Sitting in the temple with her geodes, Peridot stared at the shells of her young. There was no guarantee that they were going to make it, especially not with how she had landed. They probably wouldn’t, and it’d be all her fault. She should have landed better, but she didn’t, and now… Eight of them were smashed, and the rest were probably too traumatised to hatch. Tears bubbled in her eyes, and she hated it.
Stupid Homeworld authorities. Stupid Crystal Gems for making her crash. Stupid self, for crashing instead of landing correctly.
She ran her fingers over the geodes, her hands shaking too bad to hold them. She preferred the gloves, because at least they didn’t shake. She sniffled, tears bubbling up in her eyes before streaking her cheeks. The green gem put down the orange runt, sniffling. Her legs pulled to her chest, she buried her face against the prosthetics and let out a sob. Couldn’t she do anything right?
The geodes were probably as useless as her first ones had been, and she was going to sit here with them and watch them rot, wasn’t she? It was all her fault. The liquid had been the reason her legs had been shattered when she had reformed, and now… It would be useless. Her legs were gone, and for nothing.
A startled squeak escaped the green gem when the door opened, and she turned around quickly, a sigh escaping her when she noticed it was just Steven. He slowly walked over, biting his bottom lip as he walked over to her.
“P-Peridot?” he asked weakly, and she smiled despite the tears on her face.
“Hey, Steven. What uh… What brings you here?” she asked after a moment, glad her voice was as solid as it was. The older of the two sat beside the carrier gem, staring at the geodes.
“I was wondering… Are you okay? I mean, the eggs–”
“Geodes.”
“The geodes that didn’t make it had to be hard on you, and you seem to spend a lot of time in here with these, so I wanted to make sure that you were okay and all.”
“I appreciate you coming to check on me Steven. The fact that I lost so many is incredibly hard,” she sighed, and he put a warm hand on her shoulder. She glanced to the older gem and smiled despite herself. “I… I’m sorry.”
“What for?”
“Before. I tried to kill you, let Jasper knock you out, tried to hit you with the gem destabilizer, and… Everything. I’m sorry.” His arms wrapped around her in a tight hug, startling her and causing her to freeze. She hadn’t been expecting that in the slightest, and yet, here he was. Hugging her after all she had done. The tears bubbled again, streaking her cheeks silently as he held her.
“Aw, don’t worry about it Peri! I know you didn’t mean to, and I knew you were a good person!” he assured her, and she wanted to tell him not to call her that, but couldn’t bring herself to. He was so nice, and she felt something. Loved, perhaps? For the first time in her life, Peridot could honestly say she felt loved, and it felt so wonderful. A strangled sob escaped her before she could felt it, and she shattered in his arms. “Peri? Are you okay?”
She couldn’t even answer him, sobbing and shaking in his grip. No one had ever complimented her before, let alone said she was a good person. On Homeworld, she had just been an asset to farther the dying race, and here, she was more than that, because Steven had called her a good person, and he barely even knew her, but it still felt like she actually mattered for once.
Even when she had mated with Jasper, it had been cold and distant. She hadn’t even got off, left alone in her heat addled state. The tears had came then, just as easily as they came now, because she had hated herself for having to do anything of the sort, but it had been part of her mission. All for nothing, because they hadn’t even made more than a small gem could have, because the rest were destroyed, and it was her fault.
“Please don’t cry! I-I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to make you cry!” She choked down a sob, wrapping her arms around him.
“I-I’m so-sorry, Ste-Steven. I’ve… I’ve just ne-never had anyone sa-say anything like th-that to me,” she gasped, managing to keep her voice together enough that she could talk to the youngest Crystal Gem.
“That’s ridiculous! You’re pretty cool. I mean, you took the time to explain things to me about the eggs- er, geodes, and, you seemed so happy when you were talking about it. You even took the time to apologise to me!” She smiled at him through her tears, shaking with repressed sobs. “I care about you, Peridot.”
“I… I care about you too, Steven.”