The one good thing to come from the assassination attempt was that it took Penny no effort at all to convince Blake and Yang to come to the Forge with her. They were both quite motivated to ensure that their weapons were up to par. It had even spurred Blake to complete her upgrade to Gambol Shroud to use specialty rounds.

For her part, Penny was eager to show off the updates she'd made to Elektra.

"You copied my Gravity Dust ribbon?" said Blake.

"Not exactly," said Penny. "I can't use a ribbon the way you do, as mobility to let me or others swing about. I weigh much more than you do, I would pull the blade free too easily, and I have no alternate blade form to make a better anchor. This is for weapons security and retrieval, like an old-style weapon chain, to prevent me from being disarmed. The ribbon is attached to the stow and then hooked into Elektra's pommel. I can activate the Gravity Dust by sending a signal to the stow instead of having to add yet another control to the hilt. I can always detach the ribbon in case I need to throw or give the sword away."

"And even if you don't use it as it as a grapple, the ribbon can still act as a tripwire or a snare in a pinch," said Blake.

Penny beamed at her teammate. "Your creativity continues to impress! Those are some good ideas." She set Tactical to simulating and modeling based on Blake's suggestion.

"What about you?" Blake said to Yang.

"Streamlined reload mechanism," said Yang. "The old way was super flashy and super cool, but having to stand in one place for several seconds and hoping the enemy doesn't interrupt me? That's not gonna cut it. This will let me swap ammo types faster, too, since I won't feel like I have to empty the clip to justify swapping."

"A prudent and practical upgrade," said Penny.

"You know what else is prudent and practical?" said Yang. "Dinner."

"That'll work out," said Blake. "A bunch of our friends were supposed to come in today: Jaune, Sage, and Scarlet."

"And Friend Weiss is due back tomorrow," said Penny. Thoughts of friends got to her; she looked down in disappointment. "I wish I'd heard from Super Friend Garnet by now."

"I wanna give you some reassurance about that," said Yang as she slung an arm across Penny's shoulders, "but everything about the Garnet situation is pretty flipping weird, so I'm kind of stuck."

Penny had to shut down Vocal to keep herself from blurting out any number of 'weird' things about Yang and Garnet.

Dinner that night was the most entertaining meal Penny had ever had. It started off with a bang: Just Sun's eyes immediately went to Blake's exposed ears, and he smiled as broadly as could be. "See, I knew you'd look cuter without the bow."

Blake blinked.

"I mean, you looked cute with the bow on, too," said Just Sun hurriedly, the smile falling off, "it's just that, you know, confidence is a good look on you. Not that I'm hitting on you, or, er, saying you weren't confident before? Because you were?"

Blake said nothing.

Neptune stepped up besides a now-panicky-looking Just Sun. "Dude, step one to getting out of a hole: put down the shovel."

"Right!" said Just Sun, jerking into motion and waving at the two other people sitting there. "And these are my teammates! Sage and Scarlet!"

"Hey," said Sage vaguely. Scarlet just grunted.

"Together," said Just Sun, "we're Team SSSN."

"Excuse me, are you pronouncing S-S-S-N 'sun'?" said a perplexed Penny.

"Yep," said Just Sun.

"Don't tell Weiss," said Yang even as Thesaurus was sent running for cover. "Team names are a sore spot for her."

"Good thing she didn't go to Haven, then," said Neptune. "Names aren't exactly Professor Lionheart's strong suit."

"I can tell," said Yang. "Did he realize your team's name is the same as the team leader's name?"

"That might have been the point," said Just Sun.

"Sounds super confusing," said Yang. "I'm glad we'll never have to deal with that."

(Somewhere, for no obvious reason, Ruby sneezed.)

After that, they engaged in a spirited retelling of everything to do with their adventures against the White Fang. Jaune was a very rewarding audience, gasping and cheering at all the right places; Scarlet just seemed more and more perturbed.

Some details were lost. Penny neglected to mention that she was a gynoid, seeing as it wasn't essential to the narrative and she didn't have that close a relationship with Team SSSN yet. On the other hand, the danger of their opposition seemed much greater in the retelling; if Yang was to be believed, then they'd faced as many as fifty White Fang fighters at the warehouse, when Penny would have put the number closer to fifteen. Oh well.

"Hold up," said Scarlet to Just Sun with almost a snarl. "You called us here early and got us involved with a bunch of strangers for the privilege of being stabbed in our sleep?"

"Yeah! Isn't it great?" said Just Sun.

"Peachy," grumped Scarlet. "I swear, if I get stabbed because of you, your ass is haunted."

Penny was about to ask why only Just Sun's hindquarters would be haunted, but Yang waved her off.

Penny's scroll buzzed before she could ask about that. "It's Friend Weiss!" Penny exclaimed as she looked. She put the scroll on the table, connected, and put it on speaker.

"You were nearly stabbed in your sleep?! I leave you to your own devices for five minutes and this is what happens?!"

"In our defense," said Penny, "it was closer to forty thousand minutes."

The table exploded into laughter as arcane expletives poured from the scroll.

When at last the group broke up for the evening, BXP_ went to the faculty quarters.

Beacon had permanent faculty, most of whom had their own residences outside the school. Others had quarters provided, which were also available for itinerant faculty and visiting instructors. The Huntsman profession being as broad as it was, there was always benefit to be found in bringing in professionals with different experiences, even if only for a single lecture or exercise.

Compared to the student dorms, the instructor quarters were somewhat quieter and much cleaner, but they shared a sense of warmth, and felt more lived-in, somehow. Penny observed, for example, that the communal kitchen was more stocked with both food and food preparation tools (none of which she could name) than the student dorm version.

Another big difference, of course, was in the population—not the frequent bustle of other students, but the rare but spectacular appearance of their instructors. Yang swore that the image of Professor Port clad only in a towel would haunt her until the day she died.

Lastly, unlike the student body, faculty had the luxury of solo rooms. Then again, any solo room of sufficient size could be turned into team quarters with a little ingenuity or, in this case, cot beds.

"This is hard to navigate," said Penny, her shins grazing against one of the beds.

"Ah, just like home," said Yang.

Blake smiled; Penny didn't know why. "Your home was not this messy," Penny said. "Not after we cleaned it, at least."

"I meant our dorm room," said Yang.

Hm.

'Home' was a nebulous concept. Penny wasn't sure this discussion was narrowing things down.

Blake climbed under the covers and looked to Penny. "Um, I hate to ask this of you, but…"

"I have scanned the room in three spectra plus ultrasound," said Penny. "The room is secure."

"That does make me feel better. Um…"

"Yes, Friend Blake?"

"…wake me up when you need to rest," said Blake. "I'll cover the rest of the night."

Only the word 'cover' let Thesaurus make the connection. "Oh, you mean standing guard! Do not worry, Friend Blake. I can take all the watches."

Blake frowned at her. "Are you okay with that?"

"Your concern is appreciated," Penny said with a smile, "but as I said last night, I do not need to sleep. As a matter of habit, I do a partial power-down once a week for deeper maintenance, but I can defer that at little cost."

"Huh," said Yang. "So most nights you just… stay awake?"

"Yes," said Penny.

"What do you do all night?"

"I think, mostly," said Penny. "Sometimes it's weapons design work, or evaluating problems. Most nights, I think about all of you."

Blake made a noise of indeterminate species. Yang blinked. "Us?"

"It takes a great deal of my time and mental energy to try to understand the things you do," said Penny. "For example, my base programming tells me that a smile is used to express gladness. Since I have been active, I have identified at least fifteen different use cases for smiles. It is very confusing. And you all make many more gestures than just smiles."

"Sounds really hard," said Yang with a wince. "Sorry about that."

"Don't be," said Penny. "I would not wish you to do anything other than act normally. How else would I learn?"

"Fair."

"Besides," said Penny, "the idiosyncrasies of people are a source of endless fascination and wonder to me."

"Yang's ability to belch on command is fascinating?" Blake said drily.

"And wonderful," Yang said with a grin.

"Yang, do you remember when we were on Patch, and we walked past the washing machines, and you remarked that they're all alike? How seeing one is like seeing all?" Penny walked to the window and opened the curtains. "Do you see the stars in the sky? No two are alike. I know. I've looked long and hard. I have never found two stars that matched perfectly. I find that marvelous.

"Well, any two people are more different from each other than any two stars."

"I'd never thought about it like that," said Blake.

"Most people are kinda boring, though," said Yang. When Blake glared at her, Yang shrugged. "Don't hate it just 'cuz it's true."

"Even if it is true in absolute terms," Penny said, "it isn't true for me. Perhaps when I am as old as you my perspective will be different."

Yang blinked like she'd been struck in the face; Blake gave a single laugh. "Isn't that right, old lady?" she said to Yang.

Yang recovered and smiled; Penny was thirty percent sure this one was to express gladness. "Oh, you know me. I'm ancient. A fossil."

Blake looked at Penny again. "I have noticed you love the stars."

"Very much."

"You…" Blake hesitated. "I hear you, some nights. Wishing on the stars."

"On my name-star, Pallas. I wish for a friend, for the best of friends." Penny fretted suddenly. "Do you think that is too childish?"

Yang reached over to Penny to hold her hand. "I think it's fascinating and wonderful."

"Thank you, Friend Yang!" said Penny, pulling her into a hug.

Blake took a deep breath. "So, getting back to my original question…"

"You can sleep in peace," said Penny. "I will be watching over you. I have been all along."

"That's pretty comforting, actually," said Blake. "Good night, everyone."

Quiet settled over the room, but sleep was not quick in coming. Even with Penny providing the comfort of security, her teammates took quite a while to go still. Yang's wake-ups were more frequent than ever. Blake alerted at the slightest sound.

Penny was confident these symptoms would have been worse without her presence. She felt gratification at being able to help.

It was almost an hour after lights-out when Penny's scroll buzzed (waking both Blake and Yang; it took a long time for Penny's guilt to subside). That was curious; she'd never gotten a message this late in the evening before. Who could be awake to send it? Even Weiss, who was in transit over the ocean, had expressed her intent to sleep through her flight.

The mystery deepened when Penny saw that there was no sender ID, nor even a sending number. The sender had concealed themselves. The meaning of their message was even less clear.

soon!

"Professor Ozpin," said a disbelieving councilman, "you're choosing now to reintroduce your Faunus protection bill?"

"And my proposal for diplomatic recognition of Menagerie as the Fifth Kingdom," said Ozpin, "to go with formal diplomatic and trade relationships."

"Some of your requests are obvious and make sense," said a different voice. "Increased Huntsmen resources to track down the Fang, shifting of surveillance to the southeast, those are easy grants. But this?"

"One of your students was attacked," said an incredulous councilman, "and your response is capitulation? Just give the attackers what they want?"

"At the same time as we focus on the specific perpetrators of the specific attack," said Professor Ozpin. "This is strategy. If you look at history, many revolutions suffer their greatest setbacks after success. When they accomplish something, the movement splits between those who are satisfied with the new status quo and the radicals who want to push further. I see an opportunity to split the Vale Branch of the Fang in this way."

Not to mention that these things should have happened long ago, Ozpin thought but did not say. The White Fang would have a lot less membership if the Kingdoms had done right in the past.

"I can't say I'm against the idea of splitting the Fang," said a councilwoman, "but not now. Not after what could be perceived as a defeat."

"Agreed," said another. "It seems like you're negotiating from weakness, not strength. Win a victory against the Vale Branch, then bring the bills up again and you'll have my support."

Like water dripping on a rock, we make progress. "Thank you for your consideration," said Professor Ozpin. "There is one more matter of security to discuss."

Ozpin locked eyes with each member of the council in turn.

"Who among you saw fit to invite General Ironwood to bring his fleet to the skies over Vale?"

There was much unnecessary clearing of throats and rustling of papers. "It was a majority agreement," said one councilman.

"Really?" said Ozpin with raised eyebrow. "Could you direct me to where in the minutes of our previous meetings we held a vote on this topic?"

"Come now, Ozpin. After the events of last night, you can't sit there and tell us you have security under control!"

"And you'd consider a sky battleship the ideal defense against a lone illusionist?"

One councilman descended into splutters; another spoke in his place. "Some people find it reassuring. Your policy of keeping our forces peripheral to Vale, which we agree to only grudgingly, has its costs. The people lack a visible reminder of our Kingdom's strength."

Strength this, strength that. There's no victory in strength. "And you found that objectionable?" Ozpin said mildly.

"We see the same reports you do," said a councilman (wrongly, but through no fault of his own). "We know the grimm of Vale are behaving unusually. That they're massing outside the mountains, probing the perimeter defenses in uncommon numbers."

"It helps my constituents," said the councilwoman who represented the outlying settlements. "Less heat on us. Grimm attacks are down in our parts."

"Which will do us no good if Vale suffers," shot back the first councilman. "With that in mind, having a little extra force on hand seemed prudent."

Oh, how Ozpin longed to throw the truth at them. Did you know that Ironwood sent "a little extra force" without you even knowing? Without an invitation? Does "prudence" demand Vale let Atlas do as it pleases?

He'd discussed Lamplight's presence in Vale with James. James had apologized for not consulting ahead of time and promised not to do it again. Apparently, that forbearance only extended as far as covert military presence. James' restraint didn't include overt ops.

And here Ozpin was, covering for James again, at the expense of his own pride and position, because as difficult as James was as an ally, letting him go rogue would inevitably be worse.

James loved to talk about sacrifice, but Ozpin wondered if James knew how many sacrifices he imposed.

"We'll see," Ozpin said.

"Any last words? …very well. Meeting adjourned. See everyone next week."

Ozpin killed the projector, letting him see Professor Goodwitch from her post observing the meeting. "You know this is an effort to oust you," she said.

"I know."

"Again."

"Yes."

"They're giving James a chance to show off his policies," she went on. "To see how they stack up against yours."

Ozpin sighed. "Well, I have been in this post for a long time, this time around."

"…sir?"

Ozpin gazed at the empty space where the projection had been. He wondered if this was what a phoenix felt like, when it sensed its flame guttering out. He was ossifying again, wearing down again.

It was enough to make him want another try, want to start over again… except for the cost that would inflict on others. No. He just had to endure as long as he could, hold on as long as he could.

He collected himself. "Circumstances in Solitas are different from here. I'm sure the perceived successes of Project Lamplight play a role, too, and that isn't replicable. Not if I'm right about its nature."

"Have you tried telling the Council that?"

Ozpin's smile turned grim. "I get the feeling they'll find out for themselves."

"Welcome back, Friend Weiss!"

Penny's arms were wide as she closed the distance. Just as she entered hug range, a glyph sprang up in front of her.

"No," said Weiss. "Too much."

"May I shake your hand?" said an undaunted Penny.

The glyph dissipated. "You may."

Weiss extended her hand; Penny seized it with both of her own and shook vigorously. "I have missed you so much! Every day lowered the percentage of my life with you in it, which was a reverse of the previous pattern, and I did not like that!"

"It's good to be back at school," said Weiss, freeing her hand and flexing her fingers to slight cracking sounds.

"Because this is where your team is!" said Penny.

"Because this is where I can continue my education," said Weiss. "I have studying to catch up on, I'm sure I forgot some things over break."

"No one else studied over break," said Penny, giving rein to her usual curiosity. "Do you have unusually bad memory?"

"Hardly," sniffed Weiss. She stepped away from the dock down the central promenade. "I'd say I just have higher standards."

"But if your goal was to maintain those standards," said Penny in confusion, "why did you not study during the break?"

"My access was limited," said Weiss, and Penny noted that Weiss' motions were unusually stiff for how graceful she was at baseline.

"We had speculated about this," said Penny. "So your father restricted your ability to study during break?"

"That's right," said Weiss.

"But if your standards are so high," said Penny, "and you need your scroll to study, then wouldn't taking your scroll away leave you unable to meet those very standards?"

"Yes, Penny," said Weiss, and her hands were balling up tightly.

"There is a lot to this situation I don't understand," Penny admitted.

"Can we please talk about anything else?" said Weiss.

"Certainly," said Penny. "We should turn right ahead. Just Sun was arranging a volleyball game."

"Does Beacon even have a volleyball court?" said Weiss.

"He said that anywhere can be a volleyball court if you try hard enough."

"Of course he did," muttered Weiss.

Penny led Weiss behind their dormitory. Sure enough, a net had been erected there, while four rocket lockers marked the corners of the court.

(It should be noted that volleyball courts require different dimensions for people who can run down highway traffic, vault a city bus, and shatter rock with a punch. What Huntresses consider a "regulation net" is twice as tall and half again as long as the Earth equivalent; the court is double the area as well. Even at that, many Huntresses insist on having multiple balls in play at once to give themselves a decent challenge.)

The teams had split boys-versus-girls, which should have given the boys a 6-to-4 advantage, but with Jaune counting as less than one player and Pyrrha counting as more than one, all had agreed it was pretty balanced. The players, Penny noted, were wearing substantially less clothing than their norm. Yang had led the charge on that front, declaring, "It's hot, we're hot, let's match!" Team SSSN, Ren, and Jaune had foregone shirts entirely, while Pyrrha, Nora, Blake, and Yang were in shorts and abbreviated tops ranging from almost-a-shirt (Blake) to less-than-a-bra (Yang).

"Salutations!" said Penny.

A chorus of greetings came back to them even as Penny realized Weiss was no longer keeping pace. When Penny looked, she saw Weiss had frozen in place, her mouth slightly ajar and her eyes extremely wide.

"Friend Weiss, are you alright?"

Weiss shook and blinked rapidly; her attention seemed to flicker back and forth between Penny and the players of the game. "Who are those people?" she asked shakily.

"Let's go meet them," Penny said enthusiastically.

As introductions were made, Penny noted Weiss becoming ever shakier, as if her body couldn't stay still but didn't know what to do. "And this is Neptune," said Penny.

Neptune smiled broadly, jerked his head like an inverse nod, and said, "Hey, Snow Angel, t'sup?"

Weiss swallowed heavily and spun on the spot. "Yang, I need to speak with you."

"Now?" said Yang.

"Now!"

As Weiss and Yang headed for the door to the dormitory, Jaune said, "Wait a minute! How come Neptune gets to call her Snow Angel? I tried to call her Snow Angel and everyone's like, "and that's where you went wrong"!"

"Well, there's a big difference between you and Neptune," said Blake.

"Yeah? What?"

"He's cute," said Nora.

"…harsh, but fair."

Once they were in the privacy of the dorm stairwell, Weiss whirled on Yang. "You have some—"

Weiss lost the thread and her ability to maintain eye contact. Yang crossed her arms over her bust. "Yeah?"

Weiss swallowed and reset. "You have some explaining to do."

"About what?"

"Remember how we talked about how I was acting towards Pyrrha?" said Weiss. "And remember how we talked through it over the next few weeks, and you told me I was homosexual, and despite my denial I had to admit that seemed to match the evidence?"

"Right," said Yang.

"Then explain to me," Weiss said with an accusatory finger jab towards the door, "why I was feeling some of the same feelings towards those… boys."

Yang was taken aback. "You thought the boys were hot? I mean, they are hot, but you…"

"…felt things?" said Weiss, blushing furiously. "Yes. I felt… things. Which doesn't make sense if I'm homosexual."

Yang appraised Weiss for long moments. "Weiss," she said carefully, "do you know what bisexuality is?"

Weiss gave Yang a hard stare. Yang kept her face neutral.

Weiss narrowed her eyes and spoke.

"Now you're inventing your own words."

The day drew on in low-stakes companionship. Penny liked it. Nothing forged a team quite like a fight for survival, but in the absence of such a fight, the next best thing was to spend pleasant time together.

Sure, Team SSSN was from Haven, which made them potential opponents in the Vytal Tournament. But in the moment, as Ren placed cuts of meat and fish on a grill with a spice rub that had Blake literally drooling, as Just Sun and Yang got into an impromptu wrestling match that had Weiss literally drooling, as Jaune engaged with Sage and Scarlet in a surprisingly animated discussion of movies, as Neptune commiserated with a puzzled-looking Pyrrha on "the burdens of looking like we do"… Penny couldn't think of all these people as anything but her friends.

This group plus Ruby basically was all her friends, come to think of it. She liked Tai and Professors Ozpin and Goodwitch, but those relationships were different.

And, long-running Analysis circled back, Team SSSN was with them in a fight for survival. Just Sun and Neptune had been part of the same reconnaissance missions as the rest, and Sage and Scarlet, for all of their complaining, seemed ready to join in as well.

As far as Penny was concerned, that put them 83% of the way to friendship. Possibly more!

At some point, Nora announced that they needed music, disappeared for a few minutes, then reappeared with several large speakers. Penny tried to ask where Nora had gotten them; Yang kept her from doing so. Instead, Ren connected the speakers to his scroll and fielded requests for music.

Yang and Penny both got requests for heavy metal fulfilled, which made Yang laugh. "I just figured it out! You're a metalhead!"

"Yes, I do like this music," said Penny.

"No. You're a metalhead metalhead!"

Thesaurus froze, soft-rebooted, and signaled approval. "That is true! Oh, I like that! Thank you, Yang!"

Yang laughed. "The best pun I ever made, and I didn't even know it was a pun when I made it."

When it was Jaune's turn, he asked for a song from one of Weiss' albums. Ren, perhaps untruthfully (Penny was 36% confident), said he didn't have that music available. The downright incendiary glare Weiss was making in Ren's direction was probably a factor.

In early afternoon, something new appeared on the horizon.

"Are those ships from the Atlesian Air Fleet?" said Weiss, pointing to the north.

"Yes," said Penny. "Those are Altruism-class battleships, the backbone of the fleet, boasting capital ship-grade main guns, troop pods, and carrier capability!"

"Why am I not surprised you know everything there is to know about a weapons platform?" said Yang with a grin.

"Because you are an astute observer of my habits and interests," said Penny.

"I mean, that too."

"I learned about them when I was researching how to miniaturize particle beams," Penny went on.

"Of course you were," said Weiss.

"Thank you for reminding me," said Penny to Weiss. "I need to consult with you on my next upgrade to Elektra."

"With me?" said Weiss in surprise.

"Yes. You are uniquely knowledgeable in certain subjects."

Weiss was left momentarily disarmed.

"Okay," said Just Sun, "I'm kind of dumb, so I'll ask the dumb question: if those are Atlesian airships, what are they doing in Vale?"

"The Atlesian Military is the only expeditionary military on Remnant," said a voice. "All kingdoms have defense forces of varying size, but only Atlas' is built to be able to operate abroad to assist other kingdoms in their defense. That is why Air Fleet ships have names like Generosity and Magnanimous: because they are Atlas' gifts to the world."

Uh oh—people were staring at her. It prompted a query to Vocal, and sure enough, it had been Penny's voice that had said those words. The mystery subroutine again! Confound it!

Yang was frowning, but then her eyes widened and she tapped at her own throat, then her head. She must have guessed the mystery subroutine was at work! Penny nodded as slightly as she could; realization spread across Yang and Weiss' faces.

"Someone's an Atlas fangirl, eh?" said Scarlet acerbically.

"That's the public relations line, anyway," said Weiss smoothly. "It's what they like to tell everyone. Whether or not it's true? That's a separate issue."

Scarlet grunted and turned to look at the airships again. Penny mentally sang her teammates' praises.

Her scroll buzzed. Penny drew it. Another unidentified, untraceable message had come in.

very soon!11!

It was 75% probable those ones were meant to be more exclamation points. Whomever this was, they were more exuberant than eloquent.

Evening came.

Even the energies of Academy students had their limits. Team SSSN left to "properly move into their dorm". JNPR retreated as well, to "put Nora to bed"; Nora appeared to have burned all her battery power and left none in reserve, because she was passing out on the outdoor table they'd gathered at.

But BXPS alone was fine, too, Penny thought, as the distant sun settled below the horizon out at sea.

"I'm glad we were able to do this," said Blake. "That we got to have this moment where things can just be nice."

"And unrushed," said Yang.

"And warm," said Weiss.

"With our friends," said Penny.

Blake nodded. "All of that. Even if we end up not having to fight the Fang ourselves…"

Yang snorted.

"…I know, I know. But even without the Fang, this would still be a crazy semester for us, with all the class stuff we have going on and all the issues we all have and with Vytal and the tournament and all of that. I can't imagine what our schedule will look like when you two are done with it."

"We will do our best," said Penny.

"I know you will. I'm just saying… I'm glad we had one more day where we didn't need one."

There was general assent to this.

"And I'm glad…" Weiss began, but something drew her eye. Penny followed her partner's gaze and saw a softly glowing light hovering in the air above the table. "What are those?"

"Fireflies," said Blake. "I've seen them before, out in… places. This is the right time of year for them."

"It's a bug?" said Weiss.

"A bioluminescent bug," Penny specified.

"I suppose I have to believe you," said Weiss grumpily as her eyes continued to follow the firefly, "but the existence of such a thing just seems… improbable."

Yang pointed at Penny.

Penny existed.

"Point taken," said Weiss.

"I like them very much," said Penny. She spotted three more in the air in the direction of Beacon's perimeter fence. "I don't remember seeing them before."

"We don't get them on Patch," said Yang.

"And they're seasonal," said Blake. "They started coming out when we were doing exams, and since then we've mostly been on break. This would've been your first opportunity to really experience them."

"I am more grateful than ever that I got the chance to have a day like this," said Penny.

It was a true statement, Jiminy was clear on that, but Penny felt one emotion that was not gratitude.

"What's up, Penny?" said the ever-perceptive Yang.

"Melancholy," said Penny. "Which surprises me. This day was very good, and yet I feel like something is missing."

"Well," said Yang, "seeing as I know all the people you know, the only person it might be is either my dad or Garnet, and I don't think you and my dad were that close."

"That was a good joke," said Penny. She frowned. "It was a joke, correct?"

"It was about fifty percent a joke," said Yang, which snarled Penny's thought processes something fierce. She preferred to think of jokes as binary affairs, where something either was a joke or was not; fractional jokes were orders of magnitude more difficult to process. "I get it now, though. This is the sort of thing you'd want to share with your friend, isn't it?"

"It is," said Penny, and she was surprised at how certain she was of her answer.

"I feel you," said Yang. "Even these days, I still see things which make me think, 'Ruby would have loved that,' or, 'I would've loved to show that to Ruby'." She smiled broadly at Penny. "At least you might get a chance to do those things with Garnet, you know?"

Penny physically could not answer. Thesaurus had crashed from irony overload.

"I wonder if my home life would have been better if we ever set aside time to enjoy things like this," said Weiss softly as she watched the fireflies buzz. "If we ever let things be about togetherness and beauty instead of… everything else."

"I wonder if there are people who've lost the ability to appreciate things like this," said Blake.

The skies were growing dark all around them. The tops of Beacon's towers were lit, like giant fireflies themselves. The few remaining lights stood out with increasing brilliance against the deep and inky backdrop of the forest.

An enterprising firefly floated down before Penny's face. She raised a finger and held it out like a perch. The firefly landed on it, lit up, then flew off again. Penny felt she was richer for the experience.

"Back at it tomorrow?" said Blake. They all nodded. "Then I suppose we should head to our room and get ready for bed."

"Oh!" said Penny. "I had suspended all of my alarms and timers over the semester break, since we didn't need them." She reinitialized her alarms and immediately got two warnings posted to higher consciousness. "Blake is quite correct. We're behind, in fact."

"Ah, the familiar embrace of structure," said Yang with a grin.

"It's not all it's cracked up to be," mumbled Weiss. Her eyes were unfocused and distant.

Yang took in the sight of the smaller woman. "You can cry on my shoulder later if you'd like," Yang said, and Penny was 85% sure that this, at least, was not a joke.

"As if I need that," Weiss said with a huff; she turned away and crossed her arms, but after a second said in a smaller voice, "I appreciate the thought."

Another alarm popped up in Penny's net. "We really should be going," she said.

At last, the team roused themselves from the table and headed for their dorm. Behind them, the last rays of summer winked out.

Next time: Love and Other Forms of Madness