Yellow Diamond's palace plunged into silence. The servants hardly spoke louder than a whisper; the guards wouldn't talk, and the Diamonds lived in bubbles of solitude. Blue had even made a point of avoiding her wife, enough to make a conspiracy theorist suspect that they were actually the same gem in disguise.
Yellow spent her time in her office on the second floor, tending to her work. She ate dinner there, and when she returned to her chambers to sleep, Blue would disappear like a ghost. The only indications of her were the occasional shuffling in the halls, or the faint sound of bangles chiming.
Yellow watched from her window as the garden remained just as quiet. The wind barely rustled the leaves inside the trees and birds flew by without calling to one another. From one corner of the glass, she caught her wife walking quickly, a bag of supplies strapped against her back.
That phantom woman moved towards the staples, and even Goldine kept from vocalizing. Having fallen asleep on her hoard of precious metals, the dragon breathed out columns of steam from both nostrils. Blue watched her inhale and exhale as various shiny silver spoons, misplaced jewelry, broken pieces of armor, coins with Yellow's face printed on them, and miscellaneous scrap metal shifted beneath her. She had come with a recently polished butter knife to offer, and set a hand gently upon the dragon's long neck. "Goldine," Blue stroked her scales, shining dimly in the shadow of the roof over head. She didn't wake. "Goldine, I brought something for you."
Bright eyes popped open and she lifted and shook her head. Looking around for a moment, she found Blue and the glimmering thing in her hand.
"You can have this if you take me to Orange Diamond's tower. What do you say?"
Goldine examined it from top to bottom, maintaining focus on the knife until slowly opening her sharp teeth and biting the tip. She snatched it out of Blue's hand and stepped from her hoard, turned her long neck, and set it delicately at the top of the pile. Her snout pushed the handle until it sat at the correct angle and both walked from the staple.
After a few steps, however, Goldine stopped and lifted her head, letting out a low sound and a little steam.
Yellow approached and Blue stared as her wife arrived.
At first, neither said a word. Yellow's boots dug solidly into the grass while Goldine bowed her head.
"How is she?"
"Terrible," Blue placed her hand flat upon the dragon's flank. "You left her with plenty of burns, and the poor girl has been growing vines all day and night to help White find her. Now if you'll excuse me—"
"I'm sorry."
Blue stopped and stared. "This is ridiculous, Yellow. I had hoped you would have known better, and yet, Pink is slaving away in a tower, miserable, because you had to throw a tantrum. And over what? Who she wished to marry? You're not a queen," Blue reached up and grasped Goldine's saddle. "You're a child."
To that, Yellow set her gaze into the grass. "I came here to go check on her."
"Good!" Blue tossed her bag of supplies to the ground. "I think it's about time you did, considering I've been the only one going every day since you've locked her up. Go and tell her you're calling this nonsense off, because she's not listening to me." She passed her wife and moved toward the palace.
Picking up the bag, Yellow called after her, "I'm going to make this right!"
To which Blue replied, "Hurry up, then!" and disappeared behind the front doors, leaving a silence after the slam.
That six-day-old stillness floated back in, and Yellow touched Goldine's chin before climbing onto her back. She strapped the supplies to her and took off as the dragon's translucent wings coasted through the air.
The cool wind became the only sound until they arrived in the evening.
They landed as the dipping sun turned the air golden, pink, and purple, and Goldine waited outside while Yellow entered the tower. The wind had ruined her hair, which she adjusted on her way up the winding steps. She drew closer with every quick and precise tap of her boots, until arriving on the top floor out of breath, and ridding the sweat from her brow.
Yellow touched the old handle and turned it slowly, stepping into the orange-baked room and finding a lump inside the dusty bed. A tuft of bright pink hair stuck out from beneath the sheets, like the leaves of a turnip dwelling underground. She found the top of sister's head, greyed and pallid, and pulling back the sheets, she observed Pink's eyes, clasped closed with thick sleep and dried tears. Where the apples of her cheeks used to blossom, they remained the same pasty shade as the rest of her skin.
Like the sun attempting to warm the earth, Yellow reached down to touch her, and Pink awoke with a jolt.
The corpse sprang to life and gasped, "Would you just—" and moved her arms in trying to pull the covers back over her, but failed. "Get out!"
Her dark brown eyes had grown veiny around the irises, outlined by the unsightly bags beneath them.
Yellow kneeled and took her hand away, quiet as Pink gasped for breath. The withered plant of a young woman shook and cried, but even then, she didn't clean the tears. Through that building layer of water, she managed to stare at Yellow a few seconds before rolling away and sobbing.
"I came to apologize."
Even beneath her thin and sweat-soaked gown, lightning-torched skin was visible.
"And to say that you can marry White. You can marry whoever you please."
Pink wept, and as Yellow went to touch her shoulder, she spat, "That was never your decision to make, Yellow—!" Her body gasped and shuddered. "I don't need your permission! I never needed it!" The tears stole her capacity to speak, but she regained it by giving up more color. "What kind of sister are you? I thought you were supposed to care about me!" She didn't say anymore after that, choking instead.
Seconds passed and another gasp entered the air. It came more quietly than Pink's, but caused her to turn and see Yellow's controlled face contort. She censored her mouth behind her gloves and attempted to maintain eye contact, but failed. "I've been terrible to you," Yellow said. "Can you forgive me?"
Pink watched her collapse into herself, coming to hide her entire face behind both her hands. Yellow tried to stop on multiple occasions, and might have even come close, but she would catch one of Pink's bruises, one of her cuts, one patch of torched skin, and the weeping would start anew.
Finally, Pink stood upon her rickety feet. Through the light showering of her own tears, she managed to kneel down and embrace Yellow, who took no time in holding her back. "I'll forgive you," Pink began, "but you need to work on your anger. Your lightning really hurts."
"I'm sorry," Yellow grasped her sister a little more tightly.
"Why do you hate White so much anyway?"
"I don't hate her," the shaking in her voice evened out, like the wrinkles of a cloth. "I still think it's disgusting she would pursue someone so much younger than her, but…you seem to love her." Pink felt her gulp. "She used to be our mother's good friend, which makes your relationship its own sort of horrendous, but...at least she seems to care about you."
Pink finally let go and sat on the floor, so they could look at one another. "Does she, though? I thought for sure she would have arrived by now."
"The reason I chose this tower is because it's difficult to find."
"Yeah, but...she's White Diamond. Incredible feats are kind of her thing." Pink looked from the window, and gulped down the lump in her throat. "Maybe she was just using me."
Yellow sighed. "The way she looks at you seems to indicate otherwise. Your relationship is still weird, but I think she does care for you, Pink."
The younger Diamond's facial features bent and broke as she turned and hid them inside her hands. "I really love her, you know? Would Mom really have been ashamed of me?" She squeezed out several droplets of water.
Yellow took her hand. "I don't think she would have been ashamed of you, but she would be livid with White. She held you as a baby, Pink." Her pots of molten gold spilled to the floor. "She didn't seek you out while you were still growing, did she?"
"Oh, no!" Pink squeezed her sister's hand. "No. The first time we were together I was over a century old. And well,it was my idea."
"Of course it was." Her humorless glare caused Pink to crack a smile, and seeing her sister's exhausted face show a little joy, Yellow's lips turned too. "You remind me of her sometimes. She was always so serious whenever she had to give orders, but she did the most ridiculous things. You know she named her dragon 'Peaches.'"
"Yeah," Pink laughed. "What was she like?"
"She was mean as hell. One day she tried to eat me."
"She tried to eat you?"
"Yes. I ran and hid in the bushes, and when I finally came out, there Mom was with Peaches, nuzzling her. She said, 'Yellow, I was looking for you!' completely oblivious to the dragon glaring at me."
"I don't know why she would eat you. I think you would be hard to digest."
Yellow rolled her eyes and Pink giggled. "Anyway, I think she would have loved who you've become. Even as a child, I wouldn't cuddle with her long, but I remember you crying if she had to put you down. She used to carry you around everywhere." Yellow glanced to the floor. "She set you down once when you were a baby, and you stood up and ran tripping after her. At that point, you had stood before, but you hadn't really walked, yet there you went, and eventually caught up." Her lips turned up. "She was so proud of you that she scooped you up crying and kissed you about a hundred times. You were laughing, of course." One tear rolled along her cheek that she removed with her index finger. "Before she went off to war, she asked me to watch over you, but it looks like I've failed."
"Oh, Yellow," Pink held her tightly as she wiped away her own tears. "It's just my life, you know? Sometimes I think you forget that I'm an adult."
Yellow gave her a squeeze and left a palm upon her shoulder. "It is your life. Are you ready to return home?"
In the window, the sherbet tones of evening shone and exhaustion settled into Pink's bones. Even her skin weighed her down. "I'm not sure I could make it back right now. I'm so tired, and this is the sixth day?"
"Yes."
"I want to see if she can make it in time. I've already waited this long."
"Pink, you really don't have to wait."
She shut her drooping eyes for several slow seconds. "But..."
"You can stay here if you insist, but you're welcome to change your mind."
"I know," Pink yawned. "Well, I think I'll go back to sleep now. Will you keep me company?"
"Of course."
Yellow remained close as Pink hit the old mattress like a sack of potatoes and drank sleep. With every minute that passed, she gained a bit of her pigmentation back, her petals appearing less wilted and the lightning strikes fading slowly into her rose color. They remained together for several hours, until night truly fell around the tour and the typical view of purple clouds and bright stars appeared within the window. A few hours after that, Yellow finally returned to collect her wife and bring her to Pink so they could spend the last day together.