2019-08-01 - Making Decisions

It's the first day of August and Penny had been out of the hospital for about a week. She was trying to piece together things. Like if she wanted to keep the house. So it wasn't any suprise that one could find her there. "Maybe if I just clean the spare room and seal it..." she murmurs to herself as she looks up the stairs. She'd texted Lucian telling him that she was heading home and she wanted to see him.

Lucian knows its PROBABLY not a good idea to let Penny linger alone in that house for very long, so the warning she was heading home was enough to make him pack up what he was doing, then spend 20 minutes looking for his keys because GODAMNIT I PUT THEM RIGHT HERE, and then of course hitting every red light on the way over (when the hell did they put a flashing red light on Elm, FFS??), so he's already sighing by the time his heavy footsteps can be heard on the porch and his knock on the front door, nudging it open and calling out, "Pen...?"

Penny is sitting on the stairs when Lucian comes through the door and there's a smile to him, "Luc." she waves at him. She starts to get up and it's like one of those comedic laugh tracks. She catches her foot on the rug and goes falls face first into the carpet that lines the hallway and her phone goes skittering across the floor. She just lays there for the moment, "Just let me die here." she breathes out with a laugh.

Lucian erks and lunges forward, nowhere near in enough time to stop the pratfall, though its enough to slide to one knee, reaching out to sigh and run a hand through her hair, offering to take her arm in his hand to help her up, "I dont know what the fuck is going on, but this entire week has pissed someone off, bad. Are you okay?"

Penny turns her head to the side and there's a bit of a smile, "There's been a lot of mishaps this week. I'm kind of wondering who did what." she tells him. Then she starts to get up, using his arms as leverage. "I'll be fine, just caught the rug with my foot." she frowns at that. "How was your day until I texted?" she asks him with a smile.

Lucian murmurs ruefully, "Dont ask. Right now Im just happy I haven't set anything on fire. That'll look REALLY good on my Provisional Report at the end of the month." He doesnt risk standing back up yet, content to help her sit up while he parks his butt on the floor, and takes a deep breath, "So what are you going to do here, hmm? You know you ought to let someone else clean and straighten the place up...."

Penny gives a smile to him as she sits up, "Me and you both." she chuckles. Then she leans against him, "Sorry the first few months of being back have been so eventful." she tells him. "Well, my first thought was to burn the place to the ground and then just get an apartment." she admits as she looks around. "I mean...I get a bit sick just coming in, but I don't want an arson charge." she frowns. "I should probably find a new place." she states as she looks to him.

Lucian eases an arm around her waist to hug her into his side, a soft sigh escaping him as he shakes his head, "I have a feeling if you go looking for an apartment right now, you're going to find that no one has a vacancy anywhere in the city, at the rate luck is going." He thinks about that for a moment, then rumbles, "Maybe just a hotel room for a couple of nights, and, I mean, if you're interested, we could go see what places are available after? Hire a place to clean this house up and present it for sale and put it on the market instead. This town has enough strange going on that I don't think anyone is going to follow the news too closely."

"It's true, we've had a ton of new people move into town, so I think I'll stick with the hotel room for a bit longer." Penny tells him with a smile. "I can't stay here, it just feels wrong." she admits to that. Though she realizes what he's saying, "You want to move in together?" she asks him. "I'd be up for selling this place. Probably a reduced price due to everything that's gone on." she sighs to that. "But it's worth it. I'll call someone to get this place cleaned." she adds.

Lucian offers the faintest of smiles, "Its not something you'd really have to decide on right now. Tonight we can just go find you a hotel. Im sure the city would even expense it for you if you got it somewhere close by city hall, you know? And then just take the rest of it slow and see how it goes. At the rate this week is going, the firehouse is going to catch fire."

Penny gives a nod of agreement to that, "I think that's a good idea." she tells him. Then there's a chuckle, "No, no saying things like that. We don't want the fire station to catch fire as it's right next to the police." she shakes her head. "Want to get dinner first? Maybe something bad for us since I'm tired of hospital food?" she asks.

Lucian chuckles softly at the suggestion, the grin spreading across his features, "Something deep fried, or greasy pizza and ice cream? Or even deep fried ice cream..." He winks once at that and clears his throat, lowering his voice, "You know the good places around here better than I do. What do you recommend?"

Penny hmms softly and then smiles, "I feel like something deep fried with mashed potatoes...and maybe ice cream after. If I don't die of a grease trap." she muses. "There's a few places Grizzly's might be the best. I don't hink anything delivers besides the pizza." she tells him. Then she leans in, planting a kiss on his cheek, "Thank you for helping with things." she murmurs to him.

Lucian mmms and nods once, "I'm happy to drive if you tell me where to go. Delivery, probably not a good idea anyway if we don't want to stay here. If the place is too crowded, we can get it to go and go find the hotel or motel and eat sitting on the bed like college students, hmm?" With that said, he finally starts getting to his feet, offering her a hand to help her up as well.

Penny takes his hand and there is a smile up to him as she gets up. "We ate dinner in my dorm room a few times." she smiles to that. "So I don't mind eating at the hotel anyways. I got my room for one more night. I might move to something closer to the offices tomorrow." she admits. When they are both standing, she wraps her arms around him and hugs him. She doesn't say anything. She just takes the moment to be quiet and hold him.

Lucian mmms? but gets caught by the hug and pauses there, tightening his arms around her and turning his head to press a kiss to her temple, followed by his cheek. His fingers dig in to her sides warmly as he murmurs, "I'm sorry about all of this. I'm here any time you want to lean...and I'm also here to tell me 'get the fuck away from me, I want to be alone' too. Fair enough?"

Penny tears up when he kisses her temple and she nods to him, "I don't want you to go away. I just want you to know that things are fucked up and I'm not sure when it's going to level out...or if it will ever level out." she whispers to him. Then she leans back a little to look at his face, "I love you and I don't want you to get hurt, but I can't ask you to go either. Not that strong right now." she admits.

Lucian shakes his head slightly, offering her the faintest of smiles, "I'm tough...see the scars?" He winks and turns his head to show off the one lacing across his cheek, "And if it doesn't level out, then that's fine. It just means there's no danger of us getting bored with things. Right?" He pauses and lightly rakes his touch up and down her back, then lowers his voice, "Though I could use a little less of losing my keys and you stumbling over carpet."

Penny gives a look to him and there's a soft smile, "Chicks dig scars." she teases him softly. "I think we're both scarred and there's no reason to hide it." she shrugs to that. "Life being not boring is a plus, just...don't want my friends and the person I love hurt. Tends to take a bite out of the days." she frowns. Then she laughs, "You don't remember me falling down the stairs at that one ball you guys had I see." she grins at him. "I promise I won't trip over the carpet. And hopefully we can find our keys in the morning." she winks at him.

Lucian turns a little to head for the front door, keeping his arm snug in around her waist as he does so, "Just look at it this way, we have all new opportunities to embarrass ourselves. As for being hurt...I think this town is rough on everyone. I would rather get hurt and still be with you, than be safe and have left you alone. Okay?" He stops there by the front door with her and lifts his free hand up to gently drag his fingertips up under her throat, just a light caress there, "So no more of that talk."

Penny walks with him and there's a soft smile, "I will look at it like that. Lets just hope there's no falling downstairs for either of us." she nods to that. Then she's looking to him and there's a moment she looks like she might cry, but she manages to keep it all checked. "I'm glad you are going to be here." she whispers. "I won't talk like that anymore. Girl Scouts Honor." she grins to him.