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“What do you need your visor for anyway?”
It broke her concentration away from her latest tinkering project, and as she reluctantly put down the pliers in her hand, she thought of a straightforward response.
Because it was just that. Straightforward and practical.
“It is helpful in a lot of cases actually, especially engineering tasks. Oh, and as Kindergartener, the value was priceless. Filtering out irrelevant details helped the process move along efficiently.”
Being open about Homeworld was something she never dared to do in the past, especially around the Gems. It was hard for her - hell, she was even hesitant about doing it now, even after all they had gone through - but Lapis understood.
She almost always did.
The strange, confusing relationship with Homeworld. These feelings of abandonment, taking the sting off by seeking refuge in the other - learning dependency.
“Can I see them?” a smirk, a playful one that made her “heart” beat a little too fast.
“S…Sure!” she squeaked, hoping her wide (fake-ass) smile would make up for the nervousness in her stature and voice.
“Really?” she seemed to have caught on, giving her a way out of the conversation, “I wouldn’t let such a valuable piece of technology fall into the wrong hands.”
“You’re the wrong hands?” She stayed strong, reassuring the other that she was fine, but bracing for the shock that might come -
She snorted, and leaned over to take them off, framing Peridot’s face with her hand (which the green gem did NOT get flustered about) -
A sharp intake of breath; and Peridot’s whole face lit up, turning dark green, while her blue irises stared, unmoving, at the dusty barn floor.
“Peridot.”
Lapis tipped her chin up to where the green gem had to look at her. She found herself relaxing at the sight of Lapis’ soft smile, though the flush was still, embarrassingly, not gone.
“You’re…” Peridot could see a tinge of navy on her cheeks as she spoke,
“You’re really pretty.”
Fuck. “Uhm…wow, thanks.”
They both burst into giggles, diffusing the tension. Peridot was relieved it had gone over semi-smoothly.
“Why didn’t you ever tell me you had blue eyes!” Lapis said, breathless from all the laughter, “It’s kinda my whole shtick - blue.”
“Peridots aren’t supposed to emerge with blue, actually. A fun little defect that got me those.”
She gestured towards the visors, lying discarded on the floor, a little ways away from them.
“Can I try them out?”
Peridot chuckled, “I wasn’t lying earlier, there are a bunch of confusing screens, but I guess you can try them on.”
The green gem obviously wasn’t prepared for such a sight in front of her. Lapis looked like a complete and utter dork. But she also looked curious, resembling Steven in a way, and very damn cute.
What she meant was she wasn’t prepared for her “heart” to nearly burst with emotion; a dopey, sickly happy grin spreading across her face.
She fought, valiantly , to hold down laughter - but Lapis seemed to catch on after a minute, affectionately shoving her.
In that moment, Peridot felt light, and she was pretty sure she was going to cherish this for a long while.