This was done as part of a request. I will talk more about the request and why I wrote what I wrote in the end, thus not to spoiler the shot here in the beginning.
Takes place a couple of months after the end (The Sun/Afterlife ending), basically in the same time like the chapter before this.
V walked through his quiet apartment, stopped and looked out the large windows. The night was dark and clear, the water in the pool outside shimmering in the lights of a full moon and a city that never sleeps. It started to get colder in Night City and those warm summer nights almost seemed to be forgotten already.
He'd planned to get stuff done while he had the evening to himself because Kerry had to be at this what-was-the-name-again Talk Show, being invited to chat about his new album and celebrity gossip or whatever.
Wasn't really V's world.
But now he found himself standing in the middle of the room, staring through the large glass front, almost like he'd suddenly forgotten what he wanted to do. A demanding "meow!" gained his attention.
V blinked and felt his feline friend rubbing against his leg.
"Hey Nibbles", he said and lifted the cat up. He gained a vibrating purr as a thank you. "You know what? Let's forget about work and just make some snacks to eat on the couch while we watch Kerry talking rubbish on TV. That sounds like a good idea?" V didn't care that he talked to a cat right now. There was nothing wrong in being stupid in private.
He let Nibbles hop off his arms and searched the fridge for something tasty without having to go through the effort of actual cooking. And while he did, he turned on the TV.
"Lot's of people people at different times announced the end of my career", V heard Kerry's voice and turned around for a moment to throw a look at the screen. Apparently this Talk Show was already on for a while and V had missed the start. He smiled a bit, seeing Kerry sitting on this wide, red couch. Kerry looked damn good on TV. V was sure that all this spotlight wouldn't suit himself, he was a man of shadows, but Kerry... he bathed in it. Of course V knew about make up and acting and yet he couldn't help but admire Kerry there for a moment, sitting there in his typical leather-and-shirt outfit, wearing this old, worn jacket that screamed authentic Rocker Boy, being all gorgeous and charming and V suddenly realized that he still crushed on this man like he did when they met for the first time.
"I guess it's nice to get to mark the end of each new era. Every time they prophecy my doom and every time they shout "hallelujah" when they are wrong", Kerry said with a cocky smirk.
V plundered some Nachos and cheese from the fridge and walked over to the couch, Nibbles following him like the happy cat he was.
"And the hallelujah could not have been louder! Our God of Rock returned to us with new Commandments!", the woman on the screen chirped. Apparently she was the host of this event and V was sure that he should've known her name, she was a reporter of some sort, a big thing in the world of glitter and fame.
"So let's talk more about your new album. The songs: all of them are so unique and so raw and powerful, it's almost like we're listening to a Kerry Eurodyne reborn! Is that why you named the album after yourself?"
Kerry nodded and lit a cigarette. "Ya know Vonda... when I worked on these sweet songs, those melodies that drill into your brain, those lyrics that keep you up at night... it was like seeing different versions of myself. Was like walking through a damn wax cabinet. Creepy, a bit. But powerful."
Ah. Vonda. Right. Vonda Myles. She was the annoying kind of reporter, V remembered now. Probably the reason why she was so high up in the biz.
V stuffed some Nacho's into his mouth and snorted. It was funny to hear Kerry speak like this about the songs. Just a few weeks ago he was cursing the hell out of them because he was stuck with some loop or because some guitar riff didn't exactly sound like he wanted it to or because some gonk in the studio did something wrong – again. According to Kerry no one in the studio knew how to do their job anyway.
"Speaking about songs and lyrics, Kerry...", Vonda said and suddenly had this cheeky voice and a look on her face like a cat who caught the bird, "... is it true that some of them have a deeper meaning about your current relationship status...?"
V frowned and stopped to shove Nacho's into his face. Kerry's what?
"My songs always mean anything and nothing, honey", Kerry said with a smirk and a drag of his cigarette.
"But let's talk about A Vision Of Your Memories in this case. A little bird told me that you wrote it with someone special in mind...", Vonda insisted.
"Ahh, you know, people hear what they wanna hear. I mean. Not even I really know what's truly hiding behind these words."
The frown on V's face vanished. In fact a warm smile stretched over his face because he knew exactly what the song was about... or rather: who.
"Yes, but this is a bit different, isn't it? With all the rumours and you wearing the ring on your finger...?"
The smile on V's face froze and gave place to confusion. The heck was this woman talking about? Kerry seemed to have a similar reaction because for a moment, he looked seriously puzzled. But V was sure that only he noticed how Kerry fell out of his role there for a second.
"Ring?", Kerry said and raised an eyebrow, giving Vonda a bored look while he lifted up both of his hands to show off all of his five rings.
"Ahh sneaky Kerry, you thought we wouldn't notice!", Vonda said with a wink and leaned in a bit. "You swapped them. The plain golden one, the wedding ring I might say... is on your left ring finger now! You can tell us, Kerry! After all it's good news that you got married again! Just too bad you didn't invite me!", she said and added an annoying fake laugh.
V sat there with a mix of fascination and bewilderment. People paid attention to the order of the rings Kerry was wearing on his hands...?! Like... wasn't there more important stuff going on in the city than a celebrity switching rings...?! V was one hundred percent sure that Kerry didn't even pay attention to such things. Most of the time he didn't even bother to take them off. Just sometimes, when they did some... things in the bedroom.
Like last night.
Where rings would've been annoying.
A lot.
V could say that he was honestly baffled. He knew this whole show would be ridiculous but that it would reach a peek of bullshittery that fast... kind of amazing, actually.
V watched Kerry's face who actually sat there and said nothing for a second. He was sure that Kerry would get up and leave. In a normal interview he would probably find some excuse right now to walk away but it was hard to do in a studio, right? However, judging from the look on his face, Kerry might as well be close to a table flip...
"It means nothing, Vonda. If anything it just means that I woke up this morning with a hang over and didn't give a flying damn how to sort my rings. How about we talk about Shivers, which is the real hit of the new album if you ask me, with riffs like NC has never heard before-"
"Ohhh but I think your fans and the audience are more curious about this line here, in A Vision Of Your Memories: First time I saw you, it was match point and set...", Vonda just kept babbling, persistent like the boil at the ass of society that she was. V wondered how much it would take until Kerry would burst. He had a short fuse after all and some serious temper too. And no one cut off Kerry Eurodyne like that and got out there alive. And indeed Kerry grimaced slightly.
"You know people said a lot of things about me, Vonda. Most of them aren't true", Kerry said, clearly sounding pissed off by now.
But either Vonda wasn't aware or she didn't give a fuck. V was sure it was the latter.
"Of course, but my bird chirps about a nice, private wedding ceremony in Florida..."
V was sure that he would've already walked out of the studio. No matter what media would say the next day. This was more than annoying, this was straight up stressful. But it was part of being at the top, wasn't it... a famous Rock Star, an icon of the city... V was king of the shadows, a broker of secrets, a name whispered in the streets but Kerry, Kerry was a man in the spot light. And for some reason these gonks out there went crazy about any tiny bit of information about his private life. Like it mattered. "When your own life is so sad that you have to start to care about the life of someone else...", V mumbled to himself and shook his head.
"... and I mean you got the ring and this soooong...", Vonda continued and then V saw it. The moment something snapped in Kerry. Ahh this furious anger in his eyes... how much he loved it.
"What", Kerry snarled, "You wanna hear that I fuck the King of the Afterlife or something!?"
V's eyes got wide and he dropped the hand full of Nacho's. Nibbles was on the spot to eat them straight from the ground.
"Did he just...", V mumbled.
"Satisfied, Vonda? Can we now please get back to something more interesting, like: music? My music?!", Kerry said, rolling his eyes.
And indeed Vonda Myles was for once out of words.
But only for one or two gracious seconds.
"Married to the King of the Afterlife, what a turn of events dear audience, who might this mysterious person be, a dangerous mercenary or Fixer maybe...", she said with enthusiasm, smiling widely into the cameras and Kerry threw his arms in the air. "I never said a word about being married...!"
Silence.
V had turned off the TV.
There was no reason to watch this shit show any longer.
It was shortly after mid night when V heard the lift and the door to his apartment opened.
Kerry greeted him with a tired "Fuuuck..."
He threw his jacket into a corner of the room along with his phone, that was buzzing non-stop and walked straight towards the kitchen counter to open up some Tequila.
He drank straight from the bottle.
V sat in silence on the couch, watching him without a word.
"What", Kerry said. "You got this judging look on your face."
V slowly raised one eyebrow.
"Also you look like a super villain with Nibbles on your lap like that", Kerry pointed out.
V got up, slowly, to give the cat time to jump down.
"Married to me, hu", V said, arms crossed over his chest. "Would've been kind if you'd told me about that. Would've liked to attend my own wedding."
Kerry rolled his eyes. "So you saw the show. Thought you hate shit like that."
"Yeah I do. It was amusing at first but went downhill fast", V said, holding Kerry's gaze.
The tension in the room was so thick one might as well cut it with a knife.
"You shouldn't have said that. Really", V then stated, his voice colder than he wanted it to be. Kerry felt that and like so often, it put him in a more angry, defensive mode, holding out for an argument. "Seriously? The thought of being married to me disturbs you that much?", he growled and devoted himself to the bottle in his hand.
"That's not the point and you know it", V said calmly. "The point is that I have enemies, Kerry. Powerful enemies. I am a very wanted man. Last thing I want is leading them to you. Specially when I kick the bucket and won't be around to protect you any more."
Kerry threw the bottle on the ground. Nibbles hissed and searched for cover in the upper part of the apartment. V didn't even twitch – but oh how much he loved it when he had to clean up Kerry's mess.
Not.
"I can watch out for myself, V", Kerry said bitter. "Didn't get that old because I'm a fucking pussy. Once drunk a Cyberpsycho under the table who stormed into my room backstage. With nothing but a few bottles of Tequila. Choom cried his eyes out, shot at a few things and then blacked out. I can handle myself. But what I can't is... is..." Kerry blinked, suddenly looking around for something else to focus on.
V tilted his head a bit and took a step closer.
"Is what, Ker?", he asked softly.
"... living without you, you stupid gonk", Kerry finished his sentence and suddenly grabbed V by the shirt, pulling him towards him, crashing into a deep kiss.
V would've yelped but his lips got sealed so quickly, he had no chance.
"And I don't need a ring on my finger or a label on our relationship to know that", Kerry murmured against V's lips, still holding him tightly at the collar.
V hummed in consent but then let out a sigh. "I know, I know. But we've been through this, Ker-"
"Shut up. I don't wanna hear it, alright? I know it too and I don't wanna hear it."
Slowly Kerry let go of V's shirt but let his hands wander on his shoulders.
"Wanna help me brighten up my night? Because seriously... it had been a shitty night. Worst fucking interview of my life, I think", Kerry said.
"I highly doubt that."
"Yeah whatever. I usually forget what I said in those interviews the day after", Kerry shrugged and V laughed before he nodded towards the couch.
"Then let's play wedding night, shall we?"
So the request was: "Ok then we'll I'd love to se Kerry marriage fic where kerry is seen wearing a wedding ring and everyone is trying to figure out who he married. And he ends up going on a talk show only to let it slip that he's married to the owner of the afterlife."
I was faced with two major problems here. One, Kerry being pretty closed up about his private life. But I thought to myself: a really annoying reporter can do that.
Second thing was harder: I just don't see V and Kerry being or getting married. Kerry is divorced and probably had enough bad experiences with marriage and V, at least my V, is not the kind for marriage. And not only because he knows that he will kick the bucket in six months. Just doesn't suit him. Soooo I hope you are still happy with my "solution" to this problem, or rather: my take on. I had a lot of fun writing this because it gave me a nice challenge and just the fact that I spend the whole day forming the idea and thinking about how to write it, doing research and so on, should be proof enough :D
Also, as always, I've hidden a lot of references in this fic but since Easter is around the corner you guys gotta find these "Easter eggs" yourself this time ;)
