Templeschool

13. Rainy Days Wash The Sadness Away

AN: Stars, I love writing Peridot! She's so much fun! XD

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Peridot quietly cracked open the door of the bathroom. No Crystal Clods in sight. Good! She stepped fully out into the living room. The house was dark even though it was morning. She peered out the window to see droplets of some kind of liquid falling from the grey sky. "Very interesting. I'll have to ask Steven what this strange phenomenon is."

It didn't take her long to reach the top of the stairs, but her next course of action was debatable. Steven and Twoie were asleep in bed. Now, she could either choose to wake Steven or wake Twoie. "What did the human say last night? Loud noises wake humans?" She approached Twoie's side of the bed and took a deep breath. "WAKE UP TWOIE!"

Twoie screeched, bubbling himself and Steven out of instinct while the younger jolted awake in surprise. Steven scrambled into a sitting position as he pieced together the situation. He didn't summon the pink dome around him which meant-! "Twoie!"

The kid lunged forward and joyfully hugged his older brother as Twoie dispersed the bubble. Twoie threw an arm around him while he took a deep breath to calm down. "Stars, Peri. You almost gave me a heart attack!"

Peridot scrunched her face in indignance. "Excuse me? My name is Peridot, not Peri. Also, blame the other human. He's the one who told me humans wake up this way."

The young man looked questioningly at Steven. "Dad came over last night to check on you, but you were asleep. How are you feeling?"

Twoie could see the worry in his younger brother's eyes. "I'm fine now. I must've been exhausted after yesterday if I slept this long. How are you doing? That must've been scary to see."

Steven hugged him tighter. "I-I was so scared! The gems h-hurt you, and I couldn't get them to stop! And t-then you saved me! I had to dig you out from the rocks, and I was so scared!" Twoie gently rubbed the back of his head as Steven sobbed against him. Peridot looked uncomfortable, pretending to be interested in Steven's action figures as she waited for them to finish.

Twoie let Steven cry. Once the cries faded into sniffles, Twoie broke the hug. "I'm sorry." Steven looked at him, incredulously. "I should've told the gems more about the future. They only attacked me because they were scared that I would hurt you, and because I wasn't clear enough about why I kept withholding information."

Little hands started lightly beating against his chest. "No! It's not your fault, and I don't want to hear you blaming yourself." The younger brother puffed his cheeks in annoyance as he continued his lecture. "You always think it's your fault. The gems were wrong, though. They could've cleared up this whole misunderstanding if they just stopped pressuring you and told you about their worries, but they chose not to. You had good reasons for not telling them, so I don't want to hear you blame yourself again, you got that?"

Twoie was surprised that his younger brother felt so strongly about this. He knew it was his fault, but he didn't want to keep arguing with Steven. "Okay, Sunshine. Where are the gems anyway? I would've thought they'd be hovering around for the chance to talk. Are they on a mission?" Steven huffed in annoyance.

"I told them to leave us alone for a while. I still don't trust them to behave right now." The young man winced at his tone. It was weird hearing the normally happy and trusting kid sounded so angry.

"Are you done yet? I woke you up for a reason." Peridot interrupted. The green gem was standing at the side of the bed again.

Twoie faced her with a look of confusion. "Sorry, what's up?" She cleared her throat.