Archive of Our Own ^beta

“You think you’re hot stuff, don’t you?”

Sosuke frowned and wrinkled his nose in confusion, stopping his walk to his racecar. Because in front of it was the one he had been looking for, Speedor of the Machine World. Who apparently was too occupied with talking to someone that he had not noticed the human yet.

“You think you know him like I do, huh? Well, I’ve got news for you: You don’t!”

The racer looked around for the person Speedor was talking to, but his confusion only grew when he saw nobody. Instead, he looked at where exactly the tiny toy car-sized cast was directed; to his bright, sponsor-filled racecar.

“Have you saved him from certain death by bullets, maybe? Have you endured exhaustion and pain for his sake? Huh?”

His eyebrows went up to a worrying position as he slowly started to realize just who Speedor was talking to. Or what, as it were.

“Have you seen the best of him? The worst of him? I once saw him evil, and I still didn’t give up on him!”

Sosuke was pretty sure that his engine partner had, in fact, briefly given up on him during that time, but he was way too amused to say anything and risk breaking the scene.

“I once fought driverless to honour him when we thought he was dead! What did you do when everyone assumed they died? Probably just laid here rusting!”

He heard footsteps behind him, and quickly turned his head to see a confused Renn. He was fast to put a finger before his mouth, telling him not to ask any questions just yet. The blue-clad mechanic stood beside him and observed.

“I saw you that day when the Gaiark first attacked, you just stood there while Sosuke fought fearlessly! You wouldn’t deserve to be his partner!”

Still smiling, the redhead leaned over to his friend. “I think Speedor is a little jealous of my car,” he whispered. Renn only managed to let out a bemused “huh.”

“Don’t you even dare laugh at me because of my size, I’m only in this form in the Human World! If I was in my true form I’d eat you for breakfast!”

“Engines don’t eat breakfast, though,” Renn whispered into Sosuke’s ear, unsure just how to judge the scene.

“Hush, I wanna listen a little longer.”

“You think just because you’re all he talks about nowadays, that you’ve replaced me as his partner?” The little toycar laughed mockingly. “I’m his number one partner and always will be. The ancestors didn’t change that, and neither will a wannabe engine like you.”

Renn’s mouth twitched a little upward, though he was too confused to let it get all the way up without struggle.

“True, he knew you before I came to the Human World; true, he is a lot more with you now than he is with me, and true that you are the one helping him reach his dream right now. But that doesn’t mean that you are any better for him than I am! If my cast right now was like a car in the Human World, I would have been much better than you! So, don’t even think about taking my spot, got it?”

Finally, Sosuke decided it was time to enter the scene. “Speedor, that’s a racecar, it’s not sentient.”

Speedor, in turn, did not jump or yell in surprise. Rather, he kept staring at the human-made car as he said, “That’s what she wants you to think.”

“It’s a she, now?” Sosuke could not help but smile even wider and let out a contained chuckle. “Are you jealous?”

“No, I’m not! But there is a hierarchy when it comes to partnership, and this one needs to learn her place in it!”

“Look, it’s a car. Made in the Human World. It’s not sentient and doesn’t know what you are being jealous about.” He waved for his human friend to come over. “Renn, explain to him.”

“Sosuke is right, Speedor,” the older man said, kneeling down to the car. “You know how cars and machines work in the Human World, we don’t give them any conscious or sentient life-“

“Yet,” Sosuke murmured teasingly.

“Think of the racecar as just another camper.” Renn thought for a second before he continued, “You were never worried about that. So there is nothing to worry about.”

“I wasn’t worried,” the car said, thought the voice clearly hinted embarrassment and denial, which made Go-On Blue smile. “I know Sosuke would never choose another partner than me.”

“That’s right, and don’t you forget it,” the racer said, brushing his nose slightly. “Anyway, let’s leave. Our reunion is at Saki’s this time, and we were looking for you. I bet she has made tons of cake for us!” Sosuke brought forth his go-phone and reached out his hand down to the engine. “Ready to go, partner?”

“Yes, partner!”

Speedor’s engine soul separated from his cast, and Sosuke put it in the device. Renn, nodding in approval, started to walk to the exit. But before the other man followed, he took a long look at his racecar and smirked. Quickly, he leaned down to its panzer and gave it a kiss.

“See you later, sweetie.”

Immediately his go-phone vibrated rapidly, and it jumped out of his pocked, flipped open and let out the hologram of Speedor’s very angry soul.

“I knew it!” he yelled, smoke coming out from all his outlets. “Sosuke, you’re the worst partner ever!” But the human just let out a roaring laughter that echoed through the garage, satisfied with the reaction he had gotten from his little prank even as his partner screamed at him to stop. What else was there to do with a jealous engine partner?