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It was beginning to darken outside. Moonlight waned over yonder, slipping into the brisk air of the H10 apartment. Clouds would occasionally dance around it, prompting its silver glimmer to slip behind them whenever they got too close. Sharp neons reconciled with the brilliance of the night, casting away the stars. And the sounds of the usual Night City life were all but a murmur in the background of the room’s humble ambience.
V sat on the couch, browsing local TV channels as her eyes dulled to the glaring sensations of the screen’s harsh light against the darkness of her room. She could feel exhaustion clinging to her, telling her to take a break. If she were being honest with herself, that was all she wanted as well. But V was rarely ever honest with herself.
Even if she wanted to sleep, V was positive her brain would still keep her up. Telling her of jobs she could take. Of things she could do to save her life. The mindless buzz of her mind would make it impossible for her to find even a comfortable position to try and fall asleep. And so, the better option for her was to just rest her body on the couch and stare at the TV. A way to keep her attention off of her lingering doubts about saving her life, and a way to turn her brain off for once.
The radio was tuned into a classical station in the background, but she heeded it no mind. V always found it better when she had more than the hum of the apartment to listen to. A way to keep herself busy, her brain busier. She was constantly under stress, a myriad of overstimulation constantly thwarting her nerves. At this point, if she didn’t have at least two things playing at once in her apartment, she felt like she’d go insane.
The sound of a glitch reverberated through her mind, distant yet close. From V’s peripheral vision, she spotted Johnny Silverhand propping himself up on the couch, legs spread and sporting a keen look to his face. She couldn’t see his eyes from behind the darkened glint of his aviators, but the merc could still tell he was looking at her, watching her every move.
V tried to keep her eyes stuck to the TV screen. Her self conscious nature was beginning to settle in a small tinge against the back of her mind, feeling the man’s eyes on her. She hated it when he did that, it always made her feel off, weird too. A twist in her gut and a supple flush of warmth to the cheeks. V never felt like that. She wasn’t supposed to.
“The fuck is playing on the radio?” Johnny suddenly spoke. His tone was abrasive as usual, sharply curt too. Though there was a subtle softness clinging to it. V had taken notice of this for awhile now. When they first met, his voice almost always gleaned a rude note to it, his demeanor affronted with anger and frustration. They never saw eye to eye. And even at this point they rarely did either.
But something had happened after that morning at the Pistis Sophia. And especially after that night out in the oil field. Their relationship was still shaky, but on the mend.
V sucked in a sharp breath, not quite ready to talk to anyone. She needed some alone time, to just shy away from her thoughts and pretend she had all the time in the world. But with the inclination of Johnny’s question, she found it difficult to not humor him.
“It’s a song,” she replied, curt in her tone as well.
Johnny sounded a small huff at this and worked to glitch a cigarette into his digitized existence. He lit it and took a drag, continuing to stare at V the whole time. Eventually, he released a puff of smoke out into the air, watching it drift away and scatter into small fragments of data that would never be recovered. “Know that,” he said. “Sounds weird. Ain’t no station in NC that plays shit like this.”
It was true. There wasn’t a station that played the songs that V sometimes found herself tuning the radio to whenever she needed a form of escape. Incidentally, she’d found a way to jailbreak hers and find a station that did play what she wanted, though she rarely had the time to listen to it anymore given everything that had happened. The TV was still loud against the rest of the apartment’s ambience, but the merc worked to tune it out in favor of hearing what was on the radio.
A waltz was playing, an older one by some Russian composer whom V didn’t care to learn the name of. It started off quiet, fixed to the low hum of violins and cellos. Very soon though, it crescendoed. The merc listened along with a pleasant smile pulled against her lips. She rarely ever had the time for such mundane things after all.
Classical music was something that Jackie was surprised by when V admitted to him she enjoyed it. T-Bug was impressed and actually pleased to indulge in the hobby with someone. She supposed it was due to how she was brought up, her parents having had her tastes attuned to what they preferred, what they wanted out of it. And even though she despised them with all her heart, some things still stuck it seemed.
With Johnny though, V never really showed her hobbies off to him. She didn’t have the time to, didn’t have the courage to show him what she enjoyed as well. There was no reason to, it didn’t factor in their relationship. He was her tumor and they were both trying to expel him from her body. Who had the time to indulge in such frivolous things?
As her body relaxed into the folds of the music, V could feel Johnny’s inkling of surprise dash across her own feelings. He continued to stare at her, mouth hanging open just slightly, ready to speak. She felt the words on the tip of his tongue. But he bit them down, contained them. It was likely they were an insult to her tastes, something that could break down their already rocky relationship. And he knew better than to speak them.
“Didn’t finger ya for the classical type,” the rockerboy eventually said after a moment. V could feel his contemplation on what to say. The twisting in her gut became increasingly sharp.
“Lemme guess, gonna call me a preppy bitch for liking it?” the merc asked, enticing a small smirk to her lips. She knew she was tempting him, but she didn’t care.
To V’s surprise though, Johnny didn’t take the bait. Instead, he stayed where he was, his brain abuzz right up against hers. She could almost hear his thoughts, but it was too muffled, too incoherent for her to catch onto anything. Eventually, he spoke, “Nah. S’just surprised is all. Wouldn’t have thunk it, but Kerry’s also into this kinda shit.”
Huh. So no calling her a stuck-up corpo or a preppy suit for her tastes in music? V was surprised. Usually, Johnny would take every opportunity he could to insult what she did. From the clothes she would wear to the gigs she would work and how she would work them. But lately, he’d been rather on the quiet side with his jabs towards her. And she didn’t know if she liked the change or if it was too off-putting compared to what he usually was like.
“Ah, so I get a pass for this 'cause Kerry’s into it, is that right?” V asked. Her tone was teetering on sarcasm, trying to irk Johnny in some way. But no, he didn’t react how he typically did to her words. Instead, he kept quiet, contemplating, mulling over his next words.
“Could have worse taste in shit,” Johnny replied after a minute.
V arched a brow. “Like?” She could feel his brain working, trying to find something that wouldn’t sound like an insult to her. Odd. The music had died down back into a quiet lull against the muffled Night City ambience from outside. The TV was barely above a whisper within the backdrop of the waltz reverberating from the radio. Johnny’s thoughts were by far the loudest. Still, he’d managed to keep them quiet from V.
“Like your clothes, for one.” Johnny sounded a little peeved when he spoke, his head dipped down against his chrome hand. The other still held his cigarette, curled and crushed between the fingers. V wondered if he would even bother trying to smoke it anymore. “Never understood your taste. S’what gonks at the Afterlife think looks edgy and cool.”
V huffed offendedly. “Well, sorry my style ain’t suited to your taste, you ass!”
“Not trying to say that.” Johnny lifted his head to glance up at her and she could swear she saw a flit of something other than anger from behind the shades of his aviators. Softness perhaps?
Whatever it was, it put V on edge. She worked to swallow the lump building up in her throat, breaking her gaze from his to shift it over to the window splashed in a color of neons from the glaring advertisements outside. She considered his words, mulling over them. “What are you trying to say then?”
Johnny was hardly ever one to beat around the bush. She knew this, he knew this. Everyone that ever came to understand him just a little past the rockerboy aesthetic he bathed himself in knew it. So what was he trying to say here? The way he looked at her at times never failed to make V’s heart skip a beat. A glimmer of humanity, an inkling of something more than just hatred and rage. A softness gleaned only by her at times when they were alone and he would give her a smile that didn’t feel forced like the others he usually wore, but just right.
The merc watched Johnny as he considered his next words. His head was once again dipped back into the palm of his hand. The metal from his chrome arm glinted softly in the haze of the TV’s glaring light and gentle glow from outside. His mind was just against hers, mulling through its words over and over. V wanted to jump over the metaphorical cliff separating the two from complete unity in thoughts. To see what he was thinking in clarity.
But, she knew better than to try it, and even more that it’d break their trust, the very bond they’d built up.
A few more minutes passed. The song had ended in a sharp turn of a dramatic crescendo and the next had begun. This one was much more calm in tone. Flutes flitted about in delicate whispers and violins spoke elegantly with their strings. V tried to tune back into the music, shifting her attention away from Johnny. But that was when he’d decided to speak up.
Fuck it .
She could hear his trepidation, anxiety pulling at her own gut that she knew very well didn’t belong to her. Johnny stood from his spot and dropped the cigarette from his hand. They both watched it shatter upon hitting the floor, disintegrating into ones and zeroes. V could’ve watched it for longer if she didn’t notice the rockerboy make his way towards her.
At first, she didn’t know what he had planned. He looked nervous for once, like a child about ready to ask for some money from their parents. His shoulders were stiff and broad, the contours of his muscles mapped out roughly within the TV’s light splashing against him from behind. His nervousness reflected V with the coil of her gut and a lump starting to build in her throat.
After a moment or so, Johnny held out his chrome hand to her.
“Dance with me?”
V stared at it, unsure of what to say, not sure if there was anything to say. The pit in her stomach dropped and her mouth suddenly dried, her tongue like sandpaper. Johnny Silverhand asking her to dance a waltz with him? She wondered if it was a prank, or perhaps a misguided notion she’d considered to be something else. Her eyes shifted from his hand and up to his face. And that was when she noticed it.
Johnny’s lips were pulled taut, forming a thin line. His aviators were still there but somehow even against the harsh lighting behind him and the darkness surrounding them, she could see a spark emitting from his eyes. A glimmer of hope, a trepidation of fear. His anxiety flourished within his expression. He was nervous, Johnny Silverhand of all people, for asking her to dance.
A flush of heat rushed to V’s face and her eyes widened at the very prospect of it. Her heart nearly jumped into her throat. She noticed now that his chrome hand was trembling slightly, just as anxious as the rest of his body. The merc couldn’t help but stifle a small laugh.
“You serious?”
“Fuck, V, of course I am!” Johnny’s gaze shifted slightly. His muscles constricted within his shoulders and she could see him tense up, awaiting a rejection.
But V wasn’t going to give him that. Rather, she was just surprised by the inclination that Johnny had to request a dance from her. And to classical music of all things. She didn’t finger him for the type to indulge in slow dancing. Loud and rowdy was more of her estimate of what he was like on the dance floor.
But she couldn’t say she was disappointed in him for what he wanted. Quite the opposite in fact. It would be a nice change of pace given everything that had occurred and what she still had to do in order to save her life. No, forgetting that and just living in the moment for once sounded far too enticing to turn down.
V’s brow arched and a smile drew at her lips. Her cheeks were still flushed in a supple red, but she didn’t care as she delicately placed her hand into Johnny’s. A dash of excitement flew within her, likely Johnny’s. But she knew it was also hers. When was the last time she got to dance with someone? Especially to something other than the basic club music she’d gotten accustomed to whenever Misty or someone else took her out for a night of fun?
“Just surprised is all,” she echoed his words from earlier, and her hand became more firm against his as she stood from her spot. She watched keenly as Johnny’s expression lightened, his anxiety depleting upon her acceptance. Keeping her hand in his, she allowed him to lead her away from the couch and towards the center of the room.
The two were now enshrouded in a heavy darkness, the backdrop of the TV and the neons from outside just barely able to reach them. Despite this, V still knew where Johnny was, and she could tell he knew where she was as well. He kept his hands planted firmly on her, one on her shoulder and the other gripping her waist.
Nervousness wouldn’t even begin to describe how the merc felt, being this close in proximity to Johnny with nothing but distant lights to just barely make out his features against. He was nearly pressed against her, causing the heat spread across her face to turn into a damn inferno. Her heartbeat increased and she worked to try and settle it down before he could notice it. She didn’t want his snarky comments, knowing full well he wouldn’t spare her of them even if she did when he was in the same position as her just moments prior.
A low chuckle was drawn from the man and she internally cursed herself. He’d noticed.
“Nervous, huh?” Johnny said in a rather soft tone. His voice was hushed and calm as they began to sway in rhythm to the music. V sucked in a sharp breath.
“Just trying to count my steps,” she replied, avoiding his gaze. It was true, she was trying to do that. But mainly, she was attempting to ignore how it felt being this close to Johnny, feeling the static of his incorporeal form brush against her body, tingling ever so slightly. She knew how to dance while keeping her mind busy, so she didn’t need to think much on where she was placing her feet.
Johnny on the other hand…
His legs brushed up against hers a little too closely and he stumbled as he worked to try and right his mistake. V on the other hand was perfectly able to maintain her grace and poise, smirking slightly upon seeing the man struggle at keeping her pace. Loud and rowdy he indeed was when it came to dancing. That much was clear with how difficult it was for him to maintain the tempo the music had set for them.
“Fuck, how do ya do this?” Johnny muttered hastily under his breath.
“With practice,” V curtly replied. She felt a tinge of frustration cross her mind, a remnant of Johnny’s. She sighed softly, debating whether or not it would be worth it to try and help him. After a moment or so, she eventually settled on a decision. “Here.”
Her hands moved swiftly, planting themselves firmly upon his hazy form. The static it produced tickled her skin, but she forced herself to ignore it in favor of keeping her mind focused on the task at hand. Tricking her mind into touching Johnny the way he was touching her was rather difficult after all. But it was doable. V placed one on his shoulder, guiding the other around the back of his neck. She could feel him stiffen under her touch as it forced them to be closer. But, eventually he allowed himself to relax against it.
“Follow my lead, don’t say nothin’ and don’t think. Just let me guide you.” The instructions she’d set were simple. Johnny gave a small nod and V smiled in response. The music was beginning its first crescendo and as it did, she allowed her mind to open up to him, giving him the opportunity to peek past the veil so he could follow along with her thought process.
As the violins soared into the crescendo, V released herself to the music itself. When the woodwinds dipped, she let go of Johnny’s neck, still keeping the other firm on his shoulder whilst raising it above their heads. Johnny followed suit within the tempo of the music and placed his own hand that was on her shoulder against hers above them. She guided him into a slow spin, smiling as Johnny chuckled lightly when they completed it.
There was another spin, this time with just V. She twirled around, keeping her fingers delicately intertwined with Johnny’s as she performed it before settling back into his arms once more, their hands placed in their original positions. She was never good at dancing loud and boisterous. But give her a quadrille, a waltz, or even the fox trot and she could perform it with ease.
The tempo quickened, their steps hastened. Johnny kept his mind entirely focused on V’s steps as she performed them. It took a little trial and error, but he was able to match her pace by that point. If they had more room, she could guide him a little more easily. But he was doing well in spite of that.
The music swelled into the peak of its crescendo and V took Johnny’s hands into her own, twirling them both around before settling her back beside his chest. His ‘ganic arm was wrapped around her and beside her waist, the other across her chest. Their hands were entwined while she guided them down the decrescendo and into the steadying pace of the tempo as it slowed.
“Figuring it out?” V asked quietly. Johnny had spun her back around to face him in tandem with the violins and she stared up at him, attempting to discern his expression in the darkness enshrouding him.
“Yeah,” the rockerboy replied as he pulled her closer to him. His hand became more firm against her waist and her body tensed up. Even with the dim lighting and his barely noticeable features, V still noticed a smirk curl against his lips. “So you can dance a fucking waltz but not the modern shit. Who woulda thunk?”
V sounded a small laugh at this. “Yeah, you can blame my parents for that.” Her voice sounded more distant at this as a somber note took hold of her tone. But she tried to conceal it with a feigned smile, hoping Johnny wouldn’t catch onto it. She didn’t want anything to ruin this moment after all. For once in the midst of her fucked up life, she was actually enjoying herself. The topic of her parents continuing would only tarnish it.
Unfortunately for her however, Johnny did catch onto her feelings. He gave her an odd look before twirling her around once more in step with the music’s tempo. And once she was back to facing him, he abandoned the place at her waist, settling for wrapping his arm around her back and keeping it there, pressing her chest to his.
“Your parents, huh?” he said softly. His voice was not at all insulting though, nor was it piqued with curiosity. Rather, it was tinged in something akin to confusion, concern even.
V hesitated before slowly drawing out a subtle nod. The music deigned yet another twirl, and she settled with her back to his chest, so closely that his breath would’ve stirred her hair had he been corporeal with a real body. But just the proximity to him alone was enough to make her heart jump yet again.
“They needed me to be perfect. So they taught me every classical dance they could.” The explanation was short and curt. She wanted to raise the subject no further.
Still, Johnny pushed it. “Lemme guess, they wanted to raise the perfect corpo for their perfect corporation,” he said, moving to spin V back into facing him. His expression was hardly discernible, but the anger which perpetrated through his mind was all too clear. “Know their type all too well. Had some chooms back in the day whose parents were the same. Treated their kids more like cattle than actual human beings.”
The lump in V’s throat was beginning to grow and she worked to swallow it, drawing out a small sigh. “Yeah, hit the nail right on the head with that.” Her tone was soft and quiet, barely above a whisper. Like speaking her thoughts out loud about them would cause the phone to ring and for her to get yet another earful from them as if they knew she was talking about them. She needed the conversation to end. “Can we stop talking about ‘em? Ruining the mood.”
V observed Johnny keenly as he debated her words, humming in tune with the music while they slowed their movements into a gentle sway. She could tell he wanted to poke more, to get her to open up about them, about her past. Curiosity was hardly ever something Johnny ignored after all. But to her relief, she felt his mind ease and watched his head give a simple nod.
“For now, sure.”
“Deal.” She could work with that, knowing Johnny wouldn’t let it go even if she begged him to. For some reason, he’d grown curious about her life before him ever since the talk in the oil fields. He’d ask her mundane questions, what kind of school she went to, the friends she had when she was younger, what her brother was like. At first, it got on her nerves. But after awhile, V actually found herself enjoying his questions.
In turn, she asked him questions about his life as well. How he and Kerry met, what his life in Texas was like with his friends, what Night City looked like during his time. He always gave her an answer, sometimes even delving into an hours long story about his wild escapades with his chooms when he was young and naive. She’d laugh at them, pretending like he was just a friend of hers she was catching up with after so long, like he wasn’t her tumor.
Their relationship was rocky at best, but that didn’t mean it couldn’t have more ups than downs, right?
The music swelled once more into the final turn. V guided Johnny into yet another spin, this time keeping her chest flush with his and their eyes fixed together. The aviators he was wearing still obscured them to some degree, but somehow she felt as though she could actually see his eyes behind them. The glimmer of humanity he was bearing for her, a subtle inclination of joy resounding from them.
V’s heart was thrashing at this point, her cheeks on fire in a beet red flush. She wasn’t supposed to feel this way, not towards him of all people. But, she couldn’t help it. Johnny’s lips were only a few mere inches away from hers. So close. The temptation to draw hers up to them was becoming difficult to ignore.
Johnny seemed to match her feelings as well. His body tensed up within her touch, his hands becoming more firm against her skin. He gripped her waist tightly, keeping her close to him as they spun one final time before the song ended. His breath brushed against her own, low and lumbering.
“You surprise me.” V’s voice was just a murmur against the rest of the apartment’s ambient buzz. Her lips trembled slightly as she spoke. “Don’t seem like the waltz kinda guy.”
Johnny let out an amusing chuckle at this. His hand on her shoulder slipped past it, finding the small of her back and settling there. He watched as the merc keened lightly under his touch. “S’curious about it is all,” he said after a moment. “Gotta admit, it was kinda nova.”
“Ah, so did I convert you?”
“Not a fucking chance.”
They both sounded a small laugh at this, letting it die down naturally as the next song began. This time, they didn’t dance to it, instead staying in each other’s arms and swaying contently to the slow and gentle tempo it had set.
After a few seconds, Johnny broke the silence that had settled between them, “Gotta take you to a real club someday. Teach ya how to dance properly and not like a dying infant.”
V scoffed offendedly at this though still bore an amusing grin as she playfully hit him in the chest. As expected, her hand merely phased right through it. “That your way of asking me out on a date? 'Cause I gotta say, that was really shitty. Gotta brush up on your skills.”
“Doesn’t matter how shitty it is if it’s working,” Johnny replied, keeping his gaze fixed to hers. She watched as his smirk widened upon seeing her try and avert it, failing miserably. “You’d be surprised how many gonk ass pick-up lines like that actually worked on chicks. They couldn’t resist the ol’ Silverhand charm.”
V rolled her eyes to this. “Yeah, sure. Bet it was totally that and simply not the chance to sleep with a popular rockerboy.”
Johnny’s grip on her waist tightened, drawing her even closer to him. Their lips nearly brushed against each other. “Didn’t say my impressive cock didn’t play a role in it,” he said amusingly, tilting his head slightly. “Well? Ya gonna take me up on my offer?”
V looked into his eyes, past his aviators. He seemed nervous asking the question, but not as anxious as he was asking her to dance. There was a certain glint to his expression. Hope, excitement. After a moment, she nodded. “I’d love that,” she said, her tone hesitant, unsure of what would come next.
Johnny’s expression lifted and his grin widened from ear to ear. “Then, that’ll be the first thing I do when I get outta your damn head, aside from fucking you into next week.”
Upon the words leaving the rockerboy’s mouth, V’s eyes widened in shock and surprise. She didn’t expect him to be so forward in his advances towards her. Her heart nearly jumped into her throat, her breathing ceased as she worked to try and get her emotions under control. She’d never felt so flustered before. Her skin was now like fire under his touch, each finger burning into her and causing her mind to fumble over itself.
V noticed Johnny’s expression beared more than amusement upon seeing her like this. His lips parted from the smirk they’d settled into and touched hers so delicately, she wasn’t even sure she’d felt it. Perhaps she was mistaken. Still, her heart resuming its race against her chest told her otherwise and her body keened further against him.
Their lips then fully pressed together. But it wasn’t filled with lust or desperation. No, it was simple and tender. Filled to the brim with a kind of intimacy neither of them had ever really felt before. It was like they were both teenagers again, unsure of what to do. Johnny tried to be more forward and direct in his approach, V was too shy and hesitant within his advances. Their minds were both blank against each other, no signals to tell the other what to do. But still, the action itself gleaned a sense of rightness neither of them could really explain. And soon any worries or anxieties just faded away into the background.
The two eventually made their way back to the couch. It was damn near pitch black at this point, the TV having been shut off via thought command. Johnny kept his hands planted where they were even as they sat down on the cushions while V slipped hers up to his cheek, mapping out the contours of its structure and feeling the light tickle of stubble beneath her fingers. She was almost mesmerized by it.
It was difficult to part their lips from each other, but eventually V required her air. She sucked in a sharp breath, sighing onto Johnny’s lips as she pressed her forehead against his. Her hand remained where it was on his cheek, a sense of comfort garnered from the action with her thumb lightly grazing his stubble in a back and forth motion.
Another kiss was shared, gentle and soft. She half expected Johnny to go further in his advances, but he didn’t. He seemed perfectly content right where he was, hand on her shoulder and the other tight against her waist. Her chest flush with his and her heart racing in tandem with his own. She drew back a small moan into him, and he gave a subtle groan in response.
A few more minutes of this went on. Again, the current song had ended its final crescendo and started a new song. V gave a short glance in the direction of the radio to turn it off, smiling into yet another kiss as Johnny leaned further into her. The silence for once was actually welcoming. She never enjoyed the lack of noise, sitting in complete darkness with only the quiet to accompany her thoughts.
But for once, her thoughts were relaxed and keen to the silence, only thinking of Johnny. How his lips felt against hers, how his hair lightly brushed up and entangled its dark locks with her white strands. It felt right, it was right. And for once, she was willing to welcome the quiet and the darkness.
Eventually, Johnny pulled away from her, fixing his gaze lovingly to hers. “Didn’t expect that to happen tonight.”
V hummed slightly in agreement. “Me neither. Guess it’s a good thing I put on that station for once.”
“Mm.” Johnny continued to stare at her, his mind growing silent against hers. A flit of discomfort was felt under his piercing gaze and V shifted nimbly in her position, planting her hands in her lap.
“You wanna say more than just that?” V asked after a moment, hesitant and worried. She’d never expected any of this to happen, having herself fall for Johnny Silverhand of all people. The tumor in her head, the one man she couldn’t have a happily ever after with. The way it happened in the first place was beginning to make her head hurt just by thinking about it.
She could feel Johnny tense up beside her, unsure of how to proceed. She knew flowery words of a confession, of love, were difficult for him to produce. The very tip of his tongue might burn should they have ever gotten close to it. But in spite of that, she still had to know. If their relationship would proceed past the rocky point it was at and into the unknown reaches of intimacy. Or if it would simply remain as it was, and they would never speak of this again.
Johnny opened his mouth to speak, clearing his throat. He averted his gaze away from V. “Not sure what to say. Said I wanted to take you out on a date, but if you don’t want that-”
“I do, Johnny,” V interjected. She raised a hand back up to his cheek, compelling him to look at her. If he could just see the look in her eyes, see past her anxieties, then he would know. “I know, it’s fucked up and weird. I know, it probably won’t go anywhere. But dammit, I- I kinda like this, what we have.” Red dust danced across her cheeks and her chest constricted into itself. She was never the type for a confession, always diffident on how to proceed. “I wanna continue it for as long as we can, if that’s alright with you.”
V could almost feel Johnny short circuit upon hearing her words, his surprise echoing throughout her mind. Her eyes drew up to his, locking them into a gaze as he took a moment to fumble for a response. She could feel him struggling, almost smirking as a result. But she was quick to stifle it.
“You sure you want this, V?” Johnny eventually asked. His voice was barely even a whisper, a gentle murmur which only she could hear.
V quickly nodded. “So long as you stop with the shitty insults.” She then allowed her smirk to show, playful in its remark and it only widened as Johnny lips drew back as well.
“Oh c’mon, you find them funny and you know it,” he retorted wittily, earning him a small chuckle in response. His ‘ganic hand had found its way to V’s hair, entangling his fingers within her locks as he pulled her close to him once more. Her lips were tender against his. “Seriously though, are you sure? Ain’t gonna have a real body, V. Am gonna get wiped from the chip, that was our deal.”
“And we’ll find a way to avoid that,” V replied, pressing her lips to his. The kiss was only for a moment though, as she pulled away much to Johnny’s disappointment. Still, she maintained contact, keeping her forehead to his and locking their eyes together. “Let’s burn that deal and strike a new one, sound good?”
From behind his aviators, she could see Johnny’s eyes widen in an inclination of surprise. Though it didn't take long for him to give a small nod and sound a low chuckle. “Absolutely nova, babe.”
Babe. He called her babe . V’s heart fluttered within her chest and her stomach knotted itself into butterflies. Her face was absolutely on fire now, but before she could avert her gaze or do anything to quell it, Johnny pulled her back into yet another kiss. Soft and delicate yet desperate and needy it was this time.
Still, it was right for them, right for V. She couldn’t help but smile into it, her mind feeling light and airy her lips melded with Johnny’s perfectly.
Somehow though, the radio suddenly started back up again, startling two as they whirled around to face it. Instead of it being a classical song, the channel it’d tuned to was playing a simple guitar, the gentle touch of a man’s voice breaking into the apartment’s quaint atmosphere.
V smiled and began to hum along to the tune, rocking her head back and forth in rhythm with the tempo. Her surprise from the radio starting up by itself had settled and she found herself easing into the relaxed notion of the music. “Should get that fixed,” she said jokingly, earning her a light laugh from Johnny.
“Yeah, you should.”
The voice on the radio was soft and quaint, the song itself rather on the scratchy side in terms of recording. But V preferred it that way, enjoying the subtle shifts of highs and lows the simple tune brought.
Baby you seem so tired
Drawing phantom power
From all the fires in your life…
She listened intently to the lyrics, smiling softly before standing from her position on the couch. Johnny gave her an odd look as a result, but she ignored it in favor of the notion that had crossed her mind.
Once she was standing, V turned back to face Johnny and gave him a keen look. Her smile widened upon seeing his puzzled expression. She lingered upon it for a few seconds, admiring the subtle shifts of his features within the surrounding darkness. But once those seconds were up, she stuck out her hand for him to take.
The action wasn’t filled with anxiety and trepidation as Johnny’s was when he’d done it. Rather, she kept to her confidence and felt a small flutter of excitement fly through her body as the rockerboy’s face dropped its perplexion. It shifted, becoming curious, intrigued. But then, a brazen and bold grin took hold and tugged at the corners of his face and his cheeks lifted in light of what she was doing.
“Dance with me?”
Without a moment’s hesitation, Johnny placed his chrome hand within V’s.