Caught in the Waves

[Penelope Serrano-Blaise]

Saturday. A day free from everything normally required of Penelope Blaise. There was no need to travel to Burlington for classes, nor even need to walk over to the training rooms for pointless hours of work on her psychometry. More importantly, she was free, too. At least for the morning, Penny was able to keep her close.

Still, the Brit woke at six-fifteen in the morning – despite how she always set her alarm, Penny very rarely need it after having developed a very precise sleeping schedule.

With a slow breath, her nose crinkled as she found herself drifting into consciousness. Before Penny could open her eyes, she registered the familiar body pressed up against her own – as it always did, so early before she ever woke up.

And when she did open them, her gaze landed on the ink manipulator, focusing on the calmness within her expression. Completely unaware. Unguarded, despite the sword on her arm and gun at her hip.

Penny thought to move in and brush her lips against the Lucy’s skin lightly, she always thought to but the thought of accidentally waking her often prevented the Brit from following through. Because this was exactly what she looked forward to every Saturday morning – her. Beautiful. Calm. The rhythm of her breath opposite of Penny’s, but still perfect in every way.

So she laid there, an arm trapped under her counterpart’s form as she just smiled.

[Lucy Serrano-Blaise]

Saturday mornings were just like every other day when it came to sleeping. Lucy wasn't ever really one to wake up early in the mornings as it was, but she'd recently learned that Saturdays were actually a bit of an enigma. She slept later; she never knew it was a thing, but evidently, it was.

Deep in her sleep, the Australian had a constant tendency to keep herself close to whoever she was sleeping with. She pressed herself as intently as she could against her psychometric counterpart, just as she had the night before, and literally every other night she'd been with her since they started sleeping together.

Lucy didn't stir or even threaten a move as Penny woke up. The minor, uncontrollable movements she made weren't enough to capture her attention and drag her from her slumber. The nights were getting ever cooler - the mornings, too. And so now more than ever she required that closeness to keep herself warm, because every night it still hadn't dawned on her that acquiring clothing before she slept would do just the same.

Movements in her sleep had caused the sheets to fall, exposing the details of her back to the faded, still-pale amaranth shades of the early morning's light, only breaking for the sprawled nature of her long, dark hair. Her arm was draped across the Brit's form, a heavy hand curled around the curve of her hip. With her leg still settled between hers, an able minded Lucy would have realised just how difficult it would have been for her to do anything. But in her current state, she had no idea she was doing anything in the slightest.

[Penelope Serrano-Blaise]

It hadn’t bothered Penny to be stuck where she was laying, being held between a bed and an ink manipulator was hardly something to complain about. Before, she’d rarely let herself linger under the sheets on a weekend morning, choosing to get up immediately, but now the thought of doing so never crossed her mind. Because she was there.

Her gaze traveled across the pool of sheets, how they settled just under the small of her back. Her eyes continued a trajectory upwards, catching sight of the Wonder Woman tattoo occupying her skin. Even in her slumber, Lucy’s tattoos still shifted, and Penny always looked. They always caught her attention, even on lazy mornings.

Continuing further, Penny’s eyes trailed up the line of her spine, meeting the hair that sprawled across her back in contrasting dark streaks to her light skin. With another breath, the Brit pressed her lips together into a line.

She was beautiful.

Absolutely so, and because of which she couldn’t help but to breach the small distance between them and press her lips to the top of Lucy’s head, hiding her face in her dark locks.

[Lucy Serrano-Blaise]

Amidst her slumber, the ink manipulator couldn't put any pressure on those connections between the tattoos she wore and the way she bent them. Lucy was always unaware of how they chose to shift in her sleep, save for the fact that on the odd occasion, she'd wake up and find them in different places.

Had she known, she would have felt the stretch of movement against her upper arm. How the blue crept around the contour of her hidden arm, taking slow, definite steps across towards her shoulder.

But it was only when Penny made a definite move and gave a new point of contact that Lucy moved in any capacity. There was no way for her to know exactly what was going on, and there was little the small touch of her lips could do to really wake her. But the feeling of it all caused her hand to tighten as much as it could against her skin, nails dragging across her hip for a moment or so before she lost traction.

[Penelope Serrano-Blaise]

The way Lucy shifted forced Penny to hold her breath, as if a single exhale could wake her up now that she had shifted. Still, she kept her face within the Australian’s dark locks, wondering if her pulse was loud enough to wake her as her nails tracked across her skin. Even if only for a second, it still drew a reaction from the psychometrist.

And only when she seemingly settle again did Penny let go of her breath. Although she knew better to wake Lucy so early, her fingers gently tracked up her arm and to her shoulder where the Siberian tiger moved to. The blue contrasting her skin was impossible to ignore as her gaze fell on it, and when she reached it she ran fingers lightly across the spine of his back.

With another breath she closed her eyes, the particular curve of her lip never fading as she relaxed against the ink manipulator’s form.

[Lucy Serrano-Blaise]

Unaware of her own advantage, Lucy managed to settle against her counterpart with little strain. It was a given that she had little desire to be up so early, so she'd likely be thankful she wasn't woken up just yet.

Even the delicate way the Brit trailed her fingertips across her arm wasn't enough to capture her attention. Her dreams were where her consciousness stayed, but didn't deter the way the ink beneath her skin moved. As if part of her were constantly attached to Penny, the tiger shifted across to her shoulder blade, twisting its form underneath her hand as if to brush her fingers across its spine. But the curve of her shoulder-blade was where it intended on staying, circling the space slowly before falling into comfort like the owner itself.

The sun wasn't up, but it was on its way. It moved like it knew; like it was practically waiting for it. But each movement was slow, as if the ink manipulator's roaring energy was the one thing that truly kept them all in tact and vibrantly living.

When it finally settled, the Australian parted her lips and offered something of a heavy sigh against the psychometrist's skin.

[Penelope Serrano-Blaise]

As Penny felt the subtle shift in ink against her fingertips, she opened her eyes again, looking over the mess of her hair to the tiger on her shoulder blade. How she sighed as it settled. A reminder of just how much of herself was in each inked character, even when asleep.

She ran her fingers once more over the tiger’s blue coat before letting it rest in its spot, trailing across Lucy’s skin delicately as she closed her eyes again. Each pass of her fingertips matched her rhythmic breathing as it slowed, although not as slow as hers.

Even as the psychometrist relaxed, it was impossible to fall back asleep. And even if she could, Penny doubted she’d do so. It wasn’t rare for these peaceful moments, for Saturday mornings were always something to look forward to, but the Brit couldn’t help but to indulge herself in them completely. She tilted her head slightly, again pressing her lips to the top of Lucy’s head on instinct of the proximity between them.

[Lucy Serrano-Blaise]

With her lips still parted, each breath Lucy took rolled across the bare skin of her figure. From what little she knew - and what little she could register - there was comfort to be found in the way the tiger settled on her shoulder. On being ready for the light of the morning and the warmth it could provide. But where she herself was, there was comfort enough in the psychometrist's form beside her.

The feeling of familiar lips lingering against the top of her head caused her to apply pressure again. A small squeeze of her hand to her counterpart's hip again; a small track with her nails. But before the light, weak force could subside, the ink manipulator was trying to press herself in closer again. But there was no real distance for the girl who clung tightly in her sleep to cover.

[Penelope Serrano-Blaise]

With another shift from her counterpart, Penny exhaled into her hair slowly, the rhythmic pattern of her breath faltering until her hold loosened. And once it fell back into place, her own hand continued its light patterns across the ink manipulator’s skin.

Time didn’t seem to matter on mornings like these; the only indication of it was the slowly rising sun. How it streamed through her window and painted the walls and their forms with colors only she could accurately describe.

The light provided warmth, despite being aware of the chilly Vermont air right outside her window. Her nose crinkled against Lucy as she dared opened her eyes and as they adjusted to the brightness, she turned her attention to the tiger again.

[Lucy Serrano-Blaise]

As time passed, Lucy eventually settled against Penny at the closest possible point. The threat of being woken early subsided with the psychometrist's ability to keep her movements to a minimum.

With the rising of the sun and the colour of the morning light, Lucy managed to find even more comfort. The bare skin of her back finally found warmth where the sheets had still-fallen. Under the weight of her counterpart's gaze, the Siberian tiger's blue felt bathed in tangerine light, causing it to raise its head in the most dreary away available to something without definite life.

And the Australian somehow curled herself in closer, furrowing her eyebrows as a senseless hum passed her lips.

[Penelope Serrano-Blaise]

With her dark eyes on the Siberian tiger, she watched as its color seemed to tint within the sunlight, and the Brit couldn’t help but to wonder why it decided to turn blue. How the Australian told her it originally wasn’t, and for whatever reason it changed without Lucy even knowing why.

The minimal shift of her counterpart drew another breath out of the Brit. How Lucy managed to bring herself closer, Penny hadn’t the slightest idea, but she was hardly opposed to it. If anything, the psychometrist found comfort in the newfound proximity her arm wrapped more tightly around her.

“God, I love you.” She spoke lightly – as lightly as she could – against the Australian as she closed her eyes again.

[Lucy Serrano-Blaise]

Drawing its paws forward, the tiger on the ink manipulator's shoulder blade seemed to dig in to the best of its ability, stretching back through the definitive nature of the morning. Pulling itself from the comfort of slumber to awaken in tandem with the rise of the sun. But it didn't really move far, because moments later it settled back down; eyes open and head still raised.

The declaration was completely lost on Lucy, who still revelled in the proximity she'd been granted all night, every night.

"Hmm." The small sound drew itself through her pressed lips, as if the threat of waking up wasn't evident enough as it was already from the way she'd started to stir. Her hand finally trailed away from her counterpart's hip, instead slowly dropping a few inches to graze across her thigh.

[Penelope Serrano-Blaise]

It wasn’t until Lucy stirred again did Penny open her eyes again. The small sound she made drew a smile out of psychometrist as she felt the slow shift of her counterpart’s hand. How even in unconsciousness, Lucy could pull the air from her lungs in a single movement.

And with the movement, she knew that her counterpart was in the slow process of waking. Whether she realized it or not, Penny knew the signs of her waking up. How she always drew away, never quite aware of just how close she clung to the psychometrist in her sleep.

Even so, Penny stayed still, letting the ink manipulator wake up at her own pace. There was no rush to wake up, so there was no need to rush her.

[Lucy Serrano-Blaise]

For a final time, Lucy's nails slowly dragged across the contours of her counterpart's form; across her thigh, past her hip and over her stomach as she finally freed her hand from the sheets. In an instinctive movement, she curled her fingers into the material near her back, dragging it forth to give herself a little traction as she peeled herself away.

But she didn't go far, she simply rolled onto her back, dragging her arm across her eyes to shield them from the light through the window.

There, she lingered for a few extra moments, as if trying to find comfort in the new-found position. But it failed her, and within the next break she shifted again to find some comfort on her other side. With her back to Penny, the tiger at her shoulder blade shook its fur to settle through the sudden movement. The ink manipulator herself drawled her knees up, curling into herself as she had the psychometrist only minutes ago.

[Penelope Serrano-Blaise]

Penny continued to lay still as her counterpart shifted. By then, she knew exactly how the Australian would move – or rather how she’d end up. A hint of amusement pulled at her features at the arm draped over her eyes, not quite ready for the morning light yet.

And there was the definitive move. As the ink manipulator shifted to her other side and pulled her legs up to herself, Penny knew she was close to waking up. She looked to the ruffled tiger, letting out a short breath as it tried to settle again before she shifted across the sheets and lightly pressed her lips to it.

Because even if she drew away, Penny couldn’t. Not completely. So she settled a hand on the ink manipulator’s hip, pulling herself across the distance her counterpart had unconsciously placed and pressing herself against her form.