Chapter Ten

I was in a bit of a state.

So the date went well.

Really well, in fact. I felt like I was walking on air, when me and Spinel finally went our seperate ways, and I returned to my room.

Which led me to having a conundrum.

What the hell was I supposed to do next?

I sank into a chair, sighing a little as I pulled my phone out.

UselessLesbian: I guess you can remove the "useless" part because i did it, i actually went on a date and it wasn't an awkward disaster

Jezzz: DAMN IT

UselessLesbian: What

DownSouth: She owes me 50 bucks.

UselessLesbian: You were betting on it?

ByeBi: Sis bet 50 bucks it'd take you another month to go on a date with her

UselessLesbian: Any caveats to who asked who

DownSouth: Nope.

Jezzz: I didn't think of that, I should have but I didn't. Well good for you, you had a date! About time.

UselessLesbian: Great so now can you tell me why I'm so anxious even though it went well?

DownSouth: Gay panic.

Sunnysideup: You're falling for her even more.

Jezzz: Perfectly normal first-date anxiety.

ByeBi: You're an idiot.

TechWizard: All of the above.

UselessLesbian: I vote Zach's.

ByeBi: I was kidding though

UselessLesbian: But are you wrong?

ByeBi: I feel like I lose no matter what I answer here…

DownSouth: Ya want advice? Just roll with it.

UselessLesbian: Honestly I trust Tex's advice more than anyone else's here

Jezzz: Fair.

TechWizard: I know Ying went to college early and breezed through it but yeah, no, Tex definitely is still the smartest one here

DownSouth: I dunno about that. There's lots of stuff I don't know. Like I barely can remember that whales aren't fish or that you shouldn't microwave silverware.

Sunnysideup: You're not educated but you ARE smart.

DownSouth: I guess I can accept that?

I grinned a little. Idiots. But they were my idiots. My idiots that made me feel better. I tucked my phone away for the moment, and stood, walking to the window. It was getting a little nippy out. There were more clouds, and the weather was changing slowly. Time to get a coat and warmer clothes.

I wrapped up and headed out. It was nearly time for work, as usual. I didn't need to overdress or anything, but I did put on a nice scarf and a jacket. At least with the winter on approach, days were getting shorter which meant my exposure to the murderous beams of the sun was at a much safer level.

I entered the classroom, and took a seat at the teacher's desk.

It was quiet. Peaceful.

It clicked in my head that the clocks had changed a few days ago, and I was an hour early.

I stared at the wall for a moment, before having a ridiculous giggle fit, face pressing into my hands.

"Right. Spring ahead, Fall back." I shook my head in mock dismay. At least I could go over the lesson plan.

Then, my phone buzzed. I glanced down at it, and blinked.

A message from Garnet.

Ying

Bluebird was seen in Little Homeworld, creeping around your class building.

Where are you now?

That was bad, right? That seemed bad. I texted her back.

In the classroom, actually.

Then an idea bubbled forth. An idea that was surprisingly devious, coming from me, and I smiled, thinly.

Hey, Garnet. I have a harebrained scheme cooking up . Wanna help?

There was a pause.

I should, because you might get hurt if I don't .

I laughed.

Probably. Here's my idea…

Everything was ready. I was sitting neatly in my large teacher's chair, the shades drawn, lights on low, nice and moody. I knew it was only a matter of time. My back was to the door when it opened.

Bluebird Azurite erupted into the room, brandishing an icy blade with a wicked laugh, but paused for a moment in surprise when I simply clicked a button, causing all the lights to go out. A soft blue-red glow began to emanate, coming from Bluebird herself.

I turned slowly, fingers steepled, scarf around my neck in such a way that it was draped over the chair, leaning forward with my best supervillainess smile.

"Welcome." I spoke, putting on a bit of a lilt to my voice. "I've been expecting you."

"Wha- really?" For a moment, Bluebird seemed surprised, blade lowering a half-inch. "Because me being here was supposed to be a big shock!"

I ignored her. Some dorky part of my brain desperately hoped that the light was reflecting off my glasses and hiding my eyes from them. "Yes, although I'm surprised you somehow managed to reform. I expected your components more than you."

"What's that supposed to mean?" She tensed, eye scanning the room for some kind of trap or hidden weapon.

"Well you're just so utterly incompatible in every way." I smiled easily, slapping a folder on my desk. "These are all notes on you. The Aquamarine and Ruby that fused to create you, I should say."

"What?" Bluebird glowered a bit, taking a step forward.

I widened my smile, though I was very nervous.

"Well, obviously. Why would that Aquamarine ever want anything to do with a Ruby? She's just using her until she gets what she needs. And then? She'll just discard her. Because as far as Aquamarine cares, she's just a cheap, disposable soldier, right? Exactly like things were back in Era 2."

For a moment, the sword wavered, and I pressed on. If she stopped to think about this too much she might catch on.

"And, that Ruby has no reason to trust that Aquamarine. The only thing holding them together is hate, and hate is unstable and wild." I shook my head. "And that too, that silly hate keeping you in existence."

" Silly?! " Bluebird's body seemed to swell slightly, just for a moment.

"Well, yeah." I drawled. "You hate Steven Universe, right? Well he's not here. And Little Homeworld may have been his idea, but he's not involved with how its run. What good would destroying it do?" I stood, arms behind my back, pacing slowly behind my desk, back and forth.

"And beyond that…" I lowered my gaze, peeking above my glasses. Whoa, she looks like a blob of red and blue. I push the glasses back up. "If you did destroy little Homeworld, earning the ire of the diamonds, all of humanity, and a very large number of gems… What next? Wage war on the gems of the world by yourself? Stay in one piece? As soon as they have what they want Ruby and Aquamarine will fall apart and turn on each other."

"T-that's… that's not true!" Bluebird's voice quavered.

"Then tell me. You're the Ruby and the Aquamarine. You're both of them. Yet someone else too, but you are also both of them. So…" I turned, so I had my side to them. "What do they feel now? Nervous? Worried? Afraid the other might really turn on them?" I grinned.

"Gems are so much like humans, so, so silly when it comes to interacting close to one another." I chided.

Bluebird's body kept shifting and roiling strangely, her form starting to become increasingly more unstable. I needed to give some kind of a kicker.

"The reason that you can't succeed is because you don't even trust yourself." I murmured.

Garnet had taught me about fusion. She had explained how it was formed through connections- the stronger the bonds and connections and feelings between two gems, the harder it was to seperate a fusion. It was why many gems couldn't fuse for long periods of time; for most gems it was very difficult for them to sync their state of being well enough to stay fused for an excessive amount of time.

It also meant that some fusions were highly susceptible to emotional attack, which was naturally my plan. To bombard Bluebird with things that might be true, but might not be. The doubt, uncertainty, the fact they only fused for vengeance, their lack of general understanding of each other… Eyeball and Aquamarine wouldn't be able to keep it steady.

And much to my delight, it worked. The kicker had indeed kicked, because there was a burst, and the duo were on the floor, separate and dizzy. The door opened, the lights flicked on, and Garnet, Amethyst, Pearl stood blocking the exit.

" Dang Ying!" Amethyst cackled. "I've never seen anything like that! You weren't kidding about your whole "Scary teacher" thing!

"I did minor in psych." I laughed. "I'm just glad I had backup, I didn't even think that'd work."

Garnet looked a little appalled, maybe. I shot an apologetic look as Pearl and Amethyst picked up the very confused-looking duo.

"As for you two…" I clucked my tongue. "Causing all this trouble. The only suitable penalty I think is being kept under close watch, and given mandatory classes."

The two small gems gaped as though I had just sentenced them to torture and I scoffed, rolling my eyes. "Honestly, don't look so revolted. It's not as bad as it sounds."

Garnet chuckled, her distaste at how I had separated them replaced with approval. "Hm, I like this plan."

Pearl was less enthusiastic. "I… don't know about that…"

"Think of it this way;" I sat down, while the two small gems squirmed and tried to escape. "They'll be forced to get along with other gems, monitored closely, and we'll be able to evaluate them. If we can't convince them to stop harassing Little Homeworld, then we'll figure it out from there. If we can, then, well, I guess that'd sort itself out, huh?"

"I mean, it's not like we have a better idea, Pearl!" Amethyst shrugged, adjusting her grip on Aquamarine.

"There's always the leash plan. It worked for Peridot." Pearl smiled a bit, but shook her head. "Well, as long as they've got some responsible gems keeping an eye on them, we should be… relatively fine."

"That's the spirit." I pushed my glasses up, smirking at the two small gems, letting my teeth flash. "As for you two… I'll be seeing you in class ."

The pair froze up for a moment, clearly not sure how to process this, as they were carried out of the room. I sighed, thudding my head on the desk the moment they were gone. "...Just in time for the class to start. I'm not ready to actually have them here." I mumbled, before sitting up, not wanting anyone to see me in that state right before a lesson.

I huffed, opening the blinds to let some natural light in, stretching as I straightened up the room a bit. What a mess. Seems like I can't go more than two weeks without a crisis. Still, they always seemed to lead to something, right? Usually hugs from Spinel.

Although I could just ask for those, especially since we were dating now.

Oh god. Spinel's in this class how would I be able to even function ?

Then again, I was able to get through classes without gay panicking before and my crush on Spinel wasn't that much smaller. I just had to focus on the lesson. Luckily, she sat near the back a lot. Funny how a girl terrified of being alone and who loved to joke and dance and sing and play around with others wasn't fond of crowds. She preferred one-on-one interactions.

Maybe that's why she got so quiet when other gems showed up to talk to me when I was with her. I had a few who even came up to ask me stuff about humans that I'd only briefly mentioned in class.

Eventually, the gems began filing in, and I sat on top of my desk as usual, greeting them as they came in, until everyone was there. I grinned.

"So, first things first! We're doing something a little weird and fun." I flicked a heavy stack of papers for everyone. "I've got a little list of topics, and I want everyone to tick the ones they want to hear about most. At the end of class, I'll tally em up and whichever gets the most votes will be what we talk about next time! Fun huh?" I slid off the desk, passing the papers out to everyone, turning back to my desk. "But today, I've got a bit of a serious topic."

"And that's human fragility." I turned a bit. "I'm sure you've all been told about how different humans are from gems, right?"

A general buzz of assent from the class. Everyone did indeed know what I was talking about.

"I've brought up the sun before, obviously, usually cursing it." There were some chuckles. "But I didn't really go into detail about what it can actually do aside from burning us. Because calling it a burn doesn't begin to describe how much damage the sun can cause." I leaned forward, resting my hands in my lap. "Most people are fine, maybe a little sunscreen on particularly harsh days, but that doesn't mean that it might not be dangerous."

I doodled a little sun on the board and a stick human. "I can't draw, so bear with me here." More laughs. I was on a roll. "The sun doesn't just produce light and heat- it also produces ultraviolet light, which is a mild form of radiation- I'm sure some of you already knew that, but I imagine you didn't know how it interacts with organics."

I drew little squiggles from the sun, with arrows pointing at the stick figure. "The UV radiation is mostly blocked by earth's atmosphere, but a lot still gets through, and it can damage our skin over time. That's what the melanin stuff we have is for. Y'know, the stuff that I have none of." I grimaced. "And that is… well, it's kind of bad. Humans- actually if I'm not mistaken, all organic life on earth- has this stuff called DNA in us- I'm not gonna try and remember what it stands for, but it's very important- the short version is that it's the instructions our biology follows. And different types of UV radiation can damage not only our skin, but also our very DNA, which can cause something called cancer."

I scooted back, sitting back at my desk. "And cancer can kill us. There's different forms, and they can have varying levels of danger and lethality. Skin cancer isn't the most fatal but it still gets thousands of people a year. It's why I have to wear this cream all the time, or else my skin will start being damaged rapidly by the sun."

I couldn't help noticing Spinel, who looked really worried, and felt a pang of guilt. I softened my tone a bit, taking a brighter turn. "It is treatable though, and I am always careful both about sun exposure and finding symptoms; it leaves visible marks on the body in some form or another, so I stay vigilant! Give myself a once-over every night for burns and visit doctors every now and then to get checked by professionals."

"Humans are very fragile- me more than most- but the real point, and a bright spot, is that we're very good at coping with it. We might not have found the cure for all cancers or the best treatments, but we're finding ways to counter them. And now, we have a highly technologically advanced race who has many members that are curious about ways to apply their advances to human problems, and things are looking bright. It definitely won't fix everything, but Gems and Humans interacting might lead to an incredibly bright future, for both species."

I smiled earnestly. "So, in short… We're on the road to something great."

The rest of the lesson was about other things like that- and how gems could help, both personally, and in the big picture. Overall, I think it went well, despite the slightly grim opening to that. By the end of the class, everyone had passed back their votes, and I stacked them neatly to tally later.

Spinel waited until the other Gems had filtered out, before pouncing on me with a hug.

"Geez, way to worry a girl." she mumbled into my hair, eliciting a blush.

"Sorry," I laughed softly, wrapping my arms around her. "I'm not gonna lie to you about that sort of thing, it is scary. But I protect myself. I've lived my whole life having to cope with that."

"Hmm… Well, now I can protect ya too!" She smirked.

"You did already, remember?" I chuckled. "From Bluebird, and then from Peony."

"Guess I'm doin a good job as a protector!" She grinned cheekily. I lightly poked her with a smile.

"My hero." I murmured and silently felt a strong rush of victory as Spinel blushed bright. I felt so proud of something so small.

There was a numb jolt as something in my brain slotted into place.

Oh.

Oh shit .

I didn't just have a crush on her.

I was in love with Spinel.

Oh god .

AND I HAD NO IDEA HOW TO HANDLE THIS REVELATION

EVEN THOUGH IT SEEMS OBVIOUS IN HINDSIGHT.