Work Text:
I.
Amy means the diamonds as a gesture, a declaration. But Lucy isn't looking at the diamonds; she's looking at Amy.
Scud is looking at Amy too. His look is one of disbelief, eyes darting from the diamonds in her hands, up to her face, and back again.
Lucy's look is more like wonder and it makes the felony Amy just committed feel worth it. Her heart has been pounding in her chest since the moment she cut the glass on the jewelry store window but the reasons are different now that she's actually here, looking right at Lucy.
"Did you know love can actually make you insane?" she blurts out.
"Huh?" says Lucy.
At the same time, Amy is pretty sure she hears Scud mutter "No shit," under his breath.
"I read an article," Amy clarifies. "When you first fall in love, your frontal cortex basically shuts down. And the frontal cortex is essential for, you know, good judgment so basically the author postulated that love makes you crazy or possibly just stupid which I'm starting to think is true because I just robbed a jewelry store."
"You did," Lucy says, eyes flitting briefly toward the diamonds in Amy's hand before traveling back up to meet Amy's gaze. "So you're here because you're stupid and/or crazy?" she asks, taking a step closer to Amy and then pausing like she's waiting for something.
"In love," Amy says. She extends her hands, holding out the glittering diamonds as proof. Lucy steps forward and places her hands under Amy's own, her thumbs stroking Amy's skin in a slow motion.
"They're beautiful," Lucy observes. "You're trembling. Are you okay?"
"Yeah," says Amy. "I think I might just be crashing from the adrenaline high."
Lucy gently turns Amy's hands over in her own; the diamonds spill into her palms and she hands them over to Scud who frowns at the diamonds and then at Lucy and Amy as if he's still trying to work out what's happening but he's pretty sure he doesn't like it.
Lucy tugs Amy's hand and leads her back through the lair to Lucy's bedroom where she sits Amy down on the bed and kneels in front of her.
"You want to talk about it?" Lucy asks.
"Maybe not yet," Amy replies. "You could just kiss me instead."
Lucy smiles. "That happens to be something I'm good at."
"Oh shut up," Amy says, letting out a breath of relief that Lucy isn't going to push the issue of why she showed up with stolen diamonds out of nowhere. At least not right now.
"Only because I'm about to kiss you," Lucy says, lips centimeters from Amy's ear, enough to send a shiver through Amy's body.
"Yeah, you are." Amy reaches behind Lucy and snaps her bra for emphasis and gets the deep burst of laughter she's been craving in response.
"You have to stop doing that," Lucy admonishes as she pushes Amy backward onto the bed, covering Amy's lips with her own.
A few hours later, Amy wakes up to the sounds of a muffled argument in the hallway outside Lucy's bedroom. Scud and Lucy's voices are hushed but Amy gets the gist well enough.
"Sorry, did I like mess up your plans for tonight?" she says as she walks out into the hallway, still rubbing the sleep from her eyes.
"No, there's just this painting I've had my eye on… It's nothing. I can do it later," Lucy assures her. As she speaks, Lucy puts an arm around Amy's shoulder, pulling her in close and Amy feels suddenly warm and very awake again.
"You absolutely can't do it later," Scud insists. "It moves tomorrow and the security is like tripling. I know this because you told me this morning. You said the words ‘tonight or never.' Have you like had a stroke since then?"
"Scud," Lucy admonishes.
"Take me with you," Amy says impulsively.
"What?" Scud and Lucy reply in unison.
"I want to see you work," Amy says.
"I bet you do," Lucy replies.
Amy hears Scud whisper "Oh God," under his breath but chooses to ignore it in favor of working on breaking down Lucy's defenses.
"Tell me about it," Amy says.
"Well, it's this big gala tonight. All big name donors and the like. It's an exclusive event so, once you get through the doors, security will be a bit more lax than usual."
"No one expects million-dollar donors to steal art."
"Exactly!" Lucy beams at Amy.
"What you need, if you're really going to fit in is someone who knows art. Someone who can really sell the role of an art enthusiast. And someone who looks really good in formal wear," she finishes, promise in her eyes.
"You're suggesting I take a hot, aspiring young artist as my partner in crime slash eye candy? Where would I ever find such a person?" Lucy asks, reaching out to brush a stand of Amy's sleep-mussed hair behind her ear.
Scud is making actual gagging noises now.
"Scud, you're distracting from my flirting," Amy objects.
"Really, Scud," Lucy adds.
"Okay, well fine. You better go find miss good-girl-gone-bad a dress if you're going to make this work," Scud says waving them both off.
II.
The museum gala is in full swing by the time they arrive.
Amy's heart is beating at a ridiculous rate which she blames on a mixture of fear, excitement, and the amazingly hot dress that Lucy is wearing that's making it impossible to pull her mind fully away from decidedly impure thoughts to concentrate on the plan they have in place to make it out of this gala painting in hand and lives intact.
Amy rests her hand on Lucy's back, which is bare, due to the low cut on the back of her floor-length black dress which is sparkling with what Amy swears are actual flecks of diamond woven into the fabric. Lucy's skin is warm and she leans back into Amy's touch. She wraps her arm around Amy's shoulder and Amy feels a calm settling over her.
Amy realizes Lucy's dress is probably by design when the man checking their invitations pays more attention to Lucy's cleavage than he does their invitation which belongs to a woman who is going to be unconscious for the next five hours or so.
Amy pulls Lucy closer to her as they walk into the party. Lucy takes the opportunity to whisper, "You look gorgeous," into Amy's ear.
"Oh my god," Amy exclaims, dragging Lucy to a halt. She catches herself just seconds later, "I'm sorry, we probably don't have time to actually look at the paintings."
"We have a little time," Lucy says. "And I need you to show me what just stopped you in your tracks like that."
Amy doesn't need any more encouragement, she tugs Lucy's hand in the direction of the painting she's just spotted.
"Wow," Amy says, "It's a legit Sofonisba Anguissola. I've seen her work in books but I've never had the chance to see one up close. We were near a museum showing her stuff with the D.E.B.S. last year but I never got the chance to sneak away. I don't think they got how much I wanted to see it."
"Tell me about the artist," Lucy says. "Why do you love her so much?"
"Look at their expressions," Amy instructs, gesturing toward the people in the painting. "She was an Italian Renaissance painter. Back then the style was very stiff and formal. Other painters painted these idealized versions of people but she painted people with their natural expressions. She painted people as they were. This is her sisters playing chess. It's such a simple everyday thing but, the first time I saw it in a book, I was so taken by the way she captured their emotions. It's just… honest and real."
"That's beautiful," Lucy says. She's resting her chin on Amy's shoulder and looking at the painting almost as intently as Amy is. Amy takes a moment to soak in the feeling of Lucy's heat against her back and the assurance of Lucy's arms wrapped around hers.
"Tonight was worth it just for this," Amy tells Lucy.
"The fun's just beginning," Lucy tells her as she pulls her toward a small hallway just off the exhibit.
Two minutes later they are both crammed into the world's smallest, darkest closet.
"Lucy, we're going to have to talk about your idea of fun," Amy whispers, shifting in an attempt to dislodge the broom handle that's currently digging into her back.
"Shhhhh…" Lucy cautions.
Amy lowers her voice to a whisper and repeats again, this time right in Lucy's ear, "I said we're going to have to talk about your idea of fun."
Lucy's body shakes with silent laughter which Amy can feel because they have no option other than to be pressed against each other in this space for which ‘closet' might be too generous a term.
"People might notice if we disappear right before the party ends," Lucy explains, "But if they have an hour or two to forget about us, no one will suspect we're still here."
"Are you telling me we're staying here for a couple of hours?"
"Three max," Lucy says. "Just to be on the safe side."
"Lucy."
"I'll admit this location made more sense when I thought it was going to be just me hiding," Lucy relents.
"What are we supposed to do for three hours?" Amy asks in disbelief. She can already feel her right foot going numb.
"You wanna fool around?"
"I can barely move and I can't see anything."
"I trust in your creativity," Lucy whispers in her ear at the same time Amy feels Lucy's hand working its way under her dress and up her thigh.
"Well, in that case," Amy begins, fingers curling into Lucy's back as if pulling Lucy any closer is actually possible, "I'd hate to disappoint you."
Three hours later, they're opening the closet door to a completely silent museum and Amy's shoving Lucy's thong into her evening bag. Lucy's looking entirely satisfied with herself; Amy's pretty sure she is too even though she has cramps in places she didn't know she could get cramps.
Lucy pulls something out of her bag and sprays it into the hallway illuminating red lines where the lasers that will trip the museum's alarm system are.
"You ready for another workout?" Lucy asks, a teasing tone in her voice.
"Always," Amy says enthusiastically.
III.
Amy wakes up several hours and a successful art heist later. A moment of panic seizes her until her eyes focus on Lucy who is inches from her face and staring straight at her.
"Personal space much?" Amy asks, voice still rough from sleep.
Lucy responds by reaching out to brush a strand of hair out of Amy's eyes. Her hand trails down and lands on Amy's shoulder, resting there.
Amy feels safety and electricity all at once.
"So you want to talk yet about why you're committing heists instead of stopping them now? I mean not that I'm not enjoying it," Lucy assures her.
Amy scrunches her eyes shut, as memories of the day before she came running to Lucy, stolen diamonds in hand, come rolling back to her.
"Hey, you don't have to tell me." Lucy emphasizes this by leaning in and placing a gentle kiss on Amy's forehead.
Amy lets the contentment of the current moment dull the pain and confusion of the way her friends had reacted to her.
"It just sucked. After the D.E.B.S. found me here, everyone was so awful," Amy says. "I mean I know they think of you as like this big supervillain…"
Lucy's lower lip juts out, "You don't think of me as a big super villain anymore? Am I no longer thesis worthy now that you know the woman behind the legend?"
Amy pushes Lucy's shoulder so Lucy falls backward onto the mattress and Amy can lean over her. Lucy's pout disappears as Amy closes the distance between them, covering Lucy's lips with her own. Amy's hand travels up Lucy's side and Lucy half gasps and half giggles at the sensation of Amy's fingers against her skin.
Amy pulls back just a little to say, "You're totally thesis worthy. It's not my fault I've discovered you're so much more fun to study in person than you are to study academically."
"Oh my god. So corny," Lucy replies, pulling Amy's face back to hers for another kiss.
After, Amy lays back down, this time with her head tucked against Lucy's shoulder.
"It's just that I know they had their preconceived notions about you but I was so happy and things felt right for the first time in a long time, maybe forever when I was with you. I wanted them to care enough about me to see that, to think it was important."
"I'm sorry," Lucy says, her voice breaking just a little.
Amy opens her eyes, looks square at Lucy. "No, you don't be sorry. Don't ever be sorry." Amy punctuates her statement with a kiss on Lucy's forehead.
"I tried so hard to make up for it, for lying to them… for…."
"For caring about me," Lucy offers softly.
"For loving you," Amy corrects.
Lucy takes a deep breath in response -- Amy feels the rise and fall of Lucy's chest underneath her -- like she's still kind of in awe of this, just as much as Amy is.
"It's just, I realized, all these things they were making me apologize for, all these things that were so inconvenient to them were the things that made me feel alive. Like, last night, with you…"
"It was pretty amazing wasn't it?"
"I meant the heist, you dork. But, yeah, that too," Amy responds. "I felt so exhilarated and you trusted me completely and it was fun, like genuinely fun. I hadn't had fun for the longest time. The D.E.B.S. had so many rules. I tried so hard to follow them because I thought that's what I was meant to be… everybody told me it was and I believed it. But I met you and I felt… you, you're like possibility and excitement and…"
"Super sexy?" Lucy drawls.
"In a deliciously bad way," Amy teases back. "It's just, they could only accept me if I followed their rules, if I worked so hard to be everything they wanted and needed. But, you, it was like you saw me, just saw through all of the things I tried to be and saw me. And, last night, that heist, that was like art. There were no rules, and it felt amazing."
Amy dares to look at Lucy now and Lucy has the biggest smile on her face.
"I'm glad you said that because I have something for you," Lucy tells her.
Lucy pulls away from Amy and opens the drawer of the nightstand beside her bed, pulling out an envelope. Amy takes the moment to observe Lucy, her hair is wild and Amy notices for the first time the scratches she left on Lucy's shoulders last night. She bites her lip to keep herself from letting out a delighted laugh. Lucy seems serious about whatever she's about to show Amy and Amy doesn't want to ruin the moment.
Lucy hands her an envelope and Amy quickly tears it open. It's two first class tickets to Barcelona.
Amy is still staring at them in disbelief when Lucy says, "We absolutely don't have to go if you don't want to but I've seen your drawings and I saw how you looked at that painting last night. You shouldn't ignore something you're that good at and passionate about. I found this little apartment near the school you told me about. And it's yours if you want it or… ours if you'll take me with you which I was kind of hoping you…"
Lucy doesn't get to finish the sentence because Amy tackles her with enough enthusiasm to knock the wind out of her for a second.
"You're definitely coming with me," Amy says. "I'll kidnap you if I have to."
"Give a girl a taste of breaking the law and she wants to do it all the time," Lucy teases.
"Well, when you've got a partner in crime as hot as mine…"
And then Amy kisses Lucy and decides discussing plans for Barcelona can wait.