Nova Artino is your Worst Nightmare (littlenightmare) wrote in valarlogs, @ 2020-07-18 15:34:00 |
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Entry tags: | !complete, !partner thread, alex manes, nova artino |
Who: Nova Artino McLain and Alex Manes
What: Alex comes into the shop looking for Michael
When: Yesterday
Where: Out of This World Mechanics
Ratings/Warnings: Low/none
Status: Complete | Partner Thread
Alex was still adjusting to walking with a prosthetic. It was amazing how deeply it affected his gait, the way he held himself, the way he walked and moved. He knew it was possible to walk on a prosthetic without aid, but he wasn’t willing to give up the arm crutch yet, which meant he struggled to open doors and get through them before they closed on him.
The door to Michael’s shop was no exception. He limped through it, feeling rather undignified. He didn’t understand why this had to happen to him. He was in the Air Force in his dreams, but he was not exactly Military material in his real life. That didn’t bother him as much as the fact that he’d lost half his leg to the dreams.
That was just...completely unbelievable. He would never believe it if it hadn’t happened to him. But it had happened to him, and he had no choice but to accept it. He sighed and looked to the young woman behind the counter. He didn’t know her, but that wasn’t unusual.
“Is Michael here?”
It was a slow day, which Nova wasn’t complaining about, except she kind of was. She had been expecting a busier day, so she hadn’t brought any of her personal projects to work on with Michael, but they’d run into an issue with one of the big repairs that was supposed to take most of the day - they were missing a necessary part and had to put the whole thing on hold - and nothing had come around to fill the time just yet.
So now she was spending her afternoon sipping on a coffee, reading one of the manuals for one of the cars they had in the bay from cover to cover. She looked up when someone walked in and tried, but didn’t entirely succeed, to not frown when he asked for Michael. She was young and she was a girl, but she knew her way around an engine and she was tired of people assuming that she didn’t.
“He’s not, but I can probably help you,” she said.
Alex sighed. “Do you know when he’ll be back?” he asked. He was absolutely hopeless when it came to car repairs, but that wasn’t why he was here. He’d taken a taxi, due to the fact he couldn’t drive at the moment. Not with half his right leg missing, and he wasn’t comfortable enough on the prosthetic to attempt driving with it. Besides, he still had the piece of crap car he’d driven from New York because he’d lost his damn leg the night before he and Michael were going to go looking for a new vehicle for him.
“I’m not his keeper,” Nova said dismissively, even if she did know exactly where Michael had gone - he’d just gone to pick the two of them up some lunch. If this guy wasn’t even going to give her a chance, then there was nothing else she could do. After a brief pause, she added, “but he probably won’t be too long,” because it occurred to her that Michael might still want the business even if this guy was a jerk.
That she was annoyed because she thought he was dismissing her over a preference for Michael, or a man at any rate, to work on his car never crossed his mind. That wasn’t why he was there, so it wasn’t even a blip on his radar. He just knew she was annoyed, and had no idea what he’d done to cause that reaction.
“Great. Thanks. I’ll just wait for him.” Alex sat down in one of the chairs. He glanced at the table of magazines, but had no interest in picking any of them up. He rubbed at his knee, wishing he could take the prosthetic off and be done with it.
“Suit yourself,” Nova muttered, picking back up her manual to read. But she couldn’t help but keep noticing his presence out of the corner of her eye, and the fact that he was just sitting there wasting both their time when she could be helping him, and she finally snapped the manual shut and put it on the desk.
“Why don’t you just tell me what the problem is, and we can decide from there if I’m equipped to handle it or not,” Nova snapped.
“I’m not here about my car,” he told her. He wasn’t dumb. Given the edge to her voice he figured it out. “I actually took a cab to get here,” he added. He hadn’t tried driving with his prosthetic yet, but that was why he was here. He was hoping to convince Michael to take him out somewhere there wouldn’t be any traffic to see what he could do.
“I’m here to see Michael.”
Nova frowned, almost feeling sheepish about jumping to conclusions. “Oh,” she said, blushing a little. “Sorry. I just assumed…” Well, she assumed that he wasn’t taking her seriously because she was an eighteen-year-old girl. “He just went out to get us lunch.”
“It’s fine.” Alex was the sort of person who didn’t like to rock the boat. He’d say or do things that made him uncomfortable just to keep the peace. “Sorry I wasn’t clear from the start. I should have told you I wasn’t here for the car.”
Nova wasn’t going to argue with that. It wasn’t like she could be blamed for thinking that someone who walked into a car repair place was looking to get their car repaired.
“Well, Michael’s getting us lunch right now, so I don’t think he’ll take much longer,” she said. “You’re a friend of his?”
Alex nodded. He really wasn’t sure how he’d define his relationship with Michael, but friend was a fair place to start. They were friends, definitely. Probably. They talked about things. They drank together. They slept together. Not that the last one was a requirement for friendship, but the rest surely was enough that Alex could confidently say yes, they were friends.
“Yeah. I am. So, if you don’t mind I’ll just wait for him.”
Nova shrugged. "Alright, knock yourself out," she said. "If you want coffee or something," she almost said it was in the back, but she didn't know just how close Michael and this guy were, and Michael generally didn't like people poking around the garage. "Just ask and I'll get you a cup." She leaned back in the chair, turning her attention once again to her manual.
“No, thanks. I don’t need anything.” Coffee would make him jittery, and he’d rather not have the jitters any more so than he already had. He appreciated the offer, though. He settled back in the chair where he sat and pulled out his phone to play some stupid game.