[Gems] - Beautiful Weather (pt.3)

“Yo, chuck it at me I’m open!” Amethyst shouts with her hands cupped around her mouth. She’s shifted into a huge, burly beast of a ‘wrestler’ to assist with construction despite having the exact same strength in whatever form she took. She clapped her hands against her hairy chest and assumed a kind of grappling stance.

“If you say so, small stuff!” Bismuth calls back with a raspy joviality to her voice. With a loud ‘hyup’ from Bismuth, a several-foot long and at least two-feet thick support beam is thrown like a huge, wooden javelin across the field towards Amethyst. The purple Gem growls as she prepares herself and, at the last moment, the thick ropes of her shape shifted fingers catch the lip of the pillar. In a quickly spat ‘yuh-oh’, Amethyst is ripped from her feet from the momentum of the support beam and goes, dragging, alongside it for a foot or two before she catches her footing and hoists it up over her head. “GOT IT!”

Bismuth smirks and claps her hands together a few times to knock the splinters free. “Good job! Who knows! Maybe next time I’ll finally get to use at least HALF of my full strength!”
Amethyst shouts a perturbed ‘hey’ before the both of them start laughing and whatever tension that appeared to be there was gone in an instant.

“Hmm.” Pearl hums as she holds her chin between her index finger and her thumb. She’s looming over one of the many drafting tables, examining a set of the blueprints her and Peridot had drafted for the ‘temporary’ housing. “I, still, really do think that the centre most window of the top floor should be moved at least three inches higher.”

Peridot gives a dry ‘ha!’ and twists her wrist dismissively. “See, the PROBLEM with that is that we have Gems who AREN’T freakishly tall like you needing to live in these homes! If it goes three inches higher, ME-sized Gems won’t be able to, oh, I don’t know, casually open or close it without the use of some kind of climbing device, and that defeats the purpose!” As she speaks her little green finger points at various bits of the blueprint to illustrate her point. Just as Pearl is about to launch her rebuttal, Lapis lands with a wet ‘flap’ and crosses her arm.

“Built-in stairs.” Lapis offers while giving the par a half-lidded glance. Her finger comes to rest on the floorplan before the window. Both of the ‘engineers’ give a momentary ‘I...’ before they return to looking at the blueprints.

Garnet had been working with Steven to direct some of the Healed Gems to the places they needed to be, giving them directions and purpose. It was amazing how many of them wanted to help. More than a dozen partially-mutated Gems helped tamp the Earth and mark out where all of the interim structures would be. It was... overwhelming, to say the least.
Howl sits on their porch, leaning forward on their knees and watching the Crystal Gems do what they did best. It was no wonder Wulfenite had wanted to join them...

They hadn’t talked to anyone but Garnet yet, although they had waved when the Fusion brought her immediate family over to explain what was happening, that Howl had volunteered to house the new Earth Gems, and that ‘this is Howl. They are one of my closest friends and they are incredibly kind’. It’d made them blush a steely grey at the time. Twisted up their tongue.
     “Hey! Iiiiis it okay if I sit here for a minute?” The voice catches Howl off-guard. It was loud, albeit friendly, and shockingly masculine in contrast to the majority of the Crystal Gems they were used to hearing. Their eyes turn to land on him, Steven Universe, the hybrid son of Pink Diamond, and all they can do is give a stiff, slow nod. Steven chimes a ‘thanks!’ and takes a seat on the wood of the porch. The Summer Heat is back and he wipes the sweat of his hard-work from his brow.

“It’s Howlite, right?” He asks with a charming grin.

“...just Howl.” They reply. Their voice is soft, unsure. At least they had their bangs to be thankful for, a curtain of protection against the oncoming storm of social interaction that was probably going to drain every last bit of ‘Daily Energy’ that they had. Good thing they called into work today.

“Howl. Gotcha. I’m Steven,” The half-Gem originally offers out his hand that he’d just used to wipe his forehead with before he realized it, drew it back with an ‘oh!’, wiped it furiously on his jeans, and re-offered it. Howl chuckles softly, taking his hand and giving it a firm shake. “--you’ve got a beautiful house here! Do you ever grow anything in these fields?”

“...no, not usually. Sometimes the neighboring farmer pays me to use the fields as overflow for their wheat but... I’ve never intentionally grown anything.” They’re half-mumbling which is frustrating them. Maybe Garnet shouldn’t have told them that Steven’s Mother used to be a Diamond. They were usually so personable... or at the very least, they had a good customer service voice. neither of those things were coming to them now. Steven didn’t seem to mind, at least.

“Oh! That’s smart.” He says with a nod. Steven rests the palms of his hands on the wood of the deck and leans back on them with his heels dug slightly into the dirt at the foot of the stairs, stretching out his hot and sore legs. He gives an over-heated sigh.

“Y’know, it might be nice for them to see that the Earth can grow and change. If you want, Peridot and Lapis grow their own small farm at their Barn. I can have them show everyone how to tend to things like corn, and pumpkins, and sunflowers. It might be a nice thing for everyone to do together.” As he talks he’s looking out at the group of his friends, some old and some new, and he has a kind look of Love across his features. It makes Howl feel a little less tense.
	“--I mean! If you want to do something like that! Oh, geeze, look at me: making plans for someone else’s property. It’s already so great of you to have them all come live here, you don’t--”

“--It sounds nice.” Howl interrupts warmly. Steven just smiles with his brows twisted in apology. “Maybe... we could sell what we grow in town. Get people used to seeing them as something friendly for a change.”

Garnet had explained that the only Gem the nearby town was used to seeing was Howl, and that a rampaging Gem Beast had torn through these grounds back when she first met Howl, so it made sense to Steven. He gave a nod. “That sounds great! I’ll talk to Lapis and Peri as soon as they’re not busy.” Steven motions towards the three standing around the drafting table with a gesture of his head. Howl smiles softly.


“...thanks.”


At some point the Sun started to go down and construction was halted for the evening. By that time, Howl had retreated into their house to tend to the dogs that were going a little stir-crazy and shaken up by the sounds of hammering and nailguns. Garnet had joined them, and eventually so had Steven (who was a much needed breath of Excitement for the house-trapped hounds). Now that evening was falling, Amethyst and Pearl had also made their appearances. It was... strange to have their house so full. They didn’t have enough mugs for everyone to have their own tea. Garnet and Amethyst offered to go without to help with this. Pearl offered to bring more mugs. It was... nice.

“--and then, right as we thought we were done for--- WA-BAM! Smokeyquartz~” Ameythist recounts for the group. As she says ‘bam’ her fist hits into her other palm, breaking into a wiggling ‘sparkle’ of her fingers at the reveal of the Fusion’s name. It’s Steven’s turn to join into the story now, and he just as enthusiastically stands up to tell his part of how Smokey Quartz defeated Jasper, and eventually how Sardonyx had held a kind of ‘talk show’ to introduce herself to Smokey.
	Howl does their best to listen, even laughing and taking their turn to tell stories they hadn’t told in thousands of years. It was... nice. It was, as they thought it would be, exhausting, but in a good way. The same kind of exhausting as tending to the puppies was, or helping townsfolk when they needed a hand with something no Human should be doing alone. It was a sleepy exhausting, not an overwhelmingly drained one.

Boastful and loud stories turned into subdued talking and more serious subjects, though nothing that crossed the line into upsetting Howlite (thank the stars). It’s around midnight when Pearl suggest that the Gems head home. Amethyst initially whines about the decision, but when she sees the bags under the half-human’s eyes and the look of tired in Howl’s, even she agrees.
	Goodbyes were said, thanks were exchanged, and the Crystal Gems assured Howl that they’d be back to help with more construction tomorrow and that they’d keep an eye on things while they were away at work. Everyone filed out except for Garnet, who waited just inside the doorway for her friends to step out so she could have a word alone with her friend.

“...Thank you.” Garnet says in a low, honeyed tone. There’s a slight smile to her lips, one that might go unnoticed by anyone but Howl.

Howl brings up one of their hands to worry at the back of their neck, a soft laugh flowing over their Gem. “Don’t worry about it. They’re... nice. I’m glad I got to meet them finally. They’re everything you said they’d be, maybe more.”

Garnet hums a laugh. “You’re welcome at the Beach House whenever you want. M’ sure the Gems wouldn’t mind. Door’s always open to family, after all.” The way she says it almost makes the words missable, but that was the point. She was already walking towards the door by the time Howl’s mind had wrapped around them entirely, leaving the stormy Gem standing somewhat wide-eyed and stunned.
	One of the Fusion’s hands meets the doorknob as she steps through the frame and out onto the deck.

“Goodnight Howl. Love you.” She says with a grin before shutting the door behind her softly as not to wake the puppies.

Howl’s hand twists the fabric of their shirt over their chest.

Family.

			...They’d never had one of those before.