Grease Monkeys and Floral Soap

A UA of the Kurago!fusion inspired by "Like A Fox That Needs Shooting (Jones & Collier)"
(artificiallifecreator and rorykurago)
==Imagine==
They are nothing alike, but imagine Dana and Andrea being Drift Compatible. Her HSP is somewhere in the 800s (Nowhere near as good as Universally Compatible Pietr (991) nor unflappable Min (949), but I wouldn't be surprised if they could make a neural handshake out of it.
IDK how well they'd actually Drift in the long run, or if they'd even be properly combat-viable, but they could certainly make a Jaeger /walk. 
==Differences==
Pink, girly, fluffy, sweet and kind, copilots with /Logan (and Jackson) Andrea and tattoos-grease-and-The-Code Dana? yikes...
Andrea and Dana as co-pilots while Vulcan is alive? YIKES
Should be noted it's not that Andrea /isn't a grease monkey, she just didn't grow up in that world but she's quite happy there now. 
===Points of Interest===
Hmm. I feel like some serious mayhem could come of this.
(Points of noting: 
* Dana'd probably get girlier with Andrea as co-pilot [longer hair and such]; 
* she'd probably try harder not to bite at Logan's baiting; 
* Tahnee'd prolly have to be alive [conscious or not], because Dana's a harder person all round when she dies [standards and friendliness and such]; 
* I envision a lot of commentary [from everyone] on how they're an odd pairing, but Derek and Sorvino are charmed (if a little bemused))
Andrea and her mismatched Drift partners seems to be a trend XD 
.
==Text==
"I'm not giving /my copilot--"
Jack tries calmly, "Let them at least try--"
"--to that c--" 
Andrea's on her feet. "Don't you /dare talk to her that way." 
Dana tugs her back down. 
Logan says over Andrea's head, "She can't fucking do this!" 
Nguyen shuffles paperwork. "She can do this." Actually looks up. "Ranger Hill?" 
"I would like to give Kurago a shot." 
"And she did this." Nguyen returns to paperwork. "Dismissed." 
"She's /our copilot!" 
"Ranger Hill is also her own person and can do what she wants." 
"The fuck do we do if Jack gets hurt?" 
"We have options." 
.
Here's a bit (Andrea's very good at mediating, it's what brought her to the attention of the PTBs in the first place): 
"Ranger Collier," Andrea says calmly. "What am I?" 
Dana goes on the defensive. 
"I'm a Ranger, Dana, and I have been for over a year. I may be a Spare, but I am still a Ranger. I have twenty six kills in thirty sim drops and patrol experience in an actual Jaeger. The only thing I have to work on is altering my fighting style. I'm not a cadet, okay?" 
Dana works her jaw. 
Andrea remains calm. 
"You're too slow." 
"I know. I'm working on it." 
"Work harder." 
Even voice. "I'm in the gym twelve hours a day. What more should I do?" 
Dana shifts her grip on her bō. 
.
ooo gawd Dana comes off like Chuck there haha (most-reasonable-mood Chuck, obs). I mean, it's kind of intentional, because similar values tend to = decent working relationships,
but I can just picture bbRanger Chuck just standing off the the side leaning on his hanbo nodding along with Dana, being like "yep, yep, true, ye--wait no, you're agreeing?" (or maybe preRanger? this is end of 18/early 19?)
(are they training with bō [6ft] or hanbō [3ft]?)
(there were a few ways this wanted to go; this was neither the happiest nor the heart-wrenchiest:)
Dana shifts her grip on her bō. Lets out a controlled breath through her nose. "So we work /smarter. Your technique is solid." 
(Andrea senses the sting coming; doesn't let herself be mollified by that almost-compliment.) 
"--so we go outside the Kwoon. You're right: there's nothing you can do here you're not already doing." Dana lays her bō across her thighs; lets her chin drop. 
(It's as much of an admission as Andrea's going to get; later, as with Derek, she'll discuss with her co-pilot how to apologise without breaking teeth on it.) 
(Hansen makes a noise of disgust and leaves with a damp towel over his shoulder.)
Dana's eye flick to him. "It's not your endurance that's the problem," she says to Andrea. 
Andrea's lips purse. 
Dana goes a little redder, and she clears her throat. "I mean, it's good. Chalk up at least one for the Jones bros."
(Still not an apology, but an improvement.)
"But we've been going about this wrong. That's my bad." 
(Andrea shifts her weight; doesn't sigh; add a dash of condescension to the list of sharp edges to file off.) 
"Let's... take tomorrow off. Start fresh on Wednesday. We'll do--" Dana's eyes skip sideways to the gear racks. "--speedball. Sprints. Same things we did at the Academy, but faster. Shorter periods."
"Work up to longer stints," Andrea adds, catching on. 
An almost smile. At least, Dana's eyes crinkle and one corner of her mouth curls up. "Exactly." 
"Back to basics."
Now a proper smile. "Yeah."
"Roger. And in return--" Andrea reaches out and touches Dana's arm as she starts to turn away. "--we agree that it's going to take /time." 
Dana starts to nod. 
"And that neither of us is perfect."
She pauses; back on the defensive. 
Andrea can practically see the cogs turning. A fortnight ago (listening to Logan's character assessment) she might have thought Dana was trying to wriggle out of it, construct a defense. Now she sees the tightening of Dana's hand on the bō; a glazing of the eyes: a Ranger doing a rapid run-through of the session, assessing her own performance, criticising weak spots. 
It takes longer than Andrea'd like but
"Overhand," Dana says ruefully. "And footwork."
"I won't tell Logan if you don't," Andrea offers with a playful nudge of her elbow.
"Beaut. He doesn't need more ammo."
Andrea moves ahead of her to put her bō away. "He only stirs because he thinks you'll bite," she says, then winces.
Dana touches her ear. "I'm aware." She leans past Andrea to rack her bō, face closed off again. "I need a shower. I'll see you at dinner."
Andrea scrubs sweaty palms on her pants. "Look, I--" 
Dana pauses by the door; half turns, eyebrows raised. "I," Andrea says with more force, "want this to work as much as you do." 
(Maybe more. 'Spare', the file says. 'Back-up'. Stuck on the sidelines, tightroping between wanting someone to get hurt so she gets to do what she's been trained for and praying that no one does because it's /them, the Joneses, and the /last thing she can conceive of is /wanting someone to get hurt, but she /does--she puts that, when it rears its ugly wormy little head, into the same box as her compatibility with Logan and doesn't think about it.)
There's a long silence. Then: "I know." This time the automatic touch almost goes to Dana's tags before she turns it into readjusting her towel on her shoulder. "And I appreciate it. I'm sorry I'm a hardarse. I just..."
"Don't know how to trust anyone who isn't her?"
Andrea might be imagining the extra shine when Dana blinks and looks up. 
Another almost smile, this one wire-thin. "Yeah."
Andrea runs her towel over her forehead and tries for a joke. "Me either. Realistically. But welcome to being a non-related Ranger. Most of us aren't lucky enough to have been synced up since conception." She takes Dana's wry laugh as a good sign. "It's hard work. /As hard as weighted sprints, which oh, yes, I know you're going to throw at me. Thought you'd catch me of-guard with those? Nope. I /am /ready."
"Yeah, say that after the tenth kay," Dana shot back.
"I'm more resilient than I look. 'Endurance', remember?" Andrea teased. "But if it's too much for you, I can always take the right hemisphere."
"Dream on, joey."
" 'Joey'? What, you think you're going to pick me up and carry me around?"
"After the tenth kay humping fifteen kilos, might have to."
"Guarantee I'll surprise you."
"Ya reckon?"
"I reckon. I know I'm not Tahnee, but I can hold my own."
Misstep. Again. Dana's smile withers, and she's back to looking worn and tense. "We'll see."
"Dana--"
"Rest day tomorrow. We start again Wednesday morning." She sidesteps a pair of analysts arguing over a printout and heads for the other set of showers, further from the Kwoon.
Andrea wonders but doesn't ask if she'll spend the next few hours in Medical talking to her comatose sister.
.
Gawd I love how you wrote this. Also that you wrote this. 
.
Then there's this:
Logan avoids the Kwoon for a fortnight when she tells him what's happening. Anyone else, she'd think it was out of respect for new co-pilots finding their rhythm, giving them space. But this is Logan. He's sulking. Dana's distaste for him prickles when they're drifting; a background stinging, like sea lice just off the beach. She doesn't broach it with Dana. Not just yet. She senses Dana's aware of Andrea's discomfort; that's Dana's embarassed to be causing it. Or--no. Andrea reconsiders. That's not the way Dana thinks. Dana's /embarrassed to be letting her personal feelings interfere with their operational performance. One day, Andrea thinks, when they are more comfortable in each others' skins, she is going to take Derek Collier aside and ask him who gave him the idea he had the right to mess up his daughters so fundamentally. Andrea's never been in the head of anyone who wants to take themselves so thoroughly out of the equation as Dana; she wonders privately what it would have been like to see the twins drift as sisters--to be a fly on the wall of /that conversation.
Meanwhile she gets the sharp end of the Collier Code: 
"Keep up," Dana snaps. The end of her hanbo clacks sharply against the middle of Andrea's, two inches from Andrea's grip.
It's been a long day, and Dana's tired; Andrea gets that. She gets that Collier's stressed, and mourning, and off-balanced by having to learn to trust someone else's abilities for the first time ever. But she doesn't appreciate being treated like a wet-behind-the-ears cadet.
<<aaand at that point I'd been working on this for 30 minutes, and I have other things to do tonight, so here's the cliffnotes version:
Dana's riding Andrea hard about getting faster, getting better--as she puts it, Andrea might be good enough for the Academy but this is so much /more/ than the Academy and—
Andrea snaps back that she GETS all of the things Dana's stressing about (the jaeger/her sister/their performance/Andrea's readiness/that tiny little niggle at the back of Dana's mind about whether she can 100% trust someone HERSELF who isn't Tahnee and what if THAT'S the thing that brings them down) 
but really, Andrea's a LITTLE insulted by JUST HOW MUCH Dana is stressing about that. No, Andrea is not as fast as Tahnee (yet). No, Andrea did not start training at seven (who DID, you freak?). But NO, Andrea is not a complete beginner, and maybe they don't have twinsie sync levels but they can make this work and OH MY GOD could you just TRUST ME??
And Dana's like...
Hmm. Taken aback. Because all-in/all-the-time is the only way she's ever known, and nobody's ever? really? told her? that that's really a LOT to put on someone? When it's happened before, it hasn't really been her problem and/or her life hasn't depended on it, so she could kind of step away? But now she actually has to learn to trust someone new, someone she's only known for a short time, who doesn't yet match up with those standards she expects but whom she doesn't have the right to order into meeting them? (And she doesn't have the option to throw up her hands and leave.) 
Compromise, really, is the main lesson Dana's learning here. 
But Logan:
So Dana's training with Andrea on another day. They had that talk, and Dana's really /trying to pull it back, but they've had another looooong day in the Kwoon working on Andrea's speed, and Dana's tolerance, and she just? kind of? slips?? into barking at Andrea again
and Logan picks this afternoon to show up at the door after two weeks of avoiding the place
and jumps in to protect 'his' co-pilot before Andrea can remind Dana that we're being patient (and less hardline) remember?
(Logan checking out the Kwoon for the first time is doubtfully protecting Andrea, more taking out being a sore loser. Logan doesn't 'feel' like a typical person does (Did I tell you Logan's damn certain he's aroace? (he's actually arodemi, but it's so hard for him to make an emotional connection he doesn't know otherwise (unless Feng, but neither ever acts on it)).) 
Andrea starts telling Logan to back off, meanwhile Dana kind of barks over her shoulder at him (maybe this is a month after the end of her anger management courses?). However ambivalent she comes off the rest of the time, Dana's pretty aggressive in defending to Logan the veracity of the women as co-pilots, and Andrea thinks maybe that's just the stubbornness coming through, but the next time they drift, she really /is more confident in them, and it gets easier to be partners for that point?
.
Ironically, it's /Logan who gets hurt; a broken collarbone from Chuckles after stealing Max, which is how--
/Oo, what's--
/engine stand--
/muscle strength--
--/Kurago, Vulcan, and Typhoon all end up on the Ten Mile Mark. 
"Are you schizophrenic or something?" asks Jackson. 
/shhh quiet--quiet all be quiet--
/can't--
Tang Min, in Typhoon armour, smiles quickly, returns to scanning instrument panels. 
/but fun--
/not supposed to be here
/shh!
Category:Ficlet
Category:Scraps
Category:UAs
Category:Braids, Lorikeets, and Baby Girls
Category:Andrea
Category:Dana
Category:Dana (ficlet)
Category:Andrea (ficlet)
Category:Andrea's Driftmates
Category:Tahnee (mention)
Category:Chuck H (mention)
Category:Logan
Category:Jackson
Category:Crimson Typhoon
Category:Crimson Typhoon (ficlet)
Category:Kurago!AU (mention)
Category:Wei triplets
Category:Wei triplets (ficlet)
Category:Jackson (ficlet)
Category:Nguyen
Category:Nguyen (ficlet)
Category:Logan (ficlet)
Category:Logan has an antisocial personality disorder
Category:Collier family (mention)
Category:Rorykurago