Each drabble/one-shot was originally written for tPoM Week 2018 Nov. 25th- Dec.1st and have been altered/edited/polished from their original/initial posting on tumblr with the exception of Day 6 and Day 7 which I did not get around to finishing until well after tpom week and did not post them on tumblr.

Enjoy :)

Day 1 - Operation: Snow-Cones

Marlene wrinkled her nose at the sight of Skipper and Private digging into their rainbow colored snowcones. She never understood the appeal of having so many flavors, especially ones that didn't go together, for the sake of appearance. At least Kowalski and Rico had good taste when it came to flavors, although she would take Kowalski's Root Beer over Rico's Tiger Blood any day if cherry wasn't an option which had happened on more than one occasion.

Nevertheless, she didn't say anything about Skipper's flavor choice or the fact that they could easily buy their own snow-cone machine and have them whenever they wanted. She had learned from that mistake quickly, the memory of that day as fresh in her mind as if it had happened just hours ago instead of years.

"If you guys like snow-cones so much why don't you just get a snow-cone maker?" The question had been nagging at Marlene long before Private had invited her to get snow-cones with the team earlier that afternoon. It wasn't unusual to see the four making snow-cone runs although she hadn't really noticed how often the four men would go out for the frozen treat until they started inviting her along and she found herself missing their trips to Central Park when they had left for a month-long mission.

"It's not in the budget."

Skipper's answer came out clipped, sharper than Marlene had anticipated, causing her to pause mid-step. She wondered if the mission was more difficult than Skipper made it seem. It wouldn't be the first time he had shrugged off a major assignment like it was a milk run when he had instead stared Death in the face.

"Don't worry about him Marlene," Private nudged her with his shoulder and they quickly fell into step behind Rico and Kowalski. "Skipper's feathers are just a bit ruffled from having to debrief with Alice this morning. He went against orders and was reprimanded for it along with a few other things. After a snow-cone he'll be right as rain. In a way it's our tradition, especially after a particularly rough mission."

"That makes sense," Marlene glanced at Skipper, her fondness for the man was growing with each thing that she learned about him that went against his tough as nails persona. Still even if it was a tradition, the tradition could have been going out for anything from pizza to egg-rolls. "But why snow-cones? It just seems like an odd choice."

Private chuckled at her question. "It seems a little funny doesn't it? My Uncle Nigel was positively baffled by it when he assisted us on a mission that went all topsy-turvy. And when you think about it could have been any old thing really, but one time we were on a mission and everything that could have gone wrong went wrong. We ended up stranded in a desert with no supplies and no equipment, only the clothes he had been wearing which weren't even our CENTRAAL issued uniforms."

Marlene shuddered at the thought of enduring the desert heat with nothing more than the clothes on her back. "Didn't CENTRAAL know where you were?"

"That was part of the problem, without our uniforms there was no way for CENTRAAL to track us as far as they knew we were still being held captive. They wouldn't send another team out unless we went over 12 hours without contacting the nearest base. We really thought that it was the end, even if we weren't to go down without a fight. Still one day Skipper started talking about how if he was going to die in the desert then he wished that the last thing he could eat was some shaved ice. Of course, all of us agreed and we started talking about the ice treats we had as kids. Even Rico mentioned how long it had been since he had had some copo."

"Copo?" Marlene asked never having heard of it before.

"It's Costa Rican shaved ice," Kowakski cut in with a knowing smile, having slowed down to join the conversation. "Traditionally topped with powdered milk, kola syrup and condensed milk but some vendors also offer fruit, marshmallows and Dr. Pepper syrup. Kola syrup is the red slush syrup and it's not Coca Cola flavored, it's actually just very sweet," he glanced over a Rico with a fond look as he added, "almost too sweet for me."

"I'm sorry Rico, but that sounds awful." Marlene apologized her teeth aching at just the description. She had a sweet tooth that could rival Kowalski's but sometimes there were such things as too sweet and many of the confections that Rico favored seemed to find that line. Still Rico only shrugged as if to say it wasn't for everyone like he did when anyone pulled a face on the things he enjoyed. "So, you were all reminiscing about shaved ice while stranded in the desert, but how did that turn into getting snow-cones after missions? And how on earth did you actually get out of that situation?"

"Well a lot of that mission is still classified," Private looked sheepish like he had already said more than he should have but continued on, "but it basically boils down to things getting worse when we thought they possibly couldn't and Skipper turns to us and says-"

"Men," Skipper's voice cut in, "if we make it out of this alive we're going out for snow-cones and if we don't, I better see you in Dante's Ninth Circle because we're getting our goddamned snow-cones."

"Marlene?" Skipper's voice pulled her from her thoughts and she turned to see him looking at her with concern. "Are you going to eat your snow-cone or just let it melt?"

"Sorry, I was just lost in thought. It's been like a month since I've seen you guys. You're normally not gone that long, and I guess my imagination of what you could have been doing got the better of me." Marlene joked, pushing back all thoughts of there being a day where there weren't any Penguins to get snow-cones with.