The question grinds the whole of Pearl to a halt, her body suddenly too heavy to move. Her thighs clamp tight around Garnet's fingers, and a heavy shudder crawls up her spine before she stills. She stills but she's so loud, with everything inside of her scrambling onto itself in a frantic, needy mess, trapped between Garnet's body and the floor. She's sure she must feel her heartbeats through her back.

"I, ah-- I..." She's leaking onto the carpet, Pearl can tell, even with her muscles pulled taut. Garnet has to-- she'll give it to her, right? She won't leave her like this, she wouldn't, that'd be--

--Unfair? Would it? Her head's swimming-- but this is her punishment, isn't it? Has she earned this? Was she good enough-- god, was she?

"I don't--" know, she tries again, but the words snag in her throat, splinter and crack. The guilt and the shame and the pressure and everything that's been building up in her head this whole day finally pushes past its peak, bursting from behind her eyes in rapid saltwater streams.

Pearl's shoulders shake and heave, her sob buried into the carpet.