Chapter Text
And for a while, everything was okay. She didn’t have another breakdown, she didn’t cry until her throat was raw. And her… temperament calmed down.
She spent days cultivating her cherry blossom, it was a real tree, one that she had planted at the start of the season, it had grown fast, already taking up a significant portion of the courtyard. The petals fell gently, covering the ground with a pillowy layer of pink.
Gem sat on one of the branches and dipped her fingers into melted wax, shaping the pink wax into semi permanent flowers.
The repetitive motion of crafting something beautiful sent waves of calm through her. She barely paid attention when the sound of rockets fired overhead.
“Gem!” Impulse called as he flew above her base, “Where are you?”
Gem looked up and waved, “Down here!”
After a moment Impulse swooped down and landed on a nearby branch. “Hey! Woah- this is awfully high huh.” He said holding a branch tight.
Gem laughed, “Not all of us want to be underground 24/7.”
“Do you- Do you think it’s a good idea to be so high?” Impulse asked nervously looking down below them.
“We have elytra!” Gem said lightly as she looked up at Impulse, her humor fading slightly as she made eye contact with him, he was looking at her like she was fragile. “I’m not gonna fall.” She said a bit more forcefully.
Impulse looked a bit embarrassed, “Sorry.”
Gem sighed and started to pack up her wax, it had been ruined now. She’d come back to it another day, “I’m not a baby Impulse. I can take care of myself.”
“I just worry you won’t. I mean after what happened-”
Gem leveled a glare at him, “And this is why I was worried about telling you guys. I don't want you to look at me differently. It’s not that bad, it’s just something I have to live with.”
“Have you asked X to look at it? Maybe he can find a fix to-”
“I’m not broken!” Gem snapped, anger bubbling inside of her, “You think people haven’t looked before? You think I didn’t try for years to change? These are just the cards I was dealt, X isn’t going to find anything. There isn’t anything wrong.”
Gem was expecting Impulse to back off, people normally did. But instead Impulse stiffened, “But you’re hurting yourself. That’s not normal. And maybe there’s nothing wrong with your code but even so, you need help!”
“There isn’t anything that’s going to help.” Gem said flatly as she gathered her things, what a waste of a good day. “Stop bringing it up.”
Impulse sighed, “If it gets worse we’ll have to have this conversation again.”
Gem glowered at him, if it got worse she wasn’t going to be telling Impulse. “Is that what you came over here for?” She asked in a last ditch effort to smother her anger.
“Oh right! No I was-”
“IMPULSE!” A yell from below them made them both jump, and Pearl was standing below them glaring up at them. “Are you gonna take all day?” There was a sharpness in Pearl’s voice that felt unfamiliar and Impulse looked slightly confused.
“I’m asking, I’m asking!”
Pearl huffed, “Wasting my time, void.”
“What’d you do to her?” Gem asked, feeling a little bit of satisfaction that Impulse was also getting chewed out by Pearl.
Impulse stared down as Pearl walked off, “I have no idea. Um- huh… Anyway, I know it’s short notice but we’re planning on having lunch with Grian, Mumbo, and Scar, and thought you would join us?”
“Sure.” Gem said, even though the last thing she wanted to do was socialize.
“We’re gonna fly over in fifteen or so, Grian’s hosting.” Impulse looked nervously down the path Pearl had retreated through.
Gem nodded, “I might be late, you can fly over without me.”
Impulse smiled, albeit a little distracted, “Great see you there!” And he flew off towards where Pearl had gone.
As Impulse disappeared, new anger bubbled up in her. Gem hopped off her tree, opening her elytra in the last second to break her fall just to prove she could. She shoved the wax supplies in the first chest she saw and decided to head over to Grian’s early. She really didn’t want to risk having any more one-on-one time with Impulse. As she took off, another wave of annoyance and frustration hit her and Gem gritted her teeth. How DARE he insinuate she was wrong. How DARE he think he knew her better than she knew herself. Just because he could be fixed- just because his issues had been from a soulmate didn’t mean hers were the same.
There wasn’t a magic button that was going to make this all go away. She had to live with it, and Impulse making her feel stupid for not trying things she had tried 50 times wasn’t helping.
She didn’t need his help.
She didn’t ask for his advice.
And if he couldn’t handle that she might as well save her energy for people who didn’t care about stupid things like that.
Gem was still fuming as she flew in, she considered doing another lap, to try to cool off, but before she could Grian waved her down, “Gem!! Glad you could make it!”
Gem put on her best impersonation of a smile and walked down the stone path, “The others’ll be over soon.”
“Not an issue," Grian said as he pointed her towards the dining room, “Mumbo’s here, but Scar’s running late too!”
Mumbo smiled as she walked in, “Ah Gem! Good to see you, how’re you?” He was pacing slightly and fidgeting as if he was nervous but Gem knew at this point, that was just what Mumbo was like.
She swallowed a snarky response which might have actually made him nervous, and just nodded, “Yeah no complaints, your bases are looking cool!”
Grian grinned as he set down a mug of tea in front of her, “Thanks! I don’t think I’ve been round to yours recently, how's it coming on?”
“Good!” Gem said, relaxing into the conversation, “I’ve been adding foliage to my tree, you should come by sometime! I’ll give you the tour.”
“That’d be really cool!” Mumbo said, “You’re always so good at organics- I’ve been thinking, well I’ve been drawing up some plans- rudimentary really- but I thought I should try to add a bit of organic around my vault. Maybe- if you're not too busy of course- I could take some pointers?”
“I’m always happy to help,” Gem said lightly as she sipped her tea, it was sweeter than she’d normally take it. “Although this season Grian’s giving me a run for my money.”
“Sorry I’m late!” Scar shouted as he flew into the room, colliding with the stone wall, “Geez, I mean the air traffic was just hectic, I saw two whole birds on the way over!”
“Don’t worry Scar- you’re somehow not the last one here.” Grian said as brushed his hand over the wall Scar had dived into, “Although you are the first one to try and knock my base out of the sky.”
“You’re welcome!” Scar said cheerily as he put a large ceramic jar in the center of the table. “I probably made too many of these but I was just having too much fun! You’ll all have to take some home!”
“You didn’t bring any of those surprise cookies did you?” Mumbo said, eyeing the jar suspiciously.
“Why of course I did!”
Grian opened the jar and picked up one of the offensive cookies, “This what you’re scared of Mumbo?” He teased, “A little cookie?”
Mumbo glared at them like they had personally wronged him, “Cookies shouldn't be evil!”
“More for me then!” Grian said as he shoved the cookie into his mouth.
“I don’t want to hear about it when your stomach hurts from whatever monstrosities Scar put in that.” Mumbo said. “Don’t say I didn't warn you.”
“The warning’s in the name!” Scar said as he leaned his chair back on its back legs, “Elven surprise!”
Gem laughed as she noticed Grian’s eyes had dilated, his pupils as big as saucers. “You doing alright there bud?” She asked, “Was the surprise worth it?”
“One hundred percent!” Grian said as he fumbled around trying to pull out a chair, "Who needs to see anyway?”
Just then Impulse and Pearl walked in, carrying a large pot of soup.
“Oh! Gem, you already made it!” Impulse said as he set the soup on the stove and started heating it back up.
“Yep.” Gem said trying not to think about Impulse too much.
Pearl slid into the seat next to Gem, "What's wrong with Grian?”
“Cookies.” Mumbo said mournfully, “Scar ruined cookies again.”
“Ruined is such a strong word!” Scar protested, “I made a conscious change!”
“I agree with Scar!” Grian said, gesturing in nearly the right direction. “Seeing is overrated!”
Pearl snorted and whispered to Gem, “Wait till they find out what I put in the soup~!”
Gem raised an eyebrow and shook her head, “I guess I should have known to bring milk with all your antics.”
Pearl winked, “It’s funnier this way!”
When they finally got around to eating, Pearl insisted the soup was more of an after the meal affair and as soon as Gem took a bite, she could see why. Her vision started spinning and her instinct was to lie down as vertigo crashed into her.
“Oh god-” Mumbo muttered, already getting down to lie flat on the ground.
“Why did we do this after eating?” Impulse groaned, “And what are we going to do with the rest of the soup?”
“Don’t be a baby!” Pearl said, still standing like nothing was wrong, “Gem and I are doing fine, it’s still good soup!”
Gem smiled, trying to subtly lean back against the wall.
“Oh yeah? Grian said teasingly, as he half looked up from where he had planted his head, firmly on the table. “If you’re both so ‘fine’, go fly home huh?”
“Maybe we will!” Pearl said as she took Gem’s hand.
“Don’t die-” Scar mumbled.
Gem half ran, half stumbled after Pearl as she dragged her along, her head was still very much dizzy, and she knew she would have bumped into every wall on the way out if Pearl hadn’t dragged her through it. Pearl, true to her word, seemed to be doing extremely normally.
“Wait Pearl,” Gem said as Pearl strapped her elytra on, “I don’t know if-”
“The boys’ll be fine!” Pearl dismissed, “They’re being so dramatic. Last season they were always doing stuff like this.”
If Gem didn’t feel like she was about to fall over, she might have made a joke about Pearl being from the land of resistances and how maybe Pearl was the outlier and not the baseline, but she was too focused on not falling off of the bridge.
“Keep up!” Pearl yelled as she took off.
She could’ve said no. Said any of the many things she wanted to say about Pearl’s poison resistance, but instead, compelled by something she didn’t have a name for, Gem tightened her elytra on her back and chased after Pearl.
It was not the right choice.
As soon as her feet left the ground, her vision tilted dangerously and she couldn’t tell which way was up. The ground was approaching a little too fast as she let off a rocket to try and gain some altitude, and the ground came even faster, and the next thing she knew she was choking on water, and she couldn’t see and she knew she was underwater, and she flailed trying to figure out which way was up as she tumbled head over heels, and she couldn’t breathe, and all she felt was terrified.
She was going to drown. She was going to die. She was in danger.
Stop stop stop stop stop.
Something grabbed her as the corners of her vision began to close in. By the time they broke the surface of the water Gem was limp and barely conscious.
“Come on.” Someone above her muttered. And her head was tilted back and air was pushed into her lungs.
Gem’s body seized and she tilted to the side, coughing up all the water. Someone was patting her back as she gagged and coughed up as much water as she could, until her arms started to give out and she could finally breathe.
Gem lay down on her back, her world was still spinning.
“You scared me!” Pearl said, and Gem winced.
“Sorry.” Gem mumbled, not looking forward to explaining herself with adrenaline still coursing through her. “I don’t know what happened.”
“I do!” Pearl said, playfully nudging Gem’s foot. “You took off, flipped around and rocketed straight into the river. It was quite impressive, really. You could have told me you were dizzy, you know.”
Gem snorted, “Yeah I probably should have shouldn’t I?”
“Just wanted to give me a show huh?” Pearl said, and Gem felt a giddy rush of nerves.
“Mhmm, needed to check you were watching.” Gem said as she propped herself up, the dizziness had waned but her stomach was doing somersaults as Pearl looked at her softly, not with pity, but just something soft.
Pearl moved in ever so slightly, and tucked a dripping strand of hair behind Gem’s ear. Her heart skipped a beat as Pearl’s fingers lingered. Gem could smell the soup on her, the comforting smell of garlic on her fingers. Pearl murmured, “For you? I’m alw-”
Just then she heard Grian yell, “Thought you went home huh?”
Pearl jerked away and Gem’s heart rate picked up as they both turned around to see all the boys on the bridge staring down at them. When Gem glanced back at Pearl, she was looking right back at Gem.
“They don’t need to know.” Pearl said, something mischievous glinting in her eye.
Gem snorted, “That’s right.” She looked up at the bridge, “We flew here- just wanted to do some sunbathing!”
She could feel Grian’s incredulous stare from all the way over there, “Uh-huh. Sunbathing.”
“You’ve got a nice riverbank for it!” Pearl called.
“Whatever you say.” Grian yelled before heading back inside.
“Don’t forget to grab your cookies!” Scar said as he flew over them towards his base.
The rest of the group dispersed from the bridge, leaving Pearl and Gem laughing on the side of the riverbank.
“They did not believe you!” Pearl said through laughter.
“We did fly here!”
“We’re soaked!” Pearl said as she nudged Gem’s shoulder, “They know we were in the river.”
“Oh yeah!” Gem rubbed a hand over her face, “Look- I almost drowned, I wasn't paying attention.”
Pearl lay down on the grass and stared up at the clouds, “I forgive you. Although Grian’s gonna tease us about it later.”
“When does he not?” Gem said as she lay down next to Pearl, “He lives for the drama.”
Pearl laughed before pointing to two nearly rectangular clouds next to each other, “Look he’s eavesdropping right now.”
Gem tsked with feign disappointment, “What a nosy neighbor.”
They pointed out silly looking clouds, shoulder to shoulder, until Gem’s concealed anger at Impulse was forgotten and they were both nearly dry.