First Shower
"Kimberlite?"
"Yes, my Diamond?"
"What are you doing behind my chaise? Come out, this instant."
"Yes, my Diamond."
"What were you doing back there?"
"…nothing, my Diamond."
Another clatter.
The lights above Blue Diamond's mighty, magnificent head began to flicker sporadically.
"You are trembling. Why are you trembling? Are you cold? Have you forgotten how to regulate your body temperature again?"
"Not to my knowledge, my Diamond."
"Come here." A huge hand beckoned the tiny, newly-formed gem at the Diamond's feet, a towering gaze swivelling down to survey her face. "Have you been crying?"
The small face lowered to look downwards.
"…only a little, my Diamond."
Blue Diamond heaved a sigh that felt like a tempest wind to the smaller gem before leaning down to gingerly scoop the kimberlite into her hand.
Placed upon her lap, the little transfusion gem managed to stumble into a maladroit sitting position.
She was fairly tall by the standard of most non-military gems but perched precariously between her Diamond's knees, the kimberlite had never been so dwarfed.
"You needn't keep using the formal title during these sittings, Kimberlite," the matriarch of gems informed her. "Just upon meeting me and upon leaving me. Any more than that would serve to besmirch your status."
"Y-Yes, my Diam-…oh, yes. Yes, I understand."
"Why were you crying, Kimberlite?"
"It's just that…uh, it's…it is fairly immaterial."
She was still shivering.
"Come now. It is of great importance that you remain comfortable and without significant stress. Now, what is troubling you?"
She was a trifle more timid than Blue Diamond would have liked but all in all, petulance wouldn't have suited a gem of her occupation.
Another meteor met its loud and violent end at the hands of defence lasers only metres above their heads.
Outside the temple, the storm was still raging violently.
It had gone on for a long time, even by the standards of the weather they had been recently experiencing.
Something dawned on the great blue gem for the first time.
"Is this the first time you've experienced a meteor shower?"
"Yes…"
The Diamond's brow lifted.
"You needn't be afraid. We are well protected, as you have witnessed. Unfounded fear is a waste of energy…"
The kimberlite's small body curled up a little more.
"I apologise."
Blue Diamond watched the small gem with interest for a moment and then, experimentally patted the tiny, grey head with the pad of her finger.
It mildly surprised her to feel Kimberlite's head pressing back into her touch- clearly seeking the physical attention.
"Odd," Blue Diamond thought and abruptly decided that this was something that would need to be addressed in Kimberlite's next bout of behavioural modification.
Despite this programming-conflicting behaviour, the Diamond also felt the desire to say:
"Though while unfounded fear is a waste of energy…the admission of fear is also important…it is by telling others of our worries that we learn that they are unfounded to begin with. Seek knowledge. Don't give into ignorance."
As Kimberlite looked up into eyes of the one who had sanctioned her creation, she felt safety for the first time.
It was only a lunar cycle later that she would feel the sting of her Diamond's hypocrisy for the first time.
Despite this, that memory held begrudging warmth for her.
Faux Pas
"Up top, Ste-man!"
Steven happily accepted Amethyst's offer for a high five and couldn't help but laugh throughout his protests as he was instantly dragged into a heavy limbed noogie.
"Hey! Cut it out! Ha Ha! Amethyst! Cut it out, already!"
It was only when the purple gem finally relinquished him from the affectionate though vice-like grip, that Steven had a chance to notice what the corrupted gem had been pecking at between the rocks.
"Sadie?!"
"…h-hey Steven…" His co-favourite Big Doughnut employee offered him a shaky smile as she started to climb out from her hiding place.
"Oh snap! C'mere. Let me help you," the young man spluttered, stumbling forwards to grab her hand. "Let me…lemme help…you…"
The boy's voice slowed as he noticed a second pair of wide, green eyes staring out from the limpid-marked rocks.
Sadie gratefully accepted his help as she pulled her way back into the sunlight, massaging her wrists as she followed Steven's gaze.
"Oh! Uh, this is Kimberlite. Remember? I mentioned her over the phone? You said you could maybe help her out?"
Steven stared down at the partially shadowed figure for a moment, only nodding in response.
Everything Garnet had told him about her seemed both vital and completely unnecessary at the same time.
Right now, he was looking right into the eyes of the being that essentially made the Diamonds- who weren't the nicest of folks from what he'd seen and heard- immortal.
He wasn't as intimidated as he thought he'd be.
Though he did suddenly remember something he'd been trying to forget.
He was curled up in his caterpillar sleeping bag, eyes squeezed tight, nostrils full of the damp muskiness of the barn's wooden floor.
Slumber was just starting to drag over his eyelids, like a veil, when suddenly a sound met his ears.
It took him a few bleary-eyed and foggy-headed moments to realise that it as Pearl's voice he was hearing.
"You must have given it some thought at this stage."
Maybe she and Peridot were up late, working on the drill?
"It's not that I don't consider it an option," a second voice said. "But do we really want him to see that side of us?"
It wasn't Peridot she was talking to: it was Garnet.
"I know we're not fighting anymore but that doesn't mean the war is over. If the kimberlite really was created as a failsafe then-…"
"Then surely someone would notice if she disappeared from Homeworld and never returned. There's no point in drawing any further negative attention upon us. We don't want an invasion. Again."
Pearl hummed in ill-content, finally saying with a sigh. "Of course not…it's just that…" Her voice quivered in slight hesitation. "Rose always said that she knew they'd come up with some kind of back-up plan…and that as long as they had access to that they'd always find some way to win…and she said that we needed to whatever it took to make sure that didn't happen."
"You know what that would require us to do," Garnet said, her voice deeper and more gravelly than Steven had ever remembered hearing it. "Look, Pearl…I'm with you on one thing: I'm not going to pretend that Rose didn't have that kind of side when she needed to have it…but…do we really want to show that side to Steven?"
The human boy's heart was pounding aggressively as he drew his knees closer to his chest.
He wanted to get away from this conversation. It made him feel uncomfortable.
But if he tried to move, he'd be letting his two dear guardians know of his unwilling eavesdropping.
And he really didn't want that.
Pearl sniffed slightly and Steven itched to comfort her but resisted.
"Have you had any visions about it?"
"…yes."
"Am I allowed to-?"
"Not yet. But I'll let you know when the time is right. Just keep doing what you do."
"…alright…um…what exactly is it that I do?"
Steven could hear the slight smile on Garnet's lips. "Take care of the little man. He's got an important part to play in this."
The "little man" had fallen asleep a little after this and had awoken hours later, feeling a renewed sense of pressure to do something that hadn't actually learned about yet.
That and a faint throbbing in the shoulder that Peridot had accidentally walked into.
"Hey, need a hand?"
Amethyst's voice pulled Steven from his torpor as she leaned into the crevice to offer help to the trapped gem.
Kimberlite's green eyes grew wider and she flinched away from the quartz's hand.
Sadie seemed to notice this immediately and she immediately crouched down.
"Hey…it's ok. These guys are here to help. They're my friends." The human woman's smile grew warmer. "Like you."
Steven was quite when Kimberlite's expression of fear immediately turned to one of elation and without another thought, she immediately put her hand in Amethyst's outstretched palm.
Clumsily getting to her feet in proper light, Kimberlite was a lot taller than she had looked when crouched in the shadow cast by the rocks.
She wasn't quite as heighty as Garnet but she was easily a few inches above Pearl and quite broad across the shoulders to boot.
Still, there was an aura of something vulnerable about her that made it hard for him to look at her with any kind of fear or awe.
"Thank you," she breathed, giving a little bow of her head to Amethyst before scrambling over to Sadie, scooting behind her a bit. "Thank you very much…" She looked down at the human whom she seemed to be trying to disappear behind. "I didn't know you had gem beasts here on your planet! How ever do they form?!"
"Is that we were hiding from? T-To be honest, I don't really know much about those things…"
"Well, they don't show up all the time but they kinda just crawl out from old war sites and abandoned temples and junk," Amethyst chimed in, causing Kimberlite to jump a little again.
"But we usually take care of them pretty quickly," Steven added quickly, not wanting to push the new gem any further out of her already waning comfort zone.
"Oh yeah, intros," Sadie said, beckoning the gangly gem to move a little closer to the other two occupants of the beach. "Kimberlite…this is Steven and Amethyst…"
Kimberlite didn't say anything in response to this but her eyes locked with Steven's again, her expression oddly unreadable.
For a few, emphatically awkward minutes, her eyes went from Steven's to Amethyst's and back to Steven's and back to Amethyst's.
It became increasingly obvious that the gem desperately wanted to say something but despite the words being on the edge of her lips, something was causing her to hesitate each time.
That was, until Sadie groaned slightly, leaning on her knee. "Darn it…"
"You ok?" Steven asked her, feeling quite grateful that someone had finally broken the silence.
"Yeah, m' fine. I think I just hit my knee when Kim and I had to get down under there. Might be a little bruised."
"My Sadie!"
The grey gem let out a throaty gasp and not a second later, the human woman was in her arms, scooped up into a bridal carry.
Without a trace of any of the anxious behaviour she'd exhibited before, Kimberlite jumped down from the rock, prompting a squeal from the blonde woman.
"We must get you help!" Kimberlite insisted, setting her down. "Who knows what organic illnesses you might contract when exposed to all of these dangerous minerals!?" Her lips trembled as she looked around, scanning the sound with pupils that seemed to be turning to pinpricks. "Gah!" She immediately lifted Sadie into her arms once more. "I can't let you fester in a bath of the undead! There's shrapnel everywhere!"
"Kim," Sadie exhaled with a flustered but bemused smile as she wriggled from her would-be protector's grip. "It's ok…it's just a bruised leg at worst…I can walk and…uh…bath of the undead? Nah, sand isn't as scary as that…I mean sure it's got bacteria but…uh, help me out here, Steven."
"Uh…yeah…sand is…sand is good."
Steven wasn't quite listening to what Sadie was saying as much as he was quietly marvelling at the fact that Kimberlite hadn't taken her eyes from the human woman's face.
In fact, she was watching her with such attentiveness, it wouldn't have been hard to believe that Sadie was the source of everything that gave her life meaning.
He recognised that exact look too.
He felt a small smile creep on to his face.
Amethyst's smile was far from small, her teeth sinking into the knuckles of her right hand as she tried her hardest to stop laughing. "Oh my gosh…I thought Pearl was germ-crazy. This kid takes it to a whole new level…I wonder if she gets as nuts about symmetry…"
"Amethyst," Steven warned, giving her a little nudge though his worry practically evaporated when he saw that Sadie was laughing now, speaking to Kimberlite in slightly hushed tones.
"I'm such a klutz. I'm surprised I haven't got bruises all over."
"You are speaking with the gem who is made to wear a protection device. I believe I am the klutz."
"You're not though! You're totally graceful! I'm the queen of klutzes."
"Yet I cannot climb between two rocks on my own. Thus I am the ruler of the klutz people."
"Well, I can't dance. I'm the mayor of klutzville."
"I fall into large bodies of water. I am the matriarch of the klutz race!"
"You're not gonna stop until you win this, are you?"
"I am persistent…it's one of my greatest flaws…"
"Nah, I like your stubborn streak..."
"Heh," Amethyst shrugged, raising an eyebrow down at Steven. "D'ya think we're interrupting something?"
"I'm glad she's made a friend. Being on a new planet must be pretty scary," Steven grinned. "And you can't get a better quality of Earth buddy than Sadie."
"Careful. Haha, you're gonna give me an inflated ego."
Sadie was now at Steven's side, giving his shoulder a playful punch. "Hey, I gotta head off to work now but just because you're here, maybe you guys could help Kimberlite out now?"
"You're going?" the Homeworld gem asked worriedly, her voice becoming a little more high pitched than before. "But I thought I was going to stay with you and we were going to do "hanging out"…?"
Sadie put her hand on Kimberlite's shoulder, having to stretch up a little to meet the gem's height. "Hey, don't sweat it. Steven and Amethyst can help you out with what you need…and then maybe they could bring you back here later…then we can hang out properly…that ok?" She shot a little sideways glance at the purple gem and the human gem as if asking their permission too.
With all parties, (one somewhat reluctantly), agreed, Sadie bade her farewells and headed off down the beach, back towards the Big Doughnut.
Steven noticed that Kimberlite continued to watch the slightly rushed shop employee until she completely disappeared from sight.
It was only then that she hesitantly returned her attention back to him and Amethyst.
Her mouth was a little lop-sided from chewing her lip so violently.
"So you're from Homeworld, huh?" Amethyst drawled, seemingly deciding that another awkward silence was not in order.
"Mmhmm!" Kimberlite nodded quickly, strangely choosing to snap upright in a rigid salute while she was speaking, her face whipping from one of them to the other once more. It was at this point that Steven noticed that she wasn't really looking at their faces as much as she was peering at their gems.
Her face was rife with confusion, her limbs shaking and feeling that it was completely necessary- Steven returned the salute and they dropped the gesture in unison.
"Do you have something you wanna ask us?" he asked her encouragingly, trying to help her feel at ease.
"Are you both quartz gems?"
Steven blinked, having expected her to ask about whatever Sadie had been talking about on the phone but exchanging a quick glance with Amethyst, he replied: "Yeah, I guess we are. Well, Amethyst is for sure but me? Well I…"
"You are both very small for quartz gems."
The comment was dry, quick and quite innocently phrased.
Uh-oh.
Steven immediately turned his head to look at the third of his beloved guardians, gritting his teeth a little. He wasn't sure how Amethyst was dealing with Peridot's little revelation of only a few days ago.
If she had been struggling with being told that she was essentially defective, she'd essentially been rather quiet about it.
Reticent and incongruently temperous yet strong about the entire situation; after all that was in her nature.
Right now, Amethyst did look a little bit disgruntled, her lips curling and her brows furrowing.
Steven could see a flame quickly travelling down a wick, starting to burn out entirely and predicting the possible conflagration to come- he immediately said:
"That's how things are on Earth!" He grinned widely. "Some gems are big and some gems are small and all gems are different and whatever way they want to be!"
He spoke loudly.
He spoke fast.
Amethyst didn't speak at all for a few seconds.
And then Kimberlite clapped her hands, her lips lifting into an amused smile.
"Oh! That's very interesting." She tilted her head. "I only ask because I only know one or two quartzes back on Homeworld…this is my first time among the military ranks in a casual setting…"
"Military ranks?" Amethyst bit back another chuckle and Steven felt relief wash over him. "Heh, at ease, Kim…at ease…"
More to come very, very soon!
Thank you all for all of your lovely comments! So, so sorry about the delay. This week has been slightly rough but from now on, updates will be weekly, either on Sunday or Monday. :D