Bed rest wouldn't be so bad if Lapis and Lazuli hadn't also been grounded from T.V. Lapis worked on a drawing of the city, overhead Lazuli and himself hovered, a faded image of the world covering the background. They looked invincible, frozen in time as warriors, heroes. Lapis had worked extra time on Lazuli's trade mark smirk, the looked permanently plastered on her face. He glanced at her out of the corner of his eye to see that very smirk on her face right then as she worked on her own sketch.
"You do know it's weird that you're right handed but you draw with your left hand, right?" she asked tilting her head toward him with a smirk. He mimicked her expression "you do know it's weird that you hate marshmallows but love s'mores, right."
"Please, it's different." Lazuli flicked her hair and went back to her own pad. She sketched the ocean, full of waves lapping up against the sand as a small girl played on the beach. In the water there was a boy that looked just like the girl. Lazuli had the vague notion that this was a memory but she couldn't remember a single time she had been to the ocean. Her parents were terrified of the water, they didn't even have a bath tub in their house, it was all stand up showers.
"What ya drawing, sis?" Lapis asked trying to peer around her hand but Lazuli pulled it away from him "forget it, last time I showed you my drawing you analyzed it for the next month."
"You should take my interest as a compliment." Lapis argued but went back to his own drawing anyway.
"Wouldn't it be cool to fly?" Lapis said suddenly.
"Fly?" Lazuli set her pad down and looked to the sky, what would it be like to be able to simply take flight? "Yeah, that would be awesome." She smiled slightly and turned back to her brother "why, figure out a way?" she taunted "or just daydreaming?"
"Maybe I did." He shot back "maybe I just don't want to tell you because then I'd never be able to get away from you."
"Huh." Lazuli frowned at her brother "you're the one who's always following me around."
"As if." Lapis waved his hand dismissively "you're just jealous that I'm the cool one."
"Psh, yeah right." Lazuli scoffed returning to her drawing.
"Someday." Lazuli said suddenly, "we're going to be free and nothing and no one is going to be able to stop us or tell us what we can and can't do."
Lazuli laughed "a boy can dream I suppose" though she said it she was still looking at every possible way of escape, some people just didn't fit into the mold of society and Lazuli felt that she and her brother were those people. There just had to be more for people like them, people always searching and scratching for the kind of freedom that let them do anything that let the people make the laws and govern themselves. Lazuli glanced out her window suddenly feeling like someone was watching her, there were people across the street but no one looked out of place.
"What's the matter?" Lapis asked noticing his sister's eyes searching their painfully dull upper class neighborhood.
"Nothing." Lazuli said "just being paranoid I suppose." She turned back to her pad and flipped to a new page.
"That's real interesting." Lapis said dismissively he set his pad down and folded his good arm behind his head and rested his broken one on his chest.
"Shut up, Lapis, you can feel it when people are staring at you." Lazuli threw her pad onto the floor and crossed her arms wincing at the ache in her shoulder, a reminder of her dislocated shoulder.
"Yeah, if you're a freak." Lapis taunted. Lazuli threw her pillow at him.
"Hey, watch it." Lapis caught the pillow, pain shot up his arm when he caught it, "I'm injured." He used his good arm to throw the pillow back at her. The pillow missed Lazuli, she smirked "I hope you weren't trying to hit me." She flicked her hair to the side "because that was pathetic."
"You try throwing something with your non-dominant arm." Lapis shot back.
"If you insist." Lazuli grabbed the pillow with her left hand and threw it at her brother, unlike Lapis, Lazuli hit her brother directly in the face.
"Lazuli!" he snapped at her knocking the pillow to the floor.
"What." She said innocently "you told me to."
"I didn't really mean it. You're ambidextrous, both of your hands are dominant." He stared at the ceiling man that'd be convenient Lapis thought looking at his own useless hand.
"I'm sure you could learn if you wanted to, it would just take practice."
"I don't think you can just decide to be ambidextrous." Lapis huffed.
"You think so?" Lazuli scowled at him "how do you know if you've never tried?"
"Maybe I read it somewhere?" Lapis challenged.
"Did you?" Lazuli asked.
"What?" Lapis stopped looking at his arm and glanced over at his sister.
"Did you read it somewhere?" Lazuli repeated.
"No, but-"
"Then shut up and give it a try." Lazuli snapped returning her gaze to the window I'm sure there's someone there she thought to herself.
Dinner was not a favorite time of either Lapis or Lazuli. Their father sat at the head, their mother on the right beside him with Lazuli on his left and Lapis at the opposite end. Lazuli smirked as she spooned a mouthful of soup into her mouth. Lapis caught her smirk and glanced over at their father who was looking down at his tablet.
He's always working Lapis and Lazuli thought at the same time, they caught each other's eyes and knew they had the same thought.
Watch this Lazuli tried to send telepathically to her brother. Lazuli dipped her spoon back into the bowl and raised it to her lips.
"Ouch!" Lazuli exclaimed dropping her spoonful of vegetable soup onto her father's tablet.
"Lazuli!" he exclaimed grabbing for the device. Lapis gave the table cloth just the lightest of tugs pulling his father cup right into the danger zone. His father's suit sleeve caught the edge of the wine glass, everyone watched on silent awe as the wine glass toppled over, breaking on the edge of Lazuli's plate that she had nudged a few inches forward.
"Dammit, Lazuli!" Her father exclaimed wiping the tablet furious with his napkin.
"I'm so sorry, daddy!" she exclaimed, tears in her eyes.
"I didn't have the chance to back any of that up, yet." He yelled.
"I didn't mean to, daddy." She began to cry, tears splattered onto the table as she hung her head and hid her face in her sleeves.
"Lazuli…" her mother reached for her.
"I'm s-sorry." Lazuli cried as Lapis casually slid from the table and went to the kitchen. She continued to cry.
"Adam." Lazuli's mother snapped in a harsh whisper, as if Lazuli couldn't hear her. "It was an accident."
"A costly accident." Adam snapped "they cannot be allowed to just keep getting away with these so-called accidents" he roared on. Lapis returned a moment later with a bag of rice, he took the device from his father, took it apart and dropped the pieces in the bag "here you go, pops." Lapis handed the bag to his father "leave it in there for twenty four hours and it'll be good as new."
"I need it in the next twenty four seconds, how does this help me?" he yelled at Lapis throwing the bag onto the ground. Lazuli wailed louder while Lapis brushed it off and returned to his seat to finish his dinner. Man, he hated going to bed without a full stomach and his mom really was an amazing cook.
"Adam." Lazuli's mother snapped at him, "He was just trying to be helpful."
"I'll be back later." Adam finally said "hopefully I can get some work re-done " he shot directly at Lazuli. She looked up at him with wide tear filled eyes. For a second it seemed he might reach out and touch her head, maybe tell her it was okay but he didn't. Instead, he closed his eyes, like he was erasing her from his vision and stormed out.
"That model is water resistant." Lapis said nonchalantly taking a drink. "If he dropped it in an eight foot pool he might be in for some trouble but a little soup, a splash of wine," Lapis shrugged and took another bite "should be fine."
"Why didn't you say that while he was still here?" Lapis' mother sighed dropping her head into her hands.
"I'm sorry." Lazuli ran out of the kitchen and disappeared up the stairs. Her mother just watched her run up, Lapis watched his mother watch Lazuli.
"Aren't you going to go after her?" Lapis prompted.
"There's nothing I can do." She said with a sigh.
"Inspiring." Lapis finished off his soup by pouring it down his throat straight out of the bowl. "I hope I can be just a great a parent as you and Adam, Meredith." Lapis snapped shoving the chair away from the table, it clattered to the ground, he didn't bother to stop and pick it up. Why should he? She always left the pieces to be picked up by someone else.