Author's Note: I do not own Steven Universe.

It was a damp, overcast day in Beach City; It's a Wash was closed and all the other Gems, Peridot included, were off doing various tasks, and so Steven and his father were in the Beach House, playing 'Don't Wake Father Figure'. There were a couple of knocks at the door, which was then opened before either of them could get up to answer it.

"Steven!" called Vidalia. "Your friend said he wanted to play with you!" She stopped when she noticed Steven's father. "Greg, wow! I wasn't expecting you to be here too."

"Hey, Vidalia!" Greg replied. "Long time no see! How've you been?"

"Can't complain," said Vidalia. "Got married to Yellowtail and had another kid. He can be a handful at times, but we love Onion just the same."

"Wait, Onion's your kid?" said Greg, acting as if he was noticing that the boy was inside the house for the first time. "Sheesh, you'd think that in a town with so few people, everybody'd know how everyone was related."

"You'd think," Vidalia chuckled. "Hey, is Amethyst here?"

"She and Pearl went on a mission," said Steven.

"That's a shame," said Vidalia. "I was hoping to keep my promise that we would see each other more after we reconnected a few months back."

"Well, that's not entirely your fault," said Greg. "The Gems and I also drifted apart for some time after Steven was born. There was a lot to deal with all at once, and there just weren't as many opportunities for us to get together."

"I probably should have at least kept in touch with her, but I was too busy raising Sour Cream, and then Onion, and it just kept slipping my mind." She thought for a bit. "Probably should have kept in touch with you as well. I mean, we didn't hang out together as much, but we still hung out."

"Well, to be fair, the way we started hanging out was fairly unusual to begin with."

"Really?" said Steven. "I sense a story about that!"

"Well, there's not really much to tell—"

"Story!"

"All right, all right." He sat down on the couch; Vidalia sat next to him, and their children plopped themselves onto the floor. "Well," he began, "the first thing you should realize is that when I tossed Marty out of my van, that wasn't actually the last time I saw him. Wait, hold on." He turned to Vidalia. "Hey, Onion knows about Marty, right?"

"Yeah," said Vidalia. "We don't really keep secrets like that from him."

"They really don't," said Steven.

"Well then," said Greg, "it was a few days after the concert…"

Greg was in the back of his van, which was on the beach in front of the temple, absent-mindedly strumming a few chords on his guitar. "I know I'm not that tall," he sang, "I know I'm not that smart, but let me drive my van into your heart. Hey, that's actually pretty good," he said, scribbling down the lyrics. "Now what else rhymes with 'heart'?"

Before he could continue, he was interrupted by an angry shout. "There you are!"

Greg looked up. "Oh, hi, Marty," he said dismissively.

"I've been looking everywhere for you! I had to walk all the way back to town, locate the only bed and breakfast in it, and then spend half a week inquiring about you before finally finding you just lounging around on the beach! Now let's get going! We've lost enough time with that 'following your feelings' stupidity of yours as it is."

"I'm not going, Marty," said Greg. "I'm staying here."

Marty groaned. "I was hoping you were over this by now."

"Nope."

"Why? Because you've gone ga-ga over some girl? And where is she, anyway?"

"She's not around right now, but trust me, we're getting along fine."

Marty rolled his eyes. "Yeah, whatever. I'm sure you'd get along fine with any number of girls you'd meet on the tour. And speaking of the tour, what about that? You've got like, a dozen shows booked!"

"Yeah, wouldn't want to disappoint all my non-existent fans."

"That's not the point!" Marty cried. "You can't just drop all your responsibilities and do what you want to do!"

"Responsibilities to who?" Greg asked. "You? The managers of the clubs who only booked me because I was cheap? No thanks. I would rather uphold the neglected responsibility to myself and actually be happy for once. And what makes me happy is being with the one woman who bothered to show up at my show in this town."

"So what, you're just going to shack up with this chick and mooch off of her?"

"Hey, man, just because you would freeload doesn't mean everybody else would. Besides, I couldn't live with them if I wanted; they say the temple's too dangerous for a human, and I don't think they even have to eat."

Marty started to try to process the implications of Greg's statement concerning the Gems, but quickly decided it wasn't worth it. "So if you don't live with her, what are you going to do for money? Food? How are you going to bathe?"

"I was worried about that too, at first," said Greg, "but I took care of those things pretty quickly. As it turns out, I have an uncle that lives near here, and he's been paying me to clean up his barn. Lets me use his bathroom, too. After that, I'll get a job at, I don't know, the car wash or something."

"Really? You're resorting to manual labor?"

"Well, I was doing a lot of manual labor on the road anyway. Without roadies, I was setting up speakers and hooking up amps and doing a hundred other things—and you almost never lifted a finger to help, if I recall."

"Well, er…" Marty searched for a good comeback. "…well, at least you were doing those things in the name of music! You were doing it in the name of your passion!"

"I can have more than one passion, Marty," Greg said. "And while I can pursue my passion for music somewhere down the line, I feel I've only got this one chance to pursue my passion for Rose."

"Rose, huh? That the girl you hooked up with?"

"Yep."

"Well, forget her and go finish the tour!"

"I can't just 'forget' someone like Rose."

"Sure you can! You just have to—"

"Is this guy bothering you?"

Greg turned his head to see that Garnet had approached, mercifully interrupting Marty.

"A little, but I can handle it."

Garnet nodded, then turned to go back to the temple. Marty eyed her suspiciously.

"So, is that this 'Rose'?"

"No, that's just Garnet," said Greg. "The one I'm with is twice as wonderful, at least."

"Yeah, I'm sure you think so now, but just wait. Over time, all her flaws will begin to show through."

"Like how your flaws showed through after I was around you for a couple years?"

Marty glared, then turned around to march back to town. "I'll be back!" he threatened.

"Take your time!" said Greg.

Marty indeed took his time, returning two full days later, though Greg wouldn't have minded if he had taken even longer or hadn't returned at all.

"I've spent the entire morning calling all the venues you were supposed to be at!" Marty said. "All your gigs are cancelled! Happy now?"

"Yes."

"That was rhetorical!"

"Hey, it's not even like I'm totally abandoning my dream of becoming a rock star. I'm just postponing it for a bit. And when I resume, it's gonna be on my terms, not yours."

"Listen here, you—"

"I'm not interrupting anything, am I?"

The two men turned to the newcomer, a woman who looked like she was in her early twenties. She wasn't one of the Crystal Gems, but Greg still thought he had seen her somewhere before.

"Hey, you're that one girl, aren't you?" said Greg. "The one Marty went to the party with. Violet, was it?"

"Vidalia."

"Oh right, sorry. I'm Greg."

He took Vidalia's hand and amiably shook it. Marty, on the other hand, looked annoyed.

"What are you doing here? I thought I made it clear that that was going to be a one-night thing."

"Well, I was just curious as to why the guy who said it was going to be a one-night thing was still in town."

"Because Romeo here fell in love," Marty griped. "And, as you no doubt know, that's the kiss of death for a rock star. I've been trying to convince him to just forget about what's-her-name, but—"

"Rose," Greg interrupted. "Her name is Rose."

"Who cares what her name is? Just forget about her! I mean, I forgot about Valerie here the moment we started heading out of town."

"I just told you my name was Vidalia."

"See? Totally forgot all about you!"

Vidalia didn't look that impressed.

"But as I told Marty," Greg said, "I can't just forget about Rose; I think there's some real chemistry between us. You see, we met after the concert—she was actually the only one at the concert—and there seemed to be a spark, and so I came back here to her, and I guess now we're dating."

"And her name is Rose?"

"Yeah, do you know her?"

Vidalia shook her head. "Not really. She only comes into town once in a while, so I've only heard about her secondhand. She's fairly mysterious." She looked up at the temple. "She doesn't live in there, does she?"

"Yes, actually; her and her friends."

"There are others? Really? Cool!"

"Oh, come on, Greg!" Marty said. "This is the exact opposite of trying to forget about her!" He turned and glared at Vidalia. "And you're not helping!"

Vidalia glared back.

Greg stood there uncomfortably.

"Wow, more humans!" Amethyst had emerged from the temple and bounded up to the van.

"Oh, hey there!" said Vidalia, her mood brightening considerably. "You one of Greg's friends?"

"Yeah! I'm Amethyst!"

"Well, my name's Vidalia, and Mr. Grumpy Pants over there is Marty."

"Hi Mr. Grumpy Pants!" Amethyst said.

Marty growled.

"You have cool hair too!" Amethyst said, playing with Vidalia's locks. She glanced at Marty. "He doesn't."

Marty growled some more.

"Aren't you just a cutie?" said Vidalia, tickling Amethyst's belly. Amethyst giggled.

"So what, this chick has a kid?" said Marty.

"Amethyst isn't her kid," said Greg. "And she isn't a kid anyway. Not technically."

"Oh, please," said Marty. "How old is she? Six, seven?"

"I'm over two thousand years old!" Amethyst said, grinning.

"No you're not," said Marty. "There's no way you could have lived that long."

"And there's no way I could turn into a kitten either, right?"

"Of course not, that would be—"

He stopped suddenly as he watched Amethyst turn into a kitten.

"…she just turned into a kitten," Marty said dumbly.

"Yeah, she does that," said Greg. "Not necessarily turning into kittens, but into, like, animals and stuff. It's weird at first, but you get used to it."

"Well, in any form, she's still adorable," said Vidalia, now petting the kitten.

"Thanks!" the kitten said.

Marty shook himself out of his stupor. "What—are you two just going to stand here and act like this is normal?"

"Well, no, it's not normal," said Vidalia, "but it doesn't seem to be anything to be afraid of either. It's just different."

"It's weird, that's what it is!" shouted Marty. He pointed at Greg. "And maybe you'll eventually see how weird it is too! Then you'll come crawling back to me!" He stormed off.

Amethyst shifted back into her humanoid form and frowned. "I don't like that guy."

"Me either," said Greg.

Vidalia sighed. "I should start vetting who I hang out with." She turned to the others. "You two seem nice, though."

"Aw!" said Amethyst. "You seem nice too."

Vidalia smiled.