Aventurine was clearly fond of you.

You’d met a year ago, during a busy get together between the factions of the universe. It didn’t take very long for him to take a liking to you. And even now, was quite overprotective of you. Always keeping you close by whenever you went on outings together, like he was afraid you’d run off and leave him by himself. Spoiling you at whatever opportunity he had and buying you all kinds of gifts. He was a Stoneheart, but he was always more carefree around you, clinging to you and smiling like a gleeful child. You were surprised—your first impression of him couldn’t have been more different. But you liked how he let his guard down around you.

One day, you decided to ask him about it. Aventurine had stopped by your home after work, saying he ‘just felt like it’ when you opened up the door to see him. He always invited himself in without invitation anyways—you were used to it. Now you were sitting across from each other, Aventurine chattering away about some high risk high reward gamble he’d made a few days ago that he’d won effortlessly. You listened to him ramble with a smile on your face. You decided to interject once he was done. As you spoke, the joy in Aventurine’s expression dimmed, the smile that had previously been seemingly permanently plastered across his face fading into an unsure frown.

“I’m sorry. It’s only that…” Aventurine trailed off. For a moment, even as he was looking at you, it seemed like he was looking at something past. Something far out of reach, that he would never gain again. It took him a moment to gather his footing again, his eyebrows furrowing and his lips pursing and un-pursing in consideration.

“You remind me of my sister.”

The confession felt like a punch in the gut. You knew what had happened to Aventurine’s sister—to his family, to him. After months, almost a year of knowing each other, and on a night where you’d both gotten drunk, he’d admitted it all to you with a sorrowful look on his face you knew you couldn’t forget.