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They had kissed a few times on previous outings; Pearl had been given to understand that this was a foundational element of most human dating. She blushed to think of it, but it hadn't been nearly as unpleasant as she had imagined when Amethyst described it to her. No, not by half! Then again, it dawned on Pearl that Amethyst may have been deliberately trying to make her uncomfortable.
Now here they were, standing at the base of the steps to the temple, about to kiss goodbye as was customary. S turned her face downward to meet Pearl's, and her hair fell around them both, tinting everything pink. Pearl went en pointe to better accommodate their stunning height difference, and the human pressed a sturdy palm against Pearl's lower back to support this effort and, as an added benefit, pull Pearl in closer. The hand spanned the width of Pearl's form with room to wrap fingertips around her waist, and she could feel the heat radiating off of it faster than her gem could moderate.
The warmth, the pink light, a body so much larger and softer and more powerful than her own, the beginning steps of a dance… Pearl struggled to maintain the integrity of her own form even as she greedily wrapped her arms around S's neck. She could feel the thrum of this human: a fascinating and alluring movement, heat, steadily rhythmic while constantly changing. This was a body, not a form; solid and layered—a real construct that maintained itself regardless of the will of the consciousness that carried it. Humans were a microcosmic representation of the earth! And alright, maybe earth was stymying and confusing at times, but S was big and comfortable and warm and Pearl could let herself surrender and be surrounded if she so chose. She could understand, if it meant more of these hands on her form, more of this body pressed against her.
S pulled her mouth off of Pearl's. Pearl's form regained its stability in the split second it took for disappointment and dread to set in. The kissing-goodbye portion of their dates had never gone on this long, never been this intense; S was surely about to inform her that it was inappropriate, or at the very least that they had overstepped the allotted time for this activity and should be moving on to the saying-goodbye-with-earnest-intention-to-part.
To Pearl's surprise, S seemed just as dazed and unsteady as she felt. "Phew! Uh…" S pulled one side of her bottom lip into her mouth and huffed a deep breath out of the curled other half. Pearl felt her cheeks blue up a bit, watched as S noticed and grinned. "You know… I don't have to leave."
Pearl's shoulders relaxed where she hadn't even noticed tensing them. "Oh. Oh! That's… true..." Pearl stalled, weighing her options. She had been avoiding bringing S over for a whole host of reasons:
- According to Amethyst and to a lesser extent Steven, there were implications when human dating progressed from outside activities to inside the home.
- Pearl's room had nothing to offer a human in terms of comfort, safety, or dryness. She supposed they could preemptively remove S's clothing to keep it dry—Pearl certainly had a... polite interest in what S looked like out of her clothes—but, well, that would simply intensify the implications.
- The only human-safe room in the house and temple that could offer privacy was the bathroom, which was obviously deeply unsuitable.
- There was no hiding the portrait of Rose Quartz.
However, S had now provided some compelling counter-arguments. She didn't have to leave. Perhaps Steven wasn't home. And had taken Amethyst with him… hmm… that felt unlikely.
Just then, Pearl heard the creak of the screen door and Garnet's voice saying, "come on Steven, Amethyst. Something is going to happen at the big donut in 5 minutes that you definitely do not want to miss." Pearl glanced up to see Garnet turn to face the porch railing, visor flashing in a direction inconsistent with the sun. Steven and Amethyst barreled out after her, speculating excitedly about what this mysterious event might be.
"Pearl," Garnet nodded as she walked by. S's eyebrow quirked at the sight of someone even larger than her.
"Oh hey, Pearl!" Steven exclaimed on seeing her, but he was too engrossed in the puzzle Garnet had given him to even notice S standing beside her.
"Ohhhhh." Oh dear, Amethyst was apparently not as easily distracted as Steven. "Heyyy P! Sorry you're gonna miss out on this exciting, mysterious event at the BIG DONUT!" Amethyst bellowed and ran off, much to S's apparent amusement.
Once the rest of the crystal gems had rounded the cliff, the human turned to Pearl expectantly, a slight smirk pushing at the corners of her mouth. "No pressure or anything, but I think your friends want us to have the place to ourselves, so, uh, I dunno, you have a couch or something in there? We could pick this back up…" Her tongue darted out to wet her lips, then she pressed them together, releasing the ring in the center tantalizingly slowly. It was about 5 seconds before Pearl realized she was staring rather fixedly at it and S was still waiting for a response.
"Hah, yes, it would seem that was Garnet's intention!" She tried to sound breezy and comfortable, and could only hope that S didn't yet know her well enough to know that this was at least a fifth above her relaxed voice. "We probably won't get so lucky again, and there is indeed a couch in there, so I guess we'll just go inside and get comfortable and it'll all be fine!" Pearl managed to catch herself before she babbled for too long, but apparently it had been long enough. S's smirk had fallen into something more serious. Was that concern?
"Pearl, it's ok if you don't want to. I can happily see you again and kiss you again, or even not, some other time," S said gently.
"No, no, it's not that. I really, really want to keep kissing you right now. I just..." Pearl's mind ran back over her list of reasons:
- Implications. Well, kissing was so far a ringing success, maybe those implications would be just as pleasant. And besides, S seemed willing to accept Pearl's lead on pacing.
- Pearl's dangerous room. The house was empty, so this point was moot.
- No privacy. See number 2.
- Rose Quartz… maybe there was a way to hide the portrait! Pearl just needed to buy some time.
"... It's a little messy in there. Give me 5 minutes to tidy up? If there's a mess I'll only be distracted, and I'd like to give you my fullest attention."
"Heh, ok." S's grin was back. "I'll wait here. But 5 minutes is probably the longest I'll be able to wait before chasing after that cute little butt of yours."
Pearl blushed a bright teal and dashed up the stairs in lieu of responding.
It took Pearl 15 seconds to reach the warp pad inside; another 10 to warp up to the laundry hand. By the time she had pulled a sheet off the clothesline and returned to the living room, she had already used up a minute. Still, four minutes should be plenty of time to get the sheet draped over the picture and get Steven's dishes into the sink, if not washed.
At 5 minutes and 13 seconds, S walked through the door with a tentative step. Her bright green eyes swept the room, alighting first on the warp pad; then the temple door; then Steven's dishes, still out on the kitchen counter; then finally upon Pearl, tangled in a bedsheet on the floor. Pearl propped herself up on her elbows and gave a weak little wave. "Hello," she said shyly. Some fearsome renegade.
"Sorry, shoulda knocked. Just, you said 5 minutes."
"No, no, come in," Pearl responded, resigned to whatever was to come. She slid out of the sheet, standing to begin folding it neatly. "This clearly isn't working how I'd hoped."
S stepped further inside, continuing to look around the interior of the beach house. "What were you—" suddenly she erupted in laughter. It was clear and joyous, without a hint of malice, and Pearl felt her eyes go starry just at the sound of it. Then she looked up and saw the source of S's laughter and could only feel confusion. S was looking at the portrait that Pearl had failed to cover.
S was looking at the portrait of Rose Quartz. And laughing. Laughing joyfully. What could this mean?
"I'm gonna go ahead and guess that's an ex?" S asked, smirking heavily.
"In… a manner of speaking," Pearl responded carefully. Then, hoping to soften the impact, she added, "she's also Steven's mother."
"You were trying to cover this up?" S still sounded amused. Like she thought Pearl had done something cute.
"You see, Steven said that you and Rose look alike, and well, I don't see it at all—"
"—nope, I'd say we definitely look alike." S whistled. "Like, damn, you sure do have a type." She chuckled to herself again.
"That… that doesn't upset you?"
Pearl was still utterly perplexed by this turn of events, but S simply laughed again, "are you kidding? Not at all. Come here, let me show you something."
S pulled out her phone and sat confidently on the couch. Pearl simply watched, unsure what to do, until S looked up and patted the seat beside her. By the time Pearl had joined her, S had already found what she was looking for in her phone. She tilted the screen so Pearl could see… "a picture of you?"
S smiled. "Heh, no, but I know why you'd think that. This is T, an acquaintance I know from around."
Pearl looked again at the phone and this time noticed some differences between the human depicted and the human sitting next to her: the unknown woman had different proportions from S, equally tall but wider hips and narrower shoulders. Longer, curlier hair in a more vibrant pink. A rounder jaw. Her nose was smaller, and the septum was pierced rather than the lip. "Well, it's uncanny!" Pearl exclaimed.
"You're telling me," S responded. "T and I have 4 exes in common. We've gone on dates with a handful more of the same people. It's gotten to the point where if I'm out with someone and I'm not really feeling the vibe, I'll put them in touch with T. She met her last girlfriend that way."
Pearl leaned back over the screen, "Hmm…" Emboldened by S's seemingly enthusiastic embrace of the absurdity of it all, a cheeky thought crossed her mind. She looked up, face carefully blank and centimeters from S's. "Now that I have a phone number and an interest in humans, perhaps you should pass my information along to this T."
S didn't skip a beat, she simply closed the gap between their faces, pressing a kiss onto Pearl's waiting lips. When Pearl reciprocated, S pushed her shoulder gently back against the couch, leaving the phone beside them so that both hands were free to help her climb on top of Pearl.
As S settled into a straddle over Pearl, her breasts bumped against the gem's face. Pearl opened her mouth to apologize, but all that came out was a moan. They were so soft! Well, soft wasn't the right word. They were firm. They were heavy. They had both give and resistance. They were not like anything on any gem form that Pearl had ever felt—though she had barely even felt them, and only with her face, so this question undoubtedly warranted further investigation—and she wasn't sure she'd ever be able to touch or even think about them and simultaneously find accurate descriptors for them. "Sorry!" She managed to squeak, and was met with the form-destabilizing sight of S's very cockiest smirk.
The arch of S's eyebrow alone made Pearl's consciousness fuzzy, but the way she curled herself to gaze down at Pearl, and the appraising look in those piercing green eyes—as though she knew something about the gem that she couldn't know about herself—and the little space between her lip ring and the skin of her lip… ok, maybe Pearl did have a type, and it was tall, soft, solid, pink-haired gems (and gemoids) who owned any space they entered and as a consequence didn't seem to suffer uncertainty; who could dissipate Pearl's form in any number of ways but chose instead to smile down upon her, making her feel simultaneously small and fragile and precious and powerful and significant. S's look told her that the human believed she had Pearl all figured out: inexperienced, flustered, and eager-to-please. Apparently, S found those traits appealing.
All of those things were true of Pearl. She was also a quick learner, graceful, precise, and physically skilled. She pushed up until her face met S's again. A quick, soft, almost timid kiss. A diversion tactic. Just as S's expression softened and her hands left the back of the couch to find Pearl's neck and hair, Pearl flipped her over onto her back, landing gently on top of her (she still wasn't sure how fragile this human was, so she was erring on the cautious side). In a moment, her mouth was back on S's, drawing the human's lower lip in by the jewelry, experimentally biting it. To Pearl's delight, S reacted with a little moan of her own. Pearl pulled away, a self-satisfied grin spreading across her face. It was S's turn to look up at Pearl, stunned and star-eyed.
S sat up halfway with a breathy little chuckle. She mirrored Pearl's smile. "If it's alright with you, I think I'll keep your info to myself for a little while."