A/N: Opening up to people in new ways-even people you know and like and trust-is not easy, especially when you're used to going it alone. I tried to address that with this oneshot.
Also, I'm raising the balloon for oneshot ideas again. I'm blowing through the list in my notebook pretty fast (you guys give some pretty great prompts!), and while I'm currently five days ahead of you here with United I Stand I actually did start writing the human-AU and right now it's like 45 pages (but that's double-spaced, so it's secretly only 20 pages-oh, god, someone please talk some sense into me), so... yeah. I'm just gonna leave it at that and let you decide for yourself how desperate I am for writing fodder, or whether or not I even deserve prompts for my heinous, AU-writing crimes (in my defense, there is some killer fanart out there, and I can't help the way it get the gears in my brain clanking).
Don't worry, I'll be posting the AU as an independent oneshot when it's done, so you won't have to read it here in UIS. I wouldn't be that cruel.
Finally, to Guest (you know who you are): YOU ARE A GLORIOUS HUMAN BEING OH MY GOD WAS THAT CON CRIT THANK YOU THANK YOU PLEASE GET AN ACCOUNT (OR SIGN IN) SO I CAN THANK YOU PERSONALLY.
"You only sing when you're upset, right?"
That's right, she's not alone.
Sapphire cuts the melody that's begun to trickle from her lips and snaps her head up. She blinks once, twice, and then reaches under her bangs to swipe the budding tears out of the way. How could she have forgotten that Ruby was here? Ruby's always here.
"I'm fine," Sapphire says, spinning in the chair to face her. Because facing Ruby means she isn't afraid, or something like that.
"Doesn't sound like it to me." Ruby takes a step closer to her. "That's the same song you were singing when that vision pushed you to a breakdown a while back. I've never heard you sing when you're happy."
"Just because you haven't heard it doesn't mean it hasn't happened."
Ruby isn't listening. "What did you see?"
"You know I can't answer that."
"Whatever it was, it's obviously hit home. I don't think it has anything to do with the Diamonds. You never even flinch at what they make you look at, much less sing."
Sapphire pauses. Does Ruby pay that much attention to her, or is it just that obvious?
Regardless. "Ruby, please."
Ruby lets out a noise of frustration and rips her arm through the air as if swiping something from a table top. "Fine. Don't tell me the details. I don't care about the details." Without warning, she marches up to Sapphire and braces both hands on the armrests of her chair. She leans in close enough that there is no avoiding her, even when Sapphire leans back. Her jaw is set, and her expressive eyes are determined. "Whatever you saw, it bothers you. You can't deny that."
"Ruby, I appreciate your concern, but really, it's fine. I've dealt with worse—"
"That's not the point, Sapphire!" Ruby stares hard. Resolute. Something about the tilt of Sapphire's mouth changes her mind, though, and she straightens up. Her hands fall to her sides in loose fists, and her expression loses its edge, practically wilts. "Do you want me to go outside for a while?" she asks gruffly.
Why does this feel like an argument?
"There's no reason for that," Sapphire says. "Thank you, but I'm fine." She turns back to her work. Two more messages in her inbox today.
Of course, now that she's peeking at them with her future vision she knows that neither of them will be particularly difficult inquiries, which means she actually has some free time right now. That would be her luck, wouldn't it?
Sighing, Sapphire props her elbow on the desk and rests her chin in her gem-free palm.
"If you need to sing, you shouldn't let me hold you back," Ruby tells her hunched shoulders. Apparently, she can't just let it go.
"I don't need to sing."
"You were, until you remembered I was here."
Sapphire props her other elbow up on the desk and rubs the sides of her face, not caring if she's mussing up her own hair. She tries not to think about the thin film of ice that is now crawling over the keyboard. "I'm fine, Ruby."
"I really don't think you are."
Why is she pushing this so hard?
"If I wasn't okay, I would say so." Sapphire pronounces each word with perfect, polite diction, but the ice creeps over the monitor anyway.
"Honestly, Sapphire? I'm not sure you would."
That's it.
"Will you just let it go?" she snaps, launching to her feet and knocking the damn chair over in her fury. The entire communication console is engulfed in ice now. It beeps and sparks weakly in protest.
"No," Ruby replies fiercely. "What did you see?"
"I can't tell you! I already said that—Ruby, you know that!"
"Then sing!"
Sapphire doesn't know if she's more riled up from being defied or touched that Ruby is trying so hard. As she tries to figure it out, the ice consuming the communication console slowly begins to recede. "Why is this so important to you?" she asks finally, her voice low with defeat.
"Because it's important to you and you won't let yourself do it, that's why!" Ruby, who has been gesturing sharply, lets her hands fall to her sides now. "I know it's something you usually do when no one else is around," she says in something just above a mutter. "That's why I offered to leave."
It feels like they're talking about something else now, something more than singing. Maybe they are. All Sapphire knows is that the singing itself is pivotal. If she chooses to trust Ruby with the ritual she's never let anyone else be there for, it's likely that they will become closer. If she doesn't, they might become closer regardless, but it will take a lot longer because the status quo will not have changed. If she doesn't sing at all, she will just be bottling things up again (and the Sapphire-shaped dents in the recreation center are a pretty blatant testament to how well that technique works). It all depends on what Sapphire wants to glean from this situation, and what she thinks Ruby wants.
With all of the facts on the table, the choice is easy.
"No." Sapphire shakes her head. "I want you to stay."
First things first, though. She reaches over to give the communication console a quick electric jump to make it come back to life (the last thing she needs is someone poking around wondering why her equipment is broken). That done, she sinks onto her knees—this doesn't feel like a thing she should be standing for—and ignores the way her skirts briefly puff up in response.
Ruby, rightly sensing a change in atmosphere, drops down and crosses her legs. She rests her palms on her thighs, and regards Sapphire with a touched sort of respect. When Sapphire begins to sing her eyes slip shut, and frankly Sapphire's a little grateful because she doesn't quite know what to do with that gaze just yet.
Sapphire's voice is soft at first, vacillating from nerves. When she closes her own eye, her confidence rises. She doesn't know what it sounds like—if no one's ever heard you sing, you never hear if it's any good—only that the melody feels right to her, just as it always has. Ruby's presence isn't threatening, though. In fact, the resonance of another being in the same room with her is downright comforting.
Well, maybe it's just the resonance of Ruby.
All the same, when Sapphire's had her fill of acapella catharsis some unidentified amount of time later, and her eye opens, she sees tears clinging to the corner of Ruby's. She scarcely seems to notice, she's just looking at Sapphire as if her very soul has been touched, and she doesn't know whether to feel good or violated.
"What is that song?" she asks, and her voice has never been so vulnerable. "Where did you hear it?"
"As far as I can tell, I made it up," Sapphire says. "Is it familiar to you?"
"No, but it just—" she sniffs and rubs at the single tear that rolls down her cheek "—I don't know whether to love it or hate it. It's doing something to me, though."
Her future vision had not prepared her for this. Why was Sapphire not prepared? "I'm sorry. If I had known—"
"No, no, no, no!" Ruby waves her hands, tears still falling. "Not in a bad way, I don't think. It…" but she can't find the words, and her hands drop into her lap again.
Slowly, Sapphire rises and pads her way over to the red gem. She touches Ruby's cheek, at first with the shy backs of her knuckles, and then with the gloved pads of her fingers. She kneels next to her, wordlessly traces around the socket of each wet eye. They look at each other, and then move at the same time. Ruby's arm winds around her lower back as Sapphire slides one over her broad shoulders, softly kisses the moisture resting in the corner of her right eye.
"I don't understand it, either," Sapphire murmurs as Ruby tips into her, her cheek resting against Sapphire's collarbone as her puffy hair tickles her chin. She is strangely subdued, but the arm around Sapphire is solid. Don't let me go.
For once, Ruby doesn't have anything to say. Sapphire wonders if she's still numb inside, or if she's ever felt this kind of closeness to anyone before. She wants to ask, but it doesn't feel like the right time.
They stay like this, silently holding each other, until Sapphire's workstation blings with the arrival of a third message, a reminder of the outside world's continued need of them, and they have to separate once more.