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Published:
2020-03-29
Updated:
2020-04-25
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2/?
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Happily Ever After, Here We Come!

Summary:

After a few months out on the road, Steven gets a call from the Gems to investigate the once-fallen Sea Shrine. Now he and Lion are trapped in an alternate timeline pre-Era Three, with a much younger set of Crystal Gems and a whole lotta therapy ahead of them. If Steven could make it home without corrupting, that would also be nice.

Or, it’s only been a day and I already miss my boy so it’s time to write a time travel fic.

Chapter 1: Homecoming

Notes:

(See the end of the chapter for notes.)

Chapter Text

Steven woke slowly, taking everything in one at a time. 

Deep breath in. 

Deep breath out.

The sandy grit under his fingernails, the soft calls of the gulls, the smell of the sea… all of it was so beautiful. He was completely at peace. A nice sleep in the sun always left him feeling loose and warm. There were plenty of things he’d missed about living in Beach City, and the beach was definitely one of them.

He wondered which beach this was. It had been a while since he’d taken a nap on one, let the waves lull him into dreamland, and he couldn’t quite recall which state line he’d passed last. This one felt oddly familiar. Maybe if he let himself sleep for just five more minutes, he would remember...

A cold nose pushed roughly into his neck.

“Ah! Lion, stop it!” Steven laughed. So much for sleep. He tried to push the big guy away, but for some reason Lion was really insistent on snuffling right under his ear. “Li-on! I’m ticklish!” he giggled. He opened his eyes fully, determined to playfully wrestle his friend as soon as he blinked the sleep out of his eyes. “What are you...”

Wait. 

Sitting up, it was much easier to see his surroundings. The beach. The… the boardwalk? The Big Donut? Was that the Temple , peeking behind the cliff? 

Details came into view faster than he realized his mind was missing them.

“What are we doing back home?” he thought aloud. “I was traveling, right?”

Lion didn’t have much to offer him. Content that he’d gotten Steven’s attention, he just sat.

“No. I wasn’t. That’s not…”

Steven! Oh, it’s been days since our last phone call, I know, but I might have a quick errand for you. You’re exploring the Floridian Isles, right?

“Pearl called me,” he realized. Her voice cut through the fog in his mind smoother than a beam from a lighthouse. “She wanted…”

Oh, wonderful! You’re already nearby, then. The Sea Shrine has mysteriously reappeared, completely dry! You remember that place, right?

“The Sea Shrine unflooded, years before it was due. But everyone was so busy with the upcoming graduation, that...”

Could you please check in on it for us? Maybe wander around, take some pictures, see what caused its reemergence? It should only take an hour or so. We’d come help, if we could, but it could sink again any minute, and we’re all tangled up over here.

No, no. It was fine, he’d insisted. He could handle it on his own. Besides, it was just like the Crystal Gem missions they went on when he was little! Minus the fighting part, which meant it was even safer!

Are you sure?

Certain.

Okay, just…

“But I didn’t touch any hourglasses! And I don’t remember it flooding at all… or do I?”

It was hard to tell. His memories were so fuzzy. It’s like they layered over each other, contradicting themselves, fazing in and out. Images duplicated in his mind and pulled apart, then stretched out on top of one another, and what he could see out of the static was nonsense.

The shrine flooded, the shrine didn’t flood. He ran to the warp to catch up with the Gems-- he didn’t because it was fine and he was alone, anyway. It was already waist-deep, he caught up to them, but had to leave the tiny one he'd liked so much behind-- he ran a hand across a desk and snapped a picture of one of the prettier hourglasses, inspiration for Lapis’ next art show, maybe? The water was rising so quickly, it was incredible to watch but also kind of sad that they'd missed-- Why was his stomach so fluttery? It was getting hard to-- something felt-- Lion roared.

For some reason the warp pad isn’t working from our side, Pearl had said, but you can take Lion.

Lion was there. In the-- in the one where the Shrine didn't flood, the one where he went without the Gems, Lion was there, so that was the memory that made the most sense.

Steven pushed a hand through his hair. Little grains of sand fell out of his curls, but he paid them no mind. All this double-image stuff was giving him a headache. “Did you pull me out of the Sea Shrine?” he asked. “Because something was wrong, something that made my memories all wonky?”

Lion’s only response was a throaty huff and a slow, cattish blink.

Steven didn't completely understand. He gave him a rub between the ears anyway. “Thanks, buddy.”

With that, he pulled himself to his feet. There was no reason to dawdle any further. If he were back home, he may as well go see Pearl and the others in person. Maybe he could get some donuts, too, or help with some decorating before asking Lion for a ride back to the Dondai. The Sea Shrine might’ve been a bust, but there were still a dozen states left for him to tour.

And maybe it was genuine ignorance. Maybe it was willful.

But until he’d found the Gems to ask what was going on, he wasn’t going to wonder where Little Homeworld had gone.

Notes:

Steven: *sees all of Little Homeworld missing, the lack of greenhouse on his roof, probably a lot of buildings in town since tons of infrastructure had to be repaired or replaced after SU: The Movie*

Steven: Am I time traveling? ... No. It is my perception that is wrong.

All chapters after this are probably gonna be either equal length or longer. I'd like to shoot for 1.2k+ per chapter, but I'm also giving myself quite a bit of wiggle room because it's been actual years since I've published fic. No updating schedule as of yet, but I know my endgame and I'm stuck at home for the foreseeable future so I might as well get some writing in. I'll write faster if people show interest though, so please comment and kudos! Be good, be safe, I love you!

EDIT: I didn't realize that people would, like, actually read this? This response is kind of incredible. And, uh. Means I had to actually edit the chapter instead of throwing a first draft onto here, hehe. So now I've changed a few things for clarity's sake and fixed the pacing so it reads better. Rereading isn't necessary, though, nothing important was changed.

Chapter 2: A Little to the Left

Notes:

Minor TW, Steven panics when he realizes he's in the past, but Lion calms him down. It's not a full-blown panic attack, but it's there.

Also! I made some edits to the first chapter, just to make it flow better. All minor, so you don't have to reread if you don't want to. Enjoy!

(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)

Chapter Text

The stairs were old.

That was a weird thing to fixate on, probably, but it’s what Steven was going to fixate on and nobody could do anything about it.

Sure, maybe someone could come along, grab his hand, and point at something else. Maybe they’d say, “The second floor is missing! The balcony, the galaxy warp, the greenhouse! Look closely, your laundry is hung up to dry in Obsidian’s palm!” 

Maybe they’d say, “You haven’t worn the red shirts in years , but there they are! And even higher up, the cliff, it doesn’t have a fence anymore! That’s a safety hazard! What would Pearl think!”  

Then, maybe, they’d pull him closer and release his hand just to grip his shoulders and shake him violently, shouting, “Or look! Over your shoulder! Right there! You saw it, out of the corner of your eye, or actually you didn’t see it and now you’re not looking back because you know I’m right, where is Little Homeworld?” and they would totally freak out, lose their mind, go bananas, because why was everything so weird, had he finally lost his last marble? How could he contact his therapist from an unknown number of years in the past? Was he going to be stuck in this delusion for the rest of his life? Or worse, was he going to miss his next breakfast date with Connie?

But Steven would just shrug and say something like “Okay, sure, that’s pretty wild, but have you seen how old these stairs are?”

And he wouldn’t be wrong to say that the stairs were weird. Following any and all logic, they should still be new. Not brand new, not fresh-cut-wood new, but regular new. With the sand in the grooves and the slight salty warp and the paling from the sun, but definitely still new, especially after the latest renovation following his, ah, “episode.”

What they were now? Old. Way too old. And the stain he’d picked during the remodel had been prettier.

But, as with many things in life, the “stairs” distraction only lasted so long. There are only so many in a flight, see, and once you got to the top you were out of them. This was a rather unfortunate fact that, despite its inevitability, surprised Steven. Once he got to the top, he even considered walking back down, but Lion was absolutely not having it.

Open the door, his eyes said, after headbutting Steven all the way to the welcome mat. You took too long. I beat you here. Now open the door, and then open the fridge. Open it. You made the mistake of sharing ice cream with me once and now I am insatiable. Let me into your fridge. Do it. Do it or I will open it with my big lion paws.

“If I open the door for you, are you going to just go straight for the fridge?” Steven asked warily.

Lion blinked once for I Love You.

Steven sighed and reached for his key.

Wait.

No.

Stop, slow, pat down his pockets.

No keys. No keys, no phone, pockets empty, could this day please just put a little effort in? Please? For Steven?

He allowed himself one long, guttural groan for today’s mess before slamming his head against the door.

Which creaked open easily, because it was unlocked, and ugh that’s so convenient it’s almost worse.

Lion casually bumped his way past Steven and into the house.

Steven followed.

No, nevermind, Steven did not follow, he made two steps in before he turned right back around and slammed the door shut behind him so he could gather his wits.

What the heck.

He cautiously opened the door again and peered in again.

There were only so many things Steven could deny at that point. The inside of his house, his old home, where he spent every day of his developmental years , was chock-full of details that no hallucination or dream could recreate.

 In the kitchen pantry, a bag of Limited Edition Pizza-Flavored Chaaaaps was neatly clipped closed . Steven had nearly forgotten Chaaaaps had a pizza flavor.

In the bathroom, his toothbrush was almost too soft and needed changing. Steven had switched to electric sometime after his sixteenth birthday.

In the lofted bedroom, why was there a lofted bedroom again.

Steven wandered every room, slowly at first, but gradually picking up speed until he was almost sprinting all over the house. He looked under pillows and cushions and cabinets, checked under the couch and on top of the fridge and behind the bookshelf, and then he checked again. All in vain. 

Steven couldn’t find a single thing that was so out of place, so implausible, that it couldn’t have been there, that meant that he was somewhere fake.

His face burned with what he knew was probably a bright pink spread across his cheeks and dug his hands into his hair. This was real. This was really, really real.

He’d finally started getting his life together. He was finally happy in a way that settled across his shoulders and took the place of the world that used to rest there. He finally had people he could rely on, that he wanted to rely on, and now--! Back in the past. All his hard work, undone. This was the nightmare scenario.

Was the room getting smaller or was Steven just growing?

A weight leaned heavily on his legs. Steven stumbled, snapped out of his short spiral, decided sitting on the floor was the smart move before he toppled.

The weight followed him down and pressed firmly on his lap. 

A tongue dragged across his cheek.

Lion.

Right. Lion. 

Right, right.

Steven closed his eyes. 

There in darkness, everything was okay. 

He breathed in for four seconds, held it for seven. Breathed out for eight.

Under the warm, grounding press of Lion’s paws, his heart started to stutter out of its frantic rhythm.

God but what a mess.

Once he got his breathing under control, the rushing in his ears and the pink on his face faded into nothingness, Steven reached a shaky hand out to give Lion’s ears a rub and tell him he was a good boy. Such a good boy.

“This is… real. Probably,” he told Lion, combing his fingers through his mane. It was a lot easier to think now that he wasn’t building up to a pink-out. “Whatever it is, it’s definitely not a dream. Dreams get weird. It’s not another person’s dream, either, or a hallucination, or a weird illusion-hologram… thing, or-- or a memory . It’s solid.”

Pause.

“Unless… a memory can be solid, can’t it?” Steven thought aloud. It all was so realistic, so detailed, but… “Like-- like in mom’s room! Aw, but it’s so hard to tell what’s real in that place, because it doesn’t always make what I want it to make! It does that weird subconscious thing, where it picks up what I really want, or what it thinks I really want, or something, so if I expect something to be there, then it is. This house could be cloud, the beach could be cloud, the whole town could be cloud. Even you, Lion!” He felt a slight blush coming on, so he forced his jaw to unclench and did another round of breathing exercises.

Then he stilled. “But there’s one way… to know for sure, if we’re in mom’s room.”

Lion looked up at him with his big, sad eyes.

“Only one way,” Steven repeated. 

He lifted Lion’s head up to eye level and Lion let him. Lion blinked once for I Love You.

“Mi dispiace, amico mio,” he said, solemnly.

He had to do it.

For the truth.

Steven opened his mouth up as wide as he could, his friend’s face cupped carefully between his palms. “Ahhh.”

Suddenly, a bright flash of light filled up the room. Steven froze. A gasp, three gasps, and a mass of red and blue and brown physically bowled Steven over into a sprawl on the floor. 

“PLEASE DON’T EAT MY LION!” it yelled.

“Steven come back here, it might be feral!” a familiar voice cried.

“What-- your lion? This is my lion!” Steven gaped. “And he’s not feral! And you’re--! You’re, uh.”

“Yes, he is my lion!” a younger Steven argued, holding his arms out like he could block Lion from Steven’s view. “He’s pink and magic and loves me and… and he’s also at the door?”

Steven turned to see a second Lion paw at the screen. His tongue stuck out a little.

“Steven,” someone called. He looked up and saw who else had arrived. Garnet stood tall, flanked by a distressed looking Pearl and a wary Amethyst.

“Yeah?” younger Steven said.

“No, not you, Steven,” said Garnet. She pointed at Steven, him Steven, right at the center of his star-printed shirt, like she could see through his very soul. “That Steven.”

Nobody moved for a beat.

Then two.

Steven took the distraction and quickly closed his mouth over Lion’s snout.

Little Steven screamed.

Notes:

Steven: hey buddy, gonna have to bite your schnoz a little, just to make sure you're real is that cool

Lion: I See No Issue Here

I had so much trouble with the pacing of this chapter that I just took my third draft of this chapter and slapped it on here. We're Done.

This chapter originally had enough content to be much, much longer, but my goal is to make all the chapters except the first a semi-uniform length so I just cut it off here. This means I have a lot of stuff already written out or planned for next chapter! Expect it to come sooner than three weeks this time! And thank you guys for all the comments! Every time I get one I'm reminded that this story exists and go back to write a little more, so it really helps.

I hope this weekend gives you space to breathe, and that next week is kinder than the last. Be good, be safe, I love you!