A.N.— And here is chapter two! :D Enjoy!

Chapter 2: The Yellow Leveled Course

Pedro slides over to the yellow leveled obstacle course and looks at it. "Is this really my right level?" He mutters unsure. He knows that there are five different color-coded levels of training difficulty; green, purple, yellow, blue, and red, with red being the hardest and green being for beginners. He looks around some and sees a chinstrap penguin on a purple leveled course. He slides over closer to him for a better look. He is not surprised to see that it is Agent Lucky Hernandez. "Hola, Lucky!" He calls over to him.

Lucky looks over towards him and just barely ducks a nun-chuck that was aimed at his head. "What the heck, Pedro?! Can't you see I'm training here?"

"Sorry." Pedro shrugs. "I was wondering if you happen to know which level I'm supposed to be on..."

"And why should I know, man? It's your flipping level! I'm not your Mamá; I don't keep up with your stuff!" Lucky exclaims as he hops over another nun-chuck and rolls under a blast of ice cold water.

Pedro sighs a bit. "I was just checking, jeez." He mutters and slides back over to the yellow leveled course. He glances back towards the purple one. It looks a lot easier than this one and he can't help but wonder if there isn't actually a course in between purple and yellow.

"AGENT MATEO!" Then comes a growled shout from behind him.

Surprised, Pedro jumps and quickly spins around on heel with a salute. "Sir." He says and swallows a little silently as he takes in the sight of the large penguin before him. He isn't as big as his friend Bob, but he is still much larger than he is himself. His green eyes are sharp and glaring. His face shows no emotion but anger and a very intimidating look. Commander Estrada has his flippers crossed before him across his yellow-orange chest above the black dots upon the rest of his white underbelly. It isn't hard for Pedro to realize that he apparently is a King-Humboldt mixed breed.

Commander Estrada snorts at his response and looks at him. "Get your tail on that course now or I will throw you up on to a different course. Comprendes?" He growls with narrowed eyes.

Pedro can't nod quick enough it seems before dashing over and on to the yellow leveled course. "And to think he's going to be my padre-in-law...Just imagine how cena de Navidad* would go...Heh..." He mutters.

"Stop muttering, Mateo, and get your flipping tail into gear before I decide to instead mount it on my wall!" He shouts and then takes out a pocket watch and looks at the time. "I'm giving you ninety-five seconds to complete this course, starting...NOW!"

"WHAT?!" Pedro exclaims with a wide open beak and eyes. He stops for a half moment to look at Estrada.

"Did I stutter, Mateo? Now get moving; time's ticking." He replies, swinging the watch with a semi-pleased smirk. This smirk grows wider as he sees Pedro mistime a blast of hard, fast, and freezing water and gets knocked off of the platform and hits a plexiglass dividing wall that separates this course from the blue leveled next to it. Pedro coughs and sputters and wipes himself up off of the floor. Estrada makes a big show of checking his watch. "Sixty-seven seconds!" He shouts.

Pedro slides back to the course and hops back on it. This time he correctly times the water and doesn't get sprayed, though he is too busy concentrating on the water that he doesn't notice a nun-chuck that swings at his feet until it is too late and he falls flat on his face. "Forty-two seconds!" He hears the commander call out and he pushes himself back up and continues through the course, tripping and falling, jumping and rolling, dodging and swinging. He finally falls panting near Estrada's feet. The commander looks at him with a frown. "Monday you work on the same course again. It took you two hundred and thirty-nine seconds to get through." He snorts. "Plus penalties for falling off the platform or on your face, you took three hundred seconds." He gives him an irritated look before putting his pocket watch back away in his feathers and sliding over to Lucky's course.

"Seriously? This was my first try!" Pedro pants and slowly picks himself off of the floor with a small groan. "I'm sooo going to feel this tomorrow." He murmurs as he waddles back over to the course tiredly. He figures he should give it another go since he is no longer being rushed and can take his time with it. Going his own patient time, he completes the course again with minor mistakes in four hundred and sixty-three seconds. He wonders silently why he should have to do such a course in under ninety-five seconds. Pedro looks over at the door as he sees Bob come in. Bob has been on yellow level for a while now and Pedro wonders if it isn't about time that Bob is switched up to the 'slightly' harder blue level. Apparently, Commander Estrada was thinking the exact same thing and gives one last order to Lucky before sliding over to Bob and motioning towards the blue level.

Pedro watches them and stretches some. He is already sore from all of this. "Agent Mateo! Did I tell you that you could stop training?! Get your tail back on that thing and practice it until you can do it blinded!" Estrada then shouts over his shoulder at him.

"Yes, sir." Pedro salutes with a small sigh and a glance towards Bob. Bob gives him an understanding look back with a 'good luck' flipper-motion. Pedro gets back into the yellow course.

Adriana frowns and looks at the clock. "What the kipper is taking him so long?" She snorts. Typically Pedro has been home by around four-thirty in the afternoon. It is nearly six and he still has not arrived home yet. She knows that if he did get out of training at the usual time and went to the store to get the things she wrote down on the list, that he still should have been back by now. Impatiently, she waddles to the kitchen and fixes herself a bowl of the remaining rainbow sherbet ice cream and takes it to the living room with her.

She has nearly finished the bowl when Pedro finally, exhausted and sore, opens the door and waddles inside. "Took you long enough." Adriana snorts and looks at him. "What took you so long? And did you get those groceries."

Pedro looks at her and then face-flippers. "Sorry, I completely forgot about those…" He says. "Can they wait until later?" He then asks quieter.

Adriana doesn't even look at him as she finishes her bowl. "No…" She says.

"Alright…" Pedro sighs some and gets his car keys. "I'll be back in a little bit…" He then waddles kind of slowly back out of the house and out to his car. He opens the door and sits in the driver's seat with a small, slightly pained grimace. He feels sore from head to toe from this obstacle course training today and wouldn't mind to just crash in bed and not move again, ever. He drives and parks at the store where he hauls his sore self out of the car and almost limps inside.

A penguin at the counter nods to him as he waddles inside. "Good evening, señor." He says.

"Yeah...You, too..." Pedro says, forcing a small smile as he thinks that so far this evening doesn't feel too good to him. He grabs a small shopping basket and then slides first to the medicines aisle where he gets a bottle of pain relievers for him to take some of when he has returned home. He has a feeling that he is really going to need these especially tomorrow when the soreness has completely set in. He then slides over to the aisle with the sauces and gets a few different brands of hot sauce, since he doesn't exactly know what type Adriana is wanting. "Hopefully one of these is right..." He mutters, looking at them. They all look pretty spicy to him; spicier than he typically uses on anything.

Pedro then slowly waddles to another aisle where he gets some jalapeños and pickles. "What else did she want?" He murmurs as he pulls out the list again and looks at it. "Oh right, that rainbow ice cream...Does it have to be rainbow, though?" He mutters a bit curiously and shrugs some, which he kind of regrets right afterwards and makes a small face. He then waddles to the frozen section of the store and gets two large containers of sherbet ice cream. "Maybe that'll keep her for a few days..." He sighs and then slides with the groceries back up to the counter.

The cashier rings up the groceries with a slightly curious look. "Craving wife?" He asks as he scans the pickles.

"Craving fiancée, sí." He says and nods.

"Has she started the mood swings yet?" The cashier asks with an understanding smile.

Pedro shakes his head. "Not that I've noticed..." He says as he gets the bags.

"Well, good luck when she does, señor...You'll probably need it." He says and then waves a little at him. "And have a good night."

"Uh...Yeah, you too." He replies with a slightly confused look and heads out with the groceries. "Mood swings?" He mutters again to himself as he pops the trunk of the car and sticks the items in it. He tries to imagine Adriana being mood swingy...He has a hard time imaging her being anything but her typical grumpy, sassy self. He then shrugs a bit and gets into his car. "Maybe she won't get moody at all." He says. He shuts the green door of his car and, after backing from the parking place, starts driving back towards his home. He soon arrives back there and stops the car. He gets the groceries from the back of the car and waddles inside.

"FINALY!" Adriana exclaims and nearly tackles him as he waddles into the house.

"Agh!" He exclaims in response and he almost loses his balance and drops the groceries, but he manages to keep from doing either. "Ehm...Did you miss me or something?" He asks, curiously looking at her as she hugs him tightly.

Adriana shakes her head. "No...But I missed this!" She says, getting the bag with the ice cream and taking off to the kitchen.

Pedro just stands there for a moment and tries to make sense of this all. He soon gives up on it and shrugs and follows Adriana into the kitchen. He watches as she gets an ice cream container open and starts scooping it into a bowl. Adriana after that puts some of the hot sauce on the ice cream, which Pedro gives a rather disgusted face at. "Adriana...Why are you ruining your ice cream?" He asks.

"It's not ruined." Adriana says with a completely serious face as she starts on it. "It's just right."

"If you say so..." He replies, thinking that he has now lost any thought of appetite for now. He tries to get his mind from Adriana's dessert and starts to put away the other groceries. He gets out the pain killers and makes a cup of water with which he takes the pills. "Anyway, I'm going to go rest some, just in case you need me for something." He says.

Adriana looks at him mid-bite. "Why? Are you tired?"

"Nooooo...Not at all!" He sarcastically replies, rolling his eyes. "Yes, I am. Your father decided to have me do a new and harder course all day. I am flipping sore all over. So, unless you need me to do anything further, I'm taking a nap." He says before sliding to the bedroom.

She watches him go and takes another bite of the ice cream. "Well...Someone is grumpy..." She mutters.

Translations:

*Cena de Navidad — Christmas dinner