Title: A Night Under the Stars

Authors: I_JOY and iwomans_sister

Disclaimer: We don't own Darien or Hobbes... Well, not the two from the show anyway. ;) Oh, yeah, or anyone else. Sue if you want, but we have nothing to give ya.

Spoilers: Nope, notta, nil, none. In other words, No. ;D

Genre: Humor

Authors' Note: This FLT plot line goes nowhere and we came up with it while looking up at the stars and watching a meteor shower last night. It started as a serious round robin between the two of us and turned into a we-need-more-sleep bunny. Enjoy! *I_JOY and iwomans_sister hand out MilkyWay's.* No pun intended. Okay, maybe a little.

*A special thank you to our WONDERFUL Beta Reader, liz_Z. We love you, girl!*

~*~

Darien looked up at the dark night sky. "Man, Hobbes, this is beautiful!"

"Yeah, it's not often that I get to see the stars. In the city there's too many lights around."

Darien nodded in agreement. "Hey, Hobbes, do you see that palm tree?"

Hobbes scanned the sky, looking for the cluster of stars his partner had spotted. "Where?"

"I'd point, but I don't think that that's possible with these ropes around my wrists." Darien replied, his voice dripping with sarcasm.

"Don't get sassy with me, Fawkes. I'm not the one who got us into this mess." Hobbes replied, shifting his weight. The train track rail that was wedged against his back was making his shoulders start to ache.

"Well..."

"Fawkes, do we really have to discuss this again? It wasn't my fault Chrysalis made our cover."

"And I suppose it was mine?"

"If you'd just stuck with the original plan..."

Darien let out a long sigh. "If we make it outta here, I'm gonna kill you."

"Is it the one with the triangle top and the half moon line?"

"What?" Darien asked, both frustrated and confused.

"The cluster that looks like a palm tree."

"Oh," Darien looked for it and found it again, "How many stars do you see on it?"

"Three for the branches and five for the stem."

"That's the one." Darien replied. He shifted, trying to get comfortable, and failed. "This would be amusing if it didn't make my muscles ache so much."

There was a small silence and Darien waited for his partner to reply. "Hobbes?"

"Shh..."

"What is it, Hobbes?"

"Listen."

Darien concentrated on the sounds around him. "Crickets. What's so special about that?"

"Listen carefully." Hobbes replied.

Darien listened again. In the distance he could hear a slight rumble. "What is that?" Hobbes didn't have to answer, the train blew its whistle. "Aw crap! Hobbes, we gotta get out of here!"

"What, you think I don't know that, Fawkes?"

"No, that's not what I was saying..."

"First you blame me for us getting tied down here, and now... Now you think I don't know we're about to become pancakes?"

"Hobbes..."

"No Fawkes, I'm serious! Do you really think me that dense?"

"Hobbes, I wasn't trying to..."

"No, just don't talk to me. I want to be left alone."

"Hobbes, you're about to have that wish granted. I'd say in about ten minutes we're gonna be human soup."

"Well, guess we better enjoy it, man." Hobbes replied.

"Hobbes, are you listening to me? In ten minutes we're gonna be dead."

"I heard you, Fawkes." A few minutes went by without either man talking. "Chuga chuga, choo choo!"

"Hobbes, what was that?"

"That, my friend, was the train."

"Was not!"

"Was too!"

"You were making train noises, weren't you!?!"

"Me? Why would I do that?"

"Hobbes, how can you just lay there and make jokes?"

"I'm not, I'm just lying here looking at the stars... Hey Fawkes, you see that eight?"

Darien rolled his eyes and let out another sigh. "Where, buddy?"

"Right there, next to the bright star." Hobbes said, pointing at the cluster.

"Yeah, I see... Wait, Hobbes, did you just... did you just point at the stars?"

"Yeah, so?"

"Well, how did you get your hands untied?"

"They never were tied." Hobbes replied, "When the Chrysalis agent went to tie your hands I put mine behind my back and when he turned to tie mine he thought that the other agent had already done it."

"You mean we've been here for two hours and the whole time your hands were untied?"

"Umm... Yeah."

Darien wanted to smack Hobbes, but he decided he'd do that later. "Well, aren't you gonna get these ropes off of me?"

"I can't, Fawkes."

"Why not?"

"Well, the agent tied my legs down."

"So why don't you just untie them? Your hands are free!" Darien said sarcastically.

"Oh." Hobbes replied, sitting up and untying his legs. He stood and stretched his arms and legs.

"Well?" Darien asked.

"Well what?"

"Aren't you gonna untie me?"

"Do you still think it is my fault that we got in this mess?"

"What does that have to do with it?"

"It has everything to do with it, my friend. If you think that it was my fault then I don't see any reason to untie you. You'd just look past the fact that if it weren't for me you'd be like an egg dropped from a ten story building in a few minutes."

"Hobbes, if it weren't for the fact that you pointed at the stars, we'd both be cream puffs in a few minutes."

"I had it all under control. I could have untied us at any time."

"Then why didn't you, oh great one?" Darien asked with a roll of his eyes.

"Because, you wouldn't stop blaming me for getting stuck here."

Darien heard the whistle on the train blow again as it got yet even closer. "Hobbes, I really think you should untie me now. That thing is not stopping for anyone and we can finish this conversation later."

Hobbes looked toward the direction of the noise and saw the lights of the train getting closer. "Yeah, I guess so." He reached down and started to untie the rope around Darien's feet, but one of the knots wouldn't come out.

"Hobbes, what's taking you so long?" Darien asked. A screeching sound from the wheels of the train let them both know that the engineer must have seen them because he was trying to stop.

"I'm trying, Fawkes. The knot won't come out!"

Darien turned his head to the right, watching the train advance; it was sixty seconds away, thirty, twenty-five."I'm gonna die here, Hobbes!"

Hobbes looked at the train moving toward them, then back at Darien. "You are not going to die here!" The knot came undone and Hobbes grabbed his partner by the shoulders, pulling him off of the track, using all his strength. The two men went flying backward, stumbling off of the tracks and onto their sides. Hobbes let out a labored breath as the train started to come to a full stop. He got up, shook off the dust, and spotted his partner. "See, what'd I tell ya?" Taking a step closer he grew concerned when Darien didn't move. "You okay there, buddy?"

"Does it look like I'm okay?"

Hobbes sighed with relief, his partner wasn't dead. "What happened?"

"I think you broke my arm."

"Me? I didn't break your arm, I saved your life."

"And broke my arm." The train finally came to a full stop and people rushed off of it. But not just any people, people from the Agency.

"Bobby, is everything okay? We got here as soon as we could!" Claire said, running over to the two men. She saw Darien and immediately started probing him for injuries.

"Umm, Keepy, do you think you could untie me?"

"Of course, Darien!" Claire replied, her British accent thick. She let the knots out.

"At least someone knows how to untie a knot." Darien said, rubbing one of his wrists. A spark of pain flashed through it.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Hobbes asked.

"You know what it means."

"Now wait, Fawkes... I tried my best!"

"Well, it almost wasn't good enough."

"Stop it, both of you! You're acting like children!" Claire said.

"He started it." Hobbes replied.

"No, he did." Darien said in his defense.

"Darien, what happened to your arm?"

"Hobbes broke it."

"I saved your life!"

"But you didn't have to break my arm!"

"It's not broken..." Claire said.

"What do you mean?"

Claire grabbed his arm and pulled as hard as she could, causing Darien to scream in pain.

"Ouch." Hobbes said, "That's gotta hurt."

"Why'd you do that!?!" Darien yelled.

"Because, your arm was dislocated."

"Well, it's not anymore." Hobbes stated with a snicker.

"You guys need any help? I thought I just heard someone scream." Alex said, joining the trio.

"Nope, we're fine." Hobbes replied. "So, you guys came on the train?"

"Yeah," Alex said, "the Official thought it'd be faster then driving through all this sand."

Hobbes nodded. "As soon as you're ready, Fawkes, I wanna get outta here."

They four started to walk toward the train. "It was still your fault." Darien said.

"Was not!"

"Was too!"

"Bloody hell." Claire said, "Would you two just shut up!"

"But it was his fault!" Darien complained.

"Was not!"

The End