Yin and Yang

Hutch’s sniping and ranting rarely amounted to much more than blowing off steam. Starsky had seen Hutch’s mean streak, and it was precarious at best. Starsky had been at the end of worse.

“Honestly, Starsky, I don’t know how it is that you can eat the way you do and still be in the kind of shape you’re in. We should be having to roll you around the streets.”

Starsky hummed and shrugged noncommittally. Hutch’s sniping and ranting rarely amounted to much more than blowing off steam. Starsky had seen Hutch’s mean streak, and it was precarious at best. Starsky had been at the end of worse.

Besides, Hutch could hardly be taken to task for his lack of experience. He’d had his share of hardships in life, that was certain, but he’d never had to live off Army rations, never had to endure (except by choice) a holiday that was missing the turkey with all the trimmings.

Starsky also firmly believed in allowing a man his vices, as long as those vices didn’t hurt anyone else and didn’t make a man so self-destructive that he couldn’t be pulled back from the brink. Junk food was relatively harmless, all things considered. As for Hutch, well, all of that bodily maintenance he was always so hipped about seemed an awful lot like some kind of obsession to Starsky. Maybe a lack of vices was a vice in its own right.

“So does that mean that you don’t want this other Twinkie?”

Hutch gave him a withering look.

“Suit yourself,” Starsky winked and crushed the wrapping in his hand, listening for a certain sound to overtake the crinkle of the cellophane-yep, there it was, Hutch bitching at him to hurry up as he stopped to deposit the wrapper in a trash can. His eyes darted back and forth, checking for traffic, as he savored the sweet flavor and creamy, spongey texture on his tongue, keeping one ear trained on Hutch’s tirade of “…if you treated your body like you treated your precious car….” He relished the give of the leather seats as much as the familiarity of his partner’s complaints. The sound of the engine as he started the car overtook Hutch’s voice for a moment, but it didn’t disrupt the perfect balance that Starsky had come to depend on.