A long awaited kiss - Soup group

Instructions

A long awaited kiss - 19 - Poly soup group ---------------------------- Impulse doesn't currently feel like psychoanalyzing the feeling he gets every time he looks at Pearl AGAIN. But here he is, staring at her as she works and wondering how he's ever going to tell one of his best friends he loves her. It's been /months/ of him feeling like this, not just towards Pearl, but Gem too. Of course he had to fall in love with the people he was building a base with. He suspected they had a thing for each other anyway. He could see them pining from a mile away. "Impulse, you're lookin' a little sad there, buddy!" Pearl calls to him. He startles. "Oh- I'm- it's nothing." He laughs it off. "I've got a question for you though." Pearl drops he things and comes closer. "Hm?" "Do you like Gem?" "Of course, I mean, she's a great friend-" "No, no." Impulse corrects. "Do you /like/ Gem?" Pearl goes red in the face. "...Yes. Maybe." She admits. Impulse doesn't know why he's doing this. He knows he's running his chances, but- "You should tell her." He says. "I've seen the way she looks at you. I know she likes you back." There is silence between them. "I mean, if you're right, how bad could it go?" Pearl sighs. How bad could it go, indeed? Probably only bad for Impulse though. It'll go great for them, he knows. ----- Pearl is gonna do it. She's gonna tell Gem, she's gonna take Impulse's advice and ignore the feeling of disappointment. She's not gonna think about the fact that this means he doesn't like her back. She's gonna tell Gem. She loves Gem too. "...Pearl? You've been really quiet." Pearl shakes her head. "Sorry. I was... thinking." "'Bout what?" Gem tilts her head, her beautiful green eyes sparkling in the dim light as she sits beside Pearl on the couch. "I..." She steels herself. "I love you. Like, romantically, I mean." Gem makes a small noise. Pearl can't tell if that's a positive sign or not, so she continues. "And I want to know if you feel the same, and I mean of course it's fine if you don't-" "Pearl." "I just want to stay friends with everything and-" "PEARL!" She stops. Gem is looking at her and her eyes are full of adoration. "I do." Gem smiles. "I do return your feelings. In fact, I'd really love to kss you right now, if that's okay." Pearl's brain short-circuts. "I- /what/?" "Like I said, you don't have to." Gem looks away, a little embarrassed. "No. No, please kiss me." Gem takes Pearl's face in her hands and brings it to her own, pressing their lips together. It's been so long since Pearl kissed anyone, and she's out of practice, but Gem doesn't seem to be. When they finally pull away, Pearl is left a bit breathless. "Wow." She says. "That's been a long time coming." Gem laughs, loud and bright. "Sure has." ----- Impulse has been acting really weird since Gem and Pearl got together. He thinks they don't notice but Gem does, she notices his sad glances at her and Pearl when they hold hands or cuddle. It's enough to make Gem wonder if she was wrong when she thought that he didn't love her back. Everything he does exhibits such a yearning for both of them that it's hard to ignore. Almost a month in, she finally talks to Pearl about it. "I think Impulse wishes we could become a polycule." She says to start the conversation, and Pearl falls off the bed. "WHAT?!" Pearl says, her head popping back up. "Gem you can't just say that-" "You can't tell me you haven't noticed how he looks at us," Gem says, the corners of her lips quirking upwards as Pearl clambers back onto the bed to sit beside her. "I did, but I thought he was only looking at you?" Pearl states, baffled. "Why would he tell us to get together if he liked me too?" "I've got no clue," Gem sighs. "Shouldn't we ask him about it, though?" Pearl pauses. "You'd be okay with it? If we were a throuple?" She asks finally. "Well, yeah." Then what Pearl said sinks in. "Wait- you like Impulse too?" "Yeah." She lets out a little laugh. "Wow I didn't- I feel kind of stupid now. I thought it was just me!" "So did I!" Gem laughs back, and they dissolve into a fit of happy giggles. Gem's hand wraps around Pearl's. The door opens. "Hey, do any of you know where we put the ramen-" Impulse says. His eyes travel to their hands and faces, and he looks between the two of them, embarrassed. "I'm very sorry I think I might be intruding I'll let you get back to your thing bye-" He tries to duck back out the door. "Wait, Impulse!" Gem calls after him. "Come back!" A hesitant head pokes its way through the door again. "Uh... yes?" "So we're doing this?" Pearl whispers to Gem. She nods. Impulse looks between the two of them, confused. "We have a question for you." Gem announces, beckoning him to sit down in the nearby chair. "Are you in love with us and is that why you keep looking at us all sad?" Impulse freezes and does not move for a very long time. "...Impy?" Pearl asks softly. "Yeah." He says, not meeting their eyes. "I do love you. Both of you." ++++++