Cigarettes and Magazines

[Lucy Serrano]

Though it was a cheap ploy, the silent request had brought the blonde back to Lucy with little resistance. She mightn't have ever liked watching a girl put clothes back on in her presence, but the sudden closeness was an irrefutable relief. The more she leaned in, the more Lucy tilted her head backwards, intent to entice her just a little closer.

Reaching up, she dragged her fingers through her hair, anything to draw it out of the way before lips were quickly pressed against her own. The second she pulled away, Lucy couldn't help the smile she wore.

"I wanna stay over. You know I won't leave you." Lucy finally offered, as lightly as she could despite the potential severity. Her free hand hit the mattress and she pushed herself up, just enough to steal a slower kiss this time. The last thing she wanted to do now was walk out that door. "Go get what you need."

[Jude Walsh]

A shiver ran down her bare spine as Lucy's fingers ran through her hair. Loathe though she was to admit, that was Jude's weakness. And Lucy exploited it every chance she got.

Smiling at Lucy's promise, she was about to respond with a witty quip but was quieted with a kiss, one she gladly reciprocated. Once they broke away, Jude licked her lips and nodded.

"I'm making dinner. Come out whenever you can move again." She smirked before pecking the other woman's forehead and getting out of bed in search of her tee. Dragging it over her head, she left the room and went to the kitchen, a soft humming coming from her throat as she gathered all the things to make a simple pasta dish.

While she boiled the pasta, she went about mixing different spices into a bowl for the sauce. "Hope you're in the mood for noodles."

[Lucy Serrano]

Were it not for her need to leave the bed, Lucy was sure she could have lingered in proximity for much longer. She was certain she could have kept her for a few more minutes at the very least. But she broke away, and Lucy dragged herself up to sit and watch the idle way the blonde wandered her own room. She couldn't help the way she stared up until she was completely out of view.

Falling to her back, eyes searched the ceiling briefly. She wondered if Jude would even sleep that night. She wondered if she herself could find the means to, either.

"Sounds good." She called back, finally hauling herself away from the bed. Her clothes were wayward across the floor, so when she took strides to the door she was hauling an arm through the sleeve of the button up flannel she'd been wearing hours prior. She was in view by the time her second arm made it through, and a mismatched button somewhere in the middle would do to keep it closed.

When she brought herself to the kitchen, the Australian-bred thief was quick to haul herself up to sit on the bench. Palms pressed to the counter at the space between her own legs, and without a word she simply watched the way she moved.

[Jude Walsh]

The way the blonde seemed to be so loose and calm despite the heavy connotation of the day and the dire circumstance of life itself seemed stark in contrast to when she was alone in the four bedroom house. Simply because Lucy was there.

While the pasta continued to boil, Jude made the sauce, careful not to let it spill over or burn. She scooped up a little of the sauce and tasted it, a smile on her face when she realised it tasted pretty damn good. It just needed a bit of salt. She added it in and mixed it a little before pulling some up into the ladle and turning around.

"How is this?" Jude asked, holding her hand under the ladle to catch any drips before reaching out so Lucy could have a taste.

[Lucy Serrano]

For Lucy, it was nice to be able to settle for a while. Even if it was just one night - or a few hours in the least - there was comfort to be found in incredibly familiar company. For the briefest time even she could let herself ignore the pressing notions of the world outside her home.

Everything seemed so incredibly domestic, and she wasn't irked by it in the slightest. When she tried what was offered to her with an instinctive lean in her direction, only one generous answer could come to mind.

"Better than anything murdering bandits can whip up." She replied, nodding her head a few times, "I should come back more often."

[Jude Walsh]

Lucy's response made Jude chuckle, pleased that her friend was so generous with her compliments. "Oh wow, that's high praise coming from you." Jude teased before wiping a bit of sauce from the corner of Lucy's lips with the back of one finger. She lifted it up to her lips and licked the sauce off and added freshly cracked black pepper, shutting the stove off.

"You should, by the way." Jude said over her shoulder. "Come back more often." She paused and chuckled. "Three months without sex is torture." She could have specified with whom but Lucy could read between the lines. Jude didn't sleep with just anyone. And good partners were a scarce and rare commodity already without Jude being picky about who she brought to her bed.

Once the pasta was cooked and drained, Jude brought out half a wheel of cheese she had made herself and shaved long wide strips of it over their bowls.

She slid one bowl over to Lucy and took her own and without even waiting for her friend to dig in, she did. "How long are you sticking around for?"

[Lucy Serrano]

Lucy knew in the back of her mind that she wished to be present more. She wished to harbour something far greater than resentment for the place where they grew up. It was never easy coming back, and a large part of that had to do with just how unsettled everything felt. Still, it never stopped her when she made it there.

"I'll come back sooner next time." She replied in turn, and she did her best to make it sound genuine. If she could live up to the words, she absolutely would. "Three months wasn't easy for me either, y'know."

At least she could keep busy. At least she was always moving forward. But the idea of how long she could stay dragged another thought forward instead. "How long did you want me for?" She asked instead, forcing her eyes down to the bowl beside her before she picked it up.

[Jude Walsh]

Jude almost believed it when Lucy told her she would try. It sounded genuine. But Jude knew that the line of work Lucy was involved in did not allow her to make promises she could keep.

"You missed my food, didn't you?" She teased, pulling up the defense she knew Lucy would appreciate. There was no use for them to keep up the dramatics. They both had short lives. Everyone in this whole damn universe did. Whether it would be the harsh climate, the rabid animals waiting to pounce on anyone or the infected, they would be lucky to survive past forty.

Which was why it just didn't make sense for them to be serious, at least not with each other.

She was glad Lucy wasn't looking at her when she asked the question. She would have seen Jude's smile falter. It never occurred to Jude to think about absolutes when it came to Lucy. Their time could not be any more fleeting. And wanting Lucy to stay was selfish. For both of them.

Slapping on a smirk, Jude snorted and shrugged. "Forever, obviously." She slurped up the pasta and licked her fork. "Bennett and Marco have been trying to convince me to set up a permanent store for our produce. Personally, I think it's a waste of time and money. But they've been doing this a lot longer than I have and I can't afford to lose them if I don't at least consider the option. What do you think?"

[Lucy Serrano]

There might have been obvious humour attached to the response Lucy was given, but she had to wonder if truth ever circulated in the thought. Had she the capacity for the normality of Jude's life, she might have been able to say yes.

But tides in conversation turned, and she allowed it to be. Better not to think too intently.

Though she didn't dwell on farm life anymore, Lucy still had an understanding for it. And she had always been business minded, even before she found the strength to leave home behind. She pursed her lips as she considered Jude's options; when it came to her friend, she knew her opinion mattered. But she still kept her eyes to the contents of her bowl.

"I think life'd be a lot easier if you'd just run away with me."

[Jude Walsh]

She did not expect the answer from Lucy. She wanted it to be a joke. Because the alternative scared the crap out of her. There was too much at stake. What would running away entail? A legacy would fall into the wrong hands.

She was probably thinking too much of it. It was a joke between friends. Lucy didn't really want her to run away.

"Yeah." She forced a chuckle. "Leave this place in shambles." She scooped more pasta into her mouth before going over to the fridge to bring out two bottles of beer. She slid one over to Lucy and placed hers beside her.

"What do you think I should do about the idea?" She pushed, wanting again to change the subject that didn't focus on them.

[Lucy Serrano]

It was no secret that lucy loved to push the proverbial boundaries. She had every capacity to carry on with the initial conversation Jude had asked for, but when other ideas caught her she was often prone to follow them instead. She didn't look up until she heard a laugh, because she needed to know just where the idea had landed.

She exhaled a smaller laugh to coincide with it, but it couldn't carry the same heart.

"It's be a pretty big adjustment. You'd practically be living in the city." She pointed out. A building anywhere in the shared space could only provide ample distraction for Lucy. "If it kicks off do you reckon you'd keep up? The demand could get crazy."

[Jude Walsh]

As Lucy began her thought process, Jude committed it to memory. She knew the downsides to a bigger store. She had expressed the concern to her older companions. She had a feeling they were still looking at her as the incompetent Walsh child.

"That was one of my concerns. Right now, the market places are pretty much sufficient. I am already bringing in enough revenue to open a chain but I don't know if actually building a store would be a logical move. I mean, I'd have to get more people to work and even now it's a struggle. And I still have to think of the repercussions of having too much cash on hand." She looked at Lucy pointedly with a raised eyebrow.

She knew Lucy would probably never hit up her stall. The reason being, they were all small beans. If she were to make it any bigger, the attraction would be on a bigger scale, meaning bandits would more than likely hit up her store. Frankly, Jude was actually scared of that.

"I just don't want them to think I can't think big."

[Lucy Serrano]

Honestly, Lucy was relieved to know her initial points were ones already considered. It was every reason to have a little more faith in the blonde. The only hiccup boiled down to one thing, and really, it had nothing to do with her friend in the first place.

"As soon as you ask yourself to trust others, you're in trouble." Lucy pointed out. For her, it was a no brainer. In the line of business that she ran, she worked alone. She always had and chances were, she always would. "But fuck what other people think of what you're doing. If you can justify it - to yourself, not to anyone else - then that's all that matters. You're putting yourself on the line."

She knew other people mattered. There were probably far better opinions than her own, but she took the time to consider a different approach to something so seemingly important; "Tell me why you want to do it." She tried instead, searching for new perspective.

[Jude Walsh]

"If I could run a whole farm by myself, Lu, I would. But I mean hell, my grandparents and my parents needed each other and the host of employees workin' under them to make our business run as smooth as it had." Jude finished up the plate before opening the bottle of beer and chugging half of the contents down.

She leaned against the counter and listened as Lucy made her case, one that was biased towards her, something she had hoped to get from her best friend. But Lucy was right anyway. This was her life. If she didn't do what she thought was right, she could just lose everything.

The question Lucy posed was one that was actually simple to answer but hard to vocalise. It seemed like such a juvenile response. But the truth was... "Because they gave the suggestion." She replied after a long pause. Jude dug the heel of her palm against her brow bone before looking at Lucy sheepishly. "I know, I know it's supremely childish but they've been with the farm for the longest time and I do want them to think I've got their best interest at heart. But to expand the business in that manner...I don't know."

[Lucy Serrano]

The last thing Lucy wanted was potential mistrust circling around the person she cared for. With little means to contact each other, there was always that underlying worry that she would come back one day to find nothing left. It was a deep enough fear made worse by thread fact that she couldn't do a thing about it, and that thought only proved to be more irksome. If only her heart wasn't so set on this living.

With the contents of a bowl depleted, her own hands were free, and she felt as if she had to resist the urge to reach out.

"You want my advice? Don't do anything you're not sure of." She replied finally, but she felt the way her own shoulders fell; "As much as I'd love to have you in the city for more than just the occasional market thing," And the look in her eyes made it clear that she absolutely would, "You should be sure, first."