Stars and Diamonds

Chapter 69: Responsibilities

First off, just want to thank everyone who's still reading this after my last update a year ago. I know it's been a while, and honestly, I thought about leaving this story even though it's not finished. I had lost interest in Steven Universe, and after hyper fixating on it for nearly two years, I felt burnt out and it was wonderful to have some time focusing on other things and not worry about updating this story, or when I would be updating, or if anyone was even reading it. These months away have been good for me, even in the state of the world. But, I'm back now and I want to finish this story, for me, for you guys, and for Orange. So while I don't intend to keep to a strict schedule like I used to, as it only added to my burnout, I certainly plan to update regularly and keep up with this until it's end.Once again, thank you all who are still here beside me and Orange, and welcome to all new readers, it's great to have you along for the ride!

-------------

Alone.

That seemed to be the word of the day for her, and for once, it wasn't a bad thing.

Orange groaned as she fell back, landing heavily on her butt as she leaned forward, bracing herself against her thighs as she brought her legs up and took deep breaths. The back of her hand moved to swipe at the long, unruly hair that had become plastered to her forehead for the umpteenth time. Despite lacking her usual sparring partners, Orange had found a wonderful arena-sized room in her palace that she had commandeered to be a personal gym of sorts. She was sure it had been meant to be used to hold large gatherings of aristocrats and the like, but she had thought it suited her needs better since she had lost access to the tower she had originally used when she had been staying with White Diamond.

White, who had been pushing her to reassign Iris Agate and the Topazes to do their proper roles now that she was on her own, being an official Diamond and all. Reluctantly, she had allowed Iris to take over more of an overseer role than being just being her trainer, a role she had taken to very well. G and J, while always at her beck to spar, had been made as sorts of figureheads for her guard. They now spent much of their time training new gems that were slowly being pushed to her court, commenting something about ensuring that they were held to the correct standards, though Orange believed it had more to do with showing off just how good they were to the newly emerged quartz soldiers than making sure they were fit to be where they had been placed. They never would actually question Iris' decisions to place them in their guard roles, not even they could contend with the intimidation Iris Agate could deliver to those below her.

That left her by herself most days, as the Carnelians, Five and Seven, could never hold up against her in a fight. That had been a proven fact after Five poofed the first time she had given them a chance to fill the Topazes' roles after a lot of hype and cockiness on their part. Afterwards, they had made a mutual agreement that they would stick to being her escort guards and, for the fun of it, commentators when they stuck around for her solo activities such as this.

Other times she simply wandered on her own. It was her palace, and unlike White's, she didn't need an escort to anywhere in the building if she didn't want it, as no one would argue with her. The only one she had trouble getting away from was her new pearl.

Since the night she had been given to her, Pearl had attempted to be at her side constantly. There wasn't a place she could go without her attempting to be there, trying to do anything and everything for her, including filling roles White's Pearl had been doing for centuries, even while said pearl was present. And it had only gotten worse once they had moved to her own Palace a few days after her coronation. She was so clingy, Orange had already begun to search for ways to be alone by any means necessary. It's how she had ended up by herself in her new gym, asking Pearl to retrieve a data pad from her office before ditching the moment she was gone, hoping to find a place to breathe without her constant pestering.