Work Text:
INT. BISMUTH’S FORGE — EVENING
It’s the end of a long day of classes, and BISMUTH has pulled a chair up to her lava fountain and propped her feet up under the flow. Head back, eyes closed, she is the picture of relaxation.
Enter PEARL, poking her head in the doorway.
PEARL: Bismuth, can I talk to you?
BISMUTH smiles without looking and holds out an arm.
BISMUTH: Anytime, you know that.
PEARL: (hesitating) Can I close the door?
Finally BISMUTH looks over, takes in PEARL’S rigid body language.
BISMUTH: Sure thing, boss. Everything okay?
PEARL: I just...have something I’ve been wanting to say.
PEARL comes closer and BISMUTH pulls her feet from the lava, turning in her chair. She searches PEARL’S face, her smile nervous now.
BISMUTH: Hit me.
Straightening her shoulders, PEARL looks down at her hands, then back at BISMUTH.
PEARL: I’m sorry we didn’t—I didn’t unbubble you. After we knew where you were. I’m sorry Steven saw what was right before I did.
BISMUTH: (after a beat) Hon...did you have therapy today?
PEARL: Bismuth!
BISMUTH: (sheepish) Sorry.
PEARL: I’m trying to apologize—
BISMUTH: You don’t need to.
PEARL: I do.
BISMUTH: Then I accept. I get it.
PEARL: I should have—
BISMUTH: No. Listen. I understand. Steven’s your kid, you had to put him first.
This statement, offered casually, drops between them like an unexploded bomb.
PEARL: He’s…he’s not really my—
BISMUTH: Pearl.
PEARL: He’s.
PEARL struggles for a painfully long moment, throat and hands working, until BISMUTH sighs and folds PEARL’S hands between her own.
BISMUTH: What would you have said? What could you have said?
PEARL: That...that I truly didn’t know, what happened to you. That I wished it hadn’t.
PEARL breathes. Some of the squareness has gone out of her shoulders.
PEARL: That Steven wasn’t Rose. I spent...so long, learning that.
BISMUTH: But...you couldn’t have explained. The truth.
PEARL: I could have told you I loved you.
BISMUTH squeezes Pearl’s hands.
BISMUTH: Back then?
PEARL: (quiet) I don’t know.
Silence sits like a presence between them, outlined with ringlet curls.
BISMUTH: Pearl. I lost my temper. Always did have too much fire. You were right to leave me bubbled.
PEARL: (teary now) You wouldn’t have hurt Steven.
BISMUTH: Don’t sugar coat me Pearl, I did. I did hurt him. We’ve talked about it.
PEARL: You have?
BISMUTH smiles a little again, brings PEARL’S hands to her mouth to kiss her fingers. PEARL looks as though she’s torn between crying, storming away, and crawling into BISMUTH’S lap; there is a possibility she’ll try to do all three at once.
BISMUTH: Steven’s in therapy too. I’m thinking I might try it.
PEARL: Bismuth.
BISMUTH: Hey. I’m sorry too. That I lost my temper with the meatball. That I screwed up with Rose. That I missed out on so much time with you.
PEARL chooses the crying-lap combo.
BISMUTH: You’re supposed to say—
PEARL: (muffled) I accept your apology. You absolute boulder.