A/N: This chapter was way too much fun to write. Also, if you're familiar with some of the more popular Ruby/Sapphire fan-comics, there are a few nods to those in here. I couldn't resist! ;P
Also: You, Guest reviewer, with all of your kind words: I was so touched I nearly cried. I can't reply to you via PM or email, since you're anonymous, but I just want you to know that (because I assume you're reading this chapter anyway). I read it, and I am deeply honored that you feel that way. As someone who takes their writing (even their fanfiction) seriously, there is probably no higher compliment that you could have given me. Thank you. Thank you so much!
Lastly: I've decided that Tourmaline is actually a Watermelon Tourmaline. This might explain some of my descriptions of her hair.
"Hey, Ruby? Can, uh—can I talk to you?"
It's obvious that Citrine doesn't mean here, with the rest of their friends around.
Ruby blinks, bemused, but then shrugs. "Yeah, sure." She hops up from the table they are all gathered around, trying to prove that Apatite and Tourmaline's chess game can, indeed, be made into a spectator sport. "Oh, and Apatite? I wouldn't go there if I were you."
"You're just saying that to shake my confidence, like the last three times!" Apatite lets out a grunt of frustration and clacks her bishop down with renewed zeal. "Get out of here and have your private conversation already!"
"Actually, you really shouldn't have gone there," Sapphire says, leaning on the knuckles of her gem holding hand.
"What—really?" Suddenly Tourmaline is all ears. Well, all eyes, anyway. She is now raking her gaze over the chessboard for the incredible opportunity she has so obviously missed. She mutters under her breath, "It's got to be here…"
"Sapphire, would you stop cheating!" cries Apatite. She's so frustrated that she is nearly beating her fist on the table—actually, she has already done so in an alternate timeline. "I thought we all agreed you weren't allowed to do that!"
With a toothy grin, Ruby offers Sapphire her gem free hand, palm up.
Sapphire, still leaning on her right hand, nonetheless answers the wordless call to high five with her left.
"You've got Sapphire in on it now?" screeches Apatite. It's hard to say whether she's more indignant or impressed. "Ruby, I swear, this is the last time I play chess with you around—the very last!"
Indignant, Sapphire decides. It's not as genuine as she might insist, either, which is fortunate. Getting a rise out of Apatite is not only easy, but immensely entertaining.
"Citrine?" asks Ruby, since Citrine still has yet to stand. "This whole talking thing was your idea, remember?"
Citrine finally stops staring at Sapphire (inwardly, a part of Sapphire sags in relief) and pushes herself to her feet. "Yes, right. Definitely my idea. Here—let's go over there, okay?"
Sapphire already knows what is going to transpire, but she doesn't allow herself to react as Citrine leads Ruby off.
Tourmaline casts them a funny sort of look, but then visibly shrugs it off and returns to more important matters. "So am I missing a way to win this game, or not?" she demands, rounding on Sapphire.
Sapphire doesn't flinch. She is trying her very best to appear nonchalant as she continues to lean on her gem hand, but on the inside she is now cackling with laughter. Tourmaline is just as much fun to rile up as Apatite. "Who's to say?" she speculates, flapping her free hand whimsically.
"You what?"
Oh, Citrine's suspicions about Ruby's relationship with Sapphire have officially been confirmed.
Tourmaline frowns, and even Apatite is distracted from her pouting. They both look over to where everyone can see Ruby shrugging. They can't hear what she's saying, but Sapphire's already Seen it. "Yeah. Nobody's all-in or anything, but we're giving it a try. I thought everyone knew about that already?"
"What's her problem?" Tourmaline asks Sapphire, jerking her pink-streaked bob towards Citrine, who has buried clenched fists into the ruffles of her flouncy, sunset-colored sundress.
Sapphire lets her hand fall to the tabletop and straightens her back and shoulders. Don't blush, she tells herself. You blush, and you will never live it down. "Citrine didn't know that Ruby and I were involved."
"Wasn't that the reason you two caused that big commotion with Kunzite and Morganite a while back?" says Apatite, puzzled.
"Yes."
"I thought everyone knew that," says Tourmaline.
Once punishments were doled out by the senior staff, and Calcite had naturally gotten off scot-free for being a victim, the little white gem had turned into quite the gossip. It was mostly boasting about her involvement in the plan, but when asked why there had been a plan at all Calcite had needed very little encouragement before divulging her personal theories.
In a small place like Containment Unit 6, word spreads like flames in a vacuum. According to the last story Sapphire eavesdropped on, she—a gem tragically incapable of love—was supposed to be on death row over a crime so horrifying not even the senior Supervisors actually knew what it was. However, the hopelessly smitten Ruby was doing everything within her power to save her Ice Princess, including but not limited to challenging Yellow Diamond herself to a duel over the matter. The commotion with Morganite and Kunzite, the rumor speculated, was just the tip of the iceberg!
"Apparently, Citrine did not," says Sapphire.
"Well, she has been focusing more on how you both now have a solid reputation for defending the weak and challenging authority on issues of systemic inequality," Tourmaline says, half musing.
This is not a lie. The respect they have from Unit 6 inmates is downright palpable now. They have been generally well liked for their entertaining sparring matches these last couple decades, but now that they are outright manipulating Supervisors—a feat no other inmate has even dreamed of—Sapphire and Ruby are beginning to be heralded as heroes, of a sort. The romance thing is obviously just a clever way to get their names out there; it is not the endgame.
Frankly, the whole thing is as embarrassing as it is flattering.
"Yeah, I'm a little unclear on that part," Apatite says. "Did you realize that would happen, or…?"
Sapphire's cheeks are burning. She's knows they are. "Why can't both have been the objective?"
"Because that would mean—oh." Tourmaline puts a hand to her frizzy, streaked bob as the realization strikes, and then she grins. "You two are good!"
Well, maybe her cheeks are not burning. Tourmaline would have said something, otherwise.
Sapphire offers a wry smile. "Thanks. We try."
Apatite smiles at first, but it quickly fades. "Yes, but Citrine…" She glances back at their friends, still talking off to the side. Citrine is upset, borderline angry, and for once Ruby is the calm one (bewildered, actually—she hadn't realized Citrine thought so highly of her).
"I know," Sapphire says. "But this is a conversation that needed to happen."
"I know you take your work seriously, Ruby, but you're not obligated to save her," Citrine says, her voice wavering. "You shouldn't feel like you have to do this, or that this is your only option. Just because nobody else sees you for most of the day doesn't mean you're a lost cause."
Ruby grunts and crosses her arms. "I know all of that!"
"Do you, though?" Citrine's voice is soft, and her ocher eyes are prodding. Worried.
"Damn it, Citrine, don't you think I've already thought of that? Do you think she—" Ruby throws her arm towards Sapphire "—hasn't already forced me to think about that? Twice? I've had enough of people treating me like I don't understand what I'm doing, okay? I know what I'm asking for." When Citrine flinches, Ruby visibly softens. She lets out a short, hard breath and slowly uncurls the fists at her sides. This time, her voice is much gentler. "Okay? I know that you're just looking out for me, Citrine, but Sapphire's not like that. She…" Ruby trails off, shakes her head. "I just have this feeling that if I pass up on this opportunity to know her, I'm going to regret it."
"You've always been like that, Ruby," says Citrine with a sigh. "Always chasing after the same idea. What if it's just an illusion?"
"Then I guess I'll find out, won't I?"
They stare at each other for one long moment, but eventually (inevitably) Citrine backs down. "As long as you know what you're doing," she says, her eyes downcast. Her hands flex almost imperceptibly within the dramatically colored folds of her skirt. "We should probably go back to the others now. I'm sure they're wondering why this is taking so long."
Citrine starts trudging back to Tourmaline and Apatite's semi-abandoned chess game, and after a clear, heavy moment of debate Ruby smiles and slings a companionable arm around her slender shoulders. "Come on, let's see if they ever figured out that Apatite's been two moves from winning for the last twenty minutes."
Citrine grins. It's a little hesitant, but it's real. "I was wondering why you were—"
"I've been what?" squawks Apatite.
"No you haven't!" Tourmaline snatches the chess board and rotates it this way and that, trying to see the golden opportunity that has allegedly been under Apatite's nose the entire time. "There is just no, way, I've, been, that stupid!" Each pause is punctuated by a different angle.
"If I have, then it's a really obscure way to win," Apatite decides, crossing her arms. "Borderline illegal, I'll bet. No, there's no way I've missed something so obvious—no way!" She loses her conviction as quickly as it comes, and leans towards Sapphire for clarity. "Have I?"
"I thought I wasn't allowed to cheat."
"You've already been cheating!"
"There's nothing here!" say Tourmaline, still rotating the board. "I have not been two moves from losing this entire time!"
"Are you sure?" asks Citrine as she ducks out from under Ruby's arm and leans down to peer at the game. She hums and touches her chin: the picture of concern. "Doesn't seem like things have changed much from earlier, Tourmaline."
"I'm telling you, there's nothing here!"
"Definitely nothing," Apatite agrees vehemently.
"Well, if you're sure…"
Ruby plops down next to Sapphire with a conspiratorial grin as the next round of paranoia rears its hilarious head. "When do you think they're going to realize none of it was real?"
Sapphire just smiles.
Who says chess can't be a spectator sport?