Here We Stand

[Penelope Serrano-Blaise]

Note: Takes place after Breathing Fire in Your Sleep

She just had to breathe.

Quick steps brought her down to the co-ed dormitories. Dark eyes flashed at the number on the door. 202. Although she didn't need to check to know it was the right one; it was a trek she'd made a hundred times by then.

She'd have been back by then; the Australian had work, which was why Penny was doing laundry in the first place. She wasn't there, and it had given her something to keep her busy, most chores were done when Lucy was away working or in class as it was. The Brit was easily distracted when it came down to her counterpart.

Twisting the handle of the common room door, the immediate memory of Lucy's tattooed roommate came into view. It wasn't much, but it certainly didn't help the shooting pain at her temples.

Four knocks, as always, and Penny waited a beat before opening Lucy's door. She didn't need to wait for the ink manipulator to answer it anymore, but knocking still felt somewhat necessary. A habit that wouldn't die despite the fact that she was living in this room, too.

She wondered if the Australian would catch the shaking nature of her breath, even as she tried to hide it. "Hello."

[Lucy Serrano-Blaise]

Home from work in no time at all, Lucy made her way back to her dorm. Idle eyes had checked her phone, but she'd received no message and was sure that in time, her counterpart would find her. So on her own she eased herself out of her usual clothes. She hung her parka up and put it back in her closet. She folded her scarf and placed it with her gloves on the correct shelf. She adjusted her hair from beneath her beanie and tugged on the long sleeves of her shirt.

Free of her jeans, she thought to find comfort in shorts but she hadn't gotten that far. The moment there was a knock at the door she dropped her jaw to call out for the fact that she needed a minute, but the concrete set of knocks she heard made it evident that she didn't need to bother. Rather, she stepped into the shorts and worked to haul them on as the door opened.

"Hey," She replied, her eyes down as she worked the bang up over her hips, "I thought you'd be here when I got back."

[Penelope Serrano-Blaise]

Still feeling worked up, Penny unfurled her fingers from fists the moment she walked through the door, pressing palms to the sides of her thighs after closing the door behind her. Even with the line her gaze made - the inevitable look - Penny couldn't quite rid the sense of anxiety that washed over her.

Lips pressed together at the statement, dark eyes still focused on the shorts - or rather, what they had covered. Lingering in their usual way, unaware she was stalling at the same time. How was she supposed to explain?

"I got sidetracked." Penny started slowly, carefully as she took another step to Lucy. Normally, she would have crossed the distance completely, but this time she failed to completely cut through it. She knew well just how easily she could have gotten herself distracted - how tempting it was to not say anything at all. But they didn't do that.

Her fingers tapped against her leg before bringing a hand up, brushing the line of her own neck as she looked to Lucy. "I was doing laundry."

[Lucy Serrano-Blaise]

Without a look still, Lucy remained oblivious. She heard a different touch to her counterpart's tone, but nothing completely definite. After all, she had no reason to believe anything might've been wrong in the first place. Her thumbs brushed under the band of her shorts, ensuring they sat right as she listened.

"Oh," She replied, the little sound passing her lips as nonchalantly as it was expected. Or perhaps it wasn't. "Thanks," She continued on, "I probably wouldn't've done it til I ran out of shirts." And even then, if she were busy, she likely would have gotten to re-wearing things before she found the time to drag herself into such a mundane task.

Glancing up, there were the earliest signs of a potentially distressed Penelope Blaise in her sight lines. She, without a thought, went to cross the distance between them. "What's up?" She asked, reaching out with a hand.

[Penelope Serrano-Blaise]

Without eye contact to hold her, Penny let her gaze shift again. It was easier without it, although she couldn't help but to miss her dark eyes. She'd been missing her all afternoon, and even more now that there was only feet between them.

It wasn't much to go off of, because without a doubt that if it slipped the psychometrist's mind, it likely had slipped hers as well. Lucy Serrano precise when it came to Penny's ability. Had the thought of memory imprinted clothes crossed her mind, she would have removed them from the pile completely, Penny was sure.

The moment Lucy breached the space between them, Penny fell easily into the magnetic pull the Australian had over her. Enough to take a step of her own as she felt familiar fingertips brush her form. Closing her eyes at the contact, Penny took and held a breath. What a simple question, with a painfully complex answer. "I didn't mean to see anything." She explained quietly, eyes flicking open to try and gauge Lucy's reaction.

[Lucy Serrano-Blaise]

Getting a glimpse of Penny - let alone the physical contact she reached for - always called a similar reaction from Lucy. Not even a day went by and she'd grown to miss her. Meeting her eyes brought forth too much of the fact itself for her to notice the discrepancies in her behaviour. Not everyone wore their negative emotions on her literal sleeve; not everyone had the ability to cheat like that.

She received that answer in the form of something obvious leading. She didn't mean to see anything; a year ago, Lucy would have felt the obvious aggression that came along with her memories being invaded. But she was different now, she understood. That hand which tracked the length of her arm made it to Penny's hand, taking hold of it for good measure.

"Shit," She swore, closing her eyes briefly to steal a moment of contemplation, "What'd I do now?"

Because as she looked again, the Australian stared with a genuine curiosity. Weeks of clothes were likely lined with hundreds of possibilities, and Lucy's mind hadn't yet settled on the one in question. After all, she did a lot of arguably stupid things in a single day.

[Penelope Serrano-Blaise]

With the clothes that had piled up before Penny had done laundry for her counterpart, what she spoke of could have been anything. She'd seen memories imprinted on her clothes before - it wasn't a new concept between them. The psychometrist never actively looked; it wasn't her place to see everything. She shouldn't be able to in the first place.

Penny's hand tightened around Lucy's, possibly with just a little too much pressure as she let out another shaking breath. Only minutes before she had held onto confidence that wasn't her own - kept up a face that was suddenly crumbling. She didn't even respond to the curse given.

"You didn't." Penny explained quickly, shaking her head briefly as she continued. "I mean, it's not about what you did. I-" Struggling through a sentence was still something Penny failed to get used to, but she held her own eyes shut momentarily to force it out. "I went and spoke to my roommate."

[Lucy Serrano-Blaise]

The pressure in her hand was worth a majority of her attention, so much so that Lucy dropped her gaze long enough to look at it. An unstable nature to her breathing and the need to hold on tightly like a life line; fragments of an expression pieced themselves together in her mind, and she hadn't even said a word yet.

At the news that Penny had gone to her roommate, Lucy raised her eyebrows. She couldn't keep the surprise from her features at the fact; the crux of the issue still completely lost on her.

Memories. They were talking about memories. About something she'd seen that she hadn't gone looking for - as if she ever went looking in the first place. Something she'd seen, but she really shouldn't have. The stack of clothes she'd thrown away had gotten mixed and lost with everything else. The last time Lucy actively spoke to her counterpart's roommate was impossible to forget, and the moment she got back to that point, she felt how her eyes widened.

"Why?" Lucy asked, eyebrows lowering in evident confusion, "I thought I told you to leave it."

[Penelope Serrano-Blaise]

By the time Penny opened her eyes again, she caught the surprise that etched its way onto Lucy's features. It wasn't hard to piece it together from there, Penny was sure, and the Australian's expression gave that much away. Even as she looked down at their hands, her own gaze remained fixed on Lucy, expecting her to get angry more than anything else.

But there was confusion. Still, the psychometrist held her breath, lips pursing together at the single question. How the latter statement coupled with it brought evident tension through her spine, forcing the muscles to tighten in her neck.

"Because I am angry." She explained, careful to word herself. She wasn't done being angry, likely unsure when she would find the means to properly disperse the aggression she felt towards her Southern roommate. "She has no right to do any of that, and I just - I couldn't help it." Rarely did those words slip from Penny's mouth. The control freak who let an emotion get the better of her - and not the one that most often did.

[Lucy Serrano-Blaise]

Confusion was Lucy's first point of call; it was the place to start, and to work from. Psychometry was something she understood to the best of her ability - she knew as much as Penelope Blaise would allow her to know - but there were always missing pieces. Always things she felt she didn't quite understand. Things she knew she'd never really get.

It wasn't an open conversation. Not something she could ask about. She squeezed her hand again, this time taking a half step to ease herself in just that little bit closer. Distance and proximity were as much killers as they were her allies, especially when Penny was angry.

Angry. She could see it now.

"This is exactly why I-" Lucy started, and quickly worked to stop herself. Another realisation caught her attention before she could finish the initial jump, and in that break she allowed herself to shift gears, "How much did you see?" She asked, quickly. It might have seemed sudden, but it didn't feel so, "What did you see?"

[Penelope Serrano-Blaise]

A breach in distance was likely the best move Lucy could have made; aggression still pumped through Penny's veins she felt the ink manipulator come closer. It wasn't enough to completely dispel her anger - and nothing but time likely would be able to at that point, but it still chiseled away at it. The simple squeeze of her hand kept her grounded. Breathing.

But a shot of irritation at the ink manipulator as she immediately shook her head, lips parting with the intention of arguing that - again - she didn't go looking for any memory. That she had every intention of giving her the privacy that she requested. That she wouldn't have tried to find it regardless.

A change of direction kept Penny from potentially lashing out in a negative way, and with a breath she realized she was thankful for that. The psychometrist wasn't mad at her, nor did she want to be. Either way, it didn't make answering any easer. "You kissed her." There wasn't an ounce of negativity in her tone - for once her jealousy wasn't a factor in the moment. If anything, it was more jarring to be in laundry room and suddenly kissing an angry Southern girl within the next moment without warning. "And she attacked you." Or tried, but the fact still remained.

"I saw it all. Everything until you went into the hallway."

[Lucy Serrano-Blaise]

Lucy couldn't help the twitch in her nose when Penny mentioned that she'd seen Lucy kiss her roommate. Or rather, she'd lived it. Like she'd felt the volatile poison the ink manipulator had tried to press against her lips in that exact moment. She felt the heated words from her mouth; the ample amounts of swears she'd have felt as if they were passing her own lips instead.

"And then you saw me." Lucy denoted. After all, it was the inevitable turn of events. How Penny had found her and how she herself had asked not to be touched.

A free hand wrapped around the back of her neck, easing her in even closer. Anything to work the ill feelings she could see away.

Despite the obvious double standard, the Australian couldn't help the thoughts that breached her mouth before her mind as she pressed her forehead to hers; "But everything I went and said was so you didn't have to. You can't do that for me." The obvious burn at the back of her throat made the addition anything but simplistic, "You're making it void."

[Penelope Serrano-Blaise]

The expression Lucy offered was well deserved, but it didn't make it any easier to handle. It was impossible to forget that day from her own perspective, let alone hers now, too. The psychometrist was forced to remember as it was; as much as she tried to look to the future it wasn't so easy to escape from the past.

"I don't know how long you waited, but yes." Penny offered, recalling the way Lucy had pressed her back to the wall, refusing to leave the floor but in the same refusing to stay within the confinements of the dormitory until Penny had gotten there.

The hand placed to the back of her neck worked to draw her in; a half step on Penny's own behalf, and she drew her head down to rest against Lucy's shoulder, eyes squeezing shut once eye contact was lost. It was a matter of timing, as Penny could feel the way her features tensed over her counterpart's statement. Told that she just took a series of steps backwards, as if it were that simple.

"Why?" Penny questioned, her hand filtering up to curl into the material at Lucy's side.

[Lucy Serrano-Blaise]

Lucy felt the urge to explain how long she'd been waiting. She knew Penny didn't care for details she wasn't Interested in, but something about the way she spoke about it had the ink manipulator wondering if she was curious. In the end, she kept it to herself. She reasoned it was likely better to keep the number.

With Penny against her shoulder, Lucy found the conversation that much easier to handle. Direct eye contact proved difficult in such important moments.

Her hand filtered up, resting to the back of her head instead of the space behind her neck. "Because," Lucy started, and paused for a lengthy amount of time, almost as if she believed the single word would explain enough, "I don't wanna get into this fight again." After all, it felt like they'd barely made it out the first time.

[Penelope Serrano-Blaise]

Why. It was a time bomb of a question. They had talked - or rather, argued - about this before. It was hardly something Penny wanted to repeat, but the instinctual word still passed her lips. It was hypocritical, and the Brit firmly stood by that thought. So the answer she was given, a single word within itself, hardly felt satisfying.

Penny kept quiet, forehead still pressed to Lucy's shoulder, settled there by her hand, although that was hardly a bad thing. She didn't think she could handle the conversation while maintaining eye contact.

It wasn't until Lucy spoke the exact thoughts that chased through Penny's mind did she give any sort of response. First, a heavy exhale - five seconds out with the intention of trying to keep it as stable as possible. "I just want her to leave both of us alone." Penny confessed, voice dropping in an attempt to hide some of the strain from it.