Dedicated to friendship. Mostly conversation :)

Penguin HQ (1950 hours)

Skipper was planning on sleeping early tonight. A tiring day awaited the leader as he was going to set off for a solo-mission the very next morning.

"Good luck, Skippah! Take care of yourself!" Private smiled warmly as he went to hug Skipper. He was melancholic, but he didn't want his superior to notice his sadness.

"Agreed." Kowalski chuckled and joined Skipper and the cadet.

"Yay! Group hug!" Rico leaped onto the trio, causing the team to tumble onto the ground with smiles.

"Whoa, boys, cut the sap! I'll only be gone for a week!"

"Uh huh. What about last time?" Kowalski folded his flippers with an expression which clearly told everyone that he's concerned about him.

Skipper's eyes widened, and couldn't think of anything to say.

"Just promise us... That you'll stay safe no matter what," Private took hold of Skipper's flipper.

"Of course," he smiled back at Private.

"I-"

"HELLO, SLAP HAPPY PENGUINS! It is I, your beloved king!" Julien hopped off the hatch and sashayed over to Skipper.

"Why are you laying on the floor?"

"RINGTAIL!" Skipper stood up. "You ruined the moment!"

"Ha! Of what? You trying to sunbathe indoors?"

Skipper groaned and pushed the king upstairs. "Wait!"

"What!?" the leader sighed irritatedly as he watched Julien buckle to his knees.

"Can you let me stay in your base for just one night?"

"Nope! No can do," Skipper was about the close the entrance to their HQ but Julien grabbed onto his foot.

"PLEASE! I can't stand being in the same room with Maurice and Mort!"

"Let. Go. Of. My. Foot!" Skipper kicked him away and began to close the door.

"We had a fight! I can't tolerate their faces!"

"Then cover your eyes with a blindfold!" Skipper closed the entrance and tried to shut Julien out, but he grabbed onto his flipper.

"PLEASE! I BEG OF YOU! JUST ONE NIGHT!"

"FINE! But promise me, don't interrupt my sleep!"

"Oh thank you, THANK YOU!" Julien hugged Skipper and bounced off the stairs.

"I hope I don't regret this..." Skipper exhaled with a frown.

Kowalski's Lab (2000 hours)

"So... What game are we playing tonight?" Julien asked loudly, earning a glare from Rico.

"Shh... Skippah is asleep!" Private whispered as he placed a piece of puzzle on the jigsaw puzzle board.

"Sleeping?! At 8?! I thought penguins never sleep!"

Immediately, Kowalski turned from his unfinished invention and looked at Julien with his mouth open.

"How'd you k-"

"Hey, do you suppose that you could, you know, turn on the radio and listen to a song or something?"

Kowalski sighed and continued with his work, annoyed. What was Skipper thinking, letting him into their base?

"Oh, I know! We could do the roleplaying thing! I will be the cute one, you will be the bossy one, the cute one will be the vomity one and the vomity one will be you!"

"Please, Julien... Just, let me finish putting this piece in its place..." Kowalski said. "Then we can do whatever it is that you want, okay?"

"Okay!" Julien gave Kowalski a thumbs-up and a wink and left his lab.

Penguin HQ (2005 hours)

"Hans?" Skipper raised a brow as he got into his fighting pose.

"Skippah... My fiend... It's so-o-o great to see you again!" Hans smirked as he attempted to punch Skipper. Skipper skilfully dodged the punch and kicked Hans in the gut. Hans looked like he was in pain. Of course he would, if Skipper would like to hurt somebody, he would show no mercy, but then Hans grinned. Skipper started to suspect that something was wrong, but it was too late for him to escape.

"Pen-gu-in." As the arch-nemesis of his talked, the scene morphed into the one when he was in Shanghai: The few mere seconds before he lost his memory some months ago.

"Blowhole!?" Skipper was taken aback.

"Was that an entrance or what? Not that you remember it, thanks to my-"

Mind Jacker.

With that, his memories were stolen. He stood there helplessly as his mind started to go blank, his body feeling numb, and him himself blacking out. Once again...

Skipper awoke with a start. He realised that he was having a nightmare, and guilt started forming in him. What if I break my promise? What if I fail my team? What if I... Lose to Blowhole?

"Eh... Skipper... You were sweating..." He heard a familiar voice calling him.

"Ringtail? What were you doing standing next to me?" Skipper asked.

The King shrugged randomly as he went to tinker with Skipper's mug. "You talk in your sleep, you know?"

Skipper blushed slightly at his comment. "Wait, what'd you hear?"

"I forgot,"

They both shared a little laugh at that. "Uh... You know, you can talk to me about anything... I remember your sentences being... not so positive."

"Well... If Maurice and Mort went to somewhere to do something unknown, got kidnapped by Clemson or something and lost to him in a battle... What would you think?"

"Well... If they are safe, that's all that matters."

"What if they get themselves injured?"

"I'll go rescue them!"

"Will you really now?"

"Yeah... I mean, without Maurice, I'll bore to death. And without Mort, I would have no one to kick."

"Did you forget about the argument you mentioned between you three already?"

Julien stared at Skipper blankly as the leader smiled.

"What did you mean to ask the Royal me?"

"Well... If you were to replace Maurice and Mort with me, Clemson to that crazy dolphin you once 'worked' for and 'you' with Kowalski, Rico and Private in the previous sentence, what would 'you' think?"

"All I know is that 'I' won't be angry at you," Julien pointed out as he put down Skipper's mug of coffee and walked next to him in his bunk.

"...Thank you for tonight, Ringtail. It helped a lot," Skipper smiled.

"You know what? Thank you, too, my flippered-friend. I'm going to make up with Maurice and Mort now. Night!" Julien hopped upstairs joyously with a simple goodbye, with Skipper drifting off to a peaceful slumber.

(1051 words)