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“Now jump!” Steven yelled.
“Canon ball!” Spinel screeched as she coiled her legs up into a spring and launched herself off White Diamonds shoulder, high into the air, she twisted and turned herself into an array of fancy knots as she fell before curling herself into a ball just as she hit the water, launching a wave of water over Steven and splashing Blue and White.
Ocean water sloshed and splashed around them as Blue and White laughed at the silly little gem. Blue sunk down to her shoulders as Spinel sprung up out of the water, hauling herself up onto her with a wide grin. Steven climbed up beside her, shaking the saltwater from his curly mop with an equally wide smile. White chuckled to herself as she watched the two play in the water. The warm early fall sun beating down on them.
“You two…” Blue smiled affectionately and shook her head at the pair, carefully rubbing both their heads with the tips of her fingers making both of them grin. “So small and silly…”
“The universe could always use a little more fun,” Spinel insisted as she plopped herself down on Blue’s shoulder.
Steven immediately began thinking of the sternest of the diamonds.
“Too bad Yellow couldn’t come.” Steven looked up at Blue, who smiled sadly, no doubt also missing the gruff sunlit gem.
“She would have loved to be here, but the injectors on this colony had to be removed as soon as possible if the planet’s structural integrity was to be saved,” Blue explained.
“She is determined to save as many of them as she can, some, of course, are simply too far gone, remnants of when we first began to build the empire,” White picked up where Blue left off.
“How long ago was that?”
“I planned to expand gem kind the moment I had another diamond to assist me” White explained to the small hybrid. “In fact, It was exactly 250,000 years ago on the next rotation that Yellow emerged and the building of the empire began in earnest, with homeworld at its center.” White flung out her arms, her cloak billowing out around her before she smiled down at Steven, her blinding light making him shield his eyes.
“Which was bad.” He stressed, looking up at the oldest diamond sternly once her light had died down. Spinel giggled behind her hands.
“Ah, yes. Of course,” White corrected, with a slight grimace, folding her hands in her lap. Steven sighed to himself before perking up.
“Wait, so Yellow emerged tomorrow exactly, way back then?” Steven asked, looking up at the grand matriarch. Blue cocked her head curiously as well, this was the first time she had heard of it, she had emerged about twenty-thousand some odd years after her darling Yellow after all.
“Yes?” White blinked down at him, wondering what he didn’t understand.
“So, tomorrow is like, her birthday?” He looked between White and Blue. He had explained birthdays to them before when they had attended his own.
“Oh, I suppose it is!” Blue perked up excitedly.
“It is the day she came into existence,” White confirmed, drumming her fingers against the side of her face in thought.
“We should celebrate it, another year isn’t much for you guys, but it’s another year trying to be better! That’s worth celebrating! 250,000 sounds like a pretty big one though.” He chuckled and turned to Spinel who seemed to be catching his enthusiasm.
“We should celebrate!” She agreed, springing to her feet in excitement.
“That sounds wonderful.” Blue agreed as they all turned to look up at the grand matriarch...
“Very well.” White agreed, smiling down at her family. “I doubt Yellow will share your enthusiasm though, Starlight.” Her bright eyes turned to Steven. “Celebrating has never fit her cut,” she warned.
“Well, birthdays aren’t just for you but for the people who love you to celebrate your life.” Steven smiled.
White’s eyes seemed to soften as she nodded with a smile.
“Let me worry about her enthusiasm,” Blue assured him with a smile. Spinel stretched her neck over to the youngest diamond.
“She can be very persuasive.” She cackled with a wink.
Steven flushed, sinking down into the water up to his eyes and trying hard not to think about whatever that meant.
Behind him White scoffed, looking elsewhere, a faint tinge of pink dusting her colorless face. Blue rolled her eyes at the three of them but her smile never wavered.
“Don’t you give a gift to the person who you’re celebrating?” Spinel turned to Steven, head cocked.
“Yeah, usually…”
“What the heck do we give Yellow Diamond?” Spinel scratched her head.
“Ummm” Steven hummed in thought. “We better get started…” He finally said, making his way back to the shore, followed by the Spinel and the diamonds.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
“Pearl, do you have the final removal reports from the Citrine in facet twelve?” Yellow didn’t look up from her screen as she scrolled through the incoming data on the once colony her arm ship was now moving farther and farther away from. Making sure it was stable now that the injectors had been removed.
“Of course My- Yellow Diamond.” Pearl corrected herself. She and Blue pearl were still getting used to being their own gems, though she was still more than happy to be of assistance to the luminous Yellow Diamond when she was called upon.
“Thank you,” Yellow said distractedly as she scrolled through the report. Pearl beamed to herself.
Everything seemed to be going well if the numbers were anything to go by. The last thing she needed was another full-scale evacuation that would leave her formless, even if Blue had kept up with her workload while she’d been inside her gem.
In the middle of scrolling through the report, the diamond line began to chime. Yellow paused, report in hand as she tapped the diamond-shaped screen that had popped up in front of her.
The screen cleared to show the setting sun behind a faraway beach house.
“Hey, Yellow” Steven beamed from his place standing on a smiling Blue Diamond’s shoulder, pulling a hand from his jacket pocket to give a little wave.
“Steven, Blue.” warmth filled her gem at the sight of two of her favorite beings in the universe.
“How was your… beach day?” a single brow arched in silent question if she had gotten that right. Steven chuckled.
“Good, White and Spinel had a blast. We missed you though, wish you could have been here.”
The warm feeling in Yellow’s gem grew even stronger, till it was hot in her chest.
She didn’t even notice the strange look Steven had leveled at her chest or the way Blue’s eyes brightened.
“As do I, but this task couldn’t be postponed any longer.”
“How are things going on Axi nine, darling?”
“Better than expected, the injectors were removed without issue this time.” She huffed humorously. Blue only looked relieved in the face of Yellow’s little joke.
“I’m on my way back to homeworld now.” She continued, tapping a few keys on one of the many monitors in front of her.
“Do you think you have time to come to Earth?” Steven piped up, making Yellow look back up at the two. Steven looked hopeful and Blue had a soft pleading look on her face.
Yellow pursed her lips and glanced at the list of tasks awaiting her upon her return to Homeword, then back up to the faces of those most precious to her.
“I have time.” She said, closing the screen of the long list of objectives on it with a flick of her fingers, making the other two diamonds smile.
“Great!” Steven grinned.
“How far out are you?” Blue questioned.
“Some 10 cycles out from Homeworld, it will be quicker to go there and take the galaxy warp to Earth.”
“Awesome”
“I’ll see you both soon.” Yellow nodded then cut the call.
“Hey Blue?” Steven looked up at her once they were again alone on the beach. Blue hummed in response. “Her gem started to glow…” Steven trailed off and Blue’s wide smile took up her face, azure eyes bright. She leaned her head down and whispered as though what she was going to tell him was a secret.
“She was happy...”
~ ~ ~ ~
The warm light of the mid-morning sun shone down on the gems walking around little homeworlds town square. A perfectly beautiful autumn day on planet Earth
The light of the galaxy warp in the center of little homeworld lit up, drawing the gaze of a few passing residents as Yellow Diamond appeared in the town square. The passing gems hurried away as the titanic gem passed, quickly making her way out of the gem settlement and toward the house on the beach.
She could see Blue and White’s ships from here. Yellow had assumed White would have returned to Homeworld by now.
She rounded the beach to find Blue and White sitting in the sand. Spinel settled on Whites' shoulder as she held Steven in her palm in front of her face. She couldn’t hear what he was saying from here.
The quaking of her approaching steps made them all lookup.
“Yellow!” Steven grinned, and Spinel wasted no time slingshotting herself onto the old general’s shoulder.
“You’re here!” she grinned.
“Of course,” she huffed, as though she would accept an invitation and then not show up.
With a leap, Steven floated gently down onto her other shoulder with a wide smile.
“Happy birthday, Yellow!” he and Spinel shouted from each side of her head, making the golden warrior wince.
“What?” She blinked at the two small pink entities grinning up at her from her shoulders as White and Blue stood from their places sitting in the sand to walk over.
“Your birthday...er, I guess we could call it an emerging day?” Steven tapped his chin thoughtfully.
“Yeah, White told us that you emerged on this day exactly 250,000 years ago,” Spinel explained, bubbling with excitement.
“Ah, yes, I suppose so” She hummed, looking off into the distance, seeming to recall the far away moment.
“We’re celebrating,” Steven insisted, making those diamond-shaped pupils slide back to him and he could already tell by the look on her face that Yellow was not as inclined to agree. White made a knowing sound.
Seeing the reluctant look, Blue took this moment to interject herself into the conversation, taking on the general’s hands in hers and drawing her attention.
“We know that this isn’t exactly something you’re accustomed to, none of us are, but as Steven explained to us, this isn’t just a celebration for you, but so that we can celebrate you being here with us, who love you.” azure fingers tightened around her gloved hand and Yellow couldn’t find any will to argue.
“Very well,” she agreed.
Spinel peeked around Yellow’s neck to look at Steven.
“See? Persuasive,” she said, planting her hands on her hips and grinned.
“What?” Yellow glanced at the springy playmate, who squeaked.
~ ~ ~
While normally she didn’t take part in most games or activities Blue and White would often indulge in with Spinel and Steven she found herself being drawn into a number of more… competitive competitions, not that she was competitive.
Not at all.
Despite anything White said to the contrary.
“I forgot what you could get like playing games,” said diamond mumbled to herself at the end of another round, that had ended in her favor, making her flush a deep golden color and scowl.
“Eh, we should probably stop playing now anyway…,” Steven interjected before Yellow could say anything. “It’s nearly dark and there’s one more thing. Spinel and I have gifts for you.” He turned to look up at her.
“Gifts?”
“Yeah! Come on Spinel.” He nodded toward the beach house.
“Right!” She hopped up off her knees to follow the youngest diamond out of sight around the house.
Blue glanced at White and her counterpart. It was no secret to her that White had a certain way of getting under Yellow’s skin. A few of the reasons she was familiar with, but as it had been pointed out to her before, there was a 20,000 or so year gap between Yellow’s emergence and her own in which her counterpart had been alone with White and it still wasn’t something Yellow ever wanted to go into much detail about.
White was better, and getting better all the time, but she still sometimes said things that came off as snide or cutting, Blue wasn’t even sure she knew she was doing it or not.
After a few moments, Steven and Spinel returned, pushing along something flat and white about the length of a billboard but taller, about the size of one of the three larger diamonds' palms.
“This is from Spinel and me, Yellow.” Steven gestured to the board, Spinel grinned up at her.
“Ah, well...thank you, Steven, Spinel,” she said, trying not to let her confusion shine through. She must not have been successful because he chuckled.
“Turn it over!” Spinel bounced excitedly.
Reaching out to pick it up she was faced with her fellow diamond’s and spinel all smiling back at her from a large blown-up photograph of them on the beach.
“We figured, since you’re away from Homeworld so much, decolonizing planets you could put this in your ship, carry it with you,” Steven explained.
“You know, in case you miss any of us while you’re away,” Spinel chimed in. Yellow smiled down at them as she picked up the large photograph.
“Thank you, Steven, Spinel. I’ll do just that.” She stored the photo in her gem for later. The small playmate and hybrid grinned at each other.
“I also have something for you, Yellow.”
Everyone turned to look at White with surprise, noticing the looks of disbelief her colorless face tinted a light pink.
“Go ahead, White,” Steven quickly encouraged.
Clearing her throat and clasping her hands in front of her, White finally looked at Yellow, though she was tense and the pink hadn’t faded much.
“Yellow… I want to start by saying thank you,” White began. If Yellow had been surprised before her eyebrows had now nearly vanished into her hairline.
“While it is now apparent to all of us that many of the things we did during Era one were wrong and led to many mistakes later on…” Her eyes flickered to the crystal gem temple farther down the beach before quickly returning to Yellow, the movement almost imperceptible, except to Yellow and Blue.
“... but setting that aside, I have never properly thanked you, for the many tireless millennia you have dedicated to the empire, to our gems…,” her left hand squeezed her right. “...to me, especially in Era 2.” She finally said.
Everyone else watched in silence, almost afraid that breathing would break the moment.
“So, thank you, Yellow,’ she finished.
“You’re… welcome White…,” Yellow finally managed to make her mouth work after a long moment of stunned silence.
With a nod, White straightened up and brushed away the invisible wrinkles in her skirts before looking over at Spinel.
“Are you ready to return to Homeworld, Spinel?” she asked.
“Oh, yeah, sure.” A large white palm lowered and she hopped on, turning to wave at Steven with a grin. “See ya later, Steven.”
“This was lovely Steven, we’ll have to do it again sometime.” She turned to Blue and Yellow. “I’ll see both of you back on homeworld.” With that, both gems were enclosed in a large white sphere and floated up into the large headship before it flew out of earth’s atmosphere.
“Well, shall we go darling?” Blue held up an arm, prompting her own ship to lift from its place docked on the beach.
Yellow nodded, but first turned to Steven, looking up at them from the sand.
“Thank you, Steven.” There was a certain thickness in her voice that made Steven smile almost sadly up at the golden gem.
“Happy birthday, Yellow.” He waved as the two were warped up into the arm ship.
~ ~ ~ ~
“Did you enjoy yourself?” Blue asked as the ship left earth on a course for Homeworld.
“Yes,” She answered truthfully. “Though I must admit, I’m still surprised by White.”
“As was I, but I think it’s proof that she really is trying to change, and feel remorse for the past. A work in progress.” She smiled. Yellow hummed in agreement.
“Speaking of, I still have some things that need to be done when we arrive.” She pulled up a screen and began to scan its contents when Blue reached out and waved the screen away almost as quickly as it had appeared. The once general made a disgruntled noise.
“You can do that when we get back to Homeworld, but first, I still have my gift to give you.” She turned away with a smile, pulling up a screen of her own.
“Your gift?” Yellow questioned, causing Blue to scoff.
“Of course, do you truly think so little of me?”
“Of course not, I simply don’t require a gift from you.” She explained herself.
“I do hope you’ll at least accept the one I have prepared.” Blue glanced over her shoulder and the teasing tone was more than apparent to Yellow, who snorted.
“Of course”
“Excellent”
It was when Homeworld was nearly insight that the ship took a noticeable turn, heading past the cracked planet.
“Where are we going?” Yellow glanced at her counterpart, who was taping on her screen and looking at something in earth text.
“It should be right over here…” Blue hummed to herself, eyes scanning the dark star-filled sky. “Ah, there it is.” She smiled to herself, moving the ship in closer to medium-sized planetoid in the outer regions of Homeworld's immediate space.
“Omni two?” Yellow questioned, looking at the barren entity that they had never colonized because of its lack of resources.
“Yes, though in this human registry Steven showed me, it has a different name. He explained to me that humans map the stars and then you can, as I understand it, trade something of value for them.” She held the screen out to Yellow who studied the star registry.
“When Steven explained it, I thought it might be a nice reminder.” She explained, folding her hands in front of her. Yellow looked up at her curious. “By acquiring this, the right way, perhaps it will always serve as a reminder, perhaps for all of us, that we are capable of change, and if anyone can find a practical use for a barren rock it would be you, darling.”
Yellow chuckled, closing the screen.
“Perhaps, but I believe I’ll leave it just as it is,” she declared, reaching out to take hold of one of Blue’s hands and looking at the lifeless rock, just barely inside Homeworld’s gravitational pull.
“Not everything needs to be changed.”