Disclaimer: I do not own The Penguins of Madagascar or any of its characters, but I do own Hannah and her aunt.

I need to be careful, Hannah thought as she walked through the zoo, wondering which animal she wanted to see next. She found a map in the gift shop and now she was looking over all the exhibits. She was wondering which animal wouldn't be as suspicious as the penguins. She still felt slightly disappointed that the flightless birds didn't want anything to do with her, but she still found herself very curious about them.

Deciding to stop thinking about Skipper and the others, she started heading back to the lemur habitat. Maybe she can talk to the tall one with that leafy crown.

Besides her, there was only one other person at the lemur habitat, and she saw the annoyed look on his face as he stared up at the platform. The loud music was still playing, but she saw that two of the lemurs were sitting down, panting, while the tall lemur continued to dance around them. The guy was clearly expecting a better performance so he was disappointed that not all of the lemurs were dancing, and after another moment he huffed and stomped off.

The tall lemur stopped dancing and watched the man walk away. Then he turned on the other two. "Get up!" he snapped. "Nobody wants to see you two sitting on your bottoms, doing nothing!"

The heavyset one groaned and got up. "We're tired, Your Majesty," he told the tall lemur. "We partied all night last night and then all morning, with no breaks in between! Look at poor Mort." He glanced down at the little lemur who had his eyes closed and was leaning backwards, dangerously close to the edge of the platform.

As Hannah watched, the brown lemur launched backwards, plummeting to the ground far below. The other two ran over to the edge and stared down. Hannah thought she heard a thud but she wasn't sure.

The heavyset lemur called down to the little one and he got a groan in response. Sighing with relief, the larger lemur turned to the tall one. "Can we please rest, Your Majesty?"

For a couple of moments he looked ready to say no and demand they keep dancing. But after the heavyset one shouted," Julien!" the tall lemur sighed and said," Fine, Maurice."

"Thank you," Maurice said, and he disappeared over the edge of the platform, probably going to check on little Mort.

As soon as he was gone, the tall lemur, Julien, hopped onto the tall chair and started muttering to himself about how lazy and not fun his friends were.

Checking to make sure nobody was close by, Hannah waved to the lemur and called out," Hey! I'll dance with you!"

At first the lemur didn't seem to have heard her. He didn't even look up, but when she said," Hey, Julien, is it?" He looked up and spotted her. He squinted at her. Then he got up and moved to the edge of the platform.

"Are… Are you talking to me?" he asked, looking confused and doubtful.

"Yes," Hannah answered. "I can speak to animals. Your name is Julien, right?"

"King Julien," he told her in a proud tone.

"Oooh, a king!" Hannah felt a shiver of excitement. "I never met a king before, animal or human!"

Julien grinned at her. Then he eyed her curiously. "What's your name?"

"I'm Hannah. My aunt just got a job here and I'm looking to make new animal friends."

There was a pause before the king asked," You said you'll dance with me?"

Hannah nodded. "I'm not very good at dancing, but yeah, I'll do it if you'd want to be friends."

A thoughtful look crossed the lemur's face. Then he ran over to his boombox and picked it up, unsteady as he carried it to the edge of the platform and hopped to the ground, disappearing from sight. Hannah was confused. Why did he go? Then she heard "psst" coming from behind her and she turned to see the tall lemur hiding under a table.

She walked over there. "What are you doing?" she whispered, glancing around to make sure nobody was within earshot.

"We need a secret spot to do the dancing," he answered, also looking around. "Follow me." He took off, the boombox he still carried weighing him down.

He led her to the back of the zoo where she guessed they shipped and received stuff. He placed the boombox in the middle of the platform and turned to her, a huge grin on his face. He pushed a button on the boombox and loud music started playing. The lemur immediately started to dance, moving closer to Hannah.

The girl giggled and, self-consciously, she began to dance as well. She kept looking around, afraid Alice or another zookeeper would show up and see her dancing with the lemur. But after a while she began to relax and really got into dancing. She tried to follow his moves, but he was quicker and more smooth than her, and she was clumsy and tripped on her own feet several times.

Much later, she heard a noise, and she froze. It sounded like footsteps. She turned to warn King Julien, but he was already disappearing through the entrance, carrying the boombox with him. She started chasing after him, but she ran right into Alice, who jumped back in surprise, clearly not expecting her to be there.

"What are you doing back here?" the zookeeper snapped, eyeing her suspiciously. Before Hannah could come up with a lie, Alice went on," Your aunt was looking for you. The zoo will be closing soon and it's time to go."

"Oh. Thank you for telling me!" Hannah hurried away before she could ask her again what she had been doing back there.

She passed the lemur habitat and noticed Julien sitting on his tall chair, acting like he was there the whole time. But as she went by, he smiled and waved at her, and she waved back, grinning. So today wasn't a total loss. She made at least one new animal friend and she can keep coming to the zoo every day to see him.

She couldn't stop herself from skipping with excitement. She spotted her aunt ahead of her and she ran over to her. Sarah turned at the sound of her approach and smiled.

"Hey, sweetie," she said. "How was your day?"

"Great!" she said, very attempted to confess what she's been doing but that would mean she'd have to reveal her secret, that she can communicate with animals, and she wasn't ready for that. Many times in her life she almost told her aunt, but she always chickened out. She even almost confessed everything to her parents. She had convinced herself to tell them when they got home from dinner, but they never returned and she hasn't been ready to tell any human again.

Maybe someday, she thought as she followed her aunt to the entrance of the zoo.

Suddenly she felt like someone was watching her, but when she looked all around, she didn't see anyone. Shrugging, she hurried to catch up to her aunt and they left the zoo.

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