Los Angeles Heat – Part Two
Summary: Pre-Dom/Letty. Dominic is conflicted over finding Letty attractive.
Rating: T for a bit of language
Disclaimer: Yeah, I own nothing.
In the first week of August, Letty walked into the Toretto's house to find Dom making out with a busty brunette. The slam of the front door had the girl pulling out of the passionate embrace quickly, but it took Dom another second to think with the right head.
Letty glared at the other girl, and shoved her thumb over her shoulder. "There's the door", she said flatly.
The girl – who Letty thought was named Cheryl – hurriedly buttoned a few buttons of her blouse before grabbing her purse from the floor and rushing out the front door with a slam.
"Was that necessary?" Dominic demanded icily, getting up from the couch.
"Jesus, Dominic! I know you have shitty taste in women, but you could at least try to be discreet about it!" Letty shouted exasperatedly. "I could have been Mia for god's sake!"
"Letty-"
"Shut up", she growled. "I don't want to hear it – and I sure as hell didn't want to see it. Tony told me that if I saw you to say he wants you at the garage. I suggest you get over there."
Dom made a grab for her arm which she dodged, violently slapping his hand away. "Hey! Would you chill out!?" he snapped.
"Don't touch me! Not after you've spent the last however long groping that girl- she was a senior at the high school this past year, by the way. Did you know that?" she snarled. "If you could stop trying to get into the pants of every girl I know, that would be fucking fantastic!"
"Got something to say to me, little girl?" he growled dangerously. "Because I've about had it with the shitty mood you've been in all summer."
Anger flared in her eyes. "You're a bastard", she hissed. "I'm sick of your ego. How many girls have you paraded through here this summer? I lost count somewhere in the double digits. And today, I did you a favor. That girl gave an STD to half the football team!"
"When the hell did you get so damn dramatic?" he asked, sort of confused.
Letty arched an eyebrow. "I saved you a trip to the free clinic and you're pissed at me? How does that work?"
Dom scrubbed both hands over his face in frustration. "Let, you're giving me a headache. Can we stop talking in circles for five minutes here?"
"I don't really want to talk to you at all right now. Just- go to the garage. See what your dad wants", she said flatly.
"You coming?" he asked after a minute of studying her intently, despite the impassive look on her face.
She snorted. "No, I'm gonna go try to bleach my eyes."
00
It was tense between them for the next week. And when Tony walked in on another of their arguments the following Monday, he had assigned them a pile of chores to finish before the weekend.
The garage had gotten cleaned, the backyard, the house... Letty's mother had laughed at them when she had stopped by before work one day, showing no sympathy whatsoever. So they sucked it up, and tried to stay out of each other's way.
So now, it was Thursday afternoon, and they were washing cars. It was the last task on the list.
Mia had spent most of her summer at the beach, and today was no exception. Everyone else had made themselves scarce to work at the garage or anywhere but the house – mostly because the Dom and Letty had spent the week snapping at each other and making everyone irritable.
Dominic, for his part, was at the end of his patience with the anomaly in his universe that was Letty. The girl had always been prickly, with sharp edges to keep people from getting too close, but she had never been this cold.
Something had to give.
Maybe it was the fact the she was leaning over the hood of the car, sponge in hand, wearing only short jean cut-offs to cover her black bikini, but he thought the beating of the sun had gotten hotter.
He got distracted from his own side of the car, and stopped to watch her for long enough that he got caught.
"Take a picture; it'll last longer", she muttered under her breath.
Finally, in frustration, he slapped the large yellow sponge on the trunk of the car. "Alright, what the hell is your problem?" he snapped.
"Currently, that'd be you", she said tightly, moving to lean against the hood of the car.
"No, you've been a bitch all summer", he glared, approaching her menacingly. "You either need to give me an explanation, or cut the shit."
"I don't know what gave you the impression that I need to do anything", she rolled her eyes. "And just because I'm sick of having to know the mile long list of girls who are getting on their knees for you, doesn't make me a bitch. It makes me disgusted and annoyed."
"Is that all? Because I think you're full of shit, Letty. I think you're jealous. You don't want to see me with any of those girls because you want it to be you."
"Watch it", she growled warningly, eyes widening in anger at the accusation.
"What's the matter? Truth hurts, doesn't it?"
Her lip curled upward resentfully. "Don't make me kill you", Letty said flatly.
"You haven't exactly denied it", he pointed out.
"I'm too busy planning your funeral." She stared absently towards the street before pushing herself off the car. "Let's just get this shit done so I can go home."
He caught her by the belt loop on the back of her shorts, dodging the fist she swung at him, but he let her go. "Hey, I want an answer. Let, we can't keep doing this."
Her answer was to lean over and grab the hose from the ground, squeezing the sprayer attachment for the nozzle to shoot water at him. He wiped the water from his face with a glare, unamused at her behavior.
"Step off, Dom. I mean it", she said seriously.
Several minutes later, when Letty was back to scrubbing the tires with a brush, Dom emptied the water bucket out over her head. The screech she let out would have demanded someone call the cops if they were in a better neighborhood. But as it was, half their neighbors probably already knew what they were doing, or were too drunk to care that a seventeen year old girl could make a sailor blush with her language.
She stood up, dripping wet, and royally pissed off. "You're a real fucking asshole sometimes, Dominic", she spat.
"Enough", he growled, crowding her against the car, hands spanned on her ribcage. He could feel the heat radiating from her skin, even underneath the cold water he had doused her with.
She shifted uncertainly under his touch, eyes flicking around, probably looking for an escape. "Get off me", she ordered softly, her hands clenching into fists as she stopped herself from touching his bare skin.
He leaned further into her space, nose brushing her cheek. "You can hate me some more tomorrow, okay?" he murmured before catching her mouth in a rough kiss.
She reeled backwards sharply, shoving at his shoulders. "I don't-"
Dom laughed roughly against her neck and pulled her back into him. "I know, Let. I know. Take it easy." He cupped her face in his hands. "You know I've been watching you for the last few months. I've been waiting for you to make a move, but you got all pissy with me instead."
She raised an eyebrow in annoyance. "I was supposed to make a move? When? In between all the sluts you had crawling all over you? Sometimes I don't think you know me at all."
He sighed. "I'm sorry. It was a dick move."
"Are you expecting me to argue the point?"
"Letty, I wasn't sure what you wanted. And besides that, I'm older than you, and you're not eighteen yet."
"Yeah, but you just-"
"Letty, you've been practically killing yourself with all the self-torture", he interrupted. "It's been painful to watch. I've been trying to get you to talk to me about this for months. So I decided to do something about it."
She was stunned and confused. Letty had no idea how to take that. She groaned and pressed the heel of her hand against her forehead. When she finally looked up, she felt like vomiting - or crying. Something just felt... off.
"I can't", she managed finally, throat tight. "I'm sorry. I just can't."
"But you want to?" He studied her, taking in the tormented look on her face. "Let, what's wrong?"
"Just because I want it doesn't mean I should have it. Everything I want always goes to shit, Dom. I can't take that risk... Not right now. I'm sorry."
She dodged around him, and ran up the porch steps and into the house.
Dom watched her disappear. "Way to fuck that up, Toretto", he muttered under his breath. He went back to washing the last car, deciding to give her some space for now. He had plenty of time to work on her later.
Fin
00
A/N: Okay, now this is done for real. Some of you were asking for something from Dom, and this is what I ended up with. They don't always listen to me. Let me know what you think.