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Mandarin Oranges

Summary:

Penny spends some downtime on the ship.

Jessie pays her a visit.

Notes:

There's something real personal about sharing an orange.

Am I projecting? Maybe.

Enjoy!

Work Text:

Scurvy wasn't something Penny had to worry about.

Honestly? It never was.

Nowadays, everyone and their mom knew that Vitamin C could stave off the scourge of the seas, and even if she did get it, no regular sickness could do anything more to a Brawler than be a mild inconvenience for about a day. Or until next respawn. Whichever passed first.

Didn't stop her from sitting above deck atop a stack of crates, though, watching the clouds float by as she methodically peeled her third tiny orange of the day. She let her tongue stick out in concentration, a long orange ribbon dangling from her hands as she tried to peel everything off in one go, the bright, tart smell of the orange peels mingling with the salty sea breeze.

"HA! Yes!" She cheered, pulling away a perfect, draping spiral away from a now-peeled tiny orange.

"Penny!" A voice called up from the deck of the ship.

Penny dropped the peel in a growing pile beside her, twisting around to look below.

Bright red pigtails, bursting from beneath a yellow hat.

"Jessie!" She grinned. "Get up here!"

The mechanic girl clambered up the stack of crates, Penny scooting to the side with her bag of oranges and moving her pile of peels to a lower crate to make room for her. Jessie plopped herself down next to her.

"Hi!" Jessie smiled, her cheeks flushed from the exertion.

"Hi!" Penny returned, her own cheeks warming despite the fact she'd done nothing but sit this whole time. "I woulda helped pull you up, but... uh..."

She splayed her hand, fingertips coated in orange peel residue and juice.

"Nah, it's fine! S'just a pile of crates, we've both had worse!" Jessie laughed, pushing some stray hairs back under her cap.

"Ain't that a fact." Penny pulled the peeled fruit in her hands in half, holding it out in offering. "Want some? I got a pretty good batch of tiny oranges from Rosa."

"You mean mandarin oranges?" Jessie accepted, taking the half.

"Bah, potato, tomato. It's tiny and it's an orange, what more do ya need?" Penny snorted, popping a segment in her mouth. Jessie giggled, doing the same.

They sat in silence for a bit, eating their (mandarin) oranges. It was a good batch. Juicy and delicious, with a bright, citrusy taste that was just tart enough to make her tongue tingle.

"So, what're you here for?" Penny asked.

"We finished up early at the garage, so Mama said I could go do whatever for a bit before lunch!" Jessie said, eating another piece. "So... I thought I'd hang out with you."

"Aw, you sayin' you like me, Junker?" Penny teased.

"Well, maybe I am!" Jessie huffed, cramming the rest of her orange in her mouth and crossing her arms with a little "hmph!"

Penny laughed, grabbing another orange.

"Sorry to disappoint, but I'm not doing much right now." She said, beginning to peel the orange. "Just snackin' and cloud watching."

"That's fine." Jessie replied. Penny finished peeling, broke the fruit in two, and handed half to Jessie. She took it. "You really like oranges, huh?"

"Yyyep." Penny added the peel to the pile by her feet. "Keeps scurvy away and gives me something to do with my hands. Easy to eat, too! Grows pre-packaged in bite-sized pieces!"

Jessie let out a hum of agreement.

"Nita says that oranges grow in segments because they're meant to be shared." She said thoughtfully, licking a drop of orange juice off of her thumb. "That's probably not it, but I like that idea."

Penny looked at Jessie as she looked out to sea, reds and yellows backdropped against the blue sky. Somehow, the fact that she had half an orange in her hand fit perfectly in this little snapshot.

"...I like that idea too."