"Well, sorry for running into you!"
Team RWBY started to leave as Penny, a stranger to them, looked on. The whole scene was awkward to experience, to say the least. Weiss fell down on Penny, but she didn't seem fazed; in fact, had Yang not asked if she wanted to get up, they would have talked to someone laying on the ground the whole time. Nevertheless, Penny wouldn't have minded.
"See—" Ruby raised her hand to wave towards her, but her next words escaped her. "...uh, good..." She faltered, so she stopped in her tracks so she could think of what to say. Luckily her sister Yang, who was mumbling something in her own search for words, rushed to finish her sentence.
"...'Take care, friend!'" Yang waved in an exaggerated, lively manner.
As soon as she looked away, she mentally scratched her head. "She was..." Yang tilted her head. "...weird..."
"Now." Weiss looked to her left, returning to the task at hand. Before they ran into Penny, the team was running after that monkey Faunus who had stowed away in a boat headed to Vale's ports. "Where did that Faunus riff-raff run off to?"
Those three words, "Faunus riff-raff," set off Blake, but before she could say anything about them, an immediately familiar face caught everyone off-guard.
"What did you call me?" Penny asked, standing in front of them.
Team RWBY stopped in shock at her sudden reappearance. Penny was so enamored by the mere act of being called "friend" that she had to know who called her that.
"Oh, I'm really sorry," Yang rushed to clarify—"I definitely didn't think you heard me!"—as Weiss pointed right at her, looking back and forth with increasing terror on her face.
"There's no need to apologize!" Penny nodded. "I say things that I do not think others would hear, too!"
Weiss hyperventilated as Penny approached Yang. At first Yang had no idea what had happened. She filled in for her sister, who stumbled in her speech, but surely Penny could differentiate between Ruby's words and her own, right?
Right?
"Uh…"
"You called me 'friend!'" Penny looked at Yang with hope. "Am I really your friend?"
This was the most awkward situation she had been in since her Signal days. Sure, she stumbled over her words when she introduced herself in class, but she wasn't like that. In fact, Penny borderline re-materialized in front of people she had just met, for crying out loud!
Yang thought about how to answer that question; if she was that desperate for friends, maybe she wasn't very popular in combat school, or maybe she was homeschooled until recently. That kind of social isolation could explain the awkwardness. If that was the case, maybe the girl desperately needed help; Yang wouldn't get to sleep tonight if she left someone so lost alone in Vale, like an abandoned puppy.
Maybe.
"Y—" Yang stammered—"Sure."—and sighed afterwards.
Somewhere off to the side, the rest of Team RWBY had collapsed to the ground.
"Sen-sational!" Penny pumped her hands. "We can paint our nails and try on clothes—and talk about cute boys!"
Yang looked at Ruby and Weiss as they stood back up, the former scratching her head. "Is–Is that what girls in Atlas say all the time?" Ruby commented, to which Weiss replied with crossed arms, "It's a coincidence!"
"I... we could!" Yang smiled awkwardly.
"Great! Would you like to?"
"Hold on." Weiss cleared her throat as she walked up to a curious Penny with something behind her back. "What are you here to do?"
"To fight in the tournament." Penny looked confidently at Weiss.
Weiss raised an eyebrow. "Fight?"
"I'm combat ready!"
At first, Weiss was skeptical that someone like her could even fight. However, with the prospect of Penny in a team of four from an unspecified Huntsman Academy, she was now interested. Penny was there to fight in the tournament almost a full year before everyone else—unusual for students of her seeming caliber—and competitors were usually smart enough to know their opponents first before a match. And if those fighters knew their opponents...
"Wait." A small smile formed on Weiss's face. "If you're here for the Vytal Tournament, then do you know that monkey-tailed..." Finally, she showed her what she was hiding from behind: a rather crude drawing of a blonde monkey-tailed Faunus. "...Rapscallion?"
"The who?" Penny asked, clueless.
"You know, the filthy Faunus from that boat!"
"Oh no..." Yang muttered to herself.
"I don't—" Before Penny could speak further, Blake butted in, walking up to Weiss.
"Stop calling him a 'rapscallion'!" Blake frowned. "Stop calling him a 'degenerate'! He's a person!"
And off they went at each other. Yang could try to intervene, but not only did they appear stone-set on arguing, but butting in, she figured, would only make things worse. Thus, she, Ruby, and Penny were left to watch as Weiss and Blake argued over semantics and whether Faunus are people. Eventually, Yang could not stand it any longer and had to get Ruby and Penny somewhere safe.
"Um, I think we should probably go." Yang side-eyed.
Penny leaned in towards her and Ruby. "Where are we going?"
"Painting nails, trying on clothes..." Yang started walking away as Ruby and Penny followed from behind. "Things people do instead of getting into pointless arguments."
Ruby went up to Yang, who stopped. "I'll stay behind if I can get them to stop," she said.
"But Ruby, are you—"
"I'm their team leader; they need me!"
Yang sighed. "Whatever floats your boat. And theirs."
Ruby nodded, then ran up to Weiss and Blake who were still arguing. As Yang watched Ruby try to defuse the situation, Penny frowned. "...When are we going?" she asked.
"Now." Yang speed-walked away from the scene. "Right now."
Penny understood very well and followed.
. . .
There Yang and Penny were, wandering around in a street. Indeed, they were simply walking around as they looked for a store, but so far, nothing they wanted to shop in came up.
"Where's your team?" Yang asked. "They're not too far away, aren't they?"
Penny reassured, "They are not far from here."
"...Then shouldn't you be with them right now?"
"Oh, no!" Penny began. "We are just visiting Vale from Atlas. I happen to be walking around on my own!"
Yang nodded. Immediately, as Yang took a better look around, Penny stopped to point at the first store she found. It was a relatively large, albeit subdued, clothing store with a facade that didn't offer much in aesthetics. The store sign consisted of two words: "JAMES ROSS."
"Would you like to go to James Ross with me?" Penny asked.
Yang took a moment to think. Declining to shop for cheap clothes was more her style since she could get something better elsewhere, but she didn't want to step on an accidental new friend's toes. On the other hand, going there without question would mean going out of character, but at least she'd appear inoffensive; exactly what Penny would want, right?
"Alright, your choice." Yang started heading to James Ross.
Immediately, she could see a similarity between her and a younger Ruby. In recent years, Ruby had mellowed out a little, but when she was getting started at Signal, she was almost as excitable as Penny. There was another similarity, and it was the idealism that younger Ruby had when it came to socializing. Older Ruby had grown bored to the point where she would rather spend her days with Crescent Rose.
Not to mention the "small" detail of crowd anxiety that she conveniently left out.
Yang sighed, and entered through the double doors behind Penny.
Indeed, what she found were aisles and aisles of shirts, jackets, pants, shorts, shoes, etc. that were waiting for their first owners. The styles in here appeared fairly bland; maybe she could find something more in line with what she'd wear, but this might not be the place. Penny, though, may find something that fits her, but to Yang, she had a unique style of fashion: frilly blouse, thin-strapped pinafore dress, green stripes, black leg... warmers? Stockings with green stripes? Pieces? And finally, her black wedges.
Same kind Weiss wears. (Kind of cute.)
"Where to first?" Yang asked.
Penny excitedly pointed towards the dress section. "I would like a new garment!"
"You mean dress?"
Penny tilted her head, confused at first, but her mouth opened upon realization. "Ohhhh..."
'Did she never think to connect the dress and the word 'dress' together?' Yang mentally raised an eyebrow.
"I mean, I would like a new dress!"
"Then let's go."
Yang followed behind Penny, eventually coming across a selection of many different dresses. Some were long, others were short. One went straight down, another flared outward. A couple had straps as well. Indeed, there were several combinations of colors to choose from, but which one should she pick?
"Would this green dress suit me?" Penny asked Yang, holding a simple light-green dress with a white, translucent collar. Said dress also came with a black belt that sat right where the flare started.
Yang shrugged. "Why don't you try it on?"
"...Yes!" Penny cheerfully started to put the dress on for herself when—
"There's the dressing room if you want to try that on right now," Yang pointed out, directing her towards the aforementioned room.
Penny, who took the dress back off, took a moment to process what Yang was talking about, further seeding the questions in Yang's mind. Eventually, she learned as well. "Would we dress in the dressing room here?"
Yang likewise took a moment. 'Okay, she was probably isolated from society until recently.
"Yang?" One word was all it took to snap her out of it.
"Yeah," said Yang. "We dress in the dressing room whenever we pick out clothes."
Penny realized it once again. "...Oh!"
Yang started taking her there. As she did so, she started to explain. "There are multiple stalls for you to dress in, and each one of them should have a mirror, something to sit on, and something to hang your clothes with."
"Such as a chair and hooks on the wall?"
"Yes, a chair, stool, or bench and wall hooks."
Of course, it would have been naive to assume Penny knew literally nothing about Remnant, especially with Penny being in a team from Atlas Academy that's just visiting Vale; for starters, she talked about painting nails, trying clothes, and talking about cute boys. She knew where those clothes would be hung, and most likely what basic household objects like chairs were. She even knew what a dress looked like, even if she didn't have the right word for it.
Thus, two theories stood: either she was very socially awkward in combat school or she was homeschooled until her parents felt she was ready to go to a Huntsman Academy.
"Oh, there's room," Yang pointed out.
Penny looked to see someone emerging from a stall, carrying a few pieces of clothing with him. "Then I will get dressed, Yang!" she exclaimed, then went inside the room.
Yang sighed, then leaned against the wall opposite of the dressing stall Penny went inside. The urge to screw around in town was ever so growing bigger, but she wasn't sure what Penny would think of her if she gave in. Had she had her way, she might have taken her to a Flamin' Talk store where she'd get to pick out some clothes for not only herself, but possibly Ruby and even Penny as well. However, considering the more... counter-culture styles Flamin' Talk carried, Penny might've been intimidated by the choices and its shoppers.
Restraining her personality and letting Penny take the lead were the safest options if it meant Penny could be comfortable around her.
Just then, the door opened. Yang looked to see that Penny had switched into the dress, her blouse and pinafore dress hung over hangers on hooks. Although she hadn't switched out of her leg... pieces and wedges, it was still a pretty sight, all things considered.
"Oh, you look pretty!" Yang smiled.
"I agree!" Penny smiled back.
Yang started taking out her Scroll. "Lemme take a picture and send it to you."
"Sure."
Penny patiently waited as Yang launched the camera app on her Scroll and then pointed the device right toward her.
"Aaand, smile."
"Smile~!"
Yang snapped a photo.
. . .
"So we got you a dress, now what?" Yang asked as Penny carried her dress on a hanger, back in her regular clothing.
"We get something to paint our nails with!"
Yang started looking around for any kind of cosmetic. She had overheard someone asking where the cosmetics section was, so she figured that James Ross had a section for such things. And indeed, there was one; it was labeled under "Makeup," and all Yang and Penny had to do was to grab a small pack with a brush and pale green liquid polish. Yang, meanwhile, grabbed a somewhat identical pair with a slightly different-looking bottle of mellow yellow polish.
"Is there anything else you would want to get?"
"Nah, I'm good."
. . .
With that taken care of, Yang and Penny checked out what they could get with the little Lien they had; there was the green dress Penny got, and then there were their boxes of nail polish with a brush in them. Penny had come up short, but there came Yang to the rescue with the chore, birthday, bet, and holiday Lien she had saved up over the years. Now they were sitting down at a bench, having just unboxed their respective items.
The only problem: how to paint those nails in the first place.
"So..."
"So!"
"...So how do I paint your nails again?" Yang asked.
Penny blanked. Sure, she had seen people wear nail polish, whether in the real world or on TV, but had never really learned to apply it. "I do not know," she stated bluntly.
'Disappointing.' Yang gulped. 'But expected.'
"So, we're just gonna try anyway?"
"I agree!"
Optimism. Ruby knew that the world was not all sunshine and rainbows, which was why she wanted to be a Huntress. Penny didn't know anything about applying nail polish nor any kind of makeup, but in spite of that, she was here to make a girl smile. Yang couldn't help but notice that second similarity to Ruby alongside her excitable nature.
"You're the—" Yang blinked; would Penny even get what she would've said? "Okay," she said instead.
Penny smiled and got to work. "You first!" Immediately, Yang saw that she was hastily applying the green polish to the point where some of it had gotten on the folds of her nails. She was, however, doing so with the utmost confidence, which she couldn't help but smile a little at.
As Penny applied the polish to her nails, Yang's thoughts drifted back towards Weiss and Blake, as well as the potentially bleak future of Team RWBY. For all she knew, either they were still arguing, or worse, their argument devolved into a full-on fight. The possibility of things cooling down was almost nonexistent; it would take either a miracle or lots of giving up for their Faunus-centric arguing to end, and even then, she wasn't sure if that would even last.
Yang sighed. Was it that hard for Weiss to show basic respect for Blake, much less not assume incriminating things about that monkey Faunus? Apparently, it was. Then again, she shouldn't have been surprised; Weiss was a difficult person, after all.
"May I see your other hand?" Penny asked. She was too busy painting her nails to have noticed her diminishing mood.
Yang painfully faked a slight smile. "Sure!"
As Penny went to work on her other set of fingernails, Yang's "smile" faded. By now, the thoughts about her team had worsened: is Weiss going to become a worse person than she already was? Is Blake going to run away for good? Is Ruby going to further shut herself off from the social world and continue to obsess over weapons?
Will she, Yang, get left behi—
"So, about boys," Yang spoke up, finally fed up with her line of thought. "You think they're cute?"
"Yes!" Penny pumped her fists. "It is the way they look that's led me down to such a conclusion."
"In other words, you think they look cute."
Penny chuckled. "And sometimes, the way they act."
Weiss had called Jaune scraggly the day before Initiation. Yang couldn't disagree more then, and she couldn't disagree more now, although Weiss raised a valid point: Jaune was trying to chase her non-existent affection for him for months on end. In hindsight, that definitely wasn't cute.
In other words, he looked cute when he wasn't busy trying to win Weiss.
"Yeah, sometimes."
Just then, Penny had finished putting on Yang's makeup, so she took a look. As expected, the application process was rather poor; it was unevenly applied, and bits of the polish had gotten on her skin. She couldn't blame her just for trying; after all, it was only the first time Penny had put someone's makeup on.
"Okay, my turn."
Inevitably, Yang's nail polish job turned out just as botched.
. . .
"It was an honor to meet you, Yang! Thank you for a wonderful time."
"No prob, see ya soon."
It was night. As Yang sighed to herself, she entered through double doors into a dorm building and started heading towards her team's room. She hadn't recalled being around someone as energetic as Penny in recent memory. Her sister came close, but she had her slow moments. By comparison, Penny was so active and lively that Yang swore she drained her energy just by being around her. Then again, she actively restrained her personality to not step on her toes. There was also the pain of having to teach basic things over and over; it was like being a parent for a day, although she had years of experience.
She could hardly blame Penny; for all she knew, her home situation could be complicated for reasons that she didn't feel like exploring. Team RWBY was on the line, and she couldn't just stand there and let it happen.
Yang took out her Scroll and held it to the door's handle. She heard a beep, then mechanical whirring from the handle as it unlocked by itself, allowing her to enter through the door. Ruby was there, playing a fighting game on her own Scroll. 'Is she trying to distract herself..?' Yang thought when her younger sister noticed her.
"Uh, hello!" Ruby said with an awkward smile.
"Hey!" Yang went to one of the beds and sat down on it. "Still on those video games, huh?"
"Yup! ...Yup!"
Yang smirked. "You know I'm still ahead of you."
"Hey!"
Yang laughed, as Ruby groaned. As Ruby looked back at her Scroll, she saw her character starting to lose against his opponent. "...No!" Ruby scrambled to recover in-game when she met with a "Try Again" screen. "Ugh, it's gonna be days more before I can beat him! I spent days trying to figure it out, and I got so close!"
"Don't worry." Yang put her hand on Ruby's shoulder. "You'll still get through."
"...Shut up..." Ruby elbowed Yang in the gut, but the latter only laughed again.
After all had settled, Yang saw a frown on Ruby's face. Her mind drifted right back to the Weiss and Blake argument that had started back at the port and led to Blake's subsequent absence. "What's wrong?" Yang asked.
Ruby sighed. "Weiss and Blake, they..." She gulped. "They yelled at each other, and I couldn't get them to stop yelling!"
"I'm sure it'll blow over, sis."
"Blow over?" Ruby raised her voice a little. "Blake ran! Weiss wants me to help her find her, but I don't wanna be the reason she runs for good!"
Yang wasn't sure what to do. The topic of Faunus as people was a sensitive issue that the two didn't know much about beyond racism towards them. Ruby probably tried to bring them to common ground, which might've collapsed because, again, it was a sensitive issue she was ill-equipped for. Weiss was soon to inherit a company known for its... controversies, and while Ruby wasn't sure how to take that fact in, Weiss certainly didn't make herself look good hours ago.
"Look, can we please talk about something else?" Ruby pleaded. "I... I just like being in Team RWBY, that's all..."
Yang took a deep breath. "So..."
Ruby leaned in.
"I... made friends with Penny," Yang began. "She's... she still has a lot to learn about the social world. Like, she just learned to connect the word "dress" and a dress together, and I can't help but feel bad over that, y'know?"
Yang then looked at her fingernails. As predicted, the poor manicure job still showed, although the polish that had gotten on her skin was starting to wear off from having washed her hands.
Yang smiled. "But that's okay, she's learning, and I think she's fun, if a little awkward to have around. I mean, she's like you!"
Just as she was about to return to her game, Ruby's eyes perked back to Yang's. "Huh?"
"You and Penny don't know much about talking with people and making friends, but you two like to fight."
"Mmmm..." Ruby rolled her eyes, seemingly dumbfounded by the comparison.
"Maybe she likes weapons too?"
"Uh... huh..?"
As soon as Ruby said that, she returned to her game. However when Yang looked closely, she could see that Ruby appeared starry-eyed. Immediately, she could tell that she appeared more interested than she had let on. Nonetheless, she decided that Yang had embarrassed Ruby enough as she was, so she took a deep breath, thinking of something else to talk about.
Today was Saturday, the day after their last class before Fall Break.
"How… How long is Fall Break again?"
"Until Monday."
"'Until Monday?'" Yang raised an eyebrow. "Isn't today Saturday?"
"Oh, sorry! I meant to say, 'Until next Monday!' We... have Fall Break!"
There it was; a whole week and then some of no school until next Monday, in which case plenty of time to decompress and relax until winter finals. Yang took the moment to ponder what it meant when she realized that they had all the time in Remnant to find Blake before classes would resume. If so, then could Penny and her team stay in Vale for Fall Break? She knew it was a bit selfish to think that way, but she really, really needed help.
Yang noted to herself to look for Penny tomorrow.
However, as she was about to go to the bathroom to brush her teeth, Yang's Scroll vibrated in her pocket. She took it out from there and opened it; Blake's text greeted her, saying:
[sorry, not coming home tnight]
. . .
Weiss had returned, telling her that Blake—not "might be" or "probably"—is a Faunus and, therefore, an infiltrator from the White Fang because she argued against her calling that Faunus racially-charged words that came to her mind. As far as Yang was concerned, she was going to drag them with her so she could find her and drag her to the police on such a heated "basis." Neither sister had the energy to call her out, so they just nodded along verbally.
But that night, Yang laid on her bed, staring at the ceiling. She knew that she couldn't just stand in the background forever. If she did, Ruby would have to face that dispute alone and Team RWBY would end with an arrest and a headache for Beacon's Headmaster, Ozpin, which was the absolute last thing she wanted.
At the same time, she thought:
'What did Penny say after I painted her nails again? Something about...'
. . .
"What did you do?!"
"I don't know!"
Yang and Penny laughed for they had done each other's nails poorly; after all, it was only their first time painting their nails.
"Did you forget to not spill your nail polish?" Penny barely said before she lost it, laughing once again.
Yang chuckled, but then her Scroll lit up just as she took it out to take a quick picture. She checked the notification that had popped up and saw that Weiss texted her the following:
[She ran off like a child. She's going to turn up in the news as a White Fang terrorist by tomorrow.]
"What's wrong?" Penny asked.
Yang took a deep breath. She had barely met Penny, and now she was about to trust her with a sensitive topic that had wrapped Weiss and Blake up in a fierce disagreement that could mean the end of Team RWBY. Either Penny was kind and understanding, or she was a racist no better than Cardin.
Now was now or never.
"Weiss and Blake..." Yang began, "argued over Faunus. Weiss thinks that monkey Faunus is part of the White Fang and, thus, bad, but Blake doesn't think so. I don't wanna take Weiss's side because Faunus are people, but I don't know how to get them to get along again." She sighed. "I don't know what to say, because then it'll all be pointless anyway! How do I?"
Penny frowned and as Yang talked on. It was obvious that she knew that friends had to get along, or else they wouldn't be friends. Indeed, it didn't take long for Penny to respond; "That is a difficult question, Yang," she said. "But may I suggest what you could do?"
"Go on..."
Penny nodded. "Someone once told me that we cannot understand each other if we don't listen to what they have to say."
Yang was surprised by Penny's sudden maturity. She would have otherwise expected an unwavering cadence of cheerfulness like earlier, but this was different. She may have needed to learn many things about the world, but apparently, racial issues weren't one of them.
"After all," she finished, "change starts with a talk."
AN: Thanks to Merion for proofreading this chapter and reviewing the outline as well as Templar26 for this chapter's additional proofreading work!