Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Gems didn’t need much to stay alive. A projected mass and an unblemished gemstone were all that made these sentient beings “perfect.”
One of the greatest things for a gem on Earth was how you stood out. No gem was the same, yet treated like any other life form amongst the human race. What truly made a gem “perfect” was their ability to make aesthetic choices based on who they were. It was truly a beautiful thing, and as Ruby watched the small gemling in her cot, she realized just how beautiful it actually was.

  Garnet was one of those rare gem hatchlings that was born singular, and not within a litter of tiny geodes like when most other gems reproduced. And like all singular gems, they tended to be an odd mix of their parents. Garnet possessed three eyes, as well as two gems; one on each palm with two separate cuts similar to her mothers’.

  Ruby’s heart swelled with love for the young one, just as it had the first time she had laid eyes on her geode, just as it had when she first saw her mismatched triad of eyes, as she crawled onto the cot and laid next to her child, fast asleep, tiny, fat fingers curled at her chest. All three peepers were closed, yet flicking about behind her eyelids as if having a vivid dream.
In that moment, Ruby wondered what she was dreaming about, if she was even dreaming at all, not even sure if she would have preferred a litter of Rubies and Sapphires with slightly mixed traits and strengths, or this single ‘fusion’ of them, likely powerful to all hell and may embarrassingly tower over the two of them in the near future, like singularly born gems usually did. Geez, the teen phase was literally going to kill Ruby—she was going to enjoy the infant stage for as long as she could though. No amount of crying or amount of work she’d have to put in with Sapphire while raising this child was going to deter her from having a happy life with the two most important gems in her life.

Garnet stirred, the fluffy afro inherited from the red corundum herself framed her chubby face as she sank deeper into her bedding. Ruby tensed, her round eyes widening in fear at the possibility of Garnet waking up. The gemling possessed a powerful pair of lungs, and Ruby wasn’t eager to hear them in action again. Not while Sapphire was out, at least. When the small hatchling ceased movement, Ruby allowed herself to relax once again. She tucked her arm under her head to act as a pillow, the other entangling its fingers within Garnet’s curls as she gazed at her baby.

 She took mostly after Sapphire, or was that just her imagination? The dusty maroon tint to Garnet’s skin was highly influenced by her, of course. The nose was also Ruby’s—since Sapphire had no nose to give—and of course, her hair. And the blue gem’s demeanor and body shape would most likely belong to Garnet. Ruby could already see the roundness to her chest and bottom half, as well as Sapphires calm personality balancing her out a bit. Ruby’s gaze then fell on the third eye resting on the gemling’s forehead. Possibly all-seeing, future vision may also be her blessing and curse.

Ruby stared, for a long time even, and as she looked at Garnet, Ruby realized she had created this.

Garnet was truly beautiful.

Chapter Text

Like human babies, gemlings needed care and attention. They needed feeding and changing, and Sapphire was baffled by this.

How and why did young gems need to eat and expel?

Even with such “expertise” as she had on gem anatomy and the like, gem reproduction was only a recent thing, a newly developed cycle of gem creation to counter kindergartens. And it had been going on for a few thousand years after gems colonized on Earth, yet many gems didn’t practice it, as an abundance of gems already existed. Also, to think the process would produce a random product also made this form of gem creation a bit fragmentary when you couldn’t monitor the state of a geode like you would a “normal” egg.

Kindergartening, yes.

Alien oviposition, not really.

The only other gem Sapphire knew of who could provide even a little advice on the subject was Pearl, who had carried a litter of geodes and taken a certain amount time caring for them once before as some sort of weird surrogate mother of sorts for a “bispecial”—“interspecies” couple…thing.

There wasn’t much she could share, however. She was just as new to it as Ruby and Sapphire were, but never really planned on having gemlings to call her own. So when Garnet’s very powerful lungs took action, she was screaming for hours when her mothers had no idea what to do. No amount of rocking, cooing and singing could calm her, and Ruby, whose meditative state had just been interrupted, only made matters worse by freaking out and bringing on the Gem equivalent to a migraine within the blue gem’s skull.

That’s when it hit her.

There was one other person she could ring up at 2 a.m.

It had to be Rose.

Rose was a huge quartz, with a fluffy appearance and personality, who worked at a Gem daycare not that far off into the city. Why hadn’t she thought of her sooner!? She would know how to handle this.

Hopefully.

Ruby was splayed out on the sofa, bags under her eyes (even if sleep wasn’t her thing), as she cradled the baby gem, begging her to be quiet.

“Garnet, please,” she pleaded wearily, “you’re gonna wake the neighbors!”

Sapphire was by her side, gently grasping Garnet’s pudgy feet to keep her from kicking. It seemed to help, but Garnet’s cries didn’t let up. The idea came to Sapphire a bit too late, yet she was glad it did at all. Searching endlessly through the future for solutions was only making her headache worse.

The singer fixed her full lips into a thin line, before setting Garnet’s feet rightfully over Ruby’s arm and turning towards the end table where sat the phone she was very thankful for buying from that weird peddler a year ago. The sudden absence of touch from her sire drew out a sob and a loud cry of frustration from Garnet that had even Sapphire wincing as she dialed the number.

Ruby began to gently bounce her baby on one arm, patting Garnet’s stomach with her hand on the other. “What are you doing?”

She was surprisingly quiet now. Knowing that their child had burnt out her “Eternal Flame” had Sapphire cracking a small smile, catching the eye of Ruby in the process.

“What!?” She said, a bit louder, and noticeably tipping towards the irritated side.

Sapphire merely chuckled and replied with, “Just making a call.”

The red gem didn’t seem satisfied with that answer, but otherwise returned her attention to the wailing baby thrashing about in her arms.

The phone went to voicemail after the first few rings. Sapphire thought about calling Pearl if her future vision was merely becoming fuzzy to the point where her hope of Rose picking up merely brought on an oasis of her actually answering the phone. Trusting it, however, as that mostly wasn’t really the case and she was just too tired to repeatedly call Rose and knew Pearl would pick up almost instantaneously, she called again. The phone rang thrice this time, and a voice she had actually been anticipating resonated sleepily on the other side.

“Hello..? Who’s this?”

“Hello, Jasper,” came Sapphire’s dry reply, “I need to talk to Rose, where is she?”

There was the static-ish sound of ruffling blankets in the background. It was clear Rose had a bed, Ruby and Sapphire had been to her house more often than they’d like to admit, and the idea of sleep fascinated her, she seemed to do it as much as any average human, and had sex in that bed just as much, maybe less. Ruby and herself never saw the need in a bed, and just did it wherever they could in the house. Neither of them slept, either. In fact, Ruby’s idea of “rest” would be sitting in the master bedroom meditating, controlling her temper, her elemental power. Whereas Sapphire would occasionally join her or watch television on the flat screen gifted to them by Rose herself.

It was really no surprise Jasper would have answered the phone, possibly passed out under the sheets in post coital fatigue.

The thought made Sapphire’s lip curl.

They had been together--courting each other for almost 30 years now.

Sapphire didn’t let herself get lost in her thoughts and dislike of the orange quartz. Jasper hadn’t questioned again who was calling, or why she was calling. She must’ve understood from the loud bawling in the background why there was a phone call taking place at all. After a few seconds, the blue corundum picked up on some muffled muttering—perhaps a small argument—before Rose Quartz’s voice was received on the other end, the one now obviously possessing the phone.

There was another exchange of words Sapphire couldn’t exactly make out, and then Rose’s happy voice addressing her,“Sapphire! Hey, ho—“ she could tell when the pink giant caught the screaming, “Oh my God, what’s happening over there!?”

Sapphire saw no need for small talk, adjusting the phone against her pale blue tresses before uttering, “It’s Garnet, she’s been screaming for hours.”

There was a slight pause on the other end.

“Rose..”

“A-ah! Yes, sorry,”, came Rose’s reply, “I was going to ask what you’ve tried so far.”

The blue gem sighed and turned, though not really needing to, to see Ruby still fumbling with the baby as she herself had for the past 3 hours, “Needless to say, we’ve tried rocking her, singing to her. We checked her gems, there’s nothing wrong with them. You, we need your help, Rose. We’ve tried everything we could think of, but nothing is working. Is there something we may be doing wrong?”

Regardless of the current crisis, Sapphire had still managed to remain cool. The words, though structured to sound even the slightest bit of panicky, came out calmly and that seemed to have elicited a chuckle on Rose’s end.

Almost as calmly as her friend—with a hint of amusement—did Rose Quartz provide the simplest answer Sapphire could have never looked into the future to expect.

“Have you fed and changed her?”

Sapphire dropped the phone.

Surprised by the device hitting the floor, Ruby swung her short legs to hang over the edge and looked towards Sapphire’s frozen form. Garnet’s cries quieted only a tad, but that was only a small improvement thanks to the rock now settled in the pit of her stomach. “Sapphire?”

Sapphire didn’t answer. Instead, she quickly looked to her lover, mouth ajar, and then disappeared into a haze of cobalt blue out the front door, leaving behind a very confused Ruby with the screaming gemling.

The phone was still intact, Rose’s voice faintly and repeatedly calling out hello’s and Sapphire’s name. The red warrior, with impressive balance with Garnet in her arm, picked up the phone, answering Rose’s worried calls.

“Why did Sapphire just Sonic the Hedgehog out of the house!?”

Rose didn’t humor her with an answer, “You guys haven’t fed her!?!?”

Ruby had to do a double take, “What?” then her voice heightened an octave, “She needs food!?”

“All gemlings need food! How did you not know this?!” The pink giant’s voice was teetering between miffed and completely shocked.

Sapphire must’ve dashed the hell out of there to get to the store. “It’s been only three days. How were we supposed to know!?”

Just about as quickly as she left, Sapphire was back. The sudden burst of relief that came to Ruby seeing her lover quickly vanished when she realized she was empty handed.

“I forgot my wallet.” She breathed.

Sapphire spent almost thirty seconds searching the perimeter for the desired item. And when she found it, she sped back out the door again, accidentally slamming it closed.

Fat tears streamed down Garnet’s round cheeks as she bleated her distress even harder.

Ruby was growing pissed.

Rose was still on the phone, gently scolding Ruby for not reading at least one book about it given all the research they had put in before deciding to even conceive. But Ruby wasn’t paying any attention and dropped the phone back where it was. The doorbell was ringing now, furiously, and it made Ruby want to explode.

“Garnet, please!” she begged, setting the little one down onto her cot by the sofa.

The child kept screaming, and the doorbell kept ringing, faster this time, and Ruby could feel herself heating up. Gritting her teeth, and fingers flexing to calm herself even a little bit, Ruby headed for the door, nearly crumpling the knob like a piece of paper as she opened it.

A stout, tan woman in what Ruby assumed was her pajamas was in the doorway, frozen in the process of ringing the doorbell another obnoxious amount of times as she realized the door was now wide open. She fixed her robe and opened her mouth to speak, seeming to have expected someone taller to answer, with her gaze parallel to Ruby’s actual height. The woman righted herself and looked towards the red gem with disdain before squawking, “The few humans in this neighborhood are trying to sleep you know! Your child sounds like a siren!”

It was predictable that someone would have come to complain about the noise. It had already happened four times already and they all were understanding but were equally as confused about why Garnet was crying and left it alone. However, those times, she wasn’t as loud as she was being right now.

Ruby could respect that this woman she had clearly never met before (as she was already trying her nonexistent patience) was patient enough to bear the few hours Garnet was screaming her head off. But now of all times? Really?

She tipped over the edge without actually meaning to.

“Well, she’s just about done with her fit! So why don’t you stuff it, go home, and cover your face with a pillow for a few more seconds!!”

Then she slammed the door in her face.

Ruby wanted to regret her outburst, but felt it all too satisfying and maybe a bit rectifying to lash out at someone for this.

As soon as she knelt down next to her baby with a few more comforting words, Sapphire was zipping through the door once again. This time with grocery bags piled in her arms. The blue gem said nothing to Ruby, and before Ruby could even get out a word of questioning, Sapphire was knelt by her side with a small, open jar of baby food and a comically tiny spoon in her gloved hands.

“Garnet, here, look what I have.” She grinned lightly at her daughter and gently waved the jar in Garnet’s line of sight.

For the first time that night…

Garnet quieted.

Ruby let out a breath she hadn’t realized she was needlessly holding, and she watched as Sapphire fed their little gemling, who was now cooing in contentment.

Finally….it was quiet.

The warrior felt herself get up, not controlling her own movements as she moved to the coffee table, and slammed her face into it, emitting copious amounts of steam as she felt herself truly relax and sink into the sturdy wood of the surface.

Garnet wasn’t crying anymore. She was giggling and happy and satisfied.

“Ooooh, God! Finally!” Ruby groaned.

After a moment, her lover’s voice registered in her ears, “Ruby, can you get me a diaper from one of the bags? The one farthest to the left.”
Ruby happily obliged, digging through a bag with the local Family Dollar Mart logo for a split second before finding the white and red Huggies bag and ripping it open. Four dozen diapers were in this one box, and Ruby found herself picking one from the middle, randomly patterned with a childlike array of drawings of cats, horses and nature. She tossed the cotton material to Sapphire, who caught it without a glance back, and proceeded to adorn her child’s lower half with it. Ruby thought the bright whiteness of the diaper looked awkward in comparison to Garnet’s dark color palette, but anything to keep her from crapping all over the place. Garnet seemed to like it as well, pulling and giggling as the material was slid over her legs. It didn’t make Ruby feel any less about it.

“Oh, and you’re apologizing to our neighbor later.”

“Aw, seriously?!”

Eventually, Garnet went to sleep and Sapphire called Rose to apologize for making her night a bit more eventful. Then, she busied herself with stocking the cabinets in the kitchen with the food she had scrounged up from the store(it had been for the most part gathering dust) while Ruby returned to meditating in the bedroom. Sapphire joined her lover not that long after, super speed and levitation making the job so much easier on the singer, and they stayed like that until the ass crack of dawn…

….When Garnet began to cry again.

“You’ve got to be kidding me! What’s wrong now!!??”

Sapphire only chuckled at Ruby’s expressiveness, “She pooped.”

Chapter Text

At any other time, for any other person, Pearl would have let her phone go to voicemail.

At any other time, for any other person, she might've not even bothered to call back the next day.

But she at least checked the caller ID to see who she would potentially be ignoring at 2:15 in the morning.

Whoever was ringing her up that late was in luck. They had Rose Quartz's phone after all. And Pearl never answered her phone so quickly.

"Y-Yes?! Hello?"

Pearl flushed blue. She'd said that a bit too loudly, and now Rose was giggling on the other end.

"Hello, Pearl."

"Rose! Uh, hello," Pearl mentally kicked herself, the embarrassment of stumbling over her words while Rose Quartz was listening tempted her to end the call immediately. But she didn't let something like that interrupt a conversation that was more than likely important. Rose wouldn't have called for nothing. Right?

"Are you busy later?" Rose gave no sign of acknowledging Pearl's awkward phone decorum, and she was thankful for that.

Pearl's apartment was small. It was basically an extremely downgraded loft apartment with one other door besides the entrance, an unused bathroom. Her kitchen was empty, and the only possessions she had were either stored in her gem or sitting neatly within her empty kitchen. Considering the current state of her living space (uninhabitable for any of her neighbours), she didn't get many visitors that weren't Amethyst, who would only stay for a few minutes due to Pearl's lack of food, or occasionally.... Peridot. All she would do is vent about the usual annoying coworker and Pearl only spared her half of one ear.

She literally had no friends.

 But in order to sound the least bit desperate, she paused. "Uhm...I'll have to check my schedule." And as if Rose could see her, she pantomimed checking said schedule.

"No, I'm free."

Rose chuckled.

"Good. Wonderful. I was hoping you'd meet me at the Steamy Bean in a few hours."

As she spoke, her usual fruity tone of voice lowered to something somber, and that made Pearl's chest flutter with worry.

"Rose? What's wrong?" She asked.

Pearl heard her sigh on the other end, "Oh Pearl," she murmured, "I-I'll tell you when we meet. In seven hours."

  Those seven hours couldn't have taken any longer to pass. And Pearl's stress couldn't accelerate to panic. She wouldn't let it.

"It's alright. Rose is Rose. She'll be fine. As long as it's as I suspect it to be, she'll be fine.."

                                 .........

 "I think I've fallen in love, Pearl."

  The guilty smile on Rose's face gave her all she needed to know. Jasper had won this battle.

In a fury, Pearl stood up in her chair, nearly knocking it over as it skirted back from the gem's movement. She gave the best glare she could ever give Rose and shouted, "With all due respect, ARE YOU CRAZY!? Jasper has nothing positive to give you! How could you love such a belligerent, arrogant and deceitful gem like Jasper!? Are you too blind to see she doesn't love you!? She isn't capable of giving you the love and happiness that I-" 

Pearl's eyes bulged at the realization that they were currently sitting at an outdoor table. At the cafe. With many a patron to witness her fury.

Without blinking, she picked up the napkin that had been neatly folded in her lap before she stood, fixed her chair, and stiffly sat back down. A cyan shade of blush flooding the top of her head to her neck. She cleared her throat for extra measure. 

 The silence that had consumed the beachside patio slowly drifted back to idle chatter. Pearl could feel the ever present flush of her embarrassment make the unrelenting statement that it wasn't going away any time soon. So, with whatever remained of her composure, she burned holes into the small square table with her eyes.

"It isn't like that," Rose assured calmly, "I'm leaving Jasper. I've actually," Now it was her turn to blush, she had Pearl's full attention, if the sudden jerk of her head was anything to go by, "I've met someone. Someone better."

Pearl should've been more than relieved,  but that feeling never came. She felt herself be filled with even more anger from those words. Someone else?

Pearl could only trust herself to say, "Who?"

Seemingly oblivious, a wide smile came to her face.

"He's so funny and adorable and...and...amazing. He's mesmerizing, Pearl."

Waaaait....he?

"A...human." Pearl responded flatly.

Rose nodded enthusiastically, Pearl grimaced, but didn't state her disgust. She just wore it plainly on her face.

 Rose didn't seem to notice.

"I want you to meet him Pearl! His name is Greg Universe, and he's a musician, and guess what?"

Now only half listening as the telltale invidious sinking of her damaged heart grew present, Pearl blinked, "Ah-What?"

The Pink-haired gem unzipped the hoodie she wore over her dress, revealing a black band t-shirt, with letters boldened and underlined in big, colorful letters that read, Mr. Universe. Around the text were splotches of white, acting as stars running amok the design. "His gimmick is space."

Pearl frowned deeply at how tacky it looked. And anything Rose wore hardly ever looked tacky.

"Why is the design so...flashy?" she asked.

Rose zipped the jacket closed, ridding Pearl of the disgusting display of acrylic paint, "It was the original design that Greg scrapped. He gave it to me as a gift at one of his concerts."

"You...asked for it?"

"No," Rose shrugged, "He just outright gave it to me. Can you believe it? It's the perfect size and everything!"

"Hehe...Yeah." Pearl leaned back in her chair, wallowing, as she was bested by another. for the next fifteen minutes she listened to Rose ramble on and on about the human. 

After their farewells, Rose left but Pearl stayed behind to think about things amongst the hubbub of humans and gems conversing idly. Before she went back to her sad excuse of an apartment, she produced a jar of green paper money and silver coins from her gem. She'd mulled it over for a while and thought this was a good coping mechanism for grief if there ever was one.

A general goods store was nearby, she'd have no problems finding what she was looking for. And a five dollar bill would suffice for sure, she didn't feel like counting change and tax and all that.

So off to the store she was. Off to purchase the biggest, but cheapest tub of ice cream she could get with five dollars. Her best bet was an offbrand tub of vanilla-- the least disgusting flavor she could buy-- and went home.

The toilet hadn't been used in so long, Pearl didn't even remember cleaning it, but the porcelain bowl was spotless when she charged into the bathroom and bent over it to violently eject the contents of her shapeshifted stomach.

The melted white ice cream spilled into the toilet, all of Pearl's negative thoughts disappearing as the taste once again assaulted her senses, twisting her face into a hard grimace when she was done.

Her face flushed, muttering incoherent indecencies to herself, Pearl gripped her phone, wanting to call Rose but the thought of catching her with that human keeping her from doing so-- making her retch-- making the tears spill even faster.

She wanted to break her phone.

She wanted to scream.

She wanted to die.

What was wrong with her?

What was so wrong with Pearl that Rose simply refused to love her? Why did she love the one person that rejected her so?

She flushed the toilet, closed the lid and planted her face into it. She ended up sitting there all morning, desolate, indignant, morose.

As noon rolled around, the buzzing of her cell had surprised her. Yet she answered sluggishly, the movements almost painful as she slid the screen to answer. She put the call on speaker and set the device next to her head on the lid.

"...hello...?"

"Aye, Pearl. How's it goin'?" Ruby's voice resonated from the speaker.

"Just...arcadian." Pearl replied.