Disclaimer: I do not own The Penguins of Madagascar or any of its characters but I do own the penguin Alex.

Alex wanted to stay like this forever, so she was disappointed when Kowalski took a step back. She looked up at him to see him smiling down at her. He gave her another kiss, before turning and walking over to the door, opening it. She followed him, surprising herself by wishing that moment could have lasted longer.

She was aware that she just met him, but already she had strong feelings for the tall penguin. In a dream-like state, she followed him to the main room. She snapped out of it when she noticed her father and the others looking up from their card game.

Somehow they seemed to know something just happened; the way Skipper was eyeing his daughter was making her very uncomfortable. But she moved closer to Kowalski and decided to stand her ground if Skipper had something to say about them being a couple.

The leader put his cards down and got to his feet. He waddled over to them, and Alex reached for Kowalski's flipper, suddenly not afraid of what her father would say. She was surprised to see him nodding his head, approval shining in his ice blue eyes.

"So you two finally got together, huh?" he asked, with a hint of laughter in his voice.

Alex stared at her father, shocked. "You knew we would?"

"I had a hunch," Skipper said. "Sad Eyes saw you kissing, and I wondered how long it would take before you said something about it."

Alex was about to respond, but Kowalski forestalled her. He placed his flipper on her shoulder and told his leader," We are officially together."

"That's great!" Private came waddling over, a smile on his face, Rico right behind him. "Congratulations!"

Rico grunted and he gave Kowalski a sly look.

But Alex was confused. Who was "Sad Eyes" and how did whoever they were see them kissing? She was about to ask her father when Private turned to Skipper and asked," Can we celebrate with snow cones, Skippah?" His eyes shone.

Skipper turned to him, smiling. "Sure, young private." He started waddling to the ladder, but Alex didn't move. Her father must have noticed that she wasn't following because he stopped and turned to her. "Are you coming?" he asked.

"Actually, I might miss out this time," she said, and she turned to Kowalski. "I was hoping we could spend some time alone together."

Her boyfriend smiled at her.

Skipper nodded and called the other two, and they left. Then Alex was alone with Kowalski. She turned to him and saw him smiling down at her. Before she could react, he grabbed her flipper and said," Come with me. I want to show you something."

He led her back to the smaller room they were in earlier and they stopped beside the table. He gestured around them, indicating all the machines, blueprints, and objects in there.

"Welcome to my lab," he announced, glancing down at her.

She looked around in wonder as she began to explore. She passed a strange looking ray-gun, and she stopped beside it. Picking it up, she examined it. The end of it was the bottom part of a bowling pin and the other half was pointy.

Weird…

She reached for the trigger, making sure it wasn't pointing at her, but right when she was about to shoot it, a flipper touched her shoulder and she turned around, eyes wide. She relaxed when she saw that it was just Kowalski; but her heart beat faster when she saw that she was pointing the strange gun at him. Quickly she lowered it and laughed nervously.

"That's my shrink ray," he explained as he took it from her.

She stopped laughing when their flippers touched. Blushing, she pulled away and looked everywhere but at him. She wasn't used to liking someone in this kind of way.

As she looked, she noticed something on the table. She hurried over there and studied it without touching it. What is this? she wondered. It looked like a toy— pink with heart stickers on it and lots of buttons and a skinny hole. It also had a lever and a big red button.

Even weirder…

"Now that right there, I call it the Luv-u-lator 3000," Kowalski told her as he walked over to her.

Alex turned to him. "3000?" she asked, confused. "Why 3000?"

Kowalski shrugged. "Just thought it sounded catchy."

"I guess it does." She turned back to it. "What does it do?"

"It's supposed to find someone's perfect match."

Alex widened her eyes. "Really?" A thought suddenly popped in her mind, but she didn't say anything, so she was surprised when the tall penguin said," Wanna try it? I don't think it works, but we can see what it says."

"Sure," she replied, sounding calmer than she actually felt. I can see once and for all if I should be with Kowalski, she thought.

He picked up the machine and walked out of his lab. Alex followed him. When they got to the main room, he started plugging wires into the TV.

Then he turned to her and pulled out a q-tip. "I have to get a saliva sample."

Confused, Alex stuck out her tongue. She felt the q-tip move across it and blinked when Kowalski stepped back. Putting her tongue back in her beak, she watched as he walked over to the machine and dropped the q-tip into the hole. As soon as he did that, the red button started flashing and a picture of the zoo appeared on the TV screen.

The female penguin looked at it, confused. Was it working?

She flinched when a red heart popped up, pounding like a real one. But it wasn't in the penguin habitat. She looked closer, but before she could be sure where her perfect match could be, Kowalski pushed a button and the screen faded to black.

Alex turned on him. "Why did you do that?" she demanded.

"Oh." He sounded surprised and he didn't look her in the face. "I told you this thing didn't work. It didn't work last time, and it's not working now. Sorry." He shrugged and began to push Alex back to his lab. "There's something else I want to show you, anyways."

Back in his lab, Kowalski crossed the room and returned a moment later, his flippers behind his back. Alex looked at him, confused and curious at the same time.

Finally he revealed what he was hiding and Alex blinked. He held a strange, square thing made of… jelly?

"I named this creature Jiggles," Kowalski told her as he flicked the blob and the creature wiggled.

Alex jumped back when she saw it move.

"It's alright." He smiled kindly and held his flipper out. She reached forward and the creature jerked into motion, slowly sliding off its creator's flipper and onto Alex's. She stared down at it.

Very interesting…

She forgot all about Kowalski's strange reaction to the results of the Luv-u-lator as she watched Jiggles move along her flipper, and a few times she had to catch it with her other flipper before it fell off.

"I accidentally created him when I was on the edge of a breakdown," Kowalski said. "It had been a while since I had created something useful, so I was… umm… beginning to freak out a little. Then I made this wonderful discovery…"

His voice faded to the back of Alex's mind as she zoned out. As she stared down at Jiggles, she soon forgot to pretend like she was listening as Kowalski went on and on about how he had made this jelly creature and how it had turned evil.

A gentle touch on her shoulder brought her back, and she looked up. Kowalski was looking at her seriously.

"Do you like science?" he asked suddenly.

Alex blinked, surprised. Then looked down at Jiggles again. "Honestly…" She hesitated. "No," she finally answered. "Not really… I mean, I taught myself how to read, but I never had much interest in the science field. I'm sorry…"

Kowalski looked away. "That's alright. I—"

He was interrupted by someone calling from the other room. "Hello? Penguins?"

It was King Julien. What's he doing here? Alex wondered.

Kowalski rolled his eyes. "He often barges in our HQ uninvited," he murmured. He sighed when the king called out again, but before he went to go see what the lemur wanted, he took Jiggles from Alex and told her quietly," This is top secret. Nobody besides you and I know about him." He pointed to Jiggles.

Alex nodded to show that she understood.

Quickly the scientist hid the jelly-creature and headed toward the door. As he passed Alex, he grabbed her flipper and she walked with him out of his lab.

King Julien was standing in the middle of the main room, looking around. Maurice and Mort were behind him; the aye-aye lemur was looking uncomfortable, but Mort stared at the king's feet with noticeable excitement. As soon as he saw her, Julien's eyes lit up and he ran to her.

"We are having a party," he announced, adding," And I'm gonna be needing all of my subjects." There was something about his tone and the meaningful look he shot Kowalski that made her uneasy. But she knew she couldn't object after the promise she made.

She took a step back and dipped her head. "Yes, my king," she answered, but before she could start to follow the lemurs, Kowalski pulled her aside and bent down to whisper to her," I don't think Skipper will like this."

She stared wide eyed at him. "But he's my king," she insisted, willing him to understand. "I made him a promise, and I can't back down now. I must listen to him." She took a step toward the lemurs, but stopped in her tracks when she caught her boyfriend's eyes. What was wrong with him? Why did he look so miserable?

"What is taking so long?" Alex looked past him and saw the king was leaning to one side now, arms crossed, with an annoyed look on his face.

She turned back to Kowalski. "I'm sorry, but I have to go with him," she murmured. She stretched on her tiptoes to lay a kiss on his forehead, then ran to Julien's side, staring up at him eagerly. "I promise I won't be out long!" she called over her shoulder as she followed the lemurs up the ladder. She glanced down at Kowalski, telling herself that she was only imagining the anxious look on his face; then she left the HQ and her boyfriend behind.

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