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|S1E14|
"The looming inevitability of death really puts a lot in perspective."
★————————————★
Penny Brookes wouldn't exactly describe her life as boring.
Moving to London for university was incredibly exciting, especially now that the homesickness had waned in intensity from her first years in the new city.
So not boring, just fairly regular.
While she couldn't spend the holiday time with her other family back in the states, Penny had at least made plans to be with her grandmother. The elderly woman was the reason she'd chosen to attend a school overseas in the first place after all.
Pausing outside the older woman's apartment, she shivered against the biting cold, adjusting the heavy bags on her arms before knocking on the flimsy apartment door. Exhaustion pulled at her, she rubbed at the tired in her eyes with a deep frown.
With a click and a creak the door swung open, revealing the kindly old woman within, graying hair tied up into a curly bun atop her head and a gentle smile on her face welcoming her granddaughter. Penny quickly righted her face, emphatically grinning at the elderly woman.
"Penelope! I thought you weren't coming 'till tomorrow." She ushered the young woman inside and shutting out the cold blowing in behind her.
"I wasn't but Mom was worrying. She kept calling me like crazy wondering how you were doing." Penny set the bags down in the living room, next to the small Christmas tree decorating the small space. Dusting off her dark blue sweater out of habit despite the lack of snow, she sat on the couch, taking in how cheerfully the gloomy little apartment was decorated; twinkling lights strung up around the room, the smell of pine and gingerbread wrapping its way around her from candles on the mantle. "How are you doing, Grandma?"
With a chuckle the old woman moved to the kitchen, fiddling with a kettle. "Your mother worries too much, wanting to deny an old woman her comforts. I'm going to die someday, I'd like to take a bit of the sweetness of life with me."
Standing from the couch to help the older woman with the stubborn kettle, Penny frowned at the comment. "Please don't say that."
"None of us live forever, Penny." She softly smiled. "I'm content that I get to spend the end of my life with my favorite grandchild. Hot Chocolate?"
"...Yes, please."
★————————————★
Settling back into the soft couch cushions with the addition of a warm mug of cocoa warming her palms, Penny sat quietly with her grandmother as the two of them set about piecing together a jigsaw puzzle. It was peaceful evenings like this that Penny cherished most with the fragile woman, the ones where conversions would effortlessly start up about any odd subject that crossed their minds.
