Chapter Text
For his whole life, Hinata Shouyou loved animals.
He had piles of stuffed animals (his favorite being a stuffed lion he had since birth that he called Bubba), his family had a golden retriever named Kuma (because when Hinata was younger, he thought she was a bear, and called her as such) and he fed the neighborhood stray cats pieces of his sandwich from his lunch.
He always wanted to take care of them, he always wanted to go to the zoo and feed the giraffes and stop and pet everyone’s dog. He decided when he was very young that he wanted to be a zoologist, work in a zoo with exotic animals, or maybe be a veterinarian to help heal animals who had been hurt.
He studied really hard and got into the zoology program at Tokyo University, and for his internship, worked at Tokyo Zoo in the Elephant Enclosure.
It wasn’t his first choice, to be honest. He had wanted to work with the birds, or with the big cats, but elephants weren’t so bad. He had studied up on them extensively for his internship, buying books upon books about Asian elephants, highlighting passages and placing sticky notes. It was a little intimidating at first, seeing how big they were compared to him, but his supervisor, Sugawara, informed him that the elephants really were gentle giants.
A majority of his internship was watching Sugawara feed the elephants, wash them, and making sure they were healthy and happy. He helped with paperwork and cleaning up their enclosure (which was not the fun part of the job), and towards the end, he got to interact with one of the elephants, Mieko, who he had helped supervise when she had gone into the zoo’s breeding program, and was now expecting her first calf.
He graduated with his degree, and was asked to come back and work in the elephant enclosure permanently. Of course, he agreed.
When he came back, Sugawara told him he would be taking care of a baby elephant for his next assignment.
In the time he was gone (finishing up extra classes and even taking a course on Asian wildlife), Mieko had given birth to her calf. Nana was the newest addition to the zoo, getting her name from the fact that she was the seventh elephant born in captivity at Tokyo Zoo. She was tiny and cute and Hinata loved her.
The first day he had been introduced to her, her mother was standing nearby, content to eat with Nana weaving her way between her legs, making excited noises.
Sugawara was with him, of course, reintroducing Hinata to the mother, who snuffled him with her trunk and brought it down a couple times to pat and ruffle his hair, even curling her trunk around his arm when Hinata gave her a hug in greeting. Mieko went back to eating, and then Hinata met Nana.
Who greeted him by head-butting him in the stomach and sending him flat on his ass.
Nana flopped happily across his lap, braying loudly, and Hinata laughed, stroking the leathery skin of her head.
Hinata spent every day observing Nana, playing with her and seeing how she reacted to different foods. She really liked to eat fruit, and would head butt him in excitement whenever he brought in a platter for the elephants to snack on.
It was great, working at the zoo. Hinata loved every minute of it, and he jumped out of bed every morning with a smile knowing that he would get to go see Nana and Mieko.
“Bye bye, Pickles!” Hinata called to his cat, who was lounging on the couch, “See you later tonight!”
-x-
“Hinata, you’re late again.”
“Sorry Sawamura-san, I’m sorry! There was a really cute dog on the way, and then there was a stray cat who was hungry so I fed it some of my sandwich, and then there was another cute dog-”
“Alright, alright,” Sawamura stopped him, “You do this every morning. You don’t have to pet every dog or feed every cat. I can only tell Ukai that you stop and greet every animal so many times…”
Hinata looked at Sawamura like he was crazy, and he laughed, ruffling Hinata’s hair.
“Alright, get to work. Suga is waiting for you.”
“Okay!” Hinata waved to his boss, “Good luck today, Sawamura-san!”
“Same to you, Hinata!” he called, watching the excited red-head dash to the elephant enclosure. “What an interesting kid.”
-x-
“Good morning, Kenma!” Hinata called to his friend, who was currently carrying the breakfast for the tigers.
“Morning, Shouyou.” he replied, shifting his grip on his box so he could grab his keys.
“Say hi to the tigers and Kuroo for me!” Hinata shouted as he waved goodbye. He greeted Tanaka, who was on his way to the gorilla enclosure, to Nishinoya who was on his way to the exotic birds. Asahi had two armfuls of bamboo for the pandas, and Ennoshita, Narita, and Kinoshita on their way to the polar exhibit.
“Oh, there you are, Hinata!” Sugawara smiled when he entered their little office, Hinata bowing.
“I’m sorry for being late, Sugawara-san!” Hinata apologized, “I’ll make it up to you!”
“You sure will,” Sugawara presented Hinata with a folder, “By completing all your paperwork before you go take care of the elephants.” Hinata groaned, pouting at his supervisor.
“Sugawara-san, that’s just not fair at all!” Sugawara laughed, smiling knowingly.
“Well, think of it as an incentive to finish your paperwork faster. I have to get the elephants their breakfast, so get to work!”
“Yes sir,” Hinata grumbled, flipping open the folder and grabbing a pen, smiling when Sugawara ruffled his hair.
-x-
As soon as Hinata finished his paperwork, he was rushing out to the enclosure, eager to play with Nana and Mieko.
“Nana!” he called, looking around for his tiny elephant companion. Mieko trudged over to him to give him a welcoming hug with her trunk, making him laugh. “Good morning, Mieko! Did you sleep well?” he asked, hugging her trunk. She gave him a couple soft snuffles in reply, and he looked around some more. “Where’s Nana?” he asked, then glanced around, finding the baby elephant closer to the fences than normal.
“Nana!” he called again, raising an eyebrow when she didn’t come barreling towards him. He approached the calf, his eyes widening in shock when he saw what she was so enamored with.
There was a child inside the elephant enclosure.