Title: Miracles Happen

Author: Growly

Fandom: Holes

Pairing: Stanley/Zero

Rating: PG

Disclaimer: Holes does not belong to me. It belongs to Louis Sachar and probably Walt Disney Studios as well.

Archive: Always!

Feedback: Welcome! sesshou_maru@yahoo.com

Flames: I'd rather not get these, really.

Warnings: Um. mild slashiness between teenaged boys. REALLY mild.

Notes: This was inspired by the song "Miracles Happen" which also doesn't belong to me.


Miracles Happen
by Growly
~ * ~

Stanley laughed softly. He was lying on his back staring at the ceiling and the sudden mirth that sprang from his throat was enough to startle Zero, who was sitting on the edge of the bed watching TV. Dark eyes focused on the older teen.

"What's so funny?"

The formerly cursed youth waved a hand at his friend, then made a gesture towards the rest of the room. "All of this. Me. You." There was a soft click as the TV turned off and Zero crawled up on the bed to sit close enough that he could stare down at Stanley questioningly as the other boy continued speaking, "I mean, just a month ago we were out in the desert digging holes and now we're both rich.' Stanley mused, "Before I went to Camp Greenlake, I didn't even HAVE any friends. Now I have a huge house, a fortune and a best friend and it's all because of a pair of smelly, old sneakers."

Zero grinned, "Stranger things have happened." Stanley couldn't help but think Zero should smile more often - it was the sort of smile that would make anyone else who saw it feel like grinning too. A smile like a Halloween jack-o-lantern.

"True. And to my family, especially." He sighed and mumbled the words to his family's song, softly. "If only, if only, the woodpecker sighs- "

The smaller boy jumped in unexpectedly, his voice high and solemn, "The bark on the tree was as soft as the skies."

Stanley paused, glancing askance at his best friend. "It still surprises me that you know it. I always thought it was a joke - the curse, I mean. And then I met you and I had to wonder."

At this, Zero sat up straight and intoned in a mock-serious, officious voice, "If you forget to come back for Madame Zeroni, you and your family will be cursed for always and eternity."

"Oh, no you don't! No more curse for me, thank you!" Stanley grabbed hold of Zero and flipped him over, tickling him mercilessly. The smaller boy didn't last long before breaking into peals of laughter that delighted his older friend. Zero's attempts to wriggle free and tickle Stanley back were obviously futile.

When at last Stanly released his struggling friend, he couldn't help but add - on whatever odd, fleeting impulse - "Besides, I came after you in the desert. After you hit Pendanski in the head with that shovel." He shook his head wryly, although whether at the memory of the counselor's face after coming to, or his own actions, it was impossible to tell. "I must have been crazy to do it. The heat fried my brain."

"I'll say." Zero snorted softly in good humor, "Drove the water truck into a hole. it figures." He sighed and flopped out on the bed on his belly. Resting his head on one arm, he looked at Stanley.

The larger boy sat up, leaning one elbow on Zero's back. "Hey, you make a good armrest, Hector." When the brown-skinned teen wriggled beneath him, he put the weight of his entire upper body on Zero, pinning him in place. "Good pillow, too." After a few moments of annoying his squirming friend, he sat back up.

Zero sat up too, looking rumpled and more than a little bit squashed. Using both hands, he tried to get his hair back into some semblance of order and failed. He looked at Stanley, dark eyes contemplative. "So, why did you come out and look for me anyway?"

A slight flush crossed the larger youth's cheeks. "Well, it was sort of my fault. Letting you dig part of my hole for me. I could have taught you to read without that. Heck, you were willing to learn to read after digging holes all day. I guess it was sort of selfish of me." He ran a hand through his chestnut curls. "And you're my best friend. I couldn't have just left you out there to die."

Zero seed sobered, "I wasn't afraid."

"I was! I kept having nightmares about you all alone in the desert. I thought you were dead when I first saw you under that boat. and then you moved. I've never been so relieved in my life."

Both boys just kind of looked at each other, their gazes locked for a long moment and their expressions solemn as they thought about the experience.

"And then I had to carry you up that blasted mountain," Stanley mumbled, averting his gaze. "Never carried something as big as you that far before. Not even close. But it was really easy. coming down was harder. That time I brought you up, it was like you weighed nothing. Or maybe like some kind of invisible magnet was drawing us up."

"The curse." Zero crossed his arms briefly, as if those two words explained everything. Then he uncrossed them and stretched like a lazy cat - long and languid.

"Maybe."

Zero yawned. "And Sploosh, and onions and God's Thumb." He flopped back onto Stanley's bed. "You can watch the TV now. I'm gonna take a nap."

Stanley continued to look down at his drowsy friend, faint hints of a smile playing about his lips. "You're not going back to your house?"

"It's the curse. You're stuck with me now."

As Zero finally dozed off, Stanley let that faint smile broaden. Although he did not yet dare to reach down and ruffle Zero's soft, fluffy hair, he did rest his hand lightly on his friend's shoulder. "Curse? Maybe." Blessing might have been a better term, he thought wryly, or a small miracle even. Certainly he had come out of it so much richer than he had gone in. And not just in money.
Softly he sang to Hector.

If only, if only the woodpecker sighs
The bark on the tree was as soft as the skies
The wolf waits below, hungry and lonely
Cries out to the moon:
If only, if only.



*fin*