Happy New Year, Diamond City (Ashley Penny yuri)

Diamond City – Ashley’s Mansion

“Ashley! Wake up!”

“No … Go away, Red …”

Ashley swatted her arm, trying to smack the small devil away. There was only one problem – It wasn’t Red trying to wake her. It was Penny, whose hair was messy and pink coat only half zipped, a look of panic on her face.

“Come on, hurry up! We’re gonna be late for the party!” She kept shoving Ashley’s shoulder, trying to best to wake the witch. “I don’t wanna miss it!” The two girls were supposed to leave at 6 PM to make it in time, but of course Penny had decided they needed a last-minute “wind-down” so they could fully enjoy themselves and not get weird around their co-workers.

“Damn it, go away …” Ashley finally sat up, rubbing her eyes. Her long black hair was sticking out all over. “I told you all week that I’m not going to that stupid thing after what 9-Volt did at the Christmas party.” Penny sighed, pulling on Ashley’s arm to force her to stand.

“9-Volt didn’t mean to steal your hair bow thingy and hang it from the Christmas tree!” Penny said, throwing Ashley’s red dress at her and looking for the girl’s black stockings. “Now hurry up and get dressed! Red already left a long time ago!”

With an annoyed groan, Ashley nodded and dressed as fast as she could manage, Penny dragging her out of the mansion by her wrist, still complaining about leaving “way too late!”

Diamond City – WarioWare, Inc. Office Building

“Wa-ha! Wario’s hungry!”

At the company party, Wario spent no time in attacking the buffet table. Like usual, his employees all watched him scarf down every sweet thing in the room. Mona was fuming, Kat and Ana looked like they could cry, and Jimmy T. just shook his head in disbelief.

“Every single year, man …” Jimmy said, approaching Wario and patting his back. “Come on, let the rest of us have somethin’.”

“Hey, I do give you moochers somethin’ – Some of my money!” Wario yelled at him, cake flying from his mouth. “Now let Wario enjoy his feast!”

“This is exactly why I don’t come to these stupid things.” Ashley said, crossing her arms. She and Penny were leaning against a wall, watching Mona begin to choke Wario and yell at him for eating too much.

“Oh come on Ashley, go talk to everyone.” Penny said, nuzzling the witch’s cheek. “Mona’s got Wario busy, so everyone has a chance to actually talk now.” Ashley looked at her, sighing.

“I talk to you, isn’t that enough?” She asked, watching 9-Volt and 18-Volt play keep-away with Red’s pitchfork as the small devil tried his best to jump and grab it. “Besides, would you want to talk to them?” Penny looked over at the 3 boys for a moment.

“… Okay, good point.” She replied. “What happened? I remember the Christmas party being better than this!”

“Yeah, because Wario had that bike accident and his fat mouth had to be wired shut that week.” Ashley said. Mona had Wario pinned to the ground now, the man’s face becoming blue as Mona gripped his neck and slammed his head onto the floor repeatedly.

“Mona! I can’t breathe!” Wario tried to yell, but Mona just ignored him and kept lecturing him on being too greedy. Dribble and Spitz snickered at this, the bulldog and small cat watching the ‘fight’.

WarioWare company parties never amounted to much more than this – Mona getting angry at Wario, 9-Volt and 18-Volt eventually pulling DS’s from their pockets, and Dribble would always get a phone call halfway through, making himself and Spitz have to leave to pick someone up in their cab.

Looking at the wall clock, she saw that only an hour had passed, and the group was supposedly going to stay until midnight. She looked over, seeing that Penny had left to speak with her grandfather and Mike – That left her with no one to talk to. She could always go speak with Orbulon, but he was so hard to understand – That, and she’d tried to use him in a potion before as an ingredient - Made things somewhat awkward.

“Ashley, are you okay?”

She looked down to see Red, who had got his pitchfork back from 9-Volt. She had no idea why he brought it with him in the first place, but whatever. Ashley nodded, not speaking to him. Red didn’t bother talking to her more, being used to this. After a moment though, the silence was way too … Well, silent.

“So … Fun party, huh?” He looked up at her with a smile, expecting at least a scowl – Nothing. Not even a glance. “Are you sure everything’s okay? You’re not sick or something, right?”

“This is pointless, I’m leaving.” Ashley said. “Stay as long as you want, I don’t care.” She left the room without a single person noticing. Red knew Ashley wasn’t one for parties like this, and only went because Penny dragged her – Something that seemed to happen quite a lot lately.

“I wonder if I should follow …” Red thought out loud. Hearing footsteps, he looked up to see Penny approaching him.

“Hey Red, where did Ashley go?” She asked. Red sighed, pointing at the door. Penny looked a bit angry at this, clenching a fist. “She always does this. I don’t understand her sometimes …” With that, Penny headed for the door and slammed it behind her.

Diamond City – City Streets

The streetlights flickered as Ashley made her way down the sidewalk, looking at the ground as she kept walking. She really didn’t feel like looking at the people around her, and they all ignored her – Working with Wario in any form gave you that kind of attention, or lack thereof. People always thought that anyone associated with him either craved cash or planned to steal it from others. When she first started working with the company, Wario told her that “her magic would be perfect to improve sales!” – She didn’t know that he expected her to actually use magic and get him more money.

Although she wanted to quit shortly after the first game she worked on was released, Red convinced her to stay and give the place another chance – A good thing he did, really. If she hadn’t waited a few more years, Penny wouldn’t be in her life. Ashley smiled to herself as she thought of the red-haired girl, but then realized – She left Penny back at the office. Shouldn’t she have brought her along when she left? She was talking to Dr. Crygor, so there was no point in being rude …

“There you are!”

Ashley paused, seeing Penny in front of her, tapping her foot on the ground. The scientist didn’t look happy at all, giving Ashley a glare. Of course, Ashley refused to show that she had any concern.

“Yes, I’m here. What’d I do this time?” Ashley asked, watching as Penny approached her.

“You ditched me at the party! Why in the world would you ditch your own girlfriend like that?” Penny crossed her arms. “You always do this, Ashley! If you get bored, you just leave me there! Do you know how awkward it was just standing around?”

“You were talking with your Grandfather and his robot.” Ashley replied. “Besides, it’s not like I was the first to leave. Dribble and Spitz left before I did.” As usual, Ashley showed no emotion in her eyes.

“Oh, you know they don’t count!” Penny said. “All I wanted to do was spend new year’s eve with you, and-” Penny was cut off by a group of people who had appeared behind the two girls – Apparently, Ashley had walked from the streets back into Diamond City itself without noticing, and in front of the city’s biggest building.

“Five … Four …Three …” The crowd of people started to count down, all staring at the building. Apparently, the large ball in front of it had begun to descend. “Two … One …!” The ball fell – The New Year had officially begun. After that, the people all began to scream and hug each other, a few couples beginning to kiss.

“You see what you do?! You ran away and we missed New Year’s-” Penny couldn’t finish, Ashley pulling her close and into her arms, pressing her lips to hers. The two girls stayed in this embrace for some time, neither releasing until the crowd around them began to quiet down. “W-Whoa …” Penny blushed as she looked into Ashley’s eyes, her vision blurred from her glasses fogging up. “That was … Nice.”

“I’m sorry I didn’t bring you along.” Ashley said, smiling at her. “You know I love you.” Penny nodded, hugging her tight and snuggling into her shoulder. Ashley patted her on the back. “I love you, Penny.”

“I love you too, Ashley.” Penny replied, pulling her into a short kiss. “I hope we stay together this year, too. I hope nothing makes you leave me.” Ashley shook her head, still smiling at her.

“Nonsense - Nothing will ever change how I feel about you.” Ashley meant every word. Back when she first started working at WarioWare, no one would’ve imagined that she would fall in love with anyone, let alone smile at them. It used to be extremely difficult for her to even force a smile – What was there to be happy about? But then this red-haired science lover came into her life, and everything was perfect.

Well, except for her crappy job, cheap boss, and annoying co-workers. But she could overlook that. She had someone in her arms – Someone she would never let go.