Day 3 (Body Guard AU)
The snowfall outside slowed down to a comforting flurry as the barn trio descended down from the skyline after their epic snow-based duel. Pumpkin is fast asleep in Peridot's arms and Peridot more than nodding off herself while she is being carried by Lapis. Lapis looks down at the pair with a drowsy, eyes-half-open gaze.
"We've really come a long way from being Homeworld gems."
Lapis lands at the entrance of the barn, absorbing her wings back into her gem.
"This is probably the fifth night in a row that we are going to sleep through."
Peridot, like the pumpkin in her arms, is now fully asleep in Lapis' arms.
"Blue Diamond would have a lot to say about me doing this, but you Peridot; your manager might've shattered you if you ever tried this back on Homeworld."
Lapis walked herself and her loved ones to the hammock but stopped for a moment right before settling in.
"I don't want to wake them up by getting situated in the hammock."
Lapis turned around to find a more suitable arrangement just for tonight. All that was on the first floor was a beach chair they borrow on one of their many adventures outside of the barn.
Those were stories for another time.
Lapis summoned her wings and gently flew to the loft area of the barn and found her favorite reading chair. She landed next to it softly and reached down for the lever, grabbing and pulling it allowing the seat to unfold its full length. She then laid Peridot and her precious Pumpkin to bed in the recliner. A small smile graced her lips.
She summoned her wings with the utmost silence once again before descending down to the first floor with the utmost care. She listened for a quick moment to see if she had woken up her company. A minute or two of quiet in and Lapis determined she would be able to take herself to bed now.
A quick climb into the hammock and Lapis was comfortable as can be.
I love sharing with Peridot, Lapis thought. But she does move around a lot so it will be nice to have a still night.
And with that thought, Lapis was sound asleep on her stomach, comfortable as can be. Within a minute or two the blue gem's eyes were shut tight and her breathing normalized. She was asleep peacefully without a care in the world tonight.
Some time passed. A pair of green eyelids slowly starting blinking themselves awake.
"Laaaaaapisss."
A groggy Peridot's call went unanswered. The Green Gem slid her hands underneath her visor and rubbed her eyes to try and wake up.
"Lapis?" Peridot dictated more clearly being more awake.
A quick survey of her surroundings and Peridot noticed three things.
She was up in the loft area of the barn.
Lapis was not around.
And there was a strange luminescent, blue light coming from the main floor of the barn.
"Lapis? Is that you?"
No answer.
Peridot went to sit up more but was weighed down by the approximate weight of a sleeping, living pumpkin. Peridot cradled the precious up in her arms before standing up. When she made it to her feet, the gem steadily put the pumpkin down in the recliner. The green gem then slowly approached the ladder that goes to the barn's main floor and descended it with the utmost care so it wouldn't squeak the whole way down.
Peridot finally makes it to the main floor.
She looks at the sleeping form of her wife in the hammock and more importantly notices her gem is illuminated in a bright blue light. Peridot goes over to investigate Lapis and her glowing gem, but right as she got close Lapis turned over in her sleep onto her back. The light from the gem was blocked, but the mystery only thickened.
Lapis' eyes were mirrored over.
"DO YOU KNOW WHO I AM!?"
Peridot snapped to attention.
"Wait a minute. I recognize that voice."
Peridot turned around to the familiar voice. And it was just as Peridot thought,
"That's me."
Peridot said staring at a toppled over mirror in a random pile of junk. It was a stand-alone, full-length mirror that was understandably smudged considered where it was found and where it is now, but the images in the mirror couldn't be clearer. Peridot saw someone in the mirror that looked eerily like her if she were a human. Peridot pulled the mirror up from the pile it was lying in and stood it up on its base. Feeling secure about the Mirror's stability Peridot sat down on the ground in front of it with her legs crossed just watching what took place.
In the mirror, front and center stood the human Peridot. She was a short girl. Her complexion was a light caramel, and her blonde hair was gelled up into a triangle-esque shape. She adjusted her rounded spectacles staring up at the bouncer who was guarding the entrance to the club. There was a long line guarded by velvet ropes for about 10m out from the club's entrance. The line was probably four times that length. Peridot and one other figure were standing right in front of that huge line they just cut in front of.
"I am the great and loveable Peridot! I have performed at clubs and events that make this joint look like the spittoon in an old-west version of a dive bar."
"Ma'am. I understand your status as an up-and-coming EDM star, but I can't let you in after you cut past the entire line. This isn't some club where you can waive your status around and get handouts."
The Bouncer pushes on the fake triangular gemstone attached to the human Peridot's head, causing her to stumble. As quick as Peridot stumbles back, a hand which is a few shades darker than Peridot's grabs the bouncer's wrist and starts twisting it which causes the man to grunt in pain.
"Do you want me to break it, Peridot?"
Peridot ducked underneath the velvet ropes.
"No, Laz. He's not worth it." She responds without looking back.
Laz lets go of the man's wrist. The man instinctively grabs it and stares down the pair as they walk down the moonlit street.
The pair was silent as they marched down the poorly lit roads. Eventually, Laz decided to break the silence.
"I'm sorry that you weren't let in. I know you were really hoping to have a break tonight because touring has been so rough on you."
Peridot sighed.
"It's fine, Lazuli. That place was a dump anyway. I'm just worried that this touring isn't doing everything the label said it would. This tour was about building notoriety, but we're 32 shows in and 4 shows away from being done and I still feel like a replaceable cog in the EDM lineup. I was supposed to strike my name as an undeniable piece of the EDM genre."
Peridot stops, causing Lazuli to stop with her.
"But I only feel more lost."
Lazuli's face furrows listening to her boss.
"And I've been to so many places, I've seen so many fans, and I've gotten so close with so many people while I've been doing this scene, like you for instance, and I just don't want to lose everything and end up right back to where I was before I the label found me."
Tears start forming in Peridot's eyes. She tries rubbing them away before it's too noticeable, but she only makes it worse. Lazuli takes this moment to grab Peridot by both of her shoulders.
"Peridot."
Peridot doesn't appear to respond, looking down to the ground.
"Peridot. Look me in the eyes."
Peridot slowly looks up toward Lazuli's face. Peridot remarked on how Lazuli really did have a really nice figure. Her entire body was outfitted with a highly functional level of muscle. Her training left her slender and toned but in its wake left all the curviness of a full-bodied woman, and all of it accentuated by her skin tight workout pants, tight-fitting tank top, and a thin jacket because the night was a bit chilly. Peridot was jealous of her bodyguard in this way. Her body resembled something more akin to a few different sized bags of potatoes thrown together at random.
But you didn't need the perfect body in the world of EDM. Hell, someone wears a shark head while they perform.
"What is it, Lazuli?"
"I know you are worried about how everything is going to turn out, but I just want you to know that no matter what. I won't leave you."
Peridot stares blankly at Lazuli, making Lazuli uncomfortable.
"I mean. I know it probably doesn't mean too much having your bodyguard stick by you. But I just thought it might make you feel better if you knew that I wasn't just in this for the money. I genuinely care about you as a person."
"But why, " Peridot asked. "I've been nothing but obnoxious lately."
Lazuli pulls Peridot in and touches her forehead with her own.
"That's not who you are. It's just what you feel like right now."
Peridot couldn't hold it in any longer. Her tears were getting ready to flow. She pulled Lazuli in for a hug, feeling a great sense of comfort as she buried herself in the bodyguard's bosom.
"Well, this is touching. But both of you ladies better hand off some cash real quick or things are going to get a little dicey."
Lazuli looked behind her and saw a seedy-looking man standing near the dimly-lit street lamp.
"Peridot, get behind me."
"So what's it going to be ladies?"
Lapis removes her light jacket and throws it back to Peridot. Revealing a blue teardrop-shaped tattoo.
And an impressive set of back muscles.
"Dear God." Peridot thought, looking at the muscles bend and move.
"I prefer to do things the hard way." Lazuli cracked her fists.
The seedy-looking man pulls out a knife.
Lazuli smiles.
The man thrusts the point of the knife forward to stab Laz, but she predicts this and sidesteps the crook. She grabs his wrist and twists it causing him to lose his grip on the knife. Lazuli punches the man a couple of times in his face before tossing him to the side onto the hard asphalt. The man's determination didn't dwindle as he got back up and assumed a lazy-looking fighting style. The man threw a couple of punches but Laz deflects these blows to either side before grabbing the man by his shoulders and kneeing him straight in the jaw sending him stumbling back landing on his butt.
Lazuli goes to walk over to the man who is now turned over on his stomach trying to push himself off of the ground. His right hand tenses up, especially while attempting this.
"I'm not going to kill you, but you going to want to call someone after I am done."
Lazuli reaches down to pick up the man by the collar of his shirt. The man smirks.
Peridot saw as the man turned around suddenly and almost instantly the knife he had pulled out at the beginning of the fight was up in the air, the blade now dripping the blood of its latest victim.
Lazuli grunted and then fell to her knees applying pressure to her abdomen where the knife had sliced her. Blood was seeping out at an alarming rate.
"LAZ!" Peridot ran up to her bodyguard.
The seedy-looking man looks on in mild shock.
"I-I thought she would have backed away. I-I didn't mean to cut her that deep."
Peridot threw a wadded up grouping of bills at the crook from her wallet.
"Just take it and get out of here. Haven't you done enough?"
The crook picks up the wadded bills and makes his way back into some alleyways. All the while Lazuli collapses to the ground, losing a lot of blood.
"Laz. Laz! Stay with me. You're going to be fine."
"I'm not so sure about that Peri. He got me really deep all the way across my stomach."
Lazuli starts coughing.
"At least I get to die protecting the most special person in the world to me. It's just a damn shame that I never got to tell you that I love you. I mean really love you."
Laz's breathing quickens and gets shallower.
"I only got to show it once and now I'm dying from it."
Laz coughing becomes more exaggerated.
"Doesn't that just suck?" She continues weakly.
"You didn't have to put yourself on the line for me. I'm wasn't worth your life."
Lazuli laughs breathily.
"Peridot. You were the only thing in my life worth anything."
Peridot went to say something but found herself unable to speak. Nothing she could say would mean as much as what she did in these final moments.
So Peridot stopped thinking and just let her body move.
Lazuli soon found that her lips were being met by another soft, quivering pair. Peridot unable to say anything decided to do the only thing she could think of and that was to kiss her dying friend.
No.
To kiss her dying love. Lazuli was more than happy to reciprocate as much as she could. It was an even effort for a while but quickly Lazuli began losing strength which Peridot would compensate for until eventually Lazuli was lying flat on her back barely breathing. Peridot took this opportunity to stop kissing her and look her in the eyes one last time.
"I love you." She said quietly.
Lazuli was unable to respond with her words. She closed her eyes and gave a warm open mouth smile for a few seconds before her head slumped down and her breathing stopped.
Lapis Lazuli rose suddenly from her hammock and the images in the mirror cut out without warning alarming the green gem and causing her to look towards her blue gem wife.
"Lapis?! Are you okay?"
Lapis took a couple of deep breaths before looking over to Peridot.
"Yeah. I'm fine. Why are you sitting on the floor?" Lapis quickly changed the subject.
"OH! Me? I was simply testing my raw physical potential at completing certain tasks! Tonight was about my ability to remain stationed in front of a reflective surface which is designated to heighten my senses against other peridots on the off chance anymore come to Earth and attempt an interrogation."
Peridot announced with false bravado hoping her wife wouldn't notice.
"You're ridiculous. There's no way another war would ever find us out here."
Peridot sighed internally.
"I'll ask her about her dream later." Peridot thought.
"Come on, join me in the hammock. I missed having you here with me.
Peridot stood up.
"That sounds nice."