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“What the fuck?” Chinen gasps, his heartbeat erratic.
It takes him more than a few minutes for reality to catch up on him, and Chinen quickly exits the car to access the damages.
“Well, shit,” Chinen swears once again. He thinks he should be thankful that the tree landed in front of his car and not on her, but he was hoping that the damage would be a lot less, since he did that epic turn to avoid the fallen tree. He certainly did not expect one of his headlights to be on the verge of falling off.
But then again, that might have been because of that epic turn.
“Ryosuke.” For some reason today, it takes three calls to get to Yamada.
“What?” Yamada sounds thoroughly annoyed, which baffles Chinen, because Yamada was one of those people who basked in the whole Christmas shindig once December began.
“Do you know if any auto-repair shops are open at this hour?”
“You called me to ask this?” Yamada’s voice is incredulous, that is until he makes an odd noise. “Can’t you—oh—ask Google?”
Chinen’s eyes widen.
Holy fuck.
“Are you in the middle of what I think you’re in the middle of?”
This time, he hears a faint, “It’s Christmas, don’t be a cockblock!” from a voice that sounds strangely like Yuto.
Chinen cackles.
“Did Santa come early? Because I think you did~” He singsongs, before hanging up.
Google-sensei directs him to a dingy town, another thirty minutes away from where he is, because there is apparently a place that’s open all the way till midnight. Chinen’s a little bit pressed for time, the digital clock in his car is blinking at 10:30, but he supposes he can make it. He doesn’t feel comfortable driving Satoshi-chan back home and to another store with one of her headlights hanging precariously by two wires.
It is a little after eleven when he drives into the garage, or what he thinks is supposed to be a garage, guided by the single streetlight and the very bright and tacky sign.
‘Yuya fixes’ does not seem very legit, Chinen muses.
Chinen can’t help but stare when the mechanic appears, his hair a coppery auburn. “I’m Chinen. I was wondering if you could fix her?”
The man smiles. “Takaki Yuya, auto-mechanic at your service.”
“Yeah. Just let me,” Takaki pauses halfway, his eyes wide. “Wait, does she use one of those—”
Chinen blinks. “Sorry I think you lost me when you started talking in car.”
Takaki seems to completely ignore Chinen’s input, opening the hood and prodding around.
“The good news is it won’t take very long to fix her.”
Chinen almost squeals. “Did you hear that Satoshi-chan? You’re gonna get fixed up in no time!”
Takaki blinks, his hands pausing work as he turns to look at Chinen. “You named your car Satoshi, but it’s a girl?”
“Your point?”
“Nothing.” He quickly says, “but the bad news is, you might not be getting your car back today. Some of your wires need changing and I don’t have the parts to fix your partly smashed headlights.”
“What? How am I supposed to get back?”
“You can stay over, I don’t mind. The least I could do for you since I can’t get your car fixed,” Takaki offers, scratching the back of his head sheepishly.
Chinen considers this for a moment. He really doesn’t have anywhere to go, with the cabs being a potential stab in his soon-to-be bleeding wallet due to car repairs. Besides, he only has plans to watch a rerun of the VS Arashi Christmas Special, which he has already prerecorded. Takaki is really good looking.
Ohno-kun can wait.
Chinen ends up falling asleep on Takaki’s couch. As much as Chinen would like to take advantage of Takaki’s niceness and to hog his bed instead, the man looks terribly exhausted and his non-existent conscience will bug him to nowhere if he ever did that.
Takaki’s couch smells like mint anyway.
It is nine in the morning when Chinen wakes up to a poke on his cheek.
“Uhbuhda—huh?” Chinen is not very coherent in the morning.
“Sorry to wake you,” Takaki smiles, looking the least apologetic about Chinen’s flail. “I just wanted to tell you I got the parts you needed for your car, so I’m going to start working on her now.”
“Mmkay,” Chinen hums, falling right back to sleep.
When Chinen finally wakes up, another hour has passed and he walks out into the garage to be greeted by a generous view of Takaki’s ass.
“Don’t you guys have these roller thingies?”
Takaki crawls out from underneath his car to give him a look. “I’m not that much of an amateur,” he scoffs.
At least Chinen gets to look at Takaki’s cute butt wriggling back under the car again.
Takaki keeps trying to tell him things he should do to look after his car better, even though Chinen has no idea what he is saying.
“Sorry,” Chinen apologises when Takaki catches him zoning out. “I must have gotten lost in your pretty face.”
He isn’t sure if it’s just the reflection of the car, because he sees Takaki’s face turn a bright shade of pink.
But Takaki’s voice is amazing, and Chinen kind of wants to hear him speak forever.
“And she’s done!” Takaki exclaims, removing his gloves and stretching.
Chinen tries very hard not to stare. He fails.
“Hey. Merry Christmas.”
“Merry Christmas,” Takaki smiles back.
“So to thank you I guess I should probably buy you dinner or something,” Chinen smirks.
“Cool,” Takaki easily agrees. Score one for Chinen Yuri. “When?”
“Are you free in the next five hours?”
“Yes?”
“Let’s go!” Chinen laughs, dragging Takaki towards the car.
“It’s like three in the afternoon!” Takaki protests, but Chinen is unfazed.
“Your point?”
“At least let me change out of my greasy clothes.”
“Good point.”