Hey guys! This is my first Steven Universe story on here, so I hope you all enjoy! I had this fun idea shortly after I watched the Wanted Episodes and quickly wrote it into existence! Even though it's shorter than I intended...

:) Enjoy the show~

-Emily Believes xoxo

He shoved his hands in his jacket pockets. Perhaps it was due to the rainy weather, but it was incredibly cold. Droplets of water thumped against the ground almost melodically. He had learned to appreciate the rain over the years. It was rather pleasant, but he could easily tell life had been drained out of the small city as everyone stayed inside to avoid the rain. But he refused to stay inside. Not today.

He walked as fast as he could without jogging, his hood over his head to protect himself from the heavy raindrops. He clutched a small bouquet of flowers to his chest to shelter them from harm. The boardwalk beneath his feet quickly turned into sand, and the sand quickly turned into grass.

He smiled. His scheduled visit to his best friend, Sadie Miller, was always one of his favorite things in this life (which, much to his dread, never seemed to end). Slowly, he looked around, but he knew it was pointless. She was in the same spot, as always. His breath hitched when he saw her; it always did. Anxiously, he strode on the withered grass towards her.

To him, it felt like she was miles away, but in reality it was only a few feet. He had done this for ages now; why was he so nervous? After all these years, surely he'd learn to man up around her, right?

But he collapsed under the weight of his own emotions. He couldn't help it. This wasn't a situation where he could be brave. There was no one to be brave for. They had all passed long ago. He put the flowers in front of her, tears falling down his cheeks.

The stone in front of him read her name. It read her birthday. It read her deathday. It read obvious adjectives about her… "Kind, patient, and a good friend. God rest her soul." ...Sure, those things were true, but they didn't even begin to describe her.

She was the sweetest person he had ever met and a fierce friend, willing to protect her loved ones at all costs. She was rational and level-headed, the complete opposite of him at the time (perhaps even now). She would get bitter when she lost to him in a videogame, and she would cling to him when she was scared during a horror film. She would get fed up with him when he was rude, and she had the most wonderful laugh that he had ever heard.

She was beautiful. She was human. He cursed every fiber of his being that he wasn't anymore.

He started to shake. He didn't deserve this. What did he ever do to continue life while everyone around him died? Sure, he was a total asshole at times, but this couldn't be a fitting punishment. Why didn't Steven just let him die on Homeworld? It would have caused everyone a lot less suffering.

It would have caused him a lot less suffering.

Maybe then he wouldn't have to continually watch his loved ones pass around him. His parents, friends, random citizens he hardly cared for… If he had just died on that damned alien planet then he wouldn't have had to watch her die!

Her headstone was decades old at this point, but he could still remember her last waking moments vividly.

He stared at the floor, not wanting to believe the sight in front of him, the beeping of a heart rate monitor filling his ears. The hospital was rather bland, but he preferred to stare at something boring than look at the change happening before him. He was afraid, very afraid. Where was his courage when he needed it most?

It all happened so fast, he thought. It feels like it was just yesterday we were watching movies in the back of the Big Donut before all this weird shit happened.

"Lars?" asked a raspy voice. He slowly looked up, confronting the sight he didn't want to see. Sadie was old, her former youth only present in her eyes. Her skin was wrinkled and frail, her hair thin and grey. Her heart, however, never changed. She still loved the same, gave the same, and waited the same. That never aged.

Lars could only wish he aged like her. He hated being trapped in a young adult body.

"Y-Yeah?" Lars stuttered out.

"What does dying feel like?" she asked gingerly, turning her head to face her lifelong friend.

"Uh… what?"

"Is it painful?"

Lars averted his gaze from hers, nervously rubbing the back of his neck. "I mean, I kind of cracked my skull open on a weird cliff thing when a robot exploded. For the brief second I could feel it, it hurt like a bitch. I doubt your death will be as glamorous," he joked, earning a chuckle from Sadie. Thankfully, her laugh was still the same. After a few moments, Lars sighed. "But, for the most part, I didn't really notice. When Steven resurrected me, I had no clue I was even dead, heh." He waited for some form of response, only to be met with silence. "Sadie?" he asked after a few moments.

The silence only continued. Lars, in typical Lars-fashion, assumed the worse. "Wait! No! Nonono! Sadie! Don't die! You're not going to-! You can't-!" he sputtered. Quickly, he shot up out of his chair and rushed over to Sadie, grabbing onto the side of her hospital bed in panic.

However, Sadie cut him off with an amused chuckle. "I'm just thinking. Calm down," she said lightheartedly.

Lars's hands lingered on the side of the bed as he attempted to regain his composure. His already pink face grew more and more red. Slowly, he sat down in embarrassment. "O-Oh…"

Right after Lars sat down, Sadie spoke again, "Steven said you were kind of like him, right? You weren't immortal, but you would just die very, very slowly…" She trailed off, giving Lars an expectant look. He nodded slowly. "That means you'll meet me in Heaven, right?"

"If I even make it there…"

"You will. I know you will."

Sadie turned her head towards the ceiling, returning to her thoughts. Lars was thinking, too, running his hands through his hair. Sadie was at the brink of death, so maybe it wasn't a good time to bring it up? She'd gotten upset with him in the past for waiting until the last possible minute to tell her things, and he didn't want the last emotion she felt in this life to be frustration. Then again, if he didn't tell her now, she would never know that his feelings from all those years ago never changed, even though she grew older.

He was afraid, very afraid, but it was okay to be afraid, right?

Lars took in a sharp breath, looking up at Sadie once more. He opened his mouth to speak, but another noise in the room cut him off, a loud continuous beep filling his ears. "Sadie…" he muttered to himself, not wanting to believe what was happening.

He stood up frantically, quickly turning his head to look at the heart rate monitor. A flat line, just as the monotone beep predicted.

She had died.

"Sadie! No! No!" Lars shouted, glancing between the heart rate monitor and Sadie's lifeless body. Realizations started to pour into his head. He was too late. He waited too long. "No…"

His slow beating heart felt like it stopped in his chest as a wave of dread washed over him. He took in a deep breath and knelt down next to her hospital bed. He grabbed her cold hand.

"I… I love you," he croaked out thoughtlessly as silent tears rolled down his face. Just like everyone else, she was gone.

He almost wanted to forget that day. It hurt to remember.

After a few overbearing moments, he managed to regain composure. He gazed at the garden of flowers that he had left over the years. Some of them were still alive, especially the fresh ones; however, majority of them were withering or dead. It was an interesting analogy when he thought about it. Sadie had withered like the older flowers, while Lars continued to live on like the newer ones.

He glanced back down at the eroded headstone, laughing in spite of himself. "Why did you stay?" he asked quietly. It was a question he asked every time he came, and he was met with the same uneasy silence. He shook his head… Perhaps it was more rhetorical than anything, but he couldn't stop himself from asking despite knowing he would never get an answer.

His eyes wandered back to the faded deathdate on the stone, which was many, many years ago on the same day Lars was visiting. "I don't know what I did to deserve you. You were too good for me. Everyone was…" he mumbled out, putting his head down. "But you still stayed, even when I was probably the biggest jerk in Beach City…" He looked back up, a small smile forming on his face. "Thank you."

He sat down on the dying grass, staring at her headstone with a bittersweet feeling in his chest. He couldn't actually talk to Sadie anymore. He couldn't really fill her place in his life with anyone, not even Steven (though he tried). Everything was different now… but that was okay, right? Change was good, right? Maybe his heart still hurt, but at least hers didn't anymore.

"I love you, Sadie, more than you'll ever know…"