Here’s day two of the Femslash February Ficlets (aka Roxlivia Month). Prompt was “virtual,” and if it feels a little incomplete, that’s because when I’m done with the ficlets I’m almost certainly returning to this one for a full-blown fic. So here it is, and I hope it’s not too confusing:
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“Hey Rox!” Eggsy chirped in her ear. “Glad you made it!”
Roxy tapped her earpiece, double-checking that it was secure. Not that she really needed to: the equipment was state-of-the-art, and it had never failed her before, but she’d gotten into the habit early on and never quite managed to shake it.
“Where are you?” she asked Eggsy. “Thought you would be around HQ this time of day?”
“Nah, Harry let me home early,” Eggsy said. “I’m hanging with James at his place. He says you can come over, if you want. We ain’t seen you in ages.”
“Well, I’ve been busy,” Roxy said, already sliding her helmet on and straddling her motorcycle. “We can’t all be the boss’s favourite.”
Eggsy didn’t bother trying to deny it. It was no secret that Harry, despite being a fair employer, definitely liked Eggsy best. Instead, he said, “You on your way?”
“I’ll be there in a second.” Roxy revved the engine and took off.
She skidded a little on the dirt path as she turned into Tequila’s driveway. She didn’t think she’d ever get used to pulling into the winding path that led up to a modest ranch house, complete with pastures out back and a few horses trotting around. It just looked so foreign.
Eggsy was waiting on the porch for her, hanging half over the railing as he waved at her. He cupped his hands over his mouth – unnecessarily – and called out, “Come on in!”
Roxy parked her bike and sauntered up the steps, pulling Eggsy into a brief hug as she passed him. Eggsy followed her inside, where Tequila was fussing with two pieces of wood that vaguely resembled the chairs set around the dining room table. He dropped them and straightened up when he caught sight of her, grinning broadly and scooping her up for a bear hug. “Long time, no see! Eggsy was starting to worry you dropped off the face of the Earth.”
“I was not!” Eggsy interjected.
Roxy laughed and righted herself on her feet as Tequila released her. “Well, as you can see, I’m still here. How’s America?”
Tequila shrugged, lips twisting into that wry smile he got whenever he talked about his home country. “You know. Mostly on fire. Or underwater. Sometimes both. The usual.”
“It’s alright. It ain’t too crazy where I am. Least not the weather. People are talking about overthrowing the government again. ‘Course, they’re always talking about overthrowing the government, and it ain’t happened yet, so we’ll see.”
Tequila chuckled and settled onto the sofa. “Yeah. How about you? What’s been going on across the pond, huh?”
“Oh, Eggsy hasn’t been filling you in?” Roxy took the seat opposite him, testing the give of the surprisingly well-made armchair as Eggsy dropped down next to his boyfriend. “It’s not chaos over here yet, but a lot of people are getting nervous. The water’s rising and all. Lot of people moving farther inland, but there’s only so far we can go, you know?”
“I hear Harry’s got you running around outside too,” Eggsy said. “Not just in here.”
Roxy shrugged. “He asked me to run a couple errands, that’s all. It’s why I haven’t logged on in a couple days.”
“What sort of errands?” Eggsy asked. “Or are those top secret?” He grinned, and Roxy smiled back.
“Top secret, I’m afraid,” she said. “No offense, Tequila, but Harry isn’t exactly keen on outside ears hearing about it.”
“None taken,” Tequila returned. He shrugged. “I get it. It ain’t even just me. I sweep for viruses plenty often, but bugs still slip through sometimes.”
The topic turned toward sports: athletes were a dime a dozen these days, but the events, like much of the simulation, made people feel a little bit safer. Like not everything had changed. But Roxy’s mind wasn’t on who was making it to the playoffs, even as she and Eggsy playfully ribbed Tequila about his continued insistence on using the word soccer rather than football. Instead, she was thinking about what Harry had told her just before logging on again.
“You’re doing the world a service,” he’d said. “One they’re not ready to hear about yet. And there are a lot of people out there who would like to see you…to see us fail.” He’d placed a hand on her shoulder, and Roxy had to admit, as excellent as her virtual reality suit was, there was something…indescribably more about real human touch. “I’m counting on you, Lancelot.”
“I won’t fail you, sir,” she’d told him.
He’d smiled. “I know you won’t.” But the weight of the words had stayed with her, even after Harry’s request to “give his best to Eggsy” before he’d walked away, and Roxy had returned to her home outside of home and slipped into her suit.
It weighed on her now, but she managed to make small talk with her best friend and his boyfriend for an hour or so, before Tequila begged off with the excuse of time zones, and Roxy left him and Eggsy to say goodbye, hopping her bike back to her virtual house in only a few blinks.
The weight lifted a little as she opened the door and was greeted by a smiling face. “Welcome home, Roxy,” Olivia said, stepping back to let her inside. “I’ve been waiting for you. You were gone quite awhile.”
The dialogue was a little stiff, a little canned, but Roxy was used to that by now. She closed the door behind her. “I know. I’m sorry. Harry-“
Olivia placed a finger over Roxy’s lips. “I know. Merlin told me.”
Roxy blinked. “I didn’t realize he was going to send you the info. Harry said it was confidential.”
“It is. But Merlin encoded it thoroughly. Even I wouldn’t have been able to access it if he hadn’t given me the key.” Olivia curled her fingers around the locket at her throat and teased, “And you certainly wouldn’t be able to.”
“Good thing I already know it, then.” Roxy wrapped her fingers around Olivia’s and drew her hand to her mouth, laying a kiss across the knuckles. Olivia flushed faintly, and a little thrill ran through Roxy’s body.
“I hope it hasn’t been too boring here,” she murmured, drawing Olivia a step closer. “Without me, I mean.”
Olivia’s smile was faint, and with an odd quirk of the lips that Roxy was used to. “I don’t get bored. You know that.”
“Still,” Roxy said. “I think I ought to make it up to you. Leaving you here all by yourself.”
Olivia’s smile broadened. “If you think it appropriate, then by all means.”
When Roxy drew her in for a proper kiss, her arms around Olivia’s neck and Olivia’s around her waist, she marvelled as she always did at the wonders of technology. Unlike Eggsy, or Tequila, or any of the other people Roxy interacted with online, Olivia’s touch didn’t come from any coding, sent across the metaphorical wires to her suit so she could feel it. It was all extrapolated, just a tiny, barely noticeable bit off from true human contact.
And yet, it felt so real.
