Disclaimer: Characters, settings, names from the cartoon television show 'Steven Universe' are creations and property of Rebecca sugar and Cartoon network. Any Non-steven universe characters, settings, names, Gems, Gem powers, beliefs, mythology are my own creation.

Story Tags: Steven Universe, Rose Quartz, Greg Universe, OC's Lapis Lazuli, Connie Maheswaran Pearl, Amethyst, Peridot, Beach City

Part 1: Temporarily Back

(Pt 1 of 3)

Wednesday

January 1, 2031, 9:00 [Night]

Beach City, Emerald Hills

From the moon to the earth. Steven and his crew returned back to earth. The crew landed in Emerald hills, a location that overlooked the city of beach city. Steven and carlos took a long moment to feel and take in the breeze that blew and caressed the sides of their faces. Watching the waves crashing against rocks and and return back to the sea. Staring at just how large beach city had grown since they've been gone filled each one with personal memories that brought a warmth to their chests, but also twisted and painful coldness. Looking down at the beach, steven saw himself fifteen years ago enjoying a beach part with his friends, then girlfriend connie, and father. But a little somewhere else, not far is where the Peridot he knew was murdered by yellow diamond herself.

Near the boardwalk, used to be a restaurant carlos worked in with pearl. There he asked her if she would be interested in having a partner, an intimate partner. Back in his place, they took their relationship further, only for it to have come to an end at the beach where yellow diamond grabbed him and steven and thrust them into a yellow portal where they traveled and ended up lost in deep, very remote part of the universe. He left his pregnant gem wife, whom he never officially married, by herself. Though he knew she would have help in raising their hybrid daughter.

"Carlos, stick your tongue out man. You taste that?" steven asked his mentor and friend.

"It's...salty air. What about-"

"Now listen to everything around you, do you hear that?" steven asked him.

"It's just...the leaves rustling from the breeze."

"I can't believe we're really here. We're back home."

"Oh, yeah I guess we are. But you know we can't stay long, we do have other people waiting for us back in our other home."

"I know carlos, I know" steven said somewhat sadly and hurt thinking something to himself.

Lapis looked at the two and wondered what exactly they were talking about. "Hey lapis, my love."

"My love" lapis told and repeated to herself in her head. "Y-yes steven?" she answered.

"How much has beach city changed. And I just don't mean the city itself."

"I wouldn't know, steven. I've been on the moon waiting for you for fifteen years. What and how beach city and all of its people have changed will be new to me. Personally, I don't care."

Steven turned and walked over to lapis who turned her gaze down to her feet and rubbed one of her shoulder's. Nervously, she looked up at the man she had fallen hard for and saw the almost glowing pink light in his eyes. He gently grabbed the end of her chin with his thumb and index finger and lifted her gaze up to him. He inched his lips closer to hers until they pressed. His lips and her lips meshed. Tongues, wet and slick danced and coiled around the other. The Peridot attendant checked a spare holo tablet and began to search everything about the planet she was on.

"Planet...Uuuerrtthhh...weird name for the planet of my princes to come from, but oh well. Your planet is made up of a core with with a mantle around it. It's composed mostly of silicon, iron, magnesium, aluminum, oxygen and other-"

"I don't think steven was asking for the earth's composition, Peridot."

"I was going to tell him that his planet has not changed by much." she responded.

"I don't think that's what he was getting at. Hey steven?" carlos said loudly, trying to get his fellow prince to pull away from lapis long enough to answer him."

Steven pulled away as lapis wrapped her arms and water wings around steven's armored body. "Yeah carl? That his nick name, I call him carl sometimes, lapis." lapis giggled when she told him, holding steven close to herself.

"Let's lose this armor and capes and get into something more familiar and local. Clothes change!"

"Clothes change!" Steven shouted, repeating carlos's same enthusiasm and unintentionally scaring lapis. Steven and carlos picked out a spot in the surrounding woods and removed their armor and foreign clothing underneath. Lapis's cheeks went bright blue from what she was seeing. Steven and carlos were so comfortable undressing in each other's presence, was it because they've had only each to bond with where ever they ended up fifteen years ago?

Lapis turned when she saw steven's scepter in all of it's glory. But Peridot scrolled through her tablet and searched for a program. When she found what she was looking for, she asked her princes what they wanted. Carlos asked for, "boxers, black pants, black shirt and dark green button up short sleeve shirt."

"And for you my prince, steven?"

"Jeans, pink shirt with a yellow star in the middle and sandals." steven replied. Peridot measured their arms and legs and waist on the tablet to make sure she materialized right fitting clothes. Pressing her finger down on a green glowing square, the tablet fired a beam of light from the top of it that broke off into several lines and began to materialize the clothes steven and carlos asked for. When the two men were fully clothed, lapis turned and asked Peridot. "How can you just stand there and not feel embarrassed?"

"What's there to be embarrassed about. I find it a great honor to gaze up on the reproduction rods of my ruling princes. Besides, it's not like I get flustered or excited seeing it. Though the one time I was excited truly was when the kingdom's females were being-"

"Peridot enough! That's a home secret your revealing to a non-citizen." carlos reminded her. Peridot shuddered and hung her head low and apologized. "Apologies my prince.

"Steven, what was Peridot talking about?" lapis asked steven who came walking over to her.

"It's a really long story, lapis. I'll tell you all about it when we get back, is that okay with you?" he asked her. Lapis looked disappointed but nodded her head and smiled.

"Where should we go first steven?" carlos asked.

"The beach house. I want to see if it's still there. Or if it was taken down." Steven and his team teleported out of the hills and appeared on the sandy beach.

The Beach House

Steven and carlos appeared several feet away from crystal temple and beach house. But from what the two could see, the beach house was still there, though it looked to be breaking down. There were signs of renovation having been done to it. The gate that was set up there had long been taken down. And there was also something else. The dome jungle gym that steven had asked his father to set up was still there. He felt an inclination to go running over to it and play on it, but doing so would be weird and undignified for someone of his position and status.

"It's still there steven, a little banged up. But I bet your papa has been fixing it, or maybe it was the other gems. Let's go check it out."

Nodding, steven and carlos walked over to the beach house with Peridot and lapis following behind. But upon moving closer to the beach house, the silhouette of a figure that had been standing inside of the beach house watching them walking over, had moved. The door of the beach house opened up. A figure came jumping off the front deck of the house. They landed down on the sandy beach and asked.

"Who goes there!" said a serious yet familiar voice.

Steven narrowed his eyes, trying to see if what or who he was seeing was really them covered by the dark of night. "Amethyst?" steven asked unsure. The figure took a step back. It became clear to the obscured person that this was no stranger, it was family. The mysterious figure came out from the shadows and presented themselves to steven and his team. It was amethyst. "Oh my god, steven...is it really you?"

"Yep, it's really me amethyst. How you've been."

Amethyst looked a little older, just a little older. She kept her long white hair in a pony tail and wore a jean skirt with black leggings underneath. She wore also a dark blue knit sweater whose shoulder hung down low on her own shoulder. Amethyst ran up to steven and jumped into his arms. Steven held her close to him and pressed the side of his face against amethyst's who sobbed in the crook of his heck. Amethyst sniffed and smelled steven. "Steven, you smell of...flowers."

"Yeah I had a couple of rose buds all over my hair. Peridot had put them on me, because I asked her to."

"Oh cut the crap steven, you know you were the one who put those rose buds and petals all over your hair. Back home he's known as the prince of the fields, and I'm known as the prince of the air." carlos added.

"Oh my...Steven? Is that you?" steven and carlos and the others heard. Steven placed amethyst back down and stared in front of him at garnet who appeared. Amethyst walked over to peridot and patted her on her back, telling her. "Hey hey peri, it's really good to see you again. I mean I know you're not our peridot-"

"I've heard what had happened to one of my kind, amethyst, by my prince. Yellow diamond got what she deserved. The reign of those murderous and authoritarians is over.

"Tell me about it. Hey you even sound like our old peridot."

"Of course I do, we were made not to be too dissimilar from one another."

Carlos hugged amethyst as steven hugged and cupped the side of garnet's face. A warm blush expression came over as garnet took of her shades and cupped Stevens' face. "You've grown steven, you've really grown into a man."

"Thanks garnet. You two wouldn't mind if I checked my old home, would you?" steven asked.

"No no, please come and take a look steven. Though I have to tell you that what you might see will surprise you."

"Trust me garnet when I tell you that I've now seen more of this universe than you can believe."

Steven and the whole group made their way back up the beach house stairs. Peridot and lapis stood outside on the front deck. Steven walked in with carlos behind him. They stopped in the middle of the house and took a look around them. Steven saw that it looked pretty much the same. The real and only visible difference was his old bedroom area. The bed was not really a bed anymore. There was a crib with pink silk sheets, small. There were toys and stuffed bears inside of it. The TV was gone and all of his past belongings had long since been moved or stored or thrown away.

"When you were taken from rose. She and your father had another baby, steven. Thanks to soren's power that's keeping your dad alive and young, rose was able to keep her physical form this time."

"A good thing too. Could you imagine all of this playing out a second time. It's nice they had a second child. On my way over here, I selfishly imagined mom and dad waiting for me. But no matter how much someone loves another. If they believed that person to be gone, why should they wait another minute."

"Garnet..." carlos spoke. Garnet turned to him and asnwered. "Yes carlos?"

"How are pearl and polyphony doing."

"Their ok. Polyphony has grown into a real beauty. She takes after her mother's likeness, but her spirit is undoubtedly her father's."

Carlos felt a knot develop in his throat. He hung his head low and with downcast eyes began to tear up. Steven turned and placed an arm around carlos's shoulder. "Garnet, where are citrine and bells and whistles?"

Amethyst jumped in and answered that question. "Citrine and the admiral returned back home to mars. Whistles grew up and left to live elsewhere. Soren, through your dad, tried to get him to stay. He said he promised his parents he would always lookout after him."

"I really wish I could have grown up with all of them. With whistles, with polyphony...with my sister. Where are pearl and rose at guys?"

"They live in beach city's northern suburb, Petal Kiss drive. Pearl still loves rose, just no longer in that way carlos," amethyst told him and assured him, "but she does live close by to help with ariana."

"Ariana? Is that my little sis's name? Wow, it's beautiful" steven said. "Give me and carlos a second you two, please."

Garnet and amethyst nodded their heads at each other and left carlos and steven alone to talk. "Steven...what if neither pearl or poly want to come back with me?"

"If they don't want to come back, you can't for them to. But you haven't asked any of them anything yet. I know what I'm going to tell my parents when I see them again. Don't worry carlos, look past their tears and only focus on their smiles. We've waited fifteen years for this day carlos. It's too late to be getting cold feet."

"You're right steven. You're right." carlos said, wiping away his tears as steven shook him with a smile.

Walking back outside, steven told lapis he was going to see his parents. Lapis said she wanted to tag along. Steven asked peridot to find where petal kiss drive was located at, to which Peridot immediately began to search of a map of beach city.

"Ah yes, I have found the home of the rose quartz my prince. Here's a picture of their living neighborhood."

"Thank peridot. Lapis jump on my back and hold on, peridot take a hold of my hand" steven said.

Carlos stood next to steven and nodded at him. Steven cracked a smiled back at him and vanish, leaving rose petals to fall in mid air. Carlos closed his eyes and turned into a gust of wind, blowing and twirling the rose petals high up into the air first before they fell back down on the ground.

(!) "Part 1 is finished, now onto part 2!"