It was raining heavily, not that Tiana seemed to care or even notice. Her fur was plastered to her and the leaves on her crown drooped, but she continued to twirl and leap around like she was a ballerina. In the last few minutes, her imaginary audience she pretended she was performing for became real in the form of the four penguins who had been headed to the zoo's office in order to check incoming deliveries. The penguins were unaware that she knew they were there, so they watched her, transfixed by her graceful movements.

Tiana closed her eyes as she began to pirouette in a puddle. The faster she turned, the bigger the smile on her face grew and when she came to a sudden stop, she lost her balance and fell face first into the puddle. She stood up quickly, looked directly at the penguins and bowed. Private was the only one who applauded her and she smiled gratefully for that.

She walked up to them and put a hand on her hip, "did you like the show?" She said breathlessly.

"It was amazing!" Private answered her. The other three still seemed to be hypnotised, still staring at the spot where she previously was.

"Glad someone appreciates it," she waved her free hand in front of the three penguins' faces in turn. "Hello?"

Skipper looked up at her and snapped out of his mesmerized state, "come on boys, we should be going since we have important things to do, right Kowalski?"

"Sure thing Skipper." Kowalski replied and nudged Rico so he stopped staring off into the distance. As the four walked away, Private lagged behind and Tiana tagged along with him. Neither spoke much apart from an offhanded comment from Private about the weather. When they reached the office, Tiana watched as they formed a stack and pulled each other up through the open window. She jumped up inside the window frame and waited as they checked the coast was clear before she dropped down and joined them.

Tiana was drawn to the computer on the desk. She had seen them before but never really had the chance to use one, she knew people used it to look at pictures of cats and wondered what else it could be used for. She moved the mouse and the screen turned on to an e-mail that had been left open. She read it, gasped and looked in horror at it.

"What does it say?" Kowalski asked from behind her. She jumped and scrabbled for the mouse, she pressed the reply button and thought hard on how she could make it convincing.

"Doesn't matter, I'm going to sort it out anyway." She tapped the keys and typed a message. Thankfully, the computer had a spell check so any errors she made could be corrected. Even then, it didn't sound like something someone would write but she sent it regardless.

"If it's been sorted, what did it say?" Kowalski asked again.

"I said it doesn't matter. Why should it matter if I've solved the problem, not that there was a problem or anything." She said quickly.

"We're just going to start going in circles if you don't tell me." He sighed. She stood up and looked around a few times before speaking.

"It was about this breeding program I'm a part of, that I didn't sign up for, and that if it's not successful then I'm going to be sent somewhere else. So I said that it was successful and hopefully they'll believe it without wanting proof." She told him, keeping her voice low. It was one of the few things that she was embarrassed of.

There was a long pause before Kowalski replied, "can you read some delivery orders for me?" Tiana smiled and struggled to suppress a laugh.

"Of course I can. Y'know, if I wasn't trying to be faithful, I could kiss you sometimes." She didn't give him a chance to reply before hopping off the desk and going over to where Skipper was with a bunch of papers. After all, she didn't want to make things awkward.


I finally got around to writing and posting something, I should be able to update more since I don't have any exams for about a week now and I have next week off school. Also, I think this is proof I'm bad at naming stories. And sorry if it seems a bit... odd, I wrote it not long after drinking a 500ml can of energy drink in three minutes. So hopefully this makes up for the lack of activity and expect the next chapter of Alpha and Beta within the next few days, and thanks for reading.