petty && dull.

from: 🍋 pearl]

Lapis cocked a brow.

“I don’t think that’s how it works.”

Then again, Lapis herself was hardly a source for knowledge about human beings. Though, she felt at least more knowledgeable than Pearl must have been…

Still dripping with water, Lapis watched in silence as Pearl used someone’s toothbrush as a hairbrush. After a moment, she snickered.

“That’s not what that’s for.”

Lapis wondered whose toothbrush that belonged to, but made a note not to tell whomever it was what Pearl was doing.

“What’s that now?”

Pearl was sticking the toothbrush into her hair and twirling it like spaghetti. It gave her that onion-slash-lemon headed thing she was really going for. It also left a trace of something minty that made her smell nice.

“Well, it works great!” She laughed.

The two pearls had known each other for a long, long time so it wasn’t a surprise that the pearl knew something was bothering her fellow pearl. She was curious but she kept her mouth shut as she always does, does she want to say something? A secret? Something that homeworld would disapprove of? She was sure that her fellow pearl, someone that she has the most interaction with, other than her diamond, wouldn’t do such a thing. 

No, no! That’s impossible, the yellow gem wouldn’t even dare to think of it…

Right..?

“Lapis Lazuli..” She repeated the name she heard, Lapis Lazuli was part of Blue diamond’s court, she knew and saw many of those gems but her closest memory was the one that returned after disappearing for so long. It couldn’t be the same one right?

“O-Oh sure..” In her lost in thoughts, she quickly replied when the other pearl requested her to follow her, she followed next to the yellow gem as she look down at the ground.

Pearl tried to keep up the facade that everything was fine as she led the other gem down the street. She kept looking over at her and giving her the best Everything Is Fine smile that she could manage, and as they walked on, she began to forget her troubles and just feel excited.

She opened her door and walked inside her apartment. She beckoned for the other Pearl to come to the window where she was peering into a tiny jar on the window sill.

Her worm had indeed transformed into a butterfly days before. Its wings were bright orange with black markings, and Pearl thought they were beautiful.

“Isn’t it...wonderful? It was just a worm at first, but it changed. Gems can’t do anything like that. They can reform forever, but they’re always the same. Earth creatures can change and grow wings!”

Lapis did not immediately respond, instead choosing to further sit in silence until Pearl made note of her own skin. She looked up, peering at the wrinkles on the other Gem’s fingers. She blurted out the first thing to come to her mind.

“Steven says being in the water for too long turns your fingers into raisins.”

A pause.

“I don’t know what raisins are.”

Lapis stood, quickly taking a towel for herself; she let it drape over her shoulders, which, did little to help the water on the rest of her. She looked to Pearl again, now meeting her eye.

“Do you know what a raisin is?”

“Nope! But Steven is a baby human, and they’re very strange creatures. They don’t know anything and everyone else has to care for them! Steven probably just learned how to talk and walk about...a year ago.”

That was being generous, she thought. She could walk and talk as soon as she popped out of the ground, so she didn’t understand why it took humans more than a single day to learn.

She finished drying off and carefully placed the towel in the hamper. She then approached the sink. She needed something for her messy hair. 

She couldn’t help but laugh loudly at her comment. “Construction? I haven’t done that in eons! Not since before the war. Nowadays and during the rebellion I’m a black smith. I build weapons for combat. The last building I made was my forge. It’s where I make all my weapons. It’s where Pearl got all her swords from.”

“But…”

“There aren’t… Any adults to care for me.”

“Well, I’ll just have to do it, then! Don’t worry Little One.”

“…I want a job.”

“No! Children shouldn’t work! They should have adults take care of them!”

my friend, clearly peanut butter and jealous: oh. thats nice. is that c-

Lapis did not look back at Pearl as she spoke. She had figured that the other Gem had never fused– she was a Diamond’s Pearl, after all, but…

No, she supposed that wasn’t any fault of Pearl’s.

Lapis closed her eyes.

“It’s… a new gem, but… it’s not always stable.”

“It’s just– when you fuse, you…”

Lapis sighed. She turned back to the other Gem, letting her hand fall into the water. It was cool now, she noted.

“I don’t want to talk about fusion.”

“...”

It was something that seemed to upset her, and Pearl wasn’t sure why. But she was willing to let it go. It wasn’t like she was missing out on much, since she couldn’t contribute to the conversation, having never done it.

“Oh! That’s okay!” She laughed nervously. “Hm, this water is getting chilly. I wish we had a Ruby to heat it up!” 

She went back to examining the bath shelf. There were all types of soap, but she was already too clean.

“The fact that most people don’t have a favorite kind of moth is frankly, insulting.” 

TO: Pearl FROM: Pearl ★

(1/9) Mad at you?! Of course not!  (2/9) Well, there have been a few times. We didn’t exactly get off on the right foot. But that’s in the past now, isn’t it?

Her typing bubble disappears, before starting up again.

(3/9) ...I know I’ve been overzealous at times. And I’m sorry. (4/9) The truth is, I see myself in you, Pearl. I was once freshly ownerless, and I was once lost and new to Earth...  (5/9) Watching you, it’s as if I’m experiencing it all over again. I know how hard it is. Earth...isn’t like Homeworld, is it? It’s terribly confusing! I still don’t understand some of what goes on here... (6/9) Pearls are never told we’re our own gem. We’re always made to fulfill someone else. And once you’re without an owner for the first time in your life, you don’t know who you are anymore. Perhaps, being made in another gem’s image, you never truly did. (7/9) I understand what you’re feeling. I always have. But I know it gets better, and I suppose I was so desperate to help you enjoy Earth that I forgot to let you despise it, first. (8/9) I stopped talking to you because, for your own safety, I wanted you to make your own decision. Not because I was mad at you! ...I hope you can forgive me, Pearl. And I hope you’ve found peace.

She pauses.

(9/9) By the way, you can have the sword back. If you’d like, that is!

She didn’t know what to say as she felt tears well up in her eyes. At least she had the sense to sit down cross-legged in the middle of the sidewalk to keep her emotions in and keep from dropping her phone.