Who: Renly Baratheon and Tinkerbell When: Backdated Friday, May 3rd. Early Afternoon Where: Tink's Garage What: Renly's car is making a weird noise so he goes to he nearest garage Rating: Family Friendly. Status: Complete
It was an average day for Tink at work. The boss was nowhere to be found, the other mechanics were on break or hiding, and Tink was sitting in the driveway, playing with a makeshift, ramshackle Rube-Goldberg device that she’d thrown together out of spare car parts, tennis balls and a rather sad looking rubber glove. The stereo was playing loud pop punk music over the speakers. Fall Out Boy was on at the moment, but after this song, older Jimmy Eat World would start playing.
She was putting the final touches on whatever it was when a car pulled into the drive and distracted her. Without finishing the project, she turned to wave to the driver, and wandered over, still holding a handful of marbles.
Renly had been out running some errands that afternoon when his car had begun to make an odd noise. Being that it was a new car, this didn’t sit well with Renly at all, so he figured that it was probably best to have it looked at. Unfortunately the dealership wasn’t exactly close, but luckily he just happened to be near a garage and decided to stop there and then bring it by the dealership tomorrow if they couldn’t figure out what was wrong with it.
As he pulled into the garage, he spotted a girl, waving him in. As he got closer to her, he recognized her. “Tink?” He’d had no idea that she worked in a garage, but now he felt a little better about having decided to stop at this particular one.
Dealerships normally overcharged, anyway, and would find some way to make everything the car owner’s fault. Tink was much better than that. She broke into a huge grin when she realized that the newcomer was a friend! That always made the day go by much faster! “Renly!” She called out, beaming as she closed the gap between herself and the car. She was in her cover-alls, and was glad for it, as she had a pocket to drop her marbles in.
“Hey! Fancy meeting you here!” She said, grinning brightly as she approached the car.
Renly smiled and turned off the car the climbed out, “Hey, I didn’t realize you worked here.” Now Renly was glad that he hadn’t gone to the dealership. There he would have been waiting around for an hour or more in the waiting room, but at least here, he might be able to talk to Tink while she checked out his car. “Looks like I picked the right garage.”
“Yeah! You totally did!” Tink said, giving him a grin. “I’ve been working here for years, really. It’s a great shop. Really good prices, and I like to think we’ve got fast, efficient service.” She may have blushed a little when she said it. “So, what’s wrong with your baby?” She asked, coming closer to the car and running her hand along the hood.
Renly laughed and crossed his arms over his chest, “You’re right, I totally did.” He teased and leaned against the side of the car, “I was out running some errands and I noticed that it’s making this weird noise. It’s a fairly new car too, so it’s kind of disconcerting that it’s doing that.”
“Oooh, I love weird noises. Can you do the weird noise for me? Let me see if I can guess it just by your interpretation,” Tink smirked, only half joking. That commercial with the car body shop customers making the engine fail noises? One of her favorites. She asked all of her customers what kind of noise the car was making. The most playful customers would actually give it a try, while others would just turn on the car and let her hear.
Renly quirked a brow at her, trying to decide if she was just messing with him or if she were serious. In the end, he decided to humor her and did his best at making the sound the car was making, “Okay, that was just awful. I’m going to just turn it on.” Smirking, he opened the door, leaned in and started the car for her.
Tink gave a good-natured laugh. “That’s a good one!” She sort of mimicked the sound back at him, then gave another laugh and turned to walk a few steps around the driver’s side door and listened as he started the car. “Sounds a lot like the tensioner on the timing belt’s off. Then again, it could be the Catalytic Converter. I won’t know until I get under her hood. Shouldn’t be too much of a big deal, though, either way.”
He watched her as she talked, not understanding a single thing she’d said. If Loras were there, he might know what she was talking about, because he was much more a car person than Renly was, “I’ll be honest, I have absolutely no bloody idea what you just said, but I’ll take your word for it.”
“That’s okay! You’re not the only one who’s said something like that to me recently.” Tink laughed again. She was a really happy person, so it shouldn’t be a surprise that she was laughing a lot. It just sort of came naturally to her. With a nod, she moved to get some paperwork for him to fill out from the office. “I can most likely have the car finished in a couple of hours. You can go and come back, or just hang out around here. There are some games in the lobby, or there’s a television in the garage.” She suggested, then handed him some papers to fill out. Standard name, address, phone number, that sort of thing, and she moved to pull his car into the garage and get it on the lift.
“My boyfriend is more of a car person than I am.” Renly said, taking the papers from her and began filling them out. “So, how long have you been a mechanic?” Just from looking at her, Renly never would have guessed that she was a mechanic.
“Oh, gosh. I went to school for it, so... a while now.” Tink said. She didn’t look like a mechanic at first glance, but there were hints and signs. The oil stains on her hands and clothes, the way she didn’t bother watching people wander by, but her head was turned by every good-looking or good-sounding muscle car on the block... yeah. Tink was definitely a car person. “It gets easier the more you do it,” she added. “And I’m learning things every day. So... fun!”
Tink certainly didn’t look like your usual mechanic. In fact, Renly didn’t think that he’d ever seen a female mechanic; not even in movies. At least not that he could remember, so it was impressive to see a girl like Tink doing something that was usually considered a man’s job. “That’s impressive. What made you decide to go into mechanics?”
“I dunno,” Tink responded with a little shrug. She was smiling, though, as she often was. “I’ve just always been good with machines, with my hands. Ever since I was little. Started with these little, wooden blocks, but I started working with metal stuff soon afterward. I used to have this set of little pipes that I could put together to roll a marble down them, like a water slide?”
“That’s impressive. Not just that you know how to do all of this, but that you knew what you wanted to do.” Renly was still trying to figure out exactly what it was that he was going to do. He had his trust fund, which would last for quite sometime, but did he really want to just sit around and act like the rich kid for the rest of his life? Loras was younger than him and he had his MMA career while Renly did nothing. He didn’t feel inferior or unworthy to Loras though, because no matter what Loras thought of him as his King, but Renly would have liked to do something with his time that would mean something.
Tink shrugged again, feeling flattered. Not that it was really flattering. She’d known what she wanted to do for some time. It was just part of who she was. “I tried other things, you know,” she said, softly. “I mean, I’ve been good with machines, but it’s kinda lonely to be stuck under a car all day. I tried growing things. Animals hate me. I did my volunteering at the shelter, and the dogs wouldn’t stop barking.” There had been a time when she questioned her path in life, and had tried everything else.
“I’ve only ever known one thing.” Renly said, running a hand through his hair as he watched Tink, “I’ve known that I didn’t want to be a part of my father’s business. I didn’t want to constantly listen to my brothers’ bickering. Other than that, I’ve got no clue what I’d like to do.”
“That seems like a good place to start, right? You’ve got options. You can explore anything and everything to try and figure out what it is you want to do.” Tink said, trying to find a silver lining. She was always optimistic. At least, most of the time optimistic. “I hope you’re trying new things, learning all sorts of things?”
Renly nodded, “Yeah. I mean, I’ve mostly been spending as much time as I can with my boyfriend, but when we’re not together I’m trying to look into different things. One of my friends suggest we both model for her. She’s a fashion designer.”
“Oooh, that’s glamorous!” Tink said, giving a little laugh. The word ‘glamourous’ wasn’t exactly the most manly of things, but that’s how Tink imagined models. “You definitely have the look of a model.” She added, smiling warmly. She wasn’t hitting on him, just stating the obvious. “If your boyfriend is like you, then you two would do great at modelling! I don’t blame her for asking you.”
Renly couldn’t help but grin. He wasn’t vain, but he did enjoy compliments; after all, who didn’t? “Oh, he’s even better looking.” Of course Renly was biased when it came to Loras. “I modeled for her when we first met, but that was more to showcase the clothes and less about me.” That had been when Renly was eighteen and he was twenty two now.
Tink laughed. It would make sense that two very good-looking people would attract one another. It was a good-natured laugh, though, a friendly one. She nodded. “I’ll have to meet your better half, so I can see for myself! Then again, it might be like looking into the sun.” She added, teasing a bit.
Renly chuckled, “Well, he is rather radiant.” Especially in his armor during jousts, but he didn’t add that bit. He thought it might sound just a tad bit odd, “Do you have a special someone?” He couldn’t resist and hoped it wasn’t too personal a question.
“Me? Nah,” Tink blushed just at the thought of a special someone. “People seem to come and go. No one ever stays for long.” She shook her head a bit and lifted her hands to tuck her hair behind her ears. She was covered in engine grease and in coveralls. Not exactly the epitome of feminine, she thought. “I’ve got some really fantastic friends, though. So I’m not lonely or anything.”
After everything they’d been through over the last few months, Renly was determined to make his relationship with Loras last as long as possible. Forever if he could, but he could understand that some people didn’t believe that relationships could last. “Hey, if you’re happy then that’s all the matters, right?” Renly smiled, knowing exactly what she meant about having fantastic friends. Renly had some rather interesting ones himself.
“Oh, yeah. Definitely. Happy, surrounded by people, that’s the best way to be.” Tink said, giving him a smile. “So. Let me get to work on your car, and we can get you out of here,” she added, gave him a nod. “You can wait for a bit in the waiting room. There’s coffee in there, cream and sugar. Feel free to put on the tv, too.”