Disclaimer: Nope…don't own 'em.
Yes! This is it! Today is a rather important day for me, when this site is concerned, as one year ago today, May 31, I officially became part of the Fanfiction.Net family *sniffsniff* and I found it only necessary to post something, despite my crippling Writer's Block and…lack of feeling in my writing lately. Thanks for a great year.
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The Universe was very much alive tonight. The city residents had kept their wattage-usage down considerable, and one could look into infinity forever. Thousands of individual points of light pivoted in the sky above, with the occasional satellite, incoming plane, or streak of meteorite. Mars could be seen in the north and Venus in the south-east. The pregnant orb that was the moon had long since disappeared, but the night was illuminated nonetheless.
On Earth, the Heavens were observed by a young boy and his tiger.
"Hobbes…do you ever wonder if the Martians are looking up into space right now, perhaps scanning Earth on their horizon, wondering if life exists outside of their own society, yearning to meet us one day, desiring to expand his reaches to the stars above?"
Hobbes looked over at Calvin. He had his neck craned to the sky, observing Mars pensively. "At least one knows we're here." Calvin smiled, and walked over to Hobbes.
There was five minutes of silence and stargazing, before Calvin finally mused "School ends next Friday. Then, we can do this every night."
Hobbes brought his neck down. "Why can't we do this on school nights as well?" Calvin shrugged before replying. "On school nights, you can't stay out as long as you want to watch. You're in almost as soon as you're out, and you have to take it for granted almost. You feel restricted, and whatever you do view you can't appreciate. Plus, you have troubled thoughts circulating in your head, thoughts about math tests, about what to pull past Susie, about Ms. Wormwood. All kinds of things."
Hobbes nodded in consent before looking up again. "Its very pretty anyway."
After another ten minutes, Calvin finally admitted what both were thinking: "It's freezing. Let's go."
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"Um…I don't think this is the way we came." Calvin nodded. "You're right. I don't recognize anything. We're definitely lost."
Calvin scanned the woods again. The trail was unfamiliar, the landmarks unrecognizable. He wouldn't be able to even get back to the meadow, much less the house.
"Hobbes, what do we do now?" asked Calvin. Hobbes frowned in the dark before leaning against a tree. "I don't know. I really don't know."
"Well…use your tiger senses to get us home! You claimed to have done it before! Do it again!"
Hobbes recoiled. Calvin's clenched fists were started to writhe slightly at his sides before he realized that he had exploded in rage. Hobbes saw this, pushed off from the trunk, and started down the path, regardless of Calvin.
"Wait Hobbes, come back! I didn't mean to yell at you! Honest! Here, I'm sorry! See! I said I was sorry, now wait!" Hobbes turned to face Calvin. His lip twitched slightly, but he quickly controlled himself. "Just don't let it happen again."
Calvin nodded before pointing out a potential path.
* ** *
The situation did not improve after fifteen minutes of walking. If anything, it had worsened.
"Hobbes, I'm telling you, there's nothing that way! Nothing!" Hobbes snarled, but kept walking on the path he chose. Calvin's protests meant nothing to him at this point.
"I tell you Hobbes, take that path you'll be stuck out there for days! And for what I care, you can stay out there!" Calvin shouted before turning down his path.
He listened as Hobbes crunched off his path and into the inky darkness. "Stupid cat. All claws and no brain." Calvin muttered.
* ** *
"I see neither path really mattered." Mumbled Hobbes as Calvin wandered into his path. "What are you doing here?" inquired Calvin, in truth not caring. "The paths both led here. So now what?"
Calvin started to feel his blood boil, for no particular reason except for the fact that this was Hobbes' fault. He demanded they go out to the meadow to watch the stars, his fault they stayed out until it was too dark to see, his fault they took the wrong path. In Calvin's eyes, he would be home and in the comfort of his bed by about this time.
A cold wind skated the trees, ruffling Calvin's hair. The space between the two had not changed since Calvin entered the clearing. There was no noise, no motion, nothing.
"God, think of something yourself already! You got us into the mess, get us out!" Hobbes snarled, felt his fur rise in spite of the chill in the air. "My fault! Who said he was cold and wanted to go home!"
"We had to go eventually! We couldn't stay out all night!" Calvin took a step forward simultaneous with Hobbes. "Your fault! Yours!"
"I think you need to take that back, you spikey-haired dope!"
"Flea-condo!"
"Mutton-mouth!"
"AAAAAAUGH!" cried Calvin as he lunged forward and into Hobbes midsection. He was cold, but the blood rushing in Calvin's head was warming him enough. "RRgh, arrr, grr!" Hobbes stood still, unmoved by the "onslaught."
"Ha, silly human! Its any wonder cavemen survived the saber-tooth tiger!" Calvin reached over and pulled on Hobbes' tail. Hard.
"OWWW! Oh, that is it!" Hobbes lifted Calvin up then straight down into the ground. Calvin tried to grab for his head but Hobbes' arm kept him out of striking length. "Oh, fight dirty too, don't you! Mangy flea-bait!"
Hobbes rolled onto Calvin and pushed him into the fronds with a growl. "Ow, no biting! Now he fights dirty?" Calvin rolled over and felt the cold, damp earth slip out from under him.
Calvin clutched to Hobbes as the two rolled down the steep incline. Mud streaked their sides and sticks poked at their heads. "AAAAAAA MAAKE IIIIT STOOOP!" Calvin and Hobbes finally came to a stop, cold and wet and dirty.
There, not a hundred yards away, were the lights of the house.
"It…it was there the whole time." Mumbled Hobbes. Calvin stood up and tried to brush himself off. "Well, yeah. I knew where we were, I was testing your tiger-abilities, of course."
Hobbes smiled.
"Right, of course. You knew where we were everytime you asked 'where are we?'"
"Oh, shut up. I didn't see you get us home."
"I started the fight."
"Phhht, all tigers start fights. If I hadn't wrestled you down that hill, we wouldn't have found it."
"Tell you what, Calvin, let's go inside, get cleaned, and settle this over a cup of hot chocolate." Calvin smiled. "Agreed."
Calvin offered his hand, helped Hobbes up, and turned to the house.
"Just think, as of next Friday, we can do this every night." Hobbes groaned, but soon broke out laughing. "What?" "Oh, I just thought of something. Some fanfiction writer trying to incorporate this little tale into a story of his on the first anniversary of his writing career at a literary website. Ha, funny huh?"
"Hilarious, let's go."
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A/n, yeah, sorry this really sucked. I wrote it in like half-hour while watching MadTV and had to crank out in order to make the deadline, 11:59. Still don't know if I'll make it…
Thanks for a great first year, again! Looking forward to many more!