Chapter Two

“Rico. Rico. Rico, wake up.” Rico heard his name being called repeatedly and fluttered his eyes open. The voice was so rich and sweet, he hoped it was who he thought it was.

“Marlene???” Rico whispered. His eyes were blurry and then they got into focus, making the shape of an angry chim cánh cụt and a slightly younger one to his side.

“RICO! Where are my magazines?” Skipper demanded. He didn’t hear Rico say Marlene at first.

“Marlene.” Rico sat up and wiped his eyes with his flippers. He looked around and found his doll. Her arm had came off when he had thrown her aside the night before. He felt a little guilty and got up. Even if his doll was not in tình yêu with him, she didn’t deserve to be treated that way.

He waddled slowly to his doll and picked her up. Skipper’s and Private’s eyes followed him. Rico regurgitated some glue and let a few white gems slide into the hole where her arm used to be. He then placed her arm back on and sat her down.

“Rico, this is no time to be grooming your “true love”! Now, why did bạn allow Marlene to take my magazines? Those are personal! What if she already filled out the “Are bạn a fashion goddess?” Quiz!?!” Skipper was burning inside.

Rico turned back to see Skipper crossing his arms over his chest and glaring at him. He then got an idea. His eyes widened with anticipation and a sly grin spread on his beak.

“Rico get books?” Rico asked innocently, his eyes looking like two giant blue marbles as he spoke. Skipper nodded.

“Yes. I want them. NOW.” Skipper’s cold stare made Rico shiver a little, but he shook it off and waddled to a box where he kept the things that he didn’t want to get slimy with his saliva.

He flipper the box open and he found a comb that he used for his doll. He smiled at it and hid it behind his back.

“Ok.” Rico tobogganed out of the HQ excitedly. He jumped over the fence in Marlene’s habitat and landed right into the pond. He swam out and shook his feathers in the breeze, causing them to look really messy. He liked it. It gave him a “rebellious” look.

“Marlene?” Rico waddled into her habitat, still holding the comb behind him. Rico’s eyes searched the dark habitat until he found Marlene, who was drawing stuff on her tường to pass the time.

“Yeah?” Marlene turned back to see him, getting off the ladder she used to paint on the higher places of her wall.

“Uh…Skipper want books…now.” He spoke shyly, shuffling his feet. He hoped his voice hadn’t sounded too rough, he knew that it usually frightened people.

“Cool, I just finished đọc them. bạn should tell Skipper to get some thêm because I already filled out his quizzes.” Marlene wiped her paws on her khăn, tạp dề and made her way to the stack of magazines. She picked them up and gave them to Rico.

“Thank You. Present?” He squeaked. He began shivering, he had never felt so nervous in his life.

“Present? For what?” Marlene’s eyes widened. She wanted a present, but she didn’t want to feel as if she was taking advantage of him. She thought it was rude to take gifts from someone when she had nothing to give.

“Friend.” Rico smiled and held out the purple comb that sparkled in the sunlight. It was one of his most priced possessions, especially because it was his doll’s. He thought she deserved it, since she was her new best friend, not his doll.

“Wow. It’s beautiful.” Marlene smiled and took it from his flippers. She turned around and searched the room to see if she could find something that Rico would find useful. Then her eyes finally stopped at one item. Paints. She knew that Rico was into painting just like she was. But she didn’t have anything to paint on, except her wall, and Rico couldn’t take that.

“Say, Rico. Would bạn like to stay a while and help me paint?” Marlene asked uneasily. Rico nodded a couple of times and she giggled. He looked a like a little cún yêu, con chó con when he did that.

“Ok then, here bạn go!” She gave him a couple of súp cans filled with paint. Rico dipped both of his flippers in and found a clean corner.

“This?” Rico asked. He didn’t want to paint on something Marlene would not want to get messy.

“Yes, bạn can paint WHEREVER bạn want.” Marlene smiled at him as she went back up the ladder. She began finishing painting her name on the hàng đầu, đầu trang of the wall.

Rico began doodling, drawing anything that his tim, trái tim told him to draw. He drew his friends, himself, a TV, a bag of popcorn, a snow cone, the chameleons, trash, a màu hồng, hồng bow, a Spanish guitar, ngọn lửa, chữa cháy and more. He noticed that all of his drawings had something to do with an adventure him and his Những người bạn had at some point. He frowned when he got to the snow cone. They were delicious, but he remembered how Marlene had gone crazy over Julien. Jealousy bubbled up inside him, but then he cooled down when he got to the fire. Him and Marlene had been partners in that mission and he enjoyed every bit of it.

He thought Marlene enjoyed it too. She looked a little scared, but Rico knew he could change that, as he did. Marlene was the only girl that Rico didn’t find weak. She was always head strong and proud. He smiled. He wished he could be like that himself. He sighed dreamily as he continued to paint.

Marlene turned back to glance at what Rico was doing. Her eyes widened when she saw what beautiful paintings that he had drawn. They where extravagant and colorful, pleasing to the eye and anyone could easily notice what each thing was. She then looked at Rico who was humming to a happy tune, his flippers looking like a rainbow.

She giggled a little. He always looked like a child to her. He never seemed to mature, and he was just plain adorable. Adorable. Marlene thought. Adorable, yeah that’s it. He’s adorable. Marlene nodded. She had finally found a word that could easily describe Rico, though she was sure that there were a lot of qualities that she liked about him.

He’s funny. She thought. That’s one of them. He is always the one that can bring a smile to my face when everything seemed dull with boredom. He is sweet. Even if at times he can be a bit…gross, he is always very sweet and caring when it comes to his doll and his friends. He is smart. I found out he knows how to read better than anyone in the group since he can’t talk. And he’s cute. Wait. Marlene shook her head. Nope. Wrong thought. Wrong person. STUPID BRAIN! She yelled in her head.

“RICO! WHAT ARE bạn DOING?” Skipper was at the entrance of Marlene’s habitat. He had a grim frown on his beak and his eyes were even colder than when he left.

“Rico paint.” He squeaked. Marlene felt like saying “AWWW!” But she knew that it wasn’t the time to say something like that.

“Don’t talk to him like that! Come on. I offered.” Marlene hopped off of her ladder.

“This is nothing that should interest you, Marlene. Duty is duty and he needs to honor it under any circumstances.” Skipper growled.

“So, getting your magazines back in time is duty?” Marlene smirked at him, trying to make him angrier than before.

Skipper gave her a quick death glared and pulled on Rico’s flipper. It stained his and Skipper yelped. Now both of their flippers looked like rainbows.

“UGH! RICO!” Skipper scowled. Rico just grinned.

“Here, let me clean bạn up.” Marlene grabbed a moist purple rag and began rubbing it on Rico’s flippers. The thêm she did, the less bạn could see the purple. When she was finished, Rico’s flippers looked charcoal black as always, and her yêu thích purple rag looked trashed. She smiled a little and threw it behind her.

“There.” Marlene smirked.

“What about me?” Skipper waited, his flippers held out in front of him.

“You are a “military commander”. So bạn know how to clean yourself up.” Marlene crossed her arms.

Skipper growled once thêm and both him and Rico waddled out of Marlene’s habitat.

Marlene walked up to Rico’s tường painting and began identifying each item. Then she came to an unknown shape. It was brown, and had two white gems sitting at the top. It was a very beautiful shape to her, but it was very hard. Then she got it. It was supposed to be her. She thought it was thêm beautiful than herself.

Is this really how Rico sees me? Marlene looked down to see her fur. She looked around and shrugged and went back to drawing thêm things on her wall.