It was interesting how people can be oblivious to their surroundings. You would expect that a Faunus with enhance sense of hearing would notice everything. Their amplified sense of smell should detect things and conditions around themselves.

But no.

Apparently I'm guilty of this as I completely ran into someone when my teammates and I decided to head straight to the docks. I rounded a sharp corner at the end of the block and BAM — I walked right into someone.

Not going to lie, it kind of hurt. Whoever this person was, is either really buff or just really solid.

I held my scrunched up face with my hand and silently hissed at whoever knocked me down. My face felt bruised and I could hear a bunch of concerning 'are you alright' simultaneously coming from Weiss, Blake, and Yang.

A hand reached out to my forearm, and just from the scent and that certain touch, I could tell it was from Weiss. She was attempting to pick me up as I literally sat flat on my precious tail. Off to the side in the mind, I found it even more strange how I couldn't pick up the scent of whoever bumped into. Basically everyone had a certain scent to them. Maybe except for —

"Friend Ruby!"

Yeah... Of course. Speaking of the devil.

The person of said voice easily scooped me off the floor and twirled me around in circles. My teammates luckily ducked in a nick of time before they got bulldozed by my flying legs.

"Hi Penny," I barely peeled my eyes open as it was difficult. The obnoxious wind kept on getting into them when she twirled me around in circles.

"It has been far too long!" She kept twirling me and twirling me. I was getting kind of dizzy with all the twirling.

"Yes..." I croaked out. I felt like puking. "You think we can stop spinning for just a split second?"

"Oh certainly!" Penny gently placed me down before I felt terribly sick in the stomach.

When my feet did touch the sweet floor, I couldn't keep myself still. I was unsteady and off balance as my legs stumbled left and right. I sloshed around until Yang managed to hold me still before I end up crashing onto someone.

"Who's this?" Weiss eyed her carefully.

"That's Penny." I rubbed my face hoping to massage away the uneasy feeling. Yang stroke my back hoping I would recover faster from the dizziness.

"Sal-u-ta-tions!" She saluted us a greeting and gave us one of her winning smiles.

"Umm okay..." Yang felt how socially awkward this girl was.

"Penny, did you end up losing your way from Atlas to Vale?" I asked her.

"Atlas?" Blake hesitantly repeated.

Even Blake knew how absurd that sounded, but honestly, that was a possibility. After all, Penny has a bad sense of directions. She could've wandered out of Atlas and over the ocean to Vale for all I know.

"No, I flew here!" Her smile remain when she answered my question.

"What...?" I deadpanned.

I pictured Penny with robotic wings or those dust propulsion backpacks that I saw in some magazine. Flying over the ocean... Geez, her additional modifications are making her more ridiculous than necessary.

"First time flying on a bullhead was sen-sational!"

Oh. Duh. That's what she meant.

"Wait," Weiss knitted her brows. "Are you participating in the tournament as well?"

What?

"I am combat ready!" Penny squared her shoulders and saluted once more. She carried a more serious look on her face.

Great.

We're screwed.

I had given Dr. Polendina a few suggestions that he could've touched up on Penny after she short circuited moments after meeting. Most of these suggestions were combat related.

"Your dad let you?" I wrinkled my nose at why the hell General Ironwood approved the idea of sending such a top secret creation out to the public. The Vytal tournament was suppose to be aired worldwide. One minor slip up could easily expose her.

"Yes he did!"

"And they let you wander around in Vale?" I skeptically asked.

"Yes they did!"

There was a hiccup, and I frowned. I never knew machines could even hiccup. Dr. Polendina did a superb job on making her so human-like.

"Without supervision?" I added on top.

"Yup!"

She hiccup again.

"Should I be worried?"

"Nope!"

Another hiccup.

"Um... Do you want water for your hiccups?" Yang asked Penny when she noticed she had a bad case of them. "We can always run to the store to get a water bottle or something."

"Oh that sounds lovely!" Penny clapped her hand at my sister's kind offer. "But I'm deathly allergic."

"What?" Blake sharply turned her head at her statement.

"OKAAAY," I intervened hopefully in time that they wouldn't catch on. I was sure enough that I was growing white hair all over my ears considering the stress I was feeling. "I think we should get going to the docks now."

"But friend Ruby!" Penny seemed completely disheartened. "It's been too long. I missed you so much!"

"I concur with Ruby," Weiss seemed strangely annoyed. "It's best we take our leave now as we have important matters to attend to."

"Where are you guys heading to?" Penny cocked her head.

"To the docks," I repeated when Penny seemed to missed it previously.

"Ooo," she cheerfully clapped her hands. "Am I allowed to join in on your adventures as well?"

"No."

"Sure."

"What?" Weiss hissed quietly at me when our replies clashed. "Why should we be bringing her?"

"I don't see why not," I scowled upon Weiss's unusual behavior. "More in numbers just in case we do bump heads with anyone."

"And what if she gets in our way?"

I silently chuckled to myself. Oh Weiss... You have no idea what Penny is capable of.

"Well you see Weiss —"

"Oh dear!" Penny suddenly exclaimed. "I think your friend is in trouble!"

"Who's in trouble?" Blake was the one to ask.

Penny's eyes directly pointed at Weiss, and we turned our heads to see what seemed to be the problem. Weiss furrowed her eyebrows, questioning why everyone was staring back at her so suddenly.

"What?" Weiss dryly asked.

Weiss seemed to be fine for the most part. She wasn't on fire. She wasn't bleeding to death either. So I don't exactly know where Penny is going with this.

"Her estrogen levels increased dramatically. Her blood pressure also shot up as well," Penny continued on as she kept eyeing Weiss strangely.

"W-What?" Weiss blinked when Penny started to analyze her through and through.

"Oh dear!" Penny gasped. "Her heart rate sharply increased."

"T-That's ridiculous," Weiss hastily rebutted.

"Should I run to the store and get some medicine?" Yang asked Blake in hopes she would know what to do. But Blake just shrugged as she seemed confused as my sister was.

"Weiss are you okay?" I asked in concern. I placed the back of my hand to gauge her temperature, making sure she didn't come down with a fever. Throughout the day, she seemed fine. Unless she was putting up a high and mighty act and was actually sick.

"Oh her heart rate increased again," Penny said in surprised.

"E-Enough," Weiss stammered as she brushed my hand away before confronting Penny. "How would you know all of this anyways?"

"The power of the internet?" Penny hiccupped before she tilted her head in an innocent manner.

Sounds like bullshit to me.

"Nonsense!" Weiss countered. "Internet can't gauge my health levels."

"The power of a scroll app?" She hiccupped once more.

Smells like bullshit.

"Now I think about it..." Yang seemed a little convinced on Penny's statement. "There are scroll apps that can count how many steps you take in a day and measure your health. Not exactly as extensive as Ruby's friend... But maybe she got something similar?"

"Oh yes!" Another hiccup. "Headmaster Ironwood prototyped a nifty gadget for Atlas's hospitals... Which I have with me right now!" A hiccup.

This is definitely bullshit.

"Atlas is advancing in their technology," Blake nodded in agreement. "But I thought you said it was a scroll app. Now it's some kind of hand held gadget?"

Kudos to Blake for being so observant. She was quickly seeing through Penny as the robotic girl was failing to follow up her justifications.

"U-Uh..." Penny stumbled in her words. "It seems you have mistaken me!"

She made a yet another unsuccessful recover.

I pinched the bridge of my nose and sighed. "Penny specializes in a lot of technology, which is why she's reading Weiss so easily," I told them. Part of it was true with a sprinkle of bullshit. But hey, I had to pull something out of my ass.

"How do you know all of this?" Yang questioned interestedly.

"I went to Atlas a little bit before I came here," I explained. "I told Weiss already, but yeah. I bumped into Penny during my trip, got to know her, and now she's fond of me."

"Fond?" Weiss repeated before merely scoffing. "More like attached."

My ears folded back when I picked up a sour tone in Weiss's voice. "Yes, she's fond." I steeled my eyes at Weiss. She glossed over me quickly before darting her eyes at Penny in hostility. "That's because she doesn't socialize with anyone else."

"Fantastic," she flatly retorted. "You two can be best friends."

I shared a look with Blake and Yang. They didn't seem to understand why Weiss was acting the way she was considering the blank stares and shrugs they've been giving me.

"Weiss," I sighed. "I don't get where this coming from."

"Neither do I." She sharply twisted her body and went off in one direction alone.

"Did I do something wrong to offend her?" I turned to what's left of the remaining group.

"Maybe she's on the time of the month?" Yang threw in the idea. Generous, but not as helpful.

"You should probably go after her..." Blake suggested. "The only person who would know is Weiss. No one is capable of reading her complex mind other than herself."

I scratched my head and heavily sighed once more. Everything was fine and dandy until her behavior changed. Weiss was nice and friendly during our time spent in the ransacked shop. But it easily turned around when Penny popped up. Then again, Penny didn't really do anything wrong unless you count twirling me around as some kind of harassment. But that's ridiculous. Penny was just excited to see me. There was no excuse for Weiss to get angry unless she's —

Oh my god.

Maybe Weiss is jealous.

"I think I might have a clue..." I murmured. "Do you think you two can watch Penny?"

"Are you sure?," Yang seemed hesitant about being left with a socially awkward girl. She took a quick glance at Penny with the corner of her eyes. Not surprisingly, the girl seemed aloof as she admired a fluttering butterfly.

"Yeah," I nodded. "Penny's harmless but curious. And sometimes... Curiosity tends to kill the cat."

Blake deflated when she heard that.

"Yep, we can take it from here." Yang shot me a thumbs up

"Thanks!" I sharply turned around but not before waving off. I took off in search of Weiss.

She couldn't have traveled that far.

I stand corrected.

She did ventured pretty far, but I wasn't deterred when my nose could easily pick up her scent. I knew what she smelled like. She has that shampoo that she imports from Atlas, and sometimes, she oddly smells like vanilla.

But her scent became less distinguishable as I came closer to the docks. It reeked like fish, but it still retained that aromatic salty air. It got mixed into her trail of scent and it became harder to find her.

If this was my other world, this would've been so much easier. I could have probably pinpoint her location from her flaring aura. But here in Remnant? That was not possible. Apparently it was impossible to track someone down through sensing their aura. It was funny how the laws of our worlds differ but shared the same understanding of aura.

I took out Crescent Rose and fired a bullet in the air. The cackling shot rang loudly and I looked around for any sudden movements. Weiss knew I was here at least. I had hoped she would panic upon hearing the gun fire at the empty docks, but I was gravely mistaken.

"Weiss, I know you're somewhere here. I can easily find you," I tried to bluff her out. I flicked my ears to concentrate my entire surroundings. I tried to focus on whatever I can get considering I was becoming nose blind. Breathing, shifting feet... Anything.

"Can we talk?" I tried to reason with her considering she wasn't biting my bait.

I sighed once more when I didn't get a response. I jumped on top of an old shipping container to get an aerial view of the place. All I saw was nothing but old shipping containers. My ears dropped and my tail slumped down when I scanned the place once more.

Still nothing.

"Okay, maybe I lied about being able to find you. It's hard considering the location we're in. But you think we can just talk. To fix this?"

I stood waiting for a response. Instead of an actual verbal reply, I get a glyph below my feet and immediately got launched in the air. Initially, I screamed out of surprise. I wasn't prepared for it, but I was ready to take advantage of the better aerial view to scan down and find her.

And what a stroke of luck.

I could easily make out a white figure down below and a rapier pointed in my direction. I rotated my body, spiraled down towards the floor, and crashed down at the impact. The pavement shattered around me, but my aura absorbed all of the shock.

Without wasting a single second, I sprinted off in the direction where I spotted her. Like always, a trail of roses flew behind me as I darted my way through the narrow cargoes and leaped over wooden crates.

"Ahah!" I caught sight of Weiss.

Before she could send another glyph between the middle of us, I collided into her and we both tumbled down the docks together like flopping target dummies.

"Must you really?" Weiss narrowed her eyes at me when I landed on top of her.

"Yes," I answered mirthfully. "You're avoiding me. And technically, it was your fault who sent me flying in the air."

"So it seems," she sighed. Her blue eyes flickered to the other direction and avoided all eye contact.

"Can we talk now?" I rolled off and offered a hand. She took it and dusted her combat skirt when she stood.

"We are talking," Weiss started to become a smartass.

"No I meant with what happened back there."

Weiss exhaled heavily as she couldn't seem to get out of the situation.

"Very well then," she caved in.

Her eyes flitted down. Before we jumped right into the conversation, she made her way to the edge of the dock and sat herself. I followed her example and got comfortable. Together, we watched the waves gently crash onto each other off in the distance.

"What's on your mind?"

"Confusing complicated matters," she answered with a face devoid of emotions.

"Does that mean you're mad at Penny?" I tried jumping the gun considering she didn't want to discuss.

"What makes you think that?"

"Well," I rubbed my arm hesitantly. From the choppy response she was giving me, it seemed like my judgment was wrong. Perhaps I was reading it in too much regarding to Weiss's jealousy. "Everything kind of blew over when she came along?"

"Not exactly mad per se," she heavily sighed. "I was being honest when you asked where this was all coming from. I... I don't know either."

"Is it because you assumed she kicked you off the best friend podium?" I suggested it with uncertainty. Maybe my suspicions was correct considering she was confused.

"Best friend podium?" Weiss shot me a flat look.

"Yeah you know... Closest friend?" I clarified for her.

"Ruby," she gave me one of her famous eye rolls. "I know what's the definition of a best friend. No need to remind me."

"Hmm." My lips pressed into a straight line when she told me. "I thought you wouldn't know."

That earned me a whack on the shoulders.

"I'm kidding!" I winced and held up my hands in surrender. "But really... No one can replace you."

"I'm not exactly best friend material," Weiss curled her lips downward.

"Oh so you do want to my best friend!" My tailed wagged when it merely left my mouth and I glomped Weiss with a hug.

"No I do not." Weiss tried to peel me away from her.

My ears momentarily drooped at the thought, though they shot right back up when I imagined she wanted to be more than best friends. But it was a fleeting imagination, and I didn't want to tear our friendship with my selfish desires. I was fine with just having Weiss as a simple crush.

"Are you sure...?" I asked her again to double check. "It's still an empty spot. Yang can't take it because she's my sister. You're higher in the podium than Blake. Currently, you're at a better position than anyone else I know."

"Hmph," Weiss managed to pry me off from her. She went straight to fixing the wrinkles on her dress. "Are you sure there's no one else in mind?"

"Will that make you jealous?"

"J-Jealous?" Weiss gave me an undignified look. "Preposterous."

"I don't know Weiss..." I sucked in some air pretending to be unsure. "Penny did say your estrogen levels —"

"Lies," Weiss sharply denied. "There's no way she could've known."

"If you say so..." I pretended to believe her. "Regardless of what you think, I am bestowing you the title of best friend for the next four years."

"Just four years?" She questioned dubiously.

"Well..." I shrugged in hesitation and cast my eyes down. "Once we graduate and become full fledge huntresses, you wouldn't exactly need to associate with me again."

I never anticipated for her to flick me on the forehead. I recoiled back with a hiss as it felt like the time Uncle Qrow flicked me when I was little.

"You're a dolt, you know?" Weiss didn't seem in the mood to sugarcoat her words.

"I'm very aware since you say that almost every day," I murmured.

"There's no way I could do that unless you do something incredibly stupid," Weiss reassured me. Little does she knows, I sometimes do stupid things. "And I learned to tolerate your outrageous antics."

That's fantastic. I think?

"And," she paused with a reluctant sigh. "I guess I'm quite fond of you. It'll be difficult to let go just like that."

"You mean attached?" I tried pushing it.

"Fond." Weiss punctuated her word quite clearly.

Obviously it didn't work.

"I'm quite fond of you too," I admitted. I leaned back into the palm and my heels kicked against the edge of the docks. I glanced back to the blue sky, not knowing how much time had passed by, and my face softened. "You remind me of someone."

"Please don't say Penny," Weiss wrinkled her nose.

"Oh heavens no," I flabbergasted. "You are far more coordinated. But in all seriousness, Penny isn't bad. You'll like her once you're more acquainted."

"I'll be the judge of that," she huffed. "But back on topic... Who did I remind you of?"

"Someone important I guess?" I shrugged when my mind pulled into my past back when I was in my world. It was a topic I haven't discussed in a long time. But that's because I pushed it away, avoiding it the best I could. But now, I guess I numbed a long time ago.

"So... Yang?" Weiss scrunched her face at the thought of my sister. She's probably comparing herself to my sister, trying to count how many similarities they shared.

"When did you get so curious?" I playfully teased her.

"I mean I can stop," Weiss muttered in suggestion underneath her breath.

I shrugged indifferently. "You can keep guessing, but I highly doubt you're going to get it right. But to answer your previous question, you're nothing like Yang."

"Thank goodness," she sighed in relief.

"Yang is cooler."

"Excuse me!"

"Kidding."

Kind of...

"So... Your father or mother?" She took a stab at it.

"Nah," I responded. "They're important, but I wouldn't say similar."

"So..." She hesitated. "A lover?"

I choked out a cough and regret letting Weiss continue guessing. "She's not a lover," I adamantly told the heiress. "I mean I liked her but that doesn't mean —"

I suddenly paused when the gender specific word slipped out. She looked at me with wide eyes, and I slapped my face with the palm of my hands.

"Fuck."