Two Slashes By The Nape

Ciento Dos: MIKENANA

Rose City, a peaceful and calmest city out of the three capitals of Paradis. It is indeed the calmest city out of the three during daylight, but as midnight strikes it turns out to be the liveliest, loudest and houses a lot of illegal activities, one of them is racing.

While it is still illegal, there's a lot of patrons that the government can't handle if they persecute every single drifter in the city. Drifters are the racers, The drift is their tracks, and Driven is what they use instead of race, a pretty much decent name for an illegal activity.

Miche is one of the top drifters in the said city where he uses the alias 'Dos'. Racing was his hobby introduced by his best friend, Erwin commonly known as 'Primo'. To which they have been racing for 5 years, building off their reputation. 'Make your hobby give you money' as they say.

One night while he was racing, he nearly ran over someone who was crossing the street. Stunned and awed by the beauty, he decides to show off and drive the apparently lost tourist to her destination. Before returning to his race, which he doesn't care if he will still win or not, he learns her name was Nanaba and was lost as she was walking around with Levi, Erwin's boyfriend.

"Dos, what the fuck you nearly lost the race." Primo lightly hits his head, it was a near miss if only he didn't use his boost.

"Fuck the race, i saw someone beautiful and coincidentally your boyfriend knows her."

"Uno..? Ah, might be his cousin. He said he has a cousin migrating from Marley cuz of school expulsion, i'm not sure."

Oh boy did Miche just stare at her when she came into his class the next day with Levi. He wasn't sure if her aura changed a lot since their last meeting or just because of her clothing.

"Hi, mister nearly ran over me. I hope you still remember what you did. I'm Nanaba Dietrich, Levi's cousin from Marley." she beamed as she sat beside Miche, leaving him speechless for a minute or two.

"Why of course I still remember your pretty face from last night. Miche Zacharius, and we don't talk about why I nearly ran you over during school hours, thank you." He smiled back at her, offering his hand, to which she accepted.

"Deal! Pleasure meeting you, Miche."

"You too, sweetheart."

Their friendship grew as weeks passed by and others can consider them dating just by a glance from afar, but Nanaba suddenly went silent and rushed out of school, just before Miche could ask her to come watch his race tonight with another top racer from Marley.

Miche disheartenedly went to the race, nearly getting disqualified for being late. What surprised him was Levi being there when Erwin's not on schedule.

"Do your best, Dos. Cien's a big shot in Marley." Uno wished him as he patted his shoulder.

"Cien? The racer from Marley? Yeah watch me beat them, this is Rose not Marley. If only Nanaba's here to watch me..." He shrugs and rolls his eyes, despite getting disheartened because of Nana's absence, he can't let his pride and ego crumble by losing just because of it. Besides, he was notified that Cien uses a lower model car than his, it's a sure win.

"Oh I will, Dos. I'll be watching you side by side. If... you actually beat me." Cien leaned against her car, smirking. Despite having a lower model like everyone knows, her car was hella modified for her success. Her aura is more dominant, powerful, playful. She once again left Miche speechless.

"You are... Cien? Huh, no wonder you suddenly disappeared. Well then, goodluck Cien. I only wish for your luck to side with you to beat me." Dos couldn't help but throw a sarcastic comment with a smile.

"Racer's bet for the night? Winner takes all the audience's bets, losers go home with nothing but nearly empty gas and some bumps for repair." Primo announces, being the referee for the night.

"A date, if I win. Cien can have my car if I lose." Dos looked at her with a smirk adorning his lips.

"A kiss is all this lady asks, if I win. Dos can have my reputation in Marley ruined if I lose." Cien laughed as if judging how petty their bets are.

And with that, their race started with cheers and roars of excitement as no one knew who would win.

The race that happened between the two would definitely go down in the history of Rose City's racing society. Everyone was at the edge of their seats as they watched how the two were just the perfect match for each other and no one really knew who would win. Especially when Dos has pulled one of his tricks to slow down Cien, but it backfired as Cien pulled her signature trick that drove Dos out of his lane and nearly crashed on a store in the sidewalk if only he didn't use his modified hard break making the car stumble to stop instead. It was when they thought that Dos would lose, but he instead used his shortcut route and catched up with Cien a minute before they both reached the end of the track, everyone thought it was a draw match but the cameras said otherwise. Cien indeed has won against Dos in their first match.

As Cien gets out of the car, Uno welcomes her with a hug and a pat from Primo. She looked at Dos' car worriedly as he hadn't gotten out of his car yet, she didn't know if her trick caused an injury to the man. She hurriedly went over to the driver's side and opened the door, revealing a rather smiling but exhausted Dos.

"Well well, you look rather worried than smug about your win against me, Cien." he panted out in exhaustion as the adrenaline he felt was wearing off.

"You haven't got out of your car so i thought you were injured by what i did." she couldn't help but smack his head out of annoyance before helping him get out of the car.

"So... keys to my car as promised. There's your prize from me, my lady. Sucks to not take you out on a date, it would be wonderful." he says, cornering her on the hood.

"Forgetting something, kind sir?" she asked, wrapping arms around his shoulder.

"No, I actually quite remember what you want if you win, darling." he chuckled as he whispered in her ear before leaning in to seal the distance between their lips.