Five Times Bo Kissed Luke (And One Time He Didn't)
The first time it happens it's more of a kids game than anything, Luke showing him how it's done. He was thirteen and his cousin was seventeen. Both a bit old to be playing kids games, but doing it none the less. It was about the time that Bo discovered his libido and the girls surrounding him, he was lost in a world he didn't understand and cousin Luke was there to save his skin. Showed him every trick in the ancient Duke book of seduction. He'd like to say he lost his virginity to his cousin, but in all reality that would be a lie, it was a pretty girl called Mary Jo Benson who ran away with that when he was fourteen. But in his mind it will always be Luke who took it, he even had his first kiss with him.
Sloppy, inexperienced and enthusiastic, still the best kiss he ever had.
Second time was when Luke got enrolled in the Marines, shipped off to a strange land to fight in a war he might not return from. The letter came and Daisy cried, Bo might have cried some too that night when he slept in his cousin's arms. Begged him not to leave all the while knowing that it was about as useful as a screen door in a submarine. The choice had been made for him by the government, Luke Duke had to go serve his country out in Vietnam. Why couldn't he just serve the country here in Hazzard?
So when the time came for his cousin to leave and maybe never return he took the plunge and kissed him, right there in Jesse's truck with all of Hazzard to witness.
Third time was when Luke came home, the only thing missing being his hair. Soft, unruly curls replaced with a buzz cut that looked so strange on his cousin's head that he couldn't help, but laugh. A laugh that turned into tears of joy soaking through the shoulder of that same shirt he had on when he left. Luke just laughed at him and told him he got tall as a tree and dumb as a sack of grits while he was gone. And Bo told him about the car him and Cooter found that they had been working on for a few months.
He still doesn't know why exactly he did what he did when he pulled them over on the way home and kissed his cousin senseless, maybe it was to show him how much better he'd gotten at it since the last time. Luke didn't seem to mind anyway. Three months later the General Lee was born.
Fourth time had no reason behind it at all other than the fact that he wanted to. Luke didn't seem to mind that much that time either. Might be that he did it because he was drunk off his ass on watered down beer courtesy of Boss Hogg, and possibly some of Uncle Jesse's moonshine to top it off. Spent the ride home singing drunken versions of the songs on the radio together with an equally giddy Luke who by all means shouldn't have been driving anywhere at all. It was first when they got home in one piece that he got the idea. His cousin was looking decidedly handsome that night, no more than usual really, it was probably just the booze talking, but non the less he deserved a kiss like no other which is exactly what he got.
He even missed a few times before he got it right, but when he did it turned out better than expected. The next week Rosco caught them with a trunkful of shine and they got put on probation. Maybe this kissing thing wasn't working out so good.
Fifth time was after he won his first NASCAR race. Zooming across the finish line in the lime green stock car, pumped full of adrenalin and ready to burst. There's no other feeling like it, crossing that white line and seeing the checkered flag wave at you as a salute to your victory. The roar from the stadium as his pit crew come racing towards him almost knocking him to the ground on his helmet off and shouts the loudest yeehaw that's ever come out of his mouth since the first time he jumped the General.
Shouts even more when he's up on the stage being handed his trophy, probably the most expensive thing he's ever owned. Popping champagne bottles and laughing. Luke lifting him off the ground with an arm around his wits and one around his legs. And somewhere in the chaos he finds a way to plant a wet one on his cousin's face, half on his cheek half on his mouth under the guise of celebration. One month later they leave the circuit in favor of returning home.
And one time it was Luke who did the deed, beat him to it with only seconds to spare. Back home in their bedroom where the whole thing started. Bo was thirteen, Luke seventeen. Now Bo's twenty five and Luke's twenty nine. They've been through the army, moonshining and NASCAR, things that would usually split two men apart, but they're not men, they're Dukes. And Dukes stick together with their kin no matter the case and that's the law. The law that they were raised to follow, never put into words, but always there. And Dukes don't lie, so when something is wrong (Or maybe right in this case.) a Duke has the obligation to tell his family about it. And that's exactly what Luke does when he kisses Bo that night.
Let's him know what's been bugging him ever since that night twelve years ago and Bo does his best to set it right again.