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"I cannot wait to show you my private quarters!" Penny skips down the hall, leading Ruby behind her.
"You mean I've been sleeping in a bunk bed for three weeks for no reason?"
"Well, I don't have a team, so I have a small place for myself by the lab. Just two rooms, nothing too extravagant. A small bed, a wardrobe for my clothes, a television, bookshelf. Normal girl things."
"And the other room?"
"My pets! You get to meet them!"
"You have pets?"
"Mmhmm! Come on!"
"So your pets just stay in a room all day?"
"They aren't like Zwei," Penny explains. "Come on, come on, come say hello!" Penny gingerly opens the door and steps in.
Ruby's seen a lot of breathtaking things in her lifetime, particularly the last two years. A girl made of nuts and bolts, who can effortlessly slice an airship in half. Herds of Grimm older than the kingdoms. A city carved into a mountain. A flying city. But she's still shocked by what she sees now.
In the dimly lit room, three massive floor-to-ceiling fish tanks on the side and back walls, filled with decorations and a menagerie of fish.
"Fish?" Ruby asks.
"Betta fish!" Penny spins on her heel, finger raised. "Or "bay-tuh" fish. I love them, Ruby. They're my main hobby." She leans in close and whispers, "I'm obsessed."
"So this is what you do when you aren't saving Mantle."
"Correct!" Penny sweeps her arm around the room. "I spend my free time caring for my babies. Cleaning their tanks, feeding them, intervening in social disputes, and so on."
"Wow." Ruby bends down and looks into one of the tanks. "This is amazing, Penny."
"Do not exaggerate, Ruby. You've certainly seen better."
"Penny, I've never seen something like this before. Maybe a small fish tank that's more of an afterthought. Not this."
"Fish are an expensive and time-consuming hobby. Good thing these fish are government-funded."
Ruby snickers. "Wait, you don't get paid. Do you?"
"I have personal funds," Penny coyly answers. "But let us not worry about that."
"Do they have names?"
"Oh, yes! This one" - Penny points at a bright green betta with a veiltail - "her name is Taylor. And the pale yellow one with the gold, halfmoon shaped fins - her name is Barb."
"Ooh. It's nice to meet you, Taylor and Barb," Ruby jokingly says. "I'm Ruby." Ruby straightens her back and stands up, pushing off her thighs with her hands. "These are all...girl fish? Is there a term for that?"
"Yes, these are all female fish. No, there is not a specific term for female members of the species Betta splendens. Did you know that their species name translates as 'bright', in reference to the vivid colors they're bred for?"
"I did not. That's actually really interesting. Got any interesting facts for me?"
Penny claps her hands together. "I do, in fact! Betta fish - technically, it's a genus of fish, but the colloquial term for Betta splendens is just 'betta' - they have so many colors! They have layered pigmentation that comes together to make their 'color'! That's how you have such a variety, even metallic fish! Like Barb! And they can have so many different patterns, like piebald or dragon. And their fins can grow in so many interesting ways! Barb is a halfmoon, which means her tailfin forms what is approximately an angle of 180 degrees. Taylor's a veiltail because her tail is elongated and asymmetrical. Oh, but I have a rosetail and she's just absolutely spectacular . I think she's the prettiest fish I have."
"A rosetail?" Ruby makes a noise conveying interest. "Is she in here?"
"Back wall." Penny steps across the room over to the farthest tank and peers in. "Here she is! Come look!" Penny lifts her dress up and kneels on the ground, letting the fabric spill down around her.
Ruby squats down next to Penny, before realizing how uncomfortable she is and sitting down, legs splayed out to the side. "Where?"
"There." Penny points at a crimson-colored betta with a wild overlapping set of fins, almost like the petals on a rose. Ruby pulls the brooch from her belt and holds it up for comparison.
"Not quite my rose, but I can see why that's what you call it." Ruby clips her brooch back, fruitlessly rubbing at a stray hair on it before realizing it's just a scratch on the medal. "What's her name?"
"It's -" Penny frowns. "A-Agnes?" Penny covers her mouth as she hiccups.
"Agnes?" Ruby squeaks. "Wait. Why are you lying?"
"I'm not!" Hiccup! "I just...have...allergies?" Hiccup!
"Penny."
Penny sighs and picks at the hem of her dress, staring down. "If I tell you her name you'll think I'm weird."
"Penny, without sounding mean, it's a little late for that." Ruby nudges Penny with her shoulder. "But if you're worried about me judging you, I promise you won't. How bad could the fish's name be? What, is it some pompous name like "Madame Superflous von Bartleby'?"
Penny giggles. "No, nothing that silly."
"Oh, Brothers! It's not a pun, is it? Please, that I can't handle. Yang wanted to name Zwei 'Harbin-fur'. I don't think Uncle Qrow or I would've ever forgiven her."
Penny laughs even harder. "That's terrible! No, I would never! My babies all have normal names."
"So what - what is her name?"
Penny bites her lip, then buries her face in her hands and mumbles something unintelligible.
"I can't hear you."
Penny lifts her head. "Ruby."
"What?"
"No, her" - Penny points at the fish - "her name is Ruby Rose." Penny groans.
"You named a fish after me? I feel honored."
"I'm sorry. I missed all of you." Penny leans back, pulls her knees to her chest. "Everyone in this fish tank is named after someone close to me. Ruby reminded me of you - a dark red rosetail? Of course I'd name her after my best friend. The other fish here are named after my friends. Well, female friends. Male and female betta fish fight. But there are bettas in the male's tank named after my friends too."
"Don't be sorry." Ruby puts a hand on Penny's shoulder. "You're embarrassed? No reason to be. We all have our...methods of coping." Ruby closes her eyes, thinking about Jaune's red sash, Ren's dagger, and her old white, puffy-sleeved blouse. "I don't - I don't think anyone would shame you for this, Penny."
Penny hangs her head. "I named...one of them, after Pyrrha," Penny whispers, her voice stilted and jittery like it was years ago. "General Ironwood told me about her. I figured it would be a way to honor her." Penny leans her head on Ruby's shoulder, sniffling quietly. An all-too human emotion. "That one," she mumbles. "Red body, dull gold metallic fins. Doubletail."
Ruby sees it immediately, a small glint of the light drawing her attention. It is, in fact, red and gold, almost identical to Pyrrha.
"I didn't - " Penny half-sobs, trying not to cry. "I did not think I would ever see you again, you know. By the time I was rebuilt, I couldn't even go see Weiss. She was gone. But I missed you the most."
Ruby stares at the fish flitting around the tank, carefree. Much like Ruby before the Fall. "I missed you. I saw you die, Penny. I saw you and Pyrrha both die." Ruby's hand slowly intertwines with Penny's, neither of them commenting on it. "And I know other people saw you get hurt at the Vytal Festival. But I think...I think that it hurt me the most, out of everyone. Not your father, maybe, but..." Tears begin to stream down her face. "If I was just a bit faster...if I had slipped past Mercury...or if I got to Beacon Tower just a second earlier..."
"It's not your fault, Ruby. It's hers. Cinder, Salem." Penny squeezes Ruby's hand so hard it hurts. "And I will not let them take you away from me again." Penny closes her eyes. "I do not want any more of my bettas to be a memorial to the fallen."
"They won't be. I promised myself no one else would die."
"You should not make promises you can't keep."
"I don't. I refuse to lose you twice."
Penny falls even lower, sliding down so that her head is in Ruby's lap. Her hand falls out of Ruby's just by necessity.
"Tell me about the rest of your fish," Ruby murmurs, playing with Penny's hair. "Who they are."
Penny curls up, thinking. "Black, white piebald. Plakat. That's, um, short fins. That one's Blake."
"I see her. That yellow one with the big tail, is that Yang?"
"Mmhmm. Super yellow, feathertail. Big and bold and bright and fluffy."
"That's Yang." Ruby sniffs, wiping away the dried-up tears on her face. "Is Weiss the white one with the turquoise fins?"
"No, that's Winter. Weiss is the one with a turquoise body and white fins. Both veiltails."
"You have one named after Winter? She's been here with you."
"The fish were sisters. It made sense to me."
"I guess." Ruby glances down at the orange locks in her hand. "Your hair's very soft."
"The finest synthetic materials. Actually, my hair's made of silk, reinforced with a polymer made by my father."
Ruby chuckles. "I've heard the other girls call their hair 'silky smooth', but..."
Penny giggles in response. "I've been known to take things literally."
"Hmmm, I don't know. Why don't you plan for six possible outcomes while you're laying here?"
"Hey!" Penny waves her arm in Ruby's general direction, completely misjudging her aim and not even touching Ruby. "I know what that means now."
The corners of Ruby's lips twitch. "Pink, with white splotches and short fins."
"Nora," Penny answers. "Pink-and-white marble pattern, plakat. She's just as feisty as Nora."
"Well, gotta keep the other bettas on their toes," Ruby notes.
"Betta fish do not have toes. They are fish."
"And there you go with the not getting metaphors," Ruby says, mimicking exaggerated exasperation. "At least you're cute."
Penny opens her eyes and rolls over, staring up at Ruby with wide eyes. "What?"
"What?"
"Did you just call me cute?"
"N-no!" Ruby swears at herself in her head. "I was talking about the fish."
Penny grins. "It's okay, Ruby. I think you're cute too."
"Penny!" Ruby blushes. "I'm waiting for the hiccup."
"There won't be one. I am not lying."
Ruby becomes very interested in the betta fish.
"Perhaps," Penny continues, "my cores are overheated?" She closes her eyes for a moment. "No, my internals are running in peak condition." Eyes open back up, studying Ruby. "My physical senses are not quite as...precise as yours. Food tastes muted, I identify smells by breaking down the chemical compounds of the scents and analyzing them. Things like that. But right now, I feel very warm and safe."
Ruby doesn't respond, just blushes.
"Ruby, I - before the Fall of Beacon. I told you I wanted to stay at Beacon. I did have other friends there, but you - you were the one I wanted to stay for. I could not bear the thought of being parted from you, of leaving you. And then, I was. And it hurt. It hurt worse than the wires cutting me, worse than any pain I had ever felt before. And I wasn't sure why it hurt so bad."
"You lost somebody close to you," Ruby explains. "That hurts. More than any blade could. Loss is a part of being human, though. We have to accept it and move forward."
"I...suppose. I - what's the expression?" Penny racks her brain. "I threw myself into my job as the Protector of Mantle. I think it was to not think about you."
"I still have nightmares," Ruby admits. "I've always had nightmares about the people I've lost - my mom, Pyrrha, you. But I'm still having nightmares about losing you. I can't do that twice."
"I don't want to lose you again either. I think, based on my observations...you are one of the three most important people to me. My father, Winter, and you. Winter is like a sister to me, or a best friend. But you - I feel different about you". Penny clasps her hands together at her waist, methodically twiddling her thumbs. "It's not exactly an emotion I've felt before."
"Felt before me, you mean."
Penny nods briskly. "I think...when I told you about me being different. In that alley. And you reassured me that just because I was different in body from you, I wasn't different in - myself? Soul, mind, being - that."
"Your true self."
"Yes, that's a good way to explain it." Penny continues, "I knew then how I felt about you. That I loved you."
Ruby's body tenses up, and the fish are suddenly no longer interesting. "What?"
"I love you, Ruby."
Ruby laughs stiffly. "Are you feeling okay?"
"I have never felt better." Penny smiles, bright and honest. "Ever since you came back to me."
"I - me too." Ruby pushes the hair off of Penny's forehead, gently. "I love you too, Penny." Ruby huffs, quietly.
"I know, Ruby. You don't have to tell me." Penny hops off of the floor. "Sorry, I think we may have gotten too sentimental. Would you like me to show you the rest of my fish?"
"Yeah, Penny," Ruby says, voice low. "I would love that."