The final chapter is here. Well I had gotten over three reviews wanting this, so here you go. The moment you have all been waiting, real romance. This chapter is cheesy yes, but I hope you enjoy it anyway.
Amber sighed while sitting on the concrete platform. Rain was coming down in light sprinkles, gently pelting against her feathers. Rain drops were also falling down the tip of her beak and her chest, getting herself soaked in the water droplets. She didn't mind though. She always did like the rain. They never saw it in Antarctica, so it was a nice change. One of the reasons she had grown to love New York was because it could rain.
In Antarctica, the closest thing they got to rain was a blizzard. Flora had gave a long boring lecture about how water became snow or ice due to freezing temperatures, making it impossible for rain to ever come to their icy wasteland. It sure did crush Sara's dreams, realizing the hail that impaled her was only frozen water.
Amber held a flipper out in front of herself, letting the rain patter on her flipper. She slowly grew a gentle smile while looking at the rain. One of her favorite things in life was rain and it always made her calm and relaxed, which was different for her normal tense attitude. It was always a nice change to be relaxed and not so...angry.
Her smile was wiped clean off her face when she heard the fishbowl slide against the concrete. She craned her neck around and saw the last penguin she wanted to see. Skipper. She turned her head slowly back and pulled her flipper to her side once again. She heard Skipper's feet pat against the wet concrete, and she could sense him stopping right behind her.
"What are you doing out in the rain?" he asked her.
Amber shrugged. "I don't know. I guess I just love the rain," she answer plainly and slumped slightly from where she sat.
Skipper took a couple of steps forward so he was at her side and sat next to her. "Everyone was wondering where you were," he told her.
"They should know that I can take care of myself," Amber grumbled, dismissing their concern.
Skipper narrowed his eyes playfully at her. "This is coming from the penguin that got captured by lobsters."
Amber flashed him a look. "Hey it was a surprise attack, and you know I don't do well with surprises." She turned her gaze back to the water in the habitat and muttered quietly, "One of my biggest weaknesses too."
Skipper caught that and looked at her with gentle eyes, his tough exterior wall going down. "You don't always have to be tough you know," he told her.
Amber quickly brought her head back up at him again. "It's not like I force myself to," she snapped. "It's how I act. Even so, my team is going soft, so someone has to be the wall that keeps it all together."
"What makes you think they're going soft?" Skipper questioned with a raised brow. "They're a pretty solid team."
Amber glared at the view in front of her. "Love," she muttered bitterly. "I still don't really approve of my team's love relationship. I know I can't do anything about it, because well…love sticks with you." Amber struggled with her last words, not wanting to have said that in the first place.
Skipper smiled down at the silver penguin with some sympathy but care. The next words she said made it disappear. "Love is stupid anyway," Amber muttered and crossed her flippers over her wet chest. The rain was soaking her to the bone but she still did not care.
Skipper frowned at her and decided that was enough. He took his flipper and put it under her beak, tipping her head so she was looking back up him with now straight eye contact, her eyes now wide with surprise. His beak was only an inch away from hers, but they weren't making a move away from one another. No more running. He was going to be head on with this like his missions.
"It isn't stupid," Skipper told her in a gentle but stern voice. His voice got a bit shaky as he said, "You're calling me stupid, you know that?"
Amber shook off her surprise and narrowed her eyes to prevent any rain from entering them. "And why would I be calling you stupid?" the silver bird asked with a hint of annoyance. She shivered because of the rain. It was starting to come down harder and the droplets were starting to feel colder then it was before. She might have been a penguin but she was still getting cold from it.
Skipper removed his flipper from beneath her beak and scooted closer to Amber, careful to not bring their beaks together. She scooted closer but only did this because she felt cold and wanted to feel his warmth. She sighed at the immediate feeling of his feathers and the heat of his body. They were practically pressed against each other.
"Well I can't really tell you…" Skipper trailed off. He looked in her eyes that held something close to suspicion. He chuckled softly to himself. "Why do I get the feeling you don't trust me?"
Amber now seemed amused by that comment. "Look Skips, I trust you, but I don't trust easily, so I don't know what you did to make me trust you in the first place," she snorted. Skipper chuckled again, which brought a small smile to both of their beaks.
Skipper sighed inwardly. Come on soldier, you can do it, he mentally encouraged himself. He worked up the nerve to finally speak what he was a bit nervous about for a while now. "So you never want to love again?" he asked her, almost in a hushed whisper.
Amber was slightly taken back by this question but answered anyway. "Love isn't really worth it."
Skipper shook his head, still keeping his gaze on the beautiful silver penguin in front of him. She was beautiful to him in many ways. How her silver feathers glistened and stood out in the light. When he first saw her, he admitted to himself that he couldn't keep his eyes of her own amber ones. They stood out against her white and silver feathers by far, and it was probably his favorite physical feature about her.
"Love can be worth it. It just depends who it is," he told her quietly, with that hint of truth in his voice Amber failed to notice.
Amber turned her gaze down to his chest and shook her head in disagreement. "It doesn't matter. Whenever I supposedly fall in love, I always get stabbed in the back," she said bitterly. "It's always the same. They're all the same."
Skipper felt slightly taken back by this but raised her head up to his again. He was determined to prove to her that it wouldn't always be the same.
The rain picked up, pelting their feathers. The rain droplets guiding themselves through each feather in a delicate pattern. Skipper felt his heart race, while Amber was just confused by the weird look he wore. Skipper felt heat rush up to his face and allowed his eyelids to drop halfway. He felt himself lean in, with Amber's eyes widening by the second. There was no turning back now. What happened here wouldn't be forgotten. And then it happened.
Skipper pressed his beak against Ambers and kissed her gently, trying desperately not to rush anything.
He let his eyelids drop fully and pressed his beak harder against her own, wrapping his flippers around her. He was enjoying it, but he wasn't sure if Amber was. He was determined to show her how he felt either way. If that meant things would get awkward then let it. He needed to show her.
Amber could only watch him kissing her in pure shock, not responding to the affectionate gestures. Her mind was racing with questions. What the heck was happening? Why was it happening? And why was she enjoying it so much?
After a minute, Skipper pulled away, slightly panting from lack of breath. He cocked his head slightly at her with a smirk on his beak, awaiting a response.
Amber blinked, finally pulling everything together. She could have asked a lot of questions right there but instead she asked, "Why?"
Skipper gave her a slightly nervous smile, which made her chuckle quietly. It wasn't like him to get nervous, so it was an amusing change in her opinion. "Well you know…" Skipper shrugged. "I told you that I couldn't really tell you."
Amber let the words sink in. Did that mean what she thought it meant? Did he love her? That couldn't be it. It was probably a misunderstanding. "What do you mean?" she questioned, finally deciding she had to find out in a more straight forward way. That was usually her way of doing things anyway.
Skipper hesitated, but he wasn't going to back down. He didn't have much of a choice now anyway. He was in the deep end with Amber now. "Well…" the CO hesitated again, "let's just say I have some deep feelings for you."
Amber's eyes were like an owl's now. "You…love me?" she gulped.
Skipper shrugged and regained his touch composure but a hint of nervousness and hesitation were still visible on his features. "Yes," he said simply. He then waved his flippers around widely. "Unless that weird's you out, then it's all a dream!"
Amber couldn't help but laugh. It was funny when he got nervous. She stopped abruptly when she remembered the situation. "It's a bit weird," she muttered, mostly to herself. "But…it's interesting at the same time and yet I hate it."
Skipper gave her a confused look at this.
"Well, no body really likes me in that way," Amber explained, looking rather irritated at the subject. "It's interesting because I never thought anyone would, and I hate it because I want to reject those feelings. It will make me weak so I have to push away that love I feel toward y-" Amber cut herself off right there. Her face went red as a tomato. What the heck was she saying? Why couldn't she think before she said anything and why would she even tell him this? It's personal, classified information. And did she really love him?
Skipper risked a smirk. "You love me?"
Amber tried to her best to look calm instead of embarrassed, but she was failing miserably. "I never said that!" she snapped. It was more in embarrassment then anger. She grumbled to herself, turning stubbornly away from Skipper.
Skipper shook his head in an amused fashion at how she was acting. He took her head in his flippers and turned her head back to his. Her eyes were glistening, even though there wasn't any sun. "It's fine to show your feelings," he whispered to her with love and care in his tone. He was aware of the stone wall that went around her heart but like a mission, it was his job to penetrate that and get to his goal on the other side. To win her heart.
She squinted at him, preventing anymore rain from entering her eyes. "Feelings can get you killed when you're out on the field," she shot back.
Stubborn...Cute, Skipper thought sarcastically. "Do you want to be happy?" he asked. She didn't react at first but then slowly nodded, her head still cradled in his strong flippers. He smiled softly at her. "Then don't be afraid to show your feelings."
Amber gained a thoughtful expression. Skipper was acting different then what she was use to. Sure, she liked the penguin but it was hard to say if it was love. But it could be love, she thought. For her, it felt like minutes. Running through her thoughts about Skipper, how they acted around each other, what they did and how they interacted. She subconsciously started to smile.
Her memories told her it had been fun and something inside said that the memories brought back warm fuzzy feelings. The ones she had felt when they had danced together. She pieced everything together and came to a realization. She was absolutely, undeniably, in love with Skipper. Amber looked at him with a now focused look. "You sure can press my buttons." She scowled slightly at him.
Skipper moved his flippers away from her face and brought it back down to his sides. "Well it's all part of the job." He smirked at her charmingly.
Making up her mind, Amber suddenly leaned in hastily and pressed her beak onto his.
Skipper was surprised at first. He never expected that to happen. He thought she would never return those feelings but now he thought differently. Smirking through the kiss, he returned it and wrapped his flippers tenderly around the silver penguin.
Amber's flippers wrapped around his head and she tried to press her beak in harder for a deeper kiss. This was something she needed. It was amazing with the events that had happened, and it was something she never imagined happening in her life ever again. Sure she had kissed a couple of guys in her time but this was different. It actually felt like it had a feeling to it, more realistic in a way for her. The ones she had kissed never put true passion into it since she was their toy but Skipper did. That meant a lot to her.
She made the kiss more desperate, gripping tightly to the back of Skipper's head. The flat-headed avian returned it with just as much energy and emotion, keeping up with her. They played with the feathers on their backs, smirking through the passionate kiss they shared. Their emotions were like bolts of lightning, sudden, unpredictable and powerful.
The rain warmed up as they kissed and continued to pelt their bodies, gently going down their feathers. It felt like the nice kind of rain that you wouldn't mind staying out in. It only made the kiss more amazing between the two. When they needed to breathe again, they parted, panting slightly. Amber had the happiest look Skipper had ever seen on her or on anyone for that matter. It was a new look to her that he loved.
"I'm going to say this once, so listen closely," Amber told him, grinning. "I love you too," she admitted.
Skipper smiled widely at her and pulled her as close as she could get to his body, even though they were practically pressed against one another already. "I love you too," he whispered. He kissed her forehead gently and, at that moment, he knew for a fact that he was in love. Amber suddenly felt her smile fall and sighed depressingly. Skipper noticed and felt a twinge of concern for her. "Something wrong?" he asked.
She looked up at him, her beak brushing up his flipper as she did. "I promised myself I wouldn't fall in love again," she muttered.
Skipper shrugged. "Like you said, love sticks with you. You can't escape it. It has a way of hunting you down," he told her, remembering her own words and adding to it with what he believed.
Amber snorted but hugged the leader penguin back. "Break my heart and I will break you."
Love is like a glass door… sometimes you don't see it, and it smacks you right in your face. Remember that great love and great achievements involve great risk. -Anonymous