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Uzi was starving.
Running away from home maybe wasn't the best decision Uzi had made back in the day, but it was years too late to take it back. Even if she was still able to, she wasn't going to roll over and crawl back to her dad and beg for him to let her bum around the house anymore. Without her mom there, Uzi just couldn't bear to be in that house anymore.
She wasn't about to sacrifice her pride and be some corporate slave, either. Uzi was proud of her rebel lifestyle. She'd figure out how to survive off of her art, or she'd die trying.
Though with how violently her stomach was grumbling, she was almost certain that she was a lot closer to the second option than the first at the moment.
Slipping into an alley, Uzi dug into her bag for a can of purple spray paint, only for a loose stone under her feet to shift, causing Uzi to lose her balance and drop the can. "Agh, shit!" Trying to grab at the can, Uzi dove for it, only to end up ramming head first into a pair of wings.
V was just about the worst guardian angel there was.
Angels were uncommon in the modern world, but far from rare. No one new exactly why they existed, but after millennia of living alongside humans, people eventually got used to them. They were very similar to humans in a lot of ways. They aged the same, ate the same, lived and died the same, but they weren't born the same. Angels would appear from stardust when a particularly important person was born, and their entire life would be dedicated to protecting that person, to keeping them safe. They weren't allowed to pursue their own education, career, or personal connections, only given exceptions if their Ward permitted it.
V had always thought the restrictions humans placed on their angels were creepy, but she had never minded too much, because her Ward had been of a similar mind.
'Emphasis on had been.' The self-hating voice in the back of V's mind whispered, spiteful and sinister. 'Now you're all alone...'
The sound of metal on stone distracted V for a moment, and she looked down to notice a canister of spray paint rolling between her legs, before a sudden force hit her in the back, right against her wings.
V squawked out a cry of pain, whipping around and ready to punch the lights out of whoever had hit her, only to see a girl sitting on the ground, the stranger rubbing their head through their beanie. "Hey shortie! What was that for?!"
"It was an accident, calm down! I was just trying to get my paint, and I didn't see you until it was too late." The stranger's voice took a slightly annoyed edge to it, clearly in a bad mood.
V squatted down and picked up the can, holding it towards the girl. "Whatever, just take it. No harm done, I guess."
Whoever the girl was, V couldn't see much of her from this angle. They were small—concerningly so, given that they sounded to be around V's age—and had yet to actually look at V. All that V could actually see of them was that they had dark skin, badly dyed purple hair, a ratty beanie, and a hoodie that seemed three sizes too small. All in all, something was odd about this person, and while V was initially very irritated with the whole situation, she suddenly found herself more intrigued than anything else.
Uzi reached for the can, looking up at the angel she had been unlucky enough to run into, only for her heart to skip several beats. Her hands stopped at the paint, fingers barely touching against the angel's, where she didn't want to move them. "I-I uh, my name's Uzi." She babbled out, suddenly glad she had dropped it. Whoever's angel this was, they were lucky.
The angel was beautiful. She had gold colored eyes, silvery grey feathers and hair, and pale skin that seemed to literally glow faintly. Angel genetics were weird, but Uzi could not deny that she was kinda into it.
The angel eyed Uzi with curiosity and a mix of some other unreadable expression. "I'm V."
Uzi snorted, much to the angel's—V's—offense. "Sorry, sorry. It's just- What kind of name is V?"
"What kind of name is Uzi?" V shot back, and Uzi pouted, crossing her arms.
"A damn cool one, that's what it is!" Under V's unblinking gaze, Uzi began to wither, deciding to back out of the conversation. "A-Anyways, thanks and stuff, but I'll get going now..."
Uzi turned around and began to speed walk back to her alley, giving the can a few shakes to make sure it was ready, but right as she was about to spray, she heard a voice over her shoulder. "What are you doing?"
Uzi was very glad that the street was mostly empty of people, because she definitely screamed. "AAAAAAAAAHHHH! WHAT THE HELL!?" Uzi turned her head, met with V staring right at her, clearly having not left. "Why are you following me!?"
"Because I want to know what you're doing, duh." V rolled her eyes. "I just asked you."
Uzi groaned, using her can to paint a ">:(" face against the wall. "I'm spray painting. It's uh, what I like to do." At the unimpressed look that the angel was giving Uzi, clearly she expected a bit more. "W-well, I do more than just angry faces, y'know. That was just an, uh, an example. I'm an artist. I make art."
"Can I watch?" There was that look again. Uzi didn't know what V's expression meant, but it was creeping her out. That being said, this was the first time anybody had been interested in what Uzi made, so she figured she'd entertain the offer.
"Uhhh, sure? It's a bit late though, isn't it? Don't you have like, some special Ward you're supposed to go babysit?" Uzi's remark did not help the awkward mood when V looked off to the side and squared her shoulders, clearly upset by the joke. "Ah, uh, sorry, I didn't meant to-"
"It's fine, drop it. What are you painting?" V was clearly still uncomfortable, but it was also clear she had no intention to leave.
Uzi really didn't get why this pretty angel was so determined to make conversation, but she couldn't remember the last time anyone actually tried to speak with her for something other than wanting something out of her, so she just kept going. "Well, I mainly draw, like, robots. It's a metaphor for how our modern world treats humans more like machines than people, that should be used until they break and then thrown out. I don't want to just be a tool to make someone else's life better. I'm a person, and I'm gonna spit on the shoes of rich fucks until they figure that out!" While she spoke, Uzi used the paint can to create a crude outline of her robo-sona. From that base, she would make something more detailed. Getting the rest of the paint out of her backpack, she began to set to work, V watching her through the night.
A week later...
V sat perched on a rooftop alone, smoking a cigarette that she had convinced N to not throw away. He and J did not approve of her little habit, but she didn't particularly care. They had already failed as angels, why did she need to keep trying to be holy?
The only time she's felt anything lately was when she had been with that punk in the alley. V was pretty sure that Uzi was her name. She had gotten an earful from her teammates when she came back that morning after being gone all night, but she had felt lighter than she had in a long time.
It'd be nice to see Uzi again, V thought to herself. She was kicking herself for not having asked for Uzi's number. They had only spent a night together, and they hardly spoke, but V knew she wouldn't be forgetting that moment any time soon.
It was getting dark again, V noticed, as she puffed out another cloud of smoke. If she didn't want to see N's disappointed face again, she'd need to start heading home. J said she was going to be making a meat pie for dinner. V felt her stomach twist in disgust at the thought of that pie. J just didn't make it like their Ward used to.
Standing up, V dropped the cigarette onto the concrete of the roof and stomped on it a few times until the embers had gone out. Just as she was about to glide back home, she heard a sound from down below.
"Hey! I don't want any trouble! I just needed some food, was hungry, that’s all!" That voice sounded familiar...
V peered over the edge of the building, where she saw Uzi, just as tiny as before, cornered by three rather large men against the edge of a corner store. V's mind didn't have time to figure out what the situation was, or what the thugs were saying, because one thing was clear: Uzi was in danger.
Jumping into action, the angel dove off of the roof and dropped into a full force double kick to the chest of one of the goons, sending him skidding along the ground while she beat her wings to get into the air just high enough to kick the side of the head of one of the other men. "Get the Hell away from her." Her voice was low and calm, though it did nothing to conceal her hatred.
"Go back to your nest, songbird!" The last man snarled, brandishing a baseball bat at V. But while he was distracted, Uzi took her backpack off of her shoulders and swung it by the straps like a flail to collide with the back of his head.
As soon as he was down, Uzi slid her pack back on and took off into a sprint, grabbing V's hand and dragging her along. "They aren't going to be down for long, we gotta get out of here!"
Uzi was a pretty quick runner, but V knew there was a more efficient way to do this. "Hang on, I've got an idea." Sticking her hands under Uzi's armpits, V flapped her wings a few times and pushed off the ground with both feet, taking off and soaring above the city and out of the reach of the thugs.
Uzi was screaming from the sudden change in altitude, but she was safe.
Or at least, V had thought she'd be safe. Apparently one of the thugs had a gun, and bullets began to fly past them. The situation only got worse when one bullet manage to graze V's right wing, the sudden rush of pain throwing her off balance, and the injury making it impossible to regain control.
"Well, shit." Was all that Uzi could get out before they had begun to plummet. "V, over there!" All that the angel could do now was aim them towards the open dumpster that Uzi was pointing towards, where they could hopefully survive the impact due to doing everything she could to slow their fall.
Needless to say, the crash was not comfortable, and as soon as V's head hit the trash bags, she was unconscious.
V woke up some time later, laying on a thin blanket spread out on the ground, with a throbbing headache, and an unfamiliar sensation on her wings. Turning her head, she saw that her wings had been bandaged, the feathers dirty and ruffled, but wrapped sloppily in bandages that did seem to hold. She wouldn't be flying anytime soon, and it'd take hours to preen her wings back to how she liked them, but that was not the urgent part of the situation.
There were other bandages on V's body, but it seemed like the dumpster had mostly protected her from the impact. That being said, V's passenger seemed to be missing. Uzi had to have been the one to bandage V, so where was she?
Standing up, V looked around the alley, where she finally spotted Uzi at the very end of it, peering out into the street, before giving a soft sigh of relief. When she turned around and saw V standing, Uzi's eyes widened slightly in shock, before returning to something cool and confident. "Glad to see you awake, Golden-Eye!" The nickname was spoken like it was a reference to something, but V had no clue what the girl was talking about. "
The angel's eyes locked onto Uzi's stance. V knew how people carried themselves when they were injured. The way that Uzi was putting all her weight on her left foot, clearly she had gotten injured. Perhaps a spraining?
"How long was I out?" V asked, pulling her jacket off and leaving it on the dirty blanket. V desperately needed a shower after her crash landing, but taking off the garment that had gotten the worst of it helped at least a little.
Uzi shrugged. "Just a couple hours. It's a little past three AM. Those assholes seem to have lost us, but I don't want to take any chances until its morning. You shouldn't be walking around anyways with an injured wing. Do you have anyone who could pick you up?"
V checked her phone, only to groan as she saw the shattered screen, and groaning even louder when it wouldn't turn on. "It's fucking broken. I can't do shit with it."
Uzi pulled a milk crate out from against the wall to sit on, sticking one hand into her hoody pocket and the other into her greasy purple hair, combing it with her fingers. "Guess we're just going to have to wait until morning."
"Well, I could borrow your phone and just call my folks that way." V began, her nose scrunching a bit at the general state of filth both of them were in.
"Don't have one, sorry." Uzi looked away, gritting her teeth.
A realization finally dawned on V, and she sucked in a breath through her teeth with embarrassment. So that's why Uzi was always tiny, dirty and outside all the time. It was pretty obvious in hindsight, but V chalked the mistake up to having spent very little time with Uzi overall. Most of it had been silently watching the girl paint, or being unconscious in an alley, apparently. "No, I'm sorry. I didn't realize what the circumstances were until just now..."
The tension in the air was thick enough to cut with a knife, and V wracked her brain to think of something else to say. A thought occurred to her, one that would probably piss J off, which V saw as an amusing upside. "Hey, how about you come back to my place in the morning. We've got a pretty good bathroom setup. You can wash yourself off, get a bite to eat, that kinda stuff. Hell, if my roommates are alright with it, we've got a guest room if..."
Uzi snorted. "You do know we've had two conversations ever, right? All you know about me is that I deface public property, and that I'm homeless. Why would you want me living in your fancy angel house? What if I'm some perv, or a robber who's gonna take your TV in the middle of the night?"
V flapped her bandaged wing a tiny bit, just enough for it to grab Uzi's attention. "Because if you were untrustworthy, or Hell, if you were smart, you would have limped off and hid the second we touched down. Instead, despite not even being able to properly stand, you took care of me and waited for me to wake up."
"Tch, I owed you one." Uzi remarked, seeming almost annoyed that V had faith in her. "I probably won't stick around, but uh, I wouldn't say no to using your shower, I guess."
"That's the spirit." V gave a soft smile, digging in her pocket for another cigarette, lighting it, and then then taking a long drag from it. "Anyways. We've got a lot of time to spend together before it's safe to move around again, so how about we get to know each other a bit more, huh? I call dibs on first question: Why were they after you?"
Uzi blushed, looking embarrassed. “I was about to starve to death. My supply had run dry, and I could literally feel my stomach eating itself, so I uh, broke into their corner store to fill my pack with as many non-perishables as I could. I may have helped myself to their hot dog machine as well. But as it turns out, they weren’t really, uh, welcoming to the thought of me ransacking the place.”
“You idiot…” V sighed, shaking her head. “But, I guess if that was the only choice you had left, I can’t blame you too much. I gotta say though, you picked the worst possible store to rob. That place is a front, everyone knows that. They probably didn’t even care about the food. They must have thought you heard something.”
Uzi put her hands to her face, feeling stupid. “This whole night is fucked, I swear to god. V, I promise that I don’t normally get mugged by the mafia. I think you’re like a bad luck charm or something.”
V snorted. “That’s a rude way to thank the person who stopped you from getting your brains blown out, tiny. Just cause you got one sprained ankle out of it doesn’t mean you were better off without me. Anyways, it’s your turn.”
"How did you know I was injured?" Uzi's first question was simple and to the point. She had always been good at hiding things, and yet V hadn't been fooled by Uzi for even a few minutes. She was hoping that the conversation shifting to the botched robbery would let Uzi pretend she hadn’t been hurt. She felt like a loser having to say she hurt her little ankle while V had been scraped up all over and gotten a hole punched in her wing.
V blew a puff from her cigarette, careful not to send the smoke into Uzi's face. "Me and my roommates, we were trained in just about every kind of emergency there was. I couldn't prescribe you any pills, but I can set a broken bone, wrap a bandage and disinfect a cut better than any paramedic."
Uzi already had another question. "Why?"
"Because I'm an angel." V shrugged. "Our Ward was rich. Her parents could afford to spare no expense training me." The guardian stretched, yawning loudly, before giving Uzi a slightly smug expression. "Anyways, it's definitely my turn, so here's my question. Why are you out here?"
"It's a long story." Uzi spoke, averting her eyes.
V tried to look reassuring. "We've got a lot of time, remember? Take your time, you don't have to answer if you can't."
Uzi was silent for a moment, before she clasped her hands and put on a clearly forced smirk, her eyes dark with repressed emotion. "When my-" Her breath caught. "When my mom went missing... Things changed. Me and my dad didn't understand each other. I was seventeen at the time, and I was so... so mad. I would have killed to bring her back, to find out where she went, and if she was even still alive. But eventually, dad gave up looking for her. I was young and dumb, and I decided that if no one was going to help me, I'd take matters into my own hands. I ran away." Uzi bit her lip, like she didn't want to say the next part, but she did anyways. "I wanted to go back home. I really did. But I was prideful. My phone got stolen in the first week, and I was too cowardly to go face my dad in person, so I just stayed out here and get used to it. When winter came... I finally broke. It was cold, and I was lonely, and my body ached, so I tried to go back... But he had moved away. I don't know why he did, even if I have some theories. I don't even know if he's still alive or not. It's too late to go looking now, anyways."
V took her cigarette out of her mouth and stared up at the cloudy night sky. The stars were dulled out by light pollution and smog, but there were still some angles where things looked almost beautiful. "I'm... Sorry."
"In the end, it was my choice." Uzi admitted, still wearing that stupid fake smile. "I'm a screwup who was too prideful to ask for help until the last person that cared about me left without a word."
V seemed a statue for a moment, before something familiar danced across her face, and she took another puff of smoke into her lungs. Uzi knew that expression well. It was guilt. "If it's any consolation, I'm a fuckup too."
"Oh yeah?" Uzi glanced to V, her eyes somewhat guarded. "How can a badass angel like you be a fuckup?"
"So, you know how angels work, right? At least, the basics?" Uzi made a 'kind of' expression, so V decided she'd just explain it fully anyways. "So, we angels are born whenever a very important person is born. Someone who's going to change the world if they can live long enough to do that. Whether that change is good or bad is doesn't matter, just that they'll bring change. My Ward, the person I was created to protect... her name was Tessa James Elliot, and she was born with four guardian angels. It was unheard of! The most powerful and famous people throughout history had only ever had at most two angels, and then Tessa got four? She was supposed to be the goddamn most important person to ever live! That is, until we failed."
V pulled down the collar of her shirt, showing Uzi the huge X shaped scar right under her throat. "The fourth angel, Cyn. She was... abnormal. Cyn was a runt, smaller and weaker than the rest of us, unable to keep up with the training that was designed to push me and the others to our limit. She was mistreated by Tessa's parents, pushed to become as talented as we were, until she broke. When an angel is pushed to change by humanity, they eventually become so far removed from the person they're meant to be that they lose themselves entirely. Cyn became a fallen angel, a screaming monster with the black feathers and a desire to break fate and die with their Ward." V grit her teeth at the memory. "Fallen angels are much stronger than guardians. I was there, when it happened and... I wasn't strong enough to save Tessa. I could only avenge her by putting Cyn out of her misery. Tessa's parents hated us after that. For living while our Ward died. They sent us away, and now we live on our own, trying to make up for failing the one thing we were made to do."
It was silent in the alley after that.
Neither person seemed particularly interested in continuing the conversation, having just laid their greatest failures bare to the other.
After a little while longer, Uzi stood up, wincing as she put pressure on her bad leg. Picking up her backpack, Uzi took a few cans of spray paint out of her pack and moved over to the alley wall, setting to work on a new picture.
V watched Uzi work, finding some comfort in the process as Uzi made the base of the robot, adding more detail in layers. Once the figure began to have more and more detail, V began to recognize the image. "Wait a sec... is that me?" The silver-ish hair and general fashion of the clothing that the painted robot wore was a perfect imitation of V's current outfit.
Uzi nodded, adding a golden X to the screen of the robot's face, where its eyes would be. "You inspired me. Just like humans are being trained to be mindless slaves to the machine, angels are being trained to be unthinking, unfeeling bodyguards. You were born on the same day as Tessa, right?"
"Yeah." V stepped a bit closer to Uzi, watching the purple haired woman work more than she was watching the drawing itself. "All angels are born the same day as their Ward."
"Mhm." Uzi began to work on the wings of her graffiti—covered in large, swooping metal feathers—while she thought. "Then that's pretty seriously fucked up, right? You and the other angels, you were born alongside Tessa. You were babies, literal infants made of fairy dust, and the Elliots' first thoughts were to train these babies to be the child soldier servants of their kid? Is that seriously how all angels are raised? You're all child soldiers being used as tools for 'real' children, even though you were basically a twin to that kid?"
V's feathers ruffled at the thought. "Yeah, pretty much. It's a load of bullshit, I know. Not much we can do about it, though."
Uzi scoffed, one of the silver feathers she was painting ending up much longer than the others as she was momentarily distracted. "That's what everyone says, but has anyone actually tried? I tell you one thing, Golden-Eye, I'm not someone who gives up easy. I've been living out here long enough to know that no one's going to help you if you just wait for things to change. Hell, they probably just won't help you, period. I don't care what anyone says, or what anyone does to try and stop me. It doesn't matter if I was born with an angel baby or not, I'm going to change the goddamn world someday, and anyone who says I can't can BITE ME!"
V felt a smile tug at her cheeks as she watched Uzi's passion. "Maybe you aren't an idiot after all."
Uzi rolled her eyes with an easy grin, the mood lightening a bit. "Shut up, asshole. I'm plenty stupid, I'm just smart enough to know that you need to be stubborn to survive. I'm a powerful, independent badass, and I'm gonna keep saying that until people start to listen!"
"Hell yeah. Think we can be independent together, then?" V held out a fist to Uzi. "Cause otherwise, it'd be pretty weird for you to 'independently' be my newest roommate."
Uzi returned the fistbump, her grin widening until it split her whole face. "I told you already, I never promised I'd actually live with you! Now stop distracting me, I gotta finish this painting before morning comes and we have to walk all the way to your place. It takes a lot of layers to make things look perfect."
Another week later...
V stood at the oven, frying some eggs for breakfast with a soft smile. Unsurprisingly, after she had showered and eaten, Uzi had elected to stay with them. J wasn't pleased about the new mouth to feed, and N was just a bit confused by the whole scenario, but they had both accepted that V wasn't letting this go.
It helped that this was the happiest they had seen V in years.
V was never much of a cook, but she had started doing research online, and had begun to really enjoy it. Uzi was still dangerously thin, and V had taken it upon herself to give the punk girl as much food as she could handle until she was at least over a hundred pounds. Uzi was resistant to the pampering at first, claiming that she was being coddled, but V was persistent.
They needed a hearty breakfast more than most days anyways. V was taking Uzi shopping today, so that she could get some furniture and clothing. The guestroom only really had a bed, a dresser and a lamp beforehand, and V wasn't going to let her new friend be stuck with just that.
"Hey Ooze! Rise and shine!" V shouted across the kitchen, knowing Uzi would be able to hear, as she was a very light sleeper. "I've got toast, jam and turkey bacon, and there's eggs on the way!" V never really ate breakfast in the past, preferring just to have a cup of coffee until lunchtime, but she wanted to set a good example for her new friend.
A couple minutes later, Uzi trudged through the door, stretching and yawning. "What? No true love's kiss to awaken me from my slumber?" Leaning against the counter, Uzi pressed into it, making a pleased sound as her back cracked satisfyingly. "Ngh, that's the shit... It should be illegal to have a mattress that soft, by the way."
V shrugged, raising an eyebrow at Uzi. "You've said that every single time you wake up, dumbass."
"It's been true every time I've woken up." Uzi remarked, grabbing a plate from the cupboard to stack with food and condiments. "How much longer on those eggs?"
Uzi's question was answered when V used the spatula to drop two fried eggs right onto Uzi's plate. V opted to just eat the rest of them straight out of the pan. "When you're done, put on your shoes and your jacket. We've got a lot of errands ahead of us today. It's a short walk down to the clothes store, so once you're finished eating, we'll head out."
The clothing store was a local place, where V got all of her outfits. It had reasonable prices, and the owner was a longtime friend of the angel. "Hey, Lizzy! Mind if we use the changing room? I'm gonna be making HEAVY use of my friend discount today."
Lizzy's voice called from the back of the store, nonchalant. "Do whatever, girl. Just don't take any clothes that are worth triple digits. That's the stuff that pays for when you come by and rob me blind every month!"
Uzi gave V a funny look, one that the angel just shrugged off. "Lizzy's the one who told me I could take any clothes I want whenever I want. I helped her secure the location for the store, and I did a lot of the work on getting it up and running, so in exchange, I get the best deals in town. Don't touch the really expensive clothing, and you'll have a new wardrobe for nothing at all."
"You sure have some interesting sources." Uzi chuckled, eyeing the glittery pink dresses and skirts that lined the wall. "Though... I don't know if this place is to my speed. My style is more... neon vampire with a God complex. Not... Barbie barfing rainbows." V couldn't help but laugh at the description, laughing harder when Uzi took offense. "Hey! Don't laugh, asshole!"
"Sorry, sorry." V tried to take a deep breath to calm herself, reaching a hand out to pat Uzi's beanie calmly. "I've just never heard anyone describe fashion like that. You're not like anyone I've ever met, Ooze."
Uzi's eyes turned downwards as she blushed, looking embarrassed. "Is that a... bad thing?"
V blinked a moment, before realizing how bad what she had said sounded. "Oh shit, no no no, it's a compliment! You're... You're amazing, Uzi."
The blush only worsened as Uzi pulled her beanie down over her eyes and turned away. "Well, you're pretty great too."
"Ugghhhhhhhh!" Lizzy emerged from her sewing corner, hair perfectly styled and bow as even as ever. "I can hear you two flirting, and it is B to the 'oring! Either pick out clothes or kiss, I will not let my store become part of a trashy will-they-won't-they!" Grabbing a dark purple tank-top and some tastefully ripped jeans, Lizzy forced them into Uzi's hands and shoved both V and Uzi into the changing room.
From the other side of the door, V slammed her fist against it and shouted back at her friend. "Don't put words in my mouth, Liz, or I'll tear your tongue out with them! Uzi's just a friend!"
"Mhm." Lizzy sounded unimpressed, tossing more clothing over the walls of the changing room for Uzi to try on, seeming to find outfits at a superhuman speed. "If you're platonic about that girl, then me and Doll need to start saying we're 'just roommates'."
V barked a few more insults, before sighting and turning to face Uzi. "Sorry about her. She watches too many romcoms, now she thinks anything anyone says is a marriage proposal. How about we-" V cut herself off this time. She was about to recommend they got to the part where Uzi tried on outfits, but apparently that had already started, because Uzi was wearing that tank top and jeans combo and... "WOW!"
Apparently that was the wrong response, because V got a skirt thrown at her for that. V didn't even really care, because she was suddenly rethinking the accuracy of Lizzy's statements. Uzi looked great in the hoodie, don't get her wrong, but apparently V was too lesbian to watch a fashion show without immediately letting her jaw drop like a suffocating fish.
What followed was another half hour of Uzi trying on various combinations of clothing, testing the waters on what she was comfortable with and what made her feel weird. They had reaffirmed that skirts and anything flowy was off the table, but Uzi was fond of form fitting clothes that gave her a lot of ease of movement. One thing was certain though, the beanie was NOT coming off under any circumstances. V didn't mind. She was too busy trying not to drool over the other stuff to care about whether or not Uzi had some hat hair. Either way, the angel was not getting out of this changing booth without being able to say she definitely had a crush.
When they were finally done, Uzi had picked out eight outfits that called to her. "Are you sure I can just... have this? Even if all the clothes are individually cheap, this is still like three hundred dollars worth of clothes."
"Uzi." Lizzy deadpanned from across the sales counter. "V is like, my best friend. If she says you need this stuff, I'll agree. Heck, I'll throw this in, just a little something extra." Lizzy put a small note on top of the bag containing Uzi's clothes. "Don't look at it until you're out of the store, and don't let V read it." The last bit of the sentence was whispered conspiratorially into Uzi's ear, and the short woman just nodded along, already nervous about the contents of the message.
V was waiting by the exit while Lizzy had been bagging up all the clothes, and called to Uzi from across the shop. "Hey, Ooze! You ready to go?"
Lizzy passed the bag over to Uzi with a smile. "Go get 'er, babe!"
Running up to the door, Uzi gave V a slightly nervous smile. "Your friend's nice."
"She doesn't know when to shut up, but she knows me better than even the other angels do at this point." V's smile took a slightly somber look to it. "After everything that happened with our Ward, all of us dealt with the pain in our own ways. I nearly gave up on life back then, but Lizzy was the one who convinced me that that was a stupid idea."
Uzi nodded solemnly, before leaning her body against V, trying to offer some comfort as they walked. Absentmindedly, Uzi took the note out of the bag and read it, making sure that V didn't see. The note had a hastily scribbled out drawing of Lizzy giving a peace sign, and underneath it, words were written. "Hit me up when you need a wedding ring, your girl knows how to get the best ones around! P.S. Break her heart and I will hunt you down <3"
Sticking the rather intimidating note into her pocket, Uzi had a thought occur to her. "Hey, V? Despite having lived with you for like, a week already, I haven't really interacted with N or J at all yet, I don't know if I've even been in the same room as them for more than five minutes! Do they uh, disapprove of having some random homeless girl living in their house?"
V let out a long sigh, like she had known that question would be asked eventually. "I'm sorry that they're so slow to accept you. I really thought N would be chiller about all this. That dude's made friends with ROCKS, I don't know why he's been avoiding you. J's always had a stick up her ass, so she's probably just mad that I'm not telling you to pay rent."
"Don't the Elliots pay for all your necessities?" Uzi asked, slightly confused.
"My point exactly." V quipped. "You won't find anyone more uptight than J. She's got a soft spot, but not many people can find it. I think we just have to give them some time. They'll come around to you, I promise. I don't know how no one else has noticed, but you're like, really fun to be around."
"Aren't angels supposed to be serious and badass?" Uzi chuckled at V's joke. "What's with all the cheesy lines recently?"
"Aren't you the one who's been preaching about non-conformity since the day we met? I can be badass and still try to be nice to you. It isn't my fault everyone's too big of a jerk to get to see this side of me." V gave Uzi a light punch to the shoulder, freezing when the painter flinched. "Sh-Shit, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to startle you!"
'Way to go, V!' The Angel's mind unhelpfully shouted. 'You are still just as stupid as ever! Just gonna keep hurting the people you love, are you?'
The self destructive spiral was most definitely about to kick in, and V instinctively reached for her lighter to grab a smoke, but Uzi reached out, taking V's hand into her own. "It's alright, you didn't hurt me. C'mon, your half of our date was fun, but now it's my turn." Uzi began to lead V elsewhere. "The furniture store can wait, I don't urgently need a new shelf, but it looks like you urgently need to do something relaxing."
V didn't struggle against Uzi's grip much as they were led into another of the many alleys found in the city. But compared to the previous two that Uzi and V had interacted in, this one had a cozier feel to it, if alleys could be cozy.
The walls were covered in graffiti of Uzi's trademark style, robots and crows covering the bricks. "The building to our left is the art store where I get all my paint. They let me get new paints in exchange for me making murals for them. The workers there are probably the closest thing to friends I had before I met you."
"And you were complaining about Lizzy giving me stuff for free," V teased. "You've got the exact same deal with the people at this store, you little hypocrite!~"
"What can I say, I'm a trickster at heart." Uzi bared her teeth at V playfully, making a stupid growling noise that made her cringe the the second she did it.
Uzi squeezed the angel's hand a bit. She hoped she wasn't coming on too strong, but she was starting to feel anxious. All the talk that Lizzy had given about kissing and wedding rings had really gotten to Uzi. She was supposed to be an emotionless punk, damnit! Why was she so obsessed with thinking about having a cute soft life with this gold eyed idiot!? She had wanted to know what V's lips tasted like from the moment they had met, but before she could at least pass it off as some primal human urge when faced with a goddamn magic angel, but now she was just head over heels for V, regardless of the wings or the fact that she glowed in the dark. Uzi had straight up called their outing a date minutes ago, in what universe could she pretend she was still cool after that!?
Uzi didn't trust herself not to sound like an idiot, so instead she just walked over to a crate of spray paint bottles in a crate next to the art store's back door, picking out a deep purple, while grabbing a neon yellow for V, tossing it to the angel.
"What am I supposed to do with this?" V asked, giving the spray paint a testing shake.
Pointing at a blank spot on the wall, Uzi just smiled. "Paint."
"You do know I've never done this before, right? I'm gonna screw up your awesome mural if you let me scribble around on here." V eyed the can with distrust, but Uzi walked up and took V's hand, guiding it up against the blank spot.
"It isn't about what looks good. It's about what feels right." With Uzi's guidance, V pressed the nozzle of the spray can, and in an instant, a single circle of golden paint was permanently etched onto the brick. "Just, don't think about how it looks, or how it's going to look. Listen to what the paint is telling you to make, and let it happen."
Uzi used her own purple can to create a cartoonish depiction of a video game character that V didn't recognize. When the purple haired woman checked on how V was doing, she had to stifle a gasp, determined not to demotivate V's artistic vision. "That looks... interesting. Wh-what is it?"
"It's a, uh, a Golden Retriever, but I think it has a disease or something, cause it's lumpy as Hell." V had painted it cause the shade of yellow reminded her a lot of the dogs that N had been obsessed with.
Uzi was thankful that V explained what it was, because she was about to guess that the angel had drawn a banana with legs. Maybe her whole speech about 'what feels right' had been slightly too vague. "Well, you made it, didn't you? That's something to be proud of! You're a bona fide graffiti artist now, Golden-Eye!"
"Gimme a break, don't act like I'm on your level, Uzi." V just backed up to lean against the wall, Uzi being eternally jealous of how effortlessly V could look cool.
Uzi didn't paint much more after that. The next step of her exceedingly rushed and foolish plan required there not be too many spray paint fumes in the air. Moving over to lean against the wall beside V, Uzi put on her most casual face. "So, uh, we've known each other a while."
"If you call two weeks 'a while', sure." V winked at Uzi, the casual gesture enough to give the human the determination needed to go through with the plan.
"That's longer than some people take to start kissing." Uzi had meant to sound chill and cocky when she said that, but her voice cracked from fear about halfway through the sentence.
V froze, staring at Uzi with the same unreadable expression from when they had first met, the one that had creeped Uzi out so much. "What does that mean?"
"I..." Uzi kicked herself. It was too late to back out now, but from that reaction alone, Uzi knew she was going to be turned down. "I like you, V. I did from the moment I laid eyes on you. I thought you were the most beautiful thing I ever laid eyes on, and then you saved my life twice on the same day a week later. You've given me a home, given me clothes, given me food. I really, really like you, and maybe I'm rushing into this, but I'd rather try and fail than fail because I never tried. You get me, V. And I'd like to be your... Your girlfriend?"
Uzi waited for refusal, for disgust, hell, she waited for V to laugh at her. But instead, as she closed her eyes and waited for her body to catch fire from how red her face was, Uzi felt arms wrap around her body as V lifted Uzi into the air and kissed her. They just kept going higher, V's wings flapping desperately despite the injury, until they were several feet in the air spinning in each other's arms like dorks. Uzi decided she wouldn't mind being a little dorky in private with V.
When they finally touched the ground again and pulled their lips apart, they were both red faced, gasping for air. "Hhholy shit!" V wheezed out, eyes wide. "I didn't really expect that to happen today of all days, or at all really, but I am glad you were braver than I was!"
"So, does that make it official?" Uzi asked, pointing at herself and then V.
"I think so? I haven't ever dated anyone, so I don't really know how this works." V may have released Uzi from lip-lock, but they were still practically bound at the hip from how hard V was holding onto Uzi, like she'd disappear if they let go. "That was maybe the best feeling I've ever had though. Can we like, just keep doing that?"
Uzi was about to say yes, but then she noticed that the street outside of the alley was getting crowded as rush hour kicked into full swing, and several pair of eyes were definitely on them. "How about we go home and then do that?"
Uzi and V spent the night together, not even really doing anything, just laying together, holding each other and basking in that feeling. The feeling of being wanted, something that neither of them had truly felt in a long time.
They weren't perfect. It wasn't like this kiss had magically resolved the problems in their lives. Uzi still needed to find her dad, and she still was on a long journey to physically and mentally recover from her time on the streets. And V still had to actually reconcile with the angels who share her pain, and learn to forgive herself for losing her Ward.
Their problems weren't fixed by loving each other. But with each other, they might actually be able to find the strength to make those hard choices. This wasn't a Happily Ever After.
But it was a damn good first step towards one.