The next day passed in relative quiet, if relative could be gauged by Noh occasionally pulling her from her brooding melange to ask the stupidest fucking questions. Like about the various sub-orbitals that crossed the sky on occasion, or about her hobbies, or her jobs, or her nipples. Yeah, that was a weird talk that started with him asking why they were blue, and if she was cold. She had turned around and whacked him on the shoulder several times, the dipshit grinning as he got a reaction out of her. He was annoyingly good at that, and she had to admit that it was doing a decent job of keeping her head in the here and now.

Traveling without net access was… disconcerting. Even out here there were nodes and hookups, even if it was spotty, and she could always link up with the old satellite networks if she were really desperate. They were mostly for corpo-trash, loaded with ads and trackerware and cookies that kept tabs on when you ate, breathed and shat, hopefully not at the same time, but given the nature of some of the people she knew, those Broseph panels were concerningly accurate. But now that it was all silent, all cut off, she admitted, if only to herself, that she missed it.

Being jammed by that fucking blocker was harshing her zen, and if they weren’t a day out from Night City, she might even risk pulling it just to get it over with. It was old, and if you did it fast enough it wouldn’t do too much damage. But no, that was stupid, and she tried to pride herself as the “smart” one of any group, for all the good it did her here. Besides, they didn’t have the meds if something did fry her a little, and she had no desire to give herself a light lobotomy. Well, not yet, anyway.

The car hadn’t died, miraculously, despite their best efforts. The thing was a wreck, to be sure, shot to shit, missing most of its extraneous bits, the paint mostly scraped off and the less said about the crystaldome the better. She’d opted to just leave it open as opposed to staring out into a fractured landscape. Since half the panels were just showing either lines or static, and the outer cameras were, to put it gently, completely fucked. That didn’t mean it was in great shape otherwise, though. The engine was wheezing and coughing like a carton-a-day smoker and they’d had to stop twice to let the faulty coolant line get the engine down from “may catch fire and kill them both” to merely “will flash fry and egg” which had been a fun issue to find out about.

On the upside, if there was such a thing and not just tempting the powers that be, the Raffen seemed to have finally given up after yesterday’s display. They also hadn’t seen hide nor hair of the Arasaka AV, and that constituted a good day in her books. Barring the other shit, of course, but nothing was perfect. The AC still mostly worked, the tank of the car was still half full and hey! Not dead or grievously wounded. Well, at least not any more.

Two days on she was still a little boggled at him having walked off being gut-stabbed, but she’d chalked it up to some flavor of cyberware or another. Given what he’d told her about his ‘awakening’ it was clear that whatever her former crew had done had worked concerningly well. Which was a whole other thing she didn’t want to think about. She’d been bubbling up theories to askew the everpresent question of why someone would, for lack of better term, make a bunraku killborg, a convincingly human one at that, then send him off to rot in an Arasaka prison, but decidedly not turn off all the bitbobs inside of him, or more pointedly, harvest the bitbobs out of him and use them in a more successful human experiment. Or at least one that didn’t break out at the slightest opportunity and then kill all their guys in an orgy of murder.

Granted, she was less concerned about that, orgies of murder happened on the regular in Night City and the wastelands surrounding it. That was just a fact of life. No, what concerned her was how the blank slate next to her had functionally no qualms about going from zero to blender and then back again in the process. It wasn’t normal ‘psycho behavior, and she’d seen a few, even been at a ground zero once, which, that was a memory she didn’t need to dredge up.

Point was, he absolutely had some kind of berserk switch, some kind of adrenalware or combat injector or something that took him up like it did when things got, in his case, literally dicey. He seemed to revel in the challenge and the risks he took, while very effective, were also insane and if he fucked up, lethal, not that that seemed to even register at the time. No, he just dove right in like some kind of Bushido-X sidekick that died in the last ten minutes of the movie to give the main character that final bit of determination to flatline the big bad.

She really wasn‘t sure how to parse that. If she was going to keep him around, she was going to line him up with her ripper and have the guy do a deep dive to see just what was done to Noh, if only so she knew what would set him off and how far she needed to be outside of the splash zone. She was almost certain that he could tell friend from foe, given that he hadn’t attacked her, which was a distressingly common side effect of adrenalware in general. In fact he’d been rather lucid, if a bit giddy about the whole thing.

He’d also gotten quippy. That was also very fucking weird. People didn’t just… do that, not when they were being shot at, not unless they were either supremely confident, a total gonk, or crazy on a deeply fundamental way, and Kiwi wasn’t a shrink. From what she could tell there wasn’t enough up there in that noggin of his for him to be crazy about. He also didn’t seem to have any kind of moral concern about the whole murder thing. Not that she did, either, but first timers usually took their first flatline a little rough.

He did not. Hell, he didn’t even blink. He had zero concerns over dismembering the first bunch, and then zero concern over sending the second group to hell pre-baked. Of course, that didn’t mean anything, but at the same time it could, if he was pulling on whatever buried memories he had. It was never as clean as the movies, she knew. You couldn’t lobotomize someone like that and get anything but a vegetable, yet he was a walking, talking, sometimes annoyingly singing, dancing murderhobo who just… charged in and walked out largely unscathed.

It was little surprise she actually did want to keep him around. Good killers were useful in her line of work, and the whole plan revolved around making him dependent on her enough that she could, if not trust him, have the level expectation that she would be able to stab him in the back long before he could her. Besides, he was a very ‘stab you in the front’ kind of guy, if she were reading him right, and if nothing else, her eye for people was pretty spot on.

“Keep giving me that side-eye and I’m gonna start thinking you don’t like me, Ki.” He rumbled, pulling her from her thoughts. A moment later her eyes narrowed.

“Don’t call me that,” She said, warningly. “We aren’t that friendly yet.”

“But… but you said we‘d get married once we got to Night City.” For a moment, a singular moment, he sounded genuinely sincere. Then he started laughing, and she slugged him in the shoulder again. “You know, this could be considered domestic abuse.” He pointed out between guffaws.

“Shut the fuck up, Noh! The only thing being abused are my poor knuckles.” She snarled, before shaking her hand out as the pain really caught up with her. “What are you made of, you gonk!? I’m gonna break my fucking hand at this rate.”

“You could, you know, just not hit me.” He gave her a grin. “It’s not a healthy way to work out your feelings, Ki.”

“Oh fuck right off. The only thing I’m feeling right now is the urge to shove my foot up your ass.” She grumbled, “And I will, too, you keep up with that Ki shit.”

“Kinky. Do you wanna lube up first or…?” He asked slyly, and she rolled her eyes.

“Didn’t know you were into pegging, Noh.” She rolled her head at him, looking at him over her shoulder. “I’ll make sure to bring out the big strapon once we get to the city.”

“Don’t threaten me with a good time, bitch. I’d rock you like a hurricane.”

“Big talk, considering you can’t even remember the last time you got laid. Not even rosy palm and her five sisters, for shame.” Kiwi snarked, and he shot her a look.

“Low blow, Ki, low blow. I’m wounded. Can you not see how wounded I am? Just. Destroyed.” He shot right back at her, his signature grin teasing at the edges of his lips. “I think I need an adult. A mean lady is threatening to touch my no no place and shove things in me.”

“Oh my fucking god, please, cry me a river and then drown yourself in it.” Kiwi sighed, already tired of this, “Or drown me instead. You’d be doing me a favor at this point. I’m so goddamn bored I actually do wanna cry.”

“Well, it’s not my fault the radio was shot out.” Noh said defensively, which had Kiwi’s head snapping around so hard her neck popped.

“Fuck! Fuck, yes it is you gonk. It is directly your fault, remember? When you tossed a live fucking shotgun into the car? Yeah, that thing went off in my lap you jackass.” Kiwi snarled, punching him in the shoulder again, to about the same effect as last time.

“Oh.” Was all he said, going back to driving. “My bad then.”

“Oh my god…” Kiwi groaned as she rubbed her eyes. “It doesn’t matter anyway. The badlands are a radio deadzone in most places. It wouldn’t pick up anything. I’m dealing with net withdrawal."

“Because we’re out here?” He asked, curious. Kiwi just shook her head.

“No, it's because I got plugged with this jammer,” She motioned to the ugly thing sticking out of her netport like a polyp. “It’s keeping me from broadcasting and if I plug my deck in to try and get it off it’ll fry my ass. I need my ripper to disconnect it.”

“Yeah? That sucks. Look on the upside though. You got me to cheer you up, right?” he nudged her, and she just stared at him, before slowly, mechanically, lifting her arm up and wiggling her hand back and forth anemically.

“Yippee.” Never before had he heard a word so flat and devoid of life as hers. Granted, hers was the only voice he heard in recent memory not actively trying to flatline him, but still.

“How far out are we from your mythical Night City anyway?” He asked after a moment.

“If this GPS is working, another ten, eleven hours at least. We still gotta go through the crossing, but I remember where that nomad I came in with jumped the border. That should make things easier. Probably.” Kiwi said. It was all mostly guesswork at this point, but she didn’t say that to him. He didn’t need to know that they were driving on a hope and a prayer. It’s not like it made much difference anyway. The whole fucking job had been on a hope and a prayer, and now that it was hopefully coming to an end, she could maybe, just maybe, finally relax.

000

Crossing the border was both easier and harder than Kiwi had anticipated for a number of reasons. Nominally the NUSA liked to pretend that Night City was a part of it, at least on paper, as opposed to being a largely autonomous zone held together by the city proper and a the warring megacorps within, but that didn’t change the fact that the keyword there was ‘pretend’. Because in reality there was a border, it was somewhat heavily monitored, at least from the north and the south, and while, technically, being a citizen of Night City meant she could pass through on her way back from her little vacation at said border crossing, there was one rather sizable problem.

They were driving in a Raffen Shiv shitmobile, and the border guards were much more likely to just hose them down with targeted micro-missiles and call it a day as let them approach. Which meant that they had to either get out and walk, which was a daunting task on its own, assuming they were even able to convince the Militech jackboots they were who they said they were and not end up in one of their internment camps. If they even did, it was a seventy mile walk back into the city from there, something she suspected her pale, shapely, short shorts-clad ass could not handle.

So sneaking in it was. Through the minefield. And the perimeter fence. And the drone web. Noh loved the idea from the get go, the psycho gonk, but all the enthusiasm in the world wouldn’t make it less of a headache. Coming in from the east was marginally easier on the basis that the border wasn’t actively tracked via satellite imaging and active denial systems like those nasty automated artillery platforms on the border of Mexico, but that just meant they used more landmines. A lot more landmines, really, and they still did the occasional flyover to see if someone was being cute.

You didn’t want to be that someone being cute.

Point was, getting through would be a chore. Normally she could just hack off any mines in the way and they could slip through, but that wasn’t an option right that second. So they would have to do it the old fashioned way, and that consisted of having someone on the hood playing minesweeper while the other drove, and if they heard a beep, well, maybe both of them wouldn’t die. Maybe. Looking at the condition of the car? Yeah no they were both fucked.

Fortunately they were hitting right at the edge of twilight, which meant that, despite the dark, the mines themselves were just a little easier to see and they didn’t need to risk the headlights in the meantime. It still took almost an hour, and while playing hood ornament wasn’t really her thing, out of the two of them he was the better driver, and she knew what to look for in the ground-mounted explosives. Of course, that also meant taking a circuitous route around the five mile stretch of slightly explosive desert and hoping for the best.

There had been a few close encounters all the same, and she almost shit herself when one of the mines started reporting a proximity warning. Noh had been on the ball when he did a quick but steady reverse right down the same tracks he came up in, because that was the other issue with these mines. If you did manage to avoid getting detconned out of existence, you could still back up into another fucking mine and Night City had a whole channel dedicated to people getting blown to shit to a laugh track in fields like this. Sometimes it was even this field, if she recognized the tree over there.

“How we looking!?” She almost fell off the hood when she heard Noh’s shout, and she snapped her head back to yell something invective at him, when she remembered what her job was and her head glued itself to the ground in front of them. Fortunately, they weren’t about to meet whatever passed for god because he distracted her, but still.

“Shut up and drive, Noh! Don’t distract me, you fucking gonk! I’m trying not to DIE HERE!” She snapped back, while keeping her eyes peeled. Goddamn… stupid… gah!

On the scale of one to ten, it was one of the longest hours of her life, and when they popped out the other end she all but deflated, sliding off the hood in a heap as the familiar neon in the distance lit up the sky like the most unwanted sunrise. She knew she would have gotten a few grey hairs if her entire mane hadn’t been replaced with Tech hair. Still, being within spitting distance of the city was encouraging, but she was run through, and not in a fun way.

Fortunately she knew about a little place about halfway between here and home, and the Sunset wasn’t the worst if her memory served. Plus she had… stuff she wanted to do. And get a shower. She would shoot her father for a shower right now. Well, she would shoot him anyway, if she knew who he was, but getting a shower out of it would be niiiiiiice.

“You okay up there?” Noh called out after a moment, and she waved her hand lazily in response.

“Gimme a minute. While you were getting an eagle-eye view up my cooch I was busy playing literal minesweeper. Remind me again why I had to be on the hood while you sat in the nice, air conditioned car?” She said, a whining tone in her voice.

“Because I’m the one with the… what did you call it? Adrenalware? I have better reflexes with you, which, by the way, your welcome for unfucking your screwup when you almost missed that mine.” She heard the door open as he stepped out, and lazily glanced over at him as he popped a squat nest to her. “I think I deserve some kinda reward for that.”

“Psh, right. I’ll take it out of the debt you owe me for not stabbing you in your sleep last night.” She said magnanimously. “And don’t say you don’t snore, Noh. I could hear you through the crystaldome while I was on watch.”

“I never said anything of the sort, Ki.” He gave her a wry grin, before following her eyes to the neon eyesore on the horizon. “So, home at last, least for you. Guessing that’s your Night City?”

“Yup. Shittiest place on Earth.” She sighed, and he just stared out over the rolling sand dunes. “Soon as I get there and get this fucking jammer out of my head I’m getting my pay from that prick Faraday and taking a week off. Had enough time playing in the sandbox to last me a lifetime.” She glanced over at him. “What about you? Got any big plans?”

“Nah. I don’t know shit for pickles about Night City, but I’m sure it’ll work out.” He shrugged. “If it sucks I’ll just go somewhere else. S’not like I got roots anywhere, yanno?”

“Maybe.” She said, ponderously, before Noh stood and held out a hand for her to haul herself up with. “Maybe not. Guess we’ll see, huh?”

“Guess so!” He gave her a grin and stretched. “Anyway, we heading on through the night? S’not like I got anything going on.”

“No. I need a shower and there’s a place not too far from here where we can dump this beater and catch a bus back to the city in the morning. I want to sleep in a real bed and eat something that passed for an actual meal before dealing with the shitshow I’m sure is waiting for me.” Kiwi muttered sourly, “Just head up the road, it should be the only place that actually has working power on the way.”

000

It did indeed have working power, Noh noted as he rolled up, parking the progressively dying wendigo in as innocuous a spot as he could. Neither of them wanted to answer any odd questions as to just who they were and why they were coming up in a Raffen Shive vehicle covered in what was one of the more canniballistic of the Raffen clans covered in blood and hauling a shitload of loose weapons with them.

Or maybe that would be explanation enough, he wondered as Kiwi slipped out of the car and started grabbing the weapons that they’d collected on the trip. “This should be enough to cover a meal and a room. There’s a guy that usually operates out here that pays in cash, if memory serves.” She said as he started bundling up the half-dozen loose, lower end rifles and grabbed the bag they’d left most of the ammo in. There wasn’t much else worth taking, after that, and Noh bid the trash heap a fond farewell. It was a good gangmobile, that Shion.

“Don’t get all teary-eyed over it, damn.” The woman rolled her eyes, and Noh flicked her off.

“Hey, fuck off. She did her duty. Kept your ass alive and moving, didn’t it?” He shot back, and she shrugged. “Anyway, let’s dump this stuff. I wanna hear more about this fabled meal of yours. I’m famished.”

“One thing at a time, you gonk. Cash first, then room, then food.” She said as the two walked towards the brightly lit Sunset Motel, as the sign purported, noting the dozen or so people milling around even though it was almost midnight. Most didn’t give them more than a look, and those that did suddenly got more interested in their own business when they saw that neither looked particularly chatty.

Kiwi, for all her exhaustion, sauntered up to the woman hanging out the V-340 Freight like it was nothing, and it probably wasn’t, really as the gunrunner perked up, the wide, round glasses on her face giving her a bit of nerd chic that clashed oddly with the frohawk she wore. She gave Kiwi the once over, before looking at him and his bundle of guns tucked under his arm and hiked an eyebrow.

“I’m guessing you’re selling.” She said, sardonically, and Kiwi glanced back at him.

“Yeah. Had a bit of a rough couple days, need some cash.” She motioned for Noh to come up and set the bundle down, along with the bag. “Got a bunch of loose ammo too. More than we can carry, as it were. Mags for the guns too. Buncha shit. We need hard eds, no digi.”

“That makes it more expensive, but I can do it. More overhead, though, you understand.” She replied as she picked up the first of the guns, a copperhead, and ran through a fast check, before moving on. “Not the worst I’ve seen, but pretty shit. Four hundo for the lot, you dig?”

“Bitch what?” The words rolled off Kiwi’s non-existant lips with an almost casual ease. “There’s easily a thousand between the guns and the ammo. Lotta people died to make that happen, too.”

“Psh, thousand for who, me? Nah, I’m gonna have to drop half a kay just to get this shit to standard. Call it five.” And so it went, between the two with Noh just standing there looking menacing, and the two guards of the ‘runner also standing there menacingly. Lots of menace, all around, as the two women haggled. Finally cash was exchanged, seven and a quarter, and despite the rather colorful back and forth, both of them were happy.

“So we get enough for a room?” Noh asked as he walked behind Kiwi, and Kiwi glanced back at him.

“More than.” She said, as the two headed to the front desk. “I’m gonna go get the room. Take this,” She handed him two bills marked with 50s. “Get some food, splurge a little but load up. Sunset does decent krill burgers, and get a couple bottles of something strong. I wanna celebrate not getting fucked to death in a cave by a bunch of cannibals after my shower.”

“Hah, fair enough. Go get washed up, I’ll find the room and bring the food.” He waved at her, as the two split, Noh wandering down to the cantina while Kiwi hit up the reception, and finally the room up on the second level. She paid the extra for a water allocation, and again for some added security, before heading up.

The door was barely closed when she peeled off the crunchy short-shorts and ‘refurbished’ underwear she’d taken to avoid getting too many rashes from the rough denim, and the crop top followed shortly after. Those were going to be burned, first chance she got, but it wasn’t important. She would send out Noh in the morning to hit up the vending machines. They sold one-use clothes among other things, and she would be goddamned if she put that crap back on.

The important thing is she was out of them, and despite how greasy her skin felt, and how itchy she was otherwise, it was nice to be free of them. She was an ‘at home nudist’ as the term went, partly because of her preference for ice baths, partly because she was a firm believer in not getting shit dirty if she didn’t need to. She also liked the feeling of having her tits out. She spent a lot of money on them, she would enjoy them, and everyone else could just deal.

Stepping into the shower cubicle was an exercise in anticipation, getting the water running just shy of scalding, and the euphoria of running soap over her skin, feeling the lines of her cyberware, the sensation of the grease and filth coming off was almost orgasmic on it’s own. She wasn’t a girly girl, not like some of the people she knew, a certain chaos gremlin and her catgirl-chic best friend aside, but she could admit that some things were worth getting a little giddy over.

Washing out her hair was one of them, chrome or not, it had all the right sensations against her scalp and it had been itching her something fierce since the trunk of that car. Another thing to hate the Shiv over, but if she did catch something, her ripper would sort it out when she went to see him, first thing tomorrow. For now she was glad that she wasn’t big into hirsute, happy to keep the body hair to a tasteful minimum. She would have lost it if she got fucking pube lice, but that seemed to have been avoided.

“Thank god for my Midnight, shit.” She sighed as she scrubbed down, soapy bubbles lining her naked frame as she slid her hands over her skin, her fingers caressing her curves as she felt the prickle of something, finally being able to just indulge without making things awkward, having barely enough privacy to take a piss, much less anything else. It felt nice, her fingers teasing and touching, her nipples hardening despite the heat. She grinned, and twisted the handle all the way.

The water hit her, a punishing, scalding torrent. She gasped, her body arching into the heat, letting it burn away the top layer of her exhaustion. For a moment, she just stood, head bowed, watching the brown water swirl at her feet. But the stillness was a lie. Beneath her skin, a frantic energy was building, a wired, desperate buzz leftover from three days of living on the edge. She was alive, and every nerve ending was screaming for a release, a declaration that she was still alive, and goddamn was it amazing to be so.

Her hand slammed against the slick wall of the shower, bracing herself. The other shot down between her legs, fingers flicking her hidden, rock hard nub, before tracing the outside of her slit. Her fingers found the smooth, warm synthflesh of her cunt to be hypersensitive, the neon blue labia already pulsing with a faint, hungry buzz. She didn't tease herself, not like she usually did, no, she wanted it hard and fast. She ground the heel of her palm hard against her hood, the motion dragging her clit from its hiding spot, the sensation a sharp, electric jolt that shot straight up her spine. A guttural sound tore from her throat, half-pain, half-pleasure, loud, but she didn’t care. She needed this.

Her other hand wrapped around her breast, fingers sinking into the flesh around her long, aching nipple. She pinched it, hard, twisting it viciously, sending another bolt of sensation through her. It wasn't enough. It was barely a tickle against the roaring ache that shuddered through her core, up into her chest and engulfing her head. She needed more. She wanted, no, needed to break something, even if it was just herself.

Two fingers of her right hand plunged into her pussy, the slick, wet heat a stark contrast to the frantic, punishing rhythm she set. She fucked herself, her hand a blur, fingers curling to rake against her front wall. The wet, slapping sounds of her own assault echoed in the small stall, mingling with the hiss of the shower. Her hips bucked, ramming back, grinding against her palm, trying to force the pleasure deeper, to burn out the need, the want, the ache, all of it as she mercilessly fucked herself.

"Come on," she snarled through gritted teeth, the words a desperate prayer. "Fuck. Come on."

She added a third finger, then a fourth, stretching herself to the point of pain, her knuckles grinding against her own entrance. It was a brutal, furious self-fucking, an act of violence against her own body. Her thumb mashed down on her clit, rubbing in frantic, uncoordinated circles. The spiderweb tattoo seemed to tighten across her skin, a cage she was trying to break out of. She could feel the pressure building, a tight knot in her belly, but it was distant, detached. It was the edge of an orgasm, teasing and mocking her. The release wouldn't come.

With a frustrated scream, she yanked her hand from her cunt and brought it back, slick with her own juices, to her ass. Without hesitation, she rammed two fingers deep into her asshole. The sharp, invasive jolt made her cry out, her body jerking forward. She was filled now, speared on both ends by her own hands, one in her slit, one in her backside. She pinched her clit again, twisting it, her whole body trembling with the effort, with the desperate, clawing need for a single, pure moment of oblivion.

The orgasm that finally ripped through her was a hollow, shuddering convulsion. Her muscles seized, a wave of sensation washed over her, but it was empty. It was a firework with no color, a scream with no sound. It did nothing. It washed nothing away, just making her want something heavier, thicker, and more filling inside her to finally roll her off the tip of the blade.

She turned off the water, the sudden silence deafening. She walked right past the hanging towels, deciding to herself that yeah, she didn’t care if he saw her. He was going to be getting a lot more, she grinned to herself. Kiwi had needs, and it wasn’t like she hadn’t found his crazy ass kinda hot, so why not? She was planning on keeping him for a while anyway.

Sliding open the door, she stepped out into the humid bathroom air. From the other room, she heard the distinct crinkle of a paper bag and the satisfying clink of glass bottles on the table. Noh was back, having tossed his jacket over a chair and kicked off his boots, his gear piled up on the table nearby. The scent of greasy burgers and spiced fries wafted through the apartment, a promise for later, even if she knew it would be cold by the time either of them cared about it.

Before he could even register that she’d come into the room, she was on him. Her hand shot out, fingers tangling in the fabric of his tank top and yanking him backward with surprising strength. He stumbled, his eyes widening in mild shock as he let her drag him back the way she came, towards the shower, half to clean him up, half because she liked fucking in there. The mess cleaned itself up.

"Kiwi, what the f-" he started, more amused than surprised, but his words were cut off as she slammed him back against the wall, her body pressing against his. The damp, warm skin of her chest met his, and he could feel the frantic thrum of her heart, hammering against her chest as she leaned in, and for the first time the fact that she was taller than him, if just by a bit, was made starkly apparent, and he was over six foot himself. Honestly? He kinda liked it.

"Shut up," she snarled, her voice a raw, needy rasp. Her other hand clawed at his shoulder, and then with a vicious rip, she tore the tank top clean down the middle. The fabric gave way with a satisfying sound, exposing his lean, muscled torso. "Been putting up with your mouth since I met you, and I want to put it to better use. So you're gonna finish what I started, got it?"

A slow, dangerous grin spread across Noh's face, the vague mirth in his eyes sharpening into something predatory. "Well, when you put it like that…" he rumbled, not resisting in the slightest as she manhandled him, pushing and pulling him toward the still-steamy shower stall. "Jesus, Ki, I’m coming. Probably literally in a second-"

He stumbled backward into the shower, Kiwi following like a predator. She grabbed at his belt, pulling it open with her long, slender fingers. "Shut. Up." She grabbed his slacks, yanking them open and pulling them and his boxers down, her hand coming up to wrap around his length as she seemed to almost breathe his scent in. His pants pooled around his ankles, and he kicked them away. His cock was already stiffening under her ministrations, jutting up from a thatch of dark hair.

"Bossy," he chuckled, but the sound was cut short as she grabbed him by the hair and drag him down, all but shoving his face into her snatch and pinning him between her and the wall. His tongue shot out, tasting her, and pulling a shudder from her body as she felt him explore her, and despite her earlier teasing, he was doing some good work with that yappy mouth of his.

"You talk too much," she hissed in his ear as she leaned down, feeling him dig his slimy tongue deep into her, the feeling of his stubble irritating in a good way, mixing the scratchy ache with the raw electric of his eating her out. She loved it, the way his tongue seemed to touch every part of her entrance, from her clit to her hole, before diving deep to seek out her insanely sensitive insides. Kiwi gave off a guttural moan as he drank her in, literally lapping up her juices, and she knew she tasted good. Kiwi citrus flavor, to match the theme, and she shuddered as he brought her back to the edge.

“Stop- stopstopstop,” She fired off in rapid staccato, pulling him from her core, long strands of her juices still covering his face as he looked at her curiously. She reached down to pull him up, her hand finding his cock, stroking it once, twice, a rough, perfunctory pump, her eyes glaring into his with a heat he hadn’t seen before. "You're gonna fuck me until I can't remember my own name. Got it?"

"Crystal," he grunted, pushing back against her, taking them both under the shower and flicking it on, letting the heat pour over them as he grinned and nipped at her. She groaned, as lapped at the rivulets that covered her, before clamping his lips over her nipple, sucking it hard.

Kiwi didn't want to wait a second longer. She guided his cock to the entrance of her cunt, still slick and aching from her own failed attempt at release. With one brutal thrust, she impaled herself on him, ramming her ass back until he was buried to the hilt. A hungry gasp escaped her lips, a sound of pure, unadulterated relief. The feeling of being all but impaled on his cock was electric to her overstimulated pussy, and she ground against him as he all but held her up.

"Fuck, Kiwi," Noh gasped, his hands braced against the wall as she set a punishing rhythm. She was relentless, her hips a piston, hammering back against him, taking him deep and hard with every stroke. The showerhead pulsed, spraying them both, the water already turning from scalding to lukewarm as he matched her rhythm, her velvety core squeezing and undulating around him like someone was grabbing and stroking him with every thrust. Neither of them noticed the change, caught up staring in each other’s eyes, daring the other to finish first.

"Is that all you got?" she grunted as she rolled her head back, letting out a visceral moan, her voice strained with effort. "I said fuck me, Noh."

His grin was audible in his voice. "You asked for it."

He grabbed her hips, his fingers digging into her flesh hard enough to leave bruises. He took over the rhythm, his thrusts becoming powerful, deep, and absolutely merciless. He slammed into her, pinning her to the wall, the sound of their wet, slapping flesh echoing off the tiles, a raw, percussive beat. The barely warm water poured over them, tracing paths down their straining bodies, but their internal heat was a furnace as both burned hot.

"Harder," she demanded, her knuckles white where she gripped his forearm for leverage. "Fucking break me."

"With pleasure," he growled, and obliged. His hips became a blur, his cock a battering ram. He was pounding into her cervix, each thrust a jolt of sharp, overwhelming pleasure that bordered on pain. She let out a gasping, heated moan that broke into little mewls as he pushed deeper, giving it his full weight, her pussy sopping wet and slick, her insides squeezing the life out of him, her hips pulsing light against his groin.

He reached down, his fingers finding her clit, rubbing it in time with his brutal strokes. The added stimulation was a tidal wave. "Fucking cum for me, Kiwi," he grunted.

"Don't you dare stop," she moaned, her head falling forward, her wet hair plastered to her face. She was so close, the real thing this time, a release that felt like it might actually shatter her.

Then, without warning, he pulled out. Kiwi cried out in protest, a frustrated, animal sound. But before she could pull him back, he picked her up entirely, lifting her effortlessly. Her legs wrapped around his waist instinctively, her back pinned against the steamy, wet tile. He held her up, his muscles bunching with the effort, and slammed his cock back into her.

The new angle was devastating. He was even deeper now, hitting a spot that made her vision blur. He held her pinned against the wall, fucking her with short, incredibly hard jabs of his hips. "Yeah… that’s better." he panted, his face inches from hers, his green eyes burning with an intensity that matched her own.

"Shut up and fuck me," she managed to gasp, digging her nails into his shoulders. He obliged, grinning like a fiend as he began working her over, grinding, pinching, sucking whatever he could get ahold of, leaving her helpless to stop him. He was hammering into her now, his control fraying, the water a forgotten shock against their overheated skin.

Her orgasm hit her like a freight train. It wasn't empty this time. It was a violent, shattering explosion that ripped through her entire body. She screamed into his shoulder, her core clamping down on his cock like a vise, her entire body convulsing with the force of it. It was a catharsis, a purging of every ounce of stress and tension from the last three days. For a single, blinding moment, there was nothing but the mind-numbing pleasure and the feeling of him inside her.

He followed her over the edge with a guttural moan, his own orgasm tearing through him. He buried himself deep, his cock pulsing as he emptied himself into her, his body trembling against hers.

“Fucking finally!” Kiwi all but moaned, as the two caught their breath, but the look in her eyes told him that she wasn’t finished with him, not by a longshot. Noh just hooked an eyebrow as she tilted her head to the side, the question obvious. He grinned right back, and with a hard thrust, he was back to firing ready. Any doubts that he had his own Studd to match her Lady was gone, and thank fuck for that, because she didn’t wanna wait for the next round.

"Hold on," he grunted, and then he was moving. He didnt even have the temerity to pull out from her as he walked them out of the shower, and for good reason. Since Kiwi wasn’t sure her legs worked quite right. He strode out of the bathroom, not bothering with the light, leaving a trail of wet footprints on the cheap carpet. He didn't stop until they were at the foot of the bed. With a final, powerful thrust, he let them fall.

They landed on the dingy comforter with a soft whump, a tangle of limbs and damp skin. The impact drove him even deeper inside her, and Kiwi cried out, her back arching off the mattress. He was over her now, his weight a welcome pressure, his green eyes burning down at her in the dim light of the motel room.

"Ready for round two?" he rumbled, a smirk playing on his lips.

Kiwi's response was to reach down, grab his still-hard cock, and pull it out of her cunt with a wet, slick sound. She pushed at his chest, rolling him over onto his back. Before he could react, she was straddling him, her knees pinning his hips to the bed. She leaned forward, her wet hair dripping onto his chest, her narrow, sharp eyes locking with his.

"Round two is in a different hole," she snarled, her voice low and dripping with need. She reached back and grabbed his cock, slick with her own juices, and positioned it at the tight, puckered entrance of her ass. "You're gonna fuck my ass like you meant it, Noh. No holding back."

His grin was pure, unadulterated mischief. "Kiwi, I’m shocked at that baseless assertion."

She didn't give him a chance to prepare. She sank down, her own weight driving the head of his meat past her tight ring of muscle. A sharp, heavy gasp escaped her lips, her eyes fluttering shut for a second. It was a brutal, invasive stretch, exactly what she wanted. She took a breath, then forced herself down further, taking more of him, inch by agonizing inch, until her ass was resting against his hips. She was fully impaled, filled in a way that was both punishing and profoundly satisfying.

"Move," she commanded, her voice strained.

"With pleasure," he grunted, and then he was moving. He bucked his hips up, driving his dick deeper into her ass. Kiwi met his thrusts, rising up and then slamming back down, the rhythm just as hard and unforgiving as it had been in the shower. The bed springs squeaked in protest, a frantic rhythm accompanying their raw, animalistic fucking.

But Noh wanted control. With a powerful surge, he bucked his hips hard, throwing her off balance. Kiwi yelped as he rolled them, finding herself face down on the mattress with her hips hiked in the air. In a flash, he was on top of her, his weight pinning her to the mattress. He grabbed a fistful of her hair, pushing her face down into the scratchy pillow.

"My turn," he growled in her ear, his voice a low, dangerous rumble, and for just a moment, the thrill of just where she heard that threatening tone hit her, a thrill of erotic fear sparking up her spine.

He shifted his position, spreading her legs wider with his knees. He braced one hand on the small of her back and used the other to guide himself. Then he started to fuck her in earnest. There was nothing gentle about it. He was a piston, his hips a blur of motion, his cock a battering ram hammering into her tightest hole. Each thrust was a powerful, deep penetration that stole her breath and sent shockwaves of sharp, overwhelming pleasure through her entire body.

The sounds were obscene. The wet slap of his hips against her ass, the creak of the bed, the muffled cries from Kiwi as her face was pressed into the pillow. He was pounding her, using her, giving her exactly the brutal, mindless fucking she had demanded. The pain was a sharp, thrilling edge to the pleasure, a perfect, agonizing blend that was pushing her toward the brink.

"Is this what you wanted?" he grunted, his voice strained with effort. He leaned down, his teeth sinking into the flesh of her shoulder, another mark to add to the collection.

Her response was a muffled, incoherent scream into the pillow. She couldn't form words. She couldn't think. All she could do was feel. Feel his cock splitting her open, feel his weight pinning her down, feel the glorious, violent pleasure building to an impossible crescendo. He reached underneath her, his fingers finding her clit, rubbing it in a frantic, desperate rhythm. The added stimulation was the final straw.

Her orgasm hit her like a lightning strike. It was a silent, violent convulsion. Her entire body went rigid, her back arching, her ass clamping down on his cock like a vise. A wave of pure, white-hot pleasure washed over her, so intense it was almost painful. It was a complete and total system shutdown. For a long, blissful moment, there was nothing. No thoughts, no feelings, no anything, just… Noh, and the overwhelming, all-consuming release.

Noh felt her convulse around him, and it sent him over the edge. He slammed into her one last time, burying himself to the hilt as his own orgasm tore through him. He growled like a beast into her flesh, sound of pure satisfaction, his cock pulsing as he emptied himself deep in her ass.

He collapsed on top of her, his weight a welcome, heavy blanket. They were both panting, their bodies slick with sweat and the remnants of the shower. The room was silent except for the sound of their ragged breathing and the faint, distant hum of the motel's neon sign.

Kiwi was limp beneath him, utterly spent. He had fucked her till she couldn't speak, till she couldn't think. He had fucked the memory of the wasteland right out of her. She turned her head to the side, her cheek pressed against the pillow, a dazed, satisfied mien to her.

The food, as she’d feared, was indeed cold by the time they finished, and the second shower they both needed would cost her, but she didn’t care. Staring at Noh as he dozed in the bed after having thoroughly ruined her, she felt a small pinch of guilt at manipulating the Blank like she had. He was, for all his bloody-mindedness, oddly innocent in a lot of ways, and she knew that she was planning to turn him into her personal attack dog. She wasn’t even sure if he had the presence of mind to care if she told him up front, which made it worse, not better.

But you can’t trust anyone in Night City. Least of all her. Still didn’t feel great about it, but he had proven himself too useful to let go and in the oddly vulnerable position of having nothing and nobody but her to count on, and that was useful. Priceless in a lot of ways, she knew, because he didn’t have a choice but to be entirely reliant on her, without money, ID or anything else that would let him function in society. Being a psycho killbot only got you shot by MaxTac, eventually, and that would be a waste. It’s what she told herself when she looked at him and made her plans.

There was an intoxicating power there, she knew. She would need to be careful, grooming him to want what she wanted, do what she wanted him to, and make him think he wanted it too. Then, if push came to shove, she would point him at whatever needed to die and if need be, he would be the perfect distraction. Her own little cyberpsycho on a leash, and if he needed her for a bed, and a meal, and a partner, all the better. People killed for the ones they loved, and died for them too, and Kiwi was willing to let him.