salute [h.s]

harry taught her to drive other things, and the one time it was actually a car

"You're a twat," she told him but she sort of refuted it by smacking her lips against his in a hurried, frantic kiss before she sauntered back into her place in the sun.

2. A Train

They burst through the doors into the engine car one after the other, Piper crashing into Harry's back when he came to a halt. Spread out across the floor was the train engineer who was supposed to be driving the damn thing. He'd quite obviously been hit on the head based on the trickle of blood that slid down his cheek. Piper brushed past Harry to check his pulse. "He's alive," she told Harry, who ran a hand through his hair and sighed.

"We need to move this train. If they blow up the hanger like they said they would, this whole train is going up in flames and the town doesn't stand a chance."

Piper and Harry had been on an intelligence collecting mission in France when the transmission had come in about the train. An environmental group had threatened to blow up the hanger housing local trains responsible for carrying fuels across the south of the country. It was supposed to be a protest against shipping the hazardous materials through the nearby small towns but it could end up killing thousands of people if they went through with the threat.

Harry and Piper were both startled by a loud thud on one of the cars outside. Harry walked briskly to the open door of the engine car and stuck his head out. Piper heard him mutter a fuck before he pulled back in. "Someone's on the top of a car two down. I think it's one of these idiots from this group. I'm going to go deal with him; you get this train moving."

"Get this train — are you serious? I don't know how to drive a fucking train!"

Harry jogged over to where she was standing. "Brake," he said as he pointed to one lever, "and throttle." He pointed to a larger lever and then to the dash above it. "Speedometer." With that, he walked back to the door, calling "figure it out!" over his shoulder.

Piper watched him go, slack-jawed, and then pressed her lips together, facing the controls with determination. "One day, I'm going to kill him," she muttered to herself, "and no one will blame me."

She took a deep breath, still not quite able to believe that she was about to drive a fucking train. This had definitely not been in the required training at MI6. "So it's probably simple," she said to herself because talking seemed to help with making this less stressful. "I mean, it can't be that complicated. Remove the break, increase the throttle."

She pushed the brake lever back and felt the resistance as the brakes unlocked and the train began to roll backward. She hurriedly pressed the throttle forward and heard the engine roaring to life around her. Slowly at first, the train started to move, picking up speed steadily until they were headed down the rails. Her hand was shaking on the throttle but she tried to ignore it as she worked on maintaining the speed. She began to laugh as she watched the countryside pass around her. This was easier than she thought.

There was a bang behind her and she jumped about a foot in the air but it was just Harry landing on the platform outside the door to the car. He sauntered in like he hadn't just been dealing with some punk on the top of a moving train, dusting his hands off. "Told you that you could do it," he said with a proud smirk as he stepped up beside her. She immediately jumped out of the way, letting him takeover. How he knew how to operate a train, she'd probably never know.

"Harry Styles, if you ever make me drive something I don't know how to drive ever again, we're through."

"Don't make threats you won't follow through on," he said with a smug grin that she frowned at. "Now give me that hat." Piper looked to where he was pointing at the train conductor hat hanging from a peg on the wall. She gave him an unimpressed look and he simply laughed. "If I'm going to play the part, I might as well look the part too."