So I uh. Got into Steven Universe. And then this happened. And I can't get away from this fandom.
Anyway!
I've been working on a long ask blog over on Tumblr ("SquareLoveBirds"), and I don't think the format is compatible over here. So instead, oneshots related to Unbroken Ties will go on this account as well. Please read the whole thing, though, if you're interested in some longterm Pearlnet-almost every installation is illustrated, too.
War-era fic business; I hope people enjoy! Featuring existing Rose x Pearl, Rupphire, and Garnet and Pearl's first time meeting.
Word Count: 2,713
Fusion was an innovation bound to change the tide of the war.
They were doing remarkably well; rebels against an organized army that even Rose Quartz hadn't known the Diamond Authority commanded. What they lacked in numbers and experience were overcome with gusto and unwavering belief in Rose's noble cause. A colonized planet with the very beginnings of civilization sprouting against all odds, despite the dominant species being incredibly primitive, had no business being farmed into oblivion; the life and beauty that drew Gemkind to the small blue planet in the first place should be preserved.
Love was a commodity on Homeworld. Pearl #0267—Rose's Pearl, but she couldn't differentiate herself by that alone, certainly not around others—understood it, she reasoned. She loved Rose in a way that other Gems couldn't understand, couldn't even begin to fathom. Rose spoke to her in private in the way that she saw her two closest allies speak to one another; Ruby and Sapphire were in a different position, able to get away with holding hands and linking arms, sitting in a single chair (though their small statures surely had to do with that, too), sharing a bedroll during recovery after battle… but Rose would have done the same with her, Pearl knew, if only things were different. After the war, all pretenses would fall away, and they would be together.
But there were other Gems that must have experienced love. Rose Quartz described it as a bubbling feeling that came from the core of your being, no matter where your Gem was. It was a glow, a light like no other, with all the warmth that came from reforming after being in your Gem after dying. It was life, and laughter, and beautiful, and easily achieved by something as simple as eye contact with the right woman.
To raise morale, Rose Quartz staged parties; Gems didn't need to eat, but some enjoyed drinking, and the Earth had abundant fruit to make drinks from. Chrysoprase would sing, while a few others joined in, and Jet and her companions had accumulated instruments both from Earth and some that had made the trip from Homeworld. They played music, and Rose encouraged inappropriate behavior all around—Gems would partner up, linking hands and arms, spinning and twirling and laughing, and Pearl felt an ugly chilly vice grip her chest whenever Rose spun someone else or joined in a line.
Similarly, watching Ruby and Sapphire twirl and laugh made her heart ache. Sometimes, they caught her staring; once or twice, they linked arms with her and spun until the three were dizzy. Rose rescued her only twice, but spun her even more, catching her Pearl in her arms in a rare show of public affection that made it worth it, no matter how embarrassing it was to have all eyes on her.
The attention didn't last. One such party, after a miraculous victory with few lost lives, had been very abruptly interrupted by brilliant, scorching white light that exploded from where a pair of Gems known for their illicit relations were dancing. All attitudes changed instantly—the dancing stopped, and weapons were drawn. Ruby was in front of Sapphire so quickly, gauntlet ready, that the seer couldn't react. Similarly, Pearl stood between Rose and the forming threat, sword at the ready.
But as the light faded, leaving instead the faint silhouette of a truly massive Gem with wild, green-tinted brown hair and four arms, with crimson skin and blackened eyes.
Rose Quartz commanded all weapons down, and there was no soldier present who wouldn't listen. The giant red woman stumbled on legs that had never been so long, lading hard and destroying a long white oak table that had survived several Gems dancing on it earlier. Rose leapt across the room, over her stunned supporters, to land gracefully, clasping her hands to her bosom in her excitement.
"How wonderful!" the general exclaimed, bending to clasp two of the other Gem's hands, tugging her into a sitting position. "You fused! I've never seen it, but you surely did it! How do you feel? What shall we call you?"
She spoke in two voices that shook with uncertainty; Copal's and Kunzite's, but with a deeper, richer undertone that grew dominant as Rose talked her through her panic and away from apologies about the table. Their tones were hushed, soon enough, and Pearl strained to hear from farther away than she'd have liked.
It wasn't long before Rose Quartz stood beside the other Gem, practically glowing with pride, to introduce her to comrades that already knew the Gems that made her up:
The first fusion in Rose's Army; Spinel.
Pearl couldn't do it.
In the coming weeks, Rose Quartz worked with Spinel to try to encourage other Gems to fuse as well. Spinel was inarticulate, but had inherited Copal's artistic abilities, and drew out diagrams and steps, conspired with Rose at odd hours trying to figure out how and why her fusion had worked—and more than that, why it had stuck. Several others' attempts had lasted for mere hours, sometimes only minutes.
And Pearl could fuse with no one; because she knew without asking that it wasn't her place to ask Rose to fuse.
Rose Quartz described it as the ultimate act of intimacy, and worked out with Spinel, then passed it on to the others. The key to fusion was the dance itself, but similarly, the Gems involved needed to be completely in synch to maintain it. Kunzite and Copal were so close that they could finish each other's sentences normally, so it was hardly a stretch to imagine that they were able to stay fused.
Few other Gems had that.
Ruby and Sapphire tried, but Sapphire would often lose herself giggling at the way Ruby looked at her, at the inappropriate waggle of eyebrows that promised that she was taking something entirely different seriously, at warm fingers that danced up her sides. Ruby did it deliberately, but Rose didn't chide either of them.
"But they aren't taking it seriously," Pearl protested in private, far more comfortable speaking her mind traveling into the depths of the temple they were hiding in than in the banquet hall. "You said yourself, if we could encourage fusion, we might have a better chance when Homeworld returns! Shouldn't they—"
Rose's eyes twinkled at her in the way that brought warmth into the center of her torso, and that warmth spread outward, tingeing her pale cheeks a brilliant teal that always made her commander giggle. "You worry too much, my Pearl," the bigger Gem said, smoothing shoulder-length strawberry blonde hair back behind Pearl's ear. "Our friends will sort it out. I believe in them, don't you?" She paused, watched the way Pearl leaned her cheek into her hand, and smiled softly. "You should be out there too. I never get to see you dance with anyone. And you're a lovely dancer, Pearl, you should be showing it off!"
Pearl didn't want to dance with anyone else, she thought sullenly, but the praise brought an explosion of butterflies to life inside her. "Can't I just dance—" with you lodged itself in her throat, but Pearl couldn't bring herself to say it. She bit her lip, eyes cast downward. That kind of request was out of line for someone of her standing. A knight had no business asking her liege for such a thing. "For you? In private?" It wasn't a very good save, and Pearl knew that Rose Quartz was too brilliant and intuitive to misunderstand.
Still, Rose never turned her away; never said 'no' outright, and there were nights where 'yes' didn't need saying. But tonight Rose giggled, leaned in low to press warm lips just to the left of Pearl's Gem, and gently turned her about so that she was facing the way they had come. "Give it a try," Rose's voice was soft and firm and Pearl registered the command as such even if her leader hadn't meant it as such. "Please, go have fun, Pearl. For me."
The subtle rejection took the wind from Pearl's sails, but she nodded obediently, turning to catch Rose's palm with her lips as she withdrew her hand. "I will."
As usual, the party seemed to be getting on well whether Pearl—or Rose Quartz—were present. Her arrival went unnoticed, and she slipped away from her usual position hear the front of the hall immediately, in favor of finding a quiet corner to observe from.
Rose Quartz was everything to her, but in her greatness, she couldn't possibly see how insignificant and small Pearl was. The Gem wrapped her arms around her midsection instinctively, half-watching, half-lost in thought. Pearls as a class on Homeworld weren't important, and she was no exception. Most other Gems, even within Rose's Army, acknowledged her as Rose's subordinate in the same way that they might back home. On her own, her pale coloration and small frame made her easy to miss—helpful in battle, with a sword, but altogether useless for socializing.
Ruby and Sapphire noticed, though. The thought of her friends—both older than she by a few millennia each—drew Pearl out of her revere enough to look up, to see if she could catch a glimpse of the small red or blue Gems in the crowd. Many had left for their barracks; dancing was only so much fun once the drink was gone, and whoever had taken the stage was an average songstress at best. She didn't see them.
Fusions were fast becoming commonplace, however short-lived many were. Pearl wondered whether Rose Quartz would praise her if she could identify them, but it would have to wait for another soirée. She watched white light flicker across the dance floor as some Gems tried and failed, then heaved a sigh, closing her eyes. It was for the best that she didn't try, she reasoned. Even if Rose were willing, Pearl was defective—always had been—and it would look terrible if Rose Quartz herself couldn't fuse, even if it was her partner's fault.
A shadow fell over her, and Pearl jerked her head up, icy blue eyes snapping open—and she found herself face-to-face with a Gem she'd never encountered before, with wildly curly dark hair, and skin just barely more brown than red. A wide grin was all that she could see of her expression, though; the mystery Gem had a visor covering half of her face, with a few tousled curls spilling over the upper edge, and Pearl could see her own reflection there, small and thin and completely dwarfed by what must have been a new fusion.
"Do you need something?" Pearl asked warily, feeling her insides contort in a nervous knot. That much must have been obvious; no one approached other Gems without reason, and having her back against the wall left Pearl with no room to escape.
"I think you do," the bigger woman said smoothly, and Pearl felt her cheeks heat with embarrassment at the richness in her voice.
Still, she tried to steel herself, pursing thin lips into a frown. "Then I think you're mistaken," she quipped, earning a hearty laugh. This time, her flush came from frustration. "Pardon you! You are being completely inappropriate!"
She earned a shrug rather than an apology, and a gloved hand palm-up—covering a round Gem, Pearl realized, but there were several members of Rose's Army who had their Gem there—along with an invitation: "Dance with me."
There was no question in the invite, but Pearl knew she was under no obligation to agree. Still, curiosity nagged at the back of her mind, wonder at who this new fusion was and, more than that, the memory of Rose's command earlier all conspired together in such a way that she laid her hand uncertainly in the bigger Gem's palm.
Stronger fingers immediately clasped hers, and she found herself dragged to the dance floor, spun in a neat circle so that she found her shoulders pressed briefly against the other woman's breastplate. Instinct took over, and Pearl twirled in response, catching her partner's offered hand, and she found the fusion's opposite hand had taken residence in the small of her back.
The fusion led, and Pearl felt that—inappropriate though it was, coming from a stranger—nothing could have made her happier. She loved to dance, but more than that, she enjoyed being second, to be the one being twirled and spun.
A waltz wasn't right for the music, but Pearl fell so neatly into step with the fusion that she couldn't really hear the beat anymore. Her partner was quiet, but grinned, and their hands fit together wonderfully, and Pearl knew instinctively when to withdraw for a spin, arm rigid and high over her head even though the other Gem could easily keep her own arm out of the way of her spin. Even on tiptoe, she was dwarfed, and it felt wonderful.
Pearl didn't know when she started smiling back, or when she stopped worrying about whose hand guided her, or where her other Gem was—who the mysterious fusion before her was, and why she'd taken notice to the wallflower when she blended so well against the pillars. But she spun closer, found herself flush in the stranger's arms, and when she wrapped hers around her shoulders she was rewarded with a dark blush that crept beyond the mirrored visor. The butterflies must have been contagious, and Pearl was thankful for that. For just a moment, for just long enough, she felt powerful—powerful enough to grip her companion's hand and twirl her, and she earned strong hands at her waist and a lift high in the air for her efforts.
Their laughter mingled, and Pearl didn't notice for even a moment that much of the remaining dancers were staring at them.
"Who are you?" Pearl asked at length, much later into the night, long having forgotten how many songs had passed. They were swaying almost lazily now, to a song played on lute and harp, while Larimar sang a duet with Thulite learned from the humans who had traded them the instruments.
"Garnet," the other woman said quickly, lips close to Pearl's ear, "And I'm not sure you want to know the answer to your next question just yet."
Pearl frowned, peeking up from where her cheek was resting against the darker Gem's broad shoulder. "How do you know what I'll—"
And then it hit her.
A faceted Gem in one hand, a glove covering the other, with interest in a nobody like her, and the ability to see what she'd say next?
And how many hours had it been since she'd seen her friends at this party?
Pearl's eyes went too wide, and Garnet's grin turned nervous, and she stepped away neatly, out of range in case her friend took a swing. Pearl's hands were shaking at her sides.
"Ruby and Sapphire?!"
Her shrill shout echoed in the hall, and then—finally—all eyes turned on them, and Garnet looked briefly uncertain. Then, she bowed lightly. "Guilty," she said, and with a resounding pop! Ruby and her partner were standing in her place, Sapphire behind with her arms around Ruby's broader waist.
"We wanted to surprise you," Ruby explained hastily, seeing Pearl's face rapidly darkening a vivid turquoise. "Since it meant so much to you."
"We've been practicing," Sapphire went on, reaching a gloved hand to extract Pearl's fingers from their tight ball, coaxing her forward. The younger Gem looked uncertain, and Ruby's hand found hers as well, and Pearl joined her two friends. "And we wanted you to be the first to meet her."
Pearl wasn't sure what to say, and neither did she think that she could articulate it around the choked ball in her throat. But she leaned down and hugged the both of them tightly, earning the same in return.
Sapphire glanced sidelong at Ruby, worrying her bottom lip just barely between her teeth. "I hope we made a good first impression."
The grin on Ruby's face, and the way Pearl's bony arms tightened even more around their midsections, answered without a doubt that they had.