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V cursed under her rapid breath. Gonk after gonk surrounded her, trying to put lead between her eyes. A stealth mission gone wrong. Regina will be pissed , V thought as she flatlined another Maelstrom. The bullet had barely pierced his skull when V moved on to the next overchromed asshole. Her pistol clicked. Shit. She ducked behind some crates for cover and winced. Who knew running around all day and getting beat up by at least three different gangs would make your whole body feel sore. She reloaded. Please don’t let one of these fuckers decide to rush her now.
Then: a voice from within her mind.
“Three o’clock.”
She jolted her head to her right. Predictably and annoyingly, a guy rushed her. V saw his torso make the turn around the crates as she reloaded. Then the magazine clicked in place. Finally. With fresh new bullets in her gun V shot the Maelstrom in his left eye. At least, she thought that was his eye. It could’ve been his mouth. You never really knew with these guys.
As bullets continued to spray around her, V leaned back against her cover and sighed.
“I’m so late.”
Static crackle, multi-coloured screen distortion lines, and then a figure. Walking with all of his usual casual swag, as if his unwilling host was not being shot at by five– no, six– overly kitted-out Maelstrom douchebags.
“You’re welcome for warning you,” Johnny said. “Didn’t feel much like bringing you from the dead a second time. Especially not from this sorry excuse for a gangbang.”
“Well,” V said as she sat up straight. “I’ll be dead today anyway.”
“Why’s that?”
“You’re literally in my brain, Johnny. You already know why.”
Johnny scoffed. “Yes, but the suspense is fun.”
V groaned. “I was s’posed to meet Judy at her place tonight for a date. Then I fucked up this mission, and now I’ll be late. Happy?”
“Fine bit of exposition.”
“Fuck you too.”
For a moment there was silence, followed by guns being hastily reloaded. V took her chance. With swift movements she got out from cover and shot four of the Maelstroms in the head in quick succession, before running up to the remaining two, huddled together as they tried to get an SMG unjammed. They barely had time to realise their pals were dead and their guns would no longer have to be reloaded.
V was walking back to her bike when Regina called, but she didn’t pick up. A less-than-happy text followed. V didn’t reply. She had more important things to think about.
Never did a doorbell look so intimidating. V rocked back and forth on her toes as she stood in front of Judy’s front door. Shit. She had to be pissed. It had been too long since their last date. Work commitments – what else? First they couldn’t see each other for three weeks, and then when they could, V decided to un-stealth a stealth mission and make life miserable for everyone involved.
She was stalling. She couldn’t not open the door. Technically, she could just waltz in with the keycard she’d gotten from Judy. But right now, showing some courtesy could help. So doorbell it was.
V’s hand unsurely reached out to the doorbell, but stopped mid-air. Something in her hesitated, couldn’t make the decision whether or not to actually press it. Then that decision was made for her.
The door slid open. Judy was standing in the doorframe, arms crossed.
“Get in.”
She walked off.
“I’m–” was all V got out of her mouth before Judy repeated from inside the apartment:
“Get in!”
With the metaphorical tail between her legs, V walked into the apartment. It was a place she’d been in countless times, one where she’d laughed as much as she’d cried. They’d shared the kitchen, the shower, the bed. But everything was still so quintessentially Judy . The heaps of tech in every corner, the way the mugs in the cupboard were lined up by colour, the fact it always smelled slightly of fried electrical circuits and cheap coffee. For V, it was a second home.
Judy was standing in the kitchen, her back towards her. V knew she had to explain herself.
“Look,” she began as she jittered around with her hands. “I was on this gig from Regina. Bunch’a Maelstrom, you know the drill. Client wanted one of them to never be seen again but, like, in a stealthy way, right. So I went in, did my thing, and then– on the way back out, there was this fuckin’ camera I didn’t see, behind some fuckin’ corner and–” She rubbed one hand over her face. “Shit, I shouldn’t’a swapped out my cyberdeck for that sandy. Can you believe it was on cooldown right when that first fucker began shooting at me? Anyway, I–”
Before V could continue her nervous monologuing, Judy turned around, hands behind her back, looking at her with a stern expression. She did not look happy.
V swallowed the words she was about to say.
“Know what you did?” Judy asked.
V stammered. “Uhhh…”
Judy prodded a finger into her own chest.
“Know what this is?”
V looked down and back up again. “I’m… very familiar with those.”
Judy clicked her tongue. “You know what I mean.”
“Your, uh… your heart?”
“Exactly. And know what you did to it?”
V gulped. She’d done it now.
“Did I…” she began, looking away sheepishly. “Break it?”
Judy scoffed. To V it was an answer in and of itself. Fuck. How was she going to remedy this?
V didn’t dare look up. She began to think of a long list of apologetic remarks, ones that would hopefully help bandage the situation somewhat .
“Look at me.”
A nervous tang shot through V’s body. Oh boy, here we go.
Slowly she lifted her head. Judy was looking at her with the same disappointed expression, her mouth somewhat curled downwards.
“No, V, you stole it.”
V frowned. Then a small glimmer appeared in Judy’s eye.
“You stole it – and I’m gonna steal yours back.”
Judy took a step aside. Behind her on the countertop laid a large rectangular cake. On it, in bold, multicoloured letters, stood “HAPPY BIRTHDAY VALERIE”.
V’s mouth hung open.
Judy guffawed. “You should see your face!”
V stammered. “But I– I thought–”
“That you had fucked up? Ha! If I got angry at you every time you fucked something up I wouldn’t be in any other mood.”
V lifted an eyebrow. “I’ll take that as a compliment.”
“As you should. Now, before you devour that cake–”
“Did you bake that yourself?” V interrupted as she walked over to it.
“Sure did. Abuela sent me her finest recipe.”
V prodded a finger into it and tasted. “Mmm, thank her for me. That recipe made even you be able to make somethin’ edible.”
Judy slapped her hand away. “ I’ll take that as a compliment. Now shoo, I got something else for you.”
V eyed her girlfriend. “Another delicious cake I get to eat?”
Judy groaned. “Don’t even start. No, I mean something different. Close your eyes.”
Despite her cheekiness, V knew better than to hesitate. She obeyed and heard Judy step towards her. She felt her light hands move around her face and neck, then her stepping back to where she was standing before. In all her time as a merc V had gotten pretty good at knowing where people were based on sound alone – a ‘perk’ of having to know where all your aspiring executors are during the middle of a heated shootout.
“Okay, now open them again.”
She opened them to a view of Judy smiling. She couldn’t get enough of that.
She felt something around her neck and looked down. A necklace.
V held the pendant in her hand and inspected it. A silver-coloured phoenix detailed in a style reminiscent of art nouveau. It was beautiful.
“Jude…”
Judy stepped closer to her and took V’s hand in hers, both of them supporting the pendant.
“For your remarkable ability to rise from the ashes,” she said in a sweet, gentle tone, almost a whisper.
V smiled. “That’s one way of puttin’ it.”
“Time and time again you’ve shown to be so resilient, so… stubborn.” Judy chuckled. “The world has tried to put you down countless times but you won’t let it. That’s what I admire most about you, V. Your ability to never give up, even when you’ve been backed into a corner, when things seem hopeless. Every time things look like they’re about to end, you pull off some miraculous stunt and prove them all wrong.”
“You know you can just say that you love me, Álvarez.”
“Pfft.” Judy playfully shoved V back. “I studied that speech for hours and you reciprocate it with one of your stupid sarcastic comments?”
“Well…” V stepped towards Judy until their bodies gently touched. “I can reciprocate it with something better.”
V looked into Judy’s eyes, a silence short but suddenly tender. She kissed her and it felt warm, and energetic, and like home.
When she went to pull back Judy stopped her and gave her another kiss. She knew she’d do that. She always did.
They pulled back and smiled.
“I’ll be honest with ya,” V said. “I had totally forgotten it was my birthday.”
Judy scoffed. “I figured. And if anything, you being royally late gave me more time to perfect your cake.”
V stretched her aching muscles. “Phew, that’s a relief. I’ll be sure to do it next year too, in case you accidentally burn down the apartment.”
“Don’t get sassy with me, madam.”
“Don’t pretend you don’t love it. But seriously, Jude.” She pressed her forehead against Judy’s. “Thanks for the gift. It means the world to me.”
They smiled.
“Anything for you, querida.”
The evening was spent like any good evening should: eating copious amounts of food while lounging on the couch. V and Judy talked about everything and nothing, with plenty of silences in between that were filled by the sound of increasingly stupid reality shows playing on the tv. From gossip coming out of Lizzie’s to the latest news on cyberpsychos, any and all topics came up.
“Did you know that Mercer, that guy from 6th Street, got into an affair with an Animals girl?” Judy said as she laid on V’s lap.
“No fuckin’ way. Only way that could be worse is if he were a Valentino.”
Judy smirked. “Weeeell…”
“No way.”
“I just so happened to overhear two ‘Tino gonks the other night talking about a girl of theirs who had recently gotten into a… sitch with a 6th Street boy. They’re trying to keep the two lovebirds away but to no avail. Said it’s only a matter of time before the participants of this love triangle are unceremoniously dumped in the canal.”
V whistled. “An’ all that just from a random Lizzie’s booth convo?”
Judy laughed cheekily. “Perks of the job.”
Meanwhile the sun set and darkness rose, so Judy stood up and shut the blinds. She turned on some different lights that were scattered around the apartment, giving it a cosy warmth, in harsh contrast to the neon signs outside.
Now it really did feel like their peaceful little space, sheltered from the hostile outside world.
Sometime around midnight, when the most brainlessly entertaining tv programmes were over and all of the cake and delivered take-out were gone, V yawned and rubbed her eyes. She noticed that she was feeling tired, a sensation she always pushed away.
Judy was lying on her lap, her eyes closed. V looked down and moved a strand of her output’s hair away from her face. It was a soft face, V thought. One that’s seen so much, maybe too much, for it to be like this. There were some harder lines here and there, marking areas of defence, of protecting yourself against the things that hurt you. And yet there still remained a soft quality to Judy’s face, not in a way that was weak or powerless but in one that was hopeful, quietly fierce, and determined in its kindness. There was a whole lot going on in that head of hers that no one on the outside saw. Battling your demons was something V did by pointing a fully loaded Unity at it, but Judy fought them quietly, unnoticed by anyone else. Except for V. She was the one who had noticed.
Judy opened her eyes and smiled.
“Wanna dance?”
Surprise moved over V’s chromed mind. “Huh?”
“I still got that jukebox tucked away in the corner of the office. Perfect day to use it, right?”
“Well, uh, why not?”
Judy sat up and walked into the other room. After some loud stumblings she wheeled in an old jukebox that could’ve easily been a century old.
“That thing still works?” V said, standing up.
“Good question,” Judy replied as she started fiddling with it. “My abuela said she’d gotten some good use out of it back in the day. Probably hasn’t been turned on in decades now.”
“And it was just sitting there all this time?”
Judy chuckled sheepishly. “Yeah. She sorta gave it to me as a gift, couple years ago. Never got round to learning how to fix it, though.”
“A challenge too much for miss techie. Who would’ve guessed?”
“Shut it.” Judy pressed some buttons and tugged on some dials. It didn’t seem to do anything.
“Hmm, maybe…” V suddenly had an idea. “Johnny? Help out two girls, would ya?”
Some static interference, and from her peripheral vision appeared Johnny. He walked over to the jukebox and started inspecting it.
“That thing was ancient even in my time. Her grandma said she’d used it back then? We would’a called her a hipster.”
“Enough with the sass, Johnny. Know how to fix it?”
“Press that button there and select a song. Piss-easy. Youth these days.”
He started to walk off again.
“And this doesn’t mean I’m turning into your personal little encyclopaedia.”
With the same static interference, he was gone.
Ignoring him, V turned back to Judy.
“Johnny’s saying you need to press that and then you can select a song.”
“Alright…” she said. “What song, then?”
“Hmm… What does that one there say? ‘Just the Two of Us’?”
“Wanna give it a try?”
“Hit it.”
Judy selected the song, and with some slightly painful whirring the machine began to play. Soft, almost ethereal sounds played from the jukebox’s speaker, and V and Judy stood back to listen.
“Would ya look at that. It works!” V said.
“Looks like I don’t need to fix anything. It sounds perfect to my ear.”
A man began to sing. His voice was smooth and pleasant.
“This song…” V said, already enthralled.
“I’ve never heard this, but…”
“Somethin’ about it sounds familiar, doesn’t it?”
“Yeah.”
“Well then…” V turned to Judy and stuck out her hand. “May I have this dance, miss?”
A mischievous smile appeared on Judy’s face. “Of course, madam.”
Their hands interlocked, and they danced. They swayed from side to side, allowing their eyes to close and their bodies to feel the rhythm. Then the song picked up and so did they, taking up more and more space within their makeshift dancefloor. They moved, often imperfectly, stumbling over each other’s feet and laughing while doing so, in their safe little spot in the middle of the chaotic big city. V spun Judy around in a circle, to the surprised exclaim of the latter, who nearly tripped over the low table standing near them. They laughed and continued and Judy took the opportunity to spin V around instead, their eyes meeting briefly as she did so, and everything felt right. To the sound of a saxophone they danced in happiness, an improvised choreography that was as messy as it was meaningful to them in this small moment. Neither said a word but understood the other perfectly. As they moved against and around one another the pendant swung around V’s neck, a reminder not only of who she was but for whom she was doing everything she did. For the person in her arms, dancing with her to a song neither of them knew, one from a time long gone but one that in this moment felt as close as they were to each other. For now there existed no one else. It was just them, here and now, in temporary, blissful eternity.