note: uploading from my ao3 (i'm prettyhearse on there too). enjoy!

Pearl tells herself she isn't scared when she's pulled away from her work station and dragged to her superior's office. She stares at the ground as she's walked down the long, plain hallways, her trembling legs struggling to keep up with the quick step of her escorts. By the time she's walked through the door and sat down in front of Blue Topaz, she's already got a good idea of what she's about to be told. She doesn't let herself flinch when she hears her cold, distant voice say, "We've made the decision to send you to one of the kindergartens on Earth."

She bows her head and swallows, "I understand."

"Indefinitely."

She doesn't let it show when she feels her heart beginning to race. She knows why they're sending her away, and she knows what they mean by "indefinitely". They don't want to burden themselves with an over emotional, excitable, loud, defective gem like her, a gem who's unfit for her intended purpose. They only send gems they don't need to faraway planets like Earth.

'I'm not scared,' she tells herself again, repeating it over and over in her head like a mantra as she's escorted to the ship taking her to Earth. There's other gems there too, probably in a similar position as her. Defective gems that aren't broken enough to crush, but have flaws that can't be repaired. She sits down and takes a deep breath, trying to resist the urge to curl up in a ball and cry.

She's terrified. But she'll never admit that, and she'll definitely never let it show. She needs to be the pearl she was made to be; calm, collected, controlled. She's anything but calm right now, because she's being sent to some backwater planet where everything will be different, in a position she's never worked in before, and she already knows she won't fit in.

She never fits in.

She awkwardly wrings out her hands and closes her eyes, pretending everything is fine, because one of her superiors is watching her like a hawk and she knows what happens to gems who can't adjust to their new positions. This is her last chance, and she can't blow it. She sits back, waiting, pretending, until she's called away for briefing.

Pearl tells herself she isn't scared when the ships lands on Earth and she's dropped off at her new post. This planet is so weird and different, and she isn't sure she can handle it, but then she sees who her new boss is and for once it seems like things aren't so bad.

"Rose," she whispers, staring up at the tall, pink-haired gem with watery eyes. Rose Quartz, the gem who she assisted for years, the gem who taught her nearly everything she knew, before she was made a technician and Rose was sent to another planet. Pearl thought she'd never see her again, but here she is, standing before her with her loving smile and bright eyes.

Rose says nothing as she wraps her arms around Pearl in a tight embrace, and for the first time in a long time, Pearl feels like everything will be okay.

Back on Homeworld, Rose was the only one who understood her. She didn't seem to fit in with the other gems either. She was the first and only gem to tell her that she wasn't defective. At first Pearl didn't believe her, she thought Rose was just being kind, because Rose was kind to everyone, but when she noticed how Rose didn't scold her for being too loud or too enthusiastic, for fidgeting and not making eye contact when she spoke to others, for all the things the other gems called flaws, she started to believe her. Rose encouraged her, and that's why they sent her away.

'Flaws should be fixed, not encouraged.'

Rose shows her around the kindergarten, which is still quite new. It's the only finished one on Earth, and the rest are coming together very slowly. She shows her the injectors and how they work, and Pearl can't help but notice how Rose's mood seems to drop and how sad she seems as the injector's tip digs into the soil below it.

The two spend all their free time together, making up for all those lost years. They usually stay on site, but one day Rose takes Pearl by the hand and they sneak off to one of the forests nearby. Pearl protests at first, scared of being caught, but Rose assures her no one will find out.

The Earth's single sun is setting in the sky as Rose takes her through the forest, showing her all the beautiful things about Earth Pearl hadn't seen from her post on the barren wasteland that was their kindergarten. She listens as Rose excitedly shows her the plants and flowers that cover the ground, the same way Rose used to listen to her when she would go on and on about gem history.

Pearl can't get as excited about the grass and the trees as Rose can, but when they come across a stream flowing through the forest, she smiles. Homeworld didn't have that much water, and Pearl had never been to the areas that had lakes or 's water was used for gem production and nothing else, and the other gem controlled planets she had visited were usually the same.

They kneel beside the stream and Pearl dips her hand into the cold running water, captivated by the sound it makes as it runs along the rocks. Rose tells her about the plant and animal life that live in the water on Earth, and how the "humans" here worship and revere the water. Pearl's heard about "humans" before, but she's never seen one. If they were here, they stayed away from the kindergarten.

She asks Rose if she's seen one, and Rose smiles. She takes her by the hand and pulls her deeper into the forest, laughing.

Pearl tries to not look scared when Rose introduces her to a group of those "humans". She smiles nervously when they crowd around her and poke and prod her, tugging at her uniform and her hair and touching her seem to know Rose, and invite them both to sit down as they gather around their fire. One of them sits beside Pearl and shyly drapes a string decorated with feathers and flowers around her neck, before giggling and running off to join the others.

"Do you know these… humans, Rose?" Pearl whispers, scooting closer to her.

"A bit. We don't speak each other's languages, so we haven't spoken, but I've seen them around when I go for walks and sat with them during their little rituals," she looks at them with those loving eyes and grins, "Aren't they wonderful, Pearl? They're so simple, but they're all so different… They love everything about their planet, in fact, they worship it."

"But… why?"

"I don't know. They see the beauty in everything, even if they don't understand it. They even dance! For no reason!" she gestures towards some of the humans as they hold hands and dance around erratically to the beat of a tree trunk being hit, "They can't fuse, but they still dance, and they all dance so differently."

Pearl watches them in amusement. Gems were taught that there was only one way to dance, and dancing was only for fusion, and fusion was only for deadly situations. The humans don't seem to have a set way of dancing; there's no structure or pattern, or even a proper set rhythm, but there's something about it that seems right, and Pearl is starting to see why Rose is so fascinated by this primitive species.

The two stay there with the humans until it's completely dark, and then they walk back to the kindergarten together. Pearl notices how the light drains from Rose's eyes as they leave the forest and the greenery starts to disappear the closer they get to their post.

"This planet doesn't deserve this, Pearl. It's too special," Rose says quietly, before walking ahead, leaving Pearl standing alone and confused.

Earth isn't as bad as Pearl thought it would be.

It takes awhile, but she eventually realises that she's not the only defective gem there, and that most of the gems she works with are just like her. They were all sent to Earth for the same reason, and they bond over that, and for the first time, Pearl feels like she belongs. For once she has friends, friends who accept her for who she is.

She fits in.

Her and Rose become especially close, spending all their time together, telling each other everything. Rose shows her the other wonders of the Earth, she tells her more about the humans and their culture, and Pearl feels herself starting to fall in love, with the planet, but mostly with Rose. It's a feeling she isn't used to, and one she didn't know existed until Rose told her about humans and how they showed affection and how they fell in love and spent the rest of their short lives together.

Pearl thinks about spending the rest of her very long life with Rose and it makes her feel giddy inside. She loves everything about her, her eyes, her smile, the way her face lights up when she talks about the things she loves. She loves how passionate she is and how she loves everything and everyone around her.

But she soon realises now isn't the time for falling in love, because Rose starts to open up to her and tell her things she says she hasn't told anyone else. She tells her about how much she hates her job, how she doesn't want to destroy Earth, how she'd be willing to go to war for this planet.

Pearl isn't scared when Rose talks about things like that. She's always had extreme ideas, and she isn't the first to be against Homeworld's ways. She hasn't got the resources to declare war on their home planet, and she doubts she'd put her life at risk for some distant planet and its primitive species, despite what she says. She talks about it for months, but doesn't seem to actually do anything about it.

"Earth isn't like the other planets, Pearl," she tells her, "I can't bear to see it destroyed like all the others."

Pearl agrees with her, she says she'll support her no matter what she decides to do, because she knows how much this means to Rose and Rose has helped her see the beauty of this planet too.

But soon it's all Rose can talk about, and Pearl can't but feel a bit scared when Rose takes her to a tall green hill they sometimes went to with a serious look on her face, not saying a word until they reached the very top.

She tells Pearl how she's spent the last few weeks trying to make Yellow Diamond change her mind about ruining Earth, but of course, the answer was no. She tells her how they've threatened to replace her if she doesn't stop asking, and that's when Pearl starts to really feel scared.

Because that's when Rose tells her she doesn't plan on giving up on this planet. She tells her that Homeworld said they'll send an army if she tries to revolt, and that she doesn't care. She'll fight them herself, she'll shut down the kindergarten singlehandedly if she has to. She doesn't even care if none of their co workers stay to fight with her

They're both silent for a while. Pearl stares at the sky, thinking about Rose, about Earth, about Homeworld. She loves Rose, she loves this planet, and she doesn't know how she feels about Homeworld. She just knows it doesn't feel like home anymore. She thinks about staying here with Rose, fighting with Rose, if there really will be a war and their life together after it. It doesn't seem all that bad.

It's better than being sent back to Homeworld or some other planet and going back to being alone.

"Pearl," Rose says, gently placing a hand on her shoulder and turning her so they're facing each other.

"Yes?"

"I'm going to stay and fight for this planet. You don't have to do this with me."

Pearl smiles, "But I want to!"

Rose smiles back, but her smile looks strained, "I know you do… Please, please, understand, if we lose, we'll be killed. And if we win… we can never go home."

"Why would I ever want to go home if you're here?" Pearl says, feeling her eyes well up with tears.

Rose looks at her with those loving big brown eyes in a way Pearl has never seen before. "My pearl..." she says softly, reaching her hand out to Pearl.

"You're wonderful..." Pearl whispers as she timidly reaches for her hand and laces their fingers together. For a moment she almost considers telling Rose she loves her. It seems like the perfect timing, but when she opens her mouth to say it her mouth goes dry and her chest tightens up like it used to when she tried to talk to anyone as a young gem.

She closes her eyes and bows her head, tightening her grip on Rose's hand. She can't do it. Not now, at least.

Her and Rose walk hand in hand back to the kindergarten silently, and as they do she promises herself she'll tell her.

Some day.