This Relationship of Ours (+Extras)

ten and two

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?"