Car Trouble (Leo)

[Skye Malizia]

F.I.A.T.

It stood for 'Fix It Again, Tony'.

They were pretty little cars with a lot of mechanical difficulties. Today Skye had an appointment with a spa downtown, however when she stuck her keys into the ignition, her car sputtered and died. Which was totally unfair, because it wasn't even that old! There had to be a warranty on this car, or she'd scream.

So she took off her killer six inch heels and lifted up the hood of her car, bare feet stomping on the ground. Everything looked okay, but then again, Skye was no car expert. If there was metal where the engine was supposed to be, it looked normal to her.

After her fit passed, she sighed heavily and leaned forward, arms locked straight as she peered inside the car, cursing in Italian.

"Why me?" She groaned pathetically, knowing she would now have to cancel her pedicure. She wouldn't get the money back either, with this short notice. Skye hung her head, her red hair swaying back and forth as she shook her head in disbelief. The world was working against her, she just knew it.

[Leogare Lasteulf]

It had been a busy couple of months, and the Academy had been keeping really close tabs on Leo after the whole incident. They had finally relaxed and given him some freedom, so he decided today was a good day to check up on his baby.

He would be rather surprised to find that it was not 'his' baby that needed fixing up today though. Instead it was an old acquaintance he hadn't seen since he'd picked up her boyfriend. She stood, slumped over her car, staring into the hood with that 'I'm a clueless women, HELP!' look on her face.

Leo couldn't help but smirk. High heeled shoes kicked off, dressed to kill, and a helpless little girl with car trouble, it was just right out of a movie.

"Car trouble there?" He inquired from behind her, clearly aware that was indeed the case. "Been a while eh Skye?" He greeted her with a roguish smile.

[Skye Malizia]

Skye turned at the voice, and the frustration melted right off her face. It was replaced with a look of pure delight, and it was as though Leo's presence chased her agitation away.

"Leo!" That smile made her knees weak and she clapped, pushing herself away from her useless car. She flung her arms around his neck. It had been a while!

Her enthusiasm was accompanied by an accusation, "You have been avoiding me, silly boy!" And when she pulled away from the hug she swatted his arm, as though punishing him for being away for too long. Her smile was too broad to be angry, and she sighed, as though being reunited with Leo was the most wonderful thing in the world.

"Do you feel like being a hero today?" She asked, fluttering her eyelashes in an absurd immitation of a damsel in distress. She even clasped her hands together and twisted so she could giggle over her shoulder at him. So she was a little zany and a little desperate to get out of there. Leo already knew she was a little quirky, and thankfully he seemed to be able to appreciate that about her.

[Leogare Lasteulf]

Leo was a little surprised by her acts of affection, but hey, different countries, so different ways right? He smiled at her playful swat of his arm.

"Dodge a knockout like you? Why never, you'd have to be insane!" He looked over her car for a moment and knew what was coming. "A hero eh? Last time I tried to do that didn't end too well, but let's see if I can't figure something out." He grinned and slipped out of the 'badass-leather' jacket he was wearing, folding it across the hood at he leaned into her car, not even bothering to glove his hands.

"Hmmm...so what happened to this baby?" He asked, while poking around the car to look for anything obvious.

Even Leo might have thought it rude to just ignore her, and not like he needed his full concentration for this. "So what have ya been up to? Been busy?"

[Skye Malizia]

Skye grinned, satisfied with his denying having avoided her. Things were hectic, she could understand that. He obviously had other friends in his life; she understood that the world didn't revolve around her. Still, she could play around with him with no harm done.

She watched him take off his jacket, and part of her did a little dance. Maybe if he worked on the car hard enough, he'd shed another layer of clothing. Skye might not be interested in dating anyone exclusively, but that didn't mean she was a saint by any means. She could have fantasies just like everyone else. And today's daydream was a striptease from Leo.

"Hmm? Oh, I don't know. I try to start the car, but it does not start. Never happened before," She put on her best puzzled face, and although she genuinely had no idea what was wrong, she also didn't consider it a tragedy any more.

"Not very busy. I have to entertain myself without you around," She added, and although the words were innocent enough they were laced with a more suggestive undertone. Skye played her favorite game with him; she shot a rather provocative image of herself, in the same lingerie she'd let him 'glimpse' before when they first met. He would see it more as a figment of his imagination rather than a 'trick of the light', like before. She wondered if he every thought he was going insane when he saw her like that. She wondered if he thought of her often in that way. Both thoughts made her smile a little, because she knew what she was doing was 'naughty'. Innocent flirting, for a girl with Skye's abilities. Maybe once he learned what she could do, he'd ask her if she was responsible. But what would happen if she denied it?

Her own imagination ran away with her, and if he peeked over to look at her, he'd see her staring off to the side, completely occupied with her own devices.

[Leogare Lasteulf]

Leo was humming softly to himself as he worked around in the cars insides and checked a few things. No holes or leaks, so big problems out of the way, if it just wouldn't start it could be a transmission issue, but with this new a car? That seemed unlikely. Leo grabbed his jacket and pulled out a small wrench from it, along with a small rag. Wrapping the rag around his hand he lowered the wrench into the car and tapped one of the battery connections.

Nothing. No zap, no surprise, not even any heat. But it was also unlikely to have a dead battery on a new car, unless there was some recall problem.

"Hmmm, now this will be interestin-" His sentence was cut short as the image flew into his mind and he pulled his head back sharply. This of course resulted in him smacking it on the hood of the car. He grabbed his head as he saw stars for a brief moment, stifling a curse. "Ow...that smarts." He rubbed the sore spot on his head.

[Skye Malizia]

He really seemed to know what he was doing. At least he acted like it, but he showed a certain amount of competency that guys really had no talent at faking. She was able to draw closer to him without a sound because of her bare feet, and when surfaced to murmur something about how the car's problem was 'interesting', he seemed to receive the image she sent him.

Stifling a giggle she lifted her hand to cover the same spot he was rubbing, and she made a face that suggested she could sympathize with it. With an empathetic intake of breath, she massaged it slowly, more than happy with the excuse to run her fingers through his hair.

"I'm sorry," she apologized, as though the car beating him up was her fault, "does this feel better?" Her one hand tended to his scalp while the other rested on his shoulder for support. She was on her tip-toes so she'd have the proper leverage to rub the bruise, and although Skye had fairly decent balance, she could use it as an excuse to touch him. Not that he would complain... Leo never showed any opposition to having her around. A slow smile creeped onto her mouth at this thought.

[Leogare Lasteulf]

Leo smiled and relaxed into her touch. It might just be her being a tease, but if she was willing to give, it would be rude to refuse her. "Hmmm, now that you mention it, does feel a bit better." He said with a boyish smile. "Wouldn't mind spending a day like this...good company and a good hobby." He looks into the car as she is rubbing his hair, the car called to him. And he wanted to fix it but...

The sooner he fixed it, the sooner she left, so it could wait right?

Instead her smiled and turned around to look at her with a grin. "So where were you planning to go today?"

[Skye Malizia]

She smiled, because Leo was giving her his full attention. She smiled, because although he obviously held a passion for mechanics, he chose her over that drive. And she smiled because Leo was just so damn hot!

"Oh, just downtown," Skye replied, waving it off as though she wasn't devastated she was missing her spa appointment, "nothing important. It is just... my car should not do this to me. It makes me angry," she said, however she looked the furthest thing from angry now. Funny, how a pretty face can change someone's mood.

She raked her red locks away from her face with the hand that was on Leo's shoulder. But this sudden jerky movement caused her to topple to the side, almost into the engine. But she grasped his shoulder with the hand she was using to sooth poor Leo's noble injury and stopped herself from falling in. This was accompanied by a noise of surprise issued from the back of her throat. Her fiery hair tumbled across her forehead and the momentary expression on her face was one of shock and excitement.

"Sorry," She said once she'd recovered. But she didn't move. Instead she looked up at him from where she now perched on the front of her car.

[Leogare Lasteulf]

Leo felt the tug on his shoulder as she slipped, and reflexively moved his hand to catch her. The result being that they wound up looking almost like a pair of dancers, with her slightly leaned back and grasping onto his shoulder. He grinned mischievously.

"Watch your step, someone might get the wrong impression...or the right one." He added with a coy grin, looking over the girl who was, technically, in his arms. She was pretty hot, she was fun, and she had a good sense of humor. But most importantly...

She was taken.

And in honesty, that last one was the least factor of all. "We've gotta stop meeting unexpected like this, so how about we schedule the next one? Interested in catching a movie this weekend?" He asked, plain as day as if he was asking for the time.

[Skye Malizia]

The wrong impression... Skye was about to accuse him of making an incorrect assumption in thinking they were projecting the 'wrong' impression, when he did it himself. With that grin that made her heart speed up, Leo was able to draw a slightly nervous giggle from her. And when he asked her out... she blinked and nodded.

"Okay," She couldn't think of anything witty to say, anything that would make him fall over himself to win her heart. Those things usually came as second nature to her, but Skye was flustered. Nothing was normal, not at the moment, and if she stayed this close to him she risked her brain shutting down completely. So she carefully extracted herself from his quick embrace and moved to a safe distance around the open hood of her car. She leaned over and peered into the depths of the mysterious engine and cleared her throat, determined to take part in this conversation.

"Is there movies that will fix my car?" It wasn't as clever as she wished it could be, but she added a charming smile in hopes that it would fool him into thinking otherwise.

[Leogare Lasteulf]

Leo smiled at his victory as she agreed.

"Still got it."

And then she laid down the price for the date. He had to fix the car. He glanced back down at the machine below him and grinned. He had a pretty good idea what the problem was, as he reached in and unhooked the battery. He needed something, he usually used Vaseline for something like this, but he didn't have any, and he doubted she would so he needed something of similar makeup. He looked up at her.

"It all depends on how well you 'accessorize'." He said with a grin. "Do you have some Nail Polish Remover?" The question was odd, and he knew she would have no idea why he was asking, but he himself knew quite a lot about the easy fixes to common problems.

As he asked, he used the rag from his pocket to clean off the connections for the battery. A man and his art, a wondrous thing.

[Skye Malizia]

Skye's eyebrows furrowed in her confusion. Why did he need nail polish remover? She glanced down at his fingernails, and aside from a bit of grease lingering from his tinkering in her car, they didn't have any horrendous black varnish on, or something else that would have been an instant deal-breaker.

"Ahh... no," Skye replied, shaking her head. She got all her manicures done at the spa, and they would remove last week's color when she got there. They used something with a tropical scent, which she preferred much more than the heavy chemicals the American pharmacies sold.

"What do you need it for?" She asked, unable to mask her curiosity. Skye was always curious, especially if it had anything to do with American culture. She'd bombarded Noah with questions about New York, and soon she'd convince him it would be a good idea to take her on a tour of his hometown. It was only natural that she question Leo about his need for cosmetics.

[Leogare Lasteulf]

Leo shook his head. "Not it directly, but something like it." He looked up from Skye to explain it to her, it was the mark of a mechanic to be able to explain the problem.

"Sometimes the battery gets crud on it, it helps if you check the connectors, clean em off, and add a little something to help the connection. It's just one of those home made cures." He said, gesturing to the connectors in case she cared to look. "But I should be able to make due without it, I think all we need to do is get the motor...turning..." His voice trailed off for a second, as he got an idea. They'd told him here that he could manipulate certain forces of motion, maybe then he could turn her engine in a more interesting way.

"All right then." He said, dusting his hands off. "You can get into the car now, and I'll tell you when to turn the key. This'll be just like a jump."

He turned and spied what he came here for, his baby. It was only a moment before he wheeled over his black and silver pair of wheels, and jacked it up on to it's back wheel. He started it up and began giving it gas as the motor roared. Leo watched the wheel spinning, that sure had a lot of motion, so could he transfer it? He'd probably need a direct connection.

"Ok!" He shouted over the engine. "When I say so, give it some gas!" And he placed his right hand on the engine casing, with his left close to the spinning tire. He closed his eyes and pressed his hand to the tire, which he felt stop beneath his fingers as the car's engine case rattled.

"Hit it!" He called over the hood to Skye.

[Skye Malizia]

She giggled when he said the word 'crud'. She hadn't learned the word before, but the way he used it, plus the way it sounded, was perfect to describe what it was he'd just cleaned off. Before she had laughed, her face was screwed up in a look of disgust. How could her little car get so gross?

But she did as he instructed, pretending she understood exactly what the problem was, and slid behind the wheel of her car. She watched him bring his bike over, and a small thrill of excitement seized her. There was something about motorcycles - American motorcycles, that made butterflies in her stomach start flapping. At his signal, she twisted the key, and her Fiat came to life. Skye cheered.

"Aha! It works!" She exclaimed, clapping her hands from within the car. She got out and flung her arms around the boy, overjoyed that she could make her appointment still.

"You are the most wonderful," Skye planted a kiss on his left cheek, "amazing," a kiss to his right, "beautiful boy in the world!" She hugged him once again, a wide smile on her lips before she let him go. She had no idea how he was able to get her car to start without any cables, but she noticed he was warm when she hugged him.