Chapter Nine: Chibidot

"Hey Steven how long are you gonna hover over Peri's gem?" Amethyst teased

It had been six hours since Peridot had retreated into her gem to heal and in that time the portly boy had not left her side. The reason for her need to heal was because while she working in the comfort in her make-shift lab, Amethyst decided it would be a hilarious if she overloaded the ship's remaining back-up power to give their friend a painful shock, sadly however that painful shock turned out to be a powerful explosion that the Crystal Gems thought she had been killed in after seeing chucks of burned parts of her all over the place. Thankfully, Steven managed to find Peridot's gem and decided to watch over it like—as he put it—a mother hen watching over her young.

"I'm not moving until Peridot comes out" the boy replied

"What eves, I'm gonna go eat garage" the earth-born Gem said as she made her way to her room "Peace!"

Just as Amethyst departed from the room, a green light flashed from Peri's gem, soon taking form into a humanoid form until the Homeworld Gem was fully restored.

Well, kind of restored.

"Oh…my…gosh!" the half-Gem gasped in surprised "Your…cute!"

At first, Peridot was confused by what her friend had said about her, but then she looked down at her hands and it all became horrifyingly clear to her: she was small.

"Where are my limb enhancers?!" she cried out in shock "Without them I'm nothing!"

"Sorry Peri, but they kinda got incinerated in the explosion" her friend informed her before looking at her new form over "You know, without your limbs, you look like a chibi version of yourself…Hey! That's what I'll call you now-Chibidot!"

"You are not calling me that!" the Homeworld Gem exclaimed "I'm not a—whatever you just called me!"

"Chibidot?"

"Yes that!"

"Yes call you that?"

"No, don't call me that!"

"Ok Chibidot"

"GAAAAAAH!"

It was then that now small Gem began to pace back and forth in the house, grumbling to herself about all the things she intended to do to Amethyst when she got her tiny green hands on her. Steven then stepped in to try and to calm his friend down, however before he could do anything, the door to Pearl's room opened up, making Peridot mentally hit the panic button.

"Hide me!" she yelped before jumping behind Steven's back in a sad attempt to keep out of her crush's sight

Of course this did nothing to keep Pearl from seeing the now diminutive Gem, who was spotted in under a second.

"Is that you Peridot?" she asked

"N-No! Uh, I'm uh—Chibidot! Yes! I'm a tiny clone of Peridot that she made!" Peridort lied horribly as she threw her arms into the arm and cheering "Tiny Peri!"

"I thought we weren't supposed to call you that Peridot" Steven absentmindedly corrected, making Peri facepalm

"Ugh, fine! Yes, it's me Pearl!" she sadly admitted "Feel free to laugh now"

"Why would I want to laugh?" the taller Gem inquired "I think you look rather cute without all those robotic parts attached to you"

"Y-you do?" Peridot stammered, trying to keep herself from blushing

"Why yes, you look so much better the way you are now" Pearl continued before looking over to Steven "Now if you'll excuse me, I have seven-headed hydra to fight and I've been waiting to break in my new swords! I'll be home later you two!"

With that, Pearl activated the warp-pad and teleported away, leaving Peri feeling overjoyed from the compliment.

"Did you hear that?! She thinks I'm cute!" she cheered in happiness, pumping her fists into the air while chanting "I'm cute! I'm cute! I'm cute! I'm cute!"

The portly boy watched as his now much shorter friend ran out of the beach-house while still chanting those two words. She kept on running across beach and toward the town. As she did, Steven could only watch her enjoy this little moment of happiness.