Yang let out a deeply contented sigh as Jaune softly ran a brush through her hair, enjoying the warm light of the summer sun.
Her best friend's Aura filled her senses as her eyes were softly closed.
Spiced pine and fragrant fruit. The taste of juniper berries on her lip.
It was just right. These quiet moments where birds chirped in a tree, Jaune's hands gently running through her hair, alternating between brush and fingers. The scent of chocolate on the wind as Ruby dug into a bag of cookies as she was probably still hanging off Jaune's back.
And while normally she'd be mad if Ruby spilled crumbs in her hair, Jaune was always so meticulous about getting them out and treating her hair right that she almost didn't care, as at least that meant Jaune would take some extra time with her hair. More time when she was the focus of all of Jaune's attention.
Even knowing that Emerald was standing guard nearby didn't even dampen her mood.
She didn't actually dislike Emerald. Actually she was a friend. Not as close as Jaune, Blake, Ren, and Nora, but Emerald was definitely a friend.
But Yang was still allowed to be jealous that the mint green haired girl got to spend almost every waking moment with Jaune, right?
The girl wanted to be his butler or something because Jaune had saved her and taken her off the streets, which was sweet, but he wasn't just Emerald's hero. He was also Yang's, Ruby's, Blake's, so it was just… unfair for her to be the only one always around Jaune all the time.
Heck, she got to go to school with Jaune. Couldn't she share her friend a little better?
At least Emerald had the decency to stay quiet and not bicker with Yang during these personal moments unlike their normal bantering. The girl did respect boundaries, even if she pretended that she didn't.
Or maybe she just respected Jaune's boundaries. She didn't mind stepping on Yang's here and there.
"So what's the plan today, Jaune? Wanna do anything?"
"Hmmmm." He hummed melodically, suddenly making Yang want him to sing her a song. "I didn't have anything specific planned really, so I'm down for just about anything. I'll have to stop in by Dr. Polendina's place later and check in with Project PENNI stuff though."
"What is that project anyways?" She asked, "I thought it finished two years ago, but you're always checking in on it and I haven't heard the adults talk about it at all. Normally they can't shut up about anything you've helped Atlas with."
"Well… technically it's classified." She heard Jaune admit as he swapped again from brush to fingers, his Aura warm and pleasant, "But if you keep it a secret I could show you."
That ran an excited thrill through Yang. Even when she'd beg for details there were things that Jaune simply didn't share. That's why it was kind of rare and exciting that he was offering to do so now.
"Sure! Sounds cool!" She smiled, feeling a little too excited.
"Yeah, we'll bring Ruby and Ems can come with us too. We don't want to bring a group too large, but honestly having a few extra people would actually help."
That was odd.
Initially Yang had immediately begun to feel somewhat slighted that Jaune was including others, having assumed this would have been more of a private thing between her and him, but Jaune wanting to bring more people in, saying that it would help… well it felt odd.
Jaune wasn't… well no, actually he was pretty secretive. But Project PENNI sounded like a secret Atlasean thing and it was weird that he wanted to drag multiple people into it.
"Eh. Couldn't hurt." She shrugged as Jaune applied a bit of conditioning hair cream into her luscious locks of hair. "Oooooh yeah. That's the good stuff."
The sound of Jaune's laughter was soothing.
"Uncle Jaune!" Penny leapt at her other creator, overjoyed for her daily visit.
She'd become very good at controlling her strength now, though she was told that she still squeezed a bit too hard for people without Aura. Which she did her best to adjust to, despite the fact that the people she interacted with always had Aura. It just seemed odd to be warned about something that wasn't a factor in her existence.
"Mmmmphm!"
How strange. Father Jaune seemed to have gotten significantly smaller. That wasn't normal. A loss in mass of this magnitude was worrying!
Penny looked down to see a…
That wasn't her Father Jaune.
"...Salutations!" She beamed with a smile.
Her Father Jaune had always told her that strangers were only friends you hadn't met yet!
"MMlllooo?" The small girl in a red sundress spoke muffledly, looking up at Penny with pretty silver eyes.
"Hey, d'you mind letting go of my sister?" A slightly strained voice asked, causing Penny to look up at a slightly irritated looking blonde with long pretty hair standing next to her Father Jaune.
"Oh!" Penny exclaimed, letting the girl go to the sound of "Bwah!" as she performed an intake and inhalation of oxygen. "My apologies! And sal~u~tations! You have pretty hair!"
The blonde girl blinked, her lilac eyes taking a brief glimmer of (perhaps) flattered surprise as one of her hands rose to play with one of the strands, a glimmering orange and black ribbon tied around her neck like a choker with a bow tied at a side angle.
"Oh, uh. Thanks."
"He he." She heard her Father snicker, "Everyone, this is Penny Polendina. She's Project PENNI. She's what I've been working on with the good doctor."
Oh, had one of her Fathers finally brought her some new friends?!
Penny straightened her back and saluted with her non-combat (though combat capable) Nikke-type Drone Body.
It had, according to her internal project files, been her Uncle (secretly Penny also called Jaune Father in her heart, as doing so out loud would make an uncomfortable allusion between both of her Fathers) Jaune that had been the one to insist upon the creation of this younger body.
So her Father Pietro Polendina had created one roughly fourteen in appearance with a short orange bob and cute freckles across her nose. After all, Father Jaune had insisted on one even younger as she was still a newborn entity and in his quoted words, "...still needs the developmental growth of experiencing being a kid like the baby she is…" and thus a compromise was created to allow a backup/drone body at least, though it was still in her teens, much to Father Jaune's disappointment.
The logic had been that this way Penny would be allowed to practice controlling her strength and get used to her weaker thresholds before using her fully grown nineteen-twenty year old actual form.
Her ability to control her actual body with her included her full Aura was still shoddy, in all actuality, and all of her exercises in her smaller, younger drone body was very helpful!
Penny was just glad that though weaker, when her consciousness shifted between bodies, some of her Aura carried over allowing her to practice with a weakened version of it as well.
"Hello friends of Uncle Jaune! I am Penny Polendina! I am friendship ready!"
"Penny," Father Jaune laughed warmly as he walked over and performed the Headpat™ action. Penny hummed contently at her Father's touch. "You can just say you want to be friends."
"Yes Fa- I mean. Uncle Jaune." Penny corrected herself. "Hic." Curse her hiccups when hiding her true feelings! "I would like to create bonds of friendship with everyone!"
The Minty One was the first to approach.
Ooooh!
She was dressed like a butler from the manga that Father Jaune shared! What was the term?
This one was a cosplayer!
"I am Emerald, loyal blade of my master, Jaune Arc. It is an honor to be your friend."
"Em…"
Ah! Penny knew this! This was Role-Playing™! Where a person acted out the persona of a character that they enjoyed! She was curious as to which- oh no! Role-Playing™ like this used as a first impression without being at a social event called a 'convention' had a 87.335% chance that it was as a result of a trope described in her manga as 'chuunibyou' and was considered abnormal!
Oh no! Penny did not wish to bring attention to new friend Emerald's 'chuunibyou' and had to react accordingly!
"I am glad to make friends with you, Emerald!" Penny smiled, shoving down every curious urge for a split second. "I love your outfit!"
Ah there. As long as she spoke honestly, even when avoiding a social faux pas, she did not hiccup! What a sensational discovery!
"Thank you, miss Penny." Emerald smiled gently back at her, making Penny feel satisfied, "I am also under employee of your Father- er, Uncle Jaune. My apologies-"
"None required Friend Emerald!" Penny quickly replied, warm as someone else recognized that Father Jaune was also her Father. It was always secretly a bit painful calling him Uncle instead.
Emerald smiled back softly.
"I mean… it's not wrong to say Penny's also kind of my baby, but it was Dr. Polendina who gave her Aura and is officially her dad." Father Jaune laughed as he scratched his cheek. "It'd be kind of weird if she called both of us dad."
Penny didn't understand why it was so. She wished she could happily and openly call Father Jaune her Father as well.
"Well, if Jaune helped build you… uh… that makes you a part of the family?" The pretty blonde haired girl nodded, looking at her strangely. "I'm Yang. Nice to meet you, Penny. Yeah, let's be friends."
"Sen-sational!" Penny felt her artificial cardiovascular system pump within, a warm flush surfacing against her cheeks, "F- Uncle Jaune! I have made two new friends today!"
"Three!" The silver eyed girl pouted as she walked over to hug Penny around her waist, making her 'heart' pump even faster. "If you're brother Jaune's friend, we're friends too! I'm Ruby!"
"I- eeeeeeeeee!" Penny squealed as she picked up her Friend Ruby as gently as she could, spinning her around as her new friend's feet lifted into the air. "Sensational!"
"She's really excitable." Yang murmured as Jaune ran his fingers through her hair again.
Penny had wanted to, in her words: engage in girl activities and do each others' hair, nails, and talk about cute boys.
They'd all laughed a bit at Jaune when if Penny wanted cute boys, both he and Ren would probably look good in a dress. Partly because the thought was ridiculous, the other because honestly? Yang kind of did want to see Jaune in a dress all of a sudden. She actually thought he could pull it off, maybe.
Jaune wasn't girly, but he wasn't very boy-ish either. Somewhere in the middle that could easily be prettied up in either direction with a little bit of a guiding hand. Maybe a little makeup? Mom Summer had been teaching Yang a little about that recently.
But that thought was put to the side as Jaune was using her long hair as an example to teach Penny how to braid Ruby's hair.
He'd only done a loose and simple braid initially to show the… well robot-girl that Jaune insisted was a person because she had Aura (and honestly that checked out) but after giving the basic example that allowed his sort-of daughter (and THAT was… weird, right? Jaune was eleven! Eleven and a half!) he'd begun to have fun with her hair, doing something really fancy with it, even pulling a basket full of fragrant wildflowers from his Semblance and weaving them into her hair.
Yang felt a little funny, like she had butterflies in her stomach. It made her feel warm and special.
Even though Emerald was the lucky one that was allowed to play with Jaune's hair (currently growing out a little messily and even tied back sometimes in a little spiky ponytail), she kept peeking at Jaune's hands at work, seemingly jealous in the corner of Yang's eye as Ruby braided her long, thin ponytail that extended past her chic bob cut with straight fringes.
Ruby wasn't doing an amazing job, but Emerald was sweet on her little baby sister, which was one of the reasons that Yang let Emerald get away with more shit than she should. So she didn't complain at all when she'd seen Ruby do an awful and uneven job, just patting her head and thanking her.
Yang's own hands had been out stretched to play with Penny's hair, a surprisingly well done job done by Jaune and Dr. Polendina to make it really feel like real human hair, even if Penny had proven (with a folding set of swords stored inside a backpack in a container on the wall) that her hair was very resilient against cutting force.
Penny had sawed it a little against a tiny cowlick that extended from her head like an antenna, showing that it struggled even to cut a tiny bit of the ends off without applying Aura to the edge.
But currently Yang was just holding onto her ankles with her hands, relaxing as Jaune did whatever Jaune-magic he was up to with her hair. Penny seemed happy with just the two simple ones she'd barely managed to weave into her curly locks, now fully focused on Ruby's hair.
The room that Penny was staying in was dreadfully sterile with white metal walls, ceiling, and floors. Penny had happily informed that it was Jaune that helped keep it somewhat personalized beyond that, as he ignored protocol and nobody seemed to do anything about it in an attempt at keeping him happy.
For example, they were sitting on a thick warm rug and while it was currently propped to the side, there was a small folding table of Mistralian style meant for sitting on the ground to use it. To the side of that folded up table was a small cardboard box Penny had a lot of printer paper and drawing supplies to use on said table.
Jaune had also set up a giant cork pinboard on the wall that had a bunch of cute childish doodles that suddenly began to transition into pretty decent sketches, before taking a sharp turn into some very realistic and almost photographic images in both black and white and in color from left to right.
They were images of all sorts of things, from landscapes to cats, even a gorgeous black and white pencil sketch of Jaune and Dr. Polendina behind Penny, the two of them placing a hand on her shoulders.
Penny must have practiced sketching and coloring a lot while staying under the radar. Maybe aside from Jaune coming in to check up on her daily, just like Dr. Polendina, that was the only hobby that the girl was even allowed to have.
It was sort of… lonely to look at.
Jaune said aside from combat tests and training she wasn't really let out much, although she had access to the internet. Penny especially loved videos of cute animals doing cute things.
However it seemed she had a slew of criticisms for food videos, pointing out a bunch of things they could do better. Apparently she'd seen Jaune cook and could even eat and taste (though she didn't need a lot) and was convinced that almost all of the people who cooked online in their videos were hacks.
She also proudly saved all of the chatlogs that Penny had ever with her few online friends.
She'd seemingly gotten very into a little online MMORPG about magic and farming called Stardew Factory that even Yang had dabbled with once before she got lazy and turned back to more action and fighting games with her classmates. Penny had made a total of two friends who seemed to be an older married couple that humored her childish inquiries with a pretty friendly manner.
Actually as weird as a two year old newborn AI turned sort of human entity that Penny was, it was kind of cute how much she treasured the little things. For example, Penny had set a little signed album from Jaune on a little almost shrinelike desk stand, with little twinkling lights and everything.
Actually, where the heck was her autographed album? Yang had never gotten such a thing!
"You never asked for one." Jaune giggled behind her, reading her mind in that odd, Jaune-y way. "And I don't read minds. It's not the same."
"...Can I have one though?" Yang kept her head turned away from him as she scratched her cheek. "Y'know, just cuz like, I don't wanna feel left out of it, y'know?"
Jaune's laugh was warm.
"Of course. I'll get it to you right after I finish your hair."
"Oooh, ooh! Me too!" Ruby raised a hand from the side as they sat in their little braiding circle like she was a student in class. "I want one too!"
"Ruby will get one as well." Jaune laughed. "Heck, the second album should be officially released soon too, so we can get that as well for all of you."
"Sensational!" Yang heard Penny cheer as she began to giggle alongside Ruby.
Those two got along well.
Probably because Penny was about as awkward as Ruby could be and technically even younger, despite the fact that she looked like a fourteen year old. It was rare for Ruby to play the role of a big sister, but Penny seemed to love the fact that Ruby was treating the bigger girl as a younger sibling.
Frankly it was just Ruby pretending to be like Yang in her own, Ruby-like innocent way.
Ruby seemed to not really care about the details of all of that too much, jabbering on about nonsense. Sometimes in both an attempt to sound smart as well as actual passionate interest, she'd regurgitate some new dumb piece of trivia that she learned about in a weapons magazine aimed at Huntsmen and Huntresses in training that Penny quickly used her robo-brain to fact check and elaborate for her with the internet.
"I wonder if I should be worried that my baby sister's so awkward at Signal, but can get along so easily with a… uh… a Penny." Yang finished weakly, really unsure how to put it.
"Does she not have friends at Signal?" Jaune asked quietly, his voice concerned and caring.
"I mean, she's got a few friends, but nobody super close." Yang replied as Jaune added some finishing touches to her hair, reaching over to the front of her hair and adding a few embellishments. "It's just, Ruby has friends, but she's one of the outside friends, yeah? Like there's a big group of friends and she thinks she's friends with them all, but there's the closer inner friend group that sort of dictates the flow of it all and she's not in it."
"Is… is that how it works?"
"Huh?" Yang turned to him with a look of surprise. "What do you mean? Of cour-"
His look of confusion told her all she'd needed to know. Jaune hadn't even understood that was a kind of friendship that existed. As if he wasn't part of an overly large friend group like she was, always having to make time for stuff or picking and choosing who to hang out with.
Why? Who wouldn't want to be friends with Jaune? He was super cool.
"I, uh." Jaune looked away, not meeting her eyes and speaking a little too quickly. "I-I guess it's a bit easier to make friends at Signal. Things at Sanctum got muddled, like, day one for me. But it's fine! I have Ren, Nora, Em, and my sisters, so it's all good. Seriously. Plus during Summer and Winter breaks I can go and see you, Ruby, and Blake as well, so it's all good."
That didn't make any sense.
"Jaune, you've been going to Sanctum for like three or four years."
"Well, it's kind of hard for me when they're all approaching me because they want something from me because I'm the Little Professor or with stuff for allying with the Arcs and stuff rather than… me, right?"
"Allying with the- what's going on in Sanctum?"
"It's merely Mistral in general." Emerald helpfully chimed in, her braid having come loose, and currently straightening her sole long, sleek ponytail. "Some people there are normal and there are the friend group dynamics that you mention, but my master's reputation is considered intimidating and thus such people do not approach him. Additionally he is a Faunus and many in Mistral do not treat the Faunus well at all."
"It's really not that big of a deal." Jaune defended again, putting his hands on Yang's shoulders, turning her back around so he could finish prettying up her hair, clearly wanting a distraction from the current conversation. "I've got real friends with you all. That's enough for me. I'm not really interested in being a popular kid or anything like that."
Jaune spoke in a manner that implied he didn't want to drag on with the conversation further, so Yang let it be.
But… that wasn't right. Jaune was one of the coolest, just most amazing people she knew. He should have people throwing themselves at him to want to be his friend. It made Yang feel… hurt? Upset? Definitely upset at a bunch of idiots that couldn't see how amazing a friend Jaune was. Not like she wanted to share his time with even more people but… Yang just didn't want to see Jaune mistreated like that.
Even the wonder Yang felt when she'd observed herself via a 360 degree panoramic recording of her gorgeous and fancy braids that made her feel like a princess from a fairy tale didn't fully wash away that uncomfortable feeling in her gut.
"Oh thank you for introducing me to your friends, Uncle Jaune!" Penny gave her younger Father a strong hug, which she knew she should control better, but Father Jaune had a strong Aura and didn't mind her being a bit more forceful. He even reciprocated her act of physical affection with a hug of his own, his Aura pleasantly smelling and tasting like juniper berries, as usual. "Today has been most wonderful!"
She let him go with a wide smile as her Father gave her some more delightful Headpats™.
"Hey, it was a pretty good time all around." Yang gave her the fabled side-hug, wrapping her arm around Penny's shoulders and pulling her into the side, making Penny giggle with joy as her temple bumped lightly against the head of the slightly shorter girl. "We'll totally try to visit again."
"Sensational! I shall download and prepare myself to be able to play a match of Alley Huntsman III!"
"Hey now that sounds fun! I love fighting games." The blonde girl that Father Jaune had turned into a radiant beauty with his wonderful braiding techniques laughed, wildflowers seeming to grow from her hair like a golden field of flowers. "Get ready for a butt whooping."
"I do not know what that means, but my butt is ready!"
The sister units Ruby and Yang burst into giggles as Jaune performed a 'facepalm' like in her manga and friend Emerald simply continued to quietly smile politely.
"It has been wonderful to become friends with you, Lady Penny." Emerald the Chuunibyou bowed slightly, looking as perfectly prim as the butlers in the Mistrali manga about a high school butler club that attended rich noble ladies that her Father Jaune brought for her to read. "I shall accompany my master when I am able."
"Thank you for your kind words, Friend Emerald." Penny smiled, meaning it fully. "I shall fully support you and your interests!"
Emerald blinked, giving her a look of confusion.
Ah. Penny forgot. Her chuunibyou was a matter to be kept under wraps. Oops!
"Your endeavor to be my Fa-Uncle's blade and butler! Hic!" She quickly corrected, but was betrayed by a small hiccup right at the end.
Curses!
She had to say something more truthful or these horrid hiccups would never go away! Why did Father Jaune and Father Pietro make her so biologically accurate? Why did her P0k3R_F4C3™ protocols only work for keeping important personal secrets and not smaller ones as well?
"I truly appreciate your loyalty to Uncle Jaune. I hope that you can be a good friend to both of us for many days to come!" Penny finished appropriately, feeling her artificial diaphragm cease to seize up and cause no further interruptions to her man-made vocal cords.
Still Emerald was a kind friend, just giving her a soft, understanding smile and a pat on the shoulder. Sort of not unlike her new friend Ruby!
Penny had just been treated akin to a 'younger sister' once more, and that was an enjoyable sensation. She did not mind that both Friend Emerald and Friend Ruby were physically smaller and visually younger than her.
After all, despite her accelerated mental processing protocols and machine learning algorithms, she was still but a nascent intelligence, chronologically dated at two solar years, zero months, twelve days, five hours, twenty-six minutes, and seventeen seconds!
Ooooooh. This experience to interact with fellow children who weren't her Father Jaune was utterly delightful! Everything that Penny could have ever dreamed of and more!
Father Jaune had informed her once that he had seven blood related sisters and an eighth adopted one. She was truly looking forward to the day where she could meet all of her aunts and be treated as a younger sister by them all!
Penny desired the day when she would be considered developed enough to safely attend Atlas Academy. Despite knowing that she still had so much to learn about becoming a human entity, it did not change the fact that she was friendship ready!