Welcome to In Our World Book 6! Time to get back to that series! I hope you enjoyed the break, as it gave me time to reconstruct this story from scratch. Now if you haven't read any of the other stores in this series, please see the timeline on my bio.
It's a lot of reading, but without that, this won't make any sense. Also as usual, italicized words mean I'm quoting someone, a "*" means there are notes at the bottom, and "(P)" means the perspective has changed. Now let's get going!
CHAPTER 1 – A Familial Evening
(P in 3rd person) It was two months since the marriage of Matthew and Emily, which happened three months after they had started dating. While some may say that was quick, for them it was not. For both Matthew and Emily, every moment not being wed was torture.
Of course, when Matthew proposed, Emily told the story of how a mysterious Otter had come to her, Skipper, and Marlene while they were still at the aquarium. * She had been frightened that because she hadn't told Matthew of her prophecy, that he would rescind his proposal. But, of course, he did not, as they were now happily married.
They did not yet have a child on the way though. They didn't know why, but suspected they had mistimed the chance for that to happen when they were on their honeymoon. It was hard to break away from the rest of the group, so they hadn't tried since, despite Matthew's powers to change things around.
Today though, they had all used Matthew's power. The young couple wanted to perform together, so they asked Skipper and Marlene if that would be ok. They agreed, but only if Matthew did the same for them and their children. They obviously obliged.
(P to me) "Today was a great day," I said. We had all just finished our last performance for the day and the zoo was now closing. We were all waving goodnight to the exiting guests.
"It really was a great day. I'm so glad you can make it so we can perform together," Emily said to me, before we shared a kiss. "Copyright control is an interesting concept," Kowalski noted. He had continued to experiment with my abilities and pretty much anything was up for grabs.
"I owe Anna and Sam for turning me onto that power. Those two rascals," I said, chuckling. "They're exactly the combination you'd expect from Skipper and Marlene. I hope we have the same luck someday," Emily said.
"You want our future child to be mischievous? Because you are somewhat," I said to her. "Well, that is your fault honey," he said to me. "Hey, it was your idea," I said to her.
"That made our honeymoon all the more fun though," Emily said happily to me, before we shared a kiss.
Emily was right, I couldn't deny that fact. After we had, well, fulfilled the rest of her prophecy, we were crazy for each other even more. She asked me if I could give us more pep for activities to do.
Of course, we had the honeymoon here, not back in my home world. The fans had actually almost ruined the wedding day. Somehow, they had heard whispers somewhere and, thanks to the Internet, news spread around fast.
We had a wedding in both worlds too, since we would have to make our marriage official in both places. We had thought of the idea of a wedding just here, but we didn't know what it would do to my family and friends from my world, so we opted against it.
So we picked an interesting venue. Emily and I both wanted the perfect place, yet to be far away from fans. Kowalski offered the suggestion of having the wedding in space, but after I had seen Gravity in 2013, that was the last thing I wanted to do. **
So we settled on a beautiful little island in the Pacific. It took some reassuring from the animals that lived there that we would not trash the island, and all our guests were especially careful too. So everything went perfectly.
Emily and I wanted to continue the tropical theme though, despite having it in the zoo here. So our honeymoon was in Hawaii, which was fun. There were lots of activities to do, like swimming, surfing, and more.
Some of Emily's request hadn't completely faded away though. It was a little strange for that, but it was fun, as we loved being crazy for each other. Though not being able to sneak away was annoying, it was fine to not have a child immediately.
It gave us time to be just a young newlywed couple, with no major responsibilities. Especially because we lived in the zoo. The only major responsibilities we had were making sure no problems with villains or Alice's mishaps happened. And nothing had happened in awhile either.
"Do you think they had a good day too?" Emily asked me, speaking of everyone over at the Otter habitat. Besides Skipper and Marlene asking us to be together in return, I changed the children as well.
"I think so. They all looked really happy. I saw them all share many family hugs," I said to her, before we shared a kiss of our own. "Are you going to listen in on their conversation?" Emily asked me.
I chuckled. "You go ahead and listen in on your sister," I said to her. "Is it still weird to be married to the sister of a TV character?" Emily asked me. "It is. But I don't care my love," I said happily to her, before we shared another kiss.
(P to Marlene) "Today was such a great day!" I exclaimed happily as we were waving goodbye to the guests. The bell had just started to ring so Alice was attempting to get rid of them so she could go home.
"It really was Marlene," Skipper said to me, kissing me. We both then hugged the children, so glad we had been with each other today as a family. "We're glad too," Annabelle said to us all. "You kind of owe us for this," Samuel said, chuckling.
"How so?" Skipper asked him. "Without us telling Uncle Matthew… Ok, that's still weird," Annabelle said. "It's weird for us too honey. After all, he watched us for years and we didn't even know it," I said to her.
The twins laughed at us, causing Skipper and I to blush. "That is true Mom. At least he has control and not someone who wants to possibly separate us," Samuel said happily. We all shared another hug, so glad to be with each other.
"Back to what I was saying, without us telling Uncle Matthew to just try and experiment, we wouldn't be able to do a lot of things we now can," Annabelle said happily to us. "Like perform together or disguise ourselves in his world," Samuel added.
"Performing together is so great. Never did I think I would be able to perform with my husband and my little boy," I said happily. *** I gave Skipper a big kiss and gave Samuel a little one on his head, making him blush and giggle. I did the same to Annabelle, because I loved her too.
"Having paws, fur, and teeth is weird though," Samuel said. "Speak for yourself, featherhead," Annabelle said, teasing her brother. "Fur-face," Samuel said, teasing right back. Skipper and I chuckled. It was always fun to see the children act like children. They acted like they were older, but deep down they were always children.
Matthew or Emily must have been listening in on our conversation again because Annabelle was turned into a Penguin. "Now who's the featherhead," Samuel said, laughing. "Darn it. Well, you're still an Otter right now," she said.
"For now. Soon Dad and I will be back to looking like Penguins," Samuel said happily. Annabelle was returned to being an Otter as he said that. "Ah, that's much better," Annabelle said happily, poking her claws out for a moment before suppressing them.
Alice hadn't noticed Annabelle's sudden change, and neither had any of the exiting guests. Matthew had probably diverted their attention away from the Otter habitat while he changed Annabelle back and forth. Skipper and I would both tell him he did well with his strategy.
I gave Skipper a loving kiss. "I miss your beak again," I said sadly. Whenever Skipper or I were switched, I always missed the magic of my lips and his beak kissing. I looked into Skipper's eyes and he felt the same way I did.
Just then though, we all saw Alice locking up the zoo for the night. We were free to do whatever we wanted again. We all eagerly headed back to the Penguin habitat to see how everyone's day was.
"How was your day sis?" I asked Emily. "It was great," she said happily, before she and Matthew shared a kiss. Seeing them share their love made me glad for Emily's prophecy. We both had perfect husbands.
"In return Marlene, how was your day?" Matthew asked me. "It was great. Thanks for making it so we could perform together as a family," I said to him, giving Skipper a kiss and sharing a hug with him and the children.
"Can we go back to being Penguins now? I miss my feathers," Samuel said to Matthew. He chuckled. "And as you said Marlene, you miss kissing Skipper's beak," Emily said to me. "I do," I answered truthfully, yet blushing.
(P to Emily) "I miss having my lips. A beak is a little strange," I said to Matthew. He laughed. "I still think that, even though I'm a Penguin pretty much all the time now," he said to me.
I laughed at him. "Well it's weird for me when I'm a Penguin too. After all, I was born an Otter," I said to him. Right as I was about to share a hug and kiss with him, he changed us all back to normal.
I loved him so much. He was so wonderful. He cherished me, respected me, and truly loved me. He was everything I could ask for. If only we had a child on the way as well. Then our lives would be complete.
"So what do we do with the rest of the day?" Kowalski asked us all after a moment. "I've got an idea, at least for Skipper and I," Marlene said. "What is it?" I asked her. She blushed. "I can't believe I'm admitting this, but I'm a little jealous of your date nights," she said to us.
Matthew and I laughed, while the children snickered at their parents. "Of course. That's because we were dating," I said to her, making the blush on her face get a darker shade of red.
"Do you want us to watch the kids for you tonight?" Matthew asked them. "You'd do that for us?" Marlene asked him. "Of course. I'd be glad to help out my, technically, brother and sister," Matthew answered.
Marlene practically jumped for joy. "Thank you so much! We haven't had a date night in a long time," she said happily. "It's no trouble at all you two," Matthew said to them.
He then turned them into humans so they could go walk around New York and enjoy a dinner at a restaurant. He also gave them some cash so they could pay for their meal. "Oh, I almost forgot," Matthew said, before all our rings appeared on our digits.
I gave him a kiss, so glad he put our wedding rings back on us. During the day we ha to hide them in the vault where no one could get at them, especially Alice. It would certainly launch an investigation as to why the Penguins and Otters had rings. After they said goodbye to their children for a few minutes, they left.
"Can we please spy on them?" they asked Matthew. He chuckled. "Are you sure you want to do that? You might hear some strange things," Matthew said to them. We both knew we weren't going to let them be spied on anyway, but this was fun.
"What strange things?" Annabelle asked, curious. "Well, for one thing, they might be talking about how to get us to give you a cousin," I said to them. "Oh. Well then never mind. I really don't want to learn how that happens," Samuel said.
Matthew and I silently chuckled, since we knew how. "Well what do you want to do instead?" I asked them. Suddenly, an explosion came from Julien's place. The children sighed. "Fix Julien's smoothie maker. Again," Annabelle said. "Well let's go make your parents proud," I said to her, before we headed over to see what was wrong.
That's where I'll end this chapter. I haven't gotten to my main point, but rest assured, it will reveal itself soon enough. Please review this chapter. I have just two notes today.
* Referencing back to "Pengotters: The Early Months."
** If you've seen that movie, you know why going to space is something they did not want to do.
*** If you remember Pengotters: The Early Months, you remember that they actually did perform together at the aquarium. Marlene means she's glad she can do that at home if she wants to.