Work Text:
It was often hot in Night City, but today was one of those hot days. A day where the sun came down to punish anyone foolish enough to stand in its warmth for just too long, where the corpos were quick to retreat into their high-end AC-fitted apartments and offices, and where the durable plastic facades of many a food stall stand started to smell dangerously close to being burnt.
At five in the morning V had woken up for a fresh new day of stealing from whoever she needed to steal and killing whoever she needed to kill, until she had stepped outside of Megabuilding H10 and had the heat hit her like that one 6th Streeter she had called out for being a whimp a couple of weeks back. Despite being someone to never reject an opportunity to flatline some assholes for eddies, today V promptly turned around and went back inside.
Her apartment wasn’t necessarily cool – except in style – but it was much more bearable than whatever humid corner of the city a fixer would have sent her to.
Back in her apartment V undressed, her actions melting into each other as she took off her clothes, discarded them onto the ground, and threw her body back onto the bed.
She let out a sigh, stifled by the pillow her face was buried in. Flopping around on her back, she looked up at the window. You could practically see the heat. Fuck, V thought. I’m not made for this weather. She glanced at the clock. If it was already this warm now, it was going to be hell on earth later.
Only one thing to do, then. V pulled out her phone and shot a text to Judy.
sup
its warm as balls out there
wanna come hang at my place?
Judy would’ve probably gotten off her night shift by now, V considered, so there was a chance she was already asleep. Still, better to spend the day suffering together than alone.
V tossed her phone to the side and stretched her body out over the bed. More than merely the physical warmth, she mentally could not stand when it got too hot. Back in her Arasaka days she made the most of the climate-controlled offices she worked in. If the weather got even a little bit nasty in any way, hot or cold, acid rain or sandstorm, Arasaka HR was there for her, ready to provide the freshest, coldest drinks or the most insulated winter coat anyone could ever dream of existing. Not out of the kindness of their heart, V knew that, but because even Arasaka had to occasionally throw their employees a bone to keep them working. Or perhaps it was merely the microscopic carrot on Saburo’s massive stick.
V was ripped from her daydreams by the sound of a message coming in.
I know, I’m longing for Lizzie’s basement already
I’ll come to yours
Be there in 15
Perfect. V let her eyes wander hazily over the phone’s screen and beyond it at the ceiling. The warmth made her drowsy and her eyes grew heavy. She tried to forget about the heat but to no avail. All that happened was that in a moment of haziness she let her phone slip out of her fingers and onto her face.
“Uuugh… fuckin’ great.”
As she promised, Judy arrived some fifteen minutes later. The door to the apartment slid open and V looked up, still spread out on bed in the same position. In the door frame stood a familiar figure, but with an outfit V had never seen before. To her great surprise – and excitement – Judy was wearing a white blouse, with under it a green tank top, tucked into black denim shorts. A pair of cheap sunglasses rested on her head.
Judy stepped into the room and the door slid closed behind her. Moving air made her blouse flutter up in the wind a little. As she walked into the room V sat up. She whistled a satisfied little tune.
“Whoo, an’ here I was thinkin’ the hottest thing about today was the weather.”
Judy scoffed. “Unlike you, I dress for the occasion.”
V eyed the colourful, messy pile of clothing in the corner near her wardrobe. “My fashion sense may not be your style, Álvarez, but I always look good in anything.”
“Ha!” Judy tossed her sunglasses onto the table in the lounge pit. “Including nothing, I can attest.”
V let out a chuckle and sat up. “Then come over here and change my outfit for me.”
Snorting at the horrible attempt at flirting, Judy walked over to her. She cupped one of her hands against V’s face. V slightly tilted her face, burying it a little deeper in the familiar embrace.
Judy eyed her girlfriend. “Mm, even when you’re sweaty, dishevelled, and wearing the sorriest excuse for a bra you’re cute.”
V flashed a toothy, cheeky smile. “This is me at my sexiest, for sure.”
The two laughed softly, before wordlessly embracing each other in a hug. V pressed her head against Judy’s abdomen, feeling the soft fabric of the tank top brush against her skin. She wrapped her arms around Judy’s waist, an action that, while it had in some way become a common one now that they had been together for a while, always still washed a sense of comfort and peace over her.
After a while of having stood there together, eyes closed, Judy asked softly: “So, what do you wanna do today?”
Still keeping her face buried in Judy’s skin, V muttered: “Hmm, sleep, mostly, I think.”
“Yeah, that sounds good.” Judy slowly pulled away. “You won’t get into trouble, though? With any fixers, or something?”
Even now there was much that V opted not to tell Judy about her work as a merc. All the more reason why she always felt really touched when Judy still asked about it, looked out for her. She always did.
Brushing the emotion aside she said it’d be fine, she was technically a freelancer anyway, and gigs be damned, no fixer was going to send her out into the heat today.
Judy smiled, her eyes lighting up with relief. “Alright then, let’s make it a supremely lazy day.”
V smiled back. “Take off your pretty little clothes and come here then.”
“You don’t have to tell me twice!”