𝐏𝐀𝐑𝐀𝐍𝐘𝐌𝐏𝐇 || ʜᴀᴡᴋꜱ

2➟ In which I realise my hide and seek skills are lacking.

"N/n, we're heading over to the bar, you comin'?" I looked up from my position under the cars open bonnet, giving Tsuyoshi a thumbs up.

"Let me just finish up, I'll be with you in a bit."

He nodded and walked over to the locker room to get his things.

I jumped into the front seat of the car, turning the key in the ignition and smiling as the engine began to buzz, not too loud, not too quiet. Just right.

"That's my job done for the day then." Thinking out loud I walked over to where everyone was collecting their things.

The locker room was a simple room, the right wall lined with a mismatch of different sized and coloured lockers. It was by no means a pretty room- no room in the garage was- but it had an eclectic sense of home about it. The room also doubled as a break room and held an old worn down leather sofa, a makeshift games table and a small metal kitchenette. Each piece of furniture in the room had been here for at least a decade and had been tweaked and 'improved' by the garage's employees at least a few times since their first appearance; meaning they were hanging on by a thread.

Some notable 'improvements' included Kaneko's idea of turning the microwave into an easy-bake oven by increasing the maximum temperature settings by a few too many degrees, resulting in a lot of burnt lunches and leftovers. Then there was Hinote's addition of a cup holder to the sofa, done by removing a chunk of the arms padding so that you could fit a cup in the torn open frame.

Sure it works, but the arm looks as if it's about to fall off any time soon. That problem was then attempted to be fixed by Kaji's amazing sewing skills (which are not as amazing as he had claimed as the arm was now duct tapped to the body of the sofa).

Overall, the room was a patchwork blanket of different modifications that shouldn't have complemented each other as much as they did.

I undid the top buttons of my work jumpsuit, revealing a simple black shirt that I wore beneath it and tied the arms around my waist, grabbing a thick woollen-lined leather jacket and shouldering it on. I made a quick trip to the bathroom where I threw water over my face in an attempt to look relatively acceptable before we all went to the bar.

Most of the guys would freshen up too, wanting to impress the barkeep and all. I would try to get in there too if I had the chance but after watching the guys try for a few years now, some of them even pulling out their best moves and yet, still failing, I don't think I had much of a chance.

"So n/n, got anything special planned for tonight?" Kaneko stood next to me, wiping a cloth down his face and spraying himself with some type of corner store cologne.

"Why would I have anything special planned?" I gave him a confused look whilst gagging at the overwhelming scent of sandalwood that was still struggling to hide the smell of petrol and oil on the man.

"No reason," he smiled, pulling on a jacket and nudging me out of the locker room.

We all began making our way to the bar which wasn't very far from the garage, only about a five-minute walk, all of us ensnared by Homura's story of this drunk guy he ran into the other night who tried to steal his motorbike before actually laying eyes on Mura and running away as fast as he could.

The table we usually sat as was right beside the bar, close enough for the guys to plot different ways to get with Grace the bartender without her hearing, although I'm pretty sure she knew exactly what was going on, I mean, they had been doing it for over 4 years now.

"Hey, Gracie!" I cheered, walking over to the bar and sitting on a stool closest to the barkeep.

Grace was a tall woman in her early 30's, she was like the human version of a venus fly trap, catching men like flies left and right. If the venus fly trap was 5"9 with long blonde hair and deep grey eyes that seemed to refract every colour of the light. Even on bad days, she looked like the femme fatale star of a film noir.