Chapter Text
Limbs lay tangled as they both drifted in between that space of not-quite awake, and not-quite asleep. Judy's head rested on V’s chest, her index finger tracing carefully over the span of tattoos that drifted from each shoulder, and down her chest. Blocks and lines of solid black accentuated by the bright blue flowers that sat on each shoulder. The lines curved, and shapes geometric, V’s tattoos were among some of the best that Judy had ever seen.
In their time that they had spent together, lying naked on the bedsheets of Judy’s apartment or with hot water from the shower running down their backs, Judy had found herself questioning the inspiration behind V’s tattoos. Her own each held specific meaning, but they littered her body with no consistency or coherency.
V’s blended together in a story, and Judy was desperate to understand it.
“There’s a beauty in being a nomad.” V had started, her voice thick with the sex that had come before, “A synergy between being tech-savvy, but knowing what kind of plants will kill you when you eat them, and how to get water when you can’t see any on the surface.”
She took Judy’s hand in her own, tracing along one of the solid black shapes that rested between the depression of her chest, “Tech-savvy.”
Their hands slowly moved up the solid shapes, Judy shivering as V pressed a kiss to her fingertips before continuing to her left shoulder to touch the blue flower that rested there.
“Nature.” V said simply, letting go of Judy’s hand to run her hand down the expanse of her arm and side to rest on her hip.
Judy’s hand lingered on the flower, trying to see if she could feel the rise of the skin there, but only feeling the remnants of a scar that had long since healed. She had known that V was a nomad in her past life, though she didn’t know what it entailed, or why she was no longer one.
Her extent of nomad knowledge was that they were disliked by the vast majority of people, and that they were commonly regarded as thieves.
“Do you miss it?” Judy had asked, “Being a nomad?”
A flash of sadness behind V’s eyes told Judy all she needed to know, but still V graced her with an answer.
“Every damn day.” V gave her hip a squeeze, “But I wouldn’t go back to it now.”
“Why’s that?” Judy shifted, her head resting back down onto the warm skin of her chest. She felt V’s heartbeat against her cheek, slow and even, and let her eyes fall shut.
“Jude, you must be a fucking gonk if you don’t know why.” V teased, giving her hip a playful pinch, “I wouldn’t-couldn’t-just leave you behind for that life.”
Judy’s nose had scrunched up at the insult, but quickly dropped as she heard V’s confession. Her cheeks flushed, and she was grateful that there was no way for V to see the crimson on her face. They had been together for close to a month, and Judy still struggled with the intimacy of their relationship.
V had no problem with exclamations of adoration. She would often tell Judy how she was feeling, when she was feeling it. She would tell Judy she looked good, and how attracted she was to her on a near daily basis, but for some reason Just struggled returning the sentiment.
The words never seemed to come when she needed them, and when they did come, they never came out the way she wanted. V, of course, never seemed to mind, and often found her blunders endearing; teasing her that she had flustered Judy once again.
The sentiment that V couldn’t leave her, even after just a month together, served to fluster her once again.
Judy just let out a noise of acknowledgement, which seemed to be enough for V, and they fell into a comfortable silence together. Hands stroking bare skin, and limbs tangling further together. But the silence gave Judy a moment to think.
V couldn’t leave her, but there was nothing to say that Judy couldn’t go along with her. She had practically planned it weeks ago. Clothes had been stuffed into boxes, belongings had been sorted to either throw out or donate, and the only thing that had stopped her was now laying underneath her.
If there was nothing tying them to Night City any longer…
What was stopping them?