Peso Oneshots

The One Day

8:06 A.M.

Peso sighs as he sits on his bed. He holds a picture frame in his flippers, staring at the photo. He hugs it close to his chest, feeling tears sting at his eyes

"Desearía que estuvieras aquí..(I wish you were here..)" he mutters.

"Arrr!"

Peso jumps as Kwazii bursts through his door with a ping pong paddle.

"Up for a game of ping pong, Peso? Uh," his smile drops at the sight of the penguin. "Are you alright, matey?"

"I'm just tired." Peso waves his flipper in the air for a moment. "I had a lot of patients last night."

Kwazii gives him a look, eyeing the picture frame, still huddled to Peso's chest.

"Are you sure?" He asks. "What's with the picture frame?" He's starting to get suspicious.

"I-it's nothing." Peso replies. "Just a picture of my family.." he mutters a last part that the cat doesn't hear.

"Alright..well, ping pong?" He repeats his original question, lifting up the paw that holds the paddle.

"Uh, m-maybe later.."

Kwazii furrows his brows at that. Peso never turns down ping pong..

"Alright, if you say so, matey.." Kwazii turns to the door, stopping only for a second before walking out.

He walks down the hall a ways, over to a screen on the wall. He presses a button, Captain Barnicals popping up on the screen.

"Captain, I think something's wrong with Peso. Meet me in the Game Pod."

Before the polar bear can reply, the cat presses the button to turn off the screen. He runs down the hall to the Game Pod.

"What's wrong, Kwazii?" Captain Barnicals asks when he and the cat are both in the Game Pod.

"I asked Peso if he wanted to play a round of ping pong." Kwazii starts.

"What's wrong with that?" Barnicals asks. "He loves ping pong."

"That's just it," Kwazii continues. "He said he didn't want to." Barnicals gasps at that. "Not only that, but he seemed really wiped out."

"Well, he did have a lot of patients last night." Barnicals points out. "He's probably just tired."

"Aie, that's what he told me. But he had a picture frame." Barnicals raises an eyebrow. "He said it was a picture of his family."

"It probably was. He has a lot of pictures of his family."

"Yeah, but he sounded upset." Kwazii protests. "Like he was grieving."

"What's your point, Kwazii?" Barnicals wants to know why the cat wanted to say all this.

"I'm saying he isn't himself." Kwazii makes hand gestures to prove his point. "He didn't want to play ping pong, he had a sad tone to his voice, and he had a picture frame held to his chest."

"He may have gotten some news from his family." Barnicals frowns. "And it might not have been good news. With a family so big, you get just as much bad news as good news."

Both males frown in worry for their friend.

"Maybe we should check in on him." Barnicals offers. "Get some answers."

"I already tried. He waved it off like it was normal."

"We can't just watch him fall. We need to see what's bothering him and help, if we can."