Chapter Text
Day One
Fireworks
~
Amethyst was checking the barn for signs of life when it happened.
A loud burst, followed by lights burning in the sky, blue and red colors this time. Then a yelp shouted out. She was outside when she heard the noise from inside the barn. When she last inspected the barn, not a soul was around. Then she realized who she was looking for, and decided to step inside.
“Peri?” Amethyst jumped up the stairs, not seeing anything this time. Where was she? As much as she wanted to find Peridot, she also did not want to miss all of the fireworks!
She glanced down from the second floor… and smirked. At first, her main reaction was a mental slap upside the head. Why didn’t she see that there? With a swift slide down the ladder bars, she approached an upside down box beside the open doors, the flaps hanging out and the size of it being decent sized. Peridot-sized.
Peridot’s head peeked out from the box, and Amethyst chuckled just a bit at the large eyes that appeared from the otherwise darkness of the box. “What’re you doing?”
“Hey, you took my question from me!” Amethyst said, laughing under her breath.
“They’re coming!”
“Who?” Amethyst’s head tilted, eyebrow perked up.
“It’s the end of my precious time on this planet!” Peridot slipped out from the box in a green blur, and she appeared at Amethyst’s side within seconds, to Amethyst’s surprise. “They found us, or even worse, they know we lied to them. Or at least, Steven lied about where Jasper was. And now they’re here, and they’re attacking!
“Hide me,” she finished with a tiny whimper that sounded so small compared to her screaming not moments ago. She crawled closer to Amethyst and buried herself into the Quartz’s mess of light gray hair. Amethyst felt Peridot ever so lightly grip at some pieces of her hair, and turning her head around enough, she saw a pointed end of pale yellow hair sticking out.
She couldn’t help but bark with laughter as a result. Even when Peridot popped out from her ocean of hair to shoot her a glare. She had to wipe away a tear from laughing so hard. “How you liking it in there?"
Peridot made a little sound of distress that was too cute for words, but Amethyst knew that saying something like that was not what Peridot wanted to hear.
"Peridot, you’re freakin’ over nothing," Amethyst continued with a roll of her eyes.
Peridot pushed Amethyst’s hair aside, though most of her body was still consumed by the long strands. “Then what’s with all the explosions? Aren’t the Homeworld gems invading and… firing lasers at us?”
“No, no,” Amethyst reassured her with a soft chuckle and a lazy wave of her hand. “It’s just fireworks.”
“Fireworks?”
Amethyst grinned. Even Peridot saying fireworks made her want to laugh, like the term was a newfound word that Amethyst made up all on her own and Peridot was trying to get the hang of it. “Fireworks are these, like, rockets, you know. Only they’re not using them for attacking anyone right now. I mean, this part’s kinda weird to explain, but once a day every year, humans here like to celebrate an important day by getting together, start up the grill, letting them go off. They explode in the air with sparks and stuff. It’s fun! And they make these cool patterns, too, sometimes.”
“You just shoot rockets into the air for celebration?” Peridot felt swear cascade down her neck. With a growl purring in the back of her throat, she shouted, kicking her feet in the air similar to that of a temper tantrum throwing child, “Gahhh, this planet is insane! Why do you gems even like this place?!”
“Because insane’s fun! Better than boring,” Amethyst pointed out, fluffing out her hair. “And they aren’t dangerous or anything, unless you’re stupid with them. Like when you try strapping yourself to a bunch of them to see what happens.”
Peridot’s eyebrow shot up. “Did you do that?”
“That’s besides the point,” Amethyst brushed it off through eyes shut. “Everything’s fine, that’s all you need to know.”
“So… there aren’t any gem attacks happening?” Peridot asked, still sounding confused and still looking concerned, based on her awkward standing and the way her eyes shot up while her head bobbed downward.
“Nope!” Amethyst popped the ‘p’ for emphasis. “No one’s comin’ for ya, promise.”
“And if they do?” Peridot’s hands stuck out against her hips, as if initiating a challenge.
Another boom, but this one sounded incredibly close, as if ready to strike the two. At least, that’s how it came across to Peridot. With a jump and another yelp, she raced toward the closest thing of comfort. That thing being Amethyst, whom she clamped onto and found herself once again in Amethyst’s long hair, because Amethyst had started tripping back from the harsh impact. However, she stopped herself.
She heard a bit of a chuckle, and the sound vibrated against her chest. There was a bit of silence after, with the exception of several fireworks going off at once, one loud eruption of reverberation after another. Peridot, though now aware of where the sounds came from, flinched at the sounds.
“I… we’ll protect you,” Amethyst said with a pat on the back. “I mean, hey, we’re pretty good at the whole ‘saving people’ thing sometimes.”
There was a quick laugh from her, but Peridot wasn’t listening after that. Instead, she found herself once again burying her face into Amethyst’s locks. Pretty, soft locks that curled around her cheeks and touched the tip of her nose. It smelled of lavender, of all things. Though she didn’t intend to hold onto her for this long, Peridot sighed, feeling her body relax against Amethyst’s.
“Uhh, Peridot?”
Peridot felt a shiver rush down her back, and she pulled away while making noises that were probably shrieks but even she wasn’t sure. Though certain she was blushing a darker shade of green, she glanced at Amethyst curiously.
“Wanna see some?”
Peridot blinked. “The fireworks?”
“Yeah!”
Without another word, Amethyst took her hand and rose to her feet, with which Peridot followed shortly. Though with hesitant footing, she exited the barn and stood a few feet outside of it. The grass felt wet with dew under her covered toes, which wiggled around.
Amethyst dragged her again, but this time, into sitting down. They plopped onto the ground, leaning against the wooden walls of the barn. And the fireworks continued on as they did so, exploding and creating an increasing cacophony that made the earth jump with every blast.
Only now did Peridot see what caused it. It wasn't an enemy ship ready to come and take her away from this planet that made her feel bigger and better, but these displays of effects.
They were hardly every the same. Some changed colors, others flew higher into the sky, as if begging to touch the looming moon dangling from above. A few melted in the sky, sinking before fading away.
A presentation of color and sparks and, yes, banging noises that sounded very much like an attack Homeworld would send out, but they faded once they came together a lot more.
It reminded her of art, the sort of art that Emeralds practiced to impress their respective Diamonds. Pretty, colorful, unique and a touch show-offy at points. Peridot herself never saw them—of course—but she couldn't help but wonder if this was something along the lines as to what they did.
She now liked to see it as such.
“Cool,” Peridot breathed out, practically lost in awe.
A burst of a firework swirled in the air, then another.
“Told ya!" Amethyst exclaimed and leaned in closer to Peridot, who now realized that they had continued holding hands, but neither of them decided to say anything of it or pull away. "So, the others are at Beach City for the town’s fireworks, but they’re just about over with now.” She shrugged. "I thought I’d pop in to bring you with us, maybe Lapis, too—”
“Lapis didn’t like all the sounds, either, so she used a warp pad to go… wherever.” Peridot waved her hand around in the air. She remembered Lapis about to use her water wings, but deciding against it once the fireworks shot into the air again, and thought as to whether she was seeing them wherever she was.
There was a barrage of fireworks now, one after the other in no short of a few seconds. It made her jump just a bit, the array of sound assaulting her hearing, but then Amethyst started talking and it felt so easy to block out everything else around her.
“It’s not so bad once you get used to it,” Amethyst pointed out. She tossed her a lopsided smile. “Especially when you’re watching them with other people.”
They held hands as they watched the last of the fireworks go off. Peridot held back her fears of the sounds, the fear that somewhere in between the blasts, Homeworld lurked, all while grasping Amethyst’s larger hand, and even feeling her thumb brushing the back of her own hand.