Chapter Text
“...The End,” the slightly miffed voice of Lapis Lazuli finished.
“Whoa…” the two kids chorused as Lapis finished her story. They had been absolutely enamored with every word she had said.
It had started as a regular Geography lesson with Peridot, in which she had them recite the names of every Volcano on the face of the Earth, active or otherwise included. Connie had done exceptionally of course, even if she had stumbled through some of them. Steven however, had frozen halfway through, and Connie had been caught whispering some of the answers.
Both had been taken aside for a lecture. Steven had been properly admonished for slacking in his lessons just so he can go on patrol, and Connie had been told off because she was cheating. (“And cheating is wrong ,”) Just when the Kids thought they would be spending their whole afternoon there, Lapis had literally flown in for the rescue, loudly proclaiming that Geography sucked and History was better.
The kids had agreed of course, but neither of them wished to incur Peridot’s wrath as it turned toward Lapis Lazuli. But their savior didn’t give up, and did that thing the adults did with all the eyebrows, whispering, and the general disregard for personal space before she could even say one word. Which had made the kids groan in disgust and Peridot flush a darker shade of green.
While Peridot was busy with that particular ordeal, Lapis had already launched into a (partially) embellished story from the Crystal Gem Rebellion. It was focused on her deeds mostly, of course, but it also involved a cameo from an unstoppable Citrine, and ‘the hairy bowling ball that was Jasper.’
While the unflattering description of his mother bothered Steven, he had kept it quiet. Instead he had just bugged Lapis for details on what his mother and Connie’s were doing. It would all end in one big cheerful whoop as Lapis had finally given in and told him how Jasper had broken through a moving airship just to save Citrine from a would-be-assassin, the latter being too busy cutting swathes through the enemy to notice.
“My mom was so cool!” had been his first exclamation once he had gotten over the ‘Silent Awe’ stage of Peridot’s ‘AESSoLTBSItBH’ (An Enthusastic Steven’s Scale of Likelihood To Break Something In the Beach House. It started with ‘Silent Awe’ and ended with ‘Evacuate Beach City’.) in which Connie had joined him in the reenactment of the story.
Peridot had finally gotten over her flustered state, and she was not impressed. “Marvelous, as if it wasn’t already hard to keep their mental assiduity,” her voice rueful as she cast a sidelong glance at Lapis.
She took a moment to respond, “You know you love it ‘Dot,” her tone was off-put, it seemed like she didn’t like her story being hijacked for Citrine and Jasper...
Peridot sighed, “You can’t blame them for being curious,” her tone was soft, and hushed. Not that the hyperactive kids would notice. It seemed like her words were not having the intended effect however, and Lapis only seemed to get more frustrated.
So she did some damage control.
“Connie, Steven,” she made sure to put a healthy amount of authority to her voice (Peedee had called it ‘The Mom Voice’ when he had come over with his Lutes & Loot game and she had used it to make them obey) “Dears, we will continue this lesson another time.” Even she couldn’t salvage this, nevermind the fact that she had still not given up on salvaging an entire Kindergarten, (for plants, before you get any ideas) that didn’t mean she would let them off easy of course, “But I expect a detailed essay on today’s subject.” There, Steven did well on essays, so it would serve as an encouragement at the least and get him to learn the subject before he fell behind, again.
The kids nodded with enthusiasm. “May we go outside, ma’am?” The request she had been counting on had come from Connie.
“Be back before sunset.” She then smiled. “Have fun you two” The kids nodded with a set of smiles of their own and raced off to the door after grabbing a hefty supply of ‘arts and crafts’ material. Peridot’s smile disappeared immediately as she shouted behind them, “Steven, don’t let me catch you with glitter in your hair again!” She grumbled as she turned back, “ That troublesome mane. ”
She threw that errant thought aside as she focused solely on Lapis.
Connie coughed theatrically as she gazed at her army, a collection of rocks and boulders that had fallen down from the Temple’s facade and spent enough time in the ground to be unrecognizable, covered in copious amounts of colorful glitter by her and Steven.
Steven cupped his hands around his mouth, “Speech! Do a speech!”
“My people!” She addressed with a semi-serious voice, trying her best not to giggle as Steven whooped, “Before us are those who would destroy what is not theirs!” She pointed dramatically at a collection of boulders that had frowny faces doodled on them with some permanent marker. Steven booed as they were being mentioned. “Join me in delivering them to their makers!”
Maybe Connie had just rehearsed one of the Book’s speeches word for word, but nobody could deny the results.
Those results being Steven charging forward toward the boulders, an orange Crash Helmet appearing around his head with a shimmer of the aforementioned color.
She smothered the pang of jealousy that reared its ugly head, instead focusing on the pride she felt on the fact that she had helped Steven summon his weapon again.
For as long as the kids could remember, Steven’s weapon would pay them a visit whenever he felt an emotion particularly strongly. Like in his 7th birthday when his father had gotten him his first drum set. Or when he had gone on a roller coaster for the very first time. These bouts usually had very good timing, but the bad moments tended to be on the ‘disaster’ side.
And Connie was still unable to summon her weapon.
She had not let it become a divide between them of course, because when she had when they were younger, Lapis and Peridot had tried to reassure her at Steven’s expense. As they so often did, Steven already had enough on his plate with being treated like a walking hazard anytime he did something the others didn’t agree with.
She charged after him after a moment, deciding not to dwell on such thoughts. It was easier to get lost in the earlier excitement, to imagine herself charging through a battlefield with her loyal comrades, leading them from the front like the spitting image of a good leader. Perhaps being too caught in the moment, she brought her empty hand down on a boulder.
But it wasn’t empty.
She noticed that too late though, as the boulder she’d been aiming for exploded everywhere and sent her crashing backwards.
The last thing she saw before she tumbled to the ground was a thin yellow line crashing through the window of the Beach House.
Several startled screams both inside and outside followed, although none of it could suppress the little mantra that had just started in her head.
I just summoned my weapon!