Boys With Toys [For twelve_not_fourteen]

[brother_alone]

Josh is making a real effort to try and get his life in order.

He's leaving his shanty more and more often, clean cut and wearing fresh clothes rather than the grimy tattered mess he'd arrived in months before. A few odd jobs around the Nexus have allowed him that much at least. They never last too long though. Partially because they're just that: odd jobs. But also, because one Bad Day or episode is all it takes to get him let go.

It's discouraging because Josh is trying so hard.

Not for himself, really. There's enough self loathing within him to bury him several times over. He hates himself. Hates what he's done. What he is. What he sees. But there are people he cares about, people who see something else that Josh doesn't.

People like Chris, like Dia. And like Han.

So when Josh's phone buzzes, he assumes it's one of the only people in this place who gives a shit about him, or the newest place he works at occasionally with some hours for him. He isn't wrong. Han wants to know if Josh is up for fixing up that rust heap he'd picked up a few weeks back. The memory makes Joshua smile as he unlocks his phone to reply.

Sure thing. Meet at your ship I'm assuming?

He doesn't wait for a reply when he leaves his shack. Josh figures he has plenty of time to change direction if need be. It's not half bad outside today anyway, and the walk will do him some good.

Comments

[brother_alone]

"Please. Your thing is 'kid'. Or whatever your token pet name for women is at a given moment." Josh smiles around his next swig of the Rhyll and seems to be thoroughly out of whatever funk he'd fallen into at the thought of Han leaving.

Even if he does end up spending a long ass time saving his galaxy. He won't forget about Josh. That means a lot to him. Being remembered, cared about in any capacity.

"So...the thing looks like it's more or less done dripping." He points to the bike by tipping his bottle toward it. "We gotta let that thing fully air dry or what comes next?"

[twelve_not_fourteen]

Is that a dig? Are you saying that the things he says sound funny? Because if it is, he'd tell you that you were wrong, Josh. He's not going to assert that, however, because he's not out to start an argument. He just wanted to cheer your ass up. Something he seems to have had at least a little bit of success in because you're smiling now.

Anyway, 'brothers' as a metaphor for the two of them worked in his mind. It implicates a closeness and fondness that Solo isn't always the best at expressing, but it also implicates a time of separation too. Even the closest of brothers have their own lives to lead. It just means that when they're together again (and they will be) the can pick right back up where they left off.

"I want it somewhat dry before we keep going." He says taking a sip of beer and then, regarding the swoop for a moment. "The next step is tearing out the engine. Taking it apart, cleaning it and largely guessing what components are working and what isn't."

[brother_alone]

Separation is fine. Josh has plenty going on that he doesn't want Han to be hovering over his shoulder while he's dealing with it. People have their lives and he's absolutely right. Separation is something he can deal with, even if it's not Josh's favorite idea.

Isolation is what he can't deal with.

He's had a fear of it for years, exacerbated by the disappearance of his sisters and his parents and friends' withdrawal after. Multiplied to a crippling paralyzing anxiety after his weeks of being left alone in the mines, after that awful night when he enacted his 'Plan'. And isolation is what he had feared from Han leaving.

For now that has been waylaid quite well.

"Okay so...spanners and elbow grease I'm guessing?" Josh tries to think of what else they'd even need. Give him a second. He can ask intelligent mechanical questions. "What do we do about the bolts rusted on?"

[twelve_not_fourteen]

"Break em and replace em." He says with a shrug. "With how badly this thing has been treated, I imagine there isn't going to be much we aren't going to be replacing."

It would certainly be cheaper just to junk this thing and buy a new speeder, but that was never what this was about was it? This was about doing something constructive and getting in touch with a part of yourself that you haven't had the time to go back to in ages. The bonus was finding out Josh wanted to work on it with you ...

The last time Han had gotten to teach anyone anything was when he first won the Falcon from Lando. Chewie was already a good mechanic, but he didn't know the Corellian makes of ships the way Solo did. They spent that first year just taking a lot of things apart and putting them back together for the sake it. When they weren't hauling something, that is.

[brother_alone]

"Well yeah. But I mean, with what? You got a saw or something on the ship that we didn't bother grabbing?"

Josh knew that much. He shrugs, shoulders bobbing before he gets to his feet and sets the bottle back on the ground in the safe place he'd been storing his first. Stretches his lanky torso and gives his head a few sharp jerks this way and that to crack his neck.

The only mechanical work Josh has done in any capacity in his life has been special effect oriented and even that was mostly ordering parts online and building. Never restoration work.

"I mean I'm strong but I'm not gonna be able to rip those boys outta there on my own."

[twelve_not_fourteen]

"Some of that depends on the bolt you're trying to remove." He says as he drags his thumb across the glass bottle thoughtfully. "I've used hand tools, saws, mallets and torches."

At a certain point, you use what you have and you do what works. "Hand tools are preferable, because they tend to preserve the threads better than ... let's say a torch, but also they're the hardest to use."

He wasn't planning on getting much further than the flushing today. The shit has to dry and he has to get some of the engine parts he thinks they're going to need before they start trying to tear it down.