You Who Brings the Morning

[Penelope Serrano-Blaise]

Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep.

Penny’s eyes squeezed tight, the sudden noise forcing the Brit out of her slumber. It was Sunday. Alarms weren’t supposed to go off on Sundays. Along with the obnoxious noise, Penny heard the sound of a slightly disgruntled Lucy Serrano. The shuffling of covers. Felt the warm body lying next to her start to shift.

It was early, really early. Had the psychometrist opened her eyes, she would have looked at the time, but as it stood, she kept her eyes shut tightly, trying to force the noise out even as she felt Lucy fumble with her phone. She must’ve been tired, too; the pair had spent a good portion of time in the art student, not getting back until later that night, and now she was waking up early.

The alarm stopped, but she didn’t. Her counterpart continued to shift. To pull away. Penny reached forward, hands sliding along bare skin as she wrapped her arms around Lucy’s waist, pulling her back into the bed. Inching closer to the ink manipulator, Penny pressed her lips lightly to her back. “Don’t.” she mumbled softly against her skin.

[Lucy Serrano-Blaise]

Early mornings were hardly Lucy Serrano's forte. She avoided them as best she could; that proved difficult at times, given the fact that her British counterpart had a penchant for waking up at around six in the morning. Every morning. So she was starting to get used to it, Sunday or no. Still, even this was earlier than that.

Still, it woke the ink manipulator, just as it was supposed to. Lucy immediately offered something of an involuntary, almost exasperated groan. Regardless of whether she set it or not, it still made her barely conscious mind unhappy.

As she moved, Lucy shot a hand out from under the confinements of the covers, stumbling for her phone somewhere on the bedside table. Still, she dragged the device into her sight line and shut off the alarm, dropping it back to the table and holding her eyes shut. Early. On a Sunday. What the hell had she been thinking? It would have been so much easier to stay back and disassemble the galaxy last night. But really, that hadn't been an option. So she moved to regrettably pull herself away. But she didn't get far.

Familiar hands traversed the exposed skin of her form, keeping her in the comfort of the bed. Causing her heart beat to shift slightly, even if she was still in the process of trying to be conscious. Falling back into place felt easy - more so when she registered the sensation of a kiss and then a word against her back.

For the moment Lucy stayed, a lazy grin catching the corner of her mouth; "I have to."

[Penelope Serrano-Blaise]

Penny smiled against Lucy’s back as she felt the ink manipulator fall back into place. It hadn’t taken much effort to pull Lucy back into the bed, and Penny was grateful for that. It slowly started to register in her mind why Lucy was waking up so early; her counterpart failed to tell her that she set the alarm. Again, she kissed the Australian's back. Even though she was still exhausted, the Brit couldn't help but to push on. Lucy was impossible to ignore. Penelope - the girl who loved rules, order - would soon rather risk getting in trouble than let go.

I have to. It was strange to hear that accent wrap around the words Penny so often used as her reasoning; she could understand why her counterpart didn’t like it now that they were being used against her. Still, the statement offered did little to deter Penny, and instead she pulled Lucy in further, pressing herself against the Australian’s back. She only moved her hand to run it through Lucy’s hair, moving it to one side as she kissed her neck.

She didn’t bother to respond; she knew she didn’t need to.

[Lucy Serrano-Blaise]

It was already becoming increasingly difficult to consider getting out of bed. Lucy already felt little to no desire to do so, and really, Penny's protest to the idea made things all the more difficult. And in that moment, Lucy was grateful. She found herself acutely aware of any and all attention she offered, her eyes closing. It'd be alright if she waited another few minutes, she was sure.

But the words had been offered. Expressed as a type of imperative life line, so she was aware. Even if she already had been.

Lucy felt her familiar form pressed into her back. In that brief second, she faltered on a breath and it caught in her throat, but she did her best to push through regardless. A slow inhale. But even then, that was difficult because after a second, Penny had opted to kiss her neck. And she knew what that did.

"Penny," She started quietly, refusing to turn around and actually look at her. That'd be a dangerous play; "I don't reckon I'd be gone long."

[Penelope Serrano-Blaise]

Even as Lucy forced herself to breath, Penny was well aware that her counterpart was struggling to do so, the knowledge of which causing a smirk to pull at her lips. Her counterpart's responses forced Penny's heartbeat to shift erratically; Penny knew what she was doing to the ink manipulator, and when she breathed like that, the Brit knew she was doing it right.

“Mm?” She raised an eyebrow as Lucy said her name. Whenever she said it, it always grabbed Penny's attention. “Then you can spare a few minutes and stay.” she reasoned back. The psychometrist was stubborn; there was nothing Lucy could say to get out of that bed.

Her hand traveled downwards, fingers skimming lightly along Lucy's stomach, down her thigh, before tracking upward again. Although she was teasing the Australian, Penny felt the desire to appreciate every detail of her counterpart, committing every touch to memory. Again, she pressed her lips to Lucy's neck as she continued; “Nobody is going to know you waited,” she lightly bit down, "Except for me."

[Lucy Serrano-Blaise]

Penny's tactical response drew a breath of laughter from the ink manipulator's lips. Because admittedly, her reasoning was incredibly sound. And Lucy struggled to argue with that at the best of times, let alone now with a beautiful girl pressed up against her.

"Hn." Was all she offered back, because the mere concept of a few minutes together deserved some kind of response. Any attempt to make a legitimate word would have been thwarted; if not by her own inability to focus, then most definitely by the way Penny's hands were moving. She felt the familiar flutter of wings against her hip. This was not okay. It didn't take a genius to know what that meant; what they were moving in response to.

When she felt lips - and then teeth - against her skin, Lucy exhaled sharply, reaching out and intertwining her fingers with her counterpart's roaming hand. Anything to steady the progression. Because there was no way this was stopping, and Lucy honestly doubted she really wanted her to stop.

Drawling her hand to her mouth, Lucy pressed a kiss to the back of it, lips grazing the skin with each word; "Never been good at waiting." The Australian offered her, grinning to herself as she loosened the hold she had on the psychometrist's hand - she could easily slip away if need be. "A few minutes?"

[Penelope Serrano-Blaise]

The response her counterpart offered, although more of a sound than an actual word, forced a slow exhale from the Brit. It seemed clear that Lucy was fighting a losing battle; Penny knew if her logic wasn't going to keep the ink manipulator to stay in their bed, then her actions were.

Her exhale caused Penny's hand to falter slightly; for her own breath to catch in response to what her counterpart offered. Lucy knew what those reactions did to Penny. She allowed her hand to be taken, offering another light kiss – this time to the back of Lucy's ear – as it was pulled upward. “Neither have you.” she mumbled, against her ear before sinking her teeth into her earlobe. Even as Lucy's hold on her land loosened, the psychometrist kept it there for a few moments. She wanted her to continue, and Penny would. In time.

“Better than one second.” the Brit grinned. She knew that it'd be more than a few minutes for her to let Lucy go, and she was well aware that her counterpart knew it too. Still, Penny refused to take back the statement as she finally moved her hand, fingers tracing lightly along Lucy's collarbone as she brought her hand to her shoulder, pushing down on it in an attempt to get the Australian to face her.

[Lucy Serrano-Blaise]

It was all but impossible for Lucy to maintain a decent hold of her composure. It would have been so easy to give up right in that moment, but part of her wanted to be a little less obvious. It was as if the psychometrist was choosing to torture her because she'd tried to leave. When she bit down lightly into her earlobe, Lucy registered the way her chest tightened, and that made breathing impossible. She instinctively squeezed the hand she'd loosened her hold of. "Nope." Was all she could say.

Because it wad true. She hated waiting.

And she gave an audible, exasperated groan at the mere concept of one second, articulating just how irritatingly damaging that concept felt with the sound itself.

But Lucy was determined not to make sounds of a different nature, even when familiar fingertips crossed over her collarbone towards her shoulder. But it was hard; each and everu touch she offered warranted a decent response from the Australian. She wanted to give her that. Just not yet.

Still, she allowed herself to be moved - pushed down so her back was against the bed and she could finally look at her. The mere sight of this girl caused her breath to catch in her throat. It'd been hours, but Lucy knew she missed looking at Penelope Blaise.

"Hey," She breathed, unable to force her smile to falter. But Lucy tried - despite how impossible it was to really form words that didn't shake - because for a while longer she had to; "Gonna let me go soon?"

[Penelope Serrano-Blaise]

The Brit was well aware that her own composure was starting to break down. She hated waiting, and so did Penny. The psychometrist forced herself to inhale deeply, as breathing felt suddenly a lot harder when she felt Lucy squeeze her hand. She was teasing herself just as much as she was her counterpart.

And she was getting impatient.

Penny raised her eyebrows as the Australian groaned at her statement, and the Brit let out a short breath in response as she shifted onto her stomach, sliding a leg between her counterpart's now that she was on her back. She felt acutely aware of the Australian – how her breath caught. How Penny knew she could make it harder for Lucy to breathe, even as she herself struggled to do so because of her.

Once Lucy's back was fully pressed against the bed, Penny's hand traveled down along the Australian's form again, fingers lightly brushing over the sparrow tattoos her counterpart wore.

“No.” She propped herself up with an elbow, looking down at Lucy with something of a smug grin. Lucy could play at resisting, but the way she breathed, how she smiled, it gave her away. “You're not going anywhere.”

[Lucy Serrano-Blaise]

Lucy knew she'd lost the moment her back hit the bed, and really, she had all but lost sight of why she was so set on steadying this out. But she was far too invested in the fact that Penny couldn't help herself. She couldn't stop herself, either.

She kept her gaze steady when Penny slid her leg in between her own, but the sensation was incredibly intoxicating. Lucy couldn't help but sink her teeth into her lower lip when she felt familiar fingers brush against the fluttering sparrowed ingrained into her skin. She dropped her jaw, intent to speak. But nothing - not even a sound - fell through her mouth.

The smug expression was impossible to ignore. It drew something of a lazy grin out of the ink manipulator. Until she spoke like that, and Lucy's held expression faltered. "Fuck." She dropped the singular word as she finally reached out towards her, trailing her fingertips along the length of her spine idly.

"I'm not." She tried, offering light pressure to try and ease her inward.

[Penelope Serrano-Blaise]

Penny's gaze dropped downward, unable to ignore the way Lucy bit into her lower lip. For such a simple action, the ink manipulator manage to make it so. Everything about her was captivating. Beneath her fingertips, Penny felt the very subtle shifting of ink; she didn't have to look to know how the birds were reacting to her touch. Her nails dragged across the inked skin lightly, taking a painfully slow time to move downward.

The desire to kiss her was quickly growing harder to resist as Lucy's jaw dropped. It would have been so easy to just give in, to just get caught up in everything that was Lucy Serrano. Still, the Brit did her best to keep herself composed, because she hadn't won yet.

It was all she needed, that one admission from Lucy, and the Brit allowed herself to be eased forward with the light pressure on her back. She left only a sliver of distance between them, and Penny could feel Lucy's breath as she spoke; “Unless you want to leave.”

So maybe she wasn't quite done teasing the Australian, at least not yet.

[Lucy Serrano-Blaise]

Finally, it felt like all this difficult pressure was about to be lifted. When Penny allowed herself to be drawn inward, Lucy unknowingly arched her back underneath her fingers, taking a slow breath and holding it by accident. She didn't think she was going to have to wait long - if at all, really. Because she'd been waiting long enough, she was sure.

But evidently, Penny wasn't.

She exhaled her held breath when Penny spoke, the sliver of distance so easily breached. Nothing was stopping the ink manipulator from breaching that distance herself. It would have been so easy to press herself up, capturing her mouth in a kiss that articulated how frustrating the Brit made her. But she didn't. She honestly felt like she couldn't.

"Does it fucking look like I want to leave?" Lucy shot out, a little more intensely than she meant to. But she couldn't control that. Nor could she really control the way her fingernails dug into the psychometrist's back. She was being unfair, and she bloody well knew it.

[Penelope Serrano-Blaise]

The idea of waiting longer suddenly felt like a a huge mistake. Penny had control of the situation, but as she felt Lucy arch her back, the Brit unconciously pressed herself harder against her counterpart, trying to diminish any distance between them, even if there wasn't any.

She was slipping, especially as she said that. Lucy's impatience caused Penny's chest to tighten. She sunk her teeth into her lower lip, trying to force herself to exhale. Yet, it quickly caught in her throat again when she felt familiar nails dig into her back.

“I-” she faltered in both her voice and the movement of her hand, sucking in a breath as she did so. It was a mistake to do so, but then again, she couldn't have stopped herself even if she had wanted to. Lucy knew best how to draw an involuntary response out of the Brit. “--I'm not sure.” she breathed. She was starting to lose track of exactly why she was doing this. Waiting. She hated waiting, but she forced herself to do so. “You were pretty set on it.”

[Lucy Serrano-Blaise]

Lucy's gaze quickly dropped to her British counterpart's mouth, catching the way she bit down into her own lip. She knew exactly what that did to the Australian, yet she seemed unaware of Lucy's reaction. She found herself acutely aware of the way Penny's breathing was starting to catch. Falter. It was a dead give away. It always had been. She was terrible at hiding what she wanted.

The way she stumbled through her words caused Lucy's eyebrows to raise, her hand still continuously moving along the line of her back. She wasn't sure? Lucy offered an involuntary look of disbelief. She had to be kidding, right?

"You wanted to stop me." Lucy pointed out, her words falling low on a breath as she glanced down at her mouth again. It was impossible not to. Not now. She tilted her head slightly, raising her chin in a quick motion. That she should lean down. Lean in; "So fucking stop me."

[Penelope Serrano-Blaise]

Penny was never good at stalling; it was a skill her counterpart was much better at, but the Brit knew exactly how frustrating it felt to be denied what she wanted. Even if it killed her, she still wanted her to feel that frustration. Still, she was slipping, and she knew Lucy knew it.

She felt the way Lucy tilted her head, inviting her in. The way her hand trailed down her spine made Penny arch her back to the touch. The movement of her hand faltered, and her palm pressed down on the sparrows beating wings.

Giving into the temptation, Penny leaned in just slightly, enough to feel her lips against Lucy’s. The simple touch alone was enough to draw another wavering breath out of the Brit. The response her counterpart gave caused Penny’s chest to tighten, forcing any remaining air out of her lungs. Her nails dug into the Australian’s inked skin as she leaned in, kissing her with intent.