100
V went silent after my victory with nothing to refute my perfect argument for what Samurai song was the best. I settled down as well. V looked… Tired.
Honestly I kinda wondered who would look more worn. V now, Or V dying from the engram?
I felt a little sad for the woman knowing her future. Knowing that all the stress and heartache and pain she was suffering under from Arasaka would all amount to nothing. Hell less than nothing. A bullet to the head, if Jackie hadn't been there.
"And two drinks for mis amigas!" Jackie said, showing up with his hands full of drinks, dropping a tumbler in front of V, one for himself, and to my surprise a martini style glass, and a can of soda in front of me. "You don't have to drink the alcohol Hermanita, but me and V do this every time after a gig it's our little tradition." He said as he settled down.
"V?"
"I'm fine Jack. Just been needing a drink." V said, arching an eye at Jackie who chuckled.
"Sorry choom. The lines were a little long tonight, had a big group dropping off like forty orders right in front of me." He just laughed it off and V looked for a second like she was going to go bust some assholes down to size but just shrugged it off and grabbed her drink.
"To good fortune." V offered.
"To good friends." Jackie replied back.
"To the good fortune to have good friends!" They both said at the same time and then looked to me.
Ugh. Miserable bad influence adults!
I grabbed the stupid martini glass.
"To adding new friends to that list." I added on my own and Jackie burst into a bright smile. I guess I had done well then we clinked out drinks and took a swallow.
Blegh! So gross!
—--
"A thing of beauty! I know! Will never fade away!" I shouted out standing on top of the table V right beside me singing along with me. The Corpo woman had a pretty good voice!
"Motoko! Get off the table!"
"Rita! Hey! Hold on the songs almost done!" I called back. I don't know why she winced. I had just yelled a little!
We were partying! V and I were great chooms now! Sure she was a little drunk, having been absolutely hammering back shots, but that was okay! One of us had the brilliant idea of requesting some Samurai songs from the system, and one thing led to another.
I don't remember exactly who got up on the table to sing first, but I was having a great time!
"Oh no you don't." There was a jumble of movement or something there and the next thing I remember is waking up as I crash into a pile of trash bags.
It had been surprisingly gentle though.
"You able to get a handle on these two?"
"No p-prob-prob… I can do it! Come on now Hermana! Hermanita, let's stand up yeah?" Jackie was there and I blinked, raising my head out of the trash.
"You okay there kid?" Rita asked and I checked myself. No injuries. I threw her a thumbs up. "You good to have these two help you get home?" She asked as well, glaring a bit at Jackie which was unfair. He was really struggling with V from the looks of it. Was the Corpo woman passed out face down in the trash? Oh no she was just puking.
"V and Jackie and I are chooooooms!" I called out in response. I even reached out and pulled V's head out of the trash.
The regurgitated flood of nastiness meant I quickly let go of her hair ignoring the slimy plop as she fell back.
"We'll be okay Rita, Honest. I'll drive them home." Jackie offered. The man sounding a little tipsy. You shouldn't get so drunk Jackie.
Wait. Driving and drunk?
"NO! Drunk driving is bad! BAAAAD!"
"I'll call a cab."
"Yay!"
—--
I blinked awake instantly. "Unfamiliar ceiling." I muttered as I Rose up and stretched. "Oh gross what died in my mouth?" I grunted wanting to stick out my tongue at the taste, but other than that I was fine.
No headache or anything, I patted myself down noticing most of my gear was settled on the table next to me, but my Kang Tao armor was missing…
I don't remember what happened to it.
Looking around I tried to figure out where I was.
The array of men stuff around the room gave me a hint to where I was. "This Jackies place?" I asked, looking around in surprise. I was on his couch with a little blanket strewn over me.
"Oh you awake too kid?" I sat up and there was V. Not a hair out of place, the corpo woman looked like she was ready to step into a boardroom or a battlefield.
"You can just call me Motoko." I told her as I got up and stretched.
It hit me then. Aw man. I got drunk. I hated that! It was so gross! "Huh no hangover or anything huh? Must be nice to be a kid. Poor Jackie is still laid up."
"Heh. Really?"
"Yeah nasty hangover. The oaf." V said as she sipped on a can of something. "I'll be heading out soon. Kid, it wasn't horrible working with you."
"Is that your nice way of saying I'm more competent than you expected and I'm useful?" I asked as I took a seat across from her.
She scoffed but didn't actually deny my words.
So I threw her my deets.
"Really?" She asked with an arched eyebrow.
"Hey, I know what it's like up in that stuffy office they probably got you in. If you ever need someone you can trust to watch your back, I am a merc." I explained and she seemed kind of surprised at my words for a moment before her face blanked as always.
"I'll keep it in mind." She sends her own deets back. Giving me a number and even an email although it was a .Arasaka address which meant I wasn't going anywhere near it. "Oh I looked into our little jaunt last night. Kang Tao are frothing mad, but they don't have much to go on. I'd suggest you get your car repainted, maybe reset the ID, and don't let it spread around."
"It wasn't exactly a big deal." I said honestly. I mean you don't see AV's much in the game, but that was engine limitations, those things are everywhere in Night City. I'd honestly been surprised I hadn't gotten involved in an aerial chase through the city until now.
"Pfft. You took out a Kang Tao AV kid. You do know the price tag on those things right?"
"Million or something?"
"More like twenty." She said with an actual laugh. "And worse, it crashed in the city. NCPD, get involved for things like that, which means KT is paying fines and bribes to make it go away. Like I said. Alter your car a bit, and keep it quiet."
I hesitated but nodded. "Shame. I wanted to make a BD of that explosion. Commemorate it a bit."
V went still for a moment before speaking. "You record BD's while on gigs?"
"Yeah! It's preem! I have a choom with the mox that edits and then another that sells them off." I explain in a rush, happy to share. V just shakes her head.
"Not sure if that's preem, or just crazy. Be careful kid, and don't put me in any of them. Last thing I would need is my boss finding out."
"Deal."
"Alright I'm out. I already checked on Jack. If you're feeling good feel free to leave when-"
"YOU BITCHES!" A voice screamed out as the door opened and a woman I didn't know stomped in. She started absolutely going off in spanish, which my limited vocabulary recognized most of them as insults.
"Hello to you too. You're Camillla right?" V said calmly, seemingly unbothered by the slightly short spanish woman that was ranting and raving at her.
Oh and me. The woman spit out something at me too.
"Who wants to know some homewrecking whores in my Jackies home!?"
I blinked.
Did… That's right. Jackie mentioned he had an Output.
So this was the girl that Jackie had left, eventually dating Misty.
The girl that Mama Welles had preferred.
Huh. No accounting for taste Mama Welles.
"I'm V. An associate of Jackies."
"Yeah I'm sure he associated with you all night you-" And there was the string of spanish added on.
Awkward.
This was so awkward. My cringe meter was absolutely blasting and that thing was broken half the time.
"Hey, how about we all take a second. Jackie V and I all had a gig last night. We didn't like… Do that." I said, waving my hands in different shapes to show the things that we didn't do.
Before the woman could turn to me and start exploding because she was definitely about to Jackie came stumbling out of his bedroom.
Jackie looked like shit. I almost wanted to giggle as he stumbled into the room clutching his head. Voice croaking as he barely could open his eyes.
"Cami? That you? Everything alright?" He asked as he stumbled over and finding the right woman pulled her into a hug. But she slapped him away and started screeching.
Ow.
That was making my head hurt, and I didn't even have a hangover. Jackie looked utterly fucked up.
"Jack. I'm gonna head out." V said showing zero sympathy as she just walked out after everything leaving poor Jackie to his fate.
I followed after her, because I wasn't a gonk.
—--
V and I split up, and I did as she recommended. Jackie had dropped some eddies into my account last night at some point, so I just headed over to a detailing shop.
This time my Reaver didn't look like a Raffen vehicle, so it only cost a more reasonable amount to redo the black paint and add some purple in for highlights. By the time it was done, I had already modified the identification with a bit of netrunning and it was lunchtime and I was getting hungry so I stopped for some noodles.
Oh, and my Kang Tao Armor had been in the passenger seat. I must have taken it off at some point.
Then I pulled open my system alerts.
I had to whistle a bit as I looked through the alerts. Blowing up that AV had certainly given me a nice stack of Engineering XP from the Uragan.
And a level up.
*Engineering skill level up!*
Jeez that skill was so low. And it still made no sense why Engineering had to do with explosions!
I shook it off and continued going down my list.
"Assault XP, Assault XP. Assault level up!"
*Assault skill level up!*
Assault 6! I guess using my Assault Rifles instead of just defaulting to my Burya all the time came in handy.
Aww yiss! New levels!
*Driving skill level up!*
Driving 7!
I guess that race through the city while being shot at had helped me out!
Well that and my daily driving.
That was all my skill upgrades from the night of hell raising with V and Jackie, but that wasn't all I pulled out of the wreckage.
*750 XP Gained.*
*750 XP Gained.*
*750 XP Gained.*
*750 XP Gained.*
A short burst of XP in the middle of the fight. That was where I blinded everyone and shot a few guys.
But then there was the big bunch.
A single 1000 XP stack, and then five more 750 drops.
In the end I wasn't quite at a new level up, but I was very close. Considering it had all happened sort of on accident. I would have to do something nice for Jackie as thanks for all that XP.
Ah wait, he wouldn't know what I was talking about. Better to just be there for another gig if he ever needed me.
I slurped up the last of my ramen and dropped a tip to the Ramen chef who gave me a bow as I headed out of the shop.
I'd been running around doing gigs a lot recently.
"Time to go get some more songs!" I decided as I stepped away from my empty bowl of ramen.
—--
Despite only being Rockerboy 7, it wasn't hard to basically recreate songs. Any mistakes I made while recording them through my music box were easily fixed with a bit of digital chop shopping.
But it was a nice time waster.
Each song had to be played through multiple times, then multiple times on top to fix errors. Then mashing it all together, which took more time.
The very second song I wrote out for my box?
Never Fade Away by Samurai!
Maybe I would bug V sometime and get her to co vocal it with me? I had been pretty drunk, but I still remember noting her voice was really good.
The song after that, I went with something that didn't exist.
Smells like Teen Spirit by Nirvana.
It was a simple song to work on and grind some more experience. I mean. Some of the songs were incredibly technical, and it was only because of a perk giving me perfect memory that I could remember how they went.
Nirvana was… Simple by comparison to The Only Thing They Fear.
Not that it wasn't a good song.
I mean. It would fit right into Night City, the first lyric was "Load up on guns, bring your friends." If there was ever a song lyric that fit Night City that was it.
So I added the song to my list. Enjoying crooning aloud as I recorded the audio.
As I was finangling the drum track, which was taking a while, considering I had to do it completely digitally. Jun got home, opening the door and seeming to relax at seeing me camped out on the couch like normal.
"You left last night." He commented as he put down some of his stuff. His Katana joining my own on the Katana rack near the shrine.
"Jackie called me for netrunner help on a gig." I told him leaving out all of the actual exciting bits.
"You could have left a message." He said and I nodded at that. He was right. I mean. I hadn't because Jun might have tried to stop me, or follow along, but I could have. He sighed seeing I wasn't going to actually do the right thing and say I will in the future.
"You okay?"
"Oh I'm fine. I met one of Jackies Chooms! V's so cool. Arasaka Counter-intel. She has this I'll kill you and destroy your entire family aura about her. But she can sing Never Fade Away so she isn't all bad!"
Jun blinks at my rather odd words before seemingly deciding asking isn't worth the effort.
"Counter-Intel? Those kinda of people are… Crazy. I'm not sure I want you hanging out with someone like that."
"Nah. V's more Jackies Choom. They saved each other on some gig. I didn't get the deets. Anyway, she's safe enough. I don't think I'll hang out with her, without Jackie or something, and he's like… Her weakness. She goes all buttery soft around him. It's adorable."
"They Input-Output?"
"Nope. I think they might have something there, but neither is willing. I think V's life is just complicated." I shrugged, deciding to take a break from this drum section.
"And the gig he pulled you into?"
"Break into a corpo laptop for some info on where something was taken. When I got there everything was quiet. Took me like ten minutes to break in."
"You were out all night. Motoko, you're avoiding saying what you actually did on the gig. You always blab about the entire adventure when I ask. I usually have to leave to get you to stop."
"Rude!"
"Avoiding the question."
"Okay, fine. Yeah the corp was Kang Tao. Some minor gang of kids klepped a car that had some stuff in the trunk. Kang Tao wanted it back, and killed the kids. Jackie was hired by Padre to get the stuff back, mostly in revenge for the killing and well… I followed Jackie and V on the gig as their backup. Shit got a little crazy."
"Define crazy." Jun said flatly and I winced before looking around a little.
"Okay, first. You can't tell anyone. V mentioned Kang Tao has no idea who did it, so that's good, because they are pissed."
"What did you and your chooms do?"
"Well… This is more of a me thing?"
Jun was done paying attention to his gear that he was taking off, he walked over and sat on the couch glaring down at me.
"I blew up an AV with my Rocket Launcher! It crashed and made a massive crash and Jun-Nii it was the coolest, most preem thing EVER! I've been wanting to tell someone all day!" I let it all out in a rush making an explosion motion with my hands to emphasize how amazing it was!
I blew up an aircraft!
I always wanted to do that!
"Fucking hell." Jun said as he tried to process what I had done. It wasn't like you could just walk up to someone you know and say you shot down an airplane with a rocket launcher and not have it be a bit of a deal to process.
So I remained quiet just squirming under Jun's gaze as he came to a conclusion about how he felt.
"Ow!" He hit me right on the head.
"Don't go to war with the corps you idiot!" He hissed at me quietly, obviously not wanting to shout something so incendiary through the walls.
"I didn't!"
"High explosives is an escalation!"
"Well! Fine! I'll get a Techtronika Grad and use that as an AT rifle instead! I'll just snipe the pilots ou-Ow!"
"Don't blow up AV's! Fuck I can't believe I have to explain this!"
"Okay fine! I'll leave the AV fuckers alone. I'll just kill everyone they drop off if I ever run into them or something."
"Just stop putting yourself in situations that corps are sending AVs at you! I've never had this problem!"
I considered it.
He had already hit me twice so you know what?
"Wow, that's pretty sad Jun. You should get on my level." There was silence for a moment between us as we locked eyes.
"OW!"
I slept a full eight hours after that. Woke up to a warm sunrise over Night City that I could only just see outside the apartment window. Did the normal morning things. Had breakfast, watched TV, realized NC TV still sucked and in the end just didn't do anything serious.
And in the end I was rewarded! Hiromi called asking if I wanted to meet up for lunch. Giving me something to do other than be lazy around the apartment.
Turns out she meant for us to meet up on her lunch break from the academy, but I wasn't going to complain. Because Hiromi had a surprise when I picked her up!
I pulled in across from Arasaka Academy into a waiting area, and idled while waiting for HIromi to show up, that I was actually surprised when someone walked up to the car and only when I noticed her did she strike a pose.
Hiromi had chipped in some chrome!
She had new optics. It was the thing that caught my eye, as they were glowing in a hypnotic swirl of colors although mostly her eyes remained a neon green. Her favorite color. I was staring as she slipped into the Quadra. My scan was blocked as I was so interested in what she had chipped in. High end Arasaka Optics for sure, stuff that competes with Kiroshi definitely.
She also had some changes to her EMP threading as well, and her Neon makeup.
The threading was darker now. My previous assumption that I would end up with Goth Hiromi had been fairly accurate, as the lines were now a more matte black to match her other new chrome. She definitely had some sort of hand chrome now, with all the black plastic and metal that wrapped around her fingers and a bit over her knuckles.
"Preem chrome Hiromi." I finally said after checking out all the changes for a moment and I could tell she was preening under the attention.
"Oh these little things? Nothing big. Just some minor changes!" She faux played down her changes and I couldn't help but giggle at her attempts.
"How's it all feel? Any issues?"
"No, it's no big." She denied instantly, but I wasn't going to let it go with just that. I reached over and grabbed her hand with mine partially to catch her attention and also to examine the new chrome.
"If you ever have trouble. It's not something to be ashamed of. My arms gave me trouble and I'm glad I talked to people about it." I told her, eyes meeting her own and I could see the swirl of colors in them shift suddenly even faster.
"Bwuh! It's fine! Minor alterations for the most part! Most of it is just some upgrades you know, new eyes with better scans, and some hand chrome that will help as an Arasaka goon… Executive. I should probably stop saying that." She muttered and I laughed at her as she blushed a little.
I reached out then, tracing a finger down the dark EMP threading going along her cheek. "No more kitty whiskers huh?"
She was flushing a lot at me pointing out her old aesthetic. "It just felt childish! So I changed a little!... It looks okay?"
"Yeah, it's preem! I like Goth Hiromi. She's cute."
"G-goth? What the hell is that?" Hiromi asked, and I had a moment of complete brain shut down.
Goth wasn't a thing!?
"It's… A thing. With stuff? Anyway! You look cute! I always did like the Arasaka aesthetic to be honest." I told her, and while she didn't look like she was going to let it go, she did preen again under my words.
"Well good! C'mon let's get some food. I only have so long for a lunch break… So thanks for coming to pick me up. I wanted to see yo- to show off my new chrome!"
I nodded quickly, pulling out of the little park and really just heading a bit down the street to an area with some food shops. "The chrome is absolutely preem." I continued to assure her as we pulled in and took a few minutes to order.
I ended up eating some weird fancy wrap thing. It had.. Lettuce? No I'm pretty sure that wasn't actually lettuce but I was pretending. Really hard.
Thankfully Hiromi wasn't just wanting to show off her chrome, and was distracting me.
"It's so boring Motoko!" She whined as she stuffed her own wrap in her face as she sat with me in the Quadra.
"School is important."
"I know! It doesn't make it any less boring though." She grumbled. "I saw your newest BD." She said suddenly and I jerked as I realized the last BD I had dropped had been 'that' one.
"O-oh. You okay? It didn't make you sick or anything right?"
"What? C'mon Motoko. I don't entirely get why you hang out with the Mox, but Judy is definitely a Maestro when it comes to tuning BD's no way I would get sick. It was fucking preem though. That first drop? I felt like my stomach was going out of my throat, but you just hit the ground in a roll and were off." Hiromi made a few punching motions with her fists.
I didn't really know what to say as I was a little embarrassed at how brutal that particular engagement had been. "It didn't bother you? The whole…" I rolled my wrist as I couldn't find the word.
"No way! It was exciting, and knowing it was you behind it all only made it way more preem." She assured me. "I see why you wrote that song though. It really did fit way better with the action."
"Ah… Yeah. It's meant to be a song that plays during a brutal fight." I muttered a little embarrassed that Hiromi had actually seen it!
She wasn't supposed to see it!
"It was very preem, it's getting super popular. All the rich kids are buying it. This one had so much brutality even the normal XBD watchers wanted it." She informed me as she took another bite of her wrap. "The Only Thing They Fear is You. Preem title. That's the name of your song?"
"Yeah… Yeah that's the name of the song. It's not too weird?" Ah! I was right! It was so awkward having my bestie see that BD! I shouldn't have made it! Stupid past Motoko!
"Not at all! A lot of XBD's have weird names! Seriously, I've handled so many weird BD's over the last couple weeks. I only agreed to help Nox sell to the academy kids so I could make sure everyone could see your preem BD's. But I've had to deal with a lot of trash. I even had to do a hostile takeover of this street kid that goes to the academy. He was selling stuff, but he was selling the BD's like some weird corner hawker."
"Wait. Some kid was selling BD's in the academy?" And why did that sound familiar? I asked myself already knowing the answer.
"Yeah. Some street kid that got in on grades. Which is totally weird by the way. Anyway, you'd think some smart kid would know how to sell BD's but he was hawking them like a back alley dealer. Barely anyone bought from him. I took his little attempt and turned it into an actual business." She said flipping her hair with one hand.
"That's really impressive Hiromi!" I chirped and I could see her face go red at my compliment even if she side eyed me a bit to make sure I was actually being sincere. Which I was.
I couldn't set up a business like that.
"Ugh! I can't look at you with your dopey smile! I have to get back to class anyways. Thanks. Motoko. For coming to spend time with me." She said as she slipped out of the Quadra with a wave and then a little jog to run back to the academy.
I just laughed at her fleeing form as I started the car and pulled out of the little parking the food shops had.
It was too bad. I was pretty sure the kid Hiromi had taken over the BD business from was David. I still wanted to meet the gonk.
Eh, someday, I decided.
—--
"Heeey Rita." I called, drawling out the greeting a bit at the look the older woman gave me.
"Give me one reason I should ever let you inside again?" She asked, arms crossing over her chest.
"Cause. I'm super duper sorry about causing trouble! It won't happen again… I uh. Don't drink for a reason you know?"
Rita kept the unamused look on her face for quite a while before finally it cracked and she laughed at me.
"Well at least a little trash dive hasn't hurt your ego too badly."
"Nah I'm okay… I only kinda remember that night. So I guess V and I singing on the table was causing some problems?"
"Oh please, that's barely a problem. The issue is you hacked our music system to play Samurai music on repeat. Judy had to come up and reset the whole thing to stop the ten thousand repeats of Never Fade Away."
"Ooh. I don't remember that… Sorry."
Rita huffed a laugh and rolled her eyes. "You're lucky we owe you one. Just don't do it again."
"Deal." I agreed and Rita nodded, making a motion that I could enter, but I just blinked at her. "Oh I'm not here to party or something. I just knew I should apologize for causing trouble." I said and Rita looked at me.
I looked at her.
She blinked.
I blinked.
"You came here to apologize… To me?"
"Well yeah! I caused you trouble! You even had to throw me out of the club… Drunk Motoko can't have been easy to deal with."
"You were actually docile once I got you off the table. I just had to tell you you were in trouble and you were kinda blubbering and going along with it."
"I definitely didn't blubber!"
"Can you say that for sure?" She asked and I had no real response to that one.
I huffed in outrage and Rita once again broke out into laughter. "So what are you doing just coming by?"
"Mostly! I just stopped to see Hiromi on her lunch break, and I don't have any gigs or anything for the day."
"In that case why don't you come hang with me. I'm getting off soon. You can show me how far you've come with your hobby."
"Oh that's right! I do owe you for that… Why don't you come to my place then! I can show you my music box! I just finished a few songs!"
Rita blinked and then seemed utterly amused at my offer bursting into a full body laugh. "Sure Motoko I'll come over to your house and play." She said cracking up.
I just pouted at her, because that's not what I said!
—--
"Welcome to my home!" I introduced with a wave at the apartment for Rita.
"Huh." She commented looking over all my junk still left out on the living room table.
"D-don't just huh! Sorry about the mess though." I muttered a little embarrassed. Dangit Rita was a cool older woman! It wasn't fair that my place was a little messy! Dangit Jun! Aren't you the responsible one!?
No wait. He almost went full Cyberpsycho.
I was the responsible one.
Fuck no wonder our apartment was a damn mess. No one should trust me with responsibility!
I shook off that horror filled realization as I gestured for Rita to take the couch.
"Want anything to drink? Eat?"
"I'm good Motoko. I had a lunch break about an hour before you showed up. So this is where you've been working on your hobby?"
"Yeah! Mostly! I mean. I could probably go find a better place for acoustics, but I'm using a high end mic I picked up for the vocals, and the rest of the tracks are recorded digitally, so I can tweak them if they sound off… Do you want to hear?"
Rita settled on the couch and gave me one of those cool smirks that told me she was totally humoring me!
I was just gonna have to blow her socks off!
I went over to my music box and took it from the living room table to set it on the floor and set up the song I was gonna play.
Then I grabbed my guitar. Doing a few test chords to make sure it was ready.
One good thing about the new guitars, no need to tune the strings. It was a digital guitar after all.
"So this is called Smells like Teen Spirit." I told her and she huffed a bit at the name but I pulled my Personal Link cord out of the back of my neck and slotted it into the music box behind me, and started the song.
Instantly behind me two holograms slowly came together, obviously surprising Rita, as I went into the stuttered chords of the intro.
"Load up on guns, bring your friends." I crooned the intro to the song, my voice wasn't quite the honey of Cobain, but I could make it a more similar sultry croon with Sexy Motoko Voice!
And I jammed out. A one woman band. Showing off to the person to originally give me the idea to find a hobby.
"A denial." I ended the last lyric letting the guitar finish humming out the final chord.
Then silence. The holograms that had been jamming out behind me went out leaving the room how it was before I started.
"So… What do you think?" I asked the woman. Rita's face had gone kinda blank middle way through the song.
"I think that's a bit further along than a hobby." She said honestly.
I didn't really know how to take that, so I just sort of smiled and probably looked a little uncomfortable.
"You got talent Motoko. I'm really impressed. I've never heard that song before either."
"Ah. I like it." I said, I never was very comfortable with taking credit for work others had done. Even if they didn't exist in this world.
"I do too. It's got a certain flair. Maybe we'll have you come in and play at Lizzies."
"No way!" I denied instantly. "I'm not interested in live shows like that! It would be so embarrassing if I messed up."
"Pfft. You're adorable kid." Rita said, laughing at me! How mean!
I was definitely going to come up with an amazing retort and make Rita apologize when the door opened.
"Thought that was you playing." Jun said as he meandered in looking tired.
"Jun-Nii!" I greeted, but there was a sudden tenseness in the atmosphere as the two older people noticed each other.
Rita was Mox, and Mox were not exactly on good terms with the TC.
"Oni." Rita finally broke the silence. A simple greeting but using Jun's work name. What is up with that? Does everyone know who he is now? How come they know who he is, but not me? This is unfair!
"Bouncer." He greeted back, without any additions.
"Awkward." I broke in instantly, cutting out the tension.
"Rita, this is Jun my older brother, Jun this is Rita, she's the one that helped me start looking for a hobby, so I owe all the music stuff I've been working on to her. I brought her over to show her a song I wrote as a thank you."
Jun blinked, seemingly stepping back from the semi-hostile edge.
"Motoko's a bit of a gonk, but thanks for looking out for her. I know it's not always easy."
Rita took in Jun's words and just shrugged, seeming to relax a little. "I'm used to helping out with the younger girls. Motoko's no trouble… When she isn't standing on a table and drunk singing her heart out."
Jun blinked before a smirk popped across his lips. "She didn't share that story. I'll have to get it out of her sometime."
"Rita! You aren't supposed to share that!" But they both just ignored my offense. Jun wasn't supposed to know I got drunk and thrown out of the bar! He would never let me live it down!
"Any of Motoko's chooms are welcome." Jun said breaking up the fact they were ignoring me by then patting me on the head as he moved past. "I was just bringing some food home, hungry?"
"No, but thanks." Rita said back, sounding much more relaxed.
"Well if you need anything let me know. Motoko. You finished a new song? I want to hear." He demanded and I glared at him Jun was up to something!
I knew that look on his face, the one where he got all smirky and pushed his chin up like he was looking down at me!
"Nope. You don't get to hear my awesome cool new song."
"Well that's a shame. Rita right? What's this about Motoko drunk singing-?"
"Right! A new song I finished Jun-Nii! Why don't you just take a seat for the full experience and no talking while I sing! In fact no talking at all! Ever!" I demanded, forced to switch gears at my brothers evil vile blackmail!
—--
Despite my best attempts once I finished off my second rendition of Smells like Teen Spirit. Jun and Rita still got to talking about their one and only shared point.
"So she was dancing on the table?"
"With V, a corpo woman that comes in from time to time. Never seen her get so wild either."
"It's all Jackies fault!" I groaned into my hands, and Jun laughed at me, openly amused at hearing about my drunk escapades.
"I wish I had been there now." He said with a sigh and Rita chuckled at the two of us as I glared at Jun in return.
"Well now that you both have had so much fun making fun of me! I'm gonna go hang out with cool people!" I told them both as I rose up and settled my guitar back on the stand and the Music box back off the floor.
Really didn't want to deal with someone kicking it on accident. Especially since the only person likely to do that was Jun, and his stupid borg feet.
"C'mon now 'Toko. It's just a little teasing." Rita said, while still laughing at me, so I didn't give her the benefit of a response, just a huff as I crossed my arms and walked into the kitchen with all my dignity.
"Bathroom!" I retorted as I did just that, going into the bathroom to give myself some space and hopefully have the topic change when I came out. No fair for Rita and Jun to both pick on me!. I was just finishing up when I heard it.
A laugh.
No. That wasn't a laugh. A laugh is more Hahaha. This was more. Tehehe!
That was a fucking giggle!
I poked my head out of the bathroom to peer into the living room with my wide eyes demanding explanations, because that was Rita.
Rita. Mox Bouncer badass, and all around scary woman, giggling like a schoolgirl with my brother.
It was impossible.
I refused to believe it, but my lying eyes showed me the truth.
Did… Did Jun have game? Was he actually good with women?
Because I was seeing my brother. The TC enforcer, flirting with the Mox Bouncer.
He must have scored some sort of critical. Because I refuse to believe my burrito obsessed brother who likes garbage like the Us Cracks actually has game!
"Uh. Motoko. What's gotten into you?" Jun asked suddenly as he caught sight of my staring.
"Nothing." I said firmly but I didn't move my eyes. Instead I was kept them wide and locked on Jun and Rita. Refusing to accept what I was seeing. As I stayed half poking out over the kitchen counter.
Rita caught it after a moment. And I got to see the delightful look of the womans plastic looking Real Skinn flush a little in an actual blush.
"I should get going." She said then to both Jun and I's surprise.
"You don't have to!" I argued.
"There isn't a rush." Jun said much calmer than my own response. "Don't mind Motoko. She's always like this. She's probably just planning some petty revenge."
"Petty!?"
"No. I appreciate the offer, and the show Motoko, but I should get out of here… This was a surprise, but a good one." She finally said looking to Jun, and if I wasn't a super secret mega hacker…
And the fact I had totally breached into Jun's agent forever ago… Mostly for fun. Mostly.
Well I caught the shared deets.
Rita… Rita just gave him her number.
Jun looked as gobsmacked as I was as Rita flashed him a smirk, and then looked to me. "See ya around Motoko. Keep practicing. I want to see you up on stage someday." She offered as she walked out of the apartment.
"Wait what ju-" Jun's question was cut off as I leapt on him wrapping myself around his head and squeezing.
"WAS THIS THE IDIOT FLIRTING WITH GIRLS UNDER MY ROOF!?" I yelled, probably loud enough Rita would still catch it.
Details.
"I wasn't flirting!" Jun yelped in surprise as he quickly startled wrestling me off him, unfortunately he was still much stronger than me, and he was getting used to my holds at this point. "Was I?" He asked himself after finally pinning me down.
"Gonk."