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Topaz hadn't expected to find Sugilite at the bar. She had left Numby behind- this wasn't somewhere she wanted the Trotter to be, and so she hoped Numby was having a good day with the new critters she had found at her last assignment on New Londonium.
On the other hand, Sugilite didn't seem to have noticed her yet. That was odd too. Sugilite acted like he knew everything, and unfortunately, he backed it up by sensing people before they even could think of a next move- even if he was given to presupposed stances.
In all certainty, then again, she wasn't sure what to expect with him. The difference between him and Aventurine was that while Aventurine was clear-cut with how audacious he was, Sugilite was just...in the background. In the shadows, for all of his grandiose displays of power, wealth, and better known- greed.
Everyone in the Ten Stonehearts had something they wanted, something Diamond promised them. Topaz certainly did.
But Sugilite acted like he already had everything. Sugilite acted like he didn't care about any of it at all- and that angered Topaz so much, worse than it would have with Aventurine- who at least understood that there was a reward to be sought from the risks he took. Everyone in the Stonehearts tended to strive for victory, and Topaz, the newest among them, wasn't an exception.
Meanwhile, Sugilite didn't seem to care even about the rewards themselves. He was so easily given to trivializing everything as if it all meant nothing whatsoever- and he'd go on to trivialize the efforts of the others too, as if none of it meant anything to him. Oh, he made certain to seize it all, he was certainly the kind of despicably greedy aristocrat Topaz was all too familiar with- and therefore hated, because it hit too close to home, reminding her of callous, untouchable figures that basked in wealth and had the luxury to leave a planet suffocating on the very greedy they profited from.
Sugilite reminded her of those very same people from her past, with how bored, unaffected he was towards everything- as if everything was beneath him, as if he was above it all. Those same wealthy figures of her home world, a place that was no longer a home because their investments into chemicals and industries forced the rest of them to work long nights, and when the going got bad? They left. As if it meant nothing to them.
They left that place that was once home behind, and what was once home, was just a purgatory of suffering- a living death knell. Everyone just waited for the end. And the ones who were able to afford not caring about it all?
Gone.
And maybe it was unfair, because she didn't know enough about Sugilite. But she knew enough. She knew enough from his arrogance, his condescension, his rankling apathy. That was enough for her.
In all fairness, she could, in that case, say her dislike for Sugilite was personal and biased, something that she couldn't find it in herself to wash off even with respect, unlike with Aventurine at the very least.
But here was the thing. Lady Jade trusted Aventurine. That much Topaz could give him. And Jade had reason to. Aventurine proved himself over repeatedly, even if Topaz didn't approve of the ways he employed to do so.
Sugilite though...he wasn't trusted by anyone. Because he didn't seem to even want the same things they did, if he wanted anything at all.
What did someone like that got promised to be given by Diamond? Did someone like that even have a place in the Stonehearts?
Topaz didn't believe in divinity or in what the IPC preached, she didn't even believe in Diamond's vision for the Preservation- but she did believe in what the Preservation itself embodied. To hold to and to protect what was important. To safeguard what truly mattered.
If nothing at all mattered to Sugilite- then what was he here for?
"I can feel your baleful glare all the way from there, Topaz." Sugilite drawls just then, breaking her out of her thoughts as he turned to her with his face bearing his typical smirk- it seemed a little strained though, even to someone as unfamiliar with Sugilite as she was. "Come over here and get a drink before you kill the mood, don't you?"
"As if you care." Topaz says with a scoff, but sadly- Sugilite did have a point. She had come to the bar to relax, and she wasn't doing so well on that part. Grimacing, she took a seat next to Sugilite out of familiarity, surprised when he slid a drink over to her.
"Gin fizz. Sweetened." Sugilite says, in answer to her questioning look. He doesn't answer any of the other questions she undoubtedly has, however, such as why even go this far for me for one. It's no secret that Stonehearts are at best, resistant to each other and at worst, they despise each other. So...
The drink smells lovely however. If nothing else, Sugilite can be trusted with this, at the very least.
And what was this, really? Topaz resists the discomfort she feels coming here in the first place- Jade had straight up ordered her to take a break, and she had thereby taken the first most exclusive bar on Pier Point. And even then, you'd be hard pressed to find P40s here, let alone a Stoneheart.
And yet, Sugilite was here- Topaz would have thought he'd be at home here almost, decadence and indulgence were his tools of the trade, if risks and chance were Aventurine's, logic and statistics being Pearl's.
Or at least that was what she thought.
Seeing him here like this, she thinks as she takes a sip of the drink (it's perfect- not too sweet, but refreshingly relaxing), she thinks he blends into the darkness of the dimly-lit bar instead of standing out, which puzzles her. Isn't this...place, full of people letting go without a regard for literally anything else like propriety or duty, giving into what they want, supposed to be a part of him?
Instead, Sugilite looks almost...tired.
That surprises Topaz, even as it fills her with a measure of derision. She didn't expect him to look so human if at all. Up till this very moment, where he stared into a glass without a smile on his face framing his laughing eyes dancing with mockery, he seemed an unreachable, an untouchable presence.
What could make him look like that?
She takes another sip, but alas.
"You know, if you're going to stare at me, you might as well tell me what the drink's like in recompense for that oddly rude behavior, you know." Sugilite murmurs lazily- even against the slowly played jazz music that's difficult to ignore, his soft, meaning voice still manages to be far more prominent of a sound.
"I wasn't staring at you," Topaz says with a scowl, before sighing at the way Sugilite lightly scoffs with amusement, knowing she's been caught. "Thanks for the drink anyway, though."
"You're welcome. Surprised me to see you here, but considering how much of a busybody you are...this too must be just a way of proving you're capable, isn't it?"
That's the thing she hates about Sugilite, Topaz thinks angrily, resisting the urge to flinch at how he read her like she was an open book. She will not give him that satisfaction.
He reads you flawlessly, without a concern for delicacy, for all that he plays at courtesy- leaving nothing with which you can defend yourself. It angers her so much- that he wields one's very own mind against them, in the smallest, yet most discerning of ways that's sure to leave a mark.
Sugilite just drinks, eyes glinting over the rim of the cup that does nothing to hide his aggravating smirk. Topaz smothers the urge to growl out of frustration, scowling at him before going back to her drink with an ill grace.
Maybe she imagined that moment where he looked as if he really did have nothing to laugh about, Topaz thinks ungraciously- but she sighs. Because she didn't imagine that moment at all.
Maybe it was possible that even someone as greedy as Sugilite had to stop and ask himself- would it ever be enough?
Or maybe Topaz was reading into it too much. Sugilite didn't deserve her biased dislike, at the end of the day, but he made it so hard for her to consistently believe that.
And yet, at the end of the day, he still bought her just the exact kind of drink she wanted, without even asking.
What a guy, Topaz thinks, shaking her head.