Chapter Text
A troubled Steven sits at his desk in the living room. Staring down at the dozens of papers he has to fill out, and he hates it, always on the verge of turning pink on some sort of outburst. But it’s fine, it’s totally cool and he definitely has it under control. He picks up the next paper off of the pile. “What’s this one?” An admissions sheet… From Ronaldo. He rolls his eyes and walks to the trash to throw it out. “Third time this month, ‘Bloodstone’.” He stops a few feet from the trash can, and throws the now crumpled paper, which lands right beside the can. He groans and walks to pick it up, and drops it into the trash can himself. When he finally walks back to his desk, and picks up a piece of paper, he suddenly can’t read. “Huh?” He’s confused, his vision is blurry. “What’s going…” He puts the paper back on the desk and steps back. His head clears a bit and he can see again. He glances at the clock, 2:17 AM. Classes start in about 5 and a half hours. “I need to sleep but…” Looking back at the stack of papers on his desk makes him want to faint. “But I have to keep working.” He picks up the paper again from his desk, and all of a sudden he’s disoriented again. He steps away again, and takes a long blink. The clock reads 3:30 AM. “What? I was standing! How did I fall asleep?!” He realizes he can’t handle the work, “I can’t just leave this stuff not done though. But who would be able to do this in my place?”
“I’m glad you called me, Steven. I have literally nothing else to do.” Peridot groaned. “I’ve been staring at plants for hours now!” Steven sighed, and started to walk up the stairs, “Thanks for the help, Peridot. I’ll uh, head up to bed now.” She eyed him down, “Steven, you uhh... don’t look so good. Is everything alright?” “Yes, Peridot. I’m fine, don’t worry about it.” Concern flashed across Peridot’s face. “Steven, come here.” Steven’s expression turned to annoyance as he sat on the chair. “What?” Peridot’s blushed, she never was good at consoling anyone. “Steven, I-,” She paused for a second, gathering her thoughts. “Steven, I think you’ve been working yourself too hard.” Steven’s face turned from annoyance to anger, and his skin briefly flashed pink. “You think I don’t know that?! I work so hard for this school, and I get nothing but an endless load of stress staring me in the face everyday!” a small shockwave covered the house, large enough to shake the room, but not enough to do any damage. He gasped as he realized what he’d done, returning to his normal hue. “Steven…” Peridot continued. “You should take some time off. Just… relax a bit. A vacation, maybe.” He defaulted back to a pestered expression, “You know I can’t leave the school. If the work is this piled up now I can’t imagine how bad it would be later!” A faint, friendly smile appeared on Peridot’s face, “Steven, working hard is important, but feeling good is important too.” Steven rolled his eyes, “Who told you that?” “You did.” Steven’s eyes widened. He’d finally realized what the gems were doing earlier that month. Trying to get him to play games with them again didn’t mean they saw him as a kid; he evolved, but not entirely for the best. “I’m going to bed.”
*6:30 AM
Steven’s eyes opened slowly, as he turned off the alarm on his phone. He put it back on the nightstand, and prepared to get up. But he couldn’t. He thought to himself. “Hmm. I can’t get up? Well, I guess I’ll just rest my eyes until I get the energy to-”
*9:48 AM
Steven shot awake immediately, no alarm needed. “Oh no, I’m late!” He rushed his morning routine, and ran straight to the Dondai. Turning it on, he drove to Little Homeschool, going exactly the speed limit, no more, no less. He pulled into the driveway, and ran to find the gems. He noticed Garnet sitting on a bench. “Garnet! Oh my gosh I’m sorry I’m late, why didn’t you guys wake me up? We’re probably so far behind! I had a meeting with Ronaldo I have to turn him down again,-” His ranting turned more incoherent with each word. Garnet stopped him, “Steven, everything’s fine. We’ve had Little Homeschool under control in your absence. Let me show you.” She guided him to Peridot’s classroom. Everything was normal. Students tending to their plants, and talking amongst each other. He walked up to Peridot, “Uh… Peridot, I’m sorry I lashed out, how did the paperwork go?” Peridot’s face lit up as she grinned to proclaim, “I have completed all of your busywork, Steven!” Even though he was annoyed with her remark about busywork, he felt a little at ease with not needing to do that work anymore. “Well that’s nice.” Though he couldn’t help but feel a little silly, stressing about work that wasn’t even a problem. “Well, I’m gonna go check out everything else.” Peridot returned to plants as Garnet pushed Steven along to Pearl’s class. She was outside, looked stressed, a feeling Steven could relate to. “Pearl?” She looked up, seeing him, it was like seeing a guardian angel, “Steven! Please, you’ve gotta help! They don’t understand earth technology! They just break it and make new stuff out of it!” Steven was equally worried, and patting himself on the back for still being needed. Walking in, he saw the pebbles constructing messes of circuits and wires out of the phones they were breaking. “Oh geez, I’ve got this.” He corralled all of the pebbles to Lapis’ class. “Here you can be constructive, now, go apply your skills… And don’t get stepped on.” He walked back to Pearl’s room, “Alright, they should be fine now, Pearl.” She looked baffled, “Then who do I teach?” His eyes widened, “Oh! Um…” He gets a text from Lapis. “Just got back to my class, what are the pebbles doing here? I don’t have enough seats here to fit all of them.” Bismuth ran towards the group, “Steven!” He turned around “Oh man, now what?” When she reached them, she said, “What’s with the paperwork you put in today? It’s done all wrong!” Steven groaned, “Oh… I forgot to tell Peridot how to fill these out! She left like half of the stuff blank, and everything else is completely wrong!” Just then, Amethyst ran in the door behind them and shut it quickly. “Steven! A food fight started in the cafeteria! I mean, I started it but that’s not the point! I think we need to-” Steven turned a deep shade of pink, “That’s it ! I’m done with this! I can’t deal with all of your problems! Figure it out yourselves!”
Steven launched himself to the Dondai, and drove back to the temple, always 5 miles over the speed limit. No more, no less. When he walked inside, he ran to the only room in the temple he’d be sure he’d have some peace, at least for awhile. Rose’s room. “Room, I need a bed.” The room generated a quadruple bunk-bed with a slide. Steven sighed, “No, room. I just need a normal bed.” The bed shrank down to just one twin size. He laid in the bed, unable to sleep, but just needing a break from it all. “This is good. I’m doing fine, I’m fine I’m great.” A familiar voice chimed in from behind, “No, you’re not.” He felt a hand on his shoulder, he turned to face himself from two years ago.