Dust motes floated through the air languidly, never in certain patterns but always moving, twirling around each other as if in a hypnotic dance. Even though there was a big, translucent, partially covered window in front of the desk, it had been long since covered up; a cluttered corkboard, haphazard sticky notes and blurry pictures were tacked up to the glass, held the sienna afternoon light back and as a result, darkness reigned supreme in the study room. The vents were silent. There was no movement whatsoever. All was still.

The perfect place to take a nap.

- A fact that Pyrite hadn't hesitated at all on taking advantage of. He laid his head across the desk, slumped and snoring, glasses nearly slipping clean off his face to slope to the side of his folded arms. The upturned collars of his favourite trench coat partially obscured his relaxed and serene face. The hand where his gem resided, just under his knuckles, twitched slightly before being tucked closer to his warm chest. Breathing calm, heartbeat slowed, the ex-rebel was sleeping as soundly as a baby.

Lightning-fast footsteps pounded the ceiling, getting closer, and closer, then thundering down the stairs like a bull had slipped on the top step. And the door opened with a loud BANG –

"RISE AND SHINE, BROTHER O' MINE!"

Onyx knuckled his recently-awake brother across the head as he bounded off the bottom stairs.

The momentum almost propelling his head right into his newly made plate of grub face-first, Pyrite yelped and groaned as his brain finally registered the smidge of scrambled eggs that had hooked onto the tip of his nose. Bacon grease slickened the bridge of his glasses. Already, the collecting steam was condensing on the tops of the lenses and blurring everything together.

"Aw, did I wake you?" Onyx cooed sarcastically, flipping on a nearby desk lamp. The force of his shoulder pats almost knocked Pyrite's face into the food, again. "Gotta eat breakfast some time, right?"

"We're Gems, Lee," he replied tiredly, the 'Duh' remaining unspoken between them. "We don't need to eat."

"Uh can it, Poindexter. Now we do." A fork shoveled a lump of yellow mush right to the doorstep of his stubbornly closed lips. "C'mon, Fordy! If we gotta do this, we gotta practice, alright?"

"No! Lee!" Pyrite slapped at the offending appendage. He made a mistake parting his lips to protest though, and had to resist the urge to gag as a heavy mash of (shudder) 'food' was shoved into his mouth. "Gah! Blegh! Onyx!"

The aforementioned troublemaker slapped his knee and jumped around the cramped study, giving a loud hoot, "One up on the polydactyl!"

Six-fingered hands ripped the fork away immediately, but unfortunately neglected to realise that by doing so, he had left the load of eggs and sausages in his mouth with no way to get them out except to spit. And since Pyrite was far too civil...

"How is it?" Onyx snickered, arms crossed, face so smug.

The brass-yellow gem made a face and a big show of gulping and gagging. "Oh no... Lee... I think... I can see the light..." he retched, pretending to swoon over the table.

"Yeah, yeah," snorted Onyx, gathering up his cooking in one hand, then using it to gesture pretentiously around the place. "Give the man an Oscar. I hope you know that I regret having a movie night with you, Sixer. But, at least the humans can't deny that I have a great sense of... Uh, what's they call... 'flava'."

"Flavour, what flavour?" Pyrite chuckled. "But, alright, fine. Since you went through all this trouble, I'll come up to eat with you. Then you help me scan the machines tomorrow morning."

"You betcha nerdy butt you have a deal! Now c'mon. I don' like ya being cooped up in here for long."

"Alright, alright," Pyrite rubbed his eyes and sighed. "I get it." He looked back at the window, where the yellow, gauzy morning light shadowed several news clippings.

SUPERHUMAN FOUND?

MAN WITH FOUR ARMS

SPECTER AT THE CLIFFS

ROCKS FOUND INSIDE BABY

and finally, "ARE SENTIENT POLYMORPHIC ROCKS HERE TO GET US?"

That last one was a print from online website Onyx had shown him as a joke, but it had proven relevant anyway.

Pyrite shook his head clear and glanced at Onyx's genuinely hopeful face, so much like his own. Gem-wise, they were so different. But he knew Onyx - or should he say Stanley, cared a lot about him. And if there was one thing he was certain about since moving to the strange town of Gravity Falls, is that he cared about his brother – the only one off his kind he could really trust right now. And that was that.

"I'll give it a rest," he said softly and followed the other gem up the stairs. The door closed behind them.