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Pearl staunchly ignored the sound of her communicator buzzing again as she leapt across another rooftop. She knew Shadow Lady and Rotraiser were concerned about her going on patrol alone, but she just couldn't face their company tonight.
Recently, things had been getting tense in her personal life. Her girlfriend, Gem, had just moved in with her a month ago, and at first everything had been great. They'd been spending so much more time together, and getting to learn even more about Gem, who Pearl was pretty certain at this point was her favorite person ever, had been a delight.
There was just one small problem with it all.
Pearl was secretly a hero, Brightmoon, and she was pretty sure her girlfriend was her arch nemesis, Gemini. Overlooking the frankly insultingly obvious similarity between their names, even their voices, personalities, and general mannerisms were nearly identical, though Gemini always seemed more malicious in nature than Gem.
It had all become too much for Pearl tonight, and when it was finally time for her patrol she'd practically ran out the door of their shared apartment. She'd lied to Gem about where she was going, as always, and she knew Gem hadn't believed her, also like always.
"Hey Moony."
Brightmoon snapped into an alert position with a start, pulling the crimson hood of her cloak just a little further over her head, silently cursing herself for not noticing she'd been followed.
She turned towards the source of the voice, eyes quickly landing on the villainess who was the cause of almost all her current problems, new and old alike. It had been about a month since they'd seen each other under these identities, which was a long time for the two of them. Nothing significant seemed to have changed in that time, as the other woman was still in her usual black and red battle outfit, with her white mask shaped to resemble a deer skull resting over her face as always.
"Gemini," Brightmoon said, voice clipped. It was hard not to choke on the name as it left her lips. How could this be happening right now? Of all the nights for this...
"Out by yourself tonight?" Seemingly recognizing the inconvenience of this encounter and delighting in it, Gemini leered down at her. As she always sought the high ground, she'd chosen the roof that stood just a bit higher than the one on which Brightmoon stood.
"Maybe I am, maybe I'm not. What's it to you?"
"What's it to me?" she laughed, "oh, Moony." Gemini's voice is distinctive in its mocking, and Brightmoon tries,—really, really tries—to pretend that she's never heard that particular voice anywhere away from the battlefield; her mind seeks out the memories anyway. Memories of close, warm nights spent playing games with friends during her rare moments of off-time. Memories of her girlfriend, her brilliant, beautiful, kind girlfriend, teasing the others whenever she won and they lost, which was rather often. The tone and pitch of her voice, light and borderline whiny in its jeering.
The same exact tone and pitch of voice she was hearing from her nemesis now. Though tonight it felt far less good-natured.
"It gives me the perfect chance to test my theory."
Theory? Had Gem figured it out, too? Pearl didn't want to do this right now, she couldn't.
Brightmoon shifted her stance, dropping into something a bit more defensive. "What theory?"
"That you can't hold a fight without backup anymore." With those words as all of her given warning, Gemini swooped down off her claimed roof at Brightmoon, a blur of red and black against the deep navy pitch of the night sky.
Disturbingly relieved by the fact that this was just the start of a fight, Brightmoon blocked Gemini's first strike-an attempted left-hook-rather effortlessly. It seemed they were starting it off easy tonight, one of the few things that had done so recently.
Gemini tried for a few more punches, but Brightmoon refused to give her an opening. Eventually, Gem tried to pull back. Before she could, though, Brightmoon caught her. She dragged Gemini closer to her once more, before kicking her away again with less force than she'd normally have used. She knew she needed to defend herself, that right now they were each playing their roles of hero and villain, but she'd be damned before she knowingly hurt her girlfriend badly.
Gemini stumbled backwards, before running a bit lopsidedly out and away from Pearl, looping around her in a broad circle. Brightmoon turned slowly in place as she needed to, knowing better than to let the other disorient her by forcing her to spin around excessively.
Gemini circled her a few times more, before she finally rushed in from an angle at Brightmoon again. This time she didn't go for a punch, though, but rather opted for borderline slamming Pearl onto the roof. Brightmoon choked as she skidded forward across the cold concrete, most of the air fleeing her lungs. She hadn't hit her head, knew the best ways to keep that from happening even in split-second moments like these, but she could already feel stinging pain spreading along where she'd scraped the palms of her hands, knees, and shins. The fall was far from being one of the worst she'd taken, most of which had also been given to her by Gem, and she vaguely wondered if she was trying to go slightly easier on her, too.
Before she could even do anything, Gemini was on top of her, straddling Pearl's hips. She rolled Brightmoon over onto her back and grabbed at her wrists. Brightmoon thrashed in her grip, refusing to let herself be pinned down without a fight.
What could she do here? She could attempt to roll over and throw Gemini off of her, or she could knee Gemini in the stomach with all her strength, or, or...
"We can't keep doing this, Pearl."
Brightmoon stilled in Gemini's grasp almost instantaneously, escape plans quickly abandoned.
"Gem?"
"Yeah," Gem chuckled in a quiet, sad way, "yeah, it's me." She let go of one of Pearl's wrists to remove her deer skull mask, and Pearl gazed mournfully into her beautiful green eyes.
"So it really is...How long have you known?" Pearl's voice was faint in its disbelief.
"How long have I known? How long have you known?!" Gem was indignant. She hated that she was having this conversation
"I haven't known, I've just...thought it. For about a month."
"That's about the same as it is for me. Or was, I guess." Gem looked away for a moment, staring at nothing with anger and sadness. "Are we idiots, Pearl? Shouldn't we have known sooner? I mean, we've been fighting each other for years, but it takes us moving in together to realize we're dating? How does that even happen?"
"I don't know, I think we just didn't want to see it."
"For this long, though? We've known each other as civilians for over a year, and we've been doing...doing this for five! We should've known."
"Maybe you're right, love, but it's too late to change any of it now."
Gem leaned back a bit. "Where do we go from here? Do you want to..." break up was left unspoken, but a silent gunshot has an impact nonetheless.
Pearl stared at her long and hard. It could all be ended here and now, the years of fighting, the suffering Gem's crimes had caused. Pearl could become Brightmoon once more, finally turn Gemini in and just be done with it all. She could start everything over, then. Find a new girlfriend, find a new life. It could be so easy.
Pearl didn't want things to be easy this time.
She pushed herself up into a sitting position, Gem now resting on her lap. Pearl cupped her cheek gently in her hand, and pulled her in. As their lips met in a familiar soft press, she squeezed her eyes shut tight. She tried her hardest not to think of the burning buildings, the screams of terror, and the lives lost as she kissed her tenderly.
This would be hard, one of the hardest things she's ever done, but with Gem by her side she knew it couldn't possibly be all that bad.