"...and this is what we call bacon. It's another type of meat, and it tastes super good when you fry it," Amethyst finished, dropping the bacon on the table. She beamed, then looked back up at Jasper, who was eyeing the row of food placed in front of her with curiosity, confusion and slight disgust.

"And you Crystal Gems absorb these substances into your form?" she questioned, cringing at the thought.

"Nah, Pearl hates eating, and Garnet doesn't do it very often," she explained, reaching for a packet of chips. "It's mainly just Steven and I, and obviously everything else on the planet." She squeezed one end of the bag, forcing all the air contained inside to retreat to the opposite end, until it couldn't contain it anymore, and broke out with a loud burst. Some flakes of the food retreated into the air, floating towards the large quartz, who batted them away with her normal hand.

"Ugh. I'm actually agreeing with the pearl," she muttered.

"But you haven't even had one bite!" she protested, mouth now full of the golden brown slices. She then reached into the packet and yanked out a singular chip, then held it out in front of her. "Just one! I promise, you'll love it!"

Jasper stared at the food for a while longer, squinting at it. She lifted her hand and moved her finger and thumb towards out, before crushing the pathetic thing between them. She withdrew her hand and looked at her digits, her finger and thumb now covered in orange dust.

"I fail to see the point in this. I get why something as inefficient as a human would consume this, but even a defect like you has all the energy you need from your gem." She arched a brow. "Don't you?"

The tiny quartz was sucking on her own crusted fingers. "Oh, yeah, I do. I just eat 'cuz it's fun." She flopped onto her back, allowing the early rays of sunlight to fall on her through the transparent gaps in the wall. "Mush passin' through my body just feels great."

Jasper scowled at the thought of disrespecting your form in such a way, and hastily brushed the leftover crumbs onto her leotard, leaving on orange smear on the dark fabric.

"So, what, do you just spit it out later?" she questioned. "Do you just store it at the back of your mouth?"

Amethyst's eyes widened, before she burst into laughter.

"Pssh… no! There's a method to it." She smirked, winking at her. "Now, whether or not you wanna know is up to you…"

What was this defect on about?

"I'll admit, runt, you have my curiosity bloody peaked," she grunted. "Tell me, just how do you perform this vile Earth ritual?"

She snickered, leaping onto her feet and cantering over to the couch. She climbed onto the plush surface and gestured for Jasper to lean closer to her, as even when she stood up, she still wasn't even at shoulder-height. Reluctantly, she lowered her head so that the runt could whisper into her ear the process of eating.

And with each word, she wanted to gag.

Soon, Amethyst fell onto her rump, and Jasper pulled her head away, trying to process what she had just heard.

"That's-"

"-Awesome?"

"No," she hissed. "That's… that's beyond horrific." She clenched her teeth. "Why would you do that?"

She shrugged dismissively. "I'm already a defect, so I might as well, right?" She then tossed the whole chip packet into her mouth, grinded it into shreds, then proceeded to swallow it, waiting for the digestion procedure to begin. Jasper let out grumbles of distress as she did so. As soon as the whole thing was gulped down, Amethyst licked her lips and gave her a smug grin. "Also, this is Earth. Free will, baby!"

"Baby?" Jasper echoed, arching a brow. Amethyst fluttered her lashes, before letting out a chuckle, realizing the situation.

"Oh, just what humans call their kids as soon as they come out the womb," she explained. Though, Jasper still had no clue to what she was on about.

"I don't have a clue what a kid or a womb is."

The little quartz clamped her teeth down on her lip as she attempted, very poorly, might she add, to hold back her giggles.

"I'll tell ya when you're a bit older," she replied in between laughs. Jasper curled her lip.

"I'm several hundred years older than you."

Amethyst pursed her lips as she held her gaze.

"...Yeah, but I don't really wanna sit here and give you a human biology lesson. Things get pretty weird."

Well then, it was a good thing Jasper didn't want to sit around and listen to her immature ramblings.

"But hey," she suddenly chimed, "you don't have to go through all of that if you just lick your fingers." She pointed to her hand, which was now free from the leftover crumbs. "I don't trust anyone who doesn't lick them after eating chips, actually."

She arched a brow at her, before glancing at her hand in search for any dust that she had missed, wanting her limb to be completely stripped of any evidence that she had gone anywhere near any type of 'food'.

"I don't trust anyone who swallows this mush," she mumbled.

"Eh, you didn't trust me anyway." She swiped a thin container of of the counter, flicked a shiny item forwards, which triggered a fizzing sound to seep from the top that was now opened up. "But, seriously, at least dab your tongue on some cheeto dust or something. It tastes so good!" She then took a swig of the liquid sloshing inside the metal container.

The thought wasn't at all appealing to Jasper. Even if she didn't have to swallow said 'cheeto dust', the idea of any sort of Earth substance entering her mouth almost made her shudder.

"So, there's no other benefit to eating?" she questioned dryly. "Does it not allow you to gain more energy than your gem provides?"

Amethyst wiped her mouth with the back of her hand, cleaning it of the bubbly liquid she was chugging. "It tastes really good, there's that."

"They have a pleasurable taste?"

"You tell me." She wiggled her eyebrows at her, smirking. Jasper snarled back at her, before letting her eyes landed on a red and green slice of some unknown food, the red part having a bright orange shimmer splattered across it from the sun beams shining into the house. She could also see tiny black specks scattered across it somewhere inside. If she were to compare it to the other options on the table, it was the most appealing. She wasn't sure why, but it was.

Hesitantly she reached her finger forwards, then scraped it on the slippery red surface. As expected, a thin layer had stuck to her skin, along with a large chunk caught underneath her fingernail. She stared at it for a while longer, teeth clenched. Did she really want to put this on her tongue?

Well, she had to, otherwise Amethyst wasn't going to stop staring at her with a huge grin and gleaming eyes.

She groaned to herself, before catching her finger with her tongue, and allowed the flavor to set.

"What d'ya think?" the tiny quartz asked impatiently. Jasper gave her a bemused look.

"I don't taste anything."

Amethyst frowned in disappointment, then sighed. "Yeah, watermelon doesn't have much of a flavour unless you take an actual bite of it." She reached for the plate that held the 'watermelon' and raised it up towards her. "But it's pretty good. And you can spit it out afterwards if you want." She smiled hopefully. "C'mon, I think you'd really like it!"

The older quartz leaned back a little, away from the plate. She glanced at her, irritated by her persistence, then back at the watermelon slice.

The longer she stared at it, a strange feeling welled up inside of her. She just couldn't name it.

She wanted the feeling to cease existing, though.

Reluctantly, she tore of the corner of the slice, and was careful to not let it slip out of her grip, considering how smooth and wet the surface was. The corner of one of her eyes creased as she pulled it towards her mouth, and she cringed as soon as her teeth came into contact with it. The entire time, Amethyst grinned childishly.

She felt the need to grind it with her teeth, which released its apparent 'flavour'. At first, it tasted of the ocean, minus the salt, until an unusual sweetness that would never be found on the battlefield hit her tastebuds. It was strange, as gems, especially ones that lacked a sense sponge, only ever used taste to analyse the scenery. Not every for some sort of leisure. She admitted to herself, it was nice to not having the bitterness of dust and soot to drown out of her tastebuds for once.

However, she couldn't say she'd never experienced this flavour before. Her mind just couldn't pinpoint where.

Not on Homeworld.

Not in the Kindergarten.

Not in the ocean.

Where did she taste this kind of sweetness? She tried to think - so many of her memories were blurred.

That is, until she finally remembered.

The huge figure emerged from the water below, towering over the ledge, where one tiny striped shape stood, cowering before her. The shape was familiar, yet so conflicting. One second, she despised it, the other she was willing to sacrifice her own safety for its sake. She growled in frustration, wishing she could take some sort of control over her thoughts, while pinning the little form with her cold, caustic gaze.

She then finally decided to act upon her thoughts, the chosen thought being one of hatred. She lunged forward, and caught it in her mouth, her jagged teeth slicing through the weak form, the sweet taste seeping through the tears in the rough flesh.

Soon she felt the chains she had latched around herself begin to drag herself back down, and in the midst of the struggle, she swallowed the pile of mush out of rage, wishing to bring as much pain to the being as she possible could before being dragged to the bottom of-

"Woah!"

Jasper was yanked back into reality by Amethyst yelping, dodging a mashed up red pile as it was launched over to where she was standing. The huge quartz had no idea what was happening around her, as she was too busy coughing up the leftover flavour in her mouth. She wanted it to be gone.

"Yo, are you okay?" she hard Amethyst ask over her gagging. She gripped onto her chest, trying to control herself, while the more she coughed, the more her throat began to sting.

"Um, Jasper?"

Finally, she bit back to urge to continue, and lifted her head to look at the defect, still gripping her chest as to make sure she wouldn't begin hacking up her own saliva once again. She clenched her teeth and squinted her eyes, in an attempt to act like her chest wasn't acting up.

"Uh, guys?" That grating voice didn't make things any better. "What's going on? What happened?"

Jasper weakly looked up to see a tired-looking Rose staring down at them with concern, her brown curly hair ruffled and formless and her eyes droopy and exhausted.

"I think Jasper choked on a watermelon seed," Amethyst replied, very incorrectly at that.

She was about to shoot back at her with a snarky retort, but instead of speaking with her normal voice, she ended up blurting out some raspy whine, followed by yet another series of coughs and gags. All the while, the pain in her throat spread to her chest.

"Woah, Jasper!" She knew Rose had landed next to her. "Hold still, I got you."

Tears had appeared in her eyes at this point, but through them, she could see the blurry image of Rose's hand reaching out towards her. She batted it away.

"I'm… f-uh…. fine…" she wheezed in between coughs.

"You don't look fine, dude," Amethyst pointed out.

Jasper gave one last powerful cough, spit spraying all over her thighs. Her throat felt cleared, at least for now, though she still felt the sharp stinging disturbing her chest. It was as if she was being stabbed from the inside. She kept her hand glued to where it hurt, wishing for it to go away.

"What happened?" Rose asked, staring at Jasper with much concern. Amethyst just shrugged.

"She took a bite of watermelon and started choking."

Rose looked as if she was about to ask another question, but the large quartz' groans caught her attention.

"Ah… Jasper!" She gasped in horror, pointing towards where her hand was grappling. She arched a brow, before removing her limb to search for what she was looking at.

And when she saw it for herself, terror struck her like a sword.

"No, no! You're reverting!" Rose panicked as she stared at the sickly green skin crawling along her chest, dripping from her arm.

"Hold still!" the puny form commanded, smearing her hand with her saliva, before slapping it on her gem. It was unexpected, and she didn't really want her to touch her in any way so she shut her eyes and jerked her head back.

There was a long, tense silence after that.

"Phew!" She heard Amethyst speak. From what she could tell, it was a good sign.

"Jasper, it's okay," Rose spoke up, "it stopped."

The half-corrupted gem opened one eye and peeked at her chest, and was both relieved and frustrated that the turquoise colour had stopped infecting her form, but hadn't reversed itself either.

And whose fault was it that this happened?

She shot a ferocious glare at the tiny quartz standing in front of her, only a table separating them both. Amethyst winced when she noticed her.

"Hey, I'm sorry, I've never heard of a gem reverting because they ate something!" She raised her hands out in front of her in defence. Rose quickly pounced in between them.

"Okay, okay, I'm sure that eating didn't cause this," she said, before nervously glancing at the food on the table. "But… just in case." She leaped off of the couch and landed beside the table, and gathered all the food that she could carry in her short, stubby arms. "Let's put this away." She glanced at Amethyst, who nodded frantically.

"Yeah, let's do that." She mimicked Rose in carrying all the food she could, and followed her to the kitchen, where they dumped the piles of food onto the counter. Despite their efforts to gather as much as they could, they still left some substances behind.

Including what she had just put in her mouth.

She stared at it, rage bubbling inside her as each second passed by, while thoughts buzzed around her head.

You did this to me.

This is your fault.

Look at what you've become.

Until finally, she swung her arm forward, flinging the plate across the room. It landed with a loud smash, white pieces scattered all over the floor, along with the watermelon slice leaving a trail of splattered across the wooden planks.

Rose and Amethyst stared at the scene before them, before sharing a worried glance with each other.

"Yep, let's just keep the food in the fridge from now on…" Rose suggested.


The sun was high in the sky when the barn finally came into view. After the little discourse that played out this morning, Steven had suggested to Amethyst that they should pay a visit to Peridot and Lapis. Just to give Jasper some space.

"I just don't get it. How did she start reverting after eating some watermelon?" Amethyst yelled in a frustrated manner. "It wasn't even that much! Just a tiny corner, that's all!" She created a small gap between her finger and thumb in order to demonstrate just how tiny the piece was.

Steven sighed. "I… don't know. I'm sure that couldn't have been it." He furrowed his brow. "But nevermind that. We're here to have fun!" He smiled, picking up his pace towards the barn. Amethyst, however, did not speed up.

"With Lapis," she stated dryly.

"And Peridot!" Steven added enthusiastically. "And Lapis really is a lot of fun. You just gotta get to know her, that's all."

"Ew, effort to bond with someone," she jokingly groaned. "As if I can be bothered."

"Really? Because it looks to me like you and Jasper were talking all night." A simper appeared on his lips. "I mean, it's pretty impressive that she was actually talking to you."

The quartz gave a thoughtful smile. "Yeah, I guess so." She scratched the back of her head. "If she was nicer, I think she'd be really funny." Her eyes rolled around her sockets. "She really needs to loosen up."

Steven chuckled. "I'm sure she will, we'll just have to wait and see what happens."

They both looked in front of them, and saw that they were now standing just outside the barn. The boy grinned, then ran up to the door and knocked.

"Peridot! Lapis! It's me, Steven!" he called.

"And me, I'm here too," Amethyst added.

They both waited outside for a while with no reply, until finally the door slid open, leaving a small gap. There, they saw Peridot poke her head through.

"Oh, Steven! Amethyst!" She beamed excitedly, then opened the door further. "What a pleasant surprise!"

"Aren't I always?" Amethyst smirked. Steven laughed.

"Well, yes, but I am superior," Peridot boasted, shooting her a smug grin, "otherwise you wouldn't come all the way out here just to visit yours truly."

"And Lapis," Steven pointed out. She pursed her lips.

"Alright, fair enough." She then glanced over her shoulder. "Speaking of which, I'm sure she'd be happy to see you!" She spun around and faced towards the inside of the barn, and took a deep breath before yelling, "HEY, LAPIS! STEVEN AND AMETHYST ARE HERE!"

From somewhere inside, Amethyst heard the blue gem yell back, "Steven's here?"

Thanks for acknowledging me, Amethyst thought.

"Yeah!" Peridot called back. Following that was the sound of water wings beating in the air, until eventually the blue gem came into view. Her hair was ruffled up and messy, and she looked a little tired, but that didn't stop her from smiling at the sight of her friend.

"Hi, Lapis!" Steven greeted happily.

"Hi, Steven! I didn't know you were coming round today."

Steven twiddled his thumbs. "Oh, we weren't. But, uhh…" He glanced at Amethyst.

"Some stuff went down at the temple," she stated. "So we figured we better spend the rest of the day somewhere else."

Peridot's nose scrunched up. "Let me take a guess. Something happened with Jasper."

Amethyst and Steven both nodded simultaneously.

"Figures."

The quartz bit the inside of her cheek. "Eh, to be fair, it wasn't really her fault this time."

Peridot and Lapis gave her a quizzical look.

"Amethyst, it wasn't your fault either," Steven said. "Besides, no one has any idea what actually happened."

"Wait, what happened?" Lapis chimed in, taking a step forward.

Steven rubbed his arm. "Well, I wasn't there for all of it, so…" He gestured towards Amethyst, who threw her arms behind her head as she thought about where she should start.

"Okay, so last night, Jasper and I were talking about stuff, and she asked me about eating food and stuff," she began, her eyes scanning the barn as she spoke. "So I went out to get some stuff I thought she might like, and eventually I convinced her to eat something." Her eyes dropped to her sides and she pouted. "I was hoping that maybe she'd like it, but apparently not."

"Apparently, after she ate a slice of watermelon, she began reverting to her corrupted state," Steven finished. "We don't know what happened - or why - but that's the story."

Lapis furrowed her brow. "Wait, she reverted?"

"Oh! No, I stopped it before anything bad could happen." He gingerly smiled. "But she's still kinda mad at us, so we thought we better leave her alone."

"Sounds like you're having fun," Peridot muttered. "But, enough of that brute, because there's something the Shorty Squad needs to do!" The corners of her mouth picked up.

Steven and Amethyst glanced at each other in confusion, then back at Peridot.

"What's that?" Steven asked.

"Well, remember on the way back from the Beta Kindergarten?" She grinned ecstatically. "And I suggested we re-create Smokey Quartz' yo-yo?"

Steven gained stars in his eyes as he gasped. "Oh yeah! We never did get round to that." His body bobbed up and down eagerly. "What do you say, Amethyst? Should we get working?"

Amethyst gave a wide grin. "Heck yeah, let's do it!" She threw her arms up into the air.

"Yay!" Peridot cheered, stepping inside the barn, past Lapis. But, before going any further, she looked at her roommate. "Say, Lapis, do you wanna help?"

She looked ather roommate thoughtfully, then at Steven, then smiled. "Sure. Why not?"

Amethyst tried to hide her disappointment. No Shorty Squad then, she thought to herself.

The gang all gathered inside the barn, and looking around, Amethyst had to admit that she did indeed like what the two had done to the place. You know, now that she was in a good mood.

She especially like the pile of clutter sitting along the side of the barn, along with the meep morps dotted around the room. She'd also taken in the view from outside, and took interest in the balcony made from a truck, a tent sitting outside, some random items sitting on the roof, and of course, the huge silo sticking out of the side of the barn, also creating a cool-looking aquarium. Everything came together to create this one huge mess of a home.

And she really, really liked it.

"By the way, Peri," Amethyst piped up, catching the green gem's attention. She turned around to face her, while holding some random metal items. "I really like what you guys did with the barn. It's really cool."

Peridot smiled. "Oh, thanks, Amethyst." She placed the items on the floor, next to her 'Wow, Thanks' meep morp. "It took quite a lot of planning, but I think it really came through!" Her eyes darted around the barn while she grinned proudly at her creation. "It's a good thing Lapis was here. Otherwise half of this stuff wouldn't exist!" She gestured to the aquarium in particular. Amethyst glanced at the multicoloured fishes swimming around to create a messy rainbow, then at the gem responsible, who was peeking at her roommate with a sheepish smile.

"Yeah, that is pretty cool…" she murmured, looking back at the creatures darting around the water. "Hey, nice job, Lapis!" She called over to the blue gem, who looked surprised to see her acknowledging her. She gave her a blank stare at first, before offering a friendly smile, then turned back to the pile of junk in front of her to continue her search for the right materials.

"Oh, Amethyst!" Peridot suddenly said, kneeling in front of the metal materials she had found. "Which one of these do you think would make a good yo-yo model?"

Amethyst looked at the different objects - all of them a circle in shape. Then she just shrugged.

"Eh. just use all of them, I'm not too bothered as long as it looks cool."

Peridot then gasped loudly.

"You're right. Using all nine of these will create three yo-yos!" She beamed. "Exactly the amount of yo-yos that Smokey Quartz has!"

That wasn't what she was aiming for, but sure.

"Aww, does that mean we need even more string?" Steven whined, holding onto a thread of string in his hand.

"Oh, there should be plenty in the pile." Peridot waved her hand towards the clutter. "Just keep searching."

Steven let out a long sigh, passed the string onto Lapis, then began practically digging through the rubble. Amethyst laughed at the sight, before cantering over to stand by him.

"Yo, you'll get nowhere by doing that," she told him, nudging him with her foot. Steven looked up at her with a questionable expression.

"How else am I gonna find some tiny pieces of string in here?"

She shrugged. "I dunno, hope ya get lucky, I guess." She then bent down and leaned forward, her eyes glued to one spot right in the middle of the pile, before launching herself right into the clutter, loud crashing singing along with her excited whooping. Having landed on her belly, she had to raise her head to see the objects that had tumbled onto her; a wheel, a towel, a box and a picture frame.

"Amethyst!" Steven calling her made her scramble onto her knees and look over to where he was standing. "Be careful, that's Peridot and Lapis' stuff!"

Lapis lightly chuckled and lay a hand on his shoulder. "It's alright, Steven. Peridot does that all the time."

"No I don't!"

"Yes you do."

Amethyst cackled. "I must've influenced her. Sorry, Lapis."

She smiled. "Not to worry. According to her, it's a much more 'efficient' way to find things."

"Well it is!" Peridot protested. "You get through a lot more stuff that way."

As this conversation happened before her, Amethyst had buried her hand in the pile of items and was rummaging through, feeling around for a soft, thin material. After a while of coming into contact with wood and metal, her fingers crawled onto a soft, round material, to which she grabbed hold of and yanked out. Once it was in clear view, she let out an 'aha!' as soon as she saw what she had found.

"Yo, Peri! D'ya think wool will work on a yo-yo?" she called out to her friend, who glanced at her hand, immediately spotting what she was referring to. She tapped her chin, before lifting her arms into the air.

"Pass it here - I'll take a look!"

Amethyst did just that - she tossed it over to her, though the ball of wool didn't land in her palm, and instead bounced off of her forehead. Once she had hold of it, she dropped onto her rump.

"Job done."

Steven chuckled. "Nice going, Amethyst."

She gave a smug grin. "See? Told ya it's best jumping into the fray."

The group spent half the afternoon building the model, while also taking breaks to drink some juice cartons and talk about their day - Peridot usually being the one to speak. She would ramble on about her and Lapis' new discoveries, which would include an ants nest that they found not too far away from the barn, as well as a bird's nest (to which they had to fix as an apology).

"To be completely fair, it wasn't my fault that Lapis crashed into the tree branches!" Peridot grunted as she focused on keeping the two metal plates together as Steven looped the wool around the middle.

Lapis scoffed. "I crashed into it because you thought it would be a good idea to crawl along one of my arms."

"I wanted to get a closer look!" she objected.

"At least the bird accepted your apology," Steven pointed out. Peridot gained a slight blush on her cheeks.

"We felt really bad! I wouldn't like it if someone came along and destroyed my home."

"Yeah, that would suck." Amethyst arched a brow at her. She looked back at her with an embarrassed expression.

"Hey, I don't want to destroy the Earth anymore!" She gestured a hand towards herself, which caused one of the plates that she had been keeping in the air to topple over and crash right into her, followed by the second plate being thrown forwards, almost slamming into Steven who had to quickly dodge it. Both Lapis and Amethyst watched in amusement, and neither of them could hold back their laughter.

"Nice going, Peri," Amethyst commented snarkily, only to get a scowl as a reply from the little gem.

"You're cleaning that up," Lapis said dryly, folding her arms.

"But Amethyst was the one who distracted me!" she protested, grabbing the piece of metal that had landed next to her. "She should at least help."

"Nah, I'm good." She flopped over onto her back and stared up at the ceiling. "I've earned my right to rest."

"From what?"

"I was the one who found that string." She pointed a finger and the wool that Steven was gathering off of the floor.

She snickered as she heard the sounds of her irritated mumbling, before kicking up one leg over the other as she continued to stare at the ceiling, her eyes admiring the bright green bubble floating far above her. She heard Peridot and Steven converse among themselves, but she didn't bother listening in to what exactly it was they were talking about. Honestly, she was just glad to be able to sit back and relax, considering the fact that she could hardly do that back at the temple anymore, and last night had certainly been a ride, whether that be being chased down by the cops because of Pearl's surprisingly reckless (but totally hardcore) behaviour or Jasper being close to reverting, or possibly both.

"Hey… Amethyst?"

An unexpected voice distracted her from her thoughts. She turned her head to the figure who had spoken her name, and was now sitting next to her with her legs crossed.

"Oh, hey, Lapis." She looked up at her with a lazy grin. "What is it?"

Lapis pursed her lips as her eyes trailed the ground. "I… um… was just going to ask how Jasper was doing."

She paused. And blinked. She hadn't expected to hear that from the ocean gem.

She sat up so that she was at eye-level. "Um, she's fine… I guess." She shrugged. "I mean, obviously this morning we got a lil' freaked out, but all is good, I suppose. Why'd you ask?"

Lapis rubbed her arm. "No reason."

"You sure? I mean, I know stuff between you two was pretty rough." She noticed her shift uncomfortably, so she quickly backtracked what she had just said. "But, I mean, you both haven't really seen each other in ages. Heck, you were out of it the last time you were together."

For the first time, she glanced at her with a dark blue gaze as remorse flashed in her eyes for a split second.

"So, Steven didn't tell any of you about…"

Hm? "'Bout what?"

She bit her lip anxiously. "A while ago… Steven, his dad and and I went on a boat trip-"

"Oh, yeah! He told us about that."

Lapis had a scared look on her face, which confused Amethyst slightly. "Didn't the boat hit a rock or something, so you had to fly them both home?" She chuckled. "Leave it to Greg to crash a boat."

The blue gem looked at her sadly. "That's… not what happened."

Amethyst raised a brow. "What?"

"On that trip… Jasper found me. She was following me the whole time."

She widened her eyes. She had no idea about this.

"Woah, really?" She leaned forward. "What went down?"

Her mouth twitched as she rubbed the back of her neck. "She… asked me to fuse with her." Her eyes darkened at the memory. "Obviously, I said no… but it was horrible." She tucked her knees towards her chest and draped her arms around her legs. "I don't like to think about it."

So, apparently this had happened. It was easy to guess that Steven hadn't shared any of this, as it wasn't really any of the gems' business; it was clear this was a sensitive subject for Lapis.

In fact, looking back to how she had acted around Lapis before, she felt kinda bad. Granted, she'd never really considered Lapis to be a gem she would get along with, but she was completely aware that she had had it pretty rough.

"Yo… sorry, dude," she said guiltily. Lapis glanced at her, surprised.

"It's okay, it's not your fault."

"No, no…" She shook her head. "I mean, sorry about before. Y'know, about… turning into Jasper right in front of you."

Her eyebrows raised in realisation. "Oh, that…" Her head sank in between her shoulders. "That's… that's okay."

"You sure?"

"Yeah."

"Okay, cool."

There was a brief silence between them.

"So… what were you two talking about last night?" Lapis then asked. Amethyst looked up at her.

"Jasper and I? Oh, just…" She paused for a moment, to actually think. What would Jasper say if she found out she had spilled some of her personal stuff to someone who she really didn't like?

Well, she probably wouldn't say anything. She'd just pummel her into the ground, right there and then.

"...She was just telling me about how much Earth sucked." Not really a lie, to be fair. She would've given herself a pat on the back had Lapis not been sitting right in front of her.

"Right." Lapis lifted her head off of her knees and settled it in the palm of her hand. "At least she has something to talk about." A ghost of a smile lingered on her lips. "Also, sorry about what she said about you."

Amethyst went from a friendly smile to an alert expression. "Wait, how'd you find out about that?"

Her deep blue eyes slowly moved the green gem holding the pieces of metal in midair. This was enough for Amethyst to understand.

"Oh. Well, yeah, that sucked." Her face scrunched up as she thought back to the unpleasant events. "But hey, all's good now."

Lapis smiled at her sweetly. "That's good." She then shyly looked away. "Say, um… could you make sure that Jasper doesn't… revert?"

Amethyst fluttered her lashes. "Oh, um, sure. We weren't really planning on not making sure that doesn't happen, but y'know."

She weakly laughed. "Good. Thanks." Her mouth retreated behind her knees while she looked over to her two friends fiddling with the wool and metal, before letting out a light chuckle. Wondering what was so amusing, she followed her eyes over to Steven, who was attempting to unravel Peridot out of a long thread of wool that was knotted around her upper torso.

"Maybe we should help them," she suggested. Amethyst nodded in agreement.

"You think?"