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“Pearl, please go to bed.”
“Nah.”
Gem pauses in the middle of her dirt-shovelling, stabbing her shovel into a nearby pile to stroll over to where Pearl’s perched by the harbour of her base. Pearl is currently sitting by hugging her legs and resting her head on her knees while staring out into the ocean.
Gem kneels beside her, then calls for her name again.
“Pearl.”
“Pearlie.”
“ Pearlescentmoon. ”
Pearl responds with a halfhearted grumble into her hoodie, burying her face into the fabric for a moment before turning to face Gem. “What?”
“Sleep! You dork.” Gem swats her shoulder, earning an offended yelp and a smile at the same time.
“Gem, what’s the point of living next to you if I’m not awake to bug you all the time?”
Gem groans, bumping her head onto Pearl’s side. Pearl snickers, though she fails to hide the exhaustion weaved between each note of her voice and movement of her arms.
Here’s the thing: Pearl is nocturnal. Pearl should be nocturnal, unlike most of the other Hermits, unlike Gem.
So, Pearl shouldn’t still be awake in the afternoon, accompanying Gem while she’s working on the village below her elven castle. But here she is anyway, because she’s a stubborn idiot, which Gem makes sure to let Pearl know.
“You love me.” Pearl cracks a wide smile, shooting Gem a smug glance while doing so.
“I do.” Gem huffs, then gives Pearl another light shove. “So for goodness’ sake, go to sleep .”
“Seriously! It’s fine, you give me all the energy I need.” Pearl grins, shifting her posture to instead sit cross-legged and lean her head on her palm. “I mean, being a lil’ bit sleepy all the time is part of my charm now, eh?”
Gem feels a blush creeping up on her face, but before she can even begin to come up with a retort, she notices how Pearl’s shifted most of her weight to the side that’s dangerously close to the sea below them, and she’s quick to grab onto the sleeves of Pearl’s hoodie to yank her backwards.
“Wh—” Pearl sputters, wide-eyed and trying to not fall face-first onto the ground. She latches onto Gem’s arms for stability, then whirls her head around to discover how close she’d been to plunging into the water.
“Oh.”
“You were saying?” Gem sighs, unable to hide her own grin at Pearl’s antics. (Hey, she’s been nice so far! She could’ve just let her fall.)
Humming contemplatively while tapping her chin, Pearl makes it clear that she’s giving Gem’s proposition more thought for an oh so generous five seconds more before singing out another “Nope!”.
“Oh my gosh , Pearl.”
“I just wanna spend more time with my Gem! Is that too much to ask for?” Pearl takes Gem’s hands away from covering her own face out of sheer exasperation.
What comes out of Gem’s mouth afterwards is a mix of grumbling and barely audible words. She takes her hands out of Pearl’s grasp, sending her a knowing look and a pout.
“Oh, I know what you’re trying to do, and it’s not gonna work.” Gem states firmly, and her cheeks do not grow warmer. Not at all.
In all her sleep deprived glory, Pearl scoots closer to Gem and boops her nose. “And what am I trying to do?”
“Nope. No more of this. Off to bed with you.” Abruptly rising from her seat on the grass, Gem takes Pearl’s wrists and drags her up with her. Pearl giggles the whole way through, pretending to not be flirting her way out of trouble.
To her credit, Pearl does try to stop Gem along the way by lightly scolding her about leaving her shulker monsters and tools out in the open, lying around unattended, but Gem just picks up her pace with Pearl in tow, whose complaints falter in the midst of her drowsy snickers.
The two of them end up in the living room of Gem’s castle, which has recently been finished to have a decently large couch facing the fireplace. Gem sits Pearl down on the couch, then grabs a cushion from the adjacent chair to throw onto her lap in quick succession, stopping her from getting up.
“Ow! That’s rude, Gem.”
“That’s literally the softest thing ever, stop being dramatic.”
“Is it?” Pearl looks down towards the cushion, but before she can test it out, she’s once again met by another pillow to the head, followed by a blanket dumped onto her. “Hey! Quit— oh, it is quite soft, actually.”
While Pearl is wrangling herself out of the blanket, Gem makes herself comfortable by taking out her braid and picking out a book. After Pearl’s done with spreading out the blanket, Gem grabs hold of its side and slots herself in between it and Pearl, who she’s forced onto the couch. The motion gets a small “oof!” from Pearl, but other than that, she does little to fight back against Gem’s quest to get her to sleep.
In fact, she shifts to lie on the couch while allowing for Gem to rest on her chest, wrapping her arms around Gem.
“Now, isn’t this cosy?” Pearl comments, sleepiness growing ever more evident in her voice brought out by the warmth of the living room. If the fluffiness of the pillows around her hadn’t drowned out any remaining fight in her to stay awake, then Gem snuggling closer to her sure did the job, because a yawn is drawn out from her soon after.
“Looks like you’ve got me trapped, eh?” Fully resting her head onto the armrest of the couch, Pearl slurs out the question. “So cruel of you to trap me in your base.”
“Yeah, yeah, so evil of me.”
“Glad we’re in agreement.” Pearl chuckles at the sarcasm practically dripping from Gem’s tone. “I’ll escape from here, just you wait.”
“Oh, I’m sure you will.” Gem then reaches for the book she’s placed on the coffee table next to them, flipping it open after making sure she’s tucked them both in the blanket.
Not even five minutes later, the rhythmic beat of a heart by Gem’s ear is accompanied by the snoring of its owner.
(As much as Gem would’ve loved to stay in Pearl’s arms for the whole afternoon, she’s also well aware that she’d get an earful from Pearl if she left the village side of her base unfinished and littered with shulker boxes, so once she’s sure that Pearl’s asleep, she expertly snakes her way out of Pearl’s embrace, replacing her absence with a pillow.)
(Well, she supposes she has to make up for going so soon, right?)
(For that, she leaves a kiss on Pearl’s forehead, gentle to not let her stir awake, and imbued with hopes for sweet dreams, alongside promises of soup once she wakes up.)