Chapter Text
"A night of rain, it is." says Steven in a Yoda-like voice, hanging upside down on the couch.
"Steven, sit up. The blood will start rushing to your head." Garnet says, lifting the small boy up and placing him back down right side up. Lighting strikes and a clap of thunder follows it. Amethyst and Pearl are standing in the kitchen, Pearl reading her human anatomy book and Amethyst eating a bag of onion rings. Garnet is sitting on the couch playing cards with Steven.
“Go Fish!” He yells giddily as Garnet picks up a card from the pile.
Silence remains for a few moment besides the pitter patter of the rain until there’s a knock at the door that Steven jumps up excitedly to answer.
"I'll get! I'll get it!" He yells running to the door, he trips and falls on his face. In mid trip he gripped the door knob, he pulls it open and looks up to see who has come to their doorstep at such a late hour of the night.
"Lars!?! What're you doing here? You're soaked! Come inside!" Steven grabs the boy's arm and pulls him inside, Lars has a mixed face of being startled and grateful. Pearl rushes toward the two boys with a towel, a concerned expression paints her face.
"Lars, oh dear...you are only a human, you will get ill. Here, dry off." She shoves the towel in his arms.
"I'm fine." Conveniently, Lars coughs as he says this. "Listen...can I crash on your couch Steven? I got kicked out of my house." He looks away ashamed, rubbing the back of his neck.
"Yes you can stay here Lars. I'll bring you some dry clothes." Steven says, running up his wooden steps to his loft-like bedroom. He shuffles through his dresser looking for dry pajamas to give lars. He picks out a yellow pair with pizzas on them. He bounds down the steps to Lars, the gems' have retreated to their rooms then, each of them planting a kiss on top of Steven's head.
Steven reaches out the pajamas, Lars looks at them before taking them hesitantly, then looking at Steven. "Uh...Steven. Turn around." Lars begins to strip down, leaving on his boxers, he slips the shirt over his head and puts on the shorts. He starts to feel awkward, the shirt shows half of his torso and the shorts look like daisy dukes on his long legs. "Ugh! Steven, you don't have anything bigger?"
Steven looks over his shoulder, his cheeks puff up as he bursts out laughing from the sight of Lars wearing Steven's kid pjs. "Sorry Lars...that's all I got.”
“It’s okay, thank you for letting me stay here.”
“What even happened?” Steven says sitting on the couch and patting the seat next to him, gesturing for Lars to sit beside him.
Lars takes the seat with a sigh, slouching. “My mom and dad got into an argument again. Somehow I got pulled in the middle, and my dad kicked me out. Told me to leave.”
“oh…Lars. That’s horrible.” Steven looks at him sullenly
“Yeah, I gotta get a job now, get my own apartment maybe. I gotta go back tomorrow to get my stuff. So it’s cool if I can crash here for a while?”
“Of course, as long as you need, I’ll even help you move. And maybe my friend Sadie can get you a job.”
Lars sighs, Steven runs up to his bedroom and drops down a pillow for him. “Well Lars, it’s pretty late. We should go to bed now.” He turns on his TV for a background light and noise.
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The thunder dies down, and the rain storm starts to come to an end.
It’s 6 o’clock in the morning and Lars is awake. Everyone is still in their rooms, Steven is still asleep and it’s so quiet Lars can hear his breathing. The humming of the TV above him was slightly comforting. At least there were some voices he doesn't mind listening to. Voices that don't make him cringe, he thinks of his dad.
He can’t sleep due to the nightmares that keep haunting him every time he closes his eyes. He starts to tear up, but violently wipes at them, leaving his eyes red.
“Good morning Lars.” The voice of the thin, pale gem coos. “You are up early, don’t humans need their sleep?”
“Uh…hey. Yeah, but I couldn’t sleep.” He whispered, averting his eyes from her. Garnet and Amethyst walk out of their rooms as well, they all step on the warp pad.
“Well, can you please tell Steven we left early for a mission when he wakes up.” Pearl says.
“Sure thing.”
“See ya man,” Amethyst laughs as they warp away to wherever it is they were heading this early in the morning.