Beyond The Gem

Eighteen

     "I was stepped on! Actually stepped  on! I can't keep this act up forever, Pink! Constantly shifting from Rose to a butterfly to myself every day and night is tearing me apart, and I've tried to gain followers, but I just can't. We have to think of something else!" I leaned my head against the wall in Pink's private chambers. She sat on the couch, posture straight and hands in her lap. She frowned, observing my tired and beaten body carefully. "Also, I thought you didn't want your guards to do anything harmful to your gems. If we swing our picaxes wrong then they'll yell at us and beat us senseless. One gem was actually poofed from how bad your guards beat her!"

     "Pearl," She said softly, but I threw my hands up in the air.

     "I can't believe you actually want to continue with this! With all due respect as My Diamond, this plan isn't working at all and I can't believe you thought it could work! This is all just so tiring and hard! I've been keeping this up for three months,  Pink!"

     "Pearl," She repeated again, her voice getting louder but still comforting. I turned to her, an annoyed gaze.

     "What?"

     She faltered, then sucked in a deep breath. "I know what we need to do. I've been thinking about what you told me about how the Crystal Gems would just destroy my authority, and I know how to fix it." She explained a crazy, absolutely insane plan that I wasn't sure would work. I listened, however, and when she was finished, I gave a nervous chuckle and stood.

     "You're...sure you want to fake your death?" I said softly, and she nodded. "I don't know what to say...what...w-what do  you want me to say?"

     Pink's face looked as if she was about to start crying. "I don't know. It's the only solution I can think of, though." She stood and kneeled down in front of me. "Pearl, I trust you. I actually...I have feelings  for you, and I know you have them for me as well. If we do this, then we can both live together, happily, on Earth. I would never have to worry about any of the Diamonds. They don't see me as a Diamond, and with Earth developing as it is now with cities and vehicles and things, the people of Sumer gone and long since deceased, we can live life as we would normally without any worries of Tanzanites and anything. We can leave it all to the Diamonds!" She shifted into Rose and grabbed my hands, holding them tightly. "We can live together. We can love each other. Nobody can get in our way."

     A smile crept onto my face, and I thrust myself onto her, embracing her so tightly I thought she would poof. She snatched the back of my head and pressed her lips against mine. Something inside me ignited, something that had never been there before, something that I couldn't explain if you asked me to explain it today, all these years later, as I'm writing this down. All I can tell you is that it felt right. It felt like it was all true, and nothing but ourselves held us back. Everything was perfect, absolutely perfect as I ran my fingers through her curly pink hair and hers through my straight pink hair.

     We pressed our foreheads together, breathing deeply. I smiled and began to laugh, and her the same. We wrapped our arms around each other, and the world suddenly wasn't there anymore. There were no more problems, no other sounds, no more murders or gems or other Diamonds. Just us. Just our laughter, just the tears of either happiness or nervousness that streamed down our faces and the feeling of the embrace we shared. It was like an orchestra of instruments the humans used on Earth had just reached the climax of the performance, and the true music lovers in the audience had begun to cry because it was so loud and filled their ears with all the notes and beautiful chords that filled the air. It was like a roller coaster down in the amusement parks on Earth had just plummeted towards the ground and begun to swirl around in circles and the people on the ride were throwing their hands in the air, screaming with sheer and utter joy.

     I didn't even know or care what Rose was feeling, but it must've been something special, because she shifted into Pink. Her hands were torn from mine as she grew taller, and her body was pulled away. When she was finished, she smiled down to me. "I know why Blue thought you were deformed."

     I smiled back. "Why did Blue think I was deformed?"

     She sat on the ground, crossing her legs and holding her hand out to me. I sat on her palm, and she lifted me to her knee. I sat on my knees, looking up to her shining pink eyes. She spoke in a voice that sounded as if she wasn't speaking to me but herself, even though she was looking straight at me. "Because the others are deformed."

     "How so?"

     "They aren't perfect like you."