Work Text:
Before the tide washes it away.
J sits on the floor of the pod, arms straight behind her as she leans back. V is kneeling in front of her.
She bits her lips to keep any hisses from leaving her as V's claws slowly carved their way down her frame.
It wasn't easy, V was taking her sweet time today.
Maybe it was because she knew N was going to be away for at least a few days. Wasn't hard to get him to leave, just make up some ridiculous order for him to follow, as usual.
J wonders how long it will take him to locate and bring back two tons worth of paperclips.
Any thoughts of N vanish from her processor as soon as V's claw digs deep enough to scratch one of her servos.
She hisses.
"Watch it."
"Yeah, yeah. Stop being a baby. Mhm. Don't like that one."
V casually leans down and licks the accidentally too-deep cut on J's left tight. Dragging her tongue along it, letting her nanites flood and quickly seal the wound.
J has to bite her lip again, this time to stop a much more embarrassing noise than a simple hiss of pain.
V retraces the healed cut, now twisting it in a spiral pattern.
Her style is always chaotic. A mix of shagged lines and gentle curves, no discernible pattern to be found.
It was very different from J's, who always preferred straight, symmetrical lines and repeating patterns that followed V's figure and seams.
Like tracing her blueprints on her frame.
Or like a butcher's diagram showing the different cuts of meat.
V moves her attention to her right leg, this time placing all three claw tips on the surface.
She scratches down and around J's leg, leaving a trail of parallel lines.
As she works, J stares at her chest, her arms, her legs.
Her mouth.
She can still see the faint traces of her own work slowly fading from V's frame.
She wants to trace them again.
She wants to carve her metallic skin over and over until her marks the marks never fade away.
She wants that everyone who even glances at V will see her work, will see that it was her hands all over her body.
V leans away from her.
"Yeah, I think I'm done."
"About time."
J gives her voice some extra snark, to mask her disappointment at the loss of her touch.
V eyes roam every inch of J's exposed frame, carefully examining her work.
The curved, almost flowery lines gave her body an elegant look. Almost like a porcelain doll.
The jagged parallel lines, on the other hand, almost resembled stripes on a tiger, giving her a more wild, vicious look.
It was, in a word, chaotic.
But it made her feel beautiful.
V tries to add one last small detail, but J catches her wrist.
She freezes, eyes darting at J, a sudden distrustful frown on her face.
J freezes as well. She... didn't mean to do that.
She just wanted-
"You said you were done."
J forces her voice to sound cold.
V rolls her eyes, yanking her hand away.
She gets up and starts walking away from J.
"Jeez, fine."
Now J has a clear view of her back, the lines there almost faded all the way by now.
The design follows the same style as the front. Straight lines following V's shape.
But... right in the middle of her back, between the reinforced plates that support her wings, was a tiny, almost invisible letter J.
J watches as it vanish entirely.
She just wanted to hold her hand.
She's unaware of the straight huge lines on her own back forming a giant letter V.
V leaves the pod. Leaves her.
Alone.
Her signature is fading just as fast as J's.
