As Planned

After a very long, very hot shower I finally changed into some dry clothes. To my surprise they were Han`s: one of the few button down shirts he had and some pajama pants that thankfully had ties on them or they would of fallen off. Well, no more than they already were.

I was greeted with a cup of hot tea as soon as I exited the bathroom. Han had even put the steaming liquid in one of the biggest cups he had. While I curled up on the couch eating instant ramen, how running works up that much of an appetite I will never know, Han worked on a car down in the garage.

When I finished eating I padded down the steps and onto the garage floor, all the while trying not to shiver from the ice cold metal steps and then the cold concrete floor. My cup of hot tea did nothing to provide warmth from it like I hoped it would.

I quickly made my way over to Han`s hunched over form and sat down on one of the small bar stool like chairs beside the car he was working on. I curled up as best I could on the small surface and clutched at my cup.

"Floor cold?" Han asked with a slight chuckle, not even bothering to look up from the engine.

"Yeah. I didn`t realize how cold it would be," I mumbled.

"Well at least you were warm," he muttered under his breath.

"I heard that."

"You were supposed to."

I caught myself pouting at his words. Such an annoying tease.

"I called your mom, by the way. I told her the rain would be too hard to drive through and I didn`t wanna risk it tonight," Han spoke up after a few minutes of silence.

"Thank you," I replied. "But um, what about the others? Are they going to be stuck at the races all night?"

"Nah. As soon as the rain starts letting up they`ll bolt out of there," He answered.

I narrowed my eyes. "Did you lie to my mother?"

"Technically."

"You could drive me home if you wanted to?'

"Probably in a few hours. Why? Do you wanna go home that badly?"

"No," I muttered, feeling my face heat up. Damn him. I did my best to hide my face behind my knees and my cup of coffee but the sound of his chuckle told me he noticed.

"You blush so easy," Han teased.

"Only around you," I whispered.

"Then it`s a pleasure," He whispered back.

"Can I ask you something?" I inquired.

"You just did," He replied teasingly. He grabbed something from his tool box and turned his attention back to the engine he was working on but waved me on, "Ask away."

"Would you teach me how to work on cars?"

He immediately turned his attention back to me. He looked shocked. After blinking a few times and frowning a little he spoke, "Can I ask why?"

Now it was my turn to frown. I gave a little shrug and murmured, "I don`t know. Sometimes I just feel...useless around here."

"Useless?" He repeated.

I nodded. "Yeah. I don`t really know anything about cars. Most of the time I have no idea what you guys are talking about. It`s kinda embarrassing."

He took a deep breath, let out out slowly and nodded. "We don`t like you for your nonexistent car skills. If we wanted those you wouldn`t be here. But if this is what you really want, then sure."

"Thank you."

"Yeah, yeah. Just let me finish this car first. It needs to be done by tomorrow and I don`t need you messing it up.

I rolled my eyes. This man is utterly infuriating. One minute he`s sweet and the next I wanna smack the back of his head. "I guess I`ll be waiting till next week then." Wait, did I just say that out loud?

"Excuse me?"

Yep. I definitely said that out loud. "Um..hi?"

Han narrowed his eyes and stalked towards me. I let out a squeak of surprise and foolishly tried to hide behind my cup. Before I knew it, it was wrenched from my grasp and quickly placed elsewhere. And before I could get a word out, Han had grabbed my sides and did the one thing I didn`t expect from him. He started tickling me.

I squealed, laughed, shrieked and squirmed in my seat to the point I almost fell off it. And for some reason that only made me laugh harder. He didn`t stop tickling me until I was out of breath and leaning against him for full support. I`m not sure how long we stayed like that. But the whole time he held me up, despite the fact I was sitting down and if I had leaned to the left and completely rested against the chair it would of held me up just fine. It felt good to be held though. Very good.

"There has to be another reason you want to work on cars," Han murmured, breaking the silence that had fallen over us.

"I think it might help ease my...anxiety towards them," I said slowly.

"If you really think it will help."

"I hope it will."

Han nuzzled my neck and let out a breath, causing me to shiver and him in turn to pull me closer. I didn`t realize it was possible for me to get closer but I guess he found a way. His hands began to skim up my sides, lightly tickling along the way and drawing giggles from me. He stopped abruptly and gave my hip a gently pat before moving away and knocking over my cup of tea in the process. My cup was laying on the floor by Han`s feet, tea spilt all over the floor. So that`s where he put my cup...

"I`ll get you a new one," Han said while stooping down to grab the cup.

"I`ll clean it up," I murmured.

"You`ll be cold again," he warned.

I shrugged. "I don`t mind. You don`t have to do everything around here." I slipped off the chair and quickly padded across the floor, shivering along the way. Han was right, by the time I made it up the stairs I was freezing.

I quickly grabbed a dirty towel from the bathroom and all but sprinted across the garage floor in hopes it would lessen the cold. It did not. I cleaned up the tea and before I could move to take the towel back up stairs Han took it from me and handed me a new cup of hot tea. I curled up on the chair and clutched the cup in my hands. I was so cold I was surprised I wasn`t shaking.

Han came back into the garage a few minutes later and draped a blanket across my shoulders and went back to working on the car. I pulled the blanket around my body, tucking myself into it as much as I could while still leaving my hands free to hold my cup of tea. I sat back watching Han work on the car for a while. Even after my drink was gone. It was surprisingly calming listening to the rain outside and teasing each other. I rather enjoyed it. Just the two of us and the rain.