Disclaimer: I do not own The Penguins of Madagascar or any of its characters, but I do own Hannah and her aunt.
As the bossy penguin left, Julien huffed and stomped his foot. Why did they come here and interrupt their dancing? It was so annoying when they did that! He almost didn't feel like dancing anymore. Almost.
Shrugging off his annoyance, the lemur turned to Hannah and said," Let's dance!" He reached over and started up the music again. But he realized the human wasn't dancing along with him. He paused and turned the music off.
"Why aren't you dancing?" he asked her, making her jump and turn to him. She had been staring off into space.
"I'm sorry," she murmured. She began to dance, but he could see that she wasn't really into it; plus there was no music playing right now.
He sighed and climbed up her leg until he could stop on her shoulder. She stopped and looked at him. "Don't listen to what the penguins said," he said, rolling his eyes. "Nobody is going to catch us."
Hannah shook her head. "It's not that," she responded. "I… I'm just wondering what they were worried that I'd expose about them." She looked where the penguins went around the corner and a frown crossed her face. "I wouldn't ever tell anyone about them, but I'm hurt that they think I would. And what could they be hiding? I kind of knew this from talking to them before, but clearly they aren't normal penguins. I'm just very curious about them…"
Julien sighed again. "They're nothing special," he insisted, waving his hand dismissively. "Nobody really knows what they do, but they have a whole secret room in their habitat, and they have some inventions or whatever that they won't let me play with." He huffed, annoyed, and hopped down to the ground. "They're no fun, trust me. And they don't treat me like their king even though I clearly am! So annoying!"
Hannah looked down at him. "Do you think you can talk them into giving me a chance?" she asked.
He looked at her uncertainty. "How?"
"Just see if you can get them to talk to me, and I'll try to convince them to trust me." She dropped to the ground and criss-crossed her legs, looking at him pleadingly. "Please," she begged. "I want them to know they can trust me, and maybe even tell me more about themselves. Not to expose them!" she added when he looked doubtful. "I just want to get to know them and become friends with them. I bet I could get Skipper to like me if he gave me a chance."
I'm not sure, Julien thought, but out loud he said," Why me? They won't listen to me."
"Please try," she begged. A buzzing sound interrupted her, and she reached into her pocket, pulling something out. Julien realized it was a portable phone, like ones he's seen other people talk into or send messages to other people. "My aunt is looking for me," the human said, putting the phone back into her pocket. "I have to go, but please talk to Skipper and his friends and get them to give me a chance."
He watched as she stood up and started walking away, waving goodbye to him. He stayed there for a while, thinking over what to do. Finally, he decided to go back to his habitat. Maybe Maurice could help him figure out what to do.
He is my adviser, after all, Julien thought, carrying his boombox and heading back to his kingly habitat. It was almost closing so not a lot of people were around. There was one close call with Alice the zookeeper, but while she had her back to him, he dashed across the walkway and hopped back into his habitat.
He was setting his boombox down when he heard breathing behind him. He turned to find Mort staring at him with huge eyes, but a moment later he realized the little lemur wasn't staring at his face, but at his feet.
Sighing, he pushed past him and called out to Maurice. A heartbeat later, the heavyset lemur was climbing onto the platform, breathing hard. "Yes, Your Majesty?" he panted, looking up at Julien.
"I need help deciding something," he told him as he walked over to his throne and hopped onto it. He noticed the surprised look Maurice gave him as he sat down.
"Deciding what, Your Majesty?" he asked.
Julien hesitated, and then confessed everything, about meeting Hannah yesterday and finding out what she could talk to animals and how they danced today and yesterday, but how today the penguins had interrupted them and how Hannah asked him to talk to Skipper about giving her a chance and to trust her. The whole time Maurice stared wide eyed at him, and as he spoke, Mort came over and sat down, but he looked too distracted to be listening.
Finally, Julien stopped talking and for a long, agonizing moment, Maurice was silent. Then he turned toward the penguin habitat and said," Maybe you should tell Skipper that she wanted you to talk to them about trusting her. I'm not sure we can," he added, turning back to Julien," and Skipper might need to keep an eye on her if she's going to be hanging around here. Also, I think you shouldn't talk or hang out with this girl again. She might be trouble, or might tell Alice something that would be trouble for us. I don't like this at all." He frowned deeply.
Julien sighed. He should have guessed that Maurice would worry so much about this. "She's not trouble," he argued. "She's just someone to dance with when you or Mort are 'too tired'." He said "too tired" mockingly and shot his adviser and the little lemur a glare before he jumped off his throne and off the platform, walking farther into the habitat.
He didn't want to agree with Maurice that Hannah could be trouble, but yet there was a tiny part of him that wondered if he was right.
He pushed that thought away. Hannah wasn't trouble and he felt like he could trust her. He found himself at his bouncy house and he climbed onto it and used it to climb onto the wall where he could see the penguins' habitat. Should he try to talk Skipper into trusting Hannah? He knew very well that the bossy penguin wouldn't listen to him and he'd just be wasting his time going over there and most likely would be kicked out immediately.
But he remembered the pleading look Hannah gave him as she begged him to talk to Skipper. She so wanted the penguins to trust her, but they don't trust anyone outside their little group. He sighed and sat on the wall for a long time, until the sun set and darkness crowded in, but then the lights came on and the night didn't look like it did on Madagascar. It was too bright and too noisy.
After more time passed, Julien finally decided to go talk to Skipper. He braced himself and jumped outside his habitat. He walked confidently across the space to the gate and hopped over it, landing on the island. He moved the fishbowl aside and immediately an ear piercing alarm started going off. He covered his ears. He forgot about their alarm!
He saw a flash of black-and-white and suddenly he was surrounded by the four penguins. Skipper sighed as he spotted Julien. "Ringtail," he growled. "Go turn off the alarm," he ordered the tall penguin, who nodded and slipped back into the HQ.
A moment later, the alarm shut off and Julien removed his hands. The three remaining penguins glared at him– well, two of them did, the third, the smallest of the penguins, gave him a confused look. It was him who spoke first. "Why are you here, Julien?" he asked in his British accent.
"I came to talk to you about Hannah," he said, and immediately Skipper said," Nope. We're not doing this. I don't care what you do with her, as long as you leave me and my team out of it."
"But she wanted me to tell you to give her a chance," Julien told him.
"Give her a chance?" Private echoed. "What do you mean?"
Julien shrugged. "She wanted me to tell you to trust her and she wanted to know more about you."
"Oh, no," Skipper said. "She will know nothing about us. You didn't tell her anything, did you?"
Julien hesitated.
"DID YOU?" Skipper shouted, running over to Julien and grabbing both arms to yank him down to eye level.
"I-I just told her about your secret room, and that you won't let me play with any of your toys," he said.
Skipper pushed him backwards, and Julien fell down. Now Skipper towered over him. "You idiot!" he growled. "Why would you tell anyone, especially a strange human, anything about us? We can't trust her! She might be working for Blowhole or Hans!" He turned to his team, and just then Kowalski appeared again and the leader said to them," We have to move bases! This idiot might have exposed us!" He turned back to Julien. "I'm sure she's already told Alice or even a reporter or someone! They could be on the way here right now!"
Something flashed in his eyes. Worry? Fear? Anger? Julien couldn't be sure, but he realized how scared the bossy penguin was, for himself and his team. A feeling, almost alien to him, hit him so hard that he felt like someone kicked him in the stomach. What was it? He felt like he should know it, but he felt it so rarely that its existence always surprised him.
Then it dawned on him. He felt guilty. Because of what he said to Hannah, Skipper was freaking out and he thinks they have to leave. Oh, even more guilt at that thought. He forced himself to stand and face the flat-headed penguin.
"Listen," he said. "I trust Hannah not to tell anyone. She's just curious, and I think maybe she's a tiny bit lonely."
"How do you know that?" Private asked, looking as scared and worried as his leader.
"She hasn't told me much about herself," Julien answered," but she did tell me that she didn't have many friends, if any, especially since she moved to New York. And most of them are animals."
"That's not our problem," Skipper growled, glaring at the lemur. "I have more to worry about than a lonely human! We need to start packing our stuff and find somewhere else to live." He started muttering to himself, pacing.
The other three penguins watched him anxiously. Then Kowalski stepped forward and blocked his path. The leader stopped and glared at him, before realizing it was one of his teammates. But he still looked worried and angry.
"Let's not panic just yet," the tall penguin said calmly. "We don't even know if she's told anyone. She said she wouldn't, right?" Reluctantly, Skipper nodded, and Kowalski went on. "Okay, so maybe until we know for certain that she did tell someone, we don't need to freak out or plan to move bases."
Private piped up. "Maybe we should get to know her," he suggested. "We can learn more about her and maybe it'll be clear that we can trust her. Or can't trust her," he quickly added when Skipper glared at him. "My point is," the young penguin bravely said," is that we don't know whether we can trust her or not, so let's get to know her."
Skipper was shaking his head, but Kowalski was looking thoughtful. "He's right," he said, which earned him a glare from his leader. "Skipper, I know you don't trust easily, but not everyone is an enemy. We need to get to know her and decide for ourselves whether she's a threat or not. Rico, what do you think?" Kowalski turned to his friend, but Rico shrugged, seeming utterly uninterested.
Skipper glanced around at his team, looking angry, then surprised, and finally he sighed, as if he realized he was outnumbered, even if Rico didn't care what they did. "Okay, fine," he muttered, looking defeated. "We can get to know her. But," he quickly added with such authority all three penguins snapped to attention," the first sign I see that she can't be trusted, we'll have nothing more to do with her, and we move bases to be on the safe side. Got it?"
"Yes, Skippah," Private said.
"Agreed." Kowalski looked a little sad, but he saluted his leader, and Rico muttered out what sounded like a yeah, but Julien couldn't be sure.
Nodding, Skipper looked satisfied with his team's response. Then he turned to go inside, widening his eyes when he spotted Julien, like he forgot he was there. "Uh you can go, Ringtail," he said.
Julien opened his mouth to retort that he wasn't the boss of him. But in the end he just shrugged and started heading back to his own habitat, suddenly very exhausted. He did what Hannah asked him to do. Now he was going to sleep and not worry about it anymore.
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