Road Trip

(A/N: This was an idea that's been poking at me for a while. This story won't be so much a flowing chapter to chapter story as much as it'll be a series of oneshots along the way, though I suppose it works as a chapter story too because they all flow together and are in chronological order. While I'm not a fan of the Sid/Andy romance, I'm a huge fan of the Sid/Andy bromance, and so I really wanted to focus on something with them as friends with a little ho yay sprinkled in along the way. Kind of an experimental story. If it's liked I may do more with these two. Enjoy.)

Along for the Ride

Andy Davis drove down the road softly smiling. It was a bittersweet smile, and a bittersweet time. This was finally leaving the last remnants of his childhood behind. This was setting off on his own, alone. He would fend for himself now, at least for the most part. He hadn't completely transitioned to the stage of manhood yet. That would come after he had built a career for himself, had a home of his own and possibly a family, etc; but for now this was pretty close. He looked in the rear-view mirror back at the house he was leaving and the neighbors. This was the neighborhood and town that he had called home. In that place he had been safe and protected and loved. Now it was time to leave it behind and push forth by himself. His whole life was ahead of him… But he hadn't even begun to think it would ever be this hard and painful to let his old one go… Maybe he wasn't ready for this after all. Maybe you were never really ready, though. Andy waved at a neighbor who was waving goodbye as he passed.

A garbage truck was parked just up the road by a curb. One of the garbage men was loading it up while the other sat in the driver's seat reading a paper and eating a donut. The one loading it up was 'jamming out' to a tune from his music player and scatting along with it as he tossed the garbage into the back. He came around the garbage truck's side and spotted a car driving down the road. He smirked and hopped around, banging on the side of the garbage truck. It started to drive off, but he didn't hold on. Instead he headed towards the oncoming car and ran right in front of it, banging on the hood and vaulting over the hood.

Andy, who had been focused on the neighbor, hadn't even see it until too late to stop. He looked ahead and cried, "Whoa!" He jammed on the brakes—it would have been too late, he knew, if the moron racing in front of him hadn't known what he was doing—and gawked as said garbage man banged on his hood and vaulted over it as it was still moving. Before Andy could even recover himself or fully come to a stop, the passenger door was opened and the garbage man swung slash flopped right in, slamming the door and leaning back, kicking his feet up onto the dashboard.

Toy Story

"Going somewhere oh buddy oh pal o' mine?" the garbage man asked, leaning back.

Andy, heart rate finally slowing down, shook out of it and frowned. "You know I could have killed you, right?" he demanded in a more peeved than angry tone.

"Pfft, I knew what I was doing," the garbage man replied. "You apparently not so much. Tsk, tsk, tsk, first rule of driving, Andy boy, keep your eyes on the road."

"Darn you, Sid," Andy replied, starting to drive again.

"Darn? Really? No, no, that's not what normal people say. It's—say it with me now—D-a-m-n. Da…" Sid Phillips prompted.

"How about I go next level and say the worse one?" Andy asked.

"Even better! Give it to me," Sid insisted.

"No," Andy deadpanned.

"Come on! What the hell is so hard about saying damn or f**k?" Sid heckled.

"You know what, go wash your mouth out with this," Andy said, taking out a bar of soap from one of his bags and tossing it to the other. "My car, my rules. Why don't you get your own ride? You can be as 'bad a-s-s' as you want in that."

Sid looked incredulously at the bar of soap and sniffed. He burst into laughter. "Brown sugar cinnamon, really? Oh you've got to be kidding me. Gay much?"

"Derogatory term. Strike two. And for your information it wasn't my choice! Mom bought it for me and I didn't want to hurt her feelings! Besides, you have to admit is smells nice," Andy defended immediately.

"Oh god, you wouldn't last a second in prison," Sid said.

"Luckily I'm not on the fast track to getting there. Unlike some people I could name," Andy replied, smirking.

"That was one time!" Sid heatedly defended. Andy laughed. "You know what, I can tell when I'm not wanted," he bit. He opened the car door.

"Holy sh… crap!" Andy exclaimed, instinctively hitting the brakes again. Sid yelped, almost falling out. Andy reached out, pulling him back then leaning over him and slamming the door shut. Sid began to laugh. "Are you crazy?!" Andy demanded.

"I had it under control," Sid replied. "If you hadn't hit the brakes I would have be fine."

"Put on the dang seatbelt! Now!" Andy shot sharply. Sid shrugged and obeyed. Andy pushed a button on his door.

"What's that?" Sid asked.

"I'm child locking you in, you idiot!" Andy snapped.

"Demeaning," Sid sang out.

"About appropriate for your maturity level!" Andy angrily said. He started the car again and began to drive. Sid shrugged, letting it slide. He honestly had that coming, so he wasn't overly offended by it.

Toy Story

"So, where you want me to drop you off?" Andy asked after a moment of silence. Well, semi-silence given Sid was scatting and jamming to his tunes.

"Nowhere, man, I'm in it for the long haul," Sid replied.

"You do know I'm heading out of town, right?" Andy asked.

"All the better. Road trip," Sid said.

"I have Woody," Andy threatened.

"Don't even go there!" Sid sharply said, all but hissing like a vampire at the mention of the cowboy doll. "I swear to god, Andy, if you bring that creepy mother…"

"Sid," Andy warned.

"If you bring it out I'm jumping from the car if I have to break the damn window!" Sid finished.

"Why are you so creeped out by Woody anyway?" Andy asked.

"It talked to me, Andy. Not its set phrases even, it talked. And walked!" Sid insisted. "I am not crazy!"

"I know… You know, I honestly believe you. Woody was special… Kind of wish he'd talked to me…"

"No. No you don't," Sid deadpanned, shuddering in revulsion at the memory. But if Andy had had Woody, he probably would have known by now, so he was pretty sure he'd left the toy behind. "Was as bad as finding out monsters existed in an urban setting goodness knows where that could be accessed via closet."

"Mmm hmm. Don't you have a job to go back to?" Andy demanded.

"Pfft, not like they'll miss me," Sid answered, brushing it off.

Toy Story

Meanwhile, the other garbage man waited for garbage to be tossed into the back. And waited, and waited, and waited. Finally he got out, calling, "Hey Sid… Huh?" Sid wasn't there! "Damn kid," the man grumbled, frowning. "Always pulls this s**t." In a foul temper, now, the garbage man went to toss the bags into the back.

Toy Story

"You're sad, you know that?" Andy asked him.

"Yep," Sid answered.

Andy sighed and looked ahead. A moment of sadness came to his eyes. "Guess you know where I'm headed," he said.

Sid glanced over at him, frowning slightly. "Yeah," he finally replied.

"I'm pretty sure I said goodbye to you already," Andy stated.

"What's that really sappy song you used to like? Something like 'friends never say goodbye'?" Sid said. "You're such a loser. Always were a sucker for that sappy crap."

"Yeah, something like that," Andy answered, smirking sadly. The smirk fell. "Want to know the other sappy thing I'm about to say?"

"Shoot," Sid replied.

"This time you can't come with me, Sid," Andy stated.

"Doing a pretty good job of it so far," Sid replied, pushing down his sunglasses, goggles, whatever, to give Andy a challenging glare.

"Come on, man, don't make this harder than it is," Andy said.

"Just helping you with the transition, Andy boy," Sid replied, pushing back up the shades.

"I don't need a guardian lurking in the shadows anymore like in high school," Andy replied, chuckling.

"You hardly needed one then. Your little study group was all the help you really needed," Sid replied.

"They weren't exactly friends. More acquaintances, guys and girl I knew but would never really hang out with, you know," Andy said. "They wouldn't have stepped in."

"Meh, regardless I saw you hold your own when the school jerks would try to razzle you," Sid answered.

"Right, right. You couldn't be bothered with anyone but you, could you? Unless it suited you or you were in a 'heck with it' mood," Andy replied.

"I don't make friends, Andy. Never really liked people all that much, people never liked me," Sid replied.

"Ever thought that was because you hated yourself?" Andy asked. "If you don't like you, how can anyone else? You didn't let people in, so how could you be helped?"

"Don't go there, man. Seriously. Don't… But yeah… I preferred being the emo loner lurking in the alley or shadows and creeping people out. That little understanding you and I had? It was whatever."

"Apparently it was more than that, otherwise you wouldn't be joyriding in my car without my permission," Andy replied.

"Childhood friends," Sid replied, shrugging it off.

"High school buddies too. Whether you want to admit it or not, I dug my way back into your heart," Andy teased.

Sid chuckled. "Yeah, you were a dog like that, weren't you? No matter how far away I pushed you, you kept coming back. How you could stand to is beyond me," he replied.

"Knew you in childhood. Loyalty actually meant something to me, Sid," Andy bit.

"Low blow man," Sid replied, frowning. "Whatever. The emo loner phase passed… more or less," he said.

"Now instead of 'Bad Boy' it's just good old fashioned 'Rebel without a cause', huh?" Andy said.

"One way to put it. Another way to put it is instead of the F**k the World attitude I once had, it became YOLO," Sid replied.

"You were horrible in high school," Andy said, chuckling.

"Hey, if I don't give a s**t about the world, why should the world give a s**t about me? And even as I was trying to push the world out and away, still you just had to be dumb enough to give a s**t about me," Sid said.

Toy Story

Andy was quiet. "You scared me, Sid…" he murmured.

"I told you not to care. Told you I didn't want you to," Sid replied.

"But I did," Andy said.

"Apparently. Otherwise you wouldn't have decided to play Nancy Drew and follow me," Sib bit.

"If I hadn't you wouldn't be here today," Andy replied.

Sid glanced at his wrists where two very big, very deep, and very long scars were. He dryly chuckled, smirking. "Almost severed those arteries and veins and whatnot completely, didn't I?"

"Don't… do that. Don't laugh. That is not something we can look back on and just laugh about," Andy said. "You attempted suicide. You almost died."

"I wanted to," Sid bit. "It was you who decided the emo bad boy wasn't just a waste of space."

"Can we please reminisce about something else? Like childhood, maybe?" Andy asked.

"Cowboys and Indians?" Sid said.

"Politically incorrect," Andy pointed out.

"Lay off," Sid replied, nudging him playfully.

Andy grinned. "Yeah, those games. Tag, hide and seek, dares, adventures in the woods or by the river or out of town. Pirates, undersea explorers, treasure hunters, the occasional board or video game. All that stuff we used to do when everything was innocent and good and the world was ours to explore. You know, before the complexities of high school and all the stupid teenage drama," he said.

Sid nodded then chuckled. "We were one hell of a team, weren't we? And one hell of a whacked out friendship too. I mean we were like complete opposites," he said.

"I know," Andy replied, smirking. "Nobody could figure that one out."

"Tell me about it," Sid replied.

Toy Story

There was silence. "So, you're seriously not getting out of the car?" Andy finally asked.

"I love me a good road trip. Spontaneous like that," Sid replied.

"And I suppose you don't have money on you either, do you?" Andy asked.

"Come on, Andy, how long has it been since you got to have the honor of buying stuff for me?" Sid asked.

"Not long enough," Andy dryly replied, rolling his eyes.

"Exactly," Sid said. "Lay off, pal. This may be the last time we see each other for a long, long time."

"You know I'll be home on long breaks, right?" Andy asked.

"Yeah… But I might not be there," Sid replied with a smile, pulling out a letter and waving it in the air with a proud and mischievous smirk.

Andy's eyes widened. "Is that…" he began.

"An acceptance letter, yes! I've been approved to take a course in engineering!" Sid said, grinning.

"That's amazing! Good for you. You always had a gift for taking things apart and putting them back together again, more or less… As disturbing as it could sometimes be," Andy said.

"Yes, yes I did," Sid replied.

"I'm happy for you," Andy said, smiling at his friend.

"Me too. Now, what are you taking again?" Sid asked, picking up Andy's college brochure and flipping boredly through it.

"I've told you like twenty times," Andy replied.

"Never paid attention," Sid answered, shrugging.

Andy rolled his eyes, smirking and shaking his head hopelessly. His smile fell. "Let's just say depending on how things go, I may not be back for a long, long time. I'm taking a few things but majoring in psychology. Thinking that might be something I'd like to do."

"Is that because of me?" Sid deadpanned.

"A little," Andy replied.

Sid was quiet. "Do me a favor and don't analyze me, okay? …Not sure I'd want to know…"

Andy looked sympathetic. "How can you fix something if you don't know where it's broken?" he asked.

"I'm mending, Andy, okay. Don't… don't worry about me… Life is moving on," Sid replied. "Mom, dad, me, Hannah. It's going. Not always well, but it's going."

"How is Hannah anyway?" Andy asked.

"Why, you interested?" Sid teased, eyes glittering.

Toy Story

Andy blushed faintly. "She's younger than me," he murmured.

"By like a year or two," Sid replied, rolling his eyes. "If that."

"I dread what'll happen when my sister develops," Andy deadpanned.

"Okay one, there's not that big an age difference between us even if I did get interested, which I'm not. Two, I'm not a perv therefore not even thinking about looking at prepubescent girls or girls just hitting puberty, you sicko. She's thirteen. Three, with that being said you can just tell even now that Molly's going to be hot when she grows up!" Sid argued.

"She certainly thinks you are," Andy teased.

"She's at that age where rebels without a cause and bad boys are all the rage. She should be seeing red flags flying up like crazy and saying 'nope, not going there'," Sid replied.

"True," Andy admitted, shaking his head. "She worries me… Do me a favor and watch out for her when I'm gone."

"I will," Sid replied.

"Don't get fresh with her," Andy teased.

"Oh please. She'd have to be at least sixteen first," Sid replied, smirking. "You know, Hannah has been asking about you a lot."

"Are you seriously playing matchmaker and trying to set me up with your little sister?" Andy teased. "You know most guys would be forbidding even their closest friends from looking at their kid sisters, right?"

"You know that idea that girls will marry men like their fathers?" Sid asked.

"Mmm hmm," Andy replied.

"She'll marry someone like dad over my dead body. The last sort of person I want Hannah to end up with is a reflection of our old man, and I certainly don't want her pursuing a guy like me. Rebel, jerk, bad boy, etc," Sid said. "If it comes down to a choice between someone like that and someone like you, I'm endorsing her going with someone like you."

"I'm flattered," Andy replied, smirking.

"No homo," Sid joked.

"Inappropriate, Sid," Andy replied with an affectionate smirk. "Besides, we both know I'd be your first choice."