CHAPTER FOUR

Steven took one look at a decorated Greek vase and immediately clapped his hands over Peridot's eyes. "Hey!" she cried out in surprise.

"We're done here," he said grimly, steering her back towards the entrance of the exhibition. "We're going to look at the Victorian exhibition instead." The nice, prudish Victorians who covered up their piano legs instead of decorating everything they owned with enormous phalluses.

Thankfully, the Victorian exhibition was fascinating in its own way and Peridot soon forgot to ask why Steven had hurried them away from the other one. They spent the next few hours happily looking at old toys and clothes and were even allowed to sit upon a penny-farthing bicycle. But all too soon, they had to leave, as Steven's band were planning to catch Sadie after work. "She actually came to practice," he explained as they looked at some taxidermy birds in a bell jar. "But we'd already finished. I'm worried if we don't try and get her now, she'll get discouraged and we'll lose her."

"That's fine, I have plans," Peridot said cryptically. "Do you happen to know approximately what time you'll be done?"

"No idea," he said simply. "I guess it depends on whether we can get her to come or not. Actually, we'll probably practice anyway. Now Buck's got us that gig, we kinda need to whether we get Sadie on board or not."

Peridot nodded and made a few mental calculations. That would give her a few more hours that evening to prepare, but by the time Steven was done, he would be too tired for her to carry out her plan. That was OK though. She had time.

As it turned out, after Sadie backed out, Steven was swamped with band practice for the next few days. He forced himself to spend a few hours each day having fun with Peridot, even if it was just watching TV or coloring in a book together, and as the rest of his days filled with practice, songwriting and even more practice, he looked forward to those few hours more and more.

Finally, the day of the seafood and music festival rolled round. Steven made a valiant attempt to relax by playing the Lonely Blade game with Peridot, but his nerves were completely shot and he couldn't stop making silly mistakes. After Peridot had killed his avatar eleven times in a row, she put her controller down and turned to look at him. "As much as I enjoy actually being able to defeat you in combat," she said dryly, "the novelty is beginning to wear off."

"Sorry, 'Dot." He sighed and put his controller down as well. "Playing in this band is pretty different to the one I was in with the Crystal Gems. They were happy to just go along with what I said. With this one, everybody's got their own ideas." He nodded his head in the direction of his notebook. "This whole dark, moody, I-hate-my-job-I-hate-my-life thing isn't my kind of thing at all, but everybody else loves it." He sighed heavily. "I wish Sadie had been able to join us, she was so much better at this."

"You should take some time off after this," Peridot suggested at once. "Tomorrow. And do something to relax."

"It is kinda interfering with the fun mission a bit," Steven admitted. He stared at the frozen pixels on the television for a moment. "You're right. Tomorrow I'm just gonna chill out and do nothing."

"Actually..." Peridot began. "I did have a little something more than 'nothing' in mind."

"Yeah?" He turned and looked at her with interest.

"But it's a secret!" she announced cheerfully. "Don't worry, it will still be relaxing," she added quickly as his expression turned wary. "Just trust me."

"All right." He grinned at her and picked up his controller again. "I'll leave it up to you."

xxx

Later that evening, the door slammed open, making everybody except Garnet jump violently. Pumpkin immediately jumped out of Peridot's lap and ran towards the disturbance as fast as her tiny legs could manage, barking loudly.

"Sadie came!" Steven yelled as he burst into the room and almost tripped over her. "She quit her job and came and sang and everybody loved us and it was great!"

Pearl dismissed her spear and forced a smile on her face. "That's wonderful news, Steven, I'm very happy people liked your band."

"Oh, it's not my band any more," he said cheerfully. "Once Sadie joined, I stepped down. I don't think I'm quite ready for serious showbiz."

"A wise decision," Garnet said solemnly, reaching out to ruffle his curls.

Steven pouted up at her. "You could've told me Sadie was going to quit," he said accusingly. "Then I wouldn't have worried so much about this festival."

"I could have," she admitted cheerfully. "But I didn't. It's late," she continued, changing the subject. "Go to sleep."

"OK. Good night. I'll see you in the morning."

He watched all four of them walk into the Temple, and idly wondered why Peridot was following Amethyst, but he was far too tired to give it much thought, and fell asleep even before Pumpkin could finish climbing the stairs to curl up on his feet. Not that it stopped her, of course.

xxx

They'd watched three movies, two episodes of Crying Breakfast Friends and some funny cat videos on Peridot's tablet. Steven was just beginning to wonder if she had forgotten about her promised relaxing activity, when she glanced at the time in the corner of the screen and jumped to her feet, tossing the tablet onto his bed as she did. "Wait here," she ordered, and jumped down the stairs and sprinted to the bathroom.

Steven rolled over and leaned over the edge of the loft with interest as he waited for her to reappear, which she did half a minute later, a basket on one arm, two fishing rods under the other one, and a hat with fish hooks in it perched precariously on top of her hair. "Fishing!" she announced proudly. "I checked with Amethyst, she said it's an activity you have enjoyed in the past."

"Yeah, it was kind of fun." He narrowed his eyes at the basket. "Although... what kind of bait do you have?"

"Not gummy worms," she said firmly. "I have no wish to be disturbed by corrupted gems. And not live bait either. Earthworms are very beneficial for soil maintenance, I need them for the garden. I made my own bait," she finished proudly. "Out of corn and Jell-o."

"That sounds disgusting." He thought for a moment. "Actually, that sounds like something Amethyst would eat."

"She did try," she admitted cheerfully. "But it's not for Amethyst, it's for the fish." She handed him a rod, took the hat off her own hair and placed it on his. "Come on, let's go."

Steven nodded and was halfway to the front door when he realized Peridot was heading in the opposite direction. "Peri? Aren't we going to the beach?"

"Nope!" She marched across the kitchen and stepped onto the warp pad instead. "I have some place else in mind," she said, and tried very hard to reign in her gleeful grin. She'd put a great deal of thought into where she wanted to do this before coming up with the perfect place.

The Galaxy Warp.

The last time they'd been there together had been when she'd kidnapped him. She'd been terrified and desperate, and then to make matters worse, the Crystal Gems had shown up and captured her. And now she was one of them. What better place to show how much she'd grown and changed as a gem?

It was a little unfortunate then that Steven was unaware of Peridot intentions. Instead, the moment he set eyes upon the broken Homeworld warp pad, his eyes widened and he dropped his fishing rod. "Oh! Of course! Why didn't we think of this sooner!?" he exclaimed, sprinting towards it so fast that his hat flew off his head and hung in air for a second before gravity caught up with it.

"Wha-?" Peridot's eyes widened as he spat into his hand. "Steven, no!"

She was too late. Before she could reach him, he'd slapped his hand down upon the shattered pad, and stood back expectantly. Peridot cringed and pulled him back, half-expecting Yellow Diamond herself to immediately appear before them, but after a few seconds, they both realized it still hadn't worked. "Why isn't it working?" Steven asked, looking bewildered. "It should work, why isn't it working?" He smacked his lips, preparing to spit on it again, and was more than a little surprised when Peridot clapped a hand over his mouth. "Mmmph murph mm!?"

"The other end of that warp pad is an extremely busy Galaxy Warp," Peridot said urgently. "Thousands of gems pass through there every hour of the planet's daily rotation, you would be spotted and apprehended at once if you tried to enter Homeworld by that route! In addition," she sternly added as she removed her hand and folded her arms, "you would also be giving them access to a functional Earth warp, and that would be disastrous!"

"Oh," Steven said forlornly. "Right. Of course."

Peridot immediately wished she hadn't be so harsh. "It's not a completely terrible idea," she backtracked, and gestured at some of the other broken warp pads. "Instead of trying to fix the Homeworld warp, perhaps one of these other warp pads could be made functional again? Then you could reach Homeworld by a slightly more indirect route."

"But my spit didn't work," he reminded her. "It should work," he added under his breath. "I haven't had any problems with it since the Geode."

"Well..." Peridot thought quickly. "Perhaps the manifestation of your healing tears has somehow interfered with your spit? Or perhaps your powers simply don't work on the warp pads. But there are other ways to repair them," she said, quickly moving on before he could mention it any more, because she honestly didn't really understand how his powers worked at all. "If the Gems kept any of my robonoids, I may be able to carry out some repairs."

"Mmm," Steven mumbled a little uncomfortably. He was pretty sure they'd all been destroyed long ago, because back then, finding a way to get to Homeworld had been the very last thing they wanted. Still... "Maybe Pearl kept a couple to look at."

"We'll ask her," Peridot said at once. "It's something we should probably discuss with them first anyway," she added, sending him a pointed look.

"Yeah, sorry." He blushed and sheepishly rubbed the back of his neck. "I guess I got a little carried away."

"A little." She walked back over to his discarded fishing rod and picked it, inspecting it critically before she handed it back to him. "But we're not here for gem business, we're here to relax and fish."

Steven nodded solemnly and struck a pose. "Then lets relax and fish!"

And so, for the next half an hour, they did that. Peridot had made the rods from junk scavenged from Amethyst's room (with the condition that she be allowed to keep one of the rods for herself; Peridot privately thought the other gem was probably planning some mischief with the puddles in her rooms, but decided she'd be safer if she didn't ask) and Steven was pleased to find that they worked an awful lot better than a stick with a bit of string attached. "I got a bite!" he exclaimed just a few short minutes later as the line jerked.

Peridot immediately abandoned her own rod and watched with interest as he struggled to land his catch – she'd done plenty of research when making the rods and bait, but she'd never seen a fish being caught in person before. It put up a valiant fight, and several times, Steven had to let the line run out to avoid breaking it, but in the end, he was able to reel in a rather impressive sea bass. "Wow, congratulations!" Peridot exclaimed, clapping her hands together in glee. Then she stared at the fish for a second. "What do you do with now?"

"Now..."Steven carefully removed the hook from the fish's mouth. "We throw it back."

"Oh, OK." It all sounded rather pointless, but watching the fish struggle on the end of the line had been uncomfortable and she was more relieved than she'd ever admit when Steven dropped it back in the water and it swam away.

They carried on fishing together for another half an hour or so, until the sun began to sink on the horizon. Then Peridot placed her rod aside and turned to him. "Steven, I have a confession to make."

"Uh huh," he said a little absently, watching the lure bob about in the water below.

"I have lured you here under false pretenses."

That got his attention. He tore his eyes away from the lure and stared at her instead. "What?"

"I mean, yes, I want to spend a nice time relaxing with you," she quickly added, "but I also brought you here because there's something important I want to tell you."

"Ooookay," he said a little warily. "What's that?"

"I wanted to tell you..." She took a deep breath. "That I love you."

He relaxed at once and smiled widely at her. "Aww, thanks. You know I love you too, 'Dot."

She shook her head impatiently. "No, I mean I love you." And then, because he still didn't seem to get it, she scooched a little closer to him, leaned forward and kissed him on the corner of the mouth.

For several seconds, he sat there in stunned silence as his brain processed this information. Then it finally clicked. "Oh. Oh!"

"I wanted to tell you that because while I disagree with the way Lazuli reacted, I have to admit, she was right about one thing," Peridot said formally, sitting on her hands so he couldn't see them shaking. "Eventually, the Diamonds are going to attack this planet, and we will probably all die. Especially me; I am, after all, the one who alerted you to the presence of the Cluster, which gave us time to contain it, which has deprived them of their geoweapon and, ultimately, saved the Earth." She allowed herself a smug little smile at this, but her expression quickly turned serious again. "Yellow Diamond has already tried to execute me once. If she shows up in person, she will not fail a second time. And..." Her voice faltered momentarily. "I-I didn't want to die without telling you how I felt."

Steven opened his mouth, but he was too stunned to actually form any words at that moment, so he shut it again. Somewhere at the back of his brain, he was aware that he probably looked a lot like the fish they'd just been catching, and he bit back a sudden urge to laugh. He wasn't entirely sure what the correct reaction was supposed to be in these sorts of situations, but he was fairly sure laughter wasn't appropriate.

"Anyway," Peridot continued, turning away to look at the setting sun, "I just wanted to tell you that. Before we all die. I don't expect you to return my feelings; actually, if it makes you feel more comfortable, we can pretend this never happened-"

"No!" Steven finally found his voice, and grabbed her hands, forcing her to look back at him. "No, I don't want to do that," he continued in a calmer tone of voice. "I mean, I'm a little surprised, I kinda though you and- but I guess not." He laughed a little self-consciously. "The only people who ever said they loved me are Dad and the gems. Just... give me a little time to process it, OK?" He gave her a small smile.

She smiled shyly back at him. "OK."

"I'm really flattered though- no," he quickly corrected. "I'm honored you feel that way about me."

"Oh." Her smile grew a little wider. "Thanks."

They stared at each other for a moment longer, and then Peridot cleared her throat and turned away. "Do- do you want to fish some more?"

"Sure. That'd be nice."

xxx

The next morning, Steven walked to band practice, deep in thought. Last night, he'd been too stunned (and to be honest, too smug) to really contemplate the implications of Peridot's confession, but now the surprise had worn off, he was stuck wondering what to actually do with this information.

"Oh, hi Steven," Sadie greeted him as he walked into Sour Cream's place. "Did you change your mind then?"

"What?" he said blankly. Then he clapped a hand to his forehead. "Oh, right, I forgot I quit."

"You can unquit if you want," Jenny said cheerfully. "We don't mind. Right guys?"

"Nah, it's cool," Sour Cream said at once, and Buck nodded in agreement.

"Oh, no, I still quit. Sorry, I didn't mean to like, mess you guys around or anything," Steven said, taking a hasty step back. "I guess I must have zoned out when I was walking around town."

"It's OK, I almost did the same thing this morning too," Sadie admitted. "I've spent so long working at the Big Donut, opening the store every day for years. I was halfway there before my morning coffee kicked in and I remembered I don't have to do it any more."

Steven couldn't help smiling at this. But as Buck and Sour Cream began to laugh, Jenny tilted her head and gave him a hard stare. "Is something bothering you, Steven?"

"No, not exactly..." He hesitated, then blurted out, "Peridot loves me."

To his surprise, Sadie was the only one who seemed surprised by this. "Well yeah, duh," Jenny said simply. "You're a sweet kid."

"Congratulations," Buck said mildly. "She seems nice."

"Especially now she's past that whole wanting to hurt the Earth thing," Sour Cream added.

"She never really actually wanted to hurt the Earth," Steven quickly butted in. "She was just sent here to check the Cluster."

Sour Cream grinned and reached out to ruffle the younger boy's curls. "Aww, look at you, defending her honor. You two are gonna be such a sweet couple."

"Wait, Peridot, she's the little green kid, right?" Sadie finally spoke up. "I thought you and Connie-ow!"

Jenny whistled innocently and stepped back, but it was too late. "Connie's just a friend." Steven sighed and slumped onto a nearby chair. "Or, she was. She's really mad at me for giving myself up. I haven't heard from her since... well, since I got back home from space."

"Seriously!?" Sadie's eyes widened in disbelief. "That's what... nearly a month ago!" She felt a sudden rush of sympathy for the boy; she hadn't spoken to Lars for pretty much the same amount of time, but Lars at least had the excuse of being trapped on another planet. "Wow, Steven, I'm so sorry."

"It's my fault, I know that." His eyes went watery and he sniffled slightly. "I really messed up-"

"So, you and Peridot!" Jenny quickly butted it before he could start talking about Connie again. "How did that happen? Tell us everything."

"There's not much to tell." Steven shrugged. "After she took me to the Galaxy Warp, she said she loved me, and I said I needed to think about it."

"What's there to think about?" Sour Cream asked blankly. "You like her too, don't you?"

Steven squirmed uncomfortably and ducked his head as everybody stared at him. "Well..."

He didn't really know how to articulate his thoughts. He knew he liked Peridot a lot, loved her even, but did he love her the same way she loved him? Sure, the memory of her kiss made the spot on the corner of his lips tingle, and every time he'd replayed it in his head, his cheeks had burned and his heart had pounded. And he'd fantasized more than once about how it would've felt if he'd turned his face just a little more so the kiss had landed upon his lips. And she was cute and funny and smart and brave, and he'd really enjoyed spending time with her these last few weeks and OK, maybe he did love her like that.

But...

"I like her. A lot," he admitted. "But... what if I feel this way because I'm lonely? Because Connie won't talk to me and Lars got killed a bit and Lapis left and I hurt Dad and the gems. Peridot's the only one who doesn't seem to blame me, I don't want to go and mess her around."

"We don't blame you," Jenny said at once. She fixed the others with a steely glare, "Right guys?" she said meaningfully.

"Of course!" Sour Cream said hastily. "It's not your fault Onion got kidnapped." He rubbed the back of his head sheepishly. "Honestly, we probably should've done more to stop him running around town at night."

Buck nodded solemnly. "I hate to admit it, but Dad... was not as good a mayor as he could have been. He's not great at handling a crisis, it's not your fault he got replaced. If it hadn't been aliens, it would've been something else."

That as slightly reassuring, but Steven still wasn't entirely convinced. After all, Onion and ex-Mayor Dewey were still alive and on Earth. Not like Lars. He glanced up at Sadie and then quickly looked away in shame.

"Steven." Sadie stepped forward and knelt down in front of him so he couldn't avoid her gaze. "You did your best to get everyone off that ship. It's not your fault Lars didn't make it. You even tried to send him back when you found him. And..." She gulped and gave him a slightly wobbly smile. "You're not the one who- who killed him. You're the one who saved him." She straightened back up again. "If you like Peridot, you should tell her. Life's too short to go around punishing yourself for stuff that isn't your fault, OK?"

Steven nodded slowly. "OK." He glanced around the room. "So... so I should go back and tell her I like her too?"

"Yes," Sour Cream said at once.

"No!" Jenny said at the same time. "You can't just blurt it out like that," she added as everyone looked at her in surprise. "You have to set the mood. You can't like, just say it while you're watching TV or something."

Buck nodded solemnly. "She's right. You need to choose the moment. Or..." He paused dramatically and adjusted his shades. "Make the moment."

Steven nodded again and stood up. "OK, thanks." He had no idea what he was going to do now, but he gave them all a smile and stepped towards the door. "I'll leave you guys to practice now, bye."

As he began walking back through the town, his thoughts bounced around his head. Set the mood. He guessed that was why Peridot had taken him to the Galaxy Warp and confessed as the sun was setting. He had to admit, it had been pretty romantic. But he couldn't think of any meaningful place that was suitable for him to do the same. Most of the places they'd spent time together now had too many bad memories attached. The site where the barn had been was out, of course. And the Kindergarten had been too creepy even before the incident with the garden.

He sighed and shook his head. Maybe he could just ignore Jenny and just blurt it out in front of the TV anyway. After all, Peridot wasn't a human girl, perhaps the rules didn't apply to her? But he did really want to do things properly.

But right now, he was out of ideas, so he decided to dismiss the whole subject for now and think about something else. Like how it had been less than 24 hours and already Sadie looked happier than she had done for ages. He hoped they could get Lars home soon, him and Sadie had never hung out with the cool kids together-

He suddenly froze as inspiration struck. He could almost hear the light bulb ping above his head. And then he started sprinting across the town.

xxx

"Peridot!"

Taken completely by surprise, Peridot jumped two feet in the air and almost stabbed herself in the hand with a trowel. "Gah!"

"Whoops, sorry." Steven grabbed the trowel before she could injure herself and tossed it aside. "Can you come with me for a minute? It's important."

"Well, I was in the middle of repotting some seedlings," she said, smoothing her hair back down. "But I suppose it can wait."

"Great! Come with me!"

Intrigued, Peridot allowed herself to be led down the cliff, across the town and up a hill. Finally Steven stopped at a spot where they could see across the whole town. "Wait here," he instructed. "I'll be right back." He took a step back, then stopped. "Oh, and don't turn around."

"Why?" Peridot asked, instantly suspicious.

"Trust me." Steven winked. "It's a surprise."

She narrowed her eyes at him for a moment, then shrugged and sat down and stared at the view of the town. She wasn't sure why Steven had brought her here, but she trusted him, so when she heard his footsteps retreating, she didn't look around. For the next fifteen minutes, she sat there, listening to birdsong and watching the clouds in the sky and waiting for Steven to come back and tell her what the purpose of this activity was for.

And then all of a sudden, jeweled flowers began to float past her and her jaw dropped in amazement. For several seconds, she completely forgot about Steven, Lapis, the barn, Yellow Diamond, and the failed garden, and simply stared, enchanted, as they drifted across the sky and across the town.

"Do you like them?"

Steven's voice broke her out of her trance and she glanced aside to see him step forward, a shy smile of his face. "They're beautiful," she said simply. "Thank you for showing me this."

"You're welcome." He stared at the flowers as well, and then reached out and took her hand. Peridot gave him a quizzical look and he blushed. "Look, Peridot... my life's been kind of messed up lately, you know that. The Diamonds want me and the whole Earth dead, and it's kind of distracting. I've made some stupid decisions, and that hurt my friends and family. I haven't always been a very good friend. I don't know if I'd be a very good boyfriend either." He took a deep breath. "But... I want to try. I love you too."

Peridot's eyes lit up with stars and she began to smile. "Really?"

"Really." He grinned back at her, and then leaned forward and pressed a sweet, chaste kiss upon her lips. Then the two of them sat down together and watched the flowers float by.

xxx

Several thousand miles away, the three elder gems walked across the desert.

"This is a waste of time," Amethyst said eventually. "We're never gonna find that stupid lion."

"Shut up, Amethyst," Pearl said through gritted teeth, and clutched her spear a little tighter.

"We couldn't find Peridot," Amethyst persisted. "Or Malachite. Or Jasper. And none of them could create actual portals and go from one side of the planet to the other in a second." A thought suddenly occurred to her and she groaned loudly. "He could be on the moon! How are we gonna get to the moon!?"

"Shut up," Pearl said again. "We'll find him. We have to," she added, mostly to herself. All her attempts to build a functioning spacecraft had failed. Lion was their only chance at getting to Lars. But Amethyst was right, she quietly admitted to herself. They'd spent months looking for Peridot, Malachite and Jasper, and failed. They couldn't wait months to find Lion.

Garnet had come to the same conclusion and stopped abruptly. "This isn't going to work," she admitted. "Well, it could work," she quickly corrected, "but I see many other futures where it doesn't. And the longer we take to find Lars, the more people are going to lose patience with us. And Steven."

"So... what should we do?" Amethyst asked.

Garnet thought for a moment. There was really only one thing she could see working, and while she was loathe to pull Steven off the fun mission, if they didn't get Lars back soon, the townspeople would turn on them. And if that happened, the fun mission would be ruined anyway. "We need Steven's help," she admitted. "I'm not saying we let him take over," she clarified quickly, "we just need to ask him when he last saw Lion-"

"I believe the last time Lion was around was when he took Connie home," Pearl interrupted.

"Let's not do that then," Amethyst said at once. "I don't wanna get in their drama. Anyway," she added thoughtfully. "I doubt she'd still have him now. I can't exactly see her parents letting Lion sleep in the garage."

"Hmm." Garnet wrinkled her nose. "Then we need to ask him how he usually summons Lion. And if that fails, we'll have to make up some missing posters or something. Somebody's bound to have seen him..."

XXX

Have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!