Faux Friend

Strong Bad remained in a half dozing state through most of the next morning. Even when light streamed down and hit his face all he did was reposition himself and just go back to sleep. For a long time Homestar sat across from the blue haired prince, head tilted, trying to figure out why. Why, of course, he didn't actually know what question he was trying to ask himself.

Eventually, with the morning dragging on, Homestar gave up and fluttered up. He took his leave from Strong Bad for a bit. He was hungry anyways.

It wasn't until noon Strong Bad finally got up and stretched, allowing his back to crack slightly. Then he noticed his gloves were tingling, which was a sign that fire was near by. He finally spotted the tiny fire, and the fairy cooking a rotisserie style mouse over it.

With a sigh Strong Bad walked over and sat down across from the fairy. For a moment he was quiet, absorbing some of the energy while watching the fairy at work.

"Morning, fairy boy." The fire prince finally muttered before rubbing some sleep from his face. "What's that you're working on?"

"Hey Stwo-bwo!" Homestar chirped pleasantly. "I hope you'we hungwy, cause I caught the biggest, meanest ol' mouse I could find. Just for you."

"Uh, yeah, of course I hungry... But that's barely going to feed me, man... And what about you?"

"Pfft." Homestar stopped turning the mouse long enough to make a hand motion of dismissal. The mouse, though not on a stick, actually remained in the air above the fire. "Fairies don't eat the flesh of animols. This is mine." He held up a plump looking cherry.

"Well..." Strong Bad looked away for a moment, rubbing the back of his neck. "I can't believe you actually went out of your way to not only hunt down, kill, and skin, but cook for me as well. Thanks."

The fairy bit his lower lip to stop himself from smiling, but blush still lit his cheeks in a pink glow. "Well if I'm goin to be youw guide, you'we goin to hawve to twust me. I wanna be you youw fwiend, Stwong Bad."

The wicked prince's lips curled upwards, and a bit of a low chuckle escaped from them. "I'd like that, Homestar. It would be really... Freakin' awesome to have a fairy like you for a friend." He leaned in a bit closer, his voice going to a low whisper. "It would be even greater to have a fairy like you for a... Best friend?"

Homestar's little heart nearly skipped a beat at that. He felt for a moment as though all his dreams were coming true from only those few words. It was especially thrilling that Strong Bad was a man, not a fellow fairy. He stood stunned, with a ridiculous smile on his face for a moment before remembered the mouse, which nearly fell in the fire. He lifted his arms to regain control before the blush returned.

"Uh, Stwong Bad... Its weady for you to eat."

Strong Bad blinked for a moment, before cautiously taking the cooked meat from the air. "How the crap did you do that, Homestar?"

"I hawve my ways." The fairy twitched his wings slowly before motioning to Strong Bad. "Enjoy."

Wrinkling his nose in disgust Strong Bad cautiously took a bit off of its side. To his surprise the meat was well cook and somewhat sweet. "Holy crap, man... This isn't bad. Did you glaze it with something?"

"Nope." Homestar stated before taking a bite of his cherry. "I stuffed it with ba-lue bewwies."

"No kidding?" Strong Bad quickly finished the meat around the bones, being really careful. It was a little like a stuffed chicken wing or something. He then scooped out the blue berries and gobbled them down. "It kinda works... Like a meat-rogy."

Homestar nodded as he picked at the cherry. He was still blown away by the idea that he was now best friends with this man.

Rolling his eyes, Strong Bad stood up and shook his head. "Come on, Slowstar. We've wasted enough of the day here, let's get moving." He took a few steps before looking back down. "Can't you eat and run?"

Homestar stood up and took a few steps across to the prince. Again Strong Bad rolled his eyes and released an exasperated sigh.

"Can you eat and fly?"

"Nope..." Homestar continues to quietly munch. "I'm no good at the flyin and eatin, Stwong Bad."

"If you spill anything on my cape I'm flicking you, man." Strong Bad bent down and took up Homestar, putting him on the shoulder. "OK, which way?"

Homestar pointed in the right direction, and they were off. The next hour or so of the journey was quiet, much to Strong Bad's relief. He insisted Homestar not speak a word until he was finished his breakfast, which was probably too much food for the fairy. Homestar spent nearly a whole hour to eat it, as he slowly picked at it the whole time. By the time he was actually finished and threw the pit away Strong Bad stopped.

Before them was a ragged fork in the path. One side led northward, towards the colder lands, the other led southward, towards Town as far as Strong Bad could tell. Straight ahead they were faced with a twisted and tangled massive bush of thorns. Everything about it was jagged, and the thorns were thick and longer than Strong Bad's pointer finger. He cringed at it before glancing to the fairy on his shoulder.

"Ok, guide, which was to get to the dragons?"

Homestar smiled a quick knowing smirk. "That's easy. Stwaight on thwough."

"WHAT?" Strong Bad grabbed the fairy up, roughly, and faced him towards the thorn bushed. "Take a real good look, Homestar. There's up and there's down. There's no 'stwaight on thwough' option here." Then he let go of Homestar, who took the the air quickly. "Let's try this again. Which way?"

"Twust me..." Homestar breathlessly whispered before flying above the bush and pointing. "Stwaight..."

"No way." Strong Bad growled. "Those things look like they can impale me, let alone you." To prove his point he reached over to bend off one of the thorns. Instead his hand went through it, he couldn't feel anything there. "Huh?"

He swiped the air in front of him. "An illusion?"

"I told you to twust me, Stwong Bad. Its faiwy magic." Homestar shrugged from his place in the air. Then he motioned for Strong Bad to follow. "Come on."

The prince nodded and followed, but not before he glanced behind him to make sure a certain someone saw and heard everything. His saw a flash of yellow and nodded, then slipped into the illusionary plant.

They cut through the phantom flora quickly, Homestar eager to get to the other side, and Strong Bad having no choice but to follow at a run. Once there they came to another clearing in the trees, and Strong Bad took this moment to catch his breath. It seemed almost as though the air itself was thinner on the other side.

Homestar fluttered around the prince until he finally decided to land on his shoulder and stare up at the giant face. He didn't have any other reason to be quiet so he grinned and motioned for Strong Bad's attention.

"So, Stwong Bad. You'we called the pwince of fiwe, is it cause you use fiwe magic?"

Strong Bad's green eyes glanced the fairies way. "Duh." Then he took one final breath and a smiled. "Check it out."

He raised his arms carefully. He didn't want to knock the fairy over as he powered up. With a sudden foosh his upper arms were engulfed in a mighty blaze of orange and yellow flames. Homestar leaned back and stared at the flames in amazement. The light made his glow pale in comparision. Then slowly his attention turned to those emerald eyes, as Strong Bad stared into his own magic with almost a hunger for more.

"When did you fiwst leawn to do that?" Homestar asked quietly, mesmerized by Strong Bad's expression.

"I've known how to do this since I was a little kid." The hunger faded from his eyes as the fires died, and the look was replaced with a calm content expression. Slowly Strong Bad brought in his arms and removed the gloves. He flexed his bare fingers before flashing a quick small flame between them. "I've always been good at fire more than any other magic. But it isn't as easy without my favorite gloves."

That suddenly struck the prince as odd. He had never actually admitted that to anyone, not even his own brother. He cleared his throat and began to walk again. He decided to pull the attention away from himself.

"So.." The prince began, putting his gauntlets back on. "You know magic like illusions and healing? Stuff like that, right?"

Homestar laughed lightly. "Nope, not il-lushuns, or healin... I use bawwiews, some fowse, and wind magic."

"Really?" Strong Bad coughed, looking away from his little passenger. He was always told fairies were tricksters, illusionists, and could cause random annoyances with their magic, but they were one of the few races who could never learn elemental magic.

There was a moment of silence as they slowly traveled before Homestar took the air again. "And faiwies can't use healin at all. Only dwuids, unicowns, and faiwy dwagons can use healin." He laughed again. "I thought you'd know that, Stwong Bad. Bein a pwince and all you'd hawve to be smawt."

Strong Bad glared. "Of course I'm smart! I knew that I just sometimes mix fairies with fairy dragons. You know you're both so annoying... Sometimes..." He had to take a few deep breaths to stop himself of yelling. "Anyways, Homestar. You know I'm a prince and all, but what about you? Do you have a title or something?"

With a shrug Homestar stopped laughing and sighed. "I'm the youngest gwandson of the generwal. Sometime I get called Col-on-el Homestaw on special mishuns, which awen't vewy often. But most of the time I'm just Homestaw."

"Your grandpa is the general---?" Strong Bad stopped himself, slapping his forehead. The leader of the fairies was a woman, everyone knew that. "I mean your grandma, right?"

"My gwandpa was nevaw a fightew, but gwandma is a lean mean fighin gwandma-sheen." The fairy excitedly chirped. To emphasize he did some loops in the air, then did some mid air punches and kicks. Strong Bad watched him, a chuckle on his lips. He even began to walk backwards as he watched the little guy showing off his fancy and acrobatic fighting skills.

Neither of them even noticed a large dragon land silently behind Strong Bad, glaring hungerly at the human sized snack before it.