Darkness. It seemed to engulf Beach city like water. Flowing freely through the streets as if there was a flood.
It was nighttime in Beach city, the sun already long gone below the horizon. All of the residents of the city turned in for the night, preparing themselves for another day of work in the morning. All lights were off, save for a few lonely store signs and traffic lights that blinked and flickered like the flames on a candle. The only house that was lit was on a secluded side of the beach, tucked away inside the lone cliff that stood tall, as if overlooking the ocean.
A bright flash of light that lit up half of that side of the beach sent an array of stray animals scattering in all directions in search for cover. The gems stood on the warp pad, covered in a sickly blue-green substance that dripped off of them like water.
"Whew! Was that a mission!" Steven said, hopping off the warp pad while wiping his messy face on his shirt. "I wanna do that again!" He said turning towards the gems who had each walked off the warp pad and into the living room.
"Well," pearl started saying as she went to grab a towel from the kitchen "while that mission was a success, I would appreciate not being covered in this slime", she said as she gave amethyst an angry look and continued to wipe herself off with the towel.
Amethyst walked over to the kitchen and leaned against the counter, avoiding pearl's pointed look. Not surprisingly, amethyst was the one with the most amount of goop on herself.
Garnet, sitting on the couch, one leg crossed over the other and arms folded, had nothing on her, which surprised no one.
"Even though we got a little messy," Steven said as he hopped up the stairs to his bedroom "we had a lot of fun together, right?" Steven asked while looking at each of the gems individually.
This earned a grunt in response from amethyst, who looked over to the window and outside at the ocean, its waves lapping softly at the shore.
"Y'know Steven," amethyst said as she turned her head back over to where Steven was standing " I think it would've been more fun if pearl was the one who got the most messy, I'm pretty sure it would suit her better don'tcha think so too ste-man?"
Pearl, offended at this comment, retaliated
"Well I guess that's too bad for you because look who's the messiest of the four of us?" She added to this with "Besides, I could never be messier than you, I mean have you seen your room? You are the epitome of messy, amethyst"
A small "ooooo" could be heard from Steven in his room, who had started to change into his pj's.
Amethyst smirked at pearl.
"Hah, aww thanks P. I never thought I could get such a compliment like that from anyone-" she glanced at Steven for a second then back at pearl "well maybe except for Steven, but that's Steven so basically you're the last person I can think of who would do that"
Pearls face changed into one of disgust. She was about to say something back at amethyst when Garnet stood up from the couch and placed her hand on pearls shoulder.
"That's enough. Both of you. It's late and Steven needs to sleep." She said sternly.
An audible yawn could be heard from Steven after she said this, as if more evidence that amethyst and pearl needed to stop bickering.
"Awh man, that was just about to get good." Amethyst stated, walking some-what slowly towards the temple door. "Night ste-van!" She said waving behind her as she walked into her room.
"Yes. Goodnight." Garnet said, starting to walk towards the temple door as pearl trailed along behind her.
"Night guys!" Steven called after them, while crawling into bed. He wondered where lion was, but remembered that he was probably off doing weird lion stuff so Steven shrugged it off.
Once comfortable, sleep came to Steven easily, for he was already exhausted from that days mission. He only hoped in the back of his mind that he didn't have nightmares about malachite or any other monster gems again.