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[3rd POV]
The rays of the morning sun lightly shined their way through the now open windows that lead into one of the largest rooms in the entire school. That room is the place the inhabitants of the land used as their hibernation quarters, where most of them slept through the cold and bleak days of winter in wait for the upcoming warmth of the spring and summer. Under the many white covers lied no more than thirty and no less than twenty-five of lustrous feminine people. Their wildly different style and colour of hair shined in the slight light that illuminated the room, and soon, the first of them opened their eyes for the first time in months.
"Good morning," a soft greeting sounded from the edge of the room.
Rutile yawned as she looked in the direction to see Phosphophyllite, just standing there looking the same as when they began hibernating. A strange sense of relief briefly washed over Rutile at seeing Phosphophyllite in pretty much the same condition as before, less stress and job for her. But she would have preferred if somebody else woke her up instead, somebody with red hair... OH!
"Phos...?" tiredly asks Rutile as she begins to adjust her clothes which have become dishevelled in her sleep.
"Good morning," said Phosphophyllite, again.
Rutile stood up, still a little groggy from her sleep but otherwise fine. Her "roommates" slowly began to wake up as well, all still feeling the sleepiness from the time they spent hibernating.
"You already said that..." Rutile finished tying her sash properly, she rose an eyebrow though when she realized that Phosphophyllite was there alone, "Ah, where are Y/N and Antarcticite?"
"Y/N already went to Cinnabar," Rutile nodded in response, although she felt slight unease as Phosphophyllite's tone trailed off, "And Antarcticite... is on the moon now."
"...What...?"
"Good morning," a set of familiar words sounded inside the dark and small cave that was Cinnabar's home.
Y/N stood at the entrance with a neutral expression holding a neatly folded heap of clothes for Cinnabar to use. The red-haired girl in question just woke up, literally. She slept in a warm cocoon of white bedsheets and pillows.
She blinked once, then twice, "...Good morning."
"Here, your clothes," Y/N swiftly handed her the clothes he brought and turned around.
"...Eh, that's it...?" confusedly asked Cinnabar, clearly lost as to why Y/N would just come in and go so quickly.
"Cover yourself, woman," embarrassedly replied Y/N, Cinnabar couldn't see the slight red hue that appeared on his face, but neither could he see the expression of vibrant crimson colour that spread across her face when she looked down and saw that her sash came undone and her white kimono was barely being held up by her shoulders.
"DON'T TURN AROUND!" loudly yelled Cinnabar as she desperately fiddled with her clothes.
"You don't have to yell you know. Calm down, I haven't seen anything," calmly replied Y/N, although on the side he knew that what he said was far from the truth.
He's seen everything... Moving on from the embarrassing situation, Cinnabar finally managed to put on her usual clothes after some fiddling. Awkward silence reigned over them for a good few seconds before Cinnabar spoke again.
"So... how was the winter?" Cinnabar instantly noticed the change in Y/N's expression, as if all emotion vanished from his features and all that was left was some empty shell of his former self.
"...Sigh..." Y/N sighed as he ran his fingers through his hair in frustration, "Antarcticite... was lost during winter."
Silence once again overtook them as both of the red-haired lustrous Gems could do nothing but stare at the ground. While Cinnabar had trouble processing this information and looked at her feet with shock, Y/N looked down at his hands in self-pity, disappointment and anger.
Y/N finally sighed after a short time has passed, "For now, I suspect me and Phosphophyllite will be doing the winter jobs alone. If you'd like make sure to come to the morning assembly, say good morning to everyone and all that."
"...I won't come to the assembly," Cinnabar's honest and straight to the point reply didn't bother Y/N as he knew she had her reasons to be so apprehensive and didn't blame her for being anti-social.
"I hope you won't mind me taking things easy these first few days," meekly added Y/N, hoping Cinnabar wouldn't be too upset.
"Oh, no it's fine," quickly replied Cinnabar, having a small and gentle smile now.
"Great, thank you for understanding," simply added Y/N, already preparing to leave the red-haired girl to her own devices.
But before he could he was suddenly stopped by Cinnabar, "Ah, wait!"
"Hm?" Y/N rose an eyebrow as Cinnabar appeared to be steeling her nerves before taking a deep breath despite not having lungs.
Then she ran up to Y/N and wrapped her hands around his body, cuddling her head into his shoulder. For a second Y/N looked surprised, but he almost instantly composed himself and returned Cinnabar's kind gesture. A good, tight hug was what he needed most right now, and Cinnabar was always so willing to provide such a gesture. He was slightly worried when he felt Cinnabar nervously shuffle against his body, but simply narrowed it down to her being happy or embarrassed. But he was proven wrong, no amount of mental preparation, no amount of ANY preparation could prepare him for what the red-haired beauty did next.
Time all but sized for Y/N. His mind went completely blank as nearly did his vision. He almost fainted for crying out loud! From a kiss! ...From a kiss... Only now seemed Y/N's mind to catch up with the present situation. Cinnabar's eyes were closed, unable to see Y/N's shock-filled red orb. He didn't know what to do. Is he supposed to kiss back? But... he already has... her. Confusion and stupor, along with the jittering feeling of butterflies in his stomach and the feeling of warmth all across his body overrode any other emotion Y/N could feel at that moment. His arms gently moved to the small of Cinnabar's back. His eyes partially closed as he slowly leaned back into the kiss, and before long he was kissing Cinnabar back with full force, his eyes completely closed now.
Y/N was completely taken back by Cinnabar's eagerness but repaid in kind when he felt the girl's red tongue invade his mouth. He didn't put up much of a fight and freely allowed Cinnabar to explore his mouth with hardly any opposition. The girl seemed to enjoy that as hers and Y/N's tongues danced together and in a metaphorical variation of tango. The track of time was completely lost to the two as a red and silver liquid mixed together, imitating saliva. The two finally broke off after god knows how many minutes of straight-up kissing. They didn't need oxygen, and so they could keep their lips locked for as long as they liked. Y/N noticed Cinnabar shiver for a moment in pleasure, she must have swallowed some of her own liquid mercury and Red Matter, the latter of which is known for being strange to touch. They still held each other close, not wanting to let go of one another while looking at each other through half-lidded eyes.
Cinnabar was the first one to break the silence, "...Don't tell Rutile."
Y/N rose an eyebrow, immediately questioning why her specifically, "What? Why?"
But the red-haired girl could only deadpan at the perpetually present density that would possibly one day turn Y/N into a black hole, "Just... don't. She'd grind me to dust if she found I... kissed you."
Y/N blinked, but then he gently smiled, "Well, if it makes you any happier I... did enjoy it."
It did make her happier, a lot happier. So much so she leaned in for another quick kiss on the lips. She could easily get used to kisses instead of hugs.
"I better get going now, I'll see you later, maybe," gently whispered Y/N into Cinnabar's ear.
"Okay," she mumbled back as Y/N quickly left the premises.
On his walk back to the school he noticed three things. One, the sun was already high in the sky signalling that he spent half a day just kissing Cinnabar on the lips. Two, Cinnabar is a really good kisser. And three, mercury tastes weird, but he doesn't mind. He just hopes his tongue won't get stained in it too often otherwise he, according to Cinnabar, might be in trouble should Rutile find out. Why Rutile specifically, Y/N didn't know yet. Walking into the school Y/N noticed how everyone was already doing their assigned jobs, with Kongo-sensei standing by a table in the middle of a large hallway. The tall bald man appeared to be dizzy and nearly fell because of his tiredness. Y/N just shook his head in exasperation and went to find Phosphophyllite. What he didn't expect to find was Bort confronting his peppermint-haired friend about patrolling.
"Be my partner," Y/N nearly fell face-first into the ground when he heard Bort utter those words.
Phos was equally at a loss of words as she desperately tried to come up with an answer, "Uhm, er, ah, LET ME THINK ABOUT IT!"
And then she ran away, as she usually does, leaving only Y/N and Bort on the scene. The crimson-haired male tried to sneak away from the battle maniac without gaining her attention, but his stealth wasn't the best in the world.
"Where were you this morning? Three-and-a-half said you went to Cinnabar. Got caught up?" guilty as charged, but Y/N couldn't just tell her that.
"Sigh, you don't know the half of it," absentmindedly commented Y/N as he shook his head.
Bort though only gave him her usual stern gaze, "You're right, although I'd wipe that mercury off of your clothes otherwise someone might get the wrong idea."
Y/N visibly stiffened at Bort's seemingly harmless, yet very much not so harmless comment. He instantly tried to wipe any mercury that may have been on him off, only to notice there is none to begin with.
When he looked at Bort for an explanation all he could do was nervously gulp, "...Don't look so gullible next time."
The red-haired male could only stare at the black-haired battle enthusiast with wide eyes and somewhat open mouth, he never thought Bort of all people would play him like a fiddle. Bort huffed and walked past Y/N without saying another word. Y/N stood there for a good minute before sighing in defeat and walking away, completely forgetting about Phosphophyllite's dilemma for the moment.
[[TO BE CONTINUED...]]
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Braggski: Welp, this chapter sure is late. Hope you don't mind too much but at least its out now and boy is there some romance in this one! Oh yes, I did some thinking and decided to divide this story into three books:
Book 1: Anime run of the series.
Book 2: Post-anime and pre-moon saga.
Book 3: Moon and everything else after that, we don't actually have an ending for the manga yet so I might have to go AU there.
I also updated the harem:
Phosphophyllite
Padparadscha
Cinnabar
Rutile
Diamond
Yellow Diamond [Maybe]
Bort [BIG maybe]
Any more than this is going to be pretty fucking hard to do since I actually want some backstory and reason behind their affection instead of just going the usual "harem guy, love him" way. But it's still too soon to tell. Anywho, see ya next time!