Chapter Text
Spinel was drunk. He knew it, she didn't know it. But she was drunk.
Steven didn't even know that gems could get drunk, but now he did. All he could hear were Spinel's hiccups and strange noises over the loud music, which he tried to block. She was leaning against his shoulder, looking ahead of her at seemingly nothing, blushing fiercely.
Steven was trying to remember how he got into this mess.
-
Spinel was already bored out of her mind. She agreed to do a 500 piece puzzle with Steven, since she was bored before, and he saw it.
It quickly became so boring that she almost fell asleep.
"Don't go falling asleep on me."
Her eyes snapped open when she heard Steven's voice.
She yawned, "Sorry, I didn't mean to."
"If you're tired, you should just sleep." It still felt weird saying to a gem that they should sleep, but he'd learnt that Spinel, like Amethyst and Lapis, also enjoyed sleeping, so it wasn't like speaking another language.
"I should, yeah. Okay, I'll-"
"Hey, you two!" Spinel was cut off by the sound of Amethyst calling for them. She was walking from the temple door towards them looking at the puzzle strangely.
"Why are you two doing a puzzle?"
"Spinel was bored, so we decided to do a puzzle together. Why?" Together, which actually meant Spinel leaning her chin on the table sitting on the floor while Steven did the puzzle sat on the couch.
"Curiousity. Anyway, you two wanna go somewhere actually fun?"
Spinel's curiosity got the better of her this time, "Where?"
"I heard there's a show goin' on right now. I was gonna go alone, but you two can join me." Steven suddenly got uncanny flashbacks from when he was last introduced to a "show", and doing a puzzle. Strange.
"Are we gonna break the law again?" Amethyst snickered at Steven's joke.
"Nah, we aren't gonna bring Pearl, but, what Spinel will bring I have no idea."
This idea didn't make Amethyst worried or scared, but excited. This scared Steven, if only slightly.
"Uh, I don't know about this."
"I'll do it."
Steven looked at Spinel as if she had two heads. Was she really agreeing to this?
"Hell yeah! C'mon Steven, are you gonna leave Spinel hanging like this?"
Steven ignored Amethyst's attempts into peer-pressuring him, and instead focused on Spinel.
Who knows what kind of mess Spinel could get into? He knew that she was very clumsy, and what if something happened? What if she was left alone again? He didn't want her to have a panic attack, because he knew Amethyst couldn't handle helping someone with those problems.
Plus, they were both pranksters. They needed his voice of reason.
"Fine, I'll come too."
And so commenced the most confusing yet hilariously stupid night Steven has ever had.
-
And here he was, Spinel leaning on his shoulder, "drunk as fuck" Amethyst would say, and said.
When Steven felt Spinel moving away from his shoulder and saw her standing, he grabbed her hand.
"Spinel, you need to sit down and stay with me."
"Why?~" She was speaking in a high-pitched voice (higher than her actual voice, which was mind-blowing to Steven) and her speaking patterns were slow, as if you took her voice and slowed it down 2x.
"Because-" What could he say? Because you're drunk? Because I don't know what you'll do? Because I'm worried about you? "-I might not be able to find you again if you don't."
"But I like standing.."
"Spinel, please?" Even if she was drunk, she still couldn't resist him.
But instead of just sitting next to him like before, she sat on his lap. Immediately Steven flamed up.
"Spinel! That's not what I meant!"
"Really? I thought that this was exactly what you meant." This was not good for Steven, but at least he found out what kind of drunk person Spinel was.
The flirtatious drunk.
"Steven, guess what?" Spinel poked his cheek with her finger to get his attention, as if she didn't already have it.
"What is it Spinel?"
"I'm not tired anymore."
This night had to be the worst night Steven ever had.
Every so often, Spinel would try to come onto Steven. Spinel would grab his arm and lean closer into him, as if trying to kiss him, he would always pull away just in time though.
Steven didn't want to use the excuse "I have a girlfriend" because, technically, Connie and him never actually became a thing. Or at least told each other of those kinds of feelings, they both just knew what was there.
But.. seeing Spinel like this? He felt this overwhelming need to protect her, and not just in the friendly way of "you're drunk, I'm not letting you out of my sight." He felt like: "You're vulnerable, I don't want anything happening to you. I want to protect you."
He'd never felt like this with anyone before. Not even Connie, but he assumed that that was because Connie didn't get herself into stupid situations, or situations that got her into THIS state.
Steven knew about the dangers of being intoxicated at a party. And even if he hadn't been intoxicated before, flashbacks of Kevin flashed in his mind.
He couldn't- wouldn't let that happen to Spinel. She was incapacitated, and she wouldn't be able to cope with something like that happening to her.
Steven wouldn't let anyone hurt Spinel like that.
Woah, that sounded a bit possesive. He didn't mean for it to be, Steven didn't understand why he thought like that at all. He wasn't even that close to Spinel, they were just friends.
Just friends. For some reason, that didn't sound right.
Steven stopped thinking when Spinel started to climb him and told him, "Has anyone ever told you that you look adorable when you're thinking really hard?"
Steven's face was going to be printed with red if she didn't stop.
But then she said something that made him crash like a Windows XP trying to run a modern video-game.
"You're so cute! This is why I have a crush on you!"
Time could've stopped, and it probably did.
"Huh?" Steven needed a double take for that last part. Spinel only giggled.
"I have a crush on you! You're so nice and adorable and, I mean, who wouldn't love you?"
"Spinel-"
"Excuse me?"
Steven and Spinel turned to see the source of the third voice. Steven didn't recognise the dude that spoke- he assumed it must be someone from a different town nearby. Spinel, of course, didn't have a clue who this was.
"Am I interrupting something?"
Steven really wanted to say "Yeah, kinda," but stopped himself.
Steven even felt Spinel hold onto him tighter. He looked at her for a glance. Was she scared?
"Uh.. no, not really." Steven only said this so the guy talking to them would say what he needed and go away.
But his request was one Steven was not on board with.
"Can I have the little lady for a while?"
"Excuse me?" Steven had no idea what cursed him to say this, he knew exactly what this dude was after, but needed to hear it again.
Spinel was clutching onto Steven, and was terrified. She tried her best to hide it.
"No.. no, thank you. I wanna stay right here." Spinel voiced, slightly shocking Steven. He didn't know she was on the same page as him- he didn't even know if she was even reading the same book!
"Aw, come on, I'm not that bad." The stranger tried to grab for Spinel's arm, but she quickly moved away.
"I don't care. I want to stay here." She was starting to get really defensive. Spinel didn't want to get defensive, but she just really didn't want to go with the stranger.
"Come on, please?"
When the man grabbed her arm and pulled her out of Steven's grasp, he snapped.
Steven grabbed the man's arm with his iron grip.
"What the hell, man?"
"She doesn't want to go with you. Stop pressuring her into it. She wants to stay with me." Steven spoke in such a low tone, it almost scared Spinel. When Steven pulled her out of the stranger's grasp in into his arms, Spinel instantly felt safer.
"The fuck? I just wanted a good night, don't get all psycho on me." The man sounded like a whining 4 year old to Steven.
"If all you want from someone is a "good time", when will you ever want something else?"
"Tch, I don't care about your dumbass lessons. Fuck you."
As soon as they couldn't see the man anymore, Spinel looked up to Steven.
He was still not happy and angry, but he seemed to calm down when he felt Spinel tug on his sleeve and smile up at him.
"Thanks." She whispered.
"No problem." He whispered back, "D'you wanna go home?"
Spinel only smiled up more, "Yeah. We still have the puzzle to finish."
Steven laughed. It was funny how quickly Spinel's mood could change. One minute, she's flirting with him, the next, she's a soft little fuzzfly.
He loved the name that she gave moths.
-
She fell asleep on the way home. Steven was giving Spinel a piggy-back ride home, since she suggested walking instead of getting on the bus again. It wasn't that far until they got to the temple, but it wasn't like Steven was rushing. He liked walking in the dark, with Spinel on his back, hearing her small breathing.
It calmed him, so much to the point where he totally forgot about what Spinel had told him before.
Spinel apparently had a crush on him, and she would have no recollection of ever telling him. But he would.
It's not like he was shocked or surprised, or even upset. It eased him in a strange way. Now, he could focus on his feelings.
And he had a nagging in his head that Spinel's feelings wouldn't be one-sided.
Amethyst was still at the show- Steven and Spinel found her and told her of them leaving early. She had no problem with it, and neither did Steven. He liked it.
Steven didn't want to really go back to the temple. Instead, he placed Spinel on a bench he came by, sat next to her, and with her leaning on his shoulder, Steven fell asleep.