Well as the summary stated, this is a request by my good friend; Skulldestroyer. Thank you for the ideas, and for overseeing this. Please enjoy and review.

THE HUMILIATION OF THE RING

BY THE YOUNG AND FREE DRAGON

Wir halten zusammen
Wir halten miteinander aus
Wir halten zueinander
Niemand hält uns auf

(We hold together
We put up with each other
We stick together
No one will slow us down)

-Haifisch by Rammstein

PROLOGUE: LOVE THY ENEMY

Where are you? Skipper thought to himself, his eyes scanning the park from behind the binoculars. I know you're here somewhere. His eyes flicked to the time, which was displayed off to the right inside of the lens. Twelve thirty-two. Two minutes late and counting. Typical. But he could barely bring himself to be angry. Just as long as he showed up, then the mission would be a success. He referred to it as a mission but it was really more of a...

There he was. Skipper pressed his eyes against the lens of the binoculars, though he knew who it was and his stomach began to flutter as he felt a clamminess break out over some portions of his body. He always got this way, even if he knew things were okay. He was always afraid. The others finding out, someone seeing them, what else could go wrong-... No more time. He dropped the binoculars on the branch and dived down, doing a corkscrew as he crashed into the smooth, surprisingly-pleasurable-to-the-touch skin and knocked the dolphin off his segway. They both let out a cry and were soon tussling on the ground. After a moment the penguin began to giggle, and soon they were both laughing as they finally ended up in a pile on the ground.

"Quite an entrance, Skipper." Blowhole commented, nuzzling the penguin's neck.

"I did my best," Skipper said modestly. "Always trying to keep you on your fins."

"That you do," The dolphin replied, looking up through the tree branches at the clear night sky. "Are you ashamed of me, Skipper?"

"No, why?" He replied, his heart racing a bit, nervously.

"Well, for one thing, you've not told anyone about us, and you've made absolutely sure that we're alone whenever we meet, ever since what happened when we last battled. I like our privacy, but it would be nice for some people to see how lucky I'm getting."

Skipper blushed. "I'm not ashamed, I just... I'm afraid I'd lose control of my men. They might think they no longer have to obey me if they knew I was in love with my enemy."

"Or that I was male," Blowhole sighed, his bionic eye shrinking a bit as he held back a tear, which he wasn't sure why he wanted to let out. "My men would not approve either. Though... I'm not so attached to them."

"They respect me, but I... they are brothers to me, and I think they would treat me like a black sheep if they knew." Skipper replied.

"I know... but you do know I'd give up everything for you?" Blowhole asked, placing a flipper on Skipper's chest.

"Of course, my love." Skipper replied, placing his flipper over his partner's and his beak slowly connected with the mouth of the dolphin.

As they kissed, Blowhole though about the kiss. He didn't really want to push Skipper into anything he was uncomfortable with, but he really wanted to deepen the kiss. But Skipper may not be ready. After all, this was only the second time they'd actually spent some time kissing during their meetings. They'd only met four times, and the first two, they discussed how they felt since that day. The day when they had battled, as bitter enemy. And then one simple mistake changed everything.

"You don't honestly think that you can win, do you Skipper?" Blowhole cackled, his army of lobster standing on the other side of the huge aquarium tank. "I have the upper hand, as you can see."

"I don't expect you to fight fair," Skipper replied, he and his team standing on the opposite side. "But I know that is my conformation that you'll lose."

"Attack!" Blowhole shouted, and he and his army dived into the water.

Skipper gestured with his flipper and he and the team dived in. He saw as they went under, how outnumbered they were, but as he stopped to looking around for his target, he did notice how his men fought, taking on more than their fair share of lobsters at a time. They were trained well... but then his target came into view. Blowhole was swimming at lightening speed toward him. Skipper pushed off the side of the tank with all of his might and swam as fast as he could, meaning to collide head on with the evil mastermind. Neither of them planned to back down, or turn away. Which ever had the greater head of steam would win the collision. And as they propelled toward each other, no one seemed to notice, though it felt like the whole universe was watching.

And then they collided, head to head... mouth... to mouth. They both opened their eyes wide, after they had screwed them shut from the initial pain of hitting each other. They were connected, their bodies not touching one another expect at the mouth, locked in an unexpected kiss. They pulled out of it, staring at each other for a moment before swimming back the way they had come, hopping out of the water and screaming at their teams to retreat.

And the rest was history. They'd agreed to meet because they'd both felt something (other than pain) whenever they had connected like that. Something special that they had finally managed to explain to one another, and here they were. Blowhole wondered if Skipper felt the same urge to go further, but was content to stay locked in the flippers of the penguin for the rest of the night.

Private tapped his flipper impatiently, worriedly. He sat in Skipper's empty bunk and watched the fish bowl entrance, waiting for his leader to return from where ever he had gone.

Hope you liked the prologue, and watch out for the first installment.