Rico sat susunod to his lifeless doll, sliding his flippers against her thin arms and sniffing her cool plastic scent. He began brushing her hair and cooing at her in hushed tones. She smile throughout the whole thing, her bright blue eyes glistening in Kowalski’s dim lamp.

Skipper was out doing recon, as he always did on Friday nights, his lazy smile scaring any animal that sneaked around in the zoo’s path. Private was with the lemurs, having his first sleepover with Mort, and Julien teaching them a couple of dance moves as well. And lastly, his best friend, Kowalski was at a grand central station, ready to go off to a scientist’s convention and hiding under benches and scraps of newspaper.

Rico smiled at the thought of his friends, getting closer to his doll sa pamamagitan ng the second. His smile faded when he remembered that he was going to be lonely the whole night. It was only 8:00 pm and he had 12 hours before Skipper and Private returned, and still having to wait for Kowalski because he would return Sunday morning.

He cuddled closer to his doll, trying to retain her warmth, but it was pretty hard considering that she was made of material, and had no flesh whatsoever. He let out a dull sigh and hugged his doll, which Julien had named Carlotta. A tear escaped his eye unconsciously. It dribbled down his beak and dripped onto her legs. He looked at the sparkling gem and wondered why that had happened. He was not feeling sad at all. Maybe he was feeling a little deserted, but not sad.

He smirked when he noticed what he was doing to himself. He was lying and cheating himself. He knew that he was sad, madami than sad, even. He didn’t know EXACTLY what was causing this. It was partly the fact that he was feeling secluded, but he didn’t know what else.

At least I have Carlotta to keep me company. He thought as he wiped a tear from his eyelids before it slipped out.

“If it doesn’t escape the eye, its not tears.” Skipper always sinabi to cheer them up when they were feeling down. Rico thought that this was a good time to use this example. Only ONE tear hear had ran down his cheeks. He felt brave.

Rico kissed his mga manika cheek.

“Love?” Rico whispered into her ears that where just shaped, but had no ear canal.

She smiled. Rico waited for his answer patiently. He knew that women needed their time when the word pag-ibig was used. About 5 minutos passed, Rico had began tapping his flipper on a block of concrete. He was tired of waiting.

He laid his head on her heart. He began weeping quietly when he noticed that she had not heart. Nothing at all. He looked up at her, still smiling. He grabbed her and tossed her aside. He was upset.

“Rico?” A soothing voice said.

Rico looked over at his doll. He began shaking nervously. For the first time, she had spoken to him. He smiled and waddled over to his doll. He picked her up.

“LOVE?” Rico began shaking he violently, but with passion, excited that his doll probably loved him back. Is this possible? Could she pag-ibig me? The tanong raced in his mind.

“Uh…sure?” The voice answered, a bit confused.

Rico noticed the voice was not coming from his doll. He turned around and found that the voice was coming from none other than Marlene, who was peeking from behind the door, a puzzled look on her face.

“Marlene?” Rico had his eyes wide opened, trying to make out the figure in the dark. He had never been so glad to see her. He thought that she could probably understand him better, since she was a girl. He was a bit disappointed because his doll wasn’t talking, but this was good, too.

“Uh, yeah.” Marlene stopped hiding from behind the door and walked towards Rico. “I was pretty bored tahanan and I was wondering if I could borrow some of Skipper’s fashion magazines.” She smirked a little, but she shook it off and returned to the worried look on her face. “But…You aren’t ok. Is there anything you want to talk about?”

Rico nodded and Marlene sat susunod to him, her paw patting his back and smiling brightly at him. She knew that a smile could make everything better.

“I’m listening.” She waved her paw, signaling him to go on.

“Doll. No love. No talk. No heart. Me lonely. Me no love.” Rico slouched and a tear slipped from his eye. He frowned at it as it landed on Marlene’s fur. He wiped off quickly, angry at himself for crying a little in front of Marlene. She would never see him the same.

“Ok…Let me see what I understood. Your doll can’t love, she doesn’t talk, she has no heart? And you are lonely and no one loves you?” Marlene had a bit of tanong in her voice, but mostly understanding. She wanted to hug him. He looked like a helpless baby to her eyes, unlike most of the time.

“Uh-huh.” He squeaked. He knew Marlene would try to comfort him.

“Well don’t think that!” Marlene hopped from her place, talking loudly, proudly and encouragingly. “People pag-ibig you! What about Skipper? His team couldn’t function with all your weapons and gismos! Kowalski? He needs materials to make inventions! Private? He sees you as a role model! He loves you truly! And well, me? I probably would of never talked to the other penguins if it wasn’t for you. Remember when I first got here? I saw all of you. I was pretty shy. But I got the urge to speak up because I thought it was pretty cool the way you coughed up things! I wanted to learn madami about that. So if it wasn’t for you, I would not have any friends. I was introduced to Julien sa pamamagitan ng you guys. Face it. I would be helpless.” Marlene was talking like the women that encourage people to “Pilot their own life.”

Rico was amazed sa pamamagitan ng what Marlene had said. He thought it was sweet of her trying to ipakita him how much people loved him…but instead, she was kind of ipinapakita him that people only liked him because of material reasons. The loved him just like he loved his doll. He loved her because she was quite beautiful. He also loved her because he thought that she would be the only female to ever pag-ibig him.

“Marlene. Stuff. No pag-ibig me. pag-ibig stuff.” He looked at Marlene, tears running down his face.

Marlene’s puso was broken when she saw Rico crying. She felt as if she would never be happy ever again. It was the first time that she had seen him so…broken. She wanted to cry along with him, but she didn’t want to make him worse either. She got a little closer to him and gave him a side hug.

“No Rico. People DO pag-ibig you. Not your stuff. I bet that if you couldn’t do that, you would still be loved.” Marlene whispered, tears beginning to run down her cheeks as well.

Rico thought that she was just kidding. People would never pag-ibig him. He was abnormal, and he had to admit that. But something about Marlene’s voice told him that she did pag-ibig him. And when he thought about it, so did most people. He smiled at her, happy that she had fixed his problem. He hugged back.

“Thank you.” Rico said, his voice sounding a lot smoother than other times.

“You’re welcome.” Marlene smiled as she got up. “Now, can I borrow the magazines or what?”

Rico dashed to the restroom and picked up 10 magazines.

“ALL YOURS!” He squawked, holding the magazines as bulaklak and smiling brightly. Marlene giggled and took the “flowers” in her paws.

“Thanks.” Her smile growing wider as she walked out of the habitat.

Rico looked at the door for 5 minutes, until he finally noticed that Marlene was gone. He shook his head and went to his bunk. He thought it would be nice to take a nap and not get any lonesome thoughts in his head. He fluttered his eyes until they closed and dozed off to sleep.