Rocking Out
2XO taken from comics by @drawbauchery.
After seeing this comic (warning: dark content), got the idea for this story. Also, GOOD AND HAPPY ENDING.
Rating: E
Wordcount: 1,438
You are an Amethyst. Cut 7XC if you cared about such. You don't.
What you care about is that you’ve been out in the open for three days. What you care about is that you are a soldier. What you care about is that you need to be strong.
The kindergartners praise you when you show how strong you are. They say, “You are performing to the optimal of an Amethysts ability,” or, “This is astounding for your cut.” Once, you even got pat on the head. That was your favorite day.
This has led you to looking for a new way to show how strong you are, much like now. You climbed the cliff face yesterday, and the day before you had moved one of the injectors. There must be something you can do to show you're a good soldier.
A clatter went off at your feet. You look down at your feet and see a pile of rocks that you knocked over by walking into them. Why is there a pile of rocks out here? Why would someone even pile rocks in the first place?
Despite your thoughts, you kneel down and start to pile them back up. Looking the rocks you pick up over, you start to notice something.
Each rock has a bunch of cuts in them.
This wouldn't attract your attention normally, but the way they're cut… it turns into a picture. You pick one up and see a picture of a hopping lifeform you saw the other day. Another looks like a small Peridot on it.
You are about to put the last rock on the pile, a picture of another Amethyst on it, when your hand stops and your head starts going. You grab the rock tighter as a grin comes to your face. You quickly get up and go in search of the nearest group of gems.
It doesn't take you long to find a group as you run around. There's even a kindergartner among them. Now is the time to act.
You stop in front of the group and brandish the rock before you. “Hey, watch how far I can toss this rock.”
You turn and reel back the rock while keeping an eye on the group. The Amethysts’ eyes were wide, obviously afraid that you’d fail to impress with your throwing skills. Before they can try to stop you, you toss the rock as hard as you can. You stand and watch it soar into the distance.
Whoa. Look at that thing go.
The Amethysts whisper behind you, obviously in awe of a new rock throwing record. You smile as you turn, ready for the praise that you’ll get. Instead of praise, however, you are instead faced with a teary eyed pink Amethyst.
“What’s wrong,” you ask carefully. You know your throw was good, but it wasn’t enough for tears. Obviously there was something wrong.
She glares at you and you flinch back. She stomps up to you until she’s almost on top of you before taking a breath in. You are about to ask what’s wrong again when she lets out a shout.
“You dummy!”
Before you can say anything, the pink Amethyst runs off with tears streaming behind her. You look around the murmuring group, looking for an answer in their eyes but finding none. The shock wearing off, you ask the question on your mind, “Why am I a dummy?”
The group murmurs to itself again for a moment before one of the Amethysts steps forward. “Because that wasn’t just a rock.” Your eyebrow raises and she sighs before she continues. “That was one of 2XO’s rocks. They’re important to her, and you just threw one right in front of her.”
Understanding dawns on your face and your heart sinks. You just hurt another Amethyst. You only wanted to be praised, but you hurt someone instead. That isn’t being strong. You almost start to tear up, but brush the tears away furiously.
No time for crying, you have to make this better.
You look up at the Amethyst that was speaking for the group and ask, “How do I fix this?” When all you get is a shrug, you look around at the other Amethysts. All of them have the same response.
A sigh escapes you as you close your eyes and turn your head down. Relying on the others would be useless for this. Then again, what else was new? You aren’t about to give up though.
With determination flowing through you, you open your eyes and a thought pops into your head. With a smile, you point at one of the Amethysts in the crowd.
“You. Help me out a bit.”
Your hands rub against the object in your hands as you walk on your way to the pile of rocks you found earlier. Thinking about it, 2XO would probably be there, making sure none of her other rocks would be missing. Even if she wasn’t, you could leave your apology for her to come back to see.
As you come around the corner, however, you can easily see the back of the pink gem sitting with her pile nearby. A small smile appears on your face, but leaves quickly as your hands rub over the surface of what you’re carrying again. You hope she likes it.
You walk up behind her, your nerves rattling, before you speak. “2XO?”
“What?”
You frown at the wet sound of her reply. You really hurt her. You look down at your gift and can’t help but think that it’s not enough.
“I… I just wanted to give you something. To apologize.”
She turns to look at you, and you can’t help but flinch and hold your gift closer to you. Her eyes are large and wet marks shine on her cheeks.
This was stupid. It’s obviously not enough to make up for what you did.
You kneel down to her level before you thrust your hands out to her. Opening them up, you reveal a rock with the words ‘I’m sorry’ cut into the top.
“I know it’s not the one I threw, and it’s not as good as the ones you have, but I found this one and I tried to make it good but I can’t do it.”
The words leave your mouth in a flood as she picks up the rock from your hands. Wide eyed, she turns it around and finds what you know is a terribly cut picture of one of the Amethysts on another side.
“I couldn’t find the other one, so I made this one but I couldn’t do it right but I wanted to apologize so much but it’s so bad and I’m dumb and-”
Your flood of words stop as 2XO’s arms wrap around your neck. Your skin feels wet where her arm meets your chin, and you realize you had started crying somewhere in your flood of words. Your arms go around to her back almost on their own.
“Thank you.”
You can’t help but smile as you hear those two words.
You sit with your friend 2XO looking over a rock you have cut into. Your mouth is turned down as you scratch at the rock in your hand with a smaller one. “I don't think that I’m cut out for this. It's so hard to get right.”
You look over at her to see her smiling at you, lifting your frown a bit. “It's alright. Sometimes you just need a little practice.”
Her face settles into such a bright smile that your face heats up and you have to turn away.
The two of you sit like that for a while longer before you hear someone coming. Looking up as the footsteps approach, you see a Peridot walking towards you. 2XO lifts an arm and waves at the other gems. “Hi 3XM.”
The Peridot nods at the greeting before she starts to look the two of you over. You continue to scratch at your rock, though you hold it a bit closer to yourself and work on it more slowly. When she's seen what you think she's needed to, she nods again.
“Working together on a project and learning to commit more fragile work. Those will be very useful skills in your futures.”
Your face grows hot again and you focus on the rock in your hand. Your focus is broken, however, when you feel the metal pins of the Peridots limb enhancer brush through your hair, ruffling it a little. You can practically feel the stars in your eyes.
“Good job you two.”
