Do You Promise?

Bunkered Down

I couldn't wait for my and Amethyst's trip up to Toronto, Canada. We were thinking about reversing our plans and heading down south, but neither of us really liked the heat down there that much. Apparently, it gets hotter the further you are into the Southern Hemisphere or something? This made our plans for Brazil get thrown out of the window really quick. We didn't really know much to do down there anyway. We heard about the extremely cold environment up north and thought that we might as well go up there and check it out. Steven told us that we should bring some warm clothes, so that we don't freeze. "Hey, Lapis?" I hear Amethyst ask me from the other room. But I could tell that she was walking towards my room. "Yeah?" I respond.

"You wouldn't, do what you did a couple of months ago, would you?" She asked me nervously. I was shocked by the question, "No, of course not!" I exclaimed. "Do you promise?" She asked me. I thought about it for a little while. "Yes, I promise!!" I answer, nodding. She nods back and starts to walk towards me. She starts to hug, and I hug back. I start to think about it. I didn't want to lose this, not even come close to losing this, not ever again. I loved being here, I loved everything here, I loved being here with her. I couldn't let all of that go away. Everything was perfect the way it was already. "What made you ask?" I ask Amethyst as she lets go of me to continue packing. "Just, popped in my head. Nothing serious," She responds.

A part of me wanted to believe her, but the other half, could tell that she was hiding something. Something that she didn't want me to ever know about. Was I missing something? Did I do something else wrong? A concern was starting to grown inside of me, but I did my best to ignore it. We were still planning on heading to Toronto to travel the upper north and we're still together, proud of how far we had come between when we first met and now. I walk to the other side of my room towards the small desk in front of my window so that I could continue packing as well. I looked up to see outside the window and saw a few of mine and Amethyst's art students walking past. I thought nothing of it, since Vidalia would be teaching while I and Amethyst were away.

Vidalia had exceeded her college degree for visual arts, and was planning on becoming a college art teacher herself. But, for the time being, she needed to substitute for us. There were quite a bit of students that were disappointed to hear that we would be gone for a few months. We had to reassure them that we just needed some time away for a little bit and that Vidalia would do a fantastic job while we were gone. Before we leave, we needed to head all the way over to Missouri in order to pick up Vidalia since her car hasn't been working the best. We called Steven to make sure that he would take Vidalia over to Missouri while we're gone, so that she can get her car back.

"Lapis! Come here!" I hear Amethyst call. I walk over to her dorm building. Today was the day that we were leaving for Toronto. I wonder where Steven is, I thought. Steven had agreed to lend us a car that he no longer used due to it being pretty old. I and Amethyst haven't decided who's going to drive it yet though, since we've both only driven a car a few times. Amethyst maybe has driven a car more than a few times, but that's the case, at least, for me. "Coming!" I yell over to Amethyst as I enter the entrance to her dorm building. As soon as I walked in, everyone started to greet me and tell them how much they'll miss us. I felt great, I felt good about it. This was a really needed trip for us, we really needed a break. Sure, I love Little Homeworld and Little Homeschool, but doing the same thing over and over again can get exhausting.

I run up the stairs from the first floor to the second, wondering what Amethyst could've called me for. I run up to her dorm and knock on her door hastily. *knock knock knock* "It's unlocked Lapis!" She called from the other side of the door. I open the door to see that Amethyst had been preparing everything for our trip to Canada. I was so excited, not only for the trip, but also for Amethyst! She had been trying her best to be as organized as possible for the past few months, and she's really gotten better at it recently! I'm proud of her, for everything that she had done for herself and for me. After everything that happened all of those months ago, Amethyst has done her best at making sure that we're both happy. Happier than we ever were before.

"Wow, Amethyst! Great job with all of this!" I tell her as I stare at the map that she had set up so that we wouldn't get lost on our way to Toronto. I run up to her and hug her. She hugs back, even more joyful than she was about our trip, So was I. We stop hugging and she goes back to getting everything prepared for our trip. I walk towards the window and look outside. I see Steven waiting for me to come back out of the dorm building. "Sorry, but I have to get going! Steven's waiting for me and he said that we could go out and look at some more 'winter clothes,'" I told Amethyst. She nodded, letting me know that she understood, as I opened the door and left the dorm.

I run as fast as I can down the hall towards the stairs and nearly trip on the steps as I go down them. I can hear Steven calling for me, probably wondering where I am. I run out of the front door, towards Steven. He looks over at me and smiles, "Hey, we have to get going soon if we're gonna pick those clothes up!" He told me. "Okay, I'm coming!" I called to him as we both started walking over to where his car was parked. I questioned why we couldn't just fly there, but I figured that one car ride couldn't hurt, I guess. We get into his car, outside of Little Homeworld, and head towards the clothing store.

"Hey, Amethyst? Sorry that I'm not able to make it to our meet-up point near the gem temple. A sudden storm hit around the store and we're having to bunker down here for the time being. Hope you got this, don't worry. We'll just have to postpone the trip a little bit, that's all." I say as I hang up the phone. I had tried to call her a couple of times before giving up and just left a voice mail. I give Steven his phone back and then start making my way to the front of the building. I wanted to see how bad the storm was getting, and how quick it was going to pass. It seemed like it would take an extended, long period of time. I and Steven went looking for some board games that could just be lying around, as a way to pass the time. Which worked for a little bit, but eventually we both got bored.

We split up and, while I don't what Steven did during this time, I went and found some art supplies. I spent a lot of my time messing around with this stuff. I heard over the speakers inside of the store that any and all products that were used as a way to pass the time or as a way to take our minds off of the storm would not need to be bought and would most likely either be sent back to where they were made/designed in order to be properly set up, or would be donated to children after the storm was over. Almost immediately after, the speakers came on again, except it was calling me to the front desk of the store. I thought that Steven was needing me, so I rushed over. I get to the register, seeing Steven wait patiently for me. I couldn't tell if anything was wrong though. "Hey Lapis! So, the storm might be here for a few more weeks, or at least deal damage leading to a three-week quarantine-like period." He told me.

I was a little shocked, but not surprised. These storms, while rare, would happen occasionally due to leftover remnants of weather control stations that were left behind because of the Diamonds. After discovering how weather and time worked on Earth, the stations were built as a way to possibly improve work conditions, in order to quickly get things built. The projects were soon abandoned, however, as the Rebellion had raided nearly every single one of them. Workers and Gem Instructors were ordered to retreat and abandon any remaining weather-related structure to avoid any further confrontation. Some stations were still left running by accident though and the Diamonds weren't able to track where the last few stations were. I explained all of that to Steven, and he became a little calmer, knowing that it could be fixed within a short amount of time. "We'll have to wait until the storm cools down, at least a little bit, but we should be able to get out there and locate the station to stop it. Sorry that this had to happen just days before your trip, Lapis." Steven told me. "It's fine, it's not your fault," I reply.

Oh, it isn't your fault? Last I remember, you were responsible for stuff like. Aren't you able to control the weather, you don't really want to spend months with Amethyst, do you?

"Did you hear that?" I ask Steven, startled. "Hear what? Maybe you should go rest, maybe that'll calm you down." He tells me. I ignore what I thought I had heard and take his advice to rest for a little. Maybe he was right, I just need to calm down.

EDITOR'S NOTE: Thank you everyone for waiting SO very patiently and I, again, apologize for keeping you waiting so long for content. This story is taking place after the events of 'Moving On,' another Fanfiction I created/started just about a year ago, and ended at the end of 2020. I'll probably not post another part until after Pride Month is over, as I plan to stream daily until the end of the month, along with the fact that I am working on SO many other projects as of the time being. Thank you for reading this, and I hope you all enjoyed it!