Authors Note: An update! Yay! By me and RandomFanFictionPressGirl14. Revieeeew? Eh? Ehhh? hehehe... X3

~Natty.


Queen of Love.

~PoM~

King Julien sighed deeply as he wove the pieces of hay and flowers together. He sat with his legs crossed on the ground farthest to the wall in his habitat that way he could be alone. He himself wasn't happy at all but he kept working at his basket, the final binding process of his marriage. He wouldn't be happy in the marriage he could see now but that didn't mean his queen wouldn't be too.

It's been a day since the incident. After the penguin had left him in the park, leaving behind not only him but the evidence of their love, the king had walked back to the zoo solemnly. He thought for a bit about things to himself on the way back. He wondered if it had all been for nothing, if he could take everything back but he couldn't. They had ventured too far into the ritual to turn back now. There was only the final stage left, the giving of everything the queen likes in the form of an offering, which he was now slowly working on.

The basket was more than halfway finished, hand woven out of straws of hay flawlessly and the occasional flower woven into as design. Also because he could only sneak so much hay from the kangaroo pen without it resulting in his own death.

He'd gathered all the offerings that would make the bossy penguin, his new queen happy in order to finish off their consummation. The smile was the piece of string that would wrap it all together. The gift would be given to the new queen and whether or not she smiled was the determining factor. So in laymen's terms, if the penguin smiled at his offerings that meant then and there that they were wed forever.

So he pulled another piece of hay through an opening, slowly so that he wouldn't mess up the strand going into place. His efforts were with success and the piece of straw intertwined perfectly with the others. Which had him thinking right then about his subjects. He was sure they wouldn't mind the Skipper penguin as their new queen and second ruler. The penguin already technically ruled half of the zoo anyway, Julien of course feeling that he ruled the other half but more officially since he WAS king. He was king of the zoo of course officially while the bossy penguin unofficially ruled it like some kind of brute vigilante. Which the ring-tailed lemur thought now was actually very sexy...

Julien sighed again, groaning, trying to get his head out of the clouds as he glared to himself. He needed to stop thinking like that. The odds are he and his beloved would never share a time the way they did ever again. He would not be getting some of anything. It was best now if he just shoved it out of his head forever. Obviously his queen didn't like it but the penguin looked like he did...didn't he?

The way the bird moaned for him and pulled him close, begging for it, begging for HIM...

Didn't any of that mean anything?

The king slumped his shoulders. Probably not. Leave it up to him to choose the wrong queen. This is what he had forever promised himself since he was a prince he would prevent such would happen. He swore to himself that he would get a queen who loved him and didn't fake it. He knew what it was like being in a relationship without love, having been an eye witness to one almost all his life. The exact example of a couple he was trying not to follow: His own parents.

He had been born to a royal lemur family without love. His mother had been a gold digger, only interested in the publicity and popularity and his father had been dumb enough to fall for her.

Then the baby prince was born. Little baby Julien, which had been him.

He grew up watching a failing marriage, and he lived in fear of it. He worried he might loose his parents because there was no love. He then started to fear his own future, and what queen he might pick. He swore he'd be in a REAL marriage with REAL love.

Look where that landed him.

Now he was making the basket that would consummate their marriage without stopping. He'd prove his parents wrong. A failing marriage can get better, he always knew it. So he was going through with this one way or another.

His goodie basket was near completion. In an hour his marriage to the bossy penguin would be complete. He just needed an extra piece of straw to tie up the loose ends… Now where could he find that?

"Hello King Julien!" Mort greeted, running up happily to his king. "What are you doing?"

There was a piece of straw on the mouse lemur's nose for some reason.

Julien snatched it and worked it into his basket, fully ignoring the little pest but of course Mort wouldn't quit.

"Oooooooh! Look at that basket!" Mort reached for it.

"No! Stop it! Dat is not being for you!" Julien snapped, glaring and pulling the basket away. "It is being for somebody else obviously! Somebody better than you! So stop it!" the lemur nodded with a huff and began again with his weaving. The king was more than irritable, having not slept all night and under stress. He was in no way friendly or accepting right now.

"For me?" The tiny mouse lemur asked, not getting the message.

"NO! It is being for my QUEEN, you stupid! Are you LOOKING like my queen to you?!"

"N-no." Mort whimpered, scared by his king.

"Then GO AWAY and be leaving your king ALONE!" Julien shouted, picking up his now completed basket and storming away.

Mort started running away, crying. His king had never been so angry like that before! What had he done wrong?


~PoM~

There were butterflies in Julien's stomach as he neared the penguin habitat. All kinds of doubt rose in his head about what he was doing. It was hard to ignore your own thoughts. Especially if they were the only rational ones you've ever had in your life.

He questioned if the penguin would actually like his basket. He had put a lot of effort into it. If Skipper rejected it- he didn't even want to think about what would happen.

Well first it would be a shaming to both himself and his kingdom. Then the marriage wouldn't be binding but he didn't think he could face his bride to be rejecting him again. So he went for the second option: Dropping it off at the door and running for the bushes.

He jumped in and landed at the hatch. He hesitated horribly. This was a mistake wasn't it? If it wasn't then how come his heart was beating out of his royal chest? This-No, this was wrong. He couldn't do this, he couldn't do this, he-

"Is someone up there?" He heard the smarty penguin say.

Freaked, he dropped the basket and dashed. Julien jumped into the bushes just as the fishbowl was pushed aside and four birds emerged one after the other.

Skipper looked at the basket and picked it up. "What's this? Kowalski, analysis!"

"It seems to be a woven containment filled with select goods." Kowalski un-squinted his eyes as he pulled his head back.

"Oh a goody basket!" Private jumped in excitement. "Who's it for?"

Kowalski pulled the tag from it and read it, quirking a brow in surprise. "It's for Skipper."

"Me?" Skipper asked, a little suspicious. "What's the containment's?"

"Coffee beans, Kung-Fu movies, churros, a pair of brass knuckles, oddly enough the pair that was recently stolen, a moldy furro, and…a few kippers." Kowalski finished, looking up.

"It's all your favorite things, Skippah!" Private smiled. "How thoughtful that is! Are you going to send one back?"

"Negative! We don't even know who it's from!" Skipper said, holding it out in front of him like it could be a trap.

Julien was starting to get worried. This wasn't going as well as he'd hoped.

"Well, do you like the basket Skippah?"

"What?" Skipper blinked.

"Not worrying about who sent it, do you like it?"

"Oh, yeah." Skipper shrugged. "I'd like i all the more if I knew who sent it. Depending on who sent it."

Kowalski flipped over the tag and blinked. "Hm. Forgive me for not taking notice before, but there's a back side to this small card. I believe we have our culprit."

"We do, now do we?" Skipper waddled over. "What's it say?"

The lemur in the bushes released the breath he'd been holding. His queen loved it, and that was what mattered.

"We do, now do we?" Skipper waddled over. "What's it say?"

For a third time Kowalski was in confusion. "It's moniker is 'your ring-tail'."

"Julien?" Private raised a brow.

For a moment, everything in Skipper's world stopped. Your ring-tail. Julien.

That time in the park flashed before his eyes. Was ring-tail playing some kinda sick joke or something? What was that deranged lemur up to now?

The emotion on his face must have been easy to read, since Kowalski asked, "Are you alright sir?"

He gave a tiny shake of his head and a few blinks. He needed his mind clear. Even if it meant fawning a smile. "Y-yeah! Of course! I just...wasn't expecting something from ring-tail." He smiled. "It is kinda nice."

There was the sound of something rumbling down below and the group's scientist shrieked, holding the sides of his head. "My MICROWAVE GENERATOR!" Then rushed back down the hatch.

Private gasped, having used the invention to make their popcorn. "Our popcorn, Rico!"

"POPCORN!" Rico shouted in alarm, lifting the private over his head and tossing him down the hole before jumping in himself.

This left Skipper alone, still with an upturned beak, marveling his gift.

In the bushes, Julien couldn't have been happier. The ceremony was complete and as he slipped out of the shrubbery and literally waltz back to his kingdom in a slow fantasy. How he wished to now dance with his queen. Queen! He had his queen! He couldn't wait to tell Maurice!