"Blue, a moment?" Pearl asked, leaning over the side of one of the water towers so she could see the other gem, who was lying peacefully in the shallow water at the edge of the room.

Blue opened her eyes reluctantly and pushed herself into a sitting position. "Yes?"

"Come up here and tell me what you think of these."

She shook out her wet hair and leapt up to join Pearl. "These are the swords you used in the rebellion," she gasped in delight, laughing nervously as Pearl handed them over.

"Actually, they're not," Pearl said. "These particular swords were forged later, but they are the same type of sword as I had back then…"

"You'll let me use these?"

"Test them out a bit first; see if they're comfortable for you."

Blue swiveled her wrists a little, getting a feel for the weight of the blades. She took a few steps away and slashed them through the air one at a time. "They're perfect," she decided, swishing them up and cutting down in an X-shape.

"Don't do that," Pearl told her, coming over and lifting the swords out of her hands.

"Was it wrong?"

"No, it's just a terribly ineffective way to fight."

"But you used it," Blue protested, projecting a small image of Pearl from her gem.

Pearl blinked down at the projection, her cheeks going blue with embarrassment. "Well, if I'd known another Pearl was going to try copying me five thousand years later…" She caught Blue's curious look. "I was showing off," she admitted, flicking a sword back and forth through the projection until Blue made it vanish.

"Showing off?" Blue asked with a smirk.

"If you were the only renegade Pearl in known history, you'd have done it too," she said, flustered. "Look, Homeworld's first impression of me was that I got stolen by some Quartz with big ideas. I wanted my second impression to be a little more memorable. And accurate."

"Rose Quartz didn't steal you, did she?"

"What? Of course not, don't be ridiculous. If anything, I stole her." She laughed at Blue's startled expression and passed the swords back to her. "Anyway, take these. I'll pick some out for Yellow as well, in case she wants to try. Hmm, and perhaps we can see how you two fare with some daggers or…" Pearl trailed off as she pulled more of her collection out to inspect it for possible choices. "Yes, we'll try these, these, and these, that should be plenty for one day. Blue, what are you doing?"

"Hm?" Blue had been poking at the surface of the water with one of her swords. "I was trying to figure out how these work. The sword goes straight through, but we float."

"We're not floating; it's designed to remain stable when a gem is standing on it."

"Oh, okay. So if I let go, it would just fall straight through?"

"Please don't, Amethyst will start complaining that I'm cluttering up her clutter again."

"Is it possible for us to fall through?"

"Only if you're really trying," Pearl replied, plucking one last sword from its place and dismissing the rest. "Are you finished?"

"Oh, yes, sorry," Blue laughed. "Your room is fascinating."

"Well, you're welcome to come by whenever you like, as long as you don't drop my collection down there as an experiment."

"Thanks," she said with a smile. "I won't."

"Now put those swords away; I want you resting for the next…" Pearl considered it for a moment. "Twelve hours, at the very least. Preferably until the beginning of training tomorrow."

Blue slipped them into her gem and made a mock Diamond salute in response. "As you command."

Pearl gave her a particularly long stare before a small smirk crooked her lips. "I'm starting to think you're more of a rebel than I was."

"I try," she laughed. "It's easier to act like it when you don't have to pretend to be perfect for the Diamonds."

"That I know all too well. Anyway," she said, heading for the door, "I do have plans for the afternoon, I'm afraid. Is there anything you need before I go?"

"No, I'm alright," Blue answered, following her out into the house. "I'll just find something to do in the house."

"I'm sure Steven can come up with something if you get bored," Pearl agreed.

"Oh, Steven's here? I thought he was going to see his friend…"

"Connie, yes, but she's caught a cold."

"She what?"

"It's a minor illness humans are prone to getting. It's nothing serious, but they did have to cancel their plans."

Blue nodded, waiting for the door to slide open and then stepping out. "She's the one you're training, right?"

"That's right. I'm sure you'll be introduced soon; it's just that she was on vacation when you arrived and then…well, it seemed unwise to have her over while you and Yellow are…"

"Right," Blue said guiltily. "I'll, um, I'll fix that."

"I'm sure you will," Pearl said kindly. "Oh, and Steven told me you liked those strange little candies on sticks, so I put some more on top of the refrigerator for you."

"Oh!" she said, happy surprise lighting up her face. "Really?"

"Well, I can't guarantee it's a full package, but I told Amethyst to leave you at least half or I'd organize all her things."

Blue snickered. "Thanks, Pearl." She paused for a moment, thinking. "Wait, wouldn't that have been before we talked?"

A faint blush rose to her cheeks. "Well, I was working my way up to confronting the issue myself, and it seemed like it would be a good conversation starter."

"Bribery is a solid tactic."

"It wasn't bribery!"

"Well, thank you anyway," she said with a smile. "I'll see you later?"

"See you later," Pearl replied.

Blue stood there for a moment, then hopped up onto the back of the sofa, poking her head into Steven's room as she balanced there. "Steven?" she asked tentatively. "Are you busy?"

"Nope, just watching TV! What's up?"

"Oh, I was—"

"Blue, get off the couch, that's not for standing on!"

Her face flushed with embarrassment and she jumped, flipping herself up into the loft and landing gracefully. "Sorry, Pearl!"

"And you're meant to be resting," she called back.

"Oops."

Steven giggled and made room for her beside him as Pearl headed outside.

"If you can sit on it," Blue whispered, "why can't you stand on it?"

"It's important to be civilified," he replied in a stage whisper.

"To be…what?"

"It's bad manners."

"Oh," Blue said, still confused. "Okay, I won't do it again."

"It's not really a big deal though."

"Your customs are rather confusing."

Steven laughed. "That's okay, you'll get used to it."

She nodded.

"So did you need something, or did you just wanna watch Under the Knife with me?"

Blue glanced towards the television and grimaced. "What is that?" She shook her head, looking back to Steven. "No, I just had a question."

"Okay!" He turned off the TV with the remote.

"So, well, you know Yellow and I have been…"

"Fighting?" Steven supplied carefully.

"Yes, I suppose."

"Yeah."

"What's the best way to apologize?" she asked quickly.

"Hmm…talk to her, I guess?" Steven replied with a shrug.

"Just talk?"

He nodded. "I mean, you could get her a present too, but…I think talking usually helps the most?"

"That makes sense," Blue agreed quietly. "I don't think she wants to talk to me, though."

"Really? She keeps worrying about you when you're not here."

"What?"

"I mean, she doesn't say she's worried, but she always asks if you're back and makes that face like—" He twisted his mouth into a frown and furrowed his brow. "And sometimes she makes up insults but I don't think she says them to be mean."

Blue snickered, then caught herself and grew serious again. "She really does worry, doesn't she?" she asked softly.

"Mm-hm." Steven looked up at her with searching eyes. "Are you okay?"

She nodded quickly. "I'm okay."

"You look really tired lately."

"I know," Blue said sheepishly. "I'm not going to overtrain anymore though. I promise."

"Okay," Steven said, looking relieved. "Do you want me to heal you?"

"Heal me?" she asked blankly. "Oh," she realized, "you have Rose Quartz's healing powers?"

"Yep!"

"I was actually just at her fountain, so I'm okay. Thank you."

"You're welcome," he said easily. "You can ask me anytime if you need it."

"That's very kind of you." She hesitated, glancing back towards the TV as she started to get up. "You can watch your show. I think I'm just going to…do nothing for a while."

"Mmkay," Steven agreed. "You can stay here and do nothing if you want."

"That would be alright?"

"Sure!" He smiled. "We can just hang out; you don't have to talk or anything."

"That sounds great," Blue replied, thankful for the offer of company. She felt rather drained emotionally and even if she wasn't really up to another conversation, she appreciated the escape from having to process her thoughts in solitude.

Steven turned his show back on and Blue returned to her previous spot, stretching her legs out in front of her and pointing her toes for a moment, then relaxing them and stretching her arms up over her head and down again. She felt a bit drowsy, and she couldn't quite place whether it was physical or emotional exhaustion. She let her eyes slip closed and pressed the heels of her palms into them briefly before swiping some stray hair away from her face restlessly.

I'm okay, she told herself. I'm on Earth. I'm safe. I'm learning. She would figure things out with Yellow tomorrow, when she had more energy to put towards that conversation. For now, she just needed to relax. It was a rather strange idea after giving herself next to no free time over the course of the past weeks.

Blue hesitantly rearranged herself so she could see the TV better, lying flat on her stomach with her shins resting against the end of the bed and her head propped up on her arms. She didn't really get what was happening, but once it had been playing for nearly an hour, she started to find it amusing. She might not know much about humans, but everything happening on the screen was so unnecessarily dramatic and nonsensical that it ended up being enjoyable.

Earth was so interesting.

Blue watched the program with Steven until he had to go eat dinner and watched as he heated up some kind of food she didn't recognize in the microwave. He brought it back upstairs with him and offered her some, but she declined politely and went to retrieve one of the lollipops instead—there was approximately three quarters of the bag left and she made a mental note to thank Amethyst next time she saw her. She didn't much like the digesting part of eating but the flavors were nice, so the candy was a good compromise.

After another few hours of episodes—it was a marathon, Steven informed her—Pearl came up to tell him it was time to get ready for bed.

"Aww, okay," Steven agreed reluctantly. He texted Connie a "good night" and went downstairs to get changed and brush his teeth.

"You don't have to feel obligated to watch," Pearl said, sitting down on the edge of the bed as she watched him leave.

"Oh, I don't," Blue said. "I like it; it's funny."

"Funny?" Pearl repeated doubtfully, looking at her askance. "Alright then," she said, confused. "Well, if you want to keep watching fictional humans cut each other open and rearrange body parts, there's always the TV out in the barn, though you may have to fight Peridot for the controls. Amethyst has some TV sets in her room as well, but they're not connected to cable."

"Thanks, but I'm fine. The cutting-open wasn't really the part I enjoyed. It actually gets a bit…" She wrinkled her nose. "Too much," she concluded finally. "Anyway, I think I'll just rest on my own for a little while."

"You're welcome to use my room if you want some quiet; I'll be going back out with Garnet and Amethyst to work on gathering some weapons."

Blue nodded. "Thank you."

"It's no trouble."

Steven came back up a moment later, dressed for bed, and gave them both a hug good night, Pearl promising to pass the message along to the rest of the Crystal Gems too.

Afterward, Pearl led Blue back downstairs and opened the door to her room, following the other Pearl a few steps inside and letting the doors slide shut.

"Thank you," Blue said again. "I appreciate it."

Pearl nodded, not moving to leave. "Did you need anything?"

"No, thanks."

"Alright." She hesitated. "Blue?

"Yes?"

"I don't know if I ever said it, but thank you." Pearl smiled faintly. "You kept that memory of the Renegade alive for the other Pearls long after I was gone and long after it would have been forgotten."

"I…" Her throat felt tight. "I did my best."

"You did well." Pearl's hand ghosted over her shoulder. "Thank you for giving them hope."

"Thanks," she whispered, a shy smile slowly spreading across her face. "I'll keep at it. Training at the usual time tomorrow?"

"If you're up to it."

"I will be."

"No extra practice tonight."

"I know," Blue laughed. "I already promised Steven too."

"Good. I'll see you in the morning."

"See you in the morning."

They had worked things out, Yellow knew, from the way they spoke to each other differently now, even though she just caught a few strands of conversation as they met to go to the arena. They sounded more like friends now, with a kind of warmth that felt different from what Yellow had shared with Blue.

They had always been friends by circumstance though, hadn't they? The chance at an ally was rare for a Pearl on Homeworld, and it had been convenient to have someone. Yellow didn't particularly like that thought, but she kept coming back to it anyway. After all, if Blue had Pearl, who she looked up to and respected, she wouldn't have much use for Yellow. Her past wasn't anything to be proud of, and they both knew that.

It hurt. She'd been sick with concern over what Blue was doing to herself and now that it seemed to be over, she ought to feel better. She didn't. She just wanted to turn her emotions off so she wouldn't have to deal with any of them. She had work to do, she had an obligation to the other Pearls, and she needed to keep her focus. She needed to be something better than she used to be.

Every day after training, Yellow immediately headed out to the barn, hoping that if she kept herself occupied it would help somehow. But even that wasn't much of a respite, with Peridot hovering around and pointing out every little mistake she made. The two of them got increasingly frustrated with one another, and while there was a tiny flicker of satisfaction whenever she managed to one-up the technician, it was followed by the same terrible emptiness upon realizing she was exactly the Pearl Blue had said she was.

At night, she usually retreated to Amethyst's room, because Amethyst wasn't Blue, Pearl, or Peridot, and she was less prone to drag Yellow into a conversation about feelings than Steven or Garnet. Amethyst was always happy to distract her with various human items scattered around her room, and she'd even let Yellow begin to gather her own—more organized—pile of useful objects to tinker with in one corner when she got tired of company. It was…okay. It gave her something to do, and that was important.

Training itself was strange, because if she wasn't talking to Blue then it felt like some very odd, perfunctory duty shared with two gems she barely knew. She wasn't sure what it was going to be like with Blue and Pearl talking more, but she wasn't looking forward to that either. She enjoyed the training itself, but she wished it was something she could do on her own.

Yellow followed the other two Pearls to the arena, trying to tune out whatever it was they were saying.

Just learn. You're here to learn. Do your part.

Dual-wielding was apparently on the agenda for today and if Yellow wasn't so preoccupied with her own thoughts, she likely would have been just as enthusiastic as Blue appeared to be.

As per usual, she and Blue sat down and Pearl stood in front of them to demonstrate what they would be doing.

"Hello," Blue said quietly as she joined her.

Yellow hid a flicker of surprise as her eyes slid sideways. "I see you're speaking to me again."

"I wasn't not speaking to you," Blue countered. "You were avoiding me."

"You're not wrong."

"Am I interrupting?" Pearl cut in, looking mildly irritated by the lack of attention they were paying her explanation.

"Sorry," Blue said immediately, giving Yellow one last glance, oddly nervous.

"Alright. Today we'll be testing out a number of different weapons and their respective techniques so you can be exposed to some different forms of combat. If there's one that you find interests you besides the sword, I will be happy to help you learn it as best I can. Understood?"

They nodded.

"To begin," Pearl declared, handing Yellow a pair of matching swords as Blue drew a similar set from her gem, "you need to understand a few basic concepts. Dual-wielding is not the same as single-wielding. It requires extreme diligence, precision, and focus."

"Yes, that sounds incredibly different from everything we've been doing up until now," Yellow said under her breath.

"It would explain why your sarcasm is more refined than your sword technique," Pearl returned easily.

She scowled and straightened her shoulders.

"As I was saying, you'll find dual-wielding comes with its own unique challenges." She cleared her throat. "The most important thing," Pearl continued, "is to be able to use both hands with the same degree of skill. Gems are naturally ambidextrous, but we can develop a tendency towards a dominant hand. If so, it becomes necessary to correct that habit."

Blue nodded. "I think I did that on accident."

"Yes, you do tend to favor your right, from what I've seen." She turned her attention to Yellow. "And you as well, I believe?"

Yellow shook her head. "I don't think so. I've only been using my right hand because that's how you demonstrate things."

"Oh," Pearl said, surprised. "In that case, you should take to this more easily. Blue, you might have to do a moderate amount of extra practice to get accustomed to it."

She grinned. "Moderate. Understood."

Pearl took the next few minutes to demonstrate the basics of her own dual-wielding technique. "You don't have to do this exactly like I do," she told them. "This is just a starting point. Remember, one sword to defend, one to attack. Switch them up and don't get too predictable. It's going to be difficult to divide your attention that way at first, but you'll adjust. Who wants to try first?"

Blue glanced at Yellow. "You can go first, if you like," she said politely.

Yellow shrugged and stood up, trying to get a feel for both swords. "Against you or one of your holograms?" she asked Pearl.

"Against me. My holograms aren't refined enough to accommodate for your inexperience, and I'd rather not have you retreat to your gem over some trivial mistake."

"Yes, that might get us off schedule," Yellow said dryly.

"Ready?" Pearl prompted her, hiding a faint smile.

She nodded, settling into the now-familiar stance. Offense and defense. Left and right. Focus.

Pearl waited for her to make the first move but quickly settled into a refined but careful string of attacks. It was harder than it looked to coordinate both hands into something that was actually a functional method of fighting, but Yellow could tell her body was adjusting to it with each strike.

"And stop," Pearl declared as one of her swords came within inches of Yellow's forehead. She dropped both hands to her sides. "Self-evaluation?"

"I need to work on coordination," Yellow said slowly, relaxing and taking a step back. "And I wasn't following through with my strikes at the beginning."

"Yes, but you corrected that quickly," Pearl said, looking pleased. "I'd also recommend working on your patterns of movement. You tend to settle into rather predictable ones, and you'll need to break that habit. Blue could probably assist you with that."

"We could stay after and work on it," Blue offered quickly. "And you could help me with my accuracy?"

"I said I'd go back right away to work on the ship," Yellow said flatly.

"Oh. Okay. Some other time then…"

"Yes, I'm sure something can be arranged," Pearl said. "Blue, your turn."

"Alright." She gathered up her faltering confidence again and strode out to meet Pearl in the middle of the arena. "I'm ready."

Yellow watched with fascination from the sidelines as the two of them faced off. Blue was, as always, quick on her feet and quite skilled in her execution of sword technique, but she seemed a bit less adept with two. After a moment, she realized why and nearly laughed aloud. Pearl seemed to notice something was off too and quickly stopped the spar.

"What are you doing?" she asked in confusion.

"What do you mean?" Blue asked.

"What was all of…that?" Pearl gestured vaguely with one hand.

Blue eyes widened in realization. "Oh! I just automatically…um…I memorized what you did and I practiced it just in case, back on Homeworld?"

Pearl gave her an increasingly incredulous stare. "When did you even have time to practice?"

"Well, when I say practice, I mean I just thought about it a lot and tried it a handful of times without any swords." She blushed.

Pearl looked like she didn't know whether to laugh or not. "Well," she said finally, "in all fairness, it was better than nothing at all, but at this point…"

"I know, I can't just copy," Blue agreed. "I didn't actually mean to do that. Can I try it again?"

"Yes," Pearl agreed, "but this time just fight like you."

She nodded. "I will."

The next round was still not quite up to her usual standards, but that was more due to the newness and experimentation. She maintained her poise throughout and seemed to be picking up the technique rather well despite the slip-ups.

The rest of the morning was spent trying out various other weapons, most of which Yellow immediately dismissed as possible options for herself. Some of them were alright, but she much preferred her sword—two swords? She'd have to try them out some more on her own time.

For now, though, it was a nice distraction.

It would have been easier to talk to Yellow if the other Pearl wasn't actively avoiding her, but Blue was frustrated enough by the end of practice to chase after her as they were leaving.

"I want to talk to you," she said.

"I'm busy—"

"Please, Yellow. I don't like this."

The other Pearl looked away sharply. "I'm not apologizing for my opinion on your previous behavior."

"I don't want you to," Blue replied. "I want to apologize." She followed Yellow as she made her way out of the arena.

"For what?"

"For—Yellow, listen!"

She kept walking. "I am listening. What do you have to apologize for?"

"I shouldn't have said what I did, it wasn't fair to you—"

"You don't need to apologize for telling the truth," Yellow interrupted coolly.

Blue stopped abruptly, grabbing Yellow's arm and yanking her back.

"What?" she demanded, half-flinching at the contact.

"That wasn't the truth, Yellow, I was just lashing out because I was stressed and…" Her grip faltered as she tried unsuccessfully to make eye contact with the other Pearl. "You…don't actually think…?"

"Think what?" Yellow asked. "That I only cared about myself? That I thought I was better than the other Pearls? Well, I did. So there's really nothing to apologize for; you were exactly right. Now, if you'll excuse me—"

"I won't."

"What?"

"I won't excuse you." She took a step closer, putting them nearly nose to nose. "I want you to accept my apology, because I was wrong to say that!"

"But you weren't wrong—"

"I was."

They glared at each other until, finally, Yellow shook her head and stepped back, lowering her eyes. "I have work to do."

"Yellow."

"It's fine, Blue. Don't worry about it."

"I'm worried about you."

"I can look out for myself," she said. "That's pretty much all I'm good at anyway." She leapt onto the warp pad and disappeared in a stream of dazzling light.

Blue watched her go, hands clenching into fists. She wanted to chase after her, but she wasn't sure that would do any good. "Why do you have to be so stubborn about everything?" she called after her, voice traveling farther than she'd intended in the open, empty space. She sighed and pressed her back flush against the wall, sagging a little against the cool stone. The Diamond insignia—the old one, the one that had been erased from Homeworld's history—was imprinted beside her, the tip of the blue quarter just over her head and the pink grazing her arm.

She wished she could rip the whole thing down, and all of the pain that still festered inside of her and Yellow because of it.

Blue stood there for a moment longer, and then closed her eyes to gather herself before she headed back to the house.

She'd try again tomorrow. She'd try harder. Yellow might be stubborn, but Blue had five thousand years of quiet rebellion under her belt and she wasn't about to give up over one setback.

The problem was, telling Blue she had work to do meant Yellow had to go find work to do. Peridot would have gotten along fine without her help for a couple of hours, but she'd feel like a coward if she just disappeared and blatantly ran away from the conversation.

Yellow took the long way back to the barn and slipped inside with a brief greeting, happy that the other gem seemed busy enough not to care that she had company. She settled in to work, carefully setting out her tools beside her and beginning work on the part of the computer terminal that would hopefully, when repaired, supply them with some of the data from the original ship that she had transferred.

She and Peridot worked in silence for some time, the only noise the hum of machinery, and Yellow wasn't sure if it was comforting or too close to her former work environment.

After a while, Peridot scooted closer, sparing Yellow a single glance before resituating herself with the microwave she was dissembling.

"Hand me that," she said after a moment, waving a hand behind her vaguely.

Yellow could tell she meant the screwdriver, but she was getting a bit annoyed with the way the other gem kept assuming she'd do things for her so she deliberately ignored the instruction and continued working.

"Hey!" Peridot twisted around. "That thing. The lev—the screwdriver or whatever it's called."

"I know what you're referring to."

"Can I have it then?"

"Certainly; I'm not using it."

Peridot groaned and reluctantly pulled herself away to walk over and get the screwdriver. "Thank you so much for your assistance."

"My pleasure."

The technician glared at her for a moment, then sat down beside her to examine the machinery she'd been working on. "Have you connected the—"

"Yes, I have."

"And—"

"I know what I'm doing, 5XG."

Peridot's eyes hardened. "Fine." She watched for a little while longer. "You're going to need to rewire that part as well," she added, pointing. "It'll overload otherwise."

"I'll keep that in mind," Yellow replied stiffly.

The smaller gem glared at her. "I'm trying to be accommodating here; you could at least listen to me!"

"And you could at least pretend I have some measure of competence."

"I am! I'm letting you work here, aren't I?"

"You're letting me?" Yellow narrowed her eyes. "I don't need your permission."

"I wasn't saying—"

"Hey guys!" Amethyst's voice rang out from the door. "If you're done arguing, I brought you something cool!"

They exchanged a dark look and then reluctantly turned their attention to Amethyst.

"What is it?" Peridot asked, raising her eyebrow when she saw everything Amethyst was carrying.

"Music!" She pointed to an old CD player, which was at the bottom of the very large mish-mash of objects in her arms.

"Music?" the two of them echoed in harmony.

"Yeah!"

Peridot wrinkled her nose. "I appreciate the gesture, Amethyst, but—"

"C'mon, it'll be fun, Peri!" She dumped a pile of CDs on the floor. "I got a bunch of junk from my room. Oh, and check these out, I found some of Greg's old stuff too."

"Steven's Greg?" Yellow asked curiously, leaning over.

"Yeah, he used to be a rock star. Or, like, he tried to be a rock star? And then he fell in love with a rock and decided to stay here instead!"

"That made no sense, and I think Rose Quartz might be offended at being called a rock," Yellow said dryly.

"Nah, she'd be cool with it," Amethyst laughed. "Uh…let's see… A rock star is somebody who gets really famous because of their singing and makes a bunch of money. That make sense?"

"Mostly."

The Quartz grinned and popped open one of the CD cases, pulling out a disk. "Here, let's see what you think."

Yellow watched the player whir as it read the disk. Sound blasted out of it a few seconds later and she cringed. "Does it have to be so loud?" she asked over the music.

Peridot flung herself towards the CD player and twisted a knob around as quickly as she could, dimming the music to a barely distinguishable mumble. "No," she said, "that's just Amethyst."

"Heh, sorry 'bout that." Amethyst turned it up again to a more medium volume.

—stars and stardust and infinite space is my only home—

"He sings about space?" Yellow asked, raising her eyebrows.

"Yep, he had it bad, even before he met Rose."

"That's…bizarre. Like most everything else here."

"We agree on one thing," Peridot muttered under her breath, then yelped as Amethyst dragged her to her feet. "What are you doing?" she demanded.

"Dancing," Amethyst replied with a grin, taking Peridot's hands and trying to get her to move to the beat. "You guys have been stuck in here for days; you need a break."

"This is a very important part of the pro—Amethyst!" she squeaked, tripping over her feet and crashing into the other gem. "I don't know what kind of dance this is meant to be, but I have no idea what steps are involved and I don't think I'm prepared to fuse with anyone right now—"

"We're not trying to fuse, we're just having fun." Amethyst steadied her, keeping them moving. "Want to join us, Yellow?"

"I'll pass."

"Okay, but you're missing out!" Amethyst spun Peridot in a circle, laughing.

Peridot barely kept her balance as Amethyst twirled her around and then let go, slipping into her usual style of dance. Peridot attempted to copy her, her face tinged with an embarrassed blue as she fumbled her way through the motions.

Amethyst snapped her fingers in time to the beat to help and stepped closer to Peridot. "Gotta use your hips," she said, placing her hands lightly on either side of Peridot's waist. "Like this and…yep, loosen up, there you go!" She left Peridot to her own devices again, flicking her long hair back. "You've got this, Peri!"

Yellow watched in amusement as the two of them danced, unable to stop a small smirk from spreading over her face as she thought about the fact that she was in some obscure corner of the universe, listening to an organic species sing about space while a Peridot and an Amethyst danced together without a second thought. Her life was weird lately.

And, just for a moment, Yellow wished Blue was around. She would enjoy this sort of thing.

"Aaaaaat the moment that I hit the stage," Amethyst sang, pretending to hold up a microphone and then passing it over to Peridot for the next line.

"I hear the universe calling my name," she sang, only slightly off-key.

"And I know deep down in my heart I have nothing to fear!" Amethyst finished grandly. "And as the solar wind blows through my hair—" She tossed her hair back and then burst into laughter when Peridot automatically tried to imitate her, without much success. Amethyst took her hands again when she looked like she was about to stop and led her through a couple more simple steps as the lyrics faded out, striking a pose at the very end. "I'm just a comet."

Peridot giggled a little as she let go. "Are all of his songs like this?"

"He's Mr. Universe, P-dot, what did you expect?"

"Humans are so strange."

"C'mon, you know you loved it," Amethyst said. "I mean, it's not what I usually go for, but it's got a certain charm, right?"

"Is that why you know all the words?" Peridot asked, snorting with laughter.

"No, that's because Rose played this on loop for years and drove the rest of us crazy. Oh, Pearl especially, just start humming the first few bars and she's done. You should try it." She turned to Yellow. "And hey, don't we get any applause?"

Yellow smirked and obliged, clapping for them. She was still a little unused to making so much extra noise on her own.

"Thank you, thank you," she laughed, bowing. "Sure you don't want a turn?"

"I'm sure."

"Aww, okay." Amethyst clapped her on the back. "I've gotta go meet up with the others, but you guys can hang onto the CDs. There's some good stuff in there, even if you're not a Mr. Universe fan."

"Okay," Yellow agreed. She hadn't minded the music, actually. It was odd and the lyrics didn't make much sense to her, but it was a drastic change from the ritualistic singing she knew. This music actually seemed to mean something, seemed to belong to the person singing it.

Peridot turned it off once Amethyst was gone, content with the mechanical sounds that usually accompanied her work, but Yellow reached over after a few minutes to power it back on, lowering the volume slightly.

"Is that really necessary?" Peridot complained.

"Yes," she replied succinctly. It was better than talking and better than getting lost in a quiet buzz of machinery that was all too reminiscent of Yellow Diamond's control room. And even if the human concept of the universe was incredibly skewed, it was nice to hear something hopeful about the whole thing. For a minute, she could just enjoy herself, and that was new.

This life in the stars is all I've ever known…

She didn't have time to get distracted though, not when there were more important things, and she let the music glide through the air around her and fade into background noise as she worked.