Work Text:
It was nearly 2 in the morning when V received notification of an incoming holocall from Panam. She cast a glance at the building she’d spent most of the night surveilling—still no movement—and accepted the call. “Hey, Pan—” A blast of noise crashed into V causing her to flinch violently before her implants adjusted and balanced the call volume. The space where Panam’s image should have been was empty and with the sound levels appropriately balanced V could hear the rustling of cloth. “Sounds like quite the party, what are you up to, Panam?” She called out, hoping to get Panam’s attention.
The sound of fumbling hands and movement continued before Panam’s face appeared greeting V. Panam’s upside down and swaying face. “V?” She asked, face scrunched up in clear confusion before lighting up with disproportionate happiness. “You called!”
A drunk Panam Palmer? V was delighted. She set down Overwatch and turned her full attention to the call. Eyes darting across Panam’s face, trying to memorize every second for future blackmail opportunities. “Pan, you’re upside down, can you turn the phone the right way up?”
“Pfft, you’re upside down, V!” Panam said, insistently.
V nodded sagely, who was she to argue with such an unassailable argument. “You’re right, my bad. I’m upside down, can you turn me the right way?”
More rustling for a moment but eventually Panam reappeared the right way up this time. “How did you know I was thinking about you?”
“Just lucky, I guess.” V’s face was starting to hurt from the wide grin she was sporting. She should have guessed that a drunken Panam would be fucking charming. “The ‘caldos having a party?”
Panam nodded, her head bobbing up and down in an exaggerated fashion. “My party. My birthday party. Everyone’s here, but not you.”
V really didn’t know what to say to that, was it weird to feel guilty about not going to a party she was pretty sure she hadn’t been invited to in the first place? “Sorry about that, Panam. I didn’t know it was your birthday.” Seeing a pout appear on the older woman’s face she hastened to add a “Happy Birthday!” She couldn’t know what kind of drunk Panam was but V much preferred a silly, cheery drunk over a crying one.
“It is not your fault, V. Mitch should have invited you.” The pout faded into a scowl as Panam glared off in the distance, presumably at Mitch or, at least, his specter. V was very glad to be off the hook for that one.
“Did you get any cool presents?” V asked. Was she trying to wheedle information out of an unguarded Panam? Yes. Yes, she was. She had a gift to secure now and needed all the intel she could get to make sure she got Panam something nice.
“Got a railgun for the warhorse, it’s pretty cool.” Panam managed to get out around a large, jaw-cracking yawn. The camera angle changed as Panam slumped down in her bed, face half mushed into a pillow.
V took a screenshot and saved the image for posterity. “Was there anything you wanted that you didn’t get?” She asked, trying another angle.
“You.” Panam said, her voice muffled by the pillow.
“In that case, I’ll be there in the morning, I promise. What should I bring?” As V was trying to search her memory for anything Panam might have mentioned enjoying a flicker of movement caught her attention. Right. She was on a gig.
A car had pulled up to the building and from the backseat of the armored Alvarado Delegate a corpo woman emerged. V’s Kiroshi optics completed confirmation of target identity before the woman was pulled into protective formation behind her huscle. V lined up the shot anyway, Overwatch—after some light modifications—was more than powerful enough to punch through a skull or two before hitting the target. V pulled the trigger and watched dispassionately as one bodyguard hit the ground followed almost immediately by the target. She chambered a new round and fired again and again until the remaining corpo guards had hit the ground. The action was over and done in under four seconds. V set the rifle on the ground and turned her attention back to Panam.
“What was that, Panam?” V asked again, the woman’s initial response had gone unheard when her target had shown up.
Panam mumbled something utterly unintelligible to V. The only word she could distinctly make out was ‘doggy’. V’s eyebrows rose at the request. A dog was going to be a challenging gift to find in the next few hours. Still, she had promised herself she would get whatever Panam asked for and a promise was a promise. “You got it, I’ll be there in the morning with ‘a doggy’.”
A small giggled, “With bells on.” was all V heard before Panam dropped the call. What an adorable weirdo.
One call to Wakako later and V was free to return to the problem at hand. Where did people even buy dogs? She scrolled through her contacts idly, trying to determine who among them would have the best chance at getting her what she needed on such a restricted timetable. It was actually kind of wild that she hadn’t run into some gonk breeding pet tigers or some nonsense like that. That seemed like the kind of thing the rich and famous clients she’d pulled gigs for would be into.
She really only had two options here, her fixers or her rich weirdos. If she went the fixer route that probably meant Rogue, which was sure to be costly and potentially embarrassing—if Rogue found out V was looking to get a puppy for Panam’s birthday she’d never let either of them hear the end of it. Which left the rich weirdos, and she’d collected quite a few of them between Kerry, the Us Cracks, the surviving members of Samurai, Lizzy Wizzy and Mr. and Mrs. Peralez. Problem was they were all varying degrees of unreliable. Which was to be expected given that most of them were high maintenance artist types.
As she considered who to call Johnny decided to chime in. ‘It’s Nance for sure, gotta be. Bet she bought that gonk kid of hers a dog and a pony growing up.’
For once V didn’t dismiss him out of hand. Both Kerry and Johnny had praised Nancy’s ability to get shit done. The praise was mostly couched in whinny criticism of how bossy their bandmate was but both men were complainers by nature, so V took that with a grain of salt.
It was worth a shot.
The phone dialed for nearly a minute before the call was picked up and Nancy’s face appeared in the HUD.
The older woman didn’t look like V had woken her, which was a good sign. She did seem a bit surprised by the call though. “Hey, V. Calling to catch up?”
“Actually, I need a bit of a favor. A friend of mine had a birthday last night and I’m going to see her first thing in the morning. She mentioned wanting a dog—like, a puppy, y’know—a ‘ganic one? Is there anywhere I could get one in Night City before dawn?” V asked, mentally crossing her fingers for luck.
“This is the City of Dreams, V. You can find anything with the right application of iron or eddies. Still, a dog?” Nancy looked visibly surprised by the request. Which was fair, dogs weren’t exactly common anywhere in the country these days.
“A puppy.” V clarified.
“Is your friend six?” The surprise had changed to amusement.
The merc rolled her eyes. “Haha. Can you help?”
“If you were asking me who was breeding genetically altered tigers for illegal gladiatorial combat I could point you in the right direction but family pets don’t exactly draw in the viewers if you get my drift.”
V held back a fist pump of vindication—she knew that was a thing somewhere in the city. “Thanks anyways, Nancy. Sorry to bother you.”
“Hang on a minute, kid. Just ‘cause I don’t have a lead off the top of my head it doesn’t mean I can’t find out. I’ll contact some of my people in Charter Hill and North Oak. In the meantime though—”
Alarm bells began to sound in V’s head as the media’s attention sharpened on her.
“—Tell me about the girl that’s worth all this trouble?”
***
V rolled into camp slowly to an unusually soft stop. The puppy, which she had taken to privately calling Choohy, was sleeping in the crook of her left arm and she didn’t want to wake it. Hopefully a dog that easily fell asleep during car rides was a desirable trait among nomads.
As she walked into camp she could see evidence of quite the party from the night before. Empty bottles, abandoned food, and little pieces of paper—confetti perhaps—littered the ground. She didn’t envy the poor people that were going to be placed on cleanup duty this morning. The most telling sign was that most of the camp was still asleep even though it was half past nine in the morning. V had been very distressed to learn, after a night spent with the Aldecaldos, that most of them preferred early mornings. So with so many of them MIA she imagined a lot of people were still sleeping the party off.
She pulled her coat around the sleeping dog, hoping to hide him from any prying eyes until after Panam had seen him, and looked around the camp for the birthday girl. Unsurprisingly, given how drunk she appeared to be last night, Panam was nowhere to be seen. Mitch, however, was sitting on a couch enjoying the morning sun.
“Morning, Mitch.” V said, sneaking up on the oblivious man.
Mitch flinched in his seat, scarcely holding onto his cup of coffee. “V? What are you doing here?” He asked, genuinely confused at the merc’s random appearance.
“Got a call from a certain birthday girl last night. I promised to come by first thing this mornin’ with a gift.”
Mitch winced. “She didn’t call you, did she? Bob said we should have taken her phone.”
“She did. And I’m glad you didn’t. Something tells me that seeing Panam like that is something of a rare occasion.” V said, smiling at the memory of how adorable her friend had been. “Unfortunately, I can’t stay long this morning, would you mind coming along and holding onto Panam’s gift while I wake her up? I’ll call for you when you should come in.” V pulled back her coat, revealing the puppy she’d concealed.
The vet stood quickly, abandoning his coffee, and reached for the animal. “Where on earth did you get a dog, v?” Mitch asked incredulously as he cradled the small puppy in his arms. “I haven’t seen one since Shorty, during the war.”
V laughed as she led the way to the tent. “A good merc never reveals their secrets.”
“Knock knock.” V called in an annoying singsong tone.
An immediate response came from the occupant of the tent. “Go away.”
It had been a while since V had gotten to bother a hungover friend. It was an odd thing to miss. “That’s no way to treat a choom.” She said as she parted the tent flaps and walked inside.
Panam lay, facedown, sandwiched between two pillows, her blanket had long been kicked to the ground and she was missing a boot.
“Looking good, Panam.” V offered as she sank into the chair beside the bed.
Panam’s head popped up, jostling the pillow. “V?” The nomad brightened upon seeing her friend in a way that was very gratifying for the merc. Panam’s brows knitted together in a sort of befuddled expression like she was trying to remember something she couldn’t quite grasp. “What are you doing here?”
“Wow, you don’t remember our conversation last night at all, do you?” V whistled shortly, impressed by how hard the nomad had partied the night before, the noise immediately set the hungover woman wincing. “Must have been some party.”
“Did I—did I holocall you last night?” Panam asked, her tone one of mounting dread.
“Technically it was this morning, but yeah, you did. Gotta say I’m sorry I missed it. Drunk you was very,” V paused a moment debating her next words carefully, “open about her feelings and what she wanted.”
Panam sputtered and went scrambling for her phone as if some record of last night would be there. “Whatever I said I wanted last night was just the alcohol talking. You shouldn’t take drunk people seriously.” She seemed oddly nervous about the whole thing.
“Oh, that’s unfortunate.” V said, her words at odds with their gleeful tone.
“Why unfortunate?” Panam asked warily, abandoning her phone in favor of pinning her gaze on V, intently watching the merc’s every move.
“Because you asked for something and here I am making it happen and now it sounds like you’ve changed your mind.”
Panam bit her lip aggressively, eyes visibly checking V over head to toe. V thought it was cute that Panam was trying to figure out what V had brought her. The older woman stepped forward, well into V’s personal space. “I wasn’t sure you’d be—”
“Able to find one?” V finished confidently. “I don’t think you’re wrong, not just anyone could have gotten one on such short notice but it turns out I have a couple of well-placed connections.” She turned towards the tent entrance and gave a shouted. “Mitch!”
Panam looked bewildered by the turn of events and even more confused when Mitch stepped into the tent. He was carrying something that was whining and wriggling in his arms. “Mitch?” She said tentatively, craning her neck around V to get a better look.
V smiled broadly and bounced lightly on the balls of her feet as she tried to contain her excitement. “Happy belated birthday, Panam! Sorry I missed out yesterday, but I hope this little guy makes up for it.”
Mitch opened her arms fully and proffered the whining object to her. It was a dog. A ‘ganic dog at that. Acting on reflex Panam took the dog, well, puppy. Mitch patted her on the shoulder and muttered a ‘congrats’ before taking off.
Panam turned back to V. “You got me a dog?” She asked incredulously. Raising her chin to keep her mouth away from the animal’s determined attempts to bathe her chin and mouth with its tongue. “Where did you even find a dog in Night City?”
“You’d be surprised what the ultra-rich have access to.” V paused as she considered that statement. “Well not surprised so much as predictably disappointed, really.” She moved closer to Panam and gently scratched the puppy under his chin. “I have all his stuff in my car. Food, toys, bed, that sort of thing. He doesn’t have a name yet, I mean, I was calling him Choohy on the ride over. He kept trying to chew on the cap of my jerry can.”
There was a moment of awkward silence as Panam looked at the bundle of fur in her arms. Objectively the puppy was cute with mottled brown, white, and black fur and two small ears bent over making little triangles. She hadn’t seen a dog in person in well over a decade, and she was by no means an expert in animals, but based on the roundness of the puppy and the size of the paws she had a feeling this dog was going to be huge one day.
V stepped back and watched Panam as she held the dog. “Do you like him? Sorry if you had a color preference or something, I didn’t exactly have my pick of the litter. A friend of mine found out these dogs were destined for some Militech corporats. The corp is handing out genetically engineered dogs as a mid-year bonus to assholes ranking high enough. Apparently, the dogs weren’t selling well enough and Militech just takes whatever isn’t selling and calls it a bonus. I snuck into their facility by the docks and helped myself to Choohy. I guess he was the runt of the litter or something, he was tagged for destruction.”
Panam stared as V rambled on in a way that was very uncharacteristic, the merc was clearly nervous about Panam’s reaction to the gift. Deciding to put the poor woman out of her misery Panam placed a kiss on V’s cheek. “He’s perfect, thank you.”
Torn between sagging in relief and puffing up with pride V settled on bobbing her head like a nervous chicken. “Good, I’m glad.”
***
Much later, after V had headed back to the city, Panam sat in the shade with a sleeping animal in her lap wondering what to do with it. Her musings were interrupted by the arrival of Teddy and Carol. Panam set Choohy, and damn it if that name wasn’t going to stick, on the ground and stood up to meet them. “What’s up?”
“Just wanted to meet the newest member of the Aldecaldos.” Teddy offered as he knelt down to pet the disgruntled animal, from somewhere in his pocket he pulled out a bandana with a skeletal horse painted on it and tied it around the dog’s neck. “Look at that, he’s part of the family!”
“You want him?” Panam asked, only half-serious. She knew she was never going to be able to get rid of the animal without hurting V’s feelings.
“Not a fan of your birthday gift?” Carol asked, an irritating smirk on her face.
“I appreciate the gesture, it can’t have been easy to find an organic dog these days.”
“But?” Carol prompted.
Panam exhaled in exasperation. “I’m just not sure why V thought I wanted a dog. It’s just so random.”
Carol gave an amused hum.
Panam’s eyes narrowed in response. “You know something.” She accused.
Teddy looked up from the ground. “You did have a lot to drink last night. Lots of tequila.”
“And?”
“And,” Carol cut in smoothly. “you were surprisingly put out that no one had thought to invite your little merc friend. When things started winding down you went back to your tent mumbling something about calling V.”
Panam decided to take the high road for once and not rise to Carol’s obvious bait. ‘Little friend’ indeed. Her eyes darted between the two vets. “Do you know what we talked about?”
Teddy climbed back to his feet. “Not exactly. But somewhere around your eighth shot you started to get maybe a little too free with your words. Started waxing poetic about how pretty V looked when she was killing Wraiths. How nice she smelled. After that the pictures you started painting with your words got a little too vivid and we convinced you to go bed.” He looked off in the distance with a thousand-yard stare and shuddered visibly.
Carol “So, between what you were talking about last night and your gift from V this morning I can draw a pretty straight line.”
Panam started to blush as Carol’s words started to jog her memory. She had called V and they had talked about her birthday. V wanted to know if there was anything she wanted that she hadn’t gotten. And it looked like Panam, well, drunk Panam had been a little too honest. She stared down at the dog she’d been gifted. “This isn’t what I meant when I said ‘doggy-style’.”