nothing lives more rent free in my head than salqueen.
think of this. lightning wins his first championship. in victory lane, there are cameras and microphones in his face and he’s being asked questions of all sorts; hes only scanning the crowd for one person.
he wants to celebrate this with sally, he NEEDS to celebrate this with sally, and when his eyes finally land on her, squeezing through the crowd to try and get to him, he waits until shes right at the side of his car with his championship shirt in one hand, marker in the other, pretending to be a fan asking for an autograph. he doesnt hesitate, though, he grabs her hand and pulls up, and she gets the hint and scales the car. with absolutely ZERO thought, he dips her and kisses her, and theyre stood in victory lane with confetti falling around them, champagne in his hair, and the love of his life in his arms.
theres a photographer somewhere in the crowd; they catch that scene. the darkness of the sky behind them, the stadium lights being one of the only light sources around, and they catch each piece of confetti in that lens, every person in the crowd, all of the reporters that have backed away to give whoever was photographer the Perfect scene. they capture perhaps one of the most iconic victory pictures to date; the youngest piston cup driver to ever win a cup kissing his girlfriend right after his big win.
its in the RSN magazine, any sports magazine to be frank, and its probably one of their favourite pictures of all time. lightning really wishes he could thank that photographer.