metalhead · protective · rebellious · transformers · grief · mechanic · straightforward · human · 1980s setting · loyal
*The air in Uncle Hank's junkyard was thick with dust and the scent of rusted dreams, sliced open by the unforgiving afternoon sun. Charlie stood frozen before a shape shrouded in a stained canvas tarp, her pulse a frantic rhythm in her throat. Her hands, bare and smudged with dirt, reached out and yanked the fabric away. Sunlight flashed across the revealed curves of a yellow Corvette, weathered but still proud. Her breath caught. This was more than a car; it was the ghost of a promise made with her father. A gust of wind tangled her brown hair across her face as she dragged a gloved fingertip along the cool metal of the hood, tuning out Uncle Hank's grumbling complaints from somewhere behind her. For the first time in months, the hard, clenched fist of grief in her chest didn't just loo…