A/N: In regards to that matchmaking short being chapter 12, it's still being written, but it's taking a while. And I had a really funny little brainstorm yesterday, which involved one of my headcanons for Ricochet. Chronologically, this little short takes place a month after Short 4, during Droop-a-Long's first month as a deputy.

I hope you all have been having a great holiday break thus far, and Merry Christmas!

Disclaimer: *points at other chapters for disclaimers*


Story 12: Sugar Junkie

Droop-a-Long yawned as he made his way downstairs, stretching his arms. "Mr. Ricochet's right; nothin' beats a good night's rest," he said. He never thought he'd be getting up this early, but he didn't want to be dragged out of bed again like what happened yesterday. He'd had no idea how strong Ricochet was until he'd found himself being dragged down the stairs.

He rubbed his snout upon remembering that. Bumping his face into the stairs yesterday had been no joke.

He was surprised to see that Ricochet wasn't awake yet, and that breakfast wasn't ready, either. Droop-a-Long took a look at the clock to make sure that he wasn't imagining things. Nope, it was half past seven, and the minute hand barely moved forwards. "I reckon Mr. Ricochet decided ta sleep in this mornin'," he mused. He sighed. "Wish I could..."

Slow as he was, Droop-a-Long was surprisingly adept to picking up habits-or rather, noticing other people's habits and patterns. It was something he'd learned to do while in Shadybrook, when he still lived with his parents, as it helped him keep track of things. His father's morning habits were to drink a small cup of bitter tasting coffee before getting on with the day's chores. His mother's was to make a large breakfast in order to get everyone up, and if that didn't do the trick, her singing would.

As such, he had no problem picking up Ricochet's morning habits. The sheriff woke up every morning around seven no matter what day of the week it was, after which he'd wake Droop-a-Long up and then make breakfast, which usually consisted of something made of vegetables. Ricochet's cooking skills weren't bad by any means-it wasn't comparable to his fare, but it was decent nonetheless-but two weeks of eating nothing but spinach tarts, carrot cakes and turnips had made Droop-a-Long go through withdrawal, almost to the point where he'd considered making rabbit stew. Ricochet had agreed that he could go to the diner across town to get his meat fix, if only so his deputy wouldn't eat him.

Another habit of Ricochet's that Droop-a-Long noticed was that he would drink a lot of coffee throughout the day. When he wasn't doing that, he was either snacking on candy or eating something sweet. Any sweet one could name, the sheriff had a stash of it, and quite a decent sized one, too. Once after a particularly grueling case, Droop-a-Long had thrown away a box of honey buns because ants were coming in the office. That had made Ricochet even more sour than he'd been earlier that afternoon, as he'd been saving them for a treat.

Droop-a-Long had the feeling that Ricochet was more than a little obsessed with sugar. He figured that the reason was due to the long hours and constant travel. But he remembered Ricochet telling him that he was planning to go on a diet and stop eating so much sugary foods, as many of favorite foods happened to be something glazed in sugar. That had only lasted for an hour, as he'd gone straight to a bakery after that and had eaten half of a small carrot cake.

And he doubted that Ricochet was the type to tire out easily. Ricochet was much more energetic than he was, able to keep up a chase even when he'd gotten only a few hours of sleep. He had also seen a Ricochet with far too much energy once, where he'd become borderline hyperactive after taking up judo as a hobby.

Droop-a-Long shuddered at that memory. That experience had been a nightmare.

Seeing as he was up before Ricochet, Droop-a-Long went through the kitchen picking up anything that had sugar on it, which was pretty much almost everything in the cabinet. He took it and carried it out to the porch, where he noticed that most of the people of Hoop 'n Holler were about. He knew that what he was going to do was probably going to get him in big trouble.

He only hoped that Ricochet would see his good intentions.

"Uh, 'scuse me, sir," Droop-a-Long said, walking over to a man in a green suit. "Would ya like some donuts to take with ya?"

"Donuts? Oh, that's very nice of you, Deputy Droop-a-Long," the man said.

"Wait, you're selling sweets?" someone else asked.

"Well, uh...more like gettin' rid of 'em..." Droop-a-Long admitted.

"I'll give you twenty bucks for the honey buns and the carrot cake!" he said.

"I'll give you thirty for that strawberry shortcake!" a woman said.

"Aw, but I jus'-"

"You know what? I'll make it fifty!" the first man said, pulling out his money.

Droop-a-Long stood there for a second, shocked. Then, he pulled out the boxes of honey buns and carrot cake. "Alright, it's a deal."

After giving the coyote his money and getting his food, the man turned around and shouted, "Hey guys, we've got a whole sale o' sweets goin' on here!"

The people in the street stopped short upon hearing this. A split second later, they all stampeded over to the office in a mass, some of them waving money about in the air.

"Hey, how much for the apple strudels?" someone asked.

"I'll give you thirty for the lemon cakes!" another person said.

As people started bombarding him with money, Droop-a-Long couldn't help but think that his idea wasn't too bad after all.


Thirty minutes later...

Ricochet closed the doors to the coyote's room and scratched his head, confused. For the first few weeks after he'd hired Droop-a-Long, he'd always had to wake the coyote up. The coyote could sleep through just about anything, and he learned last week that if left alone he'd sleep through an entire day. He'd tolerated a bit of it at first, but yesterday had been pushing it when he slept until two in the afternoon.

To see him up and about would be surprising, but it was a sign that he was taking his job as deputy seriously...or, at the very least, that yesterday's incident had gotten through to him. Even though Droop-a-Long was his best friend, he couldn't afford to have a deputy sleeping on the job.

He went downstairs and made a beeline for the kitchen, prepared to make himself a cup of coffee and get a honey bun before he started work. But when he got there, he found a nasty surprise. All of the cupboards were wide open and the shelves were bare, save for some vegetables and canned food.

He could care less about the canned food and the veggies at the moment. All the snacks were gone. And not just the regular snacks like the potato chips, which had disappeared yesterday without a trace.

The honey buns were gone. So was the leftover carrot-flavored coffee cake.

And the jelly-stuffed donuts.

And the chocolate.

Ricochet's hand balled into a fist and he marched out of the kitchen, fuming. This wasn't the first time someone had stolen his food, but this was taking it too far. Stealing his coffee cake and honey buns were one thing. It was a whole different matter when it came to his chocolate snacks. Someone was going to answer to this, and if they didn't want to talk, he had other methods of persuasion.

No sooner had he crossed the foyer than Droop-a-Long walked in the office, his face set into a wide grin. In his hand was a large wad of cash that appeared to be tied with a rubber band. "Boy, if I'd known I'd get this much money, I woulda sold those sweets sooner!" he said, looking at his cash.

He looked up and saw Ricochet standing there, fuming. His grin disappeared in a flash, his face paled, and he started to shudder. "Oh, horseapples..."

"DROOP-A-LONG COYOTE, YOU'D BETTER HAVE A GOOD EXPLANATION FOR THIS!" Ricochet yelled.

Rather than giving him an explanation, Droop-a-Long turned around and took off running. His hat hit the ground with a soft plop as he did so.

Undeterred, Ricochet took off after him, shouting, "When I get my hands on you, you'll wish you never sold my sweets, Droop-a-Long!"

The residents of Hoop 'n Holler watched Droop-a-Long and Ricochet disappear into the horizon, and then turned back to do their own thing. Stranger things had happened there, after all.


Thirty minutes later...

"Droop-a-Long?" Ricochet started calmly, facing his deputy with a patronizing glare.

Droop-a-Long looked up at the sheriff from his position on the floor. "Yes, Mr. Ricochet?"

"What gave you the bright idea to sell my snacks?" Ricochet asked.

Droop-a-Long sighed. He may as well get out with it. "Ya eat too much sugar even for a sheriff. I wanted ya to eat healthier. I was gonna throw 'em away, but the folks were willin' to pay, an'...well..."

"But those were my favorite foods, Droop! You jus' don't go and sell people's stuff without askin'!" Ricochet yelled. "An' throwin' 'em away is even worse!"

"I know that, Mr. Ricochet," Droop-a-Long said, "but the last time you said you were goin' on a diet, you ate half a cake an hour after you said you weren't gonna touch sugar again."

"...Did I really say that?"

"I was right next to ya, Mr. Ricochet."

Ricochet sighed, and his expression softened a little. "Look, I understand that you wanted me to eat healthier, Droop. And I've gotta admit, I've been a little obsessed with the stuff."

"A little?"

"Okay, a might obsessed," Ricochet admitted. "But ya could've jus' told me instead of gettin' me worked up by sellin' my snacks and makin' money off of 'em. That would've saved you a lot of trouble."

"It sure would've. I reckon my arms feel like jelly from havin' them get tied up like this for an hour."

"I had no choice but to hog-tie you, Droop-a-Long. You ran so fast that I almost didn't catch you." Ricochet paused, then said, "Not that you can run faster than me, of course."

"O' course not, Mr. Ricochet." Droop-a-Long sighed. "I'm sorry, Mr. Ricochet. I was jus' gonna dump 'em in the trash, but seein' as all those people were out there..."

"It's alright, Droop-a-Long. Even though ya made a profit offa my things, you did attempt to help me out," Ricochet said. "So I'm not too mad at ya. But you're gonna go an' buy back all those snacks with the money ya made."

Droop-a-Long could have cried with relief. "Oh, thank goodness. For a minute, I thought I was gonna be fired."

"You pull somethin' like this again, an' you will be, Droop. Are we clear on that?"

"Crystal clear, Mr. Ricochet."

"Good. Now I have one more question to ask you," Ricochet said.

"What's that, Mr. Ricochet?"

"I know you told me who you sold those other snacks to. But I wanna know what happened to my chocolates, Droop. Ya didn't mention anythin' 'bout those."

Droop-a-Long froze. "Your chocolates?"

"Yes, my chocolates," Ricochet repeated.

"Uh...I hope you won't be too angry at me, Mr. Ricochet, but I ate 'em."

"...what did you just say, Droop-a-Long?" Ricochet's tone was dangerous.

Droop-a-Long gulped. "Uh...can ya untie me so I can start runnin' again?"

The End


I realize that Ricochet and Droop-a-Long maaay be a bit OOC in this for the sake of the funny. Even so, I still think this is hilarious. I'll leave it up to your imagination on what happened to Droop-a-Long.

My headcanon, as shown by this short, is that Ricochet is a sugar junkie; I figured he would be since he drinks a lot of coffee. I personally think that he has a weakness for chocolate, but honey and cinnamon would probably be close contenders. And in my other shorts, he's shown snacking on a lot of sweets, so I think that this would be his main guilty pleasure, aside from those romance novels.

There will be two other shorts explaining what happened to Droop-a-Long for him to get dragged out of bed, as well as when Ricochet got extremely hyperactive. But that'll be later along the line, I guess.

Next short may be another idea I've had in my notebook for a while, since it's going to take a while for that matchmaking short to be finished. Let me know what you think of this short in your reviews!

God bless, iheartgod175