Peridot's eyes swung open as the light of day breached them, making her flinch slightly. She was dazed, rather groggy, and just slightly confused. It took her a few moments of fidgeting to feel Lapis's arms still wrapped firmly around her. The sound of her quiet, low breaths echoed into her ear, causing Peridot to absolutely melt.
For the first time in, well, pretty much her moving into the barn, she didn't want Lapis to wake up. She had no plans to talk- she had no hope to kiss. For the moment, all she wanted was to lay in her arms for a bit longer.
And so, she got her wish. Lapis stayed well and fast asleep for a good half hour, when Peridot's large triangular hair failed to block the sun from her eyes. They fluttered open, and a smile lined her lips as she squeezed her better half tighter.
"Awake, finally?" Peridot said lowly, hoping that she would stay a bit longer. Although, her hopes were denied as Lapis sat up, rubbing her eyes gently.
"Hm-" She grunted as she stretched, yawning. She looked below her to see Peridot's now ragged, ruffled hair affixed to her small, tired head, and laughed.
"You look terrible." She mocked, giving a chuckle. Peridot rolled her eyes in annoyance as she sat up, facing her as the sun rose further over the city. It was at that moment that Peridot's eyes drifted uneasily toward the general direction of Beach City. She had the distinct feeling that something was wrong, but she shrugged it off for the moment, being as she didn't want to off-put Lapis.
"How... was your... sleep?" Lapis inquired, turning brightly to her counterpart, brushing away a strand of hair gone awry. Peridot returned her bright smile, her cheeks heating up just a bit.
"It was fine." She said quietly, stuttering afterword for a moment. "I mean-" she continued. "It was great. Really... Really great."
"Good." Lapis returned, standing up. "Mine was good, too."
A long sort of awkward silence ensued. One that had been happening a bit too often for Peridot's liking ever since their "hook up." She wondered if the quiet meant that Lapis was bored, or growing uneasy or unhappy. With all the thoughts that rushed through the engineer's head, she didn't notice Lapis leaning in and giving her a peck on the cheek. The touch from her lips sent shivers down her spine once more.
"G-geez..." Peridot said waveringly, looking up at Lapis with half lidded eyes. "Cut that out..."
"Do you really want me to?" She asked, tilting her head playfully.
"Well, no, but-" The green gem said frantically, coming at a loss for words. This made Lapis chuckle.
Suddenly, though, an annoying beeping noise came from the backpack, vibrating it incessantly. For a moment, the two stared at it, confused. However, it didn't take long for the engineer to use a simple process of elimination to filter out the possibilities.
"That must be Steven calling!" She said, scampering toward the backpack, and digging it out. Sure enough, the phone read "Steven Universe" on it. Peridot hit the green button, the one that said "Accept call," and put the phone on speaker.
"Hello?!" Peridot yelled, looking down at the phone. "STEVEN?!"
"Hey!" Steven's voice projected though the phone. "How are you guys? Are you having fun?"
"Steven?" Lapis asked, crawling up behind Peridot, looking at the phone. "Are you... IN that thing?" Her voice was uneasy, but not frantic and hasty, (UNLIKE SOME ALTERNATE TIMELINES. See: Steven Universe Skype Short. I forgot the name of the actual short XD)
"No- I'm not in the phone." Steven said calmly. "I'm just talking into it- it's like an instant message with my voice."
"Oh- I get it." Lapis said quietly, leaning on Peridot. "Are you doing alright?"
"That's what I called to ask you!" Steven said, laughing a bit. "Come on- I asked first-"
"We're doing just fine, Steven." Peridot said quirkily, yet happily. "We're in a city- not exactly sure which one, though."
"Oh- well that's cool." Steven added, thinking for a moment. "What did you do in the city- so far?"
"Oh, Steven, have I got a tale to tell you!" Peridot boasted, leaning back into Lapis, who wrapped her arms around the green gem, pulling her close as she talked to Steven. "You see- Lapis delved right into the face of danger and stopped a whole robbery-"
"Don't exaggerate now, Peri." Lapis said, giving her another peck on the cheek. Peridot grinned widely at her, now giggling.
"No way- a robbery?" Steven said, obviously in some form of awe.
Peridot confirmed his allegation, and continued to tell the totally accurate story of what happened, of course exaggerating a few parts.
"Woah, that's really cool Lapis!" Steven said gingerly. "I guess you've got a soft spot for people somewhere, huh?"
"I don't have any soft spots." Lapis said somewhat snarkily. Steven gave a chuckle in response.
"Nonono, I just meant..." Steven suddenly went quiet.
"Steven?" Lapis called out. There was still no answer.
"HELLO?!" Peridot yelled into the phone. "STEVEN- CAN YOU HEAR ME?"
"Hey!" Steven snapped back into the receiver. "Sorry, sometimes the phone's service likes to drop."
"Service... drop?" Lapis inquired, tilting her head.
"Yeah, it's kind of hard to explain. But- I've got to go soon, so I'm gonna go ahead and get off. You guys gonna be okay on your own?"
Peridot chimed in. "We will be quite alright- thank you."
"Bye, Steven!" The watery gem said happily, waving at the phone, "Call again soon!"
"I will. Bye guys!" Steven said, just before ending the call with a loud beep. The duo sat in silence for a moment, staring at the phone.
"When do you think he'll call back?" The blue gem asked, eyeing the phone with some sentiment of regret for his leaving.
"Probably not today." Peridot answered, placing the phone back into the folds of the cheeseburger backpack. "He's busy."
"Speaking of busy-" Lapis started, gripping Peridot tighter. "Where should we go next?"
"Well, we COULD try to find a nice... what is it that the humans call it... an Island?"
"Oh!" Lapis chimed, her face lighting up. "You mean like- from that show that you had back at the barn? Where the humans competed in games on the Island?"
"Precisely!" The green Dorito said, giggling.
"Alright." Lapis said, giggling lightly. "Let's get going!"
The Rubies had been meticulously monitoring the movements and dialogue of Lapis and Peridot for their own gems. The two, their own Lapis and Peridot, watched the feed, noting the way they acted toward one another.
"We have to do all of this?" The Homeworld Peridot asked quirkily, eyeing the screen, "These two are disgusting."
"It's only for a mission." The Homeworld Lapis noted, pacing back and forth. "If we can just fool their freinds for a little while, it should be easy to issue a surprise attack on them."
"I suppose you're right." The Homeworld Peridot answered, looking up to her.
"Then- are you ready?" The commander Ruby asked, tilting her head.
"Yes." Homeworld Lapis said quietly. "We can blend in quite well, I'd say."
"Alright. We'll be monitoring your progress from inside the ship." The Commander said, turning to the panel and adjusting the cameras. "In order to save time in the short moments that we contact you- we'll give you code-names."
"Code-names?" Homeworld Peridot asked, unimpressed.
"Yes. Lapis, you're code-name will be Tol. Peridot, you will be Smol."
"Smol?" Peridot asked, her brow furrowed. "I am NOT small!"
"No need to get into character just yet." Tol said, smirking at her. The newly appointed Smol was not happy with the decision, but with a sigh she accepted her fate.
"You ready?" Tol continued, offering Smol a hand.
"Yeah. Whatever. Let's just grind these imbeciles and be done with it."
"Remember-" The commander said. "Get the Lapis and the Peridot first- so your cover won't be broken."
THIS IS A SAD EXCUSE FOR AN UPDATE I AM ASHAMED.
Okay but seriously, this chapter is hella sort- my bad. But, it's simply serving as an intermediate chapter to turn the story from one way to the other. So, in that sense, this could have been the true end to chapter 2. Maybe.
Well, anyway, I'm glad to get back to work on this- It's been a while, I know, but school combined with flooding combined with a broken ankle and a break-up have kept me off of fanfic for a while. But hey, I'm back now!
Leave a review. I really appreciate them, and hearing your thoughts as a reader motivates me to write more.
And speaking of writing more, I have decided that this story-line will be an entire series spaning multiple shipping stories, just because I wanna write my own plot to Steven Universe, the best show EVER!
And even though we both go on long hiatuses, I bet I'll finish before crewniverse!
Want an OC to feature in future stories and/or plotlines? PM me!