#idk how ya'll put up with my titles lol

[eruden-writes]

Shel Station (Mechanic Ork x Reader) - Part 1

@lovestruckheifer suggested this when I was asking for prompts:

Something wholesome with a pig-headed/faced orc. Can't really find anything wholesome with this type of orc.

Perhaps the orc is from the country side and with their partner in a city. Unfamiliar and overwhelmed but they are with their partner who is familiar with the sights and sounds.

I did a different direction than a country-side orc going into the city.

Oh, and I decided to make this one an ork, instead of an orc.

---

In any other circumstance, you’d have found the scenery beautiful. Long expanses of orange-red sand with the occasional cacti or cluster of dried bramble. Mountains in the distance, like sleeping giants. A bright blue sky with a lone buzzard circling overhead. Heat waves rising off the empty highway ahead and behind you.

However, in this case, your fucking rental car broke down. And all you see is dust and an opportunistic scavenger bird, waiting for you to die.

It took hours on the phone with a rental car rep to figure out what to do. You wasted nearly half a tank of gas, just blasting the A/C while just waiting to hear back from Chad or Rachel or whatever basic names the call center reps had. Once they confirmed they had found a mechanic willing to tow you, it took another hour for the greasemonkey to arrive.

Fifteen minutes before the blue tow truck arrived, the gas fumes ran out.

Needless to say, you are not in a great mood - and agonizingly sweaty - when the mechanic pulls up. As the driver maneuvers the truck in front of your car, you climb out of the rental. It feels worse outside. The sun blares down on your body from above, no longer directly overhead, thankfully, but still high in the sky.

You’ve already changed into as few clothes as possible, which means your lightest pair of shorts, a tank top, and a pair of sandals. Stil, you were dripping with sweat.

When the driver steps from the cab of their truck, you wildly wonder how they can deal with wearing so much in this heat. Your feet sweat just looking at their scuffed up steel-toed boots and you cringe at the thought of wearing the same dark blue coveralls. On their chest, an embroidered name tag displays ‘Shel’ under which ‘she/her’ is displayed..

It’s only when your eye settles on the mechanic’s beefy green arm you realize they’re non-human. Your eyes flick to their face as they approach, finding small tusks jutting from full lips beneath a pig-like snout and . Their blondeish-red hair is long on top, pulled into a bun, while the sides are shaved short.

“You’re the mechanic?” You gawp, blinking as their shadow falls over you. They’re so tall - at least seven foot, maybe more - and you faintly wonder just how much muscle the baggy coveralls are hiding.

“Yes,” Shel pins you with a critical golden-brown gaze, one of her hands landing on her hip. As the weight of her hand pulls the fabric, you can see vague outlines of her musculature. Catching your stare, you shift your gaze to her face. You realize she has a beauty mark under her left eye and almost miss her next words. “Is there gonna be a problem with that?”

“No! Of course not!” Instant regret slams into your thoughts. She totally took your staring the wrong way. You raise your hands up, palms toward Shel as additional ungodly heat claws into your face. Under her unimpressed gaze, you begin to babble, “I just… it’s hot and I was prepared to deal with a guy and you know what car guys are like.”

For an agonizing beat, she stares down at you, before finally giving a nod. “Exhausting.”

“Haha, good one,” you laugh, but the giggle trails off as she raises a critical eyebrow. Once again, the words babble from you, as you point helplessly to your car with your thumb, “Like car exhaust, right?”

For a dreadful beat, silence bubbles up between you two. With you awkwardly cringing out a smile while the ork mechanic stares down at you, like you’re a strange sort of bug.

“You don’t take the heat well at all, do you?” She narrows her eyes, a curl of amusement making her lips curve into a smile around her tusks as her snout wrinkles. The temptation to run your fingertip along her snout’s wrinkled ridges rises up and you quickly slam it back down. She nods back to her still-running vehicle, before walking past you. “Hop into my truck while I get ‘er hooked up.”

Though the allure of air conditioning is strong, you still half-turn back to Shel as she inspects your rental. “You, uh, you don’t need help?”

“Nope.” Pure confidence as she opens the driver side door and shifts the car’s gear stick. A little too late, you realize you left the keys in the ignition when she arrived. She speaks a little louder, an insistent edge to her words. “Get in the truck before you pass out.”

Finally, you nod and head to the truck, your shoulders hunched. As soon as you climb in and slam the door shut behind you, you heave a sigh and sink into the passenger seat. The cold air on your flushed cheeks is a salve. You’re certain you’ve burned in the sun, even though you’ve barely spent ten minutes outside.

Then again, there might be another reason why your cheeks feel so warm, you realize, as you find yourself watching Shel through the rearview mirror. In the span of time it took you to get to the truck, she has the hood of your rental popped open. She seems to be giving it a critical once over, fiddling with parts you can’t even guess the name of.

As she leans over the engine, the coverall pulls tight around her rear, and you snap your attention to the truck’s dashboard.

There is no way you’re ogling your mechanic! She’s just doing her job! Miserably, you press your hands to your cheeks, realizing how fast your heart is thrumming and how graciously cold your hands have gotten in the air conditioning. Maybe it’s the heat that’s gotten to you. You’re not thinking straight.

As soon as that thought hits you, you giggle deliriously to yourself. Of course, you’re not thinking straight. And then the image of Shel’s beefy forearms slides into your brain, like a fuck boy sliding into your DMs.

You barely choke down a stressed whimper before the driver’s side door opens.

“Alright, it looks like there’s some magic dust buildup. Probably not from your trip, unless y’drove through, like, five wizard’s storms on your way out here.” Shel dusts her hands off on her coverall pant legs, before climbing into the driver side seat and shutting the door behind her.

You stare at her, trying not to think how little space there is in the truck cab. You’re distracted by a droplet of sweat coasting down the side of her throat, disappearing under the collar of her coveralls, as she continues, “Looks like there’s some overdue maintenance, too. I’ll take a better look at my garage.”

You try to forget the thoughts you had moments early and force your eyes to turn toward Shel’s face. “How long until I can get back on the road?”

“Like I said, I’ll take a better look at the garage,” she replies as she puts the truck into gear and slowly turns back the way she came on the highway. It’s easy enough, given how dead this stretch of road is. “Magic dust buildup can do a lotta weird things and cause problems you didn’t think were an issue.”

“Oh, okay.” Your eyebrows furrow as you stare out the passenger window, watching the desert and dust pass by. Your teeth worry at your bottom lip as you wonder what to do now. This roadtrip through the desert wasn’t meant to last very long.

You had been trying to get back home after visiting friends in the obscenely hot part of the country. The only reason you chose to roadtrip back home was thanks to all the flights around your friend’s city being grounded, thanks to an abrupt gryphon migration diversion.

With all that in mind, you weren’t sure if you had the funds for a new rental or to stay at a hotel until the current rental got fixed. Hell, you weren’t even sure where Shel was taking you. Did she even operate in a town? Or was she an isolated garage, out in the middle of an infernal hellscape of heat and dust?

“Dustrun doesn’t have much, but it’s got what you need.” Shel seemed to pick up on the apprehension descending on you. Though she keeps her eyes on the road, even as she addresses you. “We’ll get you a place to stay and eat until your car is fixed up or until the rental agency sends you a new one.”

Another sigh heaves through your chest. “Thanks, but I don’t know if I’ll have the funds to pay for stuff.”

“I’ve worked with Enterprize Rental Firm before, they’ll cover your room and the costs of repair.” Shel says this so matter-of-factually, you feel a little bit of tension ease from your body. Not entirely, but some. “You just gotta pay for what you eat. Or work it off in the diner, I s’pose.”

That doesn’t sound so bad, you think, as you settle into the seat a little further. Your eyes turn back toward the window, watching the cacti and rocks skirt by. Overhead, sparse and wispy clouds had journeyed into the sky, just as dusk began approaching.

The rattle of metal and the rush of the air conditioning play as ambient background to your dawdling thoughts. Before you know it, your eyes droop and the toll of being stranded out in the desert has whisked you away to sleep.