A/N: Post Coach Steven. A little PearlNet bath time fun. This one kiiiinda got away from me.

The temporary rush of adrenaline after having defeated Sugalite was beginning to wear off and the beating Pearl had taken was starting to set in. Her body ached something fierce. She knew that Amethyst and Garnet were in a great deal of pain as well, but the small purple gem had disappeared into the temple to sleep it off leaving Pearl and Garnet sprawled out on the couch listening to Steven snoring away in his room.

Pearl groaned as she sat up right. "Garnet, I think we should go soak in the temple. Your room has the hot springs, right?"

There was silence for a moment. "You're right, I'd forgotten about them. Damn this headache."

The white gem rose to shaky feet and offered her hand to help the fusion up. It took a moment but soon she too was standing.

"Perhaps we should try sleeping too," she commented as they approached the door. The red and blue gems lit up and they stepped inside her room, traveling down the warm dark hall.

The heat radiating all around them already beginning to relax overused muscles and taking the edge off the pain.

"Hmm, maybe," her friend agreed, following close behind.

The steam coming off the bubbling water was inviting and Pearl shape shifted a modest swim suit before slipping down into it with a satisfied moan. She watched through half-closed eyes as Garnet phased her own suit and sat down across from her.

The pair of gems were both quiet, eyes closed and heads tipped back. The boiling water swirling around them, massaging away the physical wear from the battle.

"I'm sorry."

Pearl's head snapped up and she looked over at Garnet.

"For what?"

"For... for ignoring what was right. Amethyst and I, we have fun when we fuse but we bring out the overindulgent and dangerous parts of each other. I put us all in danger and worse, we hurt you. I hurt you."

She sighed and looked down at her knees, which were distorted through the bubbles. "It's so easy to get so enmeshed in something that feels so good."

Pearl felt the hot pang of jealous roil in her belly. She hadn't fused with Garnet in so long. The main reason she had objected to Amethyst and Garnet fusing was because they were prone to getting rather caught up and being destructive but she'd be a liar if she said there wasn't some envy behind her motives. Not only had it been a long time since she'd fused with Garnet, but since she'd fused at all. Or been touched for that matter.

She realized with a start that Rose was the last person she had fused with and she almost sighed at herself. She jumped when she felt the cool touch of a sapphire gem on her super heated shoulder. Garnet was sitting beside her now with her glasses gone. She searched her face for something.

A cyan blush dusted her cheeks and nose. "Sorry, I was... I was just musing I suppose."

"About what?"

"Oh, nothing." She shrugged and gave a lopsided grin. "I'm just glad that the ordeal is over with and that everyone is, well, mostly OK."

"You know that I enjoy fusing with you too, right?"

"Oh! Well, I enjoy fusing with you too Garnet." Her face felt hotter and she had to look away.

"I don't want you to think I decided to fuse with Amethyst because I don't enjoy it with you because I do. Perhaps a little too much," she chuckled to herself wryly.

"What does that mean?" she asked despite herself.

"It means that I'm a hopeless romantic. It means that you romance me in a way that no one else does. I love Amethyst but it's purely pleasure. We understand that. With us, it's a little different."

"But you... you do get pleasure when we fuse?" Pearl was turning bluer by the moment.

"Of course I do, don't you?"

"You know I do." Her voice was soft and she was studying her counterpart intently.

"When was the last time we...?"

"Before the war ended. I think we both just got so caught up with everything and I-" she shook her head. "I was too wrapped up in Rose."

Fingers caught her chin and lifted it gently. Garnet's lips pressed tenderly but confidently against hers. It was a statement and a question. Her arms around the others neck to deepen it was the confident yes. She found herself climbing onto the lap of the maroon gem, her fingers tangling in the thick curls at the base of her neck.

The room was quiet but for the sound of the water babbling and the wet sound their mouths made. Garnet pulled back slightly to look at Pearl and licked her lips. "I want more of you."

She nodded enthusiastically and phased away her clothes with no hesitation. Were she with anyone but Garnet she might have felt almost embarrassed at her own eagerness. But she trusted her implicitly and it was like she'd said. Their connection was something more, deeper. They both knew that was part of why they'd stopped fusing. Because she'd been afraid. Afraid of what really being care about felt like, afraid of losing Rose, who was never really hers to begin with.

Curious fingers gently raked down her chest and teased her nipples and her back arched. They'd known each other intimately before, but this was new. The expression of intimacy and desire shown through the physical act sex wasn't something they'd experienced together. She groaned and pressed her cheek against Garnet's afro.

"You're a little overdressed," she panted as the other gem pinched her nipples sharply. "It's not fair that you get to play and I don't."

She felt a rumble of laughter from the fusion beneath her then a flash of light and she too was nude. Pearl leaned back down to kiss her hungrily, her own hands roaming and teasing where she so desired, delighting in the quickened movement of her lover's chest as arousal seeped in deeper.

"Let's go somewhere I can fully appreciate you," Garnet said, running her hands down Pearl's back, grasping her ass.

"Please." She stood and stepped out of the hot spring, looking behind her coyly as she let rivers of water drop off her light form.

Garnet came up behind her, arms around her waist and sank her teeth into the sensitive muscle connecting her neck and shoulder.

She whimpered and her knees shook. "Let's go, now. I need you."

They linked hands and hurried through the halls of the heart of the temple naked. Pearl laughed joyfully at the absurdity of the situation and her friend joined in. They came to a big chamber that was deep maroon and warm with a huge bed that they toppled into, limbs akimbo.

The slender gem managed to untangle herself enough to kiss her again, leg hooking over a wide hip to grind against a muscular thigh. "Please," she repeated breathlessly into Garnet's ear.

How could she say now when she'd been asked so nicely? She flipped Pearl onto her back a grin on her lips as she nudged her slim thighs apart with her knee. Her fingers trailed down between her legs brushing soft, teasing strokes against her outer labia.

A deep moan bubbled up from within her as she bowed her low back seeking firmer contact. Her request was obliged. Two thick fingers parted her slick folds and teased her before dipping inside easily. Pearl sighed and pulled her in for more kisses. One hand on the back of the bigger gems neck, the other moved down to find her wetness.

Her long fingers brushed her clit and Garnet let out a gasp against her mouth. They pulled apart to look at each other. "Inside?"

Garnet nodded and bit her lip as three white digits pressed up into her. "Fuck, Pearl."

She leaned down, biting her breast hard enough to leave a purplish-blue bruise. "Garnet you feel so good," she whimpered, heels pressing into the mattress beneath her.

The room was filled with the wet sounds of fucked flesh and pleas. The smell of their sex was intoxicating as they fell deeper into one another.

Pearl's thighs shook violently as she was fingered, the heel of Garnet's palm applying pressure to her clit. Her own hand start-stopping in distraction of her impending release. A warm blush had started on her chest and worked its way across her whole light form.

Her gem began to glow and pulse. She keened loudly and began slamming her hips up to meet Garnet's hand. A vibrant sea of dragonflies erupted around them as she began to peak.

"Garnet, I'm... I'm going to come," she whimpered.

Sweat was covering the fusion's face as she worked to bring her partner to completion, a difficult task considering how lost she was starting to get in the feel of herself being fucked. The dragonflies swam before her and around her and she could feel herself getting lost even more in Pearl.

"Together?" she gasped.

"Yes, together."

There was a blinding flash of light and the outline of Sardonyx appeared as the two gems came hard. The giddy cry of her voice layered over the cries of pleasure from both Pearl and Garnet. The light dissipated and the pair were there again, in a sweaty, shaky heap.

The dragonflies began to flutter and fade away as they laid together, soft kisses and gentle strokes of skin exchanged while they came down from the high. After a while they smiled softly at each other.

"I think I'd like to do that more often," Pearl told her.

"I think I'd like that too."

The ache from the earlier expenditure of energy long gone as they laid there wrapped in one anther's arms, simply relishing the feeling of being for the moment.