Chapter Text
It was another perfect day at the new barn. Since Little Homeworld had been so successful, many gems had graduated and then gone on to become instructors themselves. No longer required full time, Lapis and Peridot had decided to rebuild the barn and move back there full time — though they did often still stop by Little Homeworld to teach a class or just say hi to everyone.
Today had been a full day at the barn, Lapis and Peridot had planted fresh crops in the morning, with Peridot programming the irrigation system to supply the optimum amount of water to all of the plants. Now that the evening sun was setting, they had camp pining hearts playing on the TV while they worked on their latest Meep Morps.
“Have you finished making your Morp?” Peridot grinned, holding up her arms to try and cover it from Lapis.
“Yes,” Lapis said, pointing to a mostly empty packet of seeds slumped against the wall in the corner of the room. “It reminds me of when we planted those seeds this morning.”
“It’s perfect!” Peridot grinned. “Now look at mine. I call it, ‘Creazione di Pumpkin’.
She stepped back to reveal her work of art, an homage to ‘The Creation of Adam’ painting, though with Pumpkin taking the place of Adam and reaching out her little paw towards Steven’s outstretched hand. Behind him were depictions of Peridot and Lapis, who were supporting Steven.
Lapis raised an eyebrow. “I don’t remember it happening like that.”
“It’s a Meep Morp, not an autobiography!” Peridot insisted.
Lapis nodded, giving Peridot a thumbs up. “I like it.”
“I knew you would!” Peridot nodded. “Now turn off Camp Pining Hearts so we can practise our musical Morps.”
After pressing a button on the remote, with the television screen turning black, Lapis picked up her tambourine. Peridot already had her triangle floating in the air beside her, and she was working on playing the flute at the same time.
They began playing, a little unplanned ditty that was far from a work of art, but it did somewhat resemble music. Slowly, Peridot was getting the hang of playing two instruments at once (only 10 more and her one gem band would be good to go).
Then Peridot tried to add a third instrument, a harmonica. Trying to turn her head between the two, Peridot alternated between the instruments, getting more and more out of time as she did.
Lapis began chuckling and dancing, clearly not minding the offbeat plinks and tings and wahs and dings and tootle-oodle-oos. Peridot couldn’t help but find herself chuckling along, making the already difficult task of playing three instruments at once impossible. All of a sudden the triangle and its stick unexpectedly flew upwards and wedged itself into the roof.
For a second, both gems just stared at the instrument, but then they both began laughing. Peridot was so caught up in the moment that she didn’t notice that the instrument was gradually dislodging itself until it was already falling.
“Watch out, Peri!” Lapis exclaimed, forming her water wings and jumping above Peridot. Peridot extended her arm upwards, their hands catching onto each other as Lapis flew Peridot over far enough over to narrowly avoid being hit by the falling instrument just in time.
“Phew!” Both gems let out a sigh of relief.
And then they glowed.
Peridot had no idea what was happening. She was herself but she wasn’t. She was logical and illogical at the same time, happy and sad, brave and cowardly, alone but together. It all made no sense, it was contradictory, but at the same time every was so right, as it should be.
She was tall. That was undisputed, no contradiction there. She held out her hands, all four of them, and just stared. She’d had ten independent programmable fingers when she’d had her limb enhancers, but she’d never had four arms before…? And all four of said arms were teal in colour, not green…
What was going on?
What was happening to her.
Had she… fused?
With Lapis?
With a gasp, the two of them broke apart.
Peridot pressed her lips into a small line, pulling up her two arms and just staring at her two very green hands.
“Let’s just pretend that never happened,” Lapis whispered. “I won’t tell anyone, I swear.”
“Right…” Peridot stammered out, moving her fingers back and forth as she continued to stare at her hands.
“I’m just going to put Camp Pining Heart back on and we can forget this ever happened.” Lapis flew over and grabbed the remote, switching the episode they’d been watching on. “Join me?”
Peridot slowly nodded, gradually lowering her hands. Right. Camp Pining Hearts. That show they’d watched through exactly 94.38 times. Something normal. Something familiar.
Grabbing a trash can lid, Peridot used her metal powers to float up to their little television nook, settling down next to Lapis, and frowning as Lapis scooted over to put some space between them.
And, it hurt. It felt like a rejection of sorts. They’d fused for stars’ sakes! It had been life changing! It made no sense. It made so much sense. Every time Peridot tried to think about what happened the loops of contradiction would spin in her brain.
And the only acknowledgment Lapis seemed to be willing to give was that it had happened was the fact that casually brushing their arms against each other while watching their favourite show was now off the table.
Peridot backed off, of course. It’s not like she was going to force Lapis to lie against her. Lapis clearly wanted space, and Peridot would give it to her. As far as Peridot knew, this was the first time Lapis had fused since Jasper. It must have been traumatic for Lapis. No wonder she didn’t want to talk about it.
And if Lapis didn’t want to talk about it, then Peridot wouldn’t push the issue… even though Peridot desperately, desperately wanted to talk about it.
Instead, the two watched their show in silence for the rest of the night.