"Any new fusions today?"

Crimson laughed as Silver's brief clap of hands brought her attention to the projection. "Not that I'm aware of, no."

"Aww, I was hoping there'd be more."

"I mean, Cheval is still around. Mercury and Tin's," she added quickly.

"Yeah, she was telling everybody her name earlier! Something about mirrors." Silver smiled. "It sounds cool. Can't believe she picked it so fast though—the two of us took forever and we just picked colors!"

"Well, things were different back then," Crimson said with a shrug. "Fusions and names aside, how's everybody doing in training?"

"Doing good. Everyone who you had as maybes for this next mission is ready. Well, White's a bit behind the others, but she's the type to catch up fast if she focuses."

She nodded. "Okay. We'll finalize the group and make sure everyone's prepared in the next couple days."

"Sounds good." Silver leaned against the edge of Crimson's desk. "You doing okay there?"

"Huh? Yeah, I'm fine. Just a lot of stuff to think about, you know? This is kind of our first big mission."

"Well, I don't know about that," Silver projected, smiling. "We've pulled off lots of big missions of rescuing Pearls. Not to mention all the supplies gathering and whatnot."

"Big in terms of the number of gems involved then," Crimson amended.

"True." Silver ruffled Crimson's hair, grinning as her hand was batted away gently. "Don't overthink it. We'll be fine."

"Thanks."

She watched her quietly for a moment, then got up and stretched. "Guess I should get back to training; the new recruits will be waiting for me. Let me know about those fusions."

"Will do," she laughed. "How about you? Are you going to fuse with anybody?"

"If my super tough boss gives me a day off…"

Crimson threw a crumpled ball of paper at her and Silver caught it easily, laughing silently.

"Nah, it's a maybe. Have to talk to everybody about it first." She tilted her head, genuine curiosity in her eyes. "What do you think?"

"I think I've got too many things going on in my head already without inviting somebody else in right now," she said honestly. "But if you fuse with anybody else, I'd love to meet them."

"You'll be one of the first." Silver headed for the door. "See you later. No stressing about the mission."

"I know, I know. See you, Sil."

"So we're working on the floors today?" Lavender asked as she and Chroma made their way downstairs with a toolbox in tow.

"Yeah, hopefully it shouldn't be too challenging," Chroma said. "And I might try practicing a little in between, if you don't mind."

"Sure, what kind of practicing?"

"Bubbling. Cyan and Mercury asked a few gems to try it out, so hopefully we can start using it on missions when we need to." She shrugged uneasily. "I'm not sure I'll be much help, but I want to give it a shot."

"It's worth trying," Lavender said encouragingly.

"Yeah."

The two of them got settled in one corner to begin work on the floor, Lavender spreading out the supplies behind them while Chroma made sure they had a smooth, even surface to work with. Before long, they had a good rhythm going, passing the tiles over, lining them up, pressing them down. They paused after the first row to be sure everything was setting up properly.

"Alright, let's see how this goes," Chroma declared, picking up a hammer to try bubbling it. Then, after a second, she set it back down and exchanged it for a package of small screws instead, opening it up and removing just one. "I probably shouldn't make this harder than it needs to be."

Lavender nodded, watching intently.

Chroma had done her best to take in everything the Crystal Gems told the group about bubbling, making mental notes to put towards her own attempts. Silver had been quick to offer to practice together and they definitely would, but Chroma always did best when she had lots of time to prepare, so it made sense to get in as much practice as she could.

She took a deep breath, focusing on the tiny object in her hand. Bubble, she thought. Make a bubble, please. The Crystal Gems had tried to explain how this worked, but it still seemed rather vague. Think about home, they'd said. Okay. Chroma looked around, then closed her eyes and let herself think about all of her time here, from the first day she'd followed Crimson back to now, their family growing to include so many more Pearls than they'd ever expected. Home. Lavender and Yellow and Pearl, talking with her as they worked on a new project. Crimson congratulating them on a job well done. Silver and Aura, waiting for her in her room after a long day. The sound of life that surrounded her in the common room, friendly hellos from the rainbow of Pearls she got to see every day. Home.

"You did it!" Lavender gasped.

"What?" Chroma's eyes flew open, finding a near-opaque black bubble in her hand. It was small, not like the ones Pearl had demonstrated, but it was there. "Oh my stars, I did." She curled her hand in slowly, then jumped when the bubble popped as her fingernails touched it. "Oops."

"It's okay," Lavender said. "I'm sure you can do it again if you got the first one so fast."

She smiled, looking down at the screw again and focusing on those same feelings of home. "There it is!"

"Yes! And it's bigger this time too!"

Just a little bit, but it was.

"Can I see?" Lavender asked, and Chroma felt warmed by her genuine enthusiasm, passing the bubble over immediately. It didn't pop this time when it was touched either.

It was strange, having something come this easily to her. Almost too good to believe, but as she bubbled a few more tiny screws, they only improved bit by bit.

"They're really good," Lavender said warmly as she and Chroma continued to inspect each one. "I mean, I don't have much experience with bubbles in the first place, but these seem just like the ones Pearl uses."

Chroma blushed, holding one gently between both hands. "I…I suppose I can go ahead and try the next part then," she said slowly. "I wonder if I can send these to Aura and Silver. Or at least to our rooms?"

"Let's see what happens!" Lavender said enthusiastically. She stood and jumped to catch one of the bigger bubbles carefully in her hands. "Here you go."

"Thanks." Chroma let hers go and took it gingerly, then tapped the top of it as they'd demonstrated. Nothing happened the first time but when she tried again, it vanished instantly. "Oh, it worked!"

"Should we go see where it ended up?"

"Sure, but let's try a few more for a better sample size."

"Oh, yeah, good plan." Lavender watched as Chroma grabbed a few more bubbles and sent them away one by one. Her eyes drifted back to the flooring they'd put in, and she jumped, startled. "Um, Chroma, I don't think it's supposed to be doing that."

"What? Oh stars," she groaned, immediately abandoning the bubbles. The adhesive they'd been using seemed to have completely liquefied instead of hardening, now seeping out all across the floor. "I was wondering if it might be too complex a substance for the replicator wands to handle. Guess that's our answer."

The two of them hurried to scrub away as much as they could, the stickiness trying to cling to both them and the floor but ultimately not strong enough to do either.

"Looks like we'll have to mix up our own," Chroma sighed. "It's not difficult, but I was hoping we'd save time and supplies doing it this way…"

"It did seem like a good idea," Lavender agreed. "It's okay. Maybe we can try replicating the ingredients instead?"

"Yeah, that's probably better."

It took the two of them a while to get everything cleaned up, but soon Chroma was able to get back to sending off her bubbles. No sooner had she begun than Ory appeared in the doorway, holding her screen and looking a little flustered.

"H-Hello," she greeted them with a shy smile. "Aura asked me to deliver a message to you, Chroma."

"Oh, thanks." Chroma accepted the screen from her, eyes bypassing the large number of hearts added to the beginning and end of the message and skimming quickly over the words. She did a double take and then read more slowly.

I got your message! Is it a secret code? I'll definitely be free in six hours if that's what you were asking. And I'd love to make love tonight! Or sometimes the internet says 'dtf', should I say that instead? Down to fuck? I'm very dtf! Though I think the other way sounds nicer…what about you?

Also! The bubbles are so nice! You got the hang of them really fast and I'm so proud of you!

Love, Aura

P.S. Millie is also dtf

Literally nothing about that made sense to Chroma on her first readthrough. Message? She hadn't sent anything with a message, she'd just been sending…oh. She blushed, suddenly very aware that Lavender was right beside her and could easily see the screen as well.

Six must have been the number of bubbles Aura received? Which meant Silver got the rest, in theory. Hopefully. Well, not "hopefully" in so much as she wanted her to interpret it as a secret message. Though she wasn't opposed to her interpreting it as that, but—wait. She was getting off track here. What was Aura saying about Millie?

"So, um, should I-I take anything back?" Ory asked after a moment.

"Sure. One sec." Chroma opened up a new page to reply but right as she did so, another message came through, apparently sent from the computer in the comms room.

Lavy! I meant to say Millie is also dtf Lavy! Our hypothesis was right!

"Ah. That was my guess," Chroma murmured, amused.

"Wait, what?" Lavender blurted out.

Chroma paused in the middle of starting her response again and glanced over at Ory. "Would you mind giving us just a minute? I can bring your screen back when I'm done, if you've got somewhere else to be."

"O-Oh, no, it's okay!" Ory said quickly. "I'll just wait outside!"

"Thanks."

"A-Are you sure you're reading it right?" Lavender stammered as soon as it was just the two of them. "I mean, I really don't think Millie would—"

"You read it too," Chroma pointed out, raising her eyebrows.

"Still!"

"Lavender," she said firmly, "trust us. Millie is definitely into you."

"But…" She trailed off uncertainly. "But that's not… She likes Silver. I mean, we all like Silver."

"That doesn't mean she can't be interested in you too," Chroma pointed out.

Lavender didn't seem to know what to say. "But I can't really…be with her like that?"

"Why not?"

"My gem. Millie likes shapeshifting, she likes the idea of that kind of intimacy. We couldn't really fuck…"

"But you could fuck her."

Lavender stared at her.

Chroma tilted her head, smiling. "Or you can find something else to do together. Stars, it's not like that's your only option."

"Oh."

"I'm not going to push you to say anything back, but I do think you should be realistic about all of it. And you shouldn't put yourself down over it either." She tugged lightly at the sleeve of Lavender's shirt. "However you want things go, there's plenty of workarounds, just like with anything else."

"…Thanks." Lavender chewed her lip for a moment. "Okay, but what about what happens if we try and it doesn't work? What if we end up not being friends anymore? I don't want that."

"Ignoring the fact that you're jumping ahead a few steps," Chroma said slowly. "I don't think breaking up or whatever would necessarily ruin your friendship. Or even if you asked her out and she said no. I mean, Silver's been trying to fuck Crimson for years, but we're all still friends."

Lavender stared at her.

"Okay, 'fuck' might be an overstatement, since we didn't know what that was until recently. Silver has been trying to get Crimson to be part of our relationship for years. Well, me too actually, I shouldn't make it sound like she was the only one interested."

"Crimson doesn't want to date Silver?" Lavender asked incredulously, then quickly added "Or you?"

Chroma shook her head, smiling. "She turned us down very kindly. No hard feelings involved."

"Wow." She looked amazed that anyone could say no to that.

"So at least in my experience, it takes more than that to mess up a friendship. And even if one or both of you did misstep, I think you two care about each other enough to try to work it out instead of abandoning your friendship entirely."

"Yeah," Lavender said softly. "Yeah, I would try. But what if—there's so many things that could go wrong, you know? What if I make a mistake I can't fix? I haven't really known Millie that long in the grand scheme of things, so…"

"And what if you don't?" she asked gently. "You're just finding more things to worry about, Lavender. And you can't know for sure about any of them."

"I know, but…"

"You can't dismantle everything like a window. Sometimes you just have to try and see if it works."

Lavender gulped, chewing at the corner of her lip.

"Not that there's any rush to decide that right now."

"No," she blurted out. "No, I want to try. If—If there's a chance, then I want to. I'd really, really like it to work."

"Okay. What would you like to do then?"

"Delivery!"

"Oh!" Aura jumped up excitedly when she heard Ory's voice. "Chroma's reply?"

Ory nodded, blushing.

"Thank you!" Aura accepted the screen from her to read the message. "Ohhhh."

"What is it?" Millie asked. "I know you said something about me before."

"I was just telling her what we were watching," she returned with an innocent smile.

"Sure you were." She leaned over, trying to get a glimpse of Chroma's message, but Aura turned away gracefully to hide it from view.

"It's nothing, it's nothing," Aura reassured her, laughing. "Chroma and I are making plans for later."

And maybe a little something extra, but Millie didn't need to know that. Thankfully, the answer seemed to satisfy her enough to drop the subject, so Aura tapped in a thumbs up and a few hearts to send back to Chroma.

"Would you mind taking this back?" she asked Ory.

"N-Not at all!" the other Pearl stammered.

"Thanks. Would you like to join us for tea when you're done?"

"I'm not sure I have time right now," she said hesitantly. "M-Maybe another day?"

"Sure, of course. Or you could take it to go?"

"I'd better not, I-I wouldn't want to spill it." A small smile curved Ory's lips.

"Okay! Next time then."

"Next time," she agreed, giving the two of them a quick salute before dashing back out into the hall.

"So," Millie said conversationally as Aura sat down, "do you want me to cover for you so you can disappear for your secret plans later?"

"No, it's alright, Chroma's still got a fair amount of work to do first. Lavender too."

The pink Pearl raised an eyebrow. "So? I don't have any plans with Lavy."

"No?" Aura teased. "Maybe you could make some plans."

"Maybe you and Chroma should stop scheming," she returned with a smirk.

"We're not scheming! We're just trying to be encouraging."

"Well, I don't think there's anything to encourage," Millie said, adding a little bit more sugar to her tea. "Not that I don't appreciate the effort."

"Mm." Aura traced her finger around the edge of her teacup. "Are you sure?"

"I'm sure. As much as I might want…" She trailed off, shaking her head. "No. No, it's best to leave things as they are."

"Okay." She'd been going to push a little harder, with Chroma's affirmation that Lavender was interested too, but maybe this wasn't the time.

"But," Millie said suddenly, "what do you think?"

"Me?" Aura asked, startled.

"Yes. Has Lavy told Chroma something that made her think that she's…?"

"Well, I don't think Chroma would repeat it if she had, but I know she's gotten enough signals that she's confident about it!" Aura smiled, nudging a little plate of petit fours closer to Millie. "We wouldn't tease if we thought you didn't have a chance. You know that, right?"

"I do," Millie said quietly. "I just wonder if maybe she misinterpreted something. After all, I'm hardly the type of gem Lavy would be interested in."

"That's not true," Aura protested. "You're lovely."

"She's not looking for 'lovely.' You wouldn't describe somebody like Silver as 'lovely.'"

"I would," Aura said, looking mildly offended.

"You know what I mean."

"I do, but I don't think that's true either." She touched Millie's hand briefly. "You don't need to look like Silver in order for Lavender to like you. You can love more than one specific kind of gem."

"I don't think—"

"I mean, I'm pretty different from Silver too," Aura rushed on earnestly. "In how we look and what we like to do and all sorts of things. And our former status too, if you're worried about that. But Chroma loves both of us. She can love us for different reasons or love sharing different parts of her life with each of us, but it doesn't mean she thinks one is better than the other. Or like…" She tried to think of an example. "Like for me, Chroma and I can sometimes spend the day together working, and I can't do that with Silver. But with Silver, we get to come back to our room at the end of the day and relax and talk about what we did. And both are really nice."

Millie nodded, mulling it over.

"So maybe Lavy would think like that too. That there are things to appreciate about Silver but things to appreciate about you too, and they're just as good."

Her cheeks colored faintly. "Maybe. Though I don't know that I'm like you."

"Like me?"

"Good at sharing." Aura giggled at the answer and Millie blushed, pressing her fingers to the base of her gem and clearing her throat. "And anyway, shouldn't we check with Silver first?"

"Check with Silver?" Aura repeated, confused. Then she laughed, realizing what Millie meant. "Oh! Oh my stars, no, I wasn't saying Lavy should date both of you. I just meant it's possible for her to be attracted to you for different reasons."

"Oh."

"I mean, Silver's flattered you both like her so much, but we decided we want to keep things as is. Maybe not forever, but for a while."

"I know," Millie said quickly. "She told us. You just made it sound like you'd changed your mind or something."

"Oops, sorry!"

"It's fine, don't apologize." She rested her chin on her hand. "You really think she's interested? Not just, you know, surface level?"

"I mean, I do think she likes your chest, if that's what you're asking."

"Aura."

"And I think she likes lots of other things about you too! I'm not a mind reader, but she does always tag along with Chroma when something needs fixing in here, and it's not because it requires two people to get rid of the whatchamacallits that we keep accidentally clicking on."

"…Fair enough." Millie hesitated. "I don't know how to figure that out for sure though. Or how to make that transition to a different kind of relationship. Plus she's been busy with all the renovations—I haven't gotten to see her very much lately."

"Well," Aura said with bright smile, "I might have a solution for that last part!"

"You called?" Chroma was barely able to hide her amusement as she and Lavender entered the communications room. Millie was careful not to make eye contact with either of them, lest the rather transparent excuse become obvious.

"We did!" Aura hugged her in greeting. "Thank you so much for coming, I don't know what we'd do without you two."

"Oh, I don't know, Yellow might be able to keep this place up and running for a little while," she laughed. "Lavender, why don't you go take a look at the computer and see what's happening?"

"You don't want to?" Lavender asked, surprised.

"I would, but I promised Aura I would, um…"

"Look at something Violet gave me earlier!" Aura volunteered.

"Right," Chroma said. "Is that okay? You've seen me fix this thing loads of times, I'm sure you can get things started."

"Oh, alright," she said, accepting it easily. "I'll do my best."

"Thanks. We'll be back soon then."

"Bye!" Aura took Chroma's arm and tugged her out the door a little too quickly.

Millie stared after them for a moment, then smiled at Lavender nervously. "Thanks for helping out."

"You're welcome," Lavender replied. "So what happened?"

"I'm not really sure," Millie lied, grinding her heel into the cord Aura had yanked out. She didn't want to make this difficult for Lavender, but Aura hadn't bothered to close out of what they were doing before "breaking" the computer and Millie didn't need her friend seeing the vaguely Lavy-looking humans on the screen when it came back on. So…she hoped this was as replaceable a part as Aura had said.

"Well, what were you doing when it stopped working then?"

"Earth research."

Lavender smiled. "I thought Crimson said you couldn't do that in here anymore."

"Like that would stop us?"

"I thought Aura would at least have pity on Chroma having to come fix everything when you download viruses."

"Aura's easily distracted, and neither of us mind the company."

Lavender laughed, a faint blush creeping onto her cheeks. "I guess I can't complain much either."

"Good."

She reached for the shirt she had tucked under one arm and shook it out before slipping it on over her head. "I'll get to work then."

The oversized shirt suited her, Millie thought. She'd seen it briefly when Lavender returned from her shopping trip with Chroma and shyly held it up for her and Snow to see, but it had been hard to imagine her in it then. "It looks really cute," she said. "You picked well."

"Oh! Thanks." She looked so genuinely happy at the compliment that it made Millie's mind go blank for a moment. "Well, I'll get in there and see what I can find!"

"Mm-hm. Good luck." Millie gave the cord one more discreet stomp as Lavender ducked under the terminal.

She wasn't quite sure what to do while she waited for Lavender to either discover the real problem or get caught up in all the interesting parts without finding anything. Aura hadn't really offered any advice on how to do this, just set everything in motion and left the actual decisions to Millie.

Well, it was better that way. Millie just wished she could come up with something more interesting than standing there and watching. Hmm…

"I'm not seeing anything yet," Lavender said after a few minutes of tinkering with the computer. "I'm going to pull this panel off and see if any of the parts underneath need replacing."

"Sounds like a good plan," she replied, unable to hide a small smile. She hesitated for only a second and then slipped her heels off and ducked under the terminal to watch Lavender work. "Mind if I join you?"

"Not at all!" Lavender was lying on her back to work on the computer components directly above her. "Here, if you get a little closer, I can show you this cool thing we installed last time. Well, Chroma installed it, but I built it! Violet was able to find almost exactly what we were looking for, and then I connected it to some other pieces…"

Millie was more than happy to listen to Lavender's steady stream of words as she pointed to different parts of the computer, moved them around, and took them out. Every now and then, she'd glance back at Millie and smile and motion for her to take a closer look at something, to the point where Millie was beginning to wonder if Lavender was actually in on this setup too and unaware that Millie knew.

"This might take some time," she was explaining now, making vague motions with a wrench, "and Chroma seems like she's going to be a while too. So if you want to move somewhere more comfortable, I'll understand!"

"Yeah?" Millie looked at Lavender for a long moment. She didn't really want to leave this cramped little space though. Maybe she should just… "I think I'll just get comfortable in here to watch, actually."

"Oh, okay! That works…too." She trailed off, blushing as Millie settled beside her.

She cautiously settled an arm over her, resting her head on Lavender's shoulder and waiting to see what her friend's reaction would be.

Lavender promptly dropped the wrench she was holding straight onto her face, startling both of them. "Ow! Millie!"

She opened her mouth to speak, but Lavender rushed on.

"I mean, not that it was your fault, but I wasn't expecting you to get that close! Not that you shouldn't get that close, that's not what I'm trying to say either!" She prodded at her nose and cheek where the wrench had hit, her face burning bright purple. "Ow, ow, ow. Stars, I can't believe I just did that. Are you alright?"

"What do you mean, am I alright? You're the one that got hit, Lavy."

"It could have bounced!"

"It didn't," she reassured her with a smile. "I'm fine. Are you alright?"

"Mostly," she replied, embarrassed.

Millie couldn't help laughing then, the ridiculousness of this whole scenario finally catching up to her.

"Millie," Lavender complained, covering her face.

"Sorry, I'm sorry," she managed, tugging at the other Pearl's wrists gently to pull her hands away. "Let me see."

Lavender reluctantly turned to show Millie where she'd been hit.

"Hmm, I don't see anything," she said, still smiling as she touched the spot with one delicate finger. "Though we can certainly get some healing tears if it's hurting."

"No, it's okay. I'd rather, um, keep working together? Like before."

Millie's face warmed. "I think that can be arranged."

Lavender nodded happily.

"But just to be safe," she added, "I'll try another remedy." Before she could second guess what she was planning to do, Millie leaned down and placed a kiss on Lavender's cheek.

Lavender froze, staring at the other Pearl as she pulled away. Millie began to worry when she didn't say anything and was just about to try to play it off as some kind of mistimed joke when Lavender finally spoke up. "I'll have to try it too."

"What?" she asked, startled, but Lavender was already leaning up to kiss her on the lips.

"Does that solve the problem you called me in here for?" Lavender asked nervously. "This…This was actually a setup, right? I just realized."

"Whose terrible acting skills gave it away?" Millie replied without thinking, then pressed her fingers to her lips as if to keep the kiss there. "And yes. That definitely solved it."

Lavender laughed happily. "I'm glad."

Millie pulled her the rest of the way into a sitting position, fingers tangling in the loose part of Lavender's hair as she kissed her again. "Thank you, Lavy," she whispered. "And there might be one other small thing that can't be fixed with a kiss, but Aura promised it's nothing terrible."

"I'll get to that in a minute then," she replied. "First, I'd better clean up down here. Want to join me?"

"Definitely."