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“A new business project for you,”
The documents are lazily thrown to Aventurine, fluttering to the floor just out of his reach. He doesn’t move.
“I think you’ll find this one to your liking.”
He’s an inch away from telling Sugilite to go fuck himself, but Diamond is in the corner somewhere watching. He’s already in the emanator’s bad books after Penacony - another misstep and they’ll have his head.
Remain professional.
So he walks forward and picks the documents up. Tries to ignore the way Sugilite is watching him with such blatant contempt he can feel it sinking into his skin. Licks his finger and opens the first page with a quick flick of his wrist.
“You can’t be serious,” he says, once he’s finished.
“If you have a problem, take it up with Diamond,” Sugilite smirks.
“The last entourage we sent to this planet were sent back to us in shrouds.” he tries to argue.
“It’ll make it that much easier to finally bury you,” he drawls. For a moment Aventurine vividly imagines slamming that infuriating smirk of his against a wall. “Now go.”
“This isn’t a project,” Aventurine hisses, “it’s a death sentence.”
“A blessing, isn’t it?” Sugilite says, turning on his heel to leave. The room suddenly feels much too small.
“Haven’t you always wanted to die, Aventurine? ”
Afternoon tea with Jade is never a pleasant experience, but Aventurine can't afford to skive like the others can, so he heads to the drawing room anyway.
It stinks of incense. The thick heady scent assaults his senses as he enters the drawing room, critically eyeing the spread on the table. Plenty of scones, biscuits and the like, but a far cry from the gluttony Sugilite indulges in. Aventurine isn't too fussed either way - he isn't one to indulge in sweets.
Jade sits there, ever the picture of elegance, swirling a rich tea in her signature mug. She gestures to the chair before her and Aventurine reluctantly takes a seat.
Well. At least the view is dazzling. The ocean spreads beneath them, the hustle and bustle of Pier Point audible even from up here.
“Having fun?” Jade asks. His gaze snaps up to her carefully polished smirk.
“Doing what?”
“Oh, you know,” she waves her hand dismissively. It isn't like her to beat around the bush, but Aventurine waits anyway. He doesn't have the patience today to entertain her games.
Not after…
“The new mission,” she says with a smile. Here it is. “Have you prepared?”
Aventurine almost scoffs, but catches himself just in time. He mirrors her smirk instead.
“I've prepared my will if that’s what you mean,”
“Leave some assets for me?”
“Of course not.” He hums lightly, reaching for a scone. “Might as well gamble it all away while I'm at it.”
“Typical,” she says. Her hand moves to her mug again, finger tracing the rim. Bad news is about to follow, Aventurine can tell.
He’s growing tired of them all. Jade, for all her falsehoods disguised as sympathy, is no exception.
“Why are we playing these games, Jade?” Aventurine asks, leaning back in his chair. “You called me for a reason, didn't you?”
“I did,” Jade says. “You know more than anyone why Diamond chose you for this mission.”
“Because I'm the most dispensable.”
“Because you're the most lucky ,” she corrects. She slides the butter bell over to him. “But yes. Dispensable too, though I loathe to admit it.”
Lies upon lies. He wonders if there’s anyone who truly would be sad to see him gone. Who would attend his funeral? No-one among the Stonehearts, that’s for certain.
Well, Topaz would. But Topaz is too good for any of them. She doesn’t deserve to hold the Stoneheart title.
“I'm going to die on this mission,” Aventurine says simply.
“Most likely,” Jade agrees, and the incense is clearly getting to him because that looks like sadness in her eyes. How absurd. His read on people is clearly slipping. “But you'll go out with a bang. And who knows - you've gambled with your life before and survived, so maybe your luck will hold out.”
“It’ll take more than luck this time,” he mutters under his breath. “I need a miracle.”
Jade hums, looking down at the people below. They crawl like ants, insignificant and meaningless, yet all living such busy, bustling lives. It's a little dizzying to think about.
Aventurine’s never been afraid of dying. In fact, more often than not after a bad transaction, or a sleepless night, or another day of endless rain, he wishes death would just come quicker to claim him. It's only recently that his worldview's tilted on its axis, after meeting such a barrage of weird and wonderful people in Penacony.
They’re all so vibrant. So full of life. The Oak family head, that 'Galaxy Ranger' (and the real Galaxy Ranger) and of course, the Doctor himself. He’s jealous.
He’s going to die on this mission, Aventurine can feel it deep inside his bones. It's a dangerous bargain with a dangerous civilisation, and he'll be lucky if his body remains intact enough to lay him in his grave. How cruel, after he's finally come to terms with his gut-wrenchingly dazzling life.
If only he could just–
“Topaz will be joining you,” Jade says quietly.
What.
His thoughts come to a screeching halt. Aventurine knows better than to let his turmoil play out on his face; after all these years it's become second nature to him more than anything. So he gazes up languidly. Drums his fingers against his knee.
Ignores the pounding of his heart against his ribcage.
“What did you say?”
“Don't play the fool with me Aventurine,” Jade replies, “you know full well I summoned you here for a reason.”
Fine. He'll skip denial then and shift straight to anger. It coats his tongue like venom, brews like poison behind his Avgin eyes.
“Do not send her on this mission.”
“Do you really still believe it is my decision to make?”
“I don't care what you do Jade,” he says, slamming the table for emphasis. His rings sound loudly against the glass. “Just make sure she doesn't come. I don't want her there.”
“I'll give you the benefit of the doubt and pretend it's your jealousy speaking,” Jade says, “ Kakavasha. ”
Every bone in his body stills. The name is a vice to his intellect, always has been, always will be. He’s crossed a line.
He hadn't thought a dead man could still be fearful, but there he was wrong.
“Jealous of Topaz?” he scoffs. “Please.”
“Aren't you?” Jade replies, and here she spits poison. Any semblance of friendliness, of camaraderie, has completely vanished out of the window. “Aren't you Aventurine? Aren’t you jealous of the woman who has it all, has every freedom you could only dream to obtain?”
He opens his mouth and finds no words come out.
“Topaz, the gem of the IPC. People turn a blind eye to her mischiefs yet you so much as toe the line and it's straight to the gallows for you. It drives you sick, even a P13 could see that much.”
It's the way she says this all so casually that really gets to him, as if he can be read like a book. His hand begins to tremble under the table, and he pulls out a coin to keep it busy.
“ She certainly wasn't born with a silver spoon in her mouth. And yet despite all that the company doesn't look down on her because of it. It bothers you, of course it does Aventurine. Because you came from nothing too.”
And you are still nothing .
“She works hard,” he mumbles quietly. Because that’s the difference, isn't it? Aventurine works hard but Topaz works harder. She always has, picking up his slack on joint projects with that endearingly familiar roll of her eyes.
“She's a real do-gooder,” Jade agrees. “Still as naive as ever. Hence why Diamond picked her for this mission. Out of all of us she's the least corrupted by the IPCs rot - it's no wonder the universe trusts her like they do.”
“Diamond couldn't possibly pick her for this mission,” Aventurine says. “Unlike me she's actually worth something to him.”
“Hence why he paired her with you .”
Aventurine stills his hand and looks Jade right in the eyes.
“I don't follow.”
“Come on Aventurine,” she says, like a mother chastising a child. “You can't tell me it's a coincidence you're always paired with the golden girl of the Stonehearts?”
It's true. It's become such a norm that even the junior staff gossip about it when they have the time. He sometimes hears them chatter in the corridors - Topaz and Aventurine! The collector and the gambler. The blessed and the lucky. Or, as Sugilite eloquently puts it, the dear and the damned.
And the dead, it seems.
“Coincidence?” Aventurine echoes.
Aventurine has his theories, of course, but Jade knows the facts. And it seems she's more than willing to disclose them with him.
“I've trained you better than this,” Jade sighs, lifting the teapot and pouring him a cup. He doesn't touch it. “Topaz is everything you're not. She's not a risk-taker and she doesn't get into trouble - of course there was the whole fiasco with Belobog but we can make room for sentimentality.
“But there's more to it than that. You reign each other in, and that's really the beauty of it all. Where her naivety goes too far, you're the one who'll give her that much needed reality check. Where your recklessness oversteps bounds, she'll be there to drag you back down to reality. Like it or not, you both turn like two gears in the same clock.”
Aventurine laughs.
“That's dangerous,” he says plainly. “Such chemistry is never a good thing, Jade. Aren't you afraid we'll become too influential together?”
“ I have my doubts, but Diamond doesn't seem to think so.”
“He has such blind trust in us?” Aventurine scoffs. He doesn't buy it for a second.
“I wouldn't say that,” Jade hums. “Let's face it, this is Diamond we're talking about - he knows your limitations like the back of his hand. You and Topaz could never revolt against the IPC, because you’re afraid her fleeting freedom could be snatched away and she's afraid one wrong move could send you back into your cage. She prioritises life over freedom, and you prioritise freedom over life. It's a doomed fate either way.”
Aventurine falls silent. She's right. Of course she is.
“That still doesn’t answer my question,” Aventurine says slowly. “If Topaz is such a valuable asset - and don't tell me she isn't because you and I both know she's the perfect balance to the cruelty of the other Stonehearts - then why the hell would Diamond send her on a suicide mission like this one?”
Jade smirks again and finishes the last dregs of her tea. The conversation is almost over.
“Because he knows you'll be there to die in her place.”
“You're betting on a very uncertain variable there, Jade,” Aventurine says quietly. “Didn't you just say I was jealous of Topaz?”
“You are,” Jade says, “but you also love her.”
Out of everyone, he was betting Jade would figure that out first. But the words still burrow deep into his very bones.
“And that's exactly what Diamond's banking on.”
A cliche choice of words, but it's true. Aventurine knows it's true, and that’s what stings the most.
“Such a bright, beautiful girl with a dazzling future,” Jade sighs, “why wouldn't you risk it all to let her live her happy ending? Because that's just the kind of man you are, Aventurine, jealous and lovestruck, selfish and selfless, two sides of the same coin. You want to die, but you want her to live.”
I don't want to die, he thinks, silently. Not anymore.
But he doesn't want Topaz to die either. And if faced with a choice, Aventurine will always, always choose the one that's high risk, high reward. What better reward than giving a life, even if that life isn't his?
Deep down he knows he's lost too much to face losing another. He'd rather die before that happens - and that's exactly what that bastard Diamond was counting upon. Because Diamond knows that Aventurine could just as easily refuse the project if he’s feeling brave enough to, but if Topaz is assigned to it as well, then Aventurine will have no choice but to attend. Because the chances to save a loved one are so few and far between.
“Don't try and convince Diamond,” he says, standing up to leave. The delicacies lie untouched on the table, his appetite gone. “Just tell Topaz I'm sorry.”
“You do that yourself,” Jade replies with that same infuriating smirk. “And while you're at it, why don't you tell her how much she’s actually worth to you.”
“She doesn't deserve that burden.”
“Loving is never a burden, Aventurine,” Jade says sadly, “not if it's genuine. A pain sure, but never a burden.”
Aventurine doesn't truly agree with her, but her words stick like the incense clings to his coat, no matter how many times he tries to drench himself in perfume.
He leaves the drawing room as a condemned man. It's no different to how he started.
A week later, and he's sitting outside a quaint cafe on a nameless planet, when the sounds of footsteps catch his ear. A chair is drawn up opposite him and who else but Topaz sits, leg crossed over the other as she rests her chin in her hand.
“Brooding doesn't suit you,” she announces, stealing a biscuit from the pitiful pile he has before him. He wasn't planning to eat it all anyway.
“Who said I was brooding?” he grins.
“I could hear your thoughts from a mile away.”
He rolls his eyes, a laugh escaping him as Numby jumps up to kiss his nose. They steal a coin from Aventurine’s pocket, running back to Topaz with a soft crooning sound.
“You should be grateful,” she says, brandishing her biscuit at him. “You've got all the time in the world now thanks to your mission cancellation. And yet I still have to pick up the slack, thanks to the debts they left behind anyway.”
“How did Diamond phrase it?” he asks with a smirk. “Planet no longer fit for negotiations?”
Topaz snorts, rubbing the space between Numby's ears fondly.
“Pretty much. There's no planet left for negotiations in the first place. The antimatter legion blew the whole thing up within system days. Apparently they detonated about a dozen Stellarons - the bigwigs at Marketing are tripping over themselves trying to recover their losses.”
Ouch. Aventurine shouldn't feel grateful - millions of lives were lost after all - but a sick part of him is glad that the mission is no longer going ahead.
He's managed to escape death's clutches yet again. Sugilite must be having a fit.
“You had a talk with Jade the other day, right?” Topaz asks, “Mission debriefing or something?”
“Or something,” Aventurine echoes, “it was nothing important.”
What Topaz doesn’t know won’t hurt her.
“What I'm more interested in are the new rumours about a certain Stoneheart being promoted - so quickly after demotion as well. And here I was getting used to you calling me ‘Boss’.”
Topaz scoffs.
“Get over your power trip, I've never done that in my life,” she says. His gaze shifts to her hair, and he lazily wonders if she’s growing it out now. Probably not - he can almost hear her groan about the effort it would take to maintain. “Diamond decided to raise my salary a little, that's all. Any rumours of a promotion is for me to know and you to find out.”
“Oh trust me I will,” Aventurine replies. The corners of her mouth turn up and a little thrill runs through his veins. It's that same golden, winning feeling he gets when he’s risking his life.
He should really do this more often.
“So,” Topaz says, finally getting to her real reason for joining him. She certainly didn't do it on a whim - Topaz never does anything on a whim. “I've got a mandatory dinner party to attend with the Tech Department at 10 tonight, and I’m looking for a plus one.”
“Did they offer you a plus one?” he asks skeptically.
“No, but who gives a shit about formality.”
Jealous, Jade's voice says in his mind, you're jealous of her freedom.
And yeah, maybe a part of him is jealous of the way she can always get away with things he can't. For a woman like Topaz, such a thing like failing an exam, or going against the status quo is easy. She doesn’t need luck to keep her afloat.
But another, louder part of him is in awe. She's so bright sometimes it's blinding.
Aventurine wants to drown in that light. He wants to know what it feels like to believe in life so wholeheartedly that there isn't enough room for second-guessing at all. And that’s what Jade and Sugilite and all the other Stonehearts fail to realise - despite it all, now Aventurine wants to live.
“Oh?” He gives her a shit-eating grin. “If you wanted to ask me out you could've just said so, you know?”
“Shut up,” she says, but there's pink dusting her ears so Aventurine takes it as a win. “You're insufferable, you know that? On second thoughts, I'll take Sugilite instead.”
“Are you pouting ?”
“I swear Aventurine, one of these days I'm going to punch that smug look of yours all the way out to the Asdana system.”
Aventurine laughs, the sound loud and bright in the chilly air…and eventually Topaz laughs with him.
He's suddenly very glad to be alive after all.