Pearl slept in the pink bedroom with no windows in Pink Diamond's tower. She had fallen asleep under Rose's arm and woken up later briefly lying on her side in the darkened pink room tucked into the bed. Drowsy and disinclined to figure out why the Stars hadn't come to get her, she melted into the pillows and fell back asleep. Pearl woke up sometime later with the lights on.
For a minute she just sat in bed, wondering what to do. She shouldn't wander around Pink Diamond's Tower. She didn't know what she would do if she ran into anyone, especially Pink Diamond herself. She couldn't be honest, that she was looking for Rose Quartz. Pearl wasn't sure what, if anything, she was supposed to know about Rose at this point.
What did she know about Rose? He had been born when his mother, the Rose quartz who had his gem originally, gave birth to him and gave him her gem. His father was an organic ametrine. That natural and organic gems could have hybrid children together was a secret. That the child would take their mother’s gem and the mother would have to give up their gem and their form to have the child was probably why natural gems and organic gems were forbidden to be matched together. Pink Diamond had allowed the first Rose to disappear to have the second Rose and had then made him a Pink Star and cared for him during her reformation. She'd even gotten him a pearl.
"Rose must be special to Pink Diamond," Pearl mused as she got up.
It was an honor to be the pearl of someone so high ranking. And not just an ornamental pearl, a bodyguard and protector.
Pearl unclasped the front of her gem harness, starting at the bottom and working her way up. Then carefully pulled it off. Inside was a chain that she could attach her gem to so it could be wrapped around her body, but she was going to strip down first. Her clothes were the same bloody, torn ones she'd been rushed away from the Lunar Sea Spire in.
Taking a deep breath, Pearl rolled her shoulders. She hadn't been in her stiff, waist-coat style gem-harness for this long before. She'd certainly never slept in it. It was tight and made her chest and back hurt after all this time. Having her gem so close was nice. Pearl normally wore loose harnesses of ornate necklaces, fancy but not functional. Her new harness was for fighting in. However, Stars, it was nice to be free of it for the moment.
Able to breathe, Pearl stripped off her shirt and leggings, then stretched. She didn't know where her shoes were, but she wasn't too worried about it. It was nice to be in her leotard, which was, for all intents and purposes, only a gem-colored second skin. Organic gems wore leotards or singlets under their clothes made of material Pearl still couldn't identify that moved with them. Like their gems, it responded to their minds, and it only had to be added to when a gem grew in childhood, or it was damaged. After so long in her harness, being just in her leotard made Pearl sigh in relief.
Pearl was half through her stretches when the door opened.
"Hi, Connie! I brought you–"
It was Rose, with a bundle in his hands, red-faced because he was staring right at her, and she was gemless.
"Rose!" Pearl shrieked and turned around, arms covering the spot on her chest where her gem should have been. She heard the door slam shut. With quick fingers, Pearl unlaced the chain from her harness and wrapped it around her, then clasped her gem into it. So, covered, she ran for the door and opened it with a swipe.
"Rose?" Pearl called softly.
Rose was standing next to the door, red-faced, his dark hair covering his eyes.
"H-hi, Pearl."
"Hi. I'm decent."
Rose peeked at her, looking directly at her face for a moment, before shyly glancing down at her chest where her gem hung. He sighed in relief.
"Sorry, about…"
"It's okay! I didn't know you were going to–"
"I wanted to bring you–" Rose went on.
"I'm very grateful–" Pearl cut in.
They both laughed nervously and sighed before silence overtook them. For a few seconds, they stood in the doorway, not talking. Then Rose shifted.
"We should head in," he said. "I shouldn't be seen out here."
"Right," Pearl said and stepped aside to let Rose inside.
Inside, Rose locked the door, then headed over to a corner of the room where a privacy screen stood. Pearl wasn't sure where they'd come from, but Rose had brought her a change of clothes. The entire outfit was in pink: off-white blush-colored leggings, magenta shorts, a cherry blossom shirt, a harness that matched the shorts, and a cloak that was as shade as Rose's. The cloak was stitched with black around the edges, and the shoes were black.
"Whose clothes are these?" Pearl asked as examined the outfit hung up on the wall.
Rose flushed and cleared his throat. "Um, Pearl's."
Pearl paused mid-way through examining the bundle and frowned. Rose couldn't be right. Despite her status as the senior pearl of the Pink Stars, Pearl was a Rainbow Pearl and used a mix of colors fitting her type, not purely pink clothes. These were not Rainbow Pearl's Pearl's clothes.
"But her gem type is Rainbow Pearl." Pearl said. "Are these her clothes for Court? Why not use the clothes for her gem type? Rainbow pearls are incredibly rare."
"Oh…" Rose muttered. "They are but… Well… What kind of pearl are you, anyway?"
"Ugh!" Pearl muttered. "An Aubergine Pearl." Pearl turned so that her chest was facing Rose. In the slim chain-harness hung her dark, reddish-purple gem.
"It's like a pearl version of a garnet," Rose said, mystified.
Blushing, Pearl watched his face. Somehow this differed from when she was mistaken for a garnet as a child.
Rose looked up. "I never noticed how beautiful your gem is."
"I… have to switch harnesses…" Pearl muttered.
Rose nodded and wandered away from the privacy screen. "I'm just going to stand over here." He called.
Frowning, Pearl stared at Rose's back, then sighed and slipped behind the screen. Concealed, she took off her temporary harness. Left in her leotard again, she dressed and returned her gem to its place on her chest. As it clicked in place, she sighed.
"Okay," Pearl called as she stepped out.
Rose had his hood on and was adjusting it over his face. "You look good. Come on."
"Where are we going?" Pearl asked, rushing to keep up with Rose's quick steps.
"I thought, now that you know about… why you're here, we can go out. The Pink Stars will be out for a bit, so we can spend the day together."
They were walking fast, ducking through the halls, avoiding the topazes and rubies marching up and down the halls.
"But where are we going?" Pearl asked.
"Have you ever been anywhere besides your home colony and New Homeworld?"
"No," Pearl said.
"You didn't even get to stop anywhere on the way here?"
"We were in a hurry to get here," Pearl explained.
"That's good. I wanted to take you to one of Yellow's bases from before… from Era One."
"From Era One?" Pearl gasped. "Is that okay?"
"As long as no one finds out," Rose chuckled. He grabbed her hand and started running.
It occurred to Pearl that this trip was Rose's first act as her Quartz. "Do you have the authority to do this, My Quartz?"
Rose Quartz over his shoulder, guilty, shy, then playful, one right after the other. "I have the authority to do a lot of things, as long as I don't tell anyone I'm doing it."
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