Whoohoo! this is the sort-of-sequel to Crashes and Crushes, though I will barely refer to that. But I have watched Cars 2 with yaoi goggles on, and if you ask me, Francesco is flirting with McQueen the whole movie long, and Lightning in the end starts flirting back, so well, if you don't like that thought, you'd better stop here, or around chapter 4 when Francesco will walk up to the scene :3

This fic is set in Radiator Springs, just before the grand prix will take place, so it's after the whole espionage act in London and all that shit, but just before the end of the movie. the rest will explain itself. It'll take a few chapters before the set up of the race is ready, as of now, I expect Francesco to come in around the end of Chapter 3 or even at Chapter 4.

Picture NOT by me, but from www. pixiv. net [/] member. php? id=1119588 (and take away the [ ] of course, stupid fanfic guidelines on urls)


It had been some time since the race in London had took place, all of the grand prix racers have had some time to restore from the tiring season. All of them had spent weeks to do fun things with their family and friends, to lay down the work a little. Everyone was relaxing, everyone except for the Red, American racing legend, Lightning McQueen. Unlike others, his agenda was more filled than ever.

"Really, why don't you let us help you with all of this work? We know you have the most horsepowers here, you don't need to prove that by stressing yourself out, Stickers. We're all getting worried about you..." Sally was pounding the locked door of Lightning's room inside his own headquarters which was finished just before his last racing season had begun. The folks who had stayed in Radiator springs as he was busy winning the Piston Cup, which now had his mentor's name in it, had made it more private while he was gone, putting some pictures on the wall, filling some shelves with personal belongings and placing some plants around the place. Lightning's office was filled with posters mostly featuring either himself or doc Hudson and a whole bunch of spam. The fact he had his own office didn't change the fact that he was laidback and that tidy wasn't part of his dictionary.

Lightning's eyes flashed to an empty spot which had been reserved for the grand prix cup, but due to the events with allinol and Axelrod and all that espionage the cup was never ... Of course, Axelrod had been thrown in jail, and the cup was his. Even if they would have given the cup out in the end, Lightning probably wouldn't have received it, given the fact he had been pulled off the racing track by Mater.

With a loud sigh his head dropped onto his desk. He opened his voice controlled door for Sally who directly stormed in, all those voice activated devices these days. "Hey, and why don't I have any control over that door? I don't want you to lock yourself. Or wait, I know a better one, now I can't surprise you with some food and drinks when you fall asleep in the afternoon. What about that stickers?" she ran her hand softly through his blonde wild hair.

"That was a good one indeed, Sal, but I don't think I'll lock-" he heard the door close automatically as had said Lock, "Damn, unlock, you stupid door- well what I was saying, I'm just busy now, and I'm really taking a long time off after this race, I promise!" he tried to sound cheerful, but the maps falling from his office were getting him highly annoyed and stressed. "uhm, I know how we can make stuff up, I think I can take you out for dinner, so we can make up for my business at day!"

Sally knew it wouldn't be a good plan, as Lightning was behind on his schedule. "Have you finished the laps already?" she asked, to which Lightning shook his head as he turned back to the maps. He was planning out the laps for the revenge race here in Radiator springs which was due in less than 2 weeks. Within a week, the first racers would already arrive in Radiator springs, but Lighting was far from done. He put a lot of afford in trying to keep the race as fair as he could. If he wanted to he could make the course ideal for him, but what fun was that?

Sally pulled away some papers and looked at the potential laps. "You know what stickers? These are all going to Sheriff, Sarge, Luigi, Guido and Flo." She waved some paperwork which mostly consisted out of drabbles about the amount of spectators, but also stuff on the technical parts like the build of the track, as great parts of the track were on normal streets which needed to be turned into a safe racing course.

"I don't have the track yet Sally!" Lightning yelled as he jumped off his chair to get the papers back. Papers worked better for him than online documents, as he would get distracted by the alluring contents of the internet itself. But in this case a digital model of the track might have been a good idea. Sally persuaded the young racer to come over to have something to drink at Flo's while they could discuss the differences in the tracks, which indeed turned out to be more difficult than they first thought. The whole town was asked about which would be the right idea. The dilemma was in the end, whether or not to lap past the waterfall. The road and scenery were both amazing and exciting, but Lightning feared it would be too dangerous to get 11 racers who drove over 150 miles per hour across a bridge which might be slippery. It did disappoint Lightning a little too, as he really looked forward to getting everyone across is 'home', but to make up for it, he decided to still do one lap there after the race itself, just for the fun of it.

By the fall of the evening, they were all done. The track had been set, everyone's task for the rest of the week was clear and it seemed like everything would fall into place before Jeff Gorvette, the other American racer, would arrive. As he was the closest located, on the other side of America nearly, but he was closest. Lightning advised him to just drive down route 66 by himself completely, which Jeff without any doubt did after hearing Lightning telling stories about the road. Jeff said he would arrive one week before the race, so that would be Monday. Lightning hoped he would do fine, as Jeff seemed to take Lightning's suggestion of driving there himself really serious. Lightning just hoped his friend would be smart enough to still drive together with his pit crew. He thought he heard Lewis saying he wanted to tag along with Jeff along route 66, but he wasn't entirely sure about the Brit's decision.

What Lightning did know, was that Francesco would arrive the very next morning after Jeff. It had surprised Lightning to hear Francesco was cutting on his private time at home with his mother to get to Radiator springs earlier. Lightning expected that he just wanted to train as soon as he could, because it was obvious there would be some sharp turns, dirt sections and probably even sharp turns on dirt, which was a great disadvantage for Francesco in the Race. The Italian formula was dramatic on dirt, though Lightning was skeptical if training could help him. Francesco's car was simply not built for dirt and turns. But on the other hand, Lightning was looking greatly forward to laugh at Francesco when he would fall in the cacti, because he would. The only one who would be able to make that turn without any practice was the French rally car, Raoul –who also insisted to arrive relatively early for some practice and fun with Lightning himself – and maybe the German Touring race car, Max Schnell too if he would pay great attention to what he. So it was probably smart that most cars arrived early. There was no need to train extremely well, as the race would be just for fun, but nobody completely trusted the new dirt-driving-legend Lightning McQueen. Just in the same way they wouldn't trust Raoul organizing a race on his home track.


Just warning y'all, I am going to write another cars fic meanwhile (and to be original, it'll be more FrancescoxLightning(/SHAMELESS SELF ADVERTISEMENT)) for Christmas, and since that shit DOES have a deadline, that fic might get priority, so my updates might be delayed (chapter 2 is already finished, don't worry, but for 3, 4 and maybe 5 it'll be a lag)