Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Brittany Spaniel had worked her whole life for this. The zoo practically was her life; neat and ordered, carefully managed, nothing out of its place.

She sat at her desk, perfectly content. All of the enclosures had been checked and the animals fed. Now she was free to do the paperwork, the most relaxing part of her day. Brittany signed another dotted line. Picking up the sheet she placed it on top of the others, moving it to ensure that all of the corners lined up. Nice and orderly. She picked up the next piece of paper.

A small tapping noise pulled her from her thoughts.

Reluctantly, Brittany raised her eyes from the form in front of her. A peacock had wandered into her office, and was now scratching curiously at the floorboards. Suppressing a sigh, the woman put down her pen and calmly stood up from her desk. She took a slow step towards the bird, with all the patience of a hunting dog stalking its prey.

The peacock fled, squawking at the top of its lungs.

An hour later, Brittany (considerably more disheveled than she had been before) stood by the gate to the peacock enclosure after carefully shepherding the fowl back in. She checked for a third time that it had been locked correctly, and then turned away. She was about to head back to her office before she thought better of it, and started a loop of the zoo. She couldn't stand it if any nonsense had been going on behind her back.

All of the meerkats were in their correct place. Nothing was going on with the hyenas, and the parrot (a red macaw, and the favourite of many zoogoers) was asleep.

She was probably overreacting Brittany thought to herself as she continued to check the exhibits. The zoo was closed by now, so what were the chances anyone had snuck in? And peacocks were notoriously difficult to house; it had probably gotten out on its own.

Still, this wasn't the first time something like this had happened.

Brittany continued to regard each enclosure with suspicion as she passed them by, making sure that none of the other animals had gotten loose.

She had made it almost the whole way around the zoo without incident now, and Brittany had very nearly convinced herself that she had been mistaken about what happened.

A moment later however, her fears were all but proven as she turned a corner, suddenly able to see the silhouette outlined in front of the next cage she had to check.

The lion cage.

"Hey guys! Bubs here, back with another of my famous zoo pranks. Today, we're going to- shit."

He lowered the camera as he saw the woman approaching him, the hair billowing out behind her looking like the steam from a train. A fast one.

Bubs pulled his leg down from the latch of the gate and turned to run, but a firm hand gripped his shoulder. Sheepishly, the youtuber turned around to face the one who'd caught him.

Brittany was livid. This idiot was back, letting out her animals and disrupting her perfectly ordered zoo. Even his choice of clothes offended her- she didn't even think she had the words to describe what he was wearing. Garish and lewd would be her best attempt.

"What are you doing here? You're supposed to be banned," she asked forcefully. Bubs did not immediately respond, looking uncomfortable. Brittany glared at him, and decided to elaborate on her previous statement.
"That means that you're not allowed in the zoo," she clarified ",so what are you doing here?"

The man currently in front of her, tripping over his words as he tried to explain his reasons for being in the zoo, was Brittany's biggest problem at the moment. Though she doubted it was what he'd been christened as, he insisted that his name was 'Bubs Nubby', and if that wasn't proof enough of his idiocy she didn't know what was. There was further proof though; for the past month he had been breaking into the zoo at least twice a week to cause havoc and, while likely unintentionally, wreck Brittany's peace. It was a wonder no-one had gotten hurt yet.

"Bubs-" she cut him off, bored of his repetitive and clearly untrue excuses "I don't care if it's your job. My job is to run this zoo, and as such I must remind you that you are banned."

Bubs swallowed and then, nervously eyeing the zookeeper in front of him, shut up (deciding it to be the safer option). The blonde woman in front of him was a full head below his height, but that didn't mean he was any less intimidated. He would film something else today.

Brittany watched the YouTuber's retreating back, too irritated to even feel relief that he was going. Why did this imbecile consistently feel the need to cause mischief in her zoo?

But, regardless, there were things to be done and it was getting dark. Brittany checked that the main zoo gates were locked (it wouldn't do for any mischievous bugs bunny lookalikes to get in) and made her way home. The small cottage she lived in was specifically for the zookeeper, and was located on the edge of the zoo grounds. As she unlocked the door, a loud yowling noise greeted Brittany's ears.

Doberman was her cat, a rather angry ginger stray that she had found a few years ago. She had treated his wounds -she still never knew where those had come from, although she often wondered- and he had never wanted to leave since then, even following her when she moved after accomplishing her dream of buying the long-closed city zoo. In spite of finding a comfortable home though, the animal remained rather angry.

Brittany smiled at the familiar noise, and set about with her regular tasks- after serving Doberman his evening meal and apologising for the delay, of course.

Chapter Text

Brittany woke up the next morning to paws on her face and screeching in her ears. After getting some breakfast for Doberman and for herself, she began, as always, to get ready for the day.

An outfit was plucked from her wardrobe (sensible and practical, as per usual) , and then Brittany could begin the arduous task of styling her hair. While it was true that she tended to adopt a no-nonsense style for her everyday wear, hair was the one exception.

An hour (and half a can of hairspray) later, Brittany was ready to start her day. The zoo would be opening soon.

As she was preparing to start her day, Brittany's phone let out a small dinging noise. She picked it up, and was surprised to see a YouTube notification- she never really used the app, finding it ridiculous to distract herself when she had things to do.

She was about to swipe it away when she paused, thumb hovering awkwardly above the screen. The pointed white hair of the shocked looking youtuber in the thumbnail looked somewhat familiar.

Scowling a little, Brittany clicked onto the video and, from there, visited the channel.

xXbubznubz69Xx- trust someone like him to have a username that nonsensical. The last video uploaded was a clip from yesterday, a peacock running shreiking into the zoo. At the memory of the event Brittany felt anger bubbling to the surface, and had to take a moment to ground herself.

The troublemaker had seemed suitably worried when she scolded him the night before. Perhaps, finally, he would move on and her zoo would be free from his 'pranks'. She could hope.

Brittany scratched Doberman behind the ears and left the house, as happy to get to work as she always was. It had taken so much effort but this was really an actual, functioning zoo- her zoo. She never would have dreamed a few years ago that she would finally get her dream job, and get it all properly working.

She was so proud of this zoo. She did not appreciate ridiculous YouTubers sneaking in and ruining her perfect life.

Brittany made her way through the zoo, checking that nothing was broken and no animals were injured. She added food to all of the enclosures in need of some- had it really been a week since she'd fed the snakes? She really did love this job, but there was no denying that it kept her busy.

Eventually, she made her way to the small building where her office was located and settled down once again for some calming paperwork.

The end of the day came, and Brittany made her way home after closing the zoo. Aside from a small child who had dropped their hat into an enclosure, nothing out of the ordinary had happened today- no YouTubers either, thank goodness.

Back in her small cottage at the edge of the zoo Brittany could finally relax. After feeding Doberman and, eventually, herself, she sat down with a cup of tea to watch something, and went to bed.

The next day was similarly uneventful- Brittany was rather pleased. It seemed that her finally being firm with the ridiculous trespasser of the days prior had payed off as he still hadn't returned, not even as a customer.

That evening, she cleaned out the parrot's enclosure. It was hard work, and the novelty of the bird asking her how it was going had worn off after the first ten minutes of incessant questioning. Brittany didn't even notice that night was falling until she couldn't see the broom in front of her.

Finishing up, the woman made sure to lock the parrot in for the night. After putting her cleaning materials back in the shed she made her way home, occasionally glancing up at the sky. It was dark but completely cloudless, a seemingly endless veil of stars stretching over the zoo's perimeter and out to the city.

As beautiful as it was, the clear night was rather cold, and Brittany walked a little faster in her haste to get home. Despite the stars the night was dark, and it was starting to feel quite ominous.

The inviting glow of the porch light clicked on as Brittany approached. She opened the door hurriedly and stepped inside, acting as pleased at her reunion with Doberman as he did upset.

As she rubbed the cats ears (against his many, loud protests) Brittany started to get ready for the night. She had just began the arduous process of taking her hair down, when a knock sounded at the door- the one facing into the zoo.

Brittany had gotten up and began to approach the door when it was knocked again, decidedly more urgently this time.

As the door swung open, Brittany did her best not to gape at the scene on her step.

Bubs stood there, holding his arm oddly and looking rather desperate. Brittany had just opened her mouth to inquire what on earth he was doing at her home, when the rest of what was odd hit her.

There were large ladders in the man's fishnet tights, and his crop top was ripped. He was clearly covered in scratches, the injury in his arm the worst one.

Before she could say anything the youtuber began to speak, unable to meet her eyes.

"I'm sorry, I know you don't want me here. I just... Didn't know where else to go. I need help. Please."