Devilâs Ballroom Ch.8
A year after the events from the earthâs final attack, Little Homeworld is finally complete, and thereâs a new jazz bar where gems and humans mingle and drink. - As youâre typing back a reply, someone pulls the stool out next to you and takes a seat. You see a sliver of pink out of the corner of your eye as you try not to actually Look. Oh god. Itâs her. God canât help us now.
Spinel/Reader
collab with my lovely wife @firstofficertightpantsâ
(iâm sorry. i have terrible chapter pacing skills so the next one will be the last, not this one. thanks for all of ur patience p: )Â
Immediately you accidentally elbow Alex in the face as you try to get out of his grip, and he yells out in pain and drops you onto the ground.
"Wait! SPINEL!" You shout and run towards the direction she went, but you donât see her anywhere. "SPINEL!!!" You shout again, eyes frantically roaming in every direction around for her, a couple of people stop to stare at you. Sheâs much faster than you, and could be leagues away by now.
You can't believe she would just run like that, without explanation. She was staring at you and Alex like.. did she seriously think that you and Alex.. oh god. She thought you were with Alex.Â
Okay. You try not to panic as you stand there, awkwardly. You feel a hand on your shoulder.
"What the hell was that?" Alex says beside you. You can't speak for a moment, and when you do, your voice comes out hoarse.
"Er.. I think some horrible misunderstanding just happened." You say, defeated. You look up at him, and you're trying to not be visibly upset. He looks down at you, and makes a face.
"That was her? She could've said hi, sheesh.. she even left cookies here." He shrugs, looking at the spilled cookies on the ground.
"Dude. How are you so fucking stupid." You say, nearly about to smack him again. He gives you a confused look. "Are you shitting me? She came to give me those cookies in thanks for yesterday, and what does she see? You kissing all over my face."Â
He still gives you a blank look.
"Ohhhh my god. You are such a fucking moron." You retort, staring at him for several solid seconds until a look of sudden realization hits his facial expressions.
âOh. OHHHHHHHHHHHH.â He covers his mouth, and has the audacity to look mortified.
âYeah.â You cross your arms. âThanks for that.âÂ
âI uh.. man, I just wanted some Y/N love, Iâm sorry. I just got so carried away.â
âIâm pretty sure she thinks Iâm like, romantically involved with you.. Oh god what if she thinks I like men?â You cover your face in your hands, groaning into them. âI never told her that I liked just girls..â
âYou told her about your crush on Harper though? What about that?â He raises his eyebrows in question.
âYeah but I never told her about any of the other shit, and I havenât exactly like.. given her any signals..â
âBut you flirt with her all the time! And she flirts back! I know, because youâve told me everything, multiple times.â He bends down and scoops up the container, and picks up the cookies and places them all back inside.
âAlex, I really hate to break this to you, but girls flirt with each other all the time. Most of the time, itâs over compliments, and sometimes it SEEMS genuine, but really, theyâre just being nice.â You say. âUnless youâre super bold, with girls you basically have to be frank with them about your feelings and intentions for them to realize youâre serious. I myself prefer to kinda be sure that the other person likes me back, before I stick my neck out, you know? Because getting the âOh, I thought we were just friendsâ shit fucking hurts.â
âIâm pretty sure she likes you, dude.â He says to you like youâre an idiot.
âIâm not so sure about that.â You say, because you refuse to believe anything unless the cold hard facts are slapping you in the face.
âFor someone so smart, how are you so stupid?â He sniffs one of the cookies, and looks like heâs contemplating taking a bite. You scoff. âYou know what? Donât answer that. It doesnât matter. My point is, even I can tell she likes you.â
"Coming from you, that means nothing to me." He immediately looks up, completely offended. âWhat? I mean, seriously. Do I have to remind you of all of our middle school and high school years? That should explain itself.âÂ
âOkay when you put it that way, YEAH, I was stupid, but this is different. This is me absorbing someone ELSEâS love life, and even Iâm not that much of a fool.â He sighs, and mournfully tosses the cookies into the bin closest to you. âI think you need to like, give her a call or something and explain yourself. She looked really upset.âÂ
âYeah, I..â You pause for a second to pick your screwdriver back up. You donât even want to work anymore. âYouâre right. Iâm just nervous.âÂ
âJust do it before you overthink it.â He replies.
âUgh, okay.â You pull out your phone, swipe over to your contacts, and press the call button on Spinelâs name. Immediately, it goes to voicemail.
Of course.
You leave a voicemail for her to call you back as soon as she hears this, and you also shoot her a text.
âSheâs not answering.â You say.
âOf course sheâs not, I mean, I wouldnât either. Give her a while and try again later, she probably just needs some time.â He says, and also pulls out his phone, typing something on it real quick. âAlso, give me a minute, mom needs to call me about something for tomorrow.â He steps a couple feet away from you to take the call.
You stare at your phone, and for the first time in a long time, you really donât know what to fucking do other than just stand there. What if sheâs so upset, she never talks to you again? Will she give you a chance to hear you out? And are you ready to talk about your feelings with her?Â
Lord.
You havenât really thought about them too much yourself, if youâre going to be honest. Youâve been keeping this all super casual in your mind, because it feels irrational to grow feelings for someone this quickly, considering youâve known her for less than 2 weeks. But.. you admit, the more you push the thoughts away, the more you understand that you might like her a lot more than you originally considered, and denying them will just cause you issues like that one time when you were 19.
You sigh out loud. Off to the side you can hear Alex arguing with his mother about some errands she wants him to run tomorrow, and for a brief moment you consider just going home, but then remember that not even Mr. Smiley can cover the rest of the shift. You have a good two hours left, you can survive, hopefully. You make yourself busy with fixing the part you were previously working on - but youâre having a hard time concentrating. After a couple minutes, Alex taps on the side of the wall, and you peek your head out to look at him.
âLook, I hate to do this to you right now, but mom wants me to go grab a few things from her office, and pick up an order from the print place before it closes.â He pushes his curly dark hair out of his eyes, half leaning on the wall next to you. âI can probably be back by the time youâre done with your shift.â
âHmm.. alright.â You mumble, trying to keep your mind on more positive things. He leans closer to you, stretches out his arm, and pokes you on the cheek.
âDonât hyperfocus on this. Shit will be fine, you just gotta give her some time to get back to you, okay hun?â He gives your cheek a little love smack and stands straight, heading out already. You watch him go.
âSuper easy for you to say..â You say to yourself, and busy your hands.
Most of the rest of the shift passes quietly, and you receive no messages from anyone. You hate that you canât do anything, not really, so you send Spinel another text. She still hasnât seen the other one, and itâs been nearly two hours.
Y/N: Can we talk? Please.
You arenât in the mood to text anyone else, so you put your phone back into your pocket, and start all of your closing duties. The next twenty minutes goes by in a heartbeat, the crowds of tourists long since dissipated. There isnât a lot to do. Once you clock out and grab your things from the breakroom, you feel your phone vibrate so you pull it out quickly to see who it is. You try and fail not to feel disappointed that itâs just Alex.
Alex: she wrapped me up in some other shit so like, im runnin hella late
Alex: im sorry
Alex: its gonna be a while, ill let you know when im done and ill just come over to ur place
Alex: if thats ok
You type out a couple replies to him, and sigh out loud. Itâs for the best really. You donât exactly want him to talk to you about all this stuff right now anyway. You head out, lock up the place, and walk in the general direction of your home.
By the time youâre home and settled, Alex has given you an update, and itâs been nearly four hours since you saw Spinel with no response. Youâre seriously starting to worry, because sheâs never not replied to your messages like this. You go to send her another text, and realize that she still hasnât opened any of your messages. You send her another inquiry, and pop up your chat with Steven.
Y/N: Steven.
Y/N: I need you to answer asap.
You see that heâs online, and you wait for an answer. It only takes him a minute or two to get back to you.
Steven: Hey Y/N, whatâs up?
Y/N: Have you talked to Spinel in the last couple of hours?
Steven: Not since this morning, why?
Y/N: Can you call her just to check up on her? Iâm worried about something.
Steven: Yeah hold on.
You wait for several long minutes for him to get back to you.
Steven: Her phoneâs just going to voicemail, which is pretty weird. Maybe she accidentally let it die? Iâll let you know when she answers back.
Steven: Are you guys okay?
Y/N: Uhh, Iâll get back to you on that.
Steven: Hmm, okay.Â
You go to lay on your couch face down, and scream into the cushions.
Apparently you fall asleep that way, because the next thing you know, you have to peel your drool covered face off the couch cushion. You blink away your sleep-heavy eyes, and blearily check your phone. Itâs 5am.
The only message youâve received is one from Alex saying he stopped by, but left since he saw you were sleeping. Okay wow, he couldâve woken you up into a better sleeping position. Your neck feels like shit.Â
Youâre trying to ignore the growing feeling of dread in your stomach, pointedly not thinking about how Spinel hasnât texted you back yet, and how long itâs been. You grab a glass of water from the fridge, trudge up the stairs into your bedroom, and flop on your bed. You pass out again nearly instantly.
When you wake up again, the sun is glaring into your window, and you groan. You roll over and pull the covers over your head. Fuck the sun today. You grab your phone from your nightstand, and notice itâs almost 1pm, the fuck? Why the fuck did you sleep so long? You look at all your notifications, and pretend that youâre not looking for a specific one from someone.Â
Spinel still hasnât texted you back, and STILL hasnât seen any of the messages youâve sent her. You are starting to panic a little, so you shoot Steven a message.
Y/N: She hasnât said anything to me at all, has she answered you?
You message your dad and friends back while waiting a few minutes for Steven to reply. It takes him a few minutes to get back to you while you're laying in bed.
Steven: Her phone is still off, and she hasn't replied to anything I've sent her. I'm gonna ask Lapis to check up on her since they live in the same building. I'll get back to you when I get an answer.
It's been like twenty hours since you've seen her, and you're worried. There's no point moping around though, so you get up and get dressed for the day. You make and eat breakfast, even if you don't normally. You need a distraction from your thoughts, so you give your dad a call to check up on him, and ask him when he's coming home this week. He talks to you about his long days in meetings after meetings, the silly shit he got up to with a coworker last night after drinking, and the new hobby he's thinking of picking up when he gets back home. You guys talk for a long while, and maybe it's something you really needed, because you momentarily forget about what you were so worried with in the first place, until your phone buzzes. It's ringing actually, and your phone screen lights up with Steven's name. You tell your dad you've got to go to take this other call, and answer Steven. You sit there, phone in hand for a moment, before putting it to your ear.
"Y/N?" You hear him ask, although a bit muffled.
"Yeah. Anything?" You reply, trying to keep the nervousness out of your voice.
"She's uh.. She's on homeworld with the Diamonds right now? Maybe they worked something out with whatever event they were planning." He says into the receiver, completely casual like this is no big deal. Like that answer didn't just shatter your morale.
"Hm, okay. I appreciate you telling me this." You want to hang up and cry.Â
"Why didn't Spinel tell you she was going? I mean, she doesn't need to let me know since I go back to homeworld frequently.. are you guys okay?"
"Uhhhhhhhhhh." You say, unable to form an answer that isn't too revealing. "I'm not sure. But I'll let you know if anything changes."
"You know you can talk to me, right?" He says, gently. You appreciate that he cares, but it's best if he doesn't interfere.
"I know. Thank you, Steven." You reply, holding back any emotion that will give you away.
"I'll talk to you soon, okay? See you, Y/N." You say goodbye as well, and hang up.
You sit at your dining table for several solid minutes without moving, staring blankly at your phone, mind swirling with thoughts.
Okay. Alright. You can do this.
You refuse to cry, and you pinch your arm to get the prickling feeling away from the edges of your eyes. Fuck. Okay.Â
So she just.. left. She left, when she was fighting with the Diamonds literally yesterday about something awful they said to her, so awful that she had an emotional breakdown over it, and couldn't even TALK about it with you afterwards.Â
She left for homeworld to escape you.Â
You, specifically.
Because of a misunderstanding.
You probably sit there for a good twenty minutes absorbing everything, weighing the gravity of the situation. Afterwards, you get up and distract yourself with chores. You refuse to put any more thought into this, and just figure you'll wait.Â
At around 6pm, Alex comes over, and the two of you play Minecraft for the rest of the night, and he pointedly doesn't ask about Spinel at all. You're thankful that he's here in person, for once, because you don't know what kind of stupid shit you'd do without him here.
He spends the night and crashes on your couch, and you lay awake for most of the night, restless.
When you wake up, Alex has coffee and oatmeal ready for you, which is pretty funny because he never makes food. He's usually awful at it. He's sitting at the table sipping his coffee and drawing in his sketchbook, and he looks up when you make your presence known.
"Wow, you kinda look like shit my guy." He says, taking another sip of his coffee, and setting the mug down.
"Thanks. Had insomnia pretty bad last night.." You trail off and move to grab a mug from the cabinet and pour yourself some coffee. It's a black coffee only kind of day.Â
You sit down on the opposite side from him, and slowly drink your coffee. It smells good. You're worried Spinel hates you and never wants to see you again. You pull the bowl of oatmeal towards you and take a bite of lukewarm mush.
"This is kind of awful but thanks." You say as you shovel more into your mouth, and consider adding more brown sugar to this.
"I ain't no Gordon Ramsay, but I try." He doesn't look at you as he shades the back leg of the deer he's sketching. You watch him bite his tongue in concentration, and you take another sip of coffee. It's kind of burnt tasting, but whatever. You've had worse. "What do you want to do today, anyway?"Â
"Mmm." You eat another bite of oatmeal. "Can you please pick? Cuz I'm kinda braindead right now and I don't really feel like concentrating." He looks at you with mild concern.
"Last time I got to pick, you banned me from picking out what we do for a solid year." He furrows his eyebrows, twisting his pencil in hand.
"Yeah, well.. I don't really care right now." You shovel more food into your mouth.
"Fine. You said so, okayyyy, so no complaining later." He rolls his eyes and huffs, pencil scratching against the paper. Your phone buzzes several times on the table, and you reluctantly grab it. One message from dad, and.. two from Steven. You open up Stevenâs messages first.
Steven: What did you do?
Steven: She doesn't want to come home.
Your stomach feels like lead. Alex notices you immediately.
"Uh. What's wrong?" He asks, leaning over. You tilt your phone away from him and you can feel the tears coming. You swallow, trying to get your face to cooperate.
âUm..â You feel your voice wavering, so you take a steadying breath. Looking down at your phone again, you struggle to form any kind of coherent words at all. You push your phone over to Alex, he reads what's on your screen, and looks back over to you with a serious face.
âFor real? Are you kidding me?â He says, and you can hear the frustration in his voice. âIâm gonna give her a piece of my mind.â
âNo,â The words finally find you. âLet me deal with this, please.â You give him a half hearted smile, and pull your phone back to yourself. With shaky hands, you text Steven back.
Y/N: Listen, I didnât do anything, but..
Y/N: Iâd prefer to get this sorted with her in person.
Y/N: I donât want to play the messenger game
Y/N: I want her to hear it from me.
You donât have to wait too long for his reply.
Steven: Okay well, I donât know how well thatâs going to work
Steven: Considering she refuses to talk to me about any of it
Steven: Let me know if you end up wanting me to do anything?
Steven: And Iâll message you if anything happens on my end.
Y/N: I appreciate that. Thanks.
You sigh and look up at Alex, whoâs watching you with his chin in hand, leaning on the table.
âAnything?â He inquires.
âNothing.â You say.
âWell, let me clean up the mess I made and let's go out. Mom let me have the car today, so we can go wherever. You said I can choose and no take-backsies, just give me a few minutes, alright?â He stands up and takes the both of your plates to the kitchen, and you watch him for a moment before deciding to get up and get dressed.Â
You head up to your bedroom and open your closet, rummaging around for something cozy. You grab a soft long sleeve shirt, and sweatpants, because who gives a fuck honestly. Youâre looking inbetween all your sweaters for your favorite one that youâd like to wear today, before realizing that Spinel still has it. Instantly, your eyes fill with tears at the reminder, and you let yourself cry quietly in frustration where no one can see you.Â
After a few minutes, you wash your face in the bathroom and get dressed, settling for a different sweater. You take a couple deep breaths, and head downstairs to Alex.
You spend the rest of the day with Alex, and he takes the both of you to Empire City to browse the mall and window shop, and he buys the both of you dinner. You feel like heâs being extra sweet to make you feel better and you appreciate him so much for it, but Spinelâs on your mind literally all day and you canât distract yourself enough. He gives you a big hug after dropping you off at home, and before leaving he makes sure that youâre okay. Youâre not, not really, but he helped you not spiral further downwards today.
The next day you only work a half shift, so you get to sleep in and you take full advantage of it. It has now been three days since Spinel disappeared with no word since, and youâre beside yourself with worry. But you canât let this stop you living your day to day life, so you do what you do best and keep on with your routine.
The fourth day goes quickly as you work a full shift, and youâve got quite a few things to do before your dad gets home tomorrow. Youâre excited to see him, as heâs been gone for nearly three weeks now. The house will be back to normal, and way less lonely.
Your dad comes home the fifth day and you spend the entirety of it with him, and you donât think about Spinel at all. The both of you go to the movies, and then to the beach to have a relaxing afternoon as family bonding time. When you guys head home, you make him his favorite steak and potatoes and he talks about all of the things he had to do and how much he missed your company while he was gone. You think he notices that your mood has slightly been off today, but he doesn't ask about it.
The sixth day, Steven sends you a text about her still not being home, and you wonder why you even bothered opening the message. At this point youâre no longer despondent, youâre now just frustrated with the growing feeling of anger building inside you.
By the tenth day, youâre rightfully pissed. You gave her more than enough time to get over whatever feelings she felt - and sheâs not taking any of your feelings into consideration. She left you to deal with the aftermath of what she assumed to be true, and never even gave you the chance to explain yourself. You havenât sent her a text since that last one you sent over a week ago, and you think youâll send her one more.
Y/N: Whenever (or IF, I guess) you decide to pop back in on earth, Iâd like to have a chat. :)
Steven hasnât said anything much in the last week, either. You kind of feel like heâs avoiding you because of this, but it doesnât matter now. If she never wants to come back, thatâs on her.Â
Two more days go by - pretty uneventfully. You spend most of your time at work, or playing minecraft with Alex and the occasional Harper when sheâs actually in a motel versus camping. The two of them havenât asked about Spinel at all - and you know theyâve talked about it extensively in private. Youâre secretly relieved that you donât have to talk about her, though.
Two weeks pass, and you give up entirely. Life goes on.
One of these late afternoons youâre lying in bed after work and texting your friends, and for a moment you think about shooting Spinel a last message. You donât think sheâll come back to earth at this point, but you want your sweater back if she ever visits. You swipe over to your chat with her to let her know this, and your eyes glance at the âseenâ icon at the bottom, timestamp dated nearly 36 hours ago.
Huh.
Wait. What the fuck.
You sit there for a moment, frozen in shock. Shock that quickly turns into boiling anger, and you find yourself texting Steven faster than you realize.
Y/N: So she comes back and you say nothing, yeah?
Y/N: Remind me to not do you any favors for a while.
Eyes stinging, you go back over to shoot Spinel an angry message, but before you can even type out half a sentence, Steven rapidly texts you back.
Steven: Hold on for a second, okay?
Steven: Let me explain something.
You donât really care at this point.
Y/N: nah man.
You get up from bed, pocket your phone, and waltz downstairs. You put on a sweater, toe on the nearest flip flops, and head out the front door. Dadâs at work currently, so you lock the door and head over to little homeworld. You walk briskly over to the bar you met Spinel at, and after a small hold up with the bouncer, head in and move directly to the counter, facing Bismuth.
âHey Bis,â You say to her, and she glances over to you from her current patron, and smiles at you.
âY/N! Itâs been a minute. Howâve you been?â She replies, facing you.
âIâve been alright,â You lean a bit over the bar. âI actually just have a question, if you donât mind.â Bismuth looks at you inquisitively, and you continue. âWhatâs Spinelâs address? She never gave it to me.â You smile sweetly at her.
âHold on, let me get a pen and some paper.â She says as she sets down her glass, and grabs a pen and some receipt paper from the register. You watch her scribble something down, and she hands it to you.
âBis, I ever tell you that youâre the best?â You take the piece of paper from her hand.
âOnly once,â She grins. âBut I could stand to hear it again.â You laugh at that, and pocket the note.
âThanks for this. Iâll pay you back later, promise.â You wink at her, and turn to leave. You hear her chuckle and pick the glass back up from the counter.
âIâll keep you to that!â You hear as you leave the building, pulling out the note again to glance at the address.
Itâs over a mile away, and you figure now or never, and walk towards the general direction of her place. You try and fail on calming your nerves on the near 30 minute walk, and by the time you get to her apartment building, youâve worked yourself up into a whirlwind of emotions. Also youâve pointedly ignored your phone this entire time, and youâre pretty sure youâve missed 5 calls and dozens of texts, but you knew that if you looked at any of it, youâd lose face and chicken out.
Spinelâs apartment is on the 9th floor, and you marvel at the technology side of the building for a bit. These gems really knew how to build stuff. You take the elevator up, and once youâre on the floor, you take a sharp left to the odd numbers side of the building. You reach her door and stop, almost touching the frame to knock on it. Although itâs pretty quiet in the building, you can hear a faint voice, or voices, coming from inside her apartment if you listen closely enough.
You take a deep breath, and let it out. You take another three, and consider leaving altogether. You steel your nerves, lift your arm, and knock on her door frame twice.
You think you hear the voice quiet down as you stand there, waiting. Several seconds go by, and you can hear your own heartbeats.
For a sec you think that she wonât come to the door, but after a few more moments you hear quiet movement towards the door youâre standing in front of. You make a point to step to the side, so whoever is answering the door canât see whoâs standing there through the peephole.
Very slowly, you see the door handle turn, and the door swinging open several inches. You watch Spinel peek her head out the door, her phone in her hand, and turn to make direct eye contact with you. She freezes instantaneously, like she expected it to be anyone else other than you standing there.Â
Her hair is in a messy bun, and your eyes trail down to notice that sheâs wearing your sweater.Â
This pisses you off immediately.











