An update before I head to uni! Thank you to all the guest reviewers!

Levy's cheeks were puffed, still slightly fuming as Gajeel slogged back out into the rain—at least that's what the heat radiating off her face told her.

Honestly, she wasn't that short! A muffled chuckle came from near the desk, and Levy shot the shop owner a dark look. The older man's grin just got wider as he ducked behind the computer screen to avoid her gaze.

Seriously, she had a name, and it wasn't "Shorty" or any of the variants he was likely to come up with. Her fingers tugged at a fraying pocket absently. What kind of customer service was that?

Gajeel opened her car door and slid in carefully, ducking so he didn't hit the roof. It would serve him right if he did! Jet and Droy had both fallen victim to that a few times. At least she never worried about hitting her head on things.

Levy watched as he started up her car and winced as the lights shined in her eyes. Then, there was a burst of sound that barely made it into the shop—one of her CDs.

The guitar rifts soothed her annoyance and tugged a smile onto her face. That she could even hear the music a little bit meant he'd had it cranked too. She'd have to tell Lucy that she wasn't the only one who didn't heed noise ordinances.

Her fingers tapped a beat on her elbow as Gajeel swung out and drove around the side to the bay doors. Rock beats crashed through the open door in the hallway as the car entered the garage, lasting just a few seconds before the engine was killed. Behind her, Metalicana mumbled something, but she didn't catch it. She'd bet it was a complaint.

It was stupid, but for whatever reason, the simple familiarity in how they liked their music made Gajeel's nicknames seem more personal and not so insulting.

Her hands flew up to her cheeks. Two dark spots stared at her in the window reflection, peeking from behind her fingers. Really, what was wrong with her today?

It was hard to ignore the noises as Gajeel puttered around in the garage, but Levy counted to a hundred a couple of times while she stared her reflection down, trying to clear the red from her cheeks with sheer willpower. So what if she found him attractive? That didn't mean she could suddenly lose all her wits and start spouting off like her mother had never taught her any manners. And that didn't mean it was okay for him to be rude!

After a few more minutes of inner argument, which somehow had strayed to speculating if he had other piercings she couldn't see (and where), she heard the groaning of her car being raised up. Too curious for her own good, Levy sidled toward the main counter and tried to look into the shop through the bay window without going into the shop proper. Since she was so short, she had to lean pretty far, leaving her toes dangling off the floor.

A snort made her turn her head to see Metalicana shaking his with an amused look on his face. He nodded toward the garage. "You want a closer look, go in."

She blinked at him and slid back to the floor, straightening the coverall. "That's okay?" Weren't there liability things they had to worry about?

He shrugged. "If you can handle him, be my guest."

With an excited squeal that she muffled in her hands, she slipped over to the doorway and peered in. She hadn't been kidding when her dad said a mechanic would be a good choice for her—she loved to know how things worked. A car was a system just like any body process, computer code, or language. It was fascinating.

The shop was small but cozy, she supposed. It could fit two cars up on jacks, and the walls were lined with shelves full of parts and tools she couldn't name. Carts and standalone power tools took up space in aisles. Nearly across from her but closer to the back wall was a desk sporting a computer. Even from here, she could see all the sticky notes clinging to the screen. On her right, the closest garage door was opened about two feet, letting in a nice breeze despite the rain. It probably evened out the heat from all the equipment.

Gajeel didn't notice her as he pulled a wheeled tool chest toward him, gathering up things he'd need and checking different things on the underside of her car every time he passed under it. There was no way she could've done that without worrying it was going to fall and squish her like a pancake. All of the gruffness from their earlier encounters was gone—his social awkwardness didn't apply to his work. She stayed put and tried not to hover as he starting monkeying with her car.

The corner of her mouth lifted as she spied a tan headband in his hair. With all that wild mane tied back, she could see his face clearly, including all the piercings that dotted his ears and the sides of his nose. He reached up to mess with her front passenger tire, and then she saw the dark smear of grease tracked across his nose like he'd scratched an itch.

She didn't stifle her giggle quick enough.

Hands still above him, he glanced over his shoulder at her. Levy felt her cheeks heat up again—his crimson eyes were pretty vivid. She pivoted on a foot to make her retreat back into the main room when he suddenly called, "Oi, Shorty."

The coverall nearly touched her ears as she hunched. Was he going to yell at her for interrupting? She was making a great impression on him so far she thought, with a mental roll of her eyes.

But he didn't look mad. He wasn't even scowling. Instead, he jerked his head toward her car and her eyes widened: a universal "come here" motion.

He held something out as she approached. When she saw it, her eyebrows raised. "That's it?" she asked.

He nodded. A small, round piece of metal sat in his tanned palm. The wheel bearing. She wasn't sure what she was supposed to be looking for, but it did look sort of worn on the front and edge. It was hard to imagine that that little part was important for keeping her tires connected to the car.

Gajeel dropped the faulty part into a bowl on the cart and rubbed his hands on his coveralls, smearing grease over them. At least she knew how it got onto his face. She couldn't help but stare again—the gunk had marked a vertical line across all three of his nose piercings like a tic-tac-toe board.

He caught her grin and narrowed his eyes. "I got somethin' on my face or what?"

Levy could only nod and touched the side of her nose. Scowling, he turned away form her, pulling out a handkerchief from his coveralls and making liberal use of it.

When he turned back to her, the tips of his ears were just the lightest shade of red. Gajeel rubbed the back of his hair. "So uh, you want me to check all of 'em?"

"Would that be a good idea?"

Without really getting an answer, he shifted over to the driver's side of the car and started pulling stuff apart. Whenever he reached up, she got a good look at the way his muscles flexed. He probably didn't need to hit the gym if he did this sort of stuff all the time, she noted.

"Drive far on it?" he asked, his words muffled around a bolt sticking out of his mouth. Levy tried not to make a face—it probably tasted gross.

"I go to Magnolia a couple times a week, but mostly I stay in town," she answered.

He continued taking her wheel apart and then pulled a face. It made his piercings move in interesting ways. Taking the other wheel bearing down, he showed it to her.

"Iffy," he said.

Honestly, she couldn't really tell what they were supposed to look like either way. But if the car was already here and the other bearing was going bad, now would be the time to get everything done. She didn't fancy having to come to the mechanic's every week. Although, maybe with this new place...

"Is it going to break soon?"

Gajeel shrugged, making his dark mane flop. "Hard to predict. Some last hundreds of miles and others snap just turnin' out of the driveway."

Levy nodded. Best to not take chances then. Other places might've just done the job she asked for and that's it. She appreciated making sure something else wasn't going to go wrong a week later.

"May as well replace all the bad ones then. Thanks for checking, Mr. Redfox," she told him, meaning it.

"Gajeel."

She tilted her head to the side. "Huh?"

"The old man is Mr. Redfox," he said, jerking his chin toward the front office where Metalicana was still doing something on the computer. She could only nod as he turned back to the car.

He didn't say much more as checked the other two tires. Thankfully, those bearings were fine, so it was just the front two that needed to be replaced. He worked pretty quickly, knowing his way around the shop and locating everything he needed in smooth motions. It was almost like watching a dance. She was pretty sure she knew what his response would be to that, too.

"Hey, short stack," he called, and Levy snapped back to reality. From his tone, it sort of sounded like he'd been calling a while. She rubbed her head sheepishly.

Gajeel nodded his head toward the desk. "Should be a form set up on that computer. Fill out your name and stuff," he directed.

Her brow furrowed as she sat down. Wasn't that strictly something the employees were supposed to take care of? "That's okay for me to do?"

He grunted and started shifting through parts. "Don't wanna get shit on the keys."

She watched for another minute, but he ignored her and concentrated on his job. Shrugging, she shook the mouse and woke the monitor. While she waited a second, she got nosy. Tiny scraps of paper littered the desk. They all had the same scrawl etched across them, some more faded than others. Levy ran her fingers over the pieces.

Writing was captivating. It could be so elegant—or awful—but it was unique to each person, sort of like a mini-language of the user's creation. This wasn't neat, per se, but there was an orderly feel about it. The letters were slightly slanted with sharp points, and even if it wasn't the most legible handwriting she'd ever seen, it was at least consistent. Was it Metalicana's? He seemed to do a lot of paperwork; at least, he sat at the front desk a lot.

When the computer woke up, she found the form already pulled up, just like Gajeel said. It was pretty straightforward. The top half had blank boxes for her name, phone number, and address. She filled all those out. There was also a spot for procedure, and although she didn't know completely what Gajeel was doing, she knew it had to do with the front two wheel bearings, so she typed that in too.

Then she noticed the parts list. It was clickable. Curious, she checked it out, her eyes widening when it opened up a database with all the pieces named. The format is what got her attention really. At the library, they used a similar system for book checkouts so they could keep track of inventory. It didn't surprise her that businesses had a process for that too.

It made her lips quirk up. All languages were the same on some level.

A lot of the part names were foreign and confusing to her, but just because she could, she scrolled down until she found one with "wheel bearing" in the name. There were only two. If she was correct, just like at her work, selecting a part would take it off the database and onto the form, keeping current stock updated. She imaged that was pretty handy if they had a lot of customers.

She clicked on one of the parts, but then the screen flashed. A small dialogue box popped up with an error. On her form, it hadn't transferred—at least, not correctly, if the weird symbols were anything to go by. The part was also still listed in the database and not removed like it should be.

Levy pursed her lips. Something hadn't gone right in the coding.

A blue-bound book propped up next to the monitor caught her eye. The title of the database was printed across the front. It was an installation manual. Was this system new?

Cautiously, she leaned forward and peered into the front room. Metalicana was still doing something at the front counter. Gajeel was busy underneath her car, his back to her.

Would a quick peek hurt anything?

She drummed her fingers lightly against the desk for a count of ten before she picked up the book. Then, she began to do what she did best: read.

Thanks for reading! Hopefully the next part done soon. It all depends on my term projects.