Chapter Text
Gem and Pearl had been dating for one month.
It still felt surreal to say it out loud, but it was true. It had been once month since Gem's birthday - the day they first kissed - and since then, they'd done even more fun things together. They'd explored the shopping district hand in hand. They'd hung out at Gem's base and watched movies all night. They'd even slept together - well, not in that way, but recently Gem had been finding herself coming over to Pearl's base late in the evening, and waking up safe in her embrace.
So yeah. They were girlfriends! And the rest of the server was starting to figure it out, too - obviously Cleo knew, but they had gotten a few knowing smiles from the other Hermits whilst out and about together.
And on the one hand, Gem felt incredibly happy about it! One whole month of dating Pearl, and it only got better every day. But on the other hand, she was getting more nervous the longer things went on between them.
Because Gem knew that the longer a relationship went on, the more likely it was for certain... expectations to show themselves. Sexual expectations, to be precise. She was very much the opposite of an expert on things like these, but she got the feeling that dating for a month without even talking about sex was, well, outside of the norm.
It had been a while since she'd first talked with Cleo about her sexuality and her feelings for Gem, way back in Season Eight. Since then, she'd done some more research, and come across a couple labels that fit her better than "aroace, maybe?" did. But she hadn't told anyone about that just yet - not her friends, not her family, and most importantly, not even Pearl.
Which was a problem. At some point, Gem was definitely going to have to tell Pearl about her orientation - it seemed obvious that her romantic (and possibly sexual) partner should know about her romantic and sexual orientation! But for some reason, the idea of coming out made her feel incredibly nervous.
It wasn't necessarily the idea of having sex that scared her. She'd never been particularly sex-repulsed, even when she identified as totally asexual. It was Pearl's reaction she was worried about. What if she didn't understand it, no matter how much Gem explained? Gem was well aware that many people didn't understand asexuality at all, let alone her complicated identity. And though Pearl probably would at least know about the concept, Gem couldn't be exactly sure how she would react...
But Gem definitely had to tell her. Already things were getting more serious. They'd been kissing the other night, and Pearl had slipped her hands underneath Gem's shirt and softly caressed her side... And two feelings rapidly coursed their way through Gem's mind.
The first was pleasure - a simple 'I want more', a kind of hungry desire that felt warm and fluttery. But the second was panic. Gem still wasn't exactly where they stood with things like this, and it felt like a big step...
"I like that, but - can we just keep kissing, like this?" she had murmured, almost into Pearl's lips.
"Of course," Pearl replied, leaning in to kiss her again.
But Gem knew that she couldn't keep doing that every time things got heated between them. Pearl was so gorgeous, inside and out - she didn't deserve to have important things like this hidden from her. She had to tell her, at some point.
She typed up a private message to Pearl on her communicator, and waited for a moment or so before finally hitting send.
You whisper to PearlescentMoon: Heyy! I was wondering, could we catch up later today? Nothing big, just wanted to talk to you about something :)
Pearl didn't reply for a while - she was probably busy working on her shop. Gem looked at her communicator every time a message came through, but most of them were just death messages or the other members chatting. But eventually, just when Gem was about to give up, she replied.
PearlescentMoon whispers to you: Sure! What time? I also have something to talk about, btw.
You whisper to PearlescentMoon: Okay. Maybe this afternoon? Whenever you're free.
PearlescentMoon whispers to you: This afternoon works for me :)
There. It was settled. Now all Gem had to do was wait, and try not to freak out in the meantime...
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Something was wrong. Pearl frowned, scanning the interior of her shop. The addition to her shop had been going well so far, but as she added the last few details, she realised something was bothering her. Some kind of noise, a soft, buzzing hum that was becoming very distracting...
She walked around, tilting her head slightly to try and locate the source of it. Sounded like it was coming from the ceiling... Her eyes landed on a redstone lamp. Of course.
Pearl had always been able to hear the soft buzz of powered redstone much better than other people could. Unfortunately, that meant that it bothered her more than it bothered other people, and she struggled to block it out sometimes. And it was hard to explain, too - saying things like "I can't hear you, that lamp is too loud" had earned her quite a few looks of confusion.
But, over time, she'd figured out ways to deal with it. The first of which was currently around her neck. She took off her hard hat and replaced it with her headphones, turning them on. Instant relief. She then built up a couple blocks of scaffolding, carefully broke the offending redstone lamp, and replaced it with a froglight. Yup, those were quickly becoming her favourite block. She removed her headphones for a moment, checking that the noise was gone, before putting them back on and selecting a playlist.
She hummed along to the music, wiggling her fingers a little as she continued to add details to the upper floor of her shop. Soon, the room was looking much better, a moss rug decorating the floor, glow ink added to the "BEFORE/AFTER" sign, and the example chests organised perfectly.
Pearl sat down to write in the book - the final addition to her shop expansion. As she picked up her quill, one of her favourite songs came on. An indie-pop love song, sung by a sapphic artist.
It made her think of Gem, and she smiled. She felt so incredibly lucky to be in a relationship with someone as pretty and kind and loving as Gem. She let that thought comfort her as she finished writing in the book, reread it to make sure there weren't any spelling mistakes, and placed it in the chest.
Wondering if there was anyone she could advertise to, she checked her communicator. She frowned as she realised she had missed a message from Gem - how did that happen? She must have missed the ping because of her music. Unfortunately, the content of the message did nothing to cheer her up.
GeminiTay whispers to you: Heyy! I was wondering, could we catch up later today? Nothing big, just wanted to talk to you about something :)
The usual anxious feeling that came with any change of plans made its way into her gut, and she swallowed. "Just wanted to talk to you about something?" That couldn't be good. She ran through the possibilities of why Gem would suddenly need to talk, and none of them were good ones. What if Gem was hurt? Or sick? What if Gem was breaking up with her?
Everything is falling into place but you...
She'd always had a tendency to catastrophise like that, whenever her plans for the future were suddenly upset. She used to think it was just a random, unexplained quirk of her personality, but in her early twenties she learned that it was an autism symptom. Along with other things, like her sensory issues and her stimming. Most of the time, she didn't feel the need to mention it to other people - the Hermitcraft server was weird enough that no one bat an eye at her odd habits. But Gem should probably know about it... Maybe sitting down and talking to each other wasn't such a bad idea.
You whisper to GeminiTay: Sure! What time? I also have something to talk about, btw.
GeminiTay whispers to you: Okay. Maybe this afternoon? Whenever you're free.
You whisper to GeminiTay: This afternoon works for me :)
She hoped that sounded cheery enough. It was going to be a long day.