Penny landed in the lamplit street just outside her father's workshop and tapped lightly on the door. She could hear the clicks of her father's chair as he walked to the door, opened it, and she was greeted with a grin that held immense love and softness in it upon seeing his daughter. "Darling! You made it early, welcome back home." His smile only grew as Penny leaned forwards on her tiptoes and wrapped her arms around his neck, hugging him gently so as not to hurt, but giving enough pressure so he felt the love she had for him. His chair backed up to let her enter, and she followed him into the office workspace he kept on Mantle, feeling the same warmth and homeliness she always did. The old bookshelves and yellowed sketched drawings filled the walls, a stark difference to the tech heavy world of Atlas above, and the workbench and computer that sat on his wooden desk.
She sat up on the workbench, her legs swinging slightly below her as Pietro trotted around the workspace, turning various holo screens on and grabbing a thick black cable. Penny undid her collar and slipped it off her neck, bending her head forward slightly. Once behind her, Pietro gently pressed his finger to a circular section on the back of his daughter's neck and there was a very faint hiss as the circular panel broke into four sections and slid away, leaving a socket for the cable to be plugged into. When he plugged it in Penny's eyes fluttered rapidly and the holo screens around them flickered into life, displaying various read outs.
Pietro let his eyes roam over them all, drinking the various bits of information in. Noticing a folder saved in Penny's memory bank he adjusted his glasses and moved his chair closer for a better look. "Penny my dear, what's this folder here?" He indicated the folder and tapped on the screen opening it to reveal a large collection of photos and a few videos. His eyes roamed across them all, before he tapped on one of the videos. Instantly the sound of laughter filled the air, the video showing two girls nearly doubled over in laughter, and it was quite a shaky video as it was clear some of the laughter was coming from the person who had recorded the video. Pietro turned his chair to look at Penny, who had slightly averted her eyes, a faint pink slowly appearing on her cheeks behind the freckles. "Penny?" A sense of wonder was creeping into his voice, his mind whirling with hints and possibilities that he dared not voice.
"Yes Father?" Penny looked up and met his eyes, the blush having vanished, leaving Pietro almost doubting he'd seen it.
"Who are these two girls? This entire folder is full of photos of them."
"They are my two friends! Friend Ruby and Friend Weiss! I am very fond of them both. I really like seeing them smile so I made sure to save many images of them in my memory bank." She nodded at the end of it, and then tilted her head slightly. "Did…did I do something wrong?"
Pietro chuckled deeply, "No my dear, no, you've done nothing wrong at all." His thoughts raced faster than ever before. "Do you enjoy spending time with them? There's several different dates on these photos."
Penny's voice was exuberant as she replied, "Oh yes Father! It's been the highlight of my stay in Beacon so far. Oh! I promised I would message them when I arrived to let them know I was safe."
Pietro chuckled, "You can do that when we sit down in a little bit, but onto other matters, how have you been feeling? Any issues at all?"
"No, everything has been working perfectly Father." Penny smiled at him and Pietro returned it. Finishing up the check he removed the cable and turned the majority of the holo screens off, holding his hand out as he waited for Penny to finishing doing her collar back up. She took his hand and hopped off the table, holding it as they headed to the more comfortable lounge further into the building. Penny headed towards the small kitchenette and made a large, scaldingly hot drink of tea for her father, as well as a small cup of coffee for herself. Placing the drinks on the little table that stood between the sofa and Pietro's chair, she sat down on the sofa and took a sip of her coffee.
Pietro raised an eyebrow slightly at the drink, making another mental note to add to the several new revelations he had learnt about his daughter so far that evening. Penny pulled her scroll out and opened the little group chat she had with Ruby and Weiss.
Pennster: Hello Friends! I have made it safely to my Father's workshop.
Ruby's reply, like the girl herself, was almost instant.
Speedy: PENNY!
Speedy: hi :)
Weissicle: Hello Penny, I'm glad to hear you made it back to Atlas safely. How was the flight?
Pennster: The flight was quite long but I enjoyed looking out of the windows. I like seeing the clouds from above.
Speedy: are we still good to have that video call? i wanna see your bedroom!
Weissicle: Ruby don't be rude! Let Penny at least spend some time with her Father.
Speedy: sorry Penny :(
Pennster: I was going to ask to watch a movie with him, but we can video call tomorrow evening! I would like that very much!
Ruby: ok will do! enjoy being with your dad tonight and say hi from us!
Weissicle: Yes, enjoy the evening with your family, I'll make sure Ruby actually does her homework…
Speedy: Weiss noooooooo…
Speedy: hehe bye Penny!
Pennster: Thank you Friends!
Putting her scroll away Penny saw her father observing her with another of his soft smiles, but it didn't reach his eyes. "Father?"
"It's good to see you've made friends my dear, I could see how they made you smile even in that short time just now. I…I'm just a bit worried about how they'll react if they find out about you. I don't want you to get hurt." His voice was soft and full of love and care.
Penny wrapped both her hands around one of his, squeezing ever so gently so as to not hurt him. "I know you don't Father, but you don't have to worry!" Penny's smile was very wide, "Ruby and Weiss would never hurt me."
"I believe you think so little one, but some people don't react well to things being hidden from them. Especially something this big." He patted Penny's hand comfortingly before turning to the large screen on the wall, "Now, what about this movie you said you wanted to watch with me? Pinocchio?"
By the end of the movie Penny could see Pietro's eyes were starting to flag a little, and so she helped him through to his bedroom, kissed him goodnight on the cheek, and let him get himself ready for bed with the various robotic hoists he'd developed. Penny went through to her little room and lay down on the bed, staring at the ceiling for a few minutes before bringing a memory of Ruby and Weiss smiling at her, and letting herself turn to sleep.
The next evening, after being introduced to her partner for the tournament, Ciel Soleil, someone she found interesting from the beret and obsession with timeliness, as well as her other two teammates, she headed back to Pietro's workshop. She had to jump to one side as a little boy came sprinting out whooping with joy, a freshly made prosthetic leg shining in the evening glow, his father following with tears in his eyes. She smiled at her father and gave him a quick hug, Pietro had always wanted to help those he could, and regularly made simple prosthetics for those in Mantle who had need.
After a quick chat with him about their respective days as he ate his dinner, Penny headed back to her little bedroom so she could video call Ruby and Weiss.
"Penny! Hi, it's so good to see you!" Ruby was grinning and waving madly.
"Good evening Penny." Whilst Weiss' greeting wasn't as enthusiastic as Ruby's was, the soft smile she had betrayed her happiness at seeing their friend.
"Sal-u-tations Friends! I'm very happy to see you both." Penny had set her scroll up on her little desk on one side of the room so that the other two could see into the bedroom.
"We're really happy to see you too! Weiss was getting a little angsty waiting for the call."
"W-W-what! No, I wasn't!" A pink blush came onto Weiss' cheeks as she denied it, and gave Ruby a quick shove on the shoulder, "You were the one bouncing up and down asking if we could call her! Yang and Blake got annoyed with how excited you were and went to go spar whilst we called."
Ruby giggled and rubbed the back of her neck, "Yeah, I might have been pretty excited, but Weiss was too!"
"Tch." Weiss crossed her arms and turned away from Ruby slightly, but the pink shade didn't fade.
"Don't feel embarrassed to admit it Weiss, I was excited to have a video call with the both of you too!" Penny's wide smile made Weiss and Ruby both give each other a quick glance before smiling back at Penny. "Oh! I promised to show you my room. It's not very decorated, as I spend most of my time in Atlas at the academy, but this is where I go to sleep when I stay with my Father in Mantle." Moving out of the way, she showed the other two the sparsely decorated room, a window to one side, a single bed with a bedside table, desk and a chair, and a full bookcase near the door.
What Penny had forgotten to move, and that the three girls all noticed at the same time, was a long cable that was resting on the bedside table, one that was clearly not for charging anything small.
"What's that cable for?" Weiss' voice was full of suspicion and Penny started to stammer but Weiss cut her off, "Penny what aren't you telling us? There's something strange going on."
"What? No! There's nothing strange going on, I'm sure the cable is just for charging something…like her weapon! Yeah, it's for charging her weapon, right Penny?" Ruby's voice was unsure, and a little bit panicked as well.
"No, no it's not. You know what it is as well don't you?" Weiss interjected and her eyes narrowed as she stared daggers at Ruby.
"Umm…err…" Ruby glanced around quickly and looked pleadingly at Penny for help.
Penny looked at Weiss who was alternating her glares between Ruby and Penny, "Fine. Don't tell me then, but if you're going to keep secrets from me and exclude me, then don't bother to include me in anything at all from now on." Weiss sighed and looked sadly at Ruby, and the betrayal could be heard in her soft voice, "I'm disappointed in you, especially after what happened with Blake." She got up and started to move but Penny called out to her.
"Weiss! Please wait. It's not Ruby, it's me." Weiss stopped and turned to look at Penny.
Penny looked at Ruby who nodded, "You can trust her."
"Umm, I can explain, but you need to promise that you're my friend ok? I need you to promise that you're my friend and that won't change!" The desperation could be heard in Penny's voice.
"I promise I'm your friend Penny. Please just tell me what's going on, I don't understand."
"I'll tell you, but you can't tell anyone okay? Promise you won't tell anyone? It has to be kept a secret!"
"I promise."
Penny closed her eyes and took a deep breath. She might not have needed to breathe, but she'd seen people do it before saying something important so hoped it might help with her. "I'm…I'm…I'm not a real girl. I'm a synthetic android with an aura." Penny looked down, too scared to look at Weiss directly for what she might see on the other girl's face.
"You're an android with an aura?" Penny could hear that Weiss found it very strange and she couldn't blame her. "Ok. And that changes things how?"
Penny looked up, highly confused, "What do you mean?"
"So, you're an android with an aura, why does that change anything? You feel things, don't you?" Weiss waited for Penny to nod slowly in reply before continuing, "Then you're still a person as far as I'm concerned. You're not like the Atlas robots in the military, they don't have individual thoughts or feelings. You do. So as far as I'm concerned, you're still a person, and you're still my friend."
"Oh, Weiss that's wonderful! I knew you were a good person! You two are the best friends I could ever hope for!"
Ruby and Weiss both blushed a little at the compliment, and Weiss replied to Penny, "I take it you also made Ruby promise not to tell anyone either," She turned to her partner, "Which is why you didn't tell me?"
Ruby chuckled nervously, "Yeah, I didn't want to break my promise to her, but I'm glad you know now!"
The three talked for a while longer before Ruby tried and failed to hide a particularly large yawn, and they said goodbye to Penny. Weiss was just climbing into her bed when her scroll lit up with a message just to her from Penny.
Penny: Thank you for being so accepting Weiss, I was really worried that you'd react badly, I really like you and Ruby and want to keep being your friend.
Weiss: Like I said Penny, you're still a person to me, and I know that dolt would think the exact same as me. Don't worry about what we think, you're fine just the way you are.