Work Text:
Two Years Ago
Pearl had always had a bit of a soft spot for the wilderness. Nature, the great outdoors, the natural world, whatever you want to call it. Living in the city, she never really got to experience it in excess, but it was still something she liked to take advantage of when she had the chance.
She loved taking care of plants, even if she wasn’t the greatest plant parent and had a habit of forgetting to water them, but her house was full of flourishing greens and her back balcony had several large pots for sunflowers. Pearl was always one to try interact with nature when she could, and was a pretty go-with-the-flow person, anyway.
She’d never really expected nature to come in the form of a person, though.
Pearl had been sitting outside a local coffee shop, scrolling on her phone for work purposes as the flavours of her warm flat white danced on her tongue. As a reporter, she was always one to keep a keen eye on the news, even if it didn’t correlate with what she was working on. She was reading an intriguing article when someone nudged her accidentally and she put her phone down for a moment to move out of the way.
She looked up, however, when the person didn’t shuffle by her like she’d expected and instead stood beside her. There was a woman next to her, with orange hair that fell over her shoulders in bunches of curls, wearing a flower crown in her hair and a neat sort of uniform that looked very outdoorsy.
The woman looked at her with pretty green eyes, and Pearl found herself caught in surprised eye contact for a moment, before the other’s gaze dropped.
There was an awkward moment where the stranger was looking at Pearl’s chest, and Pearl felt distinctly uncomfortable enough she started to take a step back, but then the woman pointed and said in a sweet voice, “I love your badge!”
Pearl blinked, and looked down. She did indeed have a badge clipped to her jacket, one which was printed with the words I’m not arguing, I’m just explaining why I’m right.
She blushed a little, and replied, “Oh, thanks. It’s really dumb, but I have a badge maker and I thought it was funny, so I made it. I have a lot of other stupid ones at home.”
The other’s eyes lit up. “Ooh, a badge maker?” she asked. “That’s so cool. I wish I had one of those.”
Pearl chuckled, and replied, “Thanks. My cousin got it for me a few years ago, and now I make him dumb badges every year for Christmas. He always complains, but then he never takes them off.”
The woman smiled at her. “That’s nice,” she said. “I’ve never had any cousins or whatever. I have some friends who act about as annoying as family, though. I’m Gem,” she offered, holding out a hand.
Pearl smiled, and put her phone in her pocket to shake her hand. “Pearl,” she replied. “Nice to meet you.”
The two talked casually for a while, Pearl finding it surprising to feel so at home around a stranger. She never really thought of herself as one to make friends with a random person she met on the street, but Gem was different. She was sweet, and chaotic, and a delightful kind of crazy that gave Pearl the sneaking suspicion she’d probably walk off a small cliff if Gem did it first.
She radiated joy and whimsy like sunshine, and it made Pearl glad to be around her. The two talked with each other, Pearl going on about her job and how she was researching a few missing persons cases recently even if her boss told her to focus on other stuff, and Gem described her average day strolling through a forest as a park ranger for a state park nearby.
Gem reminded her of nature. There was something about the shorter woman that seemed to speak of plants and forests and a cool breeze. Maybe it was her green eyes, or the flowers in her hair, or just something about her very personality that spoke of wilderness. It was like she was some kind of nature nymph who’d just walked out of the forest and made herself at home in the city.
“Do you have anywhere to be right now?” Gem asked her. Pearl hesitated, then shook her head. She didn’t really have any pressing work to do, and while she was still doing her job, all the mandatory stuff for the day was done and dusted.
Gem paused for a moment, thinking something over, then she asked, “Do you want to go on a walk with me? There’s a park nearby, and I find it really peaceful.”
Pearl thought about it. If it had been a random stranger off the street offering that, she probably would have punched them in the face and run away before they murdered her or whatever. But even though Gem was also technically a random stranger, she felt sweet and perhaps innocent enough to not do that sort of thing.
Well, she seemed innocent, and Pearl didn’t fully believe it—but she trusted that Gem wouldn’t do anything to her if she accepted the offer. Gem seemed the type who was much more under her pretty soft surface, and was capable of a lot of stuff people would never expect, but for some reason Pearl got the inkling that Gem didn’t have anything malicious on her mind. Maybe it wasn’t logical or rational, but Pearl trusted Gem enough. And walking around in nature did sound appealing right now.
“Sure,” Pearl nodded. Gem smiled, and Pearl could have sworn the flowers in her hair almost bloomed a little more, but it must have been a trick of the light.
She followed Gem through the streets of the city until they arrived at a local park. Gem led her through open spaces and along dirt paths, until they got to a sort of separated clearing from the rest of it all, surrounded by trees.
It had a glorious, private feeling to it. It felt extremely distinct from the rest of the park, so clean and pure it had Pearl breathing deeply just to try identify that sweetness and something else in the air. Dew that probably should have evaporated by now sat fresh on the grass, and the trees were lined with fluffy green moss. It was all so green, fresh, and vibrant, Pearl felt herself spin in a slow circle to appreciate it all.
“This is beautiful,” she murmured, surprised there was a place like this in the city. It felt almost magical.
“It really is,” Gem replied with a nod. The park ranger was standing by the edge of the clearing, one of her hands gently touching a tall tree which comically towered over her, and then Pearl heard a gentle sound as Gem started to hum.
It was a quiet, sweet kind of music, and Pearl relaxed. The song felt new but familiar in a comforting way like it was a long-lost lullaby that had been crooned to her as a young child. Gem’s humming was soft and peaceful, and it left Pearl in a kind of trance that made her sway from side to side with a smile on her lips.
At some point, Gem held out a hand to her, and Pearl took it without much hesitation. The two started to sway side by side with each other, at first gently, then with bigger movements. Pearl sang along, and though she didn’t know the words, she sang along with the tune and swayed in time, hand in hand with Gem.
The dancing felt strange. Mystical, almost. Pearl felt a weird buzz like she was tipsy as she swayed back and forth with Gem, and couldn’t really place what she felt. It was relaxing and peaceful, but also strange in a way that felt difficult to place. Her thoughts felt like sand falling through her cupped hands, and with every passing second she sunk deeper into the beauty of whatever this moment was as she lost track of any coherent train of thought over dancing with Gem. Maybe she would have found it strange or suspicious or outright alarming at what her mental state was becoming for seemingly no reason, but her thoughts felt similar to cotton balls stretched into the tiniest wisps, and all of her limited brainspace was locked in a cloudy haze of nature and dance and Gem.
Everything felt distant and hazy. The world outside faded into a vague blur as the two spun, soft at first before they started moving faster, and the world turned alive under Pearl’s fingertips. Everything felt so vibrant. The air was bright and full, everything outside of this moment was a distant blur, her vision was a haze of spinning green and vibrant, shining eyes staring into her soul, green as everything around them.
Gem was the only thing in her vision, the only constant, as the world spun around them and there were warm hands on her waist and they danced and spun to the sweet, shared tune until they were out of breath. The air felt magical and alive, and as the music filled her ears and Gem held one hand and dipped her low with the other, Pearl vaguely thought that she’d found the human equivalent of life.