CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

After a refreshing power nap, they did indeed do it all over again and then fell asleep in each others arms until they were very rudely awoken by the noise of the other gems returning.

"Sounds like they had a good time," Steven muttered, wincing as an especially loud crash and the hiss of several voices reached his ears.

"Not as good as us," I'll bet," Peridot whispered, making him giggle. "You can put the shield away now."

"Hmm?" He looked down at his arm and belated noticed the shield he'd instinctively summoned upon awakening. "Whoops." He grinned sheepishly and dismissed it. "Guess I'm still a little, y'know, on edge after all."

"S'ok." She wriggled closer, pressing her delightfully naked body against him and leaned up to give him a kiss. "You just need a little more distracting."

There was another bang, several voices going 'shhhhh!' all at once, and then the unmistakable sound of someone retching. It wasn't exactly mood music. "Hold that thought," Steven murmured a little reluctantly.

They waited hopefully, but all that happened was that the sound of retching faded slightly as whoever it was moved into the bathroom. Peridot sighed and sat up. "Well," she muttered, phasing her outfit back on, "now that I'm awake, I may as well get some work done."

"Whatcha gonna do?" he asked with interest, propping himself up on one elbow to watch.

"I thought I'd start planning exactly how we intend to try curing Centipeedle and the other corrupted gems," she replied, picking up her tablet. "Most of the wedding preparation has been completed now, so I was rather hoping we might be able to get started tomorrow- well, later today," she amended, checking the time on the screen. "But even if we have to wait until after the wedding, I would like to be prepared so that we can start as soon as possible. And then I wanted to have another look at my decryption program," she continued, gesturing towards her computer. "It hasn't decrypted anything new since the song, so I'd like to take another look at it and see if it can be improved. And then I'm going to redesign that faster-than-light drive to make it safer... what?" she asked, squirming a little uncomfortably as he stared at her with starry eyes.

"Huh? Oh, sorry." He smiled and waved his hand dismissively. "I was just thinking how much everything's changed. Before you moved in, I was just kind of drifting along, waiting for the Diamonds to figure out we were alive after all and come here to kill us." He rolled over onto his back and looked thoughtfully at the ceiling. "We were just killing time, y'know? But we weren't doing anything to prepare for it. They could've turned up in one year, five years, twenty years, and it wouldn't have mattered, I'd have been exactly the same. But you, you changed everything! You've got plans and you're getting shit done!" He rolled over again and gazed at her in wonder.

"W-well, you did things too!" Peridot protested, blushing furiously. "You- you released Bismuth! And moved the Cluster!"

Steven laughed fondly. "You know perfectly well I couldn't have moved the Cluster without you showing me it could be moved. I was totally gonna just leave it bubbled down there."

"You still did it though," she said obstinately. "I couldn't have moved it."

"Well..." He tapped his chin thoughtfully. "I guess we just bring out the best in each other."

Peridot smiled ruefully, remembering the gem she'd been a few years ago. "You certainly brought out the best in me," she said with feeling, then returned her attention to her tablet. "You should try and go back to sleep if you want to be the best of you today"

"I think you had the best of me today already," he said, and gave her a cheeky wink. She threw a cushion at him, making him laugh, then he settled down and watched her work for a few minutes before his eyes fluttered closed. Outside, whoever had been throwing up had finally finished and now there was no sound other than the quiet tap of her fingertips to lull him back to sleep.

xxx

At around 8am, Peridot unlocked her door and poked her head around the frame. To her delight, Amethyst was already there, lying on the sofa. She strode forward, but as she neared the other gem, she slowed down. Amethyst looked – and smelled – half dead. She reached out and cautiously poked her arm. "Amethyst?"

One of Amethyst's eyes cracked open and glared blearily at her. "Fuu'orf."

"Are you all right?" She wrinkled her nose at the other gem's disheveled appearance. Had there been a corrupted gem attack? Or, more likely, had relations broken down over karaoke? "What happened to you?"

"Ugh." Amethyst closed her eye again and rolled over. "S'you," she muttered into the back cushions. "Your happiness makes me sick."

"No, that would be the tequila slammers."

Peridot spun around to see Ruby and Sapphire stood behind her. "I did tell you it was a bad idea," Sapphire said placidly.

"Yeah, but then your bitch fiance double-dared me," Amethyst argued, rolling back over to face her. Then her face turned green. "Hrk... 'scuse me!"

Ruby shook her head sadly as Amethyst bolted into the bathroom. "No, she's right, I did do that."

Peridot looked to the bathroom door, and then to the couple, utterly confused. "So... what happened?"

"Too much alcohol," Sapphire said simply. "She's hungover."

"Ohhhh." Peridot looked at the bathroom door again. Hangovers had never looked quite so sour on television. "Will she be all right?"

"Eventually," Ruby said with a grin. "Get her a glass of water, that'll help."

"She'll be no use today, though" Sapphire said, picking up a notebook and flicking through it. "Fortunately, we got almost everything done yesterday. I think all we need to do today is set everything up and collect the cake and flowers."

"And choose our first song," Ruby added. She gave Peridot a sly look. "Unless you and Steven got around to choosing one?"

Peridot pretended to be very busy with the faucet. "We discussed it," she said vaguely. "But we were unable to come to an agreement. Where's Bismuth?" she asked, quickly changing the subject.

Ruby jabbed her thumb in the direction of the bathroom. "Unconscious in the bathtub."

"Tequila slammers too?" Peridot guessed. "Did you give your entire bridal party alcohol poisoning?"

Ruby nodded ruefully. "Maybe I shouldn't have double-dared everyone."

"You really shouldn't have," Sapphire said severely. "Now we have to put up the marquee by ourselves."

"But Saffy..." Ruby whined. "It was our bachelorette party! We're never gonna have another one!"

Sapphire's expression softened. "True. Unless we renew our vows in a hundred years."

"I'd renew our vows every year if it meant never being apart from you again," Ruby declared, gazing at her fiance with adoration. Sapphire gave her a soppy look in return and the two began to giggle and coo in hushed whispers. Behind them, Peridot rolled her eyes and silently vowed that if she ever became as revoltingly affectionate in public as those two, she'd ask Lapis to dump a bucket of cold water water on her.

Amethyst's thoughts seemed to be running along similar lines; upon stepping out of the bathroom, she took one look at the couple and pulled a face. "If you guys keep doing that, I'm gonna throw up again," she warned.

"Here." Peridot held out the glass of water. "Is now a bad time to ask if you happen to have another microwave handy?"

"Glg-" Amethyst held up a warning hand as she drained the glass, then she gasped loudly and swiped the back of her hand across her mouth. "Ahhhh. Much better. OK. So, what was that?"

"Do you happen to have another microwave handy?" Peridot repeated.

"Uhhh..." Amethyst screwed up her eyes, and then shook her head. "Ugh, dunno. Brain hurts too much to think. Lemme go have a quick nap and I'll check when I wake up."

As Peridot couldn't exactly force her to carry out a search immediately, she simply nodded and let the other gem retreat to her room to nurse her hangover in peace before considering her next move. Clearly she wasn't going to be able to work on the faster-than-light drive until Amethyst recovered, and she wanted to wait until Steven was awake to visit Centipeedle and her crew, and she had a feeling he'd probably be out for a few more hours at least. At that thought, a smirk spread across her face; it was a nice feeling to know that for once, he was tired for good reasons.

She turned around to see Ruby and Sapphire kissing, and cleared her throat to get their attention. "Do you require my assistance with any of the wedding preparations?" she asked politely.

The couple separated and looked blankly at her for several seconds until they remembered what they were supposed to be doing. "Uhh..." Sapphire tapped her fingers against her chin. "Are the marquee supports metal?" she asked Ruby in a loud whisper.

"I think so?" Ruby shrugged. "Does it matter? Whatever it's made of, we need help with it."

"True." Sapphire turned back to Peridot. "Would you be able to help us with that?"

"Sure. I'll just go and fetch my toolkit." She took a step towards her room and then paused as an embarrassing memory popped into her head. "And let Steven know the bath's occupied."

xxx

An few hours later, Steven stepped out onto the deck and watched the chaos beneath him with amusement. The marquee was spread out on the sand, poles scattered upon its surface and a number of holes surrounding it. Sapphire was holding one pole in place in one of the holes while Ruby stood on her shoulders, and next to them stood Peridot with a control pad, carefully directing the drone that flew above them with another pole suspended beneath it.

As he watched, a gust of wind caught the drone and Ruby swerved her upper body to avoid it. Sapphire took a hasty step backwards, straight into one of the holes, and toppled over with a scream that was abruptly cut off when Ruby landed on top of her.

"Can I give you a hand?" he called, already halfway down the steps.

"Watch out!" Peridot yelled, but it was too late. As he stepped onto the beach, his foot hit a patch of ice, sending him sliding out of control towards them, arms windmilling wildly as he struggled to stay upright. In desperation, he tried to jump sideways to safety, only to hit a patch of glass. Peridot's eyes widened in alarm and she dived out of the way just in time to avoid being mowed down.

Ruby and Sapphire weren't so fortunate. In their haste to get out of the way, they became even more entangled and so in the end, all they could do was throw up their hands to protect their faces when Steven crashed into them and went flying through the air, a short but impressive flight that ended when he landed face first in the sand, some distance away, with a loud THUMP.

"STEVEN!" the three gems cried in unison. Ruby and Sapphire finally managed to free themselves and sprinted to his aid, arriving just as Peridot grabbed him by the collar and pulled his face out of the sand. "Steven! Speak to me! Don't you dare be dead! You'll ruin the wedding!"

Steven spat out a mouthful of sand and gasped for air. "I'm alive! I'm OK! Didn't die!"

"Always good to hear," Sapphire said and held out a hand to help him up. "Sorry about the ice."

"And the glass," Ruby added. "We had a few... issues."

"Yes. I noticed." He turned slowly on the spot, and then looked up at the drone that was still hovering overhead. "So what happened?"

"We did our best, but ultimately, we were hindered by the fact that we're all..." Peridot pulled a face. "Short."

"Oh." Steven frowned and looked at Ruby and Sapphire. "Why didn't you guys just shapeshift?"

The trio stared blankly at him for a moment and then their eyes all widened in unison. "Oh! Of course!" Sapphire exclaimed. Beside her, Ruby blushed and ducked her head. "I guess we were so preoccupied with the wedding, we just... forgot," Sapphire continued sheepishly.

Peridot bent down to pick up the controller she'd dropped. "It didn't occur to me either," she admitted ruefully. "As it's not something I can do myself, I sometimes forget other gems don't have the same limitations. It's fine," she added as Steven cringed and began to stammer out an apology. "Now that we have three gems who can make themselves taller, work should progress much more swiftly.

And it did. Less than an hour later, the marquee stood proudly upon the sand and they began setting up tables and chairs inside for the party. Soon afterwards, they were joined by Bismuth and Pearl, who'd finally recovered from all the 'iced teas' she'd consumed the night before ("well how was I supposed to know they weren't actually tea?") and by the time Amethyst joined them, all that remained to do was arrange the flowers and set up the sound system. As that was a task that couldn't be completed until Greg delivered them both, they agreed it was time for a well earned break.

"Apart from Amethyst," Pearl muttered.

"Hey, I spent the morning trying to keep my brain from dribbling out of my eyeballs!" Amethyst said furiously. "I have earned every second of this break!"

"It looks so good," Steven said happily, ignoring the bickering duo. "Tomorrow's going to be great!"

"There are approximately seven hundred and twenty-nine ways it could go wrong," Sapphire said placidly. "Seven hundred and twenty-eight," she amended, spotting Greg's van approaching. "No, wait, seven hundred and thirty-two."

"Well... just try not to think about it," Peridot advised firmly. "Unless you can do something about it."

"Seven hundred and twenty-five," Sapphire muttered in response and drifted away to meet Greg.

Peridot shook her head and turned back to Steven. "Lunch?"

Steven hesitated and glanced over in Sapphire's direction. "Depends if that makes the numbers go up again."

"They will if you pass out with hunger," Peridot pointed out.

"Good point," he admitted, and let her drag him up the steps and into the house. Once inside, he let go of her hand and started searching through the fridge. "We've got some eggs... cheese... mushrooms... omelet it is then. You want some?"

Peridot considered the offer for a moment and then shook her head. Tomorrow was going to be a busy day and she didn't want to miss any of it by needing to use the bathroom. "Thank you for the offer, but I'll pass. Can I do anything to help though?"

"Sure." He tossed her the paper bag containing the mushrooms. "Can you wash and slice these for me?"

"No problem." She gave him a jaunty salute, making him laugh, and then set to work. Soon the omelet was bubbling away on the stove and coffee was bubbling away in the coffee pot. Greg entered with an alarming amount of equipment, declined food, accepted coffee, and began laying cables throughout the house. As soon as he'd finished eating, Steven joined him while Peridot digitized a few more records she hadn't gotten around to doing, and transferred them to his laptop. Down on the beach, Pearl was moving the flowers into position while Amethyst and Ruby arranged some ice sculptures the former had convinced Sapphire to make at the last minute.

And then, just as the sun was beginning to dip down in the sky, the work was completed. They stood back and admired their handiwork.

Everything was ready.