Fic: Courage

[csi_sanders1129]

Title: Courage
Chapters: 2/10
Author: csi_sanders1129
Genre: Friendship. Drama. Romance. Angst. Humor.
Ratings: T
Word Count: ~1700
Pairings/Characters: Fred Jones/Shaggy Rogers, Scooby Doo.
Synopsis: Fred and Shaggy go from friends to more as they live through ten courage-requiring events at Coolsville High.

Comments: I’m writing slash for Scooby-Doo. I’m weird. I know. On that note, you have been warned. And, while reviews are awesome, flames will not be tolerated – they will be deleted. Original characters are mine, but everyone else belongs to Hanna-Barbera. It is set in the Mystery Begins/Curse of the Lake Monster!Verse, but does occasionally reference mysteries from Where Are You!, some references to Pup Named Scooby Doo via Red Herring, and one to Alien Invaders later on. This was also a ten-song challenge thing (that I totally cheated on) and so there’ll be song names at the beginning of each chapter, too. Enjoy!

This chapter deals with potentially triggering issues that go way beyond typical Scooby Doo levels of seriousness. What occurs in this chapter is a running theme throughout several other chapters and I’m just warning for that now. The idea for this came from Fred’s comment of “I’m gonna have to run away from home,” following his suspension in Mystery Begins and takes the reasoning behind it to extremes.

Chapter 1 |

2.Blue On Black // Johnny Lang

Shaggy Rogers is no idiot.

Despite what people think of him, he is well aware of the world around him. Just because he prefers to spend his class-time napping, it doesn't mean he isn't smart.

And, yeah, he was held back those two times, he's not denying that. The first time was in 3rd grade and it really wasn't his fault – he was out most of the first semester sick and he just never caught up to everyone else. The second occurrence was 7th grade, and he's blaming that one on the teachers who'd chosen to single him out as an example; they thought he was cheating because he got decent grades despite his lazy attitude.

All in all, though, Shaggy is far more perceptive than people give him credit for.

Which is maybe why he is the only one who seems to spot Freddy's odd behavior when no one else does.

"Like, you okay, Fred?" He asks in gym class one day - one of two classes they have together this year.

Fred looks decidedly dead on his feet. He has for a while, really. Shaggy's pretty sure his new friend hasn't gotten a good night's sleep at all in the six weeks since school started again after Spring Break, at least judging by his zombie-like appearance. He's seen him fall asleep all over the place: at lunch, in class, even on the bus with his head leaned on Shaggy's shoulder.

"What?" Comes Fred's mumbled reply as they jog around the track on Coolsville High's back field. "Oh. Yeah, yeah. Shag, I'm good."

Shaggy isn't convinced. He's noticed other things that seem off about his friend. Freddy hasn't been eating much – at least not at lunch or when the gang hangs out (when he's awake, anyway) – and he made more mistakes than usual at his last practice.

On top of that, Fred can't seem to decide between avoiding the gang and clinging to them. Some days he blows their meetings off, other days he's finding reasons to keep them all together for extended periods of time.

But, it's not until today that it all started to make sense.

Since Fred and Shaggy have gym class together, they also share a locker room. Their lockers aren't in the same aisle because their last names aren't exactly close together, but Fred walks over to ask him about catching a ride home after practice and he's still tugging his gym shirt over his head when he calls Shaggy's name.

He turns in time to see a deep, purple bruise on Fred's chest. They haven't dealt with Red's more subtle methods of bullying or had any run-ins with masked bad guys for more than week, so there's no reason Shaggy can think of for why those bruises should look so fresh.

Before he can question the alarming marks, their Coach is calling them out to the track field.

He's unwilling to let the subject go unmentioned, but Fred is clearly intent upon it as he jogs ahead. Shaggy is fast, too, though and manages to catch up pretty quickly. "Hey, man," he says, opts for a different approach. "You wanna crash at my place tonight? We can watch that new mystery movie that just came out and I promise not to put any chocolate syrup on the popcorn this time."

Fred seems to consider his request for a brief moment before he offers a small smile. "Sure, Shag."

Shaggy grins his typical dopey grin. "Like, great. It'll be fun."

***

Basketball practice, which most of the team joins up for this during the football off-season, runs pretty late, so once Fred's done, Shaggy drives them back to his place in his Mom's Chevy – she's out of the country on business which is the only reason he's ever allowed to use it – and upon arrival, Fred monopolizes the use of Shaggy's bathroom to take a shower, and Shaggy and Scooby Doo spend that time preparing movie snacks.

By the time Freddy emerges, there's a rather impressive compilation of food. Shaggy has even managed to keep all of it normal and keep Scooby out of it. He's determined to get Fred to eat something.

"Jeez, Shag," Fred laughs, "And all you promised was popcorn."

Somehow, Shaggy manages to balance the array of foodstuffs and get it down to the basement. "Like, bon appétit," he grins and is pleased to see that Fred actually does eat something of substance. He tosses his canine compatriot a Scooby Snack to occupy him while Shaggy slips the DVD in.

But Shaggy can't seem to concentrate on the movie to save his life. While he typically has the attention span of a housefly, his brain is intently focused on other issues: What is wrong with Freddy? What about what he suspects is wrong with Freddy? And how can he help?

He's quiet all through the movie, which is fine because – as Shaggy suspected he would – Fred has fallen asleep. They're sitting together on Shaggy's new couch and so Fred's leaning on him again.

Fred's still asleep when the movie ends, and Shaggy's still thinking, so he switches his flat screen over to the MLE broadcast and zones out again.

Scooby, at some point, steals their barely touched popcorn bowl and acts like the canine garbage disposal that he is. Shaggy doesn't even notice it.

What is he supposed to do in a situation like this? Confront Fred? Skip confronting Fred and tell someone who can actually help? He doesn't even know if his suspicions hold any weight – Fred could have gotten hit at practice or something, he could have crashed his bike. But, neither of those things explains everything else quite as well as what he's thinking.

Shaggy's never really had friends before. He doesn't like seeing them hurt. And he especially doesn't like thinking that one of his friends – probably his best friend of the human variety - is being abused.

By the time Fred wakes up – rather, startles himself back into consciousness after what must be one hell of a bad nightmare – Shaggy knows what to do.

"You okay?" Shaggy questions.

"Fine, just a… weird dream, is all."

He doesn't believe that, but Shaggy lets it go. He gets to his feet and grabs his spare house-key from his desk drawer. "I, ugh, was thinking. And, like, you're over here a lot – more than the girls – and I figure I should just give you this." He tosses the silver key to Freddy who stares at him in confusion. "And let you know you can come over anytime, you don't need an invite from me, man. Anytime." He stresses the anytime, and he hopes the unsaid message of – seriously, anytime, I don't care if it's three in the morning, feel free to come over if you need someplace safe to stay – gets through somehow.

Scooby nods in agreement, "Reah, ranytime!"

A mix of what looks like fear and gratitude flashes across Fred's face and Shaggy isn't sure if he made the right call on dealing with this. So, in his momentary state of panic, he starts babbling. "Like, you know, if you ever want to talk or just hang out or stay up all night watching movies. Or mystery stuff, too, of course. There's the couch, and I have that futon, too, so it's really no problem if you ever need someplace safe to stay I just wanted you to know that-"

His near-hysterical rant ends when that mix of emotions turns to pure fear, like Fred has finally figured out just what Shaggy suspects. And he has to be right because there's no other reason why the words 'someplace safe' would cause that reaction. "I don't need you to protect me," he says, and then he's grabbing his jacket off the back of the couch and he's out the door. The silver key is sitting on the couch.

Shaggy drops his head into his hands, cursing his own failure. "That, like, didn't go quite the way I thought it would."

***

He doesn't see Fred for two days after that. Daphne and Velma don't either, and they're all worried about him. He's questioning whether he should tell them about what he thinks is going on, but something makes him keep the secret.

If they can't get in touch with Fred tomorrow, he'll tell them, he decides, but for now, he's just sitting in bed worrying over it.

Eventually, he falls asleep, only to be woken up a short while later when Scooby dives under the covers to escape some unseen terror.

"Scooby Doo, what's the matter with you?" Shaggy grumbles sleepily as he tries to extricate himself from the tangle of blankets and dog.

"Roises!" Scooby says, and one paw appears from under the covers to point at the door. "Routside, roises!"

Shaggy stares at the door, but doesn't hear anything. "Noises? There aren't any noises."

He stands corrected a few seconds later when a knock comes. If he weren't so tired and worried, he probably would have been scared, too.

"Shaggy?" Fred's voice follows another round of insistent knocking. "Shag? You awake?"

He pulls the door open and Freddy's standing there in a t-shirt and pajama pants. It is presently a rather chilly April night and something like 40 degrees, so this is rather bizarre behavior. "Like, yikes, man. Aren't you cold?"

Fred nods and Shaggy quickly steps aside to let the near-frozen boy into his warm basement. He grabs an oversized sweatshirt from off the corner of the sofa and tosses it to Fred who gratefully accepts. "Thanks."

"The gang was worried about you, you know."

Fred nods, claims the same seat on Shaggy's couch that he'd so abruptly abandoned the other night, and says, "Yeah, I know. I got the voicemails. And the emails. And the text messages. You guys are nothing if not persistent."

"So, are you, like," Shaggy starts, gesturing to Fred's general person, "okay?"

Fred shrugs and tries to pretend that bruises he's hiding aren't fresh and new and painful. "Depends," he says instead, "you still offering that key?"

Shaggy has it in Fred's hand within five seconds.