Tanzanite

Chapter three

"Been in love?" My face turned hot and I looked away. "No not really. I was trapped in a mirror for thousands of years and then I was trapped underwater for several months with someone that almost killed me," I sighed, "love was never on my mind."
"Ah," She said back, letting out a sigh.
"What about you?" I asked, sitting up and looking at her, "we're you ever in love?"
"Well love is more of irrelevance to me. I focused all of my time and energy on my machines. So no I've never been in love. But I've always wondered about it. I tried asking Garnet what it felt like and she just told me that 'I'd know it when it happens'" she shook her head, "I have a lot of time now since I don't have to worry about machines. Maybe I'll find love."
"Here on Earth? The most you can love here people wise is either one of the Crystal Gems or a human like Rose Quartz did," I let out a small chuckle.
"Or you. I could fall in love with you," Peridot covered her face a bit.
"Fall in love with me? That's a pretty good joke there Peridot. We're two different gems. Both physical and personality wise."
"Ruby and Sapphire did it."
My eyes widened and I looked away. That was true. Ruby had been just some common gem meant as a body guard. And Sapphire was a noble gem. They were two completely different gems. Two different backgrounds. And two different personalities. But they fell in love.
"That is true, but--" I was cut off mid sentence by something on my lips. I looked down and it was Peridot. She was...what do the humans call it? Kissing me.
I didn't know what to do. I wanted it to stop, but for some reason it just...filled me with...happiness. Something I had longed for.
But as soon as the kiss had started, it stopped and Peridot's face was a darker shade of green.
"I'm a Clod!" She shouted, quickly running from me and going back down the silo, back to where the truck was.
I touched my lips and for some reason, a smile crossed them.

                       ----

The next day I made my way down from the silo, seeing Peridot not too far away from the barn, sitting on a rock.
"Peridot?" I asked, making my way over to her. She had her knees to her chest.
"Hey you said we need to have several conversations a day if we want to get along." I nudged her a little. She just seemed to ignore me.
"Look what happened last night didn't mean anything. I know that. You were just doing an experiment," I smiled at her and kneeled down in front of the rock, "look let's just talk about stuff. Anything. I don't care."
Peridot finally looked me in the eye and sighed, moving herself out of the sort of ball she had made. "Alright," she said, "do you think we could go for a fly or something? I'm getting really tired of being on the ground."
"Sure thing," I turned my back to her, holding tight to her legs when I felt her climb onto my back. That was my cue to spread out my wings and take off into the air.
"Wow!" Peridot exclaimed, "the sky is so brilliant! Much better than homeworld's sky!" I just chuckled and swerved a little to the left,tilting myself up and shooting up above the clouds. "I can see why you became a Crystal Gem, Peridot. I can see why they all did. This planet is beautiful. And the fact that the diamonds wanted to destroy this place and make it just another colony is really heart breaking." I looked down through gaps in the clouds at the ground below. "If I were stronger....I would fight along side the Crystal Gems."
"You don't need to be super strong," Peridot said, rubbing my shoulder, "I'm not at all powerful without my extra attachments. But they welcomed me into the Crystal Gems." She sounded happy talking about it, "I found that this planet...this planet is a beautiful place. And I want to protect it." Her voice was so sincere...it was so touching.
"I want to be a Crystal Gem too...I want to protect Earth now. After all I am living on it," I felt tears welling in my eyes and instead of hiding them, I let them fall. "It has all of my friends on it."

The two of us flew around for a while before we made our way back to the barn, speaking a bit more before we began to part ways.
Peridot honestly wasn't as bad as I had thought. She was a great person...with a great personality. But she had just been caught up with the wrong group in the beginning.
I flew to the top of my silo and laid back on it, looking up at the stars once more. "This planet deserves protection....and now as a Crystal Gem...I'll protect it and the people that reside on it."