"See? I knew you could do it."
Morganite had scraped her way to the very top of that rock face. Her arms and legs were textured with violent gashes, and the little aristocrat who hardly ever left the sanctuary of Yellow Diamond's palace collapsed into the desert dirt.
Jasper moved from the foldable lawn chair she had brought with her and pulled her student to her feet by a slender pink wrist.
"How was it?"
Morganite's bloody knees bent and she nearly fell flat onto her stomach. The weight of her own body was practically too much, but those hazy ink black eyes with their few spots of color opened. They drunk in Jasper's face. The warrior still had the smaller one by the arm.
"It was hard wasn't it?"
The hot wind blew dust around the enormous gem's boots.
"Maybe it almost killed you. But you made it."
Then, her tangerine arm came under Morganite's legs and Jasper carried her back to the warp pad. As they went on, the girl's light pink cheek rested against the war goddess' orange chest, bunched up against surprisingly smooth skin while being supported by those sturdy arm muscles.
"I'm sorry I'm so weak."
Jasper stopped walking for a second.
"You are kind of weak."
Then she continued.
"But you're getting stronger all the time."
"Will I ever be as tough as you? You scaled that cliff in only a few minutes."
"Yeah, maybe. Just don't give up."
"You wouldn't let me." Morganite brought her lashes together and relaxed in the nook Jasper had made for her. At this point, the soldier was wearing some of the aristocrat's dark pink blood. Regardless, they carried on.
"Don't get too comfortable. You're going to walk again once we get back to Homeworld."
"Jasper, please." A set of those dark black, lacy lashes fluttered across the instructor's collar. "Can't you let me have this? You've never carried me before."
There was no response. They warped back through the stream of pale blue light, and Jasper took Morganite to the palace before setting her back on her beaten, wobbly feet again. Before the warrior left, the aristocrat reached out and wrapped her entire right hand around just two crimson fingers.
"Thank you, Jasper. I'll see you in a few days."
She gave a little squeeze.
"Yeah, see you then."
