“Private, go outside until further notice!” Skipper ordered while making his way towards Kowalski and Rico, who were both told to stand against the wall, side-by-side. Neither of them were allowed to speak until spoken to, and their heads were to remain forward and straight. The leader had suspected some activity occurring between the two suspicious penguins, and he was more than ready to get to the bottom of it. The small Private didn’t hesitate to follow his orders. During the rare occasion that Skipper asked to be alone, no one argued.
Kowalski’s eyes were fixated to the wall on the opposite side of the room. His body was tense and his breaths were slow and quiet. The penguin was doing his best not to attract attention to himself. Rico, on the other hand, appeared relaxed. He retained his poor posture, his calm expression, and his vacant eyes. He didn’t care at all, did he…?
The intellectual almost envied him. No, he did envy him! Rico was just going through the motions, whereas Kowalski felt as though he were about to be executed. He wanted to experience a day in Rico’s life; the way Rico would do things. Why couldn’t he have him? Why should Rico be able to breeze through the day without a care in the world? Why not Kowalski? He almost hated Rico for it, now that he set his mind to it…
“Okay, men…I want to know what went down last night; starting with you!” Skipper laid a flipper to his hip while the other pointed to Kowalski. The tall one remained silent, trembling to the point where his limbs began to grow numb. His eyes closed and he could tell that his voice would shake if he were to speak. Kowalski could practically feel a spotlight scorching his feathers. He was now turning red from underneath.
Rico turned his head a bit in order to glance at the shaking Kowalski. He felt more than sorry for the tormented penguin; especially after last night. He wasn’t sure if there was hope for Kowalski. The intellectual wouldn’t find that sort of affection from within the team; and that would require leaving.
“Rico!!” Skipper startled the dazed explosives expert. He had forgotten that the pair was to refrain from moving. Rico instantly stiffened and did as he was told. When Skipper turned his attention to Kowalski again, he found that the nervous penguin was in even worse shape than before. He ignored this and decided it was best to keep him on the edge.
“The sooner you talk, Kowalski, the quicker we can get on with our lives…” Skipper reminded him, hoping to somehow speed up the process of this interrogation.
“I was trying to…Rico didn’t…” he hesitated, nearing the brink of weeping.
Skipper stepped forward and slapped Kowalski across the face, “C’mon, spit it out, man!”
Without a thought…
“Rico made an attempt to engage in sexual activity!!”the careless one spat out, looking down and away with his eyes remaining shut.
Skipper’s harsh glare quickly fixed itself onto Rico’s confused form, “Is this true, soldier?”
Rico frowned and slowly turned his head to Kowalski, who was quietly whimpering with his head low in shame.
Things probably would have been better this way…
The scarred penguin sighed and looked back to Skipper, reluctantly nodding his head in agreement.
“Well, this makes sense…” Skipper almost smiled as he turned and began to take a few steps away from the pair, “All Rico needs is a nice, long vacation.” He paused, pondering on his options, “I’m sure Marlene wouldn’t mind looking after him for a while. What do you think, Kowalski?”
Kowalski only shrugged his shoulders. Skipper wasn’t exactly acting like himself at that moment, but the tall one would have done anything to stay as far as possible from Rico; anything to rid himself of these perverted thoughts in his head.
“Right, case solved! We’ll arrange the details with Marlene at 1300 hours! In the meantime, let’s grab some fish.”
There he went, happily waddling away as though he had done nothing wrong…
Had he?
Kowalski wasn’t sure if it was Skipper’s fault. The entire outcome would most likely have changed if Kowalski hadn’t relied on impulse. Acting without prior knowledge appeared to have been getting Kowalski in more trouble than he had desired.
As soon as the leader climbed the ladder and made his exit, Kowalski raised his head and opened his teary eyes. He looked to his left to find Rico staring at him in disappointment. He was obviously not pleased by his friend’s choice. Kowalski felt that he needed to make it up to him, of course. Therefore, the intelligent penguin gave a weak smile and slowly pulled out his notepad and began to jot down a few thoughts and options.
“Not to worry, Rico! I’ve come up with a few ideas that may interest your-” he suddenly gasped when Rico swiftly whacked the notepad from Kowalski’s grip, causing his paper and pencil to hit the ground. Kowalski blinked in surprise and lowered his head to study the items that had been forcefully removed from his grasp.
The tall one dropped to his knees to pick his things from the floor. “Don’t worry, Rico…I know there’s something…I can help…” Kowalski continued to say softly, almost to himself.
Rico growled and suddenly kicked the notepad and utensil aside, nearly sending them across the room. Kowalski sighed and looked up from the floor to glance at Rico. The heavy penguin narrowed his eyes and shook his head, making a grunting noise. Kowalski’s could feel his throat tighten. He looked back down to the ground and opened his beak to speak, but no words made their way out. At this point, Kowalski was allowing his previously restrained tears to flow freely. This induced the bawling that soon followed.
Kowalski continued to cry out loud in that same position as Rico turned and headed for the ladder to join the others for their morning fish…
