Hello guys, I found this one-shot within one of my files and decided to finish it.

*** Dedicated specially to my lovely friends who make me feel accepted :) Especially to you guys onine :) Also, thanks to Aquade for giving me positive feedback after being given a sneak preview. ***

Disclaimer: I don't own any of the PoM characters, episodes, facts, characteristics, places etc.

It was pitch dark outside. Inside the penguin HQ, the four penguins were preoccupied. Rico was watching TV with Kowalski and Private. Kowalski didn't usually watch TV but on that day, he really needed a break. A lot had happened earlier that day.

Around twelve noon, he had extra charged his brain so that he can be more intelligent than ever, but a mistake in calculation caused him to become dumber than a school of fishes.

The problem was solved as soon as Kowalski had regained his intelligence. However, after that, his commanding officer had brought him to a private soundproof room in the HQ, chewed him out for being so careless and ordered maintenance duty. He had been working through the afternoon drowning his sorrows with no one but himself and only in the evening Skipper had allowed him to work in the lab.

Now it was already nine at night and Private and Rico had invited the scientist to join them and have fun by watching television with them. When he suddenly asked them about Skipper, they replied that Skipper hadn't been seen inside the HQ for a long time.

"Kowalski, we need to talk. Topside, pronto." Skipper called out, appearing from some room in the HQ and walked out the hatch. The three subordinate penguins blinked at each other, shocked out of their wits, before Kowalski walked up the ladder and followed his leader.

Skipper was sitting at one end of the floe drinking his coffee.

"What do you need me for sir?"

"Sit down Kowalski, I need a word with you."

"Is it my experiments-gone-wrong? I promise you sir, it was-"

"Save it Kowalski, I need to talk to you about something else."

"Am I in trouble sir?"

"Kowalski, I want to know what you were doing in the lab today."

"Sir?" Kowalski asked, terrified out of his wits. Using 'sir' instead of 'Skipper' meant that this wasn't just a friend-to-friend discussion.

Skipper took a sip of his coffee and looked at him.

"Why were you playing with your brain power Kowalski?"

Kowalski hesitated, fear reflected in his eyes.

"Because I'm not intelligent enough sir?"

"And?" Skipper prompted.

"And and I keep making mistakes during missions…and I keep blowing up stuff...and I can't even carry a two in my equation...and my inventions never go as planned! Oh it always goes wrong! HORRIBLY wrong! Its like I'm the stupidest penguin ever alive! I don't even know how I even come into this team!"

By the end of Kowalski's confession rant he had started pacing around the floe.

Skipper succeeded at his attempt to get Kowalski to admit all these.

"What do you really think of yourself Lieutenant?"

"I'm worthless, sir. I'm nothing, I'm nothing, argh! I Just can't do anything right!" Kowalski yelled, his back towards Skipper.

His eyes suddenly widened when he realised who he was just shouting to - his superior, his commanding officer. "Oops, I'm sorry...sir. I didn't mean to yell and have an outburst in front of you."

"Sit down Kowalski." Skipper urged, calmly.

"I apologise for the outburst sir. I didn't mean it. I promise I'll have more control of myself in future sir."

"You don't need to apologise Kowalski. I'm the one who has to. I'm sorry for yelling about your inventions earlier."

Kowalski looked stunned by that apology.

"It wasn't your fault sir...I messed up." He stuttered weakly.

"I know you feel alone, you feel like you don't belong here," Skipper paused to see Kowalski nodding timidly at that fact, "You are a very unique member Kowalski, you made our team a whole, I know that we don't like you when you boast about your intelligence, and I realised that I've fish-slapped you the most in our team, just because of mistakes in that we can actually fix."

Kowalski felt his heart ache as he thought about the times he had felt so lousy about himself. He yearned for attention a lot of times but all he ever got was tons of scoldings.

Skipper sat beside the still penguin and wrapped a flipper around his shoulder.

"I never really thought about this until this morning when you charged up your brain. I've been unfair to you many times, more than the other two. I saw the hurt in your eyes during the debrief this afternoon. I've made you suffer so much." Skipper said sincerely, trying to keep his voice from cracking.

"I know you think that you are useless - I make you feel that you are insignificant in this team." Kowalski nodded. Waves of flashbacks came back to haunt him.

"I'm sorry for what I've done in the past Kowalski. I know I'm really selfish and I'm too rude at times and I've looked down on you because of your intellect."

Kowalski looked away, hurt etched on his face.

"When your experiment this morning went wrong this morning, I was worried that we might not be able to get you back to normal in time. You know how vivid my imagination is don't you?" A short dry laugh escaped from his beak.

"It took me so long to actually realize how much you are worth to me. I'm pretty sure Private and Rico realised how important you are way before I did." The leader sighed. Kowalski looked at him with surprise and amazement in his eyes. He was surprised that Skipper would actually come forward and take effort to admit his mistake and restore their once happy relationship.

"They say you never know what you really have unti it's taken away from you. I guess that's what happened to me. I started to wonder what would happen if I didn't have you in my life." Kowalski would never easily forget those words.

"Its just that I take everything in my life too granted, I never knew…"

"I understand Skipper," Kowalski finished, putting his flipper on Skipper's shoulder.

"I hope you don't feel left out from this team anymore, Kowalski."

Kowalski smiled and gently mumbled 'I won't'.

"No hard feelings?"

"Nope, not anymore." Skipper smiled sincerely.

"I think I've got enough of this mushy gushy stuff-" To which Kowalski found himself agreeing too, "and I think we better go inside before someone thinks I did something bad to you."

Kowalski chuckled. Now everything was back to normal, their friendship was restored and they didn't have to worry about much.

Before Skipper could hop in through the hatch, Kowalski stopped him, "Skipper?"

He turned around.

"Thanks."

Skipper raised an eyebrow, curious to Kowalski's statement.

"For everything."

There were many things Skipper had provided Kowalski with, a home, peaceful sleeping time, good self defence training and most importantly, friendship and family. Let's not forget Kowalski also caused Skipper to have an overprotective, soft side, but also brought out the caring heart within Skipper. And for that, both of them were silently grateful for each other.

I hope the tenses in this one-shot are correct. Tell me what you guys think about it :D Much appreciated ^^