There was something honest about sin.

The multicolored flashing lights, the smell of sweat, sex, and alcohol in the air; it was somehow open. Truthful.

He brought a cigarette to his lips and took a drag. Owning the club was a good way to make sure he'd be allowed to smoke, and if he were a more impulsive man, he'd have banned anyone else from being able to.

He lowered the cigarette again, his left hand flashing reflectively in the myriad lighting.

With a sigh he blew smoke into the air, watching it trail up into the vents in the ceiling.

Next to him, he felt someone sit down. Given that they immediately sighed in a tired sort of way, stole a sip of whiskey from his glass, and put their head on his thigh, he knew who it was.

"Hey Amy. Been a while." he said dryly.

"I was here yesterday. Also shut up. Gimme a glass?" she replied.

Johnny looked over at the bartender and gestured simply. They were more than familiar with Panacea by now, and except for some of the gang members and her mother, there was basically no one who would so much as say a bad word about her habits anywhere in the city. Frankly, she could probably start robbing banks and spitting on people and most wouldn't point a finger at her. If the girl wanted to relax with some cigarettes and underage drinking, no one would tell her no.

"Thanks." she said as she took the glass. She then tossed it back as though it were a cheap shot, and not the multiple hundred dollar whiskey he'd been drinking.

"We have vodka if you want to get fucked up. Moonshine even. That's just a waste of whiskey." he commented. Owning the club had made him a little more picky about alcohol than he'd ever been before.

"I just wanted to get the taste out of my mouth before I sipped at it." she replied, not really caring about his opinion, but acknowledging it anyway.

"Tch. If you say so." he replied. "So what was it this time?"

She groaned loudly. "I don't understand why I have to be the one to take care of every minor thing some days. You'd think that I, a teenage girl, could at least skip out on the people who got something stuck in their ass messing around. Believe me, if you want to do butt stuff, stop. The thing that gets me most is the STD's. A lot of those people think 'oh no, it hurts to touch, I should have Panacea look at it before I bother washing it off or anything' and I know for a fact that a few of them are people I've dealt with 3 or 4 times already."

Johnny nodded absently, sipping from his own glass as the girl ranted and raved about her day, various disgusting diseases and injuries, and the general hygiene of basically everyone she's ever made physical contact with.

After a while, she calmed down some and sighed, drinking some more of her alcoholic beverage.

"Thanks, Johnny. You really help me out." she said. She wasn't drunk, probably not even tipsy, but she usually showed her appreciation after she had some time to relax.

"Nothing to it, Panpan. You're a great girl. Pretty, too."

She rolled her eyes as she drank some more of her whiskey to hide her blush.

They simply relaxed for a while, enjoying the peaceful silence around them even as the club played some quiet electronic music closer to the front.

The girl had walked in a few months ago, maybe 2 or 3, and been impressed. He didn't really know what had brought her in, but he wasn't going to turn her away. Underage or not, nobody was going to rat him out for serving her, and he never really cared about the law much after the military.

Now, he gave her complimentary drinks, and she spent a lot of time with him while she was there. Whatever the case was, it'd brought in a few more customers than he had before, most of which were heavy enough drinkers that they made up for her bill twice over.

It was even kind of funny. New Wave tried to live off of donations and merchandising deals, but they'd been really hesitant to use Panacea on anything, so he was one of the only beneficiaries of the girl's support. If he cared about earning more money, he could slap her face on a couple walls and rake it in.

He didn't, mostly because he actually liked having a small to medium crowd in his place of business. Even during the day, it was never empty, and in a place like this, having some room to run around in an emergency made him feel safer.

He was drawn out of his introspection as Amy snuggled up closer on his thigh. Her eyes were closed, but he knew she wasn't asleep. Smoothly and slowly enough not to bother her, he rested his hand over her stomach.

"Getting bold?" she asked, keeping her eyes closed.

"Always bolder." he replied dismissively.

After a few moments, she interlocked her fingers with his. He rubbed her knuckles with his thumb, and she smiled.

It was sort of tragic, in a way. She couldn't really stop herself from reading someone's biology with a touch, and it could get grating to know too much about someone, as she'd put it. Basically her only options for physical touch that didn't come with a full scan was his prosthetic hand, or her sister who had a full body forcefield on most of the time.

Luckily on some level, she only got full scans of people automatically if it was with her hands. She could probably do it with other body parts, but it wasn't automatic.

Well, he wasn't a monster, and some physical contact with a pretty girl wasn't something he'd been known for turning down in the first place. If he could've gotten away with it, he'd have offered to give her a cybernetic hand to match his, even if it did bring his mind uncomfortably towards the reminder of Alt.

As it was, he simply enjoyed the night. It felt nice being able to make somebody happy, after all the years he'd been failing to do it for anyone at all.