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One, two, three, four. A slight pause, and then back to the regular routine of slamming her fists into the durable material of the long and beaten-down punching bag. The thud of her knuckles impacting against the sand filled carrier was the only noise within the confines of the room she found herself in, and though its white washed walls and cinderblock structure filled her with disdain, she couldn’t help but feel comfortable in the simple, warm setting.
It was an unpretentious workout room, one that was filled with an assortment of used punching bags, worn treadmills, and a few crooked shelves that contained nothing more than a forgotten pair of used sneakers; a misplaced duffel bag; an empty water bottle; and a variety of useless junk strewn about the wooden boards. Despite its comfortable plainness, however, the room was in a derelict appearance given the faulty lighting fixtures that sparked at random intervals, and the twisting pipes that were apparent through the cracked ceiling, but even with its destroyed interior, it still served as the warm-up area for members of the Beach City Underground Wrestling and Boxing league. And Ruby just so happened to be a member; more importantly, the undefeated champion of boxing.
She allowed a smirk of triumph to break across her sweat stained face at the thought of such an honor, and paused for a short moment in between her endless swings to uncurl a clammy, bandaged hand. Taking in a sharp unnecessary breath, the red skinned gem wiped the back of her hand against her forehead, using the momentum to push back a clump of wet burgundy colored curls that had collapsed over the edge of her ragged headband and into her eyes. Her blood pounded in her ears as she took the time to admire her deft handiwork at leaving an indentation the size of her fist in the center of the punching bag.
Perfect.
Casting her dark eyes down to her free hand, she placed the other one over it and, with a quick clench of her fingers, popped the strong bones of her knuckles back into place; the sharp crack reverberated off the damaged walls, and the curly haired gem clenched her appendage in order to get it back into proper alignment. Ruby allowed a hiss to escape between her teeth at the ache that surged through her bruised hands, but she prevented the mild twinge to inhibit her progress by raising her fists into a proper stance and setting herself up for another round of strikes. With a pregnant pause, the fire gem narrowed her eyes in determination, and pulled her shoulder back to send a fist forward.
Jab; cross; hook; uppercut. She listed off the motions effortlessly in her head, brow furrowed in concentration as she visualized the face of her opponent, but before she could repeat the same series of moves, a call to attention pulled her out of her reverie. It was from a voice she never wanted to have heard again.
“Ruby.” The voice was quiet, nearly inaudible despite the quietness of the room, but just as beautiful as the last time she had had the privilege of listening to such a soft-spoken tone. That was a long time ago, however, and now, Ruby wanted nothing to do with the figure who had just waltzed into the room like they had all the rights in the world to enter. The red skinned gem reacted by stiffening her small, muscular form at the sound of footsteps, quiet and nearly indistinguishable to the ruffling of fabric, and instead jerked her head over a shoulder to glower at the familiar form behind her. Her lips pulled down into a harsh snarl at the sight of the obscured face.
“What the hell are you doing here, Sapphire? I thought I made it clear that I never wanted to see you again,” she growled out between a tightly clenched jaw, her vibrant crimson eyes narrowed in a look of pure disgust as she vehemently tore her gaze away from the stoic ice gem and proceeded to strike at the punching bag; her bruised fists collided into the suspended sack with a much harder force than necessary, a fresh wave of anger pooling into her blood with every passing second that slipped by into a quiet oblivion. Her nerves felt shot, and agitation continued to mount in her brain at just the simple thought of Sapphire’s presence being within the same room as her. It failed to cool, however, when the gem she so passionately detested opened her mouth to respond.
“Checking up on you.” Ruby could feel an icy gaze on the back of her head, one that was just as heavy and unrelenting as the persistent gem herself, but it only lasted a moment before the suffocating pressure quickly dissipated into a solemn exhale of breath. The room shifted in atmosphere to an almost dangerous intensity when the fire gem managed to snarl out a jaded monosyllabic reply.
“Why?”
“Because I miss you, Ruby.” The piercing tone that was directed at her softened into a desperate plea, but for only a second as Sapphire’s voice took a sharp and bitter turn, and her professional composure was quickly pieced back together. Her gloved hands balled up into fists. “You have to let this puerile and imprudent grudge go. You’re acting like nothing more than a spoiled child.” Her words were reprimanding, an epitome of built up stress and anger that struggled to break out of the icy mask she so skillfully wore. Where she was trying to by helpful, Ruby thought of her as nothing more than interfering and foolish. Her punches grew rougher and harder on the persevering object she directed her anger at because in her mind’s eye, it wasn’t her upcoming competitor’s face she saw; it was Sapphire’s.
“And what makes you think I’ll be so quick as to do that, huh?” Ruby spoke up through gritted teeth. “You lied to me, Sapphire. Not just to me, but everyone else. You kept that knowledge to yourself, and we paid the price! It’s because of you Rose Quartz isn’t around anymore!” Her fiery eyes were alit with an uncontrollable fire as she took to shouting, her voice unforgiving against the crumbling white washed walls with the accompaniment of her hands pounding into the punching bag. It was a few moments of listening to the fire gem’s fists smashing into the target of her aggression before Sapphire took the risk of furthering her point.
“Would you just listen to me, Ruby? Rose already knew what she was getting into the moment she even decided to turn her back on the Authority, and if there was any way around what befell her, I would have known; but every possibility I saw, nothing ended with her survival.” The ruffling of fabric was the only indication that the pale blue haired gem had even budged from her position. “Telling you would not have made any difference, but now I see you are completely devoid of common sense. At this point, if I cannot persuade you, then there may as be only one other who can.” Sapphire’s voice had dropped into a whisper, icy and cold, and it seemed as if the entire atmosphere around them was alive with her concealed emotion. The pounding had stopped, and Ruby, brimming with an angry dread, slowly dragged her gaze away from the tattered punching bag and onto the stoic gem behind her.
Don’t you dare mention her name!
The curly haired gem tensed as the pale blue haired singer parted her mouth and whispered aloud a single word that only ignited the guilt and rage in her blood.
“…Garnet.” The name uttered on Sapphire’s full lips was like one of pure blasphemy. It immediately pissed her off, and she couldn’t help but allow a spark of ire to flicker through her burning orbs of bloody red when she pulled a bandaged fist back and slammed it into the tattered punching bag. The force of the blow sent the piece of equipment flying off its rusted hinges and into the back wall with a loud, rumbling crash. The very structure’s foundation groaned at the violent power inflicted upon it, and in her destructive wake, large chunks of fractured cinder block crumbled out of the now exposed interior.
Ruby’s palms itched; she could feel the fire boiling beneath her ruddy skin like a feverish plague coursing through her very physical form, but she clenched her hands to hold back the sickening fever. The iron grip she held over the inferno raging inside was slipping, and to keep the spark of flame from escaping, she channeled the molten fire of rage and distrust into her mouth where she angrily bit down. The fire gem’s jaw clenched in an effort to quell the boiling malice, and her lips pulled up into the beginnings of a horrible grimace to expose the gleaming points of two sharp canines. When she spoke, her voice trembled with an uncontrollable fury, goaded on by a burst of hot and scalding steam sent skywards; her tongue burned.
“Shut up! Don’t drag her into this!” A snort escaped her, one that brought out a forced tendril of smoke from deep within her sinuses. In her fit of anger, the curly haired gem ignored the fact that she was slowly blackening the concrete floor underneath her, and that her burgundy hair had collapsed over the edge of her ragged headband.
“I have no choice if it will make you stop and think about what you are doing! You’re so stuck in the past and intent on blaming me for everything that happened that you would even neglect your own daughter! Don’t you ever consider how your pathetic, cowardly actions are even affecting Garnet?” Sapphire finally raised her voice, full lips turned down into a deep and somewhat hurt frown that persisted even as Ruby willed herself to step closer. Her words couldn’t chill the rage that seethed under her skin, and pulsed through her pounding phantasmal heart. Even if her words made the slightest of sense in the fire gem’s mind, she was too far gone to see it.
Her glowering crimson eyes were darkened to a fiery maroon, narrowed orbs that displayed an ashen pair of scorched pits consumed by fury. The singer had never witnessed such a hellish sight in all her years that she had loved and hated the smoldering gem before her, but this was a first. And it scared her; scared her to know of the danger lurking just beneath the mask of unadulterated wrath, and in her bruised hands that remained at her sides despite the clenching of her fingers. If Ruby was anymore devoid of morals and sane thought, Sapphire would surely be nothing more than a shattered gem on the floor.
A heated silence befell the frustrated and infuriated pair, and finally, Ruby was able to push away the red fog of anger aside and focus on the soft face that was mere inches away from hers. The red eyed gem had forgotten the contours of her flushed lips, now slightly quivering in mixed emotion, and how the sheaf of pale light blue hair twisted in large locks over her eye and down her back. In another time, she would have been tempted to claim her lips in a kiss, but now, she was only content with observing. The dress she wore of dark blue silk and lace highlighted the forgotten sky-colored orb that pierced through the cover of hair, and only made her more beautiful. It was lost to her how much she had missed the otherworldly appearance that had once captured her heart, but in the moment, she still couldn’t forgive her.
As if responding to the thought, Ruby gritted her teeth to keep her softening expression from breaking through her bitter mask and instead steeled her eyes and pushed away from Sapphire in an attempt to make it look as if she were still upset; her anger, however, had already dwindled into a flickering spark of ire. It took a pregnant pause for the fire gem to swallow whatever insulting words she was considering to spit and force a gravely tone into her low voice.
“You better leave Sapphire,” the word please hung on the edge of her lips, but it never came. As much as she tempted to say it, Ruby dropped her smoldering gaze to the floor and held her tongue. The response she got, even if she couldn’t see the ice gem’s face, still cut her now aching heart.
“Ruby, I just… I’m sorry. But please, please don’t force anymore pain onto Garnet. You’ll never know how much she despises us for fighting, and if that makes me a bad maternal figure for not trying hard enough to stop you from leaving, then so be it. Ruby, if you never forgive me, I beg of you, just don’t neglect her anymore.” She could hear the tremble in her voice, and it was too much. The mask Sapphire had so cleverly constructed out of ice crumbled in her gloved hands, leaving beads of water like snow shards trailing down her obscured face. The curly haired gem’s hands twitched, and she almost willed herself to wipe away the flow of tears if she hadn’t stopped herself at the last second with a growl of dismay. She had never enjoyed witnessing the sight of Sapphire crying, even now, and it was only by repeatedly clenching and unclenching her bruised digits did she get over the desire to comfort her. It was better this way.
Damn the stars, why does this have to happen? Why couldn’t we just leave each other alone?
Her eyebrows knighted together, and she permitted a shuddering sigh to escape her lips. Drawing both her hands up behind her head, she untied the ragged, crimson headband and pulled it off, scowling as a clump of burgundy colored curls collapsed into her face; using a finger to push back the falling hair, Ruby pressed it back into place before she turned towards the sobbing gem in front of her.
“C’mon, Sapphire, stop crying,” she mumbled half-heartedly, dark eyes narrowed in faint concern as she brought up the headband and slipped it under the cover of bangs that concealed the ice gem’s mournful expression. Tying the article of cloth with deft fingers, Ruby couldn’t help but allow the smallest of smirks to toy with her lips as she tightened it into place and drew back to observe. It was the only thing she permitted Sapphire to have of their unnecessary and tense encounter, one that invoked memories the red eyed gem greatly missed. It was, however, simply a lost cause, something Ruby realized when she remembered the grudge buried within her consciousness.
For a moment, however, she would tolerate her presence and dry the tears that fell from the single translucent blue orb that had always captivated her. Before long, they would be back to normal, arguing once again on the topic of Garnet, but for now, she was tired of fighting.
And maybe, just maybe, she’d consider a short visit to see her three-eyed daughter Sapphire and her had seen great means to conceive.
.
.
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Tachycardia (noun) – an abnormally rapid heart beat