Well, I promised to finish this up before the new year, and I'm here to deliver! Fun fact: I started writing this fic while procrastinating for science fair. The irony, huh?

Also, wow. This chapter seemed wayyy shorter on my Word Document. I apologize for the unwieldy chapter length once more.

Amethyst skidded to a halt in front of a large row of buildings. When Peridot looked behind her, she could see the Atlantic Ocean bobbing up and down in the distance.

"You—took us to—the other—side—of town—?" she asked Amethyst in between breaths.

"Yeah!" Amethyst didn't seem to be winded in the slightest. Perhaps being captain of the school's dance team was a bit more useful than Peridot initially thought it was. She tugged Peridot by the arm into the nearest building. Peridot shivered, realizing just how wet she was as she walked into the dry, warm room.

"Woah," she breathed, taking in the scene around her.

The whole room was bathed in a hazy, purple light emanating from the neon tubes hanging from the ceiling. Rows of arcade consoles stretched out in every direction, emitting rhythmic bleeps and eight-bit music.

Amethyst grinned at her. Peridot didn't know exactly when it had happened, but Amethyst's buns had become completely undone. Her mane of white hair was now down to her knees, a tangled, dripping mess. Amethyst didn't seem to notice. Or perhaps she just didn't care. Her lipstick had faded a considerable amount as well, leaving her lips an almost pastel shade of purple.

...It didn't look all that bad, actually.

"Funland Arcade," she informed Peridot, snapping her back to attention. "Only a dime a game."

Peridot frowned. "And we're completely broke. I spent the last of my money on lunch." She bit back a which you still owe me for, by the way.

Amethyst waved her hand dismissively. "No prob. I know my way around here."

"Of course you do," Peridot sighed. "Try not to do anything illegal, will you?"

"Can't make any promises on that, P-pod." Amethyst craned her neck, scanning the building before running up to three teens gathered around a console in the middle of the arcade. Even for a social recluse like Peridot, there was no mistaking who they were: the most popular kids in school—the most popular kids in town, even.

"Yo, Sour Cream! Jenny! Buck!" Amethyst yelled, running up to them.

Buck nodded at her and held out his fist, which Amethyst promptly bumped with her own. Sour Cream muttered a "hey" in between listening to...whatever it was with his headphones. Jenny grinned and put a hand to her hips.

"Amy! What's up? And ooh—" Jenny smiled deviously as she eyed Peridot. "Who's your girlfriend?"

Before Peridot could even open her mouth, Amethyst just yelled "No!" Jenny tilted her head in confusion.

"Uh...it's not like that," Amethyst said hastily, averting her gaze from Jenny.

"Really? Just assumed, you know, since—"

"You're holding hands," Buck finished.

"Wait, what? I—" Peridot looked down and realized she hadn't let go of Amethyst since she had dragged her out of Funland. "Shit!" She let go, overcome by a wave of embarrassment. "Sorry."

Amethyst smiled back, but it looked weak and flimsy. Nervous. "Nah, it's fine. I, uh...I didn't even realize until now."

Jenny snorted. "Right. Like I'm gonna believe that."

Amethyst rolled her eyes. "Ugh, get off my case! Accidents happen. 'Sides, you should already know Peridot. She goes to school with us!"

"Oh, wait!" Jenny said, glancing at Peridot. "You're the kid who won the science fair last year, aren't you?"

Peridot sighed. "Apparently, that is my only definable attribute, yes," she deadpanned.

"And the year before that. And the year before that."

"That would be me."

Jenny gaped at her. "Girl, you are like, crazy smart! What's your secret? My biology final's coming up and I am so not ready."

"Prob'ly 'cause you skipped school to see that metal concert on review day."

Jenny stuck out her tongue. "Oh, give it a rest, Buck." She turned back to Peridot. "So? How do you do so well at school? I'd kill for that kind of motivation."

"Ah, you wouldn't, Jen. Trust me." Amethyst draped an arm around Peridot's shoulder. Apparently, her embarrassment at making physical contact with Peridot had only been temporary. "She spends so much time on her grades that she never actually goes out and does stuff. Did you know it's her first time visiting the arcade? And she's lived here for years."

"What? No way!"

Amethyst nodded. "Yeah way. So, that, my friend, is why we're desperately need a dime right now."

"Uh, just one dime?" Jenny asked.

"Well, a dime and a string, to be exact." She stretched out a hand and grinned.

Jenny's eyes widened a bit in realization before she shook her head and chuckled. "Girl, you are so bad."

"Tell me something I don't know. So...you got the goods?"

"Yeah, yeah," Jenny said, fishing a dime out of her pocket. She tossed it into Amethyst's open hand. "Hey, S.C.!" she yelled to the lanky boy in headphones. "You still got those earbuds that broke earlier this morning?" Sour Cream nodded and dug out a pair of light blue earbuds. Jenny took them and and handed them to Amethyst.

"Here, this good enough for a string?"

"Yep, I'd say we're all set." Amethyst grinned.

Peridot narrowed her eyes. "All set for what, exactly?"

"Oh, a few rounds on the old Bopper."

Jenny rolled her eyes. "The Bopper? You always use that thing. We get it Amy, you've got some sweet moves."

"Peri doesn't know that yet, though."

Peridot thrust her arms out in frustration. "Know what? Stop being so unnecessarily cryptic and just tell me what's going on!"

"I won't tell you, Per, I'll show you." Amethyst grabbed Peridot's hand once more, her smile far more solid than it was mere minutes ago, and set off for the mysterious 'Bopper.'

Amethyst knelt down and faced the console, swinging Sour Cream's pair of broken earbuds in front of her like a lasso. She had tied the coin on the end.

Peridot tapped her foot impatiently, looking at the platform Amethyst was kneeling on. It was encoded with several arrows pointing in different directions, divided by a thin metal strip in the middle—an indication that the device was meant for two players, probably. "So, what is this?" she asked.

"Bopper. It's a dancing game." Amethyst slowly stuck the end of the earbuds with the dime on it into a coin slot on the console; Peridot could not recall Amethyst ever doing something with such patience before.

Peridot frowned. "And why would that require you to tie your coin to a string?"

"Uh, 'cause I wanna play more than one round! Duh."

"I don't understa—" Peridot snapped her mouth shut as the console's screen transitioned from idle animation to an array of flashing neon lights. Energetic bass boomed from the speakers above. Amethyst yanked the string back out of the coin slot, the dime attached to it intact. She turned to Peridot and grinned, pushing herself up. All Peridot could do was gape in amazement.

"I—wait—" she sputtered. "I thought we had no—I mean, you can do that?"

Amethyst shrugged. "Hey, nothing's stoppin' me."

A snort escaped Peridot as she crossed her arms and shook her head. "Amethyst, you are so bad."

Amethyst winked. "'S just what I do. Anyways, you ready to check out my mad dance skills?"

"Depends. Are you just going to wave your butt in my face the whole time?"

Amethyst raised an eyebrow. "Depends. Is that what you want?"

"What the—of course not!"

Amethyst chuckled as she chose a song from the list onscreen. "Oh, c'mon, Peri. You know you want the Big A."

"You. Are. Disgusting," Peridot hissed.

"I'm just honest. Sue me. Oh! Hold that thought. Song's starting!" The speakers on the console began belting out the lyrics as arrows appeared on the screen.

I can't help it if I make a scene, stepping out of my hot pink limousine...

If the song was right about one thing, it was that Amethyst did, in fact, make quite a scene. She whirled around the platform, her stocky legs moving a mile a minute. Even though it was completely unnecessary and not required by the console, the rest of her body swayed with the music as well. Her hair was a shocking white blur that swirled around her as her shoulders and arms jerked rhythmically to the beat. It wasn't like she was dancing to the music. It was almost as if she were a part of the music.

Peridot had never seen anything like it.

Amethyst twirled to a stop at the last beat, sweaty and breathless. "Whew!" She glanced at the screen as she tried to even out her breaths. "Perfect score. What can I say? I'm a natural."

"You put it on medium," Peridot muttered.

"What?"

"You didn't choose the expert level. Wouldn't a perfect score only be commendable if you achieved it at the highest level of difficulty?"

Amethyst frowned. "Well if it's so easy, Per, then why don't you give it a go?"

"Wha—I never said it was easy, I just—"

"C'mon, I'll play you! Expert level. You game?"

"No, no, no," Peridot said, holding her head in her hands. "I can't dance!"

Amethyst dragged her up onto one of the dancing platforms, grinning deviously. "You can't dance, or you don't dance?"

"Can't! Don't! I mean—both!"

"Only one way to find out."

Peridot's shoulders tensed as she glared at Amethyst. "What are you going to achieve from humiliating me?" She bit her lip.

Amethyst's grin fell flat as she stepped over to Peridot. "Woah, hey. Peri, I just want you to have fun. Look," she said, pointing at the console screen. "You just step on the arrows under you at the same time they reach the middle of the screen. Nothing much to mess up on. And even if you do, guess what? It doesn't matter! It's just a game! It's for fun. You're not gettin' a grade on it or anything. But it's okay if you don't wanna do it," Amethyst added hastily. "I mean, skeeball's pretty fun too I guess—"

"Give me the coin."

Amethyst blinked. "What?"

"You heard me. Hand me your game-swindling contraption."

She grinned and tossed it to Peridot. "Sounds so sketchy when you say it that way."

"Left! Right! Right! Down! Left and right! Down! Up! Up and left!"

"Dude, do you really have to yell out every step you're doing? I can't even hear the lyrics!"

"It helps me—left! It helps me concentrate. Up!" Peridot stomped on the arrow pointing upwards precisely when the corresponding symbol reached the center of the screen.

"But where's the fun in dancing to something you can't even hear?" Amethyst hopped off the dancing platform. "See? The song's over! And I didn't even figure out how to dance to it."

"What do you mean? The instructions are right up there!"

"I'm not just gonna stomp on those arrows like a robot, Per! Dancing isn't just about the steps. It's about how you feel about the music too. You gotta move your whole body. You gotta just—just let loose! You weren't doing that at all!"

Peridot scowled. "That doesn't even make any sense! The game's objective is to accurately step on the arrows on the platform corresponding to the ones on the screen. Isn't that exactly what I did?"

"Well, yeah, but like—Peridot, you just—you gotta just feel it, you know?"

"No."

Amethyst groaned. "Dude, I don't know how else to explain it! I..." She trailed off, placing a hand on her chin in thought. "Hmm. Think of it like...presentation points."

"I thought you said this wasn't a grade!"

Amethyst snorted. "Yeah, but since you're treating it like one, let's just assume it is for sec. 'Kay, so let's say you made a trifold for your nerd bot or whatever—"

"It's an impressionable AI bot."

"Right. What you said. Anyways, even if you got all the data and work done, do you think you're gonna get a good grade if the trifold looks like crap?"

"...No."

"Bingo. That's the way dancing is. Even if you got all the steps down, you gotta add your own flair to it. Does that make any sense?"

"Uh...somewhat, I suppose."

Amethyst shrugged. "Better than nothin'." She got back onto the platform and swung her coin into the slot, yanking it back out once the screen flashed to life once more. "So, you ready to show me some of that Peri pizazz? Here, I'll choose something easy."

I can't help it if I make a scene, stepping out of my hot pink limousine...

Peridot wrinkled her nose as the song started. "Ugh, this again?"

"It's a good one to warm up with! Just let yourself loose, Per!"

"Loose," she muttered, stomping to the left as she relaxed her shoulders slightly. "Is this good enough?"

Amethyst snorted. "Not even close! Don't restrict your body! Just let it flow with the beat."

"I don't—"

"Presentation points, Peri!"

Peridot nodded and stared at the screen, resolute. "Right!" She thrust her arms out and added a bounce to her step as she stomped, eventually deciding to add in a few bodily rotations as well—isn't that what Amethyst did?—and she had never felt more alive. Feeling her heartbeat accelerate, sweat trickling down her face as adrenaline shot up her spine—it was...oddly exhilarating, to say the least. She maneuvered through the instructions on the screen with ease, stepping on each arrow accordingly, but the goal of 'letting loose' had been achieved as well. She let out a celebratory whoop, spinning around one final time as the song ended.

Peridot hopped down off the platform, breathless but with a triumphant grin plastered on her face. "So—was that loose enough for you? Uh..." she frowned. "Amethyst?"

Amethyst simply stood there, fixed on her platform, mouth open like a fish, looking incredulous.

"Dude," she muttered. "You dance like a robot."

"Great," Peridot snapped. One more thing she couldn't do right.

"Hey, hey—I never said it was bad!" Amethyst said. "I mean...I've just never seen someone move like that before. All stiff and mechanical and stuff. Pretty sick, actually." She grinned. "Care to show off those moves at Beach City High's dance troupe?"

"Was that blatant advertising?" Peridot asked, smirking.

Amethyst batted her eyelids innocently. "Maybe."

Peridot snorted. "Well, thanks, but no thanks. Wouldn't wanna humiliate the team captain by joining after beating her on the Bopper."

"Wait, what?" Amethyst jerked her head towards the console's screen. "You gotta be kiddin' me."

"The numbers don't lie, Amethyst."

She pouted. "Oh, come on! Serves me right for goin' easy on you, I guess."

"Ha! You're bluffing. You just don't want to admit that you got beaten fair and square."

Amethyst groaned. "I can't believe I got beaten by a square."

"Wow, thanks," Peridot said, rolling her eyes. "So are you saying you want a rematch?"

"Yeah, best two outta three!"

Peridot stuck her tongue out at Amethyst. "Meh. Fiiine. Sore loser."

"Play nice, you two."

"Ack!" Peridot turned around, startled. That certainly wasn't Amethyst. Her eyes widened as she recognized the intruder.

"Oh! Miss—Miss Sard." She bit her lip.

Miss Sard broke out into a gap-toothed grin, reaching out her hands to ruffle the heads of her two students.

"Amethyst! Wonderful to see you making the most of your weekend. I hope this means all those make-up assignments I gave you are finished?"

"Uh..." Amethyst gave a quick, nervous chuckle. "Yep! Totally done, Miss Sard."

"Splendid!" she said, oblivious to Amethyst's soft groan of oh, shit as she turned to Peridot.

"And you! Miss Mugabe, my star student! Nice to see you have a life outside of books, too!"

"Uh—yeah." Peridot gave a weak smile. "Heh."

"I would ask how well science fair is going, but I'd hate to spoil myself—I love surprises. Your limb-enhancement prosthetics from last year simply blew all the other projects out of the water! It was revolutionary!" She jabbed a finger in Peridot's direction. "I expect great things from you, young lady. I know you won't disappoint!"

"I...yeah, won't disappoint..." Peridot gulped.

"So, Miss Sard! What're you doing hangin' out at the arcade, anyways?"

Miss Sard feigned a hurt expression, putting a hand to her chest. "My, my, Amethyst! It appears to me that you don't think adults are allowed to have fun! I simply came here for a game of skeeball against my lovely colleague, Miss Opal."

"Uh..." Amethyst scanned the room, arms crossed. "I don't see her anywhere."

Miss Sard frowned, adjusting her glasses. "Oh, goodness. That's...quite worrying. I hope she didn't get lost again...Heavens know how that woman doesn't manage to lose all her paperwork! Well, I'll leave you two to it, then!" She ran for the exit. "Stay safe, kids!" she called out as she left. "Lovely seeing you two!"

Amethyst gave a low whistle. "Well, that sure was something. So, how about that rematch, Peri?"

Peridot didn't respond.

"Uh, Peri?"

Peridot couldn't respond.

She couldn't see Amethyst or the Bopper or the rest of the arcade. Everything was a blur, smeared around the edges no matter how pristine her glasses were. All she could see was the robot on her desk at home, half-finished and sitting right across from a pitifully empty cardboard trifold.

I expect great things from you, young lady.

"Per! Peri! Peridot! Your breathing's all shaky, are you okay?" Amethyst's voice seemed tinny and distant. Everything around her was slipping away.

I know you won't disappoint!

Peridot could feel remnants of hot dog and pretzel mingling together in her stomach and threatening to slither up her throat.

She couldn't disappoint Miss Sard. She couldn't, she just couldn't. All those A's on every assignment and project she had pored over every single night—they were all she had. They were all she was. God, if this project didn't live up to her expectations—if it was inadequate even in the least—

"Peridot. Answer. Me. Please!"

Peridot didn't know how she did it, exactly, but she managed to coax a complete, albeit shaky, sentence out of her mouth.

"I have to go."

"What?" Amethyst's voice sounded unusually small. Almost like she was hurt.

Oh, goddamn it. Hurting Amethyst was the last thing she'd planned to do. But Peridot was too worn out to explain much of anything.

"I—I'm sorry. Goddammit, Amethyst, I'm sorry. But I'm leaving. Right now. I have to."

She couldn't even bring herself to hear Amethyst's response; the only thing she had energy for sprinting through the arcade door and into the cold and dreary downpour outside.

Peridot wished the rain were warmer.

That way, she wouldn't be able to tell the difference between the hot tears pouring down her cheeks and the icy droplets splashing on her from above.

She focused all of the energy she had left on steadying her breaths. She wanted to stop feeling like she was about to break apart at any moment.

"Peridot!"

She froze. Perhaps if she didn't respond, Amethyst would leave her be.

But of course, Amethyst proved herself to be recklessly relentless. As always.

"Don't even think about running away. You know I'll catch up to you eventually."

"I can still try," Peridot muttered under her breath.

"Oh, okay—so first you say you wanna spend time with me and now you wanna run away from me?" Amethyst gave a sharp, humorless laugh. "Make up your mind! I thought you were having fun."

Peridot grit her teeth. "I was!"

"Then what is your problem?!"

That was enough to make everything welling up inside of Peridot explode. She spun around on her heels to glare at Amethyst, the words rushing out of her mouth in a violent torrent. "My problem?! What about your problem, Amethyst?! You know I keep to myself. You know I never talk to anyone. And you know there's no use in trying to change that! You heard Jenny. I'm just the—the Science Fair Girl!" she spat. "So why do you try so hard? Why do you keep trying?! Why do you—"

"UGH!" Amethyst stomped her feet with such force that Peridot was terrified the wood panels underneath them would snap in half. She promptly shut her mouth.

"Do you really think I know why, Peridot?! I don't! I'm just as fuckin' clueless as you are! I coulda just finished up that stupid project with you and deleted your phone number and never talked to you again and I don't know why I didn't! I don't know why I tried! I don't know why I'm trying! All you ever do is push me away! If you don't like spending time with me, then why the hell do you even do it?!"

"Because—!" Peridot's torrent of words had stopped as abruptly as it started, leaving her with a complete deficit of responses. She took a shaky breath. "Because..." she tried again. Nothing came out, despite the millions of thoughts floating around in her brain. She swiped at each one fruitlessly, watching as every word she knew drifted away from her grasp. A lexile level of 1900L proved useless if one couldn't even string their words together in a comprehensible sentence.

She stared at Amethyst, who was approximately only six or so inches away from her. Even when Peridot took off her glasses to wipe them clean of the rain, she could still see Amethyst so clearly—her chest heaved softly behind that black tank top; her round, full lips were open ever so slightly a faint shade of lavender, revealing a sliver of those brilliantly white teeth she showed off whenever her mouth curled up into that goofy grin of hers.

Her hair was thick even when it was soaked, hopelessly tangled strands of silvery white glistening with water. Black, purple, white. Peridot remembered Amethyst telling her those were her favorite colors, during one of their many, many phone calls in the past three months.

And that was all it took to make all of Peridot's thoughts flood back to her mind instantaneously.

"Because your favorite shade of purple is lavender," Peridot blurted out. She continued on hurriedly before Amethyst could respond, afraid that her thoughts would betray her again if she didn't vocalize every single one of them. "Because you always drink hot sauce straight out of the bottle. You watch cheesy romance movies just to make fun of them. You use way too many filters on every single photo you take. You put strawberries and whipped cream all over your beef tacos and you don't care in the slightest if anyone says it's disgusting. Sometimes, if you're sleepy enough, you accidentally slip into Spanish and I have no idea what you're saying but I've never corrected you because I love the way r's and n's roll and bounce off your tongue! You like cooking and dancing and watching cartoons and when you smile you get a dimple but only on the right side of your face and you always mismatch your socks and—and—" Peridot exhaled, trying to compose herself. "I don't even know what I'm getting at anymore. I just...I keep talking with you because, well...do you ever wanna know someone, Amethyst?"

Amethyst simply stared at her, dumbfounded, her breaths soft and her eyes wide. The smell of petrichor and the heavy weight of silence hung in the air.

"Like...know know?" Amethyst ventured finally. Peridot swallowed and nodded.

Even through the rain, Peridot could see the water pooling in Amethyst's eyes. When her lips parted, the words came out softly:

"Yeah, Peri, I do."

And then Amethyst pulled her in before she could even react, their lips colliding and making the hairs on Peridot's neck bristle. She was taken aback, but something inside her—a hunch, perhaps—told her not to tear away. She wrapped her arms around her, giving in completely. Amethyst was much, much warmer than wet and dismal weather outside.

They only pulled back when they were both rendered absolutely breathless. Peridot took in deep gasps of air, her cheeks burning—but then those heavy breaths quickly morphed into laughter as she saw the utterly bewildered look on Amethyst's face.

"I—" she said, in between breaths, "I—dude. I can't believe that just happened." Her lipstick was a smudged mess, and Peridot had the sneaking suspicion that some of it had gotten onto her own face as well.

She snorted, wiping a tear from her eye. "So, was this meant to be a date all along?"

Amethyst shrugged, quickly regaining her composure (or perhaps feigning doing so). "I guess. The smoochfest wasn't part of the plan, though."

"Smoochfest? It was just one kiss!"

"Yeah?" Amethyst smirked. "I can easily fix that." She smashed her lips up against Peridot's again, and Peridot could feel heat radiating from her cheeks as blood rushed up to her face once more.

It was wet and sloppy and haphazard—nothing close to the perfectly staged kisses she'd seen on television between Paulette and Percy (although it was obvious Percy and Pierre were objectively the better couple, but that was another story). Despite it being nothing like she had expected, it left her wanting more.

Humans were volatile, humans were capricious. And Amethyst was wonderfully so.

It was as if her senses had been magically heightened as her lips met Amethyst's. She smelled like diesel fuel and chocolate donuts; an odd combination, to say the least, but as soon as it hit Peridot's nostrils she never wanted to forget it.

As they pulled back once more, Peridot began fiddling with a clump of Amethyst's hair, trying to undo the knot in it.

"Amethyst?"

"Mmm?"

"What's the time?"

Amethyst froze. "Oh, shit, Peri—I totally forgot about your project—oh dude how much time do you even have left I'm so sorry—"

"Just tell me what time it is."

She obliged, taking an arm off of Peridot's shoulder and shoving it into the back pocket of her shorts. She dug out her phone and unlocked it. "4:49. Oh my god, Peridot, if it's due tomorrow—"

"Amethyst. It's okay."

Amethyst sighed and slumped her shoulders. "Mmkay. You, uh, you want me to stay up with you tonight, Peri? Y'know, give you moral support and junk."

Peridot grinned. "I'd love that."

4:49 PM translated into eighteen hours and forty-six minutes—although a good portion of that would be spent on a dancing rematch with Amethyst (perhaps even a dancing tournament, depending on Amethyst's level of sportsmanship) followed by the trip home after the rain had died down a bit. She still had to upload her bot's software, run numerous diagnostics on it, type up her data analyses, and paste everything on her trifold. Almost seventy percent of the project had to be crunched into less than a day's time.

But as Amethyst wrapped her warm, soft arms around Peridot's cold, shivering shoulders and pulled her in even closer, Peridot supposed another all-nighter wouldn't hurt her.

Just this once.

Annnd there have it! Second-ever Steven Universe fic, first-ever human AU fic. Hope I did the characters justice! I actually wasn't intending for the Cool Kids to make an appearance originally, but once I began writing this it just seemed so right to put them in, lol. Jenny's the shipper on deck, I suppose.

Thank you so much for reading and Happy New Year! :)