Nova smiles and leans into Zev. Eventually though-

"We should go find the lions?"

"The aye-ayes were on the way through, yes?"

"Nope! Lions first! And you say 'find' like you're not at the zoo with people who know the layout like the back of our hands!"

"Except for the margay enclosure. The first trick to finding the margay is finding the enclosure. I have no idea how it keeps being hidden."

"What's a margay?" Zev asks, but obediently follows Ant. 

"Small South American cat, very similar to an ocelot."

Zev stops in his tracks, eyes huge. 

"Dios mío, tengo que verlos de inmediato o tal vez nunca me recupere."

"Eso es difícil cuando no podemos encontrarlos."

"And now we're speaking in tongues!"

Zev winks at Lan. "Nos vamos a meter en problemas si seguimos haciendo esto."

"Probablemente."

"Tja, om vi talar i tungor..."

"If you're not careful, Ira's gonna confuse us all by refusing to speak in anything but Japanese."

Zev laughs. "My deepest apologies, but ocelots and ocelot-alike were mentioned and I'm afraid I forgot how to speak English."

"It's okay. I understand more of languages than I speak of them. And to be fair, ocelots and margays are very exciting."

But in the meantime: Lions!

While they walk to them, Zev takes a moment to check in with Nova. 

"You all right? Not too overwhelmed?"

"M'okay," Nova assures him, smiling.

Zev kisses his cheek. "Good. Tell me if you are, okay? I won't have you being scared again."

He nods. "I will."

Zev smiles, and tucks himself into Nova again. "I love you," he says. 

And then he loops an arm around Nova, to pull him after the others.

He's still not good at saying that back, but he squeezes Zev a little bit.

Lions! With teenage-looking cubs playing around!

Zev absolutely does not press himself as close to the cage as legality will allow, just because he's so amazed by the creatures.

Nova watches Zev as much as he watches the lions, smiling fondly.

"Lions are really cool," Ant says as they watch. "The females do pretty much all of the hunting."

Zev watches as a mother playfully knocks her cub down, and sticks her face into his belly. 

He turns back to the others grinning with wide, amazed eyes.