Fic: Courage

[csi_sanders1129]

Title: Courage
Chapters: 9/10
Author: csi_sanders1129
Genre: Friendship. Drama. Romance. Angst. Humor.
Ratings: T
Word Count: ~1,200
Pairings/Characters: Fred Jones/Shaggy Rogers.
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! Reviews are awesome and very much appreciated!

Chapter 1 | Chapter 2 | Chapter 3 | Chapter 4 | Chapter 5 | Chapter 6 | Chapter 7 | Chapter 8 |

Dog Days Are Over / Florence & The Machine

Shaggy is passed out cold on the floor in Fred's bedroom, using Scooby Doo as a pillow, when the door slams open at something like one in the morning. He startles awake in time to see Daphne and Velma jump in surprise as well.

Fred just looks mortified.

They'd all been discussing their last Mystery Inc case – a wild ape-man ruining the filming on Daphne's Uncle's movie set – and it had started hailing on the walk back from school so they'd stopped at the closest place, which happened to be Fred's.

His dad hadn't been home when they'd arrived, or when they'd hunkered down in Fred's room with some pizzas and sodas and movies. That had been hours ago now.

Fred's father, obviously drunk out of his skull and looking less than thrilled to see the array of company presently scattered around his son's room, staggers forward.

"Get out of here, all of you." His voice is oddly even and clear, despite his intoxication and that just makes him seem all the more threatening. When none of them movie, Mr. Jones adds in a sharp, "Now!"

"Dad, it's no big deal. We were just-" Fred tries to placate his father's anger, but it isn't working.

Velma and Daphne are standing now, lingering in the doorway like they want to stay. Shaggy's in the process of dragging himself off the floor, but he has no intention of leaving and Scooby hovers awkwardly between the girls and the boys.

"What are you kids waiting for, an engraved invitation? Get lost already."

"It's… it's okay gang," Fred says, though his face says anything but that, "just go. I'll see you in class tomorrow."

The girls reluctantly back away from the confusing scene before them. Shaggy won't be so easily persuaded.

"Really, Shags, go." Fred emphasizes when the other boy fails to leave.

"Like, not a chance," Shaggy responds, moving to stand beside Freddy. It's been months now since he and Fred got together and in that time, he's gotten the stories out of his best friend concerning his father's drunken attacks. There hasn't been one for a while, but that's only because Fred can usually get out and over to Shaggy's before anything gets too bad. No way is he letting it happen when he can stop it.

Mr. Jones doesn't seem terribly put off by Shaggy's alliance with his son. "Frederick…" the man's voice rumbles with displeasure and he glowers at the gaggle of lingering teenagers. His hand snaps out and curls around Fred's bad arm.

Fred winces and gasps in surprise as his father twists his arm, and Shaggy knows it is an absolutely ridiculous reaction on his part because Fred can take care of himself, but he's the one shoving Fred's dad back and then Scooby is between them, growling rather ferociously.

"C'mon, Fred," Shaggy says, nudging the other boy toward the door. "We're leaving."

***

They're all thoroughly soaked through by the time they get back to Shaggy's place. The trip involved cutting through the woods to make sure Mr. Jones didn't follow them and that made the walk take twice as long and that meant twice as long spent in the snowy, haily, windy and wet downpour.

"Okay," Daphne sighs, "would someone mind telling me what that was all about?"

Fred tenses. So does Shaggy – he knows Fred doesn't like talking about it.

"I sense that tonight was not the first violent laying on of hands?" Velma perceptively deduces. "This has been going on for a while, hasn't it?"

"Yeah," Fred reluctantly admits, mostly because Shaggy has gone to fetch them some towels and dry clothes. "Shaggy figured it out after Spring Break last year. Usually I stay here when it gets bad."

"You could have told us about it, Freddy," Velma says, "we would have tried to help."

"There wasn't anything else to do. It's going to suck when I go back, though."

Shaggy returns with an armful of supplies that he abruptly drops onto the bed upon hearing Fred's comment. Then he's crossing the room to hover in front of his boyfriend, "Like, are you crazy? You're not going back there. You're staying here. With me."

Fred shakes his head. "I can't ask you to do that, Shag."

"You're not asking, I'm offering," the older boy argues. "We'll talk to my parents in the morning, like, tell them everything. They'll be cool about it."

Fred smiles and catches him in a careful, but very wet, hug. "Thanks, Shags. What would I do without you?"

The girls 'aww' in response and the boys quickly separate.

***

Fred wakes up to an unfamiliar weight pressed lightly against his side. At first he has no idea what it is, but he finds himself strangely relaxed by its presence. He shifts a little closer to his unknown bedmate and sighs in something like contentment without bothering to open his eyes.

Shifting makes his shoulder hurt, though, so he reconsiders, rolling back toward the folded up sweatshirt situated under his shoulder to cushion it. The mysterious weight follows him back though, and then there is a hand settling on his stomach, and fingers slipping under the edge of his borrowed t-shirt to trace random patterns on his skin.

"Mm, Shags?" He mumbles out sleepily – because, really, who else would he be curled up like this with? – as he cracks one eye open enough to take a quick look. He smiles when he sees Shaggy still mostly unconscious and he figures they can both do with some more sleep before they have to talk to Shaggy's parents about everything.

The girls are passed out on the sofa and the futon – hence why Fred is curled up in Shaggy's bed (he could certainly get used to waking up with him, though) – and Scooby is sprawled out across his and Shaggy's feet. Everything is awesomely comfortable.

He thinks things might actually be okay for the first time in a long while.

***

The conversation between Fred and Shaggy and Mr. and Mrs. Rogers goes surprisingly smoothly.

While it obviously entails telling them about Fred's abusive father, they also end up admitting to their rather secretive relationship in the process.

Shaggy's nineteen and Fred is seventeen so there isn't really anything that their parents can do about their relationship even if they seemed inclined to interfere, but it's still nerve-wracking to tell them about it. They take it in stride though, and thankfully seem more focused on the other, more serious, aspect of discussion.

"Of course he can stay here," Shaggy's father declares. He pushes even more insistently upon discovering that Fred's father is really his only living relative – no living grandparents, no aunts, uncles, cousins, nothing.

His mother adds in that, "We will have to get the police involved, though, and I don't want any arguments about that, either."

As high-profile lawyers, they probably should have figured that would be a condition of his parents agreement. "We'll go over later and get your things, Fred."

"See?" Shaggy says, settling a hand on Fred's good shoulder, "I told you you're, like, always welcome here."