Time for some bonding between a rambunctious, junk-collecting wrestler and a sculpting, soap-opera watching recluse. Fun times as always!
Steven and Lapis warped in while the Crystal Gems were conversing in the living room, waiting for the young boy's return so they could begin his new weapon training. That plan quickly went out the window upon seeing Lapis Lazuli, who seemed to be forcing herself to make eye contact with the others.
"Hey guys!" Steven greeted, "Lapis here is going to spend some time with each of you before she leaves."
"Leaves? What, is she gonna fly into space again?" joked Amethyst. She started laughing at her own joke only to see Lapis looked dead serious.
"Lapis why are you fleeing Earth?" asked Pearl. She tried to walk towards her for support, but the aquatic gem just backed away.
"Because I heard about what happened to Steven on Homeworld. I'm scared, no, I'm terrified that the Diamonds are going to come here to find him. I want to get away from another war before it breaks out… before I…" She could not bring herself to continue so Steven took over while holding her hand.
"I wanted her to spend a little bit of time with each of you before she goes. So, she's agreed to spend three hours with each of you. She's taking off at midnight tonight. I promised if she did this, I wouldn't stop her from going too."
Garnet was especially shocked to hear this. To think that Steven was putting someone so far ahead of himself was selfless, but also downright astonishing. He proceeded to look at his phone and realized that three PM was only seconds away.
"Alright, Lapis, your time begins now. Pick who you want to bond with first."
She glanced at all three of them with a wary look, as if they would pull something if she looked away. She has barely spoken to Garnet, had practically no exposure to Pearl, but did remember that one time Amethyst came to the barn when she was depressed. She figured if she was going to start anywhere, go with the one she has some basic connection with.
"I'll start with Amethyst," she grumbled.
The purple gem just took the entire deal in stride and walked up to her while Steven ushered Garnet and Pearl outside to pass the time until it was their turn. At first the two simply stood in the otherwise empty house staring at each other, neither one knowing where to start. After what could be described by those involved as eternity, Amethyst decided to just head into her room and beckoned Lapis to follow.
"You want to see all my junk?" asked Amethyst casually.
"Uh, sure."
Conversation has never been Lapis' forte. Even still, the two proceeded to the proper temple door which opened up in a gooey purple rift revealing the near-endless expanse of knickknacks and trinkets that made up Amethyst's quarters. Lapis was taken aback by disarray and was surprised by the sheer breadth of the junk, piles upon piles spreading on with some vague theme in mind.
Amethyst, looking right at home, just proceeded forward. "Bet ya Peri would have a fit if she saw this place!" she kidded.
"Actually, our place kind of looks like this. We have materials and stuff all over. Only the crops are really organized."
"Huh, I always thought of her as a neat freak like Pearl. She always goes on and on about how I need to straighten up this place."
The two just walked on through the massive cave with Amethyst acting as an informal tour guide describing some of her favorite tchotchkes. As they traveled further, Lapis was continuously kept silent by the sheer quantity of this gem's hoard. Eventually, her mind started wandering when Amethyst was telling an anecdote about her acquiring a rusty bayonet and her artistic sensibilities starting kicking in. She headed over to one pile consisting of various triangular objects made of everything from aged stone to acrylic plastic and started piecing them together into a pattern. When Amethyst looked over to see her guest lost interest in her story and was tinkering with her belongings, her irritation quickly faded when she saw Lapis calmly rearranging the pieces with a smile.
When she noticed Amethyst was staring at her, Lapis regained her subdued composure. "Oh, sorry. I should have asked before moving your stuff."
"Nah, it's cool. At least you aren't trying to bring order in here. It's nice seeing you chill out for once."
Lapis blushed at the compliment and continued at her work. Amethyst soon got up and started bringing her any piece she could think of and making suggestions on what to create next. The minutes began to blur by as the two Gems laughed and let their combined creativity explode, constantly disassembling and reshuffling each meep-morp with no real rhyme or reason. When Lapis accidentally brought up her time as Steven's beach-summer-fun buddy and their pranking the town mayor, Amethyst could barely contain herself.
"So, wait, let me get this straight," she laughed, "You, of all Gems, kept making fart noises in Dewey's speech?"
"Heh, yeah. I just did it because Steven thought it was funny…"
"That is awesome! I never would have taken you for a prankster! Man, if we had more time, there are SO many things I could teach you!"
"Like what?"
"Oh man, wait until you get a load of prank phone calls! Basically you call someone on their phone, trick them into saying something dumb, and then laugh your butt off when the other guy wises up. It. Is. Hilarious!"
The gem started rolling the idea around in her head, but suddenly started scowling. "This isn't your way of convincing me to stay, are you? Because I am going."
"What, no! I just thought it would be funny. If you want to fly into space to get away from something you don't want to see, that's fine. Me and the others are used to fighting, you aren't. It makes sense."
"Oh. Okay then." Lapis was sure that the others were going to try and talk her out of her decision, but never would have guessed they would sympathize with her. They may not be enemies at this point, make no mistake, but she was not sure how to take such a frank statement. Should she be touched they were letting her make up her mind, or was this a sign they did not want her around? Rather than waste precious time dwelling on an uncomfortable subject, the aqua gem decided to just drop the topic and resumed the duo's decorative pastime. Before long the clock was nearing six and Amethyst led her guest back out to the temple door where Garnet, Pearl and Steven were occupying themselves in Steven's room by watching television.
"Hello, you two. How did your time together go?" asked Pearl.
"It was… alright, actually. Thanks for showing me your stuff, Amethyst," responded Lapis.
"No sweat. Good luck building meep-morps out of moon rocks!"
Lapis could not help but grin as Amethyst ran to the kitchen to make popcorn for the family. As the tasty treat was being microwaved, Lapis made up her mind about whose company to be in.
"Pearl, I choose you next."
Aaaaaand... Obvious cliffhanger! No joke, this and the next two chapters were originally written as one huge chapter before I broke them up to give some space. Until next time!
Thank you all so much for reading! Please feel free to leave a review!