Ruby Rose traveled on the back of a borrowed motorcycle, with no food in her rucksack and a ghost in her pocket. The very last scrap of rations went down her throat with a gulp of water.

"Dry bread, dried fruits, dried meat." She took another sip, the water flat and hot. Springtime in Vale choked her to death with pollen, the sun beating down heavily in a wicked promise of the months to come. "Everything dry. I hate travel food."

"Dried rations keep the longest, Ruby," said the ghost in her pocket. Pulling out her scroll, Ruby made a face into the camera.

The screen flickered to life, showing her the face of a girl who died seven years ago. Penny wasn't impressed by Ruby's theatrics, not commenting on the way she grimaced and griped. "Anyway, we'll reach the city by sundown and you can have a nice hot dinner anywhere you like."

"I would kill for some fish right now," Ruby said, eyes darting over to the stream where she had refilled her water skins. "Swimming in butter, and a side of steaming boiled potatoes... fresh vegetables... and apple pie for dessert. No! Wait. Cookies. Cookies right out of the oven, the chocolate bites still goopy and..."

Penny groaned. "Stop! You're making me hungry."

"You can't get hungry, sweetie." Ruby tapped the screen, fingernail sharp on the glass.

"Well, if I could, you'd be making me miserable." A holograph spit out from the screen, Penny's face magnified as she stuck out her tongue at Ruby. "So stop complaining and start driving!"

Ruby agreed, using the scroll to map out her area and check her position. She had a bad habit of getting catastrophically lost, with Penny's geolocator the only thing keeping her from wasting away into a skeleton out in a cave somewhere. Her motorcycle hummed to life, the electric non-Dust based engine quieter than a kitten's purr.

Ever since the fall of Beacon, she hadn't trusted anything linked to the main power source of the kingdoms... Especially not now that Penny was more vulnerable than ever before.

They crossed an abandoned village, teeming with vines and plant growth... but no animals. Alert, Ruby veered off the road to find the nearest hilltop, gain some vantage to scope the area. The signs were all there, and sure enough, when she pulled out her scopes she saw her prey.

"Small horde," she said, sounding tired. The frames clicked, image enhancing. Every so often a dark, small shape darted from gravestone to gravestone. They knew they were being watched, just not by whom. "No humans. Just congregating to the leftover depression. We shouldn't bother."

The electric conscience in her pocket hummed. "You know I could take out those Grimm in an eyeblink, Ruby."

"Yeah, and you know it's dangerous to be outside the scroll."

Challenging her, a crackle of green light swarmed out of her pocket, twisting around her arm like a climbing vine. Penny didn't have a face in this shape, just a focus of light on the roundish head, wiggling defiantly.

"Ruby Rose, are you really the person to lecture me about dangerous missions?" said the scroll speakers, still in her pocket. Meanwhile Penny herself was roping around Ruby's neck, the buzz of electricity a sinuous promise.

Ruby had a problem following orders, it was true. She never realized quite how maddening a trait it was until she met Penny, who refused to let anyone tie her down- not Ironwood, not Ozpin, not Salem, and definitely not one Ruby Rose. Opening her mouth to retort, she clamped it shut when a scream rang out across the glen.

"Oh, damn it," Ruby said, and kicked up her bike stand and rushed down the hill like a flash flood.

The human scrambled out of one of the abandoned huts, dropping valuables from overladen arms as a beowolf chased him down. Ruby sped right past him, aiming back with one arm. The grappling hook on her forearm shot out, and she dragged the man behind her a few lengths before skidding to a halt.

He kept rolling, inertia carrying him forward. Ruby unlatched her hook from him as he passed, letting him tumble toward relative safety as she sprinted back to the Grimm still chasing them. She unhooked the short shotgun from her outer thigh, catching the Grimm under its jaw.

One, two, three shots, and then she dropped to the ground as a decently-sized Nevermore swung overhead. The razor sharp feathers cut the air right above her face. The Nevermore screamed, swinging around to try again as the other Grimm circled Ruby.

Pulling Crescent Rose out at last, Ruby prepared to tangle with them all when the sharp tang of ozone hit her nose.

"Oh no."

BANG!

Louder than a thunderbolt. Green light flooded her senses, overwhelmingly bright. Even with her eyes closed, Ruby saw the blasts, and when she opened her eyes to glare at Penny, the spirit of her girlfriend just danced in front of her like a cobra.

"Oops!" said her scroll speakers as the green, glitching form wriggled in front of her. "I guess I took them all out!"

Nothing except Grimm had been touched by the blast. Underneath one dissolving Beo claw, a line of ants marched merrily on, and the ground remained unscorched. Sheathing Crescent Rose, Ruby sighed.

"Can you save that for when we have a real body for you, at least? It's just one more day!"

The green light raced to her feet, winding up her legs until she was wrapped around Ruby's waist. The head lifted up, pressed against her face briefly in a 'kiss'. If Penny pushed too hard, she would just spill around Ruby's head and form up right behind her. "They had you surrounded. I wasn't gonna take that risk."

Carefully, Ruby pressed her palms to the shape in front of her. Her skin hovered just before touching it, feeling the low, comforting buzz. "We waited this long, Penny. I don't want you fading away hours before we reach Collodi." She pushed harder and her hands phased through Penny, making her giggle and reform around Ruby's chest.

"Okay, girlfriend Ruby. Whatever you say."

The workshop looked like a boneyard. Limbs and joints and empty skulls stared out, black sockets waiting for the optomological enhancements that would grant sight and vision and recording.

When Collodi reached for the scroll in her hand, Ruby twitched, trying to take it back. The puppet maker paused.

"Whatever happens to her," Ruby said, unblinking as she stared him down. "You share her fate. Do you understand? I know your face. I know your scent."

And the red wolf can hunt you down.

Collodi's eyes rolled, and he took the scroll after Penny crackled warningly at them. "Be nice to Collodi, Ruby! He's my father's friend!"

Ruby grumbled, moving to the other side of the room. She leaned on an empty work table, arms tightly crossed as Collodi connected Ruby's scroll to Penny's new body.

"Do you like the way she looks?" Collodi asked, holding the scroll to look at the empty shell. "I tried to match the sketches you sent."

"She looks great." Penny buzzed happily. "I look great!" The energy snake broke free from Ruby's scroll, crawling across the floor to return to the huntress. She took her favorite spot wrapped around Ruby's waist, the head vibrating like an excited exclamation point. "Ruby! Don't I look great?!"

Ruby spared a cursory glance over the new chassis. It looked strikingly similar to the face she knew as Penny, the girl she met when she was fifteen. Uncomfortable, Ruby just tightened her pose, hands forming fists.

"Penny!" Collodi scolded. "Flirt with your woman later. You need a stable focus point, or your energy levels-"

"Sorry, sorry!" She zipped right back, zigzagging like lightning. "Do I just hop on in?"

Collodi gestured to the body, looking for all the world like a woman asleep. "Hop on in."

She didn't wait any longer than that.

BANG!

Ruby flinched, forearm whipping up to cover her eyes. Unlike before, this assault was sustained, electric. With no warning given to her and no patience left, Ruby struggled forward toward the body.

BANG!

Light erupted upwards, wild sparks, a lightning storm centralized in a basement workshop.

"Penny!"

Ruby reached towards the light, expecting it to singe and surprised to feel nothing but that warm, familiar buzz. And then a hand clasped around hers, fingers unyielding as steel.

The lights died down and Penny and Ruby met each other's eyes for the first time in seven years.

Penny's eyes literally lit up, bright green like the buttons on a communicator. She loved the color green, always had. With her free hand, she touched Ruby's face. Soft, the way they were used to. Careful not to press too hard. They always radiated around each other, always keeping that scant centimeter of distance between flesh and electricity so that they could feel one another without crumbling apart.

"Wow," the scroll speakers said, even as Penny's mouth remained shut. "Ruby... I can touch you now."

Awkwardly leaning back, Penny opened her mouth and made a low, humming sound.

"Sorry, need to rewire the output," Collodi said. Numb, Ruby stepped back and let him work, a screwdriver in hand.

So this is it, Ruby thought, This is what we've been fighting for. It's here. It's finally here.

Penny wobbled around the shop, picking things up and tossing them. Jumping up and down, speaking with her mouth. Touching, interacting with the world. Joyously dragging Ruby outside on unsteady legs, yelling,

"It's my birthday!"

Penny skipped everywhere they walked. When they went to meet up with Weiss to hash out their next move, Penny nearly crushed her with a hug. Ruby wanted nothing more than to let Penny take her time, explore every sensation and miniscule detail of her new chassis. But...

"After this we head north," Ruby said, later in their room. She sat in front of the cramped desk, fingers splayed over a map.

There was only one bed, a detail she hadn't considered before checking into the motel.

Of course there was only one bed.

"Collodi says Ironwood shot him a message," Penny said, curled up on Ruby's lap. Even if she couldn't properly do it anymore, the habit of coiling around Ruby was going to be hard to break. No longer could she wriggle up along Ruby's body, hole up in her pocket, zap a dry spot on her lips with a 'kiss'. She was heavy, and didn't know exactly how heavy she was.

"Yeah, he forwarded it to me." Thankfully, years of strength training meant Ruby could carry her girlfriend away from danger if it ever came to that. "The next target's been located. We gotta move in the morning."

"That's soon."

"No rest for the wicked," Ruby agreed with a sigh. She leaned back in her chair, pinching the bridge of her nose between two fingers. "I'm sorry, Penny. I wish we had time to relax. I wish we could stay here and train and get you used to the body, but-"

Penny was quick to interrupt her. "No! This is fine." She twisted on Ruby's lap, both hands on Ruby's shoulders to press a kiss to her cheek. "I can learn on the road. And I'm excited to know what riding a motorcycle is like! I'm excited about feeling the sun and sleeping outdoors, too!" With a big grin, she mussed up Ruby's short, spiky hair. "I'm excited to be real with you! And now when you're in danger, I can help... and not just with the Grimm."

"But it's not fair."

Ruby blurted it out before thinking. She flushed, refusing to give into the temptation to back away from Penny. From doing anything that might make Penny upset.

Penny kept quiet for a moment. Then she slowly started fixing Ruby's hair, combing through it with warm fingers. Warm from Aura? From internal machinery? Ruby couldn't tell. It felt human, unbearably sensual.

"I haven't heard those words in a while," Penny said at last. She tucked her arms around Ruby, shifting to straddle her lap so that she didn't rest her full weight on the huntress.

"It's not fair to you." Silky, straight ginger hair swung just past Penny's shoulders, tangling up in Ruby's fingers as she curiously twirled a finger in it. "You deserve so much more than this."

She dared to touch her again, both palms on Penny's cheeks to hold her face. Penny's eyes closed, an electric hum whirring through her body like a purr. "Life's not about fairness, Ruby," she murmured, snuggling her face firmly against Ruby's hands.

Penny twisted her head again, forcing Ruby's thumb over soft lips. If she had been standing, her knees probably would have gone weak at the sensation.

"That feels good." Her eyes flickered open again, and Ruby realized she had been staring.

Ruby wasn't the best at gauging physical attractiveness. She saw Penny's new body and she saw long ginger hair, electric jade eyes. She saw a flat chest that didn't rise and fall with every breath, skin that held no veins to jump and pulse with a heartbeat. She wasn't sure if it was pretty.

But something about Penny's body made her...

Uncomfortable? No... Jumpy. Nervous. She caught herself staring so often, unsure of the protocol now, unsure how long she could hold eye contact.

She thought maybe she should retract her hand, but Penny kept it in place with her own, pressing a kiss to the center of Ruby's palm.

"...Can you?" Ruby finally squeezed out. "Ah- feel? Feel things?"

Penny nodded. "I think so. I couldn't before. In the first shape, I mean. But the last few years, being so careful and deliberate with how I interacted with the world... I think maybe that's changed? Detecting pressure is a useful thing to have."

Every hair rose up on the back of Ruby's neck when Penny kissed the inside of her wrist, so she was forced to agree. "Good to know."

This was rushed. Messy. She didn't have time to process the fact that they finally had a body for Penny again. Didn't know how to handle the ease with which Penny touched her, as if they'd done this all their lives.

Acutely, she realized they had never kissed before. They were kids when they first met, and then after that, there simply wasn't a way to do it.

So with one hand on the back of Penny's head, she pulled her down. Her lips were incredibly soft, and Ruby couldn't tell if the spark between them was mental or literal.

"Ruby," Penny whispered, sounding almost dismayed. "That felt good too."

If she were a cat, Penny would have pounced. Instead Penny kissed her again, harder, greedily touching her chest, rubbing Ruby's shoulders, grasping her face to demand more.

She grasped Penny by the thighs, experimentally squeezing them. This time there was no mistaking the bolt of energy that passed between them, green light flaring up in pleasurable sparks.

"Oh my god," Ruby mumbled into the hollow of Penny's throat, tasting it with a swipe of her tongue. It just tasted clean- Ruby had nothing to compare it to except ethereal, ghostly energy. "Did you feel that?"

"Uh-huh." Her whole body hummed again, a satisfied purr.

Ruby had to retreat first, pulling back with a gasp. "This isn't weird, is it?" she said, trying to catch her breath. "I don't- I don't want you to think, oh, well I have a body now so the first thing Ruby wants to do is try and mack on it?"

Sputtering in laughter, Penny waved a hand in front of her face. "That's not the first thing you tried to do, silly." Penny reached down, lacing their fingers together. "The first thing you did was hold my hand."

Ruby couldn't fight back the grin on her face even if she wanted to. "I did, didn't I."

"And that also felt really..." Penny lowered her head, lips brushing against Ruby's. "Really... good." They kissed again, searing hot energy leaping between their skin, reminding Ruby- amusingly enough- of a plasma globe, connecting them with roaming light.

"Warm. Soft," Penny said approvingly, dragging her fingers over Ruby's arms. When she reached Ruby's lips, Ruby winked, catching them in her mouth. "Wet!" she squeaked, darting free with a laugh. Her voicebox crackled.

Getting up to her feet, Ruby hoisted Penny off her and onto the desk. She earned a quick, sweet little kiss in return, and then a decidedly devilish grin. "I thought we didn't have time to test out this body? Yet here we are."

Ruby turned red. She took a step back, clearing her throat. "Wasn't really what I had in mind."

This was the last thing Ruby expected to happen. Exhausted, permanently stressed, she had trekked across countries and continents to threaten, bribe, and coerce the people necessary to make this happen. Because she knew Penny was running on limited time. Because she knew Penny couldn't keep hopping from device to device, unable to defend herself against anything that wasn't a Grimm.

She just wanted her safe. She'd do anything for her, and for so long there was so little she could do except run herself ragged for years on end.

But now...

Still red, Ruby unfastened her cloak and tossed it aside. "You uh, you remember those times we tried... uh, experimenting?"

It had started as curiosity, like most of their conversations. So many times Ruby had fallen asleep to the sound of Penny reading out loud, an article lifted off the net or a novel downloaded from a library. And the questions-

What does that feel like? What does that look like?

She wasn't sure how, but more than once Ruby had wound up half-naked in a hotel room, the camera on her scroll blinking sedately as she touched herself.

Penny linked her arms around Ruby's neck pulling her down to kiss her again. "How could I forget?"

"Well." Ruby zipped down the front of her shirt, trying to exhibit more confidence than she felt. "Let's try it again."

There was so little Ruby could do for Penny. But if this was one of them, then she'd gladly dive right in.

So they rested side-by-side on the cramped little bed, touching, exploring the ways Penny could feel. Ruby only ever loved Penny her entire life, never even considered sex or romance with anyone but her. So there wasn't anything to compare her to, except her own body.

Penny's body was taller than hers, heavier. Underneath the clothes, her skin occasionally gave way to augmented metal, joints not yet covered. If Penny found anything odd, she didn't voice those concerns, instead letting her hands roam on Ruby's bare skin, asking questions- how does that feel? Describe it to me. Let me see if I can feel it too.

"Wet," Penny said again, this time with amusement as Ruby took her hand and guided it between her legs. Her chassis heated up, nearly steaming from excitement when Ruby kissed down her neck.

Her aura pulsed with excitement, rose petals shivering off her skin in a pink glow. To her surprise, Penny responded in kind, her voicebox glitching out into a shaky series of clicks.

Ruby scooted back a little, eyebrow raised. Penny suddenly couldn't look her in the eye, mouth clamped firmly shut.

So Ruby tried to do it again, on purpose. Drawing her own power out like she would in meditation. On those nights when she wanted to be closer to Penny, she'd try to engage with her energy like this, soul touching soul. It was always intense, her whole world turning into nothing but a heart beat as she let Penny's spirit into herself, like huntresses would when unlocking a novice's aura.

Now, Penny moaned, back arching as Ruby did nothing more than scratch her nails down her girlfriend's soft stomach. She rolled on top of her, trying to touch as much of her as she could with faintly glowing fingertips, the roses piling up around them.

"I can- I can feel it." Penny sounded on the verge of tears, twisting uncontrollably. "Can you-? Can you?"

Panting, Ruby caught one of her legs between her own, rolling her hips forward to grind against her firm thigh. "Yeah." She took Penny's hands, latched them onto her hips instead of grasping at the sheets. Her voice was rough, alien to her own ears. "Touch me. I'm about to come, touch me."

"Feel it for me," Penny urged her, losing her words in noises of pleasure. Ruby ducked her head down, biting onto her shoulder, making her flinch in pain- but pain was new to her too, especially when it melted into the waves of ecstasy radiating off of Ruby's body.

It felt like being squeezed, burst open, her come slick on Penny's thigh. Sinking low, Ruby closed her eyes and rested against Penny's chest as she fell from her high.

Penny still rumbled, a low, persistent buzz of happiness.

Exhausted.

Elated.

"Good?" Ruby wondered, unable and unwilling to move from her spot, tucked just underneath Penny's chin. "I don't really know when sex is supposed to end for robots."

Penny's body shook with a laugh. "Me neither."