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“It’s 4AM V, go the fuck back to sleep.”
V had been tossing and turning for hours, Johnny could sleep through that, but now he’s (albeit very quietly) talking to someone over the holo and that’s just a step too far.
“Gimme a minute,” the merc whispers softly to whoever is in the other end of the call, “Just fuck off if I’m disturbing your beauty sleep, no one asked you to lurk on the side of my bed.” he hisses to Johnny.
“Where else am I going to go in the middle of the night? Sides, I’ve been looking after your interests.” V looks at the Rockerboy quizzically. “The egg moves…”
V follows Johnny’s eyes over to the other side of the room, it was on the tip of his tongue to ask what new gonkery Johnny had dreamt up to stop him talking to Kerry when he saw it, the egg moved. “I’ll call you back.” he tells his new input and crawls over the bedding to sit next to his imaginary friend. “What’s it doing?” he asks in hushed tones.
“How the fuck should I know?” Johnny replies, “and why are we whispering?”
V shrugs, if he’s honest the stupid egg had been sat in that bowl for so long he’d presumed it was a lost cause, but there it was rattling around the ceramic and making a gentle tapping noise. “How long’s it been, y’know, moving?”
“Couple of hours. Few more and you’ll be living the high life.”
Johnny receives another confused look, “What?”
“Think of the eddies V, there’s idiots who’ll pay through the nose for an iguana.”
They sit staring a little while longer as the egg jumps and skitters around the bowl, “What’s an iguana?”
The exasperated look Johnny gives V is almost audible, “It’s a lizard,” he tells him surprisingly patiently, “mostly found in South America. Though where a low-rent merc like you found it I can’t imagine. Been looking at that thing for months wondering if it was ever going to do something.”
V goes over to the bowl crouching until it’s at eye level and looking with child-like wonder as a tiny crack appears in the shell. “Got it from Yorinobou’s suite at Konpeki Plaza, wasn’t even sure the lizard was real, it was just sitting there like some kind of weird statue. Thought the egg would make a preem souvenir… though it turns out I got more than one of them that day.”
Johnny nods, “Shoulda maybe stopped at the lizard.” He looks at the back of V’s head waiting for a reaction, receiving none he crouches down beside him joining the vigil. “Look, you can see it through the crack.”
Sure enough, movement can be seen through the growing crack, a tiny nibbling action working on expanding the hole and making an escape.
“I used to know a guy in the market in Japantown that traded in exotic shit like this, doubt he’s still there but someone over there’s bound to still do shady lizard related dealings.” V nods in a non-committal way, he’s mesmerised by the newly revealed pink nose poking through the gap with every nibble. “Ten thousand at least,” Johnny continues, “prolly more, if you’re lucky there’s a few gonks out there ready to get into a bidding war for a super-rare dude like this one.”
“Jackie would’ve really loved this,” V murmurs wistfully, “he’d be calling Misty over so they could sit and watch it together thinking of names and picking out tanks.”
“Yeah well, you’ve just got me. Call it Eddie and let someone else do the hard work.”
The two men continue to stare at the slowly dissolving egg, mesmerised by the emerging hatchling. When nothing appears to happen for several seconds the pair exchange worried looks, but the tiny animal is merely taking a breather from its hard work and soon resumes the destruction of its former home. More of its face is revealed, big eyes and bright green skin, a pink tongue helping it gulp down its first meal. V’s face softens, this may be the most magical thing he’s ever witnessed – apart from that one guy who miraculously came back to life after V’s blades cut his head off, but that was more a cyberware malfunction than an actual miracle.
“What do iguanas eat?”
“How the fuck should I know, bugs or some shit. It’ll do just fine in here.”
V considers giving Johnny a dark look for that crack, but he has a point; Nibbles is often noisily wrestling some sort of wildlife in the middle of the night.
“You’re not seriously thinking about keeping it? Think of the eddies!”
Both pair of eyes swing back to the tiny lizard drawn by the sound of the egg shell quietly falling to one side allowing the hatchling to push itself free and lay panting in the detritus. It’s intelligent eyes roam curiously around the room finally focusing on a surprised Johnny who lifts a finger to stroke it’s head. “It can see me!” He marvels as the creature preens under his touch.
“There’s a tank at Jackie’s place we could use,” muses V.
“Nah, this one’s a free spirit. Let it have the run of the place, it can share bug duties with your ugly cat.”
“The ugly cat you spend most of the day murmuring to whilst you’re both curled up on the couch?”
“Only cuz you’re such shit company. Look, it wants to get out of the bowl”
V gently lets the lizard skitter onto his hand and holds it up to look it over. Johnny leans in looking over V’s shoulder and the men have matching smiles as the hatchling’s tail wraps around V’s wrist. “I think I’m gonna call it Jack.” The brown eyes look straight into V’s and seem to approve.
“Yeah, that’s a good name, I’m just gonna, y’know keep an eye on it for while.”
“You do that Johnny.” Says V grinning.