⌈ Hanahaki - Lapidot ⌋ COMPLETED ✓

𖥸 8 𖥸

{ Edited on 08/28/21 }

Peridot's eyes felt heavy, as she struggled to cling on to whatever consciousness she had left. Though, it seemed like a pretty pointless fight so far. Her chest ached with sadness and tears constantly fell down her cheeks. How long had she been sitting in that same spot? She honestly lost count. After Lapis had left she sat and never moved. Even Aquamarine had to leave after a few hours.

She sighed and leaned her head against the back of the silo, coughing out a few petals in the process. There was a decently sized pile of them surrounding her at this point. She couldn't help but remember Lapis' words as if her memories were on repeat.

Lapis really didn't care, did she? It was starting to seem that way.

Peridot usually tried to look to the bright side of everything, but this time she couldn't. No matter how hard she tried. It felt like her life was over. All those thousands of years of life and time spent to become a better gem only for none of it to matter.

It was clear in her head. Lapis couldn't care less about how Peridot felt. That had been proven true on multiple occasions. She didn't care how much her words hurt. She probably wouldn't care if Peridot were to shatter, either.

She wished that this was all some bad dream, but unfortunately, it wasnt. It was this cruel, sick reality she had come to face. Lapis hated her, and she should probably hate Lapis too.

But for some strange reason, Peridot couldn't bring herself to hate Lapis. It made her angry, and confused. Lapis had treated her horribly, why didn't she hate her? She had every right to hate her, she should hate her. But she just couldn't. Deep down she knew it was because she loved Lapis too much.

Peridot felt something rising in her throat. She coughed loudly and quickly sat up. There was a new burning sensation in her throat. She held her hand to her neck in an attempt to ease the pain, but she had eventually coughed up the source of it.

She looked down. She had coughed up a small vine, with mutiple large thorns and petals attached to it. The sight made Peridot want to gag. She had just coughed that thing up? As gross as it was, she couldn't bring herself to care right now.

Peridot threw the vine aside and carefully stood to her feet, despite her legs protesting. She held her aching gem as she made her way back to the barn.

Once she made it inside, she walked to her favorite corner and collapsed to the floor, finally losing the last of her strength. She sat there for a few minutes and closed her eyes, enjoying the silence the barn held along with the sounds of the nature outside of it.

A few minutes later Peridot heard a pair a feet walk inside the barn, which had creaked against the unstable floorboards. Peridot opened her eyes a crack to see who it was.

Golden sandals, dark blue pants, and blue skin filled her vision. It was Lapis. And she was standing right in front of her.

Peridot instantly dug her head into her knees, feeling a sudden amount of overwhelming guilt and shame. She wasn't ready to face her yet!

"Peridot." Lapis started, kneeling down to her level. "What are you doing here? I thought you were staying with Steven." She asked, acting as if their whole conversation earlier hadn't happened.

Even though she really didn't want to, Peridot felt like she had to answer Lapis' question. "I.. just wanted to be at home. Y'know?" She laughed nervously.

"You do know this is my home too, right?" Lapis chuckled softly, seeming to have calmed down a bit from their argument earlier that morning. It was strangely comforting and scary at the same time.

But that laugh. That was the laugh Peridot had fallen in love with. No. She couldn't think about that, not when Lapis was right there. Not when neither of them had addressed the events from before.

The lack of response made Lapis frown. She sighed. "Listen, Peridot.." Lapis said, turning her head. "I'm really sorry about this morning, and everything else I did to you. I wasn't thinking all those times, and apparently I wasn't thinking today either." She scratched the back of her neck. "And I'm really sorry I hit you too. That's never acceptable, and.. just know it'll never happen again."

Lapis ran a hand through her hair. "I just really wanted to know what was going on, and I was scared and worried about you. So scared that it caused me to lash out." She paused.

"Peridot.. can you forgive me?" Lapis asked, looking into Peridot's with her own eyes full of hope and regret.

Peridot sighed and gave a small smile. Lapis had apologized, which meant she did care after all. "O-Of course I can."

Lapis took a moment to stare at green gem before her. She noticed that Peridot was shaking, which didn't seem normal. "Are.. you okay?" She asked, leaning forward to get a closer look at her.

"Pfft. Of course I am." Peridot waved a dismissive hand with an almost sarcastic tone. She wasn't fine. Lapis could tell.

"Peridot. Please don't lie to me." Lapis pleaded, taking Peridot's hands in her own. "I don't want to lose you again."

Peridot didn't respond. Lapis  took this time to study Peridot's face. And after a second or two of looking, she noticed the small but noticeable crack that seemed to be growing in Peridot's gem.

Lapis gasped. "Peridot, your gem is cracked!" She said, her voice laced with worry. She held Peridot's head in her hands to bring them closer to her face.

Peridot let Lapis do so. She felt too weak to do anything about it anyways. "Oh yeah.. heh. I forgot about that.."

"Per- You forgot?! How long has this been going on for?" Lapis asked, anxiously biting her lip.

"I dunno.. a few days?"

"And why didn't you tell anyone?!"

Peridot didn't respond.

"Peridot, please!" Lapis begged. "I need to know what's going on."

The green gem let out a heavy sigh. She was ready to finally give in. She picked up her tablet which lied a few feet away from her.

She went to google and pulled up her latest search, which was "Coughing up flowers", and simply handed the device to Lapis.

Lapis' eyes quickly scanned the screen, before they widened. She covered her mouth, as she continued to read more and more about this so called "disease".

"Peridot.." Lapis softly spoke, "Why didn't you tell me?"