Ruby hung her head in defeat at the screen displaying a mocking GAME OVER to her. Yang cheered for herself waving her game controller in the air triumphantly. "Hah! Take that you dumb ninja!" she said competitively towards the screen showing Ruby's dead avatar lying bleeding on the ground. "Who's the champ!?"
Penny watched with amusement as everyone in the room groaned at her gloating. So far just about everyone had been defeated by the blonde brawer as her winning streak continued. Tonight was girl's night, at least it was after being officially announced earlier this morning when Team RWBY realized the recent schedule had given most of them a decent chunk of time off together before bedtime and when her next shift of patrols would begin, currently she was recharging with a cable in her back watching Team RWBY and Neon play video games and scarf down pizza.
"Penny!" Ruby cried in exaggerated agony, "avenge me!"
She looked at her friend as she made a far bigger deal about this simple game than seemed necessary. Yang grinned from year to ear as she looked over the room at her defeated foes. "You wanna take me on next?" she asked her.
"Please Penny!" Ruby cried dramatically.
She nodded figuring there was little chance they would let her decline their offer. She took the controller from Ruby and picked her character, a samurai with a naginata. She chose the avatar because the listed statistics seemed to make it the most balanced of all her options.
"I'll give you a minute to get familiar with the controls and look over your combos," Yang said emanating confidence that she would be victorious once more, "let no one say that I am not merciful."
It took her only several seconds to become familiar with the controls and the listed combo moves had been memorized with only a glance.
"Ready! Fight!" The game told them starting off the round.
Penny immediately attacked using a combo attack that sent a flurry of thrusts with the nakinata striking Yang's warrior monk and knocking down a quarter of her health bar. Yang cursed in surprise and tried to retreat from the longer reach of the weapon blocking a few attacks but as she tried getting close Penny did another combo move sweeping her weapon up and knocking Yang's avatar into the air before delivering another series of rapid thrusts up to her airborne character. The monk landed and tried to attack once but Penny was ready with a special finishing move, the game cut to a cinematic of her samurai flourishing their weapon before decapitating the monk with a shower of blood. The decapitated head was in the air and her Samurai thrust the naginata out showering the head on the blade and holding it up in triumph.
"Total victory!" the game announced to everyone that looked on at Penny's effortless victory.
"What the fuck!" Yang said, throwing down her controller as Penny's samurai posed with her monk's head on the spear taunting the blonde who looked at it with red eyes.
"Penny! You avenged us!" Ruby cried, throwing her arms around her as she cheered. "Penny is our avenger!"
Weiss rolled her eyes as she looked up from her scroll, she had only bothered to play at the instance of the rest of her team who had only played because Ruby begged them to help her defeat her sister, Blake had only given a token effort herself. Neon had almost come close but that was only because she tried annoying Yang while they played, but Penny had effortlessly defeated her.
"It was nothing really," Penny assured her friend as she hugged her, "I am simply faster and have better reflexes than Yang does."
The blonde frowned at her, "I know you don't intend to be mean, putting it like that," Yang said giving the android a dangerous look, "so I'm going to let that pass."
"I only meant that I possessed the fundamental skills to win," she explained, "It was not intended to be insulting."
"So who's challenging the machine next?" Yang asked, "I wanna see someone else get pummeled!"
"Oh no!" Neon said with a giggle, "we're not suicidal Xiao Long, we're just happy your reign of terror is over, I'm happy to let Penny be our benevolent video game dictator."
The other girls laughed and Penny set the controller down, "I don't need to keep playing," she told them.
"Are you alright Penny?" Ruby asked her, "You've been pretty quiet all night."
"She probably misses her boyfriend," Yang teased her.
Weiss looked from her scroll giving Yang a little glare before looking at Penny, "how are things going with you and Jaune?" she asked her.
"Things are… alright," she told them.
"Just alright?" Neon asked her.
"Well… Yang is right, I do miss him," she admitted to them, "our conflicting schedules have made things difficult."
Neon smiled a bit, "That's not surprising," she told her, "when I started dating my last boyfriend there never seemed to be enough time, and that was without having constant border guard duty and other stuff."
Blake nodded, "I knew you two where having trouble balancing your duties, but is everything else going well at least? Was your date good at least?"
Yang turned and set her attention towards Penny sitting crossed legged on the floor. "Yeah I was wanting to get some details on your first official date, Nora says he spent the whole night with you, she's sure two two of you have been getting busy this whole time."
"No, unfortunately it was nothing like that," Penny told them, wanting to clarify Nora's baseless accusations.
"Unfortunately?" Neon with evident amusement in her voice.
Penny froze. Had she really let that slip? She felt all eyes affix themselves on her while she considered her next words.
"Well I uh… we just kissed is all," she tried to explain to them, "then we just cuddled as he went to sleep."
"But you wanted more than that?" Blake asked her respectfully, having set her book down to give her her full attention.
"I am simply excited to experience more," she explained to them, it seemed there was no real reason to deny it. "I know we only just started dating and I feel this makes me greedy because everything so far has been wonderful, but I know there is more to experience and it seems so amazing."
Neon gave her a warming smile, she stood up and stepped forward sitting down next to her and setting a hand on her shoulder. "It is amazing Penny," she told her, "but you also don't want to rush into these kinds of things."
Penny nodded, "I know, but when is it the right time for… that kind of thing?" She asked her.
"There isn't really an exact right time," Neon explained to her, "people just move at different speeds ya know?"
Penny frowned, "I think I understand," she admitted.
Weiss along with the rest of Team RWBY were listening intently clearly interested in the particular subject matter. Her usually porcelain white face was red with clear embarrassment. "So Penny, does this mean you can uh…" she started awkwardly clearly remembering the last time they had talked about this particular topic.
She nodded to Weiss, "yes, I talked to my father and it is in fact possible for me to have a normal physical relationship," she answered.
"I bet that was super awkward to bring up to him," Yang said with a heavy sigh, "I would probably kill myself before asking my dad anything about that."
"It was… not as bad as I feared," Penny told them, "he was not judgemental or anything like that, he was actually just as embarrassed as me which helped a little."
Ruby nodded looking just at red as Weiss, "Well it is uh… good at least that you had that conversation," she said, "it is good that you got that cleared up."
Penny nodded in agreement, even though Ruby and Weiss were both embarrassed to talk about this she wanted to. She did not know who else she could discuss this with, her father would be embarrassing for them both, Winter was perhaps a possibility but she was busy and she had no idea what kind of advice she would get from her.
"So, how should I go about this? I know this might not happen right away but I would at least like to know that Jaune and I are heading in that direction, making progress at least." She explained deciding that she didn't care if Weiss and Ruby were embarrassed, when they got boyfriends she would endure any embarrassment to help them.
"Well for one you should talk to Jaune about that," Neon told her, "Take it from me it's usually best to make your intentions clear with your boyfriend."
"He could very well be just as eager for this as you are," Blake told her, "I wouldn't be surprised if Jaune was also embarrassed to bring it up with you."
Yang chuckled, "yeah, I mean he is a guy after all, I bet he can't wait to get ya naked Penny."
"Maybe," Neon agreed, "I never got the vibe that he was over eager for anything when we went on that date," she explained, "don't get me wrong I'm sure he's a red blooded guy with desires but he didn't even try kissing me when we went out and he was a little too much of a gentleman on the dance floor with me. I think he's the type of guy who likes to take things slow. But who knows? He might wanna speed things up if he knows you wanna get serious like that."
Penny nodded, thankfully Neon seemed to be experienced in this and had some wisdom to share with her. She was glad things had turned out the way they had with her.
"If I may be so bold," Blake said, "taking it slow doesn't thhave to be an all or nothing affair," she suggested to her, "Jaune might not feel comfortable going all the way with you right now but it's not like you two can't take your time and experiment together."
Yang giggled immaturely, "Blake means hand stuff," she said making a crude gesture with her prosthetic hand. Weiss and Ruby both blanched at that turning even redder as they only listened with nothing to contribute.
Blake rolled her eyes at her partner, "among other things," she said with evident annoyance in her voice. "What I simply mean is that there's steps to this kind of thing, there's no need to race up them, you're new to this and I assume that Jaune is too, figure things out as you go on ahead."
"She's right," Neon said, "it usually has been better like that in my experience, a little experimentation at first really can go a long way, you get to find out what he's into and and he gets to know what you like so when you do finally get to the rest of it it's all that much better." Neon giggled a little, "think of it as training."
Weiss cleared her throat to speak. "Well I am happy we could get that cleared up for you Penny," she said awkwardly clearly bothered with the subject matter.
"You and your partner should be taking notes," Neon teased, "who knows you two might need them before you know it."
Ruby fidgeted awkwardly at that, "uh no, I uh don't…"
"Nah," Yang interrupted, "if any guy is gonna try putting their mitts on my little sister they're gonna answer to me first," she said, setting her fist in her palm intimidatingly.
"Yang I don't need you to protect me!" Ruby whined.
"Yes you do!" Yang told her, "anyone that dares to try touching you needs to know that things will get ugly if they don't mind their manners."
Ruby sighed at that, "you mean you wanna scare away any boy who'll go out with me," she said.
"If a guy can't handle a few idle threats then he's too weak to date my little sister," Yang said confidently.
Ruby glowered at that, "Thanks a lot sis," she grumbled, "I'll never get a boyfriend like that."
Yang laughed and moved next to her sister taking her roughly in one arm to muss up her hair, "Sure ya will Ruby, I'm just gonna make sure it's the right guy who's brave enough to risk a couple of broken legs should he ever make you cry."
Ruby sighed, "can we just go back to Penny," she suggested to everyone, "she's the one with a boyfriend after all."
Neon nodded, "She has a point," she said looking back to the copper haired android. "Where did you two go for your last date?" she asked her.
"First we had dinner," Penny explained to them, "he went to a restaurant I recommended, I was curious about and he described the food to me. Then we went to the mall and he helped me shop for some clothes and bought me some things."
"Any swimsuits or lingerie?" Neon asked her.
"No," Penny said, "I do not swim."
Neon giggled, "that's not the point," she said, "then what?"
"We went back here to one of the rec rooms and watched a movie, he fell asleep and we moved to my room to cuddle," she told them omitting the part when Jaune had a nightmare waking up, he hadn't exactly told her that his nightmare was a secret but it nonetheless seemed like something that he would prefer to keep private.
Neon nodded, "A pretty good first date," she complimented, "it certainly ended better than the one I had with Jaune, but if you really want things to progress with Jaune like that I'd suggest ending your night somewhere other than here at the academy."
"What do you mean?" Penny asked unsure what that had to do with anything.
"This isn't exactly a very romantic place," she explained motioning around to the bland white walls that surrounded them. "Besides these dorm rooms have paper thin walls and your's isn't very spacious, maybe you should rent a room or something."
"Oh that'd be perfect," Yang said, "I can it now, you and Jaune, a nice romantic hotel suite to yourselves," she wagged her eyebrows suggestively towards Penny, "what more could a guy ask for."
"That could work," Neon agreed, "if you wanna cough up the lien to get a hotel room for you and Jaune, though it probably would be the best way to set the mood. You could order room service, have a shower, watch pay per view."
Yang giggled, "yeah you two can watch porn together," she said, earning a pillow to the face, this time to Penny's surprise it was Blake who had assaulted the boisterous blonde with one of the couches throw pillows silencing her.
"The point is Penny, it might be good for Jaune to have a change of scenery," she explained as Yang glared at her, "get some private time where you don't have to worry about anything getting in the way, you two can relax, be yourselves and see what happens."
The idea was certainly enticing, spending money on a hotel was no problem for her, she earned lien the same as anyone else did as a huntress and she hardly ever spent it. Assuring that nothing would get in the ways was next to impossible, Ironwood had made it very clear that she was still supposed to be on call no matter what she was doing on their date and she considered herself lucky that nothing had happened during their first date.
Even so this seemed like a wonderful idea to her. As much fun as they had getting dinner and going to the mall the simple idea of spending time alone in a room just to see what happened seemed ideal to her. Maybe it wasn't a night on the town but the possibility of spending hours entwined in Jaune's arms was inviting, as Neon suggested they could have anything they needed brought to them, if nothing else they could have another movie night in their room.
"I think that is a good idea," Penny said, "maybe I will plan that for our first date."
Neon grinned snisterly and stood up taking Penny's hand. "Come on! Let's get out of here and go shopping!"
"Shopping?" Penny asked, "What for?"
"Lingerie," Neon told her, "if you're planning on having a lust filled night with Jaune we need to make sure you're properly armed," she explained pulling her up and towards the door with surprising strength.
Jaune opened his scroll, the bright white light flooded the dark space of the bullhead as they flew back towards Atlas. His fingers danced across the controls to open his contacts and moved down his list until he found Penny's number and ordered his device to call her. It only rang once, she always answered quickly like that.
"Hey honey," he greeted her, putting his scroll up to his ear.
"Hello Jaune, how was border duty?" she asked him.
"Dull as usual," he answered her, "how's girls night going?"
"It is going well, we are currently shopping in Mantle," she explained.
"Oh," he said feeling a little disappointed, "I was hoping to stop by and give you a kiss goodnight," he told her.
"Sorry, Neon kind of dragged me and everyone else here," she explained to him, "maybe I can stop by your room if you're still awake."
"That's alright I'll be asleep by then," he explained to her, "but uh, I was hoping to maybe talk to you about our next date," he explained to her, "I have a night off next Friday and I saw that the sequel to Midnight Queen was gonna be in theaters and I figured you might wanna go see it since you liked the original so much."
"That sounds… that sounds very nice Jaune," she told him.
"Do you think you can get the night clear?" he asked.
"I might," she told him, "I'll put forth another request to spend the night on call."
"Great," he said, "you could maybe pick out dinner again for that night."
"Jaune," She said tentatively, "how would you like to get a hotel room for the night?"
Hearing that his mind went completely blank for a second processing her words. Did she really just say that? "A hotel room?" he asked her, "what would we do in a hotel room?"
"Whatever we wanted to," she explained to him, "I just want to have a romantic night alone together."
That sounded innocent enough to him but they could do that any time together in Penny's dorm together. She did know why most couples get hotel rooms, didn't she? "Is uh… is that all you want?"
"We can talk about that later," she said a little nervously, "maybe we can just… see what happens."
Oh, so it wasn't just about cuddling together on a bed. He suddenly felt lightheaded as his mind swam with the sudden implications. "Uh yeah," he said scratching the back of his head, "we should talk about that."
"Yeah we should," she agreed, "I have to go now, we will talk later."
"Ok, goodnight honey," he said.
"Goodnight Jaune," she said.
They hung up and Jaune pocketed his scroll. The interior of the bullhead was dark once more and Jaune looked out the window thinking about her proposal. Did she really want to be intimate with him? So soon? They had only just gotten together, and they had only just had their first date.
Didn't these kinds of things usually take longer? He had heard other guys saying they should never try anything like that until the third date. But then again Penny and him were moving at a different speed entirely.
"So fearless leader, do you got another hot date lined up?" Nora asked him sitting across the bullhead.
"Uh yeah," Jaune said, realizing that she was more on the mark than she probably realized.
Penny ended the call from her fitting room. Part of her felt a little relieved and simultaneously disappointed that Jaune hadn't tried for a video call as she sat in the fitting room with a rather lacy set of black underwear. She idly wondered if he had tried for a video call if she would have confidently tried showing off to him to make her intentions for their next date clear? Or would she have kept everything at eye level out of embarrassment?
"Who are you talking to in there?" Neon asked her from outside the curtain.
"Jaune called," she told her, "he wanted to see how I was enjoying girl's night and share an idea for our next date."
"Oh yeah?" Neon asked from outside.
"Yes, and uh… I told him I wanted to get a hotel room," She admitted stepping out of the changing room. Neon was there too having also decided to shop for some alluring undergarments of her own, currently she was in a matching cherry red set.
"What did he say?" she asked her.
"He uh… he didn't say now and I suggested we should talk," she told her.
Neon grinned sinfully at that, "alright girl, first step is down, we'll get you ready for the big night."
"There is not much to do," Penny explained to her, "even if I can get that night off I will still be on call and can only wear my combat clothes."
"No rules on what goes under your combat clothes though right?" Neon asked her.
"I suppose not," Penny said.
"Alright then, then just leave it to me," Neon said, "We'll give Jaune every reason to look past your combat clothes," she said looking Penny up and down as she stood in nothing other than the handpicked bra and panties. "And I think we found a good start."
Hope everyone enjoyed this weeks chapter. Penny having her girl's night was supposed to be a part of last week's chapter but as you can see it got pretty big and I didn't have enough time to finish it for last week's chapter. As usual please review and share your thoughts and opinions with me. As usual I would like to thank MidKnightMoonglow99, MajorBrony95, Firefly25 and DrknssRules1. See you all next week.