you fall in love with all these animals again."

~•~