The Cluster was Yellow Diamond's way of curbing her jealousy. At first, it was a ploy to avenge her 'Sister', but Blue quickly learned that wasn't the reasoning behind the Earth's massive geoweapon.
Yellow remembered it quite clearly. How she had felt so many emotions, several of them new. Hurt, grief, and then envy.
Pink Diamond was the youngest, and naturally the most innocent as well. Between the three of them, the colonies ran smooth and the eternity they would spend together would be effortless, according to a Sapphire. But with a change of fate, because of said Sapphire, they lost the war and they lost their companion.
Now the Diamonds didn't quite understand companionship to the fullest. They had watched other lifeforms, studied how affection was used between animals, between humans.
For millennia it was just Yellow and Blue. They would watch a species closely and find it strange how they tangled together to reproduce such a small amount of predecessors while their own gem kind could harvest millions from the soil they lived off of. But they would shape shift and learn together why organic species engaged in such activities. It was fun for a while, but everything becomes tiresome in an endless life.
Then Pink erupts from the planet Earth, a complete shock to the other Diamonds. She's sweet and shy and bubbly, and how is it possible for any being to be so absolutely stunning; Yellow notes this when they first meet, White Diamond there as well, a rare occurance.
Yellow cannot keep her eyes off the sapling, the youngest Diamond more than happy to meet her fellow kind and discuss what she is intended for. Yellow cannot hear past her own thoughts, feeling the same burning in her chest and cheeks as she did when she and Blue used to dance like organic life. She wanted Pink beneath her, she wanted all of her and for no one else.
Yellow is a mentor for Pink, being the eldest of the three and therefore the wisest. She tries to be hard on her, to not give in to that adorable smile and those big pink eyes. And she was always right there, right behind you peering over your shoulder, or half perched on your lap. That was something Yellow wasn't used to, and she wasn't sure if she liked it. Yellow would push her away and snap at her, remind her that Yellow was her superior and Pink would mutter an apology and step away, maybe even sitting on the floor.
"Why are you so different?" Yellow's voice echoes in the thinking chamber, flipping through a book before cutting her eyes to Pink, who sat on the marbled floor with a book of human culture open before her.
"I'm different? I thought you were different. Considering how stuck up and prude you are."
"Prude! Why I never... What gives you the right to insult your elder, girl?" Yellow slams the book shut and stores it back on its shelf, her heels clicking against the floor as she approaches Pink. Huge eyes stare up into her own heavy lidded golden ones.
"My Dia- Yellow, I see how you watch me. I'm new but I'm not dense. I've read nearly every book in this room. I've learned a lot, and I've seen your notes on human beha-"
"Enough! I won't tolerate this backlash. You are different because you came from that miserable hunk of rock. With those filthy humans running about, reproducing and wasting resources. Valuable resources! Which is why... Which is why you are going to colonize that planet."
"Colonize! No! But the organic life... They're so peaceful!"
"They are BARBARIC!" Yellow shouts, surprising herself then relaxing, loosening her fists at her sides, "Your purpose is to do one thing useful and help grow the colony. It will be quick and painless. You will be assigned a Lapis to help terraform where needed, and an army of my quartz to pillage."
"Yellow please! There are billions of planets in this galaxy alone we don't need this planet! Please I'll do anything!" Pink was in tears, Yellow staring at her out of curiosity. She had learned to cry from humans.
Yellow wanted to hit her, and although Pink was her subordinate, she wasn't beneath her.
"Enough crying. You look pathetic. Get up and act like a diamond! You are incredibly weak and you are an embarrassment! We never would have helped harvest you from Earth if we hadn't thought you might be of some help!" Pink reluctantly stands, her eyes focusing on Yellow's gem rather than her cold eyes, "Continue to act this way and I will make sure every bit of information on human behavior in this chamber is destroyed. You will go to Earth soon. You will be the merciless leader you are expected to be, and you will help this colony grow. Is that clear?"
"Yes my Diamond." Pink says, finally locking eyes with Yellow, who doesn't even blink.
Pink is deployed to Earth, Yellow has constructed a ship for her and her own palanquin as well. It's been hundreds of years since Pink has seen the other diamonds, and production on Earth is going well. Two kindergartens have been set up, the first beta, to test the minerals. The second, alpha, to produce worthy gems.
Pink found herself so intrigued by the life below. How free they were, how they were to begin and end with a purpose and wasn't it great how life here on Earth could change? Something no diamond or gem would ever understand.
Pink had created a whole new quartz. Rose Quartz, she called them, beautiful humanoids with varying skin colors between light peach and dark brown, with tufts of pink hair. So like Pink, Yellow thinks when she visits to check on the colony.
"Well well. Perhaps I should be addressing you as my own diamond, hmm? You've created a whole new race of gem. That hasn't happened in millennia." Yellow says, her hands folded behind her back, pacing Pink's ship, "We were worried we might have to resort to traditional gem bonding." Yellow smirks when she sees curiosity light up Pink's eyes.
"Bonding?"
"Yes, bonding of course. Have you only been reading on humans and not your own culture? Please tell me you're joking."
"Well I... I didn't think there was much to know."
"Of course there is. White Diamond was born of time and space, with the rest of the universe. She gave everything a meaning. Because without consciousness, then what's the point? Then she wanted companionship, so I was born of the Sun, and Blue Diamond was born of Homeworld's Moon." Pink Diamond looked amazed, her eyes wide and mouth open with awe.
"So she went her own way after a while. Me and Blue were told that by bonding, we could create another diamond. And we did. It's quite a bit like those humans, they raise a tiny living being until it's to it's full capacity, but it didn't work. Something went wrong. White Diamond created us by throwing shards of her own diamond into the moon and Sun, and that makes us unpure. So when our fourth diamond was born, before you, she turned to dust and so began gem reproduction. Those tiny shards brought life to other minerals buried deep beneath the ground."
Pink Diamond is silent, soaking it all in. But one question stuck.
"How do gems bond?"
"We bond like humans mate." Pink Diamond blushes when Yellow says this, the older diamond now circling her throne. "We shape shift into what we need. It's like a dance. And it's quite enjoyable. I understand why organic life partakes in doing it so often. Blue and I had a few thousand years to experiment with it." Yellow had leaned in so close at this point, Pink Diamond nearly turning to stone, her hands trembling. Yellow smirks, her lips just a hair away from Pink's cheek.
"Is that the only bit of information you found most interesting?" Yellow chuckles and pulls away, her hands now on her hips, her gaze moving to the large window, the Earth before them in all it's glory, "It's really too bad. Such a beautiful planet. We've been able to save them before, but our resources are dwindling and we cannot have a weak colony. I'm certain after this feat of yours that White Diamond will soon give you your own star system. You've made me very proud, Pink."
"I- I have?" Pink blushes again, standing and clasping her hands together at her waist, "I didn't want to do any of this at first... But I did it for you. I thought if I did the best, you would enjoy my company more. I felt before that I was just a pest to you."
"A pest?" Yellow asks, turning her attention to Pink, who absolutely glowed with the Earth's reflective light on her form, "I apologize that I ever made you feel such a way. I was being hard on you, my dear. Just as White was to me and Blue, otherwise we might become weak with jealousy watching organic life. But you must understand, they are below us. Their lives are a millionth of a second compared to ours. Pink, the four of us will be here forever. We watched the universe form and we will watch it collapse," Yellow approaches Pink, taking her dainty hands in her own, "Together."
Pink looks down at their hands and smiles, because this is really all she wanted. Attention, because despite Yellow's words of warning, Pink was a bit jealous of the humans below. They talked and danced and celebrated and embraced and it all seemed so wonderful. Gems celebrated, but everything was so formal.
"Yellow? I was wondering..." Pink's voice gets stuck, her throat tightening with fear, so rather than ask, she acts, running her arms around Yellow's torso and resting her head on her gem. Yellow is shocked at first, her arms hung in midair, unsure of how to react. 'Hugging', they called it. A strange but warm and consoling physical gesture. Humans were interesting indeed.
Even as Yellow stood there in shock, unmoving, Pink doesn't let go.
"Stay away from those human beings. Pink, please listen to me." Yellow finally gives in, one hand on Pink's upper back, the other on the back of her head, holding her close. It made her feel warm and strange, and she wasn't sure if she liked it. But she did know that Pink was becoming obsessed with this planet and it had to be stopped.
"Pink, please don't ignore me. This is important, I can't stress enough that your obsession with the Earth-" Pink stands on her tippy toes and kisses Yellow, the older diamond stiffening but not letting go or pulling away. It had been a very long time since she had felt any of this, she was as new as Pink when she and Blue had done this.
At first Yellow is reluctant, but once she feels Pink's tongue push against her upper lip, she pulls the girl closer and bends slightly to deepen the kiss. Pink presses her hips against Yellow's, Yellow growling and lifting her up off the ground, Pink wrapping her bare legs around Yellow's waist, her dress riding up.
Yellow pins Pink into the large soft cushion that was her throne and presses her body against the others, then she stops.
"Is something wrong?" Pink asks when Yellow stills, the older gem breathing heavily, her eyes heavy with something neither of them were quite familiar with. Yellow pulls away and regains her composure, unable to look at the delicate diamond still spread out on the pillow beneath her.
"This is inappropriate. This is not to happen again and it is not to be spoken of, do you understand?" Pink nods, "Good. Now no more of this human business. You need to get to work and stop being so possessive over all of these behaviors. We are diamonds and we don't do these things. We were made to conquer the universe and lead it it into it's timely death."
Pink pulls her dress down, feeling lowly and ashamed. She stays sitting up, her face distorted into an expression of disappointment.
"I'm sorry... I just care for you so much. I want you here with me all the time, even when you can't stand me, I want to bond with you Yellow-"
"This is ridiculous! ENOUGH!" Her intentions before had been to bond with Pink, but now she wanted to protect her. "I cannot allow myself another moment of weakness. Bonding was something we resorted to an era ago, we no longer need to and it is unnecessary. All bonding does is create a mistake. It is inevitable that bonding creates a gemling and I will not allow it to happen again. All you will feel is pain for the loss and I will not stand to lose anything. Ever again. I want my colonies to prosper, I want my sisters to succeed and I want you safe."
Pink is crying now, wondering if pain was what she felt now. "Yellow- Just leave then." Yellow pauses and looks at her, the younger diamond baring her teeth, cheeks stained with tears, "I SAID LEAVE!"
Yellow Diamond had never felt fear in her entire existence until now. Something didn't sit right, Pink ruling the Earth. But perhaps it was because all of this was entirely new.