Chapter Text
Pearl set the vase of carefully arranged sea thrift and blueweeds next to the bedside table, watching them for a moment to make sure they would stay in place. Once she was certain they would she turned her attention to the quilt on the bed, walking over to it and pressing her hand down upon it, flattening down the material evenly on one side and then the other.
She checked the time. 9:25 PM. Pearl smiled nervously, moving to the small kitchenette and grabbing her purse and a set of keys. She moved towards the door quickly, exiting the mother-in-law suite adjacent to her home and locking the door behind her.
The drive to the train station was a bit long. But 40 minutes breezed by as she listened to her CD, an audiobook of a murder mystery.
"She's missing, her blood is all over the scene with her partner's, and they are still in a coma. Yes, the case certainly is strange.. but Peggy is a dainty person. There is no way she did this. Instead of trying to assassinate her character, you should be trying harder to find her, it's your job!"
It was starting to get good just as Pearl arrived. 10:05 PM. Twenty-five minutes to wait on the platform and hold her sign. "Welcome Miss Lazuli!" it read, written clearly and evenly.
Pearl didn't know anything about the woman that was about to become her neighbor really. Steven said that Lapis had blue hair and was almost as tall as Pearl herself. He had said that she might also be a bit reserved until "they warmed up to each other".
She smiled, thinking about Steven. How he stated it so simply, so convinced complete strangers would just come to get along without any doubts. She was trying to feel a fraction of how sure she imagined he did about it.
The train pulled into the station and people started piling out. Pearl held up the sign, looking for shades of blue. She beamed at a young lady with sky blue hair, and her smile was returned awkwardly until the young woman walked right past her to another group of people. Pearl's face flushed, and she turned her head back to the train to instead be met by a hooded figure with a gloved hand stretching out to grab the bottom of her sign.
She flinched, suppression of the urge to jump, then tried to smile, "Lap-"
"Pearl." The stranger's hand gripped the bottom of her sign, hard.
She released it and Miss Lazuli quickly began to fold it. Pearl tried not to look offended and took this time to get a look at her. Half her face was covered in bandaging. One grey eye showed, slightly puffy and red, tan skin, hair was hidden by the hood of a jacket pulled tightly, lip split. Athletic shorts peaked out under the jacket, more bandaging on her legs, and a beat-up pair of running shoes completed what would be an average outfit if not for the haggard look of the wearer. A large instrument case was on her back, a nearly equally large bag hung from her shoulder.
"Can we go?" Miss Lazuli's voice cut through her analysis.
"Oh, yes! Yes, of course. I can take your bag for you-"
"I've got it."
Interrupted again. Pearl just nodded slowly and led this stranger to her car. Pearl put the back seat down to make room for the instrument, the bag settled beside it carefully. They got in the car and Pearl's CD started playing as they buckled up.
"My job is also to find out what happened. There are many sides to a story beyond. I need yours. The sooner you answer my questions the sooner I can find her."
Pearl laughed a little, slightly embarrassed of her auditory choices, switching the radio to a more standard station. She hadn't driven with someone in quite a while but she was sure this was preferable to her dramatic mystery.
They drove off into the night, streetlights illuminating a dirty yellow onto their vision of the road. The new moon amplified the impact in between lights, the road so dark without the presence of another light source.
"How was the trip?" Pearl offered.
"Long." Came the response, tired and flat.
Pearl nodded, directing the car to the turn of the coast. It was a fair response and she didn't want to press too hard. It had been a four-day trip for Miss Lazuli to get here. She decided that the best course of action was to give her guest some courteous silence.
Pearl would glance at her oddly covered and bandaged passenger occasionally, in small bursts. The folded sign stuck out of her jacket pocket. Her brown nose stood out against the bandages on her face. Her gloves looked new.
Pearl tried to absorb her in small glances, not just because she was driving or because she didn't want to be rude. If she was being honest there was something creeping her out about Lapis Lazuli, and something that made her feel like a creep herself for looking at the other woman. It felt almost like she was seeing something she shouldn't.
The bandages concerned her. Pearl wanted to assume they must be why Steven sent Miss Lazuli here, that someone had hurt her. It didn't feel quite right though, with the way this woman acted. She focused on the road and tried to clear her head of these preconceived notions.
They arrived at her home in silence. Lapis got out of the car before Pearl had even turned it off, walking to the trunk to retrieve her things. Pearl opened it for her and got out, waiting for her guest to close it before locking it.
"It's right this way, I finished cleaning it up this morning. I put a few things in the fridge but not much as I didn't really know what you'd eat. I can take you to the grocery market tomorrow." Pearl explained as she led Lapis up the hill where her home and the mother-in-law suite resided.
She unlocked the door and walked in, setting the key on the counter, then watched as Lapis entered the room and looked around. The only descriptive factor that matched Steven's description was that Miss Lazuli was not much shorter than her until she saw the hood come down and reveal inky blue hair.
Pearl felt a bit more relieved to have another identifying feature match to the absolute stranger she was letting live in her backyard at the request of a teenager. She diverted her gaze to the clock on the wall. 11:03 PM.
"I'll leave the key here. I would stay to talk longer but you must be exhausted. I'll come to check on you in the afternoon." Pearl smiled slightly and walked over to the still-open door.
"Okay." Lapis said, walking behind her with an uncomfortable look on her face. Just as Pearl was about to ask what was wrong she followed up with a tense, "Thank you.", before closing the door quickly.
Pearl stood outside the door for a moment, then took a step back and turned towards her home, pulling out her set of house keys. She unlocked her door and looked back at the mother-in-law suite just in time to meet Lapis' gaze as she closed the blinds.