A/N: You guys wanted more DWI, right? Well here's a side story that takes place about 5 months after the original story, but before Such a Tease. It's somewhere in there.

I needed something to write for Jaspidot Sunday's Hurt and Comfort theme, so thanks to FluffKills for inspiring this one. And a big thanks to Swirlybutt-McMangocunt for looking this over 3 You're both amazing.

Knock Out

"Jasper! J-Jasper! Where are you?" Peridot tightly clutched at her messenger bag as she tried to navigate her way through the crowded throng of bodies trying to push their way past her. Dammit! She was too short to really make much leeway against the mob of people making a beeline for the exit.

All she wanted to do was find her way to the locker room and find her girlfriend. It was proving a bit difficult since she had never been to this arena before and was fighting against the audience that was trying to leave. Hell, she didn't even know if she was going the right way.

Shit, she thought frantically, I need to find her. After a string of perfectly executed pins and even one brutal knockout, Jasper's winning streak came to an end after her fifth and final match up after her much more experienced opponent dodged the initial flurry of jabs and connected a solid upper cut to her jaw. It was pretty much over from there. Jasper went down hard as Peridot could only watch on in shock and horror from her spot in the stands.

That match had been the last of the night's, so once it was declared over, Jasper slunk off in shame back to the locker room and the audience began to leave en masse.

Eventually, the crowd thinned out enough for her to push her way through to the door she had seen an injured Jasper leave the arena. She found herself looking down an empty hallway with no sign of her girlfriend to be found. Not wanting to waste anymore time, she barreled her way down the stretch of corridor until she finally stumbled across the conveniently labeled door to the women's locker room.

She didn't even hesitate to shove herself through the door, ignoring someone's shout of "Hey! You're not supposed to be in here!" as she weaved through the slew of fighters until she found the one she was looking for.

Peridot skidded to a stop in front of a row of lockers. There she was, with her platinum blonde hair tightly braided and still wearing most of her gear. Jasper yanked her bags out of her locker, looking down right miserable after her defeat.

"Jasper!" she cried, running at her, arms out stretched, as she threw herself at her girlfriend with almost enough force to knock them both down. "Are you okay?" she muttered into Jasper's stomach, holding her tight in a vice-like hug. Honestly, she was scared to look how bad the damage was after seeing those blows to the face that she took.

A gloved hand came up to cradle the back of her head, holding her in place. Honestly Jasper looked like she needed the comfort at that moment

"Yeah, Peri," her tone low and dejected as she ran her hand soothingly through her tiny girlfriend's hair, "I'm fine."

Peridot pulled away so she could get a better look at Jasper's face and blanched. Blood trickled out of her nose and down her lips, the bottom of which also looked like it had split. Her right eye was already beginning to swell shut and was in the beginning stages of turning into a sickly greenish, black and blue bruise. Along with a couple of other assorted bumps and cuts and bruises, she looked like shit.

"You do not look fine! Crap, Jasper, what happened out there?"

"'S nothing, Per. She just got in a few lucky shots is all. I'm fine, let's just get out of here," Jasper turned away and tried to covertly wipe away some of the blood, which only served to smear it further across her face. She just wanted to go home to lick her wounds in private, not have her girlfriend make a big fuss over her with all of her friends and potential future opponents just within earshot.

Peridot clicked her tongue like she was some miffed mother hen and pushed her glasses back up the bridge of her nose, "For the last time, you do not look 'fine'! Shit, babe, is your nose broken?"

Her hands reached up and gingerly touched at the bruise blooming onto her cheekbone. It looked like she had a mild gash there as well. Fuck, she thought angrily, that bitch really did a number on her.

Sure, Jasper was a MMA fighter with only a few years of experience under her belt, but it still made her cringe to see her take a hit. Especially when Peridot found herself face-to-face with the bloody aftermath. After coming to see a few of her matches, she quickly concluded it was best to come prepared for these sorts of out comes.

Peridot's eyes softened as she grabbed at Jasper's arms and guided her towards the bench behind her. "Sit down, you clod. Lemme fix you up."

Jasper looked away with a slight blush dusting her cheeks because she knew her girlfriend was going to start babying her. Still, she sat down on the bench while Peridot rummaged through her messenger bag and pulled out her first aid kit and set it aside.

She stood in front of Jasper and gently tilted her face up towards the light to try and get a better look. Her girlfriend was still gorgeous, even if she just had the crap beaten out of her. A part of her wanted to cry; she hated seeing Jasper get hurt, more than anything. Peridot's finger's gingerly prodded at the bruise forming on her nose. Her injuries looks bad, but Peridot figured her ego was probably bruised worse than her face was. "Does this hurt?"

Jasper winced slightly at the touch, "It doesn't feel great, but I don't think it's broken". It wouldn't have been the first time she'd had broken it. She still had a small bump on the bridge of her nose to remind her of that unpleasant time in her life.

"Phew," she sighed in relief, "that's good. I wasn't sure what I could to do fix that. It's still a gory mess though." She popped the lid open on the med kit and rummaged around until she found what she needed.

"Okay, we'll just shove this tampon up your nose until the bleeding stops." Peridot smiled and giggled, holding up the aforementioned feminine hygiene product.

Jasper looked at her girlfriend like she had grown a second head, "Babe, you're not putting that in my nose. Absolutely not. Out of the question."

"Aw, why not? It totally worked in that one movie."

Jasper didn't respond but gave Peridot a dead-eyed glare that conveniently conveyed that if she put that tampon anywhere near her face, she would probably have to pick her up and throw her in the dumpster outside.

"Fine," she huffed before turned back to her first aid kit and pulled out a box of Hello Kitty bandages. She deftly unwrapped one pastel pink plaster and inched it closer to her face, "Okay! I'll just put this on it then."

Jasper caught her wrists and stopped her from applying the pink flowery band aid to her nose. A smile cracked her previously glum features before letting out a deep chuckle, "Dammit Peri, that's not going to do anything either. And why in the world do you have Hello Kitty bandages in there?"

The short woman pouted and looked away, "the store was out of the regular ones."

"Liar." She knew that look; Peridot was full of shit. Jasper reached out and grabbed the smaller woman by the waist and dragged her closer, spreading her knees so Peridot could stand between them. Only when she was sitting were they ever at eye level with each other.

"Yep, you caught me. I saw them and immediately knew I wanted to put one on your face. So I bought them." She let out a cute giggle and kissed her forehead, the one spot that wasn't smeared with blood.

Despite her glum mood, she smiled and accepted the affection, feeling her heart pound a little harder when Peridot was being cute like this. She was still a shit medic though. "You're an kind of an asshole, babe."

"I know, but so are you."

Since she honestly didn't know what to do about Jasper's nose, Peridot figured she could at least take care of the rest. She took the towel and a water bottle out of her bag, keeping it in there for these sorts of occasions, and soaked the rag. With a delicate, steady hand, she wiped at the drying trails of blood, taking care not to reopen any of the cuts.

She was lost in concentration at the task at hand, focused intensely at removing the leftover carnage from her girlfriend's pretty face. The corner of her bottom lip was sandwiched between her teeth as she nervously brushed over the gash on her cheekbone. As wrapped up in this as she was, she was still acutely aware of Jasper's hands rubbing at the small of her back and the fact that her those deep, amber eyes of hers never left her own.

Peridot swallowed thickly as she wiped off the last watery smear of blood. "O-Okay, I got it all off," she held up the red stained rag as proof.

"Hmm, thank you," she murmured as she pulled Peridot closer and kissed the spot right below her ear, then trailing a few more down the column of her neck.

"J-Jasper!" her face flushed red and she struggled to get out of her girlfriend's tight hold on her. There were still plenty of people milling about who had full view of their amorous antics. "I'm not done yet! Let me finish."

"Ugh, I told you I'm fine Peri," she rolled her eyes and let her go.

Peridot ignored her and pulled the cotton balls and antiseptic from the kit before turning back to face Jasper. "Just let me do this for you, okay? I don't want these injuries getting worse than they already are," she said as she swabbed the white fluff in the alcohol.

"You know, Peri," she grinned lecherously and pulled the tiny woman in close to her, "last week, when I said I wanted to 'play doctor' with you, this wasn't quite the scene I had in mind. I was hoping you'd at least wear your lab coat."

"Ha ha, Jasper," she added dryly before applying the swab to the cut on her cheek, earning her a strained hiss of pain from her injured girlfriend.

"Ahh, shit, that fucking burns," she winced through the pain of the sting.

Peridot pursed her lips and gently blew on the cut, trying to lessen the sharp, burning sensation, "Sorry, I know it hurts, you big baby. Just a few more dabs and I'm done."

Once the cut was cleaned to her liking, she smeared on some antibiotic ointment, before she topped it off with one of the Hello Kitty bandages. And then she pressed a kiss on top of that. For reasons.

"You weren't going to let me leave here until you stuck one of those on my face, were you." Jasper arched an eyebrow at her and smiled, gently reaching up to brush a stray lock of blond hair away from Peridot's face.

"Nope," she teased, taking the hand and removing Jasper's glove from it, before doing the same to her other hand, "besides, pink's a good color on you."

"Alright, if everything is all checked out, Dr. Diamond, I'd like to go home then. I prefer to sulk over my loss in peace, thank you."

"Yes, yes," she muttered as Jasper held her close and buried her face into the crook of Peridot's neck, "We'll have to ice your eye and cheek when we get back. I don't know what to do about your nose."

"How bad is my eye looking? I'm scared to check." Jasper's hand gently came up to prod at the swollen flesh.

Peridot grimaced before she turned away, looking embarrassed, "Remember two weeks ago when I used the fuckstool to bend you over your kitchen table and I fell on my ass? It's like roughly the same size and color as that bruise."

"That bad?" she asked with a sigh.

"Well, it's not horrible, but it's certainly not pretty."

"Fantastic," she muttered sarcastically, "just what I needed, a painful reminder about this shitty match."

"Stop that," Peridot insisted as she wrapped her arms tight around Jasper's neck, "you did great today. I watched and cheered for all of your matches. Getting to see you move and dodge all those kicks and punches; you looked so graceful out there. And when you broke away from that one girl trying to throw you and you kicked her across the ring, I'm pretty sure I screamed. And then in your second match when you punched that other woman and one hit KO'd her, I turned to the guy next to me and said, that's my girlfriend and she's fucking amazing. Also, I kind of think it's super hot when you and your opponent wrestle on the mats and try to pin each other down? The whole fighting for dominance thing kind of turns me on? I don't know, that's really neither here nor there and I certainly don't know why I'm tell you that."

Was she rambling? Yeah, and she was being a huge dork about it too, but she could feel Jasper hold her tighter and chuckle a little at her silly admission, so maybe it was working. Peridot pulled away from the hug and rested her forehead against Jasper's, lowering her gaze and murmuring softly, "I think you're incredible, you know."

Jasper softened, a big, real smile pulling her lips, and she pulled Peridot forward by the hips. The smaller woman let out a small eep! as she basically had to clamber on top of her girlfriend lap, legs straddling the wide berth of Jasper's hips.

"Thanks babe, I needed that." She cradled Peridot's face in her hands and pressed one small kiss to the corner of her mouth before capturing her lips with her own in a deep kiss.

Peridot could feel her cheeks heat up, but she closed her eyes and accepted the kiss, tangling her fingers in Jasper's braided hair and holding her close.

So, today hadn't gone perfectly, but in this one little moment, everything felt pretty much perfect to them. Peridot didn't think she could feel happier than she did right now, acutely aware of her heart fluttering madly in her chest. She nudged past Jasper's lips to tangle their tongues together, all the while, a pair of hands trailed down her back and squeezed at her butt and the back of her thighs.

Oh stars, they were making out like a couple of horny teenagers. In a locker room. How cliché.

A loud, whistling catcall was thrown in their direction, followed by an obnoxious cackle. "Hey you two! Get a room!"

Peridot pulled away frantically, embarrassed by getting loudly called out, but was still held firm in Jasper's lap. Her girlfriend looked less than enthused at the sudden interruption.

"Eat my ass, Sugi," She flipped up her middle finger at the wild looking woman leaning against the end of the lockers

"Not with your face looking like that. You look like you lost a fight with a blender."

"Still prettier than you. Now fuck off, I'll see you on Monday."

The loud, brash woman with the wild black hair and dark sunglasses just laughed before walking away, "Love you too, sweetheart."

Jasper rolled her eyes and tried to tug Peridot back in for another kiss. The smaller woman only allowed her one swift peck on the lips before she pulled away again, still more than a little flustered at being caught in the act.

"What's wrong? Did Sugi scare you? I know, she's really ugly," Jasper teased, "Just ignore her. We're actually friends, I swear."

Peridot just chuckled and shook her head, "You two certainly seem like a pair of charmers."

"Obviously. How do you think I landed you?" She teased, planting a wet kiss on the smaller woman's cheek and playfully landing a smack on her ass.

"Jasper!" She could already feel how red her face was getting as she finally struggled her way out of the younger woman's grip, "Stop that! Grab your stuff, we can finish this at your place."

But Jasper didn't move an inch; she just sat on the bench wearing a goofy grin and regarded Peridot while she worked on putting everything back into her first aid kit.

"Hey, Peri."

"What?" She turned and faced her girlfriend, holding the bloodstained towel from earlier.

"I love you, you know."

Wide eyed, Peridot felt her heart skip a beat and the towel slipped from between her fingers, landing with a wet thud on the ground.

"I-I…O-Oh. Oh." Peridot could only stutter out syllables instead of actual words as her brain registered just what Jasper had said. She loves me. Jasper loves me. Oh my god. If her heart thudded in her chest any harder she thought she just might pass out.

"Y-You. You do?" Was the best she could manage, never mind what she actually wanted to say. Her feet stayed glued to the spot where she stood.

"Yeah, I'm in love with you, Peri."

Finally, Peridot convinced her legs to work as she took the two steps she needed to throw herself at Jasper, who barely managed to prevent her from knocking them both over.

She didn't care how banged up and bruised Jasper was as she tightened both fists into the straps of her sports bra and pulled her in for a kiss. Now she could care less who was watching them.

Peridot pulled away first, feeling happy tears prickling at the corners of her eyes, threatening to spill down her face, "Oh Jasper, I-I…when?" Dammit, that's still not what I wanted to say.

"When?" Jasper looked a little confused, but held her tighter, "I don't know, I just kind of knew that I loved you at some point? Although, right before the second match started, and I definitely heard you scream, 'kick her tits in, babe!', and I just had this surreal moment in my head where I knew, yeah, I'm definitely in love with her."

"Oh, oh my god, no." Oh yeah, so she might have gotten a little bit too into Jasper's fights today. She hid her face in her hands as she tried to muffle her horrified laughter.

Her girlfriend couldn't help but laugh with her as she gently tried to pry Peridot's hands away from her face. "Oh yes, I really did have that moment. C'mon and look at me. I didn't mean to freak you out."

The smaller woman reluctantly removed her hands and tried her best to wipe the stray moisture off of her glasses. "You didn't freak me out, I just, I guess I was just shocked to hear you say it first, because….because, I love you too, Jasper."

"Really? You're not just saying that?"

"No! I would never lie about something like that."

"One more time? I want to hear you say it again."

"I love you," she stated sincerely and punctuated her words with a small kiss on Jasper's lips, "I love you, you huge dork."

"Yep, I'm definitely in love with you, you big nerd."

They smiled and laughed because what else was there to say? Jasper helped Peridot off of her lap and she stood to gather her things, "Alright, my face feels like it was hit with a brick, take me home now, please?"

"Hang on, I have one trick in my arsenal I haven't tried yet. I saw this on an episode of Camp Pining Hearts once." Peridot went up on her tiptoes and gently pressed a kiss to the bridge of Jasper's nose with a loud mwah!

"There! All better. I fixed it." She looked rather proud of herself for that one.

"Di-Did you just try to 'kiss it better'? Seriously Peri? And you called me a 'huge dork'?"

She shrugged and grabbed Jasper's hand, entwining their fingers together, before tugging her towards the door. "Eh, it was worth a shot. Did it work?"

Jasper paused and considered this for a second, "Actually, now that you mention it, it does feel a bit better. But I think I'm gonna need about, hm, 500 more though? I think you're going to have to stay over tonight to administer treatment, Nurse Peridot."

"Excuse you, I did not spend 2 hours googling basic first aid to be called Nurse Peridot. That's Dr. Diamond to you.

"But, I agree," she added with a smirk, "I should probably put you on overnight watch. Just in case."

Jasper pulled her to a stop just outside the locker room, "Is this what being in love is like? It's kind of gross. I like it.

Peridot shook her head and laughed. Being with Jasper made her feel like a kid again, but in the fun, lighthearted way. She wanted to run through building screaming about how happy she felt and how in love she really was. But instead, she kissed Jasper outside the locker room. "Yeah, I like it too."