A/N: Just a little one-shot I wrote before I start with my CWACOM fanfics. This one-shot is set between the disconnection of the FLDSMDFR and when Flint 'throws himself away' (in the movie). Was listening to "Set Fire to the Rain" by Adele while writing this. I hope you guys like this one-shot. I'm happy to return to writing for CWACOM again =)
Flint's POV
I stared at the computer screens that flashed at me with their white lettered words 'ERROR: CONNECTION LOST. KILL CODE NOT SENT' playing across them. They blinked on and off and set off this annoying pixilated beeping noise. My eyes closed tightly as I leaned myself forward on the desktop. Heaving in a sigh, I didn't really know what words would escape out of my mouth next.
But there was anger. Maybe I haven't felt anger this great before, so it was a new feeling to me. Yes, I had felt angry before. When I found out that my own father didn't care for who I really was.
This was me. I was an inventor and will always be one. Nothing will change that. Not even this feeling that flowed through my body.
I listened to the sounds around me and my hands tightened over the edge of the desktop. Why hadn't I listened to my father? To Sam? WHY? I want to ask myself right now. WHY? Maybe it was because I didn't really see, but fame wasn't everything. I know. I know that people started looking at me for once and even respected me. They did.
Except all they really cared about, was the machine. I still think that they saw me for who I had been all this time. Even when they had been chanting my name, even if it seemed that they all cared for me.
They didn't. It was the FLDSMDFR. They were just happy that it was raining food.
Suddenly I heard someone suck in their breath behind me.
The anger returned and I opened my eyes.
"Leave. Go fall into some hole and rot there. Go die." I replied through clenched teeth.
Nothing in the room moved. All I heard was Steve whimper from somewhere.
"I SAID LEAVE!" I shouted and fell back into my swivel chair.
After those words left my lips, I heard the Mayor wheel back slowly.
"I will return, Flint." I heard the icy, cold voice of him as he left the room.
Confused, I spun around and saw no one there. Where had that coldness come from? Well I guess it's good he's gone. But it scared me to think that one day he will return. I seriously hoped not. I just hoped he fell into a hole or into the ocean. The ocean sounded better. He could drown there.
Biting my lip, I slid out of my chair and onto the floor.
Even if he was gone, the machine wasn't. The Danger-o-meter's arrow had crossed into the red zone. The FLDSMDFR would destroy the world and it would be all my fault. Who knew, they might throw me into jail. I'll be the one rotting there.
"Steve?" I looked over at the monkey; who sat huddled under the table.
Steve crawled out and came over to me. The monkey glanced around nervously and then up at me with wide orange eyes. He took my hand that lay on my lap and held it.
No. If this was what it came down to: me sitting on the floor with my best friend gripping my hand, then I think it was over. There was nothing I could really do. The world would be destroyed by food, people will die and my name will stand out. That I was the one that brought the world to an end.
I never wanted this. I wanted my name to stand because I was a great and brilliant inventor.
Something warm and wet slid out of my left eye and the right eye mirrored. Tears? I was crying. They trickled slowly out of my eyes and fell freely down my face. When they splashed onto my lap and some onto my hand that Steve gripped, Steve looked up at me and frowned.
"Flint, sad?" Steve whispered.
I didn't say anything. Just gave a small nod and picked up Steve. I set him on my right shoulder and slowly got to my feet.
My own feet carried me across the room to my wall of posters. As my eyes scanned each poster, I bit down on lip harder to prevent tears from coming. I had believed that one day I will be as cool and awesome like Tesla, Farnsworth, Edison, and all those others. That one day some kids will have posters of me on their walls and maybe remember that I was a great inventor too.
The very second I saw that poster I drew back when I was 8, I thought of my mother. Her wild curly brown hair that she kept back with a blue headband and her wide blue eyes that twinkled warmly when she looked at me. How she had that dimpled smile and that soft laugh. I even remember how she loved the color orange so much.
Really that was why the FLDSMDFR was half orange and half white. I had thought of her when making that machine. How proud she would have been if she were alive today.
Then I reached for my lab coat to hug it to myself. My lab coat was all I had left of her and it always made me feel a lot better.
Gasping, I realized it wasn't there.
"My lab coat…" my face went pale and I remembered that I had lost it while falling out of the Spaghetti Tornado.
So it was gone. I leaned my back against the wall and felt Steve curl up on my shoulder. He was missing the lab coat too.
Fran and Tim walked down the hallway and both heard Flint struggling with something in his room. Fran frowned and looked up at Tim. He sighed and shook his head.
"I don't think his invention went too well. The poor thing." Fran frowned.
"Well, it, uh, happens." Tim looked down at his feet nervously.
"I know, but it's his first invention!" Fran cried out in a whisper, so that Flint didn't hear anything.
Tim nodded and then stopped walking. Fran stopped too. Both looked at each other and finally Fran sighed.
"Well, okay. I got him this lab coat today. It's a little big, but I'm sure he'll love it." Fran smiled and showed him a lab coat she had been holding in her hand.
Tim's eyes widened. He wondered where Fran got a lab coat. But then he smiled.
"So where'd you, uh, get the lab coat?" Tim asked and crossed him arms over his chest. He KNEW where Fran got it, but couldn't help but ask.
"Oh, you know! Only scientists or inventors will be seen wearing lab coats. So I got this from one. But well that so called scientist is supposedly dead. Well, disappeared actually. But that's not important. Let's go." Fran took Tim's arm and led him down the hallway.
They reach Flint's door and Fran gestured for Tim to speak.
"Uh, not every sardine is meant to swim, son." Tim replied with a sigh.
There was a silence and then Flint cried out, "I don't understand fishing metaphors!"
There was the sound of a bed creaking and both parents imagined their son flopping down onto his bed. Suddenly a muffled sob escaped from his room and worried Tim glanced at Fran.
"What did I say?" he furrowed his eyebrows worriedly.
"Don't worry." Fran patted him on the shoulder and hid the lab coat into her fist.
She opened the door to his room and walked in. Flint was sobbing into his pillow.
She hated seeing her son this way. It just broke her heart, how his first invention had turned out bad and how Flint was crying in front of her.
"Honey, I think your shoes are wonderful." She replied with a smile and flicked the light switch next to the door.
She entered the room and made sure Flint wasn't looking. She laid the lab coat on the bed quickly and sat down, so it was behind her back. The bed creaked when she sat down and Flint's sobbing stopped. He sniffed.
"Everyone just thinks I'm a weirdo." He said as his voice muffled into the pillow.
Fran took in a deep breath and looked down at her son. She then looked left at Flint's wall. Many posters covered the wall. Flint looked up to these people. She always caught him staring at the posters for hours.
"So? People probably thought that these guys were weirdos too! But that never stopped them," she told him with a smile, "I was saving this for your birthday, but, here..."
Fran brought the lab coat out from behind her and held it up for Flint to see. As the lab-coat's shadow fell over Flint, he lifted his head from the pillow and looked up at it. His eyes glanced at it and they widened.
He hopped to his feet and gasped with a wide grin, "A professional-grade lab coat. Just like the real guys wear!"
Fran smiled and chuckled softly as she watched her son put it on. Even though it's too big for him, he looks up at his mother and grins even wider.
"It fits perfect!" Flint threw his hands up.
Fran smiled a little wider and watched him. She saw a lot of things when looking at Flint in that lab coat. He seemed to glow in it and she knew, just KNEW that he'd be a genius inventor one day.
"The world needs your originality, Flint. You just have to grow into it. And I know that you're gonna do big things someday." She said and her blue eyes searched her sons'.
Flint couldn't believe his own mother was saying such powerful words to him. He beamed and jumped into her arms. As he hugged her, she hugged him back and immediately Flint thought of himself differently.
The flashback swept away and my mom's words echoed in my mind. How the world needed me and my originality. So, I had brought my invention there.
Now I was a wreck. Lab coat was gone and I could barely think of myself as an inventor.
I reached out and patted Steve; who was on my shoulder. I patted him gently on the head and the monkey made noise which showed deep misery.
My feet carried me across my lab to my shelf, where I kept old blueprints, as well as my can of Spray-On-Shoes and bottle of Hair Un-Balder cream. I grabbed both and gripped them tightly in my hands as I began to make my way out of my lab.
The squeaking sound of my Spray-On- Shoes against my lab floor, made me glance down at my shoes and then at the dusty can in my hand. There was really nothing I could really say about them.
Once I reached my 'lab door' curtain, I just went through it and let the curtain wave over my head and then fall back into its position. At my elevator, I didn't even bother pressing the four buttons on the Simon that hung next to the elevator door. I just shoved the elevator door open and stepped inside.
Steve gripped my shoulder tightly as the elevator whooshed downward. In moments, we hit ground floor and the kicked the Port-A-Potty door open and stepping into his backyard.
The first thing he did was look up at the sky. It was a deep orange color with the sound of thunder in the distance. His heart began to hammer out of his chest as he stared at the sky. For some reason it made him think of Sam.
He hoped she was okay. Her and Manny, but mostly her. He thought back to how she almost kissed him in the Jell-O Dome and how they she was just saying how she never met anyone like him and all that. He remembered how his heart had been beating louder and louder with each passing second he sat there with her. It was love. He was actually in love with someone.
There was a whizzing sound in his mind, like someone pressing Fast-Forward. He and Sam stood behind the stage. She had been trying to explain to him about how disaster was on its way. He hadn't listened.
Why had I been acting like such a jerk?
Flint immediately looked away from the thundering orange sky and then around his backyard. He spotted a couple of garbage can standing a little away from where he stood now.
No one needs me. I can't stay here anymore.
Slowly, I approached one of the cans and peeked inside. There were some random things on the bottom. At least there was room for me down there.
I raised Steve off my shoulder and set him onto the ground. He watched me curiously and his eyes narrowed as I began to swing both feet into the garbage can. Once I stood in the can, I opened my hands and the can of Spray-On-Shoes and the bottle of Hair Un-Balder cream rolled down to the bottom of the can.
Tears streamed down my face and raised both my hands to wipe them. Sniffing, I lowered myself down into the garbage can and curled up into a tight ball. More tears cascaded down my cheeks and off the bridge of my nose.
I just made things worse.
So I threw myself away.
A/N: *sigh* I felt so bad for Flint in that scene in the movie and this one-shot just showed what he was really thinking. I threw in that flashback because I thought it fit somehow. If you're curious about Flint's lab coat and where Fran got it and if you want to know more about Fran then you should read a fanfic I plan to post called "Whispered Memories". It's about Swallow Falls' past and what happened before Flint was born.
I hope you guys liked this one-shot.