Cars 2: Holley Shiftwell Decides to Live
Warnings: Spoilers for Cars 2!
Fandom: Cars
Title: Holley Shiftwell Decides to Live
Rating: K+
Pairings: Mater/Holley
Summary: En route to Radiator Springs, she is forced to decide what dents mean to her.
"I think you're wrong about that."
Finn paused and looked over at Holley, who did not look back, instead keeping her focus on the deactivated monitor at the far end of Siddeley's cabin.
Oookay...?
"Wrong about what, exactly, Miss Shiftwell?"
"What you told Mater, about friendships being dangerous." She kept her gaze on the monitor, on her own frame reflected by the glass, and Finn wondered who exactly her seemingly marshaled reply was targeted at. "If we are to die tomorrow, shouldn't that make friendships all the more important now? Should we be all the more adamant in pursuing them?"
That was... quite a naive point of view to have in the face of the dangers of espionage. She was ignoring factors he knew she knew and he knew she had been trained to remind rookie field agents of, but Finn couldn't bring himself to remind her. He couldn't bring himself to ask her not to be naive about things like that when she was so young. When she still had such a long career ahead of her that would be spent mostly in dank cubbyholes with nothing but the light of her personal screen, and a headset to whisper commands to field agents while said field agents got to have all the fun and what exactly did the technical department like about their jobs so much?
And why, to begin with, was she randomly acting so antagonistic towards him? Holley continued to look, detached, into the black screen, turning to better see the dent in her frame while the buffing machine hung forlorn all of two feet behind her.
Ah.
Finn sighed. A troubled agent was a distracted agent.
"Miss Shiftwell, if you are going to go so far as to defend friendships in a line of work where every day could be your last, you might as well be completely honest with yourself and vouch for romantic relationships alongside them."
And she finally looked at him. Holley spun sharply towards Finn, and every drop of blue paint seemed to have drained from her front bumper. "I... I don't believe that's any of your business!"
Yes. A very distracted agent.
"Of course," he said with a chivalrous bow. "Do forgive my manners; I think being accompanied by Sir Mater for so long has eroded at my sense of tact. Quite the honest bloke, isn't he?"
Holley's blush intensified as her eyes shot around the room and eventually focused back on her new best friend, the monitor. Finn gave her a moment to respond, which she took full advantage of before her meek reply of "...He is."
And her eyes quit faltering.
"So, Miss Shiftwell, about that dent-"
"I'm keeping it."
"Very good, then."
-------
A/N: It felt important for me that Holley had an internal struggle with her feelings for Mater. While their subplot wasn't the main emotional arc of the movie and wasn't allotted much time, I fully believe that she had some inner conflict off-screen between the point of "Thanks... I think." and "I'm Mater's girlfriend."
And yeah, I know cars probably can't blush. I'm usually really good with not giving human attributes to non-human characters so... let me have a little fun with blushing. :P
Fandom: Cars
Title: Holley Shiftwell Decides to Live
Rating: K+
Pairings: Mater/Holley
Summary: En route to Radiator Springs, she is forced to decide what dents mean to her.
"I think you're wrong about that."
Finn paused and looked over at Holley, who did not look back, instead keeping her focus on the deactivated monitor at the far end of Siddeley's cabin.
Oookay...?
"Wrong about what, exactly, Miss Shiftwell?"
"What you told Mater, about friendships being dangerous." She kept her gaze on the monitor, on her own frame reflected by the glass, and Finn wondered who exactly her seemingly marshaled reply was targeted at. "If we are to die tomorrow, shouldn't that make friendships all the more important now? Should we be all the more adamant in pursuing them?"
That was... quite a naive point of view to have in the face of the dangers of espionage. She was ignoring factors he knew she knew and he knew she had been trained to remind rookie field agents of, but Finn couldn't bring himself to remind her. He couldn't bring himself to ask her not to be naive about things like that when she was so young. When she still had such a long career ahead of her that would be spent mostly in dank cubbyholes with nothing but the light of her personal screen, and a headset to whisper commands to field agents while said field agents got to have all the fun and what exactly did the technical department like about their jobs so much?
And why, to begin with, was she randomly acting so antagonistic towards him? Holley continued to look, detached, into the black screen, turning to better see the dent in her frame while the buffing machine hung forlorn all of two feet behind her.
Ah.
Finn sighed. A troubled agent was a distracted agent.
"Miss Shiftwell, if you are going to go so far as to defend friendships in a line of work where every day could be your last, you might as well be completely honest with yourself and vouch for romantic relationships alongside them."
And she finally looked at him. Holley spun sharply towards Finn, and every drop of blue paint seemed to have drained from her front bumper. "I... I don't believe that's any of your business!"
Yes. A very distracted agent.
"Of course," he said with a chivalrous bow. "Do forgive my manners; I think being accompanied by Sir Mater for so long has eroded at my sense of tact. Quite the honest bloke, isn't he?"
Holley's blush intensified as her eyes shot around the room and eventually focused back on her new best friend, the monitor. Finn gave her a moment to respond, which she took full advantage of before her meek reply of "...He is."
And her eyes quit faltering.
"So, Miss Shiftwell, about that dent-"
"I'm keeping it."
"Very good, then."
-------
A/N: It felt important for me that Holley had an internal struggle with her feelings for Mater. While their subplot wasn't the main emotional arc of the movie and wasn't allotted much time, I fully believe that she had some inner conflict off-screen between the point of "Thanks... I think." and "I'm Mater's girlfriend."
And yeah, I know cars probably can't blush. I'm usually really good with not giving human attributes to non-human characters so... let me have a little fun with blushing. :P