Work Text:
The motel was barely more than four walls and a dirty mattress, paint peeling off in stained chips and carpet reeking of cigarettes and booze and the faintest hint of mildew. It wasn’t preem, but when had anything in her life been?
Luxury it was not, but safe? She would take safe, especially with her arms half full with a teetering, bleeding former Arasaka bodyguard. She went for the light switch, forgetting herself, but his hand caught hers and through labored breaths he said, “No lights.”
Takemura’s voice was always low, a rumble of thunder… but in pain, it was harsher, like gravel and sandpaper. V nodded in the dim light and helped him to lean against a far wall as she fumbled around in the darkroom. She found three half melted candles and a nearly empty lighter, but it would serve well enough to give them some kind of light in the motel bathroom. What first aid supplies she’d managed to scrounge from the hotel staff were in a box that looked older than her, but last she knew, bandages didn’t expire, and even if they did, they needed them. And most importantly, V had bought a half empty bottle of vodka from a drifter hanging outside room 102.. A true medical necessity.
Takemura had been grazed by at least a bullet, that much V was certain. The older man tilted his head back against the wall he leaned against while V hurried throughout the room, bracing himself as he took in shallow, but even breaths.
“C’mon, gotta see what we’re dealing with…”
“You ripperdoc now?” Takemura asked, repressing a dry chuckle that surely caused him pain by the way his shoulders flinched.
“Yep, step right into my office.” V said, letting him lean on her as they stumbled into the small bathroom. She shut the door, running a finger along the seam to make sure it would stay light tight. V picked up one candle and after a few flicks, managed to get a light from the lighter. The room was soon lit in a soft glow, completely unfitting for the task at hand.
Takemura’s eyes moved around the room as he sat on the edge of the tub.
“Your medical facilities are not to code.”
It was a joke, but he said it with such damn seriousness that V felt the laugh punch out of her, sharp and breathy.
“Well, ya know how it is. Cut backs.”
“Ah, I see.”
Carefully, Takemura unfurled his arm from where he clutched at his side. The bleeding had slowed, oozing sluggishly now only when he moved too much. Takemura’s fingers curled around the bottom of his shirt, tugging it free from where it tucked into his trousers. The white material was stained with dark spots, nearly black in the candlelight.
“Let me help.” V said, automatic, thoughtless. She came to stand between his knees, fingers undoing the buttons of his shirt. Her hands still trembled slightly, the rush from the firefight and the pain of a couple dozen bruises doing their work. She had seen the chrome work at his throat and was unsurprised to see it continue on, flaring out over his shoulders like veins. The rest of him though was ganic, smooth skin over hard, toned muscle.
Takemura only winced once when she peeled the fabric, tacky with blood, away from where it stuck to his left side. She knelt down, noting the blood had seeped out from the back of his shirt too.
“ Fuck. ”
“Indeed.”
“Well… you are gonna have one hell of a scar. How the hell were you even walkin’ ?”
“Had one injector. Used it after that shot.”
“Good thinkin’.”
V set the kit on Takemura’s thigh, using him as a makeshift table as she picked through the contents. There was no MaxDoc or Bounce Back, but it helped Takemura already had one dose. It would boost his own body's healing process for a good enough while… the graze looked nasty, but the bleeding had stopped. The only thing threatening to kill the old koger now was a staph infection— and given their surroundings, it was probably best to wrap him up.
With a gruff sound, he tugged his shoulder free of his sleeve, removing the soot and blood streaked shirt and discarding it on the floor. No doubt this room had seen worse.
V unscrewed the top of the vodka bottle off with one finger and then casually flicked it off, the metal clanging across the tile. She offered it to Takemura, “Anesthetic?”
He wrinkled his nose. V shrugged, took a drink herself and then, without warning, spilled a generous amount over his wound.
Takemura swore, loudly.
“Shoulda taken the anesthesia.”
“... わるガキ .”
V’s cyberware helpfully provided a translation: Brat .
There was almost a hint of fondness in the word even, V thought for a moment. Just a little. And judging by the way he hid a smirk that was threatening to overcome the tightness of his expression, maybe she was right.
Maybe it was the blood loss, or the near death experience, or failing to convince his last chance at finding revenge for his employer— but Takemura took the bottle from her then and drank deeply.
“Wow. Didn’t know you had it in you.”
“You going to be doctor or comedian?” he said, taking another shorter drink as V fished through the first aid kit and pulled out a few large gauze pads. She tore the wrappers free, packing two against the wound just in case.
“Hold please, nurse.”
Takemura growled, but did as directed, setting down the bottle to help hold the bandage in place as V used the gauze roll to wrap it tightly against him. Half way done, V realized… she had never been this close to Takemura before. His body was like a furnace, overstimulated and heightened from pain and the lingering effects of adrenaline. Beneath the smell of smoke and copper V almost thought she caught the scent of cedar… of faint pepper and incense.
V finished tacking the wrappings on, using her palm to smooth over the gauze to make sure it wouldn’t come off easy. Her fingertips ghosted against his skin and she felt the muscles of his abdomen clench, a tiny, nearly undetectable shudder going out across his skin.
Her eyes lifted to his, a smirk already spreading across her lips. Takemura was doing his best not to notice, picking up the vodka bottle and swishing the contents around.
“Takemura Goro. Elite Arasaka soldier, top of the class… and ticklish .”
“Should have separated. It is not safe for us to be together.” Takemura said, pointedly ignoring the statement.
“Didn’t leave you then, not gonna start now.” V said, voice a murmur as she moved to flip the first aid kit closed, sliding back away from his space. A firm hand stopped her.
“You are bleeding.”
V looked up as Takemura let go, gesturing to his own temple. V touched the same spot on her forehead and pulled her hand back to see the smudge of sticky thickened blood. The swipe of her touch had been enough to break the clot back open, a droplet of fresh warm blood pooling up and dropping down her face.
“Didn’t even notice…” V said with a hiss, the sharp pain now registering. Takemura nodded and offered her the bottle.
“Anesthesia.”
V huffed a laugh, taking him up on the offer as she knew well enough what Takemura was going to do next. She took one quick shot and held the burning liquid in her mouth, swallowing the moment Takemura splashed the alcohol unto her temple.
“Hold please, nurse. ” he said, handing her the bottle and trying to ignore the positively shit eating grin of approval she wore. V handed off a large adhesive bandage to him, the kind a kid might put on a scraped knee. She was surprised how gentle his hands were, brushing aside her hair as he meticulously checked where to best place the bandage before he ripped off the thin paper on the back and settled it in place.
V’s fingers twitched, itching to hold a smoke between them. The impulse born, like most weird shit in her life recently, from Johnny. She settled on rubbing her thumb across the inside of her forefinger and middle finger, staring at nothing as silence settled over the pair of them.
It wasn’t a tense silence. It wasn’t even grave , though given their current situation such a silence would be warranted. It was… comfortable. Tired .
When he was finished, Takemura rested his right arm on his thigh, taking care not to bend too far on his injured side. He let his head bow forward, his shoulders going lax.
“... I had thought tonight... I was to face my death.” his words were slow, cautious- no. Careful .
“You had no reason to come back for me.”
“Bullshit.” V said, the word falling like an exhale.
He tilted his head up, eyes half lidded as he met hers, looking up at him now from where she knelt. Something in V’s chest ached . A pang, sharp and sweet and good . It arched it’s way from her heart to her stomach just from the way he looked at her.
She sat up a little taller, movements going still again when his hand came up to rest against the side of her neck, holding her steady. His thumb traced a circle against the space behind her ear and V felt as if the very blood in her body had paused, her breath shorting out on an inhale. The smell of him, the heat of him… it all came crashing back into V’s perception until she all but heard Johnny groaning with exasperation in her head.
Takemura didn’t do anything, didn’t say anything and that silence gave V the boldness she needed to close the hairbreath of distance between them and touch her lips to his. It was soft, chaste in it’s hesitance and briefness. Takemura did not kiss her back.
V pulled back, eyes fixed over his shoulder on the far wall, anything not to see his face right then. The silence stretched on until V felt she would be crushed beneath it, words forming in the back of her throat, but dying before they could reach the tip of her tongue.
Then Takemura’s other hand came up and he held her face in both his hands, firmly directing her to face him. She looked at his lips, at his jaw, anything but his eyes .
“ Look at me .”
His words translated in her mind from Japanese, the change in language startling her enough into obeying him. V didn’t have to look long, because within a moment his mouth was on hers, urgent and demanding . It took a moment for V to take control of the spinning in her head, but when she did she carefully settled her hands on top of his thighs, fingers curling slightly as she slid her palms up over the fabric of his trousers until she could wrap her arms high around his middle, above the bandages. She was content to let him cradle her jaw in his hands, holding her fast as if he feared she would spring away, vanishing into smoke.
V made a small sound, soft and needy, her mouth opening at the same time as Takemura. A shudder coursed its way up and down her arms when he made a sound, rumbled and deep in his throat and then caught her bottom lip, letting his teeth press against it.
She let her nails run a slow path across his shoulder blades, tension dropping from her arms as she sunk against him. They were both ravenous for touch unmarred by violence. By pain. When was the last time she had embraced someone other than to silently subdue them? When had he? In the grand scheme of things, Takemura had been starving for longer.
Her legs were unsteady, even with him helping to set her up on her feet. They stood together, breaking their contact only when absolutely required. If his mouth was not on hers, it was on her throat, her shoulder— bared now as he pulled and tugged her shirt collar aside, desperate to feel the soft warmth of her against his skin.
V shucked off her jacket, walking backwards as Takemura pressed forward, stalking her as surely as he did his prey with eyes darkened with artificial pupils blown wide. It was his hands that pulled off her tank top, throwing it away carelessly. V gave a nervous chuckle when those same hands gripped against her lower back and forced her up hard against his chest.
The soft swell of her breast pressed firmly against his skin, the shared heat positively searing as they stumbled out of the bathroom and unto the creaking worn motel mattress.
This was stupid. Irrational. Dangerous. They needed to be on guard, to be vigilant. Arasaka was still hunting them and yet V was certain Yorniubu himself could bust through that door and Takemura would not untangle himself to kill him until he had had his fill of her.
V fumbled with his belt, Takemura’s hand coming between them to catch her wrist, stopping the movement.
“ You are sure? ” he managed, his voice breathless and ragged. Falling into his mother tongue was something he did when he was overwhelmed, it would seem.
V’s answer was to settle her weight back onto her shoulders and press her hips up against him in a slow, enticing roll.
“ はい .”
Takemura needed no further convincing.
He kissed her again, thoroughly and practiced, taking her other wrist in his hand and holding them down above her head. V’s last coherent thought was to wonder where he had found time to learn , but those thoughts scattered apart like a bullet through glass when he drew his mouth down her jaw and she felt the rough scrape of his beard between her breasts.
He was so slow. So agonizingly slow. Placing open mouth kisses against her breastbone as if he were a man with all the time in the world.
“Oh— so suddenly that graze doesn’t bother you? Made me drag you halfway—“
V’s voice broke off with a surprised yelp as Takemura bit her nipple, a gruff sound of disapproval in his throat at her monologuing. The slight painful tug was all but forgotten when he rolled the same tightened peak with his tongue.
V was quiet then, except for a soft panting as he went back to his own easy pace.
“ Goro…” his name came out unbidden when he switched to her other breast, a soft laugh sending hot breath over her skin.
“ Better .”
Smug bastard. V wiggled beneath him, one hand coming free of Takemura’s grip because he let her. That fact only made her tangle her fingers even more roughly at the nape of his neck, drawing strands loose as she tugged him demanding upwards.
She could feel the smirk against his lips when she kissed him, fiercely and sharply as she bit him back.
“Why hurry?” Takemura said, in English this time, his voice a low murmur.
“Cause when Arasaka busts that door in, I’d rather die having been well fucked.”
“You will.”
God, if a voice alone could make her cum those two words would have done it. That sharp pang hit right to her core again, making her want to press her thighs together and spread them open at the same time.
“‘Fast is slow, but continuously, without interruption.’”
For once his quoting made some goddamn sense to her. It also helped he was using his now unoccupied hand to unfasten her jeans, sitting up to pull them off her legs.
He seemed to consider for a moment, the pause making V groan in impatience and then protest when Takemura pulled back and slipped off the foot of the bed. He took off his belt and the rest of his clothes before he kneeled onto the floor.
V was rising up on her forearms to get a better look at just what the hell he was doing— that was, until his hands slipped beneath her calves and pulled her to the edge of the mattress. He guided her legs over his shoulders and without warning, licked that same trail he had over her breast up the length of her slit.
V’s hips bucked, but Takemura was ready for that too, folding his arms across her middle and keeping her held in place as he bowed his head between her thighs and utterly devoured her.
There was a joke to be made here, V was certain, given Takemura’s picky “tastes'”— but every time his tongue traced a new pattern over her labia the joke short circuited.
Even Johnny, tucked away inside her head, was silent now.
Takemura alternated at a whim, but his pace stayed slow… deliberate. His beard tickled against the inside of V’s thighs. She fisted the motel sheets so tightly in her hand the damn thing pulled off the corners.
He only stopped once, forgetting himself and trying to force her thigh up higher and wider and managing to pull at his wound as he raised his arm. V reached down to touch him, to brush her hand through his hair and draw her thumb over his cheek.
“You okay?”
Takemura sat up, the dazed look that had settled in his eyes since they began clearing. He pressed a kiss against her knee as he let her legs slide off his shoulders, climbing back into the bed and moved to hover over her.
“Goro? Are you okay?” She asked again, worriedly touching the gauze tape and making sure he wasn’t bleeding through.
“... I am fine.” he said at last, the words soft and almost.. awed? As if he had never said them before. V searched his expression, holding his face between her hands and feeling something in her heart strain when he shut his eyes and leaned into the touch.
“Come here.” He said, though it was him who snaked his arms beneath her lower back and brought her core up flushing against his hips.
She could feel him. Feel the length of him rested against her mound, feel the slight movement of his hips as he rubbed faintly against her.
She laid back, her hips elevated and secure in his arms. Takemura was back in his mind again, eyes heavy and meditative for a lingering moment before he shifted his hips back enough to slip his head up against her and then slowly began to press into the silky wetness between her legs.
A deep deliberate breath exhaled from his lungs as V barely managed to keep herself from rolling and bucking beneath him.
No matter how many times she did it, that initial slow stretch brought with it the most intense feelings of fullness . Takemura was so poised, so controlled… V envied him in that moment and hated him in the best possible way. She wanted it fast and rough— pleasure easy and quick. Takemura though, clearly was not so inclined.
The act felt… intimate. Too intimate. Takemura’s focus was pinpointed, every touch, every dragged out pull of his shaft inside her and then the gentle push back within her heat was done with such steady intent.
V felt almost god damn shy . The attention. The intensity. It was good, it was amazing, but at the same time some part of her felt like it was on the verge of shattering… and the last thing she was going to fuckin’ do was cry during sex.
But fuck— when was the last time she felt safe? When was the last time she felt held? Takemura gently stroked his hand up across her stomach, over the valley of her breasts and back again, his eyes fixed on not just her but himself touching her.
V made sure not to wrap her leg around his injured waist, but squeezed at him hard with her other, trying to pull him in. To edge him on.
“Faster…?” She breathed, adding a raised lift at the end of her words. Questioning. Asking .
Takemura only nodded, returning his grip around her lower back. The position made it nearly impossible to give anything but deep, shallow thrusts, but V was not complaining. The quickened pace was giving her the friction she needed, the press of his pelvis against her clit, the edge of his head sometimes finding that spot deeper in that sent sparks through her body.
It gave her more than her own pleasure too. It was giving her his. He had been so quiet, purposeful and diligent.. and now his brow furrowed and his breath came sharper. V bore down against him, clutching at his shaft when he pulled back and grinned when his hips suddenly snapped back forward. A rough groan slipped from his lips, a curse following when she rolled her hips forward and began to rather enthusiastically fuck him back .
He wasn’t shocked, but pleasantly surprised would have been an accurate term. As a man who lived to serve, it only made sense he wouldn't expect to receive.
“Pull me up.”
V demanded, rising up on her forearms and then her hands until Takemura had no choice but to slip his hold up higher along her back and pull her up, sitting into his lap.
V grinned wickedly and saw the exact moment Takemura realized his mistake.
She rose her hips and thrust down , hands running from his chest up his neck and then back down to grip hard to his shoulders as she rode him.
“Oh fuck— “
Was the only words V managed to make sense of before Takemura slurred into half incomprehensible Japanese. She didn’t need her cyberware to translate that .
One solid push was all it took to have him flat on his back, her hands running up and down his chest as she took control.
He hissed once, grabbing hard at her thigh to move it away from his wound, but after that? The only word she understood from him beneath the rest was yes.
When she came, it tightened in her core, holding steady and constant and lingering right at the edge for long enough that when her body finally burst into spasms, she cried out half in shock of it.
The sound keened to a low whine as V rode out the waves, rocking her hips gently as the initial exhilaration faded to pleasant fading throbs. Takemura’s hands had slid down to her hips, squeezing and rubbing for the sheer pleasure of touching. He was far away again, but somehow, V knew that it was less to do with her and more to do with the fact he remained utterly hard inside her.
“... you didn’t—?” V started to say, hips slowing, but Takemura’s grip tightened and he urged her on.
“Keep doing that.”
So she did. Slowly moving and becoming intensely aware of how he felt wrapped up and pressing inside her walls. His eyes shut, his lips parting and V couldn’t resist the urge to lean down and kiss him, the movement as languid and lazy as her hips.
Takemura did not tense like she did, but instead every muscle went soft and lax beneath her. A quiet moan, half gasped out was her only warning before she carefully slipped off of him and he came, slow spurts spilling across his skin.
It was less like he had lost control rather than he’d allowed it to slip, but V had decided to think upon the consequences of this escapade later. Right now, she was busy licking a trail up along his pelvis, enjoying the way the muscles played beneath her touch.
Ticklish, her thoughts reminded. Takemura rubbed a hand over his eyes, as if waking, alertness coming back into his expression, but… something still softened its edges. Made him more of himself but also less— or maybe it was just the side of him V had not yet seen.
She stretched, rolling off to lay alongside him like a cat, one leg still thrown over his as she propped up her chin on the heel of her hand.
“So… I don’t know if maybe there was some kinda life debt you mighta been thinkin’ bout giving me for saving your ass but uh— consider it paid .”
Takemura, to his credit, laughed.
“You realize, that is like saying my life is worth—“
“Oh, I know what I’m saying.”
“I do not know whether to be insulted or flattered.”
“Just be both and cover all the bases.” V said, leaning down to press several kisses along his jaw, indulgent and very appreciative .
She expected him to disparage the attention now that their purpose was completed, but while he did turn and shy away from the kisses, he also drew his arm up to wrap around her and hold her in a loose grip.
“Someone needs to keep watch.” Takemura said, his voice begrudging the very words.
“I’ll do it. Arasaka didn’t fuck me up near as bad as ya.”
He scoffed.
“You fell three floors, V.”
“First of all, it was two .”
“And second?”
She kissed him, thoroughly obliterating any desire he might have had to protest as he turned to bare her down into the mattress.
“Persuasive.” He said against her lips and let her go, grimacing when he noticed they would need to redo his bandages after the mess he made. Takemura seemed to struggle for a moment in his head, as if wondering if it were even worth mentioning. The strange sort of awkwardness that came over him was in some way, endearing. V decided to do him the mercy of not teasing him.
V got up from bed, finding her discarded jeans and tank top and tugging them on, delighting in the way her body ached just slightly still.
Spontaneous we-might-not-live-through-the-night sex clearly was the pick-me up she needed. Takemura was the opposite though, seeming sluggish and sated , laying still upon his back, his chest rising and falling with lingering speed.
Something like concern warmed through her and V returned to sit on the edge of the bed, carefully stroking the back of her knuckles over his cheek and feeling the scrape of his beard against her skin. He silently looked up at her.
“You really doin’ okay?”
“Three times in one day…” Takemura said with a short mirthless laugh.
“Three?”
“You’ve asked me three times if I am okay. I ...can not recall the last time anyone has asked me such a thing.”
Takemura gingerly rose only to pull his trousers back on, getting back into bed without bothering with the fastens or his belt.
V didn’t even know what to say to that revelation, feeling her heart clench as she sat, waiting as Takemura settled back against a stack of pillows and closed his eyes.
“Wake me if someone arrives to kill us.”
“You got it, Goro.” V said, forcing humor into her voice as she stood only to retrieve her shotgun and then sat again at the edge of bed, muzzle poised towards the door.
Yeah she’d wake him alright, by killing whatever fucker dared come through the door for him.
Christ, V.
Johnny. His voice tinged with disapproval in her mind, the emotion almost acidic on her tongue.
Worry about us first. Though if you do manage to somehow live through this night, that’s gonna be a conversation I’d rather you take a blocker and sign me the fuck out for.
V responded with confusion, a mental indication of Whaddya mean?
The shit that Corpo just laid on you? That wasn’t just some casual fuck. As the minstrels say, he was makin’ love to you.
V audibly choked.
“V?” Takemura asked, a unspoken question lingering over her name. She shook her head without turning around.
“S’fine. Cough.”
And you were to him. Hormones all over the fuckin’ place. Nauseating.
I was not.
Don’t bullshit me, V. I can feel your emotions get all mushy everytime you look at him. Now it’s just gonna get worse.
V tried to ignore him, making a pointed effort of blocking out his words with a stream of thoughts. Song lyrics, scenes from an old Bushido flick, the way Takemura looked at her with such open desire and sheer wanting when he had settled inside of her, warped up in the heat of her and her in him—
Fuck.
Yep. Told ya.
Headlights cut through the dark, shining between the blinds of the motel room as a car slowly edged across the parking lot. V’s grip tightened on her weapon.
There were more pressing dangers to worry about now, but somehow they felt smaller… when her thoughts would scatter into panic, rapid and heated, inevitably every single one landed back on the one thing that gave her comfort— Takemura was here with her. He was alive and here with her.
But that was some shit to sort out another day.