prompt: “What do you mean you don’t know how to dance?!”
ship: Jasper & Pearl

 by: RadioWrittenHeart

“Why do you dance to … to do that anyway?” Jasper snapped. “What point is there?”

Pearl hesitated, and scratched the back of her neck. “The dancing symbolizes the harmony between the two Gems, I suppose,” she explained. “Garnet was an accident-” She ignored Jasper’s crude snort. “-but Rose Quartz and I figured out the motions and were rather persistent in trying.”

“You did that with little Rose?” Jasper sneered.

“No,” Pearl replied, in a soft voice. “His mother.” She paused, realizing Jasper still didn’t understand human relations. “The original.”

Jasper released a “oh” and rolled her eyes. “Save your tears about her for when I’m not around,” she spat. She ignored the fire in Pearl’s eyes, and went on; “Sounds like the runt and the duo are fun together.”

Pearl shrugged. “Steven seems to think so,” she mumbled. “I apologize for him talking about … that around you.”

“It takes a lot more than a rambling kid to get me upset,” Jasper shot back.

He was actually a cute little tyke - little Rose was so excited, about everything, and he was so nice, and good. Jasper wondered how such a Gem could exist. He didn’t want to fight, he had insisted on “hugging it out” and wouldn’t leave her alone if he noticed she was upset. Despite the fact he was an abomination, Jasper was starting to come to terms with the fact that maybe little Rose wasn’t so bad after all.

Pearl sighed, standing on her toes. “To answer your original question, though,” she mused. “Dancing is a universal thing.”

“They never taught it to us on Homeworld,” Jasper muttered. “There was no need.”

Pearl leaned up against the kitchen countertop, her slender fingers holding the edge as she stuck a leg in the air mid-pirouette. “Sometimes, there isn’t always a need for dancing,” she said. “It could just be a matter of desire to do so. I, personally, take it as a hobby. Others to do it to relieve stress, or to express themselves, et cetera.”

A huff escaped Jasper, and she fell back into the couch. “Why do I feel like you’re trying to trick me?” she grumbled.

“Why would I have reason to do that?”  

Many reasons, was Jasper’s first thought. But now that she had spent more than a few weeks here, offering her shelter and begrudgingly letting them fight with her - she was not protecting Earth, she just had to punch something and make it suffer - she gave them inklings of trust.

“Touché,” Jasper muttered. “So this dancing thing… it doesn’t mean we have to-”

“Definitely not,” Pearl said.

There wasn’t even a millisecond of a pause before Jasper got up and blurted out; “Teach me.”

Pearl was flustered and surprised for a moment, practically falling out of her ballet position. “It’s not exactly something you can teach,” she retorted. “Especially for something like … like this.”

“I don’t wanna do what you’re thinking,” Jasper barked. “I just want to know the whole dancing gig.”

“Well,”

Pearl trailed off, taking quick but also hesitant steps forward. Her hands were shaking, fiddling with the ribbon on her skirt, and she couldn’t help but feel intimidated under the stern gaze of Jasper. But once their eyes met, a dull blue against bright gold, she seemed to loosen up, to move even closer and shakily reach out.

“You’re gonna lead?” Jasper sneered.

“Let yourself relax,” Pearl said, in a voice just barely above a whisper. Her hands were gentle yet cautious, as if she were petting a wild animal. “I’m just as strong as you.” She easily took Jasper’s hands into her own, noticing how drastically different they were. She squeezed, and doubted that the other Gem felt anything. “Be comfortable. Move however you feel like you should.”

Jasper felt still, like a sculpture. How she wanted to move? When she fused with other Jaspers, or Lapis, there was no want. There was simply do. Like battle strategy.

Pearl stepped back, releasing Jasper’s hands; they fell to her side, drooping. “We could put on music, if you’d like.”

“Uh,” Jasper caught the stammer and fake-coughed it away. “Whatever you want, I guess.”

With a curt nod, Pearl stepped over to the area near the couch, tip-toeing to reach some sort of electronic. “I have no specific preference,” she mused. “Although, Garnet listens to some things that might seem right up your alley.”

Jasper scoffed, crossing her arms. The rhythm began, a steady drumbeat, and Pearl practically glided across the floor. Nimble movements, her feet barely touching the ground as she twirled and gave small leaps, they were all so elegant. Immediately, Jasper knew that wasn’t for her. So she did what Pearl was doing, but not quite. She moved with the music. Jasper found herself doing something entirely different, a lot of hips and arms, more freeform - she didn’t really move as much as Pearl did, but before they knew it, they were almost circling each other, just close enough. Like an object in a museum, they looked but didn’t touch.

“Uh,” Pearl let a string of stammers and backed away. “You’re doing fine. Any more than that and we could-”

“Fuse?” Jasper asked.

Pearl was startled at Jasper’s sudden usage of the word. Ever since being freed, she had insisted she didn’t want to hear, see or even have that word implied. She even made a ridiculous term for it - “the f word” (not knowing humans used that saying for something else entirely). But it was understandable; Jasper would rage, throw a tantrum, yell and then stow away at the very implication of fusion because of the mental scars Malachite had given her. She had left for weeks when she had run into Opal once…

“Yes,” Pearl breathed out. “I know you’re not ready for it.”

“Someday,” Jasper grumbled. “Thanks for showing me how it works or … whatever.”

Pearl nodded. “You’d have better luck with a fellow Quartz on your first time around,” she quipped. “Either Amethyst or Steven.”

Jasper snorted; “Pretty sure little Rose is still scared of me. Doubt he’d want to fuse with me.”

With a bemused smile, Pearl took gentle steps away. “You’d be surprised, Jasper,” she said. “About many things.”

With one simple shared glance, they both knew what that meant.