Work Text:
The summer had finally begun to die down in Beach City. The humid August heat and unceasing sunshine giving way to overcast skies and chilling winds. The leaves had only begun to change color, few if any even starting to fall.
Along the coast, where once it was filled to the brim with tourists of all walks of life, now lay empty and waiting for the season’s return.
On such a quiet and cool day, Steven restlessly guided his father to the entrance of the Temple. The later having to cover his eyes upon Steven’s request. “Okay, Dad, keep your eyes closed, the surprise is just a few more steps!” he said excitedly, opening the front door. “I don’t know how much longer I can keep this up, bud.” Greg protested, weary of having almost tripped several times along the way. “Okay, now open!” cried Steven. Steven looked to see his father’s stunned reaction of the third inhabitant of the room. He seemed frozen in shock as Rose stood before him, wearing a ‘Mr. Universe’ t-shirt over her white dress, an innocent smile present on her face.
“Wha… Steven, what… who…” Greg said, trying to process what he was seeing as he nearly collapsed to his knees. Rose approached him slowly, helping him up to his feet, “Hello, Mr. Universe. I and my son are your biggest fans, we’ve been just dying to see you in person.” She said, her tone calm and sultry.
“Rose… you’re here? How?” Greg said, still in disbelief, almost breaking down in tears from the sight of seeing her in person. Rose smiled, stroking his beard with her fingers, “It’s a long story, what’s important now is that I’m here for my family, including the man I love.” Greg sighed as he took hold of Rose’s hand appearing slightly remorseful, “I should tell you, Rose, I’m not the same young man you fell in love with.” He said solemnly. Rose only smiled at him, “And I’m not quite the same gem you fell in love with.” She said.
He still continued to stare at her fish-eyed. Not sure of what to make of it all before Rose took initiative. She grasped onto him tight and pressed her lips against his, a motion that seemed almost like second nature to them. Finally, they released as Rose looked away, “Rose, you okay?” Greg said, concerned. Rose only giggled, “Your beard is so scratchy.” She said. Greg blushed at her remark, “I could shave it if you like.” She quickly tried to compose herself as she ran her fingers along the side of his face, “No, keep it, you look cute with it!”
Steven briefly looked away, having been made slightly uncomfortable from his mother and father’s moment of intimacy. But deep down, he was happy to see them together again. He remembered his dad telling him stories of their time together and of how much they loved each other. And he could tell that despite the time that had passed since last they were together that they seemingly had not missed a beat.
Greg grinned, “Oh, maybe you want some more then?” he joked, rubbing his fuzz covered cheek against Rose’s as she burst out in laughter, “Greg, honey that tickles!” Finally the two took notice as Steven continued to look away, covering his eyes and blushing. “Steven, you alright?” Rose asked. Steven turned to face them once more small tears welling up in his eyes as he smiled, “I just thought it be weird of me to just stand by and watch…” he said. Rose giggled, “You didn’t seem too uncomfortable when Connie kissed you.” She chimed, Steven’s face now turning bright red as he lifted his shirt to cover his face.
Greg's excitement turned to Steven, “You did what!?” he exclaimed, Steven scratching the back of his head and giving a nervous grin. “Mom, you told her you wouldn’t tell anyone!” Steven whined. Rose blushed slightly from embarrassment, “Oops, sorry sweetie…”
Greg’s bewilderment over Rose’s return finally gave way to excitement as he pecked her on the cheek, “Rose, this is great! I promise I’ll come by every day to see you, just like old times!” he said. Steven timidly looked away, fidgeting with his hands, “Well…” Greg looked concerned, “What’s up, bud?”
“Steven and I talked, we want you to move in with us!” Rose said excitedly, the statement catching Greg off guard, “Wait, really?”
Rose held Greg’s hand as she stared him right in the eye, “I want you to have this place be your home. So we can both raise our baby together, please?” Greg was first silent, then he smiled and sighed, “How could I say no to you?”
As the three embraced, a flash of light shone before them and in an instant a lone figure emerged. From her long hair, short, stout stature, and rugged cloths Steven immediately recognized the visitor as Amethyst.
“Hey dudes!” she said, waltzing towards the front door with her eyes closed, her look seemingly distant as she made her way to the front door. “Hey Rose…” she nonchalantly said. As she creaked open the front door, she froze and turned back to face Steven’s mother. Her expression was not unlike Greg’s earlier bewilderment of the spectacle laid out before her.
“ROSE!!!?” Amethyst screamed in amazement. Rose giving a faint smile, barely making eye contact with her as she tried to say something to her. “H-hello… Amethyst… it’s nice to see you too…”
The small Quartz tried to form words into a sentence to respond, but the only thing that could be heard was gibberish. She turned to Steven, who only awkwardly shrugged and smiled. Finally, she managed to compose herself, “Just… whoa. I mean…” she tried to continue, her thoughts trailing off. Steven looked to Rose, her expression that of discomfort, “Amethyst, is something wrong?”
“N-no, no. It’s fine. I’m sure Steven’s really happy to have you here…” she said, trying to brush off the tension between them with an awkward laugh. Steven’s gaze shifted between the two of them. Neither seemed too comfortable to directly converse with the other. For Rose, it was no surprise that she would be hesitant. Steven himself remembered being upset with her after she had used her power to wrestle control over Amethyst’s body. Steven himself was never truly scared of his own power. Each newly discovered power meant new possibilities. But this power… this burden, the idea that if he could just take over someone like that made his skin crawl. He had long since apologized to Lars for the day he had done so to him, but he supposed Amethyst would perhaps still be angry towards Rose.
“Amethyst?” Steven asked, “Is there something you want to talk about?” The small Quartz said nothing, dashing out of the front door as it slammed against the frame. “I guess not everyone is thrilled to see me…” Rose stated solemnly.
“Try not to be hard on yourself, Mom. She’ll come around.” Steven reassured, “Is there some way we could get her to open up?”
“You know…” Greg said, scratching his chin, “she used to spend a lot of time with me and your mother when she was upset. We’d just put on some easy listening music and get a few pizzas and just… relax.”
“Maybe we can think of something while we’re moving your things, Greg…” Rose said, a gentle smile appearing on her lips “I don’t want to bother her…”
Steven nodded in agreement at the suggestion. He had never thought about why it was his father elected to stay within his van while Steven lived within the home built around the entrance to the Temple. Perhaps it was a bittersweet reminder of what he had lost. Maybe a feeling of uneasiness around the gems over the perceived death of Rose, perhaps even some previously unknown cause. But with Rose’s return, those reasons subsided, and Steven was more than happy to share the house with his father. The three had scrounged through the confines of his van for his possessions, from vintage CDs and Records to old framed photos. Rose had discovered the old photo of her and Greg together before Steven’s birth. Steven could see her eyes twinkle as she seemed to reminisce of days gone by.
“Mom?” Steven interjected, breaking Rose out of her self-imposed trance. She jumped, her concentration being broken, “Oh, sorry sweetie, just looking at an old memory...” She looked to Steven and then back at the frame in her hand, “Now that I think about it, I think it’s missing something very important.”
“What’s that?” Steven asked. Rose smiled as she bent down to press her lips against his forehead, “Our handsome baby boy.” Steven grinned, trying to hide his blush.
Between their combined efforts, they had made short work of Greg’s belongings. The most difficult being his television, which had been placed on the coffee table due to lack of better spot to place it. As they had made certain they had cleared the last of his things, Steven could hear his father laugh awkwardly while staring into the back of the now empty van, “You know, I’ve never seen the inside of my van look so… bare.” He joked, scratching the back of his head. Rose stood behind him, draping her arms over his shoulders as she tenderly kissed his cheek, “I can’t tell you how happy I am to be here, with you…” she said, “Although, I remember you having more things before we had Steven…”
“Yeah.” Greg said anxiously, “I did, but a couple years back I had it all moved to Amethyst’s room after…” he trailed off, unwilling to speak more of what had occurred. Steven winced as though the memory of Amethyst’s outburst resurfacing in his mind caused him physical pain. From what he could tell from the expression of his mother, it seemed to be a memory she shared as well, but nearly forgotten.
“Hey, I could ask Amethyst to get some of your stuff from her room.” Steven suggested, eager to change the subject. “Yeah, that’s a good idea little man.” Greg responded. In moments, Steven dashed out of the house, hastily slipping into his sweatshirt to shield himself from the chilling autumn breeze, its numbing grip becoming all the tighter the more the day dragged on.
Steven meticulously scanned the boardwalk for signs of the small Quartz. He half expected her to be satisfying her infamous appetite at one the eateries located therein. However, the Big Donut, Fishstew Pizza, and even the Frymans seemed not to have seen hide nor hair of her. At last, he searched within the Funland Arcade. Through the incessant electronic beeping of aging arcade machines crossed with dazzling display of multicolored blinking lights, Steven had located her. He saw her sequestered in front of one of the arcade’s many pinball machines, a dour expression reflected from the clear plastic shell of the machine as she stared downward. Immediately as he approached, Amethyst jumped in surprise.
“Oh, hey Steven!” she said, her quiet demeanor immediately disappearing behind the enthusiasm of her tone and jolly look on her face. Her reaction nearly startled Steven, “Oh, hey Amethyst.” He said timidly, “Um, I really don’t want to bother you or anything, but Mom and Dad kinda need your help with something.”
Amethyst’s smile melted away, “Uh… like with what?” she asked. “He was wondering if you could get some of his stuff you offered to keep in your room since he’s moving in. I know how you don’t like it when people invade your space…” Steven said nervously. The Quartz sighed as she rolled her eyes, “Yeah, fine.”
Their return to the temple was silent. Steven would occasionally turn to glance at Amethyst for brief moments. From what he could tell, she did not appear so much angry as simply uncomfortable. As they returned to the Temple, they had discovered it empty, Amethyst instructing Steven to wait as she entered her room to retrieve Greg’s things.
He seated himself on the couch, activating the television positioned in front of him. The glow of the television illuminating the darkness of the room as the overcast skies above muffled the fiery mix of orange and red of the afternoon light.
As he relaxed, he heard the front door creak as the light flickered on. He turned, spotting his mother and father entering, the later holding two pizza boxes in his hands. “Hey, little man!” Greg exclaimed, “We got dinner! Did you talk to Amethyst?”
“Yeah, she’s getting some of your stuff in her room.” Steven said. The door behind Steven opened, the small Quartz stepping out, her vision obscured as she carried in more of Greg’s things. She plopped the hoard onto the ground in front of her and sighed in exhaustion, “Man, I almost forgot how much stuff your Dad let me keep in my room…” she immediately fell silent once she had met eyes with Rose.
Not a word was exchanged between the two, but Steven felt the tension between them was tangible enough to reach out and physically touch. They appeared like opposing sides of a magnet, quietly pushing each other in any direction away from them as they moved. Rose avoiding eye contact as she maneuvered around the mound of assorted items in the center and situated herself next to Steven.
“So, yeah, uhh…” Amethyst said, her words finally piercing the deafening silence, “If that’s all you needed, then…”
“Actually, Rose and I were wondering if you wanted to stay for dinner.” Greg chimed, trying to sound more positive. The small Quartz stared at Rose, then back to Greg before sighing, “Yeah, sure, whatever.” She said nonchalantly, grabbing a box.
She and Rose said nothing to one another, the former taking a spot by the window, staring out into the afternoon light. As they ate, Steven heard the sound of his father rummaging through the pile that Amethyst had brought and later the scratch and start of a record playing. Steven recognized the melodious tunes from the Philosophy Majors, one his father’s favorites.
The notes echoed throughout the room, the sight of Greg strumming the air with an imaginary guitar summoning a giggle from Rose, Steven could even spot a smirk from Amethyst. In the gentle sound of the music within the room, there grew a sense of bliss. He could see his mother once again regain her smile as she watched Greg and held Steven close to her. Steven recalled having often thought about what life for him would have been like if Rose was there in his younger days. How different things would be. He had imagined it would have been something like this.
“Oh, I missed this…” Rose exclaimed, “Amethyst, you can sit over here if you like.” The faint ghost of a smile vanished on the small Quartz’s face upon Rose’s offer. “Nah, I’m just fine over here.” She said, crossing her arms as looking away.
Rose sighed, “Amethyst, please, I missed being with you. I missed my little Quartz.” Without a word, Amethyst stormed out of the room, the front door slamming shut against the frame. Steven following soon after, beckoning Rose to follow as they quickly tracked her down stomping along the coast.
“Amethyst, is something wrong? You can tell me if I did something wrong!” Rose pleaded.
“No! It… it’s just. I used to really look up to you! And I was really hurt when we thought you died! We felt so lost and hurt and angry… Y-you know! You said you saw everything through Steven! And then we found out about all the trouble we were in because of you and why and I was just… you were supposed to know what was right and make everything better! We trusted you! I trusted you!” Amethyst snapped, wiping her eyes.
Steven turned to Rose, her own eyes glistening as she placed a hand over her mouth, “Amethyst…” was all she could say, her voice cracking under the emotional strain.
The small Quartz sniffed before taking a deep breath, straightening her posture to better compose herself, “I’m not upset about you over that night, okay? I’m over it, Steven made the same mistake too. So, it’s like, whatever… but… I didn’t know how to feel about you being back. Especially since that now, like, you’re REALLY HERE! And I don’t know how to feel about that! I mean, I see that you make Steven and the others so happy, and I’m just thinking ‘so we just act like the last few years never happened?’ Like I can’t just be happy to see you again along with everyone else? What’s wrong with me?” she said, plopping onto the sand, resting her head on her hand.
“Amethyst.” Rose said, kneeling beside her, “There is absolutely nothing wrong with you. I’ve seen you grow so much over these last few years through Steven’s gem. You’ve been so strong, stronger than me even. Please know that I NEVER meant to hurt you. I am so proud of you Amethyst.”
The small Quartz leaned into her as Rose sat upon the beach. She rested her head on Rose’s knee while she stroked her hair, “It’s not that I stopped caring about you, I’m just…” she trailed off, a tear finally crawling down the side of her face. Rose nodded, seeming to understand her sentiment, “I know, I guess you’re not my little Amethyst anymore, you’ve all changed so much since then…”
Steven slowly approached the two, careful not to upset the calm of the moment, “Hey, are you gonna be okay Amethyst?” Steven timidly asked. “Amethyst and I are going to just… relax along the beach here, sweetheart. We’ll be inside shortly…”
Steven nodded, returning to the Temple to await their return. By the time they had, the warms colors of the afternoon cooled into the dark blues of the night sky. Steven and Greg waited long into the night until finally the two had returned.
“So, Amethyst, are you feeling better?” Steven asked, trying to summon a hopeful smile. Amethyst nodded and smiled, filling Steven with a sense of relief. “Yeah… I talked to Rose for a bit.” The small Quartz said, “Listen, I’m gonna call it a night. Maybe I’ll hang with you guys tomorrow…” She held her head down as she began to make her way to the door of the Temple, only to be briefly stopped by Rose. She knelt down, wrapping Amethyst in a tight hug, “I love you, sweetheart.” She said. Amethyst returned her hug until both let go.
As Amethyst disappeared into her room, Steven looked to see Rose, her expression that of what he could surmise as satisfaction, as though she had succeeded in relieving a tremendous burden from herself. He shared in her relief, happy to see her and the Quartz come to an understanding at last. Though this assuredly would not be the end of Rose’s troubles in transitioning, it was an excellent start.
Through the remainder of the night, the three returned to find a new home for Greg’s assorted items. Steven made sure to clear up space him his closet for his father’s clothing. By the time the sky appeared pitch black the three had finished, all taking a seat upon Steven’s bed to rest after a day of grueling labor.
With the day now over, the three tried to parse out Greg’s future sleeping arrangements. Greg jokingly suggested he move into Rose’s room for added privacy, to which both she and Steven swiftly shot down as an option, Steven nearly having to beg to deter his father. Steven was more than eager to surrender his own bed for him, but Greg was hesitant to do so. Finally, they had agreed to let him keep the couch.
“Well, looks like I’m here to stay.” Greg said, turning to Rose. The gem only smiled, holding him close to her side, Steven nuzzling a spot upon her lap to join them in a hug. As Steven heard Rose’s breathing become heavy, he looked to see her eyes well up with tears. “Mom, are you alright?” Steven asked. Rose smiled, “I’m sorry, baby… I… I’m just so happy. I never dreamed I could have a moment like this…”
Steven grinned, “I love you too, Mom.”
The three spent the night watching movies together, Steven sitting snugly in his mother’s arms. He thought about what this future might hold for everyone now. How this would change everyone around them. He hoped that his mother’s return would be for the better. He had faith that he, Greg, and the other gems would be there to support Rose as she tried to find her place in their family. He knew it would not be easy, Amethyst was proof of that, but he knew it would be for the better.
As his eyes grew heavy and body grew numb, he dreamed of the things he once glumly accepted to be impossible before he had met Rose, and smiled with anticipation of fulfilling each one with her.