Work Text:
⭐ Lightning Bug 🧡
Salutations, Ruby
1:18 PM
Heya bug what’s up?
1:19 PM
You are so pulchritudinous
1:21 PM
Is that English?
1:24 PM
Yes
1:24 PM
What does it mean?
1:24 PM
"Beyond beautiful; a person of
breathtaking, heartbreaking beauty."
1:25 PM
OH MY GODS???
1:30 PM
I saw the word and immediately thought of you,
moonlight. The word refers to physical beauty,
but there is so much more to you than that.
As ever, I endeavor to learn more ways with which
to attempt to describe you and yet nothing ever
feels sufficient.
1:33 PM
PENNY 🫠
1:45 PM
ALKSFJDSG
💖💖💖💖
1:53 PM
I still don’t know what to say
you belong in a museum
You look like a painting from the rain a
sauce
rainesaunce
ressasaunce
3:16 AM
⭐ Lightning Bug 🧡
the renaissance
3:18 AM
Yesss
wait shouldnt you be asleep bug
3:18 AM
Shouldn’t you?
3:19 AM
well yea but
you know my sleep is trashed lol
3:20 AM
Do you require sleep cuddles?
3:20 AM
No bug, im ok
I wouldnt ask you to come over
so late
3:20 AM
Following the optimal route I could be in
your bed in no more than 15 minutes
and 45 seconds. And then I could hold
you until you fall asleep, and then you will
have a good rest which studies indicate is
vital to mental and physical health.
3:22 AM
…do you want to come over, Penny?
3:23 AM
If you would like me to.
3:24 AM
I always want to be around you,
Penelope Polendina.
3:24 AM
I am sorry, Ruby, but I cannot think of how
to articulate how that makes me feel. My
heart feels full and my body feels warm
and fuzzy and very very light.
I will be there in precisely 11 minutes and
34 seconds.
3:30 AM
I thought you said the optimal route
was 15 minutes and 45 seconds?
3:31 AM
You let me worry about that, starlight
3:31 AM
As usual when cuddled up in the arms of her wonderful girlfriend, Ruby was slow to wake. Half-in and half-out of true wakefulness, Ruby luxuriates in the warmth of Penny's embrace and reflects back to the previous night.
True to her word, Penny shows up at Ruby's apartment door precisely 11 minutes and 34 seconds after her last message. She offers no explanation nor clarification, just dons a mischievous smile and skips into the bedroom.
The top drawer of Ruby's dresser was reserved for Penny's clothes, and Ruby (as was the case every time she remembered it) had felt a surge of joy that the woman who meant so much to her had a place for her things in Ruby's home. The surge had made her feel lightheaded and light-limbed, so she'd flopped onto the bed before she fell over.
Rolling onto her side, she'd watched as Penny slipped off her hoodie and her loose, baggy pants. Greedily, hungrily, Ruby's eyes had slipped down to Penny's cute butt, clad in simple pastel orange panties. Light-gray eyes trailed further down, drinking in smooth, freckle-dusted thighs and appreciating the muscle definition as they flexed and tensed while Penny pulled on a pair of sleep shorts.
When Penny turned around, Ruby noticed the shirt Penny was wearing: faded black tee with a rose that had once been red, but was now something closer to pink after years of wear. The most important detail was that it had once been Ruby's, and had mysteriously gone missing one night. Until tonight, it had never graced Ruby's presence again. Something primal, something straight from her lizard hindbrain, had sparked at seeing Penny in her clothes, and Ruby decided then and there she wouldn't mind if Penny stole every article of clothing she owned.
Sleep had begun to claim her quickly, snuggling up into Penny's chest and burying her face into Penny's neck. With Penny's long hair tickling her cheek, Penny's spicy and warm caramely-amber scent in her nose, Penny's arms tucked under hers and wrapped around her waist, her legs hopelessly tangled with Penny's, and Penny's breath fanning across the top of her head? Really there was no option but to sleep soundly.
"You smell nice," Ruby mumbles, her words muffled and nasally as her nose was currently burrowing into Penny's neck.
The woman giggles, a sound like bells chiming, "Do I?'
"mmhmm."
"I'm glad. I remember it has been awhile since I sprayed your pillows with my perfume. I packed some, and a whole extra bottle for your personal use."
Even with a brain muddled by near-sleep the words pierce deep, warming Ruby up from head to toe. She feels like she might cry. In response she can only nuzzle deeper and make...what she hopes is interpreted as a noise of affirmation.
What would be such a simple act of care for anyone else means everything to Ruby. The only thing she remembers of her mother is warmth and strawberries. A sensation and a smell. Because of the accident, Penny herself can't smell (or taste), but she always, always remembers that Ruby very much can, and that smells are important to her.
Neither Penny nor Ruby really have to say it, but they do anyway sometimes. And they say other things they don't necessarily have to say, as well.
Just before sleep claimed her, her brain already sluggish and in the process of shutting down, Penny’s voice drifts to her ears, again, soft like goose down.
"Ruby?"
"Yeah, Penny?"
"...I love you." Speaking of things they say that don't need to be said, but are said anyway. "Truthfully? I had trouble falling asleep too. Our interaction tonight was a pretense to have you invite me over."
"I figured, bug. But you can always just ask, ya know that right?"
"I do. But sometimes I feel...awkward. Or, overly clingy."
Ruby considers that. She considers their position, right now, completely wrapped up with the other with no more than an inch of space between their bodies anywhere.
"I like clingy. And I love you, too, Penelope."
Ruby feels Penny's smile, and then she's being squeezed a little tighter by the taller woman.
"I really like the way you say my name."
Now it's Ruby's turn to smile, and she knows Penny can feel it.
"Good night, Penelope."
"Good night, rosebud."
With a warm smile on her face and a fullness in her heart, Ruby prepares herself to turn and stare at Penny’s face. She wonders if Penny is still asleep, if she'll get to see her soft, freckled face all relaxed and cute.
They're spooning, the usual position they end up in, with Penny as the big spoon. After Penny was bed-locked in Atlas for several months for the procedure to reconstruct parts of her spine and reattach nerve endings, there was this irrational little voice in Ruby's head that insisted, at any moment, Penny would be taken away again. Ruby had been locked into a research project that would determine her future prospects so they'd only had face-time and Ruby making the trip to Atlas every weekend she could.
But there is something off about this embrace. There has been something off the entire time, and the last dregs of sleep were banished entirely as Ruby felt her hair being wetted, the source of which can only be Penny’s face, which is pressing deep into the black-and-red locks.
"Penny??" Ruby inquires, voice thick with concern and trying to roll over, only to have her midsection squeezed tighter. Penny shakes her head violently. "What's wrong, firefly?"
Penny can only shake her head again, and then Ruby feels the ginger woman take in a massive breath, seemingly through her nose, and she holds it for longer than Ruby can remember her doing before.
"Ruby." Penny's voice is thick and watery and raspy. Ruby's fingers stroke Penny's knuckles, and waits. Penny will continue when she's ready.
"Ruby...strawberries."
Ruby's brow furrows. Strawberries? She wants to understand. She wants to turn around and hold Penny so bad, but Penny isn't letting her.
"Your hair, Ruby. It smells like strawberries."
Oh.
Oh.
Ruby doesn't want to say anything. She can't think of anything to say. She wants to ask if Penny is okay. She wants to cry. She wants to scream with happiness.
"And my breath tastes awful."
And in the end that's what does it. That simple phrase. Spoken so earnestly, so reverently; such a common, ordinary thing that Penny spent most of her life without.
Ruby laughs. She laughs, a delighted sound that Penny is soon joining, and then Penny's arms finally loosen and Ruby is twisting immediately, grinning while crying herself, staring up into a tear-streaked face and bright green eyes.
Immediately Ruby's hand comes up to Penny's cheek, her thumb grazing over freckles and wiping through tear tracks. "Are you okay?"
Penny's face softens at the question and she nuzzles into Ruby's hand, nodding as her eyes slide closed, "Yes, Ruby, I think I am very much okay. The doctors, they have always said taste and smell could potentially just...come back one day. That the science behind nerve damage is still in-exact. It is imprecise, and much relies on theory and observation. It is a bit like memory. I could never experience them again, or experience like how I experience touch, or they could just...return."
Penny takes a moment, then, to simply breathe. Her hand comes up to Ruby's wrist, and she angles her face so she can burrow her nose into the skin. Ruby would give Penny all the time she needs to adjust, so she just lays there, gazing at her girlfriend, her own personal Sun come down to Remnant.
"It is all so overwhelming...I don't know how you cope with so many smells."
"I haven't really...given it much thought? But I know your brain starts to...like...reduce awareness of certain smells. Heard it called being 'noseblind'? Maybe that'll happen for you."
Ruby isn't sure Penny heard her? Her eyes are closed, still, and her nose is still buried in Ruby's wrist. It tickles a little, but there is a lot Ruby will suffer for Penny's sake.
"You smell wonderful, moonlight."
The words are spoken with such reverence, Ruby's knees feel weak. Penny moves, then, bringing her lips to Ruby's in a soft press. Which slowly gives way to a more demanding press, and before long it's something hungry. Ruby feels Penny's tongue along her bottom lip and she parts eagerly, offering up whatever her girlfriend desires. Enough time passes that her head, still addled by sleep, starts to spin but she doesn't pull away. She leans in, pressing her face into Penny's, completely taken.
Over the two years they've dated she's shared many kisses with Penny. From awkward and light pecks to heated liplocks, each one is an experience she will always cherish in her heart. She had thought, perhaps foolishly, that they'd experienced every kind of kiss there was to experience: after all, they kissed a lot.
But this is something entirely new. This is something unexpected, something before now that would have felt unimaginable. Penny's scent is all around her and for the first time in their lives, hers is all around Penny. Just that alone makes Ruby feel giddy, aided along by the sounds Penny makes through their joined lips. Her full-body shivers of delight and excitement. Ruby feels every nerve ending come alive, fire all along her veins as the dreariness of sleep is entirely zapped away.
Her world begins with Penny and ends with Penny, the other half of her soul. Driven by impulse and little else Ruby pushes her body against Penny and quite easily slides on top of her, legs going to either side of her waist as she straddles the taller girl, angling her head to deepen the kiss and pushing Penny's head back deeper into the pillows. The covers slide from off of Ruby and she shivers slightly as the heat of their bodies escapes, but she keeps going.
It's like...it's like being plugged directly into the sun. An otherworldly energy filling her entire body and soul, burning away anything that isn't Penny, Penny, Penny. And while she can't say for certain, she imagines Penny felt similarly.
All she wants is Penny.
All Penny wants is Ruby.
For Penny specifically, embraces and kisses with Ruby were brilliant. They were bright spots of life and light and she could recall almost every single one exactly as it occurred.
Which is how she knew, almost immediately, this is something unlike anything they'd shared before. There are two entirely new dimensions to consider with this kiss: being able to taste Ruby's stale breath and the faint traces of strawberry chapstick, and being able to smell her girlfriend. Strawberry shampoo, vanilla body wash, and a touch of something entirely Ruby that is nearly impossible to describe. It just...is Ruby.
Penny feels like, as she's kissed literally breathless, she knows Ruby in entirely new ways.
The kiss, the embrace, the connection with her other half is like being in a garden of ecstasy. One of her hands trails up Ruby's back to tangle in her hair, the feather-soft texture sliding between her fingers like so many times before. Despite being deep in this current embrace, this current kiss, this current act, Penny already desires to kiss Ruby everywhere, to taste every inch, to learn what every part of her smells like.
When Ruby finally pulls back, both women are completely breathless. They pant against each other's faces, foreheads pressed tightly together as if loathe to part for even a second. Light-gray melts into jade green, both with pupils blown almost comically wide. Penny's hand in Ruby's hair shifts from pressing down into a familiar, comforting petting motion. A motion Ruby adores.
"I think," Penny begins, awe in her voice and written across her face, staring up at Ruby like the other woman is a goddess come to life, "I understand why people usually brush their teeth first."
Like before Ruby can't help but bark another laugh, a cheerful guffaw from deep in her heart. Fondness overwhelms her in the most intoxicating way, seizing at her heart so tightly it almost hurts.
Penny is laughing soon after and the women cling to each other around their shoulders (except for Penny's hand that was still petting Ruby's head) and it take them several seconds to recover.
(Or it could have been minutes, as they're both still lightheaded.)
"But it was sensational, moonlight. You are sensational, beautiful," Penny starts pressing light pecks across Ruby's face, as if suddenly insatiable, "wonderful, amazing, breathtaking, stunning, mindboggling—"
PING!
Both girls jump and Penny's tongue, which had just poked between her lips to lap at Ruby's jaw, snaps back into her mouth. Reality slams back into them both at almost the same time, joint realizations that they didn't even know what time of day it currently is.
PING! PING! PING! PING!
"Who the—" keeping herself firmly situated atop Penny, Ruby stretches her arms for the bedside table where her Scroll lies, currently being spammed with texts. ID shows it to be Yang, and recognition pools with guilt in her stomach.
More than several missed messages from Yang.
She'd totally ghosted Yang's request to hangout this weekend.
Oops.
Yangoliath
Yo sis
Yesterday, 12:39 AM
Yo sis
Today, 11:39 AM
Yo Rubes
Rubes
Ruby
Ruby Rhubarb Rose answer my damn text
messages or so help me
11:41 AM
Ruby decides to ignore any message before the one sent at midnight last night, when she was still very much awake and could have easily replied. She catches Penny's confused gaze and turns her Scroll around so Penny can see, burying her reddening face in one hand.
Penny giggles and pats Ruby's thigh, and still both women make no attempt or effort to separate. Penny's legs instead bend at the knee, providing a backrest for Ruby, who leans into them and fires off a response.
'Alright Ruby. Casual. Just shoot it off. It'll be fine.'
yooo Yang
sup
11:50 AM
Yangoliath
Oh noooooow she responds!
11:50 AM
sorry was cuddling wit Penny
11:50 AM
OH??? 👀👀
Ok well ask HER about our plans too, maybe
she'll keep ya an honest woman who doesn't
ghost her poor big sis who just wants to hang
out with you.
11:52 AM
I'M SORRY I DIDN'T MEAN TO GHOST
she says she's down btw
also Yang?
11:56 AM
Awesome! Pen-wheel's great sis well done there
Yes, sister?
11:58 AM
she said i smell good today
11:59 AM
Great? Happy for you?
So for the hangout I was thinking
(one sec lemme find the place)
12:01 PM
Yang. She told me how I SMELL.
And said today her breath TASTES awful.
12:02 PM
Ruby stares at the pulsating ellipses for what feels like minutes, desperately wishing she could see Yang's facial expression.
Yangoliath
ARE YOU FUCKING FOR REAL RN?????
12:10 PM
YES YANG SHE CAN SMELL AND TASTE
12:10 PM
WHAT THE FUCK
12:10 PM
I KNOOOOOWWWW
12:10 PM
SERIOUSLY RUBES
WHAT
THE
FUCK
????????????????
12:11 PM
YOU'RE TELLIN ME YANG
I WOKE UP TO HER CRYING AND WAS SO CONCERNED
BUT NAH TURNS OUT SHE CAN SMELL AND LIKE THEN
WE KISSED AND IT WAS AMAZING AND YANG SERIOUSLY
I WANNA CRU IDONTEVNEN K M OW HOW TO OR WHAT
HHHHHHHHHH
12:17 PM
OKay okay breathe Rubes. Penny's there, cuddle her real tight for me kay?
It'll all be okay just take a sec
12:18 PM
While she'd been freaking out to Yang tears had begun to well in her eyes and her body had started to shake.
Ruby takes Yang's advice.
She collapses onto Penny's chest, her hair brushing against the undersides of Penny's breasts. The fingers of both of Penny's hands card through her hair almost on reflex, soothing motions and sensations that help coax Ruby back down from her emotional high.
"I—I told her," Ruby gasps, feeling like she's run a marathon.
Penny makes a noise of empathy and understanding, her nails lightly scritching across Ruby’s scalp in a motion that makes the redhead gurgle softly. Her eyes slide closed and her heartrate finally starts to settle.
Ruby angles her head to press a kiss into Penny's tummy through her shirt.
"You're the one whose life just changed drastically and yet you're taking it so well, Bug..." Ruby felt...bad about that, a little. Shouldn't she be strong for Penny's sake? Shouldn't Penny be breaking down, and she be soothing her?
"I think it is all just so overwhelming that my mind is taking small steps to protect itself from sensory overload? Compartmentalizing emotions and allowing me to address each new sensation one by one? Every single one related to you brings me comfort and security and affection and arousal. What I can only assume is your natural musk blends well with your strawberry and vanilla scents. I feel safe, and soothed. I might have to insist you spray my pillows as well, my rose."
Listening to Penny talk does wonders to Ruby's negative spiraling emotions. A small smile spreads over her face and she crawls up Penny's body so their faces are close. Green eyes, freckles, soft skin and ginger hair fill her vision, and Ruby presses a kiss to Penny's cheek.
"I'd love to, Bug—" and then something Penny said, so naturally and casually, sticks in Ruby's head, "Uhm...aroused?"
It escapes in a squeak, and Ruby is red: red like her favorite hooded jacket. Soon Penny is red, too, but she finds herself composed enough to nod.
"yes...i-is that okay?"
Ruby doesn't like seeing the doubt play out on Penny's face, and swallows her own embarrassment to cup Penny's chin and sink into another kiss. She shifts so she's more directly on top of Penny, the ginger's prosthetic legs tangled with her own, smooth metal on soft flesh, and her arms wrap tightly around Penny's waist.
One of Penny's hands stays in Ruby's hair while the other travels down to the small of her back, and presses down, squishing their bodies tighter together. The idea that Penny is aroused by her...by her smells, and her taste?
...they've been intimate, before. They've cuddled and kissed and gotten handsy, but it had never evolved past that. They didn't need it to, what they had was perfect and worked for them, and before Penny she'd never even felt half of these desires and emotions and feelings nor had any of these urges. And Penny has told her she was the same way. And she's known, at least subconsciously, that Penny is aroused by her. Known well before this but...the easy way Penny said it sticks with her.
And then something she never actually thought would happen, happens. She feels it, in her groin. In her boxers, something shifting and hardening and...
Ruby squeaks into the kiss and tries to pull away, but Penny's there and won't let her. Their lips part and Ruby squeezes her eyes shut, fearing...she doesn't know. But she feels frozen, even as her body screams at her to flee.
"Do you want to stop, Ruby?"
There are times when Penny's touch can't calm the storm of Ruby's anxiety. When she can't silence the howling wind of doubt and reproach. But her voice has never lost that ability, and Ruby tries to steady her breathing as her girlfriend's soothing voice slips through the cracks of her panic.
"M-maybe?" It's partially a lie. She does and does not want to stop. Her attraction to Penny has never been in doubt, and there have been times when her...equipment roused to life. But never during a cuddle session, never when they were pressed that tightly together. Her...her thing is weird about stuff, she supposes.
"You know that I am here for you? That this changes nothing about how I feel? That...if you did want to continue, that would be okay?" Ruby cracks open an eye to meet Penny's gaze, and her girlfriend graces her with a smile that almost makes her forget anything is wrong.
“…why?” Ruby flinches immediately at the question, desperate to claw it back and swallow it, hating herself for asking it, for putting it out into the world, how can she ask something like that—but Penny doesn’t even blink. She doesn’t hesitate to answer, either.
“Because I love you. Because you make me feel safe. Because you make you me feel loved. Because when I look at you, I see everything I’ve ever wanted, everything I could ever want, things I never thought I would want but now I know that I need.” Penny’s hand leaves Ruby’s back to brush her bangs away from her eyes, and then her hand comes to rest on Ruby’s cheek.
The hand in her hair hasn't left. Since the moment they'd started cuddling again, it hasn't left. There's something in Ruby that just melts at being known so well by Penny.
Ruby would do anything, say anything, be anything, to keep that hand where it was. And Penny seems to know that? Because it soon resumes its soothing motions.
Ruby still hasn’t said anything, so Penny continues. Ruby finds her voice to be so, so soft. So warm. Love and adoration alight in bright green eyes, staring at Ruby like she's something to be treasured.
“Because your soul is bright, and your heart is so, so big. Because you look at me and you do not see damaged goods,” Penny’s gaze leaves Ruby’s to instead glance down at her own legs, flesh-and-bone until her knees; below which are all metal and silicone and electrical wiring that connects to her nervous system.
(Her father, Pietro, is a visionary, a savant, in the fields of neurology, prosthetics, computer science, and mechanical and electrical engineering. He’d taken Ruby under his tutelage early in their college days.)
Penny has to raise her hand that was cupping Ruby’s cheek into the air between them to still Ruby’s immediate, visceral protest—a rising of boiling blood, a fire erupting in her chest (sure to have her eyes set aflame if they could) at the insinuation that Penny could ever be something like that. Her hand returns to Ruby’s cheek a moment later, her thumb swiping through the drying tear tracks.
The ginger’s smile softens to something even more loving, even more adoring, “Exactly like that, moonlight. You saw my soul through the nuts and bolts, even when I could not see it myself. You saw my heart between the circuitry, and you held me, and you comforted me, and you told me I was not any less Penny because of my not-normal knees. Your love for my metal parts helped me accept them. Even if I…do not love them, neither do I hate them. They are simply…me. Just me. And Ruby? You are still you. The you I love. The you I cherish and respect and admire and adore.”
Penny’s hand on Ruby's cheek moves to her chin, and with gentle pressure lifts it up so Ruby and Penny are locked into each other’s gaze, and Penny leans forward (which surely must have been uncomfortable) until their noses are just inches apart. Penny’s breath fans across Ruby’s face, and suddenly Ruby’s entire perception of reality is just Penny Penny Penny.
“If you would allow me…I would like to love all of you.”
Ruby makes… a noise, then, low in her throat, some kind of desperate keening whine, a fresh wave of emotion crashing over her and new tears prickling in her eyes. She is so…she is so—
She is in love with this other woman. Deeply, maddeningly, completely, wholly in love. Her heart feels so full she wants to scream, and she wants to cry, she wants to hold Penny and never let go, she wants to punch the wall, or roll around on the floor and laugh until she passes out—
Ruby surges forward the moment she sees Penny’s brow pinch in concern, crashing their lips together in a heated, sloppy kiss that is fueled entirely on pure instinct and raw desire. The surprised gasp Penny makes is quickly evened out by a deep sigh of relief, as if she’d been tense the entire time but hiding it masterfully, and Ruby is fit to burst with the amount of love inside her.
In previous cuddle sessions, Penny had admitted that she loved being squished by Ruby. So Ruby lets her body weight completely collapse against her girlfriend. In this blissful moment, every point of connection with her beloved partner feels like a blessing from Oum himself, so Ruby nestles on in deeper into Penny’s warmth.
A whirlwind, a tsunami, a volcanic eruption of emotions clashes in Ruby’s head and chest but greater than all is love: love for Penelope Polendina.
An inordinate amount of time passes.
Ruby simply lets herself dissociate for…however long, nuzzling into Penny's warmth and breathing a contented sigh. Penny lets her, probably doing something similar, and continues holding her like she was the most precious thing in the world: a rare treasure thought lost and found again.
When she comes back to herself, Ruby found she has her arms wrapped tightly around Penny's neck.
“I'm sorry I freaked out,” Ruby whispers, her face burrowed into the join of her girlfriend's neck and shoulder. She feels the jerky movements of Penny shaking her head.
“Do not apologize, Ruby. You have nothing to apologize for.”
Ruby allows herself a moment to appreciate those words, to let the emotion seep into her bones and her heart. When she feels ready to speak again, her voice is just as quiet as before.
“I'm…glad that you stayed.” In truth she feels a little ashamed of feeling said relief. But Penny presses a kiss into her hair, and resumes her petting motions that had consistently grounded Ruby all night.
“There is simply nowhere else I would rather be,” Penny states confidently, and Ruby feels herself trying to siphon out some of that for herself.
“Really?” The doubt creeps back in immediately. Shoot. But Penny? She seems completely undeterred, and speaks almost immediately.
“Really. Ruby Rose, you are my soulmate. I would not say I am broken, but around you I feel whole. Like before you I could only see the world with half of its color, or perhaps with one eye. And it was wondrous, it was perfect. I did not know at the time that I was missing anything. But now with you in my life, I can see the whole range of colors, the entire beauty of the world. Everything feels more special, more meaningful, more worthwhile, when done with you, to you, for you.”
The confession, some of which Ruby had heard before in piecemeal, has her eyes watering again, and the annoying lump in her throat is back. Her face nuzzles deeper into Penny’s skin, inhaling the spicy woody caramely amber scent of her perfume, and the undertones of Penny's natural scent; something entirely her that is...nearly addictive. The perfume alone was a near-intoxicating fragrance, but both combined…Ruby has had the thought before that she wants it surgically implanted into her nose so it was all she'd ever smell—something so perfectly Penny.
Again Ruby’s perception of the world fades to just Penny Penny Penny: Penny’s arms around her, Penny’s scent in her nose, Penny’s breath on her head, Penny’s hand in her hair, Penny’s other hand on her back.
Affection pools low in Ruby's abdomen: pools around the very thing that had started this entire series of confessions and admissions. Ruby's fears could have cost them everything, tonight.
Penny's lips press into Ruby's face, between her brows, and then she's kissing along each one, and Ruby lets her eyes drift closed, “Penny?”
“You are frowning, moonlight,” Penny whispers between gentle pecks.
“Because I—Penny I—I! …I'm…trans,” Ruby figures it's better to just rip off the band-aid now and face the music. Her shoulders hunch up, but Penny's hand on her chin keeps her from curling in on herself.
It was out. Her vile twisted secret was out. Years of keeping it in, of never knowing when was best to say it. Of dreading having to say it.
(They'd had times of no contact, like when Penny moved to Atlas, or when she had to return for spinal reconstruction, but then in their first year of college the girl was back in Vale with new legs and a new spine but that same bright smile, and of course new clusters of freckles. She had beautiful long hair and a new sense of style: lots of dresses and skirts and thigh high leg warmers.)
They'd only been…together together for a short time, comparatively.
Ruby…Ruby is terrified. Light-gray eyes well with tears and struggle to meet jade greens but Penny’s hands are there, yet again. One in Ruby's hair, one cupping her chin.
“’Trans’? You are transgender?” Penny's voice is soft, as gentle and kind and warm as her eyes and body, packed with understanding and affection and Ruby can only nod. Nod as she lays there feeling pitiful and shameful, like a disheveled dog in from the rain—covered in mud and stinking.
“And you were afraid I would not love you anymore if I found out?” Warm, still. Understanding. Encouraging. Coaxing her to spill the worry and fear. To vomit out her insecurities right there and face them. And she does, because she trusts Penny. Even as a voice whispers to flee, to run, to hide, Ruby trusts Penny like she'd only trusted Yang, before.
“I was,” her voice cracks, and Ruby forces herself to swallow hard past the ball in her throat, “I was terrified, Pen. I was…I've only ever been…me. I've only been myself, I never wanted to lie to you but I…until you I never even considered we'd get to this stage. Even when we started dating there was just…I…I've never…I've never wanted it with anyone else. Or before. And I've been so happy, you—we've been so happy, together, and I didn't want to ruin it, didn't want you to…to hate me. Or be disgusted by me or…”
Silence. Ruby takes a deep breath, closes her eyes, and holds. She hasn't looked at Penny's face once since the ball of confession really started rolling. She's shaking, trembling, but she forces herself to exhale and she resolves to do just that, now. To look into Penny's face. And what she finds there iss what had always been there, in Penny's eyes: love, chief of all.
There's a special kind of shine in the green depths, like awe, as if some part of Penny, even now, is amazed by Ruby.
(She had no idea how true that actually was.)
“I could never hate you. Or be disgusted by you. I…Ruby Rose, I love you. No one else but you. Until you I didn’t…ever think I'd want any of this. Or that anyone would want this with me. You've shown me so much love, so much kindness. You've shown me, since our very first meeting, that I'm just an ordinary girl like all the rest. And yet you've made me feel, time and again, like the luckiest and the most special.”
"I love you too, Penelope," Ruby responds, immediately, the words pulled from somewhere deep in her heart. Penny's smile lights up the entire room and they're kissing, again, and Ruby replays Penny's acceptance and understanding and affirmations over and over in her head.
Minutes pass, again, and then it hits Ruby that it's been quite awhile since she'd texted Yang. Not exactly feeling up to typing, Ruby reaches for her Scroll and just decides to call Yang, putting it on speaker and resting the Scroll on Penny's collarbone, her head falling against Penny's shoulder.
Yang answers immediately, of course. The call barely gets a single ring out.
"Rubes?"
"Hey."
"Everything okay, baby sis?"
Ruby's eyes flick up to Penny's, and Penny smiles softly, pressing her lips to Ruby's forehead.
"Yeah. I mean...kinda."
"Kinda?" Yang sounds concerned, but also like she's trying not to push. Something in Ruby's voice must have tipped her sister off to the emotional turmoil.
"I, uh..." a glance back up at Penny. A nod, "I told Penny."
"Told her--?" a beat of silence. "...oh."
"Yeah."
Yang says nothing, but Ruby knows her sister. She knows Yang wants to ask, to press, but also doesn't want to. So Ruby takes the leap, like she's taken so many today.
"And everything's okay."
"Yeah?"
"Yeah."
Silence.
"Fuck, Ruby I'm...so fucking happy for you."
Yang's voice is thick through the speaker, and Ruby knows it's not because of the call's quality. She wants to leap through the receiver and materialize in Yang's arms and squeeze and be squeezed. But she settles for nuzzling deeper into Penny and feeling the lump swelling in her own throat.
"Thank you, Yang."
"Thank me?"
"Yeah."
"...o'course, sis. Mm..." Yang must have muted herself because the silence isn't like before, when she could hear ambient noise from Yang's side.
When her voice comes back, it's still thick but there's something else in it, something Ruby can't really place without being able to see her face.
"Penny! Holy shit girl! I'm fucking thrilled for you, too!"
It makes Ruby chuckle silently that Yang knows them so well. That she knows Penny is right there, right beside Ruby: she probably knows exactly the way they're cuddled up, and where.
"Thank you, Yang. I must confess to being...hm...'fucking thrilled' for myself, as well!"
Ruby has never heard Penny curse before, or swear, or cuss, or profane, ever. Apparently Pietro had asked her once not to in his presence, and Penny had always respected the way it was requested and it simply became her default state.
"Atta girl, Pen-cil! Let it out!"
Ruby can detect a level of forced enthusiasm from Yang, clearly still caught up on what Ruby said earlier but trying her best to keep things natural and casual for everyone's sakes. Ruby decides her sister is getting a very strong hug when they meet up this weekend.
"Oh, hey, speaking of that kickass development, I've got an idea what we're doing on Saturday!"
"Oh yeah?" Ruby asks, curiosity piqued.
"Yeah! We're gonna take Penny-bean out to our favorite diner! The one back in Patch! And she's gonna get the whoooooole afternoon to just try stuff! For today, start off small, okay? Did some reading, best to start with simple flavors. Eggs and pancakes for breakfast, I say."
Something on Penny's face changes, and she leans towards the Scroll, "Yang?"
"Yeah, hon?"
"You...did some reading?"
"Oh, yeah! Is uh...that okay?"
"I desire nothing more than to simply teleport to your location this instant and hug you so tightly your back pops."
Yang barks out a laugh that's pretty watery, and really this entire affair has been really emotional and Ruby feels like she needs a nap--and they haven't even left the bed yet.
"Well, hey, I gotta run, 'kay? Y'all take it easy today, alright? That's a Big Sister Order."
They exchange 'I love yous' and 'we'll talk laters' and Penny tries to hide how she tears up at being inferred to be family to Yang, and then the two Dolts settle down for a very-much-needed and totally-well-deserved nap.
“Ok Pen, ready?” Ruby asks, giving Penny’s hand a reassuring squeeze. Her girlfriend’s bright green eyes slide closed and she takes a deep breath. On the exhale, she lets her shoulders sink down and back.
“Yes, rosebud, I am ready,” Penny replies confidently, and Ruby’s heart flutters. But at the same time her eyes narrow somewhat. The nickname was soothing for Penny in the way it was stimulating for Ruby, and for the other girl to break it out now means she's probably feeling some amount of trepidation. Ruby’s other hand comes to rest on top of Penny’s, and the ginger-haired woman turns her head to gaze into Ruby’s silver eyes.
“It’ll be okay, bug," Ruby says, giving Penny's hand a squeeze. "If you don’t like it, you can say so and no one will force you to try again. But…I think you’re really gonna like it. Even if I don’t.”
Penny gazes into Ruby’s eyes for several seconds after that, unblinking in a way that, were it anyone else, Ruby would feel unnerved from, but with Penny she can guess her girlfriend is "writing this moment into her memory banks with excruciating detail, and setting it to high priority memory."
(It remained endlessly adorable how Penny referred to herself in robot terms, one of many reasons Ruby loved her so much.)
(You see, Ruby is a mechanical and electrical engineer, going to school for advanced robotics and prosthesis development, and in high school she had been voted “Most Likely to Date Her Invention”. Penny had delighted upon learning this and irrevocably altered her vocabulary to “better suit your sexual preferences”. Ruby told Penny quite earnestly that Penny herself was Ruby’s entire sexual preference. Penny had mimicked the DingOS error notification sound and had pantomimed fainting.)
(It must be noted Ruby did have a thing for Robot Girls. Her “robotics research” folder on her desktop was research of a kind, but certainly nothing she could submit to a scientific board…or could she?
...
...
Well regardless, thanks to Penny’s decision to “become” a “beep boop does not compute” girl, that folder had seen significantly less traffic.)
Finally, Penny smiles back, and Ruby’s entire world lights up at just that simple action. But she can't be blamed, Penny’s entire face glows whenever she smiles. How can someone's day not be improved drastically after just a flash of such a smile?
Turning back to the table, and inevitably the rest of their friends, Penny is greeted by reassuring smiles and encouraging blinks. No one at their table had been judging her, no one thought it weird that she's so hesitant, no one is rushing her. They, seemingly, are prepared to sit here for hours with her, if that’s how long it takes. And Penny feels her processors whir at the notion (that is to say, feels her chest swell with affection), at the care and consideration Ruby's family has for her.
(Really, at this point, after two years with Ruby, she was an unofficial family member herself.)
“Okay. Okay. I am ready to try. Yang?” Penny speaks with renewed confidence, squeezing back at Ruby’s hand. Ruby’s thumb immediately and instinctively begins rubbing across Penny’s knuckles.
“Right on, Penny-bean!” Yang exclaims, and then reaches for the glass closest to Penny and slides it forward across the table. About a year ago Penny had stopped trying to remind Yang that she was not a bean, as the blonde’s response was always the same: “Oh, you’re totally a bean. A precious little bean I would die to protect.”
Penny realizes now it is actually a term of endearment, and so she simply smiles at the reassurance and tentatively reaches out for the glass. Inside it is a clear liquid, still bubbly from the carbonation, and Penny does her very best not to scan it intensely. She was told to report how it feels to drink, not guess at what it's made of.
(Purportedly, Yang had spent the entirety of yesterday brainstorming the perfect soda to try for Penny’s first time.)
With no undue amount of hesitation Penny slowly raises the glass to her lips and takes the smallest possible sip she physically can. Only to be met with encouraging nods, and Yang miming knocking the whole glass back at once. It isn’t a very big glass, but Penny can’t imagine herself doing that ever.
So instead she simply takes a much larger sip, and then her eyes shoot wide, and the burst of flavor explodes over her tastebuds, and her mouth is left delightfully tingly, and the liquid is popping and jumping and— Penny nearly forgets to swallow, but she manages it and ends up knocking back the entire glass after all. The very second it is fully swallowed Penny sets the glass down and beams at Yang.
“That was—that was….that was sensational! Yang! It was like…like a party in my mouth!“
Yang's grin is just as wide as Penny's, "See? Told ya!"
The snark is directed at Weiss, and Yang exudes a smugness that implies they'd had some kind of disagreement over Penny's possible preferences.
"Hmph. She has only tried the singular one. My suggestion is still on the table," the former Schnee heiress gently pushes the glass she'd selected toward Penny, who is still riding the euphoric high of tasting Sprite for the first time.
"Oooo and what is this one?" The glass held a dark liquid, dark like coffee but it was clearly not.
"I will tell you after you consume it. The name might put you off."
Penny nods at that, and brings the glass to her lips. Weiss takes a sip of her own drink, clear and bubbly like the Sprite had been. Yang's drink was darker like Penny's but a different shade. The first sip gets an appreciative hum from the ginger woman. This dark liquid is (not literally) thicker than the Sprite, and it is also sweeter, and she can detect hints of vanilla, recognizable from last night's ice cream binge with Ruby and Nora.
It's delicious, and the carbonation rests on her tongue much longer this time, and once more Penny desires to knock it all back at once but she allows herself to take her time. Her eyes slide closed and she swears she can actually see fireworks exploding behind her eyelids.
"Heh. I knew she'd love it," Weiss gloats, every bit as smug as Yang had been.
"Yeah, yeah, whatever. Which do you like more, Pendle?"
Penny swallows the last drop and mourns this loss, finding herself shockingly tempted to ask for a refill. With eyes she's sure are sparkling, she beams at her her two friends.
"They are equally sensational but for opposite reasons! The Sprite was delightfully tangy and left a pleasurable tingling in my mouth but the...whatever that was was sweet and smooth and just a little spicy and that was...was...phenomenal! Yes, a phenomenon of flavors and sensations!"
Yang and Weiss can only blink as Ruby giggles. I love her I love her I love her I love her
"WEISS! You must tell me what that drink was called! I want to have it again and again and again!" Penny literally bounced in her chair, hands clasped before her and jerking up and down in time with her bounces. She grinned a wide, toothy grin and Ruby wanted to kiss her so bad but held herself back for the moment.
"Hh," a vocalization without shape escapes Weiss as mounting confusion was swiftly dashed away by Penny's rapid-fire subject alteration, "beh...I-it is called 'root beer'."
Ruby makes a sound of appreciation, as root beer is the only soda she really enjoys aside from strawberry cream sodas. But Penny looks confused, and uncertain.
"Root beer? You gave me...alcohol made of roots? Dad says alcohol is a dangerous vice that can ruin your life..."
"It's not real alcohol, Penny!" Ruby states quickly, trying not to think of Uncle Qrow in that moment, "It's just uh...called that? I think maybe it was alcoholic, once? But not anymore. And it's called "root" because...uh...I'm not really sure. I've never really...thought about it."
A trio of nods follows Ruby's words, as really none of them had ever thought about it before. That's just what it was called so, that's what everyone called it.
"Hmmm...I see. This demands future research! I desire to know all that there is to know about this root beer. And Ruby! What is your favorite? I bet it is strawberry flavored!"
"Heh, you know me so well, bug. I can't really...choose just one. Straight-up strawberry or strawberry cream, s'all good to me!"
Penny nods at that but Yang is frowning, and jabs an accusatory finger at Ruby, who suddenly swallows awkwardly.
"Yeah, but she isn't mentioning how she drinks them."
Weiss and Blake both sigh but make no effort to stop Yang, while Ruby squirms.
"Um...how does she, then?"
"FLAT! NO CARBONATION! SHE'LL LEAVE 'EM OUT TO SIT UNTIL THEY GO FLAT! Who does that?! It's a crime against soda!"
"HEY! Carbonation makes my stomach feel weird! It's my fau--"
Right as Ruby was about to launch into a defense of herself, something...happened. A noise, from her left, where Penny sat. Loud, bassy--the loudest burp Ruby had ever heard. Penny's mouth opened wide and several seconds passed and then it was over and she slumped into her chair, looking quite pleased.
"Woooooow~"
'how is legal to be that cute...' Ruby thought, reaching out to pat Penny's shoulder. Yang leapt to her feet and clapped, cheering loudly.
"DAMN Penny bun mushroom! That was a nice out!"