Yellowed sighed as she sat back, leaning heavily on the arm of her chair while pinching the bridge of her nose. Her eyes were starting to become tired of reading script, lines blurring into one another and she longed to get up to move around instead of just uncrossing and recrossing her legs. She did not care for the style of lounging chairs, but had allowed Blue to talk her into it, a mistake she would not make again any time soon. Looking up, over the top of the screens, she stared at the slightly distorted view of the partially completed colony, the defining colors of organic life pleasantly contrasted by the exposed rock that had been terraformed for her kindergartens. The thought of the gems that would be emerging soon reminded her of Orange, and her unyielding interest in them.

Orange had arrived, after spending more time than Yellow cared for with White, and yet she hadn't managed to make the time for her, even after pushing off her visit for what she had deemed an acceptable amount of time to complete what she needed. And while she justified to herself it had been because she still had important work that was time sensitive, she still felt a small pang of guilt settle her in the chest. Orange must have been so excited to return to her, she knew Orange looked up to them much more than in a literal sense, and she had only brushed her off. Of course, her work was important to her, but she should also take time for their youngest, while she still had the freedom to leave Homeworld before she returned to White.

Yellow cocked her head towards her Pearl, who looked up at her the moment she began to speak, "Pearl. Its time to take a break." Yellow dismissed her work screens, sitting forward and feeling the ache in her back from the long hours of sitting at an angle. "Go get Orange Diamond. I'm sure she has tired of the walls in her room already."

Pearl stood, bowing to her, "Yes, My Diamond."

Yellow watched as she trotted from the room at a quick pace, sighing now that she was alone and no one around to see as she worked out the tension in her back and limbs, relaxing back again to wait.

-------------

Pearl held her head high as she passed by multiple gems. Much larger than herself, but so beneath her, and her task.

Crossing through the warp room and into the side hall that held the main rooms just for the most important gems that would be here. While it hadn't always existed at this base, it had been a simple and quick thing to add a room for Orange Diamond, especially considering she was much smaller than the other Diamonds, minus Pink Diamond, and did not need a room the size her own Diamond did. It was also the first time the room was getting actual use, as the base had been made before Orange Diamond's existence and the room had to be added in later, and only recently when it became known that Orange would be with them at all. Nowadays, bases were simply made with another diamond room, as it would be a ten to one bet Orange Diamond would be occupying the base at some point in its existence. Though, with the knowledge Orange planned to stay with White Diamond for a while, Pearl actually felt a little let down that the young gem would no longer be there to talk her ear off, or gossip with her. Though, she supposed, it meant she would be able to fully concentrate on her work until she did finally return to them.

Taking a left from the hall, finding the room was was a simple task, considering this wing of rooms was purely for the Diamonds and Orange's was always marked with a small diamond shaped, centered on the door in her color, each half of the door carved to hold one half of the diamond symbol. She could remember the smile that stayed on the younger gem's face the entire day that symbol had been added to the architectural design and she had seen it. Orange was so young then, walking and talking on her own, but still not as tall as Pearl, and she had still been trying to imitate her. Now she was a giant to her, and much more a Diamond than she would have though she could have been when she had been required to shove tablets into her mouth just to keep her alive. How times changed.

Upon getting to the room with the small orange diamond on its door, Pearl raised her head a little higher, a wicked grin forming on her face as she stared down two quartz guards who made it a point to not meet her gaze.

"Be quiet and move out of the way." Pearl ordered, "I'm here for Orange Diamond."

Pearl paid the two quartz guard no mind, even as they gave each other looks when they though she wasn't looking, beliving they weren't worth her time.

Pearl released the door with the pad, neither guard speaking up as she did so or when she stepped inside, leaving the doors open. Pearl smiled lifted as her eyes closed, feeling quite pleased to be getting Orange after that mornings mishap. She would be so happy to see her, and with the orders she brought.

"Orange Diamond, Yellow Diamond requests your presence." Pearl waited a beat, and was put off when there was no noise in response, not even a squeal of excitement to see her. Opening her eyes, Pearl looked around the room. "Orange Diamond?" She repeated, her eyes darting around. The bed was still perfectly made, the large marble chair notably not having said gem there.

Whipping her head around, Pearl nervously put her hand to her mouth, biting into her finger nails as she tried to materialize the Diamond, hoping she had somehow just missed her in the open room. "Ohh no. oh nooo. My clarity? Orange Diamond?"

Pearl rechecked the room, ducking to check under the desk, pulling the covers back and shifting pillows, panic starting to seize her chest. "Ohhh no no no not good. You're going to be in so much trouble. I'm going to be in-...Orange?" she squeaked.

Looking back to the door, Pearl charged out, glaring and pointing angrily at the two guards, "Where is she!? Where is Orange Diamond?"

The Quartz to her left grunted, "We haven't seen her."

"Yeah," The quartz to the left agreed, "she hasn't been by yet."

"Why didn't you say that!?" Pearl practically screamed.

The quartz grinned, and Pearl would have smacked it off her face if she though it wouldn't hurt her more than the smug guard, especially when she sneered, "You told us to be quiet."

Pearl turned away from the two Quartz, running down the hall, even more panicked as she ducked into every side room she passed, startling technicians and soldiers alike, brushing them off as she quickly scanned the room for what would be the tallest gem on this level before moving on.

Coming back to the warp room, Pearl halted when her eyes fell on the warp pad, her heart sinking. Looking to her left, Pearl snatched the first Peridot technician that passed, startling her as she caused her to drop her pad when Pearl grabbed her by her upper armor, "Tell me, has anyone used this warp pad recently?"

The Peridot blinked, before the surprise wore off and she pushed Pearl off her, frowning but answering her anyway, "Only the handlers coming back from the kindergartens. Now leave me be, I have important work to do."

Pearl was running away before she could even finish, the fear clear on her face.

-----------

Orange wiped the sweat from her brow as she pulled herself up onto the cliff side, turning to look behind her at the setting sun on the horizon, her frown deepening as panic settled a little heavier in her chest. "I'm going to be grounded for a millennia."

Turning away from the view, Orange began running for the kindergarten at a full on run, once against praising Iris Agate for her training regime and pushing her so hard, otherwise she was sure she'd still be trapped in the forest until Yellow either came down to get her or she was found embarrassingly by the Quartz that would be sent to find her. Neither were a great option.

-------------

When Pearl returned, her eyes were wide and she appeared frazzled, sweat beading on her face and her lips turned down. Yellow raised an eyebrow at her, surprised by her appearance. What was even more odd was the lack of a young Diamond with her. "Where is Orange?"

Pearl's hands fidgeted in front of her, fingers tapping together as she looked up at Yellow before looking away and then looking back, "I....forgive me, my diamond, but..." and then Pearl fell apart, crying, "But I can't find Orange Diamond!"

Yellow stood up so quickly that Pearl stepped back in alarm, shrinking as Yellow yelled, "What?!"

Anger radiated from every bit of her, from her posture and clenched fists, to her narrowed eyes and bared teeth as she turned to look out at the colony. "She hasn't....She better not have gone down to the colony. After i specifically told her..."

Yellow stepped passed Pearl, her long legs taking her much farther and faster than Pearl could move, the smaller gem hustling to keep up with her owner as she descended the stairs.

------------

Orange huffed, struggling to catch her breath as she skidded to a halt in front of the warp pad, completely ignoring the looks she was getting from the gems still maning the kindergarten. Stand on the platform, Orange activated the warp, apprehension making her feel queasy while the light temporarily blocked her vision before she was back in familiar yellow colored walls.

Looking around, Orange could see gems scattering about the base, and she knew she was possibly in the deepest trouble of her life. Looking to her left, thinking she might hide in her room, she nearly gasped when she saw the back of Yellow Diamond as she marched down the corridor, Pearl chasing after her.

"Nope! Not that way."

Looking forward, she thought she might hide outside, and say she had been there the whole time, then thought better of it. If Yellow was looking for her, then she most defiantly had gems searching for her outside. Looking up, Orange knew exactly what she was going to do.

Sprint past a lot of gems that stopped to look at her, she ignored them, taking the stairs to the second level and all but skidding into the observation room.

If I act like I've come inside to be here, Yellow might not realize. She thought, amazed at her own quick thinking. That is, until she looked down at herself.

Her legs and arms were covered in dirt, orangish-red marks blemishing her light form that she had yet to heal. Her entire body was covered in a thin layer of sweat and grime, she hardly looked like a young diamond, and much more akin to a wild beast that had been brought inside the palace as a practical joke.

Orange grimaced, "Yellow is going to kill me."

Thinking fast, Orange produced her own healing light, quickly fixing up any scuffs in her skin and brushing down a lot of the dirt, using her own sweat to try and clear the marks off. She could at least replace her stockings and tunic with a new one, given they were produced by her own form and not fabric ones, but even after all her work to try and appear presentable, she had a feeling Yellow would take issues with how she looked.

But with no other options available, short of hiding for three weeks, which certainly wasn't an actual viable option - was it? No, no. - She activated the orb, putting it on a random place, and sat down to wait out her doom. Not long later, Orange swallowed when she heard the distinct sound of Yellow's heavy steps coming up the stairs.

She tried not to flinch when they stopped on her level and then a very loud voice shouted her name, "Orange!"

Orange put on her largest smile, turned to see an incredibly angry Yellow Diamond and a very flustered pearl, bent over and using her knees as support as collected herself. Orange, deciding to go all the way with her ruse if it ever had a chance to work, chose to continue in almost blatantly obvious ignorance, acting as if she didn't notice anything wrong with them and keeping her tone cheery as she exclaimed at the sight of them, "Hey Yellow!"

Yellow blinked, the surprise obvious on her face at Orange's chipper mood, the anger slipping from her face and morphing into confusion.

Orange took this as her best opportunity to not possibly die today, "Are you done for the day? I've been waiting as best I could."

Yellow narrowed her eyes, either catching on or suspicious, which reeked havoc on Orange's nerves, though she kept up the excited smile as best she could.

"I'm taking a break." Yellow's response was slow, each word dragged out while her eyes scanned over Orange, and the younger gem could immediately tell she was displeased by her appearance. "I've been looking for you. Where have you been?"

"Really?" Orange blinked in her best surprised expression, "I walked around the base, wrested with the Quartz a bit, but i've been here for a little while." Orange could not believe the lying words coming out of her mouth, but she wasn't going to stop now that she had dug her hole as far as she could. She was going to lie in it. "Did you not check? Maybe we just missed each other."

Yellow's eyes narrowed further, her words giving Yellow just enough pause, just enough reason to believe that perhaps, somehow, in all the chaos created to search for the young Diamond, that they truly had just slipped past each other. Orange, after all, was not a liar. "Pearl said..." Yellow turned to glare down at her Pearl, who looked up at her in alarm as Yellow sneered and then turned back to Orange, shaking her head. "Never mind. I will deal with thatlater." And then Yellow was walking towards her, "Move over."

Orange was surprised when Yellow sat down on the floor with her, mindful of where she was, her longer legs coming up either side of her as she sat behind Orange.

Yellow's hands were moving her hair a moment later, her large fingers brushing at dirt she had obviously missed, "Look at you, you're filthy."

Orange thought she might have a heart attack when Yellow began trying to push her sweat dampened hair into place, worried she might find the odd twig she had missed, but after a moment and Yellow had moved on to brushing more dirt off her back, Orange relaxed, allowing the older Diamond to uncharacteristically fret over her.

"Sorry." Orange replied sheepishly, trying to ignore the tingle of guilt in her chest at how she was deceiving Yellow. She had enjoyed her time out, for the most part, she only wished it wasn't just another thing she would have to keep secret. Lying to Yellow felt so wrong, she almost rather the punishment if she wasn't so afraid of the disappointment. If Yellow knew she was not only lying to her face, but had directly disobeyed her, she maneuver trust her again. So she kept quiet, concentrating on Yellow's care of her, a reminder that Yellow looked after her in her own way.

After a few moments, and grunting, apparently either satified with her progress or giving up, Yellow stopped, the hand that hand been making her presentable laying down on her own leg beside Orange.

Yellow then turned to Pearl, who had been standing by the entrance of the Observation room, composing herself while she was no longer under scrutiny. "Pearl, call off the search for Orange Diamond. No reason to waste time on a gem that's not lost."

Both waited as Pearl skittered off, leaving them alone before they continued speaking.

Orange half expected Yellow to lay into her now that Pearl was gone, for she had to knowing she was lying, but instead she simply reached forward, turning the orb to reflect another view of the colony. "Have you been looking at this long?"

It was at this point Orange actually looked at the display, having ignored it before in favor of listening for Yellow. "Not long, just here and there." Orange said, leaning back, her chest tightening uncomfortably more as Yellow allowed her to lean against her, even going so far as to curl a hand around her, like she normally did when she sat with her, a comfort from days past that Orange couldn't find in herself to tell her she no longer needed. "Enough to see the Rubies emerge, and some of the landscape in different coordinates."

"Hmm." Yellow hummed, turning the orb to another view, and then another when she seemed to dislike that one as well. "Then you haven't seen the Spinel, yet."

Orange could not stop looking up at Yellow in excitement, "You've made Spinel?"

Yellow tilted her head slightly to look at her, "Yes, but they won't be ready for another month, though a section has unexpectedly emerged early."

"I'd like to see them." Orange breathed out. But she'd be gone by then.

Yellow didn't say this, only turning back to the Orb and changing it, settling finally on a view of an ocean, one Orange hadn't seen from space or from her time planet side. "we will see."

The two Diamonds sat in silence, Yellow seemingly content with her presence alone and Orange stewing in her guilt and thoughts of the colony below. If only they trusted her more, she wouldn't have felt the need to sneak off, she wouldn't be lying to Yellow right now. How long would she have to do that until they trusted her to be on her own? Orange knew from stories from Pink, though she figured they were embellished, that none of the diamonds had really thought of her as very mature until she had a colony of her own. It wasn't very successful, but a colony had been what had forced their hand. Is that what she had to look forward to? Waiting until they deemed her ready for a colony and then, and only them, she would be seen as somehow older and more mature?

Eventually, Orange found her voice, her eyes staring out at the water as it lapped in waves at the beach. "Yellow?"

"Hmm?" The older Diamond hummed after a beat, and Orange momentarily wondered what she had been thinking about.

Pushing her guilt and nerves down, as they would do her no good here, Orange looked back at the ocean and asked in a soft tone, "How old were you when you were given your first colony?"

She could practically feel Yellow tense, her head jerking down to look at her, which made Orange look back up at her in surprise. "Old." Yellow responded, her voice firm, as if she was giving an order and not answering a question, "Older than you. Mucholder, so don't get any ideas."

Orange felt her temper flare, jerking away from Yellow to turn her narrowed eyes upon her, "That's not...Yellow!"

Yellow narrowed her eyes right back at her, pulling the hand that had been curled around her away and responded sternly, "Don't raise your voice."

"I..." Orange was overcome with mixed emotions, uncertain how to process them all at once, and they came out in the form of her voice raising and tears forming in her eyes as she glared at the older Diamond, baring her teeth and clenching her fist to try and contain her anger. "Why do you and Blue have to treat me like im a child?!

"Orange." Yellow's voice held an unspoken warning.

Instead, Orange simply lost it, shouting despite knowing Yellow was not the person to upset, or yell at. "NO! You all keep telling me to be a proper diamond, but act like if you let me out of your sight, or let me do something on my own, im going to hurt myself!" It was at this point Orange got up to stand, though she was still much shorter than the sitting Diamond, it made her feel better knowing she was at least standing her ground, both figuratively and literally, "which is it? What am i suppose to do to make you happy? So you see i'm not a child!?"

"You are a child!" Yellow's equally raised her voice, stunning Orange, her words cutting into Orange better than any knife could have. Her voice lowered when Orange didn't immediately fire back at her, "You're standing there, yelling at me. That is the act of a child. You demand things to be a certain way, but that is not how this works. You will be treated as a child until you can show you aren't one. And I can tell you, it is children who cry over not getting their way."

Orange blinked, feeling new tears forming on her lashes.

Unlike Blue, who would have reacted to her tears, Yellow simply allowed her to cry, offering no comfort or act of understanding, remaining firm in allowing Orange to release her emotions with no support or comfort from her, her hand not once even moving to touch her. Instead, she raised her head, her eyes not as narrowed as before, but her tone left no room for Orange to believe she was impassioned by her crying or outburst. "Understand this, Orange, when we tell you to do something, we do it for your own good. One day you will understand that."

Orange bit back a retort, ignoring the pain in her lip as she clenched her teeth over her lower lip, turning her back on Yellow so she would not see her face as she broke down further.

Yellow stood up, still cautious of where Orange was between her legs, stepping away from her once she was on her feet again. "I have to get back to work. Go to bed, Orange." Yellow turned away, making for the entrance of the room, "It has been a long day, and you will think better when you're not so emotional."

Orange's voice cracked as she responded in quietly, her arms folding over her as her only act of comfort. "Okay, Yellow."

Orange waited until Yellow was out of sight and the sound of her footsteps far enough away to yell in frustration, loud enough that later, she was sure she would realize she had probably scared a few gems below. Falling to her knees, she slammed her hand into marble floor so hard that it created a jagged crack in it, the marble splitting up to the observation Orb.

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I think it runs in Pink's side of the family to just damage Yellow's things when she makes you angry. It's practically a mandatory right of passage. Windows, floors, expensive hand ships. Its all fair game here in the Diamond household.