"This is it?" Asuka wined. "You got me allexcited for this? A penguin?"

"Not just a penguin," Misato said. She still had her eyes on the two warm water penguins. So far the only thing they did was stand there on the kitchen floor and breath. Penny blinked once and Pen Pen seemed to have stopped blinking all together. Misato had beenhoping for a better reaction than this; maybe a 'Skwaak-how ya doin?' And a 'Skwaak-fine'. Only if she was lucky. She got back to her feet and said, "Two warm water penguins."

Now, almost everyone had left. Kaji and Asuka said they had a date, after the red head hadexpressed her opinion on this being a waste of time. And Rei "concured" with Asuka. Shinji had gone to his respective room, Ritsuko had made up some coffee, Misato now had a can of beer in her hand, and two penguins seemed to be in a staring contest.

"I know," said Misato suddenly. "Lets let them relax. Ritsuko led Penny into the living room. Then, Misato picked up Pen Pen (Still stiff as a board) and joined her, putting him on the couch.

Ritsuko patted the spot on the couch next to a dead-to-the-world Pen Pen and said, "Come on, Penny." The female Penguin looked over at Pen Pen, and then back at Ritsuko with a look of confusion on her face.

"It's okay," Ritsuko said in a sweet voice Misato had never heard before. "He won't bite. He won't-" Ritsuko paused and snapped her fingers in front of Pen Pen's face a few times but got no response -"anything. Come on, hop hop!" To this, Penny raised an eyebrow and crossed her arms...Wings.

Misato said to the blonde, "Is she as smart as Pen Pen, do you think? If she is, you don't have to treat her like a dog. I can talk to Pen Pen normaly and he understands."

"Oh." Ritsuko blushed a little. "Well she is pretty smart." She turned to Penny and said, "Sorry." Penny sighed.

"Let me try," Misato said, putting down her beer. She stood next to the couch and said to penny, "Have a seat. This is your house too now, you know."

Penny then looked up at the purple haired woman, then back at the couch. Then at Ritsuko again.

Ritsuko scratched her head, then said, "Oh!" She wrap her arms gently around Penny who went without resisting. Then when she was placed on the couch and released, Ritsuko said to Misato, "I forgot. She always has trouble getting on the couch." Her blush deepened. Penny then took a seat next to Pen Pen.

The two women still just stood there, watching. Penny looked up at them and...did nothing. "Oh, I see," Misato said aloud. "They need some privacy. We'll just leave you two lovebirds alone. "Misato turned the T.V. on to National Geographic. Then she took Ritsuko's arm and led her out of the room to the kitchen table. When they had a seat, she said, "So tell me about Penny."

"Hey."

He doesn't respond. Or just doesn't hear.

"Hello."

Still, he doesn't respond.

"Hey!"

She snaps her fingers in front of his face but gets no responce. "C'mon. I need someone to talk to. Helloooooo."

He blinks and says, "Wha...?"

"Finally. Are you okay..." She looks closely at his tag and reads, "Pen? Oh, there's a little 2 next to it. Are you okay, Pen Pen?"

"Wha...?"

"You look kinda' sick."

"Wha...?"

"Is that all you can say?" Before he could say anything, she continued. "I hope not. I need someone sane to talk to."

"Wha...?"

"I hope you'remore talkitivewhen you're not...in whatever condition you're in right now."

"Wha...?"

"Well, anyway, my name's Penny."

"Wha...?"

"I said, my name's Penny!"

"Wha...?"

When Pen Pen says this the again, she says to him, "If you say that one more time..."

Pen Pen sits and stares blankly at the T.V.

"Alrigh-"

"Wha?-Ouch!"

"Serves you right," said Penny.

Pen Pen put his right wing to his cheek and said, "Why'd you do that?"

"Because you were freaking me out."

"You didn't have to pinch me so hard!" Pen Pen wined, rubbing his sore cheek.

"Yes, I did. You were comatose."

"No I wasn't! I was just..." He didn't finish.

She finished for him, "...Just swooning?"

"Where did you come from anyway?" Pen Pen said, still rubbing his cheek.

"Mama's house," she said.

"But this is mama's house."

Penny looked around. "No," she said. "This is your mama's house."

"Okay," Pen Pen said. "So where's your mama's house at?"

Penny opened her mouth to respond, but found that she couldn't answer that. "I don't know..." she said.

"What do you mean? How can you not know?"

"Well my mama put me in a box and brought me here. I don't know where home is. I don't even know why I'm here."

"Aren't they so cute?"

Penny turned and noticed Misato and Ritsuko peeking at them from the kitchen doorway.

"I think they see us," one of them whispered. "Quick! Back to the kitchen. We don't wanna' make them nervous." Then they shrank back around the corner until they were out of sight.

Penny said to Pen Pen, "Can you believe it?"

Pen Pen caught himself before saying 'What?' remembering the pinch and said, "Believe...?"

"They just throw us at eachother and expect us to just start goin' at it."

"Going at what?" Pen Pen said.

"You know...It."

Pen Pen raised an eyebrow. "What?...Food?"

Penny let out an exasperated sigh and said, "Are you completely dim?"

"Not completely," Pen Pen said with a little pride.

"It means..." Penny leaned close to the other penguin's ear and whispered something. When she leaned back andlooked at him expectantly.

"Oh," Pen Pen said. "...Oh!" Even though he was a penguin and was covered in a layer offine blackfeathers, Pen Pen still blushed bright red. "Gross," he said

"Yeah," Penny said. "You're totally not worth it." Then she stuck out her tongue.

"What's that supposed to mean?" he asked, offended.

"Look at you," she said, splaying her arms out toward him. "You're a looser."

"No I am not!" he said.

"Yeah you are. You sit in that freezer all day don't you? I'll bet that lady with the purple hair walks you on a leash, doesn't she?"

That brought back memories so unpleasant that Pen Pen shivered. "No," he said quietly.

"And who's this?" Penny asked as Shinji came out of his room. He stopped and stared at them for a moment. "What's he looking at?" she quietlyasked Pen Pen.

"He's looking at you and I can't blame him."

Before Penny could come up with a retort, the boy came closer and said, "Well hellow there, Penny." Then he turned to Pen Pen and said, "Did you make a new friend?"

"He's talking like we're children," Penny said. She was watching the boy closely for any quick moments.

"Don't worry, he's harmless," Pen Pen said. "He's a good boy- Aren't ya, boy?"

"Oh, no. Please say he's not gonna'..." But he did. Shinji reached out and rubbed Penny's head softly. This brought an unexpected responce from her. First she went stone-faced, like she was trying tohold something back. Then she groaned deep in he throught and slid down with her eyes droopy until she was lying almost on her back.

Shinji said, "You like that, huh?" Penny's leg began to kick. Shinji would of kept on if it hadn't been for misato's voice.

"Shinji, are you gonna' make lunch?" she called from the kitchen. "I'm starving."

Shinji obediantly went to his post at the kitchen stove. When the two penguin's were alone, Pen Pen looked at Penny and said, "What was that?"

She quickly got back up until she was back in a sitting position. Then she said, "W-what was what?"

"That," he said. "You just freaked out when he did this." Pen Pen reached and scratched the bottom of Penny's chin. She immedietly went droopy eyed, then snapped out of it and slapped Pen Pen's hand away.

"Don't touch me, loser!" she screamed.

Pen Pen noticed a little color below her eyes and said, "Now I know your weak spot."

Penny ignored him and said, "Was that one of you're looser friends?"

"No," he answered. "He's my...pet."

Penny just looked at the other penguin. Then she said, "Liar."

"No really. Whatever I say he does." He could see she was unconvinced so he said, "C'mon."

The two of them hopped down from the sofa and padded intothe kitchen where Misato and Ritsuko were still discussing Penny's habbits and needs, and Shinji was helping himself to a large bowl of Ramen noodles. "Watch and learn," Pen Pen said.

He went over to Shinji's seat and kicked his leg. Shinji didn't seem to notice so he said, "Hey! Boy!" He turned to Penny and said, "That's his name, 'Boy'."

"That lady called him 'Shinji'," Penny said, pointing at Misato.

"That's her name for him, yes." He turned back to Shinji and said, "You'd better look at me, you little runt!"

Of course Shinji couldn't hear him. Animals talk in different ways than humans do; With body language, a small noise here and there, and through their eyes, animals don't need speech.

"Hey!" Pen Pen called again with another kick. This time, Shinji noticed the frantic penguinand looked down at him.

All he heard was a "Skwaak!" He said to Pen Pen, "What's up?"

"Gimme some noodles!" He said, pointing at Shinji's cup. Then he turned to Penny and said, "Humans. You can't live with them and you can't live without them. You know?"

Penny said, "He can't understand you. Humans are stupid. They don't speak like us." Then she just crossed her arms and looked on at the penguin that was trying to empress her..

Shinji looked from Pen Pen to his noodles, then back again and made the connection. "Oh, you want some food?" Then, using chopsticks, took a single noodle and lowered it into the penguin's open mouth. He almost choked on the long strand of ramen, to his embarrassment. But after a few gagas, he got it down.

"Mmmm," Pen Pen said, after he finished choking. "Shrimp." He looked at Penny and saw that she wasn't impressed.

"Wow," Penny said in mock amazement. "That was, like...Amazing." She said 'amazing' in an exasperated sigh.

"Yep," Pen Pen answered,stretching. "I got them traaaaained!" He could tell, still, that she wasn't empressed by his actions. What's wrong with me? he thought. Why am I trying to empress her?

"Watch this," Penny said. "And learn." She put one arm out and snapped her fingers. Immediately, Ritsuko got up and kneeled next her penguin. Then she started looking for what was bothering her. Penny gave her a moment, then waved her hand in a dissmissive way. Ritsuko shrugged and returned to her seat after seeing that Penny had no need for her service. Through thewholeordeal Penny never broke eye contact with Pen Pen, who now stood with his mouth wide open.

Wow, he thought.

"That is what you call trained," she said. "What are you doing?"

Pen Pen was trying to snap his fingers but found that it was harder than it seemed. "How do you do that?" he asked.

"A lot of work for a penguin," Misato said to Ritsuko after she had tended to her penguin's snap.

"It comes with the job. Penny has a lot of needs, you should know...You're sure she's not too much for you? I mean, two penguin's in one house?"

"It's fine!" Misato said, cheerfuly. She reached down and roughly rubbed Pen Pen's head. Then she said to Ritsuko, "Pen Pen here is never a problem. Isn't dat wight Pen-Poo?"

To this, Penny actually seemed to sneer. The look on her face said, 'Pen-Poo?'

"Just go," Misato said. "She'll be fine here. It's better than her living with a pack of cats, right?"

Ritsuko let out a sigh. "I guess you're right," she said. Then she lifted herself from her chair and nelt down in front of Penny. "Don't worry," she said. "Mama'll visit you all the time. I promise." Then she hugged her.

Ritsuko stood and headed for the door, Misato in stepbehind her. She stopped at the door and said, "Remember." She took on her serious Third-Impact face and said, "When she needs something, she'll snap her fingers. Never ignore her when she snaps her fingers."

Misato shivered. She hated it when her friend took on that tone of voice. "I got you," she said. "It'll be okay. You know how good I am with penguins. Just look at Pen Pen," she waved a hand towardsher own healthy male warm water penguin. "Now, go. Don't you worry about a thing. She'll be here whenever you want to see her."

Ritsuko opened her mouth to argue, but held herself. She knew her friend was right. She nodded, and with no further words,a hug, and a good bye, left the life of her warm water penguin in the hands of the very same person she herself would leave her own life in.

"Oh, no!" Penny cried. "Where is she going?" Penny was still staring at the door through which her momy just left her. She felt a great weight of shock. Her body felt heavy and her breathing became labored. Somehow, she summoned the strength to stager toward the door and pound feably. "Moma! Come back!" she wailed.

Pen Pen joined Penny at her side and in an attempt to comfort her, said, "It's alright. She said she'd visit you some time. Umm." He was having trouble going on, as he had naver tried to comfort anotherpenguin before, let alone a female. "It'll be okay. You don't need her to live. We'll have loads of fun, just the two of us.A great time!"

Penny turned to him with tears in her eyes. And something else. Was it hope? "Just the two of us?" she said, her voice thick.

Pen Pen smiled. "Yeah, just me and you. It'll be-" It wasn't hope.

Penny began pounding the door again, screeming loud enough to attract Misato's attention. The woman came over and attempted to calm the frantic penguin, but it was no use. "Nooo!" she screamed. "Mama! Please don't leave me here with him!"

And that's how the second chapter goes. There may be a few errors. And it may be a littledetail-less. But it's done.R&R