Shattered Hearts (Steven Universe)

Chapter 7

Peridot hadn't realized how much she had wanted to tell someone, anyone, about what she had gone through lately until she explained her ordeal to Ben. She left out a few things, such as the Crystal Gems' reason for wanting to find her, but said mostly everything else. The boy listened and nodded, his eyes hinting vaguely at how he was feeling about what she was telling him. "So...you need to hide from them? For how long?" Peridot sighed, looking down at her boots again. "I don't know. I suppose I'll hide until they give up on searching for me, which could be a while." Her voice trailed off as Ben answered her. "Peri, this is really serious. No aliens are going to come and break down my door to look for you here, right?" Peridot smiled a little. "No, hopefully not. I'm going to need a way to hide from them in plain sight though, just in case." Ben nodded again, his dark brown hair falling into his eyes as he did so. "Well, if you're going to blend in, you'll need some different clothes. I can go get some-" Peridot waved his comment away. "Oh, there's no need." She closed her eyes, and a pale green light engulfed her as her gem lit up on her forehead. The light shone in fractures across the room, but it was still blindingly bright. When the glow faded, the green gem's suit had changed into a loose fitting green shirt and darker green shorts. She wore no shoes, however. Her power extended only to articles of clothing at the moment. Peridot gestured to herself with her hovering fingers. She had seen a human wearing clothes like this in the distance when she had arrived. She had remembered the outfit and kept the memory of it with her for reference in case she needed to fit in with the inhabitants of the Earth. "How's this?" Ben's eyes went wide from amazement. "Better," he told her, seemingly breathless. "You are just full of surprises lately." Peridot nearly smiled again, but tried to remain expressionless. "Only to you. This is normal for my kind." "Normal? I wish I was your kind of normal. It would take me like, five seconds to get ready for school if I could do that." Peridot's half suppressed smile went away as she looked at him with confusion. "School? What's a school?" Ben sighed, shaking his head. "Oh, never mind. Your outfit's good, but we'll need to do something about that hair of yours." "My hair?" Peridot put a hand up self consciously to her green tinted head to touch her updo. "What's wrong with my hair?" Ben smirked. "Oh, nothing, sorry. It's just that everyone here would notice a girl with green, triangle shaped hair in this little town. I like it, but other people might not. No offense." The green gem blushed at this. The boy was right. Her hairstyle was all the rage in Home World, but here, it would stand out like a sore thumb. "Oh, yes. Of course." Her gem glowed again, and her hair came out of its styling to come down above her shoulders in a wavy mass of green. "I can't change its color," she admitted. "That won't be an issue, will it?" Ben was staring at her, gawking as if she were an ancient artifact to admire. "No," he said, but his next few words took her by surprise. "You should really wear your hair like that more often, Peridot." Peridot felt her face warm up again, but this time Ben blushed at the same time. Human blushes made their faces redder, and it was rather fascinating to the gem. She had to admit, he wasn't as bothersome or as ugly as she had thought he was at first. He had agreed to hide her from her enemies, and that made him different from other humans. Most of them would've just turned her in to the Crystal Gems to save themselves from their wrath, but Ben wasn't like the others. He didn't treat her like garbage the way the gems back at Home World did. He treated her like...his equal. A feeling rose up inside of the green gem, one that she hadn't felt since she had left her home months ago. Peridot knew that this friendship-if it could even be called that- wouldn't last long due to her message to Emerald. Soon gems would arrive to take her home and apprehend the traitors that resided in this shore town. Peridot honestly didn't know if that was what she wanted anymore. To go home. Earth wasn't so bad...and as long as she had Ben beside her, maybe- just maybe-she could deal with whatever hardships would arise for her here on this foreign planet. Maybe this strange place could be her new place of residence...as long as she was careful.