Time Warp: Learn Me Hard

[Penelope Serrano-Blaise]

December, 2014. Takes place just after Bad Time?

Living with another person so close called for a slight change in schedule. In certain aspects, it worked well, but there was always going to be things that wouldn't change. Lucy's determined nature to sleep in while Penny showered in the mornings was one of them; and in return, the Australian always went to shower in the evenings. No matter how hard Penny argued the benefits she doubted that Lucy would ever drag herself up and out of bed early enough to shower before school.

It did, however, give Penny time in the evening to read in silence. Although she missed the ink manipulator for the sort time that she was gone, she tried to spend her time as efficiently as she could.

Positioned at Lucy's desk, the Brit sat with a straightened back. Her keyboard was pushed back slightly for the novel that took its place. She could have easily moved to the bed while waiting for Lucy's return, but sheets had far more memories than a chair did - at least of the sort would ruin the psychometrist entirely.

When the sound a door caught her attention, Penny immediately lifted her eyes from the text in front of her. Turning in the chair, her eyes instantly lit up at the sight of her counterpart. Really, it hadn't been that long, but time had still dragged nonetheless, and a glance at the clock proved she had taken longer than usual. Still, she smiled, hand extending out to beckon her closer.

[Lucy Serrano-Blaise]

Scheduling when to shower in a day had never been a thing for Lucy. She more or less just went when it seemed to make sense, and for her, that happened to be in the evening. It was late enough that it hadn't been busy, and the idea was that she'd never really be gone for more then fifteen minutes if she could help it. That time had come and gone incredibly quickly, and the blame for it couldn't fall on her. Dominique Chevalier was a guy who rarely approached anyone for help, but he'd done his best to find her in a moment where she couldn't really say no. Invading the ink manipulator's shower stall for advice sounded like the world's worst excuse to shower with another person, but it had been genuine.

It was still... Weird? The immediate thought that she needed to explain it was weird.

Because it was no secret to Lucy that Penny and Dom didn't like each other. They practically nothing'd each other, and that was fine. But somehow Lucy was relatively sure that this wasn't going to be fine with the girl she'd barely been engaged to.

Walking through the door to her own room, she immediately glanced up to catch the familiar eyes that graced her. Her own gaze dropped to the smile Penny opted to wear for her, too, and her own shoulders fell with a quick breath. After the instance at the airport, just about everything Penny wanted to give her could steal the air from her lungs. After all, she shouldn't have been here. She should have been in New York, and Lucy could have been left in shower stalls with tall blonde twins.

She didn't step closer when a hand beckoned her in. Rather she took herself towards the closet instead.

"Hey." Keeping out of reach.

[Penelope Serrano-Blaise]

With the presence of the ink manipulator there, Penny immediately relaxed. She hadn't even been aware of the tension she carried; the usual tension she always carried, but once dark eyes caught sight of the Australian, she sucked in her own breath in tandem with the one Lucy released.

When her counterpart chose to move towards the closet rather than herself, Penny's eyebrows twitched together with confusion. The corner of her mouth even dragged downwards a hair. After all, Lucy rarely denied the psychometrist, especially in the prior days where she should have been in another state all together.

"Hello." Although she tried to ignore the way her chest tightened at the denial, instead easing herself around to face Lucy's desk again as she closed her book, setting it aside before dragging the keyboard back into place. Insuring that all was neat and where it ought to be, Penny pressed her palms to her knees, standing up and out of the chair to make her way across the room towards Lucy.

Because she was still far away, and Penny could stand little of that.

[Lucy Serrano-Blaise]

Making her way to the closet over the company of the girl she loved was a difficult process for Lucy. She naturally gravitated towards Penny in any given moment as it was, but with everything that has just occurred the need to stay close was absolutely paramount. So much so that it almost physically pained her to ignore the silent way a hand had beckoned her over. But she had already found herself in enough trouble through psychometry, and now she was hyper aware to the issues it might cause. An altercation like that? It had to read all over her.

Distance worked in her favour for a few seconds. She managed to drop her prior clothes into the hamper quickly, but she frowned at them to the idea that other hands would inevitably collect them and ensure they were clean. Surely by then, no remnants would remain. It'd be fine.

Footsteps followed her from behind, and Lucy quickly turned to catch the culprit moving in her direction. An almost pained expression crossed her features; she didn't want distance. She couldn't handle much more of it as it was.

"Sorry," She tried, but the word was always strained. And she forced herself away a step, past her and in the opposite direction.

The next word could have been a given; "Shit."

Because there was no easy way to explain what happened. Either way it sounded wrong. It sounded like something someone just... Shouldn't have let happen. But in the ink manipulator's mind, it wasn't all that bad. "Something happened, and I don't want you to just... See it." She explained, but it only sounded worse. Shifting around on a step, Lucy sought her eyes for the first time; "It looks bad."

[Penelope Serrano-Blaise]

Although Penny hadn't thought much of Lucy walking towards her closet rather than herself the first time, she didn't expect to be denied again. She had been so close, and out of no where her counterpart looked incredibly distressed. Confusion flooded Penny's features, and then - with one single word passing Lucy's lips - evident alarm.

Penny knew first hand how rarely the Australian apologized for any of her actions. So when she did without - as far as Penny knew - a reason to do so, the Brit was suddenly put on edge. She completely paused in her steps, allowing the ink manipulator to easily work around her. Rather, she just looked; stared back at dark eyes in hopes of an explanation to come.

It did; but first with a curse. There was a twitch of her nose, as there always was, but she was far more focused on what came after. Intelligent eyes calculated up what was offered to her, or tried to, yet her mind was caught on one detail.

"Something happened in the shower?"

[Lucy Serrano-Blaise]

"Yeah."

Lucy's reply was immediate, and the knee-jerk reaction didn't carry the kind of stress one would assumed it had. Of course, when piecing the easy information together, it sounded bad. It sounded wrong. On any level, it really was wrong. And so it must have seemed strange that on a personal level, the conversation didn't feel wrong. The placement? It was questionable. The second individual made it even more questionable. But expressing it verbally was far better than forcing Penny to watch it. Or even having her stumble across it without warning. Without reason.

"I was just there by myself and like-" A smart enough pause for Lucy to search her mind for the right words. But either way, it was going to be bad.

What was the point in cushioning something she'd have to caution anyway?

"Dom rocked up and sorta just, like, walked in and started at me with some shit about you and me." She tried. Though she knew how rushed the explanation felt, she stared back at her anyway, hands moving with the tide of her own useless detailing; "And like, how he could get that?" Another breath and she was fixing to keep going, because when it came to things like these, rambling couldn't be helped.

[Penelope Serrano-Blaise]

Really, Penny was hoping on the off chance that whatever might have happened did so within the walk either to or from the shower stalls. The immediately answer she received put a wave of anxiety through her form as she clenched her jaw. Because she tried her best to wait and hear what she had to offer first, but her mind was already racing.

There were really only a few names that Penny wished not to hear - one of which was impossible, another incredibly unlikely to approach another woman in a shower, and the third? Dark eyes widened at the name as it passed her lips.

Her fingers curled into her palms with a evident shot of anger, even as she still listened to the beginnings of a ramble from her counterpart. Instinctively, she took another step towards Lucy, although she had yet to reach out to her again, upon her request. She wasn't sure if she was more angry or confused as to why Dominique would walk into Lucy's shower, but the moment Lucy took a breath, Penny took the opportunity to fill the air.

"Why?"

[Lucy Serrano-Blaise]

Penny easily cut Lucy off before she could continue, and it was probably a good thing. It was difficult to map instances that had only just happened, let alone explain them with any kind of decent detail. But given the look on her face, her assumption had been pretty right. It did sound bad. It would have looked a lot worse if she'd caught a glimpse of the interaction without an explanation.

Bus pressed forward, Lucy caught the single question. She took it in with little time to spare.

"I dunno," Lucy replied quickly, shrugging her shoulders, "Cause maybe he doesn't know anyone who's actually figured out how to make this sorta thing work?"

And the reply had left her mouth before she even gave herself the time to consider just what Penny was questioning. A free hand shifted into the material of her shirt, curling amidst the fabric as if to silently wonder just how much of a memory could have lined itself to the fabric when she hadn't been wearing anything in the first place.

[Penelope Serrano-Blaise]

Really, the single word that Penny asked was loaded with several questions. She hadn't clarified in her own way, and thus she shouldn't have been upset when she received an answer she hadn't wanted. But she was. Shortened breaths gave away her frustration and anxiety over the matter, as if it weren't already clear enough simply from the subject.

"What?" Penny shot back shortly through a clenched jaw. Lifting her hand, her forefinger and thumb squeezed at the bridge of her nose with a frustrated exhale. "Why does that matter?" Although Lucy and Dominique were friends, she hardly thought it was the boy's business to pry into their personal life. Really, nobody had the right to.

But she wasn't done. Her hand dropped back to her side again as she opened her eyes to look at the ink manipulator in hopes that some sort of silent explanation would come forth. Or perhaps it was Lucy's attempt at a joke, but her expression hardly made it seem so. "Why in the shower?" She pressed on. "What on Earth makes that acceptable?"

[Lucy Serrano-Blaise]

Alright, so Lucy had made the wrong snap decision as to what her counterpart had been referring to. Her initial thoughts were as muddled as memories of the past hour had been, and trying to find a clearer mentality now was so incredibly impossible. She wanted to provide some kind of clarity for the British girl who looked as exhausted as she was exasperated, but in her own mind everything was sharpened and in her line of sight.

"I don't fucking know; did I say it was my idea? Did I say I was okay with it?" She asked, her own tone losing its blunter edges as her nerves saw the proverbial light of day. Stripped back and worn raw, it was hard to find the sense left behind.

Penny was angry, and that was okay. Were the situation reversed, Lucy would be angry too.

"Don't you bloody well snap at me like I went out and fucked something up here." She continued on, both hands curling into the hem line of her shirt. Seconds later, she was dragging it up over her head, dark eyes switching to search the room for anything else to wear else she left herself completely exposed for good.

[Penelope Serrano-Blaise]

Quick to snap and quick to curse, Lucy's defensive nature only added tension to an already strained moment. The stressed swear Lucy offered dragged a pained expression out of the psychometrist as she clenched her jaw. What was worse, was the shirt Lucy pulled from her form. Even in the worst of moments it was still impossible for the Brit to not look. Even while she tried to keep her gaze steady, dark eyes glanced down to the form the moment she lost eye contact with her counterpart.

She took another step; between the magnetic energy that Lucy always had and the heat of such an argument, Penny couldn't help but to try and bridge the gap in some way. It was easy to get worked up when such information was suddenly offered practically out of the blue. A man known for his indecency approaching the woman she loved in the shower.

But angered words lost their edge as she continued to bring herself closer. Although she didn't reach out while she was still clothed in any way, her expression lost its hardened tones. Because, angry as she was, worry quickly took over with what she said. "Are you okay?"

[Lucy Serrano-Blaise]

When on edge, Lucy could hardly notice the difference in her own behaviour. She couldn't stop the rash jumps from one set of emotional responses to the next. She carried an absolute sense of necessity for the instance that had just happened; how she so needed to explain it before it got lost or found in the most inopportune time. Certain things placed strain when it came to dating and loving a psychometrist. There was no room for secrecy, and thankful to the fact, Lucy had no intention of hiding.

Rather, she did her best to be as accommodating as possible. Not simply for her own benefit, but for the fact that Penny was so negative about the things she could do. That she might go inward if she caught a glimpse of something Lucy hadn't told her, because privacy was evasive. It didn't really exist when everything was forced to one path instead of two.

But again, she didn't mind.

"No I'm not bloody well okay." Lucy surged instead, uncomfortable with the very idea that she would keep her back to her counterpart, "But not because of what you're thinking."

"I don't really care about the whole thing, and that's probably really weird, because I should probably be really angry." She wasn't even sure she was making sense, now. A quick turn of a heel and she abandoned the idea of redressing herself when something so pressing was trying to filter through her mind instead; "Am I meant to care about it? Cause I don't. Only care that I knew you were gonna be fuming."

[Penelope Serrano-Blaise]

Penny had hope the drop of her own tone would, on some level, calm her counterpart, but the fuming response she received instead had proved otherwise. It put sharper edges back into Penny's features; hardened eyes and gritted teeth while even the most mild of swears still put a crinkle in her nose.

But as Lucy explained herself further, the Brit found herself more confused than anything. Where the Australian's frustration landed was hardly where she expected it to. Her eyebrows twitched together as she calculated the information thrown at her.

Because none of it made sense. She was upset because she knew Penny would be? Her back straightened with a new breath.

"You're angry at me?" Penny gathered with her own harshened tone. "And not at the pervert that invaded your privacy?"

[Lucy Serrano-Blaise]

Lucy had honestly taken the assumption and put into practice that Penny would just understand what she was saying, holes in the statement and all. That was what relationships sort of did, right? Things interlocked and connected without the dots being linked so obviously. Penny could read her in a way that most other's couldn't. That was a bold assumption.

And one proven wrong with Penny's response. Lucy raised hands to her face, allowing them to track the length of it before one hand's fingers tracked nails across her jaw; "Oh my god; it's like you're deaf or some shit!"

It mightn't have been the most eloquent argument, but it was there. She fell into a void and making sense was apparently too far out of reach for Lucy to successfully manage it. So who cared about finding clothes, now? It wasn't anything she hadn't seen, and it wasn't as if she was about to launch at the ink manipulator to forgo the argument like they usually would. So those hands filtered to the line of easy leggings, and she slowly worked to drag them down.

"I get why you're really shitty; that's the point. Cause that's all I thought about?" Lucy tried, but she doubted she was making much more sense with a statement like that; "But listen - it's not like I looked or anything. It was fucking weird and it was really fucking stupid, but I wasn't standing there like, thinking about how I could get away with banging one of the twins. Do you get that?"

[Penelope Serrano-Blaise]

With the disconnect, only found herself more frustrated with the response she was given. From the way Lucy's nails found her jaw to the harsh statement thrown back at her. Parted lips went to argue that it was clear she heard what the Australian had said, so she obviously couldn't be deaf, but she missed the small opportunity that was offered to speak when Lucy dragged the remainder of her close off.

Even in the worst of moments, she still stared.

But an accented voice snapped her back, and dark eyes shot back up to Lucy with the soured look that came with an onslaught of curses. To add to it, was the point Lucy was making. "Do you really believe that - of anything - that would have crossed my mind?" She questioned with a raised voice.

Steps brought her closer to the ink manipulator. Enough where she could have easily reached out by then. Close enough where she could have kissed Lucy were she not busy yelling. "I'm not concerned where you're looking, I'm bothered where he is! I'm not stupid!"