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“Are you trying to embarrass yourself, or does this just come naturally to you?”
V rolled her eyes, leaning against the balcony outside of her apartment. “Does being an asshole come naturally to you?”
“You already know the answer to that.” Johnny stood beside her, smoking a cigarette. It was a force of habit by now. There was no kick to it, no rush of nicotine. Just an image generated between his fingers.
He flicked the ashes over the edge, the embers disappearing into digital nothingness. Ones and zeroes, stuck inside V’s head.
“Just tell her how you feel, V.”
V shook her head. “No. Absolutely not.”
“It’s like dealing with a goddamn teenager with you.” He smacked the back of her head. “You’ll regret it forever if you don’t tell her.”
V laughed at that. “No I won’t, cause I’ll be dead.”
“Hey, you don’t know that.”
“Why’re you trying to help me, anyway?” V nudged Johnny with her elbow. “Being a wingman doesn’t seem like your style.”
Johnny let the remainder of his cigarette fall from his fingers, fading out of existence about 15 feet down. Already he was lighting another. “I just… I don’t want you to make the same mistakes I did. And maybe that’s me getting soft, maybe you are rubbing off on me. But you might not get a second chance like I did with Rogue.” He sighed, looking up at the starless night sky. “If things do end up going south, I’d feel too guilty about you not being able to live your life to the fullest in your final moments.”
It really wasn’t like him to want to help people like this. Being an asshole was his personality. The problem was, against his better judgement, he’d grown to care about V. She was an outcast, rejected by the society around her. V never signed up for any of this. She didn’t know this stream of shit ran all the way up Shit Mountain.
Most importantly, Arasaka had screwed V over time and time again. Johnny couldn’t fucking stand Arasaka. If helping V meant sticking it to Saburo and everyone else who treated him like a god, well, then, he was gonna help V.
And yeah. Maybe V had rubbed off on him a little. Maybe she’d wired his brain to be a little kinder. Who’s to say.
“So, what do you want me to do, then?” V asked. She was fiddling with her hair. She only did that when she was nervous. “I don’t even know if she likes me.”
Johnny rolled his eyes. “Then you’re just as blind as you are stupid.”
Oops. That was a little too mean. V huffed, turning away from Johnny.
“Remember how she connected our brains, or whatever the hell that was?”
“Yeah. For the BD.”
“Our emotions were connected with hers, right? So she could feel me, kicking and screaming in your brain. And we could feel-”
“Her emotions.” V ran her hands down her face, groaning. “I’m so fucking stupid.”
Johnny smirked. “You made it there eventually.”
“But what do I do? I’m not good at this.”
“Obviously.”
V scowled at him as she continued. “I’ve never been the type to just be like ‘hey, hi, how are you, I’m in love with you, let’s go have sex,’ like,” She sighed, “I wanna do this right. It’s what she deserves.”
She was probably right about that, after all the shit that had gone down with the Parker woman. At least Judy knew why V was messed up.
Throwing the end of his latest cigarette, Johnny watched it fade as it arced over the gap. “You’re both into nerd shit, right?”
“‘Nerd shit?’”
“Fine. Reading. Give her a book you like, use it as an excuse to talk to her, blah blah blah, start scissoring.”
“See, it’s the ‘blah blah blah’ part I’m concerned about. How I get from point A to point B.”
“You cross that bridge when you get to it.” Johnny cocked his head towards V’s apartment. “Come on, let’s get this over with.”
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It had taken V hours to decide what to give Judy. Didn’t help that V’s apartment was full of knick-knacks and tchotchkes, unread books and loose shards and forgotten lipsticks. It was a little amazing how V had managed to collect all this stuff in the cesspool that was Night City especially since it was all, to Johnny’s knowledge, the real deal.
She’d ended up on a book, one with a red “leather” hardcover with flowers carved into the material. It was one V hadn’t finished, but it was a good story. Not that Johnny had read it. Or at least he’d never admit it to her.
A book was nothing without a bookmark, so V scoured her belongings again for something proper. It ended up being a small paper flower, hand-folded by a child who had lived a few doors down from V. But Night City wasn’t a good place to raise a kid. After the untimely demise of another neighbor, they’d chosen to leave the city and move, well, anywhere else. Not a bad idea.
V paced back and forth. Johnny had gotten her as far as the door to Judy’s apartment. Now, it was on her to take the next steps. The problem was, she’d gotten wishy-washy.
“I can’t do this.”
“Yes, you can. Just ring the fucking doorbell and act like a human being.”
“How did you do this so well back in the day?”
Johnny leaned back against the wall, crossing his arms. “Usually I’d just spread my legs, and there was someone backstage willing to get the rest of the job done.”
“That’s not helpful.”
“I never said it was.”
Suddenly, the door to Judy’s apartment opened. She raised an eyebrow at V, who froze.
Judy’s hair was a little mussed, as though she’d recently woken up from a nap. “Hey, V.”
V swallowed heavily. Johnny could tell V’s mouth was dry, because his mouth got dry. One of the downsides to living in someone else’s body.
“I, ah, could see you pacing on the camera. Is everything ok?”
“Yeah. Yeah everything’s fine.” Shit. V was short-circuiting.
In an effort to get V back on track, Johnny pushed her forward. Even though his presence was completely digital, she still moved a step, as though she’d actually been pushed.
“Um, I…” V held out the book she’d chosen in front of her. “I wanted you to have this. It’s a book I like.”
“Oh.” Judy took the book into her hands, gently turning it over. Real paper books were hard to come by in Night City.
She opened the book and, pressed inside, was the small paper flower.
Her voice fell to little above a whisper. “V, I… I don’t know what to say.”
“I wanted to thank you for everything you’ve done to help me.” A blush bloomed across V’s cheeks. “I know it’s not much, but I thought you might like it.”
“It’s beautiful.” She looked up at V, gazing through those long, dark eyelashes of hers. “Do you want to come in?”
V nodded wordlessly.
In a move he knew he’d be bullied for later, just as V was stepping over the threshold, Johnny stuck his foot out. It was juvenile. It was stupid. And it ended up with V right on top of Judy.
“Shit, I’m sorry.” V said, scrambling to lift herself up on her hands. “I don’t know what-”
Judy cut her off with a kiss, pulling V back down on top of her. V melted into the embrace.
Mission accomplished. Johnny faded into the back recesses of V’s mind. This was all on her now.