No, no no no! Pearl covered her mouth with her sleeve as she leaned against the door of the stall, grateful that the person on the other side couldn’t see the flush in her cheeks or the tears on her face. She hastily tried to shush her own crying, sniffling and burying her face into her hands, pressing her palms roughly to her eyes and squeezing them shut tight. Embarrassment pierced her chest and turned her red all the way to her ears; Garnet was not supposed to see her like this.

“I told Amethyst not to get you,” she muttered bitterly into her wrists, glaring down at the floor through her blurred vision. She was just supposed to go back to class and give her a minute to get herself together, not drag their other friend into it so Pearl could be mortified even further. “I’m fine. I’m just–I’m fine. You don’t have–” She inhaled sharply, the noise hiccuping in her chest. “–to be here.”

Pearl's words rolled off her like nothing, any hints to leave her alone ignored. Garnet was pretty sure that was the opposite of what she should do, anyway. She leaned a shoulder against the other side of the stall, hearing the quiet sobs that came from inside and feeling her lips tug into a small frown.

“Pearl? Where are you?” It wasn’t rare that Pearl went wandering off without notifying Rose, but for Garnet to tell her she’d gone all the way back to the fountain… That had to have been a bit much. Enough so that a worried Rose Quartz had gone over there too, in order to find her and make sure everything was okay.

Though the last thing Rose expected was to round the corner, Pearl apparently having heard her, half-turned and looking behind her in surprise. Before she could even voice her relief, Pearl had dropped down to a knee, bowing before in a way she had managed not to do for a long time, actually.

That just made Rose all the more concerned for her comrade’s behavior today.

“There you are, Pearl. Come on now, get up; you know how I feel about you bowing down to me like that…” She walked over gently grabbing onto Pearl’s arm and helping her up. “Is everything alright? Garnet told me you went out here by yourself, so… I must admit, I got worried.

Something interesting was always happening with the gems, whether it was related to them (corrupted gem, for example) or not. For example, there was the odd human or so Rose would attempt to befriend and learn human culture from. There were the missions to be done and, of all the things, stray, domestic animals to take off the streets and attempt to care for. The one this time was a cat, a scruffy little thing with stripes and rather attached already to Rose and Amethyst, the latter who even had taken the “kitten” into her room so they could sleep.

Having not seen Pearl in some time, Rose figured now was as good a time as any to go out looking for her...only to realize the search wouldn’t go far at all; the darling gem was standing by the ocean, looking incredibly dramatic as the slight light from the crescent moon already rising up higher into the sky illuminated her.

@intherealway

It was the first time the Pearl had ever held a weapon, so she was bound to have some difficulties. She just hadn’t expected it to end this badly; with a cut across her shoulder and shame written across her face. Still, the other had shown her nothing but kindness and the tenderness with which she patched the blue gem up… It was like nothing she’d ever experienced before.