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[3rd POV]
Phosphophyllite painstakingly dragged her body through snow, the frozen water vapour reached all the way up to just a little below her chest. Antarcticite, being the true winter Gem that she is, easily pushed through the snow even with the bad quality of light in the environment. She had quite the lead on Phosphophyllite who swerved left and right through the snow, her path looking like a drunk snake rather than a straight line. Y/N was lagging behind Antarcticite on purpose to make sure Phosphophyllite doesn't get lost in the snow or wonders off on another one of her "great adventures".
"Come on Phos, just a little more," monotonously encouraged Y/N, contemplating whether to carry her using Red Matter or not, ultimately deciding not to do so since Phosphophyllite was the one that wanted to do this in the first place.
"Easy for you to say, you have that fancy-schmancy red water of yours," Y/N merely deadpanned at Phosphophyllite's tired remark before sighing.
"I'm... not even going to bother responding to that. Oh, we've arrived," idly commented Y/N as he and Phosphophyllite finally caught up to Antarcticite.
Phosphophyllite looked at the vast fields of ice in front of her, it looked almost... beautiful. Strangely shaped icebergs spread as far as the eye could see. Phosphophyllite looked with wonder at the frozen fields of ice floes.
"Whoa, I thought they were Lunarians for a second," Y/N smiled slightly at Phosphophyllite's relieved sigh, it was nice to see her with her spirits up again.
"These are just some ice floes. Apparently, when the sea freezes, if the microflora from the seafloor are encased in ice it forms into those strange patterns. But one time... sensei called them sinners. For some reason, I've never understood that," while Phosphophyllite doesn't pay Antarcticite's words much mind, Y/N narrowed his eyes slightly as his small smile fell.
But Y/N didn't have much time to brood as a tremor slightly shook the ground, "Here it comes, best cover your ears, Phos."
Phosphophyllite looked confusedly at Y/N before shrieking as a terrible screeching sound echoed throughout the entire island. One of the ice floes that was positioned awkwardly, semi-sideways that is, started to sink and by scraping against the ice surrounding it created an extremely loud scraping sound. Phosphophyllite's entire body resonates with the loud sound to the point of almost cracking while Y/N and Antarcticite seem to be fine.
The winter Gem drew her saw... sword... thing and slowly walked towards the screaming ice floes, "That awful sound reverbs throughout the entire island, and disturbs our dear friends in their sleep."
"So we break them," added Y/N as the reflective crimson liquid began to pool for his body and formed four arm-thick tentacles that had axe-shaped attachments at their ends, "Feel free to join in at any moment."
Antarcticite's high-heeled shoes finally came to use as she ran on the slippery ice towards the screeching ice floe, the tips of her heels digging into the ice and providing some manner of grip on the slick surface. Y/N meanwhile created small platforms of Red Matter under his feet from which protruded rows of small spikes that pierced the ice and provided stable footing. Phosphophyllite looked in awe as Antarcticite slammed her jagged sword into the ground with enough force to make the ice in front of her rumble and collapse into the watery depths below. While Antarcticite delivered precise and quick blows, Y/N's style of breaking ice floes was much more barbaric. He literally just slammed the Red Matter axe tentacles into the ice and hoped they broke in the way he wanted them to. It was a simple yet effective strategy.
"Now you try," both Y/N and Antarcticite said at the same time, but Phosphophyllite didn't seem too keen on doing so.
"There's no way I can do that!" loudly yelled Phos as she knelt on the ground, this winter job schtick is going to be a lot harder than she originally thought.
A couple of hours later night fell and the three of the four active Gems found themselves in the infirmary, or Rutile's office as it was sometimes referred to. Although it always felt off without the doctor herself there to terrorize you.
"So... I hate to say this after you've shared this wonderful job with me, but..." Phosphophyllite sounded very tired, if not slightly dead inside as she lied on a bench with her head in a bucket of water that had one glowing jellyfish in it.
"What is it?" Antarcticite meanwhile appeared to be searching for something in one of the many wooden containers placed on the tall shelf, many other wooden baskets filled with gem parts filled the rest of the large shelf's empty space.
"I don't think I'm all up for this yet," Y/N who was sitting by Phosphophyllite's side rose an eyebrow at how easily Phosphophyllite gave up, she was usually much more stubborn than this, "I've only got these legs going for me. Just these legs."
"Well, my body is not yet at its peak in a temperature as high as this. But if you fall into the sea, you'll be ground to dust by the ice floes. It takes time getting used to," but Phosphophyllite groaned as Antarcticite finished her sentence.
"Not you too," Antarcticite merely raised an eyebrow and gave Phosphophyllite a quick glance before returning to what she was doing, "Y/N always says those things. 'Things take time Phos.'"
"I'm sitting right here you know," Y/N's eye twitched for a split second.
"Ugh, I hope you're right. You're not just trying to get rid of me to have more alone time with sensei, right, Antarc?" and that earned Phosphophyllite a flying smack to the face from Antarcticite, who appears to have a pretty good aim with a clipboard, "Ow!"
"Am I nonexistent at this point?" quietly asked Y/N as he sighed and leaned back slightly.
Antarcticite had to take a deep breath to calm herself, she lost her cool for a moment there, "We low hardness Gems have nothing if not our courage," while these words didn't specifically affect Y/N, not anymore at least, he understood where Antarcticite was coming from.
"There are just things I can't do," if Y/N was sitting by Phosphophyllite's head he would've at least tried to head pat her by now, but unfortunately, or fortunately, you goddamn degenerate, he was sitting by her feet.
"Because you never try," emotionlessly replied Antarcticite.
"She does try, she's just bad," quietly added Y/N and received a light kick to the arm from Phosphophyllite who heard him.
"I do things I can as best I can," Phosphophyllite's voice had a tinge of annoyance from Y/N's quiet remark.
"And so you never accomplish anything new," it was silent after Antarcticite replied to Phosphophyllite's self-reflective words.
Thankfully when Y/N went to sleep he didn't have that weird dream of Phosphophyllite again, he prayed it never resurfaces again.
As the next day began, Phosphophyllite wore new shoes, same as Antarcticite's high heels. While the winter gem was overlooking Phosphophyllite's new training regiment so the mint-haired girl could find her own rhythm for doing her job, Y/N continued to break the ice floes on his own some distance away from the two females to give them some space.
ₚₗₑₐₛₑ...
Y/N paused for a moment, "There it is again."
Then he resumed his work, but it wasn't long before he heard those faint, eerie whispers again. Like somebody whispering into his ear, but when he tried to pinpoint the source of the voice there was nobody there.
...ₘₐₖₑ ᵢₜ ₛₜₒₚ...
This time Y/N stopped for a good few minutes. The voices didn't stop and continued to whisper their pained words straight into Y/N's mind. This wasn't the first time he heard them, but they never stopped having an impact on his psyche.
...ᵢₜ ₕᵤᵣₜₛ...
...ₕₑₗₚ...
...ₛₐᵥₑ ₘₑ...
"Hey, Y/N! Apparently, Phos can make out what the ice floes are saying. Let's go report back to sensei," Y/N jumped slightly as he was broken out of his stupor by Antarcticite's voice.
"Alright, I'll be there shortly!" yelled back Y/N as he retracted all the surrounding Red Matter back into his body, 'That's right... I've never told anyone I can hear them so clearly. Guess I'm not going crazy, or maybe both myself and Phosphophyllite are going mad...'
The three quickly made their way back to the school and reported to Kongo-sensei. The tall, bald man seemed to ponder on the new information for a moment before arriving at the simple conclusion that Phosphophyllite could talk with the ice floes because of her strange connection with the sea, courtesy of Ventricosus.
"Ice floes may possess the ability to speak, but that does not mean they possess sentience. They are like the dregs of the ancient life-forms. They have a tendency to reflect and amplify the anxiety of those who behold them. You must keep your peace of mind when dealing with them," Y/N half-heartedly listened as Kongo-sensei basically told Phosphophyllite to steer clear of the frozen organisms.
He was once again brought back from his daydream by Antarcticite, "I know it's a false hope, but I can't help but wish her arms could match her legs."
Y/N spared Phosphophyllie a passing glance, she appeared to be deep in thought. He just hoped she wouldn't do something stupid again because of some critique. It was true that she received more than enough cavilling already from her fellow peers, so Y/N could only hope it wouldn't leave her depressed, otherwise, he will have to find a way to cheer her up. He completely disregarded anything else that was said in that room afterwards and the three went to sleep since the sun already set. The next day came, and boy was Y/N not looking forward to this part of the winter.
"I hate manual labour," idly commented Y/N as he was forced to shovel snow to make sure the school doesn't get buried.
While Antarcticite did do her fair share of snow shovelling, she wasn't much of a team player despite having worked with Y/N a couple of times before. They usually kept their distance from one another as they had a lot of space to cover with just the two of them. So while Y/N was shovelling snow onto a pile, Antarcticite was...
Not helping Phosphophyllite, per se. Y/N sighed as the three of them spent the entire day shovelling snow around while Phosphophyllite kept subsequently being buried beneath small avalanches.
"I hate manual labour," this time both Y/N and Phosphophyllite said it at the same time, like the BFFs they are.
And so another day comes and goes, and the three Gems are back to breaking ice floes. This time it was Y/N's turn to look over Phosphophyllite while Antarcticite took the charge in destroying ice floes. Y/N silently continued to use only one Red Matter axe to break the ice floes a little bit further away as to not accidentally break Phosphophyllite in the process while the girl herself was pouting and slowly sawing a small glacier in half, but she wasn't even 1/4 of the way done. Y/N listened to her mutter something under her breath from the side but didn't pay much attention to it since he believed it to be her just cursing.
'I wonder who Kongo-sensei was referring to as "ancient lifeforms"...' Y/N continued to absent-mindedly break ice floes, '...Humans, perhaps?'
Y/N hasn't forgotten that time Kongo-sensei appeared distraught by these so-called "humans". Just hearing their name being uttered by Phosphophyllite seemed to put him on edge, and made Y/N very curious. Let's just hope that the saying "Curiosity killed the cat" wasn't going to become a reality.
"UWAH!" Phosphophyllite's sudden yelp brought him out of his daydream as he quickly looks back at her, only to see her slipping on the ice, "...Ah."
She slips past the edge of an ice shell and begins to fall into the water. Her voice gets caught in her throat as she grasps her open hand towards Y/N in a silent cry for help. The crimson-haired male stands there, frozen in shock with wide eyes as he watches his very close friend literal fall into the maws of danger.
-WHOOSH- -CLASP-
But thankfully, his extra Red Matter appendage was faster to react than his body and quickly wrapped itself around Phosphophyllite's leg before suddenly yanking her upwards and throwing her into the sky as the ice shells crashed into one another in the area where Phosphophyllite would've fallen.
"Waah!" the mint-haired girl cries out as she suddenly plummets towards the ground, luckily this time Y/N wasn't frozen in place and managed to catch her just before her inevitable shattering.
-CRAAAACK-
Well, he did catch her arms, unfortunately, their tensile strength wasn't as great as Phosphophyllite's legs and they broke right off as the mint-haired girl's body hit the ice floor with a thud and broke in multiple places.
"Ow," emotionlessly says Phosphophyllite with a tinge of anger in her voice while Y/N looks at her arms, then at her, then back at her arms and chuckles awkwardly.
"What the hell are you two doing?!" and here comes Antarcticite, worried out of her mind as she literally saw Y/N throwing Phosphophyllite into the air and then trying to catch her, only to fail.
"...Don't remember," replied Phosphophyllite as Y/N and Antarcticite both sighed at the same time.
They had to carry Phosphophyllite like a sack of rocks because of how heavily broken her body was, only her arms and legs were left mostly uncracked.
After they made it back to the school the two of them placed every last piece of Phosphophyllite onto a wooden table, no matter how small they made sure to collect every last shard they could find. Then, with the help of Kongo-sensei, painstakingly put the mint-haired troublemaker back together. By the time they were done, the moon was already out and Phosphophyllite actually appeared to have fallen asleep.
"I'll be going now," tiredly said Antarcticite as she walked away from the infirmary, leaving only Y/N, Kongo-sensei and Phosphophyllite in the room.
"Rest well, don't move too much and let the glue set. If you'll need me I'll be meditating," and with that Kongo-sensei also left to 'meditate', but in reality, everybody knew he was just going to take a nap.
After the only other male on the island left, Y/N and Phosphophyllite were left in silence for a couple of minutes, "I know you're not sleeping."
A small groan escaped Phosphophyllite as she slowly proceeded to sit up, "...I'm sorry."
Y/N rose an eyebrow, "For what?"
"For what happened earlier," Y/N let out an 'Oh.' in realisation, Phosphophyllite genuinely looked apologetic, if not downright sad.
"It's fine, mistakes happen," quickly replied Y/N, trying to make sure Phosphophyllite's mood doesn't sink any further than it already has.
"It's not fine, I nearly lose my arms because of some stupid icicle," Y/N slightly smiled, at least Phosphophyllite was still herself, somewhat.
"Did you..." Y/N's smile faded as he trailed off, "...Hear them?"
He received silence in return for a few seconds, "...Yes. They said that..."
She didn't need to finish her sentence for Y/N to understand what she was trying to say, the ice floes tried tricking her into losing her arms which could've lead to a very terrible future.
Y/N sighed as he closed his eyes, "It's fine. Just... don't do that, ever, okay? You've genuinely scared me there."
Phosphophyllite smiled lightly, not that Y/N could see it properly in the dark, "Yeah..."
She then suddenly hoisted her legs to the side in an attempt to stand but was quickly stopped by Y/N who blocked her path by standing in front of her and putting a hand on her shoulder, "No. The glue still hasn't set properly."
Phosphophyllite just cutely pouts in response and hums, "Hug."
"Hm?" Y/N hums back in confusion.
"Hug. Gimme," Y/N merely sweatdrops at Phosphophyllite's honesty as the mint-haired girl sits there expectantly with her arms outstretched, she was also pouting rather cutely too.
"Um... okay?" Y/N was slightly weirded out by her sudden change in mood, but this was Phosphophyllite he was talking about so it wasn't TOO unnatural, for her at least.
Y/N moved in to give his mint-haired friend a hug, which she deeply enjoyed. Y/N had to hunch down a little bit to be able to comfortably embrace his friend, but luckily he wasn't too tall, like Kongo-sensei, so he was still able to comfortably hug Phos.
But he quickly rose an eyebrow as he felt a strange sensation on his neck, "Did you just... bite me?"
While he was DEFINITELY weirded out, he didn't pull back despite feeling Phosphophyllite literally nibble on his neck, "Yep."
"...I don't know how to respond to this," Y/N was beyond confused at this point, a few seconds ago it seemed like Phosphophyllite was going through a lot of deep stuff, and now she was freaking kissing his neck, it was a very weird situation for him to wrap his head around.
It didn't feel particularly bad, but it was a strange sensation for sure, and he didn't exactly want to stop her in case it made things even more awkward. Finally, after a couple of minutes, she stopped.
"Your turn," Y/N began blinking rapidly as Phosphophyllite tilted her head to the side.
"W-What brought this on?" he actually stuttered there, damn.
"Just an advice I got from a very cool friend," Y/N immediately thought of Antarcticite, but it couldn't have been her, so the only other option was... the ice floes?
"What kind of advice did you ask for?!" one of the many mysteries Y/N would never get an answer to, "Sigh..."
And so he actually followed Phosphophyllite's demands and moved his lips to the side of her neck, just below her jaw. Phos, let out a quick squeak at the sudden feeling before completely melting into it. Unfortunately for her Y/N wasn't as eager as she was to do this sort of thing so he stopped after only a minute.
"...I-I'm just going to sleep now..." still weirded out, and slightly aroused, Y/N ran off to his room.
Phosphophyllite just sat there on the wooden table before lying back down on it, "...Dummy."
Y/N's prayers of not having weird dreams of Phosphophyllite went unheard by whatever God is up there, although his newest one was not a meme but uh, a bit more mature than he would've liked.
[[TO BE CONTINUED...]]
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Braggski: This was a bit of a bumpy ride for a chapter with how many timeskips and somewhat weird pacing it contained. Anyway, hope you enjoyed this clusterfuck and sorry about the delay. See you next time!