Chapter Text
It was time to get up. Steven could tell by the sunshine that stroked his face with its warmth, even through his closed eyes. But he just couldn't bring himself to get up.
Get up for what? To face the same old Gems and get to hear all about their useless concern for him? To get another dose of those weird pink swellings? Or to face his dad again.
The menu of activities for today just wasn't looking good from any angle. And that wasn't even the whole list, but some things Steven made a choice to avoid thinking about all together.
As he laid with his eyes closed, he distinctly heard someone enter the room, sit on the edge of his bed, and place a hand on his forehead. Warm hand. Human hand. Either his dad or…
Steven closed his eyes harder.
"Please five more minutes." He tried to win last moments of serenity. This elusive time in the waking phase where the crushing weight of his problems hasn't fallen on his shoulders yet.
"Of course deary. But be dressed and come down in at least 10 minutes for breakfast." Replied the soft unfamiliar voice.
Steven shot up, opening his eyes at once. Before him sat a lady of old age, whom he had never seen before. Around him was the room that he had seen exactly once. Steven grabbed onto his curls, looking around for any sort of explanation. He was sleeping in a stranger bed, in a stranger house. The only items in the room that belonged to him were his jacket and pants, neatly folded and placed on the chair by the bed.
Befuddled, Steven looked at the old lady.
"I'm sorry, where am I?"
"Don't you remember?" The lady put her hands together on her lap. "Although, I won't be surprised if you don't. You had quite a fit last night. You were crying so much, I could have sworn your face turned pink!"
Steven rubbed the back of his head. Yeah, that happens. "No, I don't… remember…"
The lady reached her hand, petting Steven on the head. It was weird for the boy, to say the least.
"You've come to us, because we're your family. A more competent one than your dad. You've come crying about all the awful ways he raised you."
"I… was?"
"You begged us to take you into a normal human family."
Steven shook his head, desperately trying to remember any of this. He did manage to recall visiting this house with his dad, and finding out that the people who lived here were his family. He remembered the feeling. He went across the whole galaxy to meet his mom's side of the family, while those two old people lived here his whole life. He may have as well passed them by on the street one day!
"I do remember…"
"Good to hear. Gerard has been more reluctant about taking you in, but I talked him down to giving you a chance. So you best be on your best behaviour. Goodness, look at the time." The lady pointed at the dusty clock on the bed stand, "Get dressed and come down. We have a lot of places to visit today."
"Uhm… okay." Steven reached for his jacket on the chair. At once, it was snatched out of his reach.
"Goodness, no! Not that dirty thing. We don't know what sort of germs live on it! Pick something out of the closet."
The old lady picked his pants and jacket, and left the room with it.
Once Steven stopped hearing her footsteps, he sat up with his legs hanging down from the bed he was on.
How did I end up here? Think, Steven, think. Last thing you remember…
Steven sorted through his memories as he sorted through the dusty closet for some new clothes. He settled for a green and brown turtleneck and a pair of dull jeans. Looking in the mirror, he thought that he had traveled back in time for 50 years, or even more, and was now living inside an old sepia photo.
Instinctively he reached for the phone in his pocket, and was momentarily scared to realize that it was missing. It must have stayed in his jacket!
Steven bolted out of the room, hoping that the lady who's name he had yet to learn wasn't going to dump his clothes into the washer right away. He took some time to find a path that led downstairs (assuming she headed down). As he got down and anxiously looked in all directions, he heard some mysterious snarling from the kitchen.
"You're running like you got a firework stuck up your butt, kid."
A man who's hair was on his face instead of his head was looking at him atop the newspaper in his hands.
"Sorry, I'm looking for my jacket." The boy replied, taken aback by the comparison that was made about him just now. Did he do something wrong? "The lady took it with her."
"That lady is my beautiful wife, and for the time being your adoptive mother - Marie." The man said the next part lower in tone, "Should have just adopted another dog as she wanted."
Steven chose to miss that by, "She is very beautiful indeed, sir, but right now I need to find her because she took my-"
"Sir? Perhaps you're not that hopeless yet." The man started saying in the middle of Steven's sentence.
Like a good boy he was raised to be, Steven stayed quiet when the people worthy of respect spoke, though he found it weird that the man didn't seem to listen till the end of Steven's phrases. Maybe he didn't hear well? Luckily, the answer of his search walked back into the room. The old lady Marie walked in and stood by her husband Gerard's side. She was holding Steven's phone.
"I sure hope you aren't one of those kids who spend their whole time staring into those blank screens." She said, looking at the device she was grasping incorrectly.
"Of course not ma'am." Steven stepped closer, reaching his hand for the device. But the lady quickly put it out of his range.
"No, no. You can have it after the breakfast. You have no need for this at the table."
Steven gulped down. He wasn't used to this, but on another hand - maybe this is what a normal human life was like? He wanted this, of course he did, he just needed some time to get used to this.
"Of course. You're right. Wouldn't wanna get it dirty, haha."
Steven's joke received no reaction.
Steven sat at the table between the two elders.
"Don't put your elbows on the table."
The boy put his hands down, tapping his fingers on his jeans instead. He thanked Marie when she poured him a bowl of soup, and opened his mouth to ask her about more things, but was hushed immediately.
"Don't talk at the table."
Steven quieted down, grabbing onto the spoon-
"That's a dessert spoon. Did Gregory teach you no manners?"
"I do know table manners, sorry."
"Then you should definitely know about no eating and talking at the same time."
"But I'm not eating yet-"
"Well you should. What's the problem?"
Instead of replying, Steven grabbed the spoon that got approved by Marie's nod, and began to eat.
The soup tasted new to say the least.
"Don't chew with your mouth open."
It was only as Steven was done with washing the dishes (which he volunteered to do on his own and earned his first Good Boy point with), was he allowed to have his phone back. But he was still asked to pay attention and not have it open anytime he would be in a dialogue with the two.
Alright, he could do that. Not that he ever would show such sign of disrespect. Not that he ever even paid attention to doing that…
"You mentioned that we have places to go?"
"We do, unless you changed your mind." Marie said as she sat down on the couch in the living room. She had her white blouse and a long checkered brown skirt blend into the dullness of the house well.
Steven sat down next to her. He still didn't remember anything about the last night of his life, but he didn't want to seem forgetful.
"Right… sorry, what did I make up my mind about, again?"
Gerard sat on the seat by the side of the couch, putting one leg over the other.
"The boy's got an air head."
"Give him time, sweetie. He was raised in a van."
"You think you can pick him out of it and make a man of that boy?"
"Of course we can. I'm not surprised he hardly remembers last evening. Did you see how much he was crying?"
"Gregory raised a cry baby."
"There's nothing wrong with crying." Steven said, quieter than the dialogue he was hearing was happening.
"Let us remind him then." Marie finally concluded, now looking at Steven. "Steven, you knocked on our door in the evening hour, looking absolutely frazzled. We thought you got into a car crash at first! But then you introduced yourself as our grandson. And you told us about running from your dad, because you realized what an awful, irresponsible person he is. You asked to stay with us. Because you, I quote, never had a normal human life."
"It was here that Marie's heart melted and she began to comfort you." Gerard picked up the story, looking proudly at his wife, "Her heart is as beautiful as she is, and she agreed to let you stay with us. Seems like she missed the times there was a baby bird in our humble nest."
"You're going to make me blush." Marie laughed softly, "But it's true. I do think the empty room could use another kid, and I would have helped a sweet looking kid like you even if we weren't related."
It was Steven's turn to blush happily, as he smiled at the two.
"You told us you don't have any documents, so that's what we're going to get you today. It might be complicated, but Gerard has some good connections. You might have your ID in a month if we start today!"
Steven's eyes shined up with starts in them. His very first and real ID… Maybe he'll even have a birth certificate!
"Thank you so much!" He replied immediately, standing up and reaching his hands to hug his new family.
Gerard and Marie raises their hands first, not being used to such display of affection from a child in their house. But Marie soon recognized it and hugged Steven back.
It was a cold day outside, Steven put on an oversized jacket, and a scarf with a hat that completely covered his face. It wasn't his choice of fashion - but he went with it. Riding in the back of the car and listening to the classical music with his new family members felt so new to him. He laid back in his seat, keeping his eyes half closed. Not wanting to drift to sleep completely. Not wanting this to go away. Not wanting to close his eyes, open them again, and realize that all of this was just a dream. No, he wanted this life. He wanted to experience a normal human life, at least for once in his weird alien crime-against-nature hybrid life.
In the corner of his eye Steven thought he saw a familiar face pass by on the street. A face from his past life. Whether he really did see them or not, the boy tried to sit deeper into his seat, covering his face with his hat.
He was not planning to come back.