My Savior (Human AU)

The Arcade

It's the next day. Peridot and I decided to meet at the arcade by the beach. I was wearing my favorite t-shirt with the words 'water witch' on it. I also had on ripped jeans and some converse shoes.

I was waiting by the entrance on my phone, scrolling through Instagram. Peridot was running late, and I was getting bored. I walked into the arcade. Might as well start without her. I paid for some tokens and started playing 'whack a mole, ' I swung best I could. I tried to hit all of them, but they kept coming all at once.

Once the game over, I looked at my score. It was low. I growled and slammed the hammer on the game in frustration. "I thought this was supposed to fun." I jumped at the random voice but recognized it was just Peridot. I exhaled in relief. Peridot stared intently at my score. A smile grew on her face, and she started to laugh.

I growled and shoved the hammer to her chest. "Try beating my score." she was confused at first. She looked at my score then back at me. She grew a confident smirk and stepped in front of the game. I put a token in the game for it to start.

As it started, Peridot was going at the speed of light, knocking down almost every mole. She had determination in her eyes and a firm grip on the hammer, swinging with glace and precision.

When the game stopped, her score skyrocketed, and tickets poured out of the machine. My eyes widened, looking at the numbers change rapidly. She looked at her score and smiled. She looked back at me with a shit-eating grin. "It's not always about strength lazuli" she remembered my name? She got all her tickets and brought them to the counter. There were so many that I had to help her.

The guy behind the counter was distracted and had his back turned to us. As we put the tickets on the counter, he turned around. "How may I- OH MY GOD, DID YOU STEAL THE TICKETS FROM THE GAME OR SOMETHING?! Peridot busted out laughing.

She's so goofy. I smiled, gazing at her as she kept laughing. She calmed down and leaned on the counter. "I want that PlayStation up there," she pointed towards the PlayStation on the shelf. "That's eighteen hundred tickets!" She snickered and pushed the tickets she won into the ticket counter. The number was counting up and reached over two thousand. My mouth hung open as I kept recounting the number.

"Peridot... that was only one game...how did you-" she turned to me and put her index finger on her mouth, signaling me not to ask questions. I closed my mouth, and she turned back towards the man. "We have two thousand tickets," the man gave Peridot a skeptical look and leaned over the counter to look at the ticket counter. His eyes grew wide, and his jaw dropped.

The number was two thousand five hundred and seventy-eight. The man back off the counter and hesitantly pulled his keys out his pockets. He turned to the cabinet and opened it. He pulled out the PlayStation and handed it to Peridot. She took the PlayStation and walked the door, and I followed.

"What about the rest of the tickets, and how did you do that?!" She stopped just outside the exit and turned to me. "The ticket counter, measured by weight and often systems like that need to be re-calibrated almost daily. I knew the system would be off by a mile, and so I used that to my advantage. I regulated the density of the paper and made it seem more than what it was. With that, the system doubled the ticket amount, thus totaling to two thousand tickets" I stared at her and thought to myself. How the fuck...?

"So I see you're perceptive, maybe if you'd use those skills in class, you'd pass," She growled, and I laughed. "Wanna go play some fair games." she smiled, "sure."

We walked up to the stand. I gave the teen a dollar, and he handed me a baseball. I look over at peridot, and her eyes were practically stars. She was looking at the big stuffed alien prize. I smirked with confidence and pulled my hand back, getting ready to throw. I focussed on the cups and threw the ball as hard as I could.

The ball knocked over all three cups, and I jump in victory. "YASSSSS." The noise got Peridot out of her daze, "Lapis, you won?!" The teen walked over to the big prizes. "Which one do you want," the teen asked. Peridot tugged at my arm, pointing towards the alien. She looked back at me with puppy dog eyes, and I couldn't resist. She's so damn cute.

"I want the alien." The man unhooked it and walked over to Peridot. Before he even reached her, Peridot grabbed the toy and squeezed it. I giggled, "you act like you never got a toy before." She froze and slowly turned her head to face me. She frowned and looked down.

Oh shit... guess its time to go, "Wanna go back to my house?" I smiled at her, hoping that she would smile back. She just buried her face in the toy and started walking in the direction of my house. I picked up the Playstation and followed closely behind. She didn't say anything. She kept a steady pace in front of me and never even turned around.

When we made it to my house, she stepped to the side and let me unlock the door. Once the door open, she stormed in and ran to my room. This is new. "Peridot!" I ran after her.

I walked into the room and set the PlayStation on my dresser. She was sitting on the edge of the bed, looking at her feet. The toy was leaning against the wall. I gently sat next to her. She looked depressed and eager all at the same time. I lightly put my hand on top of hers, and she winced at my touch then relaxed. I curled my hand to grasp hers.

"Peridot" "My parents died, Lapis." she interrupted me, but this time I don't mind. I sat silently, ready to listen to everything she has to say. "They died when I was ten, and ever since then; the gang has been my only family." Something warm dripped on my hand. I looked at my hand then at her. Peridot was crying. She whipped her tears away."My parents...sniff... they loved the gang more than they did me.." She gripped my hand tightly. "And everyone expects me to be like them but I...sniff... I can't do it, Lapis.."

Peridot started to sob. She was frantically wiping her tears away with her hands. I moved her hands from her face, and her eyes stared at me bloodshot. Peridot had never been vulnerable to me, so I don't exactly know what to do. I wrapped my arms around her and pulled her into a hug. She cried into my chest, and my shirts all wet, but I don't mind.

After she stopped crying, I pulled back and looked at her. Her eyes were puffy, and she was sniffling. "Lapis, I'm... I'm sorry about what I did..." she looked away. "You never deserve what I did.." She hugged me again, and I hugged back. "The only reason I didn't hurt you for getting jasper arrested is that I knew in the back of my mind, that you did nothing wrong." I hugged her tighter, resting my chin on her head.

"We hurt you, and you actually stood up for yourself and told someone... No one ever did that before. You're brave, Lapis... You're stronger than you might think," I froze when she said that. I'm not brave... I barely wanted to go in the first place.

After a couple of minutes of hugging, I pulled away. "well, I'm tired, you wanna spend the night?" she nodded, and we crawled under the covers. She nuzzled in between my arms, and I wrapped my arms around her. I wouldn't normally do this with someone who's taken, but she's stressed out, so just this once. I smiled and drifted off to sleep.

Y'all like that character development? Too fast? Too much? Trash?... Okay
(1414 Words)