A/N: Sorry I haven't updated in a while, I was busy doing things that people do when they're not writing fanfiction. Also, I got accepted into university! I'm doing a bachelor of arts and majoring in maybe writing or sociology im not sure
Cinder checked the car one last time, to make sure that it was safe to go on the road.
She had tweaked the brakes and suspension a little bit, although Ran Kesley had demanded her not to. She did not feel guilty about it. She had come up with a million scenarios in her mind why he would need a car which brakes and suspensions didn't even work properly. Most of them more incriminating than the last.
She remembered earlier that day, at the shopping centre, when Aimery Park told her that Ran Kesley was one of his clients. That thought had plagued her all the way home, and once she had gotten to work, all that she knew was that she needed to get rid of that car as soon as possible. She had sent a text to Ran Kesley, saying it was available for pick up, and he had replied not soon after that he would be there as soon as possible.
The bell jingled, alerting her to a customer, undoubtedly Ran Kesley. She stood up from her desk where she faced the computer, tallying her pay for the week. Ran Kesley stomped in, wearing heavy combat boots and chinos.
His imposing figure was slightly intimidating, but Cinder gave him her warmest smile.
"Hello, Mr. Kesley." She said. "Your car is this way. It came to a price of four hundred and fifty dollars."
He reached into his pocket, pulling out a worn leather wallet. He handed over five 100 dollar notes, and Cinder gave him back fifty.
Cash? She thought. He really must be loaded. He pocketed his wallet, and Cinder led him to the Camaro.
She had reworked the tires, and fixed the headlights that had been smashed in, and she identified and fixed the problem that led to the smoking bonnet every once in a while. The fixes she had made to the brakes and suspension were subtle, and he shouldn't be able to tell. That was the result for the extra fifty dollars she had added to the bill. It should have at least given him an easier time turning and braking.
She had parked his car in the parking lot, and handed Ran his car keys, and he thanked her. He stepped into the car, turning the key into the ignition. It turned on smoothly, as it should. The car was loud, a permeating rumble.
He gave it a test drive around the parking lot. Reversing, braking, parking, driving. He parked it again.
"You fixed everything I told you to?" He asked, not bothering to get out from the car.
"Of course..." Cinder said. He hadn't noticed. Cinder could breathe again.
"Right. Thanks." He said. A dimple appeared in his cheek.
"Well, please come again if you ever experience car troubles." She said.
Ran nodded. Then he looked at her, directly in the eyes. "Oh, and Aimery Park says hello." He said. He smirked.
Cinder looked at him. She tried to smile, but it turned into something more like a scowl. "On second thoughts, maybe never come back here again."
Ran laughed. A scornful laugh that mocked Cinder. He didn't reply, but he just drove away.
She waited until the orange car vanished from her sight before she went back inside. She slumped into the chair by the desk, rubbing her face. She checked the time on the computer. !0:04pm. Though she had planned going to the Christmas event at Lunar Park, at least to see Kai, it was evident that by now the park would be closed, and this was the last day for the event.
She was disappointed but there was nothing she could do about it. She told herself that he probably found someone else to go with to the event, seeing as he was the son of the CEO of Lunar Park, and was probably some kind of socialite. And it wasn't like he wasn't attractive. He probably had girls following him everywhere he went..
And still, there were more pressing matters to deal with. Like what Aimery Park wanted with her. What she had seen enough of him on the news to know that he was that he was trouble. He had been accused for numerous crimes and offenses and yet, somehow, he never went to jail, no matter how much evidence piled up against him. She didn't know what it was. All she knew was that if Aimery Park had his eyes set on her, she had to do anything in her power to avoid him at all costs.
Christmas came and went, all in a hazy blur.
Cinder had given Iko her gift; the sewing machine, and Iko squealed and hugged her and would not stop going on about how appreciative she was of it.
Iko in return had given Cinder a pair of fingerless leather gloves, which when Cinder put them on gave her a sort of punk-rock feel.
They had spent the day at the warehouse above Cinder's work. Iko had sneaked a bottle of beer and a half-empty bottle of wine from the fridge before they left, and they spent most of their time drinking and dancing to the top 40 music Iko played out of her speaker phone.
The next day was boxing day, and Cinder was working. She was tired and a little bit hungover from the night before, and she woke up still a little bit tipsy.
It wasn't a busy day so far, but it was only in the morning, and it would most likely get busier in the afternoon. The sound of the bell on the door jingling filled her ears, indicating a customer.
Cinder looked up from her desk, where she had been playing a game of solitaire because there was nothing else to do.
A huge, hulking man with messy brown hair and startling green eyes peered at her.
"Are you Cinder?" he asked.
He had his arms by his side. Next to him was a girl with curly red hair. Both of them looked vaguely familiar, but Cinder couldn't place where she had seen them.
"Uh... yes?" Cinder answered. She looked at the girl, who had her hands on her hips. She was frowning at her. She probably thought that Cinder looked familiar as well. "Do I know you?" Cinder asked.
"You're the mechanic!" The girl said. "The girl who fixed the rollercoaster!"
The man looked at the red head as if she had just grown a second head.
For Cinder, it all clicked into place. "And you're the girl who started the ride. Sorry, I can't remember your name." She said apologetically. "What are you doing here?"
"I'm Scarlet, and this is Wolf." She looked at Wolf as if she was asking permission for something. He nodded. "This might sound weird, but do you know Ran Kesley?"
Cinder's mouth turned down into a sneer. "Yeah, I know him. Why?"
"You wouldn't have anything to do with a kind of gang that deals with indoctrinating people away from their families and alienating them into becoming criminals?" Scarlet said.
Cinder frowned. "Um... no..." But then she thought about Aimery Park. "Uh, wait. Ran Kesley came here once so I could fix his car. An orange camaro. And then a few days after, I had a sort of... run in with Aimery Park, he said that Ran was a client of his."
Wolf sucked in a breath. "Aimery Park?"
"Are you the police or something?" Cinder asked.
Wolf rested his palms on the desk. His arms were tense."No, Ran Kesley's my brother. I'm trying to find him. He's been avoiding me for over a year now, and he needs to get help."
Cinder's heart went out for him. She considered how she would feel if Iko got caught up in something dangerous, if she got caught up with Aimery Park.
"Of course." She said. "Well, that's all I know about it-"
"Wait," Scarlet said. "You said you had a run in with Aimery Park. What happened?"
Cinder swallowed and filled her lungs with air and released. "Well, I'm not entirely sure what happened myself. I was Christmas shopping, and I guess he saw me and realised I was the mechanic. He... said he wanted something to do with me. Something other than just my job. I didn't give him time to explain. My sister came before anything could happen."
Wolf looked at her. "Do you think he was trying to recruit you?"
"Recruit me... for his gang?" Spluttered Cinder. "Why would I even...?"
"Who knows." Wolf said. "Have you seen the stuff on the news about him? Who knows why he does the stuff he does."
They were interrupted by the sound of the door bell jingling. Cinder peered past Wolf and Scarlet to see if it was a customer.
She recognised the lanky frame and the black hair. "Kai!' She said, standing up.
Kai greeted her with a smile, then realised that Scarlet and Wolf were there. He immediately recognised them. "Ze'ev, Scarlet, what are you doing here?"
"Uh,.. Car troubles." Wolf muttered.
"Ah, so you heard that Cinder was the best mechanic in the area." Kai said.
Cinder felt herself blush. "Is that what they say about me?"
Kai shrugged. "Something like that. But coincidentally, I've actually been having car troubles, too."
"Oh, you have?" Cinder asked. She looked at Wolf and Scarlet. "Um. I'll talk to you later...? I'll give you my business card, and uh... good luck." She said, rummaging through the little rectangular box she had for her business cards, and fishing one out. She handed it to Wolf, who took it in his wide hands.
"Thanks." He said.
"I'll keep in touch if I find anything else out."
Wolf and Scarlet nodded, and they said their goodbyes to Kai and turned and left the mechanics.
Cinder grinned at Kai. "Car troubles, then?"
Kai gave an awkward laugh and passed a hand through his hair. "Something like that. And I wanted to give you something."
Cinder frowned, and leaned forward. "Give me something?"
Kai swung his backpack off his shoulders and unzipped it. He pulled out a white gift box. It was plain, with no wrapping paper or ribbons. Cinder grasped it in her hand, and opened it carefully.
"Oh, Kai." She said, looking at the opalescent gloves. She didn't want to touch them, fearing that she would get them filthy if she did. "Thank you... but why?"
Kai leaned forward, resting his elbows on Cinder's desk. His face was only inches away from hers. "My dad's setting up a kind of ball, I guess you could call it, at Lunar Park for New Years. I wanted to invite you to come with me."
Cinder glanced at the gloves. "A ball, huh? Sounds pretty formal." She imagined having to wear a dress. With any luck, she'd be able to find a floor length one, and the gloves would hide her prosthetic hand...
Kai shrugged. "It would mean a lot if you came."
Cinder gazed at him. In that moment, she stopped thinking of reasons why she shouldn't go, and instead resolved that she would go. "Okay. I'll be there."
Kai grinned.
Scarlet opened the car door and hopped into the front seat. She turned the keys in the ignition and waited for Wolf to buckle his seat belt before she pulled out of the parking lot.
"So I guess that wasn't headquarters after all." Scarlet said.
"Guess not, but still, now that she told us that Ran had come to see her, I'm worried that she might be in danger now, too."
"She looks like she can handle herself."
"Maybe she can, but she doesn't know Aimery Park."
Scarlet glanced at him from the corner of her eye, then looked back at the road. "Do you know Aimery Park?"
Wolf shuffled uncomfortably in his seat. "I knew him once."
He didn't say anything else, and Scarlet didn't want to press him, but she was curious. "What do you mean?"
"He helped me get discharged from the army. He seemed nice enough then, but he was a manipulative bastard. He couldn't get through to me, so he got through to my brother."
Scarlet's mind was reeling with questions. "You were in the army? What did he want with you?"
"When I was living in my country, I had joined the army under the impression that I was morally bound to do so. I was trained to follow my commanders blindly. We didn't know what we were doing. I barely knew what I was fighting for. Then I got a letter from my brother telling me that he was going to join too, and I had to get out.
"Aimery Park was there, and he noticed that I didn't want to be there, so he took me here when I was eighteen. I had to take Ran with me as well. He wouldn't know what to do without me. My parents didn't want me in the army, but Ran was trying to follow in my footsteps. We had to leave my home, my family, with this strange man who I didn't know, but I trusted.
"He helped me learn English. He helped me fit in, though I didn't know what for. One day he had invited a woman over. Her name was Levana-"
"Not Levana Blackburn, the vice CEO of Lunar Park?"
Wolf nodded. "That's her. She was very kind to me and Ran... she said she had a place for us to stay, if we ever needed it. I was still getting used to this country, but I wanted to make my own path, be independent. So, she got me a job at Lunar Park. I made enough money to rent an apartment, but Ran wouldn't come with me. He said he liked it with Aimery. Said he treated him better than even our own parents. I didn't know what he was talking about. Our parents treated us as best as they could in the conditions they lived in. We were poor, living off rations. Living with Aimery seemed like living in a palace to Ran. I told him he could either stay here, or live with me. He decided he wanted to stay. I don't know what happened after that. He never spoke to me after that."
Scarlet frowned. "You spoke to him on the phone, the other day, though."
"Sometimes he answers his phone, sometimes he doesn't. And now he's staying at Cress's."
"Why is that, though?" Scarlet asked.
"I don't know. She thinks her step-mother, Sybil Mira is involved with this whole thing as well."
"Do we have any proof of any of this though? Or are we just jumping to conclusions?"
Wolf thought about it for a moment. "Jumping to conclusions, mostly."
Scarlet smirked, raising her eyebrow. "Of course."
"But you can't really deny that Aimery is shady."
"No, you can't." Scarlet agreed, thinking of all the things she had seen on the news about him. She cleared her throat. "So, do you want me to drop you off at your house?"
Wolf looked at her. "Oh. Sure. Do you want me to put it on GPS?"
"Yeah." She said. She saw Wolf look at her from the corner of his eye expectantly. "What?" She asked.
"My phone's uh, pretty old." He waved his flip phone at her.
"Oh, right." She said. She let one hand go off the wheel, as she searched in the pockets of her hoodie for her phone. She handed it to Wolf.
"Code?" He asked, unlocking it.
"One, two, three, four." Scarlet said.
She saw the eyebrow quirk, as he typed in the numbers. He tapped a few times on her phone, and soon enough, he got Maps up and running.
"In 100 metres, turn right." Came the robotic voice.
"Did you wanna come in for coffee, or something?" Wolf asked nonchalantly, once she had parked in the strip in front of the apartment complex Wolf lived in.
Scarlet met his hopeful gaze. She gave him a gentle smile. "Sure."
She turned the key out of the ignition and slipped in the pocket of her light blue jeans. It was one of the cooler days of summer; cool enough to wear pants, and Scarlet was grateful for that.
She opened the door and got out of the car, shutting it behind her. Wolf followed suit, and Scarlet looked up at the apartment he lived in. It wasn't anything amazing, but it was nice.
They followed the footpath to the lobby, and the sliding doors slid open. Wolf led her to the elevator, and she pressed the up button. After several seconds, the doors opened, and a few people stepped out. Wolf and Scarlet stepped in, and Wolf tapped 16, the level his apartment was on.
Scarlet felt the familiar jolting sensation in her stomach as the elevator shot upwards. It stopped smoothly on level 16. The doors opened, and they made their way out. Wolf led her to his door, and he rummaged for his keys in his pocket and unlocked it.
He stood to the side, so Scarlet could step in first. His house smelled vaguely of fast food. He had a decent sized living room, with a brown leather loveseat and a LCD TV. There were some cords coming from the TV, including a HDMI cable attached to a laptop. Scarlet turned around. Lining the wall was his kitchen countertop. It was reasonably clean, with only a microwave, oven and a mini-fridge. His bin, however, was overflowing with pizza boxes and take-away bags.
Wolf saw her eying the bin."Sorry, I haven't really had time to clean up."
Scarlet snapped her eyes towards his. "That's okay. Were you having a party?"
Wolf cleared his throat. "Not really. I eat a lot."
Scarlet frowned. "Right." She looked at his physique. He was really muscular for someone who evidently lived on junk food. Maybe he did crossfit or something, because he had really nice biceps, and broad shoulders. If she squinted, she could make out little ridges on his black shirt indicating the presence of abs and... oh.
She was checking him out. She tried to will away her reddening cheeks, and she tore her eyes away from his chest and looked at his expression to see if he noticed. And judging by the hint of a smile playing on his lips, and the raise of an eyebrow, he had.
She pursed her lips together and turned around. She cleared her throat. "Uh... I'll have that coffee now, I guess."
"What?" Wolf said. "Oh, right."
She heard him open the pantry door and she walked over to the loveseat and sat down. It was lumpy in some places, but comfortable nonetheless.
"So, I told you my life story." Wolf said, grabbing two white mugs out of the cupboard and setting them on the counter. "What about you?"
Scarlet peered at him. "Me?"
"Yeah, well, if you want to."
Scarlet took a deep breath. "I don't know. I've lived a pretty provincial life I guess. When I was little, I used to live in the city, but then my mom left my dad and I, and I hadn't seen her since. and then dad started to care about booze more than his own daughter, so my grandmere decided to step in and take custody of me. She lived in France, you know, so for a few years I lived there, on the farm that she owned. I had to learn an entirely new language, too, but it wasn't so hard after a while."
Wolf switched on the kettle, and put a teaspoon of instant coffee in, and two teaspoons of sugar.
"Then a few years ago, dad calls up, saying he's changed and he misses me and wants me back. He sounded sober on the phone, so, I think 'great!' I save up enough money for a trip back here, find my dad, in the same hovel he used to live in, still drunk, still useless. So, I think, 'what a waste,' right? I want to go back to France, to my grandmere. I was pretty good in France. I was thinking of becoming a chef. I check my ticket for the return pass, and you know what? I didn't even buy one! I call up my grandmere, and I tell her, almost in tears. She offers to buy me a ticket and send it over, but I couldn't let her do that.
"So there I am, sitting on the steps where my dad lives, nearly bawling my eyes out, and I swear to god, I see this angel. It was, y'know, my ex-girlfriend." Scarlet mumbled that part. "She asks me what's wrong, and I tell her. Then she makes some stupid joke and I smile, and she tells me that I look nice when I smile... then that was essentially the start of our whirlwind romance worthy of a Nicholas Sparks novel if he bothered to write about anything other than white, hetero bland romances."
The kettle boiled, then flicked off. Wolf poured the water into the mugs, and got milk out of the fridge.
"After that, she helps me get a job at Lunar Park so I can save up for a ticket.. Levana's her step-mother, you know. She puts in a good word for me, and there's a spot open at the cafe. I get the job. Levana finds out I'm dating her daughter, so she makes Winter break up with me. We have a meeting together and she says that she doesn't blame me for what happened, and that Winter manipulated me to go out with her to spite her, and that it wasn't my fault. I wanted to tell her that I was the one who asked Winter out in the first place, but she probably wouldn't have believed me anyway."
Wolf poured the milk in the coffee and stirred it clock-wise. He held the handles in his giant hands and set it on the coffee table
"Thanks." Scarlet said. "So, then yeah. I'm still working, still saving up... my dad's still useless but his place is the only place I can stay." She shrugged. "And that's basically my story."
She grabbed her coffee mug by the handle, and blew on the piping hot liquid. And took a sip. The coffee scalded the top of her mouth, and she sucked on her tongue in a futile effort to ease the pain.
"Seems like we've both had our struggles in life." Wolf commented. He sat down next to her, their thighs brushing. Scarlet suddenly realised how small the loveseat was.
Scarlet shrugged. "I guess so."
"So you're still going back to France once you save up?" Wolf asked. Scarlet looked at him. There was something heavy in his voice, that he tried but failed to disguise.
Scarlet frowned. "I think so. Unless a better opportunity shows up."
Wolf took a sip of his own coffee. "Right." He said. "What kind of better opportunity?"
Scarlet shrugged. "I don't know. I'll probably know it when I see it though."
Wolf's phone rang out, a jingle indicating a message. Scarlet watched him fumble around in his pockets for it, flipping it open.
"It's Cress." He said. "How did the mechanics go?"
She watched him tap the small buttons with his big fingers. He didn't falter once. She watched the letters appear on the screen. Cinder is harmless. She's just a mechanic, but I think they might be interested in her for some reason.
He pressed send, and snapped his phone shut.
"Thanks for helping me out today." Wolf said. He had turned around so his entire body was facing her. His left knee brushed her right thigh.
Scarlet smiled. "I was happy to help. I would have probably done the same thing if my grandmere disappeared off the face of the planet, too." She wrapped her hand around her cup of coffee, letting the warmth spread through her fingertips. "I hope we can help your brother, too."
"I thought you didn't like to hope."
Scarlet was confused at first, but then she remembered what she had said to him the other day when she first told him about Winter; that hope made her want impossible things.
"I think it's necessary in certain situations." She said, and that was the truth.
