April 2022 09 Uber (Lila Brown AU)

a/n: By the West Gate of NLA, under the stairs, there is a skell refueling station. The station employees come in small and cryptic (Lila), medium and very angry (Gino), and large and sweet (Ricky Bobby). Usually sweet. Today, not so much.

Please add all the swears, all of them, for Gino's dialogue. Drug usage. Editing? I think not.

All the good things belong to Monolith Soft, but they need many more gas stations for NLA to be a real LA.

His boss had slipped between the two fighters and blocked Ricky's blow with her forearm. He saw a flash of pain on her face, and she was holding her wrist carefully, but he wasn't fast enough to avoid how she wrapped her free arm around his and spun him away. His weight wasn't his to control; he'd thrown all of it at the customer's face and now someone smarter was using it to move him away. They shuffled awkwardly, the world's worst pair of ballroom dancers, but every step increased their distance from Ricky's target. Rage filled his head, and despair. He wasn't going to get a second chance.

He looked over at the customer, now recovered enough to be spewing insults again. For a moment, the jerk had been scared, really scared. That should have been enough, but Ricky was more upset that he hadn't gotten a proper hit in. His friend, Gino, was scuffling with the man, but it wasn't more than a cloud soft slaps and hard swears. Ricky had wanted to do damage.

Someone poked him in the ribs, hard enough to make him cramp inwards slightly. "What do I need to get you to stop?" Lila was steaming mad. Ricky could tell by how bright her eyes were.

"I'm going to hit him again."

"Fine," she said. She shut her eyes for a moment, reopened them. A faint mist of red was trailing from them, like a blurry photo. Ricky was ready for that. She couldn't brainjack him, not if he was prepared. At least he hoped not.

He didn't feel it, not anything. Not the grip of the obvious, not the narrowing of options, not the clear door to what he needed to do. He felt the start of triumph. She couldn't do it to him. He was too strong.

The customer had fallen silent. Gino was still yelling, although without conviction. Ricky wanted to look at them, but he knew he needed to focus on stopping what Lila was trying to do to him. He wasn't going to let her brainjack him, he wasn't. He was going to march over to that jerk and punch him again so hard that his jaw broke, or worse. He'd march over there right now! His feet would move right now and he'd show that jerk! He'd move! Right now! He'd keep his eyes on Lila, like he was doing now, but he'd walk over to that man and hit him, so hard, all of his strength going through his arm, into his fist, delivered to the jerk's face. He'd do it.

While Ricky was still waiting for his feet to move, the customer walked quickly away from the station without another word, intent on reaching somewhere. He didn't look for passing skells as he crossed the driveway. The man broke into a run at the corner and was last seen headed for the Repenta, source of beer and comfort and distraction after a bad day.

The station employees inhaled as a group, exhaled, and time resumed for all of them. Gino was hanging on his arm. "What in the almighty fluff was that all about?!" Ricky didn't like how worried Gino sounded.

"I hit him."

"You did not," Lila said. Her eyes were dull now, and she was holding her hand, the one he'd hit, against her chest, rubbing it softly. "No one hit anyone, and no Mediator is going to say anything."

"I don't care." A very small part of Ricky knew he should care but it wasn't a part he believed.

"Get him into the office, Gino," Lila said. "I need him out of sight."

"Why don't you do that cute thing with your eyes again, brat?"

Lila shook her head, tiredly. "Go. No, wait." She patted her good hand along Ricky's chest, tapping his front pockets, the ones at his hips. He flinched back, covering the pocket on his arm. Lila didn't have to say a word before Gino was diving into that pocket. Ricky would have pushed him away but now he was starting to be scared of all the feelings he'd enjoyed just a minute ago. Gino fished out a tiny black envelope, smaller than his palm, the top folded over and over to keep the contents safe.

"Aw shoot, man, no no no, you fluffing did not" Gino said.

"Uber," said Lila without emotion. She could have been reading the tiny silver letters, hidden on the black paper, but she wasn't looking at the envelope. She was looking at Ricky. Her voice might have been empty, but her eyes were swimming with tears. He didn't want her to look at him like that, disappointed and hurt.

"Not that stuff," said Gino, and he sounded like he was in mourning.

"Go. Make him drink something. Sweet tea or sports drink. As much as you can convince him."

"Do not call your little friends," snarled Gino.

Lila glared at Gino. Any tears had vanished. Then her mouth curved into a smile so innocent it was spooky. "Me? I'm refueling a certain BLADE's skell, no cost, and sending it to the Repenta, along with a note that he'll be denied service in the future. Get Ricky settled, and then we'll figure something out."

a/n: I have a long running AU about this station (and its predecessor in the Administrative hangar), from back in the Miiverse days. I would edit more but the booster is doing a number on me.

Next up: Officially, masseur. Unofficially, I may need to write a little more about this story.