Day two: Snow

A soft barking is heard in the moderate snowfall. The small pumpkin dog is jumping along through the powder blanketing the ground.

Peridot stared out at the horizon with the a sense of wonder only comparable by someone who had never seen snow before

Which isn't too far from the truth for the Green Gem.

Lapis looked on with a disinterested gaze but a small smile whenever she would look down at the enthused green gem just next to her.

"I've never seen anything quite so beautiful," Peridot took a couple of quick side glances to her left and right to get the full scope and bearings of the snowstorm around them. "Or as monochrome."

"I've seen stuff like this before." Lapis said absent mindedly.

Peridot's eyes shimmered.

"From back when you terraformed for homeworld?"

Lapis tightened her grip around Peridot's hand.

"Yeah."

"WOW! Honestly all of that must have been amazing. I've never actually seen Lapis Lazuli's terraform before. Kindergartens were never built anywhere near water because the ground is either unsuitable or the insertion/extraction point is far too complicated to work with-"

Lapis let go of Peridot's hand before the green gem could finish her train of thought. She walked forward several feet before kneeling down on the ground and putting her hands down into the snow.

"The point being," Peridot shortened her rant. "You must have seen hundreds of planets that were like this before everything happened. So this probably isn't as special for you to see."

Lapis' hands moved together from either side of her body and connected towards her center.

"Can I be completely honest with you Peridot?"

Lapis' tone was solemn and heavy.

"Of course you can," Peridot raised her tiny fists up in determination. "You can trust me with anything you know that!"

Suddenly a white, powdery orb collided with Peridot's covered face causing her to fall down, both from shock and from the sheer force of the hit. Peridot could hear a loud snort belonging to her one and only.

"Lazuli, am I to assume that you are trying to challenge me to a competition of liquid propulsion. A competition which was featured prominently in the season two finale of 'Camp Pining Hearts'?"

Lapis didn't say anything. Instead she opted to hold out her arms with her palms facing downward. A stream of snow began rising slowly to fill in the empty void of Lapis' hand and in almost no time flat Lapis had two fully-prepared projectile weapons to Peridot's empty arsenal. The blue gem lowered into a ready position and gave off a healthy smirk causing the Green gem's hair to stand on end before she beat a hasty retreat deeper into the snowstorm and getting lost in the winter air.

Pumpkin started barking playfully in Peridot's assumed direction.

"Got get her Pumpkin! Go find Peridot for me." Lapis said playfully to the pumpkin pup.

Pumpkin quickly ran as fast as their little legs could carry them. Happy barks disappearing in the same direction Peridot was seen running in.

Lapis treaded carefully in that same direction. Keeping her eyes fixated on any possible angle of attack. She had been following the happy barks that can just barely reach Lapis over the intensity of the snowstorm. Soon the barks stopped and with it Lapis' nerves started to creep up. Her trotting through the snow became more slow and eerie as she moved forward into essentially the unknown.

"Pumpkin! Please bark whenever you find Peridot," Lapis shouted out. "So I can peg her with a snowball, of course."

Lapis' tone bled with concern for her wife and their adopted pumpkin dog. Their place on Earth definitely wasn't without its worries or concerns. Even though their location in the countryside provided them with a great deal of safety from the ongoing chaos that was consuming Steven and the other crystal gem's lives that didn't mean Peridot and Lapis were completely safe, just safer than everyone else.

Lapis was shaken out of her dark thoughts by the familiar sound of her beloved pumpkin companion. Lapis listened closely to where the sound was coming from and quickly turned in that direction and walked at a normal pace; relieved that all of her worst fears have not been met. Lapis eventually made enough headway in the direction she was going to make out a clear outline of a barking Pumpkin.

There was something wrapped around them as well.

Lapis stopped walking and quickly went to kneel down and scoop up Pumpkin when they came to her.

"NYEHEHEHEH!"

A snowball beaned Lapis Lazuli squarely in the face and the culprit of the slung icy material was her wife sitting cross-legged on a jury-rigged dogsled made up of some rope and a garbage can lid.

"You might have a significant advantage over me when it comes to crafting and propelling these icy weapons, but there's no way you could possibly be able to conquer my raw ingenuity!"

Peridot began throwing more snowballs of her stunned wife who was simply letting them hit her as she clenched her hands into the snow.

"The same raw ingenuity that allowed me to outwit Steven and the other gems on multiple occasions and eventually led to my glorious triumph over the cluster and allowed me to assume my rightful position as the Leader of th-"

Peridot was cut off short by the sight of dozens of snowballs floating in mid-air. Lapis stood up slowly and Peridot stared at her. Her face wincing in slight terror at the sight before her.

Peridot gulped.

"Abort." She said weakly before lifting her own hands up and rocketing off into the air just as dozens of snowballs were sent hurling in her direction.

Peridot soon made it above the low cloud line but upon coming to a stop when she felt safe her lid flung around wildly as the still attached Pumpkin flew past Peridot and nearly threatened to flip her over, but the strain on the rope caused it to snap and allowed Pumpkin several more yards of air before eventually arching and making her descent.

"PUMPKIN!" Peridot screeched, thrusting her hands back in a position which would allow her to send herself forward.

In a very close call, Peridot's beeline was able to save Pumpkin with a hard thud and shaky landing.

Peridot held her Pumpkin tightly in her arms before taking a fearful look at her snowball supply. During all the insane stunt and rescues Peridot lost nearly all of her built up supply. This war was not shaping up well for her.

"Well girl, it looks like we need to refocus our efforts and regroup if we want to defeat Lapis. It won't be easy, but I was one-half of the team who successfully encased the cluster so nothing is impossible!"

Lapis Lazuli slowly rose through the cloud line behind the proud Peridot. Pumpkin being the only one looking at the blue gem began to bark, alerting Peridot to what's behind her. Her visor filled with the image of hundreds of snowballs all surrounding the blue gem.

"Lapis. Let's be reasonable about this. Surely you don't want Pumpkin caught in the middle of all of this!"

A massive group of the snowballs all collide together to form a massive snow hand. This hand quickly pulls Pumpkin from Peridot's rudimentary sled and places them in Lapis' arms. Pumpkin snuggles up closely with Lapis.

"TRAITOR!" Peridot yells across the airspace.

The hand reconstitutes back in hundreds of little snowballs all aimed towards Peridot.

"Any last words, Peridot?" Lapis said with an icy demeanor.

Peridot thought for a few moments.

"I…Love you…my happy Lappy?" Peridot gave a crooked, uncertain smile.

Lapis didn't even move. Instead she let the hundreds of snowballs fly towards Peridot at a breakneck pace. Peridot shielded herself for imminent impact.

But it never came.

Peridot feeling brave decided to open her eyes and she witnesses hundreds of individual snowballs surround her with none of them compromising their spherical form. Then at the drop of a hat they all began falling down to the Earth. Peridot looked over the edge of her homemade hover device to see the beauty of these individual spheres making their way back to where they came from.

"Peridot." Lapis' voice called out to Peridot. Making her look up. A single snowball hit her in the face and Lapis couldn't help herself from laughing wildly.

"I'm sorry for scaring you," Lapis Snorts "But I was never going to hurt you just so you know."

Peridot was simply awestruck.

"Peridot? I'm sorry if I-"

The blue gem's arms were suddenly filled to the brim with both a pumpkin and her wife.

"Lapis. You never cease to amaze me!"

"I didn't scare you?"

"On no, you scared me almost as much as the thought of imminent death by the cluster did. But this simply means I have undergone the complete emotional spectrum necessary and required for a snow day! At least according to the 'Camp Pining Hearts' Season 2 finale."

"Really?"

"Yes! I was just like Pierre who was at first losing, then came back only to ultimately lose to a clearly superior force!"

"You're a special little gem. You know that, Peri?"

Peridot blushes lightly at the sincerity if the compliment.

"I've heard it once or twice."

Lapis lifts Peridot's visor and kisses her gem directly.

"Good. Now let's get home. It's been a long, fun day."

A/N: Sorry for being gone so long everybody. The time simply slipped away from me. Going to college full-time, Keep a job mostly full-time, Running a youtube channel full-time and all the other little eccentricities of my life have kept me busy. But I am back and will finish this story (using the Lapidot week frame work I started it with) and possibly do a sequel not bound by the guideline of a fandom event. Which will make it interesting.

Also, apologies on the short chapter. I wanted to get this out quick to you guys and also I am getting back into the swing of things.