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“Why do you hide your ears, Blake?”
Said ears twitch beneath her bow so slightly it may as well not have happened. Blake’s entire body jolts in time with the minuscule motion as she’s torn from the warm embrace in between pages of ninja romance and dragged by the hair into reality.
Brilliant green eyes and an even brighter smile are waiting for her to answer the query. Does Penny know? How can she? Why is she asking? Why now? Her heart pound-pound-pounds at the top of her throat, every panicked pump lighting up her veins with adrenaline and firing new and terrifying questions into her head.
“What?” She means to ask a question, but she can’t hear if she manages the word or just exhales over the sound of her blood rushing.
“Why do you hide your ears, Blake?” Penny repeats her question in exactly the same cadence with exactly the same smile.
“What do you mean?” Blake can hear the words leave her mouth this time, though their waver makes her wish they hadn’t. She flicks her attention from side to side, all too aware of Penny’s gaze drinking in her paranoia.
“You tie your bow around your ears so that they remain hidden. Why?”
Stupid. Blake flinches. Did you honestly think a bow was going to be enough to disguise you? Her fingers ball into fists. This isn’t a fairy tale. Anyone with eyes could see through something this pitiful. Her nails dig into her palms. Your little game of dress up was never going to fool anyone, you stupid, stupid, stupid little girl. This is exactly why you need to leave that school, to come back. This is why you need m-
“Are you okay, Blake?” For a robot, Penny does a poor job of masking her disappointment. “Should I not have asked?”
They’re alone. They’re alone, they’re alone, they’re alone. The bark of a tree’s trunk is digging into her back. The grass beneath her gives way to a soft, earthen seat. The pages of her book and its laminated cover bend over her fingers. This tree, this secluded little getaway is close enough to be safe, far enough away for her to get away from the headaches Beacon induces. Until Penny.
“How do you know?” Her eyes are hard, golden armor threatening to lock into place and bar her soul from the shockingly perceptive automaton.
“I can see them,” she explains simply, and Blake feels even dumber. Of course a battle-ready android built to replace real Huntsman and Huntresses would be perceptive enough to see fluffy black ears through a flimsy bow.
Blake’s heart sinks. Penny is an android, one clearly built to gather data as well as she fights. She reports to someone, she has to. What if she reports this? Worse, what if she tells Ruby? That’s a ticking time bomb on the rest of her team and the entire Academy finding out. And when they find out, they’ll ask questions. They’ll dig. They’ll realize what the Belladonna name represents and who she was attached to and-
“Penny, listen,” she starts, snapping her book closed and clutching it against her stomach as if it can shield her from what’s coming. “You can’t tell anyone. Please.”
“Okay. Why?” Penny tilts her head to the side like a curious dog. It would be cute if she weren’t trying to pry open Blake’s soul.
“Because…” Because there’s blood on her hands. Because Weiss gets a look in her eye when she talks about the White Fang. Because of how Cardin and his cronies treat Velvet. Because Penny’s childishly innocent question makes her want to run until her legs give out.
“They won’t understand. If I come to them with my bow off and my ears out, they won’t see Blake Belladonna, the person. They’ll see the Faunus, Blake Belladonna.” She traces the edges of her book’s title font with her eyes, taking none of it in.
“But… you are a Faunus.” Bronze brows knit together above a stare that’s convinced looking hard enough at the shrinking woman will solve this puzzle.
“I am, and it’s not as if I’m ashamed of that, but…” Resignation carries her tone. Resentment hangs off of the words. “That isn’t all there is to me. Without this bow, that’s all anybody would see. I’ve lived enough of my life like that already. I didn’t come to Beacon for another helping of prejudice.”
“Ruby wouldn’t.”
Blake’s carefully constructed tower of thought lurches, knocked off balance. It doesn’t fall yet, but it teeters, and there’s nowhere to look but at the face of the person threatening its stability. She must look as shocked and confused as she feels, because Penny doesn’t wait for a verbal response to continue this time.
“When I met Ruby, I thought I had to hide myself from everyone, too. She saw something that made the secret too hard to keep, though, so I told her. She took it extraordinarily well, and even made me feel better for breaking such an important rule. The rest of your team was just as kind.”
Ruby, who’s so dedicated to doing good that she was admitted into Beacon Academy two years before anyone else would be granted the privilege. Ruby, who earnestly and readily admits wanting nothing more than to be a hero like in the stories she was raised on. Ruby, who accepted the truth of Penny and brought her to the rest of team RWBY so that they could share in that secret. Yang and Weiss, who readily accepted the shocking development and who have been nothing but friendly to her.
Then there’s Penny herself, the walking, talking secret, made of nuts and bolts, sporting a computer for a brain, smiling so warmly it makes Blake doubt the humanity of every other smile she’s ever seen.
“It’s- it’s not the same,” she feebly counters, dropping her gaze once more. “It isn’t like I want to keep this from them. It’s just too big of a risk to take.”
“Maybe,” Penny admits cheerily, impossible to bog down with defeat. “I do not know what it’s like to be a Faunus. I do know, however, that I feel a lot better now than I did before I told you all.”
And Blake wants to tell them. More than anything in the world. Ruby, Yang, and yes, Weiss have made her feel more like a person in this first term at Beacon than she’s felt for a long time. If anyone deserves the truth from her, it’s them. If anyone is proof that a confession doesn’t have to hurt, it’s Penny.
But…
“I’ll think about it,” she relents, half wishing it was merely a way to get her out of this conversation. “For now, though, Penny, please promise me you won’t tell them. Please.”
“Of course! Your secret is safe with me, Blake.”
Blake can’t believe her eyes. Last she saw Penny Polendina, the poor girl had been sliced to ribbons, a mechanical pile of gore that made bile singe the back of her throat and her heart plummet.
Against all odds, she stands before team RWBY once again, hale and hearty. Blake has to swallow her tears, keep steady. Penny’s brightness isn’t blinding. It’s a comfort, a beacon in the dark, a reminder of what they fight for and the hope they become to the citizens of Remnant.
“That’s my girl!” Pietro pumps his fist, grinning proudly at his daughter. “We’re not going to let a little ripping to shreds stop us, will we?”
“No, sir!” Penny raps her knuckles against her metallic head with a thunk thunk to emphasize the point.
“This is…” Weiss begins, unable to find the words.
“Strangely wholesome,” Blake supplies, finishing her sentence.
“Sounds like Penny to me,” Yang comments, barely suppressing a laugh.
“We have so many things to catch up about!” Penny grabs her first friend’s shoulders, unable to keep from shaking Ruby in her boundless excitement, like a dog absolutely ecstatic to see their owner after a week away.
In all of that buzz, she looks to Blake, then glances very pointedly at the top of her head. For a beat, Blake looks up with her, until she realizes there’s only one- or rather, two- things up there. The echoes of a conversation that feels a lifetime away ring in her ears. Fear, hesitation, acceptance. The realization that Penny was right. She can’t help but finally return the fond, trusting smile she was given back then, overdue and all the warmer for it.
“I cannot wait!” Somewhere in the distance, alarms sound, shortly followed by shrieking. “It seems we will have to wait.”
“Let’s talk more later I can’t wait to hear about all your adventures-” and Penny takes off, rocketing into the sky while shouting at a million miles a minute, the words lost but their meaning well understood.
Blake watches her silhouette until it disappears beyond the city skyline, savoring the all too brief moment of uncomplicated joy at having someone so precious return to her life. Thank you , she mouths, vowing to thank Penny properly the next time she sees her.