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The first thing Pearl hears when she wakes up is a muted, muffled silence. And maybe she doesn't hear it so much as experience it, the quiet pressing in on her on all sides, deep and simple. She doesn’t think she’s been somewhere so peaceful in a very long time, and she takes a moment to just bask in the stillness of it all, the safety.
The second thing Pearl hears when she wakes up is quiet breathing that is not her own.
And then it all comes rushing back. How Gem had cornered Pearl after the battle, the talk they’d had in the Big House, and… and how Pearl had finally given up and agreed to join the Hunters.
She jolts up, eyes wide- and sure enough, here Pearl is, on a cot in a circular tent, blankets pulled tightly around her. She looks down, and sees Gem’s bed a few feet away. The redhead is sleeping peacefully, eyelids lightly dropped down over her eyes, hair splayed in a frizzy, tangled mess over the upper half of her body.
After the immediate shock of the remembrance that Pearl is a Hunter now, she finds herself calming down a little bit. She chose this. She’d talked to Phil and then left with Gem, taking the oath to Demeter. The Hunters had traveled north, far north- Pearl isn’t totally sure why, but all she knows is that wherever they are, it’s already been snowing.
Pearl unwraps the blankets from around herself- a part of the tent’s magic is that it’s always a comfortable temperature- and inches forward on her knees towards Gem. She leans over the other girl and watches for just a moment, because Gem looks so peaceful , and Pearl really doesn’t want to disturb her.
But also, she wants Gem to get up and she wants to be able to talk to her. That’s… the whole reason Pearl’s here, if she’s honest. To be with Gem again.
So she reaches down and touches Gem’s shoulder, shaking her slightly. In response, the Hunter pushes her face further into the pillow, mumbling slightly.
“Gem,” Pearl says softly, shaking her a little harder. “You gotta get up.”
“Mmnhh,” Gem grumbles, half an eye squinting open to stare up at Pearl. “What’s happenin’? Pearlo? Izzat you?”
Pearl chuckles, impulsively tucking a strand of Gem’s hair behind her ear. Fuck her, alright? None could possibly resist the cutest girl in the world after she’s just woken up. Adorable.
“It’s me,” Pearl confirms, making to move her hand away- but Gem reaches out, far too quickly for someone as sleepy as her, and catches Pearl’s hand. Gem guides it to her sternum, and Pearl can feel Gem’s heart beating away at a slow, steady pace. Pearl’s breath hitches in her throat.
“Do I have to get up?” Gem mumbles, screwing her eyes shut once again.
“Afraid so, lovely,” Pearl says, smiling apologetically.
Gem groans and flips onto her back, glaring up at Pearl. “How could you do this to me?”
Pearl lets out a loud, barking laugh, taken aback by the upset in Gem’s voice. She wouldn’t have taken her to be this much of an anti-morning person. “I mean… It's my first day here, isn’t it? I don’t know what to do.”
“Yeah, yeah,” Gem mutters. “That makes sense.” A pause. “...Fine.”
Gem sits up and pushes her blankets out of her, clambering off her cot and standing, stretching as tall as she can get. Her hair is still an absolute mess behind her, but Gem doesn’t seem to care very much as she steps towards the zipped tent entrance. Pearl realizes that Gem’s not wearing a bra- which makes sense, because who the hell sleeps in a bra? Doing her best to keep her eyes above the other girl’s chest, Pearl meanders towards the entrance as well.
Unzipping the tent, Gem pokes her head outside- or attempts to. A solid wall of white meets her instead, at least four feet high, and completely impenetrable. Pearl takes it to be the source of the muffled silence. Gem quickly zips the tent back up.
“Bad news,” she says matter-of-factly, placing her hands on her hips. “We are fully snowed in.”
“Oh,” Pearl says. “So what do we do, then?”
Gem shrugs. “Well, we can’t get out, so I suppose… not much. We can talk, we can play truth or dare- although there’s not much we don’t know about each other? I guess we could also-”
“Can I kiss you?” Pearl asks, blunt and upfront, crossing her arms. Listen, okay? Hear her out. It's a well-known fact that Pearl is an impulsive bitch, and when it comes to Gem, that trait is just doubled in strength. Pearl couldn’t resist her even if she wanted to.
Gem blinks. “I’ve got morning breath,” she says, a lame excuse that Pearl knows she doesn’t fully mean.
“You think I care?” Pearl whispers, moving closer until she has to look down at Gem to meet her eyes, the five-inch or so height difference much more noticeable up close.
“I guess not,” Gem murmurs, mouth barely moving as she stares up at Pearl’s face. Slowly, cautiously, her hand rests upon Pearl’s cheek. Pearl leans down, and tilts her head, and presses their mouths together.
Immediately, Gem slings her arms around Pearl’s neck, pulling her down further, pushing back against her lips fiercely. Pearl puts her hands on either side of Gem’s waist, her grip perhaps a little too strong- but Gem doesn’t seem to care, and Pearl sure as hell doesn’t either. Holding onto Gem helps her to be sure that the Hunter’s actually there, that the two of them haven’t been separated again. Gem hums slightly, an exhale of air that ghosts across Pearl’s lips as Gem moves away slightly, eyes lidded.
“Shit,” Gem says quietly, hand tracing Pearl’s jaw, eliciting the smallest of shivers.
“Yeah,” Pearl agrees, fully at a loss for words. She- god, she loves this girl. She loves her so fucking much. How the hell did Pearl survive almost a whole year without Gem? Because right now, Pearl doesn’t think she could go five minutes without… without this.
Pearl moves in again, and Gem reciprocates. Pearl’s hands move slightly under Gem’s nightshirt, directly touching the skin of her waist, Gem’s body heat radiating out into her palms. Pearl’s nails dig into Gem’s skin slightly as the Hunter grabs her by the back of her neck, pushing her face down, the kiss deepening even further. Pearl bites down a little bit on Gem’s lip, and Gem gasps. Together the two of them stumble aimlessly, until Pearl trips backwards over one of the cots and the two tumble down together.
“Sorry,” Pearl mutters, breathless. Gem’s laying on top of her now, more of their bodies touching than not, Gem’s legs slotted with hers.
In response, Gem moves in again, taking advantage of the newfound closeness to pull down the shoulder of Pearl’s nightshirt and bite lightly against the skin there. Pearl, instead of just her hands, fully wraps her arms around Gem’s waist, ensuring that she won’t be going anywhere. Gem’s mane of bright hair cascades over both of their faces, a gentle veil that separates the two of them from the rest of the world, and for the first time in a long time, Pearl feels genuinely safe.
She closes her eyes as Gem moves to a different spot, and again, and again. She leaves a tidy row of slightly red bite marks along Pearl’s collarbone- glancing down, Pearl knows they won’t bruise, which is… good. Probably.
Maybe.
“Kiss me again,” Pearl says, almost an order more than a request. Immediately, Gem presses their lips together, hands cupping Pearl’s cheeks once again. It’s soft this time- slow, and sweet, and everything Pearl could ever hope for. Her head moves up, pushing into Gem’s lips, and Gem giggles at the touch. And then she breaks away.
“We should probably work on finding a way to clear all that snow,” Gem says, glancing away. Her cheeks are deeply flushed, freckles standing out against pink skin. Her hair is somehow even more disheveled than it had been, and Pearl chuckles, reaching up and playing with a strand of it. It’s soft in her hands- smooth, and silky, and springy. Familiar.
“Do we have to?” Pearl drawls. “Can we just wait for someone else to do it?”
Gem purses her lips. “It’s not the Hunter way…”
“Ah, who gives a fuck,” Pearl mutters, sitting up. Gem shifts slightly so that she’s now nestled in Pearl’s laps, and Pearl’s arms don’t move from around her waist. “It’s my first real day here, isn’t it? Surely I get, like, a pass.”
“You just wanna keep making out,” Gem grumbles.
“And so what if I do?” Pearl asks, grinning. “You’re a good kisser.”
“You’d wanna kiss me even if I wasn’t,” Gem says. “You like me too much.”
“Never said I didn’t,” Pearl agrees easily. “You’re easy to like.”
“Aw, thanks!”
“Anything for you,” Pearl mutters under her breath. Gem giggles, clearly taking it as a joke- which, in this context, makes perfect sense.
It’s not a joke, though.
It’s the complete, utterly certified, truth.
“You wanna just stay in here for a while, huh?” Gem relents, sighing.
Pearl grins. “ Please .”
And so they do.