Chapter Text
22nd of May. Gem's birthday. This is it, Pearl thought, anxiously fiddling with the buttons on her shirt. She'd changed out of her mock-janitor's uniform, and opted for a nice blue shirt and some simple black jeans. She grabbed Gem's present and a shulker box (who cares what Gem said in the letter, Pearl was definitely bringing a present), and stepped outside into the sun. She looked over at the taiga biome, scanning it for any sign of Gem. There she was! Sitting on a picnic rug below a tree. Gem waved, and Pearl glided down to her, landing a couple blocks away from the picnic rug.
"Hello!" said Gem, with a bright smile. "You made it!"
"Hey, I couldn't not come to my best friend's birthday," replied Pearl. "Happy birthday! I love your outfit, by the way."
Gem wore a pretty dress that Pearl had seen her in a few times before. The dress was crimson red, and it hugged her figure well. A simple pendant hung from her neck, and she'd brushed her hair out, her bangs framing her face prettily.
"Thank you! It has pockets," beamed Gem, sticking her hands in the pockets and twirling in a circle. "I like your outfit too. Matches your pretty blue eyes."
Pearl looked down, trying not to blush. She was expecting to have trouble hiding her feelings for Gem, but not this early. Why did she have to be so damn nice all the time? She fumbled for Gem's present as a distraction.
"Here, I got you this," she said, handing the package to Gem. Gem's eyes lit up instantly.
"Oh, you shouldn't have!"
"Aw, come on, you can't just go to someone's birthday picnic and not bring a pressie! Go on, open it."
"Now?"
"Why not?"
"Alright then! Come sit on the picnic blanket, I'll unwrap it there."
Pearl followed Gem over to the picnic blanket. It was a very nice picnic blanket - made of soft pink gingham. Very Gem, she thought. She watched Gem unwrap the present with glee, tearing apart the tissue paper.
"A speaker!" Gem exclaimed, holding it aloft.
"You can connect it to your communicator and play music from there," Pearl explained. "I don't know, I just figured you might want a good quality speaker so you can listen to music while you build your megabase."
"I love it. Thank you so much," said Gem sincerely. She leant forward to gently kiss Pearl on the cheek. Fortunately, she then looked away to fiddle with her communicator and connect it to the speaker, so she didn't notice if Pearl was blushing.
"There we go," murmured Gem, and upbeat music started to play out of the speaker "Right, snack time!"
"About that," said Pearl, getting out the shulker box that she'd packed earlier.
"Come on, I told you that you didn't have to bring anything!"
"Technically, you only said I couldn't bring food, so I brought drinks."
Gem giggled, and rolled her eyes. "You're impossible."
"I know."
Together they unpacked the snacks and drinks from the shulker boxes. Gem spread it all out on the picnic rug.
"Want a sandwich? I made a couple, they've got carrot and chicken."
"Sure. Would you like some peach iced tea?"
"Absolutely, thank you."
For a while, they just sat together eating, in contented silence except for the music coming from Gem's new speaker. It had switched to something acoustic, softer. The sandwich did taste pretty good - fresh bread, crunchy carrots. The iced tea washed it down nicely.
"The sandwiches are very good," said Pearl approvingly. "Did you make them yourself?"
"I didn't know that you liked any foods other than soup," teased Gem. "But yeah, I did. I made cake as well, we can have it later."
"Ooo! Cake! I like cake and sandwiches, as well as soup."
Gem laughed, and it echoed across the canyon.
"We'll have the cake soon. Let's just talk for now, seeing as we've just eaten the sandwiches. How have you been recently?"
"Yeah, I'm good. I've been working on my shop a lot lately..."
They talked for a little while, about how their shops and megabases were going, their excitement for 1.19, their plans for the rest of the season. Eventually, Gem yawned.
"Is it cake time yet?" she asked, stretching.
"Well, you're the birthday girl. Your choice," replied Pearl.
"Then, as the birthday girl, I hereby decree that it's time for cake," said Gem, smiling. She opened the picnic basket, and pulled out a large cake from within it.
"Wow! That looks amazing, Gem," exclaimed Pearl approvingly.
"Oh, you know, it's just a basic recipe with buttermilk icing..."
"No, I mean it. You're a great cook."
Gem smiled and looked down, tucking a stray lock of hair behind her ear. "Thank you. Um, do you have a flint & steel to light the candle? I may have forgotten to bring one."
"Yeah, I've got one somewhere in my ender chest. Hold on..."
Pearl placed down an ender chest and rummaged through it, before grabbing a flint & steel and holding it aloft triumphantly. "Here! Right, let's light it..." She carefully lit the pink candle on top of the cake.
Gem grinned. "Are you going to sing for me?"
"I'll give it a try," said Pearl sheepishly. "Happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you, happy birthday dear GeminiTay..." Gem's smile lit up the whole canyon. "Happy birthday to you! Hip hip hooray!"
Gem blew out the candle, still grinning.
"Thank you so much!" she exclaimed.
Then she got out two plates and a cake knife, and moved to cut the cake.
"Careful not to touch the bottom when you cut the cake!" teased Pearl. "You know, in Australia we say that if you touch the bottom, you have to kiss the nearest boy."
"Wait, actually? Weird. Oh well, Impulse is offline, and the next nearest boy is probably several thousand blocks away, so I guess I'm safe."
Gem cut the cake, and handed a slice to Pearl. She accepted it gratefully, and took a bite.
"This is delicious," she murmured approvingly.
Gem just smiled, and took a bite of her own slice. They finished their cake in comfortable silence.
"You have frosting on your face," giggled Pearl, reaching across to wipe it off of Gem's lips. Then she froze. Oh no, she'd overstepped. They were sitting so close to each other, maybe she shouldn't have reached out like that when Gem could just get it herself...
"Pearl," murmured Gem, breaking her train of thought.
"Yeah?"
"...would kissing the nearest girl also count?"
And suddenly Gem's lips were on Pearl's, and her kiss was everything that Pearl imagined it would be, and yet better. Her lips were so soft, and sweet from the cake frosting, and she rested a hand on Pearl's cheek. Then Gem pulled back with a soft smile, before Pearl leaned back in and kissed her again, more confidently this time. Pearl tangled her fingers in Gem's strawberry blonde hair.
Gem broke the kiss. "Can you hear that?"
Pearl couldn't focus on anything except for Gem. "Hear what?"
"The song that's playing! It's about dancing." Gem stood, and reached out a hand. "So come on, then. Dance with me, Pearl."
In a haze, Pearl took Gem's hand and stood up. Gem didn't let go of her hand, and placed her other hand on Pearl's shoulder. Pearl wrapped an arm around Gem's waist, and the two of them began to gently sway back and forth to the song. They locked eyes, sky-blue eyes meeting forest-green ones.
Pearl wasn't very good at dancing like this, so she let Gem lead, trying to step at the same time as Gem. She found her feet pretty quickly, raising her arm to let Gem spin around, before doing a little spin herself.
"Hey, you're good at this," said Gem. Her smile was dazzling. Pearl couldn't say anything, so she just kept moving back and forth, Gem's hand still firmly in her grasp.
As the song wound down, they found themselves in a close embrace, arms wrapped around each other.
"I can't believe this is real," breathed Pearl.
"Me neither,” murmured Gem, with a giggle. Then a look of sincerity crossed her beautiful face. "Pearl, you know what?"
"What is it?"
"I made a wish when I blew out the candle on my birthday cake. You wanna hear what it is?"
"Oh, you can't tell me. Then it won't come true," laughed Pearl.
"No, Pearl - It already has come true." Then Gem stood up on her toes to move her face closer to Pearl's. "I wished for you, Pearl. I wanted more of you."
This time, when they kissed, Pearl cupped Gem's face in her hands, like she was the most precious thing in the world to her. And in that moment, she really was.