"You can do this! You can do this! You. Can. Do. This!" Phos said to her reflection in the water. She patted her cheeks and smoothed out her hair. She looked damn cute today. Why was she looking cute? Well, she's always cute but today was extra special. Today is the day she's gonna finally ask out Cinnabar on a date to the brand new amusement park! Apparently Obsidian and Red Beryl completely outdid themselves with this new project! Ever since Sensei retold tellings of how the humans had such things as "amusement parks", "shopping malls", and other things like "clothing stores", Obsidian and Red Beryl decided to team up and make similar or exact replicas of the said places in order to make this island a more fun experience when there aren't Lunarians here to attack and steal us.
"Alright Phos, I see you're wearing brand new clothes from Red Beryl's summer line. What's the special occasion?" Phos jumped at the voice of Morganite being right behind her. She instantly stood up and turned to see Goshe and Morganite wearing clothes from Red Beryl's Spring line.
Morganite was wearing a pink, long sleeved sweater over a white button up that was tucked into her high waisted navy blue pink and white floral pattern skirt. She also wore black, transparent leggings with black high heeled platforms. As for Goshe, she was wearing a more androgynous look. Her clothes consisted of a navy blue button up with a blue and white plaid design on the inner cotton, with rolled up cuffs worn over a plain white shirt that was tucked into slightly baggy jeans that had small splattered white paint designs on them. For her feet she was wearing black plain canvas shoes.
They looked absolutely amazing. Meanwhile Phos just looked rather plain with her black, semi-transparent, short sleeved shirt, messily tucked into her high waisted, light blue shorts held up together by her black belt. Her shoes were black "converse" as Red Beryl called them. Apparently they were all the rage at one point in human history.
"Phos, are you there?" Goshe said concerned. Phos wasn't usually quiet so this was a great worry, not to mention her face was beaming red.
Phos snapped out of her ogling and spoke with haste from embarrassment of the chance that Goshe and Morga might have heard her give herself a pep talk. "U-Uh I-I'm gonna go to the new amusement park!" Good job Phos. Technically that wasn't a lie cause she was going to go to the amusement park..Hopefully with Cinnabar.
"How funny! We were gonna go too! Wanna come with us?" Morga said with a smile. Goshe gave Morga a surprised look and then looked down towards the floor. Huh? What surprised Goshe? That's when Phos' eyes trailed down Goshe's arm and saw that both Morga and Goshe were holding hands. Wait…are they…dating?! Phos always knew Goshe and Morga got along so well but she never imagined they'd get along THIS well. Now she knows why Goshe got so disappointed. It's not everyday where we can go out and have fun like this, considering we're always fighting off Lunarians. Goshe just wanted to spend some time with her girlfriend, by themselves with no interruptions. Phos knew what to do.
"Ah sorry Morga, I think I'm gonna fly solo! It's more fun for me to experience things on my own! You two have fun now!" Phos gave Goshe a wink before heading down the halls. Goshe gave Phos a nod and a smile, as if saying thank you for giving her a nice chance to be alone with her girlfriend. Now if only Phos could manage to make Cinnabar her girlfriend, everything would be perfect.
As Phos walked down the halls she could only imagine scenarios with a Cinnabar at the park. Cinnabar and her sharing an ice cream together. Perhaps Cinnabar was secretly scared of heights and Phos would have to hold her hand to make sure she's not too scared. Phos stopped her tracks. Wait..how would she even touch her without her mercury touching her? Damnit, she's was going to have to work around that.
"Phos!" Suddenly Phos was attacked from behind via hug by a very sparkly gem. "Dia!" Phos yelled back. At this point Phos was used to Dia's surprise hugs. Dia always likes to give Phos a big hug whenever she sees her cause she's so cute and Dia said she can't control herself around cute things. When Dia let go and Phos turned around, she was greeted by a very angry Bortz standing next to her. Bortz did not like Phos getting all close with Dia. This was rather frightful.
"O-Oh hi Bortz." Phos stuttered. She noticed Dia and Bortz were also all dressed up.
Dia was wearing a cute, thigh length, white dress with lace detailing on the top and the bottom of the dress. Along with her dress was her beige, lace up, open toed shoes which gave her a little extra height but not enough to surpass Bortz's height. Bortz attire was the male line of Red Beryl's collection. He wore a open grey with a normal white T-shirt underneath, along with a black pair of skinny jeans and grey shoes. Bortz sporting a messenger bag to carry Dia and his belongings.
"Hello Phos." Bortz protectively held his girlfriend close to him, wrapping his arm around her waist and pulling her to his side. Gosh was Bortz protective of Dia. In a way it was kinda really cute and very weird to see complete opposites like this being a couple. Then again the same would probably go for Phos and Cinnabar if they got together.
"Are you going to go to the amusement park too Phos?" Dia said while taking a look at Phos' attire. "Yeah actually. I'm planning on inviting Cinnabar." Phos was always comfortable with talking to Dia and besides, both Dia and Bortz knew she had a tremendous crush on Cinnabar so she wasn't too embarrassed of saying this.
"Inviting Cinnabar? Good luck! It took me months to convince my little Bortz here to come to the amusement park once it was built!" Dia gave Bortz a tight hug to which made Bortz try to badly hide his blush. Phos didn't find that hard to believe. The strict Diamond was all about no fun. He would always make excuses on to never go to any of the projects finished due to possible Lunarian sightings when everyone was out having fun. It made Phos think that maybe Bortz was scared of anything actually social.
"Dia we have to go. Didn't you say you wanted to try the possible new snacks? If we leave now we'll most likely be the first ones there." Bortz grabbed Dia's hand and walked off. Dia waved goodbye at Phos shouting "Good luck!" before disappearing into the distance.
Alright time for the main mission. No distractions! Operation Poison Control. Phos felt really proud about that one. It took her a few hours to come up with it.
She made her way to where Cinnabar usually kept herself isolated. Knowing Cinnabar she would most likely tell Phos she's an annoyance and to leave immediately. This time Phos was determined. She went up to the entrance and saw Cinnabar, as always, sitting down and hugging her knees. Phos took a deep breath and went in.
"Heey, Cinn, Cinna, Ciiiiiii, Cinnaba-" before Phos could humiliate herself further with horrible Cinnabar nicknames, Cinnabar interrupted her.
"Get out." Bingo, the magic two words that she always said when Phos was near. "So uh I was wondering if youuuuu" Phos began to anxiously play with her fingers. "Would Uh, like to go to the amusement park with me?" She finally said it. Hey, that wasn't so hard! Now time for her response….her response…her response? Minutes have passed and Cinnabar had yet to say anything. "Uh..Cinnabar-"
"I never thought I would see you get more stupid than you already are." Cinnabar stood up and walked up to Phos, putting on her gloves and pushing her little by little, hoping she'd just leave. "Do you even understand what my mercury can do? Do you not remember why I chose to isolate myself here? Are you just mocking me? Is that it? I don't need that. I don't need you. You're annoying, hyper, stupid, and don't know the meaning of personal space. Get out." And with that Phos was pushed out.
Phos grew angry and turned around. "Of course I know what it can do! I remember exactly why you isolated yourself here and I am not mocking you! I just thought maybe we could work around it! It hurts me to see you like this!" Phos walked closer, a wide eyed Cinnabar crawling back into a corner. "It hurts me to see you so isolated like this. You don't deserve this! I know I promised I'd find you a better job than the night watch! I know that Cinnabar! You're waiting and hoping for that day to come, but don't you think while waiting you could come outside and have some damn fun once in awhile!"
Phos was now in front of Cinnabar, inching closer to her face. Cinnabar was scared. Don't get close to me. Don't get close to me. Cinnabar repeated over and over in her head. She didn't want to hurt Phos. She can't control herself.
"Please…leave." Cinnabar said in almost a whisper, her eyes now leaking mercury, imitating that of crying. Phos only kept going.
"I've tried and tried again to find something for you. I've tried and I can tell you right now I don't know what the hell to do right now. The only thing I for sure know is that I want to be with you!" Phos grabbed Cinnabar's hand, pulling off her glove and intertwining her hand with hers. Her mercury touching her, poisoning that area of Phos now.
"I want to be with you Cinnabar! Ever since you saved me from those Lunarians I have not stopped thinking about you. This feeling I feel for you won't go away no matter how many times you tell me to leave! I'll keep saying it over and over! I love you! So for once, just this once, go out with me." Phos' hand was completely covered in mercury now, completely poisoned. Cinnabar watched in horror as Phos refused to let go.
"PHOS! LET GO! ARE YOU STUPID?!" Cinnabar began pulling and trying whatever she could to make Phos let her go. Phos is going to forget. Phos is going to most likely forget about her.
Phos began to cry and shout at this point. She didn't care about what happened to her, she just wanted to make Cinnabar understand. She hugged her, the mercury now getting over her body, burning off her clothes.
"Of course..I'm stupid. I'm very very stupid. I'm so stupid that I'm willing to do this just to make you understand me. I love you. I'm not scared of your mercury. I'm not scared of you. Let me hold you like this a little longer at least. Please." Phos could feel herself close to passing out. She's never been this close Cinnabar. No matter how much her mercury was poisoning her, she held her tightly. Phos could hear Cinnabar crying and telling her to let go.
"It's alright Cinna, this feels nice. This feels so nice. I like Cinnabar's warmth.." Phos speech began slowing down, her body now feeling very tired.
"PHOS PLEASE! I CANT LOSE YOU! I LOVE YOU OKAY? LET GO OF ME PLEASE! LET GO!" Cinnabar struggled to loosen Phos' grip around her. Suddenly Phos' arms fell towards the floor. The gem's eyes widened, she quickly pushed her off and put on her gloves.
"Phos don't..don't you dare forget about me. DON'T YOU DARE!" Cinnabar carried Phos and ran as fast as she could to Rutile.
Rutile chipped away at the final poisoned pieces of Phos. Cinnabar was sitting far away, making sure her mercury didn't touch anything. "It took quite a long time but it's done. I had to chip away more than 40% of her, so chances are that some of her memories might be gone." Rutile looked at the depressed Cinnabar in the corner. She felt bad for her. She had known both Cinnabar and Phos had feelings for each other but it was a relationship that would only end in misery. "I'm going out to get more polish, feel free to stay if you'd like." Rutile walked out, leaving the Cinnabar and the unconscious Phos alone.
Cinnabar stood up slowly, carefully making her way to Phos without poisoning anything. She looked down at the chipped, unpolished Phos. The thought of Phos having forgotten Cinnabar brought mercury to her eyes. She shouldn't have said all those things to her. She shouldn't have pushed her away like that. If only she didn't even exist, Phos wouldn't have ended up like this. If only the Lunarians could take her to the moon so Phos no longer has to worry about her.
"Phos..I told you..I told you to stop. Why didn't you?" Cinnabar gritted her teeth and clenched her fist. "I told you to let go and you went and did this to yourself. Why? Why go to such lengths for me? Why do you even love me? I don't deserve that love. Nobody should love me. Anyone who loves me just…just ENDS UP IN DANGER!" Cinnabar screamed those last words out of her mouth and put her hands up to her mercury teared eyes. She couldn't stop crying. Phos was never going to remember her. There was no chance she was going to be remembered by the only person who still realizes she exist. By the only person who actually loved her.
"Mm…Too loud…" Cinnabar jumped and uncovered her eyes. In front of her was her beloved Phos, sitting up and stretching her body. "R…Rutile said you..weren't supposed to wake up yet.." Cinnabar continued crying, this time tears of joy.
"Did she? Well she is a quack doc after all. I'm awake now! And…huh? Hm…" Phos leaned in to take a closer look at Cinnabar. The red gems' stomach sank. Phos had forgotten. Phos had forgotten about her. It was over for her. She was truly alone again.
"I…I'm sorry..I'll just go." The depressed gem wiped her tears and began to walk out. There was no hope in this world anymore. She was cursed to be alone.
"Wait…Cinnabar. So uh…about that amusement park…still wanna go?" Phos said. She might have been chipped at but she would never forget the face of someone she loves very deeply.
Cinnabar stopped in her tracks and took a deep breathe. She turned around and stared at Phos. She opened her mouth and said her response.
"Of course..just.." She smiled wide, specs of mercury in the corner of her eyes. "Don't get too close."
