Better Together

A Single Pale Rose

"Alright, let's go see Pearl!" Y/n said, leaving some money on the table. We immediately rushed over to Pearl, who was busy cleaning up the temple with a vacuum in hand. "PEARL, WE'RE READY TO TALK!" I shouted. "Um, what?" Pearl asked, turning off the vacuum. "We got your text saying you were ready to talk, with the weird monkey emoji next to it?" Y/n said. "Erm, I didn't send you any messages. I haven't used my phone since this morning when I put it away." Pearl replied. "Maybe you accidentally dialed me somehow with your gem?" I asked. "No, that's physically impossible! Let me just pull it out and we'll get to the bottom of this. See- um, here I-" Pearl said, trying to pull out her phone. Quite a few items started coming out of Pearl's gem, but none of them were her phone. "Pearl, you okay...?" Y/n asked, slightly worried.

"Where on earth could I have put it?! It's gotta be in here somewhere!" Pearl panicked. "Hey, you just sent another one!" I said, showing Pearl my phone. She looked at the text with a face of horror. "Steven, Y/n, I need you to go inside my gem and find my phone." Pearl said, serious. "I-inside your gem?! Is it stuck there or something?" Y/n asked. "There are things that I can't tell you, but I CAN tell you that I need you to find my phone, please. I can bring you back outside once you've found what you're looking for." Pearl replied. I gave Pearl my phone so we could text her to bring us out once we found her phone, and she sucked us up into a white light and brought us inside her gem. Inside her gem is this giant bright room and there was...Pearl stocking something?!

"Wait a minute, Pearl?" I asked, staring at her. "What is going on..." Y/n mumbled. "Ah, Steven! Now let's see, where should I file you?" Pearl said, picking me up. "Woah, Pearl, put Steven down! You sent us in here to find your phone, not file us!" Y/n yelled. "My phone? Alright, let's see..." Pearl replied, putting me down. "Phew, that was close. Thanks Y/n." I whispered, giving him a kiss. "No problem." He whispered back, reciprocating the kiss. "Hm, I'm not seeing anything...oh! It's a cellular phone, so it must be under 'c'." Pearl said, flipping to the alphabetized section. She pointed to a section of the items, but there was an empty slot. "I don't understand, it should be right here! Unless some other me took it..." Pearl said. "There are more of you in here?" I asked. "Oh heavens no, not here. I made sure of that. I'm good at keeping things tidy, which is why I get to be surfaced." Pearl replied.

"If one of those Pearl's has the phone, could you tell us where to find her?" Y/n asked. "Oh you don't want to go where they are, it's a mess. Let's just stay here where everything is neatly organized!" Pearl said. "Y/n and I can handle it!" I shouted, confident. Pearl just groaned and figured we weren't gonna give up, so she transported the 2 of us to another place. "Hang on a minute, this just looks like the temple from the past?" Y/n said, taking in the surroundings. We looked around the area for a bit, before hearing the sounds of crying. "Oh...that kind of mess." I mumbled, walking over to the noise as Y/n followed behind me. Pearl was just sitting there with her knees curled up. "Um...Hey Pearl inside Pearl's Pearl, you upset about the phone thing too?" I asked, sitting down next to her.

"No, it's Rose. She can't have a baby, what was she thinking?" Pearl sobbed. "Oh that's really awkward..." Y/n said. I just went a little pale and turned to Y/n who gave me an unsure shrug, and turned my attention back to Pearl. "What am I even going to do when she disappears? I'm just going to lose her! Just like how I lost my...what was it you said?" Pearl continued sobbing. "Your cell phone?" I said. "MY CELL PHONE!" She cried out louder. "Woah, it's gonna be okay. That's why you sent Y/n and I in here." I said, as we both hugged her. "I think I know where it is, it's in the place where I lost everything." Pearl sniffled, giving us her hand and teleporting us to another location. As we looked around, the field below us was very red, including the mountains and surrounding areas. We started walking for a bit, but I looked behind me to see Y/n shivering rapidly.

"Sweetie, are you alright?" I asked. "I-i don't know...I just got some kind of blurry image stuck in my head, I'll be alright. But this place is starting to scare me, let's just try to hurry up." Y/n said, grabbing my hand. I nodded and we proceeded to walk forward more until I tripped over something and looked down to see broken gem shards all over the ground. "AHH!" I shouted, trembling in place and standing up. Y/n just had a horrified look on his face and walked closer to the gems. "W-wait Y/n, those are shattered gems!" I exclaimed. He walked towards one of them and picked it up, immediately dropping it in place. "Oh my god...!" Y/n barely got out, breathing hard. "Y/n, what's wrong?!" I asked, now getting seriously concerned.