Chapter Text
You didn’t think driving cross country would be that much of an issue by yourself. But here you are, stuck alone outside of some town you’ve never even heard of or been to before. Stuck on the side of the road with your front right tire blown out all because of some stupid potholes. Thank you government for using our tax money for everything else but those and other more important things. What was worse was that there wasn’t really a signal for a text to go through, but it was enough to call someone for help. Except that your phone was gonna die at any second.
“Great, just my luck.” You kicked a loose rock into the ditch as you stuffed a hand into your jacket pocket. “Damn, why does it have to be so cold?” You shivered a bit, seeing that your phone was still alive. “Might as well call a towing company or something.”
You called the nearest tow shop that was probably in town a few miles away. You stood there and waited for what it felt like an eternity for someone to pick up, only to have it go to voicemail. You went to call again, only this time your phone died for real.
“Fuck.” You shoved your phone into your pocket, leaning on the back of the trunk in frustration. Well, might as well do the only thing that you can do for now.
You stuck your thumb out towards the road, hoping that at least someone would stop by, pick you up, and drop you off at the nearest tow place so they could pick up your car, get it fixed, and be on your merry way. But god damn why did it have to be so cold out for summer? It wasn’t even close to fall yet, but you figured that the temperature dropped due to the sun already being set over the horizon. But god damn it got cold out.
Five, ten, fifteen, minutes to almost an hour had passed and at least 5 cars had driven past, not even batting an eye as you stood there shivering still with both of your hands shoved into your pockets. Sighing, you decided to sit back in the car for a bit, plugging your phone in to charge a bit while laying your head on top of the steering wheel.
You should’ve been doing that since the beginning than standing out in the cold, sticking your thumb out like a damn fool. But you’d guess that you didn’t want to ruin your car battery and lose gas by having it run just so you could charge your phone. Just Your luck, huh?
“Why did this have to happen to me?” You mumbled, shivering once more. You might as well turn the car back on so you could get some heat and charge your phone as well finally. Going to do that, you noticed some headlights shining in the rear-view mirror. The lights got closer as it blinded you a bit, stopping behind you completely. You got out of the car to see that it was a tow truck. Thank god.
“Oh my god, thank you for stopping!” You waved towards the truck as you approached it, seeing a really well built guy step out.
Actually, he looked more than just well built, more like jacked. It looked like the two shirts he was wearing, a single white tank top, and a blue plaid button up were hanging on by a thread. Not to mention the pants and shoes he was wearing looked like they were worn a bit too. He was around 6’4, had short, somewhat slicked back black hair, intimidating brown eyes, and what appeared to be two scars that ran downward from his forehead, and ran across both of his eyes and cheeks. He really looked intimidating once you approached him closer. Is this guy really a tow driver?
“You need some help, pal!?” He shouted, his voice boomed through your eardrums.
“Y-yeah,” you stuttered, not even thinking a guy like this would be so loud. You pointed behind you with your thumb towards your car. “I hit a pothole and busted a tire. I was trying to call the nearby tow service in town to see if I could get any help. But with my luck, my phone died and it doesn’t help that the service out here is terrible.”
The man crossed his arms, listening to every word you said. “I see… well, looks like you’re in luck buddy because I was just heading into town for the night after doin my nightly run. You must’ve been trying to call the shop I work for huh?”
You shrugged, not really knowing what to say in response. You guessed that you were calling the right one.
“Lemmie guess, you tried to call and got no answer, huh?” The man picked at his ear a bit with his pinky.
You nodded, “Yeah and when I went to call back, that’s when my phone died. I’ve been trying to hitchhike since I don’t wanna ruin my car battery and run out of fuel with it running.”
“OH HELL NO!” The man boomed, his voice nearly making your soul leave your body as he suddenly screamed. “DO YOU KNOW HOW DANGEROUS IT IS TO HITCHHIKE? ESPECIALLY AROUND THIS TIME OF YEAR?”
You stood there shocked, feeling your heart POUND in your chest feeling like it might just stop at any moment.
“Bwahaha! I’m just messing with ya! But seriously though, around this time at night it can be dangerous not knowing what type of folks are driving around.” The man laughed some more before clearing his throat. “You go ahead and hop in my truck. I’ll take care of the rest.” He flashed you a bright smile. “Oh! And I didn’t even introduce myself. Names Nekomaru Nidai. But you can just call me Nekomaru, or maru for short.” He flashed you another smile.
Damn, Nekomaru can look and sound intimidating, but at least he’s a pretty friendly guy.
You introduced yourself to him as you went to grab some of your belongings. Nekomaru then went ahead and drove the truck in front of your car, making sure it was lined up properly before hooking it up. You went ahead and sat in the passenger seat once you got into the truck. Following suit, Nekomaru sat in the driver's seat, basically taking up almost the whole space of it with his size and massive muscles. It felt a bit cramped at first, but you’d figured that you’d get used to it since you’ll be driving into town with him.
“Alright! I’ll get this baby back to the shop and she’ll be fixed in no time!” He laughed, putting the truck into gear as the two of you buckled yourselves in. “Don’t worry, it won’t take too long to get there.”
The two of you sat there in silence for a bit, not knowing what to even say. Looking at the dashboard in front of you, you noticed that there was a hula dancer placed on top of the center console, some crumpled up hamburger wrappers, and a roll of toilet paper?
“Ah, sorry about that.” Nekomaru chuckled, picking his nose a bit. “Sometimes I have to take a massive shit once in a while when I’m out working and sometimes I just can’t hold it. It doesn’t help that there’s not a lot of restrooms nearby. And! some of them don’t even have toilet paper! Like, can you BELIEVE THAT?!” He shouted, gripping the steering wheel tight with his hands that were much too big for the poor thing. Looked like he could snap it in an instant.
Wow. It seems like he doesn’t feel any shame when it comes to talking about something so … personal like that. You didn’t really know how to respond to that, so you sat there in silence for a bit longer.
“Say, what're you doing out driving late at this time of night?” Nekomaru looked over towards you a bit.
“Oh. Well, I’m driving cross country by myself since I decided that I needed a bit of a break from um- well.. it’s kinda personal y’see…” You fidgeted with your fingers a bit. Should you really be bringing up some personal stuff that just happened in your life to a complete stranger? A stranger that so happily decided to boast about him taking shits?
“Ah, I see.” Nekomaru nodded, making a wide left turn. “You don’t need to tell me any details if you don’t wanna. But I’m sure it’s one hell of a reason to travel by yourself.”
Sadly, it was. A few months prior, you and your partner were planning a cross country road trip together. Not to only see neat and historical things, but to spend time with one another as well. That is, until one day they decided to break up with you randomly, leaving you to be alone on this road trip. At first you didn’t want to do it at all afterwards, but something in your head encouraged you to do so. To try and do it for yourself. To try and find happiness in it, even if you’re alone. So that’s what you were doing and was feeling great actually. But then this very moment decided to happen.
“Alright! We’ve arrived!” Nekomaru pulled into a parking lot next to a somewhat big but modern building that had another small building attached to it. Must’ve been the garage/workshop.
“ SODA: AUTO SHOP & TOWING '' was written in bright neon pink cursive letters, with a symbol that looked like an outline of a hexagon with a lightning bolt placed in the middle of it. There were two of them, one of them being on the side of the road, while the other was attached to the building outside. Talk about being quite an eyesore, especially at night.
Nekomaru grumbled a bit before unbuckling his seatbelt. “Bet the boss got his head too deep again into another project or something. No wonder he didn’t pick up.” He turned to you, “You can grab your belongings and I’ll meet ya in the main building to do some paperwork.” He then flashed you a smile as you got out of the truck, making your way into the main building.
From there, you watched him carefully pull the truck closer to the garage, seeing him park it into place for right now. He then entered the main building as well, walking over towards some filling cabinets and handed you a clipboard, a piece of paper, and pen.
“You can just go ahead and sign all that. I'll let the boss know that I got another car that needs fixin.” He turned to walk through another door that entered into the garage. “Least it’ll be something else other than his crazy projects.” He mumbled.
Taking the time to fill out the paperwork, you made sure to fill out everything properly. You sat there for a few seconds looking at the requirements, realizing that you might not have the right amount of cash to pay upfront for not only the towing, but for the new and probably extra tire. You had some money in your bank account as well, but enough for you to have enough food, gas, and a couple of hotel rooms.
“Great. Just another thing to add to my luck.” You grumbled as you continued to fill out the paperwork.
-
“Ayo boss! Got another car that needs a fixin!” Nekomaru yelled once he entered the garage, his voice echoing.
The garage was a bit small, but there was plenty of room throughout the building to keep at least 2-3 cars and at least 1-2 motorcycles in it. It was kept pretty clean for a mechanic shop. Different varieties and sizes of tires were stacked up on top of one another. Tool boxes that were different sizes and plenty of shelving were placed throughout the shop as well. There was a giant door in the far back where Nekomaru could back cars or any motorized vehicle inside. There were a few grease stains here and there on the floor, but overall it looked like the place was kept pretty spotless. Except for the area where the boss had his projects sprawled out to work on. Variety of soda cans, candy wrappers, tools, dirty rags covered in grease, a radio that was blaring some rock music, and a few magazines sat either on the floor or on a small table around his work station
The boss, who was hunched over, working on what appeared to be a motorcycle of some sort, stopped blowtorching when he heard Nekomaru yell across the garage. Sighing, he turned around on his stool, pulling up his pair of goggles, placing them on the top of his head with the blowtorch in hand.
“This late at night Maru? Don’t you know that the shop closes around this time and I usually work on my personal projects?” He turned back to the bike, moving the goggles back on over his eyes. He started to blow torch it a bit until he stopped, feeling Nekomaru place a hand on his shoulder, giving him a pretty tight grip.
The mechanic turned his head slightly, not even bothering to take off his goggles again. But he could feel Nekomaru staring right at him even though he could barely see him.
With a sigh, the man stood up, turned off the radio, dropped the blowtorch onto the ground and kicked his stool to the side.
“Alright, show me the damage.”
-
A few minutes later, Nekomaru pulled the truck into the garage. Unhooking your car from it and allowing it to sit towards the middle of the garage, Nekomaru then pulled the truck out, parking it in the front of the building. Coming back inside, he went to see how things were going with you first before confronting his boss about things. He noticed that there was a worried expression on your face once he entered.
“Everything alright?” He raised a brow at you.
You really didn’t know what to do since you didn’t have that much money to pay for all the costs that they’ll give you. Looking at the paperwork that you already had filled out and signed, you didn’t say anything as you handed it over to Nekomaru. How the hell are you going to get out of this situation?
“Um, Nekomaru?” Your voice was a bit low, filled with nervousness.
“Yeah? Y/n?” He stopped to look at you, his hand hovering over the door knob with the paperwork in hand.
“I just wanted to let you know that I don’t have that much money on me and in my bank account.” You frowned. “So, I don’t really know how I’m going to pay for all of this.”
God, what’s gonna happen? They're gonna tow your car and throw it away in some junk yard? Maybe sell it? All because you can’t pay the fees? You felt your stomach drop at the thought, feeling a bit sick.
“Ah well, Me and the boss haven’t discussed the prices yet, but I’ll let ya know when I have the numbers.” He turned the knob and entered back into the garage.
-
“Here ya go boss.” Nekomaru handed the mechanic the paperwork, only stopping halfway when he saw him standing there with his arms crossed, staring at the damage of your car.
“They hit those damn potholes outside of town again huh?” The man mumbled, kneeling down to the car's level to look more at the damage. “Tch. Seems like they were being careless whoever they were.” He touched the outside of the car, then the area around where the tire was at, seeing that it was almost completely blown out. Standing up, he crossed his arms again, tapping his foot lightly. “Least it didn't do that much damage underneath or around it. Mostly did damage to the tire itself.”
“Ah well, there’s one thing I gotta tell ya though.” Nekomaru scratched the back of his neck awkwardly. “Y’see, they’re worried about not having the right amount to pay for the tow, damages, and for you to fix it.”
The mechanic went ahead and grabbed a jack that was nearby, placing it underneath the car. “It won’t take me too long. I’ll just make up some random numbers or something I dunno.” He flailed his hand around, signaling Nekomaru to go away so he could get to work. “Just leave the paperwork there by my station. I’ll have a look at it once I’m done.”
-
“Alright so,” Nekomaru confronted you once he entered, slowly closing the door behind him. “You might not think the boss is a professional if I tell ya this, but-“
The sudden sound of drilling erupted from inside the garage, giving you quite the scare. “Oops-“ Nekomaru closed the door quickly, making sure it was fully closed this time. “Sorry about that.” He rubbed his head in embarrassment. The muffledness of drilling could be heard still as a sudden bang and a few curse words could be heard through the walls.
Turning your attention to the door and back to Nekomaru, you could see that he too was quite concerned. But it looked like he was also used to hearing those types of noises.
“Anyhoo,” he chuckled a bit, “Boss said that he’ll look over things once he has it up and running again. But, he also said that he’ll come up with something.” He crossed his arms, sighing a bit in frustration. “The guy can be smart and good at repairing basically any type of machine. But when it comes to anything math related, he’s dumb as a rock.” Nekomaru looked at you, seeing that you were trying not to laugh. “D-don’t tell him that I said that alright?!” He yelled a bit.
“Don’t tell me what?”
Nekomaru almost snapped his neck out of place once he heard a voice, seeing that his boss was standing halfway outside of the door. The man glared at Nekomaru for a second or two before speaking. “I got the car fixed. Piece of cake. They can come get it if they want or wait after paying.” He then closed the door, not even acknowledging your presence.
“Damn, can’t even get a hello huh.” You mumbled, seeing that Nekomaru was trying to get himself together again.
“Yeah, that’s boss for ya. Known him for years honestly. He always acts that way towards customers. He doesn’t really interact with any of them because of… reasons. So I’m usually the one that files everything together sometimes.” Nekomaru grumbled. “And he has the paperwork as well, so how the hell am I supposed to come up with the numbers?”
What did he mean by “reasons” ?
“Guess I can go confront him since I do have to get my car back.” You gulped as you stood up, walking towards the door, and anxiously turned the handle and entered inside.
Once entering, you could hear the blast of rock music echoing throughout the garage. The smell of metal, sweat, and grease hit your nostrils as you walked through. The place didn’t smell that good, but at least it looked cleaned. You saw that your car sat in the middle of the garage still, with a fresh new upper right tire with a new hubcap and all. Looking over, you saw the mechanic sitting at his station, with the paperwork sitting to the side next to the radio that was blaring music. It looked like he didn’t even look or even touched it as he sat on his stool, blowtorching away on his motorcycle.
Should you even approach him? He was busy working on something and you didn’t want to be rude. But you really needed to get your car back if you wanted to get the hell out of this town.
“The hell do you want now, Maru?” The man didn’t even look behind him as he continued to work. “What? Not gonna say nothing?” His voice was kinda high pitched, but also deep?
You stood there anxiously for a moment. Going to speak, you stopped yourself once you saw the man turn off the blowtorch.
“For fuck sakes Maru, if you wanted the paperwork then you could’ve-“ the man turned his head, stopping once he saw you standing there. “Oh. You’re the one with the car huh?” The guy turned his body around, holding the blowtorch in his hand as he rested his elbows on his knees.
Looking at him, the man had a somewhat scrawny but a pretty well built figure. Wearing a white tank top that was slightly dirty with some splotches of grease and oil on it, he wore a yellowish green jumpsuit that was unzipped down to his lower region, allowing the sleeves and the back of it to lie loosely behind him. He wore a pair of black steel toe shoes, along with a pair of goggles that were placed over his eyes. His medium to long bright pink hair looked like it was cut unevenly in all different places, as the back of it was badly layered. Some strands in the front were braided into a single, and somewhat messy braid that was placed on the right side of his head. It appeared that his ears were also pierced, wearing earrings that resembled the head of screws. One being a + on his left ear, while the other was a - on his right. He also had a few grease stains on his hands, arms, and the bottom part of his jumpsuit.
“Y-yeah.” You stuttered a bit, not knowing to say since you were more worried about how tf you were going to pay for all of this.
The man stared at you for a few seconds or so before standing up, moving his goggles up on top of his head, making it available for you to see his eye color. They were a bright pink that was the same exact shade like his hair. Was he wearing eyeliner as well? Extending his hand, he grinned widely, showing his shark-like teeth. Did he get those done? Or was he born like that?
“Been awhile since I’ve met a pretty attractive customer. Kazuichi Soda is the name.” He stood there with his hand extended out still, waiting for you to grab it.
“E- excuse me?” You stepped back a bit at his… compliment? It sounded more creepy than just being nice.
“Oh, sorry. Was that too much?” He picked at his chin a bit in thought, leaving some light grease stains. “Yeah it’s been wayyyyy too long since I ran into a customer that looked good.”
Does this guy have any common sense and or dignity? God, no wonder he doesn’t interact with the customers more. Sounds like he’s just trying to find the ones that’ll look attractive enough for him so that he’ll actually talk to them. Maybe that was one of the reasons Nekomaru didn’t want to mention. Man, what a creep.
“Um, I’m y/n.” You went to shake his hand, only stopping when you realized that it was covered in grease still.
“Oops, sorry about that hahaha.” Kazuichi grabbed a nearby towel that was completely filthy, rubbing his hand on it to try to get it clean. It only made his hand worse as he rubbed it again, trying so hard to get the grease off. “Um, excuse me for a moment.” He hurriedly ran across the garage, shuffling through a box trying to find a clean towel. “Goddamnit they’re all dirty!” He whined as he threw towel after towel behind him, allowing them to fall to the floor. You looked to see that he was looking through a box that had a label that said “dirty” scrawled out on the front of it.
Rolling your eyes, you walked back to the door, peeking inside the small window to see Nekomaru sleeping, hunched over the desk a bit.
“Hey uh, Nekomaru?” You opened the door a bit.
“Wh-!?” He raised his head up, looking around hazily until he saw you standing there. “I- I wasn’t sleeping! But anyways, what’s up?”
“Uh well…”
The two of you could hear Kazuichi whine some more as he dug through the dirty box still.
“We need some clean towels.”
And once you said those words, you swore you could see fire in Nekomaru’s eyes once he jumped up from his seat, running immediately into the supply closet and bringing out a big box of clean, fresh towels. “Idiot is looking through the dirty box again, isn’t he?”
You nodded as you opened the door enough so there was enough space for Nekomaru to walk by with the box in his hands.
“He’s lucky that I like doing the laundry so much or else there wouldn’t be any clean towels.” Nekomaru laughed before setting the box down. “Hey! Boss! Quit throwing those dirty towels around! Got a clean box of em right here for ya! And DON’T go using up the whole box in a week or two again like last time. Whaddya gonna do when I’m gone on vacation or something and you run completely out of clean towels?” He yelled, his voice echoing throughout the building.
You heard Kazuichi gasp excitedly as he ran over towards the two of you. Nekomaru handed him a towel before he could shove his hands into it, possibly ruining multiple towels with his grease-covered hands just trying to grab one. Nekomaru then walked over, picked up all the remaining towels that lay on the floor, and hauled away the dirty box.
Once Kazuichi had his hands, arms, and face properly cleaned, he placed the towel into his back pocket. “Anyways, where were we?”
“Um, I came to get my car back?” You crossed your arms.
“Oh! Right!” Kazuichi ran over towards his station, picking up the clipboard. He looked through the paperwork pretty quickly like he didn’t really read all of it fully. He stopped for a moment before placing it back down. “Alrighty! I think I’ve come up with a solution!”
“And?” You raised a brow. You weren’t really prepared to know the cost for it, since you were still worried about how you were going to pay.
“Let’s say we make a deal, eh?” Kazuichi grinned at you.
“Make a what?” You raised a brow again.
“My good ole pal Nekomaru said that you were worried about the costs and whatnot, and he might’ve told me that you don’t really have the kind of money to help pay for it. So….”
Oh god where is this going? Is your car gonna be taken away? Are you gonna be stuck in this town for god knows how long? Would you have to WORK here until you can pay it off?
“So… how about a date? yeah?” He raised a brow at you, grinning even more.
WHAT?
Your eyes widened at Kazuichi’s request. He wants … a date? Out of all of the things he could do, he wants to go out on a date. With you. A complete stranger. Jeez, he sure is a creep.
“Um- I don’t really know what to say.” You bit the inside of your cheek. Just Your luck huh? Might as well try to be reasonable with him and try to find some other way out of this. “Is there anything else I can do besides that?”
Kazuichi stood there for a moment, picking his chin with his finger. “Hmmmm Nope!” He grinned.
God what a douche.
“I can offer all the cash and money I have in my bank account IF I don’t have to do this.”
“Hm, well… nope, sorry. I’ve already decided.”
Goddamnit. There really wasn’t any other way out of this huh?
You stood there thinking for a bit before finally surrendering. “Fine…” you grumbled.
You’ve never seen a man’s face lit up so fast in your life, almost seeing the sparkle in Kazuichi’s eyes as he smiled.
“Alright! I’ll give ya my number and I’ll pick ya up sometime this week. Oooo man! This is exciting!” He hurriedly ran over to his station again, grabbing a ripped piece of paper, sprawling out his phone number on it and happily handed it to you. “I swear it’s not fake! Go ahead! Text me right now!”
Not only can ge be a douche and a creep, but a spazz as well.
Rolling your eyes, you took out your phone only to realize that it was still dead.
“Oh, don’t worry! You can give me your number too!” Kazuichi grinned.
“What am I getting myself into?” You thought as you wrote down your number, handing it to Kazuichi.
“Great! I’ll text ya whenever I have the chance. “I’ll have Maru find a hotel in town for ya to stay in for awhile. But for right now I gotta work on a few things.” Kazuichi went ahead and sat back down on his stool, pulling his goggles down. He grinned happily and waved. “Can't wait to see you on our date!” He then turned around and began to work on his bike again.
Groaning a bit, you made your way back, seeing that Nekomaru was asleep again at the desk. Tapping his shoulder lightly, you spooked him awake a bit. As soon as he got a hold of his surroundings a bit, you explained the whole situation with him. He too thought it was a mess as well, but agreed to help you find a hotel for the next couple of nights. You didn’t know how long you were going to be there, but with your luck you’d figured that you’re gonna be there for a while.
Could this trip get any worse than this?