Work Text:
3:20 pm
It was the last period of the school day and Gem was teaching Pearl some Natural Science because she wasn't at school when their teacher explained it. Gem had offered to help her scince she could see that Pearl was struggling in class and how could she say no to a face like that?
"Look here at this diagram." Gem pointed at her notebook, "this deoxeginated blood enters the heart through the right atrium then goes into the right ventricle..."
"And from there it exits the heart through the pulmonary artery where it'll be taken to the lungs?"
"Yes! Perfect, I swear you've nailed this section faster than some of our classmates!"
"Well I guess I had a good teacher." Pearl swore that she saw Gem's face get a little red after she said that. But she didn't exactly know why that made her heart race.
The bell rung for the end of the day when Pearl remembered that she had firefighter training after school.
"Oh shit. Sorry Gem I've gotta go!" She hurriedly collected her books and shoved them in her bag.
"But thank you for this you're a life saver you know!" Pearl ran towards the exit door, her mind racing as she tried to recall the protocols her training officer will drill her on for being late.
~~ 5 hours later~~
Pearl practically fell on her bed. Her muscles hurt from training but she knew it would eventually be worth it when she becomes a real firefighter. Though for now she's gotta focus on school. She slowly pulled herself up from her bed and dragged herself to her desk to start studying. She remembered Gem telling her to make proper notes and to revise everyday inorder to really have it memorized.
While digging through her bag looking for her notebook and textbook, Pearl found a small leather bound journal. She opened the journal and read the name on the index page.
'Property of Gemini Tay.'
"Gems notebook huh ...interesting. Well I'm sure that she wouldn't mind if I take a peak." She looked the pages and realized that the journal was just a study book. Slightly disappointed she turned the book around to see if there was anything interesting at the back and woah she was amazed to see small drawings and doodles of little things, like butterflies, flowers and Pearl!?
Pearl was dumbfounded to see herself drawn in Gem's journal. The drawings were mostly of Pearl in her training uniform with her muscles very visible and exaggerated. The shading was impeccable and the drawings looked to made out of high quality supplies. Pearl couldn't believe how much effort was put into drawings about little old her.
She stood up from her desk and not so elegantly fell on her bed and screamed into her pillow. She was so loud that her brother, Grian, knocked on her door to make sure that she's okay.
Watcher's above, if only she could think of a logical way of bringing this up to Gem then maybe they could be together... but the question was how?
...
11: 04 pm
Gem woke up in a cold sweat from a nightmare. She felt her heart was racing as if trying to jump put of her chest. The memory was beginning to be blurry but she knew that it had something to do with Pearl and her missing journal.
She sat up and tried to focus on other things to lower her heart rate and calm her down enough to sleep again. The ticking of her clock, her parents snoring in the next room, and the sound of raindrops violenlty hitting her window from outside.
Sigh
Nothing was working. All she could think of was how Pearl might have reacted to seeing all the (embarrassing) drawings Gem made of her, how she probably felt violated or ashamed of her and how their friendship would probably never be the same after that.
Sigh
Maybe some water will help her fall asleep? Gem slowly stood up and sluggishly walked to her kitchen to grab a cup of water, mentally preparing herself for an awkward conversation with Pearl the next day, when she heard a knock at the door. She decided to ignore it because who in their right mind would even think about visiting her at this hour. But the more she ignored it the more desperate the knocking got before she finally decided to look through the peep hole and see who was on her doorstep so late at night.
Low and behold it was Pearl looking serene, and completly soaked in rain water. She hurriedly opend the door because she didn't want her Pearl to stay in the rain any longer than she already had.
"Heya Gem I think I-"
"Pearl oh my gosh get in here!" Pearl was practically dragged into the house by a very distressed Gem.
Gem rushed to get a towel from her bathroom while her mind raced with questions. Why was Pearl at her house so late and when it was raining! She pushed down her thoughts and tried to focus of getting Pearl dry before she caught a cold.
"'K I'm back," she hurriedly wrapped two towels around Pearl and started drying her off," Pearl what were you thinking!? Running in the rain like that, are you trying to get sick?"
"I'm sorry Gem but I wanted to give this back to you." Gem stepped back as she watched Pearl pull out something from inside her shirt, in the mist of her panic she didn't even notice that she was carrying something.
As she looked closer st the object Gem saw that is was a journal- her journal. Pearl had found her journal and ran at least 10 kilometers in the rain just to get it back to her.
"I know that it's a bit damaged but I wanted to give it back to you. It uh looked ...important." Pearl opened at the back. Gem saw one of her drawings of looking back at her. She looked up from the journal at Pearl's face, she was bright red with blush spreading from her cheek to her ears. Gem realized that she herself felt very flushed. Gosh when did the room get so hot?
"Gem I- "
Gem didn't let Pearl explain herself, she rushed up to her and she pressed her lips on the brunette's.
It took her a second to process it but soon after, Pearl reached to hold Gems face in her hands and returned her embrace.
They soon pulled apart but before either of the two could speak Gem heard an...
"Achoo!!"
"Pearl I knew you'd get sick!"
"It was worth being able to see you Gem."