"Need… sleep… now" groaned Weiss as she walked to her temporary accommodations.
"If anyone snores tonight I cannot be held responsible for my actions." Echoed Blake.
"I don't think I'll even wake up tomorrow." Yang yawned as she opened the flap to their tent. She froze, unable to believe her eyes. Weiss poked her head to the side to see what the hold up was. Blake put her head on the other side and three stared at their leader embracing the winter maiden in a deep sleep.
"I call dibs on not waking them." Said Yang.
"Me too." said Blake
"Hey no fair."
"Sorry Weiss rules are rules. Besides she's your partner."
"Yeah yeah just let me through."
Weiss carefully walked up to the sleeping beauties and shook Ruby's shoulder.
"Ruby… Ruby… Get up, it's your turn to take watch."
"Ruby slowly faded into consciousness, feeling pressure on her chest."
"What... no don't sit on me Weiss I promise I'll get up." She mumbled, still barely lucid. Yang and Blake giggled.
"Ruby! I only did that once as joke."
Ruby slowly opened her eyes and saw Penny curled up next to her. She vaguely remembered something like this happening. She thought it was just a dream. She tried to rouse her friend, slowly shaking her. "Penny come on, it's time for our watch."
Penny awoke with a start. "I'm combat ready" she said, getting up in an instant.
"We know" said the other 4 girls at once.
"Sleep well Penny?" Asked Yang knowingly.
"I do not have enough experience to say for sure."
"And you Ruby?" Asked Blake.
"Best sleep I've ever gotten." She said without taking. The girls gave each other a knowing glance and giggled.
"What's so funny?"
"Oh you'll understand soon enough." Yang said.
Ruby and Penny fixed up their outfits and said goodbye to their friends, wishing them a good night's rest.
As they began their walk towards the watch posts Penny's stomach rumbled.
"Ruby, I seem to be making more weird noises. Is my body broken?"
"No Penny, you're probably just hungry."
"Hungry? Is this another person thing?"
"Yes Penny. Let's go get you some food before we take watch. Do you know if they set up a place to get rations?"
"Yes, I'll take you there."
The pair walked their way through the camp. It was much quieter at night. Almost no one except for huntsmen and a few people from the Vacuo military were awake. It was almost like they were alone.
"Did you have any dreams in your sleep Penny?"
"I don't know, what are dreams?" Of course she didn't know.
"Oh well dreams are when you see things in your mind when you sleep. Sometimes you feel like you're really there, but then you wake up and realize none of it was real."
"Like hallucinations?"
"I wouldn't quite call them that but I guess they're similar."
"I don't think I did. All I remember is hugging you and waking up. Does that mean I slept wrong?"
"No Penny, people don't always have dreams when they sleep."
"Did you have any dreams?"
Ruby blushed and thanked her lucky stars that the two had arrived at rations stand. There were a few tables set up haphazardly, a couple of huntsmen from Vacuo were eating as well.
"Oh look it's time to eat." Ruby said changing the subject. "Lets go grab some food."
"Oh, okay Ruby. You can tell me about your dreams another time."
Ruby didn't know if she could. "The food may not taste good, but it'll likely be full of nutrients to restore your energy. When this is all over we can try more tasty food."
"I thought sleep was supposed to restore my energy."
"Well yeah, food and sleep restore different types of energy I guess. And you can't forget about water, otherwise you'll get dehydrated."
"Wow. I didn't realize how much work it was to keep a human body running."
"You don't know the half of it." Ruby chuckled. "But it's okay, I'll teach you everything you need to know to keep this new body of yours running in tip top condition."
"Thank you Ruby. I don't know what I'd do without a friend like you."
"Hehe yeah I am pretty great." The girls each grabbed some bread and and a bowl of stew from the rations table. Ruby grabbed two bottles of water while Penny found a table with two chairs and sat down. She waved at Ruby excitedly. Ruby walked over to her, thankful that there weren't many people around. This could get really messy. She was pleasantly surprised when she sat down and Penny was already chewing a piece of bread.
"I thought robots didn't have to eat." She joked.
"I didn't, but my father made sure I could in case I needed to pretend to be human. General Ironwood took me to several dinners, while I was in Atlas."
"Then why were you so surprised about needing food for energy?"
"I thought humans just ate for fun. They talk about how good it tastes, so it made sense that it was a pleasure activity and not one done for necessity."
"Well I bet that bread tasted better than this stuff." Ruby said, tearing off a piece for herself.
"I didn't have tastebuds before, so I don't know. I didn't expect food to feel so weird in my mouth."
"Yeah I guess there really are a lot of new sensations for you to experience. I never thought about all the things you must not do or feel as a robot." Ruby mused. She really had never thought of Penny as a robot before today. She was always just Penny to her. Sure she was heavier than most girls and her skin hadn't been as soft, but she was still the same Penny to her then as she was now.
"I look forward to experiencing them all with you Ruby Rose." The girl beamed as she took another bite of her bread.
"You don't need to experience them all with me Penny" she laughed.
"Then how will I tell you about how they all feel?"
"You can always just tell me later, like when we talked about our missions in Atlas."
"But that's inefficient. I'd rather be able to share my experiences with you in the moment."
Ruby blushed hard. "Don't forget to drink your water" she said, changing the subject again. "It's dry here so we need lots and lots of water to stay healthy."
Penny opened her bottle and took a big sip. "Wow. Who knew something so simple could feel so good?" The girl chugged the rest of her water. It made sense, she had been fighting all day and hadn't had the time or knowledge. Her aura could only keep her so healthy when she neglected it's basic needs like that. Ruby got up to grab her another bottle. "Let me get you some more then. You need to eat that stew too."
"I'll wait for you."
The girls finished the rest of their food quickly, they didn't want to keep people waiting on them too long. Penny was shocked and how different various bites of her stew tasted, and Ruby couldn't help but envy just how happy something so simple made her friend. It cheered her up too though, seeing Penny smile like that. Even with everything else going so wrong and being so uncertain, she was happy that she had Penny there to remind that she did at least one thing right.