Hello there everyone! This is my first try at Lapidot so I hope this isn't completely horrible or too out of character. This idea came to mind after reading a couple of other fanfics about the "tattoo artist Lapis and tech nerd Peridot" AU and I wanted to have my own little spin on it. So here it is! This AU is basically a rockstar/theater AU with how Lapis is a musician that decides to take a break from music to pursue her past love for acting when she sees a musical poster at her last stop on her tour. Peridot is one of the college students in the area that works for the theater she's performing and soon auditioning at for help with her tuition.

Anyway, I hope you guys enjoy this!

I never believed in love.

Yeah, I wrote songs about it which, ironically, actually stemmed from one night stands, but I never believed in it myself. Doesn't help that with the career I'm in there's not much to say about real love. Most of us are forced into relationships for the cameras to snap moments of as the two actually in it despise each other instead. But fame is a vixen, as my mentor once said, you never know what you signed up for until you realize what you really wanted all along.

But Greg is one of the lucky ones. He found the mythical "one" before he was in way too deep. He married the love of his life. He had a son. Yet somehow even after his wife's death, he is able to be a rather happy father. Hell, he even taught the kid how to play ukulele and guitar when he wasn't even seven.

Somehow he found happiness in the darkness.

Can't say the same for me though.

I looked out the tour bus window as a beach scenery was passing by me. I smiled at the elegance that came with the reflective pure blue water.

I was only happy near the water or engulfed in music. Hell, the only extracurricular I did in high school with musical theater but that was only because the place was arrogant enough to have almost all of their funding put into their sports teams and not into the arts. The only way we actually had theater was because our director was the one that paid for it all. But if it wasn't for that I wouldn't be here.

I looked down to the foot of my makeshift bunk bed to see my fading blue guitar at my feet with scattered pieces of sheet music and crumpled up trashed lyrics almost everywhere. I grabbed my guitar and ran a hand over it's fading frets then deciding to take a closer look at the pickguard to see multiple little scars and scratches glaring at me as if it was purposeful that they appeared there.

I remembered that the record label once offered me a new one with how they believed that the better the equipment, the better you look but I told them I was against it. I and my hoa here have been through a lot of tough times together.

Being kicked out of the house.

Being abandoned.

Playing on the streets to barely get enough to eat.

We've been through it all.

To be honest, if it wasn't for Greg, I don't think I would be where I am right now. Or alive, for that matter. He found me on the streets with my guitar and told me he had a spare room in his house I could crash. A helping hand from one musician to another.

To be fair, I thought he was going to kill me at first. That was until I met his little bouncing boy of joy named Steven. The kid is everything pure in this world and I swear to God if anyone fucks with that I will kill myself. So I ended up living with them. For a little while. Until I was eighteen and made my way to the big city close by for a music contest that I actually ended up winning.

Then the rest, as they say, was history.

"He ola nui loa ke ola." I looked out the window once more to see the city's sign pass us by, making me realize I was nearing my last stop rather quickly. "One last show and I can go back home. At least I won't be far from home actually. Just the city next door."

"Lazuli!" I turned my head over to see my sleazy but actually, a quite competent manager come up to me. I'll be blunt, I never liked Marty. Not from the second that Greg introduced me to him. But they went far back, and Greg helped me with a contract that would make it rather difficult for the fucker to screw me over.

Gotta love a father scorned.

"What do you want, Marty?" He gave me a somewhat pissy look but I didn't quite care. He only ever talks to me if he wants something. "Well, we'll be in Empire City shortly. Have anything that you're planning for the year break til the next tour? The company said due to how you have the next album done early, you can do whatever."

Well, I know you want me to answer with TV interviews or some shit but you know that's not what I want. You just want me to do whatever it is that will make you a profit. Mr "I keep ten percent of whatever you make" Wanna Be McFly.

"I was going to take a break. Chill with the unofficial family. You know?" He gave me a shrug. "Whatever you say kiddo. I was actually asking because Tween TV wanted you to make an appearance in Seattle."

No.

"No." I gave him a deadpan look. "I rather spend time with those that I missed on this almost year-long tour. Hell, I missed little Steven's thirteenth birthday just to have some sixteen-year-old girl throw her bra at me." I laid back down on my back with a smile. "Even though it gave me a little bit more confidence on stage, I rather not have another incident with another underage girl throwing undergarments at me."

"Whatever you say kiddo." I rolled my eyes at his usual phrase for me.

Kiddo? I'm twenty fucking one. I left my "kiddo" card back at my parent's front door. Hell, I defiantly lost that shit when I lost my virginity. I have no right being called a "kiddo" by the man that is eating because of my hard work.

Fucking Marty McFly wannabe.

Okay Lapis, I think I get your point. Calm your tits girl. You'll be home soon.

When we got to the theater we were going to performing at, I was surprised to see all the posters that lined the entry hall. There was a lot from shows that I recognized. Damn, even some of them I was in myself when I was in high school. There was Big Fish and 42nd Street that contrasted that of All Shook Up and The Addams Family. It actually gave me pride that I was standing in front of a poster with Wednesday Addams proudly on display as a fellow actress of the same role.

Then I came by a poster I didn't recognize at all. It was for a musical called When Walls Speak. It said underneath it that it was written by a local playwright in Empire City and would be directed by the same person. The thing that caught my attention the most was the header underneath it.

"Auditions April 16th and 18th. Here in the Emperor Theater. Ask local theater workers for character and play synopsis." I spoke to myself out loud as I rubbed my chin.

I will openly admit, I don't know shit about this show. Probably doesn't have a role for a tattooed Hawaiian girl either, but it shouldn't hurt, right? It'll give me something to do besides sit around and surf. Not too far away from Beach City either.

I decided to depart from the posters and give myself a little tour of the theater. I started with walking up and down the seating aisle, then the wings, and finally I made my way up to the booth. I wasn't expecting anyone else to be here though as I did all of this. The rest of my little 'band' would hang out at local hot spots or in whatever room they gave us to chill before performing and usually the place is preset for all of us so all the crew members for the show usually show up an hour or so after we do. But I was wrong. There was a blonde haired girl in a green flannel with a white undershirt that was complimented with a pair of blue skinny jeans and black vans. She had one bracelet that I could see that had those stock photo cartoon looking alien heads wrapped around it and a necklace that looked like a Call Of Duty skull dangling probably about where her abdomen started. She had a pair of black framed glasses that shielded forest green eyes but failed terribly at hiding the freckles that danced on her pale skin. All as her hair decided it wanted to tempt gravity in each way and form.

I know I don't believe in love.

But Jesus fucking Christ did I believe in the gay and this girl was giving off vibes already.

"Excuse me?" The girl jumped a good foot off the group and turned to me with a flushed face. I smiled slightly at the reaction. "Sorry to bother you. But you're apart of the lighting crew for this place, yeah?" She gave a quiet but frantic nod as I saw a small blush creep onto her face.

Damn. She's easy to fluster.

I gave her a friendly smile, hoping it would help calm her down. "I was wondering if you had of the synopsis for that musical poster out front." She instantly started digging in a box that was on the table that was labeled, rather intelligently, 'Scripts and Shit'. She ended up finding one and handing it to me.

"You're rather lucky. I think that was the last one we have on hand." She gave me a sheepish smile.

Huh. Her voice is rather, unique. Kind of has a nerdy, aspect to it. To say the least. Defiantly the living embodiment of a booth tech, that's for sure.

"Thank you, um, I don't catch your name."

"Peridot! I mean, uh, Peridot. Peridot Grove." I chuckled at how nervous she seemed to be. Probably due to the short notice. Marty did say that there were problems with the original booth set up and they had to replace some people and some equipment due to sickness and malfunctions. I think adding that to the idea that she probably knows who I am and the worry of screwing up, probably has her all worked up.

"As my people would say, mahalo Peridot." I gave her a wave and went on my way.

Lovely fucking job, Peridot. You met Lapis fucking Lazuli before her show as her lights person as you don't even understand what in God's name is going on with the stupid equipment TWO HOURS before her show and you couldn't even get a word out about it because of pretty blue eyes. And a low cut tank top. And skinny jeans. And that stupid baggy leather jacket.

Great.

Wonderful.

Your gay ass if going to be put into the ground with the words "Died from panic and pretty girls" etched into it.

I'm going to die.

I ran a hand through my hair and landed myself into the chair in front of the light board as if I was actually a dead body and then instantly hunched myself over the table to put my head in my hands.

Why did they even decide to perform here anyway? There's a stadium in this no good town anyway. That would have held more seats for fans and I won't have to be here with broken tech.

"Good evening, Peri- Oh God, you look like you're about to drown yourself in motherboards." I groaned in reply and dropped my hands to my sides. Allowing my head to slam against the table in desperation.

"Thank you for your wonderful words of encouragement, Pearl. I'm so lucky to have you as my booth mate. Totally thankful." My words were muffled by my position but the sarcasm in my voice was still heard and I heard Pearl's normal scuff in reply. "I've been trying to figure out what's wrong for hours." I raised my head and placed my hands on my temples. "But I still don't know what's going on with this stupid thing! I changed the dying bulbs and made sure the right attachments were plugged in on the electrics! I even went through all the previous coding that Marcus did for this but there wasn't a single flaw in it!" I pulled my hands down my face as I spoke.

"I hate how you refer the channels to coding."

"It's the same thing! Practically."

I turned to Pearl as he leaned over and looked out onto the stage. The lights were still flashing and some were even just completely off. I could hear her hum before turning toward me with a knowing smile. "Have you checked to see if it's a DMX problem? It could be a cable deciding it wants to ruin our day or that of a minor issue with a mode not set to the right address."

I looked at her with a look that I guess could obviously tell that I never thought of checking for that and I got one of Pearl's kind of airy and arrogant laughs in reply. "Did you really not think of that?" She shook her head as she put her pockets in the dress pants she was wearing. "I swear, there is a lot more for you to learn."

I rolled my eyes as I checked through the addresses and modes within the programming system. Scanning to find anything I might have missed in my first look through. "Why are you even dressed up like that anyway? Not like anyone is going to see you."

I first got to know Pearl due to me being roommates with her girlfriend when I was a freshman at Empire University. She's a couple of years older, sure, but we got along on the idea that we had the same major. Right now, she's two years away from getting her Ph.D. in engineering. Don't ask me why she decided to get a Ph.D. Probably because she had a full ride and decided to get her penny's worth.

But as I'm sitting here, in my third year out of four to get my Bachelor's and already ready as hell to get the fuck out of there.

To be honest, working for the theater wasn't in my intentions when I first came to Empire City. I originally just wanted to go to school, graduate, and leave, but when I was told by my financial adviser that they were looking for kids interesting in technology and programming for the Emperor Theater and they were willing to pay me tuition for it, I jumped for it as fast as I could. It helped that Pearl gave the head tech of the department a good word for me since she's been here since she was a freshman in college. It also helped that Garnet, a friend of Pearl and I, is one of the more favored techs and actresses of the program through Empire University and said that I was a hard worker that would do whatever I could to learn. Which lead me to get the position when I was almost into my sophomore year.

Which leads me to back to right now. A year of experience under my belt and less stress about the possibility of needing a student loan.

"You're right." I starting fixing the address to the electric with a mumble. "There was missing address. Skipped right over it."

"Of course I'm right. What would you do without me?" Pearl said with a sarcastic smile as she sat down in her seat in front of the mic sliders.

"Be a whole lot happier with a lot less to do and a lot more student debt."

Thank you for reading this! I understand that I still haven't gotten into the feel of writing either of them from their perspective so it might take me a little bit to be able to get them into the characters I want them to be but that's also a thing that's going to have to deal with character development later.

If you have any critiques on this, feel free to DM me! Any help is welcomed!

Again, thank you for reading!