I've been pretty busy with other side projects but I know that I will always come back to this collection of short stories.
Granted I have an idea.
You know how in other games, companions and NPCs make comments about your romance? It's a shame that there's nothing like this included in Cyberpunk, except for Johnny who points out how nice Panam's ass is.
I wanted to include River and Judy in here too but that got too crowded then and so we mainly got Viktor and Panam here with two... very different views, I suppose.
Also: coffee.
This fic takes place after the The Sun ending but most likely before V went to space.
V needed a coffee.
He knew it the moment he woke up.
It weren't the pills that were keeping him alive, it was coffee. Had to be. He was almost certain.
With a groan he turned around in bed only to find the other side empty. And yet V cracked a smirk and reached out with his hand, feeling up the cold bed sheets, the pillow, the blanket. Kerry slept often here, almost like he didn't own a damn mansion up in North Oak, and so the bedding faintly held his smell. It was what made V smile, drawing forth sweet memories of all the things they did in this very bed. Sweaty bodies grinding against each other, golden chrome shimmering in neon lights, black synth skin fingers grabbing tightly into toned hips that were moving so perfect, so fluent on top of him. And Kerry's voice in V's ear, loud, rough, demanding and-
V blinked, the sound of an incoming call pulled him out of his own day dreaming. He reached out with his hand and tried to grab the phone but only managed to push it off the night stand and onto the ground where it happily continued to vibrate.
"Ah shit..." V groaned and let his hands wander over his face. Robbing further to the edge of the bed he noticed a certain throbbing sensation between his legs. His eyes wandered down to his shorts. There was a happy tent.
"Well aren't you chipper this morning," he mumbled and for a second he pondered if he should just let his hand have some fun while an image of Kerry formed in his mind, naked at the beach, glittering droplets slowly dripping from his frame as he waded through the water that barely reached his hips, drenched in the golden light of a sinking sun...
V bit his lower lip and his eyes slipped close, his hand already sneaking into his shorts but then the picture in his mind got shattered most brutally because Kerry suddenly had Wakako's face.
"What the f-" V hissed and his eyes shot open. Cursed be modern technology that would throw the image of a caller directly into his brain!
"V. Bad moment?"
"Wakako, hey. N-no. It's fine," he sighed and rubbed the bridge of his nose.
"You sound weird. Worked up."
"What? Oh. No. You caught me in my... my morning exercise. What can I do for you?"
"Several groups of the Tyger Claws had been found beaten up on the streets. Jun Azegami is on edge. The NCPD claims they had nothing to do with it. Valentinos say the same."
"Beaten up? Not dead?"
"Pretty badly beaten up. And they all don't remember by whom. Some mean hacks must've been involved. Cyberpsycho attack, maybe. You know anything about it?"
"Me? No. Nope. Nothing. Nada de nada."
Even though she wasn't here, just a holo image in his interface, V could feel her gaze on him, cold as steel.
"Hmm. Thought if anyone knows something it must be the King of the Afterlife."
"Yeah. Sure. I come back at ya if I hear anything. Will look into it. 'kay? Promise, Wakako. But I need to get going now."
And with that V ended the call. For a moment he glanced over to his newest acquirement: a green Midori biofabric cocktail jacket. With yellow pine stripes. Yellow pine stripes. And in mint condition, too! Perks of being able to shut down people without having them spill a tiny bit of blood. Those jackets were not sold any more but it was something Tyger Claw thugs liked to wear...
People said Kerry Eurodyne was eccentric. Truth be told: V could be just as eccentric – he was usually just able to hide it better.
With a sigh he closed his eyes and threw one arm over his face.
Well, the cosy moment was gone now.
However the crave for coffee wasn't.
One could be the best Netrunner of Night City and still not figure out what was wrong with the coffee machine.
"Come on, don't do this to me..." V whined and gave the machine a slap. Last resort. Nothing else had worked so far.
"Burp," said the machine and offered V another cup of hot water.
"That is not coffee! That is... ah fuck, what time is it... shit. Should've been at Viktor's fifteen minutes ago."
The coffee machine made one last, sad sound and then turned itself off.
"Well fuck you too," V just said, showed the cursed piece of metal his middle finger and went to leave the apartment.
"You got some coffee, Vik?" V asked, sitting on the ripperdoc chair.
"I am a little bit busy here right now," was the answer to that. "Your Gorilla arms are fine? Not making any problems?"
"You installed them, you should know."
"Well you made me install them with some black market battery that you got from who-knows-where. I don't sell such things in my shop." Viktor threw a scolding glance over his glasses at V before he focused back on the screen.
"They are fine and not making any problems. No accidents." V finally reported with a sigh.
"Just sayin' you could rip off a man's arm with those in the blink of an eye. Your Kiroshis? Not acting up at all?"
"Sometimes I think they're glitching a bit but I am not sure if it's them or... well. You know."
Viktor knew. And he didn't say anything. Instead he made some adjustments and re-calibrated the implants. V had no clue if that really changed anything, made things better. Then again he wasn't the ripperdoc so whatever.
"And you?" Viktor finally asked after he'd finished to putter around V's eyes . "Are you alright? Those dabblers from the Afterlife got you on a good dosage? New pills working fine?"
V smirked. "Yeah it's all good, Vik. Your concern is appreciated but those are the best ripperdocs of the Afterlife. They keep me breathing. Don't worry. And after all – I still got my schedules with you, don't I?"
Viktor nodded slowly while he still looked at the screen.
"And you and... the Rockstar. Rockerboy."
"Kerry."
"Yeah. That good too?"
V almost had to laugh. There he was, Viktor Vektor, the most talented, patient and professional ripperdoc of NC and surely the toughest bastard V knew – asking if he was in a happy relationship. And no matter how hard Viktor tried to sound cool – V noticed that tiny hint of concern and worry in his voice.
"Couldn't be any better," V finally said with an amused smirk.
"Supreme. Or whatever you kids say these days. We're done here, lemme finish the match now." And with these words Viktor made a shooing motion with his hand while he rolled on his chair over to his other screen.
V was kind enough not to mention that Viktor had seen this match a dozen times already but there was something else.
"Soooo you got any-"
"Ask Misty."
"Sure! I got some coffee for you, V," Misty said with a warm smile and walked into the back of her shop. A bead curtain made some soft noise and then V was alone with tiny Buddha statues, Tarot cards and incense sticks. He wondered if she would really bring him coffee or just something that resembled coffee. A weird drink made of dirt that cleansed his Chakras or something.
"Ah crap what now..." V muttered annoyed as his phone demanded his attention once again. He frowned and for a moment considered to ignore it but his experience told him that this made things worse, usually.
"V. I need your help. Right now. Where are you? Can you be here in five minutes? Shit. Need your ass here. Now!"
"Hi Panam, nice to hear you too. Where is here?"
"Coordinates send to you. Hurry up!"
"Sure but if you could just- aaaaand she hung up. Nova."
Ten minutes later, V found himself in a heated gun fight between a group of Scavengers and some Aldecaldos.
"The fuck happened here, Pan?!" V yelled over the noise of screaming people and gunfire.
"A deal that went south!" Panam answered and peeked out of cover for a second to send a few bullets towards a Scavenger thug.
"I can see that! Why the fuck are you still having deals with Scavengers?!"
"Well... it just happened, okay?! I didn't think it through, okay?!" she yelled.
V rolled his eyes. There he was, hiding behind some crates and still no coffee. He activated his cyberdeck and scanned everyone in the area, starting to decrypt the Scavengers network and amped up his little daemons. The good thing about taking out group after group of Tyger Claws the past couple of days? He'd really smoothed out his Contagion daemon. Did some work on it. Extended the RAM, reach and shortened the time it jumped to other people in the same network. By now this virus was able to eat through a crappy gang network in a matter of seconds, contaminating vital body functions in the blink of an eye.
"You owe me one, Panam," V grumbled and she simply nodded. "Now watch this."
V threw a confident smirk at her. His eyes flashed up with red light and not a second later they could hear one of the thugs coughing and wheezing. It didn't take long and people around him got affected – throwing up, bleeding from their eyes or just falling to the ground, cramped with spasms.
Panam's eyes widened while she slowly came out of cover.
"What the fuck V – when did you – how did you...?!" She still held her gun in her hand, ready to shoot anyone who dared to do more than rolling around in the dirt, groaning in pain.
"Few things changed since we did our last gig together," V smirked and straightened his new jacket – damn he looked so good in this – before he closed the gap to Panam.
"Not bad. Really not bad. You really start to become one of these scary Netrunner guys, aren't you," she said and gave him a pat on the back. "Thanks V. I mean it. So what do I owe you?"
V took in a deep breath.
"A coffee. Just a coffee would be really preem."
She can't be serious , V thought. He was sitting on an empty beer crate and stared at a small, open fire. For some reason Panam had insisted that V had to come back with her to the Aldecaldo camp. Apparently there was no place to get decent coffee in Night City, at least not affordable and the one she made over an open fire, in a tin pot, was better than anything he'd ever tasted.
Yeah.
Right.
But V wasn't in the mood for arguments and he knew fair well how Panam would've taken a 'no' to her invitation. Besides it was nice to see Saul, Mitch and the others again. And for sure Mitch took the opportunity to check Scorpion's bike. V took good care of it – honoured it – but Mitch always found a screw to tighten. V let him.
"The trick is," Panam said, "to add some spice."
"To coffee."
"Yes! Cardamom works best."
"You got cardamom out here?" V asked, genuinely surprised.
"Well... no," Panam admitted hesitantly and stirred the black brew in the pot.
I am not drinking that. It will kill me, V thought, panic rising in his chest.
"Just trust me, V. Okay?" She smiled up at him. "When we're out there, in the desert, I always make my coffee like this."
"Yeah but when you're out there you also eat roasted possum tails, don't you?" V smirked.
The smile vanished from Panam's face and got replaced with a frown.
V lifted his hands.
"Sorry, sorry. Just a joke."
"You should come with us," she insisted. "We're leaving soon and..." Panam let out a sigh and avoided his gaze for a moment before she pulled herself together and looked V straight into the eyes. "I think your friend Judy is right. This city it's... it's not good. We like you, V. You can have a family with us. The Aldecaldos welcome you with open arms. You just have to say a word! There's so much out there – we would hunt for a cure with you. And..." she leaned in with a smile, "Saul is single, you know?"
V backed off.
"Woah. The hell, Panam."
"S-sorry. Didn't mean to... I just thought you're..."
"Into older guys?" V raised one eyebrow.
"Yeah. No. I mean... you and Kerry. I mean... that can't be anything... serious. Right?"
Now it was V who frowned. "And why not?"
Panam started to open her mouth but then just made a frustrated noise and threw her arms into the air. "Come on, V. That's never going to work out. He's some shiny celebrity. Your world, his world... are so different. I am just worried, okay? Don't want you to end up as some kind of joy toy... and with your situation and everything I... I guess I just feel you need some stability and-"
"Ah. Yeah. Right. You don't know anything about him outside of celebrity news, don't you?" V stood up and looked over to his bike. Seems like Mitch was done with it. "Need to delta now. Thanks for the coffee, Panam."
"But you didn't had any."
"I know."
While V got back to his bike, Mitch walked over and casually put an arm around Panam's shoulder. "You're really bad at telling a guy that you like him, aren't you," he grinned and earned a hissed "Shut the fuck up, Mitch."
The sand felt warm and nice under his naked feet. V was watching the sun slowly vanishing over the horizon. Drenching the sea in golden light.
He took in a deep breath. The salty breeze was almost stronger than Night Cities stench and when the wind was right, like now, it could even overwhelm this constant smell of oil and trash and dead dreams.
V heard a car coming abruptly to a stop, with screaming wheels. He didn't need to turn around to know that it was one certain custom made Aerondight but he did when he heard Kerry's voice calling out his name.
"Glad you came," V said after he'd pulled Kerry into a tight hug.
"My favourite lover boy called, sure I hop into my car and tell everyone in the studio to eat shit," Kerry said, one arm still around V's shoulder.
"Oh, I am your favourite? How many come after me?"
"Ah well. You know me. Dozens."
"Figure skaters, mostly?" V snickered.
Kerry gave him a wink and then let go of him.
"So. What's the occasion? Got a yacht to burn? 'cause I recognize this beach."
"Yeah legend has it that there's a guitar at the bottom of the sea here, somewhere. And the one who finds it becomes as legendary as Johnny Silverhand himself."
"Ouch." Kerry put a hand over his heart. "You didn't call me out here to mock me, did you?"
V laughed lightly. "Actually," he said and then went over to a rock where he'd placed two cups. "I wanted to have a coffee. With you. Watching the sun set while we drink it. Maybe jump into the water, later? Naked?"
Kerry slowly raised one eyebrow and hesitantly grabbed the coffee.
"Uhu. You alright, choom? I mean I like the part where we're naked but what's with the coffee?" Being wary, Kerry sniffed the cup.
"Don't worry, it's the good stuff. Made sure to get it from Captain Caliente. No sugar. No milk. No extras," V assured him and then took a sip from his coffee himself. With a more than pleased sigh he closed his eyes and sat down. What a heavenly and blissful taste on his tongue.
"Funny story, with the coffee. Let's just say my day didn't go as planned. Doesn't mean the evening can't be nice, though."
"Whatever you say," Kerry shrugged and sat down next to V.
For a while they were silent, indeed just watching how the sun went down.
"Hey, Ker?" V started after he got comfy against Kerry's chest, who wrapped his arm around him.
"Hm?"
"I'm serious about you. About... us."
"If you gonna propose to me now, I will drown you."
V laughed. "Fair enough. Don't worry. Guess I just want to..." V was lost for words but felt how Kerry's thumb started to caress his arm softly.
"Yeah. I know. And... I get ya. I do. We're tuned to the same frequency, after all," Kerry added more quiet, more softly and pressed a kiss against V's neck.
V hummed satisfied.
"So," Kerry then said chipper. "Tell me about your shitty day and I will tell you about my shitty day, like boring couples do but then we get all naked and into the water and make out. Deal?"
V laughed again.
"Deal. Alright. It all started with me having the nicest day dream..."
"Was I a part of it?"
"Ohh you were part of it indeed..."
