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It was a Saturday night, and like most nights Amethyst was busy in the kitchen, assembling the latest in a long line of culinary masterpieces. True, there wasn’t much to work with – no humans in the house meant there wasn’t much need to keep the pantry stocked – but in her mind a good artist could work with tools of any quality. She had settled on a glorious combination of pizza, burgers and some leftover bacon.
The oven timer went off. She plated up her creation, grabbed a family-sized bottle of soda from the fridge and headed for the TV. Pearl was already on the couch and moved over to accommodate her. Of course; this was movie night. It had become something of a tradition for them ever since Steven had left. She supposed this was their way of pretending that he was still here.
Tonight’s entertainment was Space Adventure VII: The Unforeseen Prodigy. If memory served, Commander April and Lieutenant Meyer were attending the opening of a wormhole to the Omega Sector.
Amethyst frowned. ‘That’s weird. What about Robar and the Professor?’
There was no reply.
Amethyst smirked and turned to Pearl. ‘Yeah, you’re right. Probably too busy gettin’ nasty.’
Usually such a remark would make Pearl turn scarlet, or at the very least warrant a groan of annoyance. But this time Pearl showed no sign of having heard her at all. She wasn’t paying attention to the TV, or anything for that matter – her chin was rested on the back of her hand as she gazed idly out of the window.
‘Yo, Pearl. I said–‘
‘I heard you the first time, Amethyst.’ Her tone wasn’t so much annoyed as it was tired.
Amethyst had seen this look before. It had been a few weeks now since Steven had left, but it was still a relatively fresh wound. Out of all of them, Pearl had probably taken it the hardest. Sometimes she would still call for Steven simply out of habit, as though he was only in another room.
It had obviously been nowhere near as bad as losing Rose – they could text Steven whenever they wanted, and he made sure to call regularly - but Pearl had a different sort of connection to Steven. In a way, she might have been the closest thing to a mother he had ever known.
She shuffled closer, put her hand on Pearl’s to stop it fidgeting. ‘Pearl, it’ll be fine. He’ll call. He always does.’
Pearl sighed. ‘I know. But I can’t help worrying about him. Out in the world, all by himself…’
‘He’ll be fine. Steven can take care of himself.’
‘What makes you so sure?’
Amethyst sat back with her hands behind her head. ‘Just trust me.’
Suddenly the temple door opened, and Garnet emerged. While she would never admit it, they had begun to suspect that Garnet had been secretly using her Future Vision to find out when Steven was going to call. And if her calculations were correct…
‘Cam’s camshafts is the place to bring your wreck–‘
Pearl jumped at the sound of her ringtone and pulled out her phone. It was obvious who was calling from the way her face lit up. Amethyst and Garnet moved to get a good view of the screen as Pearl’s trembling hands found the “answer call” button.