I love coming up with titles that have more than one meaning. Once again, I own nothing of Madagascar and Gabby belongs to Funkywatermelon. I only own the characters I made up for this story.
Patience had never been Vitaly's strong suit. Even the fire-ring accident couldn't change that.
Regardless, something inside the tiger kept telling him to wait, not to mention something else he never excelled at: hope.
Vitaly stopped pacing around the floor of his and Natasha's boxcar and pinched his eyes together in frustration. 'How much longer ez dis meant to take?'
The monkeys and the penguins had left the circus earlier this morning and parted ways with each other, each group off to pull off its role in the plan. That had been about four hours ago.
Even with all of the practice and hard work thrown in, nothing could distract the Fab Four of NY, the tigers, Gia, and Stefano from thinking—and worrying—about Gabby, especially for Marty.
Vitaly sighed once more, only this time in concern. Marty, true to form (and in spite of his anxiety talk from yesterday), never stopped smiling and never lost the spring in his step during practice, even when he ended up flying into Vitaly by accident.
It was only a ruse.
Circus Zaragoza's knife-flinger could tell right away when the zebra flinched away from him instead of laughing and joking like usual. Nothing else could have screamed 'Something's wrong' louder—not that Vitaly didn't know the obvious already. Thank goodness the tiger chose to give everyone a break for a short while.
All the same, Vitaly was trying his hardest to remain calm and patient as he sat down beside his wife, her arms wrapping around one of his own and their backs against the back wall of their boxcar. Natasha lovingly stroked her husband's broad chest in an effort to calm him.
"It eez alright, Vitaly," she assured with a smile, "They know what they are doeeng. After all, how else would Alex and his friends have made it halfway across world?"
Vitaly grinned at his spouse's joke in a half-hearted manner, but then heaved a heavy sigh. Rubbing a hand over his head, the tiger looked out the tiny window of the boxcar. "I know, my love. It eez just..."
Natasha frowned at how the sentence trailed off. She didn't like it. It sounded too...fearful. "Just...what?"
"I cannot help but feel something will happen. Something terrible..."
Natasha widened her light blue eyes in shock. Then she narrowed them in concern as she craned her head closer towards her husband. "What makes you say dat?"
"I do not know. I simply cannot shake eet." Vitaly shrugged. He jerked in surprise when he felt Natasha give him a soft punch in the shoulder with her free hand.
"You know, Alex is right. You do worry too much," the tigress smacked her gums and crossed her arms, "Worrywart."
'Oh lovely, now my wife calls me out on my personality issues.'
Vitaly rolled his eyes and would've retorted something about being too lighthearted and optimistic if Natasha hadn't grabbed his head and silenced his lips with her own. The two cats froze in place as Vitaly immediately closed his eyes, too lost in the moist warmth of the kiss. After what felt like an eternity, they finally parted, Vitaly growling at the dangerous expression on his wife's face.
Natasha half-lidded her eyes and sultrily whispered in his ear, "I like worrywarts," before drawing back.
Vitaly grinned back at his wife, a naughty gleam in his green eyes as he took her by the chin and leaned toward her again to—
A sudden scream shattered the mood, startling the two tigers. Wasting no time, Vitaly and Natasha dashed out of their cart at record speed. The growing crowd of circus animals near the cannons was hard to miss.
The two tigers quickly marched up to the group, of which they could recognize Stefano and Alex and Gia, all of whom caught sight of and waved at them to come over, the worry evident on all three of their faces.
"What eez wrong?" Vitaly's question sounded more like a demand than an actual question, but it got him an answer all the same.
The penguins, sliding from out of nowhere, approached the tiger couple, Kowalski with a pair of binoculars in his flippers. The older ones all seemed more serious than usual, even Rico. Private was the only exception; his face was twisted in worry, his flippers fidgeting with each other.
Skipper pointed a flipper at them and gestured them to follow him. "You Ruskies better come and have a talk with Stripes' girl."
Rico and Kowalski parted the crowd so Vitaly and Natasha could see the reason for the hushed whispers. Natasha gasped in fear and concern at the sight while Vitaly narrowed his eyes in suspicion and premonition.
Curled into a ball in Marty's arms and constantly looking all around as if searching for a world only she could see was Gabby.
She shivered against the older zebra's chest as if she'd just been dipped in ice cold water and pulled out. Her wide, brown eyes shone with unshed tears as her ears twitched spastically, as if on the alert for even the slightest tattletale sound of who-knows-what.
While Private stepped forward to help Marty ease the she-zebra's mind, Kowalski shook his head in sympathy for the girl. "She's been behaving like this ever since we arrived."
Everyone, even Vitaly, jumped when Gabby abruptly started hiccupping, clinging closer and harder to Marty to the point of nearly cutting off the circulation in his arms. Marty didn't show the slightest hint of pain, even though Private managed to make Gabby relax her hold.
But soon her hiccups began to form something. "H-H-He...H-He..."
Marty nuzzled the trembling female—his way of motivating her to continue. Gabby merely closed her eyes and buried her face into the crook of Marty's neck, her tears no longer held back. "He...He followed me. I-I-I saw him. I-I didn't think...I...I'm sorry."
Vitaly would've marched over and demanded Gabby to elaborate if his wife had not impeded him with a hand to his chest and a shake of her head. Being delicate was also not one of Vitaly's strong suits.
Stepping to the penguin and two zebras as lightly as possible, Natasha leaned down and gave Gabby her most comforting and encouraging smile. Given the situation, though, the smile came off as somewhat muted. "Who did you see? Who saw you?"
"B-B..."
Natasha took one of Gabby's hooves in her paws and gently and repeatedly stroked the back of it with her thumbs. "Take deep, even breaths, dear. Now tell us. Who followed you here?"
This time, Gabby looked to Natasha without hesitation...except her eyes shone with a different emotion: sympathy?
Gabby closed her eyes and, with a final breath too much like that of a person readying for a death sentence, spoke softly enough so only Natasha, Vitaly, Marty, and Private could hear.
"Boris."
Feeling scared yet?
