Chapter 21 - A Battle is Won
AN: Sorry for the delay again, see the newest chapter of RIDE for the full details. But anyway same story, read, review, enjoy. Thanks.
They opened her door and Kat peeked out. The coast was clear. They walked down the stairs, Kat first then Leon behind her one step. At the bottom they had to walk past the living room. And there were the guys. All the guys. They all looked up when they heard Leon and Kat walk past.
"Morning guys." Kat said nonchalantly and tried not to look guilty or embarrassed. Leon looked embarrassed enough for both of them. That made her smile. He was no doubt not used to getting caught sneaking out of the girls room after the 'big night'.
"Morning Kitten." Sean answered her. "You have a good time last night?"
"Yeah, till I got home and kept poor Leon here up all night making sure I didn't die. I drank way too much. I was sick as a dog. Leon wanted to take me to the hospital but I wouldn't go." Leon was very surprised she put that so well. It was sorta the truth but she made it sound like he did her a total favor.
"Kitten, that was stupid. Well, thanks for taken care of her Dawg." Sean said to Leon. "Sometimes I forget just how young our Kitten is." Leon didn't know if now Sean was warning him off cause he thought Leon was too old for her, or trying to make a dig at Kat for not knowing her limits. He figured it was a dig at her when she stuck out her tongue at Sean.
"No problem man. I didn't wanna leave her alone and we didn't know if anyone else was home." That should tell them he had respected their house and the fact that they might be asleep down the hall.
Sean nodded. Leon was pretty sure he was making a dig at kitten for drinking too much.
"Well, Leon's taken' me out to, well, brunch I guess, so I'll see you all later." The guys nodded and Kat and Leon walked out the door.
"I like him." Kale said to the room in general.
"Me too." Sean added. "He seems nice. I know he's been a playa but he seems like Kat might be that girl that makes him stop that."
"Yeah, well he better if he gets with our Kitten. You know, like gets with her. If he hurts her I'll personally break his neck." Stacy added. The others nodded.
"So, Leon, since you got to drive last night, can we take my car now?" She smiled at him hopefully.
"You sure you feel up to it?" Leon would grant her almost any request when she smiled at him like that with about 6 inches of her flat, tan tummy driving him nuts.
"Yeah, I'm fine."
"Ok then, let's take your car." Leon gave in, wondering what he was getting himself into. "Can you follow me home first so I can park my car at home?"
"Sure." She waited till he had his car turned on then she started hers up and followed him down the drive and to his house. Leon parked his car and headed over to hers. Jesse leaned out the front door of the Toretto house.
"Where you goin' Leon?"
"Breakfast." Leon answered.
Kat knew that the friendship between Leon and Jesse was stronger then what was normal between friends for some reason. She whispered up to Leon. "You wanna ask 'im to come with? I don't mind."
Leon could tell she really didn't mind, and he knew that while Jesse loved the rest of the team, he was kind of Leon's responsibility. And he hadn't been spending as much time with Jesse lately.
"Jess, you wanna come?"
"Sure!" Jesse ran down to Kat's car and slid into the back. "This is a sweet car." He told Kat. He noted her dark shades. "Have a big night?" He asked her with a smile.
"You don't even wanna know." She answered with a grimace and made a gagging face. Jesse and Leon laughed. Leon liked the easy way she had with Jesse.
"So where we goin'?" Kat asked Leon.
He gave her directions to this little diner type place he knew that had good food and served breakfast all day. If was also one of Jesse's favorite places to eat.
"Sweet!" Jesse exclaimed when they pulled in. "I love this place."
Leon just laughed and they piled out of the skyline. The wandered into the restaurant and sat down. A waitress gave them menus and they started to look them over. Kat read over the breakfast menu, it was what she wanted. The waitress came back and Leon ordered breakfast and Jesse ordered some sort of heart stopper double bacon cheeseburger and fries. The waitress looked at Kat. "And for the lady?" She said lady in a tone that implied she doubted very much that was what Kat was.
"I'll have three eggs, over easy, bacon, sausage, toast, pancakes, lots of butter and strawberry jam. I don't suppose you have cherry coke? No? Then I'll have a large Pepsi to drink." Kat gave the woman a killer smile. "Thanks so much." If the woman wanted to be a bitch then Kat would just kill her with kindness.
"How the hell do you stay so small if you eat like that?" Jesse asked Kat. She laughed.
"I have a dancer's meta.Oh what's that word, for how your body uses energy?"
"Metabolism?" Leon supplied.
"Yeah, that's it. I have a dancer's metabolism. No matter what I eat I don't gain weight, and if I don't eat I look like some anorexic chick who doesn't feed herself." Kat said. "Plus, I forgot to eat yesterday and I danced all night long." She gave Leon a sly look and if she wasn't mistaken he turned somewhat red under his tan.
Leon thanked god for Jesse's short attention span, he didn't pick up on a thing.
"Well, we're the same way, ain't we Leon? We can eat all we want to and we don't gain any weight." Leon nodded again.
"That's all those crazy big muscles you have." Kat said and laughed.
"Hey, I'm wiry." Leon said, mock look of hurt on his face. ""Sides I was plenty strong to carry you around last night." Kat blushed. Jesse looked between them.
"Hey, you gotta tell me that story, sounds very interesting. And I'm wiry too. But damn Leon, she can't weigh more'n 100 pounds. I wouldn't brag 'bout carrying her around." Kat laughed.
"Yeah, wiry. That's what not built guys say to make themselves feel better about their small pec.s" She finished. The guys both groaned, they got her implied meaning. "Come to think about it, they say the reason why guys wanna have fast cars is to make up for the same thing, small pec.s. And I weight 105 thank you very much." She nearly fell off the booth seat and under the table she was laughing so hard.
"So why would women drive fast cars then?" Leon asked her. "What are they trying to make up for?"
"Nothing, women are perfect. We just drive fast cars to show you guys we can kick your ass at anything."
"Well, in an R34 Skyline you likely can kick most guy's asses." Jesse added.
"Jesse, I could kick any guy's ass in my eclipse too. I'm that good. When it comes to racing don't test my skills." She smiled.
"I won't. I build 'em, I don't race 'em." Jesse was over what happened to him, but it had taught him he was the kind of guy who built the cars, worked on the cars, tuned the cars, and even kicked some ricer ass down town but he did not race in the big time. It wasn't for him.
"But hey, you don't have to man, your mechanical skills are your meal ticket." Kat told him. "But I gotta race. I tried to stop after the accident; I figured it wasn't worth the risk. But every day my car was wrecked this little part of me died. I had to start working on the car again. Even then I told myself it was just because I loved the car and I may as well have it to drive. I told myself I was done racing. But every race that went by that I wasn't in made this panic feeling in my chest. I have to race. It's race or die for me. I have this competitive thing in me that just.I can't even explain it. If I hear tuner cars in the distance I get this feeling deep in my tummy that tells me I have to go find them and race them. I can't not. I have to race, I have to win." Leon and Jesse were both giving her their total attention. "But enough about me." She blushed a little at having made that expressive statement.
"That's deep Kat." Jesse said. "And you kept my attention for the whole thing." He laughed.
"Yeah, but she was talking about cars and racing so it doesn't count." Leon answered and Jesse stuck his tongue out at Leon.
"What's the big deal about keeping your attention?" Kat asked.
"I got that attention." He looked at Leon.
"He's got ADD." Leon filled in.
"Yeah, I got that shit." Jesse said. "I can't pay attention to stuff for too long before somethin' else takes my attention. But I like listenin' to you talk." Jesse smiled at her. Kat knew that he didn't have a crush on her, thank god, by the way he looked at her just then.
"But that is deep Kat. Racings fun for me, I enjoy it, I'm fairly good at it, but it doesn't move me the way it moves you. I'm more then happy to sit out most races and man the scanner." Leon figured that Kat was the better racer out of him and her, he didn't know how he'd handle that if he was ever proved correct. She was as driven as Dominic. One of the reasons why he always went for racer chasers and not racer chicks was because he never had to worry about having his girl be better at cars then he was. Men did cars and sports, he didn't know if he could handle having his girl be a better racer then him. He resolved in that moment never to race Kat as long as he thought he wanted to be with her. "You're as race crazy as Dominic."
"So, anyways guys, I've been wondering, are you two related?" Kat asked.
"Yeah, Jesse's my little brother. Well, half brother. It's long and complicated."
"Not really, if you know how to tell it." Jesse corrected Leon. "My mom and dad were having some troubles and my dad left for awhile. While he was gone away he met Leon's mom and they had Leon. But things didn't work out and my mom and dad got back together. Then they had me. Leon got a step dad who was a real asshole. His mom ran away and left him there so Leon ran away and came to live with us. My mom was dead by then. My dad, well, our dad, kept both of us from that point on here in Cali. I never knew Leon before then because he lived with his mom in New Mexico, but I knew I had an older brother. So when my dad got sent to jail for somethin' he didn't do he told Leon to take care of me and then while he was in Jail he met Dom. Dom was getting out really soon and Dad asked Dom to take us in and give us a job since we had no where else to go. Dom never told the rest of the team that though. They all think we showed up to a party once and just didn't leave. But really Dom's been lookin' out for us ever since. Well, lookin' out for me. Leon's always been able to take care of himself." Jesse finished.
"Wow. I knew you two were related even though you don't look anything alike." Kat smiled.
"Yeah, well, Dom 'n I are the same age so it wouldn't make much sense for him to take care'a me now would it." Leon asked with a grin.
"When is this food gonna get here?" Kat asked as her tummy growled again. A minute later the waitress dropped off the food. The guys watched Kat start to eat the mountain of food they put in front of her. She ate it all.
"Oh man, what'd you let me eat so much for?" She asked them as they went to leave.
"You said you were hungry." Jesse answered simply. Leon insisted on paying for the bill and then they left the restaurant.
"Oh man, I am so full." Kat moaned as she waddled toward her car. Leon and Jesse laughed. "Oh.Leon, you wanna drive home?" She asked. She was so full she felt sleepy. "I feel sleepy, I ate too much."
"Sure." Leon laughed at how eager he sounded. He'd been itching to drive this beast since he saw it. Kat giggled at him.
"You've been wanting to ask haven't ya?"
"Yeah." He agreed, looking embarrassed. She tossed him the keys. Jesse slid in the back again and Kat got in on the left, leaving the right hand driver's seat for Leon.
"You don't have to go straight home if you don't want to. You can take it for a bit of a tear if you want. You ever drift in a skyline?"
"No, it's hard as hell to do." Leon answered.
"Not in this beast. But you have to learn to drive with no it traction assist. Have you drifted in any car?" She asked.
"Yeah, I use to do it in a second gen. RX-7."
"Oh, the FC's are the best for drifting aren't they. Don't you dare tell Dom I said that an RX-7 is good for anything though." Leon laughed at that. "But if you wanna try it with the Skyline take it to that little track and you can have a go with it." Leon nodded.
They went to the little track and first Leon did a few laps with the car to get the feel of it and just because he loved how it drove. Then Kat showed him how to turn off the traction assist.
"So that turns it into a purely rear wheel drive car." Kat said and Leon nodded his understanding. "When you drifted the Rex did you do it with the parking break or anything?" Leon looked at her like she was nuts.
"No, I knew how to do it the right way." He looked at her like she should have known that. Jesse laughed.
"OK, just checking. Now what you're gonna wanna do is go into the corner just a bit too fast, then when the tires start to chirp a bit speed up. You should feel the rear end start to arc across the track and the noise'll be horrible but you should, well, drift, like in your Rex. But you gotta keep the throttle open just right in the R34 or your just gonna do a power corner which is not true drifting." Leon nodded again. He gave it a few tries and he just couldn't get it to do it. He sighed in frustration.
"Poor baby. You drive it so well, I don't know why he won't drift for you."
"He?" Jesse asked.
"Don't go there." Kat laughed. "Here, let me try it." Leon and Kat switched seats and Kat readjusted the seat for her shorter legs and height. "OK, here goes." She put the car in gear and started down the straight part of the track to get up speed. She started to take the corner about 10 miles faster then it should be done at. The tires squealed and she opened up the throttle a bit more. The car floated around the corner in a textbook drift. The noise was terrible but the feeling of it was incredible. She brought the car to a stop in the middle of the track. "Try it again." Leon groaned but got out of the car. He hated things he couldn't do. She was right to make him try it again. He knew how to drift, it was just the quirks of making this car do it that were getting to him.
He got it that try. "There ya go!" Kat exclaimed. "I knew you could do it. I think you could make the skyline do anything for you."
"It only took me 10 tries." Leon said sarcastically.
"It took me days to learn." Kat told him honestly. "But if I'd had something lighter then this to do it in it might not have taken quite so long." They headed home. Leon drove.
He pulled the car into Kat's driveway and cut the engine. They climbed out of the car.
"So what'd ya think of my car?" Kat asked, purely to keep Leon around a bit longer, of course she knew what he though of the car.
"It's a nice car. I might have to start savin' my money and upgrade mine to a v-spec. But damn I'd miss the little beast I have now." Leon laughed.
"I know what you mean. Like I said, every day this car was all smashed up a little part of me died. Like I let him down by not fixing him." She smiled, slightly embarrassed. "I know it's just a car but I'm that attached to it ya know?"
"I know exactly what ya mean." Leon answered. Dom came out onto his porch.
"Leon, Jesse, where have you guys been?"
"Lunch." Jesse yelled back.
"Damn, Dom is getting on my nerves lately. He's not our dad for fuck's sake, he's our friend. It's like I have to account for every second of every day to 'im." Leon sighed.
"That's my fault and I'm sorry. We shoulda known from the start that we couldn't be friends. He's never gonna accept it, it's just gonna ruin your relationship with him and I'm sorry." Kat sighed.
"Well, last time I checked yeah he was my friend, but I'm also a grown man who can decide who he wants to have for friends. Dom's not tellin' me who I can and can't see." Leon growled.
"Yeah, I love Dom like a brother but he's even getting' on my nerves. We have a dad, and while Dom looks out for us he don't have to run our lives. I'm 21 and Leon's 24, We don't need him to run our lives for us." Jesse frowned.
"Well, he's been your friend for years and I don't want to be the reason that ya'll fight all the time. I can't pretend I'm not gonna race him, and likely beat him some day. It's just the way I am. I have this funny feeling Dom and I are far too much alike to ever be friends." Kat looked at Dom's house and saw he was walking their way. "Here comes trouble."
"Mia wants to know if you two are gonna be home for supper." Dom said as he walked up. "She's havin' it at 8pm."
"We should be hungry again by then." Jesse answered for both of them. Leon looked at Kat, who was inspecting her car.
"So you let Leon drive your car huh?" Dom asked Kat. She jumped a bit at the sound of her name said in Dom's deep baritone. Dom was slightly ashamed of himself over that. She recovered quickly though.
"Yeah, he wanted to and I was sleepy. Never a good thing to be while in control of a Skyline." Kat answered. Dom nodded.
"Yeah and she let him run it on the track too, and drift in it." Jesse started to go on about all the cool stuff they had done in the skyline.
"Drift?" Dom asked. He'd never really heard of it.
"It's this relatively new thing to come out of Japan." Kat answered. "You run a car into a corner a bit too fast then when the ass starts to go sideways you speed up more and the car sorta swings around the corner. It's faster then slowing down and cornering the traditional way. It's a real rush."
"Brian does that in the supra all the time. He uses the E-brake." Dom stated, serious.
Leon and Kat burst out laughing. "No Dom, I'm not laughing at you. I'm sorry." Kat gasped. "I'm laughing at Bri." Leon was also almost doubled over laughing. "That's a kiddie trick. Those who can, drift. Those who can't use the e-brake and simulate it. I can show you some time, the real thing is nothing like an e-brake slide, it's like, well, floating. It's the only way to win races with corners. You'll kill your rear brakes using the e-brake all the time too."
"Brian does go through a lot of rear break pads." Dom laughed at the fact that smooth Brian was doing something the cheater way.
"Your car'd be super easy to drift I bet. The second gen. Rex's are super easy. They're so light. Leon could show you. The only reason why I let Leon try it was cause he'd done it before in a second gen. Rex. The skyline would make a beginner cry it's so picky."
"My car's a third gen though." Dom told her.
"I know, but they're pretty much the same under the fancier body and nicer interior." Kat answered.
"For someone who called my car, and I quote, 'a rotary engine piece of crap' you seem to know an awful lot about 'em." Dom waited for how she would come back to that.
"I know a lot about most imports. Would you like a rundown on the history of the Toyota Supra? How bout the 240sx? 300zx? Wanna know the strong points of an Eclipse spyder? While the Eagle Talon was still the same car or after the split? I just know cars." Kat laughed.
"All you know is driving right?" Dom remembered back to the day they fought in his garage.
"That and dancing." Leon answered for her. Kat gave him a strange look for a second, till she realized he just meant in the club. She was worried for a second he found out she use to dance ballet. She'd die of embarrassment if that got out.
"Yeah, I been known to hit the club pretty hard." Kat laughed. Sean came out onto the doorstep of their house.
"You ok Kitten?" He asked.
"Yeah, I'm super." She called back. "But Leon let me eat so much I think I might bust." She laughed. Sean smiled. Everyone knew he really meant 'Is Dom bothering you' but no one brought attention to it.
"Yeah, well, if you gained some weight you wouldn't die." Sean laughed.
"We both know I could eat non stop from now into next week and I still wouldn't gain any weight." She giggled.
"I know but you're fun to pick on." Sean came down into the yard to stand with the assembled group. "We were thinking of going to the beach Kitten, you comin'?"
"Am I comin'? Are you crazy, of course I'm comin'. Let me go change." She looked at the members of the Torretto team. "Well guys, see ya around. Thanks for everything Leon. Jesse, check ya later." She ran into the house.
"Yeah, well, see you guys." Sean said and followed Kitten into the house.
"When she's not callin' me names you would think that girl was Mary Fucken' Sunshine." Dom said as they walked back to their own house.
"Well, she's a nice girl." Leon said. Jesse echoed the sentiment.
"I guess. I don't know, I think we're too much a like to get along." Dom said.
Jesse and Leon laughed. "She said the same thing." Jesse told Dom.
"She did?" Dom laughed. "Well I guess great minds think alike. Well, if you want to invite her to the Barbeque tonight Leon, I guess that would be ok. This once." Dom figured it wasn't fair to tell Leon he couldn't have the girl as a friend if he wanted to just because Dom didn't like her.
"But she's goin' out with her friends and you told me not to bring her around." Leon said. Dom could detect the anger in Leon's voice. While he guessed the other man had reason to be angry it was still strange for Leon to let it show.
"You told him he couldn't be friends with Kat Dom? That's stupid." Jesse said with his almost childlike logic. Dom sort of had to agree with Jesse in this case. It was not up to Dom to decide who his team could be friends with. When he really thought about it, it wasn't like any police were likely to connect the Tigers with robbed trucks. If they thought the Tigers had anything to do with the heists they would have picked them up for questioning long ago.
"Yeah, I know it wasn't any of my business Jess, but I was worried that they'd bring cops around and, well, I don't like her so I didn't want her around. But it's not up to me to tell any of you who to be friends with." It was as close to sorry as they were going to get out of Dom.
"Does that mean I can see her, see her? Just so you know I was gonna anyway if I end up wanting to but not having to fight you about it would be nice." Leon added to let Dom know that he wasn't going to let Dom run his life anyway.
"Yeah, your life is your own Leon. I see that now." Dom sighed.
"Good." Leon felt like he had won a major battle in his relationship with Dom.
AN: Sorry for the delay again, see the newest chapter of RIDE for the full details. But anyway same story, read, review, enjoy. Thanks.
They opened her door and Kat peeked out. The coast was clear. They walked down the stairs, Kat first then Leon behind her one step. At the bottom they had to walk past the living room. And there were the guys. All the guys. They all looked up when they heard Leon and Kat walk past.
"Morning guys." Kat said nonchalantly and tried not to look guilty or embarrassed. Leon looked embarrassed enough for both of them. That made her smile. He was no doubt not used to getting caught sneaking out of the girls room after the 'big night'.
"Morning Kitten." Sean answered her. "You have a good time last night?"
"Yeah, till I got home and kept poor Leon here up all night making sure I didn't die. I drank way too much. I was sick as a dog. Leon wanted to take me to the hospital but I wouldn't go." Leon was very surprised she put that so well. It was sorta the truth but she made it sound like he did her a total favor.
"Kitten, that was stupid. Well, thanks for taken care of her Dawg." Sean said to Leon. "Sometimes I forget just how young our Kitten is." Leon didn't know if now Sean was warning him off cause he thought Leon was too old for her, or trying to make a dig at Kat for not knowing her limits. He figured it was a dig at her when she stuck out her tongue at Sean.
"No problem man. I didn't wanna leave her alone and we didn't know if anyone else was home." That should tell them he had respected their house and the fact that they might be asleep down the hall.
Sean nodded. Leon was pretty sure he was making a dig at kitten for drinking too much.
"Well, Leon's taken' me out to, well, brunch I guess, so I'll see you all later." The guys nodded and Kat and Leon walked out the door.
"I like him." Kale said to the room in general.
"Me too." Sean added. "He seems nice. I know he's been a playa but he seems like Kat might be that girl that makes him stop that."
"Yeah, well he better if he gets with our Kitten. You know, like gets with her. If he hurts her I'll personally break his neck." Stacy added. The others nodded.
"So, Leon, since you got to drive last night, can we take my car now?" She smiled at him hopefully.
"You sure you feel up to it?" Leon would grant her almost any request when she smiled at him like that with about 6 inches of her flat, tan tummy driving him nuts.
"Yeah, I'm fine."
"Ok then, let's take your car." Leon gave in, wondering what he was getting himself into. "Can you follow me home first so I can park my car at home?"
"Sure." She waited till he had his car turned on then she started hers up and followed him down the drive and to his house. Leon parked his car and headed over to hers. Jesse leaned out the front door of the Toretto house.
"Where you goin' Leon?"
"Breakfast." Leon answered.
Kat knew that the friendship between Leon and Jesse was stronger then what was normal between friends for some reason. She whispered up to Leon. "You wanna ask 'im to come with? I don't mind."
Leon could tell she really didn't mind, and he knew that while Jesse loved the rest of the team, he was kind of Leon's responsibility. And he hadn't been spending as much time with Jesse lately.
"Jess, you wanna come?"
"Sure!" Jesse ran down to Kat's car and slid into the back. "This is a sweet car." He told Kat. He noted her dark shades. "Have a big night?" He asked her with a smile.
"You don't even wanna know." She answered with a grimace and made a gagging face. Jesse and Leon laughed. Leon liked the easy way she had with Jesse.
"So where we goin'?" Kat asked Leon.
He gave her directions to this little diner type place he knew that had good food and served breakfast all day. If was also one of Jesse's favorite places to eat.
"Sweet!" Jesse exclaimed when they pulled in. "I love this place."
Leon just laughed and they piled out of the skyline. The wandered into the restaurant and sat down. A waitress gave them menus and they started to look them over. Kat read over the breakfast menu, it was what she wanted. The waitress came back and Leon ordered breakfast and Jesse ordered some sort of heart stopper double bacon cheeseburger and fries. The waitress looked at Kat. "And for the lady?" She said lady in a tone that implied she doubted very much that was what Kat was.
"I'll have three eggs, over easy, bacon, sausage, toast, pancakes, lots of butter and strawberry jam. I don't suppose you have cherry coke? No? Then I'll have a large Pepsi to drink." Kat gave the woman a killer smile. "Thanks so much." If the woman wanted to be a bitch then Kat would just kill her with kindness.
"How the hell do you stay so small if you eat like that?" Jesse asked Kat. She laughed.
"I have a dancer's meta.Oh what's that word, for how your body uses energy?"
"Metabolism?" Leon supplied.
"Yeah, that's it. I have a dancer's metabolism. No matter what I eat I don't gain weight, and if I don't eat I look like some anorexic chick who doesn't feed herself." Kat said. "Plus, I forgot to eat yesterday and I danced all night long." She gave Leon a sly look and if she wasn't mistaken he turned somewhat red under his tan.
Leon thanked god for Jesse's short attention span, he didn't pick up on a thing.
"Well, we're the same way, ain't we Leon? We can eat all we want to and we don't gain any weight." Leon nodded again.
"That's all those crazy big muscles you have." Kat said and laughed.
"Hey, I'm wiry." Leon said, mock look of hurt on his face. ""Sides I was plenty strong to carry you around last night." Kat blushed. Jesse looked between them.
"Hey, you gotta tell me that story, sounds very interesting. And I'm wiry too. But damn Leon, she can't weigh more'n 100 pounds. I wouldn't brag 'bout carrying her around." Kat laughed.
"Yeah, wiry. That's what not built guys say to make themselves feel better about their small pec.s" She finished. The guys both groaned, they got her implied meaning. "Come to think about it, they say the reason why guys wanna have fast cars is to make up for the same thing, small pec.s. And I weight 105 thank you very much." She nearly fell off the booth seat and under the table she was laughing so hard.
"So why would women drive fast cars then?" Leon asked her. "What are they trying to make up for?"
"Nothing, women are perfect. We just drive fast cars to show you guys we can kick your ass at anything."
"Well, in an R34 Skyline you likely can kick most guy's asses." Jesse added.
"Jesse, I could kick any guy's ass in my eclipse too. I'm that good. When it comes to racing don't test my skills." She smiled.
"I won't. I build 'em, I don't race 'em." Jesse was over what happened to him, but it had taught him he was the kind of guy who built the cars, worked on the cars, tuned the cars, and even kicked some ricer ass down town but he did not race in the big time. It wasn't for him.
"But hey, you don't have to man, your mechanical skills are your meal ticket." Kat told him. "But I gotta race. I tried to stop after the accident; I figured it wasn't worth the risk. But every day my car was wrecked this little part of me died. I had to start working on the car again. Even then I told myself it was just because I loved the car and I may as well have it to drive. I told myself I was done racing. But every race that went by that I wasn't in made this panic feeling in my chest. I have to race. It's race or die for me. I have this competitive thing in me that just.I can't even explain it. If I hear tuner cars in the distance I get this feeling deep in my tummy that tells me I have to go find them and race them. I can't not. I have to race, I have to win." Leon and Jesse were both giving her their total attention. "But enough about me." She blushed a little at having made that expressive statement.
"That's deep Kat." Jesse said. "And you kept my attention for the whole thing." He laughed.
"Yeah, but she was talking about cars and racing so it doesn't count." Leon answered and Jesse stuck his tongue out at Leon.
"What's the big deal about keeping your attention?" Kat asked.
"I got that attention." He looked at Leon.
"He's got ADD." Leon filled in.
"Yeah, I got that shit." Jesse said. "I can't pay attention to stuff for too long before somethin' else takes my attention. But I like listenin' to you talk." Jesse smiled at her. Kat knew that he didn't have a crush on her, thank god, by the way he looked at her just then.
"But that is deep Kat. Racings fun for me, I enjoy it, I'm fairly good at it, but it doesn't move me the way it moves you. I'm more then happy to sit out most races and man the scanner." Leon figured that Kat was the better racer out of him and her, he didn't know how he'd handle that if he was ever proved correct. She was as driven as Dominic. One of the reasons why he always went for racer chasers and not racer chicks was because he never had to worry about having his girl be better at cars then he was. Men did cars and sports, he didn't know if he could handle having his girl be a better racer then him. He resolved in that moment never to race Kat as long as he thought he wanted to be with her. "You're as race crazy as Dominic."
"So, anyways guys, I've been wondering, are you two related?" Kat asked.
"Yeah, Jesse's my little brother. Well, half brother. It's long and complicated."
"Not really, if you know how to tell it." Jesse corrected Leon. "My mom and dad were having some troubles and my dad left for awhile. While he was gone away he met Leon's mom and they had Leon. But things didn't work out and my mom and dad got back together. Then they had me. Leon got a step dad who was a real asshole. His mom ran away and left him there so Leon ran away and came to live with us. My mom was dead by then. My dad, well, our dad, kept both of us from that point on here in Cali. I never knew Leon before then because he lived with his mom in New Mexico, but I knew I had an older brother. So when my dad got sent to jail for somethin' he didn't do he told Leon to take care of me and then while he was in Jail he met Dom. Dom was getting out really soon and Dad asked Dom to take us in and give us a job since we had no where else to go. Dom never told the rest of the team that though. They all think we showed up to a party once and just didn't leave. But really Dom's been lookin' out for us ever since. Well, lookin' out for me. Leon's always been able to take care of himself." Jesse finished.
"Wow. I knew you two were related even though you don't look anything alike." Kat smiled.
"Yeah, well, Dom 'n I are the same age so it wouldn't make much sense for him to take care'a me now would it." Leon asked with a grin.
"When is this food gonna get here?" Kat asked as her tummy growled again. A minute later the waitress dropped off the food. The guys watched Kat start to eat the mountain of food they put in front of her. She ate it all.
"Oh man, what'd you let me eat so much for?" She asked them as they went to leave.
"You said you were hungry." Jesse answered simply. Leon insisted on paying for the bill and then they left the restaurant.
"Oh man, I am so full." Kat moaned as she waddled toward her car. Leon and Jesse laughed. "Oh.Leon, you wanna drive home?" She asked. She was so full she felt sleepy. "I feel sleepy, I ate too much."
"Sure." Leon laughed at how eager he sounded. He'd been itching to drive this beast since he saw it. Kat giggled at him.
"You've been wanting to ask haven't ya?"
"Yeah." He agreed, looking embarrassed. She tossed him the keys. Jesse slid in the back again and Kat got in on the left, leaving the right hand driver's seat for Leon.
"You don't have to go straight home if you don't want to. You can take it for a bit of a tear if you want. You ever drift in a skyline?"
"No, it's hard as hell to do." Leon answered.
"Not in this beast. But you have to learn to drive with no it traction assist. Have you drifted in any car?" She asked.
"Yeah, I use to do it in a second gen. RX-7."
"Oh, the FC's are the best for drifting aren't they. Don't you dare tell Dom I said that an RX-7 is good for anything though." Leon laughed at that. "But if you wanna try it with the Skyline take it to that little track and you can have a go with it." Leon nodded.
They went to the little track and first Leon did a few laps with the car to get the feel of it and just because he loved how it drove. Then Kat showed him how to turn off the traction assist.
"So that turns it into a purely rear wheel drive car." Kat said and Leon nodded his understanding. "When you drifted the Rex did you do it with the parking break or anything?" Leon looked at her like she was nuts.
"No, I knew how to do it the right way." He looked at her like she should have known that. Jesse laughed.
"OK, just checking. Now what you're gonna wanna do is go into the corner just a bit too fast, then when the tires start to chirp a bit speed up. You should feel the rear end start to arc across the track and the noise'll be horrible but you should, well, drift, like in your Rex. But you gotta keep the throttle open just right in the R34 or your just gonna do a power corner which is not true drifting." Leon nodded again. He gave it a few tries and he just couldn't get it to do it. He sighed in frustration.
"Poor baby. You drive it so well, I don't know why he won't drift for you."
"He?" Jesse asked.
"Don't go there." Kat laughed. "Here, let me try it." Leon and Kat switched seats and Kat readjusted the seat for her shorter legs and height. "OK, here goes." She put the car in gear and started down the straight part of the track to get up speed. She started to take the corner about 10 miles faster then it should be done at. The tires squealed and she opened up the throttle a bit more. The car floated around the corner in a textbook drift. The noise was terrible but the feeling of it was incredible. She brought the car to a stop in the middle of the track. "Try it again." Leon groaned but got out of the car. He hated things he couldn't do. She was right to make him try it again. He knew how to drift, it was just the quirks of making this car do it that were getting to him.
He got it that try. "There ya go!" Kat exclaimed. "I knew you could do it. I think you could make the skyline do anything for you."
"It only took me 10 tries." Leon said sarcastically.
"It took me days to learn." Kat told him honestly. "But if I'd had something lighter then this to do it in it might not have taken quite so long." They headed home. Leon drove.
He pulled the car into Kat's driveway and cut the engine. They climbed out of the car.
"So what'd ya think of my car?" Kat asked, purely to keep Leon around a bit longer, of course she knew what he though of the car.
"It's a nice car. I might have to start savin' my money and upgrade mine to a v-spec. But damn I'd miss the little beast I have now." Leon laughed.
"I know what you mean. Like I said, every day this car was all smashed up a little part of me died. Like I let him down by not fixing him." She smiled, slightly embarrassed. "I know it's just a car but I'm that attached to it ya know?"
"I know exactly what ya mean." Leon answered. Dom came out onto his porch.
"Leon, Jesse, where have you guys been?"
"Lunch." Jesse yelled back.
"Damn, Dom is getting on my nerves lately. He's not our dad for fuck's sake, he's our friend. It's like I have to account for every second of every day to 'im." Leon sighed.
"That's my fault and I'm sorry. We shoulda known from the start that we couldn't be friends. He's never gonna accept it, it's just gonna ruin your relationship with him and I'm sorry." Kat sighed.
"Well, last time I checked yeah he was my friend, but I'm also a grown man who can decide who he wants to have for friends. Dom's not tellin' me who I can and can't see." Leon growled.
"Yeah, I love Dom like a brother but he's even getting' on my nerves. We have a dad, and while Dom looks out for us he don't have to run our lives. I'm 21 and Leon's 24, We don't need him to run our lives for us." Jesse frowned.
"Well, he's been your friend for years and I don't want to be the reason that ya'll fight all the time. I can't pretend I'm not gonna race him, and likely beat him some day. It's just the way I am. I have this funny feeling Dom and I are far too much alike to ever be friends." Kat looked at Dom's house and saw he was walking their way. "Here comes trouble."
"Mia wants to know if you two are gonna be home for supper." Dom said as he walked up. "She's havin' it at 8pm."
"We should be hungry again by then." Jesse answered for both of them. Leon looked at Kat, who was inspecting her car.
"So you let Leon drive your car huh?" Dom asked Kat. She jumped a bit at the sound of her name said in Dom's deep baritone. Dom was slightly ashamed of himself over that. She recovered quickly though.
"Yeah, he wanted to and I was sleepy. Never a good thing to be while in control of a Skyline." Kat answered. Dom nodded.
"Yeah and she let him run it on the track too, and drift in it." Jesse started to go on about all the cool stuff they had done in the skyline.
"Drift?" Dom asked. He'd never really heard of it.
"It's this relatively new thing to come out of Japan." Kat answered. "You run a car into a corner a bit too fast then when the ass starts to go sideways you speed up more and the car sorta swings around the corner. It's faster then slowing down and cornering the traditional way. It's a real rush."
"Brian does that in the supra all the time. He uses the E-brake." Dom stated, serious.
Leon and Kat burst out laughing. "No Dom, I'm not laughing at you. I'm sorry." Kat gasped. "I'm laughing at Bri." Leon was also almost doubled over laughing. "That's a kiddie trick. Those who can, drift. Those who can't use the e-brake and simulate it. I can show you some time, the real thing is nothing like an e-brake slide, it's like, well, floating. It's the only way to win races with corners. You'll kill your rear brakes using the e-brake all the time too."
"Brian does go through a lot of rear break pads." Dom laughed at the fact that smooth Brian was doing something the cheater way.
"Your car'd be super easy to drift I bet. The second gen. Rex's are super easy. They're so light. Leon could show you. The only reason why I let Leon try it was cause he'd done it before in a second gen. Rex. The skyline would make a beginner cry it's so picky."
"My car's a third gen though." Dom told her.
"I know, but they're pretty much the same under the fancier body and nicer interior." Kat answered.
"For someone who called my car, and I quote, 'a rotary engine piece of crap' you seem to know an awful lot about 'em." Dom waited for how she would come back to that.
"I know a lot about most imports. Would you like a rundown on the history of the Toyota Supra? How bout the 240sx? 300zx? Wanna know the strong points of an Eclipse spyder? While the Eagle Talon was still the same car or after the split? I just know cars." Kat laughed.
"All you know is driving right?" Dom remembered back to the day they fought in his garage.
"That and dancing." Leon answered for her. Kat gave him a strange look for a second, till she realized he just meant in the club. She was worried for a second he found out she use to dance ballet. She'd die of embarrassment if that got out.
"Yeah, I been known to hit the club pretty hard." Kat laughed. Sean came out onto the doorstep of their house.
"You ok Kitten?" He asked.
"Yeah, I'm super." She called back. "But Leon let me eat so much I think I might bust." She laughed. Sean smiled. Everyone knew he really meant 'Is Dom bothering you' but no one brought attention to it.
"Yeah, well, if you gained some weight you wouldn't die." Sean laughed.
"We both know I could eat non stop from now into next week and I still wouldn't gain any weight." She giggled.
"I know but you're fun to pick on." Sean came down into the yard to stand with the assembled group. "We were thinking of going to the beach Kitten, you comin'?"
"Am I comin'? Are you crazy, of course I'm comin'. Let me go change." She looked at the members of the Torretto team. "Well guys, see ya around. Thanks for everything Leon. Jesse, check ya later." She ran into the house.
"Yeah, well, see you guys." Sean said and followed Kitten into the house.
"When she's not callin' me names you would think that girl was Mary Fucken' Sunshine." Dom said as they walked back to their own house.
"Well, she's a nice girl." Leon said. Jesse echoed the sentiment.
"I guess. I don't know, I think we're too much a like to get along." Dom said.
Jesse and Leon laughed. "She said the same thing." Jesse told Dom.
"She did?" Dom laughed. "Well I guess great minds think alike. Well, if you want to invite her to the Barbeque tonight Leon, I guess that would be ok. This once." Dom figured it wasn't fair to tell Leon he couldn't have the girl as a friend if he wanted to just because Dom didn't like her.
"But she's goin' out with her friends and you told me not to bring her around." Leon said. Dom could detect the anger in Leon's voice. While he guessed the other man had reason to be angry it was still strange for Leon to let it show.
"You told him he couldn't be friends with Kat Dom? That's stupid." Jesse said with his almost childlike logic. Dom sort of had to agree with Jesse in this case. It was not up to Dom to decide who his team could be friends with. When he really thought about it, it wasn't like any police were likely to connect the Tigers with robbed trucks. If they thought the Tigers had anything to do with the heists they would have picked them up for questioning long ago.
"Yeah, I know it wasn't any of my business Jess, but I was worried that they'd bring cops around and, well, I don't like her so I didn't want her around. But it's not up to me to tell any of you who to be friends with." It was as close to sorry as they were going to get out of Dom.
"Does that mean I can see her, see her? Just so you know I was gonna anyway if I end up wanting to but not having to fight you about it would be nice." Leon added to let Dom know that he wasn't going to let Dom run his life anyway.
"Yeah, your life is your own Leon. I see that now." Dom sighed.
"Good." Leon felt like he had won a major battle in his relationship with Dom.