Wuz up, yo? I'm baaaaacccckkkkkk…and you thought you could get rid of me soooo easily! Well I showed you, punk! Hahaha…
Just kidding…I love being a dork…it is so much more fun than being cool. Anyway, here is chapter two. This chapter is significantly more angsty (is that a word? Hmm…) than the first chapter, but just you wait. The fun is only just beginning…enjoy and please review, even if you think it sucked (but be nice if you do!)
* * * * * * * * * * * *
There's no vocabulary
For love within a family, love that's lived in
But not looked at, love within the light of which
All else is seen, the love within which
All other love finds speech.
This love is silent.
-T. S. Eliot-
Trixie had never run so fast in her life. Her legs felt exhausted underneath of her, as she had only finished a very long run only a few hours before, but she would not slow down. She felt claustrophobic, panic-stricken, and incredibly confused. A part of could not believe that this was real, but she knew that this was the truth. She knew who the man behind the mask was at last. And although she had wanted for so long to see his face, to know just who he was, to confirm to herself that he was indeed a human being as opposed to just this perfect competitor who had in fact saved her life in the past, she almost hated the results of her inquiry. The kind man behind the mask was the one man she had detested ever since she was a little girl.
She did not want to stop for the elevator; she was too frantic to stand still. She did not even pause as she raced through the stairway doors. It would be a long way down, almost ten flights, but the distance did not deter her at all. She couldn't think right now; she just needed to get out.
Her panic, however, was amplified when she heard the doors close behind her, then burst open again almost immediately. She didn't need to turn around in order to know who was following her, and she forced herself to speed up in her descent. She could outrun him…she knew that she could…he was such a big man, and she was such a little girl…and she was a very fast runner…
"Stop, Trixie! Stop!" Racer X called out behind her. He was trying to sound sympathetic and calm, but he really wasn't. In fact, he was quite upset, and quite angry. And he wasn't even very angry at her; he was angry at the situation. His carelessness, which he knew had been his greatest fault for his entire life, had gotten him in to some very serious trouble this time. And he hadn't quite seen this coming; he hadn't expected to be battling Trixie in his fight to keep his secret. He had always thought that if anyone would figure it out, it would be Speed.
Trixie didn't say anything, she just kept running. The stairs went by one flight after another, and she kept her lead on Racer X the whole time, until she reached the bottom floor. The doors marked "1" were right in front of her, and she threw her entire body weight against them, busting forth in to the parking garage of the factory. But fatigue was finally catching up with her, and she felt like she couldn't keep this up for very much longer. She made it through the double doors leading outside, but her muscles began to cramp as she entered the cold night. It was dark, and very windy, and she was still only wearing her running tights and a sleeveless shirt from earlier in the day. The difference in temperature made her lungs contract, making her feel like she couldn't breathe.
She had been outside for all of ten seconds when she felt a pair of strong arms grab her rather roughly around her waist. And then, her confusion and shock morphed in to anger as she lashed out at Racer X, who hadn't expected her to fight back. With a scream, she swung her right fist as hard as she could and felt it impact a very solid piece of something. Her hand immediately began to hurt like hell, as she realized just how strong that jaw of Racer X's was, but she couldn't help but feel a certain amount of pride as she heard Racer X yell a swear word and release her from his arms temporarily. Trixie felt that she had to capitalize on this situation; she really wanted to stay and fight, as she had gotten even angrier since the two of them started to struggle together, but she knew that the fight would have been just a bit one-sided. Racer X was at least twice her size, and she didn't really want to stay and find out exactly how much all those adventures with Speed would help her out in a situation that was REALLY a crisis. Yes, the assassins with their shiny, phallic-looking cars; those really fat guys who tied her to a mine cart and tried to blow her up along with Speed; and that dude with the horse who destroyed the brakes in one of her cars; all had been practice compared with Racer X.
She turned to run again, but Racer X had recovered quicker than she had anticipated he would. He grabbed her again, pulling her around to face him, and Trixie's smugness at the effectiveness of her right hook went in to thin air as she saw the look in his eyes. Never in her life had she seen anyone so angry and so hurt at the same time. His mask was torn a bit where she had hit him, and his eyes were wild with fury. Trixie's survival instincts kicked in, and she struggled against his hold, but it was hopeless. Racer X had decided that she wasn't going anywhere, and she couldn't physically fight him. But she tried to utilize the last method of defense that she had.
All of a sudden, she stopped struggling. Her heart was pounding, and she was both afraid and enfuriated at the same time. He looked at her with just a hint of surprise in his eyes when she stopped her fighting, but she held steadfast. And all Trixie could do was hold her chin up, stretch herself out as tall as she could be, and act as brave as she could. Her eyes glared right back at his, and the two just stood there for a few seconds until Trixie finally mustered up the courage to barely whisper, "You…"
Racer X squeezed her waist, pulling her even closer to him. He was, in effect, daring her to say something.
"You…" Trixie struggled to find the right words to say.
"Me what?" he whispered back at her, his voice completely consumed with anger.
"You…you…"
"What!" he shouted down at her. "What am I!"
"Coward."
She couldn't have chosen a better word.
* * * * * * * * * * * *
At that same moment, Speed, Pops, and Sparky all burst through the doors leading outside only to see Trixie and Racer X standing together, with Trixie clearly not enjoying her situation. The three of them were stunned at first, their reactions dulled by the fact that they had never seen Racer X appear so threatening ever before. Speed's confusion from before became anger as he rushed over to the two and hurled himself on to Racer X.
Racer X clearly had not seen him coming, and his death grip on Trixie loosened just enough for her to wriggle out of his grasp. She half-expected to see Speed and Racer X get in to a fight, which she didn't want to have happen since now she knew that they were brothers, but her sense of right and wrong was dulled a bit by her anger with Racer X.
But neither Speed nor Racer X lashed out a one another; they simply separated and stared. "What the hell are you trying to do?" Speed yelled.
Racer X didn't say anything to reply. He was out of breath, as the sprint down the stairs was obviously not something he did everyday, and he also wanted to stop himself from saying anything he might live to regret. As a man who valued the results of thinking and then doing, he didn't want to approach this dispute any differently.
Pops and Sparky both went over to Trixie, who didn't look at them right away. She couldn't take her eyes off of Racer X, who had now put his hands on his knees and was leaning over. His breath was returning (Trixie couldn't help but notice that the guy did, indeed, have some damn fine cardiovascular fitness if he could recover that fast), but his eyes were screwed shut, hiding all of the emotion that she had seen there only moments before.
Sparky took a gentle hold of her face and pulled her to look at him. "Hey," he said, sounding kinder than she had ever heard him before, "You okay? Did he hurt you?"
Trixie shook her head, but she could feel tears coming in to her eyes as she finally began to process everything that had just happened. Sparky pushed a lock of hair out of her eyes and pulled her in to a hug. Pops went over to Speed and put a hand on his shoulder, after which Speed broke his stare with Racer X and ran over to where Trixie and Sparky were hugging.
"Who the hell do you think you are?" Pops growled at Racer X. He had no idea what was going on, or what Racer X and Trixie were fighting about, but he was overtaken by his anger at Racer X. Trixie was a strong girl, but she was still relatively little, and Racer X, being practically a giant, could have seriously hurt her.
Racer X finally stood up, his eyes covered by the shadows of the nearby pine trees. He still didn't say anything, but looked back at Pops, then looked over at the three friends as they embraced one another, and then turned and disappeared in to the night.
* * * * * * * * * * * *
Speed turned the running tap off and motioned for Trixie to come over by his side. He gently pulled her hair off of her face as she bent over and dipped her face in to the cold water in the sink. She held her head there for a few moments, then stood up and wiped the water out of her eyes.
Sparky, standing close by with a towel, came over and began to dry her face, taking great care to avoid the cut on her forehead. It actually wasn't as large as they originally thought it had been, and while it was quite an injury, it didn't require any stitches. Trixie took the towel from him and buried her face in it as Speed raised an arm and began to stroke her back as gently as he could. She felt her eyes filling up with tears once more, but she forced the lump in her throat down. She didn't want to cry anymore tonight; she couldn't deal with any more emotion. She just needed to think clearly.
"Better?" Speed asked quietly. She looked over at him and nodded, taking a deep breath and sighing it out. The three of them stood there in silence for a rather significant portion of time, but finally Trixie was the one to speak up.
"I want to go home." She whispered. She was afraid that if she spoke any louder she would lose her self-control and start crying again.
She looked over at Speed once more, and she saw that he didn't like her idea. He scowled and put a hand on her face, saying at the same time, "I think you should stay here tonight."
"At the factory?" she said, making a bit of a bittersweet joke.
"No, no, that's not what I meant. I mean, you should come home with me. I don't really want you to be alone right now."
"I think I agree with him, Trix. You aren't in the best mental shape right now." Sparky said behind her.
Trixie turned back to the sink and dipped her face once more, then took another deep breath. She couldn't look at either of them; their concern was just too jarring, and too kind. But she definitely felt closer to both of them right now than she had in a long time.
"I appreciate it, you guys, but I really just want to be alone." She turned to Speed. "Thank you for offering though." He didn't reply, but he saw that her face was adamant pulled her in to a tight hug, which Sparky joined in to.
After embracing one another for a time, they finally broke apart, and Speed said, "Alright, if that is what you want. I'll drive you, let me go get my keys."
Trixie smiled after him, and Sparky put an arm around her shoulders, leading her out to the garage. This was a side of Sparky that was very new to her, and she liked it a lot. The guy could actually be nice to her when he wanted to be…it was a miracle.
Before she entered the Mach Five, Pops came out to join them. Trixie felt like she couldn't look at him…she knew the truth about his first son, and she hadn't told him. Something was preventing her from doing so, as she shamefully felt a strange sense of loyalty to Racer…Rex. She hated him for everything that he had done to the Racer family, and she hated him for what he had done to her tonight, but she still felt like something was holding her back. She needed to know more, she needed to find out more about what he was thinking, what he had been thinking over all these years. The mask was removed, but she still didn't entirely know who was behind it.
Pops didn't say anything, but he pulled her in to a hug as well. Trixie couldn't help but laugh a little bit as she felt the similarity of Pops' arms around her waist and Rex's, but her laugh sounded more like a sob to everyone else. Pops help her tighter, but when he let go, he touched her face gently and gave her a quick kiss on the cheek. "Cheer up, pumpkin nose. We'll talk about this later, alright?"
Trixie laughed at the nickname; she couldn't remember where that came from, but Pops had sporadically been calling her that for a long time. "Yes, much, much later." She replied, sniffling a little bit. He smiled and gently pushed her towards the car, where Speed was waiting. Sparky came over and kissed her on the cheek as well, but didn't say anything. And Speed drove away before she could say anything herself.
* * * * * * * * * * * *
The ride home was quiet. Speed wasn't saying a word, and Trixie glanced at him with concern every so often. Speed was always a bit of a taciturn kind of guy, but something about his silence was a bit unnerving to her. Normally, when something was bothering him, he would do something, whether that would be to act really ticked off or yell at someone or anything along those lines. But tonight, he was poker faced as he stared blankly at the road ahead of him.
It was only until when he had reached her street that she realized how fast he had been driving. She lived nearly thirty miles away from the factory, and it hadn't taken more than fifteen minutes to get home. She wished that she had realized this earlier; it was too dark, and the roads were too icy, to be driving that recklessly.
Speed pulled up in to her driveway and abruptly put the car in park. Trixie felt the car come to a jerking stop, and she looked over at Speed, expecting him to look back at her, but he did nothing but stare straight forward, his eyes glazed. She began to worry if he was angry at her for some reason; she hadn't wanted to talk about what had happened between Racer X and herself, and Speed didn't like to be kept in the dark about things like that. But the funny thing was, he hadn't seemed upset earlier.
Trixie gave up and figured that this, like everything else that had gone wrong that day, could be sorted out tomorrow. 'Everyone thinks better in the morning,' she thought to herself. She moved to open the car door, but very suddenly, the automatic locks prevented her from doing so. She looked over at Speed, her face a picture of confusion, and his face was still facing forward. The only thing that actually had changed about his position was his hand on the locking mechanism.
"What are you doing?" she asked quietly. Speed still was silent.
She turned to him and reached up to touch his face. "What's going on, Racer?" she whispered. But then she jumped as she realized that her fingers felt something wet on his face. It was hidden by the shadows, but when Speed finally turned towards her, she could see that his eyes were bloodshot, as if he had been crying for quite some time, and he looked back at her in anguish.
Trixie didn't know what to do. Part of her wanted to hold him, but another part of her just wanted to look at him. She kept her hand on his face, and stroked his cheek gently, feeling tears come in to her own eyes. When she couldn't hold them back anymore, she lowered her head and covered her face with her hands. And it was then that she felt Speed pull her in to an embrace, his lips kissing the crown of her head.
She didn't know how long they sat there together like that. Both of them were crying but neither one made a sound. And something happened that night as they sat together, because for the first time, they communicated exactly what it was they were feeling without even as much as letting out a sob. There were no words, nor was there a necessity for words. There was just an embrace.
In time, she got out of the car. Get some sleep, Speed told her, get some rest, we'll talk whenever you're ready, get some rest. Rest. Rest. And Speed finally departed after kissing her, and watching her walk up to her door and safely enter her house.
The warmth of her house felt incredible. The night was unbelievably cold, and Trixie felt in her heart that this was going to be a very cold winter, unlike any other that the people of the locality had experienced for quite some time. Her eyes did not want to remain open, and she felt like turning on the lights would put too much strain on them. She walked with exhaustion towards her bedroom, pausing only in the kitchen for a moment to get a glass of water. The words that Speed had said to her were echoing in her head for some reason, and she looked down at the floor as she walked to her room, all the while reliving those words in her head. Whenever you're ready, was what he had said…whenever you're ready…perhaps those words did not solely apply to her…
And then, Trixie stopped. Her grip on the water glass loosened, and it shattered on the floor as she slowly turned back towards her kitchen.
On the counter, illuminated only by the moonlight coming through her kitchen window, was a piece of cloth. A piece of black cloth.
A mask.
* * * * * * * * * * * *
To be continued, as indicated by the pretty little stars! ;) Please review!
Just kidding…I love being a dork…it is so much more fun than being cool. Anyway, here is chapter two. This chapter is significantly more angsty (is that a word? Hmm…) than the first chapter, but just you wait. The fun is only just beginning…enjoy and please review, even if you think it sucked (but be nice if you do!)
* * * * * * * * * * * *
There's no vocabulary
For love within a family, love that's lived in
But not looked at, love within the light of which
All else is seen, the love within which
All other love finds speech.
This love is silent.
-T. S. Eliot-
Trixie had never run so fast in her life. Her legs felt exhausted underneath of her, as she had only finished a very long run only a few hours before, but she would not slow down. She felt claustrophobic, panic-stricken, and incredibly confused. A part of could not believe that this was real, but she knew that this was the truth. She knew who the man behind the mask was at last. And although she had wanted for so long to see his face, to know just who he was, to confirm to herself that he was indeed a human being as opposed to just this perfect competitor who had in fact saved her life in the past, she almost hated the results of her inquiry. The kind man behind the mask was the one man she had detested ever since she was a little girl.
She did not want to stop for the elevator; she was too frantic to stand still. She did not even pause as she raced through the stairway doors. It would be a long way down, almost ten flights, but the distance did not deter her at all. She couldn't think right now; she just needed to get out.
Her panic, however, was amplified when she heard the doors close behind her, then burst open again almost immediately. She didn't need to turn around in order to know who was following her, and she forced herself to speed up in her descent. She could outrun him…she knew that she could…he was such a big man, and she was such a little girl…and she was a very fast runner…
"Stop, Trixie! Stop!" Racer X called out behind her. He was trying to sound sympathetic and calm, but he really wasn't. In fact, he was quite upset, and quite angry. And he wasn't even very angry at her; he was angry at the situation. His carelessness, which he knew had been his greatest fault for his entire life, had gotten him in to some very serious trouble this time. And he hadn't quite seen this coming; he hadn't expected to be battling Trixie in his fight to keep his secret. He had always thought that if anyone would figure it out, it would be Speed.
Trixie didn't say anything, she just kept running. The stairs went by one flight after another, and she kept her lead on Racer X the whole time, until she reached the bottom floor. The doors marked "1" were right in front of her, and she threw her entire body weight against them, busting forth in to the parking garage of the factory. But fatigue was finally catching up with her, and she felt like she couldn't keep this up for very much longer. She made it through the double doors leading outside, but her muscles began to cramp as she entered the cold night. It was dark, and very windy, and she was still only wearing her running tights and a sleeveless shirt from earlier in the day. The difference in temperature made her lungs contract, making her feel like she couldn't breathe.
She had been outside for all of ten seconds when she felt a pair of strong arms grab her rather roughly around her waist. And then, her confusion and shock morphed in to anger as she lashed out at Racer X, who hadn't expected her to fight back. With a scream, she swung her right fist as hard as she could and felt it impact a very solid piece of something. Her hand immediately began to hurt like hell, as she realized just how strong that jaw of Racer X's was, but she couldn't help but feel a certain amount of pride as she heard Racer X yell a swear word and release her from his arms temporarily. Trixie felt that she had to capitalize on this situation; she really wanted to stay and fight, as she had gotten even angrier since the two of them started to struggle together, but she knew that the fight would have been just a bit one-sided. Racer X was at least twice her size, and she didn't really want to stay and find out exactly how much all those adventures with Speed would help her out in a situation that was REALLY a crisis. Yes, the assassins with their shiny, phallic-looking cars; those really fat guys who tied her to a mine cart and tried to blow her up along with Speed; and that dude with the horse who destroyed the brakes in one of her cars; all had been practice compared with Racer X.
She turned to run again, but Racer X had recovered quicker than she had anticipated he would. He grabbed her again, pulling her around to face him, and Trixie's smugness at the effectiveness of her right hook went in to thin air as she saw the look in his eyes. Never in her life had she seen anyone so angry and so hurt at the same time. His mask was torn a bit where she had hit him, and his eyes were wild with fury. Trixie's survival instincts kicked in, and she struggled against his hold, but it was hopeless. Racer X had decided that she wasn't going anywhere, and she couldn't physically fight him. But she tried to utilize the last method of defense that she had.
All of a sudden, she stopped struggling. Her heart was pounding, and she was both afraid and enfuriated at the same time. He looked at her with just a hint of surprise in his eyes when she stopped her fighting, but she held steadfast. And all Trixie could do was hold her chin up, stretch herself out as tall as she could be, and act as brave as she could. Her eyes glared right back at his, and the two just stood there for a few seconds until Trixie finally mustered up the courage to barely whisper, "You…"
Racer X squeezed her waist, pulling her even closer to him. He was, in effect, daring her to say something.
"You…" Trixie struggled to find the right words to say.
"Me what?" he whispered back at her, his voice completely consumed with anger.
"You…you…"
"What!" he shouted down at her. "What am I!"
"Coward."
She couldn't have chosen a better word.
* * * * * * * * * * * *
At that same moment, Speed, Pops, and Sparky all burst through the doors leading outside only to see Trixie and Racer X standing together, with Trixie clearly not enjoying her situation. The three of them were stunned at first, their reactions dulled by the fact that they had never seen Racer X appear so threatening ever before. Speed's confusion from before became anger as he rushed over to the two and hurled himself on to Racer X.
Racer X clearly had not seen him coming, and his death grip on Trixie loosened just enough for her to wriggle out of his grasp. She half-expected to see Speed and Racer X get in to a fight, which she didn't want to have happen since now she knew that they were brothers, but her sense of right and wrong was dulled a bit by her anger with Racer X.
But neither Speed nor Racer X lashed out a one another; they simply separated and stared. "What the hell are you trying to do?" Speed yelled.
Racer X didn't say anything to reply. He was out of breath, as the sprint down the stairs was obviously not something he did everyday, and he also wanted to stop himself from saying anything he might live to regret. As a man who valued the results of thinking and then doing, he didn't want to approach this dispute any differently.
Pops and Sparky both went over to Trixie, who didn't look at them right away. She couldn't take her eyes off of Racer X, who had now put his hands on his knees and was leaning over. His breath was returning (Trixie couldn't help but notice that the guy did, indeed, have some damn fine cardiovascular fitness if he could recover that fast), but his eyes were screwed shut, hiding all of the emotion that she had seen there only moments before.
Sparky took a gentle hold of her face and pulled her to look at him. "Hey," he said, sounding kinder than she had ever heard him before, "You okay? Did he hurt you?"
Trixie shook her head, but she could feel tears coming in to her eyes as she finally began to process everything that had just happened. Sparky pushed a lock of hair out of her eyes and pulled her in to a hug. Pops went over to Speed and put a hand on his shoulder, after which Speed broke his stare with Racer X and ran over to where Trixie and Sparky were hugging.
"Who the hell do you think you are?" Pops growled at Racer X. He had no idea what was going on, or what Racer X and Trixie were fighting about, but he was overtaken by his anger at Racer X. Trixie was a strong girl, but she was still relatively little, and Racer X, being practically a giant, could have seriously hurt her.
Racer X finally stood up, his eyes covered by the shadows of the nearby pine trees. He still didn't say anything, but looked back at Pops, then looked over at the three friends as they embraced one another, and then turned and disappeared in to the night.
* * * * * * * * * * * *
Speed turned the running tap off and motioned for Trixie to come over by his side. He gently pulled her hair off of her face as she bent over and dipped her face in to the cold water in the sink. She held her head there for a few moments, then stood up and wiped the water out of her eyes.
Sparky, standing close by with a towel, came over and began to dry her face, taking great care to avoid the cut on her forehead. It actually wasn't as large as they originally thought it had been, and while it was quite an injury, it didn't require any stitches. Trixie took the towel from him and buried her face in it as Speed raised an arm and began to stroke her back as gently as he could. She felt her eyes filling up with tears once more, but she forced the lump in her throat down. She didn't want to cry anymore tonight; she couldn't deal with any more emotion. She just needed to think clearly.
"Better?" Speed asked quietly. She looked over at him and nodded, taking a deep breath and sighing it out. The three of them stood there in silence for a rather significant portion of time, but finally Trixie was the one to speak up.
"I want to go home." She whispered. She was afraid that if she spoke any louder she would lose her self-control and start crying again.
She looked over at Speed once more, and she saw that he didn't like her idea. He scowled and put a hand on her face, saying at the same time, "I think you should stay here tonight."
"At the factory?" she said, making a bit of a bittersweet joke.
"No, no, that's not what I meant. I mean, you should come home with me. I don't really want you to be alone right now."
"I think I agree with him, Trix. You aren't in the best mental shape right now." Sparky said behind her.
Trixie turned back to the sink and dipped her face once more, then took another deep breath. She couldn't look at either of them; their concern was just too jarring, and too kind. But she definitely felt closer to both of them right now than she had in a long time.
"I appreciate it, you guys, but I really just want to be alone." She turned to Speed. "Thank you for offering though." He didn't reply, but he saw that her face was adamant pulled her in to a tight hug, which Sparky joined in to.
After embracing one another for a time, they finally broke apart, and Speed said, "Alright, if that is what you want. I'll drive you, let me go get my keys."
Trixie smiled after him, and Sparky put an arm around her shoulders, leading her out to the garage. This was a side of Sparky that was very new to her, and she liked it a lot. The guy could actually be nice to her when he wanted to be…it was a miracle.
Before she entered the Mach Five, Pops came out to join them. Trixie felt like she couldn't look at him…she knew the truth about his first son, and she hadn't told him. Something was preventing her from doing so, as she shamefully felt a strange sense of loyalty to Racer…Rex. She hated him for everything that he had done to the Racer family, and she hated him for what he had done to her tonight, but she still felt like something was holding her back. She needed to know more, she needed to find out more about what he was thinking, what he had been thinking over all these years. The mask was removed, but she still didn't entirely know who was behind it.
Pops didn't say anything, but he pulled her in to a hug as well. Trixie couldn't help but laugh a little bit as she felt the similarity of Pops' arms around her waist and Rex's, but her laugh sounded more like a sob to everyone else. Pops help her tighter, but when he let go, he touched her face gently and gave her a quick kiss on the cheek. "Cheer up, pumpkin nose. We'll talk about this later, alright?"
Trixie laughed at the nickname; she couldn't remember where that came from, but Pops had sporadically been calling her that for a long time. "Yes, much, much later." She replied, sniffling a little bit. He smiled and gently pushed her towards the car, where Speed was waiting. Sparky came over and kissed her on the cheek as well, but didn't say anything. And Speed drove away before she could say anything herself.
* * * * * * * * * * * *
The ride home was quiet. Speed wasn't saying a word, and Trixie glanced at him with concern every so often. Speed was always a bit of a taciturn kind of guy, but something about his silence was a bit unnerving to her. Normally, when something was bothering him, he would do something, whether that would be to act really ticked off or yell at someone or anything along those lines. But tonight, he was poker faced as he stared blankly at the road ahead of him.
It was only until when he had reached her street that she realized how fast he had been driving. She lived nearly thirty miles away from the factory, and it hadn't taken more than fifteen minutes to get home. She wished that she had realized this earlier; it was too dark, and the roads were too icy, to be driving that recklessly.
Speed pulled up in to her driveway and abruptly put the car in park. Trixie felt the car come to a jerking stop, and she looked over at Speed, expecting him to look back at her, but he did nothing but stare straight forward, his eyes glazed. She began to worry if he was angry at her for some reason; she hadn't wanted to talk about what had happened between Racer X and herself, and Speed didn't like to be kept in the dark about things like that. But the funny thing was, he hadn't seemed upset earlier.
Trixie gave up and figured that this, like everything else that had gone wrong that day, could be sorted out tomorrow. 'Everyone thinks better in the morning,' she thought to herself. She moved to open the car door, but very suddenly, the automatic locks prevented her from doing so. She looked over at Speed, her face a picture of confusion, and his face was still facing forward. The only thing that actually had changed about his position was his hand on the locking mechanism.
"What are you doing?" she asked quietly. Speed still was silent.
She turned to him and reached up to touch his face. "What's going on, Racer?" she whispered. But then she jumped as she realized that her fingers felt something wet on his face. It was hidden by the shadows, but when Speed finally turned towards her, she could see that his eyes were bloodshot, as if he had been crying for quite some time, and he looked back at her in anguish.
Trixie didn't know what to do. Part of her wanted to hold him, but another part of her just wanted to look at him. She kept her hand on his face, and stroked his cheek gently, feeling tears come in to her own eyes. When she couldn't hold them back anymore, she lowered her head and covered her face with her hands. And it was then that she felt Speed pull her in to an embrace, his lips kissing the crown of her head.
She didn't know how long they sat there together like that. Both of them were crying but neither one made a sound. And something happened that night as they sat together, because for the first time, they communicated exactly what it was they were feeling without even as much as letting out a sob. There were no words, nor was there a necessity for words. There was just an embrace.
In time, she got out of the car. Get some sleep, Speed told her, get some rest, we'll talk whenever you're ready, get some rest. Rest. Rest. And Speed finally departed after kissing her, and watching her walk up to her door and safely enter her house.
The warmth of her house felt incredible. The night was unbelievably cold, and Trixie felt in her heart that this was going to be a very cold winter, unlike any other that the people of the locality had experienced for quite some time. Her eyes did not want to remain open, and she felt like turning on the lights would put too much strain on them. She walked with exhaustion towards her bedroom, pausing only in the kitchen for a moment to get a glass of water. The words that Speed had said to her were echoing in her head for some reason, and she looked down at the floor as she walked to her room, all the while reliving those words in her head. Whenever you're ready, was what he had said…whenever you're ready…perhaps those words did not solely apply to her…
And then, Trixie stopped. Her grip on the water glass loosened, and it shattered on the floor as she slowly turned back towards her kitchen.
On the counter, illuminated only by the moonlight coming through her kitchen window, was a piece of cloth. A piece of black cloth.
A mask.
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To be continued, as indicated by the pretty little stars! ;) Please review!