Author's Note: Thought or Emphasis; Flashback; Thought or Emphasis in Flashback
I don't own Steven Universe.
Steven Universe: See You Again
A One-Shot
Sadie Miller hated this.
Laramie Barriga, you jerk.
Things had been horrible ever since the Cool Kids' party. She hoped she could get Lars to change, just a little. Changing him, like understanding him, seemed to be a hopeless dream.
Then, that big yellow woman attacked her, trapped her in her body, making Sadie feel like she was swimming in concrete.
She closed her eyes so she wouldn't see Lars get trapped too.
If not for Steven, they might have been stuck in there forever… or at least until the yellow one's master got done with them.
But when the time came, he hadn't left with her, or with the others. He just… froze.
And now, here she was.
Waiting for him again.
Mrs. Barriga was in hysterics when Sadie first told her where he was. She hadn't heard from her or his dad since. Their house seemed to have sealed up, shut down.
Just like the Big Donut behind her.
Sure, she tried to keep a straight face, tried to keep to the routine. Maybe the town could heal if people at least acted like things were normal. Besides, she was used to doing most of the work alone.
But it wasn't the same.
Without him…
What's the point anymore?
She hated this.
She hated how he made her feel.
She hated not knowing.
And she hated waiting.
"Hey, Sadie?"
She looked up with bloodshot eyes.
"Steven?"
She hadn't had much sleep lately, seeing that ship fly away in her nightmares…
"I have to tell you something."
He held almost nothing back. He couldn't hold back, or she wouldn't get the point.
It took her a moment to get past that one word, her body flinching as it left his lips. Had he not gone further with his story, hurried to explain that there was more, she would have fallen to pieces on the spot.
Steven finished.
And she asked.
"Can I see him?"
"What will you say to your friend?"
Lars sat on one of the countless rocks that made up the Gem Homeworld's underground. Well, they weren't entirely countless—he'd numbered quite a few suitable "sitting rocks" to pass the time.
"I dunno, Flourite." He sat on Sitting Rock 12 right now. "I guess I'll… wing it?"
"You're going to try to fly again?" A Gem recalled the last time Lars leaped into danger, saving her and her family. "Steven isn't here to heal you!"
"Calm down, Rhodonite. It just means I'll figure something out."
Steven had just come back to prepare him for her arrival.
Lars had voiced his objections, of course.
More precisely, he'd wondered, "ARE YOU NUTS?"
He tried to explain that Sadie would hate this place, that she'd freak out seeing the Gems he'd befriended, that she'd…
…be afraid of him, looking like this.
Or laugh.
He wasn't sure which reaction would be worse.
Steven, that stubborn kid he always was, told her how Sadie looked when he saw her back on Earth.
Lars gave in.
Thus, it was no surprise when two bodies tumbled out of his glowing hair.
The boy and girl gasped for air, the girl taking a bigger breath as she looked around.
"So this is-"
Her breath halted when she saw him.
"…Lars."
The boy she knew had changed.
His clothes had rips in the shirt and jeans, no real surprise to her; she'd seen him tear them on purpose once when he was trying to be cool.
The scar over his right eye reminded her of her own mark; she always concealed it with her hair, not wanting to remind either of them of that island adventure.
Hers seemed to tingle as she remembered that moment, one she buried again.
And of course, there was the obvious.
"You're… pink."
"Well, hello to you too, Sadie."
One Gem voiced her shock. "So, this is the other human." The other head followed. "Another human!"
"Sadie," Lars introduced them, "this is, er, they're Rutile."
"Hello…" A mousy voice eked from Sadie's lips, and she cursed her shyness.
The twins, not so confident themselves, avoided meeting Sadie's astonished gaze.
"Don't stare," Lars muttered. "They hate that. Trust me."
"Sorry."
"You don't look like…" the other head spoke, "…you hate me."
"I don't!" Sadie tried to assure. "I've just never seen anyone quite like you."
"Oh." The other, "Really?"
"That's a good thing!"
The twins gave identical smiles.
With one first impression salvaged, the others quickly greeted her: the gentle if slightly wary Rhodonite, the apparently still-surprised Padparadscha ("The friend of human Lars has arrived!"), and the motherly Flourite.
It was quite the experience to be hugged by a giant caterpillar woman.
"I knew you guys would hit it off!" Steven grinned.
"Hit what off?" Flourite, alarmed, hoped she didn't hurt the small creature in her embrace.
"He means he's happy you're friends with Sadie." Lars's words calmed the group, though Rhodonite looked over the human with all four eyes just to be sure.
Sadie's awkward smile dimmed as she remembered. She liked these "Off Colors," as they called themselves, but they weren't why she was here.
"Hey, Steven?" He turned his head her way. "Could you leave us alone for a minute?"
"Oh, right! Well, you might need me to go back home, though..." He spotted a nice rock in the distance. "I'll just sit over there."
Number 22, Lars noted internally. Good choice.
Sadie wanted to start, but thirteen eyes continued to stare.
"Could all of you leave us alone for a minute?"
"Alright, little one." Flourite directed the Off Colors to Steven's location, though one Gem looked back.
Lars guessed who without even looking. "You too, Rutile."
The twins walked faster, the right head unable to hide her darkened cheeks.
Lars and Sadie watched the Gems depart, hearing one speak in the distance.
"Ooh, human Lars and human Sadie want to talk in private! How mysterious!"
He smiled at that. Padparadscha was an odd one (and it took him forever to get that name right), but she always managed to make him laugh.
He needed it in a place like this.
"So," Sadie looked about, "this is where you live now?"
"Yeah."
"How?"
"Huh?"
"I mean, how do you even survive here?" She kicked a rock. "Don't you get hungry?"
"I don't really need to eat now. I still can, but… yeah."
"Oh."
"Yeah."
Silence.
"Steven told me what happened to you. How you got here… how you got that scar…"
His hand brushed through his hair, smoothing it in a tiny attempt to hide the feature. Just her mention of it made it burn a little somehow.
"Steven told me…"
Her throat tightened; it hurt to say the words.
"…you died?"
"Yeah."
It was truth now.
It happened.
And yet, he stood there.
He tried to make it work.
"But hey," he tossed out a chuckle, "I'm not a zombie, so… uh… that's good."
"A zombie?" She blinked. "You? A pink, talking zombie?"
He blushed, scarlet on pink. "Uh huh."
"Heh heh…" Her laugh started small, pausing, tasting his words. "…zombie."
Then it got louder, stronger, faster.
"Ha… hahaha… haHAHAHA…"
"Uh, Sadie?"
She kept going.
"ZOMBIE! AHAHAHAHAHAHA!"
It bounced off the walls, fed into the cavern's centuries-old holes.
It took Lars a minute to realize she wasn't laughing anymore.
"Sadie?"
Somewhere along the way, the sound changed.
"You're crying!"
"OF COURSE I'M CRYING, YOU IDIOT!"
She leaped at him, hugging him so tightly it hurt.
"YOU DIED!" She screamed the words into his chest. "YOU LEFT ME AND YOU DIED!"
"Yeah."
He managed to squeeze an arm free from her hold. A pink hand gently stroked blonde locks, something he hadn't done in so long...
He remembered the island too.
"I'm so sorry, Sadie. I didn't mean to choke back on the ship!" His eyes watered, far from the first time his tears fell in this cavern. "But that blue girl was so scary, and things were so… so crazy, and-"
"Shut up." She held him tighter. "I get it. You were just being you, Lars."
"A coward?"
"You're not a coward." She looked back up. "You're just human."
"Well, I dunno about that now…"
"Don't overthink it!" She stopped him. "You're alive, and that's what matters!"
It's what mattered to her.
He quieted. "I really owe Steven for that."
She closed her eyes, let her head rest against him.
"Me too."
Silence.
"You really can't come back with us?"
"I dunno." He shrugged. "But right now, I can't."
"Right." She couldn't see a way out, and figured, "You can't shove your body through your own head."
"No. I mean, I can't leave them." They both looked to the Gems, enraptured as Steven recounted one of his adventures. "I promised to keep them safe. I can't go back until I do."
"What are you going to do?"
"I have no idea. But I know one thing."
Lars looked at his hero.
"Steven brought me back to life. I'm gonna become someone who deserves it."
Sadie's heart skipped a beat at a thought. "That could be a long time from now."
"Maybe… Or maybe not?" He grinned. "I could probably be off this planet by next week!"
"Oh, really?" She smirked.
"Yeah!" He tried to puff out his chest. "Next time you see me, I'll be a space pirate on the lam! The whole galaxy'll know my name!"
"Okay, Captain Lars." She giggled. "I think Steven's been rubbing off on you!"
"In more ways than one." He wiggled his fingers.
"I don't know how to explain that to your parents…"
His grin collapsed. "Mom and Dad."
"They've been worried sick about you." Just like me.
"Could you tell them I'm okay?"
"They haven't been answering my calls, but I'll try."
"Thanks." His voice softened. "I mean it, Sadie. For everything."
He felt a wetness on his chest.
"You okay?"
"I'm fine."
She never realized how much she needed to hear that.
Blinking those tears away, she countered. "Saying 'thank you' to me?" She playfully faked a gasp. "You really have changed!"
"Come on," he appealed, "I'm not that bad, am I?"
"No. You're just… you, Lars."
She looked up at him with a smile.
"And I just so happen to like you."
She caught him off guard.
"Sadie… I…"
He bent down, ready to close in, when-
Wait a minute.
"Steven's been staring at us this whole time."
"Huh?" She snapped out of it.
"Probably because we've…" he couldn't hide his embarrassment, "…been in each other's arms this whole time."
She practically leaped back. "I should go." She absently brushed a hand through her hair to smooth it out, tracing his hand's path with her own. "Tell everyone where you are, and, you know, things like that."
"Yeah, things! You do that!"
"STEVEN!" She beckoned her escape hatch, "I'M READY!"
He came back, with a goofy smile on his face the whole time.
He always was a romantic.
"Get that grin off your face and get Sadie out of here." He summoned up the usual edge in his voice. "She's making me lose my cool cred with the Gems."
They all said their goodbyes, another caterpillar hug from Flourite included. Steven was sure to take a picture of the group, to make sure Beach City knew its lost son was with friends.
Lars knelt before Steven, ready to take him and Sadie home. Like a knight before a king, she noted.
Rather than take Steven's hand though, she stepped forward, and lifted Lars's chin.
She summoned the courage.
The mere peck on his lips turned his bent knee to jelly.
"T-that was for luck!" She told him and herself. She demanded with rosy cheeks, "You had better come back safe! I mean it, Lars!"
He smirked. "Don't you mean, Captain Lars?"
"Lars of the Stars!" Steven piped in.
"Get outta here already!" He muttered. "You little moment-killer…"
With a heavy feeling in his head and a flash of bright pink light, they were gone.
He turned on his miraculously intact cell phone, charged to full power per his and Steven's agreement.
He looked at the picture of Sadie.
"I'll be back."
He looked down at the picture of him and Steven.
"And I'll make you proud."
He shut off the phone, with one last thought as he rejoined the Gems for a new escape plan.
"Lars of the Stars."
He laughed to himself.
"That'll never catch on…"
END