Wide Awake

[Penelope Blaise]

She was late.

At least, later than usual. Though the senator strategically placed two new guards on duty that evening. It would be hard to scale a building with an armed man's back against the most available wall. The one that, several floors higher, held the balcony of her bedroom.

It caused her to grow impatient, though she sat at her desk as if she was doing anything but waiting for the thief to clamber her way in. Her fingers curled around a small gold piece, crafted with meticulous care. Penelope wasn't one to decorate her room with anything that would suggest she lived the life of a noble; the piece was sure to stand out. Especially to a person who had eyes for those sort of things.

She placed it down, letting four clawed feet stand at a corner of her desk. Metallic wings looked as if they could truly beat and haul the elegant beast into the air. Dragons might have been extinct now, but their influence had yet to escape the memories of the people.

Without the weight of the small figure in her hands, she reached for her writing tools instead. At the very least, she could get some work done as she sat there.

[Lucy Serrano]

A newer approach, tonight, because the same old routine was always so boring. And she was so happy to oblige with a change of pace.

At least her hands had the strength to lift her higher. She reached the apex of the roof just in time to skirt past a turning set of eyes headed back in her direction. That was lucky, she suspected, but if anyone asked she would definitely chalk it all up to skill.

Because the roof was required. Her favoured wall had been stolen, with a formidable man pressed against the perfect place to put her hands. When she noticed his existence, she swore about it as much as she adored it, strangely enough.

Hanging from the edge had her feet drop to the cut of the doorway just before she fell. Dropping down to the base of the balcony, she had no where else to go but the door itself. SO the door to the space she claimed was what she used. Fingers around the handle, and with a slow attempt at a quiet drag she realised it was locked.

It forced an exasperated sigh from her mouth as she had to raise a hand, kneeling before the waste of time that was a lock on a door. Locks weren't hard to pick, but they were a process, and she doubted she would have any elements of surprise on her side for much longer.

When it came to winning, she loved to make it impossible.

[Penelope Blaise]

Time was passing. Slowly. Annoyingly. Enough where she had to begun to wonder if she gave too much of a challenge for the thief. Perhaps she had overestimated her skills. It was a pity.

Yet when she had almost lost hope of the idea of seeing her, Penelope picked up on the sound of a turning latch. Specifically, the sound of an attempt to open a locked door. The senator smiled.

Why would she make it so easy on the person breaking and entering her home?

Penelope pushes herself up off from her chair, abandoning her work and the new piece of art acquired. Quiet steps brought her to the door as she waited, arms folding across her chest.

[Lucy Serrano]

Lucy stopped. It was a very brief stop, but a stop all the same. There were telltale signs of a presence through a door, down to the way steps could almost be felt through the hanging floor she was kneeling on. Close enough to it that she knew to wait. And she heard those untrained steps from the other side. They stopped. She could practically feel a person hovering on the other side.

So she looked in. Just for a second through the oversized keyhole that made it so easy. Of course. At least it was her and not some guarding monster. She exhaled a laugh to herself; she doubted she would ever let a man set foot in her bedroom, no matter the reason.

Raising a nail, she tapped it against the door a few times. Delicately, but she knew the sound would still be heard.

[Penelope Blaise]

Penny had no way to know she'd been discovered. At least, not until the jiggle of a lock came to a halt. She raised her eyebrows, waiting for the thief's next move. Surely, she stopped with a plan in mind.

And then there was a knock, if it could even be called such. It put a new curve to the senator's lips, though only because she believed she couldn't be seen.

Parted lips went to say something, but she decided otherwise quickly. Instead she turned on her heel, sitting on the edge of her bed.

[Lucy Serrano]

Through a barely existing view, Lucy could clearly see the way her own little stunt had put a curve to those familiar lips. It was paining how all that separated them was a door. A door she could clearly open if she tried.

But she didn't. That was the point. She actually left the thief to her own devices. It put a shake to her hands in anticipation; it was unfair the kind of power the senator wielded over her without even trying.

When she finally managed the lock, Lucy drew herself to her feet quickly. She hauled it open with all the strength she had, and she didn't bother to close it as rushed feet moved her through the space. Because she was practically waiting, and who was Lucy to deny that importance?

So hands pressed to either side of her face as she stood close enough to feel the bed herself. A leg strategically placed between hers so she wouldn't argue. She wouldn't move away as Lucy caught her mouth with a rushed sense of altered aggression. Or frustration.

"Clever." She practically whined, once given the chance. But that chance died as she kissed her again.

[Penelope Blaise]

She could have unlocked the door; it would have shaved off some of the time to see the thief again, but it would have defeated the point of any challenge at all. Why work so hard just to be able to stroll in through the door? No, she wouldn't make it easy.

And as she waited, her finger curled into her sheets with a sort of anticipation. A pressure she'd much rather implement on the person breaking through the lock of her bedroom door. Yet she refused to allow her to see, for the moment the sound of the latch hit, she sat up straighter.

She was so incredibly quick to reach out for her, and the senator's hands pressed to her waist with a same kind of haste.

Clever. The word practically pressed to her lips, but she hadn't a chance to respond before she was kissed again. Penny pulled on the fabric her palms pressed to as she tried to pull the thief closer. And when she was given the chance, she took it to speak before it was gone again. "You're late."

[Lucy Serrano]

Lucy was so fast to take note of the hands on her form. She registered the way she was held with a kind of importance. Not only that, but those hands curled into the fabric of her own clothes and pulled her to get closer, if that were even possible. It likely wasn't, but any way for this woman to have a kind of last say was something she was bound to take. Raising her other leg, she pressed it to the bed beside her, because being half on top of her was the only resolution. It was, then, her decision to keep the distance to nothing.

And then she was scolded. Like she was supposed to ignore the heated way she was kissed in favour of a discussion. She barely took the second given to breathe before she kissed her again.

"Mmm." She hummed against her lips in agreement. Even Lucy knew she was late, but she wasn't entirely sure she wanted to have an entire conversation about it. But knowing her, it wasn't a subject to be dropped lightly.

[Penelope Blaise]

Of course she were to be scolded. Penny couldn't imagine letting the thief's tardiness slide; she had been forced to wait, and if anyone knew of the senator's impatience, it was this girl. But she moved enough to force an irregular heartbeat. In part, it made her want to drop the subject entirely.

For someone so fixed in a world about being proper, this thief seemingly brought out the worst of her. Of course, she would keep the blame pinned on Lucy. Even if their meetings were kept unknown to anyone outside the four walls of her bedroom.

Her hand slowly shifted down, letting loose the material as she passed the line of her waist down to the leg she just pressed to the bed. Nails threatened the inseam of her pants. "I had to wait."

[Lucy Serrano]

Penny knew exactly how to play such a game from start to finish. She was completely immersed in every imperative move she made. Everything had a purpose. Everything had reason. Lucy was overwhelmed by every little thing she did, because it always meant something.

That hand tracking down her thigh meant something. It was like shouting by Penelope Blaise standards. She inhaled slowly at the connection; how it dragged a response from her because it was so deserving of one. Shifting a hand, she curled her fingers around her wrist, drawing her hand back up to the band at her waist. The one she was guiding her to bypass.

It was like begging without begging. Lucy was sure she could call to the ego of her secret counterpart if nothing else.

"How did you keep yourself entertained?" Lucy asked her anyway, sarcastically at that.

[Penelope Blaise]

She knew how to appease the senator. She knew how to play into her ego, because now she was practically asking. Penny allowed her hand to be shifted, but only slightly. Once her fingertips brushed the band at her waist, it came to a halt. Painfully so, because if anything, Penny herself wanted to give into the thief's wants, too.

So she complied, but only just. Penny's hand ducked under the fabric. But she had been forced to wait, and so would she.

"The question is," Penny replied with a tilt of her chin, the tip of her nose brushing Lucy's within such close contact. "- What took you so long?" She caught her lips again, and she was hardly gentle with the connection. "I thought you were famous for your burglary skills."

[Lucy Serrano]

Lucy exhaled harshly at the way she stopped; frustration mixed to make an exasperated sound. She felt the pain of the way she moved, but really, she should have known Penny wouldn't be so quick to give into the way she was directed. That wasn't who she was. It wasn't how she was.

But there was still skin to skin contact a second later. For it, she dragged a new haul of air to fill her lungs, but it was significantly less. Already, it was hard to breathe. The air was thinner. And she was asking questions.

"Someone decided to guard right where I needed to go." She explained, because she'd been through this routine before. She had to explain herself; "I had to improvise. The roof is not an easy climb."

She brushed the tip of her nose against hers, back and forth in a series of motions; "Forgive me." She pleaded, but it was practically satirical too.

[Penelope Blaise]

The frustrated sound that passed her lips was possibly the worst noise she could have made - or perhaps the best. It proved Penny to be getting to her, and she so loved to carry that power. It was every bit as enthralling as she was. And as frustrated as the thief seemed to be, she still worked to hold a conversation. Lucy's commitment was endearing.

She inched her hand down further, but still refusing to give in just yet.

It was always interesting to hear the ways she managed to skirt around the guards. When the thief made mention of the roof, a small hum passed her lips in acknowledgement. "Yet you still managed." Penny replied. It was the closest the senator would come to compliment this girl. "Barely." And with a clever shift, she was through with waiting.

[Lucy Serrano]

It was almost unfair as to how great a hold this person had on her. How she could somehow managed to pull a close attempt at an apology from the thief over lateness that only existed out of her own creation. She could have helped, but she never tried to. She didn't have time to lose any of the clothes she wore. Not yet, anyway.

Lucy the sought to muffle the impending sounds from her own mouth against hers, but she was denied the right to do so. It was a known fact too that she preferred what she could hear, even if Lucy was supposed to be a secret.

Nails dragged across the back of her neck, trying desperately to hold on for the sheer fact that she doubted she could keep herself up for all that much longer. She had waited all day as per usual for any kind of attention, and so she was far too desperate to care how it found her. It was unorthodox, of course, but she would take whatever would be given. It was all far too good to pass up, and all it took was an apology, real or not.

[Penelope Blaise]

The door had been left open, and her voice would surely carry through it into the open world outside. She was Penny's best kept secret, but she wouldn't stand to have the sounds that passed her lips to be muffled. Rather than catching the thief's lips, her own pressed to the rapidly beating pulse on her neck. It was nothing short of a perfect reminder of the effect she had on her, and how it made her own beat in opposite tandem.

If it weren't enough, the strength behind her grip certainly was. It made Penny entirely breathless. It had been a day, but she was desperate to be in her company again. Even as she threw more and more obstacles at the thief, she never enjoyed the wait associated with a new puzzle. Yet no matter how challenging, she always came through. And that was every bit as enthralling as the way Lucy kept herself pressed close.

A palm to the small of her back kept her steady as she felt the way her body shook, and only then did she allow herself to catch Lucy's lips. As harsh as Penelope Blaise was, she kept the contact borderline gentle, if only for a moment before she defaulted back with a better defined pressure.