Timeline note: Set about a year after Sulley and Mike become a Scare team.

"Look at that, Sul, that's another full canister! You're in incredible form today!" Mike barely let Sulley close the door behind himself before babbling at him, but judging by the huge grin on his friend's face, he did not mind terribly much.

"Couldn't have done it without you!" he declared. The words were almost lost to Mike in all the ruckus their colleagues were making around them, but there was no mistaking the way Sulley was grabbing the top of his head as if to ruffle his non-existent hair.

"Now, really, Sul!" Mike scoffed, prying himself out of the grip to quickly attach a new canister to the Door Station; while it felt amazing to know how much his friend relied on him, the guy was not giving himself enough credit. "It's not just the training! You're a freaking natural!" Almost as an afterthought, he turned away and hurried over to the station to switch off the power to the door and call another one. "Besides, it wasn't just me, Waternoose trained you as well!"

"Not as much as you did," Sulley insisted, then halted. "But, yeah, that helped a lot, too. There were a few completely amazing Scares I've never seen in any textbook. Really, you should have come along."

Mike flinched, and he hoped dearly that his friend had not noticed. "I wasn't invited, Sul," he pointed out, keeping his voice as level as he could. "Waternoose wanted to train you, not both of us. There's no point in training assistants." The truth was, he would have given anything for a personal training session with a former Scarer. Well, technically, Professor Knight had been just that, but he had never given any of his students one-on-one lessons. Still, it was exactly as Mike had just stated - there was no point in training assistants.

"I'm sorry," Sulley said quietly. Dammit, of course he had noticed.

Now that the next door had arrived, Mike had no excuse to be facing his station any longer, so he turned around, trying his best to keep the hurt out of his expression. "What for? It's not like you scheduled that meeting." Was his voice shaking?

As dense as he could be in terms of emotions sometimes, he could clearly see the awareness in Sulley's gaze, but to his friend's credit, he made no further comment. Instead, he took a quick peek into the new file to assess the kid's fears and then approached the door. He was about to enter the human world, but not without first giving Mike a friendly nudge and a smile. A moment later, he was gone.

Mike quietly swore to himself. It had been years. Had he not told himself that giving up on his dream was okay? Why was this still so hard? Why was being so happy with what Sulley had accomplished not enough?

He knew Sulley was good with this kid, but it always took his friend a while to sneak around in its room. Mike was about to already get another canister in foresight, but on his way to fetch it, he spotted Waternoose, coming over to their station - and his boss was actually waving at him!

Feeling a little glued to the spot, Mike waited until he was close enough. "Mr. Waternoose," he greeted politely.

"Michael," his boss returned in his usual pleasant tone. "Say, where's James?"

Ah, of course it was that. Immediately, Mike was annoyed at himself for assuming that he was actually important for once. Careful not to let it show, though, he pointed one thumb at the door. "In there." This was probably about some sort of training again.

"Of course, of course," Waternoose chuckled, then turned around, and now Mike saw the pink-skinned woman that had come with him. "This will only take a moment."

Mike recognized her immediately. "Hi, Lane," he greeted.

She blinked her three eyes at him. "Say, do I know you?"

With a little chuckle, he gave a shrug. "No idea, actually. I just know you took the photos in my yearbook." And of course, he had seen her take a couple of them; she had never let a crowd get in the way of a good picture, or even anything as insignificant as, say, decency.

But if she was here, Mike thought he knew what this was about. And if he was right, this was going to be awesome!

Waternoose was frowning, apparently about to ask a question, but, thankfully, the door opened at that precise moment and Sulley got back onto the Scare Floor. "Hey, Mike, I…" But of course, he had immediately spotted their company. "Mr. Waternoose!" he exclaimed. "What can we do for you, sir?"

"James!" Waternoose grabbed his arm, then also grabbed Lane's and drew them both closer to each other. "I'd like you to meet Lane Picca! She works for Vanity Scare."

Mike silently went to cut the power to the door; this sounded as if it would take a while.

"Ms. Picca," Sulley greeted; he did not seem to remember her. Or maybe he had never had reason to notice her - Mike knew for a fact that his friend had never read that yearbook as extensively as he had.

"Hi, Sulley," she returned. She did remember him. But then, who did not?

"James," Waternoose went on before Sulley could ask, "this year's Scare Cards are going to be produced soon, and thus, we need a good picture of you."

That had been rather abrupt - at least for Sulley; Mike was pleased to discover his hunch had been right on the mark. But his friend had gone rigid, staring at both their boss and Lane in turn. "I… what?"

Waternoose chuckled at his reaction. "James, your Scare Card! There's one for every Scarer!"

Mike, of course, had been anticipating this for months; actually, he had been actively looking forward to it for what felt like a small eternity. His face split into a completely giddy grin at the thought of getting his hands on a Scare Card of Sulley! That one would definitely receive a special place among his collection. Maybe he should put it on display somewhere?

There was, of course, the tiniest little pang of wistfulness at not getting one of himself, but, hey, this was a really close second.

"Um, wow," Sulley mumbled. "I, er, I wasn't expecting that."

"You should have paid attention to the passage of time," Mike could not help but to joke.

Waternoose, however, completely ignored his interjection. "Anyway, the photo shoot will be sometime next week; I just wanted to introduce you. After all, this needs to be a really special picture, with you being Rookie of the Year and all."

"It's gonna be fantastic," Lane promised.

Yeah, the Rookie of the Year thing. Mike still remembered the small ceremony, with both of them receiving awards for their great first season. That was one of the few times he had felt as if he truly belonged in this whole Scaring business.

Sulley should have been happy about the picture. He should have jumped up and down in joy, causing a small earthquake on the Scare Floor with his sheer size and throwing all monsters in the near vicinity off balance. But instead, his expression visibly clouded. "What about Mike?"

Mike blinked. Yeah, what about him?

Apparently, Waternoose was just as confused as he was. "What do you mean?"

Sulley frowned at him. "I wasn't Rookie of the Year! We were Rookies of the Year, plural form!"

Waternoose was blinking now. "Well, yeah, but they don't make Scare Cards of assistants," he pointed out.

"Sulley, what are you doing?" Mike whispered.

Sulley ignored the question to abruptly glare at their boss. "Well, they should!" he spat. "This isn't fair! Mike is not my assistant anyway, he's my trainer! He's way better than I am at almost everything of that stuff! I am nothing without him!"

Mike was not quite sure whether to feel elated about Sulley's opinion of him or horrified at the way he was speaking to their boss in a situation where he absolutely could not afford it. "Sul, this isn't about test scores, this is about the actual job! And I'm not part of the job!" Did Sulley really have to go and warm that up again? Did he have no idea how much that fact still hurt? He had seemed so perceptive just a short while ago!

"James," Waternoose cut in, sounding a lot more subdued now, "I realize how you feel about this, but I don't think they'd want to change their system."

"They already changed it!" Sulley insisted hotly, and he was drawing looks from nearby Scarers and assistants now. "If they were not going to accept the fact that I can't do this without Mike, they shouldn't have named him Rookie of the Year in the first place! That title is also Scarer exclusive!"

Well, yes, it was, but that was not the point right now. If Sulley did not stop this, then not only would he shoot down all of his chances of ever getting a Scare Card made of him, he would also renounce his own Rookie of the Year title! He had come so far in so short a time, and now he was throwing all of that away – for Mike's sake?

He would not have that. "Sul, can I say something really emotional without having you laugh at me?"

Now Sulley did turn around to him, shooting him that glare he was currently sporting. "I never laugh at you for getting emotional!"

"Err… that's true," Mike admitted, "sorry." He paused for a moment, gathering his thoughts to come up with the best way of phrasing this. "Sul, we bonded over Scare Cards. Do you have any idea what it would mean to me to have a Scare Card of you?"

Sulley's look softened at the concession, and all of the fight seemed to leave him.

Seemed to. "And do you have any idea what it would mean to me to have one of you?" he countered softly.

And for a moment, their eyes were locked in silent understanding. They both knew Sulley was not the only one to whom it would mean something.

Then the moment was over, and Sulley turned back to the two who were watching the small exchange in silence. "It's both of us or no one."

"Sulley!" Mike blurted out. But there was nothing he could do. This was Sulley's Scare Card – or at least it was supposed to be! – so he was the one who made the decisions about it.

Waternoose seemed perplexed, and he exchanged a brief look with Lane. "Well, I'll make sure to pass on the message," he finally replied, and with a nod from him and a small wave from Lane, they both turned to leave.

"Wow, I didn't think about the Scare Cards!" Sulley exclaimed lightly, but Mike was not ready to just pretend nothing had happened. With a glare, he went to get the next file.

Sulley sighed. "Oh, c'mon, Mike, don't be like that! I did this for you, you know!"

Mike forced himself to calm down. Yes, Sulley had been doing this for him. He knew that. Still, it was utterly pointless to try and force people to change their opinions on things which had been established facts for decades. He should know. He had spent the greater part of his life fighting a losing battle. "This is not gonna work," he pointed out, his back still to his friend. "I mean, I appreciate what you're trying to do, but there's just no point. All you're doing is to torpedo your own chances."

"I don't want a Scare Card made of me if you can't have one, too!" Sulley insisted stubbornly. "Whether you like that or not."

Now Mike did turn around. So despite what he had just said, Sulley had been considering his feelings; his friend just had an entirely different way of going about this. "It would have meant the world to me," he stated yet again.

Sulley crossed his arms. "It's not like this is over already." Then he grinned. "And by the way - actually, we bonded over Archie."

Mike had to smirk in spite of himself. "You call that bonding?"

Note: Trying an experiment here; this will have four chapters in total, but was originally planned as a one shot. Updates will be announced on my Twitter account UntoldStoriesMU.

Lane Picca is from the Fearbook, Vanity Scare is mentioned on Mike and Sulley's Scare Card.