A Brighter Shade of Pink

Chapter 2

Peridot was sprawled on the floor with Pumpkin nudging her head softly, trying to wake up her owner.

After quickly washing off his face in the bathroom, Steven rushes out from the bathroom, "C'mon Peridot, wake up!" Steven said in desperation, he then took a cup of water over Peridot's head and poured it down on her face.

Peridot coughed as she woke up. "*inhale* St-Steven," she stuttered.

"You passed out."

In a flash, Peridot pounced on him and was now on top of Steven.

"And why not, I'm surprise I can still keep my form together! So, Rose Quartz was never really a rose quartz, she was Pink Diamond under the guise of a rose quartz. Which means you're not really a rose quartz you're a diamond thought to have been dead all these years!"

"Yeah, looks like it," Steven said, nonchalant.

Peridot hopped off Steven. "How can you be so calm?!" she tried to help him to his feet. "You are a diamond. Do you realize what this means?"

"It means... it means that everything I thought about my mom was a lie..."

"No! It means that I renounced my diamond in front of my diamond and yet I still ended up following a diamond anyway. I'm a fraud!" and she sunk to the floor.

Feeling down, Steven made his way back to the couch, laid there on his belly, and looked down on the floor. Peridot's moment of self-pity ceased when she finally noticed him.

"Steven?" she moved closer to him and took his hand. "Are you upset by all this?"

"Of course, I'm upset." Steven snapped uncharacteristically. "Every time I feel like I'm one step closer to finding out what my mom was like I end up taking two steps back and now it feels like I'm a mile off."

Peridot didn't say anything for a moment, too taken back by the boy's outburst.

"I thought my mom would never shatter a gem but then I found out that she did and then she didn't and now, not only is she the person who everyone thinks my mom killed but she was actually the traitor all along and... ugh, everything is so messed up right now." He then turned away from Peridot and hugged himself tightly.

Peridot was at a loss on what to do, for she wasn't usually good at comforting others or giving pep talks, even with Lapis. But she had seen Steven do it so many times, surely, she could try this time. So, she climbs on the couch with Steven and said,

"Steven, I realize that this is a lot to take in for you. Your view of Rose Quartz has been altered to such a degree that you probably can't even look at her the same way ever again... but maybe that's not such a bad thing."

Steven slowly looked up at Peridot, a confused expression on his face.

"Don't get me wrong, this is an earth-shaking realization and anybody in your position should feel the same way you're feeling now but now that you know what you know, you could wallow in it for who knows how many hours like I did when my view on Yellow Diamond changed or you can try to accept it and think of the possibilities this could bring to better yourself."

"Like what?" Steven asked curiously.

"Well, now that you know that Pink Diamond was Rose this means that technically Rose never shattered her diamond, so, she isn't a murderer. Even as a diamond, she saw that there was beauty in this planet and that it should be protected rather than destroyed. But the best part is that since this news is so big and so shocking that any other news about her might be considered meager by comparison."

Steven considered her words and found that, to a degree, she was right. "I guess that is true," he said.

"For example, if you found out that her favorite color was- oh... green instead of pink, would that be a big shock?"