#obsessed with this au !!!! two special interests smashed into one can only go well sksjdjd

[playername-player-of-games]

@chrisrin‘s gemcyt au !! “Pearl” is actually Joel here :3

//

Well. Running was stupid.

The Human Zoo is absolutely not set up the same way as the palace- all confusing hallways and rooms that have doors at both ends, usually nice for escaping but now annoying as he’s been cornered twice now, only escaped because he’s willing to poof other gems- he’s feisty, for a pearl. At least for today. He knows he’s going to be shattered for this, he may as well go down fighting.

Left, left, left, he’s going in circles. Rubies shout behind him, five voices becoming one when they fuse. They’re faster now, but he’s got a head start, and he goes right this time, immediately crashing into a quartz on the turn-

He looks up, eyes going wide-

“Etho! Etho- poof me!”

He doesn’t have to ask twice.

//

Pearl isn’t usually aware of the happenings outside of his gem when he’s recharging. It’s dark when he poofs, he’s whisked away somewhere quiet. On a good day it takes him fifteen minutes to Reform, but today he stays quiet, stays put, in Etho’s pocket.

He catches bits of conversation- shouting, alarms, running. Etho gives vague answers to any questioning, and soon enough the rubies move on. Pearl stays put, though, for hours, until gentle hands put him back in open air- until he hears the gentle tap of his gem being set down.

“It’s safe to come out now,” Etho says.

Pearl reforms, swift and effortless, on the floor of a closet full of weapons. He looks up at Etho and confesses, “I’m going to be shattered.”

Etho’s eye widens- he’s not very talkative, for an amethyst, but he talks to Pearl sometimes- “why’s that? What did you do?”

Pearl buries his face in his hands- it’s one thing to commit treason and an entirely other thing to admit to treason. Etho helped him, though- lied for him, took him somewhere safe. He owes him, he thinks.

“I-” it’s terrifying to admit. He does not move his hands, does not speak louder than a whisper “-I fused with Pink Diamond.”

Stars- he’s really going to be shattered for this.

“Ah.”

“I’m going to be shattered,” Pearl says again, with rising terror, “they’re- they’re going to find me, and they’re going to shatter me, and they’re going to shatter you too, an-”

Not just shattered, he’s going to be space dust! If he’s lucky maybe he’ll become a star in about seven trillion years-

“Woah, woah, hey, let’s not get ahead of ourselves,” Etho interrupts. He guides Pearl’s hands away from his face and holds them tight, mismatched eyes calm, somehow, despite everything, “you’re going to be okay.”

“And you’re not?”

“I’ll be okay too.”

“How?”

“I know a guy. I’ll get us out of here,” Etho shrugs. Before Pearl can lose his mind over that particular string of words, Etho questions, “how’d you end up fusing with a diamond?”

Pearl freezes. This is really just- not a conversation he wants to have. Etho rubs his thumbs across the back of his hands, grounding- it’s nice.

“We were in the garden,” Pearl confesses, supposing that the floor of a closet isn’t the worst place to confess to being a criminal, “and she ah- she was excited about the humans, and her smile was-”

He swallows, ducking his head.

“-she was dazzling,” he admits, a little breathless, “she was- so excited, and it was beautiful, and they were playing with these little things called otters and one did a flip, and she- she gasped and grabbed my arm and it just- it just kind of-”

He’d fallen out of the fusion only moments after they’d formed. His Diamond had been staring at him, her mouth agape in pure shock. The other guards had been horrified. Every instinct then told him to run, so he did, and he’d been chased, and now-

He wants to hide again, but alas Etho is still holding his hands. He looks up- Etho’s mismatched eyes hold no judgement. He’s smiling.

Pearl scowls. “What?”

“Congrats,” Etho says, calm as a glittering starscape, “fusion’s a special thing.”

Pearl sputters, “It’s treason!”

“That too,” Etho agrees. He squeezes Pearl’s hands and turns serious, “I can get us out of here, but you’ll have to be poofed, and you can’t reform until I say so.”

Oh stars- he’s- he might not be shattered.

“Okay,” he whispers.

“Promise.”

“Etho, I owe you my life,” Pearl retorts, “anything you need me to do, I’ll do it. I promise. I swear it. I don’t want to be shattered.”

Etho nods, and pulls Pearl to his feet. He’s shaking, but only a little, and Etho steadies him with a hand at his back.

“Wh-where are we going?” he asks.

Etho smiles, “you’ll see.”

Pearl vanishes into dark and quiet once again.