A/N: A big thank you to all who have reviewed so far, and to all who have read this fanfic and enjoyed it. I may start a drabbles fanfic for this pairing as I've become quite attached to it.

When Skipper woke up several hours later, he was alone in the habitat. His team mates were not in their bunks, Marlene had gone, and so had the anchovies he'd left on the floor. He sat up and yawned. As he felt a twinge bubble up in his head, he knew it must be about mid-morning. Years of getting up at 0600 hours meant that sleeping in often left him with a debilitating headache.

He rubbed his head and recalled the wonderful dream he had. Marlene was in it, sleeping peacefully and nuzzling him. It felt so real. Her soft fur, her subtle breathing, her warm paws pulling at his flipper and drawing him closer to her. She still smelt heavily of chlorine and-

His feathers fluffed up and his cheeks burned as he realised that it wasn't a dream. Suddenly, the events of the previous night raced through his mind. The sleeplessness, the anchovies, getting dragged to the floor by the flinching otter; how was he ever going to face her again?

She obviously woke up before him, she must have noticed that he was literally right up against her. And what of the others? Had his team mates seen the two of them? While perfectly innocuous, the situation must have looked very wrong from an outside perspective.

"Morning, sleepy-head!"

"Aaah!" Skipper yelled out in surprise.

"Woah, you okay there?"

He looked up and saw Marlene standing over him.

"Of course, Doll face," He replied, trying to regain his composure. "Just not used to sleeping in, that's all."

"No kidding, when your alarm went off this morning I nearly jumped out of my skin," She giggled. "I'm surprised you didn't hear it."

"Did, uh, the boys get up on time?"

"Yeah, they sprang out of bed and started doing their usual morning thing… oh, and they made this for you for when you woke up." She handed him a cup of lukewarm fish coffee.

"Thanks." He said, taking a sip.

"Listen," Marlene began. "I just wanted to thank you for letting me stay here."

"Any time, Marlene," He smiled.

Skipper, his face still red with embarrassment, was unsure how to broach the subject of last night or this morning. Marlene sat next to him and observed his blushing face with curiosity. She had never seen him blush before, he was always such a stoic and collected penguin. To see him as anything other than the cool-headed commander of the penguins was rare. Of course, being watched only made Skippers face burn a deeper shade of red.

"I haven't slept that well in ages," She said, breaking the silence as she stretched her arms. "And I had a funny dream too – about being caught in a freezing cold rip tide, when this warm cloud lifted me up and carried me away – kinda cheesy, huh?"

"I wouldn't say it was cheesy, but how often do you have dreams like that?"

"Not very often, but I don't stay here very often either," She reflected, shuffling closer to Skipper. "I hope my snoring didn't keep you awake!"

"Well, actually, you didn't snore at all."

"That's good, because when I woke up this morning you were lying next to me, and the last thing I wanted was to deafen you with my snores."

Skipper spat out his mouthful of coffee and his feathers ruffled even more. He jumped up and stuttered madly, trying to explain how he came to be in that position. She'd never seen him so flustered, not since yesterday at least. In his current state, she would never get a word in edgeways, so she waited for him to get close and grabbed his beak with both paws.

"Calm down," she soothed. "You don't have to explain anything, but I do need you to listen."

Skipper relaxed slightly and settled down enough that she felt it no longer necessary to hold his beak shut.

"We've been friends for a long time, you and I, and recently I've found myself wanting to be around you more," Marlene took a deep breath and sighed. "Every day, these feelings get stronger, and with everything that happened yesterday I feel it's time to tell you that…"

Skipper leaned in towards her.

"Look, I've never felt this strongly about anyone or anything before," She paused and nervously rubbed her arm. "I guess what I'm trying to say is…"

He hung on her every word and wiggled his left flipper as if encouraging her to continue.

"Skipper…" She started, putting her paws on his shoulders and taking another deep breath. "I'm in love with you!"

Immediately she recoiled and turned away from him, her face now as red as his was. He gently smiled and reached out to touch her. He curved his flipper round her heated cheek and tenderly moved her head towards him, until their eyes met. She couldn't help but notice his bright red blush had lessened to a slight salmon pink.

"Marlene, I've learned a lot from you," He softly spoke. "About enjoying life and having fun, but most importantly, you made me realise that I can be a tough, no-nonsense leader and still love someone with all my heart…"

"Wha-what are you saying?"

"You have given me your love Marlene," Skipper grinned. "Will you accept mine?"

"Of course!" the excited otter squealed.

Happy tears streamed down her face as she lunged towards him, accidentally knocking him on his butt in the process. Leaning on his chest, she could hear his heart beating rapidly. She almost couldn't believe this was happening, it was like a dream come true.

For a long time she'd had a crush on Skipper, but he never seemed to show much interest, he was always busy doing recons and other penguin missions. Mind you, he did come running if he ever heard her scream, or if she needed help. When he was having a gender identity crisis, she was the one he came to for advice. And he had saved her on several occasions, like from the booby traps in the tunnels under her habitat, or when they'd been snowed in the snack shop with Officer X.

As they sat on the floor, wrapped in warm embrace, the world around them seemed to disappear…

"Okay Skipper, the otter enclosure is now ready for Marlene and-" Kowalski stopped and tried to make sense of what he saw.

Marlene and Skipper looked up at Kowalski and blushed the same shade of red.

"Uhh, this isn't what is looks like," Marlene stuttered.

"Well, actually," Skipper corrected. "It kind of is…"

Kowalski slowly put two and two together. He was no fool, although he'd done some foolish things in the name of love. He was still trying to win the heart of his beloved Doris. Seeing his commanding officer in a loving hug with their otter neighbour gave him secret hope for himself and his dolphin crush.

"Congratulations," Kowalski smiled. "I'll uh, leave you two alone for now."

"Kowalski, not a word to Private or Rico," Skipper ordered before beaming happily at Marlene. "We'll tell them ourselves."

"What, right now?" She asked.

"Whenever you're ready Doll face," He assured, standing up and helping her to her feet as he did so. "A covert penguin like myself knows how to keep things classified."

Marlene smiled. The Sky Spirits knew how hard it was to keep her feelings secret from Skipper and the other penguins. She wondered how long Skipper had felt this way about her and whether he struggled to hide it from his team. He was such a composed individual, she imagined it would not be hard for someone like him to keep such things hidden. The more she thought about it, the less she wanted to keep their newfound relationship a secret.

As they approached the ladder that lead out onto the white platform of the penguin enclosure, she stopped. Sensing the need for a private word between the two, Kowalski went up the ladder first. Skipper gave her a curious look. Her cheeks had gone slightly red and she tapped her paws one over the other nervously.

"Marlene…?" He began.

"Would you mind if we told them now? You know, about us?" She asked.

"Fine by me, but are you sure? I don't want you to feel rushed into anything…"

"I know, the idea frightened me at first, but I can't keep good news to myself," She leaned over and kissed Skipper's cheek.

His face began to burn once more and he placed his flipper over where she had just kissed him. She giggled at the dazed look on his face and started up the ladder. Still reeling over the impulsive show of affection, Skipper watched Marlene reach the top and wave him up. He would have to thank Alice for inadvertently bringing the two of them together. Perhaps a couple of days reprieve from their often destructive missions would suffice. Regardless, he knew this was the start of something wonderful...

Thanks for reading, hope you enjoyed it! I tried to keep the characters as 'real' as possible, by trying to imagine those characters saying what I had written. Hope it worked! Thanks again x