The night of the dance had arrived. The dorms bustled with people getting dressed, scrambling for parts of their outfits, searching for dates or teammates, and generally expressing the kind of nervous anticipation that precedes a major holiday.
Team BXPS was by no means immune.
"Grab hold of your socks, everyone, 'cause otherwise I'll knock 'em off!"
Penny found Yang's words puzzling and looked down. Her socks were trapped between her considerable weight and her shoes. If she were struck with enough force to separate her from her socks, those socks would be the least of her worries.
The bathroom door burst open before Analysis could get any further. Yang emerged with what Thesaurus deemed a 'strut'. Penny was very impressed: Yang was moving smoothly despite wearing high-heeled shoes, which Penny had never seen Yang wear before. Penny had tried heels briefly; it had been a sort of race as to which would topple her first, her overwhelmed gyro or the heels breaking beneath her weight. She'd returned to flat shoes with great relief.
Yang, though—Yang could wear them, and wear them well.
Almost as well as she wore the rest of her dress. The dress was held up only by a thin loop around her neck, which was sorely tested trying to support the rest of the dress (and the even more Yang) beneath. Vast stretches of shoulder and arm and back, and all the rolling curves of Yang's hard-earned musculature, were exposed; the dress' neckline drooped down her sternum, while the back began only at the waist.
"You can say it," said Yang as she put a hand on her hip, looked at a half-dressed Weiss, and donned her cockiest grin. "I'm a snack."
Weiss shook her head. "No. You are not a 'snack'."
"C'mon," said Yang, "I know you want some of—"
"Hush," said Weiss, holding up a finger even as she raked Yang with her eyes. "I say "you're not a snack" because you, Yang Xiao Long, are a five-course meal."
Thesaurus was 52% sure that was a compliment, but that just left Penny more confused when Yang's eyes widened, her smile flattened, and she looked to be trying to escape. "Uh… thanks? I, uh, made it myself!"
Weiss raised an eyebrow.
"You know, the, um, meal? Yeah, because I'm the chef! …you know?"
Weiss sighed as she walked to the bathroom. "And you call me 'useless'."
The door shut. Yang flopped back on her bed and covered her face with her hands. "'I'm the chef'? Ugh, kill me now."
Penny leaned towards her team leader. "Blake, is calling each other 'snacks' and 'meals' as cannibalistic as it sounds?"
"No," said Blake. "It's metaphorical eating, not literal eating."
"Oh." Penny thought harder. No content. "What would they be metaphorically eating?"
A smile flashed across Blake's face before it was suppressed. "Ask Weiss to explain later."
That was reasonable—it was Weiss who'd used the metaphor, after all. "Okay."
Yang sat up, seemingly recovered (besides some residual pink in her cheeks). "Alright, you ladies have seen what I've got, what about you two?"
Penny stood up and held her arms straight out to the side so that Yang could see everything. She wore a simple (and, according to Yang, 'modest') mint-green dress that went down to her knees. Her hair and bow were the same as ever, while her cheek bore her favorite silver star tattoo.
She had never considered using makeup before; her trademark face tattoos were as far as she went in that regard. The dance, Penny had decided, was not only a makeup-worthy occasion, but one that demanded she get Weiss' advice on what makeup to use.
Weiss, urging restraint, had added only lipstick and a touch of rouge to the cheeks. Penny approved—that was plenty! Adding a little red to her color palette was nice. Simple, flat shoes completed her outfit.
"I'm dancing ready," said Penny.
"Hell yeah you are," said Yang.
"Does that mean I am also 'a snack'?" said Penny.
Yang made a sound like gagging before choking out, "You're cute as a button."
Buttons were cute? Thesaurus' understanding of the concept declined 10% on the spot.
"What dances do you know?" said Blake.
Penny blinked.
"Most dances have specific moves you're supposed to do," said Blake.
"I thought the requirement was simply to move in rhythm," said Penny.
"Uh oh," said Blake.
"Hey, what's up with your hands?" said Yang, an interruption which Penny was grateful for.
Penny lifted her hands and showed off her painted fingernails. "I incorporated all our colors," she said proudly. Her nails were, in order, deep purple, bright yellow, pastel green, and light blue. "Blake, Yang, Penny, Weiss—BXPS!"
"What's the thumb?"
Penny turned her hands to expose the bright red on her thumbnail. "Garnet!"
Yang and Blake exchanged a look. They said nothing, but Penny matched their expressions (83% correlation) to the one Yang used to accompany the words "She's got it bad".
That was a lot of meaning compressed into a single silent look. Penny was impressed.
"I put this together," said Blake as she stood on heeled shoes. Her dark purple dress shimmered with her movements, refracting and re-refracting the light with every motion. Frills surrounded her shoulders and fluttered when she moved her arms. A cinch sat on her waist; its round, brass clasp bore an unusual symbol, a triangle that radiated out from the center of the clasp and extended past its perimeter.
Thesaurus did the software equivalent of "Don't look at me".
"You look very much ready for the dance," said Penny.
"She means Sun'll have to pick his jaw up off the floor," said Yang with a thumbs-up. (Penny was grateful for the thumbs-up.)
Blake gave a small smile and brushed her hair back; color dusted her cheeks. "We'll see. And we'll see what Scarlet and Neptune managed to squeeze Sun into."
"Fifty lien says he's not wearing a tie an hour in."
"Do you mean he won't show up with a tie, or he'll have it off by the end of an hour?"
"Either way."
"No bet."
"…yeah, too easy." Yang looked towards the bathroom. "You ready in there, princess?"
That was a change, Penny noted. Throughout first semester, Yang had jokingly (?) called Weiss "Ice Queen". Over the past few days, she seemed to have dropped that in favor of 'princess'.
That was technically a demotion, wasn't it? 'Princess' was a lower rank than 'Queen'. It suggested Yang thought less of Weiss than before… but that ran contrary to all other indications.
Like now.
Weiss had emerged from the bathroom, and Yang's eyes could not physically be wider.
Weiss wore a jacket, but only the sleeves, which hung loosely around her arms; its purpose seemed to be to contrast its dark color against the brilliant white of the dress. The white faded to dark gray down the length of her body, and had a slit for the leg to let her move freely despite how tightly it hugged her form. The dress ended just above her bust, leaving her upper torso bare except for a sparkling necklace.
Penny detected a hint of makeup about Weiss' scar, but rather than powder over it to conceal it like was Weiss' norm, she had emphasized it, somehow. That, along with white opera gloves and the tallest heels Penny had ever seen, completed a picture Thesaurus could describe only with "beautiful".
Yang seemed to stumble a little, though she hadn't been walking. Weiss smirked. "I take it you like it."
Yang nodded like someone else was having to move her head for her.
"In that case, I think we're all ready," said Blake.
"Alright, Team BXPS!" said Yang, apparently having completed her soft reboot. "We are dressed to slay!"
"If I were dressed to slay," said Penny sensibly, "I would be in my combat clothes. This outfit is impractical for Huntress work. Your outfit seems very impractical for Huntress work."
"I mean we're going to slay the hearts of boys and girls all across the dance floor," said Yang.
This had to be metaphor, since Yang had not previously advocated for mass homicide, so Penny tried to match the spirit of the thing. "I am excited, too."
"Then it's time for us to go," said Blake, and—like a proper leader—she took point.
"Shall we, my lady?" said Yang in a goofy voice, offering her elbow.
"How gallant," said Weiss drily, but she took Yang's offer all the same.
BXPS was far from the first team to arrive. The exchange students, not having other places to go, had showed up early and en masse. Penny saw members of teams ABRN, CMEN, and FNKI, among others.
A third-year Beacon student was welcoming people into the ballroom. They looked quite frazzled. Another third-year was buzzing around the room putting decorations on tables with great haste. "It seems a little late to still be getting ready," said Blake.
"Team CFVY had volunteered to do the prep work for the dance," said Penny knowingly. "But they're on a mission for Grimm Studies that has gone long overdue. They're safe," she added at her teammates' alarmed expressions. "They are very strong, and they have a professional with them. The infestation is simply much denser and more dangerous than expected, so they've had to stay in the field to finish up. Other teams had to be appointed very late to finish plans and preparations."
"They should have asked us to help out, then," said Yang with a look at Weiss. "We could have planned the hell out of an event like this!"
Penny fully expected Weiss to make some kind of comment about how she would have been the one doing the planning, but to her amazement, Weiss said, "Yes, we could have."
"I agree," said Penny, "but Professor Ozpin seemed to think that our team was high-profile enough already."
Without anyone speaking, they all glanced at Blake, who seemed to shrink a little.
"Good point," said Weiss.
"Let's not sweat the stuff that didn't happen," said Yang. "Not when so many awesome things are gonna happen tonight!"
Across the room, a DJ at his station announced over the speakers nearby, "The music will start in five minutes!"
"That's what I'm talking about," said Yang. "Let's head for the refreshments. Gotta get nice and lubricated so we're ready to hit the dance floor when the DJ is."
Penny couldn't wait to see what kind of lubrication Yang might have meant. She knew that none of her friends needed the kind of lubrication she did; what might this metaphor be?
Yang headed straight for the punch bowl and grabbed the ladle. She brought it close to her nose and sniffed. "Oh man," she said. "It's just punch!"
"Of course it is," said Weiss. "What did you think it would be?"
"Punch with a little kick," said Yang with a waggle of her eyebrows. (Penny continued to admire that gesture even though she was no closer to understanding it.)
"There are underage students here," said Weiss. "They're not about to let 17-year-olds drink."
That just left Penny even more confused, as she could see a number of students holding cups and very clearly drinking. Were they all breaking the rules? Was she supposed to go and stop them?
"Hey," Yang said to a student Penny knew to be from Vacuo. "What's the legal drinking age in Vacuo?"
"The what?" said the student, possibly as confused as Penny.
"Thanks, that's what I thought," Yang said to the student before turning back to Weiss. "Maybe Atlas is different, but in most of the world, if you're old enough to fight grimm, you're old enough to drink. Blake, back me up."
"The White Fang saw drinking age limits as just another form of human oppression," said Blake.
"Not exactly the backup I was looking for, but I'll take it." Yang poured the contents of the ladle, despite how apparently unsatisfactory they were, into a cup. "This'll do for now, but maybe at some point this'll end up a lot more... punchy… than it is now. If it does, we'll work our way back around and celebrate our freedom. What do you say to that, Weiss?"
"I would probably still abstain," said Weiss, looking askance at the cup. "Alcohol has been very corrosive in my home life."
Oh! Finally Penny had the missing piece of context that the conversation had required. Thesaurus raced to reinterpret everything that had just been said.
"Fair," said Yang. "All the same, don't be surprised if there's more than punch in this bowl at some point later tonight."
"I'll keep my distance," said Weiss.
"Still," said Yang as her eyes took in the ballroom's décor, "I think they did a good job. Nothing that couldn't be improved by a fog machine or two, though."
"What would those be for?" said Weiss.
"Making fog," said Yang.
"I get that, it's in the name," Weiss said shortly, "but what's good about fog?"
"It's fun," said Yang.
"You're not making things any clearer."
"Don't worry, Weiss," said Penny. "I don't understand her, either."
Yang snickered at that, while Weiss (somehow) looked offended. Penny knew she'd messed up again, though she couldn't say how.
"Hey, there you are!"
BXPS turned to see Just Sun approaching. Blake's eyes widened, and Penny detected upticks in her pulse and respiration—more, even, than her usual reaction to Just Sun.
Just Sun appeared to have attempted a compromise between the formal dress of his male peers and his typical anti-formality. Cream-colored pants complemented a peach shirt—not fully buttoned, the top two had seemingly been a bridge too far. He'd gone to the effort of bringing the collar down to its standard position, while he'd rolled the sleeves up almost to the elbows. In place of a standard necktie, he wore a less-constricting cravat that tucked into his shirt, and a flower on his lapel.
"Well, speaking of things that clean up nicely," said Yang in an undertone. Blake, without breaking eye contact, gave a small nod without seeming to notice that she was.
"Nice to see ya," said Just Sun. "Now, before you get upset, I know that I was supposed to escort you from your room to here, but I had to make a trip down to Vale last minute. 'Cuz I was looking stuff up on how to do this right, and apparently I'm supposed to get you a core-soggy."
Weiss' eye twitched. "A what?"
Sun blinked. "A core-soggy. You know, a flower thing that goes on your wrist."
And he drew such a thing from his pocket: a violet surrounded by baby's breath mounted on a pin.
Weiss' eyes clenched shut. "Corsage," she said with tortured enunciation. "Corsage. Not core-soggy, corsage."
"Oh. Sure," said Just Sun, before looking unfazed back at Blake. "So, here it is."
Blake had color in her cheeks and a smile on her face—one that was, by Penny's estimation, 5% larger than any Penny had seen her make ever. "Thanks, Sun. Let's get out of the way so we can set that up..."
They moved to the other side of the snack bar. Weiss and Yang exchanged knowing looks, though what they knew was opaque to Penny.
"He does his best."
Weiss' head snapped to the side. "Neptune," she said frostily.
"For a few minutes," said Neptune, in a formal suit similar to other students', though his tie was undone… which confused Penny, since Neptune normally wore a tied tie. Mixed signals were bad enough; contradictory signals ruined her. "Like I said, I'm here long enough to show the flag, then I'm bailing."
"Then I think you'll miss out," said Weiss as she linked her arm around a startled-looking Yang. "Again."
Neptune blinked. "Uh..."
"Whereas my date and I will be dancing the night away," said Weiss, giving Yang a shake that made her head bobble.
The first song started playing over the speakers. There was a general roar of applause and approval, to which Penny contributed.
"Come, darling," Weiss said, apparently to Yang, though she was still staring down Neptune. "Let's go dance and have fun. Together."
She pulled Yang towards where people were already dancing, leaving Neptune looking like he'd tumbled his gyro. Yang held back long enough to shrug her shoulders at Penny and Neptune before letting herself be drawn along.
"Well, that's... uh..." said Neptune.
"My thoughts exactly," said Penny.
"Dude," said Jaune, showing up out of nowhere and shooting a concerned look at Neptune. "What did you do?"
"Do? Me? Uh... nothing?"
"I know that look," said Jaune. "You just got Weissed. What'd you do to piss her off?"
Neptune scratched his head. "I... didn't do anything."
Jaune looked back and forth between Weiss, who was close enough to a beet-red Yang that Penny couldn't determine where Weiss ended and Yang began, and Neptune. "Wait. I remember the way Weiss looked at you before... did she ask you to the dance?"
Neptune appeared to find the curtains fascinating, though Penny thought they looked much the same as curtains everywhere.
"She did, didn't she?" said Jaune. "And you... oh. Oh no. You told her no, didn't you?"
"It wasn't supposed to be a big deal," protested Neptune. "I'm gonna be out of here in ten minutes anyway!"
"Let me get this straight," said Jaune. "Weiss Schnee—smart, witty, strong-willed, gorgeous, beautiful singing voice, all-around ten out of ten—asked you to the dance, and you said no?"
Neptune's eyes returned to the curtains, though Penny knew for certain that the curtains had not changed in the past thirty seconds.
"Hurting her feelings in the bargain?"
Neptune swallowed emptily.
"What could possibly make you do something so stu-"
"Ican'tdance."
Jaune blinked. "What?"
"I can't dance," said Neptune, "so why would I go to a dance, where people dance, when I'm not going to dance?"
"Neptune," said Jaune, "seventy percent of the people here don't know how to dance. Penny, can you dance?"
Penny hadn't expected to have to participate in this conversation; Thesaurus had to warm-start. "I have never danced before," she said.
"But you can still have fun here," said Jaune.
"I hope so!" said Penny. "I find great enjoyment in doing things I've never done before."
Neptune squirmed.
Jaune sighed. "Look, you can have fun or not. Your business. But, as someone who cares about Weiss, I think that you should apologize to her. Or at least explain yourself."
"I didn't mean to hurt her in the first place," said Neptune.
"Well, then it should be an easy apology," said Jaune.
"Crrrrr-raw!" called a voice from the crowd. The sound matched no language Penny knew; the closest match was a sloth sound, with under ten percent correlation.
"I've gotta go," said Jaune.
"What, you're not gonna chill here with the other non-dancers?" said Neptune.
Jaune smirked—possibly the first time Thesaurus had ever joined that noun to that verb. "Who said I was a non-dancer?"
Neptune stared at Jaune as he disappeared into the dancing crowd. When he could no longer follow Jaune with his eyes, he heaved a breath and turned to Penny. "Well, I guess it's you and me?" He offered her a cup of punch.
"For now, I hope," said Penny, accepting the cup out of courtesy. "I am waiting and wishing for my friend to join me."
"You couldn't ask them to come?" said Neptune.
"Not exactly..."
Baby, it's time to make up your miiiind...
"This is happening!" came a whooping voice from amidst the crowd.
I think that tonight is when the stars aliiiiiign...
A new song had started, and cheers were coming from the dance floor.
Honey, it's time to leave the doubt behind
Take my hand 'cuz you and I are gonna shiiiiiine!
Dancers were backing away from the floor, giving room—for what, Penny wondered? She didn't have to wonder long, because as the cheers and clapping grew louder, the subject of the attention came into view.
Team JNPR was dancing.
And not anything simple, oh, no, Penny could see that. This was elaborate, motion stacked on motion, rapid-fire, all synchronized amongst the members of the team. They moved as one, like they shared a nervous system, writhing and bopping and twisting and popping, causing Thesaurus to make ever-more-desperate searches for new words to describe what Penny was seeing, even as higher consciousness filed all of it under "dancing" for simplicity's sake.
They were smiling, too, even Ren, whom Penny had never seen smile like this. Pyrrha, too, was smiling, almost shining, just like the lyrics of the song would suggest. Penny could see signs Pyrrha was struggling: a creased brow, exertion sweat, motions just slightly behind those of her teammates... but that she was enjoying herself was obvious.
And Jaune! Jaune's appearance usually ran along a continuum between "stressed", "frazzled", and "terrified", and he was none of those things now, as he spun, slapped hand to foot, jerked hips about, bobbed his shoulders, all with a fluidity he'd never once shown in the combat theater.
Penny smiled as she felt the music penetrate her again—not like heavy metal would, but deeply nonetheless. She clapped to the beat as JNPR danced, surrounded by cheering admirers.
I wanna take a chance and make you see
I think that you're the one who'll rescue me
Abruptly the four of them stopped, bursting into laughter; the crowd followed suit. "It's the kick-steps!" said Pyrrha, and though she was flushed scarlet she was smiling more broadly than Penny had thought possible. "I can never get the kick-steps!"
Penny was struck by the notion that Pyrrha had never looked more human.
"You're doing awesome," said Jaune; Pyrrha beamed at him. "Two, three, four!"
They started dancing again, apparently catching back up to where the music was, and Penny was amazed all over again.
Take my hand 'cuz you and I are gonna shiiiiine!
"Yeah," said Neptune, draining his punch, "I guess I'm missing out after all."
No one was clapping harder than Yang, thought Weiss. Oh, she approved as well; she especially approved of the way Pyrrha was moving, and she'd grudgingly admit that this was the best Jaune had ever looked. Ren and Nora were, as always, perfect together, and so the four of them were a delight in every sense. Still, Yang seemed exceptionally exuberant.
The song concluded as JNPR spun into a coordinated tableau; the crowd roared its approval, Yang as loud as anyone. JNPR broke the pose and moved into a group hug; the cheers and claps grew louder.
"We've gotta get back out there," said Yang. "No way we can follow that, but the moment's got me, ya know?"
"Me, too," said Weiss, surprised at both the truth of the feeling and her own candor. Yang moved onto the dance floor; Weiss was right beside her.
A much, much slower song started playing. Boos came from throughout the crowd, which Weiss understood (and Yang joined.) The DJ, perhaps sensing their mistake, said over the speakers, "We'll go back to up-tempo next song."
"Oh well," said Yang, turning to Weiss. "We can still make it work. Anyone can slow-dance, am I right?"
"I can do all sorts of dances," said Weiss. "Slow dancing included."
"I bet you can," said Yang, smirking.
Weiss felt it like a challenge. She stepped in close to Yang's personal space and reached up to place her hands on Yang's shoulders.
Yang's smirk flickered and died like a scroll losing power. Her hands twitched at her sides.
Weiss raised an eyebrow. "Your hands go on my hips."
"R-right," said Yang, though her eyes were wide. Her hands were as light as possible on Weiss, like she was handling something that would burn her if she held too tightly or too long.
Getting this posture right also forced her to look down at Weiss, and she looked surprisingly disturbed at the prospect.
"Lost your nerve?" said Weiss.
"No," scoffed Yang hollowly. After a beat, she said, "It's just..."
Weiss raised an eyebrow (a gesture Schnees were expected to perfect by age eight).
"...am I just revenge? Just your way to get back at Neptune?"
Weiss felt her shoulders droop. "Are you serious right now?"
"It's okay if I am," Yang said, her voice speeding up and pitching higher, "I like a good joke, I just wanna, you know, establish that before we, um, get too..."
Weiss closed her eyes as she said a silent mantra for patience. "You're doing it again."
"Doing what?"
"Being scared of getting close," Weiss said. "Feeling like you can't be wanted."
"It's okay, I'm used to it," Yang babbled. "We can be done now, we had our laugh, now we can go back to... um..."
Weiss had stepped in even closer, partially turned, and rested her head beneath Yang's chin and above her heart, in the area where Yang's dress was split open.
"Weiss?" squeaked Yang.
"Shut up for a minute," said Weiss.
"Yes, ma'am."
The music was mundane and the singer had the pitch control of a toddler, but the mood was right for the moment: slow, intimate, reassuring. Yang and Weiss swayed without skill or technique, but with feeling, bodies pressed together as close as they'd ever been.
"You didn't ask me to spite Neptune," said Weiss. "Right?"
"Right," said Yang.
"You asked me because you wanted to, right?"
Weiss felt Yang swallow. "Right."
"Well, I didn't say yes to spite Neptune," said Weiss. "I said yes because I wanted to, just like you did. I said yes because I wanted you."
There was a tremor in Yang's hands. "So, what just happened... with you and Neptune..."
"Was an explosion of temper, nothing more," said Weiss. "Certainly nothing I'd planned. Honestly, I'd rather not have seen him tonight. He's not who I came for."
It took a moment for Yang to say, "...oh." A moment more, then, "Oh."
Weiss smiled.
They swayed together for a bit more. Gradually, Yang's grip on Weiss' hips became firmer, more comfortable, more familiar.
Weiss sighed against Yang's skin.
Penny had learned a lot since Initiation. Among other things, she'd learned ways to keep herself from trying to parse an entire room full of people, overclocking herself in the process. She could focus more of her attention on herself, for example, and devote fewer resources to Tactical's situational awareness, on the grounds that this was a safe, non-threatening environment. She could focus on one person, pair, or group instead of trying to take in the whole room. She could even tone down her senses to reduce sensory input that required processing and second-tier analysis.
Yes, her time at Beacon was being spent well.
With all of these methods in her solution set, Penny was comfortable being at the dance. She probably wouldn't be comfortable in the middle of it, as the immediacy of matters would thwart many of her solutions, but standing on the periphery was a fine option.
And she was enjoying herself even without being in the middle of things. She could see, for example, Team JNPR sitting at the side of the room as they recovered from their triumph on the dance floor, sharing drinks and camaraderie in equal measure. She could see Weiss and Yang dancing together, with both of them showing more color than ever before. She could see Blake in unusually animated conversation with Just Sun, who was frowning hard in concentration as he listened, but was nevertheless nodding periodically to encourage Blake to keep going.
All of these things were delightful. Penny was happy when her friends were happy.
Now, if only there was something to make her even happier…
Penny's scroll buzzed, which she didn't expect, since nearly all the people who had her number were already... here...
She whipped out her scroll and mashed her way to her messages.
where r u?
The number was a generic one with no ID, but Penny had written that number to memory. It was Ruby's burner number.
This conversation was now her number one priority.
At the dance, she wrote back.
i know
like, where where?
Penny stared at the unclear messages for several seconds before Analysis pinged and excitement surged through her. She looked up, towards the entrance-
There!
Looking incredibly uncomfortable, dressed in her typical street clothes and sunglasses (and standing out very much because of it), Ruby stood in the ballroom entrance.
Penny was pushing her way to her even before she took in the other details: the third-year greeter looking through the guest list with a frown, Ciel Soleil standing politely behind and to the side of Ruby (but making no attempt to help her gain entrance), Ciel herself in a sort of wrap clothing that Penny guessed was formal and was making Ruby look out of place even more...
"Garnet!" exclaimed Penny as she got close enough to be heard over the din.
Ruby's head snapped in Penny's direction. "Penny!" she shouted and bolted forwards. As usual, the two collided with each other in a burst of Aura and giggling, the force sending them spinning about each other like binary stars around their barycenter.
"You made it!" said Penny. "I'm so glad!"
"I guess she's a guest of yours," said the third-year, scratching at the list. "What about her?"
Penny glanced at Ruby, who rolled her eyes but nodded. "Yes, Ciel is with us, too."
"Gotcha. Have fun."
"We will!" said Penny, and she turned and tugged Ruby into the ballroom. "I cannot wait to have you meet everyone!"
"'Everyone'?" said Ruby.
"I have many friends," said Penny. "You are my most special friend, but I have other friends, too. I would like for you to meet them so that they can also be your friends. Then we would have a friendship web between us! That would be the absolute best!"
She was having to speak more loudly as they moved along the edges of the ballroom. She was also having to pull Ruby a little, when at first Ruby had been right with her.
"Penny," said Ruby, "why is everyone dressed so fancy?"
"I've been told that is appropriate dance behavior," said Penny.
"Oh," said Ruby, so quietly Penny almost missed it.
"But people do that because they think it's fun," said Penny. "It is not a requirement. I would enjoy your presence no matter how you were dressed!"
Penny didn't hear a response from Ruby this time.
There was no more time to wait for one, though, because Penny had reached her first target. "Blake," called out Penny, "this is Special Friend Garnet!"
And she tugged Ruby alongside her to let her friends meet each other.
"Hey," said Blake mildly. "I'm glad to finally meet you. I've heard a lot about you."
"Have you?" said Ruby, although she sounded like she was choking.
"All good things," said Blake, looking at Penny with the corners of her mouth curling. "Penny has nothing but nice things to say about you."
"Oh," squeaked Ruby. "Well, I, um, don't know anything about you, but it's... nice to meet you? I guess?"
Blake looked between Penny and Ruby with open amusement. "Well, no wonder you're friends. You two are cut from the same cloth."
"Speaking of cloth," said Just Sun, pointing at Ruby, "she's dressed all casual! I told you I'd be fine!"
"Counterpoint," said Blake. "I like that you dressed up nice."
Just Sun blinked. "Uh... well, in that case, I... guess I'm glad I did!"
Blake smiled at Just Sun like she'd never smiled at Penny.
"Except for the cravat," said Just Sun, apparently having given his Thesaurus free rein. "It beats a necktrap, but it can still go somewhere. I'm losing this thing any minute now."
"I'll allow it," said Blake.
"Blake is my team leader," said Penny.
"And Penny is a great person to have on my team," said Blake.
"Aww, thank you!" said Penny.
"I guess you haven't spent much time around this much noise, huh?" said Blake.
"Can't say that I have," said Ruby.
"I thought so," said Blake. "You looked uncomfortable."
Oh no. Penny hadn't noticed that, hadn't realized - - how had Blake noticed Ruby looking uncomfortable before Penny did?
Did Penny not know Ruby as well as she thought she did?
Was Penny a bad friend?
"I'm sorry," Penny said urgently.
"It's fine," said Ruby. "It's good to be with you, even when it's loud."
"It affects me too," said Blake, pointing up towards her cat ears. "You get used to it."
"Good to hear," said Ruby.
"You are good to hear," said Penny.
"Aww!" said Ruby.
"It was actually Blake's idea to give you the burner," said Penny. "So we have her to thank for us being in communication these past days!"
"Just doing my part to help a teammate," said Blake.
"Maybe we shouldn't talk about that as much," said Ruby, and when Penny gave her an inquiring look, Ruby jerked her head in Ciel's direction.
Penny got the message. "In any event," she said, "I want for everyone to meet my special friend!"
"That might take a while," said Blake. "Yang and Weiss are still out there dancing, and they probably will be for a while. But I think JNPR is just up ahead."
"Sensational!" said Penny. "We will talk more later!"
"See you," said Ruby. Then Penny was leading them on again.
Having taken the cue from Blake, Penny looked more at Ruby to try and assess her discomfort. Sure enough, Ruby's face had tightened and her muscles had stiffened, symptoms similar to those Penny exhibited when she was out of sorts.
It was a much shorter journey to get to JNPR, though, so before Ruby experienced much of this, Penny was presenting her friend again. "Friends, this is my Special Friend Garnet! Garnet, these are my friends in Team JNPR! Friend Jaune was my second-ever friend, and I have made much better friends with Nora, Pyrrha, and Ren in the time since the warehouse incident!"
"Oh, so you're the Garnet from the warehouse incident!" said Nora, standing up and inspecting Ruby.
Ruby took a half step backwards. "Yeah," she said in a similar choked voice to before, "that's me!"
"Well," said Nora, "just so you know, the next time you get up to that level of shenanigans, you'd better involve me!"
"Nora," said Jaune.
"What?" said Nora. "Are we or are we not BXPS' sister team?
"We are," said Jaune.
"And have we or have we not helped them with their other conspiracies?"
"We have," said Jaune.
"Well then," said Nora, looking back at Ruby, "as sister team to your special friend, I demand a piece of the action whenever you get up to the next crazy thing! And don't say there won't be another crazy thing, I know all about you!"
"You do?" said Penny and Ruby at the same time.
"She means," said Ren, "that you're the types of people who get in trouble a lot, and she wants to help you when you do."
"It's sweet," said Pyrrha, "in a sort of overly-aggressive way."
"Hey, I'm just the right amount of aggressive," said Nora.
The song that was playing ended, and a new one began: faster, louder, wilder than the one before. Cheers rose from the crowd at the first notes, and continued for the first four measures. Ruby flinched away from the cacophony.
"It's too bad it's so intense," said Jaune in Ruby's direction. "I wish these things had volume control."
"Me too," said Ruby.
"Sometimes you have to take the good with the bad," said Ren.
"Do you, though?" said Nora, and she arched an eyebrow at Penny.
It took Penny a moment to parse the meaning of the gesture, but she realized it was a prompt, and she thought she agreed. "Garnet, we can leave. It's okay."
"But you're having so much fun introducing me to everyone," said Garnet.
"That is fun I can have another time, under other circumstances," Penny said. "Circumstances that don't cause you this much discomfort."
"I don't want to spoil your night," said Ruby.
"The only thing that would spoil this night would be your distress," said Penny. "So let's remove you from the source of your distress."
"Can we leave, though?" said Ruby. Once more she jerked her head at Ciel, who was standing close by, and though she wasn't looking exactly at Ruby, she was keeping Ruby in her line of sight.
"Ohhhh," said Nora with her pre-explosions look on her face. "You need a distraction, huh?"
Jaune, Pyrrha, and Ren all shook their heads, but Penny didn't know why. "I do need one, yes."
"Comin' right up," said Nora. She grabbed a hold of Pyrrha as she said, "Ren, bring Jaune."
Ren looked in Jaune's direction and raised an eyebrow. Without being touched, Jaune slumped his shoulders and stood to join the others.
"This way," said Nora. She set off back towards Blake and Just Sun, sweeping up Ciel in the bargain.
"Excuse me," said Ciel, trying and failing to elbow her way to freedom, "I didn't mean to be in your way."
"Nah, you're not in the way, you're just who we need!"
"I am?" said Ciel with surprise that mirrored Penny's.
"You betcha. We need a neutral observer, and you qualify."
Ciel's face transitioned from surprise to alarm. Penny could relate.
"Alright," said Nora as the assemblage of people she'd dragged with her surrounded a suddenly panicky Blake and Just Sun. "This is a question that I can't answer, and that Penny can't answer, because we're too close to the problem. But you can answer it for us!"
Nora maneuvered Pyrrha and Jaune so they were standing next to Blake and Just Sun against the back wall. Then she pulled Ciel next to her so that they were facing the wall and those four people.
"Which couple is the cutest?"
There was an eruption of teenager noises.
"I'm serious," said Nora, ignoring it all. "We've got Sun and Blake here, and they've got the whole light-and-dark thing going. But then we've got Jaune and Pyrrha, and they just fit so nice together! I guess there are some advantages to being tall," she added, looking upwards at Pyrrha.
"And you need me to…" Ciel said.
"Decide which couple is cuter, yep!" said Nora. "You're a neutral observer, so you can give us an outsider's opinion."
Ciel frowned and her gaze tracked from one pair to the other. "Well… if I had to choose…"
Nora put a hand around Ciel's waist to keep the two together, but with her spare hand she flashed a hand sign at Penny.
Run.
Penny obliged, grabbing Ruby's hand and easing the two of them away from the drama, where every time Ciel spoke about one couple, Nora threw in a comment about the other, leaving Ciel even more confused than before.
"I've never seen a distraction like that," said Ruby as she and Penny emerged from the ballroom into the hallway.
"Nor have I," said Penny. "Nora's distractions usually involve explosions. We should consider ourselves lucky."
"Well, yeah, duh," said Ruby. "We're out of that mess, but we're also together. That's pretty lucky if you ask me!"
Penny felt a great swell of emotion within her. "You are precious to me, as well," she said. She released Ruby's hand long enough to clap. "And now I've thought of something else precious that I'd like to show you!"
Ruby smiled. "Lead the way, Penny my friend!"
Penny took Ruby's hand in her own. She didn't need to, she realized; they were out of the ballroom, so their chances of being separated were low.
But she wanted to, because it felt nice.
From the way Ruby squeezed Penny's hand, she felt like Ruby agreed.
Smiling so hard she was mildly concerned her servos would stick there, Penny led her special friend on.
Ren watched with amusement as Nora did her thing. Penny and Ruby had long-since made their escape; Nora was keeping Ciel spinning just for fun.
Not that Ren would stop her.
"...but don't Jaune and Pyrrha look like they were made for each other?" Nora said.
Ciel looked nearly as embarrassed as Jaune, Pyrrha, and Blake. (Sun was smiling like an idiot, even if Ren knew he wasn't one.) She covered her face with her hands. "Why do we even need to decide this?"
"Because it's important!" insisted Nora. "There can only be one Cutest Couple, and what are we gonna do if we can't figure out who that is?"
Ciel looked askance at Nora, who was impervious to the gesture.
"Well?"
Ciel's eyes drifted to Ren, who immediately felt like this was trouble. She dropped her hands and turned fully towards Nora and Ren. "I think I've decided," Ciel said.
"Ooh, I can't wait to hear this!" said Nora.
"The cutest couple... is you two."
And she raised her hands to point at Ren and Nora.
Nora went rigidly still, her face stuck in a rictus grin.
"You have the light-and-dark contrast you liked with Blake and Sun," said Ciel mercilessly. "You fit together even better than Jaune and Pyrrha. And on top of that you have a tall-and-small appeal that neither of those couples have."
"We're not a couple," said Nora; Ren recognized the reflex. "We're not together-together."
Ciel raised an eyebrow. "You also said you were too close to the problem to tell. I believe you. You are a couple, and you are incredibly cute. With the authority you granted me, I crown you two the Cutest Couple."
Nora's face filled with panic; she looked up at Ren. Ren didn't return the gesture. He looked instead at Ciel and crossed his hand across his chest in salute. Ciel nodded and smiled in triumph, then fled before anything more could be said. Ren respected that choice.
"The judge has spoken," said Jaune. "You won, Nora. Grats!"
"That silly-head," Nora babbled. "Being silly, who knew she was so silly? I sure didn't when I picked her, she looked a lot more serious than she turned out to be... right, Ren?"
Ren took his time answering. "She doesn't strike me as very silly."
Nora's panic intensified.
"We'll give you space to enjoy your victory," said Pyrrha with false charity as she led Jaune away.
"You brought this on yourself," said Blake as she left with Sun.
"For what it's worth, I think you two are adorable," said Sun in a stage whisper. "Even if my date is cuter."
And then Nora and Ren were alone.
Together.
"Well, after all that excitement I gotta sit down," said Nora, walking for the chairs against the wall where her victims had been. "Or go to the bathroom. Or kill the snack bar. Yeah, I'll do those things next. Sit first, though."
Ren moved along with her wordlessly. What need had he of words? He knew where to be as well as Nora did.
Where to be...
You fit together.
Well. He couldn't say the words were wrong, exactly, but...
That was the trouble with words. They slipped away from Ren. They never kept the right shape and they could never be pinned down.
...Nora was talking.
"What does she know, anyway? You can't tell what people are up to just by looking, otherwise we would have known about Penny ages ago, not to mention Jaune, and just because Jaune couldn't see what was happening between him and Pyrrha doesn't mean... actually, scratch that, forget I said that!"
"Okay," said Ren.
"The point is," said Nora as her leg galloped, "we can be friends and life-partners without it being like that. Right? Right." She swallowed and looked up at him. "Right?"
Ren looked back. He thought he'd seen all of Nora's faces. He'd been wrong. The corners of her mouth were twitching up and down, flickering between hope and terror; her eyes were wide, searching him for any clue.
What was he supposed to say to that? When the peril of this moment was paralyzing, when he was feeling many of the same emotions as her, when...
You were too close to the problem to tell.
"Would you like to dance?" he said.
She forced on a smile. "Sure! I know you love dancing, and I love dancing almost as much as you-"
His heart stopped.
"-do."
Okay, that was something that'd never happened before.
Clarity came. "I mean," he said, wrestling the words into place, "would you like to dance with me?"
He placed his hand over hers.
She gasped. He didn't blame her. He initiated contact like this about once a year; he rationed it.
And he'd just blown his budget.
He saw Nora process this, internalize it. She sucked in a breath like she was about to be thrown from Beacon cliffs. "Yeah... yeah. Yeah! Let's do it!"
She nearly yanked his arm out of its socket as she pulled him to the dance floor.
He didn't mind.
Yang was unfair, Weiss decided.
After Weiss and Yang finished their slow-dance, they'd been part of the "Remnant Slide". It was a juvenile exercise with simple moves called out at the direction of the singer. Anyone could do the Remnant Slide.
"That's the idea," Yang had said brightly. "It gets you all loose, gets the wallflowers in the mix."
"It looks very lame," said Weiss.
"Weiss," said Yang, "I know you put a high price on dignity, but I've got a secret for you: It's hard to look dignified when you're having fun."
Yang had pointed at Neptune, who was in line with the others doing the Slide, despite looking like he'd put his feet on upside-down and backwards.
And then Yang had smiled, damn her.
So Weiss did the Remnant Slide, and to her great annoyance, she'd enjoyed it. Afterwards, she'd followed Neptune with her eyes, and had seen him join company with Blake and Sun to their mutual enjoyment.
Well, maybe people could get better.
Dancing was thirsty work, so they made a quick trip to the punchbowl, which had a different flavor in it this time, something dry with a sharp aftertaste. Now a new song was coming on, one that invoked a different kind of dancing. Weiss' kind. "This is the sort of song," Weiss said, "where you can have fun and be dignified."
"Let's put it to the test," Yang said gamely.
"Do you know any ballroom dancing?" said Weiss.
"Nope," popped Yang. "But I don't shepherd my dignity the way you do."
"Isn't that the truth," Weiss said, but she couldn't help her smile as Yang walked with her onto the dance floor. "You're a decent fighter. Read my moves and maintain range."
"Yes, ma'am," said Yang.
They clasped hands and Weiss moved. The way she'd learned the dance, she was the passive one who followed the male's lead by retreating. Even though she was doing the same moves now, everything was a-jumble: she was the initiator, leading a female dance partner by drawing her in.
Yang made rookie mistakes, naturally, but she rolled with her errors as easily as she rolled with the hits she absorbed in battle; even more impressive was how fast she adjusted. When the dance reset and their sequence repeated, Yang had learned enough to match Weiss almost step-for-step.
Yang wasn't an intellectual by any stretch, but she was smart—which was just unfair. Fearsome fighting ability, social agility, quick wits, emotional intelligence, a body that just wouldn't quit, with smarts piled on top? Most people would be proud to have any two of those things.
"You are unfair, Yang Xiao Long," said Weiss.
"You like saying my full name, princess," said Yang.
"When I'm trying to make a point," said Weiss.
"You've said 'Blake Belladonna', like, twice," said Yang. "Have you ever said 'Penny Pallas'? If you have I can't remember it."
Weiss hadn't. Yang was a cheater. "Well, don't think I haven't noticed your changes," said Weiss, choosing to counterattack rather than defend a lost position. "You used to use some of your abominable puns for me, like you do with Penny."
"Yep," said Yang.
"And now you don't," said Weiss. "Now it's mostly 'princess'."
"Yep," said Yang.
"Which obviously means something," Weiss said.
Yang's smile broadened. "Yep."
"Are you just going to keep saying that?" Weiss said.
"As long as you keep saying stuff that's obvious? Yep."
Weiss shook her head. "You're so obnoxious."
"You know you love it," said Yang.
"That's not what I know," said Weiss. She felt like her blood was heating up the more they talked. They'd quite lost the rhythm of the dance and had moved to the periphery of the floor, circling each other apart from the main group, the better to focus on the conversation and each other.
"Then what do you know?" challenged Yang.
The heat intensified. Weiss couldn't help but meet the challenge. "You've gotten soft for me," she said.
"And you've thawed out on me," Yang punched right back.
Weiss missed a step. She stumbled a bit in her heels; Yang's strong arms caught her, pulled her close, bathing her in warmth.
Which was how it'd been since Weiss had gotten to Beacon, she thought with a shock.
She looked up Yang with wide eyes. Yang looked raw, exposed, almost pained.
"Gods," said Yang, "why is this so easy? Why am I so easy?"
"Nothing about you is easy," Weiss said.
The joke bounced off. "I didn't work at this or want it or... It just happened." Yang looked alarmed. "I didn't even notice."
"I did," said Weiss. "We became teammates. Then we became friends. And then, when I was feeling low, and you were there... that was the moment things changed. Gradually, then suddenly. Like bankruptcy."
Yang barked a laugh. "Now that's a hell of an analogy."
"Well, it's close in this regard," said Weiss. "Both bankruptcy and... whatever this is... involve giving things away."
Yang turned her head. "I... I've been careful not to give myself away. Not to do what Dad did."
Weiss didn't dare interrupt. She could see feelings and thoughts at war beneath Yang's magnificent skin.
"But I've already done it, haven't I?" said Yang quietly. "I've already gone too far."
"I wouldn't say that," said Weiss, though there was no spirit to her words.
Yang blinked and looked back to Weiss.
"We... don't have to keep this up," said Weiss. "We can let this be it. If you want."
Yang looked at Weiss, really looked at her, in a way that made Weiss feel exposed—like Yang was shining a light over face, eyes, scar, the slopes of her cheeks, the curve of her lips.
Weiss stared right back, defiantly keeping her eyes on Yang's, determined to meet Yang wherever she was.
"What if I don't want this to be the end?" said Yang in a voice as fragile as a house of cards.
"Then maybe we should mark the occasion," said Weiss, a feeling like courage running in her veins. "Maybe we should have another moment."
Yang's eyes flashed. Her breath was spicy. Her lips...
It was a short kiss. Weiss had had blinks take longer than that. It was over almost before Weiss' brain registered it was happening.
But it stuck in her mind for a long, long time.
Yang blushed and, for maybe the first time, looked embarrassed, but she betrayed no hint of regret.
Good.
The song stopped, and there was widespread clapping. Weiss turned towards the DJ station and joined in the clapping for camouflage, but even as she did, she stayed pressed against Yang's front, let Yang's arms stay around her.
Which they did.
It was a good place to be, Weiss decided.
Maybe she should stay.
"So, where are we headed now?" said Ruby. She grew less stiff the further they got from the ballroom, and she was periodically squeezing Penny's hand, which Penny found thrilling. "Are we going to meet more of your friends?"
"In a manner of speaking, yes," said Penny. They had rounded the corner of the dormitory, far away from the center of campus. They passed the picnic table and were now in the grassy clear space between the edge of campus and the border fence.
"Just so you know, I did promise to stay at Beacon," said Ruby. She jiggled a forearm at Penny. "They'll know if I cheat."
"This should be fine," said Penny. The hour was late, after all, and they were far enough away from the main parts of campus that it was dark here.
"So... where are your friends?" said Ruby.
"Stand here with me," said Penny, coming to a stop two-thirds of the way to the fence. "Face towards the forest."
Penny took up position and stood still, bringing Ruby into place beside her. It took only 3.1 seconds before Ruby started to fidget. "So... what are we supposed to be seeing?"
"Look," said Penny simply.
"What am I supposed to be… seeing?" said Ruby. She was quiet for 1.8 more seconds. "Penny, what are those lights?"
"Pretty," said Penny.
"That's not what I... ugh!" Ruby was slapping her hands up in the air as if trying to bat away something invisible.
"Calm," said Penny, raising a hand and extending one finger into the air between her and Ruby. "Calm. Let them come to you. Don't be afraid."
"What would I be… afraid of…"
A light glowed, just for a moment, between Ruby and Penny, lighting up Penny's finger and reflecting against Ruby's sunglasses.
"You have a bug on your finger," said Ruby.
"Yes," said Penny with a smile. "A lightning bug, also known as a firefly."
The firefly illuminated again. Ruby let out a coo.
"You see?" said Penny. "It won't hurt us, but it will add some beauty to our lives."
The firefly illuminated for 2.2 seconds, then flew away from Penny's hand in the direction of the forest. Ruby followed it with her gaze, then froze, only now understanding what she was seeing.
The fireflies were out in force, dozens of them, maybe hundreds, lighting up the night between Penny's position and the forest with soft, lovely lights. From both air and ground the lights came, a show put on without regard for Penny or Ruby, but which they could enjoy all the same.
It was almost like the reverse, Penny thought. It felt like the fireflies were putting on this performance for the girls alone. Analysis scoffed at the idea, but Analysis could be rather stuffy.
"Wow," said Ruby.
"I know," said Penny.
On and off, off and on the lights glimmered, hundreds of blinking beings making the forest seem magical, a place of wonder and delight and endless possibility. Penny squeezed Ruby's hand; Ruby squeezed back.
"There's nothing like this in Solitas," said Ruby. "Are they always here like this?"
"No," said Penny. "They're seasonal. We are near to the end of the season. If we came out again in two weeks we'd see far fewer of them. In three weeks we'd see none. But that means it's all the more important to see them when we can."
Ruby said nothing more. She watched, trembling occasionally.
"Aurora," she said."We don't have fireflies in Solitas, but there is a thing that happens at night, sometimes, a light show called the Aurora. Not all the time, and I honestly don't know what makes it happen or why. None of the books at… my place… mentioned it. I've only caught it a couple times, when I was out on missions that stretched late into the night. But on those times when I was able to, I tried to stay out where I could see the sky so I could see the Aurora."
"I should very much like to see that someday," said Penny. "Maybe you can show me, the same way I showed you the fireflies. Everyone needs beauty in their life."
"Beauty," Ruby repeated.
Her grip on Penny's hand got much tighter.
"I don't have much beauty in my life," said Ruby, as if realizing it for the first time.
"Then I was glad to give you some," said Penny. "And I hope I get chances to give you more."
"That's so sweet," said Ruby. "But I'm not sure there will be more chances."
Tactical alarmed on the foreboding nature of the sentence, but Penny put a suspense timer on that. "Then we should enjoy the chance we have," she said. "There's another thing I'd like to show you that we can also see here. Lay down on your back with me."
The two of them were flat on their backs in a moment, still holding hands, and looking up into the sky. It was a cloudless night, the moon was off in the direction of Vale City, and the cliffs were doing a decent job of limiting light pollution. The two had an unobstructed and quality view of the night sky.
"The stars," said Penny. "Look at the stars."
Penny suppressed her internal chronometer from reporting on the time this took. Penny had experimented with this herself. She knew that a glance up at the stars or an incidental sighting of them was nothing compared to what she felt when she stared up at them. The longer she looked, the more amazing the stars became in their vast numbers and variability, embedded in an endless sky that seemed to grow deeper the longer she looked.
"Wow," said Ruby. "I guess I don't have an excuse for this one. You can see the stars in Solitas when there's no Aurora. But even then I never…"
"It's different when you take the time to try and appreciate them, isn't it?" said Penny.
"I never understood there was something worth appreciating," said Ruby. "I can tell at a glance if a gun has been cared for or if it has a risk of misfire. I can estimate the age of a grimm by looking at it. I've got good eyes."
"I concur!" said Penny, unable to help herself.
Ruby's chuckle was abbreviated. "Honestly, most of what I've ever looked at is the insides of one small set of rooms. There was so much outside of it and I… I didn't even know."
"That sounds very sad," said Penny.
"It has a purpose," said Ruby defensively. "It was important to keep me focused on getting ready to save the world. But… I guess that means I never saw what in the world might be worth saving."
More red flags. It was becoming harder to ignore them. Penny needed another diversion. "Did you know that there are stories in the sky?"
"Stories?"
"The constellations," said Penny. "The Tower. The Wizard." She allowed her gaze to move over to Ruby. "The Huntresses."
"I'm bad at words, remember? What's a constellation?"
"A grouping of stars that make a shape," said Penny. "And where people saw the shapes, they made stories. My favorite shape and story is The Huntresses. Look there. That curve of five stars is like someone's shoulder, neck, and head, and there's another string almost the same shape beside it. One Huntress, two Huntresses, The Huntresses."
Ruby was tilting her head this way and that in the soft grass. "I guess I see it? Like, I see the shapes you're describing, I just don't know how that makes the Huntresses."
"That's okay," said Penny. "Art means different things to different people. This means a lot to me. You see there? That star near the heart of one of the Huntresses? That star is Pallas."
"Like your name?"
"Exactly like my name," said Penny. "I gave myself that name after the star. I took on the role of being a Huntress, so it made sense to have a Huntress's name."
"That makes sense, I suppose. I wonder if I should have a last name like that, too," said Ruby.
"It would make sense to me," said Penny. "Would you like to call yourself Pallas as well?"
"I'm not sure it'd be right for me to have the same name as you," said Ruby.
"We wouldn't have the same name," said Penny reasonably. "I would be Penny Pallas and you would be Ruby Pallas."
"Maybe," said Ruby. "Wait. You said the constellation was of two Huntresses? What if I took the name of a different star in the other Huntress?"
Penny's excitement boiled over. "That would be the most sensational thing I've ever heard!"
"You think so?" said Ruby with a smile.
"Ruby," said Penny as Vocal fired off the words as quickly as an overwhelmed Thesaurus could generate them, "I have wished every night for a friend of my own, a special friend. I wished on my name star that I would get a special friend just like the Huntresses, and then there would be two of us. And even though you and I are different, even though I am a gynoid and you are a weapons project, I feel as if we are the Huntresses of that constellation, and you are the answer to my wishes. If you were to take the name of a star in that constellation, it would prove it all to me!"
"You wished on a star?" said Ruby. "I've never heard of that. If it could be that strong, I'd think I would have learned about it by now. My trainers sure tried everything else. Do you really believe it works?"
Penny's subroutines had been at war on this topic ever since Penny had discovered it. "Logically," Penny said, "I know there is no causal mechanism I can detect. Sound, especially small sound, would not transmit and be heard that far away, and it seems unlikely a star could have any positive effects in return.
"But logic also dictates that many other things should not exist that do," Penny went on. "We are surrounded by mysteries we don't understand. The possibility that such a thing as this exists is marvelous. I feel it is worth believing in even when I cannot prove it."
"Wow," said Ruby quietly.
"I've never told anyone about this," Penny said. "You are… different than anyone else, to me. Closer. More special."
"That… means a lot," said Ruby. "More than I thought it would."
Penny's soul thrilled at the words.
"I'll think about names," said Ruby. "I didn't realize for the longest time that most people had two. I thought one was normal. I guess…maybe I thought I was Ruby Garnet?"
"That sounds redundant," said Penny.
"True."
A firefly flew across Penny's line of sight. She tracked it as it landed on Ruby's nose, which made her giggle. Analysis deemed it the most delightful sound Penny had ever heard.
"I like fireflies," Ruby said.
"I like them, too," said Penny. "Very much. But not as much as I like you."
Ruby smiled. "You know what, Penny? You're a lot like these fireflies."
"How so?"
"You light up my life," Ruby said with a soft smile.
Penny felt like her endoskeleton had turned to warm goo, which was a lovelier thought than the words suggested. "Thank you! And you are a bioluminescent bug to me as well!"
Ruby reached out and took Penny's hand again. It was the most intimate gesture Penny had ever felt.
She felt so light. She felt so loving and loved both.
"You're so bright," said Ruby. "You're almost glowing."
Penny hummed as she tried to decode Ruby's metaphor. 'Bright' was used to describe intelligent people, but 'glowing' was used for people who were very happy.
There was also the fact that a dozen fireflies were hovering over and around her like a halo. Maybe Penny was just reflecting their glow.
Before Penny could crack the code, Ruby's bracer chirped at her.
"That means it's time to go, doesn't it?" said Penny.
"Yep," popped Ruby. Analysis, always lacking a sense for the moment, noted that Yang and Ruby even popped their p's the same way.
"Then let's get you back," said Penny. "We want you to get permission to keep doing this, so we should behave within the rules when we can."
Ruby hesitated. "Penny... there might not be more chances to keep doing this."
"Why not?" said Penny as Tactical alarmed.
Ruby's face scrunched up. "Ugh, I don't want to say 'classified', but I can't think of anything else!"
"We need to update your Thesaurus," said Penny.
Ruby chuckled, then stopped. "Wait, you were being serious?"
"I was," said Penny, "but then I recalled that there are many things with language that I struggle with, too. If you had my language software, it would still only help you so much."
"If I could get software upgrades," said Ruby, "language upgrades aren't the ones I choose first."
"What would you choose?"
"Combat software mods, of course," said Ruby.
Emotion Signifying ordered a frown. "Ruby, unless I am much mistaken, you are younger than a typical Academy student. And Academy students aren't expected to take up the fight until after four years of further training. I can understand practicing to be ready to save the world. I cannot understand the sense of urgency your trainers evince. So much urgency you've had to sacrifice everything else."
Ruby's face was far too complicated for Tactical to parse. "If I'm not a perfect weapon, what even am I?"
Penny didn't get a chance to answer before Ruby's bracer chirped again. "Alright, alright," she said, and rose.
"Let's walk together," said Penny.
"I'd love that," said Ruby, and the words made Penny feel fuzzy.
They left the fireflies behind. Penny was sad to see them go. At least she was still here with Ruby.
"You have to take a ship back to where you're staying, right?"
"Yep," said Ruby ruefully. "I can really move with my semblance, but I can't quite fly."
"I can," said Penny with pride. "I have a flight module!"
"So cool!" gushed Ruby.
"It truly is," said Penny. "Flying is a delight. I adore doing it. I should take you flying soon. Friend Yang described it as "the most fun you can have with your clothes on"!"
"What does that even mean?"
"It means it's a lot of fun. Individual words lose their meaning when they're used in idioms."
"...oh." Ruby considered this. "Can't you take me flying now? Just fly me up to my ship?"
"I strongly suspect that an unidentified flying object making an aggressive approach on a warship might provoke an armed response."
"Good point."
They rounded the dorm again, and kept up their idle chatter as they passed building after building: the combat theater, the forge, the CCT Tower…
They noticed someone moving away from the tower, someone dressed wholly in black and moving with swift purpose.
"That's weird," said Ruby. "Are people normally running around at this time of night?"
"I have never observed it," Penny replied. "I'll check in with that later."
On they walked, past the still-bustling ballroom, where Penny knew the dance was scheduled to go for another hour at least. At last they reached the dock, where an anxious Ciel was waiting by an airship.
"You abandoned me," Ciel accused. "You said you would stay with me the whole time."
"No," said Ruby as she shifted beside Penny and gave her hand a squeeze. "I said that I would stay with people I know. And I did! I was with Penny the whole time, and I know her, and I've spent time with her before. Which you know, because you were with us those other times."
"I don't think that's the spirit of the thing," said Ciel.
"I can provide you with audio-video recordings of all our time together," said Penny. "All of it is accounted for, and all of it is innocent."
"Couples don't sneak away from a dance to be innocent," said Ciel dryly. "But... I might believe you if you mean you weren't getting into trouble."
"That is exactly what we mean," said Penny.
Ciel gave a blast of an exhale, then gestured at the airship. "Let's go, then."
"Yes ma'am," said Ruby, and she went to board.
"Garnet," said Penny.
"Yeah?"
"I enjoyed tonight very much," said Penny, "and I look forward to having more good times with you in the future."
Ruby's face flickered between smiling and not smiling. "I'll do my best," she said.
Ciel shut the bay door.
The airship (classified: Manta, standard Atlas military multi-role combat airship) rose away from the dock and into the sky. Penny followed it, tracking it far and far, farther than human eyes could see. It never descended in the direction of the city. Instead it climbed, gaining altitude on a vector that would take it to the Air Fleet squadron in the skies over Vale.
Just as Weiss had predicted.
And Penny found she didn't care.
So what if Ruby was an Atlas military project? So what, even, if Penny's origins lay with the Atlas military, too?
Penny could not, would not be afraid of that. The way that she knew Ruby was much more powerful.
Ruby made her happy.
What could matter more than that?
OMAKE
Ruby: I know Penny and I snuck away during the dance, but I promise we weren't getting into trouble.
Ciel: Yeah, you two were definitely f*ing.
Next time: Shell Game
