Bribery.

"Wait," you say in terror, remembering your conversation yesterday. "You want a car, right? I can get you one! Right now! What do you say?"

Jane stops pulling on you one second before she's **** your hands off the pole, and purses her lips speculatively. "Wait. Right now?" she asks.

You breathe a sigh of relief. Finally, you'll be able to catch your breath. "Yeah, sure. Right now," you say, gesturing to the parking lot around you. "Pick a car, it's yours."

Jane forgets all about the run and turns in a full circle to take stock of all nearby vehicles. "What if somebody else needs it more than me, though?" she asks.

"Please, this is a technology business park, they all make six-figure salaries," you say. But you give in. "But fine, we can check first if they can afford to lose it first."

Jane's excitement grows out of bounds. "Sweet." She takes off at a brisk walk to start looking at vehicles.

You hurry to follow and try not to laugh. You laugh anyway, and your ribs hurt.

--

After an hour of checking out vehicles in the morning sun, Jane gets more and more amped up as it starts sinking in that she's going to get a real car. Her family's never been able to afford two vehicles. The search comes to an end when your athletic redheaded friend settles on a bright yellow jeep.

Eagerly, she springs on the vehicle. "This one," she says, grabbing the hood like it might bolt away from her if she lets it.

"A jeep?" you ask.

"So I can do offroading and crap," she explains enthusiastically, glowing with energy. "Can I?"

"Can you what?" you ask, taking exception with her poor grammar.

"Can I have it?" Jane corrects herself, quickly.

"We need to ask the owner first to make sure he can stand losing it," you say, rubbing your chin in deliberation.

"But I can have it, right? For real?" she asks. She almost sounds scared you'll say no.

You can't help but chuckle. You've never seen this side of Jane before. She's like a kid in a candy store. Which right now, you guess, she sort of is.

"What's the magic word?" you tease, jokingly.

"Please?" asks Jane, practically hugging the yellow hood of the jeep with her entire body. "Please please please?"

There's a **** edge to Jane's voice. Maybe you're jerking her around too much with this - you're just getting out of a run, but Jane has a whole car on the line. Realizing that toying with her emotions any further would be playing with fire, you give in.

"Okay, okay!" you say, laughing and raising your hands in surrender. "It's yours, okay? It's my jeep now, and I'm giving it to you. It's yours, Jane."

Jane looks like she's been struck by lighting. Then tears shine in her eyes, and she lets go of the jeep and lunges at you.

"Woah wait -" you say, flinching back in fear.

Jane latches onto you with the fiercest hug you've ever been given. You can't move your arms. And you definitely can't breathe. But you don't care, because though her arms are strong, Jane's wiry body feels slight against yours, and she smells nice. There's the mineral smell of her sweat and skin, and then there's a touch of a teak wood fragrance in her hair. Her shampoo, maybe?

"Thank you Chase," Jane chokes out, becoming very heavy on you. "Thank you so much."

You stagger to accommodate her weight. "Uh, you're welcome," you say, unprepared for Jane's sudden emotional breakdown. "I said I'd help you yesterday. I meant it."

Jane gives you one last squeeze, burying her head in the crook of your shoulder before pulling away. She wipes her face on her wrist and sniffs loudly. "Nobody ever did anything like this for me before," she says, her voice thick.

You demure, feeling incredibly awkward. "Nobody else can claim anything they want by just saying so."

"Nobody's ever been as nice to me either," says Jane, still sort of crying. "I know it's easy for you cause your powers, but you remembered, and you did it. Dad always says he'll do stuff and then he can't cause he's too busy with work or because of money or..."

You fill in the blanks. "Stuff like... buying you a car?"

Jane wipes her face again. "I-If you ever need a ride anywhere or anything, you'll tell me, right? I'll take you anywhere you want."

"Right," you say, unable to give her any other answer. "Let's go check this is okay. Yeah?"

Jane sniffs, and nods, then follows you into the nearest building to start enquiring after the prior owner of a certain yellow jeep.