Things had been fairly uneventful since the baseball game and, much to Lapis' relief, Peridot had mostly taken to leaving her alone. Lapis often took up residence on the roof—high places felt safer after months below the ocean's surface—and Peridot stayed inside tinkering with whatever her latest project was. They stayed out of each other's way ninety-nine percent of the time, and the other one percent consisted of awkwardly saying hello in passing and perhaps exchanging a quick smile.
She couldn't start trusting Peridot overnight but, after some thought, she was willing to try and coexist with her. And that seemed to be working so far, even if their minimal contact was hardly something to be proud of. Steven kept asking after them, but Lapis deflected the questions and took him on short flying trips instead.
However much she had changed, Peridot was still just a big reminder of how horribly wrong her long-awaited return to Homeworld had gone.
It took several weeks before they even held a real conversation, and that was due more to an accident than any intentional decision on Lapis' part.
Namely, she'd fallen through the roof and landed directly on top of Peridot's television set in the middle of Camp Pining Hearts.
"Gah!" Peridot shrieked. "Lazuli!"
Lapis groaned and picked herself up off the now slightly dented television slowly.
"What did you do?" Peridot demanded, hurrying over and standing there with her hands half-outstretched like she wanted to help the other gem up but wasn't quite brave enough to try.
She ignored the offer and stood, dusting off her skirt. "Nothing. The roof broke."
"That much is obvious," she replied, crossing her arms. She hesitated, looking Lapis over. "Are you alright?"
Lapis blinked in surprise, then looked away. "I'm fine."
"You landed on your gem."
She shrugged. "You do it all the time and you're not cracked yet."
Peridot scowled and circled around Lapis to look at her back. "You're intact," she declared.
Lapis swiveled around to face her, not particularly keen on showing her any type of vulnerability.
"Well," Peridot continued, moving along like nothing had happened, "I'll have you know you just interrupted my favorite episode."
"What a tragedy."
"But," she said, pressing a few buttons on the TV and kicking aside some of the debris scattered around it, "everything seems to be in working order." She cleared her throat. "You're already on my side of the barn, so…would you care to join me, Lazuli?"
Lapis stared down at her, analyzing the nervous smile on the technician's face far more than she needed to. It was strange, feeling so unthreatened by this small gem when only a few months previous she had been an embodiment of the changes Lapis hated. "Sure."
Peridot was so taken aback by the positive response she practically flung the remote across the room.
Lapis caught it just as it went by her head and pushed it back into Peridot's hands on her way to the couch.
"I-I can show you the very first episode and explain all the characters' relationships and—"
"No."
She deflated slightly. "Well, you'll understand how great it is anyway!"
Lapis waited as Peridot started up the video from the beginning, not speaking.
"You're going to love this," she continued excitedly.
"Probably not."
"Trust me, you're going to want to know every single detail about the campers and the subplots and the subtext, and luckily for you I've studied it extensively and can relate numerous observations about the show and its production and—"
"Peridot?" Lapis interrupted.
"Yes?"
"One episode."
"One is all it takes! You can get so much from repeat viewings!"
She sunk down in her seat. "I hate it already."
Somehow, watching one episode—which had quickly turned into five episodes—of an Earth entertainment program warmed Lapis to Peridot. There was something oddly safe about resting her head on the arm of the sofa and listening to Peridot babble about these ridiculous characters while she could barely match names to faces.
Or…maybe it was that Peridot was showing genuine concern for her now instead of just throwing poorly thought out gifts in her direction. She much preferred the blanket and pillow Peridot loaned her with a hopeful smile after the first two episodes. The folds of the blanket settled around her shoulders and slipped over her gem and she felt warm for the first time in months.
Lapis' still-exhausted form gave in to sleep halfway through the fifth episode despite her best efforts. She woke what must have been several hours later, still wrapped up in the same blanket, to quiet mechanical workings below her and a soft humming of the Camp Pining Hearts theme song that she probably wasn't meant to hear.
Lapis leaned over to watch Peridot for a moment and then slipped out via the new hole in the roof. It would rain soon, and she should ask Steven how to fix it. Peridot's technology junk probably wouldn't take well to the water and one good turn deserved another, right?
She ended up borrowing a bundle of supplies from Steven's dad, who had fixed a different section of the roof not long before her arrival. Lapis could already tell she was going to be tired out from the work ahead of her by the time she flew all of the materials out to the barn, so she took a seat outside for a little while to rest. It was frustrating, feeling so drained constantly and being worn out whenever she used her powers. She couldn't tell if it was a temporary effect of her fusion with Jasper or something permanent, but she hoped desperately it was the former. She needed to be able to defend herself properly should anything happen.
Something would happen, of course. It always did.
"I didn't know you were interested in building things, Lazuli."
Was it really too much to ask for some peace and quiet? She blinked the brightness of the sun out of her eyes. "I'm not. It's for the roof."
"Do you, um, want help with that?" Peridot offered.
"I've got it," Lapis said stubbornly. She used the water from the "lake" to help her lift some of the wood up to the roof. "I just need one of your…" She made a small hammer from the water in the air.
She nodded quickly and darted inside to grab one. "Here you go!" Peridot presented it to Lapis eagerly.
"Thanks," she replied. She spread her wings and began to fly up to the roof, but stopped halfway. "I brought enough to cover up that huge hole in the side of the barn too."
The other gem brightened instantly. "Okay! I'll start drawing up renovation plans!"
Peridot took off before Lapis could even begin to mention that she had only intended to fix the necessary portions of the barn to keep out the elements, not do any kind of redecorating. Thankfully it turned out that the technician's idea of renovating was just moving things around to maximize the space and make a slightly more elaborate setup for her TV, DVD player, and Camp Pining Hearts collection. Lapis continued to focus on the roof as planned, occasionally squinting down at the other gem to see what she was doing.
Peridot wasn't very strong, and that surprised Lapis a little. It seemed to take a fair amount of effort for her to lift heavier items and she worked around the larger things without even trying to move them. Finally taking some pity on her as she stood there glaring at a huge box, Lapis leaned down.
"Where do you want it?"
She looked up quickly, eyes wide. "Oh!" She thought for a moment, and then pointed to one corner. "Over there, if we can put it on your side."
"I don't really care." Lapis used some water to pull it out of the way, and then flicked her wrist to push the propeller and paint cans over to Peridot's side. "Trade," she said with a faint smile when Peridot stared up at her.
"Thanks!"
Fixing the barn took the better part of two days, largely because Lapis had no experience building anything and Peridot still wasn't accustomed to doing hard labor without the aid of technology.
They eventually settled into a comfortable routine in fixing the wall, Peridot scaling a ladder to nail in planks while Lapis hovered next to her, helping hold them in place and providing nails whenever they were needed. Peridot found some paint on the second day, so they used that to cover their functional, if somewhat unsightly, repairs.
Steven came by that afternoon and was more than happy to see them working together on it which, to Lapis, justified the whole ordeal of figuring out how to use human tools.
"It looks great!" Steven said delightedly, smiling up at them. "I bet it'll feel more like home now!"
"And stay standing," Peridot said dryly as she scrambled down the ladder to grab some more paint.
"Do you guys need any help?"
"Not really. Lazuli is surprisingly competent at simple repairs. She makes an excellent assistant."
"I'm not your assistant," Lapis said, floating down beside them. "Hello, Steven."
"Hi, Lapis! Are you having fun?"
She laughed a little. "I don't know about fun, but it could be worse."
"Well, if you do want to have some fun," he said brightly, "I had an idea!"
If there was one thing Lapis and Peridot agreed on, it was that they'd both drop whatever they were doing for Steven, so they followed him into the barn without question.
"I thought maybe we could decorate inside too," he announced, sitting down on the floor by the line he had drawn upon their initial encounter. He pulled out a box of markers and picked out a blue one for Lapis. "And we can cover this up. Here you go, draw whatever you want!"
"I thought you said the line would contribute to our new arrangement," Peridot said, inspecting the rest of the pack of markers and sliding out multiple colors to examine them.
"Yeahhh, I found the rest of that episode and apparently it doesn't work that well," he replied, laughing nervously. "So I thought we could just make it into something cool instead!"
"I see."
"We're just going to draw on the floor?" Lapis asked doubtfully. "Why?"
"Because it's fun! And working together will help you guys get to know each other, right?"
"Okay," she agreed, settling down on her stomach on the floor and looking at the line for a moment before turning to Peridot. "Can you draw?"
"Of course I can!" she said indignantly. "I'm excellent at making diagrams!"
Lapis made no effort to disguise the small snort of laughter that escaped her.
"Can you draw?" Peridot huffed, cheeks flushed with embarrassment.
She shrugged, popping the cap off the marker curiously and drawing a few careful lines onto the floor. "Something like this, right?" she asked, lines quickly coming together to create a small image of Steven.
Steven and Peridot leaned over her shoulders from either side.
"Whoa, you're really good, Lapis!" Steven exclaimed.
"It's so accurate," Peridot agreed in an awed voice.
Lapis' hand stilled for a moment self-consciously. "It's—It's like what I did in the mirror, that's all."
"But this is nicer, right?" Steven asked, concerned.
"Yeah," she said with a small smile. "Yeah, this is a lot nicer."
The two of them continued to hover around her as she finished Steven and went on to draw Peridot as well. "There," she declared as she finished. She put the cap on the marker and handed it back to Steven as she sat up, stretching her arms.
"You're not going to draw you?" Steven asked.
Lapis stared down at the picture for a moment. "Nah."
"Oh. Okay. Um, maybe Peridot can draw you then!"
"Me?" Her voice rose to an even higher pitch. "Let Lazuli do it; that way it's an accurate model of—"
"It's okay if it doesn't match," Steven encouraged her. "It doesn't have to be perfect."
Peridot glared at the set of markers for a moment before pulling out the dark blue one Lapis had just returned to its place. "Fine." She gave Lapis a long, scrutinizing look and then turned her attention to the floor. She drew a wobbly circle and slowly began adding shapes until it began to resemble Lapis, looking up every so often to use her as a reference. She pulled out other markers to add and mix more colors as best she could with the limited selection. "There," she said finally, "it's Lazuli."
Lapis squinted down at the image. "It is?"
"Obviously!"
"Why do I have four arms?"
"Those are your wings!"
"Right," she said skeptically. "And what happened to my hair?"
"It's doing that—that fancy flowy thing it does!" Peridot replied, flustered.
"If you say so."
Peridot threw the marker at her, scowling.
Lapis wrinkled her nose as the marker bounced off her cheek and was tempted to throw it back, but she was suddenly struck by how ridiculous the whole situation was. Stranded on Earth again—by choice—with a Peridot drawing pictures for her.
Peridot stared as quiet laughter bubbled out of Lapis' mouth, shoulders shaking with mirth. "Oh, come on, it's not that bad!" she huffed. "At least I gave you a nose! And fingers!"
Lapis shook her head, unable to stop.
"Steven, make her stop laughing at me!"
"Uhh…"
"I'm not laughing at you," Lapis said, catching her breath. "Or…not very much. It's just funny."
"What's funny?"
"Nothing," she said, shaking her head and pushing her hair out of her face. She picked up the box of markers and waved them in Peridot's direction. "I'll draw, you color."
"Oh," Peridot said, mollified. "Alright then."
"Steven, what do you want me to draw?" Lapis asked.
"Anything! Oh, how about you draw the rest of the Crystal Gems? That way everybody's here."
She nodded, snapping the cap off the marker once more. "Sure."
The three of them stayed there for over an hour, Steven and Peridot practically gluing themselves to either side of Lapis as she drew, making suggestions or adding in their own drawings.
Lapis smiled as Steven wrote HOME AWAY FROM HOMEWORLD in an arc over the scene and couldn't remember the last time she'd felt even this tiny sliver of belonging. She wasn't sure it would ever really feel like "home" but if she had to choose somewhere, she was glad she'd stuck around on Earth.
As she slowly and steadily began to learn more about Peridot—as an individual, not just the gem that dragged her back to Earth as an informant—Lapis started to feel slightly guilty about how she'd treated her. Not that Peridot hadn't deserved some of it, but she began to realize that the tape recorder she'd so readily crushed was quite important to the other gem. She was clearly at her most comfortable when she was keeping logs and while she had since taken to trying to write them in a small notebook, it was clear that writing frustrated her with how long it took.
One night, when Peridot was busy with who-knows-what, Lapis grabbed the broken recorder from what was formerly Peridot's side of the room and slipped out discreetly. She flew it over to the temple, knocking lightly on the door and feeling rather out of place as she waited.
It was Pearl who answered the door, a shadow of guilt entering her eyes as it always did when she saw Lapis.
"Hi," Lapis began awkwardly. She clutched the tape recorder securely in her fist.
"Hello," Pearl replied. "Did you need something? Steven's getting ready for bed, but—"
"I wanted to see you, actually."
"Oh, alright." Pearl stepped aside. "Come in."
"Thanks." Lapis looked around the temple briefly. It looked much the same as it did last time she was there—in the mirror, not in person—and she wasn't sure how she felt about that. "Um," she began, looking back to Pearl, "Steven and Peridot said you were good at building things."
The taller gem did a quick double take, apparently having expected the conversation to go another direction. "Yes, I know quite a bit about engineering."
"I want you to fix something for me," Lapis said quickly, thrusting the recorder towards Pearl. "Please."
Pearl took it, holding it gingerly on the tips of her fingers. "Peridot's tape recorder?"
She nodded. "I broke it. Before."
"I did wonder why she was monologuing less than usual." She sighed, turning it around to inspect the damage. "It would be easier to replace the whole thing. Human electronics aren't terribly sturdy to begin with, and you did quite a number on it."
Lapis lowered her eyes. "So you can't fix that one?" Giving Peridot a new recorder seemed a little less meaningful than fixing the one she had ruined.
"I never said that!" Pearl drew herself up proudly. "I'll have it ready in the morning."
"Thank you," she replied, relieved.
"You're welcome." She hesitated. "Lapis—"
"I'll pay you back somehow."
"That's not necessary," Pearl said with a faint smile. "We're allies now."
"…Yeah." Lapis returned the smile cautiously. "Thanks."
"You know you're welcome here too? You don't have to stay at the barn all the time."
"I know." She spread her wings again and flew back outside. She appreciated the gesture, and she knew Steven wanted her to spend more time with the other Crystal Gems as well, but she was mostly just trying to take one day at a time. Figuring Peridot out was enough of a challenge for now.
The following morning, Lapis retrieved the recorder from Pearl. True to her word, the device looked completely repaired, and Pearl handed over a small stack of cassette tapes for Lapis to include as well.
She wasn't really sure how to present Peridot with the gift, so she just stuck everything in the middle of Peridot's often-unused-but-perpetually-messy new bed.
When the other gem finally made her way in that direction, approximately halfway through the afternoon, she stopped dead in her tracks.
"It's yours," Lapis said cautiously.
Peridot rushed over and snatched it up, eyes wide as she examined the recorder closely. She turned to Lapis with a wide, wobbly smile.
"I…got your number?" Lapis tried, awkwardly mimicking the pointing gesture Peridot had made.
Peridot nodded tearfully, the tape recorder clutched to her chest as happy noises bubbled up instead of words.
"Okay." She turned to leave.
"Lazuli!" A small hand grabbed her wrist, and she twisted back around to look at Peridot. "Wow, thanks," she offered, blushing.
"It's not a big deal," Lapis muttered. "I broke it, so I fixed it. Actually, Pearl fixed it."
The small gem's hand tightened on her wrist. "Well, it means you want to be friends, right?"
"It means…being 'roommates' with you isn't so bad." She looked away. "And maybe. On the friends thing."
"Yes!" Peridot said happily. "That works!"
"Good." Lapis carefully extracted herself from Peridot's grip. "I'm going up to the roof, so you can…do whatever it is you like to do with that thing."
"Wait!" she said quickly, before Lapis could take off. "We should partake in traditional activities together to commemorate this occasion! Do you want to marathon Camp Pining Hearts later? Or build a blanket fort? Or play truth or dare? Or have a pillow fight? Or—"
"Sure," Lapis interrupted before the list got any longer or weirder. "Um, the first one."
"Okay!" Peridot gave her a thumbs up.
Lapis returned it uncertainly, spreading her wings and pushing off the ground. "See you later, Peridot."
"See you later," she called as she flew off. "Thanks, Lazuli!"