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They’re sparring in Pearl’s room. Pearl’s, because Amethyst’s room is a disaster zone and no one goes in Garnet’s room but Garnet. When she has to jump backwards to avoid a swing, a foreign wave of pressure ripples through her abdomen. Pearl stops in surprise at the sheer force of it, settling a hand on her stomach—what’s going on?—then jumps back with a small squeak of surprise when Garnet swings again.
Her companion stops, briefly lowering her fists. Her head tilts a little. “Are you well?” Garnet asks, a barely discernable current of concern running underneath her tone.
Pearl feels the strange urge to press her legs together. “I…” All at once, she realizes that the pressure just means she has to relieve herself. A bright blush rises to her cheeks. “Yes, of course,” she stammers, then clears her throat, composing herself and assuming a more appropriate fighting stance. “Let’s continue.”
That’s embarrassing. She hasn’t relieved herself for months, and of all the times for the urge to return again… Of course, that doesn’t mean she has to do it now. It’s probably just the quick movements that disturbed it. They continue to spar for a little while, but now that the need has made itself known, it’s harder to ignore.
Garnet gives her a strange look when they stop. Pearl knows her posture and movements have not been quite as graceful as normal. “Are you sure you’re—”
“Yes! Yes, of course I’m well,” she interrupts shrilly, twirling her spear in indication. “I suppose I just experienced a lapse of concentration. It might be better if I practice alone for some time.” She hopes Garnet can’t detect the sheepishness in her tone. But Garnet is usually talented at surprising them and being ridiculously perceptive, so Pearl flashes her a quick smile and turns her back to the other gem, twirling her spear again. Waiting for her to leave.
“Alright,” Garnet says impassively. If she thinks anything is wrong with Pearl, she doesn’t say it, and leaves the room without another word.
Pearl does continue twirling and practicing on her own once Garnet leaves. The pressure in her midsection is still strange and kind of unfamiliar, though not altogether alarming. She stretches and stabs and is careful to avoid any position that sends urgent waves through her abdomen, but it reduces her range of movement in a frustratingly large way. Soon, she sighs and gives up.
Pearl decides to sit and meditate. She’s not sure how long she sits cross-legged in her room, allowing her mind to spread out in a thoughtless, peaceful sort of abyss, when a spasm from her bladder abruptly pulls her back to her body. Her lips turn down, and she tries to return. The pressure has increased too much.
Do humans really feel like this every day? she thinks, directing the frown down at her legs. She shifts them to a different position where they’re stretched out in front of her and crossed at the ankles. It must be so inconvenient. And it is. She tries one more time to return to the peaceful place, but she just can’t. As her eyes stray around her room to contemplate what she should be doing next, she realizes that the sight of all the water is making her bladder feel even worse.
“Goodness,” she mutters in irritation to herself, rising to a standing position and nearly wincing as the shift in gravity makes itself known. Her frown deepens. One of the many reasons she hates needing to relieve herself: it interferes with everything. It’s a good thing they only need to relieve themselves when they drink copious amounts of liquid and their gems can’t keep up.
She makes a mental note to limit her liquid intake. A few extra cups of tea are so not worth this.
She moves leaves the temple. Better take care of this to get it out of the way. On her way across the room, she nearly trips over a pile of clothing.
“Ah! Steven,” she calls, at first indignant, then increasingly exasperating and reminiscent of a groan. “Steven! Steven. Steven…” Listening more carefully, she detects a shower running. Ah. So he’s washing. They only have one bathroom in the house, too, because Steven is basically the only that uses it.
“Well, this place could use a little cleaning,” she declares aloud to herself, pulling the clothes into her arms. She’ll need to remind Steven not to leave his things all over the place.
So she cleans for a while, sometimes humming softly to herself, but not dancing or sliding around like she normally does because again: stupid need to relieve herself. She wishes more than once that Steven would hurry up so she could get rid of it. She’s not about to knock on the door and ask him that, though.
Pearl cleans for over an hour. The shower shuts off around the fifty minute mark, but the door still doesn’t open. The pressure in her abdomen slowly increases past uncomfortable, turning from an urge to an actual need, and Pearl catches herself swinging her hips.
Her face flushes with embarrassment. Another reason she hates needing to relieve herself: it ends up making her shuffle and squirm in the most humiliating ways.
Finally, the door opens. Pearl’s done cleaning—she’s been done properly cleaning; the past half hour has just been nitpicks and unnecessary dusting to distract herself. Steven walks through the hall wearing a leather jacket and a huge grin just as the warp pad glimmers.
Amethyst and Garnet appear. “Mission time,” Amethyst chants, to which Garnet nods her head. “Let’s go! Sweet coat, Steven.”
Steven puffs up. “I’m glad you can recognize real fashion, Amethyst,” he says as he joins them on the pad.
“You coming, or are you gonna stay back an’ clean?” Amethyst says derisively, but Pearl is too busy focusing on the throbbing her bladder to argue about it.
But… the bathroom… “Of course,” Pearl splutters a little, trying and failing to walk normally up to the others. Now that she knows she has to wait a little longer, her bladder is protects. She wills herself to ignore it.
Amethyst gives her a weird look. “Why’re you walking all funny?”
“I don’t insult how you walk,” she says in a sharp tone as she sets her hands on her hips, fervently trying to keep her movement still. Amethyst makes an annoyed noise and turns away from her while Steven groans “Guys, c’mon.”
The room around them blurs and is replaced by the sound and sight of crashing water.
Oh no. The universe must hate her. She knows it’s cosmically impossible but right now she could swear it’s true. Hopefully, no one hears the tiny choking noise that comes from the back of her throat when they arrive.
They’re standing on a tiny island that’s limited to the warp pad itself, with water surrounding them on all sides. There are five larger islands, circling their small one, maybe fifty yards out and connected by stones poking out of the water. Two of the islands are covered in trees while one appears to be entirely composed of sand; another is entirely rock (both are empty), and the last one contains a giant lone pine tree.
But everything else is water. Her abdomen sends out such an urgent spasm that Pearl hunches over a little and actually feels the urge to press a hand to her crotch. The thought makes her feel waves of embarrassment. Oh god, waves.
No one seems to notice that she’s internally freaking out, though. “This is pretty routine. We just need to make sure this place is clean of anything dangerous. Amethyst and I will go check out the island over there—” Garnet points to one of the forest islands, “—and Pearl and Steven, you two check out that other one.” She points again before directing her attention to both of them. “You’ll probably be able to handle anything you come across without a problem, but I want you two to be careful nonetheless.”
Amethyst gives a whoop and promptly dives into the water. Garnet dives in after her with a shout: “Amethyst, we don’t know what’s in there!” and suddenly they’re both gone.
Pearl trembles a little. At the sight of the water, her need seems to be multiplied tenfold. Ridiculous!
“Pearl—” Steven begins.
“Well, what are we doing just standing here, let’s go then!” she cries in a shrill, hurried tone, before Steven can ask any embarrassing questions. She makes for the island, carefully hopping on each stone, which is no bigger than her head. Steven gives an enthusiastic shout and follows her. It’s really hard, she soon realizes, to keep herself under control when her bladder is roughly jolted by every step. This is awful. She stops and sways on one rock, ankles together so both feet fit on the same stone, waiting for her bladder to stop throbbing. The sight of so much water isn’t help anything either.
“Pearl? Why’d you stop?”
Oh, right, Steven is behind her. “Oh, nothing,” she says dismissively, and continues to move forward. She’s not hopping anymore, just stepping carefully (the stones are about her arms’ length apart). Her midsection feels ridiculously sensitive.
“Hey, Pearl, are you okay?” Steven begins to chatter. “You seem kinda wobbly today, like usually you’re dancing around and stuff, but…”
Oh dear. The thought that she’s being so obvious that even Steven can tell something’s up brings a flush to her face. “I-I’m not—!” but she’s never been the best at hiding her feelings once someone calls her out on them. “I mean, of course I’m fine, Steven.”
“Why are you wobbly then?” He doesn’t sound smug, just curious.
“I…”
This cannot possibly be more embarrassing. As Pearl gathers her thoughts in an attempt to formulate an explanation of her situation that’s not entirely humiliating, Steven goes right out and says it. “Do you have to pee?”
Oh goodness. Oh goodness. Pearl tries to suppress the screams rising up in her head at the terrible, crude phrasing, and gives a quiet sigh. “Yes, Steven.”
“Oh! That makes sense. But wait, do gems even have to pee? I don’t think I’ve ever seen any one of you go into the bathroom before,” Steven begins to muse aloud, taking the information in stride as if it’s just a normal everyday occurrence. Which it apparently is, because something rare and embarrassing for Pearl is as normal as breathing to Steven (still, the whole “needs to breathe every second” thing trips her up sometimes). “I mean, I guess gems do have to pee, if you need to. How does that work? How often do you guys need to go to the bathroom?”
How many more stones until the island?! That voice inside her head is screaming again, but so distracted she is from her bladder, Pearl can’t even find the grace to be abashed by the questions. “Er, rarely,” she answers. Her tone is absent, eyes focused intently on the stones ahead of her, trying desperately not to feel the sloshing of the waves in her bladder. Awful. This is awful. It almost hurts. “Like I’ve said, we don’t need food or drink to survive, but if we do end up drinking more than our gem can use, our bladders begin to fill up. Otherwise, we just don’t need to.”
“Wow!” She couldn’t see Steven’s face, but judging by the enthusiasm in his tone, it was probably wide-eyed or something. “So you guys can go without using the bathroom for like, forever!”
Pearl makes a mhmm noise that can be interpreted as yes.
“So you must have to go really bad then!”
She’s going to interrupt to tell him no, that’s not really how it works even if she does have to go badly and the liquid she’s holding back feels like it’s sloshing against some sort of thin barrier, when her foot hits sand instead of stone. Oh thank goodness. They’re on the coast of their island.
“Let’s go,” Pearl says hastily, making for the trees as fast as she can without disturbing her bladder. Which isn’t very fast (or graceful). They’ll have to scope out the island quickly and get this over with. Usually, she’d never rush her job like this and try to put in an effort as poor and rushed, like Amethyst does sometimes, but her priorities are quickly dwindling. The island is probably around a square mile, if not less, so it shouldn’t take too long.
Despite these promises, less than one hundred meters in Pearl finds herself frozen by a sudden wave of urgency. She sinks against a nearby tree, pressing her leg together. The movement is hardly effective because her thighs don’t even touch.
“Pearl, are you okay?” Steven asks in concern, approaching her tentatively, as if she might burst if he touches her (which she might).
“Yes, fine!” she responds in a voice that is much too high and strained with tension. The wave has passed. She ignores the following are you sure’s and you don’t look okay’s that follow, forcing herself to continue walking. They’re going at a slow enough pace as it is, picking their way over roots and pushing past low branches, but Pearl’s problem ensures that they’re practically crawling. Ten minutes pass, and she knows in the corner of her mind not clouded by desperation that their pace is much too slow. It’s a few minutes after that when Steven opens his mouth and the most embarrassing thing possible comes out.
“Um, there are a lot of bushes and stuff around here.” At this first statement, she doesn’t immediately understand. “So if you really have to go, then you could just, y’know…” To her credit, he actually sounds kind of abashed, but it’s not nearly enough to compete with the mortification flowing through her. Her mouth drops open at the suggestion. For a moment, she’s too shocked and horrified to do anything other than stare and blush at him.
Steven stares and blushes in return. “I guess it’s kinda weird for a girl to go behind a tree, but—” Then his face brightens into a smile again, “—if you gotta go, you gotta go, right?”
Pearl practically shrieks. “No! I won’t—I can’t—that’s just—no!” She ends the string of indignant phrases with a whisper of ‘I would never’, cupping her face in her hands. Honestly, it’s bad enough that her body has to endure this in the first place! She’s not going to completely throw away her dignity!
“Okay, okay,” Steven tries to placate her, sounding startled. “You don’t have to. It was just a suggest—”
The rest of his sentence is abruptly cut off as something hurls itself from the trees and rams him. With a yell of surprise, he disappears into the trees ahead.
“Steven!”Pearl cries in alarm. She immediately sprints after them, forgetting her bladder for a moment. She can hear groaning up ahead.
“Ahh!” Steven lets out a scream and suddenly there’s a pink bubble in the air, protecting him from a large, four-limbed creature with leaves sprouting out of its back. The thing lets out a spectacular hiss and begins using its tail to slap the bubble.
“Steven!” she yells again, this time more in anger, more as some sort of battle-cry, but a sudden burst of heat in her lower region makes her freeze. It feels… wet. Horror rushes through her. Did she just…?
Oh goodness oh goodness—Steven!
The pink bubble pops, leaving the boy curled against a tree with both arms covering his head. Pearl summons her spear and yells, jumping forward, but the creature snags Steven on one of its roots and begins to gallop away. She runs after them—and normally it would be no contest, but the thick foliage slows her progress, and she finds herself actually panting with the effort of not releasing all the liquid she’s holding back. If only she’d taken care of this earlier!
The creature carves a path for itself, snagged branches and leaves dropping from its roots to make more mess for Pearl. She manages to keep following it, but the gap between them doesn’t get any smaller. Ah!
It’s nearly a minute of sprinting before they reach the coast, and Pearl is wheezing, trembling violently all over in attempt to keep any more liquid from slipping out. It’s like a sickness. She tries to focus on the creature and especially on Steven, whose arm is wrapped in one of its branches, but all she can hear is the sudden overwhelming sound of waves and sloshing and so much water. A jet of urine pushes past her control and trickles down her legs.
The monster creeps closer to the edge of the coast, as if to jump into the water. Pearl whimpers low in the back of her throat. She’ll never be able to hold it if she fights, but Steven is the most important thing. With no hesitation, she lets loose a yell and drives her spear into the tail of the creature, pinning into the softer ground. It hisses loudly at her and thrashes.
“Whoaa!” Steven flails around. “I can’t—!”
She summons another spear. “Let—him—go!” Each word is punctuated by a stab and a swipe, and dimly she thinks she can feel hot liquid gushing down her legs. She’s breathing heavily. The creature disappears in a quick puff of green smoke, and a gem clatters to the dirt, along with Steven.
Pearl groans and collapses to her knees, propping herself up with her spear. What’s this…? She’s barely aware of the wide-eyed, open-mouthed stares that Steven gives her. Something warm and wet gushes from between her legs, and it ought to be terrible, but… her entire body thrums with pleasure. Relief. She’s felt relief before, but she hasn’t realized it can be so physical.
The ground between her knees becomes soggy. She’s panting, arms quavering, spear wobbling in the ground, and the mix of sensations seems to go on forever before she’s finally empty.
That felt… so good… Pearl takes in a huge breath and looks up.
“Pearl,” Steven says, gaping at her.
It comes back to her then: she’s kneeling in soiled clothes, having completely lost control of herself. Some awful feeling rises in her throat while tears fill her eyes. “Oh, Steven,” she whispers, covering her face with her hands and ignoring how her spear just falls over. “I—I’m so sorry, I…”
She hears shouting. Garnet and Amethyst calling their names. Oh goodness. Oh goodness. Their lives are a journey through time, but Pearl is absolutely sure of one thing: Amethyst will never ever forget this. Hundreds of years will pass, and Amethyst will still bring up that one time that Miss Perfect lost control of herself.
She starts to tremble again, this time in fear and panic. Disgusting, pathetic, humiliating—
“Ohh—can’t you change your outfit or something?” Steven asks anxiously, glancing toward the sound of their voices. They’re getting closer.
“I… I’m…” Her voice and thoughts won’t work right. Logically, she should be able to switch out her soiled clothes for a new pair, but that takes concentration, and she can’t summon up anything but alarm.
Then Steven is kneeling beside her and tugging her arm. “Come here, quick,” he says urgently, helping her stagger to her feet and pulling her closer, closer—
They both fall into the water with a startled gasp. She flails around in the water for a confused second before her instincts say Steven, where’s Steven? But he’s already kicked up to the surface and is pulling himself back onto land.
“Steven—” she begins to splutter, still treading water.
“See, now you’re soaked so no one can tell,” Steven says with a wink, sounding immensely pleased with himself.
Pearl blinks at him dumbly.
The foliage in front of them waves. “If they ask, I fell in the water and you had to save me,” Steven whispers hurriedly out the corner of his mouth ad Garnet and Amethyst stroll onto the coast.
“There you guys are. We’ve been shouting your name, for like, two whole minutes,” Amethyst says, rolling her eyes. Then her eyes rake over Steven while Pearl hauls herself onto land and onto her feet. “Steven, your jacket! Why are you all wet?”
“The gem monster threw me into the water—and Pearl jumped in to save me,” Steven adds as Garnet bends down grab the gem. She quickly bubbles it.
“Ugh, well, it’s a good thing we got that sea monster out of the way for you guys.” Amethyst flexes.
Pearl’s still standing silently. She looks down at herself, as if expecting to see the words disgusting and pathetic written over her as evidence of her… accident… but there’s nothing. All of her is soaked. Just like Steven said.
Amethyst suddenly bursts into laughter.
“What?” Pearl squeaks in alarm.
Some confusion pours into her face. “You look like a drowned dog,” she explains between giggles. And this would be Pearl’s cue to be insulted, but all the other gem does is give a soft oh, her nerves settling just as soon as they were raised. Relief washes over her again. Maybe they really couldn’t tell…?
“Let’s do a quick sweep of the other islands before we go,” Garnet says. “They’re almost empty so it shouldn’t take long.”
“Okay!” Steven says cheerily, skipping into place beside Pearl and directing a grin at her. Pearl looks down again while Garnet and Amethyst begin to walk away, scarcely daring to believe that she could actually get away with this.
Steven tugs on her arm and tiptoes to whisper in her ear. “It’s okay, Pearl; accidents happen,” he says quietly. Then he winks. “Our secret?”
It’s times like these when she’s reminded of how nice a little boy Steven can be. She quickly blinks back tears. “Our secret,” Pearl responds, giving him a watery smile in return.
“You guys coming or what?” Amethyst calls to them.
“Yeah! Wait for mee!” Steven runs ahead. Pearl quickly swipes at her eyes and follows, smiling.