This is in response to the following prompt at the Glee-Kink-Meme:
So, Kurt and Dave are penguins. Dave is a big emperor penguin and Kurt is a little pebble penguin and they live in some kind of big zoo together.
When mating season comes around, the zoo gets lots of coverage, because it's always a really heart-warming news story. Kurt builds up a little pebble nest, and everyone thinks that he's making it for Brittany, another pebble penguin. Dave stores lots of fish, and everyone thinks it's for Santana, a female emperor penguin. Instead, Kurt and Dave live in a little pebble nest together and eat fish. They refuse to mate with any of the other penguins and instead like to cuddle with each other at night, with Kurt nestled up into Dave's bigger, warmer body.
The zookeepers can give them an egg to rear together if the writer wishes.
Idk. It's just a really cute idea that wouldn't get out of my mind :33
xoxoxo
There were more people and cameras around than usual. Kurt didn't notice or care though. They could do whatever they wanted so long as they stayed on the other side of the glass and didn't drop things into the enclosure.
He dove through the crystal clear water, intent on the bottom of the tank. The bottom of the tank was where all the good pebbles were: the shiny and sparkly pebbles that the others were too lazy to go after. The other pebble penguins wanted quick and easy, so they foraged around the ersatz ice flows for pebbles that had been left over from previous nesting seasons. Kurt couldn't settle for leftovers though. He'd accept nothing but the best for him, his nest, his potential mate and his future offspring.
The other penguins were already starting to pair off. The lazier penguins that just went after any old pebbles had completed their nests days ago and had already begun trying to impress potential mates. Pretty soon, there wouldn't be any penguins left for Kurt and that thought worried him. He didn't want to be alone, not for yet another endless year.
He was only a few meters from the bottom of the enclosure. He could spot the tiny pebbles at the bottom of the tank: beckoning, calling to him. The closer you got to the bottom of the tank, the darker it got, so it took a discerning, well-trained eye to figure out which of the multitudes of pebbles would glint the best in the sunlight once he got back up on the ice flows.
Several dark shapes jetted passed him, the rush of moving water created by their path pushing Kurt out of the way and making him topple end over end. The last shape to pass brushed up against him, further jostling the surprised penguin. "Hey!" The shape, an emperor penguin, glanced back at him momentarily before speeding up to catch up with the rest of his friends. They were hunting the fish that the handlers kept stocked in their tank. Whoever thought it was a good idea to put the sensible pebble penguins in a tank with the large, rambunctious walrus-brained emperor penguins was a dumbass. The emperor penguins were complete idiots as far as Kurt was concerned. They spent all their time hunting and never even bothered with nests. Why waste precious time and energy hunting fish when the caretakers handed them perfectly bite-sized little fish several times a day? He'd never understand the allure of hunting; it was completely beyond him.
He swooped around the bottom of the tank, eyeing over all the possible pebble selections. Some of the pebbles were large, some were small, some were rough, some were smooth, some were round, some were oblong, some were grey, some were whitish, some were purplish, some were bluish. There was any number of color schemes or textures to choose from when designing and building a nest. But Kurt wanted shiny. One particular pebble caught his attention; it was a bit larger than he normally liked, but it had a smooth white and tan side and a rounded, mottled, backside. The flat side should reflect the sun's rays nicely. He plucked it up in his beak and started his ascent up to the surface, dodging fish and emperor penguins as he did so.
He erupted from the water like a torpedo and landed with a delicate grace on his stomach. He had come up out of the water at just the right place and speed so he slid right up beside his nest of pebbles. He delicately stepped over the raised side of his nest and looked for the perfect place for his new acquisition. There was a small recess in the wall that was in desperate need of some filler; he placed the new pebble there and was dismayed to see that it didn't lie flush with the rest of the pebble wall. He pulled it back out again and looked around his nest for what he could rearrange. A few pebbles could fit in nicely in the recessed spot, and he could put the new pebble where he had taken the old pebbles from and then he could get rid of a few pebbles that didn't meet his high standards. He found a good sized cluster of pebbles that he could afford to move without completely wrecking his nest and began the tedious process of pulling them out delicately and relocating them one by one.
He told himself he was being a perfectionist. In truth, he was trying to make busy-work for himself: trying to get himself to think of anything but the sad fact that he was one of the only penguins not to pair up this season. Of the pebble penguins, Tina had Mike, Mercedes had Sam, even Artie – the penguin with the broken wing that couldn't swim very well – had Sugar. All that was left really was Brittany. Kurt couldn't make a nest with her. Her nest was full of funny colored pebbles, sticks, leaves, and even a twist-tie. Where had she even found a twist-tie? The humans usually took things like that away from them.
Kurt put the larger pebble into the spot where he had taken the grouping of pebbles from. It didn't fit. Kurt was just so frustrated with everything – the pebbles not fitting right, all of the penguins pairing off, the stupid emperor penguins getting in the way while hunting their stupid fish – Kurt was just about ready to smash his entire nest and start over. Not like he had anyone to impress, anyways. He pulled one of the stupid pebbles that had gotten in the way of the stupid new pebble out of the nest by his beak and spat it out trying to get it back in the water. He acted quicker than he looked, though, and noticed a moment too late that he had actually spat the pebble at someone. Kurt gasped as the pebble ricocheted off the chest of an emperor penguin: an emperor penguin that was easily four inches taller than Kurt. Kurt ducked his head down, trying his best to look apologetic and meek. He had no doubt this penguin would shove him into the water and wreck his nest in retaliation.
The emperor penguin cocked his head to the side before bending down and placing something in front of Kurt's nest. Kurt was too busy focusing on the emperor penguins pointed beak to notice what he had placed down and continued watching his face as he stood back up. "Hello."
Kurt could feel his neck tense, preparing for an assault. "Hi." He kept his voice low and delicate.
"You collect the shiny pebbles, don't you?"
Kurt nodded. The emperor penguins almost never talked to the pebble penguins; why was this one here at his nest, talking to him?
"I found this one a few weeks ago and thought you might like it. One of the trainers dropped it in the tank." The larger penguin bent his head back down and pushed the shiny pebble forward with his beak. Kurt had never seen such a shiny pebble. It was clear and glinted and shimmered all over. It almost glowed it was so shiny. "It had a yellow circle attached to it, but I was able to pry it loose."
Kurt slowly moved forward, bending over the side of his nest to pick it up ever…so…delicately in his beak. Still afraid that the emperor penguin might hurt him, he slowly backed into his nest, trying to make himself invisible. Even more than being hurt, he was afraid the emperor penguin had only brought the shiny pebble to tease him and would try to take it back. He placed the pebble solemnly down in the center of his nest and started surveying the walls; there was nowhere good enough for this pebble that shined like a star. He would have to rebuild his entire nest to make this perfect little pebble the centerpiece.
Once he had reached that conclusion, he looked back up to thank the emperor penguin only to see him waddling away, back to the colony of other emperor penguins. Kurt tripped over the wall of his nest in his hurry to catch up with the other penguin, not caring that the wall crumbled under his weight. "Hey! Hey, wait up! Wait up." The emperor penguin turned around and looked at Kurt. "David? It's David, right?"
"I, um… yeah." The big penguin's voice got soft at the end, sounding surprised and pleased that Kurt knew his name.
"I…um… thank you."
David penguin lowered his head down and nudged at the ground with his webbed-foot, like he was being bashful. "Was nuthin'"
"No, really. You didn't have to do that. I know emperor penguins don't really care about pebbles, but that one is just so gorgeous I'm sure your mate would have loved it even still."
David looked up, his head tilted questioningly. "My mate?"
"Ummm…" Kurt knew all the emperor penguins (after all, they all lived in the same enclosure – seriously, who had really thought that would be a good idea?), but it still took him a second to pull up her name. "The big one. Santana?"
David shook his head. "She's my friend. We hang out and fish together, but we aren't mates. She actually wants to be mates with a pebble penguin."
"A PEBBLE penguin?" Kurt wasn't sure he'd heard right. He'd never heard of an emperor penguin and a pebble penguin wanting to be together.
"I don't see nuthin' wrong with that. They like each other."
"Who?" Almost as soon as he asked, he knew the answer. "Brittany?" He'd seen them swimming around together, but he'd never thought anything of it.
David nodded. "I don't see anything wrong with likin' one of you pebbles. You're kind of a cute species."
Kurt could feel his face warm up. "Um… thank you."
"You're welcome." They stood quietly after that, looking at each other and wallowing in the awkwardness of the silence. "Umm…I should go. I've got a demonstration with some humans soon and I think they're getting ready to feed you pebbles."
Kurt looked over his shoulder to see the big, fake rock-wall opening up and a human, dressed up in a black wetsuit stepping through the wall. He turned around to say goodbye to David, but the emperor was already gone.