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“Ah, not again!” Cleo exclaimed, watching as the stone block chipped again as the seahorse’s quartz nose fell to the floor and shattered. They had been trying to shape the sculptures that they planned to sit out in front of their base for hours, but the rock kept on cracking. It was like the stone was cursed or something, Cleo usually had no trouble with this kind of thing.
Sighing and setting her chisel back on the table next to the stool where she worked in her courtyard, she padded over to her storage room. She opened the “Statues” shulker just to find a distinct lack of quartz inside. They must have just used the last of it.
She briefly contemplated trying to use andesite, but eventually decided it wouldn’t look right for what she wanted. She sat down on one of the other shulkers strewn around the room haphazardly and pulled out her comm, sending out a message to the main chat.
[ZombieCleo]: Anyone got any quartz? I just ran out and need it for my sculptures.
While she waited for a response, she leaned back against the chests behind her and closed her eyes, resting. She’d been working for hours.
Some minutes later, chimes from their comm broke them out of their stance,
[XisumaVoid]: Sorry, I’m all out too. I’m sure your statues will be beautiful!
[XBcrafted]: I’m pretty sure Gem has some, I remember I bought some from her a while back. Good luck!
At this, Cleo brightened. They checked the tab list to see that Gem was, indeed, online, and gathered their rockets and a coat to head over to Gem’s elven kingdom. She’d take any excuse (even if she would never admit it openly) to see the redheaded girl.
When she stepped through Gem’s village portal, Gem was nowhere to be seen. Cleo looked around, admiring the delicate Elven roofing (made of quartz! her chances were high) and listening to the gentle squawking of seagulls by the docks. The village was bright and lively as Cleo walked through.
Finally, she came around a corner to spy Gem doing... something. Training. She was training. Cleo, entranced, watched as gem swung and dodged as if the iron blade in her hand was an extension of her body. Her movements were lively but elegant, all quick swipes and smooth footwork.
“I’d let her tear me up all she wants...” Cleo whispers under her breath before quickly covering her mouth when Gem seems to stop for a second at the noise. Nevertheless, Gem continues, and Cleo takes a deep breath before advancing forward. She’d be perfectly happy to stand here and watch Gem and her blade for eternity, but she did come here with a goal, even if it seems insignificant now.
“Uhh, Gem?” Cleo speaks up, making Gem jump. She saw Cleo and set down her sword,
“Oh, hi Cleo! Sorry, I was just practicing. Didn’t expect to see you here!” Gem said, dusting her (calloused? They were calloused. Strong. Cleo’s legs started to feel weak) hands on her (VERY well-fitting) trousers.
Cleo blushed, trying to form coherent sentences, “Oh, sorry about that, I should have messaged you a warning. Didn’t mean to interrupt your training.”
Gem only shot her an easy grin and started unbuckling her armor, “It’s no problem, just a bit of practice. I like to keep my sword skills sharp, you know?” Cleo knew. She’d seen the head dungeon. “Anyway, what do you need?”
“I, uh, I ran out of Quartz. I’m making a couple new statues for my base and the last bit I had kept on cracking. I heard you might have some?” They responded, still trying to bring themselves back to reality.
Gem nodded in sympathy, “Quartz tends to do that, lord knows I’ve had to deal with enough of it this season. I don’t know what version of me decided it would be the main block palate for this megabase, but I have a vendetta against her. Anyway, I definitely have some extra, follow me?”
Cleo followed happily, eyes still lingering occasionally on the way the sunlight highlighted Gem’s features, but able to keep up conversation.
“So, Gem, anything interesting going on recently for you?”
“Ah, not much, just building mostly. I got some more detailing done up in the castle which I’ve been putting off, which is nice. Feels a lot better now that it’s looking more complete. Oh! Speaking of, I have something I wanted your help with, could I show you after this?” Gem asked, around to face Cleo and walking backwards towards the castle.
Cleo brightened at the request, “I’d love to help!” Another excuse to hang out with Gem!
Eventually they arrive at Gem’s storage room and Cleo gets a generous 10 stacks of quartz from Gem, to which they adamantly refuse and say that they don’t need all of it, but Gem insists, and she is quite convincing, especially with that look in her eye. Cleo wants to hear her boss them around more.
“It’s a gift, for you. Your company is plenty payment.” Gem states, winking. Cleo’s face tinges a bright pink.
The two of them get quickly sidetracked when Gem declares herself hungry and offers Cleo lunch. Cleo, predictably, agrees, and they head off to the kitchen to make some sandwiches. When Cleo sees the Etho table she raises an eyebrow, but Gem just laughs and ruffles the hair on one of the heads.
Terrifying, and incredibly attractive. Cleo loves it.
They have lunch and tea for an indeterminable amount of time, laughing and joking. Every now and then one of them will say something flirtatious and the other will simply blush and laugh, sometimes shoot back a remark of their own, but nothing big happens. The sandwiches are delicious, made with fresh vegetables from Gem’s garden.
They head outside to the hand-dug stream running through the castle grounds where Gem’s new project is. Gesturing excitedly, she explains the idea to Cleo,
“I was thinking you could make little mini hermits going down the stream in buckets like hat one movie... I forget the name. It’ll come back to me later. Anyway, I’d pay you! You can tell me how much it costs after. I just think your artwork is so beautiful, it would make such an amazing edition!” Cleo blushed at the compliment. “Anyway, only if you want to. Just a silly idea I had.” Gem finished, swaying from side to side excitedly.
“No, it sounds neat! I’d love to do it. Want me to get started whenever I can?” Cleo responded, causing Gem to grin widely and her deer ears to twitch with excitement.
“Yeah, that’d be perfect! Whatever works for you.”
They both chatted a little longer before Cleo glanced at the time (how had 5 hours passed already?) and reluctantly turned to leave. In a bold motion, Cleo took Gem’s hand and pressed a featherlight kiss to it with a wink, leaving Gem red in the face.
“I’ve got to be off, lovely. The sun will set soon. I’ll see you again soon?”
Gem nodded with an eager look in her eye, “You sure will!”
Lord, that look was enchanting. For some reason Cleo think she’d get to see more of it again soon.