"Penny, can I ask you a question?"

"Absolutely, what would you like to know about?"

Somehow, on the way to the CCT tower, Ruby and Weiss had ran into Penny. Naturally, Ruby had opted to talk to the ginger, having not seen her since the fiasco at the docks.

She just disappeared without a trace! To be fair, Ruby had been more than a little preoccupied at the time with what had been going on with Blake …which wasn't far off from her current mindset.

Ever since the realization that Ruby had a crush on the older girl, it'd only been a short time later when Blake had become very reclusive. So much so, that Ruby swore she never saw her teammate outside of class, or the occasional time she woke up in the middle of the night and walked by Blake's sleeping form. While correlation didn't necessarily equate causation, it was still enough to put doubts into her head.

Which was why Ruby wanted advice from someone else, someone who didn't know the situation, seeing as they were done catching up about what had happened after the docks. "You're a huntress-in-training, right?"

"Affirmative!" The redhead gave a huge nod and smile, but staring curiously at her "Aren't you as well, Ruby?"

"Yeah, I'm actually the leader of my team… you met them, remember?"

Bright green eyes blinked as recognition dawned. "Oh! You mean Yang, Blake, and Weiss? Didn't we see Weiss earlier? How are the other two doing?"

"Yup. Yang's doing fine, though Blake…"

"Is something wrong?" Penny seemingly teleported in front of Ruby, the silver eyed girl nearly running into her friend. "Did she run away again?"

"No, she's with Sun right now." Ruby huffed after a moment. "I think something is probably wrong… Maybe? Sorta? Kinda?"

Unblinking green eyes greeted Ruby as Penny listened with rapt attention. "I th-think I might be failing as a team leader… and a friend- eep!"

"Oh no, that's terrible!" Ruby found herself being lifted off the ground by a full half a foot before being set back down. "We should go help your friend."

"That's the thing… I don't know what to do."

"You don't know what to do?"

Ruby nodded sadly after Penny echoed back her statement. "She's been avoiding us, like a lot. I think it might be because of me…"

"Why would she avoid you? Blake is your friend, right?" While the question was innocent enough, the answer brought heat to Ruby's cheeks.

"Well…" Ruby's voice started to fail her, no, you can say it out loud! "…because I sorta-kinda-have a crush on her!" Ruby blurted out in a loud whisper before pulling her hood over her head.

"Why would that make Blake avoid you?" Penny curiously asked, completely ignoring the blushing mess that was Ruby.

"Because she could think it's weird."

"Have you been acting weird around her?"

Ruby pondered for a few moments. "I-I-I don't think so? I mean, I haven't really seen her a lot since I sorta realized I had one on her…"

"Maybe it's not you?" Penny helpfully supplied. "Statistically, if you like someone, they tend to like you back. Would they not be off-put by a behavioural change then?"

"I, uh… suppose not?" Ruby's head was trying to work out the meaning of her friend's words as Penny continued.

"Perhaps you should talk to her? I've been told that helps."

As obvious as it seemed, Ruby hadn't even considered that possibility yet, earning a light face-palm. "I'll try that as soon as I see Blake next, thanks Penny!"

"No problem, Ruby!" Penny flashed her a large smile as the two turned the corner, walking into a wide open city square with a large number of people gathered. Instantly Ruby's eyes lit up as she saw why they were gathered. A weapons demonstration from Atlas

"Let's go check it out, Penny!"

AU: Second time I ever wrote Penny, to be completely honest. I need to use her more considering how much Ruby tends to be one of the main characters of my stories.

Ten reviews and new chapter, wooo!

Righto, progressing through canon is what's up. Yay! And I even stuck to my deadline, more yay!

Not a particularly long chapter, but eh, I'll take what I can get. It gave me a chance to use Penny and show that Ruby was starting to feel like she was the reason that Blake is being reclusive.

Thank you for reading, I hope everyone has a great day! :D