Breathe in Fire, Exhale Desire

[Penelope Serrano-Blaise]

Penny Blaise was always a tidy individual, and by proxy it forced her counterpart's living space to neaten up significantly over the span of their relationship. The first time she ever entered Lucy Serrano's room, she had cleaned it in the form of revenge. Now? It was therapeutic. Because there was clean, and then there was this.

Already immaculate, the Brit still pushed the boundaries of what she considered sanitary. The first day it truly felt like spring in half of a year, she opened the window. Fresh air to help hide the smell of cleaner.

She was in class, although due to be out soon as Penny knew. Still, it did little to prevent the psychometrist from literally scrubbing the baseboards on her hands and knees. Gloves protected her hands, and with every pass of the scrub she held, she was sure it wasn't quite clean enough. A stiff form and even stiffer movements continued to work in the direction of one corner of Lucy's room.

As easily - or rather, not so easily - she could have turned on her fiancée's computer to play music from the speakers attached, headphones instead covered her ears, masking any sign of an entrance that could have been made, even if she listened at a safe volume, the soft hum that emitted from her pursed lips made it impossible to hear anyone entering.

[Lucy Serrano-Blaise]

Blowing off a class was hardly the worst thing Lucy could do. She had so little to worry about on that particular day, because when she realised she had an English class that afternoon, she planned to dust off the incredibly popular excuse of; but I already know how to speak English. It wasn't the most favourable line with her English counterpart, which was exactly why Lucy wanted to offer it to her akin to the surprise of her availability for the rest of the day.

But when she went to Penny's room, Lucy found nothing. No one. Just an overtly clean space and the lack of a warm individual. A lonely dragon at the head of the bed they often shared. So she promptly left, else she be blindsided somehow by the gay-hating roommate who dwelled in that dorm too. There was one other place to look first before she'd resort to another building. Or a shot at her phone.

So down the stairs she went, to the particular dorm she still didn't carry keys for, but that she called her own all the same.

Without a knock, she pushed her door open. Instantly, Lucy was hit with a strong, harsh smell of some intense cleaning product. The kind she only recalled once in the room before, and that was from the first time Penny had ever been in there. She finally caught sight of the psychometrist on her knees pledging the literal hell out of the ink manipulator's bed.

"Hey," She called, immediately finding herself ignored. Or missing. Or completely lost to a moment.

So she pressed a foot to the back of her boot, easing them both off as quickly as she could before she stepped into the room and moved towards her. The moment Lucy got close, she reached out to press a hand against her shoulder.

[Penelope Serrano-Blaise]

Fresh air couldn't completely rid the strong scent of cleaning product, yet it hardly effected the Brit as it might have anyone else. Then again, she doubted any other person in the entire student body used it as often, if at all. Working into the grooves of the wood, Penny completely missed any sign of life other than herself in the room. Dark eyes remained fixed on a spot she was sure would come out with just a little more pressure. How there was paint there, Penny wasn't quite sure, although at that point she had stopped questioning how it ended up everywhere.

An unexpected hand to her shoulder instantly caused the psychometrist to jolt up, wide eyes turning on Lucy only to relax again once she did see the ink manipulator. Even through the surprise, catching sight of Lucy forced the Brit to exhale on a quick breath, the corner of her mouth dragging upward. Holding up a finger in request for the Australian to wait, Penny pushed herself up off the floor, dropping the rag into a small bucket before dragging the headphones off from her ears.

"I'm sorry." She instantly apologized, hands reaching for her own wrists in order to pull the gloves she wore off. "I didn't hear you." Rubber snapped as she curled them into a ball, tossing them in a small bin close before she finally reached out, a hand resting on Lucy's waist. "You're back early."

[Lucy Serrano-Blaise]

The sudden jolt Penny provided shouldn't have surprised Lucy, really. She should have expected the little twitch given her obvious inability to catch the ink manipulator's presence, but there was something about it that still felt a little jarring. Then again, it wasn't hard to recall who Penny was before they'd gotten into this. It was doubtful that anyone was allowed to actively reach out to her like that.

But she saw her relax when she caught sight of the Australian, who was quick to ease her hand back the second it didn't seem warranted or wanted.

That hand tracked the inhabitants of her heavily tattooed arm instead, fingers grazing through the rush of the lion's mane as she was told to wait. Her nose instinctively crinkled at the gesture behind it, given how infrequently she liked to wait, but she took it regardless.

"Yeah well, it was English." She replied with a shrug, like that within itself was enough of a reason to skip out on the back end of a class. It was impossible to ignore the hand at her waist, but hers still remained interlocked behind her back.

"It fully smells like a hospital in here." She finally pointed out, eyebrows slightly lowered with the evident disinterest.

[Penelope Serrano-Blaise]

Without her hand within easy reach, Penny settled for her own at Lucy's waist. Even if she wished for fingers intertwined, any contact was better than none. Even so, she couldn't help but to raise her eyebrows with a glance towards the Australian's turned arm. Hidden behind Lucy's back, there was no real sign to read into - at least that was readily visible.

Possibly the most sensitive of subjects for the Brit who was studying English in university, Penny would usually be the first to point out how imperative the class was, regardless of whatever excuse Lucy could come up with. Even so, Penny simply nodded in response, a small, rare hum of agreement passing idle lips as she lifted her hand, raking her fingers through Lucy's hair.

"It doesn't." She was quick to argue the latter, however, turning to look towards the bucket of cleaning solution before her eyes flicked back up to Lucy. "This is organic." She pointed out, "And it needed to be cleaned." Or rather, the psychometrist needed to clean as some sort of form of therapy. Her own room had been spotless as it was, the next logical move was to do the same for the other room she spent most her time in.

[Lucy Serrano-Blaise]

Lucy couldn't help the small hint of a smile that caught her lips as familiar fingers ran through her hair. The delicate comfort was hardly lost on her; after the day she'd had - boring and seemingly unnecessary as it was - it was a welcomed change. One she could hardly be ungrateful for, even with the evident smell that now clouded her room.

She doubted she'd be sleeping here tonight. That was, unless the other room echoed a similar sentiment.

Unfurling a hand, she eased her fingers against her counterpart's arm. a small, gentle touch to remind her that she was well and truly there. Because something still seemed off.

"Ummm," A dragging press of her lips as she considered how to answer. But she was relatively useless at holding back in seemingly serious moments, so she struggled; "Okay, why? I thought I was doing good." After all, it'd been over a year since she'd been one to royally mess up her room daily.

[Penelope Serrano-Blaise]

A smile that played about Lucy's lips brought Penny's own to ease upward slightly, only further at the contact her counterpart offered. As stressed as Penny could be, there was always comfort to be found in her counterpart. Proximity made everything better, even as it could be incredibly distracting for the Brit - which wasn't necessarily bad in this instance.

"Well." Penny corrected instinctively, "And you have been." She glanced around the room - in the time of a year, Lucy had come a long way in terms of keeping things together. Anyone who might have seen a before and after photo of the Australian's living space might not have believed it to be the same person living in the room were it not for the clear art that Lucy brought to it.

"There's still little things that I like to keep up with." She tried to explain, feeling her voice drop off as she sighed. "Dusting and whatnot." Distraction still lined her tone as she stepped closer, her palm pressing lightly to Lucy's collarbone, fingers curling around her shoulder. "The smell will go away soon enough."

[Lucy Serrano-Blaise]

The easy correction Penny gave her forced Lucy's nose to crinkle, a brief flash of a frown akin to someone much younger crowning her features before she had a chance to stop it. It only surprised her when she didn't realise she was being remotely slack jawed. Still, the fact that she felt the need to keep the room obviously clean for the ink manipulator was nothing to be proud of. It felt as if she'd done something wrong in a moment where she genuinely couldn't register a crime.

"You're not dusting." Lucy pointed out, offering a brief indication with her free hand towards the base of the bed they shared. Whatever else she was referring to was another thing entirely, "More like scrubbing it wood-raw."

She briefly wondered if she should press on with something like this - something she didn't send probably couldn't understand - but Lucy would hardly be Lucy if she offered a break in a moment of confusion; "Is there a spot of paint or something that's just bugging the shit outta you, or are you really this bored?"

"Cause if it's the second one, love; I can give a few more classes the slip."

[Penelope Serrano-Blaise]

It was true, Penny wasn't dusting. That had finished some time ago when she then moved to bring out cleaning products, as if a simple wipe down to remove stray particles wasn't enough to satisfy her restlessness.Her own nose crinkled as Lucy pointed out the fact, lips pressing together without a response, which only gave encouragement for Lucy to press further.

It wasn't bad, but it was overwhelming - as Lucy always was. She hardly knew that continuing with the subject at hand forced Penny to deal with the anxiety that she was trying to rid herself of by doing such tasks. That by suggesting she could skip classes left the perfect opening.

"You can't." Penny argued weakly, the corner of her mouth dropping with a small sign of distress. "We can't have the both of us going here for another year." Her statement was tacked on casually, possibly too casually for Penny to ever really be, and she was quick to continue. "There was just a spot of paint I was trying to get out. It's fine."

[Lucy Serrano-Blaise]

A slightly broad grin dusted along Lucy's features before she forced it to settle a touch. She wanted to argue that she very much could dodge a few classes if she so wanted to, but the conversation progressed before she managed to catch the little statement.

Still, Lucy was anything if not accepting of a challenge.

As it were, the allocated message flew high enough over the ink manipulator's head that she completely missed any potential importance it carried. To Lucy, it read like an empty threat; a hollow message about how her carelessness would earn - or perhaps force - them to spend another year living in two dormitories when they could opt to live in a home they'd share instead. In her mind, there was a sweeter sentiment buried within the negativity; that Penny would stay if the Australian was forced to.

"Well, you're in the presence of an expert, so why wouldn't you just leave it till I got here?" She asked, eyebrows slightly lowered as she stepped past the psychometrist to work to catch the mark in question. "I mean, Jesus, you wanna talk about stubborn." Because evidently, logic had left the building long before Lucy left class.

[Penelope Serrano-Blaise]

It wasn't hard to catch how Lucy failed to receive the message as intended, and maybe that was good, yet holding the information for her fiancée wasn't an option either. She'd find out eventually, so why not just get it out of the way now that Penny was sure of it, herself.

But the conversation took a different turn, and in exchange Penny couldn't help to let out a breath of temporary relief. She walked with Lucy, looking down on the mark. No doubt she could have waited for Lucy to actually remove it, but that was hardly the point behind her scrubbing at the wooden board in the first place.

"I just...wanted to." She tried, nose crinkling at the lack of a proper excuse as she sat up straight, folding her arms over her chest. Her lips pursed together as she waited a beat before trying to continue again. "I'm aware I'm stubborn." Despite the strain in her voice she pushed through it. "It's problematic."

[Lucy Serrano-Blaise]

There was a strange sense to the way Penny spoke, and it didn't take long for Lucy to reach a resolution as to why. There was something a little jarring about the fact that she actively called herself stubborn. There weren't many times Lucy could recall Penny being one to agree to something she had an issue with; more than likely, she was spending her time critiquing those points about the ink manipulator instead. Deflecting? Of course, but it was also the standard. It was why a majority of conversations boiled down to arguments, petty or otherwise.

Kneeling down, Lucy at first offered a descending whistle to the thought that it was problematic. That's so what everyone else would say about it. A reach with her thumb and she crossed it over the printed ink against the base of the bed.

And then it was gone.

"It'd be problematic if I didn't like it." Lucy finally replied, rolling her shoulders in a simple shrug that turned the tide to ease her muscles. Really, whoever thought sitting in a classroom for hours on end was a good idea deserved to feel the evident stiffness that remained.

[Penelope Serrano-Blaise]

Eyes on the ink manipulator, she watched how Lucy cleared the spot of paint that Penny had been working disappear with ease. Were she not thankful it was removed, she might have been annoyed by how easily the ink manipulator got the job done. Instead she kept her back straight as a board, eyebrows raising as her gaze moved to Lucy's shoulders as she rolled them.

Maybe it was the stress of her muscles, or the shot of encouragement that Lucy likely didn't know she offered, but Penny reached out to her regardless, fingers curling around Lucy's shoulders and offering a light squeeze, whether they ached or not.

"That could be argued." She replied with a frown, working out Lucy's stiffness instead of her own. Her lips parted to speak again before she clamped them shut, waiting another beat before she leaned through the distance to kiss the back of her head. "There's - " She paused. No, that wasn't right. "Something's come up."

[Lucy Serrano-Blaise]

A small exhaled shot of air left Lucy's lips the moment she felt familiar hands to her shoulders. It mightn't have stood to be so therapeutic, but that was the way contact between two usually disinterested parties worked. For someone who hated physicality with people, she couldn't get enough of what the psychometrist could offer. The faintest of smiles grazed her expression as familiar lips pressed against her head.

She thought to stand up, but something about it seemed wrong. Like maybe eye contact was destined to be a killer in a bad way.

"I'm not keen on finding out who you'd be if you weren't so bloody stubborn." Lucy offered, almost as a way to preface whatever Penny might tell her. As it were, she couldn't imagine what might have come up to throw a proverbial spanner in anyone's works. Especially something related to Penny's attitude.

She had a bad one. Lucy knew that. Pretty much anyone who interacted with her new that from the drop of a hat.

[Penelope Serrano-Blaise]

Hands kept pressed to Lucy's shoulders, keeping light pressure on them. It was easier if she remained down - without eye contact to overwhelm her completely. Avoiding the subject in favor of inevitable physicality was almost too good an option to pass up, but with another breath she kept her own back straight.

Even so, there was a hint of a smile at her counterpart's response. If either of them were anything, they were both stubborn. Imagining a life where they weren't was impossible - they likely wouldn't have ended up where they were now, if that were the case.

Another breath and she bent her own knees, forehead pressing between Lucy's shoulder blades as her hands dropped to Lucy's waist. Her nose crinkled as she went to speak again, lips parting before letting out a heavy sigh. By no means did she believe this to be easy, but it proved more difficult than she imagined to.

"Would you have ever imagined leaving this school before me?"