Re-writing this whole thing in the hopes of eventually adding more, but I'm so damn fickle. The notebook full of plot ideas is messy and hard to read, not to mention poorly written anyway :/
He woke up naturally, the blessing of a zoo holiday. Skipper Junior stretched his wings lazily and rolled off his bunk and onto his feet. From there it was up and out of the HQ for a relaxing swim and a day of ruthlessly avoiding his chores.
A giggling otter pup was already in the pool, disrupting the calm waters and floating around on her back. "Say Jay!" She greeted him happily. Her inability to pronounce his nickname was cute and all, but S.J felt like she didn't try all that hard to get it right.
Waving his flipper off offhandedly at her, as if she were just another zoo patron he prepared to dive.
"Say Jay! Say Jay!" The Asian otter pup called. She not at all through with him. "Up,up!" The tuft of fur lifted her arms to be picked up.
Right. Get Amy onto the floe, a little exertion, then the leisurely swim. "Alright." He dived in and came up to grab her, landing them both on the artificial ice floe.
Crawling right up to the hidden porthole, she gave the big metal fish bowel a few tugs. Slowly sliding it out of the way. Knowing the depth of the drop hidden under that bowel added to the fact that she was always carried down the ladder's runs, he figured he should intervene.
"What do you need?" He said through a stifled yawn, "I'll get it for you."
Nodding her wet little head, she made a big shape with her arms. "Daddy."
A snicker eked out. Was she calling their dad fat? "Skipper and the team have already left for today's, you guessed it, classified mission." Amy blinked and wrinkled up her nose. "Dad's not home." He simplified.
The young otter pouted. "I want daddy!" She wined, squeaking in her dissatisfaction.
"Dad's not here." He exclaimed. "Can't fix that, sorry." She squeaked louder and started making little huffing sounds. "No, c'mon. Don't." Her little eyes welled up and she started sniffling too. "Okay shhhshh. Stop. Let's go play the lemur game or something."
He was too late, the cute baby otter was now a small squealing demon. It was time to detonate the nukes. Mayday.
"What's going on?" Marlene asked, wiping the sleep from her eyes and scooping Amy up. Amy was quieted almost instantly.
S.J groaned as Amy pointed a tiny little hand at him. "Daddy's gone and Say Jay yelled."
"She was whining and I'm tired?" He tried giving an apologetic smile. Marlene shook her head at him and he looked down. "I'm sorry Amy."
Marlene couldn't see her winning grin. "It's okay Say Jay. I still love you."
He tried not to roll his eyes as Marlene crooned over Amy. "Hey," Marlene looked up from blowing raspberries on the little tummy of her baby devil. "Where's Skipper?" Shrugging off the question he tried to get around her for his planned swim."Let's go check the kitchen log."
He sighed and followed her, catching sight of Amy sticking her tongue out behind Marlene's back. "Nice."
The kitchen log was Marlene's idea. A tape recorder mounted in the kitchen, the penguin team was meant to record where they were so they could be reached. After Skipper and Marlene began raising their children together she'd insisted on it's importance. It caused a bit of friction as Skipper would often record the time they'd left and an estimate of when they'd be back. It also annoyed S.J's that he'd often record everyone's chores on the device so S.J couldn't just 'forget' them.
Marlene pressed play and was rewarded with a strikingly flirtations recording. "You thought I forgot, didn't you? Happy anniversary Marlene. Meet me in central park by the pond. I have a surprise for you..."
Handing the fluffy bit of evil over to S.J, he flinched taking Amy gingerly. "Watch your sister. I'm going out." He put her down quickly and nodded at his mother.
Marlene was just out of earshot when Privates voice crackled over the kitchen log. "Oh Skippah Juniah, don't forget-." S.J's flipper went down on the record button fast.
"Amy and I are going to Julian Juniors. Have a happy anniversary you guys." He said quickly, knowingly recording over his chores.
Amy seemed to notice too, she tugged at his other flipper. "Say Jay...chores." She wouldn't get to see him or play with him if he got grounded.
"Don't have any." He said flippantly. "Let's head over to J.J's? How's that." She pouted a bit, but took his flipper regardless. S.J waddled over to the ladder holding her paw. He hadn't ever carried her up the ladder before. She was a quarter of his size, a significant yet tiny little scrap of evil. "How are we going to get you topside?" He took and deep breath and picked her up. He'd made it three rungs when she wavered in his arms and squeaked a little. He hopped down. "Okay, not that way."
His eyes rested on the Privates first prize 'secret' tunnel. No one was allowed in the emergency tunnels, save for the team, unless it was an emergency. Even the obvious ones that even the lemurs used. But it was too easy today. Parents away, team on break. "Come one Ame's short cut."
"Amy." She corrected with a squeak. As they moved through the tunnel, which she knew better than to do, she added, "Bad Say Jay."
She received a shsuhshh for her troubles as they neared the end of the tunnel. He belly slid, with her on his back, through the tunnel. She was able to ignore the shsuh, as she loved belly slides. Too much of her body consisted of her face for her to belly slide just yet, but she would some day. Sliding the poster cover out of the way, he crept out and looked for anyone who'd turn him in. Seeing no one, he pulled Amy down and they headed to J.J's habitat.
She was still giddy from the belly slide through the tunnel. She eked through the bars and splashed into the salty water of Rodger and J.J's pool. "Jay Jay! Jay Jay!" Giggles escaped her demonic little body-okay. S.J. Stop. Your sister is not evil.
"Hey Amy, S.J. No chores today?" The smaller of the two crocodiles greeted, crawling down from the sunning rock, where Rodger still slept.
"I guess not, at least, no one's said anything to me." He half gloated, rubbing a flipper over his chest feathers.
J.J laughed. "You mean no one can prove you heard anything."
"Who me? Use a loophole?" He said with mock offence.
J.J caught Amy eyeing a stray fish head. "Hungry?" He asked her, flicking it her way, much to her delight. "You know." J.J said sadly. "Dad's still weirded out I eat fish."
With a shrug the young penguin told him simply, "Mammals are weird."
Churning the sentence through his mind a bit J.J retorted, "Your mom and sister are mammals."
Not skipping a beat he rattled off, "Exactly." He smiled when he got that bellowing crocodilian laughter out of his friend. "Marlene's still on about 'keeping me normal' and Skipper is dead set on making a 'crack team leader' out of me. Which, I think, sounds like a drug thing, but that's me." The low bellowing contiued and S.J felt proud of himself.
"Oh trust me, trust me S.J. Marlene has failed at keeping you normal." He joked, earning himself a wrestling match. "Uncle, uncle." He said, still laughing.
Pride restored from his victory he said, "I guess Skipper is rubbing off on me. I've seen him do that to Rodger."
With the brief whistling sound of his fast movement Private landed over the wall and into the habitat. "Ello, Skipper said to make sure you did your chores."
"Oh..." The younger bird paused. "I have."
"Caught in a lie." Skipper retorted landing next to Private. "How was the emergency tunnel?"
Tugging at his feather S.J groaned. "How? How did you know?!"
Smirking cooly, Skipper told him, "Total gambit."
"What?"
"I'm a'fraid he guessed." Private said sympathetically. "He does that," he added a bit more flatly. Clearly having felt the brunt have having a superior officer who could just guess you'd had a peanut butter-er something you shouldn't have.
Thoroughly frustrated S.J snapped out of it to realize. "Shouldn't Private have the day off?"
Skipper regarded him oddly, like it was some new ploy his son hadn't tried yet. "Why would Private have the day off?"