Chapter Seventy-Four – Mom’s Spaghetti

Chapter Seventy-Four – Mom’s Spaghetti

“A golden statue of the President of the New United State of Georgia went up today in central park, and that has come with a fair bit of controversy. The statue, coming in at an impressive fifteen feet, has an attached ‘anti-pisser beam’ device designed to target any vandals attempting to deface the art piece.

In other news–“

Snippet of a news report, 2039

***

I figured I was pretty much done for the day.

That meant three big things checked off the list that Gomorrah had given me, one after the other. Basically, I’d girlbossed my way out of my girlproblems and it was time for a girlbreak.

I drove back home, parked my bike, then headed up the elevator. The Bastion was in the garage already, so there was a good chance that Lucy was home, and she was.

“I’m home!” I called out when I walked in.

“Shut up, I’m listening to something,” Nose said from where he was sitting on the couch, face almost pressed into a tablet which was playing something that looked like a let’s play.

I walked over, stole the tablet, tossed it onto the couch across the room, then flipped him over and shoved his head under a cushion.

“I’m home!” I called out again while holding the ungrateful little brat down. He was squealing and kicking, but his aim was weak.

“Hi Cat!” Bargain said as he poked his head into the living room. He saw that I was holding Nose down, then glanced up to me. “What did he do?”

“Talked shit,” I said.

“For five credits I’ll fold him down for you,” Bargain said.

“That’s cheap,” I said.

“When you love what you do, the money you make from it is just a cherry on top,” he said, almost sounding wise.

I shook my head, let Nose go, where he made a big show of being freed, then flung the cushion at Bargain for not helping, and I left the room while the two of them fought. As long as they didn’t break anything too expensive I didn’t care.

The particular sort of chaos that reined at home was really comforting.

I found Lucy in the kitchen, apron on, eyes glazed over as she stared at something on her augs, and one hand idly spinning a spoon in a large pot of boiling something. She blinked, then brightened as she saw me.

That did it for me.

Fuck all those hypersex ads with the tiddies and the thighs and the nice asses (not to say that I disliked any of the above), seeing Lucy’s face go from bored to happy just because she saw me really did it for me. Nothing sexier.

Well… no, actually, I could think of a few sexier things, but it was definitely up there.

“Hey,” I said.

“Hi,” she replied.

I snuggled in next to her, placing my head in its place right in the middle of her bushy hair. “Long day,” I said.

“Aww,” Lucy cooed. She wrapped her arms around me. “Did you have a hard day at work?”

“Yeah,” I agreed. “It was complicated and hard. I need a home cooked meal to fix it, and two to three hours of strenuous fucking for relaxation.”

Lucy snorted. “Let me work on that homecooked meal thing first,” she said before giving my cheek a peck. “We can see about the rest later. I’m making pasta!”

“Something something… straight until wet?” I asked. Lucy turned around to continue stirring the pot, but I didn’t let go of her, so she was awkwardly stuck in my grasp. It probably made working hard, but that didn’t matter, I was being a comfort vampire at the moment, taking whatever energy I could from her.

“Cat, we both know that you were never straight,” Lucy said. “Go get the butter out of the fridge, please. And the garlic too. I’m making a white sauce.”

I snorted. “Alright, fine.”