Chapter Text
When Amethyst had planned to get in Mini's pants, she was only thinking about her bouncy tits and soft lips. What she hadn't counted on was Mini's boyfriend. Well, that's not entirely true. She knew OF him, but she'd had plenty of angry guys after her before, many of them more than twice her size. What was the big deal about some twerp, right?
Wrong.
It was a surprisingly cold evening for October. Frost gleamed at the window panes and ice crystals graced the tops of puddles. She was walking down a side street, clutching her bag close when she finally turned around and yelled, “You know I can hear you pendejos*, right?”
Seven tall figures emerged from the shadows, surrounding her in a loose circle. Amethyst kept her hands loose by her side and her smile easy. She was a chubby, five three Hispanic girl with dyed hair. They wouldn't see her as a threat unless she let them.
“Hey guys, what brings you all th-” Amethyst was cut off by a foot slamming into her side. She yelled breathlessly, and grabbed the offending appendage, using it to swing her attacker into another, taking them both down. It was a small victory, and one of the only ones she would get as the others advanced on her. She managed to land three good punches right to the chin of one and a killer kick to someone's groin before they grabbed hold of her arms and shoved her to her knees. She struggled and hissed until something hard and cold slammed into the side of her head. Her vision swam and her arms went limp as blood spattered on the ground in front of her. A pair of feet entered her view and someone was speaking, but she couldn't make out the words past the ringing in her ears.
“-the last time you fuck with one of my girls,” he growled menacingly, bringing something shiny close to her face. Amethyst blinked, then looked up at him, noticing his acne and the bulging veins in his eyes.
“Dude, I don't mean to be disrespectful or nothing, but you've got this vein thing, you should prolly get that looked at,” she drawled. The veins bulged out further. He pulled back his arm. Amethyst took a deep breath, bracing for the blow.
She didn't feel the sting of a knife as much as the gritty slam of concrete and the snap of a broken nose. She woozily pulled her head up. Why was there so much blue? Where did her attackers go? Why was the blue turning red? Purple?
Suddenly there was a bright light in her face and for the second time in as many minutes, she found herself trying to decipher someones words. This time, however, the ringing got louder and louder and the purple grew and grew and it was just so much easier to close her eyes and let it all stop.
The officer lunged forward as the teen's eyes rolled back in her head, just barely catching her before her face hit the concrete again.
“Pearl!” she yelled, her strong baritone voice rising over the sirens of their cruiser. A thin, pale woman in a dark blue uniform gracefully leaped over a handcuffed teenager and slid down beside the wounded girl.
“She's got a concussion and a broken nose,” Pearl observed, her deft hands flying over the girl's body. “Ribs are bruised, not broken, rotator cuff isn't torn, which is some kind of miracle given the way she was handled. Looks like she's been living out of this bag for at least a few weeks.” Pearl hissed through her teeth as she pulled back the teen's sleeve. Her arm was littered in small, round scars, the freshest ones maybe a month old. “These look like-”
“Cigarette burns,” Garnet finished, a twisting suspicion rising in her gut. “See if you can find ID.”
While Pearl rummaged through the girl's bag, Garnet gently dabbed the blood off her face with the edge of her uniform. There was something familiar about her snub nose and slightly buck teeth, but Garnet couldn't quite put her finger on it.
“Amethyst Guerra,” Pearl announced proudly as she finally found the girl – Amethyst's wallet, only for her face to fall as she recognized the name.
Garnet looked down on the face of the unconscious teen with a surprising wave of sympathy and protectiveness. The Guerra family had been killed when she and Pearl were only twelve. She remembered the video cameras at their school, the journalists on the playground surrounding a young girl in a purple shirt. She remembered glimpsing the girl's face through the sea of reporters, how her eyes opened wide with shock before settling into a stubborn glare, how her fists clenched on the monkey bars, how sharp her teeth looked when she yelled at all of them to just fuck off. A glance at Pearl's face showed she was thinking the same thing.
“What does her record say?” Garnet asked. The attack was eight years ago, making Amethyst seventeen or eighteen years old, well over the age where she could be tried as an adult. Normally in an attack like this, some self defense is allowed, but if Amethyst had priors...
“Nothing much, some petty vandalism and shoplifting,” Pearl answered after a second of tapping at the cruiser's computer. “She's run away a few times, but CPS apparently couldn't find anything going on in the home.” Pearl scoffed. “Nothing besides her parents using her as an ashtray apparently.”
Garnet stood, carefully lifting Amethyst as she did. Pearl looked on in apprehension.
“What are we going to do, Garnet?” she asked, her face creased with worry. In that moment, Garnet made a decision.
“She comes back to my place for now,” she said, raising a hand when Pearl opened her mouth to object. “She needs more help than the system will ever give her. You of all people should understand.”
Pearl closed her mouth and cast her eyes down. Garnet was right, as much as she hated to admit it. This girl needed their help just as she had needed Garnet's only three years ago.
“Okay,” she conceded. “But only for a few days. We could be in serious trouble with CPS if we keep her longer than that.”
Garnet simply hummed as she laid Amethyst in the back of the cruiser.
“We'll see.”
Amethyst felt her body shift and nearly cried out, trying to open her eyes and get her bearings, but it felt like her eyes were covered in layers of wet newspaper. She managed to stir and groan, vaguely aware of the fact that she was in a vehicle of some sort.
“Shh,” someone whispered above her. “It's alright, we've got you.”
For some reason, Amethyst believed them, and let herself be called into a fitful doze until the rocking movement of the car stopped. She cracked open her eyes, then immediately slammed them shut with a whine as the light outside nearly blinded her.
“It's okay, here,” the voice said, and she felt something brush over the bridge of her nose. She winced – her nose was definitely broken – but let the object rest there. “Try now.”
She hesitantly opened her eyes, and after a second of nausea, was able to focus them on the drifting snow outside, the light no longer unbearable. They were in a better part of the city, a part with streetlights and locks on the doors. Beyond that, Amethyst had no idea where they were.
“D'you need any help getting out?” the voice asked.
Amethyst twisted to look at the driver. A woman with her hair tied back in tight black curls was turned to look at her, her muscular arm draped casually across the passenger's seat. Amethyst fumbled for a second before finally remembering how to speak.
“What?”
“I'll take that as a yes,” the woman chuckled, though her eyebrows were furrowed in concern.
She slid out of the car and opened the door. Amethyst shivered at the sudden cold, curling into herself. The woman reached towards her, and Amethyst flinched. She covered her face with her hands and bit her lip to keep back the sudden wave of nausea that accompanied her movements. The woman drew back her hand.
“Is it okay if I help you out of the car?” she asked. “My apartment's right here, so you don't need to walk much further.”
Amethyst hesitated.
“What do you want?” she asked. The woman seemed taken aback, so Amethyst repeated herself. “What do you want from me? I don't have cash, I don't have drugs, and I'd really rather not do any sexual favors tonight or ever. So if you want something from me for this, you're fresh outta luck.”
The woman clenched her fist and looked away. Amethyst felt a shock of fear run through her as she realized how little choice she might have in this situation. She was just getting ready to make a break for it, when the woman spoke again.
“I don't want anything from you. I just want you safe. I know that's really hard to believe right now, but I'm going to keep saying it until you believe it. So unless you want to sit here all night while I say it over and over, please give me a chance to prove it with action,” the woman looked at her with a steady, level gaze. “I have an extra bed, dry clothes, good food. Please let me help you.”
Amethyst wavered under the woman's eyes, torn between the instinct to run and the instinct to let this woman care for her. In the end, the second won out, and she reached out and took the woman's hand, all too aware that in that moment, her life was changing.
The woman easily lifted her out of the backseat of the car and set her down gently on the ground, an arm still draped protectively across her shoulders as they walked up to the door. Inside the apartment was pleasantly cool and smelled faintly of honeysuckle. Amethyst sat down at the kitchen table while the woman grabbed a first aid kit.
“My name's Garnet,” she said as she sat down next to Amethyst. Amethyst mumbled a greeting before hissing in pain as Garnet gently wiped at the wound on her head.
“Qué chingados eso**?” she muttered.
“It's just an antiseptic,” Garnet replied. “Now hold still and this'll be over a lot faster.”
Amethyst grumbled, but stayed put as Garnet cleaned the cut on her head. Garnet finished bandaging her head, then captured Amethyst's wandering gaze by tapping her fingers on her chin.
“Is it okay if I take this off?” Garnet asked. Amethyst blinked and looked down at her thin hoodie.
“Um, yeah, sure,” she mumbled, fumbling with the zipper. Garnet's cool fingers batted her hands away. She gently pushed the fabric over her shoulders, Amethyst wincing as it slid over the scrapes on her arms. The hoodie dropped on the floor, leaving Amethyst feeling strangely exposed in a tattered long sleeve shirt that slid off her shoulders. Garnet tugged at the hem of her shirt and Amethyst flushed before nodding. She lifted her arms, gritting her teeth through the pain, but Garnet gently pushed her arms back down. The taller woman eased the shirt off of Amethyst's body, being careful to cause as little pain as possible. Amethyst flushed at the gentle contact, unused to being handled with such care. She looked down, immersing herself in the lighting shaped stretch marks that decorated her hips.
“Are you okay?” Garnet asked, startling her. Amethyst shifted woozily in her seat and nodded. All that her foggy brain could compute was the slight sting of the antiseptic followed by the pressure of a bandaid on the various scrapes decorating her elbows and knuckles. She yawned, suddenly very tired from the night's events. Her eyes struggled to remain open as she slumped against the table.She heard a chuckle as her hoodie was loosely draped around her shoulders.
“If you want to sleep here, that's fine, but I think you'd be more comfortable in the bed,” Garnet said lightly. Amethyst groaned loudly, but pulled herself off the table and allowed Garnet to guide her into a small room. It was a little dusty, and the pastel blue and pink décor was something she could've done without, but the bed was made with fresh linens and the honeysuckle smell was stronger when she pressed her face into the pillows.
“I'll get you some ibuprofen and something to sleep in,” Garnet offered. Amethyst mumbled something, pulling the covers over herself. Her brain was still swimming with pain, but underneath that one question remained.
“Garnet?” she asked when the woman came back in the room.
“Yeah?” the taller woman answered, setting down the glass of water and ibuprofen before sitting on the end of the bed.
“Why me?”
“Excuse me?”
“Why me?” Amethyst repeated, stubbornly avoiding Garnet's gaze. “I don't have money, or smarts, or good looks, or a future or anything.”
“So?”
“So?” Amethyst exploded, curling tighter into herself. “You're wasting your time. I'm-” she choked on a sob, not even realizing she was crying until she felt moisture under her ear. Garnet was silent a long time.
“I see so many kids every day who have given up,” she finally said. “They lose everything that makes them smile, everything that makes them cry, everything that lets them love with everything they are. I can't help most people out there because they won't help themselves.” Garnet shifted to look at Amethyst's hand, gently taking it with one of her own and studying it. Amethyst flushed as Garnet continued. “You haven't given up yet. You want something better for yourself, you just don't know how to get there.” She smiled, looking Amethyst in the face. “That's where I come in. I can help you get where you need to be. I don't expect anything in return, and I don't consider it a waste of my time.”
Amethyst stared for a hard second before laughing breathlessly.
“You sound exactly like my sister,” she muttered. “Okay, I'll play along. But for now, I just want to sleep.”
“Ibuprofen first,” Garnet ordered, pushing the glass at her. “I'll be back in two hours to make sure you're not dead.”
Amethyst took the ibuprofen, swallowing it dry and giving Garnet a weak thumbs up.
She was asleep before Garnet even closed the door.
*assholes
**What the fuck is that?