RWBY One-Shot Collection

Ginger Locks (Nuts n Dolts)

Penny had never been the type of girl that took forever to get ready for a date. In fact, she was always the one waiting for ten minutes while Ruby tried to get her eyeliner just right. This considered, Ruby didn't mind waiting a couple hours while Penny took care of a last minute mission she'd been assigned, nor did she mind waiting an extra five minutes for Penny to brush her hair once she'd returned.

When five minutes turned into twenty, she began to mind just a little. When twenty became thirty five, she felt the need to say something.

"Hey, Penny?" Ruby called in the direction of the bathroom door. "Are you still brushing your hair?" Penny's hair had admittedly looked a little rough, but it certainly hadn't been bad enough to warrant half an hour of brushing.

"I don't know what I'm doing wrong." Penny called back miserably.

"What?" Ruby sat up in her bunk, discarding the comic she'd been reading to pass the time. "Are you okay?"

"I made it worse." Penny replied, sounding dangerously close to tears.

"I'm sure it's not that bad." Ruby slid down from her bunk and crossed the dorm to stand outside the bathroom door. "Why don't you come out and let me see?"

"Do you promise that you will not laugh at me?" Penny asked meekly.

"Of course." Ruby promised. "Why would I laugh at you?"

Instead of answering, Penny slowly opened the door, and Ruby damn near broke her promise right then and there. Somehow, what had once been a ruffled and slightly tangled mane had turned into a frizzy, puffed out mess, into which Penny's massive curls had completely disappeared.

"Oh, Penny..." She said sympathetically, wondering how in the world her girlfriend had even managed to do that to herself. "Do you want me to comb through that for you?"

Penny hesitated, not unlike a small child determined to do something independently, before slowly nodding. Ruby took her hands and gently led her over to Weiss's bunk so they could sit without having to climb.

"I'm sorry to make you do this." Penny murmured as Ruby turned to her team's shared dresser and began searching for Weiss's dry conditioner. "Usually my father helps me to do my hair, and I suppose I just never learned how to do it on my own."

"Hey, it's okay." Ruby replied gently. She spotted the bottle and snatched it up, along with Weiss's comb. "I know long hair can be a pain to manage, and those curls are definitely not a one person job. Seriously, how do you even get them to stay like that?"

"Bobby pins." Penny offered. "And hairspray."

"Well, I'm not sure how much help I'll be with that," Ruby said as she took a seat beside Penny. "But I can at least deal with the tangles and frizz. Turn around for me?"

Penny quietly obliged, turning her back toward Ruby and pulling her legs up onto the bed. Ruby pulled the cap off the bottle of conditioner and pumped some of its contents into her hand so she could begin gently massaging it into Penny's hair.

"This stuff will make your hair really silky." Ruby promised, smiling slightly as Penny leaned into her touch. "It even works on Yang, and she almost never brushes her hair."

Once she was finished massaging in the conditioner, Ruby got to work on the tangles. Most of them weren't ridiculous, but there was one monster right in the middle of Penny's mane that Ruby had to start on with her fingers just to avoid hurting her girlfriend.

"Let me know if this hurts at all." Ruby instructed, gently pulling the knot into two smaller, more manageable knots.

"I have turned off the pain receptors in my scalp to make this process easier." Penny replied nonchalantly.

"You can do that?!" Ruby paused what she was doing to stare incredulously at Penny.

"Pain only exists to let someone know when they've been damaged. Once the message is received, pain becomes a hinderance. I have to be able to turn it off to continue functioning efficiently." Penny explained as if it was the most casual thing in the world.

"I wish I could do that." Ruby murmured. Out of pure curiosity, she gave some of Penny's hair an experimental tug. "So, you can't feel this?"

"I can feel the tugging, but it's completely painless." Penny replied.

"My girlfriend is so cool." Ruby cooed, moving some of Penny's hair aside so she could press a quick kiss to her neck. Penny let out a tiny squeak of delight, and Ruby grinned in response.

"I think that my girlfriend is cooler." Penny said with a soft laugh.

"You're only saying that because I'm doing your hair." Ruby teased as she picked up the comb and began pulling it through Penny's mane.

"I am not!" Penny's voice rose indignantly, and she turned her head to give Ruby an incredulous look. "I really do think that you're cool!"

"I know, baby. It was just a joke." Ruby chuckled, trying to keep a grip on the comb as Penny moved. "Hold still."

Penny settled down and returned to her original position, allowing Ruby to continue tugging the comb through her hair. With a grunt of effort, she managed to pull it all the way through.

"We might be here for a while." Ruby remarked, focusing her efforts on one of the larger tangles near Penny's tips. With a quick glance at the clock above the desk that no one ever used, she realized that the movie theatre they'd been planning to go to would probably be closed by the time they were done. "I think we might be better off staying in tonight."

"But you were so excited to go out!" Penny objected, turning slightly toward the clock. "The last showing of our movie is in twenty minutes. If we leave now, we could still make it."

"If we go out, you're just going to be uncomfortable about your hair the whole time," Ruby pointed out gently. "And if one of us isn't having fun, there's no point in going."

"I'm sorry, Ruby." Penny hung her head remorsefully. "I didn't mean to ruin our date."

"Hey, you didn't ruin anything." Ruby carefully tilted Penny's head upward so she could continue combing. "We can go another night. Besides, there are still plenty of things we can do. If the lounge is free, we could have a movie night in there. You can even pick the movie."

Penny didn't respond, and even though Ruby couldn't see her face, she could tell her girlfriend was pulling that downhearted expression she always had when she felt as though she'd disappointed someone.

"C'mon, Penny, don't be like that." Ruby set the comb down and wrapped her arms around Penny from behind, gently resting her chin on her girlfriend's shoulder. "I promise it's okay."

"You are not upset with me?" Penny asked quietly.

"Of course not." Ruby assured her. "You being comfortable is way more important than going to see some movie. Cheer up, okay? Or am I gonna have to do the thing?"

Penny stifled a chuckle at the thought of the aforementioned 'thing', and Ruby smirked mischievously. She turned her head and pressed her lips to Penny's neck, blowing a raspberry against her skin. Penny squealed at the sudden tickling sensation and broke into a fit of giggles.

"Feeling better?" Ruby inquired softly as Penny fell against her, still laughing.

"Yes." Penny replied once she'd managed to calm herself a bit.

"Good," Ruby gave her girlfriend one more peck before picking the comb back up so she could resume working on Penny's hair. "Now let's finish this up so we can have our movie night."

"Thank you, Ruby." Penny said as she straightened up. "You're very kind to me."

"I'm your girlfriend, Firefly." Ruby pointed out warmly. "It's my job to make sure you feel as loved as possible."

"You're very good at it." Penny remarked. Gently, Ruby wound an arm around Penny's waist, smiling softly as the other girl brought a hand up and laid it over hers.

This, in Ruby's humble opinion, was the best job on Remnant.