#cp277

Valley sat in a lawn chair looking out at the city. Her trenchcoat was wrapped tightly around her as her knees went up to her chest, trying to keep the warmth in. It was getting colder and V could see her breath as she sat in silence. The city never really ‘slept’, but at 6:30 in the morning, there was a lull about the neon city. Valley didn’t sleep. She rarely did whenever she had to come to Night City and despite V’s nice and safe and fancy penthouse, it didn’t help. Her mind was buzzing far too much. Her skin crawled, or maybe it was a shiver, Valley didn’t know the difference at this point. She never really felt at home in her own skin after all the shit that went down. Could only blow up and torch so many shitty places before feelin’ like the shitpile never ended. “Does it get any colder?” Valley flinched as a voice broke the semi-quiet atmosphere. Valley turned and looked at who was talking. Johnny Silverhand. Not just some impersonator, no, the real one. It was still a little baffling. The only good thing about V not mentioning / keeping Valley locked away in his memories from Silverhand was that he would 100% use most of her childhood teenage rebellion to tease her. Could honestly use most of her childhood to tease her. “Been dead for a good 50 years.” Johnny muttered aloud, now wearing what looked like an old Samurai jacket. Valley didn’t say a word regarding that. Didn’t need him knowing how obsessed she had become at one point with the band. “Still have that little piece of ice in Antarctica?” Johnny asked, plopping himself down in the lawn chair besides her. Valley raised an eyebrow at him, noticing the steaming mug in his hand. “Not the real thing.” Valley said, shaking her head, putting her feet down as he spread himself out. Seemed to be a trademark of his... “Have some artificial ice blocks up there they watch. Put new ones in recently, may be why it’s gettin’ so fuckin’ cold.” Valley shrugged, making sure her trenchcoat stayed tightly around her to keep the cold out. “This how you used to get girls back in the day, Silverhand? Talkin’ about the weather?” Valley teased back at him. “No,” Johnny said with a shake of his head. “But is it workin’?” Johnny asked playfully back, making Valley snort and shake her head. “Nope. Have to do a little better than askin’ about the weather.” Valley sassed back. “Plus, negative points for walking out here with only one cup of coffee and not two.” Valley pouted playfully back, keeping the fluttering in her stomach from spreading across her face at the look he gave back. Valley had seen some old footage of Samurai on stage and off stage and interviews and far too many other clips that she scoured the net for, but none had actually prepared her for seeing the real Johnny Silverhand in person and none would prepare her for how he looked at her like he could devour her in a minute. “V doesn’t drink coffee, and I’m not about to waste coffee with Kerry around. He’ll lose his fuckin’ head.” Johnny snarked back, taking an obnoxious sip of coffee after staring at Valley for a moment longer than she knew was appropriate. “Ahh, the expensive shit.” Johnny exclaimed aloud, making Valley glare back at him with a huff. “You know, princess, there is more on the pot inside.” Johnny said, kicking his feet up against the railing that was close to the lawn chairs. “Stay out of the armoury though.” Johnny warned playfully. Valley let out a groan as she stood up and stretched. She had been sitting in the shitty little lawn chair since V went to bed...or at least said he was. Valley got a little tired of hearing soft moans and went outside. Johnny had decided to take the couch anyway and despite sort of wanting to take him up on the offer to share the couch, she went outside instead. “Jesus, how much fuckin’ jizz do they have?” Valley grumbled, leaning back against the rail and popping her back. Valley shut her eyes at the sensation. Johnny snorted. “You want the honest answer? ‘Cause I can tell you how much both-” Johnny got out as Valley’s eyes snapped back open. “No!” Valley snapped, already walking towards the house. Johnny’s laugh was a lot louder than she would have liked. She knew he wasn’t kidding and she wasn’t about to hear the statistics of her brother and his lover’s cum to jizz ratio. Valley shivered at the thought as she got back into the house. Another little shiver ran up her spine from the warmth as she walked into the kitchen, making sure to avoid the armoury door like the plague and keeping her ears closed, deciding to hum quietly to keep her mind occupied. Valley went over and began opening cabinets before finding a mug she could use. Valley poured the near black liquid into the mug, smelling the roasted bean juice aroma and nearly laughing at her own stupid description of it. Valley took a sip and nodded, before turning to walk back outside. It was expensive. Well, Valley was used to cheap shit from vending machines, so this tasted like pure caffeine which was obviously a lot more expensive than anything Valley was used to. She’d be jumping off the walls in an hour. Maybe with it being expensive, that would keep her from needing to shit her guts out as well. Valley walked to her seat, slowing down as the sun was beginning to peek through the buildings. Something so eerily calm about seeing the sun blocked out by buildings compared to being woken up by how bright it was while on the road. It depended on where she was, but she remembered the Midwest with its open and deserted planes being extra bright. Usually stayed around there. That’s where it was most calm. Valley took a breath in as she continued walking. “Future reference, Silverhand.” Valley muttered, walking and shoving Johnny’s feet from the railing and walking to sit on the chair she had claimed earlier. Johnny sent a sharp look her way. “No matter what kind, just a plain black coffee for me.” Valley stated snobbishly as she sat down in her chair as eloquently as one could in a trenchcoat and tight jeans. “Good to know.” Johnny muttered aloud as Valley took a sip of the coffee once more, trying not to burn her tongue. “That mean we’ll be spendin’ more early mornings or late nights together?” Valley nearly choked. Johnny only chuckled lowly. “Hey, that’s not a yes or no. Didn’t you say that you and V liked Samurai? I’m just sayin’, princess, V has Kerry and you can easily have m-” Valley forced the coffee down as she tried not to choke on the hot coffee before reaching over and shoving him as hard as she could. To her delight, the lawn chair tipped over and down went Johnny Silverhand...and his coffee. Valley didn’t even try to hide the cackling that left her throat as she watched the expensive coffee spill onto the terrace. “Bein’ dead really has slowed down your reflexes, huh, Silverhand?” Valley snarked, watching as he glared back at her. Valley felt herself moving automatically as she stood up, already feeling some type of retaliation coming. “Need I remind you of Kerry’s expensive coffee?” Valley sassed as she began walking backwards as Johnny practically hopped up, staring back at her. “Would have if mine weren’t all over the fuckin’ ground.” Johnny muttered aloud, already walking towards her. Fuck it felt more like stalking. Valley kept one hand out in front of her as she continued walking backwards, taking another long drink of the coffee, hoping it would give her a jolt of energy. Valley turned and quickly walked around through the front door of the house. “I’m just tryin’ to teach you a valuable lesson, Johnny dear.” Valley snarked as she felt her heart flutter seeing how quickly he had caught up to her. “Mhm, and what’s that?” Johnny asked in a near growl. Valley bit her tongue as she stopped in her tracks, letting Johnny walk fully up to her as they stood just inside the house, the front door shutting behind Johnny. Valley kept the gulp from being visible as she looked at him. He was a lot taller than she was. Her optics said he was about 186 centimeters tall, while she knew she was 161 on a good day. Even with her combat boots, that only gave her an extra 5cm to her height, so it wasn’t that helpful. The way he looked at her was once again a factor of why she bit her tongue. Valley took in a deep breath. She wasn’t about to let any of that distract her from being an absolute shithead. Valley grabbed his jacket lightly and pulled him down, making sure to keep from being drawn in by how dark his eyes looked at the action...or in general. “Never let your guard down.” Valley nearly whispered before sweeping his feet from under him and stepping around him as he fell. “Oh, you are such a fuckin’ cunt.” Johnny snapped loudly as Valley turned, walking backwards towards the kitchen. “‘Course I am!” Valley chirped happily as he slowly got up, rubbing his back. “I have one so may as well be one!” Valley snarked, sticking out her tongue and winking at him. Valley could hear his chuckle and felt herself smile as she turned back around and walked into the kitchen area, drinking the rest of her coffee before putting the mug into the sink. “Val, do you ever sleep?” Valley turned, looking up the stairs and saw V slowly coming down them with an awful bedhead...and a large black eye. Luckily, his nose wasn’t broken...or at least too broke to fix that Valley could see. Valley felt a little bad...but only a little. Valley shook her head. “Nope! Not in this shithole of a city.” Valley chirped back up at him with a smile. V let out a sharp groan. “You look like shit.” Valley smiled cheerfully as Johnny walked into the kitchen, empty mug in hand, sending a sharp glare towards Valley. V rolled his eyes. At the comment, at Johnny, at all of it. “Yeah, well, someone decided that I needed the shit kicked out of me.” V muttered, walking over and grabbing a mug before filling it with coffee. “Hey, there’s a dishwasher for a reason.” V grumbled as Johnny tried to put his mug into the sink. “Both of you, there’s a dishwasher.” V grumbled, grabbing Johnny’s mug from his hand and grabbing Valley’s mug from the sink, waving the mugs at the both of them before putting them in the dishwasher. “Fuckin’ kids.” V muttered, pouring 2 creams and 3 sugar packets into the coffee. Valley nearly gagged at the concoction. “Hey dickhead, I’m older than you are.” Johnny snarked, leaning against the kitchen’s island. Valley could see the small cut on his cheek from where she had punched him. Plus she had elbowed Kerry Eurodyne in the face too. Man, she was just beating the shit out of everyone huh. V rolled his eyes back at Johnny. “Technically, you’re only a week old.” V snarked, sipping his coffee before grimacing and going back for more sugar. “Or a prehistoric creature, if you want to go by your birthday.” Valley said with a shrug, going over and swatting V from taking 5 more sugar packets from the little container of them. V huffed back at her, going for more sugar anyways. “Cybernetics can do so much, but - don’t drink that much sugar, it’s bad for you - but you look a lot better than most people who are nearly - V stop - 90.” Valley said, speaking to both V and Johnny as she practically climbed on top of V to stop his onslaught of sugar into his already too fucking light brown color it had disolved into. In spite, V simply opened the packets and dumped them onto his tongue. Valley let out an annoyed huff, crossing her arms at the action while V simply smiled. “Oh, so you know when my birthday is?” Johnny asked, bringing Valley’s and V’s attention over to him as he smirked back at Valley. Valley’s brows furrowed for a moment before she realized her mistake. So much for keeping it a secret how much she liked Samurai. She wasn’t good at keeping secrets. Wasn’t good at keeping a poker face either. Valley could already feel her cheeks warming up in embarrassment. “Come on now, leave the baby alone.” V sassed, gently pulling Valley into a side hug. “It’s hard meeting an idol and acting normal.” V said in a baby voice, making Valley quickly get out from his apparent loving side and punch him in his gut, making him bend over and grumble. “Y-you’re not-” Valley got out, feeling the heat in her face grow warmer as she sputtered out, looking back up at Johnny who looked far too fuckin’ smug. Valley let out a sharp huff as she smacked V upside the head. “Asswipe.” Valley muttered as V rubbed the back of his head, standing up and sharing the same stupid fuckin’ smug look that Johnny had as well. Maybe the two hadn’t gotten fully separated when they got their own personalities back. The idea made Valley want to fucking die if she had to deal with either of them in doubles. “Aren’t you supposed to be sleeping with an aging rockstar?” Valley snarked back at V. V looked over at Johnny and already she knew what was coming. “I already-” “Did, yeah fuckin’ yeah.” Valley muttered back, finishing V’s sentence for him. “Really spent far too fuckin’ long in each other’s mindspace, huh?” Valley grumbled, looking between Johnny and V. Two fuckin’ pals. “Wouldn’t wish that fate on anyone else, ‘specially you.” V said back sullenly with a shake of his head, looking down before looking back up at Valley and winking. Valley hit V’s arm as he laughed. “Plus, this dickhead gets hella annoying.” V said, looking back over at Johnny. Johnny rolled his eyes ever so dramatically. “Didn’t think I was annoyin’ enough to leave in Cyberspace though.” Johnny snarked back, folding his arms. V swatted towards him, his attention on the ringing of a holo. V suddenly stood up straight and gave both Valley and Johnny the ‘give me a second’ finger wag before walking over and into his armoury. “Still has the fuckin’ Corpo trainin’ in him.” Johnny muttered disgustingly as he watched V. Valley snorted. “You ever see his Arasaka memories?” Valley asked. “Fuck, I remember callin’ him when he was at work once and nearly showed up in Night City to torch the fuckin’ Arasaka tower to get my brother back.” Valley said with a laugh. “And you say I’m not your idol.” Johnny said with his own laugh making Valley blink back at him and roll her eyes. “Come on princess, torchin’ the fuckin’ place is so 2023.” Johnny said with a slow smirk. Valley let her snort turn into a genuine laugh. The way he said it. How accurate it was. Fuck, Johnny Silverhand should have nicknamed himself Johnny Silvertongue with how stupidly witty the fucker was. Then again, seeing how he interacted with her, Valley knew it wasn’t a good idea to bring up that name change to him. V emerged from his armoury, looking stressed as he came and leaned against the island. “How’s the time off soundin’ now?” Johnny asked, looking at V with a sort of concern. V simply rubbed his temples, just between where his cybernetic implants were. Valley didn’t understand why he would get them once he got a new cloned body...Valley only then noticed the blue flower on his neck. A reminder...that’s why he had them do his cybernetic implants in the clone… “Johnny…” V muttered, shutting his eyes, exasperated by whatever he was exasperated about. “How hard-” “Don’t.” V didn’t even let Johnny finish his sentence before looking back up at him sharply. “Honestly, the hardest fuckin’ thing is to get mercs and solos and netrunners who actually want to do the work.” V muttered, rubbing his head quickly, messing up his hair before attempting to slide it back. Valley raised an eyebrow at him, hoping her non-verbal question was brought up. V looked at Valley and sighed. “Right…” V said, looking a little guilty. “Forgot to mention that I’m a fixer now.” V said, rubbing the back of his neck. Valley’s brows raised at that before she laughed with a smile. “Well fuck, finally.” Valley said with a smile. Valley could see V slowly untense. “I mean, I was kinda worried with ya having this huge idolization of, ya know, dying to become a legend, so like, this is so much better.” Valley said, reaching and touching his hand that lay on the island. “And from what I’ve heard just getting into the city, you seem to be a living legend anyway, so like, you becoming a fixer with a status of living legend? You’re probably hella busy.” Valley said with a smile that quickly spread to V. “I mean, don’t get me fuckin’ wrong, not calling me for 8 fuckin’ months is still hella shitty of you, but hey, at least you’re not dead!” Valley chirped, genuinely happy for V. All his life, V was a sort of lost puppy. When the two were growing up, V wanted to be a cyber-cowboy and run around catching bad guys, obviously. Valley wanted to be a horse. Luckily, as the two grew up, they grew out of those phases. Unfortunately, that meant actually wanting to do and be things in life. V never really knew but Valley did. Valley wanted to become a BD editor. She loved all of the BD’s she got her hands on, which wasn’t a lot since the clan moved around a lot to really find anything worthwhile. She tried a lot of different ways to get the rawest forms of BD’s she could to better understand how they all worked, to understand what could be done with them and what would be the best content. She found a lot of porn related ones, which was what everyone really liked. She thought more calming experiences were something that could actually help people relax, without the whole jacking off aspect. And one day she got the chance to see how a BD was made…Valley shoved the memories back as far as her mind would let her. V had wanted to be important in the Corpo life since the clan was slowly falling apart. Valley wanted to watch the world burn. Now V was a living legend and Valley had burned and torched a good part of the country. “Anything I can do to make it up to you?” V asked genuinely before he snapped his fingers and pointed towards her. “Actually, I have someone I want you ta meet.” V said excitedly. “Doubt she’s awake right now, but who knows…” V said, turning and walking back into the armoury. Valley raised an eyebrow, looking over at Johnny and gesturing towards the door. “Got a pretty good idea who he’s referrin’ to.” Johnny stated, looking amused. Valley stared back at him, watching as V walked out of the armoury with a smile. “You bring that shitty car of yours?” V asked, making Valley glare back at him, folding her arms before nodding hesitantly. “Great!” V said with a bright smile, turning and leaving the kitchen, walking over to the stairs. “Wait-who-what’s happening?” Valley asked, walking around the island and stopping at the bottom of the stairs as V seemed to leap up them. “We’re goin’ to the Badlands.” V said cheerfully as he left her sight. Valley stared up the stairs for a moment longer before looking back at Johnny, trying to get any explanation of things. “Only one person out there that I think V’d want you to meet.” Johnny said with a little chuckle. Valley stared back at him, waiting for an explanation she knew wasn’t going to be that explained. “Nomad with an ass almost as exquisite as yours.” Johnny said with a smirk, making Valley roll her eyes so hard she swore she could see the inside of her skull. “Her name’s Panam...and she’s…” Johnny said with a shake of his head. “She’s a Nomad.” And that was all that was explained to Valley.