Chapter Text
Sweet Little Lies
Lapis drops her bookbag in her room of the shared apartment. Lugging that thing around all day kills her shoulders. She sighs, reaching into the bag to grab at her homework and laptop to begin working. As she zips up that bag, a knock resounds on her door.
Looking up, she sees Pearl and Amethyst at her door. Lately, the two had been pestering her about her past relationship and her refusal to open up about it.
“Hello, Lapis,” Pearl finally starts, “How was your day?”
Lapis only grumbles in response.
“We were thinking…” Amethyst steps forward into the room, brow furrowed, “It’s okay if you don’t want to talk to us, but we wanted to know if you’d like to join us on Valentine’s Day? We could have a girl’s night!”
No, no, no, Lapis thought to herself. She wants to be alone. Why can’t they just leave me alone?
“No thanks,” Lapis states, rather bluntly, turning her swivel chair to the slot in her desk. She opens her laptop, done with the conversation.
“Why not?” Pearl gawks.
Of course they can’t drop it.
“I would rather not bring down your guys’ happiness,” Lapis states bitterly.
“It’ll be fine, Lap!” Amethyst moves closer to sling an arm around Lapis. “Besides, you’ve been holed up in your room for weeks! Some time out with us can only do you well.” Amethyst flashes her trademark grin.
Shit, looks like they won’t take no for an answer. Lapis glances around, looking for something, anything to save her. She looks down at the physics book she has sitting in her lap, before looking back up at her roommates.
“I can’t because I’ll be spending Valentine’s Day with my lab partner,” Lapis hopes they’ll leave her alone now.
Pearl eyes her skeptically. “Your lab partner, huh?”
“Y-yup. Yes. She’s a tiny blonde girl named Peridot.” Hopefully, Peridot didn’t mind Lapis throwing her under the bus.
“Oh!” Amethyst excitedly exclaimed, “We can have a double date!”
“What?!” Lapis and Pearl responded in unison.
“Yeah, it’ll be perfect! Unless… there’s something you’d like to tell us Lapis?” Amethyst shoots a devious smile over to Pearl, who sends one right back.
Shit, can’t back out now.
“Fine,” Lapis says, firmness in her voice. “I’ll ask Peridot if she wants to go.” Lapis turns back to her computer as Amethyst ruffles her hair.
“Good to hear! Seven O’clock on Wednesday. Don’t be late!” With that, the two finally exited Lapis’ room.
Lapis slouches down in her chair and sighs.
◇◇◇◇
Peridot sits down in her Physics class, beginning to unpack things from her backpack. This includes her computer, her book, her binder, and her calculator. She was glad the science classrooms had tables instead of desks, because there was no way all this stuff would fit on one of those.
Other students begin to file in as class drew to a start, one of the last was her partner Lapis. Peridot blushes at the dress Lapis was wearing.
Peridot may have a little crush on Lapis, just a tiny one. She knew however that Lapis had recently broken up with her girlfriend, and Peridot didn’t want to do anything about it yet.
The lecture was short today. The teacher wants them all to go work on their upcoming project.
“Where do you want to go?” Lapis asks, breaking the awkward silence that engulfed them.
“Eh, I’m fine with anywhere,” Peridot replied semi-hollowly. Little sleep tended to have that effect on her.
“You live in the dorms, right?” Peridot nods at this. “We can go to one of the study rooms there.”
Peridot nods as she leads Lapis to her dorm, awkward silence enveloping them again.
That’s strange. Usually Lapis is a good conversationalist. The shirter girl turns to her companion. Lapis looks disheveled, that much is normal, but she also seems fidgety. Nervous. Peridot doesn’t know what she has to be nervous for. Maybe she’ll bring it up when they start working on the project.
Arriving at her building, Peridot swipes them in, taking the elevator up to her floor. Peridot leads Lapis towards her room, but turns before her door, going into the empty study room.
Setting her stuff down, Peridot begins to pull out her supplies. Lapis coughs, bringing attention to herself. When she sees that she had the shorter girl’s attention, she scratches the back of her neck.
“Hey, Peridot,” Lapis starts hesitantly, “There’s something I want to ask you.”
At this, Peridot felt her cheeks heat up. She feels a mass of butterflies amass in her stomach. Is it possible? She wonders.
Lapis sighs, “This is gonna be a long story. The sum of it is will you go on a date with me?”
Peridot gets very excited at this, she opens her mouth to respond, but Lapis cuts her off first.
“Wait, there’s some things you need to know before that.” Lapis steadily breathes in and out, attempting to calm herself. “First, I am not ready to date anyone yet. Emotionally, I’m still getting over my last break up. Second, I asked you for this because I lied to my roommates, and now they want us to join them on a double date for Valentine's day. Third, I’m sorry for getting you involved. I don’t have feelings for you, I just want my roommates to stop bothering me.”
Peridot’s mood sours considerably after the second part of Lapis’ confession. She put on an understanding facade and pushes herself forward.
“Yeah, I can help with that. Just tell me when and where,” the shorter girl had to focus to not let her emotions seep to deeply into her voice.
“Great! Thank you so much!” Lapis wraps the shorter girl in a hug. Peridot returns it bittersweetly.
◇◇◇◇
Lapis had told Peridot in the following days where and when they were meeting.
Finally, the day arrived. Lapis is nervous to be sure. She wants their charade to be believable. She even asks Peri what she was going to wear so they could match.
Amethyst and Pearl agree to drive Lapis to the place and Peridot would drive herself. With them arriving just in time for their reservations, the group is seated rather quickly. Peridot texts Lapis to inform them she was going to be a bit late.
They’re seated for a few minutes, then their server comes over. After they put in their drinks, they begin to idly chat.
“So, how did you and Peridot… you know?” Amethyst asked.
“Yeah, this is the first I’ve heard about this,” Pearl smirks att Lapis.
Lapis had to think quickly. “Yeah, she confessed to me during one of our lab activities. I thought “why not.” We’ve been together since.”
“Oh, and how long was that ago?” Pearl fires out.
“We’ve been together about two weeks,” Lapis says, running a hand through her hair. This isn’t good. If Peridot doesn’t arrive soon, I’ll be ousted all ready by the hole of lies I’m digging myself into.
As if on cue, who would appear but the great and lovable Peridot. Lapis finds her jaw on the floor. Peridot was dressed up very nice in a dark blue dress and large platform shoes. The shorter girl struts over to the table, taking a seat next to her “girlfriend.”
Not very long after, the waiter returns with their beverages, taking down Peridot’s with him as well.
Conversation returned to the table with a shifted focus on Peridot and detailing (trying to catch her in the lie) her and Lapis’ relationship.
Lapis wants to try to get the more physical aspect of their relationship down. She tries to put her arm around the smaller girl, but finds that every time she makes contact, the other pulls away. Finally giving up, Lapis resigned herself to hoping the others wouldn’t notice.
Throughout their conversations, Lapis began to notice things that she couldn’t help but find adorable about Peridot. The way she laughed, her natural awkwardness, and her affinity for anything geek. Lapos would even say she was beautiful, especially with the way she was dressed.
Lapis couldn’t believe she hadn’t realized this before. Has she always been this cute? She thought. Hell, I wouldn’t mind seeing if she actually wanted to date after this.
◇◇◇◇
“So Peridot,” Pearl started, “How long have you and Lapis been dating?” At the end of her question she began to pointedly shift her gaze to Lapis.
Without skipping a beat, Peridot replied, “About two weeks. Specifically, two weeks and a day.” Peridot and Lapis had rehearsed this. They went over basic questions the two discussed, including: the date they got together, their first “date," and even who confessed (Peridot).
While she was answering basic questions, she noticed Lapis continuously tried to touch her. Peridot didn’t want to be touched. She didn’t want her mind to think it was real. Peridot was still pretty agitated about this whole thing. But Lapis was persistent in her attempts to make contact. Finally, letting out a low hiss, Lapis gets the message and back off.
She was barraged by an assault of basic relationship questions. Some she only knew from working with being friends with Lapis for a semester.
“You two don’t seem very comfortable with each other,” Pearl states skeptically.
:Yeah, Amethyst follows, “You never really seem to touch each other. Have you even kissed yet?”
Peridot didn’t want to admit that she’d never been kissed, let alone had her first kiss with Lapis. She especially didn’t want her first kiss to be taken on a fake date.
Lapis seems to have other plans, however, as she begins grabbing at Peridot’s face, inching closer and closer.
Oh no, no, no, no, no, no. Peridot tries to pull away, but Lapis’ firm grip keeps her in place. Her eyes are open as their lips meet. As soon as it happens, Lapis’ grip loosens, and Peridot pulls away quickly. She lets out a growl at this. Grabbing her coat and purse, she begins leaving.
Storming out of the front of the restaurant, she almost so angry she doesn’t notice the door open again, revealing Lapis. Rain begins to lightly fall.
“Peridot, please--"
Peridot holds up a hand. “No. Listen, I know I said I’d help you, but that was too far! You didn’t even ask me to do that or anything! Did you think I’d just be fine with it? What is wrong with you?” The words came out fast and with a confidence Peridot was unaware of.
“I’m sorry. I guess I wasn’t thin--"
“You weren’t thinking? Damn right, you weren’t thinking. Did you ever stop to think about how I feel instead of this silly charade you’re trying to put up?”
“I got a little carried away.”
“A little? You stole my first kiss! I didn’t want it to go like that! I wanted to save it for someone who actually likes me! Not this silly fake date thing!”
“Peridot, I--"
“I like you, okay?”
“W-what?”
“I like you. A lot. But I never told you because I knew you wanted space. But then this happens and it feels like you’re just making a mockery of me.”
“I-I’m so--"
“Save it. I’m leaving.” Peridot wipes away the tears forming in her eyes. The rain begins to pour as she turns and gets in her car, slamming the door behind her. Pulling out, she leaves a dumbstruck Lapis Lazuli standing in the pouring rain, hurting worse than ever before.