Chapter Text
As much as she hated Night City? Nothing could hold a f*cking candle to Pride in Night City.
It was beautiful; the sky melted into an overcast rainbow mosaic of warm hues in the morning; melting into a cloudy, cooler-hued rainbow sky, with skyscrapers as high projecting pride flags. Holographic koi circled each other through the air, and there hadn’t been an inch of the street not covered in Smash or SynTree. Banners, flags, and symbols spanned from Watson, all the way to the Badlands. The entire city looked like a psychedelic, rainbow of love and fun--it was the closest thing to a movie’s happy ending as Night City was ever going to get.
And Judy loved every moment of it--especially with Evelyn.
She was an attractive, single, girl. Judy was also an attractive, single, girl. And this meant between the two best friends that anything and everything goes in Pride. And given their relationship was so strong, anything and everything could’ve gone down in Night City. There was no shame; no reality; just enjoying one another’s company, among others at Night City Pride.
That was the last time Judy saw Evelyn smile.
They had been lying in bed, naked, cuddled as they shared a case of Brospeh and a couple of synjoints in between them, still drunk on the festival and food.
“This could be every day, you know?” Judy teased, knowing her friend’s response.
“It’s going to be every day. In time…”
“Well, not to rush you or anything, but hurry the f*ck up…” Judy laughed, now taking the Biotechnican weed from her, “I can’t f*cking wait to ditch this place…”
“We could leave now, empty-handed…or we could leave f*cking rich.”
“I’m more inclined to leave empty-handed, actually. At least you only build--no one is waiting in the shadows to come take it away when you’re rich…but I digress. I’ll save it.”
“You say that now,” Ev charmed, that twinkle in her eye as she received the joint pack, and exchanged it for their bottle of ale, passing it to Judy. She took a hit, then placed it into its ashtray, now sitting up on her knees for Judy’s full attention.
“...Just imagine it. Our final nights in this f*ckhole at Konpeki Plaza; luxury service, drinking champagne in a premium service as we ride to wherever the f*ck…” Her fingers began to trace over Judy’s ankle, up her leg, and then slowly up her thigh.
“Margaritas on a beach, Broadway in New York City, we could spin a bottle…”
Her hands continued to roam, now covered in an inch of spit as she ran them over Judy’s cl*t. Alvarez bluffed a poker face, already beginning to tremble at Ev’s touch.
“...Spin a globe, and watch where it stops…” She responded to the moan that escaped from out of Judy’s lips. She chuckled at Ev, who had chuckled at the sound of Judy, then licked her lips and continued,
“...Don’t butter me up,” She said in between her moans, Ev making her slick enough to go faster--her hands now beginning to close around it as she stroked it; teased it, played with it in between her fingers, and watched her friend hitch and shake all the while.
“This isn’t buttering; this is foreseeing our future…just give me time to tie up loose ends…” Tying up loose ends seemed to have been taking the most time, “...Finish out contracts, wrap up scenes…”
“And I do what? Look pretty and sit until Daddy comes home?”
“Precisely,” Ev turned Judy’s joke around on her, watching as she had made her friend blush profusely; wet profusely…
Ev started to kiss Judy’s neck, Judy’s eyes rolling as she fought to make her point before she forgot it altogether. It had been the diva’s plan the entire time, as usual, to save herself from the lectures of safety and precaution. Judy hated how she knew it thoroughly as if she had schemed it up herself, and even still, Evelyn won every time. She pulled her hair so that her nape was exposed, burying her face there before continuing to kiss one of her friend’s erogenous zones
“Until another gonk steals your attention from me…” Judy teased, Ev, grabbing her hand and sticking her fingers into her mouth. She sucked Judy’s finger as she retorted,
“They never can for long…”
“You know that’s not the point.”
The two girls laughed, Ev playfully smiling and joking,
“You know who I come home to…”
“Shut up,” Judy rolled her eyes, shaking off Ev’s hollow flirting, her attention diverting to the fingers that now entered inside of her. Ev charmed Judy’s body, wrapping her around her finger every single time. Literally. It left Judy putty in her hands. She savored the elongated moans that began to start into a melody. She caught herself, her moan hitching in and sticking to the walls of her throat as she swallowed, gasping for breath.
“Evie…please, just…be safe…Make sure you come home…”
“I will…” Ev whispered into Judy’s mouth, “I promise…”
“I promise…” Evelyn lied, kissing her friend before beginning to lay her down and intoxicate her with her love. She bit into her friend’s neck, licking over her teeth marks and kissing her earlobes next, chuckling in satisfaction,
“Look at how wet you are for me…”
Evelyn strummed Judy like a harp, straddling her and helping herself to the sounds and poses Judy started to make. It was as if Ev knew every dirty little secret that encaptivated and incarcerated her body, making it bend to her will.
“Shut up…” Judy groaned, now completely flushed as she felt Ev’s gaze fall upon her, beginning to massage one of Evelyn’s breasts now in her hand, twisting, and feeling her nipple in between her fingers.
Evelyn did, talking back through her hands as she reached deeper inside Judy and kissed those lips before they could protest any further. It worked; Judy’s concerns melted into a deep, guttural moan that could only be heard in between their kisses; their lips pressing against one another in flirty pecks, elongating to more sensual, more passionate, longer sessions that left Judy in a stupor. She pulled her hair; she bit into her flesh. She drove Judy wild. She leaned back, lifting her hips just a bit, leaning back, braced onto her hands as that beautiful crimson spider web lifted, Evelyn only coming closer, her mouth savoring every inch her mouth could fit.
Judy slowly reclaimed her control; holding Evelyn’s hips as she now leaned into her partner, the two continuing to kiss as Evelyn slid down, their breasts compiling onto one another. Everything about her just felt right; good. As if two puzzle pieces fit together, but constantly shift within multiple dimensions, still somehow able to reform their matter to match each other, each time. When Evelyn had finally taken her fingers out, Judy struck, pulling Ev so that their cl*ts stacked on top of each other, Evelyn already as wet as she had made her Latina companion--the two already moaning as Ev adjusted her hips. She started to lift them perfectly; the right pressure, the right angle--holding and squeezing her hand, giving her just the leverage she needed to sink her hips further. Whether it was that goddamn doll shard, or whether the two just had that many years of chemistry, that many years of knowing each other’s bodies, Judy had been unsure--but she knew within moments that she was sure to make this hotel bed a mess.
Their serums had mixed; creating a lube that started to leave small waterfalls in between their groins, some of them going rouge, beginning to drip from off their skin like honey. As Evelyn was riding, rubbing, grinding--so good, Judy placed a nipple into her mouth, beginning to taste and suck, Ev’s fingers running through her shaved hair and pulling at the teal ends that tucked underneath her magenta roots.
“Evie--! Evie, I’m going to cum…!”
“Oh yeah?” Ev rode, moving her hips harder, faster--“What’s stopping you…?”
Judy could feel the waves, they had already conjured from the moment Evelyn traced her finger up her ankle, but now they were beginning to crash, and they were coming ashore any moment now. She clawed into Ev’s ass, skin seeping through Judy’s fingers as she bounced and bounced until she began to cum herself,
“f*ck--Judy!”
The splash had set it off, the two now screaming into each other as they conjured together a tsunami, soaking the bed underneath them, the two laughing and kissing as their muscles spazzed within each other’s holds. That was what life was like with Evelyn--as if two schoolgirls had ditched school and wreaked havoc together. It had been them against the world. As they lay in bed, Judy remembered how it felt to bask naked with Evelyn under the sun as it peeked into their room. She reminisced; remembering fragments of a conversation she could only remember was loving; and sweet.
So much time had passed that those lovely words had faded from her memory, and so Judy had now only remembered the sun; how it beamed on their skin as the hours passed, glistening as the sweat beamed as beads on their skin--making them sparkle as cum trickled down their bodies. How beautiful it had been; illuminating them, waking her. She remembered how it even looked when she took Evelyn diving, how they splashed one another when they reached the surface. How they played as if they had been girls again--with the sun beaming down it’s blessing.
She was the sun; the two had been synonymous; her happiest days were with Evelyn, and in hindsight, it felt that the sun came and left with her. They were friends; despite the occasional benefits, despite the fights, the arguments, the weeks of silence, that accumulated into months of hour-long conversations and rough, multi-dynamic make-up sex. Judy knew her place--she knew within the depths of her heart that the romantic love she felt had been unrequited. But what Evelyn had failed to realize was that for Judy, that romantic love had been combined with all her other forms of love; and it had conjured into something so strong that it hadn’t needed to be requited to merely exist. She loved Evelyn Parker--and a part of her had died along with her, and circled down the drain when her body left that tub.
It seemed so cruel for the sun to still rise.
Her abuela used to say something to her--something about God. And of course, because of this, Judy had already drowned it out, but in watching the sunrise, it came to her as clear as day:
“Hay un camino que al hombre le parece correcto, pero su fin es camino de muerte…”
There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way to death. Judy prayed that Evelyn would come home. In the morning, they were off--it was the right way. It was what she was supposed to do. But the sun came, and Ev didn’t come with it. And she knew that something had gone wrong.
Then, it happened.
V got the call around 5:30; she came that following sunrise.
“Judy?”
She called for her through her sobs,
“In the bathroom!”
V gasped indistinctively, her calm strut now melting into an alarmed jog as she closed the door and ran inside the bathroom,
“Oh, f*ck…!”
And there had Evelyn been; what looked like a murder scene…and Judy in a fetal position in the corner. Then, had entered Johnny, Bird offs herself to express her undying gratitude to you for saving her ass.
V only looked at Johnny, her words reverberating in between their two minds as if they had been talking on the holo.
Stop talking.
“I was--I was only gone an hour…”
V rolled up her sleeves--immediately, placing fingers on the side of Evelyn’s neck, acting out her suggestion as it escaped her lips,
“Checked her pulse?”
So far--nothing; Nomad life was…hard. Watching what used to be rich soil birthing beautiful fruits and blossoms turn into barren, desert land--watching the food grow less and less was hard. Valerie grew up checking pulses before she could even register what it meant not to feel one. Family; friends--take your pick, either, or, she had been experienced enough in these unpleasant little surprises that in another life she had been sure she worked for Trauma. Judy grabbed V’s hand gently, squeezing her wrist. Her tone was appreciative, but the optimism had died a long time ago. If any moment, V placated it to the two finding Evelyn with the scavs. Her friend hadn’t been the same since.
“V.” Judy looked to see her in the iridescent white eyes, “She’s gone.”
V understood, retracting her hand. She instead, scanned over Evelyn, deducing her own notes as her cyberdeck translated the information into convenient, summarized, sad text: Evelyn Parker - deceased - self-inflicted trauma to the wrists.
“How’d this happen?”
“I don’t know!” Judy beat her fists against her head, trying to piece together the words as they slurred through her sobs, “Evie was lying in bed, like always, when I went out. And…I got back to…” She groaned, looking over her friend again, absorbing the sobering, almost Grecian-tragedy-like fate of her late friend. V came to Judy, running her hands up and down her arms, peering into Judy’s soul.
“Don’t blame yourself.” When the woman looked up at her, V could feel her heart flutter. There was too much--too many emotions, happening all at once. V hated the feeling, feeling like a walking carousel of Death, grief, and misfortune. “Won’t solve anything.”
Judy scoffed, “I should’ve sensed something, that it was off--”
“--Stop. Couldn’t watch her 24/7.” While the words hesitated, V pushed them out despite herself,
“She’d made up her mind. Would’ve found a way. Always…”
They sat in silence before looking over at her again,
V suggested, “Gotta do somethin’ with her…”
Judy placed her hands up, knowing who she had been in company with, though she appreciated it dearly,
“Don’t want any trouble.” She sniffed as she decided, “I’m callin’ the badges. Can you carry her to the bed?”
“Not sure we should move her before the badges come…” V offered, Judy, rolling her eyes at the sound of them,
“She’s just another dead whor* to them--nobody’ll care. The least we can do is treat her with some dignity…”
As if that’ll change anything…
She let Johnny have that. It didn’t--yet, V did just that anyway. She reached into the tub, feeling her arms dive into the remnants of rosegold water, picking Evelyn up and carrying her to Judy’s bed. If she could help it anyway, they needed to be….not here. At least not after they picked up the body.
They tried to call trauma, and when they were told that the police wouldn’t arrive until the following day--they took matters into their own hands. V was the one who carried Evelyn to the bed; Judy dressed her--while V took to the bathroom and started to clean the blood. By the time she had finished, Judy had been done--and to preserve the body it was decided among them that Judy was going to run out for a f*ck ton of ice.
“They’ll be here soon--psh!” She waved her hand. “Told me to keep her on ice until tomorrow. Can you believe the balls?”
“At least you went easy on them…” Was all she had to offer, given the circ*mstances.
She had calmed since V had first arrived enough to drive, and she seemed too angry to follow in Evelyn’s footsteps. It was good for her to get some fresh air. She needed to be away from all of this. In the meantime, V had taken a rag, cleaning what skin hadn’t been covered in clothes, placing her back in the now dry tub. They iced her, turned off the light, and then fell asleep on the couch. Judy had fallen asleep in V’s lap, Valerie with her arms wrapped around Judy as she had held the crying woman to sleep. And at some point, managed to fall asleep herself.
Now, they sat on top of the apartment complex, overlooking the passing cars on the interstate; the towers, and all of their colorful beacons in the Night City sky. They watched the world move around them as time seemed to come to a complete stop. Beyond their view, there had been no sense of time or space--there was just existing. Even still, V looked as if she would’ve dropped any moment. Her eyelids were growing heavy, but she sipped her energy drink in quiet gulps.
Yet every time she opened her eyes, she saw a worn Judy. She couldn’t sleep, not now. No matter how many times, they attempted to close. The city’s lights reflected off the girl’s bloodshot eyes, making her glassy deep-brown eyes shine hazel at times, before melting into that familial dravite stare. The light shined upon the mascara tears that had now dried in ink-like trails down her face.
“Uh…bum a cig?” The braindance editor finally broke the silence.
“Didn’t know you smoked…”
Judy looked back with a subtle smile through blackened mascara tears.
“I don’t. Quit, been years. But right now…I just need something ‘sides air in my lungs. Please, V? Just one…”
It had become a new habit for V herself, she pulled out one of her most niche finds, the familiar silver cigarette case that announced itself with the golden heart emblem that sat on the front as V passed the case to Judy,
“Need a light?”
She’d expected the woman to have the cigarette in her mouth already, ready for the flame V could emanate in between her fingers like nothing. Instead, she had been studying the case, with an unreadable, melancholic tone.
“...That was her smoke case…”
“Wanna hold onto it?” V hadn’t usually shared her spoils. This time was different.
Judy, after watching it for a moment, then smiled, “No--you seem to like it. Keep it…kinda glad it’s you that has it, actually…”
Silence threatened the space again, until Judy exclaimed, now able to finally speak after hours of confusion. “f*ck, Evie…I let her down. I thought if I gave her some space or time she’d get back on her feet….”
She took the cigarette, and handed it back to V gently, V responding as she lit the cigarette.
“Can’t wrap my head around it…I never saw Evelyn as the type to give up…”
“C’mon, what she went through? I wouldn’t call it giving up.”
Then, in their solitude, Judy came closer, this time, nearly whispering despite the empty, open space.
“ ‘Member Fingers--how he said Evie was with ‘im for four days?”
“Mhm…did say so…”
“She disappeared from Clouds a week before you turned up. Tom told me later. Couldn’t sleep at night, knowin’ that. Kept thinking--what the hell happened to those other three days, so…did some diggin’ in her virtus. Found Woodman. He kept her. Had his way with her…the things he did…once he got bored, he pawned her off.”
“Wait, so you found other recordings?”
“Hand another look at the corrupted ones. Lots of static--hard to pick up anything, really. At some point, I stumbled on something like an echo of the spot we’d had…Last time we saw each other. But I know she wasn’t scrolling.”
“Then why was it saved as a virtu?”
She blew air, “Got no explanation for it. Maybe she recalled it later, relived it, almost? Implant could’ve been on when….Y’know, as a defense mechanism. Escapin’ into the past so as not to live the present.”
V’s heart sank deep into her chest.
“What’d Woodman do to her? Did you see it?”
“Yeah…and I wish I could unsee it.”
She looked into Judy’s eyes; the desire to resuscitate the light back into them with anything, anything she had.
“I zeroed Woodman.” V confessed, “Didn’t plan on it--just how the chips landed.” Woodman at a time was just another factor, another obstacle in V’s mission--a zero and one that had to be sorted with accordingly,
“Glad I did, though.”
Judy blinked, some of that light returning, “Me too.”
“I can’t even imagine…still, it’s not enough. There’s so many more like him. Gotta be somethin’ I can do about it.”
“Like what?”
“Don’t know yet. Think I’ll call Suze…Heh, thanks, V. Sorry, but, uh…I’d rather be alone now. Promise to keep in touch.”
That was supposed to have been it.
“Sure you don’t need anything?”
Her turquoise-magenta hair hung over her puffy eyes. She had been so visceral in her emotions--V meant, understandably so. It was just now what stood in that crying, Punchin’ Judy’s place was a shivering silhouette of a woman, staring out towards the rain as it fell before the Night City skyline. The now-smoking cigarette made more noise than her.
She waited for Judy’s response.
“Judy?” V called, expecting silence.
After a long pause, her wish was granted, Judy now beginning to sob again, this time, Judy navigating her breath and words like a current against a sail.
“I don’t know…” Judy broke, sorrow making her eyes grow wide and swell, but she had been in too much pain, too much grief--hitting her all at once. She covered her mouth as a whimper escaped from it. f*cking Punchin’ Judy didn’t need anyone. Those tears fell as hard as she had fallen into that abyss of vulnerability. The truth had been out now,
“--I can’t do this alone…I wish I could. It’s the least I f*cking owe her at least, but I--I can’t do this alone…”
“You don’t have to…” She had been in V’s arms before she could open her eyes again, crying into Valerie’s shoulder. There she had been--the V that she saw for the first time with such determination in her eyes. A hunger; one so distinct that Judy hadn’t even been surprised at the grotesque sense, the overwhelming, rancid stench of Death.
Then there was that rush of guilt; how her words always came back to bite her. She had some way, somehow, spoken such a horrible fate into all of their lives. Like with anyone she ever loved. It was only a matter of time before whoever had tried would suffer the consequences of wanting to love someone so effortlessly destructive. She smelled Death on the both of them--it had been lingering on Evelyn for such a long time; she hadn’t mentioned anything before or past that night. It was something she felt, deep in her core, down to her bones--each time she saw her indigo-banged friend.
She hated thinking it, but even back then she could feel the reaper lurking over Evelyn’s shoulder, staring Judy in the face as if to mock her. When she saw V for the first time, she knew that time had been drawing near. She resented V for it; she had been sure that Evelyn had summoned her undoing. And to think of all of it now…
Thinking about it now gave her chills, the intrusive thought striking into her mind like thunder, clapping goosebumps on her skin as the nomad swept her from off her collapsing feet. The only person who was to blame was the one person who couldn’t be, and the person she suspected the most was the one now holding her as she cried pathetically. She felt her arms wrapping tighter around Valerie, burying her face into the nape of her neck. In hindsight now, that aura of V’s was nothing more than what it was now: a deeply-rooted, though much-appreciated hero complex of some kind, wrapped in…whatever emotions V had for Judy. She hadn’t been sure. Seeing through someone and reading someone were too separate things, and Judy had only been blessed with one of those advantages with V. Given that said aura, Judy could read through V. She was a nomad; a reborn street, with some morals that came from people who weren’t in her life now. The city only had rebranded V, but it hadn’t changed her. Underneath those chains and cyberware, was a girl who seemed just as lost as Judy sometimes…
But there was no emotional context to V; reading her was like reading any book just learning the main character. She was a neutral person; whose honesty was yet still subject to misinterpretation. Whether she had a good poker face, or whether she had been crossed between two substances made her unreadable she hadn’t been sure. Judy just hated that she couldn’t just pick up on it with other people. Even with Evelyn.
V whispered in Judy’s ear again, “You don’t have to do this alone, Judy…I’m here…”
Those arms wrapped tighter, and Judy could only wrap her arms around V’s neck as she sobbed into her chest, and let her thanks manifest as holding the mercenary to her word. The Voodoo Boys; Netwatch; Arasaka; Panaa and the Aldecaldos--V, all that was consuming her time had now come to a grinding halt, turning her attention towards Judy and only Judy. When something like this happened, it was hard to not anyway--but all superficial matters considered, beyond the personal strings which now webbed them all, Evelyn had been a client; she had been a lead--and yet again, another lead had dropped from the overarching to-do list in peacing together V’s life. Personally, Evelyn was a wonderful girl; in the time that she had met V, she managed to do a lot more than strike a deal with the merc. Within these small moments; of planning, of meeting, she became a friend. That’s what made her stay. If it sucked to lose Evelyn as an acquaintance, only God knew what storm Judy was trying to weather losing Evelyn as a best friend; perhaps even more. V never clarified. Every word had been true. V intended to stay; to help Judy bury her friend in her most vulnerable time, and that was final.
They both had that haunting metallic after smell, V with Evelyn’s fresh blood still staining her clothes, underneath her nails. She let the editor sit in the moments of the much-needed silence. Judy unraveled herself from out of V’s touch, running her hands through her hair so that the pink now layered over its green ends, Judy’s breath stabilizing as she wrapped her hair into its emerald bun.
“...I think I need to see those virtus, Judy…”
She knew she had been asking for a lot. Yet Judy only nodded in silence, while not voicing it, her nod accepting and understanding the curiosity; how it burned and begged to be satisfied; begged to be rectified.
“Okay…”
