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It's early evening as they walk along the shore, the last glimmers of sunlight fading into the sea line like licks of a dying fire. The hem of Rose's gown trails behind her on the sand, swishing airily around her ankles with every step she takes.

There's that shine to her eyes, the way she always gets when she talks about humans -- and it's been there for the last ten minutes, as she recounted in vivid detail her encounter with one particular human man earlier that day. She's made sure to tell Pearl all about it -- his broad shoulders and sun-warmed skin, the way he looked up at her (as they all do) with such endearing awe in his eyes. How he caught and skinned her a deer, which, per her understanding, is one of the greatest romantic gestures humans are presently capable of. It's so interesting to watch them hunt -- a dozen of them couldn't last a second against a single gem, but they make up for their weak psychique and dull reflexes with their own attempts at strategy and cobbled-together weapons.

"And then he kissed me," Rose concludes the story with a light, giddy giggle, and taps a thoughtful finger to her chin as she adds: "A bit rough, but it was charming in its own right, I found. Humans have such fascinating ways of showing affection!"

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Pearl twists her fingers together, her eyes on the sand as they walk. Beneath her feet, the tideline stretches forward in the infinite and ever-exasperating variety of this planet: glinting shells of various sea creatures, stones tumbled round by the water, tangles of aquatic flora, all washed up on the shore like so much battlefield debris.

She almost wishes she could lose herself in the detached act of cataloguing them, if only so she could tune out the things Rose is saying. She's hardly interested in this...all too enthusiastic account of the unimpressive creature that's been occupying Rose's time. A deer? Really?

But old habits die hard, and despite the roar of the ocean in her ears, she's heard and absorbed every word.

"If you're referring to kissing, it's hardly a behaviour found only in the human species," she says, finally. Her tone is level, but there's something brittle behind it.

Rose's eyebrows shoot up, and a slow, lopsided grin stretches across her features. There's just the subtlest ounce of bitterness behind Pearl's words that positively tingles her with delight.

"But of course," she says, just barely holding back her laughter. She'll have to contain herself, if she wants to draw this out. "It's not the act itself; it's how they go about it. How should I put it..."

Rose rolls her shoulders, head lolling between one and the other in a display of contemplation. She knows exactly what she wants to say, of course, but building it up is what makes this game fun.

She looks to Pearl with a smile. "A kiss from you is nothing like a kiss from a human."

Pearl goes tense for a moment, rigid as if she's been jerked upwards like a puppet, but then the tension flows out of her body. She knows how this goes, after all. It's nothing but the opening sally to the dance of jealousy, desire and affection which both of them are all too familiar with. Long-lived exiles, stranded on a planet of creatures capable of comprehending but a fraction of their experience, what else are they going to do for the next thousand years?

Still, Rose's amusement feels like the cut of a blade.

"I suppose it must be the taste of their fumbling desperation which you enjoy."

Rose can't suppress her giggle there, though it's a fleeting, elegant chime. It's as if Pearl's forgotten her own behavior, just a mere millennium back. She should know better than anyone how much Rose truly enjoys it.

"Mm, it's not just that," she answers, her thoughtful tone returning, and she keeps her head tilted towards one shoulder to bridge the gap between their eyes.

"Humans -- males especially, I've noticed -- kiss to claim. It never escapes their notice how much smaller and weaker they are, and yet the way they take hold of me always seeks to make me theirs."

Rose's eyelashes flutter, casting quiet shadows over her eyes. "I like that."

Edited 2015-08-11 03:59 (UTC)

Pearl's mind has always been vividly able to create mental images, and now this one grows unbidden: some filthy human man, smudged with forest dirt and cervid blood, climbing into Rose's arms...fisting his crude hands in her magnificent curls...forcing his panting bearded mouth against Rose's, touching her with his stinking breath. It makes her slightly queasy. She looks away from Rose, looks back at her. Rose is still looking at her, knowing.

"That's ridiculous!" she bursts out. "Make you theirs? You're a Gem, and a-- they're-- inferior. You shouldn't allow them to to take liberties, and you don't have to! If you-- I could--"

She cuts herself off abruptly, subsiding.

Rose takes a step forward for Pearl's step back, far too intrigued to let that sentence hang half-spoken. It does occur to her, though, that she may have pushed a bit hard to bring about such an outburst -- and so her voice softens as she leans in, the pads of her fingers grazing Pearl's narrow wrist.

"You could...?"

Dropping her eyes, Pearl flinches barely perceptibly at Rose's touch. She keeps her gaze furiously fixed on her hands, fingers winding and unwinding tightly around each other. Her cheeks burn with deep blue. She should take another step back, apologise, acknowledge the inappropriateness of that display. All this time, she's followed Rose's lead. That's her place, isn't it? It's what she was born to do, and it's what she's utterly good at. No human could ever compare.

But she's a long way from where she was born, strayed so far from her original purpose, and...

She wraps her fingers tightly around Rose's wrist. Then she raises her head and leans in, keeping her eyes fixed firmly on a point below Rose's left cheekbone so she doesn't have to meet her eyes.

Rose cants her head, tender yet unyielding in capturing Pearl's gaze. Around them there is only the whisper of waves and the hiss of ocean breeze, swirling through Rose's curls, teasing at the edge of her gown.

Through Pearl's timidness, Rose can see that gleam of earnest determination in her eyes. It doesn't dare to rise to the surface too often, yet it's her absolute favorite whenever it does. The way Pearl looks when she wants something-- when she's just about bold enough to demand it.

Just about.

"If you won't tell me, Pearl, I won't know," she gently coaxes, though of course that's a lie. Pearl's feelings are as readily visible as ink in a glass container. But a little push couldn't hurt, she doesn't think.

A faint frown appears on Pearl's face, the slightest wrinkle of frustration between her eyes. Unable to escape Rose's gaze on her, she shuts her eyes tightly and opens her mouth as if to speak. Her throat works for a moment but nothing emerges. No tender confession, no bold declaration, no bitter accusation. In a fit of nervy courage -- or perhaps fuzzy panic, it's unclear even to herself -- she closes the rest of the distance between them and kisses Rose hard.

Rose gasps softly at the intensity of it, the sound quickly melting into a low hum of approval. Her one hand twists beneath Pearl's grip, up and around, so she can lace their fingers together; the other snakes around slender shoulders, to rest over her nape. She presses Pearl close, always loving the way her wiry frame caves beneath her touch, but she has no intention of overtaking her this time -- it's so rare to see her take the lead, and Rose is all too thrilled to follow.

"Look at that," she coos in admiration once the kiss has been broken, the corners of her eyes crinkling with her smile. "So assertive."

It's not as if they've haven't kissed before, in hundreds of places and hundreds of ways, but not like this -- not on Pearl's terms. It's always been Rose's prerogative, and Pearl had thought it always would be. In all the slow centuries of her life, she's rarely proven herself so wrong. Finally with a gasp she pulls away. Her hands -- one tangled with Rose's, the other having come to rest on the curve of a large hip -- are trembling. No, not just her hands, her whole body, shaking at her own foolish daring. She feels dizzy, as if she's freefalling.

Two thousand years ago she'd never have looked at Rose this way. A thousand years, and she'd have been stammering out a plea for forgiveness, hands flapping. But today -- Rose approves, and Pearl didn't do anything wrong, did she, and in a flare of pride, she bites back her instinctive apologies, lifting her chin instead.

"I-I could do that more..." Having reached the limit of her newfound forcefulness, she finds herself struggling. "If that's-- the, um, thing...you.... "

"Oh?" Rose's smile is impish, and yet she takes notable care in pulling up Pearl's hand, to guide it to her lips. Pearl's confidence is as striking in bloom as it is adorable shriveling up, and Rose finds herself momentarily torn between encouragement and teasing before striking her compromise: "You'll sweep me off my feet, then?"

Pearl sniffs. "I'm not sure that's entirely possible," she says. Rose's lips brush her skin, full and soft, and Pearl shivers involuntarily, the fingers of her other hand stroking Rose's hip.

"On the physical plane, your form is superior to mine in a number of ways."

"Mm," Rose responds in a distracted hum. Banter can wait a few seconds; she's taken great interest in mapping out the exact shape of Pearl's knuckles with her lips. Even once she's done she doesn't break her mouth away, instead dragging it over pale skin as she turns Pearl's hand around.

She seeks out her pulse point, covering it with kisses before simply lingering there, to feel the soft thrum of life beneath her lips. Their bodies might be a mere construction, but to Rose they feel no less real. Real in ways, even, their original forms can't quite contain.

"I didn't mean literally, you silly little thing," she murmurs into her palm, smiling.

Pearl knew that, didn't she? "I knew that."

She'd just been stalling, trying to figure out a way to regain her footing in this non-conversation, but it seems like a lost cause. Giving in to Rose's touch, she puts her face against Rose's shoulder, making a small noise in the back of her throat. There's something she needs to express but she's not sure exactly what it is or what form it will take when articulated. Will it be sweet, or frightening, or strange? It's something that Pearl, and also probably no other pearl, has ever dared to feel or say.

Voice muffled by a cascade of pink hair, she says, "Rose, I meant what I was saying."

"I didn't doubt that for a second." Pearl so rarely says things she doesn't mean, after all -- and least of all to her.

Rose tilts her head to look at her, though with how close they're pressed together the most she can glimpse is the corner of a sharp jaw. There was plain vulnerability in her voice just now, and it makes Rose hesitate for a beat -- before she takes a single step back, just far enough to cup Pearl's chin and redirect her gaze towards hers.

She holds it, steady.

"You know I love you the way you are, don't you, my Pearl?"

Caught by Rose's gaze and her words, Pearl shudders all over, the way the hooved animals of Earth sometimes do.

"I know! I just wondered..."

She makes herself finish.

"I wondered if it's the same thing that you have. With the, the humans." She winces at her own statement, which has somehow managed to be confusingly vague and deeply revealing at the same time.

Edited 2015-08-15 04:46 (UTC)

Rose is all gentle patience as she waits for Pearl to give her feelings voice. Her warm eyes coax without pushing, and her hold around her hand remains grounding and firm.

But once the words have left her mouth in full, all Rose can do at first is blink.

"What?" One corner of her mouth curled upwards in bafflement, Rose's voice comes out oddly-pitched and a little breathy -- dangerously close to a guffaw. And then her shoulders are shaking as another, similar noise ripples through her throat, and another, and -- oh dear, she really is laughing. She can't help it.

"What are you saying? Of course it isn't! I just said, oh--" Rose manages out a wheeze between chortles before being overtaken by them again. It takes her another couple seconds to get the rest out. "--there's no comparison, didn't I?"

Pearl wilts a little further at the laughter, pulling away so she can turn her head aside, her body stiff with pride and tension.

"I mean, of course there isn't! But I'd still like to know exactly what the difference is to you, because other than my comparatively long lifespan as your companion, it often seems unclear to me."

"After all, they're humans, but I'm just a pearl." She knows Rose isn't going to like that, and there's a sharp edge to her voice as she says it.

Rose's burst of laughter fades quickly at those last few words, and the humor drains from her features as they rearrange into a dull frown. She knows, of course, that Pearl's role on Homeworld isn't something she could so simply leave behind, no matter how many dozens of centuries they've spent away from it -- but to think herself lesser than humans? It almost seems too ridiculous to believe.

"Come, now," Rose croons, closing the distance between them again. She tries to catch her eye once more; a stray pink curl grazes Pearl's cheek as it slips past her shoulder. "You don't really think that, do you?"

"I don't need to think it, Rose." Pearl takes another step back, hands fluttering as if she can't decide whether to ward Rose off or pull her in. The first words were quiet, uncharacteristically so, but her next are louder and steadily inching up towards high-pitched trepidation. "But, oh, it's not like that matters, anyway! I know you...care for me, in any case. I just wish...you...oh, never mind!"

Rose goes to step forward again, but stops herself short. There's no point to senselessly pushing, only to have Pearl pull back each time.

In her words, though, she refuses to yield, instead only growing sterner. Hearing never mind from Pearl, as she's long since observed, is a sure sign that she ought very much mind.

"No, none of that," Rose chides, stature rising with the unfurling of her back. Each of her palms drapes loosely over the opposite elbow -- austere, but not intimidating. "Let me hear what you have to say."

Pearl mirrors Rose's posture, wrapping her arms about herself, although her fingers dig into her own elbows a little more tightly than necessary. Rose's tone tugs at something within her which makes it difficult for her to disobey, no matter how gentle the demand.

"I wish...you would spend more time with me," she says, and then immediately feels silly, because Rose spends so much time with her already, even more than the other Gems, and they have centuries upon centuries more stretching ahead of them besides. "No, that's not it. I wish..." ...you would tell me before you run off to frolick with humans? No, the truth is she'd often rather not know. You would ask my opinion more often? Not quite right either, since Rose does that already: Pearl is her trusted strategist and knight, after all.

"I think I might be experiencing a degree of jealousy," she mumbles, in a rare fit of self-awareness.

Rose's brow lifts and her lips purse, and for a moment the extent of her reaction is a series of three consecutive blinks. Granted, Pearl's jealousy itself comes as no surprise -- but her admitting to it makes a whole world of difference.

A slow smile sprawls across her features, and she takes a stride forward again, reaching -- just gently -- to cup Pearl's cheek in the palm of her hand.

"You want me all for yourself, is that it?"

That smile does something funny deep down in Pearl's stomach. A good feeling, but bad too, anxious and wanting at the same time. She turns her face into Rose's palm, pressing her lips softly to the skin, although her body stays stiff.

"I...I would never presume to ask for something like that."

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i lied just 1 more bye

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