Crawling down the street, in and out of the reach of dim streetlamps, Pearl nearly bailed out and turned back home; anything to get her and Steven out of there. In a big city, in the middle of the night, there were far too many things to go wrong. Turning what she hoped would be their last corner, she reminded herself that at least there were worse boats to be in.
It was 11:35 p.m. by the time they arrived. Pearl pulled the car up to the curb near the playground and waited. Steven, groggy with sleep and still in his pajamas, squinted out the window, confused at what they were supposed to be waiting for. After a few moments, Pearl switched on the inside lights and waved, and despite not knowing exactly who or what they were signaling to, Steven waved along with her.
In the nearby phone booth a figure finally budged, shoving the folding door aside and cautiously slinking over to the car. As she got closer, Steven could start to make out some of her features: the suitcase she dragged behind her, the way her long skirt flowed with an almost magical grace, and the dyed-blue hair that framed her face.
Before he knew it, she was scrambling in next to him in the back of Pearl's second-hand Saturn.
"Buckled up?" Pearl asked from the driver's seat, already pulling out into the street.
The blue-haired woman yanked her seatbelt and fumbled with the buckle. "Uh, yeah."
"Good." Without turning around, Pearl reached up to flick off the lights before stepping on the gas. While Pearl was normally a model driver, Steven had a feeling they were going a touch over the speed limit.
After that brief exchange, Pearl and the newcomer fell uncomfortably silent, the splattering of the rain starting outside the only thing to be heard. While the former focused on the road, the latter was fixated on nothing but her own ragged, panicky breaths. When she seemed to have calmed down somewhat, Steven attempted to break the silence.
"Hi, I'm Steven- what's your name?"
The woman whipped around to face him. In the darkness her impossibly-wide eyes made him jump. "What?"
"Uh, your name?"
"Oh. It's Lapis," she answered, relaxing against the back of her seat.
"So, what're you doing… here?" Steven asked, his question interrupted by a yawn. Having been roused from bed and ushered into the car without explanation not long ago, his lack of sleep was starting to affect him; His eyelids were growing heavier by the minute, and holding his head up took constant effort.
"She's... an old friend, Steven," Pearl explained before Lapis had a chance to answer. "She's going to stay with us tonight."
Steven rested his forehead against the window. "Oh, oh okay," he said, letting his eyes close for a moment.
The rest of the night was left blurred in his mind, an amalgam of whispers and jangling keys that somehow ended with him back in his own bed. However, Steven did have one last coherent memory of the unexpected escapade; being carried through the dark, crickets chirping and cool night air biting at his bare ankles, while watching their new house guest follow him up the driveway and into their house.
Thank you for reading my new fic, hopefully the first chapter of many! It will eventually be PearlxLapis, and surely include other ships down the road. I hope you enjoy it, and I would be absolutely thrilled if you were to take the time to leave a review, whether it be constructive criticism or just a quick comment saying that you liked it!