"Gems, we have to split up. It's the only way"
"Are you sure? It seems like a problem we could solve just as easily by sticking together"
"I'm sure. Sticking together will only take longer." Garnet walks over to the warp pad, then stops beside it. "Pearl. You first"
Pearl nods. "Okay". She heads over to the warp pad next to Garnet, and warps away.
"Amethyst, you're next"
"On it" Amethyst dashes over to the warp pad, and jumps down on it as she warps away. Garnet takes a few steps away from the warp pad, and looks around the house. After confirmation that she was in fact alone, she stumbles backwards towards the couch, flops down on it, and falls apart into Ruby and Sapphire.
Ruby sat back against the couch, bringing a hand to her forehead. "I can't believe that worked. That NEVER works"
Sapphire glances over at her. "I was pretty shocked myself that Pearl didn't question Garnet more about why she was splitting the team up for such a simple mission, and I'm the one with the future vision"
"Are you sure they'll be out long enough for it to work?"
"I'm sure of it. The only person we'd have to worry about is Steven, and I'm not seeing any futures where something comes up that would have to make him come home early"
Steven was out with Connie at the boardwalk for the day, and the last time they went out to the boardwalk together Steven didn't come back until after dark. He had walked her home because he knew she would get in trouble for walking herself.
"Are you sure?"
"Ruby, look how bright out it is. Steven won't be back until long after dark. Trust me"
"Alright, if you insist" Ruby jumps off the couch. She holds a hand out to Sapphire. "Come on, then. Let's get started" Sapphire grins widely, jumping off the couch to take Ruby's hand,
"Come on, Connie! You promised! Steven says cheerfully, dragging her by the hand towards the line of people waiting to get on the rollercoaster. Connie stops walking and pulls her hand away from Steven's.
"I don't know about this, Steven. I've never ridden one before and this one?" she pauses to look up at the rollercoaster. "It doesn't seem like the right one to start with"
"Aw, come on Connie! It's perfectly safe. I promise. Garnet took me on this when I was younger and I had a lot of fun!"
Connie thinks for a minute. "Alright, but we're only riding it once. Then I get to choose the next ride, alright?"
"Yeah!" Steven beamed, and grabs her hand again. "Then let's do it now while the line is short. This is gonna be so much fun!" he beams, and he runs over to stand in line with her, and it starts moving as soon they find the end of it. "See? You don't even have to worry about waiting too long. Since it's a fast ride, it's a short one, so waiting for it doesn't take long at all!" They walk with the line, and then stop to find themselves at the very front. They start to go up the steps to get on, not paying full attention to their surroundings, and they're stopped by Mr. Smiley.
"Sorry kids, it's full. You're gonna have to wait for it to come back"
"Alright!" Steven says, and Connie sighs with relief.
Steven looks over at her. "Are you sure you want to do this?
Connie glances over at Steven and then up at the rollercoaster and sighs. She takes Steven's hand and squeezes it tightly. "Yes. I'm just nervous is all. I'll be fine."
"Are you sure?"
Connie looks over at Steven's concerned face and smiles. "Yes."
They look up at the tracks, watching to see if they can see where the car is. When Steven sees it whip across the final turn, he starts find himself getting excited. As soon as the car pulls up to the station and people step out of it, Steven and Connie run up the steps and take the first available seat they see.
Once inside Ruby's room in the temple, Sapphire waits excitedly by the door while Ruby digs around looking for something. She feels around on the floor until she finds her hand touching a handle of some sort under a bed she had put in there when Amethyst had found an extra she didn't need.
"Aha! There it is" she says, and stands up to push the bed aside, and picks up a CD player. "I told you I'd find it" She says, turning to show it to Sapphire. She goes to set it on the floor, but as soon as Sapphire sees that she found the CD player, she dashes over to the CD player and grabs it, bringing it back over to the temple door, almost refusing to take a huge grin off of her face.
"No, no, no" Sapphire says, approaching Ruby more slowly and taking her hand. "Outside the temple." Ruby opens her mouth to protest, but can't bear to say no when she sees the grin on Sapphire's face only getting wider.
"Alright, alright" she laughs. "I've never seen you this excited before. Let's go." Ruby opens the temple door back up, and places the CD player on the warp pad. Sapphire makes a CD appear out of thin air as soon as it's down on the warp pad. She places is it in, closes the disc holder, and walks over to Ruby and pulls her close to her. Ruby blushes at this motion, and Sapphire giggles. This only makes Ruby blush harder. As soon as the music starts playing, they begin to dance.
Oh, don't you dare look back
Just keep your eyes on me
I said "You're holding back"
She said "Shut Up and Dance with Me"
Sapphire mouths almost every word of the song, and when she materializes a flower barrette out of thin air and uses it to push her bangs out of the way so she can look Ruby in the eyes, Ruby almost tips backwards, but Sapphire catches her, brings her closer to her, and kisses her forehead before bringing her out again.
We were victims of the night,
A chemical, physical, kryptonite,
Help us through the bass and the fading light
Sapphire suddenly takes the lead role and dips Ruby down for the next line of the song, and Ruby can swear that if Sapphire winks at her.
Oh, we were born to get together
Born to get together
Sapphire lets go of Ruby, who in response, grabs Sapphire, stands up onto her feet, and begins twirling her around. Sapphire grabs onto Ruby's neck to prevent herself from falling, and can't seem to stop herself from laughing. She leans her head down to touch foreheads with Ruby, and Ruby leans in and touches her forehead against Sapphire's. They stay the way they are, partially to help them catch their breath before they start up again, but they keep the song on because it seems to make the moment last longer. Behind them, the front door squeaks open and then closes right back up, so they ignore it, not wanting to ruin the moment to check what it was in case it was just wind. Then, without warning, Ruby begins to spin Sapphire again, who becomes so shocked by the sudden movement she slips of Ruby's arms. Ruby catches her in a dip. All of a sudden, though, the sound of someone running into the room and skidding to a stop startles her into dropping her.
"Ruby! Sapphire!" Steven's excited voice calls out, and Sapphire runs to press the pause button on the CD player before standing up and walking over to stand next to Ruby.
"Steven, what are you doing home early?" Sapphire says, rubbing her head. "I only saw one future where you would, but there were so much more where you didn't. What happened? Are you okay?"
"Yeah, Connie didn't take riding the coaster too well and got sick on it. She called her parents to come pick her up because she was too embarrassed to walk home." Steven shakes his head. "Who am I kidding, that's not important. What are you two doing here? I'm so happy to see you!" He runs over to them and hugs them, and they hug him back. Before they can answer his question, he notices the CD player sitting on the warp pad. He gasps, and when Ruby and Sapphire back out of the hug, Steven's beaming.
"Where you two dancing?" He asks, bringing his hands to his face.
"No, no, we were….we were…."Sapphire runs her hand through her hair, and when she realizes she's still wearing the barrette, she takes it out and shoves it into an invisible pocket in her dress.
"Practicing!" Ruby shouts suddenly
"Yeah, we were practicing...in case we needed to fuse in a situation where we couldn't use our normal routine…" Sapphire says, and Steven shakes his head.
"Guys, it's okay. You don't need to lie to me."
Ruby and Sapphire exchange glances, and then Sapphire steps forward.
"Yes, Steven. We were dancing."
"Awwwww, that's so sweet!" Steven says, bringing his hands to his face.
"Shh," Ruby says. "We sent the others away on a mission so we'd have the house to ourselves and they could come back at any minute"
"Oh, sorry" Steven says in a hushed voice. "So why were you dancing, if you enjoy being fused all the time?"
Sapphire walks over to Steven. "Because dancing is different than fusion. Not long after the war, Ruby and I went out for a walk on the beach and noticed two people slow dancing. If I remember correctly, we had accidentally walked into what we would later found out was these people's wedding."
Ruby stands beside Sapphire. "We saw these two people, and we were confused, because we knew humans couldn't fuse. We had no idea why they would be doing it if they weren't going to fuse"
"But then Rose caught up to us. She had asked us what we were looking at, and we asked her why these humans were dancing. She then told us that she had found out recently herself, and that they're dancing because they're in love."
"We didn't believe her at first. She said they dance because it brings them closer together. It helps build trust. It does so many nice things that their relationship becomes stronger than it was before."
"So later on that week, when we were alone, we tried dancing ourselves, and sure enough, we felt closer to each other after we were finished. And it wasn't because we had formed Garnet, because we noticed that we hadn't."
"And every time after that, when we were alone, or any time we felt lonely, or bored, we'd dance. We'd dance, and dance, and every time we did we felt closer to each other. It got to a point where if we needed to form Garnet in battle, we mixed up our fusion dance with a dance we had just done an hour prior. And as you probably know, it got to a point where we didn't even need to dance to form Garnet. Just like it is now."
Steven was beaming. "That's incredible! Do you think Connie and I could be as close as you two someday? The only reason we fused is because I tripped"
Sapphire laughs. "While I'm sure that's not the only reason, I believe you could"
Steven gasps. "Really?"
Ruby and Sapphire both nod.
"Awesome!" Steven glances over at the CD player. "Oh, and while we're on the topic of dancing…" his voice fades out, as if he's too worried about the answer to get the question out.
Ruby smiles. "Do you want to dance with us?"
Steven grins. "Do I?"
Ruby takes one of his hands, and with her free hand she turns the CD back on. Sapphire takes Steven's other hand, and with her free hand, she takes Ruby's.
About halfway into the next song on the CD, the three of them begin spinning. Steven closes his eyes and begins laughing, which causes Ruby and Sapphire to laugh as well. Their gems hit against each other when they're not paying attention, and with one quick flash of light they form Garnet. Steven opens his eyes and grins, and Garnet grins back at him. They dance until the song ends, and Garnet turns off the CD player. Steven hugs her.
"Thank you Garnet! That was so much fun. Can we do that again sometime?" He asks, and she smiles.
"Sure."
"Great! I'm gonna go tell Connie, she's never gonna believe this" Steven begins to head into the other room, but turns back around when he hears the warp pad activate. He turns around to see Pearl and Amethyst step off the warp pad. Pearl holds a bubble in her hand, and when she realizes she's still holding it, she sends it away to the burning room.
"Oh, hello Steven!" she says cheerfully. "Did you have a good time with Connie today?" she asks, and Steven quickly glances over at Garnet, who smiles before glancing back over at Pearl.
"Yeah, today was great. I wish I could do it all over again"