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Lucas Petty was in love.
Ok, maybe they had just met the guy- but what the hell are you supposed to DO when you meet a guy setting up a “cryptid trap” larger than him placing tiny little candy cane shards next to a bowl of water that's dangerously close to live wires coming from a homemade energy detector? NOT fall in love? Who were they if not someone with questionable taste and a bad habit of accidentally doing stupid things that could’ve easily ended up in them getting killed- it was in their nature to be attracted to him.
When they saw him reading feverishly and taping hand drawn posters with messy drawings and writing on it and muttering to himself wildly, their first instinct wasn’t to be concerned- like any sane person would be- oh no, the first thing that came to mind was this looks absolutely ridiculous and he is RIDICULOUSLY hot . Yeah. Typical Lucas behavior, as their friends would say.
They just stood there, dumbfounded and enraptured by whatever this guy was doing in front of them- that was until he stood up too fast and accidentally knocked down the bowl of water that was being balanced precariously on top of the makeshift trap. As they heard the loud sound of the stranger cursing as he tried to pick up the device that had previously been connected to the water in the bowl before realizing that he himself was wet and unexpectedly being shocked by the machine, they saw the bowl slowly roll towards them. They had picked it up without thinking, and the wild man MUST have sensed it or something weird like that because he shot his head up to look at them immediately after they had committed this faux paus.
They were frozen in place. What if he thought they were trying to steal the bowl? Would he think they were some kind of freak who steals bowls for fun? They really, REALLY hoped he wouldn’t. As the other man started walking towards them they could feel the rising panic in their chest with every step he took. This was it. They were going to die of embarrassment because they weren’t paying enough attention to the road and they couldn’t help but run into shit- metaphorically. That is. Whatever. The point was that they stopped thinking entirely when he walked towards them and their legs wouldn’t move and they couldn’t get their brain to form coherent speech and oh god. He’s right next to them and looking them directly in the eye with those dorky glasses and wow. This guy was hot hot. They just stood there, with the fallen bowl in their hands like a deer in headlights, clearly not functioning enough to figure out what to even say to the mystery guy.
“Right-o good on you ol’ chap. Thanks for picking up my electronic wave magnifier for the psychic trap I’m setting- the candy canes weren’t pointing south east enough and I must’ve lost myself in the moment of science and hunger. Good show on your part though mate, you caught the magnifier AND you haven’t left the radius where it disconnects everything- I’d say you’d make a bloody good professional if I hadn’t just met you.” The guy just starts laughing and patting you on the back as if you’ve been friends forever, and quite literally nothing he said made even a bit of sense but oh- they knew what that feeling was in their chest.
Love. They were in love with this idiot with a British accent that they don’t even think is real. Oh god. They really were predictable weren’t they.
“Right, well, I’m Marquez Clark- accounting major and semi-professional cryptid hunter. My mates call me Marq. Thank you again for picking up the pieces of my trap, I tend to be quite clumsy even around my newest finds.Positively chuffed to meet you.” He stuck out his hand with a smile brighter than the sun, waiting for them to shake it, which they do after steadying themselves and taking several deep breaths so as to make sure they don’t lose their mind with just this smallest of touches. They needed to act Normal with the guy he might’ve just fallen in love with. They were ok. Perfectly normal.
Until when they went to shake his hand and they almost dropped the b- “electronic wave magnifier” and they fumble with it in their hands. Not a great look, but they hope that he can understand.
“Lucas. Lucas Petty. It’s really a pleasure to meet you. Uh, what exactly is this thing that you’ve built?”
Marq’s eyes light up, and he takes their hand to drag them over to the trap he had set up and excitedly starts explaining his findings on an entity called “The Spearmint” and all his research leading up to this. And that was that, for both of them. It didn’t take them long to go on their first date, to fall hopelessly in love with each other, and for Lucas to learn everything Marq knew about the Spearmint and the ancient languages (never mind that the ancient language looks suspiciously like French, which they might have noticed or cared about if they weren’t so busy making heart eyes and twirling their hair while he spoke) and rituals that were needed to try and lure him into traps and lush forests and college campuses.
They knew each other, trusted each other more than anyone in the world, and they were in love. Lucas loved Marq with everything they had, and they knew Marq loved them back just as much. Two years had passed in no time at all, and they were discussing the possibility of moving in together after they graduated, somewhere nice and peaceful where Marq could continue his research (and get a job as an accountant) and Lucas could figure out something to do.
That is, until Marq just vanished.
It was like he had never even existed. He had almost completely disappeared into thin air- his phone wasn’t working and all his stuff was gone. Everything except a note:
“Lucas,
My love, it’s been a bloody good run we had and I love you with my whole heart maybe more than I’ve ever loved anyone in all lord knows how many bloody years I’ve been on this Immaterial Plane. I wanted to say goodbye but I knew you’d understand about my research. I’ve uncovered some bloody FANTASTIC news about the Spearmint and I needed to pursue the lead.
I still love you. This isn’t really goodbye, this is just the bloody chance of a lifetime and I didn’t want to put you in any danger when seeking out the Spearmint. I’m close, I can feel it, and I don’t want you getting hurt.
I hope to see you soon, and that I will return successfully to you one day.
Lots of love,
Marq”
They were shocked, to say the least. But they always knew this could happen at any time.
Lucas Petty could have chalked it up to just another bad break up and another bad guy who left them alone, but they knew Marq. They knew that he loved them, and if he was trying to protect them then it must be really bad.
That idiot was gonna get himself killed.
Thus began Lucas Petty’s journey to save Marquez Clark. From himself? From the Spearmint? They sure as hell didn’t know, but that was something to find out at a later date not something to think about now.
They packed up their bags, loaded up their car and turned left onto the highway. This sure was gonna be something.
---
Six years after Marquez Clark’s sudden disappearance, Lucas has finally tracked him down to Kansas City. They knew that wherever the Spearmint was, Marq would follow, and they’ve been tracking Spearmint sightings since the day they dropped out of college. It hasn’t been easy keeping up their successful Nlascar career and looking for the lost love of their life but it’s all paid off. They’re finally ready to SEE HIM again and they can barely even hold in the excitement. They’re so close they can taste it, and it isn’t just the minty fresh smell of the city that always reminded them of Marq that’s making them excited- it’s the promise of what's to come.
They eventually track him down to one specific area of the city, and figure out that Marq has signed himself up for this weird new splort only known as “blaseball.” Must be close to his leads, he had never shown interest in anything but crlicket before. But where Marq went, Lucas followed, and they didn’t want him to face the Spearmint alone.
So they signed up for blaseball.
Unfortunately what Max DIDN’T tell them was that their contract wasn’t really to PLAY blaseball- and they were stuck. They didn’t even know what they were now. But they were on the team, now all they had to do was let them PLAY and they’re SURE that they’ll find him. Marq was playing on the active roster, and looked damn good while doing it, so what the hell was this ? It’s absolute rubbish, as Marq would’ve said.
But in the meantime? Marquez Clark would have a number one fan. They might not be able to ACCESS the stadium or be able to find it or get much of anywhere in Kansas City, but they knew that if they sent fan mail it would ALWAYS get to its recipient- that's how blaseball worked . They sent letters and little gifts and always signed their name in a pretty purple pen right at the bottom with hearts next to their name. They knew they probably wouldn’t be able to receive anything from him- but they wanted him to know that they were still looking for him. That they hadn’t given up on him yet.
When season 10 comes and they hear that Marq’s been shadowed (that’s a word they’d learned these past 20 years. Shadowed. That's what they were now. Just a shadow of a person, who was hopelessly longing for the real world.) they knew that THIS WAS THEIR CHANCE! Shifting their car into gear they started aimlessly driving around Kansas City, hoping to find him in the nooks and crannies of the city- all the seedy dive bars and stuck up libraries, all the places that they thought Marq might frequent or where they swore they could feel his presence.
(Hilariously enough, it seemed that every time they went somewhere they had just missed him, or he was right behind them. Not that they would know that, but they could always sense when Marq was around- and their instincts were correct. They were just looking in the exact opposite direction when Marq entered the coffee shop right behind them or picked a book from the shelf just on the other side of the one they were on. Always so close, but never quite meeting.)
Maybe the shadows were a bust, then. Maybe what they needed was some action.
Their next big plan was to get drafted into blaseball for REAL this time. Maybe then they would find him. Yeah, ok, maybe this was their first plan but THIS TIME IT WOULD ACTUALLY WORK. THEY SWEAR ON IT.
They FINALLY find their way to the stadium in the middle of a game on day 27 of the 18th season of blaseball. Well, better late than never as they always said. But when they drifted onto the field and stepped up to the plate (totally not hitting Uncle on the way in. That definitely, absolutely, 100% did not happen. They did not hit that man with their car no never they would never hit anything or anyONE with their car by accident nope not at all) and looked over at the dugout he wasn’t there ! What the hell! All this effort and they STILL can’t seem to find him! They lost that game, but it hardly mattered when they did. They were just utterly BAFFLED that they had spent ALL THIS TIME trying to get on the active roster and even that couldn’t bring them closer to him.
Maybe all this was hopeless. Maybe they should just focus on making some friends, in the meantime. So that’s exactly what they did. They talked to Hewitt tons, before he died, and when he did they finally understood why blaseball had the reputation that it did. They cried over a man they hardly knew, and wished him all the best in the afterlife. They learned how to pitch from Leach, who didn’t seem to really care how she pitched, just that she did it, and they tried to emulate that as much as possible. They were not very good, Leach’s method wasn’t exactly science, but they learned to live with it.
Kina though, ey’re a real gem. Lucas has never laughed with anyone as much as they’d laughed with hir. It was… nice to have a friend again after all this time. Even though they were in and out of the shadows all season, Kina made it a point to actually get to know them and they got on like a house on fire. It would bring them along to trips at the Sleven Eleven and they would have to convince them NOT to harass the poor worker every time they ran out of almond joys, and argue with them when they tried to tell hir that mounds are basically the same thing.
They don’t want to jump right into asking people questions about Marq, so they waited until the playoffs to ask. When they did, they all just kept telling them he was shadowed which well yeah! But WHERE did he go! They didn’t really tell anyone why they were looking for him, and no one ever really asked so they had their little secret.
They keep looking for him over the siesta, they’re shadowed at the season's end so they can really make ground on their investigation but no dice! No luck at all! Maybe the Spearmint really had gotten to him and they were too late, or maybe he had fallen off a cliff and died, or maybe when he wore something that wasn’t those khakis that looked stupidly hot on him he shriveled up and died and wasn’t here anymore. Needless to say, they did not get very far before their triumphant return to Kansas City in season 19, far more worried than they had been in seasons past and utterly CONVINCED that he had perished in some tragic and horrible accident.
Lucas drifted onto the plate moping about their lost love, and finally accepting that they were never going to find him because they were too late and he died in the shadows before they ever got to see him again and they couldn’t save him from the Spearmint. They avoided talking to everyone for days, and were just eating chocolates and watching sad rom coms whenever they weren’t playing. It was a sorry sight to see, to say the least. The Breath Mints were worried about them, but they refused to talk to anyone because they wanted to be alone and wallow in their misery.
Well. Kina was not going to take any of that bullshit.
It’s Earlsiesta, and Lucas is doing what they’ve been doing for the past 14 days- sitting on their bed and watching Love, Actually with eyes red from crying and eating Chinese food on their couch covered in blankets. When there’s a knock at the door, they don’t answer. They don’t even jump up at the off chance that it’s their beloved because Marq is dead and they were never going to be reunited with their beloved and they would never be like Danny Zuko and Sandy in Grease or Jamie and Aurelia in Love, Actually. There was no point in going to the door.
“Petty. Open up the goddamn door.” It’s Kina, it’s not him. They were right it wasn’t worth it; they might as well just throw themself into the sea like Madison from Splash (1984) even though they weren’t a mermaid like she was. They continued watching the movie.
“Lucas Petty if you don’t open this door then I am GOING to break it down.” Fuck. Their security deposit. Well, maybe visitors would be ok just this once. Then they can go back to their couch and mourn the loss of their beautiful and tragic lover.
When they open the door, Kina is there alone, still wearing hir shutter shades from the game but for some reason equipped with a brand new trench coat that looks suspiciously like the one Uncle wears everywhere even in ninety degree weather.
“Hello Kina, have you come to laugh at the fallen pitcher. Here to scorn the wretched and the damned and the fools.” They had brought the blanket to the door with them, and they were standing there with it wrapped around their shoulders and wearing ratty pajamas underneath their uniform. They hadn’t showered in days and Kina could tell.
“Dude you look like shit.” That was Kina for you. Never one to sugar coat it.
“Well what the hell is up with the trench coat then? I’m not the only one making questionable fashion choices Larsen.”
“Hey! Shut the fuck up! You know I’m going through some… changes right now and Unc just wanted to help so like fuck off man. Besides, I'm not here to talk about me, I'm here to talk about you .” Ey punctuated the statement by pushing past them and taking a seat on the garbage riddled couch, sighing as ey saw what was playing. “Are you watching Love, Actually? Again? Didn’t you watch this last week?”
“You’re not the only one going through something right now- HEY WAIT DON’T TURN THAT OFF DAVID AND NATALIE ARE ABOUT TO KISS”
“Lucas this is now an intervention. You can’t keep watching this movie, it's not even good , and David and Natalie suck.” They groan and wonder what they ever did to deserve a best friend that hated romcoms this much. They try to wrestle the remote back from it, but to no avail. Shi clears the space next to hir and they take a seat.
“Now, I know somethings up dude. You didn’t hit a SINGLE person with your car drifting in, what gives? You only drive that good when something’s on your mind. What’s wrong Lucas?”
That’s when they break. The second ey ask what’s really happening they can feel all the emotions of the past three months catching up with them once again and just start sobbing into Kina’s shoulder. It stiffens up when they basically fall into its lap, but just takes a deep breath and awkwardly pats them on the head. When they’ve calmed down they sit up and look at it, snot and tears running down their face and getting all over its new trench coat. They muster up the courage to finally tell hir the truth.
“My boyfriend died Kina” and with that they’re sobbing again and blowing their nose loudly into a tissue.
“Oh. Oh god. I’m so sorry Lucas, what happened?” Shi is struggling to find a way to sympathize with them, shi was never really good at emotions and stuff and this really was quite a lot of them. “Oh! Uh, only if you want. You don’t need to share, obviously, if it hurts too much.” Nailed it. Shi is gonna get such a good grade in friendship, something that is totally achievable and perfectly normal to want.
“That’s the thing! I don’t know! I’ve been looking for him EVERYWHERE and he’s nowhere to be found! Forty years Kina! He’s been missing for forty years! So the only POSSIBLE solution is that he’s… he’s..” they don’t want to say it again. Saying it outloud makes it more real the more they say it. They can’t bear with the fact that he’s really GONE.
“Woah. That’s… a long time, dude. But also… if you don’t know for sure then there’s always a chance that he might still be alive! Now’s not the time to give up hope, you’ve been looking for forty years, what’s one more?” fuck. Definitely the wrong thing to say. Not cool Kina, not cool.
“What’s one more? Well, one more is just one more year of denial and futility Kina. It’s just proving that I’m a lovesick FOOL that wasted their ENTIRE LIFE looking for someone they loved- just like the Notebook it’s all HOPELESS in the end”
This is bad. Lucas is clearly heartbroken, but there's just nothing that shi feels like shi can do for them. If only there were a way for hir to find him…
“OH SHIT”
“Kina? Are you ok? Are you laughing at me again?” They weren’t really sure why ey were screaming out in the middle of their apartment, but they’re convinced ey just want to mock them for believing in love.
“No you idiot, I just figured out how we’re gonna find your boyfriend.”
Oh. OH.
“Oh my god. Really? You've thought of something? Please please please let me know Kina I would be forever in your debt genuinely just. If you have ANY ideas, I don’t even need to find him right now just have proof that he’s not dead just-”
“Yes, yes I know Lucas just. Calm down. I don’t know if you were watching the Earlsiesta events, but apparently the reader went rogue and decided to give a ton of players these weird mods- one on every team. The trench coat is from Unc cuz I’m a junior investigator asking him to teach me his detective-y ways cuz I’m a seeker now dude!” It’s shaking them and practically BOUNCING on the couch with excitement, and Lucas’s eyes go wide.
“So you’re saying that you can find him?” there's an air of caution in their voice, it almost seems too good to be true.
“Well, I’m not positive, it might just work for people on the team and technically it only works with bringing people back from elsewhere BUT wouldn’t it be totally radical if it did work out?”
“Yeah. Yeah. And don’t worry about the team thing, he’s on the team but just! Kina! Please! Please can you try and sense out where he is. I'm practically begging you” what the hell. Ey were not expecting THAT.
“Wait. Hold the fuck up. You said he’s on the team? Then isn’t he literally just RIGHT here? Who the FUCK are you even dating Petty?”
“Oh.. I guess I never really told you haha..” they get shy all of a sudden, almost bashful, it would be cute if Kina wasn’t so PISSED OFF that they never told hir, “It’s, uh, it’s Marq.”
“NO FUCKING WAY. MARQUEZ FUCKING CLARK HAS A LONG LOST PARTNER?”
“SHHHH not too loud the neighbors will complain and just. Yes yeah that's me but I haven’t seen him in forty years because he just VANISHED one day and told me his quest for the Spearmint became too dangerous for me to go on and I had to stay behind. I’ve been looking for him ever since and I haven’t even SEEN him ONCE. I think he’s DEAD Kina.” the worry in their voice is obvious, they don’t like thinking about what could become of Marq in the face of the dreadful Spearmint.
“Lucas. I fucking know why you can’t find that dumbass.”
“What? No you don’t there’s no way you could POSSIBLY-”
“Dude. Marq said he was going on some weird ass “vision quest” last time he got shadowed. Said there was “something or someone he had to find” and we just. Told him good luck and let him go.”
“FUCK. He MUST be hot on the trail of finally actually CATCHING the Spearmint, Kina. That’s the ONLY THING he would leave that abruptly for. He really COULD be dead holy shit.”
“Ok ok I know what you’re saying just. Let me try and figure it out.” Ey sits there for a minute. A minute becomes ten. And ten becomes thirty. Thirty becomes an hour. When the hour is up it just groans.
“Sorry Lucas, I think this seeker stuff is still too new for me to really grasp it. But I’m gonna keep trying because even though I think you can probably fix this problem yourself because he’s definitely not fucking dead since blaseball players can only die in one way, I kinda REALLY wanna see where this goes.”
And so they wait. They wait for three more days, because what’s three days when you’ve been waiting for forty years? And when shi tells them that ey can feel his presence closeby, that shi can sense it at the Kansas City Speedway it took everything in them not to bolt right at that second.
No. Strategy. There’s a way to do this.
They’re pitching at home for the next game.
They throw the game bad enough to get faxed.
Then they’re in their car and speeding as FAST AS THEY CAN down the street, cops and elderly people crossing the street be damned but they are NOT GOING TO LOSE HIM THIS TIME.
They rush onto the track, they know the speedway well from their Nasclar days, and they’re looking around and searching and hoping, desperate that Kina wasn’t wrong and-
Across the stands, with his back turned towards the track and looking wistfully in the distance at a sponsorship ad with their face on it. They can feel the longing radiating from him, and as they stare at him with his green cape and khakis they feel as though they’ve never seen anyone more beautiful and graceful than in this moment. He takes their breath away. He looked like a woman waiting for their husband to return from the war, with a certain type of sadness that seemed like it could never be replaced.
They shake themself out of their admiration, and immediately start climbing the barrier to get into the stands and they fall down when they hoist themself over but it doesn’t matter because he’s here that’s him and before they’ve even fully stood up they’re yelling
“MARQ!”
He turns around and looks wildly, as though he isn’t sure he actually heard his name. So they call out to him again, starting to pick up speed.
“MARQ! MARQUEZ! OVER HERE!”
And then he sees them.
There is shock on his face, and then confusion, and recognition, and then there’s tears in the corners of his eyes and he’s running without thinking about it and screaming “LUCAS!” and he’s never felt so happy in his life and suddenly they’re hugging and they’re holding each other . They never want to let go.
They stay there, for a minute or two just holding each other close and crying. Enjoying each other’s company and getting to know what it feels like to be together again.
When they pull apart, they are holding hands. They couldn’t let go this soon, it’s been far too long.
“Lucas, what on the immaterial plane are you DOING here?”
“I was looking for you, of course.”
“But I was a total arse to you in college.”
“That didn’t stop me from loving you”
“Then why-?”
“Why am I here? Why haven’t I left? Why didn’t I stop caring?”
“Well, yes, but, bloody hell. Where have you even BEEN all these years?”
And so they tell him. They tell him about the trials and tribulations of Lucas Petty and their journey to find him and how they became a famous Nasclar driver along the way because Max wouldn’t let them play on the active roster for so long. There is laughing, and tears, and more hand holding. When Lucas gets to the end of it and tells him about Kina, he just smiles. He sits with it for a moment, taking it all in and is just utterly baffled by the whole situation, but is so so thankful.
“So all my fans… that was you ? I thought it was quite odd that I was getting so many fans as a terrible player.”
“Marq? I signed all the letters, did you not see?”
“AH, well then I suppose that’s my fault, love. I often spill my cuppa over myself and ruin most things, I suppose your signature was just one of them.”
“Well it doesn’t really matter now, I’m just glad you’re alright . I thought you had DIED, genuinely. I thought that the Spearmint got you.”
“Oh, the Spearmint surely did “get” me, briefly over the Grand Siesta, but that’s neither here nor there. I did meet him and I promptly lost interest. He’s not all he’s cracked up to be, he’s quite cheeky when you beat him at his own game.” there’s a strange sense of bitterness in his voice, from what Lucas isn’t sure, but they know now that there’s time for that.
“What I don’t get is why you’ve spent so long looking for me when I left you to go chase after him, and I know I said I loved you and It wasn’t the end but I never came back to you like I said I would. And…” There’s a moment of hesitation from him, wondering if he should say the next thing, and a breath before he says, “and I’ve been looking, too. I obviously didn’t SUCCEED and it seemed like you would VANISH every time I felt like I was getting closer, but that’s what this whole “vision quest” was about. It was about finding you , Lucas. Because I realized that I loved you TOO much, and I was afraid of it so I pursued the love for my work instead. And I just wanted to APOLOGIZE for being an arse and not even saying goodbye to you to your face because I was just that scared of what you do to me, if you can believe it. I wanted to tell you I’m sorry, for leaving you and keeping you chained to me for so long when you could’ve been living a COMPLETELY different life that wasn’t marred by my cowardice. I know you probably stopped actually caring a while back, and I’ll understand if you don’t forgive me, but just know that leaving you is one of the BIGGEST regrets I have about my life.”
There’s a breath, and a release of tension from his body that Lucas can feel. They’re stunned to silence, it’s something that Marq has a talent of doing to them. They can feel the blush creeping up to their cheeks because he was looking for them. He didn’t forget about them- he NEVER forgot about them.
Then, laughter. Lucas is laughing their ass off in front of the love of their life and they’re just happy . Never been happier.
“Was my apology really that bad? I understand the laughter but-”
“No, Marq. Your apology was wonderful. It’s just… we were looking for each other for AGES and we NEVER found each other. You have to admit, that’s fucking hilarious. And because of COURSE this would happen to us, of all people.” he just blinks at them through his wireframe glasses, and processes the information, and slowly comes to the same conclusion and oh. God that is funny. And he’s laughing too and they’re laughing together and everything is right in the world again.
Lucas wipes a tear from their eye and smiles. They look at their beautiful, finally found boyfriend, and they feel their heart expanding.
“You know, you were wrong about something.” They scoot closer to him on the bleachers. He mirrors the action.
“Oh? What was that?”
“You said that I gave up on you at the end, and that there was a time when I focused on my Nasclar career instead of pursuing leads.” they gesture over to their ad, an image of a younger self grinning over them and posing with an energy drink.
“Well, yeah? You would’ve had to to even be involved with Nasclar, splorts are time consuming.” He’s looking at them, wondering where this is going to go.
“Of course they are, I never said they weren’t. But.” They turn to look at him too, somehow moving even closer to him
“But?”
“I never stopped looking for you, Marquez. There has only been you, and there will only ever be you.”
That finally pushes him over the edge, and he’s kissing them for the first time in over forty years and it’s beautiful. It’s one of those kisses that feel like they only exist in movies, or that you can only have a handful of in a lifetime, and this is that moment where his life changes. THIS is the beginning of the rest of his life, though he supposes for Lucas it never stopped . This always was their life, to some extent.
He is so glad he gets to be a part of that.
When they pull away they are holding hands again, and they are smiling. Everything changes today, even if Lucas died tomorrow or even if they got unshadowed and traded away this moment would be forever- and neither of them were going anywhere.
“Right-o. I could go for a spot of food, if you fancy it. Pizza?” Lucas smiles, yeah. That’s the guy they fell in love with.
“Pizza sounds great, lets ride”
Lucas doesn’t hit a single person on the way to the pizza place.
They’re so glad to have him back by their side.