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Relationships are complicated, fascinating, and so very varied, and Penny Polendina spends many of her days wondering about them.
She’s been told that there are friendships: the people who you hold close and enjoy spending time with. Penny has made a few friends in her time in Remnant so far, and she cherishes each and every one of them...in the rare moments that she gets to see them, of course.
There are families, and Penny can’t say hers is particularly big. It’s really just her and her father right now (she’s been told about other parents, but she’s content with just the one for now!), and she doesn’t have any actual siblings to speak of.
Although, speaking of siblings, she’s come to view her friend Specialist Winter Schnee as one. She doesn’t have much experience with sisters, but she’s done her research and talked to other people who have them, and she’s gathered enough data to conclude that maybe Winter does kind of feel like a sister to her.
And then, of course, there are romantic relationships. Penny has often been told to keep her nose out of other peoples’ business when she asks about these ones, so she hasn’t gotten as much experience with them for herself. Right now, it’s all theories, ideas, and hypothetical examples.
Maybe she probably shouldn’t have asked Clover and Ruby’s uncle about romantic relationships when she found them kissing in the back of one of the supply trucks, since both of them are a lot quieter around her and each other now.
Kissing, Penny will admit, is something she’s even more curious about. What is it? What’s it for? Is that also just a thing for romantic relationships? How sanitary is it? (She would guess not very, but she could be wrong, and discovering new things is more fascinating than being stubborn about your theories!)
One night, she decides to ask Blake about kissing and about romantic relationships. She notices that her and Yang exhibit many of the same traits and actions of people in love, though she’s learned from her last mistake to wait to talk to one of them alone instead of barging in on their time together (she’s read that people in love tend to enjoy private time together).
She finds Blake reading in a corner of the common room. The lights are dim and there’s no one else here; everyone else has most likely gone to sleep, Penny reasons, as it is midnight, and she’s far too excited about talking to Blake than to question what she’s doing up this late.
“Blake Belladonna!” Penny beckons, and Blake instantly tenses and shrinks against the wall. She waits for a moment to watch Blake calm down and peer around the corner, and smiles when Blake lets out a sigh of relief.
“Hey Penny,” she murmurs gently. “What are you doing up?”
Penny offers her a smile. “I like to patrol the Academy late at night! Pretending to sleep can get very boring if I have nothing to dream about.”
Blake quirks an eyebrow at her but nods nonetheless. “I didn’t know you dreamed.”
“It’s a mode I can engage while in standby,” Penny explains to her. “It can be quite amusing when I’m waiting between missions. I sometimes have the craziest dreams.”
“I can imagine,” Blake says with a light giggle.
Penny pauses to consider Blake’s statement, wondering what kinds of things Blake imagines Penny thinks of when she dreams, but decides to push her minor curiosities aside in favour of the idea that’s been on her mind all week.
“Blake,” Penny begins, “would you kiss Yang?”
Again, Blake goes stiff, and her cheeks take on a very bright red complexion. She blinks a few times as if in confusion and Penny tilts her head, equally as confused.
“Did I say something wrong?” Penny asks, slightly deflated. This wouldn’t be the first time her curiosity got her reprimanded.
“No! No, not really,” Blake replies as she waves her arms in front of her before they settle around her midsection. “It’s just a very forward question. Why do you ask?”
Penny exhales in relief. “Excellent! I’ve been thinking a lot about romantic relationships a lot recently, and unfortunately Specialist Clover and Qrow won’t talk to me anymore except for on missions, and so I figured I’d have to ask the only other couple I know of about romance and, well, about kissing.”
Blake steps towards her with a curious expression. “Only other couple?”
“Yes.”
“As in Clover and Qrow are…?”
“I had assumed they were a romantic couple, but I suppose friends could kiss each other, too--”
Blake interrupts Penny’s train of thought with a stifled snicker and a murmured ‘oh my Gods’. Penny tilts her head to the other side, once more confused about Blake’s reactions.
“Did no one else know about that? I had assumed they were based on all the traits they exhibited while together, many of which are similar to those exhibited by you and Yang.”
Again, Blake’s cheeks turn red, and Penny starts to think that she’s probably a little bashful. Maybe romance is something to be embarrassed about, she reckons, but she fights against that idea. If she were in love with someone she would absolutely want the entire world to know!
“Well,” Blake begins, and she pauses for a moment as she seemingly considers her words. Penny knows the expression well enough, as it’s one worn by many people when they try and explain things to her. “I suppose you could say I do have romantic feelings for Yang.”
“I see,” Penny murmurs thoughtfully. “And would you say that these feelings are reciprocated by Yang?”
Blake takes a long, heavy breath in. “I hope they are.”
“Would kissing her help her feel the same way?”
“It doesn’t quite work that way, Penny,” Blake explains with a small laugh, and then her expression changes to one that Penny can’t quite place. “You have to make sure the other person is okay with it first.”
“So you would both have to agree to romantic relations beforehand?”
“It’s a little bit more complicated than that, but basically,” Blake says. “At the very least, you have to make sure they want to be kissed.”
“I understand. You have to establish consent, then!”
Blake blinks in her, almost as though she’s surprised. “Yeah, that’s exactly it.”
“Excellent! I’m glad that my reading paid off!” Penny bounces delightedly. She’s done her own research, but there’s only so much she can learn from text before she needs the opinions and perspectives of those far more experienced than herself.
She supposes that kissing her friends would be a little bit strange considering she isn’t romantically interested in all of them, and given that kissing seems to be relegated primarily to romantic relationships (something she’s still very unfamiliar with) there must be other ways to show affection to those friends she doesn’t see in that way.
Despite that, there’s a pang of curiosity that remains inside of her, a thought that’s been at the forefront of most of her dreams ever since that surprising night in Mantle. If Blake’s here answering her questions, she doesn’t see any harm in asking a few more at least.
“What’s kissing like?” Penny asks, though this time her voice is a little bit smaller.
Blake purses her lips and dips her eyes away from Penny. “I mean,” she begins, “I can’t say I’ve had the best experiences with it. I can only tell you what it should be like.”
Penny nods, eager to understand.
Blake pauses, pulling her arms further around her midsection. Penny suspects that Blake’s past with romance hasn’t been ideal based on her hesitance to discuss her own experiences, and she wonders if maybe she’s crossed another line.
She’s fairly relieved, however, when Blake begins to speak. “I suppose it should be nice, above all else. Like, it should make your heart race and your cheeks burn and your mind go wild and silent at the same time.”
“Wild and silent at the same time…?”
“Yeah, kind of like...your thoughts race with every good thought about the person you’re kissing, but you’re entirely focused on them.”
Penny nods. “I assume kissing would also be a little bit wet, too, and somewhat unsanitary?”
Blake laughs and lets her arms fall to her sides. “Yes, Penny, I guess it is. But when you’re kissing someone you really want to kiss, it doesn’t matter.”
Penny nods again and files that information away for later. Kissing is a little bit wet and somewhat unsanitary, but you aren’t supposed to care, and she’ll try her best to remember that part most of all.
She’s delighted at how much she’s learned in such a short conversation, and still she can’t wait to potentially put it into practice. Though, now she knows, consent comes first, and she has to make sure the person she’s kissing wants to be kissed by her. Still, she can’t help but bounce giddily at the thought of knowing a bit more about this subject now.
Blake watches her curiously. “Penny?”
“Yes, Blake?”
“Is there someone you want to kiss?”
Penny blinks at her. “No,” she says right before hiccuping.
Blake smirks at her, an expression she’s come to understand means playful suspicion. “Penny…”
Penny tries not to say anything, but her excitement quickly gets the better of her. “Well, you can’t tell anyone, but I think I’d like to kiss Ruby!”
Blake’s eyes widen, but her smile becomes genuine and kind. “Penny, that’s so sweet!”
“It is?” she asks.
“It is,” Blake reaffirms her. “I think maybe you might be exhibiting some of those ‘romantic traits’ you were speaking of before yourself.”
Perhaps Blake is right, Penny muses, and she takes a moment to herself to evaluate the data. People in love often seek out the company of the person they love, and any moment Penny isn’t on a mission she’s going after Ruby to spend time with her.
People in love often think about the person they love when nothing else is on their mind, and Penny has thought quite a bit about how wonderful and inspiring and beautiful Ruby is, how much fun she is to be around and how exciting her hugs are.
People in love often dream of hypothetical scenarios where the person they love shares the same feelings as them, and Penny has crafted multiple hypothetical scenarios in her mind wherein Ruby expresses a desire to be closer to Penny (and she may be beyond thrilled any time those scenarios involve Ruby calling her her girlfriend).
“I suppose I do,” Penny says with a giddy smile. “Should I ask if I can kiss her?”
Blake puts a cautious hand up. “Well, you might want to start smaller, Penny. Maybe try and show her how you feel and see if she reciprocates in any way?”
“Show her how I feel?”
“Yeah! I’m sure you’ve come across plenty of examples, right? Things like complimenting her or laughing a little harder at her jokes?”
Penny’s brow furrows. “And that works with Yang?”
Again, Blake goes red. “I mean, I think it does.”
“Noted!” Penny says with an excited nod. “I’ll be sure to keep these in mind when I see Ruby next! Thank you, Blake! You’ve been most helpful!”
“I’m glad I could help,” Blake tells her before nestling herself back into her spot by the window with her book.
Penny turns away, already cycling through the treasure trove of information Blake’s given her about romance and kissing and what to do about her feelings for Ruby. With every step she takes, she crafts a new scenario wherein she compliments Ruby’s hair or eyes (her favourite features of hers) or laughs with twenty to thirty-percent more vigor at her jokes.
When she finally settles in for the night, Penny dreams of all the wonderful things she’ll get to say to Ruby, and when her standby mode activates the last image her mind retains is that of her finally getting to kiss Ruby.
“Ruby!” Penny calls out the next day when she sees her.
They’ve both been assigned Mantle patrol for the day--something that Penny is quite familiar with enjoys the familiarity of--and Penny catches her grabbing the rest of her gear for the day from her locker.
Ruby’s shimmering silver eyes fall on Penny, and immediately a lump forms in her throat, the kind that makes her want to hiccup. She’s not telling any lies right now, so she shouldn’t be reacting this way, but she manages to stifle it so that Ruby doesn’t catch onto anything.
“Morning, Penny!” she says gleefully, and Penny absolutely adores the way Ruby says her name with so much excitement and joy. “Ready for our patrol?”
“Absolutely!” Penny says, and then she hiccups, and then she covers her mouth as if she can shove the sound back inside her.
Ruby shoots her a suspicious glance. “Are you...not ready for our patrol? I’m sure we could wait a few more minutes until you’re ready--”
“Your hair looks wonderful this morning!” Penny blurts, and then hiccups again.
Ruby’s expression remains suspicious, and Penny begins to wonder just how reliable Blake’s advice was; after all, she was speaking mostly in hypotheticals, so perhaps there were things that she was unsure of too.
Romance is so difficult, Penny thinks.
“Penny, are you okay? Do we need to go see your father?” Ruby asks, and Penny wishes she could keep her mind quiet as she runs through every other option she has left.
“Ha!” she exclaims, and hiccups, and even for her it’s a bit unbelievable, but she sticks to her guns in the hopes that this tactic will work. “See my father! What an excellent joke, Ruby Rose! You’re so funny! Hic!”
Ruby shakes her head and steps forward, right up close to Penny, and she can feel every circuit in her body jolting with nervous energy.
“I’m not being funny, Penny,” she says gently. “Are you okay?”
Penny sighs and curls her fingers around her arm, looking away from Ruby’s overwhelmingly gorgeous eyes and painfully sincere expression. She wonders if she should be embarrassed about all this; after all, everyone else seems to be embarrassed about romance, and while she’d initially thought it should be something to celebrate loudly, maybe her theory just wasn’t correct.
She can’t lie to Ruby, though. Ruby’s always valued honesty and has been hurt by dishonesty more than a few times, and those are only the instances she’s told Penny about. The last thing Penny wants to be is a source of hurt for her again. Ruby’s far too incredible for that, after all.
“I’m not okay,” she finally admits. “I’m confused. I’ve been trying to figure out what romance is a lot these days, and I spoke to Blake last night about kissing, too, but I suppose I’m not very good at it.”
Ruby pouts slightly and her brows knit in concern. “What are you saying, Penny?”
Penny inhales: if she’s going to do this, she’ll do it with the confidence and sureness she’d expect of herself in any other situation.
“Ruby Rose, I think I’m in love with you and I would like to kiss you, but only if you allow it!”
Ruby stiffens, and her face flushes scarlet like her cape, and Penny’s beginning to sense a bit of a pattern.
She waits patiently for Ruby’s response, watching her sway back and forth on her heels as she regards Penny with wide, shocked eyes.
Once more, Penny feels like a boundary has been stepped over, and so she steps back. “Ruby?”
“K-kiss me...you want to kiss me…” Ruby murmurs, and she remains unblinking as she processes the words.
“Only if you allow it!” Penny reassures her.
“Wow, heh, you want to kiss me, huh?” Ruby says as some semblance of control seems to come back to her. She takes a wobbly step back and wraps her fingers into the folds of her cowl. “Penny Polendina wants to kiss me!”
Penny watches as Ruby takes staggering steps around the launching bay, murmuring incoherently to herself and shaking her hands and her head in a way that Penny is very unfamiliar with.
“Ruby?”
“You wanna kiss me,” Ruby echoes with an airy tone. “Whew, is it just me or is it hot in here?”
“The temperature should be the same as it was when we arrived,” Penny states.
Ruby nods. “Okay, just me. Wow. I’m just…”
“Just what?” Penny asks. “Embarrassed? Did I just embarrass you, Ruby?”
“No! No, Penny, not at all!” She pauses and curls her fingers tighter around her hood. “Okay, well, maybe a little, but I’ve just never had anyone ask to kiss me.”
“Well they should be asking,” Penny says. “They shouldn’t kiss you without asking first.”
Ruby shakes her head. “No, I mean...I’ve never actually kissed anyone. I didn’t really think I’d ever want to, honestly.”
“Oh.” Penny’s chin tilts down and her gaze falls to her feet. She knows she shouldn’t be upset that Ruby doesn’t want to kiss her--after all, Ruby doesn’t want to kiss anyone, and Penny needs to respect that--but she can’t help but feel disappointment that every scenario she crafted in her mind didn’t account for this possibility at all.
Ruby reaches out and takes Penny’s hands in her own, and Penny looks at their joined hands in confusion.
“Hey,” Ruby says in a soft voice that always manages to make Penny feel safer, “I said I didn’t think I wanted to. But that was before, and I can’t say I don’t like the idea of you kissing me.”
Suddenly, every circuit and gear inside Penny starts to work overtime to process what Ruby’s just said. She sorts through the roundabout statement a few times before focusing on the main part of it, and she feels her body begin to heat up with how much every part of her is whirring to keep up.
“So you would like me to kiss you?” Penny asks; she’s sure she knows the answer, but she wants to be entirely certain.
Ruby nods softly and finally manages to catch Penny’s gaze again. “Maybe after our patrol, though? I think there’s probably some stuff we should talk about.”
“Affirmative!” Penny exclaims with another hiccup, one brought on by excitement rather than anxiety. “Then let’s do our patrol and get back in time to talk!”
Ruby gives her hands a quick squeeze before turning back to the ship, and a shiver of pure glee travels through Penny’s body. At this rate, she’ll be sure to make sure Mantle is in tip-top shape so that her and Ruby can talk and kiss and be with each other for even longer after the mission is done.
Penny quickly follows Ruby to the ship, bounding with delight as she does so. In the meantime, she’ll enjoy the time spent with Ruby as they make their way to Mantle and as they perform their duties.
And she might just indulge in small, exciting hypothetical scenarios as well, though soon she’ll get to see just how accurate any of them are.
Romance really wasn’t as difficult as everyone had made it out to be, after all, and she’s certainly not embarrassed by it one bit.