Disclaimer: I do not own Cars or any related characters. This was written out of enjoyment of the movie, and no profit is being made.

Key Relationships: Lightning/Sally Romance, Lightning/Mater and Lightning/Doc Friendship
Warnings: One mentioning of puberty
Other Info: Humanized (When I imagine the cars as humans, I imagine they have the same colour hair and wear the same colour as their car counterpart. Weird, I know. Just to clear things up.)

The Letter L

When he was a little boy, playing with building blocks and soft plastic toys, he learned the alphabet. And, of course, he had learned the letters in his name first. His name had a lot of letters; two Is, two Ns, two Gs. But it had only one L. And that was the first letter he learned.

His mother would hold the alphabet book in front of him, and she'd ask, in that twinkling voice, "What does L stand for?"

And he'd say, "Lion, laundry, lemonade."

"And?" She'd press him for more information, eyes shining.

"Lightning!" he'd shout proudly, and then his mother swooped him up into her arms and tickled him.

Later, when that little boy grew up and his body and his voice and his attitude changed, (as everyone's does) he still knew that L stood for Lightning. In fact, it was part of his favourite part of life: himself.

That, and winning. He loved winning.

But then, as we all knew he must, he changed again, and this time for the better. He had friends and a home and a crew chief again.

But even with all that, he didn't have a mother. Granted, he had Flo, who was plenty motherly to everyone. All the same, one day he remembered this little game his mother used to play with him, and thought. Which was something he didn't do very often.

So he decided to play the game again.

---

"What does the letter L stand for?"

"Yeah."

Sally raises a sky blue eyebrow. She's probably wondering why he would ask such a random question as they sit out under the desert stars on the hood of her car. She probably also wonders why he looks so curious.

But she smiles and says, "That's easy. It stands for love."

There is a pause, and her eyes become closer. He wonders how he had never noticed how beautiful green eyes could be until he saw hers, but then they're kissing, and he can't think anymore.

---

"Whut does th' letter L stan' fo'?"

Lightning can't help laughing a little under his breath as Mater repeats the question. "Yeah, what's the first word you think of?"

Mater stares blankly at the racer sitting across from him at Flo's café table and says, "Whut in tarnation kind o' quesshun is that?"

"I don't know, Mater, it's just a question I thought of."

The rusty haired boy's face twists as he thinks. Finally, he grins, showing his slightly yellowed teeth, and says, "Laffter."

"Laughter?"

"Yeah, yo' know? Like sharin' a laff wif mah bess buddy!" He leans over and punches the said buddy on the arm.

Lightning chuckles. "Yeah."

"So, cow tippin' tonight?"

"No way, I nearly got ran over last time."

"Never stopped us befo'."

---

"What does the letter L stand for?"

Doc Hudson repeats this, blue eyes still focused on the horizon. Lightning stands next to the car, away from the guard rail that the doctor stands so near to. For some reason, on the day where Lightning is going to ask this question, his crew-chief decides to drive him up to the tourist look out ridge for no apparent reason. ("Carpe diem," he had muttered.) He stands right at the edge, and the wind whips his bristly dark blue hair.

Lightning watches as the racing legend removes his navy jacket and places it on the hood of his car. He closes his eyes and breathes in the quickly moving air. "Life."

The rookie doesn't know what to make of this. Any of this. Dragging him up to a lookout point, only to watch him stand at the edge of a cliff staring face first into the strong gusts. He wonders how this man can just do this.

But all the same, he unzips his #95 jacket, places it next to his mentor's on the roof of the car, and stands next to him. The wind ruffles his messy red hair, and makes him squint. He turns to look at the older man beside him. They smile at each other, although the younger doesn't even know why.

Love…Laughter…Life…

He decides he's satisfied with his answers.

Constructive criticism is always appreciated. Thanks for reading, and tell me what you think!