Work Text:
Gem was perched on her stool with her elbows on the bench, chin resting on her folded hands, watching the curves populate in real time across her screen. The lab was quiet. Not silent, never, the ventilation system ran a constant low hum that she'd stopped hearing, and somewhere behind her the incubator was brooding with another team’s samples. But quiet enough that she could think.
Okay. Amplification looks clean on the first six samples. Woah that’s… that's good, that's really good actually—
She sat up slightly, pulling her notebook closer without looking away from the screen.
Reference gene is there, so normalization should be straightforward. If the expression ratios hold up across the rest of the run—
She wrote something down. Checked the screen again.
They're going to hold up.
A small, private thing happened to her face.
Don't get ahead of yourself.
Two weeks of swearing at her laptop and Pearl sitting next to her walking her through the setup with the patience she had for things like this, and not making her feel stupid for not already knowing—
Pearl.
Okay, not relevant right now.
She looked back at her screen.
...she was really patient about that actually.
Gem.
Right. Yes. Data.
The next cluster of markers were populating. She leaned forward, elbows back on the bench, and the stool scraped slightly against the floor as she adjusted her weight. The temperature in her part of the lab was climate controlled, meant for the plants really but it felt nice.
Guess I’m a plant then.
There was something almost meditative about this space when she had it to herself, no labmates to watch herself around, no need to be aware of whether she was being too much or too loud or moving in a way that was drawing attention. She could hum if she wanted to.
She was humming.
I’m humming…
That's fine, nobody's here.
She kept humming.
TaDREB3 expression is up in the stressed samples relative to control, which is… yes, that's what I wanted, that's the whole point, the drought response pathway is activating under heat stress conditions which means the cross-tolerance mechanism might actually be—
She wrote faster.
Don't extrapolate from one run. You have four more samples to get through before you can say anything.
She looked at the numbers again.
It's looking really good though.
The hum of the ventilation continued. On her screen the last samples were finishing up, curves settling into their final values, her pipeline already normalizing the expression ratios and rendering them in a format she'd spent an embarrassing amount of time getting right. Nice font, color-coded, actually meaning something to her brain. There was a sense of satisfaction that came from something behaving exactly as designed, which was its own distinct feeling from the science itself.
Her phone buzzed on the bench beside her.
Two minutes.
The curves finished populating. She saved the output, checked the file had written correctly, checked it again, then picked up her phone.
A text from Pearl. She'd missed the first few apparently, sent about four minutes ago.
hey do you have plans? i need to return something to scar, thought maybe you'd want to come with?
Then the second one, sent a minute later.
no pressure if not :)
Gem read them both twice.
Oh.
She put the phone down. Picked it up again.
She looked at the thermocycler. Eighty percent. Maybe fifteen minutes on the current run.
Okay so.
Pearl wants you to come.
There will be people there.
She turned her pen over in her fingers. The ventilation hummed. Group three's data sat on her screen, patient and complete, not requiring anything from her right now.
Pearl will be there.
You don't know these people.
Pearl will be there.
“That’s a… fuckin’ load-bearing argument—”
She exhaled.
Okay. Yeah. You can do people for a few hours.
She typed back quickly: yeh okey where di u want meet?/
Sent it before she could notice the horrific typos.
Pearl's reply came in under a minute.
I’ll meet you outside your lab
Gem set her phone face-down on the bench, looked at her screen for a moment, then began closing up her station.
She pulled on a fresh pair of gloves and started moving. Samples first, the remaining tissue back into their labeled tubes, tubes into the freezer, freezer door checked once and then checked again because she had closed it wrong exactly one time eight months ago and had not emotionally recovered from getting yelled at by admin.
Closed. It's closed.
She turned back to the bench.
Pipette tips ejected into the biohazard bin, used tubes after them. She tied the inner bag without thinking about it, muscle memory taking over while the rest of her brain drifted sideways.
New friends.
Okay but like. Pearl's friends.
She pulled the isopropyl spray from under the bench.
It'll be fine, she wouldn't have asked if she thought…
Bench wipe down, long strokes, left to right, she watched it evaporate.
…if she thought I couldn't handle it. She's not gonna—
Pipettes wiped. Rack wiped. The little corner of the bench where she always rested her elbow for some reason, also wiped.
Scar sounds nice actually. She talks about him like he's—
She stopped.
Looked at her notebook.
Still open.
Oh.
She sat back down, uncapped her pen, and finished logging the run properly. Ct values, expression ratios, notes on the TaDREB3 result, a small asterisk next to sample seven where the plot had looked slightly off before leveling. Then the equipment log on the lab's shared tablet, thermocycler sign-out, time, her initials, no issues.
She saved her final results to the lab server. Then to her own drive. Then made sure the server copy had actually been written.
It wrote.
She checked once more.
It’s there, Gem.
She capped her pen, closed the notebook, stripped her gloves off and dropped them in the bin. Picked up her bag. Looked around the bench before leaving, samples, equipment, waste, surfaces—
She'd left the isopropyl spray sitting out.
Oh come on.
She put her bag down, put it away, picked her bag back up.
Alright.
She headed for the door. The ventilation hummed behind her, indifferent, already singing to the next person who would use this space. She pushed through into the corridor and the temperature changed immediately, slightly warmer, the institutional smell of the building settling over her.
It'll be fine.
She bit her lip.
Probably.
Gem stood on the path outside the lab building with her bag on one shoulder, squinting slightly against the afternoon light. The campus moved around her at its usual pace, people in transit, nobody paying attention to anything, and she was fine with that. She shifted her weight once, checked her phone, put it back in her pocket.
She said she'd meet me here.
She'll be here.
A gust moved through and she tucked her chin down into her collar.
It's not even that cold. You're being dramatic.
"Gem!"
She looked up.
Pearl was coming across the quad at an easy pace, bag over one shoulder, hair back, and something about seeing her outside like this, in open air with the whole campus behind her, was briefly and inexplicably stunning. Like hearing a familiar song playing somewhere unexpected.
There she is.
She's so—
Don't.
Gem walked forward to meet her and Pearl closed the remaining distance without breaking stride. Gem stepped into a hug before thinking about it, Pearl's arm coming around her shoulders, solid and brief, her bag knocking gently against Gem's side.
"Hey," Pearl said, pulling back, already turning.
"Hey," Gem said, and fell into step beside her.
They walked. The path ahead curved between two faculty buildings and out toward the residential side of campus. She'd never actually been this way before. Different faculty.
"How was the lab?" Pearl asked.
Oh.
"Good actually." Gem adjusted her bag strap. "Really good.“ She felt something lift slightly in her chest just saying it. "New data came in clean, TaDREB3 is up in the stressed samples relative to control which is basically exactly what I needed, and my pipeline handled the formatting properly so the output is actually… like—" she made a small gesture with her free hand, "—usable."
Pearl glanced at her. "The normalization?"
She remembered.
"Yeah." Gem nodded. "Yeah, exactly. It's working."
"That's good."
They walked for a bit without talking. Someone cycled past them on the path. A group of students cut across the grass ahead, mid-argument about something, voices carrying and then fading.
"What do you want for dinner?" Pearl asked.
Gem considered this for approximately half a second. "Eh, I dunno, whatever's fine."
A beat.
She could feel Pearl looking at her.
"What?"
"When did you last eat something?"
Oh no.
"Today," Gem said, which was technically—
Is that true?
...the coffee had oat milk in it.
"Gem."
“Yeah?”
Pearl exhaled. The one that meant she wasn’t actually upset but was going to be very clear about something anyway. "Gem, it's four in the afternoon."
"I know what time it is."
"Did you forget to eat again?"
"...maybe?"
Pearl stopped walking.
Gem took one more step before stopping too, turning back with an expression she was fairly aware did not help her case.
"Gem..."
"I had coffee."
"When?"
...seven AM.
"This morning," Gem said, with confidence.
Pearl made a sound and turned back to the path, starting to walk again. Gem caught up in two steps.
"I was in the middle of—"
Pearl cut her off, "Gemini Natalie Taylor, you’re always in the middle of a run."
That's fair actually. "Okay but—" Gem cast around briefly. "Did you eat?"
"Yes!"
"At lunch?"
Pearl turned to look at her with an expression of profound, loving exasperation. "Yes, Gem. At lunch. Like a normal person."
Gem giggled, slightly nervous, and looked straight ahead.
Bah, fine.
They walked. After a moment Pearl said, "We're getting something to eat on the way back."
It wasn't a question.
"I was going to do that anyway." Gem said, y’know like a liar.
"Good."
The path opened up ahead of them and Gem could see the residential buildings now, closer than she'd expected. She glanced sideways, clocking the studio building sitting maybe a block in the other direction, close enough that she could read the lettering above the entrance.
Wait… she came from—
The intercom panel beside the entrance had a list of unit numbers in faded print. Pearl leaned forward and pressed the buzzer for 819 without checking.
A crackle, then a voice, slightly distorted through the speaker. "Yeah?"
"Cleoooo."
“Hey Pearl.” The gate clicked open.
Pearl held it and Gem stepped through first, and the warmth of the lobby settled over her as the door swung shut behind them.
The elevator was small and slightly too warm, smelling faintly of someone's laundry. Gem stood beside Pearl and watched the light change from L to 8 and thought about nothing in particular.
Okay.
Maybe it won’t be that long.
The doors opened.
The hallway was carpeted, and unremarkable. Pearl moved ahead and Gem followed, and before she'd fully prepared herself Pearl was already knocking at 819.
The door opened almost immediately. The guy on the other side was tall, easy in his posture.
Though the first thing she noticed was his eyes. One black, one red, her brain short-circuited for a half second before she could move past it.
"Hey, how are ya—" He bumped Pearl’s shoulder with his, already stepping back to let her in.
"Good, good." She laughed a little, moving through the doorway. "You?"
"S’alright"
Gem stepped in after her.
The apartment settled around her in a single breath. Warm toned walls, the smell of something faintly chemical, soft disarray of throw blankets and open laptops.
Oh.
Not as bad as I thought.
Pearl was already moving toward the table where a guy with short brown hair sat with a laptop, a cane leaning against the chair beside him. She lifted a hand. He looked up and smiled, wide and immediate.
Gem followed the pull of her for a few steps before Pearl reached the table and set a USB beside his laptop.
"Thanks for letting me hold onto it."
"No worries." He glanced at the drive, then back up. "Did it have what you needed?"
"Yeah, all of it."
They started talking. Something about a file format, a submission deadline, Gem didn't fully track it. She was standing maybe four feet behind Pearl when—
"Hi!"
Gem turned. A person had appeared from the hallway to her left.
Uh—
"I'm Cleo," she said. "You must be—"
Huh, she looks a bit like me actually.
"Gem." She said a little fast. "Hi. Yeah."
Smooth.
Cleo smiled and Gem took the two steps back toward Pearl without fully deciding to. Pearl glanced over her shoulder and turned slightly. Her hand came up between them, quiet and without announcement.
Gem took it.
Pearl's fingers closed around hers and she drew her in gently, close enough that Gem's shoulder was against her arm, and turned back to the table.
"Scar, this is Gem."
Scar looked up properly this time. His smile was immediate.
"Hey," he said. "Really glad you came."
"Thanks," Gem said. "For having me."
The white-haired guy had drifted over from the door and introduced himself as Etho. Cleo had already moved slightly, scanning the room with a faintly purposeful expression.
"Where's—" She looked at the couch. A lump under a throw blanket that Gem had assumed was a pile of cushions shifted slightly. "He's asleep."
Scar didn't look up from his laptop. "He was up till six."
"It's four in the afternoon."
"He was up till six."
Cleo looked at Gem.
"That's Bdubs," she said. "He’ll say hi if he wakes up."
Scar had closed his laptop halfway, and turned fully to look at Gem with curiosity.
"So, what are you studying?"
Okay. Easy question. Uhhh—
"Environmental sciences," Gem said. "Botany focus. I'm doing my honours thesis on climate-resistant wheat, stress response pathways mostly, we're looking at how the plant signals under water deficit and temperature change and trying to reinforce what's already there rather than—"
Stop.
"—rather than introducing something new." She smiled. "It's good. I like it."
Too much. That was too much.
"That's really cool actually," Scar said, "So you’re mostly in the bio building?"
"Yeah, I've basically lived in the lab this semester."
Is that a weird thing to say? That's probably a weird thing to say.
"What about you?"
Good. Good, return the question.
Scar smiled. "Architecture. Fourth year, same as Pearl." He gestured vaguely. "I rarely go to the studio though, most of my work happens here."
She nodded and registered approximately sixty percent of that.
“Oh, why?”
The cane.
Wait, the cane—
Scar's expression didn't change. "Spinal injury," he said, easy as anything. "Easier to work from home most days, the studio's not always the most accessible space and it's a bit of a trek when my pain is higher than usual. So I've just set up here mostly. Works better for me."
I shouldn't have asked that. Why did I ask that? He was just—I just—
"That makes sense," Gem said.
Cleo had drifted closer, easy and unhurried, perching on the arm of the couch near Scar's end of the table.
"How long have you two been together?" she asked, looking at Gem first before gently nodding towards Pearl.
Oh.
Gem's brain went completely blank for approximately five seconds.
How long. How long have we. Okay it's been— We got together in… Third year? So that's—
"A bit over a year?" She laughed nervously. "Yeah. About that."
A bit over a year. You live with her. You should know this.
Scar's expression was warm, unhurried. "How'd you meet?"
"Uhm."
The word just sat there.
Roommates. We were roommates. Just say—
"Roommates," Gem said blankly.
Pearl glanced over. Something in her expression shifted, and then she was already talking, smooth and easy, filling the space Gem had left.
"Housing assigned us together in third year. I don't think either of us expected it to go this way but—" she made a small gesture, half a shrug, "—here we are."
Scar laughed softly. Cleo smiled.
Gem looked at Pearl.
Pearl glanced back at her. She was already turning slightly toward Scar, something in her posture reopening the conversation in a different direction, her voice picking up a new thread.
"Scar, do you have any new projects?"
And just like that the social centre of gravity shifted away from Gem. Scar leaned forward. Cleo made a noise of recognition. The conversation pulled itself away like a tide going out.
She exhaled once, quiet and controlled.
Thanks.
She took a small step back. Then another. The conversation continued without them noticing.
The kitchen was familiar in a way Gem couldn’t quite name yet, mismatched mugs on the counter, a dish rack with things in it that had probably been dry for two days, a corkboard on the wall dense with papers that looked like they predated everyone currently living here. Gem drifted past all of it without stopping.
She noticed the area to her left.
TV
Coffee table
Sofa, plus a Bdubs
Balcony
Oh.
The proportions were familiar, the way the room sat relative to the hallway, the placement of the door to the balcony, the fact there even was a balcony. Different furniture, different smell, different everything on the surface, but—
It's the same apartment.
Modified. A grab bar on the wall by the counters that didn't quite match the paint, wider doorway than she remembered theirs being.
Huh.
"Actually yeah," he said. "I've been trying to migrate my files from Rhino into Revit. Department wants everything in BIM by submission. It's been—" he made a gesture with one hand, "—not great."
Pearl leaned onto the table, "What’s wrong?"
"It keeps corrupting the geometry on import. I've been trying things for twenty minutes." He turned the laptop toward her slightly.
"It is a file format issue," Cleo said, from the side.
"Cleo thinks it might be a file format issue."
Pearl looked at the screen. Then she pulled her chair around to his side of the table without being asked.
"Can I—"
"Yeah, go ahead."
She took the trackpad. The error log was open in a side window, which was good, it meant she had something to actually read rather than guess from. She scrolled through it once, slowly.
Okay.
"What format are you exporting from Rhino?"
"Whatever the default is."
That's the problem. "That's the problem."
Cleo gave Scar a look.
"The default export is .dwg," Pearl said, already moving through the settings.”Export as .sat instead.
Scar looked at where she was pointing. "Huh." He took the trackpad back. "Okay. Give me a second."
The export started. A small progress bar appeared in the corner of the screen, moving slowly in increments that felt slightly theatrical.
Pearl sat back slightly.
The apartment settled around her for a moment. The ventilation. Cleo saying something to Scar about the deadline.
She looked toward the kitchen.
The kitchen was empty.
She looked at the living area.
Also empty.
Where did— “Where’s Gem?”
The export finished.
"Okay," Scar said. "Importing now."
Pearl looked back at the screen.
Right.
Another progress bar. This one faster.
She became aware, peripherally, of Cleo looking at her.
She didn't turn her head. The import was almost done.
"I can go check on her," Cleo said casually.
Pearl glanced at them.
"Thank you," she said.
Cleo was already standing, easy and unhurried, moving toward the kitchen like they'd been planning to get something anyway.
The import finished. The model opened clean, geometry intact, no errors.
Scar made a quiet sound of satisfaction. "There we go."
"Mm." Pearl leaned forward again. "You'll want to check the curved sections specifically, just to make sure, but it should be fine."
The city sat at a comfortable distance below her.
Gem had her forearms on the railing, weight forward. The metal was cold through her sleeves, though she didn't mind. Behind her the glass door was shut and the sounds of the apartment had reduced themselves to a manageable murmur, voices she couldn't quite make words out of, which was exactly what she needed.
The air smells like rain
She exhaled slowly.
You're fine. You just need a minute.
She leaned further over the railing, staring down at the concrete below her.
Just… a minute…
The door opened behind her.
She straightened up fast, shoulders back, expression arranged —
"Hey." Cleo stepped out and let the door fall mostly shut behind her. She glanced at Gem once, easy and without much intent, then turned to look out over the railing. "Good view from up here."
"Yeah." Gem's voice came out neutral. "Yeah, it is."
Cleo settled beside her, forearms on the railing, looking out at the same stretch of campus.
A silence sat between them.
"You cold?" Cleo asked.
"Not really."
"Me neither." Cleo tilted her head slightly toward the building across the way. "That's the engineering faculty. Pearl's over there basically every day."
"I know." Gem paused. "She walks back late sometimes."
"Mm."
Breathe. You can do this.
"Can I ask you something?" Cleo said.
"I— uh… Sure."
She still wasn't looking at her.
"Are you lesbian or bi?" A beat. "Just wanted to make sure."
Gem blinked.
What. Oh—
"Yeah," she said. "Yeah, I’m bi."
Cleo nodded. "Nonbinary, by the way.
Something small happened in Gem’s chest
She looked at Cleo properly for the first time since she came to the balcony. She was still looking at the campus, relaxed.
"Yeah?" Gem said.
"Mm."
"What do you—"
"She/they." Cleo glanced at her sideways, something warming in it.
"How long have you known?" Gem asked.
"Err… long time, I don’t really talk about that stuff. You?"
"Since forever basically." she said. "I just didn't have the word for it until—" she made a gesture, "—you know."
"I know," Cleo said.
"Is everyone in there—" She gestured vaguely toward the door.
"Scar and Bdubs are straight as far as I know," Cleo said. "Etho’s trans, he’s figuring some things out." They made a small gesture of their own. "It's that kind of apartment."
"That's really—" she started, and then, "Wait, Etho too? He seems…"
"What?"
"I don't know, I just—" She laughed, slightly helpless. "I didn't clock him at all."
Cleo smiled. "He appreciates that."
She felt something loosen further.
"Scar's good by the way," Cleo said, after a moment. "In case you were worried about the cane question."
Gem closed her eyes briefly.
"He really doesn't mind," Cleo said. "You could have kept going."
"I panicked."
"We know. It was pretty obvious." They said it without cruelty. "Though he thought it was funny."
Oh no.
"In a good way."
Gem made a sound that was not quite a groan and turned to face the railing again, dropping her head slightly. Cleo made a small noise that was definitely a laugh.
"Pearl was worried about you," Cleo added, easy, already turning toward the door. "Just so you know."
"Oh," Gem said. "Okay."
Cleo pulled the door open and held it.
Gem kept staring at her hands on the railing.
"Gem?"
She looked over. "Yeah?"
"Are... you coming back in?"
Oh.
"Oh, sure." Gem pushed off the railing and crossed the balcony, stepping through the door after Cleo.
Pearl looked over without really deciding to.
Something had changed. She wasn't sure how to name it exactly, just that Gem's shoulders were looser now.
Something in Pearl's chest loosened to match it.
She didn't say anything about it. Gem drifted toward the kitchen, said something to Cleo that made them both laugh, and Pearl let her attention go back to the laptop in front of her, where Scar was scrolling.
"Seriously, thank you for this," he said. "I would've been up till two trying to figure that out."
"It's a known issue. You can look up the export settings in the Revit documentation if it happens again.”
"Noted." He closed the laptop properly this time. "Thanks again.”
"We should head off," Pearl said, picking up her bag.
Scar stood slowly, one hand on the table. "Visit again," he said. "Both of you."
"We will,"
She turned to find Gem at her side.
"Ready?" Pearl asked.
"Yeah."
They said the last of the goodbyes together, Pearl doing most of the talking, easy and practiced, thanking Scar again, telling Cleo they'd see them soon.
She became aware, partway through, that Gem was looking at her.
Pearl kept talking, laughing at something Scar said. The stare didn't break.
What—
Is she—
She couldn't tell.
Pearl held the door open and Gem stepped through ahead of her into the hallway.
The door fell shut behind them.
Gem let out a long and slow exhale, her shoulders raising and dropping about an inch.
Pearl fell into step beside her.
"Hi," Pearl said.
"Huh?" Gem blinked. "Hi."
"You good?"
"Yeah." A beat. "M’alright."
"Cleo's nice," Gem said.
"She is."
Gem paused. "They told me."
Ah. Pearl glanced at her. "Does it help? Knowing we aren’t alone."
Gem seemed to think about it seriously for a second. "Yeah," she said. "helps a lot actually."
The night air hit her all at once as they stepped outside, cool and clean, and Gem pulled her jacket tighter without thinking about it.
They walked.
The campus was quieter now, fewer people, the path mostly theirs. Gem's bag hung off one shoulder and she let her mind go loose, not thinking about much, just the sound of Pearl walking beside her.
The path opened up ahead of them, the residential buildings sitting at the far end, windows warmly lit.
"Alright," Gem said. "Let’s head home."
Pearl stopped.
Gem made it two more steps before she registered this and turned.
Pearl had her arms folded. "Not so fast."
"...What?"
"You're forgetting something."
Gem looked at her. Then looked away. Letting a pause go past that was slightly too long.
"Oh," she said. "Right. Food. We should— Petals & Brew is on the way to the bus"
Pearl unfolded her arms and fell into step without comment.
Yeah, that was obvious.
After a few minutes their stop slowly approached.
The café sat on the corner as usual, warm light through the window, the sign still lit. Gem could see through the glass that most of the tables were empty.
The bell above the door chimed as Gem pushed through.
"Welcome to Petals and Brew, what can I get—"
Lizzie looked up.
"Oh my— girls." She was already coming around the counter. "Look at you two, coming in at this hour." She took a look at Gem's face. Whatever she found seemed to satisfy her. She turned to Pearl. "Hi sweetheart."
"Hi," Pearl said warmly.
"Are you two eating?"
"That's why we're here,"
Lizzie gently pat Gem on the shoulder
Gem felt her chest come down the rest of the way.
Moving back behind the counter, Lizzie asked. "What are we thinking?"
"Just a coffee for me." Pearl glanced at Gem.
Gem looked up at the menu. “Uhhhhhhh I’ll get…”
Okay. Something with—
Or I could get the—
Actually—
"What do you want?" Pearl asked, gently.
If I knew that I would've— okay just pick something, anything, the first—
"I've got soup on still," Lizzie offered, from behind the counter. "And I can do a toasted sandwich. That work?"
Gem looked at her.
Oh thank god.
"Yeah," she said. "That's— yeah. Perfect."
"Alright." A few boops on the register and Lizzie was already moving. "Go sit, I'll bring it over."
Pearl paid at the till before Gem's hand made it to her pocket.
Gem looked at her.
What— Hey!
"Thank you, Lizzie," Pearl said. She let Gem grab her hand as she tossed her head slightly “c’mon.”
They took the corner table by the window. Joel appeared from the back, saw them, lifted a hand, went to ask Lizzie about something before disappearing again.
Gem felt her shoulders come the rest of the way down.
Lizzie set the coffee in front of Pearl and the soup and sandwich in front of Gem, then pulled out the chair across from them and sat down with the comfortable ease of someone who had earned the right to do that.
"So," she started, "how are you both—"
Gem looked up from her soup.
Please.
"Lizzie." Her voice came out quiet. "Can we just— not. Tonight. Sorry."
Lizzie paused. Something briefly shifted in her expression before it settled back.
"Long day?" she asked simply.
Gem looked down slightly. "Yeah."
Lizzie nodded once and pushed herself up to standing.
Gem stood with her.
Hey—
She stepped forward and pulled Lizzie into a hug first, tight, both arms. Lizzie's hand came up to the back of her head without hesitation.
"There you go," Lizzie said quietly.
Gem exhaled into her shoulder.
Pearl watched her from across the table, both hands around her coffee. Lizzie's hand was at the back of Gem's head.
Gem pulled back after a moment. Lizzie said something quiet, just to her, and Gem nodded slightly. Then Lizzie turned to Pearl.
"Goodnight, you two."
"Goodnight, Lizzie."
She watched Lizzie move toward the back. Joel appeared briefly from around the door to let her through and then they were both gone.
Pearl brought her coffee up to her lips and drank.
The window beside them showed the street mostly empty now, just the occasional set of headlights passing. The corner table felt very calm.
She exhaled slowly.
It’s been a good evening, actually. All things considered.
She looked at Gem.
Gem was staring at her phone.
Pearl's cup lowered slightly.
Gem's breathing was wrong, it was shallow, too controlled. Her lips were pressed together.
Then she closed her eyes.
Her phone went face down on the table beside her bowl, which she hadn't finished, and she just… sat there, eyes shut, jaw tight.
"Gem."
Nothing.
"Gem."
Gem's eyes opened. She looked at the table first, then the window, then found Pearl in front of it, and her expression did something complicated that she didn't manage to fully cover in time.
She sniffled, wiped under her eye with her wrist, and swallowed.
"I'm fine," she said.