Sugar
"So this kind of chaotic sky dance is a common occurrence here on Earth?"
Kimberlite insisted on walking her all the way back to her house and a little uncharacteristically, Sadie had accepted the help. Sure, she didn't want to inconvenience her newfound friend but the tall woman's little magic umbrella trick was a very welcome addition to what would have been quite a wet walk home.
"Sky dance?" the human woman echoed, looking skyward with a chuckle and admiring the way the crystalline beads spattered down upon the sparkling roof above her head and trickled down over the sides. "Yeah, I guess you could call it that. Sounds better than a "squall" anyway."
A high-up burst of lightning and a distant roll of thunder caused Kimberlite to jump slightly, nervousness evident in her eyes as much as her curiosity.
"Hey, it's ok. That's not gonna hurt us," Sadie assured the gem softly, lifting her own hand and placing it on Kimberlite's upper arm.
She noticed immediately that Kimberlite was shaking a little and immediately felt obliged to give her arm a gentle squeeze.
In response to the gesture, the gem's round, marble-flecked eyes swivelled downward to look at the human at her side.
Their eyes met and Sadie felt her heart beat pick up, her tongue suddenly feeling too big for her mouth.
"Uh…sorry."
She moved to lift her hand away only to have Kimberlite gently return it to its original perch, upon the taller's elbow.
The gem was smiling.
"No, please don't be. You make me feel very safe."
"…no problem."
"So this is called a "squall?" The water falling from the clouds in the sky? And the lights and the sound?"
"Yeah…or a "storm" would be the normal word for it, I guess."
"A storm," her walking companion echoed, apparently trying the word out on her tongue. "Fascinating."
"…you don't have these where you're from?"
Sadie was immediately reminded that Kimberlite wasn't actually from their world. She was a member of the gem race that Steven's family were.
It wasn't unfounded that none of Steven's family would have ever met her before- after all, not every human was obligated to have met or know of every other human. It was worth noting though, that more of the gems were appearing in Beach City.
Sadie briefly wondered if gems inhabited any other parts of the planet Earth.
Or maybe it was all exclusive to their dear little seaside village of weirdness.
Ronaldo was going to have a field day with all of this, she couldn't help but think, slightly bemused at the thought.
"We have clouds of gas…and we have naturally forming water…but our atmosphere doesn't allow for this kind of precipitation. I suppose we do have storms but they are not quite as lovely as yours."
"Not as lovely?" Sadie commented with a chuckle. "What's worse than getting soaked by a shower of cold water every one to two days?"
"Almost being crushed by a shower of rocks every one to two weeks," Kimberlite replied, unable to restrain a rather nervous giggle of her own. "Our atmosphere is prone to the occasional meteor shower."
"O-Oh?!" the human almost tripped over her own sneakers at this revelation, anxious laughter finally permeating her lips. "Well, I guess by comparison, a little bit of thunder and lightning isn't too bad. Giant rocks falling from the sky at random actually sounds…pretty terrifying actually."
Sadie's hand was still resting upon Kimberlite's arm.
She contemplated lifting it.
She didn't.
The gem shrugged. "We've got a good means of predicting them and we've got shields and defence systems in place. It's really just an inconvenience."
A fibrous strand of lightning shot downward from the heavens, illuminating the sky in the far distance and draping the rooftops in a partially beauteous, partially ominous spotlight.
Kimberlite shuddered again and again, Sadie squeezed her upper arm.
The gem looked down at her, her smile wide and soft once more.
"I apologise for my skittishness."
"Nah, don't. I used to hide under my bed during storms when I was a kid."
"Natural electricity is rather beautiful, actually. Your sky must be very clever to generate its own electricity."
"Heh…I never looked at it that way. I guess you're right. Nice uh…" Sadie gestured to the bizarre energy bubble that surrounded them. "…uh…thing you've got there by the way."
"Oh, thank you. All gems can do this….mine are not always so strong but they keep the water out…"
They reached Sadie's house, a few minutes of conversation later.
"Thanks for walking me back, Kim," she bade her, (after all she had told her to call her that, right ?) , looking from the gem to the thoroughly drenched street and frowning. "Hey, I know it's late but do you wanna come inside until this storm passes?"
"I…do not want to be a burden upon you. You appear rather tired, if you do not mind me saying."
"Do you have to walk very far?"
"Mmm," Kimberlite turned around slightly, pointing over at the forested area that went just beyond the farthest inlet of beach. "Just to there."
Sadie's eyes widened. "You are not walking back that far." The human woman considered for a moment that the last time Kimberlite had gone wandering around Beach City, she had ended up falling into the sea. "Look, it's no trouble at all. Come inside. You can stay over here for the night and then I'll walk you back to the seafront on the way to work tomorrow."
Kimberlite looked hesitantly at her for a few seconds, her gaze switching to the gap in the open door at Sadie's back. Eventually, she nodded in agreement, doing the odd little bowing thing that she'd done in the Big Doughnut before following her inside.
"I hope you don't mind but we'll have to be quiet. My mom is probably asleep-ah!" Sadie had to clap a hand over her own mouth to stop herself from yelping aloud when her knee decided to become thoroughly intimate with a stack of packages left in the hallway. "Oh and watch your step. Looks like mom took some work home with her…these are probably undelivered…people around here have really small mailboxes so if they're not home, she can't deliver them…"
As Sadie had noticed before on the sand, despite Kimberlite's graceful bodyline, her movements were clumsy and sporadic. Almost as though she wasn't accustomed to walking on uneven surfaces.
True to Sadie's wishes, Kimberlite kept quiet and did not speak again until they were in the kitchen, her voice in notably hushed tones: "Please. What is the "mom" you keep talking about? Why must we fear disturbing her?" She lowered her voice further, almost to a whisper. "Is she your superior?"
"My superior? What? No," Sadie said with a smile, dragging up a chair and gesturing for Kimberlite to have a seat. "No…my mom is-…" She hovered on the thought for a moment, realising that she was about to explain the concept of motherhood to an alien that very clearly had no context for the idea. "Well, my mom is part of my family, y'know?"
"Family? Ah, you and she are made from the same components…similar materials...this is why you associate with each other?"
"Not just that," the blonde woman went on, flicking on some more of the kitchen lights and rooting out two mugs from one of the cupboards. "My mom takes care of me…she teaches me…" Sadie paused for a moment, taking into consideration how much or how little Kimberlite actually knew about human biology. "…she kind of created me."
"Oh…"
Kimberlite nodded slowly, leaning on the table, her long hair hanging over her shoulders like a shawl.
"Do…gems have moms?" Sadie asked, flicking the kettle on and taking an opportunity to shrug off her rather drenched coat.
"I can't respond on behalf of all gems but I think I do," Kimberlite responded, her voice soft and contemplative. "I think I have a mom but on my planet, she is called Blue Diamond. She is my caretaker and it was by her hand that I was created."
"Do you miss her?" Sadie felt the need to say, noticing that her house-guest had become slightly melancholy.
"No," was Kimberlite's simple and unwavering reply, though her chin was now resting upon her hands, her entire body slightly slumped over the table.
Sadie fell silent for a moment, feeling slightly awkward for having brought up what seemed to be quite a sensitive topic before finally deciding to follow up by saying: "I bet she misses you."
"She doesn't know that I'm gone," the gem told her, looking up with a rather wry smile. "I'm taking this little detour to Earth without her knowledge." There was a distinctly mischievous glint in her eye as she looked up at the human. "With any luck she'll never know I was even here."
That tiny, barely placeable look of coyness in the gem's eyes was enough to make Sadie very aware of her own breathing.
She had never been so grateful to hear the click of the kettle at her back, giving her the fortuitous opportunity to turn around to collect herself.
"You're definitely a little braver than me, anyway. I only ran away from home once and I'm pretty sure I came back about an hour later. What brings you to Earth, anyway? Like, is it a prime tourist destination or something?"
"Earth used to be a gem colony but gem occupation ended thousands of years ago…but I'd heard rumours that any gem who comes to Earth changes completely. She either turns completely against everything she knew or her faith in her path in life is completely renewed and she's one hundred percent more dedicated to her cause."
"So this is like a soul-searching kind of thing for you?"
"Soul-searching? Yes, I suppose so. Have you ever done any "soul-searching", Sadie?"
"I don't think I've ever really felt the need to. I mean, I guess I've always been pretty happy here." She glanced over her shoulder. "Tea or coffee?"
Kimberlite's head perked up, her eyes suddenly on the ceramic mugs that Sadie had placed upon the counter. "Pardon?"
"To drink. Would you like tea or coffee? I think we might have hot chocolate too but not a lot, so it wouldn't be strong or anything."
The gem was quiet for a moment before sitting back in the chair, looking a little embarrassed. "I don't know what those things are."
"That's ok. Sorry, I forgot you're not from around here," Sadie smiled to assure her. "They're all warm drinks. Coffee is the stuff that I gave you yesterday at the Big Doughnut."
"Ah, the black liquid? I shall sample some of that then. It smelled pleasant."
Sadie was in the process of explaining her mother's job to Kimberlite, seated across from her at the kitchen table and tentatively sipping at her mug of coffee, when she noticed that the gem hadn't touched her own mug at all.
"Something wrong with the coffee? Too hot? Do you want some milk maybe? That'll cool it down."
Kimberlite shook her head, scratching her temple bemusedly. "It's just…uh…I'm not quite sure how to go about consuming this liquid. I've been watching you for some time now and I can't figure it out. When you put it into your mouth, where does it disappear to?"
"I just swallow it."
"Swallow?"
"Yeah, like this. Watch." Sadie pulled aside the collar of her polo shirt to allow Kimberlite to see the motions in her throat, only to have the gem crane her neck, eyes widening in surprise.
"I do not think that I can do that. You seem to have some kind of connecting orifice at the back of your mouth."
"…yeah…don't you?"
The gem opened her mouth, allowing Sadie to see something quite alarming.
While Kimberlite possessed two full rows of teeth and an ordinary, (if not slightly green-tinged), tongue- all of the necessary oral components to produce normal speech, the back of her mouth was nothing short of anomalous.
The area where her soft palette should have given way to an oesophagus, there was simply a wall of flesh.
"But how do you eat? Or drink?"
Despite her surprise, with the kind of bizarre things that Sadie was used to experiencing in and around Beach City, she wouldn't have been all that shocked if Kimberlite had said something along the lines of "osmosis."
"Gems do not need to consume matter in order to gain energy like organic beings."
Sadie had a sudden, contradictory mental image of Amethyst cramming seventeen cream-filled doughnuts into her mouth, (Steven cheering her on in the background), and it took her a second or two to realise that "need" was the key-word in that sentence.
"So you probably don't need to breathe either," Sadie noted, looking at Kimberlite's nostrils and realising that given this anatomical revelation, the orifices were probably completely vestigial.
(Suddenly Amethyst's impressive feat made a lot of sense when one took into consideration that she didn't need to stop to breathe even if the actual mechanics of the act remained a mystery.)
"No. Not at all," her house-guest assured her, tapping the bridge of her nose where the long appendage started to curve into a slight hook. "I can breathe through my nasal cavities if I choose to but mostly, I only do it to perceive scent."
"Huh, no kidding?" Sadie recoiled a little, becoming very aware that she had scooted her chair around and was now, a lot closer to Kimberlite than she'd been before.
In fact, if she were to turn her head only slightly, the human woman's cheek would easily brush against the gem's.
Kimberlite herself, however, didn't seem to mind the proximity at all.
"Every part of me, that you see here," she told her hostess, gesturing to her long, tapering face. "Is only a projection."
Her shoulder nudged slightly against Sadie's head, reminding her of their rather noteworthy height difference, as she lifted her long arm and jabbed the black, strappy, pouch with a finger. "This is me. Underneath the gem guard."
"I…I think I understand," Sadie said with a nod, contemplating what exactly this indicated that Steven was. "Sorry about pulling off your, uh, guard, there. That time at the Big Doughnut. I didn't know that it was so important." She tilted her head a little, examining the rather bulky attachment. "None of the other gems that I know wear one of these."
Kimberlite's shoulders slumped very little, her brows arching a little. "Very few gems actually do. I have to keep mine wrapped up because…well…if I am injured…I am not the only one who will be hurt, so to speak…"
Noticing that she was suddenly becoming quite sad, Sadie quickly interjected. "Hey, it's ok. My mom is kind of protective of me too. I know that it's kinda stressful with someone always hovering over but it always comes from a good place, right?" She smiled, adding comfortingly: "And like I said outside, nothing's gonna hurt you here."
Kimberlite looked down at Sadie for a moment with that slightly forlorn look that seemed to instantly douse her skin in a tingling warmth. "Do you promise that?"
"Yeah, of course," Sadie told her earnestly, her heart rate picking up again when the gem's melancholy stare was replaced with the same mischievous sparkle as before.
"In that such case…"
Sadie watched as Kimberlite pulled away the protective band, revealing the long, luminescent lozenge that stretched from her wrist to the inner curve of her elbow.
"So this is you?" Sadie queried, her eyes tracing the gem.
"Yes," was Kimberlite's simple and rather shy reply as lifted her arm up a little more so that Sadie could inspect her more thoroughly. "In all my glory."
The kimberlite stone itself was every bit as mesmerising as she had originally remembered it, its pale green surface, flecked with dots and dashes of vibrant, metallic silver and speckled with dots of gold.
"You're…really beautiful," the human said before she could stop herself.
"Thank you, Sadie," the gem responded, sounding surprised and adding in a much less flustered tone: "There are hundreds of more beautiful gems than I. Ones made specifically to be beautiful. I'm functional but I was never intended to look striking. I don't need to be, I suppose. Blue Diamond rarely lets me sit in her public court." She sighed a little before smiling gently as she looked down at Sadie. "And I've seen humans that are more beautiful than I too."
"W-Well," Sadie coughed, feeling as though her skin would be as hot-to-the-touch as a gas stove at this point. "Looks are kinda subjective, right? I meant to ask you before we got side-tracked, do you wanna use the phone?"
Changing the subject was good, Sadie Miller decided.
Changing the subject was vitally, entirely, necessarily good.
"The…phone?"
"Yeah, to call someone to let them know where you are. Your friend from yesterday seems a little protective of you, if you don't mind me saying."
"Oh, a form of communication? No, thank you. That is not necessary. She knows where I am."
Kimberlite's eyes returned to the coffee in front of her, inspecting it curiously again.
"Uh, do you want me to get rid of that for you?"
"No…I want to try something…"
The gem studied Sadie's grip on her own porcelain mug and looped her own rather spindly, fingers around the handle, mimicking the human's actions.
She lifted her arm, coffee swashing turbulently around the porcelain rim as it neared the gem's lips.
Kimberlite hesitated for a moment, studying the liquid fearfully as her gaze darted back and forth between her own mug and Sadie's.
Wanting to help her somehow, the pale blonde haired woman extended her tongue from her lips and delicately lapped at the hot drink.
Catching her "mentor's" eyes and smiling faintly, Kimberlite slowly poked out her own tongue, (an odd but not quite ugly, mottled purple and green), and gingerly flicked the tip against the pool of black.
"Oh!"
She recoiled, almost dropping the mug and letting out an exclamation that prompted a slight giggle from Sadie.
"So you cantaste?"
"To perceive scent, yes." Kimberlite shuddered, shaking from her head to her waist.
"How d'ya find it?"
"Bitter. Strong. A little overbearing. Like oil…or iron supplement…or maybe zinc…" A smile suddenly broke out her face. "It doesn't taste all that bad though."
"If it's too bitter, you could always sweeten it up a bit," Sadie informed her, pushing the sugar bowl in her direction, the slightly chipped china clinking as it moved. "This is called sugar."
"My stars," Kimberlite breathed, leaning closer to the crudely carved crucible with mounting wonder. "These are tiny crystals."
"Kinda, we use them to add a kind of sweet flavour to things."
"Sweet? What is sweet?"
"Uhh, the opposite of bitter. You've never heard of sweet, at all? You know it's like…" Sadie paused for a moment, at an apparent loss to explain the concept of sweetness to a being that did not normally eat. "…uh, good….nice…pleasant? Here, try some."
Sadie scooped up a bare snowfall of the sugar granules on to her fingers, originally intending to model the action for Kimberlite however swiftly and suddenly, the gem quite misinterpreted the action.
She took a hold of the human's wrist, her grip surprisingly firm but gentle as she very lightly dragged her tongue across Sadie's fingers.
Now it was Sadie's turn to shudder violently.
Kimberlite's tongue was a lot colder than what a human tongue normally would feel like.
Like most things about the gem: it wasn't unpleasant- just different.
Sadie felt her lips part, perhaps to say something corrective but the sudden gleam in Kimberlite's eyes silenced her.
Her face was positively alit with almost comical surprise, prompting an instant giggle from the human.
"How's it taste?"
Kimberlite clasped Sadie's hand with sheer, undeniable glee, laughing melodically too. "Absolutely wonderful. Like it's trying to embrace me."
Something close to electricity shot up from her navel to the north of her body, waves of warmth rolling southward too.
It was at this point that Sadie first noticed , (or rather chose to notice), that her sleeve was still wringing wet, the material suddenly uncomfortably cold against her now very-temperate skin.
"Oh, wow," she stammered. "I'm soaking wet…and you're soaking wet…uh, I mean, our clothes are really damp…from the rain! We need to shower! Uh, I need to shower and you need to shower. Separately."
Sadie immediately got to her feet, feeling that it was important that Kimberlite couldn't see how red her face was.
"I've got an ensuite in my bedroom. Here I'll show you…"
She swallowed off the remainder of her coffee before leading her house guest downstairs.
Relief settled over her when she felt a sudden wave of comforting heat, reminding her that she had remembered to set the electric heating timer before she'd left for work.
Kimberlite seemed to have an immediate fascination with everything from the carpeted floor of Sadie's bedroom to the colour of the walls.
"This is your chamber? It's charming. Do you ever- oh!"
The gem suddenly recoiled, her eyes wide and staring as she shrunk back against the wall. "Beasts!"
Sadie whipped around, instantly prepared to dive for the baseball bat propped against her dressing table, until she saw just what Kimberlite was so frightened of.
"Oh, no. Those are just my stuffed animals," she explained, dismissively scooping up one of the googly-eyed little rabbits and tossing it aside. "They're not alive or anything."
"Great cosmos…"
Kimberlite hunched down to examine the plush menagerie, hesitantly prodding one of the pudgy, little puppies. "Pieces of textile art made to resemble Earth creatures. Novel! These little effigies are rather dear…are they decorative or ceremonial?"
"They were mostly gifts from my mom."
The gem, who now cradled a pudgy piglet plush toy in her lap, looked up at Sadie from where she knelt. "Your… mom must take very good care of you. To offer you so many tokens of her affection."
"Yeah, I guess she does. She's pretty great, alright," Sadie smiled, slinging a freshly wrangled, dry towel over her arm and plucking a slightly damp one from her wicker basket. "Well, since you're the guest I'm gonna award you showering-first privileges." She held out the dry towel. "Here, you can use this to get dry."
She yanked open a nearby drawer with a mind to finding Kimberlite something to change into but the gem stopped her.
"If my wet attire is causing you discomfort, I can rectify the issue," she explained to the human, who immediately felt another short-lived jolt of shock when the gem's entire body glowed with a bright ivory light.
When the glow receded, Kimberlite's clothes and hair both seemed to have restored themselves to a state of dry order once more.
For the first time, Sadie found herself really looking at what Kimberlite was wearing.
Living amongst the residents of Beach ("Let's-Keep-This-Place-Weird") City, she wasn't unused to coming across bizarre or out of place fashion choices but she suddenly felt a little surprised that the gem's choice of attire hadn't stuck out to her earlier.
From her neck to her feet, the gem was clad in what appeared to be a skin-tight, slate grey bodysuit. The sleeves stopped at her forearms but almost every other expanse of skin aside from her head appeared to be covered.
Draped over her body suit was a white tunic- not unlike a smock that an artist might wear- secured at the waist with a dark cerulean band and trimmed with a pattern of pale blue lozenges.
Sadie took a moment to firmly scold herself for staring so much.
Kimberlite's own stare, however, was rather fixated on the oversized pyjama shirt that Sadie held in her hand.
"Oh, is there a different form of appearance enhancer that is customary to be worn on these occasions?"
Before Sadie could respond, the glow instantly overtook Kimberlite's body once more only this time, when it dulled, the gem was clad in an identical version of the oversized pyjama shirt in the human's hands.
And nothing else.
"Ah-! Oh, wow…that's another heck of a party trick…!" she stammered, fiercely trying to tear her gaze away from the point at Kimberlite's mid-thigh where the hem-line finally stopped.
"Is this more appropriate?" the metamorphic gem enquired innocently, twirling around in her new garb, looking all-too-happy. "I've never worn attire like this before. There's…so much of me to see."
"You, uh, you don't have to dress like that if you don't feel comfortable," Sadie mumbled, giggling nervously as she scratched the back of her neck.
"No," Kimberlite said quickly, pulling back her collar outward and staring downward with comical wonder. "This feels so liberating."
"Yeah, I guess wearing slob clothes can be a pretty great feeling after a long day, alright. So, uh, you don't need to shower? At all? Ok…well, I'm not quite as gifted as you are...so…"
The gem handed her back the towel with an assuring look and a shrug. "If there are things you need to attend to, please go right ahead. I don't want to disrupt your evening schedule."
"Thanks…"
Kimberlite seemed quite happy to inspect Sadie's teddies and oddly enough, the almost-shivering woman was happy enough to trust her to do just that.
She reflected upon this, massaging coconut shampoo into her scalp under jets of hot, steaming water.
She had known Kimberlite for technically less than a day and already she had invited her into her home, was currently letting the gem lounge around her unguarded bedroom and had also accepted an exceedingly decadent gift from her.
The warm water felt good after a long day of work.
Her scraped chin stung faintly when a small rivulet trickled down over the torn skin but she was happy just to wash the mixed scent of day old doughnuts, stale coffee and pavement from her skin.
She pressed her forehead against the cold tiles, trying to shake the feeling of Kimberlite's tongue lightly grazing the side of her hand.
She wasn't disgusted per se but she was admittedly disturbed at the fact that she could just not stop thinking about it.
Truth be told, as soon as she had taken a (long overdue) shower following their little "Castaway" adventure with Steven, the feeling of Lars' mouth on hers felt like a hazy, sand-coated, slightly-fish-flavoured memory.
Kimberlite's action had been a naïve social mistepping that had lasted a bare fraction of a second and yet the incident replayed over and over in Sadie's mind like an 80s sitcom on reruns.
It wasn't a remotely frightening or upsetting incident; upon reflection, it was rather funny actually…but Sadie didn't want to laugh when she thought about it.
She didn't really want to do anything when she thought about it.
Except think about it some more.
And maybe smile the tiniest bit.
Sadie mentally slapped herself, turning off the water to punctuate her inner dialogue.
"Stop thinking like that, you creep," she told the mounting wave of giddiness inside of her. "If you liked girls or something, you'd swear that…"
She stopped in her tracks for a moment, letting the thought hang in the proverbial, steam-heavy air.
It wasn't like she hadn't had crushes on women before- the most memorable being a particularly stunning woman who had walked barefoot, wet-haired and grinning into the Big Doughnut late one evening.
She hadn't managed to get the woman's name but she and Lars had mutually decided to give her a free order of doughnuts.
Never had she felt so beguiled to have a customer question their business ethics.
Either way, she didn't want to make Kimberlite feel uncomfortable.
"Stop being so familiar," she told herself. "Just be kind, be friendly and make her feel welcome."
Sadie was in the middle of this very much-needed pep-talk but when she reached out from behind the shower curtain, her train of thought was abruptly derailed.
Instead of meeting the comforting, fluffy pelt of her bath towel, she was greeted by the feeling of a cold, metal towel rack.
Empty.
How was that possible?
She had picked out a towel, hadn't she?
She had offered it to Kimberlite but she had politely declined so Sadie had decided to keep it for herself and had left it in the bedroom…
She peered, wide-eyed out of the shower curtain, glancing frantically from the fogged-up mirror to the bathroom door. The hand-towel and bath-mat were far too small.
There was literally nothing she could use to cover up!
Steeling her nerves, she gripped the plastic shower curtain and called out:
"Uh…Kimberlite?"
There was a small scuffling sound and suddenly the gem's voice was right outside the bathroom door.
"Yes, Sadie? Are you alright? Can I…be of service to you during your…ablutions?" She appeared to be choosing her words a little hesitantly, not that her human host could blame her. "Would you…like me to join you?"
"No!" Sadie said quickly, adding in a softer tone. "No, no, no thank you. I was just wondering, did I happen to leave my towel outside?"
"Towel? Ah…yes, you did! Would you like me to fetch it for you?"
"That'd be great , thanks."
Relieved, Sadie stepped out on to her bathmat, daintily padding her feet dry and making her way towards the door.
"So maybe if you just pass it-?"
The words were barely out of her mouth when Kimberlite suddenly pulled the bathroom door wide open.
Sadie had only ever experienced the sensation of being literally "paralysed with horror" once before.
It was during her first ever softball game, batting for Beach City's premier Little League team, the Baby Narwhals.
At that exact moment in time, standing soaking wet and very, very naked in front of a woman that she barely knew, she really didn't know which was more mortifying: the current situation that she was in or the one-woman cheer-squad that was her mother.
"I-uh-! Ah-!"
Before Sadie could even form a basic utterance of any kind, Kimberlite thrust the towel into her hands, a wide smile on her face.
Her eyes were unassuming and innocent, the gem seeming completely unaware of the rather embarrassing situation that was unfolding in front of her.
"Did I retrieve the correct towel?" she asked hesitantly, a trifle apprehensive in the wake of Sadie's wide-eyed, slack-jawed expression.
The human woman had to force her lips to start shaping coherent words.
"Y-Yeah. Perfect! Great! Thanks!"
She took the towel, nervous laughter bubbling out of her throat like a geyser as she hastily covered herself up. "C-Can you just give me another second? I'll be right out!"
Kimberlite was standing patiently outside the bathroom when Sadie resurfaced, (fully dressed this time), the gem holding one of her legions of plush toys in her arms.
There was something so absolutely comical but so absolutely endearing about Kimberlite's entire demeanour that Sadie couldn't help but giggle.
It had taken her three or four minutes to contemplate how exactly she was going to face Kimberlite again after their little mishap but any trace of embarrassment immediately dissipated at the sight of the gem's friendly smile.
"You can sit down if you'd like," she told her, beckoning her over to the bed.
Mirroring her actions, Kimberlite followed her human host and sat upon the sheets, crossing her long, ropy legs.
"I must thank you again for allowing me to take shelter here tonight. Your personal chamber is so cozy."
"Meh, I keep it tidy and I like to set the central heating to come on about an hour before I get home. This place can get a little musty sometimes, y'know being a basement and all."
"Oh, I know the pains. My personal chamber is underground too. It's quite empty though- nowhere near as interesting as yours." Kimberlite reached up, lifting her long silver-grey hair and sweeping it to one side, effectively lifting the curtain that separated their lines of vision. "I am not allowed to move around the temple so much so I don't have much to compare by in the way of air conditions." She tilted her head curiously. "What is that device?"
Sadie considered the hairdryer, coiled haphazardly around her elbow, such a banal object that it took her three or four minutes to realise that that was what Kimberlite was talking about.
"Oh, it's just a hairdryer. Like, it makes hot air and you use it to dry your hair."
Sadie switched it on to show her, the gem reacting with amazement.
"It manipulates air and temperature!" she squealed, delighted when Sadie allowed her to hold it. "How does it achieve this?"
The human offered a careful demonstration, showing Kimberlite how to set the plug into the socket and how to adjust the settings but she almost dropped the hairdryer at the noise that the came from the gem's mouth when the warm gale was directed into her face.
The high pitched squeal seemed to embarrass Kimberlite too and she clapped a hand over her mouth.
The two caught each other's eye and suddenly burst into peals of uncontrollable laughter.
"I-I've never made that noise before!"
"It s-sounded like someone stepped on a rubber duck!"
"I don't even know what that is! And I still find it funny!"
When their laughter finally subsided, Sadie returned to doing her hair, eventually starting to notice the damp patches on her shoulders.
Kimberlite was consistently patient, happy to mouth conversation with the human woman and inspect the stitches in Sadie's quilt until the drying process was complete.
Sadie had just started to take a comb to her hair, set to begin the tedious, teeth-gritting process of taming her curly locks when the gem spoke up. "May I?"
She gestured to the comb, Sadie raising her eyebrows and instantly handing it over.
"Uh, yeah sure?"
Sadie felt a familiar tingle in her cheeks when Kimberlite came to sit behind her on the bed, her hands delicately sifting through the human woman's hair.
Features of the beguiling astral traveller's being had slowly came to her attention, like small folds of tide, coursing gradually through sand and for the first time, she took careful stock of the gem's body.
Mirroring the span of her face and the hooked, stretch of her nose, Kimberlite's torso and limbs were long. Despite this frame, her shoulders were broad- almost masculine- and her upper arms were strong.
As the gem slowly guided her to settle back against her chest, Sadie could feel the slightest swell, hinting at the existence of a very small but very there bosom.
"You've got lovely hair," the gem told her, deftly running the brush through her hair with apparent ease.
"Thanks. You've got really soft hands," Sadie replied. "Normally that old comb practically rips the hair outta my scalp. Though I guess with all your hair, you must get a lot of practice brushing."
"My Pearl usually brushes my hair," Kimberlite told her. "We sit in front of the fountain in my chamber and she brushes out my hair while telling me stories about what happened in Blue Diamond's court that day. She taught me how to brush it gently so that I wouldn't have to wait for her if my hair needed attending." She chuckled slightly, gathering Sadie's hair into a delicate coil at the nape of her neck. "Pearl always says that I have hair like a Quartz."
"A Quartz?"
"Yes. Wild and long and difficult to bring into submission. You see, on my Homeworld, I'm considered what you would call a "kept" gem." She gave Sadie a bemused look over her shoulder. "That's just a nice way for the working and military classes to call us spoiled pets." She giggled softly and lightly flicked the comb across Sadie's crown, drawing the soft primrose tendrils into a single sweep. "Kept gems are expected to have very short or very refined, well-groomed hair. Long, unruly manes are for soldiers, bodyguards and the likes…and they're all normally Quartzes. Hence, I have hair like a Quartz."
"Oh, I think I get it. Well, I think you've got great hair. I did a lot of different sports when I was a kid so my mom always made me keep my hair kinda short," Sadie told her. "I would've loved long hair. Lotsa hair to braid. I could do a mean braid when I was eleven!"
"Uh…braid?"
"Yeah, hang on. Switch places with me and I'll show you."
Sadie's found her skills a little rusty since it had been a while since her hair hadn't been habitually just above her shoulders but her fingers seemed to work of their own accord, weaving the hair into the familiar, pretty loops that her mother had taught her to craft.
Kimberlite was so delighted with the first, fragile little plait that she was happy to let Sadie keep going. Therapeutic as it was for the human and as much as the gem loved the novelty of having her hair toyed with, it wasn't long before Kimberlite's long, silvery tresses were adorned by at least fourteen individual vines of braid.
In the midst of their chatting, the alien woman alluded to Blue Diamond again and Sadie suddenly felt obliged to bring up to a topic that she'd been dancing around all evening.
"Uh, Kimberlite?"
"Yes?"
The gem's contented gaze was suddenly a hundred times more blush-inducing.
"I…uh…listen, it's not like I'm not grateful or anything but, uh…the diamond you gave me," Sadie sighed, swallowing and looking down at her hands as she spoke, clasped in her lap. "I…I'd like to give it back to you."
"Was there something wrong with it? I knew it was too small…"
Kimberlite's dejected voice immediately caused Sadie's head to jerk upwards once more.
"Oh no! Nothing like that, at all! It's just…giving someone a diamond- even a small diamond- here on Earth is a really big deal. I just don't think I deserve it like that. It was a nice gesture but-!"
"But why should it not be a "big deal?" You saved my life and I gave the diamond to you as a token of my thanks. You deserve the reward, Sadie."
"But you weren't even really drowning."
"But you still saved me." Kimberlite put her hand on the human woman's shoulder, dwarfing her slightly. "If you hadn't come across me when you did, I would have more than likely done a great deal of damage to myself." She smiled. "Please keep the diamond. For my peace of mind, if nothing else."
Sadie stared up at Kimberlite for a moment and then, all at once, returned the wide smile. "Alright. I will."
"Could you possibly promise me something else?"
"Depends on what it is, I guess."
"Could you promise me that you shall stop selling yourself short? I don't have much experience with human beings but by the standards of gems, you are a remarkable individual."
Sadie, in a different situation, might have shrugged off the compliment with a witty remark or a bashful grin but, with eyes firmly meeting Kimberlite's, she found herself instead saying: "Y'think so?"
The gem nodded. "Truly. Really and truly. If you were a gem, I'd have your hired into my service in the flicker of a star."
She winked and the human couldn't help but laugh. "You're a real gem, Kim."
Kimberlite nodded again, clasping her hands in front of her stomach. "Indeed, I am." She shifted her weight on the bed a little and adopting a more serious tone. "And now unfortunately, I'm afraid there's something a little less frivolous that I must ask of you."
"Oh…yeah?"
Instinctively, Sadie leaned closer to her, tilting her face upward.
"My Peridot and I have become stranded here on your planet. Our ship was damaged in the initial landing and we must repair it if we are to return home before Blue Diamond registers my absence."
"Well, I'm no mechanic but I'm sure if we ask around-…"
"We need to find a new power gem for the ship and for that, we need to find the Kindergarten."
"The Kindergarten? Like…a place where kids go to school? Or does that mean something different where you're from."
"It is a place where gems are formed. There is one here on Earth, not far from this residential area."
"Where gems are formed, huh?" Sadie racked her brain, trying to think of any possible candidate locations but to the best of her knowledge, Beach City wasn't nor had it ever been a mining town and didn't have much of a turnover of precious stones. "What would it look like?"
Now it was Kimberlite's turn to struggle for thought. "I have only ever seen them in visual logs…I suppose it would take the form of a rocky, mountainous land with many crevices lining the rock-faces. Does that sound familiar?"
Sadie clicked her tongue, shaking her head. "Not at all."
"Oh, I see…"
For some reason Kimberlite's crestfallen expression felt like a stab in the chest.
Like making the gem sad was possibly the worst thing she could have done.
"W-Wait though!" she said quickly, confused at her own eagerness to stop her house-guest's smile from fading. "I think I might know someone who can help you." She took a breath, shrugging a little. "There are other gems who live around here. My friend Steven lives with them. They might be able to help you with finding this Kindergarten place…"
Kimberlite looked hesitant for a moment, seemingly in deep contemplation, her eyes lowered and her brow furrowing before finally lifting her head in decided decision. "That would be very helpful. Thank you. You will accompany me when I take audience with them though? Won't you?"
"Yeah sure," Sadie assured her. "I've got a late shift tomorrow so I'll take you straight down to Steven's house in the morning." She smiled widely, trying to keep her voice as soothing as possible in the wake of Kimberlite's apparent anxiousness. "Hey, don't worry about meeting them. Steven and the gems are literally some of the nicest people that I know…"
For a moment, it looked as though the living stone had something that she wanted to say but if it was anything important, it certainly evaporated quickly when Kimberlite first took notice of one of the largest items in Sadie's room.
"Oh! You have your own personal communications hub! Do you have your own line? I would love to have one those!"
"Communications hub? No, no, no…that's just my old t.v. set!"
"Teevee," Kimberlite parroted, trying the new word out on her tongue.
"Yeah, television. Don't you have that where you're from? Here, let me show you."
Kimberlite's first reaction to television was nothing short of hilarious and when posed with the question of what the gem's first experience with the world of movies should be, Sadie had a feeling that something Disney was in question.
It was only an hour later that they were both deeply engrossed in a classic VHS edition of Cinderella.
They sat, shoulder to shoulder, (or rather head-to-shoulder), their backs pressed against the wall behind Sadie's bed and their eyes on the television.
Miss Miller herself was currently munching through a bag of well-deserved oyster crackers.
Kimberlite hadn't quite gotten the hang of eating yet but she was content to casually lick the flavouring from one of them, utterly transfixed with what she had termed "sentient artwork."
"This is stunning," whispered Kimberlite, as the protagonist whirled around the ballroom, in the arms of her prince. "Novel. A servant masquerading as a noble. I certainly hope she's not put to death for her defiance…"
What was "novel", if anything, Sadie couldn't help but think, was watching a movie like this with someone who was far from familiar with the typical conventions of fairytales.
"Nah, nothing so morbid's gonna happen," she told the other occupant of her bed in hushed tones, not taking her eyes from the screen. "But I'm not gonna give away the ending." She found herself laughing slightly. "I used to always loved this movie since I was kid. It's kinda embarrassing for someone at my age to watch something like this so often but I can't help but like it. I used to wish I could dance like that…"
Kimberlite sat up, her eyebrows raised. "It's rather easy. I could show you, if you wish."
Sadie spluttered slightly, shaking her head. "No, no, no. I don't dance. I can't dance."
The gem had taken in a lot of things in the last hour and had taken most of it fluidly in her gait.
But all at once, the very human concept of not being much of a dancer seemed to genuinely shock her into silence.
At least for a few seconds, anyway.
"Sadie, everyone can dance," the gem told her, slowly unfolding her legs to stand up. "It's the most natural thing in the entire universe. Everyone has a dance. They just have to learn it."
"Well, maybe for gems like you but not for humans. Some humans. Humans like me anyway," Sadie told her, kneeling up slightly and helping herself to another oyster cracker.
"Nonsense," Kimberlite declared, getting to her feet and turning to face the bed. "If I can learn to do it- so can you."
She held out her hand to Sadie. "Dance with me."
"What? Here? Now?"
"Here and now."
Sadie laughed nervously, waving her hand. "You can't be serious."
"I'm completely serious. You wish to dance like the figures in your "movie." I can teach you to do such a thing. Thus, I'm asking you to dance."
"Look, it's not that I don't appreciate what you're trying to do. I like the idea of dancing…what I don't like is the idea of people watching me while I dance."
"There's no one here to watch you right now." Kimberlite leaned forwards, holding out her hand a little further. "Well, aside from me and I'm certainly not going to judge you."
Sadie stared at her for what felt like an awfully long time, (though what in actual fact was probably less than thirty seconds).
Then she opened her mouth and what she thought she was going to say was a polite "no, thank you."
However, no sooner had her lips parted did she hear her own voice reply:
"Ok."
What am I doing?
What am I doing?
What am I doing?
Sadie's mind was racing as she put her hand in Kimberlite's, the gem's thumb draping gently over her knuckles as she guided her to stand.
Her eyes were on the alien woman and her rather regal gait as the two of them made their way to the middle of her bedroom.
"So how do you want to do thi-? Woah!"
The human couldn't help but let out an exclamation of surprise when the gem, in one fluid motion, stepped in front of her so that her nose was only bare centimetres from Kimberlite's bosom.
"For the purpose of my demonstration, I am going to act as the leading gem and you can be my follower," she told her human companion, slowly bringing her hand to rest upon her shoulder. "That means I'll be dipping you. Is that alright?"
If Sadie was in a more concentrated frame of mind, she might have had the sense to ask what exactly Kimberlite meant by what she had said.
However the moment the living stone's hand came to settle on the small of her back, her skin became so warm that she could only manage a quick nod.
"Excellent," Kimberlite went on, raising Sadie's still-held hand into a graceful waltz position. "Now, this is best performed if you rise on to your toes slightly as you move. Place all your weight on me if you need to. First, you're going to take a step backwards and then to the left."
"Ok, back …and to the left…"
"Very good. Now, to the right and then forwards, like you're tracing out a square on the floor with your feet."
Sadie followed the gem's direction, holding on to her for support and marvelling at the almost contradictory features of Kimberlite's physique.
The hand that held hers was delicate and slender whilst the shoulder that she gripped felt broad and strong. Again, the gem was both masculine and feminine at the same time and this fact on served to draw Sadie's interest in her.
"You're doing very well," Kimberlite encouraged gently.
"Yeah?" Sadie looked up with a smile, finally tearing her eyes from her moving feet. "You think so?"
"Of course," the gem told her with a chuckle. "Blue Diamond had her Pearl teach me to waltz and it took me at least three solar rotations before I was as good as you are now."
"Awwh, you're only saying that to make me feel better!"
"I swear it! You're an exceptionally fast learner!"
Both soft-spoken conversation and the soundtrack of the movie served as music for their first, rhythmless, imperfectly perfect first waltz.
She was taken by surprise when Kimberlite suddenly released her hand and drew her into a undexterous but remarkably unafraid twirl.
She had never felt so light before and Kimberlite's taller form made her feel perfectly protected- as though even if they did have an audience, she'd have no reason to be self-conscious.
Without being expressly told, her hand found the gem's again and their stepping sequence resumed and continued.
"It's kind of like braiding," Sadie thought to herself, relaxing as her legs followed Kimberlite's. "It seems complicated but once you get going, it just kinda comes naturally…"
She was jerked out of her own thoughts, (and subsequently only realised that she'd been staring at Kimberlite's chest the whole time), when the gem suddenly stopped their dance.
She immediately looked up, only to see the taller woman smiling down at her.
"Ready?"
"Ready for wh-?"
Kimberlite briefly drew Sadie close to her body before unanticipatedly swinging her to the side and dipping her down, the human's back suddenly sloping over the crook of the gem's arm.
"Gah!"
Sadie let out a small shriek, her immediate reaction being to flail wildly at the unnatural sensation.
Kimberlite subsequently lost her hold on the human's form and in a sweeping loss of balance, the two of them crashed to the floor in a tangle of limbs.
"Oh my stars and galaxies!" Kimberlite spluttered, trying to sit up but leaning on her own plaited hair and causing her to fall back down upon Sadie again. "I am so sorry."
"No, no…I'm sorry…I kinda ruined that, didn't I?" Sadie sighed, trying unsuccessfully to sit up straight once more.
"Not at all," the igneous gem told her, testing her own weight on one arm. "I should have warned you before I went for a finale. Things were just moving so fluidly and dancing with you is so very enjoyable that I'm afraid I rather forgot to-oh!"
Kimberlite's hand slipped from under her, causing the gem to violently wobble forwards, most of her long hair falling forward over her face.
"Oh pebbles," she exhaled, attempting to blow clumps of her own, unravelling hair from her mouth. "It would appear that I am a…how do you say it? A klutz?"
Sadie stared at her for a moment and without second thought, began to laugh uncontrollably.
Kimberlite raised an eyebrow but smiled widely, also amused. "Is something wrong?"
"It's just…your hair," Sadie giggled, her embarrassment quickly dissolving. "It looks as if it's trying to take over your face. Here. Let me give you a hand." She reached up to brush the long, greyish tendrils from Kimberlite's face.
The gem leaned into her touch for a moment, her eyes fluttering shut.
Sadie noticed this, holding her hand steady for a moment and –with mounting awe- studied the serene expression above her.
The gem's normally cool skin felt as though it was slowly warming beneath her hand and both women were, little by little, forgetting themselves.
A startling white glow emanating from Kimberlite's arm immediately opened the doors to reality once more. Her gem was gleaming brightly, similar to as it had when she had changed her clothes and made the coffee disappear.
Only this time, the brightness was even more intense- harsh but enthralling, a lovely contradiction.
The only words Sadie could think to describe it were "blinding but not in a painful way."
And the human couldn't help but think that she'd seen it before somewhere.
Kimberlite immediately sat up, studying her gem with the same surprise as Sadie, watching as it faded slowly back to normality.
"Wow," breathed Sadie, pushing herself upright. "That was really beautiful. What happened?"
Unlike the instances before, nothing seemed to have changed about Kimberlite or her surroundings.
"I don't know," the gem exclaimed, her voice rife with incredulity. "It's never done that before!"
"Well, are you feeling alright?" the human asked her, concerned as she kneeled up.
"I'm fine now but…I don't know. I've never felt like that before." She looked at Sadie, her eyes still wide with disbelief. "It didn't feel bad or anything but it was so strange. My entire body felt as though it was slipping out of my control, it was…I can scarcely explain it…"
"Maybe you're feeling a little faint. You can use my bed for the night if you'd like. I'll get out the futon for myself…"
Kimberlite, despite her best intentions, was a little more of a hindrance than a help when it came to rolling out the futon but her eager antics never once failed to make Sadie smile.
They both sat back upon the bed to watch the ending of the movie, Sadie's head on Kimberlite's shoulder and Kimberlite's head atop Sadie's.
The gem breathed a sigh of relief. "I am so very happy that Cinderella was not left looking like a fraud! I was so frightened when her master shattered the glass orthopaedic enhancer; it would have left the ruling class humans without any means of identifying her…"
"Yeah, that part always makes my heart race, even though I've seen it like over one hundred times," Sadie replied, curling her knees up to her chest.
"Human mythos is far more interesting than the mythology of my world."
"Yeah? But you're all, like, magical and stuff. I would'a thought you guys would have the best stories to tell."
"Mmm, fictional tales with any kind of overly hyperbolic elements are frowned upon."
"That sucks."
"Indeed."
Sadie yawned, settling down on the bed and laying down on the pillow.
Kimberlite, mostly in an effort to keep eye contact, settled down beside her.
"Sadie?"
"Hm?"
"I don't think I understood the ending of the…uh, movie. What happened to Cinderella and the ruling class human? What were they doing?"
"They got married."
Sadie was starting to feel sleepy, her eyelids drooping.
"Married? What is that?"
"It's like when people decide to stay together forever and they make it official to everyone they know…"
"That sounds nice."
"It can be, I guess."
Sadie must have fallen asleep because her next immediate registry of sensation was Kimberlite's hand slightly shaking her shoulder.
"Hmm?" she inhaled sharply, rubbing her eyes, barely conscious. "Oh…sorry…mmm…I must'a fell asleep."
"You lost consciousness. I was worried that you were hurt."
Sadie laughed throatily, shaking her head and settling back into the warm, plush spot beneath her head. "No, no…humans need to sleep to like…recharge…"
"So it's normal?"
"Yeah, as long as I'm breathing: I'm good."
"Ohh…"
Thoroughly exhausted, Sadie was completely content with her decision to simply allow slumber to steal over her once more.
Just before she succumbed to her hazy world of dreams once more, she felt the need to inform Kimberlite: "Y'know, I've never been so close to a gem before. You guys are really…" She yawned. "…really cool."
"I've never met a human before," Kimberlite whispered in return. "You're really cool too."
The gem was content to watch the human slowly fall asleep.
Kimberlite decided that she didn't mind when Sadie's arm wrapped around her side.
She also decided that deciding to ask Sadie for help personally was an excellent decision.
And she was regretting her decision to come to Earth less and less with every passing second.
Or more specifically, with every rise and fall of Sadie's chest.
Thank you for reading!
We'll be back to the Crystal Gems in the next chapter!
If anyone is interested, kimberlite is actually quite an intriguing real-world gem.
I came across it while researching a geography-based paper.
Kimberlite's (the character's) role in gem society actually stem from the real-world gem's properties in that pieces of diamonds and traces of other precious stones are commonly found inside of it.