Disclaimer: I only own Lea and the plot etc

Sorry for the delay, I've been on holiday and got burnt :(



The weeks wore on in the Nabootique, the few, generally eccentric customers came and went, someone saw through Howard's fairly uninspired displays and bought the entire jazz collection, cheerfully handing them a 17 thousand euro notes and brazenly saying 'keep the change'. With the new revenue life didn't seem quite as desperate, and Vince and Howard bickered less. They didn't often see Naboo though. He had taken to flying off on one of his magic carpets once he'd woken up, and not returning till much later that night. Bollo was unsure what to make of Naboo's change in attitude, and hung around in the shop now that he seemed to no longer be needed, chatting to Vince and modelling various large capes.


Vince and Howard made their way up the stairs, very pleased with the gig they'd just done at the Velvet Onion, when raised voices reached them. Sharing a worried look they hacked upstairs and stared into the flat. Naboo, turban asque and blue robes twisted clutched a half empty bottle of vodka in one hand and was waving a pointed finger vaguely at his gorilla.

"Don't you dare try 'nd tell me wha' to do!" He shouted in a slurred voice. Vince's eyebrows shot up. Naboo never shouted. That was…emotion to the extreme.

"Bollo try to help Naboo, liver-"

"You don't know my liver!" Naboo shot "I don't even have a liver! And I'll flaming well drink if I flaming well want too!" Naboo turned unsteadily and weaved away from them. Vince stepped next to Vince and Howard

"Whats going on?" Vince asked quietly

"Naboo drunk again, not good for system. This month-never sober."

"I can hear you!" Naboo yelled from the kitchen, making them jump

"Bollo worried." He said simply. Vince and Howard looked to Naboo, who stumbled about, occasionally swigging from the bottle. He wandered into the living room, and turned. He seemed surprised to see them

"Wha' do you six want?" his eyes were half closed "shop isn't open. Should be. Freaks. Who invited three sets of twins anyway?"

"Why are you doing this Naboo?" Howard asked starting forwards. Naboo regarded him

"Why does anyone drink? To stop the pain." He swayed slightly, one hand clutching a fistful of robes over his chest

"What pain?" Vince asked, and joining Howard came closer to the sloshed shaman

"Wha' pain? Wha' pain?! The pain from flaming Lea! The hatred! The pain from-" he toppled sideways and Vince caught him. His turban fell to the ground, and Naboo let out a small shriek, before slamming his hands over his face and sinking down onto the sofa. Howard and Vince looked at each other, bemused by the mood change as Naboo began to sob. They sat down either side of him.

"Whats brought this on Naboolio?" Howard asked gently, resting a hand on the shaman's back

"Knocked turban off….lets out power…" came the mumbled response

"What?" Howard said, Vince looked to Bollo

"Crown of head centre of shaman's power. Always covered." Came the grunted response.

"Sorry Naboo" Vince said. Naboo lowered his hands to rest on his cheeks, his eyeliner mussed up by the tears, and rested his elbows on his knees. He sighed shakily

"So this is about Lea?" Vince asked. Naboo slowly nodded

"She 'nd I are connected…" he said very quietly

"By the baby?"

"Yeah, she 'ates it, and me, 'nd it not natural." He sighed "its deep magic, old 'nd ancient, bone magic. 'nd all 'cos of Dennis" he said the name with venom "its gone wrong. The baby is so flaming powerful its protecting itself from all these…these…feelings! And jus' relaying them back at us" It didn't escape Howard's notice that one of Naboo's hands had moved and was pressed hard against his heart, like trying to staunch a wound "it 'urts, it 'urts so much" Naboo said simply, voice breaking on the last word, his brown eyes carrying so much sadness as he stared at the floor. He pushed up and walked off, vanishing into the depths of the flat. Vince picked up the turban thoughtfully. He'd never touched it before, it was heavy, a thick fabric, and inside it was clearly moulded to the shape of its owner's head. Where Naboo's forehead would rest was a diagram in golden thread, ending in very small writing. Vince squinted to read it 'Xooberon'. It was a flight pattern. Vince vaguely wondered whether Naboo has his tattooed somewhere, and then wondered where….eliciting a decidedly naughty grin that Howard was unsettled by. Suddenly Vince's eyes flew wide open.

"Howard! I've got it!"

"What little man?"

"See that?" He handed him the turban, showing off the flight pattern

"Yeah, so?"

"Remember what was on Lea's arm? The tattoo?"

Howard nodded "Yeah…."

"Well if Naboo's got one too, that means he knows how to read them"

"I see."

"Do you?"

"Yeah"

"Do you really?"

"No" Admitted Howard "what are you on about?"

"His books! All his stuff's in his books! He told me one time that there's too much to remember so he spent a summer writing it all down!"

"Yeah, I see Vince, but one problem" Howard said. Vince visibly deflated

"What?"

"We don't know Lea's flight pattern, do we?" Vince frowned, his eyes tracing the outline of the turban. He suddenly leapt to his feet and ran out of the room, returning a few moments later clutching something in his hands. He held it out to Howard, who took it. It was Lea's headscarf.

"Turn it over" Vince said. Howard did. The flight pattern was carefully embroidered in gold thread, the lines and the stars connecting to each other like an extended constellation. Howard did not look convinced, and Vince's smile slipped slightly.

"The chances of us finding the right book is a million to one" Despaired Howard

"Oarw, come on Howard, its another adventure! And we can save Naboo, go and find Lea, get them back together and then there'll be little baby named Vince, just like a fairytale!"

"Vince, life isn't like a fairytale, even if we do find the book, and somehow get there, whats to say she'll want to come back?" Vince frowned

"Why wouldn't she want to come back?" Howard couldn't meet Vince's eyes

"He said she hates him" Howard said quietly, referring to Naboo. There was silence, and Vince sat down next to the Jazz Maverick

"Howard, we gotta try. I don't want Naboo to get ill or nothing, I've never seen him like this." Howard sighed, and found Vince resting one of his pale hands over Howard's, the nails beautifully shaped. Somehow that gave him hope. He lifted his face

"Ok little man, we'll go talk to her."

"Yes! Thank you Howard, your one in a million!"

"Anytime little man" Howard said with a smile as they made their way to Naboo's room. The door was ajar, the shaman was no where to be found, his large floor length window was open and one of the rolled up carpets was missing. He had gone flying. Vince headed straight for the large cupboard and picked the padlock with a hair pin, resulting in a satisfying clunk as it opened.

"Vince, I don't think we should be doing this" Howard said quietly as he watched Vince dive headfirst into the cupboard, it was incredibly deep.

"Come on Howard, we're doing this for Naboo, he wont mind" Howard didn't say anything, but sat down next to Vince when he pulled out a pile of books and sat on the bed. They both flicked through them.

"Here Howard, look its what Bollo said, apparently 'Shaman etiquette and health dictates that shamans must keep their head covered at all times as the crown is the focal point of their power, only those in undisputed positions of authority show their crowns so they can access their power more easily.'"

"Is that so?" Howard said, uninterested as he flicked the coffee coloured pages, written up in the neat black handwriting of the small shaman.

"Yeah, hey Howard, I'm having a think." Howard looked up "so a shaman has to cover their head, right?" he received a nod, and Howard continued his line of thought

"Wait a minute, Lea left her headscarf, didn't she?" Said the Northerner

"She did…" Vince said nodding, smiling slowly

"…So for a shaman, that was a big thing to do….and to leave it here, she was giving us a way to get in touch with her"

"So maybe she doesn't hate Naboo!" Cried Vince joyfully, bouncing slightly

"Don't jump the gun little man, but yes, I think we may be onto something."

It didn't take them too long to find a chapter on flight patterns, and after they established that Lea's was on Earth (as opposed to through several universes as Naboo's showed) and they moved to the shop where the probability of Naboo coming across them was slim, and both poured over the chapter with eager eyes as they drank in the neat information, the lines corresponded to distances, taken at coordinates, and the stars showed where in the air the flier changed direction.

"But Howard" Vince said after a while "we cant fly"

"No, but we've been on the carpets enough it cant be that hard to fly one."

Stealing one of Naboo's carpets was the easy part, heading up to the roof and convincing the carpet to fly them took some work, as it turned out the carpet had a silent personality, and as they had been weaved by Naboo himself did not take kindly to strangers with no courtesy. Eventually coerced by Vince's pleading they wobblingly took to the sky, headscarf in Vince's hand and book in Howard's lap, and hope in their hearts and mild queasiness in their stomach they flew off into the sun, off on another adventure.


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