Originally I had planned for a different one shot than this one but it will be one with a heavy topic and I felt like writing some more damn fluff and a bit of character exploration and their roots and origins, so her ya go.
This one shot is set after the canon ending for this V - the Afterlife ending.
It's also inspired by a Gig in game in which you have to steal Kerry's guitar from a crazy Samurai fan but...
you will see.
As always, please keep in mind that English isn't my native language so please forgive me my mistakes - but feel free to show them to me!
"The fuck you think you're doing, V?" Kerry's voice was sharp. Angry. Promised a fight.
"What's the problem? I'm gonna delta. Am late already", V answered as calm and casual as possible. He didn't want an argument. Not another one.
"Yeah that is exactly the problem, gonkbrain!"
"Look. Kerry. What ever it is, I'm sure it can wait until tonight. Need to be at the Afterlife in like... 10 minutes ago-", V said and tried to pull Kerry into a hug but the other man just winded out of it and took an angry drag of his cigarette before poking V's chest.
"Don't you Kerry me like that. You always do this when you don't want to talk. And you never want to talk. And every time you come home at night after promising the same shit you're either too tired or too exhausted or not in the mood. And we don't end up talking, we don't end up fucking either, we don't even end up cuddling. Fuck, V. I am not letting you off like that today." Kerry threw a glance at V, some dangerous fire in his eyes, before he flicked the cigarette butt into an ash tray and stared at the City to their feet, leaning on the balcony railing.
V frowned and crossed his arms over his chest, feeling the need to get defensive. Oh yeah, the argument was coming alright.
"Maybe talking to you when I get home would be easier if you weren't either drunk or high or both", he snarled.
"Oh, sure. It's my fault then, like always. Fuck. I sometimes wonder how much of Johnny is left inside of you. It's impossible to get things into that thick skull of yours sometimes. You should go and see Viktor and let that chip of yours getting checked for remains of an engram!"
V's frown got deeper. He hated it when Kerry pulled the you're-just-like-Johnny-card. However sometimes he wondered how much his own personality had been altered... he kept telling himself that it didn't but... he couldn't even tell any more.
"V... you think I don't notice the blood strains on your pillow...", Kerry said after a few moments of angry silence. His gaze was glued at some point on the horizon and for a moment, V thought, he actually looked very old. Implants, money and organic food could do a lot but sometimes, the weight of life's years would simply show. "You promised me you would take things easier after that last, big thing... wasn't even sure you would come back alive from fucking space... but you did. And man I was glad you did."
V stepped beside him, putting an arm around his shoulder. This time Kerry didn't back off.
"It's not fair to ask you to watch me die."
Kerry turned his head to the side.
"But I am all out on fair, Ker...", V continued.
"You know that I'm going to stay with you til- - you know I am going to stay", Kerry assured him, "But that's the point, I want the time we got...- I want it to be our time, I want to spend it together", he continued with emphasis.
It hit V like a truck at full speed. He'd been diving deep into his job as Night City's Bad Boy, head of the Afterlife, taking one Gig after another to throw himself into life so he could avoid to think about death. But each day was a day less with Kerry.
He'd taken him for granted.
What a big, fucking mistake.
All of a sudden V felt like a piece of shit. Maybe he did become like Johnny. Neglecting the people that cared about him, only thinking about himself. He leaned heavy on the balcony railing.
"Fuck...", he whispered, more to himself though. "I'm so sorry, Kerry. Been a selfish bastard the past couple of weeks. Took you for granted."
"Yeah better not do that. Lot of people want me. I'm famous", Kerry said and V had to chuckle a bit. He stood up straight again, cupped Kerry's cheek with one hand to gently force him to face him. The kiss was soft. Almost shy. Yet sweet. Reminded V of a first time. Their first time.
"Way to make me shut up, V", Kerry said with a smirk but still lingered a while into V's touch before he went to go inside. V followed him.
"We could go to my place in Florida. Bet sun will do you good... we could go right now. Or how about we just stay here, we get naked on the couch and binge watch the latest season of Watson Whore and I cook something nice, or we-"
"Wait wait wait", V interrupted him. "You want to cook? You can cook? I saw you doing a lot of things but cooking wasn't one of them."
"Surprised?", Kerry asked, turning around after he gave the coffee machine the order to brew him a cup.
"Yeah. Actually I am", V said honestly.
"Learned to cook from my Mom when I was a kid. Said no woman would want a man who can't cook for himself."
V laughed. "Bet that turned out well for you."
"Never was good at it, though. Later, when I returned to the Philippines, after parting ways with Samurai... I picked it up again. Figured it's good for the soul. These days... neglected it like I neglected so many parts of myself. But hey... some soul food might do you good now. Might do us good. What ya say?", Kerry took the cup, sipped a bit of coffee, his eyes on V.
"Well pinch me in, I say. But I probably can't do more than watch. Never bothered to learn to cook for myself... hell I had a Burrito vendor in my old apartment, even. Want me to go and buy whatever you need?"
"Nah gonna order it online aaand...", Kerry started and his eyes began to glow in blue light while he was silent for a few moments, "... it's on the way."
V was surprised how fast Kerry went through whatever ingredients he needed and wondered if he'd something like this in mind for a while now. He didn't want to ask, though, because it would just remind him of how much he'd neglected Kerry lately.
He got pulled out of his thoughts when his phone rang. V let out a sigh before picking up and threw a glance at Kerry, noticing the frown on his face.
"Yeah what's up – no – not that, just not coming in today – yeah – because I say so. No. - yeah tell Claire to shut the place at the usual time. - No I don't. Yep. Do that. See ya." V hung up, his eyes still on Kerry he noticed that the frown turned upside down into a smile.
"And with that I am fully yours for tonight", he said and turned his phone off.
"Just for tonight, hu?"
"Let's... not get ahead of ourselves. We'll see. Alright Ker?"
It looked like Kerry decided to take what he could get and also made the wise choice not to comment it any further. It would otherwise end up in another argument, V was sure about that.
Later...
"So what are we having?", V asked curiously, his eyes on the All 'Ganic bag while Kerry started to unpack.
"Well had to improvise a bit, but kinilaw is made different in every province any way so who cares. So we got some rice... coconut vinegar, spices because I am sure you don't have any here, chili, ginger, veggies to the side with bit of coconut milk, garlic-"
"Wait wait is that a real garlic clove?" V picked it up, to take a good look at it.
"What money can buy ya. I mean it has to be the good stuff, organic stuff V... if this 'posed to be some food for the soul I have to make sure it's none synth crap. But if you're already fascinated by some garlic, man, you should see this. Hard to get some catch of the day but it will do." And with that Kerry pulled out a package of frozen fish.
V's eyes widened a bit. That must've cost a fortune. Then again... nobody really cared about money in this household...
"Ever eaten real fish?", Kerry asked.
"Yeah. You know being a corpo rat wasn't only puking my lungs out in the office toilet because of stress. Had it's perks, too. I remember one business trip to Japan, to Arasaka head quarters... we ate Sushi there, real Sushi, cook made it in front of our eyes from real fish."
Kerry scoffed. "Looking at you it's really hard to imagine that you've been a cog in the corpo wheel of Arasaka", he said and went through the cupboards. "Gotta see if you're stocked up on good knives and pans... you ever use this kitchen?"
"I use the coffee machine."
"Uhu."
"And the fridge. I think there's a bottle of juice in there...?"
Kerry found what he was looking for and started to cut up the vegetables.
"So we're having kinilau?"
"Kinilaw. Not the most famous thing, but I doubt you would know any of that any way. V... I think I never asked you that but... where are your roots? Where are you from?"
V shrugged, leaning against the kitchen cabinet as he watched Kerry doing his thing.
"Been a Night City boy, always. Born here. Parents came all the way from Mexico. Never been there myself, though. We were poor, I had the chance to make it big in the Corpo world so... guess I did exactly that, feeling that I owed my parents... well, they got killed in a gang fight and I was stuck in the office 'til shit went down the drain, as you know. Now only thing my parents ever left me was my name, Vincent."
"Yeah. Not gonna start and call you that."
"Much appreciated."
V stretched, folding his arms behind his head. "You know... getting snuffed out with a bullet and wake up with a terrorist slash rock star in your head really puts life into perspective... felt like everything I've done before... just didn't matter at all and was a useless waste of my life. Time I gladly would take back, now that I am running out of it."
Kerry stopped for a moment and lifted his head, throwing a worried look at V. "Hey just for tonight can we... not talk about this?"
V lowered his arms, a look of mild surprise on his face. "Yeah. Sure." He frowned. Sometime he felt like Kerry was just ignoring the fact that he would most likely die in a couple of months, granted he was still searching for a miracle and not entirely giving up but... chances were more close to zero than zero was to one. Maybe he wouldn't even see through the winter. And it made V angry and bitter that Kerry often seemed to act like it wouldn't happen but he came to realize that it wasn't ignorance. It was like cooking and staying home one night – the attempt to at least try and have a somewhat normal life. Even if it was just for that one night. Carefree. And free of shadows.
"You know what this reminds me of?", V suddenly said and pushed himself off the cabinet to start and search for a shard that he'd been hiding somewhere in his office desk.
"What – me cooking? That reminds you of something?", Kerry shouted from the stove. The room was already filled with the delicious smell of fried garlic and chili, mixed with the sweet smell of coconut milk. It truly was mouth watering.
"Yeah. You cooking. I had a Gig not so long ago. Had to steal uh... something from a crazy Samurai fan", V said and finally found the shard. A wicked smile showed on his face as he returned to Kerry.
"So I went through his stuff to... find what the client wanted and found this little piece of valuable data", he continued and handed Kerry the shard.
"Is that porn?", Ker asked, raising an eyebrow.
V tried to look as innocent and casual as possible and shook his head. "Better. Come on, take a look... I promise you'll have a good laugh. I sure had one."
Kerry was still suspicious but took the shard, inserted it and soon his eyes had a blue glow and V could see that he was reading. And while he did, the look on his face could probably only be described as 'what the serious fuck am I reading here?!'
" -'I know, Kerry said and smiled with a tear in his eye... And because he felt the same way he put his lips on Johnny's and kissed him warmly and softly, the tear falling from his cheek... Then he smiled, breathed deeply and slowly and whispered in Johnny's ear – And now we'll always be together...'", Kerry read out loud and it had V bursting out in laughter. "What the serious fucking hell! Is that... fucking fan fiction of me and Johnny?! From fucking 2021? Holy fuck, someone please wipe my memories because I will never recover from this shit! And stop laughing, you gonk! This is horrible! And seriously awfully written!"
It took a few seconds until V was able to breath and talk again and he had to wipe a tear out of his eye, still grinning like an idiot.
"You should've seen yer face, Ker. Hilarious", he chuckled, "That what it means to be famous, hu?"
Kerry rolled his eyes and checked the dish that was steaming on the stove. "People writing cringey fan fiction about you is not even in the top ten of crazy stuff fans will do", Kerry said and turned to face V, crossing his arms over his chest.
"You mean crazy stuff like selling you Militech weapons, drugs and black market C-6? But hey at least you're better at cooking than the version of you on that shard", V smirked and threw a glance at the steaming pots. "I hope."
Kerry walked towards V, who was leaning against the kitchen counter again.
"You hope. Dare to hurt my pride again and I'm gonna hurt you", Ker said with lowered voice, locking eyes with the other man. V suddenly felt like prey and a rush of heat running through his whole body when Kerry put his hands to the left and right of his hips, basically leaning against him.
"Dinner needs to steam a bit", Kerry said and forced his knee between V's legs, pressing his thigh against his dick – that happily answered by getting hard and making his pants uncomfortable tight. Yeah, maybe he'd not only neglected Kerry's needs for a while...
V took in a sharp breath, resting his arms on Ker's shoulders.
"Quickie on the kitchen counter?", he asked..
"Quickie on the kitchen counter", Kerry answered with a smirk.
Not a moment later both men were busy to get out of their pants, soon being lost to each other, lost into each other.
It should turn out to be an appetizer to a night of being naked on the couch, a night of binge watching Watson Whore, a night to teach V that Kerry was always full of surprises – like being an exceptional good cook – a night of drifting towards sleep into each others arms for once.
It was long past midnight, Kerry's head against V's chest, his quiet snoring being the only thing that filled the room until a low coughing added to it. V wiped his mouth. Even in the darkness he saw something wet shimmering on his hand, knowing it was blood. He knew he was running low on life time. V turned his head a bit, to take look at the sleeping Kerry.
So he better made damn sure he spent it well.
So I've never eaten traditional dishes from the Philippines and had to rely on Google here so I hope I didn't do anything wrong on the Kinilaw part!
Also the Johnny/Kerry fan fiction that's mentioned in the story is NOT my idea. It is a shard you can actually find in the game, you can find it on the table in the apartment of said Samurai fan when doing the Gig to steal Kerry's guitar (I think it's a Gig done for The Padre). The whole thing is hilarious. If you ever get the chance, find that shard and read it.
