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V didn't really have the time to check out most of the stuff she hauled off of the Ebunike that Smasher had stashed in his private little armory. She threw whatever looked good into the van and stored it in the garage section of Vik's clinic.
Johnny teased her about it, said that if anyone else asked the ripperdoc to safe keep a bunch of weapons from one of Arasaka's biggest nightmares for them he would kick them out on their ass.
"Face it, V. The guy may act like he doesn't have favorites but you’re definitely a special case,'' he commented with an amused look on his face.
Back then V rolled her eyes in good humor 'cause yeah she was aware of that, and she tried not to abuse that privilege too often.
The point was that until now she was too busy to even think about the stuff she took. The aftermath of Mikoshi, finding Johnny and helping him get back to life, healing from her brain damage. It was a lot but now she finally had time to check it out.
It was after hours in Vik's clinic, patients done for the day, the man himself was tinkering with something at his desk while V and Johnny looked through the cases and boxes. Well V looked, Johnny stood leaning against a wall, arms crossed over his chest, and refused to touch anything that belonged to the borg.
"You're not plannin' on keepin' any of this shit, are you?" he asked after a while.
V looked up at him from where she sat on the concrete floor. He looked almost disturbed by that thought alone.
"No, not really. I was mostly curious what nightmare material he kept there but it was just mostly weapons and ammo," she said with a shrug.
Johnny's posture relaxed a little after that.
"What did you expect to find?" he asked with a raised eyebrow.
"I don't know, trophies of some kind? Seemed like the kind of psycho who would do something like that. You walk in and what's that? Stuffed and preserved head of one of his enemies? I wouldn't be surprised. And...," she huffed, shaking her head.
But that wasn't the only reason why she took that access card from his body with the intention to use it in the future.
She looked away from Johnny to the case of ammunition in front of her.
"And?" he prompted when she kept silent for too long.
V sighed and pulled herself up to her feet. She walked over to Johnny and shook her head.
"I wanted to make sure that he didn't have anything else of yours still," she admitted.
The car and gun were bad enough but as she was ripping his armory apart, a few days after Mikoshi, alone, terrified, and dying, she thought that if she found another thing of Johnny's in his possession she would lose her fucking mind and blow the Ebunike up sky-high right then and there. She still tossed a grenade in there as she was leaving, just for good measure. She didn't find anything while tearing the place apart and now going through the rest nothing came up either which eased some of the anger she felt.
Johnny's face stayed the same but his eyes softened at her admission, something like gratitude shining from them.
"Seems like the Malorian and the Porsche were the only things as far as I can tell, and we recovered both, so," she shrugged feeling tired all of a sudden.
Thinking of Smasher had that effect. Having Johnny's memories of him combined with her own was a sure way for a migraine to set in. She still wasn't sure how she stayed alive while confronting him one on one, alone with only Johnny in her head, the Malorian in her hand, and a shit tone of combat hacks, but she survived.
Not only survived but killed that fucker with satisfaction. Back then she decided that if killing Smasher was the only thing that she could actually do for Johnny, then by god she was going to do it. And she did. It haunted her nightmares still, him shooting Johnny, him shooting her instead, the fear she felt both times. If she could go back and kill him again just to make herself feel better she would. She said as much to Johnny with a sigh.
"And I would cheer you on again," he smirked a little.
V snorted and crossed her arms.
"This time around would be easier. You know, with not actively dying and all," she said.
"V, dyin' or not, the way you took him down was still one of the hottest things I have ever seen, trust me on that," he said, swiping his hand through the air.
V's lips twitched up in amusement. Only he would actually think that.
"Which reminds me...," he said with a faraway look in his eyes.
Then V nearly jumped when his eyes snapped back to her, intense and focused.
"What?" she asked.
Johnny didn't answer. Instead, he straightened up from his slouch against the wall and took a step closer to her, right into her personal space.
"You killed Smasher for me," he said quietly, voice low, eyes narrowed like he just remembered it.
V's brows furrowed in confusion, but she didn't have the time to ask him any questions.
In the next second his hands were on the sides of her face, pulling her in, and his lips on hers in a deep, unhurried kiss. Her eyes fluttered and finally closed with a soft exhale. The chrome hand was cold on her face, his lips soft on hers. She uncrossed her arms and after a moment of hesitation put her hands on his waist. This part of their relationship was still new, both of them were afraid to do something that would mess it up, so they took things one step at a time, without rushing into anything.
V moved her lips against his, kissing him back and parting her lips, so he could deepen the kiss more. He did, moving one hand into her hair to tilt her head a little for a better angle, and the quiet sound she made got muffled against his lips. She could have stayed like this forever, but they were at Vik's and V respected him too much to start anything in his space. Johnny also did apparently 'cause he finally pulled away but not before leaning in for one more, lingering close-mouthed kiss.
V swayed into him after that, almost chasing his lips but instead reminded herself where she was again. Both of them were breathing a little heavier than before, her lips tingling.
Johnny slid his hand from her hair and put it back on her cheek.
"Don't think I ever thanked you for doing that," he said, continuing on his previous thought.
V hummed as her eyes opened, and she smiled at him.
"As far as thank yous go I'd say this was a pretty good one," she said.
"'Course it was," he smirked. "Now that I'm thinkin' about it there's a bunch of other stuff I should probably thank you for as well."
"Oh? And how are you going to do that?" she teased and felt lighter than she did in a while.
"I'm sure I'll think of something. Who knows, maybe you'll even enjoy it."
V cursed under her breath, the innuendo in his words loud and clear, and he laughed when she pulled him in for a quick kiss before releasing him and turning back to the stuff that needed to be sorted.
"Maybe I will if you try hard enough," she said casually, sitting back down on the ground.
"Oh, V," Johnny sighed, shaking his head. "I'm going to rock your world, just you wait."
V had to bite her smile down.
"We'll see."