Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

“Let’s go,” Diamond says.

For the first time, we step onto a ship of the moon people with no intention to fight.

“Areki, be careful — there’s a step here.”

“O-okay. Thanks, Benito…”

Alexandrite trips anyway. Benito tries to hold onto their hand, Morga (what are they doing here?) grips Areki around their abdomen, even I manage to grab their hair, jumping out from behind senpai, although I’m not really of any use here. I feel my body almost breaking and let out a short cry.

“Whoa! Areki-san, are you alright?”

“Th-thank you.” Alexandrite clearly isn’t used to being taken care of like this. “And I keep asking everyone — call me Areki-chan!”

“Sorry,” I slump my shoulders. I did remember that preference of theirs, why didn’t I correct myself in time?

“This voice… Phos?”

“Yeah, and also this disrespect for the elders,” Morga chimes in. I should probably snap back, but I don’t really have anything to say. Cinna-senpai, meanwhile, shifts in place as if they want to say something, but in the end they don’t say anything. I’m overcome with emotion anyway — did they want to protect me? Or make another joke at my expence? I almost got senpai to talk to others, look at that!

“You’re here, too? But you’re so young…”

“Phos?!”

“Yeah, it’s me,” I shrug. What is everyone so shocked about?

“But why?” Dia looks at me, surprised but faintly amused. I roll my eyes: what, do I have to give the explanation I gave Cinna-senpai again? But then Ghost chimes in from the shadows, quoting me:

“Nobody wants us here, maybe someone will need us there?..”

“Ghost-san? You did come after all,” I smile. Were they so inspired by what I said as to remember it verbatim? Ghost steps back into the shadows (interestingly, they have a box under their arm), and for a few seconds I am the center of attention.

“It’s as if you were the main organizer of this whole thing instead of me,” Dia notes with a gentle smile.

“The young ones scare me,” Yellow says.

I quietly move towards Cinna-senpai, trying to keep a straight face. Well, yeah, I did eavesdrop on Dia to find out when they’re going to the moon, and I did talk Cinna-senpai and Ghost-san into coming along, but is that really that much? I only wanted to help Dia! Cinna-senpai grumbles softly when I hide behind them, but the next moment all the attention is on Dia, Padparadscha and the moon person. Cicada is soft and squishy, the gems squeal in delight, but not senpai and me — we stand to the side, waiting for something.

Even from far away, Bort stands out. Dia’s eyes leak golden alloy.

“I’m sorry we grew that far apart,” they whisper.

My heart hurts for them. I want to help them so much, but I don’t know how. Cinna-senpai gives Dia a long look too, but says nothing.

***

The moon people welcome us with a celebration. The road is littered with flower petals (were these roses? lotus flowers?), and a whole crowd has gathered to greet gems on the moon. Aechmea in his suit reeks of lies and deception. Dia obviously doesn’t trust him either, but I still want to warn them: don’t expect anything good from that one.

Then we’re alone, and Dia conveys the news to us.

“You’re telling us this is… all the gems that were taken?” says Morganite, unusually serious, pouring the dust from one hand to another. The others stay silent as the realization sinks in.

“Yes.”

Yellow Diamond and Alexandrite crack, and the sound echoes over the moon, then dies down, absorbed by the soft dust.

“I will ask Aechmea to restore everyone from dust,” Dia promises. “I’ll go to him right now.”

It doesn’t help much.

Chapter Text

The moon people fixed Padparadscha . I should probably be happy, they were one of my favorite characters back before I woke up as Phos, but I’m scared. Padparadscha is one of the oldest gems, and the wisest of all of us. If anyone discovers my secret, it would be them. Especially since I’m going to help Dia: how do I explain the advice I give?

Padparadscha only saw Phos as a little kid hiding behind Sensei, I tell myself. What can they know about you? What suspicion can they get? I don’t even know.

Actually, I have no idea what happens next. Canon has changed already, and even if you ignore that, the manga was not finished where I’m from. The author didn’t get to after the night raid. How will the night raid even go, with Cinna-senpai being here? (Senpai is very careful about walking on the mineral oils only, keeping their poison as far away from the gem dust as they can, trying not to harm even more the ones that were taken. I want to pour the dust from one hand to another, entranced, but instead I just walk next to them awkwardly. )

I can hear Padparadscha’s deep voice from afar:

“Alex, Benito…”

“It’s been so long,” Areki-chan says. (It’s more that I know the words than I hear them.)

“I’m sorry to hear about Chrysoberyl.”

“You have nothing to be sorry about.”

Their red mane sways gently, as if in a breeze, but there’s no wind on the moons

“Morga, Ame… eighty-four!”

“That’s right! I knew you’d tell!” The Amethyst who went instead of their twin laughs happily.

“And Cinnabar. I’m glad you’re not alone anymore,” Padparadscha greets them with a wide, warm smile. Cinna-senpai nods back. “And you… aren’t you that young little gem that was always clinging to sensei?”

“Yeah. I’m Phosphophyllite, it’s nice to meet you, Padparadscha-san!” Despite my irrational fear, I’m not lying. Padparadscha is a gem actually concerned about other’s emotional wellbeing, and I really respect them for that.

“I didn’t see you around last time,” Padparadscha notes(*), still talking to me. I rub the back of my neck and fight the urge to hide my face behind my hair, like senpai does: I wasn’t even at the school when Padparadscha woke up in the spring.

“Running around with Cinnabar somewhere, I bet,” Morga butts in again. I take offence at senpai’s behalf and almost say something like As if that’s a bad thing, but then I’m assaulted with a memory: back when I was human, I had a little brother. When I was ashamed on his behalf for some (usually stupid) reason, I said the same kind of stuff sometimes, if I didn’t reprimand him outright. Is Morga the same kind of shitty older sister?

“Better company than yours,” Cinna-senpai snaps suddenly, and immediately hides their face behind their hair.

“Don’t be so rude,” Padparadscha laughs softly, and my fear eases. “Ghost.”

Ghost Quartz comes out from behind a column:

“I will for sure surprise you one day,” they smile, tilting their head to the side.

“How’s the one inside you doing?”

“Rude, as always. They say hi,” Ghost-san snorts. Was that “saying hi” actually something like “none of your business”, I wonder, or are they not as rude as I imagine?

“I asked Aechmea to restore the others from dust,” Diamond says, stepping lightly despite the weight of the golden hands. “As you see, Padparadscha was restored, so maybe they’ll be able to do that, too.”

The light falls just right that their pearl eye shines. Diamond smiles, and it hurts to look at them again — I don’t know what awaits before anymore, but I know it will hurt, and I can’t even help them.

Or can I?..

After Aechmea tells us about the armor of love that surrounds Sensei, he pulls Cinna-senpai aside. When I catch his gaze, — a predator in a diplomat’s skin, — I suddenly understand who I really need to fear.

If he thinks I am a threat to his plan, the threat… will be eradicated. And I don’t even know whether senpai will miss me, nor whether they will make a fuss about it. Who else do I even matter to?..

“What did he want?” I ask anxiously when senpai comes back; the little droplets of mercury hang around their head like a halo.

“He offered to suppress my poison. Said he’s very familiar with curses.”

“And you?”

“This is my curse to bear.” They lower their head, hiding their eyes, and then suddenly they create a butterfly from their poison. (We did this back then we made drawings of butterflies for the natural encyclopedia — they fear abrupt movement, you can look at them but drawing them is a different matter entirely. I’m no good at drawing, especially from memory, but senpai was afraid to mess up the paper, so they had to model the butterflies for me.) “Also, I can do this.”

The butterfly flutters its wings and doesn’t leak even a little — did senpai train this while I wasn’t looking?

Then Diamond notices the butterfly.

“Woah! I didn’t know you could do that!”

The next moment Cinna-senpai and their poison is the center of gems’ attention. Dia loves this, Morga does too, I think, even if they make a slightly insulting joke. I suspect they actually do that out of amazement.

Senpai endures this, not really enjoying it, but with a faint new hope. That’s a curse for you there, right, prince?

Although we do have another gem with a curse with us . How will the canon story of Cairngorm work out here?

***

“So, about restoring gems from dust… There’s a couple of things you should know,” Aechmea begins, and I already know what’s next.

“…We will only be able to restore those of hardness five or higher.”

…

“Four and below? That’s… Fluorite, Sphalerite, and… Antarcticite.”

no-no-no

Diamond doesn’t even crack, but their face is that of someone dying inside. If they were human, they would be white as a sheet right now.

“Do it anyway.”

I didn’t have a hint of doubt.