(AN: I've had an idea for a longer Fraggle fic in my head for years now, one that will probably never be written. Some of the ideas in that story found their way into this one, so if I ever do write it, this one could serve as a springboard. Stands fine on its own, too, I suppose, in all its crack-pairing glory. I need to be shot. I hope you'll give this fic a chance, though… you might be surprised. :)
Fraggle Rock and all related characters belong to the Jim Henson company.)
…………
With Red Fraggle, what you see isn't always the truth.
She had had no siblings growing up, as much as she had wanted one. A younger one, not an older one, because a younger one she could both play with and tease mercilessly at the same time. But for the longest time she had none, making her friend Gobo Fraggle play this role, a role that he strangely rose few complaints over… perhaps because he had her play the same role to him. Gobo also had no siblings, but unlike Red he didn't even have parents. Oh sure, he had had them once, but they had died when he was very small. The Vleedal virus. Most Fraggles still, even to this day, get shaken up when they remember that horrible wave of sickness that decimated their population.
But life went on for the resilient. Red and her parents survived. Gobo somehow survived. And while his parents didn't make it, his mother's older brother, Matt Fraggle, did. As brilliant of an explorer Matt was, he was also chronically absent-minded and a bit of a bumbler… not what one would think of as an ideal guardian. And yet to Gobo he was. Gobo completely idolized and adored his uncle, always talking of his accomplishments with the greatest adoration.
Gobo was Red's friend who she treated as a brother… the good things about being her brother, as well as the bad. It was always somewhat of a game for her to good-naturedly mock him, or mock whatever he loved and found inspirational. And his Uncle Matt was at the top of that list.
As children, when playing and invariably fool-hardily trekking off farther than they should, Gobo would always say, excitedly, that they were doing just what his brave Uncle Matt did. And Red, like the good surrogate sister she was, would tease Gobo, laugh at him and say "Your crazy uncle couldn't explore his way out of a paper bag!"
At first it was just second hand taunt by proxy. But the more she hung out with Gobo, the more she was in contact with Matt, and the more she heard straight from his mouth of the bizarre, unbelievable, unlikely, and amazing journeys he had been on. The more she saw Gobo's eyes widen with wonder, clinging to every word his uncle said even though he'd heard it all fifty times before. And the more Red mocked them. Yes, them, both Gobo and Matt himself. Never one to shy away from a blunt comment, it wasn't long before Red was snapping to Matt's face, "I don't believe you." "You're crazy!" "Ha, as if that could be true!" And laughing dismissively at every tale spun.
What an awful habit she had gotten into.
Because the truth was, she was just as fascinated as Gobo.
She'd run, sprint to meet Gobo in his hole in the cave, just so she could hear more of Matt's adventures, just so she could get swept up in his amazing tales of what was to be found in the far-off caverns of Fraggle Rock. And she believed every word of it. Regardless of what she let Gobo and Matt know. In fact, the more she believed, the more compelled she felt to convince them that she didn't believe it.
Did they really believe that she didn't believe?
Usually Red would run out to go play before Gobo, but sometimes Gobo would run out first, leaving Red alone with Matt for a few moments, Matt only seeming to vaguely remember that she was there, so wrapped up in the stories of his glory even after finished with telling them. And Red, in awe, would stand looking up at him, trying to get the words out, trying to say that she thought he was just as amazing as he thought he was. And sometimes he would notice she was still there, and he'd chuckle good-naturedly over her, smiling and saying, "Yes, young Red, speechlessness is a common reaction to the amazing breadth of my outstanding journeys!"
And Red would invariably roll her eyes, snort, and respond sarcastically, "Yeah, Uncle Matt, I'm speechless, since there are no words to describe how completely and utterly ridiculous you are!"
…………
Red and Gobo grew up, as Fraggles will do.
Red moved out of her parents' cave and into a cave of her own, and in good time too, for her little sister Zippy had just been hatched. As much as Red had longed for a sibling growing up, now that she actually had one she found that, strangely, there was no empty space in her life that Zippy needed to fill. Gobo had done that. And while Red was genuinely fond of Zippy (and Zippy, for her part, completely idolized her older sister), she was nothing like the sibling she had always dreamt and wished for. They were too far apart in age to really be close pals, at least at this point.
Red, again, had Gobo for that, after all. Gobo was her surrogate sibling that she palled around with. Perhaps the fact that they felt more like siblings than friends was why both Red and Gobo were beginning to identify other Fraggles as their best friends. For Gobo it was Wembley—a younger, insecure yet happy-go-lucky Fraggle who had seemingly just wandered into their section of the Rock—no parents, no family, no history of any kind, and he latched onto the more decisive Gobo like a bur.
Wembley, like Mokey, apparently came from another section of the Rock, but Mokey talked often about there she was originally from—although in strange poetic metaphors that few Fraggles understood, lest of all Red. Red couldn't even remember when she realized that she was spending so much time with Mokey and that they were sharing nearly all of their innermost thoughts with each other that they had to be best friends by now, as impossible as it was to conceive just how it had happened exactly.
Mokey was older than Gobo and Red, and had accordingly moved away from her parents earlier than they had, too. Wembley seemingly had never had parents at all. And Boober, another childhood friend of Gobo's and Red's who paradoxically grew closer to them the more he distanced himself from other Fraggles in general, had like Gobo lost his parents to the Vleedal virus.
Gobo didn't have his parents anymore, he had his Uncle Matt.
But Gobo didn't move away from Matt.
Matt moved away from Gobo.
Outer Space. The final frontier.
Red was furious.
Oh, sure, Gobo was the right age to be living on his own anyway. Sure, Matt had explored every last nook and cranny of Fraggle Rock and he couldn't just stop there. Sure, it was in the name of knowledge and Matt wrote to Gobo frequently.
But Red was still furious at him for leaving.
Didn't he realize how much he meant to Gobo? Didn't he realize that he was abandoning his nephew, who only had him as a relative?
Didn't he realize how much Red had grown to admire him?
Oh, no, of course he didn't. Because she had to keep up her role of being his loud and vocal critic.
Although it's not as if he would have stayed if he knew the truth, anyway. Given how close he was to Gobo, and of course Matt had to know just how much Gobo admired him, but that didn't stop him from leaving.
Oh, whatever. Like Red cared, anyway. Let him go off exploring Outer Space. That was what he did. What did it matter to her that he was gone? He was just her friend's uncle, after all. It's not like he meant anything special to her. Of course he didn't, he was arrogant and annoying and quite frankly probably just made up at least half of what he'd claimed to have done. Let him leave.
Red didn't like going to the Trash Heap. It went against every nerve in her body to admit to perhaps needing advice or help from someone else. And she certainly didn't like venturing there alone… but better alone than to go with Mokey, or Wembley or Boober, or worst of all Gobo and try to explain herself to them. At least the Trash Heap wouldn't prod, no matter how vague Red was.
"I have a problem, Madam Trash Heap," Red began awkwardly, "but it's not really something I can or need to do anything about, it's just a… sort of feeling problem, if you follow me?"
"No, I don't follow you, little Fraggle," Marjorie the Trash Heap said bluntly. "You're going to need to elaborate, because if I don't know what your problem is, I can't help you with it!"
"But that's just it!" Red exclaimed. "I don't really know what it is either! There's just something… wrong! Or is it right to never want to see someone again while at the same time wishing he'd never left you in the first place?"
"Hmm, now we're getting somewhere," said Marjorie thoughtfully.
"Not that he was ever with me before though," Red added hastily, "so really, why should I care? Why should I care? He can stay away forever as far as I'm concerned! I never did believe him anyway…" Oh no, was she putting on this act for the Trash Heap too?
"It sounds to me, little Fraggle, that your problem is that you have a problem with your problem!"
"Huh?"
"You must accept your problem, and then you'll find that you have none!"
"But that doesn't—"
Philo and Gunge cut her off. "The Trash—"
"—Heap has spoken nyaah!" Red finished angrily. "And I would have gotten just as much help from asking a radish! But it doesn't matter anyway. I don't need any help, because there's nothing wrong!" She stormed off back to the entrance to the Rock.
Marjorie sighed. "Oh, boys, what am I going to do with these Fraggles? They want to know how to fix their problems, I tell them, but since it's not what they want to hear they ignore it!"
"Ehh, don't worry, Marjorie," said Philo. "She'll be back."
"Yeah, when her problems get worse, she'll come back begging you for help!" said Gunge.
Marjorie shook the collected piles of garbage that served as her head sadly. "No, boys, that Fraggle's a stubborn one. She's going to have to confront her problem herself to fix it. Until she does that, I can't help her, nor can anyone else."
"But Marjorie," said Philo in surprise, "you can help anyone—"
"Boys," said Marjorie firmly, "the Trash Heap has spoken." And with that she settled back into the ground, ending the conversation.
Philo and Gunge looked at each other in surprise. "Nyaah?" they asked in unison.
…………
Red never dropped her routine of annoyance and boredom regarding Matt's antics. Only now, her reactions were filtered through Gobo with every time he received a postcard from his uncle, which he always read with the widest and eagerest of eyes, clinging to every word as if they were precious pearls of wisdom. Red laughed at him for that, and laughed at the utterly ridiculous postcards, but Gobo hardly noticed her… thank goodness. Because Red was finding her wonder and admiration of what Matt was claiming to see and do harder and harder to hide. It got to the point where she was starting to have to pretend to fall asleep from how "boring" the cards were, solely with the excuse to close her eyes and let herself get wrapped up and carried away in fantastic tales of far-off, fascinating Outer Space.
"Red," Gobo said one day, "for finding these postcards so ridiculous, I notice that you've still listened to me read almost every one." He gave her a look that was half suspicious, half questioning.
Red snorted dismissively. "Come on, Gobo, I need a good laugh or twenty every day, and your uncle's postcards deliver!"
"I think you like them," Gobo teased.
"Do not!" Red shrieked defensively. "I mean—I like them because I love a good impossible fantasy fiction story. And I like watching the stupid expression on your face when you actually believe them!"
"I believe them because they're true! Uncle Matt doesn't lie! And he certainly wouldn't lie about something like this! You know him better than that!"
"I know him well enough to know that he's crazy!"
And so it went. She had Mokey, Wembley, and Boober fooled; she had Gobo fooled; and she was starting to have herself fooled too.
Matt did come back on occasion… but never for very long, and never with any indication that that ridiculous ego of his had mellowed out any. In fact, if anything, it had gotten even more bloated from being in Outer Space. …But really, after everything he'd done, he deserved to brag a bit, right?
That is, if he'd really actually done all—or any—of what he'd claimed.
Red didn't mean to keep on believing him.
And she certainly didn't mean to keep inexplicably being where he was during his brief visits to Fraggle Rock.
And boy oh boy, falling into his arms after being scared by the furry creature just outside the hole in the wall to Outer Space wasn't intentional at all.
Oh, darn.
"Red Fraggle!" he had shrieked upon literally running into her yet again in the T. Matthew Fraggle room. "Why are you always waiting for me?!"
Curiosity! Admiration! Awe! I'm fascinated by you and Outer Space!
But seconds later, her mouth was open and the taunts were flying.
Son of a Gorg! Why is this so confusing?
Luckily, Red's thoughts never stuck to any one thing for much time, and there were always plenty of other things to do to occupy her. And one thing that Red Fraggle never, ever was was bored.
"Hey Gobo!" she shouted out one day, bounding her way into his and Wembley's room. "I hereby challenge you to a game of—WHOOOAAA!" As per usual, in her enthusiastic haste she had tripped over the first step, tumbling head over tail into the room and crashing right into someone.
"OW! Red, you certainly are consistent!" Traveling Matt muttered, pushing himself up off the floor.
"Ugh! Sorry, Uncle Matt, I was looking for Gobo."
"So I gathered, but he's not here."
"So I gathered. Where is he?"
Matt shrugged. "I'm not sure," he said absent-mindedly, turning his attention away from her and back to gathering up various maps and gear into his backpack.
"What are you doing?" Red asked.
"Preparing for my next grand adventure into Outer Space!" Matt exclaimed, trying to cram a rather large bundle into his backpack, and not entirely succeeding.
"All that for one of your little expeditions?"
"Not a little expedition, young Fraggle! There's still so much more to explore in Outer Space… and it keeps… calling to me…" Having grown uncharacteristically solemn, Matt's eyes gazed upwards with that last remark, lost in his own thoughts.
"Wait wait wait wait wait," Red said, her eyes widening in surprise. "You mean you're going to be gone for… a long time? Maybe even years like you were before?"
Matt looked back down at Red, still looking thoughtful. "Very likely… I know it may be hard to comprehend to any Fraggles who haven't spent an extended amount of time in Outer Space as I have, but when you're there… there's this whole amazing, complex, vast universe to explore! Outer Space is huge, and no two places are the same, and the Silly Creatures of each habitat are different, but one thing that they all have in common is…"
"Is what?" Red questioned when Matt didn't finish. "Being silly?"
"Well, yes, but they're more than just silly. It's hard to explain, but they as a species have this innate… creativity and goodness about them. They really are an amazing species, Red, and I feel as though I've hardly gotten to know them at all." Matt forcefully shoved a few more bundles of supplies into his backpack, somehow getting them to fit in, although the bag was by now bulging. "That's why I'm going back into Outer Space. All this time here at Fraggle Rock has been nice and all, but I just feel that where I really belong is with the Silly Creatures in Outer Space."
"You can't say that!" Red cried, finding herself growing panicky. "You're a Fraggle! You belong in Fraggle Rock! This is your home!"
Matt looked out of the room, a little absent-mindedly. "It was my home, and I'll always look back on it fondly, but the only reason it was my home for so long was because I didn't know there was something better for me."
"You… you traitor!" Red growled, feeling anger flare up in every inch of her body. "How could you just abandon Fraggledom like that for some race of aliens?!"
"Aliens?!" Matt repeated incredulously. "To them, we're the aliens! And there's nothing traitorous about trying to become friends! There's a lot of Fraggledom in Silly Creatures! And besides, if I didn't go, I'd be abandoning what's important to me."
"I want to come with you!" Red blurted out without thinking.
Matt just snorted at that. "That's an impetuous and impulsive thing to say—"
"I like a good adventure as much as the next Fraggle! Even more than the next Fraggle! And after all these years about just hearing about Outer Space and Silly Creatures, I want to see them for myself! You said it yourself, I can't understand why you want to go because I don't know it. Well, help me understand! Let me know first-hand!"
"Impossible," Matt said sternly. "It's far too dangerous."
"Danger is my middle name!" Red insisted.
"You have to have explorer training! And even with it there are some hazards of Outer Space that are so unexpected—"
"I have explorer training! What do you think Gobo's been pounding into my brain all these years?"
"But have you really taken it to heart?" Matt asked. "All I ever see you doing is running around and swimming in that pool!"
"Look, I can learn! I want to know what's out there! And—"
Matt clamped Red's mouth shut with his hand. "You can't come with me, because I know after just a few days you'd want to go back home! Because like you just got done telling me—you're a Fraggle, and this is your home. And you do realize that I'm not planning on returning to Fraggle Rock for quite some time…"
He let go of her mouth, and for once, Red was silent. Silent with thoughtfulness, and also with anger at Matt for telling her the truth about herself.
"I'm sorry, Red," he said gently. "I really am fond of you, and I've always thought of you as my own niece. But I know you well enough to know that you would see Outer Space in a different way that I do. Not in a bad way, but just in a different way. You wouldn't see it as home, the way I do."
"But you can't just leave us here," Red insisted. "You can't just leave everyone who cares about you."
Matt chuckled. "I'm going to ask Gobo to come with me," he said. "After all the exploring he's done I think it's about time he—"
"Gobo can come with you but not me?!" Red shrieked.
"Gobo's an explorer, like me!" Matt quickly responded. "And surely you've noticed how antsy he's been getting lately when he hasn't gone off exploring for a few days! This is what's good for him, just like how staying here and playing and goofing off is what's best for you! You might not realize it, Red, but exploring isn't all fun and games." He patted the top of her head affectionately and swung his backpack over his back… and nearly falling over from the weight. However, he managed to awkwardly find his balance, and just as awkwardly make his way to the exit.
"You know I've always believed you," Red suddenly said. "From the beginning I've always believed you."
Matt turned around to face her with an odd expression on his face, not the expression Red had been expecting. It was an expression of confusion, surprise, and wonder all at once. And in an instant, Red suddenly realized that no, he hadn't known. He really had believed that she thought he was just a bag of hot air.
Wait—
But Red's mouth, as well as everything else in her body, seemed to have frozen. And with no more conversation to be had, Matt turned back around and trudged his way out of Gobo and Wembley's room, perhaps for the last time.
"Wait," Red finally murmured after he'd left. But there was no one to hear it.
…………
The next day, Red spent all her time dive-bombing herself into the pool and trying to beat her record for biggest splash, thereby distancing herself from any unwanted communication. But it—it being Gobo in this case—found her anyway.
"Hey, Red, could I—"
"WHEEEEEEE!"
SPLASH!
Annoyed, Gobo wiped as much of the splashed water that had hit him out of his face as possible. "—talk to you for a minute," he finished with a slightly irritated sigh.
"Fine, fine, but make it snappy!" Red said, hoisting herself out off the pool and wiping water out of her eyes. "These splashes aren't going to splash themselves!"
"It's actually… something important," said Gobo.
"Of course it's important! I've got my record to break!"
"Not that, Red! I… I don't know how to say this, but…"
And suddenly Red knew.
"Then I'll say it," she snapped at him, her good mood gone. "You're going to Outer Space with Uncle Matt, right?"
Gobo blinked in surprise. "How did you—"
"I already heard it from Uncle Matt yesterday," Red muttered, grabbing a towel and drying herself. "And I really don't wanna hear it again. So… so good riddance!"
Gobo sighed. "Look, Red, I can understand why you'd be mad at me, but… but this is something that I have to do—"
"That's fine! I don't care! I'm not about to stand in the way of something you haaaaaave to do!" Red yelled at him. "And you and your uncle couldn't stay in one place even if we nailed your feet to the ground, so why should I bother stopping you? If it's what you want, then it's what you want. I have noooooooo problems with that whatsoever!"
"Look, I won't be gone forever. I'll come back. Fraggle Rock is still my home, after all."
"Yeah, well your uncle's got a different thought on that," Red muttered. "Maybe Outer Space will become home for you, too."
"Red, listen, you're my oldest friend and I don't want to leave on this note!"
"Well, why didn't you say so?" Red took a deep breath, and then, in a high-pitched voice, sang out, "Goooooooood-byyyyyyyyye! There, does that note work for you?"
"Fine!" Gobo yelled. "If that's the way you want to…" He paused and took a deep breath, and then, slightly more composed, said, "Look, Red, I'm sorry for this, and you have every right to be angry at me and I'm not going to stop you from that, but before I go, there's something I need you to do for me."
"Call you an addle-brain? No problem!"
"Stop that!" Gobo had to take another deep breath to calm himself again. "I need you to take care of Wembley while I'm gone!"
That request was so unexpected that Red didn't have a snappy comeback ready. "Huh?"
"Take care of Wembley, will you? Just… be there for him when he needs someone."
"He can take care of himself!"
"Well… yes and no," said Gobo gently. "He is Wembley, after all."
"Point taken," muttered Red, looking away. "But I still don't get what you mean!"
"I mean that he needs someone to be there for him, someone he can turn to when he needs help. Usually that's been me, but since I won't be here…" He looked at her pleadingly. "Please, Red, promise me you'll be there for him."
Red opened her mouth, about ready to shout out another retort, but something about Gobo's eyes reminded her of her childhood longing for a sibling, a sibling who she would be with through anything… a sibling who would trust her with his most important task.
"Alright," she relented. "I promise."
"Thank you," said Gobo softly. He turned to walk away, but then, hesitatingly, he leaned over and gave her a kiss.
Red recoiled back in surprise. True, Gobo had kissed her a few times before, but Red had never thought anything of it… they had always felt fairly chaste to her, just quick little pecks on her nose or cheek. But this one was a little longer, and almost on the corner of her mouth, and it certainly didn't feel all that chaste.
And it enraged her.
"Gobo Fraggle, if you're going to leave, then just leave!" she shrieked at him, throwing the towel at him forcefully.
Gobo jumped back, although not enough to avoid getting hit by the towel. Sighing sadly, he backed away from her. "Alright… good-bye, then."
Red didn't even wait for him to leave before jumping back in the pool, not looking back at him.
…………
The Fraggles, being Fraggles, threw a large party for sending off Matt and Gobo.
Red didn't go.
She had said she didn't want to, but Mokey insisted that she had to see them off, because who knew when she'd see them again? Didn't she care about them, after all? Just to appease Mokey (and also to avoid her questioning), Red finally agreed, but while Mokey happily went off to the party, chattering to Red that she wouldn't be sorry, the party would be fun and it was a good chance to say her goodbyes and all, Red quickly snuck away from her and headed in the opposite direction.
It seemed pretty much every Fraggle was at the party. Red had this section of the Rock all to herself. The only other Fraggle she ever encountered was the Storyteller, who was hunched over a large book, writing something and mumbling incoherently to herself, her hands trembling and her eyes sad. Red glanced at her in acknowledgement, but when the Storyteller looked up at her with her sad eyes, boring through the pigtailed Fraggle with a strange sort of recognition and understanding, Red abruptly turned away and stormed past her as if she hadn't seen her.
The next few days were spent in a similar way, Red marching off to all corners of the Rock to do crazy stunts, daring deeds, and anything else to keep her mind off a certain two missing Fraggles, alone when she could be…
…but Wembley was beginning to follow her. And while Red didn't particularly enjoy having him underfoot, her promise to Gobo still rang clear in her mind, and… well, why not? Having him around might keep her mind off other matters.
"Wembley! Race you to the entrance to the Gorgs' garden!"
"But Red, I—"
"Last one there's a rotten egg!"
Red dashed off without giving Wembley another chance to speak.
Wembley didn't follow right away, instead staring at where she'd ran off to, the flower he had been holding behind his back slipping unceremoniously out of his hands.
Maybe, maybe in a few days she'd be more willing to slow down for a second or two.
And maybe in a few days he could work up his nerve again.