Disclaimer: I don't own Sailor Moon or it's characters.
Author's note: Maybe it's long and boring but I just wanted to see a Haruka that actually worked on cars instead of just driving them. I'm smitten by the idea of their normal lives. I'm thinking of doing a series of chapters where other characters will come in with a car problem and maybe another type of problem as well. I'm getting tired so that's the best explanation I've got. Enjoy.
All in a Day's Work
Sweat was wiped from a grease and dirt-smudged brow. A sigh escaped thin lips as the tall Blonde woman stood up straight and cracked her back. She looked down at the giant pick-up truck tire in front of her, the bead had been broken and so the tire sat loosely around the rim. She shook her head, took a deep breath and hauled it onto the tire changer. Times like this reminded her that she just got older and the tires just got heavier. One peddle pushed forced the claws of the machine to grasp the inside of the wheel. Another peddle and some adjustment placed the tool head against the rim. This was the last of a set of 4 truck tires she was mounting for a friend and she was relieved. Haruka slid the thin metal pry bar between the rim and the tire and that was as far as she got before the interruption.
A most audible exhaust leak from her wife's maroon minivan could not be ignored. The vehicle pulled just in front of the garage door and idled as Michiru rushed from the vehicle.
"Before you say anything, I want you to know I hate this contraption. All I did was start it up after leaving the studio and it sounds like it is going to explode!" Michiru was exasperated. The heat and stress caused a light sheen of sweat to form on her as well.
Haruka smirked inwardly and hoped that smirk didn't escape to the one side of her lips. Her wife, normally calm and composed was finally incensed by something.
"I was going to shut it off and call but one of the orchestra members, Fredrick-you remember him don't you? Anyways, he said it was an exhaust leak and that it would be okay to drive home. So here it is. Can we fix that?"
Haruka smiled at the 'we' in that sentence knowing it's implied meaning. "Sure we can."
"Because if we can't fix it I think we should burn it. Or donate it to engineering students so that they can determine what exactly not to do when designing a vehicle."
Haruka placed her hands on Michiru's shoulders to calm her. "Okay. Just relax." It dawned on the smaller woman that she was being over-dramatic. She nodded and moved to the stool by the work bench generally reserved for her or the occasional visitor. Haruka pulled the car into the closest bay, shut it off and got out.
"It's an old van." The blonde remarked as she kicked the hoist arms under the car. Michiru didn't comment but watched with interest. Michiru understood why people loved to watch her play her violin. There was just something so alluring about watching someone do something they were proficient at. Her added attraction to the blonde was enough to keep her eyes fixated on that body in motion.
The van lifted with the strength of the hoist at a press of a lever. At its peak, Haruka still had to slightly bend beneath it. She hung a trouble light off some component or another while she inspected the damage.
"Flange rotted off." She pointed it at it but noticed Michiru only stared at her.
Michiru shook herself out of it and gave her wife a smile. "So does that mean we get a new van?"
Haruka rummaged through her tool box and pulled out a small air powered saw. "No it means we can fix it. Cover your ears." She hooked up a hose from the air compressor to the tool and began cutting out a section of the rotted pipe. Michiru, with her ears covered, still cringed at the loud chattering and screeching sound that metal on metal contact made. It was over before long to her relief.
"Great, you made a bigger hole."
Haruka, ignoring the comment, grabbed a few fresh clean pieces of piping left over from prior exhaust jobs she had done and fit the best piece of the separation in the piping. She plugged in and pulled her small MIG welder to the underside of the car. Cranking the valve on the argon tank she positioned the tip of the gun against the seam of the new exhaust pipe.
"Might want to look away for a sec." Michiru turned in her seat and leaned against the work bench. The blue light from the welder reflected off the walls. The cork board above the bench had articles from Haruka's racing days pinned to it. There were a few ads for vehicles that the blonde may have been interested in. One was dated from 2 years earlier and likely never taken down. To look around Haruka's shop it was no proverbial "man cave". There wasn't a trophy on the wall. No beer fridge. Just a kind of organized chaos of tools scattered here and there.
"You can look now."
Michiru hopped off the stool and moved underneath the van to inspect the weld. "Hmm.. it's sufficient. Though for a moment I wished the van had fallen off the lift."
Haruka laughed and shooed the smaller woman from the underside of the van to lower it back down to the ground. Starting it produced not even the slightest abnormal noise or even the subtlest vibration of a leaky exhaust. "It's not a bad van. Just getting old."
Haruka wiped her hands on a rag and turned to the smaller woman. "So anyway that'll be point three for the inspection and 1 hour for the fix. I won't charge you for parts this time 'coz I like you. How do you want to pay?"
Michiru swayed towards her the way a lot of women would when they wanted something for nothing. Haruka felt Michiru had mastered it. And when her wife worked her way into her arms she could almost melt. "Do you accept credit?"
Haruka smiled and pressed a few kisses onto Michiru's soft neck. "Our machine seems to be down right now."
Michiru pulled away from the blonde and gave her a sad and innocent puppy dog look. It wasn't her style but it worked for this moment. "Well I haven't got a penny on me."
Enamoured by this game Haruka took her wife's hand and led her out of the garage towards the house.
She said, "Well I'm sure we can figure out another form of compensation…"
She got older.
The tires got heavier.
But at least some things never changed.