We Need to Talk

Requested by: Official Light Warrior

Hope you enjoy!


1980's

Ever since Doug personally met the Comet Gems, fell for their leader Howlite, and decided to stop being a travelling private security guard to settle on Beach City to continue his job solely inside the Delmarva city, he began to check on them and visit them gradually more often.

Most of the time, it was to see if they weren't causing too much harm instead of good, but he was also driven by his chest's feelings towards the tall, imposing and white gem that leaded those women with gemstones in their bodies. And that night was one of those ocassions.

The yellow flashlight guided the man through the beach until he spotted the "Temple"; the place where those Comet Gems lived. A giant statue of a woman with all the Comet Gem's... Gems, over her body, a mask on her forehead, and Howlite's wavy hairstyle. Then, just after taking a second to look at the mask, Doug noticed four figures fighting agains't... Something. Sadly, the battle was taken to the ground, dangerously near to Doug.

When Howlite, the white gem with shades of gray and black and a round gemstone on her forehead, noticed Doug's presence, she instinctively used her lilium-emblazoned stick to make a barrier, keeping him safe and giving him a front roll for the fight. The monster, also with a gem on it's body, was giving a tough match to Spessartite Garnet and her scythes, and Jasper and her helmet.

Noticing that and looking at the monster and then at Doug, Pink Pearl, the thin pink-and-white gem, ran to meet Howlite, and whispered something on her non-visible ear. They suddenly held hands together and did a short waltz dance, and in the middle of it, Pink Pearl smiled gleefully for Doug, before she and Howlite's bodies were taken by a blinding white light, much for Doug's shock.

A new, thin woman emerged out of the light, with both Howlite and Pink Pearl's clothes, but two sets of eyes (one of those four eyes was covered by an eyepatch), star-shaped hair, colors between violet and pink, and clothes that mixed Howlite's shoulder pads and dress with Pink Pearl's puffy pants and get-around girl style. She smiled, and jumped towards the monster, wit a sequence of punches that made the monster disappear in a thick smoke.

"What was that?" Doug asked, quiet and numb because of the shock. Before an answer could be given, the protective barrier broke apart and the woman striked a pose, before de-fusing back into Pink Pearl and Howlite.

"That was our fusion, Kunzite." Howlite finally said, sounding sympathetic and forgiving but kind-of detached. "Sorry for startling you, but that monster... Is bubbled now. Hope I see you later, Starlight..."

"I-I mean..." Doug tried to say and protest, while blushing, but Howlite and Spessartite already passed by him.

"Remember to pay us back later, squirt." Jasper said, in a friendly but patronizingly tone, as she shook hands with Doug, unaware her above-average strenght left the man's hand quite numb afterwards. Pink Pearl, then, approached Doug with curiosity.

"You know you're just a phase... Right?" Pink Pearl said, in a sympathetic tone, very different from how another Pearl from another world would have said to a man who also fell in love with a unbelievable gem.

"What do you mean?" Doug asked, with a confused eyebrow raisen up, as he put his flashlight back into his backpack, making Pink Pearl softly and sadly sigh.

"Listen, Mr. Doug Maheswaran. Howlite is just like a phase, a novelty in her eyes, even though she finds you charming." Pink Pearl explained. "I hoped her past relationships could work out, but it was all the same as you. Because, well, gems can't fuse with humans... And fusion is like, the eternal bond between all of us!"

"Are you sure none of them tried?" Doug questioned, leaving Pink Pearl speechless and wide-mouthed. "... I guess it's better I take a shot." He decided, talking away.

"Buuuuuuuuurned!" Jasper teased Pink Pearl after Doug was out of the scene, making her sigh hopelessy.

Later...

"How does she even moves like that?" Doug grunted, questioning himself, as he lied on his back next to the backside of his car, after failing in mimicking Pink Pearl's ballet moves he remembered on the top of his head.

"Hey, wimp! Did you die?" Jasper asked, confused, walking in along with Spessartite.

"No..." Doug replied, a little annoyed. "I was just trying to get my head understand how you do this... Fusion dance."

"You won't need your head to understand." Jasper laughed.

"Wait... Aren't you Gems as well?" Doug asked, recieving a positive nod and sound from Spessartite. "You have to help me fuse with Howlite, somehow."

"The first step is have a Gem, a core." Spessartite began. "Then, you need a body that becomes light... And a partner to share the light fairly."

"Oh. It's a metaphor." Doug smiled, thinking that he got it.

"No. It's actually literal." Spessartite corrected, while Jasper just inhaled air through her teeth in a way that her reaction wouldn't be different if she said "Yikes!" instead. But, Spessartite kneeled down to meet a sad Doug's level. "But I must explain something, Mr. Maheswaran. You can't dance like Pink Pearl...

But I believe you can do it, if you do it in your own way, your own style.

This is fusion: a reinvention, a open, honest revelation." She finished, pulling her stylish visors a bit to reveal she actually had three eyes; one of them being a second, square facet gem that shined.

"Eye... Got this." Doug confidently joked, snatching a smile from the perma-fusion.

After preparing himself, with a suit, a record, and a wooden floor with his spare flashlights working like show flashlights, he patiently waited for Howlite to come back from whenever she was. Sure enough, the pedestal the Comet Gems called "a Warp Pad" began to active, and at that signal, Doug turned on the record to a song, right as a familiar voice chuckled.

"What are you playing of?" Howlite asked, amused, before being caught off-guard by Doug pulling her into a dance.

Sharing twirls, the pair moved until Doug stepped into a stone to gain enough height to share a kiss. Howlite's pupils transformed into glowing diamonds, but... Nothing happened.

"T-the fusion... It didn't work." Doug quietly realized.

"What?!" Howlite gasped in surprise, then suddenly crackled, in a mad way. "You are just a human; you can't fuse with me!"

"I know!" Doug said. "That's everything wrong here, right?"

"That isn't a problem! You humans are so, so delightful!" Howlite said, grinning widely, and just making Doug even more heartbroken and doubtful of the possibility of this "relationship" working out.

"Look... You know thos emonths have been nice-"

"Oh yes."

"But I'm worried about what will happen soon."

"Well, trust Spessartite if you want to know the present."

"I just wonder if you, know, has respect for me."

"Oh, Mr. Doug Maheswaran. You're just funny! Is that what you're supposed to be?"

"Howlite, please!" Doug began to protest more seriously, only to be interrupted more by Howlite's hilarious yet crazy laughter. "Please-

Try to talk-

With me, like a real person!"

Finally, Howlite stopped, and looked with grim confusion over Doug as the record began to play a sad tune. "I ain't real..." Howlite slowly said. "I thought... I'm not doing... it right?"

"Oh, my god... This... You aren't really from this world." Doug realized, and began to laugh.

"Why are you laughing?!" Howlite demanded, shocked and worried, as Doug broke down into tears. "Why are you crying?!"

"How is this even going to work?" Doug pitfully asked.

"The fusion?" Howlite asked, innocently but insensively.

"No, our relationship. We are too different."

"What we should do?"

"Talk." Doug suggested seriously, as the two shared a hug. "I don't know you that much."

"That's perfect..."

"We didn't give each other time to build this."

"Earth is alot more faster than I expected."

"Do you miss your home?"

"Yes... But no... It's complicated."

"And how did you even end with the, well, Glasses, Orange and Leia?"

"Them? Starlight. It is a long three-part story." Howlite softly replied, as a Jasper in plain sight waved at both of them, and a squeeing Pink Pearl and calm Spessartite hid behind a rock that used to be one of the Temple's hands.

"Did you love any other humans?" Doug asked.

"Did you?" Howlite asked back.

"Yes." "Yes."

"Have you been in love with a human? Well, serious, love-"

"How I know about it?" "It's torture."

"Doug..." "H-Howlite?"

"Is this torture?" Howlite softly asked.

"Yes; of the worst kind." Doug confessed. "But you don't have to be sorry."

"Wait, why?!" Howlite screeched in a high-pitched tone. "This is, strange! And confusing!"

"Me too!" Doug playfully agreed.

"Well, at least we have something in common! It's amazing!", Howlite said, more openly happy. Finally, the two began to twirl again, this time laughing with joy.

"I predict, that Doug and Howlite are soon going to understand each other." Spessartite "predicted" with a smile.

"It already worked." Pink Pearl said, gleefully smiling and blushing as she watched the two become real lovers. Suddenly, the record began to play a fittingly jazzy, hopeful music.

"Oh yeah! My favorite one." Jasper said, banging her head to the jam.

I think he's now her favorite now, Pink Pearl thought to herself with a half-glad, half-sad little smile.