On a pale blue sky the silhouettes of two of the three moons orbiting the planet were fading away. The closest star, the system's sun, started to rise in the endless horizon, causing the shadows of the mountains to grow so large they sank the nearby jungle in darkness. Only the rocky tableland, on which Lapis Lazuli and Steven were, was bathed by the warm light of the star. But the trees of the jungle, more than eager to get some sunlight as well, stretched out their thickest branches towards the heavens as they produced the same sound of a thousand tree trunks cracking. Slowly and gently, multicolored leaves from each tree branch unwrapped themselves recreating the image of a finite field of exotic flowers of humongous proportions.
Watching the spectacle, Lapis sat near the crystal warp pad they had been installing last night. She sat on a clear yellow mat Steven had brought along which matched his. She didn't need it though. Despite the uneven and rocky surface, she felt no displeasure when sitting on it bare, but decided to use it anyways since Steven had brought it for her. It was very comfortable. Just from the looks of it one could tell it was very soft, but it was even softer, it almost felt like sitting on a little cloud of her own.
With ease the hours she needed to pass away flew by her as the sun slid across the sky in a constant movement. Before she noticed it, from the warp pad shot out a single beam of white light, meaning the safety check had been finished successfully. On the pad stood now on four cylindrical legs a spider-like machine, with a spherical body and a Mr. universe motif. It was a relic from the past really. It had been one of Peridot's maintenance robots form the time when gems were still interested in conquering planets. She had given it to them a few hundred years back as an anniversary present when they had returned shortly to Home world. With its particular movement the machine went towards Lapis and displayed a purple hologram with seven moving graphics representing different values.
"Well done, Vahn. It looks like the connection with the other warp pads is stable."
Vahn, as the machine was called by both of them, ended its report and returned once more to the warp pad. The only thing missing was setting the space ship they had used to get to that planet to auto-pilot and return to the explorers' headquarters using the new pad. The first task was easy enough. They just needed to give Vahn the command. But it wasn't possible to just go back home right away as Steven had not woken up yet.
Lapis waited for a few minutes more. Vahn constantly switched between looking at her and looking at the thing wrapped in furry blankets that was Steven, waiting for an order from any of them. When already one hour had passed, turning Steven's sleeping time into a fifteen hours long nap she got the need to check if everything was alright.
To let him sleep as much as he needed, was something she decided. As time passed she realized how important it was for Steven's body to have enough time to recover from the exhaustion brought by constant space travel and working sessions over seven days long.
It was his idea to adapt to a gem's life style. His earthly custom of sleeping and working eight hours at a time made for him the days too short and numerous, he said. "By staying awake longer, I can not only spend more time with you, but also make my days feel longer", those were the words he used to convince her of supporting his idea. "Also, as a half gem, my body should be able to handle more than I'm accustomed to, right?" and for a while it seemed like it was true. Almost a whole millennia he was able to keep the pace with her, working seven days straight and resting only eight hours each time, but recently his sleeping time had become longer and eerily still, almost giving the impression it would last forever. His face was so calm and his breathing so subtle, it almost looked like he had passed away.
"Vahn, program the ship's auto-pilot for explorer's HQ and go ahead. Notify Citrine that Steven and I will be arriving later than scheduled due to special circumstances."
Finally with some orders to fulfill the little legged orb vanished in another beam of white light, leaving Steven and Lapis alone.
"Steven..."
The humanoid gem stood up and crouched near him.
"Are you alright?"
One of her arms reached out for his face, caressing it gently as she asked him. After getting no response, her arm went lower, making its way towards his chest and even lower, towards the place where human belly buttons were located, but in which, in Steven's case, his mother's gem was lodged.
As soon as her fingertips touched the pink gem under the blankets, a particular numbness, like a soft static charge, spread among them. During the many years they had spent together, Lapis had discovered a way to read his emotions while he dreamed: by simply sensing the way his gem emitted energy. She could tell the difference between happiness, sadness, despair and loneliness. Strangely enough, it didn't feel like any of those. It resembled happiness, yes, but it quite wasn't.
At the beginning, it felt like ants crawling around her fingers, like a march of ants spiraling around her fingers and towards her hand, gathering on her palm and on its back. But that sensation slowly turned into a dull electric shock from her finger tips to her elbow, winding tightly around her chest like a snake, and making its way upwards towards lips, making them tickle pleasurably.
Exactly what was he dreaming about? A frown of embarrassment and annoyance formed on her face, while her cheeks started to turn a little yellow and her eyes were set on his closed eyelids. What exactly meant that strange, yet pleasant, sensation? And also…was he smiling?
For a while now, Steven's sleeping face looked like he was smiling, faintly, but still smiling.
Her face got closer to his as she made sure her suspicions were correct. Like magnetized metal her lips got closer to his, surely due to the electric charge they seemed to hold.
"Hey, what are those special circumstances?"
"YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRHHHHHH!"
Suddenly Lapis jumped away from Steven and looked in the direction the unknown voice came from.
The other gem, Citrine, usually in charge of volunteer explorers like Lapis and Steven, simply watched Lapis jump in surprise while she held Vahn in her arms like a small pet.
"What are you doing, Lapis?"
Her calm demeanor was her trade mark, along with her tendency to worry for others more than she let know, especially after the fall of the diamonds' regime.
Lapis quickly tried to explain the circumstances (and her actions) to the bright orange gem, but, before she could say a word, Citrine had already figured out what had happened.
"So, he's asleep.
I guess those where the special circumstances Vahn reported?"
"...Yes."
Both gems stood next to Steven as he kept sleeping unaware of what happened around him.
"I guess the natural thing to do would be to wake him up. But if he's resting it's because he needs it.
Honestly! If it were any other gem, I'd tell them to stand up right away. But...
He's the only one I know that has to slack off from time to time."
Citrine's gaze went from Steven to Lapis as if expecting her to agree with her commentary.
"Citrine, you know it's not slacking off. It's..."
"I know. You already told me what organic beings need to do in order to survive when I asked you about the water tanks in your rest station."
Out of Citrine's arms Vahn jumped to the ground and crawled towards Lapis' legs. The gem crossed her arms and looked Lapis in the eye.
"You don't need to come to the HQ. Vahn's report has already entered the data base and the ship is on its way home. If you want, warp straight to your resting station. It's been a while since you both have been there. And it might help Steven recover his energy to feel at home."
There was a brief moment of silence after Lapis thanked Citrine for understanding. Citrine simply looked at her and Steven and told Lapis to enjoy their time together in a very somber tone before returning to the pad and to HQ.
Lapis understood well the reasons for her tone of voice. Even if something lasts ten thousand years, it won't last forever. And it had become more and more obvious that ten thousand years would be asking too much of Steven.
"Good morning, Lapis."
Steven had finally woken up. After casting the blankets aside, he stretched his arms and legs while still lying down on the ground, and stood up. He gave her a little kiss on the cheek and proceeded to fold his mat and blankets back it into his backpack.
"Good morning. Are you sure you want to be so active already? You slept quite a while, maybe you still need to recover some more? We just got permission from Citrine to take our time. She just left, literally, a few seconds ago."
"Whe dhid?"
When finished packing, Steven took out a short tube filled with a green paste, which he then spread on his teeth using his tongue, making speaking a difficult task.
"Yes, we did. It took you longer to wake up than usual so I told her we would arrive later. I figured you were exhausted."
"Sohrry fohr making you do that, Lhapis. Ptoo!"
Steven spit out a greenish foam that had formed in his mouth, and washed the aftertaste up with a cup of water of one of the bottles tied up to the backpack.
"I guess I was enjoying my dream too much."
At the mention of the dream, Lapis couldn't help but feel a little bit embarrassed. Her body kept no actual memory of the sensation, and instead had returned to its usual state of partial insensitivity. In her head though, the descriptions of the sentiment created a single pile of awkward expressions she still had a hard time understanding.
She crossed her arms in annoyance looking away from him to avoid feeling even more ticklish inside.
"What were you even dreaming about...?"
Steven was still carrying out his routine when he heard her words muttered beneath her breath.
"Eh? It was you, of course."
Both their gazes met at that moment, and for a long instant nobody said anything. Steven said it so nonchalantly, it almost looked like it was impossible for him to dream about anything else. Lapis lowered down her gaze and looked inside Steven's bag for something to eat. What she found was a purple fruit with yellow polka dots. It was big enough to barely be held with two hands.
"Oh, wait. I'll just have to take care of something first."
Steven then grabbed something else from the backpack and jumped down from the elevated plateau to the jungle below.
"He probably wanted to go to the bathroom."
Turning the fruit around Lapis knocked on its hard surface looking for a hollow spot inside as a way to spend some time and get her mind off the unnecessary thoughts Steven had caused.
When she finally found a weak spot she used her fist to pierce through it and crack the fruit open. Splitting it in two halves.
Steven arrived moments later. By then Lapis had already drunk a little of the juice and eaten some of its pulp as a way to take her clear her mind.
"Alright. Oh! You already started."
Steven leaped back onto the plateau and sat next to Lapis, taking from her the half of the fruit with the most pulp, while she kept the one with the fruit juice. He took an ancient silver spoon out of his pockets and started to eat.
The sun was already at its highest point. Half a day in the planet had passed and the giant flowery field stretching all the way to the horizon was in full bloom.
"Hey, Steven. Give me a piece."
Steven scooped a long piece of the fruit's pulp and offered it to Lapis. She dipped it into the fruit juice and bit deep enough to merely hold it between her teeth.
"Here."
Seeing her intentions Steven leant forward towards her and bit on his end of the piece of fruit. Their lips, coated in the sweet syrup, met for more than an instant. Gladly they'd have continued repeating the exercise as they had done already a couple of times, but the fragrance of the flowers and the syrupy smell of the fruit attracted some uninvited guests; ant-like creatures over two meters tall, with a black armor covering most of their body and pincers so strong they could easily shatter Steven's bones or Lapis' gem.
Quickly, both of them bit on the last shared piece of fruit and threw the remaining pulp at the closest ant creature. Lapis grabbed Vahn while Steven took his backpack, and they ran as fast as they could to the warp pad, disappearing in a single shot of light into outer space.