Getting used to living in such close quarters with another gem had it's challenges. Heck, just getting used to living in a home came with its own discoveries. Homeworld didn't really have houses. There was no useful purpose for them. Gems didn't need to eat or sleep, so they were always working. Now there was time for… leisure. No work had to be done.
Everything was just a little too simple for Peridot's taste. She did her best to busy herself with housework. She found that living next to a beach meant that somehow there was always sand somewhere in the house. So she would take the time to hunt for every single grain and remove it from the premises. Dirt belonged outside. She had a cleaning routine, every day, and when she was bored she would perform it again just to be safe.
The place wasn't very big. It was just enough for the two of them to be comfortable, but not crowded. They didn't need anything extravagant, nor did they want to draw attention to their seaside home if any humans happened to find them. It would have been quiet, too, were it not for the constant crashing waves outside their front door. Not to mention the normal Earth weather, which was always springing up at random and causing an extra ruckus.
For Lapis, just being out of the mirror was enough to make her happy. She could tell Peridot was still upset about being stranded on Earth, so she sometimes flew off for days at a time, giving the green gem her space. Whenever she returned, everything in the house looked exactly the same. Everything had a place. Everything had order. It reminded her too much of Homeworld.
So she would set things askew or "accidentally" create some sort of mess. Peridot would always be frustrated, but Lapis could tell that tidying up was a good distraction from her hopeless plight, even if it did make her fume at the blue gem. Lapis wasn't the best at comfort. Homeworld didn't teach that sort of thing. It taught you to be emotionless and to shut up and do your job. So in her journeys, she was learning to feel and to make her own decisions and to go with her gut.
For awhile, they fell into that routine. Peridot cleaning, and then sitting, and then pacing, and being entirely bored with it all. Her entire life, she'd had purpose, and now… Now she was free to do whatever she wanted. But all she wanted was to go back to Homeworld and serve her Diamond. Unlike Lapis, she didn't want freedom. Not just from the mirror, but freedom to travel and explore and live her life as she pleased. That was not an appealing lifestyle to Peridot.
One day when Lapis returned, Peridot was waiting. How long she'd waited, she didn't know. Time did not matter on Homeworld. There was no day or night. So still, time did not matter to her. The house was perfectly clean as it always was. The beach was free for her to explore, but Peridot had not yet grown comfortable enough with Earth to leave her secluded home.
"Where do you go?" she asked, as soon as Lapis entered the house. She'd been preparing her questions all the while she'd been waiting.
Lapis was surprised at Peridot's sudden curiosity. Even on the days when she was home, the two barely spoke. They both game from Homeworld, true, but they weren't very alike. They would have probably never met if they had both stayed. So finding relatable conversation topics had so far been difficult.
"Wherever I want." Lapis grinned, taking a seat on the couch next to Peridot.
"You don't have a plan?" The green gem responded, incredulous.
"No. I don't need one." Lapis leaned back and folded her arms casually behind her head, closing her eyes.
"But what do you do?" Peridot asked, still confused.
"Whatever I want." That seemed to be her entire answer, and Peridot was trying to figure out how to press more information from her when she continued. "This is a big planet. There's lots to see. Don't you ever wonder what's beyond your own front door?"
Peridot looked toward the mentioned exit to their home, thinking about this question for a moment, before turning back to Lapis. "I have terrain maps downloaded into my systems. I don't have to "wonder." I already know."
Lapis scoffed. "But what about feeling sand beneath your feet? Or the wind on your face? Or standing on a snowy mountain top? Or feeling the bark of a tree? Or smelling all the flowers? There's more to Earth than just looking at it."
"Well, I have enough work right here!" She gestured around the perfectly cleaned and organized residence.
The blue gem rolled her eyes. The place was small and cozy, not big and grand like the buildings of Homeworld, which required several gems to maintain. There was no way it took an efficient gem like Peridot more than a couple of hours to tidy this place up. And if she wasn't home, there couldn't possibly be any messes to clean. So there had to be some other reason that Peridot refused to leave the house.
"Earth scares you, doesn't it?" During her imprisonment in the mirror, Lapis had the ability to observe the events around her, as well as having plenty of time to be alone with her thoughts. She knew a great deal more and was much wiser than she let on. She seemed to have such a carefree nature, but inside she was often thinking very deeply.
Peridot's eyes went wide and she made a shocked noise, almost as if she was offended by the accusation. Lapis, unphased, didn't move from her relaxed position. Peridot knew she'd have to offer a response, and it seemed like her fellow gem was confident in her statement. There was no use trying to come up with an excuse. "Yes. It does. Alright?" she sighed. "This is nothing like Homeworld! Everything is different on Earth. I have all my tech to tell me about the planet, but I was never told how to prepare to be here long term. I don't understand how you can just go out there!" She threw her arms in the air, her mechanical fingers almost leaping off from the force.
Lapis opened her eyes, placing a gentle hand on Peridot's leg. She lowered her arms, looking defeated, staring down at her knees. "Peridot, that's okay. Earth is huge. You don't have to go explore it all at once. But I haven't even seen you leave the porch to walk along the beach. Home's right here, you can see it the whole time. Is it really that scary?"
Peridot's eyes once again moved to the door, a seemingly foreboding piece of the house. "I just want to go home. Do you know what that feels like?"
Lapis remembered speaking the same words to Steven when she was fresh from the mirror. Peridot fit in on Homeworld, she had her place and she liked it there. Lapis was older, a gem made before the war, and she wasn't fond of how Homeworld had developed in the few thousand years she'd been away. Even if she had been able to reintegrate into society, she didn't want to. Peridot still longed to be useful and still trusted her Diamond, to an extent. She would not settle into Earth as easily as Lapis had.
"I do, Peridot." Lapis stared across the room, like she was thinking hard about her memories. "When I finally found freedom, I wanted nothing more than to go home. But I'd been away so long that once I got there, it didn't feel like home anymore. The Earth still doesn't. But at least there are gems here that care about me, and you too. You won't find that on Homeworld. You won't find freedom on Homeworld."
"But I don't want freedom!" Peridot jumped off the couch, balling her fingers into fists. "I want to be where I belong!" she started pacing back and forth across the room, limb enhancers and floating fingers frantically moving around. "Earth is organic. Fragile. Changing. Chaotic." she spit out the last word like it was a bad taste in her mouth. "I feel useless. I feel… alone." she stopped, her arms falling to her side defeatedly.
Lapis pondered what to say. There was little comfort that she could offer Peridot. They may have both come from Homeworld, but their lives there had been very different. "I'm sorry I keep leaving. I thought you wanted to be alone. I'll stay, if it would make you feel better."
Peridot turned to Lapis before she responded. "It's not that. Homeworld is a HUGE, bustling planet. Here, everything is so peaceful, and quiet, even when you are around. Even if I'd stayed with Steven, it still wouldn't have felt like home. Homeworld has thousands of gems, all working and moving around. There's always something to do, something each gem should be doing. Here you just… do whatever you want! Nobody tells you what to do!"
"Not all of Earth is peaceful like it is here." Lapis said. She could tell Peridot was frustrated, and getting used to Earth was definitely going to take time. "There are a lot of parts that aren't. Earth is different wherever you go. Nothing is ever the same. Things are always changing, though not always to make this planet better. Humans are funny like that. They do a lot of things that aren't productive."
Peridot still did not look pleased to be stuck on this miserable planet. Lapis continued, "I know it'll be tough to figure out who you are, as an individual. That's… part of what I do when I go out. I find out things about myself. I could help you do that too, if you want. It would beat sitting around this house all day, right?"
The green gem thought about the offer. "I suppose I don't have anything better to do." She joined Lapis on the couch.
"Good." The other gem said with a smile. "Then we can get to know the real Peridot. Together."