A/N:So I decided to try and pick this story back up. I really loved my start to this but I guess I lost interest in it for awhile. I went back and read it and noticed that I did a lot better with the story in the past. I tried to recreate my old style but I don't think I did very well. I think this chapter is quite good, it took me a long time to actually get it to where it was. Anyways, I apologize for the long wait and such, please review!
-SM
Julien awoke quietly, stretching out on the bouncy where him and Skipper had shared their last embrace. He frowned, missing the flightless one already.
The slender body slipped off the rubber inflatable and stretched, his tail flickering out and twitching as all the sleepiness spit out from the tip.
It seemed that he had been asleep longer than he wanted; the peoples were already walking around the lemur exhibit, making their ways about the zoo.
"Morning your highness, you're up late." Maurice said suspiciously. Julien took no mind to his chunky-monkey's tone and quickly climbed his way up to his throne, taking his place on it, rightfully of course.
"Oh pishy-posh Maurice, you are just being a warty worrier." The lemur king said confidently, staring over his subjects. Everyone seemed to be taking his radiance quiet well; the lemur habitat had been getting quite a lot of attention, ever since he got up.
Maurice was still curious to why his king has been having these mood swings…It was someone. He knew how to find out, he knew who to ask. Now was his chance.
"Your highness? I need to talk to the penguins you don't min—"
The taller mammal's yellow eyes lit up as he jumped right in front of his assistant's face.
"Ooh! I want to be coming with!" the king said almost with more enthusiasm than he should have. Maurice stumbled back and fell on his rump, being startled by how close the other was.
"Why do YOU want to come with, you high-"
Julien pushed his paw to the aye-aye's face and closed his mouth, "No questioning your king! You know that Maurice." Julien stressed
Of course. Maurice didn't object, just nodded his head and shoved the paw on his muzzle away.
"C'mon Mort, we can't leave you here alone," the larger of the three said, Mort popping up from the small shrub that resided at the bottom of the habitat and jumped to their side.
Julien didn't even care that the little mouse like lemur was around. All he knew is that he was going to see his penguin…even if he didn't know it.
"Helloooo!" Julien sung, poking through the fishbowl entrance and smiling at the penguins below.
Skipper looked up from his coffee, his eyes going wide.
"Julien— err Ringtail? What are you doing here?" he recovered quickly, the rest of the team not really paying much attention to the lemurs intruding.
"Yes Skippuh?" the king had asked, jumping down and propping his paws up on his hips.
"What are you guys doing here?" the penguin asked in haste.
Julien looked at Skipper blankly and then turned to Maurice, his fingers lightly scratching at his chin whimsically.
"Why did you need to see the flightless penguins, Maurice?"
The aye-aye bit on his lower lip, trying to find a diversion for the king, "Uhm well…uh,"
"Be spitting it out already Maurice we don't have all day."
The penguins looked at the chunkier mammal with confusion, "Kowalski, what inventions have you been working on lately?" Maurice finally attempted, hoping that it would create some kind of break in this tension that he had created himself.
The brainiac brightened waddled off to his lab, "follow me, I'll show you what I've been working on, Private and Rico, if you don't mind?"
The aye-aye gave out a sigh of relief inwardly as watched the two penguins follow up close to Kowalski. He walked behind the birds, Mort following close behind.
Julien and Skipper were now left alone. The penguin wasn't sure to be happy or worried about this unplanned visit.
"Why hello there Skippuh…long time no see," the king said playfully, his fingers delicately rubbing along his long tail.
Skipper choked out a simple "Hey Julien," feeling a bit dumb for his simplistic reply.
With no thought on his mind the lemur king tackled the stumpy penguin into a tight hug, shaking him a bit.
"Did you sleep well my loveydovey bird?" he asked curiously, nuzzling into Skipper's neck.
The penguin gave out a nervous laugh and did his best to hug the lemur back, "The best I could without you being next to me…" he said in a whisper, unable to help but smile.
Julien's face flushed a light pink.
"How sweet of you to say such a thing," the lemur said feeling mood float even higher.
"Tonight I want to be taking you some place special…" That blush that had stained Julien's cheeks faded, his expression becoming more serious.
"Where are you taking me?" Skipper asked, caught off guard by the sudden change in expression.
The lemur looked around quietly and whispered to him, "It's a secret, you'll just hafta be seeing. Then marvel at the beautiness of it."
Skipper became a bit skeptical but nodded anyways.
Upon closing the door Kowalski began to babble about his new and improved mind swapper. Maurice was less than interested in it.
"—this time I tried using Private, the quieter one of our team and Rico, for..obvious reasons. To see if they could manage in each others bodi--"
"Listen, I apologize for bringing your hopes up Kowalski and interrupting, but I was wondering if you guys could do something for me…" Maurice started.
Kowalski's smile seemed to slowly fall off his face; he looked disappointed but was willing to put it behind him and gave a nod of his head.
"Alright, what would that be, Maurice?"
The aye-aye fidgeted with his fingers and looked around at the three.
"Well, it has to do with Julien's moods. If you haven't noticed by now, he's been having these ups and downs in very short periods of times. I need you guys to figure out what's going on…he won't tell me. I've asked him out rightly and he gives me his normal excuses, leaving me right where I started. I can't take it anymore; I think he is seeing someone that makes these spikes in mood. Last night I heard someone talking to him, but I couldn't make out who it was…so, can you guys do it for me?"
"Uh...of course Maurice, we'll get right on it" Kowalski turned to look at Private, who flashed an oblivious smile, then to Rico, who shrugged.
"Though, it'll take us a bit of time to go around and get information, if that's alright with you." The strategist added.
Maurice shook his head, "as long as you figure out what's wrong I really don't care how long it takes." He reassured.
Kowalski smirked and grabbed the door and turned to Maurice one last time, "I'll bring it up to Skipper later on. We'll get the answers you want, and get Julien back to normal."
"Thanks guys…I owe yah one."
Julien and Skipper jump a few feet away from each other, instinctively giving one another a glare to try and make it seem as if they were fighting.
"You stupidy-ey penguin how dare you speak to your king like that! Maurice!" the slender mammal snapped, crawling up the ladder quickly, his cohorts following after.
Maurice followed closely to his king, confused to why he seemed so upset, yet another mood swing he presumed. The three of them exited from the headquarters and began their journeys back to their own habitat.
The shuffled back to what they were doing before the visit had occurred. Kowalski turned to Skipper, who was now lying down in bed.
"Skipper?" he asked quietly, making his way over to the bunks, scribbling down a few mental notes already about the mission.
"What's up Kowalski?" the leader muttered, rubbing his cheek.
Kowalski gnawed at the end of his pencil somewhat, his eyes turning up to meet with Skipper's.
"Maurice has given us a mission to figure why Julien's mood has transposed so frequently."
"I thought I took care of it…" Skipper said flabbergasted by what his strategist had presented to him.
Kowalski's eyes were glued to his clipboard again, scribbling vigorously, "Guess Maurice thinks otherwise. He said that it might be someone seeing him, which I assume this animal has great control over Julien. But I don't think anyone is capable of that…" the taller went off in thought.
Skipper felt his body start to warm up with anxiety, Julien was right. He cursed the aye-aye mentally. Skipper swallowed the lump in his throat, which had been keeping him from speaking.
"He's fine now isn't he? I don't see the point in doing something that I specifically fixed." The leader protested, his flipper dropping on the top of the clipboard, pulling Kowalski away from his thoughts.
He grunted and yanked his board backwards, setting it under his flipper.
"Skipper, it's a simple task. If it makes Maurice happy then we should just find out the origin of it and just move on, even if you did technically fix it."
At this moment in time Private turned from the television, "Wot exactly did you do, Skippah?"
Skipper turned his attention to the curious apprentice, "I talked to him, and ringtail seemed to just not be feeling good…that's it."
Private's question caught the strategist's attention, "He didn't tell you why he wasn't feeling good?"
After a few seconds of thinking, Skipper sighed in frustration, dancing around his words was a bit tougher than he thought.
"No, he didn't." the leader started "I didn't think much of it at the time, he just needed someone to be there, like I said, he's fine now." The penguin reinstated.
Until this mission was finished he wouldn't, and most likely, couldn't, get alone time with his ringtail. His heart sunk down into his stomach, making him sick.
"Alright…men, get to work" Skipper sighed
"Okay Skipper! I'll go see if Marlene has any information on him or this mysterious person." Kowalski smiled, starting off.
"Private, Rico. You check with the other animals of the zoo. I'll talk to Julien in a bit, I need some time to think of what to say to the lemur king."
His soldiers saluted him and all went off on their orders. Skipper waddled over to one of the cinder block seats that sat around the table; he sat on it and began to rub his temples with his flippers.
The walk a back to the habitat was quiet; none of the lemurs had said a word to each other. Maurice didn't mind, he was thinking too deeply anyways to even care if Julien had something to say. Only thing he cared about was how long it'd take for the penguins to give him his results. He hoped, no, prayed, that the penguins would provide him with what he wanted.
"—Maurice are you listening to what I'm saying?" Julien said curiously.
The aye-aye looked up at his king dumbfounded, "Sorry your highness?"
"I demand you go out for the night, your king has business to attend to."
Even Julien's response was different; he never was so forgiving for his advisor's spacing out. "Where am I supposed to go, your highness?" Maurice asked, jumping over the brick wall and sitting on the large rock that jutted from the middle of the exhibit.
Julien on the other hand, crawled up to his throne and plopped his royal rear in the seat. His paw flicking about, "As long as you aren't here I am not caring." He said dully.
The stubbier lemur was getting really sick of these being gone at night things, he missed sleeping on this rock, and he missed sleeping…next to his king. But, he wouldn't go against his rules, "Alright, I assume I should bring Mort with me?"
The youngest of the three smiled stupidly.
Julien nodded his head, staring off at the headquarters again.
"Alright, your majesty…" Maurice complied unwillingly.
The penguin was the only thing on his mind; everything else didn't matter to him. He had gotten what he wanted, and now he won't let it go. He would make sure of that.
Until tonight, Skipper…
