Time Warp: To Lean On

[Penelope Serrano-Blaise]

December, 2021

Pregnancy was not a new experience for Penelope - she had gone through it herself. In theory, having a second child should have an easier experience than the first. They were prepared. There were certain aspects reading just didn't help with, but real life experiences made up for. So when she learned her wife was pregnant, the Brit was sure she had this.

But she didn't.

Nothing could have prepared her for the change that had taken place. How Lucy's mood had significantly changed in the most unexpected way. How over the months, Penny had more often than not become the bad guy in this supportive role.

She sucked in a sharp breath, finishing the last of the dishes before fingers curled around the large cup at the counter. A green, thick substance filling it almost to the top as she made her way into the living room. Kale. Penny knew how Lucy felt on the vegetable, but that never made it any less healthy for her to drink, and thus, the Brit would continue to push it on her.

Entering the living room, the psychometrist offered a tired, but genuine smile to her wife. Work was coming to an end for the semester, reading for winter break, but before she was allowed such, there was a surplus of work that needed to be done first. It showed as she extended the cup to her counterpart who was situated on the couch.

Balancing work, a pregnant wife, and a child - who was thankfully sleeping at the moment - was no easy feat.

"Here." It wasn't a matter of asking if Lucy wanted it or not - she had to drink it, in the Brit's mind. Dark eyes flicked to the television briefly. "What are you playing?"

[Lucy Serrano-Blaise]

Lucy had hopes that later months of her pregnancy would provide a change in her counterpart. She had some kind of belief that given the prior conversations they'd had before, things would slowly grow different in time. That things might work out better in her favour. After all, they'd been over this before. More than once. And every time they seemed to land on the same result; Penny would ease up. Just enough to offset her structural overbearing attitude.

But each time, it proved to be wrong. And the more times it progressed, the more Lucy felt her nerves fray.

Dark eyes settled on the contents of the glass in view, and immediately the ink manipulator crinkled her nose. She didn't need to smell it to know what it was, much less feel how much she disdained it. She pressed her lips together instinctively; it wasn't something to be sick over. That was too much of a stretch. "Nothing too crazy." She replied, her eyes still glued to the glass she hadn't reached out to take yet.

"Do I have to?"

[Penelope Serrano-Blaise]

The crinkle in Lucy's nose was possibly the last expression Penny wanted to witness as she held out the glass and it's green contents. Her lips pursed together with disapproval, matching the line Lucy's formed. With the granted eye contact, Penny didn't glance to the television. Honestly, the sound emitting from there was enough to give away that it wasn't too violent of a game. Since her own pregnancy, Penny had practically banned the use of them in their home. At least for the time being.

"Yes." Penny stated sternly. It wasn't a matter of questioning, it was a matter of doing. They'd gone over this before. For the past six months, and it felt as if no progress had been made. On either end. Easing up proved harder than expected; almost impossible. Penelope rarely was light on anyone, her wife included, despite how she loved her. "You know you have to." With a slight tilt of her wrist, she eased it closer to the ink manipulator.

[Lucy Serrano-Blaise]

Without a look to the controller in hand or the TV ahead, Lucy paused the game. She had a feeling this wasn't going to be the world's fastest altercation, and as such she didn't want to lose or falter through any progress.

Penny's stern voice hung heavy in the air, creating a thin veil of tension between them already. Lucy gritted her teeth, hidden behind her lips, but the tension in her jaw was likely obvious. Her eyes glanced intently at the cup Penny indicated towards. She so desperately wanted to argue with it already. Seriously. Look at it. "Yeah, I know you said that." Lucy replied, settling the controller down completely beside her. With her hands free, she brought them together, fingers interlocking as she squeezed them instinctively.

"But why do I have to?" She asked genuinely. Just as she likely would again given just how much she didn't want to consume it.

[Penelope Serrano-Blaise]

Unable to see the way Lucy's teeth were grinding together, Penny was still quick to notice the tension the clearly lined her counterpart's jaw. This was happening. Again. As if somehow the Brit's explanation would change since she first handed her wife the same drink several months ago.

"Because," Penny stressed, her free hand moving to her hip as she let out something of a distressed sigh. "Kale has three essential vitamins, calcium, and fiber." She riddled off factually. "This will give you more energy than a coffee right now."

She tilted the tip of the cup forward, silently beckoning her wife to take it. "It's not bad. I drank them every day when I was carrying Lincoln." She knew, and therefor, could speak knowledgeably about it without trouble.

[Lucy Serrano-Blaise]

Lucy listened to the explanation given to her. They were words she'd heard before, and taken in before, but that didn't make it any easier. Her gaze shifted from the glass to the hand Penny settled on her hip. Attitude in the form of physicality; as if she didn't know what she was serving with such a simple move.

She hadn't even mentioned coffee today, and there it was, in her face. Along with some knowledge about Penny during her own pregnancy, which of course the ink manipulator knew already.

"Well, yeah, but you like it." Lucy replied. By proxy, Penny must have known that the ink manipulator always crinkled her nose at the idea of Kale, let alone the taste. "Can't we sub it out for something I might actually like the taste of?" She asked genuinely, sure to find some kind of compromise that didn't involve the leafy thing she clearly hated.

[Penelope Serrano-Blaise]

Unaware of the aggression offered from her own stance, Penny tried her best to hear Lucy's side of the story, as she always did. Tried, that is. How it came across to the Brit was a completely separate problem within itself, because listening and understanding fell under two different categories. She was just making something simple into a difficult process.

She had a somewhat valid point, however, as Penny had no complaints about kale in any form, including as a beverage. Even now, she chose to drink what wouldn't fit into Lucy's large glass.

"It has one of the highest sources of vitamin K," Penny tried her best to explain, hearing the strain in her own voice. Tired already. "There's nothing that can compare, but I added extra lime to this one, you can barely tell it's in there."

[Lucy Serrano-Blaise]

Lucy thought her offer was fair. Despite the fact that her hands were free, she wasn't touching the glass. And she definitely wasn't accepting the compromise Penny was offering.

It wasn't even a compromise. Lime was totally not a compromise.

"I don't even know what vitamin K does." Lucy replied. She still couldn't grasp how listing off a specific vitamin was supposed to make her care or understand more. When it came to the great debate about Kale - or really, any foods and their vitamin ratio - the ink manipulator was well and truly at a loss. "I just know that every time I have to drink it, I kinda wanna give it all back to you in like, the fastest, worst way possible."

It was a dangerous admission to play this late in the game, she knew. But something so awful once a day was bound to disagree with her. "So if I don't keep it down, why would I even bother?" She asked, shrugging her shoulders at the fact.

[Penelope Serrano-Blaise]

Apparently logic wasn't working, and Penny found herself taking in another struggling breath. Anything to keep a calm composure as she sat herself down beside her wife, glass still tilted in her direction to take any moment she might consider it, although at this rate she doubted it.

She parted her lips to offer a detailed explanation on exactly what vitamin K did for the body, and how it helped the child Lucy carried, but before she got a chance she heard possibly the worst response she could have been given. Her eyes widened, although only slightly, at the idea of Lucy getting sick. Although she had gotten significantly more comfortable handling it after the birth of their first son, it was never something the Brit wanted to deal with, even if she did regardless.

Placing a hand on Lucy's knee, Penny felt the involuntary crinkle of her nose. A silent admission that Lucy had gotten an edge on the pedantic Brit, but it certainly wasn't the end of things. "Have you yet?" She asked, eyebrows twitching up with the answer already known. She'd been giving the drink to Lucy every day - six months late for that one.

[Lucy Serrano-Blaise]

There was momentary comfort in the fact that Penny sat down beside Lucy. More so when the psychometrist finally made contact in what honestly felt like forever. A slight tilt of her leg to the contact, easing into the necessity in her own way.

It wasn't like Lucy to lie. Not really, anyway. Not about things that Penny clearly deemed so important. "No," She answered finally, her shoulders slumping a little at the offered fact. Because she felt the obvious concern radiating from those dark eyes despite how stern she still looked. Lucy pursed her lips, musing the thought; "Some days, it's not the worst thing in the world." She explained, "Other times it's like... Ninety-percent sure I'm not gonna keep it down?" Not a total hundred, so at least there was a little leeway.

"That usually goes away after like an hour or two." She added quickly, easily as she eased the glass from her counterparts hand into hers. Cupping it in both, she glanced at the contents with a frown to her mouth. "Did I not tell you that?"

[Penelope Serrano-Blaise]

As the glass slipped from her grasp, her gazed dropped down to it. To the contents that Lucy spoke so poorly of. Even though the contact worked to help settle her counterpart in the smallest of ways, Penny felt a new wave of stress hit her in full.

"No." Penny replied, eyebrows furrowing together after the word slipped from her lips. "I don't believe so." It seemed like the type of information that would have been offered by then - that Penny should have remembered, yet it felt new to her ears as she took a deep breath, releasing it after holding on for just a little too long.

Reaching out again, Penny curled her fingers around the rim of the glass, working to slide it up and out of Lucy's grasp even though she had only just taken hold of it. "We'll skip it." She offered as gently as she could manage.

[Lucy Serrano-Blaise]

Lucy didn't feel overly apologetic to the idea that she'd never expressed this concern before. There were certain things she just didn't say to Penny; things that would worry her further in a situation where she didn't need to be worried. At least, Lucy was sure she didn't need to worry. But just when she'd accepted what seemed like the inevitable, it was disappearing.

The second Penny's hand reached for the glass Lucy cupped, her hands tightened around it. It took a second, but her reflexes insured she'd be able to at least maintain some kind of hold of it. From wanting Lucy to drink it to suddenly not wanting her to; the switch - which was incredibly sudden in the Australian's opinion - was relatively irritating.

"No, it's okay." Lucy replied quickly, "I've got it."

[Penelope Serrano-Blaise]

Never one to often change her mind about health concerns, this felt entirely different. Her fingers squeezed around the rim of the glass as she tried to take it, only to fail as Lucy's hold tightened to secure it within her grasp. Her lips pressed together tightly, eyebrows threatening to furrow as she still tried to draw the glass up regardless.

"You don't have it." She corrected, not yet acknowledging the hint of stress in her tone as she unconsciously pointed out Lucy's lack of proper grammar within the same go. "You just said you didn't."

Her jaw remained stressed, exhaling quickly to try and ease away the tension. She had only just pointed out that she didn't want to drink it, but also that she felt sick sometimes after doing so. Now she was holding on as if that were hardly a factor. "I'll figure out something else."

[Lucy Serrano-Blaise]

"Yeah, but-" Lucy started, cutting herself off when she realised she didn't know what else to say. Instead, her tongue raced the length of her lower lip, as if she could force herself to talk. Unfortunately in that moment she just... Couldn't.

Already the back and forth was getting exhausting, and it felt like it'd only just started. At least, for this round. As of late far too much felt like an uneven exchange. Still, she was trying to the best of her ability. "Shut up, I can." Lucy fought back, a rise of a clear argument building in her tone. Now that she'd taken it to such a point, she felt the need to retract it. It was important. She was practically positive to her.

"It means something to you." Lucy reasoned, raising her gaze to try to catch hers.

[Penelope Serrano-Blaise]

Irritation grew quickly throughout Penny's form, feeling the start of a headache forming in the corners of her mind. Carefully, she took a breath. Deep. Long. Anything to find the means to keep calm in something that was getting her so completely worked up.

Still, her hand never left the glass. Pressure, never decreasing.

More often than not, it was Penny who told Lucy to shut up rather than the reverse, and the two words forced her eyebrows to raise sharply, lips pressing together as she quickly decided that, no, she wasn't going to shut up.

"You mean something to me." Penny corrected, catching the heavy gaze of her wife as she looked up to her.