A/N: Howdy y'all! This is kind'a an experimental story, of sorts, I wanted to try out. Please keep an open mind and let me know what you think after ya read! Also, as mentioned in the summary, this is not a slash (homosexual) story. Thankx a lot!

Disclaimer: Yeah, yeah...we all know I ain't got any claims or ownership of Bo or anythin' related to the Dukes. Any y'all wanna sue me, I'm warnin' ya it ain't worth your time. All I got is...5 bucks, a few chewed up pencils, and a broken-down Jeep.

Warnings: Ain't none, really. All I ask is that y'all keep an open mind...this isn't your traditional Hazzard Story.

No Matter What
By: StriderX

Tap, Tap, Tap...Tap

'What is that infernal noise!' a mumbled voice growls within my mind. Silently, I crack open my eyes to see the soft green glow of my alarm clock filling the room. '1:45' shines stilly in the face of the old clock. Tired eyes adjust to the iridescent glow in my dark room as the strange tapping vibrates my mind in a steady, drumming rhythm.

Tap...Tap, Tap...Tap, Tap

What is that? Curiosity forces over the best of me as the grating sound rattles the core of the headache lightly beating inside my skull. I swing my legs off the bed and feel my feet rest against the cool, wood floor beneath. I barely register the chill spiking through my toes as I step cautiously toward the closed window across the small room. Rubbing the sleep away from my eyes with one hand and absently brushing at the drape with another, I lean over to peak through the window.

At first, all I see is the dense black of night engulfing everything that would be the yard outside. But as my waking eyes adjust to the dim moonlight about, details of the world so familiar to me become ever clearer. I see the dull white of the freshly painted picket fence; the bleak outline of the old barn across the street; the flower patch growing healthily by the road; the 'Boarding House' sign swinging just above the tallest rose in the cool night air. My thoughts are lost on that quant swinging sign for a moment—I'll never forget how that sign saved my life all those years ago—until something flashes by my view and cracks on the window with that same resonating tap.

My heart jumps into my throat as I'm twisted abruptly from memories of the past. Standing back for a moment, I shake myself of the surprise and lean back to the window to investigate. Squinting my eyes against the darkness, I make out the shadowy figure of a wild mop of blonde. I can't suppress the grin that pulls at my lips as I instantly recognize the wild mop as the shaggy mess of hair belonging to one man who stole my heart long ago—Bo Duke.

Quickly, I back away from the window and slip on a pair of flat sandals by the door. Grabbing my keys, I fly out the door and stealthy down the staircase clad in only a pair of boxer-shorts and a tank top.

Remembering the late hour, I take the time to unlock the front door before attempting to open it. Grasping the knob, I twist it to the right and airily crack open the creaking door and slide through onto the moonlit-night porch.

Waiting for me on the sidewalk below, I see a romantic grin light up Bo's features—just the same way as the early morning sun shimmers across the wheat fields sparkling with dew. His young face is beaming with all the joy I feel exploding within my heart.

Silently, his grin widens and his arms part; beckoning me to follow suit. Swiftly pocketing my keys, I dart off the porch and soar into his open arms. As I wrap my bare arms around his chest, I feel the welcoming embrace being returned as his arms tighten lovingly around my back.

"What are you doing here? You're supposed to be in Capitol City for the big race tomorrow," I ask curiously in the rusty voice I've learned to call my own as his embrace constricts protectively around me.

"I've missed you. I couldn't wait another hour to see your beautiful face again," he whispers in a voice so low and sultry, it sends a blossoming shiver around every nerve touched by the poetic breath.

The most welcomed stillness falls around us while the quite chirpings of summer crickets strum in the air with the beat of a perfectly orchestrated quartet.

Glowing bright in the crystal sky above, the moon inches across the obsidian sky as we savor the sweet embrace; unwilling and unable to let go. I close my eyes against the feathery touch of his hot breath tingling against the soft of my neck. He's been gone for so long...

"Bo?" when I finally find my voice, it comes out coarse and nearly inaudible.

"Love?" he mimics in a tone just as lost and lonely as my own.

"Ya' can't stay...can ya'?" my words are as a statement more then a question. The sad truth of this life is just as plain to me as it is to him.

A strange noiselessness fills the air just then. Everything seems to stop in the very second—the crickets hush in a moment of reverie; the breeze silences in a hiccup of the cloudless night. I feel every finger tense against the skin of my back as he draws in a deep and lasting breath. The listlessness of the instant carves a dreading river inside the depths of my heart—a river filled with tears never shed for a love always had.

"No," his breath finally releases in an exhausting exhale. "But," he begins in a voice oddly hopeful and vibrant then before. I vacantly register the symphony of concerting insects behind me as his tone brightens the pale moon above and shimmering stars around. "I had to see ya'..."

My mind writhes with a sea of confused thoughts and flashing images of all but forgotten dreams of the past as he pulls away from our embrace. He searches my eyes with glimmering pools of steely blue sparkling something I can't seem to place. "...so I could do somethin' I should'a done a long time 'go,"

The world suddenly begins to spin violently around me as I feel his soft, callused hand brush across my cheek and come to a rest against my neck. In a moment so swift; so serene in every sense of the word, he pulls his lips to mine and surges my senses with the most electrifying burst of heat and sparks. I close my eyes and everything becomes lost to me—I'm flying a thousand feet in the clear blue sky—I feel him infusing me with his life as he breathes a hot scent through the passionate kiss.

An eternity could have passed in that very moment and I would never have known it. I am enthralled, body and soul, and it is all too soon when an alien chill of breeze pulls us apart. My heart pounding like a steam train in my ears, I barely hear the slow, sensual rhythm being composed in the lush grass surrounding us.

My breath comes up in short, deep pants; as does his. His hands resting loosely around my shoulders, and my arms sliding fluidly around his waist, we lean against each other in a moment of pure serenity.

"I love you," he whispers into my ear in words more genuine and sincere then anything I have ever before heard. "No matter what."

Unexplained tears rush into my eyes as I hear the last laced the deepest of emotion and warmth. "I love you too, Bo...no matter what."

And so has been our love from then to eternity. It's not easy; loving a man who has spent so many weeks and months away from everything he knows—everyone. But our love has grown from meeting till infinity—all obstacles we have conquered; all trials we have faced. Faithfully and true...no matter what.

The End.

A/N2: Well, that's it. I hope y'all enjoyed, and PLEASE review. Com'on folks, it ain't that hard to leave a little not behind 'fore ya go Thankx again for the intrest,

Keep it 'tween the ditches,

Strider