In Regards to Towels Ch. 5

"What?"

Rose tried to process what Scorpius had just said, aware that her knowledge of cars was far from complete. In fact, she barely knew anything. All she knew for sure was essentially where to put the gas in, how to turn it on, where the lights and windshield wiper switches were, and how to drive it. She instinctively knew that Scorpius was asking for much more than that. From her time sharing classes with him, she had gathered that once he became interested in knowing about something, he did not pursue it halfway. He always aimed to be an expert in whatever it was they were learning about.

It was one of the things that maddened her most about him throughout their time in school. Her father had always made a point to tell her to beat the 'Malfoy brat' in everything, but he had never informed her of how difficult it would be. Scorpius had always kept her on her toes and it was a constant battle for supremacy. Honestly, it had certainly not endeared him to her at all growing up and now faced with his thirst once more she was finding herself quite dismayed.

Scorpius gestured toward the silent vehicle, "Teach me about it. What makes it run? What are all...," he gestured under the hood, "these things?" He shot her a sidelong look, "Unless you don't know, that is..."

Her eyes narrowed at him sharply, ignoring the slight heat that ran across her cheeks, "Of course I know. I wouldn't be operating the blasted thing if I didn't know how it worked, would I?"

She was well and bloody screwed.

She started with the basics like wheels ('Well I know what those are, you dolt. We use those all the time. Specifics! What are they made of?'), the steering wheel ('Yes, yes, I get the gist, but how does it manage to actually move the wheels? And don't say 'magic.''), and the headlights ('...well how the bloody hell do they actually get light to come out of those things? Are there little flames in there?'). It certainly did not take Rose very long to realize that she didn't actually have to know any of the answers at the moment. If she used a bit of creative thinking, Scorpius would be none the wiser and she would not have to deal with incessant teasing about (Merlin forbid!) not knowing something.

After all, how often after this incident would he really be exposed to cars? Probably never, and if he was, they would most likely be some sort of enchanted thing that wouldn't run like the regular muggle ones did anyway. So...everything was a win-win.

--

An hour later, Scorpius was sitting on the gravel road they were on, still watching her just as intently as when she'd started her in depth explanation of every aspect of a car. Sadly, it was long ago that she had really abandoned even attempting to make things sound plausibly muggle-like. It was tedious and slightly boring to try and explain how the various motorized mechanisms worked, so she added a bit of creative flair. Essentially, she had been spouting nonsense for quite a while and, really, was starting to feel a bit ridiculous.

"...and that's the gravity controller. It allows you to take sharp turn very fast without fear of flipping the car." She stared at the nondescript metal part under the hood for a moment, imagining how great that would be if it actually existed. After a moment, glanced over at him and saw him watching her thoughtfully. Clearing her throat with discomfort, she turned back to the open hood and glanced over everything quickly. "And…I think that's it."

He grinned at her, "Already?"

With a small shrug, she sighed, "What can I say? There are only so many parts…"

Scorpius stood and moved up beside her to peer under the hood for a moment. She watched him carefully, trying to gauge what was going on behind those pale eyes as they swept over the multitude of metal contraptions. She found it slightly amusing that most muggle men found cars irresistible and here she was standing with a typical wizard male specimen who knew next to nothing about them.

'Though he's not really what I could call 'typical'…' she thought absently before frowning sharply and turning her gaze pointedly back to the car in front of them.

Finally, Scorpius glanced over at her with a signature smirk, "So…how much of what you told me was made up?"

Rose felt her cheeks flush and she glared at him, "Are you calling me a liar, Mr. Malfoy?"

Lifting an eyebrow, Scorpius straightened before giving her a stern look, "Why Ms. Weasley, accusations of lying are very serious offenses. Don't you know what we do to liars around these parts?"

She suppressed a grin at his response, feeling a playful flutter in her lower abdomen. Putting a hand on her waist and cocking her hip out, Rose gave him a cheeky once over, "I've heard a thing or two, but…I doubt you could do a thing to me, darling."

In an instant, his demeanor changed and she felt the entire atmosphere around them shift. She felt her heart jump a bit in surprise at how the air between them shifted from banter to coiled heat and she felt the previous flutter melt into a low warmth.

His return once over was anything but cheeky, "Oh, I could think of a few things...sweetheart."

He leveled a lazy smirk at her before turning away to move around the car and glance in the passenger side window, leaving her to stand there for a moment to process what had just happened. Her heart rate was raised a bit and she couldn't ignore the flush that had raced across her cheeks as soon as he had leveled his eyes on her. The look in them had been…intense. She had no doubts now as to why Scorpius Malfoy was regarded as one of the most sought after boys at Hogwarts, and that was after pointedly forgetting having seen him shirtless only that morning. Rose felt as if she had been dangerously close to a pleasurable burn and her mind was taking a few moments to catch up.

"I guess I can't blame you for lying, though…the thing became far more interesting when you started making things up," he stated from his current position as he examined the dashboard intensely through the window.

She stared at him for a moment, at once trying to calm herself down and process the sudden shift back to normalcy. What was wrong with this kid?! Did he not realize what had just happened?

They had been flirting. She had just been flirting with Scorpius Malfoy. Her father would kill her. His father would probably kill him, based upon their history. There would be general mass killing of Malfoys and Weasleys if anyone found out.

What was even more appalling was how much she'd enjoyed it.

She couldn't give in to the strong urge to scream in horror in front of him. So, instead, she took a deep breath, got her brain running logically again, and moved over to stand a decent distance from him. Running her hand through her hair in unvoiced agitation, she tried for a small grin, "Uh…thanks?"

"No problem," he mumbled absently as he straightened to wander to the driver's side door. Opening it up and sliding into the seat, he looked intently at the gauges, "So…what's that clock with the F and the E?"

She sighed, trying to push what had just happened out of her mind and moved over next to him. Peering toward the one he was indicating, it took her a moment to register that it was the gas gauge and that the needle was well below the E.

"Oh, hell," she growled before resting her head defeatedly against the frame of the car door. Closing her eyes she pinched the bridge of her nose and tried to breathe. How had she been so stupid?

Scorpius cleared his throat quietly, "Uh…I take it it's something bad?"

She cracked her eyes open to glance sideways at him, "It's a gas gauge. It tells the driver how much gas you have left in the tank."

"Ah," he said before falling quiet and contemplating the gauge in question, "Oh. So the E…"

"…means empty."

"And without gas the car doesn't work?"

She stood up, "Precisely. I can't believe I didn't pay attention to it…"

He shrugged as he looked up at her, his expression softer than she had expected, "You were upset…things happen."

Rose stared at him for a moment in silence before turning away to go slam the hood shut. They walked back to the manor without speaking and the quiet was anything but comfortable. She couldn't bring herself to care, though, as she had too much to process already without adding more to her plate. She needed to be alone, she needed to be able to think, and she didn't need the distraction of Scorpius Malfoy keeping her from that.