Yo guys, I'm back! Sorry for the extended hiatus, I'm in college now and I'm SUPER busy during the semester. Now that I'm back on break, I thought I'd send a few fics your way. I have another I'm getting ready to upload, but this one is Penny/Sunil, as requested by a tumblr user. Here you have it!
It was 3pm on a summer afternoon, and Littlest Pet Shop was barely moving. From Blythe's view, there seemed to be no signs of anyone being awake or alert. She found that slightly disconcerting—Minka and Russell almost never slept. Something had to be wrong.
She squinted harder, peering through the glass window. Okay… Pepper is asleep on the chair, Zoe's in the fire hydrant. Russell, Vinnie, and Minka are passed out in front of the TV.
After a moment of watching, she remembered that she had taken the pets out today for a walk.
Maybe the heat just tired them out, she thought to herself. That's fine. But where are Penny Ling and Sunil?
She didn't want to disturb anyone, but she had business to take care of. Sunil's owner always picked him up early every other Wednesday, and he was due to arrive in 10 minutes. Blythe never asked why—the guy was fairly quiet and intimidating. No need to cross someone who lives in your same apartment building, anyways.
Slowly, she opened the door and walked into the play area. She tried her hardest to tiptoe around the sleeping pets as she made her way around the shop in an attempt to find the blue mongoose. She was doing a good job until she stepped past the three sleeping TV-watchers. Vinnie and Russell were still dead asleep, but Minka roused herself slowly as Blythe's foot passed by her head.
"Blythe?" she inquired groggily.
"Heya Minks. Sorry to wake you up… though I can't believe you all are actually asleep. What on Earth happened to get you guys so tired, huh?"
She asked the question in jest, figuring the walk earlier in the day was the culprit. However, when Minka sat herself upright and proceeded to crawl onto Blythe's shoulder, the girl got a little nervous.
"Erm, well," the monkey began, keeping her voice in an (attempted) hushed whisper, "Sooo… you know when you left after our walk to go do errands for Mrs. Twombly? And you also know how sometimes Pepper makes terrible comedy routines even when she doesn't mean to be hurtful?"
Those two questions didn't go together in Blythe's mind. She gulped as Minka hesitantly kept speaking.
"Welllll… Pepper decided it would be a hilarious stint to capture a wasp in a cup with a lid and see how mad it got. Yeah, I know, but she gets these ideas in her head sometimes. Anyways, I don't even know how she found it or why on Earth she thought it'd be funny, but she brought it in. But then, she accidentally knocked the cup over during her routine and the wasp flew out. We spent the entire next hour just running from it, trying not to get stung. I can't believe it took Mrs. T so long to notice all the commotion, but she finally came in and shooed it out of the shop."
Minka finished her story with a broad innocent smile, hoping the girl wouldn't be angry. Blythe exhaled, her worst fears calmed. Wasps weren't fun, but at least no one was seriously hurt.
"Ah, geez Minka, you had me scared for a moment there. I'm glad everything is okay… everything is okay, right?"
Minka nodded. "Yeah, everything's fine. For most of us it was just really tiring having to run around. I mean, even I got tuckered out. And no one got stung or anything."
She paused for a second, looking sheepish. Blythe was about to interject, but the monkey soon finished her sentence.
"But it reaaaally scared Sunil. Even after we had all settled down and the wasp was gone, he was still shaking really bad. We all tried to calm him down, but he was just too afraid to listen. Even Vinnie couldn't help out."
Blythe sighed. Poor Sunil was always getting himself worked up over everything. Hopefully he'd be calm enough to want to go with his owner in a few minutes.
"Well, that's no good, is it? Do you know where he went, Minka?"
"He went up in one of those, uh, cat box thingies, I think," she responded as Blythe set her down onto the ground next to the still-sleeping Russell and Vinnie. "Oh, Penny Ling went too."
Blythe wondered why, but knew better than to inquire further when Sunil's owner was due any minute. She quickly knelt down next to the monkey and gave her a pat on the head.
"Thanks, Minka. I'm gonna go find them. Try not to wake up the others for now, okay?"
"No promises!" the monkey chirped in reply.
Blythe smiled to herself as she snuck silently away. The pets were always up to something, weren't they? She headed over to the corner of the shop where the cat condos were. No wonder she couldn't find Penny and Sunil—hardly anyone ever used these old things.
Listening carefully, she was relieved to hear delicate snoring coming from inside one of the boxes. At least someone was in there. She tried her best to be totally quiet as she peered inside the top compartment of the box. Still, she couldn't help but let out a soft "aww" at the sight before her.
Penny Ling and Sunil were curled up together inside—Sunil's head was in Penny's lap as the panda laid against the side of the box.
They both looked so comfortable, Blythe almost didn't disturb them. Still, she knew she had to get Sunil.
As delicately as possible, she whispered for the mongoose.
"Psst, Sunny!" she said softly, hoping he wouldn't be frightened. Ever the light sleeper, his amber eyes flew open at the call. Even Penny stirred a little as the mongoose turned to look at Blythe.
"Erm, hello, Blythe," he said quietly, knowing his panda friend was still half-asleep. She was beginning to open her eyes as the teenager reached delicately for Sunil.
"We'll talk on the way out, kay?" she asked as she hoisted him into her arms. She turned back to the groggy Penny Ling and gave the panda a tender pet on the head. "It's okay Penny Ling, you can go back to sleep."
The panda, not even fully awake, took Blythe's advice, quickly sprawling out on the floor of the condo. From his vantage point over the girl's shoulder, Sunil peered out at Penny until he and Blythe left the play area. Once they were there, he turned back to face his human friend.
"What did you need me for, Blythe?" he inquired as she cradled him in her arms.
"Don't you remember? It's the 2nd Wednesday of the month. Your owner is gonna be here in a few minutes to get you early."
Sunil blinked. "Oh, right. I must have forgotten."
"I don't blame you, Sunil. I heard you guys had a scary time while I was gone."
She said this gently, hoping she wouldn't frighten him. To her relief, he merely smiled.
"Oh, yes. It was quite scary. You know, Pepper and her crazy schemes and all of that. It does not help that bugs inspire great terror in me… especially wasps." He shuddered at that last part.
"However, Penny Ling helped me calm down a bit."
"Yeah?" Blythe asked with a smile. "She seems like she was a big help, huh?"
"Oh, yes," the mongoose nodded fervently. "She sings a marvelous lullaby. I never knew that about her. I also never knew she was scared of the dark, either. It made me feel better to know I was not alone in being so afraid."
Blythe rubbed Sunil's ears playfully, glad to hear her mongoose friend was doing better. He didn't say anything else as his owner walked in and ferried him away towards his car. Still, the dreamy smile on his face told the girl all she needed to know.
She chuckled softly to herself as she walked back into the play area, where most of the pets were beginning to wake up.
Maybe I need to run errands more often, huh?
Not super happy with this one, unfortunately, but there ya have it! I like PennySunil and I think they'd work well together, but I kinda stumbled with an idea for this one. Hit me up with requests, I'm on summer break now!