Chapter Text
They say a stopped clock is right twice a day. However, a stopped wristwatch proved to be useless for Peridot, who sat waiting on the uncomfortable bus stop bench she seemed damned to wait at for eternities. The bus was supposed to arrive at 9:00 am, but she had no way of knowing exactly how late it was running with her watch's dead battery. She sighed, letting her right hand fall into her lap. She watched the traffic go by aimlessly and, as they tend to do, her eyes wandered to her left wrist, which was lightly gripping the end of the bench, wrist turned down, so she couldn’t see the small, frozen timer adorning her wrist. She didn’t need to look to see it was frozen. 00:00:00:00:05:17, or zero years, zero months, zero days, zero hours, five minutes and seventeen seconds. It had remained that way for years now. She learned as a child that one’s timer will freeze, stop, cease, etc, if either soulmate dies. Peridot couldn’t bring herself to be amused at the ironic way such a stipulation affected her. Peridot’s soulmate didn’t die that day, but the doctors tell her she did. Twice. The first time on the ambulance and again when the doctors were– Peridot closed her eyes tightly to try and suppress the anticipated flood of oncoming memories…
Thankfully, the screeching of the bus’s brakes pulled her out of her thoughts. Peridot stood up slowly, careful to keep herself steady as she hoisted up her duffel bag and made her way onto the bus. The last thing you need is to have a panic attack in front of the kids you'll be going to summer camp with, she thought as she found a vacant seat and fixed her gaze outside the window, setting her bag beside her to deter any would-be seatmates.
Ever since... the accident... timers had always been a sore subject for Peridot Greene. Unlike most children, who obsessively check their wrists and daydream about the day they see those fabled zeroes, Peridot hadn't put much anticipation into the day she would meet her fated. Was she anxious as the timer ticked down to zero months? Zero days? Zero hours? Certainly, she was, just as anyone would be, but she had much better things to do than worry about some dumb clock. Romance was overrated anyway, as far as Peridot cared. Still, it was hard to be okay with the quiet jealously that would bubble up when she saw a pair of soulmates or someone's timer determinedly ticking down, while her's remained utterly still. No, there were far better things for Peridot to worry about than the unchangeable misfortunes of her life. It wasn't as if her soulmate was the only thing she lost that day.
The blaring of her alarm clock app pulled Lapis out of the comforting emptiness of her subconscious and into the bright, clammy waking world. What the fuck was wrong with her air conditioner? It should not be this hot in her room. She kneed the culprit for the terrible climate in her bedroom, “Jasper, why the fuck do you keep turning off my AC at night?”
The woman in question grumbled unintelligibly and rolled over, turning her back to Lapis without even waking up.
Letting out a deep sigh, Lapis climbed out of bed and hit the power switch a little too hard, hoping the noise would disturb her inconsiderate house mate. Lapis couldn't stand the little things Jasper would do to seemingly make her life harder. Turn off the AC so Lapis sweats to death in her sleep, leave ridiculous amounts of long, bleach-blonde hair in the shower drain, never wash her own dishes; That sort of stuff.
Granted, Lapis had to acknowledge it was a two-way street. They made a perfectly fucked up couple, as many without timers do when choosing a mate is at the mercy of human error. Though it wasn't exactly rare, it was uncommon for people to get a timer. Most people's timers will spontaneously appear during their early teenage years. Lapis, unfortunately, was a bit beyond the age when timers tended to manifest, as was Jasper. Maybe people like Lapis didn't deserve a soulmate. Maybe anybody lucky enough to have a timer wasn't unfortunate enough to be stuck with someone like Lapis. Lapis pondered these questions as she brewed her morning coffee, black and strong just as she liked it.
Lapis got to work making breakfast. A quick glance at the clock told her she had a little under an hour before the bus would be arriving to take her and Jasper to summer camp. This would be the last year Lapis and Jasper could go to Beach City Summer Camp and there was no way in hell Lapis would miss the bus and spend summer alone, in Beach City, with Jasper. Just as Lapis's thoughts wandered back to her girlfriend, her second alarm, conveniently set 15 minutes after the first, went off from her bedroom. Whatever, Lapis thought, Jasper can turn it off just like the AC.
A few moments later, Lapis heard Jasper roar followed by a loud crash. She could swear she heard some glass break. "What the fuck was that!?" she yelled down the hallway.
Rather than answer, Jasper came out of the bedroom and stomped past Lapis, fuming as she haphazardly dropped Lapis's now-cracked iPhone on the counter. "Turn your fucking alarm off next time," Jasper grumbled over her shoulder as she walked into the bathroom.
Lapis ground her teeth as she glared down at her phone. At least it was only cracked a little bit on the corner, but still. "Hurry up, you're going to be late and I won't make the bus wait for you!" Lapis barked through the bathroom door, taking her breakfast and coffee to the table. The bus was supposed to get to her house around 8:45, which didn't give Jasper much time to get her shit in gear. Lapis kicked her bare feet up on the table, resigning herself to the possibility of going to summer camp without her girlfriend. The thought was unsettlingly pleasant.
Jasper came out of the bathroom a few minutes later, wild hair slightly more tamed than before. "Where's my breakfast?" she asked pitifully, glancing longingly at Lapis's food, with an expression that made Lapis think of a puppy being kicked.
"On the counter, there's some coffee, too."
At the mention of coffee, Jasper's forlorn expression lit up and she went to dishing up her breakfast. She poured a cup of coffee and, taking a deep, satisfied sniff, Jasper sipped some of the precious morning beverage. Her face contorted and she loudly spit the coffee into the sink, "What the fuck, Lapis, this shit is more bitter than you!"