Work Text:
Pearl woke up feeling terrible.
“Ugh…” she grumbled while holding her head. When did she fall asleep? That never happens.
Pearl sat up and blearily looked around the room, trying to gather her bearings. She was in Steven’s room, lying under the soft white comforter and staring ahead at Steven’s old TV.
Pearl had to quickly remind herself that this wasn’t Steven’s room anymore. It had been Greg’s for months now. Where was he anyways?
Pearl put her hand down on the mattress and accidentally rubbed against something soft and furry. Her long fingers moved closer to it, then felt something solid and smooth at the base of the fluffy patch. She petted it for a moment, oddly soothed by the soft texture. It was comforting, like Rose’s hair when Pearl used to bury herself in Rose’s beautiful, bountiful curls. After a long, lingering moment, she eventually looked at what could have felt so nostalgic.
It was Greg. Pearl’s hand was resting on his bald head, and her fingers were interlaced in his short, fluffy hair.
“Ah!” Pearl screamed in shock and her hand recoiled like she just burnt it on a hot stove. So many emotions flooded Pearl at once, sending her into a state of shock. She held her hands to her face in surprise and began to mumble to herself, backtracking what happened last night that led to her being in Steven’s old bed with Greg of all people.
Greg shot awake and pushed himself up off of his stomach at the sound of Pearl’s shriek. “What?! What happened?! Is the van okay?!” He looked around frantically and saw Pearl curled up in a ball on the other side of the bed with her hands framing her face. His eyes went wide, and the surprise set into him as well.
Pearl tried to reach back into her mind, but for some reason everything was so fuzzy. Why was it all fuzzy? Gems didn’t have interference like this when recalling memories, or at least Pearl didn’t. What in the stars happened?
Greg sat up on his knees and looked at Pearl beginning to hyperventilate through her incoherent mumbling. He was dressed only in a pair of plaid pajama pants and a pair of white socks. Pearl glanced over at Greg and saw his pale bare chest and blushed. She hopped off the bed, grabbed the nearest shirt she could find on the floor, and threw it at Greg’s face. “Get dressed!” She yelled, still horribly frazzled and her face now burning blue. She began pacing the length of the bed with her hand cupping her mouth in thought. She still couldn’t comprehend why her memories were so distorted. Her hands trembled as she tried to process what was happening to her.
Greg looked at the “Spacetrain to the Cosmos” shirt Pearl had chucked at him and sighed before slipping it on. He moved towards Pearl and sat at the edge of the mattress, and when Pearl felt his presence, she tensed and moved to pace at the foot of the bed instead.
“Pearl, we should talk about it.”
“About what, Greg?” Pearl’s arms flew up at her sides. “What happened last night?!”
“You don’t remember?” Pearl finally froze and managed to look at Greg’s face, and what she was met with was a look of concern. Pearl didn’t like being on the receiving end of that expression. That was the face she showed to Rose and Steven and Amethyst and anyone that needed help, but not to herself.
She finally took a breath and dropped her arms to her sides, her hands still balled in tense fists. Looking outside the sliding door, she sighed and spoke, “No, I don’t. Do you?”
“Bits and pieces. I haven’t drank like that since before Rose.”
“Drank?” Pearl asked inquisitively. “What did we drink?”
“Alcohol, Pearl. We drank beer.”
Pearl laughed. “No, no, you must be mistaken. I don’t drink that sort of thing.”
“Well you sure did last night,” Greg said with a playful grin. Pearl blushed in embarrassment at Greg’s remark and his coy expression. She must’ve felt ambitious yesterday if she drank something so crude as beer.
Greg watched Pearl deal with her regret now as she crossed her arms and wrapped herself in a tight embrace. Despite her reservations, he continued on with the events of last night. “Amethyst bought a few six packs and we all decided to drink. You, me, Amethyst, and even Garnet.”
Pearl started to remember brief glimpses of the early evening. She had had a good day at Little Homeschool with her Human Activity class and was feeling especially ambitious. She ran into Amethyst afterwards, and Amethyst said she had a fun human thing for Pearl to try, something that’s been huge in human culture all around the world forever. That’s how this whole thing started.
“Fine then.” Pearl walked around to sit at the foot of the bed, away from Greg. Her arms stayed crossed in that tight embrace and she looked down at her lap. “What happened next?”
“That’s where things get a bit blurry for me too.” Greg leaned his hands back on the bed and the mattress made a loud squeaky sound. Pearl remembered the sound at some point last night and felt a wave of embarrassment roll through her stomach. “Amethyst has a pretty good tolerance for such a little gem. Garnet didn’t seem to feel much of an effect, but she did go off into the temple after her third or fourth beer. I remember you getting drunk only after one.”
Pearl’s cheeks went even more blue in embarrassment. She covered her eyes with her long, delicate hand. This is why she didn’t partake in any of these strange human substances. Rose had experimented with things in her fascination with humans plenty of times over the centuries, but Pearl had always abstained. She had never wanted to risk losing control, yet for some reason, last night was the exception.
Greg saw Pearl’s growing shame and continued on. She deserved to remember everything she was a part of. “After a while, you fell asleep on the table downstairs and Amethyst was gonna take you to your room in the temple. I told her that I didn’t think you should be alone after drinking so much. Since I had more experience taking care of drunk friends, Amethyst left you with me and went back to her room for the night.”
Greg paused before continuing on. Pearl’s stomach was in knots, trying to grasp any fragment of a memory of what came next. She remembered a glimpse of Greg helping her move from sleeping on the coffee table to the couch downstairs. He got her in a comfortable position and draped a blanket over her before going to leave. It had been Pearl that grabbed the sleeve of Greg’s jacket as he was heading upstairs for the night, starting whatever chain of events this was.
“Greg…” Pearl had cried. She had begun to sniffle and whine at that point. “I miss Rose…”
She remembered hearing a sigh from him. “I know Pearl… Me too…”
“I miss her so much…” Pearl began to sob. “I want Rose here…”
Oh my stars… Pearl thought in the present. The more she recalled, the more she wished to be reset.
Greg finally spoke up again. “I was going to leave you to sleep, but you wanted to talk about Rose. You… missed her a lot and were saying how you wanted to feel close to her again.”
Pearl recalled that sentiment. She had squeezed the life out of Greg’s hand while she continued to snivel like a human child. “She was barely with me at the end… It wasn’t like when we came to Earth. She was so loving then.” Pearl sobbed into the couch as Greg awkwardly sat with her last night. He barely spoke and just patted Pearl’s hand. “There, there.” He must’ve been nearly as uncomfortable as Pearl was now.
Bringing up our dead lover, what a great move Pearl.
“After a while, I tried to get you to fall asleep, but you wouldn’t let go, and things escalated from there a bit.”
“I remember now,” Pearl interrupted Greg. Greg turned to look at Pearl folding in even more on herself as she finally recalled last night’s events.
She had wanted to be close to Rose so desperately. It had been so long, and for some reason the alcohol brought back all these old feelings that Pearl thought she had finally left behind. Even when she was alive, those last few years were for Greg. There was so little time left for Pearl in Rose’s world, and that had hurt Pearl to the core.
Somewhere in the midst of her drunken delirium, Pearl’s mind jumped through the logic that if she couldn’t be close to Rose, then she’d be close to the next best thing: the person that loved Rose almost as much as she did. Maybe she’d be able to feel a connection to Rose that way. She had sat up on her knees and put her thin hands on Greg’s cheeks. Before he could process anything, Pearl pulled Greg in for a kiss on the couch, keeping her grip tight on his bushy beard as she preseed their lips together. Greg had been surprised and pulled Pearl away by her small shoulders. “Pearl, what are you doing?!”
“Let me be close to her again. Please, Greg.” Pearl had pleaded in between tears with her tired, slurred voice. Greg, not entirely in a sober state either, saw the desperation in Pearl’s eyes and moved to hold her face, though there was still a sense of restraint from Greg as he looked at Pearl. Pearl closed her eyes and nuzzled into the hand, thinking how Rose might’ve done the same thing once upon a time, though her hand was bigger and much softer. She also smelled of flowers, not of sweat and soap like Greg’s hands did.
Things became blurry again from there. Greg had pulled Pearl in for another, more tender kiss. She remembered the strange feeling of a beard tickling her nose and cheeks. In her long life, Pearl had never felt anything quite like it. The closest thing was getting lost in Rose’s hair when she had gone to kiss Rose’s neck once upon a time.
The next flickers of memory were of Pearl standing up and trying to lead Greg upstairs, all while still holding his hand in that tight, desperate grip. Once in the bedroom, Pearl pulled Greg in for another kiss by his face. She held his head in both of her slender hands and felt the same face that Rose had loved so dearly. Greg had held Pearl by her thin waist and kissed her back, losing himself for a moment in the emotion.
Pearl quickly tugged at Greg’s shirt and lifted it off his head. Greg was at a loss, but managed to regain some sense as Pearl moved back to pull him onto the bed. Greg had gently pushed Pearl away by her waist, stopping Pearl in her inebriated tracks. “I don’t think this is a good idea…”
“But what about Rose?” Pearl had said desperately, pulling on Greg’s hand as she began to feel tears pricking at her eyes. “I just need to-”
“I know Pearl. I miss her so much, but this isn’t a good idea. Not like this.”
“Don’t you want to be close to her again too?” Pearl had whined softly as her eyes fell to Greg’s hand. Her grip had softened and her hand shifted to interlock with Greg’s calloused fingers.
“Of course I do, Pearl.” Greg’s eyebrows creased as he remembered the woman he loved more than anything. “You know just as well as I do how much it hurts that she’s gone, but she’s not here anymore.”
Greg gently sat Pearl on the bed and watched as she laid down and rolled over on her side. The bed had creaked that familiar squeaky sound as Pearl curled into that familiar fetal position and hugged herself tight. “I just want to feel her again…” She began to sob into the white blanket. Greg had pulled the comforter out from under her and draped it over Pearl’s small frame before preparing for bed himself. He only had the energy to put on his pajama pants before crawling onto the other side of the bed.
After a moment of shifting and creaking, the room fell silent. Pearl pulled the white blanket close and rubbed her long nose against the soft sheets. The feeling couldn’t compare to the touch of Rose’s skin against hers. The smell of the bed couldn’t either. It reeked of human sweat and body odor, not the floral scent that Pearl missed so dearly.
“Greg…” Pearl mumbled into her pillow and clutched the comforter closer to her chest.
“Yeah?” Greg answered from the other side of the mattress. He was on his back and staring at the Kerry Moonbeam poster on the ceiling.
“I loved her so much…”
“I know Pearl.”
“Why wasn’t I enough…?”
Greg sighed as he rolled over and hugged Pearl from behind. “That wasn’t it. You were more than enough for Rose. She just… she could never completely find what she was looking for.”
Pearl began to bawl and hugged the thick, hairy arm that was draped around her, and after a few minutes, she finally managed to fall into the dark chasm known as sleep. Greg had meant to roll away, but there was a part of Pearl’s logic that stuck with him and wanted to be close to Rose just a little while longer too. He held Pearl tight as he fell asleep, burying his bushy beard into Pearl’s shoulder.
Back in the present, the two had sat in a tense, awkward silence for ages. Greg slowly got to his feet and shuffled his way towards Pearl. He stood by her and waited to see if she would run away again before deciding to take a seat next to her on the mattress.
She didn’t run this time. Instead, she brought her knees to her chest and curled herself into a ball, burying her pointy nose in between her knees.
“I’m sorry you had to see such an… unsightly version of myself.”
“Don’t be sorry,” Greg said with a kind, patient smile. He placed his hand gingerly on Pearl’s shoulder. “I miss her a lot too. It’s just… I didn’t want to do something like that for the wrong reasons.”
Pearl managed to lift her face and wipe away the tears building in her eyes with the palm of her hand. “Yes, inebriation leads to difficulty with consent and other matters.” That would make for a fine lesson for her students in the human activity course.
“Yeah, something like that,” Greg chuckled. He sat with Pearl until she collected herself. It took a minute, but eventually she managed to calm down and look at Greg for the first time all morning without panicking.
“Thank you for… your kindness, last night.” Pearl said awkwardly.
“It’s nothing,” Greg said with a smile. He draped his arm around Pearl’s small shoulders and pulled her in for a friendly side hug. “That’s what friends are for.”