She shook her head as she stepped through the doorway, water droplets being flung every which way. Lapis snorted and pushed her gently, making her stumble slightly. "Hey, watch it!" the taller girl muttered. "You'll get water everywhere."

Peridot grinned wickedly, fumbled for a moment as she wriggled out of her boots and left them by the entryway, then fell against her girlfriend in a fit of giggles. Lapis yelped indignantly, twisting to escape the arms that wrapped round her waist and pulled her into a soaking embrace. But her laughter got the better of her and she leaned against the smaller girl, ruffling her hair affectionately.

"Dummy," she muttered quietly, and emerald eyes shot up to narrow playfully.

"Dork," came the response, muffled by how the lower half of Peridot's face was still pressed into her shoulder.

Lapis smiled and leaned in, placing a chaste kiss against the blonde's forehead before stepping back, removing the arms from around her gently. "Great," she teasingly huffed as she looked down at herself. "Now I'm a mess. Thanks, Peri."

The girl smirked. "Anytime, Lazuli."

She shrugged out of her raincoat, turning to hook it onto the otherwise bare coat hanger. A small shudder couldn't be held back when the air hit her skin - it was colder in here than she was expecting. Maybe they didn't have the heat turned up or something.

"So, what's on the agenda today," Lapis asked as she walked away, going to the couch to pick up the abandoned remote and mute the tv. She'd been watching some teen drama before Peridot showed up, and the exaggerated acting was becoming more annoying than anything else.

The blonde shrugged, rubbed at her arms. "You said you had an essay for English. I figured we could work on that a while. But I have to be back home before dinner because my mother is having a guest over."

"Oh?" Lapis fell onto the couch, patted the space beside her. "Anyone you know?"

Peridot shook her head as she sat, leaning back into the cushions. "No. Some colleague at work or something, I don't know. But I have to be there regardless. Appearances, or whatever."

Her girlfriend hummed her understanding as she flipped through the channels, not really paying attention to what was on the screen. "That sucks. Can you maybe get out of it? I can fix something for dinner here."

Another shake of the head. "No, sorry." But then there was that smirk again. "Besides, I don't want to die of food poisoning, thanks." The only response she got was a gentle whack against her upper arm, and she snickered quietly.

"Ha ha, so funny. Seriously though. I don't wanna work on some essay if you've only got a couple hours, then."

Peridot nodded, rolled her shoulders and moved so her shoulder brushed Lapis'. "Okay. Then what do we do? If it was sunny, I'd suggest a walk on the boardwalk or something."

Lapis chuckled. "Aw, Peridot. You're such a romantic."

The blonde scoffed. "I said, 'or something'."

Lapis glanced over, switching the remote from her left to right hand. "Oh? And what would that 'something' be?" She rested her now free hand on the smaller girl's thigh, lightly raked along the still damp jean material with her nails. She felt Peridot shudder against her before the blonde's hand jerked out to stop her own.

"N-not what I meant, Lapis."

She chuckled again, let the remote fall from her grip onto the cushion beside her and reached over, wrapping her hand around Peridot's wrist. "And why not?" She emphasized her words by leaning in, letting her nose brush against the girl's cheek. It was warm and soft and she breathed in and caught the scent of coconut and something sweeter and rain.

Peridot's eyelids fluttered. She breathed out unevenly and shook her head, pulling back. When her eyes flickered up, they met Lapis'. Endless as always, endearing. The breath didn't seem to want to come back.

Lapis leaned in further, grip along Peridot's wrist tightening only slightly. Her nose brushed against the blonde's, and she watched as those emerald eyes disappeared behind closing eyelids, heard the tiny, nearly nonexistent stitch her inhale got stuck on. Lapis' tongue subconsciously darted out to flick over her bottom lip.

She went to close the distance, slowly, deliberately. Her own eyes fluttered shut and she could feel the warmth of Peridot's skin as she moved in. Until a hand was pressing against her chest, halting her process. The warmth disappeared, and Lapis' eyes opened almost immediately.

Only to find a flush-faced, beautiful Peridot with head turned, looking off somewhere behind her shoulder. Lapis took a moment to swallow the nervousness that had manifested itself in the hollow of her throat before following that gaze, towards the foot of the stairs. She didn't see anything out of place, though.

"What is it?"

Peridot turned back slightly, only partially, and dropped her gaze immediately when she met Lapis'. "I... N-nothing. I just thought I heard something."

Lapis cocked her head. Listened a moment. She didn't hear anything. "Mm. Maybe you did. This house creaks all the time. Really old, I guess."

Emerald eyes snapped up to hers. "That's what they say in horror movies when it turns out the place is haunted."

The older girl couldn't help laughing quietly, letting go of Peridot's wrist to flick playfully at her nose. "What a dork."

"H-hey! That's my word!"

"Then maybe you shouldn't be it so spectacularly and I wouldn't have to refer to you as such!"

"So, I've been thinking."

"Oh boy. That's scary."

"H-hey! You're a bitch, Lazuli."

She chuckled, shrugging her shoulders as she leaned back from her desk. "And yet you put up with me."

Peridot frowned slightly, dropped the pen in her hand and looked up from her paper. "But I'm serious. Just, can we talk a minute?"

That made the smile across Lapis' face falter. She did her best to cover it up by turning back to the essay she'd been talked into working on, however. "Ouch. Nothing good ever came after a phrase like that."

The blonde huffed and pushed the homework from her lap, stretched her legs out to fall over the side of the bed. "It's nothing bad," she started.

"Oh joy."

"Lapis."

That got the older girl's attention. She sighed but dropped her pencil, turning in her chair to look at her girlfriend. "Yes, Peridot?"

The blonde raised a hand to run through her disheveled hair. Ever since it had dried it had become a mess, but Lapis thought it looked more cute than unruly. "You know how you've met my mom?"

Lapis cocked her head. "Yeah. She hates me."

"Well, sort of," Peridot muttered. "But, you've met her."

"Yes. And? Are you going to now introduce me to your long lost father?"

Peridot winced. "N-no. I can't. I don't have any idea where he's buried."

Lapis paused. "Oh." She looked down at her hands. "Shit, I'm sorry, Per."

The blonde shrugged, ran her fingers through her hair again anxiously. "Don't worry about it. That's not what I wanted to talk about, anyway."

Lapis looked up tentatively, debated only a moment whether or not to join Peridot on the bed before standing and doing so. The second she sat down, her girlfriend was resting her head on her shoulder, hand finding her own and fingers linking. "Alright, I'm listening," she murmured. "What is it, Peri?"

But Peridot went silent a long moment. She fidgeted and her fingers twitched against Lapis'. It took a full minute of quiet before she built up the courage to speak. "I just... I was wondering when I can meet your mom."

The silence deepened. Next to her, Peridot felt the sudden rigidness of Lapis' body. Her grip slackened somewhat but the rest of her seemed to tense, as if her muscles were coiling in preparation of having to break away. It felt as if she suddenly didn't feel safe sitting alongside the smaller girl.

"I don't-... That's not a good idea, Peri." Her voice was... off. Cold, almost. Unsure.

The blonde's frown deepened. "But, I mean, she's here, isn't she? Like a room away?"

"Yes, but-"

"Then why can't I?" When Lapis didn't answer and the quiet drew out, Peridot huffed. She bumped her shoulder against the other girl's gently. "What, is she sick or something?" It was a joke. She swore it was a joke.

But Lapis was off the bed in a second. Her hand ripped from Peridot's, body tightening and tensing and shaking, if the blonde dared to look closer. It was terrifying in the worse of ways, even more so when cerulean turned to her, and eyes had never mirrored stone so perfectly. Emotionless and hard and threatening.

"My mother is not sick," Lapis spat, as if the mere words were poison along her tongue. Her hands clenched by her sides and Peridot unconsciously winced back.

It took a moment to find her voice. "I didn't... I mean..." She couldn't understand what she had said wrong. This was way too intense a reaction for something as trivial as what she'd summed the whole thing up to be. What was going on?

Lapis looked away. Her jaw clenched and she stepped back, bumping into her desk but either not realizing or not caring. She shook her head and scoffed, at what, Peridot wasn't sure.

When she finally spoke, it was quiet but hard. Edged. "I think you should go, Peridot."

Emerald widened. Something in Peridot's stomach dropped. "W-what? But I-"

"You'll be late for dinner," Lapis continued, crossing her arms what appeared to be defensively around herself. She still didn't meet the smaller girl's gaze. "Wouldn't want you to get in trouble or anything."

Peridot swallowed, looked down. She wasn't sure what to say and so just nodded. She didn't know how to argue when it was so obvious she'd overstepped this boundary she wasn't even aware existed.

Lapis cleared her throat, blinked, looked to the door to her room. "See you at school, then."

Peridot again didn't speak. Simply stood, on legs that felt too weak, and shuffled out the room. Lapis waited until the last creak of the stairs to shut her door. Then she just stood there a long moment longer until she heard the slam of the front door.

Then, she turned to her desk, to the wall. And threw her fist at it as hard as she could, not caring when something snapped and the pain was blinding and her cheeks were wet with something she didn't want to admit might just be tears.

A room away, she thought she heard her mother. Thought, because she was sobbing so loudly by that point that it was probably just her imagination playing tricks on her. Taunting her for being too weak and too clueless.

Not that it could make the self hate any worse. She'd become pretty proficient at that herself.