"You've finally found your place in this zoo."

~•~

"Are you okay after yesterday?" Alira asked as soon as Daniel reached her in the morning. He looked rested, even smiling, and definitely seemed ready to take care of the animals all day. After escorting the school group to the exit, Alira went to Webb, the zoo director, and told him she would keep Daniel with her and try to find an animal that would suit him.

Webb was delighted. He had feared that no one at the zoo would accept Daniel and that everyone would try to avoid working with him and pass him off to someone else. He was pleased that Alira had volunteered to be his guide and helper in finding his purpose at the zoo. Everyone at the zoo was surprised to see the pair walking around that morning, but they were even more surprised when they heard laughter. Daniel was laughing, and so was Alira.

"They were just stupid kids," Daniel waved it off, "I don't take their words to heart. They have no idea what they're talking about; all they see is that I have money and think I'll just spend it like crazy."

Thanks to Formula One, Daniel had learned not to pay attention to what people said about him. Many times, people had written him off as someone whose best years were behind him and who would never return to the level he was at when he drove for Red Bull. They said leaving Red Bull was the worst decision he ever made because it ruined his entire career. Maybe they were right, and Daniel knew it well, but if he let those words get to him, he would never have returned to the track because his head would be full of their nonsense, he would have driven even worse, and all the teams would have dropped him. He didn't take it to heart negatively; he used it as motivation to keep improving and prove them wrong, even though it ultimately didn't work out because of the accident with Hamilton.

"And what about the model? Never thought about finding a pretty model who would stand by your side and support you in everything?" Alira asked playfully.

"You mean one who would support me as long as I had money? As soon as I ran out, she'd disappear," Daniel chuckled at his own response. Models never interested him. He knew a few drivers who were constantly looking at models and choosing girlfriends among them, but he never wanted that. He never met a model who wasn't a shallow person only interested in money, fame, and makeup. He preferred to date normal girls—his last relationship was with an actress, the only somewhat famous person he dated, but their relationship didn't last long.

"That's probably true," Alira nodded. She had her own opinion about models, one she preferred not to voice aloud for fear of offending someone. She had never met or talked to a model, so her opinion was solely based on social media and what people said about them online. This was why she didn't voice it aloud. In this case, it was judging a book by its cover, and she didn't want to admit that by saying it out loud. She preferred to keep her opinion to herself and change it if she ever met a model.

"And why want a model when I have you?" Daniel wrapped his arm around her shoulders, "You stand by my side and support me too. Plus, you don't want my money, so I think that's a win-win."

Daniel didn't realize it, but these kinds of comments were exactly what Alira didn't want to hear. She already found him highly attractive, so she didn't need him to add fuel to the fire by flirting absentmindedly. Plus, he was very kind, funny, and could lift Alira's spirits, even though his opinions sometimes annoyed her. Daniel had everything a girl would want in a future boyfriend, so she didn't want to hear any flirting because she might not be able to resist and might do something she would later regret.

"How could it be a win for you?" Alira asked him. She tried to ignore the fact that what Daniel said sounded like flirting, because otherwise, she would blush like a tomato, which no one wanted—Daniel might, but the brunette couldn't allow it.

"A pretty brunette believes in me. Doesn't that sound like a win?" Daniel replied. He had considered Alira pretty from the moment he first met her. Alira was indeed beautiful, and he still couldn't understand why she didn't have a boyfriend. He couldn't understand how such a highly intelligent, funny, kind, and beautiful girl couldn't be dating someone—though after thinking about it more, he realized that Alira was dating animals, to whom she dedicated all her attention, so it became clear why even beautiful girls are sometimes single.

"The pretty brunette believes in anyone who promises to love animals," Alira punched him in the arm, "so don't mess it up, because I really want you to fulfill what you told me."

"I don't lie, Al," Daniel smiled. "When I make a promise, I keep it."

"A lot of people have promised me things and then didn't follow through," Alira said. "So now, I believe in the person, but not the promise. I believe you really want to change and love animals, but I don't believe in promising it. That's not something you can promise. You can't force yourself to love animals."

"I'm not forcing myself to love animals," Daniel objected. "I've always liked them; I just suppressed it and tried to forget because I didn't want to give my parents that kind of joy. I regret it now because I could have been racing in Formula One and loving animals. I was just a stupid young guy with only one thing on my mind—my own success."

"Alright, let's stop lamenting about the animals and start today with something special, what do you think?" Alira suggested to change the topic. She didn't want to discuss it any further. They had talked a lot about this subject, so she didn't need to hear more about how he always loved animals but suppressed it. It seemed too sad to her, and she didn't want to listen to it—she couldn't understand how someone could suppress their love for these creatures just because they didn't want to make their parents happy.

"What special thing do you have in mind?" Daniel asked curiously.

"You'll see, come on," Alira smiled and led him through the zoo, which was slowly coming to life as the animals woke up and the staff began walking around to take care of everything with two, four, or even more legs, or no legs at all.

"Penguins?" Daniel asked when they arrived at the penguin enclosure, which they both knew well because it was visible from the lemur area. Plus, a few days ago, Alira had jumped over the glass fence that separated the penguins from the visitor path.

"Webb would be thrilled if you took care of the penguins because they don't have a regular caretaker," she explained. "So today, we'll take care of the penguins and see if you can develop a bond with them to officially become their caretaker," she smiled.

"Show me what to do, and let's get started," Daniel smiled and headed first into the staff-only room. Of course, the room smelled like fish—that was the only thing Alira always disliked about penguins. She could take care of them, but she didn't eat fish herself because she didn't like the taste, and she didn't like the smell of fish either. She could tolerate it when necessary, but she tried to avoid it as much as possible.

"First, we'll clean the enclosure because they officially get fed at eleven, when there's feeding time with visitors," she told him. "Today, I'll be in charge, and you'll just be helping, but if you decide to officially take care of the penguins, I'll give you the papers with the information that's given during the feeding because you'll be doing that too."

"How do you know all this?" the brunette asked as he let the girl prepare everything. He just watched her every move to remember what needed to be done to take care of these beautiful black-and-white creatures.

"I'm the go-to girl here," Alira laughed. But Daniel didn't accept that as an answer and just watched her. "I've also tried out all the animals before ending up with echidnas," she explained. "I know the scripts for many animals because when I'm looking for a job, and I don't have one, I listen to others to learn about other creatures here at the zoo. You're the caretaker of one animal, but that doesn't mean you can't know about others."

"Besides lemurs and echidnas, is there any animal you can see yourself working with?" Daniel asked curiously.

"I think I could handle zebras; I loved them when I was little," the girl smiled at the memory of her first visit to the zoo with her mom. Those black-and-white horses immediately captivated her because they were different from the other animals—zebras might be two-colored with dull colors, but when you consider that they roam in the wild, their colors really stand out. As she got older, she learned more about these creatures and finally understood why they were colored that way.

"Zebras are beautiful," Daniel agreed.

"When you were little, did you ever think about working here?" Alira asked, handing him a hose.

"Maybe when I was about seven and not yet racing go-karts," Daniel nodded.

"Was there any animal you wanted to take care of?"

"I've always loved meerkats," Daniel laughed. "Those little and quick creatures have always fascinated me. Plus, I loved Timon from The Lion King."

"Who didn't love Timon," Alira laughed. "I can totally see you as a meerkat caretaker."

"Really?"

"Yeah," the girl nodded. "It's just a shame we're not looking for anyone there right now."

"Too bad."

"But now we have penguins ahead of us, and we'll see," she shrugged. "Maybe you'll fall in love with them."

"Maybe."

It was very interesting at first. It took Daniel a while to learn everything he needed to do. Alira showed him several times how to hold the hose to wash away all the mess that needed to be cleaned from the enclosure. She also patiently talked about every penguin she knew. Just last night, she had called the previous caretaker of these animals to ask for various information because she wanted to help Daniel as much as possible. She explained what each penguin liked, showed him how to wash them when they curiously approached him while he stood there with the hose.

But they also had fun. Visitors began filling the zoo, so everyone in the enclosure could see them, but the pair didn't care. They sprayed water at each other, filled their boots with water for fun to make walking difficult, and just laughed at everything they did. They tried to make this job one big fun activity, and the visitors seemed to enjoy it too. Everyone was happy to see the joy the workers had in their job—it showed that the zoo likely took good care of its employees, seeing how they smiled while working.

When it came time to feed the penguins, Daniel was incredible. Alira spoke into the microphone about all sorts of information that came to mind. She explained to Daniel how to show visitors the various tricks the penguins could do for fish. She also let him pet them and do whatever he wanted with them. Everyone was happy and satisfied when their half-hour presentation ended. The audience clapped for them, and a few visitors stayed a bit longer to praise the pair and tell them they enjoyed it and that it made their day.

"I think I want to stay here," Daniel suddenly said as the pair sat surrounded by penguins. At that moment, they were cleaning the spaces between the penguins' toes, so they each had a penguin in their lap and a toothbrush in hand. Daniel had at least five more penguins around him, while they seemed to avoid Alira.

"Really?" the girl asked in surprise.

"Yeah," Daniel nodded. "Just look at them. They love me."

"No one can help but love you," Alira mumbled.

"At first, I thought I'd cross penguins off my list, but just look at them," he smiled at one of the penguins standing by his foot, looking like it wanted a head rub, which was very unusual for them, but Daniel did it, and the penguin looked content immediately. "I think I can see myself taking care of them. I already love them."

"That's great news that Webb will be very happy to hear," Alira smiled. "And I'm happy to hear it too. You've finally found your place in this zoo."

"Yeah, finally," Daniel nodded.

"So, I officially welcome you to Perth Zoo, colleague," the girl extended her hand to him.

"Cut the formalities, Al," Daniel laughed and hugged her tightly.

~•~

Danielricciardo

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❤ 342 926

Danielricciardo Did you know that the first penguin was discovered in the year 1840? Fun fact about that year - I wasn't born yet

💬 21 936

👤 Happy to see you happy

Maxverstappen1 Really funny fact you got there
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Dabielricciardo That's why we call it FUN fact

👤 You look good rn

Landonorris Happy Danny is the best Danny
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Danielricciardo Love you mate

👤 Why animal? Guve us Formula one

👤 I hope you are doing great after everything that happened
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👤 He look happiest I ever saw him

Alirabarisha Now he's stealing my captions
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Danielricciardo Me? Never
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👤 Okay, who is she?
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👤 She is Alira. She work for Perth Zoo and after his quit in F1 he and her became friends...we don't know anything about it
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👤 I think she is his girlfriend

👤 Handsome boy ❤

~•~

Alirabarisha

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❤ 10 257

Alirabarisha He looks like a good boy in the photo, but behind me is a torn pillow...Tar is definitely not as nice as he seems

💬 173

👤 Handsome boy with handsome girl ❤

👤 Daniel is lucky to have you as his girlfriend
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👤 They never said that they date

Danielricciardo Tar is the best boy
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Alirabarisha Why am I not surprised that you love him?

👤 Girl, you are pretty and you are friend with Daniel Ricciardo...I want your life
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Alirabarisha Believe me, you don't want it

👤 Pretty girl ❤
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Alirabarisha Tar is boy, but he say thank you 😘

~•~