Chapter Text
"Are you sure about this?" Cruz asked as Lightning examined his locks in the mirror.
"It's been like five years of long hair," he said, pulling out the ponytail holder. "And I'm getting older, time to embrace it."
"Darn, won't be able to put it in a bun anymore," Sally complained as she reached over the sink to ruffle her husband's hair.
Cruz giggled and opened the cabinet to look for the scissors. After a moment of rummaging through medicines and bandages, she found the silver tool. She closed the cabinet and did a couple test chops in the air.
"Alright, how we doin' this?" She asked, waving the scissors for Lightning and Sally to consider.
"You're not doing it!" Lightning shouted, leaning forward on his stool perch. As if she wouldn't be able to reach his head if he did that.
Cruz laughed at her mentor's concerned actions. Sally reached over and took the scissors from her.
"I've got this," She promised, moving so she stood behind Lightning. "I cut me and and my sister's hair all the time."
She leaned back to Cruz. "When we were nine," She whispered so only the younger girl could hear. Cruz raised her hand to her mouth to suppress her laughter.
Considering, the haircut went pretty well. After Sally used the scissors to cut the top of his head to a good length, Lightning got out an electric razor, which he promised he could do himself. He leaned in super close to the mirror and started going at the sides. Cruz didn't really feel like watching the man murmur about shaky hands, so she went to go find herself a snack.
As she stood rummaging in the kitchen cupboard, she couldn't help but think about how lucky she'd gotten.
Cruz had been skeptical about coming to Radiator Springs at first. She'd never even left California before, but when Lightning suggested training and living in Arizona, she'd eventually been compelled to oblige. Lightning and Sally let Cruz live in their house with them and gave her a room for herself, which she'd never had the privilege of in the foster homes growing up.
The people in Radiator Springs were definitely one of the best parts about it. She remembered when she first arrived and Mater had greeted her most enthusiastically out of everyone. He sort of felt like a really fun uncle to her, especially when he let her do stuff that made Sheriff yell at them.
She also loved Flo and Ramone. In her first week in town, she must've helped Ramone detail his car three different times, and Flo had given her enough free food from the cafe to feed a whole family.
She'd also helped Luigi and Guido stack tires where the short men couldn't reach. She'd sat while Sarge explained how they couldn't let their government be corrupted. Fillmore had let her watch him make his organic fuel, which she had refused to put in her car. Lizzie had told her all about Stanley, and Red had even driven her around in the firetruck.
The people in Radiator Springs all felt like one big family, and Cruz was so excited to be welcomed into it. She would've liked to meet one of its integral members though.
Cruz listened to people talk about Doc all the time. Whenever a conversation regarding the town commenced, he was always brought up. Lightning reminisced about him almost constantly as well. Cruz knew that he had seen Doc as almost a father. She was pretty sure that was only after Doc died though. He spoke about it almost like he regretted not doing it when Doc was still around.
"My dad was a pretty special guy," Cruz remembered Lightning saying to a reporter outside of Florida speedway once. "One of the greatest racers to ever exist. He taught me everything I know and I wish he could be here to see all the stuff I'm doing now."
Cruz thought about all of this often. A year ago when she'd been offered the training job at Rusteeze, she never would've imagined that she would have this life now, a life with a family, a sense of belonging, and as a racer.
"What do we think?" Lightning asked after exiting the bathroom. He did a spin so Sally and Cruz could get a full 360 of his hair.
"It's so much shorter," Cruz observed, shoving the cereal she had been snacking on into her mouth. It was shorter than she'd ever seen it.
"It kinda looks like it did when we first met," Sally added as she sat at another chair at the kitchen table.
Lightning nodded and ran his fingers through his hair. "Twenty year old Lightning McQueen had some good hair."
Sally gave Cruz a look like she might not quite agree. Then she started giggling at Lightning's face when she did so.
"My hair was fabulous and you know it," He argued.
Sally shrugged her shoulders and stood again. "The motel's check-in starts in ten minutes. We've got at least three people scheduled."
"Wow," Cruz said sarcastically through a mouth of cereal. It was mostly a joke. Three people coming to the motel was a pretty average day. Even after Lightning had brought a little fame to the town, it was still pretty small.
Sally laughed at Cruz's remark, kissed her husband's cheek, and left out the back door where she could walk right up to the office of the Cozy Cone.
That evening, after check-ins were over, Lightning, Sally, and Cruz walked into town. Into town wasn't very far though. Someone could walk through the entire town in less than ten minutes.
The group headed to Flo's. It was the usual gathering spot for the other residents and Lightning was eager to show off his new haircut. When they arrived, the sun was starting to set and all the lights were turned on. Flo and Ramone were sitting at a table near the gas pumps, talking to Mater and Sheriff. Sarge and Fillmore were parked in the empty drive, probably watching the street light.
"Hey speedsters!" Cruz heard Ramone shout. "Come settle a debate for us!"
Cruz ran a little to get there first.
"Hey sugar," Flo greeted her. She sipped a soda and had a cooler with more in them by her feet. Cruz helped herself to one. Ramone and Sheriff seemed to be in a heated discussion.
"You can't speed down main street Ramone," Sheriff said gruffly. "And that's that."
Ramone shook his hand, waving the statement off. "Have you seen that car? It would be a crime to not try it out. Besides I can count the amount of people who drive down main street a week on one hand."
Sheriff shook his head in an absolutely not way. "It's still very dangerous."
Ramone sighed. "Come on Sheriff, it's me. You know I'd be careful. Am I right, Mater?"
"Uuh," Mater clearly didn't want to agree or disagree with either of them.
Cruz didn't have any interest in joining in on the conversation. They would figure it out eventually.
"What's with your hair?" Flo asked, a little shocked. Lightning and Sally had just made their way to the table.
"It was time for a change," Lightning shrugged. "Couldn't have the same haircut from when I was thirty forever."
"Especially since you're thirty-six," Sally nudged him. He feigned a shocked expression and the majority of the table laughed at him.
"So are we excited for the racing season to start again?" Ramone asked suddenly. He and Sheriff had apparently abandoned their argument.
"The most excited I've been for a season in a while," Lightning responded. "It's gonna be different this time."
Different. He could only be referring to her presence on the track.
"Well I'm excited," Mater interjected. "It's been a minute since we've had something to buzz about around here."
The rest of the group continued talking, but Cruz thought about the upcoming season. It would be her first full one. She'd only raced in a couple last year and it was so new then that it felt almost like a fun little game.
The system they'd come up with was pretty interesting. She and Lightning would race for the same team, a Dincoco and Rusteeze combined one. They would alternate what places and events they raced in.
Cruz had been pretty excited about it first, but now she had her doubts. She was going to be different from any other racers out there, not to mention she was one of the only female drivers.
She was thinking about this when she felt a hand on her shoulder.
"Yeah, Cruz will help me get it." Lightning was saying, urging her to stand. Oil crates aren't that heavy."
She hadn't been listening, but she assumed Flo had asked if they would go get the crates of oil for her. They were heavy and Flo had trouble carrying them. Ramone also apparently had a bad back from falling off of something in his shop, which Cruz had laughed at a lot when she first heard the story.
Lightning and her walked around the side of the cafe where Flo had things delivered. There were six crates in two stacks. Cruz walked closer and looked at the bottles. It wasn't actual motor oil, but the most important ingredient in Flo's most famous drink. All of her drinks were named after things having to do with cars. Whenever someone asked her what the secret ingredient was, she always told them motor oil, which is where the joke had come from.
Cruz picked at the wrapping while Lightning rolled up his jacket sleeves to get ready to lift.
"Hey, you okay kiddo?" He asked her. She must've looked nervous or something.
She shrugged. "Just worried about the start of the season I guess."
He examined her facial expression for a moment before sitting on the curb. He patted the ground next to him, prompting her to sit. She obliged and pulled her jacket a little closer to herself.
"There's nothing to be worried about, you know," He started. "It's just racing, which you're great at."
Cruz nodded. "I don't know, I just feel like I'm gonna be different or something."
Lightning chewed his lip in thought. "Well," He said, wrapping a comforting arm around her. "I'm gonna be there every step of the way, and I don't think Sally's been this excited to cheer for someone in a long time."
Cruz chuckled. She and Lightning both knew that Sally was her husband's biggest fan and would probably never get tired of cheering for him.
"And maybe you won't be as different as you think." Lightning said as he stood to go back to the oil crates. It should've been a very simple statement. Just a little something to soothe Cruz, but she couldn't help but feel like there was something more behind it.
"What did you mean by that?" She asked, also standing up.
"Nothing," Lightning responded, not making eye contact. "Just that you never know." He bent down to the lowest crate in his stack and picked up the whole thing.
Cruz wasn't completely satisfied with that answer, but she decided to move on. There were more important things in life than her dad's cryptic wording of things.
Her mentor. That's what she meant.
The pair rounded back around the building, each carrying a stack of oil. They took them inside the cafe and behind the counter. Once they made it back outside and to the table, the rest of the group was laughing about something they had just missed. If anyone noticed they took a little longer than they should, they didn't say anything.
Lightning nudged Cruz. She looked up at him and he whispered to her. "Besides, you don't have to be worried about being different when you've got this family."
Cruz went to bed that night not worried about the racing season. That was after Lightning had made her and Sally listen to his rendition of Write This Down the whole walk home of course.