We are full of stories to be told

Chapter Twenty One - The Lion King

Dans POV

"Ricky "The Rockhopper" is our resident rockhopper penguin here at ZSL London Zoo. Rockhoppers are distinguished by the irreverent crest of spiky yellow and black feathers that adorn their heads. They are among the world's smallest penguins, standing about 20 inches tall."

"Oh my god look at him. He's so cool!" Emily points at the little spiky headed penguin waddling towards the zookeeper who's giving the talk.

London Zoo is my favourite place in the whole city. I've seen this penguin presentation about 50 times in my life, I know every word of it basically off by heart, but it never gets old.

It never gets old for Emily either apparently.

I watch her as she takes in every word the girl is saying. She's definitely at her most beautiful like this. Chilled out, no make up and genuinely happy. I feel a smile creep on to my face as I think about her.

She turns to me and grabs my hand "Dan! Why aren't you more excited about this penguin?!"

I laugh. "I am, I promise!"

The talk goes on for another 10 minutes. When it's over we take a slow walk around the rest of the zoo.

"Can we go get some lunch?" I say, nodding towards the little cafe.

"Always thinking about your stomach" Emily rolls her eyes at me, but I don't even care, she's right, I'm starving.

"I promise we'll go visit the tigers after I eat"

We walk hand in hand into the cafe and I order a burger and a coffee. Emily grabs a cup of tea and we go find a seat outside in the sun.

"I'm really enjoying myself you know" she says, sipping on her tea and watching everyone walk by. "This was the best idea. Did you manage to think of this on your own or did Kyle have to talk you into this too?" she smirks slightly.

"Kyle didn't talk me into anything, thank you very much" I reply. "He just gave me a little nudge in the right direction. But I did come up with this on my own, because I know you oh so well" I smile.

"Are you done yet? I want to go see the animaaalllssss" she pulls on the sleeve of my jacket.

"Right come on then"

I take her hand again and we walk in the direction of the big cats.

It's so weird walking around here holding her hand. We've done this so many times but it feels different this time.

I feel an insane amount of pressure to not let her down or not have anything go wrong today, but I think I'm hiding it quite well.

London zoo is a big place. It takes us ten minutes to get to the lion enclosure. We stand and watch them for a while. There's not a lot of actual conversation, just a lot of "Awh how cute" and "Oh my god look!" from Emily.

There are two lion cubs playing with each other by the water, which makes Em giggle and start singing 'I just can't wait to be king' from the Lion King. Good lord she is adorable.

By the time we make it to the tiger enclosure, now called 'Tiger Territory' it's gotten quite dark and a bit cold.

Emily starts to shiver so I move behind her and wrap my arms around her, holding her close.

"Dan, I think I love them" she says as she watches the new born cubs run around and play fight with each other.

"I love you" I whisper in response. I don't know if she hears me because she doesn't respond, but it doesn't bother me. I kind of didn't want her to hear it.

All of a sudden it seems the heavens have opened and it starts to pour down with rain.

"Shit" she shouts. She pulls away from me but grabs my hand and pulls me to the nearest shelter. Not that it matters. She's soaked. I'm soaked. My hair is flat against my head and I can barely see through my glasses.

Emily wraps her arms round my waist and holds on to me.

"You look so cute right now" she looks up at me and giggles as she wipes the rain from my glasses.

I can't help myself anymore. This is the most cliche thing I could do at this point. But am I bothered? Nope.

I push her hair back off her face and kiss her.