Chap. 1: Lips sat on the floor, curled up in a ball, groaning in pain. This could not be happening to him. Of all the things in the world that could've been wrong with him, this HAD to be what was wrong! He wanted to scream, he wanted to punch someone, and he wanted to cry! He wanted to do so many things, but he couldn't because his stomach had begun to ache again due to certain…conditions.
[Dcat: Okay, maybe I should back it up a little, since a lot of you probably don't know what the hell is going on!]
2 MONTHS EARLIER: Lips was just minding his own business in the instrument room. He was cleaning his trumpet when he heard a familiar voice say, "Hey Lips."
Lips looked up to see a male Muppet with light blue skin, long blue hair, somewhat rectangular sunglasses, a somewhat green hat, a yellow-tan shirt, black pants with a dark brown belt, sandals, and a red, dark orange, purple and dark pink striped overcoat of some sort that had brown fringe. [Dcat: Guess who!]
"Hey Zoot. How are you?" Lips asked his bandmate.
"Very good. Even better now since the Muppets are back together and all that crazy stuff is behind us," Zoot stated.
Lips smiled at the memory a year ago: the Muppets' #1 fan, Walter had discovered an oil baron named Tex Richman had bought the Muppet Theater and was plotting to tear it down to drill for oil. Walter, with the help of his brother, Gary, and Gary's fiancée, Mary, got the Muppets back together and put on a show to save the theater. Lips had been working in a trumpet store at the time before Walter burst in and went on a panicked ramble. All Lips could interpret was Muppet Theater, oil baron, and Muppets. He wasn't sure what Walter was saying and was about to call the cops until he walked into the room. Lips was shocked to see Zoot with Walter and was about to ask what he was doing there when Zoot basically somewhat translated whatever Walter had just said. Being a Muppet, Lips knew he couldn't let Tex Richman destroy the theater where he got his first job and decided to return to the Muppets.
The rest of the Electric Mayhem and some of the orchestra were very glad to see him, except Delores a little. She used to be on trumpet until Lips came along and "stole" her job, but she got used to the idea after a while, and eventually got a crush on him, but Lips had to tell her something that made her hatred for him return: he could never love her like she loved him. He only saw her as friend and nothing more. It took almost a month for her to get used to the idea of Lips not being able to love her and finally, she let it go.
Lips was somewhat a little worried to reunite with the Electric Mayhem, especially since they remember what happened a few years back: Lips decided to take another path and split from the band. Floyd Pepper, Dr. Teeth and Zoot tried to talk him into staying, since he was the greatest trumpeter they had, but Lips still left. He knew he somewhat hurt his friends' feelings by leaving them behind, as if implying that they were holding him back from something bigger, and he got a broken heart in the process. The band didn't seem to care about his leave; all that mattered was that he was back. After saving the theater, Kermit decides to get the Muppets on a world tour with a man named Dominic Badguy as their manager. A lot of stuff happened on that tour that Lips couldn't even describe it simply. Anyway, after everything was taken care of, the Muppets went back to Hollywood to their Muppet Theater, and now Lips was in a conversation with Zoot.
"So, what brings you here?" the trumpeter asked the saxophonist.
"Well, we're completely alone…at least I hope we are," Zoot said, looking around the room.
The piano then spoke, "Don't worry Zoot. If it's something private, I ain't saying nothing!"
Zoot glared at the old instrument, shook his head out of annoyance, and said, "…Out,"
The piano somewhat hopped out of the room with a loud bang in every hop.
"So, what did you need to talk with me about?" Lips asked, confused about why Zoot wanted to be alone with him.
Zoot pulled up a chair and looked at Lips with what seemed to be a serious expression. "I was thinking…that maybe we could…start over," he said.
Lips became surprised at the sentence; during season 5 of the Muppet Show and in the Muppet movies and specials that featured Lips, there was a little chemistry between the two brass musicians.
At first, nobody knew, since the secret couple was worried that the other Muppets would judge them for it, at least until Bean Bunny accidently barged in on them kissing. He screamed in shock so loudly, that it attracted nearly every Muppet to the scene. Bean was also screaming so loudly, he didn't even hear Zoot's explanation for the incident: he saw a spider the size of a baseball. When Kermit asked frantically where it was, Zoot said it must've been frightened away by Bean's screams, which made his friends doubt him, at least until Miss Piggy found a spider of the same size in her dressing room!
Then, there was the incident with Wayne and Wanda when they caught the two holding hands. They said that it is American for a man and woman to love each other, not two men to love each other, and if that wasn't bad enough, they threatened to tell Sam the Eagle! Zoot made a somewhat snappy comeback involving that it was a free country and he could love whoever he wanted, man or woman. They responded by saying she'll tell Kermit, which made Lips extremely upset till he was close to tears. After the duo walked away, Zoot decided to tell Dr. Teeth what had happened and man, was he ticked! Not at Zoot and Lips for not telling him about their relationship, but at Wayne and Wanda!
Dr. Teeth confronted the man and woman, which led to a lot of shouting and Sam and Kermit getting involved. Dr. Teeth explained the situation without mentioning that the gay couple was Zoot and Lips; he just said it involved two friends of his and this led to Kermit firing Wanda and Wayne.
Sam was furious that his favorite act was cancelled, but was also disappointed in them about Wanda's bullying toward Zoot and Lips. Zoot and Lips were glad that the only people that knew were Bean, who hasn't breathed a word of what he saw to anyone due to the fact he was worried what Zoot and Lips would do to him if he told, and Dr. Teeth, and he promised to not tell anyone until they were ready to come out. Wayne and Wanda were back in the show, but they seemed to have learned their lessons about not picking on a person or Muppet's love life.
After the Muppets split up, the Electric Mayhem tried to get gigs, which was pretty hard, and Lips decided to leave the band. Zoot, not wanting his lover to leave the band, which would render him single again, tried to talk Lips into staying, but this led to quite a few arguments and them breaking up. Zoot became really downhearted after Lips left and Floyd, Janice and Animal (This was before all the therapy stuff) assumed it was because they had become very close friends, but Dr. Teeth knew the truth.
To make it worse, and Lips did not know this; Zoot had been planning on proposing to him after all those years of happiness and love they spent together, and the arguing ruined that! Zoot became depressed because of this and thought he'd never see Lips again until Walter came along some time later.
Now since the Muppets were back together, Zoot thought it was a good a time as any to convince Lips into giving their love another chance.
"What are you saying, Zoot?" Lips asked.
"I want us to be together again; I love you, Lips Armstrong. Please, give us another chance," Zoot pleaded.
Behind his sunglasses, Lips could see the love in his past lover's eyes and knew Zoot really did want him back.
"You shouted at me before we split…" he mumbled.
"I know, and I'm really sorry about that. I regretted it after you left. I had no idea that taking that other path was so important to you," Zoot said.
Zoot took Lips' hand into his.
Lips looked at the other man in the eyes for a few moments before smiling and saying, "Okay, we can give it another shot."
Zoot smiled at him and the revived couple hugged each other and sealed it with a kiss. Lips had forgotten what a good kisser Zoot was and Zoot had forgotten how soft Lips' lips were.
The embrace lasted a good minute until the couple heard a familiar scream, "AAAAAAAHHHHHH!"
Lips and Zoot broke the kiss and looked toward the door to see Bean Bunny standing there, screaming his head off.
"Bean! What happened?" Walter asked, running over to the rabbit.
Bean just pointed into the instrument room, still screaming.
"The little guy saw a spider…the size of a…bowling ball," Zoot lied.
"A spider the size of a spider bowling ball? I don't know if that exists," Walter said, a little suspicious.
At that point, Fozzie came running out of the canteen, screaming, "There's a spider the size of a bowling ball in the kitchen!"
Walter got this baffled expression that nearly made Lips burst into laughter, and the new Muppet and Bean ran to the kitchen to see what the commotion was about, with Bean still screaming in terror.
"That was a close one," Lips said, giving out a sigh of relief.
"Yeah, that always works," Zoot said.
Lips smiled at Zoot before pecking him on the cheek. All was well in the theater, save for whatever was happening in the canteen.
Just so you know, Bean is NOT homophobic. He's still basically a kid and he's not used to witnessing certain things like two men kissing.
I do not own Muppets, Jim Henson does.
Please review!
