Chapter 6: Breaktime Relationship Comparisons!
When breaktime for the rest of the day came, the slaves got off the elevator and took off their work clothes and they placed them in a bin as Sinbad lead the group to a place called "Embarcaderos". A place that most of the slaves would go to when breaktime came. It was either here of their sleeping quarters. However, since Lincoln and his comrades were new and didn't know where their quarters were. They decided to crash at the bar for the time being.
The group then sat at a bartending table with Sinbad as the beautiful, female human-looking bartender give them their drinks. It was some weird alien fluid, but it seem passable as water.
"On the house." She said, winking at Lincoln to tease him.
"T-Thanks Ms... um..." Lincoln stuttered with a good amount of blush on his face both from embarrassment from the woman's teasing and also from the fact that he didn't know her name.
"Just call me Zoe, dear." She introduced herself as she winked at the child a second time, making him even more flustered.
The bartender then walked away as Sinbad spoke to the flustered Lincoln.
"That ain't no lady brother. Look she's not even human, she's a shapeshifter." He explained as they looked over to the bartender turn into the female version of another customer's species as she delivered his drink. "She's super flirty with the adult men up in this joint and super teasing to the young boys. so don't worry Lincoln, you're safe from her lovey-dovely advances." He explained to the Chris, Globgor, and Dan's worry and Milo and Lincoln's relief.
Lincoln then nodded as he looked around at the bar at the other costumers as the others began to talk with their guide on the ship when his eyes locked onto a particular one who was sitting on a table, talking to a large, bulky, yellow skinned woman as a group of five small red skinned girls surrounded the table, either laying on it and patrolling it from the ground like a secret government base. He could also tell that they, amongst everyone else in the room, were wearing the same collar that Lincoln and his fire forged friends were.
She was about Lincoln's height, had cyan blue skin, didn't have a nose, had chin length, cerulean-blue hair worn in a bobbed style, her clothing vaguely resembles a prep school uniform, consisting of a blue vest worn over a dark blue dress with a white-collar, white wrist-length gloves, white knee-high socks, dark blue flat shoes, and a dark blue hair. The intersection of her vest and the lapels of her collar form a Blue Diamond symbol, hinting towards her diplomatic superior... or rather her now former diplomatic superior. The teardrop-shaped gemstone is located beneath her left eye, making it clear that this girl is a alien just like Jasper is.
Lincoln's eyes widen in surprise when saw her as a familiar feeling began to well up inside his body, he couldn't stopped staring at her. She was so beautiful to him. When he saw someone snapping their fingers in front of his face, causing him to snap out of it.
Looking over, he saw that it was Chris. "You okay, Lincoln? You look like you were zoning out."
A little flustered, the boy give his answer. "Y-Yeah. I'm fine. Just... thinking..." He said looking over at the cute girl again to avoid suspicion.
Eclipsa, noticing the human boy's strange behavior, look over at the girl that Lincoln was looking at and then smiled a little. "Oh, I see what's going on. That girl over there got you interested huh."
The boy blushed even more, confirming the woman's theory as he answered. "M-Maybe."
Sara hearing their conversation, looked over at the blue girl before looking at the young crushing on Loud with a smile on her face. "Well Lincoln, aren't you gonna go talk to her?"
"I don't know... I've just seen her. Talking to her is another thing." Lincoln said, looking at the ground. "I mean, what would I say?"
Lincoln then felt a hand on his shoulder, looking up he saw that Milo was smiling down at him, his parents doing the same.
"Lincoln, that kind of talk is not helping you." Martin said with confidence in his voice.
"Just introduce yourself to start off the conversation. That should help." Bridgette said, hoping to help the young boy out.
"And have confidence in yourself before you go over there, Lincoln." Milo said as he nodded at the boy, encouraging him to do this.
Lincoln took a few deep breaths as he hyped himself up. "Okay Lincoln. You've got this..."
Chris joined in. "Be confident Lincoln."
Lincoln repeated the man's words. "I'm confident, Chris."
Globgor joined as well. "Don't let those people around her stop you."
"Oh, I'm not letting any of them stop me, Globgor!" Lincoln declared.
"Be yourself dear." Eclipsa encouraged.
"Right, be myself." Lincoln chanted to himself. "Be myself."
"Then why are you still here, dude?" Milo asked.
"Go to her!" Sara said, pushing him forward.
Lincoln looked back briefly at his newfound friends who were waving at him before he began to walk to towards the blue girl chanting to himself, "Be confident in yourself" and "Be yourself" quietly to himself.
Eventually, he makes it to the table and stops just a few feet away from it as he looked up at the table at the cute girl. He took a deep breath and started to walk to the table as the group of females notice him approaching as they saw him approach their table. He was about to speak when one of the women (one of the five red skinned girls), thinking he was a threat, hopped from behind the table and landed in front of him with a growl.
"Halt, human!" The red skinned girl with one seeing eye demanded as she held her hand out to him in a stopping motion. "State your business!"
Lincoln, although a little threatened, put his hands up in case he needed to defend himself. He then cleared his throat in order to proceeded. "I-I'm just here to talk to the blue girl. Just a simple conversation, that's all."
The girl looked over at the two with a bit of curiosity upon hearing the boy's response.
"Okay, but what if she feel like talking to annoying, unworthy Earth trash like you human, huh?" The one eyed bodyguard said.
"Well that's too bad one eye, cause I'm a pretty fun guy to be around plus I'm already over here," Lincoln said, refusing to back down. "So, I'm not leaving until I talk to her." He declared calmly.
"Pretty brave for a human." The blue girl thought to herself. "Too bad that bravery will soon run out."
The red cycloptic girl, feeling insulted at the human's jab at her one eyed status, decided that she's had enough of Lincoln and that if he wasn't going to leave willingly, she'll force him to.
Using the gem in the other eye's magic, she pulled out a small, red knife with a rectangular tip and held it to Lincoln's throat, making the boy back away from her a little.
"You have until the count of five to leave before I cut you into pieces." The red girl said as she began to count. "One."
Lincoln, more annoyed at the girl's threat than intimidated, spoke his annoyance. "Oh sure, threaten to hurt me when things don't go your way. Oh, that is so you."
"Two." The gem continued.
"Are all Gems this rude and self-centered? If they are, then I pity you." Lincoln said, hoping to throw her off her countdown.
"Well not all time. Considering everything our kind has been through. We..." The red gem began to explain before realizing what the earthling was attempting to do. "Hey, wait a minute! Three!"
"Put your weapon away, this doesn't need to get violent." Lincoln said, rolling his eyes, his patience with her cracking.
"Four!" The red gem said, raising her voice at him.
"Considering how Jasper was before we got here, I'm not surprised." The boy said.
"Fi- Wait Jasper?!" She said, stopping her countdown and dropping her weapon the floor in utter shock as it disappeared into red sparkles, as the other red girls around her gasp in shock. "D-Did you say Jasper? Answer me human!" She demanded grabbing him by the shoulders and began to shake him vigorously.
"Yyyyeeeeesssss, IIIII ddddiiiiiiidddddd!" He managed to get out, his voice bumpy from the gem's rapid shaking. "Pleasssssse stop shaking meeeeee!"
When the gem released her grip on him, Lincoln felt his throat began to swell up. He knew what this was as he felt his face turn green before he swallowed that feeling back down. Quite literally.
After that, the gem grabbed by his shirt collar. "Tell me where Jasper is and don't lie human, or else!" She demanded shaking her fist at him.
At this point, Lincoln has had it with this red brat's attitude, and threatening ways and had decided to do something about it!
"Okay. I have had just about enough your attitude "Eyeball"." He calmly insulted the red gem making her begin to flare up with anger. "Before I tell you where Jasper is, I'm gonna clarify a few things right now." He said, his anger slowly beginning to rise. "first, it's not human you rock head, Lincoln. Loud!" He declared to not just her but to the rest of her "crew" at her table, making their eyes widen in surprise at the boy's bravery at standing up to this gem girl.
"Second, if I don't take to kindly to your behavior, so if I catch messing with my friends over there or anyone else on this ship. You'll end up getting yourself hurt, either by me or anyone else, either by physical combat or verbal assault!" He stated in an icy yet still calm tone while pointing a finger over at his table, declaring that those there were his friends. "So just to be clear, I'm going to just let you or your posse of clones behind you walk all over me!"
"Hey, you can't talk to Ruby like that!" One of her "sisters" said.
"I think it's only way I can talk to her." The boy said before turning back to Ruby, who was still holding onto his shirt, getting even more pissed at him by the minute. "If any of you got a problem with that, then give it to me straight and tell me so I can work on them!"
Three of the Rubies were going to speak up to defend their comrade when Eyeball held her hand up, signaling them not to. "I can defend myself, Rubies!" She said, her eyes still on Lincoln.
"Finally, if don't get your hands off me in the next three seconds, then you're just begging to get punched in the face." He said, with a bit of a smug smirk.
Not wanting to press her luck or waste her time with this stupid human, the ruby complied. Albeit reluctantly. Pushing him back a little for emphasis.
"Thank you, now if you want to find Jasper, she's in the lower levels preparing to fight in that coliseum. I'm sure you'll find her there if she's not walking around this ship of course."
"I see, thanks for the info, hu- I-I mean, Lincoln. Also, my apologies for before." Ruby said in a polite tone as she began to walk towards the exit.
"Where are you going, you dullard?" The blue girl asked in a British-like tone.
"To see my idol, duh." the "Eyeball" Ruby said, continuing her exit from the bar.
"So you're just to leave me with your dumb, expandable copies." Aquamarine said, annoyed.
"Hey!" The rubies complained, feeling insulted.
"Oh, don't worry Aquamarine. I'm pretty sure Lincoln won't harm you." The one eyed solider said. "You also have the other Rubies to back up in case he or anyone else tries something."
"You can't just abandon your duties just because Jasper's here, Ruby!" one Ruby with a red gem on her chest and a yellow visor on her face pointed out as she quickly walked up to her comrade and grabbing her by the shoulder.
"Look "Doc"," Eyeball insulted. "You know that I've always wanted to meet the Kindergarten Quartz That Could. I don't intend to miss this opportunity!"
"What if this "Jasper" is a fake? You know like that Amethyst back on Earth was? What if this another trick?" Doc asked her comrade.
"Don't worry Doc, she's all real." Lincoln said, cutting into their conversation. "Trust me. My friends and I have the bruises to prove it."
Taking her leader's hand off her shoulder, Eyeball continued forward, looking over her shoulder at the Loud, narrowing her eyes. "I'll take your word for it. See ya."
With that, the squared afro red skinned foot soldier left the bar. Aquamarine looked at Lincoln with an indifferent look on her face.
"Alright "Lincoln," The blue girl sneered using her fingers for air quotations. "What's so important that you drove of one my disposable rubies away?"
"Excuse me, I drove her away?" Lincoln asked. "I don't think I did. She took a chance to leave. I could tell from the way she spoke to her friend just now." He said, rolling his eyes before looking at Aquamarine. "As for what I wanted to talk to you about. Well..." He started to say before getting nervous. He took a deep breath before continuing. "You look very pretty and I was-"
"Wondering if we could spend some time together, right?" Aquamarine smugly said, cutting him off and leaving him shocked.
"I-Um... Y-Yes, how did you-" Lincoln said before Aquamarine cut him off again.
"It's not the first time I've been asked out on a date or to go out on a walk with someone or to just spend time together like this." The dullard caller said. "But I will admit, I'm quite impressed at how you told that Ruby off. The last person that tried that got the business end of her chisel knife." She revealed, making Lincoln cringe a little. "Amazing." She said, clapping a little. "Getting back on topic, I'm quite flattered that you want to go out with the best, and I would love to go out with you Lincoln. But I don't want to for two reasons: 1. I'm not really ready for that level of loyalty and commitment. There's only one person that I'm loyal to and that's Blue Diamond."
"Okay, I understand that Aqua." Lincoln said. "But what's the other reason?"
The elite gem grew quiet as she blushed and looked to the side. "I don't really know how dating works to be honest."
"Oh, well that's okay. We don't have to go out on a date or go take a walk together if you don't want to, cause we would just be rushing it." Lincoln said, grabbing a nearby chair and sitting at their table. "We could just talk like what we're doing right now."
Aquamarine blushed even more as Lincoln then gently grabbed the blue gem's gloved hands and held them in his own as he looked straight into the gem's eyes with heart-shaped love in his own.
"What the stars am I doing? I, an Aquamarine, am getting nervous around an insignificant human! And this humans dares to hold my hands like he owns me! Who does this human think he is?" Aquamarine thought to herself as she began to drown out what Lincoln was saying before she realized something. "Wait, WHY AM I ALLOWING THIS TO HAPPEN?" She wanted to push him away, tell him off for even daring to touch her without permission but she suddenly felt herself stop as a weird feeling made its appearance from within.
"Wait a colonizing second. What is this weird feeling in my chest? Why do I feel so... happy?" She questioned herself before she was brought back to reality.
"Aquamarine?" Lincoln asked, breaking her from her thoughts.
"Y-Yes." She said.
"You okay, you look like you were zoning out on me." Lincoln asked, worried.
"Sorry. Don't worry, I'm fine." Aquamarine said. "Could you repeat what you said, I didn't catch that?"
"I said, what's the hierarchy of your species? If you have one that is." He said.
"We do, but it depends on the type of gem that you are Lincoln." The blue gem began. "Depends if you're a Pearl cut, then you're at the very bottom. To the point where no one even acknowledges you as a real gem at all but as a slave or property."
"To my family, I apparently was a Pearl to them." Lincoln thought to himself as the gem continued.
"Next there's the Ruby cut, like these ones you've already got acquainted with." She said, waving her head over at the four foot soldiers behind her, who looked aggressively at the boy. "They're higher than a Pearl at best but disposable at worst." She explained, making three of the four growl at her in response.
Okay, I think disposable is a bit harsh, but the rest of that explains Lana to a T... unless there's another gem that is." Lincoln thought to himself as the gem continued her explanation.
"Next is the Spinel cut, the jesters of Gems. Made to play, joke and entertain for who they were made for. They're rather rare to produce." The gem continued.
"Okay, that definitely explains Luan to a T in my book… and Luna to an extent, those two jerks plays a joke on me without consequences! When I get back to Earth, I'm gonna deck them square in the face so hard, their heads will spin!... (Pun not intended)." The boy groaned to himself in his head.
"The next three are the last of the lower ranked gems are rather different in gem but same in purpose, so try your best to keep up." Aquamarine explained. "The Bismuth cut, the Obsidian cut, and the Peridot cut, the three are builders in a way, they're also lower ranked, but different in job description. The Bismuths are strong bodied city builders, able to take extreme amounts of heats and physical damage. The Obsidians are trench diggers who dug trenches for our armies as we invade and conquer planets, and Peridot do some of the technological work, like computers and such."
Lincoln simply nodded in response as he processed this information in his head. "Okay, invading planets asides. I take back what I thought earlier, Lana is definitely a mixture of an Obsidian and a Bismuth to me since she's willing to get her hands dirty. Lisa, she's definitely a Peridot."
"Okay so now we're at the higher ups right?" Lincoln asked her.
"Yes, now we're almost finished." Aquamarine pointed out. "From lower ranked is the Quartz cut, they're soldier gems. They're loyal and are stronger than any gem in the hierarchy."
"Okay that is definitely Lynn to a T." Lincoln thought in anger. "Loyal... Oh, she's loyal alright! Loyal to herself!"
"From there is the Agate cut, the Agates are commanders that terrify and keep those below them in their place. There a bit of a butt kisser to us high ranking gems though." Aquamarine continued. "In fact, there's one at that table right over there."
She then pointed to her right hand at a nearby table as Lincoln looked over to where she was pointing and saw to his surprise was a large, dark blue skinned woman with silver bun style hair.
"How did I not notice her?" Lincoln thought to himself in response. "Oh right, Focused on Aquamarine." Lincoln then giggled to himself at the thought before he thought of something else. "Lori is definitely an Agate to a dang T. A terrifying, selfish butt kisser who only cares about her status as oldest sibling as well as her precious Boo Boo Bear. A person who would happily throw her friends and her god dang FAMILY as well as anyone else who stood in her way under the bus and darn their feelings or opinions about their problems in order to be with him.
"Then there's the Lazuli cut, they have power over any liquid they come across. They're powerful yet cowardly when facing adversity, Opting to run away when things get intense." The blue gem continued.
"Powerful in terms of argument and control probably. But cowardly definitely. Dad's a Lazuli through and through. Unwilling to control his own daughters, I oughta sock him in the face." The boy thought to himself as he nodded for Aquamarine to continue.
"Oh before I forget, there's also a middle rank. The Zircon cut. They're the lawyers of Homeworld." Aquamarine remembered. "In fact, there's two of them right over there."
The blue gem pointed her left hand over at another table, this time on her left side and Lincoln saw two gems of yellow and blue skin tones respectively with long noses and they were looking proper as they stood tall as they were in a conversation about something.
"Next is the Emerald cut. They're high ranking captains. A bit childish when the things they care about get taken from them though." Aquamarine continued. "In fact, there's one right over there."
Aquamarine pointed her finger over to the left side of the room and Lincoln saw a tall, green gem with a rectangular emerald gem for a left eye.
"Childish is pretty much Lola's defining trait." Lincoln thought to himself. "A childish, selfish, ungrateful, brat who uses everyone for her own benefits! She's so an Emerald!"
"Then there's the Topaz cut." The blue girl said. "There also soldiers that are higher than Quartzes but lower than my cut of gem. Topazes are like this one right here, only they're fused." She said, waving a hand at the large yellow gem standing at the edge of the table.
When Lincoln made eye contact with Topaz, he waved his hand at her and said, "Hello."
The yellow gem didn't say anything, but she simply waved back at the little boy in front of her.
"If I might interject Aquamarine, shall I try to guess what your job is?" Lincoln asked.
"I guess. Knock yourself out." Aquamarine said, curious at what Lincoln's answer was going to be.
"Assistant to your Diamond?" Lincoln asked.
Aquamarine's eyes widen up in surprise as the other gems surrounding her were rather impressed by the Loud boy's answer. They were expecting Lincoln to get it wrong at first and had to take his time to try and guess it.
To the gems' surprise, they had to admit that Lincoln Loud was rather smart for a human, as they knew he was one of the rather more intelligent ones.
Shaking her head out of her surprise, Aquamarine spoke up. "Y-Yes. How did you know?"
"Well considering all of the other jobs that the other gems have that you've just describe to me and I assume that they're more gems that you've haven't told me about. I just figured that because of your smugness and arrogance that I figured that you had as close to a position to your Diamond as you have due to your gem type." Lincoln theorized. "And I can only guess that the Diamonds (who I've heard so much of at this point) are the ones in charge right?" He added, with a bit of smugness of his own.
"Yup, we do whatever they say, whenever they say or face the consequences." Doc said, cutting into their conversation.
"Not anymore my fellow gems." A familiar voice called out.
Lincoln, Aquamarine and her followers looked over at the entrance to the bar and saw that the "Eyeball" Ruby has returned... and she had a look that spoke of shock, sorrow, horror, and anger above all things... Mostly the anger portion of it, as she walked up to the group.
"Hey, Ruby." The "Navy" Ruby greeted in a polite tone.
"Welcome back, soldier." Doc said
"Bout time you got back!" The "Army" Ruby snarked.
"How was your meeting with Jasper?" The "Leggy" Ruby asked innocently.
Although she didn't hear her other team mates' comments, hearing Leggy ask her that question brought Eyeball out of her negative mood, albeit briefly.
"Oh, it went well but..." She trailed off. Aquamarine notice this.
"But what? Spit it out dullard!" The tiny gem demanded angrily.
Letting out a deep sigh, Eyeball began. "While I was meeting Jasper, she told something very important. Something that none of you gems won't like one bit. Before I say anything else, Aquamarine, can you call Holly Blue. Emerald, and the Zircons over here?" She asked. "I don't want to have to repeat this."
Aquamarine and her cronies at the table realized that whatever Eyeball was going to tell them was insanely serious. Wasting no time, she called those mentioned over to their table, and they immediately went over to them without a second thought. Seeing Lincoln there and thinking that he was bothering her superior, Holly Blue Agate immediately put her hand to the back of her head and summoned a white and blue whip that was bursting with electricity.
Lincoln, noticing this, got into a fighting stance just in case he needed to defend himself.
Aquamarine was about to say something to stop Holly, when, to the surprise of everyone, Leggy got in between the two, guarding the Loud boy from the enraged, not thinking clearly manager, her arms spread out wide.
"Wait Holly, L-Lincoln's not the problem here!" Leggy pleaded out of fear of the Agate.
Holly, however, wasn't going to let a Ruby, a weak, incompetent, disposable Ruby at that, get in her way of disposing of this human garbage. "Know your place you pitiful Ruby and get out of my way!" She then followed up on this by brutally kicking the ruby in the chin, sending her flying backwards into another costumer's table, causing the appliance to fall forward and, in the process, caused whatever food and drinks that were on there to spill all over her head and body.
"Leggy/Ruby!" Lincoln and the former's squad cried in unison as the Loud was about to rush to her aid when Holly Blue suddenly grabbed the back of his pajama shirt and lift him up to meet to her terrifying glare. "It's about time I teach you what happens when you mess with my superior, you pathetic human!"
Rather then be scared of the Agate, Lincoln glared back as he responded back to her threat. "I'm pathetic? You're the who's attacking me and Leggy for no reason!" He then topped this off by gathering all the saliva in his mouth as he could spitting it directly into the indigo gem's face, the white, sticky goo getting into her eyes and forcing her to close them.
"Ugh! Disgusting!" Holly Blue raged before throwing Lincoln down onto the ground and onto his back in her literal bling rage.
The Agate was about to pick up her downed adversary when she suddenly a large yellow hand grab one of her wrists. Looking to her left, she saw the stoic yet angry face of the Topaz fusion. Before Agate could tell the high class solider to back off, the bulky, yellow gem suddenly spoke up.
"Cease and desist Agate, or I'll make you." Topaz said in a quiet but dangerous tone.
"Unhand me soldier!" Holly demanded.
Hearing this ticked off the fusion, she headbutted the Agate in the face, putting her a daze and causing her to stumble back and drop her whip (which disappeared into white sparkles). Before she had a chance to recover, Topaz grabbed her by one of her arms and flipped her over her shoulder and onto her back. Stomping down onto her left hand (which made her scream out in pain), and grabbing her other hand with one of her own, she then knelt down to her inferior with an intense glare as she summoned her weapon out of the gem where her one of her ears is supposed to be: a long, double-sided, stick with big diamond shaped crystals on both ends and pointed it at the indigo manager's face.
"What is the meaning of this?!" Holly demanded before looking at Aquamarine. "A-Aquamarine, call off this war machine!"
Everyone in the bar was watching the confrontation from their tables, Dan and the others in particular.
"This is bad!" Chris said. "We should intervene!"
Chris, along Milo, his family, and Globgor and Eclipsa, got up. Eclipsa instantly pointed her magic umbrella at the downed Agate.
"Not yet. I think the big yellow lady has this covered." Dan said.
"Regardless, Lincoln's one of us, we should back him up. You in or what?" Sara said in annoyance of Dan's uncooperative behavior and worry for Lincoln's wellbeing.
Dan thought about this for a minute before giving his answer.
"Fine." He said begrudgingly. "If it'll get you guys off my back." He added before getting up.
They headed over to the scene of the fight as the struggling Holly demanded that Aquamarine command for Topaz to release her.
"Will you stop Holly?!" Aquamarine commanded. "This human's not the reason I called you, Emerald, and the Zircons here!"
Hearing her superior say that made Holly stop struggling.
"R-Really?" Holly asked, looking up at the tiny gem.
"Yes, that's what we were trying to tell you!" Aquamarine said annoyed. "For stars sake, wait until I give you an order, will you?"
This embarrassment caused the pinned manager to blush big time as she stopped her struggling. She stuttered out an apology. "M-My apologies, Grand C-Clarity, I acted out of t-turn!"
She then closed her eyes as she awaited whatever horrible punishment the tiny commander would give out. Would she have Topaz destabilize her and bubble her indefinitely. Harvest her! Shatter her!
"It's okay. Just don't assault anyone unless I give you the order to, is that clear?" Aquamarine demanded.
"Y-Yes. Very clear." Holly squeaked out.
"Good." Aquamarine said before looking at the yellow fusion. "Topaz, you can let her up now."
Topaz nodded as she took her foot off of Holly's wrist and her hand of her other wrist as well as making her weapon disappear as she walked over to Lincoln as he was helping Leggy up as well as getting some napkins to help clean some of the food and liquids that were on her person off of her.
"Are you okay Leggy?" Lincoln asked in worry.
"Forget about me, Lincoln. Are you okay?" Leggy said, gently grabbing his hands to calm his nerves as she flashed a friendly smile at him.
As Lincoln felt Leggy hold his hands, he couldn't help noticed that despite her hands being hard and cold, it felt rather... nice for someone to hold his hands in a friendly, non antagonistic way and definitely non romantic way. Thank God.
Realizing that he hasn't answered the gem's question and that he got lost in her red eyes, he quickly shook his head to get rid of the blush cropping up and quickly answered. "Y-Yes. T-Thank you."
Topaz arrived to assist the Loud in cleaning up both Leggy and the table. After a few minutes, they were all cleaned up and headed back to the other gems as they rendezvous with his crew from Earth while doing so.
Eclipsa, Chris, and Milo immediately ran up to Lincoln and pulled him into a comfortable yet tight hug.
"Are you okay?" Eclipsa exclaimed in worry.
"I'm fine, Eclipsa!" Lincoln managed to breathe out due to how tight the hug was.
"You really need to be careful with what you say, Lincoln!" Milo said, relieved.
"Yeah, good thing those two were able to help you, man." Chris said, patting Lincoln's head.
The three let go of Lincoln as the group made their way to Eyeball and the other gems.
"Okay, now that all of the misunderstandings have been cleared up, can I please explain what I found out from Jasper?!" Eyeball exclaimed, basically at her wits end.
"Of course, Ruby." Aquamarine said. "You have the floor."
The place was dead silent as Eyeball began to recall her encounter with her idol.