Feel My Heart Too Fast

[Penelope Serrano-Blaise]

The exhale Lucy offered reminded Penny that no matter how badly she failed in that moment, she still gave such beautiful responses. Her hot breath dusted her lips, simmering across her skin as she let go of her own a beat too late.

She allowed it to engulf her. Take over her senses to try and push her own fault out of her mind, but before she could, she offered the very words Penny failed to.

And it didn’t stop. Lucy had yet to manage a word before that moment, and now the first she gave were so completely overwhelming. Dark eyes kept squeezed shut, palm pressing between Lucy’s shoulder blades in a poor attempt to hide their residual tremor from the earthquake of words that hit her.

The repetition hadn’t bothered her, not how it had thought it might if she offered it. Although really, those things shouldn’t matter – but if Penny were to offer such words, she didn’t want them to sound like it was only because of what her counterpart said hours before.

Penny was felt a tornado build in her chest, taking in and ripping air from her lungs in the most impossible way. Uneven in its own rhythmic way of nature. And she understood that. She knew. It did everything to draw her breath from her lungs completely.

So she kissed her again, because Penelope Blaise never knew how to respond when Lucy was so beautifully overwhelming.

[Lucy Serrano-Blaise]

Moments after the final words left her mouth, Lucy's mind caught her tongue. Falling into a second in time felt like second nature now, especially the way it managed to scramble the circuitry of her the logical portion of her mind. She struggled to tell the psychometrist she loved her at the best of times, and now she was struggling to stop.

Caught in another kiss, the Australian kept the pressure on in her own way. She refused to fall to her back for a second time, no matter the temptation. She drew herself away, eyes finally opening.

With her in her sights, Lucy took a breath and couldn't help the smile she wore.

Lucy felt her own gaze flick to the familiar curve of her mouth on instinct. But catching sight of her eyes felt far more important than anything else, so she trained her attention back again in the hopes of catching a glimpse. A chance. Behind Lucy settled a dragon, deep blue with flecks of steel shining through every detailed line. Having crossed the corner of the wall, it stationed itself at an insurmountable step from the ink manipulator.

"Look." She said, but at what she couldn't specify.

[Penelope Serrano-Blaise]

Reverting back to kissing her Australian counterpart was a natural move for Penny, one she wasn’t completely conscious of. A natural reaction when she didn’t know how to handle everything that was offered to her. From her.

As Lucy drew away, Penny kept her eyes closed. Instinctively, she followed the ink manipulator, but never managed to catch her lips again as desperately as she wanted to.

She held her breath as tightly as she did her eyes shut for another beat. Looking wasn’t a problem; it never was. More often than not Penny found herself doing just that. She couldn’t help herself when it came to looking. But rather, it was what she would see.

So, with her breath still trapped within her lungs, Penny did finally open her eyes, and she could already feel the water that threatened to fall from them. It was only when her gaze met Lucy’s did she release her breath in one short sweep, lips pressing into a hardened line moments after, but the particular curve it took was still evident.

Within the next moment, her gaze caught the dragon as it kept to the wall behind Lucy. The seal of her lips broke in favor of taking a much needed breath as she looked back to Lucy. Not because couldn’t breathe, but because she could.

[Lucy Serrano-Blaise]

Within the next moment, her gaze caught the dragon as it kept to the wall behind Lucy. The seal of her lips broke in favor of taking a much needed breath as she looked back to Lucy. Not because couldn’t breathe, but because she could.

Waiting wasn't a virtue the Australian took to well. Lucy Serrano had notoriously awful patience when it came to such a thing. But here, in this particular moment, she had all the time in the world. Not an ounce of it was wasted in her presence.

With the ability to see her eyes came the usual sense of pressure. Dark as they were, they were always a little brighter when she had the ink manipulator in her cross hairs. The morning light provided enough clarity to give them a little more colour. With such an aid, they were hardly as dark as they seemed. She didn't notice the threat of tears. Not then.

Because she lost her gaze only moments later, and she felt where it landed. On the wall behind her. The slow, trickling sense of movement behind her completely flagged her senses. Truth be told, Lucy knew too little of the dragon's presence to register it's creation. It wasn't until Penny's eyes landed on it that she knew of its existence. Then, it was all she could feel. The slow, almost regal way it reared its head forced the ink manipulator to tilt her own up slightly. Or perhaps it was the other way around.

"You don't have to say anything." She said lightly, exhaling on a breath. The kind of motion that forced the dragon to visibly huff fabled air itself. Or rather, the opposite. "You don't have to try."

Slowly, her hand filtered back through her hair, but she couldn't draw away completely. As she brushed her thumb delicately across her cheekbone, the figure behind shook its head in an abrupt motion quickly.

"It doesn't make it any less real," She reasoned, "I'm not going anywhere."

[Penelope Serrano-Blaise]

Penny’s hand kept pressure to her back, threatening to draw her in closer and breach the distance between them again. Because only Lucy Serrano knew exactly the words to say that could push her mentality further in the best of ways. She was caught between needing the Australian to stop before she was too completely overwhelmed and wanting her to continue. Because she was perfect in every sense of the word. So beautifully perfect.

She looked again to the dragon, how it shook its head in tandem to the ink manipulator’s words. The contact to her cheek burned in contrast to the wetness that began to stain them. As much as she wished to look at the Australian, she kept her gaze on the scaled creature on her wall. How every detail was so immaculately beautiful as the person that created it.

Still, she parted her lips, even as she felt them tremble in the smallest of ways. She didn’t have to say anything. She didn’t have to try, even. And she truly believed that as they left Lucy’s accented lips. But above that, she still wanted to. Her gaze moved back to Lucy, focusing on the way her hand brushed through her hair.

“You.”

[Lucy Serrano-Blaise]

The first word Penny had managed to offer was - to Lucy - more weighted than any notions of love. It compacted every emotional discourse available into one word. One she shared in her own way; she loved her. She was everything. A bright constellation in a sea of dim stars. A breathtaking creature in a fabled story.

She shook her head, finally. It still wasn't about herself.

Another brush with her thumb across her cheek again and she unknowingly drawled a falling tear away from her skin. Quickly, she had to break eye contact just to look at the surprising sensation. The electric confidence in her stature dwindled with the immediate flick - the dragon lowered its head in turn. In time.

And when she looked back, her eyebrows were lowered. Confusion, possible. Or surprise. Maybe even concern.

Not herself. Her. "You."

Her psychometric counterpart. The one who lived a forced life in a series of memories. The one who looked to the future without ever really looking. The one the ink manipulator both carried forward and dragged back into the now.

"You're perfect." Lucy reasoned, and she needed no strain to prove otherwise.

[Penelope Serrano-Blaise]

Her hand shifted, leaving Lucy’s back to draw fingertips along the line of her jaw. To ease away the confusion. Or was it concern? Regardless, Penny felt the need to explain that it wasn’t something to be confused or concerned over. But before she could manage to offer anything of the sort, she spoke first.

And the repetition was welcome. Because the singular word expressed so much within its three letters. More than it was ever meant to, but everything it was meant to all at once. A tidal wave, and it hit her as such. Engulfing her like the sea, forcing her to hold her breath as her head dipped under only to learn that she could breathe under the oceans wall.

And it was worth the risk to try. To shoot up into the stars where she was and take off the helmet providing her oxygen just for a moment to breathe her in with the stardust.

Penny’s dark eyes, as bright as they might have looked to the ink manipulator, widened. Genuine surprise. A lack of control over her expression at Lucy’s words. And before she could control her own, she already offered a response. “I’m not.”

[Lucy Serrano-Blaise]

Again, the phrase passed Lucy's mouth before she had a chance to catch it. But truthfully, it was so fitting. She'd thought it countless times before, feeling it on the edge of her tongue in moments similar to these. As it surprised the psychometrist, Lucy had to wonder if she was the only one who felt this way. Was it really so rare?

Her question was answered by Penny's immediate, knee-jerk response. It shouldn't have surprised her, but somehow it still managed to.

"Shut up."

Potentially harsh words lost their edge as they passed the ink manipulator's smile. She felt the dragon leaning in, willing itself to rip away from the confinements of the white-wash wall where Lucy had placed it. Confined by a definite block. A desire as loud in her head as the need to express that she was everything Lucy saw her as.

Cracking into a wider smile, Lucy shook her head as she forced a breath out. "You really are." She added, her hand falling from its position to track her fingers across her counterpart's arm lightly.

[Penelope Serrano-Blaise]

The surprised expression she wore shifted as her eyebrows knitted together. More often as of late, it was the Brit who was telling her counterpart to shut up, and being on the receiving end felt simply different. She sucked in a quick breath, but the smile she wore made it impossible to keep, and her own smile broke through within her exhale.

Because for some reason she thought she was perfect. And although she didn’t understand how such a concept could be possible, Lucy still believed it. And perfect or not, that was what felt like it mattered.

Penny blinked, and another tear fell, seemingly more growing as she tried her best to will them away. The small shift of the dragon caught in the corner of her eye, but the Brit’s gaze couldn’t waver from her beautiful smile.

Instinctively, she wanted to argue the fact. “I’m uptight.” She pointed out, “Bossy. OCD Queen.” Although as she listed off reasons as to why she wasn’t, she knew it was pointless. Lucy knew all those facts about her. She was the one who had so often pointed them out, and she doubted the Australian could ever forget such facts.

So she stopped, shaking her head lightly with another sharp exhale. “God—“ She was at a loss, the only thing she could think to say was what she already have, and so she did again. “You.”

[Lucy Serrano-Blaise]

As caught up as Lucy was in the moment and everything the psychometrist was letting her give, it was impossible to ignore the fact that Penny was, on some level, crying. She thought to stop. She wondered if it were even possible.

Uptight. The word made her smile a little crooked as it grew. Bossy. She gave an short, laugh on a quick breath. But the familiar phrase caused the ink manipulator to drop her head in a small nod. It was all true, and there was no point in trying to deny it.

But she raised her attention again at the repetition. Again, like she had the intention of following through in a different way, but couldn't. Following the trajectory of her arm, Lucy curled her fingers around the hand against her jaw, easing it away but keeping hold of it.

"I wouldn't want you if you weren't uptight. Or bossy. Or a bit manic about... So much stuff." Three things given to her in a moment. All things she'd pointed out before. All things she'd torn her to pieces over were suddenly the most pressing matters to rectify, "They're part of you. Parts I love. But they don't make you."

[Penelope Serrano-Blaise]

With every word she used to describe herself, Lucy offered a small reaction that was impossible to deny as much as it was to ignore. She even nodded, and it drew a short breath out of the psychometrist, not quite a laugh as her counterpart had, but it threatened amusement.

The hand that trailed up her arm left a simmering trail, searing into her skin without a visible mark, but one still forged in the psychometrist’s memory. A memory she didn’t want to forget. How she felt. Any detail of Lucy, Penny wanted to commit and save.

“I’m in love with you.” Once the words finally passed her lips, the Brit wondered how she ever got caught on them. It felt natural to say, because of how very true it was. Her fingers curled around the hand that took her own, giving it a light squeeze as she brought it to her lips. And now that she found herself starting, she felt the growing understanding as to why she struggled to stop.

“I love waking up next to you every day, and I want to wake up next to you every day after that.” She tried, kissing her knuckles again.

[Lucy Serrano-Blaise]

Despite being the first to say it, it in no way lessened the impact of the phrase wrapped in her familiar accent. It should have been second nature now, to feel the way her vice drew the air from her lungs. Her controlled, composed confidence threatened to waver under the weight of the admission. She squeezed her hand in response, keeping like a necessary lifeline in a moment of time as she allowed Penny to shift it towards her mouth.

Warmer colours from the morning light painted fragmented shapes across her walls. Along her skin. Under the light herself, the Australian stared back at her. For someone who struggled to stop herself from talking, she was suddenly speechless, and she usually knew what that meant.

Moving slightly, the dragon behind her searched the wall for the residual warmth so huddle underneath. Like it was the most comforting thing in the room.

"You know you will." Lucy replied, her mouth threatening a small, genuine smile within the pressure.

[Penelope Serrano-Blaise]

Her dark eyes glanced down to the smile Lucy wore; the small, genuine smile that contrasted her normal wide grin, but it was beautiful all the same. Her thumb graces along Lucy’s lightly, drawing it from her lips as she looked back up to the ink manipulator.

“I know.” Saying such a statement was risky; there was no positive way to tell the future, or what would happen between them even after today. But Penny genuinely believed the ink manipulator, and even the thought of looking for a failsafe never crossed her mind.

“And so do you.” She offered with a small nod, leaning in so the tip of her nose brushed the ink manipulator’s. The proximity immediately stirred that never calming desire to kiss Lucy, but she held off for another beat. “I know this—“ Her eyebrows twitched together, “I never thought I’d say this, or even feel it.” As if somehow offering a disclaimer would better prove her point. “I feel right with you.”

[Lucy Serrano-Blaise]

Eye contact was just as necessary as the hand she held. Lucy kept both in her possession for as long as she could, even when she hadn't been graced by the dark eyes of her counterpart. The moment they flicked back towards her, she took a definite breath. It was practically overwhelming, but she was determined to stay as she was.

The future was undefined by nature, so much so that the ink manipulator rarely chose to turn her attention to it. Making plans and watching them fall to pieces was arguably one of the most daunting things a person could live through, so the present was where she stayed.

But where she stood, all she could believe was that she'd still be there with her. It was impossible in a moment to calculate a potential threat against this.

So she nodded back when Penny spoke, because at this stage she did know that was a foreseeable fact. She'd never be in an empty bed if she could help it, let alone someone else's. She had no strength when it came to applying distance in such a way. The shift in proximity forced the Australian to straighten her back, her attention flagged to the point where she felt the need to sit straighter to prove she was there, and that she was listening despite the distraction.

"You're not wrong, love." Lucy offered slowly, feeling the simmering desire to lean in on instinct, "You were never wrong."

[Penelope Serrano-Blaise]

A nod was enough. More than enough. It was everything Penny could have wished to ask for in a response, even if it was a silent one. Resisting the undeniable urge to kiss the ink manipulator was beginning to feel like an impossible task. But really, it always was.

But Penny lingered in the small space between them, feeling her counterpart’s posture shift, and in response Penny’s hand trailed down to the small of Lucy’s back, nails tracking down her skin slowly.

Again, that nickname. And again, Penny wondered if her counterpart realized she used it; if she knew how it made her pulse race a fraction faster every time the Australian’s accent wrapped around it so naturally. The psychometrist found her willpower to maintain a distance dwindling, what Lucy offered finally being the breaking point, as it always was.

So she leaned again, kissing her counterpart with a little more purpose. As breathless as the Australian always left her, and when she did finally find the means to break away, her lips never fully left Lucy’s, instead just letting out a breath against them. “Never?” She asked, raising her eyebrows with hints of amusement.