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Jim whoops as the warm summer air hits his face. He’s high off the ground, watery wings carrying him aloft. On the ground, Toby laughs as Peridot berates Amethyst for something-or-other, which only serves to make the purple Gem taunt Peridot right back. Jim blushes at the sound, the other boy’s laughter making his chest- his own gem- warm. He does a backflip and hears Claire clap in response.
“Jim!” He looks down. Rose is gesturing for him to land. “Come have lunch, honey. You haven’t eaten since early this morning.”
The boy hears Toby cheer, excited at the prospect of a meal. Jim had prepared lunch himself this morning with a little- just a little!- help from Pearl. Jim knew Toby and the other humans he knew liked when he cooked. He was good at it and everybody knew it, including Jim himself.
With a flap and a little gliding, Jim touches down on the grass next to the barn, and with a little added concentration, directs the water he was using for his wings back into the little pond Lapis and Peridot had built. He laughs as Toby and Claire- his best friends, he loves them so much- wave for him to come join them. Pumpkin yaps at him, running around his feet as he joins his family for lunch.
“What did you make today?” Claire asks, tying her long, curly hair back into a ponytail. Jim shrugs.
“The usual. Sandwiches and some fruit salad.” He grabs the picnic basket and starts to pass out food. A sandwich and some salad each for Toby and Claire, three sandwiches and a full bowl of salad for Amethyst, a sandwich for Rose, a sandwich for Garnet, and a little fruit for Pearl. He looks to Lapis and Peridot; he knows what his close family and friends like, but not the two newest additions. Peridot wrinkles her nose. No food for her, then. Lapis considers, then shrugs.
“I’ll try it.”
Jim gives her half a sandwich to start, as well as a few pieces of fruit. She’s a lapis like him, so maybe she’ll like it? Do Gems of the same type like similar things? Jim really doesn’t know much about Gems like him. He’s the only hybrid, after all, and Lapis is the only other Lapis Lazuli he knows, and she’s, like, really old. Older than everyone else other than Pearl and maybe Rose, he thinks. He doesn’t really know.
(He wishes he did.)
Lapis, after a moment, takes a small bite of her sandwich. She chews. She looks thoughtful. She swallows.
And a thumbs-up! She likes it! Jim grins and gives her the other half of the sandwich. The blue Gem takes it with a small smile.
Peridot shakes her head. “I don’t know how you can stand to- ugh- eat that stuff,” she directs at the other Gems. She frowns, “Gems don’t need to eat, so why would you?”
Amethyst waves her sandwich around. “Because it tastes good, dude! That’s why! And also, like, Jim makes a mean sandwich.”
Jim blushes at her praise, but shakes his head. “If you keep eating all the stuff in the fridge, I won’t be able to make sandwiches.”
Amethyst shrugs. “Not my problem, bro.”
Jim splashes her with a bit of water from the pond in retaliation. Amethyst shrieks and goes to tackle him, but a raised brow from Garnet is all it takes to calm her down. She raspberries him instead, and Jim giggles.
The conversation goes from there, Toby talking about his warhammer training with Pearl, Claire going on about her and Peridot’s efforts to get the Gem-tech staff the girl had found up and working. It’s a wormhole-making staff, Peridot elaborates, made for creating quick transportation over a planet. You could also fight with it, Claire adds.
Jim would like that, if Claire learned to wield her own weapon. He’s got his sword and Toby has his warhammer, so they’re pretty good at defending themselves. Claire, however, is weaponless. Yes, she’s an expert at hand-to-hand combat, but that wouldn’t work well against a Gem who is ten times stronger than her, like Jasper.
(Jim doesn’t like to think about Jasper, because he’ll end up thinking about the time the orange Gem almost killed Claire- no, no, Jim, stop thinking about it. Claire’s safe. She’s safe and she can learn to wield her own weapon and be safe.)
A gentle hand lays on his shoulder. Jim looks up into Garnet’s visor. She’s impassive as ever, but Ruby’s gem is warm against his skin. He leans forward and knocks his head against her side; she pulls him into a brief hug. He gives her a whispered thanks, and she lets him go. Garnet and Rose are the two Gems who can ease his anxiety the best, but Garnet is the best at it. You know, with the future vision and all.
Rose looks over in concern, but Garnet nods at her. He’s okay, the nod says. He’s anxious, but he’s okay. Rose nods back.
They finish lunch, and Toby goes back to training with Pearl. Jim makes drops of water float around his friend, distracting him, while he and Claire laugh. They love Toby, but it’s fun to mess with him during training. Pearl gives him a Look, but she’s smiling. Her boys love each other, so the distraction is non-malicious. That doesn’t mean, however, that Jim can continue to mess with Toby. She sets down her own warhammer and claps her hands, eliciting Jim and Toby’s attention.
“Jim, why don’t you do some of your own training? You’ve been doing well with your sword, so it would be a good idea to practice your other abilities.”
She means his hydrokinesis. Jim’s been getting better, but he still hasn’t figured out how to summon his wings out of basically thin air like Lapis. He nods, and Pearl looks to said Gem, who is lazily watching Claire and Peridot tinker.
“Lapis.”
The blue Gem looks up.
“Would you be able to help Jim learn about his Gem abilities?”
Lapis looks startled. Her? Teach this skinny hybrid how to use his powers?
“Please,” Pearl finishes, and Lapis looks at Jim. He’s beaming up at her, the gap between his two front teeth making him unfairly cute. Actually, he’s giving her the same look Pumpkin gives her when she wants food or pets. And she can never resist Pumpkin.
Lapis sighs and stands. “Alright. I’ll… try.” Jim cheers and hugs her. She hugs back, hesitantly. She’s not really used to the physical displays of affection Jim and the other children use daily.
Okay. Where to start? Lapis looks over the hybrid appraisingly before snapping her fingers. She knows where.
A few moments later, the two are standing near the small pond. Lapis summons her wings and gestures for Jim to do the same. After a moment and some concentration, Jim pulls water from the pond and affixes it to his back in the shape of wings. Lapis frowns and shakes her head. “That’s not the best way to do it.”
“Do what?” Jim asks, confused. This is the way he always summons his wings?
Lapis gestures to the pond. “You’re not always going to have a nearby water source to draw from. You know how the water I use always comes from my gem, right?”
Jim nods.
“That’s because I store water in my gem.”
Jim’s eyes widen. That makes a lot of sense! “So… like how I store my sword in mine?”
Lapis shrugs. “I guess. I don’t have a weapon.”
Jim contemplates this. That’s true… Lapis, from what he’s seen, doesn’t have a weapon in the sense that he and the other Crystal Gems do. He has his sword, Pearl has her warhammer, Rose has her own sword, Garnet has her gauntlets, and Amethyst has her whip. They all store these in their gems. Lapis… Lapis stores water in her gem and uses that to fight. Jim looks up suddenly, startling the other Gem.
“But you do have a weapon!” He exclaims. Lapis looks confused, and he gestures to her wings. “You store water in your gem, and you use that to fight, so that’s your weapon!” Lapis looks skeptical, but doesn’t get a chance to talk as Jim, in all his 14-year-old excitement, barrels on. “So if you store water in your gem and water is your weapon, it should be easy for me to put water in my own gem! It’s gotta be like when I use my sword!” Jim pulls his sword- a broadsword with a notch in the blunt side- out of his gem with a flourish, then puts it back. It’s an odd sensation, to be sure, to pull a full sword out of a gem embedded in your chest. Jim has gotten used to it, though, with all the times he’s had to use it.
Lapis looks contemplative now and less skeptical. “I guess I see. So try it.”
Jim nods and concentrates. He can feel his gem glow, and the water on his back start to shift. He can hear Toby and Pearl stop sparring, and Claire tell Peridot to watch. He’s self-conscious now. He doesn’t really like it when people stop what they’re doing to look at him.
He persists anyway, and envisions the water in his control entering his gem and staying there. There’s a splashing sound and an odd sensation in his gem, and Jim opens his eyes. There’s no more water on his back and the ground is dry. He blinks.
“…I did it?”
“Dude! You did it!” Toby crows and slaps his back. Jim stumbles. Toby’s getting strong with all that warhammer training. Lapis, standing off to the side, looks something resembling happy or proud. Jim can’t tell.
He then turns his focus inwards, like Pearl had taught him when he was learning how to summon his sword, and focuses on his gem. It feels… different, but not in a bad way. It feels full. It feels good, like something that he was missing had finally been found and replaced. Is this what it feels like to be a full Gem- a full Lapis Lazuli? To have water in your gem and feel good because of it? Jim concentrates a bit more, and water flows out of his gem and forms into his wings. A little more visualization, and the wings form large hands and arms. He pokes Toby and Claire with them. The three children laugh, and Amethyst slings an arms around his shoulders.
“Nice job!” She ruffles his hair and he ducks out from under her arm and hides behind Pearl. The soft-spoken Gem rubs his shoulder and says that she’s proud of him, that she’s happy he’s finally figuring out his powers. There’s a sort of nostalgia to the words, though, and Jim doesn’t understand why. Maybe it has to do with his mother. Pearl and Lapis- his mother, not his friend- were close. Maybe she remembers when she was using her powers.
He pushes it aside for now. Now, he and his family are happy and together and having fun. This is what he wants. No threats from Homeworld, no corrupted Gems attacking them, just happiness. Just peace.
He wants it to stay this way forever.