Got Dough

The end of the race turned out to be rather anticlimactic. Ori and Rebecca drove over the finish line not to adoring, cheering crowds, but to uncomfortable silence. Obviously, he'd wanted to complain about that ass hole who'd tossed a spike strip, but he doubted anyone would give a shit considering the fact he'd won in the end.

The car occasionally jolted and hoped due to the absolutely fucked up rear tire, but Ori was sure he could get it fixed up... This was technically his car now, wasn't it...? Right?

Huh...

Ori's shaken to by Rebecca just as the other racers arrive. He blinks a couple times before stepping out, immediately finding himself accosted by the announcer. "AND FIRST PLACE PRIZE GOES TO-..." the guy leans in, "Hey buddy, what's your name again...?"

"Oh, uh... My name's Hugh Jass." Ori offers with a neutral expression.

"TO HUGH JASS... WAIT A MINUTE!" the announcer turns a scathing glare to Ori just as he gets back in the car.

"I'll be waiting for my prize!" Ori states, driving off before anyone else can say a word. After all, the deal didn't require him to garner public attention, a known merc was usually a dead one. Unless you were someone like Adam Smasher of course.

...

"WELL! The first-place winner is apparently a huge ass hole! Whatever! None of us can say it wasn't a good race! LET'S MOVE ON AND SEE WHAT OUR SURVIVING COMPETITORS THINK!"

--------------

"Ori you FUCKIN' DID IT!" Quentin laughs as he steps into the garage, spotting the merc standing by as engineers get to work fixing the beat-up Mizutani.

It had more bullet holes than screws right now and driving on one fucked up wheel almost destroyed the axle. Thankfully the car had been resting on some of the hastily added armour plates, resting the weight off of the mechanism.

Ori just nods as the fixer claps him on the shoulder, "Things looking good? No last-second shenanigans?"

Quentin shakes his head, "Definitely not, the bets haven't been paid in yet but they will. I've got the numbers though, if you wanna hear 'em?... We could save it for another day if you wanna take a break, that race looked rough..." he shrugs, "Never knew you were a brass balls driver either."

"Me neither!" Rebecca pipes up, stepping away from where she'd been annoying the mechanics, "I kinda thought we were gonna die when he spun the car around." she admits.

"The tire blew out, I had to do something... It was luck, to be honest." Ori rubs his face and shakes his head, "Let's hear the numbers though."

Quentin nods and pulls up a holoscreen, "Some folks pulled out after the tank-"

"Bessie." Rebecca cuts in.

"-Bessie, got banned. But the better odds more than made up for it. Let's see... Taking everything into account, my cut, the bonus, first place prize... You're getting around ninety-three thousand Edies... Plus the car." he gestures uncaringly at the Mizutani.

...

Ori feels his open mouth get clapped closed by Rebecca, bringing him back to his senses. "N-Ninety thousand!? That's a lot more than I thought we'd get!"

Quentin smirks, "Of course, I'm not gonna skimp on my best merc, am I? You'll get the money when everything's finalised."

"Hey, do you know anything about that ass hole who spiked us?" Rebecca interjects.

"Ah, not really... I was going to have the bets called off when I saw that but decided to let it go on for a while longer. Good thing too... As for the guy? Some Tyger Claw who got hired to fix the race, what an amateur." he sniffs contemptuously.

"Tyger Claws again..." Ori mutters under his breath, while they were in Japantown, you'd think they'd leave the race alone. He was pretty sure Okako hadn't leaked his shit, so the fixing had nothing to do with his identity. "Whatever, it's not like we're gonna race again." he shrugs.

"What, really? We broke the bank with this shit!" Rebecca exclaims, surprised he'd dismiss it so easily.

Quentin shakes his head, "I think you'll have trouble making good Eddies if you keep at it. You may win every single race yet spend your whole prize on repairing your ride. Only reason the payout was so big this time was because of the bets... The guys runnin' the race won't be so easy to fool next time."

"Eh... So it's over...?" Rebecca grumbles.

"We can do an occasional race, but nothing serious." Ori reluctantly offers, while driving was kinda fun, doing it like he'd just done made it more stressful than anything.

"I wanna drive next time." she folds her arms and turns her nose up.

"Can your feet even reach the peddles..." Ori drawls, prompting a laugh from Quentin who quickly shuts up at Rebecca's glare.

"Well, I'll be going, got a lot of shit to do and asses to kiss. Youknow, Fixer shit... I'll catch you later when I got another gig." Quentin says, leaving with a wave.

...

"Youknow, making fun of my height is only funny the first couple of times..." Rebecca grouses.

"Only for you, for me it's funny every time. Besides, don't you like being small?" he asks, stepping in and smirking down at her.

"You like me being small. You keep it up and I'll get some new legs, see how you like that." she turns her head away with a huff.

He reaches down and grips her perky butt, "And risk ruining this ass? Doubt it."

She snorts and reaches up, grabbing a handful of his crouch, causing his spine to straighten, "You've been getting cocky lately, thinkin' I should put you in your place again..."

"If you're referring to our first time, that didn't go how you think it did-"

"Will you two shut up and fuck off!? We're trying to work here! Last I checked this ain't a fuckin' doll house!" one of the mechanics shouts from underneath the raised Mizutani.

"Fine, but not because you said to... A doll house is probably your best bet for getting laid anyway, uggo." Rebecca says to the man who slumps his shoulders in response.

"Yeah... I know that already..." the mechanic mutters depressingly.

...

"We're just gonna go." Ori awkwardly says, leading Rebecca out.