Disclaimer: I do not own Steven Universe.

A/N: There's such little time recently. I want to start working on Our Castle from Rubble again ;_;

On tumblr I saw that someone had actually deciphered part of what Ruby was saying underwater in the pool. It was something like "Why does she act like I'm the one being ridiculous just because she wants to pretend that she doesn't have feelings." Got me thinking.


The two leaned against one another.

How they met and how they had become so close was nothing of importance to Ruby.

They had!

That was enough. She didn't need to look deeper as to why, and she didn't care what trials the future held.

She felt something towards this blue gem, something she had not for any gem of any kind.

Gloved fingers gracefully wove their way around her own.

~Tink~

Ruby shuttered at the delicate noise and ticklish vibrations it gave off. In the moment she had forgotten about their gems and how close they actually were.

Sapphire hadn't forgotten. In fact she remembered and thought entirely too much.

"Sapphire."

The blue gem could hear her name as it was whispered beside her. How often had she overheard gems speak to one another in such a tone. How often had she wished that she could be one of them.

"This is the last time I will meet you like this."

Dull voice was enough to cut through Ruby.

"W-what?"

Sapphire only repeated, "I will no longer meet you like this."

Ruby was confused. She looked down at their still interwoven fingers, feeling Sapphire's grip grow every tighter despite the words of parting.

"You're joking, right?" Ruby chuckled nervously, "You're whole 'comedy is derived from fear' thing."

"…"

"Right?"

Sapphire tilted her head to give her companion a better view of her lips as she spoke, "No."

It was painful. More painful than anything Ruby had ever felt, "Oh."

As soon as the tiny hand eased its hold on her own, she pulled away. An overwhelming sense of cold wrapped around the pair.

Ruby looked to that blank face, sudden worry hitting her, "Is it the stupid counsel? Did they find out? Are you in trouble?!"

Sapphire shook her head, "I'm fine."

"I… I see. You know if I did something you can yell at me. I'd rather you tell me any truth of how you really feel than holding it in."

Harshly given orders and belittling remarks where how Ruby was raised. Somewhere along the way it had become a norm for her, safe. Not that she always followed them, but at least she knew how those other gems felt about her.

"It's not your fault." Sapphire assured. Her voice seemed almost tired, "It's no one's fault. Just the way things are and I will not see you from this point on."

"You can't give me a reason?!" Ruby swiftly stood. Her breathing became rapid as she confessed, refusing to keep her feelings inside as Sapphire stubbornly did, "What have we even been doing? How could I have come to like you so much? I-I'm really so stupid. You probably… actually, I can't even guess how you feel now. I thought I knew from those times we-"

Sapphire pressed her lips tightly together. Her own upbringing echoed in her mind.

Gems of standing have no need for emotion. Emotion gets in the way of your work. And once a gem has no use…

"The last time...huh?" Ruby grabbed her head, trying to sort out the multitude of feelings that flashed around too rapidly to name.

The last time.

Tears began o form, "Goodbye." Ruby turned away in an attempt to save face.

Sapphire opened her mouth as she watched the other gem leave her.

This was not meant to be the last time. In fact it would have been far from the last time in Sapphire didn't stop it.

She had to stop it.

As Ruby walked away Sapphire saw the paths of fate shift from one future to another…

Emotions are pointless and fleeting, Sapphire. They must be hidden.

And she had managed to stop that wonderful future.

Her eye blurred and she could no longer see Ruby. "Then why do I still feel." She argued with herself.

Ruby was gone and so was the path she had once sought comfort in.

Sapphire sunk, "If I try to save us from this emotion, new ones just come and replace it. It never ends." Large tears fell from her eye onto the smooth ground. She watched them fall; the stone glistened beneath as though to mock her.

She didn't want to see anymore. She didn't want to feel anymore.

The blue gem spread herself out over the ground, waiting for the tears to stop.

"I had to…I saw so many terrible things, Ruby." Sapphire tried to remind herself why she had cast love away, "We were going to cry so much."

"More than we are now?" Another voice entered her solitary world.

Have I fallen asleep?

Her blue eye opened, and she could only just make out the red figure beside her.

"No." Sapphire smiled to herself at the memory of those visions, "Most of the time we were happier than there were words to explain."

Ruby saw a piece of Sapphire had that been hidden to her for so long. Tears and smiles, she felt them all as though they were her own.

"Is that so bad? I know that's what I and everyone in the quarry always wanted."

"It is what I was taught never to want-"

Ruby reached forward to brush away the path of tears.

Sapphire flinched at the touch, coming to realize only then that this moment was reality, "-but I still do." She sat up, marveling at how "Out of all the feelings I have successfully contained. This is the only one that has tenaciously broken through time and time again."

It was then Sapphire did something unbelievable.

She began to laugh.

The carefree noise lit up Ruby's heart with warmth, "Why are you la-?"

"Because I don't know." The blue gem continued to giggle as though this was the funniest joke life had ever played on her.

Ruby tried her best to understand what humor Sapphire had found.

"The future has begun to shift too rapidly for me to make any sort of solid prediction." Sapphire shook her head, a grin still painted wide across her face, "I hate to tell you this but we're so very lost if we down any path together."

But Ruby could see more clearly than ever, "We're not lost." She brought Sapphire back to the moment… their moment, "We're right here."