3: Problems and Pancakes
Ruby sat on the stool at the counter starring at Sapphire's gemstone. She was glum, she wanted to be angry though. What would Garnet do she wondered to herself? She had to admit it almost made her smile when she saw her all wrapped up in mittens and scarves. It was so lovingly typical of Steven to do for Sapphire's gemstone. Heart warming in fact. James sat by Steven and Steven sat by Ruby with Amethyst on the other side. Steven got off his stool seeing if the pancakes were ready to flip. They were. Amethyst had thought of the idea to use a flat baking fan since there were going to be so many.
As they flipped the smell filled the room along with a large sizzling sound from the raw mixture touching a piping hot surface. Amethyst and James took it in as Steven turned the stove off. The "pan" was already hot enough to cook the other sides to them.
None of them had really spoken to each other all throughout that morning, Ruby especially. She had watching her precious gem all night long and the morning, Steven had tried watching her from his bedroom but fell asleep. James had slept on the couch after falling asleep on the beach Ruby carried him inside. It was all that good a sleep though.
Pancakes plopped onto four plates as the syrup bottle was passed around. (Amethyst took the most syrup of them, but who wouldn't like syrup on pancakes.) Steven had even made a plate of them just for Ruby. He gently set it beside her elbow that was lying on the table resting her head.
"I'm not hungry." she replied grumpily. Steven sat back at his seat and took more bites of his own.
"Well then I guess they can be for Sapphire when she comes back!" he smiled, Ruby forced one to go with his. It was very sweet of him to do such a thing for her. But would Sapphire even eat them, maybe after they fused they'd both eat them together. It was pretty nice of him, he even put syrup on them as well for her.
Ruby sat there alone. What would Garnet do if she was here right now? Then she remembered when she split up once for their anniversary of staying as Garnet.
Ruby flipped the pancake. She put her heated up hand to it til it cooked to perfection, and then onto the plate. She took a knife and grinned, then the perfect shape was cut. She tried to do a fancy design with the syrup, but she thought that it ended up looking like a mess. She walked over to Sapphire with her abomination. She set it down in front of her.
"Surprise." she smiled, it was shaped like a heart just for her. It wasn't really a surprise since Sapphire could see the future. "I guess not, really." she sighed.
Sapphire knew what Ruby was talking about, she smiled at the heart. "I also see a future where we eat these together." she got down to get another knife and fork. As she sat back up she gave Ruby a kiss of gratitude. They enjoyed it together, and when Pearl finally woke up they fused back without anyone seeing. More work needed to be done on the house for Steven.
A tear dripped onto the deep blue gemstone then froze. Ruby merely flicked it off if it. Then they heard a roar outside as they all went to check it out, James was in charge of the gemstone for a bit.
The fight wasn't one to be proud of. At the moment Ruby had a lot of emotional baggage that needed to be let out. She barely listened to anyone and just kept on punching the thing over and over. Eventually she punched it hard enough to get the gem out crack it. She huffed away as pearl bubbled it and sent it with all the other gems.
They all came back after quite some time as James was wearing mittens and holding her gem.
"Uh guys, we have a new problem."he said holding her gem. Ruby ran right over the fastest to it. His hands were covered in ice. They all looked at the counter. It was covered in ice as well as James's mittens, and it was spreading really quickly.
"Ruby what do we do?" exclaimed Pearl, it only made sense that Ruby would know since she was usually fused with her. Ruby didn't know what to do either. She took the gem right from James and held it tightly to her chest.
"I gotta go take this to my room!" she ran to the large door as it opened for her and she rushed right in. Pearl sighed and shook her head from side to side.
"Now how do we get these off of me, they're frozen to my hands and wrists!" James said. Pearl took a look at them, they had really froze on to them.
"I got this." Amethyst said walking over to him. She grabbed the two mittens on his hands and pulled as hard as she could. They went flying right off of his hands and landed hanging on Pearl's nose. Her face scrunched up in annoyance as Amethyst started laughing and pointing at the funny sight. Steven laughed a little bit along with her, it was pretty funny. (Amethyst thought anything involving Pearl's nose was funny.)
"Amethyst!" Pearl growled at her taking it off of her nose and throwing it on the floor. She'd pick it up later for sure.
"Aw c'mon P! It was pretty funny!" she chuckled right back at Pearl. Steven smiled, it wasn't that big a deal. James was neutral about the whole thing, his wrists and fingers were still freezing cold. He rubbed them to get them warm, it took a bit of time to get them warm.
"When do you think Ruby will come out?" Steven looked at the door, that grabbed their attention as they all looked at it. Pearl bit her lip. None of them knew. They didn't know Ruby and Sapphire as well as they knew Garnet. A wave of guilt washed over Amethyst and Pearl, why didn't they get to know them better?