Even Otter Things Have Happened
Plot Summary: Takes place after 'Otter Things Have Happened'. Julien tries to make up with Marlene, but she doesn't want to. He enlists the help of the penguins to create a love potion for him, but things don't turn out quite right….
Disclaimer: The Penguins of Madagascar is the property of Dreamworks Animation Studios in association with Nickelodeon. I do not claim ownership of The Penguins of Madagascar.
Is it me, or is luck frowning on me recently? First, schoolwork piles up. Second, rains come, and I mean REAL RAINS! Third, I am so busy I don't even have time to watch PoM...That's just really disappointing. I expect to be very busy this week (month), so I can only update on weekends and whenever I have free time (unlikely!).
That being said, thanks to reviewers xxAznPenguin, hardrocker21, 13thsense, The Darkly Angel (so sweet!) and to P3MF Alpha 4-Richter (read it, I think they make a great pairing!), thanks also to my besty S-Kitty! Enjoy...
Chapter XII: Unexpected
Skipper stared at twinkling stars spanning the night sky, made faint by the eerie glow of the streetlamps. He sighed deeply as his mind buzzed with ideas and 'strategies' he would be needing for this 'date', and whether or not they would work, and whether or not Marlene would see through his actions. His heartbeat rate picked up as he felt a passing breeze brush against his feathers, and he gave an audible shiver. It wasn't because it was a cold night, no; on the contrary it was mid-summer. He knows he has never acted this way before, but probably it was because he never had been in such a situation he was in now. He shook his head frantically, trying to clear up his thoughts, as he glimpsed the distant silhouette of a zoo worker carrying a couple of cages, that no doubt contained the animals from the Reptile House. He watched the worker quickly walk away; the small incident at the Reptile House would probably have the zoo shut down for a while. Children on vacation wouldn't be able to visit the zoo for some time, but to Skipper, it was just fine, as there were more pressing matters on his mind than entertaining sugar-high toddlers. After waiting for a few more seconds, he continued walking in the direction of the front gates, the distinct shape of the ticket booth looming in the dim light.
'She's waiting for me.' Skipper mentally reminded himself. 'But what if she doesn't come?'
At the thought of this, Skipper froze, unwilling to even think that; but somehow, the thought that it might just be true lingered in his mind. His wind strained to work, but now accommodated to the increased processing rate, told him there was only one way to find out. But he made no sudden movement or dart forward. No, he had enough time to think about, well, everything that had happened so far. Skipper closed his weary lids, having not slept for two days, but again, he had more pressing matters to attend to. He was aware of what he was like whenever sleep was denied, and just hoped it wouldn't affect the date he had always longingly hoped for. His thoughts drifted to the incident that happened in the Reptile House; surely Blowhole couldn't have gone so far. Still, his lust for vengeance sometimes overpowered his sense of proportion, and that worked in Skipper's favor, at least today it did. Sighing deeply, he knew he had to be honest to himself as he recounted the countless times he had wanted to say what he truly felt for Marlene, but whenever he tried to, all that came out was bluster, lies, and arrogant gung-ho speeches. He knew he had to keep face in front of his men and the entire zoo, but Marlene always had that uncanny hold over him. He always was the first to spring into action whenever he even heard she was in danger, and he knew he was ready to give his life for her if he had to, the incident with Blowhole was but the most recent of these. He knew he could never deny her, not even the most nonsensical request she had to ask, and it took great effort on his part to grant the request and keep up his character at the same time. If she was even aware of the kind of hold she had on Skipper, he would be as soft as putty in her paws. But he had to be realistic as well, and the anxiety building up in his brain always kept thinking the same thing: 'Does she feel the same way about me?'
'Nonsense!' says his gut, 'You're better off without love!'
'What do you know?' replies his brain, 'All you do is digest stuff!'
'Love makes you weak! Your Commander Rockgut never bothered with that garbage!'
'And look how he turned out? Crazy, that's what!'
'CRAZY GOOD, THAT IS WHAT!'
'I LOVE MARLENE!'
With great effort, he silenced the rampant thoughts that stirred his stomach, as he looked up to see the familiar form of an otter doing a poor job of hiding behind the ticket booth. A jolt of electricity surged up his spine as feelings of intense happiness bubbled up in his stomach, popping to create an overwhelming sensation to dash forward and hug her. But his resolve wasn't broken yet, and he slowly walked to her position. His heartbeat went up to a fever pitch, his face started to feel hot, and he felt his feet would give. He wanted to stop walking, to just run away and rid himself of all the fear and anxiety, but his body disobeyed him. Odd, his body never disobeyed him before, and in a few more seconds he would be in her line of sight. It all felt very strange to him, and every step he took popped another bubble in his stomach, corroding the Iron Resolve he had spent years perfecting, and absolute euphoria threatened to break out. The only thing that stopped the dam breaking was the voice that rang out into the night, and cut a clean swath through the former-commando's thoughts,
"Skipper"
He glanced up to see Marlene, half-concealed by the shadows, half-illuminated by the light from the lampposts, and he slowly walked up to her, fully aware that her gaze was upon him, so intense it might've burnt a hole right through him. He lifted up his flippers hesitantly, as if unsure whether he should hug her. Ultimately deciding not to, and perhaps saving him great amount of awkwardness, he froze, not knowing what to do next. This was extremely out of place for Skipper, he always knew what to do, but when it came to this, he was as dumb as Fred. What was he expecting? His military training never prepared him for this kind of scenario as he tried to fight down the bubbles constantly erupting in his stomach. He was never familiar with this kind of fighting. He wished he was back out in the battle field, the real one as he thought.
"Well? Go on now." echoed Private's voice in his buzzing head.
'Huh? Private?' He thought.
"Come on Skipper! You can do it! Just do everything I told you to."
'You're right young Private. I can do this.'
"Wait… really? Yay!"
Skipper gathered all the strength and courage he could. He hid his face from her, trying to cover his shaking beak and the shame visible in his eyes. He felt so nervous, his flippers started shaking, later his whole body as well.
"Are you gonna' just stand here soldier or are you gonna' start acting like the man you really are?" Came Private's voice yet again.
"Well? She's right there you know!" Came another Private-y voice, and another, an imaginary chorus of Privates urging him to man up and confront her.
"Be a man!"
"Come on! Do it man! Do it!"
Skipper couldn't think right; he was losing control of his body as his legs stepped forward, and took another step. His mind screamed to hold back, to run away now and forget it, but his body continued to disobey him, and quickened the pace. He strained as hard as he could to stop himself, but years of training had made his instincts the most dominant factor in this situation. He tried again, but his body broke into a run, and only stopped when he was about to collide with Marlene.
"Skipper! It is you."
"Well hello my dear Marlene. Sorry about that. It's just you know-"He said very coolly and confidently, much to his surprise. What on earth was happening? Why couldn't he control anything?
"No... No...No Skipper. It's alright...It's alright." She replied, waving away Skipper's apology with her right paw, as a grin slowly forming on her face.
Marlene stared deep into his eyes. At that moment, he felt so weak, so inexperienced on matters of well, this, and the fact that his body continued to deny him control made nothing better. Even she was surprised at the amount of confidence he radiated, to the point where Marlene felt it spreading to was downright confused yet overall impressed.
Skipper's body finally gave control over to him, and he felt relieved, even waving his flippers about to ensure they wouldn't do something foolish such as wrap themselves around Marlene.
'Since when did he become the romance type?' She thought to herself, but nonetheless took his flipper in her paw, a friendly gesture at best, or so she thought, and smiled at him.
Due to the new size of his flipper, she could barely wrap her paw around it; much less keep a firm grip on it. He seemed to be aware of this as well, and he gave a forced cough to pathetically cover up the fact that he had tightened his grip on her paw. Marlene dearly wanted to erupt into laughter, but she was afraid it might have a negative effect on the remainder of the 'hang-out'.
Skipper coughed again, and looked away from Marlene.
"Is something wrong Skipper?"
"It's just that, well, I've never really been, what was it, 'hanging out'." Skipper's voice slowly started to die down, obviously ashamed of what he had admitted.
This time Marlene actually did burst into laughter. Her grip on his flipper slackened as she clutched her sides and slapped her knee. Skipper looked away, obviously trying to avoid her tear-filled eyes. After a few seconds, Marlene's laughter shrank to high-pitched giggles, and then died out completely.
"You've never hung out before? Then what do you call the things you guys do whenever you're not trying to save the zoo or your bellies from hunger? Don't tell me that's not hanging out!"
Skipper just wanted to die there and then, embarrassment so powerful he felt all sensation drain from his body. Pulling himself together on instinct, and probably to stop his eyes from twitching, he strained to recall what Private had said to him a few hours earlier. A few moments later, his mind finally kicked into its 'normal' state, as he planned to put into action everything the young romantic had taught him. Determined and confident, Skipper smiled at her response, knowing full well that she still used the term 'hanging out' instead of 'date'. He looked at her; she was just as confident as he was a few moments ago. It gave him an enormous amount of confidence to know that they shared the same feelings toward this 'date'. Nevertheless, he had to make sure that everything on this date would go according to plan.
"Well...it seems that the tables have turned my dear Marlene." He happily thought.
"Yeah! Let's go." He finally replied in barely audible whisper, but Marlene sensed an underlying fuzziness to his voice, it sounded odd, very odd.
Marlene forced herself to laugh. She didn't know why; he didn't make a joke. This was only to cover up the fact that she was the one feeling nervous. On Marlene's part, this felt very unusual; from what she had experienced before, she had never expected Skipper to talk in such a manner, let alone talk to her in such a manner. She looked into his eyes again, trying to recover from the awkwardness that she had brought up. His eyes, as usual, revealed nothing of his inner thoughts. At least there was something not out of place with Skipper. The commando penguin had only changed so much in such a short span of time. For starters, he was bigger, taller, and well, she had to admit to herself, hotter. Second, that aura of confidence he radiated whenever she was in his presence, it was all very odd; usually Skipper's aura usually consisted of overconfidence with a hint of arrogance, but never the kind of cool reassurance he radiated tonight, like it made him seem so confident and relaxed. Third, the amount of gentleness that he treated her with, he was never like that. He normally treated her with conceit, superiority, and a touch of disdain, but again, that was no longer him. Marlene thought that perhaps being so close to Death can change someone, even someone as Skipper, so drastically. She shivered as she felt something rush up her spine; her fur beginning to rise due to a strong and unfamiliar feeling that ran throughout her entire body.
"So umm yeah…let's go." She abruptly replied, and gripped his flipper again.
They walked away, paw in flipper as they apparently headed in no particular direction, but Skipper knew exactly where to go. This unnerved Marlene however, as anxiety, insecurity, and worries swirled in her head. She could sense that Skipper knew what he was doing, but he gave no hint as to what it was. Confused and worried, Marlene wanted to break away and run, but something, somewhere in her subconsciousness, urged her to proceed. How else would she find out what he had planned for her if she ran away now? He moved with such confidence, that all Marlene could do was continue to walk beside him, she was now powerless to resist. They were approaching the Marlene's place, with Zoovenir Shop looming behind it, but Skipper had abruptly stopped, with Marlene following suit.
"Skipper? Is something wrong?" she asked in a worried voice, clearly not liking where this was going, but wanting to continue anyway.
Skipper stared glassy eyed at the Zoovenir Shop, as memories of the past few hours flooded into his mind. His suitcase was still up there, where he had abandoned it to save her from Blowhole. The thought about what would have happened to Marlene if Skipper had continued with his plan of leaving the zoo hit him with the force of a tidal wave, and it soon ebbed away, only for it to linger, to haunt him. He had forgotten all about his leaving when he had learned of Marlene's fate, he remembered the feelings of desperation and anxiety as he raced toward her, hoping against hope she was still alive, and how he thought he was ready to die for her. It was too horrifying to think about what would have happened if he had not known, if he had not decided to save her. His beak hung limp as he remembered everything he felt, everything he intended, and everything that fell apart when he saw Marlene chained up, about to be killed before his very eyes.
"Skipper? Are you okay?" Marlene's voice was laced with worry, clearly sensing something troubling the stalwart penguin.
Snapping out of his trance, Skipper stared at Marlene with glassy eyes; and as soon as their eyes met, Skipper knew with all conviction, all certainty, that he was undeniably and absolutely in love with her, as his beak moved forward involuntarily, ever so slowly, four inches, three inches away from her lips. He never broke the gaze, as he stared deep into her eyes filled with worry, but hid something as well. Stopping himself and forcing his head back, he turned away from the Zoovenir Shop and continued to walk in that direction. He fell his confidence shrinking, hoping that Marlene didn't notice the fact that he was about to kiss her. He looked back again at her, only to see a smile of relief flash on her face. Good, she didn't notice it, but the only thing that stopped him from making that foolish move was the one thing that shocked him the most. Beneath the stare of worry Marlene cast on him, he sensed something else beneath that, something hinting at the foreboding. He cleared his throat loudly, as he continued his trek to point of execution of his plan.
"What was that back there?" came a voice to his left.
"What? Nothing Marlene." He said simply.
"What do you mean nothing? You were staring at sky or something, what's up with that?"
"I thought I saw a missile headed straight for the zoo." Skipper said quickly, but his mind was being haunted by something else other than stray missiles.
"Oh, okay." She replied curtly. She knew he was lying, but she didn't press on it, for the sake of this 'hang-out'.
They walked by Marlene's habitat, as well as the Zoovenir Shop, with Skipper casting quick glances behind him at the roof of the gift shop. Marlene stared at him with a mix suspicion and interest; of course there it wasn't the missile season, so the chances of missiles falling were very remote. She stared ahead, and suddenly occurred to her where Skipper was taking her, the remains of the Reptile House. It was unclear as to why Skipper was taking her there, but the ruined husk was still bathed in streetlight, the battered letters that once made up its sign strewn about, with the silhouette of several neatly stacked cages devoid of contents stood out next to it. She turned her head to look at him, still curious as to why he was taking her there. But her thoughts were interrupted when Skipper abruptly stopped yet again.
"Wait, do you hear that?"
Marlene strained her ears, and a few moments later, she caught it too. It was a low hum, like a swarm of buzzing honeybees, but there was an odd ring to it. Skipper took a step to the direction of the source of the odd sound. With his senses enhanced due to the mutation, he could easily pick up the sound, apparently coming from somewhere to their left. He walked slowly in that direction, as the sound was suddenly silenced.
"What was that?" Marlene asked, but pressed herself closer to Skipper as the lights from the lamps overhead vanished, bathing them in darkness which the moonlight from above could barely illuminate.
Skipper stared at her, her head glancing from side to side as she trembled in his flippers, as they instinctively wrapped themselves around her. She looked so much more beautiful in the moonlight, and this sent Skipper straight into an unbreakable trance.
'Forget the Reptile House!' his mind urged. 'This is better!'
His flipper involuntarily jumped upward and laid itself on the side of Marlene's face, and it gently turned it, so their eyes met. She was startled, but she soon calmed down as her hazel eyes met Skipper's blue ones. She sensed the power of his aura grow tenfold, to the point where she sensed she could drown because of it; she wanted to run, but her curiosity pushed her to wait. She didn't blink as he placed the tip of his other flipper underneath her chin as he continued to gaze into her eyes.
"Marlene from the first day we met, I knew there was something, something about you, that convinced me to never deny you anything, but I know that now, there is something I cannot deny."
The commando took a deep breath as Marlene's look for terror was replaced with a look of pure curiosity, as an inquisitive frown started to appear on her face. Skipper paid no attention to this as he summoned up the courage to say what needed to be said, unaware Marlene was no longer listening.
"Marlene, I lo - "
"WAIT!" she whispered urgently. "Do you hear that?"
Skipper stopped in midsentence, as he strained to listen. The hum returned, only this time much closer, sounding much more distinct. The sound grew in pitch and volume, and Skipper could barely make out its source in the near pitch-darkness. As it grew, it sounded more melodic, almost like -
"Music?" Marlene blurted out, as her cultured imagination began to make out voices in choral harmony, vocalizing in such angelic melody.
With blinding speed, the lamps illuminated themselves again, with such intensity that both were blinded momentarily. Skipper stumbled as Marlene's presence utterly vanished , he felt around, hoping he could find the otter as the volume and pitch of the song increased, surrounding him, as if the very earth was singing. His eyes stung from the blinding light that radiated from the streetlights above him as his ear holes were filled with the siren-like choruses. The intensity of the light started to dim, as he instinctively raised his flippers in a defensive stance. He blinked once, twice, striving to make out the images that loomed before him.
The sight that greeted his recovering vision was not welcome: Marlene was covering her watering eyes, sitting on a throne made entirely out of fruits with arrays of flowers laced all around it; a paw held a bundle of roses before her, and to Skipper utter dismay, the paw belonged to none other than King Julien..