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The last scav dropped as V nailed him first in the chest and then in the head with Johnny's Malorian, the double-tap and twirl of the reload swift and instinctive for a gun she’d had for mere days. The air was heavy in the sudden silence that descended, thick with the stench of blood, cybernetic silicon and rot. Lazy, fat flies buzzed in the thin light, the beams of it broken by the weak rotation of fan blades by the skylights.
Still breathless from the brutal firefight, V sank back against the graffiti-streaked wall, taking a precious moment to rally. She cursed beneath her breath, tasting iron sharp on her tongue. Hard to be sure the blood was from getting beat to hell by a particularly persistent scav with a baseball bat—or if the Relic was back on its bullshit.
At least he hadn't smashed her in the face before the date tonight. She'd been getting more than enough side-eyes from Judy about the bruises from the bare knuckle boxing she's been suckered into, without having to say, "yeah, nearly got my eye implants ripped out by a scav, what's new with you?"
Considering the hellhole in which they'd found Evelyn, it'd only serve to make Judy worry. Their current... thing was still so new and untested, and V didn't want to mess it all up. So, V had tried to be a little more circumspect, refraining from mentioning her ongoing efforts to fight Night City's scav infestation.
A fucking futile effort, she thought bitterly, her mouth twisting. Clean out one, and the cockroaches set up five more.
Her breath slowly normalising, she slipped through the remains of the dockside warehouse, locating a promising looking laptop and extracting the data Regina had ordered. As it downloaded onto a shard destined for a deposit box, the edge of V's vision fuzzed, fitful and static.
Wordless, V glanced to where Johnny leaned against the wall.
"How many more of these bullshit errands are we gonna run, before we pull the plug already?" he asked, tipping his head back. His arms were crossed against his chest, his aviators obscuring his expression.
"Must be really starting to feel those fifty years you missed, if you're getting tired and cranky so early in the evening," V replied, looking away from him and back to where the data download was close to complete.
"Getting bored. 'sides. Gotta be on time, for once in your life."
V detached her personal link from the laptop's jack, slipping the shard into her back pocket for safe keeping.
"I'll have you know—" V cut off, groaning as she climbed to her feet. Her back was going to be fucking black and blue, come morning. "—my time-keeping skills are superb."
They absolutely were not, and Johnny hardly needed to share a brain with her to call her a liar. In a truly remarkable show of restraint, he lowered his aviators a fraction, cocked a disgustingly superior eyebrow, and flickered away without a word.
V checked the time. Fuck, he was right.
**
V booked it home on Jackie's Arch, weaving through the choked streams of peak hour traffic and swerving around corners, nearly wiping out three times in her mad dash. She skidded to a halt out the front of her megabuilding's main entrance, slamming the kickstand down with her boot and dashing up the stairs. She shifted from foot to foot in the painfully slow elevator up to her apartment, the constant ads and latest news reports reduced to static noise on her periphery.
Her filthy merc gear was tossed unceremoniously on the couch to end up as tomorrow’s problem, and she showered as fast as she could manage while still being able to scrub the caked blood from her skin. Towelling her hair with rough efficiency, she caught sight of her back in the mirror, bruises blooming in angry red and purple beneath the light.
Fuck, that scav got her good, and she hissed between her teeth as she had to bend to pull on her somewhat-clean jeans. Couldn't do anything about it now.
After such a shitty day, it would be good to see Judy. Really, really good. Instead of the creeping fear of another Relic malfunction happening at the worst possible time, her remaining hours alive dwindling like fucking sand in an hour glass... It would be nice. To give herself permission to live in the present for a few hours, ride the natural high of being with her.
Her holo chimed, and Judy's avatar flashed across V's Kiroshi UI. Startled, V checked the time again. No, no, no, she still had time. They weren't due to meet for another half hour—
Cursing, V answered, shrugging on an only-slightly crumpled black and red shirt, one that wasn't going to show any blood.
"Hey, I was just getting ready to come pick you up—"
"Gonna need to take a raincheck on that, I'm afraid." There was an edge to Judy's voice, and V frowned, hesitating with her shirt buttons and focusing on the holo-image instead.
"Jude?" she ventured. "Everything okay?"
Judy's jaw set, and she looked away, her expression hidden behind her brightly coloured hair. It was a quirk of Judy's that V had quickly picked up on—a cute one, if V wasn't quite so aware of the flashfire anger it often concealed.
"Susie's got me swamped. New project walked its ass in through the doors this afternoon. Been informed it's top priority. If I step a foot outside the club before it's done..."
V relaxed a fraction. Just another battle in the ongoing war of priorities between Judy and her more... pragmatic boss.
"I'm—I'm really sorry, V." Judy's anger had faded as she’d looked back to V, her expression miserable. "I was really looking forward tonight."
V huffed a low, humourless laugh she didn't quite feel. "Yeah. Me too."
"V, I promise I'll make it up to you—" Judy cut off, snarling a string of Spanish curses and staring daggers at someone beyond the holo's frame.
Spanish, V observed with hollow amusement. She's fucking pissed, alright.
"Call done, see? Now get lost so I can actually work—"
V ended the call then, blinking. A pit of pure exhaustion seemed to yawn open beneath her feet, and she felt... heavy. She sat on the edge of her bed, leaning her elbows on her knees and staring at the scuffs in the linoleum.
Fuck.
Johnny flickered into view, reclining against the windowsill, a cigarette between his chrome fingers. With a flash of anger, V knew exactly what was coming.
"Not a fucking word," she spat. She tossed her shirt back onto the pile of 'fresh, probably' laundry near her bed.
"What, just gonna roll over and take it?" Johnny asked, and V clenched her jaw. There it fucking was. "Boss says 'no' and cancels your date, and that's that? V, legendary merc? More like legendary pussy."
"Funny," V replied, and she didn't hold back on the venom this time. "I've watched you strike out spectacularly with both Rogue and Alt. Forgive me if I'm not falling all over myself to take your advice on romance."
"Then you know—I know what doesn't work. That's tried and true practice." He tapped the side of his head. "Can't have a better teacher."
"You really do have the most unnerving ability to pretend your shit doesn't stink." V exhaled, trying to regain her equilibrium. Getting angry with him never solved anything, anyway. "Besides. Judy's asked for a raincheck, so I don't see how throwing down with Susie Q over shift scheduling would do her any damn good."
"Didn't say throw down." At V's sharp look, Johnny shrugged. "Look, it might just be your pussyfooting wearing off on me, but there could be a way to spin this. Make it a win for yourself, you hear?"
"A 'win'? Christ, you're so self-centered." V rubbed at her face with her hand. "If I went, it would be to make sure Judy's doing okay."
"Sure. Keep telling yourself it's about her." He flicked the butt of the cigarette out the window, flecks of ash spiralling down after it, before the butt vanished into digitised static. "That feeling of drowning, the water rising up around your neck? Got nothing to do with it."
"Judy—Judy can't do anything about that," V said, hoarse and halting. She swallowed, staring at her hands and slowly curling them into fists.
"But she makes you forget the water's there. If only for a while."
"Fuck, I hate it when you start to make sense," V sighed, fishing her shirt back off the pile with a grimace. "Fine. Got an idea. Here's to hoping Susie doesn't throw my ass out of the club on sight."
**
It was nearly eight by the time V pulled up in Lizzie's front lot. Deep into Night City's sticky mid-summer, the days were exhaustively long, and the setting sun's rays through heavy smog were filtered red and gold. Not that any change in colour would ever help the twisted ugly of Night City's broken streets, the features of it enhanced in perpetual, flashing neon.
V winced as she dismounted Jackie's Arch, the bruises on her back making their protest well known now that the adrenaline was wearing off. Should have downed some painkillers, even coated her whole damn back in MaxDoc gel before she went out—too late, now.
Lizzie's had been pumping for the better part of two hours already, and no matter what shit had gone down in Night City, the club always managed a roaring trade in drinks and braindances. With deliberate confidence, V cut through the line that had formed beyond the token velvet ropes, bag in hand. Just keep walking past the bouncers, she told herself. Don't make eye-contact—
"Not so fast, hotshot." Rita stopped V in her tracks with just the nudge of her spiked bat. Her head tilted, and her eyes narrowed dangerously. "Whatchu packing?"
V hesitated, puzzled as she reached for the Malorian in her shoulder holster. Shit.
"Christ almighty—not your heat. The bag." Rita jabbed at it for good measure, as if V was too dense to get the point. "Might just be my twelve hour shift talkin', but whatever that is, it smells divine."
The other bouncer by the door snorted, rolling her eyes.
"Potstickers—from Dao's Kitchen over in Little China," V said, relaxing a fraction. If Rita had a problem with her presence, she'd know it already. She shrugged. "Figured Judy might need a little extra something, if she's working late."
Rita feigned a massive, put-upon sigh as she shouldered her bat with a smirk.
"Knew I shoulda snapped you up the first day you walked that fine ass through these doors. Now Judy's got you all to her lonesome, and trust me, that girl does not share." Rita's smirk faded, and she nodded toward the door. "Word to the wise, Suse is on the warpath tonight. She sees you here to distract Judy, and she'll have both our heads."
"Not here to distract her, don't worry. I'll be in and out like a ghost," V replied, flashing a smile. "Susie won't even know."
"Oh, you sweet summer child. Susie sees all." Rita chewed on her lip for a long moment, before finally throwing her hand up and waving V through, misgivings be damned. "Fuck it. Call me a romantic, but I'm too soft to stand in your way. Go on. Save your girl from her project from hell."
Mindful of Rita's warning, V ducked inside the club, surreptitiously giving Susie's office a wide berth and careful to keep her head down. Through the door, she could make out Susie on the holo, reaming some of her Mox operatives stationed out near the docks—V thought she could recognise the operation from one of Regina's cyberpsycho jobs.
Either way, sounded like some shit had gone down and Susie would be preoccupied for a good while. It was more than enough time for V to slip into the back rooms of Lizzie's unbothered, and with a small sigh of relief, V descended the stairs to Judy's editing den.
It was much quieter down here, the thunderous music muffled to a thud and the furious energy of the club reduced to just a distant afterthought. Just the way Judy liked it.
Approaching Judy's door, V exhaled long and low. She resettled her shoulders with what was totally not nerves, before finally rapping the back of her knuckles on the door. Beyond, V caught an unmistakable sound of snarled Spanish, an open hand smashing hard against the heavy desk.
"I swear to god, Suse, if you want this damn thing done—"
V cracked the door open, ready to duck any flying soda cans heading her way as she warned, "Hey. Just me."
"V?" Judy breathed, just barely loud enough for V to catch. She looked shellshocked, whatever fury she'd been feeling before seeming to have evaporated in a flash. Judy blinked then, shaking her head as if to rally her thoughts. "The hell are you doing here?"
Suddenly confronted with what was actually a completely reasonable question, V hesitated, worried for a horrifying moment that she'd made the wrong call. Judy loved her craft—maybe she hadn't wanted a distraction in the first place.
It was way too late to be second guessing herself now, and V stopped in front of Judy's desk.
"Since you couldn't come to dinner, figured I could maybe bring the dinner to you," V said, before internally groaning. She'd imagined that sounding way less cheesy in her head. She put it down to the distracting way her heart kept fluttering in her chest at the sight of Judy. She cleared her throat, awkward. "Just on the down-low, so Susie doesn't skin us both."
"You really didn't have to." Judy's voice was soft, and she looked aside, her hair veiling part of her face.
"I wanted to." V studied what she could of Judy's expression, still trying to figure out if she'd horribly overstepped the boundaries of their new thing. "Is... that chill?"
"Yeah. I mean, yes." Judy sounded flustered, and she seemed to want to melt behind her rig's many screens. When she finally looked back up at V, though, her smile was brilliant. "I'm just—surprised, that’s all. Never really had someone do something like this. It's nice."
Fuck, the more snippets V learned about Judy's trainwreck of a relationship with Maiko, the more she regretted not knocking out a few more of Maiko's teeth when she'd thwarted the woman's powerplay at Clouds. Not the time to bring that up, though.
V dragged over the spare chair closer to Judy's main desk, disregarding the growing rawness in her bruised back. She waited while Judy continued to make space, carefully relocating keyboards and more tech V didn't even recognise, while magazines and stacks of books were more carelessly tossed under the desk.
V eyed the full ashtray of spent cigarettes that followed them. Stressful day, then.
"Potstickers, from this tiny shop near my place in Little China," V said when Judy was done, passing the bag over to allow her the honours of cracking open the first box. "Does a killer sticky dipping sauce—almost makes you forget the things are at least fifty percent plastic."
"Don't quit being a merc, because I'm not seeing a future for you in sales," Judy replied, casting V a sidelong smile.
V scoffed and feigned offence. As she passed across the can of NiCola she'd gotten thrown in for free, her fingers brushed Judy's. The touch was fleeting, but V's skin still tingled like she was fifteen and sneaking a girl she liked into a downtown Heywood cinema.
V swallowed, her throat suddenly as parched as the badlands. Determined to distract herself, she grabbed the remaining box of potstickers and broke out the pair of cheap, plastic chopsticks that she found floating around the bottom of the bag. They sat in silence as they ate, and V listened as the music from the club upstairs changed, the bass pounding through the walls and roof.
Fuck, but V could smell a faint hint of Judy's shampoo. The scent of it brought to mind vivid memories of curling around Judy at Laguna Bend, burying her face into the nape of Judy's warm neck and inhaling, exhausted and replete. Being with her then had felt effortless—like all the world and worries had faded 'til morning.
It was only when V was mostly done inhaling her box that she noticed Judy hadn't been eating. Instead, she was pushing a dumpling around in synth soy sauce with a chopstick, her smile faded.
V set aside her box, frowning. "No good?"
Judy blinked, not meeting V's eyes. V caught a slight waver in her inhale as she pushed away her food, leaving her chopsticks in the container.
"Judy?"
"V, I'm..." Judy finally looked at her, and her expression was one of unmistakable guilt. "I'm sorry about cancelling our date so last minute. Wasn't cool, and here you are being so damn sweet by bringing this food anyway. Especially with the time you have."
Or decided lack thereof, V corrected silently, trying to ignore the whisper of bone-deep exhaustion just recognising it elicited. She managed a smile. "It's fine, Judy. Promise."
"Don't tell me not to feel guilty." Judy didn't smile, and she looked back toward her screens, avoiding V's gaze again. "I just thought I could blitz all my projects and head home, then Susie got a call."
Judy sank back into her chair, and V watched her hand curl into a fist helpless fist, the leather of her editing glove creaking in the quiet. Her expression was bitter. "Next she tells me I can't leave ‘til I've come up with a serviceable first draft, 'cause fuck my plans and your precious time. 'The biz is the biz and the eddies are good'. Load of crock."
"Y’know, I'd have felt way worse if you hadn't sounded so fired up on the holo," V replied, pitching her tone light and breezy.
"Tch. Still am." Judy paused, casting V a sidelong look that softened in a way that made V's heart skip several beats. "But... for some reason my mood's kinda taken a turn for the better."
"Likewise," V said with a smile, and Judy's own returned.
"Ugh. Gonna get cavities with how sweet you are." Still smiling, Judy pulled her box back, scooping up a dumpling with her chopsticks. "Had it up to here with Mox operational crap, though. How was your day, V?"
"Oh, you know..." V hesitated, digging around her potsickers to stall for time.
There was no easy way to say that she'd spent her day rooting out scav haunts, or digging up political dirt. That she'd spent what felt like an eternity trying to talk down a paranoid veteran, just one bad day away from going full-blown cyberpsycho. Only for that all to be for naught, 'cause the guy blew his own brains out anyway.
That she nearly passed out from Relic malfunction three times that day, once with a fucking scav about to use her skull for baseball practice. Fuck, she was meant to be here to lift Judy's spirits, not drag her down into V's daily shitfest.
"I'd rather hear more about your day," V said, smooth as goddamn silk and not at all like she was dodging the question. "What's this big project about?"
The arched eyebrow Judy gave her says she absolutely noticed the deflection, no matter how sauve V thought she'd been. She didn't push, at least. V was happy to take that small mercy.
"Gig is both not my choice of projects, and very hush-hush. I'm technically not even supposed to have anyone down here." Judy's dark eyes flickered down to V's mouth, the curve of her smile turning flirtatious. "So, promise me those pretty lips of yours stay sealed."
"Sure." V felt her cheeks heat, and she took a hasty sip of her drink to disguise it.
Judy laughed. The sound of it was soft and sweet, and V suddenly didn't mind getting a little flustered just to hear it.
"Job is to edit a virtu scrolled by one Elisabeth Wissenfurth," Judy continued, the name rolling on her tongue, her eyes searching V's for a hint of recognition. "Know the name?"
"Elisabeth Wissenfurth..." V trailed off, thinking for a long moment. Her eyes widened as it hit her like a freight train. "Wait a second, isn't that... Lizzy Wizzy?"
"The very same." Judy leaned an elbow on her desk, looking back to her screens with a soft sigh. "Coulda had her pick of those high-budget BD studios—you know the ones, pumping out shallow, shock-value shit like Passion. Instead... she asked for the Mox. For me."
"Then at least she's got great taste." Thoughtful, V reclined in her chair, the springs squeaking in protest at the change in weight. "Goes a long way to explainin' all the cloak and dagger. And the rush. Doubt Lizzy's used to accommodating the lives of mere mortals like us."
"Got it in one," Judy said with a roll of her eyes, and she slouched back in her chair. "Hell, mighta even been a little starstruck—if I didn't hate the material so much."
"What's so bad about it?" V asked. Exactly what sort of BD material would get Judy to have second thoughts?
V's own encounters with Lizzy Wizzy had certainly been... memorable, to say the least. The last one, involving the covert disposal of the body of her boyfriend-slash-manager, had been particularly disturbing. V was no stranger to the realities of merc work in Night City—but even then, Lizzy's mannerisms in that motel room had still sent a chill down her spine.
"I just... don't like it." Judy’s expression was conflicted as she rested her chin on the palm of her hand. "Not the concept, that's fine. It's the material. There's just this... underlying tone to what she's scrolled."
"Like what?" V pressed, studying her. The light from the rig's screens reflected bright in Judy's eyes, lit up the colours in her hair in vivid relief. Fuck, she was so beautiful V got butterflies just looking at her. But—that was really only part of it, why V had decided to flip the Relic the bird and pursue something with Judy, imminent death be damned.
Part of it was the way Judy talked about editing and scrolling—with passion, a sharp intelligence, an attention to tiny details and a keen appreciation of the overarching pattern. V could listen to Judy talk about it for hours, even if she could understand but a fraction of the intricacies of cutting virtus.
"I can't really put my finger on it. It's like this weird emotional note—buried deep." Judy waved a hand, irritable. "Tried all afternoon to ignore it, and I can't figure out what the hell I'm dealing with in order to purge it from the cut. Hell, I'm not even sure I want to. Anyway, I'm sure listening to me complain is extremely boring."
"Nah, you got me all curious now." V settled back in her chair as if waiting to hear a story. She ignored the mess of bruises on her back as they seared in fierce complaint, easily turning her grimace of pain into a smile instead. "So. What's this BD about?"
"Sure you've seen it in all the screamsheets. People have been real thirsty for a day in the life of Lizzy, but it is not what people are expecting, which I'm into." Judy hesitated, her hand moving to the back of her neck and pressing her fingers into the nape of it with a wince. "What's giving me a headache is that she's really into this whole... alien thing, now."
V knew exactly what Judy was alluding to. Hell, she'd seen it herself, back in that motel room.
"Like she's moved beyond being human," she said, and Judy nodded vigorously in appreciation.
"That, exactly. She wants this BD to reflect some sort of post-human experience. A transhumanism. Think that's why I'm struggling to edit this thing." Judy sighed then, leaning heavily against her palm again and looking dispirited.
"So this is a stubborn artist moment, then?" V teased, unable to resist the urge to needle her.
"Call it whatever you want." Judy cast V a sharp look, her jaw setting. "I know 'stubborn artist' doesn't rake in the eddies."
V smiled, gently catching Judy's hand in her own on impulse. "But... it makes you happy."
Judy relaxed, her fingers intertwining with V's.
"Guess I'm just sort of over how... sterilised the BD industry is becoming. Editors are meant to cut away the chaff, the distractions. Fine-tune an experience, polish it 'til it sings or stings. But if you take too much, the emotions become one-note, shallow. They stop being real." Judy's eyes grew distant, and she seemed to stare through where their hands were entwined on the desk. "Human emotion—the rawness of it—that's what I love in my BDs."
"Messy and real." V tilted her head, a thought coming to her. "So, like Laguna Bend?"
"Precisely," Judy replied, her lips curling up into a smile. Her eyes flickered up and down V, a blatant reminiscence of that night in the shack. "There's so much beauty in the chaos—these layers and layers of complexity that can't be simulated. So, yes. I'm having trouble meeting the specs of this project, when I can't even characterise the feeling I'd be removing."
Judy's warm thumb traced the back of V's hand, leaving tingles in its wake. V's thoughts stuttered at the sensation, caught like they’d been snarled in a bramble. For a moment it was all she could think of. But Lizzy Wizzy's problem might be something she could help a little with, considering V had been there in the minutes following the death of Liam.
"I think..." V hesitated, squeezing Judy's hand one last time before letting go. Any more touching and she'd lose focus entirely. "Maybe Lizzy's struggling, a little. She converted fully to chrome a while back, got herself an almost completely digitised psyche. A PR stunt, yeah, but... There are changes. Maybe she's only just noticing how much."
She remembered too clearly how Lizzy's mannerisms had fluctuated. How she'd switched between grief, shock and detachment, like a switch kept getting flipped.
Out of the corner of her eye, V caught Johnny flicker into view. He'd been quiet since she'd arrived at the club, and he said nothing now. Back in the Voodoo Boys' data fortress, Alt had claimed Soulkiller fully digitised a psyche—and that Johnny knew it changed everything.
V felt a moment of cold dread, drenching—drowning. Was that what waited for her at Mikoshi?
"I think she feels alone in these changes." It came from V's mouth before she could think, before she could bury it beneath pretences. "She can't figure out how to handle it."
"You just might be onto something." Judy leaned forward on her desk, her eyes intense as they searched V's. "That's exactly what it is—it's coming through the stuff she scrolled as clear as day. Like..." Judy snapped her fingers, as if trying to find the words. "Like a low-key grief. A loneliness that she doesn't even know is there, but it's everywhere."
Judy sat back in her chair, her potstickers half finished and forgotten, studying the data on her screens. There was a feverish energy to her now, a fire lit in her gut.
With an effort, V pushed aside the cold knife of fear still lodged in her chest. Fuck it. It could join all the other unresolved baggage she didn't have the time to unpack.
"Annnd I've lost her," V drawled, eager to lighten the mood. If not for Judy, then herself.
Judy's eyes flickered back to her, and the smile she offered V was dazzling. "Just got a nova idea on how to cut this virtu so it shines like a diamond."
"You'll nail it, Jude. But I'll take that as my cue to leave." V winced as she staggered to her feet, still surprised at how quickly her back was locking up. Painkillers, stat. She bent to collect her box from the desk, tossing it in the bag with her empty soda can.
Judy rose to her feet as V turned to leave. She reached out, catching V's hand with her own, cradling it and stepping in close.
"Thank you, V. For dinner. For the inspiration. For just..." Judy exhaled quietly, smiling and looking up at V through her brightly coloured hair. "Being here."
"Nowhere else I'd rather have been." V couldn't seem to remember how to breathe. Not with Judy looking up at her with so much heat, the smell of her shampoo suddenly everywhere. Her voice was a little unsteady as she added, "Glad I could help."
"I'll just have to think of a way to thank you properly, once I finally get outta here." Judy's smile grew wicked, and V's thoughts abandoned her entirely as Judy curled a hand in her shirt collar and tugged her down.
Judy's kiss was open and wanting, and the darting flicker of her tongue and the scrape of her teeth against V's lower lip was enough to send her spiralling. V shivered hot-cold as she returned it in full. She released Judy's hand to cup at her face, pulling Judy closer because it wasn't enough, thumb curling across the warm curve of her cheek.
She slanted her mouth hard against Judy's, losing herself in the taste and smell of her, the sound of her breath catching when V grazed her hand up against the bare flesh of Judy's ribs. It was heady, a fucking trip better than the purest Black Lace—
Over by Judy's desk, a holo chimed. Judy broke away with a low, breathy curse. The few remaining functional braincells V had left noted with giddy exhilaration that Judy's lipstick was a mess, that she could feel a tiny tremble in the warm hand Judy had pressed to V's chest.
"That'll be Susie, asking for an update." Judy's lips were still so close V could practically feel each word against her own. "Gotta—gotta get to work."
"Fuck," V murmured, just as reverent as she was irritable. She buried her face into the crook of Judy's neck. "Yeah, yeah. I know."
Judy gently disentangled herself from V's embrace, clearing her throat. Still in a daze, V watched as Judy ran a careless hand through her mussed hair, the curve of her smile looking far too self-satisfied.
Catching V staring, Judy's smile widened as she winked.
"Call you later."
V’s thoughts were still scattered to the win as she slowly made her way up the stairs to the club. The thunder of music and the chatter of girls in the back area had slipped away, subsumed entirely by a pleasant buzz that almost felt like happiness. She hardly even noticed Susie giving her the narrowest stare as she passed out through Lizzie's main door, absently offering her a wave.
Hell, it felt like V was dreaming—if not for the heat that still coiled low in her stomach.
Johnny flickered into view as V approached Jackie's Arch, his arms crossed against his chest.
"Feeling better?" he asked.
"Feelin' something, alright," V replied, sliding onto the bike. It would likely be hours before Judy called, but V knew already she was going to be watching the holo all night.
"Jesus fucking Christ, V. You're still blushing." Johnny shook his head in feigned disgust, but not before V caught the small smile on his lips.
She flipped him the bird, grinning.