Chapter Twenty One- It's Time to Explore

Peridot sat on the couch. Holding one of the human squares of leaved information. Her fingers traced the pages, the lettering odd. Her vision was suddenly broken from the book as Steven replaced the text.

"Morning, Peridot!" He beamed as she was so shocked she threw the book down.

"Don't sneak up on me!" She bit her lip. "Are you done with your nightly ritual of hallucinating?"

"Yeah, I'm awake now! I put my alarm on to wake up extra early. I wanna take you outside today! Come on!"

She looked around. "Outside?"

"Yeah! I figured you've been stuck around in here for too long and the weatherman said the forecast was meant to be all sunny! I'll show you all over Beach City, and you can meet more of my friends and we'll have lots of fun! How does that sound?"

"Hm. Intriguing." She gave a nod and stood up as he gave a cheer and raced to throw his shoes on. "Are you sure you're an adequate escort for me?"

"The gems don't mind. You're their friend now!"

She stopped short of going out of the door. The furthest she'd gotten in the past couple of weeks was the patio to let the big lion inside of the building aside with the mishap with Jasper, but even then, that had only been for a few moments. A friend to the crystal gems? Really? Steven was exaggerating. She sighed. Sometimes she wished that Earth culture spoke with a little more sincerity. It was hard to get a grip on their superfluous idiosyncrasies.

She stopped again when sunlight hit her face. Their sun was closer than that of the Homeworld, and she could feel the difference. She basked in its warmth, letting it soak to her core. It ignited her system with kind passion and allowed her lips to curve into a content smile.

"We get lots of people here around this time of year. But that's okay. I think you'll get to like them once you see how nice everyone is." She turned her smile to him, letting the boy grab her arm and gently lead her forward. He continued as they descended. "This is just the beach. You saw it already, but sometimes we like to go down here and play games. Swimming is nice, too."

"I could imagine so."

"Yeah! And just down there is where my dad lives. He has a carwash where he cleans things but he also cleans other stuff like boats sometimes. And over there is the broadwalk. You can see it from here. That's a fun place to go to and it's pretty close to the arcade. But we'll step into the big donut first, alright?"

"As you wish." She nodded as they paced down. She received a few odd looks from pedestrians, causing her stomach to turn with unease, but Steven's jubilant whistling and intermittent explainations calmed her nerves a fair amount.

"I like donuts a lot. Not sure if you'll be really into em, but you could always try."

"I think I'll pass on solid food." She'd had some back home. It wasn't a good experience. Juices were still consumed, however.

"Oh! You can have the coffee that comes with the donut combo, then! I don't like it that much, but you could try it out. It's all bitter and mature, just like you!"

"I will take that as a compliment." She side eyed him as they neared the store. "Am I to wait outside?"

"Come on in! I'm sure Lars and Sadie won't really mind! I've brought the others in a lot before!" He then whispered. "I think my friend Lars might have a crush on the Crystal Gems."

"Huh." She shrugged. "Does this… Lars wish to damage the gems by means of machinery or physical strength?"

"What?" He blinked, and then laughed out loud. "No, silly! Peridot, a crush doesn't mean you wanna actually really hurt them. It's kinda like this feeling you get. It's really weird."

"Enlighten me, please." She said, crossing her arms. She did not like being unaware of terminology.

"Well… Uh…" They walked into the shop. "Sadie! I need you to explain what a crush feels like."

The blonde had been sipping at a coffee that was now spat all over Lars. The teen wailed and raced into the back, yelling curses. "Oh, hey. Steven. Sorry you had to see that. I just wasn't expecting that kinda question today." She rubbed at her neck, face red. "A crush? Why do you wanna know that? Who's your friend?"

"This is Peridot. She's… Out of this world. She needs to know what a crush feels like."

"Hi." She gave a palm-less wave.

"Sounds rad. Hey there." Sadie gave a shrug, returning the wave. "Well, uh, it's like a thing you get for another person, usually. You get all hot and bothered around them and you just wanna confess everything to them, but you can't." Her eyes shot to the back room. "And you sometimes get a little jealous when they hang out with other people because you want them all to yourself, but you still just want them to be happy."

"Oh." Peridot nodded, processing the new information. "That's… A lot like me and… Uhm. Never mind."

"We didn't just come here for a chat," Steven clicked his fingers. "One donut combo with coffee, please."

"I see we're back to serious Steven." Sadie chuckled as she fiddled with the register.

"Oh, the coffee isn't for me. But serious Steven is always on the ball." He returned the grin and grabbed the snacks. He gave the paper cup of coffee to Peridot. "Here you go! That's hot, so be careful."

"Oh. Thankyou." She nodded, and looked over at the two humans before pressing her lips to the plastic top. She tipped it slightly, letting the aroma and hot drink seep into her mouth. It was incredibly rich, somewhat bitter and silky.

"I can give you milk or sugar if you don't like it black." Sadie offered, twirling sugar packets inbetween fingers.

Peridot took another sip. "No, this will do." She said, downing the whole thing. "This is rather incredible. Thank you."

"No problem. Anytime."

"See you around, Sadie! Thanks!" Steven grabbed Peridot's hand and led her again. The Homeworld gem felt oddly more alert and rearing to go. "I'm glad you liked that! Coffee's a weird thing that adults seem to really like, so I guess you're an adult now."

"But I was just made a few centuries ago."

"Adult Peridot! You're my mom for the day, alright?"

"Uh." It felt awkward to say no to his pleading eyes. "Sure. I'll be your human construct of a parental figure. Just for today, though."

"Yay! Space mom!" He grinned, taking a hold of her in a quick embrace and then leading the gem towards the broadwalk. "Oh! That's the fairground. Lots'a cool stuff there. Except the teacups. Even if they got rebuilt, we're not going on the teacup ride.

"I… Uh." She had very little idea of what he was talking about as he tugged her around. She tensed at every time a car passed her by. Uncomfortable with them since her collision. Still, it was good to have cool sea air whisk against her face. Steven's happy attitude was infectious, and she soon listened intently to his childish humour and observations. Very little of them made actual sense, but her two weeks in the custody of the Crystal gems had allowed her to observe that this kind of humour was exceedingly common.

Much of their jestering was founded on lies and suffering, which was a sad fact, but they took so much pleasure in it, she'd quickly stopped even trying to point it out. Truly, there was something quite remarkable about people in general. They had even built large contraptions to ride, simply for their own amusement.

They led lives that were simple. Yes, they had jobs, but nothing to truly expand their reach of the galaxy. Nothing beyond this little rock of a planet. And to be honest, Peridot was beginning to see a little honour in this. There was little they put their noses into, and that was alright with them. Many of them seemed to not even know much of the gems at all. Odd, considering the war had impacted so many of them, but they were an ignorant species.

Yes. For humans, ignorance truly was bliss. And that left them innocent.

Granted, there was their destruction of ecosystems and all, but that appeared to be out of ignorance, too, rather than a way in which they were manipulating their landscape to further be a dominant species. Odd.

They'd made it to the broadwalk. Peridot still holding Steven's hand. As he was midway through explaining a contraption upon the pier, a large scream shot out. She could feel the ground quaking below her feet, like a massive force was clawing its way to the surface. Rubble fell towards them, but in a flash of pink light, she found herself unscathed. She gripped Steven harder. Protectively.

"What's happening?" She yelled out, panicked.

"Over there!" He replied, moving the bubble along. She didn't notice at first and was wheeled along by the force. "It's another monster."

She turned to face it. A large creature had come out of the water, seething green from its teeth. A corrupted gem. She had read about them but never come face to face with one. She was paralysed head to toe. Unable to move or properly function at the sight. Jaw slack.

"Come on! We have to help fight it!"

She couldn't tell if Steven was incredibly brave or downright insane. One thing was true, however, the boy currently proved to have far more courage than she had ever displayed. She was unable to properly respond, body still in shock as he wheeled them towards the howling creature.

She wanted to scream.

A/N: Happy Steven Bomb the third, everyone!