Everlasting

Disclaimer: I do not own Steven Universe or any of its characters.

For anyone confused by the numbers I've used with the Gems, check the author's note the bottom.


"Hey, look over there."

"What?"

"She's here."

"So?"

"She's walking towards us."

"What! Come on then, let's go!"

The two children, both with gems on varied parts of their bodies, hastily scrambled off as a tall and lean girl strode by, not missing a beat as she glanced at them scurrying into the distance. Her dark frizzy hair swung lightly in time to her pace as she watched a path clear itself for her, excited conversations dying away to nervous whispers.

She didn't care, not anymore. Their wariness had become her everyday life now, and she'd long grown accustomed. She was an outcast, that was it. End of story.

The reasons for why she was so feared, she wasn't entirely sure of herself, but she knew the basics. Her abnormal height allowed her to easily tower over others her age. Her "stony" demeanor made her impossible to approach. Her eyes were always covered by her shades, preventing anyone from directly meeting her gaze. Definitely a good thing, considering the one boy that actually saw her third eye had run away screaming. And to top off everything else, unlike all the other children, she had two gems instead of one.

Because one gem meant you were a protector of humans. So somehow, two gems meant the opposite. The other children came up with their stupid reasons, but there was no point in caring.

"Hey, look who's here!"

She suppressed the urge to growl, raising her head and continuing on her way. Emerald was always the most annoying, him and his two cronies. The other children at least never gave her trouble. Emerald, by contrast, seemed to delight in bothering her at every opportunity. While she doubted the boy had the courage to seriously aggravate her, he came dangerously close to crossing the line.

"What's up Three-Eyes? Off to curse someone else?"

Ignore him.

She brushed past the green-haired boy, giving the most subtle of death glares as she walked by, and told herself to calm down. While she didn't have much doubt that she could easily beat him up if she so wished, she didn't need her already horrendous reputation to grow any worse. Undoubtedly, the adults wouldn't take her side anyway. That did make her question which group, children or grown-ups, were the most stupid.

The grass beneath her feet gave way to fine gravel, and she found herself reaching her destination. Stretched out before her was a high brick wall, intersecting at a right angle with the sparring gym. Gingerly, she crouched into the corner, sitting down lightly as she breathed a sigh of relief.

This was where she found herself spending all her time during training breaks. Training itself wasn't so bad, but once it ended and break time was announced, she once more be reminded of her mountain-high pile of insecurities as all the other children ran off with their friends, leaving her alone and uncertain of whether she even belonged.

Bringing her knees up to her chest, the 30th Garnet sighed and placed her head in her arms.* At the very least, she supposed, this corner was very peaceful.


"Pearl?"

A young girl with bright orange hair and a glossy white gem on her forehead mumbled a distracted "Yeah?" as she continued to bury her nose into the thick book spread in her hands. Beside her another girl about her age with blue hair poked at her shoulder to get her attention, and somewhat exasperated, Pearl was inclined to look up and give a proper response.

"Yes?"

"Hey uh, would you mind if I borrowed your notes of Gem History? I swear I'll return them to you at the end of the day."

Pearl raised an eyebrow as she gazed deadpan at her classmate.

"What happened to yours?"

"It was an accident! Emerald pushed me this morning and they fell into the mud! The history test is in a few days, so I don't have time to rewrite them all!"

Pearl gazed hard at the 25th Sapphire for a few more moments before deciding that the girl was probably telling the truth. Emerald did have a talent for being incredibly rude. Reluctantly, she opened her book to the last page and pulled out a thick swathe of neat, organized papers, which she carefully handed over to her grateful friend.

"Oh, thank you so much Pearl! You're the best!"

Pearl gave a non-committed shrug in response, already burying herself back into the thick volume. Knowing that nothing could distract the studious gem when she was immersed in her reading, Sapphire delivered a final thank you over her shoulder before running off, presumably to copy down the notes before break time ended.

Having paid minimal attention to her surroundings, it took Pearl a few seconds before realizing that the excited chatter around her had suddenly gone silent. This was enough for her to lift her head out of curiosity, though she still did so with reluctance.

What are they all on about now?

Then she caught sight of a familiar tall figure striding her across the field, posture straight and confident as gem children cleared out of the way left and right.

Oh, so it's Garnet.

The sudden drop in conversation volume and formation of small, whispering groups made her roll her eyes though. Even her preference for quiet alone time over nonstop chatter hadn't spared her from the gossip circulating among the children, and the top rumours always had something to do with the somewhat unnervingly tall, dark-haired gem stalking her way through her wary classmates.

"What's up Three-Eyes? Off to curse someone else?"

Pearl could not help but release a sniff of disdain, staggered by the immaturity of the jeer. While she had to admit Garnet was rather intimidating at a glance, the superstitions that revolved around her were absolutely ridiculous, at least the ones she'd heard about. By no means was she interested in approaching her unnaturally stoic classmate, but as none of her books had suggested any reasons to fear dual gems with unusually serious demeanors, she saw no reason to be afraid.

"Idiots", she muttered, eying Emerald as he quickly stepped back to avoid being in Garnet's path. No doubt, his bite couldn't match up to his bark.

"Pearl, what are you talking about?"

The young gem had a bit of a start as Sapphire somehow reappeared behind her, eyes wide with confusion and a lingering tint of fear. Taking a breath to compose herself, Pearl tried to look nonchalant as she flipped to the next page in her book.

"I just think it's stupid how everyone wets themselves whenever Garnet passes by."

Sapphire's eyes, if possible, managed to grow even wider, and her voice became squeaky with amazement.

"What are you saying Pearl! You're not afraid of her?"

Pearl was about to respond that no, she in fact was not afraid, but was interrupted by a bark of laughter from behind.

"What's going on here? Does little miss Encyclopedia have something to say about Three-Eyes?"

Closing her eyes and reeling in her irritation, Pearl reminded herself that she had to keep her cool now that she was going to be talking to a complete moron. She turned herself and coldly met Emerald's arrogant sneer with a steely gaze.

"Hello Emerald. She has a name and so do I. Is there anything I can help you with?"

Her green-haired adversary snickered something to the stouter boy behind him, Ruby if her memory served correct.

"You're not afraid of the freak? Is that really true?"

The sarcastic drawl of his last sentence did make her want to punch him, but the temptation was successfully resisted.

"And just why should I be?"

By now, they were beginning to attract the attention of the other children, who were watching with varying expressions of awe or skeptic disbelief. Pearl took note of them, but pushed the onlookers out of her focus. It was the 32nd Emerald she was facing right now, and that took concentration. Lots of concentration.

"Really? You should be careful what you say, or else she just might decide to pick you off next…"

"There's no next if there never was a first."

"Are you sure?"

Emerald now turned to address their spectators, hunching himself and grinning wickedly.

"You've all heard, haven't you? About the strange things that have happened ever since she arrived…"

His voice had dropped to a much lower volume, though it still remained loud enough to be heard by his raptured audience. Behind him, Ruby and Turquoise were jeering at some of the smaller gems, further expanding their leader's menacing presence.

"They say things haven't been very… ordinary as of late. Some very strange happenings have been reported, living shadows, mysterious tremors, a suspicious… aura creeping about. And as a matter of fact, one little gem vanished without a trace just a few years ago, only to be found turned completely to stone…" whispered Emerald, obviously relishing every word as the onlookers began to tremble.

One however remained completely unfazed, to his mild annoyance, and it was the very one he was trying to creep out the most. Contrarily, she rolled her eyes with an air of indifference at the sight of her easily frightened classmates.

"And how does this connect to Garnet in any way?"

Emerald looked at her as if she were stupid, instantly causing her irritation to spike.

"I thought you were supposed to be the smart one. Did you not notice how all of this happened after she came?"

"That doesn't prove anything and it was never confirmed that anyone did go missing. Besides, have you ever even seen Garnet's 'third eye'?"

Emerald's darkened expression told her everything, and she stiffened as she noticed his fists beginning to clench.

"Topaz saw it when she first arrived."

"But no one ever saw it after that."

"Of course! Why do you think she always wears shades?"

"Who said that was the reason she wears them?"

"You're saying Topaz was lying?"

"No, but maybe he was mistaken!"

The conversation was starting to grow heated, and to Pearl's dismay, the onlookers seemed to grow in size as other gems flocked to the scene, curious to see the spectacle that was taking place. Not wanting to be gawked at any longer, she huffed a reluctant sigh as she tried to retreat from the argument.

"Ok whatever, fine. You can think whatever you want. It doesn't matter to me."

She tucked her book under her arm and was prepared to leave, but was stopped by an angry shout.

"Where you think you're going?"

Oh heavens, what had she just gotten herself into?

So it seemed that Emerald wasn't going to just let her back out of it. Terribly immature, but not completely surprising considering that she'd more or less just stomped all over his ego.

"What is it now?"

"If you're going to act like she isn't a freak, then you'd better prove it."

She narrowed her eyes to cold blue slits, hard as ice. It was already clear where this was heading.

"So you want me to talk to her?"

Emerald returned her glare with one of his own, undaunted.

"No, you're going to find out what's underneath her glasses."

This caused Pearl to freeze, not favouring the sudden shift of the conversation, and the hesitation was clear in her expression. She was certain Garnet wasn't some sort of fire-spewing monster, but neither was she the most inviting of characters. And who knew what would get her to willingly take off her shades, considering that she was never seen without them...

"Or, you just admit she's a freak."

The grip on her book tightened and her teeth clenched. Pearl had been content to let Emerald continue deluding himself alongside anyone else who felt the need to be superstitious. If he wanted to be an idiot, then that was his own problem. But to ask of her to do the same?

Her index finger unconsciously traced the edge of the gem embedded in the centre of her forehead.

There was no way the 27th Pearl would let that fly.

"Just watch."

It was so on.


* Note: For anyone confused by why I've used numbers in regard to the Gems (E.g. 27th Pearl), its because the show has implied that there once existed hundreds of Gems on earth, and since there are only a few different types of gemstones, I decided it would make the most sense if they all had a number that corresponded to them. Whenever there's only one type of gem present though, anyone who addresses them just drops the number altogether, as I imagine it'd be more of a formal thing. Also, having a higher number doesn't necessarily mean being younger than a different gemstone with a lower number, because different types of gems probably sprung to existence at different times. Therefore Garnet being the 30th can mean she's the same age as Pearl, who's the 27th.

Steven Universe restored my faith in modern cartoons. So yeah, it's pretty good and I've been obsessed with it recently.

So, before anyone asks, no I don't ship Garnet and Pearl. As a matter of fact, I pretty much don't ship at all. While I was surprised by how Pearlnet rose in popularity so quickly, it did in fact inspire me to imagine a friendship dynamic between them. I guess friendshipping, if that term even exists. Still, the more I thought about it, the more I thought it would make such a great relationship. They don't really interact that much on the show, but I noticed there are these little moments where they'll just have this glance at each other that I think indicates a long history together. Still, that's just me.

That said, though I'm writing this with friendship in mind, their relationship is open to whatever interpretation you want. It is fanfiction, and it is the internet.

Since the show hasn't given us much background info, like most writers and artists, I've kinda had to envision elements of the Gem's past. I imagine there's the main Crystal Gem force and then there's some sort of academy that trains the younger Gems for their future as protectors of the universe. Garnet, having a third eye and a serious personality, would probably be ostracized by her peers. Pearl would definitely be some super studious bookworm who found the rumours stupid and wasn't afraid of speaking her mind about it, but didn't really care for actually seeing for herself what Garnet was like until someone challenged her intelligence.

All I have for now, sorry for rambly author's note. Expect more in the future though.

Sherlockdetective99, signing out.