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Wataru slips out through the kitchen, a quiet conversation between his parents and his aunt and uncle filling the otherwise silent house. He doubts that they would be paying much attention to him, but he moves quietly just to be safe.
He sat through dinner with his family. That has to be enough, right?
He's leaving either way, but the thought has to count for something.
He crouches down by the door and pulls on his worn pair of converses, the fabric oiled-stained and dusty.
"Wataru."
Wataru flinches, his shoelaces slipping out of his hands. "Shit, Nobuhiko."
Nobuhiko stares down at him, the lights from the street reflecting in his glasses. Wataru slumps his shoulders.
Fuck.
His prissy, stuck-up cousin's going to rat him out to his parents, isn't he?
Nobuhiko just stares down at him with that look Wataru's come to associate with him trying to solve a difficult problem. "What do you want?" Wataru asks, barely above a whisper.
"You're going racing, right?" Nobuhiko's voice is low, just as aware of their parents in the next room as Wataru is. "Take me with you."
Wataru rolls his eyes and pulls his laces tight before tying them in a knot. "No, you'll piss your pants."
"I'll tell Aunt Izumi." Nobuhiko's expression is pressed flat but there's a flicker of something smug in his voice. "I doubt she'd appreciate you running off when family is visiting."
Wataru's mom won't appreciate it. In fact, she'll take his keys away. Again. "Fine." Wataru stands, giving Nobuhiko a pointed look. "You better not freak out."
A flicker of a grin pulls at Nobuhiko's lips. "I won't."
Wataru narrows his eyes. You can't blame him for not believing Nobuhiko. He isn't exactly street racer material. If, for some reason, he doesn't get scared off by the driving, he would when the first person resorts to something more physical. "Sure."
Wataru glances back at the living room, waiting for any breaks in the conversation that might show they've been caught. But both sets of their parents continue talking.
"Don't fuck this up," Wataru hisses before carefully twisting the knob.
Nobuhiko gives him a look, a sharp mix between annoyance and displeasure.
They both slip out of the house and Wataru slowly shuts the door behind them. He doesn't bother with the lock, not only will it make more noise, his parents don't even lock the door when they have guests over.
Wataru takes the long way around the house, not risking walking by the living room windows, and makes his way over to the car ports. Nobuhiko follows him quietly, far more comfortable with this than Wataru expected.
Wataru smiles when he sees his Levin, sitting right where he left her this morning. He unlocks the driver's side door before climbing in. He reaches across the transmission and unlocks the other door.
Nobuhiko sits in the passenger's seat, giving the interior a slow once-over. Wataru digs the keys out of his pocket and sticks them in the ignition. He starts the car with a twist of his wrist, the engine roaring to life beneath his hands.
He glances over. Nobuhiko stares at the gauges on the dashboard with thinly-veiled curiosity, leaning over to get a better look at them.
"Like what you see?" Wataru gives Nobuhiko a cheeky grin before putting the Levin into gear and driving out. He usually likes letting the engine warm up more before driving but he's playing a delicate game right now. As long as he keeps his driving gentle until the engine warms up she'll be fine. "Better than your computer stuff?"
"My computer stuff is in your car." Nobuhiko looks away from the dashboard to meet Wataru's gaze with a long-suffering one.
Wataru glances over his shoulder before taking the next left. "Of course you'd know that one."
Nobuhiko doesn't sigh but his shoulders shift as if he wants to. Wataru doesn't laugh either, but the feeling bubbles up in his chest and a grin pulls at his lips.
Wataru drives them to Shomaru pass. A small part of Wataru considers taking Nobuhiko to another pass, like Sadamine or Maze Pass, even if they're further away. Neither of them have the same thrill that Shomaru does, that rush of adrenaline that runs through his veins every time he gets closer to the bent guardrails, but they might be a better experience for Nobuhiko.
But it's not like he's the one who asked Nobuhiko to come. He doesn't need to accommodate him.
If Nobuhiko wants to see what it's like to be a street racer, then he's going to get the real experience.
And yes, maybe Wataru does want to wipe that smug grin off his face too.
When Wataru pulls up to the station, a couple of his friends are milling by the benches. Hamasaki looks up when Wataru pulls to a stop, a grin breaking out across his face.
Wataru climbs out of his Levin and gives Hamasaki a half-wave. "Hey."
"And here I thought you'd got caught." Hamasaki drops his cigarette on the ground and grinds it out beneath his shoe. His voice is light and he's grinning. "Again."
"I'm not caught that often." Wataru crosses his arms over his chest and leans against his Levin, fighting the urge to pull out a cigarette. He isn't planning on staying here for that long.
"Who's that?" Hamasaki gestures to behind Wataru with a jerk of his head.
Wataru looks back. Nobuhiko stands by Wataru's Levin, his hands shoved into his pockets. His expression is stiff and he watches Hamasaki with a flat look. "That's my cousin, Nobuhiko," Wataru says, "he wants to see what it's like to be a street racer."
Hamasaki huffs out a laugh, short and teasing. "You sure you should be the one to show him?"
"It'll be fine." Wataru glances over to the rest of the cars in the lot. "Is Sakamoto gonna come?"
Hamasaki shrugs. "Doubt it. He hasn't been around for the past couple of days."
"Fine, I guess." Wataru shoves his hands into his pockets, his fingers wrapping around his car keys. "Any of you check out the pass yet?
Hamasaki shakes his head. "We were waiting a little longer to see if you showed up."
Wataru smirks. "I'll let you know how it is when I get back."
The first few laps are always the most thrilling. The road that he knows from memory is always slightly different the first time he runs it, the conditions changed even in a single day.
He can't wait to see what the pass brings him tonight.
"C'mon Nobuhiko, let's go." Wataru opens the door and climbs back in the Levin. Nobuhiko glances back at the other cars before stepping back inside. Wataru starts the car again, relishing in the sound of his Levin starting in a way he couldn't before when they left.
As much as he loves how loud his car is, it doesn't exactly help him when he is trying to get away without drawing his parent's attention.
Nobuhiko rests a hand on either of his thighs, staring straight ahead. His back is pressed against the back of the seat, rigid and stiff. Wataru rests his hand on the transmission and gives Nobuhiko a grin. "Scared?"
"No." Nobuhiko's voice cracks and he swallows.
Wataru doesn't laugh, but only barely. "Don't worry, I take my first lap light."
Nobuhiko frowns and glances at Wataru, doubt clear in his gaze.
Wataru stops just before he puts the car into gear, running his thumb against the knob. "When we get to the pass you wanna hold onto the handle—"
"I know that much." Nobuhiko cuts in, the curtness masking any unease still lingering in his voice.
Wataru shrugs before pulling out of the parking lot.
It doesn't take him long to reach the pass, the roads dead at this time of night. His Levin is antsy beneath his hands, eager to run near her limits.
"Nobuhiko," Wataru says the moment he passes the unofficial boundary for the course. "We're here."
Nobuhiko nods and grabs onto the handles.
Wataru presses down the acceleration and the Levin's engine sings. It takes him less than two corners to get into the rhythm, his car responding just how he wants her to.
It had taken a couple of days and more than half of the last two week's paycheck to replace all of the brakes and rotors, but the way the Levin drives now made everything worth it.
Not even the extra weight with Nobuhiko sitting in the passenger's seat throws him off that much.
Just like he promised Nobuhiko, he takes his first lap light. The road conditions on Shomaru are ever changing and he'd be an idiot to take his first lap full throttle.
And no matter how much Nobuhiko might argue against this, he isn't that much of an idiot.
Wataru whips the Levin around at the end of the course, coming to a stop with the screeching of his tires. A grin pulls at his lips and adrenaline courses through his veins.
He'll never get tired of that feeling.
"Hey, Nobuhiko, how ya feeling? If you're gonna get sick, you better not—" Wataru cuts himself off at Nobuhiko's expression.
He's smiling, wide and unbridled, as if he isn't even aware that he's making the expression. He drums his fingers on the handle, all of the tension in his posture gone.
Wataru has only seen Nobuhiko this excited when they were younger and he didn't only care about school and grades.
"Wataru," Excitement cuts through Nobuhiko's voice. He looks over at Wataru, eager. "You need to go again. I need to see that again."
For a long moment, Wataru doesn't know what to say.
Nobuhiko, his nerdy cousin that won't even go out hiking in the mountains with him anymore, didn't just want Wataru to drive him home?
He actually wants to ride with Wataru again?
Maybe Wataru underestimated him.
"It's gonna be different." Wataru fights hard not to mirror the excitement in Nobuhiko's voice.
"That's perfect." Nobuhiko readjusts his grip on the handles, watching Wataru. "We can come back the other way afterwards."
"That's if you still want to after this lap." Wataru looks back at the dark road, the shadows only cut by the Levin's lights. "I was just warming up before."
"I will," Nobuhiko says with a certainty Wataru only hears when he's explaining complex math problems to him that he has no hopes of understanding.
Wataru smirks. "I'll hold you to that."
Wataru puts the Levin into gear and takes off back towards the pass.
True to Nobuhiko's words, he wants to sit as a passenger to Wataru's next run and all of the runs after that. For a couple of laps Hamasaki and a couple of his other friends join him on the pass, but none of them can really keep up with him after a couple of corners.
By the last couple of laps, Nobuhiko's switched from watching the road to watching how Wataru drives.
Wataru knows what Nobuhiko wants, he's not exactly being subtle.
Wataru stops at the end of the pass and drops his hand from his transmission. Nobuhiko glances down at the movement and opens his mouth. But he doesn't say a word.
"You wanna drive, don't you?" The words feel awkward in Wataru's mouth. He never thought he would put his cousin and street racing together in the same sentence.
Nobuhiko presses his lips together, but nods.
Wataru leans back with a sigh, running a hand through his hair. He doesn't want to let Nobuhiko drive his Levin. In fact, he would rather not let anyone else drive her.
But no one else in his family even likes that he street races, let alone shows this much interest in it.
"Fine." Annoyance bleeds into Wataru's voice. "But only one lap, okay?"
"Okay." A flicker of a grin crosses Nobuhiko's face, something genuine rather than teasing or smug. He reaches down and unbuckles the seatbelt.
A flicker of apprehension builds in Wataru's chest. "If you wreck my car I'll kill you if the accident doesn't."
Nobuhiko gives Wataru a look out of the corner of his eye, letting the seatbelt fall back into place by the door. "Who has more accidents between us?"
"You've had your license for like a week that doesn't count."'
"I've had it for a month," Nobuhiko says, indignant. "And you scrapped up the bumper on Aunt Izumi's car three days after you got your license."
"How do you even know that?"
"Mom talks really loud when she's on the phone."
Wataru really doesn't want to know what else Nobuhiko knows from their moms' gossip.
Wataru pulls up the hand brake before climbing out of his Levin. He walks around the front, the low rumble of the engine cutting through the silence of the pass. Nobuhiko looks over the car, his grin growing as he climbs into the driver's seat.
Wataru watches Nobuhiko familiarize himself with the controls, slight unease settling in his stomach. "Your license is for a manual, right?"
Nobuhiko rests a hand on the hand brake and gives Wataru a look. "Of course."
Wataru just grabs the seatbelt and puts it on. "Can't blame me for asking."
Nobuhiko releases the hand brake and moves his hand to the transmission. He puts the car into gear and eases off the clutch, eyes narrowed.
Wataru fights every urge to tell Nobuhiko what to do, to take back what he said and just take the wheel from him.
He'll give Nobuhiko one lap.
Nobuhiko doesn't stall the engine, which was better than what Wataru would've expected given his hesitation.
Or at least what Wataru assumed was hesitation. It was almost too calculated to be that.
"It's different from Mom's car," Nobuhiko says, more like an observation than anything else.
"No shit. My car's actually fun to drive."
Nobuhiko smiles before pulling onto the pass.
Just like Wataru did during his first lap, Nobuhiko takes the first few corners slowly. For the most part, he drives exactly how Wataru expected him to—slow and simple. He barely gets above the road speeds and doesn't run the car nearly as hard as Wataru does.
But there's no fear in his driving. Almost everyone else Wataru's been forced to run shotgun with or drive behind the first time they try to drive on the pass was afraid of the road.
It's dark as fuck out and it feels like the world is speeding by even when you're barely moving.
Wataru may not understand it, but he can at least remember how his friends described how it felt to him.
But there is none of that fear in Nobuhiko's driving. There is hesitation and caution, but it's all calculated rather than reactionary.
It's probably one of the better first laps Wataru's seen, he has to give Nobuhiko that.
Nobuhiko slows to a stop at the end of the pass, pulling to the side of the road and out of the way. He glances over at Wataru, just a touch uneasy.
Wataru shrugs. "I've seen worse."
Nobuhiko looks back out the windshield. "Asshole."
"Don't let Aunt Hanako hear you talk like that." Wataru unbuckles his seatbelt. "C'mon park her and get out, I'll show you how to attack these corners."
Nobuhiko pulls up the hand brake. "I already know how to do that."
"Yeah, sure. Why didn't you do that when you were driving, then?"
Nobuhiko frowns and looks away. "The car wouldn't move how I wanted it to."
Wataru smirks. "That's part of the whole 'knowing how to attack the corners' thing. Knowing how to do it doesn't matter if you can't control your car."
"Fine, show me then."
"Get out of the driver's seat, then," Wataru shots back before opening the passenger's door.
They quickly switch places and Wataru quickly reacquaints himself with controls. He glances over the dashboard before settling against the seat. Nobuhiko watches him, intense and focused.
Wataru puts the Levin into gear and pulls her back onto the road, really leaning into the turn he makes to flip her around. "Now, watch."
"Mom and Aunt Hanako are going to be so fucking pissed at us." Wataru leans back against the guardrail, taking a long drag of his cigarette. He glances over at Nobuhiko, who's holding his cigarette awkwardly between his fingers. "Are you gonna be able to handle being grounded, Mr Perfect?"
Nobuhiko brings the cigarette to his lips and barely suppressed the grimace that crosses his expression. "I've been grounded before."
"Yeah, doing what? Staying up too late studying?"
"Trying to order sodium metal through the school's lab supplier."
"What?" Wataru narrows his eyes. "Why?"
Nobuhiko stares at the street across from them, lowering the cigarette from his lips. "It explodes violently when exposed to water. I wanted to see it for myself."
Wataru laughs, loud and unrestrained. "I can't imagine how Aunt Hanako reacted to being called to school for that."
"It wasn't well," Nobuhiko says quietly.
"Next time you wanna do something like that, tell me. I'll help."
"You wouldn't even know how to order something online, let alone get the admin password to use a school account to do so."
"But I can help you get away afterwards." Wataru gives him a sharp grin. "Since, y'know, I'm the one with the car between us."
"Not for much longer."
Wataru sighs and snubs out his cigarette on the guardrail. Sunlight cuts through the trees, soft this early in the morning. "Wanna go and get something to eat? Staying out an hour longer won't change anything."
Nobuhiko takes one last drag from his cigarette before copying Wataru and snubbing it out on the guardrail. "Sure."