For Her

Nocturne

"It's a what?" Pearl asked, examining the instrument that Rose was pointing to.

"It's called a piano. Isn't it strange?"

"What does it do?"

"Watch," Rose said, boiling over with excitement. She sat on the sharp, shiny black bench at the edge of the huge music store. Her index finger landed on an A. It wasn't loud and wasn't soft.

"But what does that button do?"

"It makes music," Rose said, gleaming.

"Music? That's what music is?"

"Not just one note. I can't make music. I haven't learned yet. Let me see if I can get someone to demonstrate!" She found a piano specialist who worked at the store and brought him to show them how music was made. He was half her height and fulfilling an unusual request, so he was a bit confused, but he sat before the row of keys nonetheless.

He started with a scale, then moved on to a waltz. Rose was smiling ear-to-ear, and Pearl was fascinated. At the end of the piece, the man explained that it was his favorite waltz and his favorite, affordable piano on the market. What a steal.

Pearl was sold at the height of the waltz's first musical phrase, so Pearl agreed to buy it. They used the pool of money that the Crystal Gems had been making. Some of Bismuth's "antique swords" went for a few hundred dollars and was enough to support Rose's interest in human inventions. They paid for delivery to the temple and when they warped back home, they spent a few nights playing cards and feeding birds until the piano finally arrived.

Rose and Pearl moved it to a visually pleasing place near the door to their rooms. Rose fooled around with it for awhile while Pearl sat on the lid of the grand, black instrument. They swapped positions and Pearl touched a few random notes, fascinated. Then she got the hang of it and made up a short melody. Pearl figured out how harmonies worked after a few minutes. She added deep harmonies to her twinkly, high melody and Rose's eyes grew dreamy at the sight of Pearl's thin fingers experimenting with the beautiful human invention.

"Rose?" The tune fell to a slower pace.

"Yes?"

"Is this music?" Rose gave a small smile.

"I think so."

At one point Rose became bored and sat in her room reading. Pearl continued getting to know the instrument and didn't stop until the hiatus in the war was over. That was, of course, months later. By then, Pearl and the piano had become great friends. Pearl listened to human music throughout the time they had off from fighting and had discovered her favorites just in time for the sad night before Homeworld attacked again.

The two gems were deep in the temple, arguing about what Homeworld's next move would be. Rose had hopes that they would put it off longer or leave them alone after months of zero hostility. Pearl tried to snap her out of it and make her realize what was really going to happen.

"Rose, you know that they've had this planned since the start. They've been powerful enough to beat us this whole time. The hiatus was our one chance, and now they're going to give us all they've got. You said it yourself!"

"Did I?" Rose yelled, turning around to Pearl, both of them with their hands in their hair. "Didn't I also say we were going to win?"

"You did. And we will win, but only a few of us will win."

"What's that supposed to mean?!" Rose screamed.

"More of the Crystal Gems will be shattered, Rose! You know they will! War kills gems!"

"I didn't want war!" Rose knelt down and pulled her hair with both hands.

"You did the right thing! War was the only way Homeworld was going to cooperate!"

"But they still won't cooperate! We're still losing! We're still dying! And even though we're still dying, we're still killing! I didn't want any of this, Pearl! I need to get away from it!" She jumped up, tears streaming, and headed to her room in the temple. Pearl followed her silently but quickly.

"How long are you going to be in there?" Pearl asked, concerned. Rose looked at Pearl and stopped her weeping for a moment.

"Come with me."

"Run away from the war?!"

"Just for the night. Before we see all the death, why not live for one more night?"

"We're not going to die, Rose. You aren't, for sure." Rose smiled.

"Just come with me." Pearl stepped into the room of clouds and was instantly entranced in the endless room of Rose's imagination and essence.

"Room, I want to hear the first time I heard my Pearl play Nocturne."

A copy of the piano appeared with a mindless Pearl before it. She had finally read through all the music theory books she'd been interested in. Now that she'd learned how to read music, she applied it and practiced one piece she'd set her heart on at the beginning of her studies. She decided to run it all the way through. Cautiously, her fingers touched the keys and her eyes focused on the sheet music.

"What's that for?" Pearl asked, confused.

"There's one more thing I discovered we could do with music." An image of Ruby and Sapphire appeared out of the clouds behind them. Sapphire moved in sync with Pearl and Ruby moved in sync with Rose. Ruby and Rose held their right hands out for their partners. They met hands and at the moment they did, the sunset-colored room became more reminiscent of the time just after the sun disappears. Small and few stars lit the blue sky. Rose placed her's and Pearl's hands in the proper positions for ballroom dancing and they moved clumsily yet carefully to the tempo of the piece. 

They danced until Pearl got the hang of it, and at the very last cadence, they fused. Behind them, Ruby and Sapphire fused as well. Rainbow Quartz felt a warmth that calmed her, and they spent the rest of the night fused, thinking about all the good things that had happened during the hiatus.