10
I can't keep up with your turning tables.
Adele
Z
I was expecting to be woken up with a conversation about how Han was too old for school girls to be in his bed, but instead I got Earl making a scary face leaning over me with a flashlight. I'd slept around ten hours by that point and was absolutely starving. I was also feeling horrible after not getting much sleep, not eating much, and getting soaking wet during the run.
I passed the next few days goofing off with the team by the light of a battery powered camping lantern and a dozen candles while the storm raged on. I ended up sleeping on a futon in Han's storage room. When I left, he promised me it would always be open to me.
He threw up a wall after that night. I knew it was coming; our age gap was too much for him. He hadn't mentioned it since Sean had been back, but in the early months when my crush was just beginning, he made sure to mention not dating school girls to DK in front of me a few times. He wasn't trying to be cruel; he was trying to save my feelings. Liking Han was honestly the worst thing I could do to my emotions.
That hadn't stopped me from liking him. He was one of the few people I felt safe and completely comfortable with. He gave me butterflies when he looked at me. And he caused me a lot discomfort when he dragged his slutty models around in front of me.
One night it was really awful. The loft was filled with its usual swarm of pre-race people; Twink was running around selling things, the residents of the loft were laying around on the couches, models were walking around with champagne glasses, and Han was sitting on his favorite loveseat with a model on either side of him. Unfortunately, Han's many girls were ridiculously hard to ignore.
I had been sharing an arm chair with Reiko, laughing and joking with Earl and Jimmy, until they left to do some last minute tuning on Earl's car. Minutes later Han had shown up with two accented brunettes from God knows where and made himself comfortable. They both had on tight, low cut dresses that Han's eyes kept wandering over when he thought no one was looking. It managed to make me insanely jealous at the attention they were getting and very self-conscious of the modest outfit I was wearing that consisted of dark jeans and an ACDC v neck shirt.
I was having to force myself to act normal as Han alternated between having a conversation with me and kissing one of the girls. My face and neck kept getting hot as the blush I got when I was angry or annoyed spread across my skin. I thought I was doing a good job of pretending it wasn't there, but several times I caught Reiko smirking at me looking like a kid that had just been told a secret.
"Are you going to the races tonight?" Reiko finally interrupted our conversation about the newest body style on the Nissan Skyline. She slid off the chair and started walking over to her bunk to grab her makeup bag and her curling iron,
"That's tonight isn't it?" I groaned as I spread out into the space Reiko had been taking up. I was too tired to bother with getting dressed to go and I knew DK would have a stroke if I showed up looking like I was.
"You're not very good at keeping track of days are you?" Han said condescendingly. I had missed one of Sean's practice rounds earlier that week. Apparently Sean drove Han crazy worrying that something had happened to me.
"I just missed it once." I defended lamely. I hadn't gotten a lot of sleep lately from the hours I had been working and hadn't exactly been concerned about when I said I'd show up to watch Sean. He shook his head.
"This week." He added jokingly. One of the girls giggled.
I opened my mouth to make a snide comment when I got a text. I sighed and wrestled my phone out of my pocket.
DK: Get here. Need you to help with new transmission in Z.
There went my plan of getting a new car to replace my Z that needed repairing tonight.
While DK wasn't my boss, it wasn't a good idea to snub him. My stubborn refusal to be nice to him and his awful friends was driving Kamata absolutely crazy. It was so much easier to just spend an hour helping DK now than to not show up and get a lecture and a slap to the face from Kamata later. At least Neela would be there.
I felt Han's eyes on me as he waited for me to tell him if the text was a call in to work or not. I ignored him and continued staring at my phone.
With Neela there, I still might be able to make it to the races. She was a life saver when it came to girly crap I never bothered learning like clothes to wear to the races. If she let me borrow something, than I could avoid going home and be in time for some of the earlier races.
My phone vibrated again in my hand.
DK: You'd better be here in 15 minutes.
I glanced up to see Han had finally grown bored of watching me play with my phone and was refilling the models' champagne glasses. I winced in disgust when one of the girls started rubbing her hand down his neck. I couldn't take it anymore.
"Where are you going?" He asked when he saw me jump up and start to leave.
"I got places to be." I answered vaguely.
"We'll see you at the races later?" He asked without looking away from the model on his left.
"No idea." I answered flatly before hurried down the stairs to my car. I wasn't looking forward to spending the next few hours at DK's, and it was going to be a lot less fun if he was pissed because I was late.
Z
"There. It's done." I huffed as I tossed my wrench on a nearby table and started to stretch the kinks out of my back.
I glanced over to see DK too busy flirting with Neela to respond. I sighed as I ran my hand through my hair tiredly. After rushing me over here, he hadn't looked at me since he gave me the order; he had been driving Neela crazy as she tried to do her homework. The more she ignored him, the harder he tried to get her attention.
A light bulb went off in my brain, then quickly burnt out.
It was a horrible idea; ignore someone like that only worked if they knew you were there in the first place. Though Han's attention wasn't that hard to get.
"I'm done." I yelled louder. His head snapped towards me. "What time is it? I was hoping to get a replacement for the Z that got trashed a few runs ago." I asked.
"The races don't start until I get there, remember?" He answered cockily in Japanese as he walked over to his precious Z and ran his hands over the engine. I rolled my eyes when I was sure he couldn't see.
"Need something to wear?" Neela asked without looking up from her laptop.
"If you have something." I answered hopefully.
"Yeah." She shut closed her laptop and shoved it back in her school bag before looking at me with a smile. "If you're coming with me, we need to leave now." She pointed to her car. "You can just ride with me, and I'll drop you off back here."
"Works for me." I responded tiredly as I started for her car. I glanced over my shoulder to see DK pull her into a hug for a goodbye kiss. I rolled my eyes again. Within a minute, she had joined me in the car and we were flying out of DK's garage.
"Tight jeans and maybe a low-cut halter top okay?" Neela asked as she sped towards DK's grandmother's.
"I was thinking I'd wear a skirt this time." I suggested nervously, hoping she wouldn't ask. She flashed me a smile and I knew there was no chance of that.
"Why the sudden change?" She asked slyly.
"I can't choose to wear a skirt?" I answered like I had no idea what she was talking about.
"Reiko texted me to ask if you were with me. She said you were talking to Han and left with no explanation." She glanced away from the road to gauge my expression, obviously knowing he was the cause of my style change. "What'd he do?"
"He was kind of an ass." I said bluntly.
"That's not like him." She replied.
"He was teasing me, but he was kind of a douche bag about it." I continued with a sneer. She shook her head.
"I wouldn't talk to him at all tonight." She advised. I heaved a frustrated sigh.
"I'm not." I answered honestly.
I was getting really frustrated with my crush on Han. I knew having any kind of feelings for him was pretty dangerous; I had watched him toss countless girl to the curb. But for some reason, it wouldn't go away.
I'll just have to survive tonight, I guess.
Z
Neela did an amazing job picking out an outfit for me. I usually got stares when I showed up because of a few of the rumors circulating about me, but this time their eyes stayed on me.
I had curled my hair into loose curls and worn several layers of mascara and whore red lipstick. I had borrowed some sky high stripper heels, skin tight, short black leather shorts and a gray button up top partially opened to show a ton of cleavage and a lacy bralette. I began wishing I had worn pants whenever a draft would come through the parking garage.
I had missed the early races of the night, but I did manage to get into a later one for a Silvia. I was spending the extra time completely focused on my Rx-8. It was my favorite car to just drive around town in, and if I lost, I was not going to be happy.
"Nice engine. Was that turbo in it when you first got the car?" A Japanese accented voice came from behind me.
I glanced over my shoulder to see a clean, cut Japanese guy who looked like he was about twenty standing behind me. He looked a little like one of DK's guys: dark jeans, leather jacket, gelled hair, lead singer of the Artic Monkeys vibe, but he didn't radiate arrogance quite like they did.
"It was actually." I answered with a smile.
"Masaru." He said as he offered his hand.
"Ellie." I shook it.
He launched into a conversation about the car. He was very easy to talk to; he was always making me laugh. At some point, I accidentally met Han's eye across the parking garage. He was leaning against someone's car with a bag of snacks, and despite the girls surrounding him and DK, he was staring at me. I quickly jerked my head back to the car and refocused on what Masaru was saying.
I liked Masaru; he was talkative, friendly, and a bit of a goof ball. Unfortunately, he was one of those annoying touchy people that had to have his hand on the person he was talking to. It made me cringe when he put his hand in the middle of my back as we leaned over the engine, but I could tolerate it. When he wrapped his arm around my waist after we closed the hood and turned around to lean on it and watch the people, I wanted to shove him off the hood of my car.
"Aren't you cold?" He asked me when I tried to wiggle out of his grip.
"My legs are. You aren't helping that." I answered in a joking tone as I continued trying to get him to loosen up.
"Masaru, I think you should let her go already." We both glanced up to see Han standing a few feet away with his bag of chips. "Underage school girls aren't usually your type anyway." He added as he gaze shifted to me.
Masaru's arm was instantly gone from my waist. He made some pitiful excuse about having to find a friend and vanished. I was so busy glaring at Han I didn't even look to see which direction he went.
"What the hell?" I spat after Han refused to offer an explanation. He shrugged. "You've been an ass all damn day."
"Sorry." He responded without conviction.
"You're as bad as DK about not letting me talk to someone outside the crew." I snapped, knowing that it would strike a nerve. He cringed.
"I'm not DK." He replied firmly, obviously annoyed at the comparison.
"Obviously not; you have a massive problem with 'underage school girls'." I replied sarcastically. "Though I don't really qualify as a school girl." I reminded. He pressed his lips together.
He didn't respond. Angry at his silence, I spun around as well as I possibly could in Neela's high heeled shoes and attempted to stalk off to see how far away my race was. I got three steps before he caught my arm. I looked over my shoulder to glare up at him.
"You think he had good intentions for you?" He asked seriously. I laughed in his face.
"You think anyone here has good intentions for anyone else?" I shot back.
"Elle, you don't want to get involved with that guy; he's worse than Morimoto." He tried a different approach. I rolled my eyes.
"You don't get to call me Elle, right now." I bit out. "I can handle Morimoto." I reminded. He just shrugged. I exhaled slowly trying to get less angry.
"Sean would kill me if I let something happen to you." He reminded.
"Nothing's going to happen; I'm armed and everyone know I'm connected to the mafia." I replied stubbornly. Han ran a hand through his hair, frustration starting to show.
"You are impossible to deal with." He sighed.
"You're not any better. Do you know how hard it is to argue with someone who refuses to talk back?" He shook his head.
"Hey, Ellie." I heard a guy call. I turned around to see Masaru back again.
"DK sent me to tell you your race is next." He told me quietly.
"Finally." I muttered as I glanced back at Han.
"Did I interrupt something?" Masaru asked slowly.
"Of course not." I answered before Han could. I ignored him and stood up, adjusting my shirt.
"Can I get a lift back up?" Masaru asked as he ran his hand over the door handle to the passenger side. I nodded and he opened the door.
I glanced at Han once more as I dug my keys out of my pocket. To my surprise, he stopped me by placing both hands gently at the bottom border of my rib cage.
"I'm serious. Take care of yourself." He muttered before he gave me a quick peck on the lips. Horrified by the display of public affection that would definitely end up being reported to Kamata, I shrunk back from his touch. Seeming to understand my panic, he let go instantly of my waist.
"Good luck, Elle." He muttered against my lips after he pulled away. Before I could string together a reply, he had walked away and was disappearing in the crowds toward the elevator.
"Sorry, I didn't realize you two were anything." Masaru stated awkwardly when I got in the car. I waved him off like it was nothing as a blush spread across my neck.
"We aren't anything at all. Watch him; he does that to all his female friends." I gave him a thin smile despite my heart pounding in my chest.
Masaru was obviously nothing like Morimoto. So why would Han say he was worse?
A smirk spread across my face as I started the engine. I think I liked jealous Han.
AN: This chapter was previously the fic Turning Tables, but I changed a lot of it. The first time around I really don't think I spent enough time addressing their age difference which is something that should have been more of a problem for Han.