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Pearl bent at the waist, slippered heels together, and extended a hand to her fallen ward.
Connie’s mind hadn’t been present during their training session. The distraction caught up to her with the hard thud of a spear handle against the side of her knee, dropping her to the ground with a sharp bark of pain. “Connie, if you have somewhere else you’d rather be, then we shouldn’t be wasting our time here,” Pearl scolded.
Connie reached across her body to firmly take hold of Pearl’s hand, sucking in a sharp breath as she forced her way to her feet. Once upright, she realized her mistake, injured knee collapsing under the weight of her tired body. She buckled, prepared to hit the floor a second time.
Instead Connie felt Pearl’s arms brace her gently by the waist, pulling her close.
Connie dropped her head with a frustrated groan. Dampening eyes pressed against Pearl’s tunic. “I’m sorry, ma’am. I want to be here,” Connie said, polite as ever. “I’m just— I’m having a bad day. Nothing seems to be going right.”
Connie yelped softly, surprised to feel her body lifted from the ground. Pearl had reached a hand under her injured knee, and pulled Connie into her arms with little effort. “Your knee is hurt, Connie,” Pearl’s voice had lost the frustrated firmness of earlier. “Let’s go find Steven. We’ll have him fix you up, and get you home. We can be done for today.”
Connie didn’t answer, uncharacteristically slow mind struggling to keep up. Pearl pulled Connie’s bag onto her free shoulder, and walked the two of them to the warp pad. Light flared and they were floating. Connie still felt the pressure of her weight against Pearl’s slender arms, and torso. She dropped her head onto Pearl’s collarbone, and closed her eyes, listening to the quiet fretting noises Pearl was mumbling to herself.
As she felt herself being lowered, Connie opened her eyes, watching as Pearl placed her on the couch, a pillow below her head. Pearl’s noises continued as she propped Connie’s knee up with another pillow. “Is this okay, Connie? I’m going to go find Steven. Do you need anything before I go?”
Connie, still a bit hazy, reached out, and took Pearl’s hand. She ran a thumb across slender fingers. “Can you stay?” she asked, not really sure why. “I’ll text him.”
This was not something Pearl understood how to do: comforting. She needed to take action. To solve this issue as quickly as possible. She was being asked instead, to wait with an injured Connie, an injury she had caused. Her mind raced as she sat down on the sectional next to Connie. “I’ll stay. Does it hurt? I can get you medicine while we wait? Or food. Tea? A magazi—”
Pearl’s rambles were cut short, as Connie scooted herself up the couch a bit, twisted onto her side, and rested her head against Pearl’s thigh. Connie fussed with the hem of Pearl’s tunic, sliding a fold between her thumb and forefinger.
“Ehhuhhhhmm,” Pearl felt her voice trail off in that way where it gets higher pitched and quieter. “Err, do you—”
No, that wasn’t right. Pearl instead turned away from Connie, and dug around in the girl’s bag. This was definitely inferior to storing items in a gem. Eventually, she found Connie’s phone and turned to give it to her.
Connie’s eyes were wet again, and she was clutching Pearl’s tunic hard, knuckles whitening.
“Oh, dear,” Pearl fretted. “You must be hurt very badly. Let me get Steven, you’re in too much pain. Maybe something is broken. I don’t want your mother to—”
Connie cut her off again, this time with a pathetic noise halfway between a laugh and a sob. “I’m okay, ma’am. It’s just hormones. You can text him from my phone. Here.” Connie reached up, her calloused hand cupping Pearl’s as she flipped open her phone and navigated to the messages.
Pearl was confused. Flustered by the intimacy. Unsure how to best comfort her favorite sparring partner. Instead she focused her energy into sending a text message:
Dear Steven,
Connie is injured. Your presence is required at the house as soon as possible. Please hurry.
Love, Pearl
She pressed the little green send button and flipped the phone closed, putting it down on the coffee table in front of them. “Okay, he’ll be here soon. Is there...” her train of thought drifted away from her, forcing her to start over. “Can I help?”
Connie wiped her tears with the back of her hand. “Just being here with me is all the help I need, ma’am.” She nuzzled into Pearl’s leg, getting more comfortable.
Pearl held her hand over Connie’s head, pulling it back slightly, then extending it again, for what felt like five minutes of indecision. Finally she settled on placing it gently on Connie’s shoulder. “Ohhh, maybe it was a bad idea to train today,” she fretted, more to herself than Connie.
“It’s not your fault, ma’am. Sometimes these hit me harder than others, today just happened to be one of those bad days,” Connie said, eyes closed. She adjusted herself again, and brought a hand up, next to her head, palm resting on Pearl’s thigh, finding a more comfortable position.
“Eeeeehhh.” Pearl squeaked. “These what, Connie? What hit you?”
Steven had never used her as a pillow. No one had. She felt her mind try to process what exactly it is that a Pearl should do in this situation, but found nothing.
“My period,” Connie laughed, weakly. “You know, chemicals in my brain. They make me behave differently, and I can’t exactly stop them. I just have to wait it out. Tomorrow will be better.”
“Period?” Pearl asked, baffled.
Connie twisted her head upwards to look at Pearl’s confused expression. “Wait, do Gems not— Well you are really old, so maybe—”
Steven burst through the door, with a crash. His face was bright red with exertion. Gasping for air, his eyes darted around the room. “What happened? Is she okay? I’m here. I’m here.”
“I’m okay. Steven.” Connie’s voice suddenly switched from whiny to firm and reassuring. “I just tweaked my knee a little. Don’t worry. I’m fine.”
Steven leaned back against the wall, buried his face in his hands, and slid down onto his butt. “Oh, Jeez, Pearl,” Steven's voice hitched. “You can’t do that to me. I thought she might have—” He stopped himself, trying not to think about it.
“Steven, I didn’t do anything to—”
“Pearl, stop.” Steven barked, removing his hands from his messy hair and pushing himself to his feet. He licked his palm. “Which knee?” he asked, then pressed a wet hand to Connie’s injury.
“Steven. What did I do?” Pearl stammered. She had decided that she’d never stop feeling confused. This was just how interacting with humans was.
It was Connie who answered, as Steven paced back and forth in the kitchen, “I think he was just worried that I’d been seriously injured, ma’am. He probably has a bunch of adrenaline in his system. You know, another hormone. It happens when you are stressed.”
“Agh!” Steven shouted, raising his hands above his head as he stormed through the door into Rose’s room, gem glowing through his shirt.
“Steven, I—”
“He’ll be okay, ma’am. He probably needs some time to unwind. You can apologize later.” Connie soothed, still in crisis management mode. “I’ll read the message. I can help you understand why he got upset.” She pulled herself up, sitting next to Pearl, her legs over the edge of the sectional at an awkward angle in the corner, making their knees touch.
Pearl looked distraught. She was distraught. She’d hurt Connie. She’d upset Steven. She didn’t know what hormones were, or understand even a bit about human behavior. She needed to act. To fix this.
“Hey, hey.” Connie said, calmly. She placed an arm around Pearl’s waist, and pulled her close. “I’m okay, Pearl. You didn’t do anything wrong. Everything is okay. I promise.” Connie’s hand moved up, to the back of Pearl’s head, softly encouraging the gem to rest against her shoulder.
Pearl was even more confused. Maybe the most confused she’d ever been. But for some reason, in her student’s firm hold, head resting on a warm shoulder, Pearl felt like it didn’t matter. A clarity bloomed in her mind that had been absent since they stepped off the warp pad. A deep sigh came out of her unbidden, and completely unnecessary.
She felt her body relax, a weight lifting that she hadn’t known she’d been carrying.