When Lou came up the corner of Eddie’s block, he was expecting to find his friend sitting in his garage, bitterly staring at his motorcycle and lamenting the lack of action. It wasn’t like he liked seeing his friends suffer, but it really was funny. The two of them had never been the kind of take anything besides the wind in their hair and the thrill of the race seriously, so if Eddie suffered for letting his priorities wander it was his own fault. Everyone knew Eddie’s girlfriend Kaity was totally against racing - everyone except Eddie. Some of the gang even took bets on when the inevitable would happen (Lou won). But Eddie’s the one that chose to be all obsessed with her, so he brought it on himself as far as Lou was concerned. That’s why Lou never went for that sort of thing.

He intended to have a good laugh at his friend’s expense, and so he was thrown when Eddie suddenly rocketed past him on top of the most magnificent machine he had ever seen in his life. It moved like a dream, a blur of blue and silver that sped down the block weaving between cars like they weren’t even there. Eddie zoomed all the way down the block, did a donut or two and then banked a hard u-turn back up to his house. He came to a quick stop on the gravel path just as Lou’s jaw hit the floor.

All Lou could do was stare. It took him about to minute to realize that Eddie hadn’t been riding alone.

“Woo! That was amazing!” The other rider shouted, removing her helmet to reveal (much to Lou’s surprise) Kaity’s older sister Bette. Between the two siblings Bette was much more open to Eddie’s hobbies - in fact, ever since meeting Eddie and the gang she had started riding herself. Lou often joking that Eddie should just dump one sister in favor of the other, but that usually got Eddie furious. He never thought he’d actually do it.

“Does your girlfriend know you’re out with her sister?” Lou grinned.

“She… knows we’re here.” Eddie grunted. “And get your mind outta the gutter, I was just showing off my new… er… ride.” He winced for some reason.

Lou smirked. “Uh huh. And what did you have to do to get Kaity to agree to… this!” He breathed, eyeing the beauty of form and horsepower that was Eddie’s new bike. He moved to run his fingers over the chassis, but froze when he noticed Eddie giving him a very ugly look. Fine, that made sense. If he had just gotten something as amazing as this, he wouldn’t want just anybody touching it either. So he settled on leaning on the seat and giving Eddie his attention instead… for now. Maybe his bud would let him take it for a spin later, after the new-bike buzz worse off.

For some other reason, this made Eddie grimace again and Bette chuckle, but instead of making Lou back off Eddie just seemed to begrudgingly accept it. “That’s… a story.“ He groaned. Behind him, Bette snorted. ”You already know that Kaity was never the world’s biggest fan of the whole ‘motorcycle street racing’ thing. We had more than a few fights about it.”

“Obviously,” Lou joked. He readjusted his grip on the seat for what felt like the third time in a row. He kept losing track of its shape, and there was a graininess to it he didn’t feel at first. He supposed even the best of things had their uncomfortable points. “

“She didn’t want me to stop racing, exactly. We had another talk about it after we got back from the swap meet last week, you remember?” Lou did remember. The two of them had had some kind of tense conversation, and Eddie had had to drive a distraught Kaity home hours early. “She explained it all to me. She wasn’t a fan, in fact she could see how much I loved it. But she saw me caring about it more than I cared about her. She thought she was disposable, and that I’d drop her in a heartbeat if it was a choice between her and racing. And honestly, I really did act that way sometimes. Before her, I did that all the time.”

Lou didn’t see what the problem was. If it girl came between him and his bike, he’d dump her too. He never could understand why that was such a problem for Eddie and Kaity to understand, but he let Ed continue anyway.

“In the end she just wanted to be a part of that portion of my life. She even wished it, out loud. Unfortunately, or fortunately depending on your point of view-” He shared a grin with Bette. “- that’s when it happened.”

“And what would that - gah!” A slight stumble cut Lou off. He must have been leaning on the bike a bit too much, because it suddenly slipped a bit under his weight and nearly made him pitch forward. He almost glared at the bike, as if it were it’s fault, but he realized that would just make him even more stupid. So instead he scrambled to his feet and fumbled to readjust his grip on the seat (this time being careful not to press down too much on the seat lest he accidentally knock the whole thing over), which seemed a little smoother than before. He hoped he hadn’t scratched and tried to play it off as a small slip, but he heard Bette hold back a chuckle. Her eyes kept darting between him and something behind him, clearly the bike. He shot her a glare, but it didn’t help.

Eddie himself was halfway between also being amused and looking like he wanted to sock him, but then if Eddie had nearly knocked Lou’s new ride he might’ve been mad too. And since he was eager to cover up his pratfall, Eddie quickly gestured for Eddie to continue. “Uh, like I was saying. That’s when what happened?”

Again Eddie let it drop. The smirk returned. “Right. See, she bought a trinket at the swap meet, before we left. A small touristy model hubcap. We thought it was just a mantelpiece thing, buts soon as she said ‘I wish,’ the thing started glowing like a firefly. She dropped it on the ground, but it was too late - some kinda energy shot out of it like lightning and soaked into her. Now, this is the best part. I had to turn away - I heard her gasp in surprise, and then all I got were glimpses of her twisting under the light. And when the glow faded, Kaity was gone.”

“You’re trying to tell me that your girlfriend got disintegrated by some kind of magic charm?” Though that would explain why Eddie was back to biking and going around with her sister… “Come on, now.”

“No, not disintegrated. Transformed. I couldn’t see much - wheels where hands and feet ought to be, an engine inside her blouse, a metallic silver growing all over the place. She’s asked me to stop making jokes about her ‘headlights,’ but… yeah. It was over pretty quick, but that afternoon I… well I couldn’t resist. Took my first ride on the sweetest ride I ever saw. We’ve been testing her out ever since.”

Lou just stared at him. How that was suppose to explain anything?

Bette seemed to want to add her two cents to the conversation, because she cut Eddie off when he tried to elaborate. She was jumping up and down from restrained laughter, so whatever she was thinking about must’ve really been hilarious - at least to her. “He called me right away. Don’t let his whole cool-guy ‘this is so awesome’ act fool ya: he was in totally panicked when I talked to him. Freaking out like a baby!”

“I was not!”

“Were too. But I get it. When he told me what happened to my sister, he sounded like he couldn’t believe it. I couldn’t believe it either, until he showed me…”

The two high-fived over the shared joke, and Lou officially lost his patience. They might have thought their banter was funny, but Lou was totally lost. “Hold it! Just hold on! I still don’t get it. Show you what? What are you guys trying to tell me? Kaitlyn made a wish and some pebble spat out a motorcycle? You expect me to believe that?”

Bette stopped trying to hold in her laughter. “I can’t believe he hasn’t noticed by now!” She said, doubled over.

Eddie just sighed. “Pal, what I’m trying to tell you is you can get your hand off my girlfriend's ass any time now.”

It took Lou a moment to process that. He glanced at Bette, who nodded her head to where his hand was, and it occurred to him that it might not have just been the bike she was glancing at and laughing about the whole time. Suddenly he was almost afraid to look down. Bit with a wince and a prayer that this somehow wasn’t what it seemed to be, he went for broke…

It really was Kaity. Instead of the brilliant blue and white stripes of the motorcycle he had just been admiring, he was met with the chocolate complexion of his best friend’s girlfriend. She was balanced on all fours with her arms and legs straight and hands and feet close together, which meant her behind was sticking straight up into the air right where the seat cushion would have been. And Lou's hand was pressing right on top of it.

Lou went beet red and snatched his hand off like she was made of fire. Luckily she was still wearing a pair of jeans and a top, even if her feet were totally bare, though Lou had no idea how that was possible. He had no idea how any of what was going on in front of him was possible.

Thankfully Kaity didn't seem to notice, or otherwise he might’ve been dead right now. He knew from experience that she had a mean right hook. In fact, she didn’t even seem to realize where she was right away. She was still on all fours, looking blankly at the ground. After a few seconds she blinked rapidly and jumped, as if she were trying to shake off a daydream.

"I'm staring at the driveway." She said dully. Then her eyes widened in realization. "Why am I staring at the driveway… ow!" She shot to her feet and started blowing on her hands, which were raw being from pressed into the gravel and covered in dirt besides. Lou backed up, a little afraid to touch her. And he ignored Eddie’s smirk. How else was he supposed to react? "I told you to park me on the lawn!” She protested. “It's softer!"

"Yeah, but the grass and dirt would gum up your wheels!" Eddie protested, and Bette gave a shout of agreement that Kaity didn't seem to appreciate. She glared at both of them, and they backtracked. "A-and we don't know how that might effect you once you changed back, do we? Wouldn't want you to end up with weeds in your joints or anything."

"I probably just turned back with a tank full of premium, and I’m not coughing up gas if you’ll notice.“ she said icily. She turned away from them and instead looked over her hands and feet, which were filthy (presumably from driving on and off the road all day). When she looked up, she finally noticed Lou standing there. “Oh! Hey. They told you about what happened?”

“I… but… you… and… it… huh?”

“Yeah, I still feel the same way a little too. And these two aren’t helping.” She jerked her head at Eddie and Bette, who made a bad show of being nonchalant. “Please tell me you’re not going to keep asking if you can ‘borrow’ me like my ‘dear sister’ keeps doing.”

Still processing what he just saw, Lou simply said the first thing that came to mind. “I… have my own wheels…” He said dully. Suddenly, he realized that might not have been the best thing to say. “I mean, I already own a bike. Not that they own-”

Bette and Eddie were laughing again, which didn’t help. Kaity silenced them with a glare, but gave Lou a more sympathetic look. “Don’t worry, Lou. It’s a weird situation.”

“Maybe so.” Eddie approached them with a smile, and wrapped his arms around her. She rolled her eyes, but instead of shaking him off she leaned in as if she hadn’t just been angry at him. Lou thought it was silly, but then he never understood relationships. Not that that was the most baffling thing he’d just seen. “But what did you think about it? While we were out there.”

Kaity looked back at her hands, covered in the dirt from the road. “It was… odd.” She said mistily, like talking about a dream. “It was like whole parts of me were gone. They weren’t important. All that mattered was the speed of it. The road. And me and you. It was…” She sighted. “… wonderful.”

“Hey, what about me?” Bette joked, but Lou seemed to be the only one that heard her.

“I think… I think I might do that again,” Kaity said with a growing smile.

Eddie pumped his fist and hugged her tighter. “There is a race going on a couple weeks from now. I’d love to do it with you. We could spent this week getting control over how and when you change. If you don’t think you’re ready I understand, but I think it’d be perfect. Whaddaya say, babe? You and me, making them eat our dust together?”

“I think I might like that,” she sighed. Lou pretended to puke, but nobody cared. It was like he and Bette weren’t even there any more. “Why don’t we go talk about it?” she said. “In private. I just showed off what I could do at top speed to the whole neighborhood, but I still want it to be just me and you sometimes. And I think I know more than one way to-“

Eddie stopped her. “You’re not about to make a ‘riding’ pun, were you?” He said with a smirk. She smirked right back.

“Maybe.”

They were halfway to the door of their house before Lou and Bette even saw them move. “Well, catch you guys later!” Eddie shouted. Then they slammed the door, leaving Lou and Bette alone together.

Lou still needed a minute to compose himself. Then he turned right back around to the road he came from. “That. Was. Crazy!” He said. He just wanted to go home, drink something, and go back to bed with the hope that in the morning the world would make sense.

Which it wouldn’t, if Bette had anything to say about it. She sidled up to walk with him, without even asking. He didn’t bother asking her not to. “I don’t know. I think it’s pretty amazing,” She gushed. “Wish I had one of those magic hubcaps.” Lou just stared at her. “What?” She said.

“What would you even do with it?”

“Isn’t it obvious. Wind in my hair? Road ahead of me. Riding together closer than anyone’s ever done, with someone important to me?” She wrapped her arm around his, and enough was enough. He screamed at the top of his lungs and bolted down the block.

Bette started chuckling again. “Oh calm down, I was just joking!” She shouted to him as he disappeared over the horizon. He didn’t make any sign that he heard her and just kept on running, which made her laugh even harder. But as Lou disappeared over the horizon, she turned back to her sister’s house, wondering… “Still, it does make you think, doesn’t it?” She said to herself.

Maybe it wouldn’t be such a bad idea, getting her hands on that trinket. She couldn’t deny that it did wonders for the happy couple…