12 DAYS OF AN EYEMETHYST CHRISTMAS: Day 3

#12daysofshipping

How are these getting longer each time? I mean, these are getting to mean more than they should. This one especially. Well, at least I wrote this one super earlier this time around.

After getting settled in, Amethyst finally allows Eyeball to explain the full story about her life changing experience from the Gem War.

STAYING WARM

Eyeball and Amethyst sit on the floorboards by the cushions next to the window with a mutual calmness as the door to the bathroom opens. Steven steps out, carrying with him a little trinket for occasional use. "Now I know we don't have a fireplace, but I do have a night light."

Steven squats down next to an outlet to install the night light with a slight grunt. "There we go." He flips the switch and the light from the small bulb turns on. Eyeball glares at it as her eye twitches. "Are you kidding with this?" Steven sweats as he turns to face his unstable acquaintance.

"Erm, we can't exactly get a fire in here because if we did, that would be--!" Pearl speaks out from the kitchen as the blender goes off. "You two shouldn't have to worry about that. There is always an alternative solution to every situation."

Pearl steps out of the kitchen, carrying out two coffee mugs in her hands. "Now the only downside is that afterward, you--uhm-!" Steven shakes his head towards Pearl, flashing a quick glare of fair warning. Pearl bites her lip for a moment before switching her remaining words.

"Well, Amethyst should help you out with that part--somehow." Eyeball raises an eyebrow as Amethyst widens her eyes for a brief moment. Pearl bends down to hand the two Gems their beverages before heading to the temple door. "Okay. Good night you two."

Everyone says good night in nearly perfect unison with Eyeball taking a brief pause before putting out her part as the temple door opens. The door closes as soon as it opened from Pearl's glowing gem embedded on her forehead.

Steven stays behind with Amethyst and Eyeball to see how they're making out with the refreshments. "So, how is it?" Eyeball lifts her head from her drink with her gimpy eye. "It's hot chocolate, Eyeball. It's something that people make for other people--in the case of not having a fireplace.

"We did have one before, but Peridot took it to the barn because Lapis didn't like outdoor campfires all that much." Eyeball turns to Amethyst. "Just take a sip. Like this." Amethyst tips the cup to her mouth to sip the substance. She tips it back down to reveal a leftover indistinct moustache.

"Heh. Not bad, P. Not bad at all." Eyeball takes a moment before she also takes a sip, feeling a similar arousal from another time she had a drink. She just didn't get it at first because there wasn't a straw added in. Eyeball gives off a half smile and she nods in agreement.

"Okay then. I'll leave you two alone and I'll see you in the morning." Amethyst and Eyeball nod to Steven before they scooch over towards each other, barely knee length apart. They take a few more sips before Eyeball strikes up a conversation. "Look, about earlier, I didn't mean-!"

Amethyst presses a gentle hand to her back. "No, no. Eyeball, I shouldn't have jumped the gun on you like that. But hey. We did recover from that, right? I mean, we had a more uh-- friendlier snowball fight earlier and then we just layed there in the snow. It had a nice ending to it--with a not so nice start--but with a nice finish."

Eyeball nods, taking another sipping, closing her eye in the process. "Well look at you go! You must really like Pearl's cooking as much as I do." Eyeball blushes with a slight chuckle, tipping back her mug. "It's--refreshing." She frowns, turning to face Amethyst.

"But, drinks aside, is it alright if I just get that thing off my chest? I'll try to be brief about it." Amethyst raises an eyebrow, nodding. "Uh, okay. Go on." Eyeball exhales after taking another sip. "It's about the memory. I know you want me to forget about it. I can't. But perhaps talking to you about it at a more suitable level could help."

Amethyst nods slowly, carefully keeping an eye on Eyeball as she tips up the mug once more for a sip. "It was about four thousand years ago. I was out there with a platoon. I think it was easy company. I was at a bit of a low rank at the time. Actually, I always was at a pretty low rank in the cut."

Her eye twitches a bit. "That is what made us easier targets to deal with. Rose Quartz ambushed us when we least expected it. Rumor has it that she was the only one of her cut in the army--and we actually had a quick combat with each other. I was in the snow which was already falling from the sky during the first couple of weeks."

Eyeball takes another sip. "I wasn't always one to be prepared for the unexpected and well, that's what made it just that. I think we were out on a valley sort of like where we were near a forest. I was always alert, but not for anything of that magnitude.

"Before we knew it, she came with a band of Amethysts and defective Jaspers from Facet Nine. There were no more than a dozen of us and we were nearly unarmed. We were hardly armored and our gemstones, of course, were in plain sight. Mine especially.

"She made haste to unsheathe her sword and then--it happened. One clash that could've ended it all for me." Eyeball's mug shakes a little in her hand. Amethyst keeps it steady as she sets hers down on the floorboards.

"I had to think fast. Every blow hit more core--and she was hardly phased be me. She didn't say a word, but she did leave a message, a threat. After seconds of being locked in combat, she vanished--along with my whole platoon being reduced down to shards. Ever since that day, I never saw her face in the flesh ever again. Not counting portraits."

She points to the portrait of Rose hanging on the wall above the stairs a foot away from the door frame. "I wanted to get my vengeance on her ever since--to finish what we have started. Then Steven came along and I couldn't believe it. I thought that she was just as vulnerable as I was in that form, but he isn't her. I didn't understand that until after--!"

She takes in another sip before Amethyst helps set her mug down away between them. Eyeball squeezes her eye shut as she embraces Amethyst, sniffling into her shoulder. Amethyst pulls her in closer as the latter's eye wells up. "I'll never truly find her! Never!"

Amethyst props her up onto her knee as she shushes her. "You need to let that go. I still have some unfinished business with Homeworld abandoning me during the Gem War, leaving me overcooked in the ground like they did. I was safe, but I was alone. But I'm not anymore--and neither are you.

"What I'm trying to say is that even though we may have all these issues, we can't let them take us on a chase towards nothing. Because in the end, nothing would truly get better. You'll just end up driving yourself even crazier by doing that." Eyeball widens her eye for a moment, allowing a tear to slip down her cheek.

She closes her eye and she rests her head on Amethyst's cheek. Amethyst blushes as she s her on her lap, realizing that she has dozed off on it. Amethyst reaches over to take the last sip of her hot chocolate before she sets the mug back down carefully with hardly a sound resonating from the glass.