"This is it V!" Panam excitedly declared as the two of them lifted the metal door blocking the path to Mikoshi. "We're going to find a way to get Johnny out of your head and save you in here I know it!" The co-leader of the Aldecaldos was smiling madly at V. They had done the impossible by raiding Arisaka's Mikoshi compound and hadn't lost a single person and now were just moments away from saving V's life. V and Panam has just lifted the door all the way up when all that good luck came to a horrific and terrifying end in the form of Adam Smasher.
"I don't think so cunt." The robotic voice of Smasher snarled out as he pointed his arm cannon at Panam's chest. Time seemed to come to a near standstill for V as he tried to reach for Panam but he felt like he was trying to move through wet cement. V's eyes doubles in size as Panam turned to face him and a single tear rolled down her left cheek. "V I lo..." The thundering crack of Smasher's arm canon filled the ear and was nearly deafening as a red mist filled the air almost instantly as the point blank shot tore a fist sized hole through the middle of the bronze skinned woman killing her instantly and sending her body careening backwards from the impact her arms and legs lifelessly flailing in the wake of her falling torso
A panicked scream of horror loss and despair ripped from V's lungs as he bolted upright in bed. The slowly dying mans breath ragged and stuttering as his eyes franticly scanned his surroundings his mind racing trying to discern reality from nightmare. V recoiled in base instanct as a hand softyl touched his shoulder. "V? V are you ok?" The groggy feminine voice softly called to him V jerked his head towards the sound of the voice and saw Panam. She looked half asleep and worried, but she was alive.
"Pan?" V's voice was soft almost in disbelief at seeing her next to him in only a undershirt. His eyes darting to the middle of her chest and when finding no bloody hole with his eye he timidly reached out to gently place his ginger tips between her breast on the center of his chest and let out a heavy sigh of relief as his mind finally pieced together that this was the reality and he had wakened from a horrific nightmare.
"V talk to me are you… Jesus V you're covered in sweat!" Panam spoke softly to V as she sat up in bed and turned on the small light next to the bed that softly illuminate the area they had been sleeping in V's apartment. Panam was no stranger to someone having horrific nightmares and screaming in their sleep and it certainly was not the first time she had heard V scream in his sleep, but this had been different even primal compared to last time she had heard him suffer a nightmare. Not even the screams of the war veterans in the Aldecaldos had sounded this bad. "V you're ok, you're safe."
"No…Not that…Saw..God it was so real" V put his face in his hands and noticed that he was shaking all over and just as Panam had noted his face was soaked in sweat like he had just walked out of the shower. "We were in Mikoshi and then Smasher showed up…." V trailed off afraid to say out loud what his nightmare had been like it would but a jinx on their lives and something would happen to her.
Panam looked at her lap sadly as she vividly recalled the horrific sound and sight of Smasher brutally ending Saul's life. As a nomad and merc Panam was no stranger to death and brutality but how Smasher had ending the previous Aldecaldo leader's life was like nothing she had ever seen before. "Yeah…It's going to haunt me for a long time too."
"No…not Saul….I watched him kill you Panam, felt so real." V said his mind finally starting to reject the horror of his nightmare. V felt Panam's soft hands slowly cup his face and pull it from his own hands to look at her.
"I'm right here and I'm not going anywhere. Face it V you are stuck with me." Pana said in a soft and reassuring tone of voice and her brown eyes stared deep into his deep blue ones. Moments like this V was sure Panam could stare directly into his soul and everything else just seemed to fade away. And that's what was happening to him right now, the terror and panic were fading and all he felt was calm as Panam held his head in here hands. "Come on let's get you cleaned up." The dark-haired nomad said as she smiled coly at him. "You definitely need a shower and I better join you to make sure you do a good job."
Any other time the offer of a shared shower would have V enticed and fully focused on Panam's physical attributes, but for now he just wanted to near to her if for nothing more than to reassure himself that they were in the here and now and everything would be ok.
V nodded at her and let her take his hand slowly guiding him from the bed towards the shower. He knew what they had was special, a bond forged in friendship combat and everything they had shared since the day he met here hotwiring a shitty car. It was truly clear to each of them and everyone that knew them there were together, yet they had never really said how they felt about each other. Then against talking about their feelings had never been their strong suit. Their entire courtship had been an interesting game of cat and mouse that was intermittently filled with life and death gun fights. It was insane, unconventional and the perfect way for the smuggler and mercenary to become a pair.
As the duo entered the small bathroom of V's apartment and began to shed the undergarments they wore Panam reached into the shower and turned on the water and waited a few seconds for the water to warm up before she took V's hand and gently led him into the shower. "Turn around V." Panam softly prompted V and grabbed a bar of soap before she began to attentatively clean her lovers back. It was not the first time they had been naked together, or even in the shower. It was, however the first time that Panam had really studied V's body and noted the many scars the covered the merc's torso. "V, what's this scar from?" Panam asked gently as she started lathering soap at the left shoulder of her lover and fellow Aldecaldo's back.
"Mmm" groaned in relieve as the hot water and Panam's gentle touch seemed to ease the tension and uncertainty from his body. "Got that when I was 14, was boosting a guys car outside of bar and he broke a bottle over my shoulder." As Panam's hands moved across his back she would pause at each scar and asked its story V realized this was the most intimate thing he had every done with anyone. Sure, he had been physically intimate with other woman in the past, and that the first time with Panam had been intense because of the shared neuro-link of the Basilisk but it was nothing compared to the emotional connection he was feeling to her at the time. When Panam finished exploring and washing V's back she reached under his arms with her own and gently hugged him from behind before turning her head to the side and resting her head just under his neck as the two stood there letting the warm shower water cascade over them. V reached up and took both of Panam's hands in his right hand overtop of his heart and reached down with his left hand and rested it on her hip and gently ran his thumber over part of her jagged bullet scar where the 15mm round had ricocheted over her truck and through her flank.
"If you ask me where I got this scar V I just might kick your ass." Panam playful said, her voice lacking any real malice or threat.
"When I saw you get hit it scared the hell out of me." V softly spoke up. "I know we had just met, and we were nothing more than two people on a job…But it was so soon after losing Jackie that the thought of losing someone else on a job almost gave me a panic attack." V's voice had regained its strength and confidence after haivng been under the warm water and the attentive hands of his lover V's nightmare had all but completed faded from his mind. "I know we're more like a Greek tragedy than a romance holo-vid and I won't say it right now…" V paused as he felt Panam's breathing take a slight hitch as her chest was firmly pressed against his back and her gave her hands a reassuring squeeze. "But I want you to know." V looked over his shoulder at Panam as he declared his lover for her in a tacit manner.
Panam lifted her head to look at V with a wide-eyed expression on her face. Ever since she had met the mercenary in her arms there has been a natural connection to him, and as time went by Panam learned more and more about the man. He was honest, observant, possessed a quite reserve that allowed him to really understand people and was fiercely loyal. Whenever she had called V for help the merc never asked a lot of question and always can charging in guns loaded and ready to do whatever he had to in order to help her. In her life Panam had known a lot of people and even been involved with some men in the past, but no one had ever understood her as a person so thoroughly like V did. He always seemed to know what just to say and how to say it to her and never less than or compelled to react a certain way. The tan skinned nomad stared at the profile of V's face for a few more seconds, still holding him in their embrace under the slowly cooling shower, before she returned her face to the muscles flesh of V's back
"I know V." Pana softly said, and she couldn't stop the smile that ever so slowly began to grace her beautifully tanned features.
