She feels like she should be better at this.

She's been out here every night for the past three days. While working with him, Dean had talked her through everything they've done so far, but she still looks down into the engine and is lost at the mess of wires and pistons. She hangs her head. He'd given her a job before he left, one that is apparently simple.

'Tighten the something on the something', is all she can remember.

So wrench in hand, Mai lets out a frustrated sigh, because she is stubborn enough to try and figure this out alone instead of calling Dean for help.

Cars and trucks and engines and motors and grease and wrenches; all this interests her. She spent half her life around classic cars. She used to watch Dean tune up the Impala and think of how neat cars are and that one day she would learn to fix them up and keep them in working order. It all seemed so cool at the time, it all seemed so easy. It is not easy and she is less than infatuated with it currently.

Come on Mai, this is your car; this is like your right of passage! …maybe I'll just tighten everything that can be tightened…?

It wasn't as if she didn't pay attention during their work before. Mai paid an abundance of attention. For some reason, it just didn't stick, and now she's stuck.

It's nearly 7:30, still light out, an exciting bit of proof that summer is close. School lets out in a matter of days. She would like to have a working car to enjoy it with, if she can ever figure out how to fix the damn thing. Her palms encircle the wrench as she steps away from the car. Her brain hurts, her neck has a crick in it, and her feet are filthy because with summer around the corner shoes are optional. It's time to stop working and she knows it. Mai isn't any farther along than when she started.

Within ten minutes she's in the shower. She lathers shampoo into her hair and her lips hum an old Led Zeppelin tune that was playing out of the Impala when it rolled off this afternoon. The hot water eases some tenseness in her muscles. With an arm crossing her body, she thumbs the knot in her neck. It's tight and painful to touch. Her eyes squeeze shut and she leans herself against the shower stall. Self-massage isn't helping much, but she still tries to rub out the crick. In that moment her mind wanders back to something she had forgotten about throughout her car stubbornness.

Jett…

She called the boy over an hour ago. She stops rubbing and begins to wash the rest of the dirt off her feet. After some debate she opts to shave her legs all the way, just because. She turns off the shower. Her hair falls limply when it's wet. It hangs around he face in an unflattering form and she gives herself a once over in the mirror. One day she'll do something different with her hair. Until then, she rubs it with a towel and throws on her clothes.

With relaxed footstep, Mai walks down the hall to her room. She figures she is presentable enough for a guest. It's just Jett, a loose fitting tee shirt and old pair of denim cut offs are good enough. So why does that makeup bag sitting on her desk look so tempting?

…Mascara never hurt anything.

A quick swipe of the wand to her eyelashes, then she hears the car pull up.

When she gets downstairs he's at the door. Just standing there leaning against the frame while she opens it; he didn't even knock. He looks the same as he had a couple weeks ago and the small grin on his face is relaxed and charming as ever. She recoils inside involuntarily.

"Miss Mai." He says stepping into the house.

"Hi." She returns as she closes the front door behind him. She forces herself to take a breath and slow down her heartbeat.

What is that Winchester? Get it together.

"So," Jett says to her shoving his hands into his jean pockets, "how are you?"

"I'm good." Robotic response said out of habit, gets the conversation nowhere… "Well, frustrated I guess. Trying to figure out my car…"

"I saw you were working on it in the workshop over there." He nods.

"Would you like to sit down?" she motions down the hallway to the living room.

Jett walks into the room and sits down on one end of the old couch. Mai follows him and awkwardly takes a seat at the other end. Then the conversation is dead. So many times before, distance and silence between the two had been comfortable and accepted, but at this moment it bothers Mai. She has a thousand thoughts running through her mind of what to do, what to say, does she ask simple questions, does he want to talk about hunting? She really hopes he doesn't want to talk about hunting.

"How are you?" slips from Jett's mouth.

"You already asked that…" She states.

"Oh… yeah, I did." He zones out at his shoes.

No shoes past the front door… She can't bring herself to nag him about her rule.

"So what were you up to when I called you?" She finally finds a proper question to ask.

Jett shifts in his seat.

"Just some stuff for work."

Hunting…

"So new car?" He asks her.

"Yeah." She smiles to herself, "I mean, I barley know anything about cars, so fixing it up alone is challenging."

"I can imagine," He nods.

"I grew up with cars any everything, but, I don't know… none of it sticks."

Jett laughed shortly, "Yeah, I suck at cars too. I can do as much as hot wire one, but past that I'm lost."

Mai's eyes go wide in disbelief, "But, you're…"

"What? A guy?" He answers for her with a smile, "That's a very sexist assumption Miss Mai."

"No, I didn't- It's just that- No one taught you about cars? Not even your grandpa?"

"Ned had a crappy old pick-up he didn't bother to do much with and I've been… 'borrowing' cars since I learned how to drive." He shrugged.

"Wow…" she purses her lips.

"What?"

"Nothing, just wow."

"You know just because you're a girl that doesn't mean I assume you're great at makeup or laundry or whatever. I give you a fair chance to have knowledge on anything."

"Thanks for that." she rubs her neck subconsciously, wincing at the knot.

"You okay?" he asks.

"I'm fine," She tucks her hands under her legs, "Just a crick in my neck, been there for a few days."

Jett slid over on the couch, close enough to make Mai stiffen. With his hands raised to her shoulders he peers down at her. When their eyes lock, Mai only becomes tighter.

"May I?" He glances at her neck.

She rolls herself away from him a bit, not gaining much ground since she is at the end of the couch to begin with.

"That's weird…" she laughs, more out of nerves than amusement. Jett only shrugs.

"Why?"

"Ha. Ha. Okay…" She inches farther away, "Are you serious?"

"Why wouldn't I be?" He inches over, closing the space she had created, "knots hurt like hell, it's clearly bothering you."

"It's just weird…" She again attempts to build distance between them.

"Why?" he follows her path.

"Just because." She's practically straddling the arm of the couch, "We're practically strangers."

"…I thought we were going to be friends…" He states softly.

Mai steps off the couch as Jett's fingers reach for her shoulders. She takes a seat on the coffee table, just out of his reach. With crossed arms, she tries to ignore the look of slight frustration picked up on his face.

"You're so jumpy." He says after a moment. Running fingers through his dark hair he asks her outright, "Why are you so afraid of me still?"

"I'm not-"

"No matter how many times you deny it, I know Mai. I can see it, I mean god, you're practically shaking right now."

She wraps her arms around her torso tighter. He looks into her eyes, even though her attention is diverted to the ground.

"…but you trust me too… don't you? Some little part of you wants to be my friend, because I wouldn't be here if that wasn't the case." He ducks his head trying to catch her eye.

"Why are you here Jett?" her watch is steadily on the rug.

"You called and asked me…"

"No, I mean why are you so interested in making this 'friendship' work or happen or whatever?" She finally returns his gaze, with a cold stare. She's looking for the truth.

Jett laughs. He laughs a stiff dry laugh. Sitting up straight, he squares himself off with her.

"Okay then," He clears his throat, "I like you."

"Why? What makes me so special?"

He rolls his eyes and loosens his posture.

"Come on Miss Mai, don't you see it; all we have in common?" He throws his hands out exasperated, "Hunter families, lonely, bored." He counts each out on his fingers, "You can't tell me you aren't bored with what you have right now. I mean you have this car puzzle to keep you going but it's not enough."

They hold each other's gaze, blue eyes locked on blue green. He continues.

"I go through so many people in my life. Good people, people I would have liked to spend more time with; I lose them. I just… I just want a friend. I need someone who is a fixed point, someone who I can call up and I know they will be alive the next day."

"So I'm just the safest option then?"

"No!" He rubs a hand over his face, "You're… kind, and smart, and secure an-"

"Secure?" She raises an eyebrow, lost on the meaning behind 'secure'.

He doesn't answer right away. Instead, Jett's eyes trace the room, looking at everything but her. She notices.

"...I… I trust you."

Pardon?

"You don't even know me." She can't help but laugh.

"I know that you are caring and you took me in."

Mai doesn't have a response. Jett continues.

"All I want is to call you, and come here when you're free, and to sit by that old as hell fireplace and talk about anything and everything that doesn't have to do with my job." He sighs, "Is that too much to ask from you? Because I'm getting tired of having to reassure you my intentions."

And so for the hundredth time since he knocked on her door, Mai contemplates her place with this boy. But for the first time she makes a final decision.

"I'm sorry, you… are right." She sighed, "We're friends, and I do want you here, for whatever messed up reason."

"Wow. That makes me feel so much better." He says flatly.

Mai shrugs.

"So for the official record, we're cool," He starts slowly, "and we don't have to have these long awkward silences anymore because we're pals." His eyes look so vivid to Mai as he says this. She nods in agreement.

"Good." He nods back. "That's a bit of a relief…"

And then, despite the fresh agreement on the terms of their relations, silence lays around them. But it's a good silence as they take each other in. Each, in that moment, examining the other. Remarking what they have just subscribed to. For Mai, it's a thin but strong, dark haired boy with pretty blue-green eyes, who dresses like a garage rock bassist and happens to kill monsters, while rolling around in a variety of stolen vehicles. For Jett it's a scared but proud, dark blue-eyed girl with blonde hair and an explosion of freckles, which is safely tucked away in these woods, and has a gentle touch to her stitches.

"Is that blood in your hair?" She asks him when she notices the dried clumps.

"Maybe."

"You always show up bloody." She says rhetorically, getting up and taking the seat beside him again.

"Yeah…" He trails off. She's fairly sure he didn't have a proper response.

She puts her hand against his cheek and taps his face.

"Okay well… are you hungry? I could make something." even with her family only a few hours gone, she already misses having someone to cook for. Luckily Jett's face lights up.

"I'm always hungry." He smiles rolling his neck.

Just like in February, Jett is waiting for her at the door when she returns home on her final day of school. He's leaning against the doorframe with his keys dangling in Mai's face. She can't help but smile a little; it is summer after all.

"Where?" She asks. He pushes off the wall and passes her out into the clearing. Hands shoved into his jean pockets, he turns on his heels to address her.

"You're choice, I just feel like driving."

She throws her backpack into the house and grabs the house keys. It's been a while since she's been on a drive. Padding over to his stolen car of the month, she pulls the handle a few times. Jett follows and unlocks from the driver's side. They both enter the vehicle and Mai notes the interior as Jett begins to drive out of the clearing.

It's a collective mess of fast food wrappers, wadded up papers, general junk, and a few knifes in the front. Glancing in the rear view, she can see a more organized space with a pillow and blanket rolled up neatly. Along the floor of the back seat are a few up opened bottles of water and some canned food. It occurs to her that not every hunter may have the option to sleep in half-star backwater motels. Sometimes, that is a luxury.

"So, where to?" He asks, one arm on the wheel, one arm slung out the window.

Suddenly the trees that line the highway break and the kids roll down through the valley. Fields of corn lay to the right, then past that another green mountain. On the right they pass Speedy Hut.

Hi Walt. She silently beckons him.

Head turned to watch the clouds, Mai speaks, "Go down Main Street and past the school. There's an empty field about a mile from there."

"Such a farm girl." He laughs.

Mai faces him, "It is farm country."

"Let me guess, you can ride a horse and own a pair of cowboy boots, right?" he checks her expression to see how he's guessing. From the look on her face he doesn't figure very well. He readjusts his guess, "Country music fan? Show prized pigs at the fair? You know how to bale hay?"

"Rhone, I live in a wooded lot off the highway." Her tone is flat, "And this is the Appalachian Mountains, not Nebraska or some other mid-west state."

"Come on, you have fairs right? And you have to have like actual farm kids at school or something."

"Well, yeah." She thinks it over, he isn't terribly off, "We do have fairs and farm shows."

Jett snaps his fingers, "Yep. See! We should go to one some time."

Mai just laughs.

"Why?"

"Just as something to do." He shrugs as they pass the Waffle King.

Mai watches a pedestrian couple walk the sidewalk out the driver's side window, "I can give you the gist of it. Fried food on a stick, cheesy kids games, some local bluegrass band made up entirely of sixty year-old men playing, the pungent smell of manure that already permeates the air every day, but is fresher because of the farm show animals and the petting zoo." Jett frowns at her, "Oh!" She continues, "And there's always a hay ride. Always."

"See that sounds nice, charming, civilian. What's the problem with that?"

She leans against the window and watches the school roll by, "It's the same thing every year. I have lived here eight years."

Although Mai doesn't notice, Jett is slightly disappointed in Mai's distain for the local fair. He has never been to one and is secretly yearning to go. But Jett buries this interest and dissatisfaction so well that even if Mai was looking for it, she wouldn't find anything. He drives on with a casual smile on his face and shrugs off his feelings.

"So what happens in this field?" He changes topic. Mai squints her eyes to think, pursing her lips as well.

"Not much." She declares, "It's just nice out there; you said you wanted to drive. It is a place to drive to."

There is nothing for fifteen miles past the school, with the exception of farms and the occasional abandon house. All proper forms of civilization are in the opposite direction; the schools, the local shops, the court house, the town homes, the gas n' sips, the strip mall filled with big box stores on the outskirts of town. The field Mai guides him to, is just a simple grassy space that happens to have a spectacular view of the valley. Within a few minutes, she instructs him to turn onto a dirt road. Down a ways, far from the sound of the pavement, Jett puts the car in park and gets out.

"What's so special about this place?" He asks spinning around to take it in.

Mai steps out of the car and moves to the front.

"It's away from everything." She says leaning against the hood.

It is away from everything. From where she stands the view of the valley is picturesque. Wild field rolls into pastures with cows that melts into farmland in the distance and then juts up towards the mountain blanketed with trees. It's like a Hallmark card of 'farming'. And although unbelievably cliché, it's still enjoyable to look at.

Jett presses beside her and hops onto the hood, gesturing for her to follow. For a second she's afraid that the car won't be able to hold the two of them and that they will dent the hood or fall through the strained glass but they don't budge. The hunter props himself up on his elbows and Mai folds her legs Indian style. And after a while, she just begins to talk, like she hasn't let herself do in a long time.

"You know that feeling to get from that place or places you've been," she starts, "that feeling that when you're there, you are just comfortable and that you belong there? That's what I get when I'm out here. It's home. Which is funny," She laughs, gazing out into the scenery, "Because… I'm not even from around here. I was born in Baltimore, but this valley and these fields and that shity hunter's house up on the mountain feels… homey."

Jett listens, watching her face as she talks. She goes on after he doesn't respond.

"I'm sorry it took so long for me to…" She gets lost.

"Hey, no, don't." He answers, "You had good reasons to be apprehensive, I was asking a lot right off the bat."

"Trust just doesn't come easy."

"It's a side effect of the life…" he utters, the drowsy, abysmal look creeping into his face.

"But I sort of knew right away." She confesses, "That I could trust you…"

His eyebrows shoot up and the drowsiness is drained, "Did you now?" He asks with the hint of a smile. Mai's face feels a rush of blood and she stares down at her shorts.

"Yeah, I just… ignored it I guess. I played things safe." She bites at her cheek.

After a quiet moment, then Jett clears his throat.

"Well." He pulls up on the hood and after a few awkward leg movements he mirrors Mai's seating position, "I'm sorry that I pushed it so… eagerly. I should have realized that it takes more than a few days to work this out. I just find you interesting."

"Interesting?" She's intrigued. He lends her a smile.

"Yeah, you interest me."

"I gathered."

He slides ninety degrees and gives Mai a solid amount of eye contact. It more or less terrifies her for reasons she can't explain.

"Miss Mai," He loosens his posture, "Ask me something."

"Anything?"

"Mmm…" he thinks, "Almost anything, yes."

"Okay then… um… what is your favorite movie?"

"Good question, but I don't have one."

"How do you not have a favorite?"

"Too many good ones."

And so the conversation goes on. The two carry on about favorite this and favorite that. Jett tells her about various cases, the places he's been, Mai tells him a little about her uncles and growing up with them. Neither go into the deep stuff, neither are ready, both understand that now. They sat on the hood of the car for a few hours, talking, laughing now and then, getting to know each other, sitting in silence admiring Mai's idea of 'home'. As dusk starts to set in they decide it's time to go, and Jett finds himself spending another night at the Winchester house.

A/N: 'Dun dun dun daaaahhh!' I'm still alive. Vacations got lengthy and then I sat down to write and decided to take a good hard look at where I was taking this story. So many ideas go through my head of what I can do with this and it was getting messy. So I'm back with a new chapter and I am trying to make this story all it can be.

Also I changed my summary. It no longer says "Updates Tuesdays" because well, it's summer and I'm starting a Cas cosplay and I have books to read and chain mail to make and a ukulele to play, so busy me! But stick around because I'm not bailing on this, I'm just taking the time to produce the story I want to write. Making it good. You can't rush it, and I hate time limits. No clue why I assign myself so many...

Any hoo. I am back, I am ready to start popping out some juicy chapters and I am ready to progress along my plot chain. #SummerOfFanFics