A/N: Created 30 March 2015. It's RWBY Relationship Week on Tumblr; the challenge is to take two randomly-selected characters and explore their relationship, whether that be romantic, platonic, parental, mentor-apprentice, sibling, antagonistic, or what-have-you.

Monday's Randomly-Generated Names: Penny, Adam Taurus

Devils Unaware

Summary: Penny talks too much, Adam avoids a confrontation he isn't prepared for.

"Sal-u-tations!"

Adam paused, his steaming mug halfway to his lips. Something told him that greeting was addressed to him. Why? Who here would dare to address him? He scanned the mostly-empty café, honestly curious, and met a pair of oddly coruscating spring-green eyes in a freckled face. A cursory scan dismissed the tiny girl instantly as a potential threat, but that left the question of why she would greet him.

"Do you know me?" he asked slowly.

She didn't smell like a faunus—didn't seem to smell like much of anything, actually, though that could just be the tea still under his nose and the cloying odor of the city—but that only narrowed down the list of her possible identities to nobody I know. Adam only willingly interacted with a handful of humans, and she was none of them.

His eyes narrowed, and for an instant he missed his mask. This city was a hole, and though he had deemed the indulgence of a hot cup of tea to be worth the risk of entering what he could only think of as enemy territory… Being a revolutionary left a man like him…justifiably cautious when he was accosted.

The girl's next answer completely derailed his train of thought.

"I do not. I am awaiting the arrival of my friends and was attempting to initiate polite conversation; in common parlance, 'small talk'." She tilted her head. "Have I made some error?"

"You're expecting company?" Adam ignored her question. It was irrelevant. Incoming company, though… Adam had come here for quiet, and a group of chattering teenagers would defeat the purpose of escaping Cinder's little minions.

"Oh yes, my good friend Ruby, and her teammates Weiss, Blake, and Yang," the girl offered easily.

As always, that name made Adam twitch. Even if there was no chance it was actually her, the memory of her betrayal still burned. Absently, he realized the odd redhead was still talking. "—met Ruby first, then again a short time later when her faunus friend went missing."

"A missing faunus?" Adam interrupted. Maybe a runaway? That was a potential recruit; someone he could swoop in and rescue and bring, trembling and grateful, into the fold.

"Yes, Blake had run away and Ruby would not tell me why, except that she had deceived them somehow."

Adam twitched again. That name. A faunus girl with that name, here in Vale. Ugh. What were the odds—

"If I were to conjecture, the only deception I can suppose is that friend Ruby somehow did not perceive her cat ears under the bow." The girl blathered on. "The three of them did appear surprised that I had noticed…"

Adam was no longer listening. Faunus girl. Cat ears. A liar and a runaway. And tying it all together, that Dust-cursed name. His trembling stopped, and his hand closed reflexively around Wilt's hilt as a fact from earlier in the conversation trickled back into his mind. She was coming here. Mask or no, she would recognize him. Like as not, she would attack, and he would attack back, no matter how much or how little he wanted to. He didn't know himself if he could be trusted not to strike first; less than sure, in fact, if he would sooner kiss her or kill her. Though he knew it would rankle later, the best option was to avoid this confrontation.

He found his feet, off-hand still on his blade. He slammed some lien on the table to cover his drink, just as a happy cry of "Penny!" came from around the corner of the block. Adam looked up and saw a short girl with reddish-black hair wearing a Beacon uniform, waving frantically.

"Sal-u-tations, friend Ruby!" the girl Adam had been speaking with called back, returning the wave. Ruby. The odd girl's friend.

Who was on a team with her.

It was time to be gone.

Penny caught up Ruby in a hug, holding her around the waist and spinning her around, making the trademark red cloak swirl and flap in the wind.

"Sorry we're late, Penny," Ruby wailed, for all the world apparently weeping.

"Don't you worry, Ruby, my friend! I have been speaking with this nice faunus gentleman," she turned to indicate where Adam had been standing, but found nothing but a rose petal on the table. "He's gone," she added, sounding a little confused.

"Well, you didn't hiccup, so I believe you, Penny," Ruby said soothingly, as the rest of Team RWBY arrived. Yang greeted Penny enthusiastically, Weiss with her usual reserve. Blake, however, was sniffing the remains of the abandoned mug, staring at the rose petal in her fingers.

"Is this yours?" she asked Ruby quietly, holding up the petal.

"Ruby!" Weiss scolded. "I have told you about using your Semblance for something as silly as walking a single block!"

"That's not mine!" Ruby protested. "I didn't dash over here! Ask Penny!"

Blake was no longer listening. Her eyes scanned the surrounding streets, the alleys, the rooftops. Her lips curled in a snarl and she slowly crushed the wilted petal to pulp.

A/N: Look, I'm all for headcanons and getting more stories out there for obscure characters, but Adam has had about five minutes of screentime? I had to construct this out of whole cloth. That's why he barely talks; we basically know nothing about him. This story only worked at all because Penny is adorable. And what kills me is that I know there are even more obscure characters in the rotation—*cough* Scarlet, Sage *unconvincing cough*. You can't write fic about characters who don't sodding exist in canon yet.

*exhales sharply*

Okay, about this piece of trash I just wrote. The only headcanon I could come up with for Adam is that he's a bit of a narcissist; while Penny, obviously, is being her wonderful self. This is another combo that doesn't have a name. I dub this pairing Mechanical Bull.