Scene 1

Where a movie end and life begin again.

"Okay everyone, well done! See you at the premiere! You guys have been great!"

Randall applauded with the other monsters and looked around at the faces around him, some with smiles and some with tears. In little more than a year he had been a part of this, it would be difficult to return to the "normal" life after all this. He thought back to the morning almost a year ago, how he sat at his kitchen table and saw an ad in Scarry News regarding a role in Lizard's new movie, Monsters Inc. Tired of his boring life, he decided to take a chance and applied. The director, Teddy Destroux, was fascinated with Randall's ability to blend in with the surroundings, and his appearance. Shortly after a screen test, he was called back only to be informed that they would tailor the villain part for him.
"Hey Randall, you were great today!" Sulley came up and placed one of his large hands on the lizard's shoulder. Randall had to bend his head back slightly to meet the larger monsters eyes. "Thank you, but it can´t be measured by your performance, you really gave everything today. Sorry again that I broke your fingers, how are they?" Last scene they had filmed was the one where they were hunting in the door bearing and Randall had accidently lost his balance. With more force than necessary, he stepped on Sulley´s fingers and the result was three broken fingers. Sulley laughed a little awkward and showed his hand that was now bandaged and twice as big as normal "Well, it ended up looking very realistic and that´s good for the movie." He turned around slightly and looked over to where Mike Wazowski stood talking with the director "I´m just thinking that maybe I could get a bigger part in your next film, I mean, the lead role would suit me and I..." Sulley sighed and shook his head. " I better go and stop Mike before he starts talk about re-shooting the movie and have him play the lead" he faced Randall again and smiled " but I hope to see you again soon, you have to promise me that we enter the blue carpet together at the premiere." Sulley looked Randall in the eyes, which made Randall slightly uncomfortable with those blue eyes looking so hopeful. "Ehm, yeah, sure, of course we´re going to do that. Better you rescue Mr. Destroux from Mike." Sulley laughed and gave Randall a wink before he turned around and waved over his shoulder as he walked over to his friend. Randall could see Destroux give Sulley a thankful glance and hurried away, which made Randall chuckle. True to characters, he and Mike had never really gotten along, though he never understood why the one-eyed monster disliked him. With one final look around, he started to walk out of the room.

" Ran!" cried a voice and the little girl rushed to him. Randall didn´t have time to prepare himself before she threw her tiny arms around him and hugged tightly. He could not help but hug back with his lower arms while he stroked her hair with his upper ones. "Hey Mary, I will miss you, you little monster." He smiled down at her tear-filled eyes and let go of her. It was hard leaving her there, but he had to go, he didn´t belong here with all these actors and actresses. She looked sad but nodded and gave him one last hug before running away to her parents. Randall strode towards the doors and went out into the blinding sunlight. It was a beautiful day, but the air was chilly despite being early august. Randall shivered slightly and began walking home. Several times he was bypassed by other actors from the movie, they honked and waved at him with big smiles and wished him luck. He nodded and smiled, wished them the same and saw them drive off, probably to celebrate that the film was done, get a month's vacation and then start with the next big movie. In the corner of his eye, Randall could see a car slide up next to him and slow down. He turned his head to see Mike sitting behind the wheel looking a little troubled and in passenger seat sat Sulley, smiling at Randall. "Hey Randall, I forgot to ask, but would you like to come out with us tonight? Mike and Celia wanted to go out and eat." His heart skipped a beat, he opened his mouth to answer but before he could say anything Mike said, "Oh but I forgot to mention Sulley, Celia is bringing a friend and I already made the reservations for us four" Mike turned to Randall and continued "but if you really want to join us, I could try to get you in." Sulley both troubled and confused at his friend. Randall wasn´t so keen on being the third wheel during the evening, so he shrugged his shoulders and gave them both a small smile "It's okay, I have to get ready for work tomorrow. Maybe another day?" he saw how both monsters relaxed at his words, though Sulley looked a bit disappointed, but he waved his non-bandaged hand as they drove off. Randall stood there looking after the car for a few seconds before continuing his walk home. The chances of him ever seeing anyone from the set was low, meeting Sulley again was about cero chance before the premiere.

"Why must you be like that, what do you have against him?" Sulley leaned back and glanced at his friend. He knew that those two monsters didn´t get along, but it was no excuse for Mike to behave the way he did towards Randall. "How so? I was just honest, besides, he had to work tomorrow, what is it now he works with again? Archives? " " He works at Denver's, you know the restaurant three blocks away from us. Though he never said what he was doing there." but Mike had already stopped listening and hummed a tune for himself. Sulley shook his head and looked at his surroundings while his thoughts wandered freely. He had met Randall at the fifth week into filming, they would do a scene where the child slipped away from them, Mike and Sulley would be questioned by Randall. He smiled as he remembered how the lizard had accidently walked into him and changed colour and pattern so he matched Sulley´s fur. It had been charming to see the monster blush and quickly switch back to his own purple with blue running along the back. Mr Destroux had seen this happen and wanted it as a part of the movie, so they had been instructed to bump into each other. It had been the perfect ice-breaker and after the set were done they had talked several hours before Mike had interrupted them to fetch Sulley for the next scene. After that day Sulley always took the chance to talk with his co-star, he marvelled at the lizard's ability to change colours and patterns, but he always thought that Randall´s original scales were most beautiful. After filming the scene where they fought and Sulley had to hold Randall tight to his body while the lizard struggled, he realised how slender his colleague was, he could see how the lean muscles moved under the skin that was surprisingly warm when it looked so cold and chilly. He always shivered when acting against Randall, shivers of excitement, not disgust as it may have looked on the camera, he could almost see the sparks going off between them everytime they had filmed. Sulley sighed, it had been a pleasure working with Randall and getting to know him but now it was over, time to move on to other projects. He had already been asked to do a leading part in another movie, yet it didn´t feel right. But the lonely feeling in his heart were probably due to the sorrow of leaving all the crew and knowing that he was never coming back to that story, it had been a part of him for about a year, so no wonder he felt the way he did.

"Hellooo Sulley! Monstropolis to Sulley! We´re home, come on! We need to refresh ourselves before dinner." Mikes voice cut his thoughts and he smiled at him. After all he still had Mike by his side, even if he could be a pain.

End of chapter 1

AU Note

I re-read this story and decided to make some updates to it, since it´s been a while since I started writing it. From time to time, I still think about this and it hurts me that I never completed it. So now I´ll try to come further and hopefully finish it.