The warp pad they used to access the moon was a mile or so away from Yellow Diamond's base. Rose had said they were "making the day of it" so there was no point of warping straight into the base. Unlike the moon base of New Homeworld, the moon of Yellow Diamond's planet was lush and full of life. The air smelled somewhat more pungent than the forests of New Homeworld but was similar colors to Pearl's own home colony.

"It's beautiful here," Pearl breathed as they picked their way through the dense leaves.

"It is nice," Rose sighed. He had taken off his hood and pulled his ponytail out of the cloak. The bulk of his cape was pushed back over his shoulders. "I used to sneak down into the jungle from the moon base when we came here. No one ever liked it."

"Oh?" Pearl frowned. "Why?"

"They said it was… dangerous."

Pearl glanced around. The dense forest rose around them, reaching to the vibrant sky. The humid air seemed even more alive than New Homeworld, and now that Pearl was looking, she noticed creatures skittering and darting in and out of sight around them. Clenching her fists, Pearl moved a little closer to Rose.

"Well," Pearl said. "You're safe with me."

Rose laughed. "Of course I am."

They walked into the lush, pungent forest together, cutting a path through the crawling things under all the leaves. Whatever they were, they didn't want anything to do with gems. Pearl was fine with that. Rose sang under his breath as they went along.

"I can't help it if a make scene…"

Pearl stayed close to him, her cape thrown over her shoulders, eyes scanning their surroundings. She didn't want to be surprised.

"I'm turning heads and stopping traffic…"

But Rose's voice was so soothing. His voice was deep and smooth, something like the ocean rumbling far away but at a lower pitch. Pearl found her being lulled by it.

"I've got a pair of eyes that their getting lost in…"

And Pearl knew the words to this song. It played often in the shops in town where Rainbow Pearl and Pearl liked shop on their days off. Pearl's eyes drifted from their surroundings to Rose's back. His hood was down, and his dark ponytail was falling down his back. Pearl wished he didn't always wear his cloak.

"I've got 'em dazzled like a stage magician!"

Pearl also wished that annoying buzzing would die down so she could hear him sing properly. He was really getting into now and some really loud buzzing had started up and it was getting louder and louder.

"When I point, they look, and when I talk–" Rose stopped and turned his head. "What's that… buzzing noise?"

Shaken awake from her pinning and staring and embarrassed by how much of her brain had been taken up by it, Pearl coughed. "Um… I don't know. I hear it–"

Before Pearl could finish her sentence, Rose grabbed her and pulled her to his chest. The next thing she knew, they were surrounded by one of his protective bubbles. Just outside the pink sphere, a swarm of huge flying things engulfed the area.

They were as big as Pearl's head, with translucent wings and six long, sharp legs. Some of them skidded across the surface of the bubble, knocking it back and forth. Others slammed right into the front with a jarring cRack then crawled with their needle–sharp legs up to the top of the bubble to take off from there.

The swarm lasted long enough for Pearl to relax into Rose's embrace.

"What are they?" she asked.

Rose's arms were settled around Pearl's shoulders. He spoke into her hair.

"I don't know. I've never seen them before." Rose's voice was soft and reverent. "They're beautiful. But I sure wouldn't want to be out there with them."

As if to mark his words, as suddenly as it had started the swarm thinned out and disappeared. In their wake was a straight line of destruction. The dense forest was cut right down the middle with a barren stripe of leafless plants and naked trees. Upon closer inspection, the trees weren't just barren, they were dead. And little skittering things that had been in the foliage were nothing but husks now.

"Well, that's terrifying," Rose said almost cheerfully. "Let's keep going and make sure to listen for buzzing."

The bubble dropped and Rose started walking, his hand cupped around Pearl's, pulling her along.

They walked faster after the run–in with the bugs. Rose didn't sing. But he started humming after a while, still so pleased to be out. Pearl got the feeling Rose didn't get to get out much. He was a secret, after all. Even she, his own pearl, didn't have permission to know him yet. Pearl took long strides to keep up with Rose, and they walked, step–for–step in line with each other.

Rose must have noticed them stepping in time with each other because he hummed a tune that had beat which matched their steps. He skipped left, and so did Pearl. Rose skipped right, and Pearl followed. Rose chuckled and squeezed her hand.

Pearl smiled then skipped in a complicated way, one foot in front of, to the side of, then behind the other. She did it once, then again. The second time Rose stepped with perfectly.

Laughing lightly, they sped up. Rose hummed a tune and Pearl picked the steps, and they went dancing and tapping towards the tower. It was better than Pearl's dance classes. There was no obsession with perfection of form. They made mistakes, they tripped and stumbled. They laughed. On the crest of a rather large hill, Rose picked Pearl up and twirled her around.

Laughing, Pearl gripped onto him. "Rose!" she shouted between laughs. "Stop! Put me down!" But she couldn't stop laughing. "Come on!"

They were floating. Rising from the forest floor through the leaves.

"Rose! Come on!" Pearl laughed. "How will we get down?"

"I'll get us down!" Rose laughed, still spinning them around and around.

Pearl felt her head getting light. "Rose hahaha, I'm getting… dizzy!"

And just like that, they were back on the ground, leaning on each other, laughing.

"That was great," Rose said.

"A–haha. Yea," Pearl said. "It was…" Pearl stood up. She was still a little out of breath and dizzy, but she heard something.

"Connie?" Rose murmured. There was still a smile on his face. "What's the matter?"

Pearl stood and listened. She heard nothing. They hadn't heard silence in this forest, silence they warped in.

"My Quartz," Pearl began, but before she could say anything else, something burst out of the ground.

The force the creature used to push out of the ground knock Pearl away from Rose and knocked her to ground. She tucked and rolled into the fall, and bounced to her feet with her sword drawn. On the other side of the creature, Pearl saw Rose had taken to the air to survey the situation.

"Don't worry, My Quartz!" Pearl shouted. "I've got this!" Then Pearl turned her attention to the creature.

It was the same as those flying things from earlier, only much bigger and with sharper–looking legs, and deadly looking mandibles. Maybe it was a mature version of the little ones. Whatever it was, it was going to be in pieces when Pearl was done with it.

She rushed it, jumping from side to side to confuse it, then sliding under it, to attack its legs from underneath. Its first two legs on the right side come away easily and the insect–creature fell on its side with a low, annoying, clicking noise. Turning, Pearl jump on its back, turned her sword blade–down and swiped left to right, severing the creature's head. The insect–creature twitched for a few seconds before going still.

Pearl nodded, then jumped off the husk. It was leaking foul–smelling gunk.

"Are you okay, My Quartz?" Pearl asked.

Rose looked at her from her place in the air. Or he was looking at the creature.

"I'm fine," he said.

"What was that thing?" Pearl asked.

"I don't know," Rose muttered. He was lowering to the ground.

When touched the ground, Pearl could see he was looking at the creature's body. He looked unreadable. Pearl normally had trouble guessing what Rose was thinking. When he wanted to keep his thoughts to himself, he did. Sometimes he looked out of his thoughts and didn't speak, and she just had to live with that. This seemed to be one of those times.

After seconds, he turned his back to the creature and to her. "Let's go," he said and started walking.

Pearl just followed him.

They walked towards the tower in silence. Or at least there was silence between Pearl and Rose. The forest around them was as loud as ever, absolutely driving Pearl crazy with the white noise of unseen creeping, crawling life. She felt all the inching, wringing things in the leaves and shadows on her nerves, and it made her twitchy. Ahead of her, Rose walked at a steady pace, without looking back at her.

Suddenly, Pearl stopped, determined to clear the air. However, before she could say anything, Rose stopped and turned around.

"This was a mistake," Rose said. He was frowning, his voice low.

"W–what was, my Quartz?" Pearl answered.

Rose growled. "This! This trip was! I thought… I thought it would be good to get out together, but everything has gone wrong! This isn't-"

An ear-piercing shriek split the air, cutting off Rose. Pearl physically ducked, the sounded was so strong, and saw Rose to the same. He glanced at her, wincing in pain, then put up a bubble around himself. Pearl, seeing they were in danger again, drew her sword with one hand and looked around.

After several more painful seconds, the sound stopped and a giant, round bird–like creature burst out of the foliage. Pearl gasped and glanced at Rose, who was waving his hands and shaking his head inside his bubble.

"Don't worry, Rose!" Pearl called. "I can't do this! Stay right there!"

The bird–blob titled his head to look at Rose, then roared and pivoted to face him.

"Oh, no you don't!" Pearl said and jumped between Rose and the blob, She slashed the air in front of it to get its attention. "Stay back! Stay back you - whoa!"

Before she could attack, Pearl found herself encased in Pink and dragged back. She hit Rose's chest with a thud and was knocked to her feet. The bird–blob stared a for second before charging them both with a scream. Pearl attempted to stand, but Rose pushed her down at her shoulders. The bubble, meanwhile, grew into a new shape of polygon slats which the bird–blob harmlessly bounced off. It bounced away, got up after a moment, bounced back over to the shield more carefully. Pearl watched as it pecked at the shield a few times, then as if was satisfied with something, bounced back to the foliage it has come from.

The bird–blob called into the leaves, and another, smaller bird–blob came bouncing out. The two quickly bounced away. When they were gone, the shield dropped.

"See? It was just protecting its baby. Nothing to fight." Rose took his hands off Pearl's shoulder and walked from behind her, a little way toward where the birds had gone.

"I thought with would be fun," Rose said. "But it's not fun. Ever since I told you about why you came here, you've just wanted to protect me! But I don't need protecting! I can't take care of myself!"

"But I'm supposed to protect you!" Pearl said. "I'm a member of the Pink Stars. And I'm a fighting pearl. What else am I for?"

Rose turned around. "You can be for anything you want! You don't have to be FOR anything! And I don't need protection! Not from the Stars and not from you! You're my friend!"

"Of Course! But I'm always going to be your pearl, My Quartz!"

"Stop it! Stop saying that! You don't have to be my pearl. We can just be friends. Family."

"My Quartz, I–"

"And stop CALLING me that! I'm Steven! Just Steven. I'm not HER!"

Everything seemed to go quiet, even the birds. Pearl was sitting on the ground, watching him. Only half his face was visible behind his hood and hair. He was crying.

"I mean… I mean…" He wiped his eyes on his shirt.

Pearl got up and closed the distance between them. She put her arm around his torso and let herself rest on him. She didn't know what to say at first. So, she said the first thing that came to her mind.

"Steven," she breathed.

Slowly, Steven put his arms around her shoulders. "Remember when we had a make–up picnic? And we played music all day? You taught yourself to play violin, laying down so we could lie in the grass and play. It gave you a cramp. Then I said we were jam buds because on New Homeworld to play music together is called jamming, and we were eating jam and biscuits and you said,"

"Only on Pink's World," they said together.

"I thought it could be like that all the time," Steven said. "That we could be jam buds. I didn't think we'd have to be a gem and their pearl, like everyone else."

"Steven. I'm so sorry. I just wanted to be a good pearl because you're such a good friend."

"You can be a good pearl just by being a good friend, by just being you. You don't have to Pearl first and Connie second. That's the beauty of being a natural gem. Your gem type doesn't define you. I wish I had that."

She squeezed him. "Steven."

"Connie."

They held each other, tighter and tighter, not sure of why. Pearl just found she understood something about life that she hadn't understood before. She felt she understood things about Steven, and about herself. She felt her gem pressing into her chest, warm and alive. And she was so close to Steven she felt his gem too, and his skin, and muscles, the glow of him, the breath in his lungs.

What's happening to us?

But before they could find the answer to that question, the planet wildlife showed up again. A herd of unrelated animals came running into them, knocking them apart. Pearl gasped and sat up.

"What was?!"

"I don't know! I think…! Connie!" Steven was on his hands and knees, hood down, hair pushed out of his face. "Connie, I think-"

Buzzzzzzzzzzzz

"Oh NO!" Steven and Connie shouted together.

"To the tower, quick!" Steven shouted as she scrambled to his feet and grabbed Connie's hand.

They ran together, Steven leading and floating them over obstacles if need be, until they reached the safety of the broken–down base. Then slammed into the side base from the speed they were going, before Pearl used her sword to slash them a way inside.

Inside was ravished by time and wildlife, but not bad enough that it couldn't be fixed.

"How old is this place?" Pearl asked.

"Older than New Homeworld," Steven muttered. "Pink used to come here before she got New Homeworld as a colony, when this place was still a moon base for the planet."

They took the stairs up to the throne room where a beautiful view of the sky and the former colony could be seen. Pearl tutted.

"What a waste," she said. "All those resources left behind and destroyed because of strip mining."

"That's the way Era 1 and Era 2 worked. But then Pink began fixing things. Yellow, Blue, and White still make colonies sort of the same way now, but we don't."

"Hmm. Thank goodness for Pink Diamond."

"Heh. Yea." Steven sighed. "The Stars were right. This place is dangerous."

"Yea." Pearl sighed as well.

"The warp pad is over this way. Come on."

They wandered over to the warp pad. On the way, Pearl caught a glance of the murals for the Diamonds. Here Pink Diamond looked different. Larger, daintier, somehow, with a more intricate outfit. Same hair though, puffy and halo–like. Pearl smiled. She wasn't anyone, but herself, was she?

"Connie?" Steven called.

"Coming!" Pearl rushed to catch up. "I was thinking. If Pink Diamond was natural, do you think she'd use her name?"

Steven paused as he stepped on the warp pad. His face was pink. "P–probably. I mean. Yea. Definitely."

"Good," Pearl said.

They got on the warp pad together, and Steven took Pearl's hand. Pearl glanced at him and smiled.

"Connie?" Steven muttered as the warp pad flared to life.

"Yes?"

"Back there. Did we almost… fuse?"