Ciel looked about the safehouse that Neopolitan had managed to keep hidden from the police when all of Roman's stuff was seized. The place looked like a literary minefield, books and papers strewn everywhere. As it turned out, when you joined a new school halfway through the year, you had a lot to make up for. She and Penny at least had the benefit of time spent at Atlas where things moved at a more brutal pace. The real problem was keeping Emerald and Neo in line and studying.
It was an impossible task.
"I can't anymore. I need a drink." Emerald stood up and went toward a nearby bar while Neo gasped excitedly, pushing her book away and making grabby-hands.
Ciel huffed and closed her own book a little harder than she meant to. "You can't stop now! And what do you mean, a drink?" She knew her order of offense said more about her than she liked to admit. But too late now.
Emerald showed a surprising level of skill with the bottles and glasses, and she couldn't help but admit that it was quite the interesting show. "Look, you can only cram so much stuff into your brain at one time. That's like... science. Plus, Neo and I are students under duress. As long as we continue to pass, we're fine! At the end of the day, we can take down Grimm without breaking a sweat. Everything after that is just details."
Penny looked at her with a helpless shrug. "She is... not entirely wrong. The human mind learns much better over a long period of time. Attempting to push an entire semester's worth of knowledge into your brain over the course of only a few weeks is a monumental task." Her face fell slightly as a new thought occurred to her. "I am afraid I cannot join you in drinking though. Alcohol has no effect on me."
The temporary bartender looked at her in surprise, but Emerald eventually shrugged with a good-natured smile. "Well I can still make you something tasty. You've got taste receptors or whatever, right? I've seen you destroy entire bowls of noodles."
"Ooh! Yes, something fruity would be most appreciated."
Ciel knew when she was in the minority, so she set her book aside and let herself get a little more relaxed in her seat. "Oh fine. If a glass of whiskey should happen to find its way in my hand, I wouldn't say no."
Everyone stopped what they were doing and looked at her in surprise. Emerald was mid-shake, her eyebrows now up practically past the top of her head. "Are you... serious?"
Somehow she should have known this would cause everyone to freak out a little. "I'm sure most people assume my parents are just like me – strict and uptight and boring. But uh... my parents are actually very laid-back, practically hippies. They let me start drinking a few years ago. I already have a respectable tolerance."
Finally Emerald shrugged and went back to shaking the drink she was working on. "You're the boss, captain." Emerald was the type to use a lot of epithets and nicknames, and since Ciel was ostensibly in charge, that was a common one for her to use.
"Okay so if you're parents are like that, then why are you... like this?" Neo asked, adding in a vague gesture at Ciel's entire body. The question was a fair one, and to some extent, Ciel didn't have a great answer. She also knew that the other girls all had rather strained relationships (or no relationship at all) with their parents, so she wanted to step lightly on this topic.
"Some children try to emulate their parents. Others try to break away from them. I love mine, but they can be messy and unorganized, and constantly late. So I became obsessed with order and punctuality – which I suppose explains my semblance." Perhaps unsurprisingly, Emerald actually did bring her the drink she didn't exactly request and passed it to her with a little amused smirk. Ciel took it and sipped it slowly, noting immediately that whatever they had in their stock was quality.
Penny tasted her own drink and cooed happily. "This is very delicious, Emerald. It is a shame I am incapable of becoming inebriated. I... suppose I could attempt to shut down some of my systems to mimic the effects?"
"Do it! Do it do it do it!" Emerald began chanting, she and Neo clapping excitedly. Ciel tried to look at her seriously and shake her head – she was, after all, still her caretaker as well as her partner. But eagerness won out in the end. Penny closed her eyes and for a moment nothing seemed to be happening. But then she opened them again and began to giggle.
"Oh dear... Oh my, I do not know what I expected. Oh..." Almost instantly Penny shifted over and was snuggling up against Ciel like a needy puppy. She laughed gently and reached up to pet her head, which seemed to help. "I b'lieve I un'erstand the appeal now..."
"Hm. Would that I could just will myself in and out of drunkenness. That seems incredibly useful. Alas, I am trapped in the analog method," Ciel sighed wistfully.
She was not normally one to give up on work, but something about their new partners made life feel less stressful. The drinks didn't hurt either. Starting tomorrow, they would be living in the dorms, and so Neopolitan was of the mindset that they might as well demolish as much as they could before leaving the safehouse to rot. The more they drank, the friendlier everything became, as was the usual way with alcohol. At some point, Neopolitan had stolen her beret, though Ciel didn't mind too much.
"Alright Sunny..." Emerald said with a slightly sultry tinge to her voice, obviously ready to launch into a new discussion. "Spill. Whassit like? Bangin' a robit. An android. A whatever."
"We-! I-!" The sudden nickname didn't help, but the question by itself was shocking enough. "Haven't..." Yes, Ciel, very succinct, well said, there's no way this can go poorly.
"Oh my god that's so cute. That's so damn cute. I can't stand it." At least that's what Ciel was able to understand from Neo. Her hand movements were 'slurred' for lack of any better word, and trying to do text-to-speech was a nightmare waiting to happen.
"Hey! I will have you know that I am... prop'rly adorned. My father... er... maker? The... scientists. They wanted me to be super human. When it happens, it will be... magical!" Ciel wanted to be angry at Penny for spilling so much in just a few statements. But her cuteness had a way of counteracting the grumpiness.
"Penny's dad is a peeerrrvvvvv..." Emerald chuckled and awkwardly got up to her feet to fix another round of drinks, which was probably a terrible idea.
"Nooo... Doctor Gepetto, he's not my dad... They did'n wan' me to get too close to them. I am not even supposed to call the lab my home. Very important."
"Yeah well, you weren't supposed to get close to Sunny there, and see what happened when you did it anyway? Adorable nerd-bomber girlfriend with time powers. Breaking the rules has its perks. We should know." Emerald was slowly losing her volume control as she called out across the living room area from the bar, shaking up another couple drinks. Ciel had since given up on being fancy and allowed her teammate to just make whatever she felt like. She wasn't bad at mixing.
"Not to mention bagging local legend Ruby Rose, if rumors are to be believed," Neo added with even sloppier hand gestures.
"And I've seen Ciel making suggestive eyes at Mrs. and Mrs. Checkmate." Emerald snickered.
The other two turned a deep red and shared a nervous look and an equally nervous smile. "Well... I suppose we were both a little enchanted by Team RWBY's... situation. It has a kind of freeing siren song..."
"Oh no, she gets poetic when she's drunk," mused Emerald as she stared Ciel down for a moment. "Well, as long as you're not thinking of putting us in your crosshairs next, I think we'll be just fine. I get jealous easy."
Ciel could see Penny pouting, looking like she was about to say something. So she clamped a hand over her mouth and stood her up with a nervous laugh. "Okay! Well! Time for bed!" She hurried to rush up to the spare bedroom that she and Penny had been sharing for the last week or so. They technically still had a room at Beacon, but when it became clear that they would need to get used to rooming with Neo and Em, the two offered them a space here instead. Even if the brownstone was kind of worn down and messy, it did have a strange homey feel to it.
She and Penny had what few things they'd brought with them, and the rest of their things were being sent from Atlas to Beacon and would arrive the next day when they moved in. They got changed into their pajamas and crawled under the covers together. For a while they just lay there in comfortable silence when suddenly Penny shifted closer and started to wrap around her tighter. "...sh'ld we have sex?"
Ciel's face felt like it was a million degrees and she was strangely terrified to look at her partner. "Penny! R-Right now?"
"I was contemplating what the others said. And it occurs to me that this might be our last night with some private time. But I suppose I was also asking in the more long-term, hypothetical sense, as to whether that is something you might like."
Ciel gave a soft sigh of something resembling relief. She should have known Penny was just missing a social detail. It happened on occasion. But the question still gave her a sense of anxiety that she hadn't really been expecting. She finally turned over so she could face her, curling in against her android girlfriend. "N-Not right now. But... maybe someday?" She paused a moment or two to gather her thoughts and she could see that Penny was concentrating on regaining her faculties, essentially losing her inebriated state. If only humans could be so lucky. "I grew up in Atlas, though my parents and extended family are originally from Vacuo. I was a brown girl in a country mostly occupied by pale people who looked at me with a mix of curiosity and veiled contempt. Add to that my tendency to intellectualize everything, and I never really learned to... appreciate myself. My body has always felt foreign to me. I'm not exactly comfortable with... intimacy."
Penny nodded seriously and hugged her in a little closer, playing with her hair. "I am... a thing. I was created in a lab to mimic a human. All the things that make me appear like one of you? They are synthetic. But... I can still taste food. I can feel how warm you are. I can sense... affection. I have an aura!" She looked into Ciel's eyes, and it really was clear for a split second that humanity didn't exist just in the organic. "But it took time to get there, and patience. And, let us remember, your help. So... if it takes a while, I will understand completely."
Ciel shifted and planted a gentle kiss on Penny's lips, amazed as always at just how perfect they felt. "I... truly care for you, Penny Polendina. And I'm sure with your help, someday, I'll feel perfectly safe around you. I look forward to it." She had meant to use the word 'love' but for some reason it still felt like too much too soon.
Penny didn't seem to mind so much. She claimed another kiss for herself with a tiny giggle. "I look forward to it as well, Ciel Soleil."
