Michael Guerin is a (miserableliar) wrote in valarlogs, @ 2020-06-22 15:30:00 |
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Entry tags: | !complete, michael guerin, nova artino |
Who: Michael and Nova
What: Nova brings her uncle's car in and ends up with a part time job
When: Early June
Where: Out of This World Mechanics
Ratings/Warning: Low/none
Status: Complete
It was a slow day at the garage for Michael. There were a few cars that needed work done, but he had done as much as he could and was now waiting for parts. He decided to work on one of his side projects while he had some free time.
Michael was often fiddling with different parts, trying to improve them. Invent a new engine in a way. He was working on a piston right now, or rather his version of a piston. One that would improve engine combustion. At least that was the goal.
Thirty years ago, Leroy’s little yellow sports car probably would have been considered quite the steal (which it was. Thirty years ago, Leroy had stolen it from a lawyer who had apparently done the Family dirty. Leroy had told her that the lawyer had been persuaded to not report it stolen, and he generally considered it a donation rather than stolen property). These days, Nova often thought that it would probably be better if Leroy would just give it up. He’d taken care of it, mostly, though it had obviously been through hell and back. It was hard to miss the bullet holes in the passenger side door, or the rust that was starting to creep up from the undercarriage. The upholstery of the back seat had had an unfortunate run-in with some of Leroy’s homemade acid a few years ago. Whatever noises it was making as they pulled up to the garage was not healthy.
Nova had offered to help look at it, but Leroy wouldn’t have it. Nova should be focusing on the new chapter of her life, and besides, they could afford to pay someone to take a look at the engine. Nova still insisted on coming with Leroy though. She wanted to make sure that the mechanic actually knew what they were doing and weren’t trying to pull the wool over Leroy’s eyes.
Of course, anyone who tried that would likely get a not-so-friendly visit from the Family later. But it was better to just avoid all that mess in the first place.
“Maybe they’re in the back,” Nova said when no one came out to greet them. “I’ll go and check.” Leroy nodded, and Nova slipped in. She didn’t know if she was necessarily allowed to go to the back of the shop, but it wasn’t like she saw any signs saying that she couldn’t.
It didn’t take her long to find the curly-haired man hunched over what looked like an engine. Except, it wasn’t like any engine that Nova had seen before. She frowned, and took a step forward to get a better look, accidentally knocking an exhaust pipe with her foot.
Michael was lost in his work. He didn’t notice or hear the woman at first. Not until she bumped into the exhaust pipe. He quickly looked up turning around to see her standing before him. “Can I help you?” he asked with a raised brow.
“Yeah,” Nova said, thumbing toward the entrance. “We’ve got a car out there that needs some work.” But that could wait. What was really interesting was what was in front of her now, and she stepped forward a little. “What are you working on here?”
“I usually take new customers up front.” Returning too. So basically all customers. He didn’t exactly want people wandering around back. Mostly for safety reasons. As was proven by her bumping into the exhaust pipe. “Why don’t we go take a look?” he asked referring to the car she had mentioned and completely ignoring her question. He didn’t often talk about his projects. Especially with strangers.
“Yeah, well, there was no one up front to take us,” Nova said pointedly. She frowned at the engine, not wanting to leave yet - her fingers itched to touch it and to take a closer look at exactly what it was he was doing. But… well, there was no reason why she couldn’t just casually sneak back here when he and Leroy were talking.
“Sure,” she said, turning around and heading back to the front of the shop, resisting the urge to look behind her at that beautiful looking engine.
Michael noticed her tone but he wasn’t too phased by it. “You try the bell?” granted he didn’t always hear it. Especially when he got lost in his work like he had been. But still it was there for a reason. Didn’t really matter though considering she was walking back toward the front anyway. Though he had noticed how she eyed the engine he was working on first.
He followed her out to the front placing a polite smile on his face when he saw a man waiting at the counter. “Hello,” he greeted. “What brings you in?”
Leroy’s scarred face - scarred and discoloured from chemical and acid burns, without eyebrows - split into a smile, revealing three missing teeth when he saw Nova and Michael walking out from the back. “My car has been giving me all sorts of issues,” Leroy said, patting her affectionately. “She’s making all sorts of strange noises lately.”
“It’s probably the transmission,” Nova said, off-handed, and then regretted it. It was easy enough to diagnose, but every extra minute that Micael spent trying to diagnose the problem was an extra minute Nova might have to slip into the back to look at that engine.
Michael wasn’t at all bothered by the man’s looks. Yeah, maybe he briefly wondered what had happened. But he wasn’t put off by it. Shit happened. Michael knew that better than anyone.
He raised a brow at the girl when she mentioned the transmission. She clearly knew a thing or two about cars. But he turned his attention back to the man. “Why don’t you start her up for me?” Michael asked. He could hear the noise first hand. Though either way he knew he was going to have to pop the hood to truly diagnose the problem.
Nova gestured to Leroy from behind Michael’s back, the same gesture one might use to pop the hood, and while it was clear that Leory had seen her, he didn’t make any indication of it or show any confusion about why she was gesturing to him instead of just speaking.
“I’ll pop the hood first,” Leroy said, reaching into the driver’s side to do exactly that, and once he had the bonnet propped open, he slipped into the driver’s side of his car to turn the engine. Once Nova was sure that Michael was occupied with the car, she quietly slipped back into the back, hearing Leroy start to ask him questions about what could be the problem. She tried to stifle a smile: of course Leroy would cover for her, even when he had no idea what she was up to.
She avoided running into any more exhaust pipes when she made her way back to the pistons. She hadn’t really planned on fiddling with it at all. All she wanted was to look at it. She hadn’t been wrong, it was obviously a piston, but it was different than any of the ones she’d seen before. She turned it over in her hand, admiring it a little, and then frowning a little when she noticed a piece that looked the be out of place. She hadn’t meant to fiddle with it at all, but before she even realized what she was doing, she was reaching for the screwdriving and was making the necessary changes.
Michael took a look under the hood of the guys car. It was definitely the transmission. He knew he didn’t have any in the shop for him at the moment. He could order one, but it would take a day or two to arrive. However, he also noticed the woman had disappeared. “Let me check in back,” he told the man. “I might have a transmission for your car, but if not I’ll have to place an order.” If he wanted Michael to fix his car that was. Still either way he was going in back first.
When he walked to the back of the garage he spotted the woman right away, tinkering with what he had been working on. “What the hell are you doing?” he asked, more annoyed than angry, as he approached.
Nova jumped guiltily when he spoke behind her, and quickly put down the piston and turned to him. She hadn’t expected him to be that fast - then again, maybe she’d lost track of time when she’d been fiddling around with the piston. That happened a lot too.
“Nothing,” Nova said, stepping to the side so her body wasn’t blocking the piston. “I was just looking at it. I thought that it looked different than ones I’ve seen before, and I thought I’d get a closer look while you were busy with our car.”
His brow furrowed when he got a closer look. Something had changed. But, it almost looked like she had improved it. But how was that even possible?
“What did you do?” he asked there was no hint of agner in his voice. Just pure curiosity.
Nova could lie, but there was no point to it. It was obvious that he had seen the changes that she’d made, so she shrugged, and explained what she’d done. It really wasn’t much, it had just seemed as though there was a piece that was slightly out of place and she’d fixed that. “I just thought something didn’t look right, so I thought I’d try it out. Might not work though.”
“Let’s try it out,” Michael replied. He put the piston in the engine of a car he had in the back of the shop. The car was his. He drove around in his truck but experimented on a separate car. It was an old clunker. One that Michael had patched together over the years. Now he used it to test out his inventions. He shut the hood and turned the car on. Sounded good. He wouldn’t really know till he got a chance to drive it. Which he wasn’t about to do right now.
“Well you didn’t make it worse,” he commented, turning the car back off. “We should probably get back to the front.” He did still have to tell whoever she came in with that he’d have to order the transmission.
Nova couldn’t help but smiling when the engine came to life. It sounded good, if nothing else, but that was usually the first sign on whether something was working or not.
“Yeah,” Nova said, giving one last smile at the engine before heading back to the front. “Was it the transmission after all?”
“Yeah,” MIchael confirmed. “How’d you know?” between that and how she had fixed up the piston, Michael was impressed. He wasn’t super busy at the garage but he could use some extra help her and there, especially if she could help him with his side projects as well.
Nova couldn’t help the rush of pride that she felt when he confirmed her suspicions. “I like to mess around with that kind of stuff when I can,” she said. “I used to a lot when I was a kid. Honestly, I tried to tell Leroy that I could fix it for him without cost, but he keeps insisting that I focus my energies outside of the Family for a bit and ‘expand my horizons.’” Whatever that meant. Nova didn’t necessarily agree, Leroy usually knew what he was talking about, so she’d go with it.
Michael paused before they reached the front. “If Leroy is good with leaving his car here till the transmission comes in, why don’t you come back and help me work on it?” Hell she could keep coming back for all he cared. He could use the extra help here and there and she clearly knew what she was doing. Besides if Sanders hadn’t done the same for him when he was a kid, who knew where he’d be now.
Nova snorted. “Are you trying to force free labour out of some kid you think is fresh out of high school?” she asked, her tone a little teasing even if her question was honest.
Michael noted the tone and shook his head, grin on his face. “Nah,” he replied. “Just thought you seemed interested. But if not I can find someone else.” He had a feeling she would take that bait. If not the statement was still true.
“I’d have to talk to my uncle first,” Nova said. Unlike Leroy, Alec was much less interested in Nova going out into the world. He was worried that who she really was would be discovered, which would then bring the authorities down on her and the rest of the Family. The Artino name alone was enough for her to get locked up without cause, he’d always told her, and if it wasn’t going to be the police who were hunting her down, it would be rival gangs who’d fought to get the Artino name eradicated.
But if Leroy had convinced him to let her go to University, and had convinced him to let her get a cellphone, surely she could convince him to let her get a part-time job fixing cars. “And I wouldn’t be working for free,” she added.
“I’ll give a discount on the car you brought in,” whosever car it was. He was assuming her uncle considering that was who she just mentioned. “If you know your way around as much as you claim to.” And had kind of proven to with his piston but that was beside the point. “I can start paying you.” Seemed like a pretty fair deal to him. But it was her choice.
Nova considered it for a moment, before shrugging. “Deal,” she said. “I’ll talk to my uncle tonight, and if he agrees than I can come in when you get the parts in.”
Michael just grinned. He was kind of looking forward to working with the girl. Especially with how talented she seemed. “Alright,” Michael agreed. With that he went to go tell the man that came in with her about the transmission.