It's Becoming Crystal Clear (Jasper x Reader)

Chapter 21: Diamond in the Rough

You discharged yourself a few minutes later. After all, there was absolutely nothing wrong with you. In fact, it felt as though absolutely nothing was wrong in the world. You walked out wearing the same clothes you came in with, which had been mended by Steven's healing powers when he used them on you.

When you got home, you were shocked and delighted to see many of the townsfolk were gathered outside with protective gear, cleaning up the mess of mostly inert acidic goo, washing away troubling quantities of your own blood, and gathering up all of the broken glass they could find. They stopped to wave and clap when they saw you coming. Jasper led you carefully up the stairs of the front porch. You may have been healed, but you were still exhausted.

"Thanks, everyone," you said weakly, smiling and waving before heading indoors. Jasper helped you to the couch and got you a glass of water. "And thank you, my Cheeto Puff."

"Yes, well, I guess you've earned the right to call me that."

There was a knock at the door.

"I'll get it," you said, rising shakily and crossing the floor to the door upon weary feet. You opened it to find Sadie, looking quite the worse for wear herself (not that you could blame her considering the news of Lars being stranded on Homeworld), struggling to hold a squirming puppy. "Thanks for looking after him. Was he any trouble?"

"No, he's a well-behaved little guy. Only weird thing was how he kept jumping at the TV."

"What was on?"

"I'm kinda distracted lately, so I wasn't really watching. From what I gathered, it was a documentary about tigers."

You burst out laughing. Evidently confused, Sadie set Pinky down and went back outside, shutting the door behind her. His paws skidded about on the spot as he looked between you and Jasper, unsure of who to run to. Jasper gestured towards you with her head. Pinky didn't seem to get the message, instead sitting and staring at her with his head tilted. Finally, she gave up.

"Fine, come here."

The puppy didn't need to be asked twice. He bolted across the room and jumped straight into the waiting arms of his tiger mom. He began to whine impatiently. Catching his meaning, Jasper walked over to you with him. He leaned over to lick your face.

"I'm glad to see we're all safe and sound. Now if I'm not needed for any more heroics, I'm going to go upstairs and take a nap."

Crawling into bed, you caught up on some much-needed sleep. You dreamt you were in a cartoon based partly on the characters of the Emerald Hegemony and Matrix Null and the events surrounding their conflict, modified so that it was purely original content. It seemed like it could make for a long-running, high quality series, thrilling and intellectually satisfying sci-fi adventure the whole family would enjoy, but no, because no one wants to let someone with no experience or connections create and run a show, and because of some nonsense about ethnic slurs in the title, like seriously, does no one remember the old rhyme, "if it's spelled with an 'a' then it's okay?"

It was early in the afternoon when you finally woke up to find your head lying in Jasper's lap as she sat on the bed reading a book. As you looked up at her, you found yourself realizing for the first time how beautiful she was. And not like "pretty in her own unique way." No, she was truly beautiful, and you were just now seeing clearly. It probably made a big difference that there was no hint of murderousness in her expression.

"(Y/N)? You okay?" she asked when you'd been staring in silence for quite a long time.

"Yeah, yeah I'm fine. It's just... you're incredible," you said, sitting up.