SONG FIC, with lots of exposition and story dude! Okay so the song is a minor part of this whole thing dude. (Hey I'm not a good writer so cut me some slack, it's the spirit of the idea dude.)
Marlene was an average born in captivity river otter that was currently living in the Central Park Zoo in New York that had some not so average penguins that went on crazy adventures all the time and usually she wanted to get in on the fun, but lately she hasn't seen much of the penguins other then their "cute and cuddly" routine, they've been lying low for a while which was odd since they almost always broadcast everything they were going to do or at least the one named Private did that the most.
Now she was getting skittish at not having walked in on them when they were in the middle of something interesting, in fact every time she walked into their headquarters unannounced they were either not there or not doing anything at all.
Even Skipper seemed to be acting lazy and he was their leader that always kept his men and himself vigilant, so something just didn't sit right with the fact that they were lazy at all and seeing Skipper relax was unsettling to the extreme.
In fact it seemed kind of odd to watch the really smart penguin Kowalski not think about much or to be in the middle of an experiment, in fact he seemed to be tired for some reason as he was sleeping or silently staring at the ceiling if he was there at the headquarters whenever she walked in.
Rico the resident maniac was not even spitting out explosives or random dangerous items anywhere, he was even acting horrifyingly normal and that was something that didn't seem like Rico would do, Marlene was at least expecting some sort of martial arts or for him to pull out a chainsaw.
Private was the oddest yet, he wasn't talking, not a single word and he was the chattiest penguin of the group that was always willing to tell the truth or expunge some detail as to what's going on, but she got nothing except a "hi Marlene"; with a grunt from Rico on the side, from the guys as they went back to acting abnormal.
This was driving Marlene nuts as usually they were kicking ass and taking names, being suspicious of every little thing, plotting on doing something new or even fighting with the lemurs and even the lemurs didn't seem so interested in bugging the penguins lately.
The brown furred otter with white spots on her face, chest and right foot was walking in tight circles wondering what was wrong with the penguins, why weren't they training, why weren't they being stupidly aggressive in protecting the zoo granted that nothing has been happening lately, but that still didn't explain why they were not up to anything.
It was early morning and today the zookeeper Alice would make rounds to feed them though the zoo isn't opening today, so the animals had most of the day to themselves so Marlene would find out what was up with the adventurous quartet or at least get them to do something insane by pretending there was an emergency since they currently were to dull to be themselves.
After being fed Marlene hopped out of her exhibit and tried to go to the penguin habitat when Mort the young Mouse Lemur; he was small with white and light brown fur with large cute eyes, intercepted her and asked if she would help him with something, being the cute and naïve person that she was, she agreed and it would take her all day to get to the penguins headquarters but that's another story entirely.
"Operation: Overly Simplistic Distraction is a go, let's move out men and time to set up the bow for when the package arrives, but just in case Kowalski options." Skipper was the second to shortest and had a slightly flat head, he watched as Mort successfully diverted Marlene's attention.
"Everything seems to be in order Skipper and we'll have plenty of time to set it up, let's just hope they can keep it going all day without having to resort to using candy." The tallest Kowalski was like a bowling pin, he tapped a pencil to the clipboard he was holding to make sure they had everything they would need later this evening.
"Phew I didn't think I could handle another visit Skippah, Marlene looked pretty desperate for some attention from us and you know how we all feel about upsetting her." The shortest and youngest penguin Private was the most emotional and with what they've been hiding from their… 'Friend'… lately wore on his nerves.
"Yeah." With a small Mohawk made of feathers and a scar on left side of his face, Rico was the second to tallest and was a penguin of few words he had a slightly flat head as well; he tended to grunt everything he says.
It was much later in the evening when Marlene arrived at the penguins habitat and saw something odd on the floor when she went inside their HQ underneath the fish bowl in their habitat, it was a folded piece of paper with her picture on it and she opened it up to see some human language written in it and a crudely drawn map to the monkeys habitat.
Now she was on to something as she went to see Phil and Mason, to decipher what the note said by using the mute monkey who could read and that in sign language told the monkey who could talk what it said.
All it said was to go to the otter habitat and all will be revealed, Marlene quickly hurried back to her habitat which was next door to the penguins and when she walked up to it, she saw the four penguins waiting outside her habitat smiling at her.
"Okay guys what's going on?" Marlene was overly curious when Skipper without a word just walked up to her and wrapped a flipper around her paw and led her to a small table they set up in her habitat Skipper made a motion for her to sit down leaving her to stand there alone, when Private pulled up a rock for her to sit on and she did so while looking confused.
Rico walked up to the table placing a few scented candles on it before coughing up his flamethrower and lighting them expertly with minute burst of flames, then he swallowed his flamethrower and proceeded to waddle away.
Marlene was beginning to feel very unusual as there was no one else seated at the table but her in the candle light in the moonlit evening, but then a floodlight came on in the rocky outcropping of her habitat showing Skipper with a guitar, Rico was sitting behind him with some drums, Kowalski had a electronic keyboard and Private was standing to the side of Skipper humming to himself with a microphone.
"Guys what is all…" She was silenced by Skipper holding up a flipper and then he started tuning his guitar before he started playing followed by Rico on the drums, Kowalksi adding whatever on his keyboard and it quickly became obvious that Private was the singer and Skipper was the his back up singer, Kowalski also added his own voice in tune where appropriate with Privates and Skippers voices or when he was crooning with Rico.
Look around your world pretty baby. (The music is Roll to Me, Del Amitri)
Is it everything you hoped it'd be?
The wrong place, the wrong situation.
The right time, to stroll to me.
Stroll to me.
Look into your heart pretty baby.
Is it aching with some aimless need?
Is there something wrong and you can't put your flipper on it.
Right then, stroll to me.
And I don't think we have ever seen a soul so in despair.
So if you want to talk the night through. (Crooning from Rico and Kowalski added here)
Guess who will be there?
So don't try to deny it pretty baby.
You've been down so long you can hardly see.
When your life's been stalled and it won't stop raining.
It's the right time to stroll to me.
Stroll to me.
Stroll to me.
And I don't think we have ever seen a soul so in despair.
So if you want to talk the night through. (Crooning from Rico and Kowalski again)
Guess when we'll be there?
So look around your world pretty baby.
Is it everything you hoped it'd be?
The wrong place, the wrong situation.
The right time, to stroll to me.
The right time, to stroll to me.
The right time, to stroll to meeeeeeeoooooooohhhh. (Even Rico managed the 'meoohh')
When they finished playing Marlene was crying as she stood up clapping, the penguins were smiling and then they moved their instruments out of the way to show that there was a bouquet of oysters on half-shells arranged so that it would spell 'Marlene' that caused her to burst even more into happy tears.
"Well Marlene I'd hate to tell you this after we went through all the trouble with rehearsing this with the instruments and getting Rogers help with the vocals, but you can't have me..." When Skipper said this Marlene stopped crying in happiness and just stared at him with a blank face, it was as if you could hear her heart almost breaking right there when he said that, but what he said next was quite surprising.
"Unless you're willing to have Kowalski, Private and Rico too, we're a team and you just can't break us up, I hope you can understand Marlene begin Operation: Otter Devotion." Skipper said while motioning Private over to Marlene who quickly gave her a normal kiss on the lips before she could respond to what she had heard and that stunned her quite for a few minutes considering that was probably Privates first real kiss and it left him blushing cutely.
Then Kowalski came over being entirely nervous and gave shy gentle kiss that left her tingling, he wasn't used to not over thinking the situation so this was kind of spontaneous for him.
Then it was Rico, he just gave her a heartfelt hug and it was the best he could do considering the circumstances that he was sensitive to this kind of stuff and Marlene could accept that, but then he surprised her when he gave her a peck on the cheek and then his cheeks quickly swelled up with vomit, which he quickly went to release in the lemur's habitat and left Marlene dazed and confused.
Then Skipper acting so full of himself walked straight up to Marlene waggled his brow and wrapped a flipper around her, then unceremoniously dipped her while giving her a hot beaked kiss that left her limp and on the ground, where Skipper primarily dropped her with a chuckle.
"Now that men is how you knock a lady off her feet." Skipper said while motioning to Marlene on the floor.
"..." Marlene was incredibly speechless; she didn't believe she was all that attractive or that this was happening as she was helped up by a smiling Private who was still blushing profusely.
"If you want to know, you're our April o' Neil to us being your Leonardo, Donatello, Raphael and Michelangelo, only you're more important to us then that Marlene." Kowalski stated as he pulled out his clipboard to do a calculation on how well she was taking all this and it turned out pretty good if he remembered to carry the two right.
Marlene didn't know who those people were but it sounded like there was an interesting story there, she'd have to ask about that later.
"Kowalski that's partially top secret information you idiot." Skipper slapped Kowalski to the back of the head with his right flipper.
"What does it matter Skippah, your just going to ask Marlene to be a part of the team anyway right? Whoops." Private said before covering his beak with a squeak when he got a glare from Skipper, causing Marlene to gasp in shock and turn to Skipper who gave a sigh and a wry smile.
"Why of course Private, she's smart like Kowalski, she's a tad insane like Rico especially when we took her to the park one time but that kind of thing only happens when it's daylight outside and she can clearly see the wide open spaces; we'll work on it, she's a little overly emotional like you Private and most of all I'd think she'd make a good leader should anything ever happen to me. So cute and naïve, would you like to spend some quality time with us gentlemen and maybe join the team? We've devoted a lot of time to all this, just for you Marlene." Marlene smiled brightly at that towards Skipper and that was when Rico came back wiping chunks of whatever he had on his beak away to give a cheerful grunt.
"You…. you really mean that… aw guys…. I don't know what to say… this is… this is the sweetest thing you've ever done for me… of course." Marlene was almost too choked up to think straight as she gave them a heartwarming group hug; causing Rico to gag a bit, though she was going to get Skipper back for the insane and emotional comments.
"But wait…. how did you manage to get the lemurs; especially Julien, to leave you alone?" Marlene said with a bit of wonderment; after she had finally managed to collect herself, as to what could keep the king of mass annoyance from blowing this plan up in the penguin's faces before it even got off the ground.
"Oh simple we told Mort and Maurice to take Julien clubbing over at the flamingo habitat for tonight; they all owed us a few… favors if you will, we all have this whole night to ourselves and if you ever need any training just ask, we're always willing to help you with anything at all." Skipper finished with cheekily, though Marlene was a bit wary when he narrowed his eyes about the favors part.
"Can you please return to being your usual selves after this? I miss all your crazy antics and I'd be glad to join you in whatever it is you're going to do next, this was kind of over the top and I don't expect to be treated like this all the time." Marlene said quietly in a gentle tone, while they brought her some oysters and fish to the table.
"Of course not Marlene." Three of the penguins replied at the same time and Rico gave a grunt of agreement, seeing as his stomach would flip a lot if he had to act like that all the time he'd probably accidentally hurt Marlene by upchucking something unpleasant.
"We'll probably just set aside maybe one day in the three hundred and sixty five point… or we could celebrate your birthday with a bit more enthusiasm." Kowalski quickly said putting away his pencil and clipboard while rubbing his head sheepishly, getting a giggle from Marlene.
Sure it was going to be a tad difficult balancing her time with the four guys that she's known for a while, however she'd never expected that they all loved her in quite this way and this brought up the fact that she had to make sure they all weren't getting too lazy or distracted if they are going to be used having her around all the time now, after all they did spend most of a week preparing this happy little surprise to woo her and it was quite successful at that.
It did help that dinner was on them at Marlene's own habitat, in the moonlight, with a guitar; her name in oysters on half shells and the scented candles in particular was a nice touch on a romantic evening with all the guys making her feel special since they went through all the trouble to get all this stuff together.
Elsewhere…
What is love… baby don't hurt me… don't hurt me… no more…
Baby don't hurt me… don't hurt me… no more…
The three lemurs known as Mort, Maurice an Aye-aye and (self-proclaimed as far as anyone knows) King Julien the ring-tailed lemur started to slowly turn around from having their backs turned to everyone while bobbing their heads to the music.
Pinky the flamingo was their adding her voice to the music that was playing from the boom box set up off to the side of the flamingo's habitat, it was probably one of the best ideas to keep Juliens distracted that the penguins have ever had.
END OF STORY DUDE.
Disclaimer: This is the first time I actually did something interesting dude! I don't own Penguins of Madagascar, Roll to Me (slightly modified dude) by Del Amitri and What Is Love by Haddaway dude(I hope I got everything right dude).