Undertow | By : pronker Category: +M through R > Penguins of Madagascar Views: 11341 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0 |
Disclaimer: I make no profit from this fanfiction set in Dreamworks' Penguins of Madagascar franchise. I do not own its characters, basic premise or settings. |
Rippling was the only word for what Cthulhu's belly was doing on the sunny last day of May. As she reclined beside her friend on the Slasher habitat's greensward, Marlene found her attention shifting once more to the buff fur bulging, twisting and waving in crests.
Cthulhu ignored her shared body. "And you were all right with doing this?"
"Oh sure. I'd heard of it and never tried it."
"He was all right with doing this?"
"Uh huh. It was his idea and it rocked." Marlene's grin cracked her face until she coughed once and controlled her expression.
"And it did not hurt you?"
"Nah. He prepared me like I told you because he's just aces at being prepared for preparing and, and stuff like that. Are you feeling okay, girlfriend?"
"I'm fine and my eyes are up here." Cthulhu tipped Marlene's chin upwards and the otter's face registered embarrassment.
"Sorrysorry, it's fascinating! I've never been around a lady mammal having babies. How does pregnancy feel?"
Cthulhu shrugged. "Like indigestion sometimes. Other times, it's like they are chasing a ball of yarn in there, rather cute." She smiled. "You ought to be here when they hiccup."
Marlene's jaw dropped. "How do you stop them - that must hurt or feel weird or - "
"It's no bigy, mukoma. Just another day in a pregnancy."
"It would seem so." Marlene saluted, a snap perfect salute that she aped from Kowalski. "You rock, sister."
"Tish, Marlene." Cthulhu rubbed her belly, where all was still. "You say you're heading off to tend the littles while he commands his team to scope out a human gelo?"
Marlene guarded her words because there was no need to blab everything about how Sally and Tactic came to life. Friendships didn't mean spilling your guts, after all. "Yeah, she's into hoodoo or shamanism or something like that. She's a potential danger and already, she's shown what she can do to, to harm them." Having babies wasn't exactly harm, but power such as Frances Alberta's made Marlene's fur stand on end just as much as facing down Kuchikukan had. It was a relief when Cthulhu pursued the subject farthest from her own life.
"Tell me about that other technique he tries on you."
Marlene blatted a raspberry, only half hearing the comment. "He keeps on with it like the nut he is, uh, sometimes, well he's a nut when he gets on my ner- never mind. I love him, don't get me wrong, it's only that I just don't like it and neither do I dislike it. It's a waste of time and we have to be all secrety secret with the goshdarn Thing we have going on and we don't have much time together as it is because he gets in late and leaves early." She pouted because she could be herself with Cthulhu like she could with few, well, none, actually, of the zoo's other resident females.
Cthulhu popped out the claws on her right paw. "Want me to set him straight?"
"Huh?"
"You're mukoma, my only friend in the zoo. I'll make him see reason if you wish it. Do you?"
The meaning of Cthulhu's words sank in and Marlene felt faint. Did she make a mistake befriending a Slasher, a species notorious for temper tantrums and utterly capable of carrying out threats? She glanced down at her own claws; they were short and puny. Cthulhu could do real damage if she got the drop on an unsuspecting, trusting -
"No, I don't think so," Marlene said carefully. "I can handle my love life. You're easy to talk to and I, I rambled." She lost it. "Please don't attack my team! Think of your babies!" That last came out desperate until Marlene reasoned her way to, "You're kidding, right?"
"Maybe." Cthulhu sheathed her claws. "Inform me soon if you change your mind. I don't know how much longer I can do battle openly. If I get any fatter, I wouldn't try anything except a sneak attack, you know, maybe a chandelier falls on him." She popped out her claws again for an airy what-shall-I-do gesture. "I could make it a near miss, though."
Marlene followed the waving hooked talons with one eye and focused on Cthulhu's glittery fanged smile with the other until she shook her head to clear it. "A chan- where in the zoo do we have a chandelier?"
She must be fooling, right? Right?
Cthulhu's eyes narrowed while she wove her plot and whipped her tail. "Roger told me there is one in the museum. There's too much support for Skipper in the zoo. I'd lure him to the museum at night with a lie, maybe something about you in trouble. I'm flexible."
"And predators always single out the weakest to get them alone, yeah I get that." Marlene assumed Skipper's akimbo stance deliberately. "You'd have a fight you couldn't win because he's the strongest animal I know. He'd squash you."
Cthulhu laughed and said, "You see? You kalazi are all alike because you'll never dump him no matter what."
"I would, too, if I felt like it! And what's a kalazi?"
"Mmmm, you're not ready to know and Cthulhu, you chop, you have a big mulomo," Cthulhu growled and cuffed herself. "Speaking of a big mulomo, why not ask him directly how come your love needs to be secret?"
Marlene's expression turned dreamy. "Because he's Superman."
"You are gone, girl, and I wash my paws of you."
The otter giggled. "Not literally, but you know about Superman and Lois Lane and how he's always afraid if he loves her openly that his enemies will strike at him through her?"
"And what does Skipper think you'll be doing while they do that? You have fangs and claws and smarts. In the meantime, I am the only animal who knows about your, your - "
"Thing." Marlene tapped her cheek thoughtfully. "Maybe Burt received a hint? I'm not sure. We tried to Routine Thirty-Two: Confuse and Distract him, but I really do not know what he picked up from seeing us kiss."
Had Cthulhu picked up Alice's well worn response to nearly anything of interest? "Whatever."
"He wants to protect me and I want to protect him and that's the way things are on a team," stated Marlene earnestly. "If Blowhole or Hans or that giant MP3 player ever attack again, I sure couldn't handle them by myself." She shivered before stroking Cthulhu's paw. "It's good to realize limitations, Cthulhu."
The Slasher yawned and stretched, her rump pointed to the sun. "All the same, I am ready to face him down. You might let him know that if he bothers you, upsets you, I'll come for him and that is a fact."
Marlene tempered her temper. "Keep away from my man." She clapped her paws over her mouth. "What did I just say?"
"I thought so, you're a kalazi," sighed Cthulhu and then brightened. "Hear that clackity clack? It's the automatic food dispenser gearing up or I don't know Maurice The Zookeeper's schedule. I'm hungry and I'm eating luncheon for, um, however many kittens there are inside me. Goodbye, Marlene."
Marlene stayed frozen until Cthulhu prodded her to go home. "Oh. Food. Yeah. 'Bye, Cthulhu."
The bale of meat slabs flying through the air narrowly missed Marlene as she halted atop the brick habitat barrier. She turned back to Cthulhu, who seemed determined to swallow whole a chunk of undetermined meat the size of the largest chameleon. The two air fived each other in farewell as Marlene trotted to her habitat to gather necessary babysitting items.
IOIOIOIOIO
Private, Kowalski and Skipper finetuned the route to Funkytown at the all-purpose table as Rico ushered Marlene through to Kowalski's lab and the playpen in its corner. After setting down her stuff, she oohed and aahed at the youngest penguins, brown and white and black and white chubbies playing independently with their toes.
"Feathers on an otter, mmmm, fascinating," Rico observed to himself and then sniffed hard. Four feathers trapped under her jawline and what was that intoxicating musk drifting from her, her, her - oh.
Oh.
Oh.
Mystery solved: Skipper and Marlene were together-together at night, almost all night, nearly every night.
His estimation of Skipper's strength rose higher. "Gahhhhhh," he breathed. "Cowabunga." He bent over the playpen as he bought time to think of what to say or do, if there were anything to say or do. A song bubbled up.
IOIOIOIOIO
Marlene could almost make out the lyrics that Rico blared to Sally and Tactic, but her imagination supplied the full version.
Made a meal out of me and came back for more
Had to cool me down
To take another round
Now I'm back in the ring to take another swing
'Cause the walls were shaking
The earth was quaking
My mind was aching
And we were making it and you
Shook me all night long -
Rico leaned over the playpen and crooned, or rather croaked, to his children. Marlene thought how far he had come from his allergy to mushy love statements and smiled before speaking in a stage whisper.
"Rico!"
"Wha?"
"That's not the sort of lullaby to sing to babies, really it isn't, I mean they don't understand the words well not the way you sing them anyway but I do get the song. They might absorb the meaning oh I don't know much about babies - but I'm here to learn - "
Rico flung a strong flipper about Marlene's shoulders. "Wrytoomuch."
"Hey, they're your kids so if you want them to - never mind. I guess you're right. Well, um, they're nodding off so I'll sketch the beginning of the family team portrait." She leaned into his side for a moment. "Big Jefe, set up my easel, huh?"
He astounded her by pecking her cheek before disengaging. "Yah." Her easel was new and untried, and she yearned to make her painting come to life. Skipper had gifted her with the easel following an excelente night.
Marlene brought herself back to the present as she felt Rico's eyes upon her. "Heh. Woolgathering, sorry. I'll get to work now." She framed the portrait in her artist's eye, arranging her subjects by height. It would be sweet to paint Skipper and Private helping Sally to stand with one of her flippers in each of theirs. To their left she would pose Kowalski and Rico with Tactic in a similar position. She took extra time to figure out how she would fit herself in. Between the two pairs? Cliché. Behind them, standing on a stool, as if she were their puppeteer? Maybe. She'd leave that for future inspiration.
"'Kay, Rico, do that turn the mind off thing you do so well and freeze. Yeah, like that." Rico blanked his whole body scarily, but she was used to it.
She sketched the basic layout, ovals, triangles and circles forming penguin shapes of the penguins not in the room. Rico she filled in more thoroughly, but still without the sexy gleam in his eye that she'd capture when Kowalski was at his side in the next session. The babies' adorability was easy; she condensed her usual broad strokes into more precise ones for their small faces and features. Tactic and Sally could both use a smile enhancement. Hmm, how to get them to smile when they woke up and she could begin work fine-tuning their tiny expressions? She'd need to ask their fathers for suggestions.
She booped his beak when she was finished and Rico turned his mind back on. Marlene could nearly hear the click of his little gray cells reactivating.
What he did next amazed her.
Zipping from a blank expression to hyper alert commando focus, he homed in on her without saying a word. He leaned into her neck, sniffed hard and then tilted his head back with beak open. His tongue slapping against the roof of his mouth, he made sounds that reminded her of the sump pump that Handyman Gus installed when her habitat flooded.
"Er, Rico, what are you doing?"
He did not reply, but the sump pump slurped at high speed. She grew uncomfortable.
Her curiosity got the better of her when he waved her closer. "C'mere." Now he slithered his beak into her right pit and she darted back when she felt a long lick.
"Stop! I don't like touching like this, penguin! Quit it!" She dropped her pencil and pushed him off.
His gaze refocused. "Sowwy." He looked concerned and something else she could not read. "Yukay, 'Eenie?"
"Yeah, I'm fine. Why did you taste me?" Marlene blotted away his spit from her pit. "Ew."
"Sumfinzweird."
She sniffed. "Well, you're weird, too, and you smell bad sometimes, but you don't hear me mentioning it."
What he said next dropped a bomb into her lap. "Pregs?"
"What? No! How is that even possible!"
His lifted brow said it all. "kaffKipppaaaaahkaff - "
" - is a penguin. Honestly, Rico." She burst out laughing. "Really! Can it be that you don't know how impossible it is - impossible - it - impossible - "
"Marlene, he knows about your Thing," whispered her inner voice. "Braap," was what she said aloud.
"Yahbraap." Rico faced his friend, his teammate and his commander's lover, all three. "Braap."
Marlene's lips wibbled. "I don't know how it started I love him and and it's good for him and for me please don't hate me."
IOIOIOIOIO
This was too complex for hate. Rico understood hate. He hated the killer of his Xochi. It burned pure and true inside him for a timeless time and only eased when Johnson gifted him with Miss Perky. The hate died permanently when he loved Kowalski because love pushed hatred out like an undigestible bit of calamari, the good eats he also loved but only, you know, after you spit out the sharp beak because it would shred your innards.
There was nothing to say, or was there? He could see distress on his friend Marlene's face and no kaboom would fix it. She was on her own, but the 'never swim alone' credo etched his heart as much as ever. He squeezed out one clear word. "Quiet."
Marlene didn't seem to hear him. "Please keep it covert because Skipper loves covert so so much, you know that and so do I." She did a double take. "Did I hear you say quiet? Was that you'll keep this quiet or do you want me to be quiet? Please tell me, I've got to know."
Her eyes wide, her paws wringing themselves against her chest, her anxiety leaking over his senses, all these things irritated Rico. His beak twisted as he replied. "Nopromise." If she thought he'd not ever tell, that was too bad. The only animals he owed that much loyalty to were his love and his commander. Private? What would Private do if he knew his beloved found another love on their agreed upon hiatus? Why, it would hurt the sensitive bird right down to his soul.
Wait. How much did any of them know about regular animal life out in the wild? Zoos messed with animals all the time, mating them to animals they had not even had one date with as well as subjecting ladies to injections of baby gravy without any fun at all.
He was certain he had only a little understanding of life but his tall-drink-of-water lover knew much more. It was only that Kowalski needed to refine his perception of emotions. Kowalski did stupendously with expressions of love to Rico, though, Rico thought as memories of last night swept him away.
"Rico?"
Eh, Marlene would have to suck it up. "Nopromiseseses, 'Eenie."
"All, all right. I believe deep down in my heart that we are okay, I mean Skipper and me, and - well. Okay, Rico."
The lab door eased open and Skipper's flipper signaled a curt come on, already!
Rico nodded to Marlene, blew kisses to his children and followed orders.
IOIOIOIO
Late afternoon sun provided deep shadows for covert observation from under a thick patch of broadleaf weeds on Frances Alberta's plot of expensive Manhattan land. A riot of dark skin tones from the largest clot of humanity in the tour group greeted the penguins' view: café au lait, rich chocolate and deepest ebony with all shades in between. The largest human in that sub-group read female to practiced eyes such as Skipper's and he noticed how Frances Alberta directed most of her attention to her, sort of fawning, really. He swept over the entire group with binoculars for security purposes before focusing on the two humans he knew the names of. They gesticulated to first one mecha rusting in place and then another, their voices too far away for him to discern.
"Those two get it on, I can tell by their body language. Look, Moley's changed his clothes style for her. That's a sure sign in humans." Skipper passed the binoculars to Rico.
"Ah huh." Rico mimed the gesture for braaping in the time-honored way and poked Private before shuttling along the binoculars.
Private's tongue peeped out in concentration. "I see he's matchin' her caftan's colors, Skippa. Mightn't he only have wanted a change in style because now he's helpin' her collect money from school groups and such? Crikey, he's buff! He may not be tall but he's built like a brick, er, somethin'."
"My gut says they're getting it on. Do you doubt my gut, babe?"
Kowalski took the binoculars and nodded thoughtfully at the more-or-less-human's outfit of Hammer pants and wifebeater. "Not one of us doubts your gut without reason, never, sir. However, Private seems to hold to the Jungian school of thought while you espouse Freud - "
"I'll never espouse anybody! Nev-ver, mark my words."
"Figure of speech."
"Oh. Never mind then. All right, back to the lair and we close the file on Frances Alberta and her strange friend despite that turd with wings Frankie's intel. I'm beginning to believe he was pranking me."
IOIOIOIOIO
Private hustled straightaway to check on his kids the second of his return, pushing past Marlene on her way up the ladder without a greeting. Marlene shrugged and joined the group in time to hear Skipper's rendition of a joke she supposed he considered Private too innocent to hear. What a can of worms that was. She needed a good joke right about now.
" - and the next time is in November!"
Marlene, Kowalski and Rico jabbed each other's bellies and fell apart. "Was that joke from Manfredi or from Johnson, Skipper?" asked Kowalski as he wiped tears from his eyes.
"Does it matter?"
Rico's answer made three of the four nod wisely. "Nuh uh."
"I wish I had known them," sighed Marlene.
"So help me Victor Borge, they had the best stories, those guys aw those guys - heads up, here comes Private." Skipper whistled innocently as his penguin love approached with slow steps, almost as if he did not want to join the group. Kowalski thought about joshing his leader that Victor Borge was Danish and quailed at the last minute; he substituted another comment because he felt supported by his teammates.
"Sir, a good dirty joke might make Private laugh, don't you think? He's been having some moody moments. I hypothesize a mild case of postpartum depression."
Skipper directed a pointed look at his lieutenant. "I hadn't noticed. He's getting his vacay time as requested, twenty-one and seven-nineteenths days like you calculated."
"Well, er uh, he has shown symptoms. Now and then. Off and on. Sometimes." Kowalski turned to his teammates. Marlene's brow puckered but she said nothing. Rico shrugged. "Tikki hatched two weeks ago and that timeframe is classic onset for baby blues."
"Brief me later, Science Boy." The neutral look of displeasure on his commander's face prompted disquiet in Kowalski's soul but not, Kowalski assured himself, as much disquiet as it would have before Rico became his own precious, adorable, sweety faced - he made himself stop.
"Aye, sir."
Marlene asked if she could leave her art supplies behind their all-purpose revolving door for her later work on the portrait and Skipper agreed with a grin and chuck under her chin. "Sure, ba- I mean Rabel. Rabel. Rabel was a Mexican artist I learned about in Cuernavaca on my way to - "
Kowalski stepped into the breach. "Sir, you've said to silence you about accidentally disclosing details on your years in México and I am following your orders. Sir."
"Heh. Yeah. Thanks, amigo, got a little carried away." Skipper rubbed his neck. "So, um, Marlene, dismissed for now. Good going on the babysitting, anything out of the ordinary happen?"
Marlene seemed fit to bust with questions about México, but she controlled herself. "Nope, all's quiet on the - "
Private joined them at last. "They kicked off their covers and someone didn't cover them up again."
"Well it must have just happened as I climbed the ladder, Private, because they were neat and sweet underneath their covers when I left - "
" - all the same - "
Skipper stamped his right foot and the two stopped. "Huh, foot fell asleep. Now as I was saying, you're dismissed, Marlene, and thanks. 'Bye now."
Marlene arced backwards to splash water over the one closest to the pond, which happened to be Private. "Ooopsy!" she said when she reached the far edge of the water, looked around to ensure privacy and then split for her own home.
"That gal, I swear to goodness, high spirits and low humor, dammit, I like her," Skipper shook himself free of a stray drop that had reached his belly. "Come on, troops."
"You and Rico head downstairs, all right, Skippa? I want to ask K'walski somethin'." Private appeared contrite or confabulating in Kowalski's inexpert grasp on emotions. "It's somethin' about Science."
Kowalski noted that Skipper searched his love's face before answering. "Very well. Chow at the usual time. Hey, Rico, let's change the combination on the all purpose door and tell Marlene we forgot the combination when she visits next to grab her artiste's gizmos - " Rico cackled and followed his commander down the hatch.
"Private, I'm delighted you want to plumb my knowledge of Science. What is the question?" Kowalski refused to speculate on the subject until all the facts were in. He primped his shoulders, brushing off invisible water droplets from Marlene's splash. One couldn't be too neat, after all.
"Lieutenant K'walski, I have a problem."
"Why so formal?"
"It's bloody serious, Lieutenant K'walski."
This was what they paid him the big bucks for, if he got paid. Kowalski adopted his counseling face: flippers clasped behind his back, faint smile upon his beak and head tilt at fifteen point seven degrees to indicate receptiveness. "Proceed, if you please." There, the stage was set for a smashin' good chinwag, as Private would say.
Private crossed his flippers and ducked his head deeply into his neck feathers in the way that Doctor Phil said telegraphed angst. Uh oh. "See, I've got this friend who is quite happy, doncher know, most of the time. Oh, she has her ups and downs like regular folk, but most of the time she's happy."
Kowalski's smile widened and he nodded enthusiastically. This started well! Perhaps he had misread the angsty posture. It had happened before.
"You see, big stuff happened in her life lately, really really big. Like, she fell in love and had babies with this bloke." He paused, his brow working and beak wibbling.
Oh. This was serious and, he supposed, angsty. Kowalski offered what he himself found comforting. "Those two things are serious and also life-affirming. I'm sure she will find her way to deal - "
"That's just it! She's not livin' as a normal animal, she's confined and really, really has no idea how everythin' will turn out and if it's worth it to stay with someone she l-loves but has problems with." Private held his chest more tightly, as if hugging himself into calmness.
Options, Kowalski? Science, of course, first, last and always. "Let's dissect this issue of your friend's, Private."
Private nodded, his beak at an unhappy downward slant. "Oh all right then. Go ahead."
"You said confined so this person lives or spends much time in a zoo such as ours, am I correct?"
Another nod.
"Is it Shawna?" Ahah, Kowalski, Shawna had not been on premises for some weeks now. That was it. Shawna was, technically, a human but humans were simply hairless monkeys. To protect her privacy, Private skewed his description of the healthy young female who was the perfect age and disposition to find herself in the scenario. Private loved Shawna at one point, Shawna found herself a young human male and became pregnant and there were problems. Shawna delivered her babies - Kowalski wondered if it was boy or girl twins or were they fraternal - and then commenced the breaking in period of being a parent for two young humans. All entirely natural because four young penguins neared the end of their own period of adjustment; Shawna would cope, but Private, tender hearted Private, worried about his friend.
Kowalski saw right through Private's subterfuge. Doctor Phil would have been proud of him. He beamed.
"Not Shawna."
"Oh." Private's face made Science blush, stammer and then regroup. "Very well, let's name your friend Specimen One and continue. How do you see this situation ending for Specimen One?" There, Kowalski, spike the volleyball back into Private's court and let him volley return. No, bad analogy, make it hockey - stop. Just stop.
Private's distressed face eased as he thought. "I, I suppose he, I mean she, could ignore the whole business and keep on keepin' on."
"And push emotions to the side? An option, but I hypothesize a later volcanic eruption. Take it from me and Skipper, those do worse damage - um. Enough about me, let's get to your friend. How brave is Specimen One?"
Private performed a perfect Gallic shrug. "Average, I suppose. I've never thought about it. She's dealin' with life changin' events that she really really looked forward to and now those times are here, it's a tad changed from wot he, I mean she, expected." He made that deprecating sound that everyone called cute, even Alice. "I'm not puttin' this very well, am I?"
Kowalski supposed his face showed confusion. He schooled his expression to neutrality. "Well enough. You're a good friend, Private. Specimen One is lucky."
Private talked more to himself that to his lieutenant. "I'm supposed to be friends with her and it's hard."
"If it's toxic to you, don't stay in the relationship. Get out." Doris swam into Kowalski's mind's eye until he blinked her away like an errant fallen eyelash.
"Never. He needs her, I mean she needs him, I mean he needs me, I mean she needs me, I mean I need her, her friendship, I mean."
Logic was difficult to express many times. "Then I can't help you."
"You already did." Private hugged Kowalski, all decorum aside as he slathered on affection to one he had known since bursting from his shell. "I got it all out and feel ever so much better. Wot will be, will be with Specimen One."
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