Spy Racers: World Tour

Chapter 4: Ride or Dye

POV Layla

"Hold still, Toretto!" Layla chided, trying to brush a section of Tony's hair with the dye.

"That stuff is cold!" he complained. "Are you almost done?"

"No, I just started! But I could go a lot faster if you stopped moving!"

Tony pouted at her, but sat still in his chair. Layla could feel him watching her in the bathroom mirror as she worked, and it was kind of making her nervous. And as if that wasn't nerve wracking enough, she'd also never colored someone else's hair before and now had to make sure it looked believable enough for a mission. No pressure.

Oh, and one more thing. Layla knew exactly why Frostee had suddenly needed Echo and Cisco's help with a "team logo." He was obviously trying to get her alone with Tony. Not that she minded- she and Tony hung out a lot anyway. But now that Frostee had mentioned the idea of Tony liking her, Layla was having trouble not thinking about it. She wanted to know what the deal was with their race, too, but if Tony answered like Frostee suspected he would, Layla wasn't sure what her response would be.

"Uh, Layla?" Tony's voice suddenly pulled Layla out of her thoughts.

"Huh?"

"Um, you've been working on the same piece of hair for like 30 seconds now. I'm no expert, but-"

"Crap, sorry!" Layla quickly began brushing hair dye on a new section. Ugh. She had to stop overthinking and get her head on straight.

"It'll still look fine," she reassured Tony. "Maybe just a little lighter than the rest."

"I trust you," Tony replied, giving her an encouraging smile. "You really zoned out there, though. Something on your mind?"

Layla hesitated. There were a lot of 'somethings' on her mind, but she wasn't sure she wanted to talk about any of them. At least not yet.

"I'm fine," she said. "Just uh, thinkin' about the mission."

Tony studied her for a moment in the mirror and Layla prayed he wouldn't pry. Thankfully, he seemed to get the hint.

"Whatever you say," he told her. "Just don't zone out again. You wouldn't want to be responsible for ruining great hair like this, would you?"

Layla smirked.

"You realize saying that just makes me wanna make it look bad on purpose, right?"

"Please don't."

Just like that, their old dynamic was back, and Layla pushed aside all her questions for another time. While they waited for the hair dye to set, Tony told her stories about the crew from before she met them, which was kind of a dumb thing to do on his part because now Layla had more stuff to make fun of him for. But it also made her feel a lot closer to the team and the way Tony talked about all the memories was kinda cute, so maybe she'd go easy on him.

"Okay," Layla said when the 30 minute timer went off. "Now you just rinse the dye out and you're good to go."

"Got it. Thanks, Layla," Tony replied with a smile.

"Anytime, Toretto."

For a moment, Tony looked like he wanted to say more, but then he apparently thought better of it, so Layla turned to leave before the awkward pause between them could go on any longer. In need of a distraction, she made her way back to the cabin and found Frostee, Cisco, and Echo huddled around Frostee's laptop.

"Hey y'all," Layla said. "What's going on?"

"We're designing the team logo," Cisco explained.

"Come check it out, it looks dope," Echo chimed in.

Layla strode over to where she could see the screen. The logo did look pretty cool, but she was surprised they were actually making one. She'd figured that was just some excuse Frostee had made up to keep Echo busy.

"Dang, nice work guys," Layla told them. "To be honest, I thought you were bluffing when you said you were gonna make a logo, Frostee."

"Told you she'd figure it out," Echo said, elbowing Frostee.

"Ow! Well, it was," Frostee replied. "But I know T is gonna ask about it later and if we don't have anything to show him, he'll get suspicious."

"You really think Toretto would read into it that much?' Layla asked, raising an eyebrow.

"She's got a point," Cisco agreed.

"Okay, fine. Maybe I also just wanted to make a logo. Is that a crime?" Frostee said exasperatedly. "And speaking of Tony-"

"No, I didn't ask him."

"Seriously? You just had like an hour alone with him! Did you at least ask him your question? About the race?"

"Nope."

"So...what did you guys talk about then?" Cisco asked.

Layla smirked.

"Oh, ya know. He told me a bunch of embarrassing stories about you guys from before I met you."

"Oh no," Cisco suddenly looked mortified. "Please tell me he didn't talk about the drama club incident! Right?"

Tony had not, in fact, told her about the drama club incident, but Cisco didn't need to know that. It would be way more fun to mess with him.

"Wouldn't you like to know," Layla replied, laughing as Cisco had a mini freak-out.

"Aw man, I can't believe this. We swore we'd never talk about it!"

"Talk about what?" The crew turned to see Tony enter the room, drying his hair with a towel.

"T! How could you tell Layla about the drama club incident?" Cisco ran towards Tony and began shaking him by the shoulders. "Remember our pact- what happened in drama club, stays in drama club?"

Tony laughed and patted Cisco on the shoulder.

"Chill out, bro, I didn't say anything. Layla's just messing with you."

Cisco let out a sigh of relief and turned to Layla, shaking his head at her.

"You," he said. "Are not very nice."

Layla shrugged.

"Hey, you were the one who brought it up. Don't expose yourself like that if you don't wanna get burned."

"She's right, Cisco," Echo replied with a smirk. "That one's on you. Anyway, let's see the hair, T!"

Tony tossed his towel on the couch and ran a hand through his hair. It was still damp, but you could already see how much lighter in color it was. Layla had to admit, he looked good.

"So, what do you guys think?" Tony asked.

"Not bad, T," Echo replied.

"Yeah, it almost looks professional," Layla added with a smile.

Tony rolled his eyes but returned the smile.

"So, you guys finish that logo yet?"