Disclaimer: I don't own Steven Universe
Title: Trying
Setting: Sardonyx (the week, not the bomb)
Summary: Pearl and Garnet aren't talking to each other. Amethyst tries to keep the house, herself, and Steven in one piece.
Warnings: Amethyst and domestic do not mix.
...
Amethyst is trying, okay?
She gets that she's not very helpful, especially at times like these. She gets that Steven misses Pearl's guidance and Garnet's gentle hands and she's just herself. She's just Amethyst. But she's trying anyway.
Guidance isn't really her thing, so she tries her hand at cooking instead. As it turns out, she really sucks at it. She burns three out of every four things she cooks, but the remains can be hidden with a cracked window and a swallow. Amethyst has eaten more burnt food as of late then she has her entire life. Pearl and Garnet never notice. Amethyst restocks the fridge when they're gone.
Gentle isn't really her thing either, so she goes with honest. She doesn't know what to do. Catching Peridot isn't going to change things. They need to talk about it, but pushing things will only make it worse.
She also watches a lot of Crying Breakfast Friends without any alien backup. Steven records the episodes for them all to watch together 'as a family', but she doubts they're going to get watched anytime soon.
"How long do you think it'll take?" Steven asks, watching her cook.
The biggest blow to her pride, as far as Amethyst is concerned, is that she's so short she has to wear a black kid's apron (black to cover up all the burn marks), and most of them aren't long enough string-wise. But she still wears it, if only to avoid getting stains on her clothes and having to go through the hassle of fixing them magically.
"I dunno." She says finally, dumping a handful of a spice she doesn't even dream of being able to pronounce into a pot of boiling liquid. She tastes it, makes a face, then dumps it into the sink with a sigh. "Nope."
"Not suitable for kids?" Steven asks, quoting something Pearl used to say back when he was little and still figuring out how to cook.
"Not suitable, period. Seriously." She bunches her fists and turns the water on to the rinse the pot out. It's black on the inside. "Crud."
Steven ignores it and makes himself a sandwich. Amethyst is grateful he knows how to scavenge as well as he does. She would've killed him by now otherwise. "I mean, how long can a gem hold a grudge, anyway?"
Homeworld seemed to be a pretty good example on the length of grudges, but Amethyst thought better of saying that. "Gems live for a long time, dude. That's plenty of time to nurse something like this."
She wants to say; forever. Garnet and Pearl, quite literally, could be stuck in this rut until the end of time, and Steven, who will probably only opt to live for a couple hundred years, tops, might never get to see them getting along again. She might never get to see them getting along again.
But she doesn't, because Steven deserves better than that. A lot better.
"Well... How do we help fix it?"
That, Amethyst has the answer to. "I dunno." She lies, because this isn't something they can fix. It has to be Garnet and Pearl. Steven won't understand that. He wants to fix this so bad- almost as bad as she does- that the fact that they can't fix it would hurt him more than an 'I don't know.' "We don't, I guess."
It's been a good forty years or so since Amethyst last had to handle a vacuum. At least, on her own terms, that is.
Man, Amethyst doesn't even clean her own room. Why couldn't Pearl see that, remember just how much she loves cleaning, and get off her skinny butt and do it?
(Because Pearl isn't around to see it, a little voice reminds her.)
Amethyst vacuums. And mops. And burns a couple more pans in a vain attempt to make Steven an edible- by his standards, mind you- lunch.
"So, what did you do today?" Pearl asks awkwardly over dinner. Garnet is staring resolutely ahead. The thin gem glances at her for help, a look Steven also shoots her. He's been giving her that look a lot lately, like something she said could magically make everything better. Magic is awesome, but it's not that awesome.
Amethyst shrugs off the question with practiced ease and stares at the takeout she'd been forced to order rather than try and explain why there was a home-cooked meal on the table. "I didn't do squat."
Connie originally came over for sword lessons. How she managed to get herself wrapped up in a mission on Amethyst's watch is beyond her.
Still. She's good help to have around.
"I got ya', little man!" She says, and Steven lands safely in her arms. Connie comes flying after a few seconds later, and slams into her back, knocking her to the ground. Steven's still okay, though. Amethyst managed to hold him up. So, no biggie.
"Nice aim." She grunts sourly, unsure if she's talking to the girl in question or the creature that threw her.
"I'm so sorry." Connie babbles, amongst other things, as she practically jumps off her, and Amethyst feels bad. It's only her first mission. She's still new to all of this. It's not her fault she'd smashed into her.
"Nah. Better me than the ground." She rectifies, then steals a glance at her. "But don't tell Pearl you almost ate dirt on my watch."
"Yes, ma'am."
"And don't call me ma'am."
Seeing how this was technically Connie's first mission, and how technically she wasn't supposed to be going on missions yet anyway, Amethyst walks her home rather than try and come up with a plausible excuse to Greg as to why Connie needed a ride home. Steven tags along. They talk about Under The Knife and brush hands here and there without trying to.
It's cute. Amethyst lets it slide. Give 'em a few years, she tells herself. They'll work it out. Things like love don't start making sense for humans until they hit puberty and start getting tall.
"It's past curfew." Dr. Maheswaran says, which is her form of a greeting.
"Sorry, mother. The study session took longer than I expected." She says, because, as far as her mother knows, she's been brushing Steven up on the things one didn't normally learn under the guidance of magical extraterrestrials. She's also been doing her schoolwork while she's there.
Amethyst has to hand it to her. The girl can spin a heck of a story when she has to.
"Is your homework done?"
"Yes, ma'am."
"Well, then I suppose it was worth being late. Just don't make a habit out of it." She fixes her a curious look. "You're not the one who normally takes her home."
"Yeah, well." Amethyst says with a shrug. "Normally the one who takes her home is around to do it."
It's a two hour marathon. Of a kids show. Amethyst didn't even know they aired two hour marathons of a show about crying food and kitchen utensils.
Amethyst swallows her pride and buries her head in the blankets on Steven's bed. It's only one hundred and twenty minutes, she tells herself. That's mere seconds of gem time, if that. And she gets to hang out with Steven and make him happy. It's a win-win.
"You're going to miss it if you stay like that." Steven warns, eyes glued to the screen. Amethyst glumly sets her chin on her hand.
"Better?"
"Your bangs?" He asks, not unkindly, because he knows she hates having her hair messed with.
"Oh. Right." Amethyst rolls onto her back so they fall off the edge of the bed with the rest of her hair. It's loads more entertaining when the characters are upside down and she can pretend they're all just waiting for gravity to take its course.
"I'm surprised this place hasn't fallen to tatters while I was so busy." Pearl says as they step off the warp pad, Peridot's discarded foot in hand.
"I'd wondered 'bout that." Garnet admits calmly, glancing around the living room as though she could find the answer.
"I haven't picked up a broom in ages. Thank you for picking up after yourself, Steven."
"It wasn't just-" Steven goes to say, but Amethyst slaps a firm hand over her mouth.
"It was all him." She says with a shrug, because no one will never find out about the black apron (and all that went with it) if she can help it. "He must be takin' after you, Pearl."
Author's Note; Hey, would you look at that, I'm not dead! =)
I'm not writing this on my computer, actually. Mine is, well... It's thrown a bit of a hissy fit, honestly. And the guy who was fixing it has recently fallen ill. I typed this, not only because it's been floating around (I write my stuff out, so I have piles of paper just waiting to be typed) since the middle of July. Way before 'Catch and Release' aired. Heck, before 'Nightmare Hospital' aired, I do believe.
Anyway, 'Ashes and Blood' and 'Forgotten, Then Found' have not been abandoned. None of my stories have. I promise. I'm not leaving . I'm actually planning on getting an Archive Of Our Own (same stories, just for the people who don't sniff around here=)) and a tumblr, possibly. Anyone is invited once I get it all up, I promise.
-Mandaree1
No flames! Don't like don't read! Review!