"Wooooooaaah!"

The shout came from down the beach.

"Yeah man, did you see that?"

Greg looked to see Steven and Amethyst half a mile down the sandy shore, setting off fireworks. They both glowed, bright as the rockets shooting into the sky. They were both sublime.

"Now, now." Pearl voice came softer, but just as echoing, to Greg, ("be careful,") where he was seated on the edge of a crackled, dilapidated beach house porch. It was his thinking spot, the one he had found with Rose, all those years ago.

Before Steven, before Vidalia even had Sourcream, back when they were just trying to figure things out.

'I don't understand...' That was something Rose inevitably said to him as they sat together, and he would try and explain the eccentricities of humanity. He always failed terribly, and yet...

Rose always seemed to end up understanding, after they struggled together. That was what they had been like, before Steven, during the prenatal-Steven days, too. They struggled and made mistakes and had misunderstands and troubles, but they always made hot dogs.

Greg sighed, his sunburnt face slumping into his hands.

He thought of Steven's glowing, starry eyes, Steven's bright smile, Steven's button nose.

"He's so much like her," he said softly to no one in particular. "Sometimes, I see him get excited and it...it just hurts to think she's gone."

Garnet, appearing seemingly out of nowhere, sat down next to him, one leg bent upward against her chest. She put a hand solidly on his shoulder. "I know."

Greg looked up sheepishly at Garnet; the few times he'd seen her broken apart were the few times he'd seen her truly emotional. But now, that mask she held so firmly slipped. Just for him, it seemed.

"I miss her." He resisted whimpering.

"We do, too." She was quiet for a moment. "We all do."

He nodded. "I-I'm sorry, Garnet, I'm being selfish. I know everyone miss-"

Garnet cut him off, the hand not on his shoulder rose from her tented leg, a single finger up, indicating his silence. "There is no such thing as selfish when it comes to missing the one you love."

Greg smiled softly.

"You loved her, and yet you freely shared her, with us. With the world." A rare smile cracked on Garnet's lips. "That's not selfish. That's heroic."

Greg laughed. "I'm not heroic. I'm just trying to do the right thing. For Rose, for Steven, for all the Gems..."

"For you?" Garnet's sunglasses slid down her nose slightly.

"I try." He smiled sheepishly, knowing he usually came last on his list of important people.

"Never forget yourself." Garnet advised. "You are your first relationship, after all." Greg saw the warm smirk curl across her mouth and had to laugh.

"You're the expert on that!"

She gave a curt nod and stood, her mouth a firm, yet somehow warm, straight line. "Greg..." he had never really heard her hesitate before. "You can always come to me...when you need to think."

His eyes welled slightly. "I-I know."

"Good." She adjusted her glasses. "Now, I think we should go to where the others are. While I know Amethyst can regenerate a lost limb, I don't want Steven to get any ideas."

Greg laughed awkwardly and stood. Rose was gone, that was true, but she was always kind of there, with them. In Greg's songs, in Amethyst's laugh, in Pearl's concern, in Garnet's security.

And of course, in all of Steven.