A/N: nearly 3,000 words is a little big to be called 'drabble' sized, but oh well. Still debating whether or not to update during Stevenbomb 3.0 next week (is anyone really going to read when the canon is actually updating?), but I have just enough written out to make it until Monday. :)

"There haven't been any schedule changes on the general roster recently, have there?" Sapphire asks Ruby when she spots an unfamiliar face in the recreation room. A plagioclase, by the look of those striations. She's a big one, too, standing at least seven feet tall.

No doubt about it, Sapphire has never seen her before.

"Not that I've heard," Ruby replies, following her gaze while also simultaneously waving hello to their friends. "Besides, if there has, there would be a whole set of new faces here, not just the one."

"Have either of you met the new gem yet?" asks Apatite conspiratorially as they join the group, who are sprawled out over some decidedly uncomfortable furniture along the east wall. She inclines her blue head towards the plagioclase. "Just transferred in. From Containment Unit 2, if you believe the rumors."

"Didn't you do time in 2, Sapphire?" says Tourmaline. At this point, her friends have at least a rough idea of the Containment Units she's toured through.

"Yes."

"Is it really as tough a place as the rumors say?"

Sapphire shrugs. "It was for me, but I always figured I was special."

Ruby, next to her, snorts at the monumental understatement. Sapphire's told her that recreation time in Containment Unit 2 was a lot like going to war. It's where Sapphire perfected her fighting style. Compared to Unit 2, the violence that Unit 6 occasionally sees is nothing more than playful banter.

"Look at the way she holds herself," Tourmaline says. "Waiting in an easily defensible corner with a stance like she's waiting to be ambushed? I'd say it wasn't just you who was special, Sapphire."

Yes, but Tourmaline knows about easily defensible corners, so what does that say about her?

"It often isn't," Sapphire agrees amiably. "I'm just not very observant."

"Gem in the left eye, though." Citrine makes a sympathetic noise as she crosses her legs at the knee and adjusts her sundress' short skirt. "So close to the centerline, yet just missing it. That's worse than being way off, if you ask me."

Sapphire doesn't say so, but she is inclined to agree.

"Has anyone tried talking to her?" asks Ruby. That is an ironic question if there ever was one, seeing as Ruby never voluntarily goes out of her comfort zone to meet new people. The only reason she did with Sapphire is because those were her orders.

"Nah. Looks pretty feral to me," Apatite says, casting a somewhat unsettled glance back at the plagioclase. "Besides, feldspars have a higher hardness than me. I wouldn't want to risk it."

"Oh yeah, you're pretty soft aren't you?"

"Tourmaline, shut up."

Tourmaline laughs. "What? You started it."

"Oh no," Citrine moans with sympathy. "She's going after Calcite."

Either becoming bored at her post, or realizing Containment Unit 6 didn't quite have the punishing military atmosphere of Unit 2, Plagioclase has left her corner in favor of stalking up to an asymmetrical Calcite that had the misfortune of glancing curiously over.

She grabs the smaller gem by the collar and easily hauls her up to eye level. "You got a staring problem?" she growls.

Calcite's short legs kick, but she doesn't struggle too hard. "No. No, of course not!" she manages. "It's just—you're new. I haven't seen you around before…"

"Oh, so that makes it okay to give gems funny looks, huh?" Plagioclase shakes the smaller gem, and Sapphire can see the bruises forming from here. When gems of such drastically different hardness interact, that tends to happen. It's less pronounced in the Containment Units, where gems are identified by their defects first, but even down here gems of similar hardness tend to stick together. On the surface, with the rest of the populace, it shapes the very structure of their culture; those of lower Mohs always cater to those above them.

For example: if her gem were symmetrical, as a corundum Sapphire would have been ranked just under the Diamonds. Go figure, right?

Calcite whimpers as Plagioclase leans in close and mutters, "I can shatter you, and no one would care. You might as well be as disposable as a pearl."

"No, please, I just—"

"That's enough." Sapphire's skirts are still billowing around her legs from the swiftness of her movement, and her spiked knuckledusters indicate that she's already prepared to take this to the next level, though she can't remember consciously doing any of this. She stares up at Plagioclase coldly, despite the fact the other can't see her eyes. "Put her down."

"Oh, ho!" Plagioclase shakes Calcite right in front of her nose, causing the smaller gem to grunt and squeak in discomfort. Cracks of perfect cleavage begin to spiderweb over Calcite's illusionary form. She isn't going to last much longer, but maybe retreating into her gem isn't the worst thing to do right now. "Does this bother you, runt?"

"I said," Sapphire speaks quietly, but she raises the knuckledusters on her gem-free left hand. "Put her down. Now."

"Ooh, lookit this! She wants to fight!" Abruptly disinterested, Plagioclase tosses the little Calcite away. Thankfully, Tourmaline is there to catch her and prevent further injury.

Plagioclase summons a sword. It's just a straight blade, but it gleams menacing in the light of the recreation room. "Okay, runt. If it's a fight you want, I'll give you a fight."

It isn't until Sapphire darts wide and under Plagioclase's guard, until the honest noise of injury and surprise greets her quick jab to the torso, that she finally realizes why the other gem is being so brash: she doesn't realize what Sapphire is. Blue sapphires can potentially be mistaken for blue apatites if seen from a distance and with an uncaring eye. Plagioclase might have overheard their conversation from earlier and assumed it was Sapphire talking instead of the blue-tinted Apatite, and they had more or less been in her blind spot.

Sapphire takes note of the furious growl and neatly dodges the next few swings of the sword. Her guard isn't near as airtight as Ruby's. For all that she's a mid-ranking hardness, Plagioclase doesn't seem to give a damn about much more than overwhelming her opponent with size and brute strength. With an attitude like that, how had she survived in Containment Unit 2 at all?

She probably perceives Containment Unit 6's amiable atmosphere as one of weakness. Pity. Understandable, all things considered, but a pity.

This time, Sapphire administers a shock to the back of her opponent's leg before darting away. She's dancing in and out of Plagioclase's gem-induced blind spot, forcing her to keep turning, her sword arm to keep swinging.

"What the—would you just fight like a real gem?"

"I'm sorry, what was that?" she asks, pausing just long enough for Plagioclase to see her cup one gloved hand around her ear. "You're too slow?"

Plagioclase swings wide and roars "I said fight me, you puny excuse for a mineral!"

Sapphire flits away again, making sure to giggle loud enough for everyone to hear.

Sapphire can be patient when she feels like it. She doesn't mind zipping around two steps ahead of Plagioclase again and again, drawing the crowd in ever closer, waiting for the perfect moment. When it comes, Sapphire drops low and sweeps the larger gems legs out from under her. It shouldn't be possible for someone her size to do it, but her hardness gives her the advantage she needs, because a feldspar will always give way to a corundum.

Plagioclase falls hard, and her sword shatters back into abstractions of light and energy. She's panting and disoriented and groaning in pain as Sapphire uppercuts, and then stops just millimeters from her chin.

"You're new here, so allow me to explain this to you." When Plagioclase makes to snatch her ankle or the hem of her dress and drag her down, Sapphire kicks the hand back. She snatches Plagioclase's jaw and squeezes hard enough that she can't pull back, but not hard enough to bruise. "Maybe you could get away with torturing other gems where you're from, but we don't tolerate that here," she hisses. "And in case you haven't noticed, you aren't the toughest gem around. You do something awful to them? I'll find out, and then I'll do it to you. Because that," she punctuates her sentence with a clench to the softer gem's jaw that's just hard enough to leave a mark. A reminder. No sympathy enters her demeanor when she hears the tiny crack, or Plagioclase's sharp intake of breath. "Is the kind of difference we're talking about. Oh," she says, noticing the fiery look of defiance in her opponent's single eye. "You don't think I'm going to find out, do you? Don't worry, Plagioclase." Sapphire jerks the bigger gem's head to the side and moves her bangs just enough that Plagioclase's can get a good, long look. For the first time, fear enters the other gem's one working eye. Sapphire allows herself to smirk, just a little. Just enough to look like a nightmare. "I see everything."

With that, she allows her hair to fall back into place and casually releases Plagioclase. She purposely turns her back on the other gem, just to prove how confident she is in her victory, but she keeps the knuckleduster on her left hand hidden in the folds of her skirt, just in case.

Ruby has been just out of range since Plagioclase summoned her sword, prepared to join the brawl, the entire time. She keeps to the right, away from the weapon and protectively close to the vulnerable gem on Sapphire's right palm, as they fall wordlessly into step together. The crowd—far more interested in watching the fight than in stopping it, as usual—parts for them easily. There are a few rowdy congratulations for the defeat of this bully, as one might expect, but it's all underlain by a thin, uneasy feeling about the side of Sapphire most of them have never seen. They've seen her fight Ruby, sure, but this was far too calculated to be of similar ilk.

"Well, I don't think that one is going to be a problem anymore, that's for sure," says Tourmaline, trying to keep it jovial. "That was terrifying, Sapphire! Who knew you had it in you?"

"I didn't," Citrine says, though she looks and sounds a little like she wants to shrink away. Sapphire can hear the questions from here. Is that how she normally is? "Is that what you have to be like in Unit 2?"

Sapphire offers a small, rueful smile. She can't help what came over her, just like she can't change the fact that her friends have seen this side of her. "Unfortunate, isn't it?"

"Well," Apatite says, her arms akimbo. "It certainly makes me appreciate this dump a little better!"

"I think I'm going to head back early, before anything else dramatic happens," says Sapphire. "See you all tomorrow?"

"Absolutely," Tourmaline grins and offers a thumbs up. "Ruby, are you going too?"

"Yeah, I think so. If anything happens on the way, we're going to need eye witnesses, right?"

Ruby's casual joke and demeanor do wonders to soothe the tension in their little friend group, because if Ruby—who has to spend all day, every day with her—thinks Sapphire is still safe to be around, then she must be fine. As the doors to the recreation center clang shut behind them Sapphire can't help thinking that her friend has saved her in a way she can't quite articulate.

"You've gone soft, Sapphire," Ruby says when they're more than halfway back and Sapphire has finally allowed her knuckleduster to fade. Her voice is a thoughtful murmur.

She lets out a laugh. "I singlehandedly bully a weaker gem into submission in front of a crowd, and I've gone soft?"

"All of those wounds were superficial. You just tired her out and bruised her a little. She'll be good as new, come tomorrow—well, I mean, her pride won't be, but that needed to be bashed up some." Ruby pauses, and then decides to say it aloud, "A corundum against a feldspar is no contest. You could have destroyed her."

"The difference between Plagioclase and myself is nearly the same as the difference between her and Calcite," Sapphire says. "There is no logic in hypocrisy."

Ruby doesn't get the chance to reply, because then they hear, "Sapphire!"

She is quick to summon her weapon, entirely expecting Plagioclase to be barreling after her with revenge on the brain, but instead it's only Calcite. She's still bruised, which really isn't helped by the fact that she seems to have sprinted the entire way here, but she doesn't seem panicked.

Sapphire lets her weapons fade with a tiny frown of confusion. "Calcite. What's going on? Is Plagioclase acting up again already?"

"No, nothing like that," Calcite waves the subject off with surprising callousness. She's still panting from the run, but she doesn't wait until she's got her breath back to keep going. "You just left before I could talk to you. You didn't have to defend me. I—I'm used to stuff like that, you know?"

"I see," Sapphire says, tangling her fingers up in her skirts. "Well, I meant no disrespect—"

"No, you're misinterpreting me. I wanted to thank you!" Indeed, Calcite looks quite earnest. Or maybe that's just her mussed up white hair. "You didn't have to do it, but you did anyway. You don't know how rare that is."

"Oh." Honestly, Sapphire doesn't know what to say. Nobody's ever gone out of their way to acknowledge something she's done before, she doesn't think.

"If there's something I can do to help you," Calcite begins.

"Oh, no! No, please, don't feel obligated."

"I don't. I'd like to do something to help, to show you my thanks."

"Please, I mean no disrespect when I say this," says Sapphire gently. "But you don't owe me anything, Calcite. Just the thanks is enough. I promise."

Calcite isn't convinced, and it takes a few more renditions of the same before she understands that Sapphire isn't going to accept any kind of reward. She does, however, force Sapphire to promise to ask her for help first, should she need some in the future. Only then does she concede to smile and go on with the rest of her day.

Once they're locked in her quarters again, the damned communications center an imposing reminder of what she will have to return to very soon, Sapphire asks Ruby quietly, without looking at her, "So why were you off to the side and at the ready? Didn't think I could handle Plagioclase on my own?"

"No," Ruby says. There is a degree of apology in her voice, but mostly Sapphire just hears that she doesn't regret her choice. "That was in case you went too far."

"I thought so." Sapphire drops into the communications chair and props her cheek on one bitter, untrustworthy hand. "What was that about me going soft again?"

At first Ruby doesn't say anything, but then Sapphire hears, "You're a little rusty. She almost nicked you a couple of times."

"Yeah, well I've fallen out of practice recently. No surprise there."

"I seem to have found myself in the same situation," Ruby remarks lightly. "Would you like to start sparring during recreation times? Without the thinly veiled rage this time?"

For the life of her, Sapphire cannot grasp where this change of heart is coming from. Is it an apology for thinking she would lose control with Plagioclase? Something she's been wanting to bring up for a while? What? "You know," she finds herself saying regardless. When she glances up, Ruby is looking right back, entirely unafraid, and Sapphire smiles wryly. "I'm not sure our fans would be able to handle it on a regular basis."

Ruby laughs like Sapphire's quip has well and truly caught her off guard. "I think," she replies with a grin. "They're just going to have to learn to deal with it."