Disclaimer: I do not own The Penguins of Madagascar or any of its characters, but I do own Alex the penguin, Sam, Ethan, and Victoria.
The king jumped to his feet, ignoring the sharp pain that shot throughout his body from hitting the wall. He watched as the penguin left, sliding on his belly. He wanted to chase after him, demand him to listen to him, and order him to let Sam and Ethan be friends. But Maurice stepped in front of him, shaking his head. Sighing, Julien knew he was right. Skipper was hard headed and there was no way he was going to let the kids see each other now.
"Come, Maurice, let's go home." Julien ran out of the building, cursing himself for getting so angry and wrecking the whole thing. And now Ethan's whole childhood was ruined. And it's all that penguin's fault!
You can't blame Skipper, a voice spoke in his head, and his heart ached when he recognized it as his beloved Emily.
But it can't be. She's in Madagascar! He must have just replaced his normal inner voice with hers.
You know what you have to do, she murmured in his head. Do it for our son.
"Your Majesty?" he heard Maurice beside him. "Are you okay?" But Julien wasn't listening to his adviser. He closed his eyes and an image of a female ring-tail flashed in his mind. His heart skipped a beat, but he knew she wasn't really there, even if it felt like he could reach out and touch her. He was creating her with his mind somehow, but he didn't care. This was the only connection he's had with her since she left to go help his brother, Patch, look over the lemurs on their home island.
Don't give up, she begged, looking at him with pleading eyes. You know what our son needs to be happy and how to make it happen. Please, Julien, you can still change things. I know you can.
Before Julien could think of a response, someone shaking him made his eyes snap open and he found his adviser watching him anxiously.
"Your Majesty! Are you okay? What happened?" he asked. But Julien didn't bother telling him. He had bigger things on his mind. He turned and ran back to his habitat, where he jumped over the wall and ran to his boom-box. He looked down at it and sighed. Then he looked over the platform at the bouncy house where he saw his son curled up next to Mort. He felt a smile creeping on his face as he watched the young lemur sleep.
This is for you, son, he thought as Maurice joined him. "Come with me," he told the aye-aye.
"What? Where?" he asked. "And can't it wait until morning?"
The king shook his head. "No," he said sternly. "And be being my boomy-box and MP3 Player."
Still looking confused, Maurice did as he was told, following his king out of the habitat.
Julien stared at the penguins' habitat, anger threatening to boil over inside him, but he had to do this, for Ethan's sake. "Okay, Maurice," he whispered, pointing to the habitat, and running to it. He thought they locked down the lair at night, but he pushed the fishbowl aside and no alarm went off.
Swallowing his anger, he jumped down and found himself standing in front of Skipper, who glared at him. Maurice followed his king.
"What the– What are you doing here, Ringtail?" the leader demanded.
"I came here to be making a deal with you," the king began, but before he could continue, Alex asked curiously," What kind of deal?"
The king rolled his eyes. "I was going to be telling you before you interrupted me!"
The female penguin looked down at the ground. "Sorry…"
"Anyways," Julien said, turning back to Skipper. "I never told you what I was wanting to tell you before you were storming out."
"And I don't want to hear it." The lead penguin tried to walk away, but the king stopped him.
"Please be hearing me out." He turned to Maurice and ordered him to show Skipper his boom-box. "You see that? We use that every night to throw really loud dance parties. But if you let your daughter and Ethan to be hanging out, I will destroy it so we can never be using it again."
Everyone gasped when Julien said that, even Maurice. "But Your Majesty, you love your boom-box!" the aye-aye protested.
The king sighed, thinking about Emily and Ethan. "But my family is meaning more to me…" he murmured, glancing at Skipper, and he thought he saw hesitation in his eyes, but before he could be sure, a stubborn expression formed on his face.
"This is some kind of trick," the penguin yelled, and he turned to his team. "Get him!"
Julien watched nervously as the other penguins glanced at one another. "Are you sure, Skipper?" asked the tall penguin. "He looks serious."
Alex stepped up. "Kowalski's right, dad. Maybe he really does want Sam and Ethan to be friends, and maybe the only way to convince you to allow it is for him to destroy his boom-box so he can't keep you up with his late night parties. I think you should listen to him."
The psychopath nodded, and even the youngest teammate seemed to agree.
Skipper glared at his team, obviously blinded by hatred of Julien to see the sense in the king's proposal. But Julien wanted to know why he hated him and the other lemurs so much. Taking a deep breath, he walked closer to Skipper. "Tell me why are you hating us all the time," he demanded.
"That's why," Skipper snapped. "You're always ordering us around like you're our king, but you're not! You may be their king–" He pointed at Maurice. "But not ours!" Julien seriously thought the angry penguin was about to jump on him, when suddenly the smallest of the penguins waddled away from the others and tugged on her father's flipper, staring up at him with big, round eyes.
Skipper stared down at her and his shoulders instantly slouched as all anger drained from his expression.
"Daddy," Sam whimpered, blinking innocent eyes up at him. "Why can't I hang with Ethan?"
The lead penguin bent down to look his daughter in the face. "It's because he's a lemur, Sam," he said calmly, as if being a lemur was a disease or something.
"So?" she asked.
"It's just… penguins and lemurs hanging out and being friends… It's not right…" Skipper tried to explain to her, and Julien noticed that he was struggling to keep a hold of his anger.
"Skipper." Maurice spoke up. "They're only kids. It isn't right separating them like this, and sooner or later, it'll lead to disaster."
Julien saw worry flash across Skipper's face, then the lead penguin sighed as he straightened up and waddled back to the lemurs. For several long moments, Skipper eyed them up and down, until finally he said," Alright. I'll test out how they act around each other. But the first sign I see of your son making my daughter lazy or spoiled, I'm calling an end to it. For good."
Suddenly very excited, Julien ran to Skipper and hugged him, spinning around with him. Then he stopped and glanced at his boom-box, then back to Skipper, noticing the look in his eyes.
"You made a deal, lemur," Skipper said, a smirk on his face.
Julien was about to protest, but then suddenly Skipper shook his head and added," I think I can let this one slide. But as long as you promise not to throw so many late night parties."
Nodding, Julien bounced up and down, hugging the penguin; he was very happy that he gets to keep his boomy-box, and that Ethan and Sam can still be friends. He was kind of surprised that Skipper agreed so easily, but he didn't care. All that mattered was that Ethan was going to have a good life now.
"Come, Maurice!" he said to his adviser. "Let's go be telling the good news to Ethan!" Leaving Maurice to carry the MP3 Player and boomy-box up the ladder, Julien went up ahead. He shivered when he burst into the freezing air outside, but he couldn't care less about the weather right now. Ethan's going to be so excited when he hears that he can finally play with Sam without getting into trouble!
When they got back to their habitat, Julien had to wake his son immediately. The young lemur prince blinked sleepily up at his father, yawned, then asked," Can this wait until tomorrow morning?"
Julien had to swallow a snort of laughter as he said," Oh sure, if you want me to be telling you tomorrow that the silly penguin agreed that you can play with his daughter!"
The sleep vanished from Ethan's eyes as he stared at his father in disbelief, as if he wanted to say that wasn't true. But then he started bouncing up and down, waking little Mort, who gasped in shock and then joined the young lemur in jumping without even knowing what was going on.
Ethan stopped bouncing and stared deep into his father's eyes. "Is this really being true?" he asked, his tail flicking anxiously.
Julien nodded. "Yep."
Ethan let out a delighted squeak and fell backwards onto the bouncy, making Mort bounce once before settling again. "Oh!" he said excitedly. "I can't be waiting until tomorrow!"
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