Author: Pirate Turner
Especially Dedicated To: My beloved Jack; our sons Jackeesy and Spike Zorro; and all of our darling babies
For: My beloved Jack and our babies as part of their presents for Solstice/Christmas/Kitsmas
Rating: PG-13
Summary: Mater will always be Lightning's favorite Christmas present.
Warnings: Slash
Word Count: 619
Date Written: 24 December 2010
Disclaimer: Lightning, Mater, and Cars are & TM Disney, not the author; are used without permission; and may not be used without permission. Everything else is & TM the author. The author makes absolutely no profit off of this work of fan fiction, and no copyright infringement is intended.
The famous race car gazed at the pile of what, before now, he would have called junk, unable to think of a proper word for the shining objects placed before him. He sensed Matter's spirits dropping even before he frowned. "You don't like it," he lamented.
"No, no," Lightning quickly assured his love. He cast a quick, nervous glance at Mater, then looked back at the pile of cans and gave it a more scrutinizing look. "I'm just . . . trying . . . to . . . figureoutexactlywhatitis," he blurted at last.
"Silly!" Mater cried, a grin springing back to his frontal features. "You know exactly what it is!" he exclaimed, sticking out his tongue and chuckling.
"Of course I do," Lightning quickly amended. "I just want to know if you do."
Mater laughed more loudly. "'Course I do!" He whistled. "I'm the chief one who made all those there Rusteeze cans to look like you! Why, shucks, if it wan't fer me, the boys wouldn't have ever come up wit' it on their own!"
Lightning's wipers raised in surprise, and he looked again at the pile of old cans that had been spray painted a shade of red that truly did glisten though nowhere nearly as brightly as his own professional paint job. Mater caught his look and sighed, his proud grin dropping instantly back into a dejected frown. "You don't like it."
"No, no, I do!" Lightning cried. He zoomed closer to him. "Mater, I love it, because you made it for me! I'd love anything you gave me!" He could see, from the glow in Mater's headlights, that the tow truck who owned his heart was beginning to understand what he wasn't saying, and Lightning whirled to face him. "I'd love any present you gave me," he declared quickly, "because I love you!" Then he kissed him.
Mater slid back just a pace and looked bashfully shy. "Aw, shucks," he said, grinning. One of his tires spun in place, but then he looked at his best friend and sweetest, most radical love with just a pinch of doubt left in his windshield. "Ya really do like it, Lightning?"
"Of course!" Lightning assured him. He rewarded his sweetheart with his most brilliant smile and managed to resist the urge to call, "Kachow!", though just barely. "I love you!"
"I love you too!" Mater spoke shyly, his enormous smile causing his grilless hood to sparkle as brightly as if he himself had had a brand new paint job, which was the exact present Lightning planned on slipping into his garage a little later that Christmas Eve. "Merry Christmas, Lightning!"
"Merry Christmas, Mater!" Lightning assured. He then began to kiss him swiftly and heatedly again and again, backing him slowly but surely into the cone they shared and hoping, in the back of his processor, that Mater would somehow forget all about the pile of his treasured Rusteeze. If he could get him to forget about it, Lightning could hide the Rusteeze away forever, but even if he covered up his well-meaning presents, he would never hide his love from or for the little truck who possessed his heart and made his engine vroom!
"Merry Christmas!" he exclaimed gaily once more and then, with the hottest kiss of all, backed him all the way into their cone and hit his tire upon the button that closed their door to the whole, wide world. His favorite Christmas presents to and from Mater would always be the ones that nobody else saw and the very ones that had finally made his previously lonesome life far more than worth living again. Their cone vibrated with joyous carols all their own as they rang in their favorite holiday.
The End