"Okay Peri, I'll be back soon, I promise!" Said Lapis, who spread her wings and took off into the sky. Peridot waved to her as she watches her fly. The little gem smiled softly, Lapis looked so pretty when she flew during a sunset, the orange glow making her wings sparkle.

"Arrf!" She jumped upon hearing Pumpkin bark and whine. The sentient veggie was probably a bit unhappy about her… 'Mother' leaving. According to Steven, Peridot and Lapis were Pumpkin's mothers. They were totally fine with these titles, as they both loved their sweet pumpkin.

"Don't worry, Lapis will be back home soon. She just went to deliver some of their home grown vegetables over to Steven." The blonde told the little orange creature, but she was still upset, understandable.

Peridot took hold of Pumpkin's vine and walked with her over a nest of soft pillows that they had made by playing around with them in the corner. "Come on, I know you miss Lapis, but it'll be fine." She grabbed a pillow and fluffed it. Pumpkin grabbed a small blanket and ran into her lap, knocking the blonde over before licking her face. "Hey! That tickles!"

"Arrf! Ruff ruff!" Pumpkin barked and bounced around, most of her hops directly onto the green gem's stomach causing her to laugh even more.

"O-okay! I get it, you're happy because of earlier!" Peridot said through her laughter. Earlier that day Lapis had found a somewhat small, bright silver ball, and the two Gems had played with it, tossing it to each other, throwing it for Pumpkin to bring it back to them. "Yeah, Lapis is good at finding things, huh? That's why we love her."

Pumpkin made an odd purring noise, and snuggled into her. "She's smart isn't she? I mean, she doesn't match my brilliant intellectual levels, but I'd say she comes quite close." Pumpkin purred again and licked her face.

It was like a light-bulb had lit up within the green Gem's mind, Pumpkin was happy when she talked about Lapis! Peridot knew she would often get a dorky, silly little grin whenever she did, and she also knew that Pumpkin liked to see her mothers happy.

"Alright, well I know you love it when she reads, and you get to sit in the sun with her. And that you like her holding you!" The technician chirped, and Pumpkin wiggled where she sat, smiling at the green Gem. "I like seeing her fly, she's so fast, and can do all those tricks too!"

She remembered watching the blue Gem soar through the sky, a little hard to see sometimes, but most of the time the sunlight made her wings glimmer, Peridot was entranced with it, but was a bit too shy to ask Lapis if she could carry her during one of her flights.

"She's sweet too. It was a few days before you were born, but there was a rainstorm at one point, and I was frightened by it. Lapis was right there, distracting me from the storm and hugging me, telling me it was fine to be scared, that was normal. You don't know this Pumpkin, but… Where I came from, everything is different."

Pumpkin stared at her, eyes filled with wonder. "When Lapis lived there, Gems were a bit more free, at least… They didn't have to worry about resources, they could make all kinds of things and their world was much more vibrant, alive." She explained, and though her smile wanted to fade she wouldn't let it, she didn't want Pumpkin to see her upset. "When I was made, resources were low. We couldn't make beautiful things anymore, we had to limit everything. They wouldn't have been able to make a pretty, powerful Gem like her."

At that, Pumpkin glared a bit. She hopped off of her spot in Peridot's lap and ran over to the other side of the Barn. The little veggie came back a moment later with a rolled up paper held gently in her mouth, she set it down in front of the tiny Gem.

Confusion flowed through her, she'd never seen this before, Lapis had to be the one to own this, as Peridot knew where all her things were. But the problem was, Lapis usually just left her stuff out in the open, because she knew Peridot wouldn't go through it, this had to have been hidden.

Guess she never accounted for Pumpkin being a little snoop.

Peridot carefully unrolled it, and her eyes widened. Lapis had drawn a picture of her. No visor showing off her bright blue eyes, an adorable smile, soft fluffy hair, shiny gem on her forehead, it looked just like Peridot. She had written on it too, 'Peridot the Crystal Gem', 'Pretty eyes', 'Her hair feels nice', 'Sweetest Gem I've ever met'…

And on the bottom, in the corner?

'Era 1 can eat its heart out, THIS is a good Gem, tough, smart AND pretty as a star. I hope she knows that. Homeworld's missing out on its Crown Jewel!'

Crown Jewel. That was the highest compliment you could ever give someone, it was an archaic expression of love, it meant that you saw the other Gem as perfect, fit to walk even higher than White Diamond herself, a precious stone that was better than anyone else. A Queen.

Peridot sniffled, she couldn't stop smiling as she wiped tears away. She knew that handwriting, it was Lapis' handwriting… This was what she thought of the little nerdy Gem. Lapis thought so highly of her, she loved her too!

She hugged Pumpkin as tightly as she could without hurting the veggie. "Thank you, thank you for showing me this." Peridot whispered, with shaking hands and the smile never leaving her face, she rolled the paper back up and let Pumpkin put it back.

The two of them snuggled together in the blankets, and though Peridot tried to fight it, she wanted so badly to wait for Lapis to get home… She fell fast asleep.

Lapis got home a little while later, yawning as she landed at the Barn's entrance. "Peri?" She called softly, only for a surprised grin to appear on her face at the sight of the little green Gem curled up with Pumpkin, snoring softly in a peaceful slumber.

The blue Gem chuckled to herself, and knelt down at them. She took Peridot's visor off, and pulled more of the blanket over her, tucking her in. "Goodnight, Crown Jewel." She whispered and pressed a soft kiss onto the green Gem's cheek.

She hadn't actually done anything when she'd left, just waited at the silo. But she had given Pumpkin instructions on what to do before she'd left. To show Peridot the drawing she'd 'hidden'.

It was about time Peridot knew how loved she was.