Work Text:
Whenever he closes his eyes, that scene replays in his head over and over until he becomes tired of thinking.
His singular arm reaching out for his partner, the Lunarians' mocking smiles as they vanish into thin air, taking his partner with him. His last words being "I'm sorry," and a smile.
And now, all he had left as a memento was his detached right arm.
That red gem stolen by the lunarians was Tsukasa's fourth partner, whisked away to the moon like the rest.
Miku had found him in pieces again and gently ushered his shards into her arms. His memory has a gap from there, but Tsukasa next awoke at dusk lying on a table.
...He couldn't bear to look in Miku's direction. It didn't take long for his thoughts to spiral wildly out of control. Tsukasa's sure he's disappointed her and all the other gems, he's certain that they'll stare at him glaring and questioning why such an incompetent gem was born—
Click. "...I've attached the arm to you. How does it feel, Tsukasa?" Miku's voice tries to be soothing but it barely reaches his ears. He barely feels present at all.
"..." Everything is wrong. He can't help but wonder why he is on this land, when...
"Since your partner's composition was Red Diamond, you shouldn't have any problems with it being incompatible with your gem." Miku stands up, and Tsukasa wishes to be small, small enough to escape everything. Perhaps he'll fall into the sea where he was born and never come back out.
Tsukasa does not see Miku's expression while she stands. He's too busy looking at the arm attached to him that was his partner's. His inclusions have clearly accepted it, but he hasn't. It's all wrong. How can he continue on and pretend everything he cares about isn't on the moon right now?
"Tsukasa, it is not your fault for surviving." Miku meets his eyes, but that expression she's wearing feels like it was made to mock him too.
"But," he pauses, and it sounds like he's breaking, "you said that the last three times, too..." Tsukasa weakly voices, so contrary to the toughness of a diamond he briefly speculates if a diamond being one of the hardest gems is a lie.
Miku says nothing to this, eventually letting out an uncharacteristic sigh. "I... think it is best if you stay in the school for now, Tsukasa."
The gem nods, feeling a horrible, selfish relief that he may not have to see a Lunarian ever again.
Tsukasa groggily wakes up the next morning. He takes a brief moment to stare at his now-red diamond arm before sighing a shaky breath. His steps are slow and unhurried, though he arrived at the gathering sooner than he would like.
At the meeting between the gems and Miku, a blanket of gloom covers the group. The news of Tsukasa's partner going to the moon evidently spread fast. A few gems stare at him, and judging by their expression, they're wondering how he was the cause of a gem going to the moon again.
And Tsukasa can't exactly blame them... Twice may be a coincidence, but beyond that, one may consider it to be a curse.
After a long meeting which he didn't have the eagerness to listen to the group of gems dispersed, leaving Tsukasa to be alone with Miku once more. An uncomfortable silence filled the air. Miku wasn't a woman of many words and Tsukasa didn't feel like talking.
Finally, she motions for Tsukasa to follow her, so he does.
What she has to say is rather simple. "If fighting is too much for you now, you may specialize in gem repairs. I must admit I'm not the best in that regard."
The idea of doing something other than combat hadn't really occurred to him. But, the longer he thought about it, the more enticing the idea seemed.
"Plus, it may also open an opportunity to find a long-term solution for Saki." Miku comments, and Tsukasa winces.
He felt a long-term grief for his fellow diamond, his sister who had hardly seen the sun. Whose inclusions rarely were energized.
Faced with an opportunity like that— who could decline?
"Okay. I'll do it." Tsukasa resolved, thinking of Saki. Miku smiled at him, and the relief Tsukasa felt this time wasn't as heavy.
"...The powder goes here, and the tools go..." Tsukasa, mumbled aloud, pondering how to go about sorting the shelves he had now been put in charge of.
Truth be told, he felt nervousness within at the prospect of getting even the simplest tasks done here. This was the last job Miku could prepare for him... what would happen if he failed this one?
"Hello, Tsukasa." Miku approached him from the entrance of the medical bay. Speak of her and she shall appear, it seemed. "Are you handling this new job well?"
"It's something new," he opted to say. He didn't have much of an opinion on this job... he could only hope he was good enough at it that one day Saki may be regularly awake as well.
And, well... Though he didn't speak it, the job was a convenient method of forgetting his recent losses.
"I see this was an unexpected fit for you..." Miku briefly glanced at him, and seemed to recede back into her own internal monologue. She eventually left without a word, leaving Tsukasa to stare at the shelves in silence.
Though it was exactly how he wanted it to be, the organization of everything felt... off. "...maybe I'll reorder everything here."
Tsukasa had now been at this job for more than a couple of hundred years now. He had recently passed the age of one thousand and five hundred years, and those days when he would fight the lunarians felt like a distant, terrible memory.
Most of the gems who were around to remember his previous partners had gone to the moon as well. And he'd gradually changed as well, though he can't say if it's because of his numerous gem replacements or not.
That strange feeling that he first felt when his arm was replaced has only grown since then. Maybe if he asked Miku he'd get a definite answer on what's wrong with him... even if Tsukasa seldom ever spoke to her since he started being the Doctor.
"Tsukasa."
...Oh, that was–
"Miku?" Tsukasa stared at Miku in mild confusion, and that confusion grew when he saw the asleep gem in her arms. It was a new one that had just been born that morning, given he didn't recognize him...
Well, there was that, and the new gem's noticeable lack of any arms.
"That's... just like Saki," Tsukasa murmured under his breath, quietly shocked.
"I'm hoping that there may be something you can do for this... particular issue." Miku gently placed the gem on the table, her expression thinly veiling the anxiety she was feeling.
Tsukasa checked the composition of the asleep gem. Charoite? They didn't have any suitable replacement gems in storage at the moment. Plus, charoite is a gem with an incredibly complex array of minerals making it– they wouldn't have many options in the first place to use.
Wait. "Miku, if I recall correctly, you mentioned there's an abundance of gold and platinum at the shore right now in the meeting earlier." Tsukasa sighed. The chances were slim, but...
"Correct. Are you perhaps thinking that they'll work as arms?" Miku seemed to be deep in thought at this notion.
"There's not much of a choice." Unless they wanted two gems to be in a semi-permanent hibernation.
Miku, having made her choice, picked up the comatose Charoite. The walk to the Shore of Nascency would be an arduous one, but since this was a first for Tsukasa, he had to come with.
...and just in case, he brought his sword from his days of patrolling.
The sky painted itself in oranges and pinks when Tsukasa and Miku finally reached the shore. Gold and platinum peeked from the sand, shining and reflecting light from the setting sun.
The gem Miku was carrying now lay silently on the beach. Tsukasa gathered the gold and platinum as hastily as he could, attaching it to the gem.
For a moment, the attached gold alloy was still. Miku stared down at the purple gem with an indecipherable face. But the alloy suddenly solidified, branching out not unlike the plants Tsukasa had seen.
The branching-out gold receded like the waves and settled into arm-like shapes. The gem suddenly opened his eyes, blinking rapidly in confusion. Somehow– somehow Tsukasa's plan had worked.
Miku kneeled down in the sand to meet the newly-born gem's eyes, smiling gently, Tsukasa's presence all but forgotten. "Hello, Rui. It's nice to meet you. I am Miku."
...did Miku name all of them on a whim, like that?
Tsukasa's question remained unanswered though as Miku helped the gem– Rui– to stand. His alloy started branching out again, though this time in Tsukasa's general direction. The gem seemed to be asking an unvoiced question, something along the lines of 'If you're Miku, then who is that?'
"Ah, I'm Tsukasa. It's nice to meet you as well, Rui." He felt a bit awkward, but Rui seemed satisfied enough and the branched-out gold retracted.
"Let's head back, Tsukasa." Miku seemed happier than before now that Rui was conscious, and Tsukasa wanted to get some rest as well.
They arrived back at the school once night had set and the moon shone brightly against the murky darkness the sky became.
Rui left with Miku earlier and Tsukasa laid in his bed, restless even if he wanted to rest. He was beginning to feel some kind of muted excitement that he couldn't pinpoint the source of.
Perhaps there was a solution for Saki's inactivity. Tsukasa had a really good feeling about Rui in general– and that thought in mind finally let him sleep.
Tsukasa was sorting his shelves again, as he usually did once he woke up and headed to the medical bay. It was becoming evident he wasn't alone in rising early when a familiarly unfamiliar purple gem popped in from the entrance.
"Hey, Tsukasa." The gold arms waved.
Considering that Rui was now out and about and exploring, Tsukasa surmised that he had just finished his education today.
"I hope you're not coming to visit me because you broke something already," Tsukasa joked a little, earning a laugh from Rui.
"Of course not, I simply just wanted to thank you for the arms now that I have the words to."
It was admittedly a little strange to have someone come and visit for the sole purpose of actually hanging out with him. That hadn't exactly happened very often since his partner went to the moon, though Rui wasn't aware of that.
"It's nothing, I'm glad it was able to help you out. Ah, you can have a seat over there, if you want to stay longer, I mean..." Tsukasa continued to organize, half unsure of what to say.
Rui took his offer happily, watching Tsukasa with mild interest.
...this is something Tsukasa could get used to.