Love Bites
By Toby Danger
Monster High is copyright of Mattel. All other characters mentioned are copyright of their original creators
This will be a series of short fanfics, each one based on a certain Monster High couple. There will be various canon and non-canon couples featured. I'm planning for each story to be a little different from the romance stories we see so often in Monster High's webisodes and other media. I hope you all enjoy!
Draculaura and Clawd: The Maintenance of Love
In which Draculaura reveals a hidden talent, and Clawd appreciates looking after the important things
As he drove up the driveway leading to Draculaura's mansion, Clawd heard a very loud, ominous 'thud' noise somewhere within his car. A few seconds later, steam was rising from under the hood, and the car slowed to a crawl before coming to a stop several meters before the house.
"Dammit!" He thumped the steering wheel angrily, before stepping out and pulling open the hood. A plume of smoke wafted out, obscuring his vision.
Unable to see what was wrong, he growled and kicked the tire. The car - A 1982 Feard MusThing - had been a gift from his older brother Howlard, given to him when Howlard had left Salem to start a new career. He'd always admired the classic car as a kid, even if it had been a bit beaten up when Howlard had first bought it, and getting to own it had been a dream come true. But looking at it now, he was beginning to realize why Howlard had been so happy to hand it off. The car had broken down four times in the last couple of years, and the cost of calling out a guy to come out and fix it seemed to keep getting more expensive.
And it was awful timing as well. He'd been planning to pick up Draculaura, and together they would drive down to Casket Slough nature reserve for a romantic day trip through the forest. Now it looked like they would have make the long drive up in Laura's roadster. Clawd winced. As nice as Laura's car was, it wasn't really built for a monster his size.
"Hey sweetie!" He turned to see Laura bouncing toward him, her trusty parasol in one hand, a picnic casket in the other. She stepped up on her tiptoes to kiss him. "Are we ready to go?"
"Uh, I got bad news." Clawd frowned, embarrassed. "My car just went kaput again. Is it okay if we take yours?"
Laura looked at the MusThing with wide eyes. "Oh my... oh, you're not going to believe this, but my car's out of action too."
"Yours too?" Clawd blinked. "You only got it last year, didn't you?"
"Oh, it's not broken down or anything." Laura put down the casket. "I was rotating the tires yesterday when I noticed one of the inner rims were badly slashed from hitting a speed bump. And then I realized the battery was on its last legs, so I had to order a new one as well as two new tires from the garage, and they won't be here until tomorrow..."
She stopped when she noticed Clawd's wide-eyed look. "What?"
"Are... you actually talking about fixing up your car?"
"Yes, that's what I was doing before I got ready for today."
Clawd blinked. "Seriously?"
Laura frowned. "Yes. What, you don't think a ghoul can fix up a car?"
"No no, I know ghouls can fix cars just fine." Clawd held up his hands. "I just didn't think you knew how to."
Laura rolled her eyes. "Honestly. Just because I act a little airheaded at times doesn't mean I'm a complete moron."
"Okay, I'm sorry." Clawd apologized. "This is just surprising, that's all. You've never mentioned you like cars before."
"I don't like, like them but..." Laura froze, a wide grin suddenly appearing. "Ooh! I know! We should fix your car!"
She stepped past Clawd and looked over the MusThing. "It's still got four wheels. All we have to do is get the engine running again. I have a few spare parts in my father's garage. It shouldn't take too long, and we can still make it to the nature reserve."
"You really want to?" Clawd asked, still a bit incredulous.
"Sure. It'll prove to you that I know what I'm doing." Laura replied, glancing at the car. "And it looks like it really needs some help."
"I think it needs a miracle.." Clawd sighed, joining her as they looked under the open hood.
"Oh my ghoul..." Laura gasped as she studied the engine,a look of disgust on her face as she stared at the built up grime. "What did you do to this poor thing?"
"I think it's more what I didn't do." Clawd said. "I haven't got a lot of time or money to spend on maintenance."
Laura nodded. "Come on, lets push it nearer to the garage. It'll be easier to work on there."
Together they pushed the car to the rear of the mansion, where a large stone garage stood, it's doors wide open. As he brought the car to a stop, Clawd could see the garage and the cars parked inside it, most likely belonging to her parents. There was an executive looking hearse, a vintage 1930 Rolls Royce with a license plate reading NOS 4R2, and Laura's black and pink Goresche roadster, which was parked on a jack with its front wheels missing.
He turned back to his own car. "So, where do we start..."
He realized Laura had vanished. "Laura?" He called as he looked around.
"Right here!" He spun around to see Laura walking toward him, dressed in a one-piece set of workman's overalls. Naturally, the overalls were pink with hearts running down the sides. She carried a toolbag in one hand, and a wad of clothing in the other, which she passed to Clawd.
"We don't want to ruin your clothes. Here, it's Papa's old things, they should fit you."
Clawd unfolded the clothing, revealing a pair of old jeans and a large black t-shirt with 'Real Vampires don't Sparkle' emblazoned on it. He stared at Laura's overalls again. "Wow... you really are serious about doing this."
"Darling, when am I ever not serious about something?"
"Oh, I don't know..." Clawd smirked cheekily. "Every time you ditch Study Howl to do something with me or the ghouls?"
Laura didn't reply, she simply reached into the toolbag and handed him a wrench with a smile. "Why don't you start by cleaning the sparkplugs, and I'll check the carburetor."
Several minutes passed as the two worked on the engine. Once Clawd had cleaned every single sparkplug, Laura had given him the task of checking the radiator while she changed the oil. She lay underneath the jacked-up car, searching for the oil pan.
Clawd looked down at her legs, which were sticking out from under the car. "You know, I'm amazed that in all the time we've known each other, you've never mentioned that you know all this."
"Well, you know me. I don't like to brag. And the subject's never come up until now." Laura replied, her voice muffled.
"But I've talked about cars loads of times. I subscribe to Monster Motoring monthly. You see me read it all the time."
"Clawd, just because I know how to fix a car doesn't mean I'm into them like you are. I think cars are neat and all, but I couldn't care less about things like superchargers, or racing, or dubs, whatever those are."
She extended an arm out. "Ooh, pass that tub over. I'm about to drain the oil."
Clawd gave her a small plastic tub, which she placed under the car. The sound of dripping liquid could be heard.
"Phew, that is mucky. I've got some cleaner oil in the garage." Laura pulled herself out from under the car, smudges of oil on her face, hands and overalls. Clawd helped her up.
"All I really care about is making sure my car works properly." She spoke. "Dad is totes serious about car maintenance. He told me I had to learn, after what happened last time..."
"What happened last time?" Clawd asked.
"Weeelll.." Laura flushed with embarrassment as she glanced at her roadster." This isn't the first car I've owned."
"You had another car?"
"Years ago. Decades, actually. It was an 1830s Hancock steam powered carriage." She smiled wistfully. "Oh, it was such a beautiful machine, and great for traveling from our castle and back. When I first saw one in the papers, I begged Papa to get me one for weeks. He finally relented and had one imported to Transylvania."
"So what happened to it?"
"Well, once I got it, I drove it practically every day for hours at a time. I gave my friends a lot of rides. And since I didn't bother looking after it, all that wear and tear started to build up. Then a couple of months later..."
1831
"Papa! Papa!" Laura shrieked as she hiked up her skirts and ran toward the mansion. Her cries brought her father and Renfield out the front door.
"Laura! What's wrong?" Father demanded.
"It's the car! Something's wrong with it!" Laura pointed at the car she had hastily parked in the driveway.
Dracula's jaw dropped. The once pristine machine was caked in mud, it's tires were ripped to shreds, and thick black smoke was emanating from under the hood.
"Good God... what the devil did you do to it?!" Dracula asked.
"I didn't do anything. It just started smoking." Laura retorted. "Well, alright, when the smoke started I thought I needed to get home quickly, so I took that shortcut. You know, the one with the jagged rocks and the big puddles?"
"Miss Laura.." Renfield spoke up. "Have you put any oil in the machine lately? I believe the manufacturer was quite insistent on putting some in regularly."
Laura bit her lip. "I may have forgotten..."
She cringed as her father gave her a dirty look. "But it's alright, I'm sure it can be fixed."
As if on cue, the car's engine suddenly exploded, setting the machine alight and casting black soot all over the Dracul family.
Laura coughed as she waved the soot away. She nervously looked at her father and Renfield, covered in soot and glaring disapprovingly at her.
Laura frowned as she watched Clawd double over with laughter. "It's not funny! Dad grounded me for a month, and I spent most of it cleaning the soot off the mansion walls."
"Ha ha... sorry, sorry!" Clawd caught his breath. "And I thought I was bad."
"Well, anyway..." Laura continued. "After that, Papa forbade me from ever owning a car again, until I learned to look after one properly. After all that mess though, I was reluctant to really own another one. But then we moved to America, and after I saw how much better they were... well, I promised Papa that if I learned car maintenance, he'd consider getting me one for my birthday. And, well..." She glanced at her roadster with a small smile.
"Huh..." Clawd nodded. "Well, I'm certainly glad you stuck to it. Your car looks great."
"Well, I realize how important it is to me." Laura spoke softly, staring at him. "Sometimes you forget how special and important something, or someone is, especially when you've been around as long as I have. You get used to having it around, and you take it for granted. And if you don't look after it, you'll lose it. I know I forget that sometimes..."
She gave him a tender look, and he sensed that she wasn't talking about the car anymore.
"Yeah... we both forget to look after what we love sometimes..." He thought back to their relationship over the years, especially the more recent events and disagreements they had experienced. Arguments over being treated like a pet and being neglected over sports...
They were getting better though. Sometimes they messed up, but they always tried to talk about things. And at least she no longer threw balls to distract him from issues. Nowadays they only did that in the park, and just as a pastime.
"So..." Laura spoke up. "How's the radiator?"
Clawd blinked and looked at the radiator he'd been checking. "Oh... right. I think it needs a new air filter."
"I've got some spare in the back." Laura skipped back into the garage.
Clawd smiled as he watched her go.
The hours whiled on as they continued to take apart the engine, clean it, and reattach any loose parts. Thankfully for Clawd, the engine didn't need any new parts, save for a few small nuts and spares Laura kept in her father's garage. It was becoming more evident that the main problem was just a lack of cleaning gumming up the works. As they worked, they chatted happily, retelling various stories about their friends from the last few days.
By the time they had finally cleaned and re-affixed every part, the sun was low in the horizon. Clawd looked over the engine, amazed by how different it looked now all the grime was gone. It almost looked like a new car.
"Well, time to try this baby out." Laura declared. She tossed the keys to Clawd. "Give it a whirl."
Clawd sat inside and inserted the keys in the ignition. He kept his expectations low, doubting that even all that work would bring this junkheap to life...
The engine roared to life, causing him to jump in his seat. He laughed triumphantly.
"It's alive! It's ali... nah, that only works when Frankie does it." Laura cheered.
Clawd jumped out of the car and hugged her. "This is clawsome! I can't believe we did it!"
"I told you we could." Laura laughed. "We just needed to make the effort."
She looked up and noticed the dimming sky. "Oh, I wish we hadn't taken so long though. The nature reserve will be closed by now. We've totally missed our date."
"Hey, it's okay." Clawd assured. "I actually had a lot of fun today. It was nice to be able to do this together."
"Yeah, it was." Laura leaned up and kissed his cheek. "We should do it more often."
"Hmm.." Clawd leaned closer and touched his nose to hers. "Maybe we could watch the Undead 500 together, it starts next week."
Laura raised an eyebrow. "Hey, watch it. After all this, I've had enough of cars to last me for a while."
"Worth a shot.." Clawd sighed.
He turned back to the car. "Anyway... now that's we're running again, how about we take a drive to Gloom Beach instead? We can park up on the cliffs, have a nice moonlight picnic."
"Ooh, good idea." Laura smiled. "Just let me get changed..."
"You don't have to. It'll just be us up there." Clawd said, gazing over Laura's smudged overalls. "And I think you look pretty damn cute right now."
Laura giggled from the compliment. "Well, if you insist..."
Clawd opened the MusThing's side door to let Laura in, before he packed the picnic casket in the boot, took his seat and started the engine. For the first time in ages, the vintage car growled smoothly as he drove it down the driveway.
"Ahhh... love that sound." Clawd sighed.
Laura looked over her shoulder at the rear seats. "Oh Clawd, I think there's a problem with the back seat."
Clawd glanced behind him. "Really? It looks fine to me."
"No, I can definitely tell the springs look weakened. I think we need to test the seat to see how bad they are."
"Well, it can wait til tomorrow..."
"Actually, we could test it after our picnic." She leaned closer to him, speaking into his ear with a seductive tone. "I'm think we need to test those springs very.. very vigorously."
Clawd's ears pricked up at the suggestion in her voice. "Well... we've fixed everything else, but a little more... work under the hood wouldn't hurt."
Laura laughed and kissed him again.
The MusThing increased speed as it hit the main road and sped off into the sunset, trying to get to Gloom Beach just a little quicker.
END