Black Teardrops

"Pearl, would you cancel, say, everything I've got for the next two hours?"

"Of course, my Diamond."

Yellow nodded slightly in thanks. She wouldn't normally thank a servant, but the simple, routine action of clearing her schedule suddenly felt like the Pearl had spared her from seemingly infinite torture.

The Pearl opened the door for her diamond, and sprung back to her heels, trying to follow her in.

"I'd prefer you wait outside the door."

"Sure thing, my Diamond!" As her Diamond walked into her private chambers, the Pearl silently huffed. What was so important that the luminous Yellow Diamond needed complete solitude? Surely, she could use her help. But still, she stood with her hands together, looking pretty and patient, listening closely for anything. Something was off about her, suddenly, after an emergency meeting. She spoke and walked quicker than usual. Only her Pearl would ever bother to notice her rapidly blinking eyes, her heavy breaths. Something was urgent, and Pearl could only wonder what.

Yellow, though, was quite oblivious to her Pearl's curiosity, as usual. It felt strange being completely alone for the first time in White knows how long. The room just felt depressing and empty. An overwhelming sense of hatred was quickly enveloping her mind. Hatred for herself, hatred for Rose Quartz. She took a deep breath, pinching the bridge of her nose. She didn't want to close her eyes; every time she did, she saw pink. The outline of shards.

You deserve to suffer.

She couldn't help but agree with the thoughts whirring through her head. She had given in and gave that worthless little planet to Pink. Because of this, the actions of the Rose Quartz created there were her fault, too. She deserved this splitting headache; she deserved the strange feeling she couldn't shake. A combination of sadness, hopelessness, anger, regret, which combined to create... nothing. It was her responsibility to deal with the grief she had caused Blue. But feeling sorry for herself and others didn't leave much time for what really mattered.

She slowly made her way to the throne in the corner of the room and pulled up a screen. Her considerate Pearl had cleared more schedule than she was instructed to, unless there was nothing in those spots at all. She couldn't tell. She had been feeling like a worthless slacker for a while now. Either way, she was now in the process of wasting five hours. Five hours she didn't have to waste in the eternity of work she'd have to complete. She honestly didn't feel like it was the best time to go crawling to Blue, and she knew that White would only give her a pasive-aggressive lecture for two minutes and send her on her way. She couldn't let White know, of all gems, about any free time she might have, anyway. She knew she shouldn't attempt to type out new orders when she could barely think straight. She was out of options. She regretted it now, wishing she could be on a call with her Nephrites right now. Something else to think about.

She let out a little annoyed groan, trying to massage away the pain in her head. It wouldn't work anyway, but she didn't know what else to do. She felt already like she was losing her mind, idling at such an important time. White would surely give her a piece of her mind if she ever found out about this, if she was even wiling to speak to her anymore. If Yellow could choose, she wouldn't want to listen to her own excuses, nonetheless spout them out to her harsh superior.

Unfortunately, without the normal distraction, she couldn't think about anything but the words that she had heard shortly before now.

"My Diamonds, Pink Diamond... has been shattered by Rose Quartz."

She stared down at her feet, her breathing going funny despite her best efforts to stay calm. The words echoed in her head like cave walls. Her vision blurred. She hugged herself tightly in an unsuccessful attempt to get rid of this horrible feeling. She felt like she was going to lose consciousness. She glanced over at the bed she almost never had reason or time to use. Although they didn't need them, each diamond had one, for when they wanted to relax.