A/N: Before I begin, I just want to give thanks to my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, for not only giving me the creative boost I needed, but for also giving me wonderful friends that challenge me and lift me up during hard times. To You I give all the glory and honor! Amen!
Well, I haven't written a Hanna-Barbera story in a hot minute, but this was an idea that I've had floating around my head for a long time. Namely, it's a present for my longtime friend on this site, Vulaan Kulaas, who has been there for me during the roughest point of my life this year and put up with my absences on more than one occasion (and I promise that I'll stop avoiding my friends from here on out!). And what better way to express that than through a story?
Anybody who's been on my Tumblr knows that I've gone on a lengthy post about my friendship pairs for H-B, or BroTPs. I have five that are my absolute favorites, so this little short collection will focus on these five. Plus, they'll include snippets of my past and future projects within this fandom, so that'll be a treat too!
Anyway, I'll shut up and start the story now. Again, this is for you, VK, for being the best friend one could ask for. I only hope I can be that same friend to you, too!
Title: Born For Adversity
Fandom: Hanna-Barbera
Genre/Tags: Friendship/Hurt/Comfort/Adventure/Family
Full Summary: A friend is there during hard times, and brothers are born for adversity. A short collection featuring 5 of my BroTPs for Hanna-Barbera, taking place in multiple universes, dedicated to my longtime best online friend, Vulaan Kulaas.
Disclaimer: If it isn't obvious by now, I'm neither Bill Hanna or Joe Barbera (RIP to both), so with the exception of several OCs (with some being owned by VK), none of the characters in this story belong to me.
Story 1: In All But Blood
Characters: Ricochet Rabbit, Droop-a-Long Coyote, Drag-a-Long Coyote (OC)
Universe: Blazin' Trails
The setting sun added a red-orange hue to the darkening sky, creating a lovely sunset fit for a painting. Drunken clamors rang through the streets, signaling that happy hour was starting off strong. The other citizens were hurrying home for the night, closing up their shops and boarding their windows in case the festivities got too out of hand.
Droop-a-Long surveyed the town from his position at the window, slowly sipping from his cup of warming lemonade. One look at his dark green eyes showed that his mind was elsewhere, and his knotted brow showed how deep his thoughts ran. How troubled his thoughts were. He set the cup down, unable to take another sip as the day's events crawled back to him, threatening to make him puke.
Honestly, how could he not feel sick, knowing that what'd happened was partly his fault?
A low groan hit his ears and he whirled around to face the bed's sole occupant, whose face was knotted with pain as he stirred, the laudanum finally having worn off. Droop-a-Long grimaced, his heart twisting. It pained him to see Ricochet like this, laid up in a doctor's office and unable to keep up his "sheriffin'" as he called it, at least for a few weeks.
Iffin' I had reacted faster...he wouldn't be here. It shoulda been me...
"Droopy, you alright? Y-You've got this look that's givin' me the willies..."
Droop-a-Long snapped out of it and looked up at Ricochet, who was looking back at him with concern. With a small smile, he said, "Sorry, Ricochet. I-I was lost in thought..." He moved away from the wall to sit in the stool next to Ricochet's bedside, finally allowing the worry he'd been fighting to show on his face. "Are you alright, though, Mr. Ricochet?"
"Well...can't say I ain't feelin' nothin', 'specially since the laudanum wore off," Ricochet said, grimacing as he stretched, "but it's nothin' I haven't dealt with before. I should be up an' goin' in a few days."
"Try a few weeks, Mr. Ricochet," Droop-a-Long corrected. When Ricochet gave him a frown, he said, "That's what the doc told me! We know ya heal fast, but you really shouldn't push runnin' right now. 'Specially since..."
"Since Drag-a-Long stabbed me, I know," Ricochet said quietly, noticing the haunted look in the coyote's eyes. It'd been the last thing he'd seen before falling unconscious, too, so he knew this was getting to Droop-a-Long. "Listen, Droop-"
"I-I'm sorry, Mr. Ricochet," Droop-a-Long said, his voice shaking. He swallowed, fighting to keep the sobs down. "I-I shouldn't have let 'im rile me up like that, sayin' things 'bout D-Denise and her sister, but just the thought of him doin' that..."
"Trust me, Droop, iffin' it was Melissa, I would've tanned his backside," Ricochet said. "I ain't faultin' you for your reaction."
"My reaction is why you got hurt in the first place!" Droop-a-Long exclaimed. "I-I wasn't payin' attention an' he tried to stab me, an'..." The awful details started flooding back to him. How he'd turned to help the girl Drag-a-Long had kidnapped onto his horse, unaware that his brother had recovered from his punch. Ricochet shouting his name before shoving Droop-a-Long into the dirt, disorienting him for a second. The sound of a knife entering flesh, and then Ricochet's scream... "I shouldn't have done that...I-it should've been-"
His tirade was interrupted by a sharp pain to his forehead. Yelping in pain, Droop-a-Long stared at his friend, who was giving him a glare that could wilt a tree.
"If you even think o' finishin' that sentence, I'ma smack ya next," Ricochet said angrily, lowering his hand.
"W-What was that-"
"Droop-a-Long, I wasn't about ta stand thar an' let you get stabbed in the back!" Ricochet yelled. "As sheriff, it's my duty to look after my deputies, ain't it?!"
"W-Well-"
"Ain't it?!"
"Y-Yes, b-"
"An' as yer friend, you really think I'd let you get stabbed in the back by yer no-good coward of a brother?!"
"I-"
"Yes or no, Droop-a-Long!"
"N-No, of course not!"
"Then thar's no need to even think of sayin' 'It shoulda been me'!" Ricochet said. "You didn't hesitate to jump in when outlaws jumped me before! What makes you think I wouldn't do the same for you? You're my brother, Droop-a-Long, an' I'll be damned if I'm-a gonna let some unhinged murderer get to you! You hear?!"
Droop-a-Long stared at Ricochet, shocked by the outburst, but also touched by the rabbit's words. The deepening glare, though, told him he'd better answer, and fast. "Y-Yessir, loud an' clear, Mr. Ricochet."
Ricochet sighed, his glare lessening slightly. "Gosh, you've gone an' gotten my dander up, Droop-a-Long," he muttered, sinking into the pillows. "I was half ready to smack ya for that..."
"Nice ta know your injury hasn't affected yer temper, Mr. Ricochet..."
"I'm serious, you know! Droop-a-Long, you're my deputy," Ricochet started, "but in all but blood, you're my brother! And as your brother, it's my job to worry about you! For Pete's sakes, someone needs ta remind ya every now an' again that they're lookin' out for you, Droopy, an' it might as well be me! You don't have to shoulder everythin'!"
"But Mr. Ricochet, you do the exact same thing! Half the time, you don't tell me everythin' because you don't want me to worry!" Droop-a-Long pointed out.
"Look..." Ricochet rubbed the back of his head, a look of shame crossing his face. Droop-a-Long had hit him where it hurt, and he knew it. "I do, alright? An' I admit, it's not easy for me to tell ya everythin' that's on my mind. But ya know, it's gotten easier 'cause I know that you're always there to help me, takin' care of me or jus' listenin' when I need to vent. An' I know that I don't always tell you this, but I appreciate it a lot," he said. "You bein' here has really changed things for me, Droop, for the better. An' that is the honest-to-God truth."
Droop-a-Long stared at Ricochet, feeling a lump form in his throat, though this time, not from guilt. "Mr. Ricochet..."
"I'm not terribly angry with ya, knowin' how ya are, an' how yer feelin' right now. Trust me, I-I'm a little shaken, too. But all I'm askin' is that you don't blame yerself for somethin' that wasn't yer fault. An' don't be afraid to tell me what's botherin' you. If you need help or if ya want me to listen, I'll jus' listen."
"That's awfully nice of ya, but I-"
"Please, Droop-a-Long," Ricochet interrupted. "I couldn't bear it if I had to watch my brother hurt himself even more."
Complete silence filled the air then. Droop-a-Long stared at Ricochet, whose eyes started to gloss over with tears. Seeing that expression on his best friend's face, and hearing those words come out of his mouth, made it hard to stop the tears. "Oh shucks...I-I'm so sorry, Mr. Ricochet...I-I wasn't even thinkin' 'bout what I was sayin'..."
"That's been happenin' a lot lately," Ricochet said, giving his friend a pointed look.
"I don't wanna hear that from you," Droop-a-Long said, wiping his eyes.
"Right, well," Ricochet started, wiping his own eyes, "at least we won in the end, right?"
"You got that right," Droop-a-Long replied, a small smile coming onto his face. Indeed, the sight of the young woman reunited with her father had been one of the highlights of the day--along with the news of Ricochet surviving his injury. "Drag-a-Long'll come outta hidin' again, but when he does, I'll be waitin' for 'I'm."
"Spoken like a true sheriff," Ricochet remarked. "Which you'll have ta be in my place, you know."
"Yeah..." The prospect of filling in Ricochet's shoes for three weeks was nothing short of nerve wracking, but Droop-a-Long couldn't help but feel a little excited as well. Perhaps there was one more silver lining to this incident after all. "The townspeople may not like it, but I'll do my best."
"Oh, you don't know with them, Droop. They'll probably like ya more than me. An' then I can retire an' settle down..."
The look of utter bewilderment on Droop-a-Long's face made Ricochet laugh aloud. The coyote rolled his eyes, though he couldn't help but chuckle himself.
"You're somethin' else, Ricochet."
The End
Of course, the first story had to feature my original BroTP that I wrote about for 3 years. Speaking of them, I am going to work on Blazin' Trails again, especially with the Redux coming out soon.
I was originally writing this story out on paper, and in the original, Quick Draw and Baba Looey were supposed to appear. Plus, the story had elements of my original supernatural Western story, The Ghost of Huckleberry Hound, present in regards to how Ricochet is portrayed (GH Ricochet is a lot more serious than BT Ric, by the way). But with my Hanna-Barbera mood, I've learned to just go with the flow with whatever I write, hence why the story changed when I typed it out. Quick Draw and Baba Looey are expected to show up in this collection, though, so no need to fear about them being ignored.
The theme of "my brother, ride or die" has always been present in Blazin' Trails and especially in Ricochet and Droop's friendship-there is no question that these two would go through hell and back to save one another, in spite of one's protests. That was really the crux of Ricochet's anger: though he recognizes that he's just as flawed, he can't stand to see Droop-a-Long continually martyr himself, be it physically or emotionally, and wants to take some of that burden off of him and walk down the same path with him, in spite of the pain and fire they'll go through.
It was fun to include Drag-a-Long here, even if he was just in passing. I definitely plan on doing more content with him and Droop-a-Long in the near future, as well as Serena (whose role here is alluding to a future arc that'll show up in Redux).
Next chapter might either be Top Cat and Huckleberry Hound, or Touché and Dum-Dum (though I'm thinking it's the latter because I have had an idea to work on an idea with them). But hey, it's good to work on content with these duos again.
Reviews are greatly appreciated! And if anyone flames this, I'll use those to whip up a nice H-B style barbecue dinner :)
See y'all at the next update~
God bless, iheartgod175