The Dog Days Are Over [Lucy]

[Penelope Serrano-Blaise]

What a cold, miserable day – winter was certainly coming. Penelope let out a soft sigh as she entered the student lounge, deciding it was better to stay inside than venture out into the cold and wind. She had a break in classes and not much to do with the time in between. Surprisingly, the lounge was empty. Normally there were always at least a few students hanging around, but Penelope supposed they had better thing to do. In fact, she was quite happy about the lack of people; it was nice and quiet.

Placing her book bag at her feet, Penelope sat herself down on one of the couches. She sat there a moment, just taking in the peaceful silence that seemed so hard to find nowadays. Was the life of a highschooler. Leaning back slightly, Penelope straightened out her dress before carefully digging into her bag, pulling out a tiny copy of The Hobbit. Most people wouldn’t label her to be a fan of the fantasy genre, but she actually enjoyed it quite a bit. Although she had read The Hobbit a dozen times before, it was just a good book to pick up to kill time. Which would be now.

The corner of her lips pulled up gently as she ran a hand over the old cover – it was starting to show its wear and tear after all her years of owning it, but it was one of the few items she would not want to replace or fix just because it added to the character of the book. Yet, just as she opened up to her bookmark (which was actually just a piece of blue yarn), Penelope heard the door open. Curious to see who entered, she turned her head just enough to glance in the direction of the door, but then immediately tensed.

Great. Just great.

[Lucy Serrano-Blaise]

Lucy had her usual hang outs. Her room. The art room. Rowan's room. Sawyer's room. Lyra's room. She was an easy girl to track, because her choices were almost always the same. But on few occasions, she branched past that. One of the things she liked about the lounge was the TV. And even more than that, she liked abruptly stealing the remote and switching it to her own channel. Because Lucy Serrano - as we all know - is a very caring individual.

When she swung the door open her eyes almost instantly connected with a familiar face. Her grin was almost instantaneous. The eldest Serrano adjusted the faded grey beanie on her head before she made a move out of the doorway. "Penny!" She said, grinning all the way through the nickname.

Lucy went so far as to press her hands to the back of the couch and lean forward over her shoulder. "You like books. I'm not surprised." Leaning even closer, she narrowed her eyes on the pages. "Nerdy books. You like elves and magic and shit?"

[Penelope Serrano-Blaise]

Anyone, anyone could have walked through that door, and Penelope would have been (kind of) fine with it. By why Lucy? Why that insufferable woman?

That grin. Penelope immediately snapped her head back towards her book in an attempt to somehow ignore her. Of course, it was never that easy when Miss Serrano was around. Penelope tried not to cringe at the nickname – one that although was quite cute and innocent, she could not stand for those same reasons, and something about it coming out of her mouth just made it worse.

“Hello, Lucy,” Penelope said, keeping her eyes focused on the book even though she clearly wasn’t reading it. As Lucy leaned forward, Penelope straightened her back and couldn’t help herself but to roll her eyes. “Not surprised that there are literate people in this world, unlike yourself?” Not that Penelope actually knew if Lucy liked to read or not, but that was beside the point.

Nerdy? Okay, yeah, it sort of was. Either way though, she snapped the book shut and finally turned to look at Lucy. “Says the woman who has a sword imprinted on her forearm. Doesn’t that sound a little nerdy to you?”

[Lucy Serrano-Blaise]

"Ah, I'm an illiterate mess today, am I?" Lucy asked, tilting her head to the side and rolling her shoulders back. "That's pretty refreshing. It must be the accent. I know, it makes every Aussie sound like a dumbass."

But, it was hot. Accents were. And she knew that too.

Lucy cringed a little when the book snapped shut, her dark eyes going wide in surprise. She was so hostile today! The eldest Serrano pressed her chin to the back of the couch as she listened as attentively as she could. "I didn't say nerdy was a bad thing." She retorted; "Far from it. Actually, it makes you less of a book-eating, quote-spitting, devoid robot-droid." Lifting herself up again, Lucy hopped the back of the couch and sat on it, her muddy boots resting on the vacant couch cushion beside Penny.

"I can make it move, too. The sword, I mean. Wanna see?" And with that, she was already in the process of trying to pull her leather jacket sleeve up her arm.

[Penelope Serrano-Blaise]

“I think it’s more the person than the accent.” Penelope replied coolly, her fingers playing with the corner of her book. If anything, the accent was hot.

Wait, what was she thinking? Penny’s lips tightened as she mentally scolded herself for letting such thoughts about Lucy enter her mind. It was Lucy after all. But the accent thing still remained. Hell, something about accents made people more attractive. Penelope experienced it first hand as people had flat out told her that her Lancashire accent was sexy (something she wasn’t quite sure how to respond to).

Penelope raised an eyebrow, unsure if she received a compliment or an insult from the other. Before she could spit out a snarky reply, Penelope’s attention shifted to the muddy boots hitting the couch. Immediately, her eyes widened and she clenched her jaw at the horrendous sight. “What the—“ Penny stopped herself from cursing (she never really cursed, after all), and instead reached into her bag, pulling out a cute handkerchief that had little paw prints across it.

She wasn’t paying much attention to Lucy pulling up her sleeve, but instead grabbed one of the girl’s ankles and lifted it up a few inches to start wiping mud off of the couch. "Do you even care?"

[Lucy Serrano-Blaise]

"Ouch." Lucy replied, pressing her hand over her chest right where her heart was. It's like she shot right through with that one.

The Autralian's attention was far from her shoes at that point. Moor the fool if someone didn't look where they sat in the first place. At this point, she was wrestling with the fact that her sleeves seemed to be too tight to drag up high enough. She barely flinched when her foot was lifted to hover off the cushion, she simply readjusted so her balance wouldn't fluctuate so erratically. Because in the next moment, she was shimmying off the jacket and tossing it over onto the floor near Penny. It wasn't going anywhere.

"I'm very caring." She replied, holding her right arm out. Not that she needed to - underneath her jacket she was wearing a tank top. Her sleeves were completely bare; each and every precipitant of a space on her arm in view. The sword shifted across her skin, circling her forearm and brushing past the German text that ran the length of it. She was all but shoving it in the girl's face. "Some people think it's really creepy, y'know? Cause it moves under the skin, and you can really feel it."

[Penelope Serrano-Blaise]

So that Lucy wouldn’t continue to get the couch cushion muddy, Penelope slid the boot of her foot, placing it carefully on the ground where muddy boots belonged, and then continued to do the same with the second boot. Fortunately, Penelope managed to get the cushion pretty clean because the mud didn’t have a chance to settle in.

Now what was that girl talking about? Penny started to look up just as a leather jacket hit the floor. Her eyes had followed the jacket, confused, and as she looked up she found Lucy’s forearm very close to her face. Penelope felt her cheeks flush as to how…well, very nice Lucy looked in that tank top. It was almost annoying.

Penny watched as the sword shifted across Lucy’s skin, and her eyes widened as a response. As much as she hated the girl (really, she did. There was no attraction there whatsoever. None at all), she had to admit, that was pretty cool. It was something she had never seen before, so naturally she wanted to learn about it. “You can feel it?” Penelope swallowed, then reached a hand up to gently run a few fingers across Lucy’s forearm, curious if she could feel it as it moved, too.

It wasn’t really like Penny to do such a thing, but curiosity killed the cat.

[Lucy Serrano-Blaise]

Lucy glanced down finally when she realised one of her shoes had just gone sliding off onto the floor. Jesus, this girl was pedantic. "What, does dirt freak you out or something?" She asked instinctively. When her second shoe was gone, Penny had the fortune of noticing that Lucy's socks didn't match - one grey, one green.

The sudden change of colour to her cheeks wasn't lost of the Australian either. She wondered if she should have thought more of it. Maybe her attitude was just stressing her out too.

Her mouth twitched at the corner when she felt an unfamiliar hand touching against her skin. Her dark eyes very briefly glanced at Penny. It was just strange when people touched her, that was all. That was it...

"Yeah," She said after a pause. After a second of hesitation, her free hand circled over top Penny's - gently, if that were possible - and moved her fingers up her own arm to the larger point of the tattoo. The difference when the tattoo ran slowly underneath her fingers was light, but the indentation of ink was still evident. She would have felt something very slight shift as the flourishing hilt of the sword passed underneath her sensitive fingertips. "Can you?"

[Penelope Serrano-Blaise]

The fact that Lucy was wearing mismatching socks made Penny want to groan in frustration. Did this girl have any sense of organization? Or at least method to her madness? If there was, Penny did not see it. “Dirt doesn't 'freak me out',” she commented flatly, tossing her handkerchief in the nearby trashcan, deciding that the mud probably wouldn't wash out of it. “But that doesn't mean you should go stomping around getting the stuff everywhere like a Neanderthal.”

Penelope wasn't expecting Lucy to place her hand on top of her own, and her fingers twitched in reaction. Her eyes flicked up and met Lucy's before she relaxed her hand again. The whole thing felt rather...intimate. Of course, this was coming from a girl who had yet to have her first kiss, so most human contact felt strangely intimate to her. Or at least that's what she reasoned with herself.

As her fingers gently moved across Lucy's skin, Penelope did feel a slight difference and the corners of her lips tugged up into a small smile. She ran her thumb over the hilt of the sword, holding her hand there for just a bit longer than needed before pulling away. “That's pretty...neat.” She breathed, trying not to let on how impressed she really was. Penelope cleared her throat and straightened again in an attempt to regain herself. Normally, she would have thrown some sarcastic comment at Lucy to make up for the half-compliment, but she found herself at a loss for words, which was a very strange feeling for Penny. She almost always had something to say.

“Are you aware that socks come in matching pairs for a reason? Honestly.” Well, okay, she did have something to say.

[Lucy Serrano-Blaise]

Lucy pursed her lips at the apparent defense, like she really considered it. But after a second or so she shook her head; "Dirt freaks you out." She denoted, as if mentally noting the fact for life. But really, she should have guessed as much.

Physical contact wad always a rarity with this Serrano. She never did see the appeal of skin to skin contact - well, not until recently. She... Understood that it was a useful tool in getting a message across. So was eye contact. Lucy caught Penny's gaze in her dark eyes and didn't think to question her admittance. It was neat. It was more that that. Letting her pull away, Lucy shifted in her positin to filter through her back pocket when she was barraged with another question.

"Do you know how hard it is to keep them together?" She asked, half genuine until she raised a hand in her defense; "If you have some weird thing for partnering your socks with their soul mate, I don't need to hear it." With that, she moved her raised hand and held her palm out to Penny.

"Give me back your hand." Lucy instructed, holding her other hand behind her back.

[Penelope Serrano-Blaise]

Okay, so what if Penelope found dirt to be a little unsettling? There was nothing wrong with that. “I just choose to not roll around in it and then track it around everywhere.”

Penelope felt inclined to tear her gaze away. Too much could be said through eye contact, and the way that Lucy looked at her made a shiver run down her spine. There was a connection, and Penelope wasn’t sure if she liked it or not. Hell, she shouldn’t like it. It was Lucy for goodness sakes. Instead, she shifted her focus to Lucy’s socks again. “Soul mates?” Penelope couldn’t help but to laugh lightly at the comment. Yes, the girl actually knew how to laugh. “How romantic,” she added with a small smirk.

“Excuse me?” Penelope raised her eyebrows at the other, her head snapping back up, giving Lucy a confused look. She wasn’t expecting this, but after a moment of hesitation, Penelope lifted her hand, placing gently it in Lucy’s palm. Her eyes drifted up, watching Lucy’s face carefully, unsure if she should be excited or afraid of whatever the crazy girl had in plan.

[Lucy Serrano-Blaise]

"What can I say, I love a good roll in the dirt." Lucy replied, deeply sarcastic with a trademark grin on her lips.

With a laugh, Lucy shrugged her shoulders. "A sock's a sock, isn't it? Who cares what it's buddy looks like." She added, raising her eyebrows in feigned curiosity. She was beginning to suspect more and more that Penny was the OCD-type.

"Jesus, I'm not gonna hurt you." Lucy retorted quickly. Penny's hesitation was too obvious to bare. But she got the hand in hers anyway, and in the next moment she retrieved the sharpie from her back pocket. She held it out towards the other girl, well within her sight line. "This, it a pen. Not a knife. Got that?" She asked, bringing it towards her mouth and sinking her teeth into the cap, pulling it off in the process and placing it on the end of the pen.

Very briefly, her eyes flicked towards those of the other girl before she dared to press the tip of the pen to her skin. She was only drawing small clean strokes; twists and spirals for now. "If you hate mismatched socks, seeing my room'd probably kill you."

[Penelope Serrano-Blaise]

That grin. Something about it put a strange feeling in the pit of Penelope’s stomach. It was just so annoyingly charming.

“Wouldn’t you rather be matched up with a perfect pair than someone completely different?” Penelope shrugged, but after a moment’s thought, she realized that was a horrible example. She’d personally hate being with someone like herself. “It just looks nice.”

Penelope frowned when Lucy called her out on her hesitation. “I know.” Penny countered, meaning it. Regardless of if Lucy was aware of it or not, just Penny saying that was huge. She was more nervous about the physical contact than the idea of Lucy possibly hurting her. Although she could easily say she disliked the Serrano, Penelope did feel she could trust the girl.

As Lucy waved the sharpie in front of her, Penelope raised her eyebrows. It may not have been a knife, but Penelope never had allowed someone to draw on her before. She remained quiet, however, curious as to what the other was planning. That, and although she would normally stop just about anyone from doing such a thing, something about Lucy doing it was…different.

Her eyes caught Lucy’s, and Penelope’s eyes expressed her compliance. She then shifted her attention towards the pen, watching carefully as Lucy worked. “I can just imagine.” Penelope did try to imagine the girl’s room, wondering how she kept (or unkept?) all of her things. “And I’m sure you’d call me a robot again if you saw mine.”

[Lucy Serrano-Blaise]

Lucy laughed, a snerking sound coming from her mouth in tandem with the chuckle. "Didn't anyone ever tell you that opposites attract?" The Australian asked, pursing her lips at the thought alone. It was so complex, yet she found it simple enough.

She found a little surprised in the intention behind Penny's answer. Lucy assumed she'd be hesitant because she didn't know what to expect. The fact that there might be another reason behind it didn't seem to cross her mind at all.

Compliance was all the eldest Serrano needed before proceeding. She didn't seem to draw anything in particular - instead, she followed the contours of the other girl's hand with smooth lines. At one point she felt it shift underneath her hands, and the line wasn't straight. It seemed to visually irk her, so she raised the pen up to allow her thumb to trace the edge of the line. Using her ability, she altered the shape and smoothed it out again. To Penny, it would have felt like something of a tickle.

"You are pretty robotic." Lucy interjected, looking visibly amused. "Besides, is it really that bad? Does everything you own have it's special little place? If they're not in the right place, do you fully freak out?"

[Penelope Serrano-Blaise]

Opposites attract, huh? Who would have guessed?

“An organized person does not denote that they’re a robot.” Penelope sighed. Something about being called a robot bothered her – even if Lucy wasn’t the first to call her so. “Everything has a place. It saves time and energy.” Especially for her, as her ability added to her OCD simply because she didn’t want to touch anything she didn’t have to. “Would you ‘freak out’ if your room was clean?”

She couldn’t help but to smile ever so slightly as Lucy ran her thumb over her hand. The shifting of the ink felt like a light tickle, but she also felt a different sensation in her chest. It must have been from the surprise of watching ink move on her own skin. That was it. Nothing more to it. Right.

“That’s…that’s amazing.” Penelope commented quietly. She lifted her free hand and gently interlaced a couple of fingers with Lucy’s drawing hand before lifting it up a few inches. She studied the markings with interest for a few moments before bringing her attention back up at Lucy.

She looked at the other carefully, wondering what was behind those dark eyes. Yet she realized that she was still holding on the Lucy’s hand, “Sorry,” she explained and started to pull her hand away, “I wanted to see.”