Courage

I'm writing slash for Scooby-Doo. I'm weird. I know. On that note, you have been warned. And, while reviews are awesome, flames will not be tolerated – they will be deleted. Original characters are mine, but everyone else belongs to Hanna-Barbera. It is set in the Mystery Begins/Curse of the Lake Monster!Verse, but does occasionally reference mysteries from Where Are You!, and there is one reference to Alien Invaders later on. This was also a ten-song challenge thing that I totally cheated on) and so there'll be song names at the beginning of each chapter, too. Enjoy!

1. Stand Up / Sugarland

"Shag, you ready to go?" Fred calls out as he rounds the corner to the hall that the other boy's locker is in. They're leaving for the Browns versus Bears game in Cleveland. And the sooner they get going, the better.

He's really not expecting to see anything out of the ordinary, just Shaggy packing up his books or munching on an afterschool snack or something. He's certainly not expecting to see another football player – Red Herring, the one who always trips Shaggy on the bus and shoulder-checks him in hallways – looming over him, one hand fisted in his friend's green t-shirt, and the other poised to land a punch that probably won't be gentle.

"Zoinks, like, this is most uncalled for!" Comes Shaggy's near-hysterical voice, followed by a completely hysterical half-giggle that spurs Fred into action.

Before he even realizes what he's doing, Fred is down the hall and slipping into the meager amount of space that separates Red's fist from Shaggy's terrified face.

"Okay, you've had your fun, Red. Now leave him alone."

He can feel Shaggy frantically clinging to him from behind, and he hears a mumbled mantra of thank you thank you thank you,' in his ear as he does his best to put more space between them and the volatile bully.

But, Red looks decidedly unimpressed with Fred's attempt to defend his new friend. Insulted, even. "Just because you have a crush on the freak-boy, it doesn't mean I have to be nice to him."

Fred doesn't feel the need to dignify the bully's trash-talking with an actual response. He stays in front of Shaggy, refusing to let him get hurt through his own inaction again. "Back off. You don't get to do this anymore, it has to stop."

"Yeah?" Red still doesn't seem all that bothered by Fred's apparent loyalties. "Who's gonna stop me? You?"

"I will if I have to," Fred says, at the same time he hears Shaggy reply with something like "Fred, let's just get outta here…"

Red smirks and backs off a few steps. "Go ahead, Jones, take your boyfriend and run away, I dare you."

Shaggy grabs at Fred's arm and tries to pull him away, now that they aren't pinned against the wall of metal; he picks up his bag and closes his locker so that Red can't get any ideas about stuffing him into it. "Come on, Freddy, let's go."

"I don't think it's gonna be that easy, Shaggy." Fred says, and he knows he's probably right. As soon as they turn their backs, Red will probably make a move.

"What, you don't believe me?" Red laughs, and he chooses then to lunge forward and make a grab at them – thought Fred isn't sure which one of them he's actually after at this point. Sure, it had always been Shaggy getting tripped on the bus, but Fred had been protesting it since day one and Red had shown no mercy on the matter. He's really been after both of them all along, maybe, just in different ways.

One hand closes around Shaggy's arm, the other fists into Fred's letterman jacket, and they both get hauled in close before they're shoved back against the wall of lockers.

Shaggy hits rather loudly and looks a little too dazed to do much of anything to stop Red from going further, so it's up to Fred to stop it now. He swings at the bully and manages to nail him pretty hard in the face.

"Jones!" Red gasps as he staggers back into the opposite wall, hands now clutching his bloodied nose. "You'll pay for this!"

The rush of standing up to their tormentor temporarily quashes Fred's dislike for violence that doesn't take place on the controlled setting of a football field, and so he's grinning when he says, "You come after either of us again and we're going to Principal Grimes." They probably should do that now, really, especially since they're still on his good side after the whole Time Capsule incident from two months ago, but Fred is a little too focused on getting Shaggy out of there and making sure he's alright.

By the time they lock themselves inside of the car Shaggy borrowed from his mom, Fred is glad to see his friend looking a little more focused. "You okay there?"

"Yeah, just, like, knocked the wind out of me is all," he says, as he straightens himself out and starts the car. "What about you?"

"My hand is a little sore," he admits, but then Shaggy's grinning at him like crazy and maybe it hurts a little less.

"You… you punched him in the face," Shaggy laughs, apparently in a state of shock, and he's wearing the same sort of relieved look that was on his face the first time Fred sat with him on the bus. "I think that's the first time anyone has ever actually stopped him – aside from when Scooby bit him. And… uh oh. He's either going to kill us or never get near us again."

"Let's hope for the second option, then," Fred smirks and flips the radio to some station that plays music that they both like as Shaggy pulls off the school lot and toward Cleveland for the football game.