Technically, this idea was commissioned by Secrets4theunderground.
I'm going through the rest of the requests, and I have all of them written down. So in case anyone is waiting to be answered, you should know that after seeing "Mirror Gem" and "Ocean Gem," I really had to get this out of my system. I honestly couldn't go without writing something about it much longer. =)
Amethyst gently carried a sleepy Steven on her back as the three crystal gems tiptoed into the house. For the last twenty-four hours, the Crystal Gems' youngest member had done the impossible: he released an evil gem from its prison, befriended it, sent it skyward, and brought the ocean back to Beach City. Not only did he accomplish all of these things, but in the process managed to purposefully summon his weapon for the first time.
The moonlight shone through the windows of Steven's room at the top of the stairs, and Amethyst slowly creeped to Steven's bed, haphazardly managing to lay the young gem down so that he was sleeping peacefully.
Garnet stared at the top of the stairs, looking disdainfully stoic. Pearl, blissful for having had a wonderful day at the human's first day of summer celebrations, had to contain a gasp of shock when she turned around to see Garnet looking bitterly at the floor. She walked to her door to the inner temple, remaining even more silent than normal after such an eventful day.
Pearl glanced once at the sleeping Steven, with Amethyst now settled into the bed beside him because he would not let go of her, and then glanced back at Garnet, cocking her head to one side. Garnet's gem's lit up, and her door began to slide open.
"Garnet," Pearl hissed quietly. "Wait a moment, please."
Garnet stopped, freezing where she stood, with her feet stiffly planted on the ground. The temple door shifted closed.
Pearl light-footedly walked toward Garnet, a small smile coming across her face.
"Would you like to come soak your feet?"
The bigger gem didn't respond, but Pearl knew from Garnet's rigid stance that she should proceed. Pearl walked toward her door of the temple, dancing slightly (but quietly, so to not wake the other two gems), and watched her door glide open. Beckoning for Garnet to follow, and not feeling entirely dignified in doing so, Pearl wondered into her room.
The waterfall beneath Pearl's lake crashed to the lower part of the temple with a peaceful loudness, and serene light reflected off of the calm water. The pacific fountains continued to fruitfully gush and foam over the spring, tranquilly filling the humid room with the smell of salt water. Paper lanterns glided over the surface of the water, dimly lighting up the room as mist rose off of the surface.
Garnet calmly advanced past Pearl into the temple room, sat down by the pool's edge, and started to remove her boats. Pearl raised one hand to face level, opening her mouth to speak, but thought better of it. In all the time she had known Garnet, she had seen the older gem remove her shoes very few times at most.
"So," Pearl ambled over, hands behind her back, trying to make conversation. "Wild day, right, Garnet? I made sure that Greg was taken care of; I saw him to the hospital to have his leg fixed. Isn't it strange how humans need to wear those braces to fix themselves?"
Garnet said absolutely nothing. She merely finished removing her boots, and tentatively dipped her feet in the water. Pearl was even more amazed to see that the gem didn't shiver.
So they sat in silence for a few moments, and Pearl silently electing also to dunk her feet into the water as she sat down right beside her companion. It was strange, this human tactic of relieving stress, but Pearl always thought that watching the shifting water, in all of its exquisite beauty, was quite calming.
After several moments of silence, Garnet finally sighed out loud, ready to speak.
"He let her out."
Pearl's head shot up from where she had been leaning over to watch the water's changing surface.
"I suppose that's true," Pearl agreed, sounding only slightly nervous. "What does this mean for us?"
"We'll wait and see," Garnet said, and despite the gem's calm demeanor, Pearl could note hints of anxiety in Garnet's voice that would take years of experience to recognize.
"Then why are you worrying about it now?"
Garnet looked away from Pearl, down at the water, and Pearl watched as Garnet's face contorted into a similar look of anger that she had given to Steven earlier that night.
The bigger gem sat up, yanked off her glasses, and violently flung them across the room, watching without satisfaction as they smacked the surface of the water and disappeared into oblivion. Pearl flinched away, refusing to look up at Garnet.
The bigger gem slowly seemed to calm down as the ripples from the splash made by her glasses finally lapped against her legs. Garnet sighed, sounding exasperated, and leaned back so that her back rested on the marble floor, but her feet were still dunked in the water.
Pearl glanced down at Garnet as the bigger gem closed her eyes.
"Are you still mad at Steven?"
Garnet said nothing.
"You know...that he didn't mean it."
Garnet shook her head.
"He doesn't understand quite yet. Neither did Lapis, at the time," she murmured quietly, sounding composed.
"Are you alright?"
Garnet moved her hand over her face, and a new pair of glasses appeared over her eyes.
"Hm?"
Pearl crossed her arms, and raised a single eyebrow.
"You know exactly what I mean. You sound almost comatose when you're this relaxed."
Pearl knew it was progress when Garnet actually chuckled at the last statement.
"You know what's coming. Lapis; she's going to return with reinforcements. What are we going to do then?" Pearl asked.
"Pearl," Garnet said, sitting up and turning toward the other gem. "You know what's already going to happen, for the most part."
"We'll stand our ground...?"
"Until there is no one left standing, or nothing left to stand for."
I'm thinking of a fic actually to include lapis in as part of a back story, but the problem is that the title I would chose would be one that I have heard already.
It's a new idea. Garnet fic must come first.
To clarify, I'm not ignoring the Lapis incident. You could say quite the opposite, in fact, as I am very deliberately keeping myself from writing about it too much. I usually don't oneshot something that is a big backstory that can go really in depth. ;)
Thank you all for the wonderful support =)
