Wide Awake

[Penelope Blaise]

Caught between a body and a door, Lucy had little place to go, but better was the fact that she didn't look as if she wanted to. She grinned like she knew how perfect of a secret she managed to be in the senator's life. Bold enough to act like she knew the weight she carried.

With a grin like that, Penny had to wonder if she was stupid enough to try to cross her with a claim like that. The thief was likely the only one to understand how truly rare it was for Penny to invite someone into her home, let alone her bed.

And she laughed; a short, breathy exhale that let a sliver of lacking confidence take her tone, though not purposefully. But the senator was well aware of her own personality. How she wasn't entirely liked. Even by a thief, she had her doubts, no matter how many times she made it here.

"Prove me wrong." She said, then.

[Lucy Serrano]

"I'm here, aren't it?" Lucy asked her instinctively. No matter the challenge, she had never given up. It might have made her late, but she was still willing to force her way through it all.

Hands tightened in their hold, keeping her close enough. No hands to lock the door behind her; they were too busy.

"You could call your guards in now and have them throw me out; I'd still scale the wall bloody starkers to get back here."

And then a serious edge struck her dark eyes. Pleading, even. "Don't, though." Because she didn't really want to have to.

"Besides, aren't the nightly challenges your way of trying to prove it?" To herself, if no one else. Of this, Lucy was incredibly sure, but delving into a remotely serious conversation just wasn't like them.

[Penelope Blaise]

Lucy carried a point to her words, despite how Penny would never openly acknowledge it as such. Her hands kept on the thief's waist as she found amusement in the idea that she would fight to come back, even without her clothing. Better, was the way she had practically begged for the senator not to do it; like she saw the flicker of consideration pass in her expression.

But Lucy was here now, and for that, Penny had no intention of letting her slip away. The way she lingered so closely was sure to express that.

The thief wasn't done, and what came next had made the senator sit up a little straighter. Her lips pursed, briefly. "I'm sure the town would notice a bare woman climbing up the walls of a senator's home." She replied instead. "It would surely lead to questions."

[Lucy Serrano]

There was no hint of Penny trying to move away, and Lucy used the feeling to her advantage. She felt the way it bolstered her confidence. It had her feeling like much more than who she actually was. After all, she was nothing more than a secret, really. The kind that could dent lives. She just had no idea how much, even when the senator spoke as she did.

"Well, we can't have questions." Lucy reasoned, shrugging her shoulders at the fact. She was glad, then, by the way it sounded like Penny was talking herself out of the thief's prior suggestion. This could only work in her favour.

Even then, it went without saying that Lucy would do anything. She slowly brushed the tip of her nose against hers, using the minimal break to lean in just a fraction more. She could feel the threat of lips barely brush against her own, and it was enough to distract her for a spare second. Just a moment or so as she drew her eyes to a close; "How else can I prove it to you?"

[Penelope Blaise]

There was a perfectly good bed only a few meters away, yet the pressure of her own form pressed against hers was distracting enough to stall the senator from returning there. Her own clothes were starting to bother her; like she was not close enough. It made it hard to focus, and while she idly nodded in agreement, Penny hardly wanted to talk about how she was forced to care about the opinions of others, even when it involved what she did behind now closed doors.

Nails dragged up along either of Lucy's sides, to her arms that were preoccupied around her neck. Her fingers curled around them, giving a small pull as she guided them towards the break of her own clothing.

"Now that, you must figure out." After all, she wasn't convinced she was wanted more, and she heavily doubted it was possible to be wanted so intently.

[Lucy Serrano]

Lucy found a strange sense of contentment pressed against a closed door with her arms keeping her so close. She was so comfortable where she was, which was odd within itself considering a far better option was only a few clever steps away.

But her hands were moved, and just like everything else between them, Lucy complied so willingly. Fingertips briefly brushed against her neck before she shifted down the length of her form, ducking beneath the hem of her clothes to make skin to skin contact. Because she was allowed to. Or more, because she was silently asked to. Told to. Either or.

"I thought you had an answer for everything." Lucy reasoned. But she could do better than that. She was smarter than that; "I thought you had the answer for everything."

[Penelope Blaise]

There was relief when her hands moved so willingly. When those thieving hands pressed against her form, skin to skin. It drew a slow exhale out of the usually composed senator, but who was she to be so composed in this sort of company? She let go of the arms she had guided, drawing a hand up to push away some of the stray strands that fell over the thief's face.

It would have been so easy to just kiss her, then. She could feel the barely existent brush of lips against her own. With a tilt of her chin, she could have caught them with the pressure she felt was necessary.

But when it came to Lucy Serrano, she could never truly be quiet. She was still pushing, and for each thought she voiced, Penny had to give it the weight of consideration.

"You really must not be able to read." Penny replied, eyebrows quirking upwards. It was either that, or she paid no attention to what the senate released. "There is a list of those that believe I do not have the answer to anything." The new brand of frustration in her tone was evident.

[Lucy Serrano]

With the slow drag of her hands upwards, Lucy was hauling the clothes she wore with them. It might have been agonising from the simple time she was taking to do so, but it was so good. Too good to rush, even if she lost time because of how late she was in the first place.

What started as pandering to a senator's ego to get an easy answer turned into something much deeper. She didn't know how she might have started such a conversation, but now they were right in the middle of it. She thought, anyway. Because Penny must have been leaving something for her to pick up as she took off the shirt she wore.

"I don't endeavour to read it." Lucy replied, throwing a tactless word in there just to prove something. Maybe that she knew larger words in the first place.

In proximity still, she had her hands drop to the band at her waist. More to the point, they both ducked beneath it without intent to draw them off any time soon; "People are speaking ill of you?"

[Penelope Blaise]

Penny lifted her arms, allowing the material to be lifted up over her head and forgotten about once her torso was free. The moment her arms were released from the fabric, they were back on the thief with a sort of magnetic energy she couldn't stray away from for long.

The stress of a word carried it's importance to the thief Penny believed to be illiterate. For her, it was clever. At least, as clever as Penny thought the thief to be.

And she was with the movement of her hands. How they hauled a strained breath out of the senator with such ease, and how it forced her own to tighten on the form she pressed herself against. It almost made her miss the question posed. Then again, it was about her work. Her entire life outside of these four walls.

"They always do." She tried, but she felt the wavering nature of her voice. "A progressive mindset is thought of like some sort of disease."

[Lucy Serrano]

A weaker breath was something of a victory for Lucy. The senator was composed and poised through such a majority of her life, and even with Lucy she didn't get to see much. She didn't get to experience much of those walls shattering. At least, she didn't realise how much she was given.

Especially as they were delving into a newer kind of discussion now. Lucy had never actively listened to the kind of work she proposed. She had never really paid mind to anything political in Goldcrest; she stood for everything against the political system. She was high above rules. Or rather, she was just to the left, ducked in the shadows. Hidden as her hands were now as they instinctively held on tightly.

"Progressive?" Lucy asked her; "Just what is it you're trying to do that's so bad?"

[Penelope Blaise]

It wasn't like Penny to lose control of a moment, but the thief had her teetering on the edge of it. Caught between distraction and a subject she had clear interest in put her in a place of strain. She played to it all too well. The way Penny pressed the ball of her foot to the floor as a pivot to push herself harder against the thief was every sign of it.

Still, she was stubborn. And she did her best to keep talking regardless. "Goldcrest's economy is disproportionate." Penny began to explain. "There is enough gold to support everyone in this city and give them a comfortable life." Her eyes squeezed shut, like it would truly help her speak more fluidly.

"Yet it has pockets of power that are using the unfortunate to their advantage. It's more than organized crime running the streets; there are so many in government that are working the system to their advantage. Of course they do not like hearing it acknowledged."

[Lucy Serrano]

If it were possible, Lucy was pushed harder against the door she had been used to close. She listened as Penny spoke to her, and while it was strained, it was irksome that she even had the strength to keep talking. She wasn't doing enough. She left her hands exactly where they were, using that pressure to help press her in closer.

"It's something known, just not spoken of." Now likely wasn't the time to express how frequently she was asked to aid the fact. Politics had always been underhanded. They likely always would be; "How dare you shake the system? And at your age, too. I bet they use it against you."

In turn, she tilted her head, letting lips brush her cheek before they finally pressed high against her neck. "You're what... Twenty-two? Twenty-three?" She asked, sinking her teeth in a second later.

[Penelope Blaise]

She sounded as if she truly understood the pains of Penny's position. As if she could possibly understand to its full extent. Were she not so distracted, she might have pointed out the fact. But despite how she spoke, she could barely carry the focus of her work as she usually did. Even when prompted.

And Lucy called it so true to point. When Penny went to speak, she found words escaping her, favoring to move with a tilt of her chin instead for the lips that pressed against her neck.

"Twenty." She strained. Annoyed. Distracted. Frustrated for a multitude of reasons.

[Lucy Serrano]

A small tilt of her head had Lucy instinctively grinning against her skin. She almost couldn't breathe herself, but she did her best to maintain some kind of stability. One of them had to.

It was a second or two of pressure against her neck before Lucy reminded herself that this woman didn't have the means to cover a mark she would inflict. As much as she tried to leave a small circular threat d a bruise against her perfect skin, she had to stop. What little she did leave behind would be gone in due time.

"I thought you'd be older than me." She offered, well aware that she fell into the problem herself with that assumption. Tilting her head, she brushed her lips across the newly exposed nature of her shoulder, hands falling just a fraction lower and with them, the material at her waist started to drag.

"But look at how much you've done." Look at where they were now. It was no easy feat for two decades of life.

[Penelope Blaise]

It was unfair to be so caught up in another person. Even with the growing pressure against her neck, Penny hadn't cared to think of a way to cover it. In part, she wished she hadn't stopped. A career ruining choice, but as she felt in such a negative mindset about her work, she almost didn't care.

Except, of course, she did care. Too much to allow the subject to drop on her own terms when the thief still pushed for it to continue. Even as she felt the material at her waist begin to slip and her heart pound through her chest where she was sure it could be felt against hers. Hands pressed to the thief's shoulders, nails threatening to mark her skin, because at the very least she could wear it.

Most people thought she was older than she was, if only by at least a couple of years. Like a bit more time would make it more understandable for someone to have gained such power. Either way, it had taken an incredible amount of work.

She thought to question Lucy's age after learning she was older, but thin air made it impossible to. The senator could barely manage her own response. "It's not enough."