Chapter Text
A late night drive is what you need. A little something to get outside your head. The stress of the day seems to wash away at the crisp, ocean air. Starting the ignition, you let everything slip away. The mansion, which was a gift from your controlling but doting father, the slew of unread messages from the man who thinks he has a right to you based on your father’s approval; everything.
The first thing that catches your attention is his eyes. A startling blue and lidded with a look of indifference. Tattooed arm out the window, he merely glances at you out of the corner of his eye before turning back to the road. The driver, a blonde with a cocky smile, revs his engine at you. Having never engaged in this sort of behavior, the idea of racing excites you. Never mind possibly wrecking the Infiniti Q60 your father bought you, or the possible trip to the ER.
You rev your engine back, feeling excited as the black-haired passenger levels another quick, but bored look your way. You don’t know shit about cars, but you DO know the car next to you is an old one. Like something out of Fast and Furious.
It is sleek and dangerous looking, like a coiled viper. Also, it sounds like a pissed off dragon while your car sounds like a puny knight waving a toy sword. You’re going to lose, but who really cares? This will be an exciting thing to chalk up in the “you dared to defy your father” column.
Twenty-five years old, you shouldn’t have to worry about defying your father, but in your case it’s true. Spoiled, and your entire life dictated by the man. Spoiled, but never with the things YOU wanted. Molded and shaped into his perfect little angel. Someday a trophy wife for someone of his choosing.
The light turns green, and you mash the pedal down as hard as you can. The tires squeal in protest briefly before you slingshot forward, almost losing control immediately. You can see them just behind you in your rear-view mirror and your heart thumps with excitement.
That is, until you realize the driver is toying with you. The car inches up level with yours, and the laughing blonde gives you a wave. A flicker of a smile rests briefly on the passenger’s mouth and that is all. Suddenly, a redheaded woman pops her head out the window from behind the passenger seat.
“Later, loser!”
The car blows past you like you’re nothing. All you see is “Challenger”, and a sticker that says: Levi’s Restomod and Repair, before you realize you are about to go into a curb. With a sharp cry, you overcorrect and spin halfway around, your heart thudding in your chest as you slam on the brakes. Bubbles, a siren, and the Challenger has now stopped as well. You watch from your safe distance, as the cop, whose car has the challenger blocked, gets out of the car.
With a panicked thought of how much deep shit you’ll be in, you speed off. You can see the black-haired passenger look back at you and slap the car door in frustration. Best not to show your face in this part of the city for a while.
“Farlan you fucking idiot,” Levi mutters as he watches your tailights disappear into the night.
“What, she was easy pickings.”
Levi shakes his head and pulls Farlan’s registration out of the glove compartment.
“She wasn’t worth a ticket.”
Farlan rolls the window down, and gives a groan when he sees the tall, lanky figure leaning down to look in the window.
“If it isn’t my three favorite nuisances.” The man gives them a lopsided grin.
“Hello, Kenny,” Levi mutters, looking out the window in the direction you took off in.
“You’re lucky it was me and not Officer Dok you almost t-boned, you idiots. What the hell were you thinking? If your mom was alive, she’d-”
“Well, she’s not.” Levi leans back in his chair and puts his hands over his tired face. After a moment to collect himself, he looks back at Kenny. “Can we go home now?”
“Who was that racing with you, a friend,” Kenny asks as if not hearing Levi’s request.
“Just some idiot spoiled brat in daddy’s car.”
Kenny’s hand drops onto the hood of the car with a solid thump as he stands, one last comment as he saunters back to his car.
“Get your asses home.”
You’re still amped up by the time you get home. Your shaking hands drop your damn keys several times before you even make it to the front door. Leveling a curse at yourself, you slam the door and fall back against it, trying to get your racing heart to slow its erratic beat.
“That was stupid,” you mutter as you make your way up the stairs. Who was that guy, anyway? Never mind the blonde who was driving. That guy in the passenger seat. Those eyes. Just thinking of them has your pulse picking up once again.
Throwing your clothes in the hamper, you make your way quickly to the bathroom, snapping the shower on with enough force to potentially break the knob right off. Adrenaline, and tons of it, is still coursing through your veins.
“Shit, shit, shit, shit, shit!” The water is just cold enough to bring you under a bit of control and you sigh, grabbing your loofah. You start methodically and metaphorically in your mind, scrubbing away the stress of the day.
Pushy, arrogant Erwin….
The proud look in your father’s eyes as he looks at the two of you….
How he misses (or ignores) the miserable look in your eyes….
Speaking of eyes….
The mystery guy from tonight.
You realize that a lot of the adrenaline you’re feeling has to do more with him, than the actual race.
Levi’s Restomod and Repair.
You resolve to look the place up in the morning.
Grabbing a beer from the fridge, Levi makes a beeline for the side door leading to the garage. Pulling the cord to his right, the shop lights flicker on and he makes his way to the tarp in the center.
So much time working on other people’s cars, never enough for his own. With this thought in mind, he sets his beer to the side, and opens the hood. Probably 4 am before he gets his ass to bed tonight.
Who was that girl, he wonders as he rolls the lift over the engine bay. You certainly don’t seem the type to be rolling in his neck of the woods. An idiot looking for trouble. If it would have been anyone else she encountered tonight, she would have been in a much bigger mess.
The bonnet and the battery have already been removed, so with a mutter he places the drip pans underneath. Messy job, but worth the end result. He’ll have his baby up and running in no time.
Except, he is now again thinking of that sham of a race, that woman, and ultimately getting pulled over by Kenny, of all people. He doesn’t see his uncle as much these days, but getting pulled over is sure to have the man’s eye on him again.
Not that he’s a bad person or anything. Although, plenty of people have looked at him and/or his circumstances and assumed these things blindly. He’s not a bad person though, and never has been.
After his mom passed away, Kenny pretty much raised him up. Taught him how to take care of himself, when to fight, and when to use his words. “It’s better to use your words and gain allies, than to use your fists and gain enemies,” Kenny would say, “but sometimes you have to say hello in a more forceful way.”
Kenny also gifted him with a hobby that would become his career and life. That leads to another of Kenny’s euphemisms, and Levi smiles as he methodically drains each fluid from his 1970 Chevelle SS 454.
“If you want your kid to stay off drugs, give them an expensive hobby.”
Next he rolls over to disconnect the coolant lines, intake, radiator and exhaust. Kenny was not wrong on that score, although he never had to worry about Levi trying that shit.
Alcohol and tattoos are his only vices, and he has no interest in changing that now. After building himself from the ground up, why would he care to tear himself back down?
He looks like a lowlife, he must be a lowlife. Let people think what they want. He doesn’t have time for people who can’t be bothered to look deeper. Girls who eventually realize he has no red flags for them to play with and leave disappointed. Or make them up to justify their interest. Fucking banks that turn him down after one look at his tattoos.
Fuck them all. He has all he needs in his cars, his friends and what little family he has.
A soft whine comes from the back of the garage and he rolls out from under the car, wiping his hands on a nearby rag. 2:30. Might as well stop now, and let everything he’s removed drain completely before moving on. Throwing the tarp back over his car, he gives a soft whistle. The soft padding of paws and the jangle of a collar greet him.
“Hey Cuda,” Levi mutters, patting the dog’s head. His tail gives a happy thump as he leans into Levi affectionately, nearly knocking him over in the process. He could ride his St. Bernard to work if he was so inclined, the fucker’s so big.
“Watch it, buddy.” Pouring about a half bag of dog food into Cuda’s bowl, he gives the dog one more affectionate pat before heading inside to shower. Still, his thoughts drag back to tonight.
None of that would have happened if I didn’t have to stay late, he muses. Of course, the only reason he HAD to stay late was because one of his chief mechanics, Connie, broke his arm fucking around on his wife Sasha’s skateboard.
Idiot.
Something else that his brain keeps dragging back to is the look in that woman’s eyes. Like she was just now experiencing life for the first time and was becoming addicted.
Good on her if that’s the case, as long as she stays out of his path in the future.
He turns his light out and goes to sleep.