Chapter Text
It's an evening at the end of July and the warm air brushes against the grean leafs of the trees across the road, while little hills hide the sun on the horizon. The orange hue of the dusk lights up the Gibraltar outskirts and give a warm color to the buildings, that slowly fades away as the sun continues it's descend.
The evening’s tranquility is interrupted only by the voice of a young woman, focused working on a car’s engine.
“Here you go Maria, your grandson shouldn’t have any more problems to make it start” Brigitte smiles and closes the car’s hood.
“You are so sweet darling, at least now he will stop asking me to bring him to university, I don’t have good reflexes anymore you know”.
“I can only imagine, but if you want my opinion M'am, you are still very good at driving”.
The woman with gray hair fixes her thin glasses on her nose and lets a little laugh escape from her lips.
“All these compliments will make me blush”.
“I am just telling the truth” the mechanic cleans her face from the car’s oil with a rag.
“I wish my grandson was confident like you darling, maybe he won’t stay all day at home doing nothing, he needs some fresh air”.
“Give him some time, I am sure he just needs to get used to the new place, he arrived just a few days ago right?”
“You are right as always, how much is for the work?”
Brigitte shakes her head.
“Nothing, after all the deliscius food that you brought me it would be too much ask also to pay, you buyed me groceries for a week”.
“Nonsense! Here you go” the woman controls in her purse and gives fifty euros to the young woman.
Brigitte lowers her head and accepts the money with a smile.
“Thank you so much M'am”.
“Remember that at the post office they don’t accept euros” Maria puts away her wallet and go near the car.
“Yes, I won’t the same mistake again, thank you”.
“Nonsense, it’s the minimum I can do, take care darling!” Saying that the woman enters in the car, turn on the engine and starts driving in that outskirts street. Brigitte waves at her.
The mechanic takes a long breath, stretchs, massages her neck and fix the bandana that is keeping her hair still. She stops one moment to watch the mountain’s side and the stars in the sky that is starting showing in the horizon.
Her phone ring in her pocket, she takes it and notices a message from Angela, an old family friend.
“The offer is still valid if you change your mind” says the text.
Brigitte sighs, blocks the device once again and massage her nose bridge. After a few seconds she goes toward the entrance of the workshop, shuts down the lights and goes near the shutter, but before she could close it, she hears the roaring of the engine of a motorbike followed by the break’s creak. She turns and sees two meters from her a bright pink racing motorcycle with a korean license plate; under the street lamp’s light are clearly visible the screech marks on the asphalt and the air is filled with the smell of burned tires.
There is a girl driving the vehicle with an helmet with the same color of the bike’s frame, at a first look the girl appears about one meter and sixty centimiters, she wears a light blue and pink biker suit with some trace of white with a bunny logo on the chest, over it she wears a short black leather jacket.
After getting of the motorbike the girl lend her back toward Brigitte, takes off the helmet leaving her brown hair falling on her back, at that point she wears thick mirrored lens sunglasses, a face mask and a baseball cap. From her scent Brigitte perceive immidiately she is an omega.
“Are you the mechanic here?” The girl asks moving closer with her hands inside the jacket’s pockets, “can you take a look to the engine? I think something got stuck inside of it”.
“Actually I am closing, I can look at it tomorrow”.
The stranger sighs, takes her wallet from the inner pocket of her jacket and lends one hundred euros in cash to Brigitte; the mechanic remains astonished for a moment.
“It should be something fast, I can pay for the overtime”.
“It’s not about the money, it’s starting getting really late and I need to walk home”.
The girl nods, takes another one hundred euros in cash and lends them to the mechanic. Brigitte sighs and turns on the workshop’s lights.
“Take it inside, but if I need more than half an hour to look at it I must ask you to leave it here and come back tomorrow”.
“Deal”.
The girl takes her bike and brings it inside the workshop.
Once inside the mechanic lowers herself near the vehicle and check the situation, she immidiately notice the outstanding state the bike is in.
“Is this a custom model?”
The customer nods.
“I come up with every detail togheter with my mechanic”.
“It’s really amazing, congratulations”.
“Obviusly, only the best for my baby”.
Brigitte starts checkin every component of the engine.
“Makes sense, it’s always a good thing treating well our vehicles, often they will repay us for that. Why you didn’t go to your mechanic?”
“You know, it’s a bit difficult when he is in Korea, so I asked around and it looks like everyone says you are the best in all Gibraltar”.
The mechanic smiles.
“I need to thank them than”.
Brigitte checks everything and finds a few metal pieces stuck inside the engine, she carefully remove them and sets back in place every mechanical part, ensuring that there are any more problems.
The biker stays against one of the workbench to observe her, she notices the the scrupulous look of the mechanic analyzing every component, her work grey and yellow overalls is lowered and it’s sleeves are tied around Brigitte’s waist, she wears a black tank top that leaves exposed the thick arms and the gear tattoo she has on her left shoulder.
As a detail, she notices a set of keys hanging from a yellow carabiner attached to the left pocket’s zipper of the mechanic overalls. By instinct the biker lowers her gaze and looks to her own keys attached to the pink heart shaped carabineer on the right side of her biker suit, she sew a belt loop on the suit only to be able to attach that carabiner.
“Some bolts loosened until they fall out of place, luckily it wasn’t enough to create a bigger problem, you took the right choice cooming here now”.
“I know” the biker raise her gaze and come back looking at her bike.
Brigitte take off her gloves and cleans with a rag the oil on her cheeks. The girl comes near her and lends her the two hundred euros in cash once again.
“This should be enough right?”
The mechanic remains staring at the money for a few money while caressing the back of her head.
“Pay me only the service, it wasn’t anything you should pay me so much money for” Brigitte smiles and goes near the cash register.
The customer follows her and pays only the right amount.
“Perfect, thank you, if in the future you would need any more help, you know where to find me”.
The girl nods, takes her bike and goes outside the workshop.
Brigitte goes inside her office and changes, from the worn out overalls to a laid shirt and a pair of jeans, close the shutter outside the workshop and she stretch with the fresh evening air caressing her cheeks; she turns around and sees her last customer standing still outside the workshop, leaning against her bike, with the phone in her hand and the elmet on her head.
“There is something wrong?” The mechanic approaches her.
“Oh here you are” the girl turns in her direction, “you really need to come back by foot?”
Brigitte nods.
“I live half an hour from here”.
The customer puts the phone in her pocket and straights her back, but even like that her head is barely at the same level of Brigitte’s shoulders.
“And you walk all that time every day?”
“Not everytime and walking is good for your health anyway”.
The girl shakes her head, opens the bike’s seat, takes another elmet and lend it to the mechanic.
“Take this, I’ll give you a ride, as a thank you for leaving the workshop opened longer for me”.
Brigitte smiles and takes the elmet from the stranger’s hands.
“Damn, you offer like this to personally accompany me? This must be my lucky night”.
The customer sighs and sits on the saddle.
“Get on before I change my mind”.
Brigitte giggles and sits behind the girl.
“Name’s Hana by the way” the biker looks right in front of her while speaking.
“What a beautifull name, melodic, I’m Brigitte” the mechanic smiles and gives all the instructions to reach her home to Hana.
The bike take off so fast that the mechanic is forced to hold the girl’s body with all her strenght. The biker hits the other’s arm.
“I can’t breath! Relax or we will slam into a street light” Hana’s voice sounds like she is being chocked.
“I am sorry, the speed just got me by surprise” Brigitte loosens the grab.
In just a few minutes they arrive to the humble apartment building were the mechanic lives.
Brigitte gets off the motorbike, takes off the helmet and shakes her hair into the fresh evening air; Hana looks at her and gets off too; the vehicle’s engine grumble under the street light.
“Thank you, If I come back home too late Mitzi would have eaten me alive” the mechanic lends the helmet to the biker, the girl takes it and puts it in the space under the seat.
“Who?”
“Oh! My cat, usually she is adorable, but when she is hungry she transforms into a beast” Brigitte giggles, “do you want to see her? She turned ten yesterday, I took a lot of pictures!” The mechanic takes her phone from the jeans’s pocket, starts searching the pictures in the gallery and shows the screen to the other young woman.
Hana raise the visor of the helmet and lends to look to the picture; the image shows Brigitte holding an enormous white cat with a party hat on her head, the animal’s face is grumpy, in strong contrast with the mechanic’s radiant expression.
Hana smiles, but it remains hidden under the helmet’s bottom half.
“She is so big”.
“Yes, she is a maine coon, when I adopted her at the shelter she looked about normal dimensions, but then she grew up like this” Brigitte laugh; Hana turns in her direction, meets her gaze and quikly she lowers the helmet’s visor.
“Finding a maine coon in a shelter is shurely a stroke of luck”.
“Yep, but I think fate wanted for us to find each other”.
“Good for you” Hana gets on her bike.
“Thanks for the ride” Brigitte smiles and waves.
“See you around” the biker hit the gas and leave in the streets lit by the street lamps.
The mechanic takes her keys from wich a little white cat plushie is hanging, opens the front gate and enters.
After five floors with the elevator and another two front doors she enters her apartment, finding Mitzi waiting for her right behind the door, looking at her with upset eyes.
“I am here, I am here, don’t look at me like that”.
The cat goes to the kitchen, leans a paw on her empty metal bowl and starts making it hitting the floor. Brigitte sighs, closes the door, take off her shoes and goes to the kitchen, from a cabinet she takes a can of cat food, takes the cat’s bowl and puts inside of it the food; Mitzi crawls against her leg in the meantime; the mechanic smiles and leave the bowl on the floor once again.
The cat throw herself into the food and starts eating, Brigitte looks at her and the smile on her face grows.
Hana parks her bike in the back of the house where she lived for about a week now, an two floor humble building, sourranded by the woods in the island outskirts.
Once she gets of the bike she takes off the helmet and holds it with her arm, takes her keys and goes towards the main door. She notices her rommate aunt getting in the external staircase ramp to the upper floor, where the woman’s apartament is.
“Good evening madame Zhou” Hana says waving her hand.
The alpha turns in her direction and smiles.
“Oh hello Hana! You can call me just Mei, don’t worry”.
“Perfect, this formality already started being so loser behavior”.
Mei giggles.
“Understandable, I brought some ice cream for you two, Juno should have put it inside the freezer”.
Hana’s eyes start shining, but her wide smile is hidden by the mask she is wearing.
“Thanks!”
The two excange one last greeting, after that the girl enters inside her house. She doesn’t even have the time to leave her jacket on the coat rack that she immidiately sees a girl with lavender hair on a wheelchair cooming fast in her direction.
“Miss Song here you are! I have a very important question to make!”
“I am all hears Juno”.
“It is a bit embarassing but… In your opinion it is starting showing… You know… The growing of the chest area?” The voice of the younger girl becomes more weak each word she speaks.
Hana raise an eyebrow and takes off the mask covering her face.
“Do not mistake my intentions! It is just you are the only other trans girl I know and it would be too embarassing asking aunt Mei” Juno blushes and lowers her gaze.
Hana hints a smile.
“Straight back!”
Juno obeys still completely red on her cheeks. The biker caresses her chin and looks at her rommate breast, covered by a faded t-shirt with the illustration of a space rocket.
“Oh! I think it is indeed”.
Juno smiles and lift her hands to the sky.
“Yes! Thank you so much, I was scared I was imagining everything”.
“No problem, I understand the feeling, it’s already a few months you are taking estrogen right?”
“Precisely”.
“At least for us omegas it’s easier this type of transition”.
“Yeah, I think I would have cried if I was born beta or alpha, thinking about having that… Thing… between my legs… Absolutely terrible, I would rather throw myself into a black hole and being completely destroyed by the immense gravitational force of the fabric of space!”
“I agree” Hana laugh, “did you already got the emotional imbalance?” She asks putting her Jacket on the coat rack and leaves her keys on the forniture next to the door.
“I am already used to those, I already have them without the need of hormones replacement therapy” Juno smiles, straightens her back with pride and shows a thumb up to her roommate.
“I understand, I am not very stable myself sometimes, eve without hrt, one time I found myself crying after I lost a single match on live, that was pretty embarassing” Hana takes off her shoes, leaves them near the entrance and starts walking towards her room, followed by the other girl.
“I am sure you looked amazing even like that!”
Hana giggles.
“I don’t think so”.
“I do, I mean, it gives me a lot of confidence having you here Miss Song!”
“Just call me Hana, we are only two years apart”.
“It is just that I really respect you Miss Song!” Juno’s eyes shines. Hana gently pinches the other’s cheek.
“You are adorable, try not to end in the hands of some stupid alpha”.
“Even if I wanted dating, studing medicin already take almost all my time” Juno giggles, “dinner is ready, I will wait for you in the kitchen Miss Song” saying that the youngest goes away.
Hana takes off her biker suit and the sun glasses, wears a shirt with her bunny icon on it and a pair of shorts.
For a few seconds she stands still observing the prosthesis she have instead of her right leg and the electrodes that cover her body; they are attached to her skin with long sticky fabric strips and they sometimes cover parts of the pronounced scars that cover her body, a ever lasting recollection of what ended the Gwishin war.
She sighs and shake her head.
She takes her biker suit, take off the inner lining made with fabric, puts it inside the hamper, takes it, goes to the bathroom, fill the washing machine and mekes the machine start; after that she yawns, leaves the hamper in her room and goes to the kitchen, where Juno is already waiting her sitting at the table with two plates of noodles with vegetables and kimchi.
Hana smiles seeing the meal, sits down and takes her chopsticks.
“Teaching you how to make kimchi was one of the best choices of my life” the biker starts eating a big amount of noodles.
“I agree, I love it”.
“Next time you need to cook some Gỏi cuốn too, we are in the right season right? And they look so delicius”.
“Yes, my dad always cooks them, I mean, always cooked them when I as still living with them”.
“I admire your will of cooking each time, without you I would probably survive only with instant noodles” Hana giggles ad eats, “delicius as always”.
Juno smiles.
“Thank you Miss Song, I find cooking relaxing, it makes my mind calm and empty for once and a correct diet is the base of good health, since I am a medic in training is my duty helping you mantain good habits”.
The two eat with tranquility, after that Hana does the dishes and Juno goes back to her room to study.
After she finishes, Hana come back in her own room, turns on the pc, stares at the Mecha Guardian V icon and sighs.
“No online games for you Song, we cannot let the paparazzi find you Song” she speaks imitating manager’s Myung voice.
“The paparazzi should learn to do better things in their lives than thinking about me” she mutters while opening Elden Ring.
After a couple of hours of playing she turns off the pc, she goes to the bathroom with the hamper and empties the washing machine. She than goes to the balcony and hangs the clothes, once she is done she lays on the balustrade and looks her bike parked a few meters from her.
“Gibraltar is very different from Busan eh Tokki?” She taked a deep breath, she crosses her arms and rest her head on them.
“There are very cute mechanics tho” Hana shakes her head, “it doesn’t matter”.
A few days later Hana runs with her bike on the streets that cross the Gibraltar’s hills; the wind cooming from the sea and the light rain help in lower the summer stuffiness.
There is only a car in front of her on the road. Hana remains always at the right distance and proceeds with the right speed.
“I won’t come saving you get your driver licence confiscated there” manager Myug said before she went to Gibraltar.
The car in front of her suddenly hits the breaks; Hana stops abruptely; the bike slides on the wet asphalt and tips over, making the girl fall and roll over for a few meters, followed by the motorcycle that falls on her left foot and then stops at the limit of the road.
“Ah!” She shouts.
The car driver gets out quickly, he’s a man in his fourties, brown hair and beard, he wears a red shirt, a pair of pants larger in the ankles, leather boots, a cowboy hat on is head and the annoying smell of an alpha accompaning him.
“Girl did you got hurt?” The man comes near, kneels down and lends an hand in her direction.
“What do you think?! What the fuck were you thinking?!” Hana gets up without accepting the stranger’s help.
“I am sorry, a deer crossed the road” the man hints a smile.
“A deer?!”
The stranger points at the front of his care, near which a deer is relaxing not caring about the rain. Hana stays still observing the animal in silence for a few seconds.
“What the hell…” Sighs.
“I am sorry girl, I can pay the price of the mechanic for the bike, I know one that is very good at her job in this area”.
“I don’t need an alpha doing charity for me” Hana crosses her arma in front of her chest and assures to pronunce the word ‘alpha’ with marked resentment.
“Okay than, just let me- Oh fuck the bike, girl!”
“Stop calling me-” Hana turns rapidly towards her vehicle, just to watch it fall on the street under them, limping she reaces the limit of the roadway and looka at Tokki laying on the asphalt a few meters under her; separating them there was a small rocky hill covered with bushes.
Hana starts going down the hill, soon she finds herself rolling over it and falling on the asphalt. Luckily no car is passing in that moment.
The biker groans, she gets up, vacillates ans sees a long cut on her right arm from which a long trail of blood started flowing, she tries to move her right hand, the fingers close with difficulty and the girl feels her muscles numb from the elbow to the fingers.
“Fuck” she grits her teeth.
“Girl everything’s alright?” The man looks at her from the upper road.
“Yes and now I am leaving!” Hana takes her bike, immediately she notices the bad shape of it, the frame is bended and scratched in a lot of spots and some metallic fragment felt all over. The biker tries to turn it on, but it doesn’t respond.
Hana sighs, looks around and recognize the street that brings to the Brigitte’s workshop, so she starts walking, limping while she carries the bike, ignoring the man that in the meantime continues to call her.
After about ten minutes by foot she reaches the workshop, the rain stopped, allowing the sun to show in the horizon; Her ankle hurts so much that she can barely walk while pushing the bike in the yard of the little building.
She is met by an omnic, an old war model now out of production with a yellow bird on their shoulder and a baseball cap on their head.
“Brigitte’s here?” Asks Hana with heavy breath. The machine nods, emit some indecipherable bip and goes inside the workshop, cooming back soon after with the mechanic.
“Oh my god, what happened to you?” Brigitte runs in her direction and looks at her; the biker suit is torn, the girl’s skin under the cuts is scratched and the fact that she cannot support herself anymore with her foot shows how big is the pain she is feeling. The new sunlight makes clear the awfull contitions of the motorcycle.
“An idiot thought that slamming on the breaks when he saw a deer was a good idea, at least I am a good driver so I don’t need to think about the problems of a rear-end collision”.
Brigitte sighs.
“Sadly the accidents because of the wildlife are all but rare here”.
“I guess I now know what those strange signs with deers means”.
“They don’t exist where you live?”
Hana leave a sarcastic laugh escaping from her lips.
“Let’s just say that you don’t see many deers in korean metropolis”.
“I guess not” Brigitte caresses the back of her neck and looks at the robot, “Bastion, take the bike inside please”.
The omnic says some bip in agreement and comes near the vehicle; Hana holds thight Tokki and looks at the robot with diffidence.
“Don’t worry, Bastion is my assistant, he will treat the bike with care”.
The biker takes a long breath ad lets that the omic takes the bike and brings it inside.
“Yeah, sorry, it’s just in Korea the war with the Gwishin ended just two years ago, I am still not used to see friendly war machines”.
Brigitte hints a melancholic smile.
“Oh right, I heard the Meka squad found the omnium in the deep of the ocean and they successfully put an end to the conflict right?”
“Yeah…”
“Really admirable, even thought sending like this five people in the enemy base with only external support was really a gamble, a suicide mission basically, it’s really a miracle that each one of them came back alive and without a scratch”.
Hana lowers her gaze.
“Yes, a miracle…” The memories of that night come back to her mind, the water’s roaring deafening her, the stabbing pain in her right leg and the intense flames that ended the war.
"Hana?"
Brigitte’s voice makes the biker jump and due to the pain she lose balance; the mechanic stops her falling with her arm and smiles at her.
“Let me help you, there is a bench where you can sit” Hana holds herself to the mechanic and let the other accompany her towards the bench inside the workshop. The biker sits and extend the aching leg.
“Give me a second” Brigitte walks fast inside the office at the second floor of the workshop and comes back with a first aid kit and an ice pack.
“For your ankle” she says while lending the ice pack to the other young woman; Hana accepts it and put it on her ankle.
“I can treat the scratches if you want, I have first aid training”.
“No need, it’s nothing”.
“Even that ‘nothing’ could lend to a serius infection, and also with the biker suit on we don’t even know how bad are the wounds”.
“I won’t take of the suit if it’s what you are hinting at, and the helmet too stays on”.
Brigitte sighs.
“I see, can I at least clean your visible wounds?”
Hana nods. The mechaic takes a sterilized cloth from the first aid kit and starts cleaning the visible scratches under the cuts on the biker suit with disinfectant; the girl doesn’t complain feeling the dolution stinging her skin.
In the end the mechanic covers the wounds with band-aids.
The beta’s touch is gentle and Hana find herself surprised appreciating it.
“Done, but you need to see a doctor, you could be seriusly hurt and not even know it”.
“I’ve been throught worse”.
Brigitte sighs and takes her phone.
“I’ll call an ambulance”.
“No!” Hana grabs Brigitte’s wrist.
“You need to have those wounds properly checked”.
“I can’t go to the hospital, I just can’t”.
The mechanic frown.
“Why?”
“I can’t explain it in details, just you know my privacy is at risk”.
“Your privacy has more value of your life?”
The biker sighs loudly.
“Gibraltar doesn’t have any doctor where I can go privately?”
Brigitte caresses the back of her neck.
“I know one but… I don’t even know if she’s free now and…” Sighs, “doesn’t matter, I try calling her, but I don’t promise anythig”.
“Thanks”.
The mechanic search in her phone the name Angela Ziegler and calls it.
“Oh Brigitte, what a nice surprise, did you thought about the proposal?”
The young woman takes a deep breath.
“That isn’t the reason why I am calling, I have a customer here, she got into a car accident, but she doesn’t want to go to the hospital, I was wondering if perhaps I could bring her to you to have a proper medical check”.
“Sure, things has been calm today so I have a bit of time”.
“Thank you Angela, I owe you this one”.
“Don’t mention it, if I start counting all the favors I owe to the Lindholms I would need more than one life to repay them all, see you later than”.
“Later” the mechanic closes the call and turns towards the biker.
“She accepted, I will bring you to her now”.
“It’s okay, I will call a taxi, I don’t need you skippig work for me”.
“It’s not that simple, the guards won’t make you enter without a proper authorization”.
Hana remains silent for a second.
“Where the fuck do you want to bring me? Inside a secret organization or somenthing?
“More or less, it is not secret, but they need high security standards”.
“Wait, do you want to take me to Overwatch?”
Brigitte nods slowly.
“How do you even have the contacts for an organization like that?!”
“Well, my father was one of it’s original members”.
“Wait, wait, wait… What is your surname again?”
"Lindholm".
“Are you joking me?”
Brigitte sighs and crosses her arms in front of her chest.
“Why I would do that?”
“What is doing the daughter of a genius inside a random workshop instead of being in Overwatch?”
The mechanic frowns.
“Listen, I also have a privacy I’ll glady keep private”.
Hana raises her hands.
“Okay, okay, understood the mood, no questions about daddy’s organization”.
Brigitte massage her nose bridge.
“I am starting regretting this”.
“Too late, but how we go inside the Overwatch base? Aren’t you by foot?”
“Not today luckily” the mechanic goes out the workshop and comes back soon after with a yellow bicycle date back to the eighties of the twentieth century.
“Oh my god this relic should have at least one hundred years!” The biker leans out to see the old vehicle.
“Yes, my grandma used it to go to the university, I just made sure it is in it’s best shape, you can sit on the luggage rack and we will arrive in just a few minutes”.
“Are you sure it won’t completely disintegrate while we go?”
Brigitte sighs.
“Yes, I carried way heavier things than you on it” the mechanic takes the helmet in the bike basket and looks the omnic that in the meantime stopped looking at a butterfly togheter with the bird in his shoulder.
“Bastion I leave the workshop in your care, I will try to come back as soon as possible!”
The robot looks the young woman, waves his mechanic arm in the air and emits some bip bop as a bye speech.
Brigitte goes near Hana.
“Get in, or do you prefer sitting there all the afternoon?”
The biker sighs, leaves the ice pack on the bench, gets up and limping she sits on the bicycle luggage rack with her legs hanging from one of the two sides.
“I still think this isn’t a good idea”.
“Just hold with all your strenght, you don’t risk to suffocate me at least” Brigitte laugh.
“What are you- Ah!” Hana yells when the mechanic setts off fast, flying on the asphalt with just the strenght of her legs. The injuried girl soon finds herself holding the other like her life depends on it.