Chapter Text
Chapter 1
Peridot sighed heavily as the sound of typing filled her shop. It had been a long day at work and she was just about to pack up and go upstairs to rest for a bit, when someone decided to walk in an hour before closing time.
"Ok, so when was the last time you scanned for Malware?" Peridot looked up from the virus infested laptop, looking at the man who walked in. He was rather large and he was balding, but made up for it with the length of his remaining brown hair and his beard. The man laughed nervously.
"Malware?" He asked. Peridot looked at the man for a moment before closing the laptop and rubbing her eyes under her glasses.
"Just, leave the laptop with me and I'll have it functioning within two days"
After that, Peridot leant back in her chair at her desk and looked around her shop for a moment. It was very small and it was a mess. The floor was visible, but computers and monitors were stacked up in piles or shoved on shelves and her desk was covered in various types of screwdrivers and other tools used for taking devices apart. At the far end of the shop, there was another door which leads to some stairs; following it would take you to a living space, which was where Peridot and her roommate lived. The technician looked at the clock and saw that she had half an hour until closing time. She sighed and opened a drawer at her desk and pulled out a magazine all about new kinds of tech being released or being kick-started. Though about 10 minutes later, Peridot's comfortable silence ended when the front door to the shop swung open, abusing the little bell that rang whenever a customer entered. However, Peridot already knew that this wasn't a customer.
"What's up, P-Dot?" The woman who entered grinned happily, carrying a full rucksack on her back. She was a little shorter than Peridot and had lavender purple hair. Peridot looked up from her magazine, though the paper was still hiding the bottom half of her face.
"Hey Amethyst. Just waiting so I can close up shop. 'Whats up' with you?" As if waiting for that question all day, Amethyst walked over to Peridot's desk and rested her arm on it before dragging the limb across, knocking off every item except for Peri's laptop, which the blonde quickly lifted up in a panic, dropping the magazine in the process. Peridot was use to this kind of behaviour, in fact this is one of the many reasons why the shop is as cluttered as it is, though that didn't stop the blonde from frowning. Before Peridot could say anything, Amethyst rested a finger over her friend's mouth as she rests the rucksack on the desk.
"Well, my dear, dear Peridot." She started "I have been very productive today." Peridot frowns more and pushes Amethyst's finger away.
"1, you never call me by my proper name and 2, I've never heard you use the word 'productive' before, so this must be interesting. Come on Amethyst, spill." As Peridot says this, Amethyst simply unzipped her rucksack. Looking at the bag, Peridot figured out what was going on and a slight smile crept across her face. This was another reason why the shop was so cluttered. Every now and then, Amethyst would go to the local scrap yard and look for bits and pieces that she found interesting. A lot of it she kept herself, but if she came across any kind of tech, she'd save it for Peridot. Normally Amethyst would leave it all in a black bin bag near the door for Peridot to pick up during the day, however, when she did something like this, that means that she found something worth showing off to her blonde roommate.
"Ok, are you ready for this, Peri? I spent about 4 hours in that damn scrap heap and I almost got caught twice, so you better thank me for this" The purple-haired girl grinned and she pulled out the first item in the bag, as if she were a magician or Mary Poppins. The item was dark grey and rectangular. It came with a frayed cable and what seems to be a pen. Peridot grins.
"Wow thanks, a drawing tablet! What brand is it?" Amethyst just shrugged.
"Dunno, all the info on it got scratched off. Think you can salvage it?" Aside from fixing and selling computer parts, Peridot makes a little extra money by repairing abandoned tech and re-selling it cheap over the internet. Peridot carefully takes it from Amethyst and inspects the tablet itself before looking at the damaged wire. She nods.
"Just needs a new wire and I'll have to see if there's any internal damage, which will be interesting as I've never taken apart a drawing tablet before. Ok, what else did you get?"
About 15 minutes later, Amethyst was sat in Peridot's chair at her desk, drinking a beer, as Peridot sat on the floor behind the desk, out of site and cross-legged; something she liked to do when inspecting and taking apart new tech. Amethyst's complete tech trove was laid out in front of her; this included the drawing tablet, some old motherboards, a broken GameBoy rip-off with a few rip-off Pokemon games, and other devices such as phones and mp3 players.
"I still can't believe you got all this at the dump. Are you sure you didnt steal some of this stuff?" Amethyst laughed a little as she finished off a can of beer and crushed the metal and tossed it in the bin, only to pull out another can from her backpack and cracking it open with a satisfying 'hiss'.
"Do I look like a thief? Actually, don't answer that." Peridot scoffed a little.
"Well, it took you a long time to convince me that taking stuff from the dump wasn't 'stealing'".
"Hey if no one wants it, then it's recycling, Peri!" The blonde then rolled her eyes and looked up at the clock. 3 minutes to go until closing time. Amethyst also looked at the clock.
"You can close the shop early y'know. It ain't gonna kill ya."
"I have to close the shop at 7pm. Because that's when the shop closes." Amethyst laughs a little and sighs.
"Ok, weirdo."
Peridot smiles a little and proceeds to take apart the GameBoy rip-off in the comfortable silence that followed. She knew by now that Amethyst was kidding when she called her that. Amethyst was one of the few people that understood how Peridot worked to the most extent. She knew her quirks and tics and routines almost off-by-heart. This was the main reason why she chose Amethyst as her roommate; to help her with independent stuff like booking doctor appointments and also just dealing with her in general. Amethyst was more than happy to accept living with Peridot. They've been pals for years and Peridot was the only one who could tolerate Amethyst's constant unemployment and mooching. They were both messes, but somehow it works for them. Amethyst yawns, breaking the quietness and she stood up.
"I'm going out for a smoke." Peri nods, though at that point Amethyst was at the door and couldn't see the blonde as she was still on the floor.
Amethyst stands outside, in the dark and leans against the wall next to the front door. She quickly finishes her beer off and crushes the can and places it on the floor beside her before returning to her leaning position. She reaches into her pocket and pulls out a small cardboard board box and opens it, taking out a cigarette and shoves the box back in her jeans. She then grabs her lighter from her jacket pocket and manages to light the cigarette in her mouth after a few attempts. She inhales on the smoke-stick and the orange glow lights up her face. She exhales out a large cloud of smoke and sighs happily as the nicotine kicks in. She the frowns a little as she spots a woman walking down the street, holding something in her hands. The woman had slightly tanned skin and aqua blue hair. She was slender and wore a dark blue hoodie and black jeans. She got closer to Amethyst and the smoker realises that he woman was planning on going into the shop.
"Sorry hun, the shop's closing in a minute, you might wanna just come back tomorrow about that" As she says that, she points to the object in the woman's hands, which was a laptop with a cracked screen. The woman looks at Amethyst.
"So that means it's not closed yet." A light smirk appeared on the woman's face and she walked in. Amethyst laughed a little.
"Peri ain't gonna like this..." Amethyst smiles and takes another puff of her cigarette.
Peridot was mumbling to herself as she inspects the insides of the hand-held game console. The woman walked in and looked around, not seeing anyone at first, however hearing some mumbles lead her to the desk and she peered over it, to see Peridot. She clears her throat, making the small blonde jump and quickly stand up.
"A-Amethyst, what the--" Peridot turns around, seeing the woman and just stops. A moment pass and the woman clears her throat.
"Hey, uh...could you have a look at my laptop?"
Peridot wanted to blurt out so many things at once, which included various versions of 'We're closed' and 'You're pretty'. However, anxiety got the better of her and all she did was nod before taking the laptop from the woman. She looks at the laptop for a moment.
"Lapis." The woman looks at Peridot a little wide-eyed.
"Wh-....huh?" Peridot looks at the woman.
"The colour. This is the only brand of laptop that specifically has 'Lapis' as a colour choice. It's nice." The woman didnt really know how to react at first, but she ended up just laughing a little. Peridot keeps looking at the woman, listening to her laugh.
"Oh, yeah, it is. I chose it because I like the colour and well..it's also my name. Wait, that's beside the point, how dyou know that it's the only one?" Peridot shrugged and looked back at the laptop.
"I know pointless trivia and it was in last month's Tech Monthly magazine. Your screen is cracked" Lapis almost laughed again at the bluntness, sudden topic change, and the obviousness of what Peridot just said.
"Well yeah, it's cracked. It got thrown. Can you fix it?" Peridot looked back at Lapis.
"Why would anyone throw a laptop?" Lapis shakes her head.
"I should be asking that question. I'm not the one who threw it. By the way, who's the bundle of joy smoking outside? A loiterer?" Peridot simply nods.
"Yeah, she loiters a lot. She's also my roommate so it can't be helped. Your screen needs replacing, you can pick it up tomorrow at 6:30pm" Peridot then places the laptop on her desk.
"6:30? Kinda specific..." Peridot nods.
"I take my break at 6pm, and then get back to work at 6:15. I will fix your screen, ready by 6:30." Lapis nods a little.
"Just 15 minutes? Well, can't you just do it now? I'll be out of your crazy blonde hair and you can take a little extra time for your break." Peridot shakes her head.
"No. Im...suppose to be closing 5 minutes ago." As Peridot says that, she looks at the clock. Her hands tensed into fists and her toes curl in her shoes. Lapis notices Peridot's discomfort and backs off.
"Ok, I'll pick it up tomorrow. I'm sorry that I wasted your time, I should've waited 'til tomorrow like that girl said." Peridot looks at Lapis with a somewhat surprised expression. None of her customers really backed off when they made a request like taking 15 extra minutes at the end of the day. A lot of her customers were very demanding and weren't really aware of how uncomfortable it makes her. She nods.
"Wow, thanks." Lapis didn't really understand what Peridot meant by that, so she simply nods.
"See you tomorrow then. 6:30, no earlier or later, right?" Peridot nods.
"That's the plan. Goodnight Miss Lapis." Lapis smiles a little at that and nods
"See ya, blondie." With that, Lapis leaves the shop and walks past Amethyst who totally wasn't peeking through the door at the whole thing. Amethyst walks in and grins a little.
"Peridactyl, d'you know what you just did??" Peridot tilts her head a little in confusion
"Served a customer?" Amethyst laughs.
"No, you dingus! You socialised! Granted it was rather awkward, but it was socialising nonetheless!" Peridot thought back through what happened when Lapis walked into the store. She had memorised everything about that woman as soon as she saw her, though she did that with a lot of people. They did end up talking about something that wasn't just asking about the problem their tech had. She even learned her name. Lapis got her to talk. Peridot then realised that she probably seemed like a cold person from what she was saying and her face went red as she pulled her hood over her head and covered her ears. Amethyst chuckles a little and gently pats her friend's shoulder.
"There there, Per-Per, everyone stumbles when talking to people, especially when the person they're talking to is particularly fit and has blue hair. And hubba hubba, you get to see her again tomorrow! I wouldn't mind being in your shoes." Peridot frowns and lightly punches the small woman's shoulder and Amethyst laughs. "Im kidding Peri."
"Your feet can't fit in my shoes. She's pretty." Peridot said, without really thinking about it. "She also left me alone when I got uncomfortable"
"Yeah, I saw all that. So what are you gonna do about tomorrow?" Peridot thought for a moment and looked at Lapis' laptop.
"I....I'm going to talk to her some more"