Stuck Out Here With You [Lapidot Safari AU]

Chapter One: Adventure Is Out There

Peridot had been absolutely certain to have packed everything she might have required in every literal and theoretical issue that might arise during her minutely stay in the African Safari. She'd brought her passport, itinerary, travel insurance documents, an extra pair of prescription glasses, binoculars, toiletries, her preventative pharmaceuticals-- quite literally everything that would fit into the compact backstrap strapped readily to her small back.

But none of these things only did so much to combat the heat of the early afternoon of the Kalahari.

Seriously, why hadn't anyone from the biology department warned her before they sent her off across the globe to observe the native species? Couldn't she just have watched hours upon hours of recorded footage from the database in the remote, air-conditioned recluse of her tiny apartment? Here, it constantly felt as though she were receiving the blowing end of a hairdryer, right into her bespectacled face.

Grumpily, she snatched up the pamphlet she had received from their safari vehicle driver -- a friendly, perpetually sunburnt man by the name of Gregory Universe (but he insisted to be referred to only as "Greg." Why he would demure to such a mundane alias, Peridot was clueless,) -- and began to fan herself.

Her safari crewmates were quite. . . colourful, to place it mildly. Literally. Beside her, a tall, toned dark-skinned woman with a thick head of compact hair lounged, dark sunglasses positioned anonymously over quirked features. Garnet, she'd introduced herself as at the start of the tour when they'd all joined together and went over the procedures and safari etiquettes.

In front of her, a short, stocky woman had her feet kicked up against the back of the driver's chair. If Greg minded, he didn't say a thing. She had thick, fluffy, lavender-coloured hair and a lazy smirk deep enough to give an old conservative heart palpitations. Beside her was Pearl, and in Peridot's opinion, she was. . . incredibly bird-like. Long, wiry limbs and a short, swept head of pale pink hair-- not to mention her, ah, pronounced nose.

At the very front, though, in the passenger seat, there was the more elusive of them. Lapis Lazuli, she'd murmured, with a head of electric blue hair and freckles smattered across her face and arms, as bountiful as the stars in faraway galaxies.

Not that Peridot had paid too much mind to her, anyways. It wasn't like she'd been absolutely, enigmatically smitten from the start. Absolutely not, who could even consider such a notion--

"Whoa-- whoa, Pearl, look at that!"

Ah, yes. The resident prepubescent teen was speaking. Peridot glanced through the corners of her eyes, spotting the blur of peach-and-pale-red that was Steven, wobbling on his knees beside Pearl. The boy was excitedly gesturing towards the zeal of zebras clustered around the edges of a small watering hole, up to their knees in the browned liquid. They weren't awfully far from them; in fact, the animals seemed rather indifferent to the presence of the safari crew.

"Look at all the zebras!" He continued, fingers drumming excitedly against the cloth wall hitched up to preserve what little false sense of security the Jeep harbored. "They're letting us get so close!"

Pearl hummed and gently coaxed Steven down, lips parting to speak, but Greg beat her to it. "That's because they've gotten used to us, buddy! Or, at least, they've grown used to the Jeep. They don't take too kindly to the old van. . ." He remarked over his shoulder, brow furrowing thoughtfully.

"That's because the van is coloured so loudly they could see it a mile away," Pearl noted stiffly, patting the curls atop Steven's head as the boy finally sat back down in his seat, eyes still glued to the striped animals now milling just beyond the vehicle doors. Pearl raised her camera expectantly. "The animals will come closer when you're in neutral colours, you know."