It was a couple of months since Lightning helped The King finish his last race, and Lightning sighed as he watched Doc race around and around the path. He had a huge crush on Doc, and he was too afraid to admit it. Lightning and Doc had such a great relationship-he didn't want to ruin it all because of an embarrassing little crush. Well, not little. But still.

"Hey buddy," Mater said, causing Lightning to jump. "Still in love with ol' Doc, are ya?"

"I'm not in love with him," Lightning hissed. "I have some…very…complicated feelings for him."

"Is that why ya broke up with Miss Sally?" Mater asked. Lightning sighed again and looked over at Flo's Café, where his ex girlfriend was talking to Flo.

"Partly," Lightning finally answered after moments of silence. "We're still friends. I just didn't love her like that. Girls. You know."

"I don't like girls either," Mater declared. Lightning turned to him in surprise.

"You…don't?" Lightning hastened to ask.

"Never really understood 'em," Mater went on. "I never used to have feelings for 'em and don't now."

"Oh. Cool," Lightning said. "Well I'll help you find someone. But not Doc-he's mine." Mater laughed. "He's all yours, buddy." He began to drive backwards. "Lightnin' and Doc, parked under a tree, K-I-S-S-I-N, er-T."

"Shh! He'll hear you!" Lightning called, but he had to laugh. Mater never did have the best spelling.

"Hear what?" Lightning heard from behind him, and he yelled in surprise and laughed innocently.

"Huh?" Lightning laughed again. "Oh, hey Doc. Er, nothing. You didn't…hear what he said, did you?"

"No," Doc replied, and Lightning exhaled in relief. "What was I not supposed to hear?"

"Nothing! N-Nothing," Lightning stuttered, but unfortunately Doc chose this time to follow him to Flo's café.

Doc just wouldn't drop it. "Kid, you're hiding something and I know it."

"Hiding? I would never hide anything…from you…" Lightning began, but he was driving backwards and so he bumped into a stack of cones and knocked them over by accident. "Whoops…heh…"

"We need to talk, boy."

"About what?" Lightning continued to play innocent. He would not give in. He gritted his teeth to keep his longtime secret to himself.

"You know what I'm talking about."

"I do?" Lightning was still driving backwards and this time he knocked over a sign and some cones, causing Red to drive away in tears. He sighed. This was really hard. Damn these feelings. Double unfortunately, Lightning backed into the wall of Guido and Luigi's tire shop, and Doc continued to move forward until he was pressing Lightning against the sign. Lightning's eyes were wide, and Doc did not break his gaze on Lightning's eyes until he let the red car go.

"Heh…" Lightning stuttered again. Real smooth, Lightning. He's got no idea.

Lightning's sarcasm was interrupted when Doc said, "We're going to talk about this whether you like it or not. My garage, six o' clock. Be there or I'm gonna hunt Mater down and make him tow you there." Lightning only grinned at him, and Doc rolled his eyes and disappeared into his garage.

This was not going to be fun.