[A/N: Someone asked for this and I was already writing it so here we go. I'm sorry; I know this isn't a one-shot anymore. If you like I can transfer it to a separate story so it won't trick people? idk, tell me what you think)
Peridot: Lapis?
Lapis: what
Peridot: I... I need to talk to you.
Peridot: I know it's been two days... You probably think I gave up on you. It's not like that though. I just needed time to think.
Peridot: Can we please meet somewhere and talk?
Lapis: i cant meet you today
Peridot: Tomorrow, then?
Lapis: look. I know what youre doing and you dont have to do it. Im fine on my own, i dont need you to pity me.
Peridot: No, no, it's not that! I want to try– uh, there's a lot to it, which is why I want to talk face to face.
Lapis: you only want to get to know me because you think itll make you look cool to be able to say you befriended the trouble kid. ive met people like that before and i dont like it
Peridot: That's not true! Look, Lapis, please can I just talk to you? I'm sorry I didn't say anything at the park, but I couldn't think of anything I could say without offending you and I didn't want to take that chance. Now I've done it anyway and I want to apologize.
Lapis: well what if im not interested in accepting your apology, huh? what if i don't care if this doesnt work? i was only trying out this dating thing because steven told me to, and then i took his advice and told you everything and it failed
Lapis: im not surprised and honestly i dont care, it doesnt matter and im fine living my life and you living yours just as it was before we met.
Peridot: But it doesn't have to be this way, Lapis. Can't we try at least?
Lapis: ...
Lapis: you really are stubborn
Lapis: meet you at the west beach in ten minutes
Peridot stared at her screen for a while, trying to understand this abrupt end to the conversation. Her mind had been plagued with thoughts of Lapis for hours over the past days, even to the point when she couldn't concentrate on her schoolwork. When that happened, she knew she was in trouble. Completing her education with the best grades possible was crucial, and the classes she attended were so complex that missing a minute could mean missing a key concept – she had to get Lapis out of her head.
So instead of working on a project for her computer science class, she had set aside an evening to puzzle through her opinion on Lapis Lazuli. To her regret, there was more emotion than logic involved – that made it a lot more difficult, as she wasn't very good with understanding feelings and the like. But she made a few key discoveries.
Firstly, she liked Lapis as a person. Personality, appearance – everything, really. There was a charm about the girl which couldn't be denied, and she was definitely aesthetically pleasing. Intelligent, too – although you wouldn't guess that if you only saw her texts, to be sure – and witty, with a sharp sarcastic side to her.
Also, she didn't begrudge the fact that Lapis had lied to her. Yes, it was a sort of warning that she had to be careful of what she believed; yes, it wasn't nice to be lied to – that was true. But on the other hand, hadn't Lapis had a reasonable – if not necessarily justifiable – reason to lie? She hadn't wanted to start off their acquaintance (relationship?) with a bad impression. Of course Peridot would have appreciated it if Lapis had been honest, but a lie she could forgive.
As for Lapis's history... frankly, Peridot was shocked. She had heard of kids with unsupportive families, and of children who left the house because of their parent's cruelty (which she assumed was why Lapis had left her childhood home), but to actually meet one of those people was quite surprising. Living on a small house alone on the beach... taking odd jobs... and this a young woman who could undoubtedly have gone so far in her life! It was sad. So she did pity Lapis – it was true. But there was so much more besides!
Peridot shook herself out of her reverie and jumped to her feet. Ten minutes, Lapis had said, and four had already passed! She glanced down at herself and winced. Oh boy, she was not dressed well. She estimated that it would probably take about four minutes to walk down to the west beach, since it wasn't far from her house (Beach City was a small town, not so much a city), so she had a minute or two to spare. First things first, though: she had to change out of this shirt.
"Dad? 'M going to the beach! I'll probably be back for dinner, but don't wait up."
She arrived at the boardwalk just on time. It was an alright beach, she supposed, although she personally liked neither sand nor sea (the sand just got into everything, and the sea tasted so nasty and made people so sticky and gross-feeling... ugh, just thinking of the salty waves made her shiver). The town wasn't called Beach City for no reason, however: the city was on a peninsula and was surrounded by a rather impressive beach on all sides. Why her dad had chosen to move to this town, she had no clue.
Squinting against the sun, she scanned the beach for a blue-haired person. There was Sapphire, who was in a few of her classes; that wasn't who she was looking for, though. She turned again, searching in the other direction. There was Lapis! The bright mid-blue color of her hair was quite unmistakable. Walking carefully so that sand wouldn't get into her shoes, she picked her way across the beach towards Lapis.
"Lapis!" She called as she approached. The bluenette was seated on the sand, staring into space. At the sound of Peridot's voice, she looked up. Her face was still and expressionless as she motioned for Peridot to sit down. Peridot obliged, even though she really didn't want to get sand on herself any more than was necessary. She settled herself a bit away from Lapis, glanced around – there was nobody within twenty meters, although the beach was by no means empty – and turned her eyes towards her companion.
"So?" Lapis asked. Peridot winced at her tone, although it wasn't quite as cold as those sharp blue eyes. At least this time she had a plan.
"First of all," she began, startled by how quiet her voice was in contrast to the turmoil inside her, "I wanted to apologize. I shouldn't've let you leave and then afterwards I shouldn't've waited two days in order to talk to you again, but I did. And I'm sorry." She paused a moment to see if Lapis was going to respond, but she didn't, so Peridot went on. "Also I wanted to say that I don't think it's fair of you to accuse me of just wanting to be your– friend– just because of your situation in life. It's not true. Everyone has problems, although I admit yours are bigger than most people's. And I wanted to hear your thoughts on this in person because it's really easy to type stuff without worrying about the consequences." She stopped to take a breath, wondering why she was so nervous. Was Lapis going to stop staring at her like that any time soon? It was unnerving. "Are you willing to try a second time, or are we just going to leave it here? I don't have to be your girlfriend. I'd be fine with being a normal friend. I just... don't feel comfortable abandoning... you."
At last Lapis stirred. "I can appreciate that," she said stiffly, pulling her legs up to her chest. "There've just... been a lot of people who just pretended to be my friends, but weren't really. And that... hurts. I'm not ready for it to happen again. Do you have any idea how many times I've been stabbed in the back by people I thought were my friends?" There was iron control in her voice, but her eyes were filling with tears. She swiped them away with a rapid, jerky motion.
"No, but I... that's awful," Peridot sympathised.
"Don't pity me," Lapis growled. A bunch of clouds drifted over the sun, and, slightly relieved, Peridot opened her eyes from their squint.
"Okay, sorry, sorry. Forget I said anything." Peridot took a deep breath for the umpteenth time, trying to calm down – this was going to be harder than she thought. Hopefully it would be worth it; after all, Lapis was just having a hard time – she was probably not often like this. "You find it hard to trust people because of it, I guess? I can understand that. But if you think logically – I mean, you won't get anywhere by closing yourself off."
"My life is fine the way it is," retorted Lapis in the tone of one who was trying to start an argument. "I don't need to get anywhere."
"Well–"
"Oh, shut up." Lapis glared daggers and jumped to her feet. "You know what? Come with me." She pulled Peridot roughly to her feet (the blonde winced as a gust of wind blew sand into her face and clothes) and jerked her head forward in a "come on!" motion. Peridot almost had to run to keep up with Lapis but didn't dare ask her to slow down.
The two of them walked along the beach, which was slowly emptying as people headed home for the evening. After about three minutes, Peridot saw a smallish wooden shack in the distance. Was that Lapis's home? As they approached, she saw that it was even smaller than she had thought from a distance. It was about the same size as her own bedroom, which was the smallest one in her house – about four by six meters, something like that. And that was Lapis's whole house? It sure seemed like it, because now Lapis was leading her up to the door and opening it.
The moment she stepped in, she had to do a double take. She was expecting a small cot, and a kitchen, or something – nothing fancy. Sure, perhaps that was playing to stereotypes, but so what? What she wasn't expecting was what she saw, though. Three of the walls of the little shack were painted in incredible detail, and the roof was like a night sky (Peridot spotted a few constellations; presumably the sky was accurate, too). On one wall was a beach scene, on another the ocean with an island, and on another wall was an underwater scene. The last wall was only half-painted and had a more abstract design of blues and purples. Once Peridot managed to tear her eyes away from the walls, she could see that Lapis actually had a decent, comfortable-looking bed. One corner of the house contained a small kitchen, another area had a nice armchair, and all along the far side of the room were paints and paintbrushes and sketchbooks and other art materials. Then there was a small door, presumably leading to the bathroom.
"Well," Lapis said, turning towards Peridot, "do I really need to say anything? I'm sure you see my point."
Peridot had to admit: she felt like a fool. After all, it was true that she really didn't know anything about Lapis's lifestyle. Who was she to tell her what to do? In hindsight, that had been incredibly stupid. But... what was this house? It was so strange! "Did you paint the walls?" Peridot found herself asking as if in a daze.
"Yeah, I did," Lapis responded with a faint proud smile, then stopped, narrowing her eyes. "Wait. What does that have to do with anything?"
"Oh– nothing– I just–" Peridot shook her head, trying to clear it. "Never mind. I do see your point and uh, I shouldn't have pretended I know more than you do, but I don't get exactly why all this make us unable to be gir- uh, friends."
"You don't, do you?" Lapis asked, slightly less angrily. "Huh." She sat down in the armchair that was right by the door, resting her head on her hand, and sighed. "Okay, look. I'm not trying to say that your friendship, or love, or whatever, is cheap just because I'm one of those "trouble kids" and it would make you look "cooler" to be my friend or girlfriend or– yeah." She puffed up her cheeks, then blew out slowly. "But..."
"But that's exactly what you're saying," Peridot remarked flatly, wondering if she could sit down somewhere too. It was really awkward just standing in the doorway.
"I... yeah, I guess." Lapis stopped, looking over Peridot's shoulder to the outside. "Hold on. Come all the way inside and close the door, it's going to rain. You can sit on the bed."
"It's going to rain? How do you know?" Peridot asked, doing as Lapis had told her. "And shouldn't I go home then, before it starts?"
Lapis ignored the second question. "I know it's going to rain because I have magical weather-reading powers... and I saw the weather forecast this morning. Plus it's all dark and cloudy outside and the ocean is choppy and wild. So yeah, it's gonna rain."
"Oh." Peridot nodded in understanding, feeling rather dumb. She should have known that. Changing the subject so the feeling would go away, she asked, "How can I prove that I'm not like that?"
"See there's the problem," Lapis responded. "I don't know if I can trust anyone anymore."
"Do you trust your friend... what's his name... Steven?"
"Yes." Lapis said right away, then stopped, looking startled, and smiled slightly. "Okay, you're right. I guess I can."
"So maybe we can try this after all? Just for a while, and then you can see how you feel about continuing." Peridot crossed her fingers behind her back, hoping Lapis would say yes.
"I..." Lapis looked down at her hands, tapping her feet to a unknown rhythm. "I'm warning you in advance, Peridot. I'm not an easy person to get along with. I don't know if you should do this. I don't want to hurt you."
"We can always break apart," insisted Peridot. She wasn't even sure what was driving her on. Curiosity? Attraction? Stubbornness? Well. Whatever it was, it was powerful. All she knew was that she wanted to try this.
Lapis smiled ruefully. "Don't say I didn't warn you... but, okay. We can try it."
Peridot nodded. "Thank you."
A rumble of thunder shook the house. Lapis peered out the single window and turned around to Peridot, shrugging. "I guess you're staying here until the storm's over, then..."