Time Warp: I Need a Saviour (Pencyer)

[Lucy Serrano-Blaise]

July, 2025

Three years.

It took three years for the Serrano-Blaise collaborative to actually land on definitive plans for some kind of wedding. It was an onslaught of a battle. Firstly, they couldn't have been more different. Penny's family were proper, Lucy's family were unrefined. Despite the similarities - a straight laced mother for either side and a father with a comparable relaxed attitude - the ideas they both posed were so far from each other.

Britain or Australia. July or January. Formal or informal. Traditional or not-so.

After a while (read: a decent few months, at the most) Lucy had given up on trying to find the medium between them. As much as it was supposed to be her wedding, it really wasn't. She doubted it ever had been. Arguments happened - the Brit's were passive aggressive and the Australians were violent. Lucy wondered why they bothered with the whole thing. Penny seemed to as well. But they could reside to the fact that this was important for them all.

At least they fought for middle ground; Vermont. Neither side seemed to happy about that. But once they landed on it, they were done with planning.

Lucy would argue that the worst thing out of it all was the concept that she hadn't been allowed to see Penny the night before. Or at all during the day. She thought about breaking that rule a lot, but it was like she Brit was under bloody lock and key. Or perhaps it was she who had been stuck behind a locked door all night. Their parents knew them all too well.

Settled in a room alone, Lucy took a deep breath and sighed. She stared at the dress as it hung in the corner. Simple in its own way. She'd agreed to the white dress thing as a promise to her mother, and at least part of her was happy for the fact, even if Penny kept trying to reassure her that she didn't need to wear something like that. There it was. Staring back at her. Reminding her how important this whole day was. Reminding her of the pressure to not fuck it up.

Her fingers curled into the material of her button up shirt, making quick work of the little things before unfurling it from her shoulders. Now was as good a time as any to get ready, right? Maybe she'd linger in her favoured skinny jeans for just a little while longer.

She was just glad she'd managed to convince the Serrano matriarch to leave her alone for this.

[Penelope Serrano-Blaise]

Today was the day.

Three years had been far too much of a wait. Three long years of constant bickering between families. Dates. Location. Cake flavors. Themes. Penelope was surprised Lucy and herself had managed to convince them to have the wedding in Vermont. It had been the only decision the couple had made.

She barely felt like it was her wedding today.

The Brit stood looking into the mirror of her own room, running a few fingers through her hair to fix it. She glanced over at the dress hanging in the corner, a tug pulling at her lips as her mind drifted to Lucy’s dress. It was white. Classic. Nothing like her paint covered, swearing Australian that would be wearing it.

Penny let out a sigh. More than anything, she had just wanted to see Lucy. It made no sense that they weren’t allowed to see each other the pervious night and all that day. Yet she didn’t have much choice in the matter.

Really, she didn’t have a choice in any matter when it had come to that day. Neither of them had.

Penny looked back in the mirror, lips pursed as she stared back at herself. This wasn’t right.

Soon she found herself heading down the hallway, having managed to slip past various family members. It was a miracle she was able to, honestly. Once she reached her destination, she gave the door a light knock, trying not to bring attention to herself. She wasn’t allowed to be there.

[Lucy Serrano-Blaise]

As much as she knew the whole thing was annoying, Lucy was opting not to think about it. This was how things were supposed to go, right? She wouldn't ever say she was unhappy with the turn of events. She'd never regret this. She couldn't regret anything even remotely connected to Penny.

Any thoughtful considerations played out as she continued to stare at the dress in front of her.

It was all worth it, the ink manipulator decided.

Before she could even make a move to take her jeans off, a knock at the door whirled her around and forced her to stare at it. She knew that knock, she was sure. But how did that even work? Lucy curled her fingers around the shirt she'd just pulled off, folding it over her arm as she made quick steps towards the door. When she opened it, it was barely so; open enough to peer out.

Instantly, Lucy shot a hand out and forcibly pulled her through the doorway, slamming the door shut behind her and making a point of locking it. One or both of them were going to be destroyed if she was caught here, but it didn't matter. The Australian exhaled into an involuntary smile at the mere sight of her.

Had it been a day? Barely even twenty-four hours? It felt like longer.

Pressing forward, Lucy leaned in and lingered as closely as possible for as long as she could withstand a lack of overt attention; "What're you doing?"

[Penelope Serrano-Blaise]

As Penny knocked, she wondered if there was somebody inside with her. A sudden wave of panic shot through her – they would kill her, possibly literally, for showing up. Her eyebrows furrowed in anticipation.

Yet as soon as the door opened, any sign of worry disappeared as her eyes lit up at the sight of Lucy. An involuntary smile spread across her lips as she allowed herself to be pulled inside, her fingers wrapping around Lucy’s hand.

Once inside and the door was locked, the Brit let out a breath she wasn’t aware she had been holding. Just the sight of her soon-to-be wife put Penny at ease.

“I—“ Penny started, smile faltering just in the slightest. How was she supposed to say this? She squeezed Lucy’s hand lightly, forcing herself to keep her gaze on the Australian. She knew she had to explain properly; Lucy jumped to conclusions too quickly, but she couldn't rush into it. “I wanted to see you.” She wasn't lying, going this long without seeing Lucy was painful, especially when she knew how close she was.

[Lucy Serrano-Blaise]

Had Lucy been thinking with a clear head, she might have caught the worry on her features. But as it stood, she was too elated with the sight of her to even bother noticing what she'd looked like. She was here, and that was all that mattered.

But her smile faltered. Lucy's dark eyes glanced down as her hand was squeezed - she couldn't keep her gaze. Lucy steadily freed her hand, taking a small step away from her. Because maybe it wasn't right to kiss her in that moment.

Unfurling the button up shirt draped across her arm, the ink manipulator took to siphoning her arms through the sleeves again.

"You're not okay." Lucy replied in time, curling her fingers around the collar of her shirt and shifting it slightly, ensuring it sat right on her shoulders. Something about this moment felt like something to get re-dressed for. Staring across the minimal distance, Lucy hooked her fingers around her lowest button, slowly working her way up without bothering to watch her hands move; "Why are you not okay?"

[Penelope Serrano-Blaise]

Penny sighed as she felt Lucy’s hand slip from her fingers, knowing she should have said something before Lucy got the chance to be concerned about it. Her lips pressed into a hard line as she watched the Australian slip on her shirt. Cover herself.

She opened her mouth to speak, but remained silent another moment. Slowly, she took another step towards Lucy, trying to show her that she wanted to be close with the other.

“You’re not okay, either.” She finally said, keeping a close eye on Lucy’s face for any sign of a change in expression. “Not…like this.” She reached out, tugging on the ends of Lucy’s shirt to straighten it out.

[Lucy Serrano-Blaise]

Watching as Penny came in close again. This was strange. It wasn't something she could really respond to - this bizarre back and forth she was offering. Lucy felt the urge to take another step back, but she didn't follow the intuition. Instead, the Australian stood her ground and searched Penny's expression for something to hold onto.

Not like this. Lucy then glanced down as familiar hands made the move to straighten the hem of her shirt. Like what?

Did she think...

"I'm fine." Lucy replied, her eyebrows twitching slightly as she offered a confused expression. "I'm not nervous. I'm not gonna run out on you. I was just about to put that-" She offered a tilt with her head in the direction of the proverbial white dress, doing her best not to roll her eyes in the process; "-On. Until you showed up."

Retracting her hands again, she wasn't sure what to do with them. In any other situation, she'd be able to reach out. But Penny felt unapproachable. "I'm guessing you're not here cause you missed me." Lucy started, though she realised that sounded harsh. An apologetic look shot from her dark eyes. "Did... What happened?"

[Penelope Serrano-Blaise]

When Lucy didn’t reach out to her, Penny felt herself hesitate as she fixed the hem of Lucy’s shirt. Her smile was gone.

It wasn’t supposed to come out like this.

She looked over at the dress in the corner, not missing the expression her love made as she motioned towards it. It seemed ironic that Lucy was saying she was fine while motioning to the same dress that made Penny realize things were not fine.

“I never said you were going to.” The Brit replied as calmly as possible, eyes glancing downward towards her hands as she finally let go of the fabric.

At the question, Penny’s head shot up, concern flooding her features. “Nothing,” she responded quickly. She wasn’t leaving Lucy; it wasn’t even an option. Losing Lucy would be the worst possible thing for the Brit, and there was no way she could possibly walk out on her.

“This isn’t right,” she tried again. She reached up, tracing her fingers along Lucy’s jaw lightly, “Not like this.” she tried to stress the word as much as possible, willing the Australian to understand her.

Her hand slid downward before finally reaching for Lucy’s, giving it a light tug in the direction of the door.

[Lucy Serrano-Blaise]

Lucy felt the most irritating sense of panic start to fall onto her shoulders. She felt the need to justify herself - explain why she wasn't looking to do the standard things a nervous individual did during these kinds of moments. She wasn't going to run. She'd decided on that over a decade ago. But reiteration never hurt.

It felt necessary at this point. Like perhaps Penny doubted her ability to go through with this.

She felt her heart drop when Penny let go of the fabric she held onto. This was impossible to get a read on. If nothing else, Lucy knew it wasn't good. There was no way it could be.

Nothing, she'd said. Nothing happened. The singular word did nothing to calm the confusion that remained in Lucy's eyes.

The ink manipulator exhaled a shallow breath when she spoke again, trying to find solace in the familiar way she was being touched. By now she knew what that meant; the way the psychometrist tried to soothe her concerns with a delicate trace of her jawline.

She acknowledged the way her hand trailed towards her own, harbouring the overbearing need to kiss her - what did it mean if she walked out? "No, wai-"

The realisation was hard hitting. She wasn't leaving her, she was trying to leave with her. Lucy instinctively tugged on her hand in return, demanding her attention for however long she could keep it. Her eyebrows knit together as she searched the equally dark eyes of her counterpart for the light of recognition; of understanding. Before she had to move, she had to know she'd read this right.

After a short time Lucy curled her free hand around the back of Penny's neck, drawing her inward and kissing her with intention. It was a relief - a seemingly insurmountable weight lifted from her shoulders. As much as she wanted to lose herself in the moment - the connection - she knew she couldn't. Not yet. So reluctantly, she drew herself away, taking definitive steps towards the door and pulling it open by a sliver to glance out. Instinctively, she squeezed Penny's hand with unnatural force.

She didn't expect the face of her best friend on the other side.

[Sawyer Lynn]

It was supposed to be a joyous occasion. Sawyer was brimming with excitement despite the fact that she had dropped a gigantic bomb on the couple just a few months prior to this ceremony. And despite the fact that Penelope 1.0 times two in the form of Mrs. Blaise and Michael were arguing with her on whose cake choice should be served and which one should be on display.

She wasn't going to lie, she wanted to kill both of them. Just like she had wanted to kill Penelope when they first met. But she had grown so fond of them both that she was willing to set aside their horrifyingly different opinions and make this wedding something they'd remember for a long time.

If only she knew that was not going to be an issue.

Because she had been assigned to make sure the brides were not taking a peek at each other's dresses [Michael had been in charge of putting them in the rooms on opposite wings of the building they were having the wedding in], Sawyer practically threw herself into keeping them apart for the whole weekend. It took her mind off a lot of pending negativity that she felt grateful for the pressure.

It was this exact reason that brought her over to Penelope's room to check on her, only to find her going in the direction of her fiance's room. She didn't make her presence known even though the hells [no, not heels] she had been forced to wear by Mrs. Blaise herself, made it difficult for her to remain incognito for long.

The stupid dress she was in, that she was dying for Rowan to literally rip off after the ceremony, held her back from running too fast so when she finally got to Lucy's room, the pair were in the middle of their discussion and just seconds away from opening the door.

Sawyer could feel something nasty building it's way up in her stomach as she realised what the muffled voices were planning. And when the door opened, the first thing she blurted out was: "I will kill you both." She paused before a manic grin spread across her lips. "Or I could just call your future mother in law," she trained her eyes on Lucy before turning to her English counterpart, "And your brother to do the job for me." Her voice was calm but the grin showed exactly where her calm had disappeared to.

[LAWL IT WENT ON TOO LONG AHHAHA notsorry]

[Penelope Serrano-Blaise]

Feeling Lucy tug back on her hand, Penny kept her full attention on the Australian. She watched as the gears turned in Lucy’s mind, which lead the Brit to believe they were reaching an understanding. Her expression softened as she realized she was getting through to Lucy; and the Australian didn’t seem to fight her on it.

Without hesitation, Penny leaned into the kiss. Her free hand instinctively moved to the small of Lucy’s back to pull her in closer. She reciprocated the kiss, putting everything she could into it. Relief washed over her as she felt Lucy’s lips against her own, her breath still got caught in her throat from the act.

As the Australian pulled away, Penny leaned inward, instinctively wanting to follow, but she, too pulled back after a moment. As much as she wanted to continue, it wasn’t the time. They only had a small window of opportunity to leave.

Penny kept close to Lucy as they headed towards the door, and she offered a squeeze in return as the ink manipulator opened the door.

Seeing Sawyer on the other side was the last thing she was expecting to see. Her eyes widened at the sight. They were caught before they had even made it out of the room. Part of her honestly believed that the voice mimic would kill them – and if she told her mother…dear God save them.

She shifted her gaze to Lucy, giving her love an unsure look before an idea hit her. “We need a witness.”

[Lucy Serrano-Blaise]

At this point, Lucy was a little more scared of Sawyer than anyone else who could have been there. She was doing a lot for this, and the Australian honestly felt bad for not giving her some thought. But things were just... Moving so quickly. She didn't have time to think. If she did, she'd realise how ridiculous this whole thing really was.

Of course she didn't doubt the threat Sawyer was offering. Hell, it wasn't even a threat. It would happen.

"Jesus, no." She shot out instantly. The last thing she needed was to give Penny's mother a reason to dislike her. Though, really, this probably wasn't going to sit well with her at any rate.

Penny had a point. And really, who better to ask but Sawyer?

Reaching out with her free hand, Lucy curled her fingers around the voice mimics wrist and she forced her inside too, closing the door behind her. Already this was getting a lot more complex than it originally seemed to be; Lucy was starting to add up just how much went into something like this. How much was needed. "We're-" Lucy started, but faltered pretty quickly and looked to Penny. It was her idea.

"Don't freak out, but-" Lucy tried again, wondering how to even explain this; "This isn't-" She made a point of waving her hand as she lost the words, as if somehow it'd make it easier to find the explanation.

No, it wasn't working.

[Sawyer Lynn]

Lucy's protest went unheard as the voice mimic trained her eyes on the English brunette. She had always been the rational one in the trio. Sawyer wasn't going to lie, most of the time, she looked to the Psychometrist to even form coherent thoughts.

When she was pulled into the room, her shoe got caught in the hem of the dress and she cursed softly. "I swear to God your mother is really actually trying to kill me, Pen." Sawyer hissed before kicking off her heels and turning to her two best friends, staring them down as Lucy started to talk.

So the muffled words she had heard before was finally confirmed. Everything made sense now. She didn't know why she never caught on to it sooner. This was Pency she was talking to. What part of them could anybody think would want a traditional wedding? Nothing about them was traditional; how they met, how they got together, how they fell in love...none of it had been traditional.

Sawyer took a deep breath and looked between the two before shaking her head in exasperated affection. "I don't need to tell you just how much of a shit storm this is going to cause, do I." It was a rhetorical question as the corner of the voice mimic's lips quirked up. "I ought to curse you both out right now." She bit her lower lip and looked at them both. "What's next?"

[Penelope Serrano-Blaise]

Penny kept her gaze focused on Lucy. She offered an idea – and now it was Lucy’s turn to do the rest. The Brit quickly decided it was her fiancé’s job to break it to Sawyer simply because they were friends first. Of course that made sense.

But really, she just didn’t know how to face the wrath of Sawyer.

The moment Lucy reached out, Penny stepped aside, knowing well what the Australian was doing. It was bad that Sawyer had caught them, but it could be even worse if someone else walked down the hall and saw them, too.

She gave Lucy’s hand a reassuring squeeze; honestly, she gave the ink manipulator kudos for even trying to break the news to Sawyer. There was no easy away around it.

Yet, as Lucy was failing to get more than a few syllables out at a time, Penny opened her mouth to speak unsure exactly how to word herself.

Fortunately, she didn’t have to worry about it, as Sawyer seemed to have some understanding of the matter. She pursed her lips at the question, unsure exactly how to answer it. Even though she felt like she knew Sawyer decently well, she wasn’t quite sure if the voice mimic was on their side or not. “Um…” she, once again looked at Lucy, giving her a small nod.

[Lucy Serrano-Blaise]

Lucy's mouth pressed into a line, trying to hide the fact that she found Sawyer's complaints about her attire pretty damn amusing. It was hypocritical, given what was expected of the ink manipulator, but she couldn't help it either way. As much as she wanted to protest that her best friend looked hot as hell, she felt it wasn't the best time to bolster her ego.

The Australian's eyes went a little wide at the concept of what this was going to cause. Shit. Her jaw dropped slightly, but nothing fell out. She hadn't realised how big a deal this was.

But that wasn't a deterrent. It couldn't be.

Lucy caught the look Penny was giving her; the nod in tandem with a singular sound that failed harder than her attempt at offering an explanation. Her eyebrows knit together, eyes narrowing on Penny. "It was her idea." She pointed out, because really, she felt it needed to be said.

"Okay. Fuck, okay." She refused to retract her hand from her counterpart, and so instead she raised her free one to the line of her hair, her fingers trifling through her dark locks in a moment of important thought. What did people even need for things like this? "Okay, okay. Do you have anything with you-?" She briefly looked to Penny. Of course she didn't, her hands were empty. She knew that.

As it turned out, Sawyer's arrival was damn near imperative. "Did you think about this?" Lucy asked her counterpart, glancing across her expression briefly. She couldn't be mad at her - not for faltering over her own idea. She raised her free hand to press it lightly against her cheek. Penny had been right. Coming up with the idea was her part of things; the rest was up to Sawyer and Lucy. "Get your passport."

She finally turned her attention to her best friend. "Are you sure you can handle-" Lucy dropped the statement instantly. She knew Sawyer could handle it. It just mattered if she wanted to. But she knew the answer to that, too. "I don't know what else you need for something like this, but someone's gotta be a witness." There. Typical Lucy. Asking without asking.