Give Me A Sign

Icebox- Omarion

It never truly felt like night here. Yeah, it would get dark outside but the noise still continued. From inside here you couldn't hear the sound of flying cars as much, the windows really dampened the noise to just a constant low vibration. The vibrations were always soothing to his mind. Put him in a state of zen he guessed, helped him when his anger would start to rise every time he saw her.

With his eyes closed, he imagined his life without Jasper in it. Back in his two-bit apartment, probably contemplating whether to wake up or not for another boring sad day. Too much of a coward to end it all, too broken to break himself out the loop he put himself in on a daily basis. Yeah, maybe missing an eye and being stuck on a planet with an alien that you thought cared for you wasn't so bad but that would beat being with someone you wanted to kill.

From the doorway of the room, Jasper watches him as he slept. He must have been having a nightmare cause every so often he would toss and turn. Jasper wanted to slowly set herself beside him and hold him closely. No matter what she did though he wasn't going to let her touch a single hair on his head. A man so wounded such as Shadow she was still surprised he could continue to yell at her.

For three days now all Shadow did was sleep and eat. She didn't know if it was because he was still recovering or that he didn't want to see her. Jasper could remember when she would just stay up staring at him like he was the most interesting thing in the world. She would watch as his chest rose to when it fell. She loved the scars on his body before she knew how he got them. More than anything she missed holding him.

"Why don't you talk to him?"

Jasper almost leaped out of her gem. Her damn pearl was so damn sneaky.

With a finger to her lips, she gestured for the pearl to wait before speaking again. They stepped away just out of earshot just in case Shadow woke up. Even when away from the door Jasper stepped into the other room with Pearl.

Pearl bowed her head before speaking. "Jasper, don't you think it's about time you said something?"

Jasper could feel her cheeks heat up in embarrassment. To think she was stalking Shadow and the gem her. She stuttered at first then spoke clearly. "H-hey! I don't need you judging me."

"I'm not judging you."

Now she was even more flustered. "Yeah well, you were thinking something judgy like," She spoke under her breath. With a silent sigh, she took a deep breath to calm herself. When she looked at her pearl she saw that she was sitting cross-legged in her chair and patting a spot next to her. Jasper grumbled like a child, still obeyed though.

As soon as she sat down Pearl wrapped a hand around her head and lowered her on her lap. Amongst the gem society this would have been seen as a crime, a sin so great it was punishable by being shattered. Pearl stroked her hair as she talked.

"Jasper I know he hates you but you should really try again."

Jasper sighed so heavily the room shook. "... he hates me Pearl."

"Yes, he does."

"Way to throw salt on the wound Pearl," Jasper growled.

Pearl was unmoved by the warrior gems attitude. "We know he hates you but you need to try to accept the way he feels," Pearl couldn't help but chuckle behind her hand at a thought. "Give him some time to breath and maybe he won't shock you. "

Jasper let the thought train run wild. From the moment she stepped on to that beach and saw Shadow with Lapis she regretted everything. Not giving him the space that he needed, not listening to him, not trusting him. When she saw him again in the cage under the Coliseum she knew that she killed him. When he looked at her with one eye and the other wrapped with pieces of his torn shirt it killed her.

Pearl could sense Jaspers hesitation. "You can't give up Jasper," Jasper continued to run her hands through her hair, a hobby that she was very fond of whenever she was given the opportunity. "Don't give up. You have to show him that you are sorry. Give it to him."

Jasper arched a brow at her last words. She looked up at Pearl. "What do you mean give it to him?"

Pearl smiled at her. "Just give him all of you. Lay it out so that he can understand Jasper. The full monty."

"You learn to talk like that from Shadow?" Jasper asked.

The little gem nodded with a grin. "I think he's starting to rub off on me. Even though I don't understand half of what he says they are interesting."

Jasper sat up on her lap. She wanted to be irritated that Shadow talked to her pearl more than her. She knew that the only person she could really be mad at was herself.

From the crack of the doorway, she could still see that he was asleep. She knew that she had to make things right. How she didn't know yet. Shadow wasn't going to forgive her so easily no matter what she did. With as much grace as a three-legged flamingo Jasper stealthy walked into the room closer to the sleeping man.

"Jasper, what do you want?" Shadow sat up on the bed. A wary eye trained on her.

The way she looked at her stung. Jasper took the wall to steady herself. With her arms across her chest, she tried to meet his steely gaze. "Shadow I-" when she said his name she could see a scowl coming. "I need you to give me something to work with." She finished.

Jasper waited for him to start yelling and shouting like he had done before. If she was any closer he would probably try to attack. Nothing came through. When she looked at him all she could see was a tired face looking down at the bed. He took a deep breath, a long dragged out sigh passed his lips and into the air.

"I don't know what you want from me, Jasper? I really don't." His voice was quiet when he spoke. She couldn't decide whether he was done with fighting or just tired.

"I want you to tell me how I can fix this Shadow. I would do anything to make things right." By the time she was finished talking Jasper had walked towards him. She was only inches away from being able to touch him. She was close enough to touch his hand if he'd let her.

Shadow reached out slowly towards her. She flinched at the movement until his hand touched hers. It took him a moment to get ahold of himself. It had been so long since he had felt her hand in his. No matter how many times he touched her he still couldn't get over the fact that someone of her size had hands so soft. He moved her hand to his chest.

"Do you feel anything?" He asked.

Jasper waited a few seconds. "I don't feel anything." She admitted.

His hand wrapped around her wrist hard enough to cause bruisings if she was a human. "You should feel a beat, Jasper. My heart in my chest, You should feel it beating. You killed me when you left me, Jasper." Shadow let her hand go when he was done with his point. "If you really want to make things right let me get some more rest." Without even waiting for a response Shadow rolled over away from her.

Jasper wished she could say more to him, she knew it was useless to try. Jasper left him to sleep again.

Once she was away Shadow opened an eye. He kicked his feet up and took a second to calm himself. He was sick of laying down and eating fruit all day. Steven was somewhere on this planet or… he didn't want to think of anything else except the positives of Steven being alive since he escaped. Shadow crept to the doorway. Slowly, he made his way through the building. Shadow passed by another room then backtracked. Laying down on a reclining chair was Jasper. Before he could even think of whether it was a good idea or not he walked into the room towards her. Without even trying he could feel electricity running sprints between his fingertips. Usain Bolt like. When he was only inches away from her, the purple hue of the electricity danced across her face. Still, she stayed fast asleep to the danger that was only a breath away from her.

Even a beastly gem like her looked so beautiful. Her long hair pillowed under her head. Her sharp vampiric like teeth hidden behind her soft amber lips. Once upon a time he would have wanted nothing more than to ravage those lips with his own. Now here he was contemplating whether or not to destroy this beautiful creature with the power she had given him saving his life.

Shadow couldn't do it.

The electricity died from his hands as did the lingering hate he thought he had for her. Shadow tried so hard to hate her for what she did. He almost killed himself because of her, hurt people to alleviate the pain and alienated himself from the people he called family. Shadow could've killed her like he had thought of doing so many times. The same heart that he told her was dead was aching for him to not do it.

Shadow had to grip his hands together to stop his hands from shaking. "I'm giving you what you didn't give to me. A chance," he said quietly. "Much more than what you gave to me." A thought of his final time on earth hit him like a sledgehammer. "More than what I gave to him." With that Shadow turned around to leave. He could feel his throat choke up and the tears swelling in his eye. Wit a ragged deep breath he made his way out of the room and into the hallway. This might just be the final goodbye this time.

"I brought you something to wear master Shadow."

He wasn't even surprised that the gem servant was waiting for him. When he turned he saw the little gem holding out a grey colored poncho and a pack of what he could only assume was food. Shadow took them with a slight grin.

"You know for a homeworld Pearl you're alright."

The gem blushed at his compliment. "Thank you master Shadow," the Pearl took him by his hands and looked into his eye. "Thank you for making Jasper happy. Ever since she has been back she has done nothing but gazes out of the window. I know what she did was wrong and it's not my place to say this but, one day I hope you will learn to forgive her."

Shadow didn't want to burst Pearls bubble. She gave the gem another nod an patted her soft long hair. "Thank you Pearl, for watching over me when I was weak. I would say to come with me but-"

Pearl was honored he would ask. "I would never abandon Jasper." She simply said.

The man chuckled softly. "Had a feeling you would say that." Shadow walked with her to a door. With a hand to a panel, Pearl opened the door. The wind hit him so hard he took a step back. Even with the long sleeve shirt and poncho, he could feel it chilling him to the bone. White flakes fell from the sky blanketing everything around him. Shadow was so hypnotized by this he walked outside gazing up at the sky. The last time he had seen snow was almost two years ago on Christmas eve. Was it already that time?

Pearl watched as he leaned his hands against the railing of the pad overlooking the city.

"There have been rumors that the Diamond authority failed to find your friends a few weeks ago. They had tried to keep all of this hidden from the public but an unusual human has been causing havoc for homeworld." Pearl stopped next to Shadow. She could tell he was tired by the bags under his eyes. The man had gone through so much cause of gems. She didn't want to be one of them.

Shadow turned to give Pearl a hug. "Like I said before, thank you for helping me."

The odd physical contact made the Pearl scrum for a moment. A warm feeling set in her chest, she didn't even realize her cheeks were warming up neither. When he pulled back Pearl thought her legs would collapse under her.

"Please be careful master Shadow."

Shadow turned to the shuttle tubes stretching out further than his eye could see. The increasing fall of snow wasn't making things better neither. He turned back to Pearl with a nervous grin. "I never make a promise that I can't keep. Or… well… any promises that pertains to me being safe. Kind of hard to when you're a human taser with a naughty mouth." Shadow gave her his two-finger pistols with a horrible smile.

Once again Pearl had no idea what he was talking about.

With that, the human jumped over the lege. He was scared but he didn't want to look like a scrub after dropping that last bit. The rush of wind and zero-G made it feel like his guts were in his throat. It was an awful feeling that didn't last long when his body hit the tube. If this was a movie he probably would have hit it with a dropping elbow followed by a quadruple black flip and land with a fist to the ground superman style. Unfortunately, this wasn't a movie and when he hit the tube his body instantly bounced off, ping-ponged off three more tubes then crashed through the glass of a roof. Luckily for him, they had a couch that caught him.

"Nailed it." Shadow groaned before letting the pain that racked his body fall over him. As much as he wanted to fight it he felt weaker than he had ever been before. So he let his eyes close shut to the world once again. Not really a good first day but couldn't really argue with it.

Being knocked out and all.

Author Notes:

Took me a long time to get it out since I've been busy. I am hoping I will try to get a few more out before Christmas so that I could do a special or something of the sorts. Will see, the future is still far. As always I hope everyone is staying safe and enjoying the excess of Christmas music, eggnog, and ugly sweaters. I hope everyone enjoyed this chapter and please drop a review or PM me whatever.

Shadow out...