#I'm just genuinely confused as to what the heck these scenes were supposed to be if dean is not bi | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

xnervouscircus · 1 year

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i didn't know if i was gonna bother watching shadow & bone s2 since general reviews were basically: "it's CRAP" but watched it on a whim this week and am mostly happy with it actually

preface that i only read the og grisha trilogy and haven't read the crow books or whatever the heck came next that i think starred nikolai? so i only vaguely remember the story of alina and co and know little to nothing about the jurda parem storyline and where it's going and who will be involved or at least was involved in the books

but man. just from the perspective of someone who was immensely displeased with the ending of the grisha trilogy: I LOVE THIS ENDING. they fixed my biggest beefs with the og ending, and up until the very last scene i was like "ah still a shame alina never went darkside though" aND THEN THEY WENT AND SAID "BITCH SHE MIGHT" HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA I LOVE IT

in the books i haaaaated the implication that mal and alina were only together bc of ~destiny~ and they were only drawn to each other by the firebird power and even after knowing that, they didn't question it at all and were just like, "welp the universe tossed us together so guess this is it for us huh." so not only do i love show!mal more in general--they fixed up his personality so much and made me actually mostly like malina--but i wanted to kiss him on the mouth for being the one to bring up the whole destiny thing and give themselves a chance to figure out who they are without it. and i wanted to kiss alina on the mouth for accepting and understanding it. i would absolutely not hate malina being endgame in this universe the way i hated it in the books.

though i'm confused if alina is still engaged to nikolai now? she gave the ring back to him a while ago so i figured that was the end of it, but at the end the apparat made it sound like the betrothal was still on, and alina was wearing that very elaborate tiara/crown and stood beside nikolai at his coronation so. nikolina still possible?

though i will say that i really didn't feel any chemistry between them in the show and they were portrayed much more as friends than potential love interests. honestly i loved it. love triangles are exhausting enough, having to deal with 3 potential love interests in the trilogy was just. blaaaargh. as much as i loved nikolina in the books, i was kind of happy that i felt nothing for them in the show and it seemed like i wasn't supposed to. they really just came across as allies doing their best for the country, friends at most. there were a few moments that kiiiiind of came across as potential romance, but there was nothing to make me be like "fuck yeah nikolina." since they made mal 2.0 so much better, i genuinely enjoyed not seeing nikolai as legitimate love interest material lmao. but i could be into it in the future if there's a s3 and they decide to go that route.

i was worried the condensed storyline would be crap since i knew they were apparently putting all of books 2 & 3 into this season, alongside whatever the crows would be doing, but it worked so much better than what i vaguely remember of the books. book 3 was pretty much all meaningless page filler of the group being trapped underground and then going on a completely pointless hike to look for the firebird, so i'm glad they cut all that out. i liked the addition of the blade, if only to expand the world more and show us another living saint--go be besties with her alina. and really the best parts of both s1 and s2 were the crows. sorry i haven't read your books guys but y'all are the best. i fuckign love inej and nina and of course my gay little heart was so very happy with jesper and wylan and wesper.

(i do mostly like kaz, he's clever and witty and really cares about his crows, but sometimes he's just a bit too edgelord for me. i kinda like kanej but at the same time i think inej deserves a hell of a lot of happiness and kanej is just all angst all the time and after 2 full seasons of it i'm kinda over it lol. i was honestly super into that extremely brief hint of . . . inya? tolej? lmao. but yeah tolya/inej honestly sounds amazing to me. ofc i hope kaz can deal with his trauma and be more open--not even in regards to touch necessarily, but just be less consumed with grief and revenge in general. but his whole life is shaped around it and inej has dealt with enough shit and i just want her to be able to laugh and have some genuine fun, ya know??)

it wasn't perfect, and a lot of the dialogue made me cringe (i'm still facepalming but also laughing over that one scene where some grisha girl started saying, "i'd hoped--" and seemed like she was just gonna say some bland thing like i'd hoped this would be over or even just i'd hoped i'd get to sleep in an actual bed tonight but the darkling interrupted her with this completely angsty and overdramatic monologue about hope LMAO CALM DOWN EDGELORD IT WASN'T THAT DEEP). but overall i thought it was good! s1 was better but s2 made a lot of improvements to the books and i appreciate that they were willing to deviate and take risks to try to make a better story.

what i loved the absolute most wasn't just that they changed her love story, i loved that they changed the entire ending of alina's story. because the trilogy ending for her was TRASH. a woman becomes the most powerful person in the world, comes to embrace and revel in her power, but her endgame love interest won't stop sulking about it so guess she's gotta lose all her power and suddenly want nothing more than a quiet life on a farm. LMAO WHAT. it was absolutely infuriating and still is almost 20 years later lmao. having her stay in the capital and plan to actually help the country she worked so hard and sacrificed so much to save makes infinitely more sense; sure, at the beginning of the trilogy she wished she wasn't grisha or the sun summoner, but she comes to love the power and the realization that she can save ravka with it. as far as i remember, once she embraces it, she never wishes it away again. so it just felt grossly unfeminist and lame to take her power away in the trilogy and pretend that actually she secretly desired being no one in the middle of nowhere just raising a bunch of orphans. nope, that was just not alina.

so i am LIVING for her still having her power (though i'm not sure if she's got all that fully amplified power or she's basically reset to pre-amplifiers power after destroying the fold? i wish they'd cleared that up) and continuing to follow her dream to reunite ravka and make a more peaceful world for the grisha, rather than just run away with her endgame boy ugh.

BUT WHAT I'M LIVING FOR THE MOST WAS WATCHING HER FINALLY DO THE CUT AND REVEAL THAT SHE'S GOT SHADOW MAGIC NOW AND RATHER THAN BEING SCARED OR DISGUSTED BY WHAT SHE'D DONE SHE WAS FUCKING RELISHING IT

DARKLINA LET'S FUCKING GOOOOOOOOO

(i just mean that in a dark alina sense, though i would not at all be opposed to the darkling coming back to life and making couple darklina a thing lmao)

do i believe they'll actually make her go anywhere near actually dark? no. do i believe her endgame boy will be anyone but mal? no. do i believe they won't ultimately have her story end the same as in the trilogy? not really tbh. but at least there's some possibility here and it could turn out really interesting, or at least more satisfying than the og trilogy.

so yeah i hope s3 gets the green light. at the very least, i'd definitely love to have more of the crows.

#shadow and bone #spoilers

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exovapor · 3 years

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I'm OBSESSED with your writing. Can you try.. Maybe, Donnie being a filthy boy being an 'stalker-ish' of his long time crush? Be checks their FB for new posts, saves every picture of them he finds? He doesn't mean to be a creep, feels guilty, but just doesn't know how to ask for more than friendship?

Good afternoon Anon. Here is my short story in relation to your ask.

I wasn't sure where you wanted me to take this, so I had to do a bit of guessing on my part. I hope this something like you were wanting.

I will admit that this ask was a bit of a struggle for me, not knowing a clear direction to take it outcome made me a little unsure of my writing and guessing abilities LOL. However, I will admit to crying along with the characters in this story more than once.

Thanks again for the ask and the initial compliment. I hope to continue to earn your favor in future posts.

· Stalker [noun]: 1a person who harasses or persecutes someone with unwanted and obsessive attention. 2a person who hunts game stealthily.

· Donnie stared at the definition on his one of his monitor screens while his various other screens were busy flashing receipts of files downloaded, text trail streams from your phone, notices of any social media post/update/like/heart/emoji, a GPS line grid of your routes today (overlayed over the routes you’d taken previously), and data search hits of anything and everything that pertained to you.

· At this point, the boy had literally every picture you had ever posted, anywhere, of yourself. In fact, he had all the pictures that other people posted of you in them. He had even gone through the effort of designing a face recognition program that picks you out of the background of total strangers’ pictures and, yeah, he had those in a file too.

· He has special file folders that compile things that you like, things you don’t like, things that make you happy, things that make you sad. He is your own personal Pinterest and you didn’t even know it… and maybe that is the part that keeps bothering him so much.

· He sits staring at that word and definition and chewing his bottom lip. True, he knows the word and the meaning, but he needed to LOOK at it, analyze it, mull it over in his guilt ridden brain.

· He just KNEW the word Stalker couldn’t apply to him.

· After all, he isn’t harassing or persecuting you, you don’t know! So, it isn’t necessarily ‘unwanted attention’. It is just…unknown attention.

· Stealthily, hmmmm, did that part apply to him? Well, He isn’t EXACTLY being stealthy.

· If you knew about technology like him, then you would probably see his programs running on your devices and be alerted to his activities. AND, if you shared his love and view of technology, then you would probably be more understanding of his activities and not consider them stealthy…just data mining. In fact, you might applaud him.

· ‘Ok, that was taking it a bit too far’, Donnie thinks to himself and he feels a band tighten and squeeze around his infatuated heart.

· He is almost certain that you would be shocked to learn of his extra curricular activities and how they revolve around every aspect of you.

· Regardless of how he tried to spin the truth and wiggle out of the definition of stalker, Donnie still felt guilty for invading your privacy. However, he honestly couldn’t help himself…at least not anymore.

· He has fought the urge, the nagging thoughts and the burning need, to know more about you for what seemed like an eternity.

· Listen to him, he is starting to sound dramatic like Mikey! What is his turning into? He is losing his rational edge!

· To be accurate, it hasn’t been an eternity. In fact, he has known you 1 year, 36 days, 14 hours, 11 minutes, and 23 seconds to be exact. However, you started occupying space in his mind 2 minutes into meeting you and your claim over his mind has grown exponentially over time.

· You were quiet and reserved during that first meeting, so there wasn’t much to go on. It started as a simple visual interest with a thought of ‘Oh. She’s pretty’.

· However, then you started talking and that changed everything.

· You opened up more and more each time you hung out with their little group, revealing layers and layers of interests and personality. You were fascinating…and that’s when his thoughts about you really started to snowball and spiral out of control.

· You went from being a simple pretty face to being a walking embodiment of everything he seriously ever dreamed of having in a mate.

· Early on, there were three sticking points that really made Donnie’s feelings problematic. 1. He was a nearly seven foot tall walking talking turtle and you weren’t. 2. You had a boyfriend that you were deeply in love with and adored. 3. Donnie was too insecure about #1 and how you felt about inter-species dating to let you know that you had started to OWN his heart.

· Now, thanks to his surveillance, there were only two sticking points….#1 and #3.

· He still remembers the feelings of that day, 44 days ago, when the blip of information popped up on this screen alerting him to the fact that your boyfriend was starting to stray.

· Donnie had severely conflicting feelings bombard him at once and it was overwhelming.

· The initial knee jerk reaction was elation, one of the problems blocking him from you may soon be null.

· However, the feeling of elation only lasted for a second or two before the intense anger and sadness set in. Donnie was honestly shocked at the depth of his anger, he didn’t even know he had that level of malice in him. Had he been in physical proximity to your boyfriend at that moment in time, Donnie isn’t sure that he wouldn’t have hurt your guy…or worse.

· How COULD this guy do this? WHY would he? He HAD YOU! What the heck was this guy thinking? Not only did he have you, but you thought the world of him. When you spoke about him you would smile so genuinely, your eyes would shine and gaze off into a bright imagined future. Donnie was always so jealous to watch it happen, he wondered what it would be like to be THAT GUY. And here the idiot was throwing it all away and meeting up with another girl!

· WHAT THE…(yes, this called for a curse) HELL…IS WRONG WITH HUMAN MEN?

· As the anger set root in his heart, the sadness engulfed Donnie like an all-consuming wave. He realized he was going to have to share this information with you, somehow, and that he was going to have to watch as it destroyed you.

· At first, Donnie had a plan to try and save you both from that fate. True, it would hurt him more to save your relationship, but he would rather be the one facing the pain and not you.

· He TRIED to circumvent the situation. He sent anonymous messages to your boyfriend stating that he knew about the infidelity and that he would tell you if needed. However, it didn’t seem like your boyfriend cared because he sent messages back stating Donnie could, basically, go fuck himself.

· Life had cruel sense of irony, thought Donnie, that is exactly what I do since this moron has the woman that I love.

· So, after trying for nearly two weeks to stop what was happening behind your back, Donnie had no choice but to let you in on the secret.

· Donnie couldn’t come right out and tell you that he caught your boyfriend cheating by hijacking your data streams and the data streams of those around you. So, Donnie intercepted some texts between your boyfriend and his mistress and he then sent you a text, under the guise of your boyfriend, telling you to meet him at a specified restaurant for a date.

· It had been a gut wrenching night for Donnie. He remembered watching it all play out on camera feeds from around the restaurant and street outside. He watched you dressed up in your pretty dress get out of your cab in front of the restaurant. You had such a lovely smile on your face, you must have thought you were in for a romantic evening.

· He watched as you walked inside and how the hostess got flustered and confused by a 2nd girl showing up for your boyfriend’s seated-for-two table.

· Donnie stopped breathing as your eyes found the new couple holding hands and giving each other sweet kisses across the table. Hands and lips that were supposed to be yours were touching some stranger.

· Donnie watched your smile and eyes die…the light of your inner sun go out…

· …and it killed him.

· He’s not sure who was crying the hardest, you standing there in that restaurant witnessing the scene or him back at the lair watching your world crush around you on his monitor.

· It had taken a while for you both to recover from that night.

· His brothers noticed his melancholy mood for a couple of weeks but Donnie wouldn’t tell them what was bothering him. And you stayed in your bed, refusing to face the world, for nearly as long.

· Eventually, the group began to notice your silence and absence, so April stopped by your apartment to check on you. She was the one to pull you out of bed, get you to shower and eat. She visited everyday and made sure you had someone to vent to and a shoulder to cry on.

· Donnie was glad that April could be there for you when he couldn’t. He didn’t think it was appropriate for him, a male, to be your confidant at that time. Especially since he felt so much guilt over having to be the one to expose you to that pain.

· No, he didn’t CAUSE the pain, but he did have to make you face it and he didn’t like not being able to protect you from it. You were such a rare, precious creature and watching you in pain felt like he was suffocating slowly.

· There were some points during those first few weeks that he questioned if he did the right thing, but logic told him it would have eventually come to pass with or without his involvement. It was better to rip the bandage of quickly and let you start to heal than it was to let you linger and drag out the inevitable.

· Donnie did secretly check on you every single night during patrol. And, of course, his surveillance feeds were always running. He watched from a distance as his beautiful phoenix burn down to ashes and, eventually, started to rise again.

· Now, it’s been over 3 months and you’ve begun to be more like your old self. Donnie can tell there is a silent sadness there, but you are able to laugh and smile with the group during your get togethers. And each time you two are left alone, his mind nags at him about those last two sticking points.

· Would you be at all interested in him? And HOW does he go about telling you that you have become the center of his world?

· Still staring at the monitor and the Stalker definition, Donnie sighs and rubs the bridge of his snout to release of the pressure now pushing against the inside of his head. The memories of what has happened, the emotions of what was and what is, it was all starting to be too much.

· “Bro, what’s all this?”, Mikey says standing behind Donnie’s chair, talking around a mouth full of pizza.

· “NOTHING!”, says Donnie, voice breaking from the stress of being caught. A startled Donnie quickly taps some keys on his keyboard and the screens revert back to the standard lair camera feeds.

· Mikey may look or even come off as naïve at times, but he’s no fool, he can sense that his older brother is trying to hide something. “Dude, seriously, what was that? I’ve been standing back here reading the screens. I saw Y/N’s name and that looked like her phone number on that other file…, you know the file that looks like texts messages. And why is there a plotted map of the area around her apartment, her work, and to the lair? What’s up?”, Mikey said giving a disapproving look at being thought a pushover.

· “Just standard surveillance, Mikey, nothing to worry about.”, Donnie says trying to placate Mikey’s curiosity. Donnie hates lying, especially to Mikey, but he’s feeling so guilty about being such a…(inward sigh)…stalking creep that admitting the truth is hard to do.

· Mikey stands there staring at Donnie and, as he does, Donnie begins to fidget with his computer chair armrests.

· Mikey stuffs the remnants of the pizza slice into his mouth and does his best Leo impersonation by crosses his arms and staring down at Donnie as sternly as his jolly face can achieve, “Dude, I’m not going to ask you again. You’ve been weird for months. We’ve let it go for the most part but now you are hiding things from me…from ME, dude! You and I, we’re like peanut butter and jelly, we’re ice cream and chocolate fudge, we young dudes have got to stick together. Trust me, bro, I’ve got you!”.

· Donnie stared at the floor, too ashamed to meet Mikey’s eyes any longer. He gave a heavy sigh and reluctantly started to speak, “Sorry Mike, I…I honestly don’t know what’s come over me lately. I’m doing things I never thought I would do, I’m feeling so guilty about it, but I don’t know if I can stop doing it either. I feel…lost.”.

· Mike relaxed his leader stance and leaned against one of Donnie’s lab tables, “Bro, I can tell you’ve been carrying some heavy stuff lately. You need to let it out.”

· Donnie felt the heat rise up through his body like he was suddenly being consumed by a fire and he ripped his glasses off his face and drew them down on the desk in frustration, “Mikey, I’m in love with Y/N. I have been for a while. I have been…”, Donnie hangs his head in shame, “…tracking all her digital foot prints and watching her. In fact, I’m the reason she found out that asshole boyfriend of her's cheated.”

· Mikey’s mouth drops open at Donnie’s demeanor and use of the word ‘asshole’, “Whoa, dude, why didn’t you say something earlier?”.

· Donnie can feel a stinging at the corners of his eyes, this was so embarrassing, so frustrating, so…..so many things at a once. He didn’t have a response for Mikey, all he could do was shake his head.

· Still with his head hung down and staring at the floor, Donnie starts to hear Mikey chuckle. Donnie looks up to see Mikey’s eyes on him and for some reason they are full of merriment at his painful dilemma. Donnie stares at his, normally, very considerate brother in astonishment, this isn’t like Mikey at all!

· “Mikey, I’m more than serious here, now is not the time to make fun of me. What is so funny?”, Donnie asks exasperatedly.

· Mikey shakes his bald head and claps his brother on the shoulder with his green hand, “Bro, she thinks you’re cute.”.

· “W-What?!”, Donnie stammers out.

· Mikey, still chuckling, says, “Yeah, dude, that’s why I asked WHY you didn’t say something about liking her sooner, she’s always thought you were cute. She and I talk about it all the time.”.

· Donnie just stares at his jolly brother in silence. His mind is too blown to form a sentence.

· Mikey turns to leave stating, “And by the way, dude, stop watching her like that…that’s just creepy.”.

@turtle-babe83 @tmntspidergirl @kokokatsworld @nittleboo @the-second-circle-of-shell

#tmnt donatello #tmnt #tmnt donnie #tmnt fanfiction #tmnt x reader #tmnt bayverse #tmnt 2016 #tmnt fandom

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thedandelion-writer · 3 years

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❝what is beautiful and what is not❞

Summary: Albedo just wants to know. Why is it that you called him that?

A/N: Hi. Just wanted to do something self indulgent to avoid burnout (gotta finished the event soon aaa). Though, sorry for the slow output for regular requests and such. Exams are over next week so I'll be writing a lot more! And yes this was inspired by this post. Anon, you have successfully made me Albedo brainrot \\\

"Albedo," you called out to him. "My arms are cramping."

"Don't move starlight, I'm almost finished."

You sighed, but lovingly. You focused on him as he peeked out from behind the canvas occasionally to get a better look at the details to ignore the numbing in your arms and neck

The lighting had been exceptional this morning, and when he saw this, Albedo insisted to paint you. Again.

Not that you mind though, it was really sweet of him to do so, and you always praised the outcome.

"And finished," Albedo turned the easel round for your view. "Is it to your liking?"

You were supposed to be looking at the painting, you knew, but you found your sights wandering to the painter instead.

Albedo ran a hand through his hair, which was still rather messy since he had just woken up from a late night of experimenting. A dash of white on his cheek, a white blouse that exposed his chest and a loosely buckled belt.

In contrast with his usual neat demeanor, you found his rather lax appearance right now quite charming.

So much so that you felt as if you were in a trance, because you unconsciously muttered the words,"...you're so beautiful."

"Oh?" Albedo looked at you with an expression of interest, combined with a light dusting of colour on his cheeks. "But beauty is subjective darling, I may not be to another."

You didn't even get the chance to be embarrassed. Because what the heck was that answer? Wouldn't your opinion, as his s/o matter more?

Your mouth opened to retort, defending your views, but the words caught in your throat as you felt the wood of the tip of a paintbrush meet your chin.

"Tell me, what is it that make me 'beautiful' in your eyes?"

Now it was your turn to blush, heart thumping so loudly you could hear it in your ears. It was not like him to fish for compliments. Albedo probably genuinely wanted to know.

"Well," you moved closer to him so that you were sitting on his thigh, fiddling with one of his buttons. "Your eyes look like the sun has just hit an icy lake."

"Mhm that would make a good scene indeed," he said,"do go on."

"Your hair is beautiful too, akin to spun gold," you twirled a lock of his hair, kissing it and admiring how his ears turned a slight red because of that.

In retaliation, Albedo nipped at your collarbone, making you stutter.

Although struggling to keep your voice stable, you continued,"also how hard working you are, your curiosity, determination and mind amongst other things...you're beautiful, Albedo."

At this point, you were full on flushed, burying your face in the crook of his neck. You wonder if he could feel your heart beat in this proximity.

"Hm, is that so?" you heard him say. "Fascinating."

"What?" you retracted to look at his face, a little confused by his answer. "You sound like someone who found something out, not someone who just received compliments!"

"Oh, but I did find something starlight," Albedo gestured for you to stand up so he could too. "You simply prompted me to finding out how different people can affect the results of "what is beautiful and what is not". You simply made me the subject and I am honoured."

He began buttoning up his shirt and straightening his hair.

"This would surely be a nice side-project to research on after my current workload is finished," Albedo proceeds to get ready for work, completely oblivious to your stunned self. "This might make for interesting discoveries on perspective. Both people and beauty are fickle, after all."

He finished his little ramble with a kiss you and a goodbye.

You sunk back onto the chair. "That's not...what I wanted to get out of this," you said to yourself.

Now alone, and probably late for your guarding shift, you let your fingers trace over the now-dry painting, disappointment and confusion quickly turning into a smile that spread across your face, "ah well, as long as he's happy."

#genshin impact #genshin impact x reader #genshin impact imagines #albedo x reader #albedo headcanons #albedo genshin impact #albedo imagines #albedo genshin impact x reader #albedo #first work for him :)#Lynn writes

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the-kings-tail-fin · 7 years

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Funny/ sad idea for the adoptive au like someone saying how cute little Monty is and what a great dad doc is etc and he just without thinking goes "oh I'm not his dad" and lightning looks at him in complete shock "your not?" And doc has to try and explain what he meant to an increasingly confused and upset Monty :)

Oh, man. The feels. Since the RS folks probably don’t know his real name, we’re gonna act like “Monty” never existed and he’s just been Lightning from the start, if that’s cool :)

“Thanks for the tune up, Doc.” the old Ford pickup truck extended his gratitude as the two of them exited Doc’s clinic. “Heck, if I didn’t live so far away, I’d ask to be a regular patient.”

“Glad I could help you out.” Doc wasn’t one for flattery, but he was satisfied that his services were still considered top notch by this traveler. “Next time though, make sure your timing’s right before you go ‘cross country, else you’ll end up with a knock.”

“I’ll remember tha- whoa!”

A tiny streak of red came zipping around the corner of the clinic from Doc’s garage and nearly ran into the pickup, only to oversteer at the last moment and drive directly into a nearby tumbleweed before coming to a stop.

“Kid, what did I tell you about watchin’ where you’re going?” Doc said with the slightest hint of amusement showing through his professional facade. “You gotta behave yourself when there’s company around.”

Lightning squirmed his way out of the loose bush and tuned to face Doc with a huge grin. He had a few twigs sticking out from his wheel wells and was covered in dust from veering off road. He didn’t seem to notice these inconveniences as he paraded up to the old Hudson and bounced up and down on his front tires once for emphatic effect.

“Twenty-five!” he exclaimed. “I hit twenty-five miles-hour!”

Doc chuckled and reached over to pull the sticks out from underneath the kid’s fenders and brush the dust off. “Did you, now? That’s a new record!” he commended. “Keep it up and you just might be a racer one day.”

Lighting revved his engine and started skidding around in circles, showing off to the traveler, who was still sitting beside Doc, watching the scene play out with amusement and adoration.

“Cute kid, Doc.” the Ford complimented him again. “You must be one heck of a father.”

“Oh, I’m not his father.” Doc corrected him, turning to face the road and guide his customer into the rest of town. “We all look after him here. How about you go get yourself something at Flo’s before you head out of town? Tell her it’s on me.”

“Shoot, thanks, man. I’ll make sure and tell everyone I meet that if they ever break down, they should do it near this town. I appreciate it.” the truck was genuinely humbled by the gesture.

Doc smiled and nodded as the truck cruised down towards the station. He then turned back towards his clinic, but stopped when he saw Lightning looking at him with confusion strung across his face.

“You’re not?” he asked, staring Doc straight in the eyes.

“Not wha- ?” Doc stopped mid thought as he realized what’d happened. “Oh.”

He looked down at the little red racecar and saw tears begin to well up across his windshield. Doc felt guilt wash over him as he thought about what it must sound like to a kid to hear their adoptive parent say they’re not actually who they appear to be.

“Do- do you not want me anymore?” Lightning’s voice grew smaller and shakier as he tried to fathom Doc not being his father.

“What?” Doc wasn’t prepared for such a cutting question. “No! I- I mean, of course I want to-”

He stuttered, trying to find the words to explain what he meant to the young child. Lightning looked almost scared, and started to slowly back away. Doc sighed and put on the most caring persona he could muster.

“Lightnin’, listen. I want to explain something to you. Will you come with me?” Doc asked him, driving towards his garage slowly.

Lightning hesitated and didn’t answer right away. If Doc wasn’t his father, did that mean he couldn’t trust him anymore? He looked up at the old blue car driving away before glancing at the rest of the town. Did that mean they weren’t family either? He suddenly felt very lonely.

“You comin’?” Doc called to him.

Lightning wanted so bad to follow him. He thought back on all the good times they’d had. A couple words couldn’t change all that, could they? Doc was still a good person, right? His curiosity got the best of him, and despite his sudden onset sniffles, followed Doc into his garage.

Once they were inside, Doc flipped on a few lights and shut the doors behind them so Lightning would feel more secured (and less likely to run out). Then he turned to face the shaky, emotional child.

“Kiddo, do you know what family is? What it means to be a part of a family?” Doc asked.

Lightning nodded almost immediately and blinked away a few tears. Doc sat in silence for a while, looking at him expectantly. Lightning realized he wanted a verbal answer and tried to swallow the rising sob in his throat.

“It’s when there’s a mom and dad car with kids. Sometimes there’s aunts and uncles and cousins and stuff too.” he answered to the best of the ability.

“Well, that’s one definition, kid.” Doc smiled at him, trying be as comforting as he could manage. “But a family can be a lot of different things. Did you know that members of a family don’t have to be directly related?”

That concept was new to Lightning, so he shook himself ‘no’. He always thought the mom and dad car were a married couple that decided one day they wanted to take care of a smaller car, so they went out and got one. But as he thought about that definition, he realized Doc wasn’t married, and if Doc was supposed to be his dad, then who was his mom? That line of reasoning didn’t make the least bit of sense.

“Sometimes a family can be what you just described.” Doc continued. “But sometimes, a family is a group of people that really care about each other and take care of each other. Take a look at the folks in town - they all live together in harmony and are there for each other, just like a traditional family. Does that make sense?”

Lightning frowned as he considered it, but nodded. “But how do they decide when to have kids if there’s no mom or dad?”

“Well, you see sometimes the kids just show up.” Doc explained as simply as possible. “That’s what happened with you. You came to us, and we took you in. We swore we’d never let anything bad happen to you, and that we’d love you and take care of you just like a regular family would. You see, family isn’t about sharing a last name or physical traits with someone else. It’s about the relationships and love you have for those around you. It’s about caring for and supporting those who you truly care about.

“When I told that truck I wasn’t your father, I meant I wasn’t your father in a hereditary sense. But you know what? I still consider you my son, and I love you as a son. I don’t have to be your physical father in order to be a dad for you, kid.”

That was a lot of information, but it all made sense. Lightning felt a little better, but it was going to be some time before he could reconcile this new definition and idea of family with what he’d always thought. He realized the townsfolk weren’t any different, even if they weren’t direct family. Nothing as he knew it would change with this knew knowledge other than his perspective.

“Can I still call you dad?” he asked a little timidly.

Doc looked down on him, noticed the tears had disappeared, and smiled. “Of course. You can call me whatever you want. Within reason, though!”

“Okay, dad.” Lightning smiled and immediately spun around to push through the double doors, ready to see the world in a new light.

#cars #lightning mcqueen #doc hudson #adoptive au

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