hunger ; detroit: become human

nineteen

Valeria

Morning of November 11th, 2038 - 9:37 AM

When Valeria woke that morning, something warm and heavy was on her head. Warm, heavy, and soft. Reaching her hand up, she set it down on something furry, and heard a trill, then deep purrs.

"Mornin' Ripper," she mumbled, carefully angling her hand so she could scratch the cat behind the ears.

"She's been like that all morning," Gavin said, his voice coming from somewhere to her right.

"All morning? What time is it?" Valeria asked, lifting her head as best as she could. Ripper meowed and climbed down from her head, allowing Valeria to sit up and brush her hair from her face.

"Uh, little after nine thirty. Why? Got a hot date?" he asked, leaning against the wall with a mug of coffee in his hand.

"Ha ha. No, I just wanna send Hank a text and let him know I'm okay. Maybe figure out how to give Connor a call, too," she said, smirking a bit as he rolled his eyes.

"I really have lost you," he muttered, shaking his head.

"You're such a drama queen. Look, the last twenty four hours have been, well, exhausting, and a little traumatic for me, I'm not gonna lie. And I just wanna let them both know that I'm not dead," she said, leaning against the arm of the couch.

"I get it, I get it. No need to fuckin' explain," he said, raising a hand slightly before going back into the kitchen. She rolled her eyes and reached for her phone, unlocking it and going to her contacts. She scrolled until she found Hank's name, and she opened up a new text conversation.

'Hey Hank, it's Val. Not dead, knew you were positively worried.'

She set her phone back down and stood from the couch, stretching her arms over her head. When she looked around and saw no signs of Chris or Tina, she assumed they'd gone back home hours before, or had gone into the station. With the city still being evacuated, she had no idea how empty everything would be.

"Hey, Gav?" she asked, glancing into the kitchen.

"Yeah?" he called back, looking at her over his shoulder.

"Is the evacuation mandatory?" She walked over to him, leaning against the kitchen counter.

"I don't think it is. Plenty of people don't wanna just uproot their lives because a bunch of fuckin' tin– I mean, a bunch of androids got pissy," he said, changing his tone as he caught Valeria's eye.

"Well, are you gonna go?"

"Fuck that. Took me ages to pay this place off."

She laughed and shook her head, gripping the edge of the counter so she could lift herself up onto it, crossing her legs at the ankles as she looked over at him.

"Good, because I'd, uh, I'd miss you," she said, and he looked up at her, smirking slightly.

"Don't let your plastic boyfriend hear you say that. He might develop laser eyes or something," he said, and she snorted.

"That would be so fucking cool. Like, imagine telling people not to piss me off because Con's got fuckin' laser eyes!" she said, then glanced at her phone. She slid down from the counter and walked back over to the couch, grabbing her phone from the arm and looking down at the screen. She opened it up and saw a text notification, so she tapped on the icon.

'Good. Meet at the Chicken Feed in thirty?'

'Sounds like a plan. See you then.'