Half an hour ago, Bunny had left the apartment to meet with a close friend and info Bro.
Calling Shade under a willow tree… there was no personal picture or Agent generated avatar on the other side. Just a logo that resembled the name. Clever bastard, but annoying as hell. You just never knew if he was going to be home. He was one of those people who separated personal life from their jobs, when they could. Except he was most likely sulking in the nearest bar, or becoming a brain potato.
Instead of taking his bike, Bunny had chosen to mingle with the bridge and tunnel crowd. Once he was out, he climbed and parkoured his way up, until he reached a very familiar balcony. It was good practice for jobs, and it wasn't like anyone cared. Plus he managed to hack a couple of easy access points on his way there. That and Shads hadn't been in his preferred shitty establishment, Xenofé. A place for vidiots and freaks. Bunny wasn't a fan of the vibe, much less the interior design. Something something old alien movies aesthetic, something something a man named Giger? Who had the time?. Shads did, fuckin' nerd. A couple of concussions away from starting his very own posergang.
Damn, he had almost forgotten about the view!. You could see the bridges and the City Center from here. Lucky Shads. He had an entire duplex to himself, even if the top floor was just a bed. Bunny stood on the balcony, leaning against the railing until a tall, moody man with black hair opened the door into the apartment.
"Hey, what the fuck?! This is the 23rd floor!" He groaned, glaring at his friend, who only shrugged in response.
"I got this place because it's… how did you even get up here?" He squinted at the other, coming closer to the edge to look around. Just in case his friend had managed to score a gyro, instead of somehow climbing up.
"Who gives a shit?" Said Bunny, walking into the tiny apartment uninvited.
"I do, gonk, you’re at my place!" Shads followed him inside and left the balcony's door open. It wouldn't help to let the air in, his place stank of rotten food and… a disgusting mix of odors Bunny could not, and did not want to, identify.
"What do you want, Ari?" Said Shade, starting to pick up some of the mess on the floor, table and couch. There were food containers, dirty dishes, and leftovers. Cables, weapon parts, the occasional ammo box, and even more endless bundles of cable.
"Maybe I’m here to remind you to fucking shower, choom. Come on. I'll… see what I can do about the mess." Bunny stole the few items his friend had picked up. He threw them in the trash chute before shoving the taller man into his cramped bathroom. It was the size of a quarter of the rest of the first floor, and even that was the size of a damn coffin.
You’re stalling, Bunny thought to himself. It was true, but Shads could use that shower. Really, if he wanted to take a week to get to the point… he could. There were enough things wrong with this place to justify it.
"Do you need me to wash your ass as well? Or can you fucking manage?" He said, exaggerating his annoyance on purpose. If only because he felt none of it. Shade hadn't bickered back, and Bunny could deal with sass, insults and anger, but silence, not so much. Not with Shads.
"Go fuck yourself" Answered Shade then, as if on prompt. But there was no bite in his tone. He threw his clothes on the couch. The sound of the waterstream hitting the floor tiles came on, and the entire place started getting a bit steamy.
Bunny continued to pick shit up and throw It in the trash, the hamper, or some drawer. The couple of threads his friend owned that weren't dirty, were both hideous and didn't go together. He sent the rest to the washing machines down a different pipe. They would get sent back once they were dry. Supposedly smelling like a purple flower no one had seen in NC in the last 20 years. Lily? Lavender? It started with an L.
“I still want to know what you want, Ari...” Said Shads an unknown amount of minutes later, as he dried up with a clean? towel. It smelled clean, and that shower hadn't been long enough.
“Right, uh, I’ve got my merry merc band!.” He announced with a little smirk, as he sat on the couch with his legs crossed. His friend stuck one arm out of the bathroom and he passed him the only clean clothes he had found.
“Really, already??, congrats on that!” Said Shads. He came out of the bathroom looking like a wet Christmas ornament. Jesus fuck… Bunny visibly cringed at the sight, but his friend only shrugged. It was ugly, but he didn't have a choice.
"Thank you!! It wasn't easy." He had the right to brag a bit. That he had found a mismatched group of gonks like him. But he wasn't as happy about it as he could have been.
"You could be one of us, you know" He threw his friend yet another rope, but the other just shook his head and sat down by his side.
"Thanks, but you know I can't. And now that you mention it... you shouldn't be living with people either. What did Keller tell you during your last visit?, you hard?, clear?" He sounded so concerned, so sincere. So here they went, down a dangerous topic of conversation. The tension grew the longer Bunny took to answer Shads’ query. The taller man scooted a bit closer to his smaller friend, his eyes lit up with an eerie purple glow. Bunny cringed, putting an end to this suffocating pause.
"Nothing, fuck! I haven't… seen him these past few months. I'm out there, living! And you should too." The only reason Shads didn't grab him was because Bunny knew he'd try. His eyes flashed bright blue and faced the other man's purple as his feelings escalated. From zero to a hundred in a minute. To a thousand in milliseconds.
"You!, you irresponsible joy-klep!" Shads went to grab his friend again, but Bunny avoided him and sidestepped toward the door to the balcony. Before he could make it out, he was grabbed by the back of his top and thrown against the nearest wall with a pained grunt. There, Shade pinned him to the wall. Bunny tried to squirm out of his grasp, but he couldn't, and they locked eyes.
“Nonono no, no… Shade let me go!.”
"Come on… let's call Keller, yeah?” Demons shot back and forth, clashing into personal firewalls and digital barriers, clawing against the ICE. Bunny had to break the connection first, because Shade under the sad fucking tree was a full-time deckhead, and they were on his turf.
“No… he’s all bark, no bite” Mumbled Bunny.
“Right now, let's do It. You know we're he-EUGHKJ!!!!" Shade almost bit hiw own tongue when Bunny kneed him in the stomach and pushed him backwards.
"I don't fucking need the pack! I don't fuck’n need you!. Or your support. You can rot in here, like you're already doing… and come find me when you want out!. If you don't jump off of that balcony fi-" He should have ran, but he didn't expect Shade to tackle him like some sort of ravenous beast. His eyes continued to glow a bright purple. But at least he wasn't trying to get into Bunny's head anymore.
"Shut the FUCK UP SVOLUCH. Shut the fuck up shut the HELL up." Shads screamed in the other man's face, saliva flying off. And he did, he obeyed right away because Bunny had never seen his friend like this. So out of it, so deranged and hateful. Was the therapy not working? His hand wouldn't leave his neck,, would not stop squeezing. This time, Bunny thrashed because he couldn't breathe. And this time, it wasn't a malfunction of his implants.
"Let's reboot and refresh, Ari. We're good friends, I can't want t-to flatline you, cut you into little pieces until you can be mistaken for roadkill when I scatter you in the badlands. Wouldn't even recycle you, there isn't a clean cell in your body" Shade spoke sweetly. Bunny gulped, his eyes wide with terror. His wolvers activated. He came to terms with… having to stab and rip into one of his closest chooms. But as it turned out… his mind had been hacked into already, and he hadn't even noticed. His system detected the demon, but a custom quickhack was already loading. He was familiar with it, R&R, a memory wipe, system reset and something else hybrid. It was Shads' specialization. He put a hand over his eyes, and Bunny couldn't DO anything but stand still and terrified like a real rabbit, with a cute little button nose. These weren't his thoughts. The hack was done loading.
Both men trembled, the light in their eyes blinked repeatedly and then turned off. They didn't remember blacking out, and slowly slid down to the floor. Shads leaned into Bunny for support, and he was held. The blonde stroked his back lightly, in an attempt to soothe him. How many times had they found themselves like this?.
"What happened? I was uh… taking a shower?." Said Shads, his head resting on Bunny's shoulder. Like this, he felt his friend shrug.
"Don't know. I guess we needed a reboot. Hm, your hair smells nice" He answered, with a sigh at the end. Silence followed, and they stayed like that. Curled down in each other's arms for a little bit. A bout of fresh air ruffled their hair, coming in from the open door, like the fading sunlight.
"Oh Shade, I’ve got my merry merc band, choom!" That was what Bunny had come to tell his friend!, Right. In turn, Shads grinned and separated a bit from him so they could look at each other as they spoke.
"That 's awesome! Are they nice?? Send me their info, I'll backcheck on them properly." Bunny nodded. Of course, as always. Shads' Just worried so much for him. Never satisfied until he had done through background checks on everyone involved. Something he got paid to do on the regular anyway. So he was used to it.
"Sure! Will do. But I want some jobs as well, talk to your friends from the voodoo boys. Find me work for a group. A bit of a challenge to help us build some confidence!" He described it, a bit over eager. Shade laughed and slowly stood up. He offered Bunny a hand and he took it. Letting Shads pull him up. He let his friend hold him too, until he felt his own legs could hold him
"I will send you some gigs I don't want to do. There's a trip to nomad territory I have been putting off. Maybe you could start there. Good pay, but I'm not so comfortable leaving my space" Explained Shads, and Bunny nodded.
"Yeah I getcha Shads. The net’s your thing." He said. "Let's plan that then, see if we find any other jobs we can pick up" Shade, and they both got to work with their agents. Calling fixers, sending messages, eating machine-made burritos… an overall busy evening. By the end of it they had practically closed a job for Bunny’s team, though. Even if Shads felt a bit restless and Bunny kept coughing from time to time, massaging his throat. It hurt. He wanted to get back home soon. They’d get the official brief sometime that same night, from a nomad fixer, Grey #2. They always needed help bringing people and things in and out of NC, and into the badlands where they lived.
"So what are your new chooms like, hm?" Asked Shads. They were just lounging on the couch, watching vids on the holo. Bunny chuckled, taking his time to answer.
"Well... there's Kirch. She's the only one i had met before this." Said Bunny, looking at the holoscreen still.
"Kirch...hoff?"Asked Shade, interested.
"Yeah. You know her?" Bunny turned to look at his choom.
"Maybe, yes, She's good. Netwatch had some big eyes out for her a few years ago, still does I think?. Pretty sure we've met while 'runnin, even if we didn't make proper contact. I'll have to stop worrying you'll die in your sleep though. As far as I know, she's a hard one.
"I think she's fine, I bet she could run laps with you. Wouldn't that be a dream-team?" Shade laughed, not taking his friend seriously.
"What about the rest?" He asked next, bringing his knees up to his chest and hugging them. He rested his head on them.
"Well, there's a ripperdoc that is probably more trouble than he's worth." Said Bunny, not on a rush to discuss this one.
"Name?"
"Raul... something Eshcobar Ruis. Handle: Bones."
"Oh yeah, uh, he better be good. His head is worth a lot. Have you thought this through?" Shade asked, looking at Bunny in the eye.
"He will be in the long run. Don't go spreading the word though, and take any hits you see down. Already told Kirch to do the same, you can make a fuckin' race out of it."
"Wow, really?, why stick your neck out for this gonk?, he's like... drowning in debt. We could take him, you know." He sounded pretty sure, but Bunny shook his head.
"Ripperdocs aren't exactly on sale. Besides, he's like a hot, jumpy leather puppy. I want that wolf to stick by me. He was honest about the whole thing too, and probably ready to zero my ass if I tried to turn him in. But I'm taking the bet, you're watching my back and not telling a single fuckwad about this." Said Bunny, pointing fingers. Shade lifted his hands, giving up.
"Fine, damn!, but seriously?, did you just call him a leather puppy?" Shade covered his mouth to stop himself from laughing out loud.
"Shut up!, shut the hell up dude. He could pull it off, I call him Superstar" Bunny did laugh, but he sounded fond.
"Pssch, svoluch!" More laughter followed, from both of them. "Fine, and the last one?"
"Tachi!. He's into swords, especially mine." Bunny snickered, wiggling his eyebrows. Shade made a mock gagging noise.
"Anyway, he was an indie solo for a bit, got good references, and we have a good vibe. Seen him in a little bit of action, and he's so smooth you wouldn't believe it. A goddamn machine"
"Could've just bedded him, no?" Said Shade with a shrug.
"Yeah, that's not why he's there. He's another hard guy, solid, my bunk-bud. He's nice." Bunny shook his head, smiling a bit by the end.
"Nice... And on Arasaka's hit list. Some bunch you've made up."
"We're walking on the edge man. And we're all in it for jack, or stuff eddies would solve. So there". Bunny was done talking about his team, and he let Shade know with a pointed look.
"Preem then, I'll look into their bg's for you anyway, just in case. And call you in a few weeks so you can rant about all the flaws you aren't seeing now" Bunny rolled his eyes at Shade's response, but gave him a thumbs up.
"Oh, the pack paid me another visit. One of them actually came to the interviews I was having at my new place. Can you believe the audacity of these gonks?" He said, bringing up a topic he had forgotten about until now. He had put his hand in his pocket, and grabbed the card from earlier that day. With the logo of a white wolf. He was about to leave, but thankfully he remembered.
Shads sighed. "Do you think they will act this time?" Bunny shrugged, even if they did, he was more protected than ever. That was the point of it all.
"No, but you… should be careful. Ping me anytime, anywhere yeah? If they get you." He said, putting a hand on Shads' shoulder. His friend nodded, and took the wolf card. He put it in a drawer with many others that looked either similar or the exact same.
“I can see what Keller thinks, and I’ll let you know.” Said Shade, and Bunny nodded. His smile faltered a bit as he answered.
“Sure, say hi from me, and feel free to join us, Shads'. I mean it." Said Bunny as a goodbye. They shared a heartfelt hug, and when the balcony door closed shade fetched his BD setup and put it on. His eyes lit up in purple again and he smiled, time for some quality rest and relaxation.
