Work Text:
Misery became her, sometimes, Neon thought. When she let her hair down from its pigtails and changed into a thick hoodie and jogging trousers instead of her usual sportswear, she looked like she'd been made for the art of sulking.
Lying back in bed, with a half-empty water glass at her bedside and an empty box of painkillers in her bin, she was certain she looked quite a picture.
She deserved to mope, at the very least.
She'd never been officially diagnosed with whatever was ailing her joints. Doctors over the years had told her a dozen different things that might have been wrong with her, but most of her problems had been waved away.
You're hypermobile. You're too stressed. You might have an attention disorder, but I don't think it's worth pursuing at this time. Have you tried pilates? Have you tried taking a break from basketball? Do you tend to bruise easily? Do you find it hard to sit still or pay attention while people are talking to you? Have you tried cutting out carbs? Have you tried eating more protein? Have you tried eating more fibre? Have you tried losing weight?
After a while, it had all blended into one big, ugly smear of paint in her head. They'd never taken her seriously, and those who'd tried harder than others had never been able to understand her Radiance.
She was an outsider even in her own body, a medical mystery with joint pain and heavy burn scarring across the middle of her back.
"Ow," she grumbled to herself as she stretched out her legs and her ankles wept in protest.
She tended to hurt the worst the day after a mission. Throwing herself around tight corners, sliding on joints she probably trusted too much, and sprinting with voltage hurrying her alone weren't kind on her body, so it had become something of a routine that she'd take the day off after going out.
It was mortifying, and lonely when no one else got the day off with her, but she couldn't deny that she needed it.
The door slid open. Neon went still, her gaze shooting to the door which wasn't supposed to open for anyone except her.
No one was there. Neon frowned, wondering if the door opening had been a glitch, or perhaps an electrical short, but then a tendril of black smoke welled in the open doorway. She watched it take form, smoke coiling about itself and touching down to the floor to become paws.
It shifted, rearing a head into the open doorway, and as Neon squinted at it, she spotted a little glint of silver in its mouth.
"Prowler?" She questioned them. "What's that?"
She didn't know if the little cat could hear her, but it didn't much matter. She liked Fade's cats, despite the unfortunate way they'd met. Once they'd learned she wasn't a threat to Fade, they'd softened towards her.
They trotted across the room, their tail raised and trailing smoke as they went. They sprang up to join her on the bed and dropped their prize right on her chest.
Neon lifted it to examine it - it was a new pack of painkillers, with only two of the tablets missing.
Oh, Fade. Neon grinned at the gift, and gathered Prowler into her arms. While a real cat might have protested, Prowler melted happily into her hold, and she kissed the side of their smooth face.
"Thank you," she murmured, releasing them, but they seemed content to stay with her. They flattened their belly onto her chest and began to knead, making biscuits on the stretch of skin between her collarbones and her breasts. Their red eyes slid shut, and while they made no sound, Neon felt the rattling of their silent purring in their chest.
Cute. Biting her lip, she grabbed her phone, and reached awkwardly around Prowler to text her girlfriend.
Me - 11:18
Thank you for the painkillers
I took some not long ago, but they were my last ones
Bet you knew that tho :P
Fade read the message after a while. Her typing bubbles appeared, disappeared, and then came back before she answered her.
Mah(az)al - 11:20
Can't take credit for that.
I'm stuck in one of Brimstone's debriefs right now. Very boring.
Neon cocked her brow. She opened her camera and snapped a picture of Prowler on her chest, with the gifted tray of painkillers still visible on the pillow next to her.
Mah(az)al - 11:20
Doesn't ring a bell. They must just like you.
Me - 11:21
Uhuh.
Fade didn't answer her after that. Neon dropped her phone onto the bed and cuddled Prowler for a while longer, scratching them behind the ears - she couldn't exactly scratch them under the jaw when they only had more eyes there - until, eventually, their attention pricked towards the door, and they leapt away from her. They dissipated into smoke before they reached it, slipping easily underneath it and out of sight.
"Oh," Neon mourned, watching them go, and sank miserably back into bed, back to being alone.
That was, at least, until the door opened a second time, and Prowler came back with another gift.
This time, it was a little orange flower, its petals golden at their base but almost red at their tips. Neon recognised it as one of the flowers that grew around the island, deeper into the trees than she normally went, but still accessible if you were determined enough.
She beamed, and sent Fade another picture.
Me - 11:47
I suppose this has nothing to do with you, too?
Fade read her message right away, this time.
Mah(az)al - 11:47
Yep. No idea where they got that.
Neon snickered. She didn't believe that for a moment.
Like last time, Prowler stayed for a while, purring like a little engine on her chest until some instinctual force called them away, and a while later, they were back with a third gift.
This time, it was a packet of sweet corn puffs from the snack cupboard in the kitchen.
The next was a tube of lip balm she'd left in Fade's room, which made her realise her lips were feeling a little dry.
The fifth gift was a condom, which seemed to be a joke from the way Prowler leaped about the room with it instead of giving it to her, eyes squeezed nearly shut and tail flicking back and forth in the closest thing they had to laughter.
Fade denied having any part of any one of the gifts, but after each one, Prowler lingered, cuddling her and purring, so she could never quite feel like she was entirely alone. It was a sweet gesture her girlfriend simply refused to take any credit for, which was on brand for her.
She had a reputation to uphold, after all, and there wasn't much to be frightened of in a woman who spent the day nursing her aching girlfriend with tokens of her appreciation.
Fade came to see her in person that night, after her work day was over. She opened the door with her Radiance, as she'd done with Prowler, and ducked through with two steaming bowls of food.
"Hi, sinta," Neon welcomed her with a grin, glad for her company, and if Fade just so happened to look exactly like Prowler had when they'd brought her their gifts, she kept it cleverly to herself.