Title: Symbolic
Author: Lavender Flutterby
Pairing: SweetBone
Rating: R- potty mouth's
Feedback? [email protected]
AN: This is my first attempt at an mprov. As I've been suffering from a heinous case of writer's block I'm hoping it helps to get me over the hump. The words were: rain, arrow, wolf, star, and BoogaBoogaBooga (Thanks Seara!)
Dedication: To Dee (Nautica) and Seara for helping my locate my "fire".
Symbolic
"Do you know where you're going?"
"Yes, Howard, I have the directions right here ." AJ took his eyes off the road long enough to glare his annoyance at Howie.
"Where did you get them from again?"
"Will you just relax? I told you,I got them in a two way message from Nick, who got them in an email from Brian, who got them in a text message from Kevin, who found the place using MapQuest on the Internet," AJ explained.
"So what you're telling me is that this is worse than second hand information. Hello? Do you remember what happened the one time the five of us tried to play telephone?"
Howie was starting to worry, they'd been driving down the same dark road for 4 hours and he hadn't seen a house or a gas station in close to two.
"No," AJ replied continuing to stare at the stretch of road before them.
"Let me refresh you memory. The sentence started out as 'Lou is a rat bastard with shit for brains' and by the time it went through everyone it ended up as 'Poo is the dark master and can make it rain."
AJ snickered at the reminder. "You gotta admit it was hella funny, though."
"That's like 5 miles past beyond the point," Howie muttered exasperated.
"You mean there was one," AJ quipped wearing his signature smirk.
"Since you're feeling so blonde today I'll use small words and try to speak very slowly, Pay attention, I don't want you to miss anything. We. Are. Lost!"
AJ smiled to himself. Howie was so cute when he got upset, but he was even cuter when he was being a smartass. AJ's smile widened as he decided to see just how far he could push it.
"Naw, we aren't lost. I know exactly where we are," he said vaguely, making it a point to sound uncertain.
"So do I, we're in the middle of Bumfuck, Nowhere," Howie yelled in frustration.
"Do you kiss your mother with that mouth?"
"What the hell are you talking about, Alex?" Now Howie could add confusion to his growing list of complaints.
AJ continued to amuse himself at his friend's expense. "You shouldn't say fuck, it's not nice," he answered calmly.
"You tell me where the fuck we are, where the fuck we're going, what the fuck we're gonna do when we get there, and how fucking long it's gonna take and I promise to fucking erase the word fuck from my fucking vocabulary," Howie raged unleashing the tight rein he had on his temper.
Raucous laughter filled the car, AJ couldn't hold it back. He laughed until his eyes watered then he stole a glance at his passenger to find his face red and eyes hot with anger. This set lose another fit of hysterical laughs. When he'd managed to calm himself enough to speak he trained his features and put on his most serious _expression.
"You ever consider collaborating with Eminem? I'm sure he'd love to work with someone who can use fuck that many times in one sentence. Can you just see the headline- "Sweet D Moves from the Backstreet to 8 Mile! Dude, it'll be bigger than that Elton John stunt he pulled at the Grammy's."
He cackled wildly at his own joke and went on, " And the look on Kev's face when he saw that? Priceless. His head would explode and take with it the stick that he's been carrying up his ass all these years."
Howie fumed silently, trying to organize his thoughts enough to speak. "One, I'm telling him you said that. Two, You'd better hurry up and get us where we're going before I strangle you. Three, I hate you," he said seething.
AJ flashed him a shit eating grin and replied, "One, So fucking what? Two, We'll be there in like, ten minutes. Three, No you don't," he ticked the numbers off on his fingers.
Howie couldn't trust himself not to seriously injure his riding companion, either by words or physically, so he opted to remain silent. Knowing he'd pushed him to the limit AJ also said nothing, and they rode for the next fifteen minutes with no sound other than their breathing.
"There it is," AJ said as he turned the car onto a narrow unpaved road.
"You got to be kidding me," Howie said. He looked around carefully and saw nothing but trees and darkness.
"Serious as a heart attack," AJ replied. He put the car in park and got out quickly.
"Grab your bag and come on, it should be up that way just a little bit."
"Should be? You brought me out in the middle of nowhere, late at night, and you aren't even sure? This just couldn't have been done when the sun was shining and we could actually see more than two feet ahead of us?" Howie complained exiting the vehicle.
In lieu of a response, AJ reached into his bag pulled out a flashlight, and grabbed Howie's arm dragging him along beside him. Howie followed but continued to grumble.
"Who's idea was this again?"
"Kevin helped with the initial planning, but it was my idea," AJ explained leading the way with the flashlight.
Howie reached into his bag and hunted around until he found what he was looking for. He took it out and pressed a red button.
"Note to self, dismember Kevin after shaving off his eyebrows with a dull fork. Hide the body parts in non biodegradable bags, out of spite."`
"You really should call someone at Interscope about that collabo. You're starting to sound just as whacked out as he does and frankly, it's starting to scare me."
Howie stopped walking and snatched away the flashlight and shined the light into his own face.
"BoogaBoogaBooga, Be afraid, be very afraid," he said. The words were heavily laced with sarcasm, but lacked even the smallest hint of mirth.
AJ glared and him and took back the flashlight, once again dragging Howie along beside him.
"I promised you something special and unique, and like it or not you're going to get it. Now stop being stubborn, quit your bitchin, and bring your happy ass on," AJ ordered.
Howie raised an eyebrow, but allowed himself to be led on. He lifted the tape recorder again, and pressed the button.
"Note to self. Mix parts of Alex's body in the bags with Kevin's."
He trudged along mumbling to himself about the dangers of hiking in the woods in a remote area in the middle of the night.
AJ stopped again and turned to him, his impatience was evident in his stance.
"Now who's scared? If I'd known you were gonna be so ungrateful, I wouldn't have bothered.We'll see the next time I decide to do something nice for you."
"Don't do me any more favors," Howie replied under his breath.
They walked in silence for what seemed to Howie like hours. Suddenly, AJ made a sharp turn to the left and Howie was surprised to see that the path they were taking now seemed even darker than the one they'd turned away from. Finally, AJ stopped and waited for Howie to catch up to him and step into the clearing. He was pleased to hear the sudden intake of breath as Howie took in the site before them.
"Alex, is that what I think it is?"
"Yeah. How's that crow taste?"
Rather than allow himself to be baited he ignored AJ's snarky comment.
"Is it real," he asked with barely concealed awe.
"Real in the sense that it's an authentic reproduction. But, not real as in somebody killed something to make it. Pretty cool though, hunh," AJ asked. He couldn't help but puff his chest out with pride, it looked so much better than he'd imagined it would.
"More than cool, it's beautiful. I mean, wow it's... wow."
"So, you like it?"
"I love it. It looks so real. You had this made for me?"
"For us," AJ corrected.
Howie smiled and continued to look over the structure. "What do the markings mean?"
"This," AJ pointed, "is an arrow, it represents strength and the ability to endure. The star is a symbol of success and longevity. And this one right here, is a wolf ... it symbolizes love."
Howie looked confused, and the unspoken question was written in his eyes. Their gazes locked and held.
AJ cleared his throat, which had suddenly gone dry, and spoke, his voice full of sincerity."Wolves mate for life, D."
The significance registered on Howie's face. "Strength, endurance, success, longevity, and love. That's us."
He took AJ's hand and they ducked into the teepee together. Once in side they sat down on the blankets and pillows that had been arranged on the dirt floor. Howie couldn't suppress a smile as he recognized the same three markings in various places on what served as the walls around them. He reached for his bag, but AJ stopped him.
"Enough with the note taking."
"I wasn't going for that," Howie said with an sheepish grin. He reached instead for his cell phone and pressed a number to speed dial.
"Nick? Yeah, hi. Oh yeah it's great, man. Look, I need you to do a favor for me. You know the guy who did your black feet? Yeah, tell him to set aside some time for me on Monday."
AJ's gasp was audible but he didn't speak, he listened attentively to Howie's side of the conversation.
"Yeah. No, I know. Seriously, yeah. Nick, I know that but I've finally seen something that I want to keep with me forever, something symbolic. Yes, it is very special. I can handle the pain, it can't be that bad. Oh, okay, just tell him it's a star, an arrow, and a wolf's head, they're kinda like glyphs, it's a Native American design. Yeah, thanks. You too, bye."
He turned off the phone and pulled out is tape recorder one last time.
"Note to self," he said with a smile, "Find someone who breeds hybrid wolf pups. Buy one for Alex, Nick, Brian, Kevin, and myself."
He lay back onto the pillows and looked up at the opening in the ceiling of the teepee. There he saw the stars in the night sky, flanked on either side by a wolf and an arrow. He glanced over and saw the smile play on AJ's lips, and reached to pull him closer. AJ twined their fingers together and sighed.
"Mated for life," Howie asked softly.
"Mated for life," AJ agreed.
End.
Lavender Flutterby's Page
Hosted
Home