Toy Story (Andy's toys) [1/2]
Title: Toy Story (Andy’s toys)
Pairing: Andy Murray/Novak Djokovic
Other characters: Winnie the Pooh, Piglet, Eeyore, Tigger, Snoopy, Garfield, Gizmo, Dory
Rating: PG-13
Word count: 2,885
Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters and this is a fiction.
Warning: The toys might not be kind and innocent at times. (But I’m not trying to destroy your childhood!)
Summary: Andy’s toys face a serious challenge as Andy brings his boyfriend home.
Author’s note: The story is obviously inspired by the great animated movie ‘Toy Story’, so it’s half-AU. I remember reading about how Andy had Winnie the Pooh and Eeyore among his stuff when he moved to the big mansion he’s living in right now :) The story is set after the semifinal matches of Roland Garros.
For those who aren’t familiar with Dory and Gizmo: Dory is the female fish from ‘Finding Nemo’ who has an extremely short memory span. Gizmo is the creature from ‘Gremlin’ and it turns into a monster (Gremlin) if it eats after midnight or gets in contact with water or sunlight.
Part I
In front of the window of Andy’s bedroom…
“Is he coming?” Piglet asked, feeling thirsty again. He had drunk a whole glass of orange juice, but his throat kept getting dry.
“Not yet. Trust me, Piglet. You’ll be the first one to know if I see the tip of our boy’s frizzy hair.” Tigger answered, looking through his binoculars.
“You said that last time too! When he came back from the States, remember? Andy was already in the house before we knew it!”
“That was a mistake! Snoopy’s ears kept tickling me! I had to scratch my legs!” Tigger pouted.
Snoopy snorted as he brushed his ears with Andy’s hairbrush. “Sure. If something goes wrong, you always blame the dog.”
“Well, just don’t make a mistake this time. How hard can it be? If you see a car stop in front of the house, you let us know, okay?”
“Okay! Now be quiet so I can focus on my job.”
“Meh…”
Piglet knew that he shouldn’t trust Tigger on such important matters, but Tigger was the only toy who could climb up the window and who was light enough not to fall backwards while standing on the windowsill.
It was a big day at the Murray household; it was the day that their boy came home after the best clay season of his career. The toys had been up early getting ready for the joyful occasion. They had brushed themselves, had cleaned up Andy’s bedroom, and every toy had written at least one letter on the ‘Welcome home, Andy!’ placard.
“Ah, I can’t believe he’s finally coming home! I’ve been dying to lick the back of his hand ever since he lost his semifinal match yesterday.” Eeyore wiped a tear with one of Dory’s fins.
The blue donkey hadn’t been able to stop wagging his tail since breakfast. He had missed Andy so much; Andy always caressed his hairy tail with such love and care.
“He’ll be staying with us for over ten days!” Pooh sighed with content as he dipped his finger in his honey jar again. Honey had never tasted better.
“Wake me up when he gets here. I knew I woke up too early.” Garfield yawned and tried to get comfortable in his purple bed. As the eldest toy of the house, he needed to sleep as much as he could.
“Cats are such lazy species.” Snoopy made sure that his voice was loud enough for the cat to hear. He hated cats to his guts. He didn’t have anything personal against Garfield; it was just a dog’s duty to despise lower forms of creature such as cats.
Garfield didn’t bother to shoot back at the beagle -too tired- and fell asleep at the sound of Dory checking the flight arrival information on Andy’s computer.
“Oh, I see that Andy’s plane has landed half an hour ago!” Dory announced with delight as Snoopy busied himself in front of the mirror, trying to figure out which outfit would please his owner the most.
At first, he had wanted to wear his tennis outfit and a visor or dress up as a ball beagle, but Andy might be tired of seeing anything related to tennis. So he had opted to wear his World War I flying ace costume, but it didn’t feel like the most welcoming outfit.
‘Golf wear it is then. He likes golf even if he’s terrible at it. Besides, it looks comfortable and relaxing.’
Snoopy made his choice and started to get dressed as Dory gasped.
“Oh my god! Andy’s plane has landed half an hour ago!”
“Yes, Dory. We heard you the first time.” Pooh responded as he finished helping Gizmo wear his spacesuit. He wasn’t supposed to get in direct contact with sunlight.
The owner of these toys, Andy Murray, was twenty-four years old. Most toy owners grew out of their toys when they went to high school or college, but Andy still loved them dearly. He had sent a lot of toys to the neighbor kids throughout the years, but unlike Jamie who gave all his toys to a charity group when he moved out of the house, Andy still hung onto these eight toys and kept them on top of his chest of drawers.
There were times when his mother, relatives or friends laughed at him for keeping stuffed animals at his age, but Andy tried to ignore their mocking. He had grown up with these toys, and they had gone through tough times with him right by his side. Andy had been thankful for their existence and he wasn’t going to betray them even though he needed them much less nowadays.
Luckily for the toys, they got a chance to see their owner grow up into a great tennis player and a fine young man. While most of the other toys never really knew what their owner did when he was out of the house, Andy’s toys could keep track of him. They watched Andy’s matches on television, listened to his interviews on the radio, and read articles and match analyses on the computer. When Andy won, they smiled together. When Andy lost, they cried together. Ever since Andy had become a professional player, that had been their everyday lives.
The toys knew that they were in good hands; Andy dusted them every two weeks, put milk and cookies on the top of the chest of drawers every once in a while, and checked if anyone needed any stitches. He had also been fair to them, making sure that every toy got to travel with him on a regular basis. Each and every day, the toys felt like they were becoming more and more involved in Andy’s life even when they had stopped playing with him a long time ago.
Andy occasionally had a girlfriend or boyfriend, but the toys knew that the person would soon be gotten rid of. But just when the toys were happy that the girl with long hair who used to bring a dog in the house had left Andy, a boy with short, prickly hair had stepped into his life. And, by the looks of how things were going, he didn’t seem to be going anywhere for quite some time.
“Do you think he’ll bring Novak with him today? He lost yesterday too.” Eeyore asked.
“I hope he does! He has the most amazing legs I’ve ever seen!” Dory wiped off some drool with her fin.
“I hope he doesn’t! It’s not like I mind Novak. It’s just that he gets to see Andy all year on tour when we get such few opportunities to have Andy to ourselves.” Pooh looked up at the calendar. Andy would leave for Wimbledon before they felt like they have spent enough time with him.
Tigger cleared his throat. “I do mind Novak, just to be clear. He keeps kissing Andy everywhere.”
“It’s an act of love.” Snoopy held up one toe to make his point.
“Whatever. Kim didn’t do that.” Tigger focused his attention on the binoculars again. He thought that he heard some noise coming from a car engine.
“Hey, be nice. At least he doesn’t bring a dog that chews us.” Piglet shuddered at the memory of Maggie licking him on the stomach and chewing his ears.
“That dog even tried to steal some of my honey.” Pooh held on tightly to his honey jar, relieved that Novak had never attempted to put a finger on his jar.
“Oh, guys! Look! Andy’s plane has landed thirty minutes ago!”
“Thank you, Dory. I think we all know that by now.” Just when Snoopy reassured Dory, Eeyore and Piglet noticed how Tigger’s tail had suddenly gotten all stiff.
“Andy’s home!” Eeyore, Piglet and Tigger all yelled out at the same time.
Snoopy kicked Garfield in the foot to wake him up, and every toy got in position on top of the chest of drawers.
“I’m home!”
Andy locked the front door behind him and dragged his luggage into his room. He was well aware that nobody was home, but he liked to say it out loud for the rare occasions that he was actually home.
‘Welcome home, Andy!’
The placard above the toys brought a smile to the Scot’s face. ‘Aww, how cute! Did the maid write that?’
The letters looked a little funny as if a bunch of kids had written it, but Andy liked it whomever it was from.
“So how did my favorite playthings spend the week? Watched the titanic battle I had with Rafa yesterday?”
Andy took off his jacket, thinking for a second that he had seen Eeyore nod. Apparently, the clay season had worn him out more than he had thought.
“Not a bad clay season, you know. Did well in Monte Carlo and Rome, and I think I played pretty well these two weeks. Besides, I’m firmly inside the top four once more. No need to worry about rankings for now.”
“Take that, Soderling!”
Piglet quickly shut his mouth in horror, hoping that he hadn’t been as loud as he sounded. The code of conduct 101 for all toys on the planet was ‘Do not let human beings know that you are alive.’
Andy got stuck mid-way in his T-shirt, wondering if he had actually heard a tiny voice mentioning Robin’s name.
‘Damn, I really need some quality sleep.’
So without even a cup of tea or a round of PlayStation games, he changed into his pyjamas and went straight to bed in the middle of the day.
Twelve hours later…
‘Huh…’
Andy woke up in the middle of the night and found all of his stuffed animals asleep in his arms. Apparently, he had missed his toys and must have woken up at some point to get them.
‘Well, I do love them.’
He gave the toys a gentle squeeze and thought about what he should do for the week. No yellow, fuzzy balls, no balding trainers, no nasty gym workouts. He was free for over a week.
‘I’m definitely going to try that new game on PlayStation. And, I should check if I have enough condoms for when Nole gets here. Oh, didn’t he want to try that strawberry lube? I should check that one out.’
He made a list inside his head and looked down at Pooh’s honey jar. Judging by how tasty the honey looked, Andy knew that he was hungry.
“Okay, guys, time to wake up. A round of tea and pancakes, then we’re going to play some serious PlayStation all night!”
Andy got up from his bed and sprinted out of the room with his whole toy family.
For a day and a half, the toys had nothing to complain about. Andy stayed at home and had given them their biannual bath in a little basin -except for Gizmo who hated water. They ate together in the living room while watching TV and napped together on the hammock in the garden. But things had gotten very different in the past two hours. Novak was about to arrive.
“Is he coming?” Piglet asked Tigger who was once again in charge of the binoculars.
“Not yet. But I can see Andy wiggling his tail like a puppy, waiting for his master to come home and pat him on the head.”
“You mean, to kiss the life out of him.” Snoopy corrected him.
“Aww, how romantic! I think Novak might be the right boy for him!” Dory clapped her fins, excited about their boy’s personal life.
“Guys, I think he’s here. Andy’s hair just stood up!” Tigger told the toys and everybody hurried to the front door.
“Come on in.” Andy pushed the door open for his boyfriend and noticed that the toys were sitting on the floor.
‘Huh… When did I bring them out of the room? Obviously I keep forgetting things.’ Scratching the back of his neck, he took one of Novak’s bags and closed the door.
“Aww, I haven’t seen them in a while. Hey, you put a golf costume on Snoopy. Very cute!” Novak got down on his knees and picked up the beagle. Andy thought that he saw Snoopy give Garfield the finger, but it couldn’t be real.
‘Wow, it’s not sleep I’m lacking then. It’s food? Sex? By the way, that golf outfit, when did I dress him like that? Before I left for Monte Carlo? I knew he looked different when I saw him yesterday. But I don’t remember changing his clothes. I only remember I was busy putting Nole posters on the wall.’
As soon as Novak put Snoopy down, Andy gathered all of his toys and rushed into the bedroom.
“I don’t have a problem with them, Andy. You know that. No need to hide them in a hurry.” Novak followed his love interest into the room.
“It’s not that. It’s just…”
Andy shut his mouth. He wasn’t going to tell his boyfriend how he had been seeing his toys move and hearing words coming out of their mouths. He didn’t want to look crazy in the eyes of the guy he had fallen in love with.
“Are you hungry?” He changed the topic.
“Not really. I ate on the plane.” Novak explained as he kicked off his shoes and took off his jacket.
“Good. Cause we’ve got things to do.”
Andy pulled the Serb into his arms and hoped that he would be back to normal after an arousing round of sex.
Meanwhile the toys were showing different reactions to the lovemaking scene.
“Oh, here comes the fun part.” Snoopy sat back and enjoyed some popcorn. Andy was too busy to see or hear anything else than Novak.
“Uh… guys, I don’t think we’re supposed to watch this. Andy probably thinks we’re sitting here innocently studying the patterns on the wall or something.” Tigger covered his eyes with his paws.
“But it’s hard to tear our eyes away.” Gizmo rolled his big eyes as he saw Andy’s mouth work his way down Novak’s chest.
“Remember, guys! We’re designed to stay away from anything that’s not related to children.” Piglet joined Tigger and closed his eyes while folding his ears.
“But we have to adapt! Andy still enjoys our company and he’s not a child anymore!” Dory fanned her face with her fins. The room was getting hot.
“This isn’t adapting! It’s violating his privacy!” Pooh stuck his head inside his honey jar.
“I don’t think Andy would notice even if we danced Kumbaya in the middle of the room.” Garfield gave his opinion and took a picture of Andy and Novak.
Snoopy looked at him with a disgusted face. “And they wonder why cats are the lowest of the low.”
“Hey, I’m doing this for all of us. It’s an insurance policy. When Andy finally decides to throw us away, we’ll show him this picture.” Garfield took another picture in case the first one didn’t capture their faces properly.
“We’re not going to blackmail our Andy!” Dory gushed.
“Oh god, Andy… Right there.” Novak let out a long moan and all the toys froze. Things were starting to get dirty.
Two days later…
“He has to go. We’re better off without him.” Tigger announced.
“But he’s nice! And, he really seems to care about our Andy.” Dory thought about how Novak had made a nice English breakfast for Andy this morning.
“Not more than we do!” Gizmo yelled.
“But we don’t want to see Andy sulking alone in front of the TV all day. He looks happy these days. I even heard him sing in the showers.” Piglet pointed out.
“But because of Novak, we can’t sleep in Andy’s arms anymore!” Eeyore had little tears in his eyes. He had a nice blanket to sleep on but it was nothing compared to the warmth of Andy’s arms.
Garfield felt bad for the toys that missed Andy who was right in front of their eyes. “We don’t have to break them up, you know. We just need Novak to leave early. They’ll see each other soon enough in London.”
The compromise appealed to all the toys and soon Garfield found himself planning the operation.
TO BE CONTINUED...