Beach-a-Palooza

(Prompt for Lapidot Tuesday (2nd February))

by

Silver-Eyed Rukia

Rated: T

Pairing: Lapidot

Note: Please ignore any mistakes. Or point them out and correct me, whatever you prefer.

Cover art by timehuntress (tumblr)

The rapidly darkening sky held a certain melancholic feel to it as the sun's rays fought their losing battle against the ever stronger growing light of the moon creeping over the horizon. Or at least that's how it looked like to her. She remembered Steven telling her about how the day and night cycles worked, how the sun illuminated the moon during the night even though the sun itself wasn't visible. She had listened to the explanation with half an ear, more entranced by the look of intense interest on the green gem's face who the explanation had been directed at.

Lapis closed her eyes as a soft breeze swept over her, carrying the salty scent of the ocean with it. She could hear faint laughter and conversations wafting over from the stage that had been erected on the beach for the annual Beach-a-Palooza: Steven's cheery voice, Pearl's excited but also lecturing tone, Amethyst's gleeful laughter and Garnet's amused chuckles. She hadn't interacted much with the other humans of Beach City, but she knew most of them, at least by face. Everyone was gathered around the stage, seating themselves on the many folding chairs and eagerly awaiting the main event starring a mini-concert from the Crystal Gems. All the gems except for her.

She briefly wondered about the whereabouts of the person she had grown almost scarily close to before realizing that she was probably going to be part of the concert, too. Lapis pulled her legs up, pressing them close to her chest and resting her chin atop her knees before wrapping her arms around herself in a comforting embrace. She knew that if she would go over to the Crystal Gems they would happily ask her to join or offer her a place in the front row but deep down she didn't get the feeling of belonging whenever she was around them.

"Don't worry about it, it will take time but soon you will be a Crystal Gem too, just like Peridot."

Steven's voice echoed through her head, a memory from a few weeks back, and managed to paint a small smile on her face at the mention of the green Homeworld gem. If she had to explain why she had grown to like the smaller gem so much Lapis probably wouldn't have been able to pinpoint one thing exactly. Was it her unique treatment of the ocean gem? Her clumsy attempts at human affection? Her so called experiments where she would present human rituals to Lapis and ask her to be her partner? It was probably all of that, if not more. And that was also the reason why right now, where everyone was having fun and she was sitting on a lone rock off to the coast of the beach, she actually missed the company of Peridot.

Music started playing and the blue alien opened her eyes again, vision blurry with unshed tears as the loneliness started creeping up on her, giving her that dreadful feeling in the pit of her stomach similar to how the months of endless torment at the bottom of the ocean had felt like: like everyone had abandoned her. She was free now, unfused, but at times where she was alone like this she felt like everything was back to square one.

"Humans and their strange rituals."

Her footsteps had been soft, drowned out by the concert still going on, and her small frame appeared in Lapis' peripheral vision the moment the Homeworld gem sat down next to her. The space between them was close enough for comfort and apart enough to allow privacy, a sentiment the ocean gem appreciated about Peridot. She turned her head to look at her only to find the technician looking off towards the concert, visor reflecting the many stage lights and thus shielding Peridot's expression from the taller gem. She was both surprised and happy to see her and she knew that the later feeling was much stronger than the first. A moment of silence passed between them before the next few words were spoken.

"Why are you not with them?"

Lapis' voice was soft, almost too quiet to make out, but Peridot still caught it. She finally turned to look the other Homeworlder in the eye, expression turning from neutral to somewhat annoyed. Lapis knew that was just a mask, but it made Peridot feel more secure about the display of her emotions so she let her have that small victory.

"I had no intention to participate in their "annual Beach-a-Palooza" if that is what you are inquiring. I stayed long enough to judge its value and concluded that spending time with you would result in a more…pleasurable experience." Peridot chose her words carefully, eyes now trailing down Lapis' slender arms as she tried to fight down the rising blush in her cheeks. She found it highly amusing that Peridot kept making so called quotation marks with her fingers whenever she used a human-specific term as if to symbolize that she would have used another word to describe it, which she probably would have. The song ended and a round of applause carried over to the pair, causing them to turn their heads and watch Steven and the gems initiate the after show party, which really only consisted of dancing along to random music tracks, but for some reason the humans seemed to love it.

"Odd. Why do they dance if they cannot fuse? Their rhythmical movements serve no ultimate purpose other than to "look nice" as Steven would probably say." It wasn't the best ice breaker and she knew that, but when Peridot turned again to face Lapis her face fell slightly when she noticed the gem staring off into the distance, eyes focused on the endlessly crashing waves of the ocean spread out before them. She was drifting off again and inwardly Peridot was already freaking out, she hated seeing Lapis like this but she also wasn't the best at cheering others up. She grumbled quietly before getting up, a movement that was seen but not registered by the ocean gem, before plopping back down behind her, green arms hesitantly reaching around her lithe body and pressing the blue gem against her spacesuit covered front. That seemed to snap her out of whatever sadness induced daze she had been in, judging by the tiniest of "eeps" escaping her mouth at the contact.

"Peridot! W-what are you doing?"

She felt the tiny arms around her tighten, pulling her ever closer, and felt the green gem's breath tickle her bare back. They had been close before, sure, but usually it was the result of Peridot's many attempts at copying human behavior displayed by both Steven and the other gems like holding hands or lying down together.

"I am sharing contact for mutual benefit", she started, voice quiet as she was still facing Lapis' back, "I have observed the positive effect of this ritual called hugging numerous times between humans and even gems so I thought that maybe it would help. You look small."

The current song playing in the distance started to fade before a new one came on, a somewhat quieter and slower piece that seemed to fit the current mood perfectly. Lapis' body shook in Peridot's embrace and for an agonizingly long moment she thought Lapis was going to cry but then a soft giggle bubbled up from deep within her, turning into full-fledged laughter seconds later that left the green gem utterly confused as to what was going on right now.

"Did I do the hugging wrong?"

The ocean gem turned around in the embrace after Peridot loosened her grip a little upon noticing her movement, now sitting face to face with the smaller of the two, her own slender legs draped over Peridot's shorter ones. Her eyes shone with tears, happy ones this time, and her face was displaying a beautiful, honest smile that made Peridot's stomach flip in a way she had never experienced before.

"No, you did everything right." Lapis took both of the smaller hands into her own ones, relishing the effect she had on the other gem with the simple motion. "Thanks for checking up on me, I appreciate it."

"Don't think I came for you, your company is simply more enjoyable, you physically appealing clod!"

Lapis paused to stare at the green gem, looked at how her face turned sideways to avoid looking at her, cheeks blushing in both embarrassment and a dash of anger at being called out on her feelings. The ocean gem should know better than to keep prodding her about it but she suddenly felt adventurous, exhilarated even, to exploit the nature of Peridot's sudden outburst of affection.

"Physically appealing? I may be wrong but I think you just called me attractive."

Peridot sputtered out an incomprehensive reply and started struggling against Lapis' grip, slipping away from the ocean gem and her barely contained laughter before realizing that they were both sitting atop a rather medium sized rock. She tried regaining her balance but ultimately lost the fight against gravity and fell back first off the rock, landing on the sandy beach bellow with an audible "oof". It was only a height difference of maybe three or four feet from the top of the rock down to the beach but Lapis still leapt after Peridot worriedly, letting out a sigh of relief when she found the gem rubbing her head, still lying in the sand.

"Gemforsaken hunk of rock", the smaller one grumbled before her attention focused on the outstretched hand in front of her. She reluctantly grabbed it and felt herself being pulled up with just a tad too much force which resulted in her chest bumping against Lapis' abdomen, a painful reminder that she felt absolutely tiny without her limb enhancers.

"Wow, thanks", she mumbled before looking up at the blue-haired water witch, "can you release my touch stumps from your fierce grip now?"

Instead of complying Lapis pulled Peridot closer, placed her free hand on her shoulder and slowly walked backwards, pulling the technician with her who in turn clumsily grabbed the taller one's waist as to not stumble and fall down again.

"Lazuli, what are you doing? Are you attempting fusion?!"

Her blue locks swayed from left to right as she shook her head before looking over to the still on-going Beach-a-Palooza a bit off in the distance: the songs were still audible even from their current position. She smiled when her gaze returned to Peridot's visor covered eyes and widened slightly when she saw that despite her complaints the gem was seemingly enjoying herself.

"Just shut up and dance, okay?"

Peridot, surprisingly enough, complied wordlessly and just followed Lapis' guiding movements, thankful for the small steps she was making to compensate the technician's short frame. They danced together for quite some time, steps wobbly on the unstable sandy terrain while the moon remained the only source of lighting the pair had. The song Lapis had been guiding them to faded into silence and they stopped, hands still clasped together and resting on the other's respective body part. Peridot was the first to break the silence with a small cough before she removed her hands and wrung them nervously in front of her when she realized what exactly they had been doing.

"Even though I do not appreciate the continued "making fun of my feelings" on your part I must admit that this experience was very…enlightening. I require more information on the subject of fusionless dancing so be ready to supply said information upon my request." Peridot avoided the blue gem's gaze when she knelt down, now a tad shorter than the green alien herself, and only returned said gaze when she felt two hands softly guide her face back to looking at Lapis. The ocean gem gave her a short kiss on the cheek and even though Peridot was still highly embarrassed and possibly way too attracted to the sea witch for her own good, seeing her smile such an honest smile at her made all the trouble she had gone through worth it.

"Thank you, Peridot."

My first entry for Lapidot Tuesday, also uploaded on tumblr if you want to check their and my site there.

This is canonverse, more or less. There really aren't any rules as far as I know so this is just kinda my own interpretation :) I hope you enjoyed the read.

I don't know if I will write more for the following prompts so I will leave this as in-complete for now.

Phrase of the Day

And hand in hand, on the edge of the sand, they danced by the light of the moon.

~Edward Lear, The Owl and the Pussycat

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No flaming please.