#<- this could be taken platonically or romatically so i'll tag duo and ship name

[pickastitch]

how pearl really got those extra hearts after beating the ender dragon

aka sl!shiny duo ficlet (469 words)

Pearl really didn't know how she ended up fighting the Ender Dragon on a server with no natural regeneration. Well, that is partly a lie; she knew exactly what, or more accurately, who convinced her to come here.

The session started off fairly normally, a question passed around The Mounders to start off the session before they all got their tasks. Her task deemed her the butler of Impulse, and she was so excited that it was him and not someone more reckless.

Or so she thought because when Gem asked Impulse and herself if they wanted to go defeat the Dragon. Impulse agreed immediately. Pearl can still see his smug look when saying yes, knowing full well she would have to come with him. She did consider failing the task just to avoid almost certain death, and she probably would've if anybody but Gem was asking her.

After all she did outright tell Pearl, “You are the most capable one here. I believe you would do a good job,” and who is she to argue with Gem?

So now she is stuck in The End with Impulse and Bdubs until either she or The Dragon dies. There were a couple of close calls which led to her ending the fight with two and a half hearts, but Bdubs got the final hit before The Dragon took her first life. They were free; he handed her the dragon egg to thank her for the work, as it seemed Impulse did a suspiciously low amount of damage, they all hopped into the portal to return back home.

Pearl woke up back in her little dirt mound, and she was thankful for her block choice; the smell of the dirt and just Earth itself was so pleasant. She didn't realize how much she missed it. There were voices right outside; it seemed like Mumbo and someone else talking, she got up to investigate.

She finds a pumpkin mask right outside her mound. “You did it! You did it!” Gem chants the moment she opens the door. Pulling her out of the doorway, Gem hugged her so tightly and spun her around as Mumbo spoke congratulations. Instead of the physical contact reducing her health, the hearts shot all the way back up to thirty, and Pearl wanted to stay in her arms forever. She didn't realize how deprived of touch she was in the name of survival, but she loved the embrace; she got to forget about the whole death game situation, the stress of the tasks, and the chaos that she had just arrived from.

But Gem finally let go, pointing them both to the Taskmaster. Pearl sighed as she figuratively and physically stepped back into the chaos, but deciding it could at least be bearable with Gem by her side.