as some people know, i'm going to be shutting down my patreon because i do be mentally fucked, so i'm reposting stuff from there onto here. :)
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Harry clicks his seatbelt into place and clears his throat. He doesn't need to prepare himself like his girlfriend does, so once he's settled in, he's ready to go. Mia does the same next to him and then awkwardly shifts in her seat, aware that his eyes are on her. Without sparing him a glance, she turns the key and starts the engine, feeling the steering wheel rumble under her fingers. The smooth finish of Harry's car taunts her. Only an expert should be driving this car, yet here she is, only her sixth time behind the wheel (but who's counting?). She feels far too inexperienced to be placing her foot against the brake as she reaching for the gear, but when she finally looks at Harry, he doesn't look at all worried and it relaxes her a bit. She can do this. It can't be that hard.
She locks the doors and Harry doesn't bother telling her that the car locks it automatically.
He says, "Alright. Now what's the first thing we do?"
Nervously, Mia jokes, "Floor it?"
His eyes widen. "What?"
"That's a joke. It's from Spongebob."
He swallows and leans back in his seat, still watching her carefully. She puts a smile on her face to reassure him, but it does little to ease her own strict posture. She clears her throat and corrects herself, "I know what to do! We check our mirrors."
"Good," he says. "Go on and check."
When she turns her head to the side and peers at the mirror, she nearly laughs at how much he's turned it inwards. It's never like that, but he's only testing her to make sure she knows how to adjust them, and she reaches for the controls on the side of the wheel. With a few pushes, she turns the mirror straight and then up a bit. She repeats this with the right side as well.
"Mia, I understand why you'd look at the left side first, but we're going to be driving with the steering on the right side, so check your own mirror first."
"Oh," she says in a small voice. "I'm sorry." Once both of the mirrors are straightened out, she looks at him for some sort of appreciation.
He cranes his neck over to her side to check the mirrors -- and even holds his arm out to press her back into the seat because she's blocking his view, and when he clicks his tongue and returns to his natural position, she thinks she's done something wrong. She looks it some more, scrutinizing the angle and then finally brings the mirror away from the side of the car a bit more so she can see the open road behind her and not the shiny black paint of the car. She does the same for the left side, purposefully placing her arm out to get Harry's back to touch his seat (even though she doesn't need to, he's sitting properly) but it causes a chuckle to fall from him anyway.
He checks again and she expects him to agree with her and tell her she's good to go.
"Don't say sorry," she gets instead. "Just make sure you check your right side first during your road test. You should see more of the road, not the car. When your instructor gets in the car, you have to exaggerate little everything you're doing. Your mirrors are going to be correctly positioned, but just double check them." He pauses, running his hand over his jaw. "And when you're parallel parking, make sure to change your mirror so you can see the curb. In my experience, it's okay to hit the curb as long as you're quick to change your mistake."
Mia takes a deep breath. "Okay. I can do that."
"Have you done parallel parking with your person?"
"Yes." Then, as if she's reciting the steps, she continues to say, "Turn the wheel all the way to the left, then all the way to the right, check the mirror, and then straighten the car out."
"Good."
"Thanks."
"You forgot the rear view mirror."
She scrambles to check it and adjust it.
"Now put the car in drive."
She presses her foot on the brake and does as she's told, relieved when nothing happens. Usually the car gives a little jerk, but she's got her foot firmly on the brake so it doesn't happen this time. They're only going for a drive, so she has nothing to be worried about and it's midday on a Sunday with the skies cloudy, the temperatures dipping a bit, so she's able to drive without the roads being heavily crowded.
Driving in traffic worries her very much, and she's not like Harry who can navigate through the smallest of streets and every time she thinks he's going to hit a parked car, he narrowly misses and somehow it's singlehandedly the most impressive thing he's able to do. Well...there are other things too, but she can't think of those right now. Not when this vehicle is under her control.
"Speed up a bit."
She doesn't vocalize it, but she thinks that Harry's instructions while she's driving makes the list of the times she hates being told what to do by him. She presses her foot a bit more, and the car lurches a bit, but she mutters an apology and fixes it.
"It's okay," he gently assures, smiling. "You're doing good."
She pulls onto the main road without Harry's directions because she's been through them enough, barely going above the speed limit until she begins nearing the light.
"Good," he says, running his hands across his knees. "Take a left at the light. And be careful about the bus."
"Everything is so cramped. Left turns are hard."
"Left turns are the easy ones. Roundabouts, you'll hate. Anyway, take two more left turns."
"Then that'll be a whole circle!"
"I'm the GPS, not you."
She grumbles something about him being impatient under her breath and then stops at the red light. "I can't turn on a red because this isn't New York and it's not even a right turn. But it's similar because it's the next street and the same lane and I don't have to cut through traffic." When Harry doesn't respond, she continues, "Left turns are slow. Like speed bumps slow. Also have to make sure pedestrians go first..." she turns to look at her boyfriend. "And I keep my foot on the break as I'm turning, but that's only if the car is already in motion. Since I'm already at a full stop, I keep my foot on the accelerator. Right?"
"Light's green."
"Oh." She focuses on the road again and gently presses the car forward. It suddenly jerks forward. "Sorry!" ahd whispers, suddenly glad she's the first person in line. Harry remains calm and waits until she's completely turned to tell her, "You forgot something."
Her brows furrow. "I did? What did I forget?"
"You tell me."
She gnaws on the inside of her cheek, blinking over and over as she thinks. He can practically see her brain working to come up with a response. It clicks when the person on the other side of the road makes a turn.
"My indicator!"
"Right. Let's not do it again."
"Sorry. Okay. Sorry." She makes the next turn and remembers her indicator. Harry's face amused as she makes the turn, not realizing how entertaining this would be. She checks the mirror to see if she's annoyed anyone with her slow driving, but nobody is behind her so she mumbles, "Sorry."
"One more thing."
She pouts her bottom lip. "Yeah?"
"Ever since we've begun driving, you've only checked your mirrors once. You should be checking them more often."
"Sorry."
"Stop apologizing."
"Sorry!"
"Mia."
"You're making me nervous!" she loudly admits, checking her mirrors. She slows down a bit as she nears the next right turn. "I can't drive."
"You can drive," he says smoothly. "Come on. Keep going. And I am not making you nervous."
"You are!"
"Fine. I'll just sit here and let you do your thing. Look outside the window all sad and stuff."
"Thank you." She turns her head for a split second to look at him, relieved when she sees his gentle smile. He's not upset.
The turn is better. She makes the right signal and the turn of her wheel is smooth. The wheel slips back into place afterwards and she relaxes in her seat a little more. When she returns to the same light, she turns the car a bit to the side. She waits a bit at the light and the person in front of her slowly advances when the light turns green. They don't continue to turn however.
He answers her question before she asks, "It's their right of way."
"Oh."
"So you wait for a break in the traffic."
"My other instructor said I can wait for a yellow signal too."
"You can...but I'd like you to wait. I don't want you to try to beat it."
The person in front of her is able to turn, but as she advances to the front, the light turns yellow. She firmly presses her foot on the break, and as she does, the person behind her gives her an angry horn. She glances at the car through her mirror and then at Harry.
The poor girl is always desperate to make sure everybody's happy that the horn makes her jump and a sad look is instantly on her face before she can even process why she was honked at.
"It's okay," he assures her. "Let them be pissed off."
"I should have gone."
"I'm happy you didn't."
Her eyes widen. "Um, he's flipping me off."
Harry leans forward and glances at the mirror. He rolls down his window and sticks out his head and presents the guy behind them his own middle finger.
"Harry!" Mia growls, smacking his arm. "Quit it! Stop!" The person just honks again.
He's smirking when he sits back in the seat comfortably. "He was being rude to you."
When she begins driving again, it's quick, in an effort to get away from the man behind her, and she succeeds as he switches his lane and makes another right at the next light.
As she continues, he slowly gathers where she's going. With her eyes constantly checking the mirrors and her hands firmly at ten and two, he relaxes into the seat, aware that she knows what she's doing. She can get a little nervous when under pressure, and her chest has been rising and falling desperately since they started driving, but it's not as if she's terrible at driving. Perhaps he needs to get her a funny gift for the bumped car: a magnet that says "Please be patient. Anxious driver" but she'd be upset by it.
But for now, she's going to be a little jittery and he completely understands. Hence why he doesn't reach for the radio or hook up his phone with the aux. When she changes lanes, she leans her whole body out -- especially for the lefts -- and he helps her by either ducking down or leaning back so she doesn't make a snarky comment (the most recent one being, "Wow your head is so fucking big!"). He decides to leave the hand holding for later too.
He knows she's hungry, and she doesn't really like the fast food restaurant she's just pulled into, but it's the closest thing to his place, so it'll have to go. She makes her way right, but Harry quickly interjects and gently places his hand on her wrist, and says, "To the left."
"What, why?"
"Drive thrus are on the right of the building."
It clicks in her head as she slowly begins directing the car that way. With a quick glance, he confirms that nobody is behind them. As she nears the first window, she frowns and Harry hides his laugh, knowing he's toast if she catches a glimpse of his dimples. Driving this way should be easier since she was never accustomed to the American way, however she's still having trouble.
He really doesn't blame her when she decides to park instead and just go inside.
"Entrance door is actually the back door. The British way. We do everything wrong here."
"I hate you."
When he checks out the window, he sees that she's parked absolutely horribly, but he doesn't say anything except smile and shake his head when she asks him if he'd like anything from inside. He politely declines and she heads out.
Gemma texts him suddenly. How's it going?
Harry replies: It's...going.
Mia returns with the food and she stands on his side, trying to open the door. The windows are tinted so she can't even see her mistake until Harry rolls his windows and says, "The other side, you nut!"
"You're the nut! Can you drive? I wanna eat," she grouses.
He reaches his arm out and grabs a fry from her, tossing it into his mouth. "No."
"Please?" she whines, bouncing a bit. "I'm hungry."
"I've forgotten how to drive."
"But baby..."
"Nope."
"Harry!"
"What?"
"Can you please drive?"
He reaches for another fry. "Nope."
"Why not?"
"This is practice for when you begin driving me to work. Which, by the way, will be every day after you get your license."
"I despise you!"
She stomps her way over to the other side and frantically opens the door. As she's doing this, he turns her mirror inwards. "Do not touch my fries. I literally asked you if you wanted anything!"
She starts the car and takes a deep breath. With an amused expression, he watches her check her mirrors once more. She growls at him when she sees what he's done to the mirror on his side and quickly fixes it. She tells him she hates him again. He just absorbs her fury and smiles.
Harry holds the bag for her as she drives, and every time she reaches over for a fry, Harry smacks her hand and says, "Ten and two."
"I'll ten and two your face, Styles."
He arches a brow. "Mm, is that a new sex position? We can try it out if you'd like."
"No, I don't wanna do anything sexy with you anymore. You're mean."
He puts a hand on his chest, hurt. "Oh, Is that so?" Before she can reply, he also says, "Stay in the middle of the road, Mia. We're on the inner roads so let's not hit the parked cars, yeah?"
Her demeanor quickly changes and she's apologetic again, fixing the car. "Oh, sorry." When the silence takes over, she only lasts thirty seconds before returning her attention to argument. "Wait yeah, I don't wanna do sex with you."
He hides his smile. "Don't wanna do sex with me?"
"Stop laughing. I deserve at least two orgasms because of this little trip."
"But that requires doing sex with me."
"Only I get to have the orgasms."
Harry says around a mouthful of fries, "Mhm. We'll see about that."
He receives a smack to his shoulder. "Stop eating my food, you dolt!"
"How many times have I told you? Ten and two!"
Needless to say, Mia will not be driving anywhere with Harry anytime soon.