Everything else felt oddly calm compared to having to handle five Rubies and Jasper and all of that. Once the day drew to a close, Yellow and Blue camped out in Steven's living room for the night to give Peridot and Lapis enough space to talk or not talk after the emotionally charged day.
With the lights turned off so Steven could sleep, Yellow picked up a tablet, turned the brightness down, and browsed the internet aimlessly as Blue leaned her head against her shoulder and closed her eyes. She was full of anxious anticipation, knowing they'd be setting off for Homeworld soon, but Blue's presence settled her nerves for the most part.
As the night dragged on, Blue reached over and turned the screen off, leaving them in the dark, and laughed as she got a quietly annoyed "What?" in response.
"Nothing," she whispered. "It's just hard to hold hands when you're doing that."
"You could have just said so," Yellow replied, no real irritation in her voice. She set the tablet aside and fumbled to find Blue's hand, curling her fingers securely around it.
"I know." Blue was smiling, she could tell. "Can I say something else?"
"Sure."
"Thanks for sticking with me this whole time." She used her free arm to give Yellow a sideways hug. "I'm glad you're here."
"…Me too," Yellow said softly.
"And I know we'll get to Homeworld safely, with all the work you've put into the ship."
"Awful patched-together escape pod that it is," she agreed with a faint smile.
"Hey, don't call it awful, it's our grand escape vessel," Blue protested, giggling.
"Tell yourself that all you like. I'm sure some of the other Pearls will appreciate your exaggerations."
"I won't need to exaggerate to make you sound cool."
"Thanks," she said, rolling her eyes despite the blush creeping up on her skin.
"Are you nervous about going back?" Blue asked, growing serious.
Yellow shrugged. "A bit, I guess. You?"
"A bit," she agreed softly. "I've gotten to like it here."
"You always liked it here."
"As a home instead of as a…a legacy, I suppose. More the gems than the place, but still." She smiled a little. "I'm glad the others are coming along with us for a while."
"You say that like you aren't going to instantly get along with everyone else there."
"Hey!" she laughed. "Nobody's that good."
"Fair enough." Yellow tentatively placed her hand on Blue's head, her hair soft under her fingertips. "We'll be fine."
"Yeah." She leaned into her touch. "Yellow?"
"Hm?"
"I really am happy we're doing this together. All of this."
"Yeah," she murmured. "Me too."
Blue's hand pressed warm beside her gem, and Yellow closed her eyes and let herself drift into something like sleep.
The next morning, Blue and Yellow made their way over to the barn to try and contact the rebellion once more to set up their final plans. Pearl was already there when they arrived, double checking the equipment, and she looked pleased to see them.
"Good morning! Yellow, would you turn that transmitter on so I can check… Yes, thank you, that's perfect." She stood and dusted herself off. "I thought I'd join you, if that's alright. There are some things I want to ask about supplies and such."
"Of course," Blue agreed happily. "I'm sure they'd love to see you again."
It didn't take long for the three of them to crowd around the screen again to make the call, waiting for the other side to pick up. It only took a few seconds this time.
Yellow, sitting in the middle, did her best to begin with a friendly "Hello" as soon as the screen flickered to life.
"Oh." The Pearl who answered was unfamiliar, pink in color with hair that fell just past her chin. Small tufts of bangs swept in on either side of her forehead, almost reminiscent of Pearl's, while the longer ends of her hair curled in towards the gem nestled directly in the center of her neck. Her eyes were sharp as she looked Yellow over, clearly displeased, and she hardly even noticed the Pearls on either side of her. "It's you."
Yellow bristled instinctively, her mind racing to figure out when she'd encountered this Pearl and how she'd offended her—well, the last part wouldn't be hard to figure out, considering how she'd never made much of an effort to befriend anyone prior to meeting Blue, but still. That amount of disdain surely meant she'd shown particular impatience or unkindness to the other gem.
"Anyway," she continued, sparing her no more attention and instead turning slightly to address Pearl. "Hello."
"Hello," she answered uncertainly.
"How can I help you two?"
"Um…you mean three?" Blue asked, tilting her head as she took in the Pearl and tried to place her within thousands of years of memories.
"I meant two."
"Well!" Yellow said indignantly.
The pink Pearl opened up her mouth to speak again, only to be interrupted by a rather sudden entrance by Crimson from the right of the screen. "Thanks, Millie, I'll take it from here," she said hastily, gently but firmly pulling her out of her seat.
"But—"
"You know, I think Silver was asking for you; she's in the common room."
"Really? Okay." She stood quickly, her demeanor shifting all of a sudden as she smiled, ran her hands through her hair, and hurried off with a delighted expression. "Oh, and the Renegade says hello!" she called over her shoulder.
"What—Millie!" Crimson turned to get a better look at the screen and her face immediately gained a few shades of red. "I'm so, so sorry."
"It's alright."
"No, I'll talk to her later, I swear. Please don't take it personally."
Yellow wasn't sure how not to take it personally, but she figured it would be best just to move on. "Thanks."
Crimson paused. "And it's such an honor to meet you, um…just Pearl, right?"
"That's right," she confirmed, smiling. "And you're Crimson?"
"Yeah." She stared for a moment and then shook her head, clearing her throat. "Sorry, I spent most of my life assuming it would be impossible to meet you in person. And you're more colorful than I expected."
Pearl made a valiant, if failed, effort not to laugh.
"I mean, with the projections, it's…" Crimson looked increasingly self-conscious. "Never mind, I'll stop embarrassing myself now."
"No, it's fine, no need to apologize," she said quickly.
"You should have seen me when I first met her," Blue added conspiratorially.
Pearl nodded, a kind smile on her face as she placed a hand on Blue's shoulder briefly. "Anyway, I hope we can be friends as well."
Crimson nodded, looking almost startled by the offer. "Me too."
"Anyway," she continued, sparing her from any more introductory small talk, "we wanted to let you know everything's gone well here, so we should be on our way there very soon."
"That's great," Crimson said warmly. "You called to figure out arrival plans then? Just a sec." She picked up a nearby tablet and tapped a couple times to get to what she was looking for. "When exactly do you think you'll be getting here? We'll need to make sure somebody can meet up with you and show you the way here."
"Well, barring any abnormalities, we should get there within a couple days," Pearl said. "We'll set out tomorrow, once we make sure we have all the provisions we need."
"What's the safest way to go about things?" Yellow asked.
"We've been talking about it and I think it's probably safest to have you land in Facet Ten. It's adjacent to where we are, and there's enough upper-class gems with their own private ships so that it won't seem strange to have something land there. I went to scope out a good spot, and I think this one's your best bet." Crimson held up the screen to show them a map and a set of coordinates. "Obviously it'll be best for you to stay inside until someone can get you regardless. I'll have one of the Diamonds' Pearls come pick you up; they'll be least suspicious."
"Sounds like a plan," she agreed. "So we should just let you know when we arrive?"
Crimson nodded. "If you just open a link to this comm line briefly, that'll be enough. I'll make sure someone's here to receive it and pass along the information."
"Got it."
"Okay. And I wanted to ask—oh, hold on just a moment," she broke off, looking over to the side. "Hi, Sil."
"Hey." Silver slid rather enthusiastically into the seat beside her. "I wanted to see what I was distracting Millie from. Hi again!" She grinned at the three Pearls on the screen, who waved back.
"Sorry about that," Crimson laughed. "It seemed like the quickest way to get her out of here. What did you ask her to do?"
"Help organize the weapons closet and let me bounce ideas off her for tomorrow's training." She shrugged. "And then I managed to get hold of Ory and tell her to tell Chroma to have her deliver a message to me saying she needed me to help with repairs or something. I think it worked."
"Probably so," she agreed, amused smile playing on her lips as she turned her attention back to the screen. "Anyway, I was just about to see what arrangements we need to make for rooms. How many of you will be coming?"
"Six total," Blue answered. "The three of us, Steven, Garnet, and Amethyst."
"Six," Silver repeated, drumming her fingers lightly on the table as she thought.
"Though Steven is the only one who absolutely needs a room to rest in," Pearl added. "So if space is an issue, the rest of us are willing to make do with less."
"Oh, no, don't worry about that. I mean, we are starting to run out of space in the living quarters, but there's still enough rooms that aren't spoken for. We just might have to pair you up."
"Yeah, we've got like four rooms open at the moment," Silver said. "Or if you want to have separate rooms, there's some empty ones on the other side of the building—storage space that's not being used yet, but we can spruce it up."
"Sharing is fine," Pearl said with a smile. "You can place us wherever is convenient for you though. We don't need any special treatment."
"Sure, thanks."
"And we were able to pull together a few supplies for you," Yellow added. "We have enough room on the ship to bring some bits and pieces from Earth that might help out somehow too."
"That's great." Crimson looked relieved. "It'll be a big help, thank you."
"There was one more thing I wanted to discuss in that regard actually," Pearl said.
"Oh, certainly. What's that?"
"Well, I'm not sure how much you know about the rebellion here on Earth…"
"Not a whole lot, sadly," Silver said. "Just the projection stuff and a few tidbits from what Pearls have overheard."
"Right." She paused. "Well, Rose Quartz possessed the power to heal with her tears, and that was a truly invaluable resource to us during the rebellion. Steven inherited the ability as well, so of course he'd be happy to provide help on a more immediate basis, but we also had a rather large supply of healing tears bequeathed to us. If you'd like, we could bring you a portion of that."
"Healing tears?"
"For anything from scrapes to cracked gems," Pearl confirmed with a small nod.
"You can heal cracked gems?" Crimson asked, amazed. "Yes, stars yes, that would be wonderful. Even just a little bit would help—we have gems right now who could use it."
"Then we'll bring as much as we can."
"Thank you. You have no idea how much that'll—I mean, I'm sure you do," she said with a faint smile. "I just never expected anything like this."
"We're happy to help. Though you seem to be handling things just fine there already, from what you've all told us."
Crimson dipped her head slightly in acknowledgment. "Thanks, but I don't have much experience. Once you get here—"
"No," Pearl interrupted. "Please don't feel obligated to make that offer. You're welcome to make use of my skills wherever you see fit—engineering, strategy, swordsmanship—but whatever my history, this rebellion needs someone who understands the current workings of Homeworld and its Pearls. That's not me."
A small blush rose to Crimson's face again. "I'll do my best then. I hope it's alright if I come to you for advice on occasion."
"Anytime."
"Thanks." She paused. "I think that was everything we needed to plan out. Unless there's anything else we need to prepare for you?"
"No, I think that's everything," Pearl said. "Thank you."
"I look forward to seeing all of you in person then," Crimson said warmly.
"Us too," Blue said earnestly.
"See you soon!"
The next morning, Pearl, Garnet, and Amethyst loaded the last few things onto the ship and made sure everything was prepared while Blue, Yellow, and Steven made the rounds so he could say goodbye to everyone. Greg was, although a little reluctant to let him go, proud of the part he wanted to play in helping the gems on Homeworld. Steven promised they'd be careful and he'd come back to see him as soon as they had the warp pad to Earth up and running.
After Greg, they went to see Connie, who was promised a trip to Homeworld once they knew it was safe enough. She gave Steven a big hug and promised to protect the planet in his absence, as well as check in with Peridot and Lapis from time to time to make sure they were doing okay and call Steven via the communications array they already had set up in the barn.
After one last goodbye to Connie—and Steven's reassurance that she should keep Rose's sword while he was away—they searched out all his friends from town. They generally got a vaguer explanation of "going on a trip with the gems" but they gave him fond goodbyes all the same and wished him well.
Two hours later, when they had checked, double checked, and triple checked that everyone and everything was prepared, they boarded the ship.
"You're all set," Peridot declared after running an extra set of diagnostics on the ship itself. She looked rather antsy. "You should call as soon as you arrive, alright?"
"We will," Garnet reassured her.
"We'll be fine!" Steven said, giving Peridot a hug. "We'll call every night!"
"You don't need to do that," she muttered, embarrassed. "Anyway, I'll keep an eye on things here and make sure Lapis is okay and everything."
"Okay!"
Lapis had already said goodbye to Steven earlier in the day and then vanished, probably off flying again. She seemed to want to keep her distance from anything else involving Homeworld at the moment, and it was understandable.
"Alright, time to give Peri all her hugs!" Amethyst announced.
"You already gave me all the hugs," she protested, but she was quickly surrounded by the whole group at once and squished between Garnet and Amethyst.
"There was a leftover." Amethyst patted the top point of her hair. "See ya round. Have fun, take care of the planet, don't let Lapis steal the ocean again, and all that jazz."
"I'll be a responsible roommate," Peridot declared with a nod. "And perform all Crystal Gem duties as requested."
"You've got this." Garnet squeezed her shoulder lightly. "Time for us to head out then. Steven, ready to go?"
"I'm ready!" He waved as Peridot walked back outside.
Pearl was acting as pilot this time around, which gave Yellow the freedom to run any mid-flight maintenance that might be required. But right now, it also gave her a chance to actually appreciate the beginning of the journey—as Blue clearly was already, even without having taken off.
"Ready?" Pearl checked, after looking over the controls one last time.
"Ready." Blue smiled, hands curling tight around the back of the chair as Pearl started the engines. "Yellow?"
"I'm ready."
Similar assurances came from the rest of the gems as well, and soon Earth was behind them.
With none of last time's initial rush and panic, space greeted them almost peacefully. Yellow found herself entranced by the view and then, when she caught a glimpse of Blue's radiant happiness, entranced by that as well. This was the start of everything Blue had wanted, all those years, and Yellow felt honored that she got to not only witness it but be a part of it as well.
"I love you." For a moment, Yellow thought shehad said it herself, but no, Blue was looking at her and her lips were moving and she said it again. "I love you. Not because of this or because of the rebellion—I just love you. Is that okay?"
Such a solid, decisive statement followed by is that okay. There were still odd remnants of that Pearl-like uncertainty inside her, weren't there? Yellow reached out and took Blue's hand and tugged her forward, gem warm with happiness. "That's okay." It sounded almost silly, but it was true nonetheless. "I love you too."
Blue nodded, eyes bright.
"Kiss me?" Yellow breathed.
Her smile grew ever brighter on her lips and she squeezed Yellow's hand tighter. "Oh, you beat me to asking," she said happily. "I'd love to."
Blue's kiss was gentle and unpracticed and sweet. Her free hand came up to hold onto Yellow with care, to bring her still closer, and Yellow was overwhelmed by it all.
It wasn't "I love you" because of the rebellion, it was "I love you" with the rebellion, with that indomitable attitude that made Blue so fiercely certain that Pearls—that the two of them—could accomplish something. And they would, Yellow knew. They already had.
Wherever they went from here, they would have "I love you" and these kisses that spiraled into happy, breathless laughter that was warm on their cheeks and this togetherness that Yellow hadn't ever expected to feel when she first encountered Blue in Homeworld's cold and stifling courts. And maybe it should have felt rebellious for Pearls to have any of those things but really, she thought, it just felt natural.