@cosmokyrin @narwhalish

alright, not sure if this quite fits the theme, but it’s what I got done on short notice

(sure I may be in a ‘writes cute nuts and dolts’ fluff mood, but it’s late and my brain is saying we have to sleep :P)

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One of Penny’s favorite things to do is run her hand through Ruby’s hair. She loves how it feels. Ruby’s hair is so silky compared to her own, which has always been a bit stiff (artificially so). Penny loves how Ruby will rest her head in her lap, sigh with contentment, and close her eyes. She trusts Penny implicitly. Something not everyone is willing to do or, at least, those who view her as a weapon first and foremost aren’t willing to do.

Penny softly hums a tune she learned from fireflies and allows herself to shift into her idle mode (her equivalent to being relaxed). Ruby drifted off to sleep about twenty minutes ago, which means this position will be the one Penny will spend the next few hours in (as moving would require her to disturb and wake Ruby and that’s something Penny wholeheartedly refuses to do).

It’s moments like these when Penny has the time to remember, there was a time in her life before Ruby. It never feels like it anymore. Ruby has become such a constant, such a wonderful data point in Penny’s existence, that Penny seldom stops to think about what things would be like without her.

Things would be very dull, Penny decided a long, long time ago.

Pietro has made many attempts to teach Penny about the concept of love. She’s never been quite sure she fully understands it. If, like everything else about her, her emotions are artificial, how can what she feels truly be real? How does she know if she can love or not?

Penny couldn’t answer those questions until Ruby. Until the constant, unwavering sensation that she feels when (and only when) she’s with Ruby. It’s an anomaly. Something her analytic systems can’t quite make logical conclusions about, but it is real all the same. It’s a part of her. It always has been. Since soon after that first time on the street when Penny met Ruby and her teammates.

Penny loves. And, because of that, she knows she can feel too.

Maybe a little differently than how humans do, but no less genuinely.