Title: Polar Bears & Pick Up Lines (1/?)
Author: veggielover
Summary: Brendon has a content job at the zoo, but he enjoys it and gets to meet new people every day. He may have a bunch of cheesy pick up lines and a uniform, but that will get him farther than he knows.
Pairing: Brendon/Ryan
Genre: Romance (AU, OBVS.)
Rating: PG for now.
Disclaimer: Not real, not mine.
*This is an introduction to my new story that I'm kind of anxious to write, so I hope you all enjoy it. Reviews are loved!



Ryan strolled around the maze-like with two of his good friends. He loved days like that; clear blue skies, beaming sun, perfect white clouds, and smiling, energetic, and conversing people all around. Ryan didn’t necessarily like to be a part of the conversing group, but he enjoyed to observe them. Everyone was unique and different, which made the day all that more interesting.

“Let’s check out the aviary and then we’ll grab some lunch afterwards,” Spencer suggested, walking into the much cooler aviary, Ryan and Graham following close behind.

“I wonder if they have peacocks in here, those are my favorite and it would make my day. Those birds are awesome.” Graham smiled, looking up at the beautifully colored Macaw that flapped around in it’s Amazon styled cage.

“Nothing can beat the chimp from earlier, I think that was the sweetest kiss I ever got,” Ryan laughed, his voice dripping with excitement. He loved animals and that chimp had been absolutely adorable. He couldn’t wait to get a copy of the picture Spencer had taken.

The three friends traveled through the aviary, Graham disappointed when he found no peacocks, despite that there had been toucans, cockatiels, kiwis, ducks, falcons and hawks, owls, weavers, and orioles, there were no peacocks to be seen.

Ryan stuffed himself inside of the large ostrich egg model at the end of the building, and Spencer was sure to grab a picture, as well as a picture of Graham getting himself stuck in the egg. It took Spencer and Ryan both just get him out, while the little children could only laugh at the older boys.

“Ok, it’s official, I don’t know you.” Ryan smirked and ran from the bird house, waiting for his friends on the cement steps.

“Alright guys, how about we go to the Hungry Hippo for lunch?” Spencer suggested, receiving approval from both Graham and Ryan.

-

“I’ll take the pink penguin lemonade, the side koala salad, and the Hungry Hippo burger please,” Spencer ordered, the young waitress moving to take Ryan’s order.

“Um, I’ll have the tiger ice tea, and the porcupine past primavera,” He smiled, folding the menu up and handing it to the waitress, Krissy. Graham put in his order for the slither smoothie and gator grilled ribs and handed his menu back to Krissy as well, smiling at the attractive young waitress.

“So, where are we going after this?” Ryan asked, doodling on the paper placemat set on the table in front of him.

“The reptile house.”

“No way Spence! There are snakes in there! Snakes!” Ryan squirmed, shivering at the simple thought of the slithering creatures. They were wretched and had no purpose what so ever.

“Oh come on Ry, they’re in cages.”

“Snakes, Spence! Snakes!” He said dramatically, drawing a stick figure of himself screaming and a snake chasing him. “That’s what could happen! I’ll go check out the …polar bears or something.”

“Polar bears? They lay on ice, what fun is that?” Graham asked, sipping on his raspberry flavored smoothie.

“Because they’re not gross, wretched, slithering, ugly, venomous beast!” Ryan defended, screaming when he felt something tickle up his leg. He smacked Graham’s hand away and rubbed his forehead. “I’m going to chill with the polar bears, I’m not going near those darn snakes. Ever. One could get lose and like, bite me or something.” Both boys laughed at Ryan’s paranoia, but were soon distracted by the arrival of their meals.

After finishing up, they paid for their meals and left a generous tip for their waitress, Krissy.

Leaving the Hungry Hippo, the three boys split up, Graham and Spencer heading towards the reptile house, and Ryan heading towards the artic animal display. They all agreed to meet up in one hour at the large brass elephant in the middle of the zoo, next to the gift shop that Ryan had wanted to look at.

Ryan got distracted on his way to the exhibit, by the small children’s petting zoo. He couldn’t pass it up.

Smiling, he walked through the small gates, met by a mass of sheep, goats, chickens, and pigs. A few goats brushed up against him, one even trying to nip at his shirt. Laughing at the small chicken curled up with a pile of sheep, he took a handful of feed and fed the rest of the roaming chickens.

Ryan finished up at the petting zoo and started his way back to the artic animal display in the far corner of the actual zoo.

The ice covered walls had been perfectly painted to look like an igloo, and the floor made it look like you were stepping on broken chunks of ice. He was met with a large polar bear, standing about 7’ tall, which had been a victim of taxidermy. The room merged into a larger room with tank displays, some with seals, and others with polar bears.

Half of the view was underwater, the other half showing the surface as the ‘iceberg.’

He watched the seals swim by and do flips in front of the glass, in an almost synchronized fashion, and others were basking in the sun on the surface of the ‘iceberg.’

Ryan finally made it to the polar bears, seeing one swimming below and the other crawling out from behind the large ice rock.

He took a seat on the small, ‘theatre’ style bench and watched the lazy bears, knowing that he was much better off there than being in the creepy reptile house. There was no way he could be in the same room as those disgusting creatures, what on earth was there purpose anyways? They didn’t even have legs!

Observing the massive white bears, along with the people inside the room. One particular person had caught his eyes. He looked to be wearing a zoo uniform and chatting with a little girl about the polar bears in the tank. It was the boy’s smile that seemed to captivate Ryan’s attention the most. He was definitely cute, but they were nothing more but strangers.

At least he had thought so. The boy ended his conversation with the little girl and headed over towards Ryan, taking a seat beside him on the ‘theater’ styled bench. Ryan saw the zoo logo embedded on the chest of his beige polo and confirmed the boy, who looked to be around nineteen or so, to be working in the zoo.

“Hey, how much does a polar bear weigh?” The boy asked, leaning in closer to Ryan and turning his attention towards the new stranger.

Ryan wasn’t sure what kind of question that was, whether or not the boy was trying to trick him, but he decided to answer anyways. “Um, maybe like eight-hundred pounds or something? I’m not sure. How much?”

“Enough to break the ice,” The boy smiled cheekily and extended his hand, which seemed to be very well taken care, very clean nails and even looked to have perfectly clean cuticles, to Ryan. “My name’s Brendon.”

Ryan smiled shyly, a faint tint of pink creeping to his cheek as he shook the boy, Brendon’s, hand. “…Ryan.”