Beats Like a Drum

[Penelope Serrano-Blaise]

November twenty-third, a day that Penelope Blaise had been taking into consideration for some time now. Rarely did the Brit ever think to consider a day special because of another person. Not before the day she purposefully tried to avoid her counterpart just in an attempt to prove it didn’t matter. But it did. More important was today.

Nothing could beat a galaxy – but it hardly felt like she was trying to win in some sort of competition. A measurement of two different units. Penny’s personal artistic skill was lacking in most ways – there was nothing she could do that would be able to meet a galaxy painted art room, nor did she want to try. Because doing so felt like dismissing what she had done, and that was the last thing Penny wished for. That wasn’t the point of celebrating Lucy Serrano’s twentieth birthday.

Penny was always thankful for the weekend, but she was particularly so that it was Sunday. The rush of classes – or rather, inevitably trying to skip them – wasn’t something the psychometrist had to worry about. There was no need to tell Lucy she had to attend class because she was failing. Penny was absolutely sure that convincing her to step foot in a classroom on this particular day would have been impossible. For once, she would let go of the subject of school. For a day. More importantly, for her.

And for her, she dragged the Australian out. As cold as it was out, she knew it wouldn’t be particularly easy to get Lucy Serrano to downtown Pilot Ridge, but she had somehow managed with the lie that she absolutely needed a book for classes. Having yet to verbally acknowledge it was the ink manipulator’s birthday, Penny walked in silence.

Until she stopped short of the bookstore, the hand that had been holding her counterpart’s tightening as she faced Lucy. “Okay.” The bitter air made her breath visible on the single word. Glancing up to the sign above them – Ink on the Vine – she quickly shifted her focus back to Lucy within the next moment.

She practiced this a dozen times; had every word chosen out to insure exactly this wouldn’t happen. She doubted the number of times she practiced mattered when it came to this. “Okay.” She tried again, as if it would force the words to flow.

[Lucy Serrano-Blaise]

It started with a call over skype. Yesterday. Because in the land of her birth, Lucy was already twenty, and according to her father that was what really mattered. At the very least, Lucy had been thankful that they hadn't gotten into the argument over why she hadn't made the trip home, because she hadn't last year. She hadn't been with them for a birthday since she left. It was an argument for another time. Lucy knew it. They knew it. And it seemed as if everyone was thankful for that decision.

Prior commitments to a friend of hers usually dragged the ink manipulator from her bed the day before, anyway. There was a full day between her birthday and Rowan's, and tradition had usually settled that they spent it together. But in his distance, Lucy avoided the usual decision. Where she ended up had been where she wanted to be, anyway.

Getting her out was an absolute travesty. Long sleeved. Scarf, beanie, parka - it was all relative, and it was all necessary. She still felt like she was freezing even with the added layers.

Where they were walking, Lucy didn't really know. She half-followed the conversation, and dropped off right about the time books were mentioned. Not a word about her birthday and she was out doing things for other people. Not that she minded, really. The weather got all her ill feelings.

Passing by her work, Lucy glanced in momentarily. It was a knee-jerk reaction to look for signs of the woman who ran the place. But a second later she was looking forward, taking steps like they were still walking together. But they weren't. A few beats late, but eventually she stopped, her arm a little strained from the sudden distance as she turned to look at her.

"What?" Lucy asked, eyebrows raised as her free hand shot to her back pocket where her keys were, "Forget something?"

[Penelope Serrano-Blaise]

Originally, Penny had been afraid the ink manipulator would have plans that day; she had plenty of friends who knew how to throw parties. It wouldn’t have surprised the Brit to find out Lucy had been dragged off to some drunken rave Sawyer set up. There were always backup plans; in case she did have some sort of prior commitment, but either way she was thankful to learn that she hadn’t. That she was hers for that Sunday.

As Lucy finally came to a stop, the Brit lightly tugged on her extended arm, trying to take back the accidental distance. Even with the layers built up over the ink manipulator, Penny wished to be as close to her as possible.

“No.” She replied as evenly as possible, watching Lucy’s expression carefully. Another beat and her free hand extended out, pushing open the store door. “Come on.”

[Lucy Serrano-Blaise]

The distance might have been small, but it was still a stint of distance. Once that stung harsher than the cold Lucy was notorious for hating with an intense passion. A small pull of her hand and she took those minuscule steps back towards her despite how strange it seemed. She might have been half-listening before, but she was completely sure she was going the right way.

Her instincts were wrong, however. Nothing forgotten, and so confusion coloured the Australian's features. Standing around in the cold wasn't exactly how she wanted to spend her day.

And she hardly wanted to spend it at work when she didn't need to be there.

Small steps and she followed through the door anyway; the warmth inside was better than what their prior position was offering. She still wore confusion, and it hardly dimmed in the passing moments.

"I don't need to be here today." She pointed out, but she was positive the Brit knew her schedule better than she did already.

[Penelope Serrano-Blaise]

Penny was thankful for the small steps Lucy took to move in closer; even more so for the way she entered the building without a fight or question. She assumed she wouldn’t pass up an opportunity to be in the warm rather than outside in the miserable weather. It was an advantage of living in such a brutal state and loving someone who despised cold weather like she did.

Penny’s free hand moved to her peacoat, gloved fingers working off the top button as she averted her gaze, glancing around the tattoo shop. Her focus shifted to the back wall as she unbuttoned the next one down. Even as Lucy spoke, she didn’t look back. Not immediately.

“Yes you do.” Penny countered, a factual tone taking to her voice as she unhooked another button as she finally brought her gaze back to her. Lips pressed together into a thin line to catch another moment. Another breath. “You have an appointment.”

[Lucy Serrano-Blaise]

When she lost her gaze, Lucy thought to let her hand go. The initial idea was only enhanced as she watched the way Penny worked the buttons off with one hand. She hardly needed the two of them, but the thought remained; it'd make it easier. But she was holding the Australian's hand with a strange amount of purpose.

Or maybe she was imagining that stint of unfamiliar pressure.

A fact based person by nature, Lucy felt the undeniable pressure to assume something on a situation she didn't understand. Losing a jacket meant they were staying. She had no plans to work on her birthday; something about the idea of working on stranger's skin on such a day felt like it was something she should disagree with, even if she was twenty years old today.

"What's going on?" She asked anyway, eyebrows raising as she loosened the hold she had to her hand a little.

[Penelope Serrano-Blaise]

There very much had been pressure kept on Lucy’s hand. Penny couldn’t deny the way she held on, nor would she try now that they made it this far.

And really, she was surprised the ink manipulator hadn’t figured it out by then.

“I know you shouldn’t work on your birthday.” Penny confessed as lightly as she could manage. “But I assumed you wouldn’t mind making a small exception.” Finally, something within her expression broke through. A barely existent tug at the corner of her mouth as it drew upward.

“For me.” And as if it wasn’t clear enough, she worked to make sure it was. Lifting the hand that loosened its hold, Penny brought it up, sliding the glove off from it now that they were in the safety of a heated building. Once off, she pressed her lips to Lucy’s knuckles lightly. “You have an appointment with me.”

[Lucy Serrano-Blaise]

At face value, working on her birthday did sound a little irksome, but Lucy did her bet not to nod along with the sentiment. There were myriads of reasons why she'd make an exception to that rule. There were few reasons why she could be here, and points were narrowing further still, but as familiar lips brushed the back of her hand Lucy was sure there was no way she could have expected that.

Eyes went wide at the declaration, jaw falling open and staying so with a single, unfinished word; "What."

That felt like the wrong answer, even though she doubted it would be taken as such. Lucy considered the first and only time they ever talked about this; the surprise she'd worn at the idea that Penny would even consider a tattoo reflected in her expression now. There was nothing she could do to fight that.

"Why didn't you-"

No. "What're-"

Still, no. "What?"

[Penelope Serrano-Blaise]

Penny gave it a moment to let the information hit her counterpart. Her lips lingered against Lucy’s hand as she watched the reaction take over her features. How her eyes widened. Jaw dropped, even. There were few times Penny could surprise Lucy to this extent.

She paused long enough to enjoy her priceless expression.

And with it came broken sentences. Incomplete thoughts as Penny finally drew Lucy’s hand back down, never letting go of it as she freed the last button of her own jacket. “Is that alright?” She asked, then taking hold of the zip of her jacket.

“I know it was inappropriate for me to assume that you wouldn’t mind.” She explained, drawing down the zipper slowly. “If you wouldn’t like to, I understand.” The small grin pulling at her lips was impossible to deny as it widened just lightly.

[Lucy Serrano-Blaise]

Piecing her own sentences together, Lucy genuinely wondered where she'd been going with it all. What was she supposed to say to this? To any of it?

Thankfully, she didn't need to waste time considering what she might say. Her counterpart kept the floor well and truly filled for the both of them. The more she spoke, the more she eased Lucy into each eventual moment, but there was nothing that could nullify the look on her face, only dull it down as seconds passed.

Her first response was a slow exhale, the air she held leaving her in an even, drawn out frequency. She almost threatened to laugh at the fact, her gaze turning down to the curve of her lips as she wore such an expression for herself.

Straightening out, she rolled her shoulders back once. Anything to feign some kind of composure for the moment, which hardly worked well for her anyway. "Do you know what you want?" She tried, but peeling the excitement from her tone was as difficult as it was to wrap her head around the idea. Next to impossible. Completely improbable, really.

[Penelope Serrano-Blaise]

With Lucy’s jacket open, Penny shifted her hand to Lucy’s still covered one, peeling away the layer carefully before setting it aside, only letting go of the ink manipulator to remove her own gloves as she placed them neatly next to hers.

“No.” She explained honestly, reaching back and tucking her hands under the material of Lucy’s jacket before she slid it off her shoulders. “I’ve thought of it, but I’d rather get an opinion from someone who puts an incredible amount of thought into their own ones.”

Because who better would know what Penny should get than her tattoo covered girlfriend? One that could control ink at that.

Lucy’s excitement was evident, and that was exactly what she hoped for from the Australian. Penny only hoped her own nervous reactions weren’t coming out. It was a rarity for Penny to ever leave something so open, especially when she had the chance to control it. “I trust you.”

She slid off her own jacket, working to set down both of them someplace both out of the way and where they wouldn’t become wrinkled. “I wouldn’t be surprised to hear you thought about this before.”

[Lucy Serrano-Blaise]

It was like running on auto-pilot, to move with the way Penny wanted her to. She found no resistance from Lucy's hand, let alone the rest of her as she worked in tandem with the psychometrist to strip her jacket off.

Because her mind was reeling. Open canvases were usually the worst, but this was different.

She only glanced back to really catch her eyes at the notion of trust. Something offered so early in their relationship, the words carried new meaning at such greater heights in a situation like this. Tattoos were permanent, really. To anyone's mind but an ink manipulator's. Even if Lucy could reassure her about the lack of permanent status, it would never sink in as it had in her own mind.

"Never." Lucy admitted, exhaling the word on a disbelieving laugh.

Now she wished she had.

"Restrictions?" The question immediately followed the thought, "Come on, you gotta give me something." As the corner of her mouth pulled into a grimace, she shrugged her shoulders and adopted that amused line to her tone; "Or you might end up with a line of swears from your neck to your ass."

[Penelope Serrano-Blaise]

A shallow breath passed her lips, amusement threatening to hang off of it at Lucy’s reply. She knew better than to think Lucy might actually attempt to permanently place a string of curse words along her form. “No profanities.” She played along regardless.

Requesting restrictions was fair; Penny had to give Lucy that much. Still, she was surprised to hear that Lucy hadn’t thought of what she’d put on the psychometrist.

“Small.” Penny continued, knowing well that she wouldn’t be able to handle a Wonder Woman sized tattoo on herself. The process looked painful, and in all honesty the Brit probably read up more on tattooing than she should have to be put at complete ease. Ignorance wasn’t bliss, but breaking down how a tattoo gun works was somewhat terrifying to read.

She took Lucy’s hand again, intertwining their fingers as she stepped closer, just enough to brush the tip of her nose with Lucy’s. “Something for this.”

[Lucy Serrano-Blaise]

Immediately, Lucy feigned a frown. She'd never put a needle to her counterpart's skin with anything less than a perfect idea, but it was still funny to consider the reaction given.

Small. Lucy assumed as much, honestly, but she nodded at the restriction regardless. She'd never imagined Penny with any kind of ink in her skin, and now that she was, she highly doubted there'd ever be anything substantial. Lost in thought, she found herself dragged back to reality at the familiar feeling of her fingers amidst the ink manipulator's. The amusement she wore filtered back to something more genuine.

But what she said was another point entirely. Not only did she want Lucy to tattoo her, but she wanted it to be about them? Her heartbeat kicked into her throat immediately, and she fought the difficulty in breathing to no avail.

"Hidden?" She managed, her eyebrows quirking together momentarily at the threat of a break in her voice.

[Penelope Serrano-Blaise]

Never did Penny dedicate anything so intense to anyone in her life. A year ago, she wouldn’t have believed she had considered the thought at all, let alone actually getting it done. Even more to know she wanted to permanently mark this particular time of her life. To not only get something that lasted forever, but to get it with the thought of another person in mind.

But she didn’t doubt herself in the least. She was all in.

Her counterpart’s shift in breathing hadn’t gone unnoticed, just as she was sure her own matched the erratic nature of her pulse.

But she hadn’t considered the thought of it being visible or not, and that fact surprised her. The Brit that took consideration into every move had forgotten such a significant detail. Penny gave herself a moment of thought – to consider the real weight behind the question. What it meant to answer one or the other.

“No.”