Chapter Two: Machine Learning

Penny was outside the door to Ruby's room. She'd decided that she needed to talk with someone about what was happening with her. Since she wasn't ready to tell Dad about it, Ruby was the only other option. Even if Penny doubted that Ruby would be able to do much to help, it would be nice knowing she wasn't on her own anymore.

She knocked on the door and was surprised when it opened from the touch. "Ruby?" she called out as she stepped into the room.

Ruby wasn't there, but Blake and Yang were. They were both on Blake's bed, and Yang was on top of Blake, their lips pressed together. Upon Penny's sudden entrance, they both leaped apart with a yell.

"Salutations!" Penny said as she waved to them. "Do you know where I could find Ruby?"

The two girls just stared at her, mirrored expressions of embarrassment and shock on their faces. Yang was the first to recover. "Umm, I think she said she was gonna get some training in. She's probably at the practice room."

"Understood; I shall go to the practice room!" Penny gave them another wave and turned to leave.

"Wait!" Blake yelled.

Penny felt a rush of air as Blake used her Semblance to propel herself in front of her before she could leave the room. Blake slammed the door closed before turning back to Penny and fixing her with a desperate look.

"How much of that did you see?"

Penny tilted her head. "How much of what?"

Blake blinked. "Are you being serious?"

"I am one hundred percent serious," Penny said with a nod.

Blake sighed. "Did you see me and Yang?"

"Yes! I saw you both kissing. You looked like you really liked it, Blake."

Blake groaned and turned away as her face became a startling shade of crimson.

"Don't worry, Blakey," Yang called from behind Penny. "I'm sure Penny can keep a secret." Unlike Blake, Yang seemed relaxed about the whole situation. She was sitting on the bed with an easy grin on her face, and she had her arm slung casually around the clone Blake had left behind when she used her Semblance.

Blake glared at her and the clone vanished, leaving Yang to fall over with a yelp into the space it had previously occupied. "You know that's not the point."

"It isn't?" Yang asked as she sat herself back up. Then, looking at Penny, she said, "You can keep a secret, right?"

Penny nodded. "Indeed I can!" Although she'd yet to be entrusted with a secret quite like this one, she was privy to several of Atlas military's classified operations and, she was proud to note, she hadn't revealed any of those.

Well, except for when she'd told Ruby the truth about herself. She didn't think that one counted, though.

"See, Blake? Nothing to worry about," Yang said.

Blake sighed and returned to her spot on the bed. "But we wouldn't have to trust Penny to keep a secret if we'd just been more careful."

Penny looked between the two of them and raised her hand. "May I ask a question?"

"Go ahead," Blake said without much interest.

"Why were you kissing?"

There was a moment of silence, and then Yang burst out laughing while Blake just stared at Penny. "Really?" Blake asked.

Penny nodded with a smile.

"Penny," Yang said, "you've always got such… interesting questions."

"Thank you!"

"Now, this one's easy." Yang leaned over and threw her arms around Blake. "It's because I love her!"

"Yang!" Blake tried and failed to worm her way out of Yang's grasp.

"What's the matter?" Yang asked with an exaggerated pout. "Don't you love me too?"

Blake blushed and looked down at the arms holding her. "You know I do," she muttered. "But did you have to say it in front of her?" She gestured her head towards Penny.

Yang rested her head on Blake's shoulder. She started tracing circles on Blake's arms with her thumbs. "Sorry. But we're gonna have to tell people eventually, y'know? They're our friends."

Blake sighed. "I know." She looked at Penny. "Sorry about all this. I'm just not ready for everyone to know yet."

"Why not?" Penny asked.

"It's complicated." Blake broke free of Yang's hug and grabbed a book from her bedside table. She held it up in front of her face as she started reading, effectively ending that line of questioning.

"Now then," Yang said, "my turn to ask you a question! It's only fair, right?"

Penny nodded. "Ask away!"

"Have you ever been in love?"

"I don't know." That was why Penny had asked her question in the first place. There were so many different kinds of relationships that she still struggled to understand on a more-than-superficial level. She saw the couple in front of her as a chance to start filling in some of the gaps in her knowledge. "What is being in love like?"

"Hey, no fair! You're answering with another question!" Despite that protest, Yang leaned back on the bed and hummed, seeming to ponder what Penny had asked her. "I dunno, it's kinda hard to describe. It's like, when you're with the person you love, you lose control of yourself. Your emotions go crazy, and you just wanna be with them and make them happy."

Wait a second. That sounded familiar. "What do you mean, 'you lose control of yourself'?"

Yang must've misinterpreted the look on Penny's face, because she laughed and said, "I think I made it sound worse than it is. I just mean stuff like your heart beating fast when you're with them, or getting nervous and sweaty and having trouble talking to them, or always doing dumb stuff to impress them."

"What about getting distracted thinking about them all the time?" Penny asked. "Or your face getting warm whenever they smile at you?"

"Yep, those are good examples. Seems like you know what I'm talking about," Yang said with a grin.

Penny was too stunned to respond right away. It all made sense now: her "glitches" were the result of a barrage of emotions. It was obvious in retrospect; of course having her first real friendship would elicit feelings she'd never experienced before. But she hadn't been hit so strongly by so many emotions since her early days, when everything was still new and confusing. She'd thought something had been wrong with her then, too.

In the weeks after she'd first been activated, Dad had had to explain to her about each new emotion she'd felt. He'd told her that, because she was more aware of her body and the systems that ran it than the average person was, emotions might feel like a strange or unwelcome interference. But they were an important part of how Humans and Faunus interacted with each other and the world, and so she needed to have them too.

Penny was glad to have one mystery solved, but another one had quickly taken its place. "Do you really think it might be love?"

"It might be." Yang had a glint in her eyes. "But I'm gonna need to hear more to be sure."

Penny nodded and thought of how best to sum up her complex feelings for Ruby. "She makes me happy. Happier than I've ever felt before." She couldn't help the smile spreading across her face. "I want to be with her all the time."

"Do you think she's hot?" Yang asked.

Penny shook her head. "No, her body temperature is average."

Yang bit her lip in what looked like an attempt not to laugh. "I mean, is she pretty? Do you like looking at her?"

"Oh!" Without meaning to, Penny accessed her memory of the Beacon Dance, where she'd found herself unable to look away from Ruby in her sleeveless dress. She felt her cheeks grow warm. "Yes, she's very pretty."

"There's more to love than that, though," Blake said, lowering her book.

"Hey! I had this covered," Yang said.

Blake just rolled her eyes and scooted to the edge of the bed, looking up at Penny. "Love comes from trust and safety. You feel like you don't need to hide the parts of yourself that you usually do. You even want the other person to know all those things. And you want to know everything about them, too." A shadow passed over Blake's features. She was still facing Penny, but it felt like she was looking through her, remembering someone else. "Most of all, you just trust with all your heart that they'll be by your side no matter what, working towards the same future as you."

Penny could relate to that. She guessed that that was another point in favor of her being in love with Ruby. But there was still one major component missing. "And that feeling makes you want to kiss them?" she asked, and Blake's eyes refocused on her.

"Right. Yang described that part of love pretty well." She had a small smile and a growing blush on her face. "It's like you can't help yourself. You have a craving to be close to them, and hold them, and kiss them. It's explosive, like setting off fireworks." She turned and smiled at Yang. "And it's addicting."

"Aww." Yang reached forward and wrapped Blake in a quick hug. "That was really sweet. And it gave me an idea on how to help Penny!"

Penny tilted her head. "How?"

"It's easy. Just picture yourself kissing the girl you're thinking of! If you like it, then that means you like her."

That seemed like a solid enough plan to Penny. She remembered how Blake and Yang had looked kissing on the bed, and she tried switching them out with herself and Ruby in her head.

Instead of clearing things up, though, it just left her more confused. She didn't dislike the idea; it wasn't that different from when she'd tackle Ruby to the ground, after all. But when she compared the feeling it was giving her to the one Blake had described, it was obviously lacking. There was no hunger or need there. Just the usual happiness she got from being close to Ruby.

"I guess it's not love, then," she said.

"That's okay," Blake said. "It'll happen someday."

Yang nodded. "Yeah, you just gotta meet the right person."

Penny still had questions, but she thought it best to leave the two of them to themselves. She'd taken up enough of their time, and it was clear to her from the way they kept stealing glances at each other that they were itching to get back to what they'd been doing before she'd interrupted.

After she thanked them and said goodbye, she stood in the hall, thinking. If her feelings for Ruby weren't romantic, then what were they? Maybe it was normal to feel like this about a best friend, and she was just confused because it was all so new to her.

Something about that didn't sit right with her, but she decided there was no use dwelling on it now. She pushed the thought from her mind and set out to the practice room to find Ruby.