Retirement

Becoming a solo was technically very easy. Just pick up a gun and see who was willing to pay you to use it. Over 90% of the gonks who did that ended up dead in short order, but the remainder, the true solos, managed to make a decent living from it... until they inevitably got killed.

Becoming a fixer was much harder. It wasn't something you could just decide to do one day. It required reputation, connections, money and a whole lot of information to make sure that you didn't step on the wrong toes before you were ready to handle the consequences.

V had been prepared to spend at least a decade shooting people while she slowly built up all of the above until she was ready to transition into being a fixer. With Taylor on the team, that timeline had shrunk dramatically.

“That one.” The bug master pointed out.

“You heard the lady, Stampede, bring around the truck.” V said with a vicious grin.

“Don’t need to tell me twice.” He said over the comms, just as eager.

They were hitting another Scav depot, after finding it via the expedient method of simply driving around the city and letting Taylor’s bugs do the scouting. It took them less than an hour before they struck gold.

“They don’t have anything set up to sell it.” Taylor elaborated further. “I think this place is just for storage.”

“Probably from any corpses they can snatch whenever Maelstrom and the Tyger Claws clash.” Jackie theorized.

“Makes sense.” V agreed. They were in between Kabuki and the Northside Industrial Zone, right in the no man’s land between the two gangs. Gangoons were on average far more augmented than whatever random victims the Scavs might snatch off the street, especially Maelstrom. “Either way, all the better for us.”

The plan was to get in, kill the Scavs, load the crates full of cyberware onto the rented truck and then drive it over to Taylor’s place. Instead of letting Padre sell it, however, this time they were going to do it themselves. Or to be more accurate, V was going to be doing it, both to avoid having to pay the fixer’s fee and to start getting into the game. A lucrative project like this would keep her busy for weeks and start building up the kind of reputation a fixer needed.

“Anything we should watch out for, Skitter?” V asked just to be sure, already parking the car.

“A few cameras and one guard with a porno BD and one of those dick sucking machines.” The bug master’s lips curled in disgust. “They were obviously relying on obscurity.”

Not a bad plan, most of the time. Night City’s construction could be so labyrinthine, the records so scrambled from the DataKrash and the meddling of thousands of netrunners over the decades, that it wasn’t at all strange for entire buildings to be forgotten about. Too bad for the Scavs that Taylor was the bane of obscurity.

“Preem.” V smiled. “Let’s do this quick.”

The ICE on the shitty security cameras was decades old and easily broken, and the singular Scav left behind as a guard never even knew what happened as her knife found his throat.

“I’m not touching that thing.” Taylor grumbled, turning away from the still operational dick sucker.

V pursed her lips, smothering a smile. Unlike the somehow-still-unknowing target of her seduction, she just found the situation funny. Deciding to leave the dead man in the humiliating position for his comrades to find later, she mounted one of the convenient mini forklifts the Scavs had been using to move around the crates full of cyberware.

A minute later, Jackie backed up the truck into the parking area and they started loading up the crates.

“So, Slither, how much do you think this stuff is going to net us?” Jackie asked, doing that thing where he said her handle far too suavely.

“I’ll need to ask Vik for an appraisal before I can say for sure, but it has to be at least a hundred grand on the low end.” V replied.

Cyberware was expensive, especially the really good stuff. If the Scavs had managed to get some serious combat grade ‘ware from the corpses of Maelstromers and Tyger Claws as they’d theorized, then this payday could be even bigger than it seemed.

“Preeeeem.” Jackie drawled with an obvious grin. “And the best part is that we can keep doing this over and over. Not like the fuckin’ Scavs are going to get a clue as long as there’s an eddy to be made.”

He was completely right, of course. Scavs were worse than cockroaches – no matter how many of them you kill, more always popped up. V hadn’t seen the info, but office gossip at Arasaka had been that the Soviet Union smuggled them in to be used as deniable assets. That would explain why so many of them were Eastern European. But there was no shortage of locals among them either.

“They’re going to change their mode of operations once they figure out that they can’t hide from us.” Taylor pointed out. “And they’ll want to hit back.”

“The Scavs aren’t a single organization, so I wouldn’t worry about that too much.” V shook her head. “It’s still worth keeping an eye out just in case, but do you have any idea how common it is for Scav dens to get raided and wiped out? And even if they figure out that it’s been us hitting their biggest stockpiles, they’d have to start poking around Heywood to find us. The Valentinos will flatline them as soon as they start asking suspicious questions.”

And besides, V didn’t plan to be doing this kind of thing personally for much longer. Pretty soon, she’d be able to start hiring other mercs to do the job for her. It would be a sweet little gig; the Scavs would kill people and harvest their cyberware, Taylor would locate their stashes, and then V would send in mercs to take it all. The Scavs would, however unwillingly, be working for her. No doubt Taylor would prefer to kill the Scavs before they managed to hurt anyone, but that was unrealistic. Maybe if Vik and Taylor managed to put together some kind of relay system for her powers that would let her have coverage over the whole city, but short of that the Scavs were always going to have time to kill at least few people before they were caught.

“V… Slither’s right, chica.” Jackie spoke up, quickly correcting himself since they were technically still on the job. “Heywood’s a tight community, everyone is a bro or a sis. We might not always get along, but some sketchy outsider comes around asking question? We close ranks.”

“Fair enough, I guess.” Taylor shrugged as they loaded up the last crate, looking around with a frown. “You think we could take one of these forklifts, too?”

The three of them exchanged silent glances, contemplating the usefulness of the idea and eyeballing the remaining space in the truck.

“Klep it!” They chorused with identical grins.

XXXXX

Taylor had been quick to adapt to a new routine since moving into her apartment, but V turned out to be an unexpected addition to that routine. Before, it had just been their morning workouts at the gym, but since their raid on the Scav den less than a week after she moved in, the older woman had been coming home with her.

It made sense, because V needed a computer to work with while she was making deals to sell off the cyberware that was now sitting in boxes on the ground floor and the one in the Welles home wasn’t always available. It would have been different if she was annoying to be around or left a mess for her to clean up, but it wasn’t like that at all.

“Go ahead and shower, I’ll chop up the ingredients.” V said, already moving towards the kitchen. She was a bad cook, but she could work a knife just fine. And she was learning.

“Alright.” Taylor agreed easily. They had a system, and she’d take over the cooking after she was done showering.

Stepping into the small bathroom that was taken up almost entirely by the rather large shower area that V had insisted on, she quickly stripped and put her sweaty workout clothes into the hamper, noting that they definitely needed to wash them today. Her and V’s clothes from yesterday were still in there and it was starting to stink up the place.

The hot water felt heavenly on her sore muscles, but she didn’t take too long to enjoy it. Grabbing the shampoo/conditioner bottle, Taylor frowned when she realized that even such a short time of just her and V using it, it was almost empty. Both of them had long hair and used up quite a lot with each wash. It was an expensive brand, too, one that V had bought for her after guessing that hair care was important to her. Taylor had no idea how she had guessed that, but it didn’t really matter. The shampoo really was good.

A few minutes later, she stepped out of the shower wearing only a fluffy robe, feeling refreshed.

“Shampoo is almost gone.” She informed the other woman.

V somehow managed to still look beautiful even with dried sweat staining her skin as she smiled at her. “No problem, I’ll pick up some more today or tomorrow. It’s the least I can do for you in exchange for letting me freeload in your apartment.”

“You’re not freeloading.” Taylor said, taking over the kitchen. “But you do stink. Go take a shower.”

“When did you get so catty?” V laughed, deliberately hip bumping her on the way.

“Yesterday, when you told me how ‘ripe’ I smelled.” Taylor responded blandly, for once not suppressing her smile. The friendly banter was fun.

“I didn’t say it was a bad smell.” V continued teasing as she disappeared into the bathroom.

Taylor shook her head with another small smile, skipping up to the bedroom level and dress in some simple comfy shorts and a tank top. The sight of actual cleavage when she looked down had still not gotten old.

V took longer in the shower than she did, so lunch was bubbling away by then and Taylor had already migrated over to the couch to read the book she’d received as a moving in gift from the older woman. Initially, she’d expected it to just be a fantasy adventure, but the creeping porn infestation had apparently infected even the written word. At least the torrid lesbian romance in the book was more tasteful than the degeneracy on the billboards, with the author abstaining from using crass slang to describe sexual organs or acts.

“Mmm, nothing like a shower after a good workout.” The older woman, clad in her own fluffy bathrobe, sighed happily. “How long until lunch is ready?”

“Give it about thirty minutes.” Taylor answered, briefly looking up from her book. When she saw that V’s bathrobe was only barely staying closed, she was quick to lower her eyes again. Honestly, V was way too casual about nudity.

“I guess I’ll leave work until after, then.” V hummed, looking around. “Want me to brush your hair?”

The offer startled her and she looked up again. “What?”

“Your hair, want me to brush it?” V asked again, already holding the brush in her hands. “I promise I’ll be gentle.”

That wasn’t the problem. Taylor just hadn’t had anyone offer to brush her hair in so long that the idea had become alien. More to the point, she hadn’t had anyone she trusted to get near her hair in a long time.

“… Alright.”

If she noticed how tentative that permission was, V made no mention of it as she settled herself behind Taylor on the couch. Removing the towel her hair was wrapped in, she began gently brushing it. At first, the sensation made Taylor instinctively tense up, but she quickly found herself almost forced to relax as the bristles scraped over her scalp. It felt really nice.

Finding herself unable to pay attention to the book, she instead closed her eyes and just enjoyed the sensation. Aside from a few tugs when the brush snagged on her curls, it was incredibly relaxing.

The brushing went on long past the point of completion, but Taylor couldn’t bring herself to say anything, instead letting it continue for over fifteen minutes.

“There, all done.” V finally said.

“Want me to do yours?” Taylor offered. That was how these things went.

“That’d be great.” V smiled and turned around, handing her the brush.

She’d barely gotten a good grip on it when she had to pause, because V had not only removed the towel around her hair, but also allowed her robe to slip down her shoulders, leaving her tattooed back exposed. It didn’t look like it had any muscle development, but that was due to a carefully applied layer of fat to hide it. V’s entire body looked soft, hiding the power beneath.

Taylor hesitated for a moment before deciding not to make a big deal out of it. V was obviously not ashamed of her body – and there was certainly nothing to be ashamed of – so it would just be awkward to ask her to cover up. She was a big girl and could handle a bit of exposed skin.

Even if it did mean that she only needed to lean forward a bit to get an eyefull of her boobs.

Pointedly not doing that, she took hold of the long black hair and started brushing. It was straight and silky smooth, so it was a lot easier to deal with than her own curls. Taylor thought about commenting on it, but also felt awkward about it. Girly stuff like that was long in the past and she was rusty with it. Better to just say nothing than make a fool of herself. V didn’t seem to mind, just letting out the occasional content hum when the brush scraped against her scalp.

There was a gentle ping from the kitchen downstairs, signaling that lunch was done. Despite most people in Night City not cooking, the technology had still advanced. Particularly convenience stuff like monitors that removed the need to pay constant attention.

“Lunch is ready.” Taylor said redundantly, putting down the brush.

“Then let’s go eat.” V said agreeably, pulling her bathrobe back up. “Just give me a second to put some clothes on.

The clothes in question turned out to be a just a thong and a tiny tank top, both made of her spider silk. V had even bought a high tech sewing machine to work it in secret. That sewing machine was currently right here in Taylor’s basement for secrecy reasons, so she could use it as well.

The older woman took every opportunity to wear the silk, claiming that she loved the way it felt on her skin. Taylor tried very hard to ignore the way V’s obviously stiff nipples poked through the thin fabric, the small wet spot on the thong, and the constant low-level arousal her bugs could smell on her.

V was a bit of a pervert.

Lunch was pleasant. Taylor had eaten several meals in her new apartment alone and she had to admit that having V around made it better. She was definitely going to invite the older woman to hang out some more even after she no longer needed to hog the computer.

Which was exactly where she went after they were done eating. Taylor, having nothing better to do, made herself comfortable on the bed and resumed reading her book. The quiet cursing from V as she haggled over prices and deals made a smirk pull at her lips. She had some inkling what a frustrating task V had chosen to take on and was glad to leave her to it.

Even with Vik having accurately assessed the value of their confiscated cyberware, that didn’t mean that any potential buyers wouldn’t try to shortchange them. V had very little reputation right now, so everyone would be trying to rip her off. It was made worse by the fact that she was also setting up dead drops and middle men so that it couldn’t be traced back to them.

Amusingly, the only one that wasn’t trying to rip them off was Viktor, but he was not only getting first pick of the stuff, he was also getting a steep discount despite his protests. Taylor approved. Vik was a saint and their go-to medical professional. Making sure that he was well-stocked, supplied and happy with them was simple common sense.

Taylor managed about two chapters before the ringing of her phone interrupted them both. A quick glance at the screen showed a familiar stylized bull skull logo.

“Jackie? What’s up?” She asked, catching V’s curious eyes.

“Hey, chica. V there with you?” He asked.

“Yeah, she’s here.” Taylor confirmed, a bit of caution entering her tone. She knew that V had been spending a lot of time at her place recently, so she was almost bracing herself for some commentary.

Fortunately, it didn’t come. “Great, put me on speaker. I need to talk to you both about a gig.”

“Alright…” She agreed, taking the phone away for a moment to activate speaker mode. “You’re on.”

“Hey V!” Jackie immediately greeted with his usual exuberance.

“Hey, Jackster.” V chuckled, clearly amused. “What’s got you so happy?”

“You remember that netrunner buddy I mentioned, T-Bug? She called me up earlier about hiring our crew for a gig. No fixer for this one, she just needs some muscle.”

“So, we finally get to meet your mysterious netrunner.” V commented with interest. Taylor was a little interested herself. Jackie had hyped T-Bug up quite a bit, but the woman in question had remained distant and refused all social contact. Jackie had excused her by explaining that she was way too professional and never hung out with anyone. “And no fixer? That must mean she’s working for herself.”

“Got it in one.” Jackie confirmed. “The gig is klepping some gear from another netrunner. T-Bug can get past his security, but needs extra hands to carry out the loot. You girls in?”

Taylor and V exchanged looks and nodded at each other. Once upon a time, she might have hesitated to rob some guy she knew nothing about, but concerns like that quickly started feeling superfluous in Night City.

“We’re in.”

XXXXX

T-Bug was a small black woman that oozed professionalism. From her buzzed off hair, to the sleek black netrunner bodysuit she wore, to the  way she talked and moved, it all reminded Taylor keenly of those PRT agents that had joined the organization from out of the military. She had either been in the army before becoming an independent netrunner, or she was doing an excellent job of emulating those mannerisms.

“Our target is sixteen-year-old Daichi Iwata, although he goes by Ronin these days. That’s R-zero-N-one-N, R0n1n.” She began the briefing. “A corpo brat that decided to fuck off with the inheritance his parents left him instead of becoming a suit himself. He used the money to set himself up in a basement somewhere in Little China according to my tracking daemon. I ran into him on the net recently and he bragged about his deep dive and cooling system. I want it, and you’re going to help me find him and klep it. Any questions?”

“So we’re stealing from a kid?” Taylor asked, keeping the frown off her face despite her distaste for the gig.

“If we don’t do it, someone else will.” T-Bug retorted bluntly. “I wasn’t the only one on the server when he was running his mouth. At this point it’s a race to see who robs or blackbags him first.”

Right, because netrunners were valuable, even apparently stupid punks that didn’t know when to keep their mouths shut.

As if the universe was listening, Taylor received a message on her phone. Glancing at it, she could only purse her lips in annoyance at seeing T-Bug proven right so quickly. “Gig offer from Regina to scout for a netrunner lair in Little China, marked as time sensitive.”

There was no address or details attached just yet, but the timing was too close to be anything but T-Bug’s target. The black woman was too professional to be smug about it, but there was a very pointed feeling of ‘see what I mean?’ in the air.

And the worst thing is that Taylor would have taken this gig if she had the time.

“Say you’re on it and get paid for the same gig twice.” V suggested.

“That’s a bit of a dick move, isn’t it?” Taylor frowned, although T-Bug and Jackie just nodded.

“You’d be getting her the intel, not our fault it lost value immediately after – even if it technically is our fault.” V shrugged. “Fixers lose gambles all the time.”

“Regina won’t hold a grudge over it even if she learns we were the ones who klepped this kid’s shit, she knows how the game is played.” Jackie assured.

“Alright, I guess.”

“While we’re at it, we could klep the netrunner, too.” V continued thoughtfully, drawing surprised eyes in her direction. “T-Bug still gets his gear, but we take the netrunner, use the kidnapping to give him a dose of reality and then throw him a recruitment pitch.”

“You want to expand?” Jackie’s eyebrows shot up his forehead. “I don’t know, V, I kind of like the idea of keeping our crew small.”

His eyes flicked towards her and Taylor knew that he was also thinking about her secret. It was a valid concern, and one of the reasons why he’d stopped badgering T-Bug to work with them more closely. Taylor had no intention of sharing her secret with the netrunner, not without getting to know her very well, something that would never happen with the distance T-Bug liked to keep.

“I’m thinking more along the lines of subordinate mercenary crews that we can pull talent from when we need it; netrunners, techies, drivers, solos…” V sounded very corpo for a moment there, complete with shark-like smile. “And when they aren’t working with us directly, we can point them at gigs that we don’t take on ourselves.”

Jackie looked stunned and even Taylor was a bit surprised. That was…

“Ambitious.” T-Bug took the word right out of her brain, stating it in a neutral tone. “I don’t care what you do with this punk either way, I just want his gear.”

XXXXX

Jackie knew that V was clever and ambitious, had known it since the day they met, so maybe it shouldn’t have been a surprise that she was already thinking bigger than just being a solo. He kept his thoughts to himself until they were in her car and on the way to the netrunner’s lair, following behind T-Bug’s own car.

“What are you up to, V?” He asked bluntly. “You’ve been acting more like a fixer than a solo lately.”

“Because I’d rather be a fixer.” V admitted openly. “I wasn’t going to say anything yet because I’m not ready to fully transition into the role, but nabbing this rookie netrunner is too good of an opportunity to pass up.”

“You’d really rather spend all your time talking to people on the phone and organizing shit than getting some action?” Jackie asked, feeling more than a bit disappointed. “I thought we were going to be legends together?”

“Jackie…” V sighed. “Mercenary work was always going to be just a stepping stone for me. I want money and power, not to die young and have a stupid drink named after me.”

“What about us?” Jackie didn’t mean to sound like a clingy girlfriend, but he had to know.

“It’s not like I could do it without you.” V huffed out a laugh. “You’d be the local legend that rose to the top, the veteran slapping sense into fresh gonks, the guy that knows everyone in Heywood and everyone knows him. If you took over the Coyote Cojo from Mama Welles, we could turn it into the next Afterlife. Everyone would know where to come and who to talk to if they had a problem that needed fixing. Fuck having a drink named after you, Jackie Welles would be the Bull of Heywood, someone that everyone in the district looked up to and everyone in the city knew.”

“That does sound preem.” Jackie admitted, imagining it.

His mama might not be quite so enthused about having her bar become a merc hangout, but he knew that she would worry a lot less if he took it over from her and settled down. She had already suggested it a while ago, back when he’d been dating Camilla. The disappointment on her face when he told her that they’d broken up and that he was going to keep doing merc work was still clear in his memory.

But it just felt kind of like giving up, as if he was admitting that he couldn’t make it big as a solo.

V was on a roll and kept talking. “And Taylor would the mysterious one, the one that sees everything. The training the PRT gave you could be put to use making something out of the street kids that want to become mercenaries so that they don’t just die on their first gig. And your powers would let us scoop up more opportunities in a month than most fixers get in a year. We could send kill squads after the Scavs almost as soon as they show up, trim down the gangs when they cross the line, take control of the black market, and more.”

It was impossible to guess what Taylor thought of V’s impassioned speech, because her only reaction was a blank face and an impassive statement. “And what would you be doing?”

“I’d be the one brokering deals, organizing operations, managing money and people, deciding which gigs get done and who does them.”

All things that Jackie couldn’t see himself doing, and he wasn’t sure if Taylor could see herself doing them either. V had put a lot of thought into this.

“I wouldn’t just be your enforcer.” Taylor stipulated firmly. “If we go that way, then I’d want to have a say in how we do things.”

“That’s the idea.” V agreed easily. “We stay a team and work as a team, and trust would be more important than ever.”

“I’ll think about it.” Taylor said.

“Me too.” Jackie nodded along. V painted a pretty picture, but it was a very different from what he had been thinking they would be doing.

Then again, he had always known that V was clever and ambitious. It really wasn’t a surprise that she’d put a lot more thought into the future than him.

XXXXX

R0n1n woke up confused. The last thing he remembered was enjoying a recreational braindance, so why was he waking up tied to a chair? That confusion quickly turned to fear when he saw that sitting in front of him was a very beautiful woman with a snake-like aesthetic, from her clothes, to her eyes, to the tattoos winding down her arms.

That by itself would not have been too frightening, but the two obvious mercenaries standing just behind her certainly were. One was a big Latino and the other was a slender young woman with curly black hair, a spider mask, and sunglasses. The Latino’s size was intimidating in its own way, but something about the woman’s stillness made his skin crawl.

“Had a nice nap?” The sitting woman asked, a smirk pulling at her lips and her serpentine gold eyes fixed on his own.

“Who are you? What do you want with me?” He demanded, trying to sound angry instead of scared. He wasn’t sure he had managed it.

He still had his cyberdeck, so he could have tried to fire off some quickhacks, but held back. Not only because even if he suceeded, it would still leave him tied to a chair and infuriate his captors, but because the woman with the curly hair and creepy spider mask was completely cut off from the net. It was weird to him, but some people did that and it put him in a very bad spot right now.

“You can call me Slither. My associates are Stampede and Skitter.” She introduced, gesturing first to the man and then the other woman. Weird names, but he wasn’t going to judge. “As for what we want... this morning, you bragged online about your deep dive and cooling system.”

R0n1n’s brows furrowed in confusion when she paused. “…and?”

Slither sighed in seeming disappointment. “Bragging about your new toys is kiddie corpo politics. On the streets, it’s an invitation for someone to rob you.”

And he was not a corpo brat any longer. “…oh.”

“Yes, oh.” Slither mocked lightly. “We were hired to rob you and we did, but we were only the first. More mercenaries came less than an hour later and they’d be probably be less concerned about keeping you intact.”

“And you are?” He managed to keep his voice even.

“Why, yes, we are.” Slither smiled the same kind of predatory smile he’d seen on the faces of adult corpos. “Being an independent operator is dangerous business, especially for a netrunner that just recently lost everything, but if you signed up with us we could help you get back on your feet.”

“You were the ones who robbed me in the first place!” R0n1n yelled, losing his temper.

“Our client robbed you, we probably saved your life. Did you think getting you out of there before the next batch of mercenaries showed up was something we were paid for?” Slither asked pointedly. “What do you think would have happened when they realized that someone beat them to an easy payday?”

R0n1n grimaced. He could make some guesses, none of them good.

“I was a corpo myself until recently.” Slither casually revealed, startling him. “I know you’ll refuse to admit we did you a favor because you were trained to never acknowledge a debt if you could avoid it, but this doesn’t have to be a disaster for you. We aren’t looking to turn you into a netrunner slave or squeeze you for all you’re worth. We aren’t a corp or a gang, we’re a mercenary crew and we look after our own.”

“She’s right, chico.” The Latino, Stampede, suddenly spoke up. He sounded shockingly friendly. “You need people who’ll have your back if you’re going to survive on the streets.”

“I was a year younger than you when I first tried to go out as an independent.” Skitter, the creepy one, unexpectedly spoke up. Her tone was completely flat and cold and it made his skin crawl. “I almost got burned alive for my trouble.”

“At least give it a try, and if you don’t like it we still can shake hands and part ways as chooms.” Stampede picked up the sales pitch again.

“Just like that?” R0n1n asked skeptically, his eyes on Slither, who seemed to be in charge. He knew what they were doing, the old good cop/bad cop routine, with a side order of gruesome personal anecdote.

“Just like that.” She confirmed the Latino’s words. “I’m decent enough with a cyberdeck for most field work, but we might need someone more specialized from time to time. If you want to just do a brief trial run then we can help you relocate and hire you on a case by case basis. If you want to sign up properly, then you’ll be paid a steady wage just to stay signed on. It won’t be much, but it’ll be enough to live on, and you’d still get paid per gig as well. If you impress us enough, there’ll be other perks as well, such as discount cyberware and the like.”

It was… a good deal. He had little to lose by agreeing and it was an obvious investment on their part that they hoped would pay off in the future. As long as he didn’t try to screw them over – and provided that they weren’t lying, of course – there were only benefits to it..

“And what if I refuse?” R0n1n asked warily.

“Then we go our separate ways.” Slither shrugged. “It would be a lost opportunity for both of us, but we aren’t going to try forcing you to work with us. That’s how you get people who want to flatline you”

That could be a lie, but there wouldn’t be any point to it. If they were planning to kill him, then they didn’t need tricks. “Alright, I suppose I will take you up on your offer of a relocation.”

It still burned him that the basement he had set himself up in had to be abandoned, but if this episode had taught him anything, it was how dangerously vulnerable a netrunner was after their lair was tracked down.

“Preem!” Slither stood up and approached beginning to undo his restraints. “How do you feel about Heywood?”

XXXXX

V was a woman on a mission, probably the most important mission of her life. Everything had to be perfect.

“Do these pants make my ass look fat?” She asked, turning around to present it for inspection.

“V, your ass looks great.” Jackie’s tone made it clear how absolutely done he was with her shit. “This is the sixth pair of pants you’ve tried on.”

“They are.” Mama Welles agreed, much more amused. “You must really like Taylor if you’re acting like a nervous schoolgirl with her first crush.”

“I’d be less nervous if she wasn’t so damn hard to read.” V grumbled.

It had been about a month since the moving in party and the first time she had slept over. Since then, V had sneakily migrated her stuff over to the younger woman’s apartment one by one. A shirt here, a pair of panties there, a knife, a gun, a toothbrush, and so on. Every so often, she would ‘work late’ and end up sleeping over again. A couple of times she had even managed to finesse another overnight cuddle. She had also been signaling her interest hard. Even a blind man would have been able to see what she was angling for.

The parahuman bug master didn’t go stiff as a board at physical contact anymore, but she still never initiated it. V had intended to let Taylor have the initiative after making it abundantly clear that she was receptive, but that was clearly not working. It would have been one thing if she was just not interested, but there was definitely something there. Taylor just didn’t seem to even consider the idea despite her her obvious lack of resistance to it.

So that meant V had to do this, too. Fine, she didn’t mind.

The opportunity came when the bug master asked for a ride out into the Badlands to collect some scorpions and other creepy crawlies.

V had immediately agreed to give the ride, but suggested spending a night under the stars far away from the city lights. Ostensibly because it had been ages since she’d seen the stars, but in reality because it would be easy to engineer a romantic atmosphere.

Of course, she bought info on the locations and movements of the Nomad clans and the Raffen Shiv from the Badlands fixer Dakota Smith, but that was simply what anyone that went into the Badlands did if they didn’t want to gamble with their lives.

V had also bought a tent, camping supplies, and a couple of inflatable mattresses. Her clothes were carefully chosen to be sexy, easy to remove and practical enough for the Badlands. This was the best opportunity she was likely to get and it had to be perfect.

“Taylor’s had a hard life.” Mama Welles said sympathetically, before giving V a look. “If you are set on pursuing her, then I expect you to look after the poor girl.”

“She’ll be the most well-loved woman in the city.” V promised.

And it was the truth. V intended to tie their fortunes together inseparably, in sickness and in health, until death did them part. She knew that Mama Welles, Jackie, and Taylor wouldn’t see it the way a corpo would, which was why she didn’t explain, but V didn’t feel bad about it at all. A partnership based on love was a foundation of fluffy pillows, comfortable until something shifted and it fell apart.

A partnership based on mutual interest? That was a foundation of solid concrete, hard and uncompromising and something you could build a future on.

The fluffy pillows could come after.

“I’m glad to hear it.” Mama Welles smiled. “And I think the previous pair of pants worked better.”

Finally, some good feedback. “Thanks.”

XXXXX

The road trip was a success and Taylor was able to pick up a good number of scorpions and larger spider species, along with some other interesting bugs. Nothing that would give her swarm a huge power boost, but they would be useful for certain types of gigs.

Now she and V were out way past city limits, almost at the border between Night City and the rest of the NUSA. It was still strange to think that a city had managed to successfully secede from the United States and really underlined how bad the political situation was. Heck, it was an open secret that Militech basically was the NUSA. The former CEO was even the president, having just stepped from one role into another like it was the most natural thing in the world.

“It’s been a while since I’ve been out of the city.” V said nostalgically, sitting next to her handing her a cup of hot chocolate.

The night was already getting cold, but they had a small CHOOCH2-powered stove and a tent set up.

“Yeah.” Taylor murmured back, accepting the cup and glancing sadly at the land around them.

Nothing but dusty earth in all directions. She’d been told that some parts of the planet were still green, but it was depressing to think of how much the megacorporations had destroyed with their greed. Most of America, both North and South, was like this.

If the ecosystem hadn’t been wrecked, this might have been a field of grass or a small forest. Now it was just a barren wasteland.

“Could you tell me about what the country around Brockton Bay was like?” V requested.

“I didn’t spend much time out of the city, but I could tell you about summer camp.” Taylor offered a little hesitantly, not sure if the older woman would be interested in a child’s petty adventures in nature.

“Summer camp?” She needn’t have worried, as it turned out. Nature camps of all kinds for children had long since faded out of the public consciousness and V was completely fascinated by the concept.

Taylor did her best to remember every little activity and event that she’d participated in while they sipped at their cups of hot chocolate. Hikes, archery, ball games, water balloon fights… all things that nobody did anymore. Not in the same way, at least.

She hadn’t thought it was that big of a deal back then, but V’s rapt attention made her recollection fonder. They finished off the hot chocolate while she recounted stories from what could be called the last vaguely happy time in her life.

“… And the last night before going home, we spread blankets around on a nearby meadow and pointed out the constellations… or made up new ones.” Taylor snorted to herself, remembering some of the kids connecting random stars and making silly shapes.

“Can you show me some of the constellations?” V asked.

The request surprised her, but she didn’t mind. “Sure, if I can remember.”

“Preem, let me just set up the other mattress…”

Taylor opened her mouth to say that it wasn’t necessary, but V had already moved. Besides, these modern air mattresses could be inflated and deflated by activating the software controlling their functions, so it wasn’t exactly a lot of work.

A minute later, the mattress was set up and they were lying on it, looking up at the stars.

“Alright, teach me about the stars.” V said with a grin.

“I don’t remember most of them.” Taylor warned, but pointed at the night sky anyway. “Let’s start with an easy one. You see those four stars that make a square and the three more that make a tail?”

V scooted closer so that she could follow the line of her finger and squinted. “That thing that looks like a frying pan?”

“Heh, you think it looks like a frying pan, too?” Taylor huffed in amusement. “That’s Ursa Minor, but I never understood how anyone could see a bear there.”

V tried to tilt her head around, at one point smooshing her cheek against hers, but eventually gave up. “I got nothing. Maybe he just didn’t want to name it the frying pan constellation.”

“Riiight.” Taylor drawled, pretty sure it was something else. Although she wouldn’t be surprised if the reasoning was similarly dumb. “Anyway, the Draco constellation should be somewhere close to it if I’m remembering right…. Ah, right there. See that trapezoid thing with the long tail?”

It took V a few seconds to find it, upon which she started sniggering. “That’s supposed to be a dragon? It looks like a sperm cell.”

“It could be a tadpole?”

“Too late, it’s a sperm cell. What else you got?”

“I think Cassiopeia should be somewhere around there, but I can’t remember what shape it is.”

“What about that house? The square with a triangle on top?” V pointed out and this time it was Taylor who had to scoot into her to follow the line of her arm.

“I can’t remember.” She had to concede defeat after a while. “It looks bright enough to be a real constellation, though.”

“Maybe I should name it, then?” V suggested mockingly. “It looks like a house, so I think I’ll call it... the spider constellation!”

“Why spider?” Taylor asked curiously.

“Because spiders look nothing like that.” V explained, then got quiet for a moment before continuing more softly. “And spiders remind me of home.”

Taylor’s breath caught for a moment as the tone suddenly seemed to shift. V and her had become pretty close since the older woman had been fired from her job, and even more so since her new place had been fully set up. It wasn’t the first time that the air between them suddenly became charged with… something, but as always, she forcibly turned her thoughts elsewhere.

“I don’t think there’s any spider constellations.” She said, scanning the starry sky for another one to keep things going. “But I think that’s Pisces over there.”

V went along with it, following her finger and words for a minute before speaking. “That featureless head with the long tail?”

“Yes?”

“Taylor.” The older woman’s voice suddenly turned somber. “That’s another sperm cell. I think we might have to accept that if God does exist, he’s been jerking off all over our galaxy.”

A laugh wanted to bubble out of her throat at the ridiculous statement combined with the solemn delivery, and for once she didn’t feel any need to smother it. “Heh… hehehehahahaha!”

Taylor couldn’t remember the last time she’d laughed with genuine good humor. It felt good.

But V wasn’t finished. “It would explain why everything is so fucked up – we’re a celestial cumrag.”

The humor was crude. The kind that Aisha or Alec would come up with to annoy everyone else, but it was still funny for some reason. She wanted to join in on the joke with her friend instead of just standing awkwardly to the side. Putting disused and atrophied social skills to use, she tried to continue the gag.

“So you’re saying that God has wiped his dick on us?” Taylor cringed internally as soon as she said it. That was so lame…

“Bastard probably didn’t even wash up afterwards.” V chortled, apparently finding it amusing anyway.

They laughed about it for a while longer before tapering off into a pleasant silence.

“You have a nice laugh.” V broke it after a few seconds and Taylor turned her head to look at the older woman.

The serpentine cybernetic eyes were still imposing, but V’s expression was rather tender. She felt her face heat up and the same charged atmosphere from before returned.

“Thanks?” She offered awkwardly, not knowing what else to say.

Instead of saying anything more, V closed the distance and pressed their lips together.

Taylor froze, trapped between surprise and… not surprise. V had always been physically affectionate, almost since the day they met, and had at some point casually revealed that she was bisexual. There had been enough signs that this really shouldn’t have come as a surprise, but the notion that she would find Taylor attractive, even with the biosculpting making her look less boyish, had seemed absurd. V was way out of her league.

But V took her initial lack of resistance as an opportunity to roll on top of her and increase the aggression of her kiss. Their hips were also grinding against each other now.

“V!” Taylor managed to disengage the liplock and gasp out. “Stop!”

“Why?” The older woman asked softly, her gaze taking on that familiar predatory cast. “You seemed to be enjoying it.”

“I’m straight.” She protested.

“Really?” V asked sardonically, lightly thrusting her hips forward. Then she leaned back down to resume the kiss, mashing their lips together and all but plundering her mouth.

Taylor put her hands on the older woman’s waist with every intention of pushing her off, but her arms, both flesh and metal, suddenly became disobedient. She couldn’t muster the strength to push her away, and so the kiss continued for several long seconds, during which time V was constantly grinding their bodies together.

“You don’t kiss like a straight girl.” V said with half-lidded eyes once she came up for air. “Your body isn’t reacting like a straight girl’s… and the way you’ve been staring at my tits and ass since we met hasn’t been very straight either.”

“I can’t help staring with the way you dress.” Taylor’s rebuttal was weak and she knew it. This… revelation about her sexuality was making her feel uncomfortable and honestly kind of stupid. Memories of how often she’d glanced at Tattletale’s spandex-clad ass were suddenly coming to the fore. Was it possible to be that oblivious about yourself?

Of course, this is me we’re talking about. I already know I’m an expert on not thinking about my feelings.

The thought was laced with bitter amusement.

“I could undress, give you a better look?” V offered hotly, once again bending down, this time to lavish kisses on her neck and collar bone. One of her hands reached under her shirt and began stroking the naked skin there. She was obviously not intending to stop at just a kiss.

A small gasp escaped her and she worked up the will to push V’s head away a little. “V, slow down! Why are you doing this all of a sudden?”

“Sudden?” The older woman echoed with a wry twist to her lips. “There’s nothing sudden about this, Taylor. I thought you were interesting since the first time I looked into your eyes and saw the darkness in them. I’ve been attracted to you since our first gig together, when you just took charge like you were born to it. I’ve done everything short of take out an ad on the side of a skyscraper to make my intentions clear. I didn’t want to scare you off, so I waited and waited and waited for you to get the hint and either take what I was offering or tell me to back off, but you kept me in limbo. Even a snake only waits so long before it lunges.”

Staring up at V’s lustful expression slightly wide-eyed, Taylor asked her next question. “So this is just a sex thing?”

She couldn’t really relate. Bakuda’s agony bomb had burned out her nervous system so badly that she could barely feel anything from sexual stimulation. For her, it had been more about the intimacy. Vik had said he’d fixed most of the damage, and her sense of touch was  more sensitive, but she still figured it wouldn’t feel like much.

“To start with, yeah.” V admitted, and Taylor had some mixed feelings about that. On one hand, that was pretty shallow, but on the other there was a bombshell femme fatale who found her attractive and that was pretty flattering. “But then I got to know you and now I want more.”

Taylor swallowed thickly. “More?”

V just grinned and went in for another kiss. This time, Taylor found herself returning it and was a little disappointed when it ended. V didn’t move far, though, keeping their lips so close that they were almost touching. Her voice was a husky growl. “More.”

Taylor shivered and swallowed again, keenly aware of the heat building in her core. “How much more?”

“Everything.” V said without hesitation, going in for another passionate kiss. “I want you to be all mine, and I’ll be all yours.”

That did sound awfully tempting, but Taylor couldn’t shake off her doubts and worries that easily. “It would screw up our team dynamic?”

“We’re both big girls and Jackie is a big boy, we can be professional when we’re on the job.” V assured, hands pulling up her shirt.

Taylor squeezed down her elbows to stop her. “What if it doesn’t work out?

“Taylor.” V said seriously, staring her in the eyes. Her hands gripped her by the wrists and pulled her arms above her head. “Shut up and let me love you.”

Another kiss came and Taylor clenched her fists as V’s tongue plundered her mouth again. The older woman’s grip on her wrists wasn’t that strong. She could break it and push her away, but just like before, her arms weren’t cooperating.

The kiss felt good. V’s body on top of her own felt good. The heat in her core felt good. Why was she looking for reasons to stop this from happening? The knot of paranoid anxiety in her chest wouldn’t allow her to just let go and enjoy it.

V’s transferred her grip so that her left hand was gripping both of her wrists, leaving the right free to migrate south and once again try to lift up her shirt. Taylor automatically stiffened, preparing to stop her, but the older woman thrust her pelvis forward and broke the kiss, just enough so that she could speak.

“Either push me away or let me continue.” The ultimatum was whispered softly, but firmly. “I can take a rejection and I’ll still be your friend, but I can’t take being kept on the edge any longer. Decide, or I’m going to just take what I want.”

V returned to the kiss, not really giving her a chance to reply… but a lack of reply was basically consent in this case, wasn’t it? Taylor found herself unable to verbally agree, but she found herself just as powerless to physically resist. It felt so good.

Would it be so bad? What’s the worst that could happen?

The relationship could crash and burn and leave behind a horrible mess… but that was a risk with any relationship. It would always be a risk unless she was planning on staying single for the rest of her life.

And she liked V. The older woman had been nothing but good to her, and she had seen enough shit to be able to relate. When would she ever meet someone like that again?

With a shuddering exhale, Taylor forced herself to relax and wrapped her arms around V.

A palpable tension drained out of the older woman’s body and she broke the kiss for a moment to stare at her with a crooked grin. “Did you have to keep me in suspense for so long? I really thought I’d jumped the gun for a while there.”

“Sorry.” Taylor said back softly, running her hands up and down her back experimentally. “Now what?”

“Now I really want to eat you up, my sweet little peach.” V said hungrily, with such raw desire on her face that it was almost startling.

And it made her breath catch and insides squirm pleasantly. Taylor nervously licked her lips and then pulled the older woman down for another kiss. The happy groan she got in reward made something clench in her core.

The shirt went flying towards the tent, followed quickly by her bra, leaving her topless. V’s serpentine eyes devoured the sight for a moment, before she bent down to suckle on a nipple.

Taylor gasped at the unexpected action and arched her back, cybernetic fingers digging into the dirt above the air mattress. Her flesh hand swung down to grab a fistful of V’s own shirt and pulled on it. She wasn’t entirely sure about her own intentions with that, but V took the opportunity to slither out of it in a single move. And since she hated wearing bras, that left her topless as well.

Taylor bit her lip, staring at the magnificent pair of tits in front of her. V had needed to disengage and rise up a bit to get out of her shirt, so she was now proudly displaying the pair of boobs she had been enviously glancing at since their first meeting.

And apparently with something other than just envy if V was right… which she definitely seemed to be.

The older woman noticed her interest and grinned, scooting forward and practically shoving them in her face. Taylor figured that fair was fair and took the offered nipple into her mouth with only a little hesitation. She’d always wondered why men liked boobs so much… now she was finding herself liking them, too.

V moaned deep in her throat and slid sideways across her body so that she could also fondle Taylor’s breasts. “Don’t be afraid to get rough, I like a little pain.”

Sex with Brian had been… quiet. They’d both been virgins and had to figure it out as they went. Neither had felt comfortable vocalizing. Not so with V – the former corpo was clearly very comfortable showing her enjoyment. Her brazen moans sounded incredibly loud in the still night air and Taylor had the absurd fear that someone would hear despite knowing that they were the only people around. Still, she couldn’t say that she disliked it, even if her face was burning.

Then the older woman’s hand left her breast, sliding down across her flat stomach and reaching for her belt. With practiced expertise, her pants were unbuckled and the hand slipped under the waistline to stroke across her damp panties.

Brian had done that as well, but it just hadn’t felt like much for her.

“Mmm, I can’t wait to get a taste of you.” V said in the huskiest tone she’d ever heard, slipping her fingers under the panties now. Taylor only stiffened a little and instinctively raised her pelvis when she felt a single finger probing around her slit before slipping inside.

Her lips clamped down around the nipple in her mouth as she swallowed convulsively at the pleasant intrusion. V moaned loudly in response and started fingering her in earnest Taylor could only hold on and take it. This was so much more intense than what she was used to feeling during sex. Maybe Vik and her regular use of medical nanites had fixed more of the damage than she’d thought.

The finger abruptly slipped out of her and V brought it to her lips, sucking on it with every sign of enjoyment until it was cleaned of her fluids. Taylor had disengaged from the nipple to simply gape at the spectacle of it.

When she was done, V looked down at her with a smirk and purred. “You do taste like peaches, my favorite.”

“I do not taste like peaches!” Taylor sputtered, embarrassed… and also turned on.

V’s smirk only widened and she dove in for a quick peck on the lips before moving hungrily down her neck, replying in between kisses. “Yes… you… do… and… I’m… going… to… eat… you… up!”

By the end of the sentence, V had moved down her chest and clearly had no intention of stopping. Her hands gripped the waistline of her pants and tugged it down even as she continued placing kisses over her body. By the time she reached Taylor’s pubic mound, V forced her knees to bend so that her shoes were in reach. With a quick tug on the shoelaces undid them and allowed them to be pulled off. Then her hands returned to the waistband of her pants and quickly pulled them off, leaving Taylor completely naked.

She resisted the urge to cover up as V stared down at her with that lustful gaze and licked her lips.

“My beautiful little peach.” V murmured, lifting up one leg and placing a kiss on the ankle, moving up in tiny increments before picking up the other leg and doing the same.

Taylor shivered and it wasn’t just from the chilly night air. This was really happening, she was about to have sex with another woman. The mental shout of ‘but I’m straight!’ now just sounded like pointless stubbornness.

“You don’t have to lie, I know I’m not that pretty.” She muttered back, clenching her fists so that she wouldn’t damage the mattress. Had to remember that she had a Brute rating now.

“Yes you are.” V refuted, by now crawling her way forward and kissing her way up by inches. She was already past the knees. “Superficial beauty is nice and I put a lot of effort into bringing yours out, but you’ve always had something much more important than that. You had substance. Do you have any idea how rare that is in this fucked up world? How could you be anything except beautiful?”

Taylor felt a new wave of heat rushing to her cheeks. V’s passionate declaration mixed with pride at her work was leaving her with no rebuttal, so she just bit her lip at set her head down on the mattress, staring up at the stars above and squirming a little as she felt the older woman’s lips kiss their way to her core.

Brian had tried to do this once, but only once. Bakuda’s bomb had ruined that too, rendering any effort of his to please her worthless. She had been self-aware enough to not push her sexual reaction into the swarm out of some kind of embarrassment, but it had hardly mattered. Sex between them had ended up being about her pleasing him and him holding her.

It had not made for a romance novel-worthy sex life, but she had cherished the physical intimacy. That might be why she had been so quick to accept V cuddling her when they slept.

She was snapped out of the brief trip down memory lane when V finally reached her slit. Her tongue ran across the edges of her labia before pushing in deeper, flattening out to drag across her vagina.

Taylor gasped in surprise at the unexpected surge of sensation. Her nerves had definitely been repaired quite a bit more than she’d expected.

V made embarrassing noises of enjoyment as she continued eating her out, using her bioware reinforced arms to keep her legs spread.

Taylor kept any embarrassing noises of her own shut firmly behind her teeth, but her breathing still turned heavy as a coiling, pleasant sense of tension began to build inside her. Only the involuntary jerks of her body as it responded to the pleasure betrayed how much she was enjoying the older woman’s efforts. The urge to shunt into the swarm was suppressed for once.

“A quiet one, hmmm?” V said, briefly pulling away. Taylor lifted her head to look down, catching the wicked gleam in the other woman’s eyes. “One day, I’m going to make you scream.”

Not waiting for a reply – not that Taylor had one to give – V dove back into her crotch. This time, however, she aimed her tongue a bit further up, using the tip of it to nudge and prod and tease her clitoris.

Taylor’s hips once again lifted up at the unexpected stimulation, but she contained her vocalizations to a sharp inhale through the nose. The tension was building fast now, rapidly reaching a peak. She remembered this sensation, having experienced it only once in her life.

Right after coming home from summer camp, before that fateful day when Emma had rejected her, Taylor had done her first and only bout of self-exploration. Emma’s betrayal had left her too depressed to ever be in the mood for it after that, but she still remembered the feeling of an approaching orgasm.

V changed her technique again, planting her whole mouth over the top of her vagina and using the flat side of her tongue to stimulate it. The increased pressure and surface area was even better than the dexterous nudging of the tip and quickly pushed her over.

Taylor’s mouth opened in a silent gasp and her back arched towards the older woman’s mouth, seeking more. V was happy to provide, gripping her legs and licking furiously, extending the orgasm for as long as possible until the sensation faded.

When it was over, Taylor was breathing hard and keenly aware of the chilly night breeze on her heated, sweaty skin. More than that, she felt more mellow than she’d been in years. The stars above seemed to twinkle.

“We’re so very small in the end.” She murmured, but this time it wasn’t the exhausted realization of just how insignificant everything was. This time, she felt like she could finally understand people who could focus on just being happy.

The entire time she’d been in Night City, a part of her had been expecting a situation to occur that would lead to an ever escalating war with the powers that be, but maybe it was okay to just enjoy herself. It was okay to be small and selfish.

“Did you say something?” V asked with a satisfied smile, crawling back atop her body until they were face to face again. Her chin and lips still gleamed wetly.

“No, I just feel like I’ve figured something out.” Taylor replied with a small smile. Feeling uncharacteristically cheeky, she lifted her head to give V a peck on the lips. “And I knew you were lying when you said I taste like peaches.”

“Oh, a life-changing orgasm, was it?” V grinned. “And maybe peaches taste like you? Tart and a little acidic at first, then mellowing out into sweetness once you get used to it.”

Taylor mentally flailed for a response, although her face didn’t show a hint of it. She was not good at casual banter and definitely not at post-sex banter. “What do you taste like, then?”

She saw the trap she’d walked into immediately, the very obvious trap that she had been too busy to think about while searching for a comeback.

V’s expression suddenly turned sultry and she leaned down until their lips were almost touching. “Want to find out?”

Taylor swallowed at the loaded question, realizing that her hands had at some point come to rest on V’s hips. The fact that the older woman was still wearing pants suddenly felt like a very important detail.

But… fair was fair, right? She’d given oral to Brian a few times. How bad could it be to give it to a woman?

So she gave a slow nod and locked eyes with her new lover, starting to slowly roll her over. “Yeah.”

V’s smile became one of anticipation and lust. “I’m all yours.”

Taylor tried to emulate the same sexy downward kiss progression, but felt like she was doing an awkward imitation at best.  V was just way more comfortable and practiced at being sexy. Not wanting to embarrass herself with such a performance, she rushed it a bit and quickly pulled off V’s boots. Thankfully, they were the zipper kind and easy to remove. The pants, although still her typical leather, also slipped off easily.

Now having a very beautiful woman naked in front of her, Taylor paused to take in the sight. It was very alluring, and further proof that she really had been dense about her own sexuality.

V gave her an inviting and spread her legs. “Don’t leave me waiting, lover. I need you.” Her fingers trailed up her thighs, framed her hairless sex, and then went up to grope and squeeze her own boobs as she said this. Or more accurately, as she groaned it out needily.

It made her recently unclenched core tighten up again with renewed arousal. V was entirely too good at being sexy.

But it did get her moving, crawling forward with hesitant anticipation. What did women taste like? Brian’s penis had simply tasted like skin and she had never even contemplated letting him finish in her mouth. She hadn’t actually tasted anything when she’d given V a peck earlier, but she had to be lying about the taste of peaches. That only happened in tawdry literature.

Then she was between V’s legs and got a whiff of her scent. It was a lighter musk than what she’d smelled from Brian’s crotch, but definitely contained no hint of sweetness.

“Taylooor~.” The woman in questioned whined. “Don’t tease meeeee.”

She hadn’t been teasing on purpose, but she had been approaching so slowly that V had probably been able to feel her breath against her crotch.

“Sorry.” She muttered the apology, not really meaning it. Deciding that she’d hesitated enough and remembering that sex really hadn’t turned out to be that big of a deal, she closed the last bit of distance and ran her tongue over V’s moist slit.

It… didn’t really taste like much at all. There was a very faint mixture of acidity and salt, which was probably from sweat, but other than that it just felt like slightly more viscous water. It wasn’t unpleasant and it made her more confident in running her tongue over it. She didn’t really have any idea what she was doing, but she remembered what she’d liked when V did this for her.

And V’s vocalizations were as helpful as they were arousing. The older woman groaned, moaned, spoke approving or encouraging words, gave instructions, and generally made it very easy to know when she was doing something right.

Taylor quickly became very turned on herself and really dove in, completely focused on bringing her lover to orgasm. For the first time in over five years, she suddenly had the urge to touch herself, but at the same time didn’t want to split her attention away from pleasuring V. Fantasies of going for round two intruded on her thoughts and made her even more eager in her efforts.

“Yes!” V suddenly howled, right hand blitzing down to grab her head and push her firmly into her crotch. “I’m almost there, keep going! Harder! YES!”

Had Taylor not been so horny herself, that might have been embarrassing. She might have disliked being grabbed like that. As it was, her own core was burning as she ground her tongue against V’s sex, enjoying every shudder and the small gush of fluids. She kept on licking even as the climax abated and V slumped on the mattress. It was only when she was tugged upwards by her head that she stopped, although there was no time to say anything because V immediately brought her in for a deep kiss, apparently uncaring about tasting herself.

Taylor returned it eagerly. Her tongue was a bit tired and her jaw sore, but she gave as good as she got, hoping for round two.

After a minute, V disengaged to lock eyes with her. The serpentine cyberoptics were intense and her expression hungry. “How about we take this into the tent? It’s getting a bit chilly out here.”

That was true. She hadn’t noticed it in the throes of their passion, but the night was getting cold and the promise of more inside the cozy, insulated tent was too tempting to pass up.

XXXXX

“I really thought I was straight.” Taylor murmured ruefully, thinking back on the past several hours of raunchy lesbian sex.

Stroking her hair while they cuddled, V chuckled. “I’m pretty sure you had a mental block about it. Nobody can be that dense.”

The parahuman huffed, refusing to dignify that with an answer. That her lover was probably right only made it more irritating.

“I can help you figure it out, if you want.” V offered gently. “These kinds of things usually develop during puberty.”

Taylor went quiet, not sure if she wanted to talk about it. After a moment, she decided that she definitely didn’t want to ruin the relaxed atmosphere and simply burrowed closer to the other woman.

“My full name is Valerie.” V spoke up seemingly out of nowhere.

Taylor’s head shot up in surprise. “Really? I mean, I knew that V couldn’t be what your parents named you, but…”

“It’s because of my parents that I hate it when anyone calls me that.” V elaborated, her tone turning a bit darker. “I was born in Japan to corpo parents. A lot of Arasaka corpos are obsessed with the idea of legacy, especially in Japan, and I was being groomed to take over their position. Then one day, when I was twelve, a higher up with a fondness for pretty young girls decided that he wanted me. My parents jumped at the chance to improve their station by whoring me out, and I was expected to just go along with it.” She finished with a contemptuous sneer.

Taylor could only scowl angrily. Humans being shitty no longer surprised her, but it was the betrayal by family that was truly infuriating. “That’s obscene!”

V chuckled darkly. “I thought so, too. They even made me serve them sake while they were celebrating their ‘arrangement’. But they didn’t know that I added acid to it earlier. It was an ugly way to die.”

That was pretty brutal, and murdering your parents was definitely some kind of taboo, but Taylor wasn’t sure she could say anything. She would have probably just tried to run away, but if that wasn’t possible…

Well, twelve-year-old her wouldn’t have had the will and ruthlessness to do the same, but as she was now? She would have sent in the spiders and not been terribly careful to keep the venom dosage non-lethal.

“They got what they deserved.” She said quietly.

“I thought it was poetic that they choke on their own ambition.” V nodded in agreement. “I was caught, of course, by counter-intel operative Arthur Jenkins and he offered me a deal. Either continue going to the academy, but with a specialized course and eventually come work for counter-intel myself, or a bullet to the brain. I agreed to the deal, as long as they erased my family name as one final ‘fuck you’ to my parents. I’ve been just V ever since.”

Taylor was quiet, because if this had been Earth Bet, that would probably have been the story of a trigger event and that was not the kind of thing anyone shared casually. “Why are you telling me this?”

“Because I want us to trust each other.” V explained, shifting around so that they could look each other in the eye. “You don’t have to share anything right away if you don’t want to, but I’ll be here for you if you ever do.”

A conflicted mass of emotion sprung to life in Taylor’s chest. Gratitude, apprehension, affection, longing,…

After a long moment she sighed and decided to go with it. “What do you want to know?”

“Right now, I’d just like to help you figure out why you were so sure that you were straight.”

That wasn’t so bad, she supposed. “And how do we do that?”

“Well, it’s like I said, these things usually develop in puberty. Did anything important happen to you from eleven to fifteen?”

Hah, pretty much everything that had led her to becoming Skitter had happened in that time.

“My mother died.” She said quietly, taking the opportunity to snuggle closer to V.

“I’m sorry to hear that.” V hugged her and stroked her hair. “That’s probably not what we’re looking for, though.”

Probably not, no. “My friend betrayed me.”

V perked up. “Emma?”

Right, she’d already mentioned Emma after the moving in party when she’d been tipsy. “Yeah. Emma… Emma was like a sister to me. I can’t even remember a time when we weren’t friends. We would have sleepovers every weekend and did everything together. Then I came home from summer camp when I was thirteen and she was like a completely different person. I never found out why she suddenly became so cruel and hateful.”

“Can you describe her to me?”

“She was the kind of natural beauty that every girl wants to be like. Red hair, thin waist, wide hips, nice breasts and legs… she started doing modeling at fourteen and looked like she was going to make a career out of it.”

V hummed thoughtfully. “I could be wrong, but it sounds to me like you were developing an attraction to this friend of yours. Then she stabs you in the back just as the attraction is forming… I’ve seen people develop mental blocks for lesser reasons.”

Taylor thought about it for a moment, then sighed again and let her head fall into V’s chest. “Goddamnit.”

“What?” V sounded amused.

“We did everything together. Our parents would even joke about us being married… and in hindsight I think they were making bets about how long it would take us to get together.”

Taylor felt like an idiot. Had she really managed to block out so much that she hadn’t realized she had a crush on Emma? Stupid question, of course she had. That was what Taylor Hebert did when there was something painful that she didn’t want to think about, she pushed it aside and let it fester in the back of her mind. Dr. Yamada had pointed this out repeatedly when touching on the issue of her repressed anger.

“Don’t feel bad about it, that’s just how the human mind works.” V soothed, holding her and stroking her hair. It was nice. “We’re usually the last ones to notice the problem.”

It just made Emma’s betrayal worse, but Taylor felt paradoxically better. It was like she’d just shed a weight that she hadn’t known she was carrying. It was a somewhat familiar feeling, as Dr. Yamada had helped her work through some of her other issues… but the PRT’s psychologist hadn’t known about this issue of hers and Taylor had trusted her a lot less than she trusted V.

“Thanks, V.” She said with genuine gratitude.

“Anytime. And you can call me Valerie when it’s just the two of us, if you want.” The older woman offered. Then her hug became tighter, almost threatening, fingers suddenly digging into skin. “Also, don’t take this the wrong way, but if you ever betray me after this, I’m going to make you wish you were dead.”

Taylor at first instinctively called for the swarm at the perceived threat, but then she properly processed the words. It was a threat, yes, but not a malicious one. Just like her, V knew the pain of betrayal and was wary of experiencing it again. She had opened herself up to it and was hoping that it wasn’t the wrong choice.

Calming down, she made the swarm outside the tent buzz loudly. “I understand… Valerie. And if you betray me, I’ll have my bugs eat you alive.”

V relaxed and the hug became warm and comforting again. “Good, I’m glad we’re on the same page.”

It wasn’t exactly a normal start to a relationship, but Taylor found that she preferred it this way.