Chapter 27: Dashing Through the Zoo

With the last crate unpacked and its contents set up, Blowhole shrunk the crates away once again and stashed them in his Segway drawer. He then glanced over at Kowalski who was running through his puppet script...Silently. Part of him wished he was practicing out loud so that he could hear it, but it would seem he would have to wait for the performance like everyone else.

However, he was not going to just stand there and wait for midnight and be bored. He began to roll away from his station, but at this, Kowalski looked up from his notes.

"Where are you going?"

"Just thought I'd look around before we're overrun with those kid-things." He gestured with a sigh.

"Oh!" The penguin tucked his notes away and waddled closer. "Then I'll come along. There's a few zoosters I'd like to introduce you to anyway if they're not busy."

"I see." He reached down and lifted Kowalski to his basket. "Well, point the way to go then."

Kowalski tapped his beak before pointing off to the left. "We'll start with Roger."

The dolphin nodded as he rolled that way, carefully maneuvering around much smaller animals in his path. "Exactly how many are you planning on introducing me to tonight?"

"Not too many. I don't want to overwhelm you." He shook his head. "I really just have three in mind, if you don't count the children, plus you've already met Marlene."

"Three is acceptable."

"Trust me, you won't regret it."

Blowhole glanced down at him. So this must be how Kowalski feels every time he tells him to trust him. Admittedly, he was not feeling a great deal of trust here. After so long of really only Parker as his friend and them only being friends due to several years of shared trauma...This whole "new friends" thing sounded naive.

Soon the two found themselves at the music station. A few stations away, he could see the lemurs, but he chose to ignore this and focus on his small, obviously excited boyfriend.

And then he saw the gator.

"Francis, meet Roger. Roger, this is Francis." Kowalski smiled as he gestured the introductions.

Roger smiled at the two. "Hey guys! Oh, what a pleasure to meet you!" He took Francis's flipper with his claws and shook it. "You're the dolphin from a few years back? I heard your singing, such Broadway quality!"

Blowhole raised a brow, yet this dissolved smoothly into his signature, charming grin. "My, I'm quite flattered. I take it that you're interested in musical theatre yourself?"

"I do! I absolutely love Broadway. I've dreamt of being a part of their productions!"

"You don't say?" The dolphin eyed the reptile, almost amused at the thought. "I'll have to hear you sing sometime. Have a favorite musical by chance?"

The gator paused to consider this. "Oh I just love so many, I couldn't possibly choose! Can I choose them all?" He chuckled. "And you? Can you choose a favorite?"

"I can." He nodded. "Are you familiar with The Count of Monte Cristo?"

"...That must be an older one?"

"Well, it was first performed in 2009, but it is based on the novel from 1844. If you haven't seen it, you should. It has an excellent storyline."

"Oh I'll have to look into it for sure, thank you!"

Blowhole nodded and glanced at Kowalski if they could leave yet. To his mild relief the penguin nodded back at him.

"Well, it was nice seeing you, Roger. But I have a few others to introduce Francis to before the kids are here." Kowalski smiled.

"Of course! Anytime!" Roger waved as Blowhole rolled away from him.

With a sigh, he looked down at Kowalski. "Where to next?"

"Okay, to Maurice!" He pointed ahead to the lemurs.

Blowhole groaned internally. Why did it have to be a lemur? That would mean he'd have to deal with him again. With another sigh, he rolled for the lemur station. The things he'll apparently do for this peng-u-in.

The lemurs were setting up some fruit on red and green colored numbered papers in a large circle on the ground. By them was a boombox, already blaring Christmas carols. In a blink, Julien was suddenly missing from the picture.

"Well, if it isn't Fishyface." Julien then purred from his new location—draped over the dolphin's head, lighting running his finger on his cheek.

Kowalski looked up at this with a slight frown.

"Get off." Blowhole swatted at him with a huff. "Not here to see you. Kowalski wanted to introduce me to...Marquis?" He glanced at the penguin.

"Maurice." The penguin shook his head and gestured to the aye-aye.

Julien groaned, stretching out even more. "But why? Why are you be seeing Momo and not me?"

"Because. I'm still mad at you and Kowalski is introducing me to his friends." He rolled his eye. "Now get off of me before I throw you."

"Ugh, you're no fun anymore. The stinky penguins are rubbing off on you." He pouted. "You aren't missing me yet?"

Kowalski then reached up with narrowed eyes and tugged on his long, ringed-tail. "Julien."

The lemur made eye-contact with him and then climbed down with a huff. As he hopped down, he smacked Kowalski with his tail. "I dated him first."

"Maybe so, but I've dated him longer." He growled.

Blowhole then put his flipper on the penguin's head and stroked it. "Easy there, Mittens. There is no reason to get into a fight."

"I'm not going to fight him. I'm just...Stating facts." He crossed his flippers and took a deep breath. "Anyway, Francis, that's Maurice. Maurice, my boyfriend Francis." He gestured with a single flipper before crossing them again.

Maurice looked over before glancing at the sulking Julien. "Uh yeah, hi there. We can talk more later. Not sure now is the best time." He glanced back at them. "Though I would have thought Skipper would have been against—"

"He was, but he's starting to accept it."

"And had no idea you were seeing someone after uh…What's her name again?"

Kowalski quickly motioned a subtle throat slash with his flipper and a certain look before glancing back at Blowhole.

"Oh don't be silly, Maurice, everybody is knowing about—" Julien then is silenced by Maurice's hand over his mouth.

"Just so happens we really need to uh… Get more fruit. Take care now." He added.

With an irked look at Maurice, Julien waved. "We can be talking more later, Fishyface." He then grinned.

Noticing how Kowalski's feathers were starting to rustle and hearing his soft growl again, Blowhole gently, though firmly, gripped his shoulder. "Yeah, uh, it was nice to meet you, Maurice, but we'll be going." He nodded, keeping his flipper securely on Kowalski as he rolled away.

The penguin finally sighed and looked away with an ashamed expression. "I'm sorry, I shouldn't have reacted like that. I didn't even think about how you and Julien have history when I thought of Maurice."

"Eh, don't worry about it." He ruffled his feathers. "But maybe we should put a pause on any more introductions until you're calmer."

"Oh no no, I'm calm! There's just one more anyway."

The dolphin eyed him skeptically. "Why don't we take a pause and get some eggnog first, mmh?"

The penguin considered this for a moment before nodding. "Yeah, that doesn't sound half bad actually."

"Good." He rolled over to the punch bowl of eggnog and dipped out two cups worth, but before giving one to Kowalski, he slipped out a little flask from the Segway and topped off both cups. He then handed him one, putting the flask back away.

Kowalski squinted slightly. "Did you just spike it?"

"Just our cups, I'm not an idiot." He rolled his eye. "Plus, this is the good stuff, I'm not sharing with the whole zoo."

Nevertheless, he looked at him skeptically as he took a sip. "... Not half bad." He took another sip.

"Hey, don't drink it too fast. The goal is to calm you down, not get you drunk." He took a sip of his own and made a face. "...Why does this taste like peanuts?"

"Oh, that's because it's Burt's peanut eggnog. Anyway, I'm still surprised you brought it."

He took another questioning sip of his drink before slowly answering. "It's a holiday celebration at my arch-enemy's zoo where I have an ex-boyfriend also residing, Kowalski. Of course I brought a little booze."

"... Yeah, like I said, I forgot about Julien being your ex." He sighed, rubbing the back of his neck and finished off his small cup.

" Well, it's not like he and I dated for very long. Like, I never took him on any dates or anything, just fooled around at the lair." He shrugged.

Kowalski held up a flipper and shook his head. "—I don't want to know."

"Fair enough." He finished off his cup and tossed his and Kowalski's cups into the trash.

"Now to Mason's?" He checked the time on his phone. "We should have enough time to drop by him before the children storm in."

"Alright, point the way." He sighed.

Blowhole then followed the direction of the penguin's pointing. For a few minutes, things were quiet. He was caught up in thoughts… Admittedly about the upcoming child mob. The image that kept coming to him was all of those times at Seaville when he'd look outside the pool at the sea of human children's faces encircling him in the aqua theatre. However, he just had to remember, these were animal children…Right? And that would be different?

Not that human children were that bad. Sure, a few might have thrown the odd thing into the tank with him, but sometimes those things were edible at least. It was only the ones that pointed or cried at his face that...Bothered him.

Would animal children be any different?

His thoughts were then interrupted by Kowalski humming in the basket. What was that, "Jingle Bells"?

"You don't have to hum, if you want to sing along, go ahead." He shook his head.

Kowalski grinned and leaned back in the basket. "Dashing through the zoo, on a one wheeled, steel segway. Over the paths we go, chatting all the way~"

Blowhole squinted at him.

"Bells on yarn strings ring, causing Francis strife. Oh what fun it is to laugh and sing and roll along tonight~" He chuckled.

"You, Mittens, you are a dork." But he cannot resist a small chuckle either as he shook his head.

"You know you want to sing along, Francis~"

Blowhole gestured ahead at the chimps. "I'd love to, but I do believe we're here."

The chimps were in the midst of putting finishing touches on their Santa and elf set up. Curiously, Blowhole tapped their chair, which was built up from wrapped packages, with his tail fluke. Empty wrapped boxes. That's almost disappointing and he's not even one of the kids.

However, this also got the chimps' attention. "Egad! It's that devil of a dolphin." Mason lifted his hands and Phil followed suit.

This drew a small smirk to the dolphin's rostrum.

"No, no, you can relax!" Kowalski stood up, waving his flippers. "He's with me."

The smirk slowly disappeared.

Mason grimaced, looking at the two as they lowered their hands. "...The supervillain with the monster music player is with you?"

"Yes, Mason, Phil, allow me to introduce you to my boyfriend, Francis." Kowalski smiled up at him. "He's not here for villainy. In fact, he's going to be doing a little magic show later for the kids."

"Indeed, no evil plot for tonight," Blowhole then grinned slightly, "but maybe next time."

Mason blinked at this. "You're dating your enemy?"

"Ha, well...Yeah, pretty much." The penguin rubbed the back of his neck. "We just discovered that we actually had a lot in common."

"There is a fine line between flirting and rival bantering." The dolphin added, curling a flipper around Kowalski as he leaned down. "And we've used that line as a jump rope for years."

The chimp looked at the two, not wholly looking convinced. "I'm glad to hear you found someone, Kowalski," he said, picking his words carefully.

"Actually, hold that thought." Kowalski nodded. "I was thinking you and Francis would likely get along pretty well. He has pretty cultured tastes, like chess."

"...Chess you say?"

"Mmhm!"

Blowhole nodded slightly. "I do play the occasional online chess match."

"Oh really? So do I. I wonder if we've ever played against each other."

"Well, I go by LegendaryDolphin there." He shrugged.

Mason looked over to Phil who was signing before gasping. "We play as King_Versailles02."

"Oh wow, small world." Blowhole chuckled.

Kowalski glanced between them all. "...I'm guessing you've met online then?"

"Oh yeah, I've been playing chess matches against that user for several years now. Probably some of my best matches."

"Indeed! We've had some smashing good games then!" Mason and Phil both eagerly nodded.

"That's...Unexpected, but good!" The penguin smiled slightly. "...Really cool."

"Hey, maybe if we get some time later we can try a round before I go." Blowhole smirked.

"I dare say you're on, ol' chap." Mason then shook his flipper.

Kowalski and Phil exchanged glances.

"And if not, we should arrange a match some other time." Blowhole flipper-gunned at him. "But we'll let you two get back to finishing up before the kids get here."

"Right, right, cheerio!"

Blowhole grinned still as he rolled away with Kowalski. "Had no idea I actually knew them."

"Me neither." The penguin sighed, resting his cheek on his flipper as he leaned on the basket.

"What?" He glanced down. "Something wrong?"

"No, no, absolutely not." He shook his head. "...But I wouldn't mind another spiked eggnog."

"Kowalski."

The penguin took a deep breath. "I don't know how to verbalize it, Francis. I'm glad this was successful in that you made friends, but I'm feeling...I don't know, something confusing and conflicting." He shook his head.

"...Jealousy perhaps?"

"N-no...No I don't think it's…" He furrowed his brow. "...Okay, maybe a tiny bit, but I know it's irrational." He looked away.

Blowhole rolled his eye and looked at him. "Mittens, who am I dating again?"

"...Me?"

"Yes, you." He kissed his cheek. "I'm not dumping you for Mason, or Julien, or...Who was the gator again? Roger? Not him either. You have no reason to feel jealous."

Kowalski smiled sheepishly at that. "...Sorry, I know."

"But I know you're clingy, that's something we can work on." He ruffled his feathers and headed for the eggnog again.

However, out of his periphery, he noticed a small shadow dart past. He stopped and turned back that way, listening carefully.

"What?" Kowalski joined him looking over there.

"Thought I saw something trying to be sneaky."

"...Maybe one of the children tried to sneak in? Or perhaps it was Skipper in a hurry?"

"Maybe it was Skipper. It was roughly Skipper's size I think...But it seemed thinner."

Kowalski furrowed his brow. "Not sure who that would be then, but I'll keep a glance out myself...Just in case."

"Yeah, you peng-u-ins may want to do that." He scanned the area one last time before returning to the eggnog table, shaking his head. This wasn't his job, but...Perhaps he ought to keep a small glance out himself.