Steven found Pearl outside pinning up his clothes to dry. She clamped the clothes pins perfectly upright on the clothesline like soldiers, stationed evenly at the corners of Steven's shirts and pants, etc. She kept extra clothes pins on the knuckles of the fingers she didn't use to hang clothes. Pearl always had six clamped to her hand at once, and got more when those ran out, hanging at least three pieces of clothing with every garrison. Steven decided to help her by handing her his just washed clothes for her to hang up.
"How was your trip to the convenience store?" said Pearl.
"It was fine," replied Steven. "Although, nobody carries cassette tapes anymore. So, we just got a digital recorder instead."
Pearl hung up a pair of Steven's pants. She sighed like a dog. "Honestly, the way Peridot yammers on and on about herself and her paranoia is maddening. You'd think if she were so protective of her thoughts she'd pipe down a little."
Steven handed Pearl another one of his pants because Pearl liked patterns. "I guess."
"And beyond that, being an enemy of Rose's legacy-the Crystal Gems-that she should voluntarily lock herself away in your bathroom is absolutely ludicrous." She looked at Steven with a hand on her chest, as if her breath had been taken away. "It's as if we're in one of your cartoons."
Steven chuckled. "It is pretty funny if you think of it that way." He handed Pearl his last pair of dampened jeans.
"I swear, if I have to clean up another one of her experiments, I'm going to go crazy. She's already ruined half of your wardrobe, thinking your clothes would help her defend herself against us. Ridiculous."
Steven started fishing around for socks in the laundry basket. "I wish I knew how to make things better."
"I assume," said Pearl, a pair of wet socks in her hand, "that it isn't just Peridot you're referring to?" She plucked another pin from her knuckles. "Don't worry about them, Steven. Things between those two will get sorted out, for better or worse, eventually. They'll have to."
"I just wish there was something we could do to help them. Sort it out, or... something."
Pearl waited for Steven to get another pair of socks and hand them to her. "You really are just like your mother."
Steven never knew how to take that phrase, whenever someone said, you're just like your mother. It conjured up his estranged feelings about his mother, and the kind of person she must have been compared to himself, especially if Steven was just like her. It also made him think that there was no way he and his mother were exactly alike, and he wondered what differences he had from her. It all ungrounded him. Especially since the embodiment of his mother was in the Gem on his belly. Steven appreciated their sentiment, though, whenever anybody said he was just like his mother; they never meant to trouble him, but to praise him.
"Chances are, they both likely know what they need to do," said Pearl, pinning up more socks, "to get passed their little kerfuffle. And, surely, it's in them to understand, in order to do that, they'd have to get past themselves." Pearl moved on to pinning up Steven's underwear. "But, that never happens immediately. It'll take time before either of them are ready to face each other again. How much time it'll take will depend on them, and from what I've seen of these two," Pearl shook her head, "it's going to be a while."
Pearl kept on hanging Steven's clothes until the laundry basket was empty. She plucked it up and made for the warp pad. Steven followed her.
On the warp pad he glanced at Pearl, the laundry basket on her hip, dividing them. What Pearl had said reminded him of her resentment toward his father. In Pearl's eyes, Steven knew, Greg Universe took Rose Quartz away. It was because of this that Steven trusted what Pearl had said to him. Although, for forgiveness to happen, if it was completely dependent on those involved, then, taking Pearl and his father as an example, Steven became worried from the years forgiveness could take to arrive.
In a flash of light, Steven and Pearl were back in their home. Walking down from the warp pad, Steven asked, "If people hurt one another, and didn't mean to, or didn't want to, can it really be so bad that they should avoid each other for a really long time?"
"Well, Steven," Pearl began, "it's just how things are sometimes."
Steven knew this tone of voice. Pearl was either trying to be protective of Steven, or she was avoiding the question. For his question, maybe it was both. Regardless, Steven didn't like being treated like he was five again.
"Maybe they are that way sometimes," he said, "but they don't have to be, right? If things turn out like that, it's because people chose for them to be like that."
Steven watched, from the bottom of the stairs, Pearl walk up to his loft. She said to him, "Even if the harm was unintentional, the pain is there." She set down his laundry basket next to his bed. "Sometimes the pain is substantial. And everyone expresses and reacts to that pain differently. Some fight, some scream, some cry. Others might just want to be left alone." Pearl descended from the loft. "And sometimes," she said, looking Steven in the eye, "the pain can be so much that just seeing the one who caused it can flood one with anxiety, anger, fear."
Pearl sat on the stairs so that she was level with Steven. She patted the open space next to her, for him to sit. She leaned over on him and held onto him. Pearl was dreamy-eyed. "It takes time, Steven."
Steven felt Pearl's warmth. He grabbed onto her arm. "Time heals all wounds, huh?"
Pearl breathed. "Or so I've heard."
Sunlight, as well as the light breeze from the beach, trickled in through the windows.
That night, in bed, Steven could hear Peridot talking to herself in the bathroom. He couldn't make out every word, but she couldn't be ignored.
Steven didn't think of it at the time, but maybe Pearl had wanted to avoid the question because Peridot was in the bathroom and could've heard her. Steven, too bothered with Pearl, had forgotten Peridot was there. He suddenly felt like he was five.
...