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There’s slight movement that his Kiroshis alight on near the fallen gangoon’s gun, just out of the corner of his eye. He pauses, shifting to focus on the spot, and the tiny outline of something pops up and disappears away nearly as quickly. What the fuck…? A glitch?
Stooping to check what caught his eye, V studies the ground intently; a subject lights up again, outline now clear in his vision. It’s a small jumping spider that’s attempting to scramble backwards, and when he leans a little bit closer, a roil of nausea suddenly rocks through him and has him stumbling away. He’s worried it’s the biochip when Johnny glitches into existence, panting, bent over, hands braced on his thighs. It’s a moment before he straightens up. “For the love of fuck, V, leave the fuckin’ spider alone.”
That makes the merc pause, eyebrows drawing upwards. “The fuck, J? Was that you?”
The hologram flushes and looks away, crossing his arms. “Hate spiders,” he mutters by way of excuse.
That’s unexpected, and it knocks a laugh out of V. “Wait, holy shit, you’re jokin’ right?” When Johnny merely glares at him, it’s clear he’s decidedly not joking. “Jesus, a’ight, I’ll, uh… not look at the cute spider. Seriously, though, thing’s fuckin’ tiny and adorable.”
“It is not,” the rocker retorts. V almost wants to try and get another look just to spite him but throwing up because of Johnny’s fear of spiders does not sound like a fun time to him. “Don’t tell Ker ‘bout this shit either, V. Seriously.”
That makes the merc pause in his assessment of the firearm he had originally been going for, deciding on if it’s worth holding onto or if he should just toss it aside. He blinks at Johnny for a moment before dumbly asking, “what…?”
“’M serious,” Johnny grumbles, turning away, his back to V.
Watching him damn near incredulously, V drops the gun back to the ground – decidedly not worth it – and steps over to the hologram. “You’re fuckin’ kidding. He knew you for over fifteen years and had no idea that you had a fear of spiders?”
“It’s not a fear!” Johnny snaps, quickly turning on his heel, jabbing an accusing finger in V’s direction. He’s not expecting the merc to be so close, so his finger ends up punching into his chest, but it still has the desired effect. “They’re just gross.”
“Alright, alright, they’re just gross,” V echoes, holding his hands up defensively before following up with, “to you.” The finger jabbed into his pec reels back into a fist that connects lightly with his shoulder, and he laughs. “I won’t tell Ker, babe. Secret’s safe with me. Don’t like spiders or deep, dark waters, got it. Anything else?”
Johnny merely glowers at him in response.
V ends up telling Kerry about Johnny’s quote-unquote-not-fear-but-disgust of spiders.
He doesn’t mean to – it’s honestly a total accident.
The relic malfunctions when he steps through the villa’s side door and he nearly crumples, trying not to vomit blood on his partner’s nice flooring. Kerry’s at his side in an instance, holding him up, slightly flinching when V coughs into his hands and sticky blood splatters to his palm. “Hell of a greeting, baby,” he tries to joke, but his tone is tight with worry.
The episode ebbs away, but it does leave V panting heavily, sat on the floor just past the entrance, Kerry’s hands firm on his shoulders. “S—sorry, baby. Fuck. I thought I was gonna go down earlier, but—” He cuts himself off and swallows thickly, remembering Johnny’s warning.
It’s too late, though. Kerry’s arching a curious eyebrow and searching V’s face. “But…?”
There’s a glimmer of blue and then Johnny’s engram appears, sitting very incorrectly on the nearby couch, feet planted on the cushions and ass on the backrest. He hits V with a long-suffering glare, but he knows his best friend – stubborn as a mule and unwilling to let anything go, especially when it comes to people he cares about. V at least has the good graces to look a little guilty. “I, uh… fuck. Johnny doesn’t want you to know.”
“Fuck what Johnny wants,” Kerry mutters, following V’s gaze to the couch, even if the words lack any serious heat and are said more out of concern for V. “You are my partner. What happened earlier?”
Sighing, V shakily picks himself up from the ground, Kerry more than helping him up and steadying him on his feet. “Uh, well… Okay, now that I’m saying it out loud, I guess I do get how it’s embarrassing, and I’m sorry, J, but he’s seriously your best friend and he never knew this about you?”
“Thanks, V,” Johnny retorts, tone dripping with sarcasm. He leans back and crosses his arms, turning his gaze away from his two friends to glare indignantly at a nearby wall.
Scoffing, Kerry shakes his head. “There’s lots I never knew about Johnny in the end,” he mutters, but his gaze shifts back to where he thinks Johnny’s sitting, couch indented with two boot prints, and he can’t help but smile a little. “How fucking embarrassing could it be?”
“He’s scared of spiders,” V says, and Johnny immediately roars, “not scared!” so he has to amend with a stifled laugh and says, “okay, okay, sorry, not scared. They just gross him out. I saw one earlier and almost puked ‘cause of him.”
Kerry blinks at him for a moment and then laughs, throwing his head back. He laughs so hard that tears prick at his eyes; all V and Johnny can do for a stunned moment is watch him with matching incredulous expressions. Once he manages to pull himself back together, wiping at his eyes and smearing his eyeliner in the process, Kerry lifts his gaze to V. “Did he seriously think I didn’t know that ‘bout him? I just didn’t say shit ‘bout it. Remember one time, he screamed like a bitch when he saw a spider crawl out of the vending machine he was tryna get a drink outta.”
“I didn’t ‘scream like a bitch’,” Johnny yells, jumping off the couch, heated. “I yelped, okay! I yelped because it startled me, and I nearly touched the fuckin’ thing!” For emphasis he throws his hands up in the air, glare shifting furiously between the two of them.
V can’t help the smirk. “Johnny says he didn’t scream out of fear, but he yelped ‘cause it startled him and he almost touched it,” he offers, but his tone is entirely unconvinced and way too amused.
“V, you bitch!”
“Love you too, babe,” the merc throws back easily, grinning openly now, enjoying the heated frustration he can feel as Johnny glares at him.
Despite trying to control it, Kerry loses himself to a fit of laughter again. “No, no!” He struggles for air, in-between trying to talk and not laugh his face off. “Definitely screamed. All high-pitched and everything, thought it was his output at first!”
“Fuck you both!” Johnny hurls, and V gets the distinct impression that he wants to throw something at them, but he holds himself back, flushed with embarrassment and rage. His hands curl into fists momentarily before he crosses his arms against his chest and juts a hip out, distinctly pouting even though he would absolutely deny it.
Shifting his full attention to the engram, V crooks a finger at Johnny, pleased when he slowly concedes and moves closer. He wraps his hand around the back of Johnny’s neck and pulls him into a gentle kiss. It softens the anger near immediately, the holographic rocker relaxing against him. When he breaks away, V’s wearing a soft smile. “Not embarrassing to be ‘fraid a’ shit, babe. ‘M afraid a’ plenty.”
“Me too,” Kerry admits softly, having pulled himself back together when he watched what he assumed was V pulling Johnny into a kiss. He moves to the merc’s other side, leans against him, wraps arms around him. “Takes a lot to admit it, sometimes, but there’s a fuckton I’m scared of. Losing you, Vinny, for one. Big one.”
Turning to face his partner, V places a soft kiss on his cheek. “I’m not goin’ nowhere, if Johnny and I can help it, okay? I love you, and you’re stuck with me.”
Chuckling, Kerry nods. “Yea… Yea, I know. I love you too.”
From his other side, Johnny groans. “Sappy motherfuckers,” he mutters, but he hasn’t stepped away from V’s side, pressed up gently against him. When crimson eyes focus on him again, he flushes again. “I… I love you both, so shut the fuck up.”
It’s V’s turn to chuckle as he presses a kiss to Johnny’s forehead. “Yea, love you too,” he whispers.
The three of them exist like that for a while, until the exhaustion of the day combined with the earlier relic malfunction seeps into V’s bones and he’s wavering where he stands, and then Kerry drags him upstairs and helps him undress as he strips himself out of his own clothes. Soon, they’re falling into bed together, both tired and content. Johnny reappears, curls up against V’s back, arm draping loosely over his waist and hand settling on Kerry’s hip.
He doesn’t rest, though, mind wandering. The room is dark, long shadows cast by the dim light reflecting in through Kerry’s automatically tinting windows. It’s still, peaceful, the only sounds being V’s deep breathing and Kerry’s snoring – how he managed to snore with all of that chrome in his neck, Johnny had no fucking idea. Laying here, it feels like everything should be miles away, but V’s earlier words are still bouncing around his head.
He knew V had a point – admitting fear was never one of his greatest strong suits, especially so when it really mattered, but… there were lots of things he was afraid of, in the end. Serious ones, like what would happen to him after he’s pulled from V. What will happen to V, too, after he’s gone? Or, fuck, what if they find out that they’re too late, and all of this has been for nothing?
That thought lodges a lump in his throat and swallows thickly, pressing closer against V, forehead resting against the back of his neck. He can feel the connection that thrums through them, longs to be closer in impossible ways. He couldn’t imagine life without V, not now, not now that they are so… intrinsically intertwined. The lines where he ended and V began had long since blurred, melded into something heartbreakingly beautiful.
Fuck, he really hopes it’s not already too late.
Part of him thinks he should have resolutely kept his distance, but it was so fucking difficult to, not when he could feel everything that V felt to a lesser degree. He knew when things had shifted so distinctly in their relationship – the night when they had visited the oilfield that his body was dumped in. Watching V carve his initials, hearing him say that Johnny saved his life… He was shot.
There was no staying away after that.
He was afraid of lots of things, things that really mattered, to him, to Kerry, to V. One way or another, though, no matter the outcome or his inevitable fate, he’d do everything in his power to make sure they succeeded, and V got out of this alive.
Still. Fuck spiders, though.