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That day when Lapis left for the Moon, literally uprooting both their lives and leaving Earth behind, may have been the worst of Peridot’s entire existence. Her best friend, her anchor on a world which she was only just getting used to and the life they had made together, torn away in an instant.
For a while she could barely function. So she had confined herself to Steven’s bathroom, content to wallow in her own misery. Finally Amethyst had practically forced her to get out of the house and do something to take her mind off it. The gardening had helped; not quite filling the void left by the farm, but a good substitute to keep her sane. Having a job to do was even better – Steven had requested a massive amount of flowers completely out of the blue. From what she had heard, Ruby and Sapphire had been having relationship issues… and now they were suddenly getting married. Fusion would never cease to confuse her. Still, the wedding had been fun. Obviously the Diamonds’ gate-crashing had put something of a damper on things, but at least she had gotten to be a flower girl.
Then the unthinkable had happened. Even more unthinkable than Blue and Yellow Diamond’s arrivals, that is. Just when all had seemed lost, who else should appear but Lapis, wielding the barn like a meteor and bringing it down on Blue Diamond’s head. There had been so many conflicting emotions, so many things she wanted to say and wished she had. In a way she had been almost grateful for the ensuing battle interrupting the reunion. For that moment there was only her and Lapis together again, fighting side-by-side… at least until the two of them were poofed.
Even when they reformed several hours later – with brand new Crystal Gem stars to boot – they still had no chance to talk: Bismuth had mentioned something about Steven using a watermelon to call them for help (with everything else they had been through, it hadn’t seemed so far-fetched) so they had busied themselves with fixing the hand ships, working through the night. The few snippets of conversation Peridot and Lapis had managed had been awkward at best; obviously happy to see each other again, but strangely formal, as though each were afraid of saying the wrong thing. At last Greg had persuaded her to take a break, finally giving them a moment to themselves.
Peridot had found Lapis out on the beach in front of the temple. She had simply been sitting there, enjoying the breeze. It was remarkable how one could learn to take such little things for granted as a gust of wind or the sound of the tide.
Lapis noticed her approaching and smiled, moving over to let her sit down.
‘Nice view.’ Lapis said.
‘It’s certainly impressive.’ Peridot replied, just as desperate to fill the silence.
Again there was that painful awkwardness. It felt just like those early days in the barn, when the emotional wounds from before were still fresh.
‘Lapis?’
‘Yes?’
‘What made you decide to come back?’
There was a long pause, filled only by the gentle lapping of waves against the beach, before Lapis answered. ‘I realised that running away wouldn’t solve anything,’ she replied. ‘I’m done letting my fear control me. And… I missed you.’
Slowly, Peridot shifted closer, close enough to take Lapis’ hand. She felt Lapis’ hand tighten around hers in response.
‘Did you ever consider it?’ Lapis asked. ‘Coming with me, I mean.’
Peridot thought back to that day, past the storm of pain and betrayal, back when there was still her and Lapis and Pumpkin and all was right with the world.
Eventually she replied: ‘Almost.’
‘If you don’t mind me asking, what stopped you?’
‘Because–‘ Peridot swallowed, fighting back the tears that were starting to form. ‘Because we had a home. We had each other. We had a whole life together. And I wasn’t about to let those Diamond clods take that away.’
By now the tears were flowing in full force, and Peridot made no effort to stop them. Suddenly she felt Lapis turning her around and tilting her chin upwards to make proper eye contact. Now she could see that Lapis was also crying.
‘I’m sorry.’ Was all Lapis could say. ‘I’m so sorry.’
Lapis wrapped her arms around Peridot and pulled her closer, like she had on so many nights before. And for the first time in weeks, Peridot gave a genuine smile.
She wasn’t sure what would happen after the rescue mission, or if things would ever go back to how they were, but at that moment she didn’t care. All that mattered was that she was safe. She was loved.
She was home.