Playing with Children at the Zoo [Matthias]

[MATHIAS ANDERSEN]

Was this girl insane? How in God’s name did she even think this was even remotely possible!? Mathias felt himself worry for her as much as he was worrying for the kid that had been stuck alone in the bear’s cage. But instead Mathias held back his worries and he allowed himself to shy quietly, as he began to climb up the fence ahead of her. The least he could do was get himself over the top so he could help pull her and Johnny over as well. Either way, Natalia seemed to fairing fine on her own, and once she got to the top, (even Mathias was certain she didn’t need it…) Mathias gripped onto her wrist and placed his hand on top of Johnny’s back so that the poor boy was able to be pulled up as well.

It wasn’t very long before the three of them were on the ground once again. Almost immediately, the kids who were watching with awe from the other side of the fence with awe came dashing over to the three. The two girls immediately clung to Mathias’ leg, and Sammie moved over to Natalia and Johnny.

“You were soooo close to that bear! Was it scary Mr.Mathias!?” Jessica exclaimed, burying her head further into his leg, “I bet it was super scary!” Tara began to giggle a bit at Jessica, but Mathias could tell that it was a bit of a nervous giggle, “Thank goodness that that mean bear didn’t get you or else I’d be really sad!”

“I’m glad it didn’t get me or Johnny… or Natalia of course! We are all nice and safe and that’s what is important right!?”

“Right!” Tara clung even more tightly to his leg regardless. Mathias began to stroke the two girl’s hair lightly, before he idly wondered where on earth Ignatius had run off to. The little troublemaker had a lot of explaining to do, didn’t he? His heart began to thud loudly in his chest when at first he didn’t see the kid in the clearing… in fact he didn’t see the kid anywhere. It wasn’t until he twisted his head around did he see the boy, sitting alone by the fence. The poor kid was crying. About what though, Mathias had a slight idea, but he didn’t really feel the need to address it right this second.

“Hey girls?”

“Yes!?” The two replied cutely in unison, loosening their grips upon his leg and glancing upwards at him, their round faces pulled into bright grins, “What do you need Mr.Mathias?”
“I need you to go tackle Nata for being so strong, then you need to help her and Sammie make Johnny feel better okay?”

“Oh! Okay! We can do that!” The girls smiled a bit more, before running together towards Natalia, leaving Mathias to move to Ignatius, who was crouched by the fence by himself. When Mathias reached the boy, he kneeled in front of him and placed his hand on the top of his head lightly.

“Hey buddy… What’s up? Why are you crying?” At first the boy wasn’t very responsive, before he glanced upwards, his mouth twisted into a miserable frown.

“I’m going to get in trouble now aren’t I? Then Johnny won’t be my friend anymore and my mom isn’t going to let me come on anymore trips and I want to come to the zoo again! I like it here a lot, a lot!” Ignatius pulled his knees even closer to his chest and buried his head in them. A small tuft of his messy brown hair fell over the side of his arms, and Mathias brushed it aside.

“No no kiddo, we aren’t going to tell anyone what happened okay? All that matters is that we are all safe, and as long as we are all safe, we can all be happy, and you want to be happy don’t you?” The boy looked up once more, and nodded slowly, “Doesn’t your momma keep you safe and make you happy?”
The boy nodded again and soon enough his frown was replaced with a small smile. Mathias felt himself smile in response.

“Thank you Mr. Mathias!” Ignatius smiled again and jumped forward to hug Mathias tightly, and soon enough Mathias was hugging him tightly back.

“Come on then buddy, Let’s go bother Nata to buy us some lunch! I bet she has lots of money she can spend on us and everything!” Mathias chuckled to himself, and grabbed a hold of Ignatius’ hand and marched over to Natalia who was busy handling the other four kids.

“Natalia! What’re we having for lunch, I’m starved!”

((I puppeted Nata a bit... I hope you don't mind. I kind of didn't want to leave them in fence limbo.. But feel free to puppet Mathias if you ever need it. xD;; Also, I think only two or three more posts and then we'll be done! \o/ Isn't this excitinggg? ;w;
EDIT: PAGE TWO, PAGE TWOOO! WHOOHOOO! /o/))

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As soon as their feet had touched the ground, the children were all over them, clamoring with questions and eyes wide in awe.

Natalia smiled, and gently set Johnny down, patting his head as he clung to her skirts, not letting go. She spoke soothing words quietly, kneeling down so she was at his level. “Johnny, it is alright now. The bear cannot get to you and you are safe.

Sammy shuffled nervously, but regardless did his best to cheer up Johnny. “Y-yeah, Johnny! Nata and Mathias saved you! It was cool!”

Johnny looked as if he were going to say something when the two girls bounded over, running into Natalia and nearly sending the three of them to the ground.

“Johnny, Johnny, are you okay?”

“Was it scary?”

“Did he eat you?”

“It was so cool when they climbed the fence, though!”

“You’re really brave, Johnny! I probably woulda died if I were in there!”

Johnny seemed to warm up a little bit at all the concern, “w-well, it was really scary! But it’s okay! I didn’t get eated either.” Natalia was rather amused, honestly, considering he had just gone through a near-death experience, and he looked just about ready to soak up all of the attention.

“Natalia! What are we having for lunch? I’m starved!” She looked up at the approaching Dane and fought the urge to roll her eyes.

“I think that Johnny should choose what we will be eating, nyet? It would be appropriate.”

“I wanna pizza!” Johnny cried.

“No fair, I wanted a hotdog!”

“B-but I wanted cookies! Can’t we have cookies?”

“Yeah!”

“Why didn’t I think of that?”

Natalia sighed, a smile faintly on her lips. She stood up. “Nyet, we cannot have cookies, unless you mean after lunch?”

There was a groan from the children, but she pacified it quickly by adding, “however, there is a pizza place just over there, and I believe there are hotdogs and hamburgers as well. Why don’t you all race there, hm?” She barely finished her sentence when they all went sprinting for the small near-by restaurant.

Natalia turned to Mathias, a smirk ghosting her lips. “This day has been.. Interesting, nyet?”

[MATHIAS ANDERSEN]

Mathias began to chuckle upon hearing that the kids wanted to have cookies for lunch. Boy there was no surprise in that. Was that all kids wanted nowadays? Cookies and sweets!? Well… actually Mathias wouldn’t mind eating nothing but cookies and sweets himself, but that was beside the point! Plus, somehow all of his friends, (and his boyfriend) were really smart and responsible, and made sure that Mathias ate what he was supposed to. Oh he was treated like such a little kid sometimes. Maybe there was good enough reason though. Well, people told him there was… quite frankly he had no idea what they were talking about, but who cared anyway?

“Hahaha, guys! I think we should let Natalia here choose first! Since she’s had to follow all of us around like a maniac! I bet we drive her crazy!” Mathias laughed and held his hands in the air, and placed his hands by his ears, as he leaned down towards Sammy like a bird, before he wrapped his arms around the boy and lifted him into the air.

“Mathias I love hotdogs! I think Nata likes them the best also!” Sammy exclaimed, clinging tightly to Mathias’ arms. Mathias laughed back at this, before setting the young super-powered boy on the ground.

“No for now we’ll just follow Natalia around, and do as she says! Right guys!?” Mathias began to group the kids into a long line and march forward as various small voices all exclaimed, ‘Right!’ at once. Mathias was felt really happy that all the kids were lined up and now seemed almost excited to listen to him and Nata both. Not that they really weren’t before, but he was almost certain now that there wouldn’t be any more trouble. (And that was good because trouble such as this wasn’t exactly the kind of trouble elementary children should be getting into.)

He then heard a quiet voice, “This day has been.. Interesting, nyet?” He blinked away from the commotion of the kids, to notice the shadow of a smile appearing on Natalia’s face. That… that was something he hadn’t expected to have seen…Natalia Arlovskaya was… was smiling? The Dane could feel himself grinning back in appreciation. It was so nice to have such a beautiful girl smiling at him. (Or at least trying to!) That he couldn’t help himself!

“Y-Yes! It has been! But it’s been really fun! I hope we can keep having fun even after lunch!” Mathias threw his hands into the air, “I’ve always wanted to see live jellyfish! I’ve heard this zoo actually does have a jellyfish exhibit! And I want to see the giraffes too!” Some of the kids began to bounce around him in excitement, “Yeah! Yeah! Let’s go eat so we can see the jellyfish and kitties and giraffes and polar bears and all the other animals!”

“I wanna see the meerkats!”

“They don’t have meerkats here silly!” A small voice chirped in response and Mathias laughed, before pulling the group together again and dragging everyone along, and skipping to go find the food stands. Mathias knew that some of the children had brought their own lunches, but he did know that Ignatius’ mom was pretty forgetful, so he probably didn’t have anything to eat, but he would probably just end up buying ice cream or something for all of them.

Yes, this day was definitely going to be tons of fun.

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Natalia put her hands on her hips as they all exclaimed about the animals. “I believe we should eat before visiting any more animals, da? Since nobody else is going to choose, I think we should all perhaps have broccoli and carrots. I’m sure they have some around here; this is a zoo after all….”

She smiled as cries of protest rang up and they begged her to just let them have hotdogs. “Are you certain? Spinach may be good as well…”

A small chuckle escaped her as they pulled her (and Mathias) to the nearest hot dog booth (which incidentally had burgers and pizza as well) and clamored to give their orders.

As they all sat down to eat their lunch, they were once again discussing which animals they wanted to see, which ones they (weren’t!) afraid of, how they wished they could live in the jungles and forests with animals instead of having to go to school.

Natalia sat on a bench with Mathias, quietly watching with a smile on her face as she ate her sandwich delicately. She found herself incredibly pleased, and, while he was incessantly annoying at times, she decided that she didn’t mind Mathias’ presence as much as she minded others’. it was somewhat of a surprise, but she’d managed to actually enjoy her day with another person that wasn’t family. It was an odd feeling for her, certainly. She wasn’t used to enjoying the company of anybody. Everyone was always very irritating.

Most definitely a good day.