#i didn't proofread this lmao sorry 4 any errors!

[phoebehalliwell]

Socks & Starting Anew

req: could you please write a fic about penny and allen in 1940s

summary: penny, searching for meaning, purpose, or hell, maybe just a little adventure, leaves boston to return to her ancestral home in san francisco, where, with the proper guidance, she’ll find a life all of her own.

a/n: oops it’s long than expected sooo uhh (pt 1/3)

Winter 1945

Allen chose to stay. After the war ended, he saw many fellow shipbuilders pack up and head out, back to their small hometowns, to rejoin with a wife they had left, a little baby now a bustling toddler, or even just a high school sweetheart still flaunting a promise ring. Allen could have gone back home - he was sure people remembered him - but no one was waiting for him. So he chose to stay. There was something about the city of San Francisco that called to him, inexplicably; the great energy of discovery, youth, passion, that seemed to hang in the air, thick as the fog. He couldn’t go back home now - the idea of travelling north, buying some land, and settling down with some chickens and a temperate wife had never felt more foreign to him. No, he would stay in the city. Something was waiting for him here.

Spring 1946

It was time for a change. Penny had no gift for premonition but she knew something grand waited in her future, she just had to find it. It was actually her father who suggested she return to the old family home and take up with Cousin Pearl. Penny had always wanted to visit the house - she has studied it rigorously as a child, begging her mother to take her so she could see the Nexus herself. Her mother refused, of course. She hadn’t set foot in the house since some unspeakable disaster in the 20’s (unspeakable as it might have been, Penny still knew what had happened that February so many years ago; a curious mind and an unbreakable will had led Penny to uncover many things she shouldn’t have). So, she packed her bags and sent a telegram to one miss P. Bowen at 1329 Prescott Street, and was on a train the next morning.

Three days later Penny landed at the train platform in San Francisco, almost immediately tripping over a cat. She apologized to the creature and continued on, beginning the trek to the manor (Cousin Pearl refused to drive under any circumstances, but Penny didn’t mind the fresh air). She hadn’t made it three steps before the cat places itself in her path yet again, wrapping its way around her legs. She attempted to nudge it to the side to no avail.

The cat, black with white markings on the chest and legs, peered up at her with big eyes, meowing softly.

“Oh, no.”

Meow.

“No!”

Penny bent down, putting herself at level with the cat, matching its wide eyed gaze with a much sterner look of her own. “Look at me.” She pointed her finger at the cat. “I am not in the market for a familiar. I do not want guidance, I do not need guidance, and I am not willing to take up the responsibilities of pet ownership. Understand?”

The cat responded by softly licking Penny’s finger.

Penny scowled. “You’re disgusting.”

She tried to shove the cat away with her hand, but it just pushed its head against her, working its way into a pet.

“Incorrigible,” Penny muttered, standing up sharply and walking away from the train station.

The cat called out to her, but she didn’t turn back. Then, a man called out to her.

“Hey! Is this your cat?”

Penny turned back to see a man with cropped auburn hair holding the familiar. It snuggled up to him.

“No,” she responded, “it’s yours!”

Cousin Pearl wasn’t happy Penny was late - it wasn’t like she had planned anything - she just anticipated punctuality. To be fair, so did Penny, until she encountered the rolling hills of San Francisco. She had seen the post cards and the photos, sure, but nothing could have prepared her for the hike had just accomplished with two suitcases and kitten heels. Sweaty, tired, and aching, all she really wanted to do was lay down, but Pearl had other plans.

Penny wasn’t going to be living in the manor for free, that was for sure. Pearl wasn’t charging her rent, she wouldn’t do that to family, but from the second Penny had stepped on that train in Boston she had secured herself a job as Pearl’s assistant.

“It isn’t easy running the best portrait studio in the Bay, as I’m sure you can assume, and I do not get my reputation from slacking off.” Pearl began moving from room to room, adjusting items that she viewed to be askew. “People come here because they know they will get beautiful, quality photos in a clean and efficient manner.” Pearl kept talking to her as she walked; Penny quickly moved to follow her, abandoning her bags in the foyer. “This means keeping the house clean, and not leaving your personal belongings everywhere.”

She paused at this line, looking Penny up and down.

Penny’s eyes widened as she remembered her luggage sitting near the front door. “Sorry. Um, if you don’t mind, where is my room? Just so I know where to keep everything.”

Pearl turned on a heel, heading towards the stairs. “Of course,” she said, not turning back, “right this way.”

Penny quickly darted into the foyer to grab her bags, rolling the two large suitcases to the base of the stairs. She paused, sizing them up. She had just conquered the many hills of San Francisco, if she took another step upwards her legs might give out.

Pearl had already reached the upstairs floor; she could hear the faint click of a door opening and Pearl saying “This room will be yours,” as if Penny was there to see which one she was referring too.

Penny stared down her challenger, stepping onto the first step and hauling up one suitcase alongside her. She frowned at the other one, moving to lift it, but then rolling her eyes instead.

She swung her arms forward, and the suitcases moved themselves up the first landing, and with a turn of the wrist, rotated, and then a final movement, and they carried themselves to the top of the stairs. Penny smiled, darting up to join them.

Pearl was already watching as Penny reunited with her possessions on the second floor. “Well,” she said, “ I guess that brings us to the second over of business. Before each of my appointments we go extra lengths to secure the house against demonic attacks, a method which you will soon be in charge of, so it’s important you pay attention.” Pearl began traversing the length of this hallway, headed towards yet another flight of stairs, these presumably leading up to the attic. 

Penny looked into the room whose door was left ajar - her room, she assumed. It was quaint, with pastel wallpaper and framed photos of old family members. On the bed were extra linens and another comforter, all folded neatly and left for her. Penny flicked her wrist, and her suitcases rolled into the room, and, with a tiny wiggle of the fingers, managed to close the door behind them. Penny smiled, satisfied, then picked up the pace yet again to rejoin Pearl.

Pearl stood in front of a book, large, skinny, with a green leather binding and a large triquetra in the center. “This is our book of shadows. The protection spell used before each booking is here,” Pearl indicates a page very plainly labelled “Protection Spell”, then flips to another page, this one labelled “Lunar Cycle Protection Spell”, “and this is the protection spell I cast every full moon. Understood?”

“Is that it?” Penny tried not to sound underwhelmed, but it didn’t quite work.

Pearl didn’t judge her, surprisingly, but instead nodded solemnly. “Warren magic hasn’t been quite the same since Polly. She took her toll on the book.”

Penny nodded, unsure if she should try to comfort Pearl. She didn’t have to decide; Pearl quickly snapped out of her melancholy.

“But I’d rather see it lost to the world than in the hands of some demonic bastard.” She shut the book, turning to Penny. “You must be tired after all your travelling. Why don’t you rest? We’re starting bright and early tomorrow.”

Penny smiled, relieved, and pulled Pearl into a hug. “I’ll be ready.”