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Hours after the impromptu robot brawl—when Steven is safely tucked into his sleeping bag and snoring, and Peridot sits tinkering in the back of the barn —Pearl finds herself on the roof, gazing at the stars with Garnet and Amethyst.
“I never wanted Steven to know,” she says, after a moment. “What it truly meant to be a Pearl.”
“Well, duh.” Amethyst retorts. “Cuz it doesn’t matter here. Just like it doesn’t matter that on Homeworld all Quartzes were soldiers! Rose never—”
“It’s more than that. I worried…” Pearl glances down. The boards creek beneath her fingers. “I didn’t want it to change the way he viewed me.”
“It did.”
Garnet’s response jars her; Pearl’s eyes shoot up, bewildered. “What?”
“It did change the way he views you,” Garnet repeats. “Now, he understands how much you’ve worked to become all that you are. How you continue to do so.” She places her hand on Pearl’s shoulder, heavy, bracing. “He sees how strong you are. And he admires you even more than he already did.”
“But we’ve always seen that in ya, P. You know that, right?”
“Yes.” Pearl smiles, blinks tears out of her eyes. “I think I do.”