If you ask him, Rico has never hated Private. But there was a time when he disliked him.
No, "disliking" was too strong. Rico simply didn't care about him.
Like most of tough guys, Rico has a sensitive spot for cute things. That hadn't worked for Private though. Because he wasn't supposed to be a weak little animal to protect. He was supposed to be a part of the team, strong, and have ability to protect himself.
But he was just too weak. It was always Skipper or Kowalski who saved his little back flipper, and that slightly annoyed Rico.
(...)
If you ask him, Private used to be afraid of Rico. Because he seemed like he could do anything to him.
As Private could see, Rico held the power to do everything and had no hesitation; but not even a slightest idea about the results. That apparently didn't affect Skipper and Kowalski, to Private's surprise. Skipper had a proud spark on his eyes everytime he looked at Rico and Kowalski appreciated his 'bravery'.
But Private thought he was just a psycho who had no ability to think. And no matter how he looked at Skipper and Kowalski like he would do anything for them, Rico was just passing through Private when he turned to him, irritating the youngster who hated being ignored.
(...)
What did he have that Rico didn't?
Skipper valued Private like he never did Rico. Not that Rico cared. He did not care how Skipper replanned everything to keep Private safe, or how he was interested in his training more that Rico's, or how he kept the best part of the fish for him. He didn't care why Skipper stopped caring about his Halloween Jack-o-Lanterns, or stated eating Rico's sushi like they weren't as tasty as before, or let Rico kaboom stuff less frequently than before…
Damn, Rico cared a lot, and he knew it.
(...)
Why was Skipper still keeping him as a part of the squad?
He was bringing nothing but trouble. He wasn't even able to control his temper, how could someone like Skipper could ignore such thing? Because he was good at weapons or he was a walking storage? It didn't worth it. Rico was just a psychopath who could destroy everything to entertain himself. Skipper mustn't be so sure about he would never blow the HQ up. Private was sure they could live without some sushi, no matter how good they were; or without some pumpkin lanterns on Halloween, no matter how Skipper enjoyed them… And Private still didn't know why Skipper was so harsh on him while training instead of Rico, who he must keep under control.
Private decided to keep an eye on Rico, he was going to prove Skipper how dangerous he was.
(...)
Rico didn't know what he could do to get Kowalski's attention back.
He was still Kowalski's #1 test subject, but now he was inventing almost everything for Private. Kowalski didn't want Rico to mix liquids that had risk to blow up anymore, in fact, he wasn't even experimenting them anymore. Guess what for, or shall we say, who for? Kowalski was getting boring, and Rico was feeling like he was losing everyone for a little, useless chick.
Rico wished that Private had never come.
(...)
Private didn't expect someone smart like Kowalski to defend Rico.
Kowalski was being an idiot for trusting him. He was "one hundred percent sure" that Rico was "completely harmless". But Private had seen how maniac he got when it came to explosions, or how bloody-eyed he was when someone annoyed him. Private didn't feel secure at all, but Kowalski had said that he was being stupid if he was really thinking Rico as a threat.
Private wished that Rico was never born.
(...)
Fucking lunacorns.
Rico had had enough of the horse plushes and all those sensitiveness. Private was watching that show every-single-evening like a little chick, and when he wasn't watching it, he kept repeating stupid lines from the series and made Rico feel like he was in the show. For Pete's sake, he was allergic to this stuff! When Rico wanted to blow things up, Private stopped him. When Rico wanted to beat up someone stranger at HQ, Private became "friends" with them. When Rico wanted to regurgitate a grenade, he found a lunacorn plush on his left flipper.
Rico couldn't tolerate Private anymore.
(...)
Bloody ashes were everywhere.
Private was sick of cleaning all these ashes. How could someone love explosions? Like there was nothing else left to love on Earth, bloody explosions. Paintings? No. Books? No. Collections? No. Explosions. Was this some kind of joke? Who would love explosions? And to keep Rico sane (sane, he snickered, like the bloody hell it was possible), he was blowing something up at least once a day, and even Private's huge imagination wasn't enough for dreaming a single calming day without a 'boom' sound.
Private couldn't endure Rico's existence anymore.
(...)
He wasn't gonna babysit him!
Rico did his best to convince Skipper, but he was too stubborn; and his decision was final. He was staying with Private while Skipper and Kowalski went on following a fish truck. That was nonsense; they always went on that mission together, as a team! But Skipper clearly wanted them in the HQ, repeating that the mission was too easy for four penguins.
Why Rico had to stay with him? Couldn't Skipper leave Kowalski behind and take Rico with him, he mastered sneaking in locked places after all. Or he could take Private leaving Rico with Kowalski, if the mission was that easy. But no, Rico had to babysit an over-sensitive chick instead of hunting some fish trucks.
(...)
He couldn't endure him, let alone staying alone with him!
Private was smart, it was clearly Skipper or Kowalski's idea to get him and Rico along. It was useless though. There was no way Private could like a psychopath like him.
Kowalski tried calming Private down, kept telling that Rico was a more-than-great friend if he knew him. But Private was sure none of the Lunacorns had a psycho friend.
(...)
Blowhole had caught them unaware.
Rico tried to stand up. Clearly Blowhole had got smarter; and instead showing his hostages to Skipper and gathering all the penguin squad, he decided to destroy any member of the team he could capture.
He fell again. There was so much blood, so much blood that he couldn't walk on. He guessed it was his end, such a foolish end for such an awesome life. Well, at least Private was saved.
It was funny, he thought he hated Private. But he never realized that he never thought about killing him, blowing him up, or at least just an innocent accident without Rico's flippers on it. Instead, he only kept being away from the little soldier, without even thinking the team with three members.
Maybe he was just used to him. Maybe this was the answer.
(...)
Private ran as fast as he could.
He had just imagined the squad without Rico, he never thought of his death! Damn that bottle-nosed fish, where the bloody hell did he put Rico in? Private kept searching, thinking he would never be able to explain this to Skipper if he was… He shook his head; he wasn't going to think the worst. He was just going to focus on saving Rico. It was Private's fault that Blowhole captured Rico anyway. If only he hadn't been a coward and not hid behind his first prize…
Though, he couldn't help but think why Rico pretended like Private wasn't in HQ while Blowhole's lobsters were dragging him away.
(...)
"RICO!"
Damn, sleep looked so sweet… Buthe quickly opened his eyes when he recognized the voice. Private. He tried to stand up again, more determined than before. What was Private doing here? Rico couldn't let him get hurt, Blowhole was too strong. He could never explain Skipper how- Screw Skipper, Rico couldn't live with the guilt of a dead Private if he didn't do anything. But he had lost too much blood, when he managed to stand up, everything went dark and he collapsed again.
(...)
Private wasn't feeling like Private anymore.
He had never seen so much blood, let alone it was coming from only one penguin. Blood. Everywhere. Rico's blood was everywhere. Blowhole was to blame.
He wanted to squeeze the same amount of blood out of Blowhole. No one could ever hurt someone dear to Private; despite even Private himself didn't expect Rico to be one either. But you realize how much you value someone when you are about to lose them, and Private was experiencing it now.
Blowhole could consider himself as dead.
Private started attacking the sea mammal over and over, with a strength he didn't know he had. He didn't care though. Blood lust covering his eyes, and he couldn't think properly until Blowhole pushed him with an ultimate pain and swam away as he swore he was gonna take his revenge, making Private realize what he had just done.
(...)
Rico had been wrong.
Private was in his blurry vision with all his powerful strikes. Rico had thought he was the weak link of the team, but apparently Skipper was right again; Private held the potential of being a great commando and he was getting stronger each day.
Too bad his eyes got closed again before the fight ended.
(...)
Private was going to be traumatized forever because of this.
But he had no time to think about that. He had to get Rico to HQ before it was too late.
If Rico couldn't survive, Private couldn't live with the amount of blood on his flippers that would be appeared for nothing.
(...)
Rico regrets that he used to hate his little brother.
It was his life's biggest mistake to judge him as weak. Private just has a different kind of strength after all, he taught Rico that strength didn't only mean brutal force – Rico always prefers brutal force though. And on that particular day, even if it was blurry, he learned Private can use brutal force pretty well too.
Shame Private hasn't got that bloody ever again.
(...)
Private regrets that he used to believe that his big brother should have gone away.
He isn't as psycho as Private used to think. Rico just doesn't care about anyone but his teammates, while he loves them more than a lot. Who knew Kowalski was right about Rico's friendship?
If you ask what made Rico and Private hold a stronger-than-just-brotherhood bound, it was the process when Rico helped Private get through what he had done to Blowhole. He thought he was going to be affected by that forever, but thanks to Rico, Private was looking from another window now; he was an enemy and at least Private hasn't murdered him despite how much he deserved it.
And truth to be told, it was kind of fun to know that little, innocent Private was the one who destroyed Blowhole's right eye.