Work Text:
“Again, why are we doing this?” inquires Viktor, sitting down on a bank in the dark silent gym.
“’Cause I don’t want my ass beaten in the first fight. Now tell me, how am I doing?”
“Awful”
“Oh, come on!”
“Raise that elbow”
V keeps punching the boxing bag, sweating on her sports bra and hands starting to hurt under the bandages. Her arms move with determination, hitting it again and again on a never-ending rhythm.
“About that fight…” starts Vik, staring at her movements with arms crossed.
“Kabuki, in a week”
“A week?! Are you really sure about all of this, V? ‘Cause I’m starting to get tired of finding you every so often at the entrance of my clinic looking like a dead rat…”
“Don’t lie, you are not tired of me yet”
“Maybe I wouldn’t if you paid me every time…”
V stops punching and pulls a face.
“Ye, about that…”
“Just kiddin’, kid, I’m not charging my friends if they struggle with money”
“I know, but it’s your job and you need to eat, too. I swear I’m paying every penny I owe you after winning those fights”
“You don’t have to…” starts Vik before being interrupted.
“Yes, I have to. And I want to. You’ve help me too much”
“And still here you have me training you on a Friday night” Vik chuckles and stands up, wandering around the place. V knows she is demanding too much from him and some honest thanks would not hurt anyone. She knows he is exhausted after the long workday, but knowing him she had no doubts Vik would help her no matter what.
He always does.
“Bet you don’t have much else to do anyway….” sarcasm and a bit of cruelty fits her better. "Come on, we have job to do"
"Oh, so it's a job. Wow, another one you don't pay me” he is clearly joking this time.
“Maybe I will”
“Sure, with what?”
"Mhh… kindness?" V makes a fake smile with her teeth and raised eyebrows. Vik sighs.
"Fair enough".
Viktor walks around the place looking at the old gym, he has no idea how or why she had the keys of that place to use it at her will, but knowing her methods, he is not asking anyway. The neon lights of Night City behind the windows subtly illuminate the room in a cold blue shade, the sounds of the streets resonating in the background. Up there it seems like a little peace sanctuary above everything. It’s been a long time since he stepped foot in such a boxing gym and, fuck, it feels good.
V knew since she met him that he missed the fights, you only needed to take a look at his shelves in the clinic, full of photos, trophies and a screen playing fights nonstop. He definitely misses it a lot. The ripperdoc approaches the ring, bracing his arms against the ropes to get a better look at V punching that bag.
“I will have a word with that couch of yours, Fred or however he’s called. You are gonna hurt yourself” there’s a slight look of disapproval in his eyes.
“He is not my couch, the man only got me the fights. Besides, I can take care of myself”
“Not fighting like that, in a week you won’t be messing against a bag, remember? If you don’t move faster you’ll get knocked out in a minute”
V stops, covered by sweat falling down her face and torso, chest going up and down from the tiredness. She opens the arms and stares at him.
“Then why don’t you move that pretty ass of yours in here and show me?”
Vik chuckles and shakes the head slowly.
“I left if ages ago”
“Too much violence?”
Viktor seems to find that kind of funny for some reason.
“Oh, no, I don't care about violence, the world went to hell decades ago, violence means little nowadays. It was just paid like shit”
No need to answer.
V goes down the ring and empties a bottle of water in her face, swallowing a little bit but mostly letting it fall down her bod before sitting down against a wall with a towel on the shoulders. She has been training for quite a lot of time now and still there she is, with a decisive look in her eyes that says she is going back to it as soon as her legs work again. He’s not sure if she is doing this for the money or for that stupid idea that lately stuck in her head of being remembered in Night City, but he had never met anyone with such strong a will. Viktor sighs again.
“OK, kid, come on, we're not leaving this place until you move like a real fighter, we have the whole night” says Vik, not more invested than ever in helping his friend.
“Wait, really?”
“Have you backed down already?”
“Hell no”
The doc walks towards her while unbuttoning his shirt, V stares at him intently without a hint of shame as he gets rid of it and throws it to the ground, remaining bare-chested. Viktor is now in front of her, so close, towering imposingly over her body and looking down to her under his dark glasses.
“What are you looking at, come on, stand up” V looks at him without moving for a sec before his now outstretched hand.
“Sorry, it’s just…”
“What? Afraid of an old man?”
"Thank you, Vik"
He relaxes his glance behind the glasses and smiles without saying a word. V swipes the sweat off her face and stands up with the help of his strong hand pulling her up. He now picks up two pairs of boxing gloves from the ground and throws one to the mercenary’s face.
“Let’s put these on, I don’t want to hurt you. Not really in the mood for opening the clinic again today”
“‘You sure you want these so I won’t hurt you?”
Viktor chuckles.
“You really think you can take me?”
V raises an eyebrow. She would have to swallow her tongue to not say what she is thinking about.
“Oh, I’m pretty sure I can”
Vik sights and starts to move his arms in circles to warm up. V can’t help but look at his body, she had hardly ever seen it before with the naked torso. He is definitely still in a very good shape, muscles puffed, huge back, big arms. No doubt he keeps training every day. A large tattoo sleeve covers his right one and she can glimpse the world “PAIN” written behind his bicep. Somehow that awakes something inside of her. Even more if possible. Damn, it has been hard to hide some things lately.
Viktor starts to explain some theory about the movements, how to redirect punches, how to receive them so you don't take too much damage, how to dodge, how to tense the muscles... no doubt it's useful information, but still V has to make a huge effort not to yell "Ok, but now fucking show me”. Vik sighs, damn stubborn.
“Okay, kiddo, let’s put it in practice. Try to hit me”
“Wait, are you sure you want me to punch that pretty and delicate face of yours?”
“Not delicate and definitely not pretty. But you can try”
Without hesitation V throws a punch to his face, one that he avoids easily moving aside. His fists are now in front of his eyes, his back is crooked and his legs half bend and separated. One just has to take a glance from a far to tell he is a professional. Definitely not like her.
“Faster” says Vik after dodging every one of her hits making it look so easy like he’s just chillin’ around. His feet and head move without batting an eye.
“I’m goddamn tryin’” V pants trying unsuccessfully to predict his moves.
“You are too predictable” he is not even concentrated and that makes V go mad and scream with anger while hitting harder punches that are just able to brush his shoulders.
After a frustrating time, the merc just throws the gloves at the ground.
“Fuck it! Enough of this, if I can’t learn how to hit you at least teach me how to take a fucking strike”
Vik relaxes the arms, now slightly gasping with sweat falling down his torso. It’s been too long since he last did something like this.
“I’m not hurting you, kid. I’m your doctor, remember?”
“Great, you’ll be able to heal me after it. Now beat me up”
There is no alternative universe possible where someone like Viktor Vector would hurt her. He blows and relaxes the arms.
“Listen, Valerie, I know you are frustrated and in a hurry to be a legend or whatever, but there is no way you are learning everything in a few days without understanding the technique and paying attention” he blows again. Damn, why does he have to talk like a father sometimes. She hates it. “Please let me show you the basis and we can fight for real after it if you want to”
Maybe Vik using her real name is the only way to make her enter reason. She snorts.
“Okay, Doc. Your way”
“Can I touch you?”
“Wow, thought you’d never ask…”
“Val.”
“Okay, okay, go ahead”
His hands move shyly to her arms, hips, legs, positioning the posture in an ideal way. This goes higher, this you should bend more, maybe he is being too optimistic about her remembering everything. V knows it’s a professional thing and she should pay attention, but is finding it harder than she expected now that his strong hands are on her skin. Fuck, how much she’d give to touch him back now that his shiny bare chest is so close.
They fight for a while, with Viktor correcting her moves every once so often. Have to take a few breaks before V starts to move like she kinda knows what she is doing. Vik won’t say it, but she is doing a great progress. Not like he wasn’t expecting it, tho, V is one of the strongest and most ambitious persons he knows.
Later in the night, a long time after they started training, V throws a punch to his face, one that he quickly dodges, just before she punches him with the other hand right on time to hit him.
His glasses go flying through the gym and come down with a sharp noise. She stares at them before realizing it finally worked. She now looks at him that’s standing still with his face turned after the blow, but with a small proud smile.
“FUCK YEAH!” V screams so prideful of herself, hitting the ground hard with her foot in an echoing sound. “DID YOU SEE THAT?!”
Viktor brings the back of his hand to his mouth and looks at it to find a trail of blood on it.
“Very good, kid, very good… didn’t see it coming”
He wanders around stretching the arms and neck.
“Now let this old man rest for a while, will you?” his voice is calmed but happy as he walks to sit on a bank, sweat falling down his face and torso.
V bends over, hands on knees to catch her breath.
“That was fucking dope”
“It was, Val, congrats” Viktor loosely chuckles.
It takes her a while to pull herself together and look around.
“Fuck, Vik, sorry for your glasses-”
She picks them up and looks at them before breathing a sigh of relief that they aren't broken, and cleans them with her pants cloth. She looks through them to make sure they are clean enough before walking towards Viktor. He holds out a hand to catch them, one that V completely ignores to put them on his face herself. Vik smiles.
“Thanks”
“I love seeing your eyes, but I think you’d like to see too. Did I hurt you?”
“Oh, it takes a lot more to hurt me, kid” Viktor rests his elbows on his knees. V knees down in front of him and starts to remove bandages from her hands. All the pressure she was feeling now seemed to disappear, like the fight next week in Kabuki didn’t exist, like the only reason she did all that training was to hit Vik once. Her job was done.
“Are you OK? Need help?” asks the doc looking down at her hands, knuckles now completely red and bruised.
“I’m fine, just exhausted” she makes a grin. “And a bit disappointed for not keeping up with an old man…”
Vik gives V a friendly punch on the shoulder, which makes her fall on her ass.
“You’re training alone next time”
“Okay, I’m kiddin. Thanks for everything, Viktor. For real”
“Hope I could help”
“You always do”
They are now staring into each other’s eyes. Fuck. Didn’t plan this to be this intense all of a sudden. Shit, should she cut this? V stands up fast and starts wandering around the gym looking for something.
“What are you…?”
“Shht. Gimme a sec”
V returns with a wet cotton and stands again between his legs.
“Head up”
Viktor smells the alcohol on the cotton as a trail of blood falls down his lip.
“It’s OK, I’ll take care of it at home”
“Come on, I know you don’t trust me, but let me be the doctor here for once. Do it for me, yeah? I feel like taking care of you tonight” Vik chuckles and raises the chin to give her a better angle. Why is he looking so good like this?
V’s hands move slowly to his face and start rubbing his lip gently with the cotton.
“Sorry if it burns”
“It’s nothing”
“I know you like pain, but still”
“Excuse me?” He laughs, making the task difficult for V.
“You have it tattooed in your arm”
“You are taking a good look at my body tonight, uh?”
“Hard not to”
She’s holding his face with a hand while working with the other in his mouth, slightly opened. She could swear that at some point he has leaned on her hand lightly, seeking her touch. Her chest is at his eye level, but he only looks into her eyes.
“Val…”
But Val is too deep in the well to escape this one.
“I have asked you favors thousands of times and I have not payed you a thousand more, and yet you have never complained and you did it with a smile on your face. Why are you so kind? What makes you this good on this goddamn city?”
She stares into that lovely face kindly paying attention to everything she says and does. As always. Vik smiles. Of course he does.
“I’m not that good”
“No, I mean it, Viktor. For real. You are talented and professional, an amazing fighter and now the best ripperdoc of Little China, but you are also patient and loving and one of the best persons I have ever met.”
He stares in silence.
“Is that what you think of me?”
“I think a lot of things about you”
That’s when V bends over to kiss him.
And his lips are soft. He doubts, but kisses her back gently.