👑 || Queen of Hearts

k n o w i n g

{"No-Eyed Girl" cover by PiinkyPeyed on YouTube. Original by Lemon Demon.}

👑💕👑

Strawberry Quartz knew not what to make of herself. This feeling, this experience, was utterly incomprehensible to her. Dazed, she put a trembling hand to her left eye and ran it along the fissures. It wandered to the smaller pair directly above it, traced Spinel's black tear tracks—which arched over the pearl's eyes like brows—and gradually made its way to her hair. Her ponytails were smooth; each ended in a single, thick curl that fell an inch or two short of her shoulders. She had two sets of arms: the pearl's pair being slender and poised, with Spinel's dangling below them. Strawberry's skirt was layered and flouncy, not unlike the petals of a flower, and it stopped halfway to her knees, which were dotted with the same magenta freckles as her cheeks.

Looking about herself, and considering all these things, a second feeling arose in her:

Fear.

Panicked, she let out a shriek and split back into two flustered Gems.

Pink Pearl hid her face in her hands. "W-was that...did we just—"

"Fuse?" finished Spinel, smiling weakly.

Pink shook her head, tears brimming in both her eyes. "I've never...done that before. It was so...violating."

Spinel reached to pull her into a hug, but refrained in fear of distressing her even more. Noticing this, Pink wiped her eyes and helped Spinel to her feet, embracing the Gem herself.

"I'm sorry," murmured Spinel. "It just sort of happened."

Pink smiled sadly. "It wasn't your fault. I just wasn't ready to feel like...that. I guess it was more so confusing than it was violating. If you're afraid you hurt me, don't worry; you could never do that."

Spinel hugged her closer as the pearl whispered, "There's so much you don't know about me, and I still don't understand how fusing works...what it means. When we were fused, did you learn anything, hear anything?"

Spinel shook her head. "No...I think fusions only know what their components choose to share."

The pearl exhaled, relieved by this. "Then I suppose it's time I tell you myself."

👑💕👑

Steven Universe was conflicted. As he sat on the bed between Peridot and Amethyst, he tried his best to grasp what they were conveying to him.

"So, let me get this straight," he interjected when Peridot finished rambling. "Spinel thinks she has feelings for Pink Pearl—whom we haven't spoken to in years—and what's more, Pink Pearl is reciprocating?"

"Well, she's gotta be," laughed Amethyst. "Why else would she be so open to talking to Spin?"

Steven sighed. "That's what I'm worried about. What if Pink Pearl changed her mind about us and realized she wanted to talk to someone. What if she was so desperate for company that she clung to the first outside Gem she encountered? What if, as a result of that, Spinel misinterpreted the gesture as romantic attraction? She'll be crushed when she realizes—oh, this is all my fault. If only I had told her..."

"STEVEN, listen to me now." Amethyst gripped her friend by the shoulders and looked him dead in the eye. "Maybe Spinel needs someone besides you to help her. Think about it: you stopped her from committing genocide and gave her something to live for. You gave her a home. You've done all you can for her. Now...it's time to hand the torch over to someone else."