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When Shinsha pokes their head out of their room, long after the sun has risen, the last thing they expect is to be met with a pair of stormy black eyes staring them down in accusation.
“Where is Dia-niisan? You know, don’t you?!”
As the fog inside of their head clears up, Shinsha considers the possibility that they may still be asleep. They haven’t heard any steps in the hallway; Bort must’ve been waiting for them, but since when? And why? Bort doesn’t give off the air of someone who’d fidget outside of the door, afraid to come in; with their furrowed brows and squared shoulders, they seem to suspect Shinsha of holding Diamond hostage somewhere.
And yet. If there is any rule or pattern to Bort’s displays of consideration, Shinsha is nowhere near figuring it out.
"I just woke up," Shinsha points out, making a half-hearted attempt to tuck their hair behind their ear. The thick, long strand of their fringe slides right back onto their face, prompting a sigh. One of those days, they will finally give up. "You don't think Dia is hiding in here, do you?"
Shinsha is long past feeling self-conscious about sleeping in - it's not like they have anything to wake up at dawn for - but when Bort makes it look like they’re going to peek over their shoulder, they move to cover the doorway with their back, as well as they can. No matter how much Shinsha laughs at themselves for still daring to dream about being a cool senior, they can’t just show Bort how -
There is nothing about that ruined room they need to see.
"Dia talks to you a lot," Bort grumbles, not much of an explanation, but Shinsha can still guess. The two of them speaks the same language; they are almost equally bad at it, too.
"Probably not about what you'd think."
Dia would talk Shinsha's ear off about flower arrangements, things Yellow mumbles in their sleep, lover spats between Gem partners, and how their precious, wonderful Bort never has to repeat a lesson, can lift them up as if Dia didn't weight anything, and swung around a sword with ease the moment they first touched one. Never about the patrols, or the fighting that leaves Dia with cracks all over and a forced smile on their face. "I haven't heard anything," Shinsha adds, exasperated by Bort’s unyieldingly doubtful expression.
"Isn't it time for your classes? " Shinsha recalls. A worry begins to creep up on them. "Did something happen?"
"Sensei's sitting there, asleep. Dia-nii was supposed to..." Bort averts their gaze in embarrassment.
...Sit in on the lesson and shower Bort with praise , Shinsha fills in for themselves. Oh, well. The prickle of envy in Shinsha’s chest is almost unnoticeable. If anyone deserves it, it’s that kid, and when the compliments from others are all tinged with fear, Diamond’s adoration must be like pure, warm sunlight.
"They must have changed to the nap shift. Dia will be back in the evening.” Bort should know this by now, really; Shinsha isn’t sure why they are even bothering to explain. Diamond’s favouritism must’ve rubbed off on them - or maybe, it’s the highly concentrated earnestness radiating from Bort, their own version of the rainbow-colored sparkles Diamond cast everywhere.
“You better find something to do,” Shinsha says, harsher than intended. They maneuver Bort out of the doorway, and thinking the conversation over, start to walk, without a clear destination in mind, just to get away from their room and everything it reminds of. Bort, though, follows at their heels like a baby bird, matching their speed to Shinsha’s when the latter tries to put distance between them, afraid of walking too close. The younger Gem doesn’t seem to be aware how clingy they’re being.
“Did they leave you here to babysit me?” Bort demands, in a tone of great offense. Only a few days ago, Shinsha had overheard them asking to be allowed to battle, just to hear another “soon”. The thought of being looked by Shinsha, of all Gems, must be like a slap to the face.
“Please. It’s the other way around, isn’t it?”
“Makes no sense…”
Shinsha casts their eyes down. They slam their heels down with more force. Their hands ball at their sides.
“Sorry you got stuck with me,” they spit out. Dia, with their overbearing friendliness, and this brat, with their lack of filter… Day and night, Shinsha wishes the diamonds would just leave them alone.
“You’re strong! Why won’t they let you go out to fight?”
“Huh?”
Bort’s face shows genuine confusion and deep frustration that Shinsha begins to think they misjudged. “There is no one else with that power! You could help!”
“Haven’t they told you…?”
“ Dangerous ,” Bort snorts, “So what? We’re at war. Dangerous is what we need,”
Clear, complete conviction rings in Bort’s voice. They put their hands on their hips and stick out their chin, as if saying, Go on, prove me wrong . At a loss, Shinsha crosses their arms over their chest and shakes their head slightly.
“Show me how you fight! There is no one around, they won’t find out!”
“You think that’s the problem?” Shinsha can’t hide their disbelief.
Bort seems to think for a moment. “I will show you how I fight, then.”
Not getting a chance to protest or even ask how does that follow, Shinsha has to break into a run so Bort doesn’t pull off Shinsha’s arm by dragging them outside.
“You seem to know where you’re going.”
Bort picks their way through the dead trees with confidence, not pausing to check the directions or if Shinsha is still with them. At the very least, they let go of Shinsha’s wrist; it wouldn’t have long left, otherwise. Time and again, Shinsha opens and closes their palm to check if it’s still attached, or if it’s their black gloves holding the hand in place, and glances up at the sky. It’s overcast, but enough light gets through the clouds to make Shinsha worry.
“I come here a lot,” Bort throws back, seeming unconcerned that they’ve just admitted to sneaking out. Their faith in Shinsha not tattling to Dia or Sensei is remarkable, Shinsha notes sourly. The thought of sword practice surely put such irrelevant thoughts out of Bort’s head. Though Bort’s tone doesn’t betray their excitement, the sword strapped at their waist bounces to the rhythm of their energetic steps.
Shinsha feels their irritation dissipate at the sight when suddenly, a vivid image of Dia with a knowing, delighted smile on their face enters their thoughts.
“Aww, Shinsha, you just can’t say no to cute things, can you? Come on, don’t be shy!”
No. No way.
“Isn’t this a bit far?”
“We’re together, so it’s fine. It’s like we’re a pair for a day,” Bort says casually, looking back at Shinsha over their shoulder. “Besides, you said it. You don’t have to worry when I’m here. I’ll look after you.”
Still rattled from Bort’s mention of partners, Shinsha goes as red as if all of their powder fell off. Voice shaking with emotions they can’t even tell apart, they stutter out, “Do you know - has anyone told you - has anyone told you how insufferable you are?!”
“Rutile did. Yesterday… or two days ago? That was the last time.”
Shinsha falls silent, guilty. With a tiny shrug, Bort continues on.
As they pass by a scorched, broken trunk, Shinsha finally recognizes the area. The clearing, littered with remains of a tree downed during a storm, is where they found Bort the last time the Gem has “disappeared”, and looking into Dia’s huge eyes dimmed with worry became unbearable. Sure enough, Bort is already selecting the taller logs and hauling them across through the grass to put them in a meticulously straight line. Unsatisfied with how many they managed to find, Bort draws their sword in a smooth motion and unceremoniously hacks off two more pieces from the remains of the main trunk laying in the grass.
Shinsha perches on a flat rock they spot among the wreckage. They have nowhere else to be, anyway.
Bort systematically lays waste to the targets, destroying each with a different slash. From the side, diagonally, from a running start. Bort trains in silence; there is no need for Shinsha to speak up and break their focus, but even though Shinsha is just sitting and watching, it’s not… bad. Maybe not comfortable, and definitely not soothing - the very thought of the kid who might’ve as well been born with a piece of sharpened obsidian in their hand being a soothing presence is a right joke - but... Staring at the wall, all alone with their thoughts, Shinsha always ends up going in circles; now, their mind is quiet, blank, as if they were sharing Bort’s immersion. With no enemy in sight, Shinsha can simply take in the satisfying sound of a blade against the wood, lose themselves following the still unpolished, but already powerful movements, bearing a natural, rough grace that has to come from talent.
Their trance is broken when Bort jumps up to split one of the logs in two from above and lands roughly, making the ground shake on impact that Shinsha can feel in their own legs. Before Shinsha realizes, they are on their feet, halfway to the younger Gem.
Bort stumbles, but quickly snaps up and straightens their posture.
“That was nothing!” Bort calls out, audibly flustered.
Shinsha feels strength leave their body. If it had been them, their ankles wouldn’t have taken it so well. Making use of the fact that Bort is carefully avoiding looking in their direction, Shinsha drags themselves back to where they were sitting and crosses their arms over their chest. None of that happened just now.
As if to pretend the same, Bort gets more zealous with their training. Shinsha has to hold in a gasp when Bort kicks up a chunk of wood and attempts to cut it from below as it falls, but their sword get stuck and both nearly miss hitting Bort’s head. Bort angrily wrenches the blade out and tries again, but the results aren’t much better, with the sword slipping and only taking off a thin slice.
“Hey. Hey! ”
Bort startles. “I’m going to get this right - “
“Try doing it like this?”
Unsure of what they’re really doing, Shinsha mimes changing the angle of their arms. They have no weapon to wield, but the drops of poison swirling around them form a long, sword-like shape between their hands as they slice through the air, to then disperse and settle into orbit again.
There is a soft clatter as Bort’s sword falls out of their hands. “That was - What was that?! Do it again! You’ve batted before, I knew it! Can you use that longer? Can you make a bigger one? Show me!”
The avalanche of questions and demands makes Shinsha’s head spin. They lean back, raising both their hands and their voice in defence. “Do your exercise! You don’t know if it’s going to work!”
It works at the first try. A small, satisfied smile replaces the look of frustration on Bort’s face. “I knew it. I knew it! Come on, Shinsha, don’t you feel like trying it too, now? I’ll lend you this - no, do the thing from before.”
Shinsha drags a palm over their face. So this was the plan? Bort lives to fight, has it built into their body; that someone could balk in fear before battle, not in fear of their opponents, but of themselves, and desperately wish to be less powerful would be unthinkable for the young genius. Slowly, Shinsha talks themselves down, until the sound of flowing mercury dissipates into background noise; there is no use in taking their bitterness out on the kid. The rift between them is simply too deep.
“Bort. You like animals, don’t you? Especially the ones that live in the water.”
“It’s not like I like them…” Bort blinks slowly in confusion. “What does that have to do with this?”
“There is a small lake nearby. Want to see it?”
“Does it have jellyfish?” Bort asks, with obviously feigned disinterest.
Got them, Shinsha sighs inwardly. They stand up and beckon Bort to follow. “Find out for yourself.”
“You knew there weren’t any,” Bort accuses, sulking. They are hugging their knees, looking down at the water’s surface with disappointment painted all over their features. “What kind of lake is this, anyway? It’s so tiny.”
“Sorry. Jellyfish only live in the sea.”’
“There is a lot in our pond, though?”
Shinsha touches the water lightly and draws a line on the surface with their finger, making insect skirt away to the centre of the lake. “It’s not their natural habitat. Sensei… must’ve brought them over, before we were born. Or another Gem… someone we never knew. The water in the pond is salty, like in the sea.”
A grim silence falls over the shore. Bort picks up a stone and throws it angrily, the only outlet for the frustration of loses they’re not even fully aware of. It skips perfectly, once, twice, thrice.
“You know a lot,” Bort notices, sorting through the pebbles at their feet.
“...I’m just no good for anything else.” As much as Shinsha would like to pretend otherwise, there is only so much they can hide. Bort has seen them wandering around pointlessly enough times, couldn’t have missed the days when Shinsha didn’t leave their room from dawn to dusk. The best they’ve ever done is sit still enough to not cause trouble.
It’s only a matter of time until Bort learns to avoid them, too.
“Watch out!” Shinsha cuts in, just as something jumps out of the lake, straight at Bort. The younger Gem falls backwards and yelps, crawling away like a crab. Shinsha fails to stifle a chuckle. What a sense of timing!
“ What is this?! ”
“Meet the frog. See,” Shinsha forces themselves to speak levelly, “There are animals here.”
“Why are its legs so long?”Bort’s voice is dripping with disgust, their face frozen in a scandalized expression. “No sense of proportion! It’s all meaty and slimy! It’s jumping towards me !”
“Jellyfish are slimy, too…”
“Take that back!”
While Bort is contemplating drawing their sword on the frog, Shinsha walks over to where the water is shallow. “Look here.”
Warily, Bort approaches them and peeks at the tiny, black shapes swim around.
“These are frogs, too.”
“You are… making fun of me.”
Shinsha shakes their head. “That’s how they look when they’re young.”
“They change this much?” For Bort, this seems to be the last straw. They grab Shinsha by the collar and yank them away, almost making Shinsha fall over. Shinsha’s shrieks of protest fall on deaf ears. Bort only lets them go after they’ve retreated into the forest.
“What,” Shinsha wheezes heavily, “are you doing?” They wave away Bort’s attempts to pat to pat their uniform clean and back away, checking around their neck for cracks. The silver droplets floating around them grow angry spikes. “It’s just frogs!”
“You should be more careful!”Bort thunders, balling their hands into fists. To their shock, Shinsha recognizes the same frantic seriousness Bort only showed when fretting over Dia’s damage from combat.“Who knows what these weird creatures will do to you! You’re a Gem, so treasure yourself!”
It’s so absurd, the idea that a tiny frog could harm Shinsha in any way, but the concern still warms their chest to a nearly unbearable degree. A moment of uncomfortable eye contact is more than either Shinsha or Bort can take; Shinsha takes a deep interest in the sky, while Bort stares a hole through the nearest tree.
“I want to go home.”
“...Uhm.”
They’re barely out in the open field again when a familiar voice breaks the awkward quiet that has accompanied them the whole way.
“Is that?! You two, what are you doing out there?”
Both of their heads turn in unison. Even from a distance, the Gem rushing to join them across the plain is unmistakable. How gentle they sound, even as they shout, the way their hair scatters the rays of the late evening sun, even the way they run says Diamond. Shinsha has never felt more relieved to see their not-twin, and from the relieved exhale Bort lets out, the feeling is mutual.
“Bort, Shinsha -” Diamond huffs, winded, “Why did you leave the School? Did something happen?”
“Not at all,” Bort is quick to assure. “And I became Shinsha’s partner for the day, so it was safe.”
“Oh?” An odd, half sad, half mischievous sparkle appears in Diamond’s eyes. “You’ve got to tell me all about it! What did you end up doing?”
Scuttling closer to whisper into Diamond’s ear, Shinsha discreetly points at their leg. “Don’t you need some glue on that?”
“It’s okay, it’s okay! Nothing makes me feel better than listening to you two! Let’s get inside before it gets dark, alright?”
Diamond links arms with both of them, humming happily as they steer the two withdrawn Gems towards their home. Soon, they are joined by the rest of the patrol. When Yellow diverts Dia’s attention with some question, Bort reaches across their back to tug at the back of Shinsha’s uniform.
“Shinsha.”
“What?” Shinsha answers in the same hushed tone.
“Don’t go anywhere. Dia and… Dia needs you.”
When Shinsha nods in response, they can’t convince themselves that they mean it.