#v week

DAY/04 GLITCHES & GHOSTS

“Thing about having driven one of these things, used to bein’ connected to someone else like this. Tryin’ to figure out where you end and the other person begins.”

A ghost of a memory passes through the system, something not hers, and she catches a glimpse of a face—Scorpion’s—but it’s gone before she can latch onto it, leaving only a bittersweet aftertaste of feelings that she can’t tease apart.

“Know how much of this feeling belongs to me,” he says, looking down at their hands, and she looks down at their hands, too. “Means I got an idea of the feelings that aren’t mine.”

A lighting bolt shoots through her nervous system and she squeezes his hand reflexively. He squeezes back and something soft like contentment bubbles up through the system while his thumb continues to idle along the back of her hand.

“Hey, V,” he says as he leans in closer, and she watches his approach through his eyes while hers remain fixed on their hands. “Can I kiss you?”

No One's Gonna Love You, Chapter One

First up in our escapist tendencies is the bandaged maniac himself~

Day: 1/7 

He forgot again. 

Or at least, that’s what you were telling yourself.

Dazai Osamu wasn’t a regular boyfriend. Far from it, actually. The way he confessed to liking you was him saying something along the lines of, “If we jump off this bridge together, will that mean that you’re falling in love with me?” Your first date was a scavenger hunt (with all the locations being the best suicide spots). He described your first kiss as the exchange of the skin cells on your lips. 

So, it really wasn’t all that surprising that you weren’t expecting much for Valentine’s Day.

Plus...if you weren’t expecting anything, you couldn’t possibly be disappointed. 

It’s not that you were expecting him to forget, but if you expected him to remember and he really did forget, you’d only be disappointed and have wasted the whole day agonizing over what he was going to do. 

So when you woke up in an empty bed, you felt your heart sink and made the decision that you were going to expect him to forget. You didn’t want to be the type of girlfriend that got angry over Valentine’s Day. 

In a slightly sour mood, you got up and got ready to head to the ADA’s office. Dazai was nowhere to be seen, which struck you as suspicious. He was either lazing in bed or on the couch reading his suicide book. 

As you got ready to step out, your phone suddenly rang. Without even looking at the caller ID, you picked up the phone.

“_____-CHAN THIS IS AN EMERGENCY I NEED YOUR HELP!” 

You had never heard your boyfriend sound so distressed before. “Osamu?! What is it?! Where are you?!” 

“I’ll give you directions! But you need to hurry, I don’t know if I can last much longer!” 

At this point, you seriously began to panic, but you took a decisive step outside of the apartment and began to follow Dazai’s somewhat confusing directions for where he was at. 

“Go up to the stop sign. Watch your back. Turn left three times. Step forward.” 

This continued for a while. 

“OSAMU, CAN’T YOU JUST TELL ME WHERE YOU ARE?!” 

You had been running around the city for almost ten whole minutes now and you were now climbing up a hill, which robbed you of your energy. 

As you reached the top, you leaned over, placing your hand on a tree trunk, catching for breath. 

But you got ambushed.

You let out a squeal as slender, bandaged arms wrapped around your waist and lifted you off the ground. 

“_____-chan, you found me~!” 

You slapped at his arms. “Put me down! What was this emergency you were yelling about?!” 

He set you down and turned you around, quickly placing a peck on your lips. 

“I forgot the wine.” 

At this moment, a few things were going through your mind.

Wine? What for?

Wait, that was the emergency?!

WHAT THE HELL DID I HAVE TO RUN ALL THE WAY ACROSS TOWN FOR?!

But before you could say anything, Dazai had already lifted you bridal style into his arms. As soon as you processed what was happening, you felt a weight lift off your chest as your cheeks were tinted pink. He placed you down on a blanket with a picnic basket that looked over the sea. The wind blew through your hair as he sat next to you and took your chin in his fingers, making you face him.

DAY/01 HARD RESET

V blinks rapidly as her OS restarts and the HUD reappears. She clenches her fists then wiggles her fingers, then she looks around. It’s daylight and she’s in Panam’s truck parked on the edge of the Aldecaldos camp, but the driver’s seat is empty. Movement from the other direction catches her attention and she finds Mitch leaning into the open window, smiling but the affection doesn’t reach his gaze. Instead he watches with concern. He opens his mouth to speak but there’s no sound. Suddenly she realizes there isn’t any sound, not the regular camp noises, or even the buzz from the chip.

Did the latest crash take out her hearing? Or even the entire language module, as the visual translator doesn’t seem functional either. Vik had warned her about cascading system failures; what’s next, her vision?

Chest tightening, her breath comes faster but she can’t seem to get any air in her lungs. She grips the dashboard, lungs aching as they collapse on themselves, eyes darting around until she settles on Mitch. His mouth is still moving, still talking, but now he’s reaching into the truck with his silicone arm and prying her fingers from the dash then sliding his ‘ganic hand beneath hers, and covers them both with his synthetic, squeezing gently.

A text message flickers into her field of view.

She’s trying to, she’s trying, she’s gasping, she can’t breathe.

The trio of hands rests on the open window and she studies the scratched silicone of the back of his hand, and she squeezes his flesh hand reflexively. He squeezes back and she focuses on the feel of his rough, calloused fingers against hers while his strokes the back of her hand with his silicone thumb. She follows the movements with her eyes.

After a moment she looks up to find he’s talking again, though there’s no audience, just her. When he notices that he has her attention, he gives a soft lopsided smile before resuming his conversation. She watches his mouth and a blanket of warmth covers her as she realizes he’s talking to her as if she can hear him, as if maybe to comfort her.

She’s always enjoyed his company, even if she felt that niggling of guilt in the back of her mind at being the cause of Scorpion’s death, but he never seemed to hold it against her. He always greeted her with a genuine smile.

POP!

Like a guitar being plugged into a live amp, sound comes rushing back with a violent explosion as the world is unmuted. The roar settles into a high-pitched whine that eventually fades into the background, leaving only Mitch’s voice.

“…and there we are, ten miles from camp, free and clear, when Panam decides she’s hungry and wants to stop for a burrito—”

“Hey, Mitch,” she says, her voice dry as the desert, and she coughs. Mitch claps her on the back with his silicone hand.

“Hey, kid,” he says quietly. He squeezes her hand once more then withdraws to the window. She’s surprised to find she misses the contact and the comfort.

She’s not positive she can stand yet, and he doesn’t rush her. He asks about her ‘condition’ and shows real concern when she answers, not that she tells him the full truth. Only Panam knows the full story, and she doesn’t know why she believed her insane story anyway.

Secret Arasaka tech and Johnny Silverhand in her brain? Stuff of shitty braindances.

“Panam and Saul are working on a plan to save you. Ready to see what they’ve worked out?”

No One's Gonna Love You, Chapter One