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Height within .005 microns of tolerance. Width at center within .005 microns of tolerance. Width at 75% mark .02% outside acceptance criteria, which meant that some Gem -- probably her -- would have to return to this exit hole later with a mid-grade shaper. Trace amounts of copper, which weren’t enough to significantly alter this Ruby, apart from perhaps making her a slightly darker shade than usual. Nothing that would keep her from service. Facet-2F5L Cut-5XG noted it all down in her logs.
Ruby exit hole 437 down. Only 78 more to go.
5XG took a moment to to lean against the wall and collect her thoughts. Ensuring the proper development of Ruby guards was critical to the success of the Gem Empire. She knew that, and she was good at it. She was literally made to be a Kindergartner -- it was impossible for her not to be good at it. Everything was according to Yellow Diamond’s perfect, logical design.
Still. Inspecting over 500 Rubies in a row was not exactly her favorite task. She hoped that once she finished up here, she’d have something a little more interesting to work on. Maybe some elite Gems, or at least some Quartzes…
“5XG!” 5XG’s screen suddenly filled with the unpleasant face of her supervisor, an Iris Agate that she very privately thought was an enormous clod.
“Yes, my Agate!” she said, springing to attention and saluting.
“I was running some numbers, and it appears your work this cycle appears to be lagging nearly 3% behind your personal average.”
5XG internally rolled her eyes. Even if that were true, that’d still put her well above average for a Peridot. She wasn’t stupid, she tracked her own velocity. Iris was probably just behind schedule again and trying to wring out a little extra work from everyone again.
“My Agate,” she said with all the patience she could muster, “some of the Rubies in this batch have minor defects that require correction, and I was ensuring that they were appropriately documented. I should be able to increase my speed for the remainder.”
Iris had already stopped paying attention. “See that you do,” she said. The screen flicked off again.
Without further hesitation, 5XG regained her focus and returned to work.
5XG lay on top of the broken warp to Homeworld in a state of utter despair. It was a dangerous place for her to be, since the Crystal Gems could easily pop in and find her at any time, but she was beyond caring at this point.
She had tried everything she could think of and wasn’t any closer to getting home. She had been on this Gem-forsaken planet for what was probably weeks but what felt like years. There was no response, no indication that anyone even knew or cared where she was.
Worst of all, she was being hunted by crazed, traitorous Gems. She didn’t even really understand why they were so dead set on pursuing her. She was just a technician! She was more than happy to leave their insane cult alone if they would just leave her alone and stop breaking her things and let her get off-planet. Given how much they hated her, you’d think they’d be glad if she left.
She was running out of time. The Cluster could emerge any day now. Thousands of years of loyalty, her excellent track record as a Kindergartner, her certifications, none of it made any difference. She was going to shatter, alone, light years from anywhere resembling an actual civilization.
5XG gently banged her head against the warp, cracked beyond repair. If only she hadn’t disabled all her Flask Robonoids, she would be home by now. She would happily inspect ten thousand boring Ruby exit holes if it meant she never had to see this miserable planet again.
Maybe she could replicate the fluid used by the Robonoids to repair cracked warps. She probably couldn’t find the correct ingredients on Earth, but there had to be suitable replacements. If she experimented...
She probably didn’t have time to experiment.
Was there any other way to repair a cracked warp? Any way at all?
5XG sat up. Back on the ship, Lazuli had said that the Steven had healed her gem. If he could do that, maybe he could heal the cracks in a warp.
It was an insanely risky plan, but it beat sitting around and waiting to die.
“What are you doing?!”
Steven opened his eyes and looked up at Peridot. She had been staring at him for the last ten minutes as he lay there on the grass, unmoving and unresponsive. Humans had many strange behaviors, but this had to be one of the most bizarre yet.
“Oh, hi, Peridot. I was just taking a nap.” Steven stretched his arms and legs.
“A… nap?”
“Yeah, a nap. Like when you sleep in the middle of the day,” Steven explained. “I know Gems don’t normally sleep, but Amethyst likes to do it.”
“What’s the point? You were just lying there.”
Steven shrugged. “It feels good? It’s good to take a few minutes to relax, you know? You should try!”
“To take a nap?” Peridot glanced back at the barn. “I really should get back to working on the drill…”
“Aw, c’mon, everybody needs a break!”
“Well…” She had to admit to herself, she was a bit curious about how lying on the grass motionless could possibly feel good. Steven was grinning cheerfully. Peridot scowled. “Fine. Fine! I’ll try. What do I need to do?”
“First you lie down here on the grass!” said Steven. Peridot did so, arms crossed. “No, not quite like that. You need to relax. Like this!” Steven flopped onto the grass, arms and legs splayed out. “Ahhhhh.”
Peridot uncrossed her arms and spread her limbs out a bit. “Ahhhh?”
“Yeah, that’s better. Now you just close your eyes and think of nothing.”
“That doesn’t make any sense. How can I think of nothing? By definition, if I’m thinking, it has to be about something.”
“Well, I guess you can think about something. As long as it’s relaxing!”
“Relaxing…” Peridot’s face scrunched up in concentration. What would be relaxing?
Stopping the Cluster and getting off this planet so she wouldn’t be under constant threat of annihilation would be a good start.
She thought about the life waiting for her if she ever made it back to Homeworld. Traveling from colony to colony, inspecting kindergartens, fixing spaceships, repairing Gem tech. It was simple. She was good at it. It was how life was meant to be, even if she wasn’t always happy to get yelled at by a cloddy Agate.
She imagined being back home, or on some actually civilized colony world, inspecting a kindergarten. Nothing but row after row of developing Gems, maintained perfectly by her expert hand. It was peaceful. Quiet.
Very, very quiet.
Lonely…?
“Peridot! Hey, Peridot!”
5XG opened her eyes and was immediately blinded by the sun. The sun hadn’t been in her eyes just a second ago.
“What happened?! How much time has passed?”
Steven laughed. “That’s what happens when you sleep.”
“You lie down, close your eyes and time passes?” Peridot’s eyes narrowed. “That’s terrible. Why would anyone ever want to do that?”
“It can be nice to, y’know, recharge.”
Peridot didn’t feel recharged. She felt anxious and weirdly empty. “That doesn’t make any sense.”
“Yeah, I don’t really understand either. What were you dreaming about?”
“Dreaming?”
“Sometimes when you sleep, it’s like a weird movie of all your thoughts plays in your head,” Steven explained. “Gems can kind of project what they’re dreaming about. I’ve seen Pearl do it before.”
“Let me see if I understand this. Sleeping means you go completely unresponsive and vulnerable to any threats, as time passes by without you doing anything. In addition, any passing sentient being can read your innermost thoughts.”
“Yeah, I guess so.”
“This is the worst activity ever, Steven.”
Steven just laughed. “If you say so. At least you tried! Anyway, Pearl was asking for you. Something about calibrations?”
Peridot sprang to her feet. “Sounds like she needs my expertise! Back to work!”
Peridot fiddled with her tablet. “So I found this stargazing ‘app’ -- that’s what they call the functions you can run on this machine, they’re called ‘apps’ -- and I modified it using data I pulled from the Prime Kindergarten to show locations of Gem worlds. Isn’t that cool?”
“Mmhmm.” Lazuli was lying on her back on the roof of the barn, looking at the stars, expression completely neutral. As usual, Peridot hadn’t the slightest idea what she was thinking, so she decided to just plow ahead with her explanation. “Okay, so, Garnet showed me that Homeworld is right there.” She pointed to a particular star in the sky. “So if you calibrate the data based on that, you can figure out all sorts of things.” Peridot held up her tablet. It automatically identified points of interests as she swept it across the sky.
“Cool,” said Lazuli, barely glancing over.
“Anyway, you see over there? Humans call that Orion’s belt, but that’s where the whole S4 series of colonies is located. Did you ever go to an S4 colony?”
This time, Lazuli didn’t even give a cursory response. Peridot looked over. She seemed to be fast asleep.
Peridot still didn’t fully understand the purpose of sleep, but Lazuli seemed to take to it right away and did it frequently. She never seemed to dream, though. That was probably for the best, given… everything.
Peridot switched her tablet off her star finding app and onto a particularly engrossing Camp Pining Hearts fanfiction she was reading for the sixth time. Right as she reached the part where Percy rescued the youngest campers from a cabin fire, Lazuli began to stir.
She looked extremely distressed, but was still apparently asleep. Peridot had no idea what to do. Was this normal? Hadn’t Steven said sleeping was supposed to be relaxing? Peridot very tentatively reached over and shook Lazuli by the shoulder. “Hey, Lazuli, wake up.”
Lazuli yelped, and before Peridot knew what was happening she found herself lifted high off the barn by one of Lazuli’s water appendages. “Don’t come anywhere near me!” Lazuli shouted, eyes full of fury.
“Stop! Stop! I’m sorry!” Peridot yelled. “I’m sorry, please put me down, I won’t do it again!”
“Peridot?” Lazuli’s face softened as she seemed to realize where she was. “Oh stars, Peridot! I didn’t mean to…” She gently set Peridot back down on the roof of the barn.
Peridot collapsed in relief. “Geez, Lazuli, for a minute I thought you were going to poof me. I guess now I know better than to wake you up.”
“I’m sorry,” said Lazuli, and she genuinely seemed to mean it. “For a second I thought you were… you know.” Peridot had learned almost immediately that she didn’t want to talk about Jasper, or even hear her name. There was no doubt that was what Lazuli meant.
“Well, it’s not. It’s still just me. Hope that’s better.”
“...it is.”
They sat in silence for a long time. Peridot figured that Lazuli had just gone back to sleep. She floated her tablet over from where she had dropped it on the roof and resumed reading her fanfiction.
“Peridot?”
The sudden noise started Peridot, who fumbled her tablet and caught it midair with her new powers. “Yes?”
“What are you reading?”
"Camp Pining Hearts fanfiction. It’s mostly a character study of Percy.”
“...can I read it too?”
“Sure!” said Peridot, surprised and pleased. She scooted in closer to Lazuli and floated her tablet above them where they could both read it.
“Cool. Thanks.”
"No problem.”
“Gotcha.” Peridot pulled up what she certainly hoped was the last of the stubborn weeds. She looked back over her day’s handiwork: even, perfect rows of corn, free of pests, growing in what the internet assured her was optimal conditions. Satisfied, she hoisted herself onto the front of her tractor and looked out over the farm.
“Hey,” Lapis was hovering just overhead. “I finished weeding the tomatoes. How about you?”
“Yeah, I’m done,” said Peridot, stretching. It had been a hard day’s work, and she was feeling more drained than usual. Lapis touched down next to her, folding her wings in.
The sun was setting, and everything was bathed in a comfortable, warm glow. The tomatoes and pumpkins, freshly watered by Lapis, glistened in the orange light. A cool breeze ruffled Peridot’s hair. Everything smelled like dirt and fresh grass, and everything was quiet except for the chirping of crickets and an occasional bird song.
Lapis was smiling serenely, which was good to see. Peridot knew she was still haunted by her past, and did her best to not contribute to her trauma any more than she already had. If that meant she had to watch what she said, or let some things slide, it was a small price to pay.
For just this one moment, Lapis was happy, the farmwork was done, and everything was perfect.
Peridot opened her eyes. Lapis was looking down at her. It took her a second to realize that she had somehow ended up with her head in Lapis’s lap. “Oh my stars!” she yelped, sitting up and blushing so hard her face was more blue than green. The sun was nearly gone, and dusk was setting in.
“It’s okay, you were just sleeping.”
“I… was? How did that happen?”
“I don’t know, you never sleep. You seemed happy, though. Maybe you should sleep more often.”
“I didn’t mean to end up. You know. On you. Sorry.”
“I don’t mind,” said Lapis. In the dim light, Peridot thought she could see the slightest hint of a blush. “You could stay like that. If you want.”
Oh, stars.
Peridot’s mind suddenly locked up as it tried to process way too many emotions all at once.
“Peridot? Are you okay?”
“I’m fine. I’m great!” Gathering her courage, she laid back down. If she could call Yellow Diamond a clod, she could do this.
She looked up at Lapis, who was blushing, and no, she really couldn’t do this ABORT MISSION PERIDOT OUT. The only things that stopped her from immediately sitting back up were her nerves freezing her in place and Lapis’s arm across her chest (when did that get there?)
“Comfy?” said Lapis.
“Sure.” Peridot had no idea someone could be both comfortable and completely nerve-wracked, but there she was. She was suddenly acutely aware that Lapis was an elite Gem and she was a technician. Was, she reminded herself. They were on Earth and none of that mattered, so why was she thinking it?
“You did a great job on the farm today.”
Peridot shrugged. “So did you. We’ll have more to do tomorrow, though,” she rambled nervously. “We’ll have to check the tomatoes again, since they keep attracting those green bugs. And I want to improve our defenses against the Earth creatures, because something keeps eating the lettuce as soon as it emerges. What do you think?”
Lapis was looking at her with a mischievous smile. Suddenly, she touched Peridot’s hair. “Hey!”
“I’ve always wondered how your hair works.”
“It’s hair, Lapis.”
“Yeah, but it sticks up in a point. How does it even do that?”
“It’s just a property of how I was made.” Lapis kept playing with Peridot’s hair, and Peridot didn’t particularly feel like protesting. “Hair shape usually depends on trace metal deposits in a Gem’s exit hole. It’s likely that my exit hole had... a higher than average concentration... of radioactive…” Lapis was gently, rhythmically running her hand through Peridot’s hair, and it was making it extremely hard for Peridot to focus on what she was saying.
“Mmhmm, I’m listening. Radioactive what?”
“Radioactive… deposits...” Peridot snapped back to attention. “What are you doing to my hair?”
“Why, does it bother you?”
“No,” said Peridot. “I just don’t understand what you’re trying to accomplish.”
“Nothing.”
“I don’t believe you,” she said. “You’ve got this look on your face like you’re… you’re...”
“Like I’m what?”
“Y’know.” Peridot had closed her eyes. “The… thing. Right? There was a thing we were s’posed to be…”
“Don’t worry about it, Peri.”
“...okay…but…”
“You’re cute when you sleep.”
“...huh?”
“Nothing. Good night.”
“...night…”
Her nightmares were jumbled, scattered, moving fluidly from one horrible thing to the next. In a lot of them, she was simply back at some colony Kindergarten, constantly behind on her work and finding it impossible to catch up.
In some of them, she was put on trial for treason in front of the Diamonds, sentenced to imprisonment, bubbling, harvesting, shattering. Sometimes Lapis was there with her, being sentenced to a terrible fate as well. Sometimes Lapis was on the other side, saying nothing as Peridot was dragged off to her doom. She wasn’t sure which was worse.
In some of them, Homeworld invaded Earth, destroyed the Crystal Gems one by one, and burned Beach City to the ground. She and Steven would make a desperate last stand, until he was captured or shattered too, and she was left alone in the wreckage.
And some of her nightmares were very simple: Lapis leaving with the barn, played over and over again on loop.
She hated sleeping, but she just felt so tired these days, and couldn’t understand why.
She woke up from her latest nightmare and nearly hit her gem on the bathtub faucet. The sudden movement startled Pumpkin, who was looking at her with a worried expression from his perch on her chest. She gave him a fond pat. Despite everything that had happened, at least she had friends and a place to go. Things could be worse, considering.
There was a soft knock on the bathroom door. “Yeah?”
The door swung open gently and Steven’s face poked out from behind it. “Good morning, Peridot!”
He was so cheerful since he had made up with Connie, an event that he had described to Peridot in excruciating detail not long after it had happened. Peridot had smiled and nodded appropriately. Being unexpectedly cornered for a discussion about feelings was one of the hazards of living in Steven’s house, but it was still better than living at the bottom of a soggy crater where the barn used to be.
“Morning,” said Peridot, not committing to the idea that it was going to be good.
“So I’m gonna go train with Connie and the Gems this morning,” said Steven, barely audible through a mouthful of toothpaste. “You should come. It’d be good for you.”
Peridot could usually handle Steven’s presence, but she was not remotely in the mood to socialize and train with the entire group of Crystal Gems. Unfortunately, Steven didn’t always seem to understand that, and there was a 60% chance that refusal would result in Steven simply picking her up and taking her with him anyway.
He leaned over the bathtub, grinning. Scratch that. There was an 82% chance that he was planning on picking her up and taking her anyway. Better to just go quietly.
“...fine.”
“Yeah!” said Steven, and before she could even react, he had picked her up and hoisted her above his head anyway, as though she were some kind of trophy.
“Is this really necessary?” she asked.
“No!” he said, setting her back down on her feet. “C’mon, we don’t want to be late. And afterwards, maybe we can play video games!”
Steven always tried so hard to be a good friend, and she never quite understood why, but she was quietly grateful for it. “Yeah, video games sound good,” she said.
Video games were better than more nightmares, anyway.
“Lapis. Hey. Lapis.” Peridot walked over to where the Gem was laying in the grass, next to the crater where the barn once was. “Lapis?”
Lapis had her eyes closed. “Lapis. I know you’re just pretending to sleep. You’re going to have to talk to me at some point.” No response.
Peridot sat down in the grass and peered into Lapis’s face, hoping to see the smallest hint of a reaction. “You really are going to have to talk to me at some point. You know that, right? It might as well be now. Or I guess I could wait until Steven comes back. I’ll ask him to tell you to talk to me, and you won’t have a choice because you never say no to Steven.” Still no response. Peridot lay down on the grass a couple feet apart from Lapis. “He’d probably have something really good to say too. I don’t. I didn’t think you were ever coming back, so I didn’t think of anything to say.”
After what seemed like an eternity… “I don’t have anything to say either.”
Frustration welled up inside Peridot. “How about ‘Sorry for stealing your home and all your things and your life’?”
“That’s not going to help!”
“Well, it wouldn’t hurt!”
They both sat in angry silence for a few minutes. “When I was on the moon --”
“You were on the moon?
“Yes, and --”
“All this time you were on the moon? That’s not even that far, I could have visited --”
“That’s not the point, Peridot, will you listen? The entire time I was on the moon, I was trying to think of what I could say to you if I ever saw you again. Something to make things right. But there wasn’t anything. There’s nothing I can say that’s going to make things better.”
“I know. That’s not what I want.”
“What do you want, then?”
“I don’t know!” said Peridot, exasperated.
“I’m serious, Peridot. You came here for a reason. What do you want?
“I guess if I have to narrow it down to just one thing, I want to stop feeling a dozen conflicting emotions at all times so I can focus and finish up repairing the Diamonds’ spaceships.”
“If that’s what you want, I should just leave.” Lapis sat up.
“No!” Peridot reached over and grabbed her arm. “I mean --” She let go as though she had touched fire. “I mean, no. If you think that’s going to help, it’s really not.”
“Well, what will help?”
“I don’t know.”
Lapis gave her a familiar look, the one that signified she was using the last of her patience to not pick up Peridot and throw her into the ocean. “You are absolutely infuriating, do you know that?”
“Yes,” said Peridot.
Lapis fell back onto the grass. “You want to hear something awful? When I flew off, I thought maybe I’d be better off without you. I wanted to be better off without you, because that would’ve meant I made the right decision. Well, I wasn’t. It was so lonely. I kept thinking, what would Peri say or if Peri were here… I couldn’t even sleep. I would have these awful nightmares, and not even the usual ones about you know . Ones where the Diamonds came to earth and shattered you, or the Cluster emerged and everyone died.” Lapis wiped tears from her eyes. “But the absolute worst part is this, right now. I’d rather have the nightmares than have you right there, talking to me, except that you hate me. It’s unbearable.”
“I don’t hate you,” said Peridot, curling into a tiny, miserable ball. “Do you want to hear something awful? I wanted to hate you. I tried to hate you. It would’ve been so much easier. You took everything from me and made me feel like dirt. But every time I tried to hate you, I would mostly just worry that you were safe. I had nightmares, too. Just lying in the bathtub like a pathetic clod, thinking about all of us getting shattered. But I don’t hate you. I don’t know how I feel. Maybe I’m not really built for so many feelings.”
“Maybe, but you’re trying. You’re always trying. Sometimes I wish I could be like that.”
“You fought a Diamond, Lapis. I think that counts as trying.”
“I guess so, yeah. But I could try harder. I could try to actually apologize.” Lapis was staring up at the stars. “I really am sorry. I’m sorry for taking the barn and everything, and making you feel like dirt.”
“Good, you should be sorry for that.” Peridot crossed her arms. “I don’t know if I can forgive you right now. I really trusted you with a lot. A lot a lot. I’m not sure I can ever trust you like I did. But I appreciate that you apologized. I’m sorry, too. I should have been more honest.”
“I know. I know you probably can’t trust me again. I wish there were some way I could make it up. If there’s anything I can do to help, anything I can do to make you happy…”
“No, there isn’t.”
“Yeah, I thought you’d say --”
“Wait. Wait wait wait.” Peridot sat up. “That’s the problem. It’s so obvious when you say it.”
“What are you talking about?”
“The whole time we were at the barn, I was trying to make you happy. I thought it was the least I could do after dragging you back to Earth. But it never really worked like I wanted it to. Now that you’re saying it to me, I get it. You can’t just make someone be happy.”
“Yeah, I guess not,” said Lapis, tears in her eyes. "So what now?"
Peridot stood up. “Well, if you still wanna help, I’ve got Diamond ships to fix.”
“I have no idea how to fix a spaceship.”
“And I don’t know half of what I’m doing on Earth, but I do it anyway,” said Peridot. “I could teach you some stuff. Or just, I don’t know. You could hold stuff? Provide moral support? Or not, if you don’t want to.”
“I do! I really do. But are you sure you’re okay with that?”
Peridot shrugged. “I’m actually not sure, but it’s worth a try.” She offered Lapis a hand.
“I’ll take it,” Lapis said, allowing Peridot to pull her to her feet.
Height within .005 microns of tolerance. Width at center within .005 microns of tolerance. Width at 75% mark…
Peridot rubbed at her eyes. It was impossible to stay focused on her work, and she couldn’t understand why. The words written in her log swam before her eyes in an unreadable mass. There was something wrong with her limb enhancers, too, but she couldn’t figure out what.
78 Ruby inspections to go. She could do this. She had to, or something bad would happen. She couldn’t remember what.
“5XG!” Peridot’s screen suddenly filled with the unpleasant face of her supervisor.
“Yes, my Agate!” she said, springing to attention and saluting.
“You haven’t inspected a single exit hole today! You are far behind schedule.”
“What? That can’t possibly be right!”
“Because of your incompetence, we have no choice but to cancel your upcoming mission to Earth.”
“Wait, no! You can’t do that! I have to get back to Earth!”
Peridot collapsed onto the ground. The floor of the kindergarten was cold and hard and -- wait.
Peridot opened her eyes. She was staring at the underside of a metal work table. It took her a second to fully wake up from the nightmare and process where she was.
Home. She was home. Thank the stars.
When she had helped draw up the plans for Little Homeworld, she had included a structure for herself that could be best described as a vast, subterranean lair. She figured it was a reasonable reward for helping save the world, and no one had objected -- least of all Steven, who had only requested a freestanding invitation to crash on her couch when he visited Little Homeworld. Which had obviously been part of her plans to begin with.
The lair had since been filled to the brim with work tables, robot parts, tools, gadgets (and she certainly was pleased to have Homeworld tech back in her hands), half-finished meep morps, video games, human clothes, farming supplies (complete with experimental plants growing under a lamp in the corner), and, of course, a couch.
And the hammock, which she had fallen out of, somehow rolling under a table in the process.
She got up, banging her head against the table and making frustrated sounds under her breath. Lapis was looking at her from her perch in the hammock.
“You okay?”
“I’m fine. I just hit my head on this table. Whose bright idea was it to put a table here, anyway?”
“Yours. You know, you are allowed to keep some floor space open.”
Peridot gazed over her expertly curated collection of incredibly important detritus. “Never!”
Lapis laughed. She extended one of her water wings to pick Peridot up and put her back in the hammock. Peridot allowed this; she hadn’t ever really gotten the hang of climbing into the hammock without dumping Lapis out. She settled in, lying on her back next to Lapis.
“You were dreaming, you know,” said Lapis.
“Mm?”
“About Kindergarten.”
Peridot suddenly grew very interested in a spot on the ceiling.
“So what’s bothering you?”
“Nothing!”
“Peri.”
“What?”
“You only have dreams like that when something is bothering you.”
Peridot glared. “You know, it’s extremely unfair that you can always see my dreams but I can never see yours.”
“I don’t dream,” said Lapis, a bit wistfully.
“Is that true, or is it that I can’t see them because your gem is on your back and you never sleep on your stomach?”
“Maybe. Too bad for you, then,” she said, playfully tapping Peridot’s gem.
“Hmph. Whatever.” Peridot crossed her arms.
“Anyway, I know something’s bothering you. You can talk to me about it. Really.”
Peridot hated to worry Lapis. She liked it much better when it was the other way around and she was the one who could be steadfast and helpful. But Lapis didn’t seem like she was going to let this one go.
“Oh, you know, the usual stuff. We have so much to do to get Little Homeworld ready. The task list is growing way faster than we can take care of everything. We’ve got that one building that mysteriously leaks all the time, and I think it’s a design flaw, but I haven’t been able to figure it out. And a couple of my robonoids keep shorting out when I send them to construct something autonomously, so I’m going to have to run some diagnostics. Also, Bismuth has this really cool project she asked me to help out on tomorrow, but I previously told Blue Zircon we were gonna meet up for chess practice. And --”
“I’m worried about Steven too.”
Peridot blushed. “Steven? Who said anything about Steven? He’ll be fine, he can take care of himself.”
“You always get freaked out when he goes on a diplomatic mission.”
“I -- well -- he’s just so organic and fragile, Lapis! And I know he’s dead set on dismantling the Gem Empire, but a lot of Gems are going to be extremely angry about that. What if one of them attacks him? He could die on some remote planet!” Peridot was curled up into a ball now, imagining all the terrible things that could go wrong.
“I know,” said Lapis. “I worry about that a lot too. But he’s got the Diamonds backing him up. Any Gem that attacks him would also have to go against their Diamond.”
“Some Gems will betray their own Diamonds if they think the cause is important enough.”
“Mmm. True. But he’s also got the other Crystal Gems there with him.”
Peridot flopped onto her back again. “I wish we could have gone with them.”
“Weren’t you just saying how many things you need to get done around here? You’re needed here, to build Little Homeworld. That’s just as important.”
“Right,” said Peridot, trying to calm down. “You’re right. I’m sure he’ll be fine. I just can’t help worrying. Maybe I should get up, there’s a lot I’m supposed to be doing --”
Peridot sat up, but before she could leave the hammock, Lapis grabbed her by the waist from behind and pulled her in.
“You’re supposed to be taking a nap, remember? You’ve been working flat out for weeks. You can take a break.”
“Well, you do make a compelling argument. Maybe those things can wait after all.” Peridot settled in close. “But when I get up, I really do need to talk to Bismuth. And figure out what’s going on with the electrical grid in the third quadrant. And… uhhhhh…” Lapis had begun stroking her hand gently through Peridot’s hair. “Hey, you can’t do that! That’s my secret weakness!”
“Oh, really? I never would have guessed.”
“How dare you, you traitor,” said Peridot, closing her eyes.
“Well, yeah, didn’t you hear I dropped a barn on a Diamond?”
“One day I’ll put an end to your reign of terror, Lapis Lazuli.”
“If you want to defeat me, you’ll have to get through my Peridot first.”
“Hm, I don’t know about that. She sounds really cool and impressive.”
“She has her moments.”
A few minutes later, Peridot was fast asleep and a dream was projecting from her gem. This time, she was dreaming about the ocean.