A/N - Hey guys, still working on the next chapter for A Gem Like You. I wanted to experiment with like a hyper-detailed sorta introspective style. That seemed like it would fit better in a slice of life type story. When I finished, I thought it was cool, so I decided to post it just in case someone might like to read it.

Peridot stood by the window, her arms crossed, holding her elbows. Outside was a smear of grey and drops of rain on the windowpane. She would follow a trail with her eyes down the glass until another caught her eye and she'd switch to that one. Her ears, tucked underneath blonde hair, listened idly to the pitter patter sounds that it made on the deck like drops on a drum. Without thought, the corner of her lips raised in an amused smile as she chased the raindrops on the glass. She uncrossed an arm and reached out unsteadily with one slender finger. It passed through the window's one-inch atmosphere, a layer of chilly air, and landed on the glass with a quiet thump. She giggled. The trail of rain that had stopped underneath her finger snaked down again at her touch.

"What's so funny?"

A faded blue blanket as warm as those words fell on her shoulders. Steven adjusted it from behind with a couple of tugs so that, due to its size and her shortness, it was a cloak. She closed her eyes, her hands disappearing into the folds of the blanket. She found the edges with her fingers and curled them into her fists drawing the blanket snug. Steven was next to her, behind her, his hand pressing down the part of the blanket that was covering her butt and her lower back. She smiled, enjoying the places he was touching her inadvertently in an attempt to find where he should rest his hand. At last, it found her hip. She sighed.

"I was experimenting with the rain again."

"Do you want to go out in it?"

"No," She answered suddenly, then lowering her head, and repeating softer, "no."

It was like pretending the outside world was gone; all save a grey smear that you could say might be a sky or a beach or the ocean. She wanted to keep it that way. It was like being in her ship in space. Here she was in a small world where everything could be contained and accounted for and out there was nothing that needed her attention. She only had so much of that. She wanted it all to go to —

Peridot turned to Steven halfway. Her hand left the private cocoon of the blanket. Folds of faded blue rolled down her arm like a lazy wave to gather near her shoulder. Her palm touched the warm center of his chest then slid down to tease through the cloth the outline of his gem where her fingers liked to go.

Steven liked places on her too. She loved that most of all; that they had places. He brought his lips near her gem, and she leaned up relishing that habitual motion in herself that only he could activate. She could have never imagined before now the way her body would read his signals. Steven kissed the corners of her gem. Left was always first. Mmmmm. A warmth coiled in her chest. Right next. She smiled. Bottom was last. Then a final kiss to the center, on the smooth green glassy surface. It sent shivers down her spine. She looked up in time to see the green glow fade from his face where her gem had winked at him.

He looked down at her and met her eyes. His were half-lidded and sleepy.

"This rain is making me tired. Think I'll take a nap before the gems get back," He gave her hip a squeeze and then another above it on her side before he realized from her gaze that it wasn't going to be enough for either of them. Peridot raised herself on stocking covered tiptoes. She kissed him first impatiently and then pulled away before needing more and rejoining her lips to his. They were always so soft wherever he put them. He gave her a parting squeeze through the blanket and with effort took each step up to his bedroom.

Steven was halfway up the stairs when he stopped. He looked over his shoulder. Peridot was waiting on the step behind him wearing his blanket pushed back over shoulders like a cape. It's length draped down nearly to the level below her. She eyed him innocently. He chuckled and climbed the rest of the way.

When he threw himself down into the middle of his bed, she quietly and determinedly crawled up next to him. Somewhere far off it thundered. Peridot held onto him, and he brought his arm around her shoulder. She buried her face in the crook of his neck, her gem gently pressing against the side of his jaw.

"Hmmm, I'll turn the TV on low and fall asleep to that," Steven muttered, "Where's the remote?"

After a few moments of him fumbling around, Peridot felt Steven grab a handful of her. She gasped. Steven was smiling.

"Is it under here?"

"No— OOoooo nooOOOoOOoo EEEEEEhhhhh no!" She whined and giggled squirming in his arms as he squeezed her butt and the back of her thighs. She was pushing his arm away but not too hard.

"Oh, there it is," Steven said, holding the remote up where she could see it.

Peridot brought her face back down to his neck with a blush wishing he would have taken longer to find it.

"So here you can see we have a heavier downpour crossing from west to east. There's a rain-snow line going all the way down to northern Mississippi." The TV issued a few clicks as Steven lowered the volume and set the remote down, "—Ahead of the front, carrying showers and thunderstorms with it. Two 'o'clock tonight flooding rains are expected in southern Delmarva…"

In the distance, past the grey of Steven's bedroom window, it thundered again. This time Peridot didn't even move except to throw her leg across both of Steven's and hook the back of her ankle against him. Her gem was next to one side of his jaw, so she brought her hand to the other side to match with her fingers rubbing his cheek. Steven murmured something. It made her smile.