Author's Note: You know, I thought I wasn't going to write another chapter with the whole study group gang together but it somehow ended up happening anyway. Which is great because, shenanigans.

Enjoy!

Pearl didn't know how, but she was hired.

The interview went surprisingly well. Surprising because she was an engineering major applying for a job in the financial aid office, but she supposed most people could at least handle filing documents and answering phone calls, even if the latter was a bit nerve-wracking.

By her third week she was helping panicked freshmen figure out the tuition payment website or directing them to someone who could assist them better, and overall, the job wasn't too awful. Much better than awful, actually.

Pearl thanked her lucky stars and the dubious practice of nepotism (if Peridot's involvement meant anything) and tried to quell the voice that whispered that she was undeserving.

Yellow still hadn't found a job yet.

(Line Break)

"Hey."

Pearl looked up from the desktop computer to see Lapis leaning over the counter, chin resting on her arms, bobbed blue hair fluffing out a little.

"Hello Lapis," Pearl said with some amusement. "Filling out more scholarships?"

"Nah, my brain isn't working enough for that today," Lapis said, "Got any good gossip?"

Pearl scoffed and finished typing a sentence out. "I never do, Lapis. I don't know why you still try."

Since first meeting Lapis, Pearl wasn't ever sure whether Lapis enjoyed her company or tolerated it, likewise for their group- she had always felt as if Lapis stuck around solely for Peridot, but now she knew that that wasn't the case at all.

Lapis had stopped by the financial aid office one day to find information about a state scholarship. Then she stopped by again, and again, and nowadays Lapis stopped by whether it was for scholarships or not. Pearl didn't mind.

"You have to have heard something decent working in a place like this." Lapis nodded to the inner offices of the higher up staff. "Don't the old ladies have anything good?"

Pearl leaned back in her chair to glimpse the offices, sighing in relief when she saw the doors were closed. "First of all-" She held up a finger, both a number marker and a warning. "-one of them is a man and he's not even old, and second, don't talk so loud," she whispered. "You'll have me fired yet, Lapis."

"It's my life's ambition," Lapis said, smirk still hidden in her arms.

"I can get myself fired just fine, thank you."

Lapis rolled her eyes. "You'll only get fired because you put in too many hours or worked too hard or something bullshit like that."

"Actually, I would rather spend my time studying or with Garnet and Amethyst, not this infernal phone. I hear it ring in my dreams." Pearl pushed her chair away from the desk and stood to stretch her legs. She grumbled about sitting-related injuries, noting the stiffness in her body.

"Your hours that bad?"

"No," Pearl admitted, rolling a tense shoulder, "I'm just adjusting to less free time I suppose." She missed her free time dearly (and she had had so little of it already), but she especially missed the time to hang out with Garnet and Amethyst between classes instead of... this. But Pearl still had them at night and mornings and during her days off- it was all a matter of adjusting.

"Oh hey." Lapis straightened up, pressing her palms flat on the counter to lean over it slightly. "I remember why I came here."

"To get me fired?"

Lapis ignored the comment. "You were looking for apartments right?"

"...Yes." Pearl paused her stretches, an eyebrow raised. "You know of a good one?"

"I know of someone who's looking for a paying roommate," Lapis hedged.

Pearl narrowed her eyes. "It sounds like there's a catch coming up."

"Ah well-" Lapis laughed, bubbly. "It's someone I'm not on very good terms with, and you didn't exactly have a great experience with them either."

Pearl furrowed her brows. "...Who?"

(Line Break)

Pearl watched Jasper enter from across the student center, gait stern and purposeful like she were readying for a boxing match instead of working out housing details.

Yellow followed Pearl's gaze. "Is that... her?"

"Yes," Pearl said out of the corner of her mouth.

Jasper glanced around the room, caught sight of Pearl and Yellow and nodded to them before coming over to their table. "So." Jasper pulled out a chair, metal shrieking against the tile floor, and sat down. "Apartments."

Pearl nodded. "Lapis mentioned you had one in mind?"

"Yeah. It's not bad, not too expensive, but I can't pay for it all myself. That's were you two come in." Jasper pointed to them.

"Where is it exactly?" Pearl asked. She rephrased it. "...Is it within walking distance of the college?"

Jasper frowned, incredulous. "Uhm probably not. That's why it's not expensive." She chuckled, crossing her arms and leaning back in the chair. "What, you guys don't have a car?"

"Not anymore," Yellow said, mouth set in a sour scowl.

"Hah. Man, that sucks." Jasper tilted her chair back to balance on two legs. "But I can't be your chauffeur."

Pearl cringed at the safety hazard but refrained from mentioning it. "We were thinking about finding an apartment closer to the school. I had some in mind earlier." She unlocked her phone to pull up some bookmarked pages on the apartments.

"It would cost more."

"Yes, but-"

Jasper interrupted, still dangerously tilting forward and back on the two chair legs. "Do you guys even have jobs?"

Pearl looked up from her phone, beginning to bristle at Jasper's tone. "Yes. I do," she said tightly.

"What about the blondie?"

"I have a name," Yellow said indignantly.

Jasper deviously grinned, staring at Yellow from behind a lock of bleached hair. "Yeah and your name's not any better, Miss Canary Yellow."

"Canary? You-!" Yellow jumped up from her chair.

"Yellow!" Pearl cried, dismayed, "Sit down." She knew her sister had a temper, but this was a little much. And if Yellow ended up doing something reckless like punching Jasper in the teeth, they were shot out of luck.

"Wow, touchy subject, huh? What, are you gonna fight me?" Jasper asked, voice cool despite the excitement in her eyes. She tilted back on her chair a bit more.

Yellow grit her teeth and drummed her fingers vigorously on the table.

"...Yellow," Pearl said warily. She tugged on the edge of Yellow's shirt to pull her back, but Yellow squirmed away, not breaking her glaring eye contact with Jasper.

"I'll push you off your stupid chair," Yellow threatened.

Pearl groaned and put her face in her hands. It was already over. She could practically hear their chances of getting an apartment storm out the door and slam it closed.

The harsh sound of Jasper's chair returning to all four legs made Pearl raise her head. She was secretly proud to see Yellow didn't flinch even when the sudden movement brought Jasper's bared teeth a few inches from her pointy nose.

Pearl supposed Jasper was impressed too, because she smirked and then shoved Yellow out of her face. "Alright," Jasper said.

Yellow stumbled and caught herself on the table. She sat down semi-gracefully, brushing imaginary dust from her shirt- an effort to save her dignity. "Alright, what?"

"Alright, give me a minute to think," Jasper said dryly.

Pearl let out a deep breath. There was still a chance. She caught Yellow's eyes and gave an unamused frown to express her disapproval over Yellow's actions.

Yellow rolled her eyes and looked away, still fuming.

Sighing, Jasper ran her hands through her long hair, and Pearl heard Yellow make a quiet noise beside her. "Okay," Jasper finally said, "I might give you two a chance /only/ because I still feel bad about breaking into your dorm. But it's still a maybe."

"Right." What Pearl really wanted to say was a fervent thank you, but she supposed being too desperate wouldn't help their case much. "Now, uh, we should figure out how close the apartment should be because Yellow and I need a way to get on campus."

Jasper waved the suggestion away and stood up. "I just remembered I have somewhere to be right now," she said, "We can talk about this later."

"We've been here five minutes!" Yellow exclaimed. "What important place do you have to be right now? In your dorm chugging a dozen energy drinks?"

"I have to work," Jasper said, smugly implying the 'unlike you' part of the statement.

"And where is it you work?" Yellow huffed.

"The gym." Jasper used her thumb to point over her shoulder.

Yellow tipped her nose up and crossed her arms. "Of course you do."

"What is that suppos-"

"AHAha! Well!" Pearl quickly stood up, trying to block Yellow and Jasper from looking at each other. "I guess we'll be seeing you later then!"

Jasper raised her eyebrows and stared tauntingly over Pearl's head. "You gonna answer my question?"

Pearl rose to her tiptoes and, at the same time, blindly reached behind her and capsized Yellow's purse before her younger sister could take Jasper's bait.

"Gah! Pearl! My purse!"

While Yellow squawked and scrambled to collect its contents, Pearl played diplomat. "Jasper, you and I can talk this over sometime later, okay?" She wanted to apologize for how terribly the meeting went, but part of her agreed with Yellow.

Jasper rubbed the bridge of her nose and sighed. "Yeah, whatever. Sounds good." She turned to walk away, throwing a cheeky farewell over a muscular shoulder. "It was nice meeting you, /blondie/."

Yellow very audibly growled in frustration from where she was kneeling to gather up the last of her things. She stuttered angrily, and Pearl looked down at her with her hands on her hips. She glanced behind her to make sure Jasper was out of earshot before beginning the scolding.

"What the heck,Yellow?!" Pearl whispered (they were in the student center after all). "We're trying to find a paying roommate! Not make new enemies!"

"You said she was nice!" Yellow stood and brushed the dust from her purse before looping it safely over her arm. "She was not nice!"

"I mean, aside from breaking into my dorm and practically assaulting me, she was nice. She was very sorry about everything," Pearl said, "Just. Don't antagonize her and she won't antagonize you back."

"Oh come on," Yellow said, "Don't pretend like she wasn't irritating you too. She thinks she's better than us! Her and her big, dumb muscles." She shook her fist in the direction Jasper had walked away.

"Oh ho..." Pearl raised an eyebrow, chuckling. How interesting. "But you liked her hair," she teased.

Yellow gave a scandalized gasp. "I don't like her hair. Or her muscles. Or anything about her."

"And you certainly don't like how tall she is," Pearl added slyly.

"Shut up, Pearl." Yellow waved her hands in frustration. "And quit giving me that look!"

(Line Break)

"Maybe it would be better to just find somewhere that'll let us rent for two months and then we'll go back to the dorms when school starts... but I don't think we could even afford two months because Yellow hasn't found a job yet, so it's just me paying for rent and food and utilities and- That's why we need Jasper, but Jasper is looking for someone long term and if we did that, oh, I don't know how we would get to school-"

"Pearl! Pearl, hey," Amethyst interrupted, "Breathe. And come sit down; you'll wear a hole in the carpet if you pace any more."

Pearl let Amethyst lead her over to the couch and laid down. "Sorry," she said, using her forearm to drape over her eyes. She tried to focus on something else.

"It's alright," Amethyst said, "I'd be worried too."

Pearl felt the couch dip a bit- Amethyst sitting on the edge of the cushions.

"You can always stay with Garnet," Amethyst suggested after a moment.

Pearl groaned. "And Yellow too? Garnet's parents are too nice to tell us no; we would end up bankrupting them." Ruby and Sapphire were probably the last people on earth she wanted to be a hindrance to; she already owed them so much.

"Buuuuut if you're still working, maybe you could pay them?"

"...It's a thought," Pearl admitted, uncovering her eyes. She hadn't considered that before. Unfortunately, another part of the issue was her pride, but maybe there was no room for pride in a situation like this.

Amethyst beamed, happy to help. "We'll figure something out," she promised, "But don't worry about that right now." She nudged the battered board game box on the floor with her foot and flashed Pearl a grin. "Worry about me kicking your ass in world domination."

Caught off guard, Pearl chuckled at that. "You know Garnet's going to beat both of us." She reached up to idly run her fingers through Amethyst's hair, grateful for making her laugh at a time like this.

Amethyst's hair was still warm with the sun from their walk to the dorms- tangled from the wind, too. Pearl tried to carefully undo the snags her fingers caught on.

Amethyst blushed at the attention and coughed. "Not this time! I'm teaming up with Peridot, and if I can get Lapis to ally with me we can gang up on Garnet." She knelt down and dumped the board game pieces on the floor. "What color do you want?"

Smirking at Amethyst's blush, Pearl withdrew her hand from her hair and stretched out on the couch. "Surprise me." Her eyes circled the movement of the lazy fan blades on the ceiling, still trying to calm lingering anxieties.

"You're blue," Amethyst decided, gathering the blue pieces into one corner of the board.

"Lapis is going to fight you on that."

Amethyst paused and then shrugged. "I guess we'll just have to fight to the death."

"Yo." Lapis shouldered the door opened and kicked it shut behind her. "What's this I hear about fighting to the death?" She sat down in the floor across Amethyst.

"Me and you, Lapis. We gotta go duel," Amethyst said eagerly.

Lapis grinned. "Awesome. Let's go."

Deciding she felt well enough, Pearl joined the other two in the floor and began to organize her pile of plastic soldiers by type. Amethyst was right- she would figure everything out later. No use fretting over it now while their friends were over and trying to forget a week's worth of assignments. Relax. She pulled a blue cannon out from her pile of infantry.

"Wait," Lapis said, "Why do you get to be blue?"

Pearl shot Amethyst an 'I-told-you-so' look, and Amethyst guffawed.

The door creaked as Peridot and Garnet slipped into the dorm. Peridot shoved her hands into the pockets of her unusually large and lumpy hoodie and waddled importantly to the center of the room. "I brought... the goods," she whispered.

Peridot lifted the edge of her hoodie and unleashed a torrent of candy bags and an entire box of microwavable popcorn, which unfortunately destroyed most of Pearl's carefully organized army.

Unfazed, Garnet brushed the carnage of candy and plastic soldiers aside to make a space by Pearl. She nudged Pearl playfully with her shoulder. "Hello."

"Hello..." Pearl moved in to kiss her in greeting, but they were mindful of their guests and parted quickly, lest Peridot start gagging.

Lapis snatched up a bag of gummy worms. "I'm not complaining, but where'd you guys get the money for this?"

"Me," Garnet said, "I thought we deserved a little splurging."

"Aw, you're the best G." Amethyst lunged over the board for her own 'Hello' kiss. (Pearl flushed worse at this than at her and Garnet's previous kiss.)

Garnet winked at Amethyst when they separated. "You know it."

"I also knoooooow," Amethyst said, sitting back on her side of the board, "that I'm finally gonna beat you at this game."

"What makes you think that?"

"Peridot is gonna help me," Amethyst said cockily, arms crossed. "Right Peri?"

Busy examining the game rules, Peridot shook her head and gave a curt, "No."

"See?- Wait." Amethyst faltered, bravado failing. "What do you mean no?"

"I've decided the strongest alliance partner is Garnet," Peridot said, slipping into her wordier speech patterns to defend her choice, "In the past she has shown to be superior in strategy games. Easy decision." She shrugged and flipped a page of the rule manual.

"Easy- easy dec..." Amethyst trailed off in her shock. "Peri... Peridactyl... P-dot, let's talk about this."

"My mind has been made. It's nothing personal, Amethyst," Peridot said, "Besides, I'm sure Lapis would be happy to join you."

"Nope," Lapis said, shuffling the cards, "I'm a strong, independent dictator and I don't want any backstabbing allies."

"But, but..." Amethyst made a wheezing sound and sunk down onto her side.

Pearl restrained a laugh as she reached out to pat Amethyst's back. "There, there. Have a gummy worm." She placed her thoughtful gift on Amethyst's head and sat back.

"Garnet, how could you?" Amethyst whispered. "I thought we were friends."

Garnet followed Pearl's lead and placed another gummy worm offering on Amethyst's head. "I'm sorry, love. I'm sure you'll make it."

"We've already defeated her," Peridot noted sagely.

Lapis nodded in equal solemnity. "Board games break apart families."

(Line Break)

"Just let it end," Pearl mumbled, "Please Amethyst."

"I'll give up once Peri does," Amethyst declared, eyes red with exhaustion. She rolled her dice and laughed triumphantly. "Hah, got you that time, Peri! Hand it over."

"Fine." Peridot pushed a card into Amethyst's pile and escorted her own soldiers from the said piece of land. "I'm going to get it back when it's my turn, you know."

"We'll see about that."

Pearl sighed heavily into Amethyst's hair. She could easily fall asleep where she was, her front draped over Amethyst's back, chin resting over Amethyst's shoulder, but it would be so much nicer to have an actual bed.

She could leave to go find a bed, but she couldn't abandon Garnet, who, now that Pearl studied her, might have already fallen asleep, sitting upright against the couch with her arms crossed and yet her eyes hidden beneath her shades.

"I've been thinking," Lapis said, voice slightly slurred with sleep, or rather, lack of it, "And like, this game is just... imperialistic propaganda... so ummmmm fuck this and let's go to bed."

Peridot and Amethyst gave no sign that they had heard, too preoccupied with another dice battle. Pearl laughed tiredly and cast Lapis a sympathetic look. "You tried," she said.

Lapis groaned and shoved her hand into the half empty bow of popcorn. Pearl watched in mild horror as Lapis managed to stuff the entire handful of popcorn into her mouth and bite down with an alarming cracking sound. Lapis spit something out in her hand.

Pearl winced and squeezed her eyes shut. "Please tell me that's not your tooth."

"It's not. Just an unpopped kernel," Lapis said, rolling it between her fingers thoughtfully, "Though I did have a dream like that once." Without any warning, she flung the kernel at a cluster of Peridot and Amethyst's plastic armies, scattering a few of them.

"Hey!" Peridot cried.

"Dude!"

"This is God's punishment!" Lapis dug around in the popcorn bowl for more kernels and then threw those at the board as well. "And I am God!"

Pearl buried her face into Amethyst's neck to shield herself from the flying debris and Lapis's wild cackling. Amethyst sighed and leaned back into her spindly girlfriend.

"Getting tired yet?" Pearl asked. She kissed the back of Amethyst's neck.

"Maybe... We've reached that point in the night where people start, like, becoming God, so..."

Pearl laughed. "Ah yes, I hate when that happens."

"But I think we could work this into the game," Amethyst murmured, "A little popcorn asteroid attack to really spice up our battles. Besides, Peridot's defenses are about to crack."

"Meteorite," Peridot corrected. "And I disagree! My defenses will not be cracking any time soon!"

"I've already messed up your board- What more do I need to do? Completely flip it over?" Lapis interrupted herself with a smattering of unstable giggles. "'Cause I will. If that's what it takes. I'll do it, Peridot." She wiggled her fingers over the edge of the board game.

"Lapis! Don't!" Peridot threw herself over the board to protect it, a poor decision because she displaced the few remaining pieces and essentially cleared the board. "Agh! A bayonet stabbed me!" Peridot pulled the offending plastic soldier out from under her and scowled at it. "A treason charge for you," she muttered to it.

Lapis clapped her hands together loudly. "Good! Treason! Now let's go to bed." She stood up and collapsed face first on the couch, which, wasn't exactly a bed but never mind.

Garnet finally startled awake at the chaos, her glasses crooked and her expression disorientated. "Whaa?"

Amethyst chortled. "Go back to sleep, babe."

Garnet rubbed her eyes and chuckled, one corner of her mouth quirking up in a smile, and through her own sleep-hazy eyes Pearl's brain decided that it was one of the cutest things she had ever seen.

"Tell her she's adorable," Pearl mumbled. She couldn't keep her eyes open much longer and she certainly couldn't raise her voice enough to tell Garnet herself.

"Garnet! Pearl says you're adorable," Amethyst relayed, much louder than what was necessary.

Pearl heard Garnet laugh, and a moment later both Pearl and Amethyst were tilting to the ground with Garnet's added weight on top of them. "Garnet," Pearl laughed, more awake now that she was buried in a cuddle pile.

Garnet went limp over them, feigning sleep. "Good night," she teased.

"Nah man," Amethyst said, "You gotta do the really loud snore to be convincing."

"...Mmhmmm."

(Line Break)

"Ugh." Pearl raised her head, the back of which was aching like she had- "Slept on the floor! We slept on the floor and there were... beds... in the next room." She groaned.

Amethyst and Garnet- mostly Garnet- rested over her the same way they had fallen asleep last night, ensuring that Pearl couldn't squirm out of the cuddle pile without waking them. She couldn't move even if she tried, and well, maybe she didn't want to try anyway.

Pearl turned her head to a more comfortable position and fell back to sleep, the sun that seeped past the window shutters warming her face.

Author's Note: Fluff, fluff, fluff. I want to write a story entirely made of cuddles.