Chapter Text
When Pearl is nine she ends up a bit too far into the lake, the sand and mud slipping out from beneath her feet and then there’s water over her head and in her throat and she can’t breathe, can’t think, can’t—
Pearl wakes up to damp fur around her and a damper tongue across her face and her parents shouting in distressed tones and the feeling of worry-worry-worry-care-scared-love in her head. She coughs and the wolf, her wolf, whines as she spits up lake water and bile, but Pearl can breathe and the damp fur pressed against her skin only feels like safety.
Her tears aren’t noticeable when both of them are already dripping with water, with her face buried in her wolf’s side.
She still feels scared, heart racing and confusion layered over her thoughts, but it’s the after-scare kind. Fading jitters from… something, but her wolf is here, mirrored thoughts of concern and mine and relief bouncing between them.
Pearl’s okay. And so is her wolf.
They’re together and her parents are nearby and it’s going to be okay.
☽ 〇 ☾
They move when she’s eleven.
It’s her fault.
Her mother’s face tight as she stares out the passenger window, her father’s eyes on the yellow lines.
Curled inside her head, Tilly doesn’t understand why they’re mad, only that they are.
They’re often upset with her though.
Pearl knows she’s supposed to care. If she was a better daughter she would. And she does! Mostly. Sorta. It’s just…
They don’t like Tilly being out. Not really. No one does.
But Tilly’s such a good girl and she needs to run and exercise and she gets hungry and lonely and it’s mean to keep her stuck in Pearl’s head.
But her teachers never like it when Tilly is out, neither do pretty much all of the other kids, and Tilly wouldn’t actually harm anyone, she was just protecting Pearl and Pearl was just protecting her and B, and it wasn’t fair!
And now they’re moving. And her parents are mad. She knows it’s about her. That it’s her fault.
It just feels so bad keeping Tilly inside all the time.
The doctors said she was there to protect Pearl in dangerous situations but that doesn’t feel right. Nothing really feels right anymore.
Nothing but Tilly anyway.
☽ 〇 ☾
Pearl slips underneath the watchful eyes of the monitors, out the backdoor of the cafeteria, and away from the noise and chaos of the room.
She hasn’t eaten there since her first week. Won’t.
None of them are supposed to leave the school, but Pearl’s always in trouble no matter what she does.
They never actually believe her that Tilly is hungry, or lonely, or has too much energy.
As long as she doesn’t get caught, breaking this rule doesn’t really matter.
It’s better to do it this way.
Tilly materializes next to her easily as soon as she’s out of sight from the school, in the trees that make up the forest that borders the town, and something in Pearl’s chest loosens.
It’s not far to their lunch clearing and then Tilly would get to run around, maybe be able to actually catch something she could eat, and even if she didn’t Pearl always split her lunch with her.
It was one of the only times Tilly got food. Pearl at least got breakfast and dinner.
Tilly was hers. She had to take care of her.
Especially when no one else would.
☽ 〇 ☾
Gem is twelve and a half and she’s probably not supposed to leave the school grounds for lunch, shouldn’t go into the almost woods that border it, but it’s her first day here and she’s alone surrounded by strangers, hand empty, side cold, and her heart goes too fast with all of those eyes on her but not really her and the noise that just grows the longer she’s in it.
The woods are quieter.
More familiar.
She doesn’t go in too far. Sticking to one of the side trails that might actually be a deer path, but the clearing it ends up in is calm and sunlight dappled and empty.
It’s mostly aspen around, probably all the same tree, but there’s a single willow closer to the other side where the ground dips slightly, old and branching half into the small clearing. Gem sits down heavily under its draping canopy, back against the bark as she breathes, shoving away all the eyes and watching and whispers.
The forest is so much calmer.
“What are you doing in my spot?” A voice demands angrily and Gem spins, stumbling to her feet to stare up the slight hill at a brown haired girl about her age and-
“Is that a wolf?” Gem asks, staring past the girl to the pure white wolf, maybe dog, that has its head cocked staring back at her with blue eyes.
“What? No!” The girl says, startled and moving into her line of vision. “I mean—” She starts, switching tracks and puffing up. “Yeah! Yeah she is a wolf and she’ll eat you if you don’t get out of here! This is my lunch spot!” The girl yells at her, but she’s the one standing in front of the wolf. Still. Posture familiar if the last time Gem saw it was from behind.
“Did you like, call her from the woods?” She stops thinking about that, pressing forward towards the girl and the wolf that’s clearly connected with her power somehow. “Or summon her? Or is she transformed? Or—”
“Wha— Why are you asking questions?” Wolf-Girl interrupts, apprehensive and leaning back from Gem before she realizes and straightens back again. “You’re supposed to be scared!” The wolf cocks her head the other way.
“I—” Gem starts before the wolf bounds over and sticks her face into Gem’s chest.
“Tilly! No!” Wolf-Girl calls, but Gem can’t see if she does anything over the Fur that’s suddenly in her face. “We don’t know what she wants!” She says, voice anxious, and Gem can’t help but coo as she pets Tilly.
“Awwwww! Hi! You’re so cute! And fluffy!” Tilly just blinks wide blue eyes up at her as she sits, pressing further into Gem’s chest and hands. “Her name’s Tilly?!” She asks Wolf-Girl, looking up without pausing in her thorough petting of Tilly. “Is she your power then?” Gem was in love and she needed to make this girl her best friend.
“I—” Wolf-Girl’s eyes are wide and she reaches out like she’s grabbing something as Tilly vanishes. “Why are you here? Go away! This is my spot!” She continues, hands back balled at her sides.
“Did you just do that?” Gem asks, eyes widening. “That’s so Cool!” She exclaims, and Wolf-Girl blinks startled, no longer looking as scared though. A summonable wolf was probably the best power ever.
“You— Why aren’t you scared?” She asks, sounding more confused than upset. “She’s a wolf.”
“Animals only bite if you’re mean.” Gem says, and she’s not thinking back to anything. Besides, Tilly was clearly intelligent even beyond what a normal wolf would be.
“Or if they’re bad.” Wolf-Girl says frowning and looking off to the side.
“There’s no such thing!” Gem snarls, before jerking back with wide eyes as she reburies thi—her powers. Her powers. Get them under control. Don’t let it out.
Wolf-Girl matches her wide eyes, but in shock, not alarm. Not yet.
“You…” She starts. Gem steps back. “You really mean that!” Wolf-Girl says grinning, but it doesn’t quite sound like what she was going to say.
But then she’s rushing forwards to grab on to Gem’s hands with hers with sparkling blue eyes nearly the same as Tilly’s and Gem bites her tongue so she doesn’t react in any other way.
“I’m Pearl. What’s your name? Wanna be friends?” Pearl asks, eager, hopeful eyes fixed solely on her and hands tight around hers like a lifeline.
And Gem grabs it.
☽ 〇 ☾
“God I can’t wait until I’m eighteen and can leave this place.” Pearl groans into Gem’s bedspread, once more hiding over at her house from her parents' endless arguments, and her best friend snorts.
“The only way we’re ever getting out of here is if we join the Commission.” Gem says not sounding like she’s even looked up from her crochet project. Pearl freezes where she lies.
“Wait, that's it.” She says, the fairylights running across the ceiling slowly blinking on and off like in agreement.
“Huh?” That’s it.
“How we get out!” Pearl scrambles to sit up and turn to face her best friend. “Gem, you're a genius!” She says, beaming bright and excited, and she knows how to get them out!
“I mean yeah, but what are you talking about?” Gem says, looking up from her hook and yarn slightly.
“We can become heroes!” Pearl says. “The age requirement for the test is sixteen even though almost nobody starts that young, but we could!” She stresses, excited and thoughts already racing as she plans how they’re going to finally get out of this stupid town.
“What? Why would we do that?” Gem asks, startled and staring at Pearl flabbergasted.
“To get out!” Pearl explains. “And you’d be able to prove your power isn’t dangerous, and I could let Tilly out more often, and we could do it together!” She beams at her best friend, eyes bright and eager, feeling like the pieces are finally coming together. “You and me! Protecting people, beating up the bad guys, saving the day!” They’d be able to do so much good! Help people who really needed it! Show them they’re wrong about her and Gem and Tilly.
“I mean, yeah maybe, but isn’t the test supposed to be like super hard?” Gem points out, but she’s set her crochet aside. “Why’d the Commission take us? Especially with our records.”
“You make it sound like we’re criminals.” Pearl rolls her eyes, even as she ignores the same doubtful thought in her own head. “Plus we can train!” For her at least. Gem was always better at acting good than her. “You’re already really strong and stuff when you want to be, so it’d just be about not going too deep, and I can do like, pushups and other exercises.” It’s not like either of them are terrible at gym, so they’d just have to do more of that kind of stuff and they already have the clearing, really the whole forest, to train in.
“But what if we fail? Then we’re just stuck back here.” Gem says with grimace, looking away from her towards the windows.
“So we try again.” She says. Gem looks back at her. Pearl would apply every other week if that’s what it took (and was allowed). “But we’re not going to fail.” She maintains, determined and they could do this. “We have a whole year and a half to prepare, and we have each other! Most people probably go into this solo, but we can watch each other's backs!” She grins before she dimms, just a little. “That is, if you want to.” Pearl says, carefully. Hopeful but…
Gem snorts, rolling her eyes.
“Ha! You’re not going to get rid of me that easily! Of course I’m going with you!” She grins back at Pearl and that hopeful sense of joy and understanding and rightness rises in her again. They’re going to do this. “Even if you are crazy for thinking we can just train for a couple months and the Commission will let us in.”
☽ 〇 ☾
But it does.
☽ 〇 ☾
Pearl’s seventeen and nursing the new bruises from training on her bed even as she goes over the laws and hero regulations she really needs to get down perfectly before the next test. Whenever that is.
Normally it’d be her and Gem quizzing each other, but Gem’s still in training for another fifteen minutes and then’s supposed to head to the mess hall for dinner.
Pearl of course already grabbed it for her during her free time so they’d at least get an extra half an hour or so together.
She likes training with Gem together better than the occasional times they do apart. Even if there are some reasons.
They work better together.
They’re going to be a team.
Their trainers and teachers have even pretty much fully agreed to it. They just have to keep at it. Keep being some of the best in their group.
Which means studying and extra stretching and keeping ice on her bruises so they won’t swell as much and everything else.
☽ 〇 ☾
“I have gossip, so many new bruises, and a hero name.” Gem declares as she enters their room eighteen minutes later and drops her training bag to the ground so she can release her hair from its braids.
“You have a name picked out already?” Pearl asks curious. “What is it?”
“Riptide.” Her roommate replies.
“Riptide?”
“Riptide.” Gem says firmly.
“It suits you.” Pearl says, nodding after some brief consideration. “Though they might not let you use it.” She bites her lip thinking about the reactions the teachers give to some names the trainees pick out and Gem waves a hand.
“Eh, if they don’t I’ll just fail my classes and use it then.” Gem says indifferent.
“Gem!” She cries, slightly horrified before she sees just the edge of the smirk on her roommate's face.
“That’s. Not. Funny!” Pearl says smacking her with a pillow on every work but she’s grinning too much to be believed. Gem cracks as well, grin blossoming out as she laughs with Pearl, blocking and dodging her attacks exactly as they’ve been trained.
“What about you?” Her roommate asks, after disarming Pearl and tossing the stolen pillow onto her own bed. “We have to choose them at the same time if we’re going to be taken seriously you know.” She sits cross legged against its frame, pulling over her bag from their earlier classes.
“I don’t know.” Pearl sighs, falling back onto her mattress as she stares up at the plain off-white ceiling. “Artemis or Diana feel too inaccurate and bows are already Hotguy’s Thing. Luna’s too similar to Lune, even though I’d love to reference them and I don’t think anybody’d get it anyway. Crescent doesn’t feel like it fits either, so that’s all the moon related ones I’ve thought of out. And then what? Am I supposed to call myself Wolf-Gal or something?” She asks, throwing her hands upwards. It’s been bugging her for a while. This should be easy. Heck, she should have already had some ideas since she first even thought about becoming a hero!
“Hmmm. What about Lupus?” Gem offers even as she pulls things out from her bag.
“Isn’t that a disease?” She turns to squint at her roommate-one-day-partner in confusion and a bit of wariness on if this is a prank. “Gem, are you calling me gross?”
“No, like the latin word for wolf!” She says, and Pearl keeps staring at her trying to figure out if Gem’s messing with her or not. “Look it up, it’s in the scientific name even!” Gem says, exasperated and Pearl relaxes, looking away.
“Hmmm, maybe…” Lupus. It’s not terrible. “Does it make sense though?” She asks. “I mean it’s not like I turn into a wolf.”
“It’s a constellation too.” Gem says without changing her tone in any way. Pearl turns her head slightly to look at her.
“Right under Libra.” Gem adds. Not looking anywhere but her notebook.
“Really?” Pearl looks away, back towards the ceiling. “Maybe you can show me one night?” She says, staring up at the blank white expanse and fluorescent light pretending it’s the night sky instead.
“Tomorrow.” Gem agrees. “And I just thought of an even better name for me.” She says, and Pearl flicks her eyes back.
“You did?” Pearl asks, confused. “I liked Riptide.” It was a good name, even with the slight probability of being denied.
“Yep! Plus there’s no chance they’ll say no to it.” Gem replies cheerfully and certain. Eyes as set as they are during spars.
“Lupus and Cervus.” Gem says, voice even surer than it had been with Riptide. “Latin for deer. There isn’t a constellation, but I’ve already got that covered.”
“Cervus.” Pearl repeats.
“And Lupus.” Gem adds. Like she’s finishing a sentence. “The next great hero duo.” She says reaching a first out towards her, green gaze steady and so familiar.
“The next great duo.” Pearl agrees, matching Gem’s first with her own and grinning together with her partner.
☽ 〇 ☾
“Why a deer?” She asks later that night.
“He liked deer.” Gem says simply, and Pearl knocks their shoulders together like she does every time.
“Then here’s to us, Cervus and Lupus.” She says just as simply.
“To us.” Gem agrees with a smile.
☽ 〇 ☾
They become full-fledged (baby) heroes less than two years later.
It takes Pearl only a little over two more to die for the second time in her life.