"SHUT UP!"
The sudden pain radiating from David's quickly reddening cheek made his spine tingle as his Sandevistan almost activated out of sheer instinct. He could feel time starting to dilate, his perception quickening, body growing faster,right up until he caught himself, forcing down the urge and allowing his head to jerk to the side from the impact. The distinct taste of blood washed over his tongue and as he touched it to his lips, he found the lower one split and bleeding.
It had been a long time since he'd been slapped in the face. Years, in fact. The only other person he could remember giving him a smack like that had been his mom when, during one of the worst arguments they'd ever had, he had been a particularly obnoxious brat. It had been deserved, he could acknowledge in hindsight.
Same with this one.
Slowly, David turned his head to face Rebecca again. Her hand was still hanging in mid air between them, shaking with an anger that her expression matched and then some. There was a fire burning in those normally cheerful, crimson eyes of hers that he hadn't seen since the cyberpsycho incident with Pilar and despite having seen her slap coming from a mile away, looking at her now made him realize that he should count himself lucky he'd only gotten a split lip rather than a broken jaw. For as small as she were, Rebecca carried some real firepower in her arms, and when she slapped him just now, she hadn't held back. That's how thoroughly he'd gotten to her.
Glaring up at him, her were teeth bared in what could only be described as a snarl, brow furrowed deeply and harshly, nostrils flared wide as she took short, huffy breaths. David had seen it all before, both when they were out on jobs together and the fighting got rough, and also in more casual settings when someone tried to call her a kid or something along those lines. What was different, however, was the intensity in her stare as well as all the other emotions he could now see struggling to find purchase on her features; multiple feelings fighting to express themselves on the same piece of her face at the same time
Angry, barely unshed tears glimmered in Rebecca's eyes as her arm finally fell back down to her side where it clenched into a white-knuckled fist. For a moment, her expression faltered and in quick succession, all that frustration, pain, disappointment, and worry, even, showed in crystal clear quality before rage subsumed them all again. All of it directed at him.
"Stop it, you stupid fucking gonk. You hear me? Enough!" Rebecca hissed at him, voice quiet yet no less harsh. "You're not allowed to just go out and off yourself by taking every job under the sun and chroming up until you snap! And don't you ever talk like that to me again."
"'Becca-" David started to say, only for a finger to be jabbed like a spear into his chest.
"Don't you even fucking try to deny it!" Rebecca interrupted, jabbing him again for emphasis. "We're chooms, David! I won't let your work yourself to death just because everything got fucked up back then! I'm not…" her voice hitched, a tear finally rolling down her cheek before she quickly rubbed her eyes and glared up at him again. "Do you want to end up like that fucking psycho that zeroed my bro? Because if you do, I'm going to shoot you right here and now and save everyone else the trouble!"
Righteous fury still bubbling hot, she stepped forward, more imposing than her stature should have allowed. "Listen to me, David. You are not getting those fucking arms!"
More than even the slap or either of the jabs, that made David recoil. His mouth fell open lamely as he tried to muster up a quick reply, but he found himself with a complete inability to come up with words and instead simply gaped dumbly down at Rebecca.
It wasn't even a plan yet. An idea, at most, and not one he'd been keen on sharing with the crew. He hadn't even given exact details to any ripperdocs yet.
No, the only person David had told about looking into salvaging Maine's arm implants and retrofitting them down to fit his own firmware had been Lucy, during one of their long, sleepless nights of laying side by side in the bed together. He'd spoken about how information had reached him regarding a pair of arm mods that matched the exact make and model as Maine's and how they'd been dug out from a collapsed building. He still remembered the look on her face when he revealed that he'd bought the arms and he was thinking about integrating or completely replacing his own with them; the shadow that had passed over her eyes, that brief flash of fear, before she'd turned away from him. They hadn't mentioned it since.
As far as he knew, Lucy had cut herself off completely from everyone in their old crew aside from him ever since that job, and even between the two of them he could feel a rift had begun to form. She was the only one who was supposed to know about the arms, at least for the time being, yet Rebecca clearly proved that wasn't the case. Until right this very second, he would have dismissed the idea of the two being in contact with one another, but now he wasn't so sure anymore.
Nothing else made any sort of sense.
For a long, tense moment, David did little else but stare down at Rebecca as his thoughts slowly reordered themselves, grappling with the concept that Lucy had reached out to her to waylay those fears she clearly didn't want him knowing about. Rebecca, meanwhile, didn't so much as blink for the whole duration their eyes were locked, the only movement in her body being her angry breaths.
Finally, David broke. Letting out a tired breath and hanging his head, he slumped backwards and found the backs of his thighs meeting the cold steel of a table, upon which laid his empty pistol. He braced himself with one hand while the other rubbed at his eyes. His head ached. Just like his cheek. He'd just wanted to be alone tonight, blowing off some steam while getting his head in order and figured with everyone else celebrating their latest job, he would be able to be alone with his thoughts at the shooting range. He even thought he'd been stealthy in his exit, not saying goodbye to anyone and simply melding into the crowd until he could make his way outside and down the street to one of the abandoned warehouses they'd converted into a stash-house/make-shift gun range.
Not only had he been wrong about that, it had done him a fat load of good in the end too.
In the dreary gloom of the warehouse, he'd fired shot after shot at target after target, letting his muzzle flashes light up the dirty floor and boxes stacked all around him, trying to turn himself mechanical in his precision and movement without the help of any implants. And yet with every spent magazine, it had become harder and harder to ignore that he was starting to miss more and more headshots. His hands had started shaking just a little, the trigger becoming heavier every time he pulled it, the recoil stinging his wrists, and as small as those distractions had seemed at first, they'd eventually piled up enough that he spent a good few seconds attempting to fire an empty gun, completely unfocused.
Even now, he hesitated. Even now, he thought of his mom. Even now, he had to blink away her face on the targets when he squeezed the trigger. Brief or not, it was still there, and he couldn't ignore it.
He wasn't good enough. Not precise enough. Not efficient enough. Not mechanized enough.
And yet, he had to find a way to somehow be just that. To be someone who could prevent an event like that from happening again.
When she came to find him, David had been so out of it that he hadn't even noticed Rebecca entering the building until she called out to him, startling him enough that his Sandevistan had kicked in so he could turn to aim his empty pistol at her instantly on sheer reflex. Not unlike how she'd held a gun on him way back when in the doorway to her and Pliar's joint. She hadn't even acknowledged his jumpiness, or the weapon pointed at her forehead, and instead had just tried to be casual with him. Asking why he was hiding away from everyone.
It was at that point, David now knew in hindsight, he should have just told her to leave him alone. Odds are, she probably wouldn't even have argued much as long as he promised they could catch up later. Would have been so much easier. But he hadn't told her to leave, and maybe that was because somewhere, deep down, he wanted to be called out.
To be slapped in the face, both mentally and physically.
Maybe that was why he had started saying things without thinking when she had started jokingly suggesting that taking as many jobs as he had lately wasn't totally worth it. He knew better than almost anyone that Rebecca hated when he talked badly about himself, so even a psycho could have seen that calling himself worthless and an embarrassment compared to Maine would set her off; that saying he should have been zeroed instead of Dorio or Pilar would make her explode.
"David, what's going on?"
It shamed him to admit it even to himself, but David flinched at Rebecca's suddenly gentle tone, his throat tightening pathetically.
Refocusing on the here and now, he was met not with an ivory face radiating with rage when he glanced up briefly, but rather one filled with genuine concern and empathy. No more huffing breaths or clenched teeth, just Rebecca, with her eyes searching his for answers he didn't know if he could give her.
"I'm just not getting better fast enough. As fast as I need to," he admitted finally, his gaze returning to the spent bullet casings littering the floor all around them.
From this angle, all he could see were Rebecca's feet and when he didn't explain himself further, they disappeared from his view. They didn't return, and instead there was a shuffling beside him, the table he was leaned against rocking as additional weight settled onto it. Then David felt Rebecca's small, familiar, comforting form leaning against his side, her head against his shoulder.
"And you think that working yourself to death and shoving enough chrome into yourself to make you look like Adam-fucking-Smasher 2.0 will change that?" He felt her hand settle atop his own.
"It has to. Nothing else has worked."
"Ever think that's because what you're trying to do is just fucking impossible? For anyone not suicidal at least."
David turned his head and found Rebecca already looking up at him. She didn't look angry at him anymore, but there was still worry etched onto her features and a frown tugging at her lips. Seeing it made his chest hurt.
"What are you saying?"
"That you're basically still a kid, David. You've been a Runner for less than a year, for fuck's sake, and you're already trying to lead a whole crew on your own! Maine never told me how old he was when he became the boss the first time, but it sure as shit wasn't when he was as young as you are now."
"But-"
"No. Shut it." She squeezed his hand. Hard. "We follow you because you are good enough, David. Because we trust you. Not because you're the second coming of Maine. You don't need to prove yourself by trying to become what he was when you first met. Not to me. To us.We want to watch you rise, not crash and burn. So just slow down. Okay?"
David didn't know what he felt just then. Or what he should feel for that matter. Hearing Rebecca's words—the sincerity and certainty and conviction in her voice—made his stomach turn as it fought against his own beliefs about himself. The way she looked at him, how she saw him, was so different compared to his own self image. So much more than he thought he deserved. He felt unworthy, of all of it, and wanted to say as much, but the hand covering his own steeled him against the urge. It couldn't stop the fear, however.
"What if I fuck up? What if me not being good enough- experienced enough gets someone killed? Lucy, Kiwi, you…?" David breathed out, head starting to throb again as waking nightmares started playing in his head; everything going wrong, all because of him.
Suddenly, Rebecca was no longer beside him. Her small but comforting presence would have been missed by David had it not been immediately replaced by her pushing him fully onto the table and straddling his lap, hands clasping onto either side of his face so that they could look one another dead in the eye; the crimson glint of her unusual sclera practically pinning him to the spot more than her weight did.
"David… when you fuck up, we'll be there to catch you. If you let us. That's what being chooms means!" she declared resolutely. "We have your back, so let us share the load." She continued to hold his face a bit longer, like she could force her words into his skull that way, but soon they fell down to settle on his shoulders instead, playing with the collar of his jacket.
David just continued to stare, once again at a loss for words.
"Listen, I'm not gonna pretend I'm some fucking expert at all the nitty gritty shit that goes into leadership, yanno. I was just another follower when I was Mox, same with our crew, but I have picked up on some things. Like with Maine, it wasn't his brains or his brawn that made him a good boss. He knew better than almost anyone that he was a meathead in most cases, so he didn't pretend to be more than he could be. He carried what he could and gave the rest of us what he couldn't. He didn't let everything mount up on him and him alone until it crushed him. The fact that he saw and recognized that reality, above all else, is what made him a sweet freakin' leader." Rebecca was close enough now that David could feel her breath against his face as she spoke, his eyes only breaking from hers when she suddenly lifted his arm and showed it to him.
"Swapping these for Maine's won't make you as good of a leader as he was. They won't keep that weight from crushing you too. Learning, like him, that you don't need to shoulder everything yourself, however, and that leadership isn't stored here," she shook his arm for emphasis, "But rather in here and here," she let him go of the arm and instead tapped on his forehead and then poked the left side his chest, right above his heart. "That's what's going to make you a fucking legend one day, David. Someonebetterthan Maine even. And I want to be there when it happens."
This… side of Rebecca was one David had never seen before. Not like this. For as long as he'd known her, he'd never felt anything but support from her. She'd always encouraged him with an enthusiasm he truly believed no one else really shared. Not even Lucy. She had stood by his side since he first tried stepping into Maine's shoes and helped him climb higher than he could have ever dreamed of. And yet the depths of her faith, in him of all people, still managed to rock him down to the very core. Having it told to his face, with absolute certainty and almost uncharacteristic seriousness, all pretenses dropped… it was too much.
She'd said so much already, and yet her eyes only continued to speak even more, conveying emotions and conviction that went far beyond what mere words could adequately capture.
Tearing his arm from her grasp, David pulled Rebecca into himself and hugged tightly, only vaguely registering the surprised yelp she let out as he burrowed his face into the crook of her neck. Too many things were bubbling up inside him and he had no idea how to express them in ways other than physical; his profane sense of gratitude most of all. He had never dared hope for acceptance from someone like Rebecca, even in spite of how dedicated she had been in having his back for so long, believing wholeheartedly that hiding his doubts and fears was his only option.
Even now, he struggled to accept it, only because his failures made him afraid. Made him feel undeserving.
"Thank you…" he still managed to whisper, arms clinging to her smaller body. Rebecca didn't say anything in reply, rather he felt her simply wrap her own arms around around him too, cradling the back of his head while she nuzzled into his hair. Undeserving or not, there could be no more doubting that she did believe in him, in what he could become, and that support meant so much to him.
He savored the feeling of Rebecca's embrace for as long as she allowed him to, and despite trying to push back the thoughts at first, David couldn't help but notice how much he'd missed the simple but no less comforting feeling of physical affection. Things were… really complicated with Lucy right now, and it had unfortunately put a rather noticeable strain on their relationship, loathe as he was to admit it. All he wanted was for her to join them, to join him, again, but every time she would say she had something she needed to get done first and refusing to let him in on what she was working on when she deepdived all evening long.
He hadn't held her like this for weeks, nor had she him, and it had created a void within him, he now realized, that he couldn't resist trying to fill using Rebecca as a willing substitute. Either the worst or best part of it all was that it was working. Really well. For the moment, at least. Despite how different the two of them were, simply by being there, physically and emotionally, Rebecca was managing to fill his Lucy-shaped hole
With his thoughts turning to his complicated love-life—amidst conflicting feelings of guilt and desire for companionship—David was reminded of something that had caught him off guard earlier. The first thing Rebecca had said to him that had a real impact.
"Hey, 'Beccs... how did you know?" he asked, not removing his face from the crook of Rebecca's neck.
"'Bout what?
"About the, uh, arm stuff. Maine's arms." He paused. It felt like a weird question, all of a sudden. But he was curious now; too curious to stop. "I mean, I haven't even mentioned it to any ripper docs yet. Barely more than an idea still. So how come you managed to find out about my plans?" he glanced up, waiting to see her reaction.
For some reason, of all questions, that actually made Rebecca stiffen up unexpectedly, drawing in a breath so sharp that David couldn't help but feel a twinge of worry in his chest. Immediately, he noticed the way that her fingers were scrunching up his jacket, but that quickly changed as she was suddenly pushing on his shoulders, clearly wanting them to separate.
It actually stung, more so than even her slap, but David didn't resist, letting go of Rebecca enough that she could make them face one another again. He opened his mouth to say something, though he wasn't really sure what, but the pensive expression on her features stopped him. Clearly, the answer to his question carried more weight to it than he could have predicted, the silence between them far heavier than he would have liked.
Chewing on her bottom lip, Rebecca finally met his gaze, though for some reason her eyes seemed to flit back and forth between his eyes and his mouth for a second before she had apparently gathered the nerve necessary to speak again.
"Lucy," she admitted, confirming his suspicions. "She invited me over to your place the other day. Completely out of the blue. We had a talk. A really fucking long one. Mostly about you. And her. And, well, your situation.
"Not gonna lie, it felt pretty fucking weird at first. Lucy and I aren't the tightest of choombas, you know, so I kept wondering why she called me of all people to have a girl-talk. Sure, I like working with her and all, but we never really hanged out much before… all of that." She grimaced. "But then I started to understand, after she revealed how much she knew about certain things."
If he didn't know better, David could have sworn that a blush actually found its way onto Rebecca's cheeks right then, if only for a second, but he quickly convinced himself that that couldn't be the case. He couldn't even imagine what could possibly illicit that kind of reaction from her. Not his Rebecca.
At the same time, though… as he listened, David couldn't help but feel that Rebecca's choice of words was rather… odd, for lack of a better term. Especially after everything else she'd said to him until now. 'Uncharacteristically deliberate' felt like the best way to describe it, but instead of calling her out on it, he simply nodded along, letting her continue.
"That's when she brought up the arms and your plans for them. She was worried about all your chrome, same as me." Rebecca's eyes fell from his and looked down at the gun sitting on the table beside them. "Also told me that you two don't discuss gigs much anymore, unless you're asking her if she wants to join in on one, so I figured I should mention just how many jobs you've done as of late. When she heard about it… she looked scared, David. Really fucking scared. And I know that for sure because I felt the same thing." She turned back to face him. "The reason she called me over was because she wanted my help. With you."
David really shouldn't have been surprised. After all, he knew about the distance between him and Lucy. He knew how difficult it was for them to talk to one another right now. And yet, it still hurt. Hearing that she felt forced to go to someone else with their issues because they'd failed so completely to mend things on their own and now she either couldn't trust herself or him. He honestly couldn't tell which made him feel more ill.
"She was worried you wouldn't open up to her since she's been so distant, so she wanted me to talk to you instead…"
Suddenly, something shifted inside David's chest, and the unpleasantness that had been bubbling up from his gut stopped. He'd been entirely prepared to fall back on the train of self-loathing that Rebecca had slapped him for just now—blaming himself for everything going on between him and Lucy by not being good enough to recognize what their problems were; by not loving her enough—but then her words replayed in his head and that urge was replaced by something else entirely.
Lucy cared about him. Still. Even after everything. Even after he had failed. She cared enough to reach out for help. Just like when she had begged him to reassure her before the Tanaka dive. She was the one worrying over not being enough.
Catharsis. Relief. Gratitude. Everything he'd had felt after Rebecca's declaration of faith David was filled with once again. It was so profound that his breath escaped from his lungs and he had to manually remind himself to suck in air again. For a brief moment, his Sandevistan even activated from the sheer surge of emotions alone and the lightheadedness that followed the time dilation did nothing to help him regain his bearings.
This time when he wrapped Rebecca up in a hug, she saw it coming and accepted it without hesitation or surprise. David couldn't help it; he couldn't just express these things without using his body and without Rebecca he never would have had this sense of reassurance that things weren't hopeless for him or Lucy. She deserved more gratitude than he could ever repay, but that didn't mean he wasn't going to try, and a hug was as good a step as any his mother had told him.
Everything in the world felt just a bit more right in that brief moment.
Unfortunately, it couldn't last forever. Nothing really did. Especially not in Night City. It was David's turn to disengage this time, giving Rebecca one last meaningful squeeze before pulling away and lifting her off his lap. Despite how little she weighed, at least to him, he could still feel her absence on his legs even after standing up from the table himself, now forced to look down to meet Rebecca's gaze once again.
She was smiling at him now, for the first time since walking into the warehouse, and the weight that that sight alone lifted off of him was substantial. It wasn't a grin like he was used to seeing her display, be it cheeky and mirthful or manic and dangerous, but rather something he would dare call peaceful, her eyes soft and affectionate. Serene even.
He wasn't really sure what prompted him, but David found himself lifting a hand and tucking a wayward lock of hair out of Rebecca's face and back behind her ear. Rather than pulling away afterwards, his hand lingered, moving downward, tenderly caressing the side of her face, his thumb running over her cheek. He felt her lean into his touch, rubbing against his palm while the warmth of her pale skin spread through his fingers to his whole hand and even further up his whole arm. It was comforting.
When David's hand returned to his side, however, he was able to see something he thought he'd just imagined before. Not this time, though, because there was no mistaking it; Rebecca was most definitely blushing, cheeks flush with color, her enchanting red eyes briefly shimmering with something he couldn't identify as she reached up and brushed her fingers over the spot he'd just departed. Bizarrely enough, for no more than a split second, her expression shifted, smile suddenly turning almost melancholic, only to return to 'normal' as quickly as it had happened. It nearly made David frown, but when he was just about to open his mouth to say something about it, Rebecca spoke up instead.
"David, do you mind if we head back to your joint? There was actually this other favor Lucy asked me to do for her. For you. Don't really want to talk about it here though."
XXX
Flashes of garish neon light shone in through the windows of the nearly empty monorail cart while the Night City skyline, illuminated from above by a cloudless, moonlit sky passed by outside. It was a picturesque sight, serene even, but only from a distance. One look downwards and the illusion was betrayed by the busy streets upon which gangsters and hoodlums roamed freely, like scavenger beasts looking for wounded prey.
Fortunately, none of that ugliness made its way into David and Rebecca's journey and they were instead free to share it in a peaceful silence, sat side by side on the not-quite-comfortable seats. They had all the space in the world to occupy if they wished, but clearly Rebecca was not interested in any other spot in the rail cart aside from the one she was already taking up, right by his side, her weight resting against him and her head on his shoulder. Truthfully, David was glad that only like this did she seem content.
Sharing a ride like this was actually a first for David, as, up until this point, he'd had a sneaking suspicion that Rebecca was lethally allergic to dead air between the two of them, seeing how eager she usually was to fill it with small talk or by singing along to the radio, terribly, whenever they drove to jobs together. She could usually talk for hours, jumping between topics so abruptly that David often times completely lost track of what they'd even spoken about in the first place. If nothing else, it always ensured long trips together were never boring.
None of that now, though. Small talk was replaced by a companionable quiet, broken only by the dull background noise of the monorail itself. It was nice.
David had suggested they call Falco to give them a quick ride, but Rebecca had refused the idea. He should be allowed to enjoy the celebration along with everyone else in the gang so they shouldn't bother them. And since his own car was currently out of commission for repairs, that left either walking or the monorail. Not a difficult choice.
After a while of just looking out the window on the opposite side of the rail cart, David noticed Rebecca's gaze shifting to look at their reflections in the glass, their eyes meeting. He raised an eyebrow in question at her and she just smiled at him in return. That same, not quite as happy as he'd like it to be smile from before. When he was about to ask if there was something wrong, however, his eyes were instead drawn to the feeling of his arm being tugged on, fingers interlacing with his own shortly thereafter. Glancing down he found Rebecca holding his hand while the back of it rested atop her lap. Despite having done so before, in the warehouse, for some reason it felt... different.
This didn't feel like just a gesture of comfort; wasn't just a reassuring squeeze like he might have expected. Instead, Rebecca's fingers traced his own, hers more small and thin. Delicate even. She drew patterns on his palm that might have meant nothing and everything at the same time, nails grazing his skin delicately. All with that smile and her head resting on his shoulder.
David had no idea how to make sense of the emotions it made him feel.
XXX
"So… you want anything to drink? Don't carry much hard stuff but I could get you a beer if you'd like?" David offered as the elevator doors closed behind them and him and Rebecca entered the large apartment proper. Truthfully, he couldn't really remember the last time he'd had anyone over to visit this place and so he wasn't entirely sure what he should really do when it came to being a good host.
"'M good…" Rebecca replied, voice softer than he would have expected, as she shuffled forward and took a look around.
David's first instinct was to maybe offer her a quick tour of the place, but then he was reminded then that while he hadn't invited anyone, Lucy had and Rebecca would have been here with her not long ago. Which was still strange to imagine.
He watched as she walked over to the large windows leading to the balcony overlooking the city and peered out of it. After a beat, he followed her and they stood together gazing out into the night. From up here the lights of the neon street signs and corpo billboards could barely reach, the dim apartment being illuminated by pale moonlight instead; a light colder and more distant than that from below, but not artificial. That mattered to David. Maybe more than it should.
"Wasn't really in the mood to appreciate you guys' view last time," Rebecca said. She didn't turn away from the window, but her eyes were glancing his way when David looked over to her.
"Yeah. Hard not to take it for granted sometimes. Barely even feels like I'm still in Night City when I look at it from up here."
Rebecca hummed in agreement. "Some spots out in the badlands like are that too. Out past the Aldecaldos' camps. Far enough away from everything that you can just drive out there at night and forget about this shithole. Though your apartment does have way less risk of some fucking Raffen showing up unannounced and ruining the mood, which is a definite upside."
David snorted at that. "Maybe we should give it a shot sometime. I'd love to just lay back and watch the stars." It was an innocent enough offer he thought, but when he caught a glimpse of Rebecca's expression, it had changed, growing more solemn as she gazed at some wayward spot in the distance and the mirth he'd just felt faded away.
"I've never given someone 'relationship advice' before. Not until Lucy and I talked," she admitted all of a sudden, switching topics. "Sure, I might have chatted about who's fucking who back when I ran with the Mox, everyone had stories about eventful lays, good and bad, but none of it was real, you know. It was all just stress relief or part of the job or even just fuckin' curiosity. Just something people did without much meaning. Not like what the two of you have." She sighed then, ruefully almost. "At first, I even thought I would be the absolute worst person she could have picked to talk to about that stuff. Like, talk about compromised judgment or something!" a laugh, but hollow. "But then... she told me that she knew. About everything. Wouldn't even let me deny it and, somehow, that's what managed to convince me." Red eyes shifted to follow the path of a drone as it flew by outside the window.
"Didn't stop me from feeling freaked the fuck out though. At least in the beginning. I was pretty scared, honestly, that I'd say something so wrong it fucked up your whole thing. Wouldn't be the first time my big mouth ruined someone's day." She let out another short, humorless laugh. "As soon as we managed to start talking about you, however, it got better. Easier. Luce and I may never have had a lot in common, but we both really, really, really fucking care about you, David. And we both want to help you. To be there for you." Something hitched in Rebecca's voice as she spoke and she took a step back from the glass, clearing her throat and blinking rapidly.
Nothing David could say felt right in that moment, not in the face of Rebecca's heartfelt confessions. It would all be woefully insufficient, just like how he saw himself as leader sometimes, as inappropriate as the thought was at a time like this. Somehow, she'd managed to outshine even her earlier declarations of support for him as a leader, her sentiments now more firmly directed at him as person.
She looked like she had more she wanted to say and her mouth even opened to speak up again, but no words came out and instead she just gritted her teeth and frowned in quiet frustration, hands balling up into fists at her sides.
Then, determination replaced pensiveness. Rebecca closed the small amount of distance between them until she had to tilt her head back to meet his eyes. Wordlessly, she grabbed David by the hand and started leading him away from the windows and, much to his surprise, towards the stairs leading to his and Lucy's bedroom. When they started ascending the staircase, his steps faltered, confused, but she just tugged him onward and then they were at the top. It all happened so suddenly that David almost stumbled over his own feet, but Rebecca was there to catch him, looking back over her shoulder at him with that same determined gleam.
She continued to drag him along with her until finally they reached the bedroom, at which point she nearly pushed him onto the bed in the middle of it.
"Wha-" David started to ask, but Rebecca silenced him by putting a finger to his lips. Then she straddled his waist again, just like before.
"No more talking. I just need to do this, yeah?" she whispered, not removing her finger until she was completely situated atop his lap, at which point she replaced it. Silencing him with something else.
Leaning forward, eyes closing, Rebecca pressed her lips to his own and kissed David. Deeply. Passionately. Forcefully even. Before he could even hope to process what was going on, her lips were parted and she had invaded his mouth with her tongue, hesitation nowhere to be seen as she wrestled it against his own, stunned oral appendage. Her arms re-wrapped themselves around his neck, fingers in his hair, and pulled him more firmly into the kiss as a soft moan escaped her, nails running across his scalp in a way that made his spine tingle.
David was no longer merely lost for words, he was completely lost for actions too, resigned to sit frozen while Rebecca made out with him with as much intensity as one could muster in a mostly one-sided lip-lock. And yet, at the same time, the shock didn't last long at all, all things considered…
Feeling Rebecca pressing herself against him, feeling the intense need expressed in her kiss and the small but impactful mewls escaping her throat, the sheer intimacy and emotional weight of the moment… it made something inside David crack, and where there should have had been desire to push Rebecca away to break their completely inappropriate kiss, he instead only felt a yearning, eerily similar to when they had simply hugged one another before. Subconsciously, he realized that Rebecca was offering him something that he was missing, her kiss already placing itself within the hole that his lack of physical affection with Lucy as of late had birthed, and despite everything, he didn't have it in himself in that moment to resist the temptation of taking her up on her wordless offer.
In an instant, his mind emptied, thoughts going silent, all his focus only on Rebecca. He felt her gasp in surprise as he lifted his arms and hugged her back, eyes closing while he started returning her kiss. Her skin felt soft and supple beneath his fingers, so much of it exposed already due to Rebecca's choice of clothing, or rather lack thereof. He easily slipped his hands underneath her jacket and up along her spine, encouraged by the near-purring that seemed to emanate from somewhere inside her throat as he caressed her unnaturally pale flesh. It was all so inviting and warm and smooth and irresistible now that he was no longer thinking, simply doing.
At the same time, he met her tongue with his own, pushing back against it, seeking to explore beyond her lips as well—to taste her—something Rebecca endorsed wholeheartedly, clearly, accepting his intrusion. At the same time she ground her whole body into his own, rolling her hips against his lap in the most tantalizing way. Her tongue coiled around him,literally,the sensation so uniquely pleasurable that he didn't even question how it was even possible at first, but then he realized just how much tongue was inside his mouth and how said amount only seemed to be increasing.
The surprise discovery left David stunned for long enough that when Rebecca shifted herself against him again, he started falling backwards, breaking their kiss abruptly as Rebecca was left looming over him, panting. As if possessed, he reached up and ran his thumb over her lightly parted lips, stomach tingling when she didn't hesitate to take the digit into her mouth, suckling on it briefly, before he pushed it towards the corner of her lips, prompting her instead to open her maw for him as he hooked her cheek. Utterly fascinated, he watched as she revealed the insides of her mouth to him, and slowly unfurled her tongue—twice, thrice, no, at least four as long as any he'd ever seen before—until it was hanging out from between her lips, nearly crossing the distance between them. Equally as surprising was how sharp her teeth looked, resembling fangs more than they did whatever a human should have, another modification he had been totally unaware of her having.
Exotic couldn't even hope to describe what he was seeing, but I was most definitely still arousing, deeply so.
The sight made David's other hand tighten its grip on Rebecca's waist, fingers digging deeper into her skin, and he felt her shudder from head to toe.
"Davie…" she moaned hotly, desire dripping from her slurred voice. She cupped his cheeks and started leaning down towards him, and briefly, David moved to meet her halfway, eager to resume their fervent kissing.
At the same time, a beam of moonlight shone in through the window, casting a near ethereal glow around Rebecca, her already pale skin all the more striking due to the sudden illumination. And be it due to an act of providence of misfortune, that was when reality set in for David, his thoughts finally catching up to his actions.
"Rebecca, hang on- Stop."
It was Rebecca's turn to freeze up, her descent towards David's lips halted by the hands he'd put on her shoulders, the thumb that had been in her mouth just a moment ago still slimy with saliva. She blinked, eyes wide with so much confusion and bewilderment that he had to wonder if she had gotten swept up by the moment just like he had been.
"What the hell are we doing here...?" David asked, trying to sit himself upright again only to be met by resistance in the form of Rebecca refusing to move from her spot much to his confusion.
"Kissing, duh…?" she answered, not seeming the least bit alarmed by her own words, head tilting sideways while she looked at him like he'd said something completely moronic.
David returned said look with a very dumbfounded expression of his own. Clearly, Rebecca still had her wits about her, especially considering she'd initiated their kiss, but he didn't understand how that could be; they'd kissed—made out even—and she seemed completely calm about it.
"We can't be doing this. It's fucking nuts," he explained, incredulous.
A new attempt to wiggle out from Rebecca was made but it too was thwarted by her stubbornness. Nothing prevented him from simply moving her, but the thought of being being forced to literally pick her up just to get free seemed so absurd that he couldn't seriously consider it would come to that—it shouldn't have to come to that. Or at least, that's what he thought until she spoke up again.
"Why?"
Abject disbelief fell over David's features from simply how genuine Rebecca's tone was.
"'Why'? What the fuck do you mean 'why'!?" he exclaimed, throwing out his arms as if to gesture to the whole room and everything in it. "We're not- I'm still with Lucy! Weren't you saying how you two had been talking? About us? I'm not going to cheat on her, not even with you!"
That last part came out wrong but David was too worked up, frustration growing inside him, and it was enough for him to ignore the ridiculousness of seemingly having no choice but to throw Rebecca off of him, which he was just about to do when clear realization dawned on her face and not a heartbeat later she started laughing, leaving him near stupified as to what was even going on.
"Of fucking course she didn't tell you," she muttered to herself, shaking her head. Refocusing on him, she cupped his cheeks. "David… this was Lucy's idea. She wanted me to be there for you, you know, physically since she just can't right now. Be your joytoy. Or pretend output even. Whatever you want to call it. Why do you think she isn't here right now?"
Letting him go, Rebecca leaned back and looked at a spot above David's head and then a chatlog appeared among his messages. Sure enough, a short skim was enough to corroborate her claims, the last message from Lucy even saying she'd make herself scarce for the two of them.
"I had been hoping she'd have mentioned something about the whole 'deal' to you, but since you didn't even know we met up at all, I should've figured she stayed quiet. Can't say I blame her for just getting the fuck out of dodge instead. I would've done the same, probably" Rebecca shrugged.
How the fuck had it come to this? That was the chief question David asked himself as he processed Rebecca's words. It was unbelievable, insane even, and yet the proof was right there in the messages. As absolutely crazy as it all seemed, Lucy recruited Rebecca to sleep with him, just like she'd asked her to speak to him. And for the same reason; despite their distance, she clearly still cared. About his needs.
But then that brought up another question… why ask Rebecca? And why had she agreed.
Thinking back to everything that had happened these past few hours with the new lens he'd just been given, mulling over everything Rebecca had done and said to him, David came to find that he might already know the answer.
Still... he wanted to be certain. "You told Lucy you would do this for her. For me.Why?"
Near instantly, a deep blush settled on Rebecca's cheeks and he could feel her whole body stiffen atop his lap, her carefully maintained confident and plucky demeanor crumbling away before his eyes and being replaced by an uncharacteristic bashfulness that, despite himself, David couldn't help but find rather cute.
"You know why…" she protested meekly.
"Please, 'Becca. Tell me," he encouraged, hands falling away from her shoulders, no longer pushing her away. Instead, he splayed them out across her back, just barely urging her to lean into him once more. "I just want to hear you say it."
He could hear Rebecca's breath hitch, see her hands balling into fists, the discomfort she felt, but still she allowed herself to be embraced. Not looking up, she started to speak.
"I've already told you, David... it's because I fucking care about you, okay? A lot. You damn gonk," she finally admitted, voice barely more than a whisper. "Because I like you. More than I should." Her fingers played over his skin, weaving patterns that were too complex for him to follow. "And... because I've wanted this for months now. Because I've been so fucking jealous of Lucy having you instead of me..."
A slow breath passed through David's lungs, his suspicions proven correct. "Lucy knew, didn't she? That's what you've been hinting at all night, yeah?"
Rebecca nodded and he caught her lips quirking up in a slight smile. "Like I said, when she told me she had me figured out I was ready to delta the fuck out of there, since I've seen how lover's quarrels end usually. Wasn't about to be slapped or shot. But she wasn't angry at me. Not for having all these feelings or even for, y'know, hanging around you so much." She snorted. "Told me she 'understood' since we had something in common."
Glittering ruby eyes pierced through the gloom surrounding them as Rebecca looked up at him, reinforcing every word that sge spoke a thousand times over, and David felt damn near faint from the surge of emotions washing over him.
"I love you David. Same as Lucy."
This time, David initiated the kiss, feeling breathless even before their lips touched but somehow finding oxygen again through the act itself rather than the other way around. Like it nourished him to move his mouth against Rebecca's, absorbing her sigh as she melted against him. Their tongues met and he was reminded that hers was not the same as his, feeling it slither and wrap about his own in ways he would never have dreamed of. Strange as it was, it didn't put him off one bit. Quite the opposite, if anything.
It was a slow kiss, at first, tender and sweet and lacking the urgent need of their first one. No less affectionate however
Devouring Rebecca's surprised squeal, he suddenly flipped them over and used her surprise to regain the 'lead' in their little battle of tongues. From the way Rebecca moaned against his mouth, legs on either side of his hips, flexing and pulling him down towards her, she was more than happy to accept defeat, giving herself over to him.
It wasn't like with Lucy, David noted, surprising himself when the thought didn't cause any emotional turmoil within him. Permitted by her or not, he figured the act of kissing someone else would have lead to some kind of distress to be present, but there really was none, and the longer he thought about it the more obvious the answer—and his reticence—seemed to be.
It was thanks to the presence of the short, pale skinned, crimson eyed, skull-tattooed former Mox at his mercy beneath him. Anyone else; anyone he didn't share such a strong connection with already, and he would never have been able to accept this 'help' of theirs. Rebecca was different though. Maybe, subconsciously, that's why he had briefly given into her the first time, because there was a bond of trust and friendship and more between them that he resonated with.
Slowly, David pulled away from the kiss, Rebecca left mewling in displeasure as he did so. Looking down at her, long green hair haloed out around her head, soft lips lightly parted as she breathed short breaths, red eyes lidded and hazy, David made no attempts to stop himself from truly admiring how beautiful she was. He'd always found her attractive, very much so in fact, but somewhere along the line of them getting to know each other, becoming crewmates, and him getting together with Lucy, he'd stopped himself from seeing her in that kind of way.
It was rather funny in a way that out of all the women he'd known throughout his life, he'd seen Rebecca near-naked more often than anyone else by a large margin—and that included Lucy—simply due to her choice of dress. Or rather lack thereof. A jacket, strapless black top and matching bottoms, that or even less was all David had ever seen her wear.
He was fairly certain the word 'modesty' simply did not exist in her world.
It wasn't a complaint, though. Not when it let him so easily rake his gaze along her short, curvy body, absorbing every detail from how her her pinkish-red tattoos contrasted her skin, how they drew his eyes towards the center of her chest, to how her breasts moved with every short, heated breath she took. He'd heard the word 'shortstack' floating around when people referred to Rebecca and it wasn't until now, after months of not truly looking at her, that he realized what they meant by it, since he could think of few ways of more perfectly describe her. Small, and yet so wonderfully full-figured.
"You're… gorgeous…" David breathed out.
It didn't take long for Rebecca to start squirming beneath him, clearly feeling how intently he was staring down at her, but she made no efforts to cover herself or hide away from him. This was not a matter of discomfort, he could tell, rather impatience, his companion only discontent with the lack of physical attention she was receiving.
Luckily for her, David was happy to fix that, reaching down to slip her jacket off of her shoulders and coaxing her to lift herself up just enough that he could remove it entirely. As soon as he'd thrown it to the side, Rebecca's hands were slipping beneath his own clothing, fingers crawling up his abdomen, bunching his shirt up while she bit her bottom lip, looking at his own body in much the same way he imagined he was hers.
He shrugged off his mom's jacket and then let Rebecca continue to peel off the tight fitting tank-top underneath it. Chest now bared, he could feel Rebecca's gaze all the more intently as she stared at his muscles, most of them real and not yet synthetic, the majority of his chrome remaining internal.
"Could you do me a favor by never wearing anything under your jacket ever again? It's an absolute fucking crime to hide all this beef from us good folks of Night City," Rebecca said without looking away from his abs, hands reaching out to trace the contours of his muscles with deft fingers.
David started to laugh but it stopped when she reached down for his pants, unbuttoning and unzipping them before he could even get a word out. Despite him practically towering over her, she was all too keen to take back the initiative from him, hands splayed out over his chest, practically groping him, one of them decidedly lower than the other, bordering on the hem of his underwear. Clearly, she was not done feeling him out because only a moment later, he had to bite back a gasp as she grabbed his still cloth-encased cock, once again biting her lip while she watched her handiwork bear fruit.
He could feel himself growing hard from Rebecca's ministrations, letting out a soft groan as she stroked him through his underwear. He'd been aroused for a while now but this was making him fully erect.
"I always had a feeling you were packing someone nice andheftydown here," Rebecca giggled excitedly, a second hand joining the first at his crotch. "This what you mean when you say you're 'built different', huh?"
Instead of answering, David claimed Rebecca's lips once more, moaning alongside her as she squeezed and rubbed his cock. Not to be outdone, he sneaked his arms in-between the two of them and pulled down her top, grabbing a pair of nice, malleable handfuls of Rebecca's freed breasts, returning the ministrations she was giving him downstairs. Immediately, her back arched against his touch and with that clear encouragement he started rolling her nipples beneath his fingertips, all while not letting up on their kiss.
Tremors were making their way through Rebecca's body, further driving David to toy with her. He broke away only to start kissing his way down Rebecca's neck, teeth gently nipping at her pale skin. He continued until he reached her collarbone and at the same time let go of one of her breasts so that he could instead lift her from the bed, pressing her whole torso against his mouth as he immediately caught her now unoccupied nipple with his lips, lashing it with his tongue even as Rebecca's ability to continue stroking him was taken away.
Wanton moans fell from Rebecca's parted lips and David drank in the sweet sounds eagerly. With his cock beyond his reach, her hands relocated to his head, pulling him into her chest, fingers tangled in his hair. Her breasts were everything he could have hoped for; soft and perky and fitting perfectly into his palms. They not as sizable as Lucy's, but on Rebecca's smaller frame they felt larger; all her curves more pronounced by her stature. Short but stacked indeed.
Moving his mouth to her other breast, David used his now freed hand to liberate Rebecca from her final piece of clothing, easily shimmying down her shorts while caressing the lovely swell of her ass, the lack of any kind of panties beneath them wholly unsurprising. Once removed, he could feel heat radiating from the junction of her squirming thighs and how her skin pebbled with goose flesh when his fingers brushed across the inside of her legs.
"N-no fair!" Rebecca whined right as he was about to put his fingers to work between her legs. Instead, he peered up at her face, nipple still stuck between his lips, eyebrows raised in question. "You gotta get naked too," she demanded, squirming and pushing against him insistently when he didn't immediately let her go.
David let her struggle for a little bit longer, feeling immense satisfaction at the ever growing tinge of frustration in her moaning when he continued to suckle on her breast, her whole body jolting when he grazed her with his teeth. Eventually, however, he relented, an audible pop sound when he let go of her nipple with his mouth and allowed himself to be pushed upright and subsequently stripped out of his pants, both them and Rebecca's top joining the rest of their clothing on the floor. Only his underwear remained and apparently Rebecca decided to take her time with their removal, making him lift himself off the bed as she slowly peeled them down, letting them catch on his hardened length for as long as seemingly possible while she looked on with apt attention and visible delight.
Then he sprung free and Rebecca's mouth fell open just a little bit, eyes wide with excitement and hot, smoldering arousal.
Apparently, he exceeded her expectations.
"Well, well, well, and here I never took you for a cock-chromer, Davie~," Rebecca teased. Turning her head to and fro, she inspected every angle of his manhood, her lower lip caught between her teeth when she viewed it from underneath and he was simply just hovering over her face. Eventually satisfied, she reached out for him.
Her touch was near electric, eager and confident, and was accompanied by a brief but potent surge of pleasure, coaxing a low hum of appreciation from David's chest. At first she simply caressed him, almost reverently he dared to think, nimble fingers following the curve of his dick, nails trailing the veins that ran along it. When she attempted to actually wrap her fingers around him, however, her impish grin turned absolutely salaciously as she failed to encompass the entire girth.
Leaning down, her expression was as delightedly gleeful as could be and with a few shimmies and nudges she ended up practically halfway curled atop his lap like a sexy kitten, his cock swaying right in front of her face. "You gotta tell me what kind of wonderful mods do you have stuffed in thisbeastly thing~?"
David knew that he was blushing as he looked down at Rebecca ogling his cock, unable to notrecall how Lucy had made very similar comments the first few times they slept together as well. "I've shown you my specs, 'Becca. Recently. I don't have anything like that installed," he refuted awkwardly in between sighs of pleasure from the sexy shortstack's languid strokes along his length.
Surprise shone on Rebecca's features momentarily, eyebrows rising high, only for realization to replace it, and then, somehow, her grin managed to grow even bigger. "Oh wow, so this is all you then? 100% grade-A Davie-beef? Hehehe! That's fucking preem!" she cackled excitedly. She had both her hands wrapped around him by now, pace increasing steadily as she giggled while watching her continued, fruitless attempts to have her fingers touch around him.
Peering up at him again, mischief shone in her crimson eyes and David couldn't help the shiver that ran down his spine; equal parts arousal and worry.
"Hey, why don't I show you something totally unauged of my own too~?" she said with such a sweet and innocent voice that David almost flinched, knowing full well that she was planning something utterly devious.
Before he could so much as open his mouth, however, David was put in a situation where all he could hope to reply with was a deep, sudden groan as no less than three quarters of his cock were instantly engulfed by a slimy, molten hot maw and his head fell back. No preamble, no teasing, no time for him to prepare; one second Rebecca was looking at him, the next she'd damn near slammed her face into his crotch, audibly gurgling around his cock as she took it deep into her throat.
Right away she started moving her head up and down his length, never quite letting him escape the confines of her throat, all the while her tongue was wrapping around the last unoccupied inch of meat she had yet to devour, saliva dribbling freely down the insides of his thighs.
David's head was instantly sent spinning from the intensity of the pleasure he was being submitted to, only vaguely registering that Rebecca was grabbing at one of his hands until he felt the distinct texture of hair underneath his fingertips, his hand having been placed atop the shortstack's rhythmically bobbing head. Sounds that he guessed were supposed to be encouraging met his ears and David didn't have to ponder long as to what she was trying to urge him to do.
Drunk on pleasure, he acted without thought, pushing Rebecca down the last remaining distance to the base of his cock, encountering zero resistance or protests whatsoever from her. He held her there for a brief moment, savoring the intoxicating feeling of her whole damn neck flexing around him while his hips thrust weakly against her face. He didn't bask for too long though, coming to his senses when he heard another gurgle from Rebecca and immediately letting her go, damn near horrified that he'd potentially suffocated her.
Rebecca herself, however, made no attempts to relinquish her laryngeal grip on his meat, instead choosing to what he could only describe as baste him with her absurd tongue, constantly applying it with fresh coatings of saliva right up until the moment David actively dragged her off of him with a sudden lurch.
Panting, David deposited Rebecca beside him and then leaned back, wiping his brow while he tried to process the mix of mind-melting pleasure, bone-deep terror, inhibition-crumbling arousal, and confusion that ravaged him just then.
"Whaddaya think 'bout that, huh? No gag reflex~," Rebecca cooed at him, giving him a peace sign while rolling out her stupendous tongue for him to see—as if presenting both it and her mouth to him—all while not sounding winded or bothered at all despite having him bulging out her damn neck just moments earlier. "No way we're done yet though," she continued, voice somehow not slurred. "I wanna taste that big fat cock of yours again and you gotta gimme a nice and proper face-fuck this time. C'mon,I want you to justslam me back down on that big dick again andtreat my tight little throat like your own personal cock-sleeve~..."
David's heart felt like it skipped a beat as he listened and subsequently attempted to fully process Rebecca's incredibly raunchy words. He'd never been spoken to like that before, had never even heard that kind of talk in the filthiest of his porn BDs. He'd certainly never heard Lucy say anything like it...
Taking advantage of his surprise, Rebecca stalked—prowled even—over to him on her hands and knees, her sensual form swaying enticingly with her every motion. When only a minuscule amount of space remained between them, she lazily draped her arms around his shoulders as she pressed the entirety of her naked body against his own. He felt her sigh, her breath hot and electrifying against his neck, while her plush breasts flattened against the firm muscles of his own chest, nuzzling into him bodily. Leaning forward even further, she finally whispered sultrily into his ear.
"C'mon, big guy… I'm all yours tonight, so you can use me and be as rough as you want... I'm built to take it…"
Immediately, David tensed up, and for once it had nothing to do with arousal.
Despite Rebecca's clear intentions to rile him up with this type of language; to goad him into instantly snapping and taking out all his stress on her like she was nothing more than a plaything by fucking her within an inch of her life in a lust fueled frenzy, David was only able to fixate on those last few words. They carried an implication he had managed to avoid thinking about until now and with every second his mind spent mulling over their full magnitude, the more his stomach felt heavy.
He didn't know much about Rebecca's past beyond a few brief mentions she'd given here or there, but something she had been very open about was that she'd used to be a Mox. Again, David didn't know much about the gang's inner workings, but there was one fact about them that everyone in Night City had heard; the Mox were made up of sex workers, both former or still active.
Which meant that Rebecca had been one too, right? That that had been where she'd 'learned' all this stuff, how to act and speak so enticingly… why she was 'built' the way she was...
That thought alone made the heaviness grow tenfold.
Wordlessly, David hugged Rebecca close, just focusing on the feeling of her skin against his. He didn't want to imagine that kind of life for her. Hated the idea that she tried to rile him up with depraved language, degrading herself for his 'enjoyment', because that's what had worked on her clients. Despised the notion that he only saw her as a joytoy like so many others must have.
"D-David?" Rebecca asked, surprised, but David didn't reply. He just held her, feeling the rapid hammering of her heart—comparing it to the similarly agitated beat of his own. He hoped she could feel it too. Wanted her to know what he meant to her. How irreplaceable she was.
He'd show her, he decided.
With tender slowness, David laid Rebecca down on her back, allowing their eyes to meet when he pulled away, watching the confusion on her face. He gazed back at her with adoration before leaning down to kiss her sweetly, if briefly, breaking away when his hands landed on Rebecca's hips and she was swiftly flipped over onto her stomach, her lower body raised into the air.
Finally, David got a good look at Rebecca's pussy, quietly marveling at how pretty and puffy it looked and how wantonly it was drooling down her thighs. A deep, vivid pink peaked out from in between her lips and he wasted no time in getting to see more of it. Large hands settled on each of her plush cheeks, fingers digging into her flesh as David squeezed and fondled her ass. He barely caught the blanket-muffled mewl that escaped the other end of Rebecca's body but there was no way he'd miss the way her back arched so that she could press herself more firmly into his touch, already parted thighs shivering as he continued to massage her rear.
With deft fingers, he started rubbing either side of her folds, squishing them between his thumbs before dipping them in between her lips just enough that he could feel the near sweltering heat that awaited him. Then he stopped, suddenly, instead spreading Rebecca's ass wide, thumbs prying open and parting her folds in the process to reveal all of that pink that he'd merely glimpsed earlier. It was the same color as her tongue, David realized, and a striking contrast to her pale skin, very similar to her tattoos. Beautiful didn't even begin to describe it.
Watching intently, David could see Rebecca's entrance opening and closing, practically winking at him as it attempted to latch onto something that wasn't there, all while fresh drops of arousal ruined his sheets. The sight made his breath come out in a shudder, almost hitching before he schooled it back to normal, swallowing before putting his hands to better use. Letting go of her ass, two fingers sank into Rebecca's pussy, meeting absolutely zero resistance despite how tightly her walls instantly clenched around his digits. His intrusion was awarded by another muffled but throaty moan and for some inexplicable reason, the sound bothered David. He didn't like Rebecca holding herself back like that.
To remedy the problem, David scooted forward until he was hovering over her back, curling fingers pumping in and out of her pussy as he wrapped his other arm around her waist and lifted her upright. The change in position, as her back pressed to his chest, forced him to pull his fingers free, much to Rebecca's vocal chagrin; pleading eyes, foggy with lust, turning back to look at him as if he'd just kicked her dog by pausing his fingering. It made him smile and he hoped his grabbing of her breast would tidy her over for the moment.
Luckily for Rebecca she only had to struggle with emptiness for barely more than a second as David reached around her front and put his still arousal-coated hand right back to work between her thighs, instantly feeling how Rebecca sighed and settled her weight against him, pushing her hips forward and into his fingers. This position allowed his still hard cock to settle against her lower back, a sensation she clearly welcomed with a cheeky purr.
"H-heh, someone knows what's he's- hng- doing…" Rebecca groaned, softly swearing under her breath when David managed to reach a certain spot inside her pussy with the tips of his fingers. "BD teach you that? Or, haaah, should I be thanking Lucy? Either way, I'm a lucky gal, so don't you dare stop, you fucking stud. This is the kind of treatment you'd usually have to give some hefty fucking discounts for~."
Again with that language, again making him think about her past...
"Rebecca…" David breathed softly as the pace of his fingers decreased significantly, his motions turning from thrusting to grinding, the heel of his palm rolling gently over Rebecca's clit. He burrowed his nose in her hair and allowed his body to absorb her shudders and moans. "Please don't do that. Don't… talk like that."
He felt her tense up, but she didn't say anything.
Slowly, David withdrew his digits, Rebecca's insides protesting the action by gripping him tighter, but that didn't stop him. "I… you're not just some joytoy to me. I don't even want to think about you like that. You're important. Special. Really special." he struggled to find the words even as he pulled her closer. He heard her breath catch as his cock rubbed against her between her thighs. "I could never do this with someone else, even with Lucy's permission… and I would never want you to think that I was just using you. That I was just buying you." He found the spot his fingers had vacated mere moments ago, still as hot and ready for him as ever.
For a heartbeat, he paused. Then...
"P-please…" he heard Rebecca whimper softly.
It was a long, languid thrust, allowing them both to feel absolutely everything when David's head pushed into Rebecca's sodden depths. Sweltering warmth and quivering, undulating flesh awaited him inside, every inch of his shaft enveloped and embraced as it entered. The pleasure was enough to cause his heart to skip a beat, so intense and potent. Starting where their hips were joining, it seemed to spread further throughout his body with every advancing inch; a warm and sublime sensation of bliss. He groaned raggedly and Rebecca responded in kind, crying out sweetly when he reached the halfway point.
When something unexpectedly pressed against the underside of his arm, still holding Rebecca to his chest, however, David felt a twinge of worry. What could possibly be poking at him like that, after all? And so he peered down, bearing witness to how a shape was bulging out Rebecca's skull-tattooed abdomen, the position of said bulge telling him that only one thing could be causing it. He almost stopped just then, deeply afraid that he was hurting Rebecca something fierce small as she were, but then he noticed her eagerly meeting his slow thrust even while her head had fallen back with near rolled-up eyes and an expression that was the furthest thing from pained he could imagine.
Hesitation was being met only with insistence. David, thusly, could only continue, inch after inch, pleasure rising higher as more of him wasconsumed.Bottoming out, finally, with his hips pressed firmly to the plushness of her rear, he paused so that they could catch their breaths.
"H-haaaaahah… did, hah, I m-mention that you-you're stupid big, Davie~…" Rebecca moaned hoarsely, delight clinging to her words. "Making my wh-whole fucking body tingle…"
He felt her hands fumbling over his arms, reaching down to her abdomen seemingly by reflex, and then he watched as she gingerly caressed the outline he'd made in her skin, clearly similarly surprised by the discovery as he was, her eyes regaining their focus.
"T-that's… new…" she stammered, looking down. "Never had to, hng, use that aug before… almost forgot I even had it." Caressing turned to poking, all the way down the bulge.
It was a very bizarre feeling, to say the least, but Rebecca seemed far from discouraged by the bump on her belly. For better or for worse, it did give David a rather succinct answer as to what she meant by being built for this beyond unpleasant implications and if nothing else it felt like a small solace to know that this aug had gone unused.
In truth though, David didn't want to think at all anymore. Not about Rebecca's past, not about his situation with Lucy, not about himself…
"Better give it a test drive though, or what do you thi-!" Rebecca's words were cut short and her slow trailing of her fingers along her abdomen interrupted as David ground against her, the bulge moving as he drew his hips back and slowly thrust them back in. Then he did it again. And again. And again.
It was a steady, deliberate rhythm, one that David could easily lose himself in, simply enjoying the feeling of Rebecca's insides clinging to his shaft, the breathy moans falling from her lips, and the closeness of her body. He savored feeling her ass press against his hips and the way she tensed up every time he hit the limit of how deep he could go. Every once in a while, a particularly noticeable shudder would pass through her whole body and he'd be forced to stop briefly from how tightly she gripped onto him and despite not saying anything about it, he could guess what was going on. It made him feel good.
He could feel his own build up gradually increasing as well, edging just a bit closer with every thrust, and yet it didn't make him quicken his pace. Slow was good tonight, he had decided. It was what his heart was telling him to do. It allowed him convey so much more.
Rebecca tried to urge him on, though. Before almost every shudder, he'd hear whispers or hisses of "Harder!" or "Fuck me!", "Give it to me!", "More!" and every time, David would simply close his eyes and hold her tightly when she inevitably fell apart despite him not changing anything about his 'strategy'.
The shuffling of the bed beneath them and their soft moans were the only audible sounds. There was no harsh crashing of bodies or frenzied grunting, just slow, tender lovemaking. It was good; made David feel alive in a way he had been silently longing for as pleasure arced continued to flow freely in his veins. It was the kind of visceral pleasure that no synthetic substitute could ever hope to truly match no matter how detailed the BD or feature-stuffed the sex toy. The carnal connection he felt with Rebecca as he bottomed out inside her and they sighed in unison was unable to be replicated.
They continued for what felt like hours, barely ever changing tempo or intensity, until it was finally David's turn to start trembling, reaching his limit. Goosebumps were rising along the skin of his neck and tingling rolled down his spine and with every thrust now, there was a distinct tug in the bottom of his stomach. Through it all, Rebecca was putty in his arms, simply moaning gently in time with his motions. Still, when his until now steady pace faltered, enough fog apparently lifted from her brain to pick up on it.
Summoning what little strength she had, she pressed against him, cooing as her hands returned to massage her distended abdomen.
"You getting close, David? You gonna cum?" she flexed around him; coiling and writhing in a way that could only be deliberate. "Do it. C'mon. Keep going. I want you to cum. I want you to let it all out inside me. Justfill me the fuck up," she moaned.
This time, the goading actually worked worked, David's vigor increasing noticeably as he started grunting as flesh met flesh. Spurred on by Rebecca's encouragement, he finally gave the shortstack the rut she had been begging for, one of his hands lifting to grab her chin, tilting her head back to meet his passionate gaze when his languid thrusts turned to impassioned pounding. Her back was arched towards him almost impossibly, and yet she showed no signs of discomfort, eagerly taking his thumb into him mouth when he absentmindedly stroked it over her lips. Delight was written all across her face and it spurned David on just as much as her now distorted cries of pleasure.
And it was this delight that made David miss the gentle tears running down Rebecca's cheeks.
Plap plap plap, they collided together faster and faster until it simply became too much. Clenching his jaw tightly, David let out one final ragged gasp and then the entire world became unfocused and muffled. Everything but Rebecca.
Pleasure surged through his body and he could little else but ride it out as his hips jerked erratically and he shot rope after rope deep into Rebecca's pussy, his cock pumping hard within her snug confines until she was full and then some. He had enough to spare that soon excess cum began to leak out around the seal created by his cock, turning both their crotches into a sticky mess.
David couldn't care less, far too enraptured by the aftershocks of his orgasm and the lovely shivers that were running through Rebecca's similarly pleasure-addled body. She was mumbling and slurring around his finger, still hooked in her mouth, red eyes rolled into the back of her head and limbs limp in his grasp. He was in no better shape himself, none of his body parts feeling like they belonged to him or were in under his command, nerves to frayed by ecstatic electricity. His spine was thrumming with pent up energy, his Sandevistan desperate to engage in response to the massive wave of stimuli assaulting him, but David had just enough mental fortitude to keep it reigned in, knowing from experience that letting activate in moments like these would burn him out before he could even blink, and he wasn't enthused by the idea of collapsing on top of poor Rebecca with blood spraying from his face.
Collapsing onto his back, conversely, seemed like a fantastic idea…
The bed felt absolutely heavenly as it swallowed him up, soothing his frazzled senses even with the additional weight of Rebecca on top of him. David didn't mind said weight, however. It was comforting, grounding even, feeling her breathe softly and sweetly. Even in spite of his climax and the pleasant tiredness hovering over him, his erection showed little to no signs of fading anytime soon. Such was the plight of being pent up, he supposed.
"How are you holding up?" he whispered after another moment of comfortable basking.
Immediately, he heard Rebecca giggle softly. " Heh, I'll live. I think. Walking might be problem tomorrow, since I can't really feel my legs anymore, but, y'know, I think it was worth it."
David smiled, right up until Rebecca started to shift at least. Then he had to suppress a moan as his sensitive flesh experienced further stimulation. Cold air awaited him as Rebecca lifted herself off of his cock, her legs nearly giving away halfway through the extraction were it not for David's steadying hands against her back. With his assistance, she managed to separate them for the first time in what felt like hours.
As soon as the act was done, Rebecca wasted no time flipping herself over before collapsing back onto David's chest, heavily lidded eyes looking up at him as her thighs wrapped on either side of his still hard cock, pressing him against heady warmth of her pussy.
"Still rearing to go, big guy…?" she asked with a slight note of trepidation in her voice.
It made David chuckle as he reached out and pushed a wayward lock of silken hair from her sweat dotted forehead and tucked it behind her ear. His mirth only grew as she nuzzled tiredly into his hand. "Not really. I'm spent, body just hasn't caught up yet." Again, he chuckled at the relief on Rebecca's features.
"Lucky me. Might have passed out if you made me cum like that again. No space left inside after you stuffed me up either-!"
Right as she said it, Rebecca shuddered hard, eyes snapping shut and her brow furrowing deeply. "O-o-oh fuck...!" she mewled and David flinched slightly as suddenly a slimy deluge covered his thigh-wrapped cock. It didn't take much brain power to figure out what exactly the viscus liquid was but the feeling itself was still unexpected.
"You okay?" David asked as Rebecca continued to squirm for a moment longer.
"Y-yeah," she stammered back, giggling softly. "Fucking hell, Davie. That was a lot. You tryin'a make me burst back there or what? Not to say I'm complain' mind you."
Despite himself, David blushed, but when he looked back down at Rebecca lounging on his chest and saw her tired smile alongside her warm, adoring gaze, any embarrassment he might have felt was swiftly replaced by more of that near infinite gratitude. She looked so very beautiful right now.
Leaning down, David gave her a gentle kiss, slow and sweet. "You're amazing, 'Becca. Thank you."
It was Rebecca's turn blush, cheeks darkening prettily as she tried, and failed, to take his sincere compliment in stride.
"Anytime, big guy," she replied, seemingly only realizing after the fact what exactly she'd said, blush deepening.
Truthfully, David hadn't thought about that part. He hadn't planned for what happened next between both the two of them and later how things were going to go with Lucy. He still loved her, with every fiber if his body, so in that regard nothing had changed. They just needed to work through the rough spot fate had deposited them into. He was still going to take her to the moon one day.
The same couldn't be said for his feelings towards Rebecca however. Until now he'd 'only' seen her as his closest friend and crewmate, and at its core that was still the case, but now he knew that she saw him differently. So much so that she'd been jealous of Lucy. If nothing else, David felt like a giant, oblivious fool for never noticing that.
Things couldn't stay the same after this. It was just impossible. Due in no small part to the fact that to him this had been about far more than the nothing stress relief was supposed to be about.
But… David struggled to think that far ahead at the moment. He was tired. Very tired. And relaxed. He'd been inside his own head for a long time, growing more and more wound up from the stress and self doubt—much closer to a very bad breaking point that he wanted to admit. And then Rebecca happened and now all that toxic energy that had kept him up more nights than he could count had been drained out of him. Or at least enough of it that the weeks of restlessness had finally managed to catch up to him.
David's head settled into the pillow he'd been lucky enough to collapse right beside, arms wrapped loosely around an equally exhausted Rebecca. Rapidly, his head emptied of thoughts and worries and woes, heavy eyelids closing as he relaxed fully. Lastly, he let out a deep, long overdue breath, at the end of which he was already asleep.
XXX
Rebecca awoke feeling a chill all throughout her body that had not been there when she'd dozed off and she instinctively curled in on herself in an attempt to prevent the shiver running up her spine, wishing merely to resume her slumber.
Said curling not being prevented, however, raised a mental alarm within her still sleep-addled mind, and alarm she didn't fully understand until she started noticing all the other discrepancies between when she fell asleep and now. Where had the warmth gone? Why was she laying on something so soft? Why could she move?
Bleary eyes opened and her limbs reached finding only emptiness.
Just like that, the spell of drowsiness was broken and Rebecca felt a deep pit form inside her stomach as frustration and disappointment flooded her heart.
Clenching her eyes shut she willed her quickly gathering tears to disappear. Or tried to at least. Of course he wasn't there. She was stupid for even considering the possibility that he might stay with her all through the night. For even daring to hope.
She wanted to scream—anger was simple for her to deal with, so much easier than whatever this was. It allowed her to express herself in so many different ways that had nothing to do with thinking. She could destroy things, kill things, cause mayhem and chaos… but she wasn't angry, not even at herself. This was something else, and so instead of shouting, all Rebecca managed was a barely restrained sob, wallowing in bitter sadness as the past couple of hours replayed in her mind.
How David had held her, every kiss they'd shared, the feeling of their bodies connected. Them. Together. All of it.
It had been one of the most amazing nights she'd ever experienced, and in a way that made the fact that she was waking up alone hurt that much more, inevitable or not.
Slowly, she rose into a sitting position, hugging her knees to her chest as the cold continued to gnaw at her skin. Truth be told, this was how things were supposed toturn out; she'd played her part just like she and Lucy had planned. David had gotten his physical release, he'd opened up to them about the weight he'd been trying to shoulder on his own ever since Arasaka, and no one outside the three of them had had to be involved. A successful job all things considered, no? An easy, meaningless fling, the likes of which she'd done more times than she could count as a Mox?
Rebecca didn't even have the heart to so much as chuckle at her self-deprecation.
She ought to just delta, she thought morosely, and let Lucy and David do their thing. She had no interest in being a third wheel, feeling shitty enough as it were. When she started to scan the room for her clothes, however, lightning flashed somewhere outside drawing her gaze and illuminating the figure sat by the window enough for Rebecca to finally notice them.
It was David, sitting with his shoulder leaning against the wall and his body halfway turned away from her as he watched the heavy rain falling from the skies above. If he knew she was awake as well, he made no show of it.
Despite a part of her still saying that it would be best for everyone if she just disappeared, Rebecca gently crawled out of the bed. When her feet touched the floor, she felt fabric beneath her soles and even through the gloom she could make out David's jacket laying at her feet. Without even thinking about it, she reached down and wrapped it over her shoulders, immediately feeling warmer as her nose buried in the collar and his smell washed over her senses.
Abuzz with emotion she tip-toed over to David, simply allowing herself to follow the yearning to be close to him that she felt in her heart.
The next time lightning lit up the room, she saw David's eyes widen in surprise as her reflection became visible in the window before he turned around to look at her properly.
"Oh, hey 'Becca. I didn't wake you, did I? If so, I'm really sorry," he said, both his voice and face apologetic in that uniquely awkward but heartwrenchingly sincere way that he and he alone seemed capable of.
"You didn't," Rebecca replied, shaking her head. It was a half lie, kinda, but he didn't need to know the somersault of feelings she'd just dealt with. She felt emotionally exposed as it were.
Now that they were up close to one another and she could see him more clearly, Rebecca couldn't help but take note of the strange fact that David was absolutely soaking wet with water still dripping from his normally rebellious mop of hair.
Unprompted, she stepped forward while pulling the jacket from around her body and instead wrapping it around David's shoulders. Just looking at him had made her feel cold again. Luckily, she knew just the trick to warm someone up in this situation, demonstrating said knowledge as she slid into David's personal space and turned around, snuggling up against his chest with her back before finally grabbing his arms and pulling them around herself as well. David didn't protest once and Rebecca savored their closeness as she began sharing her body heat with him.
A bittersweet indulgence she could not resist the temptation of since she may never have the opportunity to experience it again.
Distant thunder rumbled as the rain continued to fall.
"Couldn't sleep?" Rebecca asked softly after they'd spent a short moment of silence together.
She felt David sigh, voice distant when he answered. "Something like that. Had a weird dream. Didn't know how to feel about it when I woke up, so I figured I'd get some air."
"Huh. What was it about?"
"The dream?"
"Yeah."
Behind her, David took a slow breath. "It was about my mom. About what she would think of me if she came back and saw what I've become," he answered.
"Oh…" was all Rebecca could muster in response.
For as important as the woman clearly was to him, David didn't talk much about his mom. She'd died right before he met with Lucy and then the rest of them, Rebecca knew, but everything else about her was pretty much a mystery. Which Rebecca could understand. She could count on one hand the number of people who she'd mentioned anything about her own parents to.
Now didn't feel like the time to pry, so she changed the subject.
"I take it the threat of ice cold Night City midnight rain not deter you in the end?"
"I didn't even notice it at first, honestly. Guess cold doesn't really bother me."
"'Cuz you're 'built different'?" She tilted her head back to look up at him with small grin.
David snorted, large comforting hands running over her bare stomach as he hugged her close.
"That's right," he replied.
The soft background noise of the rain was calming to Rebecca and she allowed herself to simply be lost in the moment. She thought back to her and David's tryst; how different it was compared to anyone else she'd ever fucked. She hadn't felt comfortable enough to ask Lucy what to expect when taking David to bed when they'd talked, what kind of stuff he liked, but truthfully she had been somewhat prepared to do pretty much anything he might have suggested, no matter how extreme. Safe to say, it hadn't exactly come to that, which she honestly should have expected. David was a good kid. A really good kid. Good enough to make people like her and Lucy fall in love with him.
Looking back, she could pretty much pinpoint the precise moment everything went 'wrong' with her meaningless stress relief idea. The kissing and groping had been fine, or so she told herself, and sucking his cock had been damn near easy, emotionally speaking. She'd attempted to just fall back on the reliable tricks that had earned her creds back in the old days, familiar territory and such, but he'd… stopped her. He'd asked her not talk dirty to him. He'd told her she was special.
What came next had not been a quick fuck. David had made love to her—no other description could truly suffice.
To think that he'd been worried she only saw him as just another client, all because she tried to make the night all about him. Yeah, fat fucking chance of that. She'd long since passed the limits of her past 'professional detachments', so much so she had to imagine David could have actually paid her and she'd still be unable to view him as someone who was just buying or using her like he feared…
She knew he loved Lucy. That her own feelings wouldn't change the relationship the two of them had. Nor was she a homewrecker by choice; never had been, never intended to be. Sure, by sheer probability she had most likely fucked a guy or gal who had another input while working the streets in the past, but it had never been intentional and she liked to believe she would have refused her services to someone she knew was being disloyal. She didn't thrive on broken hearts and drama like some other hookers she'd known.
Even so, she'd allowed herself to carry that torch, those feelings, she knew she had for David long after him and Lucy hooked up. She hadn't been lying when she'd said she was jealous. And deep down, ashamed to admit it as she were, she might have hoped she had a chance if only he learned how she felt.
A message appeared just then. From Lucy.
"How did it go?" was all it said.
"What happens now?" Rebecca asked eventually.
Instantly, she could feel David go stiff, and selfish as it may be to think it, Rebecca felt relieved that clearly she wasn't the only one who was struggling with that question.
"I… don't know, honestly" David finally answered.
"Well, are you gonna drop the whole arm thing at least?" she clarified.
Silence.
Then, a soft noise of recognition.
"Oh… right. That." David let out a tense breath and once again, Rebecca felt vindicated by the fact that his mind went there first and foremost. Another brief moment of indulgence, like what she'd allowed herself to feel when he coaxed her to reveal that she loved him. "I guess we can put it off for a while. Hell, the augs might be too fucked to even fix much less install in the end."
It wasn't the answer she or Lucy wanted, but considering how hard David had been pushing himself, Rebecca knew she shouldn't have hoped for more. It took time and a lot of effort to get out of your own head, especially for someone as young as David still was.
"And you'll slow down on the jobs?" she decided to push.
"Yeah, I will…" David sighed.
"Good. Thank you. I- we mean it. Both me and Lucy just want to make sure you don't burn out."
David made a sound of understanding and further emphasized it by putting his chin atop her head while he gave her a tender squeeze.
Rebecca loved the sensation. More than she should. Way, way more.
"I think I should get going. Lucy hit me up asking how it went so she's probably on her way over. Don't want to intrude on you two…" she tried to excuse herself, figuring it was best before she did or said something dangerous. She got her one night, that would have to be enough.
David didn't let her go right away. He started to, as she attempted to untangle herself from his arms, but then they re-wrapped themselves around her and against her better judgment, it gave Rebecca pause. And hope.
"I'd like you to stay. We can talk some more. Or just sit here. When Lucy gets here, we'll figure something out. Just… don't leave yet. Please." David's voice was soft against her ear and that last 'please' had her heart winding itself up tightly in her chest, so full of emotion.
There was no possible way that Rebecca could deny him. She settled back into the comfortable embrace, forbidden feelings be damned, and hummed happily when David kissed the top of her head.
Lucy would understand, she told herself. The three of them would find a solution.
Together.
