Ba-dump. Ba-dump. Ba-dump. , Shift. Ba-dump. Ba-dump. 2nd. Ba-dump. Ba- clutch, 3rd. Ba -dump. 4th. Ba-5th. Ba-dump. Ba-finish line.
10.5 seconds.
"Shit!" Brian yelled as he slammed his palm against the steering wheel of the back road he'd been practicing on. Hector finally had him lined up for some of the major races, but he knew that without hitting 10 seconds at least once, his wins weren't guaranteed. While his funds had grown from the minor races some, he wasn't sure he'd have the money to throw down on a major without the risk of tossing in his pink slip.
After that confrontation with Vince a week ago, there was no way that one of the Toretto crew wouldn't end up racing against him - the question was just simply who. Jesse, Leon and Letty were good from what Brian could tell, but he was sure he could beat them. Vince and Dom, however, were a different story.
Cursing at the limitations of a cop-funded race car, Brian headed into Harry's for the afternoon shift at the store. A shipment was coming in today, so he'd be on location rather than making deliveries. Parking next to the work truck, he strolled through the back door, stopping at the back office/temporary bedroom long enough to snag a work shirt before heading to the front.
"Ashley, how's it hanging, girl?" Brian asked his co-worker, kissing her on the cheek as he clocked in at the second terminal. While not a racer, Ashley was part of the racing scene as well, typically hanging out with her boyfriend and his crew during the nights and DJing the parties they had.
"Sup, Brian, pretty slow day for the moment," she responded, flipping through one of the magazines they had in stock. "Not that I'm going to complain. I'm sure it's only going to get worse the closer we get to Race Wars."
"Yeah, you going to be out there spinning the tunes?"
"Waiting on the official list, but yeah, should have a set again," she drawled out, straightening up as the bell chimed on the door.
"Looking forward to it, save me a dance to keep the rest of the bunnies off my back?" Brian joked with her as he turned to see who had entered the shop. At first all Brian could see was Joey, Ashley's boyfriend and two of his guys, so he didn't think twice about the direction of the conversation at first.
"Snowman, you tryin' to steal my girl from me again?"
"Nah, dawg, just staying close by so I can pick you up when she realizes she deserves better," Brian laughed out as he fist bumped the guys in greeting while Ashley and Joey said hello.
"There are still times I wonder about you, man, you coulda had all the honeys you wanted," Rick shook his head as he leaned on the counter. Brian shrugged his shoulders not caring about the fact that they'd picked up on where his desires lie. He'd been lucky that so far no one had cared - it took a hell of a beat down to get the guys back in Barstow to keep their mouths shut.
"What can I say, my car preference might be imports, but I'm all about the muscles," he admitted with a grin. "It's nice to have someone that can keep up, not that Ashley couldn't kick my ass," he joked as he turned to nudge the girl before locking eyes with a brown pair across the shop. The clear blue turned stormy as they continued to stare into the dark depths of the hazel-brown, neither giving anything away.
Blue eyes broke away first as the group called for the owner's attention and when they looked back up five minutes later, the pair of hazel-brown was gone.
Seven hours later, after closing up shop and adding a few insurances to the Supra, Brian was pulling into the blocked off section of the warehouse district where the major races occurred. Backing up into the first spot he saw for the line of potential racers, he took a deep breath and iced up his persona as he stepped out of his car.
Glancing around, he could see Joey, Rick and Ashley a few cars back and Hector was lounging with his crew for the moment towards the front of the row. He nodded to a few of the other racers he'd either raced - and defeated - already or knew through Harry's as he ambled up the row to Hector.
The sound of a familiar set of engines had him turning around before reaching the group, watching as the Toretto's arrived on scene. He locked eyes with Dom, in the lead with his own Nissan before turning back to the Latino organizer of the scene.
"Snowman, you ready for the big leagues, bro?" Lois called out as the undercover cop approached.
"Not sure I have much a choice man, pretty sure no one else is gonna race me in the minors," Brian responded with cool confidence as he greeted the group. "Added one or two things to the Supra as a Hail Mary, but don't go setting me up against Toretto or something, alright?"
It might have sounded weak to admit he wasn't confident against the King of LA, but he also knew that it would grow more respect for himself if he knew his limitations.
"I got you, I'll put you in the fourth race, I'll get you set up against a good one." Hector clapped Brian on the shoulder as he then moved off to confer with Dom while Brian decided to step up to Ashley and Joey to hang out and chill until his race.
Throughout the first few races, none of the cars were very impressive except for the moment when Letty went up. She easily smoked the competition, stepping out of her car showing once more why she was with the king of the streets.
Brian had no idea who he was going to be up against as he pulled to the line. To his left was a Honda and on the far right a Dodge. Neither sounded all that special so Brian wasn't concerned until he heard the distinct roar of the Maxima and turned to the right to lock eyes with the same hazel-brown as from the shop that afternoon.
"Shit," Brian cursed out loud as he double-checked the systems hooked up to the NOS.
"You ready to go?" Hector asked as he leaned against the passenger side of the Supra. The open window of the Maxima meant that the driver heard every word of the conversation.
"What's the buy-in now, Hec? Cause you know I'm throwing down everything as it is still," Brian glared at the Latino who shrugged casually.
"He kicked it a nickel, so we're looking at 15. You still good or you pulling?"
"Fuck, man….alright, tell 'em I'm throwing down the pink slip - I'm not about to back out when I know I can smoke at least two of these clowns."
The smirk that graced the other driver's face after hearing those words cooled down all the nerves that had started to fire-up. He wouldn't lose to him. He couldn't.
At the signal from the race bunny calling the start, the Honda jumped ahead while Brian and the Maxima cruised right behind. The Dodge was half-a car length behind to start, but quickly started fading back as the Supra and Maxima edged past the Honda. Side by side, they smoothly transitioned to the front.
Locking eyes, the blonde saw the driver shift, beginning to pull ahead. Narrowing his eyes, Brian shifted up himself and hovered his thumb over the NOS as they closed in on the finish. Moments from the line, both hit the Nos - and crossed together.
They both drifted to a stop, creating a V as their noses pointed towards each other back to the start. Their eyes stayed locked for another moment before laughter broke through Brian's icy exterior. He practically rolled out of the car as he continued to laugh while leaning against the roof of the car.
"Sam, you get that on tape?" Hector yelled out in excitement as he rolled up with the cash in hand. The two cars had clearly crossed at the same time, so it would be down to the video. Everyone began to crowd around as they waited to hear the result.
"Laughter isn't usually how someone reacts when they're about to lose their car," Leon threw at Brian as he strolled up to the blond with Jesse as the rest of the crew headed over to the Maxima.
"Man, how can you not - that was awesome!" Brian exclaimed with glee. "Your boy totally would have had me if his fuel map wasn't still unloading in third and I woulda had him if I had hit the other NOS." A curious look from Leon and Jesse led to Brian popping the hood and allowing the duo to check out the systems.
"Jesus, you got enough NOS here to blow yourself sky high. You woulda fried the whole system if you had taken that second hit." Brian shook his head, admitting it was tempting, but he couldn't have done it even if it had been necessary to keep his car.
"Shoulda done it man, cause Vince got you!" Hector hollered from the sideline as the crowd went wild. A sudden shout of cops lead to a mass scramble for cars as the racers cleared out. Cursing his luck, Brian swung his car around to head towards the outskirts where some of the more underground garages and storage parking laid.
Seven minutes later, Brian rolled up on Dominic Toretto and swung up the alley in front of him as he ran from the cops.
"Get in!" Brian yelled, revving the engine. The older man bypassed the door, jumping through the open passenger window, still half-out as Brian gunned it up the alley, quickly swerving between three cop cars, drifting around a corner and a fourth car before taking a few more back roads and beginning to swing back into the city by way of Little Tokyo as the cops fell far behind.
"Didn't expect to see you saving my ass," was the first thing out of Dom's mouth once they were clear of the sirens.
"Yeah, well, I'm not gonna leave anyone behind to the cops if I can help it - bonus since it's you, I figure losing my car to Vince means I really lost it to you and maybe this will let me keep my car and race for you rather than lose it completely and risk Uncle Harry getting more pissed at me."
"Clearly you know what you're doing - ever been a wheel man before?"
"Nah, man, never."
"So what was was with the two years in Juvie then?"
"Shit, man, you saw that? Yeah, I know it says boosting cars, but I was actually busted at a street race as a kid where a major drug deal happened to be going down at the same time. Prosecution felt bad since it was a clear wrong place wrong time thing so he charged me with boosting cars instead - put me in juvie instead of jail."
Dom watched the buster as he continued to weave his way through the one way streets with ease, judging the trustworthiness of the statement. Before being able to make a decision, the sound of motorcycles came from behind them.
As the bikes pulled even with them, the one on the driver's side tapped on the glass with an automatic, directing Brian to pull into little Tokyo to the back of a restaurant by the unloading dock for the building.
"This isn't gonna be good is it?" Brian muttered as he and Dom exited the car to face the revealed Johnny Tran.
"What are you doing here, Toretto, the deal is you stay off our turf and we don't have any issues," Tran drawled out, stepping off the bike towards them while the one in the snakeskin pants who was clearly second in command continued to hold the automatic towards them. Brian raised an eyebrow at that. While Brian the cop knew about the beef that had started up a few months back right before he started at Harry's and at the same time Harry was having problems with some of the shadier deliveries, Brian the new guy to the scene wasn't supposed to know anything yet about the inner details.
"You couldn't have warn me about a turf war as we started heading here?" Brian bit out, icing up against both Tran and Toretto for the moment.
"Didn't think we'd get close enough for it to matter before we ditched the cops - race got raided, Tran, we were just cutting the corner," Dom camly explained, hoping to keep things cool.
"And who is 'we'?"
"My, uh, new mechanic," pointing to the blonde. If the situation hadn't been so tense, Brian would have cheered at the decision since it meant he'd probably get to keep his car and not be in hot water with his handlers - which would have been a lot worse than if he really had been in trouble with Harry. "Brian, that's Johnny Tran and his cousin, Lance."
Johnny glanced up, but focused on the car in front of him, while Lance hadn't moved his eyes away from Brian since they had stopped. It was honestly starting to creep him out more than a little.
"This your car?"
"It's his now," Brian answered, facing Johnny, but watching Lance out of the corner of his eye.
"No it's not, I haven't taken delivery yet," Dom contradicted, locking eyes with Brian. He couldn't understand what Toretto was trying to do with the denial - the deal was as good as done as soon as it was determined that Vince had won the race.
"So, it's no one's car," Johnny declared, shrugging it away, as he moved down the passenger side. "Someone clearly put in the wrench time though. What do you think, Lance?"
"It's an amazing machine," his cousin agreed, though his eyes stayed locked on Brian rather than drifting over the car. Yes, Brian definitely wanted to get out of here now and figure out what was the deal with these guys. Johnny clapped Dom on the arm as he moved back to his bike.
"Well, we'll see you in the desert soon enough - you'll get yours then." The gang started returning to their bikes and began to roll out. Brian and Dom stayed where they were until the last bike had turned the corner and then Brian turned with fury and ice in his eyes.
"What the hell was that all about?"
"It's complicated," Dom deflected as he went to get back in the car. The sound of returning bikes had both of them pausing as they saw Johnny and Lance return, now both with guns in hand. They each dove away from the car as the bikers shot up the car until it lit before racing back out again.
The shout of NOS from Dom had Brian rolling under the closest semi to quickly get some cover from the explosion. Once it was clear the tanks had finished, Brian rolled back out, to find Dom above him with a hand out. He took the offer to be pulled to his feet and followed as he brushed off the dirt he picked up.
"So, gonna tell me that story now?"
"Seriously, it's a long story."
"We got a couple mile hike for even a chance of finding a cab and the looks I was getting from Lance definitely means I need to know what I just got into." Dom paused for a moment and studied Brian again before continuing on.
"A business deal that went sour - plus Lance made the mistake of messing with Jesse." Brian groaned at that revelation. It was exactly as he thought it was. Now he'd have to watch his ass twice as much. Dom gave him a curious side eye.
"I'm gay, Dom, so thanks for that," the blonde decided to just admit to the other man. "So far I hadn't gotten any shit about it and now I'm about to have a stalker. Fucking perfect."
They stayed silent until they got the taxi and Dom directed it back to Echo Park.