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Last time it took 300,030 operations before Padparadscha woke up. Over a span of 231 years, 11 months, and 1 day.
All that, and they only woke for a few minutes before succumbing again to the sleep that has chased them around since birth.
Watching Rutile work on Padparadscha made Jade feel much less dread about trying to wake up Sensei. Even if, you know, often it ended up with Jade heading back to have Rutile reattach their hand and dealing with the doctor’s inevitable teasing. But Jade knew Rutile’s teasing and repair work were one of the few instances they weren’t tirelessly trying to revive their sleeping partner, except for when Rutile themself was asleep. So. The prolocutor can put up with that. At least they spent hours at most trying to awaken Sensei rather than months into years into decades into centuries, attempts blurring into a hopeless cycle as time continues to pass…
That was why, despite how much Jade bickered with Rutile, they held a deep respect for them. Rutile was strong and everybody knew it. Even so, Jade worries about the doctor sometimes, because while they put all the other gems back together, if Rutile shatters, who will pick up the pieces?
Besides…as much as Jade refused to admit it, something about their little fights with that dissection maniac was…comforting. And if the ever-serious speaker dug a little deeper into the feelings they weren’t ready to admit, they’d know that they purposely fell into Rutile’s teasing traps just to give them a small break from thinking about how to operate on Padparadscha next and how long it’s been since their sleeping partner last regained consciousness…
…And so. A gentle breeze floats around on the beach, stirring up a bit of white sand that stuck to the deep green gem’s socks. With a sigh, Jade brushes off the sand for what must have been the twentieth time that morning. Water lapped at the shore lazily, acting rather innocent for being the same ocean that had coughed up Phosphophyllite broken and without legs. Yes, the beach, called the Shore of Nascency or Beach of Beginnings depending on who you asked, was where all the gems were born. Of course, the largest majority of them never became sentient and just lay around on the beach like spare parts waiting to be used to repair someone’s injuries. Jade knew that Rutile came here sometimes, but when one’s the only doctor in a house full of troublemakers—one prominent in particular—there’s very little time to leave the room, much less go down to the beach to search for materials. Padparadscha’s materials. Closing their eyes, Jade can see all the sparkling minerals Rutile had tried before, all precisely chiseled to fit the gaping holes that lay on Padparadscha’s chest since their birth. A rather bean-shaped group, that one. They’re lined up in the medical room in a way Jade can’t understand why unless Rutile wants to constantly remind themself of all their failed attempts. Ah…actually, that probably is why. Motivation. The image of Rutile’s office fades as the beach once again enters into view. Right. That’s the reason the tactician came down here this morning. Jade pauses a moment to dust off the sand that had climbed back onto their socks while they were reminiscing and heads further into the depths of the beach.
Well. Rutile isn’t really the type to seek someone out to talk to when they feel depressed or down. And Jade suspects that asking the doctor if they wanted to “talk about their feelings” would just be awkward for the both of them. It may happen, but it’d be better during of time of Rutile’s own choosing. So instead, the president decided to take these restless feelings of concern and…something else they hadn’t identified and show their care in a different way. Helping Rutile with the work they spent every free second on. Jade kneels carefully down and begins to dig through the sand. The rough, fine grains slipped through their fingers to reveal only more sand no matter how much they dug. Padparadscha rests at a high hardness of 9, so their ideal material was not at all easy to find. Though, of course, Rutile would try just about anything in hopes that it could possibly work, most successes in the past had been with similar materials. A solid substance strikes Jade’s fingers. Ah! It’s…calcite, an abundant mineral with hardness of 3. Not even close. Sand is now reaching well past Jade’s wrists. They touch another solid substance. Maybe, this time…oh, it’s Fluorite. Hardness 4. Beautiful colors, but not what they were looking for. Jade can’t stop a small sigh, but immediately slips back into work mode. If finding suitable materials for Padparadscha were easy, then surely they wouldn’t be so difficult to wake up, would they? It was fine. Jade enjoyed hard work. Now full-on kneeling on the sand, they reach even deeper into the beach that produces so many of their loved ones, the whispers of moving sand and quiet murmur of the ocean waves the only sounds in their ears. Olivine. Hardness ranging from 6.5 to 7. Calcite. Quartz. 7. Rhodochrosite. 4. Obsidian. 5 to 5.5. Azurite…rare, but at 3.5 to 4, not a likely candidate. Sodalite. 5.5 to 6. Fluorite again. Quartz, rutilated this time, which makes the prolocutor think about what the doctor might be up to at this moment. A beautiful specimen of Sugilite is unearthed a short time later, which will be saved like most rare materials in case a sentient gem of such type is later born. Jade brushes their bangs out of their eyes and moves to another area as this one is starting to come up dry. Barite. 3-3.5. Apatite. 5. Calcite. Calcite. Calcite. Malachite. 3.5-4. Tiger’s Eye. 6.5-7. By this time, the faint glow of dusk is washing over the lone gem digging on the beach, their clothes by now completely covered in sand and normally perfectly tied hair loose in several places. A small thought quietly walks across Jade’s mind. They were exhausted. But how much more exhausted, and demoralized, would Rutile be searching in their place? Something about that made a strange ache arise from deep within the gem’s structure. It was then that the ache disappeared into smoke as Jade brushed glittering sand grains off a solid piece of sapphire as blue as the ocean that watched over it. Sapphire! Hardness 9, the very same type of material that Padparadscha belonged to! Elation stretches a smile across Jade’s face. Maybe…no, surely, with this, Rutile would be happy. Having gotten used to being bent in a kneel, the gem’s legs protest at a sudden rise and cause them to trip and fall flat on their face. Unbothered, Jade stands and begins to run as fast as they can back to the school, a mysterious rush of energy carrying them there at a speed that felt even faster than wind.
“Oh my. What happened on patrol?” Rutile looks surprised when they turn to find Jade entering the room. Momentarily confused, Jade follows the doctor’s eyes and…oh. Their uniform is disheveled and coated in sand, and their hair is almost completely untied. There’s some water still from when the tide had swept over them, and Jade’s true color of deep green was starting to show from where their powder had washed away.
“Ah…” Jade blushes, the urge to run away and come back later when they look presentable almost making them bolt from the room. Rutile chuckles, walking over to get some powder from a shelf.
“I’m fine, nothing happened. Patrol was quiet; I’ll give the full report to Sensei later. But that’s not why I’m here.” Though night was beginning to fall, the remaining light refracts off the sapphire Jade brings out from behind their back, shining a beam filled with hope across the room. Rutile’s expression freezes for a moment, a moment that feels very very long. Jade begins to feel a mixture of embarrassment and anxiety. Was this maybe butting in? No, surely not…did it seem out of character for them to suddenly bring in something like this? What was Rutile thinking right now? It was impossible to tell.
A smile the likes of which Jade has never seen appears on Rutile’s face. For some reason it makes Jade’s own face feel hotter and renders them completely unable to move as the quiet click of Rutile’s heels approach. They reach out to take the sample, but then go further and wraps Jade’s hand in their touch. Jade tries to say something but their mouth won’t move and their mind is blank so instead they just stare at the doctor completely flabbergasted, face still red.
“Thank you…Jade.”
The tips of Rutile’s fingers move slowly across Jade’s wrist back up to their hand as Rutile takes the sapphire and heads back over to the other side of the room. With the twitch of a finger, Jade finds their mobility back and strange rush of feelings bubbling up overwhelmingly within them.
“Uh…well…I hope…that it is useful to you…and…” Jade’s talking towards the floor as they can’t lift their face yet but hopefully their message will be received, “I hope…that it makes you happy. Towards you, I have a lot of, um…respect.” There’s a slight crunch of sand grains as Jade turns on their heel and races out of the room before Rutile can say a single word. They’re too flustered to look back, so they didn’t see the intense expression that had been on Rutile’s face at the moment.
But, well…it had taken hundreds of years already to get to this point. They had time.
And then they’ll pick up the conversation from where they left off.