Note - For a prompt-fest that I recently posted. Moonstar102 wanted Clive and Luke under the prompt of "driving lesson". Set post-PL3 by a few years and contains some spoilers for the third game.
Clive had to force himself to remove his fingers from their grip on the dashboard after their last emergency stop.
He had never expected to get out of prison, so when his appeal went through and he had, through some miracle, been cleared of his crimes he was as surprised as anyone else to be free again. However, his recent venture into teaching Luke how to drive was almost enough to make him wish that he was safely behind prison bars again. Almost.
Luke had returned to England when he was old enough to live alone and once there had expressed an interest in learning to drive. The professor was very busy with university lately, so Clive had stepped up and offered to teach Luke for a while. Once he'd got the boy behind the wheel, however, he instantly regretted that decision.
"Am I doin' okay?" Luke asked, looking over at him with the same cheerfulness that someone with a wrecking ball might have when asking the same question.
"I don't know, why don't you ask that old lady who had to dive onto the pavement a few yards back?" replied Clive, breathing out heavily.
"Granny Riddleton is tough, don't you worry about 'er," Luke assured him, but then he added, "If this is too much for you though, I could always just wait and ask the professah to teach me…"
"No, no, it's fine! You will get it," Clive said quickly, determined not to give up on his new student just yet. Because if Luke went back to Layton that meant that Clive had failed in teaching him and he wasn't sure that he could live with that. "Just let's find the biting point again and get a move on. Slowly."
Looking back at the road ahead, Luke readied the car once more and moved off, thankfully listening to Clive's request of going slowly for the moment.
"I 'ave got one question though," Luke said conversationally, "Is the professah all right with us borrowin' 'is car?"
"Yeah, sure he is," Clive lied.
He thought of it as assurance. If Layton was willing to let Clive put his life at risk by teaching this apparently deranged boy how to drive then Clive was willing to put the Laytonmobile at risk as compensation.
Speaking of deranged, it appeared that Luke was speeding up, while going downhill.
"You might want to apply a bit of brake here," Clive suggested.
"Don't like usin' the brakes unless I 'ave to," Luke informed.
"I'd noticed."
At that moment another car pulled out of a side road, crossing their path dead ahead.
"Brakes! You have to use the brakes now!" Clive yelled.
The Laytonmobile was brought to a quick and shuddering halt as the other vehicle past. A horn was sounded and Clive thought that he could hear the driver yelling at them, but the passing car was gone before he could register what they had been shouting.
"What a mad man! Pullin' out like that when I 'ad the right of way!" Luke yelled.
"You're not… technically wrong," Clive had to admit, "But please don't develop road rage just yet. When driving you need to be aware that other people will make mistakes and act accordingly so that you don't cause accidents because of their errors."
"I'm calm, really I am," said Luke, starting up again and driving on even without Clive saying for him to do so.
"That's good to hear," Clive replied, although he wasn't sure it was entirely true.
As the day went on Luke progressively became the most dangerous thing on London's roads since Clive himself had taken a mechanical fortress through the city. The difference being that back then Clive had been trying to cause damage and in Luke's case this was hopefully all accidental.
Pulling the car into Layton's driveway, Clive definitely thought that investing in a vehicle that had dual steering might not be a bad idea. Maybe that's what stopped real driving instructors from feeling on edge all the time when at the mercy of more sinister learners.
"I'm getting' bettah though, aren't I?" Luke asked, as he got out of the car.
"I don't think you're ready to put in for your test just yet," was the only reply Clive had to that.