Pimp My Ride [closed]

[craaazyisland]

It felt good to finally do something productive, even if the project Steve had been spending all his time on wasn't exactly useful. Not for the ship at large, anyway... though he did know somebody who would appreciate it.

So when he finally finished tinkering and messing around with it, he wasted no time in hunting Claire down and dragging her to Engineering to get a look at it.

"It's really not all that great. I didn't do very much to it, but-- but I still hope you'll think it's cool," he murmured, as he pushed open the doors to the Engineering department and headed towards his tiny corner of the work area. "Just promise you won't laugh at it, okay?"

Comments

[letmelive]

It had been a while since Claire had seen Steve this excited about something, so she was more than happy to go along with whatever he was showing to her. Most of her work for the day was done, anyway, so it didn't bother her to cut out a little early.

She smiled a little as she followed him, shaking her head as they walked into Engineering.

"I won't laugh. Cross my heart," she crossed her index finger over her heart to solidify the point. She was glad he'd found somewhere to belong, finally, anything he was working on as far as she was concerned was great.

[craaazyisland]

Steve headed immediately for a pile of junk off to the side, where something was covered up with a makeshift tarp. "I was digging around in the hangar and I found this wrecked off in a corner. It's probably the only thing on this damn ship I do know how to fix by myself."

He pulled back the tarp, revealing a red and white-striped Harley softail motorcycle. It was still a little banged-up, but it was apparent where he had taken it apart and put it back together, hammered out dents and repainted it.

He looked at it sheepishly, setting the tarp off to the side. "And I remember you said you used to have one, so..."

[letmelive]

She looked around a little as they walked to the pile of junk, curious about what went on down here. Despite her tinkering on her own bikes back home, she hadn't actually ever been down to Engineering before.

When Steve pulled the tarp off the bike, though, her attention was completely focused on it. For a second she was going to ask him how he knew what the paint job on her old softail had looked like, but as she took a few steps towards the bike, she realized it was her old bike.

"Oh my God," she said softly, moving the rest of the distance and crouching down next to the bike, running a hand over the chassis, before turning to look back at Steve.

"Steve, this is my bike."

[craaazyisland]

Well, she went silent! That was a good sign! It meant she liked it... or it meant that she recognized what kind of bike it was and might have been horrified at him for destroying it with his amateur hands (honestly, Steve...)

He watched from off to the side as she examined it, and his eyes widened when she told him the news. "What? It is?" he said. "Really?"

[letmelive]

"This paint job is custom, and here, look," she popped the casing on the chassis up, pointing at an engraving on the underside of the case. It wasn't completely clear, but it was distinguishable enough as a C. E. R.

"My dad carved my initials into the case when we were finished fixing it up. This is definitely my bike."

[craaazyisland]

Steve had seen the engraving, but thought it was just some kind of manufacturer's note. He smiled sheepishly, and set his hand on one of the handlebars.

"Wow. I had no idea," he said. "I was just working on it because it was cool... and because I remembered you had one. I, um- I was gonna give it to you anyway, you know..."

[letmelive]

Claire carefully replaced the casing, quiet for a moment as she stroked her hand along the side of the bike. She had given up on seeing this bike again a long time ago, it had, after all, supposedly gone up with Raccoon City.

She smiled, before straightening up and moving to wrap her arms around Steve.

"Thank you so much. You have no idea how much this means to me."

[craaazyisland]

It might have been the first time Claire was able to hug him without feeling him flinch away after. She could probably feel how warm he was, as his face was somewhere in between the color of his hair and cherry tomato red with embarrassment. There was a wide smile on his face, though, one he couldn't seem to suppress.

"Y-yeah, sure. Of course," he said, sheepishly. "I owe you a lot anyway, remember?"

[letmelive]

Claire grinned, leaning back and ruffling Steve's hair, before turning back to the bike, tugging on a chain tucked under her shirt.

"I never thought I'd see her again, but I couldn't toss the key," she said, pulling the chain off over her head, an old looking motorcycle key hanging on the end of it. "How bad off was she when you found her?"

[craaazyisland]

"It wasn't pretty," Steve said, scratching the back of his head in the hopes that perhaps it would make him stop blushing. "Really dented and banged up... the engine was shot too. Looked like it had been in an explosion or a fire or something. So I hammered out the dents and redid the paint, then put a new engine in it."

He shrugged his shoulders. "I was working on one of my own back home, so it was nothing I hadn't done before..."