This chapter is on the longer side. I went into detail with a lot of things, so I hope it doesn't end up boring. Also I've just noticed that this book hit a million reads. I'm speechless! I never imagined my books even reaching a thousand reads. I'm shocked that so many people enjoy my sub par writing! All I have to say is thank you for voting, thank for your comments and thank you for just reading it, that means a lot to me!

Song: A Cerulean State - Olēka (Don't play the song until it says so in the story for the added effect.)

Theo's POV

When Keegan saw the monkeys hopping just behind the glass his face lit up just as much as it had with the zebras. This time he wasn't allowed to pet them though. That was probably for the best. Monkeys are unpredictable. The little girl of the family that was beside us also had the same expression as Keegan. It made me realize how much of a kid he still was. A lot of his childhood was taken from him by his family, and it's as if his emotions laid dormant, like he locked himself away from the world. The more I get to know him the more I see his true self. He's a cheerful, caring, energetic dude. He's been through so much, he deserves this happiness, and it's just the tip of the iceberg.

We continued going from exhibit to exhibit. We saw dolphins, sea lions, turtles, giraffes, and several other animals. He named several of them. Stella, Jack, Big Head, Bobby, Johnny, Long Nose, and many others, but the most prominent name was... Theodore. I think he's just doing it to tease me at this point though. 

Even after all of the exhibits we went to we still hadn't found the Penguins. Just as we were heading over to the exhibit board to find their location my cursed stomach had to go and growl. To be honest I'd actually forgotten about breakfast, and it's already time for lunch. I was having too much fun to even notice how hungry I actually was. I didn't want to stop us from seeing the penguins though, we'd already been search for them for a long time. Keegan didn't mind, but I still felt bad delaying the guy's reunion with his little penguins.

Keegan smiled at me upon hearing my stomach's call for food. "I can buy us lunch." He offered, but there was no way I was going to accept that.

"No no, I'll buy us lunch." I declined. Today I was paying for everything. Despite how stubborn he can be sometimes he knew that I wouldn't change my mind.

He broke a little half smile before speaking. "Are there any places to eat around here?" He asked.

"I actually don't know." I replied before scanning the nearby area, hoping to find something even though I knew it wasn't likely.

"Excuse me, are you looking for the cafe?" One of the workers asked, walking up to us.

"There's a cafe here?" I asked with a curious expression. I don't remember seeing anything about that when looking this place up.

"Yeah, it's two halls down and on the left. You should be able to spot it pretty easily." She explained. We thanked her before following her directions.

We reached the cafe and like the woman said, it was hard to miss. It was both an indoor and outdoor cafe. Keegan looked taken back by the well designed interior. It wasn't anything special to me but he scoped it out like it was a pure work of art.

While Keegan was off in a daze I went up to counter and began ordering.

"What can I get for you?" A small teenage girl asked from behind the oaken counter. I quickly glanced over the list and decided what I wanted.

"I'd like a sloppy joe and a plate of chicken rice." I ordered.

"Anything else?" She asked while writing my order down.

"Yeah, hold on a sec." I told her before calling out to Keegan. His gaze snapped from the room to me before coming over.

"What are you getting?" I asked.

"Oh uh..." He looked over the sign for a moment, trying to decide what to get. Knowing him he was probably going to go with something cheap." And don't hold back just because I'm paying." I quickly added, in stern voice. A small smile flashed onto his face for a second, almost confirming his intentions.

"Um... I'd like a tuna sandwich and a salad please." He said, his voice soft and timid. I realized how similar our orders were to the ones we made during our school trip. I found it odd that I didn't order more fish based meals seeing as how sushi is my favorite thing to eat.

"That'll be twenty dollars and ninety-five cents for standard passes or completely free if you have a premium pass." The girl said.

"Oh look, I've already got us covered." I smirked at Keegan. "We have premium passes." I confirmed, taking mine out to show her.

"Alright, coming up! Your orders should arrive shortly." The girl said before handing the slit of paper to a chef in the back. While waiting for our orders we went over to the drink dispenser to buy a couple drinks.

"Keeg, which one do you want?" I asked, pointing at the choices.

"Lemonade." He said with a suspicious smile. I figured that's what he would get. Just as I was about to insert the money Keegan quickly inserted his and tapped the lemonade button twice, ordering for both of us. Before I even realize what happened he was staring at me with a huge grin of satisfaction on his face.

"Why you." I chuckled. Before he could do anything I caged him in my arms. He squirmed around, trying to worm his way free. He knew what was coming, but I wasn't going to let him off that easily. I continuously tickled him until we'd drawn too much attention to ourselves. Keegan slumped over on my chest and laughed, exhaustedly.

After Keegan caught his breath we grabbed the drinks from the dispenser and took a seat in the corner of the room, waiting for our orders.

"A tuna sandwich, salad, sloppy joe, and chicken rice?" The girl called out, setting our orders on the counter.

"That's us." I said as I walked up to the counter.

"Enjoy your meal!" She said in a peppy tone. We thanked her and collected the plates before looking for a table. The cafe is split into two sections one being indoors and the other out. To our surprise the indoor section was just about packed, so instead we carried our food outside. It looked just as cozy as the indoor section in my opinion. The view was great as well. A large portion of the town was visible. The warm summer breeze made it even better. Keegan took a seat at a table near the wooden railing surrounding the outdoor section. I followed behind him and set all of the food down. The smell of it temped me to just bite into it right there while I was standing but I restrained myself.

"This is really nice." Keegan said, staring off into the distance.

"It is." I agreed. "But I'm just here for the food." I laughed before taking a large bite out of my sandwich. He pouted at me before doing the same, except his bite was small.

We continued eating in a comfortable silence, until I stole a bite out of his sandwich. You know I wasn't going to eat without taking at least one bite out of Keegan's food. He smiled with his mouth still full of food.

"I get to try yours." He demanded after he finished swallowing. For some reason it made me happy that Keegan was comfortable eating between us.

"Sure." I said with a casual shrug. "Knock yourself out." I pushed my food to his side of the table and watched him as he ate. The way he slowly went through everything was cute, but then again I find everything he does cute.

I knew Keeg wasn't going to be able to finish all of that food himself so I ate whatever was left. The only thing he actually did manage to finish was his salad. I finished up the rice and took the sandwiches with me. We returned to our penguin hunt. We reached the exhibit board and scanned over the list of animals and their numbers. We missed the penguins on our way to the sea lions the first time around. We knew exactly where to go now though.

"Race you there?" I challenged him, wearing a smirk.

"C'mon man, you know you'll win." Keegan complained.

"That didn't stop you from taking me on at the arcade now, did it?" I chuckled.

"Fine, if I win you'll have to do whatever I say for a week." He negotiated after pondering for a moment.

"Alright." I agreed, still wearing my smirk.

"Don't blame me if I puke up lunch." Keegan mumbled under his breath while preparing himself.

"Ready? Go!" I started. Keegan had already began running before I said go. I chased after him, running down the long hallway. I passed him in no time flat. I heard a whine echo behind me as I distanced myself from him. I looked back at him with a smirk, still running at full speed. That was until I crashed into something. I looked up, rubbing my aching head to notice a pile of paper spread across the floor.

"You youngsters nowadays." The older woman standing above me sighed angrily.

"Oh s***, I'm really sorry." I swore, realizing what I'd done. I didn't waste any time gathering the scattered paper. Keegan caught up to me but instead of passing me he knelt down to help. He did take off before we were finished though, so I'd have to get payback for that.

"Next time watch where you're going." The woman hissed.

"I'm really sorry about this." I repeated before taking off after Keegan. I had no intention of letting him win. After catching up with him once again I could tell how hard he was trying. It made me feel like a jerk, but there was something I wanted out of this. I tailed Keegan closely. I would've passed him earlier but he extended his arms, blocking the way. After a moment of prep I ducked under his arm and ran passed, taking the lead once again. The frown that appeared on his face almost broke my heart in two. We were very close to the exhibit too which really must have been disappointing for him.

"Hey, I'll make it up to you later dude." I waved at him before taking a sharp left turn. The door to the penguin exhibit was now in full view.

"I made it." I said, taking a deep breath. I heard footsteps approaching. They belonged to Keegan. He still looked pretty down.

"I win." I told him.

"I'm sure we both realized that." He bit back, still out of breath.

"You know what this means." I smirked. He raised an eyebrow.

"You have to do whatever I say for a week." I told him.

"Hey, what? That wasn't part of the deal." He said, his voice going shaky.

"Says who?" I narrow my eyes at him.

"M-me." He stuttered.

"You can't say that after the fact. The race is already over." I chuckled, knowing full well that Keegan had no intention of letting me command him if I won, but I still wanted the prize.

"But... but." He went quiet.

"Come on, let's go. The penguins are just behind this door." I reminded him. He lifted his head and his excitement resurfaced.

"Yeah, let's go!" He said cheerfully, almost as if forgetting everything that happened. I shook my head.

Just as I was about to rest a hand on his back and guide him through the door he grabbed it and pulled me into the exhibit room. We were greeted by a bright tint of blue filling the room. Keegan's pace slowed as the penguins came into view. They were separated from the room by a sheet of glass, almost like an aquarium except behind the glass was a large open area with rocks, a pretty big pond and waterfalls streaming down the miniature mountains. Keegan walked up to the glass and watched them silently. I was dying to know what was on his mind. His expression was unreadable. It wasn't until around five minutes later that I able to tell that his face was overwhelmed in satisfaction and joy. I watched the penguins along side him not uttering a word. Mainly cause I didn't want to distract him. He was looking at them so intently. The penguins waddled around in their pen, climbing the miniature mountains to hop in the pond below. If I found that adorable I can't imagine what Keegan was feeling.

"I wanna pet them." He whispered. I couldn't hold back a laugh.

"I don't think that's allowed." I said to him, and that was the first time he pulled his eyes away from the pen ever since we got here which was around ten minutes ago or so.

"Are you sure?" He asked, still holding a hopeful look in his eyes.

"Hold on, I'll be right back." An idea popped into my head. I knew Keegan wouldn't move from that position, so I left to go speak with one of the staff.

"Hey, uh is petting these guys off limits here?" I asked a nearby worker.

"Well... there isn't really anyway to pet them. I'm not sure if you've already seen it but there does happen to be a feeding station right through that door over there on the left." He informed pointing to the location.

"Alright thank you." I said before returning to Keegan's side. Like I figured, he hadn't move a single inch from the glass. It was almost as if he was glue to it.

"Hey, Keeg." I called, drawing his attention. He turned to stare at me, silently. His cheeks were flushed a bright tint of pink. He continued on with his silence and waited for me to speak.

"Sadly I don't think they allow petting here, but that dude over there just told me there's a feeding area over there." I told him, nudging my head to the doorway. His head immediately sprung in that direction scanning for it. Before I'd even noticed Keegan was already halfway across the room.

"C'mon!" He yelled out, waving me over as he continued to run towards it.

We walked up a small set of stairs and emerged into the sunlight. The feeding station was much more advanced than I was expecting. The whole area was outdoors with the edges fenced off. There were a few pails full of small fish lined up along the side of the fence. Two of them were occupied, leaving one available, luckily. Keegan wasted no time finding a spot. He tossed the small fish onto the ground and watched as the penguins came and gobbled em up. I was having just as much fun watching Keegan as he was the penguins. His reactions were so charming and adorable. He'd smile while watching them waddle around and giggle when they'd slash in the pond. The urge to kiss him was arising once again... but I had to hold off... at least for now.

I took a seat next to Keegan near the edge of the feeding station. We talked for awhile while he fed the penguins. He talked about how as a kid he'd goof around and pretend to be different animals whenever his grandparents came over to visit. He told me about the large collection of animal books he used to have before he moved here and how his closet was full of animal prints and patterns. He told me how much he used to love animals, especially penguins. He thought he moved on, but he hasn't, which I think is a good thing. It's charming knowing how much he cares for animal life, and just life in general. It's heartbreaking to think that he was ready to take his own.

It was awhile before I could pull Keegan away from the penguins. We spent at least an hour in that one exhibit. And the only reason he let me pull him away was cause I promised we'd come back sometime. We checked out a couple more exhibits before finishing up our tour of the zoo. By that time it was already evening. The orange tint of the sky covered the town, making it look like a painting or an image from one of those post cards my sister would bring home. Speaking of her, she was supposed to come home to visit awhile ago. She's always late though so there's no surprise there.

"I don't want to go back yet." Keegan said to me as we walked over to my car.

"Have something in mind?" I asked, raising a brow.

"Well... n-no." He said, his voice going quiet. It seemed as if his timidness was resurfacing now that we were out of the zoo.

"Here, let's take a walk around the town." I said, stuffing all of the excess stuff we got from the zoo into my car. I decided to take advantage of the lighting and see the town in it's glory. It was a good way to cool down after a long day. It's something I did a lot back home in my neighborhood. I always found that I ended up in the park alone. It was a good way to escape all of my annoying friends and family. After meeting Keegan though I've become more patient and tolerant towards them.

"Okay." He replied with a soft smile. I shut the car door and started down the pavement with Keegan walking beside me.

(Play the song)

"T-this is really pretty." Keegan said, beaming across the street.

"It reminds me of those evenings during our school trip." I noted, taking in the scene.

"Yeah... It really does." He replied his voice still quiet. We continued walking through the town for a period of time until we reached a small sloped bridge leading to a park. Keegan went ahead of me and stood on the bridge. The moment I set foot on it the streetlights came on, making the setting even more majestic.

"Whoa..." Keegan whispered as he gazed out to the open orange sky. When I reached his side he turned to look at me with the same expression sending a smile crossed my lips.

"This is amazing." He said in awe. The scene was perfect. The warm summer breeze, the deep orange sky, the sound of the water running beneath the bridge, and the streetlights illuminating it all, not to mention Keegan was here, beside me.

"Thanks for today. I-it's been so long since I've been to a zoo, so I really appreciate it." Keegan thanked. "I had a lot of fun today. I truly felt like myself for the first time in... forever. I know I can be a little clingy and not respect peoples personal space at times, so I want to apologize if I made you uncomfortable. I was just so excited." He said softly, like a gentle breeze. That was it... now was the time. I've held off long enough. I don't want him to be upset with me for doing something so selfish, but I can't hold off any longer.

"But thanks again. I don't know how this day cou-" I interrupted him, placing two of my fingers under his chin and lifting his head to mine. A heavy breeze washed passed us as our lips connected. His were so soft, softer than I imagined them to be. The feeling of them pressed against mine was the greatest and most satisfying feeling in the world. I felt lightning course through my body with shivers up my spine. I pulled him closer with my free hand and deepened our kiss. This wasn't my first kiss but it was something so special and new that it might as well have been. The kiss lasted for a long minute. With neither of us pulling away.  Keegan's hand grasped at my shirt as he rested it against my stomach. Our hair was a mess after the wind had passed.

I pulled away to see Keegan's face. His cheeks were a deep red, his eyes wide open, and his lips still parted. He took a couple steps backwards and continued to stare at me in complete silence. I did the same, not knowing what to say.

------There it is, the moment we've all been waiting for! I feel bad that it took this long. I apologize for any mistakes I might have made in this chapter. The editing process was very long!