V's POV

I woke up first, and for a moment, I forgot about all the shit I had going on in my life. I was happy, well rested, and Judy was on the other side of the bed. Seeing her snoring gently almost made me believe I was a normal person. But then it all came back to me. We'll... HE came back to me, to be specific.

"Enjoy it while you can, V. 'Cause you're workin' for Saka now. And when they squeeze every last drop they can outta ya, they're going to dump your body on the side of the road like street trash."

It took me a while to get used to talking to Johnny in my head. It's embarrassing to admit, but for the first few days, I would talk to myself out in public, and people thought I was crazy.

"Jesus, Johnny. Can't you just let me have one fuckin' nice moment?"

"Well, you'll never have a nice moment again if you don't ditch Basil and his crazy plan soon."

I decided that if Johnny was going to make my morning annoying, I might as well be productive and make breakfast for me and Judy. I didn't want to wake Judy up since she was enjoying a lovely night of sleep, so I carefully lifted the blanket off me and laid it between us. It was rare for her to go to bed early since she usually liked to stay up until the early morning, hopped up on a dangerous amount of energy drinks so she could edit BDs.

Flipping around, I saw Johnny, who was sitting on a crate next to the drawers. The rockerboy gave me a look before shaking his head and glitching out and disappearing. Quietly getting up from the bed, I slowly walked out of the room, mindful to open and close the door slowly enough so it didn't make a sound.

Once I was in Judes' living room/dining area, I walked over to her kitchen and started looking around, seeing what she had lying around I could use to cook us up a meal. Judes wasn't exactly the type of gal to do meal prep (admittedly, neither was I), so all I could dig up were some frozen meals, EEZYBEEF, syntheggs, and a bag of rice. It's not exactly the pantry a professional chef at Bleu would have, but it's more than enough to make an egg-fried rice.

I first took the microwaveable rice from its packaging and started heating it in the microwave. I took a few bowls out before cracking a few eggs in one of them before putting a pan on the electric stove. I mixed the eggs before dropping them in the pan on medium heat and stirring them to make scrambled eggs. A couple of minutes and some salt later, I brought the eggs out of the pan when they were around medium rare and put them back into the bowl I beat them in.

This was the first time I stayed over at Judes' place. Normally, she'd be sharing the room with Evelyn, so there hasn't been any space for me to sleep. But since Michiko said she'd keep a pulse on the search for Evelyn and some tips on where to stay to keep out of sight, her friend finally moved out. Apparently, it was some safehouse the Danger Gals used, and it was entirely off-grid to Arsaka.

And it was a nice night, the first night we really got to enjoy each other. Sure, we've been on a few dates, but those have been out and about. The closest thing we got to some private time was whenever I would spend a few hours with her in her editing den at Lizzy's.

After the eggs, I sprayed the pan with some oil before opening the tin of Allfoods EEZYBEEF and plopping the synth meat in. I chopped the meat with the spatula into smaller chunks to get browned, enjoying the meat aroma that wafted from the pan. Apparently, before synthmeat became widespread, meat was made from blended kibble held together with food glue and oils. I still remember when I had to resort to buying kibble as a kid on the streets. Thankfully, after protein farming became cheaper, the thing basically became history.

*Beep Beep Beep*

The microwave alarm went off as the rice finished cooking. Lowering the heat on the stove to medium-low so the meat doesn't get overdone, I walked over to the microwave and took the rice out. When I closed the door and turned around, I suddenly felt dizzy. I almost dropped the bowl of rice but was able to drop it on the counter after leaning on a table to get my balance back. My lungs itched and contracted before forcing out a cough. I covered my mouth so I didn't send spit everywhere, looking down into my hands a few seconds later after the fit passed and seeing a few speckles of bloody phlegm.

"Look at you, bug in your head, eatin' away at your brain matter, and you're out here wasting time playing house."

Looking at the source of the noise, I saw that Johnny was back, sitting on one of the stools near the kitchen island, legs kicked up on the table. Flipping him the bird, I got back up and scooped the cooked rice out of the bowl and into the pan before mixing it with the beef. This has been happening more and more often. Sometimes, it'd be a nosebleed. Sometimes I'd get a headache. The only consistent thing has been that it's been getting worse.

"Nice of the 'bug' eating away at my head to pitch in. Also, we must not have been to the same meeting yesterday. Because I seem to remember getting an Arasaka board member on our side and promising to solve our little problem."

Johnny threw one of his hands in the air.

"Promises are worth as much to Saka corpos as the lives they crush under their foot daily. To her, you're just some dumb gonk that she could trick to do the dirty work for her."

After some stirring, I put some of the rice and synthmeat on the spatula and tasted it. The excess juices and oils had mixed into the rice, giving it some good flavor, but it lacked saltiness. Digging around, I found some soy sauce packets left over from Chinese food, opened them, and mixed them in.

"You heard her situation, what she's been through after the war with Militech and the NUSA. I thought you were all for helping people that got fucked over by war, the government, and megacorps? A bit hypocritical of you to turn your head the second it's someone from a family you hold a grudge against, don't you think?"

Johnny glitched away again before reappearing, leaning next to me, tipping his sunglasses down so he could get a 'look' at what I was cooking. He then glitched away again, this time leaning against the eating area to my left.

"I'm for helping people that can't help themselves. People who've had their ability to support themselves taken away without their say. Taken away by people like Michiko and her family. Michiko's far from a helpless damsel in distress. Not to mention that she has no reason to help you after getting whatever she wants from you and Basil."

After the soy sauce was mixed in and distributed, I tasted it again and figured it was in a good spot. Just enough saltiness without going overboard. I then added the eggs I had set aside, lowering the heat even more so the eggs didn't overcook.

"You know, not every person is out to get you. Plus, Michiko's our best bet by a longshot."

"Oh please, she's your best shot because listening to Basil and scrambling to play the corpo games is the only thing you've tried so far."

Honestly, I've been doing a pretty good job at keeping calm so far. Still, Johnny's constant fucking backseat quarterbacking was beginning to get to me. The damn phantom's the direct cause of my slow death, and now he's trying to give me instructions on how to fix the situation. Turning the heat off and pulling the pan off the hot electric stove, I turned towards Johnny and folded my arms.

"At least Basil is moving us forward, more than can be said for the freeloader yapping away in my head. Let's hear you're big fucking idea then if you're so smart and got everything figured out."

Johnny glitched again, now sitting on top of the countertop with his legs hanging off the side and both hands planted on either side of him.

"We go to Rogue and get a crew together. It might have been fifty years, but Rogue's still Rogue and she's putty in my hands. We then dig into whoever contracted Evelyn for the gig and keep cracking heads until we find someone to save your life. Worst case scenario, we go guns blazing into Saka tower and rip whatever we need from them ourselves."

"'She's putty in my hands'. Who's the manipulator now? And you're such fucking one-trick pony. Took you no time at all to earmark bustin down Arasaka's doors as our last resort. How'd that work out for you when you tried it, huh? Not everyone wants to be a terrorist, Johnny."

Throwing both my hands in the air in exasperation at Johnny's 'genius plan,' I turned back around to grab the empty, unused bowls to fill them up.

"And what's that accomplish in the first place anyways, Johnny? You're dead, Arasaka's still here, and people's lives are still shit. Hundreds of thousands died after the NC holocaust. If anything, you're the fuckin' who's the problem."

Once I was done filling up the bowls, I put the pan in the sink and turned around. Johnny wasn't here anymore, whether he left because he realized he couldn't convince me or for being called out, I couldn't care less. I was just glad he'd leave me alone for a bit.

The door opened, and Judy left the bedroom looking groggy with bedhead. She must have heard me ranting and woken up from the noise.

"What's going on out here. Who were you talking to?"

"No one. Just talking to myself. Sorry if I woke you up."

"S'alright. I wake up around this time anyways."

She then yawned and stretched before using her hands to wipe away the tears that rolled out.

God, she was so cute. Hard on the outside but just a big Ol' softy once you get to know her. Sneaking close to her while she was distracted, I wrapped my arms around her and picked her up with a big hug.

"Oof. What was that for?"

"What? Can't give my girl a hug first thing in the morning."

"Haha. Stop it, you're being totally embarassing."

Judy laughed a little before pushing and leaning away from me, even though she was still in the air. Putting her down, I walked back to the kitchen and grabbed the bowls of rice before placing one down next to her with a pair of chopsticks.

"Made you some fried rice for breakfast. Hope you don't mind me going through your kitchen."

"No, of course not! I was wonderin' what that smell was. You're the best, V."

Judes then sat down before raising the bowl and shoveling some rice into her mouth.

"Ohmygod, it's sooo good."

That brought a smile to my face, and I sat down as well to start working on my portion.

We spent the next twenty minutes sitting together eating breakfast. Every now and then, we would talk about what we had going on in our lives and our plans. A little bit of gossip, some ranting, and just generally wasting some time.

It was... nice. Different, definitely. I've had my fair share of one-night stands and short-term relationships at this point. Solo work being the way it is, it just naturally leads to a lot of fucking around. Both figuratively and literally. But whatever I had with Judes was new to me. It felt more... solid?

If I fix whatever is going on with me, I wouldn't mind spending the rest of my life like this, and that was new for me. Always hustling, trying to get ahead. But this isn't so bad as well.