Boiling Gems (The Owl House x Steven Universe)

Summary: Some answers and questions to such a curious case

Garnet should have never gone along with this. She should have just left the baby in Greg's care and taken the gems. How could she be so stupid? How could she mistake whatever this was for Rose fusing? She told them, she told them she'd be gone, and Garnet couldn't believe it.

It's my fault! I'm an idiot, I should have done something. I made a terrible decision and, and- Get a grip woman! So what if we crashed the van!? There's plenty of snow around the area, which means Steven should've landed somewhere around here safely! But it's so cold by human standards. He could be turning into a popsicle as we speak! We just need to find them before hypothermia sets in then!

In hindsight, they shouldn't have let Amethyst drive. But it was a rush and she was the only one with experience operating human vehicles. After the crash they were so embedded within the snow and a rockslide that it took about a minute or two to get free. Now they were desperately looking for any sign of the baby. He had to be somewhere. Come on future vision, please work, please! [Ten trees forward, four to the left, waddling in snow near that house.] You're a lifesaver Sapphire! It's what we do. Now come on, we have to hurry.

"Garnet! Have you had any luck!? I can't find little ros-Steven anywhere under here." Amethyst jumped up from the pile of snow, tunneling through it like a giant mole.

"Yes, I have his location." [Fear, so much fear. Backing away, crying … comfort.] "Keep digging out the van, I'll confront him." For some reason they seemed to like it better when it was just one person searching for them. It was probably because they kidnapped the child, terrified them by defusing, and then Pearl almost ripped out their gem. They'd have to ease them back into it.

Garnet made their way through the forest, slowly approaching the abandoned shack, watching as the little child wobbled about aimlessly. "Gawah …"

"Steven." They slowly approached the child.

"Baahh!" They shouted, moving backward, terror in their eyes. Terror they caused.

"Steven, we're sorry." She approached, the child becoming oddly quiet, looking at them. "We caused you nothing but trouble." She moved in closer, hands extended as they winced, out of fear and expectancy of pain. "We could never make it up to you for putting you in danger."

They pulled the child in close, keeping them warm with Ruby's heat to battle the cold. "Gahhh …" They felt like they were calming down.

"I don't know how much you can understand me…truth is I don't…understand how babies work, or how humans work in general." She admitted, sighing. "This world..even after living on it for six thousand years, I'm still trying to figure out how everything functions. We fought for our freedom, but sometimes I still feel trapped."

"Bwaah." Her words seemed to have some sort of connection with the little boy. Garnet felt the boy scoot himself closer to her, his soft curly hair resting and running gently against her chest.

"I know you don't know much about this world either…" He wasn't Rose after all…Garnet could see that now. "But we're going to learn all that we can about it together. I promise, we'll do what we can to help raise you." They stated, keeping the boy gently held. "No matter what it takes."

"Abaa." They squeezed onto Garnet's arms, holding her tightly, as if hugging her. Well, this is kind of adorable. Yep … now to bring him back to the others. That wasn't going to be pleasant…especially when explaining themselves to Greg.

"Steven!" They heard the shout of the now second youngest member of the Crystal Gems . The child tried to shuffle itself closer to Garnet, a bit of surprise and fear in their eyes as Amethyst ran to them. "Steven, I'm so, so, sorry about what happened! I didn't mean, the road just got bumpy and.."

"Baaaaaahhh." The child looked like they were about to cry as they buried their head into Garnet's chest.

"You have to be gentler than that, Amethyst." Garnet calmly warned the short Quartz. "He's still scared from the accident."

Amethyst actually winced at that, taking a few steps back. "Rose … or Steven … I dunno what I was thinking. It was confusing, even when you, she, told us what happened, and I … I didn't know how to live without your mom, Steven."

The boy slowly turned their head to the purple gem, tilting their head as if they sensed something akin to familiarity. "Bwwwh?"

"I don't want to make you scared anymore. I promise I'll make sure you have a lot of fun around me, alright." She told the little guy, gently holding her hand out. "I can even spruce things up a little, watch." Her hand glowed, and the fingers on the little gem grew beaks and feathers. "Bird fingers!"

"Awah." Steven held his hands out, eyes almost sparkly with excitement.

"Hah, and to think the preschoolers ran away when I showed off this trick to them." Amethyst laughed as she touched fingers. "Now you get little bird kisses."

"There you are!" Pearl ran up to the group, looking at Steven with wide eyes. "They're … still alive …" The pale gem stared at Steven's gem, a longing and curious look in their eyes.

Steven tensed up. "Mmmm." Retracting from Amethyst and once more clutching into Garnet.

"Pearl." Garnet firmly placed her foot down. "Whether we like it or not, Rose is gone. This is Steven." It would be the hardest for Pearl to accept. She was the closest to the woman out of all of them.

The gem winced, shaking in place. "I know … she told us … but it hurts." The gem cried.

"It hurt all of us Pearl." Garnet moved closer, gently tapping their head.

"She chose 'humanity' and 'change' over us … we could have been together forever."

"If we didn't change, then we'd be in no better position than we were on homeworld." Garnet reminded them. "Maybe accepting Rose's decision is a step towards making our own changes."

"Gah." They looked at the child hugging onto Garnet with a blissful smile.

"It looks like someone's got a favorite." Amethyst chuckled weakly.

"I used to be the favorite." Pearl muttered with a sad jealousy.

"Really?" Amethyst asked. "I thought that was Greg."

"Too soon Amethyst." Garnet chided. "… Speaking of … who wants to tell him about-"

"MY VAN!" Well that got the hard part out of the way.

"Hey….Greg." Pearl awkwardly shuffled herself. "We may have been a bit hasty and did some questionable things…"

"You kidnapped my child and crashed my van!" The man shouted, marching up to them with rarely seen rage. "Questionable doesn't even begin to cover what you did!"

"AwwwwwAaaaaah!" The baby cried from the shouting, clinging even harder to Garnet.

"Greg, you're upsetting Steven, you need to calm down." Garnet told the man gently but firmly.

"You're the one telling me to not upset my son when you kidnapped him to do who knows what on him!?" Greg shouted a little louder.

"Well he was glowing, so we thought maybe Rose was just locked inside." Amethyst responded weakly. "We're sorry we …"

"That's it, you all, you're all out of Steven's life for the next ten foreseeable years." Greg argued. "Come on Steven, we need to leave." He reached for the child.

"Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaagggggghhhhhh." The baby cried even louder the moment they saw Greg's hand reach out for them. Their grip on Garnet became somewhat more tight for what she expects out of an infant human's strength. Must have been the gem half.

"Greg, dude, I don't think he wants to go away." Amethyst answered.

"But, he's my son!" The man leaned down. "Come on Stewball, they almost got you killed. You can't trust them to take care of you."

The child looked up with pleading eyes to Garnet, cute, almost puppy dog like eyes that directly went into both her souls. "Greg, I believe it's in Steven's best interest if I keep holding onto him. I'm the only one keeping him calm right now."

The man stared at her, clutching his fist. "I'm going to go assess the damages now." He growled before walking away.

"Oooh…I think we just messed up big time with Greg." Amethyst winced.

"He'll get over it." Pearl waved off. "His human lifespan is too short to waste it on a silly grudge."

Garnet checked on the future. "… Yeowch." Greg was going to be mad for a while… a long… looong while. Just…..so painful to watch. "Girls, we should look into renovating the temple into something more livable for Steven…for everyone's sake."

Pearl nodded. "I'll get to working on the fence immediately." Of course she would.

========================================================================

Pearl cradled Steven, gently rocking them back and forth. "There there, everything's going to be alright …" Things have been … hectic to say the least, for the gems. Taking care of a human baby was not as easy as it looked. According to the books, babies simply cried out whenever they needed something, but unless it was danger, or being left alone, Steven never actually cried.

Rose's….son had actually adjusted to their presence fairly quickly after that day with the car crash. In fact, it was almost fair to say he became even more comfortable around them than Greg since that day. She wasn't quite sure about the psychology of finding more comfort around the people that nearly got you killed, but she's seen weirder in the last six thousand years, and chose to hope that wasn't anything serious.

They always seemed to cling around Garnet, holding the gem closely or listening to what they had to say. Amethyst was next on the list, always showing off strange and fun things that made the child's eyes sparkle. Then there was herself … usually an awkward silence as the two of them were next to each other, while the other gems were away. But he still seemed to prefer her to Greg, so that was a minor win in Pearl's book.

Now on the plus side, there was a thing that finally broke the silence … on the other hand, it was because Steven had been sick. Really sick. She noted that the boy's forehead was burning up with sweat, their eyes glassy as they constantly darted around the room. Their body was sluggish, rarely moving. The gems had noted that it was getting progressively worse. "How are you feeling now, Steven?" She asked.

They had tried giving him more food in case it was a matter of not getting enough substance, but anything they ate seemed to have little to no effect on them at all. They next assumed it was a matter of Rose's….of Steven's gem getting not enough natural light, so they spent a good two hours or so soaking in the rays during the afternoon. Unfortunately not only did it not work, the Crystal Gems learned that humans can get 'sunburn' when not applying lotion on their skin.

"Just tired." Steven responded quietly, taking in a few gulps of air. He's been handling this remarkably well, but there was a difference in brushing off pain and not being bothered by it.

Pearl thought about what she knew about organics. Sustenance, hydration, shelter … "It might be a disease of some kind." She noted. "Maybe we should get you to a doctor."

Steven's eyes widened. "No no, I'm fine, really." They stood up, legs wobbling. "See, no problem here."

She winced. "Steven, you wouldn't be able to fool anyone like that." She pointed out.

The child looked away. "Just … please no doctors … they don't know what my body's like and … it might cause trouble for everyone."

"That's surprisingly insightful for someone so young, and accurate." Steven was the first of his kind after all. Even Pearl and the others were still trying to wrap their heads around how he functioned. "I suppose there's one alternative we have, but it's mainly used for treating physical injuries."

The child looked up at her with glassy eyes. "You can wait then, I don't wanna take it from someone else who needs it." Steven said with an altruism that reminded her so much of … his mother.

"No..no, there's no one that needs it more than you right now." She sighed, carrying the little child and stepping on top of the warp pad. "Now you've never warped before, so hold on tightly, alright Steven?" She warned the boy.

"Is..is it dangerous?" The boy grasped her arms hard.

"Only if you touch the edge of the light." Pearl explained as the pad activated, showing off a mirage of light up to infinity. "These help us travel around the world, using a subspace generation. Outside of the light is the space in between …" A realm between realms.

"It's pretty …" Steven's eyes lit up as he looked around them.

"I suppose it is." She's seen it so many times it was more mundane than anything else, but to the young it must have been breathtaking. Almost as much as … Rose's fountain. "We're here."

"So many plants." Steven pointed out to the dozens of thorny vines that were beginning to spread across the ground. It seemed that they'd need to do a bit of searching to see if there would be any long term problems.

"Yes, your mother loved them." Pearl smiled. "Tending and nurturing all things with a beautiful and caring grin as she watched life reflect off her sparkling eyes…" She noticed Steven staring, so Pearl coughed. "Sorry, I shouldn't be-"

"No, it's fine." The boy shook his head. "She sounds like a cool lady, and you cared a lot about her. You should talk if you want." 

"You-you sure?" Pearl almost found herself speechless. "Sorry, it's just…I don't get much opportunity to talk about her nowadays. I'm told that it's best to move on and not bring up the past..but.."

"I get it." The little boy nodded. "It's not easy to let go. I won't ask you to let go." He hugged her from his position. "When you love someone, you want to hold on to them for as long as possible."

She felt her chest clench in an off manner. "Yeah … Ro… your mom was a very kind woman." She continued on. "Kinder than any gem that came before her."

"Really? You guys are really nice though. The nicest people I know." 

"I'm..flattered Steven, but you haven't met that many people yet." And he probably wouldn't think so if he ever saw them in a fight against a corrupted gem. "She had this uncanny and charming ability to love all forms of life. You could say the mission of the crystal gems is to reach that level of kindness."

"I think you're doing great." The boy smiled. "Amethyst always does things for Volidia, and Garnet always rushes in to help animals going to get run over or in trees." The boy answered. "And you always make sure I stay safe too ."

"Well I have six thousand years worth of experience in safety measures." She blushed lightly. If anything, the boy had his mother's gentle warm presence, even if it wasn't as large as Rose's. "Alright, we're here." Pearl gazed at the splendorous sight of the fountain, and the healing fluids it contained within the pool. Steven stared at the water. "Now, gently place your hand on-" She couldn't finish … on the account the boy dunked his entire head into the pool of water. "STEVEN!"

She pulled the boy out, his eyes having lost the glossy look as the boy seemed to have some of the color return to his face. "That..was soooo refreshing! I feel great!" He shook his head and jumped out of her arms. "My legs don't feel like jelly anyone!"

"Steven, you shouldn't do that! You could've drowned!" She frantically exclaimed 

"If I did, wouldn't the water have healed me?" The boy asked, calmly responding to her shocked expressions.

"I…" That was a good question. Was it possible to even drown in Rose's healing essence? "I still would've rather you gently splash the water in your face than submerge yourself within it. It's not necessarily meant for drinking."

"But it tasted so sweet! He responded. "I took a few gulps and I feel as good as new."

"I … you what?" She tried to process what just happened. "Steven, the last person to drink it whole had the bacteria in their stomach grow until it destroyed them from the inside out."

He looked concerned himself. "… Half gem, different rules?"

Pearl blinked. "I suppose..that could make sense." With the hybrid status, it was always hard to determine what was natural and unnatural to both sides. "Are you certain that you feel better? This is just a rush of adrenaline from near suffocation by water submersion?"

"I could do a flip." They smiled, jumping into the air … before landing on their face. "Amethyst still hasn't taught me how to land."

"I really need to install a nanny cam in the temple just for her alone." She trusted Garnet's future vision to prevent anything unsavory occurring, but Pearl felt more comfortable if it was her eyes keeping Steven safe. "Alright, I suppose we should head home now. Just..try to keep this little excursion to ourselves. Especially from your father."

"Don't worry, I don't say too much to him anyways…he gets really…moody and weird whenever I'm around." They winced. "Does he … not like me?"

"It's not that, don't assume that…he just has a hard time trusting me and the others." Ever since that day with the car crash, Greg's been less than civil with them, accusing them of 'planting ideas against him' in Steven.

"Why would they not trust you?" Steven asked. "You guys never lie." If only he knew the truth.

========================================================================

Amethyst lazily watched Tv with Steven, eating a can of cat food. "I did not expect 'crying breakfast friends' to be awesome." She spoke up. "It's kinda like a child friendly version of Venture bros." It wasn't Little Butler, but few things could be.

"Yeah. You don't think much about it when the first few episodes just have all the friends gather around and cry their feelings, but it slowly hooks you in by hinting at a bigger story to come." Steven nodded.

"All shows start lame, they just get better as they build up the plot." She answered. "Well, unless it's too much plot and retcon, then it's just confusing."

"I don't mind seeing something simple every once in a while though. Not everything needs to have a complicated story, as fun as those are every now and again." The boy nodded, looking at her snack with a small smirk. "Do you just eat anything with the word 'food' on it?" 

"Nah, I'll eat just about anything once, it doesn't have to be considered food." She shrugged, flicking a scoop of into her mouth. "Besides, it's mostly fish here. Humans eat those all the time, right?"

"When it's cooked. Not like the raw stuff cats eat." He rolled his eyes jokingly.

"So I've gotta be a cat to eat this?" She smirked, before transforming, now using her wittle cat mouth to gobble up the food. "Yummy."

"Oh no, a stray cat came in." Steven played along with mock worry. "Now I'll have to get the dog and scare them off." His ears began long and dangly as they because furry and puppy-like.

"I don't know how you became so good at shapeshifting so fast, but I'm not complaining." When he was younger, it was the gem power that seemed to fascinate the little dude the most. One day he asked how to do it, and the rest was history.

"You are a pretty good teacher when it comes to the fun stuff, Amy." Steven laughed. "How to eat upside down, how to shapeshift, how to hold your head out of a train to lap up the wind." Yeah, Pearl was definitely pissed at that one. She didn't see the big deal, they had a whip on the boy the whole time so he wouldn't fall out.

"What can I say, I'm a gem that knows how to let loose." She chuckled, changing into a snake as she slithered and wiggled for added effect.

"When the snakes are on the loose, have no fear, for then comes the mighty mongoose!" The boy curled himself up, shrinking a little and growing a long tail with some tiny looking ears.

"Ah, so that's the game you wanna play eh?" She smirked, shifting down. "Behold, the mighty honey badger, the most kickin animal that can block lion teeth." She snickered. "Hiss, hiss."

"Oh no, I have only one defense against the almighty predator." The boy began to rise … and rise … and rise … "The giraffe-ow." The giraffe of a child hit their head on the ceiling. "Too big. A bit too much for indor-"

"STEVEN!" She shouted, changing back to normal. "Human form, now!"

The boy looked scared at her tone of voice, changing back to normal. "I'm sorry, I might have damaged the ceiling and-"

"Who cares about that?!" She looked him over. "I told you to keep it small man, stretching takes too much out of a person. You could have really hurt yourself." It didn't look like he snapped back, but she couldn't be sure.

"Sorry, I got carried away, we were laughing and…" Steven sniffed. "I just … find it fun." The boy answered bashfully. "It doesn't involve hurting or fighting."

She gently held him. "I know man, but that doesn't mean you should push it." She answered. "Sure, I crash cars and set a couple buildings on fire now and then-"

"Wait what?"

"But I know my limits when I hit them." She stated firmly. "Please, please do not make me the responsible one ever Steven. The others would never let me live it down." Last thing the team needed was for Pearl to be the fun one.

"I…" The boy sighed a little. "I promise. You'll stay my fun irresponsible sister."

"Aww." She ruffled his head. "And I promise you'll never have to hurt anyone. Just tell me whenever you're feeling down, and I'll fix everything lickety split." Amethyst laughed, changing into an owl and landing on his head. " Owl be keeping a bird's eye view at all times."

"And I'll be sherbert to let you know." Steven changed the color on his hand to match the ice cream in question as he snorted. He was so lucky being human, she could never change her color no matter how hard she tried.

"Don't start with the puns now." The monotone voice of Garnet made itself known, as she walked in, her form having been shifted into a cat. "Because the cat's out of the bag."

Steven lost it, falling into a full out cackle as he fell onto the bed. "You're a master of comedy Garnet."

"I'm the master of everything." Yeah, yeah, cool leader and all. She could stand to sound just a little less bored all the time though.

========================================================================

Greg continued washing in silence. "I've gotta say Mr Universe, you definitely are making sure the Dewey mobile is a spotless wonder." Even if some people made that difficult to focus on.

"Yeah, I'm just..doing my best." He responded with a low grumble, just wanting to get the job over with. Greg's attitude had been…less than upbeat as of lately. A world he once saw as half full he suddenly started to view as half empty, and he could pinpoint the exact day when that all started.

"Normally I'd probably get my son to do it, get him to learn responsibility and live up to the status of being the Mayor's son, but, teens will be teens, acting like they're too cool for the job." The mayor kept going on. "You have a son, right? You know how it is."

"Wouldn't know. I barely see him as it is." He squeezed the sponge just a little harder than he normally would have.

"Yeowch." The man winced. "I know how that is. Teenagers running all around thinking they're too cool for work and parents. I only see my son at dinner, which is like, once a day."

"How nice that must be." He continued squeezing the sponge tighter. Greg didn't have much, but he still wanted to give everything he had into raising his son…but after that day with the car crash, when those Crystal Jerks freaking KIDNAPPED his son, he felt more and more of a growing distance between him and Steven.

Steven was his son, his only family left that would ever give a damn, the child that Rose died over , and … and … he was preferring time with THOSE PSYCHOS over him! The no good brainwashing aliens. "I suppose it's a good thing I have the Mrs around." The mayor laughed haughtily. "Otherwise I may go insane."

Splat

They both watched as the sponge his squeeze could no longer take the pressure, the pieces falling to the ground. "... Please let me do my work sir."

"Ah..sure. I have important…mayoring to do over here." Dewey slowly backed away, getting out his phone, pretending he was calling someone on the other end.

Everyone got to have a happy family in Gravesfield, didn't they? Fryman has his two son's Peedee and Rholnaldo. Barb had her daughter Sadie. Kofi had his twin daughters and his mother…and Greg…Greg was left with nothing.

When he set out on the road to make his own path, his own way in life away from his parents, he didn't think he needed much. Just his music and his van. Everything else would just come second as long as he could do what he wanted. Then Rose…sweet, beautiful, and kind Rose changed all of that for him. Gave him a sense of real purpose and meaning to his life.

It was just … love. Pure, genuine love, between two people. She may have been a giant woman with pink skin and a rock in her stomach, but she still took his breath away every second he knew her. Sure the Crystal Gems never appreciated him around, except for Amethyst (That was a grenade pin he didn't know if he wanted to pull or not). It was nice, and fun, and breathtaking.

Then he babysat Sour Cream. And then Rose decided she wanted a kid …Her kid…their kid…HIS kid, a kid that he would make sure grew up happy and free unlike Greg…a kid who was slowly being taken away from him with each passing day because of those damn women.

He never got along with Pearl, always taking the time to spite him whenever she had the chance. This was just another one of those damn games of her's, wasn't it? He 'took' Rose away from her, and now she was taking his son away from him.

Now he was lucky if Steven showed up on a weekend, always acting scared and unnerved, rambling on about how 'oh so great' the gems were. He never even got the chance to teach Steven music because he would always rather stay in Garnet's arms or run around town doing silly tricks with Amethyst.

What kind of sick joke was the universe playing where his life ended up like this? Stuck in a car wash to pay for the needs of a son he never got to talk to, living in a van with the bare minimum to live off of, nobody appreciating his music, everything falling apart. None of it made sense, what did he do to piss it off?

"Your car is finished sir." He told the Mayor, desperate to be alone right now.

"Ah yes, thank you." Dewey jumped into the car and turned it on.

"Aren't you going to pay?"

"Well, I don't have my wallet on me right now, but you'll have the Mayor Dewey guarantee that this won't go unremembered in the future." Before he could remove the air cap out of spite, the man drove away, probably already forgetting he existed.

And now there went this month's food budget … great, just great. "Anything else you want to throw at me, universe!?"

Crash

… He idly turned to the car wash sign that broke off … landing on his van. "Damn you…" He bitterly growled. "Damn you all…"

========================================================================

Connie read by the beach, listening to the calming waves of the ocean. Normally she would have read in the library, but that was closed due to renovating a new wing (her excitement was off the charts for the potential there), and school was never an option, due to she who shall not be named being a general form of calamity. That just left the forest and the beach, and the former was rumored to have some wild animal running around it.

She turned a page, reading about another economical change in the nineteen hundreds … now wasn't that something … interesting. God she was bored. Either her life was tortured by she who shall not be named' s overkill of chaos, or she was living a mundane schedule around her parents. Two arduous forms of prisons that she was desperate to get out of.

This wouldn't have been so hard if she had at least one friend, but school wasn't an option. There was she who shall not be named , cheerleading jerks, or the weird ones that always sat in the corner of the school lunchroom. Masha didn't seem that bad, but she…they….felt just a little bit off putting with the occult vibe she put out.

And her neighborhood didn't have any kids, meaning she was the only one on the block. Then again, unless they were perfect, she doubted mom and dad would let her have friends. A bit too controlling for her taste, although she knew they cared about her a ton. If only they believed her when she mentioned she who shall- "Hey there." She turned to see some guy around her age, a little round, looking at her with curious eyes. "Watcha reading?"

She tilted her head at the question. "Stock market trading of the nineteen hundreds." Connie answered.

"Oh, sock markets." He nodded with a smile. "I can just imagine how hard it was to sell and make so many sizes at once."

She wasn't sure if he was joking or just misheard what she said, but the pun, intentional or not, did get a small laugh out of Connie. "Well, that would be after the industrial revolution, where factory work was just starting to boom, and back then I could imagine fabrics like cotton were much more plentiful back then, so maybe not as hard as one would think." She looked up at the boy. "Hey, I don't think I've seen you around school before, though I am pretty new around here."

"Oh, I don't go to school. My family teaches me everything I need to know." The boy responded with a wide smile."

"Oh, so you're homeschooled." She nodded. "I'm the lucky one then, if I was homeschooled my parents would never take their sights off me." Sure, she'd be free from she who shall not be named , but that would pretty much remove the only thing nobody could control in her life.

"Yeah, my family can be really overprotective too." The boy sat in the sand, with no blanket under him. "There was an accident when I was a baby, and now they make sure one of them is watching at all times. This time it's Garnet." The boy looked over at a tall afro woman staring into the distance. "I don't know how, but I feel that even if she looks away, she can keep an eye on me."

"Between you and me, I'm pretty sure that all parents are psychic." Connie whispered with a giggle. "If I'm ever even thinking about going near food with Trans-fats, my mom is on the phone with a full lecture on body nutrition." Ping  "Oh look, there's the text now."

The boy gave a gasp. "Psychic powers would explain so much. They already have shapeshifting down. Now they can look and hide everywhere. The hide and seek masters of the world." She began to laugh harder. "I'm Steven."

She laughed just a little bit harder. The boy had an imagination, but unlike she who shall not be named , she wasn't being sent to detention just by breathing near her. "I'm Connie. Nice to meet.."

rumble

Crack

CRUMBLE

"LOOK OUT!" The boy pushed her out of the way of an oncoming boulder that was going to smush them to smithereens…

BOOM

Correction, the bolder was blown to smithereens as the afro woman PUNCHED IT WITH HER BARE HANDS! "Are you two alright?" The woman asked, dusting her hands off like that didn't just happen.

"Yeah, we're alright Garnet, I think." Steven turned to her, that kind childlike face of his turning to one full of concern for her. "You okay Connie? Nothing hit you or anything, right? You don't need healing water?"

"I … healing water!?" What the heck was going on here!?

"Yeah … right, sorry." The boy laughed nervously, looking away. "I um … forget my life can weird people out sometimes … sorry."

"No, no, you just saved my life, I'm not mad, I'm just…getting a little confused." Connie shook her head. "I feel like I just stepped into one of my fantasy books. Are you magic?"

"I …" He paused, turning to Garnet. "Are we magic?"

"Alien rocks with energy manipulative properties and advanced technology. No magic, sadly." The tall woman shrugged.

"Yeah, we're…that." Steven hesitantly laughed. "You're not weirded out, are you?"

"I … a little?" She gave a hand wave. "I'm just trying to process that … fiction is non fiction." It was a pretty big bomb to just drop on a girl.

"I find that when life gets confusing, a cookie cat or two usually helps." Steven offered. "My freezer's full of them if you want."

"Hm, well I already did get the phone text…" She looked at her screen for a second. "Mom's not here, so she'll never have to know."

"Lips are sealed." The woman smiled. "I'll stick around here for a moment, there's something I need to take care of. Have fun you two." She said, ruffling the boy's hair.

"See yah Garnet!" He waved off as the woman jumped away. "Ain't she the coolest?"

"Steven, she just punched a bolder to dust, and let you walk home with a girl alone to eat candy …" Connie smiled. "She's absolutely the coolest!" She complimented her … first real friend.