Friction (rewrite)
Norma Jean was at a complete loss for words as she watched Mumble, her son, her baby boy, walk off onto the distance, his five foreign friends trailing after him. She could hear the slow patter of Memphis walking away, but the female penguin could not move. The entire colony was silent, including the elders. Norma Jean dipped her head down, already feeling the intense stares from the other penguins. Some of them began whispering, pitying the female. Norma Jean didn't want to leave just yet, she wanted to watch Mumble go, just so he could at least have the sense that someone still cared about him upon his exit. Once her son had disappeared, she slowly waddled off after her mate, a deeply saddened expression replaced her usual livelyness.
The female was certain that walking to the spot that they had come to was the hardest she had to do, almost everyone had their eyes on her. Nobody came out to ask how she was doing. But that was fine, she wanted to talk to no one but Memphis. There were no words to describe the levels of despair, anger, and fear she had. When Memhpis had stopped himself at a good distance from the others, Norma Jean was not far from meeting with him. The two penguins were briefly silent with each other, not until Norma Jean began to speak.
"How could you?" She muttered, loud enough for only Memphis to hear. He turned to face her. "Norma Jean, please, don't make this any harder for me.." Memphis turned back around, facing a massive ice wall. Norma Jean wasn't going to take this as an answer, she would never take something like that as an answer. She waddled forward.
"Don't you dare give me that, Memphis, I want an explenation for what I saw and heard back there and I want it now!" Her voice got louder than the last, she saw how Memphis was getting frustrated with her, he turned back once more. "For Guin's sake Norma Jean stop it." He rolled his eyes and went back to what he was doing. Norma Jean was appauled at how the penguin she thought was her husband was acting. It was disgusting, he had just turned his back on his son and he's acting like he did the right thing! That son of a-
"I don't like how you're sitting on a highhorse when you just threw your son out like he was nothing!" Norma's breathing became increasingly heavy. Memphis didn't even turn around this time, nor did he say anything in reply. This in turn pissed Norma Jean off since this meant that he was ignoring her. "Why are you ignoring me? This is serious, Memphis!" Again, the male penguin didn't respond to her. This really made her mad. She waddled closer to him, making herself almost visible. "Explain what happened that winter, now."
Memphis looked up at her, "I'm sorry.." Sorry wasn't an answer, not to Norma Jean for that fact. "That's not an answer, Memphis." She growled. "Explain what happened that winter." Memphis continued to look at her with those guilty eyes of his, however, the female wasn't going to let this go so easily. "For Guin's sake Memphis, just tell me!" She began to plead with him. "If I don't know, how are we going to fix this?" The male sighed at her question. Something inside of him knew he would have to tell her, whether it broke their relationship or not.
"I was thinking about your heartsong." Memphis started. He looked at Norma Jean before continuing. "I should've had my full attention on him, but I didn't..." He let out a long sigh. "I started dancing." He blurted out. "I was dancing when I should've been looking out for him."
Norma Jean's heart dropped to her stomach as the world around her shattered into pieces. She understood now, but did she really? What was he thinking? Dancing in the most crucial part of a penguin's existance? And to her heartsong of all things. Norma Jean took a step back, still having her eyes locked onto her mates. Was this really the Memphis she knew? It couldn't have been. She knew something changed in him when Mumble hatched, but she never expected this.. She had considered the fact that Mumble was dropped, but it had always come to either Memphis slipping or being shoved too hard by the other males. But dancing?
"What..." Norma Jean gasped. "How.. How could you?" She took another step back. "Why?" She almost tripped over herself. Memphis turned around to face her, scrambling to explain himself. "Norma Jean, I had to hide it from you, I didn't want you to be upset-"
"Upset!?" Norma Jean gasped. "I'm furious, Memphis! You had all this time to tell me, but you didn't until now?!" She felt hot tears welt up in her eyes. but that wouldn't stop her, not now. "Your son has been exiled because of your carelessness! Did you not think for a second that dancing would potentially harm your baby?!" She could barely breathe, just looking at Memphis made her so angry she just wanted to slap him. Memphis said nothing, he could only just stare at her as she continued.
"We could have stopped the bullying, the disappointment of the elders. But no, that was too easy for you was it? You just hid it.." She was trying so hard not to cry, she had to dip her head down to stop herself. "You hid it, and now look what you've done.."
"Norma," Memphis started, waddling closer to comfort her. "I should have told you, I'm so-"
"Sorry won't cut it!" Norma Jean forced herself away from him. "Sorry won't ever undo all the years of damage you have done to our son! You ruined every bit of confidence he had, and the moment he got that back, you came and ruined it!" She squinted her eyes shut.
"I can't be around you right now, I just.. I just can't" She turned around and waddled away from him. "I'm going fishing, just to clear my head. Don't bother talking to be when I come back." She said nothing more to him as she waddled out of emperor land in an emotional huff. Leaving Memphis alone with his thoughts.
It was only now that he regretted what he had done. He never thought of the damage he was causing until those words came out of his beak. "'Cause when he was just an egg I dropped him!" In that moment the world had stopped spinning as fear and regret filled his chest. He had just revealed his darkest secret in front of not only the entire colony, but to his wife and son. He recalled the distressed cry of his wife, and the anger of his son, who had finally relized why his own father never approved of him. He wanted to go after her, but he knew if he did that would cause more friction. He stayed put, only leaving him with his regret.