Drabble #44: Brains and Brawn

[redwolf]

Digging up an old challenge from Livejournal:

Courtesy of the random trope generator from tvtropes.org, I bring you...

..."Brains and Brawn": Sometimes, Brains and Brawn serve as heroes, but other times they're villains (forming an Evil Duo, often the Quirky Miniboss Squad or part of a Terrible Trio, and very frequently Those Two Bad Guys). Either way, there tends to be some element of comedy inherent in their natures...

So now, exactly what pairing are we talking about, and which one is which? Jareth and Sarah? Sir Didymus and Hoggle? Ludo and a firey? The Bird Hat and the Wiseman? Jareth and all the goblins together? Bring on the comedy value with thy valiant drabbles! (This may also be an excellent time to celebrate the many minor characters we adore.)

Given our entries from recent months, let's continue with the suggested limit for this month of 500 words. Though remember that shorter pieces are most definitely welcome!

Your entry should take the following format, posted as a comment on this entry:

Word count: # of words
Drabble: $your_beautiful_drabble

Remember: Feedback is LOVE. So do reply to your fellow labyficcers' drabbles if so inclined. (Though be careful of concrit unless specifically okayed by the author beforehand. Authors generally write for love.)

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[redwolf]

Word count: 500
Drabble:

Sarah and Bishop were watching as Jareth and Rook were locked in an arcane form of silent combat with rules known only to themselves.

“On the upside, they aren’t brawling in pubs.”

“I’m sorry?” Sarah thought she’d misheard.

“They have many ways of amusing themselves when they feel the need to release excess energy.”

Sarah nodded in understanding. She’d learned not to ask questions when they’d been hunting if she didn’t want to hear about their adventure in excruciating detail and she’d seen the bite marks and bruises they wore like trophies whenever they engaged each other in hand to hand training.

“Sometimes they venture Above to hunt other game,” Bishop continued. “There are certain pubs where the pair of them feigning closeness is catnip to homophobes.”

“But they’re…” Sarah gaped in confusion, waving her hands towards Rook and Jareth. “Do these people not understand gender?”

“Homophobes aren’t noted for their intelligence.” Bishop shrugged in dismissal. “I suspect it’s more a case where they don’t understand why someone who looks like Jareth would appear to be attracted to someone who looks like Rook and their tiny brains just decide that they’re obviously both gay.”

Sarah was appalled by the habits of some humans. She knew the pair wouldn’t work as a couple, but it wasn’t due to their appearances. Eventually they would get bored and enable the terrible behaviours in each other to escalate to the point they set something important on fire. Left in each other's company for too long and they could be spectacularly incendiary.

Sarah gave Bishop an amused side eye. “The bigots must be shocked when their victims fight back.” She felt a warm glow at the thought of Jareth and Rook beating the snot out of a bunch of hate mongering morons who thought they’d found a pair of easy victims to attack. Sarah paused in thought as she recalled an earlier incident. “I must have walked into the aftermath of one of those trips when I saw Rook digging glass fragments out of Jareth's hand. I was going to ask, but he was quite insistent on distracting me.”

“If we play our cards right, we stand a good chance of becoming more than a little distracted.” Bishop’s low rumble of a chuckle was interrupted by a thump.

They both looked up to see that Jareth had shoved Rook onto the floor. She sat there, leaning back on her elbows, looking up at him with a pleased grin. Jareth stood, reaching down to haul her to her feet, before kissing her on the forehead.

“Does this mean that Rook won?”

“I have no idea.”

Their quiet exchange was enough to interrupt Jareth and Rook’s quiet communion and they turned their attention to the pair on the lounge, stalking towards them with predatory grace and feral grins.

Without taking her eyes from her husband, Sarah turned her head to Bishop and whispered under her breath. “I won’t say no to an evening of being thoroughly distracted.”