Stars and Diamonds

Chapter 52: My Secret Keeper Pt 2

Hope this was worth the wait. (*꧆▽꧆*)b

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Hunched over her desk, Orange remained concentrated on the screen in front of her, one hand curled around the joined corner of the double diamond screen, the other languidly scrolling through the blocks of text displayed on it. Another lesson, this one she could tell was not from Yellow, as it lacked her thorough explanations and instead kept things relative, nothing unneeded or too heavily detailed, and obviously relied on her knowing things about the topic already. There were whole sections she didn't know, or understand at all because of this, which had her scrolling back up to see if there was something she missed before returning to move forward in hopes of finding some kind of clue as to what she was supposed to have already known.

"What the blazes is a Time Orb?" Orange muttered, flicking harshly at the holo display, narrowing her eyes at even more text that only served to confuse her.

So caught up in her frustration of the lesson, she hadn't noticed the first or second notification ping, and barely registered the swoosh of the door as it opened.

"Zirconia?"

The unexpected voice startled her, head jerking up and spinning to look at the doorway where, to her surprise, her mother stood with one hand raised, fingers curled and knuckles resting against the doorway.

"Pink, er, Mom?" Orange grimaced at the slip, relaxing under the kind fuchsia eyes that remained on her, undeterred by being called her name.

The corners of Pink's lips were quirked up in a smile, not quite reaching her eyes, but still warm as she looked at the younger diamond. "May I come in?"

"Yeah, come on." Orange made a motion with her head in a gesture for to join her inside before turning back to the display in her hand.

Pink accepted the quick response and stepped though the entryway, the doors automatically shutting behind her, separating them from the two sentries stationed outside. Taking up a slow pace to Orange, the older Diamond peered around, seeing nothing had really been changed from the last time she had been in the room, the same old gifts and odd object collected over time. The gem statue had been moved from the table and been placed high on a shelf, cluttering it further, and the star projector she had given her as a child was in full view on the low table near a pile of cushions that had been rearranged to make a new place to sit near it. Stopping near it, she bent down to touch the tips of her fingers to it, remembering the day she had given it to her daughter so she would always have familiar stars with her when she left her base. "I haven't seen this in years."

Orange turned her head to glance at what Pink was talking about before turning back to her desk, "I've been examining it. I want to a new one made, to have back on Homeworld."

"I didn't think you still used it. Is it broken?" she inquired, fingers gliding over scratches and dents in its metal casing, visual signs it had been heavily used, and well loved.

"Its started to flicker. I think some of the components need to be replaced, but I'm not an engineer. I don't think it would be a good idea to keep moving it anymore."

"We could fix it." Pink offered, straightening up, "So you can have it with you when you return to Homeworld."

Orange's response was delayed, distracted as she simply mumbled, "Maybe."

Pink hummed, glancing back to the display and then moving on to continue on to the desk, her eyes continuing her curious inspection of the room. Not much else stuck out to her, the only exception being that of a partially cracked open, sparkling geode that had been haphazardly wrapped in one of her physically made tunics, obscuring it just enough that only part of it could be seen in the light. The bundle had been set carefully on the center of a table near her bed and Pink briefly wondered where it had come from, as it did not look nearly polished or adorned enough to have been given to her from one of the other Diamonds. Turning her attention back to her daughter, she took notice of the open display being clenched in her hand. "You look busy."