PRIVATE Friends/Benefits

[Jimmy Hosaka]

* Thwack *

The old, cracked synthleather collided with his jaw,

* thud *

His ass hit the mats, he could taste a bit of blood in his mouth. How anyone enjoyed this he couldn't quite get. Maybe it helped having metal arms. He looked up at the smirking victorious Angel, looking as though she didn't always put him on his behind when they boxed. She was so much smaller than him, and yet those arms made her punch like a grown man. She was a fighter, in many ways. Her knowledge of Night City's beloved sport was something that had brought people to her shop in the first place. That, and the safe haven it provided for Heywood boys and their appetite for illegal car mods. It had been almost two years that the Valentino's had been coming to her place with their hot rods and their boxing gloves. Jimmy had just been a tag along then, now he was a frequent sight, especially in the off hours when it was just the two friends hanging out.

"You're gonna knock a tooth out one of these days." he jested, though he rubbed his jaw in a genuinely pained manner. He stood and peeled the boxing gloves off, dropping them back onto the mat for the next sucker who'd fall for the "frail little girl" act and get his nose broken. As he unraveled his hand wraps he looked at her, the sweat dripping down around those big brown eyes.

She had become... something more than a friend, in the last little while. As far as Jimmy knew, though, it was just a situation. It always was. Heywood lifestyle didn't allow for much more, death always on the move, his abeula used to say. She had been the most recent that it had caught up with, and Adelaide's ability to seemingly shrug it off as it tried to claim her at every turn, for her whole life, was something that Jimmy had come to admire. Of course, on the flip side, Jimmy kicked himself for getting involved with a walking dead woman. It was hard enough to keep his Valentino chooms alive even when they weren't seemingly fated to die like Angel was.

Yet, the two had become entwined, maybe through their shared trauma, and certainly through their shared use of drugs to numb it away. Her pain was more physical, Jimmy's was... well he liked to call it spiritual, but it was his emotions he ran from. And like Heywood orphans did, they found community together. She wasn't a Valentino, but she was treated like one all the same when the gangers came to work on their cars and get her advice. When the two were bored, or spaced out enough, well... it had turned into a situation alright.

"So... uh, you been working lately?" He asked nervously. They were well beyond small-talk, so he wondered if she would pick up what he was putting down, but he couldn't just ask her outright. He could just admit that the other night, as he snuck out of her room back to his megabuilding, that he'd seen what she'd accidently left open on her computer. A message, about a gig, hitting corps. He thought he'd recognized the sender: Daiya. If she was who he though she was, he'd seen her around, and heard even worse, though he'd never spoken to her. He thought at first it was bad news, especially if she'd fallen in with edgerunners to pay her medical bills. But then it had gotten him thinking, about how her new friends could very well be the kind of people he was looking for, now that he'd sort of parted ways with the 'Tinos. Part of him wanted to make sure she was okay, yet part of him desperately wanted to know more, and he had no fucking clue how to broach the subject...

@Angel

 

[Angel]

Location: Angel's workshop
Objective: Box and chat
Tags: @Jimmy Hosaka

"Then you'd better remember to get your guard up faster Esé." she teased as he nursed his jaw.

He was a good guy, he made her laugh and the fact that they had both been kicked around by life helped them bond. It had started of course with him coming over either to box or to have something fixed, she couldn't quite remember now. They had chatted, shared their individual traumas and just gotten to know each other more. Boxing had become drinking, drinking had become tears on the shoulder of a sympathetic friend, tears had become... a welcome distraction from their worries, just a bit. One that they had revisited several times and she was a little concerned that he was becoming a habit. She smirked to herself as he unwrapped his gloves and she did the same.

He joked about her strength but he had plenty of strength, he wasn't some musclebound hulk like some of the cholos that hung out, but he was a guy who had been forced to look after himself and that built a different kind of strength, one that had only added to the attraction she felt toward him.

"So... uh, you been working lately?"

She raised an eyebrow over her large eyes. "Working? Course I'm working. I'm always working? Turn around." She just figured it was him making a bit of small talk, she got used to guys pretending they didn't hang out with her because she was easy, and some of the conversation starters were a little odd. But she knew Jimmy a little better than that and they usually talked fairly easily so there must be more to his odd question.

When he turned she reached up and started rubbing a cool-down gel into his shoulders and his upper back. She smiled back at his cavalero tattoo, one that he had noted was in exactly the same spot as her hasta la muerte tattoo the first time he had been able to examine her from that angle. "Are you really asking if I have been doing gigs?" she asked casually "Maybe... it does help to bring in a few extra eddies." She finished rubbing his shoulders then turned around to let him return the favour. Angel pulled her hair to one side to clear her aching neck. "Why do you ask guapo?"

 

[Jimmy Hosaka]

As her hands worked over his shoulders, he knew where this would go if he didn't say something, and he couldn't wait any longer with the issue on his mind. He couldn't tell if her jocular tone was an actual admittance of her taking on merc gigs, but he had to know.

"So y'know the other night?" The sweat from their spar hid the sweating he was doing now from his nervousness. He had no idea what this was sounding like to her, so he realized he had to get to the point quick. As he turned and returned the favor of treatment, he choked out the truth.

"As I was leaving, I um... saw something, maybe I shouldn't have. I didn't mean to snoop I just... I saw on your computer, you left it open. A message talking about hitting corpos. I'm sorry if that was private stuff, I just mean... y'know if you're edgerunning, would you need another pair of hands? This stuff sounds serious, and it sounds like exactly what I've been looking for since I left the Valentinos. I'm a good shot, all of Heywood knows that."

Jimmy hoped that she wouldn't mind, especially not when he was honest about it, but he wasn't sure the nature of their relationship meant he could intrude on her biz like that. Eds were a different game entirely, and he was running short on them. He feared losing his abuela's apartment. It didn't matter it was a shitty megabuilding unit. It was hers, and now it was his. Stupid as it was, the place felt like the last family member he had left.

Work was slow since he'd left the Valentinos. It was bound to be. Not many people left a gang by choice once they were in, and though it had rubbed some hardcore gangers the wrong way, most folks in Heywood understood what Jimmy was going through, even if they didn't agree. The same wasn't true for fixers elsewhere in the city. There was an air of distrust that followed the self-exile, at least in the eyes of other gangs and even independent fixers. It was always the same line: Go see the Padre if you want work. Once a 'Tino always a 'Tino, it seemed.

@Angel

 

[Angel]

Location: Angel's workshop
Objective: Box and chat
Tags: @Jimmy Hosaka

Angel enjoyed the gel rub from Jimmy but he would feel her muscles tense as he mentioned something he had seen the other night, in her private sanctum on her private computer. Did she really leave it open or had he been having a snoop on her? She honestly couldn't remember which was more likely at this point. She let out a long sigh and shook her head gently at herself, if it was the night she thought, then yeah, she had left it open she had been chatting to Daiya about a mission while she got ready to entertain and then one of her rigs fell over and distracted her.

"Damn, you had to go and make things complicated." She laughed and turned her back to him, taking a couple of steps until her back was against the wall. She rocked her head back and forth for a few seconds to decide how much she did actually trust him and she realised it was actually a decent amount.

"So yeah, this goes no further comprender?" She took a pause for breath. "I'm in a crew, we don't mess with gangs, no turf, no wars, none of that shit. We hit corpos, and we're pretty good." She let a smile cross her face.

"That message was from one of the members, not giving you her name, but she's the one who needs to approve you... so.. would I vouch for you?" She cocked her head and bared her teeth in a smile. After a few seconds, she did a slow nod as if she had decided something, he was right, he was a good shot and extra hands that she could trust were always useful. "Yeah, guapo, I think I would." He had come into this knowing they were anti-corpo, it meant high risk, a ganger might do a drive-by if something went wrong, and corporates would mess you up in ways that your grandkids would feel.

 

[Jimmy Hosaka]

Jimmy held his breath at her reply, and almost couldn't believe the words when they came out of her mouth.

"So you're a cyberpunk?" he said followed by a nervous laugh, which broke into a real chuckle. "Little Angel's fighting the corps."

He put his hands on his head and let out a long sigh. Would she really vouch for me? he wondered. He'd many nights ago shared with her his weariness with the incessant turf wars that her new chooms eschewed. It was part of the reason he'd gotten out. How many more goons down on Sixth Street did he need to flatline until things changed? Did they ever? Every week it was a new dickhead with star-spangled eyes coming on his block talking big game. His dad used to call the gangs hydras, cut off one head and two more grow back. Maybe he hadn't realized it until lately, but Jimmy had sort of always known the gang life was a no good dead end.

"That's really fucking cool. And I'm sorry I had to find out the way I did, really. But like, were you gonna tell me? Or is this really, really lowkey. Cuz y'know I can keep a secret, choom." he had the tone of an excited schoolboy, his heart racing, but his interest and concern sincere. He felt bad, genuinely, for snooping on her. That kind of behaviour would have gotten slapped upside the head in the gang, or worse. The Valentinos valued trust more than anything though, and he'd like to think that if the roles were reversed he'd trust Adelaide enough...

@Angel