Chapter Text
The sky rumbled above. Flashes of lightning struck across the sky, jumping through the particles in the air. The brightness illuminated the gloom. Heavy rain had already begun pouring down minutes ago. If he was anyone else, he would’ve known better than to muck around here in the junkyard alone in such weather.
On the other hand, maybe he of all people especially should not have been out here in the rain. No , Speed though, that couldn’t have been true . Rex had been meticulous in his design and safeguards against things like this. He should have just as much chance of being struck by lightning as anyone else. Yet, that wasn’t more comforting in the slightest.
After all, how does one best articulate the emotion of having pride in the unique difference between oneself and the rest while also appreciating the wholeness of likelihood and equality? How does one both want to be special but not be different… to be just as good as everyone else, but wholly new… Did he in some way want to be at a higher risk? Just for that sake of identity in knowing he was for sure different beyond that of creation, an act he had no say in?
No, surely not. No one wants to be struck by lightning.
Speed looked up at the sky and ran his hands back through his hair, pulling the once fluffed by humidity mess of bangs back across his head. His hair was soaked by now in the downpour. As he gazed up, water dared to strike him in the eye, making him flinch back for a second and wipe at his face.
And if someone does want to be struck by lightning, he thought more, they definitely should seek help.
The scrapyard had paths well worn into ruts from oversized trucks and cars passing through for decades. If grass had grown anywhere, it was sparsely patched along the edges of heaps where the metal had been left untouched for so long. Otherwise, beneath his feet, the dark dirt, dust, and clay was churning up into a pasty mud, but he kept walking. Speed wasn’t sure what he wanted to find, except that he would appreciate whatever struck his eye first (if it wasn’t rain).
His lip briefly trembled, betraying him of his emotions. He sniffed, too, before wiping at his face again as if it would help against the aerial onslaught of the storm. What he did know was that he was stressed and upset and he wanted to break something but not hurt something… to damage but not destroy.
The day hadn’t gone well whatsoever. Something made him sluggish and almost in pain earlier that day. It had worsened as a race approached for the day, but he pushed the concern aside. He didn’t want to afford the worry or potentially miss the race to seek guidance. So, of course he raced. He also fell into only third, bouncing between it and fourth for a lap, before finishing barely in third behind his brother and Annalise. After, despite having snagged a victory, X was concerned. Everyone was confused.
That’s when he told them he hadn’t really felt the best. In hindsight, they were right to be upset in the slightest, nothing in rage, but out of frustration.
“You were going to potentially sacrifice your safety for a race?” Lucy grabbed his arm in the hallway where they had now stood alone.
He grit his teeth, “That is not what I did, Lucy.”
“What if something is going wrong with you? You could be sick or injured or-“
“I’m not, I’m fine,” Speed had insisted and pulled his arm free from her.
She frowned, “Visit Rex anyway. What harm could that do now?”
“Will it shut you up?” Speed grumbled, feeling the short staticky wave of lethargy again. He suddenly winced in shock at how he just spoke to her. When he looked back and turned around to face her, hand ready and posed to reach for her and say I’m so sorry , she had turned just as fast and stormed away.
That had led to why he was out here now, trudging through a storm in avoidance. He had already been off campus to visit his uncle and yet felt no immediate desire to return to it. After visiting Rex, he learned something had gone wrong. Repairable? Absolutely . Quick fix? Absolutely . Had he been an idiot to postpone something like that regardless? … Absolutely .
Rex told him to make it right, and he obviously wasn’t talking about his race placement for the day. He needed to tell Lucy he was sorry.
Yet, what was he doing? Not that…
Another flash of lightning roared across the sky. Speed squinted now, looking across the metal strewn about. A long pipe caught his eye. Approaching it, Speed saw it hadn’t been very long, only about two feet in length with a thin diameter evenly across it. Under inspection, Speed saw there were no obvious flaws or rust across it. This was a good quality , he thought to himself, no one wants to bring tetanus home. Well… He looked at the mud across his ruined black Converse. Technically tetanus lives in the mud and dirt… Everyone has to have updated tetanus shots anyway, he reassured himself.
Picking it up in his hand and taking a firm grip on it, Speed swung it through the air. It made a delighted woosh through the rain with each strike. Next to a hunk of metal, Speed raised the pipe up and swung it down with force.
Clung.
He felt the pipe give in. Looking down, it had bent now into a shallow V from the force of the strike. He frowned and went to toss it to the ground before hesitation took hold of him. Speed looked back down at the pipe in his hands, bent like that, and had an idea. Taking ahold of the ends, he manipulated them into bending further inwards in a semicircle until the ends both touched at a parallel V to the one in the middle.
Holding it in his hands, he smiled.
Thunder boomed, shaking the air. Speed looked up at the dark, rolling clouds and swallowed nervously. Actually, he may have the same chance as anyone in a storm but perhaps being in a field of metal holding metal would increase literally anyone’s odds.
He ran back to the gate as fast as he could, feeling satisfied in what he took away from it. Sure, he came to beat up things and throw stuff around, but this was so much better.
He ventured home.
Once cleaned and tidied up, discarding his shoes in his room on a towel and changing out his clothes, Speed took a hold on the pipe once more and headed out into the dorm hallway. His hair was still wet but he had towel dried it enough to give it an unruly, wispy lift that would begin drying. He walked briskly towards Lucy’s room.
In front of her door, he knocked gently. She was swift to open the door. Lucy stood there, frowning at him.
“Oh, you want to talk?” Lucy said, clearly still upset by what he said earlier.
He sighed and lifted up the pipe, offering it to her as a gift. Lucy looked down at it, brought her eyebrows together, and the anger fizzled out. She gingerly took it from him and blinked.
“I’m sorry. I really should always listen to you,” Speed admitted.
“Thank you,” Lucy said quietly, “This… did you make it? It’s bent into the shape of a heart.”
He nodded. She blinked with a soft swallow, followed by a budding smile and a gently tearful eye before hugging him tightly.
“I love you,” she whispered into his shoulder. The warmth of her body was no match for the heat he felt inside, like a flame that engulfed his very being. He couldn’t stop himself if he wanted to from smiling back.
“I love you, too.”