Another week, another chapter.
Chapter 22
The massive head of Atlas' air fleet was not at all subtle as it touched down upon the largest of Beacon's landing pads – even so easily dwarfing it. Cinder Fall looked upon the thing in a far different way than most of the other students who surrounded her, 'oohing' and 'aahing' at the movements of the wings near the back, or of the hangar as it opened, and a few figures stepped out.
One of which had Cinder's jaw tightening for a variety of reasons.
"It's quite the marvelous ship, isn't it?"
Cinder turned to see Pyrrha step up to her, standing alongside her and smiling casually her way.
"I suppose." She replied lamely. "Though it is not entirely the ship that has caught my eye."
She regretted the words the moment she'd spoken them, thinking that they might reveal something about her, about her intentions, about what she planned to–
"Ah, yes, General Ironwood is rather impressive. I'm certain you could perhaps ask for his autograph, if that's what you're thinking of. Believe me, I can speak from personal experience when I say it's always flattering, even if it can be a tad bit overbearing in large quantities."
…or not, it seemed.
Cinder let out a sigh as she gave some flippant excuse to the girl stood beside her, one that sounded weak to her, but was apparently bought by her… by Nikos. That, or the girl was too polite to question her on it.
Ever since Salem's call some nights ago, Cinder had been entirely too high-strung, even by her standards. She was back to jumping at every little thing, questioning every word from her mouth, and, rather oxymoronically, only making herself more suspicious because of it.
…And ever since Salem's call some nights ago, life only ever seemed to grow more complicated.
She'd confirmed Salem's report herself; Qrow Branwen had entered Vale. He'd done so publicly, taking a commercial flight from Patch that – according to Watts' intel – had been paid for out of Ozpin's pocket. It made sense – such an expenditure was nothing compared to having one of his eyes at his disposal.
Cinder – no, the entirety of the current generation of Salem's followers – was lucky that it was only the single eye. Alone, Qrow Branwen provided quite the array of difficulties to work around. Had he been working alongside his sister?
Yes, Cinder had heard from Salem's own mouth what that combination had done in their heyday. Hell, it had been the very reason Cinder had been picked up in the first place.
Because Salem had lost some of her more valuable pieces to them.
She shook her head to dispel the absent thoughts, and turned on her heel as she made her way back into Beacon Academy. Any time spent idling away watching a ship land was time wasted. And…
…And wasn't it also a waste of time to go to a teacher's office late at night, to discuss her feelings, to talk of her past and her traumas, to invite someone out to dinner, and to–
She hissed under her breath, even as she heard Pyrrha call out to her, and rather pointedly kept walking.
Unfortunately, Pyrrha was a bit more persistent than she was expecting.
"Cinder, you seem… upset."
"I am." She replied curtly, seeing no reason to lie in a situation where even Pyrrha Nikos would be able to call her out on it.
"Is this… about what happened the other night? With the bench?"
"It is… related."
"I see."
Cinder found her legs moving on autopilot, not towards Glynda Goodwitch's room, as had rapidly become her normal haunt, but towards an area she had not used in quite some time.
She flicked the light on beside her, and cracked her neck as she stepped into the arena, feeding her scroll into the machine.
"Cinder?"
"Spar with me." She spoke in answer.
"Cinder, it sounds like you need to tal–"
"Spar with me." She growled out this time, before realizing that she had, once more, gone entirely too far.
Once again, she was showing herself under the surface, revealing too much, and the little fear inside of her; pale, with red veins and a blackened heart stared into her soul then.
What are you doing? It seemed to ask.
"I… would appreciate the distraction right now." She corrected herself, before turning to see how Pyrrha Nikos would react.
Luckily for Cinder, the girl did as she hoped, feeding her own scroll into the other slot, and taking a rather simple stance.
Crucially, however…
"You're not going to retrieve your weapon?"
"I'm not." Pyrrha said with a small, awkward smile. "I think… I'd like to keep abreast in my hand-to-hand combat, is all."
Such was a lie, that was easy to discern, though Cinder could not catch the underlying meaning of it, and so she allowed it to slip by her unassailed.
One thing was immediately clear as Cinder called for the match to begin; Pyrrha Nikos had gotten better. Her strikes flowed more fluidly, her blows hit more viciously, and she was far less prone to backing off when she had gained a foothold.
…Or at least, that was what Cinder had thought initially. But it was as Cinder's body had tried to move in a way her instincts screamed for her to, for her to flip midair and kick the woman in the side, and said maneuver failed, that she realized something far more frightening.
It was not that Pyrrha Nikos had gotten better.
Cinder Fall had gotten worse.
The very concept aggravated her rather severely. She growled under her breath as she blocked a high kick from her opponent, and locked the leg at her side. Pyrrha was good, though, and so she used that as a pivot point to spiral towards Cinder's face, forcing her to either take the hit to retain control of her leg, or block and give Pyrrha an opening to retreat.
Cinder chose the latter, allowing the girl to pull back and away.
Cinder was winning. She was still winning.
And yet, she was winning by less than she'd been when the two of them had first sparred. When Cinder had barely been trying, when she'd only fought the girl to find out her secrets. And now, here she was, edging out a victory over a foe who should've been so far beneath her…
When had she last trained? When had she last taken time out of her day to keep her body loose, limber, growing in strength?
At least a week or two ago. And then before that, another week.
…She had to make up for lost time. And so, as she beat Pyrrha Nikos back, and pinned her to the ground, she pulled away, and shouted out.
"Again!"
There was a brief flash of something in Nikos' eyes, then. Something that Cinder did not quite have the time to fully grasp before the girl ripped it away, and nodded her head.
"Again." She mirrored.
And Cinder blurred into action once more.
/
Glynda Goodwitch had not become a teacher at an academy for teenagers without going through a few awkward scenarios in her time. It had all but been written into her contract when she'd gotten the job.
She had had students try to flirt with her. She had tripped in the middle of a lecture on leadership skills, and then had to continue giving her speech like nothing had happened. She had even been caught by Winter Schnee while out to dinner with a student of hers–
…Admittedly, one of those was a tad bit more recent than the others.
And also admittedly, it was also a tad bit more related to her current situation, which was James Ironwood stepping into Ozpin's office later in the evening, smiling towards the both of them, offering his hand for her to shake, and then immediately opening with…
"It's good to see you, Glynda. Have I heard right that you're seeing someone?"
Mhm. Yep. This topped the time a fourth year had very forwardly propositioned her in the middle of the cafeteria.
"I… that is to say…"
"I'm sure Glynda would be more than willing to speak about such matters," Ozpin spoke up, and for once, Glynda was actually glad the man existed. "But perhaps after we've gone through our preliminary discussions, James?"
"Ah, you're right, old friend. Forgive me, Glynda, I didn't mean to pry."
"No, no, it's fine James." She shook her head. "I… Yes, I'll… speak more on the matter after we've finished."
For perhaps the first time in her life, Glynda Goodwitch hoped that Ozpin wouldn't stop talking. And, as per usual, the man failed her.
"Now that that's out of the way," James cleared his throat, before turning to her with an almost amused expression. "Is there some truth to this rumor that Winter has alerted me to?"
Was James… teasing her? It certainly seemed like it, if the way that his lips curled upwards was anything to go by. It was certainly better than him reacting badly to something like this, reading further into what Winter had seen than need be. At least, this would let her clear up this miscommunication.
"I am not seeing someone at the moment." Glynda clarified, earning a small raising of eyebrows from the man across from her. "I was merely… invited to dinner with a student of mine. She and I are… we were…"
"She is a transfer student from Haven," Ozpin cut in. "One whom joined our ranked at the beginning of last Semester, perhaps a week or two into the term. Glynda had been watching her team on my orders initially, for I suspected they might be agents of some kind."
"I'm assuming given that Glynda has gone to dinner with one of them that you've confirmed they're not?" James said with a chuckle.
"Indeed." Ozpin said, a glint in his eye as he turned back towards Glynda. "But I do believe Glynda ended up putting in more time than I'd ever thought she would. She has been a true paragon of her duties, going above and beyond to help the troubled members of Team Chamomile with their varying traumas."
Glynda really, really didn't want to blush, but once again, what she'd told Ms. Fall rang true once more; she was, frankly, abysmal at taking compliments.
"It was nothing, really." She shook her head. "Anyone would've done the same for them."
"I doubt it." Ironwood cut in this time, smiling her way. "You never give yourself enough credit, Glynda. You are a marvelous teacher, never afraid to put in your time and your effort to help those in need. If everyone in the world were like you, I daresay Salem wouldn't stand a chance."
Gods, these two. Glynda couldn't help the small annoyance that overtook her as she was forced to look away, and the other two chuckled at her embarrassment.
"If we're done making me go scarlet for your amusement," She shook her head. "I believe I have some reports to get back to."
"Ah, ah, ah," Ozpin stopped her mid-walk to the elevator. "Don't think you're getting away so easily, Glynda. We had not finished talking about your contributions to Team CMME."
Ah, damn. She thought she'd been relatively subtle, too.
"…I fail to see what could need to be discussed."
"I feel perhaps you could start with why you went to dinner with the team's leader?" James Ironwood said, and though his voice sounded amused, filled with mirth, there was a… Glynda did not entirely know how to describe it. The smallest of needles hanging at the back of the phrase.
"It… is a rather long story…"
"Ms. Fall has had a rather obvious puppy crush on Glynda for the last few months."
Glynda whirled around, glaring Ozpin's way, and wondering why she'd ever even briefly thought of the man as anything more than a bastard!
"I see." James spoke, nodding his head. "And you… were you simply humoring her by going out with her as you did, to turn her down?"
"That was my plan, indeed," Glynda spoke, glad she could put this to rest before anything else came up. "Ms. Fall had grown rather attached to me, and I must say that in an entirely different way, I had to her. She is a wonderful student, but she is also just that. A student. And thusly, I cannot cross that line."
"Glynda leaves out the part where Cinder is twenty-two years old, and has known her all of three months." Ozpin said, shooting her a knowing look. "And that she was unable to tell Ms. Fall of her rejection at dinner that night on account of one Ms. Schnee's interruption."
Glynda goes purple, both with fury and shame, as her eye twitched in Ozpin's direction. Somehow, the man took the blatant threat on his life in stride, merely laughing as James Ironwood nodded apologetically.
"Had I known sending Winter in my stead to enjoy the evening would interrupt you, I–"
"No, no," Glynda cut him off before he could even speak. "Do not worry about such things. I will find the time to communicate that to Ms. Fall in due time."
She would. She most certainly would.
"I am not going to force you to be true to yourself, but I can ask you to be."
Glynda once again pointedly ignored her brain in that moment, emptying her mind of all thoughts as Ozpin once more looked at her with just the smuggest aura she'd ever seen a man exude.
She would make him pay for this one day. That she knew for a fact.
"I assure you all, however, that there is nothing more to the story than that. Now, if the two of you don't mind, I really do have paperwork that needs attending to."
Ozpin nodded her way, and James said his farewells. Glynda could tell that the two of them would likely remain here, locked away atop the tower, discussing the fate of the world, of the Maiden, and perhaps even the Relic that slumbered somewhere in Beacon's walls – Ozpin had never told her where – but she herself…
She was thinking about far more… inappropriate matters.
"Besides, I have never been blind to the way she looks at you. Neither, I believe, are you any longer."
She hissed as she slammed her head back against the elevator wall behind her, and let the slight pain ground her. She… this all…
It needed to stop.
She had to stop… floundering like some hapless fool. That had never once gotten her anywhere. No, better yet, it had never once gotten anyone anywhere. If she was going to solve this situation, she needed to take the initiative.
She needed to steel herself, she needed to find her nerve, and then, once she'd readied to face Ms. Fall again, then she and her could–
The elevator door opened, and standing a few paces away, very clearly not having intended to see her even in the slightest, stood…
Stood a rather sweaty, clearly agitated Cinder Fall.
Glynda would not judge the woman for the way her face immediately blanched.
…Mostly because hers did the same.
/
Emerald would not lie and say that she had not been nervous for this evening as she walked down one of the major streets of Vale, but at the same time, it was not the most nervous she had ever been in her life, either.
After all, she'd lived on the streets, she'd had to prepare herself to steal from powerful cliques of older children, the kinds who'd hoard anything they could get their hands on, robbing from anyone and everyone they could.
She'd had to avoid the kinds of unsavory people who preyed upon children like her, too. The kinds that were, in Emerald's opinion, far worse monsters than the Grimm. Her semblance had first been unlocked during a particular encounter with one very such person, using it to trick them into running the other way.
So no, this was certainly not the most nervous that Emerald had ever been… but it was probably in the upper echelon.
She had the coat that she had picked out with Coco's help bundled up around her, as well as a cream scarf slung around the entire ensemble to keep herself warm. Honestly, the scarf had been a last-minute addition – and really, it hadn't been to go with the outfit, she'd just been really cold – but since she'd not had the time to go out again, she'd had to borrow one.
Emerald was still a little shocked that Neo had offered one of hers without any fuss. In fact, she'd seemed almost pleased to lend it to her, smiling and waving her off as she left.
…Sometimes it was hard to remember that a sadistic killer lied behind that veneer of total and utter adorability.
…Or maybe it was that that adorable girl lied behind the veneer of a sadistic killer?
…This was making Emerald's head hurt.
"Hey, Em!"
Luckily, she had arrived at her destination.
Coco was not at all a hard woman to spot. She often made efforts to look… well, Emerald could admit that she was perhaps the second most gorgeous looking woman she'd ever seen.
Behind Cinder, of course, but then, that wasn't really her fault.
"Sorry," She panted out as she jogged the remaining distance. "Did I make you wait long?"
"Nah, nah," Coco waved away her concern. "Maybe five minutes, if that. Now, c'mon, let's get out of this cold."
Emerald would drink to that.
The café that the two of them entered into was a rather cosey place. It was, first of all, a heated establishment, which was something that Emerald had never once taken for granted given the whole growing up on the street thing.
The entire place had a brown hue to it, which was mostly due to the wooden walls – which were probably drywall underneath a façade, but even still, that façade looked nice – and the wooden tables that were interspersed among the place. It was, to Emerald's delight, also not a particularly busy establishment, not a chain coffee shop like she'd been worried Coco might choose.
No, this place was a local joint.
"This is my team's normal haunt," Coco said as she led her over to a table by the corner, which Emerald guessed from Coco's immediacy in approaching it was likely her usual spot. "We come here every week or so to study and enjoy the ambience."
"I can see why." Emerald said as she sat down in a chair that Coco pulled out for her, smiling over at the girl as she sat down opposite her. "So, uhm… what exactly do we do now?"
"Hah, right, first date, huh?"
Emerald blushed slightly, looking down in embarrassment.
"Nah, don't worry, it's fine." Coco said with some mirth hanging about her voice. "At the moment, we just chill out, maybe order some drinks and confections, and talk about whatever. That can be ourselves – and given it's a first date, that's usually the idea – but if you wanna' talk about something else, we can."
Emerald nodded her head, before she winced a bit as she thought on Coco's request, simultaneously disguising her little trounce through her mind as looking at the menu below her.
She couldn't exactly… talk much about herself.
She could cherry-pick bits and pieces of it, and present only those, but that fragmented picture would almost be worse than nothing. And it wasn't like she could ask the girl across from her to share her experiences if she wasn't going to say a thing.
Nor, really, could Emerald talk about what she did, or liked to do, given that she didn't know much of the latter, beyond improving in combat classes and keeping up in studies and talking with Ms. Go– other things, but as for the former…
She was a criminal. In fact, she would be one of the world's most wanted terrorists in just…
Emerald nearly swore mentally as she realized how long was left.
Four months? She remarked mentally, almost shocked. Is that all?
Where had the time gone?
"Em? Did you hear me?"
"Bwuh?" Emerald shook her head, looking up to see two people looking at her, Coco, and also a waiter who'd come by their table. "Oh, uhm… no, sorry. What were you saying?"
"You've just been staring at the coffee menu for a while." Coco just smiled. "I was saying that if you don't have any preferences, I can order you something?"
Emerald didn't exactly want that, mostly because she felt it would be… well, kind of pathetic if she couldn't even order for herself. The problem, of course, was that she hadn't been staring at the menu at all. She'd been pondering her life choices.
Which meant she needed to work fast.
She scanned the list as fast as she could, going through radically complicated names that Emerald had no idea how to decipher.
What the hell is a 'Mocha Frappuccino'!?
She felt her cheeks heat up a bit as the seconds ticked by, and Emerald realized that she both hadn't said anything, and was holding the waiter up. She also felt like a complete idiot for effectively sabotaging her own date, and–
Wait, there was a familiar word.
"Uhm… I'll have a 'Mint Espresso'?"
The waiter simply nodded towards her, before he turned away from the table to drop a note off near the front.
"Huh, I suppose you would be a mint person, wouldn't you?"
Emerald turned towards Coco with a confused expression. "Why?"
"I mean… the green hair, no?"
…The joke seemed obvious in hindsight.
"Yeah, I guess."
An awkward silence fell over the both of them then. Emerald, for her part, somehow felt stupider than she had a moment ago.
"How's your team?"
Emerald looked up to see Coco eyeing her with a bit of hesitation, and yet clearly still determined to keep the conversation up. She was grateful, even if that line of conversation, too, was…
"Uhm… y'know, team-like."
Emerald really wished she could just shoot herself and spare herself the agony of having to continue existing having said that.
"I getcha'," Coco nodded, somehow deriving anything from that. "Mine can be… a handful. I'm team leader, I don't know if you knew,"
"I didn't." Emerald said.
"Yeah, it's a uh… unenviable position. Cinder's your leader, yeah? What's she like?"
The change in topic was… actually, it was appreciated. There were very few things she could talk at length about.
Cinder was certainly one of them.
"Ah, Cinder's wonderful!" Emerald said, leaning forward somewhat. "She's been uh… busy a bit this last semester–"
"Hitting on Goodwitch?" Coco asked playfully.
Emerald blushed somewhat as she nodded. "But she's been making a real effort to be more… I guess approachable recently? She told me the other night that I could come to her with any problems that I might have, and… well, I kind of never thought she'd say something like that. That she did means the world to me. No, more than the world to me!"
Emerald looked up just in time to see a small flash of something cross Coco's face, but it was gone before anything else could be said.
Their drinks arrived after that, and the next few minutes were spent testing them out in silence, and, in Coco's case, enjoying the sugar cookie that she'd gotten with her… coffee.
(Coco had given her order before Emerald had done so herself, while she'd been zoned out, but looking back now, the order had been an unholy amalgam of at least ten words that Emerald had never heard in her entire life.)
So, she doesn't put much more work in than to simply say 'Coffee' and call it a day.
"So, what do you like to do for fun?"
The question was one that Emerald had been dreading for the last thirty or so minutes, and it must have been obvious, for Coco laughed as Emerald tried to come up with something to say.
"I suppose I don't really have much of a hobby." She admitted. "I study for classes, and I train myself to grow stronger."
Cinder had told them, after all, that they should improve on their combat skills, and make themselves as normal as possible by doing well in their studies. Mercury may've blown off said orders, but Emerald herself was always paying rapt attention to Cinder's words, and following them to the letter as much as she could.
So, she'd not been going on any trips, she'd not been playing any videogames, and she'd not made any friends outside of their team.
…Which admittedly made her a rather boring person, didn't it?
"I getcha'," Coco said with a nod, though Emerald was starting to grasp that Coco used the phrase 'I getcha'' as a catch-all when there was nothing to say. This did not bode entirely well. "You ranked pretty highly on the last exam, didn't you?"
Now that Emerald thought about it, she was fairly sure she had. Doing quite literally nothing but studying and training – along with occasional visits to Ms. Goodwitch's office – had that effect.
"I think I was in the top ten?" Emerald said with an uncertain chuckle. "I don't know. It didn't seem like that big of a deal."
Coco nodded her head, though there was a little crease forming at the corner of her mouth.
"Yeah, I guess so… uh…" The girl looked genuinely awkward for perhaps the first time since Emerald had ever met her. "Can I ask you something, Emerald?"
"Huh?" That had surprised her. "Uh… sure."
"You're in love with Cinder, aren't you?"
Emerald's eyes widened rather enormously, and she immediately looked away from the woman in front of her, which, even to her, was a rather potent sign of guilt.
"Hah… yeah, I thought so." Coco said, chuckling. "It's funny. I tried to coax you out with little questions every once in a while, but you were just so… guarded. And then the moment I brought up Cinder, you lit up like a Winter Festival Lightshow. And then combined with the way I caught you looking at her the other day when you were in the shop, that… envious look on your face when she said that she needed a dress to go to dinner with someone…"
Emerald didn't really know what to say to that. Didn't really know if there was anything to say to that.
"I uhm…"
"No, it's fine," Coco cut her off with a little laugh, clearly not holding any malice. "I can tell, though… you're not over her, are you?"
Emerald opened her mouth to deny it, to try and say that no, actually, Emerald had been doing better, lately. She'd managed to try and begin to accept that Cinder could never see her the way that Emerald wanted her to, or at least that she simply didn't want to see her that way. And that, maybe, that was okay.
But… then she'd…
"…The same to you. If you ever need someone to talk to… I…"
For the first time in weeks, just as she was maybe, maybe managing to get over her, she'd…
Damnit… Why was Emerald always so easy to…
"…No." She said as she shook her head simultaneously.
"Yeah, I getcha'." Coco said with a little smile, though there was a touch of genuine melancholy hanging about it. "I'm sorry to say, but I don't really want to… I don't know how to–"
"You don't want to go out with someone who's clearly not looking your way?"
It was Coco's turn to go wide-eyed, though the girl was shocked for far less time than Emerald had been.
"…Yeah."
Emerald… she could understand that. She really could.
She couldn't bear to think of what it'd be like to go out with Cinder, to finally earn a chance to be with the woman, and yet the entire time they were out, the woman only ever made awkward small talk.
…and then if Emerald brought up Glynda Goodwitch, suddenly…
"I'm sorry Coco," Emerald said, and she genuinely felt it. "I wish I–"
"No, don't be." Coco said, reaching across the table and placing a hand on her arm. "Seriously, it's fine. Dates aren't just a thing you go on with someone you're totally committed to. They're to test compatibility, too. Whether or not you want to go on a second date with someone. So maybe, as things are right now, we don't work as a couple," Coco said, before she held out her hand. "But I think I'd still like to be your friend, if you'll have me."
Emerald… she just sat there for a moment. Entirely blown away.
The woman sat in front of her… she really was incredible. That was the only thing Emerald could think as she reached across, and linked their hands together.
"I…"
Emerald smiled.
"Yeah. I'd like that."
"Hah. Good." Coco said, the usual smile full of sass and bravado making its first appearance since the start of the night. "In that case, you're cordially invited to our study sessions from now on. We come here every– okay, well, most Friday's."
Emerald chuckled as she nodded her head. "That sounds nice. If I have the time, I'll go."
"I'm glad." Coco looked across the table, and then back up at Emerald. "Oh, are you done?"
"Huh?" Emerald looked down, and saw that she had, indeed, finished off her drink. "Well, it seems so."
"Alright, if you don't mind, I'm gonna' head out." Coco said, before she reached down for her bag and slung it around her shoulder. "I've got a leadership seminar with Goodwitch tomorrow that's bright and early, so I wanna' make sure I get some good sleep. Plus, I've still gotta' do some planning for our big mission comin' up. We've got Port, of all people, as our assistant instructor, ugh, can you believe it?"
Emerald nodded, wondering idly if the woman's convenient excuse was true or not, or just a way to give them both the space they needed. Either way, Emerald had no complaints. "I'll see you, then."
"Likewise."
And then Coco was gone, sashaying her way out the doors of the cosey little establishment she'd taken the two of them two.
And Emerald was left alone with her thoughts.
…
She decided she'd rather be alone with her thoughts and walking back to the airbuses, because frankly, she wasn't sure she could be alone with her thoughts for very long without melting into a shame-filled puddle.
So, she stood up, made her way to the door, and pushed it open.
And maybe, in her hurry to get back to the landing pads, in her hurry to try and forget how much of an idiot she'd been that evening, she wasn't quite paying enough attention to her surroundings.
For she barreled right into someone.
Now, Emerald had run into people before, of course she had. By nature of being human, one would, occasionally, do something dumb. Usually, however, as a trained combatant, boasting a body made purely of muscle, and sprouting aura, no less, it was the person on the other end who was knocked back.
Not so this time, as Emerald found herself flat on her ass, and swearing at the fact as the person opposite her stood ramrod straight, as if she hadn't even noticed that Emerald had bumped into her at all.
"My deepest apologies!" the girl said as she leaned down, and offered Emerald a hand to get up. "I am terribly sorry to have knocked you over."
Emerald just kind of nodded along, not really all there, and placed her hand in the opposing person's.
She was wrenched to her feet in the following moments, and Emerald felt like her right arm just might have been dislocated as she rubbed it, and looked at the woman who'd practically assaulted her.
…or girl, it seemed. Quite a young girl, maybe younger than her.
"Uhm…" Emerald murmured under her breath. "Who are…"
"Ah, my deepest apologies for not introducing myself!"
Suddenly, the girl in front of her took what looked to be a practiced stance, with one hand raised in salute, and the other on her hip, looking like a character straight out of one of those animated shows that Neo liked watching.
"Salutations," The redhead spoke, practically beaming at her as if she hadn't just bowled her over.
"My name is Penny!"
End Chapter 22
I fucking love Penny.
That's it. That's all.
