Ruby chalks the sudden burning sensation in her chest up to shock. Penny is alive, after all, alive and in Mantle all this time, and she thinks she could cry with the relief of it. It feels, in this moment, like the entire world has shifted under her feet — like the sun and stars and the broken moon are orbiting around them, and only them, and if she could have her way nothing would ever tear her out of Penny’s arms again.
Much later, she determines it must be a bruise. Penny had slammed into her at an absurd speed, after all, and she’s pretty sure if she hadn’t been aiming for a hug she might have broken a rib or two. Besides, Penny is made almost entirely of metal. It’s only logical that she’d have left some kind of physical impact.
She sits on her bunk in the Atlas dormitory and kicks her legs idly as she waits for Weiss to finish her turn with the shower, trying desperately to ignore the burning feeling. It doesn’t hurt, exactly, but still.
“What’s got you so distracted?” Yang hums.
Ruby turns her head to glance over at her and discovers her sister’s head in Blake’s lap — because of course — and her eyes glazed over with exhaustion, fingers grazing over Blake’s hip and Blake’s forearm like if she lets go of her for even a second they’ll both die instantly. In a particularly sisterly move, she chooses to ignore the obvious comeback.
“Just a bruise,” she shrugs, “don’t worry about it.”
Yang snorts. “A bruise from what? Having a robot girl slam into you at full speed?”
Ruby is, regretfully, too far away to aim a kick at her shoulder. “She was excited to see me.”
Yang pauses, and when she replies, her voice is suddenly careful. “Excited is definitely a word I would use, yeah.”
Whatever response Ruby could have come up with to that is cut off when Weiss slams open the door to the dormitory bathroom and announces that she’s ready for bed. Ruby takes the easy way out of the conversation and bolts through the door behind her before she can so much as finish her sentence.
//
“Penny is your soulmate?”
“Shut up,” Ruby hisses. “No one outside this room can know.”
Jaune makes a face. “Not even Penny? You know, your —”
She slaps a hand over his mouth before he can continue. Her other hand comes up to tug the hood of her cloak lower — not that she needs to; her outfit covers her collarbones just fine — making sure the name scrawled in fine green letters across her skin is hidden adequately. “Especially not her.”
“But don’t you think she might want to know?” Blake hums. Not a direct question, not really. She has a habit of asking questions like these as though they’re passing thoughts.
“Well, yeah, but —” Ruby flushes, letting go of Jaune’s face when his noises of protest start to get louder. “I don’t want to overwhelm her! And I don’t want to push her away! I just — I just got her back, guys.”
Yang huffs a laugh. “Ruby, she adores you.”
“Okay, but —”
“She adores you,” Ren echoes. “If anything, she’ll short-circuit with joy. And who’s to say she doesn’t know already?”
“I kind of wish you hadn’t said that,” Ruby mutters, clamping down on the sudden sick breathlessness rising up from her gut. He smiles apologetically.
//
Penny does, in fact, know already, as it turns out. Not that they’re able to get anything out of either of them about it.
“We’re waiting to see where this huntsman thing takes us,” Ruby says unconvincingly, three weeks after their first ‘talk’ about it. “You know, beating Salem, saving the world, that kind of stuff.”
“Uh-huh,” Yang nods, “and that’s why you take so many patrols alone together?”
She smirks when Ruby’s hand comes up unconsciously to hover over her collarbone. “You know it.”
FILL: TEAM CATRADORA
words: 659
ship: penny polendina/ruby rose
extra notes: penny the robotgirl ever
Ruby chalks the sudden burning sensation in her chest up to shock. Penny is alive, after all, alive and in Mantle all this time, and she thinks she could cry with the relief of it. It feels, in this moment, like the entire world has shifted under her feet — like the sun and stars and the broken moon are orbiting around them, and only them, and if she could have her way nothing would ever tear her out of Penny’s arms again.
Much later, she determines it must be a bruise. Penny had slammed into her at an absurd speed, after all, and she’s pretty sure if she hadn’t been aiming for a hug she might have broken a rib or two. Besides, Penny is made almost entirely of metal. It’s only logical that she’d have left some kind of physical impact.
She sits on her bunk in the Atlas dormitory and kicks her legs idly as she waits for Weiss to finish her turn with the shower, trying desperately to ignore the burning feeling. It doesn’t hurt, exactly, but still.
“What’s got you so distracted?” Yang hums.
Ruby turns her head to glance over at her and discovers her sister’s head in Blake’s lap — because of course — and her eyes glazed over with exhaustion, fingers grazing over Blake’s hip and Blake’s forearm like if she lets go of her for even a second they’ll both die instantly. In a particularly sisterly move, she chooses to ignore the obvious comeback.
“Just a bruise,” she shrugs, “don’t worry about it.”
Yang snorts. “A bruise from what? Having a robot girl slam into you at full speed?”
Ruby is, regretfully, too far away to aim a kick at her shoulder. “She was excited to see me.”
Yang pauses, and when she replies, her voice is suddenly careful. “Excited is definitely a word I would use, yeah.”
Whatever response Ruby could have come up with to that is cut off when Weiss slams open the door to the dormitory bathroom and announces that she’s ready for bed. Ruby takes the easy way out of the conversation and bolts through the door behind her before she can so much as finish her sentence.
//
“Penny is your soulmate?”
“Shut up,” Ruby hisses. “No one outside this room can know.”
Jaune makes a face. “Not even Penny? You know, your —”
She slaps a hand over his mouth before he can continue. Her other hand comes up to tug the hood of her cloak lower — not that she needs to; her outfit covers her collarbones just fine — making sure the name scrawled in fine green letters across her skin is hidden adequately. “Especially not her.”
“But don’t you think she might want to know?” Blake hums. Not a direct question, not really. She has a habit of asking questions like these as though they’re passing thoughts.
“Well, yeah, but —” Ruby flushes, letting go of Jaune’s face when his noises of protest start to get louder. “I don’t want to overwhelm her! And I don’t want to push her away! I just — I just got her back, guys.”
Yang huffs a laugh. “Ruby, she adores you.”
“Okay, but —”
“She adores you,” Ren echoes. “If anything, she’ll short-circuit with joy. And who’s to say she doesn’t know already?”
“I kind of wish you hadn’t said that,” Ruby mutters, clamping down on the sudden sick breathlessness rising up from her gut. He smiles apologetically.
//
Penny does, in fact, know already, as it turns out. Not that they’re able to get anything out of either of them about it.
“We’re waiting to see where this huntsman thing takes us,” Ruby says unconvincingly, three weeks after their first ‘talk’ about it. “You know, beating Salem, saving the world, that kind of stuff.”
“Uh-huh,” Yang nods, “and that’s why you take so many patrols alone together?”
She smirks when Ruby’s hand comes up unconsciously to hover over her collarbone. “You know it.”