Penny nervously sucked in a deep breath of air as she waited for Yang's reply. Having been awake until four in the morning every day had finally taken its toll on the orange haired girl, and, deciding she couldn't take it any longer, she messaged the only person she figured could help her.
It was still early, but surprisingly, the blonde was up and already texting her back.
Penny stared at the three dots right next to Yang's profile picture in anticipation, indicating the girl was still busy setting up her message. What seemed like minutes was actually just one, at most, and considering the length of the blonde's message it was done rather quickly.
Skimming through each and every word she could feel her heartbeat fasten even more. Penny knew by now that Yang was very fond of teasing and therefore didn't take the silly antics to heart, but the girl actually gave solid advice in between her jokes and for that, she was very thankful.
Deciding it was best to take action immediately, the freckled girl jumped out of bed and got ready to win over the heart of a certain young Rose.
Unfortunately for Penny's own wallet, she was rather clueless when it came to affection. Friendship was one thing, but love was on a completely different level. Instead of just picking one way to try and sway Ruby off her feet, the orange haired girl decided to try them all. If one of them went wrong, she could always try with another, right?
And boy, did she needed that optimism.
When she finally found Ruby that same day, Penny figured she could start easy. Calling out to her friend, she ran up to the raven-haired girl to try and make her first move. Yang had said Ruby liked books. Her first bet was to give her crush a book.
"Hey Penny! What's up?" Ruby smiled at her once they stood close to each other.
There was one thing Penny hadn't anticipated, despite the fact that she thought of it every single time she came near the dark haired girl. Ruby Rose was extremely cute. Distractingly so.
"Sal-Salutations my friend!" she started. Ruby tilted her head to the side in confusion. Penny's heart skipped a beat.
"What are you holding?" Averting her own eyes to what silver was now trained on, Penny remembered what her current objective was. She immediately held out her hands to pass on her gift. "It's a cook – I mean book! For you!"
Ruby took it without hesitation. She was, however, slightly surprised. "For me? Why?"
Because I really, really like you, was what Penny almost blurted out. She stopped herself just in time, though she was afraid of what her answer should be. The orange haired girl was aware that she was bad at telling lies – and so was everyone else.
"Because you like books!" she quickly claimed. Technically, it wasn't a lie. "I hope you like this one…" she added in uncertainty.
Ruby eyed her friend in brief suspicion, then looked at the cover of the paperback novel in her hands. "Well, I can't know for sure until I've read it, but thank you Penny! That's very sweet of you."
Penny perked up at that. "You think so?" she asked in relief.
The raven-haired girl nodded in confirmation. "Yes! But I have to go now, I was supposed to meet Weiss in the library ten minutes ago…"
Ruby made a face, one that Penny could understand. Weiss wasn't one she wanted to cross anytime soon.
"Alright, see you later Ruby," the girl replied. Ruby nodded once more. "See you later,best friend," she responded with a wink and a wave, and with that she left.
Penny stood there. Dumbfounded. Best friend?
Her next few tries ended in a disaster. Yang had told her Ruby was pretty "basic" when it came to romance, whatever that meant, and that she might score big with the standard gestures.
Ruby, for one, was very fond of roses. So Penny bought her roses. Unfortunately for the orange haired girl, her crush was very fluid in the language of said flower, but she herself wasn't. Instead of buying the usual red roses, she bought white ones.
White, apparently, stood for friendship.
Yang had told her Ruby liked movies. Action movies in particular. Penny tried to take her on a movie date, but there was nothing romantic to it and the young Rose ended up seeing it as a friendly gesture.
Museums, especially ones filled with mechanic things and weapons, was another thing Ruby adored. Penny took her to the local museum of their neighboring town, only to find out they were closed for the time being because they were renovating. So instead she decided to go grab some ice cream with her crush, and suddenly there were Pyrrha and Nora to avert the attention.
Penny decided she was done with it and went to speak with Yang in person. The blonde asked questions about how it went, and when her friend was done explaining the entirety of the situation, she frowned in contemplation.
"Ya know," Yang started after a short moment of silence. "I suddenly remembered… Ruby is stupidly dense."
Penny froze.
"Maybe it was better to just… Be direct."
A/N: Hi all! Mod Cecille here again. A few weeks ago I asked for some writing prompts on Tumblr and I really liked this one, so I decided to upload it here as well! I hope you liked this quick drabble, since it's not exactly all fluff and romance in the Nuts and Dolts department, but rest assured, Penny will one day confess her feelings and they'll live happily ever after.