Lapis was not going to give up. That's the first thought that she could register in her mind when she opened her eyes to the morning light the next day. She was going to find a way to make Peridot forgive her. She summoned her wings and took off to the sky, which always helped her think in times of trouble. As she perused Beach City and watched the humans go about their lives, she asked herself something very vital.

"What does Peridot want?"

Well, Peridot wanted a lot of things, but nothing that important that could help her mend the grandiose mistake that Lapis had made. She replayed the encounter she'd had with Peridot the other day. 'Amethyst gave it to me.' She hadn't even known that they were even that close, but apparently, she'd been wrong, like she was about a lot of things, she was starting to realise. If Amethyst were that close of a friend to give Peridot gifts, then she'd have to know what to give her, right? Lapis's nostrils flared as she thought of going to Amethyst for help, but at this point, she had no other choice.

- Lapis's sharp eyes caught the purple gem strolling on the beach, and so she landed right in front of her, sending loose grains of sand everywhere which lingered on Amethyst's shirt.

Lapis inwardly smiled in satisfaction at the destruction she'd caused.

"Oh hey, Lapis. I heard you were back." Amethyst greeted with indifference. She didn't remember having any worthwhile conversation with the blue gem before she'd left, and was still a bit angry at her for leaving Peridot and making her sulk around. That wasn't cool, man.

"Um, yeah. I was just wondering..." She paused, putting her hand over her lips thoughtfully.

"Do you know what Peridot would want the most as a gift?" Mentally, Lapis facepalmed herself, already regretting the question.

Amethyst looked at her strangely. "Why are you asking me? You know her better than I do."

"Yeah," she agreed, "but since you gave her that tape recorder, I-"

Amethyst held up a hand to stop her.

"Wait. Tape recorder? I didn't give her that." She interjected, with her forehead puckered.

Lapis scrunched up her face in confusion, and a line appeared between her brows.

"Wh- You didn't give her a tape recorder?" She stammered.

"No." Amethyst paused to sort out her thoughts before continuing fluidly. "Well, in a sense, yes, but she just found it in my room. I thought it was just junk so I let her have it, but I didn't actually 'give' it to her."

Lapis's mouth snapped shut, and her face went blank. She felt a surge of relief all throughout her body, followed by a spurt of anger. Peridot had lied to her for no reason, and with a smug smile to go along with it. Her hidden hostility towards Amethyst seemed pointless now, but then again, she didn't know why she'd been hostile against her in the first place.

"Oh."

Amethyst continued, not noticing Lapis's change of expression.

"You know, she was so angry that day that she found it. I don't think I remember her being that angry since I threw her limb enhancers in the ocean, and-"

The rest of Amethyst's ramblings faded into a blur, as the words 'limb enhancers' repeated themselves in her mind, over and over.

"You threw her limb enhancers in the ocean?" Lapis asked slowly, her eyes crinkling.

Amethyst chuckled heartily as remembered the green gem's reaction, wiping a tear away from her left eye.

"Yeah, near the galaxy warp, it was hilarious, and then-"

Amethyst suddenly felt a wave of sand whip her face, and when she searched for the blue gem in the midst of it, she was nowhere to be found.

"Uh, well bye, I guess." She shrugged and continued on her way to the Big Donut.

Pearl was tidying about the house, and checking for dust mites in a particularly tight corner of the house when she heard the sound of footsteps approaching. Peridot had been sulking around the house all day, with Pumpkin happily following her trail. As Pearl dusted the cabinets, she watched as Peridot fell face first on the couch and groaned.

Pearl laid down her duster carefully, and shifted towards the green gem cautiously, as to not alert her.

"Peridot, are you...alright?" Pearl started, as she nimbly crossed her legs on the couch.

Peridot's face pivoted upward, and she narrowed her eyes at Pearl. She didn't feel like hearing about Pearl's fake sympathy right now.

"Oh please, don't act like you care, Pearl." Peridot scoffed, stretching out her legs in front of her and purposely nudging Pearl with her feet.

Pearl rolled her eyes, mentally counting to ten in her head.

"Peridot, I know we haven't always been on the best of terms, but I'd thought we had gotten over our petty disagreements."

"Did Steven tell you to come talk to me?" Peridot asked derisively, her eyes still glowering at Pearl.

Pearl uncrossed her legs and frowned at an errant speck of dust.

"No." She said in a small voice.

Peridot's expression dropped and evolved into a more serious one.

"Uh..are you okay?" She asked hesitantly, scrutinising her face for any clues related to the sudden change in atmosphere.

Pearl's shoulders tensed and she quickly crossed her arms, as a chilly breeze was swept in through the windows.

"What? No. Everything's fine. Completely fine. What gave you the idea that everything was not fine?" Pearl forced a creepy smile at Peridot which made her shudder.

There was a pregnant pause, and then a small "I'm fine." from Pearl, who was tapping her foot repeatedly against the floor.

"According to my calculations, it's more likely that you are not fine," Peridot stated, eyeing Pearl warily.

"Well, your calculations are wrong," Pearl replied stubbornly.

Peridot rubbed her temples and swore under her breath. She didn't even know why she was trying to comfort Pearl. Just because they were both Crystal Gems didn't mean that they had to be all buddy buddy.

"I doubt that very much. My calculations are always a 100 percent accurate and completely trustworthy."

"Maybe they aren't as accurate as you think they are." Pearl folded her hands on her lap and stuck her nose up in the air, making Peridot fume.

"Gah!" Peridot huffed, burying her hands in her hair out of pure frustration, before twisting around to glare at Pearl.

"Just tell me what's wrong!" Peridot cried, throwing her hands up.

Pearl gave a long exhale, before lowering her head to meet Peridot's glare, mentally debating why she was about to talk about her troubles with Peridot, out of all the people in the world.

"Steven and I may have had a...disagreement."

"Oh?" Peridot's eyebrows shot up into her hairline.

"Yes, when I went to look for him at the barn that morning, he got angry at me for grounding him."

"Wai- Grounding him?!" Peridot yelped, flying off the couch, making Pearl wince as she crashed against the coffee table.

"Did you crush Steven into the ground?!" Peridot touched her throat, stumbling away from her slowly.

Pearl's eyes started blinking rapidly, as her mind clouded over with confusion, and then she facepalmed. She was already regretting the decision she'd made to attempt a rational conversation with Peridot.

"Grounding means that I punished him."''

Peridot's face flushed profusely, before gingerly returning to her spot on the couch. She hated that she still didn't understand these complicated Earth phrases, even though she'd been here for quite a while. She could build a giant robot out of junk, yet somehow she couldn't understand these strange sentences that held a hidden meaning.

Usually, she wouldn't feel embarrassed because she had Lapis by her side, who shared her confusion by staring blankly ahead of her, but this time it was just Peridot. She felt not only stupid but alone.

"Ah. I see..."

An awkward silence permeated the air, as Peridot replayed her reaction to the word over and over like a film. Then she remembered that Pearl was still waiting expectantly next to her.

"And why did you do that?" She asked uncertainly, still gazing with focus at the tilted coffee table, which Pearl quickly leaned over to fix.

Pearl's lips pressed together in a slight grimace, relaying the encounter she'd had that day.

"I had been searching for him all night, yet when I arrived at the barn, he was lounging in the pool without a care in the world."

Peridot's heartbeat quickened at the mention of her home.

"Did...Lapis mention me?" She bit her lip, reaching down to pluck at the green ribbon she'd wrapped around her wrist. She'd only kept it because she liked the colour.

"Uh, well," Pearl hesitated, watching this action from the corner of her eye."We barely talked, but she did mention you." She admitted, wringing her hands out.

Peridot's throat thickened, and she had to clear it, before attempting a nonchalant tone. "Well... what did she say?"

Pearl frowned, trying to think back to her conversation with Lapis. It hadn't been a very long one, and she barely remembered what she'd said, but she did remember Lapis's eyes flickering to her only when she'd mentioned Peridot. That's what had made her talk to Pearl in the first place.

"She just mentioned your name." Pearl shrugged, reaching up to fix her hair.

Peridot's shoulders dropped. "Right..."

She didn't know what she had been expecting, and she tried to swallow down her disappointment, distracting herself by pretending to be interested in Pearl's problems.

"Are you still not talking to Steven?"

Pearl's hand stilled in midair before she slowly lowered it down to her lap. "Not until he apologises to me, first for going off to space-"

"Wait, you didn't know about that?" Peridot blurted out, not even bothering to hide the shock on her face.

"You knew?! Did everyone else know but me?" Pearl gawked, finally meeting Peridot's shocked gaze.

"I thought that he'd told you."

"He didn't."

An uncomfortable silence enveloped them, making Peridot rub the back of her neck.

"Well...this is awkward."

Pearl dropped her head with her eyes closed and sighed a long, low sigh.

"Garnet keeps telling me to forgive him." She admitted, staring down at her hands.

"I guess we're both stuck in a similar situation."

Pearl's eyes darted to Peridot's, and she curiously tilted her head.

"What do you mean?"

"Steven keeps telling me to forgive Lapis for what she did, but I just can't do it. Even if I wanted to, I can't forget about what she did to me. Yesterday she tried to apologise and gave me a present. I rejected her." Peridot paused to pull her legs up on the couch and hugged her knees, before continuing in a subdued tone.

"I almost gave in and forgave her right on the spot, but I just...wanted to hurt her." She winced and surveyed Pearl's face for her reaction.

"It sounds horrible when I say it like that, doesn't it?"

Peridot was expecting Pearl to shout at her in disgust for admitting that she'd wanted Lapis to feel bad on purpose, but she was surprised when she found Pearl staring ahead of her, her face scrunched up in deep thought.

"No, I know exactly what you mean."

"You do?" Peridot asked, looking at Pearl's faraway expression attentively.

"Once, a long time ago, Amethyst and I had a big fight. It was a completely different situation, but I didn't talk to Amethyst for a whole month. I realised that I wasn't even angry anymore, I just wanted her to be as miserable as I had been feeling when I found out what she'd done." Pearl's eyes were narrowed, eyebrows pulled down in concentration.

"Then I noticed that it was hurting me more than it was hurting her because I so focused on avoiding her and making her feel guilty, that...well, it happened a long time ago."

Peridot frowned, her forehead wrinkling as she looked down at her ribbon. Pearl kept silent, almost hearing the thoughts reeling inside the mind beside her. Peridot didn't feel like talking about herself anymore, and so she switched the subject.

"Why do you think Steven didn't tell you about the whole going off to space thing?"

"Well, he did tell me that he wanted to go to the moon, a few days before he'd actually gone," Pearl replied as she pursued her lips in thought, allowing a pregnant pause to slip through the conversation.

"And?" Peridot continued impatiently.

Pearl scoffed, looking at Peridot incredulously. "I said no, obviously. He wouldn't tell me why, and so I didn't want to risk his safety for something as abstract like that."

"Why did he come to you?"

Pearl fumbled for words before shooting a dirty look at the aloof green gem. "What is that supposed to mean?"

Peridot shrugged and offered a placating smile. "Don't you find it curious that he came to you for help instead of Garnet or Amethyst?"

"No... I never thought of that." Pearl uttered, tapping a finger against her chin absentmindedly.

Peridot released a heavy sigh, before pushing herself off the couch and addressing Pearl one last time. She needed to check on her Twitter account. "Well, he must have taken it for granted that you'd accept his proposal. Otherwise, he wouldn't have even attempted to ask you."

"Hmm... " Pearl still had that glazed far off look in her eyes, so Peridot turned to scamper off to the bathroom.

"Wait, Peridot." That made her halt her steps, and she craned her neck to look at Pearl, who was now fidgeting with her hands again.

"Hm?"

"Thank you." Her lips curved into a subtle smile.

Peridot's eyebrows furrowed. "For what?"

"For listening."

"Oh..well, you're welcome!" Peridot grinned enthusiastically.

She was getting really skilled at this friendship thing, thought Peridot proudly as she skipped off to the doorless bathroom.

Pearl rolled her eyes.