ಠ╭╮ಠ (the_scavenger) wrote in valarlogs, @ 2020-04-14 17:18:00 |
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Entry tags: | !complete, finn, rey |
Who: Finn and Rey
Where: A local garage
What: Finn's car breaks down, he meets Rey
When: Jan 24th
Status: Complete
Finn sighed and leaned his forehead against the steering wheel of his car. "Come on." The small 4 door vehicle had decided she didn't want to work no matter what Finn tried. The engine had cut out and wouldn't start no matter how many times he turned the key.
Frowning, he got out to see where exactly he was. He didn't have AAA like his grandma had nagged him to get and now he was paying for it. Pulling out his smartphone he hit Google maps and searched for a local garage. One popped up two blocks away.
Finn locked his car, gave the area the once over to make sure no one was lingering to try anything while he was gone, and headed off. While he'd driven through this neighborhood on his way home from work he had never bothered to stop and really take it in. It was okay, so far. Once he made it to the garage he lingered just outside, unsure of how to proceed. "Um. Hello?" He called out.
It wasn’t the best job in the world. It wasn’t even really the one Rey wanted, especially after her last one had let her tinker around with all kinds of hot rods and custom cars.
It wasn’t even full time and she was kind of in that ‘if you work out we’ll hire you full time’ kind of space.
But it was better than starving so she wasn’t going to really complain about it.
She was under a car, when she heard someone’s voice, and then rolled out and sat up. Her overalls were greasy and stained with oil, and so were her hands. There were smudges on her cheeks and her hair was in a loose, slightly oil-stained braid.
It was one of those days.
In a genuinely cheerful voice, she called out, “Hullo!”
Finn was visibly startled. He stared wordlessly for a moment. The last thing he expected was a slight, pretty - grease stains and all - young woman wheeling out from underneath a car. He’d expected some older dude with every intention of charging him up the rear for any and everything wrong (or not) with his car.
“Um...hi.” he stammered out. “Uh...wh...you work here?” It was a genuinely stupid question, but it just tumbled out. “I mean obviously you do.” he answered it himself quickly. “With the grease stains and all. And the...tools. Not that there’s anything wrong with female mechanics.” He was flustered and talking quickly. “Anyway. So my car? It kinda broke down over that way. Two blocks. And I don’t have triple A and yeah.” Finn then went awkwardly silent, trying not to stare too hard because damn, she was pretty, especially her eyes that smiled at him from the midst of oil smudges.
“I do!” No need to let him know she was brand new and functionally equivilent to a temp. Rey hopped to her feet, grabbing a cloth to attempt to wipe her hands clean, to limited effect, tilting her head and staring at him as he flustered all over himself.
It was kind of cute, like an overeager puppy. “Two blocks? I’ll come take a look, and help you push it!”
Two blocks wasn’t far and with the two of them she was sure they could do it.
Besides it would be way cheaper than using the shop’s truck to try to tow him.
“Push it?” Finn repeated, confused. “So, no tow truck?” Then the lightbulb went on. “Oh, the truck’s extra. Got it.” He pointed in the direction he’d come and started walking with her. “It’s this way. I’m Finn, by the way.” And he stuck out a hand.
Rey beamed at him, the sort of bright sunshiney smile that she hadn’t felt like smiling in a very long time. “Rey.” She shook his hand, grease and all as she walked along side him. “So did it make any sounds before it broke down? Did you name it? Some people like to name their vehicles, it’s cute. I’ve heard of some real crazy names, though my favorite was this little old lady who called her Studebaker ‘Beauregard’.”
He returned her smile just as broadly. It was like her brightness was infectious. "Nice to meet you, Rey." The name fit, that was for sure. "Uh...I never thought about naming my car." He laughed thought at the old lady's name. "Wait...a Studebaker? Shouldn't that be in a museum?" As they turned at the corner he added, "Um so yeah, it did sputter a bit. Then it just kinda made a -" and he imitated the odd struggling sound his car had made, "before it died."
She was a ray of sunshine!
“She was very attached to it,” Rey explained. “It was her late husband’s and somehow it kept running all these years. Just needed a tune up every now and then. I suppose it helps that she only ever drove it a few times a month.”
Rey scrunched up her nose as she thought about it. “That could be a few things, some of which are harder than others to fix. I’ll have to actually look at it!”
"Huh. Wow." Finn shrugged. "Yeah mine's not exactly that old." He smirked. They reached the last stretch of block and there sat his royal blue Hyundai Genesis Coupe. "There she is." He gestured with a hand. It was a nice looking car, with sleek lines and curves, making it look inbetween a sports car and an everyday car.
"I hardly see any rust," Rey said. She winked at him, running up to the car to give it a closer inspection. She traced her fingers along the hood, wanting to get into its guts and really tear it apart. Find out what broke and what to fix in it and what made it tick.
Well, she knew what made an engine tick but every car was different, with its own unique personality.
"Okay, get her into nuetral and we'll start pushing. Shouldn't be too hard, with all that muscle you've got right?"
Finn smirked as he watched Rey admire his car. He was pretty proud of it. He'd gotten it for a steal and it didn't have too many miles on it either.
He snapped to when she started issuing instructions. He grinned at the muscles comment.
"Ah, you can tell I work out. Check out these guns." And he jokingly flexed, his facial features making over exaggerated expressions as he did so. Laughing he opened and ducked into the car and put her into nuetral. Finn then walked around to the rear of the car and got into position next to Rey. "Ready?"
Rey grinned at him, then flexed right back. “Maybe we could work out together?”
Rey liked to think she was a good judge of people, and Finn seemed like a good kind of person at first blush. He was cute, and goofy, and her radar was telling her he had a good heart.
She wanted to be his friend.
“We’re ready, but let me get up front so I can grab the wheel as necessary, we don’t want to push it into a pole!”
Finn laughed and then pointed as if serious. "Could always use a buddy at the gym!"
"Ah right, good point." Finn said as he watched her head up to the front of the car to grab the wheel. They started pushing and slowly but surely the hunk of blue metal started moving; he was actually surprised this was working.
"So, Rey, where you from? What got you into fixing cars?"
“London originally, but I grew up … elsewhere,” She replied, keeping the wheel steady as they pushed the car. It was never as hard as most people thought, but it did take a bit of muscle.
“I always had an interest in mechanics.” She glanced back and smiled at him. “I worked in this shop in Las Vegas for a few years. They’d repair old cars and make them really sexy looking. The owner even has a tv show about it! But I don’t think I was ever shown all that much.”
Rey wasn’t particularly offput by the idea; the harder it was for her grandfather to find her the better.
"London, wow." He could tell by her hesitance that maybe she didn't want to talk about where she grew up specifically so he let it go. "Las Vegas? Wait...you were on that show?? That show was amazing! You guys worked some serious miracles." He was indeed, fanboying, just a little.
“You’ve seen Counting Cars?” Rey asked, a little surprised. Though why she should be surprised she wasn’t sure. Maybe he just didn’t seem like the type but she supposed most men did in fact like cars, especially hot rods.
“Like I said you’d only really see me in the background and usually covered in grease!”
And finally, finally, they’d reached the garage. Luckily no one had noticed her absence, and she steered the car inside. “Then again, I’m usually covered in grease, it takes me forever to scrub clean in the shower.”
“Did I watch Counting Cars, she asks. Of course I did!” Finn exclaimed. As they finished wheeling his car into the garage he then said, “Well maybe that’s why you do kinda look familiar. Grease and all.” He smirked. Then he fell silent, unsure of what to say next.
“Hey! I never thought it was all that big! I always did want to get to play with the paint.” Rey sighed. She didn’t consider herself much of an artist but she enjoyed messing around.
All her attempts to make customs looked like something out of someone’s nightmares.
“That would be pretty cool if you actually saw me.” Rey smiled at him. “All right, lets take a look at your beast and see what’s wrong.” She popped the hood, then climbed out and walked around the front to get a good look at it.
And immediately winced, “Oh.”
“‘Oh?’ What do you mean oh? That doesn’t sound like a good oh.” Finn said, hovering behind her. He couldn’t see what the problem was.
"Oh! Well. How do I put this exactly..." Rey rubbed the back of her neck, getting grease there, then she pointed at a piece of the engine. "The good news is it's repairable. The bad news is it won't be cheap. That thing there?" She told him what it was, "It's got a crack running through it. Luckily it's not the actual engine block or you'd need a whole new engine. But it will take a lot of work getting it out, ordering the part and then installing it."
Rey felt really bad about the news, so she glanced around, and then whispered, "I can do it for you at cost for the part plus labor."
Finn felt the color drain from his face at the news, then did a double take when Rey gave her offer in a conspiratorial whisper. He blinked stupidly.
“Really?” He looked around as if there was some boss of hers that was going to come out of nowhere and start yelling at them. His voice dropped to a whisper too. “Wh...that would be amazing, I really appreciate it. I’m kinda on a cops salary…” Even as a detective, while he made a decent salary, it wasn’t like he had that kind of money lying around for a repair job like this.
The parts were pricy, she knew, and her boss marked them up 50%. But she thought she could get away with it since she’d have to charge for the labor and honestly that’s where most of the gouging was, in her opinion.
And even then she planned on giving him a free hour or two by reporting that it would take less time than it actually would. “It’s not a problem!”
“Wow,” he said, blown away, and clearly appearing as such. “I don’t know what to say.” He rubbed the back of his neck. “Thanks? I mean, I owe you one for sure.”
"Just don't tell my boss," She said, giving him a wink. "And we'll call it even!"