Just a little nuts and dolts inspired by something I saw on tumblr. I'm aware that this is probably unrealistic, but I wanted to give my girls a chance to be happy for once. Spoilers for the end of episode 7 of volume 8 ahead. Enjoy!
Less than a second passes between Penny collapsing and Ruby appearing at her side, materializing in a cloud of rose petals. She doesn't even remember activating her semblance—but that doesn't matter.
"C'mon, Penny," she pleads, tapping gently at the other girl's face to try to wake her up. Penny doesn't stir. She remains utterly still, eyes shut, faint sparks of electricity arcing off her body. There are burns on her face, hands, and dress, and green fluid continues to drip off her body, forming a puddle in the dirt at the bottom of the crater. It's only been a couple of hours since she'd sent Penny to Amity to do the broadcast, where she was supposed to be safe.
What happened?
"Y'know I promised that we'd see each other again soon, but I didn't think that it'd be like this," Ruby says, choking back a sob. Her little attempt at humor does nothing to stop the tears gathering in her eyes. She scrubs at her face with her sleeve. "Please, don't do this to me again. I've already lost you once."
Penny doesn't respond. Behind her, Ruby can hear Blake and Weiss making their way down into the crater to join her. She ignores them, taking Penny's gloved hand in her own. "You were supposed to be safe there. You deserve to be safe, after everything. I wanted to protect you. Please, just wake up."
She finds herself momentarily blinded by a flash of white. When the light fades, Ruby's eyes are stinging, but she ignores the pain in favor of checking on Penny. Her burns are gone, and the electricity crackling off her has vanished. She's still missing a glove, and her clothes are stained with smears of green, but the green liquid has stopped trickling off her body into the puddle below.
"What just happened?" asks Weiss.
As Ruby watches in disbelief, Penny's eyes flutter open. Brilliant green drifts up to meet silver. "Ruby?" Penny asks softly, sounding dazed. "Is that really you?"
"It's me, Penny. It's Ruby." She smiles, ignoring the tears trailing down her cheeks. "Penny, what happened? Are you okay?"
"I wasn't sure I would ever see you again," Penny whispers.
Something in Ruby's chest twists painfully. Before she can think about what she's doing, she finds herself leaning down until her face brushes Penny's. The other girl makes a small noise of surprise. Her lips are soft against Ruby's, and after a moment she eagerly returns the kiss.
They stay like that for a long moment, until Ruby hears Blake clear her throat. Blushing, she pulls back. "As happy as I am for you two, we should probably go back inside," Blake says.
If possible, Ruby blushes even further. "Uh, right, of course," she stutters. "That's a good idea. Penny, can you walk?"
Penny nods. "I'm not sure how you did it, Ruby, but all of my systems are currently operational."
"Yeah, what was that?" Weiss asks.
Ruby reaches down to help Penny to her feet and shrugs nervously. "I'm not sure. I've never done anything like that before."
Once they've climbed out of the crater, Penny turns to face Ruby. "Thank you, Ruby. For fixing me, and, you know." Her cheeks are slightly pink; Ruby didn't realize she could blush.
"Was that okay? The kiss, I mean. I know I should have asked first, I just—"
"Ruby." Penny cuts her off with a hand on her arm. "I loved it. I love you. When I was falling down from Amity, all I could think about was seeing your face one last time. It's how I found my way here."
Ruby has lost count of how many times she's tried to blink away her tears today. "I love you too," she murmurs, too overwhelmed with emotion to try to say anything else.
There's a loud crash behind them.
"I hate to break up the moment, but we've got company!" Weiss shouts. Sure enough, there's a smoking hole in the fence surrounding the courtyard. Hovering above the wreckage is none other than Cinder Fall.
As the four of them watch, the strangest-looking Grimm that any of them have ever seen steps through the gap in the wall. Seated on its back is the scientist who works for Salem—Watts. Apparently, he's not in Ironwood's custody anymore.
Before Ruby can even blink, Floating Array is hovering at Penny's back, ready for action.
"Penny," Ruby says hesitantly. "Maybe you should stay back? You've already been through so much today. I don't want to lose you again."
"I don't want to lose you either. But Ruby, I promise that I am combat ready thanks to your repairs," Penny reassures her. "Besides, Cinder has the powers of the Fall Maiden. You need me for this."
Before Ruby can respond, she's interrupted by Cinder. "Watts! Do it now!"
Ruby whips her head around to stare at the scientist. He's messing with something he's holding—Penny's missing sword! Her mind racing, Ruby braces herself for something awful to happen, maybe for Penny to collapse, or attack her.
She blinks in surprise when nothing changes. Penny, hovering by her side, seems completely unaffected.
"What?" Cinder roars in fury.
"The hack isn't going through," Watts says, staring at the sword in his hands with disbelief. "That shouldn't be possible! It worked just fine before." The strange Grimm that he's sitting on shifts impatiently.
The four of them glance at the arguing pair, then at each other. Well, they're not going to get a better opening than that.
Cinder summons a fireball in her hand, finally turning back to face her enemies—just in time to see the four girls charge her, weapons drawn.
She's going down.
Thank you for reading! Please leave a review if you liked it.
I saw someone on tumblr talking about Ruby healing Penny with her silver eye powers and just had to write a fic for it.