Chapter Text
Gentle breeze swept across the terrace. Sunset was just about done with illuminating the sky in shades of amber. Even the moon started to get visible, despite all the light pollution.
And yet, none of that natural beauty was what captured V’s attention, and certainly not the real moon.
Instead, he was fully engrossed in sight of Blue Moon - one third of the world-famous girl band Us Cracks - who sat right across from him.
‘Vwhhpp,’ Johnny simulated a vinyl scratch sound before adopting his best version of V’s voice. ‘You may wonder how I got into this situation.’
His impersonation of the merc was exceptionally accurate, down to the way the man made emphasis towards words at the end of the sentence. It wasn’t particularly surprising, though. After all, they’ve spent every moment of every day for the past year or so together. The fact that it was all projected into V’s head helped too.
‘Ah, shut it, Johnny! I already have the paparazzis to distract me here.’
V referred to the eager crowd of people, all broadcasting live from cameras or implants, bunched up behind a red velvet rope that separated the main restaurant area from the VIP area. In truth, the real deterrent was a small squad of bodyguards stationed right behind the flimsy barrier.
“Ugh,” Blue Moon grunted, realising what distracted V from their conversation, “next time I’ll just hire out the whole venue so we can enjoy some peace and quiet.”
“Do they bother you, V?”
“Nah, not really,” the merc answered truthfully. The paps bothered him at the very beginning of their relationship, but he quickly learned to ignore them.
It was one of those things that came ‘naturally’ with dating an international star. Plus V got plenty of pep talks from the resident-on-premise rockstar which helped as well.
Rocker’s earlier joke had crept back to the top of the man’s mind.
‘How did I get into this, exactly?’
——
‘They are even more adorable in person.’ V’s mind drifted completely off-topic as he saw the three members of Us Cracks up close for the first time.
If circumstances were different, he would certainly try to chat one of them up. Especially the blue-haired one. Her entire look and demeanour struck a chord with the merc that he didn’t realise was there.
But… there he was, breaking into their backstage room with incognito Kerry Eurodyne, who suddenly started to wave a revolver around like it was some sort of magic wand that could make the girl band unsteal his song.
“And who the fuck are you?!” Keeping up with her explosive persona, Red Menace was the first to stand up to the unknown man.
“I’m the man you robbed!” The rocker discarded his hat and glasses to reveal his very recognisable face.
“Kerry Eurodyne? Kerry-San?!” Blue Moon burst into a fangirl-level of excitement, seemingly completely forgetting about the large gun being waved in her general direction.
In the end, after some extensive intervention from V, all misunderstandings were cleared and the real villain - unsurprisingly to anyone - turned out to be the label that dealt behind the musician’s backs.
In the end, the trio and Kerry had agreed to collaborate, with the aging rocker becoming their mentor and producer of sorts.
They even decided to take a pic for social media to commemorate the event. V, convinced the whole situation had been resolved due to him providing the voice of common sense, had blagged his way into the photo as well.
——
He’d clearly made an impression on Us Cracks with his ability to defuse a situation. Well, at least with one of them.
Opening yet another text from an unknown number, a common occurrence for a merc in demand, V was pleasantly surprised to find that it came from none other but the cute blue-haired Us Cracks chick that he had met a while back.
“Huh, curious,” he spoke out loud to himself, sitting up from the bed and heading for the shower.
‘Hold your horses, big boy.’ Fully aware of the chain of thought that triggered in merc’s brain, Johnny was quick to land the man back to earth. ‘She just wants your services. Protection, standard gig style. Don’t get too ahead of yourself.’
“Yeah, yeah. I know.” V kept talking out loud as he got under a hot stream of water. “But she must have an army of bodyguards, etcetera. Why’d she ask for me specifically?”
‘Cos you know the place better, probably. Plus this seems like a hush-hush affair.’ Johnny, leaning against the wall right outside of the shower kept pushing his point. ‘Although…’
‘What?’
‘She did look at you all sweetly-like when you were parting ways back at the club…’
“Don’t fuck with me, Johnny”
‘I am not, hand on heart!’
“So what should we do?”
‘Help her out, duh! Bottom line, can’t get in her pants if she’s brutally murdered by some psycho disgruntled fanboy.’
——
‘She looks cute A-F in her incognito getup,’ V thought as his eyes followed Blue Moon from the balcony level.
‘So unprofessional,’ Johnny scolded with an overbearing degree of sarcasm. ‘She does, though.’
Identifying and apprehending the stalker proved to be quite easy. V scanned every person moving in Blue Moon’s general direction for long enough. Vast majority of them were just passers-by, with a few potential targets that ultimately proved to be red herrings. Then there was a woman with an associated tag of ‘Green Cloud’. Connecting the tag with the threatening letters tagged ‘GC’, the merc vaulted the rail, landing softly ten meters-ish behind the stalker.
‘Amateur,’ V thought as he spotted his target making a turn for the gun shop. While the intention was disturbing, the fact that she didn’t bring a gun and/or ammo was kind of pathetic. On the other hand, it was reassuring. This meant he had a chance to talk her down.
‘Talking down’ didn’t quite work out, but a quick bash to the temple did. Woman’s body went limp and dropped to the floor. A moment later, V was joined by blue-haired client of his.
“V! You okay? I heard yelling.” Blue Moon rushed to the man’s side, clearly worried. He couldn’t help but find the concern quite endearing.
“All good. Found your stalker.” He titled his chin at the unconscious woman.
“Oh my…” Blue Moon knelt to inspect the stalker’s face closer. “I know her! She came to all of my concerts, bought so much of my merch too! How could she suddenly hate me so much?!”
“I think it might be something to do with her boyfriend leaving her to pursue you instead. They were fans together.” V answered with a shrug before realising from the woman’s confused expression that he didn’t explain where he got the info from.
“Hacked her phone, there are some spicy messages on there in that regard. You don’t wanna know, to be honest.”
“He sounds like a jerk.” Blue Moon pouted, before giving the unconscious woman an understanding glance.
“So, what do you wanna do? Should I call the police?” V really wasn’t sure how to deal with this whole situation. Celebrity-stalker relations weren’t really his area of expertise.
“Can we wait for her to wake up? I want to talk to her. Please.” Blue Moon pleaded.
“Really? Fiiine. You are paying for this, after all.” V shrugged before picking up the unconscious woman.
“Give way,” he gently asked the gathered onlookers, “she’s just not feeling well. Gonna take her to an ER.”
Instead, he found a quiet back alley behind the software shop where they could all talk in private without any unwanted attention.
“Hey, wake up.” After checking Green Cloud’s vitals, the merc decided she was in a state enough to shake her awake, although he was gentle nonetheless. Getting knocked out was no joke, he knew that better than most.
“Uh what, where?” The woman took a while to orient herself.
“Oh fuck!” When she finally realised who was standing in front of her, she pushed herself against the wall, trying to crawl as far as possible, but failing.
“I am so sorry!” She started to weep suddenly. “I didn’t… didn’t mean to…my boyfriend… he…” She could barely speak between the sobs.
“It’s okay. Griselda, right?” Blue Moon, with a softest expression imaginable, knelt next to the crying woman, placing a comforting hand on her shoulder.
“Yes. That’s my name.”
“Your boyfriend sounds like a big fat jerk,” the Us Cracks singer smirked softly.
“He is…” The other woman couldn’t help but smile through tears. Blue Moon’s charm was on another level.
In the end, the pair had come to an understanding. Blue Moon went as far as offering VIP tickets to Girselda and a friend of her choosing. The caveat was that they would be closely watched by security, a condition the would-be-stalker had agreed to immediately. The two parted with a hug.
The whole resolution felt like some sort of bizarre fan fantasy to V, but who was he to judge or argue.
——
“Thank you, V. I really appreciate it.” The merc and the singer were standing next to her driver’s SUV, conveniently parked in another closed-off alley to avoid unnecessary attention.
“No probs, was happy to help,” the merc admitted sincerely. “I’m still not sure letting her go was the best idea though.”
“Well, maybe I just need to find someone to protect me at all times then,” Blue Moon winked in response.
“Not really in the bodyguard business,” V retorted, quickly realising it sounded a bit harsh. “This was just a favour for a friend in need.”
“I know, I know,” Blue Moon giggled, “I’m just teasing ya.”
She came closer, placing her hands on V’s chest and raising to her tiptoes to reach properly before placing a soft smooch on the man’s cheek.
“Thank you, V. You probably saved my life today.”
“Heh, heh…” For once, V was lost for words. It took a moment for him to regain his composure. “Take care, Blue Moon.”
The singer stepped away, blushing. She was almost all the way into her car before she suddenly turned back at the merc.
“It’s Aoi, by the way. My real name is Aoi.”
V’s translator implant had done it’s thing, which, in turn, confused the merc. “Doesn't that also mean Blue?”
“How’d you think we all got our stage names?” The woman winked before disappearing into the depths of the vehicle which promptly sped away, just as soon as the automatic doors closed.
‘Your BPM was through the roof there, mate.’ Johnny’s blue silhouette materialised nearby.
“Can ya blame me?” V smirked sheepishly.
‘Definitely not. She’s the cutest of the lot, if you ask me. Kerry included.’
Both laughed out loud, V grateful that there was noone around to witness it.
“I can’t date popstars at the moment.” Sudden gloomy realisation overcast a good moment.
‘So ya keep telling me. Is that why you blew off the nomad chick too?’
‘Panam? Nah, that’s different. She’s a great choom, but I just can’t deal with the nomad lifestyle.’
‘Fair, fair…’ Johnny went pensive for a bit. ‘So what, you just gonna stick with fucking an occasional corpo that happens to come by now?’
‘I’ve been a bit preoccupied with some other stuff lately, like not dying and getting into Mikoshi. In case you forgot?’ V’s response was both harsh, and weak in conviction. It was clear the merc desperately needed at least some good thing in his life, because those were scarce to say the least.
‘So you keep saying,’ Johnny retorted drily. On that note, we may want to give Vik a visit.’
——
Visit to Vik turned out to be much better than expected.
“Listen, kid,” the ripper lowered his ever-present shades, “for once I may bring strictly good news.”
“Huh?” V would have leant back in disbelief if it wasn’t for the stiff ripper chair that held him firmly in place. “Don’t fuck with me like that, Vik. it’s cruel.”
“I meant it!” By the man’s smile V could tell he wasn’t joking. “Omega blockers are working wonders, literally. It ain’t nothing short of a miracle.”
“What’s that mean?”
“Not only is the Relic not progressing, its damage started to retreat!” Vik threw his hands into the air in excitement, before turning solemn again. “Now, don’t get your hopes up just yet. It won’t go away fully, especially as long as the chip’s still in your head.”
“But at this rate, unless something goes horrible wrong, it should be fine for a while. You might get away with going like this for years, not months.”
“That’s amazing, Vik!” V shot up from the chair in excitement. “You the man! Would be dead without ya!”
“That you would.” The ripper crossed his arms smugly. “But make sure you still take the pills. This will all be for naught if you keep skipping on ‘em.”
“I will, I will,” V promised before shooting off the chair and heading towards the exit. “Thanks a million Vik! Cya!”
“Cya, kid…”
——
‘Good to hear you got more time, my man!” Sitting in the passenger seat of the Avenger, Johnny lit up yet another digital cig.
‘You okay with this, Johnny?’ V referred to the prolonged timeline of their connected living.
‘Gotta tell ya, kid. I’ve learnt to enjoy being a backseat driver in this life of yours.’ Johnny took a long drag before continuing. ‘Beats going back into the black ether of nothingness.’
‘But… you gotta do one thing for me now, a’ight?’
‘What is it?’ V prepared for an ask to give up control to Johnny again, and the inevitable hangover that would follow.
‘Give that Blue Moon chick a ring, will ya? Last time I checked, she’s still in town. Recording with Kerry.’
‘Fiiiiiiine,’ the merc dragged out the response on purpose, for dramatic effect. In fact, this was his first thought when he realised his death timer had been extended indefinitely.
‘Now let’s hope she still meant it when she said she wanted to meet again.’