#stedee

        Pearl’s definition of fun had been… strange, to say the least. Greg kept trying to offer her food or drinks, but she had always seemed queasy when he insinuated that she should eat something. Instead, they had traipsed around to the local library, then off to a late-night art gallery. After careful staring by Pearl (and a quick trip by Garnet, who proclaimed she had “won the art gallery” by getting through it the fastest) they headed off to the top of the hill above the temple to watch the moon overhead. It wasn’t quite what Greg had expected, but he knew that he wasn’t exactly her cup of tea, either.

         The night had ended with a late night movie run to see a historical documentary on the French Revolution. Pearl, having been around for it, was excited to quietly recite back and forth between the two of them what was correct and what needed clarification—much to the chagrin of the patrons of those around them.

         For heaven’s sake, she had even slept. She didn’t need to sleep, nor did she even fall asleep whatsoever, but lying down after a busy night and just letting everything go for a moment—or a few hours, was something interesting in and of itself. It was new and refreshing and she adored it—though just this once. She wouldn’t let herself get too sucked into it.

         Waking the next morning was interesting. She had a strange taste in her mouth, and furthermore, her hair was a mess. She straightened it up in the bathroom before heading for the door—

         But for what?

         Despite the multiudes of excitement last night, she still feel like there was a panicked sort of hollowness resting in her gut. For thousands of years and thereafter, she had been Rose’s knight, and Rose her liege. Everything she did, she did for her—but now she was gone. She tried to embody her duty by raising Steven, and now Steven was at a point where he needed less emotional and moral guidance, and more actual combat training, if anything. Of course, Steven would still need to come to her every so often, but she was losing her sense of duty by the day…

         No, this is what Greg had told her. Just because she didn’t have something to do that… that permeated the very fiber of her being, it didn’t mean she couldn’t engage people!

         Steven, being a human, had excellent connections down in Beach City—and no doubt they were a little infamous as being the Crystal Gems, simultaneously destroying Beach City, but protecting it from too much destruction. She decided it was a good day to visit one of Steven’s favorite places.

         “…Uhm, hello! What can I get for you?” Peedee asked.

         “I… I’m not quite sure,” Pearl confessed. “I don’t really eat fries.”

         “Well, we have… burgers? I think there’s some rocks out back.”

         “I don’t eat at all.”

         “…You came to a fry store, and you… don’t eat?” Peedee shrank inwards, squinting.

         “It’s nothing personal, I just… Here, you know what, uhm.” Pearl tried to remember how Steven had done it. She lightly tapped the bottoms of her fists on the counter and said, “The bits. I think.”

         “Oh! You’re getting them for Steven!” Peedee broke out into a smile. Pearl wanted to slap herself. Here she was, trying to find herself, and yet she slipped into the mother role again and again. “Here, there’s not as many as usual, but it’s a little early. The evening rush is still to come… So, uh, how’s Steven doing?”

         “Oh, uhm.” She looked off to the side. “He’s doing well—he’s been playing with Connie and Lapis Lazuli lately, so he hasn’t been home too often.”

         “Well, I guess it is Summer.” Peedee shrugged. “I just wish I could go and join them.” He sighed.

         “…Why don’t you?” Pearl asked, trying to perhaps deepen her conversation with the humans of Beach City. She already had a good time with the Pizzas, but she supposed as long as she was finding a new purpose, she might as well try to get to know people. As far as she knew, Peedee’s sole purpose was to make frybits for Steven in a never-ending cycle of consumption.

         “W-Well, I mean… I can’t just go over there,” Peedee began.

         “Sure you can, you just… walk over there? Am I missing something?” She held the bag with both hands, eyes glancing around.

         “No, it’s just… I mean, it’s embarrassing, I guess? I feel like he has to come to me.”

         “…But... you can go to him?” It was Pearl’s turn to squint. “I’m not understanding the dilemma—you want to see someone, but you’re too embarrassed to go see them, as if you coming to them would somehow trigger some awful… apocalyptic… reaction.” She felt something stirring inside of her, something familiar. “Oh. Oh, I understand now.” A light cyan blush tinted her cheeks as her eyes went wide. “Yes. I get it.”

         “…That obvious?” Peedee sank to the counter, resting his head in his arms.

         “Steven is a wonderful person, Peedee—he’s really not going to think anything if you come over, or stay a night. It… might benefit you. I don’t think I’ve ever seen you leave this shop.” She peered inside, looking at the grease-stained walls. She shuddered.

         “Well… okay, then, how about Saturday? I can probably get a day off then.” Pearl simply shrugged in response.

         “We have no problem with you coming over—we inhabit the inner sanctum of the temple, after all. Everything outside is Steven’s room. With what you want to do, you’d have to talk to him.”

         “Oh, boy.” Peedee sighed, though she could tell he was trying to psyche himself up.

         “Be brave.” Pearl gave him an empathetic smile before walking away, frybits in hand.

         “Oh, that went very well!” She said to herself. “I think I’m really beginning to… to understand what this is about, I need… friends. Yes, that’s it. Friends.” Pearl nodded to herself, smiling. Reaching the temple, she walked up the stairs to find Amethyst lounging about in the kitchen—though as soon as she smelled the bits, she came rushing to Pearl.

         “GIMME GIMME GIMME!” Amethyst waved her hands towards the bag as Pearl held it high above her.

         “Oh no you don’t! These are for Steven.” She pushed Amethyst back by her head.

         “Steven is sleeping over at Lapis’s…es.” Amethyst squinted. “Lapisi?”

         “Lapis’s.”

         “Yeah, yeah, whatever. Gimme the bits.” Amethyst grabbed them from her. “I’ve been starving!”

         “You’ve never felt hungry in your life—we don’t ever need to eat.”

         “Yeah, but I still get cravings,” Amethyst managed to push her words through a mouthful of burnt frybits.

         “Well… yes, I suppose that would happen if you ate voraciously for thousands of years and suddenly didn’t have anything one day.”

         “Yep.”

         “Ugh.” Pearl shook her head—but then moved closer to Amethyst. “Anyways.” She took a breath. “Would you like to… go on a walk?”

         “Effort.”

         “Uh, alright. How about… Oh, we could go sailing in the Gem Sloop! Very relaxing.”

         “I’d get nauseous.”

         “…Okay, what about a movie?” She had seen one last night, but she would go for anything today.

         “…P, are you trying to like, ask me out or something? Why are you so… you about this?”

         “What?! No, I just…” She sighed, and said it with a straight face. “I need friends. And we… we used to be a lot closer than we are now.” Amethyst’s face dropped from her playful expression, her eyes widening.

         “Well, yeah, ‘cause that was…”

         “Before. I know. But now Steven is out on his own and making decisions for himself, and… well, I feel like we’ve come together as a team… but not so much as… friends.”

         “You don’t think I’m your friend?” Amethyst hissed.

         “It’s not that, I just… I want to be better friends!” Pearl snapped back, quickly calming down. “It’s one thing to have us talk and live in the same place, but… we don’t spend time together anymore. I just want to… reconnect.” She felt her cheeks become a little warmer. Amethyst seemed satisfied with this.

         “Well, alright.” Amethyst grinned. “But as long as we’re going, I get to pick the place.”

         “That’s fine with me!”

         “Funland. Tonight. 7 o’ clock.” Amethyst pointed two finger guns at her and shapeshifted sunglasses onto her face. “We are gonna rock this town.”

         “I certainly hope you live up to your promises.” Pearl smirked.

         “Oh, you just wait and see.”

         “What’s the point of this game, again?” Pearl asked, holding a handful of darts. In front of her was a booth with balloons tied to a corkboard, and stuffed animals lining every shelf.

         “You pop the balloons and you get a prize! Like, uh, a teddy bear, or maybe a unicorn! Just watch the master at work.” Amethyst threw all three of her darts in one go, missing every balloon. Her confident grin slowly turned sheepish. She shrugged, laughing it off. “I guess you can’t get all of them?”

         “That’s because you need a little more form. See, one at a time, you would have hit them all with the strength you used.” Pearl closed one eye and aimed carefully, moving the dart back and forth a bit before hurling it like it was one of her spears. The dart cut through the balloon, sure enough, but it also cut through the corkboard behind it, and then the tent behind that before finally clattering to the floor.

         Pearl’s eyes widened in embarrassment as Amethyst took the time to process what had just happened. It wasn’t long before she started laughing hysterically. The booth attendant, in fear for their life, just stepped aside.

         “P-Pick ANY of them! Please! Please don’t hurt me.”

         “Oh, I’m so sorry, I didn’t mean to do that—really, it’s fine.”

         “No, no, I insist!” The booth attendant pushed the offer, obviously not trusting her. At the very least, they didn’t want to give her a reason to come back.

         “Oh, alright.” Pearl sighed, defeated. Moving over and going en pointe, she reached the top shelf and grabbed herself a large, white teddy bear.

         “Woah, P, didn’t know that was your style.”

         “It’s… a nice color. And it’s soft. Maybe Steven will want it.”

         “What? Aw, c’mon, Pearl.”

         “What?” Pearl cocked a brow at Amethyst, hugging her new furry companion as if it would defend her from the oncoming criticism.

         “You’re still talking about Steven! We came out here to get your mind off of him, remember?” Amethyst complained, holding out her upturned palms.

         “I’m just saying, maybe he would… Oh, you’re right.” Pearl sighed, moving to a bench and sitting down for a bit. “I mean, he’s just such a big—”

         “Part of your life, yeah, I know! He’s a part of all of ours. But you gotta, like, give yourself some stuff! Keep the bear.”

         “…What am I going to do with it?” Pearl squinted at the bear, turning it left and right as if she was trying to find some practical use for it.

         “You keep it, duh,” Amethyst laughed. “Why do you think my room’s so full of junk? I like it all!”

         “I never thought about it that way.” Pearl paused. “You sure do have a lot of memories in there, don’t you?”

         “Well, yeah, like, this one time, I ate this burrito, and like, totally felt awful for the next day! And that’s in my ‘stuff that made me sick’ pile.”

         “I was there for that, Amethyst. It was, what, a year old?”

         “Probably more.”

         “But that’s how you keep memories, then? You gather materialistic things and hoard them until you can’t hoard any more?”

         “Well, I guess you do some spring cleaning once in a while. Y’know, out with the old, in with the new. But yeah, basically.”