They walked towards the tower in silence. Or at least there was silence between Pearl and Rose. The forest around them was as loud as ever, absolutely driving Pearl crazy with the white noise of unseen creeping, crawling life. She felt all the inching, wringing things in the leaves and shadows on her nerves, and it made her twitchy. Ahead of her, Rose walked at a steady pace, without looking back at her.
Suddenly, Pearl stopped, determined to clear the air. However, before she could say anything, Rose stopped and turned around.
"This was a mistake," Rose said. He was frowning, his voice low.
"W–what was, my Quartz?" Pearl answered.
Rose growled. "This! This trip was! I thought… I thought it would be good to get out together, but everything has gone wrong! This isn't-"
An ear-piercing shriek split the air, cutting off Rose. Pearl physically ducked, the sound was so strong, and saw Rose do the same. He glanced at her, wincing in pain, then put up a bubble around himself. Pearl, seeing they were in danger again, drew her sword with one hand and looked around.
After several more painful seconds, the sound stopped and a giant, round bird–like creature burst out of the foliage. Pearl gasped and glanced at Rose, who was waving his hands and shaking his head inside his bubble.
"Don't worry, Rose!" Pearl called. "I can do this! Stay right there!"
The bird–blob titled his head to look at Rose, then roared and pivoted to face him.
"Oh, no you don't!" Pearl said and jumped between Rose and the blob, She slashed the air in front of it to get its attention. "Stay back! Stay back you - whoa!"
Before she could attack, Pearl found herself encased in pink and dragged back. She hit Rose's chest with a thud and was knocked to her feet. The bird–blob stared a for second before charging them both with a scream. Pearl attempted to stand, but Rose pushed her down at her shoulders. The bubble, meanwhile, grew into a new shape of polygon slats which the bird–blob harmlessly bounced off. It bounced away, got up after a moment, bounced back over to the shield more carefully. Pearl watched as it pecked at the shield a few times, then as if satisfied with something, bounced back to the foliage it had come from.
The bird–blob called into the leaves, and another, smaller bird–blob came bouncing out. The two quickly bounced away. When they were gone, the shield dropped.
"See? It was just protecting its baby. Nothing to fight." Rose took his hands off Pearl's shoulder and walked from behind her, a little way toward where the birds had gone.
"I thought it would be fun," Rose said. "But it's not fun. Ever since I told you about why you came here, you've just wanted to protect me! But I don't need protection! I can take care of myself!"
"But I'm supposed to protect you!" Pearl said. "I'm a member of the Pink Stars. And I'm a fighting pearl. What else am I for?"
Rose turned around. "You can be anything you want! You don't have to be FOR anything! And I don't need protection! Not from the Stars and not from you! You're my friend!"
"Of Course! But I'm always going to be your pearl, My Quartz!"
"Stop it! Stop saying that! You don't have to be my pearl. We can just be friends. Family."
"My Quartz, I–"
"And stop CALLING me that! I'm Steven! Just Steven. I'm not HER!"
Everything seemed to go quiet, even the birds. Pearl was sitting on the ground, watching him. Only half his face was visible behind his hood and hair. He was crying.
"I mean… I mean…" He wiped his eyes on his shirt.
Pearl got up and closed the distance between them. She put her arm around his torso and let herself rest on him. She didn't know what to say at first. So, she said the first thing that came to her mind.
"Steven," she breathed.
Slowly, Steven put his arms around her shoulders. "Remember when we had a make–up picnic? And we played music all day? You taught yourself to play violin, laying down so we could lie in the grass and play. It gave you a cramp. Then I said we were jam buds because on New Homeworld to play music together is called jamming, and we were eating jam and biscuits and you said,"
"Only on Pink's World," they said together.
"I thought it could be like that all the time," Steven said. "That we could be jam buds. I didn't think we'd have to be a gem and their pearl, like everyone else."
"Steven. I'm so sorry. I just wanted to be a good pearl because you're such a good friend."
"You can be a good pearl just by being a good friend, by just being you. You don't have to Pearl first and Connie second. That's the beauty of being an organic gem. Your gem type doesn't define you. I wish I had that."
She squeezed him. "Steven."
"Connie."
They held each other, tighter and tighter, not sure of why. Pearl just found she understood something about life that she hadn't understood before. She felt she understood things about Steven, and about herself. She felt her gem pressing into her chest, warm and alive. And she was so close to Steven she felt his gem too, and his skin, and muscles, the glow of him, the breath in his lungs.
But before they could find the answer to that question, the planet’s wildlife showed up again. A herd of unrelated animals came running into them, knocking them apart. Pearl gasped and sat up.
"What was it?!"
"I don't know! I think…! Connie!" Steven was on his hands and knees, hood down, hair pushed out of his face. "Connie, I think-"
Buzzzzzzzzzzzz
"Oh NO!" Steven and Pearl shouted together.
"To the tower, quick!" Steven shouted as she scrambled to his feet and grabbed Connie's hand.
They ran together, Steven leading and floating them over obstacles if need be, until they reached the safety of the broken–down base. Then slammed into the side base from the speed they were going, before Pearl used her sword to slash them a way inside.
Inside was ravaged by time and wildlife, but not bad enough that it couldn't be fixed.
"How old is this place?" Pearl asked.
"Older than New Homeworld," Steven muttered. "Pink used to come here before she got New Homeworld as a colony, when this place was still a moon base for the planet."
They took the stairs up to the throne room where a beautiful view of the sky and the former colony could be seen. Pearl tutted.
"What a waste," she said. "All those resources left behind and destroyed because of strip mining."
"That's the way Era 1 and Era 2 worked. But then Pink began fixing things. Yellow, Blue, and White still make colonies sort of the same way now, but we don't."
"Hmm. Thank goodness for Pink Diamond."
"Heh. Yea." Steven sighed. "The Stars were right. This place is dangerous."
"Yea." Pearl sighed as well.
"The warp pad is over this way. Come on."
They wandered over to the warp pad. On the way, Pearl caught a glance of the murals for the Diamonds. Here Pink Diamond looked different. Larger, daintier, somehow, with a more intricate outfit. Same hair though, puffy and halo–like. Pearl smiled. She wasn't anyone, but herself, was she?
"Connie?" Steven called.
"Coming!" Pearl rushed to catch up. "I was thinking. If Pink Diamond was organic, do you think she'd use her name?"
Steven paused as he stepped on the warp pad. His face was pink. "P–probably. I mean. Yea. Definitely."
"Good," Pearl said.
They got on the warp pad together, and Steven took Pearl's hand. Pearl glanced at him and smiled.
"Connie?" Steven muttered as the warp pad flared to life.
"Yes?"
"Back there. Did we almost… fuse?"
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